The Music of Detroit - Part Three: Bob Alice George Aretha Suzi Earl
The Music Of Detroit - Part Three
This was originally published in the Lowell Ledger
Holy smokes, the more time one spends digging into all the music, musicians, and musical talent emanating from Detroit the better it gets. Up until a couple of days ago, my confidence in my knowledge of such things was fairly high, but the more I look, the more I see and the more I uncover, the realization of what I don’t know becomes stronger.
We kicked off this series with a fly over of Motown, the first Michigan musical magic that comes to most of our minds when it comes to Detroit. There were so many musicians, singers, and writers who contributed to the Motown catalog it was impossible to mention all of them in one article. When one examines other genres or music, the sheer volume of artists from Detroit is almost overwhelming.
It is easy to celebrate top of mind musicians like Bob Seger. He tickled our ears and hearts for many decades with massive album sales, sold out concerts, and tunes that many people recognize within a few opening notes. His band names evolved from The Last Heard to the Bob Seger System and finally the Silver Bullet Band. His first home run was “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” in 1968. My guess is that many readers can tick off at least a half dozen of his other hits. Did you know that he co-wrote a song that did pretty well for the Eagles: “Heartache Tonight.”?
Speaking of the Eagles, it is tempting to think of them as a Laurel Canyon based bunch of rocking country guys from California, but founder and backbone of the outrageously successful band, Glenn Frey, started life on the planet in 1948 in Detroit.
1948 was a good year in Detroit for rock musicians. Vincent Damon Furnier was born a few months before Glenn Frey and he and his band went on to sell over 50 million records and they still perform once in a while. Vincent’s first band was called “Nazz”, but when they found out Philadelphian Todd Rundgren had a band of the same name, they decided on “Alice Cooper”. The name was picked because it sounded very tame and bland, which was in sharp contrast to the outrageous stage shows by which the group was gaining a following.
These days Alice spends a good deal of his time on golf courses. In fact, he has joked that he replaced his addiction to alcohol with an addiction to golf. He has been married to his wife Sheryl since 1976. His problems with booze led to a brief separation, but once he gave up his drinking, they reconciled and have been together ever since. The hard driving music and over the top theatrics of the band inspired many musicians including John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols who took inspiration from Alice Cooper and has stated that their 1971 “Killer” album is the greatest rock album of all time.
How about a jump from rock to funk: Detroit gave the world George Clinton who is certainly Funk Music Royalty. His two bands, Parliament and Funkadelic, put the funk in the ears of people all over the world. And many of the members of these bands forged solo careers and/or their own bands. Bootsy Collins and Sly Stone come to mind in that regard. George was born in 1941 and is still with us. If you look at his website (www.georgeclinton.com), you will be treated to a great video: “Detroit: One Nation Under a Groove” performed by kids from Detroit and shot in locations all over the city. Julie and I saw Thomas Dolby perform in Ferndale in 2013 and Thomas gave a shout out of thanks to George, who was in the house enjoying the show along with us.
The gods of music will strike me down if I fail to mention the Queen of Soul – Aretha Franklin. She taught the world to spell “r-e-s-p-e-c-t” and sold over 75 million records in her career. The legal department wants to make sure that we acknowledge that Aretha was NOT born in Detroit, she arrived there from Memphis when she was six, but we are claiming her as a Detroiter since she attended school there until she dropped out as a sophomore; lived there from 1982 until her death in 2018, and is buried at Woodlawn cemetery on Woodward Avenue.
Can you say “Motor City Madman”? Once again 1948 shows up – Ted Nugent was born in Redford on December 13th that year. There must have been some sort of rock and roll additive to the water in 1947. This reporter can still recall seeing Ted wail on his guitar on a TV program in the ‘70’s. He wore a white leather vest that was mostly fringe and he jumped around the stage and climbed atop a stack of amps and never missed a note. He was proud of the fact that his stage wildness was not the result of chemicals, but just the raw energy he put into and got out of his music.
How about we get away from household names, and the year 1948, and consider Greg Bissonette (1959). He is one of those musicians who most people have never heard of in spite of the fact that most of us have heard him playing at some point in our lives. He has played with jazz greats like Maynard Ferguson, Lou Rawls, and Keiko Matsui. He added the beat for rockers like David Lee Roth, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. You can hear him on a couple albums by Ray Charles and in 1997 crooner Pat Boone tapped Bissonette to play drums on his “In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy” album. He can be heard on about 20 very popular movie soundtracks and if you watched any episode of the TV show “Friends” from 1994 to 2004, Greg played drums on the musical interludes. Another drummer you might have heard of, Sir Ringo Starr, has included Bisonnette in his touring “All Starr Band” since 2008. Any drummer good enough to play for Ringo has got to have something going on, right?
Oh no – we are running out of space. Did we mention that jazz greats Earl Klugh and Ron Carter are from Detroit? Smooth jazz pioneer Klugh was a piano player until he switched to guitar at ten. His attraction to the guitar was sealed when he saw the great Chet Atkins perform on a TV show three years later. How fitting that Klugh ended up playing on a couple of Chet’s albums. Ron Carter was born in Fabulous Ferndale and he has played his upright bass on an astonishing 2,221 recording sessions. That incredible number makes him the most recorded jazz bassist in the world. If you are a fan of jazz music or want to experience some of the best jazz available, we must mention the Detroit Jazz Festival that has been going for about 40 years on Labor Day week-end at Hart Plaza on the Riverwalk.
We have to squeeze in a couple more. We need to mention bass rocker Suzi Quatro. She was way bigger in Europe and Australia, but you might have seen her as Leather Tuscadero on the TV show “Happy Days.” Hunt and Tony Sales are the musical sons of Detroit TV personality “Soupy” Sales. Hunt is a drummer and Tony plays bass. They often work together as session players and have recorded with artists like Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop, and performed with David Bowie in the band Tin Machine in 1988. They met Bowie while touring with Iggy Pop.
My last mention is the late Jerry Riopelle. Jerry was a country rocker who had an immense following in Arizona. I found his music while visiting my mom in Tucson about 20 years ago. His live concerts in Tucson and Phoenix were packed out and he performed in Phoenix at the Celebrity Theater on New Year’s Eve for decades right up until he died a few days before he was scheduled to perform there in 2018. Jerry invented an electronic instrument called “Beamz” that uses beams of light to control musical sounds. He intended it to be a method for physically challenged kids to make music. His fans in Tucson thought he was from Phoenix and vice versa. He actually lived in L.A. and did a lot of music producing for other groups as well as movies and TV. He semi-retired to Hawaii, but always returned for NYE in Phoenix. While researching this article, I was wonderfully surprised to learn Jerry was born in Detroit on May 5, 1941. That made me smile.
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