Midnight flower, you got the power
let me buy the things you do, darlin', for just one hour
You may never fall in love with me but it don't matter
as long as you and I, darling, can get together
I don't care what people say you are
'cause in my eyes, girl, you're a superstar
The way you move is like sweet music flowin'
and inside of me there is a need that's growin'
No price is too high
Midnight flower, you got the power
let me buy the things you do, darlin', for just one hour
You may never fall in love with me but it don't matter
as long as you and I, darling, can get together
I don't fool myself, it's a one-sided romance
but I'd gladly pay the price for just half a chance
It's wishful thinkin', for just, oh, tonight
let me pretend, baby, I'm your heart's delight
Oh, baby, hey
Midnight flower, you got the power
let me buy the things you do, darlin', for just one hour
You may never fall in love with me but it don't matter
as long as you and I, darling, can get together
I, I just gotta have you
I need your company to soothe this yearnin' in me
Girl, I, I just gotta have you
Could be the devil's got me but only you can set me free
Don't put me, baby, love me, girl
pour it all over me, baby, your sweet love, oh, so sweet
Midnight flower, you got the power
let me buy the things you do, darlin', for just one hour
You may never fall in love with me but it don't matter
as long as you and I, darling, can get together
[from the lyrics of "
Midnight Flower"]
One of
Motown's most consistent hitmakers and its longest lived lineup (over four decades), the
Four Tops were the most stable vocal groups to emerge from the label in the '60s, charting with scores of upbeat love songs featuring
Levi Stubbs' rough hewn lead vocals.
The
Four Tops were a product of Detroit's
North End:
Levi Stubbs and
Abdul "Duke" Fakir sang together in a group while attending
Pershing High School.
Renaldo "Obie" Benson and
Lawrence Payton were boyhood friends and attended
Northern High together in Detroit too. At the insistence of their friends, they performed at a local birthday party and decided to remain together christening themselves
The Four Aims.
Roquel "Billy" Davis, who was
Lawrence Payton's cousin and sometimes sang with the group as the
fifth Aim, sent a demo tape to
Chess Records in Chicago. They were sent bus tickets and invited to audition.
It seems that
Chess was more interested in
Davis' writing skill than the group. However
Davis' persistence ended up with them being signed to
Chess Records. In 1956 they changed their name to
Four Tops to avoid confusion with the
The Ames Brothers, another well-estabilished vocal group.
Over the next seven years, the
Tops endured unsuccessful tenures at
Chess,
Red Top,
Riverside Records and
Columbia Records. Without any hit records to their name, they toured frequently, developing a polished stage presence and an experienced
supper club act. In 1963,
Berry Gordy, Jr., who had worked with
Roquel Davis as a songwriter in the late '50s, convinced the
Tops to join the roster of his growing
Motown record company.
Gordy had them record "
Breaking Through" for his experimental
Workshop Jazz subsidiary. Later that year they were finally directed toward
contemporary soul. Under the wing of
Motown's top production
and recording team,
Holland-Dozier-Holland, the
Four Tops were launched with "
Baby I Need Your Loving", which went to #11 in 1964.
Over the next eight years
The Four Tops appeared on the charts almost thirty times, and
Levi Stubbs became an international star and an influence on singers from the Sixties to the present time.
After scoring their first #1 hit, the often-recorded and revived "
I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" in June 1965, the
Four Tops began a long series of successful hit singles. Among the first wave of these hits were the Top 10 "
It's the Same Old Song", "
Something About You", "
Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)", and "
Loving You is Sweeter Than Ever".
Like many other
Motown acts, the
Four Tops became popular in major nightclubs around the world. In 1967 they had hits with "
Bernadette", "
7-Rooms of Gloom" and "
You Keep Running Away". By now, the
Tops were the most successful male
Motown act in the U.K. (...in the United States, they were second to
The Temptations...), and began experimenting with more
mainstream pop hits.
They scored hits with their versions of "
If I Were a Carpenter" and "
Walk Away Renée". These singles and the original "
I'm In a Different World" were their last hits produced by
Holland-Dozier-Holland, who left
Motown in 1967.
Without
Holland-Dozier-Holland, the quality of the
Four Tops' output began to decline, and hits became less frequent. The group worked with a wide array of
Motown producers during the late 1960s, including
Ivy Hunter,
Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson,
Norman Whitfield and
Johnny Bristol, without significant chart success.
