THE LAURA LEE STORY, PART 4: Back to Gospel (1975-2025)

Laura in 2007. Courtesy of Ducky Lucas.

Laura Lee had enjoyed a successful period with Holland-Dozier-Holland’s Hot Wax & Invictus companies in Detroit during the first half of the 1970s – both artistically, and commercially. After those labels ceased their operation and Laura lost her recording and release outlets, she hooked up with an old friend, Greg Perry, who had produced and co-written Laura’s first Hot Wax single in 1970, Wedlock Is a Padlock. In 1976 on Greg’s invitation, Laura went to Los Angeles to record for Ariola America a song titled Love’s Got Me Tired (But I Ain’t Tired of Love). Produced and co-written by Greg Perry, the other two writers - Angelo Bond and Michael L. Smith – were no strangers either, since they had composed songs for Laura on Hot Wax, as well; or in the words of Angelo Bond: “In 1976 Greg cut Laura Lee on some songs we had written together. We wrote Love’s Got Me Tired.”

 Built on a bouncy beat and supported by big-voiced background vocalists, Love’s Got Me Tired is a bubbly and captivating record with Laura’s impeccable delivery giving the song an extra boost. Released in November 1976, it hit # 61 on Billboard’s soul charts, and it remains Laura’s last charted record. The president of Ariola America, Inc. at that point was Jay Lasker (1924-89), who had earlier worked at Decca, Reprise and ABC/Dunhill and still in 1980 became the president of Motown. He liked Laura’s delivery and insisted on releasing the record. What’s most interesting is the allegation that right after the single Greg and Ike Turner cut more songs on Laura in Ike’s studio, but they have all stayed in the can. The only other track that was released was the B-side to the single, Angelo’s and Greg’s quick-tempo dancer called You’re Barking up the Wrong Tree.

Laura and Emerald. Courtesy of Ducky Lucas.

SAT-IS-FAC-TION

 Laura had become acquainted with Don Davis (1938-2014) already in the mid-1960s during Don’s active Groovesville days in Detroit, but it was only in 1979 when they created music together for the first time – and not more than one single on Fantasy Records. Founded in 1949 in San Francisco, Fantasy concentrated first on jazz (Dave Brubeck), and spread out later to pop (CCR), soul (Stax), rock and other genres. It relocated to Berkeley, California in 1971 and eventually closed down in 2018.

 On July 14 in 1979, Music Week published a news story, where it says that “Fantasy have signed Laura Lee, who had a string of hits at the beginning of the decade with Women’s Love Rights and Rip Off. Her Fantasy debut is Sat-Is-Fac-Tion, backed with Your Song.” The accompanying photo showed Laura with Don Davis and Brian Spears, Groovesville Music publishing director.

 Sat-Is-Fac-Tion on the plug side is a surprisingly mediocre disco track considering that the master himself, Don Davis, produced it and co-wrote with Cecil Womack and Mary Wells. Some of you dance enthusiasts may like it, but for me the element I enjoyed the most on this record was sax solos. On 12” singles the running time exceeds 6 minutes compared to 4 minutes on the 7” single. The arrangers on this single were Rudy Robinson and Patrick Adams. Rudy (1940-2002) is known as a keyboardist, producer and arranger, who worked on D-Town Records and founded a few labels of his own. Patrick (1950-2022) has accumulated dozens of gold and platinum records for his work with dance music and hip-hop on labels like Atlantic, Salsoul and Prelude, but on the deeper side of our music he has also produced Debbie Taylor.

  Your Song on the flip also falls into the category of “standard disco”, only this time the song is more melodic and bears a slight resemblance to Don’t Leave Me This Way. Written by Cecil and Don and produced by Don, this song was covered by the Dells a year later. The Dells’ version was produced by Carl Davis and Eugene Record, but Don still took another try on Your Song in 1983, when he cut it on the Four Tops. In the United States it was assigned for release on Reliant Records, but was cancelled at the last minute. However, in the U.K. it was released in 1984 on Calibre, although now on the label the song was credited only to Cecil Womack.

Brian A. Spears.

BRIAN A. SPEARS

 When Brian Spears was still working in retail management, Don Davis approached him and offered him the opportunity to learn the music publishing business. Brian: “I started with Don in the fall of 1974 and was employed for nine years.” Brian worked in Groovesville Music, Conquistador Music, Double Sharp Music and Sugar Happy Music publishing companies as Director of Publishing. Brian was responsible for screening songwriters and their songs, issuing song contracts to songwriters and pitching songs to artists being produced by Don Davis, as well as licensing and collecting publishing royalties worldwide. Later his scope of work expanded to consulting with Don on new artists signings, A&R administration and album coordination of all releases, including one Eargasm by Johnnie Taylor in 1976.

