Music
‘I MAY NOT HAVE THE APPEARANCE OF A TEENAGER BUT I FEEL IT’
www.list.co.uk/music Hitlist THE BEST ROCK, POP, JAZZ & FOLK*
Miss Martha
Martha Reeves is playing Glasgow on her birthday. Nicola Meighan chats to the ex-Vandella and Motown icon about protesting and dancing in the street
‘I ’m happy to say I’m back in full-time showbusiness,’ declares Motown icon Martha Reeves. After four years of splitting her days between music and politics – as a Detroit city councillor – she’s now focusing her energy on reviving the legendary R&B career that’s included 48 years of live performance, and 26 soul-pop hits with the Vandellas, ‘Dancing in the Street’, ‘Heat Wave’, ‘Nowhere to Run’ and ‘Jimmy Mack’ among them.
Reeves’ commitment to Motown, and her Motor City home, is life-long. ‘I just think Detroit is wonderful,’ she marvels. ‘And I think the most sensational music ever made was [Detroit-based] Hitsville USA’s Motown – that combination of gospel, jazz, blues, all genres.’ Although Motown relocated to LA in 1972 – leaving behind artists including Reeves and The Four Tops in favour of ‘self-contained’ acts like The Commodores and The Jackson 5 – Reeves remains fiercely loyal to its memory. ‘It really was like a family, and I still consider [Motown founder] Berry Gordy Jr to be the best mentor that I ever had – with the exception of my parents, of course.’
Reeves’ schoolteacher, Mrs Wagstaff, also encouraged her pupil to perform, and celebrated music as a liberal and historical force. ‘She taught me all the anthems: “The Star-Spangled Banner”, “God Bless America”, “Only A Rose” – that was one of her favourites – and “This Is My Country”. Before that, I didn’t really realise I had a country,’ Reeves remembers. ‘I never really felt like America was my home, until I learned that song. Because, you know,
64 THE LIST 8–22 Jul 2010
they surely didn’t encourage me to feel that way in the South.’ She laughs, and sighs.
Reeves became familiar with pop as socio-political conduit: her hair-raising 1970 Vietnam protest song, ‘I Should Be Proud’, (Reeves lost a brother to the war), had her earmarked as an antagonist. ‘Yeah, it’s a song that made the CIA follow me around for a good six or seven months,’ she casually recalls. ‘The record company told me, this is a good song, but it’s not going to be played on the radio. The CIA thinks it would be harmful. I did a good job singing it though! That’s one of my best vocals.’ Her biggest hit, ‘Dancing in the Street’, also accrued political significance: it was adopted as an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement, despite being written as a love song. Was Reeves conscious of its evolution? ‘I don’t think it changed – people changed it,’ she reflects. ‘Marvin Gaye co-wrote it and sang it first, so I can’t put that Civil Rights meaning in there. But I am a person who lived through it – we used to have segregated audiences – and I am an activist, so I’ll accept it. I’m for freedom, music, unity – and I’m for international unconditional love.
‘‘‘Dancing in the Street” was meant to be The Sound of Young America,’ she continues. ‘And it is! It makes me feel young whenever I sing it. I may not have the appearance of a teenager, but I feel it. Music changes your spirit, and your mood. It makes people happy. That’s what it’s about. The music is as fresh in my mind, and as fresh in my heart, as it ever was.’
The Arches, Glasgow, Sun 18 Jul.
✽✽ T in the Park Pack the dry shampoo and the Wet Wipes, it’s time for the annual camping knees-up in Balado. Eminem, Kasabian and Muse headline. See feature coverage, from page 24, and full line-up, page 82. T in the Park, Balado, Fri 9 Jul–Sun 11 Jul. ✽✽ Toots & The Maytals The Jamaican ska and reggae pioneer, Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert is still going strong, in his fifth decade in business. And yes, fact fans, that’s the same Maytals that Bob Marley repped in his song ‘Punky Reggae Party’. O2 ABC, Glasgow, Tue 13 Jul. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ King Tut’s Summer Nights The boxy, but very legendary venue celebrates its 20th birthday, with four-act-bills right through July. Astral Planes, Silver Columns and Young Fathers are all booked in. King Tut’s, Glasgow, various dates. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Klaxons What are the new ravers doing with themselves these days? Same thing, but rockier, since you ask. King Tut’s, Glasgow, Tue 13 Jul. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Martha Reeves See interview, left. The Arches, Glasgow, Sun 18 Jul. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ I Blame Coco Alongside Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, Sting and Trudie Styler join the ‘parents of an aspiring musician’ club. Sting’s daughter, Eliot Pauline Styler-Sumner, or Coco Sumner, as she prefers to go by, sings electropop with a reggae flavour and is supported here by Magic Daddy. Sub Club, Glasgow, Thu 22 Jul. (Rock & Pop)