Category Archives: Smokey Robinson

When Smokey Sings …

Debonair lullabies in melodies revealed/In deep despair on lonely nights/He knows just how you feel/The slyest rhymes — the sharpest suits/In miracles made real

Like a bird in flight on a hot sweet night/You know you’re right just to hold her tight/He soothes it right — makes it outtasight/And everything’s good in the world tonight

When Smokey sings — I hear violins/When Smokey sings — I forget everything

I heard this today in the pharmacy. Getting Krill Oil, of all things (doctor’s orders), and when this song came over the sound system, I was transported.

OK, I admit it. I’m a sucker for the New Romantics — especially ABC ‘s “When Smokey Sings” (with “Be Near Me” a distant second). Poetry in motion. The lyrics are filled with allusions to Smokey Robinson’s sublime lyrics, the music is both timeless and wonderfully, hopelessly dated to a certain point in time in the ’80s. 

Transcendence. That’s what we’re looking for. Even once a week would be wonderful. Twice would be divine.

It had already happened earlier in the week in — where else — The New York Times in Jim Dwyer’s delicious, detail-filled column, “Businesses Too Loved to Fail.”  A short feature on a couple of well-loved, but struggling neighborhood businesses in New York. Concise, specific, punchy, full of memorable people and, just as importantly, effortlessly making an Important Point without reading like a writer trying to make an Important Point.

If I could teach my students to write like this, to appreciate feature writing of this caliber, that would be a life’s goal. Heck, if I could write like that, that would be a life’s goal.

When Smokey sings …

That effortless grace, be it ABC’s career-defining song or Jim Dwyer’s turn of a phrase comes from more than just practice, it comes from passion. Every note, every beat, the right note, the right beat. Every word, the absolute right word. Nothing else will do.

That’s what creates transcendence … that momentary whiff of heaven that comes from the creation of something original, of something special. It’s when we create that, perhaps, we are closest to the Creator.

Luther croons/Sly’s the original — originator/James screams/Marvin was the only innovator/But nothing can compare/Nothing can compare/When Smokey sings …