Author: Joe Boone

The Funky Drummer! Stubblefield and Starks at Memphis Drum Shop

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date August 9, 2013

CREDIT: Joe Boone

Memphis got a double dose of funk on Wednesday, when the Memphis Drum shop hosted drumming legends Clyde Stubblefield and John “Jabo” Starks. Both men played on James Brown’s essential funk hits of the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Both were in town for the Memphis Drum Shop’s “In-Store Clinic” series. I arrived as both were enjoying lunch from Soul Fish with shop owner Jim Pettit and store staff. Stubblefield was reticent in contrast to the loquacious Starks.

“This place is a museum,” Starks said of Memphis Drum Shop. “If you say ‘drum’ it’s in here. It’s the best-organized store I’ve ever been in, bar none. And I’m not greasing my friend Jim because he’s standing here.” I mentioned that I come to the store even though I’m a bassist. “You got no business at this store,” joked Starks, who kept the lunch lively throughout.

Memphis Drum Shop owner Jim Pettit with Jabo Starks and Clyde Stubblefield

Joe Boone
Memphis Drum Shop owner Jim Pettit with Jabo Starks and Clyde Stubblefield

While the two frequently worked together with Brown, Stubblefield’s biggest hits are from the late ’60s (“Cold Sweat”, “There Was A Time”, “I Got The Feelin'”, “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud”, “Ain’t It Funky Now”, and “Mother Popcorn”) and Starks’ from the early ’70s (“The Payback”, “Sex Machine”, “Super Bad”, and “Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing”). Brown was a legendary taskmaster to his players and had many bands before working with Stubblefield and Starks. Starks recalled the turmoil around the addition of Phelps brothers Bootsy and Phelps, who were much younger and often oblivious to the expectations of the demanding Godfather.

“The rhythm changed when Bootsy got there. I said, ‘Boy, you got to gel. Once you lock in, I don’t care what you do.’ He played different. It was a 360-degree turn. You see, James was declining. But with [Sex Machine], he shot right back up to the top.”

Stubblefield is of particular musicological interest as the most-sampled drummer in the history of hip-hop. He did not enjoy royalty income from his ubiquitous influence over hip-hip in the 80s and 90s, when his beat for “The Funky Drummer” proved irresistible to emcees and rappers who sampled that beat with its magical combination of rock-solidity and compelling liveliness. Users of the beat include Run DMC, Public Enemy, NWA, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys. It is a masterpiece for the ages, but it provided no remuneration to Stubblefield, who was profiled in a PBS documentary, Copyright Criminals.

Tags Clyde Stubblefield, Drum Shop, Funk, Jabo Starks, James Brown, JBs, Memphis, Memphis Music, Music

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Session Notes: Merry Mobile’s Healthy Limitations

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date August 1, 2013

Earlier this week, Paul Taylor took his band The Merry Mobile down to Hernando and recorded 14 songs in 16 hours over two days at the late Jim Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch studio. Kevin Houston engineered and Luther Dickinson is coproducing the project.

Taylor, known mainly for his work as a sideman on drums and bass, is a multi-instrumentalist and is held in the highest esteem by musicians local and national. The Merry Mobile is his first project in the leadership role.

“Over the past year and a half I’ve realized that I’m getting old quick. So I made a firm decision to form a band as an outlet for my songs. And I play guitar, which is mostly what I do at home. I’ve spent my whole life as a sideman. So it’s been a huge lesson in the amount of work that goes into it.”

Taylor’s goal has been to take advantage of his hard-working band’s gigging experience. The band has played 155 shows over the past year. A spooky fact: the band’s first gig was on July 29, 2012, and the first session was exactly one year later, on July 29, 2013. [Cue dissonant strings.]

Taylor’s goal was to make a live-sounding record hampered by few decisions.

“We did it live on the floor. Ninety-five percent of what you hear is complete band takes. We plan to mix it quickly. So, that’s even less deliberation. It keeps it way fresh. I didn’t want to open up the can of worms and get bogged down in decision-making. These are healthy limitations.”

Taylor plans to self-release the album to 180-gram vinyl and digital download and to have the product in-hand by the end of the year.

“This is totally unlike the solo records. People can tell when one person has played all the parts. This sounds fresher than anything I have ever done.”

themerrymobile.com

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Session Notes: Robert Plant and Allstars at Royal Studios

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date July 15, 2013

CREDIT: Royal Studios 2013

Robert Plant dropped by Royal Studios on Saturday to cut harmonica tracks for the North Mississippi Allstars. Allstars Luther and Cody Dickinson had thought their new album was all but done, when they found themselves in town at the same time as the former Zeppelin front man and blues aficionado. The Dickinson brothers had opened a few dates for Plant in recent years and had talked about getting in some studio time.

