The Story of Motown
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Narrated by:
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Sean Crisden
About this listen
In January 1959, Berry Gordy borrowed $800 from his family and founded the Detroit-based record company that in less than a decade was to become the largest Black-owned business in the United States. It also became one of the most productive and influential producers of popular music anywhere in the world.
The Story of Motown is the story of Berry Gordy's triumph over powerful, established financial interests, entrenched popular taste, bigotry, and racism. By inventing a sound that appealed to Whites as well as Blacks, and that was immediately identifiable to an entire generation of listeners, Gordy demonstrated his genius as a producer; by the sheer force of his will, he demonstrated that a Black man from the urban ghetto could aspire to and conquer the heights of traditional American business, including the movie business. Unfortunately, while doing all of this, he also found new ways to exploit his talented artists and eventually lost many of them to companies that paid them more. The Story of Motown is the story of the rise and fall of one of the most important cultural touchstones in American history.
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Story
An exploration of all aspects of the Abba member’s lives and careers. Amazingly detailed, it examines the group member’s family backgrounds, the pre-Abba days, the legendary 70s, the marriages, the divorces, the business ups and downs, and the post-Abba solo careers.
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Awesome! -- All the Swedish words pronounced!
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By: Carl Palm
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MJ
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- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Rolling Stone contributing editor Steve Knopper delves deeply into Michael Jackson's music and talent. From the artist's early days with the Jackson 5, to his stratospheric success as a solo artist, to "Beat It" and "Thriller", "Bad", and "The Man in the Mirror", to his volatile final years, his attempted comeback, and his untimely death, Knopper explores the beguiling and often contradictory forces that fueled Michael Jackson's genius.
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It is ok but no details of his creativity in here
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By: Steve Knopper
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Here Comes the Night
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- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Here Comes the Night: Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues is both a definitive account of the New York rhythm and blues world of the early '60s, and the harrowing, ultimately tragic story of songwriter and record producer Bert Berns, whose meteoric career was fueled by his pending doom. His heart damaged by rheumatic fever as a youth, doctors told Berns he would not live to see 21. Although his name is little remembered today, Berns worked alongside all the greats of the era.
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Great book.
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By: Joel Selvin
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Thelonious Monk
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- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 25 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the 20th century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers.
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The definitive bio of Monk
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By: Robin DG Kelley
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Razzle Dazzle
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- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Razzle Dazzle is a provocative, no-holds-barred narrative account of the people, money, and power that reinvented an iconic quarter of New York City, turning its gritty back alleys and sex shops into the glitzy, dazzling Great White Way - and bringing a crippled New York from the brink of bankruptcy to its glittering glory.
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Too long and boring in spite of a vibrant subject
- By harry rohme on 03-04-18
By: Michael Riedel
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Sing to Me
- My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next
- By: LA Reid
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
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Performance
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Story
Legendary music producer LA Reid - the man behind artists such as Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Kanye West, Rihanna, TLC, Outkast, Pink, Justin Bieber, and Usher - changed the music business forever. Now he tells his story, taking fans on an intimate tour of his life. Sing to Me is a fascinating journey from Reid's small-town R&B roots in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his work as a drummer to his fame as a Grammy Award-winning music producer and his gig as a judge on the hit reality show The X Factor.
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Wow!! What a journey!!!
- By Marty Cohn on 02-06-16
By: LA Reid
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Shining Star
- Braving the Elements of Earth, Wind & Fire
- By: Philip Bailey, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman
- Narrated by: Philip Bailey
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
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Overall
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With more than 90 million records sold and eight Grammy Awards throughout its 40-year history, Earth, Wind & Fire has staked its claim as one of the most successful, influential, and beloved acts in music history. Now, for the first time, its dynamic lead singer, Philip Bailey, chronicles the group's meteoric rise to stardom and his own professional and spiritual journey. Never before had a musical act crossed multiple styles and genres with a quixotic blend of astrology, universalism, and Egyptology as Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) did when it exploded into the public's conscience during the 1970s.
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Great book, but needed pro narrator
- By Wayne on 03-23-16
By: Philip Bailey, and others
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The Comedians
- Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy
- By: Kliph Nesteroff
- Narrated by: Kliph Nesteroff
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In The Comedians, comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff brings to life a century of American comedy with real-life characters, forgotten stars, mainstream heroes and counterculture iconoclasts. Based on over 200 original interviews and extensive archival research, Nesteroff's groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past 100 years.
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Performance issues
- By E. A. Smith on 09-02-19
By: Kliph Nesteroff
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Outlaw
- Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville
- By: Michael Streissguth
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Waylon Jennings. Willie Nelson. Kris Kristofferson. Three renegade musicians. Three unexpected stars. Three men who changed Nashville and country music forever. Streissguth's new book brings to life an incredible chapter in musical history and reveals for the first time a surprising outlaw zeitgeist in Nashville. Based on extensive research and probing interviews with key players, what emerges is a fascinating glimpse into three of the most legendary artists of our times and the definitive story of how they changed music in Nashville and everywhere.
