One Song - Earth, Wind & Fire's "Let's Groove" with Estelle

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

Get ready to share the spice of life and glide like a 747 to a classic cookout jam from one of the best selling bands of all time! On this episode of One Song, Grammy Award-winning pop star, rapper, and actress Estelle joins Diallo and LUXXURY to talk about Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1981 hit “Let’s Groove.” They break down band leader Maurice White and his bandmates’ recipe for creating certified gold songs and albums that blend funk, soul, disco, jazz, and beyond; and how their music spreads messages of Afrocentricity, universal love, harmony, and spiritualism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. One, two, three. Song, this is one song, this is one song, this is one song. Luxury Today's song is from one of the best-selling bands of all time. They've sold over 90 million records worldwide. Get this, they had a string of 11, 11 consecutive gold albums, eight of which also went platinum. And this song was certified gold and peaked at number one on the hot R&B songs chart.

And number three on the Billboard Hot One. in 1981. Wow. That's right, wow. Their music combines incredible musicianship, blends so many genres. I'm talking about jazz,

R&B, funk, soul, disco, pop, and it spreads a message of universal love, harmony, and spiritualism. So everyone, let's do this. Let's song tonight. Indeed.

We'll share the spice of life. We're going to share it. Going to one song tonight. Yeah, one song. That's called the Pickardy Third would you end on a major like that. In case you're paying attention. It's one song, and that song is Let's Groove by Earth, Wind, and Fire. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle.

And I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist, luxury, aka the guy who just turned in a book about interpolation. Yay! And if you want to watch one song, please go to our YouTube channel and watch this full episode. All right, let's begin. Let's do it. All right, well, we've got a very special guest for this episode who loves Earth, Wind and Fire, just as much as we do. She's a Grammy

award-winning pop star, singer-songwriter, rapper and actress all the way from West London. Her music blends R&B with hip-hop, reggae, soul, grime, dance, and so much more. She's collaborated with world-famous artists like John Legend, David Geta, and Rick Ross. And you know her from such hit songs

as Come Over. Thank you, an American boy. Please give it up for Estelle, everybody. Estelle, Estelle, oh, wow. Thank you. Appreciate you. We really appreciate you joining us. Thank you for having me. Listen, first of all, We are huge fans of your music.

And congrats on your new song, O-I. Thank you. We heard it. We love it. It's funky. It's bass-driven. Thank you. You can dance to it.

What was your approach for writing this song? And, if I may, was it different than what you've done in the past? It wasn't. It wasn't. I would say, like, my approach for writing this this time was just more being in the moment. Like, I really, I pray a lot. I've said this and I've been used, but I pray a lot. And I'm like, I went in there to this session, just praying and asking God what to do.

And I didn't second guess it, didn't overthink it. And I just, we did four-hour sessions for this entire album. This is a very first song of the album. And I say it was the same in that this was essentially how I made American Boy. It's how I made one love. We didn't overthink it. All the records that people love from me are not overthought. They're just like, when you say overthinking, did you come in with nothing at all?

You heard the track and just something came out? So before I came in, I had a melody maybe. Or I had like the, uh-huh kind of thing, just running around the back of my head. Didn't even record it. But as soon as I heard the original beat, I thought to myself, like, no, this is ABC. This is one, two, three, four, four, four. And it just felt like that. And the melody comes out.

Before he even finished doing it, I'd finish the melody, went inside, vocal day, and then he finished the beat afterwards. Wow. It was a natural fit between this melody you separately had in your head. Yeah. And then you heard the beat and the melody worked to that beat. Yeah. And then the lyrics came after that.

Exactly. Amazing. Exactly. I love it. And it was quick. Quick. That's such a relief sometimes. Start to be old.

Every time. Yeah. Because making music really is, it's alchemy to a degree. It's really not something that I take personal credit for. I have no idea how I do it. I do the education of it. I've done my 10,000 out. I've been in studios.