Their first major hit in a long time came in the form of 1970's "
It's All In the Game", produced by
Frank Wilson.
Wilson and the
Tops began working on a number of innovative tracks and albums together, echoing
Whitfield's
psychedelic soul work with
The Temptations.
Their 1970 album "
Still Waters Run Deep" was an early ancestor to the concept album. It also served as an inspiration for
Marvin Gaye's 1971 classic album "
What's Going On", the title track of which was co-written by
"Obie" Benson.
In addition to their own albums, the
Tops were paired with
The Supremes for a series of three albums: "
The Magnificent Seven" was released in 1970, "
The Return of the Magnificent Seven" and "
Dynamite!" followed in 1971. While the albums themselves did not do well on the charts, "
The Magnificent Seven" featured a Top 20 version of
Ike & Tina Turner's "
River Deep - Mountain High", produced by
Ashford & Simpson.
"Meeting of the Minds" inner gatefold
In early 1972 the
Four Tops recorded "
Nature Planned It" with producer
Frank Wilson, it was their last
Motown album for more than twenty years. This release was the subject of a previous post on
Stereo Candies, just have a look
here if you're interested.
During that year,
Motown started relocating to Los Angeles and all its artists had to move as well. Many of the older acts opted to stay in Detroit, including
The Funk Brothers backing band and the
Four Tops. The
Tops departed
Motown for
ABC/Dunhill, where they were assigned to songwriters-producers
Dennis Lambert and
Brian Potter.
Moving to another label rejuvenated the group's career and when "
Keeper of the Castle" was released as a single in October 1972 it became their first Pop Top 10 hit since "
Bernadette" in 1967, with "
Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)" also entering the Top 10 in a short time.
Following the success of the "
Keeper of the Castle" LP (...enjoy it
here...), in 1973 the
Four Tops returned to the
ABC Recording Studios under the supervision of
Steve Barri with the same team of musicians, arrangers and producers to work on their 19th full-lenght studio album entitled "
Main Street People".
"
Main Street People" (...available
here courtesy of
yours truly...) was released by
ABC/Dunhill in September 1973. Just like the previous album "
Keeper of the Castle", it was produced by
Dennis Lambert and
Brian Potter, who were also responsible for writing about half of the tracks.
"
Are You Man Enough", the theme song for the movie "
Shaft In Africa", turned out to be the first of three hit singles to emerge from "
Main Street People"; it reached #2 on the
American R&B chart and #15 on the
American Billboard chart. The infectious "
Sweet Understanding Love", which would be the group's last
Top 40 Pop Hit for
ABC, and the equally catchy follow-up "
I Just Can't Get You Out of My Mind" both had a feel remarkably similar to some of the
Tops' work for
Motown.
In late 1973 / early 1974 the group was busy at the
ABC Recording Studios again working on their third album for the label, once again with the same team of musicians and producers. "
Meeting of the Minds", the subject of this post, was released a few months later.
"Meeting of the Minds" original inner sleeve
Blues & Soul magazine dedicated two reviews to the album - one when it was firstly made available as an import, and one when it was officially released in the U.K. a few weeks later; both of them are completely negative, and very strict to say the least, so I won't include them here.
The following review of "
Meeting of the Minds" is taken from the
Allmusic website (original page is available
here) and althought it can't be defined as 'favourable' at least it doesn't completely destroy the album... I'm starting to wonder if I am the only one who consider this LP as good as "
Main Street People" and very close to "
Keeper of the Castle"... Anyway, here's the review:
«
Meeting of the Minds, the proper studio follow-up to 1973's "Main Street People", wasn't a big seller either. The production failed to capitalize on the group's chemistry, offering songs that were formulaic and stale. The hokey "One Chain Don't Make No Prison" starts off promisingly, with a searing guitar riff, but then a weak set of lyrics tests Levi Stubbs' credibility. "Midnight Flower," with a faint Oriental motif, has Stubbs unabashedly singing of having the hots for a prostitute. Since the Tops' pop/R&B sound was beginning to run out of gas, they also tried other ideas. "The Well Is Dry" is reminiscent of the group's dramatic work with Holland-Dozier-Holland, but a perfunctory arrangement makes it sound artificial. Unlike many efforts, this featured other group members getting a lead vocal. The best of the lot is "Tell Me You Love Me (Love Sounds)." The song features Lawrence Payton, whose voice is lighter than Stubbs', but had his exact phrasing. The track, complete with a cooing woman and a breezy L.A. pop/R&B arrangement, is fun to listen to. "Meeting of the Minds" seemed to be an extension of "Keeper of the Castle", but the group sounded a little tired and the production seemed too listless. Despite a few good tracks, this didn't blaze any new trails for the group.»
