Thoughts On the Four Tops and Levi Stubbs

For me, the time to listen to the Four Tops was always at night, alone and in the dark. Their sound, possibly more than any Motown act, was the sound of yearning and longing, sometimes with a happy ending, sometimes not. But it was also the sound of companionship and friendship – hearing Levi Stubbs’s voice was the sound of knowing that while you may have been experiencing loneliness, you’re weren't alone in feeling it. That’s something.

When I heard that Levi Stubbs died last week, the first word that I thought of about him and the Tops was “dependable.” That may seem like faint praise, but it’s not - far from it. They music always occurred for me as a stalwart friend, and if they lacked the flash of Marvin Gaye, the Temptations and a couple of others, their greatest songs, “(Reach Out) I’ll Be There,” “Ask The Lonely,” “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over)” and “Baby I Need Your Loving,” are testaments to the to eternal power of warmth, openheartedness, friendship and love. To have survived with their original members intact for over 40 years, they had to do more than just sing about those values. They had to do something far more challenging – they had to actually be them. And they were.

Levi’s voice and the Four Tops songs are so ingrained in our cultural DNA that for some, they may sound cliché. But the next time you’re home, late at night by yourself, put “Baby I Need Your Loving,” on, real loud. Get present to the beauty of it – the arrangement, the rhythm, the strings and the backing “ooohs.” But most of all, listen to Levi Stubbs. Hear the longing, the intensity, the vulnerability and strength side by side of one other. When you do, you’ll get that Levi Stubbs’s was one of the greatest singers we’ve ever been lucky to have.

Springsteen Does Whitfield, 1975

Playing Detroit for the first time in October of 1975, on the Born To Run tour, Springsteen did an incredible, one off version of the Norman Whitfield written, Temptations classic, "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," as a duet with "Miami" Steve Van Zandt. It's incredible, and it shreds the Stones version that came out on It's Only Rock N' Roll in 1974. Crank this one up!

Download: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" 10/4/75, Detroit, MI

Norman Whitfield: 1940-2008

"I Heard It Through The Grapevine." "Aint Too Proud To Beg." "I Wish It Would Rain." "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep." "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)."

Those are just a handful of songs written by the great Norman Whitfield, who died today at the age of 68. Whitfield was a Motown songwriter, producer and arranger, and after Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1967, he became one of the first tier songwriters in the Motown stable. His greatest collaborations were with the Temptations, for whom he took over songwriting and production duties in 1966. And starting with the Tempts, "Cloud Nine," in 1968, Whitfield dragged Motown into the psychedelic era, paving the way for the later triumphs of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On.

One of the greatest songwriters in any generation.