That really is. You were talking about some of the genres that you draw on. Can you describe some of the artists and what you get out of them? What are some of your influences? I know it’s tough question.
I’d be all day. I’ll give you an example. Ethel Waters in the 1920s and '30s. She became — you might know about her — she became a great actress in movies in the '40s. I’ve got all her stuff and I’ve always listened to her for years and years and years. One song stood out, “My Handyman.” It’s from the '30s. It isn’t really rude but it’s a little bit saucy, a few double entendres. I said to Beverly, “My dear, I want to do this song. And let’s do it really simple.” And I had this fabulous piano player that I’ve used on the first three albums called Dave Hartley who later went on to work with Sting and the Olympics. I said, “Dave, you can play [it] on the piano, can’t you?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Beverly, lean against the piano like Ethel Waters would have done in the 1920s. Just lean against the piano and just sing it with Dave.” And they did it in one take. It was beautiful.
We did only a few Stones songs, because I don’t like to use it as a crutch. We decided to do “Melody.” It’s a great song. Billy Preston was involved in it and he sang it with Mick [Jagger]. And I thought I could do that really good with Beverly and Georgie Fame, my wonderful organ player. You know of Georgie Fame?
Yeah, I know a little bit about him.
He did “Yeh, Yeh” and all those songs in the '60s. He’s a brilliant musician. I asked him to do it together. We’d cut the track and they got on the mic to sing the vocal and they sang and it was wonderful. It was the first thing that Beverly ever did with us. I said, "That’s fantastic and we’ve got it in one." And they said, “Can’t we do it again?” I said, "Why? Didn’t you think it was good enough?" They said, “Oh yeah, but we’re just having fun. Can we do it a few more times just for the fun of it?" And then they cut a better version. They did it three times and we cut the master. That’s the attitude of the musicians in the band. It’s fantastic. When I was in the Stones for 30 years it was such hard work. So much pressure all the time. It was very difficult to enjoy it sometimes. No disrespect, because I loved my 30 years. We’re still great friends. So it’s not disrespect. It’s just a fact.
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