Motown Quotes - page 2

A big part of the Motown formula was, they took music and turned it into this sort of automotive assembly line. They were cranking out 10 songs a day in that studio, or more. (Mayer Hawthorne)

I grew up in Ann Arbor, about 25 miles west of Detroit. And when you grow up in that area, you get a healthy dose of Motown automatically.

Mayer Hawthorne

I was really fortunate growing up to have a broad musical education. My parents listened to all kinds of music, rock, soul, Motown, jazz, Frank Sinatra, everything.

Mayer Hawthorne

My favorite period is when we lived in the land of the three-minute song. The Motown thing - I thought they were genius in knowing that's as much as a listener can take.

Meshell Ndegeocello

We came from the '60s era, when we started and made so many hits. The song value from the '60s was so darn good, you've got The Beatles, The Beach Boys, all of Motown, and plenty of other people, too... amazing records, amazing songs.

Mike Love

We call 'Ain't No Mountain' the golden egg that landed us at Motown.

Nickolas Ashford

When we did a lot of that Motown stuff there were four of us on the front line. When we started the evening we'd start from one end of the band and just go along. The lead singer would change all the time. That's the first time that I actually managed to put it into a record.

Roy Wood

I grew up listening to oldies, like Motown. That's from my mom.

Ryan Lochte

I love Motown, that whole era. Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson. I just put on Pandora, and put it on Motown, and it makes me smile; makes me smile so much.

Tika Sumpter

I grew up when the whole Motown thing was huge. The charts in those days were dominated by groups more than solo artists at one point.

Simon Cowell

I've performed in Auburn Hills, at The Palace, so I haven't really been in downtown Detroit, but I've been able to be here, and I can really see, what the city was. Like, I can feel why Motown started here and how amazing it was. (Jordin Sparks)

I know that's blasphemous when you are from Detroit, but I was never a fan of Motown stuff. I don't care for the production much.

Jack White

I left Motown because of the regime of people who were there.

Smokey Robinson

My musical influence is really from my father. He was a DJ in college. My parents met at New York University. So he listened to, you know, Motown, and he listened to Bob Dylan. He listened to Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones, but he also listened to reggae music. And he collected vinyl.

Talib Kweli

One of my strongest memories is my father playing bongos in the living room in Detroit listening to Motown radio. He was this skinny white bald guy, but he was really moved by blues and Motown and funk.

Sufjan Stevens

Growing up, I liked all the stuff that everyone else was listening to, like Motown, but the biggest group of all was The Beatles.

Eddie Murphy

I grew up in Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, and my mom and pop had an extensive record collection, so Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and all of those sounds and souls of Motown filled the house.

Jay-Z

I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown.

Gary Oldman

...If you had a good song, and you were a producer or writer at Motown, you had access to all the artists. It didn't matter who had the last hit record. If they liked you at all, you had the opportunity. I wanted to write something sweet for David Ruffin to sing, which became "My Girl.” And he sang the shit out of it, so it was contagious. I don't regret that whatsoever.

Smokey Robinson

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