rockin' the mezzanine

Smokey Robinson looks mighty fine for 70. And he sounds about the same as he did in 1966 or so when I first heard him perform at Briarcliff College, from behind the cafeteria line where I was working. What he may lack in energy, he makes up in style and Barry Whitelike seduction, albeit in a near falsetto. You can totally see where Michael Jackson got his shit. And the hits—never mind "Tracks of my Tears" and "Tears of a Clown"  and "Shop Around"—he has written some 4,000 songs, many performed by top Motown acts. He founded the outfit with Berry Gordy, after all, and was a VP for decades. "The Way You Do the Things You Do," "Get Ready," "Don't Mess With Bill," "Ain't That Peculiar," "Really Got a Hold on Me," "My Baby Must Be a Musician," "My Guy." He wrote 'em, and boy, he can still sing 'em, accompanied by what he joked was "the Apollo choir," i.e. the audience, who sang their asses off. Even the white people. Well, they didn't have much in the way of asses.