In 2011 Motor City music cognoscenti began murmuring about the authenticity of a Motown piano being restored by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and Steinway New York. Here is the story of how that project came to be.
Hitchhike to Hitsville
When Paul McCartney played Detroit's Comerica Park on Sunday July 24, 2011, he and his band played a cover version of Marvin Gaye's 1962 hit "Hitchhike" as a tribute to the legendary Motown record label.
During the song's introduction, McCartney alluded to his entourage's visit to The Motown Museum on West Grand Boulevard. The ex-Beatle shouted "Holy Grail!" as he briefly related their tour experience to concertgoers. Paul and his crew had stopped in for a private tour. The museum is normally closed on Sundays.
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Apparently, this struck a sour chord with McCartney as he made an offer on the spot that the non-profit museum could not refuse. On October 26, Sir Paul and the Motown Museum announced plans to partner with the Steinway Corporation in the restoration of the aged piano.
According to the October 29, 2011 Detroit Free Press, "The 134-year-old piano, used on innumerable recordings in the 1960's, had long fallen into disrepair..." McCartney said via a museum statement this afternoon. "I said to myself; "Wow! This is the Holy Grail!"
Sir Paul thereafter provided financing for Steinway Corporation in New York to restore the innards of this 9-Foot Steinway Model D concert grand.
Plans were then being made to book performers to play the piano at a concert benefiting the museum in March of 2012.
Holy Grail or Staged Prop?
No sooner had news of McCartney's magnanimous contribution hit the streets than rumblings began in Detroit's Motown community. For starters, since the museum opened in 1985, tourists and insiders alike had been told by staff that none of the studio A instruments were original.
Motown Records staff did not recall an "art case" 9-Foot Steinway Model D being in studio A during the record company’s heyday.
Former Motown studio manager/producer Ralph Terrana supported photographic evidence specific to the music desk (stand) on the McCartney restoration piano: "I ..remember the Studio A Steinway NOT having the art case scroll work on the music desk”
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| Restoration piano - "Art Case" Music Desk/Stand |
Ralph Terrana’s career with Motown spanned the years 1969 to 1975.
c.1965 - This black and white photograph corroborates Ralph Terrana's recollection. An alternate Steinway option to the fancy Art Case Scroll work, A grand piano with a solid music desk/stand in studio A at Hitsville.
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| Eddie Holland -left. - Lamont Dozier - right at Studio A Steinway |
1965 - James Jamerson Jr.
Bassist James Jamerson Jr. recalled being a small boy next to a small grand piano, "I was nine years old when I became interested in what my father was doing.” James' father and legendary bassist James Jamerson would sometimes bring his children to sessions on the weekends. "My brother and I would line up between the keyboard end of that small piano and my father...we would just try not to get in the way." It was cramped at that end of the "snake pit" with three guitar players, a bassist, two kids and a grand piano. A nine-foot concert grand piano would not have been a logical choice for a tiny working studio. James says of the museum's current instrument in question, "that piano is longer; the piano I remember wasn't near that long."1965 - Ed Wolfrum
Motown and Golden World engineer Ed Wolfrum remembered; "there were actually two Steinway grands .. because the one from Golden World was not as nice as studio A's."
In fact, Ed along with session pianist Johnny Griffith, purchased the Golden World Steinway at Grinnell's in Detroit as tasked by original studio owner Ed Wingate. Golden World staff and assets were absorbed by Motown in late 1966.
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| J.J. Barnes backing Edwin Starr on the new Golden World Steinway -5-20-66 DFP |
1967 – Video Evidence
A Temptations recording session was staged for the cameras in Hitsville Studio A. In this clip at 1:45 pianist Earl Van Dyke can be seen playing a Grand piano with a solid music stand. The piano also has a heavy cover upon which winter coats were often added to isolate the microphone. |
| Earl Van Dyke at Steinway with solid music stand. |
1972 – The Move west
All usable instruments and recording equipment were collected and shipped to Los Angeles when Motown ceased operations in Detroit.
"In 1972 every available technician documented and packed up all the studio gear and loaded it up into trucks. I know the Golden World (Motown Studio B) piano went because I watched it being hauled up a ramp into a semi-trailer." Ed Wolfrum recalls.
Short of access to company inventory or serial number records, this is what we may now deduce about the Motown Detroit piano inventory:
Steinway # 1 "The Hitmaker"
Berry Gordy, himself a piano player and composer wrote or performed some of the early Motown hits on the original studio piano at Hitsville. Certainly, Motown’s CEO would not leave this precious instrument behind in Michigan, mothballed in a building with an uncertain future. It is also unlikely he would allow it to be installed at Mowest, his new L.A. recording facility. Insider statements and processes of elimination suggest that Berry has enjoyed the original Detroit Studio A - Steinway Model B - 7- foot piano in his Los Angeles living room since 1972. The retiree has recently purchased a home in Palm Desert California. A statement verifying the fate of this instrument is welcome from Mr. Gordy.
