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Gordy G 7043 (A), June 1965
b/w You’ve Got To Earn It
(Written by Smokey Robinson and Pete Moore)
Tamla Motown TMG 526 (A), August 1965
b/w You’ve Got To Earn It
(Released in the UK under license via EMI / Tamla Motown)
“It’s hard not to get carried away,” I said last time we met the Temptations, “…to fall into a routine of rhapsody greeting each and every new side.”
But these are the Temptations, and when they’re serving up a fourth straight magnificent single – one of the most astonishing runs any Motown act has yet strung together – well, what else is a boy to do?
Smokey Robinson, by now firmly in charge of the Temptations’ musical development despite increasingly loud competition from within the compnay, was Motown’s most adept recycler. It wasn’t uncommon for Smokey to revise his old songs – refine concepts that didn’t quite work, spin and twist them into new and improved shapes, show everyone what he now realised he should have done the first time, and what he’d have done differently, given a chance at a do-over.
His work with the Temptations – or at least, as we meet them here – is different. Rather than trying to improve on the last record, Smokey had set the bar so impossibly high with My Girl – one of the most perfectly-crafted of all Motown singles – that the challenge with the Temptations was to recapture some of that same magic, while simultaneously being seen to break new ground.
He’d managed it well enough with It’s Growing alright – but as attempts to re-bottle lightning go, Since I Lost My Baby is on a whole different level. Here, Smokey takes on so many of the familiar tropes from My Girl, both musical and lyrical, and turns them on their head, turns them against each other. Not for the first time, we’re left with what I’ve previously called a “mirror sequel”; this, effectively, is My Girl: The Sad Version.
Let’s start with the negatives, as the record itself does: the intro to Since I Lost My Baby is a clunker, its heavy, stabbing scraped strings crashing, gracelessly, into the track and threatening to bowl over another beautifully understated Robert White guitar part. Throughout the track, the strings are out of control, fighting both with the Tempts and with the tune itself for supremacy, to the point where I’d love to hear a mix of this with the strings stripped off altogether. So many excellent Motown singles rely on a well-judged contribution from string section as the icing on the cake, the thing which pushes them over the top to greatness, but – other than a couple of brief moments at the very end when they play a very pretty ascending flourish, complementing the vocals rather than competing with them – the strings are the absolute worst thing about this one.
But that’s literally the only thing where I can find fault with this record; everything else about it is gold. Turning the base ingredients of My Girl into a melancholy, moping breakup song is a bold move, but Smokey knew what he was doing, his complex recipe as sound as ever. Perhaps taking a cue from the Holland-Dozier-Holland team’s recent work with the Supremes (where the dichotomy between the upbeat pop paradise of the music and the plunging despair of the lyrics was played up to great effect), here Smokey marries one of the most gorgeous, lounging, sun-kissed tunes he’s ever written with what must surely be one of the most depressing mainstream Motown lyrics of all time.
Like My Girl, this song is full of weather; just as in My Girl, the narrator is impervious to the forces of nature, the outside world unable to break the spell his girl has cast. But here, the theme is no longer the walking-on-air superconfidence of My Girl, but rather an impenetrable, all-consuming dolour that renders him unable to enjoy anything that’s going on around him, almost verging on the suicidal. On daytime radio.
That’s some achievement, right there.
What stops it becoming unbelievably miserable is the constant reminders that things really aren’t as bad as they seem, which is done in such a way that… Well, it’s just very clever indeed.
Some of it is lyrical. David Ruffin, in another wonderful lead vocal performance, begins the song playing a man who’s almost determined not to take this well; drowning in self-pity, moping and mooching, he nonetheless spends much of the song listing all the great things that are going on around him (the very first line is Sun is shining, there’s plenty of light), in an attempt to underline just how depressed he is. But you can’t keep insisting “the world is a beautiful place, but it can’t cheer me up!” forever, and by the middle of the song, the exercise has helped him (briefly) put his romantic problems in perspective, resulting in him rousing himself, talking about how he’s going to fix this mess, getting up from his bed to sing from the balcony. Even after he climbs back under the duvet to insist that “Determination is fading fast / Inspiration is a thing of the past”, we know he hasn’t really given up. You can’t sing “Can’t see how my hope’s gonna last” if you’ve already lost all hope; and where there’s hope, the light at the end of the tunnel beckons.
