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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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I LOVE YOU, TOO, YOUR MAJESTY!
An Interview with King Solomon Burke
By David Porter
Like A Fire
Shout! Factory Records
My grandmother…told me when I was very young that "the
old will become new and the new will become old; keep in your heart
the 23rd Psalm."
—Liner notes to Make Do With What You Got:
The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want,
he maketh me to like down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the pats of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil:
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
—Psalm 23 (The Lord's Prayer)
An interview with King Solomon Burke requires no introduction. His new album, Like A Fire (Shout! Factory Records) was released on June 10th. Steve Jordan produced the album, which features songs written by Eric Clapton, Ben Harper, Jessie Harris (Norah Jones), Jordan and Keb Mo; Harper, Jordan, Danny Kortchmar and Larry Taylor all play on the record.
His Highness will be on tour this summer, including a stop at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival on June 22nd and European dates throughout July; he will perform at the Hollywood Bowl on August 13th. For more information, please visit www.thekingsolomonburke.com.
Caught in the Carousel: Sir, it is an honor to speak with you. An honor and a treat.
King Solomon Burke: Well, likewise.
CITC: I hope you're well, and that all your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren are well.
KSB: How's your family?
CITC: Fine, everybody's fine. I want to congratulate you on a Like A Fire—it's a wonderful record. We've pretty much been listening to it non-stop the past couple of days, my wife and I, and we love it.
KSB: Thank you so much.
CITC: It seems modeled on the three albums you've released since 2002, Don't Give Up On Me, Make Do With What You Got (2005) and Nashville (2006), in that you're teamed with a great producer and a cadre of stellar studio talent. What was it like working with Steve Jordan, Danny Kortchmar and Ben Harper while recording the record, and how was writing with Clapton?
KSB: Writing with Clapton is always a thrill, and exciting, and always a challenge, because you're dealing with a genius, and a gentleman. It makes it so special because he personally wants to write with, and for a person, a real story, and he keeps it so real. That's what I love about Eric Clapton. He's a very special person, someone I think we've all learned to love and adore…his music, his personality, and his wit. He's just incredible.
CITC: He's become a real historian, and a preservationist.
KSB: He's a real soul, and he's really in touch with people, and this is what's important. He's not fake; he's not pretending, he's not putting on a show. He doesn't have to do this; he's doing it because it's what he loves to do. You can feel it, that's the fire burning in his soul.
CITC: Like A Fire has the same feel to me as a lot of the records Clapton recorded in the Seventies, like Slowhand and Backless. It's a rock n' roll record, but it's got an acoustic, bluesy feel to it.
KSB: It's just loose, it's just like I'm here with you. We're together; we're sharing this experience, this moment, this time. If you can lock into that, you can lock into the real feeling of what's going on, in someone's heart, in someone's mind.
CITC: I think Danny Kortchmar has played on every album recorded in LA since 1973. He's a real old hand compared to Ben Harper, who's kind of a young gun.
KSB: (laughs) As you said, Danny's been on every record, so there's no way in the world we could do this record without him, is there?
CITC: I was just listening to JT (James Taylor) a few months ago. It was released in 1977, and he's on it.
KSB: When you're dealing with legends, there's just a feeling of security it brings you, it's just that extra ounce of love in the music, and you don't put too much around it to cover it up or to drown it out, because you just want to hear the purity of it. It's like a great steak, you just want to taste the beef; you want to know that this is the real deal. You don't smother it with too much, just let it come out; let it be real and natural. That's what happens when you have Danny in there.
CITC: And with Ben Harper?
KSB: Ben is exciting and new, and to me it was a thrill to know him and to work with him, to write a song on the spot ("A Minute to Rest and a Second to Pray")—that was so fresh, and refreshing. And he is so aware of what's going on around him, and this is part of a message that I want the world to be aware of. Ben was excited about it; I was more excited than anybody. For someone to bring the message…that's what made me feel so good. This man is right on it, he knows what's going on. He sees today, he's feeling tomorrow, you know, and this is what the song is about.
CITC: He's kind of blazing his own path—I don't think Ben Harper falls into any particular category of rock music.
