Until the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, the Funk Brothers remained relatively obscure, despite having been the studio band for the majority of Motown recordings. Since then, public awareness of the group has risen, and the surviving members of the band have been able to reunite, tour, and record. Paste caught up with bassist Bob Babbitt just before the release of a new live CD and DVD, both titled Live in Orlando.
Paste: Do you find that you have more freedom playing these songs now than you did before, or are you limited because of their history?
Babbitt: I don’t think we are. I would say there’s freedom, but there’s also the fact that the stuff has certain signature—I want to say “licks”—phrases and lines that people know. A good example: if you play some of the songs, they lock into different things. Most of the time, it would be probably the lyrics, the vocals. But if you play the beginning of “My Girl” on the bass, everybody can relate to hearing that, then that famous guitar line. It seems that the people that know that song know that right away, but the minute the vocalist sings, that’s it. I don’t care what you play on that bass or that guitar. It’s a combination of things; sometimes it depends on what people are coming to. There are certain people coming that get locked into certain things. They might start raving about the drummer or something. You’d be surprised what people would say.
Paste: Does anything that people have said really jump out at you?
Babbitt: They’re aware of a lot more of what’s going on then you’d realize. There might be people there that are aware of the bass playing and what’s going on—things that I wouldn’t even think anyone would be listening for… With [drummers] Spider [Webb] and Uriel [Jones], there’s one thing I hear: “My god, that Spider and Uriel, it’s unreal to watch those guys. It sounds like there’s one guy, but you know there’s two guys up there.”
Paste: Do you think that’s related to Standing in the Shadows of Motown?
Babbitt: I think that has a lot to do with it, yes, I do… When they see you, it’s a different feeling. It’s a great feeling, it’s a real rewarding feeling. Just the smile on their faces and everything. They raise your talent to another level. When we go on the stage, we want to have fun. We don’t want to take any problems with us on the stage, because anything you do, people will see. Anything that’s maybe a negative, people will see and that will affect their reaction to the group. If we’re having fun, they’re going to have fun. That feeds back on you then. You just take it to another level. That’s the best thing about it. If you’re not having the fun, then people will know it, they’ll see it. I think in the DVD you can see that.
We have experienced since [Standing in the Shadows of Motown] came out a couple different scenarios. When it first came out, we had a line-up that some of us weren’t 100% happy with, and also we were restricted to reading the music because our musical director [Allan Slutsky] was also the producer and wrote the book, and he wanted everything exactly note for note. It wasn’t so much the freedom. It restricts your personality when you have to sit down there and you’re just reading music, especially that kind of music. I think it worked for the film, it was great for Standing in the Shadows of Motown . It had a certain look to it, a certain feel, and there was no problem there. But once we got out playing live, it didn’t work. The people didn’t really see us as we were, because we didn’t have that freedom. We were restricted.
When we got in the second situation we were in, before some of the guys retired or passed away, we had some tension amongst the players, and as a result that showed out in the audience. I have had some of my friends ask me, “What’s wrong with so and so?” The reason was…they say in acting, “Don’t take your garbage on the stage,” and he was taking it on the stage. The people can see that, they can feel it. Where we’re at right now, we feel real good about playing. We want to carry on the names of the guys before us and we want to have fun, and that’s the bottom line. If the people don’t see that, you’re fighting a losing battle.
Paste: You and guitarist Eddie Willis have both spoken about the shift from your jazz influences to R&B. How important was that?
Babbitt: I think that’s one of the reasons that sound became what it was, because there was a combination of some of the jazz musicians and some of the funkier R&B and also the influence of some of the classical guys. I mean, it was a combination of things that evolved into what we know now as the Motown sound. And the fact that everybody was in a small room when they played, they listened to each other, they fed off each other An important thing, too: in Standing in the Shadows of Motown, I think it was [guitarist] Joe Messina who said, “They liked each other.” If you walk in the studio and you feel uncomfortable, and you don’t really feel real friendly or comfortable, it affects your playing… And I always say that they had a spiritual connection [in the Funk Brothers].
Paste: What’s been the most rewarding aspect of revisiting this music?
Babbitt: The most rewarding thing is the response from the people. It’s like the songs, they’re timeless. It’s unreal. When you think about all the years have gone by and it still has that kind of power. One of the biggest rewards is seeing the smiles on the faces, especially from the younger kids, the younger generation, because they weren’t exposed to it like the baby boomers were.