The Tempts Invade England! (Winter, 2001)

[Ivory Fair]

The Tempts Invade England! (WInter, 2001)



After 41 years together, the Temptations have known triumph and tragedy, hard times and highlights. Graham Betts (record buyer United Kingdom) caught up with soul's hardest-working group to get the inside story

They are, quite simply, the most successful vocal group of all time. Many of today's young pretenders, such as Boyz 11 Men and Blackstreet owe a huge debt to the Temptations. The likes of the Four Tops and the Dells may well have had more stable lineups over the years, but even they have not become the same kind of institution. Emperors of Soul is not just the title of one of their albums, it sums up what the Temptations are all about.

They made a lightning trip to the UK in January and February of this year, performing a small number of sell-out concert dates, and it was between shows in London that Record Buyer caught up with the group. First though, is a brief history. The
group were first formed in  1960 by members of two other vocal outfits, the Primes and the Distants, by Eddie Kendrick's (born in Union Springs, Alabama on 17 December 1939), Paul Williams (born in Birmingham, Alabama on 2 July 1939), Melvin Franklin (born David English in Montgomery, Alabama on, 12 October 1942), Otis Williams (born, Otis Miles in Texarkana, Texas on 30 October 1939) and Eldridge Bryant.

They signed with Motown as the Elgin's in 1961, changing their name to the Temptations at Williams' suggestion. Bryant left the group in 1962 and was replaced by David Ruffin (born in Meridian, Mississippi on 18 January 1941). They scored their first hits with Smokey Robinson handling production and later switched to Norman Whitfield. Ruffin left in 1968 because the group would not give him individual credit as had happened with Diana Ross and the Supremes, and was replaced by Dennis Edwards (born in Birmingham on 3 February 1943). Kendrick's left in 1971 and was replaced by Richard Owens and then Damon Harris (born in Baltimore, Maryland on 3 July 1950). Williams also left the group in 1971 and was replaced by Richard Street (born in Detroit on 5 October 1942).

The group left Motown in 1976 for Atlantic but returned two albums later. By 1988, the line up consisted of Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Richard Street, Dennis Edwards (who had returned in 1987) and Ron Tyson. Edwards subsequently left the group a second time and the line-up in 2001 was Otis Williams (the last surviving original member), Ron Tyson, Barrington Henderson, Terry Weeks and Harry McGilberry, this line up having been in place for the last five years. The second departure of Dennis Edwards and his decision to tour with a group under the moniker 'The Temptations Review' has become something of a problem, as original member Otis Williams was quick to admit.

"One of the reasons we are here now in England is to clear up the misunderstanding in the minds of our fans as to who is really entitled to use the name the Temptations. We  understand Dennis and his group were here a couple of years ago and our manager Shelley (Berger) said that it was important for us to get over and establish ourselves in the market. Aside from coming over to support an album we have out at the moment (a 'Best Of' compilation that I reviewed last month) we are here to let our fans know that we are the only group legally entitled to use the name The Temptations.

The Mention of the album prompted me to ask whether the group had any input into what went on the album, since there appeared to me to' be a number of tracks that had been overlooked.

"No, it was something that Universal and Motown put together, mainly because there was an absence of newer material for them to work on. They've covered an awful lot of ground on the album, ranging from our earliest hits like 'My Girl', 'Get Ready' and then right the way through to some of our more recent things, such as 'Stay', 'I'm Here' and even 'Some Enchanted Evening'. For all that, we wish the album had been chronological order, and that seems to have been picked up on in a couple of the reviews that I've read so far. And the packaging could have been better, because I think the fans that have been with us for a long time would have expected a more sophisticated package, with sleeve notes and the like, because the album is giving the buyer pretty much the same tracks he was getting before."

The group are perhaps best known for their work with firstly Smokey Robinson and then Norman Whitfield, so I was interested to hear if Otis (arid , therefore by definition the Temptations) had preferred working with one or the other.

