07/08/2008
Beau Dozier
Beau Dozier
That s one of the jobs of a great pop song, to make it okay. So today we re going to be celebrating that art, that power. And I m beyond thrilled and beyond honored that we have Lamont Dozier and also Beau Dozier here with us today. We re going to have to work on a British pronunciation of Beau Dozier that works really well.( Music Beau Dozier)
Beau Dozier Songs
Beau Dozier => I tried to get it to Loretta Lynn, but I figured wasn t nobody going to pay attention to me, you know, because I wasn t in their community. But I cut it another way, added a little R&B with a little bit of jazz and a little bit of gospel thing tied to it. And Berry Gordy came to the studio, to make a long story short, and he said, what is that? And Brian Holland said, I told Lamont not to do that because you wouldn t like it. I told him. I told him.
Unidentified Audience Member: Hi. First off, I want to thank you. I m from Michigan. I can t even tell you how alive your music is. It was the soundtrack to all of our lives there, so I thank you. Lamont Dozier: Thank you. Beau dozier Unidentified Audience Member: That being said, my friend Drew back there is a DJ from Detroit.
Beau Dozier
Lamont Dozier: In say, �Where Did Our Love Go?� or any of the songs for that matter, we would make demos. The three of us, the Holland Brothers and myself, were all singers. We were all from the church and we all sang. So we would make our own demos with all of the reflections and all of our performance ideas crammed into the song. And we gave them the demo, usually a little cassette � no, not a cassette, a reel to reel tape in those days!
Unidentified Audience Member: I think this is a follow-up question to one of the earlier questions. I grew up in Philly and was there for the �70s and �80s and Hall and Oates, a big fan of Blue Eyed Soul, which borrowed from and owed a lot to the O Jays and groups like that. Lamont Dozier: That s right.
About Beau Dozier music
Beau Dozier: And I think with any type of music, when you try to get rid of it, it only makes the audience rebel and go hard for it. They tried to do it with rap. There was a point in time, even four or five years ago, when KISSFM wouldn t play rap. There d be a rap bridge and they would take the rap bridge out! They wouldn t play rap. Until rap songs started being number one. It s like, dude, you guys kind of have to play it. Lamont Dozier: Yes.
And he kept talking and talking to me about it. I still said in five years this crap is going to be out of here. Beau Dozier: You know, Debbie Gibson said that one time. I remember I got in trouble when my friend Walter and I made a dirty record. We were into 2 Live Crew and, yes, we made a 3 Live Crew record. We made a dirty record on my little home studio. I got grounded.
Beau Dozier profile
Beau Dozier songwriter => Between Father and Son: Music and Creativity Across the Generations Larry Gross: I d like to welcome you all to the Annenberg School. I m Larry Gross. I m the director of the School of Communication. That gives me the right to open this event, which is an honor and a pleasure. This event, as you can see, has many sponsors, because it s such an impressive event that lots of people wanted to claim authorship.
They used to call me the Stomper, my landlord. �Hey Stomper, Stomper, stop that stomping!� You know what I mean? This is before the stuff was beginning to take off and I m just stomping and she was screaming at us. Hit the broom on the ceiling. Josh Kun: I actually want to talk about that song. But before, can we hear � Jim, if you re back there, can we hear track 10, really quick, just the beginning? Everyone know this song? [�Like a Virgin� by Madonna plays.]( Beau Dozier Artist)
About Beau Dozier songwriter
Lamont Dozier: One take, just like that. And we were still standing there in the control room looking at him with our mouths open. And then he actually just walked out the door, as if to say you re not going to get any more, that s it. And he just heard it that one little short time, sang the song like that and we were sitting there in shock. I never heard anybody do that, just half-assed, never heard the song. And sung that thing � well, you heard the song. Man!And Levi Stubbs was close to doing that, too.
Beau Dozier: Again, it really depends on who the artist is and where you re trying to put the song. If you want to put the song in the club, then you re going to have an MD record and it s going to be kind of drum-driven. It might have a sample, but most of the audience isn t even really listening to the song or trying to take some meaning from it.
Discography Beau Dozier
In fact, we ll get at that; we ll hear that one in a second. And if you remember Joss Stone s GAP ads from a little bit back, that was all Beau s work on those songs. I know his family is really proud of him. I m really happy that he s here and I m thrilled that both of you are here to have this conversation.
Josh Kun: It s called �Anything.� This is track eight. You might recognize the sample in here.[�Anything� plays. Sample is from �Africa� by Toto] Beau, what s the process here of putting together this song or songs like it that you work on? Beau Dozier: Songs that involve samples? Josh Kun: Yes and just in terms of or in contrast to what your dad just described, sitting at a piano and �
About Beau Dozier
Beau Dozier profile => Beau Dozier: I feel like it really depends on the project that you re working on, because sometimes you get in with a band and you want it to be organic. You get a bunch of players together and you chart out your song and jam like they used to do back then. Sometimes there s one guy sitting at a computer that has all these sample libraries and everything. But look at Amy Winehouse. She can go in and get that whole sound, with the exact same technique like it s always been. It stays around. It just really depends on who the artist is.
