Temptations

Certain Songs #2687: The Temptations – “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”

September 8, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: All Directions
Year: 1972

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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.

Certain Songs #2686: The Temptations – “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)”

September 7, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sky’s The Limit
Year: 1971

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On the short list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Post-Psychedelic Soul Division, “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” is proof positive of a brand-new theory I just came up with. You may well ask what it is, this theory of mine.

My theory, which is mine, is that there is a virtuous circle of appreciation that happens between a great cover of a great song, where each time you listen to version, you appreciate the other version even more, so at the end, both versions of the song are basically not just your favorite version of the song, but perhaps the greatest song anybody has ever done ever. For example: “Eight Miles High” and “Eight Miles High, or “Tears of A Clown” and “Tears of a Clown” or “The Train From Kansas City” and “The Train From Kansas City” and “The Train From Kansas City.” That is the theory that I have and which is mine and what it is, too.

Certain Songs #2685: The Temptations – “Ball of Confusion (That’s What The World Is Today)”

September 6, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1970

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When you look at the Temptations discography, it’s kinda weird, because while they were definitely trying to break away from the expectations of what a Motown act was — thanks to crazed genius producer Norman Whitfield — at the same time, they were doing albums where they were primarily backing up Diana Ross, which was basically the most Motown thing imaginable.

So right in the middle of the run of insanely great singles that started with “Cloud Nine” and concluded with “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” (or “Masterpiece,” if you want) they’re also backing Ross up on straightforward covers of things like “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” “I Second That Emotion” and “The Weight,” some of which were massive, and some of which tanked.

Certain Songs #2684: The Temptations – “Psychedelic Shack”

September 5, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Psychedelic Shack
Year: 1969

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Released just three days before the 1960s well and finally ended, “Psychedelic Shack” shows Norman Whitfield and the Temptations making the subtext full text in their embrace of psychedelic soul, and once again used the past to help make the future.

In the case of “Psychedelic Shack,” there was a very specific use of the past: after the sound of somebody knocking on the door of the shack — which is clearly bigger on the inside than on the outside — and when the doors open, we hear the whooping it up that opened “I Can’t Get Next to You” right down to Dennis Edwards saying “Hold it, hold it listen,”

after which we hear a couple of hit-hat bars from crazed genius producer Norman Whitfield’s intro to his 1967 production of Gladys Knight and the Pips “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” before the Funk Brothers take over the song proper.

Certain Songs #2683: The Temptations – “I Can’t Get Next To You”

August 30, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Puzzle People
Year: 1969

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But of course, crazed genius producer Norman Whitfield & lyricist Barrett Strong weren’t going to just crank out socially-conscious psychedelic soul jams for the Temptations to sing over. That would be exhausting. Instead, they also cranked out songs like “I Can’t Get Next to You,” which opens with the Temptations whooping it up in the studio before Dennis Edwards commands everybody to “hold hold it, listen,” whereupon there’s a bluesy piano, a horn fanfare, and then over some crazy hard funk, we hear this:

Certain Songs #2680: The Temptations – “(I Know) I’m Losing You”

August 25, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Temptations with a Lot o’ Soul
Year: 1966

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Yet another Temptations song that was covered by godsdamned Rare Earth, “(I Know) I’m Losing You” is also what the kids call an “absolute banger,” featuring an absolutely killer gutbucket guitar lick from Cornelius Grant, and one of Norman Whitfield’s most tension-filled arrangements.

Opening with that lick — four notes stacked on top of each other followed by two that take their sweet fucking time to hit — and a tambourine, “(I Know) I’m Losing You” features another desperate vocal from David Ruffin, this time channeling a man who knows it’s way too late to beg.

Certain Songs #2679: The Temptations – “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”

August 24, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gettin’ Ready
Year: 1966

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Like “Get Ready,” I first heard “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” on the AM radio as a cover version by a white group. In this case, it was a now-obscure group of English cultural appropriators called “The Rolling Stones,” whose version I heard all the time on 13 KYNO AM all the time during the autumn of 1974.

That version made it to #17, making the Rolling Stones kinda sorta one-hit wonders before they drifted off into obscurity. After all, their pedestrian arrangement of the song had none of the wit and interplay of what the Funk Brothers put down, and instead relied on the tired rock trick of speeding up at the end. Yawn. Let us never speak of The Rolling Stones ever again.

Certain Songs #2678: The Temptations – “Get Ready”

August 23, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Gettin’ Ready
Year: 1966

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Given my age and my demographic, it’s not surprising that I heard — or at least remember — a lot of Temptations songs in their incarnation from white rock artists. Of course the Stones did an OK version of “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” and an all-time all-time version of “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” and Rod Stewart had the Faces in tow for “(I Know) I’m Losing You.”

Certain Songs #2677: The Temptations – “My Girl”

August 22, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Temptations Sing Smokey
Year: 1964

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The first thing you hear on “My Girl” — a song that features a quite a few firsts — is the steady rolling bassline of Funk Brother James Jamerson, who was unsung at the time, but in retrospect was clearly one of the most important musicians of the 20th century.

Funk Brother Benny Benjamin joins Jamerson with a quick roll, setting the up immortal opening couplet of “My Girl,” which features Funk Brother Robert White playing a spidery hook underneath David Ruffin’s utterly sublime rendition of Smokey Robinson’s words. Everybody sing!