Hiya, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Monday. How are you doing? Do you have a baby? If so you might be interested in this story... Lucy Kendall and her partner, Jaz Miller, have a beautiful newborn son named Oliver. Oliver was busy doing normal baby-type things, like gurgling and being adorable, when he started showing signs that something was amiss. He began recoiling in pain from Lucy's milk... weird, considering that most babies treat it like liquid gold... and developed a raised temperature. Lucy took him straight to the hospital, where he received a troubling diagnosis: he'd contracted herpes simplex 1. For adults, it's common and easily manageable with medication. For infants, it can be a death sentence. This is how Lucy and her family learned the hard way that it's dangerous to let people kiss and touch your baby. She took to Facebook to tell her story and issue a warning to new parents...
Lucy's story went viral, with some expressing shock at what happened... and others sharing their own experiences with children contracting the herpes simplex virus. Thanks to Lucy's responsiveness, Oliver made a full recovery and has returned to being a full-time bundle of cuteness. I appreciate her parenting skills and willingness to share something so personal as a warning to others. Keep all hands, feet, and objects to yourself, friends... especially if you're around a lil' bitty baby.
Melania Trump is still going through the motions of promoting this whole #BeBest thing, even though her husband be Donald Trump and he #BeWorst. Last Tuesday, aka the Day of Labor Day, aka the Day Wearing White Is Banned, the First Lady tweeted out a message to all the children not imprisoned by the Trump administration.
This charmingly vague word salad that would be almost interesting from a person not named Trump promptly got schooled.
Traditionally, clothing and beauty lines have always defined light-skin-toned undergarments as “nude.” So, unless you look like Gwyneth Paltrow, it was nearly impossible to find a nude-colored garment that matched your skin tone. The idea that nude only applied to fair-skinned people is one of many ways that people of color have been marginalized by the fashion industry. Now, American Apparel has expanded the industry’s concept of nude to include the vast palette of skin tones found throughout humanity. The Los Angeles-based clothing brand just released its new “NUDE” line, a collection of bras, thongs, hot shorts, and bodysuits in nine different shades of nude. "There is no singular version of the human experience, and no singular definition of 'neutral' " American Apparel said in a statement. The inclusive line also comes in a wide range of sizes, from XS to XXL. To promote the new line, American Appeal launched an ad campaign featuring models of all sizes, shapes, skin tones. Check it out...
The worst obstacle an Internet scammer can face is someone who scams them back. Luckily for the rest of us, watching a scammer get scammed is one of the most entertaining gifts the Internet has blessed us with. One of the current scamming trends involves scammers luring people into buying them iTunes vouchers. Oftentimes, these scammers will disguise themselves as a "hot woman" to seduce their financial prey. When Jay Hall from Virginia was approached by a female scammer, he was already fully aware of the scheme and decided to lead her on a long road of trolling. It started out normal, he played along as if he was genuinely enthralled with his new "babe," who was presumably a man who Googled how attractive women talk on an MRA thread. Hall quickly escalated the situation by demanding nudes and acting like a jerk, but still, this didn't waylay the scammer (further proving it was indeed a scammer and not a real woman). The trolling truly reached another level when Hall pretended he was going to buy the iTunes card, but kept asking the scammer if she'd like another card instead. He also successfully pretended to not know the basics of shopping. When he finally had (fictionally) purchased the iTunes card, Hall went on to take a series of indecipherable photos for the scammer. This naturally made her very upset. At one point, Hall even placed the iTunes card in his dog's water bowl. The meta-scam truly reached a fever pitch when he documented placing the card in the microwave, much to the chagrin of the OG scammer. In the end, the scammer revealed she knew Hall was "just kidding me baby," but even then, she didn't break the fourth wall enough to type like a real woman. This is truly an A+ meta-scam job on Hall's part, I look forward to his future work.
An anonymous Trump administration official would like you to know that they are what's standing between you at the apocalypse. The New York Times published an op-ed from somebody in the White House insisting that there exists an internal "resistance" helping curb "Trump's worst inclinations." You see how bad things got with the "putting kids in cages" stuff? Well guess what... it could be even worse! "Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back," the op-ed reads. The secret un-admirer doesn't say much that hasn't been reported before in many a shocking inside-the-White-House profile, but does, however, bring up a new plotline. According to the author, Trump's mental state and behavior are so dire, that LAST YEAR, Cabinet members discussed invoking the 25th Amendment. "Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until... one way or another ... it’s over." That's right, the people closest to him and tasked with implementing his ideas, think he should be out: The West Wing is likely in panic mode trying to find out who this mystery writer could be. The president may be crazy, but hey, at least people continue to cover for him!
