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Tamla T 54070 (A), October 1962
b/w La La La La La
(Written by Clarence Paul)
“Little” Stevie Wonder, “Little” Water Boy: this record sure puts all its eggs in one basket, a basket with CUTE written on it in adorably sloppy lettering, perhaps with a backwards E.
Having signed a clearly-talented, smart, highly charismatic multi-instrumentalist and harmonica virtuoso, who also happened to be an eleven-year-old blind kid, Motown clearly hadn’t the faintest clue what to do with Stevland Morris now that he was on the books. His first single, the snappily-titled I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues (Part 1), had tanked; for the follow-up, Motown took a different tack, opting for this baffling “comedy” duet between Stevie and his producer, songwriter and general day-to-day handler at Motown, Clarence Paul.
I don’t think it’s very good at all, and my reasons are threefold.
Firstly, it sounds crap. Sure, the band have a blast, indulging themsleves in an uptempo jazz-R&B jam session – tinkly piano, twangy upright bass, soft drums and horns all trade blows, complete with some throaty backing vocal “Huh!”s – but it sounds more like warmup music than a proper song or anything. Meanwhile, the two lead vocal performances are both flat, weak and charmless, as well as technically inept, both of them reciting their lyrics in an indistinct mumble that causes the listener to miss key words – fatal in a “story” song like this – and the boy Wonder isn’t allowed to pick up his harmonica at all, which might have redeemed proceedings. It’s got “throwaway novelty” written all over it.
Secondly (and I appreciate this one is more to do with me personally), I just don’t get what the song itself is meant to be about. As far as I can tell, it runs like so: an older man (Clarence) calls out to a young boy lying under a tree (Stevie), offering him a quarter to “be (his) water boy”. Stevie says he’ll do it for fifty cents. Clarence laughs at this, saying he can “go down to the corner and get (himself) a dozen water boys”. Stevie advises him to do just that, if he’s not willing to pay Stevie the going rate. Clarence makes a final offer of 40 cents. Stevie notes this isn’t what he asked for, but reasons that it’s close enough, and agrees to be Clarence’s water boy. For some reason, that last bit then gets repeated a second time, despite Stevie already having agreed to the deal. And then both parties celebrate their newfound arrangement. The end.
I have numerous problems with this. Most importantly, I don’t actually know what a “water boy” is in this context – I only know the term from sports, and that doesn’t seem to be the case here, so whilst I’m guessing Clarence simply wants Stevie to go back and forth all day fetching him and his mates some drinking water, I’m not entirely sure, and in any case that seems both epically lazy on Clarence’s part and not really a job necessitating the hire of a small boy – surely just shouting “bring me some water” as and when one needed more water would do the trick? Is Stevie now on some sort of retainer? Was this a common situation in the Detroit of 1962, or is this some sort of historical piece? What was Clarence doing that was so fucking important he couldn’t get his own water? Why did Motown feel that a song essentially re-enacting two characters we don’t know haggling over contract terms would make for riveting listening? (Because, well, it doesn’t.)
Staying on the lyrics, it’s also obviously a product of a more innocent age – can you imagine anyone today releasing a duet featuring a 12-year-old boy, minding his own business, suddenly being called over by an older man, a complete stranger, asking him to do some menial labour “out in the hot sun” to earn a bit of pocket money? (Unless it was being released as some sort of awareness campaign encouraging kids to run and call for the police, of course.) I mean, it’s all obviously innocent enough, but because of the cultural connotations that add a subtext which simply wasn’t there in 1962, the whole thing just comes across as being faintly creepy to the modern listener.
My third beef with this song, though, is that it’s a complete waste of Stevie Wonder. Despite the failure of I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues (Part 1), Motown were still trying to market the child prodigy as some sort of ghastly kiddie novelty act, ignoring the fact he was already starting to push those boundaries, cutting his own material, turning in a largely improvised harmonica solo jam for his début single’s B-side (naturally titled I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues (Part 2)), giving every indication that he had a creative future in his own right. But no, Motown saw fit to package him up as Little Stevie Wonder, cutesy sideshow; marketed with the tagline “the 12-Year-Old Genius”, but given precious little opportunity to show off any “genius” Motown truly believed he possessed, to the extent that “The 12-Year-Old Who Is Surprisingly Competent And Does As He’s Told” might have been a more appropriate slogan.
Certainly it’s the impression reinforced (inadvertently, I’m sure) by the role the song casts him in: a cute kid doing menial jobs for hire – and doing them for a Motown producer, too, no less! – a commodity, and in a position of weakness to the extent that Clarence needs to tell him what 15 and 25 add up to (“Fifteen cents and a quarter, that’s all I’m gonna offer, that will make you have forty”).
Whilst with hindsight there’s some amusement to be had in hearing Stevie haggling over money with a Motown representative, knowing as we do what happened when he turned 21 in real life, it’s pretty much the only enjoyment to be had here. Anyone could have been brought in to sing this rubbish.
Unfunny, meandering, pointless, slightly unsettling, badly performed pap.
(A footnote: This would end up being Clarence Paul’s only headline credit as an artist on a Motown single, though he did cut some other solo material; check out You Stay On My Mind from A Cellarful of Motown Volume 3).
MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)
You’re reading Motown Junkies, an attempt to review every Motown A- and B-side ever released. Click on the “previous” and “next” buttons below to go back and forth through the catalogue, or visit the Master Index for a full list of reviews so far.
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| The Pirates “I’ll Love You Till I Die” |
Little Stevie Wonder “La La La La La” |
Motown Junkies 
Speaking of eggs, “you only have to be a chicken to lay a bad egg, anybody can recognize one.”
I know I don’t have this one in my collection and if I ever heard it, it was so long ago I don’t remember. “Pretty Music,” “Contract On Love,” and “Sunset” didn’t get away, but this is one among the pre-“Fingertips” stuff that, for me, did.
Your review is nevertheless heartening. As ably as you assembled a fragrant bouquet of words for a masterpiece like “I’ll Try Something New,” it is reassuring that you also don’t hesitate to call a dog a dog. And even mighty Motown had a few.
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Thanks Dave, as always.
On calling out bad records, my reasoning is that if you’re just going to blindly give everything a thumbs-up because it’s Motown, what’s the point? Whereas, if I give out a few well-deserved kickings to records I find wanting, it means more when I rave about something and give it a ten – more importantly, it’ll (hopefully!) help to get across just how much love and respect I have for all this wonderful music. That’s the theory, anyway.
This record, on the other hand, is both inexplicable and rubbish, so you’re not missing out on anything; I get the impression even Stevie’s most hardcore fans don’t think it’s much cop, though I’m sure someone will be along to correct me in due course!
“Contract on Love” and “Sunset” are the two sides of the same single (T 54074, released at the end of December 1962). Despite their problems (of which more later), either one of them would have made a better single than this.
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I was a little letdown after finally hearing this song. Sure it is really bad but for some reason I expected it to be even worse. If you can believe that!
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I shared this song with a good buddy of mine who is a big Wonder fan. He was appalled. Yes we are still friends! LOL
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That was the MOST hilarious review i’ve ever read here!!! But anyway i think the whole concept of a waterboy is jamaican-born. Try lsitening to “Sylvie” by the Impressions. It runs along the same lines i believe. That said, you’ve got a bright future as a comedy writer!
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As is common on this site, I disagree. I like this recording for its counterpoint duet style with Little Stevie and Clarence Paul, and its R&B feel. For me, the more enjoyable part is Clarence Paul’s, but, nevertheless, I like the song’s overall sound. I like the songwriting (musical part (rather than the lyrics-although I have no problem at all with the folk song-type lyrics). I’d give the song a 5. I HATE the “A” side “La, La, La, La, La”(-almost as much as The Blendells’ abominable remake), which I would give a “1”. So, after buying the record, playing this pleasant flip side was a welcomed bonus.
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I agree Robb – I like this odd song – it has character!
I think the backing band really swings and the bassline is very innovative and Jamerson-esque (but drums too high in mix): I’d give the instrumental a 7/10. The vocals are mismatched, with Clarence coming over like Elvis leaving Stevie a bit drowned out which throws the song off-balance.
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I agree that Little Water Boy is much better than La la la la la, and that neither foreshadows what Stevie would become. He was obviously a child prodigy in terms of musicianship, but his creative genius seems to have developed at a more normal age. If he’s really 11 here (he sounds younger!) that would make him 21 by the time of Talking Book. I’m eager to see just when his composing gifts started to emerge, and when precisely his stretch of godlike albums began and ended.
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I love this record! The drums alone make it worthwhile, but I dig the back and forth and the BVs and and the melody in the “hear them calling” part and kind of sour tone in the horns and just how it sound like everybody’s having fun, me included! And I love the other side too. Great that there’s so much different motown stuff for everybody’s tastes…
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To bogart 4017: The source of “Sylvie,” is American, not JamIcan. The Impressions’ version of the song was preceded , and succeeded , by several others , most notably one by Harry Belafonte in 1956 and, possibly, the original by Leadbelly from the 1940s. Leadbelly , in providing background information for his audience, woold mention his wife Silvey , who he would summon for water periodically as he worked on the fields. Another reference to “little water boy” is also American in derivation. “Mule Skinner Blues, written in 1930 by Jimmie Rogers and George Vaughan, and recorded by many, including the Fendermen and Dolly Parton, calls a little water boy to bring the buck, buck, bucket down.
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Correction: Jamaican.
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This is your funniest review I’ve read. Especially the part about Clarence Paul & his friends being so lazy. I think they got the idea from “Rocking Chair,” the Hoagy Carmichael song, as interpreted by Louis Armstrong & Jack Teagarden in a hit record & concert staple for decades. There are two line in there “Fetch me a drink of water, son” — “You know it ain’t no water you want, father” that are much funnier than this entire song.
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But I will also give you three words for further research “Flint” “Michigan” and “water.” This song would resonate there today. Also, back in the early ’60s, many, many poor black communities lived in unimaginably poor living conditions, including no readily available safe drinking water.
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I guessed the water boy would be used in field work such as cotton or rose picking.
I like the song
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Has someone ever understood what this song is talking about ? Can we even call it a song ? At least we know why, after that, Stevie felt the need to write himself his own songs.
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