Some of it is musical, a stunning multi-part harmony to rival the one from My Girl giving this an air of magnificence. No matter how depressed you might be, when all five Temptations chime in unison on the chorus, with absolutely breathtaking timing, well, your heart couldn’t fail to be warmed by it. But the super-tight harmonies play another role here, too.
Strangely, if this was a solo record, things might get too heavy, but the Temptations – still, at this point, a tight-knit gang of surrogate brothers – harmonise so beautifully that Ruffin’s narrator never comes across as completely alone; we know he’s got his mates to look after him (Melvin Franklin chimes in within a few bars of the start, providing another impossibly resonant bass vocal – Oh, yeah – in call-and-response style), and so when he explicitly calls for help in the middle eight, well, we’re not as worried for him as we might have been; we know that help is on its way.
Oh, the middle eight. Zounds. A(nother) reminder that we’re dealing with a Smokey Robinson lyric, four Temptations trading lines with David, as a chant builds like a towering wave before finally crashing down into a gorgeous harmony bed for David to freestyle his exclamation.
Next time I’ll be kinder…
Won’t you please help me find her?
Someone just remind her
Of this love she left behind her
Til I find her, I’ll be trying her
Every day I’m more inclined to
Find her
Inclined to
Find her
Inclined to find my baby!
(Been lookin’ everywhere!)
Baby
(Baby! I really, really care!)
It’s magnificent.
By this point, Motown must have seemed intimidating to their competitors; to have unearthed so many great acts, written so many great songs, and now to pull off something like this, perhaps the most ambitious thing the label had yet turned its hand to, it’s positively unfair. You almost get the feeling they threw in that ghastly string part, the only thing that stops this one joining the ranks of the 10/10 club, just to make everyone else feel better.
But final credit has to go to the Temptations themselves, who cover themselves in glory here. This is the sound of a group absolutely on top of their game; the true follow-up to My Girl, and – unexpectedly – very nearly as good.
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.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in The Temptations? Click for more.)
The Supremes “Supremes Interview” |
The Temptations “You’ve Got To Earn It” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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Dave L said:
I feel so bad, I feel so sad,
everything is wrong,
this heart is hard to carry on.
I’m lonely as can be,
what’s gonna happen to me…?
The euphoric gentleman of “My Girl” has had the bottom fall out of his world, and takes us, horrifically sorrowed with him, through the deepest of his pain. This particular Motown record will be 48 years old come June, and yet, when it catches me unguarded, it maintains its power to puddle my eyes by its end. (Hell! Just reading the damn lyrics can do it.) And it is, without question, another of those Motown records good to the very last audible sound the vinyl yields. Among others, one reason you don’t want it to end, is because you fear what rash thing the narrator might do to stop his engulfing anguish.
Think Charlie Chaplin in City Lights, think Greta Garbo in Camille, think Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, think Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice: David Ruffin’s performance of “Since I Lost My Baby” is the record world equivalent of those untouchable, cinematic pinnacles. And like those respective career capstones, no fool should ever remake “Since I Lost My Baby” and dare risk the comparison.
A towering 10. Forever.
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I LOVE THE SUPREMES AND TEMPTATONS said:
I feel so bad, I feel so sad,
everything is wrong,
this heart is hard to carry on.
I’m lonely as can be,
what’s gonna happen to me…?
Yes!! That whole verse right there is just excellent…David’s voice on that part is just…I can’t even explain it…that’s how great it is
Oh and Luther Vandross covered this and as much as I love him…That cover didn’t do this song justice
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Damecia said:
Agree! Nobody can touch this original recording.
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Rupert said:
Yes…the original Since I Lost My Baby is the best…but Luther’s version certainly did the song more than mere justice. It is a whole other rendition and it is FLAWLESS!