So, instead of doing this stupid little blog thing I should be listening to this album...
Ummm... maybe not. I was thinking about getting a new tattoo but someone else already has the same thing I wanted...
Haha. That's a Mindphuck. So, have you seen the new Nike ad? If not, check it out...
So, do you know who would do a better job as president than Trump? A fucking penguin...
President Penguin signs an executive order and he looks rather pleased with himself. So, it's been so hot I thought I would show you a cheap thing to help you stay cool during the hottest damn summer ever.
Keep your friends in the backseat cool with this electric car fan. Just because you didn’t call “shotgun” doesn’t mean you should be hot AF because the A/C won’t reach the back of the car. It’s on Amazon for just $22. And now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York, here is...
Top Phive Couples Who Should Get Married
5. If Yoko Ono married Sonny Bono, she'd be Yoko Ono Bono.
4. If Dolly Parton married Salvador Dali, she'd be Dolly Dali.
3. If Bo Derek married Don Ho, she'd be Bo Ho.
2. If Ella Fitzgerald married Darth Vader, she'd be Ella Vader.
And the number one couple who should get married...
1. If Oprah Winfrey married Depak Chopra, she'd be Oprah Chopra.
Hahahahaha. That cracked me up. No out intended. If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. So, do you wanna play a game?
So, who is it? Danzig or Sigourney Weaver? Hahahaha. Okay, so, there's this inventor who likes to come on to the Phile and talk about what he's working on. None of his inventions would work I believe but he says he has a few more that he thinks will be successful. So I thought I'd have him back here to tell us what they are. So, once again here is...
Me: Hello, Mak, welcome back to the Phile. How's it going?
Mak: It's going pretty good, Jason, how are you?
Me: Hanging in there. So, what do you have this time?
Mak: You didn't like my 100% wood pencil last time I was here but how about a left handed pencil?
Me: Ummm... I don't know. That kinda went over my head for a sec. Ha.
Mak: Well, it's been so hot how about powdered water.
Me: Huh? Powdered water? How does that work?
Mak: You just add water to get water.
Me: Ummm... nope.
Mak: What about non-alcoholic beer?
Me: Mak, that already exists.
Mak: Do you like to play games? How about one sided dice?
Me: Mak, that's impossible. Your inventions are sucking worse than ever.
Mak: How about a machine that when turned on it turns itself off?
Me: That makes no damn sense, Mak.
Mak: Well, I have been talking to the Kleenex company and I approached them with the idea for Jalapeno scented tissues.
Me: Ha. I bet they'd love that. Is that it?
Mak: Yeah, it is for inventions but I have to say I am starting a new band.
Me: Really? What kinda music?
Mak: Christian metal.
Me: Ha. That's great. Have fun with that. Mak Asterbrous, the world's greatest inventor. So he says.
A small branch of Germany's government is still dedicated to hunting Nazis. Since 1958, employees of the Central Office for the investigation of National Socialist Crimes have been reviewing World War II paperwork to identity Nazis. They track down about 30 per year but will soon shut heir doors, because the raining suspects are either dead, or in their 90s.
Today's guest is the author of Where the Action Is!, the 86th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. He is also an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie," "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," and "Palisades Park." Please welcome to the Phile... Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon.
Me: Hey, Freddy, welcome to the Phile, sir. How are you?
Freddy: I'm good, I'm old now, but I'm good.
Me: Your book Where the Action Is! came out in 2012, but it's the 86th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. That's cool, right?
Freddy: Yeah, I'm glad everyone is loving it and talking about it still.
Me: What made it the time back then for you to tell your story, sir?
Freddy: I think I was pushed by my wife and my kids and just about by everybody because I had a lot of stories to tell. If you read the book, I don't know if you did, there's a lot of stories in there that people didn't know that I've worked with certain people and met certain people. The main thing is I wasn't a teenage idol, I was a rock and roll singer. I wasn't a teeny bopper or any of that cutesy shit. I was a rocker, and that's what I want to be and that's what I wanted to be. I was always categorized as teen idol, which I don't think I ever was. I didn't want to be.
