Blues Society of Western PA - Newsletter

E: It was a risky song. I was surprised that it got radio play. I don't think it would today. What motivated me to write that song was, that during the Vietnam conflict, which we saw for the first time on television. Peoples' sons and brothers were being slaughtered on the news every night. I saw a clip of film with a priest with a bottle of holy water who was blessing bombs about to be loaded onto U.S. jets. When I saw the reverend Father blessing bombs as they were being sent to devastate the people of Vietnam, I felt I had to make this statement. I remembered that "Sky Pilot" was the soldiers’ terminology for a military priest. We had a lot of fun recording the song because in LA at the time, we discovered that a military marching band from the UK was touring the country. We got in touch with their commanding officer and explained that we wanted to record their band for a record concept. We put them on the recording and paid them with cans of American beer. Sometime after, I got a letter from the Officer-in-Chief of the Royal Scot's Guards with complaints that we were using the recording of their band for anti-war purposes. I wish I had kept a copy of the letter, but I didn't... 
D:  Shortly after, you joined "War." Then another song that inspired controversy... "Spill the Wine." Most of us listened to the story and just enjoyed it. Others linked it to either "pot" or "heroin." I read that it was a song praising women. I loved it just as a departure from the standard rock and R&B I listened to back then. Can you tell us now what was the underlying meaning?
E: The lyrics have nothing to do with pot or heroin as some people would imagine. Was it praising women? Yeah, I guess it was. The truth is that there is a memory I still carry with me today resulting from a road trip to Mexico around 1973. It was beautiful, I'll never forget it. I was alone most of the time and travelled the length of the country in a 4x4 I had at the time. Memories of that trip came back to me after I joined War. Lonnie Jordan was fooling around on the piano and a mutual friend of ours came in. She had a certain sexual sort of gait. He played the piano in tune with her walk and that was the basis for the track. I was lying on the floor with a microphone and we laid out the track right there while the rest of the band was at the bar across the street. Later, Lonnie Jordan accidentally spilled a bottle of Red Mountain wine on the mixing board at Wally Heider's Studio 3. This shut the studio down for 3 weeks and now, I think, this can be considered the most expensive single in history. That incident contributes to the legend of the origin of "Spill the Wine," but the song is performed leaving the interpretation up to the listener.
D: Another change came when I saw you with the Animals years later - 1983 - and again loved it. I got the new album (yes, album then), "Ark." Who all was with the "Animals" at that time?
E: The album was recorded to accompany the supposed worldwide tour of the Animals reunion in 1983. I said that I thought that the 5 original Animals wouldn't be able to sustain a lengthy tour and play 90 minutes every night. I said that we would have to add a couple of people. The people that we added were percussionist Nippy Noya, keyboardist Zoot Money, and Steve Grant was on 2nd guitar. Those musicians plus the original Animals made up the band in 1983.
D: The time I enjoyed seeing you the most was a band that I absolutely loved was with a group called "The All-star Blues Band." If I remember, some of the band besides yourself was Alvin Lee, Ainsley Dunbar and more I can't recall, but the music was fantastic. I stood there amazed at all the talent on the stage.  I especially liked a tune called "No More Elmore James." I still remember it after all these years. Who all was in the band? How long did they play together? No recordings from them?
E: The All-star Blues Band to which you're referring, I can't recall all of the members, but the bass player was from Bad Co. "Boss" Boswell.  The tour was going well until Alvin Lee complained of a strained wrist and left the tour in Washington DC. That's when it all fell apart. I never saw any money for my work on that tour.

D: I then bought your solo CD, "My Secret Life." I liked especially "Can't Kill the Boogeyman" and "Devil Slide." Devil Slide seemed to be a story- what was the source?
E: I wrote "Can't Kill the Boogyman" on the spot in the studio as part of a jam. The source of "Devil Slide" was on the road in Spain with Louisiana Red. He was convinced he could find the perfect slide for bottle neck style playing and with it he could rule the world. He spent the whole tour in wine cellars putting the middle finger of his left hand into wine bottles. If he found one that fit his finger, he was going to break it off and that would become the mythic slide that he'd been looking for... He called it the search for the Devil Slide. However, he never did find the bottle neck that he was looking for. If he had, we would have all known about it.


Thanks, Eric ....Don Vecchio