As an exception
to the accustomed order, compilations come now first. In recent months a
number of exceptionally strong projects has been released, which this time
gives me the opportunity to utilize my earlier features, too. In other words, the
Dells, Oscar Toney Jr. and Tommy Tate comment on some of the tracks
on those compilations. In addition to that, I hope you enjoy my fresh
interviews with Betty Harris and Lola, a new William Bell
protégé, and those from the vaults with Floyd Taylor, Vick Allen, Carl Sims and
Sterling Harrison.
THE DELLS
Verne Allison
(second tenor), Chuck Barksdale (bass), Johnny Funches (tenor,
lead), Marvin Junior (baritone, lead), Michael McGill (second
baritone) and Mike’s brother, Lucius McGill (tenor), formed the group in
a Chicago suburb named Harvey, in Illinois, in 1952 and had their first single
(Darling I Know/Christine) released on Checker in 1954 under the name of
the El Rays (meaning ‘the kings’, although, if correctly spelled, ‘the
king’ in Spanish is ‘el rey’). You can read the full, 3-part Dells story in
our printed magazines # 4/97, # 1/98 and # 2/98 (
http://shop.soulexpress.net/index.php?cat=Magazines).
Soon after the debut single Lucius left the group, and the remaining five boys
signed with
Vee-Jay in 1955, where during the next six years they had one album and twelve
singles released, including their first hit, Oh What a Nite, in 1956.
After a car accident in late ’58, the group went on hiatus for a couple of
years. During that time Chuck, however, who had been moonlighting with Otis
Williams and the Charms and the Moonglows already earlier in the
50s, hooked up with Harvey Fuqua and his New Moonglows again in
1959, and he also attended some recording sessions, like Dale Hawkins’ Class
Cutter and he recited the monologue on Jerry Butler’s A Lonely
Soldier.
When the group
came back together in 1960 – and first on part-time basis, only - on their ’61
come-back single on Vee-Jay (Swinging Teens) only Chuck and Verne are
singing, alongside two non-Dells guys. Shortly afterwards all five auditioned
for Dinah Washington in 1961, but Johnny Funches decided to leave and he
was replaced by Johnny Carter, and that cemented the line-up that still
exists, records and performs today – Verne, Chuck, Marvin, Michael and Johnny.
Till the mid-60s
the group kept on making good but still today underrated records for Argo and
Vee-Jay (four singles for both, including the original Stay In My Corner
in ’65), they sang background on many artists’ records (Bo Diddley, Barbara
Lewis, Betty Everett, Wade Flemons, Andre Williams, Etta James, Joe Murphy, Ted
Taylor, Cicero Blake, Jo Ann Garrett, Bobby Jones, the Players etc.), they
had protégés (the Opals) and they toured with Ray Charles in the
mid-60s.
And that brings
us to a great new CD titled Always Together/The Great Chess Ballads
(Shout 38; 21 tracks, 78 min.!;
www.shoutrecords.co.uk).
Liners by Clive Richardson, the set covers the period from 1967 to ’74
with two exceptions. A cover of the Five Keyes’ 1955 hit, Close Your
Eyes (track # 5), was cut during the groups’ spell at Argo in 1962-63.
Michael McGill: “They had to come up with the album (There Is), so they
went in the can and pulled some product out. Close Your Eyes was
recorded in ’62. It was cut at old Chess.” The Change We Go Through (track
# 2) was recorded in February ‘66, when the group still worked with producer Billy
Davis and arranger Phil Wright. It was released as the b-side to
their first Cadet single, Thinkin’ About You.
Michel: “Leonard Chess, who believed
in the Dells, told all the producers at the producers meeting ‘I want you to
select the artists. Get a hit record on these artists, and if you don’t get a
hit record on these artists, your job is on the line’… When Bobby Miller said
‘give me the Dells’, they all burst out laughing. At that time we were like
thirty years old. ‘You can have them’… We found out that he had great songs.”
Charles Stepney became the arranger. Verne Allison: “Charles made us enjoy our
craft. With Charles you had to be very disciplined. He was the creator, and
he liked the stuff to come off right. He didn’t want a whole lot of messing
around.”
The first track on this compilation was released in August ’67.
O-o I Love you (#22-r&b / # 61-pop) is a beautiful Bobby Miller ballad,
which introduced a massive and innovative arrangement - by slowly building up
from Chuck’s opening monologue into an emotive climax - and which utilizes
Marvin’s raspy baritone and Johnny’s soaring falsetto to the maximum for the first
time on record.
Another Bobby Miller composition, Please Don’t Change Me Now (track # 3),
was the flip to the infectious dance hit called Wear It on Our Face in 1968, and it
had Charley doing some experimenting with his arrangements. From the There
Is album (# 4-r&b / # 29-pop) comes still Love Is So Simple (track
# 4), another of those Bobby’s dramatic and powerful slowies, which was hidden
on the b-side of a huge hit, the majestic rework of Stay in My Corner.
The next three songs (tracks # 6 – 8) all derive from the early ’69 album,
The Dells Musical Menu / Always Together (# 9-r&b / # 146-pop), and all three were
picked up as consecutive singles with two first released in ’68 and the third one
in ’69. The title song (# 3-r&b / # 18-pop) is a heavy ballad with
thunderous arrangement and highly emotive vocalizing. Mike: “Always
Together for me typifies the Dells. We’ve been very blessed, and Always
reconfirms what we’re all about. I’ve known these guys since I was fourteen…
We still have our disagreements, but we’ve always been there for each other.”
The follow-up was equally outstanding, a thrilling Vietnam slowie named Does Anybody Know
I’m Here (# 15–r&b / # 38-pop), and the third Bobby Miller gem in a row
was I Can’t Do Enough (# 20-r&b / # 98-pop), again building from a
quiet swayer up to a soul thunder.
I guess the
biggest European hit for the group still is their ’69 medley of I Can Sing A
Rainbow/Love Is Blue (# 5-r&b / # 22-pop), and on this compilation it
is followed by the next ’69 single, a rework of their first hit from 1956, Oh
What A Night (# 1-r&b / # 10-pop). The monologue in the beginning was
added by Leonard Chess’ suggestion. Marvin Junior: “Chess always loved that
song, and he was responsible for us redoing it the second time.”
