Mr. William “Smokey” Robinson
It’s hump Wednesday.
As already mentioned, I have been drowning myself in Motown history. If you have speakers, be sure to turn them up as I have finally posted Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On Album. My favorite song that I hadn’t already heard on there is track two “What’s Happening Brother.” I always knew the Funk Brothers were fantastic but I really enjoy the bass part of that song.
I’ve also just finished Smokey Robinson’s autobiography that he wrote with Mr. Rtiz. Now I figured it would probably not tell TOO much as the author wrote it himself…the picture of Smokey in the book about Marvin wasn’t as squeaky clean as it was in his own book, but I guess that’s understandable.
Nothing too much was out of sort with Mr. William “Smokey” Robinson. He did get into cocaine as well (around 1985!) but overcame it after attending a spiritual healer. (His friend took him to a church where they have those faith based healing things going on…he went up there, was prayed over, and hasn’t touched the stuff sense). Also, much like Mr. Gaye, he had issues with women, only this time it was because he loved women too much and had no problem expressing his sexuality. The book mentions three women, his wife Claudette, a model Kandi, and a young 18 year old Meta (he dated that last one when he was 32). He maintained relationships with the side women while with Claudette, claiming it was possible to love multiple women, though it was his wife that had the number one spot.
I guess you could say he had himself a little harem.
Hmph.
Another interesting fact about Mr. William is that he had a white grandmother. This is where he got his eyes and hair from. When he was younger, he had blond hair and blue eyes. It confused people so much, he was placed in the nursery for white babies in the segregated hospital when he was born.
Oh and one more thing, Smokey says that he and Mr. Gordy go WAY back. They first met when the Miracles (then the Matadors) tried out for Jackie Wilson’s troupe. They got rejected, but Mr. Gordy was in there (he was just a song writer back then) and called Smokey aside. Smoke showed Berry some of his songs, and the two decided to work together.
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You know, I wanna know about Mr. Gordy. Did anyone ever write a book about him? Everyone’s books say his family very tight and all very successful in their own respects. Someone once said, you can marry into the Gordy family, but the spouses have to know…when it comes down to it, the Gordy family comes first above anything else. Shoot they need to share how they got to be like that! Imagine if more black families were like that….
