|
|
In 1989 Dion was once again riding on the crest of a wave. His return concert was 2 years behind him and Yo Frankie LP was on the market. As usual he favoured his most loyal fans by granting them an open question and answers session , with an occasional musical interlude.
This was all recorded on cassette at the time and is now transposed into this article. Because of the less than perfect nature of the recording some of the questions are off the record (and so we have guessed at them) and some of the answers fade away.
This however does not detract from the overall experience of this unique session . While some the ground has been covered by other professional interviews in YF, some of the replies are sufficiently distinct to justify their full inclusion, even if by now the replies are a decade old. The real bonus is that the questions are asked by fans whose knowledge is a lot greater than just the early hits and the latest press release. What this article can't convey is the humour of the night.
To give a more logical sequence for the reader, some questions and answers have been rearranged .
_______________________________________
DD How ya all doing? Anybody got some spaghetti? We just flew in from LA, we're working with Tom Petty, - 3 days I got to see 3 free shows. You remind me of my family - I come from a huge Italian family - 350 relatives - they all talk at once - But you guys aren't talkin .
Let me start off with a song. Maybe I can start off with a Gospel tune. I was recording Gospel music, I did about 5 albums. Let's see if I can do it (Plays Center of My Life and has the audience sing along).
I'm suppose to be teaching this Class?? I'll tell you anything you want to know. Well I don't know how to do this but what do you wanna know?
Musical influences
Q Did you have any form of music lessons ?
DD What happened to me is , I grew up in the Bronx NYC and I love it. Now as the years go by I appreciate it more and more coming from the neighbourhood and my accent is getting worse. I used to hang out when I was a kid and there was this guy Willie Johnson , who was the superintendent of this tenement building and on those hot august nights he would sit on the stoop, when the fire hydrant was spritzing and cooling cool every body off, and sit and play the blues - but I didn't know what it was - but I picked up a lot to play. This guy changed my life at 11 years old - I didn't know what it was . You know I cut school and went to his house - teachers thought I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew I just wanted to get close to that stuff. I didn't know why.
DD Then I met this guy , The Rev. Gary Davis who lived in the Bronx and was a blind guitar player It was the funniest day I had, because I went down there with my girl at the time, cause I wanted to take guitar lessons and learn how to play. So I went down there to Harlem, and found his house and his wife was in the kitchen and she says, sit down - he was in the bedroom with a big J 200 Gibson and he says to me, sit down. So I sit down and he says, "do this" (Dimucci plays a fast complex blues riff) - he didn't know how to teach - I expected him to show me something and he said like Do this and I said Do what? He said like this is what you do. (DiMucci plays another riff). I went for a few but like so, they just taught scales and I wasn't into it. - I just learned from records like Hank Williams - he's early rock'n'roll to me because there was no rock'n'roll - it didn't exist - Hank sang like this (plays Honky Tonk Blues ).
DD To me that was like rhythm , I just liked that - I didn't know what Honky Tonk meant. Maybe today you guys know as an Italian kid from the Bronx I didn't know what it was. I went to a store on Fordam Ave. in the Bronx and this guy helped me search out the Hank Williams records. I had about 200 Hank Williams records by the time I was 13. I was talkin to Bruce Springstein once and he said Man you have a sound like Country, Doo-wop and rock'n'roll - I said it's like black music filtered through an Italian neighbourhood - it comes out like an attitude, but it does! - I had a whole bunch of different sounds like Ruby Baby - you could see like it was Honky Tonk Blues but like street corner - like Hank Williams with Doo-wop.
Q About Rock'n'roll and rap-(reference to the Paul Shaffer( David Letterman's band leader) record
DD Oh what I did with him -I don't know what he's doing. I just did a show with him - he did 10 records on his album that were all indigenous to different parts of the country. He did a country tune in Nashville and a rap/ Doo-wop in New York What he did was - I don't know what it is. We did it, I don't know if you saw it on the David Letterman Show. We had rappers and to see Paul Shaffer was hysterical, - to see him dance was even funnier , he had Fresh prince and Houdini on each side - these guys were dancing their brains out . Paul Shaffer was trying to keep up with them - I said Paul stand there and sing the song - he thinks he's black - he's almost gonna cripple himself.
The comeback ?
Q What inspired you to go back and do a rock'n'roll album.
