We here at the IRT are devastated to announce the passing of rock 'n' roll's greatest saxophonist, Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band, who succumbed to complications following the suffering of a stroke six days earlier at his Florida home, according to Reuters.
Bruce Springsteen just addressed fans tonight of the loss of his friend and band mate of 40 years with this quote: "It is with overwhelming sadness that we inform our friends and fans that at 7:00 tonight, Saturday, June 18, our beloved friend and bandmate, Clarence Clemons passed away. The cause was complications from his stroke of last Sunday, June 12th. Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the oppurtunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."
Words cannot express how major this loss is not only to Boss fans but to the music world in general. The Big Man's shoes can never be filled, and our thoughts and condolences go out to his family, friends and legions of admirers all over the world. -Ed.
"When the change was made uptown/And the big man joined the band/From the coastline to the city/All the little pretties raise their hands."
Clarence Clemons on meeting Bruce Springsteen:
"Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" at the 1999 Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony:
Medicine Babies (ZerOKilled) No Surrender has been cast under a lot of genres, as is usually the case with misunderstood underground music. It’s not easy being unique in Brooklyn, a place where unique is considered a norm. Led by Eddie Steeples, more famously known as the Crabman from NBC's sadly defunct sitcom My Name Is Earl, the group been called hip-hop, synth, electronic, techno, afro-punk, alternative and soul. However, I think I can safely say that they are one of the first bands I’ve ever heard to really capture all their supposed sounds and blend them into one unique mix. For the sake of brevity, let’s just call it Medicine Babies. The album starts with springy, chunky beats (“Falling Into You”, “Godda Get It”, & “You’re a Star”) that exemplify that working blend of synth-pop and soul. Funky, falsetto choruses topped with forceful verses create an atmospheric swirl - call it a new twist on your favorite club song. That synthesizer continues to spread throughout the entire LP, but slows down for the trippy, hypnotic “Silver Hall”, featuring Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio. “Mountain” and “Carousel” bring the album to a close, dropping the pace but keeping those simple melodies alive. It seems to be the vein of the entire album – simple melody with a strong beat. Trust me when I say that isn’t a bad thing, either - it’s like 30 years of pop rolled up into one record. Just don’t call it house, whatever you do. -Toni Odell
BATTLESGloss Drop (Warp) A lot of hullabaloo was made last year when it was announced that guitarist and de facto frontman Tyondai Braxton would be departing the ranks of NYC's premier experimental rock supergroup Battles. But to be honest with you, for as good as their 2007 full-length debut Mirrored was, that whole alien voice shtick that dude would lace each track was with totally fucking annoying. I signed up with Battles to hear the combination of Braxton, former Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams, bassist Dave Konopka and one-time Helmet/Tomahawk drum god John Stanier push the boundaries of instrumentalism into unknown territories of rhythm and structure. If I wanted to hear someone sing through pitch modulation like an acid-damaged cartoon, I'll refer to my handy copy of Ween's The Pod, thank you very much. But with Braxton out of the picture, it was the hope that Battles would press on by expanding upon the innovative nature of their first three EPs that peppered the early-to-mid 00s. And for fans of their wordless salad days, Gloss Drop will definitely be seen as a return to form of sorts. Yes, there are indeed vocals present in the mix on this second LP for the Warp label in the form of imaginative guest turns from such prolific voices as synth giant Gary Numan, minimalist techno great Matias Aguayo, Blonde Redhead singer Kazu Makino and Boredoms shaman Yamantaka Eye on his finest cameo since the Naked City record. But overall, Gloss Drop is a largely instrumental affair, although the band seems to have moved on from the IDM-emulating riddims of their earliest work in favor of a sound that delves deeper into a more angular prog-pop idiom. At times, this new direction veers a little too close into Pokemon territory on tracks like "Ice Cream" and "Wall Street". But on cooler cuts like "Inchworm" and "Futura", the quixotic quartet veer off into the Bermuda Triangle of island-style abstract groove that takes their music into a whole new stratosphere of strange that is unlike anything they, or anyone else for that matter, have done before. -Ron Hart
FUCKED UPDavid Comes To Life (Matador) When you have a band with a name as dubious as Fucked Up, what more can you do to ensure your proverbial monkeywrench continues to grind the gears of the very establishment you rally against? Well, you would beat its poorest, most flagrantly commercial excuse for a punk band at its own game, of course. And that is exactly what this Toronto-based hardcore outfit has accomplished with their career-defining third album David Comes To Life, a 78-minute-long concept piece that serves as the Stephen Sondheim antithesis to American Idiot's Andrew Lloyd Weber-esque grandiosity. Equal parts Hüsker Dü’s Zen Arcade, The Who's Quadrophenia and Steven Soderbergh's 2006 no-budget whodunit Bubble, the storyline revolves around a guy named David who works at a light bulb factory who falls in love with a girl who shares his beliefs in social anarchy. They conspire to build a bomb together and, after she breaks it off with him, he's the prime suspect in her murder. Remarkably, the group pulls it off without a hitch, thanks to guitarist Mike Haliechuk's revolutionary vision of what hardcore could be once it sheds its mookish narrow-mindedness and explores sonic terrain not normally associated with the art and frontman Damian Abraham's stellar sense of prose and storytelling. David Comes To Life is an incredibly impressive display of how far a particular style of music could go the moment it abandons the tethers of its fanbase's preconceived notions. -Ron Hart
