At the same time Hip-Hop was showing itself, the infusion of electric guitar into jazz continued. Many believe the “Fusion” movement started when Miles Davis had John McLaughlin play guitar on Bitches Brew. At the time (1980), Ray Gomez was among a number of guitarists who were stretching the boundaries of what was considered jazz. Swing, B-Bop, and the traditional was giving way to what was being called “Fusion.” Not Fusion Jazz, as Lenny White is quick to say. It is A Fusion of Rock and Jazz. Or Electric Jazz. Lenny also says “If it hadn’t been for the electric guitar, there would be no music called “FUSION.” Stanley Clarke Live 1976-1977 w/Ray Gomez Yellowjackets w/ Robben Ford Jimmy Haslip
“Stealing” In the Name of The Lord Bernard Fowler Tack>>Head at the Highline Ballroom (NYC).
2009 — Bernard put the band together, calling them Bad Dog, and played shows in Austria and Germany in the Fall and Winter of 2008. The next year Bernard released “New York Time” (song/video), and did a one off show at the Highline Ballroom in New York City, Bernard’s hometown. 2010 A Bass Odyssey Doug WimbishCinemaSonics 2010 —
Bernard and longtime friend, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, played an a series of shows in New York, ending at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan, on Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richard’s 70th birthday. To celebrate the day was the reason Bernard put the show together, and the result pleased both the crowd and Keith who was in the audience that night.
On the sidewalk in Times Square, a body-painted, “American” model counts the money she earned standing in the thick of the Square, paid to stand for her picture to be taken with, by, and for any willing tourist passing by.
On the sidewalk outside The Roxy, a downtown NYC institution (roller rink by day, B-Boy dance club by night), and where the climactic scene of the big-budget, Hollywood movie, Beat Street, was filmed. The finale featured Bernard, as the Original B-Boy Preacher, leading a raucous congregation in what seemed like a sort of Hip-Hop religious service.
When I was a kid,I listened to the radio, WRVR, Frankie Crocker, Symphony Sid, Wolfman Jack — All of that. When I got tired of listening to one thing, I’d turn the dial, and listen to what was next.
When he entered ___________ High School, Bernard first played the trombone, and it was because he had any musical ability at all, that a local Salsa band, without their bassist and being called to the _________ community center stage, asked if he’d sit in on standup bass. Not knowing any better, and having a what-do-I-have-to-lose? attitude, Bernard said yes, and played his first show in front of an audience. He didn’t get paid, but he was asked to join the band. >>>
When asked about his first paid gig, Bernard pauses briefly, laughs a little mischievous laugh, and says with a smile.
“It was a gig up on 123rd Street, at the Golden Terrace Ballroom. I made 14 dollars, and you know what I did with it? I had bacon and eggs for breakfast …
Until then, Bernard had been listening to the abundance of New York radio, developing an ear and musical vocabulary of his own. His new bandmates were older though, and they were listening to music that might have been less popular, but more thoughtful, interesting, and inspirational to a young player, like Bernard.
I learned a lot from those guys,” Bernard says. “They introduced me to what was new, and I remember being turned on to Return to Forever, Maynard Ferguson, and everything in between. I appreciated it all, but in the end, I was always attracted to Tony Bennett and Jackie Wilson, and, from the beginning, all I ever wanted to do was sing.”
I’m just a singer in THE Rock N Roll band.> Bernard Fowler
“Sympathy For The Devil” 2021 — Inside Out
((( chronology )))
“Midnight In Harlem” Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Crossroads Festival 2010 — ((( in the ghetto)))
1973 — 1974 — 1975 —Bernard was still in high school when he made his first recording with The Total Eclipse, a band he was asked to join at a weekend “battle of the bands” concert. He sang on A Great Combination, the band’s one and only record, released in 1975, a time when Bernard’s Summer In The City was as much about Street Basketball and hanging out with friends, as much as it was about music. 1976 — 1977 —
Choosing to take a break from Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger went out looking for a band to back his “solo” career. In his search, he discovered a number of Young Americans, who were prepared to take him for a most exciting musical ride.
1985 — After touring Australia and Japan with Mick Jagger in his first band other than the Rolling Stones, Bernard sang on Jagger‘s first solo album, She’s the Boss.
This moment was the first beginning of a 35-year musical and personal relationship with Mick, and expanded to contributing to all the other Rolling Stones’ solo projects (Charlie Watts, Keith Richards and Ron Wood) and the other Young Americans Mick had chosen to play on his solo records (Doug Wimbish, Joe Satriani,fter Fowler had already performed as a session musician with individual members of the Rolling Stones on their solo projects, he was chosen to join the Stones on their Steel Wheels World Tour (1989). Mick Jagger spoke about his choice of Fowler to sing backing vocals saying that Fowler impressed him because he had a wide vocal range, many musical influences, and stamina.
