Questlove Supreme: Larry Gold

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of course. Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Suprema Su Su Suprema role called Suprema Suck Sun Supreme
role called Suprema Sun Sun Supremo role called Suprema Sun
Sucks Supremo role.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I may have moved, Yeah, you could say I roomed. Yeah,
when I'm back in the studio. Yeah, ain't no place
like home.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Suprema Su Supremo. Roll called Suprema Sun Sun Suprema roll call.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
My name is Fante.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
My favorite movie is Belly. Yeah. I just learned that
the plural of cello is chilly.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Supreme Suprema roll call, Suprema So Supreme, roll called.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
My name is Sugar, Yeah, I keep it mellow. Yeah
when Larry Gold, Yeah, playing this check though.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
So Supremo, Roll Suprema.

Speaker 6 (01:08):
My name is Boss pill Yeah, just here to say hello. Yeah,
and I'm feeling great. Yeah, mellow as a cello.

Speaker 7 (01:23):
Supremo roll It's like yeah, and my boot Larry Gold, Yeah,
my favorite tough jew.

Speaker 8 (01:30):
Yeah, that never gets old.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Supremo.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
Roll call, Supremo, roll call. They say I play thee
I'm very nice Yellow, but I'm not. I'm the last
name Gold and I'm very bold.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Suprema son So supremo.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Roll call sup Prima son so supremo, suprema suprema.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
See was that really was?

Speaker 4 (02:08):
It was a bit intimidating, especially with all the everybody.
It flashed through my head, you know, I was, I mean,
I don't.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Know a lot with Larry Gold as he did the
word mold bold. Oh yeah, there you go, Old.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
I was going to leave that go even though she
could have gone that way right.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
My My favorite part of uh taping this podcast is
when guests of the show start expressing fear when I
tell them two minutes ahead of time they're about to start.
We never, of course, you know, we never tell the
guests that they're doing the freestyle.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Uh was looking at her phone.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Oh we know, yeah, you.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
See this lets us know, like, you know, your enthusiasm
for doing the show, like you know, you're there.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
We'll give you an eight.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
It definitely is intimidating.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
You got an eight. You're good man. You can eat.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
Fuck. I didn't get that in school.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
You got you got an eat.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme.
Your host Quest Love, and we're here with Teams Supreme
find Tickeolo.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, Sugar Steve and Boss Bill Hello, and.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Like, yeah, how you doing. Uh, we're man down now Bill,
And he didn't make it. I think that we might
have have affected uh two of our guests with the
love the Quest Love Supreme diet here. Yeah, so we fed,
we fed uh unpaid Bill. He had impossible cheese steaks.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
He has some drink.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Uh, he had some David's chicken from Chinatown and this
is all in the same night and have more drink.
And now he's out of commission. So I think that
if I had a rough morning to yeah, yeah, we
went to.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Barley, went to Barkley Pro and I.

Speaker 9 (04:06):
Had a ribby and the truffle mac and geese and
the mac and geese.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
It came back to say what's up? Really? Yeah, it
was I just yeah, oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 9 (04:17):
I meant I haven't I mean really really rich rich
dairy ship. Right, it was good, but but yeah, this
morning not it reminded me.

Speaker 7 (04:24):
But do y'all hear that that's the dopeness of the
Philly because that's all Philly food. That's like Bill got
sucked up. He couldn't take it, got fucked up. He
couldn't take it because it was good as hell.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, that's why I went to McDonald's. Damn.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Actually that that speaks more about me, like I'm killing off.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Our sometimes were all your choices, ladies and gentlemen. Uh,
so let's say that.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Uh you remember that moment where you were in your
feelings when you first heard those strings on Love My
Things part.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, that rush.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
You felt like, whoa, the roots are growing up here
and I might be cutting onions.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Our next guest today, I'll say, has his both his
feet planet in the the history of Philadelphia and also
the future of Philadelphia as integral part of the foundation
of what we know as the Sound of Philadelphia. Of course,
if you're familiar with the any of the works from

(05:29):
the Sound of Philadelphia, be it Gambled and Huff creations,
or even things produced by Tom Moulton or Tom Bell, Yeah,
Tom Bell, or any any of the Sound of Philadelphia luminaries,
dex of Winzel, whoever, Baker.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Harris, yes, Nick Fadden and white Fad and Whitehead. Just
they the the the.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Secret sauce, the special sauce of the Sound of Philadelphia,
I will say, are the less strings it gives a
touch of class, a step further than what I think
Barry Gordy thought he was doing with the Motown sound,
trying to make it palatable to America.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
And our guest today was a part of that.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
But not only that, we can also say that he
had his hand in the second resurgence of the sound
of Philadelphia as owner of the much fabled the studio here.
And what part of town are we Northern Liberties Okay,
we'll call it Northern Liberties.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
Or North Chinatown Okay, which I prefer, but North Chinatown,
Northern Liberties, And at this very studio, I will say
that pretty much any and everybody.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
This is where I first met the great Bruce with
Dean oh wow, when he was doing Jennifer Lopez.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
But uh, this has been home to the roots for
at least ten albums.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
It's it's it's a list not to mention. You've done
string arrangements for everyone justin Timberlake.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Just yeah, I've done good.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
He's done good. He's done good for himself.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
How you doing, man, Thank you? I'm fine.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
I was I was.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Trying to figure out when did we first cross paths?
I remember my version of the story was, well, I
know that Fateen danceler, Uh.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Daddy Kendrick told me about the studio.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
But at that time, you know, I was I was
married to the sound and set up that I had
at Sigma both of our old homes, and then an
incident happened.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
That's what I remember. An incident happened, and James Poyser
called me.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, so an incident happened without putting out the business
of one of the.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Former members of the Roots.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
No, I don't want you know.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
I mean, we've we've we've made no bones about our
feelings about Malix situation.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Uh much left to Malik be.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
But an incident happened at the studio that kind of
got us all kicked out.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, it got us all kicked out. Well here's the
thing though.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Sort of overnight too as well.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
It was instantly and for me, uh, I kind of
played the the sentimental card. You remember in in uh
Chris Tucker's Money Talks when he was sort of like
what my mom staatement, Come on, pitty pat right, what
would my mom say?

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Like?

Speaker 3 (08:42):
It was that situation where me and Joe tarci At,
the owner of Sigma, get the I want them back.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Here, and I was just like, come on, man, you
know my daddy.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
And my plea was like, at least I didn't want
an inconsistent sound like I recorded the album right, maybe
seventy of the music in sigma, and I wanted a
consistence down throughout. So he he was like, all right, well,
I'll let you guys track the music here, but you
know Malik can never come back here, so uh so,

(09:13):
thus all the vocals were then done here in this
very room that we're in. Wow, So I'll say that
adrenaline all aside to almost an adrenaline.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
You got me? What's that? So? Why don't do everything?

Speaker 3 (09:32):
And then eventually, once we started working on Phrenology, we
just moved here.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Stay here. You know, he made this offer we couldn't refuse.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
I think the first song I cut here was that
it was the impronounceable, the plump yeah good.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
One number, the one that fans are still waiting for
you to give them the lyrics to. I gotta find it.
It's somewhere in this building. Whatever it was. I was
cussing out the Angelo, so I'll give you that much.

Speaker 8 (09:57):
This was this.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
It was four days after he stood us up or
break you off? I remember that night. Yeah, yeah, I think.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
One of the lines I remember is meanwhile your hero
is running scared some some something.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Oh no, no, no it was it was a distract for you. Anyway, Larry,
how you doing, bro?

Speaker 8 (10:21):
I'm sorry?

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Anyway, how's it going Mary?

Speaker 4 (10:25):
Well?

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, well it's going on. Yeah yeah. Yeah. Are you
a Philadelphia native, did you?

