Retro
“Don’t try to make it sound like 1966.”
Those were the words Eddie Floyd spoke to me as we were finally getting started on the adventure that would become Eddie Loves You So on Stax Records. To make sure I understood, he added, “Because you can’t. It was a time and place.” When word got out that Ducky Carlisle and I had produced Eddie’s return to Stax, plenty of people wanted to hear it. One was a younger neo-soul singer from Boston. (An aside, I’m not fond of that term. You either sing soul music or you don’t.) Because it sounded like a record that was made in 2007, this youngster was quite dismissive of what we had accomplished. He barely listened to more than thirty seconds, maybe a minute of each song before skipping ahead. The whole encounter was over before it even began, and I was being shown the door.
(Disclaimer: There was a time when I only wore vintage clothes onstage and in photos. That was a time and a place, too.)
I have written about how enamored I am with the sound, technique, science behind the 1930’s and 1940’s big band recordings but I’m making records now. Retro might be a neat exercise but it almost feels like writing a history thesis rather than creating a new recording relevant to today. We all studied our heroes, from George Martin to B.B. King. I still do. I have no idea how many hours I spent sitting at a turntable going back over one passage to learn it exactly. How did he do that? Why did he do that? Where on the neck was it played? And so forth. That’s the real education – from which one is supposed to go out and create, not mimic. When I started thinking about records in terms of production, I took the same approach. My friend Dave Westner and I discuss all this a lot. Dave is a studio owner, engineer, and producer extraordinaire. We’ve got some records together coming into the world sooner than later
Dave and I have been discussing recording, looking with an eye and idea to 80 years ago but with it firmly entrenched in the sound of today – no crazy stereo mixes that smack of 1968. But, the approach, the placement, the way the players react to each other is what we’re after. Immediacy. Depth. Space. This is all very akin to the way great bluegrass bands all play around one mic. We’ve already started doing a few non-conventional things with mics on one record. Frankly, everything should be somewhat non-conventional when you walk into a recording situation. Sure parameters, past experience, common sense should be there but each recording should be allowed to be its own creative statement. I think collaboration and imagination are vitally important parts of this creativity.
People seem to have great nostalgia for what they remember, rather than what actually was. Yes, the 1950s were an era of great prosperity but they were also an era of great paranoia with McCarthyism, and continued discrimination with segregated water fountains, bathrooms, motels – really an endless list. Why anyone would want to return to this is beyond me but I submit it still boils down to racism, hate, distrust of anything ‘foreign’ or unknown. To me, this is the way small minds think. Right now, Washington, D.C. is filled with small minds that unfortunately hold power. Like fools, the GOP has given up their co-equal standing as Congress to the pathetically small man that wants to be a king. We may have fought a Civil War; had marches down South; there were Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Dr. King, and so many more; enshrined Civil Rights; moved forward with marriage for all; and elected a Black president but these horrible men want to erase all that and send us back. That is one vintage or retro jacket that I refuse to wear. We all should – and be loud about it. Especially creative people, for we have always seen through the ridiculousness of racism in our work and world.
Back to Eddie, a few years after Eddie Loves You So came out, I spent three days with Steve Cropper. Steve and Eddie collaborated on some of the most iconic soul and r&b tunes ever written. It was a gas to hang with one of my idols for three days in Norway. Of all the time we spent together, this is the one thing I took away from it that rings to this day. Steve told me, “Eddie’s really proud of that record.” What record producer could ever hope for more?
Catch me on the radio dial every Saturday afternoon 4-5pm EST with Crooked Road Songs on WICN 90.5fm locally in Central Massachusetts, and globally at wicn.org. My playlist from Saturday, July 5, 2025:
Frank Stokes “Downtown Blues”
Billy Bragg & Wilco “California Stars”
Dave Alvin “Fourth of July”
Lucinda Williams “Joy”
Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band “Yours Forever Blue”
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings “This Land is Your Land”
The Staple Singers “This Land is Your Land”
Sam Cooke “Blowin’ in the Wind”
Bobby Womack “A Change is Gonna Come”
Sly and the Family Stone “Stand!”
Aretha Franklin “Respect”
Count Basie Orchestra “Splanky”
Big Joe Turner “I Want a Little Girl”
Dinah Washington “Cold, Cold Heart”
Nina Simone “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl”
King Curtis “Soul Twist”