By the time the psychedelic revolution dosed America’s collective consciousness within the late 60s, Motown Records had spent the last decade’s first half on the entrance of nearly each new transfer in R&B and soul. And the label wasn’t about to lag behind when it got here to conserving tempo with the wildly blooming counterculture.
R&B artists have been used to being a step forward of rock ‘n’ roll, with the world’s most influential rockers scrambling to undertake the sounds of the soul artists they adored. With psychedelia, although, rock had gotten to the desk first for a change, however the soul slingers have been fast to catch up.
Motown didn’t invent the psychedelic soul idea. The Chambers Brothers snuck within the door earlier than anyone even observed. Their first model of “Time Has Come Today” was a completely totally different recording from the one which made them well-known in 1967. Shorter however nonetheless undeniably psychedelic – particularly for the time – it arrived in September of 1966, simply weeks after The Beatles’ psych milestone Revolver.
In 1967, overzealous music journalists began misapplying the “psychedelic soul” tag to The fifth Dimension, whose flower-power pop was neither psychedelic nor soul. Ironically, proto-prog rockers Vanilla Fudge have been among the many first to cotton onto the hybrid, bringing their fuzzed-out sonic assault to tunes made well-known by the likes of Curtis Mayfield and The Supremes on their self-titled debut album, launched in August 1967.
They have been adopted rapidly by their non secular cousins on the opposite facet of the rock/soul fence: The Rotary Connection, overseen by Charles Stepney and possessing the vocal energy of a younger Minnie Riperton. In February 1968, they turned tunes by The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Sam & Dave (in addition to originals) into symphonic, cinematic, tripped-out epics on their first album. Around the identical time, Sly & The Family Stone have been beginning to lay the psych-soul groundwork with early hits like “Dance to the Music.”
But the psychedelic soul period at Motown started thanks to 2 males who had virtually been a part of the label’s crew from day one. Producer/arranger/composer Norman Whitfield and singer/songwriter Barrett Strong had lengthy since been concerned in hits for the label, from the smash “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” to Strong’s personal single “Money (That’s What I Want),” the Tamla-Motown gang’s very first success.
In October of 1968, Motown launched the Temptations single “Cloud Nine,” penned by Strong and Whitfield and produced by the latter. It arrived loaded with wah-wah guitar and lyrics addressing social points. The report leaped into the Top 10, and the Strong/Whitfield psych sojourn was underway. The Cloud Nine album got here out in February of the next yr, full with a canopy depicting The Temptations in an appropriately head-swirling setting. There was no moss rising on Motown – the subsequent single was “Runaway Child, Running Wild,” a fuzz guitar-laden observe with one other socially related theme. It adopted “Cloud Nine” into the Top 10.
The Temptations have been reportedly nervous about altering the sound that had served them so effectively up to now, however by 1969, the shift’s success appears to have allayed their uncertainties. On their subsequent LP, Puzzle People, they have been all in on psychedelic soul. Another Strong/Whitfield brainchild, it options prolonged, issue-oriented tracks like “Message from a Black Man” and “Slave.” Musically, the No. 1 hit “I Can’t Get Next to You” doesn’t boast any psych trappings, however its lyrics are amongst Strong’s headiest.
Released the identical month as Puzzle People, Gladys Knight & The Pips’ Nitty Gritty put a higher emphasis on the gritty and the groovy than the group ever had earlier than, because of Strong and Whitfield. Somebody’s getting their cash’s value out of an electrical sitar on “Aint No Sun Since You’ve Been Gone” and a canopy of The Temptations’ “(I Know) I’m Losing You.” Even the non-LP single “Friendship Train,” a No. 2 R&B hit, is a cool message track with a few of the dirtiest, fuzziest guitar tones ever to occupy a Knight launch.
By the daybreak of the 70s, psychedelic music had largely exited the rock realm, nevertheless it was in full locomotion on the soul facet. The phenomenon had prolonged effectively past Motown, making for a crowded area together with the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Funkadelic, Swamp Dogg, The Isley Brothers, and Shuggie Otis.
But Strong and Whitfield have been simply getting warmed up. Their raging Vietnam assertion “War,” initially a Temptations observe, totally flowered as a 1970 Edwin Starr smash. And when it appeared on Starr’s album Involved, it was accompanied by lots extra freak-flag-flying tracks.
Whitfield introduced The Undisputed Truth collectively himself as poster kids for the scene he and Strong had was a nationwide sensation. UT scored huge with the subtly politicized “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” initially a Tempts observe. Their second album, 1971’s Face to Face with the Truth, although much less common than the primary, stays one of many heaviest slabs of stoner soul within the Motown discography.
The Undisputed Truth additionally debuted the unique model of “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” although it didn’t ignite on the charts. The Temptations, after all, ultimately took it to the highest. By then, Barrett and Norman’s paisley interval had already yielded hard-grooving Top 10 head journeys like “Psychedelic Shack,” the soundtrack to the best lava lamp-lit celebration you by no means had, and “Ball of Confusion,” later lined by all people from Duran Duran to Tesla. The latter could also be Motown’s most interesting countercultural fruit, a churning cauldron effervescent over with the period’s societal ills, stirred by a riff as unrelenting as it’s unforgettable.
Of course, Motown had different writers and producers totally able to adapting to the psychedelic soul second. That was made clear by objects like former Temptation Eddie Kendricks’ Frank Wilson-produced solo albums, and Detroit band Rare Earth’s mind-bending 21-minute tackle the previous Motown hit “Get Ready” (heroically edited to lower than three minutes for the hit single). And whereas not overtly psychedelic, Marvin Gaye’s legendary early 70s work was as heady, street-relevant, and atmospheric as any of the above after which some.
By the mid-70s, the scene had shifted. The trippy, hippie hash goals of rock and soul alike have been receding as American music slicked up and straightened out for the arrival of disco. But the concepts that emerged when R&B’s heaviest heads let all of it hang around populate a vital, compelling chapter within the story of American music.
Listen to The Temptations’ Masterpiece on Apple Music and Spotify.