Guitarist Dennis Coffey was in a west side recording studio in 1967 when Detroit started burning.
"We got one of our guys to go stand outside the studio and watch the flames while we finished the session, hoping that they weren't moving that fast and we could get done," Coffey said recently while recounting the five days in July, 1967.
Coffey was a member of the Funk Brothers, the rhythm section that backed so many of Motown's monster hits of the 1960's and early 1970's.
Now 76, Coffey has never stopped working and performing in Detroit, living through the city's ups and downs.
"Things have changed but now they're changing back the other way," said Coffey. "Did that event create that? It may have but that is such a complex issue, I don't think it's a simple answer."
Historian Ken Coleman writes about black life in Detroit, including the influence and importance of Motown.
"Hitsville USA is only about a half mile away from the epicenter of the '67 rebellion, 12th Street and Clairmount," Coleman said during a recent conversation.
He detailed the impact of the rebellion on the arts in Detroit, particularly music. According to Coleman, music was an important part of the curriculum in the Detroit Public Schools throughout the 1940's, 50's and 60's.
"You can talk about a number of Motown artists that grew up in Detroit, attended Detroit Public Schools and got a chance to play an instrument or to sing in a vocal choir," Coleman said. "Those programs were robust."
Coleman recited a list of Motown recording stars that attended high school in the city, including Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson at Cass Tech. Northwestern High School located in the same neighborhood as Motown's headquarters produced Florence Ballard of the Supremes and Mary Wells, one of Motown's early stars. Aretha Franklin attended Northern High School.
The neighborhood surrounding the Motown studio changed after the riots and so too did some of the music.
"That '67 rebellion, I think, influenced people like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and others to write music that might at the time been called protest music but it was a response to the environment that really had its foot on their necks for many years," Coleman said.
