Blogarhythms

I started the week on Monday with a post about a group called the Boom Clap Bachelors. And now I’m capping it off with a Friday Records at Random entry on a platter featuring a standout cut titled “I’m a Bachelor.” Coincidence, you ask? Well, let me assure you that if my life were that tightly choreographed you’d have seen me on that So You Think You Can Dance show by now.

Speaking of impeccably coordinated dance-steps, the group responsible for this week’s featured LP, The Temptations, were widely celebrated in their time for theirs. In fact, the group’s patented “Temptations shuffle” may be just as indelible a pop-culture institution as their signature vocal harmonies. Sadly, the group is almost as well known for the troubled private lives of its personnel and its oft-changing lineup, which, by the time the group recorded 1975’s A Song For You only included two of it’s founding members.

Breakout stars Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin might be gone, as is longtime producer Norman Whitfield, but the set doesn’t lack anything for their absence. Headed by producer Jeffrey Bowen, the sessions found the restructured Temptations backed by a crew of musicians that included the likes of drummer James Gadson, P-Funk alumni Eddie Hazel on guitar & Billy “Bass” Nelson on bass, and (on one track) The Commodores performing as “The Temptations Band.” The results are, expectedly, funky.

The stankiest Funk emanates from the Eddie Hazel-co-penned “Shaky Ground.” If I didn’t know better I would have thought this loping, bass-heavy Funk-bomb — complete with guttural fuzz & scratch-n-pick guitar riffs and Horny Horns-esque brass peals — was by some super-obscure P-Funk side-project, or a lost side by the Ohio Players at least.

Other tracks, like the Lionel Richie-co-composed, Commodores-assisted “Happy People,” “Glasshouse” and “The Prophet” all get a lil’ funky as well. The former are both more the Disco-Funk variety though, with “Happy People” feeling like a dirty Detroit relative of the positive dancefloor soul coming out of Philly at the time. While the chugging groove, dramatic strings, eastern melodies, ghostly falsetto background vocals and mystical overtones of “The Prophet” are in tune with Isaac Hayes‘ brand of bombastic, cinematic, orchestral Psych-Funk.

More symphonic strings and horns fuel the aforementioned “I’m a Bachelor,” a song that laments the life of the single gentleman while defiantly proclaiming a desire for individuality and no-holds-barred speech lie behind its protagonists bachelorhood. Propelled by a steady but not speedy bass-and-drum groove that bobs and creeps along like a late-night stroller who’s up to no good it’s the slinky sort of tune one might expect to find on a Barry White album.

The remaining selections on the disc are slower ballady numbers, but they don’t slow the album down at all.

In fact, the epic ballad “Memories” might be the best song on the record. Even now, some 30+ years after being committed to wax this forgotten Quiet Storm classic still sounds so fresh. The lyrics are sensual and sentimental. The lead vocal is a heartstopper. The harmonies are beautiful. The string arrangement (and its interplay with the main piano melody and the flutes set back in the mix) is breathtaking. It just sounds so huge! And what ’70s R&B ballad has a proggy synthesizer solo on the bridge?

Classic!

Meanwhile, the title track — the Temps’ take on the Leon Russell chestnut (and Donny Hathaway classic) “A Song for You” — doesn’t disappoint either. Even if it might seem superfluous at first glance. Luckily, the group’s vocal strengths, Bowen’s production, and the string & horn arrangements of James Carmichael all conspire to create a unique and classy interpretation of an oft-covered standard.

And “Firefly,” a romantic dedication composed and performed in the spirit of groups like the Chi-Lites, Stylistics and Delfonics which stands out for it’s layered keyboard textures, closes the record with a bang.

“Classic” lineup, big-name producers and chart hits be damned! This incarnation of The Temptations (and their collaborators) did their legacy (as pioneers of sophisticated soulful Pop and Psychedelic-Soul alike) proud when they put A Song For You to tape. And whether the band ever ended their bewailed bachelorhood in real life or not, the album is sure to win the loving companionship of anyone who’ll listen.