“The 5th Dimension’s essence of harmony brought people together in unity.” It’s a phrase I’ve come up with over the years as biographer of The original 5th Dimension and of LaMonte McLemore. Billy Davis, Jr. smiled when I told him this and added, “Marilyn and I always wanted to be approachable to our fans, our message too is that we are all really family.” Florence LaRue reacted humbly, “We appreciate those sentiments, we were purely God’s messengers.” Ron Townson in ’91 said with joy, “I am proud of our contributions, they go to other galaxies, too…’Earthbound’ was put in a time capsule that was placed on the moon!” LaMonte in his upcoming for ’14 memoir FROM HOBO FLATS TO THE 5th DIMENSION (available in June!) talks at length about The 5th Dimension’s impact in the most heartfelt of ways. From reaching out to the college crowd, to going behind “The Iron Curtain,” Mac didn’t take these performance opportunities for granted, “I never wanted to be a statistic…but to be an example to all…to make my mother and grandma proud.”
Here is The original 5th Dimension as produced, a few years back by FOREVER 5th in honor of Black History Month. Their interpretation of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” aligns their brilliant harmonies and contemporary finesse with the history of a profound spiritual. Marilyn McCoo said it best, “We did this for Burt Bacharach’s TV special in ’73, including showing rehearsals of the piece, as we wanted our fans to have a peak at the effort we put into our work…to inspire them.”
Robert-Allan Arno
Biographer, The original 5th Dimension/LaMonte McLemore
Link to “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen:”
(c. 2014, Forever 5th Dimension, The Soul of the Voice, Ltd.)
FOREVER 5TH DIMENSION 