Me: Was that a problem throughout your career, that you weren't credited as a rock and roller?
Freddy: Yes, that's exactly right. I never get the credit. But it surfaced now because of the book and I told it like it was. There's so many people out there who say, "He was with the days of Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Vee..." None of these people rocked like I rocked. None of those people made records like I made records. I made danceable hard rocking records with big loud drums. Come on, its crazy to put me in the same category as those people.
Me: Why do you think this happened to you?
Freddy: I don't know how I got in that, maybe it's because I started at the same time as all those other people so they just put me in there. They just stuck me in the middle of all of that stuff. Over the years I played with different people and I don't fit in a show with Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Vee... I don't fit in a show like that.
Me: What do you think of those other singers then, sir?
Freddy: Those people are soft, their music is soft! Even Bobby Rydell, he sings, and even though he had a couple of good couple of records his music is soft. He sings, he wants to be Frank Sinatra, they all want to be somebody else and not themselves and they sing songs that I don't. They style that I do is energy and theres is laid back. You follow what I'm saying?
Me: Yup. I think you would have fit better in shows with Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, am I right?
Freddy: You're right. I worked with Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry over the years. Little Richard, Fats Domino, I belong in those kind of shows. Not to be a headliner but to be a supporting act. I think my music fits, that's where I belong, not the other stuff.
Me: I know you were close friends with Dick Clark, you did a lot of the Dick Clark tours in the 60s. Did you ever think those tours were softer, with the artists you were touring with?
Freddy: Yeah, he had some shows that were softer, then he had some shows that were more rocking. The he had the black groups on the show he had to pit them in the category of the rock and rhythm and blues and that kind of R&B stuff. I fit in that music. That music is accepted by everybody because they're the ones who laid the grounds for everybody else like us. He had groups like that but when he did other shows with more of the Paul Anka, Avalon and those people. I went on the shows and I did the show but I felt that I was different from everybody else. I was saying to myself why am I singing rock and roll? These guys came out, they were getting receptive, don't get me wrong, everybody loved them. The fans and all the girls went crazy bit their music was like... I don't know how to describe it. To me it's all the same today. It's soft, it's cute, that's the word I want to use... it's cute and slick. I don't want to make records that are cute and slick. That's the way I felt.
Me: One of the things I found surprising was your mom wrote the lyrics to your first hit, "Tallahassee Lassie." How did that happen?
Freddy: She had a poem and she wrote this poem which was originally called "She's My Rock and Roll Baby." I put the music to that poem. If it wasn't for her, I always say that. God love her, she's upstairs there watching down on me and my family all the time. I miss her. My dad played trumpet, so music came within the family. It was always around me in some form or some way. Though my mom didn't play an instrument she was always writing poems and doing all these little things that she loved to do. She inspired me, and I miss both of them.
Me: I have to congratulate you, Freddy, you have been married to your wife for about 60 years now. That's so great. My dad was a professional musician and my parents were married for a long time before they both passed away in 2000.
Freddy: Yeah, she's a very, very supportive woman. She's been behind me all these years. You know, we have your ups and downs like everybody else but we stuck it out and it's really good. I've got a good woman, she's a good girl. She's always right behind me and always encouraging me and giving me advice. I ask her things and she's right there. She's the best.
Me: I'm sure it was hard at times, especially when your kids were younger, and you were out on the road. I did notice that she went out on the road with you quite a bit. When my dad was on the road we were lucky as kids to travel and go see him with my mom.
Freddy: She went out with me later when the kids were grown up. When they were younger, she would stay home and I would go out. That was kind of hard for her but that's what kind of a woman she is. She's strong. She put up with a lot of stuff. I mean, I'm out on the road and the girl's are chasing me and want autographs and the temptations but we survived it all and I'm happy that I still have her.
Me: The other thing that you kept coming back to in the book was that you have to have the talent but you also have to be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Do you think that'a true?
Freddy: I've always talked about that with different people. If you come across a band singing at a club or high school and you go “Look how good they are. Why haven't they made it.” I've got the answer for that and if anybody doesn't agree they can email me or call you and you can call me. The answer is you better have a good song because it doesn't matter how great you sing, you can sing anything, it doesn't matter, you need the song. If you don't have an original song that you can sing and becomes a hit, then you have nothing because it isn't ever going to happen. That's the whole key to this whole business. The song is first and the artist and everything else is second and third.