No Surrender's "Young World"
Battles "Futura" live at Le Poisson Rouge, NYC April 27, 2011:
For over 35 years, guitarist Ivan Julian has been a seminal figure on the New York punk movement, first as a member of Richard Hell and the Voidoids and the sorely underrated Outsets (not to mention The Lovelies) and later as a record producer, working out of the Lower East Side studio he shares with fellow axeman Matt Verta-Ray of Speedball Baby and Heavy Trash fame called NY HED, where they have worked with such legendary figures as Andre Williams, Kid Congo Powers, James Chance and the Contortions, The Mighty Hannibal and Ronnie Spector to name just a few. For a time he also served as a gun for hire, working alongside the likes of The Clash, Matthew Sweet, Afrika Bambaataa and Shriekback on some of their most acclaimed works.
Earlier this year, Julian released his long-overdue solo debut, The Naked Flame, on the small 00:02:59 label.It is nothing short of a beautiful blast of throwback Bowery punk that stands tall with his very best performances on such classic LPs as The Voidoids' Blank Generation, Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend and The Clash's Sandinista! The IRT was incredibly lucky to have Ivan take a moment from his busy schedule running NY HED and promoting the new record to talk with us about a whole host of topics, particularly some very fond memories of his late friend and fellow Voidoid Robert Quine, who unfortunately committed suicide via heroin overdose on May 31, 1994, following the loss of his wife.
With so many great stories to tell from his years in one of American music's most important movements, it is indeed an honor to have the input of this essential figure in New York rock grace the virtual pages of IRT. The Naked Flame is available on Amazon and at better record stores in the NYC area.
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IRT: Why the long wait to record an album under your own name? Ivan Julian:I never really thought of it that way. I have always been making music; it's what I do. This record 'came about' because the band I recorded with, 'Capsula' did such an amazing job of playing the songs on the demo I sent them that I really had to do it. The songs have always been there. IRT: Re: the song "You Is Dead", one of the great highlights of The Naked Flame and your tribute to longtime friend and bandmate Robert Quine...where were you when you first heard about Robert Quine's passing? Ivan:Richard [Hell] called me at home. I sat down and played the piano as I do when I get this kind of news. One never gets used to it.
IRT: Did you stay in touch with Quine through the years? Did you guys ever get together to jam or record? Ivan:Bob and I were close until the very end. He told me he was going to do this (off himself), because of the pain he was feeling over the loss of his wife. My response was, "Please don't Bob!" He was never one who could tolerate much discomfort and this was all too much for him. Richard and I even discussed ways to help him, as did his other friends but his friends couldn't be there all the time. For anyone who's been through something like this; it's hard to judge someone's actions when they hurt so much. However, you do feel a small tinge of anger because it is ultimately a selfish act. You wanna say, "Hey man, we have to deal with all this shit, too. Why can't you?" And now, "You is Dead". Neither of us were the jamming type. We would get together and trade riffs, listen to records or check out new/old effects pedals and see what kind of sick sounds we could get out of them. It was always major fun! IRT: What is your favorite memory of Robert Quine? Ivan:We knew each other for such a long time so there were many but I have to say one sticks out... In Darby, England on the Clash tour, when he slowly took his guitar off and full throttle smashed this guy upside the head that was gobbing on him. Completely out of character and completely Brilliant! There were also the times when together we would go out to the Mudd Club or Danceteria and they wouldn't want to let him in because they thought he was a cop. The person at the door would say to Bob, "You look like his truant officer." Oh, if they only knew... IRT: What inspired you to cover the Nuns? Did you ever play with them on a bill back in the day? Ivan:This was a 7" I have owned since it came out in '79. I always thought it was an amazing record, the production, the song, stark minimalism, everything. When I was recording the album it came to me that I had to record 'The Beat'. It worked out and fits as a nice stride. Since The Nuns were together I have come to know Alejandro but I never saw them play because I was out of town a lot then. IRT:What about Lucinda Williams? What is your favorite attribute of hers as a songwriter and prompted you to cover her song "Broken Butterflies"? Ivan:Her honesty. She convinces you that what she is singing is real and has or will happen. She scares me and I like that in a writer... not in a lover. And as usual as with any good songwriter, her phrasing... the cadence.
