The Motown song that helped expand John Lydon’s mind: “It opened up so much”
Berry Gordy once declared that his Motown empire strived to make “music for all people”, and it is fair to say that the legendary label achieved that aim over the course of its unparalleled reign over the pop charts. From the soul aficionados of Detroit to the future punk progenitors of post-war London, the allure of Motown was simply too great to ignore.
John Lydon has never been one to waste an opportunity to discuss his musical influences, even if that often translates into him delivering a deluge of vitriol against virtually every band or artist that he has ever crossed paths with.
It doesn’t matter whether you are Joe Strummer, Debbie Harry, or even one of Lydon’s own bandmates, he will still, invariably, find some means of attack. There are, however, a few artists and records that the former Sex Pistol still actively enjoys.
Typically, these sacred songs come from the days preceding punk, when the young Londoner was still finding his feet when it came to his own musical taste. Both in his memoir Anger Is An Energy and countless interviews over the years, the songwriter has spoken with a sense of nostalgia about the musical landscape of his upbringing, typified by the deep reggae rhythms emanating from the city in the wake of Windrush, along with his own blossoming interest in the realm of T Rex and glam rock.
Nevertheless, you might not expect Lydon to be an open appreciator of soul music. After all, the world of blaring horns and gospel-inspired vocals never really entered into the abrasive, glue-sniffing realm of the Sex Pistols. As the songwriter revealed on BBC 6 Music back in 2014, though, the sounds of Motown were unavoidable during his youth.
“The Finsbury Park area I come from is very multicultural, very mixed,” he recalled. “Tamla Motown was always blaring there from a corner store, then there was reggae stores, and pop music stores.” Inevitably, then, Lydon grew up with a healthy appreciation for the sounds of Hitsville USA, even if its heyday had already subsided by the time that he began his own music career.
Like every self-respecting Motown fan, of course, Lydon has his all-time favourite record from Gordy’s label, and it comes in the form of a psychedelic soul masterpiece by The Temptations. “‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’, the extended mix with the long, deliberate, intense build-up,” he affirmed, adding the rather creepy description: “It’s like you’ve finally copped hold of that girl you’ve been admiring, and you’re going to savour the flavour.”
“It’s fantastic, it opened up so much, I like the way it’s exploring,” the songwriter continued. “It got away from, like, tight suits and the precision dance steps. It was ‘expand your mind and the universe will follow’.”
The Temptations certainly subverted expectations of 1960s R&B, and that beloved 1972 track seemed to capture the spirit of counterculture and sonic exploration all in one.
It might not sound remotely similar to anything that Lydon has ever created, either with the Sex Pistols or throughout the diverse career of Public Image Ltd, but ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ nevertheless seemed to have quite a profound effect on the punk pioneer during his formative years, proving once and for all that Motown is, indeed, “music for all people”.