He has remained as a regular backup singer on tours with the Stones since then. Fowler was a feature vocalist on three of Watts’ jazz solo albums. The other members of the Rolling Stones have utilized his vocal talents on their solo projects, including Richards’ Main Offender and Wood’s solo projects.
1989 — Tack>>Head On-U Sound Rolling With The Stones 1989 —Steel Wheels (Rolling Stones) 1989 —Friendly as a Hand Grenade (Tack>>Head) Kick Ass Rock N Roll @ The Orange Bowl (Little Havana) Miami, Florida Nov.16, 1989 — Parked on the street in Little Havana. Two second row tickets for the Rolling Stones in the Orange Bowl, where the Miami Dolphins and the University of Miami Hurricanes play. Meet at the inflated “Bud” can. Passed out under the Visa banner. $300 Leather Jackets, rather than T-Shirts. Coffee-table, hard-cover, photography books, rather than a paper poster or ad-filled program. Entering the stadium, and looking down toward the mammoth stage in the opposite end zone, we saw Living Colour in the middle of “Cult of Personality,” the last tune in their set. Chuck Leavell, wish it was Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Yes, but it was Chuck taking a solo in …
“That’s Alice to You.” — Alicia, woman at Enriqueta’s coffee window, 36th Street and 2nd Avenue, (Little Haiti / Design District) Miami, Florida.
1999 — Prince & The Color Purple It’s His Party, and He’ll Jam if He Wants to. 2000 — Y2K / Living Colour @ CBGB 2001 — 9-11 / Living Colour Reunion (cont’d) 2002 — In The Post Apocalyptic Area 2003 — Living Colour CollideOscope
“We’re An American Band” Asylum Street Rehearsals @ Sully’s Pub & Tiki Bar (Hartford, Connecticut) 2004 — Tack>>Head Reunion Back In The U.S.A. Hartford, Connecticut @ Sully’s Pub & Tiki Bar Bernard Fowler (vocals) Doug Wimbish (bass guitar) Skip McDonald (guitar) Keith Leblanc (drums)
Adrian Sherwood (mixing desk) ALSO: London @ New York City @ The Ritz (w/ Melle Mel) Chicago @ The Abbey San Francisco @
Bernard Fowler had been a Rolling Stone since the “Steel Wheels” tour in 1989, and has been around the world many times, routinely playing stadiums and arenas in front crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The difference in 2016, as he stood on another large stage, was the 500,000 Cuban Rolling Stones fans had never seen a Rock N Roll show of such magnitude in the heart of Communist Havana, Cuba.
2023 — Still Alive and Well — Tack>>Head, all taking time from their individual projects (Living Colour, Rolling Stones, etc.) met in London and with Adrian Sherwood. Adrian, celebrating 40 years of his ON-U Sound record label, did much with his American brothers.
2016 — For the Love of Bowie Celebrating David Bowie World Tour Bernard Fowler (vocals)
Corey Glover (vocals) Mike Garson (piano)
— After Show, bruised and battered, signing autographs with taped fingers, like you’d see in a football lockerroom.
Earl Slick (guitar) — “Hi. I’m Slick, and God do I feel old,” Earl Slick said as he emerged from back of the tour bus he had been living in for the past month and a half. That’s more of a hardship, when you’re 67 years old, rather than 27, when making a living as a musician was still new. Bernard emerging after, having no knowledge of the conversation Slick and I have already had, says hello in the exact same way. First telling me how tired he was. And soon after, I find Corey Glover, bending over to grab his dirty laundry out of the bus’ cargo hold. He was looking for the washer and dryer he was told was somewhere inside the venue, a renovated (1980s) church, old by Ponte Vedra (gated golf community) standards.
“The glamorous life of a Rock N Roll star.”
Bring your kids to work day — Daughter and boyfriend (backup singer and drummer) Jimi Hendrix percussionist at Woodstock; Slick’s 9-year-old son in from Gainesville, where he lives with mom, listening, learning Teaching to iron backstage (Life On The Road).
