Andre williams can you

So I got to like Detroit and thought I'd get there. So, I'm walking, in Detroit, and I think to myself "Andre, find the main drag, find out where the hustlers are". I'm late sixteen then remember. I knew I was good looking, I knew that if I got a shot with any broads I was gonna eat. So I hit the main strip, which was Hastings Street. There was a theatre by the name of the Warfield Theatre and every Tuesday night it had amateur shows and this happened to be a Tuesday mornin'.

You could win twenty five dollars and you get a chance to come back the next week, and the next, as long as you win. So I'm looking at the twenty five dollars situation, I've got about thirteen more dollars left in my pocket.

I thought "I'm gonna win this motherfucker". I didn't know if I was gonna sing, dance or what. So when the theatre opened at one o'clock, I paid my forty cents to get in.

I sat down and watched a movie and I wrote this song called "Hi Ho Silver. Q: Was there a house band? Did you just arrive and give them the key your song was in or something? Well there was a three piece, if you wanna call this a house band.

They played for everybody. They did not care about any fuckin' key man! The guy would walk up and ask you what do you wanna do. He said "Sing it for me" and that was it. So anyway, nine thirty comes and it's curtain call.

The announcer says "Will all contestants please report backstage. So I went back there and met the other guys, there was one who I thought was gonna kick my ass. He played the spoons! Bad motherfucker! On his feet, all over! You guys know what an orchestra pit look like?

Right into the centre aisle! I have no idea but I misjudged the motherfucker! I tried to turn around and fly in the air and walk back to the stage but it was too late. And down in the fuckin' drums and shit I went! That just cracked the audience up, and when I got back up I danced all down the aisle of the motherfuckin' theatre, up this way, down that way, upstairs, on the balcony's ledge, doin' the fuckin' moonwalk!

I won it! I went back there eight weeks in a row! Then, finally, Miss Warfield called up Miss [Devora] Brown from Fortune Records and said you'd better come and see this lil' wild motherfucker here!

So she came, saw me and offered me a contract. Q: Did you already have your baritone voice at the time? And the guys that were selling records were high tenors and I knew that if I didn't come up with something, I was gonna fall through the fuckin' tomb. I had to come up with a fuckin' gimmick!

I knew I could not sing like them! Q: Was there someone in particular you wanted to sound like? I didn't wanna sound like no-goddamn-body! I wanted to tell stories! I had seen so much bullshit in my life and I said to myself "Andre, if you could ever say things that relate to people That was in Africa, the Congos, the Mongos, and all them 'gos.

When they was doin' communications, it was with the drums. So if I could get a drum rhythm which captivates people and put a hell of a story on top of it, I can't lose. And that's where I went. Q: A lot of your early songs are related to food products. That's when I knew that I had to come up with a gimmick. So I stopped in Memphis and I got an egg and bacon sandwich - on toast!

I'm driving and a lot of places where we used to travel, it was only a two lane highway so you'd see the cotton pickers on both sides and I'm driving and [starts tapping a beat on his thigh, starts humming] "Down in Tennessee Well that bit came from something I stole from the Coasters in "Down in Mexico.

Q: What was Devora Brown like? We've heard that she was quite a strange lady. Is she really in a mental hospital now?

I've heard, yeah. She always was strange. Number one, the Browns were two Jewish people who don't trust nobody. You've got to understand that first.

But they were always very good to me! I wanna record tomorrow! They did say that you want to record me! She was recording in the back of her store with just a load of old black RCA microphones and she'd give the guys ten dollars apiece and there was no problems. Q: Was she paying any Union fees? There were no fuckin' union man! We were just a bunch of bootlegging motherfuckers! No, Devora Brown had no idea about payin' royalties!

Q: Were you upset when she wouldn't let you out of your contract when you got "Bacon Fat" leased to Epic records? She could have sold you for a lot of money. That broke my heart! That fucked me around but, fellas, out of any bad situation something good can be coming out. If it hadn't been for that erratic, crazy shit that Devora Brown pulled, there wouldn't be no Andre Williams today because the records wouldn't have been classics!