Me: I know you had your lucky spots, for example knowing Dick Clark when he put "Where the Action Is" together and you had the opportunity to do the theme, but also your timing wasn't there when "The Twist" came along. What the hell happened?
Freddy: Well, my timing was there. I didn't get the okay from Bernie Binnick who owned Swan Records, it's in the book if you read the book. Hank Ballard should have been credited with "The Twist" many, many years ago. He never got the credit that was due to him. I love Chubby Checker and Chubby is a nice guy, but he takes the bows for "The Twist" like he discovered it and he wrote it but it's not true. The truth of the matter is that Hank Ballard, and I know him and worked with him a lot out in California, he's the guy who wrote the song and sang it originally. Chubby just copies his song word-for-word, note-for-note when he sings it.
Me: The song was almost yours, right?
Freddy: I had a chance to cut it. When he went to Dick Clark with the record with the Hank Ballard record, Dick didn't like it. Dick didn't want to play it because he thought it was “too black.” Hank Ballard had a lot of black groups and they had a lot of hits before that song he wrote. So, what it was I had a chance and he said to Bernie Binnick at the office of Dance Spins, “Why don't you let Freddy cut 'The Twist'? He could do it. It's a song anyone could sing.” Bernie Binnick said to him “No, I've got "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" out and I can't put it out now.” What he should have done was say “Let's go cut 'The Twist,' hold it and, after 'Way Down Yonder...' dies out, put 'The Twist' out." That could have happened that way, too, but he didn't do that. He went over to Bernie Lowe at Cameo-Parkway and Chubby got it. The rest is history.
Me: The strange thing about the whole story is that Dick said it was “too black” yet Chubby pretty much did the exact record. That's crazy to me, sir. Right?
Freddy: Right, that's true and I don't understand that at all. Chubby is black, but he is lighter than Hank Ballard. Hank Ballard is really black, you could hear it in some of his other records.
Me: But the performance and arrangement are almost identical, right?
Freddy: It is, he copied everything. The only reason it upsets me, Jason, is that he had taken the full credit of writing it, discovering it... all these things. That's not right. That's not fair. Talk about Hank Ballard. Hank Ballard is dead now. Why can't you just say, “If it wasn't for Hank Ballard, I wouldn't have this.” Like I say about my mom, I wouldn't have anything if she didn't write the poem for "Tallahassee Lassie." I'd rather be honest about things than fool people.I don't want to pool anybody. In that case I love Chubby but I don't respect him for that.
Me: I don't know too much about Hank Ballard, Freddy. What can you tell us about him?
Freddy: Hank Ballard was the best. He wrote some great songs. So many of the songs he wrote, Chubby Checker covered them. There are about three or four of them Chubby did. This guy was a brilliant writer and he got no credit. Never made any money out of it. The last time I worked with him before he died out in California, he was going to sue the Oreo cookie company because they were playing "The Twist" for the new Oreo with the twist of chocolate. He was going to go to a lawyer and I said “Hank, if you want me to come to court to testify and be a witness, I'd be glad to do it.” He just smiled at me and said, “Thank you, Freddy.” That was it. I never saw him again before he died. It just saddens me. I don't like to lie to anybody and make up stories. I'd rather be honest. That why that book is the way it is. It's telling it like it is. There's no phoniness in that book. Everything is coming right from me.
Me: If you look back, so many of the R&B artists were victims. Maybe not as far as what Chubby Checker has done, but you thinks of songs like the Clover's "Devil or Angel" and, of course, Bobby Vee had the hit with it. There are so many examples of that.
Freddy: You're right. They should have gotten credit and they still should get credit but they don't. The people just forget. Maybe you do it on your blog, like to give it to certain ones but most of the time they don't recognize that the people who wrote these songs or originally recorded them...you don't even hear about them. That's ridiculous. It really is.
Me: You had a really good run of hits back in the early 60s in a day when one-hit wonder and people who were popular for a year or two. You had a good six years where you were in and out of the top ten a lot. How did that make you feel?
