1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:00,600
Speaker 1: Quest Love.

2
00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:04,720
Speaker 2: Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

3
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:05,960
Speaker 3: Yeo's Up, Everybody.

4
00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:09,400
Speaker 4: This is Fante Fontigelow from Team Supreme and we are

5
00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:10,600
Speaker 4: back with part.

6
00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:13,560
Speaker 1: Two of our conversation with Leroy Burgess. This is a

7
00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:14,640
Speaker 1: guy who I wanted to.

8
00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:17,919
Speaker 4: Speak with for years, longtime fan of his music and

9
00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:18,759
Speaker 4: all of his work.

10
00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,840
Speaker 3: Honestly, this was one of my favorite interviews this season.

11
00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:25,000
Speaker 4: We got to talk about his catalog, his production work,

12
00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:26,920
Speaker 4: his early days everything.

13
00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:28,040
Speaker 5: If you haven't heard it yet.

14
00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:30,280
Speaker 4: Please make sure you check out part one, where Leroyd

15
00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:33,560
Speaker 4: talks about his beginnings, his group Black Ivory and Wu

16
00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:35,080
Speaker 4: Tang sampling his music.

17
00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:37,160
Speaker 3: Now here's part two. Enjoy.

18
00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:49,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, when would you say is the moment that you

19
00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:56,000
Speaker 2: graduated from just songwriting and singing to like at the

20
00:00:56,040 --> 00:01:00,360
Speaker 2: helm of production where Patrick sorted taking a back seat

21
00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,640
Speaker 2: and now this is a Leroy Burgess production.

22
00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,200
Speaker 5: Okay, that's the easy too, That's the easy one. The

23
00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:11,720
Speaker 5: transition moment, the actual transition moment when I when I

24
00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:19,240
Speaker 5: transitioned from composer and musician into producer arranger. Was the

25
00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:23,679
Speaker 5: Weekend album, the Freak album. I had stepped away from

26
00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:26,840
Speaker 5: Black Ivy, took a hiatus from Black Ivy and participating

27
00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,760
Speaker 5: with them. And the first person I went to was Patrick,

28
00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:32,920
Speaker 5: and Patrick used to work me out of worked on

29
00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:36,399
Speaker 5: the Benny King album Art Webbed album. You know, just

30
00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:39,120
Speaker 5: background vocals, the keyboards or something like that, you know,

31
00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:41,720
Speaker 5: stuff like that. Then he said, I got this album

32
00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,840
Speaker 5: and Lanty's giving me a project called Free and I

33
00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:48,960
Speaker 5: need two songs, right, And I had one song called

34
00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:53,080
Speaker 5: Weekend and one song called Much too Much. And he said, okay,

35
00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:56,520
Speaker 5: but you're gonna write all the charts you're gonna put

36
00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,840
Speaker 5: You're gonna write well. He said, I'll do the strings,

37
00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:02,560
Speaker 5: but I want you to do the horns, right. I

38
00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,840
Speaker 5: want you to do all the since, and I want

39
00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:07,840
Speaker 5: you to teach the rhythm musicians, which is something I

40
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,160
Speaker 5: learned from teaching my band, the band the songs, you know,

41
00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,200
Speaker 5: the Black Ivory Band, the songs, how to play and

42
00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:17,000
Speaker 5: how I wanted them arranged. So I had a bat

43
00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:19,720
Speaker 5: But this was the first time I started writing charts

44
00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,640
Speaker 5: and you know, having to do that. So that was

45
00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:25,760
Speaker 5: the actual transition because when I went to the studio

46
00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:29,280
Speaker 5: to do it at Bob Blank Studios, I was waiting

47
00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,600
Speaker 5: for power. I went in there waiting for his the charts.

48
00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:36,079
Speaker 5: Good luck. And he was like, no, no, no, no.

49
00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:39,799
Speaker 5: You go in there with the musicians, right, show them

50
00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:42,000
Speaker 5: the song, give them the parts that you want them

51
00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,680
Speaker 5: to play. Right, you're gonna I'm gonna play acousta piano,

52
00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:48,919
Speaker 5: you play electric piano, right, and this is how we're

53
00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,240
Speaker 5: gonna do it. And he said, you're at the helm.

54
00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,400
Speaker 5: I want this to be what you want, right, So

55
00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:57,880
Speaker 5: you're gonna come up with the parts. All I'm gonna

56
00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:02,800
Speaker 5: do is the strange. And I was heavy. So that

57
00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:09,720
Speaker 5: was me actually stepping coursing that threshold into production and

58
00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,200
Speaker 5: arranging and so forth. That was It was that moment.

59
00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,440
Speaker 4: How did you learn to like read music and play?

60
00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:17,920
Speaker 4: Were you just playing by ear or were you formally trained?

61
00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:22,000
Speaker 1: And are these chord charts or like noted notes?

62
00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:28,560
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, to answer your question quest, they are chord charts,

63
00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:31,920
Speaker 5: all right, okay? Patrick was Patrick taught me how to

64
00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:35,200
Speaker 5: write the chord charts right. He would later teach me

65
00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:37,800
Speaker 5: how to write the horn charts and write for strength

66
00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:41,720
Speaker 5: and to do full arrangements. I started playing when I

67
00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,280
Speaker 5: was four years old, you know, playing with the church.

68
00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:46,320
Speaker 5: But I don't call it. I call that banging on

69
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,560
Speaker 5: the piano. I was banging, Okay. When I was very young,

70
00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:53,280
Speaker 5: my moms used to get me away from my sisters,

71
00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,040
Speaker 5: so she sent me to a babysitter that had a piano.

72
00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:59,880
Speaker 5: But she taught me little things like Twinkle Twinkle Lit

73
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,400
Speaker 5: Star in this old man he played one right, and

74
00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:05,240
Speaker 5: how to play those on the piano, and that got

75
00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:09,480
Speaker 5: me interested. Fast forward to when I was eleven, I

76
00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:14,800
Speaker 5: had a brilliant music teacher in the person of Herbie Jones.

77
00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:20,719
Speaker 5: Herbie Jones was Duke Ellington's chief rhythm and brass arranger, Wow,

78
00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:26,240
Speaker 5: and he worked on his side job was working at

79
00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,839
Speaker 5: the Cadet Corse Central Harlem. My mother, father and sisted

80
00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:34,000
Speaker 5: I joined the Cadets, so I would worry. I'd be

81
00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:36,000
Speaker 5: on top of him. Oh how did you play that?

82
00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:38,600
Speaker 5: And he taught me how to play chords, how to

83
00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:41,760
Speaker 5: recognize notes, so forth, and so on so forth. Now

84
00:04:41,839 --> 00:04:44,719
Speaker 5: combined this with what I was learning from Patrick in

85
00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:50,160
Speaker 5: terms of the specifics of reading and writing and notating

86
00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:54,080
Speaker 5: and so forth and so on, and I gradually learned

87
00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:58,560
Speaker 5: how to do it all. But it was a gradual thing.

88
00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:01,520
Speaker 5: It was an aide. I went to Julliardo, I went

89
00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:02,000
Speaker 5: to right.

90
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:04,200
Speaker 4: I went before we I just wanted to go back

91
00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:07,400
Speaker 4: to you and I just before we forget it. Larry Blackman,

92
00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:10,960
Speaker 4: we had him on the show. He's playing drums on that.

93
00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:12,680
Speaker 4: Do you remember that session?

94
00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:18,159
Speaker 5: Uh? Yes, I do. He on the Don't turn Around?

95
00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:21,000
Speaker 5: First of all, the only songs that we did in

96
00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:24,479
Speaker 5: Philly was Don't turn Around, And I keep asking questions

97
00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:27,159
Speaker 5: those two songs, which was A and B sides of

98
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:31,240
Speaker 5: our first single, right. Everything else on the Don't Turn

99
00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:36,080
Speaker 5: Around album we recorded in New York at Blue Rock Studios. Right.

100
00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:40,800
Speaker 5: Dy Blackman happened to live in my housing complex, Drew

101
00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:45,000
Speaker 5: Hamilton Houses. I lived in building like two hundred wus

102
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,320
Speaker 5: on forty three. He lived down the block on the

103
00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,880
Speaker 5: eighth Avenue building. Right, Patrick knew him. I didn't know

104
00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:53,800
Speaker 5: that Patrick knew him, but Patrick knew him. Right. So,

105
00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:56,640
Speaker 5: when Patrick was putting together the arrangement for you and

106
00:05:56,680 --> 00:05:59,520
Speaker 5: I so forth and so on, he said, I said, well,

107
00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:01,640
Speaker 5: who's gonna played the grums? And he was like, well,

108
00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:04,000
Speaker 5: is guy Larry black When I'm like, oh, he's like,

109
00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,520
Speaker 5: he said, well, he's really good at He's the perfect guy.