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah? I grew up a few blocks from here in
North Philly. Really yeah. My dad had a toy store, little,
you know, toy and hardware store, and we grew up upstairs.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Really we're part of well, you know our h or.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
You o R thirty the thirty the twenty nine hundred
block of Frankfurt Avenue, which is the Heroin district right
now in Philadelphia. It's really hardcore. Really yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
So yeah, I as.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
A let's put it this way, I had many cellos
cracked open on the way home from the elevated really,
oh yeah, I had. I had to run home sometimes
carrying your carrying the cello.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
So it's always been I guess we should note that
I had to find out through a New York Times
story that I guess you could say the Kensington section or.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
It is it's the Kensington section, even though the there's
a whole group of twenty year olds now moving further
north than where you guys were when you were.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Well, Fisttown is becoming gentrified.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
My goodness.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, they try to sell me a trip there for
a lot of money. No, Fisttown is gentrified, which like
thirty years ago, Fishtown was.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Sort of like benson Hurst.

Speaker 8 (11:49):
Oh yeah, that's the only place in the world I've
ever been called a nigger.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yes, yeah, like thirty years ago it was.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
And I'm not surprised. Well yeah, yeah, I mean now like.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Some of the world US restaurants and you know, Stephen's
like it's it's upscale. However, further north northeast, northeast of
there and Kensington, Philly's like getting hit with its third
wave of you know, we we had a little or whatever.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, we had a thing like in two thousand and six.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
I think we have the worst problem right now that
major city. We are really well. I think we hit
a low point in town here right now. You know,
the school system sucks, you know, I mean, and you know,
the property and taxes are so high that you can't
really raise them anymore without people suffering, you know. I
mean it's, you know, time to deal with the cities again,

(12:39):
you know, to take a good look at everything.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
You know.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
Hey, people aren't getting an even break it, you know,
and that's that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, I feel like we have to come back now. Well,
I mean that was kind of the solution before. It
was like nothing's happened in this town. Hey, let's make
something happen. And well, you did, you know you did.
I don't know if that's.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
Going to say that that's my little You represented Philly
music for the a period of time. I remember early
in the nineties when you guys were first starting, one
of the big executives said to me, have you heard
the Roots? And I said the Roots? He said they're
from Philly and I felt like an ignorant SunUp fool,

(13:25):
you know, I had not heard of them. And then
I remembered you played Columbia's Oak freshman party and my
daughter went to see you when she was a freshman there,
and she called me on the phone and said, they're extraordinary. Wow, Dad,
you got to go introduce them, introduce you know. And

(13:45):
so you guys were representing Philadelphia long before Neo Soul.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Wow, thank you. I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
So where does your musical introduction start, Like, how did
you were your plans?

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Were your plans to be like Curtis Institute?

Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah, classical cellist? Early early on, I got I got
caught by the fever of popular music though, really as
a kid.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
So how did you ease out of that? And did
you disappoint people when you?

Speaker 3 (14:12):
He told Okay, explain well, first of all, he explained,
a lot of people hold Juilliard in the highlight of like, Okay,
well that's the that's the pinnacle of music education, for
classical music.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
But can you explain how.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Hard and I think Curtis has a harder, way, harder curriculum.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
It's it's it's not particularly a curriculum. It's just Curtis
has always been about. When I was there, there were
seventy five kids. Now there's about one hundred and fifty Julliard.
There's thousands that take lessons. Right, it's a different it's
a different kind of entity, you know. I mean, Curtis
might be up to two hundred by now, I don't know.

(14:53):
They build a new building and they got a lot
of money, and it was a very it was a
very private school, yeah, curtis Is. It's in Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Way harder to get in the Curtis than for me,
at least, like I saw the audition, I failed them.

Speaker 9 (15:05):
This is a performing arts school, yeah, servatory, yeah, conservatory,
but performing arts, mostly instrumental arts.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
You know, it's now operatic and a lot of other things.
And I think they're teaching improvisation starting next year. They
brought somebody in and I think they're going to. Like
everyone else in this world, things have changed since the sixties.
In the sixties, you were put in a box. If
you got out of that box, nobody knew what to
do with you, you know. I mean it was like

(15:36):
it was a weird time, you know. When I wanted
to be in popular music and classical music, that wasn't
even really possible in the early sixties.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
What year did you attend Curtis.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
I was fifteen, so that would have been in nineteen
sixty three.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
So by this point are you seeing your other I.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
Was already making a little bit of a living. I
met some of the in those days. The Union in
Philadelphia was run by you know, South Philly musicians, and
that's the nicest way I could say, you know, you
know back.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
You mean some friends of our Yes, yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
Some you know back all right, back in the early sixties.
I made a when I first started playing on records,
I made a brilliant discovery. There was a white union
and a Black union.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
I did not know that.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
Well, I'm telling you that. And mister Gamba, I it
was here yesterday, Kenny was here. Yes, he would have
told you that, which I found amazing. And I don't
know much about it, but I know that by the
time the mid sixties rolled around, they formed one union. Okay, okay,
so I would say, I think sixty six or something

(16:46):
like that, there was one union.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Technically, I'm a union guy, yeah, I know, but I'd
never go to the meetings and no, I know, like
what who does the union benefit?

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Well, because they always ask me in the old days.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
In the old days, it was a real sort of
like mob kind of a thing because they would go
into a restaurant and if you had live musicians, they
would make sure they were union players. So I mean
collect yeah, exactly. If you go back to the twenties
and the thirties and the forties, yeah, it was a
way to collect dues, a way to have easy jobs,
you know, I mean then a way to make sure

(17:22):
your musicians union people were represented in these clubs or
these places. I always thought, I think the union is
a good thing because I think people take advantage of
other people without them at times. Absolutely okay, But I
also think that the union gets too like.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yes, yes, I felt okay, so and doing that we
both know that. So in doing the Hamilton recording, this
is when I knew, like, oh god, man, these union
people get on the nerves, like they literally have a
person over your shoulder micromanaging with the stop watch. Yeah,
and it's like they're always reminding you like T minus

(18:03):
three hours and nineteen minutes folks, and it's like, yo,
can we get rid.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Of this person?

Speaker 3 (18:07):
But then don't get down to like they'll say T
minus nine minutes before first twenty minute break and they
have to make this loud declaration no matter what you're doing,
it blows the vibe. But like their job is there
to protect. But then I found out once you speak
to maybe a label president or whatever, and you slide

(18:30):
some squills or whatever, then maybe they could just sit
in the in the break room or whatever. Like this
happens with like the cast albums I've worked on. So
I just I realized that, Okay, maybe to protect you
so that you know, I don't underpay you or that
sort of thing. You join the union, then of course

(18:52):
I have to pay you union scale or double scale
or triple scale or whatever your price is.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
So I see that benefit. But and it goes into
your healthy shurance.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah. And also supposedly, you know here we are talking
about this is bullshit, but I mean supposedly, like I'm
on a.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Pension from pension.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
Yeah, but they're fucking around with the pension man, you know.
I mean, so I don't know what to say about
all these people.

Speaker 7 (19:15):
But from a non union perspective, union just looks like heaven.
I'm just gonna tell you, Like all my life, i mean,
even in black radio has never been unionized.

Speaker 8 (19:25):
Like it's a whole thing.

Speaker 7 (19:26):
So it's like I've always looked at y'all like, Wow, protections, doubility.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
Well, some of it, some of it's good, you know.
I mean, I see, do.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
You remember the first professional gig that you did in
a studio?