 Brian: “Don Davis challenged all his employees daily to provide their best efforts. Don was a great multitasker, so keeping pace with him required constant focus. Don threw so many things at you at one time that I started keeping notes in a daily diary just like he did. Don gave me space to learn the music business, but he also expected you to be a quick study.”

  Sat-Is-Fac-Tion & Your Song remain the only songs Don Davis produced on Laura. Brian: “As I recall, Cecil Womack spent time in Detroit playing on a few studio sessions and working on song ideas with Don, primarily for a David Ruffin solo project. Groovesville Productions signed a deal with Laura Lee and Don Davis was the producer. Don and Cecil came up with the songs to record on Laura.”

 “Working with Laura was a great pleasure. She was very professional and had a lot of career stories to share. Laura is also very funny and a joy to talk with. Her musical talent is extraordinary.”

JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE

 As told in the previous part of our story, Al Green and Laura used to live and work together in the 1970s. Their first musical collaboration on record, however, took place as late as in 1981, when Laura sang with Al on his second Myrrh album titled Higher Plane. Their inspirational duet on Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready starts in a laid-back mood but grows more improvised and more intense towards the end. Produced by Al and recorded at American Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, some of the key players included Larry Lee on guitar, Jesse Butler on keys and among four background vocalists there’s one Margie Joseph. In 1983 the album won a Grammy in the category of “Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album”, and on Billboard’s charts it hit # 62-r&b and # 18-gospel.

 Yet those were not happy times for Laura - far from it. She was diagnosed with cancer and had an operation soon after recording the duet with Al. She more or less recovered before her next solo album in 1983, which again was a joint effort with Al. Similarly recorded at American Music Studios in Memphis and released on Myrrh, Al and Laura produced Jesus Is the Light of My Life, and they wrote four new songs for it. The musicians in those one-week-long sessions were Ray Griffin on bass, Angelo Earl on lead guitar, Kim Dancy on drums, Johnny Brown on keyboards and Gerry Peters on organ. Strings were arranged by Gerry as well and - alongside Laura - Linda Jones, Harvey Jones and Debra Carter sang on the background.

 Three of the new songs that Laura and Al wrote are up-tempo tracks – the bouncy and captivating Shoes, the fast-paced and smooth I’ll Fly Away and the brisk and pleasant Jesus Will Fix It. The fourth one, the title tune, is a mid-tempo toe-tapper. The two public domain songs on the set are the slow and beautiful God Will Take Care of You – the “hit song” on the album – and the intense Beams of Heaven. This sermon-like hymn dates back to 1916, when it appeared in Charles Tindley’s collection of songs. Civilla and Walter Stillman wrote God Will Take Care of You in 1904 and numerous artists have covered both hymns, including one Aretha Franklin.

  Look for Tomorrow is a snappy mid-tempo number – both melodic and poppy. Writer credits go to Carolyn Franklin and Tony Johnson, and indeed the Copyright Encyclopedia confirms that Carolyn composed the music in 1978 and Robert Lee (aka Tony) Johnson wrote the lyrics to this light and optimistic ditty. The very same Robert Tony Johnson is credited as a co-writer also on the atmospheric and melodic The Greatest Story. Other composers on this slow, story-telling number are Cody Black and George McGregor. Both Tony Johnson and Cody Black (1939-2013) are long-standing recording artists in their own right, whereas George (1940-2015) is best known as a drummer, but he did a lot of writing and producing as well. All three multitalented gentlemen are best known for their work in Detroit. Tracing back the history of the song, turns out that Wilson Williams had released The Greatest Story Ever Told on his Up the Downstairs album on ABC five years earlier.

  What Would Happen to Me is a beautiful and smooth ballad composed by Curtis Wilson and gently interpreted by Laura. Curtis has written gospel songs for the Mighty Clouds of Joy, among others, but this song leans heavily on country music. It’s also the ninth song and rounds out this album, which features uplifting and very likable music. Laura sings softer than normally and her delivery is more restricted, which undoubtedly is due to her illness that actually plagued her almost to the end of that decade. The music is not as soulful and intense as on her Chess and Hot Wax recordings, and although this LP wasn’t a big commercial success, I’m sure that – should you come across it – you’ll enjoy it.

