Jesse Colin Young Exclusive: Legendary Singer & Songwriter Talks About His Plight With Lyme Disease

By Ray Shasho

Exclusive Interview with Jesse Colin Young:

 'The Youngbloods' were a psychedelic-folk rock band that mellowed millions across the globe with their musical directive for peace and brotherhood entitled “Get Together.” The song was penned by singer-songwriter Chet Powers (Dino Valenti/Quicksilver Messenger Service) and monumentally performed by Jesse Colin Young (vocals, bass, guitar), Jerry Corbitt (vocals, lead guitar), Lowell Levinger known as “Banana” (electric piano, guitar), and Joe Bauer (drums).

The group’s first two releases ‘The Youngbloods’ and ‘Earth Music’ were produced by Felix Pappalardi (Cream/Mountain). After the success of “Get Together” (1967) the band moved to San Francisco during the ‘Summer of Love,’ an ambience conforming to their lifestyles. Their debut album also generated a minor hit with “Grizzly Bear” (1967) written by Jerry Corbitt.
The Youngbloods attained greater success after “Get Together” was reissued in (1969), peaking at #5 on the Billboard’s Hot 100. After co-founder Jerry Corbitt left the band, Jesse became the principal songwriter. The Youngbloods third studio release ‘Elephant Mountain’ spawned the Jesse Colin Young penned classics … “Darkness Darkness” and “Sunlight.”

Between 1970 and ’72, a trio version of The Youngbloods released four albums … ‘Good and Dusty,’ ‘High on a Ridgetop,’ and two live recordings ‘Rock Festival’ and ‘Ride the Wind.’
The Youngbloods parted ways in 1972 as Jesse Colin Young embarked on a successful solo journey. Jesse released ‘Together’ his first solo effort since ‘Young Blood’ (1965) and ‘The Soul of a City Boy’ (1964).
In 1973, Jesse Colin Young released his critically-acclaimed and commercially successful ‘Song for Juli’ album featuring the tracks “Mornin’ Sun,” “Song for Juli,” and “Miss Hesitation.” Country fusion … jazz fusion … blues rock … Young’s musical ingenuity endured with subsequent releases… ‘Light Shine’ (1974), ‘Songbird’ (1975), ‘On the Road’ (1975), and ‘Love on the Wing’ (1976)

In 1979, Jesse closed the ‘No Nukes’ concert and movie along with Jackson Browne, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash, while performing The Youngbloods classic hit “Get Together.”

In October of 1995, the Mount Vision fire destroyed Jesse Colin Young’s home in Inverness Park, California. Over 12,000 acres burned over 4 days destroying 48 hillside homes and incurring 20-million dollars in damage, including Jesse’s Point Reyes ridgetop home in the hills overlooking Tomales Bay. Everything was destroyed except for his recording studio.

Jesse Colin Young has performed with Led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to name just a few.
In 2003, legendary Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant won the Grammy for ‘Best Rock Vocal’ for his cover version of “Darkness Darkness” penned by Young.

Jesse Colin Young currently lives in Aiken, South Carolina and is recording tracks for a brand new album that will feature Julliard pianist Donald Vega and Jesse’s son Tristan. Watch for a possible release in 2015. Jesse and his wife Connie also perpetuate a Certified Organic Farm entitled ‘Jesse’s Kona Coffee’ located in the Kona district of Hawaii.

I had the incredible pleasure of chatting with Jesse Colin Young recently about … His struggles with Lyme disease…. The Youngbloods … The inception of “Get Together” …The passing of his best friend Jerry Corbitt … Supporting our Vets … Jesse’s sons in the music business … Jesse’s new album … Walking off the ‘Tonight Show with Johnny Carson’ … My infamous ‘Field of Dreams’ wish question and much-much more!

Here’s my recent interview with legendary folk-rock/ singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/ founding member & lead vocalist with ‘The Youngbloods’ and accomplished solo artist … JESSE COLIN YOUNG.
Ray Shasho: Hey Jesse, how’s it going man, you’re in the studio?
Jesse Colin Young: “Yes I am. I like to have a studio either in the house or next to the house. I built my first one in California around 1972. The house burnt down in 1995 but the studio was down in a gulley that was really wet. The forest was just smoldering stumps and my four story house was gone but the studio survived. My godson works in there now with my son Cheyenne Young in a band called ‘Beso Negro,’ it’s like a gypsy jazz/rock band; they have a good following in the Bay area. They’ve got two really strong guitar players and singers. My godson Ethan Turner is the drummer and my son plays bass, Cheyenne plays upright electric and wash-tub bass; they both grew up together and are about two years apart. My youngest son who is just taking a break from Berklee College of Music is here working on a record with me. So yea, two bass players, I did play bass when I was in The Youngbloods but only because I had to. I really didn’t know how, we had two guitar players and we couldn’t get Felix Pappalardi to join the band. I don’t think the band was heavy enough though for Felix. So I turned into a bass player. It must be in the genes because I have two sons and a daughter that plays bass.”
Ray Shasho: Jesse, let’s talk about your personal plight with Lyme disease?
Jesse Colin Young: “The chronic Lyme sufferers of which I am one, and I would say most of the people in this country who have it are undiagnosed. The official international infectious disease doctors in the United States have taken the position that there is no chronic Lyme disease and that the treatment is three weeks of Doxycycline …and that’s it! There are those of us who have had it for years or even decades. Many of whom are really suffering and are confined to wheel chairs. Lyme disease sufferers are not getting the treatment they need. Like me, they may need a year of antibiotics and not three weeks. If they’ve had it like I did, probably for a couple of decades before it was diagnosed. It took a year of five antibiotics, some of them were antimalarial drugs, and that’s a lot different than three weeks. And that really helped to bring back my sanity and physical health.”
Ray Shasho: I believe you had told me earlier that you couldn’t completely rid yourself of the disease?
Jesse Colin Young: “That’s true … I mean that’s my truth. Dr. Richard Horowitz is leading the charge right now in New York State; but it’s so hard to find a doctor who specializes in Lyme disease. The blood tests are not very accurate and it also depends on the lab you send them to. A doctor actually has to listen to every symptom you have and that takes time … most doctors don’t have it, what do they put aside for a visit ten-fifteen minutes? We had a Lyme doctor here in South Carolina and they suspended his license, and this happens all over the country. They do that because he’s prescribing long-term aggressive and expensive treatment. One of my antibiotics cost six hundred bucks with insurance. That was an important one for a co-infection, when you’re bitten by the tick you just don’t get Lyme’s, you get other diseases with it, and you’ve kind of got to fight them all at the same time.”

“So right now… the New York legislator has passed a bill that kind of forbids whatever the oversight organization is in the state that is persecuting the Lyme doctors. It forbids them to do this. There’s a great push at the moment to get this bill on the floor of the senate. I’m not a New York state resident but I’m going to write a letter and let my voice be heard. My doctor … Dr. Richard Horowitz is in New York State and he brought this to the floor. His book that came out this past year is called ‘Why Can’t I Get Better?’ and is a definitive work on chronic Lyme, which the AMA says does not exist. I think Richard has had around Fifteen Thousand patients in upstate New York. He kind of wandered into a hotbed right out of medical school, so many of his patients had Lyme disease so he became a specialist. He’s been a great help for so many of us. Many lives and families have been destroyed by this disease. It not only makes you hurt, but it makes you crazy.”
Ray Shasho: What were some of your early symptoms that told you something was wrong?
Jesse Colin Young: “We had moved to Hawaii in 1995 after our house burnt down in California, and we had lost everything except the studio. So when I started to get kind of crazy and have anxiety and depression in that first year in Hawaii, my therapist said maybe you’d better take some medication for the anxiety and depression, so they put me on some antidepressants and nobody even thought about Lyme disease. So I took the medications until I moved here to South Carolina, and to my wife’s hometown. She went to a family funeral in Ohio and she came back with this pamphlet from one of her cousins who was an Internist working with ILADS (International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society). The pamphlet ended up in the kitchen and I opened it up one day and started reading all the symptoms and thought … Good God, this sounds like my biography … maybe I have Lyme disease? And here I had my wife’s cousin who was working at ILADS. I called her up and asked who should I see and she said Dr. Richard Horowitz. So I flew up to New York and was diagnosed with Lyme’s. Richard put me on heavy antibiotics and began to get my brain back, my thinking, and a lessening of all those anxiety and panic attacks. It was like getting my life back.”