Lamont Dozier: Well, we did a thing a year and a half ago or so, for Joss Stone,�Spoiled.� When they asked me to come up with something for Joss Stone, I said, well, how old is she? She s 15 to 16-years-old. You can t make the song too suggestive. She s only 16. So you have to be very careful about what you give a young girl like that to sing. So I said, 16, what can I think about, what would I give a 16-year old girl? Right then, my daughter came walking in the room, giving orders to the household about what she don t want and she don t like. And I said, there it is:
Beau Dozier Artist
Josh Kun: I recently read in � Lamont Dozier: So they owe me some money! Josh Kun: I recently saw an interview with the two songwriters who wrote �Like a Virgin� and the one who did the music said he was walking to the studio and a car drove by playing �Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch.� When he got to the piano, he said, he just inverted the opening bass line and there was the song.
And if people listen to the radio these days, the Mark Ronson cover of �Stop Me,� the Smith s song, actually segues into a Lamont tune at the end. It s on the radio right now. It s currently one of the few videos MTV is actually playing and it includes a bit of �Keep Me Hanging On� at the very end.( Beau Dozier music)
Beau Dozier songwriter
So she had a little home beauty shop. I was out there one day, washing my red wagon and getting ready to go. And my grandfather, as my grandmother s customers were coming in to have their hair done, he would be sitting out in the garden, sort of a flirt with the women, how you do, sugar pie? How you doing this evening?
Beau Dozier: And I think with any type of music, when you try to get rid of it, it only makes the audience rebel and go hard for it. They tried to do it with rap. There was a point in time, even four or five years ago, when KISSFM wouldn t play rap. There d be a rap bridge and they would take the rap bridge out! They wouldn t play rap. Until rap songs started being number one. It s like, dude, you guys kind of have to play it. Lamont Dozier: Yes.
Beau Dozier Hits
About Beau Dozier => They re just dancing and having fun and it evokes a fun spirit and that s what it is. But sometimes when you want to hear a real record � there s artists that, again, you ll have an organic thing with and you ll have a song with changes and it ll keep growing and it ll be a big metamorphosis. It really just depends on who the artist is. I think it s 50/50, it s equal. Josh Kun: I thank you both for being here. Thank all of you for coming today. Lamont Dozier: Thank you.
Lamont Dozier: Then all of a sudden here it is, it s been like what �? Beau Dozier: Forever. Lamont Dozier: 25 years almost. Beau Dozier: Forever. Lamont Dozier: And it s still here. It reminded me of what they said about rock and roll back in the �50s. I remember seeing Richard Rodgers. I loved Richard Rodgers.
Beau Dozier discography
Beau Dozier: Yes, we wanted to do it like Sam Cooke. We were saying so many songs these days sound so programmed. This is what your verse sounds like and this is what your chorus sounds like and then it goes back to that section. So I thought what if we have this hook, what if we have the first verse sound like this and then go into the second verse. I said, we re going somewhere else. Let s break that standard. And it was kind of cool.
Lamont Dozier: I ve got a great title and idea. Brian Holland just happened to be at the piano�he was just playing�and I said, man, you know that title I told you I have, stop in the name of love? He said, yes. And that s how a lot of those ideas came about.
Songwriter Beau Dozier
Between Father and Son: Music and Creativity Across the Generations Larry Gross: I d like to welcome you all to the Annenberg School. I m Larry Gross. I m the director of the School of Communication. That gives me the right to open this event, which is an honor and a pleasure. This event, as you can see, has many sponsors, because it s such an impressive event that lots of people wanted to claim authorship.
I want to particularly note, besides the Annenberg School where you re sitting, the Popular Music Project, which is a new endeavor of the Norman Lear Center, which is also part of the Annenberg School and is the brainchild of one of our newest, but already most important faculty members who will be taking over to moderate this event in a minute.( About Beau Dozier)
Beau Dozier music
Info about Beau Dozier => Other times you ll sit at the piano and come up with something like a chord progression and a melody. Or a lot of times for me, I ll be driving � well, not anymore. But I ll be driving � talk about that another time � you ll be driving and a melody will come into your head. It usually starts like that. And I ll get on my cell phone and call my voicemail and start singing the melody into the phone.
Please welcome Lamont and Beau Dozier. Lamont Dozier: Hello. Josh Kun: You on? We got you. You guys hear Lamont okay? Beau? Beau Dozier: Yes, I think so. Josh Kun: Okay, good. So first off, first of all, thank you both. Lamont Dozier: My pleasure. Josh Kun: It s really wonderful to have you here.
Music Beau Dozier
They used to call me the Stomper, my landlord. �Hey Stomper, Stomper, stop that stomping!� You know what I mean? This is before the stuff was beginning to take off and I m just stomping and she was screaming at us. Hit the broom on the ceiling. Josh Kun: I actually want to talk about that song. But before, can we hear � Jim, if you re back there, can we hear track 10, really quick, just the beginning? Everyone know this song? [�Like a Virgin� by Madonna plays.]
