A Conversation with Smokey Robinson – HuffPost 8.26.14

Mike Ragogna: Just the other day, I picked up your Icon sampler, the little collection that Universal released. Though I know all those songs by heart by now, it never fails, I’m always hearing something new in them whether it’s in what you did in the music or lyrics. Now on Smokey & Friends, you took many of those classics and invited your friends to sing on them.

Smokey Robinson: That was the original intention, but I think we had a different twist to it. All of the artists you hear on the record picked their songs. Randy Jackson approached the artists and said, “What is your favorite Smokey Robinson song,” not necessarily a song that I sang, but any song that I had written. The songs that these people are singing on this record are their picks. Not only that, but Randy let them do their take on it first before he recorded them and he got their feel for it and recorded it in that manner.

MR: Yeah, it takes on more that just songs made famous by Smokey Robinson such as “The Way You Do The Things You Do” and others that The Temptations covered. So when you heard what Randy was working on with this roster of duet artists, did anything surprise you?

SR: Oh yeah, there were surprises of course. In fact, almost every track was a surprise because he made them sound brand new. He made them sound like they had never been heard before as far as I was concerned. Those were old songs and he made them sound fresh and new, the artists’ take on them was fresh and new, it was just incredible. I think the two biggest differences as far as the arrangements and the feel and the sound would have to be, “Ain’t That Peculiar” with James Taylor and “My Girl.”

MR: And it was really sweet to also hear Jessie J open the track with why it was important to her.

SR: She’s a sweet lady. There are a few of those on there with people narrating why they did them, and those that aren’t included on the record, we have them on video saying why they picked that particular song.

MR: For me the two that were the most modernized is the CeeLo Green and the Gary Barlow. The artists who performed on this album had very strong memories and very strong passions for the songs. Does it amaze you that it had such a connection with so many millions of people?

SR: No Mike, it doesn’t amaze me, man, but it certainly satisfies me as a songwriter. When I sit down to write a song, every time I try to write a song, I’m trying to write a song that people would’ve sung fifty years ago, now, and fifty years from now. When people record my songs, for me as a songwriter, that’s just a dream come true. That’s why I write them. I don’t write them necessarily just for me or whoever I wrote them for in the beginning to sing them. I hope everybody sings them from now on. It doesn’t amaze me that they do that because my intentions for writing them was to write a song that will get reactions from people, but I am very flattered when they do it because there are millions and millions and millions of songs, Mike, and most people who have re-recorded one of my songs are songwriters themselves. So with a choice like that, for an artist to pick one of my songs is incredible to me.

MR: What do you attribute that to?

SR: I try to write a song, and if it’s a song, it has that chance.

MR: How old were you when you first started writing songs and what was Berry Gordy’s influence?

SR: I have been trying to write songs since I was five years old, man. I’m serious about that. The first song that I ever wrote that anybody ever heard other than my mom and me was in a school play when I was six years old. The teacher let me write some words to a melody that she had for the beginning and ending of a play and I sang them. I’ve been trying to do that all my life, man. However, when I met Berry Gordy, he’s the one who taught me how to structure all of my songs and how to make them be one entity. He was very powerful in my learning how to write songs professionally.

MR: Right, and you also had a wonderful workshop for an artist to record your material, maybe for you to test things out first?

SR: Sure but not necessarily to test them out. We had workshops where the writers and producers had “piano rooms,” where you could go and work out your material and stuff like that. After you had it to the point where you thought it was pretty complete then you could approach an artist with it and say, “Hey, do you like this song and can I record it on you?” That’s how it worked.

MR: I’ll bet every song on the new album has a pretty interesting story.

SR: You know, each and every one of them do. There’s an anecdote to each and every one of those songs, man. That’s another reason I’m so intrigued by it myself, because of the fact that I know that each one of those songs on there has a story that’s unusual. I’m very proud that these people picked these songs. We recorded a couple of other songs but we ran into an unexpected deadline because we thought we had another month and we really didn’t because Starbucks came in with a huge order for it. We wanted to finish it up for them and that pushed us up a month ahead of what we were doing. But the ones that are on there all have their own stories, man.

MR: Do you have a favorite?

SR: No man, come on. They’re my babies!

MR: [laughs] Okay, well, I especially love “Being With You.” What’s the story behind that one?

SR: Do you know who Kim Carnes is?

MR: Oh yeah.

