Once
You’re a Blaster, You’re Always
a Blaster”
Interview and photos By Phil Rainone
After The Blasters amazing show at The Saint,
I sat and talked with Phil Alvin in the back
“lounge” of the club. I had a
dozen questions prepared which I thought might
not be enough, but Phil gave some interesting
answers that led to other genres of music,
easily filling a half hours worth of chat.
Before we started I gave Phil a Blasters tribute
album that Mike Lyman (a big Blasters &
rockabilly fan), had put together a few years
ago called, “Blastered.” Phil
was impressed with the quality of musicians
that were featured, including Josie Kreuzer,
a fellow Californian, and The Saber Jets,
from Ireland.
Q: First of all, it was a great show!
Phil: It was? Thanks! It seemed dry on stage
(the sound) but ok out in front. We call it
“The T-Bone Walker Theory.” T-Bone
told me many years ago… probably 35
years ago! He said, “ Sometimes you’re
playin’ a gig and the stage sound is
really good, but the audience is not responding
like you’d think they would. Other times
you’re playin’ and you’re
thinking’ ‘Fuck we sound like
shit,’ but the audience is going, “YEAH,
YEAH, YEAH!”- And T-Bone says, “Oh
, that just means that your stage sound is
bad.” I didn’t know what monitors
were until I was 26 (laughing). So we call
that, “The T-Bone Effect.”
DJ Lenny Lounge
and Miss Kit Kat were among the celebrities
in attendance
There’s another “T-Bone Effect”
too which is, “How Do You Follow Somebody?”
One time Freddy King… one of the most
phenomenal guitar players of all time was
playing. Me and Gary Massy were playing with
T-Bone at The Purisan Room. T-Bone would play
at The Parisian Room twice a year, that’s
in Hollywood. It’s like the Black Hollywood
jazz club. T-Bone would go there for two weeks,
twice a year. So Freddy King had the hit (Phil
singing), “I’m going down, down,
down…” And Freddy King was huge,
he was like 6’ 7” - just huge!
So he came down (to The Parisian Room), too,
and T-Bone was “The Cut King.”
He’d “cut” (play better
than), everybody on guitar, and he’s
from Texas, and so is Freddy King , Johnny
”Guitar” Watson… all those
guys are from Texas. So Freddy King came down
at the height of his glory, and came in to
play a little “cut” with T-Bone.
Gary, the guy who was with me gave Freddy
King his guitar. Freddy King couldn’t
stand up on the stage because he was too tall,
his head was hitting the ceiling, so he had
to stand off the stage. So he played four
or five choruses of great guitar, and than
T-Bone played some “T-Bone guitar”
and “cut” him! T-Bone had a lot
of personality, and you could tell Freddy
was kind of pissed-off.
So
the next Saturday night was the last night
T-Bone was going to be there. Freddy King
came in, he had a white whore, and a black
whore on each arm. He had a red, metal-flake,
three-piece suit on, with platform heels that
were like six inches tall, so he couldn’t
stand up in the club (laughing)! He walked
in an he had his red, ES3-35 (guitar) with
him, and he was out for fuckin’ blood
(laughing)! And T-Bone knew it too!
Freddy King came up on stage - he didn’t
come on stage he had to stay off stage, and
he played ten of the most hellacious choruses
of guitar that you could-ever-possibly-imagine!
I swear to God, I saw it, it was ;like…
oh, fuck! I was sitting off sage, and I’m
looking at T-Bone like, what the fuck is T-Bone
gonna do?! So, T-Bone takes his guitar, and
when he would play his leads he would lay
it flat. So he turned his guitar flat…
looked over at Freddy King… looks at
the audience… and he goes… he
takes his guitar off, stands up an he turns
it around backwards- like you’re suppose
to, with his left hand, sets it against his
amp, and starts to walk off stage… but,
OOP! The guitar would let him go (laughing)!
