|
||||||||||
If
you have come to this page through a frame, |
||||||||||
|
| Home | Discography | Biography |
Maria "Funkyflyy" Granditsky: On the original "Yes, I'm Ready" from 1965, several names that would later become giants in Philly Soul appear. You mentioned that Kenny Gamble sang backgrounds and of course Norman Harris played guitar... Who were some of the others that you worked with -or were around- that later would become Philly Soul icons? Barbara Mason: -Thom Bell came from us.. Linda Creed, she was there. I watched her blossom because I came before her. I watched Earl Young.. He came from a group called the Volcanoes which had a hit record called "Storm Warning". Now, the Volcanoes were produced by Weldon McDougal and Jimmy Bishop. Earl Young came out of that group. Before he was in The Trammps, he was not a drummer, he was a singer. And Earl and The Trammps, again under the leadership of Norman, went with Atlantic Records. Norman made the deal for the Trammps which enabled "Disco Inferno" to come out. My good friend Ron Kersey, who Norman Harris discovered and who wrote "Disco Inferno" for the Trammps, I'm told he's now in a coma in Los Angeles. I haven't seen Ron in so long, but he's been in a coma for many, many months now and we don't know whether he will live. He is still young, he's a great writer, great producer. Ron Kersey was also in M.F.S.B... -Yes, yes! He also helped Norman with the First Choice stuff. He played keyboards on that. There were so many of us. We were just a bunch of kids that only wanted to make great music; we probably weren't as interested in looking after our money as we were in presenting this great music to the world. How about Bobby Eli? He played guitar on many of your albums..
If we return to 1976, how did you feel during the period when the Curtom deal didn't work out and you had to ask Norman for help? Did it make you depressed? I know I'd probably feel that way. -Oh, no! Not at all! I stopped when Disco came in because I felt that I was not really a Disco artist, say like a Donna Summer. I was not in the same type of music as she was so when I couldn't get a deal, I kind of understood why. It was because I couldn't make those kinds of records. I said to myself "well, something will come along for me". I kept on listening to the radio and watched television and saw what new artists were coming out. During that whole period, that Dance-era, I just felt that there wasn't a place for me and that I had to wait. And lo and behold, when I came back I did it with the same kind of music I had been doing all along. On "I'm Your Woman, She Is Your Wife", I just returned to the old R&B stuff, to see if people would like that kind of music and they did. That let me know "gee, OK, there's still room for me". Now it's 1998 and I feel there's still room for me. Perhaps even more so than back then. After you left Prelude, you signed with WMOT (We Men Of Talent) Records, home of groups like Fat Larry's Band, Philly Cream, Captain Sky, Heaven & Earth, Count Coolout, Frankie "Double Dutch" Smith and many others. There you released an album called "A Piece Of My Life", produced by Butch Ingram in 1980. How did you meet him? -I met him through Alan Rubens, the CEO of WMOT. Butch and myself did a good album, but it didn't too that well because the company didn't promote it. That was the problem, not that the product wasn't good. He and I produced that album together. I did get one R&B hit from that album called "She's Got The Papers (But I Got The Man)" in 1981. There were some other songs on that album that maybe did a little something. I remember that one of the songs, "On And Off", was quite popular in London. But basically it was not a big album and I did not get a lot of recognition until 1984 when we did "Another Man".
