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So, it was on this day that the

0:22

sole hit band of listening

1:20

to it a lot. It's an earworm, isn't it? So, if

1:22

you don't remember, it's the one that goes. That's

1:26

the joke of the karaoke version of

1:28

it. It's

1:37

one that I've heard my whole life, but like, you

1:39

know, if you don't hear it regularly, you could easily

1:41

forget about... You see what I mean? It

1:43

doesn't seem like a stop in the name of love, does it?

1:45

But it was written by the people who wrote stop in the

1:47

name of love. It was written by Holland Dojio Holland, one of

1:49

the big writing teams for Motown, who between them had clocked up

1:51

an astonishing 13 US number

1:53

ones. Baby Love, Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch,

1:55

Bernadette. But it was still an

1:57

exciting release for them because it was the first...

2:00

on Invictus, their breakaway label. So

2:03

they had to use an alias on the writing credits,

2:05

they had to use a pseudonym because they were still

2:07

under contract to Barry Gordy when it came out, so

2:09

it wasn't a Motown record. And when they actually first

2:11

offered the song to Frieda Payne, she didn't want to

2:13

record it because she thought that the lyrics were more

2:15

appropriate to a teenager or at least a very young

2:18

woman and because she was the grand old age of

2:20

30 years old, she thought

2:22

that it wasn't going to be one that was right for

2:24

her. But the song went on to

2:26

be a classic largely because of the lyrics

2:28

which have been interpreted and reinterpreted various ways

2:30

over the years. But it really took a

2:32

great deal of persuasion from a chap called

2:35

Ron Dunbar who was credited as another writer

2:37

before she reluctantly gave in and said, yeah,

2:39

I'll do it. Ron Dunbar has really

2:41

leaned into his status as co-writer of Band

2:43

of Gold. But if you listen to Lamont

2:45

Dozier, who was one of the Doh-Jah Holland

2:47

writing team, obviously he was Doh-Jah, he

2:50

had a pretty different story. So it's closer to

2:52

Ron Dunbar and Edith Wayne. Edith Wayne was the

2:54

pseudonym. And according to Lamont Dozier,

2:56

Ron Dunbar was a talent scout working on the

2:58

label. He was credited just for convenience sake. But

3:01

if you listen to Ron Dunbar, he has lots

3:03

of thoughts on the meaning of the lyrics that

3:05

he claims to have co-written. So it's kind of

3:07

hard to know exactly what's happened there. Also

3:09

Dozier was quite familiar with pushback from the

3:11

artists that he worked with. And he said

3:13

that he really wasn't surprised that pain wasn't

3:15

keen on Band of Gold because the Supremes

3:17

had pushed back on where did our love

3:19

go. And that went on to become their

3:21

first number one and the four chops didn't

3:24

always like what they sang. And he said, even

3:27

the Funk brothers would sometimes go, what is this

3:29

man? Even the Funk brothers. Yeah,

3:31

so the Funk brothers are sort of the Motown

3:33

House band. And this track also has some fantastic

3:36

backing artists on it. The lead guitarist on Band

3:38

of Gold is Ray Parker Jr. of Ghostbusters fame.

3:40

At the age of 15 as well. And the backing singers,

3:42

the Joyce Vincent Wilson and Thelma Hopkins, who

3:45

you probably wouldn't know their names, but they

3:47

would go on to be the Dawn of

3:49

Tony Orlando and Dawn fame, i.e. the band

3:51

behind, not three times, Candida. Okay, so

3:53

lots of musical heritage going on. But it is

3:55

the lyrics, isn't it? That I think have made

3:58

this in June because it does keep you. guessing

4:00

as to what went wrong in the relationship. Since you've

4:02

been gone, all I've been left is a band of

4:04

gold, so we got married and now I've just got

4:06

the wedding ring. And that brings back

4:08

the obvious question, why? But

4:11

actually, the original lyrics made it

4:13

quite clear. It's just that

4:15

it got cut, which is quite interesting. It

4:17

wasn't a deliberate puzzle that they set people.

4:20

What it left was this puzzle for people

4:22

to be like, okay, I thought

4:24

that you'd walk back through the door and love

4:26

me like you tried before. Did that mean he

4:28

was impotent? But

4:30

that night we slept in different rooms. What

4:32

on your wedding night? Was he gay? Was

4:34

he a closeted gay man who married and

4:36

now regretted it? There are like a dozen

4:38

theories that are all wrong as to what

4:41

the original inventions of the song were. Well,

4:43

it depends who you believe, because this comes down

4:45

to the Ron Dunbar, Lamont Dozier rivalry again. So

4:47

Ron Dunbar's story is that they had written this

4:49

extra verse which explained the story. And in this

4:52

extra verse, the singer says, and the memories of

4:54

our wedding day and the night I turned you

4:56

away, and it was supposed to be a song

4:58

about a sexually naive newlywared who spurns her new

5:01

husband. And Dunbar went on to claim he was

5:03

surprised when he heard the song had been embraced

5:05

by the gay community for its apparent meaning. And

5:07

he says if the cut verse had been included,

5:09

that would have straightened the whole thing out, so

5:12

to speak. Lamont Dozier says

5:14

it was about this guy that was

5:16

basically gay and he couldn't perform. That's

5:18

amazing. But maybe he recognised

5:21

that there were sales to be had, or

5:23

at least by this time streams to be

5:25

found in allowing for that ambiguity.

5:27

And so he didn't want to push away any

5:30

potential interpretation because it's quite useful for him if

5:32

it's being embraced by the gay community. Yeah, I

5:34

mean, this is just pre-disco, isn't it, this era?