ALL POWER

  Alfonza Earl Hobbs (1943-2014) – better known as Al “The Bishop” Hobbs – out of Indianapolis was the executive vice-chairman of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. He worked at the local radio station WTLC for over twenty years and was one of the founders of The Gospel Announcers Guild. With the Indiana Black Expo, he founded the StarQuest talent competition and he also led the Indianapolis Mass Choir and released numerous gospel albums on his Aleho label.

 In a February 1985 interview with Billboard’s Bob Darden, Laura said “I went to producer/songwriter Al Hobbs and told him I wanted to record gospel again. He’s an old friend of mine, and I knew we’d work together well.”

Al Hobbs.

 Laura had met Al Hobbs at a gospel music convention, and that meeting led to recording sessions at TRC, Tyscot Recording Studios, in Indianapolis. The result was the last album in Laura’s recording career called All Power in 1984. Al Hobbs not only produced the album, but he also composed five of the eight songs on the set. Among musicians there are Tony Carpenter on acoustic piano, Pheldon J. Majors, Charles Leonard Bush II and John Cascella on synthesizers, Keith Bush on bass guitar, Tony Byrne and Charles Bush on rhythm guitars, Anthony “Peanut” Bush on drums and Anson Dryden on tambourine. So, a lot of Bushes over there, and – as far as I know – all three are related.

 On the cover of the LP it reads “Laura Lee with Eternal Light”, which was a choir out of Indianapolis and Al Hobbs used to record with them as well. At that point the line-up was Aretta Bush (!), Claudette Franklin, Sheri Garrison, Janet Schaffer, Lacy Smith, Janice Lumpkin and Stanley Daniels.

 Laura’s album was released both on Circle City Records and Tyscot Records out of Indianapolis, and it was marketed and distributed by Becket Records out of New York. Incidentally, Morris Levy was the co-owner of Becket. Rickie Clark had founded Circle City in the late 1970s, and - after a merger in the early 80s - it became a division of Tyscot, Inc. Bishop Leonard Scott co-founded Tyscot (https://www.tyscot.com/) in 1976, and it is the oldest existing African-American owned gospel music label. It has released records not only by the very Bishop himself, but also by Rance Allen, John P. Kee and Ann Nesby, and many, many others.

 There are mostly down-tempo spiritual songs on the set, and actually the title tune of the album, All Power, is the only “express train” scorcher on there. Laura: “All Power was written on Al’s birthday. We wanted to give him a birthday party, but he didn’t want one. Instead, he went to a restaurant, and while he was sitting there, he wrote this song.”  The only other non-slow song is a mid-tempo hand-clapper called Bye and Bye (P.D.), which Al Hobbs arranged into a “rising in spirits” style of a number.

 The rest six tracks are all slow-paced, and the song that drew most attention to the album was a festive and dramatic reading of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America. Popularity of the track becomes evident, when you listen to the gradually increasing sound… all the way to an amazing crescendo. Laura’s delivery is truly powerful, peaking at the high-note climax. Laura: “I needed one more song for the album and I prayed that God would give me one, and that was the one He gave me.”

 The opening song, Brand New Me, proceeds first on a heavy beat but then tempo picks up towards the end, while Just One Touch is built on a slowly pounding, repetitive beat. Since I Made up My Mind is a slow-tempo, intense and big-voiced testimony, while the song called Where God Is has a minimal accompaniment.

 Laura’s fellow artist on the Tyscot label, Rance Allen, wrote her a gentle ballad called How I Love You. Again, it’s one of those songs that slowly builds up, but this time at the very end it comes down again. Laura: “Rance Allen wrote How I Love You about some things from my particular Christian experience. He just put them together with some music and I love how it came out.” How I Love You really is a beautiful song, and it also stands out among these more or less traditional type of gospel songs. On background vocals on this track there are Aretta, Linda and Michael Bush (of course, who else!).

Sisters of Soul. Courtesy of Bettye LaVette.

MISSIONARY MUSIC

 After All Power Laura did some touring – e.g. she went to Japan in 1984 to sing gospel – but not heavily, as she was still recuperating from cancer. In the 1990s she performed sporadically. On one occasion she had a stint at St. Louis Blues Heritage Festival in 1997, where on August 16 she was one of the Sisters of Soul at Harrah’s & Players Island Casino along with Mable John, Bettye LaVette and Sugar Pie DeSanto. Mostly steeped in religious music and missionary work, she toured Africa with Bishop Thomas Westley Weeks Sr. At home she had a weekly Detroit broadcast from the Greater Grace Temple.

 On the recording front it was quiet with the exception of one session in Detroit in 1998. Ian Levine: “I recorded To Win Your Heart with her, and we filmed it as well. She was very into her church, and at that time, she refused to sing secular music so she made me change all the lyrics for her.”

