CHAKA KHAN: BACK…FROM BACK IN THE DAY
By David Nathan, © 2007, Soul Music.com
Los Angeles, October 11, 2007: I’ve been talking to Chaka Khan since 1974. You can read our
original interview right here at the Soul Music.com Archives. It’s been deep. Through the years, I’
ve been a witness to her through-the-fire-days, her almost-have-it-together-days, her I’m-ready-
for-the-world-days and her where-the-fuck-am-I-days.
I’ve played my all-time favorite “Egyptian Song” literally among the ruins of a Luxor temple in
Egypt on a funky little cassette and felt the hair stand up at the back of my neck as Chaka wailed
as only Chaka can and Clare Fischer’s strings melted into thousands of years of history. Deep.
I’ve run into her at airports, had lunch with her at L.A.’s Newsroom (where she cussed out
Warner Brothers when the execs who were paying for our lunch excused themselves for a
moment or two!), watch her interrupt members of Rufus midway through an interview while she
paced back-and-forth in an altered state, laughed with her till we both fell out when she was
recording some call-outs for radio stations in London and she used some unmentionable terms
which led me to threaten to ‘come into the booth’ much to the terror of the British recording
engineer who thought we were really gonna throw down!
Chaka’s heard me cuss – like really cuss – as recently as July when we were in London at the
same time after that recording session and the driver didn’t know where he was going and I
missed my train! She’s seen me turn every shade of red when she addressed me as “Mr. Thing”
when introduced to me by a Warners publicist who didn’t know we had known each other since
the beginning of her recording career!
I’ve watched her kick down microphones, circa 1975, forget the names of song titles on albums,
circa 2005, do great shows (at The Strand in Redondo Beach in particular) and bad shows (at the
Hollywood Race Track). I’ve interviewed her a bunch of times and was right there when she first
coined the phrase “I’ve been to hell and back in a limousine!” when we chatted for her “I Feel For
You” album in ’84. I helped come up with the title for her album “Classikhan” in a conversation
in which I suggested it be called “Classic Chaka.” We’ve laughed lots, talked much shit, gone
deep about music and its impact, she’s heard my music and being a real cheerleader for it, she’s
someone I’ve grown up with…
And I love her (thanks to The Beatles for the song title).
Watching her at a recent AOL taping (thanks, Karu, Tammy and J’ai), I marveled one more time at
how this all-too-human-but-soaring-spirit-encased-in-a-five-foot-nothing-frame can open her
mouth and sing from the very top of her vocal range effortlessly with no build up, no prep, no
nothing. Just s-a-a-n-g. I remember the day when me and my soul brother-cool-friend Jeff and I
got into an “Aretha vs. Chaka” conversation. I mean got into it. I think it was the only time we
got seriously mad with each other ending up with a good ol’ “Fuck you!” “No, fuck you!” Of
course, that was long gone and now I don’t see any point in any comparison between any
singers. They each got their thing and Chaka’s got hers…and I’m there for life.
A few months back, I interviewed Chaka for her bio for her new record. I was already hooked on
the music on the CD when we talked: I loved what Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and their
production team (including the Avila Brothers) had done for the appropriately-titled “Funk This.”
I loved the song “Angel” which Chaka explained had started out as a poem written – her quote –
“in an altered state,” most especially the line “inconsistent, flying blind most of the time, drama
queen” which summed up the state most of the people I know (including myself!) live in,
pretending to have it all together but really not. I loved that she had the guts to cover Dee Dee
Warwick’s 1969 soulfully-neo-hysterical “Foolish Fool” and that so many of the original tunes –
“Back In The Day,” “One For All Times,” “Super Life” – were Chaka compositions and that the
overall feel of the album made it her best album in a decade. I played it over and over and still do
for pure pleasure and enjoyment.
Beyond its use for the bio, I did extract quotes from our original interview for use in the British
“Blues & Soul” magazine article for that publication’s 1000th issue. For the benefit of those who
didn’t see that (which is most of y’all!), here are some of the questions and answers along with
some additional material which came from an interview we did on October 3, 2007 on the phone.
DN: What do you think of your career since 1974 when we first spoke?
CK: I think it’s been a good one, it’s been a career full of fascination! It’s been
immensely rewarding - although not in a financial way at all! I’m fascinated at my willpower, how
I’ve been able to keep the love alive in myself, how I’ve been able to keep going. I’ve had a
recent epiphany: that God gave me this voice and that it has had a wide influence, that I can do
something empowering with it. When I think about it, I might have done many things differently.
But if I had I wouldn’t be the fascinating woman I am!
DN: What is your favourite Rufus album?
CK: “Ask Rufus” – because of tracks like “Egyptian Song” and “Earth Song.” I think then my
self-expression was kinda embryonic, introspective. I was writing about my feelings, stuff I was
getting from my dreams. When we were doing that album, I was in a landmark kind of place
creatively..