(continued)

[Ivory Fair]

"Well, you're talking about two entirely different characters in Smokey and Norman. Smokey was a very quiet character, (one) who had definite ideas about how he wanted you to interpret his songs but was still open to other viewpoints. As a singer himself, he was always open to your suggestions and ideas if you thought it might work better being done in a different way. Norman was a complete contrast! You are talking about a man who was into control and almost dictatorial in the studio, with very rigid ideas about what he wanted and how he went about getting it. We enjoyed a great run of success with both men, however.

It was that element of control that effectively brought the Temptations' work with Whitfield to an end. The general consensus was that it could have been any vocal group performing his songs - and on one album in particular, 'Masterpiece', Norman's image was even bigger than the group's!

"It was about that time that we began to see ourselves as Norman Whitfield and the Temptations, that our work on the album was almost an afterthought. It gives you an idea of the ego of the man that his image should be bigger than ours, but as I said earlier we had a tremendous run of success with Norman and I'm not about to knock that. You know Norman and I go back even further than Motown, because I first got to know Norman back in 1958 when he was with Popcorn Wylie and the Mohawks. I tell you, even back then he stood out in the crowd. We'd play these dates and I'd watch the women watching him, going 'Oh my God, look at the light skinned one on the end' and the girls were going ga-ga  over him even then! We saw Norman a couple of months ago, we were doing a show in Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheatre and he came  backstage because he always comes to check out our show when we're in town. "You know, people think that what Norman was doing at the time was very political, but you have to remember that it was Barrett Strong that was writing the words! In a way, he was picking the paths that we had to follow. What is also often forgotten is that we were partly responsible for suggesting a change of musical direction to Norman in the first place. We heard the new kind of things that Sly and the Family Stone was doing, they had something different. And we were just about to lose David Ruffin, and bring in Dennis Edwards, and we needed something different ourselves.

"So we went out of town on tour while Norman was putting together the music that would become 'Cloud Nine'. And then we added our bits to it and for the first two weeks or so, we were all wondering if we were doing the right thing. Especially as we started getting a lot of criticism from people who thought we were singing about getting high! We weren't, because the term 'cloud nine' had been around for years, and Norman -didn't get high, he was talking about a natural state of mind. Following on from that we had things like 'Psychedelic Shack' and 'Ball Of Confusion' and they were just statements about what has happening at the time.  "For all that, the song that people most seem to like from those days is 'Just My Imagination', and whatever happens, we just can't take that out of our shows! One thing about that song. Some time ago I heard a slamming version of the song, done in a reggae style, and I wish I knew who did it and where I could get it.


" Since there has been very little chart activity from Norman Whitfield since the mid 1970s or so, you would be forgiven for thinking that he has gone into retirement. But, as Shelley Berger explains, this is not by choice.


"What has happened to Norman is pretty much what every writer and producer over a certain age has experienced. People like Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Holland/Dozier/Holland and others like them shaped popular music We are talking about people who were directly responsible for penning some 900 smashes, not just hits, but classic smashes, and they can't get work today because the industry thinks they are too old!.    "I talk to Kenny Gamble on a regular basis and he tells me he would have loved to work with the Temptations and I tell him that it can still happen. But he says it won't, because the people at the record company want him to submit songs to see if they're any good. You would think someone with his reputation would not have to go through that route. That we could say to the company, we would like to do an album with Kenny Gamble and that they would trust us, and him, to come up with the  goods .And with the same kind of thing is happening with  Norman Whitfield.

(continued)

[Ivory Fair]

He has a point, for many of the songs that current black vocal acts are being given would sound just as good performed by the Temptations, as Otis readily confirms.

"Well, the likes of Boyz 11 Men, all 4 one, Blackstreet and Jodeci aren't really doing anything different to what we did. They use the same chord changes, switch emphasis on the vocalists in exactly the same way, but we've already been there and done that. We would like to work with the likes of Babyface and LA Reid, because we have a lot of respect for what they have achieved and the songs they have written. Babyface in particular is one of the best song writers in terms of melody that there is around today.  It's been suggested a couple of times that we could benefit from going out on the road with Boyz 11 Men. That their audience would probably like what we were doing and vice versa. We have looked at the idea a couple of times, but I have to tell you, when you come along to a Temptations show, you are going to see an audience that is made up of people who are kids right through to grandmothers. Really, the Temptations audience goes right across the board. And they know what they want to hear. Boyz 11 Men have their specific audience. I think if you try and link the two in the belief that you will get both audiences coming along, you just end up alienating everyone! "Since we've been over in England this time around, we noticed we're picking up a younger audience. We did the National Lottery show and people were coming up to us afterwards and all of 'a sudden, it's as though the Temptations_ are hip again. Hopefully, we'll be back again in fourteen months or so with a new album and play bigger venues and the audience that we've picked up this time around will, continue to grow with us. We put an awful lot of thought into everything we do. We think carefully about the material we record and who to have as our support act, and which writers we should work with, and that is one reason why the Temptations are still going strong more than 40 years down the line."