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Revealing little-known Details does Captivate!
- By Cody Meyer on 11-20-17
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Tearing Down the Wall of Sound
- The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector
- By: Mick Brown
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Phil Spector, born in the Bronx in 1940, grew up an outsider despised by his peers. But he formed a band, and had a number-one hit with "To Know Him Is to Love Him". He quickly became the top producer of early rock and roll and the originator of such girl groups as the Ronettes. Hit followed hit, and for all of them he used a new recording style called the "wall of sound". But the reign of the boy-man who owned pop music was doomed, and Spector spiraled into paranoid isolation and peculiar behavior.
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Descent Into Madness
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Mick Brown
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Fire and Rain
- The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970
- By: David Browne
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
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Overall
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January 1970: the Beatles assemble one more time to put the finishing touches on Let It Be; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are wrapping up Déjà Vu; Simon and Garfunkel are unveiling Bridge Over Troubled Water; James Taylor is an upstart singer-songwriter who's just completed Sweet Baby James. Over the course of the next twelve months, their lives---and the world around them---will change irrevocably.
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Fascinating information, easy to listen
- By NCKitkat on 07-28-11
By: David Browne
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There's No Bones in Ice Cream by Sylvain Sylvain is the inside story of glam heroes the New York Dolls - outrageous, defiant, sleaze kings, transgender posers, drug casualties, and victims, not just of their own excess but of an unsympathetic music industry that simply didn't know how to process them. Though their brief, sensation-filled yet doomed career produced just two albums, the Dolls exerted an influence on rock that changed it forever. A cross between the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols, the Dolls became the link in the chain between them.
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Everyone knows the hits: "Mony Mony," "I Think We're Alone Now," "Crimson and Clover," "Crystal Blue Persuasion." They are nuggets of rock and pop history. However, few know the unlikely story of how these hits came to be. Tommy James had been performing in rock bands in the Michigan area since the age of 12. Prompted to record a few songs by a local disc jockey in 1964, Tommy chose an obscurity titled "Hanky Panky," which became a minor local hit that came and went.
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Laurel Canyon was the neighborhood perched above the clubs and record companies of Sunset Strip where Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Graham Nash, Cass Elliot, Carole King, Don Henley, and Peter Tork, just to name a few, lived and collaborated to make an indelible mark on our music and our culture.
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What listeners say about The Story of Motown
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-01-23
Worth the listen…
I have to admit the Motown sound was probably the soundtrack of my musical upbringing.
Sure there were other major stars that had hits but “Hitsville” never disappointed no matter who was performing.
Glad that I took this tome on…a great background piece on the man behind the label and the stars that made it special.
Highly recommended !
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- Paul Frandano
- 02-04-23
The Remarkable Rise of Motown Records..
... and the particular genius of high-school dropout and sometime songwriter Berry Gordy, who harvested the little-known talent of Detroit's African-American singers, musicians, and songwriters and, in relatively short order, created Motown, a musical empire, with a distinctive sound, artist stage presence, and a huge crossover audience onto white radio, a key element in Gordy's commercial intent. This is a tale well told, warts and all, that filled a considerable hole in my historical understanding just how Gordy created the background make-out music of my teen years. Fwiw, I bought The Contours, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Four Tops (the last three of which I saw in concert) without knowing a thing about Berry Gordy, whose name was little more than a record label to me. My crowd just loved the music,.and we listened to it as eagerly and we listened to, and watched on TV, the Beatles and Stones. I was a little disappointed the book didn't tell the story of Gordy's sale of Motown Records in 1988, but the "rise, conquer, and fall" story, up to the almost total departure for greener pastures of most of Motown's talent in the late 1960s through the1970s, was for me sufficient.
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- Chijazz
- 04-11-22
Basic highlights
I truly feel that no one will be able to tell Barry Gordy’s story other than Barry Gordy no one can tell you Motown’s story other than Barry Gordy and possibly Smokey Robinson and this book I feel like It gave you some highlights but I feel that a lot of what made Motown what Motown is was is left out
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-09-23
A Brief Music History
Overall informative without a lot of detail. The time lines move very quick and are brief on explanations.
The book just makes me want a comprehensive look at Motown records.
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- Marie
- 11-24-18
Check Your Facts
I know the Motown story incredibly well. The narration was very good, but it is the same old story. What turned me completely off to this book was in two areas, the facts are wrong.
#1 - Sam Cooke did not die in 1953. He died in 1964.
#2 - Mary Wells was referred to as May wells.
Seriously...
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8 people found this helpful
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- rodney kelsey
- 02-14-21
Very in lighting on Motown music
A must listen to on history of Motown business and music well put together good
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-12-24
Informative
I enjoyed the story of Motown , a lot of interesting information. All very special moments in Black History and
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