The Undisputed Truth and the Norman Whitfield Laboratory
Revisiting the Motown producer's work with a group of his own creation
Welcome music lovers to a new edition of ‘Listening Sessions’!
Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts on my most recent piece on the Eagles, a band about which I have mixed feelings. It was great to see such a wide variety of opinions and thoughts both agreeing and disagreeing with what I had written. I hope we can do more of that!
This time around, I am focusing on the Undisputed Truth, a vocal group created by Motown producer Norman Whitfield to function as a kind of laboratory for his psychedelic-soul experiments. I wrote about Whitfield last year in a long essay on the Temptations and certainly, that group figures into this essay as well.
Best known for their hit version of Whitfield and Barrett Strong’s ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes,’ the Undisputed Truth never fully emerged as a group with a strong identity of their own but their earlier albums before a dramatic shift in their personnel, sound and subject matter are well worth seeking out.
I hope you enjoy the essay and will share your thoughts as well.
Until next time, may good listening be with you all!
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By the beginning of 1971, the winds of change were blowing at Motown. The model upon which the label had built itself into a juggernaut was on the wane. Both Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder had taken control of their own records. Many of the other artists who had recorded under the label’s traditional production-team model were close to disbanding (the Marvelettes, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas) or had peaked commercially (the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and the Jean Terrell-led version of the Supremes). The Jackson 5, under the direction of the Corporation,, comprised of Motown head Berry Gordy, Jr., Fonce Mizell, Freddie Perren and Deke Richards, were still incredibly hot and the Temptations continued to record in the out-there, psychedelic-soul aesthetic of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Or maybe it was that Whitfield and Strong or, even more pointedly, Whitfield was continuing to impose psychedelic soul on the Temptations?
In 1973, the producer's growing dominance of the group reached its most outlandish height with ‘Masterpiece,’ an almost 14-minute exercise in symphonic groove on which the Temptations appeared for all of two minutes, fifteen seconds. Even as the group was more central to ‘Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,’ its creation was a fractious affair (it’s not merely acting that has Dennis Edwards singing the opening lines of the song as if through severely clenched lips) and the group was, like on ‘Masterpiece,’ not heard until the four-minute mark.
An earlier long-form exploration was far more equalitarian. Anchored around the falsetto of Eddie Kendricks and a slowly churning vamp that finally explodes, ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes’ rarely takes the spotlight away from the Temptations. Oh sure, it takes a while to hear from Kendricks and there are a few interludes interspersed but still it sounds like Whitfield producing the group and not simply producing himself.
What may be jarring about hearing the recording—it stretches out for 12-and-a-half minutes but has few, if any, superfluous moments—is that it is not the ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes’ that most know.
The more familiar version is a bit faster, somewhat more danceable and a lot shorter—just a hair under three-and-a-half minutes—as well as a little less foreboding. It was recorded by a group that Whitfield created to be a kind of studio labratory for him.
The Undisputed Truth comprised three singers: one male and two female. Joe Harris had been part of the Ohio Untouchables, soon to be known as the Ohio Players, and Billie Calvin and Brenda Evans came to Motown through singer Bobby Taylor, he of Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers and the interracial-romance ache of ‘Does Your Mother Know About Me?’ They contributed background vocals, along with the Andantes, to the Four Tops’ ‘Still Water (Love)’ and Diana Ross’ chart-topping ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.’
Whitfield has not been the first to create a psychedelic-soul group to realize a sonic vision. Charles Stepney did it with Rotary Connection in the late sixties. Stepney’s conceptions veered to the outrageous in the best way possible. Whitfield was often more understated.
Atmosphere was often king in his productions as it was in the Undisputed Truth’s hit version of ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes.’ There were the muted trumpets that open the song like a fanfare to a blaxploitation picture, the vigorous movement of the strings and the guitar solo, played octave-style like Wes Montgomery and George Benson. All three members of the group take turns singing lead. Harris, in particular, stands out. While his voice was neither as resonant nor as cool as Jerry Butler’s, Harris makes an impression while preaching Whitfield and Strong’s warning to “beware of the pat of the pack / it just might hold you back.” And when Harris, Calvin and Evans sing together, they don’t have the impact of the 5th Dimension—the Cadillac of the male-female soul group—or even the Friends of Distinction—a group whose sound together was far more warm to the ear than when they sang individually, but their collective sound still commands attention.
One of the most interesting, if lesser-remarked upon, aspects of Motown was how the label’s core repertoire, the product of some of the best tunesmiths of the sixties, was recorded by multiple artists. Whitfield and Strong’s songs were perhaps the ones that received the most re-interpretations.
‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine,’ their most well-known song, was recorded no less than six times. First by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and then by Gladys Knight & the Pips, who almost topped the charts with it, and then by Marvin Gaye, who did top the charts with it for over a month and a half. Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers did as well. The Temptations too. The sixth was the Undisputed Truth.
Their version was on their debut album, titled simply The Undisputed Truth, released on the Motown subsidiary Gordy in July 1971 just as ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes’ was making its rise to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Like the convention mostly followed whenever a Motown artist covered a song that another artist on the label had a hit with, their ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ receives a fresh arrangement. It's based on the riff that anchors Gaye’s recording and the call and response between Knight and the Pips after they sing the chorus. It’s pleasing but doesn’t have much of an impact.
On the album, the Undisputed Truth seem to reside in two places at once. One is rooted in the fading sound that made Motown famous. The opener, ‘You Got the Love I Need’ is a prime example with its rhythmic thrust and a Northern soul modulation on the bridge. The trio of songs that follow ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes’ on side two are also nostalgic in gaze. ‘We’ve Got a Way Out Love,’ from the only other production team that arguably rivaled Whitfield and Strong: (Brian) Holland - (Lamont) Dozier - (Eddie) Holland, has that Detroit sweetness in the lovely cadence of its primary refrain. ‘Since I’ve Lost You,’ a Whitfield-Strong number, is a fairly representative Motor City heartbreak song and ‘Ain’t No Sun Since You Been Gone’ pushes along like a Ford down Woodward Avenue.
But, before Whitfield, the Funk Brothers and the Undisputed Truth throw the song into drive, there is a short, rubato, organ-driven introduction. It kind of hangs there; its presence not intrinsic to what is to follow but interesting in that it illuminates how the Undisputed Truth were (uneasily) suspended between two worlds with the introduction being where Whitfield was bound. Even on something like ‘Just My Imagination (Running Away From Me),’ the magnificent ballad recorded by the Temptations and featuring a remarkable lead by Kendricks, Whitfield was pushing ahead. While the song is a ballad—for my money, one of the best—and Motown’s history is rife with them, the seductive suspension of the arrangement that cushions Kendricks’ lead foretells the foundation of what would become Quiet Storm.
The Undisputed Truth would record the song themselves in 1973 but on their first album, it’s an extravagant expansion of ‘Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)’—a smash for the Temptations in 1970—in which Whitfield discovers the future.
It’s a fascinating listen. The song itself is Whitfield and Strong at their most preachy and overbearing, verging into the ravings of an apocalyptic street preacher yelling into a bullhorn while everyone around him or her go on with their day. Marvin Gaye’s ‘Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)’ covers the same terrain but has a more profound impact through its use of the first person to relay the concerns of the day. Harris, Calvin and Evans are outmatched for most of ‘Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)’—their desperate cries of “take me higher” are a reminder of their limitations as singers. And yet, something remarkable happens at around the seven-and-a-half minute mark as the groove is pared down and Calvin and Evans sing “let the music take your mind” as part of a seemingly organic segue into ‘Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On.’ It has the feel of an eureka moment for Whitfield, an insight on which he built the Undisputed Truth’s follow-up album.
Face to Face With the Truth is often hypnotic. The music floats, carried away by its own inevitability that is organic and not manufactured, a feat worth remarking upon for an album comprised entirely of covers.
The opening, ‘You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here on Earth,’ had been recorded by the Temptations for 1970’s Psychedelic Shack. The grandeur of their version melts away for an interpretation that is far more intimate. The pulse is felt rather than seen—drums don’t enter until the third verse. The song’s message is enhanced by Whitfield’s skeletal arrangement. When Harris asks, “now you’re standing / at the crossroads of life / to satisfy your personal wants / will you do wrong / or will you do right?,” its existential undercurrent confronts the listener as does the response: “well something you must admit / and you know it is true / the final decision / is still up to you.” It forms one bookend to side one of the album with the equally remarkable ‘Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite the World)’ forming the other, another song first done by the Temptations (all but two of the songs on the album were also recorded by them).