KSB: No, he's Ben Harper. Years from now they'll be talking about, 'we're doing this the Ben Harper way.' That's what he's doing. He's a wonderful young man…very respectful, very classy, which to me was so important. I was very honored to work with him. I hope we have a chance to do more things in the future.
CITC: Steve Jordan has played with Clapton on a number of records—
KSB: Steve Jordan has played with just about everybody that's had a hit record.
CITC: How did working with him on Like a Fire compare to working with Joe Henry (Don't Give Up on Me), Don Was (Make Do With What You Got) and Buddy Miller (Nashville)?
KSB: Doesn't compare. It's all part of the plan; it's all part of the package. It's all part of that great movement that says, 'we're on a journey.' And it's important to connect the great passengers, you know, aboard this journey, and I am so blessed to have had the opportunity…to take this great journey.
CITC: I watched Everybody Needs Somebody (2005 BBC documentary), and it seems you are not only universally admired, but adored, which I think is rare. Take someone like Chuck Berry—people are in awe of him, but no one ever talks about what a joy it was to work with him in the studio or to play a show with him.
KSB: Yeah, Chuck is a good guy; I guess he's just waiting on the turnaround. (laughs) You like that one, huh?
CITC: Very much. But everybody, I mean, when you watch the DVD, Bill Wyman, Jools Holland, Peter Guralnick—
KSB: Oh, he's a doll-baby. He's one of my angels. His Sweet Soul Music (1991) was just an incredible book. He's an incredible man. Peter Guralnick has such a special place in my life…he and his whole family have just been…adorable.
CITC: In Everybody Needs Somebody, Guralnick says, "I don't think there's ever been a greater singer of American vernacular music of any kind than Solomon Burke."
KSB: I have to send a check. (laughs)
CITC: I wanted to ask you about another remark from Everybody Needs Somebody, this one from British author Bill Millar, who says, "he sang soul ballads with a religious intensity," and I thought if you wanted to elaborate on that—
KSB: He's right on top of it. You know, I'm me, it doesn't change. My religious beliefs are very strong. I'm a faith believer, I believe that God can do anything but fail, and I test that on a daily basis by just saying, 'you try it.' I'm not interested in pushing my faith, my religion or my beliefs on anyone—I try to live it so that you can see it. God uses the person or persons, and they're blessed by their belief. And through prayer, and God's precious miracles, these things happen. My journey is to deliver the message, in song, of love and peace and understanding, togetherness and hope, and faith, that there is a tomorrow, and it will be better.
CITC: So many great soul singers, including Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, have started out in the church, singing gospel, and have moved back and forth between secular and gospel music throughout their careers. It seemed as if Gaye could never bring these two halves of his music, and we've seen Al Green struggle with the same issue, taking a hiatus from secular music in the late Seventies to record gospel records (The Lord Will Make A Way, 1980), then returning to it (and to working with producer Willie Mitchell) in 2003 (I Can't Stop). For you, though, it seems like it's been the same path, one straight line.
KSB: Well, it's only one way to go. You know, it's not the idea of straddling the fence, you're either the highway, or the skyway, there's no in between. And if you have a message, you have the message and you don't change that message. And if you believe, you continue to believe, you don't let anyone turn your belief around—you make it work for you, and you make it work for those who need the same guidance, the same help, the same spiritual uplift that you have, you share that, and the more you share shows the more you care, and the more you care, the more God gives back to you. And I'm preaching again, so…
CITC: It's fine by me, it's an honor!
KSB: My manager just came in and said, "No! Don't preach!"
CITC: It's absolutely fine. Is it true that you record most of your songs in one take?
KSB: Well, we try our best to do it within two or three takes. Once you put the song in motion, to be put onto tape or to disc, or that or this, or whatever you may call it, today or tomorrow, it's there for a lifetime, and it's important for you to capture that breath, that feeling, that expression. And if you do it seventy-five times, it's not real anymore…it's just somebody repeating words; you're not even hearing them anymore. But when you just say it, look at it, feel it, read it…you know, when you say to your wife, 'I love you,' and if you say it, if you're just saying it because you feel that, you can't repeat that moment again. That's the secret, to capture those moments that become lyrics and a story right away, as soon as you can, seal 'em up, and then send 'em out there. Send the message out. It's like writing in stone. You know, once you misspell it, keep going, don't correct it, (laughs) you'll mess it up. So it didn't turn out to be a G, keep going. You know? (laughs)
CITC: One of the most interesting songs on Like a Fire is the album closer, "If I Give My Heart to You" (composed by Jimmy Brewster, Jimmie Crane and Al Jacobs, the song was a hit for Doris Day in 1954)—it's a standard and quite different from the rest of the material on the record. Have you considered recording an album of standards?
