DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. We have got yet one more in at this time’s lineup of R&B, rockabilly, and rock ‘n’ roll interviews. A number of the best soul and rhythm and blues recordings would not have been made if not for Jerry Wexler. Wexler was a companion in Atlantic Information from the early Nineteen Fifties by way of the mid-Seventies. His specialty was discovering nice singers and matching them with the correct band and backup singers to create a sound that was each artistically true and commercially profitable. The brief record of individuals with whom he is labored contains The Drifters, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Solomon Burke. Terry spoke with Jerry Wexler stay from the Public Radio Convention in Washington, D.C., in 1993. He died in 2008 on the age of 91. Listed here are only a few of the information for which we now have Jerry Wexler to thank.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I’VE BEEN LOVING YOU TOO LONG”)
OTIS REDDING: (Singing) I have been loving you too lengthy to cease now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WHAT I’D SAY”)
RAY CHARLES: (Singing) See the woman with the diamond ring? She is aware of methods to shake that factor, all proper now, now, now. Hey, hey. Hey, hey.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR”)
WILSON PICKETT: (Singing) I am gonna wait until the midnight hour. That is when my love come tumbling down. I am gonna wait until the midnight hour, when there isn’t any one else round.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “UNDER THE BOARDWALK”)
THE DRIFTERS: (Singing) Beneath the boardwalk, out of the solar. Beneath the boardwalk, we’ll be having some enjoyable. Beneath the boardwalk, folks strolling above. Beneath the boardwalk, we’ll be making love. Beneath the boardwalk, boardwalk.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RESPECT”)
ARETHA FRANKLIN: (Singing) Ooh. What you need, child, I bought it. What you want, you realize I bought it. All I am askin’ is for a little bit respect once you come dwelling (just a bit bit). Hey child (just a bit bit) once you get dwelling, (Just a bit bit) mister (just a bit bit). I ain’t gonna do you flawed whilst you’re gone.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
TERRY GROSS: I need to get began together with your work with Aretha Franklin. I believe that is an excellent place to begin. Now, she had made about – oh, I do not know – 10 or so recordings on Columbia Information earlier than coming…
JERRY WEXLER: Sure.
GROSS: …To Atlantic. John Hammond produced her, and he was producing her like a jazz singer, form of within the Dinah Washington custom.
WEXLER: Yeah.
GROSS: You – when she got here to Atlantic, you labored together with her. You heard one thing fully totally different. What did you hear once you began producing her?
WEXLER: Effectively, I heard the Aretha Franklin who sang in church, who sang “Valuable Lord” when she was 13 years previous. And a person within the viewers was so overcome he stated, hear at her. Hear at her. And I listened, and it wasn’t a lot that I attempted a brand new strategy to her. It is that what she did match very effectively in with what we have been doing anyhow.
GROSS: Effectively, you sat her down on the piano.
WEXLER: Proper.
GROSS: You had her play herself, which I do not assume she’d carried out on the information earlier than that.
WEXLER: Not very a lot. Yeah.
GROSS: And then you definitely took her right down to Muscle Shoals, to Alabama, to the identical place, really, that Arthur Alexander began earlier than he grew to become…
WEXLER: Precisely, and I need you to know that I am not one of many individuals who did not pay him.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: What was it like at Muscle Shoals? What did you hear there in that Southern sound that you simply wished?
WEXLER: Effectively, it was the best way they recorded, which was ad-lib recording, with out written preparations – constructing the track from the get-go, simply from the chords. And the musicians made a superb contribution. So these have been preparations which all of us did collectively. And so they have been simply as a lot preparations as something that was ever carried out by Henry Mancini, within the sense of being an organized piece of music.
GROSS: So that you took Aretha right down to Muscle Shoals, recorded, like, a observe and a half together with her, and there was this actually large struggle.
WEXLER: (Laughter).
GROSS: What was the struggle about?
WEXLER: There was an explosion that went on due to an excessive amount of Jack Daniels and never sufficient prudence.
(LAUGHTER)
WEXLER: And it needed to do with Ted White, who was Aretha’s husband on the time, who bought into harmful, over-friendly consuming from the identical jug with a gentleman who can finest be described as a card-carrying redneck trumpet participant. And it bought into what we name the handfuls, the Southern dozens, after which it bought nasty.