Both of these
songs were included on the ’69 album titled Love Is Blue (# 3-r&b /
# 54-pop) as well as A Little Understanding (track # 12) and The
Glory of Love (track # 14). A Little Understanding, an emotive
ballad and a real grower, was written by Michael McGill and Chuck Barksdale.
Michael: “I wrote it for my wife, but then she said ‘it’s the most chauvinistic
song I’ve ever heard’ (laughing).” The heavily orchestrated and dramatic cover
of The Glory of Love was belatedly released as a single in December 1970
(# 30-soul / # 92-pop), and for the second time in 1975.
Three songs – Open
Up My Heart (track # 11), Long Lonely Nights (track # 13) and Since
I Fell For You (track # 15) – are culled from the ’70 album, Like It Is,
Like It Was (# 7-soul / # 126-pop). Marvin: “We did a bunch of old tunes
that were out in the 50s. One side was modern tunes, one side was 50s tunes.”
The “modern” category includes Open up My Heart, Bobby Miller’s
glorious, haunting ballad, which together with a cover of Nadine on the
flip hit # 5-soul and # 51-pop. Long Lonely Nights (# 27-soul / #
74-pop) was a cover of Lee Andrew and the Hearts’ single on Main Line in
1956 (it became a hit a year later when leased to Chess), while with Since I
Fell for You we must go back to Buddy Johnson on Decca in 1945.
In 1970 Bobby
Miller left. Marvin: “Bobby Miller had an argument with Chess. He left and
went to Motown. He tried to get us to follow him over to Motown, but we didn’t
do it. He got very upset about that. When Bobby left, we weren’t really
thinking about leaving, because they gave us a new and better contract… We
ended up with Charles Stepney. He stopped being our arranger and started being
our arranger and our producer.” Michael: “When you get a trio like that, you
just turn out hit records so easy. We hated to see it dissolve. When Bobby
left for Motown, Chess was really on the decline. But we had a lot of faith in
Charles Stepney, but what he was lacking was material. We got lucky with The
Love We Had. Stepney was more of a technical person. Bobby went for the
feel of the song. They were two different types of individuals.”
In 1971 and ’72
the group released three albums on Cadet – Freedom Means, The Dells Sing
Dionne Warwick’s Greatest Hits and Sweet As Funk Can Be – and of
those LPs the Dionne Warwick one has been recently released in a CD format by
Dusty Groove America. Freedom still fared quite well – mainly because
of the hit single, The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind) – but the other
two were disappointments both in sales and in airplay.
On this CD there
are two songs from that period, which both remained un-issued at the time. A
soft and tender ballad called Since I Found You (track # 18) saw
the light of the day only in 1992 on a compilation titled On Their Corner.
Michael: “The song was written by Skip Scarborough… great song, great
production, great vocals. It was probably the same session as You Changed
My Life Around.” The latter song (track # 17) has never been released
before. It’s a worthwhile ballad and a fine vocal performance by the group.
Both songs were cut in 1972, but by that time Cadet was already losing faith in
Charles Stepney being able to come up with hits for the Dells. Michael: “You
Changed My Life Around, written by Michael McGill and Charles Barksdale,
was the last recording session with the Dells and Charles Stepney at Chess
Studios. It wasn’t previously released due to the demise of Chess Records and
was in the vault at Universal Music. Although it’s not one of the Dells’
strongest, it still has the Stepney/Dells magic, and I personally wish that the
Dells, Bobby Miller and Charles Stepney had recorded 100 more songs. There is
one more gem in Universal’s vault entitled Let Me Show You How to Love Again,
written by the late Skip Scarborough and produced by Charles Stepney.”
Chuck Barksdale:
“You’re going on a search, because your main string or your main combination of
personnel had been broken up. There was no Charles Stepney any longer. He had
gone with Earth, Wind & Fire. There was no Bobby Miller. He had
gone to Motown. We were in search of where in the hell do we go from here, and
who do we find, hoping that somebody would want to pick you up.”
Don Davis:
“The Dells was always one of my favourite groups. I gave their label a call
one day and said ‘hey, listen, I’d like to cut a record on Dells. I’ll pay for
it, and if I get a hit, I want 25 000 dollars’. They said ‘that’s fine,
we’ll make it 50 000, if you get a hit and you’ll do the whole album’. So
I cut a record Give Your Baby a Standing Ovation.” The song turned into
gold in 1973, and the Dells were back in the game. From the album by the same
name (# 10-soul / # 99-pop) comes a slow jam named Soul Strollin’ (track
# 16), which actually is a leftover Stepney production from a couple of years
earlier.
A ‘73 album
simply titled The Dells (# 15-soul / # 202-pop) was completely produced
by Don Davis and it is this scribe’s personal favourite alongside There Is.
Michael: “Don Davis had a factory over there, and we’d go over to Detroit and record in his studio (United Sound Systems). He would take Marvin in one room,
where he would gonna lead. We’d go in and make the background with another
guy. It wasn’t like with Miller. It was a different kind of situation over
there.”
The first single
off the album, a strong and haunting soul ballad titled My Pretending Days
Are Over (# 10-soul / # 51-pop), is included on this set as well as an
exceptionally beautiful version of James Dean’s song, If You Move
I’ll Fall. The final song on this CD is a melancholy slowie called I
Wish It Was Me You Loved (# 11-soul / # 94-pop), taken from the ’74 The
Dells vs. The Dramatics album (# 15-soul / # 156-pop).
After two more
albums for Cadet and the subsequent demise of the company in 1975, the group
switched to Mercury for four albums (’75-’77), then to ABC for two LPs (’78 and
’79) and to 20th Century Fox for two albums, again (’80 and ’81).
