Ron Isley interview from Blues and Soul Magazine. His statements as to the Motown experience.
http://www.bluesandsoul.com/feature/...e_names_isley/
"I'm so thankful for my history and so proud of my past. I also feel blessed to be able to change and to come up with new things. I think this record's going to make some history. I want everything I do to try to make some more history.
We talk about the famed Motown days of course, and Ron tells me an astounding fact about why they left in 1968. "We did a lot of records there and a lot of people were jealous of our success, and complained to Berry Gordy that we were getting all the better songs. He took the records off us and gave them to other people. I first did the record Grapevine that Marvin did. He took it off me and gave it to Smokey, and he didn't do it that well. Then Gladys Knight came along and she did a different version of it. Later on Marvin did the same version that I had done. The same thing happened with the Four Tops. One of the records they were doing was Reach Out. We had it first. That was one of the reasons we were angry enough to say; hey man, we don't want to be doing this any more. We want to be doing our own thing. Then we came out and did This Old Heart Of Mine and that hit right away. Holland Dozier were so crazy about us, as all our records were hits. Then we left and Holland Dozier left, and that started the thing at Motown when everyone wanted to leave. The Temptations wanted to go, the different producers were leaving after we left. Then we did 'It's Your Thing' on our own label T-Neck, and we were sued by Motown. I don't know why he sued us. He believed that was one of the songs Holland and Dozier wrote, and we said he must be crazy. Friends of ours still at Motown would come to our house in New Jersey and talk about leaving the label. Motown argued that the group recorded the song while still under their Motown contract. A 1975 court decision eventually ended in the Isleys' favour. Ron has mixed emotions about the Motown days, but is grateful for everything they learned there that stood them in good stead to run their own T-Neck label and steer their own career. And for the friends they made and still have, such as Stevie Wonder."
Ron and The Isleys seldom talk about Motown in any interview. They clearly moved on many many years ago, and given their enormous subsequent success as independent funk / soul trio / sextet/ performers / composers/ label owners, didn't feel the need to discuss the Motown period, where they had no input nor control. In one interview I heard Ron reference their time at Motown, saying they wanted to do their own thing, and were inspired by a rougher sound as captured by Johnnie Taylor and 'Who's Making Love'. They originally opened TNeck label in 1964, dormant whilst at Motown until they left in 1968, and released their album 'Get Into Something' on TNeck in 1969. This was completely written and produced by the Ronald, Rudolph and O'Kelly, only an arranger George Patterson contributed, otherwise all home grown.
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