DD To tell you the truth I have 3 daughters and and they are wonderful witha great sense of humour, they are an inspiration to my life - 22 ,20 and 15 - they are all so different - They came to me and said dad we're sick of your bull shit - go to work . I'm not one of those guys who love going to the airport, I love being home, I love sauce on Sunday, but basically they encouraged me. It just started happening because - I'll get serious - I stayed away from the hit records of the 50's and 60's because I didn't like the way it was presented. That Sha Na Na mentality like everything's stupid - like I wanna choke them . Teenager In Love, I know its a wimpy song, I'm not trying to make it more than it is , but I was serious about that song . This song was our lives , so I don't like people making me look like I was stupid . I really loved this stuff, so I was uncomfortable , I didn't even know why . So I got into gospel music because I could express myself . I came from a rigid family they looked warm, but were afraid of emotions . I used to say I'm frightened - I was told you shouldn't be frightened , its stupid, you shouldn't feel like that, don't feel like that -So how the Hell should I feel? - so I had a chance to go to music and express myself , without making everybody uncomfortable . It was always a kind of sacred place where I could go and be me- be honest . To goof on my hits, I never did it.
Then Bruce Morrow called me 2 years ago for the CBS show and said will you come up here and do an hour and a half of what you want to do. It just felt right and I said yes. A funny thing happened that night . A lot of people know about that show and call it a come back show , but for me I was always here, I didn't come back . But in a sense I came - it was taking me out of the closet -it was like I had put this guy in the closet, and I went over there and did the Wanderer and all those songs and something beautiful happened . The people, something connected in me that was laying dormant for a Long time and the people who came to the show, fanned me to flames , it was like a pilot light then . what happened that night it put me all together - the past what I did, what I was doing (gospel music and raising a family) . What I wanted to do was put them all together, and I expressed that in this new album Yo Frankie. To me it was a gift - like I came alive , fully alive , so New York has been great for me - I thank you - does that make sense?
Production
Q Do you prefer producing your own albums or working for Dave Edmunds or Phil Spector.
DD Is it easier producing your own albums than being produced by Phil Spector or Dave Edmunds? With Phil Spector it was forget it , I could write a book from that experience , he's one of a kind . What happened when I met Phil Spector, I made a decision to give him the reigns - unfortunately he wasn't in a good place . He was working on a John Lennon album and I don't know where he was at. It was a very confusing to me and the album came out as a dirge - there were no lifting powers in it anyway I did it and I learned a lot, what can I say.
DD With Dave Edmunds ,with the Yo Frankie album, what happened was CBS asked me to do the Radio City Music hall show and I did it . Arista records was in the audience and came back to me and said Dion we think you have a lot to say and are singing better and we feel you can make a 1980's album - a contemporary album - and I said I'm ready - so we signed some contracts and I was thinking this is wonderful they came to me for an album and we're gonna give it a good shot , relax and give the bat a good swing . I was prepared. So I knew I was going with Dave Edmunds , so I gave all the songs to him - man I had a drum machine - talk about a budget , so I knew exactly what I wanted to do . So I put on the drum machine and said Dave what do you think of this .(plays I've got to Get To You).
DD Then I had some friends put down some parts for me , so I didn't want to leave anything to chance , I really feel like its my album . It wasn't like they said here are 10 songs for you to do . I felt like I got myself on that album and that was a joy doing it - Dave is great working with , he's really a guitar virtuoso , everything he's ever heard for Jerry Lee Lewis to Eddie Cochren , he's like a computer , he's amazing , so it was fun working with him. For me I need to express myself on record, if I can even capture the first take , like on King of the NY Street there was one take , I sang like, I really got into the character , it was almost as if I was on a trip and I was enjoying it so much - to me it was best that way . If you try to produce me too much , the Bee-Gees do that wonderful , they are incredible producers and Bob Dylan is the opposite end to that - it's like Salvador Dali its different , Dali is a draftsman he gets the paper and puts the ruler down - he did the last supper and then you got guys like Van Gough, who can't wait to get the paint on the canvas, take the paint right from the tube - the sun give me yellow - so I guess I'm in the middle , I like production and I like expression . When you hear an album and you hear the person on it, that's what I like - Jackson Brown , John Hyiatt and people like that.
