It’s a song worth writing about.

That’s what best-selling author Mark Kurlansky decided about “Dancing in the Street” and on July 16 he gave remarks on his finished project, “Ready for a Brand New Beat,” at Malaprops Bookstore/Café in downtown Asheville. 

According to Kurlansky, it all started with a fire hydrant. He reported that Motown songwriters William Stevenson and emerging super star singer Marvin Gaye on a sultry day were driving in Detroit when they spotted a group of white teens cooling off that way.

From there, wrote Kurlansky, it was back to Hittsville, USA, the large frame house where the Motown record company was based and, with help from Ivy Hunter, the song was created. 

Originally, said Kurlansky, the son was intended for Kim Weston, but Martha Reeves happened to be in the studio that day and sang it as a demo. It sounded so good they brought in Reeves’ backup singers.  The result was a hit that dislodged the Beatles’ “Hard Day’s Night” at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

At that time, Kurlansky noted, there was a lot going on outside the world of music.  Two days after the song came out, the war in Vietnam escalated and four weeks later bombings in Harlem.

“Dancing in the Street” became the theme song for the Black Power movement and also was a rallying point for the discrimination-fighting Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he said.

Back in Motown, wrote the author, Martha Reeves was asked about the political connotation of the song and she broke into tears saying, “It’s a dance song.”

With an unmistakable hook based on a minor chord and unmistakable beat, many musicians have agreed – the song has been covered  by more than 35 artists ranging from Ramsey Lewis to the Grateful Dead and parodied by the Rolling Stones in “Street Fighting Man.”

Nearly 100 people packed into Malaprop’s for the event and following his 20 minute presentation – which included a loud-playing through the coffeehouse speaker system of “Dancing in the Street” – Kurlansky took questions. 

Asked whether there’s a song today that will have such an impact, he said, “No, and it’s got to do with politics – they don’t teach music in the schools like they used to.” 

Asked about his current project, Kurlansky, former  foreign correspondent for the Miami Herald and author of “Salt,” a book entirely about the mineral, and “Cod,” about the fishing industry, said he is finishing up a book of short stories and a globe game he plays with his 14-year-old daughter.

Kurlansky is 63 and Reeves, who served a term on Detroit’s City Council, is 72.  “She’s still going strong,” he said.  “She’s still playing shows. She’s still singing ‘Dancing in the Street.’” 

He spent two years  researching the 237-page “Ready for a Brand New Beat” book. “It was a lot of interviews,” he said, “but I’ve thought about it for a long time. I’ve had this song in me since I was a teenager.”