Why Detroit? you may ask. The simple answer is that I met someone in Tucson who told me that Detroit was definitely worth a visit, and I just thought, well, why not.
Besides which, it was worth coming here ten times over just to visit the Motown Museum. This house, 2648 West Grand Boulevard, was purchased by Berry Gordy Jnr in 1959 and served as Motown's main recording studio until 1972. During those years the output from this house included - among countless others - the Supremes, the Jackson 5, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder...I honestly can't imagine that there's any single building in the whole of the Western world that has made a greater total contribution to 20th century popular culture. The list of classic songs recorded here is just overwhelming.
Nowadays the house still contains its original fixtures and fittings, including an ancient telephone switchboard and a 35-cent cigarette machine, and it's open to the public. Guided tours are given by charming young chaps who talk ten to the dozen and sing, rather than speak, the song titles as they come up in the monologue. Of course, the anecdotes are endless. Apparently Motown used to have weekly meetings about which records were worthy of release and which ones weren't. Berry Gordy's litmus test was: if you were down to your last dollar and you had to choose between this record and a hot dog, would you buy the record? Any doubt about the answer, and the record was shelved.
The tour ends in the converted garage known as 'Studio A'. You can trace, within these very walls, the great creative arc that began with songs like 'My Guy' and 'Where Did Our Love Go', and then soared up into still-unsurpassed heights as artists were given unprecedented creative freedom to come up with records like Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' and Stevie Wonder's great album sequence of the early 70s. There was also a considerable output of spoken-word vinyl, including one record by Martin Luther King Jr which included an early version of his 'I have a dream' speech before it was delivered in Washington DC.
Halfway through the tour, the guide told a story about a particular candy machine right next to where I was standing. Back in the 1960s, the restocking guy was under instructions always to put the Baby Ruth candy bars in the fourth slot from the right, so that Stevie Wonder would know which button to press for his favourite snack when popping out of the studio between takes. At this point I became sentimental, and had to face the wall for a few moments in order to compose myself.
I liked the tour so much that I spent another $10 doing it all again the next day. This time our tour guide was Stevie's 22-year-old godson, Glen.
The common perception of Detroit as a whole is of a formerly thriving industrial powerhouse, reduced to dereliction and decay, and admittedly that's not entirely untrue. On the incoming Amtrak, and during my wanderings on foot, I saw any number of houses and often whole blocks which were abandoned and boarded up. Not just houses, but also great commercial buildings and factories lie empty; and huge tufts of weeds grow unchecked between the paving stones of the suburban sidewalks.
But it's not as scary as people sometimes make out. Just because you're the only white person on the block, doesn't mean you're in danger. And the phrase 'no-go area' is merely a self-fulfilling prophecy if used carelessly. My hostel is in a black neighbourhood - it's near the intersection of Rosa Parks Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, just to emphasise the point - but I've walked everywhere without a sniff of a problem.
Moreover, there is a real community spirit in Detroit that you don't often find in other large cities, in America or elsewhere. I suppose you could call it unity in adversity. There are hardly any tourists around but the locals you meet are endlessly helpful. In particular I'm indebted to Keith, from the Department of Public Works, who not only gave me directions but also dashed indoors to get me bespoke colour printed maps for various restaurants, markets and shops. I'm also indebted to the Coach Insignia bar, on the 72nd floor of the General Motors Renaissance Center, for serving $5 cocktails between 5pm and 7pm on a Thursday. The final special mention goes to Gary the singing taxi driver and his enchanting falsetto.
My hostel is of fairly recent date and its stated purpose is to attract people from all around the world to Detroit, as part of a wider programme of fostering civic pride and community engagement. I'm quite chuffed to have played my own tiny little part in that.
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| The Motown Museum. It doesn't look like all that much from the outside, but then Berry Gordy Jr didn't have a whole lot of money back in 1959. |
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| The home of the Detroit Tigers baseball team. These sculptures are way more impressive than the 'Black Cat' cardboard cut-out things which we have at the Stadium Of Narrowly Avoided Relegation. |
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| The GM Renaissance Center |
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| The 'Gateway to Freedom' sculpture on the Riverwalk. That's Canada just visible at the right hand side of the picture, to the south (yes, south) |
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| Edd vs Food #9 Shawarma with 'homestyle vegetables' at the Bucharest Grill. Shawarma is basically Arabic for kebab, which is a Turkish word. Gyro (as per what I had in St Louis) is the same thing in Greek. |
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| Edd vs Food #10 Chicken, beef brisket and pulled pork (ooer) at Slow's BBQ, 2138 Michigan Avenue, Detroit. Waffle fries and coleslaw and various sauces on the side. |