“After I had been treated it did not show up in a Western blot which is a common blood test for Lyme disease. Mine did not show up positive until I had my first month of antibiotics. My first Western blot showed up negative. It was so small that one of my doctors said it was negative and not positive … and that’s one of the problems with diagnosing Lyme’s. Dr. Horowitz sat me down for a couple of hours and listened to my whole story. I really never talked about this in an interview before, but I think it’s really important because there are people out there who are suffering and have no idea why.”
Ray Shasho: Talk about the inception of your company Ridgetop Music.
Jesse Colin Young: “I had not been paying attention when everything went to CD’s and had not made my catalogue available on CD in the early 90’s, so my wife Connie and I started Ridgetop Music to remedy that and to also bring out the new music. We have a little place in Hawaii that we bought on our honeymoon. We’d go there and I began being influenced by Hawaiian music. I eventually made a couple of albums, one called … ‘Swept Away’ (1994) and the other entitled ‘Living in Paradise’ (2004).”
Ray Shasho: Then you started Jesse's Kona Coffee?
Jesse Colin Young: “We fell in love with the big island; we’ve got a little farm there and it had a little house on it. We bought that in 1987. Then when the house burned up in California, Connie and I decided, we’ve got a house in Hawaii, at least we’ve got somewhere to go. Most of the people that lost their homes didn’t have a spare house, we were lucky. We found the Waldorf School ten minutes from our house in Hawaii and that was very important to Connie and turned out to be important to me. We became big supporters of Waldorf education and actually helped build a K through 8th grade school that survives in Kona to this day. Now it’s a Waldorf inspired school.”
Ray Shasho: Jesse you’ve written so many beautiful songs … your breathtaking composition “Sunlight” always comes to mind, which was covered by Three Dog Night, and of course “Darkness Darkness.”
Jesse Colin Young: “Actually I just got a check for that and I built my studio with the Three Dog Night money. (Laughing) “Sunlight” was the first song I wrote in California. I think I started it during the spring that we played The Avalon. Someone took me out to Muir Beach which is in Marin County just north of San Francisco. I fell in love with Marin and began that song. I wrote “Darkness Darkness” in New York. When I was in San Francisco, David Lindley was in a band and spent a lot of time as an accompanist with Jackson Browne and is a beautiful slide player and violinist. We played with him at the Avalon once upon a time. The band had Oud players and it was the time for people experimenting with all kinds of instruments and music. You could turn on KSAN Radio and listen for 24 hours and never hear the same song … it was wide open. National musicians like myself could listen to the radio and learn all kinds of things because there was a lot of great music going on back then. The beginnings of “Darkness Darkness” were there from listening to KSAN Radio while I was in San Francisco and was completed in New York. I spent one sleepless night thinking about my friends who were in Viet Nam and how terrifying it must be. So much of the fighting was done at night and “Darkness Darkness” came out of that sleepless night. I tried to put myself in their shoes.”
Ray Shasho: I chatted with Dave Mason who was absolutely overwhelmed when a Marine came up to him and said, “You know man, me and my buddy were stuck in a foxhole for three days and we would have gone absolutely nuts if it weren’t for a Jimi Hendrix tape and a Dave Mason tape. I’m assuming the same can be said with “Get Together” and “Darkness Darkness”?
Jesse Colin Young: “It was my privilege and pleasure to find that out after the war. My support for the Vets still goes on. Two weeks ago we initiated a program that started in Saratoga. It’s called the ‘Saratoga WarHorse Foundation’ and is an amazing program. It started in Saratoga because they’ve got a racetrack and racehorses that nobody wants anymore. I believe they’re done racing at around three or four years old. The founder Bob Nevins served in Viet Nam as a medevac pilot for the 101st Airborne and learned that soldiers and horses bonding together helped Veterans struggling with PTSD, sleeplessness or suicidal thoughts. Bonding with the horse works like forgiveness. It’s an incredible program and we help to fund the initiation of it here in Aiken, South Carolina.”
Ray Shasho: I grew up around the Washington D.C. area and Jesse Colin Young was very much a concert mainstay on the D.C. music scene … The Cellar Door, the Birchmere, Constitution Hall …etc.
Jesse Colin Young: “Oh my God, yea, The Cellar Door. I think the first gig that I played as a folk singer was at The Cellar Door with a band called The Country Gentlemen, they’re called The Seldom Scene today. We’d go down there and listen to them almost every night. Right down the street was the Little Tavern between the Cellar Door and the Shamrock Tavern. We’d go to the Little Tavern and listen to The Beatles on their jukebox. They were just happening so that must have been around 1963.”
Ray Shasho: What were the early Greenwich Village days like?
Jesse Colin Young: “The Youngbloods were at the Cafe au Go Go. The Magicians, Tim Hardin, and The Lovin’ Spoonful would play at Cafe Wha? … and then all kinds of other music… there was jazz next door, although it was kind of a high ticket price so we never went there, but it was really the same building as Cafe au Go Go. They’d have acts like George Shearing and people like that playing there.”

“I first heard “Get Together” at the Cafe au Go Go. The Youngbloods played there about a year and we opened for anyone that Howard Solomon wanted us to open for; I think he paid us twenty bucks a piece. We opened for Muddy Waters, Ian & Sylvia and… whoever, but we got to rehearse and really put the band together there. Jerry Corbitt and I were folk singers and we hadn’t been in a band since high school, and there I was the bass player. We picked Joe Bauer a jazz drummer from Memphis … Jerry was from Tifton, Georgia … Joe Bauer from Memphis … and ‘Banana’ (Lowell Levinger) and I both born in New York.”

“It was a Sunday afternoon and I had stopped in to the Cafe au Go Go to see if anyone was rehearsing because The Blues Project had also rehearsed there. I walked in and there was an open mike and a fellow named Buzzy Linhart who had a quartet called the Seventh Suns, and he was singing a song called “Get Together” and I was struck by it. This was a song written by Dino Valenti (Chet Powers). I ran backstage and said Buzzy write the lyrics out for me because I’ve got to sing it. I must have memorized the melody but he wrote down the lyrics on a piece of paper and I had watched him play it on guitar. But yea, that was a momentous day for me. I took it into rehearsal for The Youngbloods the next day. Most of the songs I had written myself, but I knew “Get Together” was a game changer … a life changer for me.”
Ray Shasho: “Ev’rybody get together, try and love one another right now” … Awe-inspiring lyrics that should be observed on a daily basis in today’s coldhearted and destructive world.
Jesse Colin Young: “I don’t think the generations who have come up in the last thirty years are as optimistic as we were. And many of us may have been disillusioned by it and what happened. I grew up in school first in Ohio and I felt like there was one guy who understood where I came from politically and emotionally in a school of 25,000 people (laughing) … there was people from all over the country who felt like outsiders. Then we went to play the Avalon Ballroom in May of 1967. In New York we were kind of outsiders, discotheques were the thing. I remember the first time we played with the Buffalo Springfield was in a discotheque. Bands like The Rascals were more successful, they wanted dance music. In May 1967, we walk into The Avalon Ballroom and there were people with hair like ‘bananas’ … he just had a huge head of hair, we didn’t see that a lot in New York, everyone in the audience, even the females had hair like that(All laughing).”

“We checked into this cheap hotel down the street from the Avalon, I put my bag down, turned on this radio that was built into the bed and it was “Get Together” on the radio. We had no idea they were playing it. We walked into the beginning of the ‘Summer of Love’ back in the spring and all of a sudden half the people on the street were looking you in the eye and realized we were a movement, not just a bunch of outsiders. It was incredible, and then of course that spread.”
Ray Shasho: Jesse, here’s a question that I ask everyone that I interview. If you had a ‘Field of Dreams’ wish like the movie, to play, sing or collaborate with anyone from the past or present, who would that be?
Jesse Colin Young: “Well, I just lost my best friend Jerry Corbitt; we buried him down in Tifton, Georgia two months ago, right next to his mom and dad, and that’s where he wanted to be. So I think it would have to be Jerry, I’d love to sing with him again. Our voices did something wonderful together. I remember years ago, Neil Young turned out to be a neighbor on the big island and Neil tried to encourage me to get The Youngbloods back together and said I want to hear you and Corbitt sing together again …but it never happened.”

