Tonight’s song is long, dark and brilliant. It starts with almost four minutes of music before anyone sings a word.
Learn from Songs · Unit 7: Past habits and memories · B1–B2
Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone
A soul classic about a father who was never there: used to and would for past habits, questions about the past (Did he use to…? What would he do?), the past simple for single events, and talking honestly about difficult family stories, with Marcos, and the father he lost at sea.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Four minutes? What happens?
SOPHIA
Listen to the bass, the trumpet, the strings, building and building. And then the voices ask their mother a question about their father.
DEMETRIA
What question?
Before you listen: the song
Detroit, 1972
The Temptations were one of the great vocal groups of Motown, the famous record company from Detroit. “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, and first recorded by another group. Whitfield then made a new, twelve-minute version with the Temptations.
It went to number one in the USA, and won three Grammy awards. The singers didn’t like it at first: there was too much music and not enough singing, they said.
In the song, the singers take turns, like brothers asking their mother about the father they hardly knew, who has just died. They have heard stories about him. Their mother answers honestly: he was a “rolling stone”, a man who never stayed in one place, and he left them very little.
A “rolling stone” comes from an old proverb: a rolling stone gathers no moss: someone who never settles down never builds anything lasting.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Listen: the question and the answer
PHILO
Listen to the long introduction. What instruments can you hear? Then: what do the children ask? What does their mother answer?
SOPHIA
The singers take turns, like different children. Answer Section A.
⚓ Listen to the song: “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” (Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, 1972), sung by The Temptations.Listen to the official recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”, The Temptations.Read the lyrics →
Used to and would
DEMETRIA
He used to sail to Crete. When he came home, he would bring presents.
SOPHIA
used to for past habits and states (He used to be a sailor). would only for repeated actions (He would sing loudly). For one single event, the past simple: One spring, he left.
Asking about the past
MARCOS
Did he use to sing? What would he do when he was at home?
SOPHIA
Did + subject + use to + verb? and What / Where would + subject + verb? are natural ways to ask about how someone used to live.
Talking about difficult things
PHILO
How do you ask about something painful, without hurting someone?
SOPHIA
Gently: Can I ask you something? Would you mind telling me…? I’d like to understand… And listen without arguing: Thank you for telling me. That must have been hard.
Sophia’s comparison: Telemachus
SOPHIA
In the Odyssey, Telemachus grows up without his father. Odysseus has been away at war and at sea for twenty years. Telemachus asks everyone: what was my father like? Is he still alive?
PHILO
And the prophet Ezekiel says: the son shall not bear the guilt of the father. Each person chooses his own way.
MARCOS
So I don’t have to be like my father.
SOPHIA
No. You choose.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| used to + verb | past habits and states | He used to sail to Crete. |
| would + verb | repeated past actions only | He would bring presents. |
| past simple | single past events | One spring, he left. |
| Did he use to…? / What would he…? | asking about past habits | Did he use to sing? |
| Would you mind telling me…? | asking gently | Would you mind telling me about him? |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. How does the song begin?
2. Who are the singers pretending to be?
3. What has happened to the father?
4. What was he like, according to their mother?
5. What did the Temptations think of the song at first?
6. How many Grammys did it win?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. He to sail to Crete. (past habit)
8. When he came home, he bring presents. (repeated action)
9. Did he to sing?
10. What he do when he was at home?
11. One spring, he and never came back. (leave)
12. Would you mind me about him? (tell)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “He would be a sailor.” (state)
14. “Every winter he would promise to stay.”
15. “Did he used to sing?”
16. “Thank you for telling me.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Family history. Interview an older relative about a grandparent or great-grandparent: What did he use to do? What would she do on Sundays? Report back to the class.
Discuss. 1. What does the proverb “a rolling stone gathers no moss” mean? Is it always bad to be a rolling stone? 2. Do children have to be like their parents? 3. How can we talk about difficult family stories kindly?
Write (120–150 words). Someone I never knew. Write about a relative you never met, from what you have heard: what they used to do, what they would do, and one important event in their life.
Now play the gamebook: Marcos asks his mother about his father.Play the gamebook →