Next albums appeared on Private I in 1984, on Veteran in 1988, on ZOO/PIR in
’92 (with Gamble & Huff), on Volt in 2000 and finally on Devine in
2002. Other milestones in their career include a movie inspired by their
career titled The Five Heartbeats and their last hit song from it in
1991, A Heart Is a House for Love. They were also inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and a documentary named The Dells: Oh
What a Night won a Chicago/Midwest Emmy in the category of Outstanding
Achievement for Documentary Programs – Documentary or Cultural Significance in
2004-2005. Don’t forget their recent concert DVD, Live from New York City
(www.soulexpress.net/soulconcerts_dvds.htm),
and please visit also their website at www.themightydells.com.
Although the planned Tom Tom produced album, The Dells Unplugged,
with new Bobby Miller songs on it hasn’t materialized yet, we’re still living
in the hope of hearing some new music from this mighty group.
The Dells is my
all-time number one soul group and for me they excel especially at deep
ballads, so if you get a stunning ballad compilation such as Always Together
from their golden era, how can you top that. Michael: “I’m very, very
proud of us, and I’m going to blow up my own horn. I’m proud of the type
records that we’ve recorded. We’ve recorded songs that I think are very
inspirational to the world.”
(on the pic above: Oscar Toney Jr. in Opelika, Alabama, on December 2 in 2000)
OSCAR TONEY JR.
Oscar was a
frequent visitor to the U.K. in the early 70s, and after his Capricorn contract
was up John Abbey talked him into recording for Contempo Records in
1973, which eventually produced one of the greatest soul albums in 1975, I’ve
Been Loving You Too Long To Stop Now…
Oscar: “I had
done Germany and South Africa, but to England I came fifteen times. One time,
when I was over in England, John Abbey and I got together. He at the time was
the head of his Blues & Soul magazine, and at the same time he had his
record shop and everything, but he was into promotion business, too. He said
‘I’ve always liked your singing and I’d like to sign you up’. I said ok, and
we went from there” (Soul Express # 4/98).
Six out the nine
songs on the album had been released on CD before, when Oscar put out his Resurfaces
– Year 2000 in 1999 (see the discography at http://www.soulexpress.net/oscartoneyjr_discography.htm).
Oscar: “When I started making the CD, I wanted to go with ninety-nine and a
half per cent of original material, but after Ichiban went bankrupt on me, I
decided – rather than put all my eggs in one basket – pick two of the tunes and
cover some other tunes. We put that out to see how that’s gonna do” (Soul
Express # 4/99). Those two tunes that Oscar refers to is a great, touching
deepie called I’m Not the Dad (personal number one record in 1999) and
an r&b shuffler titled You Can’t Come In. The rest of the original
songs that Oscar had ready by that time and that were supposed to come out on
Ichiban were finally released on Bob Grady Records a year later and they were re-issued
in a CD format on Shout in 2006 under the title of Guilty. You can read
Oscar’s comments on them at http://www.soulexpress.net/oscar_toney.htm.
Now we finally
get these Contempo gems on CD, Loving You Too Long/The CONTEMPO Sessions (Shout
40; 12 tracks, 51 min; liners by Clive Richardson). Fine arrangements were
created by Gerry Shury. Oscar: “John Abbey was overseeing everything…
chief, like Papa Don, but on the good side. Gerry worked on mixing
board.”
They released
six Contempo singles in the U.K. (and two Contempos and one Atco in the U.S.), and for me the first one is the best single ever produced in the U.K. Oscar’s extremely
soulful interpretation of Kentucky Bluebird (A Message to Martha)
beats all the other versions I’ve heard, and the Bread hit, Everything
I Own, on the flip is equally breath-taking. The second single paired
Oscar’s own deep ballad, Everybody’s Needed, with the funky Love’s
Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (the only song that’s not on this CD).
Single number three offers another funky take on Syl Johnson’s Is It
Because I’m Black coupled with a laid-back but very pleasant version of Make
It Easy on Yourself, with monologues at both ends.
Oscar himself
chose to do a feel-good and sunny interpretation of My Girl, but went
bluesy on The Thrill Is Gone on the flip. I’ve Been Loving You Too
Long is as strong and as Southern as you can get – one of Oscar’s most
impressive vocal performances – and his rework of For Your Precious Love differs
a lot from his Bell hit in 1967 and, although it’s more relaxed or ‘quiet
fire’, it grows in intensity towards the end. The final single, an excessively
funky version of Chicken Heads – backed by Ultrafunk – was
coupled with Everybody’s Needed again.
All of those
eleven songs except Love’s Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down and Chicken
Heads were gathered on the Contempo album (CLP 511). This new CD also
offers both album and single versions of Kentucky Bluebird and Everything
I Own, and, once more, I can’t praise enough those single mixes. There
should be something in the vaults, too. Oscar: “I did Unchained Melody.
I don’t know why they didn’t release it.”
(on the pic above: Oscar and his wife, Carolyn)
These tracks
from thirty something years back have stood the test of time. Contempo was
Oscar’s fifth recording label after his debut on Mac in 1960 (according to his
own words, he didn’t record such tracks as Love, Oh Why Cha Cha Cha, Ooo-Wee
and Wow Wow Baby with the Searchers on Mac and Class in the
50s), two singles on King (cut in late ’60, but released only in ’64 and ’67),
his 8-single hit period on Bell (’67-’68) and finally four fine singles on Capricorn
(’70-’72). In recent years Oscar has cut new material and is currently looking
for financing and an outlet for it. As with the Dells in terms of groups, in
the category of male soul singers Oscar is my number one, so I’m extremely
happy that this long overdue CD has finally been released.
TOMMY TATE
Tommy had
released ten singles between 1965 and ‘70 – many of them with Tim Whitsett
and the Imperial Show Band - and had a short stint with the Nightingales
before hooking up with Johnny Baylor in 1971. Tommy: “I met Johnny
Baylor. He talked me into going to New York. Naturally that was exciting for
me, because New York was everything in the entertainment world” (Soul Express #
3/2001).
On Johnny’s KoKo
label Tommy had six singles released between 1971 and ’77, and all ten songs
from those singles are now available on I’m So Satisfied/The Complete Ko
Ko Recordings and more (Kent 289; 20 tracks, 68 min.; compiled and
liners by Tony Rounce; www.acerecords.com).
