& earlier comments from the other members of the group
George Curtis
Cameron was born in McCall Creek in Mississippi on September 23 in 1945, so
he recently turned 73. In Mississippi George was first introduced to music in a
local church and later he sang for a short while with the Jackson
Southernaires. At ten he moved to Detroit, where in 1961 he became close
friends with Philippe Wynne and a bit later with Dennis Edwards.
Dennis worked in a small club in Detroit, and George and Philippe tried to
steal a little spot in the show, to impress the girls.
George joined
the Marines in 1963, spent his duty in Vietnam but also visited numerous other
countries like Italy, Spain, Malta, Germany, the Bahamas and Japan. G.C.
Cameron: “When I came home in 1967, my brother David had called, because
Dennis Edwards had called him and asked him, if I was interested in singing
professionally, because the Spinners were in need of a singer --- The Spinners
were at the rehearsal hall at West Grand Boulevard, across from Hitsville, and
I met them there. Harvey Fuqua and Marvin Gaye came in for the
audition. The Spinners were scheduled to open up for Marvin Gaye at the Apollo
Theater, but they were short of one singer. Marvin heard what I had to offer
and he said ‘he’ll do’.” The first released song that you can hear George’s
voice on is a pulsating finger-snapper titled Bad, Bad Weather (Till You
Come Home).
In this extended
review of a CD by the Spinners called While the City Sleeps (Kent,
CDTOP 481; https://acerecords.co.uk/while-the-city-sleeps-their-second-motown-album-with-bonus-tracks;
25 tracks, 73 min.), I utilize comments from the members of the group in my
5-part Spinners story in 2002-03, as well as recent reminiscences from G.C. Cameron, especially
on the previously unreleased tracks. There are as many as 10 previously
unreleased songs and three that were not released at the time. The booklet to
the CD contains Keith Hughes’ detailed track-by-track annotations.
1) It's A Shame
2) I've Got To Find Myself A Brand New Baby
3) Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music
4) Bad, Bad Weather (Till You Come Home)
5) Pay Them No Mind
6) My Lady Love
7) Souly Ghost
8) O-o-h Child
9) In My Diary
10) My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)
11) (She's Gonna Love Me) At Sundown
12) Can Sing A Rainbow / Love Is Blue
13) Mental Telepathy
14) Satisfaction Guaranteed
15) Sunshine Train
16) While The City Sleeps
17) I Can't Let You Go
18) Your Sweet Love Is All I Need (Your Love Is Sufficient)
19) Don't Take Your Love Away I Can't Stand It
20) That's What Girls Are Made For
21) Gonna Keep On Tryin' Till I Win Your Love
22) Sadder Words Were Never Spoken
23) Just A Little Part Of Your Life
24) When It Starts To Rain It Pours
25) Why Don't You Try It
IT’S A SHAME
Bobbie
Smith: “The Spinners were mostly available all the time and we would
hang around studio every day trying to get on the back scene, background,
whatever they needed us to do to make some money. So we became real good
friends of Stevie Wonder and Stevie liked the way G.C. sings with a
high-voiced falsetto and all of that. So we talked Stevie into doing a song on
us.” G.C.: “The Spinners were not a priority at Motown, and – as we all
know – promotion and marketing is the most important thing in selling and
moving a thing --- It just so happened that It’s a Shame was so powerful
that the moment anyone heard it they knew instantly that it was a hit.”
It’s a Shame is
the opening song on the Spinners’ second album titled 2nd Time
Around, which is the nucleus of this recently released CD. The song stayed
in the can for close to six months – Bobbie: “even Stevie Wonder
couldn’t get it out” – but evolved into the biggest hit for the group till that
date (# 4-soul, # 14-pop).
It’s a Shame was
recorded in January 1970, released in June and four months later they put out
the 12-track 2nd Time Around album. Other tracks on the
album include a nice and easy-going, mid-tempo I’ve Got to Find Myself a
Brand New Baby, a melodic floater titled Together We Can Make Such Sweet
Music and a catchy dancer named (She’s Gonna Love Me) At Sundown.
There’s also one rather messy, semi-psychedelic funk number called Souly
Ghost. Henry Fambrough: “I didn’t like that much either. We
did whatever the producer at the time wanted to produce on us. It was their
decision.” In this case the producers were George Gordy and Lawrence
Brown, who also co-wrote the song.
On the pic above: G.C. Cameron
MY LADY LOVE
A haunting
ballad called My Lady Love (by Harvey Fuqua, Arthur Scott and Vernon
Williams) is a hidden gem on the album. There are also some nice outside
songs, such as a pleading toe-tapper named Pay Them No Mind – originally
by Nina Simone -, which features some intense vocalizing from G.C. A couple
of other outside tunes – O-o-h Child and I Can Sing a Rainbow/Love Is
Blue – are not quite on a par with the 5 Stairsteps’ and the
Dells’ hit versions, whereas My Whole World Ended is best known by David
Ruffin and the slow In My Diary derives from the 1950s. G.C.:
“It was Harvey Fuqua’s idea to record it. It was a Harvey Fuqua/Johnny
Bristol production. It’s an old Moonglows song.”
G.C. ”Those
days we worked with the whole Motown machine --- but all of the acts were top
of the Spinners. Only the small clubs we headlined ourselves, like the Sugar
Shack in Boston, where we were more popular. We had a club act opposed to a
big auditorium act. Our act was structured to please 200-300-400 capacity
crowd. With Smokey Robinson we would play places like colleges, where
they would have 3000-5000 people, a lot more. It’s a Shame opened up an
avenue that would allow the Spinners to make more money and it opened the door
to a different venue. But Motown was determined not to allow the Spinners rise
to a certain level.”