I've learned. I've observed. I've been around. But the actual making of it, you can't tell from time to time. If it's going to be good. That's the craft. But you as a conduit for just like it came to you, that's the part that you can't. You said, overthink.

I totally get it. You just have to be in the moment. Let it happen. Let it be and be okay with it. Don't judge it. I mean, like, luxury, obviously, you know, you make music and I'm often like, dude, that sounds great. Like, don't overthink this.

Like, put this out. Yeah. And you'll be like, no, it's not quite ready. Did that happen with you where like you had something and you had a feeling about it, but you were kind of motivated or your collaborators were helpful in that? Well, the producer I work with, we've worked with each other for years. He actually produced on American Boy. So it wasn't hard. We've done other records together too. So it wasn't an adjustment to work with him. I picked him, chose him myself. I called him, yeah. I was like, I have an idea for some records. Let's do this. I think people want to dance and be happy again. I do. You know? This is like sort of a post-COVID moment. Is that what you mean? Before COVID.

This is before COVID. This is like maybe 2018. I said, I have a feeling. It just feels dark and it just feels really, everything feels really right now. And I just want to feel light and I want to dance. So I think that's what I want to make. That was another dark moment. There's been a lot of dark moments for different reasons recently.

Yeah. So this is kind of carried me through it. And he keeps looking at me like, what did you see back in 2017, 18? I was like, I pray. I don't know. You had a premonition. Premonition, a feeling. But yeah, this all feels very,

it's just joyful to me, this whole record, yeah. Wonderful. That's beautiful. Yeah, thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, man. I've asked to what, did you hold off on releasing it for various reasons?

Yeah, part of it was I was still working on it the entire past four years. I'm still lightweight working on it now. Yeah. The whole album. But I just wanted to find the right partner. I wanted to find the right time. I don't believe in hype per se. I like people to feel it

and I like whoever needs it to have it, you know, when they need it. And the one thing I was clear about, we had to begin the role out this summer because I was like, it just, we're missing this central thing of joy with music. People are getting so over-concerned with the excitement around it

and they're missing the point of the joy, the way that music can change your spirit. It felt like the right time. Yeah. It felt like a joyful summer too. Towards the middle especially. We need it. This year has been interesting.

It's been six of one, you know, half a dozen the other. We have no clue where we're going from day to day. You also have a music show. I do. You have the Estelle show on Apple Music. You get to play and talk about your favorite music celebrating artists you love. It sounds like so much fun every episode. What was your inspiration to make that show?

Well, meanwhile, I have this, on the first. ongoing battle of the wits when it comes to music. I feel like I'm a jukebox. He goes to have his way to discount that or discredit that. No, we go back and forth about music and stars and everything on a regular day, like to the point where our friends were like, you need a show. Like, because this is nonsense. You know too much about music.

When you say jukebox, me, you just, you love so many eclectic things. You know a lot about it. Yeah. Like, all my music is just, it's genreless. It's just, I make what I want when I want, how I'm want and it's every album. To me, it's just like, there's always a discussion about it. There's always a like, what do you think they was going through?

Did you hear that? You know, we'll be talking about something really serious and be like, I wonder what Bon Jovi had like for breakfast the morning he made. Like, we're those kind of people, you know? So I'm excited to be on the show. But it's perfect. I make so much sense to me because as a music lover, it can take the form of making it, DJing it, talking about it.

It's all coming from the same source of just loving music. So that makes perfect sense. I saw the jukebox idea that you're talking about. You were on Empire, you were in a girls' trip, just to name a few of your credits. But we got to talk about your voiceover work. You're a voice actor on the show, Stephen Universe. Yes.

For those who may not be up to speed, tell us about the show and how you got into voiceovers. Oh, my days. So around about 2009-10, I kept pestering my team and asking them to do voiceovers. I was like, I just want to do voiceovers. I feel like I have a good sounding voice and everyone keeps telling me I should do voiceovers

can me find some voiceovers? Then I got specific. I was like, I want to do cartoons because I have nieces and nephews and I want them to hear my voice overseas. They're not moving here, okay? And my sister had just had her first daughter

and my brother had his son. So it was his daughter. So it was me trying to relate to my family a bit knowing that they were never moving to the United States. And I got the role for Stephen University's Garnet And it was described, she's like a big sister. I was like, oh, I can do this. Yeah.