In addition to that, there are seven songs that remained unreleased at the time
and three songs that he recorded for Stax with the Nightingales in 1970 and
‘71, after Ollie Hoskins had left. You’re Movin’ Much Too Fast
is a rousing, inspirational mid-pacer – and here we get a longer version and a
different mix – whereas the second ’71 single paired a deepie titled Just a
Little Overcome with a big-voiced testimony called I Don’t Want to be
like My Daddy.
Most of Tommy’s
KoKo songs were credited to him and Johnny Baylor, but actually it was Tommy
alone. Tommy: “Johnny took the executive credits, but the musical end of it
was – and I don’t wanna sound vain – that a lot of that stuff was done by me.
I must take a lot of credit for the musical things that went down.” The first
single coupled I Remember, a driving mid-pacer, with the more laid-back Help
Me Love. Luther Ingram covered both of these songs for his second
album a year later.
A pleading beat
ballad called School of Life became the biggest hit in Tommy’s career (#
22-soul) in 1972, but the third single – another pleading slowie titled More
Power to You backed with the funky I Ain’t Gonna Worry – failed to
chart.
(on the pic above: Tommy Tate in Jackson, Mississippi, on November 30 in 2000)
After the
resurrection of KoKo in 1976, they released Tommy’s fourth single for the
label, the funky Hardtime S.O.S. (# 62-soul), coupled with a cover of
Luther Ingram’s beautiful serenade, Always. If You Ain’t Man Enough (#
93-soul), a hard-hitting dancer, and a toe-tapper named Revelations formed
the follow-up, and Tommy’s swan song for the label in 1977 was a big-voiced
beat ballad called I’m So Satisfied.
Those days they
were also planning to release Tommy’s debut album titled I’m So Satisfied,
but it remained in the can, mainly because Johnny was concentrating on Luther.
The shelved material was released on P-Vine in Japan in 1996, and now we are
treated to those seven missing songs again. A pleasant mid-pacer called If
You Got to Love Somebody was scheduled to be released just prior to or
instead of I’m so Satisfied, but was cancelled at the last minute.
(Interestingly, Johnny Baylor’s song for Luther Ingram a bit later called Do
You Love Somebody doesn’t differ much in construction or in melody). Other
catchy mid-tempo songs include Sanity, (You Brought Me) A Mighty Long Way and
It’s a Bad Situation, whereas It Ain’t No Laughing Matter and Identity
(I’ve Got to Know Who I Am) fall into the funk category. I Just Can’t
Believe Your Love for Me is a beautiful slowie. Tommy: “I liked it. It
was a very nice, slow romantic song.”
After the KoKo
era Tommy continued writing for Don Davis (Groovesville) and Malaco. Some of
his Malaco demos were released on Hold On, on Vivid Sound in Japan in
1979, but his actual recordings in the 80s appeared on Sam Kazery’s
Sundance (3 singles) and Frederick Knight’s Juana imprints (the Tommy
Tate album in ’81). In the 90s two more albums emerged, Love Me Now and
All or Nothing.
Tommy was
honoured at the Jackson Music Awards in 2006, but after a heart attack in late
2001 he’s been tied to a wheelchair and he’s still in rehabilitation, so most
probably we won’t be seeing him perform or record again. But we have his rich
legacy, and I’m So Satisfied covers some of his best work. Tommy: “I
have been through a lot of changes, but I still have my mental capacity. After
some things I have undergone through life, I could possibly have become crazy,
but I’m not. I have done everything imaginable in the blues and r&b
world.”
LARRY BANKS
There are as
many as fifteen previously unissued tracks on Larry Banks’ Soul Family
Album (Kent 284; 24 tracks, 63 min.). Some of them are alternative
mixes, some are demos. Detailed liners in a 24-page booklet are by Ady
Croasdell, and the music derives from the period of ’63-’70 (most of it
comes from ’66-’68) on such labels as Tiger, RCA, Kapp, Spring, GWP, Select,
RSCP and Spokane.
Larry Banks
managed most of the artists on this CD and produced, arranged and wrote music
for them. Among them there are his two wives, first Bessie Banks, whose
original Go Now naturally opens the set, and Jaibi, whose
highly-praised ballad, You Got Me, is also included.
Other highlights
include Showdown by the Shaladons, a Dells type of a strong soul
ballad, Living in the Land of Heartache by the Cavaliers, another
powerful ballad, and Will You Wait, Larry’s own recording. A Roy
Hamilton wannabe, Kenny Carter, delivered some goodies, too – You’d
Better Get Hip Girl, I Can’t Stop Laughing and the Vietnam song, Lights Out, which can’t avoid comparisons to Zerben Hicks & the Dynamics’
unbeatable gem.
Other artists
include Milton Bennett, the Devonnes, the Geminis, the Pleasures and
the Exciters. I must still mention one of my favourite groups, the
Hesitations, whose messy beater called No Brag Just Fact (on GWP in
’69) unfortunately is one of the least interesting recordings in their career.
I find this set a strange mixture of splendid ballads and indifferent stompers
and substandard fast tracks, but the good ones are really good.
INTRODUCING… LOLA
William Bell has
found a new blues & soul lady by the name of Lola for his Wilbe
label. Give Her What She Wants (Wil2012-2; www.williambell.com) is produced by
William himself and Reginald “Wizard” Jones, and out of the twelve songs
Lola herself wrote or co-wrote as many as ten, mostly with William and
Reginald. The big plus for Wilbe is the real live rhythm section. Lola: “I
did a lot of keyboard playing and I did a lot of rearranging as well. I play
fourteen-fifteen instruments, maybe. I’m a music major. I was studying to be
a music conductor.”
On opening tracks
Lola’s voice and style bears a slight resemblance to Mavis Staples – and
at times to Candi Staton, too – but in the middle of the CD (on tracks
like Look My Way and The Sweetest Thing) the first artist to come
to my mind is Joss Stone, which only proves that Lola is a flexible and
many-sided music lady.
