Few artists have had as many hits or written as many songs as Motown legend Smokey Robinson, but he still loves to write timeless classics, he tells Jim Carroll
The first song? Of course, Smokey remembers the first song he ever wrote. As clear as a bell. Man, he might be able to give you a few lines from it, if you gave him a few moments to clear his throat.
"It was for a school play at Dwyer Elementary in Detroit. I was playing a character called Uncle Remus and Mrs Campbell, the teacher, had written a melody for the opening and closing sections. I asked her if I could write some words to go with the melody and she said yes." Since that classroom debut, Smokey Robinson has penned more than 4,000 songs.
Yes, 4,000 songs. Dozens and dozens of them have become solid gold classics in the pop canon. The Tracks of My Tears, Tears of a Clown, My Girl, The Way You Do the Things You Do, You've Really Got a Hold on Me, Going to a Go-Go, I Second That Emotion: Robinson wrote the songs the whole world still likes to sing.
But Robinson continues to hold a place in our affections for reasons more than just his prowess as a songwriter. ABC's Martin Fry once testified that when Robinson sings, you hear violins, and you have to say "amen" to that.
Besides the material, it was the emotional depth and conviction of Robinson's sweet and soulful voice that took each song to a higher plain every time.
It was at Berry Gordy's Motown during the 1960s that Robinson perfected his craft. Whether it was singing with The Miracles or penning one tune after another for The Temptations, The Four Tops or Marvin Gaye, Robinson had the Midas touch when it came to scoring hits.
He's still effusive when it comes to dishing out praise for his mentor.
"When I met Mr Gordy, and this was prior to Motown, he was a songwriter and a record producer and he taught me how to write songs professionally," says Robinson, who was 16 years old when the pair met.
"He saw that I had four or five songs in any one song and that the first verse had nothing to do with the second verse and so on. It all rhymed up good, but it just wasn't working right. He made me realise that writing songs is like writing a short story or a short movie. It had to have a beginning, a middle and an end to get the whole story across."
When Gordy established Motown in the Motor City in 1959, Robinson was among the first young bucks to pledge his allegiance to the cause. While many believe Motown's success is down to the fact that Detroit had an abundance of singing talent at the time (various members of The Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes and Aretha Franklin were born and reared within the same few city blocks), Robinson has another theory.
'I THINK YOU had the same ratio of talent in every single town and city worldwide that you had back in Detroit. The difference was we had Mr Gordy and Motown became an outlet for our talent. He provided us with a way of fulfilling our dreams and a way to be heard. He made the difference."
It's a different story these days in Detroit. When Robinson looks at his native town, he doesn't see many bright spots. "There is no comparison. Detroit is nothing like it was back in the days of Motown. It has deteriorated, but so have most American cities. Time wears on cities, especially Detroit."
That wasn't the case when Robinson, Motown and Gordy were in their pomp. During the 1960s, all eyes and ears were on 2648 West Grand Boulevard and Hitsville USA. Hundreds of hits were minted there, but it was only in retrospect that Robinson copped the historical implications. "There was a sense that something good was happening, all right, because we were having so many hits," he recalls. "We were bombarding the world with these songs that were truly popular. But we didn't know we were making history. If I had known that, I'd have saved every single scrap of paper I'd ever written a song on or scribbled an idea on or all the tapes I recorded."
He believes we'll never see its likes again. "It was an one-off," he insists. "There will never be another lifetime musical event and movement like Motown. It hasn't happened since and, given that the record business today is a whole other animal to the way it was, with all the downloading and the internet, it will not happen again."
Robinson's ties with Motown were close ones. He was appointed vice-president in 1961 and kept that position until the label was sold in 1988. Even fatherhood saw him sticking with the brand: he called his son Berry after Gordy, and his daughter Tamla after one of Motown's labels.
Not surprisingly, given such loyalties, Robinson was angered by what he saw as unwarranted swipes at the Motown founder in the hit film Dreamgirls.
"I thought it was a terrible depiction of something wonderful," he says. "Motown was a wonderful establishment. People can be proud of what Motown did. For them to depict Motown like they did in that movie upset me.
"Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson are my friends and I have nothing against them - they didn't write or produce it. But the writers and producers went way too far, especially in their depiction of Berry Gordy. They did publicly apologise afterwards, though, and I give them credit for that."
WHILE ROBINSON STILL tours and records (his most recent release was last year's Timeless Love collection of standards), he now has other irons in the fire. One of these is the Smokey Robinson Foods company, which he founded with his friend, film producer Leon Kennedy. The company flogs such frozen-food products as Down Home Pot Roast, Seafood Gumbo and Smokey's Red Beans & Rice.
While the company is doing good business ("we launched five years ago and it's growing so fast"), Robinson likes to use it as an example to others about what they can do. "We use profits from the company to fund seminars and forums and educational classes for young people, to teach them the art of entrepreneurship, especially young, black, inner-city kids," he explains.
"They think they have to be in entertainment or sports to make a good living, and we want to tell them that they don't have to limit themselves like that. They might have great ideas, but they're afraid to pursue them, so we want to expose these kids and teens to the thought of being an entrepreneur."
That, though, is the sideshow. For Robinson, it's still all about the music. He's enthusiastic about a whole rake of newcomers (including John Legend, Alicia Keys, Corinne Bailey Rae and Norah Jones), but it's clear he himself is still very much in the game.
"I love music and I love recording. I have all these ideas for new albums that I still want to do. And I still have a few more songs to write. I want to write a few more songs that will recorded by other artists and sung forever. That's how I judge a song - one that will be around forever."
Smokey Robinson plays Vicar Street, Dublin on July 9