KSB: Oh, I'd love to do that. That's another part of my dream. "If I Give My Heart to You" is a song that was around when I was a little boy, a song I remember from the radio, but it has a message. After finishing this CD, the new part of the journey, you know the highways of life change every day, and when they change every day they change in many ways, and as we go into this moment in time, of history, where changes are so important, where it's important for us to leave a mark, one that says to the young people, 'you don't have to be crazy, you don't have to be silly, you don't have to be on drugs, you don't have to be an alcoholic, you don't have to be completely out of pocket to understand or try to deliver your art, or to show someone that you're good, that you're talented, just be real.' So here we are, and we've got this whole CD—we've got the message, we've got the story. But then I wanted to say, before you criticize me and say, 'this is that' or 'this song is that' or 'this writer is that,' or 'why did you put this writer here,' or…I just wanted to say, 'come back to reality.' I've been doing this for six decades, since 1954, and I want you to know that every one of these songs that are new to me, each one is all in my heart, and everything old is new. You know, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first…When you take this, and just drop it unexpectedly into the CD…thank God I had the opportunity, and the right, to do that, the freedom to do that. I'm with a record company that allowed me to do that, to say, 'this was me' on this CD, there's one doesn't match, that doesn't work, that doesn't go with the rest of the songs. No, but it goes with the story, because it says, 'Pay attention! Listen to me! If I give my heart to you, if I give it to you, would you handle it with care? Would you treat me kind and tenderly? And in every way, be fair?' That's just a question. I'm not asking for an answer. I just want to send that question out there, because we're failing to give our hearts, now. We're failing to give true love, we're failing to give the real reason, we're failing to realize that once we say we love somebody and want to be with somebody, that should be for a lifetime. We're failing to dedicate ourselves completely. Life is serious, it's not a game. It's a beginning to an ending…and that's why I put "If I Give My Heart to You" in there. Just give me the piano and a bass drum, don't do nothing else. Give me somebody strange on the piano, I don't even want to use the same people, just, just…give me somebody who knows this song! And just let me sing it. I don't want to make it perfect. I want to sound hoarse, I want to sound tired, I want to sound…sincere.
CITC: Which is what you get if you listen to In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning or Nat King Cole's The Very Thought of You—
KSB: Just a little place! Just a little piano bar, or just a living room, you know?
CITC: The kind of songs that permit the voice to break with emotion when it's felt.
KSB: Yeah, you didn't have that cup of coffee, you didn't drink the glass of water…it's something that was coming from within. It's my personal moment in time. Thank you for recognizing it.
CITC: If you ever put together an album of standards, I think it'd be phenomenal.
KSB: I'd love that. I need your voice out there to say that.
CITC: I don't think Rod Stewart should corner that market— I think you should have your shot.
KSB: (laughs) I would love to do that! You know, some of the greatest songs in the world…Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, you know, Doris Day—
CITC: Ella.
KSB: Dinah Washington, Brooke Benton, we could keep going, Al Hibbler...you know, this is why Ray Charles was so great, he could take a song and bring back a memory, bring back a feeling. You know, we don't want to lose that journey; we don't want to lose that road. This is the highway, we want to take it, we want it to be the interstate of love, the interstate of life, the interstate of music. We want you to travel on it.