I'm one of nine. I'm the oldest girl of nine. Easy. Wow. Easy. You've been the big sister a long time. My whole life I said, I don't have to act this out. Just tell me the words I'm supposed to say, I got it.

I have the tone. I'm ready. One of nine? One of nine. Six girls, three boys. I'm one of six. Okay. But I'm the baby.

I'm six of six. You know what? Apparently I was like, we've had enough. He was at the edge of the road. Yeah. So it wasn't a hard stretch, but the more it grew, the more the cartoon developed, the more I was like, oh, man, it's an honor. You know, it's one of the most progressive, one of the most brilliant, one of the most just smart animations. I don't want to call that cartoon, because that would be little, you know, that will kind of shrink it.

It's one of the most smart animations that I've had the pleasure of being a part of. And there's some parents in the room. I mean, like, you'll watch anything with your kids. Yep. When something's actually good, it does a parent. It does our heart so good. I love the part of the story too where the focus, the actual, like, you really were very specific about your goal and how wonderful it is when the universe hears that and responds with, and I think they're related. I think if you're able to get that granular with like voice acting, kid, etc. All right. So you're one of nine. You have this big family. Did your family play Earthwin and Fire when you were a kid? Absolutely. There's no version of any family event that Earth and Fire was not played at. In preparing this episode, I was telling Blake, I was like, this song, like, to this day, you can't really go to like a cookout, a black family reunion. Like, let's groove will absolutely be played.

Worldwide earth. Like, I don't care who you are where you are. Worldwide earth, a family cookout, it's going to happen. Some Earthwin-fire, period. Absolutely. Yeah. Like, that was, they are one of the bedrock. Absolutely.

And I feel like they made music for so long. Like, there's music from the early 70s. Like from that period, there's stuff in the disco era. There's stuff in the 80s. We're talking about one of their songs from the 80s. Like, you can kind of find any era of Earth, Wind and Fire. Like, there's at least one hit that's going to make your uncle dance. Like, you bettons?

What are you talking about? Like, no uncle aside. Like, yeah, we ain't. Sometimes my uncle's drunk and he's pushing people. This is my time. But we're not talking about him today. And one thing that I think that was really sort of interesting about this group is that they obviously have the slow jams. that you can make out to.

They got the party tracks that you dance to. We're talking about one today. And then there were like some songs that were just straight up like militant for the lack of a better term. And I don't, I feel like there are very few groups and performers who could check all three boxes. You know, like, Public Enemy has no slow jams. You know what I mean?

Like, you know, you can go through each of those three categories. Most people can check two. Very few could check all three. Public enemy. I mean, the name is Public Enemy. You want slow jams from public enemy? I mean, I'd like them try. And I would like to, I would like to.

I would like to try and make that work. But you know what I mean? Like, I feel like this is... You're sexy. I was my best... That's your Chuck D. That's my Chuck D. Sexy.

How low can you go? Blake, we got... I love you. I love you. Wait a second. I turn into James Brown there and I'm sorry. Every time. It's okay.

It's okay. So before we really get into how Let's Groove was made, we got to talk about Earth, Wind, and Fire's origin story. First off, Maurice White named the band after the three elements. in its astrological chart. And Maurice, we should also just say right from the beginning, he's the band's founder and the band leader.

But this is a huge band that has, like, so many members going in and out. Lettry walk us through their early. A lot of members coming and going, but it starts with, and in some ways ends with Maurice. He is the leader of the band. And by the way, connection, interestingly, did you know that he was one of nine children also? I did.

I think he might be the oldest. He's certainly in the band, the oldest of the white siblings. But interesting connection. Yes. So the story began. number, right? There you go. So the story begins in Memphis, Tennessee.

