Appreciation: Willie Mitchell, Tony Clarke & Tony Bellamy

I've been spending a good portion of time here at OddStonesSods telling you all about when I lived up here in Eugene during my first time around. I've also been telling you about a lot of the music I was listening to then as well. I will also be telling you about when I moved back to Santa Clara in late '72 to begin my favorite period from late '72 to late '74. The three gentleman I am to discuss here come from this period (and in the case of Tony Clarke-from the '60s).
When it comes to Al Green, it is a given that you have to mention Willie Mitchell. Without Willie, we would have never come to know the Al Green that we know now and kind of take for granted in some respects because he's just so hugely talented and blessed with a gift for telling stories of the soul through music. You see, that gift wouldn't have been exposed if it wasn't for Willie Mitchell. Now, perhaps Al might have popped up at some other place in the country and exposed his voice to the world, but would his voice have been truely his own had it not been for Willie Mitchell? The story has been repeated so many times before, but it was Mitchell who told Al Green to quit trying to sing like other Soul artists and to just sing like Al Green.
Because of that simple and profoundly true advice, we got the Al Green that we now know of for today. For many of us, it was to be the Al Green that we remember from the early '70s and especially 1972 when he knocked us out silly with "Let's Stay Together". Now, mind you, Al continued to knock us out when he converted and went to sing Gospel music. And he continues to do so with the music he produces today where he straddles the line between Gospel and the old days when he was unabashedly sensual in his message by way of that incredible voice of his.
However, it must be pointed out that when you listen to a song like "Let's Stay Together" and you dive into the song itself even further, you begin to further realize that there isn't just a great singer singing his heart during this number. You can dig something else going on from listening to other Al Green records. You get it from listening other Hi Records releases from other artists who were on the Hi roster such as Ann Peebles. She would knock our socks off with "I Can't Stand The Rain" in 1973.
Here's what it is, people. When you listened to a Willie Mitchell production. You heard a sound which could never be duplicated by anyone else on this Earth ever again. For starters, it's like the first thing I thought of that members of one of the music boards I belong to have have mentioned in their tributes to Willie when the news of his passing first broke. Man, this guy mixed and made the drums on Hi Records songs so unique. And then, there was the orchestration. Listen to the drums and the orchestration on "Let's Stay Together" and tell me if you don't hear a full sound and not just a singer. You are hearing it from all sides and not just one side. When "I Can't Stand The Rain" comes on, you hear the unique, African-influenced percussion instrument being employed to go with the clean and yet gritty sound that only Mitchell could come up with.
Willie was a musician before he was a producer. I will always remember him for what he gave to me during my great run from 1970-1974 when I was rising ever higher with the music I was discovering. Thank you so much Willie.
Though he was a person that didn't get mentioned much in the discussions that I've had with a lot of people over the years, I did have times where The Moody Blues were mentioned plenty of times and with good reason. Their run in the '60s and the early '70s were essential listening whether you were a listener who heard the stuff when it actually came out back in the '60s or when the re-released singles started spewing forth as well as when the '70s started progressing beyond 1974 and all of radio was beginning the process of looking back , you became aware of the existence of The Moody Blues whether you wished to avoid them or not. Radio did not ignore them.
For me, I do recall clearly living in Santa Clara once again and listening to the re-release of the "Nights In White Satin" single and listening to a steady dose of "Tuesday Afternoon" as well. When I made the switch over to F.M. in 1974, I began to discover more of their music, including "Legend of A Mind" and ,"I'm Just A Singer In A Rock and Roll Band" (proper title?).
What do you think of when you hear The Moody Blues? Among other things, I heard great lush orchestration being intertwined with great forward visioned music. Tony Clarke is the man who was responsible for that integration. The great producers always know how to balance the vision of the artists writing the songs and performing them with his own vision of how he's going to get the song to sound on tape. He's also going to know when to adjust the vision in the artist's mind as ell as making adjustments in his own and possibly end up making something that turned out even better than either of the two envisioned. I'm sure Tony Clarke had this happen with the members of The Moody Blues. Well, the results turned out to be quite splendid. The fans always refer to the Great Seven (meaning the great seven albums that are generally regarded as the cream of the crop in their legacy). For me, my copies of the Deluxe Editions of Days of The Future Passed and In Search of the Lost Chord are the proof I have of Tony Clarke's greatness. It was inevitable that the music of The Moody Blues was going to find its way into my life. I could swear that I heard them on the radio even before I moved back to Santa Clara in '72. It's just that I know for certain that I did hear them when "Nights In White Satin" was re-released as a single.
