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This is from Otis' "Temptations" autobiography.
(In 1974), we turned all of our attention to the new record. We started working on "A Song for You" out at Berry’s beach house in Malibu, where we met along with Suzee Ikeda, a former Motown artist who was our project manager, Berry, James Carmichael, and Ron Miller, who had written many hits, including “For Once in My Life,” and a few other people. While selecting material, we came across “Glass House,” a tune Berry wrote with Ron Miller. We recorded a version of it with Carmichael producing, which Berry played for Jeffrey Bowen. Back in 1967, Jeffrey co-produced the "Mellow Mood" album with Frank Wilson before leaving Motown to work with the Holland brothers and Lamont Dozier at their Hot Wax and Invictus labels. There he had worked with Freda Payne, Chairmen of the Board, Honey Cone, and some others.
Jeffrey told Berry he liked the idea of “Glass House” but heard it differently. Berry, being the fair-minded guy he is, said, “Well, you go do a track and let me see what you come up with"
When we heard Jeffrey’s take on it, we were very impressed. Not being a learned musician, as Carmichael was, left Jeffrey a little freer to experiment. His version had that elusive punch and directness our latest records had been lacking. Berry decided to give the production assignment to Jeffrey, and we set to work.
Back when we’d worked with Jeffrey on "Mellow Mood" he was in his early twenties but had good ideas and was a pleasure to work with. Before we got too far into recording "Song for You", however, our relationship with him was so bad that l now consider those sessions some of the most miserable moments of my career. Not to take anything away from Jeffrey as a producer; he has fine ideas and knows what he’s doing. His problem is that he cannot handle people, and before long we started noticing a bad attitude on his part.
Everything came to a head one night when we were recording the vocals on one of the album’s most beautiful songs, “Memories.” Some parts of it called for a very subtle, wistful style of background singing that must be done in perfect unison. We were trying our damnedest to get it just right, and were coming close, when Jeffrey exploded.
“Naw, man,” he yelled. “I mean, shit, you all just ain’t doin’ it. He chewed us out like we were school kids and generally acted like an asshole.
We kept saying “Just give us a little time. We're going to get it. Don't worry.” But Jeffrey wasn’t hearing any of it. He didn't view his role as helping the artist but bullying him, which simply doesn’t work.
One evening we were in the recording studio, and Jeffrey was in the control booth. There’s an intercom between the two rooms so that whoever's in the booth can talk to people in the studio, and apparently Jeffrey didn't know .hat he’d left it on. The next thing I know I heard Jeffrey's voice coming over the speakers saying, “Shit, if I was still working with the Chairmen of the Board and not these guys, I wouldn’t have to put up with this crapl”
l could not believe my ears. I expressed my intention to kick Jeffrey's ass then and there, but the other guys in the group talked me out of it. Not surprisingly, things weren’t flowing, so we called it a night and all went home. Exhausted, I lay down to rest but my body kept racing. When I turned over on my right side, suddenly
my whole body broke into shaking like nothing I’d ever felt before.
When it kept getting worse, I phoned Steve Martin, a brother who
was working for us. “Steve,” I said, “there’s something wrong. I can’t stop shaking. Please come over."
Steve and his wife got there within minutes and took me to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, where I saw a doctor. He examined me and asked some questions, then said, “Look, whatever it is that’s bothering you is not worth it. Your nerves are shot. You better stop whatever this is about, or you're going get yourself in very bad shape.”
He prescribed some tranquilizers, but I took only a couple and threw the rest away. I couldn’t stand that heavy, lethargic feeling. There wasn’t anybody I was jeopardizing my health for, least of all Jeffrey Bowen.
When Berry heard what happened he called a big meeting between all of us, Jeffrey, and some Motown executives. Berry was concerned about what had gone down, and the gist of his message was that things shouldn’t have got to that point to begin with, and this is not how recording should go, and so on.
When Berry was finished, I said, “Hold it, we are not through here. I really want to emphasize that what I went through last night is not something I'm ever going through again. I'm gonna let you know right here, Berry, and you know I don’t mince words. This kind of thing happens one more time and I’m gonna kick this little motherfucker’s ass.” I glared across at Jeffrey.
“No, man, I didn’t mean it,” Jeffrey said, backtracking.
“Well,” I said, “everybody else sitting here, when six o’clock comes, you all go home, while we, the Temptations, are up all hours recording and God knows what. And the last thing we want to hear from anybody is those kind of unnecessary nasty-ass
remarks."
Well,” Berry said, “we hope it doesn’t get to that.”
“It better not,” I replied, “because I’m the one whose body was shakin’ last night, and I don’t want any of you to get the idea that just because we sat here today and ran everything down that it’s all hunky-dory. Here’s the period after the sentence: Jeffrey, if you ever do anything like that again, I’m gonna clean your plow."
With that the five of us left. Of course, recording the rest of the album was somewhat strained, but Jeffrey kept in line most of the time.
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