Back in the U.S.A. Tack>>Head Bernard Fowler (vocals) Skip McDonald (guitar/vocals) Doug Wimbish (bass guitar) Keith LeBlanc (drums) Adrian Sherwood (mixing desk) Asylum Street Rehearsals @ Sully’s Pub & Tiki Bar (Hartford, Connecticut)
— SweetWater Sudios (London)
2023 — Still Alive and Well — Tack>>Head, all taking time from their individual projects (Living Colour, Rolling Stones, etc.) met in London and with Adrian Sherwood. Adrian, celebrating 40 years of his ON-U Sound record label, did much with his American brothers.
2004 — Tack>>Head BACK IN THE U.S.A. Bernard Fowler (vocals) Doug Wimbish (bass guitar) Skip McDonald (guitar) Keith Leblanc (drums) Adrian Sherwood (mix) Asylum Street Rehearsals @ Sully’s Pub & Tiki Bar (Hartford, Connecticut)
2009 — Tack>>Head NEW YORK TIME Friends With Privileges @ The Highline Ballroom (NYC) Keith Fluitt Argentina Guitar 2010 — I Feel Like Playing (Ronnie Wood) 2012 — Light the Fuse (Rolling Stones) Google Music download 2012 — GRRR! (Rolling Stones) compilation album 2013 — Hyde Park Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — From the Vault – Live at the Tokyo Dome (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Sticky Fingers Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Hyde Park Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Crosseyed Heart (Keith Richards) 2016 — Totally Stripped (Rolling Stones) 2016 — Havana Moon (Rolling Stones) 2017 — Sticky Fingers – Live At The Fonda Theatre 2015 (Rolling Stones) 2018 — San Jose ’99 (Rolling Stones) 2018 — Voodoo Lounge Uncut (Rolling Stones) 2019 — Bridges to Bremen (Rolling Stones) 2019 — HONK (Rolling Stones) compilation album incl. live CD (Lim. ed.) 2019 — Bridges to Buenos Aires (Rolling Stones) 2020 — Steel Wheels Live (Rolling Stones) 2021 — A Bigger Bang Live (10″ Vinyl, 2 track, RSD 2021) 2021 — A Bigger Bang: Live on Copacabana Beach (Rolling Stones)
SOLO RECORDINGS 2006 — Friends With Privileges 2015 — The Bura 2019 — Inside Out and the beat goes on.
Bernard Fowler How Far The Stone Has Rolled.
As a young boy, Bernard sang along with his mom, _____, to all her favorite records: Mahalia Jackson, Jackie Wilson, and anything Motown. Bernard was living in his family’s small apartment, standing in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge … the bridge that crossed the East River, into Manhattan, where Bernard’s journey began.
He couldn’t have imagined a day when he would stand on a stage in the center of Havana, Cuba, in front of 500,000 screaming Cubans … thinking to himself, “We’re not in Queesbridge anymore.
“Sympathy For The Devil” Bernard Fowler Inside Out 2021 — ((( spoken word)))
“Fame” For The Love of David Bowie Fame — Celebrating David Bowie (2017) Ponte Vedra, Florida Bernard Fowler(vocals) Mike Garson (piano / musical director) Earl Slick (guitar)
The Right to Cover The Stones. 1990 — Bernard Fowler w/The Rolling Stones 1991 — Flashpoint (Rolling Stones) 1992 — Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings (Charlie Watts) 1992 — Slide on This (Ronnie Wood) 1992 — Main Offender (Keith Richards) 1993 — Wandering Spirit (Mick Jagger) 1993 — Warm and Tender (Charlie Watts) 1993 — Slide on Live: Plugged in and Standing (Ronnie Wood) 1993 — Jump Back (Rolling Stones) 1994 — Voodoo Lounge (Rolling Stones) 1995 — Stripped (Rolling Stones) 1996 — Long Ago and Far Away (Charlie Watts) 1997 — Bridges to Babylon (Rolling Stones) 1998 — No Security (Rolling Stones) 2000 — Live and Eclectic (Ronnie Wood) 2002 — Forty Licks (Rolling Stones) 2004 — Live Licks (Rolling Stones) 2005 — A Bigger Bang (Rolling Stones) 2005 — Rarities 1971–2003 (Rolling Stones) 2008 — Shine a Light (Rolling Stones) 2010 — I Feel Like Playing (Ronnie Wood) 2012 — Light the Fuse (Rolling Stones) Google Music download 2012 — GRRR! (Rolling Stones) compilation album 2013 — Hyde Park Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — From the Vault – Live at the Tokyo Dome (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Sticky Fingers Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Hyde Park Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Crosseyed Heart (Keith Richards) 2016 — Totally Stripped (Rolling Stones) 2016 — Havana Moon (Rolling Stones)
Tackhead was created when bassist Doug Wimbish, guitarist Skip McDonald, and drummer Keith Leblanc (the Sugar Hill Records house band and one of the most-recorded electrofunk rhythm sections) met English dub master and On-U sound boss Adrian Sherwood in 1984. First under the moniker Fats Comet and then Tackhead, they recorded experimental 12″ singles using a sampler as an instrument, mixing dub, funk, and industrial music. In 1989, vocalist Bernard Fowler joined the band, taking it into a less underground direction.
