From right to left: David Weiss and Don Fagenson of Was (Not Was) Photo courtesy: David Corio/Redferns/Getty Images |
"To me, (Don Was) is very much like working
with Jimmy Miller, who's a producer but also a musician. To the Stones, it's a real extra
plus to have a guy that knows how things are played, what's done.” – Keith
Richards.
I was sitting on the floor in my
room eating my second box of Cracker Jacks and guzzling a can of Barq’s Root
Beer when my new friend Don Fagenson, leader of the neo-funk and rock group Was
(Not Was) called. He was at
singer-songwriter Carly Simon’s house in Martha’s Vineyard . He was excited and I was honored that he
thought enough of me to call. Seems Don
was there to work with Carly on her latest album. The album would be called SPOILED GIRL. He said they (Carly and Epic Records) called
the “big guns” in for the project.
Luther Vandross, the background singer and vocal contractor, was coming
by to work on the project. This was
Don’s big break and the bass player had to tell someone.
Musicians
loved to talk to journalists. The
relationship between a musician and a writer is like that of a rock star and
his priests. We writers worship
musicians, making idols out of them based on their talent. And along the way musicians have learned
that’s how their legacy is built—on the typewriters of icon worshiping journalists who want to be the first to discover a legend in the making.
After
several years in the business—entertaining singers and musicians over dinner
after shows—I had earned an underground reputation. I was considered funny and most importantly,
I was considered psychic because I
could tell the future. I wanted to
believe he called me because it was what I told him would happen—he would become
one of the industry’s most important producers.
And he would produce many of his favorite artists. This was just the beginning.
I became acquainted with Don
Fagenson right after the first Was (Not Was) album debuted in 1981. I was still a music journalist in the early
80s. I had my national gig with Rock
and Soul Songs, but the industry had changed with the death of the vinyl
album pending and the emergence of the new format for music—the compact disc—my
days at Cleveland Scene Magazine were numbered. No one wanted a writer who was so closely
associated with dance music and self-contained R&B groups. The post-soul
movement saw Hip Hop as its flagship genre, while arena rock, new wave and punk
dominated the charts and radio airwaves.
And as a black writer I wasn’t allowed to write about those recording
artists. But that didn’t stop me from
looking for the next big act.
Was
(Not Was), the up-and-coming funk group out of Detroit , Michigan
held a lot of promise. I found myself up
on Coventry at Record Revolution looking for their hard to find Euro-dance hit
“Wheel Me Out” single and over at the drug store looking through Rolling
Stone, Billboard, CREEM, Hit Parader, Circus, SPIN,
GROOVES, Melody Maker and the Village Voice to find
information about the band.
I read that Fagenson and his partner
flutist David Weiss loved funk, R&B and rock music. They were after all, Detroit white boys who grew up worshiping Iggy Pop, the Stooges, the MC5s and Parliament-Funkadelic. One of my friends, Jeannette McGruder (Satori
Shakoor) now a sought-after background vocalist, worked on the debut
self-titled album which was released on the independent Ze label. Jeannette was a hometown girl who left Luther
Vandross’ group in New York
to sing with P-Funk. With the demise of
George Clinton’s Motor City Empire, producers like Fagenson were scrambling to
pick up unemployed funk musicians and vocalists. Landing some of Clinton ’s talent was an
attempt to mimic his chart success by laying funk on your tracks. Fagenson’s formula for success was a sure
one—funk, rock and R&B vocals over his satirical lyrics. It worked.
Was (Not Was) were quietly the next big thing. I wanted to find about more about this new
music.
In March of 1981, I ventured up to
Detroit to see George Clinton’s emancipated (they left the organization to
strike out on their own) Brides of Funkenstein perform their new wave set at
Bookie’s 870 Club on West McNichols. We heard that Fagenson, who was among the
musicians to play at Detroit ’s
first punk nightclub, might be at the show.
We knew he had read the piece on the girls in the Detroit Free Press
publicizing the March 18th gig.