For the Temptations, Whitfield turned the song into an urgent call to march. For the Undisputed Truth, there is still marching but it’s a more fragmented, fuzzy gait. Much of the lyrics are sung by Harris, Calvin and Evans with their voices processed through what sounds like a Leslie speaker. They sound robotic as they sing the refrain, “walk this land / day and night / hand in hand / Black and white.” It suggests an inevitability, that until we realize the Dream, the only kingdom to be built on Earth will be dystopian. As Harris, Calvin and Evans fade out, a guitar riff takes over and soon Harris reemerges to sing the first line of ‘Friendship Train.’ It’s a thrilling moment and the group gradually increases in intensity. Again, inevitability is the ethos. The invitation to “get on board” so that everyone can “shake a hand / make a friend / Amen” is again framed as the only choice to take to realize a brighter day.
In the middle of side one is a medley of ‘What It Is?’ and ‘Hum Along and Dance.’ It’s here, and maybe only here, where Whitfield’s invocation of Sly & the Family Stone on the album’s back cover seems apt, particularly in the back and forth between Harris, and Calvin and Evans on the verses. There is a forcefulness here, balanced against the insistent languidness of the choruses (where ‘Hum Along and Dance’ is interpolated) that works mightily. This is a hot, funky recording.
The album’s second side, perhaps intentionally, doesn’t really try to match what precedes it. ‘Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)’ has always struck as one of Whitfield and Strong’s more baffling message songs—a musician who has made it sufficiently enough to record it warning other musicians who have also made it to stay humble is admirable, to be sure, but doesn’t exactly make for compelling listening. That all being said, the Undisputed Truth's version is certainly more satisfying than the Temptations’ version. ‘Take Me In Your Arms and Love Me’ and “Don’t Let Him Take Your Love Away From Me’ both pass by without making too much of an impact. The album’s closer is something else entirely.
When Gaye was finally able to overcome Gordy, Jr.’s reservations about ‘What’s Going On’ and it became one of the singer’s biggest hits, it was inevitable that Motown would change in ways that Whitfield himself could not manifest. His transformation of ‘What’s Going On’ that ends Face to Face With the Truth changes it into a gentle prayer for reconciliation. He centres his arrangement on James Jamerson’s bass and a trilling guitar part (played by either Dennis Coffey or Wah Wah Watson) which allows the lyrics, sung without embellishment by Harris, Calvin and Evans, to be the focal point. Things may go on a little longer than necessary but the Undisputed Truth’s version of ‘What’s Going On’ remains an affecting alternative perspective on a defining song of the seventies.
Face to Face With the Truth would be the pinnacle of the original lineup of the Undisputed Truth. A third album, The Law of the Land, feels like a patchwork collection in which it is only individual moments that shine. There’s a gusty cover of Traffic’s (by way of Joe Cocker) ‘Feelin’ Alright.’ Harris is at his most Jerry Butler-like on ‘Girl You’re Alright.’ Included as well is the group’s recording of ‘Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone’—a compact if less impactful take recorded and released prior to the Temptations’ version. The jewel of the album is the driving ‘Mama, I Gotta Brand New Thing (Don’t Say No),’ a gritty, urban spin on that old American fable, ‘Johnny B. Goode.’
The Law of the Land heralded two changes for the Undisputed Truth. The first was the departure of Barrett Strong from the Motown fold as its operations base moved to California. The second was the departure of Calvin and Evans and the subsequent expansion of the group into a five-person unit. Joining Harris were Virginia McDonald, Tyrone Douglas, Tyrone Barkley and Calvin Stephenson, all members of a Detroit funk group called the Magic Tones.
The expanded Undisputed Truth would release three more albums on Gordy. The emphasis shifted from soul to funk, from social to the sexual. In many ways, it’s as if the albums are by a new group under the name of the Undisputed Truth though, for example, ‘Life Ain’t So Easy’ from 1975’s Higher Than High on which Harris takes the lead, has some of the feel from the group’s earlier iteration.
The albums make for interesting listening—they are the closest we have to someone like George Clinton making a record for Motown. But the real goods when it comes to the Undisputed Truth are prior to this shift, especially Face to Face with the Truth which remains a persuasive document of Norman Whitfield and his laboratory’s enduring magic.
If you’re not yet a subscriber of ‘Listening Sessions,’ I hope you'll click the button below to subscribe and get each edition delivered straight to your inbox. I publish a long-form essay on music three times a month, every 10 days or so.
Norman Whitfield was a stone cold genius, and the Truth strongly benefitted from his songwriting and his place in the producer's chair.
Thanks for this wonderful essay Robert, I thoroughly enjoyed it! I’d heard of The Undisputed Truth but really was only aware of Smiling Faces Sometimes. They clearly released some fantastic music. That version of What’s Going On is excellent, so different than the Marvin Gaye version!