Our
Very Special Guest Todayis Canadian powerhouse
drummer Corky Laing is essentially associated with rock and roll folklore and
as one of the elite drummers in the world. Laing is a longtime member for hard
rock/heavy metal giant’s Mountain and the blues-rock power trio of West, Bruce
& Laing. But Laing’s musical collaborations are seemingly endless. A list
that includes alliances with John Lennon, Jack Bruce, Meat Loaf, Noel Redding,
Mahogany Rush, Ten Years After, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Bo Diddley and Gov’t
Mule …to name a few. Laing is also a
producer and composer.
Corky Laing has recently added a brand new chapter
to his illustrious musical career.
Laing’s most recent project is a fascinating collaboration with two
internationally acclaimed professors intermingling the decree of genetic
engineering with a rock opera music scheme. The concept album entitled … Playing God is performed by the Perfect
Child, an incredible ensemble of musicians and singers. At the core of the rock
opera is Corky Laing who astounds instrumentally, lyrically and vocally. The
album concept is brilliant and the music is colossal. It’s an awe-inspiring rock
musical production and a cross between … Welcome
to my Nightmare, The Wall and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
… CORKY LAING PLAYS MOUNTAIN …
Sitting in
with K2 (Peter Baron, Ken Sidotti & Joe
Venti), a band saluting Mountain’s music, for a couple of gigs
during 2014 and 2015 reminded Corky how much he liked
playing Mountain songs the way they were originally written.
Now he is looking at touring both Europe and the US celebrating
the Mountain legacy. On the European tours Corky is
joined by Joe Venti (formerly e.g. Leslie West Band)
on bass and vocals, and Phil Baker (e.g. Uriah Heep
Legends & Pulse Echoes of Floyd) on guitar and vocals.
In November 2015 they tour the UK and in February 2016 Germany, playing the
immortal Mountain classics and throwing in some West,
Bruce & Laing and Cream for good measure.
… CORKY LAING PLAYS MOUNTAIN … is
currently on tour.
Corky says …
“The drums are the best instrument in the world.
When you’re a kid you go to your dad and say, dad, I want to grow up and I want
to be a drummer. Your dad says …You’ve got to choose one or the other.”
Welcome
to the show legendary drummer, composer, producer, singer, and member of
classic rock legend’s Mountain and West, Bruce & Laing … CORKY LAING.
RAY SHASHO INTERVIEWS
CORKY LAING
ON BBS RADIO 1 POSTED ON YOU TUBE
THE
RAY SHASHO SHOW
Bi-weekly
Monday Afternoon at 3pm Pacific/6 pm Eastern
Canadian powerhouse drummer Corky Laing
is essentially associated with rock and roll folklore and as one of the
elite drummers in the world. Laing is a longtime member for hard
rock/heavy metal giant’s Mountain and the blues-rock power trio of West, Bruce & Laing. But Laing’s musical collaborations are seemingly endless. A list that includes alliances with John Lennon, Jack Bruce, Meat Loaf, Noel Redding, Mahogany Rush, Ten Years After, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Bo Diddley and Gov’t Mule …to name a few. Laing is also a producer and composer.
Corky Laing
has recently added a brand new chapter to his illustrious musical
career. Laing’s most recent project is a fascinating collaboration with
two internationally acclaimed professors (Prof. Matti Häyry and Dr.
Tuija Takala) intermingling the decree of genetic engineering with a
rock opera music scheme. The concept album entitled … Playing God is performed by the Perfect Child, an incredible ensemble of musicians and singers. At the core of the rock opera is Corky Laing who
astounds instrumentally, lyrically and vocally. The album concept is
brilliant and the music is colossal. It’s an awe-inspiring rock musical
production and a cross between … Welcome to my Nightmare, The Wall and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Corky Laing and the Perfect Child is … Corky Laing
(drums, vocals, percussion, guitar), Bonnie Parker (bass, vocals), Denny
Colt (guitar, vocals), Lasse Väyrynen (guitars, guitalele, bass,
keyboards, backing vocals), Matti Häyry (guitars, guitalele, keyboards,
vocals), Tuija Takala (guitar, vocals), Maya Paakkari (vocals), Harri
Väyrynen (guitar, bass, vocals), Mikaela Mansikkala (vocals),Hanna
Paatero (backing vocals), with Special Guest: Eric Schenkman (guitar) of
the Spin Doctors.