There
was a mixed crowd in the packed house—“It’s all kinds of freaks and geepies out
there. Some funk, punk, fags and hags is
out there,” a Chicago
funk groupie named Suzie Creamcheese said.
The Electrifying Mojo of Detroit’s WGPR 107.5 FM hyped up the show by
playing a lot of Was (Not Was) and Brides music. We looked for Fagenson, but no one spotted
him. I didn’t know what he looked like
anyway. I leaned insecurely against the
wall in the corner of the filthy dressing room while the band held court with
friends, fans and drug dealers. The
dingy walls were covered with expletive filled punk mantras written in black
permanent marker. This was definitely
not Cleveland ’s
Agora Ballroom, an iconic venue where legends were birthed.
I met a guy from CREEM Magazine. Don’s group appeared on the cover in 1981
with their name in small print on the hem of Pat Benatar’s skirt. The writer leaning over me was the infamous
Mark J. Norton. Someone I didn’t know
introduced him to me. I was that black
girl from Scene Magazine who handled publicity for the Brides. Mark kissed me on the cheek, and I noted that
he smelled like sour gin and weed. But
it was a friendly kiss. He dragged me
deeper into the dressing room because, “We music journalists need to be up
close to record what was going on.”
After dropping out of the University
of Michigan , Fagenson
produced Mark’s band as one of his first projects. I knew he could point Don
out to me. But I felt safer staying in
one place until the show started.
I didn’t want to walk around. We were scared (the Brides and I) that George
was going to come and put a damper on the show by trying to take over. See, George and the legendary Sly Stone were
supposed to be at United Sound Studio working on the next Brides album but
instead they were on an alleged prolonged cocaine freebasing binge. The leader of Parliament-Funkadelic was
likely to be found anywhere in Detroit
where there was music, money, women and a spotlight. He knew drugs weren’t far behind. Neither George nor Sly appeared before the
set began.
I went downstairs to watch. The Brides’ revamped show—I suggested the
girls drop some of the funk and perform songs by up and coming new artists like
Grace Jones, Carolyn Maas and Lene Lovich—was electrifying. From the reaction of the audience, they
agreed. By the finale of the show,
George Clinton had climbed up on
stage doing his Dr. Funkenstein stitch and he proceeded to call the girls “his
bitches”. He kept saying how proud he
was of “his bitches”. Oddly enough, each
time he called them “bitches” the crowd got more excited.
I cried quietly as I watched him
humiliate the girls. In the excitement,
someone pushed me off my stool and I almost landed face first onto the sticky
floor. I was okay. In the limo ride back
to Henry Mayer’s house—he was the Brides’ manager and George Clinton’s supposed
drug dealer—no one said anything. They
were all breathing heavy. I took out my toy compass to play with while they
smoked a joint. We all started
laughing. “George f**cks up everything
don’t he,” Jeannette McGruder said.
We never saw Fagenson at the
show. I eventually got his number from
Ze Records head, Michael Zilkha. His
wife Cristina was a socialite and mutant disco singer whose deadpan vocals and
great tracks courtesy of Don and Was (Not Was) and August Darnell of Kid Creole
and the Coconuts fame, were hot. I
originally called Zilkha to get an interview with his wife. Her single, “Things Fall Apart” on the Ze
Christmas album featured lyrics about a wealthy socialite who gets beat up for
the holidays. I read about her on the
pages of Andy Warhol’s trend-setting Interview Magazine. If Glenn O’Brien wrote about it, I knew I
should.
But Zilkha throws me off when he
reveals that Fagenson is frantically looking for the Brides because Was (Not
Was) is going on tour. So, I call
Fagenson at the Sound Suite Recording Studios on
McNichols where he was working. I
get his production coordinator, Garzelle McMurray. She puts Don on the phone, and we hit it off
immediately. I tell him how much I love
his work and he laughs. He asks me about
myself and what I do. I explain my background
and he asks me if I’ve written anything outside of music journalism. Confident that he likes me, I then reveal I’d
just completed a treatment for a film I wanted to do, called “Afro Beach
Party”. I tell him that I saw that the
movie soundtrack would be bigger than the film in the future and that he’ll be
doing soundtracks in the near future.