IRT: How did you feel working on The Naked Flame in the middle of the night affected its turnout? Ivan:Though it made me more of a Zombie in the daytime, I believe overall it was a healthy thing. Why? Because it had to be disciplined. I had a finite amount of time to work between dusk and dawn so I could run back to my cave before the sun got too high in the sky. There I could recharge to be able do it again the next night. Also, there were no distractions, nowhere else I had to be and nothing else to take care of... only the record. I could listen to what was being channeled, not just what I was playing. I wouldn't recommend the nocturnal thing for everyone but I couldn't have gotten it finished any other way.
IRT: How did you come about putting together the band you hired for The Naked Flame? Ivan:They kinda hired me in a way. A band named 'Capsula' from Bilbao, Spain came to my studio and wanted me to mix their record,'Rising Mountains'. I immediately liked their songs and their approach to the mixture of rhythm and noise. While we were working they suggested that I make a solo record and do a tour in Spain. I was a bit reluctant because I had just done the Osaka Popstar tour and I was looking forward to producing bands in my studio. Nonetheless, after they went back to Spain I sent them demos of some songs which they re-recorded and sent back to me. I thought, "Wow this is exciting; They get it." So began the process of me sending them songs via the web and them sending me back amazing basic tracks, (guitar, bass and drums) for me to complete. The final basics used for the record were sent via the post and everything was done on 24 track tape.
IRT: Has there ever been talk of reissuing The Outsets catalog? Where does that music stand with you today? How about the Lovelies? Has there been any talk of resurrecting Mad Orphan? Ivan:Some of it was available online for a while but no one has approached me about re-releasing it. I haven't listened to a lot of those recordings in a while so I don't know... I can't resurrect those bands because so many of those people that were involved are gone now, especially Danny Hirsch. IRT: Tell me about the first time you ever heard hip-hop music. Ivan:It was the same as today when I hear any kind of new, exciting music that comes at you outta nowhere. The first time I heard Run DMC's "It's Like That" it blew my mind. Then came Public Enemy and they raised the bar to new level that no one has reached since. Especially with It Takes a Nation of Millions... and Fear of a Black Planet which is an ultimate masterpiece. A volcanic cauldron of everything; The Last Poets, stripped down James Brown, early Stones, you name it. Like a galloping horse it doesn't let you jump off once it starts. I think the Shocklee brothers, Chuck D. and Flavor Flav (who played a lot of the instruments on the record) are all geniuses and I seldom use that word.
IRT: What was your favorite club to play in in New York City during the 70s and 80s and if you could please share a favorite story from that venue? Ivan:CBGB's had the best sound and the best sound system for the room. Probably because of all the wood in there and the way the place was shaped. There are too many stories from CB's to fit here. Mainly because you were there almost every night. It was the 'local' and the great thing about it was that you could see other bands in the scene play on any given night of the week, Tuesday- Talking Heads, Wednesday- The Ramones, Thursday- Blondie. Much like Robert Altman's Nashville, music was everywhere. One night comes to mind when Sylvia Reed (before she married Lou) and I went to see Bo Diddley at Max's Kansas City. We went to the bar and when I looked up, there was Bo Diddley in the flesh standing right next to me. Now I'm not big collector of autographs but come on, it's Bo Diddley. I didn't have any paper and I thought he deserved more than a napkin so I pulled a fiver out of my pocket and got a pen from the bartender. When I asked him to sign the bill he said and I quote, "Give me your woman and I'll sign it." I said, "I can't really give her to you Mr. Diddley, because I didn't buy her." This went back and forth for a while and eventually he reluctantly signed it. He was hilarious! IRT: How did you get involved with working on Sandinista! with The Clash? What do you believe is the most lasting affect of that album which continues to make it such an influential touchstone for so many young artists? Also, were you at Bond's for their residency? Ivan:I knew Topper from my days in London before I moved to New York and The Clash had the The Voidoids open for them on the Give 'em Enough Rope tour. It was Mick that turned me on to Reggae, I mean real Reggae and Dub. Not the watered down stuff that we were getting in America but Raw Sounding 7" singles by bands like Elizabeth Archer and the Equators. Mick and Joe were really into Dub as it shows on Sandinista. Initially I just stopped by Electric Lady to say hello. It wasn't long before I had Joe's Tele in hand banging out the chords to "The Call Up". I believe the lasting affect of this record is a right of passage. If you love music and you listen to what has come before, every once you come across a record and say to yourself stop, what's this? Sandanista! is one of those records. No, we didn't play the Bond's thing. It was difficult to cut through the red tape of all the booking agents clamoring for a spot. Later when Joe found out about it he was really pissed because the idea was to have their friends play while they were there. IRT: Please tell me a good story about your time with Matthew Sweet. Looking back, the lineup for the Girlfriend album was filled with such great players: yourself, Quine, Richard Lloyd, Lloyd Cole, Fred Maher...what was it like in the studio with such a prolific lineup? Ivan:Lloyd and I were the tag team on the road but in the studio him Quine and I were never there all at once. It's as if Matthew could only deal with one crazy person at a time.