“We had plan for Jerry to come to Aiken, he’s a horse guy and this town in South Carolina we live in is just full of horse people. So he had planned to come here, and he was going to sit on the porch and pick, just like it was in the folk days …that’s how we met. I was playing the Club 47 and staying with somebody my manager new. Coming back from the gig I got this message saying don’t go back to that house he’s been arrested. So I ended up with Corbitt and that’s how we met. We’d sit on his back porch at the Cambridge apartment and just played and played. Corbitt was a great Ragtime picker and kind of introduced me to Ragtime. I guess in the great beyond there’s a porch and Corbitt is up there right now and that’s who I’d collaborate with.”
Ray Shasho: You’re working on recording a brand new album?
Jesse Colin Young: “It’s an album I started with a Julliard pianist named Donald Vega. There’s a project called Julliard in Aiken (Aiken, S.C. the town we live in). About ten years ago our neighbors down the street called up Julliard and said that we’d like to give you our mansion when we pass. They are Pulitzer Prize authors Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh. They made this connection with Julliard, that when they die, their house and foundation to support it will become a part of Julliard. So the Julliard students started to come here about six years ago. They would come down on spring break and we created this ten day long festival in Aiken, South Carolina.”

“In our guest house we would host the jazz guys and a lot of piano players would come down. Donald Vega would warm up on our piano and get ready to go to a gig and I fell in love with his playing. A couple of years ago, when I was still on the road, he played with me on the road until his first jazz album came out, and it went to #1 on the jazz charts. We had about twelve songs that we had recorded together, and he just came down a few months ago to play a gig here, and I recorded another five new songs with him. So we’ve got about 12 songs with Donald on them and me playing electric guitar, and hopefully by the time we head over to do our work on the Coffee farm, our son Tristan (Everybody calls him ‘T’), who is in his last year at Berklee will be part of the new record.”

“It’s not a jazz album but will be kind of jazzy. It’s a mixture of new material and a few of my older songs that I’ve wanted to record with a beautiful pianist … like a song called “Great Day,” and some of my music is jazz inspired. The only station that I could get when I moved to Point Reyes on my radio was a jazz station. So back in 1967, I started listening to a lot of jazz. Up on top of the mountain, the only FM station that would come in was KJAZZ. We’re not sure yet when it will be released, hopefully by next year. I’m also not sure what we’re going to call it yet, but it might be entitled ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ because that’s one of the songs I fell in love with as a kid. It’s a jazz standard but a big hit for The Flamingos in the 50’s, and that’s when I fell in love with the song.”
Ray Shasho: Jesse will you be going on the road anytime soon?
Jesse Colin Young: “I don’t think so. Maybe when I finish this album I’ll be so excited that I’ll want to. I quit about two years ago because I wasn’t having any fun. I’ll have to somehow deprogram myself from this perfectionism that has always plagued me and been responsible for a lot of the music that I made. When I couldn’t get an engineer out in the country I learned to do it myself. Many of my records in the 70’s were self produced and self engineered. It’s got to be fun for me now. I was pretty driven for those 50 years that I spent on the road; I’ve been working on changing my attitude and learning to relax, so that has to change.”
Ray Shasho: You’re a huge fan of Lightnin’ Hopkins?
Jesse Colin Young: “Absolutely! And I knew Lightnin’. I’ve got four guys over my desk … Lightnin’ Hopkins (holding a flask in his hand), John Hurt (who I was also privileged to know and play with when I was very young), Pete Seeger (who I think was the grandfather of the folk generation) Jerry Corbitt, and over in the corner is my hero Yo-Yo Ma.”
Ray Shasho: I wasn’t going to ask you about the Johnny Carson incident because you’ve repeated the story so many times …
Jesse Colin Young: “Well, it was very simple, they wanted us on the show (The Youngbloods) and called us, we had just released ‘Elephant Mountain’ and we said sure we’ll play “Get Together” but we also wanted to play a song from our new record. So that was the deal and had their word that this would happen. We flew out from California to New York. When we got there, their set was sort of a corny psychedelic setup, and they didn’t have floor monitors. We fooled around and did our soundcheck, and then the producer of the show came over to talk with our manager who was there with us and said … “We really don’t have time for two songs.” Our manager said that was the deal you made with us and what brought us all the way here to do this. I think he thought that he was so powerful that no one would walk off the show. So Stuart our manager walked over to us and said what do you want to do guys? We thought about it and said no, they have to keep their word. I’m sure they were use to getting musicians in there with promises and then saying ...play your hit and get out of here, and be grateful that we even considered you. We were just not those kinds of people and expected them to keep their word. So when they wouldn’t we just walked. The whole idea was to make the record business and the TV business treat musicians with respect. So it’s important for people to know that The Youngbloods took a stand to be treated with respect, because musicians traditionally have not been. When we were allowed to choose our own producer on RCA Records … that was a huge step!”
Ray Shasho: Jesse, thank you for being on the call today but more importantly for all the incredible music with The Youngbloods and as a solo artist that you’ve given us and continue to bring.
Jesse Colin Young: “My pleasure Ray, thank you!”

'International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society' ILADS website
Purchase ‘Why Can’t I Get Better?’ by Dr. Richard Horowitz at amazon.com
Visit the Saratoga WarHorse Foundation
Jesse Colin Young official website
Jesse’s Blog
Jesse Colin Young on Facebook
Jesse Colin Young on Twitter
Jesse Colin Young on Myspace
Jesse's Kona Coffee official website
The Youngbloods last.fm website
Beso Negro (Jesse’s son and godson’s band) official website
Donald Vega official website
Very special thanks to Eddie Camolli of ‘The Hungry Ear Agency’

Coming up NEXT … The pioneer of the ‘electric violin’ Darryl Way of ‘Curved Air,’
UP Coming … Don Wilson legendary guitarist and co-founder of ‘The Ventures,’ Keyboard extraordinaire Patrick Moraz (YES/The Moody Blues), folk rock singer & songwriter Jonathan Edwards (“Sunshine”) and Al Kooper (The Blues Project, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bob Dylan …while responsible for the success of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Contact classic rock music journalist Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com

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“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


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Susanna Hoffs Interview: ‘The Bangles’ Multitalented Songstress and Songwriter Talks... Past, Present & Future

By Ray Shasho

In-depth interview with The Bangles -Susanna Hoffs:

Susanna Hoffs is the beautiful, talented & iconic vocalist for the commercially successful all- female pop/rock/new wave/ band ‘The Bangles.’ Hoffs angelic and awe-inspiring vocals are definitive on such Bangles classics as …“Manic Monday” (1985 #2 US Billboard Hit), “Walk Like an Egyptian” (1986 #1 US Billboard Hit), “If She Knew What She Wants” (1986 #29 US Billboard Hit), “Hazy Shade of Winter” (1987 #2 US Billboard Hit), “Walking Down Your Street” (1987 #11 US Billboard Hit),“In Your Room” (1988 #5 US Billboard Hit), and the breathtaking “Eternal Flame” (1988 #1 US Billboard Hit). Hoffs is also ‘The Bangles’ rhythm guitarist and songwriter.

THE BANGS: After Susanna Hoffs graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied theatre, dance, and art, she headed back to Los Angeles and placed an ad in The Recycler, an LA based classifieds newspaper. A trio began to form with the addition of Sisters Vicky Peterson (vocals/guitars) and Debbi Peterson (vocals/drums) while subsequently adding Annette Zilinskas on bass. After short stints with names such as ‘The Colours’ and ‘The Supersonic Bangs,’ the newly formed all-girl band eventually settled on ‘The Bangs’ while swiftly becoming a vital part of the Los Angeles Paisley Underground scene. The Bangs debut single “Getting Out of Hand” was released on their label DownKiddie Records and caught the attention of KROQ deejay Rodney Bingenheimer who repeatedly played the record on his show.

