Motown fan? Then you’ll know the name Barry Gordy. He was the guy behind the label, the songwriting businessman who turned a random Detroit two-storey home into the legendary round-the-clock soul factory, Hitsville U.S.A.
Of course, he had a lot of ferocious talent working for him too. Most of them are now forgotten: the session players, the sound-crafters, the journeyman musicians and recording engineers who worked vibrations with vocation, forging tones with deft ears and hard-practised skill.
And then there was the up-and-comer who went by the name “Smokey.” Born William Robinson Jr., Smokey soon became Mr. Gordy’s right-hand man, a triple-threat who could write, perform, and get the business done too. From Mr. Gordy’s (self-burnishing) telling, Smokey’s young talent needed some nurturing, some mentoring. He told an energetic Smokey to keep trying, to listen to the radio and learn from what’s happening. Get out there, get inspired. Work with what’s working… with what’s goin’ on.
So he did. If The Silhouettes could have a smash with “Get A Job,” why not hit ’em back with a song called “Got a Job”? If the boss liked “My Guy,” why not follow it up with a “My Girl?”
Here’s the thing: I’ve always had a problem with that, even though it’s the way that I naturally work. Rarely do I get an idea for a project out of thin air — I’m almost always responding to something, reacting to something, applying a framework or a concept from one assignment to the next.
But I grew up on some romantic notion that we are all special snowflakes, and our creative work — our art, if you will — was simply an ego-stroked reflection of that individual in-built wonder. Therefore, the more purely you pursued your snowflakery the more special and worthy you would become. Wearing one’s inspiration on one’s sleeve was dismissible, mockable, poseur behaviour. For what true artist would admit to such things?
I’m starting to get over that, to whole-heartedly embrace and celebrate the work that’s come before, that’s happening right now. Art is never out of nothing, nor are we. Each of us are a product of our times, and we can only use the tools available to us. Sure we can evolve, improve, but we didn’t invent paint and canvas, sketch out the rules of English grammar, shape keys from ebony and ivory, nor lay them out non-alphabetically beneath LCD screens.
It’s also much more productive this way — this building on the past — and more relatable too. Use allusions your audience will know: quote, tip-the-hat, make an homage. Set a familiar hook and reel them in. Everyone will be happier with the arrangement — with the final product — when you do.
I’d like to think I’ll bang out some indelible work of pure imagination one of these days. And I might! But in the meantime, each project is a chance to stew and marinate in new sources of inspiration, to combine them in novel ways, to tell new stories. And that’s more than enough.
That’s work worth doing. That’s a hit.
— Grant Wentzel – At your service!