IRT: What is your favorite memory of making the movie Blank Generation? Ivan: I can sum it up in two words: Carole Bouquet. I can still remember her standing in CBGB's during the shoot. Pure pulchritude in the mist of rotting wood and graffiti... Lovely. Bob and I were a bit annoyed about having to be in the movie because we were in the middle of recording and considered it a distraction. Her being there made it not so bad. It's a good thing that Richard persuaded us to do it because it's the only real footage of the original Voidoids on stage.
IRT: Now that is available on DVD, how do you feel it holds up in 2011? Ivan: It holds up as much as it did then which isn't much. The director, Ulli Lommel re-wrote the script to cast himself as Carole's love interest. As a movie it makes very little sense. Instead of saying action when the camera started rolling it seems as if Ulli said tension because that's all we feel from the people on the screen.
IRT: Are you still in touch with Richard Hell? Has there been talk about doing any kind of deluxe edition of Blank Generation the album? Ivan:Yes Richard and I are still in touch. There already have been several of what you could call deluxe versions of Blank.
IRT: Have you guys ever talked about working together again?Ivan: Richard has no interest in making music, he's more into his writing.
IRT: Are you in touch with Marky Ramone? Have you tried his sauce yet? Did he ever cook for you guys back in the Voidoid days? Ivan:We did a tour together a couple of years ago supporting an album we did called Osaka Popstar with Jerry Only from The Misfits and Dez from Black Flag, both of which were supreme gentlemen, real spot-on guys. Re the sauce: None of us were ever brave enough to try Marky's Sauce back in the Voidoid days and anyway the furthest thing from his mind then was cooking...
IRT: Are you shocked to learn he has his own jarred sauce out? I hear its actually quite good! Ivan: I'm not shocked. Marky has always loved fine food and he loves selling things.
IRT: What is your favorite aspect of running your own studio? At the end of the day, what to you prefer: analog or digital? Ivan:I have always been in love with the whole recording process and how at each stage of development right up to mastering new possibilities present themselves and the song evolves into what it can be. There is nothing like TAPE, period. Especially for drums which are usually the loudest things in the mix. I usually record everything to tape and then dump it to pro tools to mix because it's so much faster. Even then, I use outboard compressors, spring reverbs etc. I build tube compressors called 'The Lumpstar'. I find it relaxing. IRT: When you first settled in NYC in 1977, what was your first adventure in the city? Ivan:The Voidoids audition a month after I got here~ in the course of three hours there was vomiting, vodka, nodding out, two six foot girls getting into a cat fight with hair and fishnet stockings going everywhere, more nodding out... Welcome to New York City! IRT: How do you feel about how much the neighborhood is changing around N.Y. HED? Has it made operating out of that section difficult for you guys? What are your thoughts about the closures of such established venues as Max Fish and the Mars Bar in recent months? Ivan: This is a rumor; Max Fish is still open but you're right about it being difficult. We had to move the studio four doors down Ludlow St. back in the fall. This came in the middle of the Fleshtones sessions for The Brooklyn Project. We're now under The Pink Pony restaurant. The developers seem hellbent on changing the L.E.S. landscape into a myriad of glass and aluminum structures. Maybe they have some prophetic vision that when 'the big one' hits it will make it easier to sweep it all away and rebuild. If they have their way soon the L.E.S. will resemble some mid-western suburb which is what many of us moved here to get away from. Oh Well.. I'm just a rhyme sayer.. IRT: What are some upcoming albums we could look forward to that were recorded out of NY HED? Do you have a particular favorite album that came out of your studio? What would it be and why? Ivan:I'm very excited about a band I produced called Hunx and his Punx from San Francisco. Their record, 'Too Young to be In Love' is out now and I'm very pleased with the results. Listen and you'll see what I mean. There's also the band Sediment Club that has an Lp that will be coming out soon. They sound like a mixture of The Voidoids meets The Bush Tetras meets The Contortions. Amazing stuff! IRT: Do you have a favorite current spot to see music or hang out at in the LES? Ivan:Jessie Malin's place, The Bowery Electric, it's not too big, not too small and as long as Tim is behind the board it will be a perfect sounding room as well.