This is not our first Memphis episode. We talked about Al Green and Stacks records, a few back. Maurice White goes to high school with Isaac Hayes and Bookerty Jones, a Bookerty and the MGs. And he's actually in a band with Bookerty Jones at Bookerty Washington High School, which is perfect. Wow. The Booker T's. In the early 60s, he moves to Chicago to study drums at the Chicago Conservatory.

Very early on, he's still a teenager. in his early 20s, he's already a staff musician at chess records. He's got a vision. He's got a dream. He's got a lot of talent. I'm almost envious of people who know that early. This is exactly what I want to do. I figured it out like a year and a half ago when we started this show.

Here we are. I'm finally figuring it out. I'm still figuring out. Oh, my goodness. I'm still like, I might be an architect. We have to have Estelle like specificity to our vision. I think that's the key. I'm serious.

That really inspired me. That would help. Okay. So he's on chess records as a staff. musician, chess records. If you don't know, that's Muddy Waters. It's Helen Wolf. It's Willie Dixon. So he's learning songwriting from the best. He's learning production. And interestingly, so he's still a drummer and he plays drums on a few early songs like this one. Jackie Wilson's Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher. Maurice White on drums.

Wow. So that's from 1967. Maurice is playing drums on that one. I looked and say on this show like, I wonder if the people in the studio knew they were hearing a performance that was going to be around forever forever imagine that they couldn't I mean especially because in this era like this type of music is considered relatively disposable right so many of these records come out on 45s not all of them even get covers right so the fact that 70 60 whatever years later that's a classic it's become that's nuts so he continues down the drumming path he's in a trio called the ramsie

lewis trio and it's a sort of r&B jazz funk mix little heavier rhythm section yeah um this is one of the hits or relative hits of the time. And it's an important song, and I'll explain why in a second. So this song is Uhuru from 1969. So what you're hearing, that's the sound of the Kalimba. Yeah. So that's the song Yuhru by the Ramsey Lewis trio. It's from 1969. And Maurice White is playing drums, but he's also playing an instrument, which is known as the Kalimba, which is African thumb piano. And it comes from the African, or the Zimbabwean, I believe, Mbira. And this instrument, which I think a lot of us, I've certainly grew up with it. Man, we had about 18 in the house.

Man, my father, my father never saw a club, but he didn't buy. But it was one of my first instruments, like, because as a kid, like, you know, when I was like four. I mean, like, earliest core memories is, like playing that thing. I think as a kid, like in music school, I think we had them. Did you have them in England? We didn't have them in school, but same thing. I'm a half African, so we had all the different instruments that didn't, like, qualify for music school. at school, we had him in the house.

Well, what's interesting about it is, obviously, there's an African connection and part of what... Well, the name of the song means freedom and independence in Swahili. And part of what's happening right now, obviously, for Maurice, is a consciousness that's rising that he will bring to Earth, Wind and Fire in a very big way. Yeah. So, but interestingly, also, we have Maurice White to thank, I think, for all these Calimbus in our lives in America and in England, because he's credited for being one of the first to to use it in the recording in the late 60s in a Western...

That's wild. I can't imagine a time when, you know, African-American families didn't have this. We certainly did. So this takes us to his first band, which is known as the Salty Peppers. Clever. And then he puts this band together with a couple of friends. He was actually a songwriting team. Him and a couple guys got together, and they had this vision, another Estelle-like vision,

that they wanted to make money from music. So they form a songwriting team, which makes jingles for commercials. Remember there in Chicago, which is a big advertising town? So that morphs into the salty peppers, and in 1969, they put out this song. Where's the one? The classic late 60s, like, party song. I was going to say, I can see that party. Yeah.

I can see that party. Totally. What is that dance called? I have no clue. I like it, though. I'll do it forever. For our audio listeners, Estelle is moving her arms. One goes up and the other comes down.

Circular. It's sort of like a swimming thing. Like a swimming thing, but like backwards. Oh, I know. I thought you were doing it. Yeah, that's what I was doing. I don't know what that. Chess goes up.