DN: And your favourite Chaka album?
CK: “Whatcha Gonna Do For Me,” and that has more to do with what was going on when we
were recording it. We were in Montreux, Switzerland and it was a wonderful time in my life. I had
my kids with me, my grandmother, we were living in a chalet , we could go out to the lake and
watch the swans, the ducks… And then, working with Arif Mardin and having the best musicians
on the planet! We had the best of everything on that album – Steve Ferrone from the Average
White Band on drums, The Brecker Brothers on horns…a real super band..
DN: What’s your view of the current music scene?
CK: I’m still listening to Joni Mitchell, Miles (Davis)! I do love Ledisi, I think she’s amazing…
Rahsaan Patterson and Anthony Hamilton, I love him! There are only a few people I really love –
there’s hope with singers like Jennifer Hudson and of course Mary J. I listen to jazz stations but
I don’t listen to mainstream radio. You can’t dirty up your ears listening to most
radio…especially if they’re playing the same song over and over and if it’s some bitch who can’t
sing!
DN: You mentioned when we saw each other yesterday (October 2) that when you were in the
studio with Terry Lewis, he would ask you your name every day. Can you say more about that?
CK: Well, he saw my ‘complications.’ For almost a week, we played music, talked about life. He
absolutely he got to the loss I was feeling. I wasn’t feeling anything at all. It was like a session
with a therapist of the highest kind and the therapist was love. These were frightening times for
me and he was very easy with me. He would say, ‘I can tell you don’t feel like singing tonight, so
go home.’ That’s insight. That’s what I had with Arif Mardin too.
DN: So Terry would ask you to say your name?
CK: Yeah, it was like ‘who are you?’ as a way for me to remember who I was. I didn’t think about
it before. My automatic response was ‘Chaka Khan’ and you can be on automatic and it works
for a while. You see, I had been lavishing in ‘Yvette’ (Chaka’s birth name) and this was not time
for her. And ‘Chaka Khan’ was feeling insecure, I mean, it was like ‘oh dear, oh my…’ So when
he would ask me my name I would have to think about it, think about who Chaka Khan was, who
she is…
DN: I can tell from listening to “Funk This” that it is very different from anything you’ve recorded
in a long time…
CK: Yes, chile. As I began to work with Terry and the Avila Brothers and Big Jim Wright, it was
like here’s the butterfly coming out. A particular kind of metamorphosis was taking place.
During the recording process, I was challenged to affect Terry – and he wouldn’t let anything go
out of the studio unless he ‘felt’ it. This man is a genius and an angel, a preacher, a brother to
me, one of the smartest intellectual human beings I’ve ever met, such a blessing and joy for me.
I was spending some time with someone who understood me, who could teach me, tell me the
truth. He loved my DNA – he ‘got’ me as human being. And there’s nothing more beautiful than
to be understood.
DN: Wow, sounds like making this album went way beyond the creative process…
CK: Well, I was also having an epiphany personally. A whole new set of people has entered my
life and a whole set has exited. It was like a ‘metapiphany.’ People come to me, step to me
differently now.
DN: Finally, we gotta talk about the song “Angel.” When first heard it, I was like, ‘she’s singing
about me and everyone I know’!
CK: I have bravado – that’s always been part of my image as Chaka and we all know how to put
on a face for only so long. The song implies that and it references a place where we can all meet,
an honest place where we exist without make up…without pretense…
DN: How did you feel “Funk This” would be received?
CK: I hoped people would be excited about the CD. I always felt that it might have an impact. It’
s got a certain ‘nakedness’ to it….
And here, y’all, endeth the Chaka Khan lesson: which summed up, might be, ‘always be true to
yourself, don’t hide what you feel, express yourself and be love.’ My words, by the way, bearing
witness after thirty-three years of knowing Chaka Khan and being able to testify that she is in a
great place musically, personally and spiritually and her latest record epitomizes her
‘metapiphany,’ funky, real, honest just like the music from back in the day. Amen.
Page Title
| "Dedicated to bringing you the music you love" Motown Magic, Philly Soul, '70s Funk and so much more! (c) 2007, Soul Music.com, LLC E-MAIL:info@soulmusic.com |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| SOUL MUSIC.COM SUPPORTS WE INVITE YOU TO DO SO TOO. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS ON HOW YOU CAN EXPRESS YOUR SUPPORT AND APPRECIATION FOR THE R&B FOUNDATION AND ITS PROGRAMS BY DONATION |
| THE SOUL MUSIC STORE The No. 1 rated site for classic R&B and soul music |
| Join the Soul Music.com Mailing List! |
The interactive home for Soul Music.com, connecting the soul music community the world over!
|
