BROWN AND MARLEY ON PRESIDENT'S DAY
Some background on the current visual representations of musical icons
I first met Alan Leeds when he was road manager for Prince in the early ‘80s. He hooked me up with tickets to the Purple One’s gigs and gave me some insight into the mysterious mind of his boss. It was only later that I found out that he’d spend many years in the employ of an event more formidable music maker — James Brown. In fact Leeds’ respect for the Godfather was so immense, he’d collected a copy of every single Brown ever released! I’ve seen the vinyl in his Minneapolis basement and its quite a sight.
I was fortunate to collaborate with Alan on ‘The James Brown Reader: Fifty Years of Writing About the Godfather of Soul, which consist of articles written about Brown that date back to his earliest performances right through celebrations of his legacy after his death in December 2006. But Alan’s greatest contribution is his 2017 book, ‘There Was a Time,’ which places Brown in the context of the black touring world he once dominated. Alan is, not suprisingly, part of the production team of ‘James Brown: Say It Loud,’ the four part documentary series that starts airing tonight on A&E. Below is a link to the audio book of ‘There Was A Time,’ which is a good introduction to the world that Brown created with his will power and musical innovations.
https://www.everand.com/audiobook/638023961/There-Was-a-Time-James-Brown-The-Chitlin-Circuit-and-Me
Young Alan Leeds in his days working with James Brown.
In 1980 I was a college student, who was interning at both the New York Amsterdam News and Billboard magazine, and contributing to black fanzines. It’s because of these activities that Lister Lewan-Lowe, a staffer at Island Records, got me an interview with Bob Marley, who was in NYC opening a series of concerts with the Commodores. Marley was already a huge star, but he took this gig because it was being promoted by WBLS program director Frankie Crocker and he was being guarenteed airplay for his single “Could You Be Loved.”
Marley’s goal was to connect with African-American listeners. While he’d been celebrated in the rock press and had a global audience, his music (and rastafarian beliefs) had not been embraced by black folks here. Growing up in Brooklyn I was very aware of the tension between the wave of arriving Caribbean immigrants and the existing black population with Southern roots. This concert, and my being granted an audience, were part of a concerted effort to bridge that cultural gap.
Unfortunately my youth worked against me. I wasn’t able to place the story anywhere, since many publications had already covered Marley and I wasn’t really established as a journalist. The interview sat in my files for many decades (you can see my post-college address in Queens in the upper left corner.) I sold a bit of it to Ebony magazine a few years back, but iy wasn’t until I published ‘The Nelson George Mixtape’ book that the full piece has seen print.
I have not yet seen the Marley bio pix, ‘One Love,’ but I understand it deals with events that occured just before and after I spoke with him at NY’s Essex House in fall 1980. While the thrust of the interview is Marley’s desire to build a black following in the United States, he has offers strong opinions on thoughts of songwriting, the record industry, his religioun, black idenity, and U.S. foreign policy. The trippy part is that Marley played guitar throughout the interview as he sat in a comfy sofa chair and mulled over my questions. And, no, I don’t have the audio tape. It is long gone.
Bob Marley died of skin cancer in May 1981.
If you wish to read the full transcript of the Marley interview, a paperback of the Mixtape book can be purchased via www.pacificpacific.pub.