Sharon Shares
Extracts From The Last Note By Sharon McMahan
A Budding Songwriter
As I was growing up, I Started to take notice of the songs coming from the radio. One day when I came home from school, I was listening to the radio and one of the songs I liked came on. It was called Mother-in-law by Ernie K. Doe. I was twelve years old. I remember sitting at the piano and really talking time to concentrate on the beat and how the singing came in.
The more I listened, I began to think to myself that I should be able to copy that beat on to the piano. I started out by finding the note in bas and I began to play it with the left hand, to the beat. After playing the bass for a few bars, I tried to find the cord that would match with the right hand.Once I had both the bass and the chord, I started playing them back and forth like a drum and I was able to get the rhythm going as I played along with the song on the radio.
After the song was over, I sat there and thought about what I had just done. I was very surprised. I asked myself, “what just happened” ? After thinking about it for a minute or two, I concluded that I should be able to make up my own songs.
Getting Stared
Ollie would come by often. I had no idea how much work he was doing when in Detroit. I was far too young to understand it all. He would stop by about once a week at first. I did begin writing more songs. He would come by and listen. He was always encouraging and listing intently at everything I wrote.
Sometimes on a rainy day, he would pick me up from school.He would always spend a little time in the kitchen talking with my mother. They would have cup of coffee and talk. If I was playing the piano and he heard something he like, even a small part in the song, he would say so. This was helpful to me because it was like having a guide as to what was popular and what sounded good. Sometime. he would stand at the piano and listen. Retold me one day that he felt my strong point was going to be as a melody writer. He used to tell me, “One day you’re going to be the best melody writer in the whole world!”
Ollie use to call my mother whenever him and Ruth were coming to Detroit for the evening. They would come to Detroit on date nights and/or to some event that was music related. Whenever they came. they always stopped by for a visit before the drive back home to Ann Arbor. Ruth and my mother, Helen, got along great. It was like the were related. They always had stuff to talk about. At that time, Ruth and Ollie had 4 children, Karen, Carla, Moira and a son Ira. On occasion, they would invite me to spend a weekend at their home in Ann Arbor. Sometimes as a babysitter. It wasn’t too ofter, thought. They eventually found someone from the college.
Straighten Up Your Heart
Soon after that summer evening, I began working on writing that follow up single. Ollie had given me a portable reel to reel tape recorded to record songs as I wrote them. After I finished writing Straighten Up Your Heart, I wanted to make a good recording of it. I had a girlfriend name Elaine Harrian who lived across the street. Her brother, Hubert, played congas. I asked him if he would play on it for me. I also asked my sister Dee Dee and my cousin Pat who lived upstairs, to do the backgrounds vocals. We did a very good soulful version of that song. It was cool and smooth and had a nice groove.
Keeping in mind, we didn’t have a luxury of recording on separate tracks.If one of made a mistake, we had to stop theatre and start the whole thing over. In retrospect, that could be where the expression, “Let’s take it from the top” originate lol! The goal was to record the whole song with all the parts at the same time with no mistakes. We eventually succeeded. It came out perfect!
As a side point, when I wrote Straighten Up Your Heart, I was working on it one day at the piano. My mother was in the the kitchen cooking. I started singing the first lines which said, “Your cheating heart was playing from the start and our love’s becoming the talk of the town.
Well, that was it for her. All I remember is the kitchen door opened and she came walking very fast into the living room and promptly asked me “What do you mean, our loves becoming the talk of the town?” Well, I looked up at her, not realizing the impact it was having on her. Then it dawned on me that she was wondering how I would know to write about such things. So, I calmed her down and told her I got it from a television show. She gave me a look, like only mothers can, and she said “Alright” and walked into the kitchen. I used to listen to television shows intently to find phrases I could use in songs.
The Funk Brothers
As time went on, it became a regular routine for Ollie to pick up on Saturdays and we would head off to United Sounds. He always had a session booked.He would usually have it booked for the morning. He would always have a cup of black coffee when we got there. It became his routine so I started having a cup of black coffee too. The sessions went on for several hours. Before any recording took place, they had to spend time practicing and learning the song and the arrangements. Then they had to record different takes, until they got it right. We wouldn’t leave sometimes ’til around 3 or 4.
The Musicians got used to see me on Saturdays. This is how I learned the recording process; how a written song turned into a record. He introduced me to all the musicians. I met Bob Babbitt. I remember Ollie joking with him and telling him he was a gypsy. Babbitt was sitting on a folding chair holding his bass guitar. He had on black pants and black shirt. He had a full head of black hair. When I was speaking with him, I noticed a can of Aqua Net hairspray on the floor next to his chair. He saw me look at it and went on to tell that he sprays his hair before he records so that when he moves his head up and down to the beat, his hair won’t fall in to his eyes. Had a good laugh about that. He was very friendly and funny too. Most of the musicians had a sense of humor. I heard them laughing and cracking jokes all the time, the time. in between takes. I didn’t understand their jokes but I guess I wasn’t suppose to.
Ollie introduced we to Johnny Griffith who was always kind. I remember he had a kind smile and a twinkle in his eyes. I met Rudy Robinson, Uriel Jones, George McGregor, Don Davis, Clay Mac Murray, Mike Terry, Dale Warren, Popcorn Wylie, Sonny Sanders, Norris Paterson, Bobbi Hall, Richard “Pistol” Allen, Dorothy Ashby, all while going to United Sounds with Ollie. I met Erl Van Dyke and James Jamerson while working at the Twenty Grand.
Link To Buy My Book “The Last Note”
https://amzn.eu/d/2eJCFcy
Till Next Time…Sharon McMahan