Speaker 4 (19:41):
I don't I knew you were going to ask me this,
and I really it was you know, it was like
came on Parkway. It was probably in nineteen sixty three
or before sixty two, and I started playing on records.
Whenever they used two cellos, there used to be I guess,
like maybe four violins, one viola, one cello. Then they

(20:02):
expanded they went six violins, two viola's, two cellos. So
as soon as they did that, the head guy took
a liking to me. He really liked He was a
really good jazz violin player. He grew up legit, but
he was more like Jovenudi. He had a real sort
of that sound. You know that most legit players have
a great sound, but it's more formal.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
His was much looser, and I liked him. He was
a great guy. His name was Dom Ronaldo. He's on
every record the Gamblingoff ever made Dom Ronaldo strings and Horns. Well,
Don Renaldo.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
That was the name of the of.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
The strings and horns. In other words, it was it
always said, none of our individual names, right, It was
Don Ronaldo's strings and horns. So he was an executive
at the Union. He got me into the Union. I
was probably fourteen or something. He was supposed to be sixteen, okay,
and he started, get me gigs.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Okay, this is something that I should know that I
don't know. Can you explain the difference between the violin,
the viola, and the cello and the bass.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yes, the base, So those four string instruments. The bass
starts the first string. On the bass, the lowest ring
is like an E low E. On the piano, R low.
The lowest string on the cello is a C above
that see right, A C above that the next. On
the viola, the lowest string is an octave above that

(21:34):
cello C A C C right. Then on the violin,
the lowest string is the G above that C, which
is the G below middle middle C.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Okay, So, so.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
It encompasses the whole bottom of the piano and the
whole top of the piano. The violin goes from that
G all almost to the end of the piano.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
A great violinist can go all the way to the end.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
So violin has more range. Viola has half the range.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
No, but viola can go very high too, but not
as high sounding as the violin. It would be an
octave under the violin even at its highest oh.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
So the violin gets up where the birdies go.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
So the what we know as the sound of Philadelphia.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Was mostly six violins, two viola's, two cellos doubled, and
sometimes we performed it that kills me. We performed well.
Sometimes we performed it three times, and the best takes
were you know, I mean you didn't have you see,
you didn't have the luxury in those days of like
you had to know you had a good performance and

(22:47):
then you doubled it onto two your moot. In the
early days with sixteen track or eight track, you had
to already bounce it to move it, oh, double it.
So you had to have a good track to begin with,
and then you were going taking that old track and
the new track, the old track out of phase and

(23:08):
the new track, moving them together, Yeah, moving them together.
Is there a risk that oh, you know what, it
would be naturally out of phase because it was two
different performances too, you know, no two performances are exactly
the same, so there wouldn't be like.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
But is there a risk of say, maybe the bass
is now out of tune and his a is slightly
off and now that's there's.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Always that risk and a lot of times if you
go listen to the strings their attitude, you know, But
yet so are the vocals. A lot of that stuff,
so a lot, a little bit attitude, you know that,
But it all works together and in the song. But
a lot of times you're listening solos, so you're if
it's attitude, you do it again here. So so you

(23:53):
might end up doing your double a couple of more
times than you would. But people compromised much easier back
in those days. They were just looking for a feel
on those records. It was more short, they were elegant,
and and there were certain producers that wanted it pristine.
You take someone like Burt Backrak who came into the

(24:14):
city a few times, you know, and everything had to
be precise and exactly, you know what I mean. But
there were an awful lot of people that that was
not the case. They were like unmade beds, you know.
They would as soon as they got the feel of
the record right, that was it. They didn't care what
was in duner.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Attitude right, as long as it felt right.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
As long as it felt right.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
So you're trying to tell me, I'm trying to think
of okay, So like Stairway to Heaven.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
That's already twenty four track or sixteen twenty four track.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
But even you're like, yeah, oja, yeah, I had nothing
to do with le Zeppelin. For those listening.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
A song like Stairway to Heaven that I when I
hear it, I'm just imagining it's fifty of you in
a room doing me strings and it's really just twelve fourteen.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
Well it's it's ten doubled.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Damn.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
Yeah. So the first see Phil Ramone couldn't get over that.
That's what it was too.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
I can't you know what I had.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
I always had my problems with Joe Tarzia, but I
have to say he was a fucking good engineer.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Really.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah. You know, I always thought they were a little
bit too aggressive for me, and maybe, you know, maybe
other people felt that way, you know, just as people
in a way when I live, aggressive like don't move
the microphones, no, no, no, no, just aggressive.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
His people Oh okay, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
They didn't fit into my hippie self, you know, they
they rubbed me the wrong way a little bit, okay,
But he was a great fucking engineer. They made great
records here. He taught a lot of my friends how
to make magnificent records. You know Donald Murray who did
all those Spinners records, and you know some of the
young people eventually did some of the records we all

(26:07):
know as the Philly Sound. Joe did a lot of
what Joe sat next to Gamble megan his records, you know,
so those stairways, that was Joe Tarzis and he he
had a slate floor at three oh nine that he
put the strings on this slate floor, so he was
getting a lot of bounce out of the sound of

(26:28):
the strings.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
So strings would be cut on three or nine Broad
Street at a lot of times.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
Yeah, because they realized that first of all, it was
right next door to where Kenny and Leon lived mostly,
which their offices were right and where they wrote the songs.
So and here they built a really nice studio that
you know, was for the seventies, was sort of state
of the art. It had shagcarp you know a lot
of the studios in the seventies were like that. And

(26:55):
it had a slate floor and hardwood, and it had
a lot it had a real life off the floor.
But then when it hit the walls, it was pretty dead.
Like they had the drums right they cut a lot
of the drum tracks over there.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
See, in my mind, I thought they were cutting upstairs
in the Ciga room, not a lot.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Not not By the time they built three on nine. Okay,
Now I wish Kenny was here, but I think I
think in nineteen seventy three he opened three on nine
South broad which was already a recording studio. When it
opened up, there was a record first of all. That
was where cameo Parkway had an enormous studio three times

(27:35):
the size of this room. Wow, that was when the
early days, when I first went in to make a record,
there were thirty two or thirty four musicians and singers
in the room at the same time. The strings were
in one corner, the horns were in another corner. The
rhythm was all in the center, cracking all at once.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
How do you when you record that way? This is
before we.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
Used to do that sometimes MFSB too, But that was
in a much smaller room.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
This was a big room, and that's because you can't
overdub in that. Later, but how many times would you
have to go over a song so that the engineer
makes sure I mean, so the engineer.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Can ensure that they have a perfect performance. I think.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
I think when I was there, it seemed like the
engineers were very efficient getting getting a sound out of
all of these musicians at one time. You know, it
might have taken an hour to get the sound, and
then they might have recorded a couple of songs.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
You might have to run the song four or five times,
just again six times.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
But you know, I mean they were miking most of
the amps. The guitar was you know, there were I
don't think direct boxes. I even think Joe Tarjie invented
a direct box that was used all over the world
after that, you know, early sixties, late sixties.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Like we gotta get Joe that so he should be here. Now.
I'm sorry, Steve, I interrupted you. Oh no, I was
just wondering.

Speaker 5 (29:07):
So, like, let's say the first set of horns and strings,
just the two tracks.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
Well it all went down to two track, like an
ampects two track okay, as or as Scully, This is
like the best of my recollection. Besides playing and everything.
I was already an audio freak. My father had bought
me the first web core portable tape recorder that I
was turning over. I was already fascinated by popular music

(29:37):
all through this whole time. I wasn't going to give
up at Curtis because getting in the Curtis was my
main goal, you know. So, but I was fascinated by
popular music and I was watching these guys, and yeah,
they head it down to a science man. They really did.
They were fast efficient.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
But it's not like they were making each instrument like
we do.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
What they did.

Speaker 4 (29:59):
Like with the strings, there was one mic for three violins,
another mic for three violins. The cellos had separate mics
and the viola had one mic. So that's that's the
way they Those were micd and then and when it
went to horns, you had all ribbon mics on the horns. Yeah,
each orn out of mic. When they played a chord,

(30:21):
the engineer had to get a balance on the on
the cord. Yeah, and the strings too, and they had
to run it down enough times where the engineer felt comfortable.
But they were also you know, they're also singing live.
They might not sing at that time. We did the
tracking in those early days, because what they did was
then they went to another machine to put the vocals on.

(30:42):
They took the instrumental and went to the second machine
and laid down the lead vocal on the background vocals
so they could put them way out front. And if
you listen to some of those old records, the vocals
are like this compared to the music. I mean, they're
way out front.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
How would they add the I guess the Okay, there's
there's the string section, but then there's also what you
call the chamber or like the the uzophones and the
trumpets and the.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
They were all there live too. If you were going
down the two track there there was the only overdubs
I think they did early on were vocals to another machine, so.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
The strings and all the horns of each at the
same time.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
And that's why they had big studios in those days.
They baffled things off.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
I was gonna say, the bleeding must have been horrible
for any.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
But they got an overall sound. In other words, if
you listen to some of those records, they made them
bigger a mirror because everyone was in the same room.
Because the strings had some horns in them, the horns
had some strings in them, they could talk, you know
what I'm saying. Everybody had a lot of every all
the other elements sort of. I mean, you tried to

(31:54):
do the best you could isolate things, but it was
impossible to isolate things.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
That's what ire.

