|
|
|
Vancouverite makes China's capital groove to the beat
Former Motown recording artist goes east to get his second shot at the big time
Al Campbell, Special to The Sun
Published: Saturday, December 22, 2007
Bobby Taylor sees a lot of similarities between the Vancouver he first arrived at in 1962 and his latest stop, Beijing.
"Sure, just like here, the people in Vancouver used to come up to me and rub my skin to see if the colour would come off. I'm serious, that's how small of a town it was back then."
While it's hard to believe Vancouverites were ever so naïve toward black people, in meeting the former singer of Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, it's immediately evident the "colour" has never come off the R&B legend.
Now 73 and a survivor of two bouts with throat cancer, Taylor has re-emerged after living a low-key existence in North Vancouver since moving back to the city in 1989.
For the past year he has been based in the Chinese capital of Beijing, where, together with pianist Doug Louie, scion of the H.Y. Louie retail dynasty, he is making the most of his opportunities in what he calls "virgin territory."
Within two months of his arrival, he performed for Premier Wen Jiabao, China's second in command, and has just completed a lengthy residency at a local club.
He is currently a vocal coach to four youngsters, is building a studio and has recording projects planned for himself and others. With the Olympics coming to Beijing next summer, he also has a full slate of gigs planned, including a concert for George W. Bush when the U.S. president is here attending the Games.
"Doug Louie got this gig at a Beijing nightclub and asked if I wanted to come. I thought I was going to see guns, people in green suits and I was going to do my two months and get the hell out of Dodge. After one week, I picked up the phone and told 'em I ain't never coming home," Taylor said.
"China's pretty liberal in many ways. Even though it has a history dating back 5,000 years, it is a very young place. The people I am dealing with are young kids and they want to learn."
For those wanting to learn, there are few finer teachers than Taylor when it comes to contemporary music. As leader of the Vancouvers along with guitarist Tommy Chong, later of Cheech and Chong fame, the group ruled the local nightclub scene between 1962 and 1966.
Taylor, who grew up in Washington D.C. where future singing legend Marvin Gaye was his neighbour, first met Chong in early '62 when the latter came down to San Francisco with his band looking for work.
As Taylor worked at Big Al's strip club drumming behind dancers to make money while completing his music degree at nearby San Jose State University, he set the group up with a gig and they were a hit.
"So they played for two weeks and went back to Vancouver. Then a couple of weeks later, I got a call from Tommy Chong who gave me an offer I couldn't refuse -- half ownership in his club and $750 a week. Next thing I know, I was on a plane headed north. The airport at Vancouver had one building."
While Taylor's pay claim seems outrageous at a time when the average person was lucky to earn $100 a week, the club on offer was the Elegant Parlour at Davie and Burrard, what is now the basement of the Celebrities gay bar.
"We charged $10 bucks a head to get in there and we got 300 people a night every night. We were an after-hours bottle club that opened at midnight that catered to prostitutes, pimps, thieves and B.C. Lions on the prowl."
As a popular after-hours haunt, fate came knocking for the house band when Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson came by when the Supremes were playing in town. Impressed by the Vancouvers' performance, the pair recommended the group to Motown Records head Berry Gordy. They signed to the label in 1966.
The group's time at Hitsville USA proved volatile, despite hitting number 29 in the U.S. singles charts with the interracial love song Does your mama know about me? in May 1968. After a self-titled debut LP and a heavy couple of years of touring, the group split and Taylor went solo with the album Taylor-Made Soul. While both albums did little when they initially came out, their re-releases have since been critically acclaimed in the British music press.
Taylor has endless stories about back in the day and he seems to know everybody. Jimi Hendrix was a friend who some rock historians say played in the Vancouvers for a brief tenure, as were the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Temptations and the Four Tops, all of whom his group toured with.
While Taylor never reached the heights of such performers, his place in rock history was sealed when Chong and himself discovered the Jackson 5 in 1968 when the group opened for the Vancouvers during a 10-day revue show in Chicago. （1968年，是这个老头子发掘的 JACKSON 5）
"I just loved to watch that little sucker dance," Taylor said of the first time he saw Michael Jackson.
After the Chicago shows, he immediately took the group to Detroit and brought them to the attention of Motown, where they were signed. While others such as James Brown, Gladys Knight and most notably Diana Ross would take credit for "discovering" the Jackson 5, it was Taylor who had the greatest impact on them initially.
Taylor put his singing career on hold and worked on producing the Jackson 5's first five albums. He also wrote the group's early hits Ben, ABC, I Want You Back, I'll Be There and Maybe Tomorrow. His work, however, went uncredited when he fell out with the Motown brass. He later sued the label and won but claims he has yet to see any money.
"I worked a lot with Michael Jackson. He was eight at the time. He was the voice. He had the tools. He screamed a lot. He was a James Brown at that time. Jermaine was okay and Jackie was okay. So those are the three that I used."
Taylor said his fight with Motown bothered him so much that he quit his career and admits he was "stupid for that." He later re-emerged as the producer of the Jackson Sisters (no relation to the Jackson 5) in 1973 and penned the group's only hit I Believe in Miracles. The rare-groove anthem with its Shaft-like beat is now considered a dance classic that has been sampled heavily, most notably by the Basement Jaxx on Red Alert.
"That's my biggest seller that I am getting paid for. I have Japanese guys doing it now, Australians doing it, African guys doing it in their tongue. I have a whole bunch of them that I am still not getting paid for from Motown -- Jacksons mainly. Beat 'em in court, never got paid."
Taylor said he was currently looking for a Chinese version of the Jackson 5 and was confident they were out there.
"Things happen fast in this country. I was at the [Communist] party's annual dinner in January with 200 people at the Friendship Hotel. It was absolutely beautiful. [Wen Jiabao] walked up to me, shook my hand and said something in Chinese. I thought damn, I'm shaking hands with the No. 2 man in China and I ain't been here six months.
（老头子说他正在想要发掘一个中国版的JACKSON 5，他相信一定有。温家宝同志还跟他握了手。）
"In Beijing, don't nobody think I'm 73. They don't care how old I am. They just want to groove to the tunes."
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=b4a128cb-1f5f-4d55-ab23-9a272e05a64b |
|
[复制链接]
狗仔卡
发表于 2007-12-23 10:22:52
变色卡
显身卡
发表于 2007-12-23 18:07:54
发表于 2007-12-23 18:48:03