110
00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:14,400
Speaker 5: So Larry played on You and I. He played on

111
00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:17,960
Speaker 5: finding one who Loves You and he played on she

112
00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:22,160
Speaker 5: said that she's leaving those three songs, got it?

113
00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:24,919
Speaker 1: Thank you for that? All right?

114
00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,760
Speaker 2: So I have a production question to ask you, like,

115
00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:33,560
Speaker 2: how are you able to develop your sound? Because you know,

116
00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:35,920
Speaker 2: I mean next to the Randy Moellers of the world

117
00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:40,960
Speaker 2: and later the Kachiefs, like, you're doing some really revolutionary

118
00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:44,760
Speaker 2: in disco and post disco music. But I would assume

119
00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,039
Speaker 2: that you would have to have a lot of hours

120
00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:52,080
Speaker 2: to figure out what the sound is and like, so,

121
00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:54,800
Speaker 2: how are you able to develop your sound like that?

122
00:06:55,600 --> 00:07:01,720
Speaker 5: Well? Meeting no disrespect, absolutely overthinking it a little.

123
00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:11,760
Speaker 3: Bit, all right, thinking wow it what?

124
00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:13,400
Speaker 1: What this always happens on the show?

125
00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:16,600
Speaker 3: I'm shocked in a gas.

126
00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:24,160
Speaker 5: I surrounded myself with great people, great musicians who are

127
00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:28,200
Speaker 5: very simple but do a really good job. Now, in

128
00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:30,640
Speaker 5: the case of Let's do It, Let's do It was

129
00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:34,800
Speaker 5: composed as an afterthought for the most part. Wow, we

130
00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:40,120
Speaker 5: were hired to record another song. Uh, I forget I

131
00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:41,920
Speaker 5: even forgot the name of that song. It was just

132
00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:46,920
Speaker 5: we were just hired as musicians, right. But Greg Carmichael,

133
00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:50,040
Speaker 5: who was the producer, he had booked twelve hours. We

134
00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:52,040
Speaker 5: got through the first song, you know, the song we

135
00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,640
Speaker 5: needed that we were booked to do uh in two

136
00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:58,000
Speaker 5: and two hours, two and a half hours, something like that.

137
00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:00,320
Speaker 5: So he said, well, I'm not doing anything else with

138
00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:03,400
Speaker 5: the time. Why don't you guys come up with something

139
00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:05,360
Speaker 5: and I'll let you all recall what you want to do.

140
00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:10,440
Speaker 5: So we ordered some food and while we waited for

141
00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:15,240
Speaker 5: the food, I went into the instrument room and started

142
00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:20,120
Speaker 5: twinking on the piano. Right, Usually it doesn't take but

143
00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:24,160
Speaker 5: a minute for my brother James Callaway On to come

144
00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,320
Speaker 5: in on bass. So came up with something just very simple.

145
00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:30,320
Speaker 5: So then James came in and he played on top

146
00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:33,600
Speaker 5: of me, playing that. Right. Sonny came in and he

147
00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,360
Speaker 5: played on top of me playing that you know. So

148
00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,160
Speaker 5: the three of us were playing and arrived at that groove.

149
00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:44,080
Speaker 5: Right after that, we basically laid the whole thing down.

150
00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:47,800
Speaker 5: One thing that I liked about it is because I

151
00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:51,080
Speaker 5: like to come up with jazz changes for a disco song,

152
00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:55,000
Speaker 5: which because they don't belong there, right. So once I

153
00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:57,440
Speaker 5: had everything together, we went in, we did the rhythm,

154
00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:03,200
Speaker 5: and we once we had the rhythm track all in there,

155
00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:08,559
Speaker 5: then Sonny, my cousin Sonny Davenport. He started laying percussion pieces,

156
00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:11,920
Speaker 5: the kunga first ball, the second a go go, the

157
00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:16,439
Speaker 5: famous of go go let, tambourine, stuff like that. Right,

158
00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:22,200
Speaker 5: while we called my sister with name my girl, Dorothy Terrell,

159
00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:24,680
Speaker 5: and a couple of other females to come in and

160
00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:29,000
Speaker 5: do the background. We wrote the words that night, right,

161
00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:32,600
Speaker 5: oh wow, came up with the wrap that night. Right.

162
00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,600
Speaker 5: So within the remaining eight hours we came we uh

163
00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:40,160
Speaker 5: where we started with nothing and we ended up with

164
00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:40,960
Speaker 5: let's do it.

165
00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:43,120
Speaker 4: I always wanted to know how you came up with

166
00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:46,800
Speaker 4: all the names for your like your aliases, like long conversion,

167
00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,000
Speaker 4: like where'd that come from?

168
00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:53,040
Speaker 5: I didn't come up with them. Oh okay. Most of

169
00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:57,120
Speaker 5: the time it would be a matter of me saying, well,

170
00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:58,959
Speaker 5: I don't want it to be me. I don't want

171
00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,199
Speaker 5: it to be a Leroy record, right, this is a

172
00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:06,000
Speaker 5: group effort, so forth and so on. And initially the

173
00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:08,920
Speaker 5: name of the group was Caliber, which is an anagram

174
00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:14,920
Speaker 5: of Leroy Burgess and James cal Away, right, okay, okay, Caliber,

175
00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:18,800
Speaker 5: And that's on your leams hooked on your love records. Right,

176
00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:23,160
Speaker 5: That's the only time we used that. After that, it

177
00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:25,280
Speaker 5: was like as long as we retained the sound. I

178
00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:30,040
Speaker 5: didn't care what name we used, right, I leave it

179
00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:33,400
Speaker 5: to the record companies to come up with. Sam Records

180
00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:35,960
Speaker 5: came up with Conversion. We were like, oh hey Conversion.

181
00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:42,840
Speaker 5: When he when he copyrighted the name Conversion and Susol

182
00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:46,200
Speaker 5: Records wanted that group. They were like, well, you can't

183
00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,280
Speaker 5: use the name Conversion, So what would I said, I

184
00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:49,679
Speaker 5: don't care.

185
00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:50,640
Speaker 3: Call it whatever.

186
00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:56,400
Speaker 5: They called it log right, And from there Universal Robot Band.

187
00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:00,320
Speaker 3: Came out of that, Yes, yes, even man.

188
00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,760
Speaker 5: Then from that, you know, the names just evolved from

189
00:11:03,920 --> 00:11:06,840
Speaker 5: different places. I never really what was important to me

190
00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,360
Speaker 5: was that the sound and the team was doing the

191
00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:13,679
Speaker 5: same thing and arriving at the style of music that

192
00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:15,199
Speaker 5: we hope would be embraced.

193
00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:15,840
Speaker 3: Yeah.

194
00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:19,160
Speaker 4: One of my favorite records of yours I always wanted

195
00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:22,839
Speaker 4: to ask you about by Caprice. Do you remember cutting it?

196
00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:25,000
Speaker 4: Like who's singing lead on that record? It sounds like

197
00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,640
Speaker 4: a little girls that was like a kid, But but

198
00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:30,880
Speaker 4: I love that song, man, It's one of my favorites

199
00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:31,520
Speaker 4: in your catalog.

200
00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:34,440
Speaker 5: Jackie Bradley used to play guitar for the Black Ivory

201
00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:36,640
Speaker 5: Band and one of the early bands that we worked

202
00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:38,800
Speaker 5: with He was part of the sols to Be as

203
00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:42,600
Speaker 5: Our band. Right, fast about in the eighties. This is

204
00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,920
Speaker 5: that's in the early seventies, right, So fast forward to

205
00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:49,320
Speaker 5: the eighties and Jackie is putting together his own band, Caprice.