One songwriting team the Temptations have used all too infrequently is the group themselves, with just one album and a few tracks being written and produced 'in-house'. 'The Temptations Do The Temptations' sounded good enough to these ears to have been repeated, so why so few tracks written by the group over the years?

"That's the second time we've been asked about this album. You know, I still think tracks like 'Who Are You' and I'm On Fire' are among the best that we have recorded, but you have to I  understand what was happening at Motown at the time to realize why our album disappeared. At the time there was a new head of the company coming in, there were new people in promotion and marketing, there were other priorities to work on, and our album just seemed to get lost.  "About the only person who believed in the album at the time was our A&R woman, Suzanne DePasse, and I give her a lot of credit for sticking with it, but it just seemed to happen at a time when we were thinking of leaving the label and that didn't help either. Later on, when we came back we wrote a couple of things, and 'I'm A Bachelor' appeared on the 'A Song For You' album which we did with James Carmichael who used to work with the Commodores.

"It would appear the Temptations still suffer from time to time with the antics of their record company - a recent compilation supposed to highlight their career between 1966 and 1969 features a picture of the group from 1973 on the cover, meaning that three of the men on the sleeve don't actually sing on any of the tracks!

(continued)

[Ivory Fair]

"That's the sad thing about the system we have to operate in at the moment. It's a case of 'give me this, give me that, put that on it'; it's all done so quickly and with very little real thought and I don't like that as an artist. We should be more meticulous because we are dealing now with a buying public that is more discerning. But that's the way the industry is right now. You know, years back when Motown was in Detroit it was more of a movement than a record company." When we were in-between dates or recording sessions for our own albums, we would hang around the studios and help out anybody else who needed us. So if you listen carefully, you can hear the Temptations on singles by Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, one or two of the Miracles' hits. Man, we sang with everyone back then! Now of course, Motown exists in name only. It had changed by the time Berry Gordy sold it in 1988. By then, it was a corporate monster where everything had a computer print-out associated with it. Even now, we don't know half the people and it doesn't seem the same company we grew up with." In fairness to Motown however, when they get it right the Temptations reap the benefits.

Having previously won three Grammy Awards (Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance in 1968 for 'Cloud Nine' and Best Rhythm & Blues Performance by a Group and Best Rhythm & Blues Instrumental Performance in 1972, both for 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone' ('Papa...' was also named Best Rhythm & Blues Song the same year), the group find themselves in the frame once again. Their latest album 'Ear- Resistible' has been nominated for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Album, and by the time you read this the winner will be known.  (STOP PRESS: THEY WON)


Should the Tempts emerge victorious, it won't, in Otis Williams' opinion, be before time. "We thought we should have won two years ago with 'Phoenix Rising'. We were nominated, which is always an honor, but Patti (LaBelle) won it for 'Live For One Night Only'. We're not knocking her, because it was her first award, but we think we've got a good chance this year." You have no idea how monumental it was for the Temptations to win Grammies. You know what I'm saying For many years the Grammies were political. Motown was an independent company, and some record companies used to agree among themselves who would win what, or that they would win equal awards, before the night and vote accordingly. The heads of the record companies would ring each other up and tell them how they were filling in the ballot papers. 'This is the line-up we are voting for.' And sometimes the companies never even got to vote, because one person would just fill in the ballot paper and send it back. And Motown, as an independent, was on the outside looking in.

