David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks were the decisive and formative members of The Temptations, to me the key men's group of the 60s and of the Motown factory. Reviewing their careers and the development of the Temptations saga over the years, particularly using the resources made available by YouTube, I've come to see the stories and the artistry of Ruffin and Kendricks in particular--the relationship of their music to their lives and the blues experience--as crucial and formative to the concept of a blues life. Or in other words, of African American life and culture. Both threw down on each and every occasion they ever appeared. I loved them when I was a girl at the Apollo and I love them still. Although the reason I know them is because of what they did and sang in the 60s. Yet, there are many beautiful moments in their work captured on video of their lives in the 70s and 80s up until their deaths, Ruffin of a drug overdose and Kendricks of lung cancer. I think it is important that young people should always know them and the beautiful, positive things they did.