He just goes (strumming the strings), Ba-a-dat-da-dat!-
Looks at the audience, looks at his guitar…
tried to walk away again, BA-A-DAT-DA-DAT!!
Picked the guitar up, looked at it…
BA-A-DAT-DA-DAT!! BA-A-DAT-DA-DAT!! For two
choruses he just went… BA-A-DAT-DA-DAT,
BA-A-DAT-DA-DAT! And he “cut”
Freddy King with one hand (laughing)!! And
one lick! Never changed the lick!
Afterwards
I said, “T-Bone how the hell did you
do that?! He said, “Aww, that’s
easy! When ever they leave em’ with
a big show, with a big… burst, you just
come in real cool! And if they leave ’em
real cool, you just come in with a BIG BURST!”
And that advice has been true since than!
But if I could ever make a movie, that would
be one of the things in it… Freddy King
got “cut” by T-Bone…. Freddy
King was PISSED OFF (laughing)!!
As he interview progressed, people would
wonder in, asking for an autograph, or to
chat a minute, and Phil was really easy going,
interesting and fun to talk to.
Q: Was Big Joe Turner an influence
on The Blasters also?
Phil: Yeah, and he was also a friend. We
started backing him around the same time as
T-Bone. They were both good friends. So much
advice was given to me by him.
I remember when we were playing at the Parisian
Room with T-Bone, I learned so much about
the music business… about the difference
between publishing royalties and performance
royalties. Performance royalties were suppose
to be given to you for being on a record.
At the time I thought, ’OK…’
I knew about guys that wrote songs. Then I
was at a party in Downey, California (where
The Blasters lived and got their start), an
some guy had a Lee Michaels’ album,
and it had “Stormy Monday” on
it. So I said , “That’s my friend
T-Bone’s song. So the guy said, “No
it’s Lee Michaels’.” I said
,“Yeah I know, but it’s T-Bone’s
song.” So the guy got the album out,
and it didn’t say “T-Bone Walker”
on it anywhere. So I borrowed the record,
took it to T-Bone at The Parisian Room that
night… I said, “Hey T-Bone, his
guys got “Stormy Monday” on the
record, but it doesn’t have your name
on it.” T-Bone took the album, turned
it over, it said, “Stormy Monday…”
looked down under it, didn’t see his
name. Pulled the album out, looked on it,
didn’t say his name, put it back in.
He Slapped it… he goes (slaps his hands
together), “THAT’S KING’S
MONEY!! I can get that money! - He got 24g’s
(24 thousand) for it!
So about a year later, Joe Turner says, “Bring
your boys down (The Blasters), were going
to go invade this recording session he’s
doing for Pablo Records. He said, “They
got some boys down there, but were gonna take
‘em down.” He always called Gene
Taylor (original keyboard player for The Blasters),
“the guy that plays like Pete Johnson.”
So we went over to Joe’s house and watched
him eat breakfast for like an hour (laughing).
A HUGE man… like, eight eggs, a whole
loaf of bread for toast… Then we’d
go down to this studio, it might have been
Dualtone… I’m not sure what it
was. So we go down there, and who’s
there- it’s MILT JACKSON, and all these
guys from the jazz quartet… and we’re
going, “Joe, shut up!” And Joe’s
goin’, “No I want my boys playin!”
(The band to Joe), “No Joe, No!”
Finally we talked him out of it… I
mean ,he’s friends with Milt Jackson,
and all those guys (laughing)!
So
we stayed back in the studio an watched them
record this session,. So the so-called producer
and engineer are there, and we’re 17,
18 years old. I heard the producer go over
to the engineer and he says, “Do you
know that Joe Turner doesn’t want any
Performance Royalties for these records?!
The guy goes, “No!?” (Producer)
‘No, he just wants a flat fee! Doesn’t
want any Performance Royalties! The engineer
goes, “ Well, that’s crazy! Than
the producer, so-called says, “Yeah,
crazy!”