Now interested, he talks with me on
a regular basis. I hook up Dawn Silva
and Lynn Mabry of the Brides of Funkenstein, with Don to tour as background
vocalists. They hit the road together in
1982 and take the music world by a quiet storm.
They are the darlings of the new wave and funk set. They grace the pages of all the right
magazines and Village Voice writer, Robert Christgau hails the Brides as
the best girl group since Labelle. I
call Steve Mass and help book the girls a gig in New York at Soho ’s
legendary Mudd Club, home to everyone from Blondie, Klaus Nomi , Lydia
Lunch, Talking Heads and the Ramones.
Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz of the Heads are at the show along with
Christgau and legendary keyboardist, Bernie Worrell of
Parliament-Funkadelic. The hype after
the show causes promoters to book larger venues for Was (Not Was).
In one of our next conversations, I
remind Don that he will be the industry’s next big producer. And he returns the compliment by inviting me
up to Detroit
to visit while he produces Helen Terry.
Helen earned a name singing with Boy George and Culture Club on hits
like “Church of the Poison Mind” and “Karma Chameleon”. So naturally, I want to hang out and meet
her. Fagenson is also working on the
“Electric Dreams” movie soundtrack that would feature Donna Summer producer,
Giorgio Moroder, Culture Club and Human League front man, Phil Oakley. This was an important job for Fagenson. The soundtrack would eventually make more
money than the film. The Helen Terry
album, BLUE NOTES would be released on Virgin Records. Don uses most of the Was (Not Was) crew for
the project.
My friend, Raymond Jones who was
making a name for himself as a sideman playing for everyone from Talking Heads
to Nona Hendryx is on keyboards for the album.
I hook him up through Garzelle. I
arrive at my hotel in Southfield
and call up Garzelle to find out when we can come to the studio. Of course, Don is busy laying down tracks and
can’t be disturbed. So Garzelle suggests
we go eat at a place called Chique-A-Freak, an African restaurant near the 20
Grand Lounge on West Warren .
I enter the dingy restaurant
remembering Garzelle’s claim that, “The raunchier the place, the better the
food”. I’ve heard this before, and I
know it to be a lie. Ray is there,
Garzelle, Helen Terry, Sweet Pea Atkinson, Was (Not Was) lead vocalist, David
McMurray, the band’s horn player, my friend Jeff Wright and me. Frightened by the menu, we order something
safe and familiar with chicken and greens.
I order an iced tea and Helen begins to tell stories about Boy George.
She’s delightfully bawdy and loud as
she tells us all George’s love life business including his attempt to go to bed
with Luther Vandross. Her plump cheeks
turn redder with every probable lie.
Apparently, Luther doesn’t like big boys and George was rather chubby
underneath all those androgynous clothes he wore. She claims Luther regularly cruises Central Park in his limousine to pick up young boys. But because he’s so big, he doesn’t get many
takers. Raymond takes the opportunity to
tell the story of how Luther wasn’t asked to be a part of the disco group Chic
because he didn’t fit their ‘look’. It
was so scandalous that you had to laugh.
Not to be left out, Sweet Pea tells us
about Dawn and Lynn
out on the road with Was (Not Was) and how they supposedly slept with all the
band members except him. He was talking
so fast that I couldn’t keep up with his profanity laced tirade. We sat in that restaurant for hours laughing
and talking. But one by one people
excused themselves from the table and either went to the bathroom or
outside. We all had gas and diarrhea
from the spicy food and so I stayed in my hotel room for the rest of the
night. I never made it to the
studio. I wasn’t worried, I knew we
would meet, I saw our meeting like I saw his future success.
Just like I predicted, time ran out
on Scene Magazine. I was called
back to cover major events like the Jacksons ’
Victory Tour in 1984. But it was over
for funk, dance music and R&B. So, I
decided to put out my own magazine. I
began to publish an art deco styled underground fanzine featuring old Hollywood portraits on the cover and sarcastic
headlines. I named the rag Poor Elite
Magazine.