Tackhead was also a backing band for Mark Stewart and Gary Clail.
The road to (Rock N Roll) Hell is paved with covers of songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. You can probably think of some really inexplicable ones without belaboring the point, like “Wild Horses” by Susan Boyle, or “Jumping Jack Flash” by Peter Frampton, or “Gimme Shelter” by the Sisters of Mercy. In each of these cases, and in the great majority of Stones covers, the essential ingredients of a Stones song are stripped away—for example, that Keith Richards guitar sound, or the snap of Charlie Watts’s snare, or Mick Jagger’s bluesy drawl — and what remains behind is so estranged from its setting as to have none of the qualities that made the song attractive in the first place. This would seem to suggest that despite the seductive idea of attempting to interpret the Stones, it is a job better left to the Rolling Stones themselves. Nevertheless, there remains the tantalizing possibility that a really great interpretation of the Stones lies in wait for us, if only the singer or performer in question were willing to go far enough. It’s into this space that Bernard Fowler projects himself on his recent collection of Jagger/Richards compositions, Inside Out, which was released this spring on Rhyme & Reason.
Fowler, whose incredibly varied career is discussed below, is among the backup singers for the Stones when they tour, and he has served in this capacity (and as occasional percussionist) for thirty years, and so it is a foregone conclusion that he now knows the material inside and out, as the title suggests. But part of what makes Fowler’s collection not only the best album of Stones covers that I know of, as well as one of the most interesting and compelling releases of 2019, is that Fowler uses his keen knowledge of Jagger/Richards compositions to go further afield. The songs are bent far out of their compositional form, their chords and melodies mostly set aside, and what remains is the sense of percussion as a starting point. This turns out to be an incredibly canny and insightful approach. Not only does Fowler make the songs more flexible and swinging than they often are on the Stones albums, he finds a deep and ancient point of origin for songs initially suffused with the blues, which is to say he makes of the Stones songs African-American music. There is funk on Fowler’s record, and soul, and something akin to free jazz and spoken word, and there is very little traditional rock and roll. Moreover, what unites the recording, makes it consistent and aesthetically coherent, is Fowler’s brilliant, insightful readings of the lyrics, which, when performed as though they were poetry, behave like poetry. No one, having listened to the whole Undercover album, released during a period of minimal contact between Mick and Keith, can be accused of thinking its lyrics were among Jagger’s very best, not on the basis of a recording beset by 1980s recording techniques. And yet when performed by Fowler, with his lovely, hortatory voice, some of Jagger’s most forgotten lyrics turn out to be urgent dispatches on drugs, political instability, grief, and mortality.
Inside Out, in truth, is one of the very best Rolling Stones releases in recent years and it catapults Fowler out of his sturdy, reliable, but perhaps sometimes confining home in the backline at the Stones gigs. He becomes, on this recording, an interpreter of great inventiveness, iconoclasm, and compassion, as well as a great and creative thinker about music, and about the politics of appropriation and re-appropriation. I have listened to his percussion-and-voice “bonus” version of “Dancing with Mr. D” as much as a I have listened to any song in the last three or four months, and it never gets old. It allows us to feel exactly the implications of the Stones track, in a way the Stones themselves never quite managed, with a full and unvarnished rehearsal of the ominous ache of the lyrics.
Photographs of Bernard Fowler by Casey Mitchell.
