Lamont Dozier, who helped write and bring songs
The “faithful father and mythical songwriter, manufacturer and recording artist, died peacefully in his house,” his circle of relatives stated in a commentary to USA TODAY, supplied via his rep Jo-Ann Geffen Tuesday.
The commentary endured, “He was once preceded in loss of life via his spouse of 40 years, Barbara Ullman Dozier and is survived via his kids and two grandchildren.”
“We love him dearly and can pass over him all the time,” Dozier’s circle of relatives expressed.
The reason for loss of life has no longer been decided, and an post-mortem will probably be performed, a spokeswoman instructed Detroit Free Press, a part of the United States TODAY community.
‘Each day is a present’:
Dozier’s longtime songwriting spouse Eddie Holland stated he had no longer been neatly for a number of years. He knew his previous pal was once in a downturn when he may just not undergo lengthy plane flights.
“The reality of the topic is, when his spouse, Barbara, died, it simply took so much out of him,” Holland instructed the Free Press Tuesday.
Still, phrase of Dozier’s loss of life “is sort of a surprise,” he stated. “I nonetheless have not processed it but.”
Born in 1941 in Detroit, Dozier to begin with aspired to a making a song occupation, signing with the Gordy circle of relatives’s Anna Records in 1960. He related up with Berry Gordy’s fledgling Motown operation the next 12 months, changing into a Motown Records songwriter along brothers Brian and Eddie Holland.
The polish of the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting trio was once preferably suited to Motown’s signature act, Diana Ross and the Supremes, for whom they wrote 10 No. 1 songs together with “Baby Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “Where Did Our Love Go.”
Dozier and the Holland brothers additionally wrote singles for The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas,
Their endured good fortune earned them a place within the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. They additionally won inductions from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“We have been as shocked as any one else once we got here up with such a lot of songs,” Dozier
Songwriters Hall of Fame 2022 magnificence:
The Motown songwriter additionally mentioned his talent to faucet into ladies’s feelings all through a time of numerous sexism inside the tune business.
“Women purchased the data, to position it bluntly,” Dozier stated, including, “They sought after tune that mentioned their emotions, but additionally … ladies raised me.”
The Grammy winner added: “My father wasn’t round and I used to be introduced up via my grandmother. I depended on ladies, and I nonetheless do. I’ve ladies working my trade.”
H-D-H weren’t above formulation or carefully repeating a prior hit, however they labored in quite a lot of moods and kinds: the informal pleasure of “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved via You),” the escalating want of “Heat Wave,” the urgency of “Reach Out (I’ll Be There).” Dozier’s focal point was once on melody and preparations, whether or not the haunting echoes of the Vandellas’ backing vocals on “Nowhere To Run,” flashing lighting fixtures of guitar that pressure the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hanging On,” or the hypnotic gospel piano on Gaye’s “Can I Get a Witness.”
“All the songs began out as gradual ballads, but if we have been within the studio we’d pick out up the pace,” Dozier instructed the Guardian in 2001. “The songs needed to be speedy as a result of they have been for teens – another way it might were extra like one thing to your folks. The emotion was once nonetheless there, it was once slightly below quilt of the optimism that you were given from the up-tempo beat.”
‘We are in awe of Dolly’:
The high of H-D-H, and of Motown, led to 1968 amid questions and criminal disputes over royalties and different problems. H-D-H left the label, and neither facet would get better. The Four Tops and the Supremes have been a few of the acts who suffered from not having their maximum unswerving writers. Meanwhile, H-D-H’s efforts to start out their very own trade fell a ways in need of Motown. The labels Invictus and Hot Wax each light inside a couple of years, and Dozier would recall with disbelief the Hollands’ turning down such long run superstars as Al Green and George Clinton. H-D-H did free up a number of hits, together with Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold” and Honey Cone’s “Want Ads.”
Dozier was once gentle-natured however bold, heading to Los Angeles in 1973 to pursue a occupation as a solo artist. While he’d later recount that entering into the highlight was once “a large problem,” he scored a number of minor R&B hits, together with “Trying to Hold directly to My Woman” and “Fish Ain’t Bitin’.”
Dozier one at a time earned essential approval for his music “Two Hearts,” co-written and sung via Phil Collins for the soundtrack to the 1988 British romantic comedy “Buster.” He received very best unique music on the Golden Globes and very best music written in particular for a movement image or tv on the Grammys for the collaboration.
H-D-H reunited for a degree manufacturing of “The First Wives Club,” which premiered in 2009, however their time again in combination was once temporary and unsatisfied. Dozier and the Hollands clashed frequently and Dozier dropped out sooner than the display introduced. “I will’t see us ever running with Lamont once more,” Eddie Holland wrote in “Come and Get These Memories,” a memoir via the Hollands that got here out in 2019, the similar 12 months Dozier revealed the memoir “How Sweet It Is.”
William ‘Poogie’ Hart:
In a tribute to the artist, manufacturer Brandon Williams tweeted, “Another guy that sat down and taught me so much about tune is long gone.
“I’ll by no means overlook assembly and dealing with him along side the Holland Brothers in 2006,” Williams endured. “Thank you for all you probably did for me and for the arena at massive. You without a doubt made this position higher.”
“Another circle of relatives member long gone,” Smokey Robinson instructed the Free Press Tuesday. “We will pass over him, in point of fact pass over him.”
“Lamont was once a super arranger and manufacturer who balanced the abilities of the good Eddie and Brian Holland, serving to to tug all of it in combination,” Motown Records founder Berry Gordy instructed the Free Press. “Lamont was once a excellent pal and will probably be ignored via all of the Motown circle of relatives.”
Turkessa Babich, daughter of the past due Mary Wilson of the Supremes, instructed the Free Press that Dozier “was once no longer most effective considered one of Mom’s dearest buddies however thought to be him circle of relatives.”
“I will take note Mom jokingly telling us about how he attempted to persuade her that he wrote ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ particularly for them, however Mom knew that some other staff had already handed on it, and instructed him so,” Babich recalled. “She recalled that she didn’t in point of fact maintain it in the beginning, as a result of she felt they have been too younger for that more or less music, however it ultimately grew on her. I suppose it grew at the international as neatly because it changed into their first No. 1 hit.”
Babich added: “We will all the time have his stunning tune and recollections.”
Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood tweeted, “
On the heels of a 2018 solo album, “Reimagination,” Dozier instructed the Free Press he nonetheless sat at a piano for a number of hours day by day, seven days per week, arising with new musical concepts.
“This has all the time been my activity,” Dozier stated. “I’ve to do it. If you don’t use it, you lose it. So I paintings onerous. It’s a excellent factor and it’s wholesome to your thoughts.”
He stated he by no means took with no consideration the staying power of his paintings.
“They nonetheless play that tune, guy. It’s wonderful,” Dozier stated. “I believed a few of it wouldn’t closing an afternoon. But it’s been right here for 60 years, and that’s a perfect feeling — all over the place the arena.”
Dozier stated that his early good fortune conflicted along with his circle of relatives existence, however he ultimately settled down with Barbara Ullman, who died in 2021 after greater than 40 years of marriage. His kids with Ullman incorporated the songwriter-record manufacturer Beau Dozier and composer Paris Ray Dozier.
Contributing: Hillel Italie, The Associated Press; Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press
Source Link: https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/705673202/0/usatoday-newstopstories~Lamont-Dozier-Motown-songwriter-for-Supremes-Four-Tops-dies-at-age/