Support act comparisons
Q. About Yo Frankie Dion and the Belmont and emphasising the chorus - was that your idea ?
DD What it was, is want it is. What it is I don't know , I wasn't thinking of going back I just thought I did what was right for the song . Actually I did this song called Serenade and it is a pretty song and I wanted to get Johnny Maestro from the Brooklyn Bridge to sing on it . So I called him and it never worked out - the track was just guitar and piano - I did it one night like 2 in the morning . I told Johnny, but it didn't work. I ended up in California with Dave Edmunds and what he did was to put 5 voices on 5 mikes, and sang on all 5 mikes and did all the harmonies and it came out kind of linear, and I'd much rather have all the voices - I think Johnny would have had much more personality with the Del Satins - but that just happens . I liked it. I thought we caught some magic, so I left it alone, that's the way it goes.
DD On the next album I some writing and did some doo-wop things some 1990's doo wop thing.
Family relations
Q How do you feel about working with your daughter. I watched you in concert with your daughter, you seemed to have a glow and on your last video ?
DD Do you know what it's like looking into her face, my daughter Lark. Its like my daughter sings and she's delightful - she's the cutest kid - she's like light bulb - she always talks, a chatter box. We'd say who is this kid who came into the house - he doesn't shut up . Its easier to work with her, she's a girl - if I had a son that age I'd tell him to go get a job . I was talkin to Neil Diamond and his son came on stage and next night they all had signs We want Christian - he used to say, get your own band I got enough troubles , but its easier to work with a girl .
The early days
Q How did you learn to sing with your won band and get paid professionally.
DD This is a wild storey , I don't want to get sued . I was like hangout out on the stoops , we were a gang , the guys on the corner, we thought we were bad, cool . There was this XXX guy in my neighbourhood who was kind of a da dutz, The kind of guy you used to goof on. You used to say com'on sing that song and we'd goof on him. This guy had a brother who wrote songs and knew someone who wrote songs in a record company, Laurie Records. And this guy is the last guy you think is going to get you into the business , and he said we should sing for them . You would think I was like an executive who knocked on doors to say I have a record here, but it wasn't like that. It was like we were over taken. It overtook us, we lucked out. I went down there alone and I auditioned with a 5 Satins song (Wonderful Girl) and they put me with this group that sang like they should get out of business. I said I got some friends and I went back to the Bronx and got Carlo and Freddie and Angelo, which was the start of Dion and The Belmonts . We got this ballad that Carlo wrote called We Went Away . Then we got the next song together .It went, Wella Wella I don't know why I love you.... So Carlo was asked to sing Wella Wella and Carlo said I ain't singing Wella Wella, You sing Wella Wella,. He wouldn't sing Wella Wella . We was listening to Red Prysoc and big Al Sears , so Carlo said lets be cool and do Dun, der, dun, I don't know why, and that was how it started. Back then there were no rules, no expectations - we were inventing it as we went along . There were no rules, like the Beatles were great - they were really experimenting with their sounds . Today I don't know if it would happen that way - you need 50 thousand dollars of equipment , you gotta pay to even showcase a band - its different .
Q In 1961 every time I broke from my studies I heard Run Around Sue - I thank you . Did you really enjoy that song and tell us about Sue.
DD First of all I'm married to a girl named Sue. She'd love to think that song was about her , its good for the image you know , but basically it was about a girl named Cynthia, but it didn't rhyme with anything . How that song was born - in the 50's the guys would get together and have a party up in the school yard. After school one night and sometime in the evening we started Hep Hep Bum di Hati Hati. Everybody sang hep hep for about 40 minutes - we didn't have a song , we didn't have instruments so it was like home made music - it was like the rappers do - guitars weren't even popular . The point is it was very spontaneous it felt so good that next day I got together with Ernie Maresca and wrote a song. And when we recorded that song and took it back to the neighbourhood. Everybody who was at the party that night said we ruined it. It was true most of the stuff that happened on the corner was great - just an ounce of that kind of magic really made on impression on people. It was very spontaneous .
Q The difference between the Belmonts and the Del Satins
DD Yeah they were different. The Belmonts were 3 individuals I really appreciate them now. To be honest with you, I thought these guys loved music as much as me, and it took me a long time to realise thye were just great, but they didn't want to get into the business. When I listen back to I Wonder Why and That's My Desire, I say how did those kids do that, cause we were like 17/18 years old - Man we had an attitude and a half. It was great, T-shirts spaghetti stains man we were like hittin it, and they were 3 individuals - Carlo liked jazz, Freddie used to sing second tenor in falsetto - kind of a weird sound and Angelo loved opera - he used to sing Julie and Arveta and this kid took lessons and he was a pain because he had perfect pitch and used to drive us crazy. So those guys had a wonderful sound of their own . But working with the Del Satins, they would lay this blanket down you could sing on. They gave me an opportunity to ride away - with them you could do anything . What basically I would do with them was give them the horn parts because again I would listen to all these records and then make up the horn parts for the Del Satins - and I would sing on this blanket of sound . They had a smooth sound like the Duprees. They're the Brooklyn Bridge today - most of them sing with Johnny Maestro..