THE BANGLES: ‘The Bangs’ were auspiciously mandated to change their name so the group dropped ‘The’ and added the letters ‘les’ to form ‘Bangles,’ a banner that would flourish into one of the greatest all-female groups in rock and roll history. In 1982, under new manager Miles Copeland, The Bangles supported The English Beat on a UK tour. In 1983, the group made its first appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
In 1984, ‘All Over the Place,’ The Bangles first full-length album was released on CBS (Columbia) Records. Michael Steele had replaced Annette Zilinskas on bass. Steele began her music career as Micki Steele with The Runaways. ‘All Over the Place,’ spawned the singles”Hero Takes a Fall,” and “Going Down to Liverpool” which featured Susanna’s childhood neighbor and family friend Leonard Nimoy. The Bangles popularity escalated and was asked to join such acts as ‘Cyndi Lauper’ and ‘Huey Lewis and the News’ on tour.

Susanna Hoffs and The Bangles had captivated the attention of R&B/Pop/Funk/ music artist & songwriter ‘Prince.’ Prince offered his penned single “Manic Monday” (1984) to The Bangles and the group promptly brought the tune into the recording studio. “Manic Monday” (1986) became The Bangles first big hit peaking at #2 on Billboards US Charts.
Their second studio album ‘Different Light’ (1986) produced by David Kahne peaked at #2 on the US Billboard Charts and is considered to be their most successful to date.
Also in 1986, The Bangles opened for 'Queen' at Slane Castle, Ireland.

In 1987, “Walk like an Egyptian” won Best Video at the 15th Annual Music Awards and again at the 5th Annual American Video Awards. ‘Everything’ (1988) The Bangles third studio album spawned the Top 5 Hit “In Your Room,” and their worldwide #1 single “Eternal Flame” penned by Susanna Hoffs, Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.
The Bangles attained a well-deserved hiatus throughout the 90’s but returned with rock and roll vengeance in 1999. They released their fourth studio album entitled ‘Doll Revolution’ in 2003. Bassist Michael Steele officially left The Bangles in 2005 and the band decided to use guest bassists while on tour. The Bangles most recent album ‘Sweetheart of the Sun’ was released in 2011.
In January of 2014, The Bangles returned to the legendary Whisky A GO GO to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary.

SUSANNA HOFFS: In 1991, Susanna released her debut solo album entitled ‘When You’re a Boy’ produced by David Kahne. The album spawned the Top 40 hit single “My Side of the Bed.” The release featured such musical luminaries as John Entwistle, Jim Keltner, and Donovan. In 1996, Susanna Hoffs released her second studio album entitled ‘Susanna Hoffs.’
Based on a Saturday Night Live stint in the early 1990’s, Hoffs performed in the band ‘Ming Tea’ with … Mike Myers, Matthew Sweet, Christopher Ward and Stuart Johnson. The SNL skit morphed into a three comedy film series ... Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). Jay Roach, Susanna’s husband directed the Austin Power series and ‘Ming Tea’ performed in all three movies.

In 2006, Susanna collaborated with alternative rocker Matthew Sweet under the name ‘Sid n Susie,’ and released ‘Under the Covers’ Volumes 1, 2 &3 featuring classic rock cover songs of the 60’s,70’s, and 80's.
In 2012, Susanna released her critically-acclaimed studio album entitled ‘Someday.’ Susanna’s vocals are more radiant than ever. Hoffs collaborated with musical partner Andrew Brassell and producer Mitchell Froom on her best solo album to date. All the tracks are co-penned by Susanna Hoffs.

Hoffs & Brassell continue to co-write music and hope to release a new album sometime in 2015.

‘Susanna Hoffs’ performs at The Satellite in Los Angeles on July 18th with special guests Fred Armisen and Petra Haden.
‘The Bangles’ kicked off their summer concert series on June 6th at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, California … click [Here] for a complete ‘Bangles’ tour listing.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of chatting with Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles and discussed … Her latest solo projects …Collaborating with Andrew Brassell … Producer Mitchell Froom … Early musical influences …The Bangles past & present … The inception of “Manic Monday,” “Eternal Flame,” “A Hazy Shade of Winter,” …and future plans as a solo artist & with ‘The Bangles.’

Here’s my interview with singer/songwriter/actress/ legendary songstress & guitarist of ‘The Bangles’ …SUSANNA HOFFS.
Ray Shasho: Hello Susanna, how are you doing?
Susanna Hoffs: “Hi Ray, I’m doing great thank you.”
Ray Shasho: Susanna, you and I are ten days apart in age, you being the oldest (laughing).
Susanna Hoffs: “Oh My Gosh …that’s so cool! It was a very good year wasn’t it?”
Ray Shasho: So did you graduate high school in 1977?
Susanna Hoffs: I was ’76 actually; I know I’m a little off from most of the people in our year. I skipped half of fifth grade; I was one of the youngest ones in my group. It was a thing they were doing in California or maybe just LA where they were trying to shift the starting age of school. So anybody that was my age that year had a choice to either repeat or move up to the next grade. My Brothers and I all moved up and were the youngest ones in our graduating classes of high school.”
Ray Shasho: When I was in 8th grade and before I entered high school, we were amongst the very firsts to be bussed into Black American neighborhoods.
Susanna Hoffs: “Our school was part of the bussing program too. It was a very interesting time wasn’t it, when you look back historically what was going on. I am very fascinated with the 70’s and part of that is the nostalgia of going back and wanting to understand what was going on around us when we were in our formative and coming of age years. There’s a famous book written about my school at Palisades High called ‘What Really Happened to the Class of ’65,’ and when I was in high school that book was fascinating to me. Everything about the ‘70’s is extremely interesting to me again. Now, I’m actually working my way up into the 80’s (All laughing).”
Ray Shasho: Your third solo project and latest release is entitled ‘Someday.’ Some of my favorite tracks include “Holding My Breath” a very 60ish sounding tune with an orchestral background, co-penned by you and Andrew Brassell. I also thoroughly enjoyed “Picture Me” … Susanna your voice sounds better than ever, how do you do it?
Susanna Hoffs: “Thank you! I take pretty good care of myself and learned over the years to be careful with my voice and not go to a loud event on the night before I have to sing, and not be screaming over music, a sporting event, or a party, where I wake up the next day and can’t speak. I’ve gotten better at protecting my voice. I think one of the things about ‘Someday’ is that the writing was all done in a short period of time and working with Mitchell Froom we really tailored the arrangements to make room for the voice, so it’s not competing for sonic space to cut through. I use a capo, so I’ve also learned to key songs that feel right for my singing, to actually put the song in a key that makes sense, and I think that’s a huge thing when you get to that point when… wait a minute, this is too low, or this is too high, and you find that sweet spot where it fits perfectly in your vocal range. I think over the years of writing you just learn things as you go, and that was one of the things that I learned.”
Ray Shasho: You also found a great collaborating partner in Andrew Brassell.
Susanna Hoffs: “Yes definitely, that was a surprise, and we’re writing and recording now, so it’s ongoing. I actually met Andrew through my niece who grew up in Nashville. She had moved to LA from Nashville upon graduating from Vanderbilt University. I was spending a lot of time with her and she said I want you to meet my friend, he’s in a band and I’ve been a real fan of his work. It lead to a friendship with Andrew and then he needed a place to stay, so he stayed in our guest room for awhile, just one of those kids who was always playing music, he took a guitar wherever he went. I started to hear him just noodling around on chords and humming to something and I didn’t know if it was an existing song or not, he would say no, no, just something I’m messing around with. So that lead to me saying, oh, what if we put this melody on it, and before I knew it, we were writing songs together.”
Ray Shasho: You also have a great producer in Mitchell Froom. Mitchell goes way back to playing keyboards with ‘Gamma’ and Ronnie Montrose.
Susanna Hoffs: “I knew Mitchell in the 80’s when he worked with Crowded House and he actually played on the recording of “Manic Monday”. So that’s when I first met Mitchell, it was a chance meeting, we live very near each other in Los Angeles, so occasionally we’d run into one another at local restaurants and stuff like that, but then I ran into him at a really great music venue called Largo, and I was with Andrew, so that’s how the whole project sort of took shape of doing a record together. He’s great and super talented.”
Ray Shasho: So when can we expect the release of your current venture together?
Susanna Hoffs: “We’re just beginning it so probably 2015. It’s always a bit of a juggling act for me because I’ve got a lot of things going on with The Bangles and other projects that I’m working on, including creative things in my life outside of music, so it’s a little bit crazy but I enjoy the energy of it.”
Ray Shasho: Susanna, how old is your kids now?
Susanna Hoffs: “19 and 15.”
Ray Shasho: So you’re sort of veering away from worrying about them too much?
Susanna Hoffs: “I don’t think you ever stop worrying about your kids, I know my parents are still worrying about me. (All laughing) It’s definitely in a new phase, being very well launched now and becoming young adults. That definitely opens up more time in my schedule to focus on music and other creative endeavors.”
Ray Shasho: You’re 10 days older than me, yet my mom is 90 and yours only 79 … also my kids are 28 and 26 … what happened?
Susanna Hoffs: “You got married ten years earlier than I did. I think my 20’s were basically given over to life on the road and touring with The Bangles. That kept me so busy that I couldn’t consider doing anything but just hoping for a good night’s sleep. And then it was … What city am I in? Where am I? What hotel or room number am I in? I don’t know how I ever remembered where I was because it moved that fast.”
Ray Shasho: Record producer/songwriter Kim Fowley was distinguished for producing novelty acts and girl bands, hence The Runaways; did you ever cross paths with Kim Fowley?
Susanna Hoffs: “I knew who Kim Fowley was and actually talked with him on the phone once. Just after I graduated from UC Berkeley, I came back to LA and was trying to put together a band. I put an advertisement in The Recycler which was sort of the Craigslist of its time and had some flyers around town. Then I met the Petersons and we made a single for like thirty-five dollars at a ten-dollar an hour studio called Radio Tokyo in Venice, California. We really wanted our record to be on KROQ Radio. So I tracked down Rodney (Bingenheimer) and managed to get his phone number. I was extremely tenacious at that time to make it happen for The Bangles. I called Rodney and met him at the Odyssey Club where he was a deejay one night a week. I brought him the 45 single that The Bangles had done and he played it every weekend for about a year. Somehow Kim Fowley got my number and called me. Those guys were very much tastemakers and on the LA scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s.I never really got to know Kim but he’s worked with so many people that I know.”
Ray Shasho: Who were some of the music artists that influenced you while growing up?
Susanna Hoffs: “There were so-so many! Starting in the 60’s, I would say The Beatles being the toppermost of the poppermost for me. (All laughing) So many bands … The Byrds, the Buffalo Springfield, The Mamas and the Papas, The Kinks, The Zombies, along with a lot of the great female singers of that time and period like …Petula Clark, Lulu, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick … my mom had all the Burt Bacharach/Hal David music, many people covered their songs but we had all those Dionne Warwick records. To this day, those Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs move me so much. I love singing them; I got the chance to sing “Alfie” in the ‘Austin Powers’ movie and that was so much fun.”

