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Live at the Copa/With a Lot of Soul

The Temptations - Live at the Copa/With a Lot of Soul Audio CD

A fair review of the The Temptations "Live at the Copa/With a Lot of Soul" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Temptations reviews here, or go back to the The Temptations tabs.

Band: The Temptations
Title: Live at the Copa/With a Lot of Soul
Rating:

Release Date: 2001-02-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Introduction 2: Get Ready 3: You're My Everything 4: I Truly, Truly Believe 5: I Wish It Would Rain 6: For Once in My Life 7: I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You) 8: Introduction of the Band and Group 9: Hello, Young Lovers 10: With These Hands 11: Swanee 12: Impossible Dream 13: Please Return Your Love to Me 14: (I Know) I'm Losing You 15: Ain't No Sun Since You've Been Gone 16: All I Need 17: (Loneliness Made Me Realize) It's You That I Need 18: No More Water in the Well 19: Save My Love for a Rainy Day 20: Just One Last Look 21: Sorry Is a Sorry Word 22: Now That You've Won Me 23: Two Sides to Love 24: Don't Send Me Away

Honest Review of Live at Copa/With a Lot of Soul
There are a few of the live recorded songs that were fine, but several others like Hello Young Lovers did not have a good balance between the music and vocals. As a Temptations fan, I must honestly say I was disappointed in the quality of the live recording overall, and there was static pop in the CD I purchased. In most cases the music was overbearing comparatively speaking. It is possible that the Temps were not up to usual standard that night as the background vocals were not even balanced either, e. g. , one could hear the 1st tenor and baritone, but no second tenor or bass. The live portion of this CD was not as good as other albums the Temps have done prior to this one and others later. .

TEMPTATIONS LIVE AT COPA
EDDIE WAS STILL AT HIS BEST. GOOD EXCEPT THE COPA SIDE LIVE WAS NOT PRODUCED WELL THE MUSIC WAS OFF AT TIMES THE BACKGROUND NOSIESWAS TOO MUCH AND DAVID RUFFIN WAS NOT THE LEAD SINGER ON THIS ALBUM IT WAS DENNIS EDWARDS HE DID A GOOD JOB . BUY IT .

THE TEMPTATIONS LIVE AT THE COPA
THE ALBUM IS AS GREAT AS IT WAS IN 1968 HOWEVER UNLIKE THE ALBUM THE SONG I'M LOSING IS NOT ON THE CD, A TERRIBLE OMISSION AS IT WAS THE CLOSING NUMBER OF THE SHOW AND A FANTASTIC RENDITION. AS A PROUD OWNER OF THE ORIGINAL LP LIVE AT THE COPA I WAS VERY INTERESTED TO GET THE CD VERSION OF DENNIS EDWARDS DEBUT WITH THE TEMPS. HAD IT BEEN ON THE DISC I WOULD HAVE RATED IT FIVE STARS, IT IS WORTH BUYING THIS OUT OF PRINT RECORD FOR EDDIE KENDRICKS SINGING WITH THESE HANDS AND PAUL WILLIAMS FIRST LIVE RENDITION OF FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE.

Incomplete Re-issues
In some cases, it falls short of the ideal, and this is the most striking example I have encountered thus far. The series of 2 Classic Albums 1CD has brought back into catalogue a lot of lost Motown gems, usually in state of the art mastering and at a reasonable price, and is to be applauded for that. To start with, there is the choice of pairing. Live At The Copa was the group's eighth album, from December 1968, and their second live album. With A Lot O' Soul preceded it by three album in August 1967. In between came The Temptations Wish It Would Rain and In A Mellow Mood, both of which share another pairing in the series. Go figure.

More crucially, both albums are incomplete. Two key songs are common to both original albums, (I Know) I'm Losing You and You're My Everything, both major hits for the group. Firstly, (I Know) I'm Losing You is dropped from the end of Live At The Copa, as the applause from the preceding title is hastily and peremptorily faded. Apart from destroying the flow of the original conception of the album, it makes that track unavailable on CD.

Secondly, the studio version of You're My Everything is criminally absent from With A Lot O' Soul. Although this track is available on a number of compilations, its censorship from its rightful original album placing is unforgivable. No reference is made to these cuts, although both titles are shown in the replica sleeves from the original albums as reproduced inside the booklet. As the CD has a playing time of 72:15, both could have been included.

Live At The Copa marked one of the first concert appearances of Dennis Edwards in place of David Ruffin, and took place at the Copacabana in New York at an unspecified date in 1968 (some further details would have been welcomed). It shows how quickly and successfully he integrated into the group. The set mixed familiar Motown material with Broadway standards popular with the sophisticates of the day (an audience being wooed by Berry Gordy), and mostly taken from their In A Mellow Mood album. The recording is jinxed with technical shortcomings, mostly frequent microphone clickings and a badly distorting overload during I Wish It Would Rain, though there are also some very clumsy edits between songs, notably after The Impossible Dream. Whether the latter were on the original album, and so are excusable on grounds of historical accuracy, or are further examples of butchering by the re-issue compilers is unclear.

The Temptations With A Lot O' Soul is a classic Temptations album on many levels - the line-up, the producers and arrangers, the songs - and regarded as among their best of their "old style" releases. Although most of it was produced by Norman Whitfield, there are three Smokey Robinson productions of his own songs (recorded over the summer of 1966), including a cover of Marvin Gaye's Now That You've Won Me; one produced by Frank Wilson; one by Ivy Jo Hunter; and unusually one from the Holland/Dozier/Holland team, Just One Last Look. This is very much in the style of the Four Tops, who did also record an unreleased version in 1967. Two of the others are also in arrangements reminiscent of the Four Tops, the single (Loneliness Made Me Realise) It's You That I Need (originally a single for Eddie Holland in 1963) and Sorry Is A Sorry Word, an Eddie Holland/Ivy Jo song consigned to the B-side of All I Need. The mastering of the studio album is very good, although All I Need does lose a few seconds from the original album version.

The range of the band is shown to excellent advantage and though David Ruffin is quite deservedly the most prominent lead vocalist, Paul Williams is given No More Water In The Well, Otis Williams leads Don't Me Send me Away (both Smokey songs), while Eddie Kendricks sings both Save My Love For A Rainy Day and Two Sides To Love. David and Eddie shared the spotlight on You're My Everything, had it been included.

I hope Motown continue to activate the catalogue with these priceless re-issues, but that they learn from the rather botched job they made of this important release and perhaps prepare a corrected version.

LIVE AT THE COPA/MUSIC DIRECTOR PROPS
HE WAS NOT ONLY THE LEAD GUITARIST, HE WROTE A FEW OF THE TEMPS BIG HITS SUCH AS "I KNOW iM LOSING YOU AND YOURE MY EVERYTHING. HERE ARE SOME ACCOLADES TO THE MAN WHO DIRECTED THE BAND AND ARRANGED THE MUSIC DIRECTION OF THE LIVE SHOWS- MR CORNELIUS GRANT. MY COUSIN NORMAN ROBERTS WAS THE DRUMMER AT THAT TIME. LIVE SHOWS SPEAK NOT ONLY FOR THE TALENT OF THE SINGERS, BUT FOR THE MUSICIANS WHO READ THAT SHEET MUSIC NOTE FOR NOTE AND COULD WRITE MUSIC AS WELL. MR GRANT HAS BEEN A FRIEND OF MINE SINCE 1961. THIS IS FROM A PHILLY INTL STUDIO MUSICIAN.

You can see a complete list of all The Temptations discography, or go back to the The Temptations tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.