~
First,
a bit about the unusual album cover itself. It is completely black both
front and back; there have only been two albums totally black with not a single graphic on them.
Murray Roman did it with his
Blind Man's Movie album in 1969 (
link below) and
Prince did it in 1987 with his
The Black Album.
A Flip-Back and
Die-cut flap on the front cover spells out the name of the group,
The Temptations, and the name is only visible because the grey record sleeve inside shows through the cuts.
My favorite cut from the album is
The Profit
which is totally different from any of the other songs on it. It
is moderately slow but with a driving beat that is terrific to slow
dance to and features a huge chorus with
tons of strings. The lead vocal by
Melvin Franklin is sensual, almost erotic but the lyrics are
intense and have a religious slant (
link below).
The Profit
[Verse 1]
A man cried
“Where do we look? Where do we search? How do we find it?”
A woman cried love
“My body needs love, my soul needs love, how do I find it?”
We all need love, gotta have love
Prophet! Prophet!
[Verse 2]
He said that love will call to you
So follow him, though it’s hard to do
Believe, believe! We gotta believe!
Within your heart is the secret of life
With joy and sorrow, pleasure and strife
Love is all of these things
[Refrain]
I dream of the prophet man from a far distant land
Ali!
[Verse 3]
A priestess said, “Tell us a prayer!”
A lawyer said, “Is law fair?”
Astronomers cried of galaxies and time
A poet said, “Is there duty to find?”
Speak of God, speak of reason
Speak about death, speak about freedom
Gotta have truth, gotta have wisdom
Give us your word to give to our children
[Refrain]
I dream of the prophet man from a far distant land
Ali!
[Bridge]
The clock struck twelve on the church odd wall
Their voices beckoned to the prophet’s call
You give up yourself when you truly give
Possessions shouldn’t rule the life you live
Work with love and love your work
And idle man is a stranger on earth
Blame yourself for wrong deeds done
The innocent can be the guilty ones
Freedom disguises itself in chains
Happiness sometimes hides in pain
Children are made and are born to you
But they’re not slaves that belong to you
God doesn’t listen to the words you pray
He hears what your heart has got to say
[Outro]
I dream of the prophet man from a far distant land
Ali!
I dream of the prophet man from a far distant land
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone is probably the most well known and popular of all of the
The Temptations songs and justifiably so. It was pre-disco and I remember dancing to the
radio edit played on
jukeboxes in the bars; a couple of years later when disco came in the longer version from the album was played. I'm sure many will forever remember smoke-filled nights (sometimes afternoons) of floating in a haze of dreamland bliss while hearing Street's vocal and the
trippy psychedelic
effects of the song carry them to heights of happy and sometimes sexual pleasure which seemed to last forever, well, at almost fourteen minutes long, it seems forever even when NOT high!
Happy People and
Glasshouse are great funk dance tunes, the latter a bit faster. I remember dancing to them in the bars where it was against the law to dance (discos were still a couple of years away).
Shakey Ground is a moderate speed with a great grinding-beat song that is REALLY terrific to dance with erotic abandon. One of the girls at the
Hungry i on
Broadway would use it in her set to GREAT advantage (
link below)!
Track listing:
Side one
- "Happy People" – 3:38 (Lionel Richie, Jeffrey Bowen, Donald Baldwin) ((lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
- "Glasshouse" – 3:54 (Charlemagne) (lead singers: Dennis Edwards, Damon Harris, Richard Street, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin)
- "Shakey Ground" – 4:03 (Eddie Hazel, Al Boyd, Bowen) (lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
- "The Prophet" – 4:28 (Bowen, Kathy Wakefield, Larry Duncan) (lead singer: Melvin Franklin)
- "Happy People" (Instrumental) – 2:57 (Richie, Bowen, Baldwin)
Side two
- "A Song for You" – 4:40 (Leon Russell) (lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
- "Memories" – 6:01 (Baldwin, Wakefield, Bowen) (lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
- "I'm a Bachelor" (Dennis Edwards, Otis Williams, Damon Harris, Richard Street, Melvin Franklin) – 4:21 (lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
- "Firefly" – 4:02 (Jesse Boyce) (lead singers: Richard Street, Melvin Franklin)
Personnel:
The Temptations – A Song For You
Label: Gordy – G6-969S1
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Flip-Back + Die-cut sleeve
Country: US
Released: 1975
Genre: Funk / Soul
Style: Soul, Disco
Otis Williams
Net links:
YouTube links:
Rare Earth ~ Ma (17 mins., 10 secs.) The Temptations ~
