Proto-Emo, Philip Roth and Barry White

The Four Tops - Standing In The Shadows of Love

Kicking off with Levi Stubbs' soulful baritone, plaintive and impassioned, over a minor chord choral backing courtesy of the Andantes, Standing In The Shadows of Love is a rollercoaster of anguish. Were it not for the fact that kids with dyed black fringes and multiple facial piercings didn't exist back in 1966 (nor did My Chemical Romance), this could almost be considered emo in a Philip Roth-ian alternate future. That said, if we're going to speculate about said future, Marvin Gaye was a lot hipper than Alkaline Trio, Sam Cooke knew far more about dying for women and no-one is ever going to rank Mr Vegan girly-boy Davey Havok next to Wilson Pickett in terms of cool.

Speculative future aside, the song has a number of musical highlights - the all-but-the-kitchen-sink Holland-Dozier-Holland approach to arrangement, where there are so many instruments (a full woodwind section, 2 sets of backing vocals, a rhythm section, guitars, and a brass section, amongst others) that it's hard to work out exactly what instruments are on the track, gives the track a volume that was definitely inspired by Phil Spector's Wall of Sound approach. The energy and tempo with which the song is performed gives it an almost attack-like quality and a frenetic pace, like Stubbs and co are not resigning themselves to heartbreak, but rather preparing themselves for a war with it.

One of the other highlights of this song is the interplay between the rhythm section - the song features incredible, driving drumming and some of the funkiest bass playing ever, courtesy of the Funk Brothers (probably not their real names) who are regarded as having played on "more number-one records than The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys combined" (Standing In The Shadows of Motown, documentary, 2002). Needless to say, they know how to play. In fact, they did so well for The Four Tops that it's pretty difficult to tell Standing In The Shadows of Love from the Four Tops' previous hit, Reach Out I'll Be There. Crafty move there boys, recycling wasn't a well-known technique back in 1966 (Barry White, and the Jackson 5, did however recycle this as cover versions over the years).

Despite that, both songs are ten kinds of badass. But was Stubbs and the rest of the band as badass as their music? Sadly not, unless you consider being married to the same woman for nearly 50 years and dying of old age at 72 as badass. Needless to say, he didn't challenge GG Allin and Keith Moon for the title of Head Rock Nutter. In fact, he was so unbadass that he makes my life of empty pizza boxes and blogging about old music look like a never-ending parade of wolvo-beserkerdom. But then again, maybe there's something far more hardcore about not walking down the road of nutterdom when all the groupies in the world are massaging one another with baby oil and the living room table is buried under a mound of cocaine. Maybe going home to your wife, every night, for almost 50 years is a far harder task.

Verdict: Bring on the groupies.

Tomorrow: The Beatles - Rain