Four Tops as they appear on the inner gatefold of "Meeting of the Minds", 1974
"
Meeting of the Minds" contains the following tracks:
01.
One Chain Don't Make No Prison (4:06)
02.
Midnight Flower (4:11)
03.
The Well Is Dry (3:46)
04.
Love Ain't Easy To Come By (3:35)
05.
No Sad Songs (5:16)
06.
Right On Brother (4:05)
07.
Tell Me You Love Me (Love Sounds) (3:30)
08.
All My Love (4:28)
09.
I Found the Spirit (3:55)
10.
Meeting of the Minds (4:22)
All tracks were remastered from the original vinyl in May 2014, they are available as a
FLAC lossless format file or as a
high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 file. Both formats offer complete printable PDF artwork.
Before burning this album on CD-R using the provided CUE file you will need to convert the original files to WAV format using an appropriate software. Here's an option for
FLAC to WAV conversion and one for
MP3 to WAV conversion.
As usual, please have a look at the comments for the download links.
Bearing catalogue number
DSD 50166 and a colourful and slightly psychedelic cover, "
Meeting of the Minds" was released by
ABC/Dunhill in April 1974. As noted elsewhere, it was the
Tops' third consecutive album produced by
Steve Barri,
Dennis Lambert and
Brian Potter.
The clavinet opening gives a decidedly
Funky start to the album and "
One Chain Don't Make No Prison" (written by
Dennis Lambert and
Brian Potter) sets a good pace. This song, backed with "
Turn On the Light On Your Love" - which, strangely enough, is taken from their 1972 album "
Keeper of the Castle" - was chosen as first single; it entered the
Billboard Hot 100 in early May and soon reached the
R&B Top 10 peaking at #3.
The midtempo "
Midnight Flower", composed by
McKinley Jackson and
Reginald Dozier is probably the
Tops' most well known track from this period; it was released as a single in July with "
All My Love" on the flip side. A short
Billboard review describes it as a «
Good, bouncy commercial effort from the band that almost never misses. Repetitive guitar riffs offer good hook to cut, as does title.» It peaked at #5 in the
Billboard R&B Chart during autumn.
"
The Well Is Dry", another
Lambert & Potter tune, should have been considered as the right choice for one more single, but it was released as such only in the U.K. to coincide with their tour, backed with the U.S. hit "
Midnight Flower" for good measure. The song is very pop and similar to some of the group's work for
Motown, with
Levi's unique vocal tones shining on it... «
The Motown sound really wasn't planned,» declared
Lawrence Payton in an interview, «
Dennis and Brian accidentally came up with it when they were preparing the track.»
"
Love Ain't Easy To Come By", once again written by
Lambert & Potter, is a gentle track that offers a sugary arrangement by
Don Hockett and
Dennis Lambert himself, with interesting strings and percussion, and even a brief saxophone solo.
Side A closes with the
Funky infected "
No Sad Songs", one of my favourite tunes from the album, duly served by blazing guitar and organ solos and an overall exciting arrangement by veteran
Gil Askey. The song features lead vocals by
Lawrence Payton, Jr. and was written by
Payton himself under his
Len Perry alias, along with
Glenn Leonard and
Roland Foster.
"Midnight Flower" sheet music, 1974
Side B starts with the social message of "
Right On Brother", one of
Lambert & Potter's finest moments. The uncredited horns occasionally jump up front in the lush arrangement by
Jimmie Haskell, and
Levi Stubbs delivers his usual first class lead vocals.
The sexy groove of "
Tell Me You Love Me (Love Sounds)" features lead vocals by
Lawrence Payton, Jr., who wrote the song along with
Al Cleveland, and the sensual participation of
Sylvia Smith. In October 1974 the song was released as a single credited solely to
Payton, backed with "
I Found the Spirit", also taken from the album. After "
One Woman Man", published the previous year, this was
Payton's second and last solo release. In an interview
Levi explained: «
Lawrence produced and conceived those tracks, and they really are in a completely different direction from the one the group is heading in, so we really didn't mind the company releasing them under his name.»