After one more
song that Stevie produced and co-wrote with Syreeta Wright - We’ll
Have It Made (not on this CD) - Thom Bell picked up the Spinners and
made the group one of the most celebrated ones in the 1970s on Atlantic.
Billy
Henderson: “--- after we got with the Atlantic Records the whole style
of our singing and the tunes that were being produced on us totally changed.” Henry:
“We were with Motown for a long time. We signed the contract that we didn’t
read. We were young at the time. During the time we were there we didn’t have
the producers like the Temptations and the Four Tops. We didn’t
have a producer to concentrate on the Spinners sound and to produce strictly
for us. When we put out the album, there were two or three different
producers, different songs, different sound. We got lost in the shuffle.” Bobbie:
“Ivy Hunter was a good producer, but he wasn’t that popular. So he
chose to stick with the Spinners --- Ivy did more things on the Spinners at
Motown than anybody. My theory about Motown was like going to college and
coming out A1 student.”
Pervis
Jackson: “The Motown period was okay. Things just weren’t happening
for us there. I guess they had their hands full with a lot of the other
artists. By the time our contract expired, we felt it was just time to go to
another company, and that’s what we did.”
WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS
The last time I
talked to G.C. was already nine years ago, when his Enticed Ecstasy CD
was released (https://www.soulexpress.net/deep409.htm#gccameron).
Since he’s the leading vocalist on most of the tracks on 2nd Time
Around as well as those unreleased tracks, it was only appropriate to
contact him again.
G.C.: “I
was a little over twenty years old, when I recorded those songs, but I love the
music because all the original Funk Brothers are playing on that album.
That speaks for itself. It’s a great piece of musical history, singing on the
last album that they did with the Spinners, when I was with the group.”
Among the
unreleased tracks, Mental Telepathy is a raw funky number produced and
co-written by Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua. “Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol,
Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Hal Davis, William Stevenson... all those
people were producing us. We had a lot of great producers.”
Tom Baird’s
quick-tempo dancer Satisfaction Guaranteed is followed by another funk
track, Sunshine Train, produced and co-written by Ricky Matthews aka
Rick James. “I didn’t meet Rick until 1973, I think. I love all of
those tracks so much, because it was the beginning of my career and you can
relate to that music. That’s old-school Motown. I love it for that.”
Bobbie is the
lead singer on next two tracks. While the City Sleeps (new mix) is a
beautiful, neo-doowop type of a ballad deriving from 1964, whereas I Can’t
Let Go is Ivy Jo Hunter’s 1966 nice toe-tapper. Two poppy 1967 dancers – Your
Sweet Love Is All I Need and Don’t Take Your Love Away I Can’t Stand It
– are led by Chico Edwards. “When Chico left in 1967, I came in.”
In February they
decided to cut an aggressive, mid-tempo, almost funky version of the Spinners
very first recording in 1961, That’s What Girls Are Made For. “Harvey
Fuqua decided that. He wrote it, and when I got into the group, he just felt
we should redo it on me.” Most music lovers know Gonna Keep on Tryin’ Till
I Win Your Love by Jimmy Ruffin, although many other Motown versions
exist. Produced by Norman Whitfield, the Spinners’ cover was left in
the can until today. “I believe it was Suzanne De Passe’s idea to
record it. She also did I’ve Got to Find Myself a Brand New Baby.”
Suzanne was one of the co-writers of Baby along with Johnny Bristol,
Harvey Fuqua and Marv Johnson.
SADDER WORDS WERE NEVER SPOKEN
One of the cream
cuts among those unearthed tracks is a wistful ballad called Sadder Words
Were Never Spoken, produced and written by Ivy Jo Hunter and William
Stevenson. “Ivy Hunter is a great producer. He was the go-to man for the
Spinners, when Harvey Fuqua wasn’t there. I have much respect for him. He did
a lot of good songs even before I got there and during the time I was there.
We were blessed to work with him.”
Just a Little
Part of Your Life is another psychedelic scorcher and this time produced
and written by none other than Edwin Starr. “Edwin was a friend of
mine, and he was a good writer. When they heard that there’s a new guy with
the Spinners – which is me – everybody wanted to produce us.”
Al Cleveland produced
and co-wrote the driving When It Starts to Rain It Pours. “Al was also
a great producer and writer. I spent as much time with the producers as I
could, and he was always very attentive to me. These guys were older than me,
and the Spinners were all 6-to-10 years older than me, and I tried to fit in
where it counted and do what they needed me to do. At that age I was learning
as much as I could.”
Al and Smokey
Robinson produced and co-wrote with Marv Taplin a punchy dancer titled Why
Don’t You Try It. “That is a protest song about conditions. It’s a
situation like we’re in right now, where the world’s gone mad. Al said ‘why
don’t you try to be more compassionate, try to reach out to your fellow man.’
It sounds like a love song, but it’s also a social message about what was
happening in our country at that time also.”
After George
launched his solo career in the early 1970s, he returned to the Spinners in 2000,
then worked with the Temptations for about four years since 2003, formed his
own group, has recorded reggae and now concentrates on solo projects again.
Currently he’s living in Raleigh, NC. “I’m writing and I’m working on a
project that’s going to be bigger than anything I’ve ever done.”
(Interview
conducted on September 28, 2018; acknowledgements to G.C., Peggy Brown, Lori
Edwards and Rickey Poppell).