206
00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,080
Speaker 5: He comes to me says, I would like for you

207
00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:54,200
Speaker 5: to give us a song. If you got a song,

208
00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:56,760
Speaker 5: we'd like to do a song of yours. Right. So

209
00:11:56,800 --> 00:11:58,920
Speaker 5: I'm like, okay, we got a song. Me and Sonny

210
00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:04,400
Speaker 5: had composed call right, And so we actually went into

211
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:10,040
Speaker 5: the process of teaching them. The singer Evette Davis was

212
00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:16,200
Speaker 5: this was like her first record. So she was very Oh,

213
00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:17,640
Speaker 5: she was tentative, she was.

214
00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:18,400
Speaker 3: Scared, she.

215
00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:22,600
Speaker 5: Was she was she she was like she didn't believe

216
00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:24,840
Speaker 5: in her voice and so forth. And I was like, no, honey,

217
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:29,040
Speaker 5: you just trust me. I'll get you to Just trust

218
00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:31,480
Speaker 5: me and I can get you to to I can

219
00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:33,880
Speaker 5: introduce you to the singer that's within you.

220
00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:35,800
Speaker 3: How old was she at this time?

221
00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,480
Speaker 5: She was in her twenties. She was in her twenties

222
00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:43,200
Speaker 5: and thirties or something like that, Okay, And so I

223
00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,880
Speaker 5: walked her through how to sing it. Because she really

224
00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,600
Speaker 5: has a voice that like has a quality like Denise

225
00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:55,880
Speaker 5: Williams like that really lilting tiny you know, it's like

226
00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:58,440
Speaker 5: you know, but at at certain points she can be

227
00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:02,280
Speaker 5: very powerful, but know it's just this lilting quality. And

228
00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:05,200
Speaker 5: I said, we can use that. Let's use that that quality.

229
00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:07,920
Speaker 5: That's when she goes and now is the time, don't

230
00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:09,640
Speaker 5: you know?

231
00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:15,760
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, she was perfect for it.

232
00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:17,840
Speaker 5: I made everybody get out of the studio watch and

233
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,280
Speaker 5: cut the leads all right. The only ones that was

234
00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:22,920
Speaker 5: there with was myself and Sonny and the VET and

235
00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:26,840
Speaker 5: the engineers because I didn't want her intimidated by the

236
00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,760
Speaker 5: other band members and so forth and song. But she

237
00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:35,160
Speaker 5: did an amazing job in realizing that song.

238
00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:41,480
Speaker 2: Okay, so, since you just dropped your process and especially

239
00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:46,000
Speaker 2: with your aliases, can I assume that the the Bumblebee

240
00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:48,960
Speaker 2: Unlimited song is just the lemes on very speed?

241
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:54,160
Speaker 5: Well, it's actually not the alems Bumblebee Unlimited would usually

242
00:13:54,200 --> 00:14:01,040
Speaker 5: be Patrick myself and and yeah versep just I speeded down.

243
00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:05,319
Speaker 2: And wasn't that a little risky in terms of like, hey,

244
00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:09,839
Speaker 2: this the song might actually get some traction on radio

245
00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:11,640
Speaker 2: and whatnot, Like do we want to sing it at

246
00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:13,440
Speaker 2: very speed or in our natural voices?

247
00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:14,959
Speaker 1: Like, what made you want to do that?

248
00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:20,840
Speaker 5: Well, Bumblebee Unlimited was Patrick's brainchild, Okay, And the whole

249
00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:23,320
Speaker 5: thing is at that point, I was desperate for work

250
00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:26,280
Speaker 5: because I had just left Black Abbrey, so I needed

251
00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,280
Speaker 5: to work so bad. So whatever Patrick wanted to do,

252
00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,760
Speaker 5: I was like, yeah, I'm fine with that. I was

253
00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:36,800
Speaker 5: more worried about it being us having a problem with

254
00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:44,840
Speaker 5: gross Bagdasavian productions because of Alvin and the Chipmunks and they,

255
00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:49,080
Speaker 5: you know, compared it was the same process. This is

256
00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,440
Speaker 5: exactly the same process, but Patrick's had done about it.

257
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:55,040
Speaker 5: I'll call the bumble Bee and nobody who will will

258
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:55,720
Speaker 5: be the wiser.

259
00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,840
Speaker 2: So you really thought somebody would come at you for

260
00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:01,760
Speaker 2: because Stevie Wonder did it on maybe your Baby and

261
00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:11,440
Speaker 2: slot Like, I'm just realizing now that side one or fresh.

262
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:12,760
Speaker 1: That entire side one sly singing in arry speed.

263
00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:14,680
Speaker 5: I did not know that.

264
00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:15,600
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not.

265
00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:19,560
Speaker 2: Extreme various speed where it sounds like Alvin and Chipmunks.

266
00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:23,360
Speaker 2: He when they did the French version of dance to

267
00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:26,240
Speaker 2: the music, he didn't call it slide in the family Stone.

268
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,560
Speaker 2: He called it the French Fries And they kept the

269
00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:34,160
Speaker 2: same musical backdrop as danced to the music, but they

270
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,400
Speaker 2: sang it as Alvin and the Chipmunks and it was

271
00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:39,440
Speaker 2: really Lolly Gaggan or whatever. It's like a rare B

272
00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:43,320
Speaker 2: side and yeah for Europe, but I love that song.

273
00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:47,160
Speaker 2: Before I get to my next question, OK, just in

274
00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:49,600
Speaker 2: general with New York.

275
00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:53,240
Speaker 1: And various bands around now.

276
00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:57,520
Speaker 2: We mentioned you know, brother Larry Blackman before, but you know,

277
00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:02,560
Speaker 2: around this time, are you at all having interactions at

278
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:06,160
Speaker 2: all with like, you know, like with Larry Muller and

279
00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:11,080
Speaker 2: uh or BECAUSEI fosso came from BT Express a little later,

280
00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:16,680
Speaker 2: but you know, as you guys are kind of molding

281
00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:21,120
Speaker 2: and shaping really the sound of disco and more importantly

282
00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:21,760
Speaker 2: the sound.

283
00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:22,360
Speaker 1: Of post disco.

284
00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:23,200
Speaker 5: Uh.

285
00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:25,560
Speaker 2: I guess we call it bookie. I don't know if

286
00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:27,560
Speaker 2: you called the bookie or not, but people have tacked

287
00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:32,480
Speaker 2: it bookie. Are you having any interactions with those guys whatsoever?

288
00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:35,760
Speaker 5: I met Randy at at a little gig we did

289
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:39,960
Speaker 5: at a club called APT back in the early weekends,

290
00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,960
Speaker 5: and we're friends. The same thing with Hubett Eves the Third,

291
00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:48,600
Speaker 5: and I'm friends with all of them. We have not

292
00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:55,479
Speaker 5: interacted professionally to collaborate on any music, but we appreciate

293
00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:57,120
Speaker 5: where each other's coming from.

294
00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:01,880
Speaker 2: I mean some some credit now rogers some who do

295
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:07,400
Speaker 2: you feel is the person that really is the proprietor

296
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:12,719
Speaker 2: of Bookie like a slow down version, same disco pulse,

297
00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:21,120
Speaker 2: but less less cluttered and more groove based, in other words,

298
00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:24,120
Speaker 2: more for the backyard barbecue than Studio fifty four.

299
00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:27,639
Speaker 5: Like well, if you ask anybody in London, they would

300
00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:28,359
Speaker 5: tell you it's me.

301
00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:35,760
Speaker 1: I say to you as well, straight up, I don't know.

302
00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:41,760
Speaker 5: I just come from Harlem, right in Harlem, while disco

303
00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,960
Speaker 5: is like kind of up in one twenty one twenty,

304
00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:49,000
Speaker 5: you know, get the hord rate going and so forth.

305
00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:56,639
Speaker 5: I'm from that chill boom chill boom boom boom boom

306
00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,400
Speaker 5: boo boom. I'm there right in terms of I want

307
00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,720
Speaker 5: to create and where the groove is for me, right right,

308
00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:07,159
Speaker 5: So when I did songs like fat Rating, when I

309
00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:10,440
Speaker 5: created let's do it and so forth, that's where we at.

310
00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:13,360
Speaker 5: We swinging right there. We're not interested in boom boom

311
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:17,879
Speaker 5: boom boom boom boom. Now we we do these records

312
00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:22,960
Speaker 5: for record companies who, in their brilliance, in their moments

313
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:25,760
Speaker 5: of genius, they decide, all right, let's take it and

314
00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:27,840
Speaker 5: give it to somebody t sweet it up, but just

315
00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:32,960
Speaker 5: go sweet. It had to go through it. But as

316
00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:37,240
Speaker 5: far as boogie is just a chilled out, laid back

317
00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:42,439
Speaker 5: kind of groovy joint right where you can still party

318
00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:48,240
Speaker 5: hard to it without you know, having a cardiac arrest, right.

