Get Ready: Temptations as soul survivors

[Jonel]

Get Ready: Temptations as soul survivors

Friday, October 4, 2002

By RICK de YAMPERT ([e-mail])
Entertainment Writer, The Daytona Beach News-Journal

Singer Otis Williams prefers his fans use just their imaginations.

"I think music should leave something to the imagination rather than be so descriptive and vulgar," says Williams, the sole surviving original member of the Temptations.

Speaking by phone from his Los Angeles home, Williams seems charmingly unaware that he's alluded to one of his group's biggest hits, 1971's "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)."

As the Tempts prepare for a concert Thursday at Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, Williams sounds like the pop music elder statesman that he is. At 60 years old and with 41 years in the Temptations, Williams speaks with a Buddhalike calm and sagelike reflections. So, when he says he is "not impressed" with a lot of today's music, the baritone singer quietly commands attention.

"How can anyone be impressed when you hear them cussing on records, talking about beating somebody, or I'll kill you if you don't do that,' or MF' that?" Williams says. "If you talk to the kids about it, they say, Well, that's the way we were raised up and that's what's happening in our neighborhood.'

"Well, they're not talking about something that's just started. People have been coming from the poorer side of town way before these artists who came along today. That doesn't mean you have to be vulgar."

Williams doesn't just spout such sentiments in interviews. The Tempts' latest album, 2001's "Awesome," includes a talking interlude in the title track, in which the quintet banter back and forth: "Check out some of this stuff they're showing on TV just for shock value. Where are we headed in the world? It's a shame some of the stuff you see on TV and hear on the radio and at the movies. We are living in some rough times."

[Jonel]

But rough times aren't new to Williams. That became apparent in "Temptations," the 1998 miniseries that faithfully detailed the group's tumultuous history: their formation in Detroit in 1961; their breakout on the Motown label with the 1965 hit "My Girl"; the internal turmoil generated by volatile lead singer David Ruffin, and his eventual firing by the other members; the departure and eventual suicide of member Paul Williams (no relation to Otis); the departure of lead singer Eddie Kendricks.

But in the midst of such turmoil, the Tempts crafted those glorious R&B and pop hits that would land them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989: "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "(I Know) I'm Losing You," "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," "I Can't Get Next to You," "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)," "Psychedelic Shack," "Treat Her Like a Lady."

"The way a good song is measured is when it's around 30, 40, 50 and 60 years, or even if you're dead and gone, people still appreciate it," says Williams, who again seems refreshingly, blissfully unaware that he's describing the legacy of his own group.

But Williams is quite aware that, instead of today's incarnation of the Tempts, some fans wistfully prefer the golden-age lineups from the 1960s and early '70s, when Ruffin and Kendricks were singing such hits as "My Girl" and "Just My Imagination."

"And that's a fan's prerogative, if he or she feels that way," Williams says. "The thing I tell everybody, the one thing that's constant in life is change. Unfortunately we had to change. We deal with people first."

The last unfortunate change occurred in 1996, when original bass vocalist Melvin Franklin died at age 52 from a heart attack.

The current lineup includes lead singers Ron Tyson (a member since 1983), Terry Weeks and Barrington Henderson, and bass singer Harry McGilberry Jr.

Newcomers to the group, Williams says, "are tuned into the history of the Temptations, so they know when they come in they have some shoes to fill, or try to fill. So pretty much they know what they have to do."

As for Williams, retirement is an alien concept.

"Life is ever learning and a constant change of people, places and situations," he says. "I'm just very thankful I've been able to carry on. It's been somewhat tumultuous, but when I stop and think about it, I wouldn't trade it for nothing in the world. I'm very blessed to be doing what I love to do and still bring enjoyment to our many fans.

"I'm going to ride the hair off this horse," he says with a chuckle. "When I get through riding this horse it's going to be bald."

Temptations in concert

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

WHERE: Peabody Auditorium, 600 Auditorium Blvd., Daytona Beach.

TICKETS: $38, $35, $30 and $27 plus service charge, available at the adjacent Ocean Center box office and Ticketmaster.

INFORMATION: [phone].

www.newsjournalonline.com/2002/Oct/4/MUS3.htm

[Ivory Fair]

"How can anyone be impressed when you hear them cussing on records, talking about beating somebody, or I'll kill you if you don't do that,' or MF' that?"

I think it's no big secret that I think Otis is pretty keen, but every now and then he'll say something like that and he sounds like my Dad ............... and then I'm reminded that he very well could be.

[sukkafu]

why-are you sad because he's right? when did vulgarity or profanity ever uplift this world? when does it ever make us be better people? it only shows our lack of verbal education.

it is funny to hear otis say that- i am disappointed in his book that he uses those very same words ,too. he also describes the infidelities more graphically than need be.
but then the book wouldn't sell?

[MikeNYC]

In that aspect he is right. I can't believe it! Ride the hair off the horse,is that why Ruffin was going bald ?

[Aba21]

that's right Ivory and don't you forget it.....Now go to your room.......nevermind you're probably all ready there.

[sukkafu]

and read james in the new testament about the tongue and the fire.

[AKA THE FUF]

Thanks Jonel , very good news report. Go 'head Otis.

[Jonel]

Have y'all noticed that Otis has been very verbal lately? I like these interviews that he does from his home or wherever. I've heard him use that expression "ride the hair off this horse" before. Otis and his Otisisms!

[Ivory Fair]

I remember another one of my favorites, "butt print juice."

[MikeNYC]

"TALL TEXAS TALES!"

[sukkafu]

sort of like pecos bill, paul bunyan and john henry huh mike!

[Ivory Fair]

No Sukka, it was "Pecos Kid" not Pecos Bill, remember?

Pecos Kid,
(bang)
Pecos Kid,
(bang)
Yeah! Pecos Kid!
(bang, bang)

Which as well all know was a take off of...

To save my soul
I can't get a date
My baby's got it tuned on to channel 8.
The Wyatt Erp and the Big Cheyenne
Are commin' through the TV shootin' up the land!

My baby love the western movies,
My baby love the western movies,
Bam! Bam! Shoot 'em up high!

[sukkafu]

ivory ,do you remember that look that ''berry '' gave o and blue when they sang pecos kid in the bathroom?
and also that similar look that ''jimmy and david'' ruffin gave to the tempts when they said they were the elgins?

THAT'S THE LOOK I'M GIVING YOU NOW!!! ;D

[Ivory Fair]

well, same to you but more of it....