Ah, there's a little thing about "Gypsy Woman" see when we first formed, you know, and this was when David and Eddie, no not David but Eddie, Paul, Melvin and myself. The Impressions were very hot and they had this tune out that we loved called "Gypsy Woman". So there again Mickey Stevens, again creator that he is by his songs and ideas 'cause he used to sing with the group. He said, "Man, I could see you guys doing the Impression song and then you all break off into the "Gypsy Woman". And we would do like this here. I say, okay, fine, we do it. And we did the song. And then we worked out the choreography. And then when it to the part "Gypsy Woman" we would break up on our toes and do that. And when we started doing it on live performances the place would wild 'cause they loved the choreography. So there again we were on a, ah, show at the Uptown - Battle of the Groups - and Curtis and Ann Presson was on. So we had a hit out called "The Girl's Alright with Me - you know". So, ah, they, everybody was saying, man, you got a song like the Impressions on there. So during the Battle of the Groups they did "The Girl's Alright with Me" so we said, oh, okay. We told our conductor, put "Gypsy Woman" in. They never should have did our song 'cause when we did "Gypsy Woman" people would come out, - "Curtis who?" 'cause when we would go into this here, 'cause you know, the Impressions were just noted for standing there. Could sing all day long but for the choreography? No, no, forget that. You know not to knock them but that just, that's just, just the way they would perform, you know, very little choreography but we were all over the place you know. Flash dash, moving, then "Gypsy Woman" and the place would go wild. So it was a wonderful, ah, ah, time. And, ah, being, doing that song because we stuck to …with that song, with the Impressions and when we were not on the show with the Impressions. So, Mickey Stevens, have to credit to him on that one.

The wonderful thing about being around so long that you encounter many different, you know, situations. And one is that we were, I can't recall exactly where in the South but we were down South. This is, I think April of '68 when Doctor King was killed and we were just about to go on stage but the announcement was made about Doctor King's, you know, shooting. And there was a dampening in the … club, the Coliseum. People got in a whole ‘nother frame of mind, you know, and it just took the wind out of our sails as far as wanting to go on and perform because we didn't know if it was going to get to be nasty, you know, for the black and white thing, you know. So we went on but it was not of the fervor and energy level that we normally would do because we were damn near crying on stage. It was a rough night to perform that night. And when we came off, you know, people were not of the thing of wanting to be entertained because, like I say, it was like the whole place like, - oh oh, what's going to happen now? Is there going to be a race riot? So it was very, you know, spooky time and, ah, we got on the bus and we went back to Detroit and, ah, everybody just sat and solemn, just being quiet and just thinking about what's going to happen now? 'cause we really thought all hell was going to break loose. Luckily it didn't but it was a very weird time and I never will forget it because it, I almost equated it to the point of, to the time when, ah, ah, President Kennedy was assassinated. I used to see this young lady named Joyce Bryant. And I used to live on LaSalle Gardens. She lived way on the, hmm, hmm, I can't think of the name of the street but I had to walk home and down the street that particular night the wind howled like I never heard it how before and it was, it was just like a bad omen. And it was during the time, you know, same evening that he had gotten shot. But as I'm walking down LaSalle Boulevard, the wind say - whooo, very weird howling. And so I said, later 'cause I was the only one out on the street and... hu, hu, hu - ran all the way in 'cause it was spooky. It was almost the same kind of feeling that night when Doctor King was killed, it was just a whole ‘nother weirdness and feeling that came over.

Summer of '68 tense times and riots. You guys are on the road, you came back where Norman has cut "Cloud Nine" and you're handed the lyrics about the context of that time.

Well for a guy, for two guys who did not get high, speaking of Norman Whitfield and Barry Strong, they did not do no cocaine, they did not smoke no reefer, they didn't even drink no alcohol, the lyrics was very controversial because we had to go around, it was such a departure from the "Please Returns and the "My Girls" and what have you. Here we are talking about [sings] "Cloud Nine, you can be what what you want to be". So people thought - oh, Tip is talking about getting high. Norman said, no, I'm just talking about a state of being naturally, 'cause the word - cloud nine had been around years and years before, you know, so it was not a new word that was just conjured up in relative to, you know, you getting high and that. 'Cause like I said, Norman and Barry never did do, ah, anything along those lines. So, ah, when we recorded "Cloud Nine" it was such a departure from the norm that for a few weeks it was kind of spooky, it was like disk jockeys were saying, - yeah, we like it but what are they talking about? So we had to go on a promotional tour and, ah, you know, explain, you know, no, we're not talking about getting high, we're not telling the youth that this is what the Temps dude said. In fact the guys that wrote it, they don't do nothing, you know, as far as anything, as far as getting high. It's just a state of mind naturally. And then, ah, I guess that helped because, ah, the record jumped off. It was our first gold record and, ah, it sold over a million copies. So, ah, you know and I think it was Motown's first Grammy. So, ah, you know, it was like a, a testing point for us for what we were doing.

Sort of "Ball of Confusion", ... changes in society.

Well "Ball of Confusion", there again, you know, "Ball of Confusion", "Message from a Black Man", "Runaway Child" all those songs were being written by Norman and Barry Strong depicting what was happening at that point in time as far as, you know, you know the sixties has been said, been called the most, ahm, tumultuous decade in the last hundred years 'cause here we are thirty years later and we still living the offshoot of certain ideologies that were spawned from the sixties and, ah. So at that point in time Norman and Barry were, they were writing songs about, ah, what was happening, you know. The Beatles were big as life at that point in time. All kind of civil right movements were still happening, ah, Vietnam was raging big time. We were dressing, you know, the mod kind of dressing. All that was in "Ball of Confusion". And, ah, you know going to the moon and coming back, you know. We spoke of it all in that record. So it was actually what was happening and we've always been a group that would sing about those kind of things aside from man woman breakup or man woman getting in love or falling in love and what have you. So we were saying what was happening, you know, in the world at the time. In fact like the records that Motown is releasing there of our way is very relative to what's happening in the world today. So we've always been a group that would, ah, you know sing about what's going on and not just talking about I love you, bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck 'cause, you know, life ain't always like that.