4 replies to this topic

[mariner]

I dont really need an excuse to post my all time favourite pop video - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas doing "Nowhere to run" on the' 65 Mustang line but I've found one - a nice vid of building F -150 trucks today. Both vids are the Ford profit machine in full flow.

 

So here is the original - and wonderful- video

 

 

and in 2014 , almost 50 years later.

 

 

The change in working conditions is  a social and industrial commentary on its own. Compare the Mustang spray booth conditions with the guy who has a power seat to shoot him into the F-150 cab.at 1.00 on the video.

 

Also the sheer compexity and quality control of the modern  F 150 versus the Mustang is striking. The Mustang can be thrown together but the  F 150 is mass of harnesses and door modules etc.

 

A modern Ford cost engineer and acountant would probably drool over the short build time of the classic Mustang.

 

With today's obsession with retro couldn't Ford re-do the orginal video ?

[Magoo]

That's one of my favorite videos, too, and I've featured it on my site.

 

http://www.macsmotor...where-to-run-2/

 

 

The backstory to the clip is an interesting story itself -- a deal cooked up by New York DJ Murray the K. The concept is not as exotic as we may tend to assume as lots of people at Motown Records had worked on the line. It was a ready source of income as they got they musical careers off the ground. Berry Gordy credits working at Ford for pushing him to found Motown Records. He says he hated working there so much, he knew there had to be something better to do. 

 

Note that they never bothered to shut down the line for the filming -- they just had the girls dance around the workers. As you can see, many of the men are visibly annoyed by the disruption. In later years, I am proud to boast, I have become acquainted with Martha Reeves, an extremely intelligent and multi-talented woman. Many don't realize how unique and influential her singing style was, because she made it so effortless. 

 

 

Some Motor City trivia: at least two more music videos feature footage from the Ford Rouge plant: Aretha Franklin's "Freeway of Love," and "Making Thunderbirds," by Bob Seger (one of my favorite car songs).

 

http://www.macsmotor...reeway-of-love/

 

http://www.macsmotor...g-thunderbirds/

 

Years earlier, Aretha's father, a prominent Detroit minister, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, had an arrangement with Ford where he selected and sent over young men as job prospects. Ford was one company where black people could always get work. 

Edited by Magoo, 25 May 2014 - 00:53.

[tcsparky]

I recall hearing this many, many years ago on WABX.

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=FnYnu-1fF6U

 

Rouge Plant Blues by Stix and Stones

[Magoo]

I recall hearing this many, many years ago on WABX.

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=FnYnu-1fF6U

 

Rouge Plant Blues by Stix and Stones

 

 

Wow, ABX. As you know, at one time one of the best FM rock and roll stations in the USA. Dave Dixon and the Air Aces.

 

In later years when he came back to Detroit, I listened to Dave on WDET. He would play Gershwin and Hendrix back to back and it worked. RIP Dave.  

[Magoo]

...in more recent news, Severstal, the Russian company that currently owns the former Ford steel mill at the Rouge is shopping for a buyer for the facility, which is old and obsolete. 

 

 

Meanwhile, here is a great old newsreel from 1938 -- a tour of the Rouge plant narrated by Lowell Thomas. Pretty cool. 

 

 

http://www.macsmotor...er-rouge-plant/