As I like to say, "The story goes on..." Here's the latest from the world of The Temptations:
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THANK YOU VANCOUVER Vancouver's historic musical venue 'The Cave' hosted The Temptations throughout the sixties. Fans lined up around the entire building waiting to get into the tiny Cave. Mowtown would often send us there to test out new material, workout the kinks, break in a new act. What I remember the most about the Cave was the appreciative audiences. The Cave may be a distant memory but Vancouver's great audiences are still going and growing - thank you Vancouver fans. On August 5 we performed at the Royal Theatre and once again Vancouver welcomed us with open arms. A highlight from the trip was speaking with John Threlfall a music historian and Arts Editor for Monday Magazine, an alternative weekly newspaper based in Victoria, B.C. Thanks John for a thoughtful article that captures the enduring spirit of the Temptations. Get ready for the Temptations - A Tempting Fate Their name is synonymous with Motown and their legacy is a laundry list of hits: 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone', 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg', 'The Way You Do The Thing You Do', 'Get Ready.' But as with any long-running group (the Stones, the Ink Spots), the Temptations will mean different things to you, depending on your age. For some, they're responsible for that annoying 'My Girl' ringtone on your friend's cell phone; for others, they're best known as that group on The Big Chill soundtrack. For anyone who came of age during the '60s, however, the Temptations had all the right music (and moves) to help change America. Forty-five years and nearly 40 top-40 hits later, Temptations co-founder Otis Williams is still on the road with the Detroit legend he helped create, boasting one of the longest track-records of any continuously performing artist. But at 66 and well into his fifth performance decade, doesn't he get tired of spending between 35 and 40 weeks a year on the road' 'Yeah, we stay busier than a blind dog in a meat market,' Williams chuckles, his voice deep and accent smooth. 'But it's been a labour of love, even if it has been up and down'but you're gonna have up and down periods every day of your life, even if you're not a Temptation.' It's an appropriate name, given the group's often checkered history of departing members, internal acrimony and lifestyle abuses. (One notorious example is former lead singer Dave Ruffin'the iconic voice on 'My Girl''who, after being fired from the band in the late '60s, started showing up at Temptations shows in the audience, only to jump on stage, start singing and steal the spotlight on the hits he helped define.) The road to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is indeed filled with all manner of temptations, which is why Williams (inducted 1989) is so particular about who carries the name today. 'Talent is secondary,' says Williams of the more than 20 singers who have shared the quintet's mantle over the years (with the most recent line-up change happening only six weeks ago). 'I'm more interested in their real essence: Do they have morals and values - Can they work within the confines of a group; be on time, not get in trouble, get drunk or start fighting'' While he's speaking in general terms, Williams could well be (and likely is) running through a checklist of past temptations - both literal and figurative. 'I mean, you can have all the talent in the world, but if you're an asshole, you'll just negate that,' he continues. 'No one man is greater than the sum total-and the sum total is that 11-letter word: Temptations. You get some guys who start thinking they're better and greater than the name, but that's just not true.' I mention the idea that the Temptations provided the soundtrack for an era. 'That's true,' Williams agrees. 'Before the '60s, black music wasn't getting the validity it should have had, but here comes Motown'and the Beatles, who always mentioned James Brown, Otis Redding and other black acts as their influence - and suddenly white America starts to focus on black music and make it more acceptable. For me, Motown and the Beatles were shoulder-to-shoulder in bringing fantastic music that changed the world . . . and, I'd like to think, changed it for the better. It was such a troubled time; our music was like an ointment that helped soothe the soul.' When it comes to performing those classic hits, what goes through his head decades later' 'I'll tell you about 'Papa was a Rolling Stone',' he says. 'We didn't want to do it'we were getting tired of doing the psychedelic soul thing'but there was our late great choreographer Cholly Atkins teaching us the moves. And what was on TV was the Munich Olympics, where the Jewish athletes were killed. We could hardly do our choreography for wanting to get back to watching that.' But even though much of their legacy is behind them, the Temptations still do more than just tour. Williams says they're appearing in a move this fall (Walk Hard), there's talk of a biographical Broadway musical and they've got a new CD coming out this fall: Back To Front, an album of cover tunes. 'When you do a popular song that's already taken on some iconic value of its own, you better be able to throw down or leave it alone,' he says, noting tracks like 'Hold On, I'm Coming' by Sam and Dave, and 'Wake Up Everybody' by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. 'If you're going to mess with songs like that, you've got to do it just as good or better - if you don't, you'll hear about it in record sales and bad reviews. But I listen to what we did on Back To Front, and I know we can hold our heads up and still be proud of what we did.' Singing classic Motown melodies, covering other artists . . . what's Williams think of today's music? 'Not too much,' he deadpans. 'By and large, a great majority of it just sucks. Half of them can't even sing, there's no melody, no harmony, no lyrical content . . . they don't leave a damn thing to your imagination. A lot of them don't have the talent or the willpower to sit down and work at it.' Williams mentions a few current artists who stand as exceptions - John Legend, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé - but the names are few. 'Thank god we still have some stalwarts like Prince and Stevie [Wonder], still doing their thing, still being great artists who can come up with innovative stuff, who can keep it real.' And with enough ex-members out there to keep Vegas steeped in Temptations tribute acts for the next five decades, is Williams content to keep on singing, keep that legacy alive? 'As long as I have the ability and the strength, and it's still fun - which is the operative word for what we do,' he says. 'I've been very thankful that God has let me weather all the different changes we've gone through. We've always been given a sign that the Temptations should continue.' He pauses and seems to look for a way to sum it all up. 'Performing is a breeze,' the last of the original Temptations concludes. 'The only thing that takes the starch out of your booty is the ungodly hours of traveling.' -John Threlfall |