"Papa Was A Rolling Stone"

Westerly Wood

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nice. I do not get the violin in that tune. great bass and electric guitar tones!
 

adorshki

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nice. I do not get the violin in that tune. great bass and electric guitar tones!

It was '72. I wasn't a huge violin fan myself but it worked in "Smiling Faces" from 1971:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CJZcVi5BA4

My other 2 Temptations faves:
"I Can't Get Next to You"; MAGNIFICENT rhythm section and knocked "Sugar Sugar" out of the #1 spot, fist pump, yeah!
And replaced by "Suspicious Minds", the first Elvis tune I ever actually liked.
Radio was so good back then.
Then came January 1970 and the Jackson 5.
1970 was a very very bad year for my AM radio and me:
https://www.billboard.com/archive/charts/1970/hot-100
It's easier to say there were only 3 #1's I could stomach: "Venus", "War" and "American Woman"
Everything else was muzak to my ears.
At least there other little gems still scattered around the top 40.
https://top40weekly.com/category/1970/

My other Temptations favorite, "Ball of Confusion" made it to a #3 in '70.
 

shihan

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I can’t listen to ‘Poppa Was a Rolling Stone’ without counting out the bass riff through the whole song. Pure genius.
 

5thumbs

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My wife was a huge Temptations fan, myself not that much, more into the singer/songwriter acoustic thing. But I knew she would love seeing them, so I thought taking her to one of their concerts (IIRC ≈ 1976) would be a treat. I figured, hey, I'll enjoy it too. Live music is always good.

Holy crap! The sound, the choreography just knocked me away. What a fantastic show. We both loved it.

Thanks for the memory.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Brings back memories of me & my childhood neighbor/friend Dona shimmying around in her house (or mine) while blasting Motown 45s on our folks' "HiFi" systems. She had the Papa… 45—belonged to her older sister, I think—and I had (still have!) Ball Of Confusion.

-Dave-
 

Mark WW

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Peeps still listened to AM radio in the 70's? I thought everyone switched to FM?
 

walrus

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Peeps still listened to AM radio in the 70's? I thought everyone switched to FM?

Unless you had a new car, you had to install an FM converter to get it. At least for me, the used cars I drove as a teen and in college were only AM. I installed a converter in a '68 Mustang in '78. First time I had FM in the car.

walrus
 

The Guilds of Grot

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Unless you had a new car, you had to install an FM converter to get it. At least for me, the used cars I drove as a teen and in college were only AM. I installed a converter in a '68 Mustang in '78. First time I had FM in the car.

walrus


Did you also install the mandatory "Power Booster"?
 

Quantum Strummer

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I swapped out the AM-only radio in my first car, a '71 Plymouth Satellite, for an AM/FM/cassette gizmo and the mandatory Jensen speaker array. This would've been c. late 1978. It thumped pretty nicely.

-Dave-
 

walrus

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Did you also install the mandatory "Power Booster"?

Absolutely! For the '68 Mustang, a convertible, I also has speakers installed in the front doors, since there was no back "deck" to put them in. And yes, a cassette player!

walrus
 

adorshki

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Most cars back then only had AM radios.

Right. My '75 Monza only had AM even available.
You had to move up to a Caprice to even be able to get an FM option, up until the full-sizes like Riviera and Olds Toronados and 98's.
I think it was only "standard" on Cadillacs.
I was amazed a couple of years back when one of our members reported a '73(?) Buick Apollo (Chevy Nova clone) that actually had no radio at all. (In a Buick?!?, I asked)
He explained that it was a "fleet" model, like a barebones stripper to be modified for taxi or city employee type duty.
Think it was even a 3-speed manual .
But you could buy one for yourself if you wanted.
First car I ever had with standard AM/FM was an '80 RX-7.
But I think my buddy's dad's '74 Mustang II Ghia had it.
Seem to recall cruising while tuned to the local underground FM stations in that one.
I'm sure it was an option, though.
 

guildman63

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The guitarist on Papa Was a Rolling Stone, Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin, just passed away Wednesday. He was a tremendous guitarist who took guitar playing to a whole new level, and he will be missed.

 

steve488

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Most cars back then only had AM radios.

Wow - I planted an aftermarket FM stereo / stereo Cassette player under the dash of a 71 Pinto in 1972........ never realized I was ahead of the curve! KBPI progressive FM rock!! and for the record - hit 4 times in the tail and never caught fire!
 
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