Lawrence Payton, Jr. and
Levi Stubbs share lead vocal duties on "
All My Love", one of the most
Pop tracks on the album, with the rest of the
Tops providing the usual harmonic richness they are well known for; the song was written by
Renaldo Benson along with his wife
Valaida.
"
I Found the Spirit", another song penned by
Renaldo & Valaida Benson, brings the album back in
Funky territory. After the spoken introduction,
Lawrence Payton, Jr. performs inspired lead vocals on a top-notch arrangement by
McKinley Jackson that, in the central part, includes a foreground piano solo surrounded by effective guitar licks and organ touches.
The conscious message of "
Meeting of the Minds", another great tune written by
Dennis Lambert and
Brian Potter, is particularly reminiscent of "
Keeper of the Castle", the title track of the
Tops masterpiece released two years earlier. The song is the last on the album and offers another great performance by
Levi Stubbs.
Once again I'd like to remark the greatness of this record, the last true
Soul album recorded by the
Four Tops before the advent of the
Disco era. Have a listen and you'll be rewarded
.
The following videos offer a preview of the remastered album: "
Meeting of the Minds", "
All My Love", "
No Sad Songs", and "
I Found the Spirit", enjoy!
Here's the credits and personnel list of "
Meeting of the Minds" as they appear on the inner gatefold of the album and on the labels:
One Chain Don't Make No Prison
(Dennis Lambert / Brian Potter)
Arranged by
Michael Omartian
Lead Vocal:
Levi Stubbs
Midnight Flower
(McKinley Jackson / Reginald Dozier)
Arranged by
Michael Omartian
Lead Vocal:
Levi Stubbs
The Well Is Dry
(Dennis Lambert / Brian Potter)
Arranged by
Michael Omartian
Lead Vocal:
Levi Stubbs
Love Ain't Easy To Come By
(Dennis Lambert / Brian Potter)
Arranged by
Dennis Lambert and
Don Hockett
Lead Vocal:
Levi Stubbs
No Sad Songs
(Len Perry / Glenn Leonard / Roland Foster)
Arranged by
Gil Askey
Lead Vocal:
Lawrence Payton, Jr.
Right On Brother
(Dennis Lambert / Brian Potter)
Arranged by
Jimmie Haskell
Lead Vocal:
Levi Stubbs
Tell Me You Love Me (Love Sounds)
(Lawrence Payton, Jr. / Al Cleveland)
Arranged by
Gil Askey
Lead Vocal:
Lawrence Payton, Jr.
Female Vocalist:
Sylvia Smith
All My Love
(Renaldo Benson / Valaida Benson)
Arranged by
Gil Askey
Lead Vocal:
Lawrence Payton, Jr.,
Levi Stubbs
I Found the Spirit
(Renaldo Benson / Valaida Benson)
Arranged by
McKinley Jackson
Lead Vocal:
Lawrence Payton, Jr.
Meeting of the Minds
(Dennis Lambert / Brian Potter)
Arranged by
Michael Omartian
Lead Vocal:
Levi Stubbs
Produced by:
Steve Barri,
Dennis Lambert and
Brian Potter
Recording Engineers:
Phil Kaye,
Howard Gale and
Barney Perkins
Mastering Engineer:
Vic Zaslav
Recorded at:
ABC Recording Studios, Inc., Studio A, Los Angeles, California
Musicians include:
Drums:
Ed Greene,
Paul Humphrey
Bass:
Wilton Felder,
Scott Edwards
Keyboards:
Michael Omartian,
Dennis Lambert
Guitars:
Larry Carlton,
Ben Benay,
Dean Parks,
Ray Parker
Percussion:
King Errisson,
Gary Coleman,
Brian Potter,
Steve Barri
Concert Master:
Sid Sharp
Cover painting:
Peter Parowski
Illustration:
Dave Willardson
Photography:
Ron Slenzak
"One Chain Don't Make No Prison", promotional single, front cover
The following interview was conducted by
Sharen Wood with
Abdul "Duke" Fakir and
Renaldo "Obie" Benson during the recording of "
Meeting of the Minds". It is particularly interesting because the two
Tops talk about they departure from
Motown and their plans to set up a new record label for young talents; I guess that the latter has remained a
desideratum because I wasn't able to find any evidence about it, but anyway... The interview was published on issue #132 of
Blues & Soul magazine in early April 1974.
