Page 84 - My FlipBook 1

1959
LITTLE JOHN OATES LAY ON THE LIVING-ROOM FLOOR
at his friend’s house, propped up on his elbows, his
chin in his hands, staring at the blind man on the
record cover, listening to him sing.
John was in sixth grade in North Wales, Pennsylva-
nia, a nice workaday suburb of Philadelphia. He lived
on Tenth Street, a straight line between Prospect and
Walnut, and he could walk to the house of this one
friend whose parents had a console stereo. The turn-
table was built into a handsome wood cabinet, and
the sound that fuzzed out of the big speakers just
wrapped itself around little John Oates. Not many peo-
ple in North Wales had console stereos, so John used
to love going to this one friend’s house and listening to
records for hours.
The record he listened to the most was The Genius
of Ray Charles. It started with a bang of horns on the
very first track, “Let the Good Times Roll.” The fifth
song, “When Your Lover Has Gone,” was a beauty, As Wonder (seated) played piano and Jones (in stripes) coached, soloists learned their parts around
all about love and sadness: “When you’re alone, who 3:00 a.m.: Warwick, Perry, Nelson, Richie, Hall, Loggins, and Simon.
cares for starlit skies / When you’re alone, the magic
moonlight dies.” By the time Ray got to “Don’t Let the
Sun Catch You Cryin’,” John was far, far away from the World” together—writing on index cards the His manager, Jon Landau, had originally told Kra-
this room, this little town. names of everyone they hoped would join the gen that Springsteen was a long shot for this “We Are
He knew every inch of the record cover: Ray’s name recording session, figuring out who was going to the World” thing. He’d been touring for so long, and
in the red banner above the photograph of him in the stand where and who would sing what part. he had a break before picking it up again overseas,
studio, suit jacket hanging from his shoulders, silver Now, tonight, they would actually record it. and, well . . . Landau would see what he could do.
microphone hanging down, delivering Ray’s voice to But before that were the American Music Awards, Then Landau called Kragen back a couple weeks
the sound booth and then to the phonograph record televised on ABC, one of the biggest nights of the before to tell him Springsteen was in, and the dom-
and eventually to the console stereo in the living room year. Kragen’s masterstroke in scheduling the inoes began to fall. Instead of Kragen calling man-
of a house in North Wales, where a kid who would grow recording session was doing it on the night of the agers and agents all day to recruit artists for this
up to be an international pop superstar sometimes awards, when so many artists would be in town. project, everybody started calling him.
singing about love and sadness—this little kid would Richie not only was nominated for eight awards; Bruce was in. Everybody wanted in.
sit for hours, listening to Ray Charles. he was hosting the thing, too. He was supposed to
He knew the songs by heart and sang them as he be over at the Shrine Auditorium by 10:00 this 10:30 a.m.
ran up Tenth Street to get home in time for dinner. morning for rehearsals. THERE WAS A WHALE WATCH IN THE MORNING,
It was 7:30. off Redondo Beach.
MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1985 Early. Henry Diltz, forty-six years old, already one of
7:30 a.m. They would run through the whole show, start- the great rock ’n’ roll photographers, woke up to
IT WAS EARLY, FOR A MUSICIAN. FOR ANY MUSI- ing with a long opening dance number choreo- get his nine-year-old daughter, Zoë, ready for her
cian, and certainly for Lionel Richie, who in Janu- graphed to Richie’s big hit “Running with the field trip. They made it to the boat on time, and the
ary 1985 was one of the top pop stars in the world. Night,” which he would perform wearing a gold kids even saw a few gray whale backs off the coast.
His signature hit of the past twelve months, for cry- lamé suit, surrounded by a dozen dancers. Kragen had worked with Diltz a few times, and
ing out loud—number one on the Billboard charts— The drive to the Shrine, from Richie’s house up he hired him to take pictures of the recording ses-
was called “All Night Long (All Night).” He’d spent on Funchal Road near the Bel-Air Country Club, sion at A&M Studios that evening. Diltz didn’t even
much of the past year on the road—New York, Hart- was about a half hour. know the name of the song. In his journal that day,
ford, Detroit, Vegas, Kansas City, Vancouver, Oak- Thirty-five years later, when he’s asked about he wrote, “USA Africa recording for Ethiopia food.”
land, freaking Boise . . . it was a blur. The record that day, this is the first thing Richie will say: “Let
company kept rolling out singles. Two went all the us first trace the meaning of the words delirium 6:30 p.m.
way to number one, three more to the top ten. and exhaustion.” RICHIE GOT THROUGH THE OPENING DANCE
Then there was “We Are the World,” the song he number and the monologue, in which he announced
wrote with Michael Jackson to raise money for fam- TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED MILES AWAY, BRUCE that the “key word” for the night was outrageous. He
ine relief in Africa. (In Ethiopia alone, more than a Springsteen was getting on a plane. shouted the word from the stage throughout the eve- PRECEDING PAGE: SAM EMERSON/POLARIS (ALL EXCEPT SPRINGSTEEN)
million people had starved to death since 1983.) You talk about exhausted. The night before, he ning. “Outrageous!” He glittered. He cracked jokes.
There had been a lot of late nights in Encino lately, played the final show of the latest leg of the Born in About an hour into the show, Huey Lewis (who
at Jackson’s house, writing, rewriting, arranging, the USA tour at the fifty-thousand-seat Carrier Dome would join the “We Are the World” session later) and
second-guessing. And the other night they were in Syracuse, New York. It was his fifteenth show Madonna (who wasn’t invited) announced the win-
here at Richie’s house until it must’ve been 3:00 in that month, and it was epic. Twenty-nine songs, ner in the “favorite black album” category. Prince’s
the morning, sitting on the floor—Jackson, Quincy over four hours, ending with a killer cover of John Purple Rain beat out Jackson’s Thriller and Richie’s
Jones, Jones’s arranger Tom Bahler, and Richie’s Fogerty’s “Rockin’ All Over the World,” reserved Can’t Slow Down.
manager, Ken Kragen, the guy who put “We Are for special occasions. Prince was invited to the recording session, and

84 SUMMER 2020 PHOTOGRAPHS BY HARRY BENSON