319
00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:51,080
Speaker 1: Two step?

320
00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:54,440
Speaker 2: So what was sweet to Me ever considered like a

321
00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:57,000
Speaker 2: single from from the lock record.

322
00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:59,560
Speaker 5: From the log album sweet to Me so sweet?

323
00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:03,520
Speaker 2: That's like I go heavy on that song when I

324
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,480
Speaker 2: do my bookie sets, and I always wanted to know

325
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:10,400
Speaker 2: why wasn't that ever like given the single treatment.

326
00:19:11,359 --> 00:19:19,520
Speaker 5: Well, because the hierarchy can care stand care at salso records,

327
00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:23,400
Speaker 5: they decided that the only well there would be two

328
00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:26,399
Speaker 5: singles there would be I Know You Will, which was

329
00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:32,639
Speaker 5: the Larry Levan record You've Got That Something right, and

330
00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:37,320
Speaker 5: Dancing into the Stars right. The others laid on the

331
00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:42,440
Speaker 5: line sweet to Me. They never really made it into

332
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:47,439
Speaker 5: the forefront of being a single in terms of Souso's

333
00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:50,200
Speaker 5: feeling or what they decided to do.

334
00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:52,360
Speaker 1: So so they just felt it was filler.

335
00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:55,359
Speaker 5: Yeah, they felt it with filler. But here's the big

336
00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:59,440
Speaker 5: story about it. It's crazy we mentioned Universal Robot Band.

337
00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:03,200
Speaker 3: Right, yes, sir, barely break it even a right.

338
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:09,720
Speaker 5: Barely breaking even is actually the seventh song from the Log.

339
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:13,280
Speaker 3: Out, Oh okay, gotcha.

340
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:17,320
Speaker 5: All right, barely breaking even. We recorded to close the

341
00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:20,760
Speaker 5: Log album out all right. That's when we got all

342
00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:23,160
Speaker 5: of the musicians, all of the singers who were put

343
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,000
Speaker 5: together the Log project. We called them all in the

344
00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:29,679
Speaker 5: studio for I think it was an eighteen hour session

345
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,040
Speaker 5: or something like that. Right, everybody was in there. We

346
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:36,159
Speaker 5: fed everybody, made sure everybody was comfortable with plenty of

347
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:39,760
Speaker 5: stuff and smoke, and you know, we were the happy session.

348
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:42,560
Speaker 5: And I said, we're gonna do this great record where

349
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:45,439
Speaker 5: everybody's gonna sing, and it's gonna be like this giant

350
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:48,960
Speaker 5: quiet and we're all going to talk about how hard

351
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,240
Speaker 5: it is to keep money in our pocket. Barely breaking even. Right.

352
00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:59,159
Speaker 5: What happened was our co producer, Greg Carmichael heard the

353
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:03,040
Speaker 5: record and was very please with it, right, and decided

354
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:05,600
Speaker 5: to go to South Soul to get a little extra paper,

355
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:10,120
Speaker 5: little extra paper, I want a little extra can't care?

356
00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:16,760
Speaker 5: Said no? Right, so Greg said, in the middle of

357
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,800
Speaker 5: the night, around two thirty in the morning, Right, he

358
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:24,240
Speaker 5: went to the studio and was recording, and he told him,

359
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:27,159
Speaker 5: I want to make a safety of the master of

360
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:30,600
Speaker 5: the twenty four. I want to make it and I'll

361
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:34,800
Speaker 5: bring it right back that Later that day we went

362
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 5: to mix the song to do a final mixture of

363
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:40,679
Speaker 5: the song to complete the album, and found it not

364
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:45,480
Speaker 5: to be there. So of course we're like, oh my god,

365
00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:49,280
Speaker 5: what how did y'all let it go? All right, so

366
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:51,439
Speaker 5: we get on the phone. We can't care, So so

367
00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:53,800
Speaker 5: we coming down there right now, Greg to the t

368
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:57,320
Speaker 5: blah blah blah, blah blah blah. We expected that King

369
00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,399
Speaker 5: cared to be completely up in arms about the loss

370
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:04,879
Speaker 5: of Bailly breaking even right. That's when Ken told us

371
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,800
Speaker 5: about Well, Greg came and was looking for extra paper,

372
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:10,280
Speaker 5: so forth and so on. I did not want to

373
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,359
Speaker 5: give it to him, and that's why he, you know,

374
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:20,159
Speaker 5: com and died to take. Right. Essentially, the outrage that

375
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,200
Speaker 5: we expected from Ken Kidd was not to be found,

376
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 5: all right. His basic position was, We've already got these

377
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 5: sixth grade tunes. I don't need the extra of of

378
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:41,439
Speaker 5: you know. So that's when some months later it was

379
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 5: released on Movelow Records as Universal Robot Band. But that

380
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 5: Bailly Breaking Even is the seventh song from the logo.

381
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:57,920
Speaker 3: Wow, we didn't talk about mainline.

382
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:01,919
Speaker 4: That's another one of my favorite, but you tell us

383
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:03,080
Speaker 4: about recording that session.

384
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:09,800
Speaker 5: I stepped away from Black Ivory because we were being

385
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:14,119
Speaker 5: typecast into a slow jam group. All right, that's where

386
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:17,440
Speaker 5: you know, don't turn around you and I. I'll find

387
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,439
Speaker 5: a way all the slow jams that they loved with

388
00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:22,800
Speaker 5: the falsetto, they wanted us, the audience wanted us to

389
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:26,000
Speaker 5: stay there, and thereby I would not accept us doing

390
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:30,800
Speaker 5: any fast. I could not stay in that environment because

391
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,240
Speaker 5: I was not growing creatively while the marketplace is going

392
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 5: around me. So that's when I made a decision to

393
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,280
Speaker 5: actually step away and do a hiatus from Black Ivy.

394
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:46,719
Speaker 5: All Right, about somewhere around seventy eight seventy nine, Lenny Adams,

395
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 5: who was still managing Black Ivory, came to me and said,

396
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,199
Speaker 5: I need songs for this new Buddha album, you know,

397
00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:59,159
Speaker 5: or they're gonna drop us from Buddha, right And I said, well,

398
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:01,320
Speaker 5: I got three songs that I'm not doing anything with

399
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 5: h Hustling coming Down and Maylind and I Will. You know,

400
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:12,000
Speaker 5: those songs are not as signed to anybody. Uh, And

401
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,000
Speaker 5: so Lenny was like, write your own ticket or whatever

402
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:17,359
Speaker 5: you want, whatever you need it to be. I want

403
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:19,920
Speaker 5: you to come back, bring the musicians in, all right.

404
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 5: I said, well, if I'm gonna do it, we have

405
00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:24,400
Speaker 5: to do it with Patrick Adams. We need Patrick Adams

406
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 5: on it, we need James Callaway, you know. And and

407
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 5: we just locked it up, lined it up. I gave

408
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,680
Speaker 5: them a demo so Russell could learn to sing the

409
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 5: league right, and uh, you know, the backgrounds, we just

410
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 5: sang as we normally would do. But I like it right.

411
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 5: And Patrick came in did the strings and horns. The

412
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 5: drums weren't right. Initially we used Leroy Mike Connor on

413
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,800
Speaker 5: the drums, but they were not falling right. So we

414
00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:57,680
Speaker 5: had Earl Young come in and overdub his.

415
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 2: Young hypothetically speaking, so say, if I'm like one of

416
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:08,160
Speaker 2: your peers of your contemporaries in nineteen seventy nine, and I'm.

417
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:09,400
Speaker 1: Producing the same music that.

418
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:14,880
Speaker 2: You're producing, Okay, what would what is a producer's rate

419
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 2: in in seventy eight seventy nine eighty like in the

420
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:25,199
Speaker 2: in the era of twelve inch discos for the sassoles

421
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 2: of the world, these small labels of the world, like

422
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 2: what would my living be per per side like is

423
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 2: it whatever you can.

424
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 1: Work with or is it a contracted thing? Like how

425
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:42,200
Speaker 1: does one make a living?