“In the 70’s, singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, as well as bands like YES. At the end of the 70’s, where the whole Punk Rock revolution happened musically, I got very into those groups at a time when it started to be an idea in my head. I thought, wow, I could do this, especially after hearing a band like The Ramones because they were like Punk/Pop and I knew those same three or four chords. I could probably get an electric guitar and change my Folk-like sound to a Ramones style treatment of a Pop song.”

“Blondie, the Talking Heads, Television out of New York were all influences, and that whole scene. Bands like Television lead me back to bands like The Velvet Underground, who I kind of never knew about when I was just a kid. I had heard of Andy Warhol, my mom had been a painter and later became a screenwriter, but she started out as a teacher, so I knew a lot about the art scene of the 60’s through my parents. But I didn’t really know about The Velvet Underground’s music until the late 70’s when I rediscovered all of that.”

“But yea, even like Nick Lowe, early Elvis Costello … it was a really interesting time. The fact that I could go to local clubs and see the Talking Heads at the Whiskey A Go Go, probably on their first tour, the early Go-Go’s shows, The Undertones, The Jam, Blondie … it was a great time!”
Ray Shasho: Was there ever any kind of rivalry between The Bangles and The Go-Go’s?
Susanna Hoffs: “Not really, The Go-Go’s started before us so we got compared to them a lot, and when The Bangles were starting to take off by the mid 80’s, The Go-Go’s were actually winding down. It was kind of a funny rivalry fueled by the press obsessing over it so much. We all really got along, hung out together, and got to know them …to this day I ‘m in touch with Belinda, Charlotte, and Kathy.”
“I worked on some songs for Belinda’s first solo record and we were very good friends in the 80’s. Then I worked a lot with Charlotte, Kathy, and Jane. Jane is an incredible songwriter. I’ve spent a lot of time with Jane over the years and she’s incredible.”
Ray Shasho: Susanna, I’m reluctant to admit this, but I never knew that “Manic Monday” was written by Prince … how did that transpire?
Susanna Hoffs: “Oh no? Wow! We were recording at the time with Producer David Kahne and working with David and Peggy Leonard who were recording engineers and worked a lot with Prince. Somehow Peggy was working on Princes’ record at The Sound Factory on Sunset Boulevard and her husband David was working on our record at the sister studio Sunset Sound & Sound Factory. So we got word that Prince had some songs and wanted me to come over to The Sound Factory. So I drove over there, picked up a cassette, it had “Manic Monday” on it and we recorded it. I think Prince had seen the “Hero Takes A Fall” video on MTV and that’s how he kind of discovered The Bangles. Then he came to at least two shows and performed with us onstage. I think he may have watched us the first time, the second time performed with us, then performed with us again in San Francisco. So he was like an early fan of the band. It turned out to be an incredible thing for us because we were very much like the rest of the world … in awe of Prince, his talent, and magnificent stage presence. I really learned a lot watching him and the gift of “Manic Monday” was unexpected, it turned out to be so amazing because it worked its way up the charts, peaked at #2, and it really got our name out there.”
Ray Shasho: How did you get Leonard Nimoy involved in the “Going Down To Liverpool” music video?
Susanna Hoffs: “I grew up with the Nimoy’s; I went to preschool with his kids. At four years old I met Adam and Julie and our parents became really-really close friends pre-Star Trek, and remained very good family friends through all the Star Trek stuff. So we were looking to do a video and I thought… maybe I should call Leonard up and ask him. So I did. I got my nerve up and called him and he said sure.”
Ray Shasho: Do you think The Bangles biggest hit was “Eternal Flame?”
Susanna Hoffs: “Eternal Flame” or “Walk Like an Egyptian.” Both songs went to #1 which was pretty amazing. Sometimes I feel my life is very surreal when I look back.”
Ray Shasho: “Eternal Flame” was about the Elvis Presley gravesite at Graceland?
Susanna Hoffs: “Yes, we wanted to have a tour of Graceland and got what we were told was a special tour that was only given to rock bands. So we got to see things that everybody didn’t get to see and had our own tour guide dedicated to us. The eternal flame at Elvis’ tomb was out that day, so we stood around and sang “Heartbreak Hotel” ala Spinal Tap. Later on I recounted the story to my songwriting partner at the time Billy Steinberg and he said, wait-wait, stop-stop, it’s a great story but why don’t we write a song called “Eternal Flame”? And I said okay. So that’s how it started.”
Ray Shasho: I’ve got a sneaky suspicion based on your love for 60’s Top 40 music, that recording “A Hazy Shade of Winter” was your idea?
Susanna Hoffs: “Actually it was. During the very early days of The Bangles, we met through ‘The Recycler’ and decided to become a band, we were rehearsing and then started playing some parties and clubs around town. I was working for my Aunt and Uncle who owned a ceramic factory in Santa Monica. It was a very lonely job because I’d be down in this basement with just a radio and sanding ceramic pieces. I’d spent hours in this dark room by myself with nothing but the radio. Boy I’m glad I had the radio to keep me company because I had it set to an oldies station and very familiar with most of Simon & Garfunkel’s songs because I was really into their music when I was in high school. But I hadn’t heard “A Hazy Shade of Winter.” When it came on the radio I thought, oh wow, this is perfect for The Bangles. It has this riff that’s so catchy, has all these harmonies, and it’s kind of Folk Rock, just right up our ally. I think I had a rehearsal that very night and I mentioned it. Vicky was a huge Simon & Garfunkel fan and was familiar with the song. So we learned it and put it right in our set. The song became a staple in our setlist for years.”

