Gary Wright Interview: The ‘Dream Weaver’ to perform on ‘Sail Rock 2013’ tour

 By Ray Shasho

Gary Wright is a celestial keyboard virtuoso, idyllic songwriter, and vocalist with powerful soulful pipes. Wright is an innovator of the synthesizer and over the years has managed to condense his many synthesized melodies into a single keyboard strapped around his neck.
Although born and raised in Cresskill, New Jersey, Wright founded the British rock group Spooky Tooth in 1967. Wright would later become most recognized for his two solo hit singles “Dream Weaver” in 1975 and “Love Is Alive” in 1976.

Gary Wright will be joining the ‘Sail Rock 2013’ tour along with Christopher Cross, Orleans, Firefall, John Ford Coley, Robbie Dupree and Player beginning August 5th in West Allis, Wisconsin. Visit Pollstar.com for all the latest concert dates.

Gary Wright will also be performing a solo concert at the Largo Cultural Center on Friday October4th at 8p.m. To purchase tickets contact the Largo Cultural Center at www.largo.com or call the box office at 727-587-6793.

SPOOKY TOOTH: Gary Wright joined the band 'Art' in 1967. The ‘V.I.P.’S’ morphed into 'Art' after several lineup changes since its inception in 1963. The British R&B music ensemble had featured various distinguished musicians including Mike Harrison, Greg Ridley, Jimmy Henshaw, Keith Emerson, Luther Grosvenor, Walter Johnstone and Mike Kellie.
  
Keith Emerson (The Nice, ELP) left in 1967 when the name was changed to Art. The band eventually turned into Spooky Tooth with a lineup of Wright (organ, keyboards and vocals), Harrison (vocals, keyboards) Ridley (bassist), Grosvenor (guitar, vocals) and Kellie (drums).

In 1968, Spooky Tooth released their debut album entitled … It’s All About. The album featured covers by Janis Ian and Bob Dylan. Most of the other tracks were either written or co-written by Gary Wright.
 
The bands next release Spooky Two (1969) released on Island Records was hailed by critics as one of their finest recordings. The album featured many of the bands standards including “Evil Woman” and “Better by You, Better Than Me” a tune written by Wright and eventually covered by Judas Priest in 1978.
Spooky Tooth quickly became a highly sought concert attraction and a mainstay on progressive rock radio. The band shared the stage with such legendary music acts as Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones.

Bassist Greg Ridley left in 1969 to join Humble Pie, Andy Leigh replaced him.

Also in 1969, the group released Ceremony (Spooky Tooth and Pierre Henry album) a progressive collaboration with the French electronic composer.

Session musician: Wright left Spooky Tooth briefly to produce albums for Traffic and Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller and his production company. Gary Wright became an esteemed session musician and was asked to play on George Harrison’s triple- album set All Things Must Pass (1970).

Wright and Harrison began a long lasting friendship and musical collaboration that included Wright playing or sharing songwriting tasks on several of Harrison’s subsequent albums including … Living in the Material World (1973), Dark Horse (1974), Extra Texture (Read All About It)(1975), Thirty Three & 1/3(1976), George Harrison(1979), Cloud Nine (1987).

The Last Puff album (1970) primarily featured Mike Harrison while Wright focused on other projects. The release featured an incredible cover version of The Beatles, “I Am The Walrus.” Joe Cocker Grease Band members Henry McCullough, Chris Stainton and Alan Spenner were brought into the studio to work on the album.
In 1971, Gary Wright performed “Two Faced Man” with George Harrison on the Dick Cavett Show. He also played piano on Harry Nilsson’s #1 hit, a Badfinger cover tune entitled, “Without You.”

In 1972, Gary Wright and Mike Harrison reformed Spooky Tooth with a different lineup. The new lineup featured future Foreigner founder and guitarist Mick Jones.

Subsequent Spooky Tooth albums … (You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw (1973), Witness (1973), The Mirror (1974) and Cross Purpose (1999) (Reunion album without Wright, Greg Ridley returned).

Spooky Tooth disbanded in 1974.

Gary Wright and George Harrison visited India in 1974 as a guest of Ravi Shankar. Wright developed a longtime relationship with Shankar after the visit.

SOLO CAREER: Gary Wright released two critically-acclaimed solo albums on A&M Records … Extraction in 1971 and Footprint in 1972.
Wright signed a record deal with Warner Brothers Records in 1974 and achieved his biggest commercial success with the release of The Dream Weaver album (1975). The single “Dream Weaver” reached #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart and #1 on the Cash Box charts. The album also spawned the hit “Love is Alive” (1976) reaching #2 on Billboard’s singles chart. The album peaked at #7 on Billboard’s Hot 100 albums chart.
The song “Dream Weaver” has been spotlighted on numerous television shows and motion pictures.
“Love is Alive” was covered by several legendary artists including … Chaka Khan, Joe Cocker and Richie Havens.
The Dream Weaver album featured guest musicians …guitarist Ronnie Montrose, drummers Jim Keltner and Andy Newmark, Hammond organist David Foster and Bobby Lyle on additional synthesizers.
In 1981, Gary Wright scored again commercially with “Really Wanna Know You” (#16 Billboard Singles Hit).

Gary Wright Solo albums … Extraction (1971), Footprint (1972), The Dream Weaver (1975), The Light of Smiles(1977), Touch and Gone (1978), Headin’Home (1979), The Right Place (1981), Who I Am (1988), First Signs of Life (1995), Human Love (1999), Waiting to Catch the Light (2008), The Light of a Million Suns (EP) (2008), Connected (2010).

In 2004, Wright, Harrison and Kellie reunited Spooky Tooth for several concerts in Germany. As a result of their triumphant return they released the Nomad Poets DVD in 2007.
The same lineup played a series of European dates in 2008.

Most recently: Gary Wright toured with Ringo Starr and His All-Star Band in 2008.
In 2010, Wright released his latest studio album entitled Connected and features guest artists … Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter.
Gary Wright is currently writing his 'memoir' for the Penguin Group and should be available sometime near the end of 2014.

I had the great pleasure of chatting with Gary Wright recently about ‘Sail Rock 2013,’ Spooky Tooth, George Harrison, the music business, metaphysics and much-much more.