… I gave Playing God - by 'Corky Laing & the Perfect Child' -Five (5) Stars.
The album is available to purchase on the Gonzo Media website and will be available soon on amazon.com -September 10th.
“The drums are the best instrument in the
world. When you’re a kid you go to your dad and say, dad, I want to grow
up and I want to be a drummer. Your dad says ...You’ve got to choose
one or the other.”
Recently, I had the great pleasure to chat with Corky Laing about his brilliant and awe-inspiring rock opera entitled Playing God. We also talked about recent news concerning longtime bandmate Leslie West, the inception of “Mississippi Queen,” Mountain past and present, playing with Mick Ronson and much-much more!
Here’s my interview with legendary drummer, composer, producer,
singer, and member of classic rock legend’s Mountain and West, Bruce
& Laing … CORKY LAING. Ray Shasho: Hello Corky! Where are you at today? Corky Laing: “Hey Ray! I’m outside of New York way-way up on the ocean by Orient Point.” Ray Shasho: So you no longer live in Canada? Corky Laing: “No, I was in Canada while my son was finishing college and now we’re back in the U.S. of A. Ray.” Ray Shasho: I’ve enjoyed chatting with several legendary
Canadian music artists …including Burton Cummings, Frank Marino and Gino
Vannelli. Corky Laing:“The Canadian music industry is very
small and sort of a family, it’s an oasis of talent especially in the
rock field. Most of those guys I know from way back, it’s great. It’s
nice to see they are still around, passionately involved, and working
it. There are lots of great musicians from Canada. It’s become a world
thing now for rock; it used to be really exclusive to the states and now
everybody has opened up. It’s an oasis of talent because my theory is …
Canadians have to hustle more and they don’t mind it. Canadians are
basically blue-collar workers in a lot of ways and they do what they got
to do, very similar to the UK attitude. They take nothing for granted;
it’s not about the bling-bling … it’s about the commitment.” Ray Shasho: Corky, let’s talk about your new concept album entitled Playing God … It’s
an awe-inspiring rock musical production … a cross between ‘Welcome to
my Nightmare,’ ‘The Wall’ and ‘The Rocky Horror Picture show,’ I
thoroughly enjoyed the album, what a magnificent musical journey! What was your inspiration for making the album? Corky Laing:“I’ll tell you what happened … I was
lecturing in Canada, my brother is a professor at McGill, and he sort of
brought me in to do guest lecturing, and I’d go in and talk about
international marketing and the traditional side of the music business. I
started with that and I ended up teaching an entire course at
University of Western Ontario for about 6 to eight months… and I loved
it. What happened is through the network, a couple of professors from
the University of Helsinki and The University of Manchester saw me
online lecturing and saw a show that I did while I was playing over in
Sweden, and they came by and were big fans of Mountain, but I didn’t
realize at the time that they were top professors in the philosophy
field. They called me and said that they had some opportunities to guest
lecture over in Helsinki and Manchester and I said I’d love to. It
wasn’t a matter of money … I just loved the idea.”
“But dig this ... It wasn’t about lecturing about the music business,
it was about the philosophy of rock. In other words, they would talk
about it from the vanish point, how did you survive ethically, in a
business or lifestyle that had no rules. It was pretty frivolous when I
started. So I began doing more lectures and people were getting more
serious about the lifestyle.”
