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Motown M 1069 (B), November 1964
B-side of Without The One You Love (Life’s Not Worth While)
(Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr.)
Stateside SS 371 (B), January 1965
B-side of Without The One You Love (Life’s Not Worth While)
(Released in the UK under license through EMI/Stateside Records)
A nice, well-timed little reminder of just how magnificent the Tops could be, and that the noisy shambles of the A-side Without The One You Love (Life’s Not Worth While) was just a case of everyone involved having an off day.
I always thought the name “Four Tops” sounded more like a Fifties doo-wop group (which, of course, is what they started out as) than a Sixties R&B sensation, and so there’s a certain logic to hearing them do what appears to be an off-the-peg 6/8 barcarolle like this. But even when they’re tackling something that should be the absolute standard, rather humdrum doo-wop template, they still sound fresh, different from anyone else.
Levi Stubbs’ great gift – knowing precisely how far he could stray from the main melody line and do his own thing without irreparably damaging the tune – is in full force here, as it is on pretty much every Four Tops record, even the underwhelming A-side. Behind him and around him, the other three Tops (Duke, Lawrence and Obie) mix with the three Andantes (Jackie, Louvain and Marlene) and between them fill all the space on the record with their own sound, a sound piped direct from heaven.
It’s a new spin on the doo-wop blueprint, then, but it’s also different from the Temptations’ early records, which were full of eerie chord changes and otherwordly harmonising; instead, this is just pushing the envelope in a different direction, a direction that probably leads to Memphis if you keep going far enough.
Levi Stubbs gives yet another great lead vocal – yes, I’m aware this blog is turning into the Quarterly Journal of the Levi Stubbs Appreciation Society, but then who could really begrudge him? – all heart and throat and soul, mostly that last one. As the song spins and whirls gracefully all around him like teacups on a fairground ride, he’s a gritty anchor stopping the thing from blowing away, even as it’s him that seems to be soaring above the melody.
The song’s almost nothing – it’s wispy and difficult to grab, its only really memorable feature a big, crashing, descending three-chord run belted out heavily on piano and drums – Love – has – gone!. It’s the sound that makes this work, the sound of the Four Tops and the Andantes hooking it all up, turning base metal into gold. Even the most hackneyed, hoary old material could sound angelic in their hands, and so this – buffed up to a fine sheen by its writer-producers – turns out very well. Which makes me like Without The One You Love (Life’s Not Worth While) even less; if you’re the Four Tops, then pop music is seemingly a pretty simple game if you really put your mind to it.
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 Four Tops “Without The One You Love (Life’s Not Worth While)” |
Marvin Gaye “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” |
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Congratulation Steve D this is your 500th post!
I’ve never heard this song until today, but I love it. That opening is great and loud! Levi’s forceful and as you mentioned soulful voice really is terrific here. The 3 Tops in the back and the Andantes are equally just as good. Levi’s singing “Love is gone” and I really do believe it’s gone and not returning.
This is the type of song that jumps out at you and keeps you hooked from start to finish. I wonder has anyone ever sampled this song because it’s such a good song to sample. I feel this song deserves a 10. I can’t find anything bad to say about it.
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The way I remember it, every Tops b-side from the first through the time of the HDH troubles and walk-out had popularity in its own right, and this is just the second.
I’ll say it again: given his wonderful facility for drama and handsome good looks, had Berry Gordy promoted Levi to Hollywood, he might well have doubled the favor he did himself doing so with Ross.
500 heartfelt essays. That is amazing. Congratulations. And thank you.
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At last! I’m not alone in my opinion! I too always thought Levi had an exceptionally potent handsomeness that could have translated well to Hollywood- provided there had been more of a market for Matinee Idols of color. I felt that in Levi, Motown really could have had a built-in heart throb, not only for the teens, but also for their mothers!
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At just under three minutes this song is too short; it’s so hypnotic I could go on listening to it all day.
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Me too!
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I remember Back in the mid 60’s I believe it was 1966 or 68 when I first got a CASSETTE recorder/player O.K. So maybe I’M showing my age here!!! It was the brand new thing back in those days!!! I put my Motown favorites on tapes and with a few of the best “B” sides This was one of them!!!!! Then I use to play it all the time!!! I was not able to get the album until January 1965, I think at the time I was waiting for the Stereo release! Back then at stores where I lived at the time mostly had the mono release of the album !!!! you had to special order the stereo version.. but after I heard the stereo mix off the album. I still liked the original 45rpm mono single the best!! so when I finally made that 1st tape a few years latter ..That was one I favored and put on it!!! It was a great “B” side but I would agree with your number ratting except if there was a half that existed in the ratings. This might deserve one !!! about a 6&1/2 ish
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just the opposite where i lived. Stores stocked the mono version because it was cheaper. Lucky for me. The mono mixes are the superior ones.
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This is an example of Motown adhering to its gospel roots. The Tops and Andantes provide a great gospel choral aesthetic behind Levi’s grit. I’ve loved this song since I was a kid. Rating: 9/10
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Clarification.. my above comment is for Without The One You Love, not Love Has Gone.
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An amazing example of why Holland, Dozier Holland deserve every last rave and award they’ve ever won. I have never been able to figure out how that trio could take the most elementary, the most basic, nearly skeletal arrangements and make pure gold out of them. “Love Has Gone” is basically a stripped-down down, bare-to-the-bone 50’s arrangement but made galvanic by H-D-H and the Funk Brothers.
I played this track into the ground from day one, and it’s still one that I can play a million times and never tire of. Everyone just worked that basic blueprint over and over until it was like some kind of hypnotic chant. Wow!
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excellent record. Motown ballads are too well-crafted to be overlooked and this is one of those (as well as “Darling I Hum Our Song” even though Steve B. does not agree). For a while i’ve been considering compililng a cd of Motown ballads from 1961-1968. Considering my manyy sources (45’s,lps,cds,8-track,etc) it would be quite an ambitious undertaking and my dance card is filled until the end of the year.
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This has some seriously forward-looking, gospel-on-steroids stuff. I think it would’ve been a true classic if they’d spent a little more time perfect that devastating double climax at 1:32. “My love is at an end” peaks at G-A-G – then at the modulation (a stacked IV/5 sus chord that massively pre-echoes about 1000 later hits) instead of keeping the melody parallel (and thus singing Ab-Bb-Ab), he stays on the Ab and it makes the modulation feel less confident and soaring. Stubbs has definitely got that Bb in his range … or, there are other ways this melodic cat could have been skinned. I still love the song though. Are there any other extant versions?
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