426
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:50,320
Speaker 5: Barely? Basically, back in that period, you do good. If

427
00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:54,040
Speaker 5: you could get a budget that was anywhere between say

428
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 5: about thirty five hundred to about five thousand, the high

429
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:03,160
Speaker 5: end of that would be ten thousand. Right, we'll give

430
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 5: you that, right and say, bring me my record, bring

431
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 5: me a great record, bring me something that's gonna kill

432
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 5: so forth and so on. And it was your job

433
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:17,640
Speaker 5: to take the amount that you were given and create

434
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:22,359
Speaker 5: that record, right, and whatever was left over, Yeah, you

435
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,639
Speaker 5: could walk home with. You know. So if you were

436
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,359
Speaker 5: given ten thousand dollars, then it only costs you six

437
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 5: to do right, you know, the final record, then you're

438
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 5: walking home with four. Right. So budgets around that time

439
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:41,520
Speaker 5: were about, you know, if they were reasonable, they were

440
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:46,520
Speaker 5: ten thousand and upper song, right, and that would give

441
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 5: you a decent amount of room. And how you lived

442
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,000
Speaker 5: and how you lived off of it is how you

443
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:57,280
Speaker 5: could make that budget work with under ten thousand dollars,

444
00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:58,040
Speaker 5: so that you had to.

445
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:03,000
Speaker 1: You weren't all and out of control. Okay, So did

446
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:03,880
Speaker 1: you have.

447
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:10,440
Speaker 2: Great relationships with Larry Levan or even Frankie Crocker at

448
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:14,679
Speaker 2: that like a being a song or like bringing them

449
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 2: a test pressing and see if it works it doesn't work,

450
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 2: are you able to go back and readjust if it

451
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 2: does not work.

452
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 5: I'm gonna take one person at a time. Larry Levan

453
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,720
Speaker 5: a R. I did not know who he was, and

454
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 5: I did not know who what the Paradise Garage was.

455
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 5: I thought it was a gage.

456
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 1: Wait, what how did you create a soundtrack for Generation?

457
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 5: It?

458
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,119
Speaker 1: Did not know what the Paradise Garage was?

459
00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 5: I did. I'm just being honest.

460
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,199
Speaker 2: So what was the epicenter of a place where you

461
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 2: wanted to see how your music worked?

462
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:52,480
Speaker 1: Oh? He just went straight to them.

463
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's where That's where my first gig at

464
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 5: any of those clubs down there, long before I learned

465
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 5: about Paradise Google. My first gig was at Studio fifty four, uh,

466
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 5: performing Let's do it. As far as Lady Levan goes.

467
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:12,040
Speaker 5: I got to appreciate his art after I Know you

468
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 5: Will was given to him to mix, right, and I

469
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 5: was like, now you know we're from uptown, We're from Harlem,

470
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:27,199
Speaker 5: and we're like, we're belligerent about everything. So so we're like,

471
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:31,880
Speaker 5: ladle Van's mixing it? Who? We never heard of him.

472
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 5: I don't know if I wanted him to have myself.

473
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 5: Who is that? All right? So we stormed right track

474
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 5: Studios on forty eighth Street where he's doing the final mix.

475
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 5: Right And when I say we stormed, we jump in

476
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 5: the cab, met James and Sunny.

477
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 1: We are from Harlem.

478
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,360
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we jump in the cab. We rolled all

479
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 5: the way down there and we were like, oh, no,

480
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 5: you're letting us in this session? This out on all right?

481
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 5: Blah blah blah. So we basically boguarded our way up

482
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 5: to the studio where it was working, and you know,

483
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:10,920
Speaker 5: they wouldn't let us in. They wouldn't let us in.

484
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 5: Finally Labby came out and with gracious and said, oh,

485
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 5: these are the producers, these are the songwriters. Let them

486
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,480
Speaker 5: end so far up the song and then he appaused

487
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 5: us of what he had in mind and how he

488
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:29,200
Speaker 5: was working it, and it sounded so great, right. We

489
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 5: was like, oh, I don't mean to go right ahead.

490
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 2: So remixing was just a foreign idea, like letting someone

491
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:41,320
Speaker 2: borrow your stem.

492
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 1: Your your your your mate, your your lifeline.

493
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:51,160
Speaker 5: Here's the thing. When you were budgeted by a record company, right,

494
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 5: it was there. It was their property, period. Right. It

495
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 5: was there, so you could do whatever mix you wanted

496
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 5: to do and say this is the mix I want

497
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 5: to come out, and they'll be like, okay, yeah, let's

498
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:09,960
Speaker 5: leave it ahead. And then they would call chef Patty Ba,

499
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:18,080
Speaker 5: John Wallace Man, they call whoever their guy, right, jelly Bean, Benitas,

500
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:22,000
Speaker 5: They say, hey, take this multi track and give me

501
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:25,719
Speaker 5: a great record, right, And then it would not be

502
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 5: what the producer's vision was. It would be this other

503
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 5: vision that was in the mind of the remixer, however

504
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 5: that mind might be on that given day. All right,

505
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 5: but that was the job. I mean you you wasn't

506
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 5: if you didn't own that master, So you couldn't say,

507
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 5: I'm going to make sure it's supposed to mix it.

508
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 5: They owned the master so they could say and so

509
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:54,800
Speaker 5: after a minute, you have to say, you have to

510
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 5: resign yourself to that dynamic, all right. One of the

511
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:04,800
Speaker 5: is that it's really definitive. Let's do it. Let's do it.

512
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:11,640
Speaker 5: Was an eleven minute song, right that had two bridges right, wow,

513
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 5: and the vamp chorus. I was going nuts on as

514
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 5: a lead vocalist, right. All of that ended up on

515
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 5: the cutting wom floor at SAM Record. They was like, no,

516
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 5: contain the record to this five minute thing, and this

517
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 5: is what it's going to be. We heard it, we

518
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 5: were discussed, we were like, oh my god, where's the

519
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 5: rest of the record. Right, let's do it? Came out amazing,

520
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 5: hit you just hit right. So in twenty sixteen, I

521
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 5: had a copy of the eleven minute version right right

522
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 5: right with the vocals and so forth and song, and

523
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:55,959
Speaker 5: Franky Knuckles played it at Studio fifty four right and

524
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 5: I forgot to get the tape back from him, so

525
00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 5: he took it back to Cargo with him. Right Frankie

526
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 5: passed away. He gave it to another DJ, DJ a

527
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 5: manual something right, and he gets in touch with me

528
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 5: twenty fifteen, says I have the eleven minute version of

529
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 5: Let's do it.

530
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:21,160
Speaker 3: I'm like what?

531
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 5: So he sent it to me. I sent it to

532
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 5: my partner PR to master it right and then to

533
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 5: initiate the startup or just entertainment. I said, let's just

534
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 5: put it out for free. Let's give it to everybody.

535
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 5: For free right, and we introduced everybody to what the

536
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:45,040
Speaker 5: full version of Let's do It is right, and they

537
00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 5: got the second bridge, they got to hear the second chord,

538
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:50,719
Speaker 5: they got to hear the vamp out or all of

539
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 5: the things that were removed from it. They got to

540
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:55,240
Speaker 5: hear it, and they was like, oh my god, this

541
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 5: is incredible. Why everybody started asking the questions that we

542
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 5: were asked, you know, why did y'all chop it up

543
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 5: like that? I put it all down to how music

544
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:11,960
Speaker 5: evolves and the business that uh that pertains to it right,

545
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 5: you know, and and just not to let anything drive

546
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:18,959
Speaker 5: you so crazy that you doing crazy stuff.

547
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 4: I wanted to ask you about Fonder Ray. She was

548
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 4: like one of my favorite singers of that time. She said,

549
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 4: over it like a fat rat.

550
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 3: What was she like in the studio?

551
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 5: She was pleasant, she was she was professional.

552
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: And where did she come from?

553
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 5: I don't know a book.

554
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: So she was just brought to you as a client.