Cody Dickinson, Lightnin Malcolm, Robert Plant, Boo Mitchell, and Luther Dickinson

Royal Studios 2013
Cody Dickinson, Lightnin’ Malcolm, Robert Plant, Boo Mitchell, and Luther Dickinson

“It was unexpected,” said Boo Mitchell, owner of the storied Royal Studios and a man not easily star-struck. Royal Studios is famous primarily for recording Al Green’s hits under the direction of Boo Mitchell’s father, the legendary producer Willie Mitchell. The house rhythm section, known as the Hi Rhythm section, backed tons of soul hits and is legendary in its own right.

There are few musical stars as accomplished as Plant. Led Zeppelin’s IV has sold a reported 37 million copies. Still Plant was moved by the experience of working at Royal.

“We let him use Al Green’s mic,” Mitchell said. He dug the sound and the fact that we haven’t changed anything. He had a fabulous time.”

They worked on two tracks and were joined by Lightnin’ Malcolm on bass.
Both Plant and the Allstars had gigs that night. Plant played at the Live at the Garden series and the Allstars at the Recording Academy Memphis Chapter’s 40th Anniversary at the Levitt Shell.

“It was funny, Plant missed his sound check and Cody and Luther did too,” Mitchell said.

The session got off to a wobbly start.

“About 4 my phone rings,” Mitchell said, cutting to a British accent. “‘Is this the studio? This is Robert. I need another harmonica.’ He said he had dropped his into some Indian incense.”

A harp was found and to great effect.

“He should play harmonica more than he does. He is a bad ass harmonica player,” Mitchell said.

Opinion Viewpoint

Gore’s Overlooked Mission

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date May 2, 2013

Al Gore has a new book: The Future. The self-proclaimed nerd and “Atari Democrat” has recast himself in the role of a seer. Following the post-political notoriety of An Inconvenient Truth and the financial windfall from the sale of his Current TV, Gore has created a Steve Jobs-ian persona (black shirts, black and white photography), but his vantage point has taken him far from home.

While born in D.C., Gore followed his father Albert Sr.’s political footsteps to represent Tennessee in the U.S. House and Senate in the 1980s and ’90s. Tennessee was a reliable Democratic stronghold for both Gores in the late 20th century.

But in April 2013, the Tennessee legislature ended its first session under a Republican supermajority that came to power in 2012 onboard Tea-Party populism, which is operating like a “freight train,” according to one GOP legislator.

Victims of Tennessee’s GOP worm-turn are Democratic bases that bore the Gores’ ambitions for two generations: Tort reform capped the revenues of legal contributors and operators. Collective bargaining for teachers was eliminated. Legislature watchers point to political-districting and judicial-appointment bills that could solidify the GOP machine in Tennessee for the foreseeable future.

Has Gore moved on? His website mentions his time in both chambers but omits any reference to Tennessee. His office says he is too consumed with global warming to discuss state politics.

As Tennessee’s Democrats struggle to find a leader, Tennessee’s most accomplished Democrat (and primary beneficiary of more than a decade of party fund-raising) is nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps it’s all beneath him. Maybe he realizes that, in a state where Tea Party tactics earn superlative success, his brand might do more harm than good. Both of these points are wrong.

For Gore’s environmental message, his home legislature should be his primary concern, especially bills for mountaintop removal of coal. Proposed legislation that forces watchdogs to submit recorded instances of animal abuse to authorities will undoubtedly serve as precedent for other legislation protecting polluters and other abusers of civil society.

This sort of law will allow Tennessee to become a dump for polluters and a sanctuary for businesses eschewing regulatory oversight. The legislature touts “job creation,” apparently focusing on polluters, malpracticing health-care providers, and lobbyists.

This is the opposite of everything Gore’s brand represents. It’s not beneath him; it’s the same challenge to which he is calling the whole world. In the state that placed him on the world stage, he is absent.

Gore was ridiculed for saying that he invented the internet. But Gore played an admirable leading role in the government-subsidized technology that revolutionized the world and enabled the platitudinous globalism of The Future. The internet created millions of jobs, linked the cultures of the planet, and drives scientific endeavor from climatology to biology.

In Tennessee — where legislators boast degrees from Bible colleges — STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education policy waits on those who gave us “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. Our state university can’t host an event about sex. One must assume forthcoming assaults on evolution and other religiously derived corruption of state science curricula.

Would you start a medical or technology business in a state with 19th-century educational policies? Does the environment stand a chance here? Can we take Gore’s exhortations seriously if his home state is a junk heap? The sad point is that Gore’s celebrity needs to dance with what originally brung it: Tennessee, at present a distressed and wilting wallflower.

One of the ways Obama got elected was the PayPal-driven micro-financing of his campaign. Rather than rely on major industrial donors, Obama enjoyed the contributions of millions of small donors.

A few tweets from Gore about a Kickstarter campaign for educated, civic-minded candidates in Tennessee would reap contributions disproportionate to those of even big donors. People at Davos, the upscale World Economic Forum, probably eat meals costing more than state senator Stacey Campfield (by his own admission in recent court proceedings) makes in a year.

