The Temptations’ psychedelic shack

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY

Between “My Girl” and “Just My Imagination” were the shadowed psychedelic years of the Temptations—the albums where Motown’s classiest male-vocal group (always sharing sides with the Supremes) dissolved into heavy funk and carefully ambiguous drug references and fished up a line about sunshine on a cloudy day just to obliterate it a verse later as baritone Melvin Franklin delivered the new progressive program. “REACH OUT!” he rumbled, “AND TOUCH YOUR SOUL!” The Temptations were getting deep. A Sly Stone song on the radio during the 1968 sessions for sea-change song “Cloud Nine” instantly dismantled producer Norman Whitfield’s creative block, and a Grammy for “Cloud Nine” gave him license—and eventually almost-total control—to remold the Temptations the way he wanted. Since original sweetheart singer David Ruffin had only recently left and the Contours’ rougher shouter Dennis Edwards joined as replacement, it was an appropriate moment to explore atomization. For the next set of albums—try 1969’s Cloud Nine and Puzzle People and 1970’s Psychedelic Shack, named after Crenshaw’s transmaniacal Maverick’s Flat club—the Temptations tied on zone-out instrumentals, bloody fuzz guitar, and even the original version of “War” (as in ugh! absolutely nothing!) which fans requested for single release, and which Motown pushed on Edwin Starr instead because it was too hot—even then!—a song for the Temptations. That must have been about the last limit left—producer Whitfield blew into the 10-minute album cut on Cloud Nine—but by 1971 the band (and the fans) were starting to crease under the heaviness. The return-to-form single “Just My Imagination” got the Temptations higher on the charts than anything since “My Girl,” and was also the last single for founders Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks. Whitfield’s production of “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” the next year would be the Temptations’ last number one—one of the last songs Motown recorded in Detroit. After that: disco and Hitsville West, and fuzz guitars dismantled and sold at surplus, and a wild detour in discography left to curl under smoother soul retrospectives. As they say: fun while it lasted.

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Tags: cerritos, four tops, motown, soul, the temptations