Freddy: I got really lucky, Jason. I call it luck and timing like you said. Everything else worked right. The songs were right. I remember one thing that Bernie Binnick at Swan Records said to me, “Freddy, the reason you're going to be around for a while, the reason why you're making records that people are buying them and you're getting hit records on the charts is because you're different from everybody else.” He was right. We just talked about that. I was different from all those teen idol people, different then all those other people making records at that time. My stuff was hard and loud and noisy and danceable, everything. That was the best thing that ever happened to me because I always wanted to make that and do that. That God for that.
Me: Was it Bernie that came up with the idea to cut songs from the 30s and 40s in a rock style?
Freddy: Yeah, he did. "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" was Bernie Binnick's idea. I thought he was crazy when he said it to me. One day I was in Philadelphia at Swan Records office and he said we were going to go cut "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" and I said, “Bernie, my dad plays that in a band. The kids won't buy that.” He said, “No, no. We're going to cut it but the way we're going to cut it, they're going to buy it.” He was right. I was against it because it was an old song. Who would buy the song? He did it as a big band rock sound. That record was like a giant in England. It was number one for about twelve weeks in England so there you go again.
Me: It's hard to even try and talk about all of the people you knew through the years. It was obvious from the book that, between touring and friendships, the amazing people that you were friends with from Jerry Lee Lewis and the people you toured with, but I was most struck by your “kidding” relationship with Elvis. Can you tell us about that?
Freddy: This guy was really a wonderful person. Nobody knew until you got in the same room with him and in his company. He was a fun guy. If he could be open and be out on the street, he probably would have loved that. He was so secluded and being hidden all the time. It was so much for him. Being in his company, Elvis Presley was a jokester. He loved to have fun. He just couldn't do it out in the open. He had to do it secluded.
Me: What was it like when you first met Elvis?
Freddy: When I met Elvis Presley the first time in Memphis at the Peabody Hotel, it was a thrill. He demonstrated karate on me and he flipped me over on my back. He almost broke my back. He ripped his pants. The thing was, when he turned around and said to me, “Freddy, I bought 'Tallahassee Lassie' and put it in my jukebox at my mansion.” All these singers were in the room. There was Fabian, Avalon, Rydell, Chubby Checker... you could go down the line... this was a big tour and everybody on the tour had hits on the Billboard and Cashbox charts. When he turned around and said that in front of all of them, he made me feel like a hundred feet tall because he didn't do that with any of the other people. Only my record. He liked my record because it was rock and roll. That was the biggest compliment of my life.
Me: One of the really amazing things that I found in the book was the fact that you own all of your masters. How did you manage that?
Freddy: Oh, definitely. I don't know if there was more than between five and seven people in all of this business, new acts, old acts, that own their own masters. I lucked out like crazy. I've talked to so many people... nobody has their masters. Big labels have bought them up and own them. Universal, Capitol, Warner Bros... they own everything and here I am, a little record company, owning 160 masters of my own records. Album cuts and everything. God has been good to me and my mom upstairs has been watching over me and doing well for my family. I've been pretty lucky that way.
Me: The great thing about that is that a number of artists who have gone back now and rerecorded all their music so that they own a master of that music even though it's not the original. You don't have to do that, right?
Freddy: No, I don't have to and I don't think people who collect those kind of records want to hear a rerecording. They want the original one. I don't think you want to hear a remake of "Tallahassee Lassie" unless it was good enough so that the young people, who don't know me, liked the song and they buy it but the people our age who know the music and are the collectors... they don't want to hear somebody who goes and cuts an album of songs they did before. You're never going to get it to be the same. It's never going to sound right. It's not going to be the same feeling that it was before. I don't care how they do it or what they try.
Me: I know that, right now, art is occupying a lot of your time. I have to show one of your pieces.
Me: Do you like to draw?
Freddy: I love drawing and I do pencil drawings of famous faces and I have some of those in the book. I like doing that. It does take some time up for me to do it.
Me: So, did the Rolling Stones cover "Tallahassee Lassie"? Something tells me that they did.
Freddy: Yeah, the Rolling Stones cut "Tallahassee Lassie" in 1978 and just released it on their album "Some Girls," the deluxe edition of the album. They cut the song and they put it in there. It sounds really good. For them to cut that, it's a compliment. I mean, I inspired them and other acts and, being a rock and roll act, that's the kind of people I want to inspire. Order acts the same way. That's the thing, if I'm a rock and roll act then great, because that's the kind of people I want to inspire.
Me: What did you think when you first heard their version?