You'll have noticed that, unlike my previous features, this piece is not classified as "A Profile". That's because I only managed to corral two of the Four Tops in one room at the same time; but the resulting conversation was nonetheless as rewarding and enlightening as it could be.
The Tops were in Los Angeles to record their latest LP and, when I arrived at their hotel for the interview, "Duke" and "O.B." were slaying away over a hot tape recorder, getting down the lyrics to one of the tracks that will be featured.
Lawrence had taken advantage of a free day and gone out of town and Levi was soundly sleeping. As the lead singer and, therefore, the last to add his voice to the tracks, Levi usually works late into the night, long after the others have gone to their beds. As a result, when the group is recording, day turns into night for him.
However, I was not to be disappointed, as the two gentlemen I had on my hands were eager and happy to give 'Blues and Soul' all the lowdown on what was happening in their world.
The spirit of enthusiasm they generated about their current situation was contagious. It turns out that, these days, the Four Tops are four happy men because, after years of battling against a veritable brick wall, they have finally achieved what they believe to be an ideal situation for them.
They told me that they were about to sign a deal with their recording company, ABC-Dunhill, whereby they would have their own company, to be distributed through ABC. So, while continuing to work as artists for ABC-DunhiIl, they would be businessmen in their own right, running record and music publishing companies and the various off-shoots of those enterprises.
The Tops think that this turn of events has given them all a new lease on life. As O.B. put it, "We enjoy working now. We're up at eight o'clock in the morning, working on a new song. When we were at Motown, I didn't even have a record player; I wouldn't even carry any electronic equipment around because I thought, 'For what?'. And that's no way to feel about your chosen profession."
Duke added, "I think that we have a new-found kind of natural drive, 'cos we know now that we're working for ourselves and everything we do, we can feel the impact of it somewhere. So we work harder all around. I just think that since we left Motown - and we had some great times there, we learned a lot from them - we've started to mature in ourselves, as people in the business world, which we find very comfortable. I think some of our resources were kind of stifled at Motown and they're just starting to flow now."
I asked if this feeling of being stifled was one of the group's reasons for leaving Motown; Duke replied, "Basically, yes. Even though we had a good time with them and they were the reason for our career catapulting to the degree that it did. But there comes a time for growth and with Motown, if you want to grow beyond a certain point, then you just have to leave. We wanted to start doing more writing, we wanted to produce, we wanted to help other artists, we wanted to have our own label and our own publishing company; in other words, we wanted to really be in business and we couldn't do that at Motown."
O.B. had some thoughts to add to that; "At this stage of our lives, it's natural for us to want to do things by ourselves. You see, even though we get financial rewards from the sale of our records, I think what is most gratifying about your work is to know that other individuals are appreciating it and enjoying it. "It's also gratifying to listen to it on the radio; to hear what you've created in your mind and to see if you were successful in re-creating the same feeling that you experienced when you were writing that particular tune."
I asked if the Tops had only recently begun to create their own material. Duke answered, "Actually, yes. When we were at Motown, O.B. and Lawrence started writing. O.B. wrote "What's Going On" with Marvin Gaye, plus a couple of other things. So we'd started but it didn't get a chance to completely flourish."
"Not only that," said O.B., "the problem with being with Motown is, I did those tunes with Marvin, but the group didn't benefit from it in any way because they wouldn't give me credit for it. They billed one individual, Marvin, and eliminated the other, me. That situation could never happen with ABC-Dunhill. They're not interested in taking any accolades away, they give you credit for what you do. And that's important because it can sell records for us too. If I write a hit song for Marvin Gaye and I get the proper publicity, that's gonna make our records sell. What Motown did is called suffocating you creatively."
Duke didn't want to leave the impression that Motown was all bad and that the group entirely resented everything about the company. " I think that their philosophy is good up to a certain point. It's very fruitful as a way to get you off the ground, the way to put you out there. And, if you're not ready, they prepare you. But I feel that when an artist gets to a certain point, that's when they should cut them loose, give them more rein and set them up in different little projects. The company would benefit and the artist would have a chance to grow in other areas. They teach you your profession well, but then they refuse to let you use what you know."
