Levi Stubbs

EULOGY

DarLucky lets me know that one of the icons of Motown, Levi Stubbs, has died.

A pretty good overview of Stubbs' career with the Four Tops can be found here.

I remember in the early sixties, when Berry Gordy "discovered" the Tops, that they'd already been around for some time. There was much exaggeration about exactly how long they'd been around (Some people averred they'd heard them in the 1940s.), but when "I Can't Help Myself" came out, it was obvious that Motown had some new hitmakers.

I first saw the Tops at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ in March of 1967, when they were at the apex of their fame. They did a version of "Bernadette" that night that I've never forgotten. I last saw them about ten years ago in New Haven in concert with the Temptations, and Levi and his backups were still doing it to it. Unlike the Tempts, the Four Tops never varied their lead singer in any of their songs. They didn't need to: When you've got "one of the most dynamic and emotive voices of all the Motown singers," anyone else trying to take the lead would have just gummed up the works.

Certainly, no one else could have sung these lines with the power of Levi Stubbs:

They'll tell you a story of sadness
A story too hard to believe
They'll tell you the loneliest one is me
Just ask the lonely
Ask me
I'm the loneliest one you'll see

Requiescat in pace.