 After the turn of the millennium Laura visited Europe stopping off at least in Sweden in May 2004 and Blues Estafette in the Netherlands in November 2004. By now she had agreed to perform her secular hits, too. Already prior to that, in April 2003, Laura had visited – but only visited – the Fame studios, where she had recorded many of her most soulful sides in the late 1960s (see part 2).

Laura, Freda Payne and Ducky.

  Billy Wilson is the President of the MotorCity Hit Records, and on one of their compilation albums titled MotorCity Love Songs you can listen to Laura’s proficient, almost 7-minute-long cover of Since I Fell for You, which she originally recorded for Hot Wax in 1972. Billy: “There were different versions of the song released, starting in about 2005.” Besides Laura, on this 2016 compilation there are newly recorded tracks by Freda Payne, the Miracles, the Contours, the Four Tops etc. In September 2003 Laura received a “Motown Alumni Association Award” from Billy.

BEREAVEMENTS

 Laura’s spiritual advisor, William Weatherspoon, passed on July 17 in 2005 due to myocardial infarction. Laura and William had worked closely during Laura’s Hot Wax/Invictus period (see part 3) and were in close touch ever since. In Detroit News there was an article by Ronald J. Hansen, according to which “despite William’s failing health, last week he finished producing an album of his original work with Detroit singer Laura Lee from a studio in his home. Laura said that ‘he would stay up and work on it till 4 in the morning. He said ‘I must get through this.’ It’s like he knew.’”

The unreleased William Weatherspoon and Laura Lee album.

Allegedly, William’s wife Doris has the authority over those 16 tracks. She didn’t want to release them at the time, but let’s hope we’ll get a chance to hear them at some point.

Rev. and Mrs. E.A. Rundless. Courtesy of Ducky Lucas.

 On February 7 in 2007 Mrs. Ernestine Rundless, Laura’s adoptive mother and the lead soprano of the Meditation Singers (see part 1), passed at the age of 93. In her obit Laura wrote “you adopted me as a poor little girl, and then patiently taught me how to have dignity, pride, self-esteem, and to ‘always be a lady.’ You taught me how to take care of a home. And all who knew you remember your great skills as a cook. You also taught me how to cook. You poured your life into me, Mother, and the precious memories are flooding my mind and my heart to overflowing.”

 “When we sang together in a group, I started out as just a frightened and unsure little background singer. But you saw something in me, and encouraged me to step forward until; ultimately, I could perform as a lead singer. It was you who encouraged me to go on to become a solo artist. Whatever success I have had, I owe it all to you and the Lord.”

 Tragedy hit again in January this year, when Laura’s oldest son, Dale Michael Newton, died at the age of 68. He was a karate expert and had a Black Belt. Laura’s youngest son Karlton Smith, who at one point played drums and was a pastor (but no longer), scattered together with mother Dale’s ashes to the river.

Karlton and Verlene Rodgers of the Meditations. Courtesy of Ducky Lucas.

David Washington and Tonya Hood, a Detroit songstress. Courtesy of Ducky Lucas.

 Ever since 1958 we’ve been able to enjoy Laura’s magnificent singing on record, first in the Meditation Singers, then as a truly soulful solo artist at Fame and Hot Wax/Invictus and eventually back in spiritual music again. At the age of 87, Laura is now completely dedicated to church. “I spend all my time in the Lord. I don’t have time for anything else.”

DISCOGRAPHY

SINGLES

Ariola America 7652) Love’s Got Me Tired (But I Ain’t Tired Of Love) (# 61 / -) / You’re Barking Up The Wrong Tree (1976)

Fantasy 865) Sat-Is-Fac-Tion / Your Song (1979) – NOTE: released also on 12” (D-133 and F-1958)

ALBUMS

AL GREEN: HIGHER PLANE (Myrrh 6674) 1981

People Get Ready (a duet with Laura Lee)

JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE (Myrrh, MSB-6722) – 1983

Shoes / I’ll Fly Away / God Will Take Care Of You / Jesus Is The Light Of My Life // Look for Tomorrow / Beams Of Heaven / The Greatest Story / What Would Happen To Me / Jesus Will Fix It

ALL POWER (Tyscot 86315/Circle City, BCC-017/Becket) – 1984

Brand New Me / All Power / Just One Touch / God Bless America // Since I Made Up My Mind / Where God Is / Bye And Bye / How I Love You

(Acknowledgements to Billy James Wilson, Brian Spears, Ducky Lucas, Ian Levine, Tyscot Records -Bill Carpenter, Bettye LaVette, Peter Nickols)

© Heikki Suosalo