Today's music
Q How do you feel about today's music with all the midis electric guitars & techno pop . How do you feel about that ?.
DD I can't make that kind of music but when I listen to the new Donna Summers record it blows my mind it just brings my spirit up , its like it has resurrection power - like I even try to dance , but what I'm saying is I appreciate it. I can't make that kind of music, but thank God I can enjoy other peoples music .
Q I'm in the industry and it seems like all you have to do is be a programmer.
DD I gotta tell you I got a friend, Little Steven , he just made an album and he put an incredible amount of time into and programmed stuff. An amazing amount work went in to it, but its not catching, so nothings easy. Even if you're an expert, something has to happen .
The songs
Q How is writing rock'n'roll different from gospel .
DD Music is neutral, its not bad, good ,complicated, simple - its an expression - music is a tool you can sell hamburgers with it , used cars - sex drugs rock'n'roll. You can use it any stupid way, or good way . Some of the kids like on MTV - my Christen brothers say "we don't like that" , but what I see is an honest cry of desperation in some of the groups. I appreciate the talent - I may not agree what they are saying, but God gave them a lot of talent. When I write gospel songs what I do is focus in on God . This is just me talkin - God is like unconditional love , You focus on this perfection its all positive , it's real uplifting music but when you're making rock'n'roll, secular music, you're focusing more on yourself, your journey to grow , your weaknesses, your doubts, your reality . So that's the difference .
Q so do you say , I'm gonna write a gospel song or a rock'n'roll song now .
DD Oh boy, I'm not a real structured person. Sometimes I feel very close to God and all of a sudden I start thinking of my kids and my wife and people, friends and things that happened in my life and I start crying maybe I'm not weeping, but it wells up and I feel very grateful and it feels kinda - out of highs and lows, a good song will come out - sometimes its gonna give praise and thanks - there's beautiful video that Van Morison made - Have I Told You Lately That I Love You - its on this mountain top and he's singing to God - He gives thanks and praise to God -its beautiful and it knocks me out - I love it . Then I like rock and roll like Bonnie Rait - its just a different expression - so with music its how you're feeling . If you write songs it comes out,, like Abraham Martin and John - well I didn't write that, but I was part of putting it together. I t was a frustrating kind of period - but a good song came about.
The blues
Q Can you talk about the blues . Sit Down Old Friend it's one of the few solo albums - just you and the guitar where you had 4 or 5 songs that were just the blues . One song had a peculiar rhythm - Jammed Up Blues can you play a portion of it .
DD No -I know, I don't know - Someone told me that was 6/8 time and I tell you the truth, I can't even play it now - I wrote it - I did it and I forgot about it and I never did it again because - maybe it was too contrived for me . In the 60's I was hanging out in the village and what happened was a resurgence of the blues and you had like Lightning Hopkins and cats like that, and the college kids started to discover these guys from Mississippi and New Orleans and started coming into the village and doing folk and blues music . I went out and got a dumb pick so I could play like Lightning Hopkins . I tried but they never came out quite like those guys -Like I said its black music filtered through an Italian neighbourhood , it would come out all different ways. I listened to some of the folk singers too and that's what came about that period. (Sings Abraham martin and John)
Business in the Rock'n'roll years
Q Talk about business in the early days.
DD Back then we would do these songs we didn't know we were producers, writers, or arrangers . People's names were put on our records, "arranged by..". We'd come in with a whole song - what idiot would come in and arrange dit dit dit dum dit, but some funny things happened back then . We used to go in a room with some musician who was educated at Julliard who knew how to take sounds and put them on paper so you can send them off to get copy-write . So the Belmonts and I walked in did our song - we didn't have control over our own destiny - my father never paid taxes, he never made enough money to pay taxes, so I didn't know anything . A lot of people got really hurt - like Little Richard just got lawyers in - lookin through the books and getting some money from those people . I was talkin to Al Cooper of Blues Project and he was telling me some of his war stories about royalties . The Wanderer and Run-around Sue is coming back to me in the next year , but for the last 3 years Michael Jackson bought the royalties to Run- Around Sue and its the first time I got paid on them . You can't get to these people because there's so many layers . One thing for me was money was never a big issue , I'm not a fool , I don't go around saying you can take my money - I don't mean it like that , I'm not gonna sit in a room and get bitter at people. I'm not gonna sink to that level. If they want to hold onto their money God bless them.- I got a lot more important things to do . I've never got so bitter that it could kill some people. I'd say " I'll show them, I'll write another song".
