Motown Superstars Interviews (vol. 2)

[Ivory Fair]

Motown Superstars Interviews (vol. 2)

Tempts Talk!

(under construction)

by Terry Barnes

Question: Hello Temptations ….. so we can follow your voices, why don’t you introduce yourselves.

ALI: Hello, I am Ali.

OTIS: Hello, I’m Oteese.

RON: Hello, I’m Ron.

RICHARD: Hello, I’m Richard.

MELVIN: Hello, I’m Melvin.

ALI: Naturally! [laughs]

QUESTION: Melvin, I once read that you said Otis is the head of the Temptations, I’m the heart and Paul Williams was the soul. Can you talk about those three roles in the group?

MELVIN: Yeah, I think that’s very concise coming down to when we first started out. Otis has always had a head for business and the tolerance to deal with business type people you know like entertainers don’t always do that very well and he’s been like that since Ms. Rodgers’ days.

RICHARD: Ooh, long time, long time!

MELVIN: That’s back in the late fifties and early sixties.

RON: I wasn’t even born!

MELVIN: Yeah, right. [Everyone laughs] and Paul was the soul of the Temptations, our feeling, the very mood that we would set the tender to which we marched to, I think Paul was very deep into that. I’ve always been an emotional person myself and I kind of lead with my heart instead of my head a lot so I think it was pretty accurate. Over the years we’ve changed we’ve tried to keep Paul ever here in our memory however we strive to keep our act going. And Otis is still heading it up. He’s still making those good business calls and still keeping those business relationships going.

Question: Otis, you make all the business decisions. Do you make the money decisions to?

OTIS: We'll we are primarily set up like a democracy. I guess I am at the head, but a lot of times I feel like you should get feedback from the guys that you work with.

MELVIN: That's kind of wise, which again, is why he's there. If you don't get the feedback before you make the decision, you'll definitely get it after!

OTIS: That's right! [everyone laughs]

QUESTION: You've been the Temptations for 25 years. You've now got a 25th anniversary special album. Has it been cooperation or competition that was the spark to keep the group going?

RICHARD: No, competition is always there. You must have competition, friendly competition there's nothing wrong with that at all, as long as you don't be jealous about it. It's just like sports or anything else, a team effort, you get the best out of the team but on a friendly basis to get the best of what you have to offer. This is Richard Street speaking by the way, hello out there in the world.

(continued)

[Ivory Fair]

QUESTION: Let's talk about how the Temptations sound was born. Otis, who were the groups and voices that inspired you the most?

OTIS: Well see when I was growing up .......

RICHARD: 19- what?

[everyone laughs]

ALI: I got the book I'll show you.

OTIS: My auntie used to have a victrola with the 78s.....

RICHARD: A who?

OTIS: [laughs] Yeah, a long time ago.

RON: [says something inaudible]

OTIS: Not that long ago! But I used to lay on the floor and listen at spiritual groups, Hank Ballad and the Midnighters, the Five Royals and the Teenagers and a lot of those groups and just fantasize. So Detroit started having rock and roll shows at the Fox Theater and the Cadillacs and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and the Royal Jokers, a lot of the big groups at that time, Laverne Baker and Chuck Berry, they were all there. And I was very impressed by the way they aroused the audience. Now the Fox Theater seating capacity is about 5,000 or better. And to look around to see an ocean of people hollering and carrying on, I said, hey, that's what I want to do.

MELVIN: In conjunction with Otis, he called me up two Saturdays ago just to come over and listen at some of the old records, the Moonglows, just to reminisce back.

QUESTION: Richard? [asking Richard what is musical influences were]

RICHARD: The Platters, the Drifters, I liked, like Otis said, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers all those groups. We used to stand on the corner and sing their songs all night long. And it's funny the police would chase us off the corner and as soon as they would leave we would go right back under the street light and sing some more.

ALI: My coming up, my favorite groups was the Temptations.

RICHARD: Hey!

ALI: David Ruffin and Eddie and Jackie Wilson, I dug Jackie, and Sam Cook, he was one of my favorites.

RICHARD: Um, yes Sam.

ALI: I can't go as far as Harvey and the Moonglows

RICHARD: Well you can if you try hard enough.

RON: I guess I would have to say, like Ali, also the Temptations were my favorite group, along with Stevie, the Drifters. I liked the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Dixie Hummingbirds. The Temptations and a lot of Gospel groups were my influences. I used to sing Gospel with my grandfather's group.

RICHARD: Oh, would you give us a sample?