The set kicks
off with the funky Back Door. “I was coming from Mardi Gras in Mobile and I wrote it in a car. It was just a fun song to write.” I Can’t See is a
mellow and melodic mid-tempo song, whereas The Blues Chose Me is a slow
and – yes! – bluesy swayer. “I’m a blues artist, but what I do on stage kind
of depends on what the show calls for.” A funky beater named I’ve Got Feet was
considered for the first single, and a mid-tempo mover called Look My Way has
a jazzy tone to it. “I wrote that song many years ago, when I was younger, and
it was actually about someone. I do also jazz on stage.”
Three slowies
follow, a beat ballad titled The Sweetest Thing, a powerful pleader
called Don’t Go Away and a very slow and big-voiced “lounge blues”
number named Wash Your Hands. “It was the first song that I wrote, when
we started the project, and I wanted to do a strong ballad. We just sat down,
and in thirty minutes this song was written.”
Besides two
beaters (Let’s Call It a Night and Two Fools in One House) there
are still two downtempo songs left. Ties That Bind is a beautiful and
soft serenade. “That was the last song that I wrote. I enjoy that song a
lot. I like to play that live on stage.” Shake Hands is a ballad that
William Bell first released as a duet with Rubi Burt on his Bedtime
Stories CD in 1992 on Wilbe/Ichiban. “He played it in a studio, and I
loved it. We took it and changed it around, because it was really 80ish and we
just kind of updated it a little bit. I think it was a great idea, and I was
honoured to do a duet with William Bell.”
Lola Gulley was
born in New York City on May 13 in 1964. “I was born in the backseat of an
Oldsmobile 88.” Music is and has been a denominator in Lola’s family. “My
father is a musician. He’s a guitar player. He’s one of the original guitar
players with the Mighty Clouds of Joy. He got married, before they
started recording, so he never recorded with them. I have a brother, who’s a
jazz drummer. He’s in Dallas, Texas. I have several cousins, who are singers
and players. There are a lot of musicians in my family.”
“I was born in New York, and I moved to California, when I was like two or three, and I was raised in California. I moved to Mobile, Alabama, when I was nineteen-twenty years old, and I moved
here to Atlanta about nineteen years ago.” In her formative years Lola listened
closely to Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples, the Emotions and
Kool & the Gang.
“By my father
being a musician and having a band, there were always instruments in the house,
so I would play instruments when I was two or three. It was just a natural
thing that I’ve always done. In elementary school I was in music programs and
in junior high school I started playing horns. In high school it was drums and
I took interest in conducting music. When I got into college, I played organ
for different churches, and then I went out on tour with Johnnie Taylor
as his keyboard player in ’88 and I stayed with him off and on for about three
years.”
“In the 90s I
started playing with local bands, and then I really got into singing. I also
won a contest and got a recording contract with Motown.” At Motown Lola recorded
an album in 1996, but it remains canned due to her patron leaving the company.
“It’s nothing like this CD. It’s more r&b.”
“I formed my own
band for the first time in 2000. Usually I have four pieces and I have two
background singers. I did an independent CD called Blues Chose Me in
2004. They’re other songs than the ones on this CD, except Back Door and
The Blues Chose Me. In the future I would love to continue to write and
produce and keep performing. I just love music that much.”
“The Princess of
Rockin’ Gospel Blues” wrote or co-wrote all fifteen new songs on her I’m
Here to Stay CD (CrossCut Records, ccd 11097; www.crosscut.de). She also co-produced the
set with Michael Cloeren and Lars Kutschke, and it was recorded
in Pennsylvania. The big-voiced Sharrie and her backing band, the Wiseguys,
have become popular in Europe in recent years, but this CD is released in the USA, too,
on www.electrofi.com.
Sharrie remains
true to her raucous style on the seven uptempo “rockin’ blues” numbers, which
vary from the Louisiana-style I Gotta Find Me a Mojo to an inspirational
scorcher, Pocono Praise, with an express-train tempo. For blues
listeners there are still three more slow moans, and the most awful rock guitar
solo this time is heard on Power, but I guess those solos go down well
in certain areas of Europe.
BETTY HARRIS
In this “insert
feature” Betty first tells about her new CD, and in the latter part we revive
old memories of some of the artists and producers that mattered to Betty in the
50s and 60s.
Amazingly, Intuition
(Evidence, ECD 26135-2; www.evidencemusic.com)
is Betty’s first album ever. Produced by Jon Tiven, this 16-track CD
was recorded in Nashville with a live rhythm section and it features songs
written for the most part by Jon and his wife, Sally Tiven, who also
plays bass in these sessions. Betty herself resides in Atlanta these days (www.myspace.com/bettyharris).
Betty: “Jon was
introduced to me by my attorney, Fred Wilhelms, who lives in Nashville. We were introduced probably a couple of weeks prior to me going to Australia. When I came back, I went up to Nashville on weekend, and I took some of the
songs with me. When I came back, we went into the studio. Jon is very easy to
work with. We worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday and got everything down, and
then I brought it home with me and figured out, where I could make
improvements. We went back the following weekend, and that was it!”
For those, who
cherish Betty’s soulful sides from the 60s, the new CD may come as a shock.
The music differs drastically. The tracks form a Southern rock foundation for
Betty’s “shoutress” vocals. Depending on the song, there are leanings to
blues, country, r&b, pop and even inspirational, but basically it all comes
down to rock and pop music – and with a lot of guitar solos from Jon, too. How
did Betty adapt herself to this new style?
Betty: “I
started out with old school r&b, and I needed to make a change. Old school
r&b was limiting me, so I wanted to try something different. You have to
look at the fact that when I first came out, I came out with Cry to Me
when that type of music was not very popular. Cry to Me was not a
complete soul song, but it was more soul than what was being played on pop
stations. So, being adventurous like this, I wanted to do a change again, even
though it’s a challenge… and I had no idea how this would turn out. But I was
quite surprised with the finished product, and we do have some good sides on
this CD. I chose the material, and they were stories that I felt mattered.
But some of the songs took a little more listening to actually make them
matter.”