“Then they went on to say … we’ve written these philosophical books
and actually put together an opera idea regarding genetic maneuvering
and manipulation. They said, “We really love the way you write, would
you consider writing a couple of songs for this opera?” This was a
couple of years ago and I said why not. What I had the opportunity to do
was to use a lot of the ideas that never got used in Mountain and also
in West, Bruce and Laing, because I catalogued most of my ideas. So I
was able to use them and apply them to certain scenarios. So they wrote
the story and I would commute back and forth to Finland every month for
the last year and half or so and it started developing.”
“I was able to do anything I wanted to do. All I had to do was to
bring the storyline into the song. So I told them there would be a lot
of drums because I was going to write to the drumming. Since the actual
content was so sophisticated and I had no idea about opera, I just did
what I do and they accommodated it. I’m thrilled that you are enjoying
it because it is quite an ambitious idea to use the opera as a
philosophical teaching tool in universities. That was their idea, it’s
not a commercial album sort of speak, it’s an album that satisfies the
story. So the fact that it’s accessible and someone like yourself who
is very exposed to a lot of music can actually say … wow this makes a
dent here … it’s very reassuring on that level. All in all it was a
fantastic experience for me.”
“I don’t usually sing a lot but because I had to sing the parts, I’m
actually playing different characters on the CD. When we go to do the
show in Switzerland, it will be our first workshop where we actually
perform the show on stage. I’ll be performing the parts, singing and
playing and then various performers from all over Europe are coming in
to perform the band ‘The Perfect Child’ which is the band that plays in
the show. And I’m preparing for it as I speak to you.” Ray Shasho: One of the many tracks that I enjoyed on the album is “Perfect Boy.” Who is the female singer on that track? Corky Laing: “That’s interesting, there’s a band
that I have and been working on here in Long Island (Corky Laing &
The Memory Thieves) and have done some dates. Bonnie Parker & Denny
Colt and they have a band called ‘Tang’ a heavy metal band, they’ve been
around for years starting out in the mid 80’s. They’re great …guitar
player and bass player. I knew Bonnie for years from way back to the
Bonnie Parker Band. She’s just a great little singer and really a
powerful little nuclear bomb. She’s a beautiful girl with this power and
her girlfriend is Denny. So those girls sing on it and except for Maya
Paakkari a Finnish singer who has that Eartha Kitt sort of vibe, she’s
the other female singer.” Ray Shasho: Corky, you have an intriguing voice that instills throughout the entire album. Corky Laing:“I’m actually playing a few parts. I
actually have the opportunity to play God and it’s quite a powerful
place to be. I also play Tony who is my favorite character. When they
first started asking me, they needed an old blues guy who makes the deal
with sort of with the devil to get money to pay for his drugs and his
gambling fees and he’s all washed up. That was Luke and my initial
introduction and it sort of fit me like a glove. So basically my singing
parts are the God’s, Luke, Tony and Sophie’s father.”
“I think some of the conflicts are very contemporary. It’s pretty
deep but relevant. I really got involved heavily when I realized the
content. The actual subject matter is one of those things I don’t think
will go away too quick, it’s very controversial. Biogenetics is about
trying to become perfect at whatever we do. That in itself is so
contemporary with everyone trying to take whatever medication, whatever
science … to live longer, better, or trying to be perfect.” Ray Shasho: I think most of all, it’s just really good music on top of all that. Corky Laing:“That’s really the best compliment you
can give. That’s my neighborhood I try and come into. I had a chance to
really stretch. To be told, do whatever you can and use every fiber of
your being to come up with anything because you will not be shut down.