We’re Playing Basketball Kurtis Blow (1984) ((( audio)))
2004 — Tack>>Head BACK IN THE U.S.A. Bernard Fowler (vocals) Doug Wimbish (bass guitar) Skip McDonald (guitar) Keith Leblanc (drums) Adrian Sherwood (mix) Asylum Street Rehearsals @ Sully’s Pub & Tiki Bar (Hartford, Connecticut)
2009 — Tack>>Head NEW YORK TIME Friends With Privileges @ The Highline Ballroom (NYC) Keith Fluitt Argentina Guitar? 2010 — I Feel Like Playing (Ronnie Wood) 2010 — All’s Well That Ends Well (Steve Lukather) 2010 — Bought for a Dollar, Sold for a Dime (Little Axe) 2012 — Light the Fuse (Rolling Stones) 2012 — GRRR! (Rolling Stones) compilation album 2013 — Ronin (Tao Of Sound) 2013 — Hyde Park Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — From the Vault – Live at the Tokyo Dome (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Sticky Fingers Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Hyde Park Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Crosseyed Heart (Keith Richards) 2015 — The Bura 2016 — Totally Stripped (Rolling Stones) 2016 — Havana Moon (Rolling Stones)
Celebrating David Bowie World Tour
2016 — For the Love of Bowie Celebrating David Bowie World Tour Bernard Fowler w/ Mike Garson (piano) — Fingers taped, like an athlete. Earl Slick (guitar) — “Hi, I’m Slick,” emerging from back of the bus bunk saying exactly what Bernard had. “I’m tired, and way too old for this shit.” Corey Glover (vocals) — Bending down to grab his laundry out of the tour bus cargo hold, Corey Glover says jokingly, “The glamorous life of a Rock N Roll star,” before walking to the Ponte Vedra Community Center’s laundry with a fist full of quarters.
Bring your kids to work day — Daughter and boyfriend backup singer and drummer) Jimi Hendrix Woodstock percussionist Slick’s 9-year-old son in from Gainesville wheere he lives with mom. Teaching to iron backstage (Life On The Road).
Sympathy For The Devil
2019 — Bernard Fowler Inside Out ((( LISTEN )))
2010 — I Feel Like Playing (Ronnie Wood) 2012 — Light the Fuse (Rolling Stones) Music download 2012 — GRRR! (Rolling Stones) compilation album 2013 — Hyde Park Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — From the Vault – Live at the Tokyo Dome (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Sticky Fingers Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Hyde Park Live (Rolling Stones) 2015 — Crosseyed Heart (Keith Richards) 2016 — Totally Stripped (Rolling Stones) 2016 — Havana Moon (Rolling Stones) 2017 — Sticky Fingers – Live At The Fonda Theatre 2015 (Rolling Stones) 2018 — San Jose ’99 (Rolling Stones) 2018 — Voodoo Lounge Uncut (Rolling Stones) 2019 — Bridges to Bremen (Rolling Stones) 2019 — HONK (Rolling Stones) compilation album incl. live CD (Lim. ed.) 2019 — Bridges to Buenos Aires (Rolling Stones) 2020 — Steel Wheels Live (Rolling Stones) 2021 — A Bigger Bang Live (10″ Vinyl, 2 track, RSD 2021) 2021 — A Bigger Bang: Live on Copacabana Beach (Rolling Stones)
Oblighetto
1991 — A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory ((( LISTEN )))
— Alan Lomax
Muddy Waters w/ Rolling Stones @ The Checkerboard Lounge (Chicago) November 22, 1981 — In the middle of their American Tour, The Rolling Stones arrived three days early and did a three-night stand at Chicago’s Rosemont Horizon Hotel, before the scheduled show that weekend.
— Checkerboard Lounge
Long influenced by the Chicago blues, the band paid a visit to Buddy Guy’s club the Checkerboard Lounge to see the legendary bluesman perform. It didn’t take long before Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Ian Stewart were joining in on stage and later Buddy Guy and Lefty Dizz also played their part.
It was a unique occasion that was fortunately captured on camera. Now, restored from the original footage and with sound mixed and mastered by Bob Clearmountain, this amazing blues night is being made available in an official release for the first time.
—30—
JAZZIZ — (Chicago Blues Club photographs c. 1980, including Lefty Dizz)
Bernard Fowler is most widely known by millions of people around the world as the longtime collaborator and backing vocalist for the Rolling Stones, a position he has proudly held for 31 years and counting. His dynamic vocals have appeared on hundreds of albums for artists as diverse as Herbie Hancock, Yoko Ono, Alice Cooper, Bootsy Collins, and many more.
Fowler’s newest solo endeavor, Inside Out (released April 19 on Rhyme & Reason Records), is a brilliant re-interpretation of songs from the Rolling Stones catalogue, recasting them in a mode often reminiscent of the pre-hip-hop work of the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron. In the process, Fowler forges a new, very personal identity for songs he’s performed for decades alongside the “the world’s greatest rock n’ roll band.” The first single from Inside Out is a conga-driven re-make of “Sympathy for the Devil,” but generally the album dives into Rolling Stones deep cuts. Darryl Jones, Steve Jordan, Ray Parker Jr. and many other luminaries join in for some remarkable grooves.