Here’s my interview with legendary singer, songwriter, keyboardist, music pioneer, Spooky Tooth founder, the original ‘Dream Weaver’ and soon to be published author … GARY WRIGHT.
Ray Shasho: How’s it going Gary, are you in California?
Gary Wright: “Very good Ray, no I’m looking at the ocean in Maui.”
Ray Shasho: Gary, we’ve actually got two different concerts to promote… first, the ‘Sail Rock 2013’ tour and then a solo show that you’ll be doing on October 4th at the Largo Cultural Center in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Gary Wright: “We’ve already done one ‘Sail Rock’ show in New York and then did a couple of shows without me because I’m on holiday now, but I’ll join them on the 5th of August in West Allis, Wisconsin just outside of Milwaukee.”
“I’ve always liked playing in Florida, so I’m also looking forward to performing in Tampa Bay.”
Ray Shasho: Your most recent album is entitled Connected. The album features Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter as guest artists. It’s an exceptional album. My favorite tracks are… “Satisfied” and “Can’t Find No Mercy” and your voice is superlative, much like it sounded in the 70’s.
Gary Wright: “I enjoyed making that album it was a lot of fun. “Can’t Find No Mercy” is my favorite track. My voice hasn’t changed really very much I still do all my songs when I perform live and still do them in the original keys. I’ve been blessed with that ability to retain that. Connected was a labor of love. I took my time doing it and trying to record it real simple, kind of like the way I recorded The Dream Weaver.”
“I have a new project that I’m working on right now … I’m writing a book and it’s coming out October of 2014. It’s my memoirs and my relationship with George Harrison and Ringo Starr and just basically my life story. The E-book version of the book, there will be new songs that will be on it, video sets, bonus material and all kinds of things that have never been released. It’s been a lot of fun; I’m about two thirds of the way through it. The Penguin Group is really excited about it and it’s been a fun experience.”
Ray Shasho: Gary, I’ve had several metaphysical conversations here of late with Mike Love (The Beach Boys), and Dave Davies (The Kinks). What sorts of techniques do you practice for spiritual awareness and physical and mental well being?
Gary Wright: “I’ve been meditating for thirty five years. I practice the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda which George Harrison introduced me to. What I found in Yogananda’s teachings was that they were amazingly advanced and really gave you the ability to reach a deeper state of consciousness. He just gives techniques, when you find the teachers or gurus from India, most of them tell you the rules of life to follow, the dos and the don’ts, and what you need to live a good life, but they don’t really show you the techniques to meditate deeply . So through the years I kept practicing it and do it regularly and it really has changed me dramatically. It’s a big part of my life.”
“Music is an extremely powerful force if used properly to uplift people. I believe music should be uplifting and not downgrading … it’s a very-very powerful tool.”
Ray Shasho: It used to be a powerful tool, not so sure about the stuff on mainstream radio though.
Gary Wright: “Unfortunately music devolved instead of evolved. The music business got into the hands of lawyers and accountants rather than the entrepreneurial creative people and that’s when the beginning of the end started. It’s all based on money instead of art and creativity.
Ray Shasho: Mainstream radio won’t promote anything new by legendary music artists … just the oldies. I’m always reviewing new music from the artists that I grew up with and they’re actually sounding better with age.
Gary Wright: “Most of them are turning to do just live performances and not releasing a lot of new material. Somebody told me the other day that Billy Joel wasn’t going to record any new albums, that he had no interest. Some people are saying … why make a new album if isn’t going to be heard. I have heard some new artists that are quite good but it’s just so hard for them, if they get one hit that’s great and very-very lucky if they get two. But it’s not a sustaining type of situation anymore, a career building industry like it used to be.”
Ray Shasho: Gary do you think there’s life out there beyond earth?
Gary Wright: “Oh yea, by the law of averages there has to be life elsewhere. The universe is so huge and I don’t think God would have created this whole big huge cosmos and just say there’s only going to be life on earth and that’s it. I believe in … and this is part of Indian philosophy as well, that there’s life in other solar systems, other planets, some more advanced, some not as advanced as we are, it’s all relative … all these things definitely exist. We’re all use to the paradigm that we’re oxygen breathing human beings, there might be life breathing ammonia gas or some other type of gas we don’t even know about. I don’t think God can be pinned down to any specific kind of thing, his ingenuity is incredibly great.”
Ray Shasho: How did you and George Harrison become really good friends?
Gary Wright: “I played on his album All Things Must Pass and we became friends. He invited me to play on future albums and played guitar and produced one of the tracks on my album Footprint. He also played slide guitar on another track. So we were good friends, he was my spiritual mentor.”
Ray Shasho: I watched the Martin Scorsese documentary on HBO entitled Living in the Material World (2011) which was an excellent film about the life of George Harrison. I was fascinated about a clip that revealed Harrison’s dissatisfaction with life as we know it on this planet and an eagerness to embark towards the afterlife.
Gary Wright: “He was referring to the astral world … that’s true. The astral world or heavenly realms are like a passage from earthy existence. This is a school that we’re in right now, learning to get rid of our flaws and all that, and go to the astral world which doesn’t have any disease or the vermin that we have in the world today …a universe made of light.”
“George did a lot of good for the planet with his music and was just a wonderful human being. I’m sure he’s being rewarded with some heavenly realms somewhere in the astral heavens.”
Ray Shasho: Two of my favorite Spooky Tooth albums were You Broke My Heart So … I Busted Your Jaw (1973) and Witness (1973) and I was very fortunate to see the band perform in concert that same year those albums were released.
Gary Wright: “Actually Eminem recorded “Self Seeking Man” and rewrote part of the lyrics to one of his songs entitled “Spend Some Time.” I wrote “Self Seeking Man” from the You Broke My Heart So … I Busted Your Jaw album and he changed the title.”
Ray Shasho: I watched a sort of recent Spooky Tooth reunion video on You Tube that featured classics like “Evil Woman” and “Waitin’ For The Wind.” You guys sounded incredible!
Gary Wright: “Thank you very much, probably from the Nomad Poets DVD in 2004. It was myself, Mike Harrison, Mike Kellie and some other musicians.”
Ray Shasho: Do you still talk with Mike Harrison?
Gary Wright: “I communicate with Mike Harrison and every now and then with Mike Kellie. We just had a song of ours sampled by Jay-Z and Kanye West from their last huge album.”
Ray Shasho: It’s obvious that you were influenced by rhythm and blues but added a cosmic element to many of your songs, who are some of the R&B artists that inspired you?
Gary Wright: “Ray Charles, James Brown especially, Bobby Blue Bland, Aretha Franklin and some of the earlier artists like Little Richard. Those were the main ones that initially inspired me.”
Ray Shasho: Gary, 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?
Gary Wright: “Probably George Harrison, he was such a creative person and a great friend.”
Ray Shasho: Gary, thank you for being on the call today, but more importantly for all the great music you’ve given to us and continue to bring. We’ll see you on the ‘Sail Rock 2013’ tour and at your solo performance in Largo, Florida on October 4th.
Gary Wright: “Thanks so much Ray.”

The ‘Sail Rock 2013’ tour stars Christopher Cross, Orleans, Gary Wright, Firefall, John Ford Coley, Robbie Dupree and Player. Visit Pollstar.com for all the latest concert dates.
Gary Wright will also be performing a solo concert at the Largo Cultural Center on Friday October 4th at 8p.m. To purchase tickets contact the Largo Cultural Center at www.largo.com or call the box office at 727-587-6793.