Josh Kun: What s interesting is one of the hottest albums in the country right now is the one I mentioned a little earlier, Mark Ronson s album called Version. And the whole record is really an homage to the 1960s Motown and late �60s- 70s Stax sound, with a live band, real organic, big horns. There seems to be a return in the whole Amy Winehouse record, and Sharon Jones � it seems like everybody, even within hip hop and R&B communities who are used to working with Pro Tools and sample libraries, is throwing it out the window and trying to get back to the live sound.
Info about Beau Dozier
He said, I don t like the sound with Pro Tools. I m like, dude, you re not going to be able to tell the difference. And you sit there and forget how much studio time you actually waste rewinding the tape. Josh Kun: And your time is not cheap. Beau Dozier: Oh, man, definitely not. I m glad it wasn t my dollar.
He says just let me hear a little bit of it. �How sweet it is to be loved��okay, roll the tape, man. I said, man, what you doing? How can you � you haven t even heard the song. I heard it. One take. And he sings, �How sweet it is to be��all right, that s it. I ve got to go now. Josh Kun: Was that song really in one take?
Songwriter Beau Dozier
Beau Dozier music => Josh Kun: So let s talk a little bit technically about the process of songwriting. Because one of the big debates about 1960s and 1970s era pop songs versus pop songs today � depending on where you sit � is that people don t know how to write pop songs anymore. Even though I actually disagree with that, I will say, you re hard pressed to find � well, if you listen to the songs you wrote, particularly in that late �60s period, those are some of the most complex and sophisticated pop songs I ve ever heard.
As if the music was coming out of their feet. Just staring there for hours, watching their feet. Like he was listening for some music to come out of their feet. But then later I got it that he was really trying to get into the feeling of it. Phil Collins would be playing drums in the living room and he d just be watching his feet.( Beau Dozier Artist)
Beau Dozier music
But what stuck with me, even though I didn t quite understand what he was singing about, was that Bragg was talking about popular music s greatest power, the power to heal us, to make our lives better, to make us happy after a long day s work, to sooth us after a bad breakup. That s what pop songs really are for, to let us heal from our pain, to let us celebrate our joys. But most importantly, we do all that through the emotions of other people, through the lyrics and lives and words and music of someone else s songs.
I feel like the songs that are real are the ones where the melody comes and you just hear this thing; that s when you really are accidentally connected to this thing. Because you don t really write these things. Nobody really does. You re kind of like an antennae and it comes through you. When you are writing these songs � I mean, you start putting something down and you do what makes sense to that track. But then you have that thing just kind of hit you and you re like, Oh, man!
Discography Beau Dozier
Josh Kun: Tell me it wasn t on the Fisher-Price. Beau Dozier: No, it wasn t on the Fisher-Price. It was on a reel to reel eight-track. Made a dirty record and got in trouble and I was grounded for two weeks. And I remember we were swimming in the pool and Dad was working with Debbie Gibson and I remember she said that rap stuff is here today, gone tomorrow. And I was like, okay. It was interesting. Josh Kun: I like that in your household you d get in trouble for making dirty rap records.
The Marvelettes were big. They had, �Please Mr. Postman.� But they were kind of cocky, since they had this big hit. So when I gave them this song, I said I think this song is perfect for you. Nuh-uh, honey, we a int doing no slop like that. And I said, huh? I was shocked. I had already gone in and cut the track.
About Beau Dozier music
Music Beau Dozier => He s worked with the likes of B2K, which some people might know � there s some resistance to B2K; I had my B2K moves ready, but Beau told me not to do them � as well as artists like Avant. Clearly he s inherited the gift of �love storyteller.� There s a long list of artists that Beau has worked with as well: Boyz II Men, 3OW, Backstreet Boys, and most notably perhaps, JoJo and Joss Stone.
And if people listen to the radio these days, the Mark Ronson cover of �Stop Me,� the Smith s song, actually segues into a Lamont tune at the end. It s on the radio right now. It s currently one of the few videos MTV is actually playing and it includes a bit of �Keep Me Hanging On� at the very end.
Beau Dozier Songs
These people are in my house or I m hearing this song or I m hearing this thing happening and I want to do that? Beau Dozier: I remember when Phil Collins was in the house, because I used to love Phil Collins. I loved Darryl Hall and John Oates, too. But I loved Phil Collins s voice and so I think when my dad started working with Phil and he was in the house, I was like, Oh man! you know?
Unidentified Audience Member: You talk about trying to write songs that were for everybody, but my sense is a lot of musicians today are just more fragmented. My question, Beau � and it sounds like from what I heard today you ve picked up a lot of your dad s � well, I would never think of a Toto song going with JoJo � is it your sense today that musicians are geared more towards fragmented types of audiences or are there musicians who are trying to connect with songs for everybody?( Beau Dozier songwriter)
Music Beau Dozier
Lamont Dozier: Yes. My aunt was a big influence on me. She was taking lessons and the music teacher, Mr. Shaw, was rough. She was in there playing that piano. My grandmother called me and said, Lamont, you want to take piano lessons? Then I hear something, Pow! He had this stick. Every time she hit a wrong note, Whack! Lamont, you want to take some lessons? I said, No thank you! I d take off running. Josh Kun: Where s my red wagon?
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