Imagine if Gore went on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show or Bill Maher’s Real Time and asked a national audience to contribute to Tennessee political races. He might even invest some of that TV capital in green jobs in Tennessee.

Will Al Gore respond to the repudiation — and violation — of his principles in the state that nurtured him? In Tennessee, we’ll wait and see what the future holds.

Joe Boone is a freelance writer and copy editor for the Flyer.

Film Features Film/TV

Sound City sells patient music in fast times.

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date April 11, 2013

If you love music from the last quarter of the 20th century, you’ll flip for Sound City, Nirvana member and Foo Fighter Dave Grohl’s documentary triptych about a recording studio, its mixing console, and the process of capturing music that moves people. Sound City is good enough to make you sympathize with Rick Springfield and also endure first-time writer/director Grohl’s confusion over which way to point the camera. Ignore his narcissism. Sound City is something to see and hear.

Music fans — “civilians” in Memphis — will love the interviews, footage, and sessions. Engineers and producers will be overcome with sympathetic jealousy for the gear, careers, and music. This is Memphis, mind you, and there are enough engineers here to fill the seats at the Memphis Brooks Museum for the single screening on Thursday, April 11th. Get tickets early.

Sound City was a studio that opened in 1970 in Van Nuys, California, and became an improbable fountain of hits during three epochs of popular music. The list of platinum albums made there is mind-boggling. The place is L.A.-filthy and frequently floods. The disarray would send Memphis’ Ardent Studios’ meticulous owner John Fry to the mental ward in Bolivar.

Early on, Sound City was the birthplace of Fleetwood Mac’s third incarnation. Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood give great interviews, and Stevie Nicks doubles down with an original song for the performance-based final third of the film. Tom Petty and Heartbreaker-in-Chief, Mike Campbell, offer charismatic commentary over footage of their long relationship with the studio.

The studio’s fortunes tracked with musical trends that are well-presented. The hair-band ’80s arrive, and interviews with Ratt are gross and footage of Whitesnake reveals the era as a musical Dark Ages when production was distracted by digital technology. Nirvana’s input is well-chronicled in interviews with engineer/producer Butch Vig and bassist Krist Novoselic. Sound City’s Nirvana-derived success carried the facility until its closure in 2011. Grohl fumbles here, neglecting the stories of key staff members.

He instead focuses on the studio’s rare Neve analog recording console, the large knob-covered board that mixes the instruments together. Grohl is glib with Rupert Neve, the elderly genius who invented the console. But he does right by purchasing and maintaining this piece of history.

The film ends with a series of in-studio performances by Trent Reznor, Jim Keltner, and other luminaries. While long, this portion of the film works best. The performances are great, and the sound (drums and guitars!) lives up to its billing. The soundtrack is available now.

Sound City‘s archival footage brings home the point that our Instagram nostalgia culture chose this period to emulate once we could slap a filter on any image. We fake the ’60s and ’70s full-time, and that is Grohl’s well-made point: Analog sound and social performance make music that sounds real and feels human. To paraphrase an old professor, in 50 years, will Skrillex make us weep? After the Gold Rush will.

Sound City

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Thursday, April 11th

7 p.m., $8 or $6 for members

We Recommend We Recommend

Tunica Balloon Bash

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date November 8, 2012

CREDIT: Travel Tunica

So, a bunch of guys from Mississippi are sitting around wondering what to do. The only sensible thing is to learn to fly hot-air balloons, and so they did.

“We all got together and learned to fly,” says Larry Young, one of the 40 or so competitors in this weekend’s inaugural Tunica Balloon Bash, a hot-air balloon challenge sponsored by Travel Tunica. “It’s all been for fun.”

Young has ballooned to 10,000 feet — so high that it’s “really not fun” — and his second solo ride found him dangling from a building. But his enthusiasm endures.

Visitors to the Bash will have the opportunity to ride in a balloon, albeit a tethered one, to a height of 50 feet. Just come by the Fitz, Gold Strike, Hollywood, and Horseshoe casinos. Rides are first come, first served with long lines expected. And, no, you may not go to 10,000 feet.

Also of note is the balloon glow, an evening lighting of the balloons. This visual wonder is a tradition at ballooning competitions in which all competitors fill their vessels and light up the night with the glow of the propane gas torches. The balloons will glow from 5 to 6 p.m. in the parking lots of the Fitz, Gold Strike, Hollywood, and Horseshoe casinos.

Young and other balloonists will compete for more than $12,000 in cash and prizes in the Balloon Federation of America-sanctioned event.

“It’s called sport flying. You learn to fly better in competition. It makes you keener about manipulating the balloon. If you don’t push yourself, you don’t get better,” Young says. “Just don’t cross the river. It takes your recovery team a lot longer to find you.”

The competition is from 7 to 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings with balloon glows and tethered rides scheduled for Friday and Saturday evenings.

1st Annual Tunica Balloon Bash, the casinos of tunica, Mississippi, Friday-Sunday, November 9th-11th.

Visit tunicatravel.com for more information.