“Then I had an opportunity in the 80’s to meet the producer of ‘Less Than Zero’ John Avnet, and we’re still friends to this day. Another friend of mine Thomas Newman who is just a brilliant composer that scores for movies, he and I were songwriting at the time and he said, you know, I’m doing the score for this film and I think the soundtrack’s going to be pretty fun, we’re getting together a really cool group of musicians and artists to contribute songs to the soundtrack and the movie. I mentioned the idea of “A Hazy Shade of Winter” and they loved it because it fit very well somatically with the movie. It ended up being a really great thing for us landing on that soundtrack. We also did a video. To this day we open our set with that song. We got to meet Paul Simon in the 80’s and he was very enthusiastic about our version of his song and that made us feel happy.”
Ray Shasho: The Bangles most recent release is ‘Sweetheart of the Sun’ (2011) … what’s up next for The Bangles?
Susanna Hoffs: “We’re rereleasing our first EP that was put out on Miles Copeland’s I.R.S. Records label, who was our manager at the time. He had a small division of I.R.S. called Faulty Products …it gets really complicated. It was released in 1982 and originally with our band named The Bangs, before we had to change to The Bangles. We had a weekend to come up with a new band name and that’s when we added a few letters and came up with The Bangles.”

“We’re also releasing never seen the light of day demos that we did around that same time. Our first demos, our first single that came out in 1981 which was “Getting Out Of Hand,” and “Call On Me” and we’ll include that in the package, then a cover of “7 and 7 Is” that we did at The Palace live, and anything else that we find between now and when we put it all together. It will be coming out in the fall digitally … so that’s exciting!”
Ray Shasho: How about The Bangles on tour in 2014?
Susanna Hoffs: “We’re doing a bunch of tour dates this summer and a two week run in the fall.”
Ray Shasho: Susanna, thank you for being on the call today but more importantly for all the incredible music you’ve given us with The Bangles and as a solo artist and continue to bring.
Susanna Hoffs: “Thank you Ray!”

Purchase Susanna Hoffs latest solo CD with Andrew Brassell entitled ‘Someday’ available on amazon.com
Susanna Hoffs Official Website
The Bangles Official Website
The Bangles tour dates
Susanna Hoffs on Facebook
The Bangles on Facebook
Susanna Hoffs on Twitter
The Bangles on Twitter
Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs (aka Sid 'n Susie) on Facebook

Very special thanks to Andrew Brassell

Coming up NEXT … The legendary Jesse Colin Young of ‘The Youngbloods’
UP Coming …Pioneer of the electric violin Darryl Way of ‘Curved Air,’ Don Wilson legendary co-founder of ‘The Ventures,’ and Keyboard extraordinaire Patrick Moraz (YES/The Moody Blues)

Contact classic rock music journalist Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com

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“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

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Arthur Brown Interview: ‘The God of Hellfire’ & ‘Mastermind of Theatrical Rock’ Talks 'Crazy World'

By Ray Shasho

Exclusive Interview with Arthur Brown:

British theatrical rocker Arthur Brown has influenced innumerable music artists, especially lead singers in bands who searched for an edge or gimmick to enhance their stage presence. ‘Crazy World of Arthur Brown’ and his ensuing band ‘Kingdom Come’ became the creators and his disciples would soon follow suit … Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Kiss, George Clinton, and Marilyn Manson to name just a few.

ARTHUR BROWN: has had a fascinating music career. His first big gig was with a band called ‘The Ramong Sound’ where Brown shared vocals with Clem Curtis. He left to start his own band before the The Ramong Sound signed with Pye Records and eventually changed their name to ‘The Foundations.’ The British soul group went straight to Top 40 heaven with their releases “Baby Now That I’ve Found You,” and “Build Me Up Buttercup.”

Leaving behind those successes hadn’t deterred Arthur Brown. His new psychedelic/progressive rock band had become extremely popular while earning creative and experimental endorsements from the likes of Track Records Kit Lambert & Chris Stamp, and The Who’s Pete Townshend. A music festival favorite, Brown’s bold and astonishing theatrical antics onstage became extraordinary and left audiences across the globe often flabbergasted. Arthur Brown became notorious for wearing a silver mask and extreme makeup while balancing his trademark flaming headdress on top of his head.

In 1968, Arthur Brown and his ‘Crazy World’ scored huge with a song that seemed to perfectly fit in one of the darkest and disturbing years of the decade. Even today, the intro of the song captivates our subconscious as Arthur Brown shouts out the immortal words … ‘I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you …Fire!’ His song “Fire” reached #1 in the UK and #2 on the U.S. Billboard charts. Also in 1968, Brown’s “Nightmare” was featured in the movie ‘The Committee,’ a British satire with soundtrack by Pink Floyd.

After 'Crazy World' disbanded, Arthur Brown formed the progressive rock group 'Kingdome Come.' The band is credited with recording the first rock album to incorporate a drum machine. Brown’s wild onstage theatrics endured. One of his many onstage props included a giant hypodermic syringe with white powder and Arthur Brown inside. Brown has collaborated on recordings with Alan Parsons, Hawkwind, and numerous other legendary artists. He also portrayed ‘The Priest’ in The Who’s rock opera movie ‘Tommy’ in 1975.
Arthur Brown is not just a theatrical rock phenomenon; Brown delivers commanding and unprecedented vocals covering an exceptionally wide range of tonality. He may even be called the 'Einstein of experimental music.' I fondly called Arthur … ‘Doc Brown’ (as in the movie ‘Back to the Future’) because of his latest brainchild called the brain hat helmet. You think and the thing plays what you’re thinking, you actually create a melody from your thoughts. It’s a bold new journey for music.

‘ZIM ZAM ZIM’ the new album by ‘Crazy World of Arthur Brown’ will be officially released on July 28th, thanks to an extremely successful pledge campaign. Brown and his ‘Crazy World’ will also be touring various dates in Europe in support of the new album.
Favorite tracks on ‘ZIM ZAM ZIM’… “Want to Love” a very Bowie-like rendition, exciting melody and amazing lyrics …“Jungle Fever” exhibits Brown’s impressive vocalizations, an absorbing old-time blues rendering … “Assun” just one word Bravo! A beautiful & mesmerizing track, Brown never ceases to amaze! ... “Muscle of Love” a bit wacky and avant- garde ala Frank Zappa with sexy horns, Brown again spotlights his commanding voice (there’s no way this guy is 71)… “Junkyard” is a remarkably catchy and intoxicating blues ditty … “Light Your Light” an alluring and tender track that substantiates Brown’s diverse musical ingenuity… “Touched By All” a very interesting progressive/jazzy piece with Moody Blues overtones.

‘ZIM ZAM ZIM’ … Innovative! …Extraordinary! …Masterful! …Awe-inspiring! … (5) Stars!
‘Crazy World of Arthur Brown’ is … Arthur Brown (Lead Vocals/Songwriter) Jim Mortimore (Musical Director), Samuel Walker (Drums), Lucie Rejchrtova (Keyboards), Nina Gromniac (Guitar), Angel Flame (Dancer), Z Star (Guest Vocals), Malcolm Dick (Artist), Neeta Pendersen (Artist),Paul Harrison (Artist), Pearl Bates (Artist in residence).

I had the very rare and wonderful privilege of chatting with Arthur Brown about … The amazing brain hat helmet … The inception of his mega hit “Fire”…Pioneering theatrical rock … Touring & creating a new ‘Experience’ with Jimi Hendrix… Pete Townshend’s influence … Lambert & Stamp… The latest album entitled ‘Zim Zam Zim’ …Frank Zappa … and much-much more!