RON: [starts singing and everyone else joins in on harmony] "Lord I'm working for my Jesus, well you know I'm working for my Lord. THis old life, soon will be over, goin' home to my Lord." Thank you very much.

QUESTION: It was either you or Otis, I don't know which, who once said, "There's the record business and then there's Motown." What did you mean by that?

MELVIN: I know I have said that before. We found out real good, because in our history, we did go to Atlantic Records for a brief minute and we were out there in the rain, out there where people have the record business and it's just business and there's no room for the humanity and the love and the relationships that we have built up here at Motown. It's kind of like a shelter. I am sure now in these '80s, there's much more record business like that here at Motown, that's true, but in the beginning it was definately Motown and then the rest of the world.

RICHARD: I would just like to add to that, Berry Gordy, we love Berry Gordy, he's the reason why we're here now. He's been the reason behind us ..... since we left and since we came back, he asked us to come back and he wanted us to be here. We'd just like to say that we love him and he's responsible for us being here right now.

(continued)

[Ivory Fair]

QUESTION: What is it like working with Berry Gordy?

RICHARD: Very hard at first because, you know, he is the chairman of the board and you don't know sometimes, when he laughs you try to laugh with him and when he cuts back, like if he cuts off his smile, you cut off your smile. It's one of those things, can I laugh now? Is it alright to say this? Personally I had a personal relationship with him back in the early days way back, and I got to find out what kind of human being he really way. Berry is very comical to me, he is very funny, man, Berry will make you laugh real hard, he is a very funny man and he is a very nice person to be around with, you can cap and joke and go on and he's right there with you all the way.

QUESTION: I understand he plays piano well.

RICHARD: Not that well, we call him "the mad chairman."

[everyone laughs]

ALI: That's what I like about Berry, there are a lot of record presidents and executives that's got a wooden ear, they go by what other people say. But Berry, he's in there. He's in the studio, he's on the board, he's in the productions. He knows all ends of the record business, all ends of the creative part and everything and that's how he won my respect.

RON: Yes, I have been on a few record labels and I appreciate after coming to Motown and seeing other groups, I think Motown pays more attention to their acts per se as growing and recording, the whole gamut of the music business where most companies just take notice of you in your art, singing if you sing that's all they are worried about they leave you on your own to go out and find your management and other little things as opposed to Motown they take you from A to Z.

MELVIN: I think a sincere dedicated performer, should want to learn, should want to learn the ins and outs. It's a professional thing that you do learn. It's sorta like the guys coming in to our group, we've still got a format going of bringing in the Cholly Atkins, and the Maurice Kings and Lon Fontaine and the best arrangers.

QUESTION: You see a lot of new groups around today who don't seem to have that training, that discipline that you've developed through the years.

RICHARD: We're from the old school and I've found out that these new acts don't have the same kind of concept that we had and dedication to rehearsal that we had and to being there on time and the sacrifices that you must make to become as good as you can possibly become and I guess that they, some of them feel that they know someone is always over them and I find this attitude to be in a lot of the younger acts than what we are not to say that they portray this all the time, but you can talk to them for a few minutes and they have no idea what it is to be locked up for two or three weeks in a row and just rehearsing your buns off until you come out of there with some kind of hit record or an act. They have no idea what it will take to get to that point

QUESTION: We think of the Temptations as primarily a performing group, not necessarily a writing or composing group like most groups today. Is that true?

OTIS: I'll go back ever before we came to Motown, Melvin and Richard and myself were writing for this company called Northern Records, Jonnie Mae Mathews. Our first regional hit was written by the group [and was] called " Come On." So when we were disenchanted with Northern Records and Mr. Gordy asked us to come over because he was starting Motown our very first record, first two records, were written by members of the Tempts. So it's been a thing of us writing from day one, it's not a novelty kind of thing. The only thing that happened to us was that I guess the My Girls and The Way You Do the Things You Do started happening and we found a good chemistry with Smokey, that's the way that the songs were falling. Then the political thing really came to be because shortly after that we went to Norman. But we've always played a very important role in the Tempts recording things. See, a lot of people don't know, they'll look at a credit and see "Norman Whitfield produce and writer" or Smokey. But a lot of times they don't know the real stimuli behind that like on the, well especially on a lot of the Norman Whitfield tunes, the group was very instrumental in saying "Hey, let's try this," 'cause we were out there on the road, Norman was writing in Detroit. So we would be hearing all kinds of music that he wouldn't probably hear until two and three weeks later, maybe two or three months down the line. So we've always been influential in what we record and certain directions that we want to go.