Heart to. It's not making a whole lot of sense. It was like, oh, the good times change. But she's really good at it. Thank you. But you know, there's a great scene in Black Klansman when I think that's Black Clansman where they're dancing to a song. And you can see, like, those parties, like, people used to actually dance at parties.

You know what I mean? Like, it used to be, like, sweaty and, like, cramped. You know what I mean? I feel like we've lost that part. It's too late. We need back now. I believe, I believe I'm falling in love. It's too late.

We need it back. I just feel like Ernie Barnes got the inspiration someplace. Wait what? Ernie Barnes, you got the inspiration, like the dancing. Yes. Like that, yeah, that's his whole vibe. Right. Yeah, it's very go-go-y feeling.

Yeah. Go-go, yeah. Go into a go-go-go. Yeah. Well, so the salty peppers are the basis for what becomes Earthwind and Fire. And it starts with Maurice having sort of visions for a band with, first of all, younger people. Because with Ramsey Lewis, he was the youngest.

So he wanted to do something for a new generation. Spiritual overtones, as his former manager, Bob Cavallo puts it, Afro-Cubin, jazz, pop, R&B, folk art. So there's... Can I just happen real quick. Regular listeners of the show know that I used to be an A&R assistant of Hollywood Records. Hollywood Records was run by Bob Caval. And he always had stories because, you know, he managed Earthwind, and Fire. He had a Prince for a while.

Purple Rainer. And I don't think it was a coincidence. that one of the youngest members of the A&R department, a full-fledged A&R person, was Cabron White, which is Maurice's son. Oh, really? And so there was a lot of, like, Earth went in fire, you know. Not a coincidence because it was nepotism? Is that what you're trying to say? No, I'm saying that, like, Caballo's and whites got along.

Okay. His son, Rob Caballo produced Green Day and a bunch of rock bands. Wait, I never made that connection. I know that. Yeah, Rob Caballo's Bob Caball's son. More nepotism. Look, it's just a thing. This band has some nepotism, too.

I mean, was it, was it, was it rubbish music? Was it, was it charged? Were they good at it? That maybe matters just as much as the fact that they were probably easy to get and cost less. I don't need that. Get the money in the family. Just to keep the Earthwind and Fire and Hollywood Records connection thing going. Okay.

The person I actually worked for at Hollywood Records was a guy named John Lynn. He was a songwriter. He wrote that name, yeah. And he and Ali Willis wrote Boogie Wonderland. Oh, there it is. That's why that. Yeah. They wrote Boogie Wonderland.

John Lynn wrote a couple of songs for Madonna and for Vanessa Williams. But I only bring it up to say that if you hear the original version of Boogie Wonderland, it sounds so different than the Earth Wind and Fire version of Boogie Wonderland. Oh, wow. Let's listen. That version has been making around on social media. And I was like, oh, yeah, that sounds like the version of the song that, you know, my boss could have written. Because I was always like, how did he write Boogie Wonderland?

No dis to John Lynn, but he didn't seem like. Like the guy who wrote that funk disco classic. That's the beauty, though, of Earth and Fire. They would take a whole song and just, it just sound like them by the time they got through with it. They had their version of events on everything. Signature. Their version of Got to Get You Into My Life by the Beatles.

That's the version I know. I don't know the original. That's the only version I know. Maybe it's the only version you need to know. Into my lap. I only wanted to bring up Cabron White working there, because that was really just an excuse for me to see Verdeen in the office a lot. Did you see him live?

With the perfectly pressed hair. Let me tell you when I first met Ferdin. You met Verdeen? Many times. I have met all the members living of Irvine Fire and they recognize me in real life. And so that's like I swoon in my soul every time I see them like, hi. And they're like, hey! And I'm just like, why do you know me?

This is unreal. Verdeen is never dressed normal. No. He's always dressed like he's about to go on. He's always dressed. When did you first meet Verdine? At the hair shop. You're lying.

