S2:E10 It Was All About the Music

On Episode 10 we begin by teasing the audience with what Michael Quatro helped to create in Detroit once he returned home from the Lawrence Welk Show. Patti describes what it was like in the early-mid 1960s when this new homegrown rock music was heating up. Local teen bands and artists like The Amboy Dukes, MC5, Grand Funk, and Iggy Stooge were cutting their musical chops in the city while bands and artists like the Blues Magoos and Elton John were playing to jam-packed venues. As Patti says, “Detroit was slowly becoming a musical melting pot. It was bubbling and cooking.” She describes the nascent rock scene as being influenced by the British Invasion, but also the diversity of musical genres from around the country. Most especially, Patti talks about Motown and how the music was baked into the DNA of Detroiters. She explains that the rock music emerging at the time was not a rebellion or a rejection of Motown, but was instead a continuum of the creativity emerging from the streets. “It was all about the music,” Patti says, and it didn’t matter who was making it as long as it was real and raw. We close out the episode by listening to one of Patti’s favorite Motown songs, “Dancing in the Street,” by Martha and the Vandellas – a homegrown anthem heard around the world that showed the resilience and revolutionary musical outpouring of those from Detroit.

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