Martha and the Mustangs.

I’ve been looking for an unadulterated version of this short film for years, and this is the closest I’ve come — Motown must keep their vaults pretty well. I think it might be from “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” but having never seen it all the way through, I’m not sure. I think of this clip whenever I see a hip-hop video shot in some Fabulous Ruin around here. That’s now, but this was then:

Posted at 1:43 pm in Popculch |
 

14 responses to “Martha and the Mustangs.”

  1. Joe Kobiela said on November 28, 2007 at 2:16 pm

    N,
    Great video, to bad they couldn’t make it today. Osha, would have a fit. Also what would the naacp say about using chains for sound, they would complain about the chains being linked to slavery.
    Sister Aretha’s song, Freeway of Love is another good Detroit song.
    Joe K.

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  2. Dorothy said on November 28, 2007 at 3:42 pm

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  3. michaelj said on November 28, 2007 at 5:27 pm

    I worked on the line one summer, courtesy of a UDHigh classmate’s dad. I threaded nuts onto bolts for autpmatic transmission assemblies. Next guy on the line bolted them down with a pneumatic wrench. After two weeks, I couldn’t stand it and switched to a janitorial job paying about $3 less per hour, and eventually just went back to minimum wage washing ORs with Wescodyne at Metropolitan Hospital. Is it still there? I don’t think there was a woman on the line at the time.

    At the risk of being accused of descending into Sour mash woolgathering, this reminds me of the finest Detroit movie, and it neither involves (past tense or present in discussing movies?) Eminem nor Michael Keaton ( great movie). That would be Richard Prior, Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto and Paul Scrader: Blue Collar. As a conspiracy idea, this movie was at least as good as The Parallax View. I wish Warren Beatty had put Bulworth in the original tinderbox ghetto.

    I’d never seen this video, but it’s impressive. Martha is exceptionally attractive here. This song is better than any Supremes song. So’s Dancing in the Streets; I saw both groups at the Michigan State Fair. Martha and the Vandellas ripped it up. Supremes played Reflections, and it was outstanding.

    I know this predates Nancy as a Detroit denizen. Used to be, we had the Motown Revue between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Two days for about $6. Temps, Tops, Steveland, Marvin and Tami, Supremes, Smokey, Martha & the Vandellas. White kids, black kids, no borders, music only.

    And really, identifying Iggy with late 60s Detroit rock is understandable. If you weren’t there, you wouldn’t know about SRC, though MC5 should have registered. We may have been drug-addled, but we thought Iggy was nuts,
    seger ruled, and the Quackenbush brothers were close to subway Gods. We didn’t have a subway, but the reference should be obvious. Actually, the apex of rock in SE Michigan in 1968 was Procol Harum playing songs from Salty Dog at the Birmingham teen center before the album came out.

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  4. nancy said on November 28, 2007 at 5:43 pm

    Notice how the moving assembly line nearly knocks the right-hand Vandella on her butt as they climb into the car.

    When Martha mentioned the paint line, I wondered about that opening shot. There’s no way that could be the paint line, could it? Men spraying hoses with no respirators or eye protection, even in 1965? Must be some sort of washing/rinsing/whatever station.

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  5. michaelj said on November 28, 2007 at 6:03 pm

    If Martha had shown up in that get-up, I might have bobbled my assignment.

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  6. Mouse said on November 28, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    As an old Navy man,I say Salty Dog is one fine album.

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  7. michaelj said on November 28, 2007 at 8:41 pm

    oHow do we say? how do you heel

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  8. michaelj said on November 28, 2007 at 8:42 pm

    oHow do we say? how do you feel

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  9. michaelj said on November 28, 2007 at 11:36 pm

    In the day, we didn’t live in the
    Grosses. We lived in Birmingham. Or Bloomfield Hills. We lived at Tiger Stadium. Nancy doesn’t get it when she embraces Iggy. SRC was the band. . She’s right but for all the wrong reasons. If you know anything about Detroit, tell me where Louis the Hatter and the Chessmate were. One street, actually.

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  10. Joe Kobiela said on November 28, 2007 at 11:53 pm

    Go to you tube and put making thunderbirds into the search, you’ll get a Bob Seger song. I know we have gone round and round about Bob, but this video and song never made the big time, but I think it shows Bob at his prime.
    Flying over Detroit tonight I was singing, free way of love.
    Joe K

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  11. John C said on November 29, 2007 at 8:59 am

    What I liked was in the interview section, when Martha says they didn’t stop the line for them. Nowadays there would have been a huge corporate negotiation and a large product-placement fee. Then there would have been a a-hole ad director lighting the place up and throwing in ridiculous-looking special fx. Back then it was: Can we come in and shoot the girls while you make cars? Sure. But we’re not stoppin’ the line for you.

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  12. David said on November 29, 2007 at 10:13 am

    I wonder if MichaelJ ever trundled to Devil’s Lake Pavilion in the mid to late 60’s to hear groups like the MC5, The Rationals and (even) Freddy and the Dreamers. Instead of sitting around watching these groups, most kids danced as if these musicians were merely the house band.

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  13. LA mary said on November 30, 2007 at 4:23 pm

    And what dance did they do to Freddy and the Dreamers? The FREDDY. A deeply stupid dance.

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  14. Arjan said on December 26, 2007 at 7:03 am

    Hello everyone,

    The video clip is captured form the music documentary “Soul Deep” http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/souldeep/

    This series tells the story of how Soul music was forged from R & B and gospel to become the most successful music in the world. It was the first video clip of the 1965 Ford Mustang.

    EPISODE 3/6: THE SOUND OF YOUNG AMERICA
    Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/souldeep/playlists/3/
    Check also: http://www.hojo.org.uk/Page2.html
    –

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year form the Netherlands.

    Arjan, webmaster http://www.Dutchmustang.nl

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