REVIEWS
"Posner's 'Motown,' [is] the most objective and thoroughly accurate history of the label....New information includes boardroom insights, a solid debunking of the Mafia rumors that constantly hounded Gordy and the label and, in a chapter titled 'Suitcases of Cash,' something of a bombshell...Posner can make a courthouse file cabinet seem as sexy as Marvin Gaye singing 'Let's Get It On.'"
The San Francisco Chronicle, January 12, 2003.
"Posner presents the best and the worst of this story with suitable glitter. And his book heightens a welcome new fascination with Motown's glory days."
New York Times, January 2, 2003.
"[Posner] tackles the issues of race, greed and arrogance with his customary objectivity....Posner's contribution is a 'Just the facts, ma'am' work, yet those facts are fascinating, and his narrative, the best he's done, keeps this story interesting"
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 12, 2003.
"Part soap opera, part Greek tragedy...[Posner's] a bulldog reporter, and in unfolding Motown's humble beginnings, rise and demise, he gathers a cornucopia of details that make fascinating reading"
The Sunday Oregonian, January 5, 2003.
"The most comprehensive and reliable book about Motown and its stars....Posner brings his objectivity, balance and a standard of evidence....Posner's book is the story behind the legends and the romance, the grand, flawed, all-too-human story of how it all came to be, and how it so quickly played itself out"
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 5, 2003.
"A careful, attentive and remarkably pithy history of Motown's rise and fall."
Atlanta Journal & Constitution, January 5, 2003
"A handy, relatively short, balanced compendium of the label's business, political and sexual intrigue that juggles myriad characters and subplots skillfully"
The Nation, January 13, 2003
"Posner offers a fascinating look at this slice of pop culture history"
Bookpage, January, 2003
"An investigative journalist who keeps his narrative in fine rhythm, Posner details the dark side of the heavenly Motown sound...Bottom Line: Supreme Job."
People Magazine, February 3, 2003
At last, the real story behind the amazing rise and fall of Motown Records. How did Berry Gordy create the greatest hit factory in popular music from a rundown two-story house in central Detroit? What really took place during the years when the charts were filled with Motown stars - Stevie Wonder. The Supremes. Marvin Gaye. Diana Ross. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. The Temptations. The Jackson Five. The Four Tops. Stars who helped create a sound that defined a generation. What really went on behind the scenes, and what finally led to its unraveling? Swirling around the political upheaval of the 1960s, the emergence of black entrepreneurship, and the decline of some American cities, and filled with more intrigue than any soap opera writer could conjure, Motown promises to provide a fascinating inside look at this unique slice of American social history.
Published by Random House January 2003
Listen to a January 21, 2003 interview with Paul W. Smith, WJR in Detroit (RealPlayer needed)
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