"The Naked Flame" video:
"Blank Generation" live from the film Blank Generation:
Head on over to Big O Zine and nab yourself an excellent FM broadcast of the late, great Gil Scott-Heron with longtime cohort Brian Jackson and their Midnight Band at the legendary Village Gate in New York City (now known as the Poisson Rouge) back in 1976.
Mr. Heron left this planet on May 27, 2011 after falling ill following a return from a trip to Europe. His contributions to poetry, spoken word, jazz, funk, soul and hip-hop are as deep as that incredible voice of his, and he will truly be missed by so many of us who were inspired by his words.
"RIP GSH… and we do what we do and how we do because of you. And to those that don’t know tip your hat with a hand over your heart & recognize… Quite stunned at the fact I just wrote and recorded guest vocals on one of his next albums. This makes one realize that time is precious, damn." Chuck D.
s a member of Motown’s intrepid studio band The Funk Brothers, Dennis Coffey has played a key role in some of the most beloved soul classics ever recorded, including The Spinners’ It’s A Shame, Edwin Starr’s War and Marvin Gaye’s babymaking anthem I Want You, among countless others. He was also paramount in bringing the legendary Detroit label into the psychedelic rock era with his fuzz-and-wah-drenched electric guitar licks that permeated such hits as The Temptations’ Cloud Nine. Additionally, he worked with Funkadelic on their eponymous 1970 debut masterpiece, scored the disgustingly funky soundtrack to the 1974 blaxploitation favorite Black Belt Jones and co-produced Rodriguez’s cult soul classic Cold Fact, in addition to releasing a stinging string of solo albums that have been pilfered by some of the most noteworthy cats in the hip-hop game. Coffey's self-titled debut for the Strut imprint sees him revisiting a variety of vintage material from his past with some of today’s most contemporary figures in left field groove music, including Mayer Hawthorne, Fanny Franklin of Orgone, Dirtbombs frontman Mick Collins, Rachel Nagy of the Detroit Cobras, Scottish songwriter Paolo Nutini and Lisa Kekula from The Bellrays. He also plays guitar alongside The Roots on Booker T.'s outstanding new solo album, The Road From Memphis.
For a further appreciation of Dennis Coffey, check out the outstanding megamix compiled by Detroit musical ambassador DJ House Shoes that encapsulates all of the axe man’s five decades of greatness into one seamless 47 minute blend. Find it here
The IRT had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Coffey upon the release of the new album.Dennis Coffey's eponymous LP is available at better record shops across the Tri-State area. -Ed.
IRT: How did the new album come together, initially?
DC: I had been playing around town for the last five years or so in clubs with young bands, and my wife Millie told me I should get in touch with a producer and engineer by the name of Al Sutton, who was doing a lot of production around town.We spoke, and he said he wanted to get me in the studio.I told him ‘Sure, I know how to do that, but what are we going to do with the record once it’s done?’So he got back to me about six months later and had put together a management team, and they sat down with a plan for how they wanted to do the record.I liked what I saw so I got started writing.I must have written about 30 songs, and they chose what they liked, and I got started writing rhythm arrangements and everything else.That’s how it got started.
IRT: How did you go about choosing the artists selected to cameo on the new album?
DC: I was familiar with Mayer Hawthorne as an artist, as my wife Millie had bought his album and I knew his material, but my management team and Strut were responsible for getting a lot of the people together; many of them from the Detroit area themselves.
IRT: What are your thoughts on how ubiquitous funk music is in the 21st century? Who are some of your favorite contemporary funk artists working today?
DC: You know, it just suddenly started coming up.I started noticing that there were a lot of young bands that I would sit in with who could really play.I got to sit in with Mayer Hawthorne’s band, and a band called Fitz & The Tantrums out in San Diego, and I just started hearing about a lot of young bands playing retro funk.I don’t consider myself to be a great listener, I’m much more of a player and practitioner, so it’s not all the bands that I’m familiar with, but I definitely have seen a resurgence of young musicians picking up instruments and cranking out the funk, and I think that’s great.