However, the Four Tops are among the lucky ones. They've managed to extricate themselves from a situation they no longer found equitable and are presumably sitting pretty with just about everything they've dreamed of about to become a reality. How did these four offspring of the Detroit ghetto get to this point; where they are acclaimed among the world's top stars and, if they have their way, will soon be business moguls to boot?
Firstly, they were fortunate in growing up in the right place at the right time. The north end of Detroit may not seem like everyone's idea of the ideal place to live, but if you happened to have aspirations towards a musical career, it was a veritable breeding ground of talent during the 1950's when the future members of the Four Tops were adolescent and ambitious.
Duke (real name, Abdul Fakir), O.B. (Renaldo Benson), Lawrence Payton and Levi Stubbs joined forces after singing separately with other groups. The Four Tops turned out to be something to be reckoned with at the weekly amateur singing contests held around the city. The competition among the young people at these events was fierce. Music was everything to them.
Duke explained the atmosphere of the time. "In our youth, Detroit was like an entertainment capital - all the bands and artists came through here. Now, it's not quite the same, but then, we were always going to see something entertainment wise. We'd skip school sometimes and spend the whole day listening to the bands - Lucky Milner, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie and the like. So it just kind of orientated all young people into music. Also, at that time, I think more young people were going to church. There wasn't a lot of TV and parents were a little more strict then. So, every Sunday, all the kids went to church, even if they did nothing but sit there and go to sleep. So, generally, if you had to go, you tried to get into the gospel choir because at least it was something to do."
O.B. interjected, "And not only that, the choir would get to go on picnics and have dances and things like that. Also, they'd have Sunday competitions between all the different churches."
Duke resumed, "In other words, in our youth, there was competition in music constantly and it was very attractive to young people for a lot of reasons. It was a chance to dress up and there was always a chance to meet pretty, little girls. And it was fun. It also kept you out of a whole lot of trouble."
When the boys graduated from high school, they already knew that show business was to be their lives. "We went to this agency," recalls Duke, "and right away, they started booking us into little clubs and lounges. We were lucky enough to find plenty of work because there was an abundance of small places around Detroit. Then, we ran into a guy named Arthur Braggs who had a club in a summer resort in Michigan, called Idlewild. We would go up there every summer for about ten weeks. For us, at that time, it was like the living end, like going to Las Vegas."
It was in Idlewild, under the strict eye of Mr. Braggs, that the boys got their first real indoctrination into professional show business. O.B. remembers, "If we would make a mistake in the show, Arthur would have us rehearsing that particular thing over and over again for two or three hours the next day. I imagine that's one thing that turned us against becoming too regimented in our choreography and routines. We had to practice so much that the stuff would become so automatic it would lose it's appeal."
Duke agreed: "We found that if you know exactly what you're going to do every night, it's hard to really project. Some people can, I guess, and some people would rather not. We're the latter. We'd rather be a little more spontaneous. We have the freedom, more or less, to be ourselves on stage, rather than four guys trying to be one personality."
The Four Tops became working professionals right from high school, most assuredly as a result of the right combination of luck and talent. I asked if there had ever been any lean periods in their working lives. With a wry smile, Duke replied, "Oh yes. For the first ten years, there were always some lay-offs. It was really rough for the period before we had our first hit. We'd made about three different records before the hit, but they only sold maybe four or five copies apiece."
"And we bought all of them!" broke in O.B. "In those ten years when we were scuffling," Duke went on, "we would work maybe twenty-eight weeks out of the year. The rest of the time was spent just trying to stay together; trying not to get work outside of show business because that would definitely split us up. I remember I did work one weekend in a car wash, but. that was about it."
And through all those years, they did manage to stay together, throughout the hard times and the good. Looking back on how they managed to do it, O.B. said, "I would like to say to all young groups that are coming out now and trying to do their thing – get yourselves together first, understand each other first. And then understand which direction you want to go in. Everybody in the group has to have a certain function. The most important things for any group to have is somebody musical, somebody creating a specific sound for them. A lot of groups would be great, except that they're copying everybody else's stuff. That's because they don't have anybody that has the individual qualities to create a different sound for them."