Speaker 5 (32:00):
That's like the ultimate restriction. It's just like you have
to record everything at the same exact time.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, there's too much pressure.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
It was pressure.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Well, I'm just used to I mean, I've made complete
records that sound like you know, it's ensembles gelling together
and you know, but when you do and I'm just
playing drums by myself for like ten minutes, imagining what's
going to sound like later and that sort of thing,
but I can't even imagine that.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
But like when you did the Hamilton record, that's everybody
altogether too, wasn't it? Or did you do that in part?

Speaker 3 (32:29):
No, that that all the rhythm tracks were done together,
and then yes they all right, they they did.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
But then in the middle of.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
It, I guess we realized that this is going to
be thriller. Like there was a point where it's just like, Okay,
Hamilton is whatever, right, just record top to bottom that
sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
But then, which is the way Broadway cast albums are usually.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Yeah, but then there was one point where it was like, Okay,
they might have to spend more money.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
And that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Like Atlantic Records realized early that this could change the game,
and so they were like, Okay, we're willing to invest
more money in this and mix each individual song and
that you know, any other Broadway record, like in fourteen
album hours, like you spend five hours tracking, three hours

(33:23):
over dubbing, and then you know it's just one big
giant mix and then that's it. But yeah, we spent
three to four months mixing and really sweetening up that
record that it still sounds like the sound of Philadelphia,

(33:47):
even though different people are at the Helm. So there
are songs that Norman Harris produced that had nothing to
do with Gamble and Huff that still used the same
players that still use the same studios and you can't
tell a difference.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
But they were part of the original Gamble on Huff
sound to begin with. Though you picked the name Norman
Harris was definitely part of that original rhythm section. You
go back and name a song an early Gamble on
Huff song, and it was either it was either Rolling Chambers.
He was in a group with the Chambers. One of

(34:25):
them played drums and the other one played guitar. I
think Dennis was his name. I mean, I'm really digging deep,
you know, and make a long story short. I think
Norman Harris played on a lot of those records, so
he was part of that sound. And he was also
Norman Harris was like a genius R and B dude.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
But how many I'm trying to figure out teams because
this is another thing that you see on credits. You'll
see string arranger, rhythm arranger, right, background vocal arranger, which
I feel like these are like little titles handed out
from the producer. Said that no one has this so
that the producer can protect their turf.

Speaker 4 (35:04):
And in a way that's true.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
So all right, so when you're dealing with okay, so
someone brings, uh, you used to be my girl the
ojs uh the I'm assuming that the rhythm track is
done first, I am.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
I don't exactly know for sure. Well if I'm miss
if I'm not mistaken, that song was done with the
old rhythm section. Okay, so it was Norman and Ronnie
and Leon and I left somebody outry.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
You're getting specific.

Speaker 3 (35:44):
I just wanted to know that the factory process, so
it starts with the rhythm tracks first.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Vocals, the rhythm track, then the.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
Vocals, vocals, and then strings and horns.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
Okay, so then someone gives a tape to who would
do the actual writing of what.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
After the vole and huff went string wise on.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
After after, after the vocals were done, a cassette was
handed to somebody and they went home and wrote an
arrangement with no machines. You used the piano and you
came up with lines, or you came up with chordal things.
You know, when you wrote string, string and horn parts.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
How many days do you have to do this?

Speaker 4 (36:22):
It depended sometimes I did it in the studio at
times when they added a song or two, you know,
I mean they would they would forget. I mean Dexter
did it at times in the studio too. Not the
best way to do it, but yeah, I would it.
Maybe a week, you know, you might have five to

(36:42):
five days to a week to do a couple of arrangements.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Do you have a particular memorable favorite of yours that
you worked on that.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
Back that day, Back in that day, mcfannen and Whitehead
really gave me the opportunity. I think they hired an
arranger who didn't show up one day, and I think
Tommy bells around, and Tommy said, you know, let Larry
try it. You know, Yeah, I think I think I
think Tommy said because I think Tommy was a little

(37:12):
upset that they were hiring people that he didn't think
really knew what they were doing at times. You know,
I mean, but he could answer you better than I can. Yeah,
I was gonna mean, how can you you know, because
you know you could someone who can come up with it. Look,
it's like all I do is write strings. Okay, most
of my life that's all I did. And when I

(37:32):
work on a record, sometimes people give me a string line.
And once when people give me a stringline, it's going
to be hard for me to link that stringline go away,
because first of all, they liked it enough to get
it to me. Yes, yeah, I mean that. Yeah, they
might be married to it. Well, sometimes that happened with
Gamble and Huff, you know, with with mcfatt and white,

(37:53):
they were married to something and they would tell me that,
you know. But and a lot of times in today's market,
I at it and I have to deal with it,
and a lot of times I think I can do better,
and I throw away and I hopefully do better you know.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
How does one.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
I was about to say, in at least in the
seventies and eighties, there's a lot of trust that one
has to put in an arranger because it's not like
you have the technology today to play on synthesizer or
whatever that what you have planned for me, So it's almost.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Like I have to sit there in real time that
listen to you. You know. So the.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Producer, the producer came out into the studio and you
had your string players there and they put your phones on,
like we have all you blame me what you got.
Let me how good it is, Goldie, Let's see what
you did?

Speaker 1 (38:45):
So has I dare you?

Speaker 3 (38:46):
Has there ever been a case where an arranger had
something and they were sort of like, it's a little
too Stravinsky for.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Me, Like you went darker, Like how how do you know?

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Well in the Philly Sound, I don't know whether Vinsky
played in too much.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
Well, let's pick something adventurous, all right, So let's take
Nights over Egypt, which has quite an adventurous beginning at
least progression.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah, in the first thirty seconds, So that's dexter.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
He wrote the arrangements too, I think, so, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Oh, okay, I didn't think that the.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
Actual that's Dexter. Yeah, Dexter wrote his own I want
to tell you something Back in the day. Yeah, back
in the day. Ronnie Baker wrote arrangements, string arrangements. Norman
Harris was brilliant, real great string arrangements. Earl didn't. But
everybody else, Ronnie Cursey wrote good arrangements. Everybody sort of did.
Everybody grew up writing music from high school, you know,

(39:46):
everybody got into you know, had that as a skill. So,
I mean, and I learned a lot. Hey, look, man,
the best arranger ever passed out of passed through Philadelphia.
I think he's dead now, but it was Bobby Martin,
who an old school from the thirties arranger, you know,
who played vibes, you know, I mean.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
I know Bobby's name. Well. On an average week, how
often would you work?

Speaker 4 (40:11):
A couple of days, a couple of days. It depends.
During the disco times, it was like four days a week,
maybe five days a week.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
So was that from people from Philadelphia?

Speaker 4 (40:21):
Really good? From people from all over the world though,
you know, I mean we did. People don't realize this,
but we did. Like all of Jacques Moraley's records YMCA
what oh yeah, that's MFS big wow, non credited. The
Richie Family was m.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Y from Philly too. Yeah but okay, so.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
Yeah, okay, Jacques Moral I remember, you know, I mean,
my memory is good when I wanted to be and
not so good when I obviously when I don't want
it to be. But I remember there was at some
fancy Paris nightclub where they danced naked and it was
the high point of disco music. And this guy named

(41:07):
I think Ben Alil or something, and Jacques Morale was
the producers and they brought over and they did the
first records they did was a Richie Room and it
was called the Richie Family and it was m FSB
you know, done with their melodies that they brought in
a little more European flair and that that Richie did
for him, and they put vocals on him and they

(41:27):
did pretty good. And then the next group I think
they came back with after they had a lot of
success with that was the Village People. Wow wow, you know,
and I remember they they came to Philly and they
had a suitcase full of cash. In those days, some
of these people literally a suitcase full of cash to
pay the musicians.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Really step in our office. Here you go, step in
our office.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
But that was not talking about non union work.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
What other non Philadelphia International were you part of that count?

Speaker 4 (42:01):
There were a lot of there were a lot of things.
I mean for a while there, Norman Harris was working
from Motown. So if you go back and look at
some of those records in the in the mid seventies
through the late end of the seventies, I don't know
whether it was maybe the Temps, the Four Tops some
of those, right, we did we did a bunch of
those records too.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Really, yeah, wow, it's amazing, not how.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
Well, it's not my brain, you know, if you think
about it, I think Barry Gordy wanted to pick up
on Philly was really kicking. But then you know, those
mid seventy years to the late years, I mean, it's
hard to find a place that sold more records than
Philly International.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Right, do you guys recall doing any work with Bernard
Writing now Rogers people at all?

