Song #284: "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" by The Temptations

Date: Dec 2, 1972
Weeks: 1

The actual single of this song was apparently 7 minutes long. I listened to the whole thing, and I was tired of it before I'd even finished it the first time. So I linked this shorter performance to save time. All they've cut is a 3-minute musical intro that was basically that bass line over and over again.

In fact, the bass line over and over again seems to be the entire basis for this song. It gets old fast, and I can't believe anyone thought extending it to 7 minutes made the song better than the 4-minute version with lyrics. There are some other string, guitar, and horn accents throughout, but they're just jazzing-up the bass line, not contributing any musical ideas.

The lyrics are okay, I guess. The guy learns the father he never knew has died, and starts asking about him. And it turns out his father was a bit of a disreputable scoundrel. Then, like everything else about this song, it goes on well past the time when we've gotten the point.

My verdict: Don't like it. Unlike the song, I won't drag this review out beyond the point where it's interesting.