Here’s my recent interview with lead singer & songwriter for ‘Crazy World of Arthur Brown’ … theatrical rock pioneer, and the ‘god of hellfire’ …ARTHUR BROWN.
Ray Shasho: Arthur it’s so good to hear you, thank you so much for being on the call today.
Arthur Brown: “Hi Ray, I’m driving back home and just pulled over into a place, I think it will be okay here … I’ve been doing some experiments on the brain hat helmet.”
Ray Shasho: Well, let’s begin about talking about the brain hat helmet.
Arthur Brown: “It’s one that allows you to monitor the rhythms of the brain and use to make music. You can use it to trigger things, and that’s kind of one thing, but this one is more like becoming a Theremin, so you think and the thing plays what you’re thinking and you can create a melody from your thoughts. So it’s actually kind of a brand new direction for music.”
Ray Shasho: That’s an impressive apparatus, are you the inventor?
Arthur Brown: “As far as the equipment that monitors the brain, I didn’t invent that obviously, they’ve been inspecting it for years, but the idea for having it in use this way was mine, I’m just using technology that’s around.”
Ray Shasho: Creating music using brainwaves is astonishing; this could be the birth of the next big thing for the music industry.
Arthur Brown: “I think it will be. Even with the speed of the internet, it’s going to take about 10-15 years. Triggering things with it, that’s very simple, but making music with it is another thing, without the use of hands and then it will all depend on what you attach to it, and how you do it.”
Ray Shasho: Have you already recorded music using the device?
Arthur Brown: “We’re in the process and sort of working hard on that at the moment. In the early 70’s when we were the first band to use the drum machine as a live instrument, and it was kind of a new direction, of course that was a Bentley Rhythm Ace, which at that time was part of a keyboard setup and we just tore it out and used it. Then of course out came LinnDrums, Oberheim, and then you could file and sample your own drums etc. Then people who were drummers started using them. At that time, I announced in the paper that I was going to use brainwaves and have it where anybody could play it, of course anybody that could think. For instance we could get on one of his visits, the Pope to come and think a solo (laughing).”
Ray Shasho: Arthur, you may be the real ‘Doc Brown,’ as in ‘Back to the Future.’
Arthur Brown: “Yes indeed, ‘Doc Brown’ or the ‘Nutty Professor’… that’s why it’s called the ‘Crazy World!’
Ray Shasho: After ‘Crazy World’ … you experimented with the psychedelic/progressive rock band ‘Kingdome Come’ becoming your next significant music venture.
Arthur Brown: “It was a kind of a multimedia setup. There was one point in the set where I had made a fourteen foot high hypodermic needle and I sang inside it, while it filled up with white powder (All laughing).”
Ray Shasho: You’re the pioneer of theatrical rock and influenced so many legendary music artists. In ‘Kingdome Come’ all the band members painted their faces … influencing ‘Kiss’?
Arthur Brown: “‘Kiss’ are big fans of the ‘Crazy World’ and probably ‘Kingdome Come’ as well. It’s all good, and it’s probably the same way that I used to listen to all the old blues guys which affected my music. I’d seen a lot of theater, and I’ve seen a lot of African Travelogues with dancing witch doctors, and all of that had become an influence on me. So it’s kind of natural if you’re in the music field, everybody’s being influenced by something.”
Ray Shasho: I thoroughly enjoyed the You Tube video of you and Alice Cooper performing onstage together in London.
Arthur Brown: “Yea, Alice is an honest guy, very generous, and cool to work with. He said if you’re in my neck of the woods stop in and we’ll play a round of golf, any morning that I’m passing by his place to pop in, but I’m not exactly passing by his place often, it’s not like I could walk out of my house in Sussex and walk over to Alice Cooper’s place.(All laughing)”
Ray Shasho: ‘The Committee’ was a movie where you actually played yourself and sang “Nightmare,” while the majority of the music in the movie was performed by Pink Floyd. Talk about being in that 1968 British flick.
Arthur Brown: “Yea, it was a good movie, and they took a lot of care getting the right visual aspects. Of course it had Paul Jones from Manfred Mann in it … very enjoyable. As I remember there was a couple called Fran and Jay Landesman who were part of the beginning of the underground in England. They were friends with the producer Max Steuer. We’d go out to dinner occasionally and I struck up a nice relationship with them.

“On performing “Nightmare” …we had played the night before somewhere in Europe and our equipment got held up at the border. So at the last minute… Jay, Max, and his team had to rustle around and find some new equipment. It was a film that didn’t get the big push like ‘Tommy,’ ‘If’ or all of those, but it was still a good movie. I think it’s gotten more popular now than when it came out.”
Ray Shasho: Arthur, you were a brief member of the British soul group ‘The Ramong Sound’ which became ‘The Foundations’ (“Baby, Now That I’ve Found You,” “Build Me Up Buttercup”).
Arthur Brown: “I was co-lead singer with Clem Curtis.”
Ray Shasho: So you were also influenced by R&B?
Arthur Brown: “Oh yea, and in those days R&B was Ike & Tina Turner… and a completely different style than it is today. But it had a kind of energy and the dance grooves that I loved. I was also influenced by early James Brown and even then was phenomenal. I used to love all the old country blues too … Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sleepy John Estes and all those people, brilliant music!”
Ray Shasho: Let’s talk about “Fire” your huge hit in 1968, which I believe reached #1 in the UK and #2 on the U.S. charts.
Arthur Brown: There were some charts in the U.S. where it reached #1… but was generally #2 behind “Hey Jude.” In fact, when The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper’s they spent some time running around the studio with candles on their heads. (All laughing)”
Ray Shasho: What was the writing and recording scheme behind “Fire” … who would have ever thought that shouting … “I am the god of hellfire” in an intro to a song would be so successful commercially?
Arthur Brown: “In those days, yea …nowadays you’ve got all the rap guys taking on that kind of personality. I suppose it came out partly because in the war my parents both suffered. My mother was at a hotel with her mother on Whitby bay that was blown to dust. Then moved to London and that was blown to dust, and her father was blown across the street and developed Parkinson’s. Her brother was killed in a submarine. My father was out shooting planes down and taking speed to stay awake, that’s what they gave him in those days. So when they both came back to the family, it wasn’t the easiest emotional family to be in. When I was around 11-12 years old, my father brought in this guy one day and said this guy is going to teach you how to empty your mind, so you can handle the family better, so I learned a form of meditation. By the time I was 16-17 years old, life was different.”

“When I began writing stuff, I didn’t really want to write about cars or let’s do it baby, so I decided (here’s the first album) to write a story about a character’s inner journey. It starts with “Nightmare” which is kind of the world how it is, and that drives him to go on the inner journey. In that journey, I wrote the songs and knew I couldn’t just stand up and sing it alone because people wouldn’t understand it …so I decided that I would need to add characters that carry the movement of it. There was the god of hellfire, the god of pure fire, the god of wisdom … a series of deities. So that was the background of it. Having done that it was obvious that if I was going to sing those in normal clubs, then I was going to have to again vindicate that this was a character thing. I was going to have to put on costumes and so I did. I had the costume for the god of hellfire which was a silver mask and I had the makeup under it with the body paint, robes, cloaks, and men that were different characters. The god of pure fire wore these gowns with ancient symbols that were just enormous and very beautiful under the light, and it was a different mood. So that’s how it grew.”

“I recently went down to Salvador Dali’s house and what struck me was that a lot of the things he did was the kind of things you think about in certain moods but you never do, you just think oh, that’s a great idea. But the difference was Dali did it. I think that’s just what I do. Ideas that some people might think …oh I can’t do that … I just do.”
Ray Shasho: Arthur, did you receive any kind of resistance by management for creating an avant-garde/ theatrical/ concept album?
Arthur Brown: “Lambert & Stamp (Track Records) loved it because they were themselves film makers and saw it as performance art. There was resistance by Lambert about doing the whole story on an album; he said nobody’s going to be interested in album all about fire. So we had a big argument over a few weeks and eventually decided, okay look, I Arthur will keep the one side totally about fire, on the ‘B’ side we’ll put a couple of songs about fire and then three stage numbers. So that was Kit’s side and how the album became what it was. It was originally all about fire.”
Ray Shasho: Was Pete Townshend involved with the record at all?
Arthur Brown: “He was indeed. Pete was the one that introduced us. He came down and said we want to sign you, my record company just lost a couple of people that I thought we should’ve signed including the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band with Vivian Stanshall. So he rushed us into the studio and we made demos. On some of the demos he played guitar but were taken out because it was going to be an organ based band, a trio. So he was very helpful and creative in the studio and helped us a lot because we didn’t know anything about recording. That’s why we went with Track. Track Records with Lambert & Stamp were the only ones who had some connection with any idea to what we were actually trying to do as oppose to trying to make us a Pop Band. Pete Townshend was the one who actually brought us in there, so he was very instrumental in starting my career.”
Ray Shasho: The single “Fire” was such a cool but ominous tune, but I guess it fit perfectly in 1968 culture, an extremely horrifying year brimming with turmoil … but an incredible year for music.
Arthur Brown: “We were on tour in America when the single was put out. I got a letter from Pete … we really considered this hard, and for us it was a choice between “Give Him a Flower” which was a song about taking the piss out of the hippie thing, and it was funny and the audience loved singing it, but that would have put us down the comedy route. We thought the god of hellfire, a much darker image; we were really going to be able to push into the market. It was a time of the Bobby Kennedy assassination and all of that … The French Revolution …it seemed to be right for the time. I opened the act with a crown of flames singing “Nightmare” and the closing number ended with smoke. In the TV performance video, all of it was put together into the one number. The fire helmet was in one number, and the smoke in another number, but for the sake of TV, it was all put into one. That was one of the reasons it was such a blockbuster.”
Ray Shasho: Did Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones) play bass on any of the versions of “Fire”?
Arthur Brown: “We did a live version for John Peel and Ronnie Wood indeed was the bass player, he played the whole set. I remember the drummer Drachen Theaker, an excellent and very discriminating musician saying that he thought he was the best one we’d ever come across.”
Ray Shasho: Talk about touring with Jimi Hendrix?
Arthur Brown: “What actually happened was … in the earlier days before “Fire,” that was when we were first proposed to go on tour with Hendrix. We had the first single out “Devils Grip,” and in the stage act we were already using the flame. We had the pictures and Lambert & Stamp proposed to Hendrix that we go on tour together. Hendrix took one look at the visuals and said, hmm, I’m not going to go on after that. So we were cancelled out of the tour. But later we played with him, by then he started to light his guitar on fire and then felt it was okay. So we did go on to do concerts with him and did TV shows… and swap numbers.”

