{"id":5165,"date":"2014-02-03T05:30:45","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T10:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=5165"},"modified":"2014-02-03T05:30:45","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T10:30:45","slug":"the-brotherhood-phil-volk-interview-part-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/03\/the-brotherhood-phil-volk-interview-part-six\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brotherhood \/ Phil Volk Interview, Part Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Five<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>We’ve spoken in the past about Brotherhood recordings that might still be \u201cin the can.\u201d I know that no finished cuts \u2013 that is, songs that were fully recorded and mixed down from multi-tracks \u2013 exist beyond what\u2019s on the albums \u2013 But are there multitracks out in your garage or something? And if so, do you think that the renewal of interest in the band might lead you to do something with those in the future? <\/span><\/p>\n

Phil \u201cFang\u201d Volk: <\/strong>Actually, there are a few songs that somehow didn\u2019t make the cut. They were recorded, and mixed down, but for some reason, we didn\u2019t include them on the albums. One was called \u201cProblem Child,\u201d which seemed a little juvenile, or even too teeny-bop for our current music direction. Another one that I\u2019m really sad we didn\u2019t include was our version of \u201cSlow Down.\u201d It was a killer version, and our old manager Leo Makota<\/strong> kept insisting on us releasing it as a single, but we were reticent about that, thinking instead that our main goal was to promote our original songs. After all, that was the main premise \u2013 the main guiding force and idea behind us forming Brotherhood \u2013 to get our original material into the marketplace, which we felt was relevant for the times.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We wrote all types of ditties \u2013 fragments of songs that never got fully completed or recorded \u2013 or if they did get recorded, they never got finished. We even dabbled with a very cool song that Barry Mann<\/strong> and Cynthia Weil<\/strong> had written for the Raiders. It was a song we had previously recorded at Columbia, but producer Terry Melcher<\/strong> decided to scrap it and not include on the Spirit of \u201967<\/em> album. It was called \u201cLong Way to Go.\u201d It was kind of a dark, eerie, druggy sort of love song, but it had a great musical hook \u2013 a constant, repeating guitar line \u2013 that was almost hypnotic.<\/p>\n

There are a couple more songs that I recall had been recorded, and mixed down, but weren\u2019t included. One was a song I wrote called \u201cColorful Day,\u201d a soft little sensitive love ballad, written in waltz time, that documents my slow recovery out of the darkness of the past two years in grieving my brother\u2019s death, as well as our painful and traumatic break with the Raiders, with all the lawsuits, and the inevitable struggles of Brotherhood to get back into the marketplace. My wife (the former Tina Mason<\/strong>) was the inspiration for this song, because she brought sunshine and joy back into my life at a time when I really needed it. Someday I\u2019ll release a version of this song on my own. It\u2019s a sweet tune. It was part of some of our experimental \u201cbootleg\u201d sessions where we held on to the tapes prior to doing any official recording at RCA. Friend Sound<\/strong>‘s Joyride<\/em> [also included on the new The Complete Recordings<\/em> set \u2013 ed.] was actually that \u2013 an experimental, \u201cbootleg\u201d session at Valentine Recording Studios. Ironically, RCA bought the master tapes and released it as an album, but none of it was done at our RCA studio. It was all done on the side and at our own expense, so it was fortunate that RCA picked it up \u2013 didn\u2019t question our motives, methods or legal protocol \u2013 and, amazingly, we ultimately got paid for it. I have to thank RCA for sponsoring and supporting our creative adventures, and giving us the freedom to experiment with our music.<\/p>\n

I have several tracks from these \u201cbootleg\u201d sessions. Often we would try out a song, but later change or modify it at RCA. So, I have a few rare gems of alternate versions of songs that later appeared on one of our Brotherhood albums. I have a very cool alternate version of \u201cFamily Tree,\u201d that I like every bit as much as the album cut.<\/p>\n

Decades later, I went to San Francisco and stayed at Drake\u2019s house for several days. He had built a beautiful recording studio in his basement. We recorded three songs. We mixed them down, and when were were finished, I think we both got a little sentimental thinking about our amazing journey we had made together in this crazy music world. Probably, one of the main reasons we both got a little choked up is that two of the songs were from our Brotherhood catalogue: a new and jazzy version of \u201cForever\u201d with my voice as the lead singer this time, and a quirky, rock beat version of \u201cBox Guitar.\u201d Drake had mixed feelings about these two new versions, but we had some fun with them, and I think they were decent, especially \u201cForever.\u201d My oldest son Christian thought it was a very fanciful, hooky, creative interpretation of the song. But the song that won Drake\u2019s stamp of approval was one of my originals called \u201cBlue Revolution.\u201d This bluesy, protest rocker is cut from the same cloth as many of our message oriented Brotherhood songs, like \u201cDoin\u2019 the Right Thing,\u201d except it was more funky and snarly, on the order of the Rolling Stones<\/strong>. I wrote it after the Brotherhood days, but it would have been perfect for us. Drake played some exceptional blues guitar riffs on \u201cBlue Revolution.\u201d That was probably the last time I really heard him play so great \u2013 with so much soul \u2013 before his cancer took him down.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>Some 45 years have passed between the release of the last of these albums and now. I’d like to know some of your thoughts upon hearing the masters again for probably the first time in a while.<\/span><\/p>\n

Phil \u201cFang\u201d Volk:<\/strong> It\u2019s funny you should ask that question. Because I would expect a question like that, but the fact of the matter is, hearing these songs on CD, remastered, and rehearsing with my current band Fang & the Gang to learn a few of these tunes has been nothing short of a very poignant, emotional roller coaster for me, from the word \u201cgo.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy for the emotions to be stirred up when I listen to each song, and remember each recording session. The vibe of those turbulent, creative, prolific years is still resonating with me, as if it were yesterday, but at the same time it feels like another lifetime, far, far away, and long, long ago! It\u2019s especially a sentimental journey due to the fact that my fallen brothers, Drake and Smitty, are no longer here to enjoy this unexpected revival.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s so amazing is that when my band started rehearsing these tunes I thought it would be a cake-walk, but as it turns out, it\u2019s been terribly challenging to re-create all that passion, nuance and creative range that\u2019s so indelibly stamped into each one of these songs. I\u2019ve gained a new appreciation for our musical prowess, and our unfading dedication to precision, soulfulness and groove. These songs have really held up over the years, and it makes me proud that we put so much heart and soul into producing this music. It really shows that we had \u201cburned our ships, and there was no turning back.\u201d We really believed in our musical mission. That fearless dedication to our musical vision really shines through in these albums. The fact of the matter is: the music lives on as a testimony of three guys who loved each other and wanted to leave a distinct footprint in the musical landscape. despite some very difficult odds. But at the end of the day, the music and the story have a life of their own.<\/p>\n

My children and grandchildren think that this music is pretty cool, and that\u2019s good enough for me!<\/p>\n

Click to continue<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

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Continued from Part Five… Bill Kopp: We’ve spoken in the past about Brotherhood recordings that might still be \u201cin the can.\u201d I know that no finished cuts \u2013 that is, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62,64],"tags":[427,1668,1796],"class_list":["post-5165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","category-reissue","tag-brotherhood","tag-paul-revere-and-the-raiders","tag-real-gone-music","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}