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The Hollywood photographer left his tripod for another adjustment of his back-lighting while the subjects of the afternoon's session, the O'Jays, sprawled on the floor patiently awaiting his cue. Play-money surrounded them, the raison d'egre of the session. "For the Love of Money" had earned the O'Jays their fifth gold record and their manager seemed to feel that this pose would fulfill an obvious need.
Although the O'Jays -- Eddie Levert, Will Powell and Walter Williams -- are currently the most successful exponents of the Sound of Philadelphia, they have never lived in Philadelphia. They live in Canton, Ohio, and this last day of a week's stay in Los Angeles only reemphasized to them why they hadn't deserted their hometown for the larger music centers.
"See, I like to stay where it's rough," Levert, the lead singer, began, settling back into a rattan chair, "That way I feel well always be up to par. If we came out here and stayed we'd become like the Temptations and they're very stagnant at this point."
"Which happened to us when we lived out here for about three-and-a-half to four years," Powell cut in. "We had been doing shows out here which called for Pop and R&B. And we took that stuff back to the Apollo in New York and it was like the end of Laugh-In, y'know, one hand clapping. We had to go woodshed right away!"
This September will mark the 15th anniversary of the O'Jays, now numbering three but originally consisting of five. "We grew up together," Will explained, reflecting on the tight relationship that kept the three of them together, after he two other members quit. "Same neighborhood, same high school, and we mow each other's ways and thinking."
Calling themselves the Triumphs, they began singing together at the YMCA and private parties around Canton. When their first recording offer appeared, they all dropped out of high school. "I quit in the 11th grade," Will recalled. "I thought all we'd need is one record and we'd be millionaires. But I learned different."
Powell also emphasized that the way he and the O'Jays learned their trade was different from the experiences of young groups today. "Back then a group of us would just start off singing walkin' home from school, y'know, but now they're taking up the bass or the guitar or something, which is better. The singin' part will come easier if they got any kind of background like goin' to church to know how to sing harmony. And then they play instruments so they got two things going at once. I've been thinkin' about our bass player givin' me some lessons," Will added.
"I mess around with the guitar and the piano but nothing serious," Walter interrupted.
"And I play nothing -- except the numbers," Eddie laughed.
In 1961 Sidney Nathan of King Records signed them to his stable -- James Brown, Hank Ballard and the Five Keys -- and changed the group's name to the Mascots. Nothing happened for them, so the Mascots received the gift of a new name from Ohio disc jockey Eddie Way, packed the car and drove to Los Angeles to find a new record company.
This was the time the Temptations exploded with "My Girl," and Liberty Records, anxious to find its own rhythm & blues group, signed the Ways to its Imperial label. None of the singles which followed managed to elevate the O'Jays' status. They worked as an opening act doing other people's hits. "We could sound just like the Drifters," Walter boasted. "Yeah, we opened for everybody, Johnny Crawford, Duane Eddy, the 'Sugar Shack' guys, Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. We even opened for Vic Dana," Eddie laughed. "He was a biggie at that time!"
Phil Spector hired them for session work and used them to help create his "wall of sound" for the Crystals and the Ronettes, among others.
In 1967 the O'Jays cut an album for Bell Records but neither the album nor the three singles Bell released improved the O'Jays' billing. Then they met the two men who would change that.
"We did a show at the Apollo around l968 and we were there with the Intruders," Walter remembered, shifting his toothpick from the right corner of his mouth to his left. "They had a nice hit out at the time called 'Cowboys to Girls.' Gamble and Huff had done the record and they came up to see the show from Philadelphia, to see them. They caught us and they got interested from there. 'Cause at the time, we were on Bell but we were thinkin' about leaving Bell, so they made it known that they were interested. So we invited them to Cleveland 'cause we were working in Akron which is about thirty miles out of Cleveland. They came there to see the act again and we talked business."
The business talk resulted in their signing with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's ill-fated Neptune label, even though none of the O'Jays was quite sure how good a producing team Gamble and Huff were.
"They hadn't done anything tough at that time except for the Intruders," Walter recalled. "We didn't realize how great they really were until we went in and recorded our first things with them, 'Deeper In Love' and 'One Night Affair.' We knew that they were great from that." Eddie continued: "Then the deal that they had with Chess Records went into bad vibes and everything split, and they went this way and we went that way. We tried to do our own production which only cost us a lot of money and a lot of time and near starvation!," The mention of that album, Super Bad, elicited laughs from the other two O'Jays and a simultaneous comment: "It was lousy!"
In 1972 Gamble and Huff resurfaced with another label, Philadelphia International, and with improved distribution by Columbia they invited the O'Jays back for another album. Its title tune, "Back Stabbers," raced to the top of the charts and the O'Jays received their first gold record. "992 Arguments" followed; and then "Love Train," quickly succeeded by "Put Your Hands Together." And now "For the Love of Money," a song so catchy even Eddie Levert was subconsciously singing its "money, money, money, mon-eee" chorus while waiting out the photographer's slow preparations.
"Y'know, it wasn't even definite that we were gonna do it," Walter said, recalling his first hearing of Gamble and Huff's demo tape. "They let us hear it and we said, 'Ah, we like that!' It was a different bag for us with the phasers and everything. But they weren't sure they wanted to cut it on us at that particular time. They said they would try it."
"They knew if it came off it would be a smash," Will cut in. "And it came off."
The marriage of Gamble/Huff songs and O'Jays' interpretations has worked successfully due to the fact that, as Eddie observed, "We know where they're coming from. It's where we came from. In recording, you're singin' on the track and you're lookin' at the words and you're trying to find an incident in your life that could pertain to that situation."
Most of those incidents spring from their experiences in Canton's ghetto. "It was like O.K. Corral," Walter said. "Every Friday and Saturday night there was a fight and a shootout, without a doubt."
"It was a ghetto, man, but it was still home," Eddie added. "But 'For the Love of Money' is more than just everyday ghetto environment. It's about what people really do. What do you think the Watergate thing is about? It's about 'For the Love of Money' -- and power. And the different things that people will go through, and the different changes. 'A woman will sell her precious body' -- people sell themselves for money."
"Some people in the ghetto, for instance," Will said, "don't have sufficient clothes, food to eat -- y'know what I'm sayin'? -- who will go out and steal something. 'Livin' just enough for the city,' y'know?"
"And like 'Back Stabbers,' too," Walter said. "'You'd better beware,' y'know, 'they smile at your face'; you always watch your back in the ghetto."
The next day the Jays (after you get to know them you drop the "0") began a long cross-country concert tour to coincide with the release of their latest album, O'Jays Live in London, recorded during a European tour last winter in a Sound of Philadelphia revue with the Intruders and Billy Paul. And after nearly fifteen years, the O'Jays headlined the bill.
[From Issue 166 — August 1, 1974]