I appreciate Devora Brown for this reason; she probably saved my life. I hadn't matured. I hadn't had enough in the mind. I mean, it took me sixty-one years to get to London! That's a long time. I might not have gotten here had Epic got that second record. By Miss Brown being as she was, I had to go back to Fortune and it kept me sheltered from the real world.

You know what I'm tryin' to say? Epic got very pissed at Miss Brown! There had been an agreement with Epic and Miss Brown had first refusal after the second record, so when she cut "Jailbait," she thought that song was gonna be big enough to put her label out there, nationally. We were considered a territorial label, only for a small market. So she had figured "Now I'll put Andre back on my label" and Fortune would become another Atlantic or something.

That was her strategy OK? Had she been smart She already had Nolan Strong! If she had been a smart lady she would have produced me for Epic and kept Nolan for Fortune and got rich! But at that time there was no such thing as a producer, so nobody knew about this producing situation. That's where Berry [Gordy]'s genius came in!

Berry got all of the acts, the men that were good then and didn't quite make it. He brought them into his staff and called them producers and let them train the green horns! You know what I'm talkin' about? Q: How did you first get into Motown, was it straight after you left Fortune? The Motown thing came about from a favour. I was in a barber shop getting my hair done.

Berry Gordy was working in a car factory and my barber knew both of us. So when I get my hair done, my barber pointed at him and said "Andre, there's a guy I want you to meet who writes songs and if you can help him I wish you would.

Me and Berry had a bond. Q: Did you feel like he owed you? No I didn't feel like he owed me shit! I was tryin' to get money. Followin' the cash! I needed to pay for all them suits! Q: What was the first song you produced for Motown?

The first song was with Stevie Wonder. It was probably never released, it was called "Thank You Mother. Stevie Wonder was a real nuisance, he knocked the pianos out of tune all fuckin' day.

He kicked the drums over and bust a fuckin' head to the point that we said "Keep this little motherfucker outta here! He'd get on the phone and say "Hi, this is Andre Williams, I want to get some studio time for so and so" and they'd believe him. Q: What? He was imitating your voice on the phone?

And I tell you, he could mimic! He called finance one Tuesday mornin' and said "Hi! He didn't take it. He went and got the check, took it back and sat it on Berry's desk. Berry went fuckin' mad. The girls at finance kept saying "Berry, I swear he sounded like you! Once he popped it in his ears he could bring it out and sound just the same! Q: Did you really produce the Contours?

That's a fantastic record! That was on the other side of "My Guy. At Motown, they had a chart. Let's say there was nine producers on stand. The artists' names would be up there and the deadline date to have your material in on that artist if you wanted to be considered for the next release. This is where Smokey [Robinson] and Berry used to kick our ass!

Because after all of the producers had done their shit, Berry and him would come in 24 hours under deadline with the best fuckin' records. Bloodshot Radio. Pulled from all of Andre's albums with us, including material with the Sadies and the Morning 40 Federation. All killer, no filler, as they say. A psychedelic soul mantra. Taken as a meditation, it stabilizes and focuses.

Hoods and Shades is perhaps the most intriguing, feel-oriented, thematically driven effort yet from this musical legend. It's a record of psychedelic soul and growling 4am slow jams with a solid rock and roll backbone.

Some heavy punk-soul, brothers and sisters. This record has more grind in it than a 3 am cup of diner coffee. The original Black Godfather wants us all to know that he can still get around and get down with a Hellhound Sound that's as thick as an August night in the bayou. Barrence, possessing otherworldly pipes that range from a low feral growl rumbling the nether regions to a scream that would make Little Richard blush, belts out originals and crate-diver covers.

Effortlessly versatile and raucously dismissive of genre constraints, exciting and darkly romantic. Powerful and moving material, heartbreaking and hilarious, downtrodden and uplifting, suffused with longing, alienation, resilience and hop. Full of soulful urgency and longing, conjuring the ghosts of mates-in-spiritual-arms from Dylan Thomas to Johnny Cash. The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging where packaging is applicable.

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Skip to main content. Can You Deal With It? About this product. Stock photo. Brand new: Lowest price The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging where packaging is applicable. Can You Deal With It?. If It Wasn't For You.