Purchase Gary Wright's latest release Connected at amazon.com
Gary Wright official website at www.thedreamweaver.com
Gary Wright on Facebook
Gary Wright on Twitter
Gary Wright on Myspace
Very special thanks to Jeff Albright of The Albright Entertainment Group

Coming up NEXT … my recent interviews with Melanie and Roy Rogers

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

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~~Pacific Book Review says Ray Shasho is a product of the second half of the 20th century, made in the USA from parts around the world, and within him is every trend in music, television, politics and culture contributing to his philosophical and comically analytical reflections collected in his fine book of memories. I found Check the Gs to be pure entertainment, fantastic fun and a catalyst to igniting so many memories of my own life, as I too am within a few years of Ray. So to all, I say if you have a bit of grey hair (or no hair), buy this book! It’s a great gift for your “over-the-hill” friends, or for their kids, if they are the history buffs of younger generations trying to figure out why we are the way we are.

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Burton Cummings Interview: The Guess Who legend reveals true origin of “American Woman”

By Ray Shasho

Burton Cummings is the legendary voice, songwriter, and keyboardist for Canada’s own classic rock superstars The Guess Who. Although the group has had numerous personnel changes throughout the years, the most prominent members have been Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman.

Cummings was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His first band was an R&B group called The Deverons. The band released two singles on the REO Records label.

In 1965, Cummings joined The Guess Who replacing Bob Ashley on keyboards and eventually Chad Allan on vocals. The Guess Who scored commercially with their first international hit “These Eyes” (#6 Billboard Hit) in 1969. The track was featured on their album Wheatfield Soul on the RCA record label. The single was written by Bachman/Cummings and was their first to reach the top ten.

The Guess Who followed with a succession of Top 40 hits including … “Laughing” (#10 U.S. Hit, #1Canada -written by Bachman/Cummings) and “Undun” (#22 U.S. Hit).


1970 would prove to be the most pivotal year for The Guess Who. The group scored (2) #1 Hits in the U.S. with “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" and “American Woman” the group’s biggest selling single. The Guess Who also spawned the hits …. “No Time” (#5 U.S. #1 Canada -written by Bachman/Cummings), “Hand Me Down World” (#17 U.S. Hit) and “Share The Land” (#10 U.S. Hit -written by Burton Cummings).

Randy Bachman left The Guess Who in 1970 and would eventually form Bachman- Turner Overdrive.

Subsequent albums released by The Guess Who … Canned Wheat (1969), American Woman (1970), Share The Land (1970), So Long, Bennatyne (1971), Rockin’ (1972), Artificial Paradise (1973).

In 1973, Burton Cummings and The Guess Who released one of the group’s most underrated albums entitled The Guess Who #10. The album was a clear diversion from the band’s roots but spotlighted brilliant lyrical content and virtuoso musicianship. The album featured Burton Cummings composition “Glamour Boy.” The track was a jab at David Bowie’s glitter rock insurgence. The album also featured the profound “Cardboard Empire” written by Bill Wallace and Kurt Winter, while hauntingly performed by Cummings.

In 1974, The Guess Who collaborated on their final Top 40 single entitled “Clap For The Wolfman,” (#6 U.S. Billboard Hit) an applicable tribute to legendary radio and TV personality Wolfman Jack.

Subsequent releases: The Guess Who #10 (1973), Road Food (1974), Flavours (1974), Power in the Music (1975), The Way They Were (1976).

The Guess Who disbanded in 1975.

In 1983, Bachman, Cummings, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson reunited as The Guess Who to play a series of Canadian gigs and recorded the Together Again live album and video.

Bachman and Cummings reunited again in 1997 to perform in Winnipeg for a disaster relief fund raiser.

An eclectic Guess Who reunion ensued in 2000 featuring Bachman, Cummings, McDougall, Kale and Peterson. Bill Wallace eventually replaced Kale while the group toured regularly through 2003. A live album and DVD followed at the end of the 2000 tour.

The Guess Who was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2001. Cummings received an additional Star in 2011.
The Guess Who performed for an estimated 450,000 people at Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto, a benefit concert in 2003.

The Guess Who continues to tour with only original members … drummer Garry Peterson and bassist Jim Kale.

Burton Cummings also amassed a widely successful solo career. He landed a huge hit with “Stand Tall” (#10 U.S. #1 Hit Canada) in 1976.

Burton Cummings solo albums …Burton Cummings (1976), My Own Way to Rock (1977), Dream of a Child (1978), Woman Love (1980), The Best of Burton Cummings (1980), Sweet Sweet (1981), Heart (1984), Plus Signs (1990), The Burton Cummings Collection (1994), Up Close and Alone (1996), Above the Ground (2008).

In 2002, The Burton Cummings Theatre for the Performing Arts in Winnipeg, Manitoba was renamed to dedicate the singer and songwriter.

In 2008, Cummings released the highly- acclaimed CD Above The Ground. All the tracks on the release are written by Cummings. The album also features his touring band The Carpet Frogs.
In 2009, Cummings received the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors.

In 2012, Burton Cummings Massey Hall was released –an incredible live CD recorded in Toronto.

Most recently … Burton Cummings is on a summer tour. He’ll be releasing a book of poetry soon entitled, ‘The Writings of B. L. Cummings,’ and a video series called RUFF.

