Fresno
Bee/Los Angeles Times
October 27, 2002
LOS
ANGELES -- As the head of the world's largest record company,
Universal Music Group Chairman Doug Morris could spend all
morning hobnobbing with the power-breakfast crowd at the
Peninsula Hotel.
Morris,
in town from New York for a visit, could be talking about
his latest successes: the mounting sales of the Eminem album
or the critical back flips over the new Beck CD. Both were
released by Morris' network of labels, which stretches from
Interscope to Island/Def Jam and generates nearly a third
of the nation's album sales.
But
the soft-spoken chief executive has another topic on his
mind. Morris, 63, is talking about a new album that he calls
his "baby." It contains 10 tracks written and/or
produced by the late Bert Berns, who was an inspiration
when Morris was an aspiring songwriter in New York four
decades ago.
"In
this business, you put out records all the time by artists
you love and that you hope will sell a lot, but this is
probably the first time I've ever been involved in a record
that I don't care if it sells," Morris says. "It's
my way of paying Bert back for all he gave me. I hope this
illuminates his career, that people will understand who
he was. Everybody knows his music, but they don't know him."
And
everyone does know Berns' music, starting with his most
famous composition, "Twist and Shout."
Because
the lively tune was a hit for the Beatles, most pop fans
probably assume Lennon and McCartney wrote it.
That
tune is one of the best-known products of a hit machine
that roared triumphantly from the start of the 1960s until
the charismatic New Yorker died of a heart attack at age
38 in 1967.
Van
Morrison may have sung the taut "Here Comes the Night"
with his group Them, but Berns wrote the song and produced
the recording.
Janis
Joplin's signature hit, the pleading "Piece of My Heart,"
was written by Berns and Jerry Ragovoy.
Berns
was also responsible for such pop or R&B hits as the
McCoys' "Hang On Sloopy" (co-written by Wes Farrell),
Freddie Scott's "Are You Lonely for Me, Baby?,"
Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me" and the Exciters'
"Tell Him." His production credits also included
such memorable hits as the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk"
and Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl."
The
music in "The Heart and Soul of Bert Berns" is
extraordinary -- a virtual nomination speech calling for
the late songwriter-producer's induction into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in the "nonperforming" category
that already includes many of his peers, including Phil
Spector, Jerry Wexler and the team of Jerry Leiber &
Mike Stoller.
Many
of these tracks were hits in their day, but some are relatively
obscure now, and they are so striking you may find yourself
listening to them over and over, marveling at their construction.
The
most impressive thing about the recordings is the masterful
way Berns shifted emotional tones. Most of the songs are
grand tales of romantic desperation featuring an instrumental
tension that builds slowly with defiant horns and insistent
drums, then gives way to explosive vocal release. There
are lots of references to lonely rooms, tears and regret.
Berns
had a wide array of influences, and he brought them all
into play in his music. He studied classical music as a
youngster and fell in love with Cuban music while working
at clubs in Havana. That sound would color many of his recordings.
In "Twist and Shout," for instance, you can hear
the chord sequence of the Cuban folk song "Guantanamera."
Morris
describes the intense Berns as a tough street kid from the
Bronx who was obsessive about his career because he suffered
from rheumatic fever and didn't feel he had long to live.
As
you listen to Morris, it's clear that the new CD, which
was released Oct. 1, isn't just a tribute to Berns. For
those who think all top-level record executives are "suits"
interested only in bottom-line profits, Morris' devotion
to Berns is a tribute to the best impulses of the music
industry.
"I
was this square kid from Long Island, and Bert was this
hipster who was always out on the town," Morris says
with a smile, recalling the days in the early '60s when
they worked for publisher Robert Mellin. "I used to
love watching him in this funky old office . . . writing
songs on a guitar.
"The
next day he'd bring these incredible singers into the studio
and they'd hit these fabulous notes that brought the songs
to life.
"The
next thing I was hearing the songs on the radio. He was
warm, genuine, encouraging and terribly driven."
No
one is more thrilled about Morris' decision to salute Bert
Berns than Berns' children.
"He
knew he was not going to live long enough to watch [his
kids] grow up," says Brett Berns, who was only 2 when
his father died.
"He
told our mother that these songs would teach us who he was,
and it does feel at times that he is speaking to us in these
records."
-
Fresno
Bee/Los Angeles Times October 27, 2002
By Robert Hilburn
