ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: Papa Was a Rollin Stone is a psychedelic soul song, written by Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong as a single for Motown act The Undisputed Truth in 1971. This version of Papa was released as a single in early 1972, and peaked at number 63 on the pop charts and number 24 on the R&B charts. Later in 1972, Whitfield, who also produced the song, took Papa Was a Rollin Stone and remade it as a 12-minute record for The Temptations, which was a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and won three Grammy Awards in 1973. While the original Undisputed Truth version of the song has been largely forgotten, The Temptations version of the song has been an enduring and influential soul classic. It was ranked #168 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of the groups three songs on the list. In retrospect, The Temptations Otis Williams considers Papa to be the last real classic the group recorded. Beginning with an extended instrumental introduction (3:53 in length), each of the songs three verses is separated by extended musical passages, in which Whitfield brings various instrumental textures in and out of the mix. A solo plucked bass guitar part, backed by hi-hat cymbals drumming, establishes the musical theme, a simple three-note figure; the bass is gradually joined by other instruments, including a blues guitar, wah-wah guitar, Wurlitzer Electric Piano notes, handclaps, horns, and strings; all are tied together by the ever-present bass guitar line and repeating hi-hat rhythm. A very unusual thing about this song is that it uses only one chord throughout the entire song -- B-flat minor. Vocal jobs are performed in a true ensemble style: Temptations singers Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Richard Street (who was a frequent fill-in for Paul Williams and his eventual replacement) and Damon Harris (who had replaced Eddie Kendricks as the groups falsetto singer the previous year) alternate vocal lines, taking the role of siblings questioning their mother about their now-deceased father; their increasingly pointed questions, and the mothers repeated response (Papa was a rollin stone/wherever he laid his hat was his home/and when he died, all he left us was alone) paint a sombre picture for the children who have never seen their father and have never heard nothing but bad things about him. Friction arose during the recording of Papa Was a Rollin Stone for a number of reasons. The Temptations did not like the fact that Whitfields instrumentation had been getting more emphasis than their vocals on their songs at the time, and that they had to press Whitfield to get him to produce ballads for the group. In addition, Dennis Edwards was angered by the songs first verse: It was the third of September/That day Ill always remember/cause that was the day/that my daddy died. While legend has it that, coincidentally, Edwards father had died on that date, making him apprehensive of recording the song, Edwards father actually died on the third of October, not September;the other half of the legend — that Norman Whitfield forced Edwards to rerecord his parts dozens of times until he finally got the angered, bitter grumble he desired out of the usually fiery-toned Edwards — was true. Whitfields treatment of the group eventually led to his dismissal as their producer. The guitar parts were played by Melvin Wah-Wah Watson Ragin. The Temptations version of Papa Was a Rollin Stone followed in the extended-length cinematic soul tradition of the work of Isaac Hayes and others, and future songs like Donna Summers fourteen-minute Love to Love You Baby and the instrumentals of MFSB expanded upon the concept in the mid-1970s. A seven-minute edited version of Papa Was a Rollin Stone was released as a single in September 1972. For this mix, congas were added to bolster the songs sparse percussion; this version appeared on the 1973 Anthology triple LP. The Temptations box set Emperors of Soul has the edited version in stereo, but without the congas. The b-side was the instrumental backing by The Funk Brothers without the Temptations vocals (except for a single Unngh! at the end of the second verse). Papa rose to number one on the U.S. pop charts and number five on the U.S. R&B charts, becoming the Temptations final pop number-one hit. The song, the anchor of the 1972 Temptations album All Directions, won three 1973 Grammys: its a-side won for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group; its b-side won for Best R&B Instrumental (awarded to Whitfield and arranger/conductor Paul Riser); and Whitfield and Barrett Strong won for Best R&B Song as the songs composers.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 18:12:35 +0000
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