Levi Stubbs, lead singer for The Four Tops, has died at the age of 72. Stubbs was one of the great singers, period, of any genre or any era, and if you're looking for a lesson on how to wring every ounce of drama and emotion ouf of a song, you could hardly do better than listen to Levi sing "Reach Out (I'll Be There)." He could shout, he could croon, he could plead, and he could lay on the gospel melismas better than anyone other than Aretha. He was, by all accounts, also a good man. As the distinctive voice and the frontman for the wildly successful Four Tops, he had many opportunities to go solo. He turned them down because he liked the other three men he worked with, and was happy to split the profits four ways. When asked if his role in the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors caused conflict among the other members of his group, Stubbs famously replied: "The guys are all glad for me. If you've been together for 33 years, what could you possibly do that would cause friction?"

In all, before founding member Lawrence Payton died in 1997, the four members sang with each other, and only with each other, for 43 years. Now their distinctive voice is gone.

With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone
No one could say that she was left up on the shelf
Its you and me against the world kid she mumbled to herself

When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face

She ran away from home with her mothers best coat
She was married before she was even entitled to vote
And her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laughs at his own jokes
The sort that war takes away
And when there wasnt a war he left her anyway

Norman Whitfield and Barratt Strong
Are here to make everything right thats wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you

One dark night he came home from the sea
And put a hole in her body where no hole should be
It hurt her more to see him walking out the door
And though they stitched her back together they left her heart in pieces on the
Floor

When the world falls apart some things stay in place
She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face
-- Billy Bragg, "Levi Stubbs' Tears"

May he rest in peace. I will always love the Four Tops no matter how much oldies radio runs their hits into the ground.

1986. Spring break of my senior of high school, I went on a road trip armed with only two cassettes in my Sony Walkman-- Husker Du's major label breakthrough, Candy Apple Grey and a Four Tops anthology that I picked up at KMart for $.99. Candy Apple Grey was a supreme disappointment. The Four Tops tape was a revelation. It opened my heart and mind to Motown and the art of songwriting. It also taught me that a man could sing with his balls out on a pop song like Bernadette and not be cheesy in the slightest. Man, did I envy that voice.