Post by tempfan on Jan 20, 2006 15:54:27 GMT -5
TEMPTATIONS STILL ON CLOUD NINE
Otis Williams says magic remains in the music
By John Wooley
Tulsa World Scene
For those of you keeping score, it’s been 41 years since the Temptations had their first No. 1 pop hit, “My Girl,” which remains not only an evergreen on oldies radio, but a part of the group’s shows as well. The Temptations are not only still touring – a recent appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” had both the host and musical director Paul Schaeffer raving but they’ve also got a new disc coming out at the end of this month.
Why are they still a high-profile group, decades after their major hit making period? It’s because they continue to walk that tight rope between the present and the past, between being an oldies act and a contemporary act, and to do it better than most others of similar vintage. But how have they been able to do it so well? Do the Temptations have some sort of show-biz secret? Not according to founding member Otis Williams, the last of the original Temptations still on board. “Well, there’s not really any secret,” he said in a recent telephone conversation. “We just work at it, and we try not to pigeon hole ourselves, to not stay in the one idiom that we did in the ’60s. “We know that the only thing that stays the same is change, so we try to stay up to date. But we don’t try to be something we’re not, and that’s part of it, too. Like, even with hip-hop and rap being as popular as they are, we don’t come out with our pants halfway down our behinds and our caps on backwards.”
Another thing that’s helped the band hang in there, he added, is their attention to their live shows. “We were taught to be in show business as our vocation, rather than our avocation,” he explained. “Hit records are nice and we always look for those, but we’re noted for being professionals and trying to give our fans and audiences their money’s worth. ”Those hit records, however, don’t hurt. While the Temptations have made the national charts as recently as 2004 with their “Legacy” CD their major hit making years with the legendary Motown Records act can be divided into two parts: the smooth, romantic mid-’60s period of “My Girl,” “I Wish It Would Rain” and “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep”and then, from ’68 to ’70, their “psychedelic soul” phase that produced the likes of “Cloud Nine,” “Psychedelic Shack”and “Ball of Confusion.”
Record producer Norman Whitfield has been credited with moving the group in a more rock oriented, psychedelic direction, but Williams said there was more to it than that. “Part of it was the social changes of the time, but I have to also give credit to Sly & the Family Stone,” he said. “The Temptations were in New York, and I was up in my hotel room talking about the record business with Kenny Gamble of (famed soul-music producers) Gamble & Huff. Then, on the radio came Sly & the Family Stone’s ‘Dance to the Music,’ and it really caught me. I really liked the way they broke it down, with that dum-dum, dum-da-dum-dum.”Back in Detroit, he asked producer Whitfield whether he’d heard “Dance to the Music.” He had, and in their next session he and the group went into the studio and laid down the Temptations’ first psychedelic soul number, “Cloud Nine.”
“We were going through an interesting time then,” he recalled. “Exit (singer) David Ruffin, enter Dennis Edwards. It was a good time to try something else. And ‘Cloud Nine’ won our first Grammy. We were the first Motown act to win one.”The Temptations have won three since, including one for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance in 2000, honoring their album “Ear-Resistable.” Later this month, a new disc, “Reflections,” featuring Temptations versions of Motown hits by other artists, hits the streets. Williams called the disc “an interesting challenge.” “We don’t take any of this for granted,” he noted. “We know that with the millions and millions of inhabitants of this Earth, not many people can do something they love to do. “With a lot of people it’s like, ‘Damn! I’ve gotta go back to my job.’ I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with anyone else’s job, but all we have to do is an hour and a half on stage, and we’re through.”
Otis Williams says magic remains in the music
By John Wooley
Tulsa World Scene
For those of you keeping score, it’s been 41 years since the Temptations had their first No. 1 pop hit, “My Girl,” which remains not only an evergreen on oldies radio, but a part of the group’s shows as well. The Temptations are not only still touring – a recent appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” had both the host and musical director Paul Schaeffer raving but they’ve also got a new disc coming out at the end of this month.
Why are they still a high-profile group, decades after their major hit making period? It’s because they continue to walk that tight rope between the present and the past, between being an oldies act and a contemporary act, and to do it better than most others of similar vintage. But how have they been able to do it so well? Do the Temptations have some sort of show-biz secret? Not according to founding member Otis Williams, the last of the original Temptations still on board. “Well, there’s not really any secret,” he said in a recent telephone conversation. “We just work at it, and we try not to pigeon hole ourselves, to not stay in the one idiom that we did in the ’60s. “We know that the only thing that stays the same is change, so we try to stay up to date. But we don’t try to be something we’re not, and that’s part of it, too. Like, even with hip-hop and rap being as popular as they are, we don’t come out with our pants halfway down our behinds and our caps on backwards.”
Another thing that’s helped the band hang in there, he added, is their attention to their live shows. “We were taught to be in show business as our vocation, rather than our avocation,” he explained. “Hit records are nice and we always look for those, but we’re noted for being professionals and trying to give our fans and audiences their money’s worth. ”Those hit records, however, don’t hurt. While the Temptations have made the national charts as recently as 2004 with their “Legacy” CD their major hit making years with the legendary Motown Records act can be divided into two parts: the smooth, romantic mid-’60s period of “My Girl,” “I Wish It Would Rain” and “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep”and then, from ’68 to ’70, their “psychedelic soul” phase that produced the likes of “Cloud Nine,” “Psychedelic Shack”and “Ball of Confusion.”
Record producer Norman Whitfield has been credited with moving the group in a more rock oriented, psychedelic direction, but Williams said there was more to it than that. “Part of it was the social changes of the time, but I have to also give credit to Sly & the Family Stone,” he said. “The Temptations were in New York, and I was up in my hotel room talking about the record business with Kenny Gamble of (famed soul-music producers) Gamble & Huff. Then, on the radio came Sly & the Family Stone’s ‘Dance to the Music,’ and it really caught me. I really liked the way they broke it down, with that dum-dum, dum-da-dum-dum.”Back in Detroit, he asked producer Whitfield whether he’d heard “Dance to the Music.” He had, and in their next session he and the group went into the studio and laid down the Temptations’ first psychedelic soul number, “Cloud Nine.”
“We were going through an interesting time then,” he recalled. “Exit (singer) David Ruffin, enter Dennis Edwards. It was a good time to try something else. And ‘Cloud Nine’ won our first Grammy. We were the first Motown act to win one.”The Temptations have won three since, including one for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance in 2000, honoring their album “Ear-Resistable.” Later this month, a new disc, “Reflections,” featuring Temptations versions of Motown hits by other artists, hits the streets. Williams called the disc “an interesting challenge.” “We don’t take any of this for granted,” he noted. “We know that with the millions and millions of inhabitants of this Earth, not many people can do something they love to do. “With a lot of people it’s like, ‘Damn! I’ve gotta go back to my job.’ I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with anyone else’s job, but all we have to do is an hour and a half on stage, and we’re through.”