The Miracles in the Eternal Liminal Moment
There's this song. In the past couple of months, I must have listened to it close to a hundred times, and I keep returning to it, caught up each time by the passion, the sentiment, and the force of the performance. And it never fails to take me back to younger days, even though I heard it first just six months ago.
If asked, most folks would tell you the definitive Smokey Robinson track is from his days with the Miracles, and they'd be right. Not to diminish his solo work, but he worked best in Berry Gordy's early Motown music factory, churning out song after song after song. But most people would probably also say his shining moment as a songwriter is "Tears of a Clown" (which did go undiscovered for several years), "I Second that Emotion" (which went undiscovered for even more), or his classic ballad "The Tracks of My Tears", an instant hit that deserves most of the accolades given it.
But he also had a cut buried deep on his sixth studio album with The Miracles (the fifth credited to "Smokey Robinson & The Miracles"), Going to A Go-Go called "A Fork in the Road". In a textbook example of how poor production decisions can ruin a great song, this was released as a b-side to the "Tracks of My Tears" single, and serves as the closer for the album. The album recording sports a xylophone and the corniest string arrangement this side of Guns 'n' Roses' "November Rain". You can hear the drummer's boredom in keeping the tap-tap-tap-tap (hi-hat) time. Smokey's vocals are predictably fantastic, and The Miracles offer backup in a satisfactory but wholly uninspiring fashion. It's a competent Motown cut, but it lacks the urgency of the other ballads on the album, especially the AM radio classic "Ooh Baby Baby".
Like I said, production decisions. Consistently brilliant producers (Rick Rubin, George Martin, Brian Deck, Jim O'Rourke, Sam Phillips, Dr. Dre, among many, many others) get paid a lot of money for a reason. They make a singer/band/performer sound better.
In 2002, a reissue and repackaging of Going to a Go-Go included the follow-up album Away We Go-Go plus some bonus tracks, one of which is a live recording of "A Fork in the Road" from a 1966 performance at Detroit's 20 Grand Club. This time, they got it all right.
Since a live show makes xylophones and string sections impractical for all but the most bloated touring dinosaurs, these elements have been removed in favor of a two-piece saxophone section. Relocated from the dry studio environment to a venue with applause, cocktails, and cigarettes, the band takes it at a slower tempo. The lyrical, soulful guitar arrangement that's buried beneath needless studio magic in the original recording gets to share the spotlight with Smokey's performance.
And what a performance! His voice sports an uncharacteristic rasp - the strain of a live appearance - that evokes the hoarse, mournful wail of Billie Holiday. He departs from the earlier, more conservative interpretation to offer a wrenching, uninhibited delivery. When he sings "Oh why didn't I see the sign / Before I left my lover behind / At the fork in love's road?" you suffer a long moment of lonely, sleepless nights and bitter tears. Behind all of this is some the most solid backup work The Miracles ever did for their lead man - they lay a flawless, rock-hard foundation for this performance to stand on.
It's the most overlooked cut in the Motown catalog - at least among the parts of the catalog I've heard - and I wouldn't have it any other way. The song has proven remarkably resilient to overplay (I've listened to it ten plus times in a row, focusing each time on a different nuance of a different instrument) and to enjoy it all over again, I only need listen once to the original studio version.
This is a kind of soundtrack to that manner of daydream bathed in regret, a backdrop for the cascade of bad decisions that would have been so different if I'd only paid attention. Back then, cornered by my own dim oblivion, each moment seemed just beyond my grasp, as though an answer, a lifeline, a friend floated by just out of reach. Only years later can I see that they were, but it's my own damn fault. "Beware, beware" The Miracles call out, and Smokey confirms "There's danger there, oh".
Trouble is, that moment comes and goes and disappears forever except in your memory and all you can do is wonder, what if I hadn't been such a fool? Wonder that, and listen to this sad song.
If asked, most folks would tell you the definitive Smokey Robinson track is from his days with the Miracles, and they'd be right. Not to diminish his solo work, but he worked best in Berry Gordy's early Motown music factory, churning out song after song after song. But most people would probably also say his shining moment as a songwriter is "Tears of a Clown" (which did go undiscovered for several years), "I Second that Emotion" (which went undiscovered for even more), or his classic ballad "The Tracks of My Tears", an instant hit that deserves most of the accolades given it.
But he also had a cut buried deep on his sixth studio album with The Miracles (the fifth credited to "Smokey Robinson & The Miracles"), Going to A Go-Go called "A Fork in the Road". In a textbook example of how poor production decisions can ruin a great song, this was released as a b-side to the "Tracks of My Tears" single, and serves as the closer for the album. The album recording sports a xylophone and the corniest string arrangement this side of Guns 'n' Roses' "November Rain". You can hear the drummer's boredom in keeping the tap-tap-tap-tap (hi-hat) time. Smokey's vocals are predictably fantastic, and The Miracles offer backup in a satisfactory but wholly uninspiring fashion. It's a competent Motown cut, but it lacks the urgency of the other ballads on the album, especially the AM radio classic "Ooh Baby Baby".
Like I said, production decisions. Consistently brilliant producers (Rick Rubin, George Martin, Brian Deck, Jim O'Rourke, Sam Phillips, Dr. Dre, among many, many others) get paid a lot of money for a reason. They make a singer/band/performer sound better.
In 2002, a reissue and repackaging of Going to a Go-Go included the follow-up album Away We Go-Go plus some bonus tracks, one of which is a live recording of "A Fork in the Road" from a 1966 performance at Detroit's 20 Grand Club. This time, they got it all right.
Since a live show makes xylophones and string sections impractical for all but the most bloated touring dinosaurs, these elements have been removed in favor of a two-piece saxophone section. Relocated from the dry studio environment to a venue with applause, cocktails, and cigarettes, the band takes it at a slower tempo. The lyrical, soulful guitar arrangement that's buried beneath needless studio magic in the original recording gets to share the spotlight with Smokey's performance.
And what a performance! His voice sports an uncharacteristic rasp - the strain of a live appearance - that evokes the hoarse, mournful wail of Billie Holiday. He departs from the earlier, more conservative interpretation to offer a wrenching, uninhibited delivery. When he sings "Oh why didn't I see the sign / Before I left my lover behind / At the fork in love's road?" you suffer a long moment of lonely, sleepless nights and bitter tears. Behind all of this is some the most solid backup work The Miracles ever did for their lead man - they lay a flawless, rock-hard foundation for this performance to stand on.
It's the most overlooked cut in the Motown catalog - at least among the parts of the catalog I've heard - and I wouldn't have it any other way. The song has proven remarkably resilient to overplay (I've listened to it ten plus times in a row, focusing each time on a different nuance of a different instrument) and to enjoy it all over again, I only need listen once to the original studio version.
This is a kind of soundtrack to that manner of daydream bathed in regret, a backdrop for the cascade of bad decisions that would have been so different if I'd only paid attention. Back then, cornered by my own dim oblivion, each moment seemed just beyond my grasp, as though an answer, a lifeline, a friend floated by just out of reach. Only years later can I see that they were, but it's my own damn fault. "Beware, beware" The Miracles call out, and Smokey confirms "There's danger there, oh".
Trouble is, that moment comes and goes and disappears forever except in your memory and all you can do is wonder, what if I hadn't been such a fool? Wonder that, and listen to this sad song.
posted by Sam at
5:05 PM
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