Freddy: The minute I heard that the song had come out, I turned around and went in my computer room and wrote a song called "Covered by the Rolling Stones." It's on iTunes. It sounds awfully good. It's a real rock and roll record. It's me and my two sons as the band. One's a guitarist and one's a drummer. We went into the studio with their band and cut this thing. It's nothing like the old Freddy Cannon. The music is like now. It's a real rockin' record. I'm excited. I had to do this. It's a compliment to the Stones. It's the whole story is about thanking them for cutting "Tallahassee Lassie" and all that stuff.
Me: Cool. You mentioned in the book that you went to a Bruce Springsteen concert and he opened the show with one of your songs but I couldn't find which one it was. Which song was it?
Freddy: Well, he didn't play it. He played the record. It was the Tunnel of Love tour so when he came through the turnstiles, like he was coming through a park, he would play over the speakers before the show started "Palisades Park." It was so loud and so big and everyone in this place, there must have been 15,000 people here in Los Angeles in a big colosseum, they're all singing "Palisades Park." I'm sitting in the audience, I didn't even know if they knew the song and there were kids there singing it. What a compliment that was.
Me: That's so cool. This is crazy. There's a story in the book about Robert Plant seeking you out after a show as he was a fan and loved "Tallahassee Lassie." What can you tell us about that?
Freddy: They cut it in a blues version before they became Led Zeppelin. It goes down the line. Why is it these English acts love this song if it wasn't really a rock record? This is what these guys play. They're rockers and that's what they like and, so, I want to be categorized where I should be. The influence is there and they make me feel 1,000 feet up in the air.
Me: Do you think your music is more popular in Europe than here in the United States now?
Freddy: Yes, and they work all the time because people want to see them. They're the best fans. They're really into it. I've toured there so many times and they have fun. They love to talk to me. They want to find out all this information, how did I start, how did I write this, how did I do that... they're knowledgeable and they'll pack an auditorium over there of 2,000 or 2,500 seats. They're sold out. They can go fifty dates and sell out every date. That's how much the people love it.
Me: What's your impression and opinion of where the record industry is now with the digital and so forth? I know, for example, you're able to get out your new song very quickly.
Freddy: Right. That's a good thing. The only thing I think, Jason, is against that is that there are many great artists that are not on record labels. They can't get a record deal. I'm talking about people from the '80s and '90s... they have no labels now. They had hits. The only problem with this is, and it includes me, is how does a kid find the song "Covered by the Rolling Stones" by Freddy Cannon? How is he going to find it if he doesn't hear it on the radio? That's my question by anybody I can tell you about it and you can tell all your readers, that will help me a lot but how the heck, if they don't hear it on the radio. A few stations around the country playing it so the kids say, “Wow, I've got to go to iTunes to listen to it and buy it for 99 cents." Other than that, I'm honored that I've been accepted to iTunes. I have to be accepted on iTunes. They won't just take me, you know. I have to prove to them that I am an artist blah, blah, blah, back and forth. They accepted me right away.
Me: It's unfortunate that most acts today, unless they are one of the ten signed to a major label, the only way they are really making money is through touring and merchandising. Can you believe that?
Freddy: It's been like that for a lot of years, anyway. It started way back in the 60s and 70s. A lot of acts never got paid and I'm one of them. When I was with Swan Records, I never got paid. I was always in the red. I always owed the label money and the producers money but, when I got to Warner Bros. Records everything changed for the better. They treated me right. I got paid for records. I didn't have a lot of hits on Warner Bros. Only two or three but there was no question that, if the records did well, I got the checks and they were great. At Swan Records, I got nothing.
Me: I think that, if you look at the roster of acts that were on Warner Bros. right through to the mid 70s, they had to be a quality label because the very best were on there. Do you agree?
Freddy: Yes, they were and, as I said, they were good to me and I will always complement them for treating me right and, in the end, when the deal was over, that's when I got all the masters back from them. I don't know if they knew what they were giving me but that was a blessing.
Me: That's so cool, Freddy. Thanks so much for being own the Phile. Please come back again one day. I hope this was fun.
Freddy: It sure was, Jason, thanks for having me on your blog to talk about my book and music.
That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Freddy for a great interview. The Phile will be back on Thursday with Michael Schenker from Michael Schenker Fest. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.
Not if it pleases me. No, you can't stop me, not if it pleases me. - Graham Parker
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