Funky16Corners

The Four Tops – Turn On the Light Of Your Love

By Larry, September 25, 2011 3:15 pm

The Four Tops, featuring Levi Stubbs and his bad-ass tam’o’shanter…

~~Listen/Download – The Four Tops – Turn On the Light of Your Love~~

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

The tune I bring you today was the fruit of a trip to a recently discovered digging spot this summer.

The way things are going these days, finding a new place to look for actual, vinyl records is always a welcome surprise.

Now, you know I’m a big fan of the Four Tops (they were last seen in this space back in May), considering Levi Stubbs to be one of the greatest voices of the classic soul era.

However, until recently my vinyl stock had only included material from their Motown era.

The Four Tops were among the contingent that opted not to follow Motown on the label’s move to Los Angeles in 1972.

They moved to ABC-Dunhill, and hit gold almost immediately.

Their first album for the label, ‘Keeper of the Castle’ yielded a couple of hits, including the smash ‘Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got)’.

So, I’m out digging and I happen upon a copy of said album, and while I’ve heard ‘Ain’t No Woman…’ more than enough times (including when it was repurposed as a lottery ad) I had also heard that ‘Keeper of the Castle’ displayed a funkier side of the Tops, so I threw it on the keeper pile and took it home.

When I finally got to needle-dropping, I discovered that the rumors of funk were indeed true, but especially so with the tune I bring you today ‘Turn On the Light of Your Love’.

Opening with some tastefully rendered synthesizer, which is soon joined by wah wah guitar and drums, the Tops fall in with the chorus before the full band kicks in.

Levi, Lawrence, Duke and Obie are in rare form, and the band – featuring a bunch of west coast heavies like Larry Carlton and Paul Humphreys – come correct.

The horn section is especially cool.

The Four Tops would remain a chart fixture through the 70s, leaving ABC for Casablanca in 1980 and having another R&B#1 in 1981 with “When She Was My Girl”.

They would find their way back to Motown a few years later.

I hope you dig the cut, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.