Otis Williams sustaining note that knits the group together
Saturday, August 15, 1998
By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic
Otis Williams is nothing if not a survivor.
He's kept the Temptations together and on the road for nearly 40 years despite the loss of every key vocalist to take a significant lead on any of 37 Top 40 singles the group released in an awe-inspiring 11-year chart run.
Otis WIlliams, the only remaining original member of The Temptations. (V.W.H. Campbell Jr. - Post-Gazette)
David Ruffin, the voice of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" and "My Girl," was canned in 1968 after missing a gig. In 1991, he overdosed on crack cocaine and died in a Philadelphia hospital.
Eddie Kendricks took one final lead on the breathtaking chart-topper "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" before going solo in '72. In 1992, he died of lung cancer.
Dennis Edwards, who stepped to the plate with a funkier, more aggressive style after Ruffin's departure, quit three times ('77, '83 and '87).
Paul Williams, the man behind the choreography that might have had as much to do with the group's success as any particular singer or song, retired in '73. An alcoholic, Williams spent his final days with the group pretending to sing while another vocalist, Richard Street, sang his parts behind a curtain. Two years after retiring, Williams was found shot and slumped over in his car just blocks from Motown. It's believed the wound was self-inflicted.
As recently as 1994, the Temptations could boast of two remaining links to the chart-topping days of "My Girl" -- Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin, the bass man. Franklin died in '95 of complications from a seizure.
Many performers in Williams' position would have packed it in at that point, if not decades earlier. They're not Williams. In a backstage tent at the Coca-Cola Star Lake Amphitheatre, he pauses to talk about surviving in "a fickle business."
"Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, when they lost Frankie, that was it," Williams says. "In most cases, that's the death knell for a group. But here, we've lost some very heavyweight personalities, and we have still been able to survive. It lets me know that this group has a purpose, that it's in God's plans for this group to be around. And here it is, we're just as popular as when we first started out. They have us booked up to the year 2000."
The group is about to release what Williams swears is its 56th album.
And then there's the movie. It's the story about how they came to be the most successful male vocal group of the '60s and early '70s and is being filmed in Pittsburgh for a four-hour NBC miniseries, none-too-cryptically titled "The Temptations." It's scheduled to air at 9 p.m. Nov. 1 and 2.
Why Pittsburgh instead of Detroit? It turns out Pittsburgh looks more like the Detroit of the '60s than Detroit does.
Williams says he tries not to "languish too much on the past." But these days, it's hard to avoid it, what with co-producing the miniseries and all. Based on a book by Williams, the story begins with him at 13 dreaming of one day becoming the new Frankie Lymon.
"They used to have rock 'n' roll shows that would come to the Fox Theatre in Detroit," he says. "And when I saw the Cadillacs and Frankie Lymon, that's when I said, 'I want to do that.' The Fox is the second-largest indoor theater in America, and when you're 13, everything seems super-big, so I'm looking around in a place that has 5,000 people and you could just see people hanging all over everything, just going crazy because of what was happening on stage."
He got his first taste of success in a group called Otis Williams and the Distants. "We had a record out that was so popular you would turn the radio on and that's all you would hear: 'Come On.' And we were at this record hop one day and Berry Gordy was coming in with the Miracles. I was in awe."
The head of the Hit Factory introduced himself to Williams in what Fonzie used to call his office. "When I went to the restroom, he went to the restroom, and that's when he gave me his card, saying 'Hey, I like you guys. Come see me. I'm starting my own label.' "
Franklin was one of the Distants, as was Elbridge Bryant (whom Ruffin replaced in 1963) Paul Williams and Kendricks entered the picture in 1961 after making a name for themselves in the Primes.
"When we first got together, we were just a group that was standing there and singing," Williams says. "But Paul said, 'No, no, we've got to be a group of action and excitement.' And little did we know that that choreography Paul started would be a trademark."
As the group matured, the sound grew edgier and the subject matter shifted from "My Girl" to "Ball of Confusion," 'cause that's what the world is today, hey, hey.
"It was definitely a sign of the times," says Williams. "See, we came from the '60s, which has been noted as the most tumultuous decade of the past hundred years. You could sit right at home and see your president assassinated -- leaders like Dr. King, RFK. So we were writing and singing about that -- 'Ball of Confusion,' 'Run Away Child' and 'Message From a Black Man.' That was the era that we were living in."
Rather than alienating the masses the way a powerful, controversial message would today, the hard-hitting, socially relevant "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" knocked Johnny Nash's optimistic "I Can See Clearly Now" off the top of the charts.
"I think it was more or less like a release valve to our fans when we would perform, because we were going through such crazy times," says Williams. "We've actually seen people cry as we sang certain songs. That means just as much as all the money we've made, to be touching a heart."
The Temptations were far from immune to the struggles that define the '60s. Racism was overt when they were traveling in the South, Williams says. "You would see a rope right down the middle of the auditorium, blacks on one side, whites on the other."
When the group hit Williams' home state, Texas, it wasn't exactly the hero's welcome that a chart-topping white singer might have expected. "We'd get off the bus to go get something to eat and they'd say, 'Oh no, we don't serve ...' and they'd use the n-word. So we'd have to get back on our bus and go somewhere else down the road. They'd say, 'Oh no, you can't use the restroom here.' ... Now you can walk in anywhere and use the restroom. You can walk in anywhere and be served. So we've seen that kind of change. We've made some inroads but still not enough."
As they moved into the edgy funk-rock years of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," the Temptations found a home on album-oriented FM stations, a rare accomplishment for Motown acts. They never had another hit as big as "Papa," though. Their chart-run petered out in '75, but oldies airplay kept the classic hits alive. And Williams kept an ever-changing lineup of Temptations on the road.
Williams says that when it comes to replacing Temptations, "I'm not that impressed with, 'Oh, that boy can really sing.' I tell a lot of people, when you go to a movie, the movie might have Harrison Ford, Anne Heche, Stallone or whatever, some heavyweight talent. And you know what it's going to say? Directed by. That's the key to being successful. You've got to be able to take direction, regardless of how talented you are. If you can't take direction, you're going to nullify everything. So I'm more interested in the heart and the head."
This article shows how arrogant this no-talented back-up singer was/is.
You've got to be able to take direction, regardless of how talented you are. If you can't take direction, you're going to nullify everything. " Please O!!!
True you do have to be able to work as a team. But hell it wasn't following direction that made the C5 stars. I was the talent of Ruffin.Eddie,Paul and Melvin. O makes me sick!!!!