SR: Well, there’s a guy who lives here in Los Angeles named George Tobin. George is a record producer, or he was at the time, I don’t know what he’s doing now. But he had produced one of my songs on Kim and had a huge record with her with “More Love.” I kept hearing it over and over on the radio, it was a big hit for her. When I hear stuff like that I quickly see if I can write some other songs for that artist so maybe I can get the next record on them. So that’s what happened, I wrote four songs for Kim Carnes and “Being With You” was one of those songs. I go to George Tobin’s studio, I play him the songs and when I played “Being With You” he said, “Man, I really love that one and I love the way you’re singing.” I said, “Oh thanks man, it should be a hit for her,” and he said, “No, I want to record it on you,” but I said, “No George, I wrote it for Kim.” We went through fifteen minutes of, “No you,” “No Kim.” Finally, he said to me, “Come to my studio tonight, we’ll make a demo for Kim.” I said, “Okay, fine.” The record that went number one for me is a demo for Kim.

MR: As far as your classic “Quiet Storm”–another reimagining on the album–it actually became the name of a musical genre.

SR: Yes it did, man. I didn’t expect that, but A Quiet Storm was my debut back into show business. I had retired totally, I just recorded those albums because Suzanne de Passe, who was our A&R director at the time just asked me to do it. I was retired, I wasn’t thinking about being in show business at all period after I retired from The Miracles. Then after about three and a half years of doing my vice-presidential duties and going to the office every day and stuff like that, Berry came to me and to make a long story short he told me he felt like I was miserable doing what I was doing and I needed to be in show business so I should get back. He was my best friend, he feels me and I was miserable. He said, “There’s no sense in you being around here, you should do what you love.” So I said, “Okay, I’m going to change my whole format, I’m going to lower my keys, I’m going to prepare myself to play places like Las Vegas, I’m a quiet singer and I’m going to go back and take show business by storm. Wow, that’s a good idea, A Quiet Storm.”

MR: It seems like “Cruisin'” keeps coming back in movies, etc., sort of like a perennial.

SR: From your mouth to God’s ears, Michael! I hope it keeps coming up and up and up forever and ever and ever, man. “Cruisin'” was a long song. It took me longer to write “Cruisin'” than probably any other song I’ve written because it took five years. I attribute “Cruisin'” to my guitarist, as I do so many other songs that I’ve written because he was an ingenious guitarist who came up with these great guitar riffs and he would put them on tape for me and see if I could come up with a song for it. I wrote two or three songs to “Cruisin'” and none of them seemed to fit because the music was so sensual and so sexy. Finally, after five years, I came up with “Cruisin’.”

MR: And Steven Tyler takes on “You Really Got A Hold On Me.” Many rockers over the years have gravitated toward that song.

SR: That was Steven’s gravitation, that’s for sure. Steven’s my brother, man, he’s a great dude. I love Steven. He sang that song with Aerosmith. He’s been singing that song forever he said. That’s his favorite song, so we recorded it and did it rock style.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

SR: My first advice is you’ve got to really, really, really love it because it’s a very difficult, hard business, especially nowadays. It’s a very difficult, hard business to cut through and get past all the other traffic that’s in your way to become known or popular or whatever your desire is in this business. If you love it like that and you’re willing to accept the “no”s that come along with it and get back up and keep fighting, go for it.

MR: What is the future for Smokey Robinson?

SR: The future for Smokey Robinson is basically like my present, man. I do my concerts now because I love that. That’s my favorite part of my work because I get to go one on one with the people and have a great time with the fans for two and a half hours every night. I love all of it, I love being in the studio, I love writing especially and the creativity of all of it, but my favorite part is to go and see my fans, man, and visit with them so I’m still going to be doing that. I don’t know when I’m going to retire from doing that again. If it comes along I’d like to do a nice role in a great movie. I don’t mean necessarily starring in a movie or anything like that, but just a nice role in a great movie if it comes up.

MR: Beautiful.

SR: And play me some golf.

MR: [laughs] One last thing. Comparing songwriting back in the days of Motown and The Brill Building to songwriting now with existing technologies has changed the basic approach significantly for so many. What are your thoughts about that transition?

SR: I think it’s just the way of the world. We’re evolving. The technological part of our lives is evolving at a pace that is unfathomable. That’s in every area of our lives, so of course it’s going to filter down to music. A kid can do a complete track on his telephone now. That’s just where it’s going. I think perhaps there’s an advantage to it because back in the day in the piano rooms, you as a pianist were playing the piano and visualizing the rest of the stuff going on in your mind as you were writing your song if you were doing that–that’s the only complete thing you’d get until you got into the studio and started to record it. Nowadays a kid can have a piano riff in mind and put that down on the telephone and then do the bass and the drums and all that. Before he even gets to the studio he can record a record on his phone. There’s a huge difference in that.

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne