The world lost quite a voice this weekend with the death of Levi Stubbs, original lead singer of The Four Tops. Stubbs had battled cancer for several years and had a stroke a few years ago.
Stubbs had a booming voice. "Bernadette." "Standing In The Shadows Of Love." And especially, ESPECIALLY, "Reach Out I'll Be There." The urgency in his voice is stunning, particularly in the "I know what you're thinking/you're alone now/ no love of your own... just look over your shoulder!" lines. The timing is interesting--just over a month after my first trip to Detroit and a wonderful visit to the Motown Museum/Hitsville, USA.
Here's another great one --> "It's The Same Old Song"
In other news, the Canadian general election happened last week... and it was pretty uneventful. Parliamentary elections happen quickly (this one was 6 weeks after it was called), so there're no years and years of campaigning. Ultimately, Prime Minister Stephen Harper got the election called because he didn't feel like he could move forward after 2+ years of his minority government. So he was rewarded with... another minority government. Though his party, the Conservatives, picked up some seats, they're still 12 or so seats short of a majority--thanks mostly to the nationalist Bloc Quebecois, who got (as usual) 2/3 of the seats in Quebec (a big province). The left wing NDP made some gains (and held my own riding of Trinity-Spadina), while the usually strong Liberal Party struggled (particularly out west) thanks in no small part to a leader with the personality of a dish towel--Stephane Dion. That his English is worse than that of the Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe did not play very well out west.
Canadians seem to be far more interested in the US election, for which I recently sent in my absentee ballot...
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