Track Six: Temptations - Ain't Too Proud to Beg

A 1966 single written by Norman Whitfield (above) with Edward Holland. It sounds more, to me at least, like one of the classic Holland, Dozier, Holland tracks that were the mainstay of early Motown, than the more

The track was supposed to be a one-off collaboration between Whitfield (as producer) and the Temptations, who were seen as Smokey Robinson's Group. It was recoded with David Ruffin on lead vocals and Whitfield arranged the song just out of the singer's usual range. Ruffin had to strain through numerous takes to reach the high notes and thus added a special edge to the vocal. Ruffin wasn't pleased and this set the stage for a difficult relationship between producer and group.

The track was brought to the regular Motown "Quality Control" meeting on the same day as a Smokey Robinson produced Temptations track, Get Ready. Motown chief Gordy Berry went for the Robinson song, describing Whitfield's effort as unfinished, and so Get Ready was the next single released by The Temptations.

While it was was a big R&B hit, Get Ready failed to make the top 20 in the Pop Charts and as a result Ain't too Proud to Beg was released shortly afterwards. It reached 13 in the pop charts.

Two more big hits for the Temptations under Whitfield and the band were seen as his. He continued to use the technique of forceing Motown singers to sing at the edge of their range, understanding the emotional accent it gave to the music. Perhaps most notably on Marvin Gaye's version of Heard It Through the Grapevine.

Track Five : Temptations - Papa Was a Rolling Stone

If there was a standard Motown Sound, then the Temptations were the big-name band who deviated from it most often. This song, a huge hit in 1972, is one example where producer Norman Whitfield took them is a different direction from the standard three minute ballad that had been the Motown stock-in-trade throughout the sixties.

More in keeping with the late period Stax sound of Isaac Hayes than anything Diana Ross, or the Four Tops were involved in, the instrumentation of 'Papa' was unique with a very basic and evocative drum and bass intro and instrumental passages between verses extended beyond anything Motown were doing elsewhere. The shorter, single version still came in at a full seven minutes long and featured an instrumental version on the B side.

The song was not written with the Temptations in mind, producer Norman Whitfield and his songwriting partner Barret Strong first gave the song to the normally harder edged "Undisputed Truth" who barely breached the top 100 of the singles chart. Indeed the Temptations hated the song, complaining that it didn't feature enough of their trademark, close harmony and instead concentrated too much on orchestration with the band members singing single lines one in a sort of in-song conversation. In addition singer Dennis Edwards was furious that he was asked to sing the opening lines of the song:

It was the 3rd of September
That day I'll always remember
Cause that was the day, my Daddy died.

Edwards father had indeed died on 3rd Sept, and he suspected that producer, Normal Whitfield, had written the song with that in mind. Considering the picture of 'papa' as an absentee father presented by the song his upset is not really a surprise. Other members of the band have said that Whitfield used this anger, making Edwards sing the line over and over again until he the got just the right angry and frustrated tone

Despite the band's feelings it was a huge hit for them, winning three Grammy's, for best R&B song, Best instrumental (for the B side) and for best song and ended up being the last single to top the charts for the Group. So upset were the band with Whitfield that they fired him as their producer shortly afterwards. They never achieved this level of sucess again.

I've included the original version of the song, by The Undisputed Truth in the alternate playlist alongside another Temptations cover, Ball of Confusion.

Track Four - Robert Wyatt: I'm a Believer

Robert Wyatt's version of this Neil Diamond penned Monkees's hit from 1966 is about as atypical of his music as you can imagine.

A more or less straight rendition of the biggest selling single of 1967, over one million sales, it is only the vulnerability of Wyatt's voice and his gentle Canterbury accent that sets this version apart. Released at a time, 1974, when rock music was taking itself far too seriously, this was a breath of fresh air and one of those tracks that makes me smile every time I hear it.

Wyatt's background was in progressive rock where he played drummer for The Soft Machine, with Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen (who will be names known to anyone who likes Prog Rock).

He'd learnt drums from a Jazz musician friend of the family in late fifties Dover and the influence of Jazz in most of his work is obvious.

Wyatt has been in a wheelchair since 1973. The story I read at the time, and always believed to be true, was that he was electroucuted while playing electric drums in Japan. It turns out he fell off a balcony at a party for Gilli Smith and Lady June from his old friend Daevid Allen's band Gong. He was pissed!

Wyatt will appear again in the list, and the alternative tracks playlist includes the Monkees original version of this song, along with an example of more typical Wyatt work from his days with the Soft Machine.

Track Three - Bruce Springteen: Mrs McGrath

Taken from the 2006 album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions", this is Stringsteen's version of an Irish anti-war folksong dating from the Pennisular War with Napoleon. The arrangement seems to follow one used by many american folk bands such as "Wake the Bard" but with a rock sensibility that gives the song real power. Who'd have ever thought of using an accordian and a Tin Whistle in a rock band? (Horslips and Moving Hearts and, believe it or not, Jethro Tull but we'll get to that some other time.)