And now I come to somebody with whom I hesitate to write about at this time. The reason why this is so is not for the usual reasons. During the course of my writing entires into my blog, I am trying not to get tempted into writing about the '72-'74 Santa Clara period yet because of how monumental it is to me. Plus, I have another reason for my hesitancy. Tony Bellamy may only have been the second guitarist (mostly rhythm) for Redbone. But my love for this band runs so deep (which is ironic given that I grew up on only 2 singles of theirs and I own only 1 CD-a compilation) because of what they represent to me.
It is this idea (what they represent to me) which compels me to pay tribute to this man. It further compels me to make it a point to pay tribute to each band member when their times come to leave this mortal coil (and trust me, I will do so). And it also requires that I tell you way ahead of schedule of why "Come and Get Your Love" is such an all encompassing song to me. It means so much so to me that I will repeat this story with further writing when the time is appropriate to my story I'm trying to tell.
Redbone was a band I first got exposed to as a result of "Witch Queen of New Orleans" when I was lving here in Eugene from '70-'72. I knew right away that this was a Native American band. I just knew it by listening to the music and their words. They were passing on their spirit to me. It would take many years for me to know (not until about 5 years back actually) that there was a connection between Redbone and Jimi Hendrix. With Jimi having some North American Indian blood in him to go with being African-American, it was Jimi who encouraged Redbone that they should be together as a group. It is so ironic. When "Come and Get Your Love" was released back in 1974, I was taking my first serious (exceptionally deep) dive into Jimi's music via my brother Mike's old copy of Smash Hits that I bought off of him.
And so now, I'm letting the damn cat out of the bag when I tell you this. When I think of songs which stand out to me as archtypical of the last, in my opinion, great period for singles in the '70s which I believed started ending in the Fall of '74, one of the ones which leaps out in my mind immediately (among a few others) is "Come and Get Your Love". It was laid back in personality, but it had a groove that drove it home. It was direct in dealing with an issue like the subject matter of the song. It had rhythm. it had electric sitar being used in a tasteful fashion. And then, to my mind, it had that airy production like the song was being sent out to Heaven as if it was being recorded for eternity to represent a period of time for everybody-including me. It was the orchestration in the background and how it had some reverb to go with the cleanness of the basic track of the recording. The vocals, the guitar fills, the electric sitar to go with the lyrics being sung in a specific language pattern that I so identified with and was definitely spoken during that specific period in time just nailed me absolutely to the wall.
A further enhancement was made for this song that made it stick to my mind even further was that I got to see Redbone on television perform this song in their Native American traditonal garb. I was realizing that these guys, being Native Americans, were just as cool as all of the African-American artists I was digging and that they had a story to tell just as well. It was music that made them equals to me just as much as I was taking to heart Black artists on the same level. It was as if they were inviting me into their world and their were no strings attached if only I allowed them into my world as well. Well, I did and I believe we were a great match.
I spend many a day referring to the orchestration in that song between the lines they sing "come and get your love/come and get your love" in my thoughts. It may have been seemingly simple, but it works so incredibly well. Tony Bellamy was a part of all of this. His spirit was a part of this experience. As a result, his spirit was a part of my spirit because he was in a band who gave of themselves and their identity as a reminder that they stood as equals to the rest of us and that they had the same feelings that we did as adults and as kids. Hell, I considered both songs proof. Plus, this was a damned good band. I only have a compilation which is the Sony/Legacy The Essential Redbone compilation which absolutely slaughters my hearing impaired ears because Joseph Palmaccio mastered this thing so loudly that I cannot enjoy this CD through my headphones or through standard speaker set-ups. I have to turn this CD down so low that I can't enjoy the emotional impact of what I'm listening to. It is my fervant hope that the individual Redbone albums get reissued at some point and that they get remastered by somebody like Vic Anesini or Mark Wilder with the love and care they deserve. I grew up on the single version of "Come and Get Your Love" without ever knowing there was a longer version with a stunning intro. It is about time people got to hear this on a better mastering than the one on The Essential Redbone.
God Bless You Tony Bellamy. You may have only been the second guitar player in Redbone, but you were part of a band of equals who were equals in my eyes. As I pay tribute to you now, I pay tribute to all of you in the band. You helped to give me a period of time that I love and miss from a great distance right now because of that song. But if its up there in Heaven where it is not restricted by anything, it will certainly be there waiting for me to relive all over again and perhaps in your prescence. I just hope to God that people don't think you and the band were just some gimmick band who had a big hit and appeared on a music program performing the song because of presenting yourselves as who you were. Based on the times I have been able to withstand listening to the mastering on The Essential Redbone, it is very obvious that you had great musical diversity. You had fantastic chops. You were tight. You made great music that was worthy of full-album experiences and not just singles. Redbone and Tony Bellamy. They weren't a stereotype. They were the real deal.