Welcome to the fourth installment of the Golden Nuggets series. For those new to the series, I look back on the #1 song on the Billboard charts from 50 years ago, in a way to discover what was the most popular song to the American consciousness at that time and see how radically things have changed. For this edition, we're taking a look at 'I Can't Get Next To You' by the Temptations, which reigned as #1 during the weeks of October the 18th and 25th, 1969. Before we proceed, let's get acquainted with the song.
Now, the name the Temptations is not foreign to me, but a lot of their music is. Them being from the Motown crop of artists makes this fact even more surprising, Motown really was an unstoppable hit machine in the sixties, and the Temptations helped contribute to that success, though they were also quite different. In my research, I learned that this group (along with Sly and the Family Stone in my opinion) pioneered the idea of psychedelic soul music, which in time would give way to funk. It's very easy to see how funk could come from a group that produced 'I Can't Get Next to You', with its very rhythmic guitar playing and insistent groove. It sounds like something you'd hear a little later on a Parliament or Stevie Wonder record.
I also find it interesting that this was put out on Motown. Motown was hardly known for innovating, as it was more focused on songwriting by committee and pumping out hits. It must have been a struggle for the group and its producer/writer team Barrett/Strong to wrest so much creative control from the label to put out some more experimental material. The album this single was cut from, Puzzle People, as well as its follow up, Psychedelic Shack, sound nothing like the sound Motown had become so famous for, the latter record most of all. On the record, there was some decidedly political songs, namely 'War', made most famous by the Edwin Starr cover, which Berry Gordy would have disliked because its message would have cut into sales by alienating more conservative buyers. The fight to get Marvin Gaye's What's Going On is pretty much legend at this point, and I assume it must have been difficult for them as well, though not being related through marriage probably helped, since Marvin Gaye being Gordy's brother in law may have strained that relationship.
It's a little hard for me to get a lot out of 'I Can't Get Next To You'. I can respect it for the groundwork it laid towards the advent of funk and more experimental R&B and soul music, but it's hard for my ears, that have absorbed so much Parliament/Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, Rick James etc., to appreciate the genre at its most primordial, which is something I find difficult with many genres (though I don't really experience this problem with Sly and the Family Stone). When you've heard something like Biggie or Wu-Tang, something like Sugarhill Gang can seem a little, well, basic and rudimentary. It doesn't make that group bad, but the sound has progressed so far since that initial inception point, and it's a little harder to get into without some added context. Maybe a hot take, but just my opinion. I respect it a lot more than I enjoy it, but to the 1969 music listening public, it was cutting edge.
So, that's pretty much the extent of my opinion on 'I Can't Get Next to You' by the Temptations. Next time, I'll be taking a look at Elvis Presley's one week return to #1 with 'Suspicious Minds'.
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