This is DJ Lance Rock. Former Amoeba employee and host of Yo Gabba Gabba.
I'm here at the world famous Amoeba with the world-famous Bootsy Collins.
The name is Bootsy, baby. I'm so glad to be here with you DJ.
Alright!
This has nothing to do with music but he kind of helped me get through my childhood a little bit.
He kind of gave us the go ahead to just be what we wanted to be, y'know?
And to laugh about it.
Yeah, that was key.
To laugh about it was key.
So black people, we the first people that had thought
Right? We was the first ones to say, 'where the fuck am I?
and how do you get to Detroit?'
When he's telling a story about his grandma making him get a switch
to whoop 'im. You can relate to that in a way.
Oh, not only...not only in a way. It was funny and it was real.
Absolutely.
This is brother Lonnie Mack.
When I first started playing, when I was nine years old
my brother used to practice, y'know a lot of guitar
and they used to play a lot of Lonnie Mack songs
Wow.
And, so I started listening to Lonnie Mack
I never got the opportunity to to meet him when I was a kid
up until around 2005, so I got a chance to tell him how he inspired me
because I learned all of his songs
Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know that.
On guitar, y'know, I was playing guitar.
Genuine house rockin' music they called it
And the key too, it was like, most of it was instrumentals
Yeah, absolutely.
And, I mean, it gave you the opportunity to play, y'know? So that was cool.
And this cat: Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Y'know, my favorite one was 'Built for Comfort, Not for Speed.'
And look at him, you know that this man is no joke here
Oh, he meant it, he meant every minute of it. Y'know, you could tell.
I got an opportunity a few years ago to go up to Chicago
where they recorded, originally recorded that
and, not his wife, but Willie Dixon
his wife actually let me take his bass out of the case, his upright bass
and it was just... it was one of those moments, y'know.
That's a moment, just hearing about it is a moment. Wow.
Oh man, what can you say?
What can you say?
Tell me what'd I say, I mean, c'mon Ray, I mean, you know.
Everybody and his mama kind of grew up on this cat here.
This cat here was just phenomenal.
My dad's from Memphis so, that fusion of country and blues came together
and he did that really well
You could tell he had that whole mixture thing going on
He really helped make that soul music.
And when he sung 'America,' oh man
I mean, it don't get no better than that
It doesn't get any better than that.
Too bad they made him a California Raisin.
Oh my goodness, Buddy Guy
C'mon man.
A lot of times, when I was coming up, I didn't actually get a chance to meet these guys
and I actually got a chance to meet him and play with him
Wow.
on the Hendrix tour.
That must've been incredible.
So, a couple years ago, so I really got a chance to, y'know, let him know
how great of an influence he's been.
And just all these cats, like y'know, B.B. King, who just passed recently
he was just playing almost up until the end
That's right.
decades and decades of just playing this great music and inspiring so many people.
They left it all on stage and that's the way to go
I mean, y'know, if you in it like that, and...
Y'know, our generation and the generation before us, they were in it like that.
It was all about, whatever you had to give the people
give it, give it all.
It wasn't no, oh I'm gonna give you half and keep the other half
It wasn't like, you saw this once-in-a-lifetime performance, because it was going to be different every time
That was part of the beauty of it, y'know.
Now this was the Superfly thing, but
Curtis, in general, was just a different kind of cat.
Beautiful, beautiful soul.
This album represented a change that was going on
in our communities and stuff
but the music that Curtis brought to the table was just...
Y'know...
Funky.
Yeah.
He had a mixture of things going on with the guitar too
that most people didn't really understand
Absolutely. Even with The Impressions, he was doing that
so then he came out with this, and it was even more...
Right. Speaking of guitar players, another underrated one
was...remember we were looking for Bobby Womack
He's the best, he is the best. 'Across 110th St.'
It don't get no better than that era, man.
Unfortunately no one has a perm like Ron O'Neal anymore.
Right, right.
This is another original.
I mean, this cat here...
And all these cats had a certain tragedy in their voice
I mean, whatever it was they were feeling
it just came out like that, y'know?
and it made it real to the people, I think
the people, they felt what the artist was feeling
Abolutely. And the fact that you have it on vinyl
like Prince says in 'Under the Cherry Moon'
Where do you go to get your Sam Cooke album?
At the record store.
That's it. At the record store. That's it.
See, this is another cat, man, Wilson...the Wicked Pickett
The Wicked Pickett.
Y'know? 'Mustang Sally'
And the music, man, I mean all of that stuff was just so raw and so real.
Those cats really inspired me.
I can imagine.
Being a musician was a little different because
you were kind of treated like, y'know, kind of like the scum of the earth.
but, at the same time...
I don't think that's changed.
Right?
As far as I was concerned, that was it, y'know. Music was it.
These cats that were doing stuff, like Wilson, Otis...
they gave us a chance
to be highlighted kind of in the background y'know?
Oh, man. Alright so we're gonna go to New Orleans a little bit with Dr. John
When I first heard this
y'know, it kind of reminded me of George's voice
George Clinton.
Wow.
Yeah, when I first heard it, this was before I got with George
I can imagine, you know, here's this cat, he's got this interesting voice, The Meters are playing
And they're playing with him, it's like, who else is it gonna be?
And then, speaking of the Meters
These boys were too funky. They were too funky for their own good.
I used to play in clubs, this was before I got with James
and that was one of the songs we played
Wow.
Yeah, yeah.
My brother was like eight years older than I.
So all these cats, they were happenin'
and I was growing up with that. My eyes was like, 'whoa!'
That must've been incredible.
Oh it was.
You hear something like 'Chicken Strut' or something like that, and it's just like, 'wow.'
and look at them outfits
Rick Nelson.
I know this seems kind of strange, but the Nelson family thing on TV
when we first got our TV set that was one of the shows that was on, y'know
and Ricky Nelson would break out his guitar
Bring out his guitar and do a few songs.
y'know, start doing his little thing, it was like, yeah...
And the girls were following him too so, y'know
I'm with Rick, y'know?
This cat right here
I mean, like I said, I only had one poster in my room
and my room was probably twice as big as this couch
Oh wow.
And that was the first room I had
because before then, we were all in one room
All had to share a room, yeah.
So I finally got blessed with having a room
and it was about as big as this couch
and I had Hendrix, right over my bed like that
That's beautiful.
and playing his music
and I was, y'know, in my whole thing
And then this is another cat in that same time period
because we kind of came on in the seventies, but
the sixties... these two cats was like...
saying with their music
that you can do anything
and bands were coming up front.
See that's what I was saying the whole thing with changing with just vocalists
it wasn't just about playing behind the vocalist
and Jimi always talked about that
Sly Stone, he was a part of that
Larry Graham was with them.
Larry, I mean, y'know it was a change that was going on that
I don't think nobody was looking for but it happened.
You know? It just happened.
This was so awesome, Thank you,
I love talking music with you, and I love hanging out with you.
I'm DJ Lance Rock, we'll see you next time.
And don't forget, it's still about mom and pop stores
and this is a mom and pop thing
They got everything you want, right here at Amoeba baby
Givin' up the funk and everything else
On the one, baby.
Wind me up!