Frank Beacham's Journal

Gene McDaniels, Composer of "Compared to What," Dies in Maine

One song that Jonny Rosch and Friends always play is Compared to What. Each time it is different. That’s because the song showcases the improvisational skills of each player and lets them roll with it. Because of this, it often lasts almost 40 minutes. It’s a real tour de force in Rosch’s arsenal of songs.

Eugene McDaniels, who died this week, wrote Compared to What in 1969. It stays alive, most recently being recorded by John Legend and the Roots on their new album Wake Up. McDaniels was a a major recording artist himself in the early 60s, with several chart busting hits. Then he turned to songwriting and producing, which he did until his death.

McDaniels lived in Maine and often visited his friend, Ann Ruckert, in New York City. A few months ago I had breakfast with him. The conversation turned to Compared to What and he allowed me to record the conversation. He talked of the “muse” that gave birth to the song after the turbulence in the 1960s and how he took it to old colleague Les McCann who recorded the song and made it his biggest hit.

To date, 288 artists have recorded Compared to What. Listen to McDaniel's interview by clicking on the link below.

The Writing of Compared to What 

McDaniels knew Compared to What was perfect for his old bandmate, Les McCann. But there was a problem. McCann and he weren't on speaking terms. In this clip, McDaniels tells how he sneaked into a hotel where McCann was staying to give him the song that would become his biggest hit.

How the Song Got to Les McCann

Here are the lyrics:

I love the lie and lie the love

A-Hangin' on, with push and shove

Possession is the motivation

that is hangin' up the God-damn nation

Looks like we always end up in a rut (everybody now!)

Tryin' to make it real — compared to what? C'mon baby!

Slaughterhouse is killin' hogs

Twisted children killin' frogs

Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs

Tired old lady kissin' dogs

I hate the human love of that stinking mutt (I can't use it!)

Try to make it real — compared to what? C'mon baby now!

The President, he's got his war

Folks don't know just what it's for

Nobody gives us rhyme or reason

Have one doubt, they call it treason

We're chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God damn it!

Tryin' to make it real — compared to what? (Sock it to me)

Church on Sunday, sleep and nod

Tryin' to duck the wrath of God

Preacher's fillin' us with fright

They all tryin' to teach us what they think is right

They really got to be some kind of nut (I can't use it!)

Tryin' to make it real — compared to what?

Where's that bee and where's that honey?

Where's my God and where's my money?

Unreal values, crass distortion

Unwed mothers need abortion

Kind of brings to mind ol' young King Tut (He did it now)

Tried to make it real — compared to what?!

Joe Lee Wilson, Jazz Singer and Leader of ’70s Loft-Jazz Movement, Dies at 75

Joe Lee Wilson at a Jazz Foundation of America loft party in 2006.

Photo © Frank Beacham

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Joe Lee Wilson was fine jazz singer and a joyous, friendly man. I met him, of all places, at a jazz loft party in Manhattan. He lived in England, he told me, because he was better appreciated by audiences there.

I loved his records and once when I learned he had a new one, I asked him to sell me a copy. He only had one left on this trip to the United States and gave it to me. He was that sort of guy. After that I met him on several of his trips to the United States to perform, mainly at events for the Jazz Foundation of America.

Joe Lee decided on a music career after seeing Billie Holiday perform in 1951. He named his band Joy of Jazz, a name that fit his personality.

Originally from Bristow, Oklahoma, Joe Lee Wilson was an American gospel-influenced baritone with voice somewhere between Billy Eckstine and a Southwestern bluesman. In the early 1970s, he became closely associated with the jazz avant-garde. He worked with the saxophonist Archie Shepp and other exponents of free jazz. 

In 1972, he was among the organizers of the New York Musicians’ Jazz Festival, featuring avant-gardists who felt snubbed by the Newport Jazz Festival, which was presented in New York for the first time that summer. A year later, he was on the Newport-New York bill.

At about the same time, Wilson opened the 100-seat Ladies’ Fort in a basement on Bond Street in NoHo. In a time when music clubs were scarce, it became one of the infamous musician-run performance spaces that became known as jazz lofts in Manhattan.

Joe Lee Wilson sang with many of the greats of jazz, including Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Sarah Vaughan, Eddie Jefferson and Kenny Dorham.

He recorded a live radio program at WKCR-FM, Columbia University, on July 16, 1972, that was released as an album, Livin' High Off Nickels & Dimes. Wilson's rendition of Jazz Ain't Nothing But Soul was a radio hit on New York jazz radio in 1975. 

Joe Lee died of congestive heart failure. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in November, 2010, where he gave his last public performance.

He was a wonderful artist and will be missed.

With Jerry Ragovoy’s Death, Another Explanation of “Time is On My Side”

Jerry Ragovoy, the great composer and producer, has died at age 80. He undeniably left behind a large archive of major hit songs and produced some of the top acts of popular music. But one song he is credited with writing—Time is On My Side—has long been shrouded in mystery.

Yes, Ragovoy wrote the original version of Time is On My Side for jazz trombonist Kai Winding in the early 1960s. In October, 1963, Winding recorded the Verve single for the first time. It was produced by Creed Taylor and engineered by Phil Ramone. An uncredited background vocal group, made up of Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, sang the following lyrics:

Time is on my side, yes yes

Time is on my side, yes yes

You'll come running back 

You'll come running back 

You’ll come running back to me. 

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That was the extent of Ragovoy’s lyrics. 