I
used my industry contacts to build a customer database. I realized people loved my sense of humor and
take on events in the business. I had
readers all over the world as witnessed by the international letters that would
arrive irregularly at my house. People
loved the profiles and found the prophetic utterances about the music and film
world odd, but interesting. Don was a
regular reader of the magazine because he was on the mailing list. Garzelle would read it before Don got a
chance. She invited me back up to Detroit to consult on
publicity for the Sound Suite Studios where Michael Powell was working to
finish the new Anita Baker album using a brand new Solid State Logic board
(SSL). This new mixing board was
supposed to be on the cutting edge of new technology and would revolutionize
the industry. The studio paid for the
weekend and I still didn’t catch up with Don.
Seems Don talked a lot about me and
was impressed with my intellect or so she said.
We would talk over the years and I kept reminding him one day he would
be recognized as a great producer, calling me from Carly Simon’s house was
fitting. But I still had never laid eyes
on Don. He worked on Carly’s album and
it was hailed by critics as some of her worst work. But I knew this was a mere setback. I was
surprised that a major label would put an artist like Carly Simon known for her
powerful lyrics, with an odd fellow like Don Fagenson considering his early
records featured lyrics like, “Woodworks squeaks and out come the freaks.”
Don Fagenson. Photo courtesy: Ron Baker (Creative Commons License) |
Don was more at home on his next big
project. He produced and played on the
B52s COSMIC THING album. The B52s, known as a great party band from
Athens, Georgia shared Fagenson’s affinity for quirky lyrics. Their collaboration would mark the band’s
greatest commercial success with the single, “Love Shack” reaching as high as
#3 on Billboard Magazine Single’s Chart.
Don would go on to produce the next couple of B52s albums but was never
able to capture the success of COSMIC THING. No matter, the singles, “Roam” and “Love
Shack” kept the band touring for years.
In the music industry, success means
you get the high-profile jobs and the choice of passion projects. By 1989, Don Fagenson had hit the big
time. That year, his work on Bonnie
Raitt’s NICK OF TIME album earned the singer-songwriter a Grammy Award for
Album of the Year. Raitt’s career was
jump-started and she’d gone from being a journeyman blues guitarist and singer
to becoming one of the industry’s most respected musicians. The bluesy pop sound they created resulted in
classic songs like “Nick of Time” which is still being played on the radio
today. Their collaboration ended when
Raitt decided she wanted to try different producers.
Five
years later he would win a Grammy for Producer of the Year, the pinnacle for
any recording artist. Early on, he was
successful not only because he was talented, but also, he was easy to work
with. Don could enlist everyone from
Iggy Pop, Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Cohen, actress Kim Basinger and
Ozzy Osbourne to appear on his recordings.
By the way, he meets Basinger while producing Bob Dylan. Kim in fact replaces the vocals of a newcomer
named Madonna. Fagenson learns Madonna
felt slighted by the rejection, but he wasn’t impressed with her as a vocalist.
A decade later when the band’s European label wants to do a remix of the track
featuring the original vocals done by Madonna and Ozzy, she refuses, and actress
Kim Basinger enters.
How
a band as surreal as this could ever score a hit was beyond me. Fagenson and Weiss prided themselves on
putting whatever came into their consciousness into the music. Consequently, the band was known for being
more an underground act; however, somewhere along the way, they went mainstream
with a hit record called, “Walk the Dinosaur”.
The single from their 1988 WHAT UP, DOG
album spawned a clever little music video that featured vocalist, Sweet
Pea Atkins singing typical Was (Not Was) lyrics: “Open the door, get on the floor, everybody
kill the dinosaur”. Unfortunately, the
video made MTV heavy rotation and landed the band on a tour with the year’s hot
acts. David Weiss however, was not happy
with his group’s commercial direction.
Don’s commercialized sensibilities dominated the creative process
causing some critics to label subsequent recordings by the band as Don Fagenson
solo projects. But the band would stay
together a few more years before breaking up.