Speaker 4 (42:53):
No, I went I went to Powill What right you
did it?

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Oh, I'm sorry, I did.

Speaker 4 (43:03):
I went to power Station to play on a few things.
But I'm not going to remember the name.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
We have power Station News.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
We took a bus there and all the mfs B
played all day, maybe one or two days, and we
came home and I don't remember what records. Okay. I
also smoked a lot of pot on that literally, which
I always do and we all know that.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
So you're happy. Man, When.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Is there a particular date that you can pinpoint that
you noticed, like like, Okay, this might be an end
of an era, or we're not used as much, or
I'm out d X seven is now like the synthesizer is.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
Guess what you just did? The top three right there?

Speaker 1 (43:47):
You know.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
The Yamaha was definitely a problem. Well it wasn't a problem,
but I got I started getting calls for some arranging
and when they would ask me if I would use
the Yamaha, the d D seven was what was t
X seven to use them for the strings instead of
paying the string players.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (44:08):
And I thought to myself, you know, asking me this
is and that was like, you know, it was sort
of getting in the late seventies when I felt like
it waste curtailing and plus the record started sucking too.
A lot of the records weren't nearly as good. I
was not looking forward to go to work in your
po you know, all day long, you know, I mean so,

(44:31):
but it was making a living, you know. And I
started looking around at that moment. The end of seventies.
I mean, even Gamble will tell you. I started working
for Sesame Street towards the end of the seventies. Really, yeah,
I found a few people that I connected with. A
matter of fact, the gentleman here yesterday, he and I
had a nice conversation.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Wow, playing on the disco frog. I did not know that.

Speaker 4 (44:56):
Yeah, I thought you did. Remember we one time discussed
I did you need a little super guy? Oh yeah,
I thought you remembered that. Oh my god, that was
done in Philly.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yeah, dude, I just turned into an eight year old too.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
Yeah. That was Ezra Mohawk, who did the theme for
Teeny Little, who was an old hippie who was signed
by Frank Zappa back in the sixties.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Oh, man, that's crazy.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
That's what we did. That's what we did started doing
in the tail end of the seventies through the eighties.
We did Jerry and I, first of all, we were
friends from early on. I knew him when he was
playing with Frankie Beverly in the sixties a little bit.
He was a hippie and great keyboard player. Okay, and yeah,

(45:44):
and we all through the eighties we were at Sigma
and we did a lot of commercials. We did a
lot of different things.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
I was gonna say, did you do any like the
local all of them?

Speaker 1 (45:53):
A lot of news?

Speaker 4 (45:55):
Well, actually know what I'm working on right now, k
y W the new thing. I'm doing a big orchestral
arrangement for ky W, the upgrading.

Speaker 8 (46:03):
Yeah, so it is the new in and out.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
Like everything, it's the same ky W. But I mean
it's just someone else wrote something where I'm putting gonna
put the strings on. But but we did like New
Jersey transit. I mean I used to get like Bunny
Siegler to sing I would get. I did one commercial
with Lou were all saying I didn't I did. Yeah,
I mean I had a good time with it and

(46:25):
people were willing to pay decent money in those days.
And did you do and let me smoke reefer in
the studio?

Speaker 3 (46:32):
So I was the most important When did you decide
to establish your own business and up a studio?

Speaker 1 (46:42):
And what told you that, Phil you needed one.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Well, the eighties were, as you well know, in I
went from doing all of that in the seventies to
having nothing left of gamble on huff. I mean, they
they sort of just shut down completely.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
But they'd never they did, but they but they didn't.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
It was always there to make yeah, but to make
one record a year or you couldn't. You couldn't count
on that to make a living like we did for
a while. I mean there were a lot of people
that that did real well and you counted on it
to make a living. So in a way, to me,
it did shut down. And what happened was the eighties.
As as you guys know far better than I do.

(47:26):
I've just been on the journey of black music. But
rap started and then okay, and I happened to be okay.
We were doing this stuff with the Sesame Street. We
were doing okay, and all of a sudden, this artificial
intelligent music thing started appearing, and more readily, I mean

(47:47):
drum machines. We always bought whatever was new and tried
around and and we would fool around with it, and
even the d X seven we had it. I remember
sitting in the living room when I was playing the
strings sounds instead of they're kidding me, aren't they? You know,
thinking that all you could do was these heavenly pads,
you know, which is okay, but every record gonna have
heavenly pads on it, I.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Mean in the eighties.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
Yes, yeah, So make a long story short. We ended
up we Jerry and I ended up moving into with
Studio four early on, and they ended up starting to
do more rap, and I met Lawrence Goodman. I think
Kenny actually at Penny actually told Lawrence Goodman to introduce

(48:32):
himself to me, and he came to Segma. We were
still at Sigma, and he was tired. Okay, he'd have
to tell you himself, but I think that he wasn't
getting any publishing royalties and he wanted to know if
Jerry and I could copy some. He would bring a
record and saying, can you make something that sounds like this,
you know, for work for hire?

Speaker 1 (48:51):
You know?

Speaker 4 (48:52):
Oh yeah. So I think we did that for a
little while for him at Sigma, and then we moved,
we left and went somewhere else, and yeah, we went.
We went to Victory what was the Victory Victor Ocajum

(49:13):
and we started and we did Steady B and Cool C.
We did a whole bunch of albums there with them.
You know, it was a living synth arrangements or yeah,
Sinkle of Her arrangements. I bought this. I bought a
Sinkle ofvir in like eighty three or eighty four. I
took the session, I took some of the monies and
borrowed money at the bank. Somebody co signed a loan

(49:35):
for me, and I bought that fucking expensive thing.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Man, I'm willing to bet he might not remember. I'm
willing to bet so since back when Salt and Pepper
were Super Nature.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
And they were at Studio four, you got it them here.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
I bet you that they commissioned them to play the
Revenge of the Nerds.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
All right, so you remember there first record was the
show Stopper.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
Yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Their music was the Revenge of the Nerds song.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
I'm almost willing to bet because all the credits on
the Show Stopper says it was done at Studio for and.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
On a sink clavier.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
So yeah, well that was my sink clavier on this stodom.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
I'm almost willing How did the sink.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
Clavia except you got to understand that.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
You know.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
Hey, look when I had Jerry as my partner, I
didn't even play really, I mean I dreamed. I composed
like I always had done. But he was a much
better keyboard player than I could have ever dreamed to be.
And and so he played. So that was my impetus
in even buying it to begin with, because I realized.
First of all, we went up to New York, they

(50:46):
gave us a morning with it, and he and I
in the morning we created some pretty hot tracks, you know,
just fucking around. You know, we looked at each other
and and the bass. You could feel the bass, you know,
And you know when you had a Len drum machine,
and somehow this had simpty. It had all the things

(51:07):
that were coming into being at that moment.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
So was it like a computer.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
I still have it. I still use it to this day.
Oh wow, it sounds like shit, but oh that's right,
that's still.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
You still use it to arranger.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
I still use it.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Wow, that's from then. It's true.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
Then it's now like forty some years no, thirty some
years old.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Wow, ooh, that's crazy.

Speaker 9 (51:32):
The only person I knew was Stevie, right right, right,
only it was on the prison.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
But you can't do cords on it, can you.

Speaker 4 (51:37):
Yeah, it's not it's not. No, it's it's no. It's
it's got sixty four voices. It was a it was
a genius thing when it was invented.

Speaker 8 (51:47):
So is it a keyboard, like it's a keyboard.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Yeah, but it just sounds like uh orchestral.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
Yeah, it comes with Yeah, it comes with orchestral patches.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Right, it's been perfected now leaf.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
But back then you had to pay a lot of
money to get something that sounds and also.

