DELANEY & BONNIE & FRIENDS

DELANEY & BONNIE & FRIENDS

“We’ve got to get ourselves together Take some time and know each other We’ve got to get ourselves together.”

Bands together enough to draw raves from both Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger are rare. Those together enough to do that and get invited to The Big Sur Folk Festival, the nation’s most prestigious folk gathering, are almost non-existent. There is really only one, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The Original; Accept No Substitute.

Their sound has been called “white gospel”. It is that in the sense that it has strong overtones of black gospel singing, primarily in the manner in which voices and harmonies are used but, even more importantly, because Rock and Roll is a neo-religious movement amoung youth the world over. The only way so many different kinds of kids can be drawn to rock is for it to draw from diverse and multiple sources. Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, drawing from almost every common source of rock, produce their own unique electrically eclectic kind of gospel for a new generation. It’s what Bonnie calls “Rhythm and Country Gospel Blues”.

It’s a crime that Delaney and Bonnie’s only Detroit appearance so far had to bomb because of the acoustical quality of Olympia’s ice-skating rink. Rock music at Olympia resembles ice hockey at the Grande. Added to that was the group’s dissatisfaction with Hanley Sound, a company used to doing what Delaney refers to as “psychedelic” groups. Yet, lost among these nooks and crannies in the cavernous arena, one could sense high energy and good feeling.

“It’s good music”, Bonnie said later, flushed and tired, and rather disgruntled by the band is inability to be heard. “And whether or not you like it, it’s good music.” In the age of the super-hype it is only the best of groups who can rely purely upon their music being good to make it. But Delaney and Bonnie and Friends are a rare set of people.

Delaney Bramlett raised on a poor Mississippi farm, learned blues guitar at the age of 8. After reaching adolescence in Mississippi he became an itinerant, vagabond guitar player. After a stint in the Navy he arrived in California, gravitating to Los Angeles where he became a member of the Shindogs of TV’s Shindig fame.

Bonnie, from Granite City, Illinois, has sung with all the “names” in jazz, r V b, and blues. Her original experience was in church then performing with Fontella Bass. By the time she was seventeen she was good enough to be invited to appear with Ike and Tina Turner’s Ikettes when one of the regulars quit. “I put on a dark wig because I’m blonde and Man-Tan ’cos I’m white and helped them out.” She wound up in California because that’s where everyone told me I had to go if I wanted to be a star. I wanted Jto be a star, so I went to California.”

She and Delaney met at the Carolina Lanes, bowling alley lounge, where Bonnie was playing with a trio called Sam and the Soul and he was gigging with the Shindogs. They dug each other enough to be } married somewhere between five days and two weeks later.

Delaney had a friend, Doug Gilmore, who introduced them to the people at Stax Records, the Memphis rhythm and blues label. Stax flipped out and signed them to a recording contract. They were the first white group ever to be signed by Stax. Nothing was released by the label at that time however not so much because Delaney and Bonnie weren’t ready but because Stax wasn’t ready for -them.

With the success of Delaney and Bonnie and Friends.’ Elektra lp. Stax’ opinion has changed however and a Delaney and Bonnie album on that label will be released shortly. That Ip’s production led to a historic meeting at Friends’ lead guitarist Leon Russell’s home. Delaney and “Duck” Dunn, producer of the album and the MG’s bassist, had taken several members of the Barkay’s horn section to Leon’s house to finish the taping and mixing of the record. While there the only other white Stax artist, Mitch Ryder, appeared along with several other music business people. It must have looked like the Los Angeles R ‘n’ B Festival.

That’s what makes “The Friends” a reality. Whenever Delaney and Bonnie play, the heaviest people in town drop by to jam. In recent months that has meant people like Jimi Hendrix, Steve Stills, and Buddy Miles. Dave Mason, ex-Traffic guitarist songwriter was the Friends lead guitarist when they were in Detroit (Leon Russell was home attending to his other work). They are “the group”, personal favorites of other musicians.

Their “discovery” was by a member of another group, Flying Burrito Brother Gram Parsons. He heard them at a San Frenado Valley bar, “Snoopy’s” and insisted that Alan Pariser of Group Three Management go see them. He did, the second night of their “engagement there, and almost immediately signed them.