IRT: In regards to your cover of "I Bet You": what was it about that particular song that inspired you to cover it over the song you did appear on from that first Funkadelic album, "Mommy What's a Funkadelic?"? What is your favorite memory of working on that Funkadelic record?
DC: That’s an A&R choice.My management team and Quinton Scott over at Strut helped put together the selection of cover songs.
IRT: What was your relationship like with Eddie Hazel? Did you guys bounce a lot of ideas off one another?
DC:For the most part, when I did the Funkadelic sessions, the other musicians were in another room or something, and I was pretty much by myself overdubbing guitar parts, so I didn’t get to spend much time with Eddie.George Clinton and I did meet when I recorded ‘I Wanaa Testify’ with The Parliaments, but I didn’t get to interact with too much with the other guys.
IRT: You were key in helping Motown achieve a more rock-based sound with your guitar playing. What kind of rock acts were considered favorites among the Motown camp and who would you consider to be the single greatest inspiration that helped usher in the utilization of electric guitars into their sound?
DC: Well, Motown was already using electric guitars.I brought the psychedelic soul guitar sound, which was much different than what they were using.At that time, they weren’t using things like the fuzztone, the echoplex, the wah-wah pedal, etc.That all came with Norman Whitfield, he was the visionary who wanted to take Motown from the story songs about love into the kind of social commentary guys like Sly Stone and others were doing, the whole protest movement, Woodstock, and all that.Norman had that in his mind.
I was a member of the producer’s workshop at Motown, and I would be with James Jamerson upstairs at Golden World Studios four nights a week for two and half hours straight, and producers could come by and experiment with musicians.After doing that for three weeks, Norman came by and was working on an arrangement for a song called ‘Cloud Nine.’I happened to have this wah-wah pedal with me, and when he counted it off I used that on the intro, and he says ‘That’s it! That’s what I want.’So I got the call to record with him and the Temptations and away we went!I was his guy after that.And of course that helped position me for things like Gladys Knight and everything else.
I had been using those kind of guitar effects playing around Detroit with Lyman Woodard & Melvin Davis, and in fact we ended up opening for the MC5.We opened the show with a cover of ‘A Day In The Life’ and right away the kids got it and were into what we were doing.
IRT: Of all the original Motown cats, who was the biggest rock fan?
DC: Norman Whitfield was the visionary there.He looked at what guys like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix were doing and incorporated that into his sound.I look at him as a master of dynamics.He would stand in front of Uriel Jones and Pistol Allen, the two drummers, and count the song off, and say things like ‘Now when I point to you, everybody stop playing.’He was always building up layers, making breakdowns, creating this searing funk with amazing dynamic changes.
IRT: How did you come into producing Sixto Rodriguez's Cold Fact and what are your thoughts on how seminal a work it stands as today?
DC: Mike Theodore and I had worked with Rodriguez as arrangers for two songs with Harry Balk on Impact, which didn’t really end up going anywhere.About a year after those records, Mike called and said ‘Let’s go hear Rodriguez again.’He was playing in this place called The Sewer, this seedy, funky kind of place on the river.We go in and here’s this guy strumming away, facing the wall.All you can see is the back of his head and his shoulders.We couldn’t see his face at all, so right away that got our attention.It forced us to listen to the lyrics.We both knew that this guy had something, so we got Clarence Avant at Sussex to allow us to do Cold Fact.He was pretty nervous, because he had been working more as a writer than a performer, so about half the record he played with a band, and half we recorded him and his guitar and built the band around him.We knew he was ahead of his time.We looked at him as kind of an inner city version of Bob Dylan, coming up with songs about what he saw in his Detroit neighborhood.
IRT: Please tell me your favorite memory of working with Marvin Gaye.
DC:I think that would be when I did I Want Youwith him in LA.When I moved to LA Mike Theodore and I were staff producers at Sussex, and also worked at Mo West doing the Motown stuff, where Marvin and Leon Ware were doing this album.Since Marvin was producing, he was out with the musicians the whole time, letting us know what he wanted, trying to share his vision with us.He wasa very nice man, easy to work with, an easy demeanor.He was very enjoyable to work with.
IRT: Did you ever get the chance to work with the Jackson 5?
DC: The first time I encountered them I was in the studio at Hittsville in Detroit.I looked over and coming in was the whole Jackson family.Michael was just a small guy than, and his dad and whole family were with him.His dad was watching the special effect pedals I was using, and asked me what they were.I explained them to him, and he said he wanted to buy those pedals for the Jackson Five, so I gave him the number of Joe Pedorsic at Capital Music where I had gotten mine.
I think we recorded some of the original tracks for their record, but I think when Berry heard them, he might have thought we were a bit too funky, and the tracks got re-recorded.
