Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today) - Single Version/Mono

"Ball Of Confusion" was one of the many psychedelic soul records Norman Whitfield wrote and produced for the Temptations between the late '60 and early '70s. The song tries to make sense of the chaos and disorder pervading the times.

Lyrically, the song attacked the Vietnam War, Nixon's government, and drug addiction, making it one of the few protest records that came from Motown.

Bob Babbitt of the Motown house band The Funk Brothers recalled to Mojo magazine February 2009 the recording of this track: "Norman Whitfield gave the call to me the night before (the session). So I got to the studio the next day, there were a whole load of guys in there - Uriel Jones, Pistol Allen, Jack Ashford, Eddie Bongo, Earl Van Dyke on clavinet, Johnny Griffith on organ, Joe Messina, Dennis Coffey. There was no song, just some musical ideas, some chord patterns, and part of a bassline he played us. Norman knew what he wanted though, that it was going to be funky. He'd been listening to a lot of Hendrix, Sly & the Family Stone, that's the sound he wanted to make the Motown sound. Putting it together was simple, we just did that one song in the three-hour session and we had enough time left over to eat some BLT sandwiches. We didn't know it was going to be political, because the lyrics weren't written when the rhythm track was recorded. I heard the song four days later. It was a Saturday morning, I was running errands and it came on the automobile radio. They got the songs out quick in those days, especially in Detroit."