It’s quite a wonderful place to be, especially at my time in my life.” Ray Shasho: You also sang on “Eyes in the Mirror” and on that track you sounded very Peter Gabriel. Corky Laing:“I’ve got to keep you on the line here …
this is very good (All Laughing). That’s a lovely complement. I have
to say, I was a little bit reluctant to do as much singing. I was
basically singing everything to demonstrate to the other singers,
because we roll out stuff musically but basically for the attitude. Over
a period of time we couldn’t get some of the singers we wanted so they
said we just love the way it feels … let’s just go with it. So I’m glad
you get it.” Ray Shasho: Your mom loved Cuban music and so you grew up listening to Latin rhythms? Corky Laing: “We were in Montreal and she loved to
dance. Somehow I got known for the cowbell and Timbales. People would
say, well what brought that on? I’d say, when I started I played dance
music and tried to imitate Latin music. Then when Mountain came together
I said to Felix that I’d like to get some tom-toms, the reason I
didn’t have them is because I couldn’t afford them. I had the timbales
and Felix said …no-no man that’s the only thing that could cut through
the huge Sunn Amplifiers. Timbales as you know are like nuclear warheads
when you hit them hard. So between the cowbell and the timbales, from a
percussion point of view, I was able to cut through the Marshalls and
the Sunn Amps. Oddly enough, that’s where somehow I’m associated with
heavy metal, because of the metal in the timbales. I don’t mind it; it
sort of confuses me a little bit when they associate me with a heavy
metal grandpa of drumming. I scratch my head on it …but I’ll take it!
(All laughing)”
“I just used a good deal of what I know on the opera. You’ll hear
tons of bass drums and tom-toms and I kept the cymbals at a minimum
because of the grit that comes with the actual drums and so that was
sort of translated quite a bit in that. Then there was a quasi Arabic
feel towards the end that I picked up from a Northern Moroccan group and
it helped soothe the whole story line at the end. Ray, I just let ‘er
rip and I didn’t expect a lot of the stuff to translate to the actual
record … but you know what, it did and I’m thrilled.” Ray Shasho: Corky, I’d like to talk a bit about Mountain … first of all, how’s Leslie West doing? Corky Laing: “I’d have to say I haven’t talked with
him for awhile, but that’s only because he’s been pretty much on his
own. I was talking with Warren Haynes and I ran into Alice and they all
love Leslie, they were asking the same question. He’s just staying to
himself. Leslie and I had a couple gigs that we did before he had his
leg amputated and he was in terrible pain in those days. Going to a gig
was even hard to communicate with him. I hope he’s doing well, I know
he’s recorded a couple of records with some of his friends like Slash,
so I know he’s playing. So I think he’s probably alright.”
“Ray, when you put yourself in his position, he’s one of those guys
who loves to get around. For a big guy, I’ve always been amazed in over
forty years how he moves faster and more than anybody I know that has
half of his weight. So I think it’s got to be quite discouraging not to
be able to get the places literally that he would want to get. Example,
he just can’t fly around, it’s a whole situation when he gets on a plane
or he has to travel because it has to be accessible. In conclusion … I
hope he’s doing well; he’s been playing a bit, has his own trio and does
some blues. But Mountain is in the sunset. We can’t get up and play the
shows that people would want Mountain to play. Even if we’re fifty
years older, it’s not about that, it’s about the energy and conviction
that the band was known for, even when it wasn’t playing that great, we
always played very hard. So I would say he is doing as well as
expected.”
“If Leslie wanted to ever do something, I would do whatever he wanted
to do. Right now he’s using a good friend of mine Bobby Rondinelli when
he plays a couple of gigs around New York.” Ray Shasho: Corky, I’ve attended hundreds and hundreds of
rock concerts over my lifetime, but the rowdiest show I’ve ever been to
was at a Mountain concert in the early 70’s at the Capital Centre in
Maryland. Mountain opened for The J. Geils Band. The announcer, who I
believe was a local deejay named Barry Richards, introduced the band and
was hit with a bottle. Then Leslie West began wailing this incredible
solo and people began jumping up on the stage and went wild … it was
incredible! Corky Laing: “That’s funny. When I played with Meat
Loaf for a stint, he used to get nailed all the time. In England, what
they would do is they had these plastic beer bottles and they’d drink
the beer, piss in the beer, and then put the cap on very loosely and
throw that on stage. It’s called a piss bomb. I remember playing with
Meat Loaf and having to duck from those piss bombs. You either loved
Meat Loaf or you hated him. In England it was a very fine line.”