555
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 5: She came from either it's the other Mount Vernon or

556
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 5: Newer Shell or somewhere Yonkers or something like that. I

557
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 5: think that's where she lives. Uh. When we did over

558
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,360
Speaker 5: Like a Fat that we recorded it as a demo

559
00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:59,960
Speaker 5: with Bob Blank. Bob gave us some free studio time

560
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 5: and Uh, we met James and Sonny. We went in

561
00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 5: and we just did our things, creating songs and so

562
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:08,759
Speaker 5: for up the songs. So over like Batlright was one

563
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 5: of the songs. And we left the tape for Bob,

564
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:16,000
Speaker 5: and then Bob went to Vanguard and Vanguard had signed Fonder,

565
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:20,400
Speaker 5: and Bob called us up and said, we mind if

566
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,239
Speaker 5: he tried fond of Ray And I'm like, fond of

567
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 5: who and He's like Fonda Ray and I'm like, uh, okay,

568
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 5: Well we'll allow it if you let us be at

569
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 5: the session, meaning myself and my cousin Sonny Davenport.

570
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 3: Uh.

571
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,160
Speaker 5: We went to the session. She she learned the song

572
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 5: and sang it very competently, giving us the performance that

573
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 5: y'all are familiar with.

574
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 4: Was that her first session, No she had she's also

575
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 4: on she worked with August Darnell.

576
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 3: Uh.

577
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 4: During the she did she did Deputy Love It was

578
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 4: it wasn't Doctor Buzzers.

579
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:04,759
Speaker 3: It was with Don Armando's second rumba band or something.

580
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:05,040
Speaker 1: Wow.

581
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:08,399
Speaker 3: He always had that crazy like alias and stuff.

582
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 4: But definitely Love is a record though that's a jam

583
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:13,000
Speaker 4: did not know that she.

584
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:18,239
Speaker 5: Also had worked with Patrick Adams with a version of

585
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:19,640
Speaker 5: touch Me All Night Long.

586
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:23,359
Speaker 1: Yes, that's different than the one that we know, or.

587
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:29,760
Speaker 5: Different the version with spelled t u c h oh

588
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 5: like it spelled t u c h me And she

589
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:38,240
Speaker 5: did that, uh before it got to the Sandy post

590
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 5: that did it?

591
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:43,880
Speaker 2: Okay, Wow, all right, here's here's the question I always

592
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 2: wanted to know.

593
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 1: I'm getting right to Rick James right now.

594
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:47,319
Speaker 3: I knew it.

595
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:50,759
Speaker 1: So I have one question to ask you.

596
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:53,879
Speaker 2: All right, the way that you're holding your head right now,

597
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:59,520
Speaker 2: I already know what the answer is. But can I

598
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 2: can I just take a wild guess that your involvement

599
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 2: with Big Time is just that intro? No, oh, so

600
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:11,839
Speaker 2: you did the entire because the thing is is that

601
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:16,280
Speaker 2: the kick drum piano intro is such a Leroy Burgess sound.

602
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:20,680
Speaker 2: And then right when the song kicks in, I felt like, wow, okay,

603
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 2: now it sounds like Rick James, how did that come?

604
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:24,440
Speaker 1: How did that come together?

605
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,439
Speaker 5: Okay? At the session I was telling you about where

606
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 5: we recorded over like a fat rat for a Fonda

607
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,239
Speaker 5: or we for that one of the another one of

608
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,560
Speaker 5: the songs that we'd done was a song called Baytime

609
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,840
Speaker 5: right now, you know, I did the demo with the

610
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 5: piano and James on Bassis, Sonday on drums and I

611
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 5: sang in the you know, I did a demo of

612
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:53,200
Speaker 5: the of the vocals and shit right and on our

613
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,160
Speaker 5: way uptown to Bob Blank Studio was on twentieth and

614
00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,759
Speaker 5: sixth Avenue right, and on our way back uptown, we

615
00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 5: just decided to stop at fifty seventh Street between eighth

616
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:08,160
Speaker 5: and ninth Avenue to stop at Kenny Morris's house. Kenny

617
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:13,640
Speaker 5: Morris was Patrick's partner, right to stop there to get

618
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,919
Speaker 5: a little package for us to feel good with. When

619
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:24,520
Speaker 5: we got uptown, we absolutely so, you know, and Kenny

620
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:28,040
Speaker 5: was holding so we went there all right. When we

621
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 5: got there, Kenny's friend, Rick James was in attendance. He

622
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:38,080
Speaker 5: was he was visiting Kenny and oh, so, you know,

623
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 5: we really want to do our business and get on.

624
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,000
Speaker 5: But then you know, Kenny was like, come on inside,

625
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:47,960
Speaker 5: and Patrick was right there, and uh so we did

626
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 5: our little wine and dine thing. I mean, we'll not

627
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 5: know Dona's wine. We already know, and Rig James was like,

628
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:58,760
Speaker 5: tell old Patrick, I'm getting ready to do my new album.

629
00:37:58,800 --> 00:37:59,640
Speaker 3: I don't want more.

630
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,560
Speaker 5: Down to and so forth. I just need to be

631
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:07,520
Speaker 5: a good one and so forth. And I mentioned that

632
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 5: we just came out of the studio doing a little

633
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:11,759
Speaker 5: demo and so for oh let me hear no, no,

634
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 5: let me hear it, I'm looking for songs, right, and

635
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,800
Speaker 5: so big Time was the first song on the cassette

636
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 5: and we only made it halfway through. Oh my god,

637
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:26,799
Speaker 5: that's my song. That's my song. I got to have

638
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 5: it because big Time is the persona of big Time

639
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:34,919
Speaker 5: is Big James persona. It's all about a guy who

640
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:36,799
Speaker 5: arrived at the big Time.

641
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:38,760
Speaker 1: Life of fortune and fame and stuff.

642
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, glamor and fame and all of that. So

643
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 5: it was Paul, that's my song. I needed to Patrick

644
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 5: be working out and so forth and so on. So

645
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,399
Speaker 5: Patrick worked it up. This is nineteen seventy nine. By

646
00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty it was released as we made a deal

647
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:56,560
Speaker 5: for it to be the first single from the Garden

648
00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:02,720
Speaker 5: of Love album, right, and we arranged for Rig James

649
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:06,359
Speaker 5: and Patrick too, for Patrick to co produce it with

650
00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 5: rig James and take it out. They took the multi

651
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:14,440
Speaker 5: track out to California, where Rig James added his flavor

652
00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 5: to it. The entire song, the change and everything like

653
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:22,360
Speaker 5: that that was written composed by me and Vig. James

654
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:27,280
Speaker 5: added his elements to it, but essentially, Uh he replayed

655
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:30,280
Speaker 5: the bass, took James callaway off and replayed the bass.

656
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 5: Uh replayed some of the piano parts, put his horns

657
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 5: on it, and so forth, and then added don't don't right,

658
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,440
Speaker 5: And I'd like to think, I don't want to be presumptuous,

659
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:48,879
Speaker 5: but this is before super Freaking all of that, and

660
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 5: I'd like to think that Big Time was central in

661
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 5: reviving Rick's career to such a degree that he was

662
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,480
Speaker 5: able to then take that model and create new songs

663
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:05,640
Speaker 5: from it, right, and that gave you the super Freak And.

664
00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 1: That's exactly what it did.

665
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:14,160
Speaker 2: But that piano intro, Yeah, it's such an Unricked James

666
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:17,840
Speaker 2: sounding thing that I was like, in my mind, I

667
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,760
Speaker 2: felt like, at the last minute, let's add that piano

668
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:22,120
Speaker 2: interro at the top, and then.

669
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 5: No, but that was the whole record when we did

670
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 5: it was that, you know, that was the whole demo.

671
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:35,839
Speaker 1: So I guess I really became familiar with you.

672
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,600
Speaker 2: Kind of the summer eighty four when like B Boy

673
00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:45,800
Speaker 2: cultures starting to set off and via lemes release yourself.

674
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:48,800
Speaker 2: What was your thoughts on the Marley mar remix of

675
00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:49,239
Speaker 2: that song.

676
00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 5: I didn't know who Marlly was before that, but I

677
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 5: certainly got to know who he was since he did it. Okay,

678
00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 5: because to see for me, it became a practical situation. Uh,

679
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:12,719
Speaker 5: that part be goes release your sound, we right an

680
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:16,480
Speaker 5: octave from where I'm singing it now right right form

681
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:19,000
Speaker 5: that of right you might be able to do that

682
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 5: once or twice right before your whole voice would break

683
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:28,320
Speaker 5: in half, give out right, just breaking half. So I

684
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 5: always was like, while I understand the virtue of it

685
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:35,760
Speaker 5: being sampled, a lot of people expected it to be sunk.

