Album: All Directions
Year: 1972
. . .
The Temptations who put out “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” was a significantly different band from even a year prior: both Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams had left the band in a cloud of bad feelings and health/substance abuse problems respectively, leaving only Otis Williams — the through line to this very day — and Melvin Franklin, who stuck around until just before he passed away in 1995, from their classic period.
Kendricks and Paul Williams were replaced by Damon Harris and Richard Street, and you could tell the difference if you listened hard enough. The harmonies on the proto diss-track “Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)” — good lord did they love a parenthetical song title! — were definitely different, which might or might not be why it topped out at “only” #18 on the Billboard Pop Charts, and they were definitely different on “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone,” but the music bed created by crazed genius producer Norman Whitfield was so compelling that it didn’t matter.
I have a memory — could be true, could be false — of what might be the first time I ever heard “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” on KYNO-AM in 1973, a few months after it came out. Or at the very least, the first time I truly listened to it. That opening, featuring just a steady hi-hat, and ominous bassline, once again leaving holes of infinity between each group of notes, through which swooped in soaring strings and a wah-wah guitar. It was like nothing else I’d heard on the radio, and it went on and on. Was it an instrumental like Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” or Billy Preston’s “Space Race” or even Deodato’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)”??
After all, instrumentals were huge in 1973: “Frankenstein” topped the pop charts, “Space Race” made it to #4 (both of which were singles that I bought; you’re welcome Edgar Winter & Billy Preston), and “Also Sprach Zarathursta (2001)” made it to #2. So, it’s entirely possible that for the first couple of minutes, I thought “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” was one of those. Until the lonely angry voice of Dennis Edwards — apparently Whitfield made him do his part, like thirty times — broke in, setting the scene:
It was the third of September
That day I’ll always remember, yes I will
‘Cause that was the day that my daddy died
I never got a chance to see him
Never heard nothin’ but bad things about him
Mama, I’m depending on you, to tell me the truth
Mama just hung her head and said, son
The greatness of this lies in the restraint: the drummer, Funk Brother Aaron Smith, has played only his hi-hat and occasional kick drum, while Funk Brother Bob Babbit (unless it’s Leroy Taylor) (I’m getting this from the Wikipedia article on the song), continues his ominous bassline, as Funk Brother Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin has laid back on the wah-wah guitar while Funk Brother Paul Warren is offering occasional guitar commentary on Edwards tale.
All of this tension-filled restraint continues during the first half of the chorus, as Edwards plays call-and-response with the rest of the Temptations.
(Papa was a rollin’
stone)
(Wherever he laid his hat was his home)
(And when he died) All he left us was (Alone)
It’s such an awesome chorus, they have to do it again, immediately, only this time adding maybe the greatest example of The Handclap Rule — handclaps make a good songs great and great songs immortal — that has ever existed. While the rhythm section is still laying back, playing it cool, those offbeat handclaps add a sense of urgency to the chorus, taking the song up another level or six.
(Papa was a rollin’ stone)
(Wherever he laid his hat was his home)
(And when he died) All he left us was (Alone)
And that encapsulates the brilliance of “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone:” for nearly seven minutes — almost 12 minutes on the album — it always feels like a bomb going off in slow motion. Which, because it’s slow motion, you think you can get away from it, but nope, turns out you’re running away from it in slow motion, too. Meanwhile, after a cool break where Wah Wah Watson is dueling with trumpeter Maurice Davis while the Detroit Symphony Orchestra soars with Paul Riser’s string arrangement, Edwards is joined on the second verse by Melvin Williams and Richard Street, as the no-good dad has apparently fathered a whole passel of kids on their poor mama, and suddenly those kids want answers, as do the guitars.
HHey Momma!
Is it true what they say that Papa never worked a day in his life
And Momma, some bad talk goin’ round town sayin’ that
Papa had three outside children
And another wife, and that ain’t right
Heard some talk Papa doing some storefront preachin’
Talking about saving souls and all the time leechin’
Dealing in dirt, and stealing in the name of the Lord
Momma just hung her head and said
While you might be forgiven if you can’t picture deep deep bass man Melvin Williams as a child asking his mama if he’s got half-brothers and sisters somewhere, his delivery of “and that ain’t right” is utterly god-level. Also god-level: how the guitars are getting more into the mix, Wah Wah Watson making all kinds of spooky noises during the verses and basically underpinning the second chorus, after which there’s another trumpet solo that is very nearly dub, like Whitfield had been listening to Lee “Scratch” Perry. And now that I think about it, this very well could be Whitfield’s version of dub, the way the instruments continually flutter in and out of mix, especially on the final verse and chorus, dominated by Damon Harris and Richard Street, with Harris’ falsetto very much sounding like an angry kid demanding answers.
Hey Momma
I heard Papa called himself a jack-of-all-trades
Tell me is that what sent Papa to an early grave
Folks say Papa would beg, borrow, steal
To pay his bills
Hey Momma
Folks say Papa never was much on thinking
Spent most of his time chasing women and drinking
Momma I’m depending on you to tell me the truth
Momma looked up with a tear in her eye and said, son
After that, “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” is all chorus, still finding a that tension filled balance between all of the instruments, and never once really giving us any answers other the the mother’s blanket apologia. A fucking masterpiece from start to finish, and completely mind-blowing not just to 10-year-old Jim hearing it on a tinny mono A.M. radio, but to 60-year-old Jim writing about it right this second.
Despite the fact that the original version of “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” had been released by The Undisputed Truth — Whitfield & Strong’s other project — in May, it was the Temptations version that took off. Maybe because the Undisputed Truth’s version was 3:25 and the Temptations was a glorious 6:58, which I know is the opposite of conventional pop wisdom, but “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” was a song that needed to breathe even as it took your breath away.
And so “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” was a massive massive hit, the final #1 pop hit by The Temptations — it stalled out at #5 on the R&B charts — a Grammy winner and probably their greatest song. Or anybody’s really. It wasn’t the final Temptations song to make the top ten: that would be the follow-up, “Masterpiece” which didn’t have Barrett Strong to write the words, and felt like both a rehash of “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” and a proto-disco song, and is fine, but not world-beating like their previous great singles.
After that, the only time they troubled the pop charts was a 1991 Rod Stewart collab called “The Motown Song,” which I just now checked out, and no. The Temptations are secure though, in being one of the greatest groups this country has ever produced. Or any country, really.
“Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”
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