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Landini said:
I always thought Mr. Vandross always did respectable versions of other people’s songs, though I was a little letdown by his “Songs” album which was completely made up of remakes. I thought some of the song choices were not the best. You guys probably know this, but Mr. Vandross did background vocals for David Bowie for awhile. You can hear him plainly in the background of “Young Americans”. If fact, Bowie thought Luther was such a good singer that he literally kicked him out of his group & told him to go be a star.
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Roy M said:
You write excellent reviews, but I must disagree with you on this one; it is definitely a 10! The string section, with its sweeping, soaring passages MAKE this record!! One waits breathlessly as the string section completes its take on the melody and finishes with the final chord where they all come together before David starts his story. I can’t count the number of times I have listened to that passage by the strings, then start the record again to hear them again!! I absolutely LOVE this opening!
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Landini said:
Wow! Excellent song. I would go so far as to say (please don’t tar/feather me!) that on certain days I even like this better than “My Girl”. Funny, I actually like the strings on this. I always forget that Smokey wrote this. As great as it is, for some odd reason, this doesn’t sound like a Smokey song. Temptin Temptations is an awesome album!
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I LOVE THE SUPREMES AND TEMPTATONS said:
I personally think it’s their best album…Every song on there is solid
Their second best album I think is The Temptations wish it would rain
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Landini said:
I also really like “With A Lot Of Soul”
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Dave L said:
Well, since Temptin’ Temptations, Gordy 914, has come up… I don’t know how this came to be but this is my 45(!) of “Born To Love You”
http://littleurl.info/2zn
Nina’s Discount Oldies was one of my last mail-order places for vinyl just before the days of any on-line ordering (especially eBay where Motown stuff could be sought in original issue form). What makes this a mystery, of course, is that “Born” was never an official Gordy single in its time, so I don’t know what negotiation allowed this in the 1990s. I bought mine March 19, 1993. “Dream Come True” is on the other side.
What makes things a little more astonishing, I did some looking and it is still available in this form, and for no more than I paid for it 20 years ago.
http://littleurl.info/zm1
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Nick in Pasadena said:
Such a great record. Those lyrics, those voices! But I’ve always wondered why I didn’t love it more, and place it right up there with “My Girl”. You nailed it with your comment about the strings–they are indeed overdone here.
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I LOVE THE SUPREMES AND TEMPTATONS said:
I have to…I just have to give this song a 10
This song ranks way higher than My girl…And I will even go as far to say it might be their best single they put out(It’s between this and I wish it would rain)
It’s so many reasons why I think this song is brilliant
The lyrics are excellent… The atmosphere around him is happy …The weather is good..people are working..kids playing…but despite that he’s full of sorrow…
Great job Smokey
I also think David did an excellent job showcasing the sadness to this song…When I listen to this i’m hearing a man who’s down on luck and simply helpless…I also like Eddie’s solo adlib when he sings “oh” when the guys sing the chorus it’s simple but I like that for some odd reason lol
and I think the strings add to the song it gives it a whimsical sorrow feeling
It’s beautiful but something…sad about it
10/10
This song does something to me it reaches me on an emotional level…way more than just finding it catchy or dancable….just nothing left to say but brillant
I’m kinda shock that it didn’t get a 10 from you…
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Damecia said:
David Ruffin — another great Motown interpreter who is sadly underrated.
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Ed Pauli said:
At this point—I consider this the end of the early Motown era. It’s jsut a feeling that I have thought about in terms of innocence and simple beauty. You knew what to expect from a ballad and you kew what to expct from an uptempo number–of course 1965, would bring more and more classic goodies–but in my mind, there are changes– I can also see this from a pop music stanpoint–the end of the innocence and the beginning of new things–new sounds–new looks–( The Beatles letting thier hair grow even longer ) folk rock sounds of the Byrds, Dylan plugging in , the rise of Stax ,–and at Motown –well we’ll just have to look, watch, wait and see…………….any thoughts??
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Dave L said:
Your point is a good one, Ed. By the end of this very year, Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” is asking we same young people to lift our concerns beyond the pretty love songs, and take a look at what’s going on in the bigger world. S&G’s “Sounds of Silence,” and The Beatles’ “Nowhere Man” would reflect the same mood.
