HINCKLEY, MINN. - Motown was a hitmaking factory. But the Detroit record label also schooled its artists in the essentials for show biz: wardrobe, manners and stage performance.
Countless Motown hits from the 1960s and '70s have lived on. And so have many of the artists, as veterans Diana Ross and the Temptations (still featuring co-founder Otis Williams) demonstrated last year in separate triumphant performances at the Minnesota State Fair. But no one exemplifies the preeminent and enduring power of Motown better than Smokey Robinson.
His 100-minute performance Saturday night at Grand Casino Hinckley Event Center was a terrific combination of style, substance, shtick, spontaneity, showmanship, superior songs and scintillating singing.
After an overture during which his various awards from the Songwriters Hall of Fame to Kennedy Center Honors were enumerated, Robinson started singing 1981's "Being with You" offstage. It's a good thing he began before he arrived in the spotlight because he would have had the capacity crowd at just his peacock blue lamé suit. Hello!
Robinson, often called the architect of Motown because he wrote so many hits, offered the songs he made famous with the Miracles ("You've Really Got a Hold on Me") and under his own name ("The Quiet Storm") as well as for others such as the Temptations (a medley including "Get Ready" and "My Girl").
While Robinson is a master at expressing emotionalism in a three-minute pop song, his virtuosity is in PG seduction. The way he cooed "Ooh Baby Baby" to the point that he began to shake with desire and then cooed some more while sexily pulling the microphone away from his mouth was — ooh, baby — about as sultry as a 58-year-old love song with nonexplicit lyrics can get.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer tried a similar alluring route with 1991's "I Love Your Face," a too-simple romantic lyric delivered with genuine sincerity, and "La Mirada," from an in-the-works Spanish album, that came across as more style than substance.
There was another new song, from "Gasms," an album Robinson released on Friday, his first project of new material in 13 years. "If We Don't Have Each Other" was an unmemorable medium-tempo piece begging for a classic Smokey hook.
More familiar numbers like 1987's up-tempo Grammy winner "Just to See Her" and 1965's sadder-than-sad "The Tracks of My Tears" were greeted with unbridled enthusiasm.
Robinson's voice remains a wonder. While it may not have as much as force as it used to, it still sounded true, gloriously supple and soulful, aided nicely by two female backup singers. His solid six-man touring band was supplemented by a local string quartet, adding finishing touches of class, especially on the standard "Fly Me to the Moon."
The 83-year-old Motown royalty, who long ago moved from Detroit to Los Angeles, seemed as ageless as his material. He cracked jokes about streaming and eight-tracks. He danced solo, with his backup singers and even with a couple of female fans invited onstage. He engaged with concertgoers who approached the stage, some apparently under the influence and one who brought a sign saying "I'm Mike Fitzgerald's daughter." Robinson acknowledged her and his late junior high classmate who "makes some pretty babies."
Robinson closed with a marathon 20-minute treatment of 1979's "Cruisin' " that included a stage rush, a sing-along and his playful male stripper-like dance moves that certainly weren't taught at Motown but delighted a crowd of baby boomers weaned on the sounds of young America.
