The Undisputed Truth -

Date: 1971
Release: Gordy #GS-959
Cover Art: view / download
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The late Norman Whitfield‘s creative juices flowed like the Mississippi River on The Undisputed Truth’s sophomore album. The original group consisting of ex Pep and Ohio Player, Joe Harris, and ex Delicates‘ Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce. While Whitfield and his partner Barrett Strong didn’t write any new material for the album; (all songs were previously released by other Motown artists) new arrangements made the cuts totally unlike previous renditions.

Motown’s sales department couldn’t have been happy campers trying to find the follow-up to the group’s smash “Smiling Faces Sometimes” to release as a single because it’s not to be found on this collection.  The best song-and arguably one of Whitfield’s finest productions- “You Make Your Own Heaven And Hell (Right Here On Earth)” got the honor. Slicing some minutes does not a single make. Besides, it had been on the Temptations’ Psychedelic Shack album the year before and b-sided their number one smash “Just My Imagination” earlier in the year (1971).

YMYOHAH is not a tune you dance to (and this was the disco era); it’s not a tune you sang on street corners, restrooms or talent shows; disk jockeys didn’t play it at gigs; the backyard bar-be-cue jam it is not; and the bar crowd was too busy drinking to get into the words. YMYOHAH is a tune you sit back with a glass of wine and listened to and marvel at. Whitfield’s production is like art for the ears. As magnificent and intricate a track ever made for public consumption, only his “Masterpiece” for the Temptations tops it. Harris terse tenor/baritone and Joyce and Calvin’s whispery cool and sometimes agitated vocals are perfect vehicles for Barrett Strong’s profound lyrics…life is an invisible scale with two sides good and bad…and you and your beliefs are the weights. The track featuring Bob Babbitt‘s hypnotic bass, swirling violins, Dennis Coffey‘s psychedelic guitar licks, gets a final mix by Whitfield that is worthy of 50 Emeril Lagasse’s bams!

The energetic “What It Is” was the second single and a better choice for radio play than YMYOHAH but like the aforementioned it suffered by being previously released by the Temptations on an LP and 45 rpm; and while upbeat its rhythm didn’t fit most dances done by the generation marketed to. “Superstar” lacks the punch and David Ruffin connection that the Temptations‘ hit had. Remember, everyone assumed the Tempts were singing and chastising ex-member Ruffin. Gladys Knight & The Pips enjoyed a hit in England with “Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me,” but the song bombed in the United State. The lighthearted pop song doesn’t get many soul accolades. And the much recorded “Don’t Let Him Take Your Love From Me” originally a hit single for Gladys Knight & The Pips is done in a perfunctory manner.

Face To Face brilliance and the reason it fetches $150 on sites like Ebay and Amazon and to date is the only album by the group on CD are YMYOHAH, “Ungenza Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World)/Friendship Train” and their interpretation of Marvin Gaye’s classic What’s Going On. Many will call these tunes filler as each are done marathon style and in no way exemplify anything close to the typical Motown single.

Whitfield combined “Ungenza Za Ulimwengu/Friendship Train” and came up with nearly 9 minutes of spaced out humanitarianism. You get the feeling that Whit was trying to solve the world’s woes with this joint. Another one where you rock the headphones and become mesmerized by the eerie, seamless, tight production, discerning the odd use of the instruments and marveling at what kind of mind, ears and patience it took to blend it all together.

“What’s Going On” goes on for nearly 10 minutes and you’re not going to like it the first time you hear it. I bet you. But it’s another healing song that has fared well with time. It’s the only song here that Norman and Barrett didn’t write. In this case, the credit goes to Renaldo “Obie” Benson (Four Tops), Al Cleveland and Marvin Gaye, but Norman produced it as if the original never existed. It has a mellow, jazzy feel and is a listen-to, not a dance-to.

Norman Whitfield didn’t have hit single on his mind when he produced this album. Instead, he had artistry flowing through his brain and the hope that one day he’ll be recognized as the most innovative producer of his era.

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