(In this photo courtesy of Vanity Fair magazine c.2009, Mr. Gordy is seated at what appears to be a Seven Foot Grand; I have not verified this is a Gordy residence at this writing)
Steinway # 2 - "The Golden World Piano"
Mowest studios, Gordy's Hollywood facility, may have received one of the Steinway Detroit pianos. Logic dictates that this is the original Golden World instrument as purchased by Ed Wingate and Ed Wolfrum. Berry Gordy would have discerned between the two and selected #1 “The Hitmaker” for his home.
Allen Sides former owner of Oceanway Studios appears to have acquired and installed the #2 piano at the Hollywood (Studio A) location. In 2012 the company counted "the original Motown piano" on their studio equipment list. It is reported to be a 9 foot Model D however. Oceanway has hosted a number of artists including Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, John Mayer and ..... Paul McCartney. Verification on Model and lineage is pending. In 2015 Oceanway became (in part) East/West studios. The 9 foot Steinway appears to have been part of the ownership transfer.
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In 2012 Oceanway Hollywood owned two Steinways. The Model of the instrument in this clip is unverified as the Motown piano.
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1985 – Staging the Museum
When Hitsville re-opened as a museum, Funk Brother and guitarist Dennis Coffey was called in to consult. "When the Motown Museum was just beginning, they had a deal with the Henry Ford Museum to do a two year display of Motown artifacts. The previous curator of the Motown Museum and the curator of the Henry Ford Museum and I went to Hitsville and opened the door to Studio A that had been closed since 1973. The studio was empty. I told them no one would want to tour Studio A like that. I suggested they stage the studio with instruments. They agreed and I pointed out who sat where and what instrument each Funk Brother played. They went out and purchased or found those instruments. I have no idea where they got them from." By the time the museum was opened a 9 foot Steinway was located amongst the museums holdings and staged in Studio A at Hitsville.
2001 – Standing in the Shadows
Ed Wolfrum was also involved in the motion picture “Standing in the Shadows of Motown” The surviving Funk Brothers assembled once again to record in Studio A. Ed was hired to help re-create the studio experience for the film.
The 9-foot "prop" grand was in such a poor state that keyboardist and original Funk Brother Joe Hunter had to play a substitute digital piano. Wolfrum watched the session from the original control room with museum founder Esther Gordy Edwards who whispered to the Motown veteran, "It's a shame we don't have the original piano for Joe to play." Joe Hunter passed away in 2007. Esther Gordy Edwards left us in 2011.
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| Joe Hunter - Studio A - 2001 |
Steinway #3 "Golden World Rehearsal Piano" 8-31-12
Today the Motown museum announced the debut of a restored piano at the Motown Gala in New York September 18. Although I won't be attending the $10,000 a plate fund raiser I am pleased to see the organization has admitted the actual lineage of this particular piano. A second Golden World piano, an 1877 nine foot Steinway that apparently, even in 1972 was not worth shipping to California. The instrument was used for songwriting and the occasional rehearsal only at the Davison Avenue Golden World /Motown Studio B facility. Golden World engineer Ed Wolfrum stated:
"That old piece of firewood was a disaster at Golden World and I would bet the Steinway crew had even more work on their hands than expected. It could only have gone downhill from the bad condition it was in then over 40 years ago."
On August 31,2012 The Detroit Free Press' Brian McCollum interviewed Robin Terry, chairman of the museum's trustees board.
"Terry also clarified the history of the piano, which was described in a news release last fall as the instrument used on recordings by acts such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. That account was disputed by Detroit Music Historian Leo Early."
"Terry said Thursday the museum has since learned that the piano was in fact used for songwriting and rehearsals at Detroit’s Golden World studio, which Motown purchased in 1967, and was not used on recording sessions".
"Publicity about the restoration brought forth a lot of great stories from our alumni and others – piano technicians, people who had worked on that piano — and that helped us weave the story together” she said. “Our interest is having accurate, factual historical information, and this really caused that to happen.” DFP 8-31-12
"Publicity about the restoration brought forth a lot of great stories from our alumni and others – piano technicians, people who had worked on that piano — and that helped us weave the story together” she said. “Our interest is having accurate, factual historical information, and this really caused that to happen.” DFP 8-31-12
Conclusion
- There were in fact THREE original Steinway grands used by Motown/Golden World between 1959 and 1972.
Epilogue: 9-18-12
As part of Motown's project Harmony fundraiser McCartney and Berry Gordy unveiled the restored Golden World-Motown Steinway at Steinway Hall in New York to a handful of privileged donors.
I am very excited about the return of the piano to Detroit.
Its installation will create additional programs for kids as well as for Detroiters and Motown fans in general. Thanks Paul ! Leo Early September 2012
