Smokey Robinson, vocalist.

great voice no doubt...one of the golden voices of the incredible golden years at Motown...

...to bad those days were killed like a squashed bug at the dinner table...

 

I believe it was Greil Marcus in STRANDED who said something like, Smokey Robinson's music was so carefully wrought and exquisitely sung it made everything else on the radio sound slightly obscene.

And when asked who he thought was the best songwriter, no one less than Bob Dylan replieid it was Robinson.

 

Not to divert the thread too much, but can anyone reproduce the exact quote where Dylan said this about Smokey, including a source for it?

I ask because once many years ago I read that this was a misattribution...my memory is that the word "poet" was involved in his description, but that Dylan in fact really was talking about someone else who was/is a poet, not Smokey.

I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but that's the way I remember it.

 

I've always loved his voice. There are lots of Smokey Robinson compilations on the market. A single CD compilation from all phases of his career that hits most of the highlights is My World: The Definitive Collection.

 

I've always loved the way that he almost sings like a woman. It makes for fascinating listening when girl singers sing Smokey.

 

From the San Francisco press conference on 12/3/65:

Q: "What poets do you dig"?
A: "Rimbaud, W.C. Fields, the trapeze family in the circus, Smokey Robinson, Allen Ginsberg, Charlie Rich."

Around the 7:30 point in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVbLKj0DSM0

 

Interestingly enough, the above quote was edited for the Motown 40 anniversary ABC special, to say "Rimbaud, Allen Ginsberg, Smokey Robinson..." This is actually how I first heard the quote and it was driving me nuts when I saw that San Fran press conference because it was not the way I remember hearing it. I just unearthed my VHS of the Motown 40 special and I find they cleverly edited and rearranged the footage so that Smokey Robinson was mentioned in the breath as Rimbaud and Allen Ginsberg, but not in the same breath as the 'trapeze family', WC Fields, and Charlie Rich. Take from that what you will.

We now return you back to our Smokey Robinson thread....

 

Thanks, Mike...I appreciate this.

It gives all of this a slightly different flavor. I'm sure that Dylan greatly admired Smokey, but usually the reference is dressed up a little differently to make it out as if he said Robinson was our "greatest living poet," or, as earlier referenced, that Dylan feels Smokey is "the greatest songwriter ever."

Unless there's another quote somewhere, that's not exactly what he said.