Speaker 4 (52:05):
To have memory enough to be able to do it,
you know, in other words, to record a song inside
a little box.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
You know.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
I think that back in those days we had I
don't know, eight megs of memory or something, which was
unheard of. A Linn drum machine had one meg.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
Yeah it did.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
So this was eight nightmare. Right, It was a night
You had to move, open up the back and move
the chip. Right, you guys.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
Remember, I mean I remember well, I mean I collect
them now, okay, but I think I wasn't dependent on
it for work. But I've talked to enough eighties drummers
that you know, have had nightmares with that machine. You know,
moving the chips and that sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
And keeping in sync. Yeah, sink was always a problem,
even though they said.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
Every Bobby Z would tell me nightly, like the songs
start fluctuating faster fast, you know that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
So that was a nightmare for him. So when did
the studio open in nineteen ninety nine?

Speaker 4 (53:05):
No, the studio opened. When did the roots come here?
About ninety eight?

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Ninety eight?

Speaker 4 (53:12):
Yeah, okay, so the studio opened two years before then,
so ninety six. And why I opened the studio was
because I sort of was at that place in Society
Hill was my I was at Sigma. I thought Sigma
was going to go bankrupt, because I don't I shouldn't.
Maybe I shouldn't even tell this story, but anyway, probably

(53:33):
should we make a long story short. I was told
to get all my equipment out because I owned my
equipment in my room there, right, So I left Sigma.
I had to leave over the weekend sort of, and
I moved into what was Cajun Okay, that was bought
by another dude. Cajun was owned.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
By at one point.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
I remember he was a really good engineer. When I
first opened here, he came here, and he got great
sound out of this room. He was a really good engineer.
And I'm not I'm sorry, I'm not going to remember.
I might as we continue convers conversing, I might remember his,
but I'm not going to remember his one. He was
a very good engineer.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
At one point, boys men purchased Kajum they did, yeah
the days I think.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
While but while while these guys owned it, jazz, he
moved in there too. Jeff moved somehow, somehow, Jeff Studio
four and Kajum no before Studio four. Okay, I think
he and James Poyser I met out there, and I
think that was the early nineties. Really, I think so

(54:43):
and and and Victor right or they they were. They
were a touch of jazz out there then, right they were,
and I met them. I did the I did that
Whitehead Brothers record. That must have been an early nineties
and that's when I met Jane.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
Oh wow, they did. Ah, I'm not a player. I
don't want to be. They thought I was going to be.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
They took they took Pete Rocks number one, Soul Brothers. Yeah,
uh pain, Yes, that was for your pain and I
love that. But did you know the eighty six record.
I didn't know they oh like on Atlantic or something,

(55:31):
right they I think Philly International.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
I had to deal with Manhattan Records.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yeah, Capital Kenny and Johnny the white Head brothers.

Speaker 9 (55:40):
Yeah, and they were the sons of John Whitehead of Okay, yeah,
John Whitehead.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
And I've been messing around with them since they were
really little, oh wow, really little.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
On the Low Kenny, Uh, the youngest one is Kenny, right.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
Yeah. He would come and hang out my studio like
thirteen years old.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Okay, so you know the cliche of whenever musicians, uh
go in to music store and like store managers forbade
them to play like Stairway to Heaven that sort of thing,
or like the opening chords of Purple Haze. Like Kenny
on the Low, he could shred like Hendrix, Like I

(56:28):
was like, whoa, this is the Whitehead brother guy. But
this back when he was like fourteen, like he was
a he was a great guitarist thredder, but sort of
shrugged it off like eh, you know whatever.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
He was a talented young kid.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
He was.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
He really he could play piano really well too. Yeah,
I mean it was a it was We did a
whole bunch of records that never came out Gamble. They
were signed, you were right, they were signed to that label,
and there was that. I don't know how many records
I helped through those years. Okay, but then they got

(57:01):
signed to Motown.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
They did. They started the album in California and they
came back to my studio with maybe one or two
songs done, and we ended up doing the rest of
the album at the studio with the sink lavier. And yeah,
I mean I think I got associate producer credit on that,

(57:26):
which I think, yeah, or co producer. You know, that
was about right, he really, you know, I mean yeah,
And we did that beautiful black Princess song which had
a beautiful string arrangement on it, and uh, I got
so much notice from that, you know, because it was
an old Philly kind of song, you know, and and
Kenny sang it so good.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
So yeah, I wore that album out back then.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
See a lot of a lot of people did, and
I got I got real notice from that. So you
asked me why why I opened this place is I
knew that I still had a little bit in me
to be able to help young kids make good good products.
You know, you know so, but you need you need
major talent. Let's face all facts, guys, you know you

(58:12):
need good people on every little level.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
So I want I wanted to ask you about that.

Speaker 9 (58:17):
So in doing the string arrangement, and you have your
chair orders, like you know, first viola, second viola, whatever,
how important is it because I mean if you have
I don't know if it's forty pieces or whatever, how
exact does it have to be, say, oh, the fifth
cello is a little out or whatever. I don't know,
Like with so many people, how is it that one

(58:40):
person can make that big of a difference, Like if
you hear someone that's a little flat, Like can you
hear that?

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Does it? Does it really make a difference to hear it? Really?

Speaker 4 (58:48):
It's sure you could hear it. Yeah, I mean you
want it to sound malifluous. I use that word before
on it. You know, you want it to sound organic.
I mean a little bit of here and there. That's
all part of life, you know. But when something's really whack,
you know it's weak, you can hear it, you know,
you know when there's a wrong note. You know there

(59:09):
were arrangements we did, you know which you know, some
of that I wrote. Some of them I didn't write
where I could swear there was just some note rubbing
somewhere down the line, you know. But it was all live,
you know, and I had to get over it, you
know it.

Speaker 9 (59:21):
Did you have like certain favorites that you have in
terms of, hey, I need a viola.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
I know this guy.

Speaker 4 (59:28):
Yeah, I did for years, And now I'm relying on
younger people. Now, you know, I'm bringing in, you know,
different people, and I still only use like maybe like
this week, I'm doing a date for I'm doing a
record for some young kid in Indiana, and I'm only
using ten musicians.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
You know.

Speaker 4 (59:46):
I still do that, and I double and sometimes if
I wanted to be a little even bigger, you know,
I'll even triple it, or I'll write another part for
it so so that it sounds like it's more than
it is.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Gotcha. I was alwayscusing mem about Vince Montana.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
Yeah he was a good friend. Yeah, yeah, he used
to come to the studio an awful lot. Okay, yeah,
this this play in other words, even and by the
time I opened this place, Ronnie Baker was dead and
Norman Harris was dead Earl Young used to come here
all the time. Oh wow, Yeah, And Vince came here
all the time. And Leon Come used to come here
all the time. And Kenny comes and uses the studio

(01:00:21):
at times. I mean he doesn't really work that much,
but I mean he has.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
Come and Vince.

Speaker 9 (01:00:26):
Was he a keyboard player or he was a vibe player? Okay, yeah,
I just knew him from a Goodie Goodie. It looks
like love. That's like I love that song he was.
He also looks huge.

Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
I played in the South, so I played all those
records with him, and you know, I even went out
live with him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
But he.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
I don't like talking ill of people, you know, so,
but he was always a pain in my butt. He
always made shit hard, you know. I mean, and should
life should be eat? Try to make it a little easier,
you know. But he would always like stir the pot
man they needed. Yeah he did, he did, and he didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
The third tier of your story, of course, is you
as an arranger. And this is I mean just the
names alone are straight humble brags.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
I mean, it's al Green.

Speaker 4 (01:01:20):
You got me that. Oh I'm just saying, come on,
I had good friends here. You know you know sometimes
about the relationships.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Let's go through cut here. Y'all did the Al Green
record here.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
We cut the rhythm tracks Electric Lady and Synth, the
strings hilaric. So there's al Green, there's amos Lee, there's
Aunt Fiddler Angeley grew up Philly, you know that, Yeah,
and Nesby, Anthony Hamilton, Aretha Franklin, uh Backstreet Boys, Pabel,
Gilberto Brandy, uh.

Speaker 8 (01:01:59):
Sparks, The Boy is Mine case.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
You did the Whoa, I did the Boys. Well, that
was when Rodney's when I opened the studio here. Rodney
was my first client.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
I was about to say I first met here.

