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1966 and All That: The Four Tops

In 1986, twenty years on, Billy Bragg released ‘Levi Stubbs’ Tears’, a depressing-but-vital song about domestic abuse, and the woman-in-question’s recourse to The Four Tops’ music to help her cope. What I didn’t fully appreciate when I bought this 45, was just how much the lyrics of Holland/Dozier/Holland also hinted at emotional abuse, possessiveness and potential violence. Berry Gordy didn’t allow such subject matter in his artist’s work at the time, but this began to change by the end of the sixties (The Temptations’ 'Cloud Nine’, for example), when Stevie Wonder (no longer 'little’ by this time), Marvin Gaye and The Temps began to demand the expansion of what they were allowed to say about the more unpalatable aspect of inner city Amerika.

This summer’s Love Island, mostly unfurling/unravelling across July (this month again!), has gained some notoriety, mostly through the antics of Luca and Gemma, with the former displaying (and being 'outed’ by the public, culminating, in it’s most extreme form, in several death threats towards him) controlling and over-possessive behaviour towards and around Gemma. (Some have suggested that clips of Luca’s behaviour would make a good video to show school children, especially girls, about the forms that indirect 'controlling behaviour’ can take.) I’d suggest listening to The Four Tops’ work, for a further glimpse into the mindset of 'a man possessed’, i.e. Levi Stubbs’ persona of a man driven half-mad by his rantings and ravings about his 'love object’. They can be read as mere 'love songs’, but, given a close listen, they demonstrate controlling and passive-aggressive signals, with emotional blackmail and veiled threats of either harm to self or even, potentially, to 'the loved one’.

1966 and 1967, in particular, contained a plethora of these songs. Look at the following titles - 'Standing In the Shadow of Love’, 'Without the One You Love (Life Is Not Worth Living’, 'I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)’, 'You Keep Running Away’, 'If You Don’t Want My Love’, 'I’ll Turn To Stone’, and 'Sad Souvenirs’ - just to get a flavour of the hectoring tones that Stubbs’ uses on the women that he is obsessed with. The listener will make up their own mind, but I will leave you with a sample of the lyrics of 'Bernadette’ (probably the most chilling) and 'You Keep Running Away’. I’m sure that Luca would approve of their sentiments:

“And when I speak to you, I see you in other men’s eyes, and I’m well aware of what’s on their minds. They pretend to be my friend, while all the time they try to persuade you from my side. They’d give the world and all they own for just one moment of what we have known…I want you in order to live. And while I live only to hold you, other men they long to control you. But how can they control you, Bernadette, when they cannot control themselves?…But, darling, you belong to me, you’re the soul of me, you’re part of me…” ('Bernadette’)

One would be hard pressed to find a better example anywhere of projective identification. Stubbs sound deranged.

“All I want to do is to take care of you, this soul of mine has been possessed by you. Darling, my heart has been obsessed with you…Just look at me, I’m not the man I used to be” ('You Keep Running Away")

And little wonder she keeps running, one might remark. Self - pity and blame-syndrome seem to be driving this iteration of Stubbs’ volatile and injured man-child. “It’s not my fault, look what you’ve done to me”, etc., etc. The emotional depths of the early Tamla pantheon has not always been acknowledged, with the focus often of it’s 'later’ album-length products. The Four Top’s canon forms one of the label’s most profound creations.

All the songs referred to can be found on The Ultimate Collection compilation. However, it sadly excludes The Tops’ masterful rendition of Tim Hardin’s 'If I Was A Carpenter’.

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The banner picture is by the late Mal Dean (1941-1974), which featured on the cover of the 1972 Incus Records vinyl release, Live Performances at Verity's Place, by two free improvisation pioneers, the English guitarist Derek Bailey and Dutch percussionist Han Bennink.