Q Did you get to meet Elvis Presly.
DD Yeah I met him once briefly in Cleveland - no I never did. When I was a kid saw him as King Creole and I wanted to be Elvis. I went home and did one of these and nearly broke my back,. Must be only black people and southerners who can move like that. The rest of us can't. Italians just stay squatty and stay on the floor and stamp their feet like this. It's true.
Did you compare what made a rock'n'roll number 1 back in the 50's and what make it now - is there a difference in the time .
DD Its a really good question but its hard to answer .
Q Thinking in terms of payola and radio stations, was it as prevalent than as it is now?
DD I really didn't know then and I don't know now. I don't really know what happens , I'm sure it goes on . I think if you do someone a favour and he plays your record and its got it, it will happen. - its in the groove. No matter how much money you give somebody if the record ain't got it its not gonna get into anyone's heart. I thought your were talking in terms of what really moves people, it's different for everybody. Like I said the Donna Summers record has it. The first time you here something, the Bee Gees record, Oh that's nice I like it.
Q Did you know Buddy Holly
DD Yeah I knew Buddy Holly - I went on tour with him for about 2 weeks, when that fatal plane crash occurred . It was a very exiting time for me because I had ideas about music and I was all excited about rock'n'roll - the shows - the Allen Freed Show - I found something I could be a part of - like all kids you don't want to feel separated . I felt a part of something and I got on a bus with Buddy - he was from Lubbock Texas and he was about 3 years older than I was - I was 19 he was 22 and I'll always remember him as very mature and decisive - he could always make decisions , like I dunno XX if it was the culture, the family or whatever . If you ever see the Buddy Holly Storey the movie, it was the best movie ever made about a rocker, but Buddy Holly, he was really like that , he was a very decisive guy . So it was very exciting for me to hear his music , to play guitars on the bus -the new Fender guitars just came our and were in competition to see who could make it ring the longest . Then we had this kid from San Fernando valley Richie Valens and he was a great rhythm guitar player - we were on the bus digesting all this different music and it was very exciting and it was devastating when that plane crashed . I was 19 years old - it baffled me because I belonged and made friends with these guys , we were close . A rug was ripped out from under me and I started asking serious questions like what is this all about - it was baffling to me . Buddy was a funny guy because the world was much larger then, because there were no jet planes - I thought Texas had dirt on the street I didn't know there were cities. When I met Buddy he carried a gun - to me anybody who carried a gun was a gangster - I was from the Bronx - you don't carry a gun in the Bronx unless your a gangster and dangerous . Buddy carried a gun and said nobody's taking my money . I didn't know everybody in Texas had guns . They had them mounted on the back of trucks - you can't ride through the Bronx with guns mounted on the back of trucks .So it was like a different culture . He was wonderful. I miss him.
Q 1 About Doo-wop , rock'n'roll, gospel and the Beatles. How does it feel to see some major star, or have all these artists like the Beatles who put you on their cover, to be an influence on these people?
Q2 About record company pushing you to follow Bobby Darin's footsteps to cabaret. Why did you resist .
DD You learn that you music touched their heart and touched their lives . It feels good. It hard to relate to it anymore than that .
DD It's funny The company had realised with Little. Richard and Chuck Berry that you couldn't do anything with those guys . To be honest with you, They were black and they weren't gonna put then in the Copa or clubs , so they let them go . There was nothing they could do with them. But me I was an Italian from the north , so all of a sudden I got lumped into Bobby Darin and Frankie Avalon , Frankie Vallie - all those Frankies, Frankie Sinatra . They'd say isn't your name Frankie? They didn't know what to do with me in this new music and I didn't know what I was doing . I tried and I was insecure so I listened to a lot of people and did a lot of stuff that really diverted me from what I started with and I didn't like it so I stopped. Just stopped. I got all the arrangements and put them down the incinerator and said I'm gonna do Dion music, and that's what I've been doing. People say to me you did folk you did this, you did gospel - to me it's Dion music - its what I wanna do . Right now I feel I'm just doing real well .