686
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 2: That was my second question. How much of a nightmare

687
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:42,360
Speaker 2: was it for them? Because that's the only version we played.

688
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:45,360
Speaker 2: We know there's other versions of the song, but we

689
00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:47,279
Speaker 2: will always go to the B side and play the

690
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:50,960
Speaker 2: Marley mal version right right right, And it was inescapable

691
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:52,440
Speaker 2: in the summer of nineteen eighty four.

692
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 5: Right. So I arrived at a balance between when I'm

693
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:02,640
Speaker 5: doing my live I let one of the girls or

694
00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 5: something like that do those parts right, and then I

695
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,120
Speaker 5: stick to you. Got to you know you need to

696
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 5: stick to that, right. It makes it easy because, believe me,

697
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:20,560
Speaker 5: if I just did one full chorus of that, that's

698
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:24,239
Speaker 5: the end of the show. And thank you very much,

699
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 5: good night, And I hope you enjoyed that. That that

700
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:28,320
Speaker 5: chorus that I didn't.

701
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:31,960
Speaker 4: I want to ask you, Lee Roy, there's a record

702
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 4: you did a couple of years back with Glenn underground.

703
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:36,880
Speaker 3: Let me know you're feeling me record?

704
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:40,600
Speaker 5: Yes, myself and Glenn.

705
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:42,879
Speaker 3: Oh oh, Patrick working on that as well.

706
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:48,279
Speaker 5: Yes, Yes, the song was composed by Patrick, Glenn and myself. Uh.

707
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:54,040
Speaker 5: That was when a guy named Raddick who runs dust

708
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:58,560
Speaker 5: Tracks Records out of Chicago. Uh, he had a hook

709
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:02,320
Speaker 5: up with Glenn and Glenn had asked for myself and

710
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:05,759
Speaker 5: Patrick Rady Can convinced us to take a plane to

711
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,239
Speaker 5: fly out there for a couple of days and work

712
00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:13,600
Speaker 5: with Glenn. And again that song was started from scratch.

713
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:18,360
Speaker 5: We had nothing, no no beating nor anything. And Patrick

714
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 5: came up with with with the baseline that kind of

715
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 5: took us somewhere and then I said, I added some

716
00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:28,200
Speaker 5: cords to it, and then we had Glenn come in

717
00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:30,960
Speaker 5: put the drums against it, and so forth and so

718
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:34,799
Speaker 5: on and we began to build a record up from there,

719
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 5: and within two days we had that that song.

720
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:41,120
Speaker 3: I love that song, man, I just I was. I

721
00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:41,800
Speaker 3: was so happy.

722
00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:45,160
Speaker 4: A good buddy of mine, Escort out of out of Chicago,

723
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 4: he sent me that when it came out, and I

724
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 4: was just so happy to hear you like singing again

725
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:51,480
Speaker 4: and like, I just really love that record.

726
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:51,680
Speaker 5: Man.

727
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 1: I have one inter life question.

728
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 2: Yes, well, actually, okay, this is something you've really got

729
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:02,880
Speaker 2: to settle for me, because it's killing me. Did you

730
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:08,160
Speaker 2: ever work with Alan George or Fred McFarlane, Because even

731
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 2: if your name is not on the credits, I still

732
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:17,799
Speaker 2: insist that you had something to do with somebody else's guy,

733
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:22,759
Speaker 2: even though you know your only connection to it is

734
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:25,040
Speaker 2: working with Jocelyn Brown and in her life.

735
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:30,840
Speaker 1: But and I'm not want to be starting something, but

736
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:36,320
Speaker 1: I can't be the only human being that thought that

737
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:37,520
Speaker 1: you produced.

738
00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:42,359
Speaker 5: That well Alan George and Fred McFarlane. First of all,

739
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 5: Fred McFarlane was a member of Conversion and Law like okay,

740
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:52,000
Speaker 5: keyboard player for my grouping one of the high keyboard

741
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 5: players for the group. So we knew Fred, and we've

742
00:44:55,760 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 5: known Alan because Alan had been close friends with our

743
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:04,440
Speaker 5: second the second Black Ivory band Stone Love, so we

744
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:08,480
Speaker 5: knew Allen through that. The reason why you hear a

745
00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:14,160
Speaker 5: connection between somebody else's guy and music that you associate

746
00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 5: with me is two reasons. One is James Callaway, he's

747
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:24,000
Speaker 5: the bass player on that record right right, and and

748
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 5: of course Fred McFarland. And the second element is George

749
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:35,360
Speaker 5: Ellington and Vincent Henry on brass because George and Vincent.

750
00:45:35,440 --> 00:45:38,719
Speaker 5: George was a horn player for my band, Vincent was

751
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,360
Speaker 5: a man and and the two of them gave you

752
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:46,800
Speaker 5: that that kind of sound, right, So between James, Fred

753
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:51,160
Speaker 5: and Vincent and George, that's where you get that that

754
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:54,040
Speaker 5: layer of sounded compared to what we do.

755
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:57,919
Speaker 3: Yeah, you get throw. He probably throw what's seventh Heaven

756
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 3: on that too, that GWNG Guthrie. It kind of all those.

757
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:04,360
Speaker 1: Really believe it or not, That's the first place I

758
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:06,040
Speaker 1: looked to me.

759
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:09,600
Speaker 2: It's your sound, I guess in general, and in wrapping

760
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:13,360
Speaker 2: this up unless you have another one, Yeah, I just wanted.

761
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:17,319
Speaker 3: To talk to him about his his noise record. Yeah,

762
00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 3: you work with a lot of my heroes on this one.

763
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:21,440
Speaker 3: With the remixes.

764
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:26,920
Speaker 4: Big ups to Josh Milan and Mark Matt from for

765
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 4: a Hero, what's your connection with with those guys?

766
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:33,440
Speaker 3: And UH talk about your your work.

767
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 5: With them everybody on that I'm blessed to have UH

768
00:46:39,239 --> 00:46:44,359
Speaker 5: share their brilliance on these days. The Remixes have been

769
00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:48,239
Speaker 5: friends for a little while now. A Stacy kid I

770
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:52,880
Speaker 5: met a few years ago when I invited him to

771
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:57,600
Speaker 5: Pais to come see my myself in my live. I've

772
00:46:57,719 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 5: known Louis Vega ever take us all the way back

773
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:08,120
Speaker 5: to the conversion we make in twenty sixteen. Kenny Carpenter,

774
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:10,879
Speaker 5: good friend of mine that I worked with a song

775
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:14,200
Speaker 5: on him called more Love, and he came back and

776
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 5: did some of the early mixes on remake that I

777
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:21,719
Speaker 5: did of Jesus Children of America about Stevie. Mark Mack

778
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:25,560
Speaker 5: is a friend, very long time friend. I've known him

779
00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:28,880
Speaker 5: for about a good twenty twenty five years. It was

780
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:29,760
Speaker 5: DEAs Parks.

781
00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:31,879
Speaker 3: I was about to say, Dans Parks man, Oh my God,

782
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:32,840
Speaker 3: rest in peace.

783
00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:39,640
Speaker 5: Bear departed and ascended angel Death Parks who insisted on

784
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:44,479
Speaker 5: me meeting Mark right and said, Marc is the guy Mark,

785
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 5: and Mark has since I've met him and since I've

786
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:50,480
Speaker 5: worked with him, everything that Mark has done has been

787
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:55,239
Speaker 5: just the absolute truth, just so pure. So to wrap

788
00:47:55,360 --> 00:48:00,360
Speaker 5: up the whole album and reflect Nicholas is. He was

789
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:04,960
Speaker 5: the surprise because he heard These Days the album, the

790
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:10,160
Speaker 5: initial album from which the remix album is inspired, and

791
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,600
Speaker 5: heard the song all together, and he was just really

792
00:48:12,719 --> 00:48:15,520
Speaker 5: taken with that, and I was taken with all of

793
00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:19,319
Speaker 5: the reflex remixes. He's the one who does the best

794
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 5: remixing that I've heard. When I heard him do Rock

795
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:26,160
Speaker 5: with You by Michael Jackson and All Night Long by

796
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 5: Lino Richie. He does his thing in the Stone with

797
00:48:29,719 --> 00:48:33,360
Speaker 5: earth Wind and Fire. He's really a brilliant Nicholas is

798
00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:37,920
Speaker 5: really a brilliant remixer. So I was blessed that all

799
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:41,040
Speaker 5: of them, when they heard These Days the initial album

800
00:48:41,160 --> 00:48:44,080
Speaker 5: come out, they called me up and they said, hey,

801
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:46,600
Speaker 5: I want to remix this, and I want to remix that,

802
00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:48,480
Speaker 5: and I want to do this, and I want to

803
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:52,160
Speaker 5: do that. And I spoke with my partner, pl Sweets,

804
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 5: and he said, well, let's do a remix album. You

805
00:48:56,080 --> 00:49:00,200
Speaker 5: know that just features remixes, right, And that's where this

806
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:05,439
Speaker 5: latest project came. These Days initial album was released back

807
00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:10,440
Speaker 5: in September twenty twenty two, and the remix album Just

808
00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:15,479
Speaker 5: It was initially released in March twenty third, twenty twenty three,

809
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:20,640
Speaker 5: and then as of last Thursday it hit track Sauce

810
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:24,920
Speaker 5: so and now people are starting to really get into it.