The competition by recording companies for the group quickly commenced. David Anderle wanted them for Elektra, Beatle George Harrison decided he’d like them for Apple. Signed by Elektra, Harrison got the English rights for Apple but that deal fell through because Allen Klein, Beatle’s business manager, decided if Apple couldn’t have them worldwide, they’d have them not at all. Which is the way things now stand.

The Elektra album has sold over 40,000 records with very little hype. Bonnie calls it “just . . . plain ol’ music” and in some ways, it is that. But it is a unique combination and itergration of varied sources.

Heavy emphasis is laid upon vocals, especially vocal combinations. Basically the band features three vocalists on records, two on stage. Bonnie carries the main load with Friend organist Bobby Whilock singing a high, Righteous Brother falsetto way, way above her. The back up vocalist is Rita Coolidge with the addition of other friends and/or Delaney from time to time The manner in which the vocal are used is probably the primary reason why so many persons have found Delaney and Bonnie’s music reminiscent of gospel.

Instrumentally, the key feature is lead guitarist/pianist/arranger Leon Russell. Russell, one of the founders of the Alysum Choir, is a central figure to the group both musically and personally. “Leon’U always be with us, whether he’s with us physically not”, Bonnie says.

Bobby Whitlock, organist and vocalist, is the only Friend who will appear with Bonnie and Delaney at the Big Sur Folk Festival. The concept of utilizing just voices and one acoustic guitar evolved from the “Motel Shot” tour of this spring. Delaney and Bonnie and Bobby traveled hither and yon, playing for music people, to get themselves known. On the way, they did personal appearances at radio stations. It was the first time anyone had played “live” on radio in 20 years!

"Just... plan of music"

The invitation to tour with Blind Faith is a break all the way around. It puts a good group on the Blind Faith bill, gives Delaney and Bonnie much needed exposure and the audience gets to hear some real music, without the adrenalin-hype necessary for so many bands.

The disadvantage lies for Delaney and Bonnie, in the fact that they abhor playing what she calls “these big huge caves”. “People get greedy, you know? They get greedy and thy want to rent these big joints and the sound’s not there. But you gotta play them to get known, to get people to know who Delaney and Bonnie are.”

Neither Delaney, Bonnie nor the Friends are used to playing sit-down concerts. All of them except Bonnie come from the deep, rural South (and as for Bonnie, string arranger Jimmie Haskell had to see her before he’d believe she was white!) and all of them are used to clubs, playing several sets a night for a reasonable cover. Bonnie elaborated, “Why should you be charged $6 to walk in the door? One show a night what’s that? Nobody wants to go up for forty minutes. You just get it together and you’re off.

I’m talkin’ ’bout the work part, nothin’ that’s work comes free. Why should you have to work and I don’t? No man nobody in this business is worth $1100,000 a night. Not for one show.”

All of that is not meant to imply that they don’t want to play. “We xvanta pick, we wanta play Bonnie continued. And they do, under proper conditions. Proper conditions they feel would be two to four shows a night for $2 or $3 a person. As Bonnie notes, for kids “What is there to do today ’cept go to shows. $6 bucks a seat! Who can afford that, yoti know?”

It’s statements like that that convince you that Elektra was right in saying of Delaney and Bonnie “Honesty Is Back”. They’re real people and if their: music isn’t as harsh as some rock today their heads are out there with the kids. They’ve paid their share of dues and they know what it’s all about. Best of all, it hasn’t made their music or themselves cynical. You aren’t likely to be interpreted as “white gospel” if you're a cynic.

The honesty has rendered greater than usual success. After the American Blind Faith tour, they’ve been invited to go to Europe with the super-group. Eric Clapton will appear on their Stax 45, soon to be released. And in October they’ll be taping a NBC-TV special.

Pretty good for people doing just plain ol’ good music. For 10,000 other groups that would by a hype in itself. With Bonnie and Delaney and Friends’ it’s just another part of their essential integrity. Honesty is back; accept no substitute.