Mailbag

Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Higher Love- from Philippe Saisse

Mr Lefsetz:

It is both humbling and an honor to be mentioned in your blog which I have been following for years now (my partner in crime Simon Phillilps has turned me on to you years ago). It is REALLY nice to be mentioned in the same breath as my other friends and colleagues.

However, Jimmy Bralower should be acknowledged for having programmed those killer drums and that wacky intro timbale groove.

Stevie actually deserves all the credit for that bass line which I have only augmented in parts. The truth is, you are SO COMPLETELY RIGHT about the cost of that particular record (or any other records made in those days and that I have had the privilege of working on as a NY studio musician working with Arif Mardin, Nile Rodgers, Russ Titelman, Phil Ramone, Mick Jagger etc...).

Russ hired me to fly with him to the UK and we stayed at Winwood’s home in the suburbs of London for weeks preparing demos, writing charts and lead sheets and working on the arrangements of the new songs in his home studio. Russ and Stevie meticulously chose and tweaked the songs so that when sessions started at then Power Station studios, everything was ready to go and we all fell into place. Costly? You bet, but as you can attest, there is a reason why that record sounds like that: Stevie and Russ were connected and on top of their game.

I also have fond memories of the music video shoot for Higher Love with Nile and Chaka. Having been part of her “I Feel For You” smash (my first NY session!) and Nile’s then frequent collaborator (Outloud, Chic, Al Jarreau etc...) it also just happened that my parents were visiting NYC at that time and sat in at the video shoot. Stevie, Chaka and Nile were gracious enough to take pictures which them and those are still on the wall at my parents home and I will never forget my late father (then an executive at Columbia France) telling me with such exuberance: "THIS song is a SMASH HIT!!!! I TELL YOU"...;)

Thank you Mr. Lefsetz for this most inspiring and hopeful article.

Yours truly,

Philippe Saisse
Calabasas, CA

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From: TOM LIPUMA
Subject: Re: Mailbag

Hi Bob,

I'm pleased that your readers enjoyed the "Alone Together" stories.,

In regard to the gentleman whose album was black vinyl, and whose wife had the multi-colored disk, we had those pressed at the Columbia records plant in Santa Maria Calif.

Great story about that: Bob Krasnow and I drove there to meet the person who ran the plant, and see if we could do business with him for our fledgling label. As it turns out, it was a state of the art pressing plant that had just installed automated machines that used vinyl pellets that were fed automatically into a machine that squirted the melted vinyl right on to the press, instead of someone having to manually place the lump of vinyl onto the press, thus saving time when you were pressing thousands an hour. After a tour of the plant, we retired to his office and took a seat in front of his desk, which had about ten clear plastic containers with different colored pellets in them. Of course being the days of "living better through chemistry" was our motto, we had taken some owsley acid on the drive up, so we were definitely in the right frame of mind to ask him if they could press our record in one of those colors. He said of course, and we asked if we could take some samples back to Barry Feinstein who was designing the album package for us, and get his input. Barry loved the idea, but asked if they could mix all the colors together to get the tie-dye effect. They said yes they could, so back up to Santa Maria we went, except this time with Barry, to pick what colors to use to make the right color swirl for the disc. And then off we were, except the problem was, every time they finished pressing up an order for us, they had to break down the press and clean it out so they could resume using it for other orders with black vinyl. Being more creative minded than practical, we kept that going for awhile, until our accountant advised us that our profit was going down the rabbit hole. Thus just a limited amount were pressed.

Just one other thing, in regard to Bob Zimmerman's e-mail. Delaney and Bonnie did record "Only You Know And I Know" before we did, but as far as my memory serves me, Delaney didn't do anything on the album other than sing backgrounds along with Bonnie, Rita Coolidge, Graham Nash and a few other singers' whose names evade me at this time' on a cut called "Waitin On You"

By the way, I went to see Dave about two months ago in Port Washington (Long Island) and he blew me and the crowd away. For your readers who asked, He sounds better than ever. I think the years of living have seasoned his voice for the better, and his guitar playing is superb.

Please send my best regards to Wendy Waldman, I haven't seen her since the A&M days.

My best,

Tommy


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