Then, as ’66 dawns, and Barry Sadler’s hard right-leaning, pro-Vietnam “Ballad of the Green Berets” tops Billboard for five weeks, the at-home battle lines are being even more clearly drawn. I’ve read that less than a year later the record was being booed wherever it was played.
Motown’s candy-coated soul is still going to do well for some time ahead, but even they eventually had to acknowledge, in song material, a hardening of society that’s come. In retrospect, Ballard’s ouster, Ruffin’s firing from the Temps, Tammi’s illness, and the breach with HDH could be seen as Motown’s microcosm, in-house reflection of the turmoil just outside the doors.
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I LOVE THE SUPREMES AND TEMPTATONS said:
Interesting points Robb …
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Robb Klein said:
I LOVE the strings. They help make this song a 10 for me. Not quite up to “My Girl” ‘s 10. but a “perfect 10”, nevertheless. Excellent songwriting (both music and lyrics)-they go perfectly together, and an excellent job done on the instrumental by The Funk Brothers and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s string section. Excellent singing job by The Temptations. One of my all-time Top-25 songs, and Top 5-7 Motown songs.
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Mary Plant said:
This song will definitely go into my top fifty – whenever I get around to making that list – strings and all. My younger brother rates this as one of the top 45s of all time, and I can’t wait to hear what brother John has to say. And the album – wow. Like Landini, this and With a Loftof Soul battle for top Temptation album, but thisone usually wins – I don’ t think there’s a song on there that I don’t love.
Great review Steve – and I can live with your nine, but it’s certainly a ten for me!
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John Plant said:
It seems there’s unison on the Plant front – I think this was one of my top ten, and if it wasn’t, it should have been. Strange – I rather like the strings, and I’m no friend of Motown strings in general – Motown strings (and harps,and over-production in general) rather killed the 70s for me and sent me straight back to my classical fortress. But here the strings have a kind of gestural strength that propels the song into motion – as they do in the Spinners’ Truly Yours. Other than that, a glorious review, Steve – obviously this song is a 10+ for me. On the subject of strings, I think my single favourite use of them in Motown is at the climax of Stevie’s ‘Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Do-Da-Day’ – of course, without any question James Brown takes the palm for the greatest orchestral strings of all time in ‘It’s a Man’s World’ (though I guess I Am the Walrus, A Day in the Life and Eleanor Rigby would also be contenders!) Anyway, it’s good to be back in the kingdom of the Temptations, and I can’t wait for the delightful flip.
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John Plant said:
Your classical correspondent has been tormented by ghosts of Sibelius, Mahler and Brahms – he meant to say , the greatest POP orchestral strings of all time.. with all respect to JB and George Martin….
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John Plant said:
Have been thinking about your beautiful comments about the ‘brotherhood’ manifested in this song – and I suspect that this is more a characteristic of Smokey’s writing for the Tempts than that of his successors. It’s rather sad that this magnificent partnership is going to end so soon – even though Whitfield’s contributions are arguably as strong as Smokey’s. ‘I’m Losin’ You’ is another favourite of mine – but the utter desolation of that song is reinforced by the other singers – they’re underlining the doom of the relationship – no consolation there! And even in a relatively upbeat song like ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’ – each one of the Tempts is (brilliantly) reinforcing a single persona with a single emotion. Emotional reinforcement rather than support – no loss of musical strength, but maybe a slight diminution of humanity, or a different sort of solidarity. In Cloud Nine, also, all the Tempts are incarnating the SAME PERSON – but with different voices. Makes for a very interesting song – but there’s a marked loss of warmth.
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Damecia said:
Wow great analysis of The Tempts brotherhood on record.
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Damecia said:
“Motown strings (and harps,and over-production in general) rather killed the 70s for me and sent me straight back to my classical fortress.” lmao this made me laugh John
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Randy Brown said:
Definitely a “10” for me (“It’s Growing” is another 10, and I prefer both over “My Girl”). One of my favorite things here is the repeating descending piano/guitar figure, which enforces the song’s melancholia. And the strings never bothered me. I only wish Motown had properly mixed this in true stereo.
