Levi Stubbs R.I.P.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

http://blog.allmusic.com/2008/10/17/rip-levi-stubbs-of-the-four-tops/

It's hard to imagine the voice of the Four Tops ever being stilled. It was so huge, so tough, so full of everything that make life worth living (love, hope, heartbreak, pain) that you'd figure somehow Levi Stubbs would live forever. Sadly, Stubbs passed away today at home in Detroit after a long illness but that voice, and the songs he sang, will never die. You know the hits. They are massive and timeless, glittering products of the Motown machine like "Reach Out (I'll Be There)", "Standing in the Shadows of Love", "I Can't Help Myself" and the awe-inspiring "Bernadette". Songs that Stubbs destroyed with his gravel-throated howl and his raw, exposed soul. If you dig behind the songs you can hear daily on oldies stations around the globe though, you'll find some pretty great songs that Stubbs (and the other three guys, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton, who all stuck together for an unheard of 43 years!) knocks out of the park as easily as tying his shoes.

Nothing much to add really. I'm not the most knowledgeable of folk when it comes to soul music and I could only name a few of The Four Tops' songs, but they are as etched on my musical conciousness as anything. He was also great as the voices of Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors and Mother Brain in Captain N.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Yeah - RIP indeed.  There's been a few tributes paid in amongst the Forsythery of the Drop Dead Thread.

One of the greatest soul voices ever - up there with Al Green and Curtis Mayfield as far as I'm concerned..

[Glebe]

RIP.