6 Degrees of Soul: Al Bell wrote “I’ll Take You There” for Day 12’s The Staple Singers. Bell launched the careers of several acts, one of those acts is Day 14’s The Dramatics.
Like The Spinners and The Stylistics, much much much more needs to be made of the legacy of The Dramatics. This group made albums, not singles with filler songs but albums. We all know of “In The Rain”, “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get” and “Hey You! Get Off My Mountain”. However, we don’t know enough about Tony Hester, who wrote and produced the 1st two Dramatic albums. That includes all three songs mentioned above and a slew of other wonderful songs. Hester’s story deserves to be told also, he died well before his time. Back to The Dramatics, we don’t know enough (or forgot about) “And I Panicked”, “Toast to the Fool”, “You’re Fooling You” or “Ocean Of Thoughts And Dreams”. Nor that Michael Henderson wrote some great stuff for them. So much we don’t know about The Dramatics… I will try to address by posting some of their lesser known songs.
…Tony Hester penned several anti-drug songs for The Dramatics, ironically Hester himself was a drug addict… I guess that experience allowed him to write and produce “Devil Is Dope”…
…before it was used for Jay-Z’s “Fallen”… it was “Fell For You”… another Hester track…
…“And I Panicked”… happens to us all…
…“You’re Fooling You”… oh, just another Tony Hester track…
…Michael Henderson wrote this one… “Just Shopping (Not Buying Anything)”… comes on with that Harold Melvin / Teddy P feel…
…this sounds like it could have been in The O’Jay’s discography… “Dramatic Theme / Treat Me Like a Man”… Henderson again…
…just one of the 9th Wonder / Dramatic samples… “Ocean Of Thoughts And Dreams” …he used it for Destiny’s Child “Girl”…
…from the 1974 album “The Dells Vs. The Dramatics” another Tony Hester song… “Door To Your Heart”…
spread the word… Dramatics.
– dre’ of onustees.com