-We called those "situation songs" and it was a continuation of Shirley Brown's "Woman To Woman". But Richard "Dimples" Fields started it. At the end of his record, Betty Wright comes in and answers him. His record was "She's Got Papers On Me" and I wrote the answer to him which was "She's Got The Papers (But I Got The Man)". Then I did my own sequels, and I incorporated it into "Another Man". One day we're gonna put out like a whole story. We really had a thing going there. If we all could have performed together it would probably have been a sell out (laughs). In fact, Betty Wright, myself, Richard and Shirley Brown, were asked to do it at the time. I can't recall hearing any "situation songs" in a long time.. -No, and I think that's because the children don't have much to write about because they haven't experienced much in life and they don't have much to pull from. So they go back and get the things that they've heard from "our" era, or either they sample the songs. But we had so much to pull from in the early sixties. I could always listen to other people. Today, I'm listening for things but I don't find anything, so I'm still coming up with my own things. Richard Dimples Field's "She's Got Papers On Me" came out on Boardwalk Records, which was owned by former Buddah and Casablanca executive Neil Bogart. -That's right! And Neil brought Cecil Holmes who was the Vice President of Buddah with him when he left Buddah. Boardwalk wasn't running for that many years, but I recall it very well because it was home to many wonderful artists; your old colleague Curtis Mayfield, the Ohio Players and of course Richard "Dimples" Fields. It's a small world, full of strange coincidences, isn't it! -Yes, it is. Let me say this, Maria. When "She's Got The Papers (But I Got The Man)" hit, Neil called my record label which at that time was WMOT Records and spoke with the CEO, Alan Rubens. Neil said "Alan, you have a great singer on your hands, you have one of my artists". Alan replied "I know, we have Barbara Mason". And Neil said "I always knew she was a great artist". I didn't get a chance to speak with Neil then, but Alan told me Neil had called and congratulated us on our hit record. Just the fact that Neil took the time to call, I thought that was the most wonderful thing. Like with Norman, his death was so untimely. He was very young when he died. He died of cancer. I was so deeply hurt when he died. After you left WMOT, you released "Another Man", produced by Butch Ingram. -Yes. That was in 1984 on a record label called West End Records. It did absolutely marvelous overseas, but it did not do too well here in the United States. A lot of the radio programmers and DJ's thought that the content of the record did not fit their format. It was number one in New York, but it didn't do well in Philadelphia. It may have done well in, say Nebraska. But in a lot of the cities, no one would play it. It was such a huge hit in Europe that I was supposed to go there and tour with Jeffrey Osborne but then something happened with that deal. Something also happened with my deal with West End. In fact I had to sue them because they would not pay me correctly. They made all the money from "Another Man". The only money I made was from performing a little bit in clubs around New York, but the real money that I should have gotten, the producer took it. I was not able to capitalize on "Another Man", even though it was such a big record for me. I remember when we released it. It was somewhere around September-October. By Christmas, we had sold more than sixty thousand records in New York. At that time, Patti LaBelle had a record out called "If Only You Knew" and my record surpassed hers! And in Europe, "Another Man" was outselling Michael Jackson's "Thriller". I enjoyed working with Butch Ingram, he had a good feel for my style, we worked well in the studio, but like the rest of them he wanted to start taking the money, so then I had to get away from him. Butch Ingram took the money?
I have "Don't I Ever Cross Your Mind Sometime". It doesn't say what year it was issued. Did it come out before or after "Another Man"? -I believe we did that after "Another Man". I have to think back now... We needed to do an album, but we didn't complete it because of the law suit. They wanted me to go in the studio and do the album, but I refused. Butch Ingram went in on his own and put together some demos of mine, demos that really didn't sound that great. I think the name of the album is "Tied Up". That would be the last album I did. It was on the West End label. It's not really an album, just a five-track E.P. or something. I remember seeing some European reviews of it and they liked a tune called "Winter Love" and I was just told that it has been released on CD in Japan recently. That's a good song and I'd like to re-record it some day because there are some things on there that I would like to change, things that Butch Ingram did to it. That song is under my publishing company, so I have control over that particular song. That's a good thing, at least that song is under my own publishing company. I wrote it 100%, so in terms of my BMI, all of the paper work is straight. So what happened after that? Did you win the lawsuit against West End? -I kind of won. What I had to do was, I had to take on the label itself, put an injunction against them. That meant that any money I was to receive, I would not get. West End, as people knew it, is no more and I believe that was because of my lawsuit. I felt that they did not treat me fairly, that they did make money from "Another Man". I also sued Butch Ingram. I didn't get much from that end either. . My attorney had to sue the label and that meant that they could not operate and they haven't operated after that. What they have done, though, they have been releasing product on me from when I was with that label and I'm still not being paid, from the mechanical standpoint. They've released "Another Man" again in a couple of countries and even here in the United States. I made a bad deal. I thought it was gonna be a good deal, but it didn't turn out that way. It didn't end on a good note. But I moved on and I'm happy that "Another Man" was such a big hit in Europe. Did you ever hear the answer to "Another Man"? It came out on an independent label and was made by an artist or group by the name of Toût Sweet. It was from the gay guy who stole your man from you and in the song, he's talking about how "Another man is twice as nice"? (laughs) -(laughs) Maria, I thought it was so hilarious. I fell on the floor and laughed (laughs). It was so funny, I laughed 'til I cried. I said "now, what else is gonna come out?" But it stopped. I tell you, if someone would do one today I'd answer them because I know how to do it. But I think no one dares to do it because they're afraid of my answer (laughs). I'm just like a fox, waiting in the hole. I'm quietly waiting..