Q What do you remember about the Belmonts re-union concert of 1972.
DD I do remember. The one thing I remember about that concert , we didn't rehearse it - we just got together - we threw it together, we went out there and it was scary . The one thing I remember was that the audience was a thousand times better than we were . We couldn't make a mistake - they just gave us so much - incredible.....
The middle ages
?Q How has your writing style evolved from the 70's to the 80's .
DD Its funny, I guess its opened up a lot because ,in a sense I have more awareness today, I raised 3 daughters , so in a sense, I went into gospel music . What I was saying is these are some of the principle I tried to follow in my life. I'm not perfect but these are things I tried to pass on . These are things I try to live. As a bad example, in myself I know its like icing on my defects , but its like these things I didn't have- when I was 18, I wanted to get a big belt and be like Elvis (Dimucci goes into his macho with attitude act )"The Kid is here, Yo" - I was like full of myself , I was serious I wanted to be like Elvis , I went to see that movie 8 times, so it comes around now and all these years I'm still writing the same - I wrote this tune called King of the NY Streets but its only like in a different perspective, because back then I didn't know it ,it's kinda confusing. What I do best is write about strong characters I love writing about Donna the Prima Donna - just making up pictures , the Wanderer - so King of the NY Streets falls right into that thing, a real strong character - the only thing is now I give myself a little disclaimer at the end of the song - not to take it too seriously . I have more awareness today ,so the songs , my perspective , musically I think I'm a little better , I'm singing a little better and I think I'm expressing myself a lot better - um - I don't know - I guess I'm always gonna grow and I'm always looking to learn a little more the roles . I'm excited about now because I really enjoy a lot of the songs on the new album .
Like I was just out in California and just put a new band together havin' a ball doing it. I think the thing I like is I now have a lot more control with what I wanna do - I'm not listening to so many voices , I'm open to everybody I work with, but I'm making the decisions in the final product - something I didn't always do in the early days .Got swayed a lot, I was insecure as a kid .
Q Do you write the Lyrics or music first .
DD Sometimes I have a whole melody and start writing the lyrics and sometimes I just have the lyrics - I could be on a bus or something and just start writing they lyrics and then work on the melody later- so, as it comes
Q Do you still write with Bill Tuohy
DD Yeah we've been together writing a long time , I think we're getting better. I wrote about 6 songs on the Yo Frankie Album with Bill Tuohy.
Q About Streetheart . Was it anyone special.
DD Streetheart was , to me, two words that sounded nice together . Well basically, you know who has been close in my life is my wife .My wife, Susan, I met her when I was 15 years old .Her father, thank the Lord, lost all his money and she came down from Vermont and she was beautiful -She came into the neighbourhood- she had auburn red hair - she wasn't Italian .She looked different. You know when your15, your heart, It took me a year to say hello. I didn't know how to talk to this girl . She basically always been the love of my life - She's been my best friend, my partner, she's been wonderful, Here's a girl who accepted me at my worst, well we really accepted each other, because she's not perfect either . Sometimes people only see the image, they only see the surface , they don't see the times you hurt or the times when your down or frustrated . She's loved me and she loves my weaknesses . When somebody loves your weaknesses, Because with the rest of us, we are just trying to prove something . She love me at the core of who I am, the good and the bad . We have a strong relationship because we've walked through the valley with each other for better or worse. Most marriages are, I'm not getting what I want, I'm getting out of here and she's never been like that .She's taught me a lot about the meaning of the word love . I used to say it a lot but I really didn't know what it was . I was out for myself anyway I could get it .
Q The Return Of The Wanderer contained some of your best music on that album. How did it come about .
DD That was fun to do . I had this band we put together, it was fun . I think that spirit that I was trying kind of flourished, I think it really all came together in this new album and I think its getting stronger now because of the people and the encouragement . To me the business is wonderful today. It has its faults, I guess like anything else, but what I see is with the third forth and second generations of rock'n'rollers . Paul Simon came up to me and said he wanted to sing on the album , I didn't pay him, but that kind of encouragement and that kind of support of people - its wonderful - I pray I can give back like that to someone. I feel like the business is much more of a community today . It cuts away the fatto some real human stuff , instead of just everybody just out for themselves in some kind of a competition thing, and it turns me on . I feel part of it rather than some other kind of spirit . Its wonderful thing.
Your a great audience thank you for sitting here and just listening . Let's call it a day and we'll sign some autographs.