"Do you know, we were the first Motown act to collect a Grammy? That gives us a sense of great pride, and to have won three Grammies in these circumstances was remarkable. And not only that, but until Stevie (Wonder) started winning, we were the only Motown act to win a Grammy for a long time. Because we were independent, with independent distributors, we had no power base to work with. I really hope we win this year. Not for me, because I've won before and know what it's like. I would like us to win for these other guys in the group, so that they can have their night of glory."  

(continued)

[Ivory Fair]

Talking' of nights of glory, I wondered whether the group had taken in the reformed Supremes dates that took place in America last year.

"No, but it seemed to me to be something of a kamikaze operation from day one. You know, for the Supremes to have really got back together needed both Mary (Wilson) and Cindy (Birdsong) to have been involved. If it really was a Supremes reunion, then it needed the Supremes to have a reunion! When the Temptations had a reunion in the 1980s, we got Eddie Kendrick's and David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards back in the group because it wouldn't have been a reunion without them. But the Supremes show 4hould have been the Diana Ross show, or something similar, because the customer would feel ripped off that it wasn't the Supremes, and then the media join in, thinking that this is a good story because we now have a victim in the shape of Mary Wilson. Then Diana Ross has to come and defend her position and it just swallows you up."

While the Temptations have not been without their changes in line-up over the years, tragedy has caught up with the group from time to time. Paul Williams, who left in 1971, committed suicide two years later while suffering from depression. David Ruffin died from a drugs overdose in June 1991 (and was said to be in such dire financial straits that Michael Jackson had to pay for his funeral). The following year Eddie Kendrick's succumbed to cancer and, almost exactly six years ago, Melvin Franklin died from emphysema. The loss of any one of these fine singers would be difficult to overcome for any group, but of course the Temptations has always been bigger than any one singer, as David Ruffin found to his cost back in the 1960s. The current line-up is as strong and talented as any that have graced the group in the past, and the relative newcomers (bearing in mind that they have been together for some five years) are not overawed by the reputation, as Ron Tyson points out.

"It probably sounds like a clich6, but it is both an honor and a dream come true to find yourself a member of the Temptations. I grew up listening to songs like 'My Girl', and I think I can speak for the rest of the other guys when I say that some of our earliest singing assignments involved performing repertoire associated with the Temptations. Otis and I go back a while too. I think I first worked with him back in 1975; 1 was on the periphery, and now I feel like an old hand." One thing has to be said," interjects Barrington. "It's often said, usually in interviews, that we are a band. We're not. To be in a band implies to me that we have some members who play instruments. And we don't. What we do is sing, so that makes us a group. And I think it's important you appreciate this. the Temptations have been singing for more than 40 years. It's what we do best and we have no intention of changing what we do." As Otis reminds us, one unexpected change came when they turned their back on their long-time label for a brief mid-1970s spell. "Well, we'd been at Motown for sixteen or seventeen years and the company had changed. Berry had moved the operation out to Los Angeles, there were new people coming in and there were one or two albums we thought should have been bigger and should  have been priorities within the company (So) it just felt right in 1976 to talk to Atlantic. You know, we'd been impressed with the label, it had a good lot of soul artists and had done well with them, but maybe their peak era was the same as Motown's, because although we did two albums we didn't feel like we made any real progress. I mean, we were happy with the albums we did for them. We felt they were good albums, but maybe it wasn't the right move for us at the time. So we spoke to the people at Motown in 1980 - to Berry, because he was back in charge - and agreed to come back. And we're still here."

Having 'been here' for more than 40 years, how long does Otis plan being out on the road?

"I haven't really put any limits on it. I'm still having fun, you know. We have this saying about how long you can ride a horse. Let me tell you, when I get off the horse, it's going to be bald! You know what I'm saying? Because this is not like a job, you know, it's doing something that I enjoy and it seems to give a lot of other people pleasure as well. And as long as I'm enjoying it and can do the bits that' are expected of me, then that's how long I intend to keep going."

With the next interviewer hovering in the background, that seemed as good a time as any to wrap up our conversation. Otis might have been doing the bits expected for more than 40 years, but he and the rest of the guys in the group still makes it look so effortless. The ultimate professionals. The true Emperors of soul
                                                               

reproduced thanks to record buyer and Soul Source.