Post by tempfan on Apr 7, 2006 17:49:57 GMT -5
TEMPTATIONS PLAY OUR SOUNDTRACK
By K.O. Jackson
The Journal Gazette
After performing for more than 45 years and releasing 47 albums, it would be easy for anyone to name a favorite song from the R&B singing group The Temptations.
After all, “Motown is the soundtrack of our lives,” says Otis Williams, founder and the last original member of the Detroit five-man group, during a phone interview.
“Think about when we came along (1961) and all the changes in the world since then. You had the civil rights movement. Assassinations. Riots. Women’s Lib. The Beatles. It was a special era. It was a crazy, wonderful time and our music broke down barriers. White (radio) stations played our songs; our music was part of that force. It’s amazing.”
Fans can see how amazing The Temptations – The Temptation Walk and smooth, almost flawless dance moves – are at 8 p.m. Saturday when they perform with The Marvelettes at the Embassy Theatre.
The show not only features classic Temptations songs but also new work from the group’s latest album, “Reflections.”
Think of the new album, Williams says, as what is old is new again.
Williams said “Reflections” highlights 15 of Motown’s greatest songs that were sung by other artists such as The Supremes, Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers.
“These are songs we have always wanted to do, and now, happily we have had a chance to do them,” says Williams, whose group has been acknowledged as influencing a vast variety of singers as diverse as The Jackson 5, Hall and Oates and The Rascals
“We have played in Fort Wayne a lot of times. I can’t recall the last time we were there, but I know we have been there a lot. We are looking forward to it. We are bringing our music. Our songs are like a soothing, ointment rubbed on a troubled soul,” he says.
With a musical landscape littered with one-hit wonders, overnight sensations and a TV show that creates idols out of suspect singers, The Temptations have endured even with all the changes. Williams says there is a reason why his group is still popular.
“Great singing will always prevail. When we started, music was a vocation, not an avocation,” Williams says. “Berry Gordy (Motown’s founder) made us go to artist-development classes every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. We studied and worked hard at our craft. We worked at it. That’s why we are still around in show business today. It was about longevity. We worked at what we became.”
As for being recognized as the first black “boy band,” Williams says through all the group’s changes the reason it has always been a five-man group is “simple. I like five instead of four. If someone goes down, you can still go out and perform with four. That’s to your advantage. If you start with four and go down to three, that affects the sound and the quality of your performance.
“Besides,” he added, “with five, the money (splitting) situation is a lot better.”
In addition to being a soundtrack to fans’ lives, the award-winning TV movie about the groundbreaking group – it is shown frequently on VH1 – allowed fans to view the disharmony the harmonic group tolerated with David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, and the departure of other singers from the quintet.
The group’s current lineup consists of Williams, G.C. Cameron, Joe Herndon, Ron Tyson and Terry Weeks. Singing with the group since 1983, Tyson has the group’s second-longest tenure.
“The more we change,” Tyson says, “the more we stay true to ourselves. We’re about singing straight-up soul. It’s a style that will live on forever.”
And through it all, good and bad times, success and failure, Williams says he always looked to God for strength and direction.
He’s still doing it 45 years later.
“I thank God. He left me here for a reason. When we started, I never imagined we would have 40 gold and platinum records. Never thought about a Grammy award or a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Williams says.
“All of this, good and bad, has been a blessing. It has really been mind blowing. There’s nothing else you can do but to thank God. Forty-five years later, we are still packing the house in Las Vegas. We are still making records. We are still performing songs for people in a troubled time.”