 

In early, 1964, the song was chosen for recording by Irma Thomas, then a young 23-year-old singer from New Orleans. Thomas’s arranger, H.B. Barnum, hired Jimmy Norman to write additional lyrics to the original Ragovoy version. It was a rush job, finished at the Los Angeles recording studio only minutes before Thomas began recording.

Imperial’s single release of Time Is On My Side was not a hit for Irma Thomas. But, a short time later, in June, 1964, the Rolling Stones recorded the song, using the same expanded lyrics as used by Irma Thomas. Released as both an album and single in October, the song became a signature for the Rolling Stones and is now an American rock & roll classic.

 

Jimmy Norman was credited for his additional lyrics only on the original Irma Thomas single release and early Rolling Stones releases. A Jerry Ragovoy pseudonym, Norman Meade, was used as N. Meade. The credit N. Meade and J. Norman appeared on the Irma Thomas and early Rolling Stones singles. 

Later the credits got fuzzy. On the Rolling Stones releases, the credit was printed in two versions, Meade-Norman and Meade; Norman. Jimmy Norman never collected royalties for his work on the song.  Now it is in public domain. 

I interviewed Jerry Ragovoy about the song. He denied any involvement at all by Jimmy Norman. Though his attorney admitted to Jimmy Norman’s added lyrics in a letter during legal proceedings. Ira Thomas, who I also interviewed, denied remembering any of it.

But, by the admission of Ragovoy's own lawyer, Jimmy Norman clearly wrote the added lyrics, making him a co-author of one of the great songs in rock & roll history. However, Ragovoy denied that involvement to his death, as did most of his associates.

Keith Richards met Jimmy Norman after a Rollings Stones concert in 2007, in an acknowledgement of Norman's work on the hit song.

Here are the lyrics of the song, with the contributions of each writer shown:

Time is on My Side

Jerry Ragovoy lyrics in Bold Type; Jimmy Norman lyrics in Plain Type

 

Time is on my side, yes it is

Time is on my side, yes it is

 

Now you always say

That you want to be free

But you'll come running back (said you would baby)

You'll come running back (I said so many times before)

You'll come running back to me

 

Oh, time is on my side, yes it is

Time is on my side, yes it is

 

You're searching for good times

But just wait and see

You'll come running back (I won't have to worry no more)

You'll come running back (spend the rest of my life with you, baby)

You'll come running back to me

 

Go ahead, go ahead and light up the town

And baby, do everything your heart desires

Remember, I'll still be around

And I know, I know

Like I told you so many times before

You're gonna come back, baby

'Cause I know

You're gonna come back knocking

Yeah, knocking right on my door

Yes, yes!

 

Well, time is on my side, yes it is

Time is on my side, yes it is

 

'Cause I got the real love

The kind that you need

You'll come running back (said you would, baby)

You'll come running back (I don't always said you would)

You'll come running back (I won't have to worry no more)

Yes time, time, time is on my side, yes it is

Time, time, time is on my side, yes it is

Oh, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is

I said, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is

Oh, time, time, time is on my side

Yeah, time, time, time is on my side 

Irma Thomas's original recording of Time is On My Side

Time is On My Side

 

New E-Books by Frank Beacham are Available

With E-book readers now in so many hands, I’m trying to make my stories available to a wider audience. The three key stories that make up my collection, Whitewash: A Southern Journey through Music, Mayhem and Murder, are now available individually for 99 cents each. You can still buy all the stories in the one volume E-Book of Whitewash for $3.99 or the print version for $15, or any individual story now for 99 cents.  

The new E-books are titled: Charlie’s Place: How the Ku Klux Klan Tried to Stop the Rise of Rhythm and Blues; The Legacy of the Orangeburg Massacre and Small Town Secret. Each are true Southern stories and each remains very controversial. They can be ordered on Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Apple’s iPad and Smashwords. Each is a very good read, but then I’m a bit biased.

Guitarist Jeff Golub Goes Blind

Jeff Golub, the ace guitarist who is a regular at the P&G Bar in New York City, announced on his web site that he has gone blind. At the same time, Jeff said, he was working with Henry Butler, the blind New Orleans piano player and blues singer, who also plays regularly at the P&G.

I’ll let Jeff tell the story in his own words:

“While recording the record (“The Three Kings”) I started having a little trouble with my right eye. I tried to ignore it, but the condition worsened. Oddly enough, I was working with Henry, who coincidentally is blind. After the recording and trips to several of NY's top eye specialists, I was diagnosed with a collapse of the optic nerve in my right eye. It is just some random thing that can happen to people...no real reason why or real cause...just a curve ball life throws at you sometimes.”

Then, soon after, the other shoe drops: 

“Last week my 'good eye' started getting a little wacky and unfortunately, as of this past Monday, 6/27, it appears to be following the same path that the right eye did. OK, not what I wished for, but I hopped in a van last night with Henry, Josh & Andy and played a gig in PA.

"Was it scary?  YES!!!! Was it fun? A BLAST!!!! I have proven to myself three days into 'my new life' that I can go out and do what I do...play guitar. And even stranger, getting to spend all this time with Henry Butler who can give me the inside track on how the heck one navigates life with severely impaired vision...Just wanted to let you all know what is going on with me. I may need a bit of time to adjust, but God willing, I have every intention of playing guitar forever and a day.”

What a remarkable story! Jeff, 56, is one of nicest guys and finest guitar players in the business. These days, he is a contemporary jazz guitarist, playing with “Avenue Blue,” but was a longtime sideman for acts like Rod Stewart (guitarist from 1988 to 1995) and Billy Squier.

We wish Jeff the very best as he tries to adjust to the obstacles ahead.

Henry Butler at the P&G. Both photographs by Frank Beacham