Smokey Robinson interview
Smokey Robinson
Life Of The Party
Smokey Robinson, the man Bob Dylan famously called “America’s greatest living poet,” has had an impact on music like few others. He wrote such classics as “Shop Around,” “Tears Of A Clown,” “I Second That Emotion,” and “Going To A Go-Go” and, with Berry Gordy, made Motown Records successful. Beyond his own work with The Miracles, Robinson wrote, co-wrote, or produced hits for others, among them The Temptations (“My Girl,” “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” “Get Ready”), Mary Wells (“My Guy”), and The Marvelettes (“The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game”). In his 40-plus years in the business Robinson has recorded hundreds of songs and written thousands more (4,000 by one estimate).
Yet Robinson’s pioneering influence extends beyond songwriting and Motown. His tenor and falsetto are instantly recognizable and so much a part of the musical landscape that the title of one of his best early solo albums, 1975’s Quiet Storm, has become the name for a smooth, subgenre of R&B. Robinson has been inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (with The Miracles), and has received both the Grammy’s Living Legend and Lifetime Achievement awards. He has written an autobiography and hosted a call-in radio show. Through it all, he continues to perform and record. This month, he releases Timeless Love, an album of standards.
Timeless Love purrs late-night intimacy. Romantic and devilish, the standards are delivered by Robinson with soul and passion. As expected, Gershwin and Porter are represented, but so too is Kurt Weil and the Cyndi Lauper/Rob Hyman composition “Time After Time” (which Robinson turns into a medley with the Cahn/Styne song by the same name). Robinson chooses only one of his own songs (“I Love Your Face”), which raises the question of why a man who is himself responsible for an impressive chunk of The Great American Songbook would release an album of standards?
So we asked him.
IE: You’re one of the pre-eminent songwriters alive today, yet you did an album of standards. Why?
Smokey Robinson: You know, it’s really been a plan of mine for about three years or so. These songs are the first songs that I ever remember hearing in my life as a baby, as a child growing up. These were the songs that were being played in my home. These songs were written when the song was king. The song was the focal point when these songs were written. Because the song was the king at that time and these are the first songs that I ever remember hearing. So now I’ve always loved these songs. I have been singing at least one or two of these every night in my live concerts for about the last 14 years. And my original thing was, I was going to rent out a hall or something like that, invite four or five hundred people and just do a concert of these songs and record them live.
IE: Lovely.
SR: But that never took place, so I did the next best thing. I have the musicians in the studio playing while I’m singing and I’m singing while they’re playing. Now in today’s recording, nobody does that. Everything is overdubs. People who play on the same records and sing on the same records never even see each other. With the exception of the string players because the studio couldn’t accommodate all the people, everybody was in the studio at the same time. We had a ball.
IE: Talking about the time when the song was king — is that what you were trying to emulate as a songwriter?
SR: Ah, no, no, no, no, no, honey. As a songwriter, when I write a song, I just want to write a song. I guess in a way, that is emulation of the songs that are included there because they are timeless. That’s why I called my CD Timeless Love, ’cause those songs will be going on and on and on 50 years from now. I want to write a song that if I had written it 50 years before I did it would have meant something. It’s going to mean something currently and 50 years from now it’s going to mean something. It’s going to have something in it, some lyrical content, that means something to life and to people. That’s my goal.
IE: It’s been a fairly consistent one. One of your early quotes is “We set out to make good music that would be acceptable in all circles. Good, solid songs that anybody could relate to.”
SR: Absolutely.
IE: So over this long a time, how have you kept your art vital to you? Not everybody can.
SR: God gives everybody gifts, you know what I mean? Many people never really discover what the gifts are, but they’ve got them. One of my gifts is to be a songwriter. It’s not something that I labor over. I’m not one of those writers who needs to take two months and go off to the mountains and isolate myself to write music. Music comes to me almost everyday of my life. There’s a melody or something that comes to me, or some words — or you might say something to me that will trigger an idea for a song. If so, I’ll give you credit. And being a singer is my life’s dream. I’m getting the chance to live my dream, and I’m getting the chance to live my dream beyond my *wildest dreams. So I look at it as a blessing.
IE: Do you keep a notebook of ideas, or does the music stay in your head?
SR: Yes [laughs]. I’ve got all kinds of little scraps of paper, man, with song ideas on them and, you know, cardboard box covers . . . everything, man. Wherever it comes, that’s where I’m going to jot it down.
IE: You touched on this earlier: What role has spirituality played in your music? Has that role changed over time?
SR: We are all, firstly, spiritual beings. Everybody. So spirituality is a part of my life and I hope it’s an obvious one because I want to be spiritual. I want to be connected to God. I don’t ever want to forget my spiritual self because all this other stuff is just stuff. All these things that you accumulate — homes, cars, clothes — that’s just stuff. Because after you leave here, that’s gonna be right here when you’re gone. This body that you’re in is gonna fade and become dust. Your spirit is the continuation of your life, so I want to always be spiritual.
IE: You’ve had to cope with something few others have had to cope with, which is being called a pioneer, a genius, a legend — how do you deal with that?
SR: My last answer to you is almost the same answer to this. I look at myself as being a very, very, very blessed person. I get a chance to live everyday of my life knowing that I’m living my dream. Not only am I living my dream, I’m making a really good living at it, know what I mean? We all make the world go ’round, honey. Because you’re in show business, or because you’re someone people recognize, that should not make you think that you’re better than anyone else who does anything. Always keep your feet on the ground, man. I’m going to give you a parable to think about here. When I was a kid growing up — you know how kids play the dozens and talk about your momma and talk about your daddy and so on and so forth?
IE: Yes.
SR: They say things like, “Your daddy’s the garbage man!” Well, can you imagine the world without any men who say, “I’m going to pick up the garbage and I’m going to take it to this dump place where I can get it away from around people?” Can you imagine a world without those men? We need them a whole lot more than we need another movie star or another singer or another dancer.
IE: You’re touring and performing behind this record, correct?
SR: Yeah, but I perform all the time. I’m always performing. I play all the casinos in the country, especially Las Vegas and in the summertime I do concerts and play some concert halls, fairs and stuff like that. I do 60 or 70 dates a year.
IE: Is that getting hard to do?
SR: No, because I love it. I get a chance to one-on-one with the fans. Have a good time with them, thank the music, and have some joy. So I love it. It’s my favorite part of my work.
— M.S. Dodds