Speaker 4 (01:02:12):
We go back now. He was fifteen when I was
working with Kenny Gamble, That's right, That's right, when I
was working with Kenny Whitehead. Wrong. Kenny Rodney loved that album,
so he came up and introduced his He made his
father drive him from Atlantic City Pleasentville, New Jersey, appear
to introduce himself to me. And he was this little kid,

(01:02:32):
you know. And I told Alan Rubins at the time
we were working on some project, that he always had
me working on different things, whether they were good or bad,
And I said, you should let him produce a couple
of tracks, Do me a Favor. I know he's fourteen
years old, but do me a f and Alan Rubins
was my but you know my age. You know, he's

(01:02:52):
a nice guy. Worked for him my whole love you
wwmot remember that that label, Okay, make a long.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
Story short, the Double Dutch Buds and you know.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Who represented Rodney Jerkins who first time I mem that's it.
So that was that was the early nineties.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
Yeah, Dranella duflf half Life. He brought Rodney to the studio.
He was fifteen fourteen or fifteen fourteen, and he was like,
Brad's like, this kid's going around the world one day.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
And I was looking at you like, yeah, so well
guess what.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
He came to my studio and I had that one
of my world'sers there. He sat down and start playing
me a Stevie Wonders songs and you know what I said,
I said, you're my friend, you know, and a beautile.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
It was really well.

Speaker 4 (01:03:34):
Thought of and you know, and and he looked at me,
big smile on his face, and he loved He and
Kenny got along really well. And yeah, so that was
the beginning there. And then I opened this place, yes me,
and I thought, by meeting all these really talented young people,
I had a feeling that somehow there was going to

(01:03:56):
be a resurgence of the Philly sound. I had a
sneaky suspicion before it happened, Before it, well, it was
already happening, meeting people like Rodney and meeting having Kenny
Whitehead there, having it records, right then, come on, it
was happening, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
And I gotta say that, Larry, I mean, what really
makes the studio special?

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
And even though it's now Milk Boy here and it's
a little.

Speaker 4 (01:04:25):
Different, I'm not here all the time either, you know anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
Yeah, but I'm just saying that the vibe of this
place the luck. First of all, you made the first
studio I've ever seen that has.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
Windows in it. Yeah, I like that next to casinos.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
I've never seen a business that shuts you out from daylight.
I've never been in a studio that gives you any
sort of time or date indication whatsoever. So when you
go into the reception area.

Speaker 8 (01:04:53):
And you see the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Right, yeah, it's just like you know, I mean, I
shot my album cover Philadelphia Experiments on the rooftop here.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
It's just it feels like home. You know. I mean
I've spent the night here millions of times, and.

Speaker 7 (01:05:10):
You know, I mean y'all have not. I mean thanks
reached out and kind of made it home. Putting you know,
polls and graffiti.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
We'll get to that. Get to that.

Speaker 4 (01:05:20):
I thought we were going to skip that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
That's the main attraction.

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
We need Richard Nichols here.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
But there's more.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
There's Bubba Sparks, there's Case, there's Changing Faces there, there's
Charlie Wilson, there's Christina Aguilera, there's Chromeo, there's Coco, there's Common,
there's uh uh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
Oh Daily, Damn Daily was here too, Darn Hall, John Oates,
Dave cos was here, uh Jessey, Jeff Donelle Jones, Drew Hill,
Eddie LeVert, Joel oh Man, Yo, the funniest.

Speaker 8 (01:05:56):
The break Off sessions.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
But not even met whenever Gerald LeVert came to the studio,
he was here a lot too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
It was it was just it was a part like
I really missed that guy. You know what I mean.

Speaker 10 (01:06:09):
While we're talking about JERD, you did the strings for
Answering Service. Yeah, oh man, the intro on that man
I used to I think I almost broke that tape
just we wanted those strings on that intro over there again.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
That was beautiful and he was a good friend. He
was really a good kid. I met him at the
at Sigmund in the eighties when he had that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
Back where he used to work with what Jim South
That's right, they did that record together. Yeah, Jim Salomon
used to play a shout out to Jim Salmon. He
used to be my dad drummer Eric Bene.

Speaker 4 (01:06:43):
I didn't know that, Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
In the seventies Jim used to drum from my dad
Eric Roberson and Eric about du flow try uh, Glenn
Lewis and the I re Jacket Edge.

Speaker 8 (01:06:55):
First album India.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
I sorry, yeah, the jazz bad Nass.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
He's Jennifer Lopez, whom used Bruce Withdan and.

Speaker 4 (01:07:06):
Reached us with her presence for a few weeks. We
were I remember you got up front, you guy.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
We were on r ps and qes. It was so
clean here. We all wore suits.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
Oh wow there you had catered uh, the best catered
food in the world.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
Like there was rose there.

Speaker 4 (01:07:31):
They did that. I didn't. I did buy flowers and
I brought bought nice hand soap.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
There was.

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
Wait a minute, you're playing on Karen Young's hot Shot
Yeah this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
Yeah, I was just listening to that this morning.

Speaker 4 (01:07:51):
Just the stress record was made, was made in the
studio that was in fabric Row off of Fourth Street
in Philadelphia and South Philadelphia. That's not there or anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Jesus wow, I didn't even realize kids, like, I'm just
going through I.

Speaker 4 (01:08:07):
Mere I played on thousands of records played. They're not
listed there, It says a member of m FSB at
some point. It says in the in some of those credits,
you know, but yeah, I all kid Cutty records. He
doesn't just say what about Lana del Rey's premiere album?

Speaker 7 (01:08:27):
Ah?

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
So are you?

Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
Is it still like, I mean, how often are you doing?
Are you to the place now where you could just
say like, all right enough, I can't do any more
arrangements or I like doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
So that's still yours? You still get up at five
am to.

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
I don't get up at I do get up. I
do get up really early in the morning, but I
don't come here as obsessively as I used to you.
I mean, I would get here at six in the morning,
and you guys would still be up recording from the night.
We would creep and you would laugh a lot about it,
and I'd go into my room and work.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
No, we just don't want to interrupt you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
So the thing is like usually when the sun comes out,
I'm like, all right, I better run in the bathroom
real quick because I know Larry's about to start at scales.
But it's kind of that creeping in the house where
you know, like there's a creak in the floor that
sort of on that spot, ye wake up your mom
and dad, that sort of thing. So I had like
a system of I know where the special planks are

(01:09:29):
that will give me away, and the squeak of the
door and all that stuff. So that was my everyday ritual,
like five forty five am, like all right, let me
do my business before I hear.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
And so you would still practice your scales every month.

Speaker 4 (01:09:44):
Well, I mean there was there was a period of
time when I was so busy that I really didn't
But now I'm back. I'm back, but I I reversed it.
So now I go home like and I start playing
around three to four in the afternoon, and I play
into until I have to fall asleep at night. Wow,
So I enjoy it that much, you know. I mean
I'm still playing, and a lot of times I just

(01:10:04):
start somewhere and I end up somewhere else. But I'm
actually playing a little better than I remember it and
playing in a while, you know. I mean, I'm about
as good as I was when I was maybe fourteen
right now. But I'm with that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
That's where how the peaks of valleys and the dips start, like.

Speaker 4 (01:10:21):
Yeah, but I where when you don't play, you lose
your technique and you have to rebuild your technique properly.
And I'm you know, I'm seventy one now, and they're
really a lot of bones, you ache, and a lot
of things are changed now than when you're little, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:34):
But it's cool.

Speaker 4 (01:10:35):
I'm really liking it.

Speaker 9 (01:10:36):
Yeah, I was gonna say, how much in playing cello,
how much I guess does the physicality play like age?

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
Is it a like hands things?

Speaker 9 (01:10:46):
It's always all handsome, any kind of off righters or
anything that'll that'll slow you up.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
Yeah, and you have there's certain looseness. I mean, here,
I'll tell you it's any good musician, you the approach
to playing. You want it to be real natural, you know,
and you don't even want to think about the physicalness
of it right here.

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
Yeah, well, I was going to say, how do you
adjust that? Now?

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
Only recently she I told you about the trick that
Chili you taught me, right, all right, So I'll say
that I'm at the very beginning stages of what I mean.
I don't want to put it out there whatever. I
don't know if it's arthritis or a carp you're feeling something.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
Yeah, it's just a lot of tightness. So you know,
I've been open to CBD oil.

