Motown's Old Master Tapes

[jsmith]

The Isley Brothers only ever had 2 albums released on them by Motown [[as new releases that is). However, when they started having hits on T Neck, Motown cashed in by putting out the "Doing Their Thing' compilation. . . . BUT THAT WAS JUST IN THE US.
Those same 2 LP's also escaped in the UK but were quickly followed by further albums from the trio.
1st came the 'BEHIND THE PAINTED SMILE' LP in 69 -- 14 tracks, mostly lifted off the earlier 2 LP's.
Then in 1970, EMI put out [[on Regal Starline) the 'GREATEST HITS' album here.
'THE ISLEY BROTHERS' LP on Regal Starline hit UK record shops in Feb 72.
1972 also saw the 'TAMLA MOTOWN PRESENTS THE ISLEY BROTHERS' LP escaping on EMI's Music For Pleasure label.
So by 1972, the Isley's had 6 albums of purely Motown tracks put out in the UK. These contained many of the group's previously unissued Motown recordings.

The process of 'trawling' for unissued tracks was started by EMI staff in London around 1970 for Isley's material. A process since followed by US Motown & many other record companies around the world.
Anyone know who it was at EMI that decided it would be worth while asking the LA Motown office to send over copies of every Isley Brothers track recorded while they were signed to the label.

With Motown's mass withdrawal from Detroit & the shipping of many 'things of value' to California, it's lucky ALL [[?) the old master-tapes were included in that process. So much was just junked & left to rot in the Detroit buildings that the company had used ahead of the move, it's lucky that fate didn't befall old 'non-utilised' recordings.

Were any 'old unissued' track tapes' lost in the moving process ?
Who on the then Motown team took charge of the process and thus ensured 'valuable recordings' weren't just junked & therefore lost forever ?Attachment 20685

[Sotosound]

Behind A Painted Smile actually consists of the entire Soul On The Rocks album plus the non-album "Take Me In Your Arms [[Rock Me A Little While)" and "All Because I Love You", but with the track running order entirely different to how it was on Soul On The Rocks.

I have this album in mono and all of the tracks except for "All Because I Love You" are the correct mono mixes.

Fabulous album.

[ralpht]

Jsmith, Fran Heard ran the company's extensive library of tape, multi-track and masters. Fran's stewardship of the library was masterful. I mentioned in my book that Fran ran the most successful department in the Creative Division. I most highly doubt that anything from the library got left behind when the company was moving to Los Angeles.

[jsmith]

Good to learn that fact Ralph. She must have done a really great job [[re; master tapes) judging by the number of brilliant unissued tracks unearthed over the last 25 years.

[jsmith]

Another UK Isley Brothers Motown-recorded LP -- well half an LP; just the B side ...
tapes must have been sent over from LA around 1985 ... don't know if these are the originally released versions or a different mix / take sent by mistake [[some of the Motown tracks sent to the BBC for this series of releases were different takes to those previously released).
Attachment 20687

[WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance]

Another UK Isley Brothers Motown-recorded LP -- well half an LP; just the B side ...
tapes must have been sent over from LA around 1985 ... don't know if these are the originally released versions or a different mix / take sent by mistake [[some of the Motown tracks sent to the BBC for this series of releases were different takes to those previously released).
Attachment 20687

You have some really interesting albums. So I take it Gladys Knight and the Pips were on the a-side... You bring up that you wonder if the mixes were different than the ones previously released- do you have this album or is the picture only for illustration?

[jsmith]

I believe it takes a real expert or someone with a highly attuned hearing to tell the difference on lots of these albums. You have to play each version alongside each other as some of the differences are that small.
Some tracks on this series have been identified as 'different' in the past [[a Brenda Holloway dance cut being the most famous of them I believe -- this got airings at UK soul night events as it was deemed a better track to dance to than the original 'released version').
I'm afraid that, although I am anal when it comes to soul / Motown facts, I'm not capable [[or have the time) of ID'ing if any of the Gladys Knight or Isleys tracks display slight differences). As the tapes for many of the cuts that feature on these albums were supplied by Motown in LA up to 20 years after their first release, I have no doubt that a good few are 'different versions'.
BTW, I have made it a task to acquire as many of the soul / Motown LP's in this series as I can -- they are not easy to track down though as they were never 'on sale' but just sent out by BBC execs to their local city based radio stns. I have some of those I'm chasing, but by no means all I want.

[theboyfromxtown]

I suspect it was Gordon Frewin who requested the tapes from the UK. Gordon was hot when it came to that kind of thing.

[JM27]

Interesting re the Radioplay albums - I'd love to know if any of the Stevie tracks on them were alternate mixes/takes.

[jsmith]

Tapes of unissued Isley Bros tracks were requested by EMI in 1969/70, so I'd guess that the tape tracks sent would have been the 'considered for release' final mixes ... only a couple of years having elapsed back then.
The BBC Radioplay tracks are completely different animals. I'd GUESS that Motown offered them to the BBC to increase BBC radio plays in the UK of the companies product. The BBC must have accepted as their local radio stations [[30+, serving different city / town catchments) played far more old tracks than say RADIO ONE [[the BBC's national pop outlet).
The chances of 'different mixes' being sent across to the UK for these releases were obviously much higher as around 15+ years had passed since the original tracks had been released.
ALSO, later tracks cut for Motown, both in-house in LA and by outside teams [[the guys down in Muscle Shoals) were included in the deal. I know for sure that some of these later cuts remained unreleased anywhere across the world [[apart from on these BBC vinyl albums). I even talked to Terry Woodford about the 'provenance' of some Gwen Owens cuts that were included on one of the series. He confirmed he'd cut them under the deal he'd had with Motown & sent a copy of the tapes off to LA, but he hadn't been approached about their use by the BBC. In fact, he had no knowledge that they had been put out on the BBC album in question [['RULER OF THE HUNT') & he certainly hadn't been approached or even asked about the tracks being used.
BTW, most of the BBC RADIOPLAY series of albums don't feature Motown tracks; there being over 300 in the series in all. Their manufacture / distribution dates from between 1974 and 1988. They started to come on the 'open market' here when BBC radio stns started to dump their vinyl libraries.

[bob_olhsson]

I visited London in the summer of 1969 and spent a day with John Reid and John Marshall who were Motown's European team. I explained to them how Motown's quality control system worked and how lots of great records had to be left behind due to our only having enough money available to release the very best of the best. A few months later, "Tears of a Clown" flew up the British charts.

EMI had master tape copies of everything being considered for release, so it was just a matter of checking out those tapes.

[jsmith]

A guy [[who became a mate) worked on the Motown team in the London office in the 70's [[he then spent a short time out in LA on secondment). He told me that on everyone's desk were tapes of old Motown tracks. When they were bored or had nothing else to do, they'd get to listen to some tracks in case anything 'jumped out' that still had commercial potential.