After over three
decades’ hiatus, Betty returned to the stage almost three years ago and perform
these days something old, something new and something borrowed. “We’ve mixed
all of those together. We’re doing soul, we’re doing the new stuff and I’ve
basically tied it all together. I feel like I’m able to reach the young and
the old, because right now my audience is mixed. I do some uptempo stuff that
the kids enjoy and then reach back and get to downhome blues type things that
my age group likes. It’s blended.”
The opening song
on the CD, Is It Hot in Here?, is a perky, rolling mid-tempo groover,
which – according to Jon’s notes about the history of these songs – was written
with Shemekia Copeland in mind. Isolation (Someone to Hold) is a
bit poppy and almost gentle mid-tempo number. “Sometimes I wish I could have
cut Isolation over again after living with it for a bit longer, because
it was after the session that I really heard the tune. Now, when we do it,
it’s absolutely moving.”
The title tune
is a plaintive and rather soft beat ballad… and poppy again. “When I was given
that song, the first thing I said was ‘I can’t sing that’, and Jon said ‘yes
you can, you can’. After I made the hook on it in my hotel, I thought ‘okay,
maybe I can do it’.” An aggressive stormer titled Still Amazed is
followed by a brisk quick-tempo floater and the most soulful song on the set, Since
You Brought Your Sweet Love. Jon explains that the co-writer of the song,
the late Freddie Scott, cut it first in New York and then Betty put her
vocals on it in Nashville, and that’s how this duet came about. “I’ve never
even met Freddie. That was strictly from tape.”
After a
mid-tempo beater named A Fool Can Always Break Your Heart there’s a
quite melodic slow-to-mid-pacer called You Do My Soul Good. “That’s my
favourite. We did that particular song at Porretta. It’s joyful and it’s sad,
too, but it was just a good tune for me.” How to Be Nice is a
big-voiced “mad” song, co-written by Jerry Ragovoy. “That’s my get down
dirty song. It’s another crowd pleaser. We did it in New Orleans in November,
and it’s really one of those house-rockers. I like Jerry Ragovoy’s writing,
anyway.”
On the driving Who’s
Takin Care of Baby? Betty lets herself loose vocally. “That song resonated
today’s problems. I was trying to get across to young people and say that
there’s more to life than having children. There’s responsibility. I talk
about this in my show.” After one rough stormer (Time to Fly) and a
somewhat monotonous mid-tempo song from Jerry Ragovoy’s pen again (It Is
What It Is), we are treated to a mediocre fast tune titled Need,
co-written by Don Covay. “I think I spoke to Don at the studio. I
haven’t met him. It was one of those songs that, when I first heard it, I
really didn’t get it. I tell you about my type of singing. Songs have to
resonate with me. They have to have a meaning. They have to have a story. With
Jon’s writing I did get story-lines that I wanted.”
The mid-tempo She
Stays On is closest to country music on this set. “I’ve always wanted to
sing something that was country. I’m totally blown away by the lyrics in that
song.” Two fast tracks, Tell It to the Preacher Man and A Bible and
a Beer (with a quite good melody), are not inspirational songs, although on
the latter one Betty vocally takes it on the road to the church. “In my book
and with my religious background that is not inspirational. One of the
preachers in my mother’s church called and said ‘what were you thinking? How
did you get those two words together?’ I did not write that, but I chose that
because of the hook in that and the truthfulness in the song. My mother has
never heard this. She’s ninety-five, and I hope she never does” (laughing).
The concluding song,
Happiness Is Mine, is fast and funky again. In recent years Betty has
written a lot of new songs, but this is the only one she co-wrote for this CD.
“That one’s been changed totally. The one I wrote is totally different, but it’s
my opening song now. When you put a CD together, the songs have to gel. If
they don’t, then you’ve got a mess. Jon and I write quite differently. Mine
is old-school, and in order to make that cross-over, that change, I had to go
with what he was doing.”
To add some soul
– or, let’s say, vintage soul – to this feature, I asked Betty to go down memory
lane and tell us about some of the yesterday’s music heroes she used to work
with. In the late 50s she worked with Big Maybelle, who passed
away in 1972 at the age of forty-seven. “When I first went to New York, I compared myself to everybody. I didn’t know that much about r&b. I knew
about gospel. I had met the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Blind Boys, Sam Cooke before
he was even Sam Cooke… I had met all of those people. Half of them had lived
at my home, because my father was a promoter. So I knew about gospel, but I
did not know where I would fit in r&b. The closest thing to me was Big
Maybelle. I went to hear her in the Apollo. I sat through her show, and I was
blown away. I said ‘oh, my god, this lady’s voice is bigger than mine, and she
is GOOD’! So I used her as a catalyst to try to find myself. Maybelle was an
instructor for me. She taught me to be me and not to try to sing like somebody
else.”
With Bert
Berns (d. in 1967, at 38) Betty cut her signature song in 1963, Cry
to Me. “He was a doll. When I went in to do Cry to Me, I had
listened to all the r&b songs that were going during that era. Solomon
Burke and I had the same management. I had listened to Solomon do the song
several times. I loved the song, but it needed to be slowed down and it needed
to be really heard. That was what I gave to Bert Berns. When I sang Cry to
Me to Bert, right in the middle he stopped me and called Gary Sherman,
whose office was upstairs, and Gary wrote the arrangement for the song for me.”
“Bert was
absolutely fun-loving and very, very relaxed. I went to his home, and he had
one of those penthouses. I’ve never been in one before. The elevator opened
into his home, and he had this huge, humongous dog sitting there, and you
weren’t coming out of that elevator. So I’m in the elevator screaming and the
dog isn’t moving. He’s just sitting there looking at me, and Bert looked at
the both of us and he cracked up. Bert was a beautiful person, and he had the
ear for what he wanted.”
During the
second half of the 60s Betty cut over twenty sides with Allen Toussaint,
who turned 70 on January 14. “Allen was totally the opposite. He was a
fabulous arranger. I had to take a totally different attitude with his music.