CITC: Are there any young soul singers with whom you're particularly impressed, whom you might want to work with? John Legend, Alicia Keys…
KSB: I think John Legend is totally, totally in the time, of a memory, that we should not let go. He's something very special to me, musically. I adore what he's doing. Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Norah Jones…well, of course Beyoncé is incredible…If you put all these people together in a choir of songs…I don't know if you could take it! It would just be a night that you could never forget, let them just sing their hearts out. You know, don't orchestrate it; let them sing what they feel. Put a great orchestra behind it, that could be forty pieces or one piece, you know, and just let it flow. This is music, this is soul. This is that fire burning within us, that so many people can't see; allow them to feel it, to touch it, and know that it can get as hot as it needs to be. Or as cold as it should be.
CITC: Soul music seems eternal. After more than fifty years, we still have artists like Alicia Keys and John Legend making records that reach back to the Sixties and Seventies, Al Green is recording new music that evokes his golden era…
KSB: It's magic. Can you imagine putting Aretha Franklin and myself, in a group, in a circle, with these wonderful people, and surrounding them with an orchestra, and then surrounding it with people, and having that moment in time?
CITC: It would be fantastic. Maybe it's time for you to start a new Soul Clan (Solomon Burke, Arthur Conley, Don Covay, Ben E. King, and Joe Tex, circa 1969, Soul Meeting).
KSB: (laughs) I agree! And you know the beauty of it is? And this is something that's very important. The soul within us can be released by our feelings…we are all enriched with the soul of life. Whether you're a singer, a writer, an actor, a musician, a cook, a teacher, a professor, a painter, a carpenter…when you release your inner feelings, and whatever you are, a basketball player, a football player, a nurse, doctor…this is when you release your soul, when you let go and let God, that's soul. When you write this article that you're writing, you're not going to write exactly everything I say, you're going to write what you feel that works for you, that will be released through your soul. That's what makes it soulful. That's why when you say soul music is always around, it is always around, because it's up to us to release it, in whatever we do, however we do it, that soulful thing within us. Right now we're going through a phase of life where our soul and mind and heart and spirit are being challenged, politically, financially, physically, mentally and spiritually. God bless…God bless this country, God bless each man, woman, boy and girl, but most of all - give your soul a chance.
CITC: I'd like to ask you how you feel about the nomination of an African American as the Democratic candidate for President, almost fifty years after you toured the Jim Crow South by bus. It's been an amazing four decades.
KSB: It's been part of the journey. We go all the way back to the Mayflower, we come all the way up to now, and you realize what goes around in life comes around. And when you create a moment in time, that moment exists…we're living in a time of history, when we're realizing, this is what we've created, this is what we've worked for, this is what we said we would do, this is what we said we would change. No only do we have a black American running for President, we also have the greatest challenge in the world of a female running for President. This should show every man, every woman, every boy and every girl that the opportunity of life is wide open. Use it. Take it. The whole thing should be now that we should push education so strongly to our young people, to let them know the world is in their hands. It is their responsibility. They can't lose it by misusing it. They can't lose it by losing their lives to drugs and confusion and alcohol, and to being wild and crazy, but learn to be who you are, and take advantage of it. Because tomorrow, it may be their opportunity, to be President, to lead a new world.
CITC: Unlike a great many artists, you've never really disappeared into the darkness, and by this I mean a period of drug abuse and personal…trials, if you will. Am I right to assume it's because of your deep faith?
KSB: Well, my faith is very strong, it's from my upbringing. I was raised by my grandmother, who was a very religious woman and who taught me to believe in God, and not in unnatural things, to survive. She taught me to know that through it all, God would take care of me, to have that faith and trust, to be able to step out on nothing, believing that something's there. And this is what a lot of us fear, that we can't do it, that we don't have enough strength to handle it, that we don't have enough faith to deal with it. So they need the drugs, so they need the booze…you know, this is a letdown, because it's artificial. All of my twenty-one children, I've had problems, I've had some children with problems, and I've fought it and I've fought them back. And I keep fighting and I let them know it. I don't condone it. And I'm gonna condemn it and I'm gonna let them know if you deal with it in that way, Dad's not going to help you. I'm going to pray for you, and I'm going to pray to God that you turn your life around fast, and I'm going to keep pushing, and pushing, and telling you you're wrong. And that's what we have to do, we have to let our children know, and our children's children know, that life, this life, is to be pure and positive. You know, you can't survive on drugs and pills and booze, that's not the answer. There's too many other great things to do. There's too many other wonderful things to enjoy. I wish I had time to go into it, but, it's an amazing feat when I can say to you, 'yes, I'm drug-free, my only rehab is trying to eat that next biscuit (laughs), you know, trying not to make that special ribs…It's just amazing how important it is for us to try to fight against drugs, and against alcohol, and against all the confusion we're going through. And you know, one step at a time, but we have to take giant steps with it. To protect our children, to protect our children's children, and to protect our loved ones. Because it's all around you, I mean, it's demonistic—it's the spirit of the devil that's tempting you to destroy yourself, to destroy others. This war against drugs has to continue, the war against alcoholism has to continue, the war against poverty has to continue. These things have to change; we have to make that change. All of us.
