When people think of hot producers and song writers, names like Timbaland, will.i.am & Rick Rubin come to mind. In the early 1960s at the headquarters of Motown called "Hitsville U.S.A." the hottest and most important song writer and producer was Smokey Robinson.
With over 1000 songs to his credit, Robinson wrote and produced some of the most influential and well known songs in popular music history including "My Girl" by the Temptation. Working with Berry Gordy the founder of Motown, Robinson changed the face of music earning the title, "The Poet Laureate of Soul."
If all Smokey Robinson did was write and produce “My Girl” (which I wrote about in this earlier post about in this earlier post about my brother) he’d be fondly remembered as a significant influence on popular music. Fortunately for us, he did so much more than that.
There are many great Smokey Robinson songs but one that keeps coming up in our culture is “Tracks Of My Tears.” Most recently covered by Adam Lambert in a beautifully crafted and intimate performance on American Idol, “Tracks Of My Tears” like so many of Robinson’s songs has stood the test of time.
Conceptually this song is amazing. The idea of a man crying so much that it leaves tracks, but only if you look closely is original and poignant. Smokey Robinson has such utility with his words. Like Hemingway he uses as few words as possible to get his message across. What he creates is straight forward simple words and rhymes that resonate with depth and meaning.
Check out the second verse:
Since you left me if you see me with another girl,
Seeming like I'm having fun.
Although she may be cute,
She's just a substitute
Because you're the permanent one.
There is extended alliteration with “see me” being soon followed by “seeming.” The rhymes are subtle and smooth in an ABBA pattern, "fun" with "one" and "cute" with "substitute." Listen closely to that “she’s just a substitute” line. It could not fit with the melody any better. This is one of the greatest pop lyrics I’ve ever come across. It’s so great that Pete Townsend of The Who wrote and recorded “Substitute” as an homage to this great line.
Then there’s the vocal. The falsetto of Smokey sounds masculine and is full of soul and blues. This is what every pop singer strives for their falsetto to be like but never quite captures. If we didn’t have Smokey, we wouldn’t have singers like Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake or Adam Lambert.
Take a listen to this a cappella edit of the recording.
Note the shape and the harmony in the Miracles vocal introduction and the way that Smokey effortlessly ends his phrases. My favorite thing about the interaction between the background vocals and Smokey is how the vocal introduction comes back in the last half of the second verse as a background vocal adding emphasis to the words.
Then there’s the chorus and the way that the background instruments continue the vocal line with descending triplets that Smokey starts. The melodic baseline, the snap of the tambourine on the offbeats. . . OMG EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS SONG IS INCREDIBLE!!
‘exhale’ okay. . .
I’m back sorry. This song really gets me excited. I could go on forever about this one. The craft is so artful and beautiful expressing a transcendent feeling of joy.
Yes, this song is about a breakup, heartache and desperation, but it’s also about the how good love feels.
Oliver Stone perfectly captured what this song feels like, what it means in his film Platoon. A whole bunch of young guys trying to deal with the stress of a war that makes no sense to them, finds camaraderie, release and pure joy in Smokey Robinson’s music.
It’s like what Butters once said in an episode of South Park
“Wuh-ell yeah, and I'm sad, but at the same time I'm really happy that somethin'
could make me feel that sad. It's like, it makes me feel alive, you know? It makes me feel human. And the only way I could feel this sad now is if I felt somethin' really good before. So I have to take the bad with the good, so I guess what I'm feelin' is like a, beautiful sadness. . .”
AmenCould not have said it any better myself little man.
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