I had the rare opportunity to chat with Burton Cummings recently about the summer tour, the true origin of “American Woman,” The life and times of The Guess Who, Canada, Wolfman Jack and so much more!
Here’s my interview with singer, songwriter, musician and legendary voice of 'The Guess Who' …BURTON CUMMINGS.
Ray Shasho: Hello Burton, thank you for being on the call this afternoon.
Burton Cummings: “It’s my pleasure Ray.”
Ray Shasho: How’s the summer tour coming along?
Burton Cummings: “We’re doing great, actually we just came back from Kamloops, British Columbia and we did an outdoor gig last Saturday night on the side of a mountain in a natural amphitheatre and it was so beautiful. Last Saturday, there were moments when we were onstage that felt like 1968 or 1969 again, it was just great. There were tons and tons of people, they all brought their dogs, everybody had a great time and it was really terrific.”
Ray Shasho: Was that a music festival?
Burton Cummings: “It’s a one time a year festival at Sun Peaks which is a ski resort, and we could see all the cleared runs coming down the mountains and we played in this beautiful natural amphitheatre …just tremendous. So it’s been a pretty good summer so far, we’ve got another big one in Edmonton this week, Klondike Days, there’s all these big festivals in Canada, and after that I’m doing a couple of one-man shows in New York City and a place called The City Winery … so it’s a pretty busy summer.”
Ray Shasho: Burton, I’ve always wanted to see Canada but never got around to it.
Burton Cummings: “It’s beautiful it’s just cold for a lot of people’s taste. I grew up in Winnipeg and it’s thirty below a lot there. Thirty-thirty five below is not uncommon. I’m in California now which is a totally different world completely. I think I’m turning into a wimp because I can’t take the cold the way that I used to. When we were kids we just played hockey all day long outside and we’d come home with frozen toes and frozen finger tips and frozen cheeks and that was just an everyday occurrence.”
Ray Shasho: Canadians are buying lots of property here in Florida.
Burton Cummings: “Now they’re calling Toronto … New York north. It’s such a huge place; it just became the fourth largest city in North America. How about this …Toronto just passed Chicago in population. The city has always been cutting-edge, the CN Tower is one of the wonders of the world, but you know what’s huge there is the film festival. When they have the Toronto Film Festival they call it Hollywood north, because every major star is always there, every major studio is always represented. When you’re in Toronto at film festival time you can’t get a reservation at a restaurant or an elevator in your hotel, it’s just completely overrun. It’s good for Toronto and good for Canada.”
Ray Shasho: We never seem to hear negative news coming out of Canada, things always appear somewhat peaceful and I really like that.
Burton Cummings: “Here’s the thing … in Canada we have one-tenth the population that the U.S. does. So just purely by the numbers there’s going to be a lot less crime. We have socialized medicine in Canada which is very-very attractive to Americans. It’s the same as Sweden. You know another place in Canada that people rave about is Quebec City, there’s so much history there. So a lot of people particularly from the United States go to Quebec and get the European experience without going all the way over to Europe. So when you think of it that way, it’s kind of cool.”
Ray Shasho: I chatted with some guys that may have been on your last studio album entitled, Above the Ground … I interviewed Gino Vannelli and chatted with Brother Ross Vannelli.
Burton Cummings: “Ross sang on my last studio album, I know all of them quite well. Joe was my engineer and Ross is the youngest of the three, he sang and played a little guitar on my last album too. Joe was the assistant producer and Ross just came in and did some musical stuff. Joe helped me out a lot, he’s a great engineer. And he’s got a beautiful state of the art studio out in Agoura Hills, California … it’s not that big but these days it doesn’t have to be that big anymore, everything has shrunk so drastically.”
Ray Shasho: Many music artists are recording from their computers at home nowadays?
Burton Cummings: “There’s a very famous story that PINK did most of her album from a laptop on the bus between gigs. You can actually do that know.”
Ray Shasho: Don’t you kind of miss that big music studio experience though?
Burton Cummings: “I do miss the big room experience that we used to have in the old days recording at the RCA Studios in LA and then also with Richard Perry at Studio 55 which was adjacent to the Paramount Pictures lot. I kind of miss the studio experience to a degree but also I love the technology, what you can do is sort of fix things. I don’t use a lot of Auto-Tune but if I have a piano clunker, you can now go right in and dial that bad key out, whereas before you had to do a whole new take and go beginning to end. It’s a double-edged sword; I don’t like the fact that there are so many machines on records now and another thing I don’t like, Joe Vannelli said this to me too, have you ever noticed in the last eight or nine years … everything is perfect. It’s not supposed to be perfect, there’s never a tiny glitch in the vocals, never a bad note on anything because producers and engineers are just fixing everything. I think you can over-fix things. I think you can fix things to death. There’s no human element left. I don’t think the vocal is supposed to be tuned like a guitar string. But that’s just me; I’m 65 and seeing it through older eyes.”
Ray Shasho: I spun 45’s and album tracks when I was a Top 40 radio deejay back in the late 70’s and that technology brought the radio listening audience the greatest music the world has ever known.
Burton Cummings: “The thing about radio that is disappointing now is the voice- tracking. It’s not live like it was, when I was a kid you could phone-in and now with voice- tracking, people don’t realize … I really shouldn’t let the cat out of the bag, maybe a lot of your readers don’t realize how much voice- tracking really goes on. It is true; I did AM radio in my hometown of Winnipeg for awhile with my best friend Gary MacLean. We did the 3-6, drive home in the afternoon shift and what I liked about it the most was that they let me pick all the music. So I was showing up with literally great big shopping bags of my own collection of CD’s. We were picking them right on the spot, live radio like the old days, taking calls from people and playing all the stuff that I chose, it was an oldies station so it was right up my alley. I’m telling man, it was some of the most fun that I ever had in my life. I was doing three or four different characters, different voices, and people actually thought sometimes that there were three and four different people in the studio with us and it was all just me. Anyway, we had a lot of fun. I might have actually gone into radio if I hadn’t been so lucky with the music.”
Ray Shasho: Burton, I’ve got to say man, you’re imitation of Gordon Lightfoot rocks!
(All Laughing)
Burton Cummings: “I actually did it in front of him one night. Years and years ago I was playing a week at a big cabaret place in Toronto called the Imperial Room and it had quite a history, Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Jr. and all the stars from earlier on had played there. So I went in and did a week and I was doing that imitation in my show of Gordon. I guess by the end of the week they were writing it up in the papers and some of his friends had been there and had seen me do it. So Saturday night, the last night of the show, he comes down and sits right in front of me, gets a table in front of my piano. So it gets to that point in the show and of course I did the imitation right in front of him. It was hilarious! When I do it onstage people howl with laughter, it’s pretty funny. I like impressionists. When I was a kid watching The Ed Sullivan Show, other than The Beatles and The Dave Clark Five my favorite stuff were always the impressionists.”
Ray Shasho: I’ve heard many different versions about the origin behind “American Woman.” What is the true origin behind the making of “American Woman?”
Burton Cummings: “Alright here are the true goods …it was jammed onstage one night in Mississauga, Ontario, we were playing at a club called the Broom & Stone which was actually a curling rink and doing two shows that night. I guess we hadn’t gotten that big yet. Between the two shows, I was outside bartering with this kid, he had some old Gene Vincent records that I wanted to get for my collection and tried to strike-up a deal with this guy. The next thing I know, it’s time to start the second show and the other three guys have gone back onstage and I hear them start this riff … (Burton began mimicking the opening riff to “American Woman.”) I said to this guy … Oh my God; I’m supposed to be onstage man, I’ve got to run, I’ll see you later about these Gene Vincent records.”

“I run inside and run up onto the stage and just grab a microphone and started singing whatever came into my head; it was all stream of consciousness at the moment stuff … all that stuff about war machines and ghetto scenes, colored lights can hypnotize …it was all just spur- of- the- moment. And nobody would have ever heard it again but there happened to be a kid bootlegging the show that night. This was way back in the 60’s and he had a cassette machine, and those machines were a relatively new invention at that time. But this was 1968, forty-five years ago. We noticed this onstage as the night went on and he still kept recording. So we motioned to our road manager… go get that tape-go get that tape! He got the cassette tape and we listened to it later and heard this jam about American Woman stay away from me. So we actually kind of learned it from that tape, otherwise nobody would have ever heard it again. So talk about a Cinderella story. And that was a monstrous hit record for us; it was number one on Billboard for three weeks. So it was all an accident, I guess the music Gods were smiling on us. The music Gods probably sent that kid with the cassette machine.”

“When RCA heard “American Woman,” the guy that was head of A&R was listening and he threw up his newspaper in the air and said, “That’s a number one record!” He immediately new it was going to be big. You know what’s interesting too, thirty years later Lenny Kravitz covered it. We did a big thing for MuchMusic in Toronto which is the MTV of Canada. It was the real Guess Who that reformed back in 2000-2001, the real band not that touring band that calls itself The Guess Who, the real band got together again for about a year and a half. And us together we Lenny’s band got together and did “American Women” onstage outside the MuchMusic studios and there were thousands of people in the street. At the end, Lenny and I were actually trading vocal lines, it was pretty cool.”