GROSS: (Laughter).
WEXLER: And the session blew up, and we went again to New York with one track full, which was “I By no means Beloved A Man.” And a three-piece observe on the opposite aspect, which was “Do Proper Lady.” And all we had there was rhythm guitar, bass and drums, which isn’t an entire lot to go on (laughter).
GROSS: Not even vocal.
WEXLER: No vocal. No piano. No background vocal. After which we completed by bringing Aretha and her sisters into the studio. And it was a fairly good piece of extemporization, in that beginning with this very minimal observe, Aretha laid down an organ half and a piano half. After which she sang the lead, after which she and her sisters bought collectively and did the background. And it was a really full, completed file put collectively, I would say, with spit and chewing gum.
GROSS: You produced “Respect.” Is there a narrative behind how the sock it to me’s landed on there?
WEXLER: Effectively, yeah, the story is that when Otis Redding did it, it was solely a unique track. The sock it to me’s have been Aretha Franklin’s concept the place she injected into the track, which connoted a sure concept of social respect, in all probability the notion of ethnic respect, mixed with a little bit even handed lubricity on her half.
(LAUGHTER)
WEXLER: The respect that she was speaking about was what you would possibly name – very bluntly name correct sexual consideration.
(LAUGHTER)
WEXLER: But it surely was her transmutation of Otis Redding’s little Southern track. As a matter of reality, I used to be mixing the file in our studio on Broadway, and Otis walked in. He stated, that little gal carried out took my track. However he meant that in a really kindly approach ‘trigger he noticed the money registers ringing.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: Now, your first studio was really the workplace…
WEXLER: That is proper.
GROSS: …Of Atlantic Information.
WEXLER: Proper.
GROSS: Who did you – ‘trigger when Atlantic was younger, you did not have a studio. So what’d you do? You’d transfer out the chairs into the hallway…
WEXLER: Effectively…
GROSS: …Everytime you need to file?
WEXLER: We did have a studio. It was our workplace, and it was a studio as a result of we had tools in it. And…
GROSS: Proper.
WEXLER: My companion Ahmet Ertegun and I shared this large room. We had two desks that have been catty-corner, canted towards one another. And what we’d do is push them towards the wall, stack them. After which our engineer Tom Dowd would set out camp chairs, a number of microphones and one mic within the corridor for echo.
GROSS: We’re simply going to regulate your mic a little bit bit there.
WEXLER: Yeah.
GROSS: There’s a lot {that a} file producer is up towards, typically the true sudden. And I believe an awesome instance of that’s once you have been producing The Drifters’ model of “Beneath The Boardwalk.”
WEXLER: All proper.
GROSS: Let’s begin with the start of that story. To begin with, they did not need to even file the track.
WEXLER: That is proper.
GROSS: You gave them an ultimatum.
WEXLER: Proper. I used to be not the road producer of that track. I used to be performing as a supervisor, you realize, as an govt of the corporate. And The Drifters have been at all times a priority of mine. And an awesome producer – deceased – Bert Berns, was producing the file, and neither he nor any of The Drifters might stand the track. They simply could not purchase it. And I did not need to intervene ‘trigger Bert was the producer however – this sounds, like, very self-congratulatory (laughter). And I stated, this track must be carried out. And I stated, you’ll be able to choose all the remainder. I stated, or else ain’t no session. Yeah.
GROSS: Why’d you just like the track a lot?
WEXLER: As a result of it gave the impression of successful.
GROSS: OK. Adequate motive.
WEXLER: (Laughter).
GROSS: OK. So what occurred to the lead singer the night time earlier than…
WEXLER: Oh, yeah.
GROSS: …The session?
WEXLER: The lead singer on the time was a person named Rudy Lewis. , we had three unbelievable lead singers in The Drifters. The primary was Clyde McPhatter. The second was Rudy Lewis. His title will not be as well-known, however he did some nice songs. And the third was Ben E. King, who’s having an awesome resurgence with “Stand By Me.” I imply, you’ll be able to’t flip round with out listening to it anymore.