I asked which one of the Tops served that function for the rest of the group. "Lawrence basically is in that department," said Duke, "we're all creative, but he's the one that really sets our musical style. O.B. is supercreative, on-stage, off-stage, lyrically and so forth. Levi is, to us, one of the greatest lead singers there is. He can project any tune you give him. And then there's the one that basically taks care of the business… that's me. We all make the decisions together, but there has to be one that goes forth and sees that they're carried out. So we all have our different functions and we all feel important. That's probably the reason why we've been together for so long. Each one of us feels as important as the next one. So we don't have the ego problem which is the main cause of most groups breaking up. Also, the four of us get along so well personally. When we're not working, we're relaxing and playing poker together."
All four members are married men and work has taken them away from their families for as much as six months in every year. Now, however, with their new label being formed in Los Angeles, they're planning to consolidate personal and working lives. Duke said, "We won't be going on the road quite as much as before. We will be in Las Vegas a lot, but that's very close to L.A. and our families will be able to be with us."
They didn't have a name for the new label as of the time of my talking with them, but their plans regarding it were well formulated. "We have a few artists ready to sign whom we won't name yet until everything's set up," Duke said, "and we'll have some releases almost immediately. All the members of the group will serve as producers, A&R men, etc."
"We also plan to set up a situation where we can help and develop young acts who are trying to get into the business," added O.B., "We're going to call it the Career Guidance Department. We won't say Management because that's a nasty word that has come to mean just taking ten per cent of the artist's earnings. Career Guidance is exactly what we plan to give. We‘ll help any young artist in any way we can, turn them on to the right contacts and give them any kind of real advice that they need. And as a part of developing young acts, when we take a tour, we'll have a couple of them with us to give them exposure."
The two Tops summed it up like this: "We want to prove that you can be in business without ripping people off. It can be done. You can really genuinely give of yourself and your artistic talents, plus your business knowledge, and you can reap rewards without ripping 'em off. We've had some big disappointments throughout the years, so we're going to try to keep them to a minimum for our artists. All this is gonna do is make entertainment better. These artists are gonna perform better for the people. It's going to be so that they can't wait to get out there and do their thing, because everything's gonna be all right for them."
The following playbacks of "
Midnight Flower" and "
Right On Brother" were performed by the
Four Tops for the American musical variety TV show
Soul Train; they were broadcasted on October 12, 1974 and are available courtesy of
YouTube.
More information about "
Meeting of the Minds",
Lambert & Potter and the
Four Tops is available here:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/meeting-of-the-minds-mw0000840999
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/four_tops/meeting_of_the_minds/
http://www.discogs.com/Four-Tops-The-Meeting-Of-The-Minds/master/132721
http://www.funkmysoul.gr/the-four-tops-abc-years/
http://www.whosampled.com/sample/94525/Kingpen-Slim-The-Way-You-Move-Four-Tops-Midnight-Flower/
http://www.discogs.com/Four-Tops-The-One-Chain-Dont-Make-No-Prison/master/230331
http://www.discogs.com/Four-Tops-Midnight-Flower-All-My-Love/master/312481
http://www.discogs.com/Four-Tops-The-Well-Is-Dry/release/2131355
http://www.45cat.com/45_search.php?sq=one+chain+don%27t+make+no+prison&sm=se
http://www.45cat.com/45_search.php?sq=midnight+flower&sm=se
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dennis-lambert-mn0000818714
http://www.answers.com/topic/dennis-lambert
http://www.bignoisenow.com/dennislambert.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Potter_%28musician%29
http://www.answers.com/topic/brian-potter-musician
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/brian-potter-mn0000623246
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Dennis+Lambert+%26+Brian+Potter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Tops
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Four%20Tops.html
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-four-tops-mn0000071812
http://rockhall.com/inductees/the-four-tops/bio/
http://www.soultracks.com/fourtops.htm
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/the-four-tops/biography
http://www.vocalhalloffame.com/inductees/the_four_tops.html
http://www.warr.org/fourtops.html
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/levi-stubbs-mn0000256831
http://tsort.info/music/7tkq0a.htm
http://tsort.info/music/7anj49.htm
http://www.45cat.com/artist/four-tops/us
http://www.45cat.com/artist/four-tops/uk
http://www.whosampled.com/sampled/Four%20Tops/?sp=1
If you have any other useful information about the
Four Tops and "
Meeting of the Minds" - especially corrections and improvements to this post - or if you spot any dead links, please get in touch with me at
stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
