Rediscovery of the Year

The Temptations
I spent much of the fall listening to New York's oldies station CBS-FM. Perhaps it was just a function of another birthday rolling around and I felt like reveling in my past. Or maybe I didn't want to sit through another WFUV fund drive. Or perhaps I just didn't want to listen to baseball on the radio done by people not named Howie Rose. Whatever the reason, I woke up one night to hear “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and it struck me that I haven't owned a single Motown album (and only a couple of tracks scattered on some compilations) since I scored a major case of burnout on all their acts in the early ’90s. “Papa” sounded so good that night I realized I needed to get that song again. And while I was at it, I decided to download all of The Tempts greatest hits. As I was scrolling through the various song selections, I stumbled upon “Shakey Ground.” I didn’t even realize that the funky gem from 1975 (which I remember hearing on WGY-AM growing up) was a Temptations song. Damn, what a killer track. 20 downloads later, I had filled in a crucial gap in my musical history.