It was an impromptu jam session on the congas during a Stones sound check that set the album in motion. Stones front man Mick Jagger, impressed by the combination of Bernard’s beatnik inflection of the lyrics and his funkified percussion, encouraged him to cut a record, saying, “Bernard, I’ve heard Rolling Stones songs played in many different ways but I’ve never heard it like this before.”
It turned out to be a bit of an adventure. As Fowler says in the liner notes to Inside Out:
“I had an amazing time rediscovering these songs. Even though making this record wasn’t easy, I’d gladly do it all over again, even if I knew there were bumps in the road ahead. Later, I played a taste for Keith, and he looked at me and said, ‘Damn, Fowler, you went deep…’
Fowler says Inside Out is for “all the Rolling Stones fans out there; this will help you hear songs you know in a new light. They may take on a new meaning. This album is dedicated to you.”
—30—
Say it again …
Singer Bernard Fowler insists on operating outside of his comfort zone. Having worked with a long and diverse list of artists ranging from AC/DC to Duran Duran, Motorhead to Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Lee Lewis to the late Michael Hutchence, Fowler has written or performed songs spanning Rock, Pop, Blues, R & B, Jazz and Hip Hop.
Now, on his new solo album ‘Inside Out’, Fowler takes material from his most recognizable gig – his 30 year tenure as background singer for The Rolling Stones – and challenges himself once again. Choosing from over a half a century of Stones compositions, Fowler selected nine songs, provided them with sparse and nuanced arrangements, and delivered them through spoken word in his commanding and charismatic voice.
In this conversation Fowler discusses Inside Out, the Ghostbusting guitarist who contributed greatly to the album’s sound, whether or not the Stones are black guys in disguise, why it seems that they’ve been following him around his entire life, and if singing a great background vocal feels as good as it sounds.
Robert Ferraro: Bernard, you’re known for having a wide array of musical ideas at any given moment, but even this one was a bit of a surprise. How did you arrive on doing this type of take on the Stones?
Bernard Fowler: Even before I finished my last record, ‘The Bura’, I started thinking about what I was going to do next. I had a few ideas, but over time this was the one that kept on popping up. I’m always on the road doing one thing or another, but while I was out there working, this thing just kept coming to mind. While I was on the road with the Stones one night the band heard me messing around with the idea and they seemed to get a kick out of it. I told Mick (Jagger), ”When the tour is over I’m going to (record) this.” and he said “You should, because I’ve never heard anything like this.” He said he’d heard Stones songs covered a lot of different ways, but never like that.
Robert: Because you’re covering a band that you’ve been working with since the 1980’s, some people might look at this as relatively easy lifting for you. I would think that your involvement with them would probably make this harder not easier.
Bernard: That’s for damn sure. [laughs]
Robert: Is that why all the songs you’ve chosen for this record precede your tenure in the band?
Bernard: Honestly, It was just material that I found that worked. Early on in choosing I realized that a lot of the popular songs just weren’t going to work. People expect to hear them a certain way. So when looking at other songs, the subject matter was the most important thing. One song I knew that I was definitely going to do was ‘Undercover of the Night’. The subject matter was super strong, and I felt connected to it because the evening news bombarded us with news and images of the Contras and the Sandinistas when I was younger. That was the type of material I was looking for, along with wanting whatever I picked to be just as relevant today as it was then. I found all of that in these songs.
Robert: Liner notes tend to be fairly boring in this digital climate, but your notes for ‘Inside Out’ actually have something to say. You wrote: “I already knew how good these songs were – it was the subject matter that surprised me. These lyrics weren’t from the cats I had been sharing the stage with for the last 30 years, but from some cythonic place by someone new. I didn’t know the cats who wrote like this, and I wondered how many of their fans knew these cats that I seemed to have rediscovered. Could it be that the Stones are really some black guys disguised as English gentleman?” Interesting thoughts coming from a black man who works with those English gentleman. What left you with that impression?
Bernard: It was the subject matter being so relatable. When I was growing up in the Queensbridge projects in New York there was a serious drug epidemic. I mean serious. They used to gather young kids like myself out and march around the neighborhood talking about “Dope Kills”. At the time, if you didn’t know better you would have thought New York City was the only place with a drug epidemic like this. But they have the same shit going on over there (in England) and they wrote about it. And if you take the time to read these lyrics – just straight up read them as I had to – you see that there is a flow about them. There’s a distinctive flow about the way some of these ideas are written.
Robert: A flow that lent themselves to spoken word.
Bernard: I believed so.
