Podunkian Music Club October 20, 2008

Levi Stubbs (Four Tops) -- It's the same old Song



One of the definitive voices of the Motown explosion was silenced over the weekend, with the passing of Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops at the age of 72.

Stubbs had one of the most distinctive voices of the Motown era, shepherding a number of Four Tops hits to the top of the charts in the sixties and seventies.

It takes us back to an era when Detroit was at the top of its game, the crossroads of American pop music pass along Woodward Avenue and into the centre of the Motor City launching group after group onto the national scene.

The mid sixties were the years that the Four Tops found their most success, a string of hits that forever enshrined their place in the legions of greats performers from the Detroit sound.

For the Music Club tonight we select It's the same old song, taken from the lengthy list of possibilities. We pick it, if only because while it may have very well been that same old song, in their hands there was certainly nothing old about it and represents the changing era of the music of the day.

Artist-- The Four Tops (Levi Stubbs)
Recording-- Four Tops second album