“Another cool thing on millennium night, New Years of 1999, Prince had a pay per view special on television and he was wailing away and said, “I’d like to introduce my friend Lenny Kravitz!” Out comes Lenny …and Prince and Lenny Kravitz together do “American Woman.” Trading vocal lines and trading guitar lines. It’s all over You Tube if you want to check it out …it’s very cool. Here’s the thing that made me so proud …a love song is a love song. A love song a hundred years later is going to have the same effect that it did a hundred years earlier. When a song is not a love song, it’s very unusual that it would make sense thirty years later because times change, whether it is political or apolitical or just observational, it’s very-very odd and very-very rare that a non-love song would surface thirty years later and still be relevant. That’s what makes me so proud about those lyrics … I don’t need your war machines, I don’t need your ghetto scenes … that could have been written last night! For me as a lyricist, it was one of my proudest moments because to have it stand up again and not be corny. It was also the biggest record of Lenny’s career.”
Ray Shasho: Burton, I’ve been waiting a long time to talk with you about one of the most underrated albums in rock history … The Guess Who #10 album.
Burton Cummings: “Do you know why it’s one of my favorites … if you check the writing credits, I wrote almost everything on it with no co-writers and at that time took the reins of the band and we had a real direction on that album. It wasn’t the cheeriest album but I thought it hit pretty hard. The reason I like it so much is that it was the closest thing to a solo album that I ever did while I was still in The Guess Who. I was really running the ship at that point and I think the songs were good …”Just Let Me Sing, “Self Pity” and I always thought “Glamour Boy” was one of the best things that I ever wrote. I do like #10, I’m really glad to hear you say that.”
Ray Shasho: My favorite track on the album was actually “Cardboard Empire” … just an incredible tune.
Burton Cummings: “That’s a great one, it’s one I didn’t write but it’s a great song.”
Ray Shasho: I get chills when I hear that tune; it can easily be associated with modern day America.
Burton Cummings: “Who are the people, who are the people that you think you are … man that could easily be sung directly to Dick Cheney.”
Ray Shasho: Who was “Glamour Boy” directed at?
Burton Cummings: “David Bowie …absolutely! He came along and changed everything. It bothered me a lot at first because we weren’t a glam band. We wore the same clothes onstage that we wore all day and while we were travelling. We never dressed up and had dancers and crazy costumes and pyrotechnics; we were all about the music. We used to dress like Kurt Cobain. We never played the glamour game. Then all of a sudden Bowie came along and it was Ziggy Stardust and makeup and costumes …and it really threatened me. And I also saw that he was making tons of money … for $25,000 you could look like a woman tonight … that’s where that came from, it was just a jab at what was changing so drastically.”
Ray Shasho: Well, I thought The Guess Who #10 album was a masterpiece yet it didn’t get much acclaim.
Burton Cummings: “You know what, ironically here we are talking about it and it’s exactly 40 years ago. It was 1973 and exactly 40 years ago.”
Ray Shasho: Your long hair on the front album cover was probably as long as mine back in 1973.
(All Laughing)
Burton Cummings: “At one point it actually touched my elbows. I look at those pictures now and wow man that was another lifetime.”
Ray Shasho: I’m so glad that you and the band wrote a fitting tribute to Wolfman Jack … an American icon.
Burton Cummings: “He was a radio legend … way before MTV we were on The Midnight Special a couple of times and they took a shine to us because we were a pretty good live act. The Midnight Special was all live. So if you went on there and was lame live, you weren’t asked back. When we were on the first time they loved us, so we went back a second time and hung out with Wolman a little bit and got to be friendly. Billy and Kurt were writing a song called “Clap for Napoleon.” Napoleon being a CB handle, when the big CB/trucker thing was a rage in the 70’s. …everybody had a handle. So they were going to write a song about a trucker’s handle, and I said I love this riff but if we made this lyrically about the Wolfman it would have a universal appeal. So they agreed with me and I went home that night and banged out the lyrics and sure enough it was a top five record.”

“Wolfman was a great guy, we hung out a lot and he used to come MC our shows back in The Guess Who days. One time we did a show in Honolulu at the HIC Honolulu International Center … It was Aerosmith first, The Guess Who and Wolfman was the MC. I still remember Tyler running around and yelling … “Where’s the Wolfman! Where’s the Wolfman!””
Ray Shasho: Burton, 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?
Burton Cummings: “Fats Domino and of course every kid that’s my age back in the 60’s would have dreamt on being with The Beatles. What keyboard player wouldn’t have wanted to be Billy Preston when he played with them on “Get Back.” If I had only one wish it would be to be the fifth Beatle …to be The Beatle keyboard player and singer.”
Ray Shasho: Burton you’re such a great singer, songwriter, and performer, I saw you and The Guess Who perform in 1973 and watched you perform with Ringo Starr & His All- Starr Band.
Burton Cummings: I think of all the Ringo Starr All- Starr bands, and I’m not just saying this because it’s me, I think ours was the best. We had Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Dave Edmunds, Nils Lofgren, Todd Rundgren, myself on keyboards, Ringo and Zack on drums. I’ve seen the other lineups and he’s had a lot of great bands but I think ours was the best. It was a tremendous experience.”
Ray Shasho: You mentioned before the “other Guess Who” … they actually performed on the 4th of July in Palmetto, Florida not far from where I live.
Burton Cummings: “Oh goodness, good luck to them. It’s a scam because they use the real records to draw people to their crowds and a lot of people still think that Randy and I are going to be there and it’s terrible. They’ve got to live that lie so I don’t think about them too much. I’ve got a whole different life since then.”
Ray Shasho: I’ve had this same conversation with so many guys who were the leaders of their bands like Lou Gramm (Foreigner) and Peter Rivera (Rare Earth).
Burton Cummings: “Well let’s face it tonight somewhere at some casino you can go and see The Platters. Somewhere tonight you can go and see The Temptations. But you know what, it’s not the guys who are on the records. So for me I don’t care, once it’s not the guys on the record I’d rather sit home and play the records. Grand Funk is out there without Mark Farner … it’s a sad state of affairs, one of these days there will be a law passed. There are a couple of guys who are thinking about it, taking it to the courts and getting a law established that there has to be at least 60 or 80% of the original band. It gets down to the point where somebody just owns the name and it’s just like a franchise, like owning a McDonalds.”
Ray Shasho: When will you be releasing ‘The Writings of B. L. Cummings’ a book of poetry?
Burton Cummings: “Probably in the next couple of months, we’re just making the final tweaks and making the cover look beautiful. We have a video series call RUFF … it’s going to be volumes and volumes; I’ve had a videographer follow me around for the last 13 years. We’ve finally got volume one edited, there’s some live concert footage, backstage foolery and shenanigans and it covers all kinds of ground. So it’s been a busy time for me.”
Ray Shasho: Burton, thank you so much for being on the call today, but more importantly for all the incredible music you’ve given to us and continue to bring.
Burton Cummings: “Very kind words, my hat size is going up from all the praise. Thank you very much Ray, my pleasure.”

