Detroit musicians tell their stories in new books – Macomb Daily

Detroit musicians, unsurprisingly, have a lot of good stories to tell.

Now three of them tell theirs, or at least some of theirs, in recently published books.

‘My Friend the Queen, From Her Court Jester Ralphe Armstrong’ is a ‘labor of love’ for the bassist, who played with Aretha Franklin for 35 years and, he jokes, was fired 30 times until his death in 2018. Armstrong’s entry was through Franklin’s sister, Carolyn, whom he met and started playing music with at age 12, and her first performance with the Queen of Soul was in July 1984 for Spinners singer Phillipe’ Wynne’s funeral.

“I wanted people to know what kind of beautiful human being she really was,” says Armstrong, 66, whose credits also include work with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Jeff Beck, Santana and many more. “A lot of stories were told about Aretha not being nice and all that crap. People said a lot of nasty things about her, and she wasn’t that kind of person at all.

“She was wonderful. She always tried to help people. He was a character, but he was a very good person.

The ‘My Friend the Queen’s’ pages are filled with personal photos and anecdotes about specific performances (including the 2016 ‘Windsor Massacre’ when Franklin fired his entire band except Armstrong after a rocky gig ), parties, and time spent with Franklin and others in his personal orbit, particularly his siblings whom Armstrong was also close to. “She was cordial and gracious and truly deserved the title of queen,” notes Armstrong, who performs at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge most weekends and is active as a music educator, also found Franklin musically invigorating.

“You had to know the music and you had to play the right base for it to sing,” he explains. “I made sure to give her the grade like, if it’s ‘Freeway of Love’ it’s a G and I would always watch her and make sure I gave her what she needed.”

behind the table

Growing up in East Detroit, studying art and most importantly learning to play the guitar, Pete Anderson never thought of becoming a record producer.

“It was about playing guitar,” says Anderson, now 75 and living in Glendale, Calif. He credits “a combination of skills…that led me to become a record producer,” including Dwight Yoakam, with whom he spent over 15 years, as well as Roy Orbison, Jackson Browne, Buck Owens, Lucinda Williams, Mark Chesnutt and others. He also has a signature five-instrument line with Detroit-based Reverend Guitars.

Anderson, who also worked for Chrysler and Vernor’s after graduating from St. Cyril High School, and before moving to California in his early twenties, channeled his recording experience into “How to Produce a Record: The Philosophy of ‘a player for making a great record,’ which publishes Tuesday, May 2. As the title suggests, this is not a technical manual but more about aesthetics and sensibilities than equipment specific or electronic details and techniques.

“What you really need are ears and an idea,” says Anderson, who considers himself a “musician-producer” and champions preparation, feeling and good songs as key ingredients to making a high-end recording. quality. “What I bring to the table is I sat on the floor with headphones on in extreme circumstances ‘Get that track right, get that bass right, get that solo right’, everyone starting with you like a fish, ‘OK mate, it’s your turn…’

“Equipment serves a purpose, but it shouldn’t be the rule. The majority of a project is going to be recording and judging situations and judging the artist in those situations and finding a way to make them comfortable.

Details about the book can be found at peteanderson.com.