Fowler performing the coda of ‘Tumbling Dice’ with Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger Photo credit: Love You Live Rolling Stones .com
Robert: You going this far back for your song choices made me think about what Stones era you would have most liked to have been a part of outside of your own. The ‘Some Girls’ to ‘Undercover’ period, 1978 until 1983, is right in your wheelhouse. It’s their ‘New York City’ era , and you are New York through and through.
Bernard: Yes, I am, and you’re right, It would probably be that era. But if for some reason it couldn’t be that, I would want to go all the way back to the beginning because the first album of theirs that I owned was actually given to me by my father. It was ’12 x 5′. Don’t ask me why he gave me that record. That was the first record of that type with those types of faces on the cover to ever make it into my house. I still have no idea why he brought it home, but I’m glad he did.
Robert: How old were you?
Bernard: Maybe 7 or 8.
Robert: It’s incredible that your life turned out this way.
Bernard: That kind of stuff with the Stones has been happening to me throughout my entire life. For instance, I got that record and became a fan. Years later I was working for a company that made bottles for a perfume company. We had finished this bottle and I had to take it to Rockefeller Center to see Charles of the Ritz or Avon for them to approve the bottle. I stopped in a deli to grab a bite to eat, and there was a limousine outside. I walked in the deli, bought a sandwich and as I looked to my right? There was Keith Richards. And guess what I was listening to on my Walkman?
Robert: The Stones.
Bernard: The Stones. Guess what album.
Robert: It would be too perfect to say ’12 x 5′, so because of the era, I would guess ‘Tattoo You’.
Bernard: You hit it on the head man! Good call! I was listening to ‘Tattoo You’. I loved the fucking Stones. Loved them. I grew up in a black and Puerto Rican neighborhood and there wasn’t a whole lot of Rolling Stones being played, but I loved Rock and Roll as well as the stuff that I grew up on out there. And now here was Keith Richards. I didn’t say anything to him at first but as I left the deli I thought I should go back and say something to him. I walked back and sat next to his limousine, waiting for him to come out, and when he did I just said, “Hey Keith, you’re a bad man!” He looked at me and smiled and said, “Thanks little brother” and got in his limousine and took off.
[both laugh]
Robert: Before the decade was over you’d be singing those songs with him on stage.
Bernard: Yeah, dig that! Only a few years before that, but after meeting Keith, I was in my first band, the New York Citi Peech Boys (who had a dance hit with 1982’s ‘Don’t Make Me Wait’). So, I go down to see my friend DJ Larry Levan in Paradise Garage (legendary NYC disco) right? And I walk in and who do I run into? Mick Jagger. These things kept happening. During the Peech Boys I started working a lot with Bill Laswell (producer and musician) on a Herbie Hancock album and I ended up touring with Herbie. On my 10-day break Bill calls me and tells me to come to London. He doesn’t say who I’m going to be working for. I don’t know why I’m going. He just says “Come to London.” I get there, and Bill takes me into this house…we walk inside a room and some dude is sitting on the floor. Bill says to him, “Hey man, this is Bernard Fowler. This is the guy that I’ve been telling you about.” The guy on the floor turns around, and it’s Mick Jagger.
Robert: You ended up singing on his solo album, and then touring that album, and the rest is history.
Bernard: That’s right. And then the Stones got back together after that to do their first album of new material in many years, and they called on me to sing on it. I’ve been rolling with them ever since.
Robert: I know you credit your friend Carmine Rojas, longtime Rod Stewart and David Bowie bassist, with saving what became your biggest career break. In 1988 you were irritated that Mick chose to audition singers for his tour since you had already sung the vocals on the album, but Carmine convinced you to keep your head and audition regardless, and Mick ended up choosing you anyway. Carmine appears on your new album in an interesting way.
Bernard: That’s right, he does. [laugh] I wrote a dialogue that appears in the beginning of ‘Undercover of the Night’, and I needed a Spanish-speaking girl to do the part. But not just any Spanish speaker, because every Spanish-speaking territory speaks the language their own way. Carmine is my Puerto Rican brother from New York so I called him and said, “Carmine, I need a girl to read some dialogue I wrote in Spanish, but she has to be from Nicaragua. Can you help me?” He called me back and said, “No problem, she’s on her way.” [laughs] She came into the studio and I gave her the dialogue and not only was she from Nicaragua but she grew up there during the war! She knew the subject matter. So, at the beginning of the record when you hear the jungle sounds and you hear this woman under duress, she’s basically saying ‘I’m afraid! I don’t want to get caught by the military! If they catch me they’re going to take me to one of the camps where they took my mother and my father.” Then you hear a soldier come in and say a bunch of stuff that amounts to “Let’s get her!” Well, that’s Carmine!