“There was a point where we forming a band together. It was going to be the ‘Experience’ with Vincent Crane on organ. Jimi was at a point where he knew he had to do something new or something different. So his idea was that we all get together and there would be tapes of Richard Wagner in the background and visual projections. Jimi liked my singing and we used to jam together. He liked to play bass and some absolutely beautiful music came out of that. So we had a good friendly relationship.”
Ray Shasho: It seemed that Hendrix was experimenting musically while branching out into other genres towards the end of his life; I think you and he would have musically conspired very well in a band together.
Arthur Brown: “I think so. John Coltrane started with jazz and all the normal things and then decided … well obviously blues and jazz were influenced by classical, so I’ll explore classical music. So he did that. And then decided that his roots were deeper than that and went off and did Indian music. Hendrix was just starting to explore classical music, hence the Wagner and the idea for the band we were doing. I’m sure he would have gone off to find all kinds of musical roots and would have found them everywhere …it’s a pity.”
Ray Shasho: I’ve interviewed Eric Burdon and followed his career for quite some time, so when I heard your version of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” it was a very nice surprise and enjoyed it immensely.
Arthur Brown: “I was probably listening to it at the same time as Eric, I think we both heard Nina Simone’s version and that was a killer song. I remember she was upset that Eric’s version got to be a hit and hers wasn’t. Eric was a great singer in those years and would experiment with phrasing while he was singing.”
Ray Shasho: Arthur, you’re an awesome singer! You have an incredible range and I really dig the way you wail out a song. I’ve been very fortunate lately to be able to interview so many legendary lead singers from the 60’s and 70’s.
Arthur Brown: “Music doesn’t quite have the same pull as it did in the times of the 60’s, when everything was just beginning to do the kind of change that happened, when it was a beacon for all the future changes that was going to happen. Now we’re in the middle of them, so music doesn’t have the same function at all. In that time the voices were very important, whether it was someone who went kind of mainstream like Tom Jones … it didn’t really matter. If you think about the underground scene in California in the 60’s, all of those people had listened to Elvis Presley, and what most people don’t realize was that he was on a spiritual journey. So he influenced all of those people just by the feeling he presented in his music, and it was all done through his voice.”
Ray Shasho: Did you connect with other experimental musicians such as Frank Zappa?
Arthur Brown: “Frank was an amazing fellow …more especially because he never took any drugs. He really didn’t have to, but surrounded himself with people that did. (All laughing) He’d shut the studio door and record what they’d say, then put it on the record. (All laughing) I spent some time with Frank and we did play together at one point. At the Miami Pop Festival, and Frank and I went down to a Go-Go place where the dancers were dancing on the tables. We had quite a wild time then. He was into theater; he was into politics … yea, extraordinary. But it’s just reminded me, there was a time when John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix was on the festival and so we ended up with a jam with Hendrix, me, John Lee Hooker, and it might have been that Frank joined in on that jam. It was just an amazing event … I’m standing there saying ‘Good God,’ I’m singing with John Lee Hooker, particularly being one of my greatest influences.”
Ray Shasho: The early blues players were certainly the roots for rock and roll … but the Brits sort of reintroduced their incredible music back into the public eye.
Arthur Brown: “We took it and couldn’t quite make the looseness of the rhythms, just a little uptight, and became our version of rock and roll. I remember when Alexis Korner, who of course was one of the original people who employed the Stones, he and Alan Lomax went out into the field in America and found all these guys working there … laborers, and recorded them. Alexis went around and then found other people and brought out a series on the English radio called ‘Kings of the Blues’ and that just turned everyone around, because at that time most people were into ‘Trad,’ New Orleans & Modern Jazz, and a sprinkling of Folk. Also one of the ones who discovered a lot of the early blues was Alan Lomax in the field with a lady called Shirley Collins. She was England’s prime folk singer at the time of Fairport Convention and all of those. She was the one they sort of modeled themselves under.”
Ray Shasho: I think the British label ‘Pye Records’ was also instrumental in introducing the world to amazing artists.
Arthur Brown: “Yea they did, as I recall they started the Skiffle craze with Lonnie Donegan, who was the only English artist in the 50’s to have a hit in America. Some of the songs he’d sing, you’d swear it sounded a bit like Dylan. But he was before Dylan. It was because he used to do a lot of Woody Guthrie songs. Of course Dylan loved Woody Guthrie. So ‘Pye Records’ started all kinds of stuff, yea.”
Ray Shasho: I ask a lot of artists about different ways they relax and release tension … and meditation is usually a popular answer.
Arthur Brown: “I kind of arrived at a place where life itself is a meditation, just living, it’s not a separate thing that I do. I think when you get to the root of your consciousness; everything is there and includes creation. At the point that appears, there’s kind of an observer up there, and that is the real meditation. Some people kind of express it in the moment or in the now, and watching it unfold… that’s meditation.”
Ray Shasho: Arthur what do you think about UFO’s, have we been visited by extraterrestrials?
Arthur Brown: “Probably everything that has been imagined has existed and there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be beings everywhere around us that we don’t see. And there’s no reason why they wouldn’t have visited here. There’s also a good likelihood that any government that wish to hold on to power would not let people know about that. So I think it’s highly likely.”
Ray Shasho: Arthur, here’s a question that I ask everyone that I interview. If you had a ‘Field of Dreams’ wish like the movie, to play, sing or collaborate with anyone from the past or present, who would that be?
Arthur Brown: “There was a guy in ancient England called Caedmon and I think he made up songs, and one of the things I love is the improvised art of music. Indian music uses a lot more of that then we do except in jazz. So the fact that he was someone that improvised music on the spot, which is something that I’ve kind of developed as well. Apart from that it would have been fun to work with Mozart.”

“In a more modern era … one of the people that actually agreed to produce an album of mine and then got all strung out with management was Stevie Wonder. He’s somebody that I would love to work with. Nina Hagen, the female singer is another one … that would be a pairing. A band I’d like to sing with is the Gipsy Kings. I really like the passion in their music.”
Ray Shasho: Arthur, thank you for being on the call today but more importantly for all the incredible music you’ve given us and continue to bring.
Arthur Brown: “Yeehaw! Thank you so much Ray.”

Purchase the latest CD by ‘Crazy World of Arthur Brown’ entitled ‘Zim Zam Zim’ very soon at amazon.com … the official release date is July 28th
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Coming up NEXT … Susanna Hoffs the remarkable and proficient lead singer of The Bangles
Upcoming Interviews … The legendary Jesse Colin Young of The Youngbloods …Pioneer of the electric violin Darryl Way of Curved Air, and Don Wilson legendary co-founder of The Ventures

Contact classic rock music journalist Ray Shasho at rockraymond.shasho@gmail.com


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