The last time I ran into them was in the early 70’s when I was living in LA.I had gotten a call to play a big event for all the distributors.I had just played a similar kind of thing with Barbara Streisand.So I asked when the rehearsal would be, and they said ‘well the last guitarist left during rehearsal’ so there wasn’t going to be a rehearsal.I thought ‘that’s not really the kind of thing I want to get involved with’ but they told me they hadn’t just been asked to get a guitar player, they’d been asked to get me specifically.So I performed with them and there were no major glitches.They were doing things like a medley around Benny Goodman’s ‘Sing Sing Sing’ and all of that, and this time the little kid in front was Janet.That was probably the last time I worked with them as a group.
IRT: When was the first time you ever heard hip-hop?
DC:I believe the time my engineer played me Public Enemy was the first time I had heard hip-hop, so I guess the first time I heard hip-hop I was playing on the record!
IRT: In terms of the heavy amount of times it was sampled, what is your favorite utilization of the use of "Scorpio" in a song, be it hip-hop or R&B, and why?
DC: Boy.There are so many of them, but the first time I heard one stands out.I was in a recording studio, and I asked the engineer for an example of some of the things that people were paying attention to at the time.He played me some Public Enemy, and I hear my guitar part from ‘Getting It On.’I said ‘I don’t remember getting paid for that session!’
My son James actually listened to a lot of hip-hop, and he was familiar with all of my music.He once sat me down with about 20 cassettes, and told me these all were using my music.I talked to Clarence Avant, who owns the copyrights for the Sussex material, which is a lot of what they were using, and he was able to help get me paid and credit as a writer on many of the songs.He wanted to avoid the kind of thing where all the labels were getting sued.And as a result of that, a lot of the hip-hop guys know me, which has been good. Chuck D and I still stay in contact via e-mail.
IRT: Was there ever an instance that you heard one of your guitar licks sampled in a modern song that got your goat? Please explain.
DC: Not really, generally speaking they would take something I played and re-create something else with it.As long as I started seeing writing credits on my BMI statements for songs I didn’t remember writing, I was okay with it.I never heard something where they took some of my music and changed it all around and made it stupid or anything.
IRT: What was the approach you took in regards to the creation of the the soundtrack to Black Belt Jones?
DC: I had moved to California with Mike Theodore, because when Motown left Detroit it created kind of a vacuum.Before that everyone in Detroit were getting production deals. There were also all these smaller labels and Detroit had a very active music scene. But when Motown left a lot of that left with them.So Mike & I moved to LA, and one of the reasons for that was that I had always wanted to do film; I’d always wanted to do a theme song.I’d asked Clarence Avant to hook me up with some film folks, so one day he called up and said there was this movie Black Belt Jones that had been shot, and they felt it needed a main theme.I met the folks at Warner Brothers, they showed me the film, and told me where they wanted music.So I wrote it, Mike did the horns and strings, and I put together this vocal counterpoint and ran the vocals through a wah-wah pedal, and that was that.
IRT: Do you have a favorite soundtrack that you worked on in the 70s? Which one and why that one?
DC: I actually didn’t do that many soundtracks.A lot of the soundtrack material that people know me for is songs that were taken from albums, like for example the songs that were in Hell Up In Harlem came from album tracks.I did do quite a few cues for the SWAT TV show, dramatic cues and things like that but generally speaking I didn’t do that much film work.I did a fair amount of TV work though, for things like Midnight Special and In Concert.
IRT: Do you have a favorite memory of your first appearance on Soul Train?
DC: I knew Don Cornelius from when he was a DJ in Chicago, and I had done a concert with him at McCormack Place.When Soul Train was happening of course Scorpio was moving up the charts, and they’d said to me that they wanted to have me on the show.For that show, bands were mostly lip synching to their records when they were on, but I actually brought the whole band in and performed live.It was a packed house, and they told me, “When we told the kids you’d be here, we had about 25% more kids show up than we could fit.”The whole thing was really fun.We actually ended up playing on that show twice.
IRT: Now that the new album is out, has there been any talk about reissuing your solo catalog? Is that something that is already in the works? Do you have a dearth of unreleased material available in your archives?
DC: As far as unreleased material, the only thing I can really think of is a live recording of me with Lyman Woodard & Melvin Davis.A lot of my solo work has been re-issued, at least in part. Fuel Records just came out with a collection of my material from that label a couple of months ago.Some of my Westbound catalog came out on Ace.These are all selections of course, more like a selected discography.There isn’t anything out that has ALL my material.There’s still the Hair & Thangs album.Right now there’s basically a couple CDs out with material collected from ten or eleven albums.
