*Motown legend Lamont Dozier details his rags to riches journey in his forthcoming autobiography, “How Sweet It Is: A Songwriter’s Reflections on Music, Motown and the Mystery of the Muse,” out Tuesday.
Dozier scored massive success writing/producing hits for acts such as Marvin Gaye, Martha & the Vandellas, the Four Tops and the Supremes.
According to the Detroit Free Press, “the memoir chronicles Dozier’s impoverished early life in Detroit, his high-pressure Hitsville heyday, his label startups with the Hollands after their contentious Motown split, and on through his own hit-and-miss solo career in the 1970s,” the outlet writes.
“The story of Motown and how it came about with Berry Gordy has been told over and over,” Dozier tells the Free Press. “But there were a lot of things happening behind the scenes that aren’t written about — the moments where there was sometimes jealousy and envy, which you had to overlook so your ego didn’t get in the way of your talent or your purpose, which was to write a hit song.”
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Motown’s Lamont Dozier looks back on success, struggle and smash hits in new autobiography https://t.co/LGWZy7qFr6
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) November 24, 2019
Dozier was compelled to write his memoir after an appearance on Bomar’s podcast “Songcraft” in 2018.
“He let me talk about where, when and how things happened — all of the things he thought people would want to know about what it takes to be a songwriter,” Dozier says. “It’s all the trials and tribulations I went through to become one with a lot of fame and success.”
He added, “When you write any kind of memoir, getting it off your chest, it’s kind of heavy/ It got to me at times and had me tearing up. I thought about what I’d gone through, what we went through as a family, what I had to do to impress my family — like buying my mom a house to get her out of the projects. All of that came out.”
Below is an excerpt from the memoir of Dozier recounting that special moment with his mother:
That was the first house I ever bought. I wanted to give a home to my mother before I bought a place for myself. Then I bought another home for cash and quitclaimed it to (my ex-wife) Ann. Even though we’d already split up, I wanted to make sure my daughter grew up in a good neighborhood. I wouldn’t buy a house for myself until the following year when I got a place in the exclusive Palmer Woods neighborhood. It was very upper class, whatever that means, and I was the first black person to move to that area. I didn’t get any pushback because the neighborhood association preapproved me as a result of my “status” or whatever bullshit. I loved my new house, but providing homes for my mother and daughter were a great joy for me in the midst of all the pressure.
Read the full excerpt HERE.
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