Stuart Cosgrove Detroit 67: The year that changed soul

1967 in Detroit was dramatic from the first day of the year to the last. On the first day of the New Year, the Motor City was besieged by the worst snowstorm in the city’s history. The car-plants and foundries closed and the clattering noise of industry was curiously silenced. The last day of the year was mournful and suicidal, one of Motown’s great songwriters, Roger Penzabene, who had only recently written the maudlin and self-reflective lyrics of The Temptations, ‘I Wish It Would Rain’ took his own life after his marriage fell apart. Penzabene was expected to turn up at a record company party to celebrate Motown’s success but he never showed up, his body tagged in the Detroit City morgue, one of the last deaths of the year.