DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. I am David Bianculli, professor of tv research at Rowan College. We proceed our R&B, rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll collection with lyricist Jerry Leiber and composer Mike Stoller, who wrote a few of the most memorable rock ‘n’ roll songs of the Nineteen Fifties and ’60s.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KANSAS CITY”)
WILBERT HARRISON: (Singing) I’ll Kansas Metropolis. Kansas Metropolis right here I come. I’ll Kansas Metropolis. Kansas Metropolis right here I come. They obtained some loopy little girls there, and I am gonna get me one.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JAILHOUSE ROCK”)
ELVIS PRESLEY: (Singing) The warden threw a celebration within the county jail. The jail band was there, they usually started to wail. The band was leaping, and the joint started to swing. It’s best to have heard these knocked-out jailbirds sing. Let’s rock. Everyone, let’s rock.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ON BROADWAY”)
GEORGE BENSON: (Singing) They are saying the neon lights are brilliant on Broadway. They are saying there’s at all times magic within the air.
THE SEARCHERS: (Singing) I took my troubles right down to Madame Rue, you understand, that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth. She’s obtained a path on thirty fourth and Vine promoting little bottles of Love Potion No. 9.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RUBY BABY”)
DION AND THE BELMONTS: (Singing) Oh, Ruby, Ruby, I would like ya. Like a ghost, I am gonna hang-out ‘ya. Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, will you be mine someday?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CHARLIE BROWN”)
THE COASTERS: (Singing) Fe-fe, fi-fi, fo-fo, fum, I odor smoke within the auditorium. Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown. He is a clown, that Charlie Brown. He is gonna get caught, simply you wait and see. Why’s everyone at all times pickin’ on me?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “STAND BY ME”)
BEN E KING: (Singing) When the night time has come and the land is darkish and the moon is the one mild we’ll see, no I will not be afraid. Oh, I will not be afraid simply so long as you stand, stand by me. So darling, darling, stand by me, oh, stand by me. Oh stand, stand by me, stand by me. If the sky that we glance upon…
BIANCULLI: Leiber and Stoller wrote for Elvis Presley, The Coasters, the Drifters and Ben E. King. They not solely wrote songs, they usually produced them. In act, Leiber and Stoller had been the primary rock ‘n’ roll producers to really get credit score on a report for his or her work. One in all rock’s biggest producers, Phil Spector, obtained his begin as considered one of Leiber and Stoller’s assistants.
Leiber and Stoller met in LA when Leiber was nonetheless in highschool, they usually had been quickly writing songs professionally. Leiber was the lyrics half of the workforce, and he was recognized for sassy phrases that captured the vernacular spoken by younger folks of his day.
Jerry Leiber died in 2011 on the age of 78. Terry spoke to Leiber and Stoller in 1991. They started by listening to the unique 1953 model of “Hound Canine” sung by Massive Mama Thornton.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HOUND DOG”)
BIG MAMA THORNTON: (Singing) You ain’t nothing however a hound canine, been snoopin’ spherical my door. You ain’t nothing however a hound canine, been snoopin’ spherical my door. You may wag your tail, however I ain’t gonna feed you no extra. You instructed me you was excessive class, however I can see by means of that. Sure, you instructed me you was excessive class, however I can see by means of that. And daddy, I do know you ain’t no actual cool cat. You ain’t nothing however a hound canine…
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
TERRY GROSS: Nicely, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, welcome to FRESH AIR. The report we have been listening to, Massive Mama Thornton’s recording of “Hound Canine,” was your first main hit as songwriters and producers. What was it about her that led to this music?
JERRY LEIBER: Nicely, Mike and I had been invited to Johnny Otis’ rehearsal studio to hearken to and have a look at a few of his artists. Massive Mama was considered one of them, and he or she was actually formidable. She was scary-looking. She was large, and he or she should have weighed about, oh, wherever from 275 to 350. And she or he had this actually gutty, guttural growling sound in her voice.
And the each of us fell in love along with her, and we simply cherished what she seemed like, and we cherished what she gave the impression of. She sang “Ball And Chain,” and we determined to take off that minute and go to Mike’s home and attempt to write one thing for her.
GROSS: Nicely, how did you give you this music, although?
LEIBER: Nicely, Mike was driving, and I used to be banging on the roof of the automobile. And I used to be making an attempt to give you one thing nasty that might be on the identical time playable that would not be censored, you understand. And the closest I may get to what I used to be considering was you ain’t nothing however a hound canine.
GROSS: So that you had been considering four-letter phrase, epithet, and what you got here up, although, with hound canine.
LEIBER: Proper, which type of, you understand, made it – it felt proper, and it appeared like it will be satisfactory.
GROSS: Mike, let me ask you the way you assume Elvis dealt with this music in a different way from Massive Mama Thornton.