Purchase Burton Cummings latest studio release … Above the Ground and
Live CD …Burton Cummings Massey Hall at amazon.com
Visit Burton Cummings official website at http://burtoncummings.com/
Burton Cummings on Facebook
Burton Cummings on Twitter

Very special thanks to Lorne Saifer

Coming up NEXT … Recent interviews with Gary Wright, Melanie and blues slide guitarist Roy Rogers

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 so he can continue to bring you quality classic rock music reporting. 
~~Pacific Book Review says Ray Shasho is a product of the second half of the 20th century, made in the USA from parts around the world, and within him is every trend in music, television, politics and culture contributing to his philosophical and comically analytical reflections collected in his fine book of memories. I found Check the Gs to be pure entertainment, fantastic fun and a catalyst to igniting so many memories of my own life, as I too am within a few years of Ray. So to all, I say if you have a bit of grey hair (or no hair), buy this book! It’s a great gift for your “over-the-hill” friends, or for their kids, if they are the history buffs of younger generations trying to figure out why we are the way we are.

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Billy Cobham Interview: ‘Before Jeff Beck there was Billy Cobham’

 By Ray Shasho

Jazz and jazz fusion musician, composer, and bandleader Billy Cobham has for decades been respected as one of the greatest drummer’s on the planet.
Born in Panama and brought up in Brooklyn, New York, Cobham got his first paying gig at the age of eight as a member of St. Catherine’s Queensmen, a drum and bugle corps in St. Albans, Queens. Billy attended New York’s renowned High School of Music and Art, where he studied music theory and drum technique.
While in the military (1965-1968), Cobham played with the U.S Army Band as percussionist. After the military, Cobham began working in Horace Silver’s Band. He also performed with Stanley Turrentine and Shirley Scott, and recorded with George Benson.

In 1969, Billy Cobham co-founded the jazz-rock combo Dreams. The band featured Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, John Abercrombie, Don Grolnick, Barry Rodgers, and Will Lee. The following year he was invited to join Miles Davis’ new fusion ensemble. Cobham contributed on … Live-Evil, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and the Bitches Brew sessions where he collaborated with guitarist John Mclaughlin.
In 1971, John Mclaughlin formed the jazz-fusion Mahavishnu Orchestra with Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, and Rick Laird. The original lineup released three critically-acclaimed albums … The Inner Mounting Flame (1971), Birds of Fire (1973), and Between Nothingness and Eternity (live album released in 1973).

In 1973, Billy Cobham released his debut solo album entitled Spectrum. The album was recorded at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Cobham’s core lineup for the album featured guitar virtuoso Tommy Bolin, Jan Hammer on electric piano, moog synthesizer & piano and Lee Sklar on bass. The album featured an incredible mix of jazz, funk, and rock. The recording was hailed as one of the most important albums in the development of the jazz fusion genre and jazz rock era.
Also in 1973, Cobham toured with John Mclaughlin and Carlos Santana performing material from the Love Devotion Surrender album.

The original lineup of the Mahavishnu Orchestra disbanded in 1974.
Billy Cobham continued to record innovative fusion albums with the release of … Crosswinds (1974), Shabazz (1974) Total Eclipse (1974) A Funky Thide of Sings (1975), and Life and Times (1976).

During the 70’s and 80’s … Cobham recorded for Atlantic, CBS, Elektra, and GRP. He collaborated with George Duke, John Scofield, Tony Williams, Jack Bruce, and The Grateful Dead spinoff band Bobby & the Midnites.
In 1992, Cobham was appointed to work with UNISEF to work with autistic outpatients and street children in Santos, Brazil in a musical project.
Rudiments: The Billy Cobham Anthology, 2- CD retrospective was released in 2001.
In 2002, Billy Cobham began releasing a series of CD’s with special guest artists entitled … Drum n Voice.
By 2005, Cobham had recorded and released over 30 recordings under his name.

Over the past several years, Cobham developed a very special musical collaboration with the Cuban group Asere.
In 2011, Cobham began teaching drums online at The Jazz & Fusion Drum School with Billy Cobham.

Most recently … Purple Pyramid Records released the Billy Cobham Compass Point 2-CD set, recorded live at Compass Point Hotel in the Bahamas in 1997…never released before until now.
Billy Cobham will also be performing the 40th anniversary of his classic Spectrum album on Friday, September 20th at the Palladium Theatre in St. Petersburg, for tickets and information visit www.mypalladium.org or call 727-822-3590 for more information.

I found it very difficult to summarize Billy Cobham’s illustrious musical career in a single article. His alliances with the greatest musicians in the world are almost endless. The one thing about his career I can easily summarize is that …Billy Cobham will forever be known as one of the greatest drummer’s on the planet.
I had a rare opportunity recently to chat with Billy about his phenomenal career.
Here’s my interview with virtuoso drummer, percussionist, songwriter, bandleader and instructor
… BILLY COBHAM.

I chatted with Billy by Skype from Panama and during the interview a nasty storm hit his home.

Ray Shasho: Thank you for being on the Skype call this afternoon Billy, how are things in Panama?
Billy Cobham: “Well, it’s the rainy season right now. It’s all doing good generally speaking, very humid and you get a lot of electrical storms and right now we’re up against it. The weather is kind of weird in this part of the world, from the north to the south anyway. I guess we’re getting more than we normally would, so we deal with it that’s all. I was on a flight coming in from Costa Rica and got hit by lightning and that was not very funny. Thank God things got sorted out so most planes are able to deal with that, we were lucky, obviously we didn’t get as bad of a hit as it could’ve been, but I don’t need the aggravation (All laughing).”
Ray Shasho: Billy, you’ll be at The Palladium Theatre at St. Petersburg College on September 20th and performing the 40th anniversary of the classic ‘Spectrum’ album?
Billy Cobham: “It will be music from the Spectrum album and new arrangements from my side, but what I wanted to do was to bring in people whom I’ve worked with for the last forty years whom I’ve felt very comfortable with, not just as colleagues but as very good friends. Needless to say, Dean Brown headed the list; he’s been with me off and on since 1984. Gary Husband started working with me since about 1990; the youngest one in the bunch is Ric Fierabracci who started working with me since the late 90’s or so. It’s kind of nice to have people around me at this time in my life that I feel I can trust and feel comfortable with. So they bring not just their performance but I’ve invited them to write some additional material that they feel best suits the four of us.”
Ray Shasho: Billy, you look like you’re in your 40’s man, I can’t believe that your 69 years old. How do you do it?
Billy Cobham: “By hanging out in a place like Panama, staying quiet …it’s called stress management. If you can do that and do everything in moderation and keep a smile on your face most of the time, even when things go really south, you’ll be alright (all laughing).”
Ray Shasho: You’ve worked with a Cuban group called ‘Asere’ over the past few years or so?
Billy Cobham: “I haven’t work with them for more than two or three years now, it’s really difficult to get them out of there for any length of time, there are just a lot of restrictions. The band hasn’t had enough going on financially to justify them leaving the country and their family behind. End result is they just can’t go anywhere. It would be nice for the rest of the world to hear that band. They are just so dedicated, it’s not just a hobby, it’s their life. There’s a whole lot of musicians in Cuba that do what they do and they fall somewhere around the middle to the lower end, you can only imagine what’s going on at the top of the heap. It’s just rockin’!”

