My Real Memoir
We’d done an ABC music special and recorded our debut album. But now my band The Daily Planet was running on fumes. Still, I was in denial. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I told my pen pal Judy, and in the next sentence mentioned an unknown brother-sister act from my college choir who’d signed with a major record label. Not so our band. After a song recorded by someone else but deceptively attributed to us tanked, our label decided not to release our album.
We weren’t even rehearsing anymore, when we got a phone call from Solomon Burke. “King Solomon,” best known for his classics “Cry to Me” (featured in Dirty Dancing) and “Everybody Needs Somebody” (later covered by The Rollings Stones and featured in The Blues Brother) was a living legend. His producer, Atlantic Records head Jerry Wexler, who’d also produced Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, and Led Zeppelin, called him “the best soul singer of all time.”
And somehow he’d heard of us. “I like you fellas,” he said. “My family’s gonna barbeque and watch King of Kings. Join us!” So we did. His kids were adorable. And Solomon? He was the kind of guy who immerses you in hugs—and enthusiasm. He invited us to play at his 21st Century Club in South Central L.A. Passionate about diversity, Sol thought it was time to “mix things up a little!” “And,” he said as we left full of sweet potato pie, “I might have something else in mind too.”
A dozen perplexed black folks applauded politely as we finished our weeknight set at the 21st Century. We weren’t R&B, but we didn’t suck. Sol grinned and led us into his office. “How’d you like to be my new back-up band?” “What?” his five assistants exploded. “You happen to notice what color these guys are? White guys don’t have soul!” “They can learn,” Sol insisted, “and y’all are gonna teach ‘em!” Stunned, intrigued, and definitely not in Kansas anymore, we promised to get back to the lovable anti-racist bear of a man.
Should we? Could we? It was our final shot at something—anything. In the end we decided it was just too late, we were already heading in different directions. And besides, I had a low draft number; if I dropped out of college to tour with Solomon Burke, I’d soon be touring Vietnam. But…
Somewhere in the multiverse, I had a safe draft number and a gorgeous ebony-skinned girlfriend, my band played with King Solomon Burke, who in turn introduced us to Jerry Wexler, and we became the most soulful folk-rock band ever!
I turned twenty a week after that pen pal letter, the same week The Carpenters (that brother-sister act from my college choir) released their first massive hit “Close to You.” But the band my friends and I had formed in our teens was no more.
It was the end of an era.
Postscript: Two weeks ago, The Daily Planet, brothers forever, met in Montana and re-recorded the “lost album” we’d made fifty-five years earlier!
My Real Memoir is a series. To read the next one, click here.
Full of ‘sweet potato pie’ I think one could make the world a better place!!! Congrats on creating your “lost album”!!!
Thank you, Mary!
Lovely reunion~💓
Congratulations, Mitch!
Thanks, Iman!
Thanks, Iman!
How wonderful!
What a story — and true to boot!
Yep.
“No sadder words in tongue or pen than those that say, It might have been.”
Great rock band story! Congratulations on re-recording the lost album and, hopefully, hitting all the high notes! 🙂
Wellllllll… ;>We lowered the key on a few of the songs.
How wonderful that the four of you stayed in touch all these years and made the reunion happen. Perhaps someday soon you can share an excerpt with us here?!
Maybe? Jeff is mixing and tweaking the recordings now, Nancy, so whether we share them or whether they’re “for our ears only” depends on how they come out.
Wonderful, Mitch.
Thanks, T!
Sure thing.
so great you are all still connected
How beautiful!
This post proves that as long as the spark of life remains, NOTHING good ever dies. I applaud all of you for keeping the connection & all the memories that gave it strength … & beauty
Why, thank you, Linda.
Cool! Can’t wait to hear it!
For me, the Daily Planet has eclipsed this moment in time. 😎
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So sad that you couldn’t continue, I could hear longing for what could have been in your writing. I feel that in myself often, but life will throw you curve balls often.
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