"The Motown Beat".

It's an instantly recognizable rhythm, rooted in the celebratory spirit of gospel and the thrust of jump blues and R&B. It's a foundation that's been utilized by some of pop music's most revered tunesmiths. It's a dance lesson, pushing you to get up and boogie even if you don't know why or how. Totally infectious and damn near irresistible, emerging in 1963, getting more streamlined in ensuing years, and eventually hitting escape velocity in the hands of three young lads from the UK.

Let's do a closer inspection.



Martha And The Vandellas - "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave"
It starts here. Holland/Dozier/Holland build the framework, the Funk Brothers set the groove, and Martha Reeves and company add the call-and-response vocal hooks. And it's all driven home with liberal application of handclaps, just in case you'd somehow missed the utter exhilaration bursting from every note. A two-minute, forty-seven second study in pop perfection.



Martha And The Vandellas - "Quicksand" and "Live Wire"

And then there's Martha and company's two follow-up singles. Wherein, in finest capitalist tradition, a successful formula is carefully replicated with minor variations. "Quicksand" is a stone-cold classic in its own right, with the high pitched "whoooo-oooo" intro vocal, killer harmonies, and even more handclaps. On the other hand, "Live Wire" seems to be running on autopilot (despite a clever fake-out with the slow piano intro, and the body of the tune running at a far more frenetic tempo than either of the proceeding singles). The relatively poor chart placement of this third variation seems to have spurred the Motown team to try new and different tricks; the next M&TV single ("In My Lonely Room") tweaks the formula a fair bit, and they jettison the framework entirely thereafter (the ultra-smash "Dancing In The Street" followed).

But then, some time passes...



The Supremes - "You Can't Hurry Love"

Three years on from the "Heat Wave"/"Quicksand" double-whammy, Holland/Dozier/Holland revisit the boom-boom-boomity routine, and craft what is possibly the defining single by Motown's flagship act. The straight up-down of the Vandellas singles has shifted slightly into the distinctive one-two-three/one-two-threefourfive over a straight 4/4, and it's certainly more uptempo and slick, it's the same foundation with a slightly different twist. You fit it together with a lyric that anyone can relate to and a melody to kill for, the band hits the groove, Ms. Ross coos and swoops over the melody, Flo and Mary join in for the hook, and The Supremes get their 7th #1 single.

It's so good that Phil Collins took it back to the #1 spot on the chart fourteen years later. The Stray Cats rocked it up and made their own, quite fantastic, version of it the same year. And it inspired some fine artists to try their own variations.



Elvis Costello & The Attractions - "Love For Tender" (opening track from Get Happy!!)

Elvis Costello takes the riff, grabs his band, adds a characteristic dash of conceit and bitterness (and lots of funky organ), and goes for a sprint through Motown-land. It's a good little tune, fun, groovy, retro but not derivative.

And then, another british dude gave the thing a shot, and knocked it out of the park.



The Jam - Town Called Malice

This is the summation, the H/D/H prototype built bigger, better, and in Technicolor Cinemascope. It's the anthemic call to the dancefloor; the steamroller barreling full-tilt down the highway; the superhuman burst of energy wrapped in fingersnaps, tambourine, Paul Weller's lyrics of urban decay and renewal, and one of the finest basslines ever laid onto quarter-inch tape. It's that rare tune that never loses its immediacy, fresh and vital each time the record spins and the beat drops and the organ swells and the Motown template bursts through the ceiling and heads for the stratosphere.

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There's other good examples of the beat's use (notably Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It"), but I think I've covered the most important. If not and I missed something, let me know... I can always write more later.


-PAR