“The band keeps changing because these guys have to work, but with me they were the same guys for about two or three years and they were like family when we were on the road. Always together, lot’s of Arroz con Pollo, and the whole objective was to go out and work and bring money back to their families. Everybody did their bid to try to help and cover all the bases that they could. I’m really respectful of those people and people like them, whether it is Cuba, Haiti or whatever; their dedication was over the top.”

“I got the introduction through Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD and it was a real shot in the arm for me. I went to a WOMAD Festival in Cáceres, Spain and the Director of WOMAD figured out a way to hook me up with the band. The whole objective was to play together and see how it would work. Everybody just started to connect with us from that point forward. So we started to work together for quite awhile. We covered just about every WOMAD Festival and there were a lot back in the late 90’s and at the being of the millennium. There were as many as 10 or 12 that were being managed by WOMAD at the time … and that’s amazing! Those days are gone unfortunately, but still, that’s another organization that I only have the highest regard and respect for.”
Ray Shasho: Billy, who were some of your earlier musical influences?
Billy Cobham: “I grew up with Herbie Hancock …Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Miles Davis of course and “Trane” who I never got a chance to meet. I met his son Ravi Coltrane, who really never got the chance to know his dad. What I gathered is …the only thing who knew of his dad was pictures and a saxophone. Ravi has done an unbelievable job as a saxophonist, but to have his dad’s saxophone, and then everybody’s going …what are you doing with that saxophone? It’s a double-edged sword. But if that’s the only saxophone in the house, that’s the only one you have to play …but it’s a special saxophone (Laughing).”

“I worked with McCoy Tyner twice. Once in 1976 on a record called Fly with the Wind and then working with McCoy in a trio with Stanley Clark about ten years ago now in two different locations … at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland, California and we also played the Blue Note in New York City. To be associated with that kind of personnel onstage, especially McCoy, not to take away from Stanley, but to play with McCoy…Wow!”

“The first time …I did it on a recording session, with a rhythm session that was with me, Ron Carter, McCoy, and there were strings and Hubert Laws and a cast of stars that you would not believe. And because it was McCoy, I thought, this was the closest at the time that I would ever get to playing with “Trane.” So I just let it all hang out. Looking back at that recording, I apologize for it. It was like substituting in a pit band on Broadway for a big show and you’re coming in clearly to take the other guy’s gig, so you’re going to let it all hang out because you need the money. And the end result of working on that record was I felt I wasn’t playing for the band, or playing music as a whole, I was playing for me. Somehow I was reaching out to “Trane” and in the process when the end product came out, I felt like I was out of place. So I think it’s really important to be able to be honest with yourself and to know philosophically speaking what you’ve done wrong and when you’ve made a mistake, and acknowledge that, because you only learn from it.”
“The next time around …was in 2004, so we’re talking 28 years later and the next thing I know, I’m onstage with McCoy again. And I made sure that I tried to keep everything in place. For me I just wanted to play as musically as possible and to treat the occasion as a very hallowed experience, a very holy experience for me personally by being a contributor and by doing what I felt the music demanded as opposed to what I wanted to put on the music based on the fact of who I was playing with …and I had a ball!” It’s called knowing your place and sometimes it takes a long time for people to understand what that really means …you just have to experience it.”
Ray Shasho: How did you first hook-up with Miles Davis?
Billy Cobham: “Funny story because I think it happened in 1969, I was playing in a club called the Village Gig. What you could do at the Gig was to see Miles for three weeks, every night and with a matinee on Sunday. It was Miles Davies, Jackie DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Chick Corea Wayne Shorter. I was working upstairs as a trio opposite with the Junior Mance Trio and we were playing opposite the Phil Woods Quartet. So there was a lot of music going on. It’s the “Gig” so you had musicians coming out the woodwork. It was that time in the world when you had geniuses standing at corners with cups, anything to play and just to get a gig. There were too many people who could play. Not just playing from the institution of school but from the institution of hard knocks, the real university … and it was a trip!”

“So, I’m sitting there in between sets and Jackie DeJohnette comes up to me and says, “Hey man what are you doing tomorrow night?” I said I’m here! He says, “I’m leaving Miles, do you mind if I ask him to come up and listen to you?” So the next thing I know, I see this glimmer of dark glasses, and it looked like bug glasses, way in the back and it’s him. And he’s just listening. So he asked me … “Do you want to do this?” I said yea, what am I supposed to say, no? So that was it. The next thing you know, I’m recording with him and he says, “How about going on the road?” I said, I don’t know man, because his reputation precedes him. I’ve always heard the stories and I believed the stories. I’m not one who takes confrontation so easily. If I get backed into a corner I have a real problem because there’s nowhere else for me to go but forward. Either I’m going to go forward or die trying. So why do I need to go through that. If I can see it coming, probably it’s better for me to just cool it. So I said, no man, I think I’m going to pass on that one, and that’s how I ended up with Mahavishnu.”

(Billy had to run and shut all his windows in his home because of an intensifying storm.)

Ray Shasho: Your first solo album Spectrum was certainly a masterpiece. I’ve talked with so many artists who respected Tommy Bolin as a musician and as a human being. What was it like working with Tommy?
Billy Cobham: “It was beyond fun! It’s like being in a room with your best friends. You have Jan Hammer, Tommy and Lee Sklar …it was more like, okay, what do we do now? We did that, okay, do you have anything else? Plus we were in Hendrix’s place (Electric Lady Studios), so it was like being in somebody’s house. We finished recording those tracks with Tommy, Jan and Sklar in two days. That was including getting levels. It was just one of those things because everything just felt good. This is one thing that I learned from Miles … match the people with the music. I had in mind that I was going to use Larry Young on it and I rehearsed with Stanley Clark … but Jan, Tommy and Sklar gave me so much more than I needed. At one point I was thinking about getting Oliver Nelson to produce it and that would have taken it into a completely different direction. But that helped me figure out who really fit this particular situation and the rest is history.”

“I knew the jig was up with me and Mahavishnu Orchestra; I needed something to try and get me back into the studio scene. I never considered myself to be any kind of leader, so if I could just get a record out or some kind of calling card to slip to Max Gordon or somebody like that, see if I could get two or three nights at the Vanguard. When Atlantic Records told me six months later that I had a hit record, I’m thinking … oh, you mean that thing I did with Jackie & Roy? I wasn’t thinking about me. I’m thinking …Esther Phillips, Jackie & Roy, Mose Allison … anybody but me. And all of a sudden, no, it’s your record. I thought they were joking because I never listened to the radio. The head of A&R from Atlantic Records said you need to get a band. I said, no man, I can’t afford a band. Nobody is going to come listen to a drummer leading a band. Finally he showed me the Billboard charts; I never looked at that stuff. He said do you understand, it says #31. I said what does that mean? He said it means it’s going up the charts. We had a big argument because I’m thinking I can’t afford a band. That means thirty one thousand dollars that I have to put in for this or that; I don’t have that kind of money. He said, you don’t get it, we’ll support you. And that’s how I started to learn the music business. They don’t support me with their money, they support me with my money, the money that I didn’t get (Laughing).”
Ray Shasho: The Spectrum album came out in 1973, the Mahavishnu Orchestra was formed in 1971, and then Jeff Beck releases Blow by Blow in 1975 and the media calls him a genius? Nothing against Jeff Beck but I think those music critics have gotten it wrong.
Billy Cobham: “I didn’t want to say anything but between me and John, we didn’t even have a spit in the bucket in terms of the amount of acknowledgement that Jeff has. It’s always been quirky for me, here’s a guy who really-really loved my music. Okay, thank you very much. So one day in 1978, I get a call, I think it was from Stanley Clark to come and work with Jeff at a rehearsal someplace in Japan for a ‘Live Under the Sky’ or something that we were going to do. I was already doing a ‘Live Under the Sky’ as a guest of Tony Williams at the time.”