So when I was driving Joe home I said, “Hey
Joe listen, I heard this producer say to the
engineer, that you didn’t want any Performance
Royalties, and they said it was crazy. Joe
said, “YOU CAN’T GET THAT MONEY!!
Then I realized, ok, “KINGS MONEY, I
can get that money,” T-Bone… that’s
publishing money… That’s because
The King (T-Bone), owns songs! But Performance
Royalties, they made those Mother- fuckers
upsome time n the 1960’s, and you can’t
get that money!!
The first time we went to Warner Brothers
(Records)… and also a guy I learned
a lot from was Bob Hiatt, from Canned Heat,
“The Bear.” He told me, “Why
don’t you try to tell them that you
don’t want any Performance Royalties,
just have them pay your union wage, and watch
what they do! So I did! And NO, NOT A CHANCE!
They would not take it back! What a funny,
firkin’ world! So there’s three
lesson I learned from T-Bone, Joe, and Bob
Hiatt… and so many guys.
Phil
goes on to talk about The Beatles, Rolling
Stones, unfair record contracts, and this
gem of advice…
“Part of the job of music is not to
be “new,” it’s to bring
forward the collective knowledge of those
that came before you, in a language that’s
got context, so that it has meaning. Context
has meaning! Music has held our history, and
our desires, and our icons… Part of
your job as a musician is to latch on to those
an pass them forward. To take anachronisms
out…remove the “ice box”
which becomes the “refrigerator.”
“Smokey Joe’s” been pushin’
drugs, been a cool guy for 2,000 years…3,000
years, probably before they even had writing
as a medium. Our histories are held in music…
music caries our culture. That’s what
I saw Joe Turner and T-Bone doing. I’ve
been trying to be an 80 year-old blues player
since I was 14,and I’m more than halfway
there now (laughing)!
After thinking about what Phil had said
about “Carrying the music forward,”
few days later, it hit home. The Blasters’
wrote “Help You Dream,” which
has a 50’s DooWop shuffle to it, and
it’s a story about a guy and a girl
meting at a bar, trading the same old lines
like, ”Do you come here often…”
But the song is given a fresh take, as The
Blasters’ bring the listener along for
the lonely ride that’s filled with hope
and desire, much like a Hank Williams song,
or more recently, Lucinda Williams, who can
dig as deep into her soul, celebrating the
pleasure and almost drowning in the pain.
Another good example of “carrying the
music forward” is how Bruce Springsteen
& the Seeger Sessions Band unearthed older,
traditional songs like “Jacob’s
Latter,” “Pay Me My Money Down,”
and “American Land,” adding and
subtracting genre’s, coming up with
an amazing, fun, and adventurous album and
tour! And Southside Johnny With La Bamba’s
Big Band took Tom Wait’s turning them
into “new” standards, “carrying
the music forward.” The list is almost
endless, and it’s not as easy as it
sounds. Remember Huey Lewis & The News’
Version of “Jacob’s Ladder?”-
I didn’t think so.
We talk about Dick Dale, Los Straightjackets
& Big Sandy playing at Asbury Lanes, bowling
(Phil’s average is 260- he’s bowled
one game in his life, so he doesn’t
want to ruin his average), Wanda Jackson,
and Rev. Horton Heat. We could have gone on
longer, but the band was ready to leave, and
The Saint was getting ready to close. Phil
Alvin was very generous with his time, and
his stories. I can just imagine the stories
if we had the whole band sit in on the interview!
Maybe next time…
Then, Scott from The Saint pokes his
head in as we finish up, asking Phil to sign
the wall (most of the club is covered with
band’s stickers, and in the back room,
where the bands hang, the walls are signed
by the artists). Scott picks a spot where
he says to Phil that another Californian had
put his name on the wall next to where he
was going to sign. I looked at the wall after
Phil was done singing, it said…. “Bradley
Sublime ‘95”
This year The Saint is celebrating its
14th Anniversary.