“Mountain was a pretty wild ride. Leslie was a very moody guy
depending on what day it was in the week and what type of drug he was
taking or I was taking… whatever it is. Again, you’re going back to a
time when there were no rules. You did what you had to do at the time
and hoped it worked and if it didn’t work in many cases …who the f*ck
cares. I’m sorry to say, but the commitment to the music at that point
was … I’m not sure how solid that was; it was more about the whole
atmosphere. It was more about hard rock and the impact of music as
opposed to the subtlety of the music and that went a long way. So there
were good things that came out of it.” Ray Shasho: So when Saturday Night Live created the sketch
“More Cow Bell” featuring Christopher Walken and the SNL Players
portraying Blue Ӧyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” … they really
should have been portraying Corky Laing with Mountain playing
“Mississippi Queen.” Corky Laing: “It has come up quite a bit. Blue
Ӧyster Cult copied me and I copied The Chambers Brothers. Everybody
copies somebody. The cowbell was just an idea of function, to do the
count, so everyone knew where (1) was. Think about the audio aspect,
when you get into an arena and you’ve got those amps at full blast … I
would use the cowbell just to keep the time. I did “Mississippi Queen”
way back before Mountain. It was one of those spontaneous wrote itself
in the limo kind of songs. We were in Nantucket and I was playing with
my local band ‘Energy’ and there was this beautiful chick called Mollie
who was dancing with this really good friend of mine Roy Bailey, and it
was in the middle of the summer in 1969. The lights blew-out in
Nantucket, it’s a small island and they never had air conditioning until
that summer. So everybody turned on their air conditioners blowing out
the power on the entire island. So all there was … was this emergency
spotlight shining on this beautiful chick who was wearing a see-through
dress. I’m playing drums, and the organ, the bass, and the guitar go off
…and there are just drums. We were in the middle of playing “Cripple
Creek” and people were getting off the dance floor except Mollie and Roy
kept dancing. I knew she was from the South and I wasn’t going to stop
playing to get them off the dance floor. I just kept staring at her and
then screamed at her … Mississippi Queen! I kept rambling on and on and
then screamed …You know what I mean! So that’s the story.”
“What happened is, when the end of the summer came after Woodstock
and we had to go into the studio, Felix said do you have any songs;
we’ve got an album to do. He sent Leslie and I to the back room and said
you guys go back there and write something. Leslie had already done his
solo album with Felix called Mountain. So Leslie says you got
any words? He knew I had been writing with my local band and I said yea,
I actually wrote these words out for this thing that I played with just
the drums. So I played it for him and he immediately came up with the
lick. It was within f*ing seconds! We looked at each other and literally
laughed ourselves sick and thought … wow this is f*ing cool!” Ray Shasho: Did you get the chance to jam with Jimi Hendrix? Corky Laing: “Yes I did. A lot of
guys did way back, but he was a big fan of Mountain. I have articles
that I kept personally where they ask him what are you listening to …and
he says I’ve been listening to Nina Simone and Mountain. That’s what he
was listening to at the time. Leslie jammed with him ….it was an era
where we all crossed paths. It wasn’t like a big deal, nobody was God
yet and there was nobody that was a hero yet like Clapton. Everybody
played all the time and there were no egos involved. When it sort of
kicked into the 70’s, big business came in and everybody had to watch
out what they were playing and who they were playing it for ….becoming
paranoic … too much cocaine Ray, too much cocaine.”
“If I could say one word that would wrap up my life it would be either blessed or lucky.” Ray Shasho: One of my favorite guitarists that I also feel is
one of the all-time greatest players is Mick Ronson. You’ve also worked
with Mick and Ian Hunter in the past. Corky Laing: “In the musician world Mick Ronson was magical. There’s a record that I did that I was very proud to do called The Secret Sessions and
Mick Ronson, Ian Hunter and I were a band at one point in the late
70’s. Ian and I wrote and recorded about six to eight songs and then Ian
was offered his own record deal and put out You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic.