“I arrived in LA from Geneva where I had been working at the Montreux Festival and I had a 24- hour virus that had been knocking me down. So I get off the plane and go to the Sunset Marquis Hotel in LA. The next thing I know, I get a call, and now I’m at a rehearsal hall with Stanley and we start playing together. Just a little blues shuffle. The next thing you know, Jeff Beck walks in. We’re grooving and we finally see him and stop playing, hey Jeff how are you doing? He says… I’m just going to the toilet and I’ll be right back. So we go back and start to play again. We’re grooving and having a ball, next thing you know …one hour passes, then two hours pass and no Jeff. So we’re wondering what Happened to Jeff? That was 1978 and I never saw Jeff again.”

“In 1998, I’m standing in line at the Montreux Festival and there’s Jeff in front me. I said, hey Jeff how are you doing… and he doesn’t remember me of course. I said so listen man, when you went to the bathroom did everything come out alright? Because I’m still waiting for you so we can go ahead and play. He looked at me and then finally got it.”

“I’ve always thought there was a reason why he never came back …maybe I said the wrong thing or I played or did something wrong, or he wasn’t comfortable with me … I don’t know?”
Ray Shasho: Or it might just be Jeff’s persona. I interviewed Jim McCarty the drummer for The Yardbirds and he had this to say about Jeff … “We were on a grueling tour, forty date tours- two venues a night, with all the other bands on a greyhound bus. Jeff only did a couple of the dates and he disappeared. He said, I can’t handle this and he went to California with some girlfriend out there. We ended up doing the whole tour without him.”
Jeff was actually fired.
Billy Cobham: “It was amazing. In 1998, I thought I said something really wrong … so the last thing I expected was to hear him on a DVD with him playing my music. I was like … get out of here! So God bless him and thank you very much, but I didn’t get it.”
Ray Shasho: Billy, you’re an amazing player …such a natural, very smooth yet very intricate in the way you sound.
Billy Cobham: “It’s a whole objective of trying to analyze the self analytical … okay the reason I’m doing these things is… this is a drum and it’s made up in a specific way, drum heads are very-very important in the whole combination of things …a drum stick and the “B” design …the neck design is from the shaft the width … all these things help you decide how you’re going to apply yourself and attack that drum. The more you know about each individual drum, its depth, its diameter, the plies … the easier it is going to be for you to play. So it makes you study and become more of an artist than just someone who applies a drum stick to the drum and leaves it there for fun. Now, what you want to do is be Muhammad Ali and sting the drum while you float over it like a butterfly. So the whole objective is concept, technique and approach. In order to have that you have to imagine why you would do that and in what situation, this now brings you to the point of becoming an artist.”

“For me, the whole reason why I make it look so easy is because I know if I play harder than that ... I wouldn’t be able to play as long. The objective is to make the drums work for me.”
Ray Shasho: Billy, I worry about certain musical genres that seem to be fading, especially rock and roll, jazz and the blues.
Billy Cobham: “The blues has got a problem. That’s coming from the gut! When the person who has that story passes into the next dimension, its gone man. That person has to play that and you have to play it with him. When you hear what’s going on now where everybody’s speaking, there not singing 1-4-5 chord, they’re singing monotonically, if you want to call it singing, they’re just talking. It’s a different dimension, a different approach, and makes a lot of things fragmented. For the blues as we know it … it’s going away. It’s fading and maybe in a cycle it will come back in a different way, but it has to come back with some different folks. I think it’s the most difficult music to duplicate now.”
Ray Shasho: Billy, 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?
Billy Cobham: “I would love to play with John Coltrane or Red Garland and “Trane” or Wynton Kelly and “Trane” or maybe even Bill Evans and “Trane.” Interestingly enough my bass player would be Jimmy Garrison. I would have loved to had the opportunity to play with them back then only to gain the experience as a young person. I would love to do it now knowing what I know.”
Ray Shasho: Who are some of the drummers that you admire?
Billy Cobham: “A drummer that I really admire, living now, would be Roy Haynes. In the past … Elvin Jones, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson and Mel Lewis, those are the guys that I looked at and felt a kind of kindred feeling with.”
Ray Shasho: What do you think about Buddy Miles as a drummer?
Billy Cobham: “I thought he was amazing. He was amazing from the standpoint of consistency … he laid it down! I’m still trying to understand how a man with a Caribbean accent would come out of Omaha, Nebraska. So I always wondered where does this cat come from. He could have sang with the three tenors, just a wonderful voice, and then to turnaround and learn to play the guitar backwards… that’s just plain not fair (all laughing). To me he even sounded better when he played guitar and sang.”
Ray Shasho: Billy, thank you for being on the Skype call this afternoon. More importantly for all the incredible music you’ve given to all of us and continue to bring. We’ll see you September 20th at the Palladium Theatre in St. Petersburg.
Billy Cobham: “Take care Ray, see you in Florida!”

Billy Cobham will be performing the 40th anniversary of his classic Spectrum album on Friday, September 20th at the Palladium Theatre in St. Petersburg, for tickets and information visit www.mypalladium.org or call 727-822-3590 for more information.
Billy Cobham official website www.billycobham.com
Purchase Billy Cobham’s 2-CD set entitled 'Compass Point' at amazon.com
Visit Billy Cobham on Facebook

Very special thanks to Nancy Balik FitzGerald of Whole Picture Media, LLC and Billy James of Glass Onyon PR

COMING UP ...Interviews with Melanie, Burton Cummings and Gary Wright.

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 so he can continue to bring you quality classic rock music reporting.

~~Pacific Book Review says Ray Shasho is a product of the second half of the 20th century, made in the USA from parts around the world, and within him is every trend in music, television, politics and culture contributing to his philosophical and comically analytical reflections collected in his fine book of memories. I found Check the Gs to be pure entertainment, fantastic fun and a catalyst to igniting so many memories of my own life, as I too am within a few years of Ray. So to all, I say if you have a bit of grey hair (or no hair), buy this book! It’s a great gift for your “over-the-hill” friends, or for their kids, if they are the history buffs of younger generations trying to figure out why we are the way we are.


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