No lie. You remember at the hair shop? At the hair shop. Did you recognize him or he recognized you? I went up and I don't care what the state of me is and as long as they'll have me, I will go up and be like high-trane. You are an introducer. I know this about you. I've read about you.

Yeah, I will say hello. I refuse to like, like, that's a, you're the reason I'm here. You're part of the reason I exist in this world. So I was like, bro, like, hi. I am so sorry you're in the middle of getting your hair down. Thank you so much for even looking my way. I didn't even hear you with a thing blowing in his head. No, he could.

He was waiting. He was getting in the middle of it. And it was like a three-second uncomfortable, but I also had my hair in various states of disarray. So we both looked nuts. And he looks great. I looked crazy. And it was just like, and so ever since then,

and the next time I saw him, we had, we went to perform at the Hollywood parade, and it got rained out. So we were all backstage. Is that the Hollywood parade at Halloween or New Year's? Christmas. Christmas. Yeah.

They were headlining. It was a big thing. And I was one of the, I think it was opening, was performing on it. And it got rained out. So we were stuck in this building on Hollywood just like, well, we're all in here? Should we do a jam session? I don't know. I know.

Should we go home? We almost did. It was a while time. And then, but ever since then, I've just kind of crossed parts with them, where I've re-sung their records. And they've been there. And they've, you know, or we've just been around each other in different bases and I'm still just like,

nah, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. In many ways, it's like as much as we want big audiences and fans, like someone from a band you love knowing who you are can be, that's it, I'm done, I can quit now. Ryan blowing, I'm good every single time. I think it also has to be said, and we

say this as fans of Earth, Wind and Fire. Verdine is the most Verdeen looking person. There is no other person. On the planet. There is no other person. Like, that name could only go with him. Only. You see it, you hear You know, it's going to be Redine, and you know he's going to look like he looks. The spelling is perfect.

It's perfect. It's perfect. D-E-E-E-N would not work. D-I-N-E. That's Reneene. Perfect. But it's his... Yeah.

Fingers to nose. Because he was born in Chicago. I found that interesting. Yeah. Oh, he was born in Memphis. He's his much younger. Right. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. The family move. It's just like they're, they're in, they're them. Like, this, if there was never an example of like, oh, people are made to be who they are and do a specific thing. Yeah. pure example, like, it doesn't make any sense. I was going to say, we have Maurice, we have her date. Yeah.

Can you tell us a little bit about when Philip Bailey should? Well, perfect timing. So Earthwin and Fire, it's a very long career. And in a nutshell, they get signed to Warner Brothers and make a couple records. The sound of the band at this time, by the way, is a little more exploratory jazz funk, Afro-Cuban rhythms. All the stuff I just said, they're playing with all of that, but it's not quite in the song tight, precision form.

We're going to, like, pop top 40 radio, that's we're going to get soon. And at a certain point. the band, quote, unquote, is dismantled. I've got something more to say about that in a second, after the first two records. And it's back down to just Maurice and Verdine. And they restart the band, basically. And this is where Philip Bailey joins.

Now, Philip Bailey was a singer, and his falsetto is what he's known for. And I just found this really funny interview where he talks about. He didn't know that he was singing falsetto. He just grew up with a bunch of women in his household, and he was just sort of mimicking what he heard. Wow.

Not realizing that like when you sing that high, there's a name for it and it's unusual and he's amazing at it. So Maurice finds him and it becomes the vocal contrast that we know and love. It's low from Maurice, high as Philip Bailey. If you're ever wondering who's who in the song, that's the answer right there. And by the way, here is one of my favorite pinnacle Philip Bailey moments. This is from fantasy. Crazy. Like what?

Every singer, I don't care who you think you are has tried that. That's the moment. That's the moment you want to replicate that 1977 high note gets higher and then higher still. Just keeps going. It just keeps on going. I mean, this is as good a place as I need to bring this up. For my entire life, I thought that sort of like celestial chorus that you hear on these songs was like, you know, all the members of the group, like 30 voices, all chiming in. It's not.

