Man Enough: Remembering Levi Stubbs
There are two recordings, both from the early-1970s, that perfectly capture the significance of Levi Stubbs, the long-time lead singer of The Four Tops who died on October 17th. "Keeper of the Castle" was the first single and title track of the Four Tops' debut recording on the ABC label in 1972, after a decade long stint at Motown. A year later the group recorded "Are You Man Enough?," which was featured on the soundtrack of the film Shaft in Africa. Both tracks, written by the team of Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, presented a compelling view of masculinity in the early 1970s at a time when fictional and iconic figures such as Dirty Harry and Shaft were offering more animated and often unrealistic views of masculinity.
"Are You Man Enough?" easily tapped into the musical formula that fueled the success of Blaxploitation anthems such as Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man," Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" and Isaac Hayes's "Shaft," with Stubbs's vocals serving as the perfect conduit for the hypermasculine rhythms that the aforementioned Blaxploitation icons largely embodied. With box-office appeal--Berry Gordy initially approached Stubbs to play the role of Louis McKay in the film Lady Sings the Blues--and a rumbling baritone rivaled only by Barry White and Hayes, Stubbs easily fit alongside the sex symbols of the Soul era.
"Keeper of the Castle" told another story though, urging men "red, yellow, black, white, and brown," to be fathers to their children and a providers for their families. Despite this rather antiquated notion of manhood, at its core "Keeper of the Castle" celebrated loyalty and responsibility. These attributes best described the private Levi Stubbs, who despite the opportunity to seek solo success like so many of his peers--Smokey Robinson, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendrick and most famously Diana Ross--remained loyal to The Four Tops, fronting the group for nearly 50 years.
Levi Stubbs began singing in Detroit with teenage friends Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Lawrence Payton and Renaldo "Obie" Benson in the mid-1950s. Originally named The Aims, the group changed their name to The Four Tops in 1956 and recorded, unsuccessfully for a string of record labels until they caught the attention of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy. Seasoned veterans, possessing a polished stage show and a preference for jazz standards, The Four Tops were odd birds at Motown in their early years, but that all changed when they began to work with the trio of Brian Holland, Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier. "Baby I Need Your Loving," one of the group's initial collaborations with Holland-Dozier-Holland was a top-15 pop hit in 1964 and began a string of hits including "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch," and "It's the Same Old Song" which helped establish the group as one of Motown's flagship acts.
Perhaps more than any other group recording for the label in the mid-1960s, The Four Tops were best suited for the intricacies of the Holland-Dozier-Holland production style. Though The Supremes most visibly benefited from the Holland-Dozier-Holland sound, the work that the production team did with The Four Tops easily ranks as some of the most artistic work that was done at the label--notably in era in which Gordy was more concerned with making quick hits. Nowhere was this the case more than the series of recordings that the Four Tops did with Holland-Dozier-Holland in 1966 and 1967.
Tracks like "Standing in the Shadows of Love," "Bernadette," "Seven Rooms of Gloom," "I'm in A Different World," and "I'll Turn to Stone" are generally regarded as the best emblems of the "classic" Holland-Dozier-Holland period. The most famous of those recordings, "Reach Out I'll Be There" reached the top of the pop charts in 1966. Part of the appeal of the "Reach Out I'll Be There" was the grandiosity of the production--the song quite literally sounds like the passing of era, a sensibility that was enhanced nearly a decade later when the song served as the soundtrack for the closing sequence of the nostalgic Cooley High.
With the exception of The Supremes "Reflections" and the socially conscious recordings of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder in the 1970s, there is perhaps no Motown recording that captures the unspoken tensions of this historical era better than "Reach Out I'll Be There" and it was the genius of Holland-Dozier-Holland's production and Stubbs's singular vocals that made what was ostensibly a love song, resonate as something more.. Much like singers who sang in higher registers, Stubbs's strength was that he could summon a range of emotions, where other deeper voiced vocalists were limited in their emotional range. The combination meant that there was often a sense of drama in Stubbs' performance--and he did so without trading any of the so-called "manliness" that made his voice attractive in the first place. According to Harry Weinger, the award-winning producer of many Motown box sets and compilations, Stubbs was "A singer schooled in jazz who became a singular voice of soul...his combination of awesome power and sensitivity taunted every critic who thought Motown too soft. Who else could shout "Bernadette" and deliver a definitive ballad in "I Believe In You And Me"?"
When Holland-Dozier-Holland departed Motown in late 1967 in a contract dispute, the fortunes of the Four Tops, like so many veteran Motown acts faltered. The Four Tops signed to ABC in 1972 and had moderate success with tracks like "Ain't No Woman Like the One I Got," "I Just Can't Get You Out of My Mind," and "Catfish." The group scored their last major hit with the nostalgic "When She Was My Girl" in 1981. The Four Tops returned to Motown briefly in the mid-1980s and continued to record until the end of the decade with Arista. The death of Lawrence Payton in 1997 necessitated the first personnel change in The Four Tops since their inception and Stubbs himself retired in 2000, ending one of the longest tenures by any lead singer of any group in the history of pop music.
Levi Stubbs is survived by Cliniece Stubbs, his wife of 48 years and five children.
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