By LeoB (68.41.104.246) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 10:46 am:

It is official, Berry Gordy is now wholly out of the business that was/is Motown.
Here is the link to the Detroit Free Press article.

http://www.freep.com/entertainment/music/gordy1_20040401.htm

Leo B

By Ralph (209.240.205.62) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 11:08 am:

Thanks for posting this Leo. Very interesting. The last lines of the article sort of say it all.

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 11:35 am:

Another thread was created regarding this matter as well (EMI MUSIC PUB. READY TO BUY REST OF JOBETE).
Kevin Goins - KevGo

By DyvaNaye (209.212.74.216) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 11:48 am:

Who old is Berry Gordy,and where doe she reside now? Are any of his siblings still around? And where are his kids now?

curious...

By Vickie (198.81.26.103) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 11:48 am:

Does this mean we can see more Motown songs in films???

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:24 pm:

DvyaNaye:
Berry will be 75 years old in November. He resides in California (his first west coast home was in Bel Air).

As far as I know, all but two of his siblings are still alive. Loucye Wakefield passed in 1965 in Gwendolyn Gordy Fuqua left us a few years ago.

All of his children are still living. His grandson Jermaine Jackson II resides here in NYC (I met him two years ago at a music store on Fifth Avenue).

Kevin Goins - KevGo

By DyvaNaye (209.212.74.216) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:34 pm:

Well that answers my question...thank you Kev-Go...'you cant hang on to it forever'...go head and sell Berry...'GIVE US FREE!'.......

By Common (209.2.55.168) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:57 pm:

Hello everyone,

KevGo: Did another one of BG's siblings die recently? I could've swore that there were more of them alive. There is/was: Robert, Anna, Esther & George(not sure if he's living though)left.

Peace!

By Livonia Ken (136.1.1.33) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 01:29 pm:

As I read the article, I was somewhat confused by all of the "EMI can do this" and "EMI can do that" stuff. Hasn't EMI had the controlling interest in Jobete for years at this point? I doubt that the Jobete folks were roadblocking anything that EMI really wanted to do that was worth doing.

Regards,
Ken

By Ju (64.12.113.162) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 02:00 pm:

Ken I was thinking the same thing too. I was like, "They already had 4/5 of the catalog!"

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 05:17 pm:

Common:
I'm not sure...Let me look into it...
Kevin Goins - KevGo

By Reese (12.15.168.69) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 05:47 pm:

I think his brother Fuller Gordy is deceased as well.

By Juicefree20 (151.205.100.23) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 05:59 pm:

To Berry, I say: job well done my friend. I wonder why he didn't keep the remainder of the catalog for his children. Nevertheless, he's definitely entitled to cash in his chips & enjoy his ride into the golden sunset.

This could very well turn out to be good news for those of us who have been screaming for them to open up the vaults. The article mentioned that a mere 5 PERCENT of the catalog has been generating income. It sounds to me as though they're planning to tap into the rest of the catalog. That can only mean good news for music lovers.

Juice

By Ron Murphy (68.42.90.140) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 06:19 pm:

please remember that EMI only owns the musicial copyrights . Universal owns and controls all the master tapes of the copyrighted songs that were recorded ,so any unreleased recorded material would have to come from Universal

By Uptight (24.55.0.68) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 06:34 pm:

Ron, you took the words right out of my mouth. Folks, let's not confuse the written Jobete music and lyrics (i.e. sheet music) with the Motown master audiotapes.

By Fred (64.12.117.14) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 06:50 pm:

If you want to make noise about Universal going into the vaults, I strongly suggest you do it at www.hip-oselect.com, which is intended to be UMG's answer to Rhino Handmade; limited edition quality runs of obscure stuff some people have been demanding for years. They're asking for suggestions for future releases.

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 06:56 pm:

Folks:
After reading Fred's post I visited the Hip-O Select website and he's right as rain - they are looking for reissue suggestions! So far they only have TWO releases so far!!! And one of them is Howard Tate's "Get It While You Can"!

I think it's time to send some emails......

Kevin Goins - KevGo

By bigdaddyg2k4 (205.138.54.125) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 05:00 pm:

At least Berry will continue to recieve songwriting royalties for the rest of his life, even though he doesn't have complete controlling interest in the catalog anymore. He's rich enough to leave money for his great-grandchildren and then some. But since EMI Music Publishing now owns a 100% stake in the catalog, is it still going to be Jobete or another name?

By Juicefree20 (68.161.24.39) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 06:17 pm:

I for one would love to hear a nice clean copy of That's A Funny Way by The Andantes & a nice clean copy of I'll Come Running by Ms Crawford!

Juice