811
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:29,120
Speaker 5: But those guys blessed me with their talent and with

812
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:33,360
Speaker 5: their insight and with their genius, and they made it

813
00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:36,320
Speaker 5: into a project that I can really really be proud of.

814
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:39,600
Speaker 3: Yeah. Now we're all disciples, man, We're all disciples.

815
00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:43,239
Speaker 2: So I got one more record to ask before we rap,

816
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:50,239
Speaker 2: because not many people talk enough about Eddie Kendricks's is

817
00:49:50,400 --> 00:49:54,400
Speaker 2: aristera period? And you worked on the Something More record?

818
00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 2: I never used to dance. Can you talk about what

819
00:49:57,160 --> 00:49:58,879
Speaker 2: like working with Eddie Kendricks.

820
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:02,160
Speaker 5: Like what it was like? It was a lot of

821
00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:09,239
Speaker 5: fun because Eddie is a cannabis indulgence as I am.

822
00:50:10,239 --> 00:50:13,520
Speaker 3: And hey, no the club amen.

823
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:18,920
Speaker 5: So Patrick got the deal when Eddie when he was

824
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:21,799
Speaker 5: working with Arista, and he said, I got to Eddie

825
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:24,560
Speaker 5: Kendrick deal. I said, oh, great, that's cool. Do you

826
00:50:24,640 --> 00:50:26,840
Speaker 5: have anything for him? Not really, we don't have nothing,

827
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:29,319
Speaker 5: but I'd like to meet him. So Patrick said, oh,

828
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:30,960
Speaker 5: come on down, I have a meet him with him.

829
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 5: So forth and so on. So I bought my team

830
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 5: meet James and Sunny. We went down there, we met,

831
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:39,400
Speaker 5: you know, chopped it up, had a few drinks and

832
00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:41,480
Speaker 5: so forth and so on, and I was like, well, Eddie,

833
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:46,200
Speaker 5: what do you want to sing about? Right? And he said,

834
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:48,040
Speaker 5: I don't really know, I don't really care. Just write

835
00:50:48,080 --> 00:50:51,920
Speaker 5: me a great song. For whatever reason, we started talking

836
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:57,359
Speaker 5: about the Temptations moves and the choreography and so forth.

837
00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:59,759
Speaker 5: And now I think I started talking about how Black

838
00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:04,960
Speaker 5: Eyes was biting his choreography, you know. So I started

839
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 5: talking about that and he said, well, I never liked

840
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:11,600
Speaker 5: the dancing. I'm not a dancer. I'm a singer.

841
00:51:12,239 --> 00:51:12,359
Speaker 2: Uh.

842
00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:15,520
Speaker 5: And so although I had to do it because it

843
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:20,000
Speaker 5: was part of my my duties as a Temptation, you know,

844
00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 5: to do the choreography and all of that, but I

845
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:26,479
Speaker 5: never really liked it. And I was like, wow, there's

846
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:31,560
Speaker 5: our song story. So myself and my cousin Sonny and

847
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:35,879
Speaker 5: my brother James, we created a song called I Never

848
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 5: Used to Dance. It's about which is about a dude

849
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:42,279
Speaker 5: who doesn't really like dancing. You know, how many you

850
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,000
Speaker 5: go to a party and you see the dudes standing

851
00:51:45,080 --> 00:51:47,440
Speaker 5: up against the wall while the chick get out, you know,

852
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:49,640
Speaker 5: they out there doing anything and the dudes is just

853
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:52,719
Speaker 5: like standing there looking at it. Yeah, how about that?

854
00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:53,840
Speaker 5: How about the Mets?

855
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:56,480
Speaker 1: You know the Wallflower song?

856
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:00,960
Speaker 5: Yeah, so they're doing that. But never used to dances

857
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:03,640
Speaker 5: about that one chick that you see it hit the

858
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:06,640
Speaker 5: floor and oh my god, I just got to dance

859
00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:09,600
Speaker 5: with it. And all of a sudden, you're not dancing behind,

860
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:13,080
Speaker 5: you're not dancing the ass find yourself out on the floor,

861
00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:16,600
Speaker 5: which is he's the one that gets you to do it.

862
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:21,080
Speaker 5: So that's what never used to dance is all about. Wow.

863
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:23,440
Speaker 5: And he heard it. When he heard it, it was like, oh,

864
00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:27,759
Speaker 5: that's perfect, that's me all that's me, that's it so

865
00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:34,840
Speaker 5: so uh And for me, listen, when I was thirteen fourteen,

866
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:41,480
Speaker 5: I was singing just my imagination and the way you do,

867
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:45,960
Speaker 5: the things you do, those songs were just ingrained in me.

868
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 5: To be working with an icon like him, right, oh,

869
00:52:52,480 --> 00:52:55,879
Speaker 5: and for him to be doing one of my compositions,

870
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:59,600
Speaker 5: one of my co productions, was just a dream come true,

871
00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 5: many many dreams that have come true in my time

872
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:05,320
Speaker 5: in this industry.

873
00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:09,360
Speaker 2: Yo, man, this is some of the best two hours

874
00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:14,440
Speaker 2: ever been waiting on this, man, it's nerding out. Thank you, man,

875
00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:17,279
Speaker 2: I can't even thank you enough for this, Like you

876
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:21,759
Speaker 2: know you've changed culture and you know you can't there

877
00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:23,840
Speaker 2: there aren't enough flowers in the world to give you,

878
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 2: man like like what you've done for dance culture, man

879
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:31,279
Speaker 2: is like real heads no, and we just thank you

880
00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:33,080
Speaker 2: for doing our show with us.

881
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:35,440
Speaker 4: Thank you for the music, man, Just your music is

882
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:38,520
Speaker 4: so much joy to like to my life, you know

883
00:53:38,520 --> 00:53:41,279
Speaker 4: what I mean, and uh, always a good time.

884
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:44,200
Speaker 3: So just just thank you for all your contributions. Man,

885
00:53:44,239 --> 00:53:44,799
Speaker 3: straight up.

886
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:48,879
Speaker 5: Blood Shulan, thank you all for having me. I'm very

887
00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:53,800
Speaker 5: aware of how successful your work is. Question this team is.

888
00:53:54,400 --> 00:53:57,600
Speaker 5: I'm just happy to be a part of it, ah

889
00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:03,239
Speaker 5: and happy to participate in this. Uh. You guys have

890
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:04,960
Speaker 5: some really great questions. Man.

891
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:07,840
Speaker 1: You know we're fans. We are fans.

892
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:11,120
Speaker 2: You know I'm a DJ, so I'm only as good

893
00:54:11,160 --> 00:54:14,640
Speaker 2: as the knowledge I have of you know the records

894
00:54:14,680 --> 00:54:18,840
Speaker 2: I gravitate towards. And you know your your records have

895
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:21,160
Speaker 2: saved many many a party of mind. So thank you

896
00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:21,880
Speaker 2: very much for that.

897
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:25,239
Speaker 5: That's what's up. That's what's up. Thank you, yo.

898
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 2: When be having super Steve and Unpaid Bill and Fantigolo

899
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:32,759
Speaker 2: and like I if this is another another classic, much

900
00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:34,959
Speaker 2: loving extravag handle, love it energy.

901
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 1: We will see all next time, all right, Thank you.

902
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:43,200
Speaker 5: Much.

903
00:54:43,239 --> 00:54:45,840
Speaker 1: Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.

904
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:54,359
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

905
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.