The idea for the album arose in 1997 when Springsteen was asked to sing We Shall Overcome for a Pete Seeger (see picture) Tribute album. He didn't have much knowledge of folk music but, according to an interview in Rolling Stone, he started listening to Seeger after he recorded the song. The RS article says that it was the interest his ten year old daughter showed in the songs that led him to start playing them.

The album was recorded by a large, informal band in Springsteen's farm in New Jersey, with only his wife Patti Scafia and violinist Soozie Tyrell coming from the E Street Band. It was Tyrell who gathered most of the folk musicians together and the addition of 'The Miami Horns', The Sessions Band was formed.

Springsteen toured the album to mixed reviews. Many concert goers expecting the usual large scale rock show were disappointed, but to others, myself included, this was the best Springsteen album and show for years.

Check out the Alternative Playlist for versions of the song by Wake the Bard, Pete Seeger and an excellent live version from The Sessions Band Live in Dublin Album.

Track Two - Drive-By Truckers - Zip City

The Drive-By Truckers are purveyers of Dirty, southern, country-rock at its very best. Much influenced by Lynyrd Skynyrd, it is often their lyrical content that sets them apart.

When the Truckers reappear on this blog, and they will, chances are that those selections will be songs written by Patterson Hood, the main writer for the band. But this song is by Mike Cooley and is arguably his best for the Band.

A straight ahead Southern Rock song, what sets it apart is the awkward elegance of the lyrics. Written from the perspective of an angry 17 year old who 'ain't gettin none" from his girlfriend, Cooley finds the voice perfectly and manages to be profane and poetic at the same time. He snarls the song out and there is real anger in some of the verses. Take this.

Keep your drawers on, girl, it ain't worth the fight
By the time you drop them I'll be gone
And you'll be right where they fall the rest of your life

Real, angry, raw and powerful. The key verse to what is an old fashioned story song, this is the stand-out rock track from their first really sucessful album, Southern Rock Opera.

Track One - Lew Lewis Band: Caravan Man

If I was ever to get my own radio show I'd want this as my opening theme. Something about the mixture of Harmonica runs along with the chopping guitar sound is almost hypnotic. The credits imply that this was jammed, rather than being written.

I first heard the track on an album called "Hits Greatest Stiffs", a compilation of tracks from Stiff Records' first 15 singles which had been deleted. I lent it to a friend many years ago and never saw it again. This track, more than any other, was the one I missed and I only recovered it a few years ago with the reissue of Lewis' one and only album.

Lewis played with Eddie and the Hot Rods, just before they achieved success on the coat-tails of punk. He was kicked out of the band after they recorded their first single, Writing on the Wall.

The Hot Rods, like Graham Parker and Dr Feelgood were pub-rock bands with their roots firmly in the R&B boom of the 1960's, but each, to some degree or other, owed their success to the 'New Wave' that followed the Punk Revolution. Lewis never quite made it. The Harmonica was not a 'Punk' instrument and he was, at best, an adequate singer.

There is an obvious reggae influence to this track, something that was also associated with Punk. His band made one album for Stiff in 1979, Save the Wail, which was re-released in 2002. Nothing on it matches Caravan Man.

Lewis missed out on the success of Eddie and the Hot Rods, and bouts of illness and drug addiction have prevented him for making any great headway with his music. In 1987 Lewis was sentenced to seven years in prison for robbing a Post Office with a fake gun. Since then he has had his own band and has played with friends from Dr Feelgood and Wilko Johnston's band. He is, by all accounts, a difficult man to know, and has had drug-related problems with his health in recent years. Last I heard of him he was out of hospital and clean, but the long promised new material has never appeared.


Buy 5: Lew Lewis and His Band

A Side: Boogie on the Street (Lewis)
B Side: Caravan Man (Zear/Green/Ocean/Clouter/Araby/Lewis

Stigandnasty's Spotify Blog

The Spotify software allows me, just for a while, to imagine I've fulfilled one of my ambitions. To have my own Radio show. Ok its a show nobody much listens too and one in which I never get to speak, but what the hell.

Talking to Bingobison one evening, trying to justify my selections on the "90% Dead Free" playlist it struck me that I’d like to write a wee bit about most of the tracks I was selecting.

There are three playlists to have a look at, the original "90% Dead Free" An Alternate takes playlists, with songs I'll probably mention when I write about the main list and finally a collaborative list for seanb and Bingobison (and anyone else) to play about in.

So here we are. Comments are very welcome, even if it’s just to say hi but I'd love to hear what you think about my selections.