LAST CALL
My guitar pickin’ brethren, it’s all about the song.
The most mind-bending guitar solo becomes
merely an empty, music-store “
dweedal-la-dweedal-la” when played over a crap song.
Legends & Lyrics, a television series which
begins airing in April 2009 on PBS, chose some
of the world’s best songwriters and filmed their
performances in an attempt to showcase the
craft of songwriting. Some of these songwriters
employed backing musicians to help fill out their
sound. I was hired by Motown legend Lamont
Dozier for one episode and rock legend Justin
Hayward (of The Moody Blues) for another.
Legends & Lyrics
Lamont Dozier, Megan Mullins and John Bohlinger
Lamont Dozier is best known as part of the
Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting and
production team responsible for a ton of
Motown. Unless you’ve spent your entire life
in a cave, with your fingers firmly planted in
your ears, you know his set list:
1. Stop! In the Name of Love
2. Where Did Our Love Go
3. I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)
4. My World Is Empty Without You
5. How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You
192 PREMIER GUITAR MAY 2009
The challenge arose in that Lamont’s version of these standards strayed far from
the Motown arrangements we’re familiar
with. My hands naturally drifted toward
the changes used in The Supremes’ albums
because I could not expunge the Motown
arrangements from my subconscious. I was
forced to read the entire show. Reading
isn’t normally a problem, but my tiny charts
were hard to see way down by my feet, and
I was singing backgrounds, which meant
that I lost the foggy line-of-sight to the
charts while on the mic. Fortunately, the
gig went well because the strength of these
songs pulled through the performance.
164 PREMIER GUI TAR GREATEST HITS VOL. 1
JOHN BOHLINGER
There’s an interesting story behind these familiar songs. Lamont had already cut the track for
“Where Did Our Love Go” for The Marvelettes,
who refused the song. Motown would charge
Lamont for the session unless somebody else
cut the track. Lamont began the hard sell to
other acts. He called The (yet-to-have-a-hit)
Supremes and said, “Girls, I have got the
song that will make you stars.” They replied,
“We already heard about that dog of a song
you’ve been pitching around.” Luckily a record
was due and the hitless girls did not have the
juice to reject the work of Barry Gordy’s top
writer. In turn, The Supremes protested with
a passive-aggressive performance, turning a
complicated vocal line into an angry, repetitive, unison of “baby baby, ooh baby baby.”
Lamont maintains that this angry delivery
helped make it their first #1 single. Another
factor that helped the song’s success was that
Lamont had recorded the track in a low key
for The Marvelettes. On The Supremes’ earlier
work, Diana Ross sang considerably higher,
but was forced to rework her style to fit the
track. “Where did Our Love Go” introduced
the world to the warmer register that Diana
Ross has utilized for the rest of her life.
Justin Hayward, Megan Mullins and John Bohlinger
The next day I played with Justin Hayward.
Justin is an intimidating guy—rather, his body
of work is intimidating. He’s actually an amazingly talented, humble, kind person with a
great sense of humor, but his amazing singing/
playing/songwriting and good looks make me
feel like a beta male at best. Having learned
that the show isn’t conducive to reading, I
vowed to memorize Justin’s set. (“Nights
in White Satin,” “Driftwood” and “Wildest
Dreams” were with me; “Question” and “Who
Are You Now” Justin played alone.)
Again, the omnipresent Moody Blues songs
truly comprise part of the soundtrack of our
lives. I’ve heard “Nights in White Satin” thousands of times, but I never really studied that
signature lick. The first ten times I played it, I
knew I didn’t have it quite right until I counted
out the beats like a fourth grader. The song
is in 6/8, with the signature line beginning on
the fourth beat of the second measure. Try
playing it without counting and you will want
to start early. If you watch the program and it
looks like I’m counting, it’s because I am.
Justin also had an interesting story behind all
of his songs. Once, they had a session and no
songs; it was up to Justin to write something.
Around 3 a.m. the night before the session, he
found a few different scraps of two separate
songs and segued them together. The next
morning he went to the studio sleep deprived
but completely confident that it would work.
He convinced his skeptic band mates and they
recorded live, with no overdubbing. Listening
to him play the song after hearing the back
story I thought, “Well, of course this is two
separate songs.” It doesn’t matter: “Question”
became their second biggest hit in the UK.
The Moody Blues, The Supremes, and many
others became part of our lives because of the
power of the songs, more than their voices or
instrumental prowess. If you aspire to become
a legend, write some killer lyrics.
Pianist William Brendle (American Idol), Lamont Dozier, Megan Mullins
and John Bohlinger
John Bohlinger
John Bohlinger is a Nashville guitar slinger who has
recorded and toured with over 30 major label artists. His
songs and playing can be heard in several major motion
pictures, major label releases and literally hundreds of
television drops. For more info visit johnbohlinger.com