It really isn't. It's really just the layering. It's Philip and Maurice on background on pretty much every song from what I've come to understand. even though you might see credits for other singers, they're really doing all the stacks on all those Earth Winni Fire Records. And you got to consider when they did it, like the era, like what recording was like at that time. So labor intensive. It wasn't just like click, click, click.

That's why they went in there for hours. Yeah. That's why. I saw an interview with Maurice and he was like, you know, because they were like, oh, that's amazing. So wait, when you perform these songs live, it's obviously not just you and Philip. How do you get that same sound? He was like, a lot of practice.

Well, they do bring into the mix. So kind of funny story. So originally, the band members have come and gone, as we've mentioned. But originally in this sort of middle Phila Bailey period, there's Ralph Johnson is the drummer. And live, he continues on even after they bring Fred White, another member of the white family, to replace him on drums, but they feel kind of bad. So they keep Ralph on as a percussionist, but he's also like, when you ever see live footage, he's the third main, like, upfront singer. adding that third harmony. So he's still in the mix.

They were like, let's keep him around. Let's give him another role. But Fred, our brother, is now the drummer for the band. I found this really interesting and sort of maybe sets up the rest of the episode a bit, just for this information. On an interview on QLS, Philip Bailey, talked about how that first incarnation, the band that was on the first two records,

he kind of shed some light on the situation. And he said it wasn't that they were fired. It's that they left because of the imbalance of payment that was happening. Wow. And he told the listening audience, myself included, that like he himself was actually hired as a hired gun. And in fact, this new incarnation from that moment onward, it's really Maurice White, who is the band. And kind of every other performer, maybe not the family members, were all kind of hired on as like you get paid per performance. You get paid probably some royalty on the record, but there's no publishing. And there's a big payment and power imbalance.

So we always like to talk about that on the show because it really kind of helps inform like how decisions are made and really the story behind the song a little bit. Was Maurice White the producer, the main, he made all the ideas and said everyone play this, play that? He became the producer. There's an important person named Charles Stepney for during this transition period. Like this is after the Afro Jazz Funk and the first band members and before the big hits. Charles Stepney comes in the picture and they credit him to the highest heavens as being

such an important member of the band. Even though he was only helping for two years as a producer, they call him their George Martin, basically, like they're Quincy Jones. So he stepped in and really tighten them up on rehearsing and production and songwriting and helped really change the sound and set them up to become the global superstars they went on to be. But after that, Maurice takes over as kind of the main producer. Like I learned. Thank you. Yeah, I got what I need. Yeah. Yeah. And he passed away, unfortunately, a heart attack in 1976 right as they were. They'd already start to break. Shining Star was kind of their big breakout pop hit. That came out in 75. So he did that.

They all did that together. Sheesh. We would be remiss if we didn't talk about Earthwind and Fire's Afrocentricity. You know, like, I will say that, like, one of the first things I noticed as I went through my father's record collection was, you know, the pyramids. And there was, you know, all that, there was, there was the undertone of Swahili. You know, some of it is a function of the time. Like, I feel like in general, Afrocentricity was enjoying this renaissance in the 70s, you know, like from the clothes to the hair. I thought Daishikis were just a shirt.

I didn't know that people didn't know them. And I also want to clear this up. In preparing for the show, luxury, you asked me, were they like that group that I see in New York, the guys who have like their, their larpying? The Israelites? Those are the black Israelites.

That is not, that is a completely different thing. And it's a misnomer because they seem a little anti-Semitic to me as a Jew walking past them with some of what they've said. Let me tell you. That's probably something for another episode. Another episode. But that ain't worth. when the fire was coming from.

They were more like, you know, everything comes back to John Rital for me. Like, they were just, they were proud to be celebrating their heritage. Yeah. I have a question for you. Do you think that they would be considered Hotep? I think they'd be considered Hotep adjacent.

Hoteb adjacent, like close to it, but not quite fully it because of the slow jams and the other things. Now, I feel like it needed to be done in that period, too, though. Like, I loved seeing us as black people in a different world other than, you know, popular culture. Like I got to see fantasy. Literally got to see,

not fantasy to a degree, but something that was just different than what we were, you're seeing it and stuff that would be in tour in my house. My mom was absolutely the person that was like, you're going to learn black culture.