MIKE STOLLER: How he dealt with it in a different way? Nicely, he dealt with it very in a different way. He did not sing it in the identical custom of blues intonation that Massive Mama used. And in addition the lyrics had been significantly totally different as a result of Massive Mama’s – the way in which the music was written for Massive Mama, it was actually a few gigolo. It is a girl complaining a few gigolo.
And Elvis could not sing that music. So he sang a model of it which I believe, as I am instructed, he heard from a lounge act in Las Vegas that he heard singing the music in Vegas.
Now, I had heard that he knew Massive Mama’s report and cherished it, however it was solely after he heard this lounge act do it that it appeared applicable for a male singer.
GROSS: A number of the songs that you simply wrote over time had been novelty songs – songs like “Charlie Brown,” “Love Potion No. 9,” “Yakety Yak,” “Poison Ivy.” I believe I simply named all Coasters songs right here. However how did you get so concerned with novelty songs?
LEIBER: We did not consider them as novelties. We thought…
STOLLER: Darkish dramas.
(LAUGHTER)
STOLLER: We had been each making an attempt to mimic Tolstoy and Dickens, and I assume we simply fell in need of the mark. We wrote novelty songs as a result of we’re each primarily gag writers, and we like to inform humorous tales and anecdotes.
BIANCULLI: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller chatting with Terry Gross in 1991. Extra after a break. That is FRESH AIR.
That is FRESH AIR. Let’s get again to our R&B, rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll week and Terry’s 1991 interview with lyricist Jerry Leiber and composer Mike Stoller.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GROSS: One of many issues that you’re well-known for having pioneered was bringing a string part to rock ‘n’ roll or to rhythm and blues.
LEIBER: That was Mike’s fault.
GROSS: Yeah. Let me ask you. You recognize, on the The Drifters’ recording…
LEIBER: (Laughter).
GROSS: …Of “There Goes My Child,” that is the basic instance of you bringing strings on. What went by means of your thoughts to do it?
STOLLER: I can inform you precisely what was on my thoughts – simply the road, the melodic line. And I used to be enjoying it. I used to joke about this one as a result of it gave the impression of Borodin, and it gave the impression of one of many Caucasian melodies. And…
LEIBER: I do not know in case you get the pun, however he is been saying this for a few years, and I at all times thought it was humorous…
GROSS: Proper.
LEIBER: …The truth that he would use a Caucasian melody on this recording.
STOLLER: However it was – Jerry heard it, and he mentioned, that seems like strings, and I mentioned, why not? And so why not? We had 5 violins and one cello, they usually had been all principally enjoying in unison.
LEIBER: ‘Trigger Jerry Wexler would not spring for six violins and two celli.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: Now, one other factor that occurred on this report was you launched a Latin rhythm that you simply used…
STOLLER: The baion rhythm was one which each Jerry and I adored, and we had at all times seemed for a spot to make use of it. We would used it possibly as soon as earlier than on a early report that was not significantly profitable, and we had the chance to apply it to this report date. And there occurred to be a timpani left over from one other recording session within the studio, and we used it.
Now, the drummer was not a percussionist. He was a – only a lure drummer, and he did not know how you can use the tuning pedal on the timp. So he performed one notice all through the whole factor, which gave it a moderately weird, muddy backside with every kind of bizarre overtones. And it was type of fascinating, although. And that is the place we first…
LEIBER: Used…
STOLLER: …Had a profitable use of that baion rhythm, which in case anyone’s questioning is growth, boom-boom, growth, boom-boom.
LEIBER: Which lastly was used, I believe, and is chargeable for possibly over a thousand hits as a result of this Brazilian rhythm helps a gradual ballad with out the ballad seeming to be gradual or sluggish. It retains it transferring. And everybody from Burt Bacharach to Phil Spector to you title it have leaned closely on the assist of this rhythm sample.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THERE GOES MY BABY”)
THE DRIFTERS: (Singing) Bo-bo, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo. There she goes. Doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo. There she goes. Doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo. Bo-bo. Doo-doo, doo-doo. Bo-bo. Doo-doo, doo-doo. There goes my child, transferring on down the road. Marvel the place, surprise the place, surprise the place she is sure? I broke her coronary heart and made her cry. Now I am alone, so on their lonesome. What can I do? What can I do? There goes my child. Whoa.
GROSS: My friends had been the songwriting and manufacturing workforce of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. I need to thanks each very a lot for speaking with us.
LEIBER: Thanks.
STOLLER: It was enjoyable.
LEIBER: Righto. Yeah, it was enjoyable.
BIANCULLI: Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller talking with Terry Gross in 1991. Arising, we conclude this week’s R&B, rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll collection of interviews, which continues by means of Labor Day, with report producer Jerry Wexler. That is FRESH AIR.
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