{"id":21218,"date":"2021-07-02T05:30:32","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T09:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21218"},"modified":"2021-07-02T10:25:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T14:25:43","slug":"10-albums-that-changed-my-life-emilio-mimi-castillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/02\/10-albums-that-changed-my-life-emilio-mimi-castillo\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Albums That Changed My Life: Emilio \u201cMimi\u201d Castillo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"For more than 50 years, Tower of Power has been bringing its soulful brand of funk to hit records and energetic live shows. In 2018 the nine-man band \u2013 plus guest\/alumni singers and players and a full string section \u2013 returned to where it all began: Oakland, California. There they played a two-night concert celebration, documented on a new album and DVD, 50 Years of Funk & Soul<\/i>. Band leader and saxophonist Emilio \u201cMimi\u201d Castillo runs down ten landmark records from his personal collection.<\/p>\n

The Platters, <\/b>The Platters<\/b><\/i>
\nThat’s one of the first records in my remembrance, when I was a little kid. My mother said that at six years old, I would be sitting on the toilet singing \u201cOnly You,\u201d verbatim. I just loved the Platters.<\/p>\n

Bill Doggett, <\/b>Everybody Dance the Honky Tonk<\/b><\/i>
\nMy father was a bartender in Detroit, and my parents were nightlife people. They had Black friends. My dad dug people like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington; I was exposed to all that as a kid. I remember seeing my parents dancing in the living room when they brought that Bill Doggett record home. I loved the saxophone, and I thought the record was hopping!<\/p>\n

Nat King Cole, <\/b>Unforgettable<\/b><\/i>
\nOnce again, it was an album that my parents had. My dad loved singers; I guess that\u2019s where I get it from. People ask me, \u201cWho’s your favorite sax player?\u201d I say, \u201cIt’s not really my thing. My thing is singers; it always has been.\u201d And Nat King Cole is one of the finest. I love songs<\/i>: great lyrics and great melodies. Those songs by Nat King Cole were phenomenal.<\/p>\n

Booker T &the M.G.’s, <\/b>Green Onions<\/b><\/i>
\nGreen Onions <\/i>is the first album that I bought. You just heard it, and it was like, \u201cMan, that’s cool!\u201d After I bought it, we had a party. Kids came over to my house, and we were all dancing in the back yard by the pool. Years later, [guitarist] Steve Cropper produced Tower of Power\u2019s second album, Bump City<\/i>, uncredited. He also produced 1978\u2019s We Came to Play!<\/i><\/p>\n

Otis Redding, <\/b>In Person At The Whisky a Go Go<\/b><\/i>
\nThat album is pure energy: listen to \u201cI Can’t Turn You Loose\u201d and your heart will race. We played rock \u2018n\u2019 roll when we were teenagers, but by the time I was 16 and I heard this record, I discovered what I wanted to do as a band: soul music.<\/p>\n

Sam & Dave, <\/b>Double Dynamite<\/b><\/i>
\nI remember I went to see Sam & Dave at Basin Street West in San Francisco when I was 16; I was right up front. They had a 13-piece band. When they did \u201cWhen Something Is Wrong With My Baby,\u201d they did it so slow that you could fly to Tokyo and back between the two and the four. It was unbelievable. I think this record changed a lot<\/i> of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

The Spinners, <\/b>Spinners<\/b><\/i>
\nThom Bell was the producer; I studied that record like going to college. One day, I listened to the bass parts. Another day, I listened to the tom toms. And the backgrounds one day, and the strings, and the guitar. It changed the way I produced records.<\/p>\n

The 5th Dimension, <\/b>The Magic Garden<\/b><\/i>
\nThis is one of the greatest albums ever made. Jimmy Webb wrote most of the songs. Right when Stephen \u201cDoc\u201d Kupka and I started writing, he turned me on to that record. He had a background in Broadway show music; I had never listened to that stuff. We listened to the entire album over and over.<\/p>\n

The Impressions, <\/b>This is My Country<\/b><\/i>
\nThat album has a song called \u201cMy Woman\u2019s Love,\u201d and it has a really high, beautiful trumpet intro. We loved it. Doc had come to me and said, \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing with other people\u2019s songs is amazing, but why don\u2019t we write our own?\u201d I said, \u201cWe can try that, but we\u2019ll have to write a trumpet intro like Curtis Mayfield\u2019s \u201cMy Woman\u2019s Love.\u201d That\u2019s how we started \u201cYou\u2019re Still a Young Man,\u201d the first song we ever wrote.<\/p>\n

Ray Charles, <\/b>A Portrait of Ray<\/b><\/i>
\nThat\u2019s an album of all ballads. One day many, many years ago, I put the album on. My girls \u2013 who were eight and four \u2013 asked their mom, \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter with Dad? He keeps listing to that sad record!\u201d It\u2019s so moody; I love it.<\/p>\n

You may also enjoy<\/em><\/strong>: My 2021 interview with Castillo and Dave Garibaldi<\/a>\u00a0 and\u00a0My 2014 review of a live Tower of Power radio broadcast recorded in 1974<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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