Speaker 3 (01:11:29):
And all these things to to help with the aches
and pains. Chili told me go to Trader Joe's and
get the big assu bag of rice, like the the
the family supply of right, like the big giant supply.

(01:11:49):
If I have refrigerator or a freezer big enough to
store it in there to make it cold or whatever,
do that. And then right before I drum, just put
my entire arm inside the back of rice and do
like ham rotation motions. Wow uh, and exercise warming up
your hands. That's something I've never done before, you know.

(01:12:09):
I just come and start playing drums or whatever. But
now it's like I'm starting to notice like certain angles
of my elbows will start to hurt and that sort
of thing.

Speaker 7 (01:12:17):
So are you asking other drummers too? Like I just sound.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
Much well, I mean I came to Shila.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):
I mean, no one, there's something really weird about between
forty five and fifty five that I feel like a
lot of people are a little too ashamed.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
Yeah, still want to talk about it? Yeah, like I
admit it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
So you know, yeah, your ankles ever feel like no, no,
does this start to swell or that start? Nobody there's
no one really to talk to you, you know, because
they have the joints A seventy year old.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
Yeah, but you know, the other day I was, I was,
I watched Ben Art Purty. Sure, sure it still looks good.
I don't know how old he is. His whole process
of playing is is not like big, it's very small.

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
Well, every every drum teacher I ever had told me
from the gate, like, don't use your arms, use very
little hammos. But of course, you know, you want to
show off and show everyone that you.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
Like rock it out or what's your cock?

Speaker 7 (01:13:12):
Like this?

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
And now I wish i'd listen because you know, even
to hold the remote controls.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Like oh wow, you know, and any kind of wrist
raps or anything like that. Don't really, I don't do respect,
you know, for real. And that's the thing. I don't
know if this is I believe in CBD oil, No,
as do I.

Speaker 3 (01:13:35):
It's you know, I see that's not just you know,
placebo syndrome or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
Everybody.

Speaker 4 (01:13:40):
Everybody says though when it when it has some THC
in it, which doesn't really get you high, it doesn't
at all, right, no, but they mix it with THC
another I like the pharmaceutical brand that my brother's using
right now is a combination of CBD and THHC. Same,

(01:14:01):
Oh is that the same thing?

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
Well that you can get options, right, that's what if
you know, friend, you've changed. You live in New York
Medicals legal. I got friends many because I've changed, Like
y is a little surprised and just made I had
I had nineteen forty two on the rocks.

Speaker 7 (01:14:23):
Like yeah, order to shot Larry like it was it
was like we'll say what now, but yeah, he.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
Had nineteen forty two on the rocks. Yeah, this one, well,
you know they took so long to give us service. Bruh,
look that than got They had to.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Yeah, yeah, that was no I do nineteen forty two
because there's no sugar in nineteen forty two.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
Now you've been sticking to it, man, you've been sticking
to I'm proud of you, man, been trying trying to
be here. I want to be pretty Yeah I die.

Speaker 4 (01:14:54):
I want you to be too.

Speaker 1 (01:14:55):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
So is there anything that you have yet to achieve? Like,
do you want to do an orchestral album?

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
I don't know. I mean, I don't look at life
that way right now.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
I'm you know.

Speaker 4 (01:15:10):
I mean, I had a recent about a year and
a half ago. I almost died and it took me
about six months to recover from a trauma injury. And
I recovered.

Speaker 1 (01:15:27):
Well, you didn't play at all or.

Speaker 4 (01:15:29):
I couldn't play? Yeah, Like, well, I started playing a
couple of months in and then I got an infection
because I was bending my leg. It's a complic I
don't want to talk about it right now. It's a
complicated thing. I got gangreen and they had to remove
a part of my leg and they destroyed the nerves.
And they didn't destroy they they cut the nerves in

(01:15:51):
my leg, so I had I had to sort of
relearn something some stuff, and they didn't want I started
playing about them a month or two when I came
home from the hospital. I was in the hospital about
two two and some weeks and I came home and
I started playing and my leg blew way up and
I got some infection and I had to go on.

(01:16:12):
So I was told I had to be reclined for
another few weeks. And then I started playing again and
that's it helped me. And then smoked a lot of
pot because I wasn't going to I wasn't going to
do the opioids. Yeah, so in the in the hospital,
they had me high as a cute one delauded, you know.
And then as soon as they were letting me go home,
because you get sick in the hospital sometimes from hospital stuff,

(01:16:35):
you know, they want to get your home as fast
as they can so you don't get sick from infections.
Make a long story short, they cut your delauded like
to nothing. They don't want to send you home with
pills anymore. It's not it's not very popular. So I said,
I said, hold hold the pills. I'm going to buy
a bag of pot, and we proceeded to go right
and buy a bag of pot. And and I was,

(01:16:57):
you know, I was up most of the time with pain,
but I was smoking it like crazy, like I was
a hip, young hippie again. And I got real into it.
And then I looked at Viking and I said, we're
gonna buy half a pound. We're doing the old days.
We're gonna have the freezer full.

Speaker 8 (01:17:15):
Are you feeling the pot these days?

Speaker 7 (01:17:16):
Because you know, Pott didn't change since at first you
started like are you feeling this?

Speaker 4 (01:17:20):
It was first of all, I was just didn't I
didn't miss There were a few years where I was
like drinking stuff and doing other stuff. And but then
when I got back, I went right. I know a
guy I have a friend at humbold County. I just
got a wound the Marilluona.

Speaker 8 (01:17:36):
Wow, damn, you got straight to.

Speaker 4 (01:17:38):
The plug, straight to them.

Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
And and guess what, let's here for miracles.

Speaker 4 (01:17:44):
It helped, It helped me. It helped me.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Heal, well, I'm glad you're here.

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
Man, me too. And I'm still smoking about a bag
a week, you know, So what he's doing.

Speaker 5 (01:17:54):
Yeah, anything left from the pound that the town's gone.

Speaker 1 (01:18:01):
All right, just check check it right now.

Speaker 3 (01:18:04):
All right, Larry, I thank you so much for doing this.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (01:18:07):
Yes, that was my album.

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 5 (01:18:18):
Thank you, Larry.

Speaker 8 (01:18:19):
The song that he did Ain't No Stopping Us now
is the black right?

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
But I mean the song that we did with uh
she's singing on who did Danna also managed that song,
that song that's on his Yeah, yeah, that's a good
That song.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
Was initially love of my Life.

Speaker 3 (01:18:42):
Yeah, that would have been where love my Life was
when things fall apart man then sort of twust the side.
Well yeah, when Common decided he liked what you know
is love my Life, then we had to give this.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
I did not want to give up that song.

Speaker 9 (01:18:57):
I just have a question real quick for we go,
so Claire Fisher, I was always curious just to hear
from another string arranger, like what you thought about his
arrangements and what made him like.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
I always put so whenever I give him something his
words are he would always say make it like.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
No but you When we did what's the Dylan song?
When we did Can't Stop This theory? Oh my god,
I know we did.

Speaker 4 (01:19:25):
We did a lot of nice records.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
I think I think I might have went in the
room and cried a little bit. I mean it was hard.
It was really hard to mix that song.

Speaker 3 (01:19:35):
There was one point when me and Russ started crying
because I mean, the thing is like we keep it
keeps to remind.

Speaker 1 (01:19:40):
You that Dyl is no longer here. Dylan is no
longer here.

Speaker 3 (01:19:42):
And then like I was just like, all right, I
don't want to hear, I told I told Russ like
I don't want to hear what Larry did because I
know that when them strings get added, it's going to
make it even sadder. So I was just like, call
me forty five minutes before you want to print the
final and then I'll come and listen to it.

Speaker 4 (01:20:03):
But that like, that's why some of those records were
so great though, you know, I mean, you guys weren't
afraid of feelings and you know, I mean, and they
were selling them to you know. I mean, it was
really a nice time in my life. You gave me
a nice renaissance, you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Know, you gave us a home. Yeah, that's that's you know.

Speaker 3 (01:20:24):
Once again, Well, ladies on behalf of like Fan Cicolo
and half a Bill and Sugar Steve quest Lovest Love Supreme.
We will see you on the next go round. Thank you, West.

(01:20:45):
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