Before they would break up, they
would reach their collective commercial peak as a band. When the Club MTV Tour rolled into the Richfield
Coliseum in 1989, Was (Not Was) had another hit, “Spy in The House of Love”,
and it afforded me a chance to finally meet Fagenson and see the band
perform. On the bill was rapper,
Tone-Loc, Was (Not Was), the Information Society, Paula Abdul and Milli
Vanilli. MTV’s Downtown Julie Brown was
the host of the show.
I finally got to put my arms around
my pal. He wasn’t tall as I expected but
had an unexpected beautiful shank of curly dark brown hair. He hid his eyes at first behind those trademark
sunglasses, but he quickly removed them as if he knew I really wanted to see if
he was all I predicted. Looking in those
dark brown eyes, I understood how he connected with people—he was quietly
charismatic and exuded an air of confidence.
You knew he could do what he promised.
He was a hard working musician who could be trusted with your artistic
vision.
Yes,
I was proud that he had a hit record and was gaining respect as a
producer. I bought everything he worked
on and kept the vinyl records bearing his name and sound in a separate
stack. Don posed with me backstage
holding a copy of my Poor Elite Magazine. Everyone in the band knew about it because
Garzelle made it her duty to circulate it.
Her husband, David McMurray with his saxophone slung around his neck,
pulled me next to him so he could pose with the magazine as well. Even Sweet Pea wanted to pose. But the band had to get ready for their set,
so I went out front to watch some of the show.
I
couldn’t wait to see Milli Vanilli. Most
music journalists hated them because they were blatant music automatons created
by producer Frank Farian who was best known for creating the disco group, Boney
M. The gorgeous German duo of Rob
Pilatus and Fab Morvan with their long braids and lean muscular bodies were
usually outfitted in form-fitting biker shorts.
In other words, they were shamelessly styled for the growing female MTV
viewership. This demographic influenced
record companies and changed the industry.
The sellout audience consisted of by
and large those young girls and the duo gave them their money’s worth. Downtown Julie Brown stood like the queen
mother in the wings watching. I had made
my way backstage because I couldn’t enjoy the show out front—too much
screaming. I watched Julie out of the
corner of my eye. She looked bored by
Milli Vanilli’s set—I guess because she’d seen it so many times. But other people backstage seemed impressed
with how the duo managed to be so athletic and still have the wind to
sing. Well, as it turns out they weren’t
singing. They did their now patented
leaps in the air and landed without opening their mouths. Seems they were out of breath and couldn’t
keep up with their DAT (digital audio tape) track. I looked at my friend Jeff and he looked at
me. “Hey they weren’t singing”, he
said. He said it loud enough for people
to hear. I looked over at Julie and she
looked at us with one eyebrow lifted up inquisitively. The duo would be exposed for not singing to a
tape but for not singing at all.
Meanwhile during the Was (Not Was)
set, I felt embarrassed for Don and the boys.
They played their heart out and only received a warm reception from the
crowd. The audience was there to see
Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul and Tone-Loc.
They didn’t know how to respond to a real band, and I don’t blame
them. It was hard to peg the group’s
sound. They played jazz, funk, fusion,
R&B and rock. You couldn’t put a
label on them. Record buyers were
already jaded. When the British duo
known as the Buggles sang, “video killed the radio star”, they didn’t know how
true this would become. In the early
days of music video, it was all about the look and less about the music. If your video looked good, then the song was
deemed good and got radio airplay. This
meant it sold records which translated into touring dollars. Nothing has changed today.
When Was (Not Was) dropped their
“Tell Me That I’m Dreaming” single in the early 80s, there were still
intellectual music buyers who were enchanted with the song’s funky dance grooves
and sampled vocals from President Reagan’s State of The Union speech. They made a statement with their music and
you could dance to it. Don (Was)
Fagenson was a hip, cool musician who other musicians and singers wanted to
work with. But the band’s ability to
sell records was questionable at best and they would pay for it by having to
switch labels time and time again.
