Written by Leonard Pitts Jr,
The Temptations are embattled these days,from all sides. It Comes from the charts,where the group hasn't had a hit album or single in two years.It comes at from their fans who don't flock to their concerts with the same enthusiasm that they once did. Also,it comes fromwithin the group,as witnessed by the 1975 firing of young Damon Harris,who in turn complained that his childhood dream of being a Tempt had slowly become "a nightmare".
While Harris' unflattering description of life as a Tempt caused more than a few eyebrows to raise,it was the most recent group dropout who caused the most furor. Recently Dennis Edwards sat down with SOUL and in a story called "Dennis Edwards and the Sinking Of The Good Ship Temptations",talked about his ten years with the group. In the article,he complained about his former groupmates as "old guys that's set in their ways. When you can't se that you're slipping",he said,"that's bad." Edwards' article was enough to draw four of the five Tempts into their manager's Sunset Blvd. office to tell their side of the story,and interestingly enough,the thing that they seem most upset about is the title.
Veteran Temptation Otis Williams leads off,saying that the title "wasn't cool". Don't nobody sink this but the public. I think that the title was alittle too strong,because I don't think you,nor Dennis hold the fate of the Temptations. The public does that,and when we getovations like what we got at the Forum for singing the National Anthem,I don't see where that title is apporpriate.
"When I read this(title),I said "It's got to be with selling papers.'But,I still think you can sell papers and tell the truth".
That "truth"then,as the Temptations see it,involves their story,a story of poor promotion and poor producers at their home of almost twenty years,Motown records. This is what they blame for the recent dramatic decline in their record sales. And on top of the story,the temptations also have a task. The group's legend is tarnished these days,stsined by the accusations of two former members,those declining record sales,and their fast-sinkingpopularity. In short,they have a legend to set aright,and they seen single-minded in that task.
Glen Leonard says,"I wish Dennis all the success in the world. I wish him happiness. I wish him what he really wants in life. But,we're not here to get into what Dennis says. That's his opinion,and he's entitled to that. What I would like to say is that we are doing positive things. We are functioning. We are about unity. We are about taking care of business and making music."
Richard Street is a bit more emphatic. "We couldn't communicate with the company,the company wasn't communicating with us. Now that we are no longer a part of Motown,I feel like the Temptations will be very successful,because now we're happy. If the company would have been behind the Temptations,I don't think the group broke up the way it did-not saying that everybody would still be here,because every man wants to do their own thing."
"It takes more than a group", sayy Williams. "Things behind us stopped happening and it slowly started affecting us-which we realized quite some time ago. In part,this is why I can't understand where he(Dennis) is coming from,butthen again,knowing Dennis you don't get mad-you understand the makeup of the man. But it wasn't necessarily like a lot of things he was saying."
What was it like then? Williams complains that Motown records is"not adequate in the area of producers."He says that after the the group's records under producer Norman Whitfield ceased to sell,there was seemingly no interestin finding them a new producer capable of working with the group. He mentions that although things clicked once with producer Jeff Bowen's Song For You LP,it still wasn't something worthy of "a group of this caliber".
Franklin adds that Motown often"mistakes luck for genius",in their producers,and Williams went on to claim that the group has never had the consummate producer like Thom Bell or Gamble & Huff who study each voice in the group and tailor the songs around the entire group. He cites Smokey Robinson as the group's only producer to do that-way back in the early and mid 60's. More recent producers have chosen the "easiest" way-letting Dennis Edwards do leads on virtually all the group's material.
"Everybody in here can sing", says Street. "The reason why you ain't heard from everybody in here is because of the way the material was given to us to sing. We wasn't makin' up those LP's ! THEY decided what was gonna put out on that way!" He goes on to describe producer Jeff Bowen as"a crazy man(who always) degrading you as ahuman being".
Leonard explains,"When you go into the studio with a producer who doesn't know what he wants,who doesn't have lyrics to his songs,or doesn't have definite melodies,and he gets in there and he's scrambling your brain,and spending your money,and you've got bills to pay,and families to feed-that's enough to make a man have a nervous breakdown,and that's what they were doing. One night we left and melivn and I had to take otis to the hospital. The doctors told him he couldn't stand the mental strain up there."
Melvin adds,"I told all the guys and I told otis too,'When we go into this,I did not mean for singing to have to cause this to happen to my friends'."
"A lot of things just started deteriorating", says Williams matter -of-factly,"and we had to leave. A lot of bad blood came about".
The company was deciding what was being cut and who was going to do it.....everything!" says Richard Street. "They had their politics,just like anybody else. They had their favorites,and they has ones that they didn't like. I came under the heading of the ones they didn't like! I mean,seriously!"
Williams interjects,"Smokey Robinson-got to give it to him,'cause he's the only one over there that helped us get out of this. They were getting ready to get nasty,and we were getting ready to get nasty. Smokey is definitely in my opinion,one of GOD'S favorite children. He didn't want us to leave,but he didn't want no ugly situation". Any "ugly situation"would have stemmed from the fact that the company's ownership[ of the group's name,plus their individual contract on each man made it difficult for the group to get out intact.
. This article opens up so much. Your right Aba, now there is so much here to talk about. Considering all that is in this article, I'm shocked this thread isn't longer. O didn't go into this kind of explanation in his book. But they were not under Motown at the time, and probably felt a lot of freedom to say what was said. Upon returning, the loyalties to the powers that be are very evident. Mike I see the points you've been driving at. I look forward to this thread finding a new life.