CITC: Given the way the current administration has done things, I have to say it'd be great if the war on poverty could actually start.
KSB: Right (laughs). You're right. And we have such an opportunity now, and I'm hoping that what we've seen in the past six months, these campaigns, will change our hearts and minds to know that, that we're not gonna be fooled, we're gonna make good choices, we're gonna make wise decisions, and we're gonna help our government, and one another, to achieve these goals. Let's not just watch houses being built on television in an hour, let's build some houses, let's build some dams, let's correct some problems here in America. Come on, we can feed the hungry! We can house those that need homes; we can open up doors…why are we in the financial state that we're in? Why are we having the problems with oil and gasoline and prices? What's the problem? Somebody's profiting from this, and it's not the good thing—we need to turn it around now. It's up to us. It's up to us—I don't want to see your children suffer. You don't want to see them go through a depression. We don't want to stand in lines again to get gasoline. Let's do other things, let's do something greater.
CITC: I can't imagine what kind of world our children are going to inherit.
KSB: That's why we have to stand up and fight for it. And we have to fight for the right to be real, and make ourselves real, and let other people know that we're real. And this is why a simple little thing like a CD is sending a message to you: we don't want it, we don't need it, we can do without it. You know, a minute to rest, and a second to pray, this is the message I'm sending out. If you listen, I'm talking about those who have been lost, some of those we'll never get back again, the memory's gone, we have to move on to greater things, we have to pick it up and travel. All of this is understanding. Do you really understand? Do you really comprende what I'm saying? (laughs) Are you with me? You know, so many times in concert I might stop and say, 'are you with me?' It's just to say, 'are you there? Can I just get a few people to focus in?' Or what I'm trying to say is that I love you, and that love means something today. It's stronger than hate. And if we can conquer each other, with the word love, and understanding, we can conquer all the demonistic spirits that try to take us down and turn us around, that try to destroy our children and our children's children, and our loved ones…Message of today, and the offer will be raised in ten minutes. (laughs) Thank you. Thank you for listening, and thank you for being so patient.
CITC: Oh, absolutely. I love it. I absolutely love it. Okay, my final question: What's Heaven? What's waiting for us? What's coming?
KSB: Heaven is what we make it, what we receive by our belief. It is up to us to get out of Hell; to turn our lives around, to enjoy the sweetness of life. You know, to hang up this phone when you get finished with me, and turn around and pick up that phone and call the one you love and say, 'I want to tell you, I don't care what today brings, I want you to know, I love you, and I love you because I love you. Because you're real. And I want you to know that my love for you is real.' That will make a change, that will make a difference, not taking today for granted, not taking tonight as a positive situation, but every moment in time should be a moment of tomorrow. Another day promised. It's up to us to make it work. It's up to us to make it right. It's up to us to say yes. That's the fire, burning in my soul. (laughs)
CITC: Thank you so much.
KSB: Don't give up on me, my friend.
CITC: Not possible! Not possible! You're gonna be one of the last guys standing!
KSB: I hope so! (laughs) Or sitting!
CITC: I have to say, seeing what you're doing in your sixties, maybe making some of the best music of your career—it gives me hope!
KSB: Well, thank you, and God bless you. We've got a long way to go and don't you dare give up!
CITC: Never.
KSB: I love you. God bless you, thank you again much for the opportunity.
CITC: We wish you the best of luck with your new album and on tour this summer. We will be cheering you on.
KSB: Keep me in your prayers.
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