Blog
Critics
September 2002
Bert
Berns was an extravagantly talented songwriter and producer
who brought Latin rhythms to soul music and soul to rock
and roll.
Before
Berns' amazing seven-year run was cut short in 1967 at age
38 by a fatal heart attack, he produced "Brown-Eyed
Girl" by Van Morrison; "Under the Boardwalk"
by The Drifters; "Baby, I'm Yours" and "Make
Me Your Baby" by Barbara Lewis; "Cry Baby"
by Garnet Mimms; "Cry to Me" by Betty Harris;
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," "Goodbye
Baby (Baby Goodbye)," "Got to Get You Off My Mind"
and "If You Need Me" by Solomon Burke; "Killer
Joe" by the Rocky Fellers; "A Little Bit of Soap"
by the Jarmels; and "Here Comes the Night" by
Them.
In
addition, he wrote or co-wrote "Twist and Shout"
(Isley Brothers, The Beatles), "Hang On Sloopy"
(The McCoys), "Piece of My Heart" (Erma Franklin,
Janis Joplin), "Tell Him" (the Exciters), and
"I Want Candy" (the Strangeloves, Bow Bow Wow),
among many others. Berns (a.k.a. Bert Russell) also was
a partner in the Atlantic offshoot labels Bang and Shout.
Universal
has a new collection of songs written and produced by Berns,
and though it's a little light - only 10 songs - and they
aren't all the ones I would have chosen, it is nice to see
weird old Bert get some of the recognition he so richly
deserves. Songs on the disc include Burke's "Everybody
Needs Somebody to Love" and "Cry to Me,"
Mimms' "Cry Baby," Franlin's "Piece of My
Heart," the Isley's "Twist and Shout" and
"You'll Never Leave Him," a lesser Drifters tune
"I Don't Want to Go ON Without You," Freddie Scott's
"Are You Lonely For Me Baby," and two from a guy
I have literally never heard of: Hoagy Lands.
Bert
Berns was born in the Bronx in 1929. Berns' Russian immigrant
parents were so intent on ensuring the success of their
dress shop that they put Bert and his sister in an orphanage
rather than raise them. Berns studied classical piano as
a child, and worked as a record salesman, music copyist
and session pianist in his teens and twenties.
Envisioning
himself a player, Berns spent time in pre-Castro Cuba working
in nightclubs, absorbing Latin-American rhythms, and hobnobbing
with shady characters. Berns' Latin influence can be heard
on "Twist and Shout," "A Little Bit of Soap,"
"Hang On Sloopy," and especially his work with
the Drifters ("Under the Boardwalk," "I've
Got Sand in My Shoes").
Berns
returned to New York, and in 1960 went to work for Robert
Mellin Music writing and plugging songs. Berns drifted to
Atlantic in 1961 where he wrote and produced Solomon Burke,
Ben E. King, Wilson Pickett and The Drifters, creating some
of the greatest uptown soul on record. Like all of the greats,
Berns had an ability to bring out the best in the singers
he worked with. Berns style may have been a bit goofy (loud
clothes, defiant hairpiece, dangling cigarette) but his
passion was unassailable.
Solomon
Burke has spoken disparagingly of Berns (calling him a "paddy
motherfucker," according to Jerry Wexler), but Berns
produced Burke's best work. "Everybody Needs Somebody
to Love" swings at midtempo with a gospel intensity.
Burke's spoken sermon intro simultaneously rouses the tent
and winks at his own background as a lay preacher. When
the horns enter, Burke responds with gut-rattling force.
"Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)" is soul.
Ben
E. King's "Let the Water Run Down" jams to the
Bo Diddley beat with charging guitar and piano. King's impassioned
vocal emphasizes both the pain and the relief of tears.
Even better is Berns' work with The Drifters.
"Under
the Boardwalk" is one of the great productions of all
time, wherein Berns balances a bewildering array of Latin-esque
percussion (including castanets, a ratchet and a triangle),
strings, a loping bass line and Johnny Moore's career-topping
vocal.
Besides
the amazing arrangement, Berns was also able to capture
an emotional moment. Lead singer Rudy Lewis had been found
dead of a drug overdose in his hotel room the night before,
and it was too late to cancel the session. There wasn't
even time to transpose the song into a more suitable key
for Moore, but Berns was able to channel Moore's emotion
from shock and grief into blissful relief: from the punishing
heat of the summer sun to the subterranean cool under the
boardwalk.
In
1965 Berns went into partnership with Jerry Wexler and the
Erteguns to form the Bang (B - Bert, A - Ahmet, N - Neshui,
G - Gerald) and Shout labels. The Strangeloves, The McCoys,
Neil Diamond, and Van Morrison all were big winners on Bang.
Berns had worked with Them (with Morrison on lead vocals)
in London in 1964 (and had discovered a session guitarist
named "Little" Jimmy Page). When Them broke up,
Berns signed Morrison to Bang.
On
"Brown-Eyed Girl," Berns removes the perpetual
cloud from over Van Morrison's head and the result is transcendent.
You can literally hear Morrison smile as he breezes through
sweet memories of a summer love gone by. After a great bass
and guitar intro, Morrison's wistful reflection has real
meat - we can see and feel the scenes of verdant hollows,
misty mornings, waterfalls, and the greenest of grass behind
the stadium. Berns' little touches are everything: a comforting
organ enters for the second verse, hand claps bolster the
third, and the bridge turns the bass and guitar intro inside
out to neatly convey the passage of time. Most important,
Van has never again sounded so at home in his skin.
Then
there was some trouble at Bang. Berns wanted more control
of the publishing. Wexler alleges that Berns' affinity with
an unsavory element was increasing. Berns sued the partners
for breach of contract and went his separate way. Shortly
after that Bert Berns died, taking his talent and his secrets
with him.
-
Blog
Critics September, 2002