I basically said to myself ‘hey, if you can write it, I can sing it’. It was
like a wall between us. First I was looking for another Bert Berns, which I
did not find. Secondly, I had to get past personality, and, third, I was
coming out of New York with the fabulous studios and all that stuff… going into
New Orleans to what looked like a barn. So it was a totally different
atmosphere, but what was coming out of that barn and what we were doing… he was
at the top of his game. I can’t say anything bad about him and I don’t intend
to. As a musician he’s a very, very gifted person.”
Betty toured
with Otis Redding just prior to his demise on December 10 in
1967. “I worked with Otis for three months. I enjoyed it. I thought that he
was one of the best out there. There was this thing going on at that time
between him and James Brown, and all of us were coming out of the south,
so it was like who’s going to have the next biggest record. I was scheduled to
go to Europe with him, when all of that happened. I saw a great future in
him.”
Betty does the
duet with James Carr on his I’m a Fool for You on Goldwax
in 1967. James passed away seven years ago on January 7, at 58. “We were
together in the same studio singing it. We were coming off of the Otis Redding
tour, and James was driving. My car was in New York. We started playing with
the song. I thought nothing of recording it. I was just messing with it with
him. When we got to Memphis, he said ‘hey, you ain’t gotta go now, come on
over to the studio’, and I did. I had no idea that they were going to record
it or to release it. I never did the song again until 2005.”
“I was crazy
about the way James sang, and his voice was absolutely fantastic. He was a
part of the gospel singers coming out of the gospel field. I got to know him
to a point, but it was really hard for anybody to get to know James, because
James was introvert. He didn’t do a lot of talking. You just did not know
where to place James.”
Now that Betty
is back on the music scene, she’s already planning her next steps. “Right now
we are doing not a lot of work, but we are doing some work. We’re still going
to promote the CD, and we are going back into the studio. For all those fans that
swear to nothing but old-style r&b, we’re going to do some of that. I want
to be comfortable with the CD totally, and I want to give myself a lot more
time on the second one.”
Booker is a
great singer and it’s a pity that this time he has to waste his talent on this
kind of mediocre material and production. The best track is the last one, a
tribute called Tyrone Lives On, and Tyrone’s influence is evident on two
dancers, too – Stir It Up and Let The Past Stay in the Past. Two
blues tracks aside, the record is filled with standard dancers that combine
many clichés this time; witness Fishin’ at the Hole in the Wall and Lookin’
for a Freak. The only other slowie is John Cummings’ swayer named Match
Made in Heaven.
I bet you were
thinking that this is an artist that he definitively hasn’t interviewed, but
actually I have. But I can’t do it anymore, because sadly Sterling passed away
on August 21 in 2005 caused by prostate cancer. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, on July 19 in 1941, and besides singing he was famous for his
imitations, too. We talked in 1999, and the reason for that was his recently
released CD, Two Way Love Affair.
You can read about that album and
Sterling’s interesting and chequered career here.
Sterling sings some of his favourite songs, and among the uptempo ones there are Ain’t
Nobody Home and an almost rock ‘n’ roll version of Seven Days. Surprise,
Surprise and You Left the Water Running are performed in mid-tempo,
as well as the bluesy Don’t Mess with My Money and a rousing version of I
Believe in You (You Believe in Me), a song made famous by Sterling’s idol, Johnnie
Taylor.
MOVING MUSIC
STAX & OTIS
Three great DVDs
dealing with Stax were released last year, and they’ve been praised on many forums
by now, but I do my short and belated review, anyway.
Respect Yourself/The Stax Records Story (Concord/Stax, DVD-7032; 126 min. with
extras; www.concordmusicgroup.com)
tells the story of a company, which was founded by Jim Stewart and Estelle
Axton and had its “Satellite” start in a record shop and country music
singles in the late 50s. After they hired Al Bell in 1965, business
wheels were put in motion. The DVD covers such 60s landmarks as the tour in
Europe, the Monterey festival, Otis Redding’s death, the assassination of Martin
Luther King, Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul album and Shaft
two years later, in 1971. We move on to Wattstax ’72 and to financing
and distribution problems with the Union Planters National Bank and CBS. Also
IRS and FBI came into the picture and the concluding subjects are the Stax
auction and bankruptcy in the mid-70s.
There’s a lot of
historic footage, much music and comments from as many as thirty-nine persons,
including Jim and Estelle, Deanie Parker, Rufus and Carla Thomas,
Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Wayne Jackson, Don Nix, Jerry
Wexler, Al Bell, David Porter, Mavis Staples, Mable John, Bettye
Crutcher, Dino Woodard, Mack Rice, Tim Whitsett and Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Twenty-two songs
are featured, and it allows us to enjoy performances – mostly vintage but some
fresh, too - by Mar-Keys, William Bell, Booker T. & the MG’s (2
songs), Otis Redding (6), Sam & Dave (3), Eddie
Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, Isaac Hayes (2), Mel & Tim, the Staple
Singers (2), Rufus Thomas and Albert King. Written and produced by Morgan
Neville, Robert Gordon and Mark Crosby and narrated by Samuel L.
Jackson, this is one of the best and most informative music history DVDs
that I’ve seen.
----------
The brightest
star at Stax around mid-60s was Otis Redding, and his tragic death in December
1967, aged only 26, paralyzed the company for a moment. Dreams to
Remember/The Legacy of Otis Redding (www.reelinintheyears.com, DVD-7031;
110 min. with extras) tells his story and features sixteen performances, which
were filmed in America and Europe in 1965, ’66 and ’67. Produced by David
Peck, Rob Bowman and Phillip Galloway, Otis’ history is told also,
and more in detail, in the liner notes written by Rob Bowman.
In between songs
there are comments from Jim Stewart, Steve Cropper, Wayne Jackson and from
Otis’ wife, Zelma Redding, and daughter, Karla Redding-Andrews.
