Editing Raymond Scott (section)

==Motown years==

In 1969, [[Berry Gordy]] of [[Motown Records|Motown]] visited Scott at his Long Island labs to witness the [[Electronium]] in action. Impressed by the possibilities, Gordy hired Scott in 1971 as director of Motown's electronic music and research department in Los Angeles, a position Scott held until 1977. No Motown recordings using Scott's electronic inventions have yet been publicly identified. Guy Costa, Head of Operations and Chief Engineer at Motown from 1969 to 1987, said about Scott's hiring:
:He started originally working [on the Electronium] out of Berry's house. They set up a room over the garages, and he worked there putting stuff together so Berry could get involved and see the progress. At one point Scott worked out of a studio. The unit never really got finalized—Ray had a real problem letting go. It was always being developed. That was a problem for Berry. He wanted instant gratification. Eventually his interest started to wane after a period of probably two or three years. Finally Ray took the thing down to his house and kept working on it. Berry kind of lost interest. He was off doing [[Diana Ross]] movies.<ref>[https://www.raymondscott.net/features/guy-costa/ Interview with Guy Costa about Raymond Scott's Electronium at RaymondScott.net]</ref>

Scott later said he "spent 11 years and close to a million dollars developing the Electronium."<ref>Chusid, p. 80</ref> After leaving Motown he was mostly unemployed, though hardly inactive. He continued to modify his inventions, adapting computers and primitive [[MIDI]] devices to his systems. He suffered a series of heart attacks, ran low on cash, and became a subject on ''[[Where Are They Now? (American TV series)|Where Are They Now?]]''

Largely forgotten by the public by the 1980s, he suffered a stroke in 1987 that left him unable to work or engage in conversation.<ref>{{cite web|last=Chusid|first=Irwin|title=Raymond Scott: Biography |url=http://raymondscott.com/Liner1.html |access-date=26 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524023358/http://raymondscott.com/Liner1.html|archive-date=24 May 2011}}</ref> His recordings were largely out of print, his electronic instruments were cobweb-collecting relics, and his royalty stream had slowed to a trickle.