|
|||||||||
| Home | Discography | Biography | |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
© Maria Granditsky
May 1998. |
||||||||||
Home - Artists - What's New - Links - FAQ - Theme - About Me |
||||||||||
-Bobby Eli! Bobby! Yes! Let me
tell you a story about Bobby. Like myself, Bobby was discovered by Weldon McDougal. Weldon
discovered a lot of a great people. I have to give him much, much, much credit for having
a great ear for talent. I met Bobby when I was still living at home, it was about the time
when I wrote "Trouble Child". I had met Weldon McDougal and he brought by Bobby
Eli to my house. I looked at Bobby and I said "God, you are white". I said
"Weldon, where did you find him? He probably can't even play our music!". I
didn't actually say it, I was thinking this to myself. Weldon said "this guy is
great". Bobby Eli could read music, where Norman Harris was basically just
playing by ear. So when we got ready to record, they wouldn't let Norman play on some of
the things because he couldn't read the charts. In Norman's place, they put a guy by the
name of Roland Chambers. Now, Roland could read the music, like Bobby Eli, and Jimmy
Bishop did not really want anybody on the sessions that couldn't read. He wanted the music
to be the best music produced on me, so that's why he wanted everyone to go to school to
learn.. After we recorded, probably the first two songs on Arctic, Norman Harris decided
to go to school and learn how to read, to learn how to arrange. That enhanced his own
career, so it was a good thing for him. But going back to Bobby, he's doing good, I just
saw him a couple of months ago. He hasn't done anything on a large scale since the old
days, but he's still working and everything. Bobby and I got to talking and he said
"Barbara, I want to see you on record again". I said "well, find me the
greatest deal in the record industry and you'll hear me on record again". 
"She's Got The
Papers (But I Got The Man)" was one song in a whole series of songs that were
connected to each other like sequels and it was the tale of adultery, told by those
involved; The wife, the cheating man and the other woman, each gave their versions of how
they looked at the affair, and who the man really belonged to. You did "She's Got The
Papers (But I Got The Man), "Richard "Dimples" Fields had "She's Got
Papers On Me" and the same year, 1981, New Orleans-vocalist Jean "Mr. Big
Stuff" Knight and her singing partner Premium also cut one, called "You've Got
The Papers (But I Got The Man)". How on earth did this start?
-Yes. I thought that we had
a good relation, because we had done the WMOT album "A Piece Of My Life"
together. When I left WMOT, I went to Butch Ingram's label, which was called Society Hill.
But I was kind of tricked into that deal. I signed a deal which I thought was with Butch's
Society Hill Records, but when I looked around I was on West End. West End was only
supposed to distribute Butch's label, but there I was, signed to West
End, with Butch Ingram being in charge of everything. Not that I couldn't still write the
songs that I wanted to. Everyone that's ever produced me knows that if you let me be
myself then you'll get the best from me. So that was not a problem. Butch and I didn't
have a problem in that sense. I loved working in the studio with him, I wish that we could
have continued because that was the last producer, as you can tell on "Another
Man", which was a good song. There was another great tune called "Don't I Ever
Cross Your Mind Sometimes", which got a lot of airplay in Europe. We worked well
together, but he got a little excited and a little overanxious to say "gee, I got
this woman that can write", and he had what Jimmy Bishop had had. Here was another
young producer from Philadelphia.. He is so excited about all that he has control over
because he had the final say-so on things. Butch got carried away, that's what happened.
Once he got carried away, I said "no, this will not happen to me again, I do not want
to end up with another lawsuit and without a deal again". I wasn't gonna have it, not
any more. I'd rather be free than be chained like I was before. I think he is still a bit
upset about me leaving but in his heart, I think he knows that I did the best thing for
me. He keeps on bringing out "Another Man" on CD's, "Another Man" is
all over the place, and I'm not getting paid for it. He is still taking the money and I
really don't have the inclination to sue him because it would probably cost me more money
to do that than I could gain from it and I still wouldn't get what I'm entitled to. I'm
just letting him go on and do whatever he is doing.
