"Cloud Nine" won Motown its first Grammy Award in 1969 for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, Vocal or Instrumental, reached #2 in the U.S. Ĭash Box called it "near revolutionary," praising the "touches of progressive pop in the track, elevated lyric message and the solid performance." This has been interpreted by many (including Motown head Berry Gordy) as a reference to drug abuse, although Whitfield, Strong, and The Temptations deny that "Cloud Nine" is about drugs. The broke, unemployed, and despondent main character in the song proclaims that he gets over all of his problems by "riding high on 'cloud nine '". The lyrics for the song were about the struggles and pains of living poor, as opposed to being about relationship and love troubles. Otis Williams has some brief lead lines on the last half of the song (i.e.: he repeats "Reality…"), and Melvin Franklin also gets a line near the end ("There's no difference between day and night…"). Paul Williams: "You can be what you wanna be."ĭennis Edwards: "You ain't got no responsibility."Įddie Kendricks: "And every man, every man is free."ĭennis Edwards: "And you're a million miles from reality." Edwards, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams swap leads on the verses, bridges and choruses, such as this example from the first bridge: The song also features the Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria on conga drums. Recording įeaturing all five Temptations trading lead vocals à la The Family Stone, "Cloud Nine" was a marked departure from the standard Tempts sound: wah-wah guitars and a harder, driving beat propelled the record, as opposed to pianos and strings. "That ain't nothing but a little passing fancy." Within a few weeks, however, he had created the backing tracks for the newest Temptations single, a psychedelic-styled number called "Cloud Nine", and stuck primarily to such songs well into the early 1970s.
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"I don't want to get into all that crazy shit," he said.
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At first, Whitfield did not want to produce anything with such a radically different sound. I think the meaning and use of the two terms differs in that 'seventh heaven' is usually used to mean that the subject is in a state of blissful happiness, whereas 'cloud nine' is perhaps used more to imply that the subject is in such a state of blissful euphoria that they are unaware of what's going on around them, and detached from everyday concerns.In 1968, Sly & the Family Stone had a hit with their single " Dance to the Music", and Temptations member Otis Williams introduced Norman Whitfield to the band's music.
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(Unless the Buddhist idea holds water) See: The Phrase Finder seems uncertain of its origin but tends to corroborate my idea of late-twentieth-century. My sense is that it is late-twentieth-century but I am unaware of its etymology. 342 Þe seuenþe heuene, seiþ þe storie, Is paradys aftur purgatorie.Ĭloud nine is not even in the OED as a composite.
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The OED has a reference from as early as the fourteenth century.Ĭ1390 (▸a1325) Ipotis (Vernon) 82 in C.
#Cloud nine meaning idiom series#
the highest and most holy or blessed of the hierarchical series of heavens described in Jewish and Islamic theologyĪccording to the Talmudic Hagigah 12b, the place where God dwells over the angels, the souls of the righteous, and the souls of those yet to be born. ' Seventh heaven' is the most exalted level of heaven, esp. The principal difference is that they belong to quite different era and etymology.