However Rudy Lewis, sadly, the night time earlier than the session was discovered useless within the lodge room with a hypodermic needle in his arm. And the – I believe that was the – yeah, the night time earlier than the session. And we tried to name off the session, however it was a giant date. And we had employed loads of union musicians, and the union wasn’t chopping us any slack in any respect. They gave us 24 hours. So we moved the session forward yet one more day, however then we could not even change the charts. So we had to make use of Johnny Moore to sing the lead and with out even the important thing change, and he managed to sing it in the important thing that was put to him. And the attention-grabbing factor concerning the file was we promoted all of it alongside the Jap Seaboard in Atlantic Metropolis and so forth. And it simply – it evokes summer time on a regular basis.
GROSS: And also you really did loads of that your self, did not you? Packed up the automobile and drove round selling the file.
WEXLER: Oh, yeah.
GROSS: ‘Trigger you wished it to interrupt so unhealthy. Yeah.
WEXLER: That is proper. And we did loads of that in these days.
GROSS: Now, you labored with Otis Redding so much throughout…
WEXLER: Yeah.
GROSS: …His profession.
WEXLER: I used to be not Otis’ producer. I need you to appreciate that. Otis was produced at Stax Information in Memphis by that nice workforce who – Jim Stewart and Booker T. & the M.G.’s with – particularly Steve Cropper.
GROSS: Now, you noticed him change so much as he grew to become greater.
WEXLER: Oh, sure.
GROSS: Now, what was he like at first earlier than he was very well-known? What was he like on stage?
WEXLER: Otis was quite simple, very unaffected, however he had the magic. And when he got here to New York after his first hit file, I picked him up on the airport. No roadies, no one, no nothing, simply sole Otis. And he opened on the Apollo, and he simply stood there, simply straight on together with his arms at his aspect, did not transfer. One other one who began like that was Marvin Gaye. However they realized some stagecraft. However what actually kicked Otis into transferring was having to comply with Sam & Dave…
GROSS: (Laughter).
WEXLER: …Who was once described as a stage filled with Jackie Wilsons.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: That is actually nice. No, you realize, we have been speaking earlier than the way you introduced Aretha Franklin right down to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. You introduced Wilson Pickett right down to Memphis to file.
WEXLER: Proper.
GROSS: You actually beloved that Southern sound that was popping out of…
WEXLER: Proper.
GROSS: …A number of the bands there. Why’d you consider bringing him there?
WEXLER: Effectively, ‘trigger every thing was winding down in New York. I imply, it was entropy. We simply could not get out of our personal approach. We had been very profitable yr after yr. However our model of recording was a daily old-time commonplace model utilizing arrangers with written preparations. Now, when you need to change an association, and also you nearly at all times do to accommodate the vicissitudes of the track and the place you are going, it is complete agony for the entrepreneur to see that clock going round…
GROSS: (Laughter).
WEXLER: …Whereas a person goes round with an eraser, erasing little notes on 13 charts.
(LAUGHTER)
WEXLER: And this Southern model of recording, the place it is simply – all you will have is chord indications. You exit. You sing a lick. Do it like this, fellas. Bang. Here is the brand new chord, you realize. However perhaps that is overstating it. However really, there is a spontaneity and a unbelievable new aspect that is available in as a result of the musicians are natural to the thought.
GROSS: So that you heard that it might work…
WEXLER: I heard the sound.
GROSS: …With Wilson Pickett.
WEXLER: I heard the sound, and I introduced Pickett to Memphis, and we minimize “Midnight Hour” and loads of different issues there all in a rush. It was nice.
BIANCULLI: Jerry Wexler talking to Terry Gross in 1993 stay from the Public Radio Convention in Washington, D.C.
On Monday’s present, we conclude our archive collection R&B, rockabilly and early rock ‘n’ roll with Dion, who introduced his guitar and sang some songs. Additionally, songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer Allen Toussaint, who was on the piano for our 1988 interview and sang a few of his early songs, together with “Lipstick Traces.” I hope you’ll be able to be a part of us.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT’S “ROSETTA”)
BIANCULLI: FRESH AIR’s govt producer is Danny Miller. Sam Briger is our managing producer. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with further engineering assist by Joyce Lieberman, Julian Herzfeld and Diana Martinez.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT’S “ROSETTA”)
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