Songs go back all the way to Pain in My Heart and as a bonus there’s a
music video of The Dock of the Bay, created in 2007. For me the
highlights are I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (from a ’67 London concert; dedicated to Mick Jagger!), My Lover’s Prayer, Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa
(Sad Song), Shake (in Monterey in ’67), Glory of Love and Try a
Little Tenderness, which was shot in Cleveland, Ohio, just one day before
the fatal plane accident. www.otisredding.com
----------
The same
producers and the same liners writer as above, Stax/Volt Revue – Live in Norway 1967 (Reelin’ In The Years, DVD-7030; 103 min. with extras) shows us the recently
discovered Oslo concert that was part of the Stax’s first European tour.
Interspersed between the performances there are once more interviews with Steve
Cropper, Wayne Jackson, Sam Moore and Jim Stewart.
The 75-minute
concert kicks off with five instrumentals by both Booker T. & the MGs and
the Mar-Keys, before Arthur Conley hits the stage and delivers In the
Midnight Hour and Sweet Soul Music. After Eddie Floyd (Raise
Your Hand), the stage became full of fire, first set by “the dynamic duo”
of Sam & Dave (You Don’t Know Like I Know, Soothe Me, the awesome When
Something Is Wrong with My Baby and Hold On! I’m Comin’) and then by
Otis Redding, who closes his five-song stint with an incredible delivery of Try
a Little Tenderness. My advice is to purchase all these three DVDs.
THE ANDANTES
First they brought out the Funk Brothers
into the limelight in Allen Slutsky’s great ’89 book entitled Standing
in the Shadows of Motown, the Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James
Jamerson, then in Paul Justman’s successful documentary movie in
2002 and subsequent tours. Now it’s time for another of those Motown’s best
kept secrets to be exposed. Motown from the Background (ISBN 13:
978190440829X; www.bankhousebooks.com;
296 pages – 65 illustrated with photos) tells the story of Louvain
Demps, Marlene Barrow-Tate and Jackie Hicks, collectively known as the
Andantes. Vickie Wright wrote the story in close collaboration with
the ladies, and there are comments from many artists, business people and
relatives, too. You can purchase the book at least at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.
Jackie and
Marlene went to an audition at Motown with Popcorn Wylie in 1959. Louvain was already there as a member of the Rayber Voices. The three girls – all
in their twenties – were put together, which meant the beginning of a
14-year-long saga as a quintessential component of the Motown sound.
Allegedly, these unsung heroes sang on as many as 20,000 songs, which seems
incredible… almost impossible to believe! They also moonlighted for other Detroit labels and travelled to Chicago and New York to record. The Andantes were always
available and in many cases they filled in and patched up in order not having
to invite artists off the road into the studio. They also did some touring,
but sang mainly behind the curtains. Pat Lewis was a member on and off
and sometimes replaced Louvain since the mid-60s.
Throughout the
whole sixties and early 70s up to the point, when Motown moved to Los Angeles in late ’72, the girls made their significant contributions on records by the
Supremes, Mary Wells, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, the Vandellas, the
Temptations, Jimmy Ruffin, the Marvelettes, the Velvelettes, Edwin
Starr… practically everybody. There were times, when the microphones of the
actual members of the group were shut off and the Andantes’ voices were used on
the finished product. Also physically, Marlene used to fill in for Florence
Ballard, both on records and on stage.
Everybody agrees
that the girls were truly professional and quick at their work. They only had
one single released under their own name – (Like a) Nightmare on V.I.P.
25006 in 1964 – and it wasn’t promoted at all and only a few copies surfaced. Ironically,
the lead vocalist was Ann Bogan. Similarly to the Funk Brothers, the
company wanted to keep the Andantes strictly an in-house group and not let the
rivals know about them. The last time the trio sang together was for Ian
Levine almost twenty years ago, and today only Louvain keeps on singing.
The other two are happy with their family life and retirement.
The first thing
I look for in a music book is index for possible research purposes later on.
This book was published without an index, and, after reading it through, I
realised that I don’t really need it in this case, because I don’t have to open
the book again. It’s an easy read and an interesting tale, but there aren’t
very many facts and not a lot of new information – substance – in terms of
music.
When a Motown
fan sees a title like Motown from the Background, the first thing he
expects is recollections and interesting, behind-the-scene details about
artists, producers, arrangers, musicians, sessions, tours, off-work events
etc.; and I’m not talking about gossip here. In this book the focus is on
personal life and opinions of each of the three ladies. There are bitter
comments about the lack of money, lack of help, lack of recognition and lack of
information. True, there are also comments about forgiveness and
understanding. Those comments and overly repeated praises from colleagues made
me lose my concentration at times and move to cursory reading.
This book could
have used a lot more editing. Now it’s inconsistent, jumping around too much.
Had there been a logical approach either in time (year-by-year,
session-by-session; not each and every one of them, of course) or in featuring
artists and session staff, this book would have become a keeper. If you can’t
get those details from the ladies themselves, the many producers, arrangers and
musicians that were also interviewed for the book could help. Even some
additional, more precise data on songs, sessions or artists in between the
comments could have anchored the text better in time or in music. However,
this is the first proper coverage of the group that played a more important
role in the history of Motown that is generally realised, and as such it’s a
valuable piece of work.
MY TOP-20 in
2007
(full-length, new
releases)
1. Otis Clay:
Walk a Mile in My Shoes
2. Deniece
Williams: Love Niecy Style
3. Mashaá:
Anytime Anyplace Anywhere
4. Shirley
Slaughter: Philadelphia Soul
5. The Mighty
Clouds of Joy: Movin’
6. The
Temptations: Back to Front
7. The 3 Tenors
of Soul: All the Way from Philadelphia
8. Patrick
Harris: Long Time Comin’
9. Sterling Harrison: South of the Snooty Fox
10. V.A.: A
Soulful Tale of Two Cities
11. Sweet Angel:
Another Man’s Meat on My Plate
12. Bettye
LaVette: The Scene of the Crime
13. Power:
Powerized
14. Vickie Baker:
I Could Show You
15. Thelma
Houston: A Woman’s Touch
16. Lola: Give Her
What She Wants
17. Fred Bolton:
I’m Gonna Git Mine
18. Floyd Taylor:
You Still Got It
19. Latimore: Back
‘Atcha
20. Carl Sims:
Can’t Stop Me
Heikki Suosalo
