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On Bettye's Motown and Detroit Heritage
Bettye LaVette
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Where did you come from?
I came from the North End of Detroit
Which is the same place across the alley Smokey Robinson came from
Northern High School, which is where Melvin Franklin came from
The Temptations and the North End was kind of
It's the oldest place in Detroit for Blacks, so by the time other people our ages
It was because our parents that we lived there
But had we been parents we would have gone to the west side or downtown or whether
But North End is the first place that Blacks came to in Detroit
Yeah, are you like a contemporary of age wise of Melvin Franklin?
No, all of the people who were singing in 1962 when my first record came out
Were from ten to about four years older than me
I think Aretha's about four years older than me
And Levi Stubbs and Fortop's about ten years older than me (yes)
So they're, but they're all, Stevie Wonder is the youngest one of my group
You know, of the people who started in 1962 and went on through that (yes)
When you came out in '62 as a recording artist, were you doing a Motown style?
No, no, no, that wasn't the thing to do
People, it's so hard for people to understand that
Motown was just a little bitty company in Detroit and I was with Atlantic (yes)
The biggest black record company in the world, so there was
Barry Gordy wanted to be with Atlantic (ah, yes)
So, when you were in Atlantic, who were the artists?
Was this, you know, the time of the drifters?
Well, when I came, The Drifters was still there
Solomon was just coming back (time of)
But he left and came back more times than anybody (okay, so when was)
Ray Charles had just left
And Aretha?
Aretha hadn't come yet
Had not come yet
So was this Joe Turner time?
No, Joe Turner had just left
'62 was just at the end of (the coasters)
The Coasters, over the getting the coasters were recorded for anyone at the time I joined
But they were always associated with Atlantic
Benny King was still there, Otis Redding had just been signed to Fire
Which was owned by Atlantic
There was Fire, Volt, and Saks, and to my mind
All of those things belonged to Atlantic (oh, boy, TS, Saks full)
You should have seen me having a fit when I first had to record for Atco
Because I felt like all the other things weren't really Atlantic, they were just their little children
Yes, you want to be on Atlantic
But I was on Atlantic and so I thought
That my record was bigger than Otis's or anybody else on any of the other labels
Yeah, now where did you make your records for Atlantic, New York City? (In Detroit)
Oh, you made it in
Cut it in Detroit, I see
(All those years) with what musicians?
Uhm, there was Leroy Emanuel, I was 16, he was 14, and he's playing that lead guitar on my
Man and he since then moved to Canada and has become very big there, he's like
I was so stunned when I walked into the auditorium there at Massey Hall
And they said someone's here to see you
And I'm like, and he was so tall, he was so grown
Wow
Yeah, and who else?
Timmy Shaw played piano, Johnny Mae and her boyfriend
And Timmy Shaw singing in the background
And we just found out the other day that Johnny Mae Matthews
Was one of the first people to hire James Jamison
So we think it may have been him on the record
But the only people I remembered
The rest of them were grown people to me
So they weren't interested
But Leroy was my age, so whenever we'd
Between takes or whatever, I'd talk to him (yeah)
I didn't know anything to talk about with them
Wow
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