Day After Day #165: Papa Was a Rolling Stone

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Papa Was a Rolling Stone (1972)

It's Father's Day and you're probably hearing a lot of nice platitudes about how great dads are, etc. But of course, not everyone's experience with their dad was heartwarming. Dads, after all, are human and some of them are definitely better than others. There are a lot of sappy songs about dads, but my favorite is a stone-cold classic about a terrible dad.

The Temptations had been around since 1960 in various formations, churning out classic Motown hits like "My Girl," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" and "Ball of Confusion." The group featured great vocalists like David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, but by 1972, it was Dennis Edwards, Damon Harris, Richard Street, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams. Producer Norman Whitfield, who had started working with the Temptations in 1968, had helped the group develop its psychedelic soul sound. He wrote "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" with Barrett Strong for a group called the Undisputed Truth, which had a minor hit with it in early 1972. 

But when Whitfield brought the song to the Temptations, he turned it into an epic 12-minute psychedelic jam featuring a fair amount of instrumental sections performed by the Funk Brothers, including the first four minutes of the song. When the vocals finally kick in, the group's singers are portraying siblings asking their mother about their dead father, who disappeared when they were young.

"It was the third of September/That day I'll always remember, yes I will/'Cause that was the day that my daddy died/I never got a chance to see him/Never heard nothing but bad things about him/Momma, I'm depending on you to tell me the truth/Momma just hung her head and said, 'Son'/Papa was a rolling stone/Wherever he laid his hat was his home/And when he died, all he left us was alone/Papa was a rolling stone/Wherever he laid his hat was his home/And when he died, all he left us was alone."

Even the single edit of the song was epic, clocking in at 7 minutes. There was a lot of tension at the recording session, with Whitfield forcing Edwards to re-record his parts dozens of times before Whitfield was satisfied.

"Hey Momma/I heard Papa called himself a jack-of-all-trades/Tell me, is that what sent Papa to an early grave?/Folks say Papa would beg, borrow, steal/To pay his bills/Hey Momma/Folks say Papa was never much on thinking/Spent most of his time chasing women and drinking/Momma, I'm depending on you to tell the truth/Momma looked up with a tear in her eye and said, 'Son'/Papa was a rolling stone/Wherever he laid his hat was home/And when he died, all he left us was alone."

The Temptations weren't thrilled by Whitfield's creative vision, and eventually would stop working with him. But not before "Papa" went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won three Grammy awards (Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group, Best R&B Instrumental for the B-side and Best R&B Song to composers Whitfield and Strong). The 12-minute version was the anchor of the group's album All Directions, which went to #2 on the Billboard 200.

The Temptations made one more album with Whitfield before parting ways but have continued to record with varying lineups over the years, with their most recent album coming out in 2022.

The song was covered several times, including by Was (Not Was) in 1990, George Michael in 1993 and Slash (with Demi Lovato on vocals) last month.

"Papa Was a Rolling Stone" resonated with so many families that had dealt with dads who skipped out on them. This song gave a voice to some of those who haven't had great experiences with their dads.