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Damecia said:
Wow! So the first time I ever heard this song was in The Jackson mini series lol. Some unknown singers sung the song as the undiscovered Jackson 5. I always assumed the Four Tops originally sang this (I’m such a baby junkie plz forgive me lol).
Oh c’mon Steve D this is a 10/10! LOL. I can’t imagine the intro strings any other way, but…I’m not fuming over your 9 because you wrote this so well and highlighted all the great things about this song that there is nothing more for me to say….except that “find her, find her” part was BRILLIANT!
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David L. said:
This was a great review. I kept thinking maybe you’d go for a 10 on this one as I was reading it. I think it’s one of the most emotional performances by the Tempts and proves that their best stuff resulted from back and forth, and call and response participation. I think a 9 is perfect. My 10’s for the Tempts were recorded in 1967 with another 9 in the fall of 1966. Keep on Truckin’
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The Nixon Administration said:
Thanks David 🙂 Take the strings off, it would probably have made it to a 10 for me. There are some more coming up for these lads, anyway…
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Edin Burak said:
I know this is a little late but whatever, but late then never. If you thought this song had a horrible string section, listen to The Newness Is Gone by Eddie Kendricks, that pretty much ruins that whole song despite some great backing vocals.
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Rupert Kinnard said:
I would have to say that I do understand the comments about the strings but…I would not at all be into taking then totally off the record. I think that it might have been a better idea to just push them back a bit more in the mix. I guess I would have to agree on the 9/10 rating…. Great record!
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Rupert Kinnard said:
This is a bit off point…but for you Temptations fans this should be of interest. I would love to know what you think of this odd interview with David Ruffin’s former “common-law” wife… http://vimeo.com/5187050
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Kenneth Coates said:
Was there ever a better single SEASON in the history of pop music than the summer of 1965? I think not. Classics galore—–and this song is one of them. The strings
didn’t bother me, but now that you’ve made it a point of criticism I’ll probably start
noticing ’em with a bit of irritation! At any rate, Since I Lost My Baby is a “classic” in
the genuine (as opposed to the loose) sense, i.e., something that cannot be improved upon. I agree that any attempt to cover a performance like this would come
off poorly by comparison.
Just a quick thought about the changing times: while Motown was producing these
soaring, euphoric masterpieces, trouble was brewing in places like Watts . . . and
obviously something had to give. “Not a sad word should our young hearts be sayin'”
just didn’t jibe with reality for a lot of African-Americans. “We’re on the eve of destruction” was more like it.
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bogart4017 said:
This is a sure 10/10! And leave my strings alone please. Signed,
Paul Riser!!
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luvhangova said:
I love the intro with piano and strings on this record. I think it was handled perfectly. One of my favorite Motown songs because of the syncopation in the intro. David Ruffin’s interpretation is flawless.
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Michael said:
I love the strings. I love the abrupt start. I love Ruffin’s vocal. I love everything about this song. 10.
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Kevin Moore said:
Wow, compare the background vocal (oo oo oo) at 0:45 to the opening of Buffalo Springfield (Neil Young) “On The Way Home” (1968). Carbon copy time. At first I was shocked that the Temptations had such a nice little hook on verse 1 and did reuse it on the subsequent verses. Then I realized that its hookiness had been implanted in my brain by the Neil Young song.
A cool thing about this song is the way the first chorus is cut short and then finished after verse 2, but here’s my question. I hadn’t heard this song for a long time and I was fully expecting it to eventually get to “since I lost my baby … I’m about to lose my mind”. What the “I’m about to lose my mind” song I’m confusing it with??
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144man said:
“Since there are so many outstanding records… reviewed this month I am almost out of superlatives to describe them! Enough to say that both sides of this disc are as good as anything that those cool cats the Temptations have ever done, and I know both sides of this disc will be well received and liked. 5/5; 4/5”
[Dave Godin, Hitsville USA 8, August 1965]
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