Robert: You called on a long list of accomplished musicians to help you with ‘Inside Out’, but one that may stand out above the rest for most people is Ray Parker Jr., who beyond being the man who wrote and sang the Ghostbusters theme, is also a celebrated guitarist.
Bernard: I met Ray through Steve Jordan (drummer for John Mayer, Keith Richards and others), and let me tell you…Ray Parker is the baddest mother on the planet. I was doing some live show with Steve in New York where he brought Ray in and we became friendly. Later on I was doing something in the studio for the Jazz Foundation with Steve and Keith (Richards) and Ray was there again. When I was recording these tracks I had a great guitar player by the name of George Evans play on some of them but it was still missing that rhythm so I called Ray and said, “Ray, I need some rhythm guitars.” He listened to the songs and he thought maybe some wah-wah could be good because we had been talking about (Motown guitar great) Wah-Wah Watson. Ray came to the studio, said very little, plugged in, and before I could blink twice the shit was done. And it was killer! Ray absolutely killed it. He’s the icing on the cake for any of the songs on this album that have rhythm guitar.
Robert: Bernard you have a very distinctive way of speaking, and people like myself find it entertaining even when you’re not performing [laughs]. So even though this is a challenging musical idea, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to believe that you could command an audience with your non-singing voice. Is it too simplistic to call your vocal on this ‘spoken word’?
Bernard: Nope. That’s what I’m calling it. Spoken word.
Robert: How much spoken word have you done in the past, either live or on record?
Bernard: None. This is my first time around.
Robert: So, was there any time while recording this that you thought to yourself, “I’m in deep water here. What the hell am I doing?”
Bernard: Honestly, it felt really good right from the start. Because of what it was, if it hadn’t felt right very early, I probably wouldn’t have kept going and you and I would be talking about a different project right now.
Robert: With ‘spoken word’ did you find yourself attempting more takes than when you’re singing, or less?
Bernard: A lot of these cuts that made the record are first takes. It’s funny because in the beginning I was just laying down a guide vocal and sometimes when we finished recording we would go back and decide just to keep the guide. One of the engineers would get a little pissed off at me because they may have been the best performances to me, but as guides we weren’t using the best microphone on them and they weren’t the best recordings. He kept trying to get me to do them again and I would just tell him, “No!” [laughs] He would say,”Bernard, do you hear that (unnecessary) sound in the track?” And I’d say, “Yeah, but do you hear what it feels like? It feels too good. I’m not doing it again.”
Robert: Spoken like a true Stone.
Bernard:[big laugh] From your mouth to God’s ears, Robert.
Photo credit: JINI SACHSE
Fowler and Lisa Fischer, reunited at a recent ‘A Bowie Celebration’ show.
Robert: I recently watched a performance of the Stones performing ‘Slipping Away’ and the background vocals you were laying down with your old friend Lisa Fischer were so beautifully layered and harmonized that in the coda of the song they just elevated it and took it to another place. When you’re in harmony with another great singer like Lisa, does it feel as good for you as it does for the listener?
Bernard: That’s a great question man. It absolutely does. When you have a partner like Lisa Fischer it ab-so-lute-ly does. I miss her (Fischer departed the Stones in 2015 to renew her solo career). Onstage or off, we communicate without saying a word. I look at her and I know what she wants me to do and vice versa. When I was doing one of my other projects, ‘Nickel Bag’ with (guitarist) Stevie Salas, there was a song on one of those records called ‘Turning The Other Way’. We recorded some of that stuff in Mexico City and I asked Lisa to come down to the studio to help me out. I had an idea of what I wanted but I didn’t know how to express it. All I mentioned was that I wanted an operatic style. That’s all I said to her. When I went to show her the vocal I would just move my hand and she would watch. As my hand went up she went up, and as my hand went down she went down. She just nailed it. That’s a small example of how in-sync we were. And we’ve always been like that. Those gestures during ‘Slipping Away’ and all these other songs? That stuff was never rehearsed – we made that shit up on stage my brother! We felt that!
Robert: Bernard Fowler, choreographer.
Bernard: Yeah, right. Just don’t ask me to dance though. [laughs]
Robert Ferraro engages in conversations with pop culture figures. Recent guests include Melissa Etheridge and Paul Stanley, Ann & Nancy Wilson of Heart, comedian Gary Gulman and model Bobbie Brown.
A Florida Journalist, Photographer, and Art Director with an eclectic client list of individuals and organizations with musical, visual, educational, and editorial interests.
dave.
The Vinyl District @ Som Records (Washington D.C.)
