Kim Fowley on pop music: Music for lonely people, made by other lonely people
The new issue of Mojo had a section about the greatest heartache songs of all time. Their top choice was the elegiac “The Dark End of the Street,” which is basically just the ultimate walking out alone with nowhere to go tears running down your cheeks song.
But down a few notches lower I was shocked to find a story about a songwriter that I’ve never read a single word about, which just goes to show that like Voltaire essentially wrote in Candide there are just an endless number of less publicized stories of agony and pain in the world.
I’ve been trying to be more upbeat lately, but this story and its obscurity really got to me.
This is all Wikipedia has on him.
“Rodger Penzabene was a songwriter for the Motown label. Among his most notable compositions are “The End of Our Road” by Gladys Knight & the Pips and Marvin Gaye, and a trilogy of three hits for the Temptations: “You’re My Everything”, “I Wish It Would Rain”, and “I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)”.
“The mournful break-up song “I Wish It Would Rain” in particular drew from Penzabene’s real-life pain. The songwriter found out that his wife was cheating on him, but could not bring himself to leave her, and his emotions on the situation are present in both of his final compositions, “I Wish It Would Rain” and “I Could Never Love Another”. On New Year’s Eve 1967, a week after the release of “I Wish It Would Rain”, Penzabene committed suicide.”
Holidays are killers for the true romantics. Wish you had hung in there Rodger.
Warning: This post and its comment section have somehow become a required gateway to all information about Rodger Penzabene, which was never its intention.