IRT: As a country music fan, did you ever have an opportunity over the years to ever work with one of your heroes in that genre? Who would you have most liked to work with and why?
DC:When I first started, I was a big Hank Williams fan, and also Johnny Cash of course.I played on my first country rockabilly record when I was 15. You can actually hear that one on YouTube. It’s called I’m Gone with Vic Gallon.You can hear me do two rockabilly solos on that one.The only other chance I really had to do anything like country was when I did an album of Hank Williams songs with Del Shannon.
IRT: Please tell me a story about working with Ringo Starr on Goodnight Vienna. What was that experience like?
DC: Ringo was a very nice guy.We did a very typical LA all-night session for that album, and I didn’t get to spend much time with him.A few weeks later though, I was in the High Sierras on horseback, and I got a call from my answering service saying that Richard Perry, the producer, wanted some more guitar work.So I came back and got to the studio, and it was just me and Ringo because Richard was about an hour late to the session.So Ringo got to hear all about my trip to the Sierras!He was an extremely nice guy.I tried not to ask too much about the Beatles and all that because I’m sure he’s talked enough about them, but it was a good conversation.We just sat there shooting the breeze till Richard showed up in his Bentley.
IRT: Of all the records you produced in the 1970s, which one was your favorite and why?
DC: It always comes down to ‘Scorpio,’ because that’s my signature song, and it has endured for all this time.Frank Sinatra I believe once said that if an artist has one song, that people know immediately and associate with them, that’s a pretty good measure of success, and Scorpio has always been that song for me.There’s Black Belt Jones, and of course all the Motown material, and Taurus and everything, but Scorpio has always been the one for me, and of course it’s had a new life through all of the samples, which is great.
TV On the Radio's Gerard Smith dies of lung cancer
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY AP Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- TV on the Radio bassist Gerard Smith died Wednesday of lung cancer, the band said in an announcement on its website. He was 36.
Smith's death comes a little over a month after it was announced that he was battling the disease.
At the time, the band said Smith had health insurance, great medical care and had already seen "dramatic results." However, Smith was unable to join the band on tour as they promoted their last album, "Nine Types of Light."
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, the rest of his bandmates declined to talk about his illness out of respect for Smith.
"We are very sad to announce the death of our beloved friend and bandmate, Gerard Smith, following a courageous fight against lung cancer," the band said on the website. "We will miss him terribly."
The band canceled its concerts for the next few days, starting Wednesday in Detroit.
Smith had described himself as a subway performer in New York when he was recruited for the band, who have been hailed by critics for masterful albums like "Return to Cookie Mountain" and "Dear Science."
Smith recalled in a 2008 interview with The Brooklyn Rail, a journal on the arts, politics and culture, how lead singer Tunde Adebimpe discovered him and added him to the band.
"I saw Tunde in the movie 'Jump Tomorrow' on IFC. And I was super addicted to film at that time. A year later, I was playing on the subway platform here, at the Bedford stop, and he kept giving me money. And then I was like, I recognize this guy. Then it finally clicked, and I said, 'Dude you were in that movie! I loved that movie!' That film had meant a lot to me, especially because there was a black actor that wasn't in the ghetto, and there weren't a lot of politics," he said. "He was being a human being and not only a black actor. And that meant a lot to me."
In that same interview, Adebimpe told Smith: "What you were playing was just so far and above what was normally down there that I can't even describe it. I was just like, that dude's awesome."
Smith grew up in Long Island, N.Y., and studied fine arts in high school but would later abandon it.
"I had a difficult time, to say the least, toward the end of my fine arts career," he told L.A. Record in 2008. "I started to look around and see that I was one of the few - if not only - black fine arts students and I saw that again in the art world itself."
Smith didn't expect that his stint in TV on the Radio would have lasting meaning
"I just never took it seriously ... I never imagined that this would be a position that I would be in," he said in the same interview.
Smith told the blog the Pistola Press in 2009, after the band went on hiatus, he was planning to use his time off to spend time with his son and get better at his craft, but also to embrace life.
"Yeah, trying to get back what little bit of life I can and appreciate that ..." he said.
He and Adebimpe also scored the music for the 2010 documentary "The Lottery."
TV On The Radio Live on Letterman, 2008:
"New Cannonball Blues" from the amazing new album Nine Types of Light:
We here at the IRT are devastated to announce the passing of rock 'n' roll's greatest saxophonist, Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band, who succumbed to complications following the suffering of a stroke six days earlier at his Florida home, according to Reuters.
people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the oppurtunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."