5:36

And so you've got a song that sounds like

5:39

a 60s Motown song, but it's not, it's 1970

5:41

this. And you're

5:43

just ahead of all of those sort of Donna Summer,

5:45

Gloria Gaynor type. I was about to say gay anthems

5:47

because it just trips off the tongue. But of

5:49

course, those are sort of insinuating gay anthems. They

5:52

weren't written to be gay anthems. They're women talking

5:54

about men in straight relationships generally. So this was

5:56

kind of like that, wasn't it? And I said,

5:58

if you've got a cash cow... and

6:00

you realise, oh, there's this whole market that have

6:02

embraced this song, then perhaps you would say that

6:04

that was the intention, even if it wasn't. I

6:06

mean, I do sort of believe the version with

6:08

the extra line because the extra line exists, as

6:11

you say, you've just quoted it. And you can

6:13

imagine that in the 60s, like, I mean, now

6:15

it would just feel really

6:17

pervy and weird to have a song about a woman who

6:19

was basically, I mean, Frigid is the word they would have

6:21

used then, right? But then it wouldn't

6:23

have been weird. That would have been a

6:25

story that made sense. Whereas hinting at a

6:28

gay subtext in a massive mainstream pop song

6:30

then would have been a lot more controversial.

6:32

I mean, it's equally peculiar, though, to think

6:34

that it might have been allowed to be

6:36

left with this impotence interpretation. I mean, that

6:39

is also a curious subject matter for a

6:41

pop song in the 70s or at any

6:43

time. And you know, the first person to try and

6:45

get to the bottom of the meaning was Frieda Payne herself.

6:47

She was later quoted as saying, I wondered why a girl

6:49

would have a problem on her wedding night and why they

6:51

would be in the same room. They said, just

6:53

learn it. They

6:56

were very casual working relationships as well, because

6:58

Frieda Payne had gone to Hutchins Middle School

7:00

in Detroit. And she was there in the

7:03

same year as Lamont Dozier. And it's this

7:05

same school in this period, also educated Aretha

7:07

Franklin, Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson. Amazing,

7:09

isn't it? They turned it into a

7:11

factory, didn't they? They made music like it

7:13

was a product in Motown. And

7:15

actually, I think this is a rebuke, a song like this, of

7:18

this quality, is a rebuke

7:20

to people who say you can't get meaningful

7:22

music from that sort of production line writing

7:24

team, isn't it? Because the very fact we

7:26

are still talking about it 50 years later

7:28

and talking about, does it mean this, does

7:30

it mean that? It's incredibly meaningful to a

7:32

lot of people, and it appears to be

7:34

about something. And yet it's produced in the

7:36

very generic sort of stock-ache and a Waterman

7:38

template type way that people assume means it's

7:40

about nothing. It's also odd that it's thought

7:42

of as an empowering anthem.

7:44

It's mentioned in the same breath as

7:47

I Will Survive. But it really isn't.

7:49

Like the tone of it is nostalgic, melancholic,

7:52

regretful. You Know, you

7:55

don't hold up much hope for the heroine of this

7:57

song, do you, having a good life now? She's just

7:59

been spurned on her wedding. day. What's weird

8:01

is that his colleagues Philippines performance is quite ballsy.

8:03

It in your face, she doesn't sound like she's

8:05

been let down between disease, so it's time to

8:07

reconcile those things in your head. But actually be

8:10

listened to. Was he thinking about is not empowering.

8:12

It's a woman who's been so screwed over by

8:14

this guy as. You mentioned it's not quite

8:16

discover that it does me or price Hey

8:18

this guy's and because what natal a this

8:20

guy hits such dancers it's a lot of

8:22

conveying a message of strength in the face

8:24

adversity. You know they're not all of his

8:26

songs about the great a song without coming

8:28

back you know I will survive on the

8:30

sitting that masterclass and this really tapped into

8:32

the into the heroin of the song as

8:34

a moot point. but she sings and such

8:37

a strident person that way that you could

8:39

have carried along on s ways of optimism

8:41

even though the lyrics actually pretty pessimistic. Yeah but

8:43

there's really no in the summers in the production isn't it

8:45

like if you just look at the some paper was unusable

8:47

are they would be pretty mournful. Yes

8:50

I defiantly we'll give into

8:52

these guys are as effective

8:54

as authentic. As to say how much

8:56

the performance on the production were crucial

8:58

to ban the ball becoming a hit

9:00

because it's you. look at the causes

9:02

of the twice since. every listed success

9:04

in in the eighties Bonnie Tyler a

9:06

dozens of high octane since vibes and.

9:08

Them as carlisle when I really like

9:10

throw away with them Puppies. Neither one

9:13

was a hair. I think one of them looks like

9:15

ninety One in the tells us something, but neither of

9:17

them was ahead at all. I was. Astonished that

9:19

on the Carlisle version, Free To Pain

9:21

had agreed to do backing vocals, I

9:24

thought faster to be a slap in

9:26

the face to be your own weird

9:28

cover band is. I saw one of the

9:30

great musical mystery songs nasal sits in to

9:32

that roster with mags in of the the

9:34

class it when as I would do anything

9:36

for Love. but this is only for the

9:39

episode is strong enough the political intrigue is

9:41

a hook but it's one the people forget

9:43

may just take away what vey warm from

9:45

the song it becomes the public some government

9:47

which is probably walk a band of goal

9:49

is a surprisingly popular choice at weddings still

9:51

own people are just by here like the

9:53

drumbeat and it's about sundance now and it's

9:56

got banned of golden miller it but i

9:58

mean it is about them on

10:00

their wedding day. It's like people dancing to

10:02

I'll Be Watching You, which is about stalking

10:04

your ex, or You're Beautiful, which is about

10:06

perving on somebody on the underground. Tomorrow.

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People have long enjoyed comparing climbing mountains

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