With the arrangement that we had he gave me these songs that Mick
Ronson, myself, Ian Hunter and Felix Pappalardi played bass. Then we had
Paul Butterfield playing harmonica and John Sebastian came in from the
Spoonful. We had some great players.”
“You’ll hear some of the best work that Ronson did apart from Bowie on TheSecret Sessions.
Even Mick himself, God bless him was one of the most beautiful people,
said, that he really enjoyed that because when Felix and I played we
stuck to the old American bass and drums when it came down to recording,
we played very thick. Mick loved the idea because he could do his
high-end guitar playing that I call his spacey stuff. There’s a song
called “The Outsider” that Mick plays solo on. He played some amazing
guitar, there are about four or five tracks that he played on. I have to
say Ray you’re exactly right, one of the best of all time players.” Ray Shasho: One of the drummers that influenced you early- on was Gene Krupa? Corky Laing: “He was my number one influence as of
drummers. Of course there was Art Blakey in those days … I didn’t know
anything about drumming you just know what you love. But to look at Gene
Krupa, and watch Gene Krupa as well as listen to him, there was just so
much heart and soul. And I loved him. Then who follows in his footsteps
but Keith Moon. Keith Moon was just a psychedelic version of Gene
Krupa. Amazing performer and I always loved Keith and always wanted to
be Keith. Again, I was lucky enough to be with the same management
company as they had in Europe so we became close friends. As much as I
sat behind him at Madison Square Garden, right with his drum roll, right
behind him, I watched everything he did for three days and I still
cannot do one of them. And that’s the way I drum, I drum eye to hand,
for me it’s all in coordination. So I always wanted to be Keith Moon.”
“But at the same time, my influence would be a Ginger Baker because
of Felix’s association with Cream. My all-time favorite character
drummer is Levon Helm. John Bonham …yes, I just did the Bonzo Bash a few
months ago. They celebrated his birthday with about 15-20 drummers that
played on his drum kit. Each drummer played a different Led Zeppelin
song and I was cordially invited to play on that and it was great.” Ray Shasho: Here’s a question that I ask everyone that I
interview, If you had a “Field of Dreams” wish, like the movie, to play
or collaborate with anyone from the past or present …who would that be? Corky Laing: “It would be Elvis Presley. I’ve always
wanted to play with Elvis and I felt there would come a time. When he
was on stage and got into that whole martial arts thing, it’s like
visually, he’s a drummer and he’s very physically looking. His songs
were very subtle about how rhythmic they were. He started to get into
some real good sh*t …and yes, that would be my wish.” Ray Shasho: Corky, thank you for being on the call today and
more importantly for all the incredible music you’ve given us with
Mountain, West, Bruce & Laing and into the present with your
brilliant rock opera … Playing God. Corky Laing: “All the best Ray, stay in touch and God bless!”
Contact classic rock music journalist Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com Purchase Ray’s very special memoir called ‘Check the Gs’ -The True Story of an Eclectic American Family and Their Wacky Family Business … You’ll LIVE IT! Also available for download on NOOK or KINDLE edition for JUST .99 CENTS at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com- Please support Ray by purchasing his book so he can continue to bring you quality classic rock music reporting. “Check the Gs is just a really cool story ... and it’s real. I’d
like to see the kid on the front cover telling his story in a motion
picture, TV sitcom or animated series. The characters in the story
definitely jump out of the book and come to life. Very funny and scary
moments throughout the story and I just love the way Ray timeline’s
historical events during his lifetime. Ray’s love of rock music was
evident throughout the book and it generates extra enthusiasm when I
read his on-line classic rock music column on examiner.com. It’s a
wonderful read for everyone!” …stillerb47@gmail.com
