RIP LAMONT DOZIER: COME AND GET THESE MEMORIES
I have vivid memories of standing on the lawn of my godmother’s house in Jamaica, Queens in the summer of 1965 and hearing the Four Tops’ “Can’t Help Myself” coming out of two different cars moving up the street. It was a hot day. Girls were playing jump rope across the street. I was waiting on the ice cream man to roll down the street. It was one of those glorious snap shots of a moment in time that stays with you forever as Levi Stubbs’ raspy voice made a silly love song into impassioned testimony of devotion. One of the composers of that song was Lamont Dozier, who died this week at age 81, and was one of the crucial songwriter/producers of the ‘60s as he helped define the Motown sound and, in so doing, created indelible memories in for a generation.
I got to interview Dozier several times over the years, including for my 1986 book Motown history book, Where Did Our Love, which took its title from one of the many hits he co-wrote with Brian and Eddie Holland. It was always daunting to sit with him, since the scope of his career was immense. He wrote his first number one single, “Where Did Our Love Go” for the Supremes in 1964 and his last number one in 1988, “Two Hearts” for Phil Collins. At his peak, as part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, he’d be part of ten number one hits from ’64 to ’67 for the Supremes alone. The nuance and sensuality they got from Diana Ross as lead singer makes it one of the great marriages of male composer/producers and female vocalist in the history of popular music.
But that’s not all they did at Motown. H-D-H had two pop number ones with the Four Tops, including the aforementioned “Can’t Help Myself” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There” featuring Stubb’s baritone, an instrument that pleaded for love and promised commitment will melodramatic sincerity. Perhaps because of the unique qualities of Stubbs’ voice Dozier and the Holland’s did almost operatic arrangements on songs like “Bernadette” and “Standing in the Shadows of Love.” These recordings, along with stellar work with Martha & the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, and the Isley Brothers, made them architects of what Motown branded as “the sound of young America.”
The division of labor in the H-D-H team reflected Detroit’s automobile production lines. Dozier and Brian Holland would write the music and supervise an instrumental recording session with the Motown house band; Eddie Holland would then write lyrics to the track. When it came time to record vocals, Eddie Holland would guide the lead singer and Dozier would coach the backing vocalists. As I wrote in Where Did Our Love Go, “These kids had a real insight into the taste of the buying public” and “an innate gift for melody, a feel for story song lyrics, and an ability to create the recurring vocal and instrumental licks known as ‘hooks. Brian, Eddie and Lamont loved what they were doing and worked around the clock, making music like old man Ford made cars.”
Dozier had started his career as singer and, despite his achievements with H-D-H, he yearned to record as a solo artist. After a making string of hits on the Invictus and Hot Wax after leaving Motown in the late ‘60s, Dozier embarked on a solo so-so solo career. He had a smooth voice, but limited range, which worked best on mid-tempo tracks. My favorite cut from his singing career is “Going Back to My Roots” from 1977, which was released in the wake of the historic ABC mini-series Roots. It was a disco flavored production that had an epic sweep, anchored by Dozier’s piano.
In the ‘80s, black pop music in America, shifted away from the chromatic Motown songwriting style. But in the United Kingdom the influence of Motown still held sway. Dozier would collaborate successfully in that decade with Alison Moyet, Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall and Collins, all vocalists who consciously mined black music traditions that had fallen out of flavor in the States.
Dozier is in every music hall of fame out note, but his real legacy are the melodies and records he created. The first H-D-H hit was “Come and Get These Memories” for Martha & the Vandellas in 1963 and it speaks to how I feel today diving into Dozier’s vast catalog of music. I’m listening and so many memories are filling my mind.
#riplamontdozier
If you want to dig deeper into the career of Lamont Dozier you should check out my book on Motown.
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Did-Our-Love-2003-09-03/dp/B01FGLQYLG/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1595977127&sr=1-1