Smokey Robinson & Otis Williams discuss Beatles Motown Connection
Today, the 1983 Motown 25 concert, broadcast in prime time on NBC, is best remembered for Michael Jackson's moonwalk. The show, however, involved much more: Host Richard Pryor introduced label legends like Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinsonand the Four Tops at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, and the Jackson 5 and the Supremes both reunited.
Of course, there was even more going on behind the scenes, and the new Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever DVD set (available with one, three or six discs) is looking to excavate some of that history, adding rehearsals, roundtables and documentaries to the original footage. Follow the link below to watch a clip from one of the docs, in which Robinson, the Temptations' Otis Williams and author Nelson George discuss the symbiotic relationship between Motown and the Beatles.
"They were the first huge white act to admit, 'Hey we grew up with some black music. We love this," says Robinson.
Adds Williams: "We knocked down those barriers, and I must give credit to the Beatles. . .It seemed like at that point in time white America said, 'OK if the Beatles are checking them out, let us check them out.'"
Source: Rolling Stone
