Of the dozen regulars, Van Dyke was the band’s father figure, the only man capable of reining in some of the others’ more unruly habits. The black musicians shepherded their white counterparts to safety. When the Funk Brothers emerged from a session on the evening of 23 July 1967, they found the streets engulfed in violence and rioting. I don’t think that existed anywhere else.” Its three white members also made the band unusually racially diverse. “There was nobody with an ego problem, no fighting each other for parts. Playing together six hours a day, five days a week meant the band weren’t just tight rhythmically, they were as close as family. She only tried that once.” A very young Michael Jackson visited with his dad Joe, who wanted to know what pedals Coffey was using. And Gladys Knight was in there once, trying to produce.” Trying? “Well, she had a little bit of attitude about it. “I remember Marvin coming in for one session and smoking a joint the entire time. Lead and backing vocals were recorded in separate sessions, after the band had laid down the track – the artists propelled to fame by these records were rare sightings. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Reckless genius … Funk Brothers bassist James Jamerson. So if you made a mistake or hit a bad chord they had to stop the tape. “All the musicians were playing at the same time, reading off the same master chart – and we’d record straight to tape, no amplifiers. “Our job was to do one song an hour and make them hits,” Coffey says. From then on, he was a key cog in the hit machine.įrom 10am to 6pm every weekday – with union-stipulated breaks – Coffey and his fellow Funk Brothers sat along the walls of Studio A making musical history. Two weeks later, Coffey had immortalised the sound with his guitar solo on the Temptations’ Cloud Nine. Coffey owed his place to his innovative use of the wah-wah pedal, which piqued the interest of producer Norman Whitfield, who was looking for ways to incorporate the emerging psychedelic aesthetic into Motown’s music. Gordy knew how integral the Funk Brothers were to his success and banned them from playing for any other record companies. “Everything was built on our foundation.”īy the time Coffey joined the Funk Brothers, the band had propelled Motown to hundreds of No 1 hits, from My Girl and Tracks of My Tears to Dancing in the Street. “The writers, arrangers and producers came up with the songs, but you couldn’t write that feeling we had on paper,” says Coffey. The musicianship rivalled anything from New York to New Orleans, and the result was a jazz and blues scene informed by rock’n’roll – a blend that defined the Motown sound. Like Motown guitarist Eddie Willis, pianist Joe Hunter and drummer Pistol Allen, he was part of a wave of migrants from the south who were looking for work in the booming automotive city and brought their music with them. He cut his first record aged 15, playing a guitar solo on Vic Gallon’s I’m Gone. “He told me he could not have started Motown in any other city but Detroit because of the talent that was here.”Ĭoffey’s family had moved north to Michigan from Kentucky. Gordy wanted musicians who could help him create a new sound that would challenge the white monolith of rock’n’roll. They were local jazz and blues players assembled by Gordy and whose skills he jealously guarded. The Funk Brothers were the band that played on every one of Motown’s Detroit-era records.
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