When
Don proved he could make commercial music when Was (Not Was) hit the Top Ten on
Billboard’s Dance Chart with a remake of the Temptations “Papa Was A
Rolling Stone”, I was surprised and pleased.
However, he earned his mantle in the business through production. He proved that he could revitalize the career
of any mainstream rock and pop act. His
reputation was such that everyone from Elton John, Bob Seeger, Paula Abdul, the
Eagles’ Glenn Frey, Jackson Browne and the Rolling Stones hired him. He reached the pinnacle of success in 1995
when he won Producer of the Year for his work on the Stones’ VODOO LOUNGE
album. His old school production
philosophy was credited for the Stones comeback. He resurrected the Stones’ sound and was
rewarded with the Grammy for Best Rock Album.
When I read about Fagenson in France recording with Mick Jagger
and Keith Richards, all I could do was smile.
And today he still produces the Stones—the World’s Greatest Rock and
Roll Band.
But
I remember reading that for Fagenson, producing his idol Bob Dylan’s UNDER A
BLOOD RED SKY was also a major coup for his career. In January of 1990 he found himself at the
Oceanway Studios in Hollywood recording with Dylan on piano, Jimmie Vaughn on
guitar, and Kenny Aronoff on drums.
Dylan would record with everyone from David Crosby to Guns N’ Roses
guitarist Slash, to pianists Bruce Hornsby and Elton John on the project. Don would of course bring in Was (Not Was)
members, David Weiss, David McMurray, and Harry Bowen to work on the legendary
singer-songwriter’s tracks.
Now a successful producer based in Los Angeles , it was no
surprise when he was spotted at the Academy Awards luncheon one year. Don had embarked on a career in writing music
for movie soundtracks. He’s worked on such films as “Hope Floats”, Tin Cup”,
“The Rainmaker” and even lent his voice to “The Country Bears”. After September 11, there was a
special put on by big-name music and movie stars. Of course, Fagenson was in the band
performing behind such music giants as David Bowie, and Stevie Wonder to just
name a few. He was an elder statesman by
this point in his career; and proved it by serving as the Keynote Speaker at a
recent Motor City Music Conference.
Don Fagenson. Photo courtesy: David Podosek (Flickr.com) |
Here he was the legitimate favorite
son of Detroit . His subsequent partnership with Ford to work
on a Lincoln Mercury ad was questioned by some critics who felt he was selling
out again. Fagenson wasn’t a sellout, he
was versatile. People loved what he
could do in the studio—he could recapture an artist’s lost musical aesthetic
and identity. This was especially true
for his work with the Stones, Bonnie Raitt and even Elton John. Then he could easily switch gears and write
music for Richard Dreyfuss’ “The Education of Max Bixford” series, direct
documentaries like “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Time” a look at the life of
Beach Boys’ leader Brian Wilson; as well as produce music for major ad
campaigns. Fagenson maintained his
integrity throughout his career. I mean,
who else in the business could produce Elton John, Willie Nelson, the Stones,
Bob Dylan and release music like that found on the surrealistic lyrical albums
of Was (Not Was)?
I’ve followed Don’s career over the
years and have been impressed with his every move. He’s accomplished all that I foresaw and more
.
About the author
Charlotte
Morgan is a writer who was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio where she has
been fortunate to teach First-Year English at her Alma mater
Cleveland State University. She has led Non-Fiction workshops around town in
the hopes of helping others find their voice. As a writer, from time to time,
her work investigates the black experience in the urban pastoral in the hopes
of understanding not only why her ancestors were brought to the States but what
was their destiny and purpose here. Her aim is to rob the graveyard of her
insights, and ideas so that future generations have access. As a longtime
journalist, her use of literary reportage has been influenced by the works of
New Journalism writers like Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S.
Thompson and Cameron Crowe. She seeks to skillfully capture images and
dialogue which enlivens her prose.
Excerpt
from None of My Idols Were Worth Worship. Copyright 2020© MorganWorks.
@morganwriter
(Twitter and Instagram)