Joe Scholes Sings Smokey Robinson – The Composer at Freedom Sounds Festival 2017.
In 2017, German singer/songwriter Joe Scholes started a tribute program to one of his favourite songwriters: Smokey Robinson. He first presented his solo acoustic versions at Freedom Sounds Festival in Cologne on 21 April 2017. One intentention of this program was to put the focus away from the big arrangements of the Motown originals of the 1960s and onto the lyrics that won Smokey Robinson a lot of admiration from colleagues like Bob Dylan who was once quoted: „Smokey Robinson is America’s greatest living poet.“
You may not know how
To make words rhyme
Carry a tune or a clap on time now
No talent of rhythm and musical things
But you’re the composer of the song
That my heart sings
You may not what quarter notes are
Or what I mean by Four to the Bar now
Such musical terms may be Greek to your ears
But you’re the composer of the song
That my heart hears
Now it’s a tender song
It’s like a rhapsody, a symphony
This song I find in this heart of mine
And it’s begging you
Let nothing keep us apart
Oh, my darling
Cause you put a song in my heart
Now this song that I find in my heart for you
Every lyric and line
I swear it’s true
The number one song on my personal chart
You’re the composer of the song.