You're going to learn our history different to what they're telling you in school and more, you know? And so learning about pyramids and learning about where we actually came from and how great we were and still are. For me, I saw that. Yes, I agree.

And learning words in Swahili and just having the pride. And yes, even, you know, some of us were celebrating Kwanza. I think it was, you know, it was good to be raised that way. And thank God that they were instilling that. And it was actually weird to me when I got out into the real world and other people had not had those lessons and stuff. I'd be so like first, like, so you know the Egyptians, right?

I was the person like front row and Senate with it. They're like Timbuktu and Manso and just so much that you could take pride in. And I think that that. That was good on our parents and that was good on Earth, went and Fire, to make that part of the culture. A thousand percent. And it just was, as a kid, you're looking at you're like,

the colors, the colors. It's so pretty. It's so colorful. I didn't know what psychedelic was, but like, it was really psychedelic was. From an Afrocentric point of view, especially some of those colors. The video for less groove was...

We'll talk about that video. Oh, okay, I'll let you all do. No, let's talk about it. I think somebody said they threw every visual effect that was possible that year into that one video. It was also the same year that, was it, Michael Jackson's, can you feel it?

Was it Jackson 5? Can you feel it came out? Is that right? Yeah, A1. I believe it. Everybody was doing like the rainbow train. Right, the rainbow. I was like, everybody had that. It was like, Shaka Kama had it in a couple of videos.

Yeah, she did. We just talked about that. Yeah. That was their thing. But to me, I just liked it because it was, again, I'm looking at it as a young kid, right? Not at one years old. It was born and eight.

But years later, and I'm just like, it's a black woman. And they're like all singing around her. And like, you just put yourself in that space. In space. Like in this, look, all of my songs, a lot of my videos retroactively on the back of my brain come from looking at older videos. And maybe a song I have called Freak is kind of reminiscent of that a little bit in that. In that video.

Like, if you see the VEO for Freak, you see this. You're like, oh, yeah, some bits in there. I mean, the funny thing, too, is that, like, what a happy coincidence in many ways, or maybe it was influenced, but I don't think it was. In the late 70s, we have literally King Tut's tomb that is touring the world. So we have this Egypt thing coming from a completely different place, but perfectly coinciding for Earth Wind and Fire's album covers to be that much more meaningful culturally. You know, there's also King Tut. Steve Martin was a huge hit in 1979. So the Afrocentric roots of these things in the culture then are joined by this completely coincidental King Tut phenomenon.

I think it's a lifestyle. Like that's one thing they had. They've always had in the pop heyday era, they're classics and their legends. So they're still relevant to me. They just managed to consistently hit what was going on in the world and how people wanted to feel in that era. Right. They really were on the vibration of like the post, first of all, they're coming out of a post sort of post hippie moment, but they're kind of early to a lot of things like

talking about spirituality and talking about astrology in a way. And there's one anecdote I want to tell because, again, this is another anecdote from that Philip Bailey interview. He talks about how they had their quote unquote worst gig ever. I think it's Philadelphia. It's Philadelphia at the uptown. And he says, the crowd just were not into Earth, Wind and Fire at all. They were booing. They weren't into the music. So at one point, they're all looking at each other. What should we do? And Maurice gets out his columba. He does everyone to shut up. up and he gets out his columbah and he just starts playing the columba. He just starts playing and the crowd is still booing and throwing tomatoes, whatever. But at a certain point, he gets a certain

calm. He has the band members sit down on stage in kind of a yoga pose while he's doing this. And the crowd starts to calm down. And then he wins them over and the band starts jamming. The band starts doing kind of a jam thing and the crowd is feeling it. And by the end of it, as he tells the story, it's ecstasy. And Philadelphia to this day loves earthwind and fire because of this experience. Wow. To love that story. They get it.

That was pure recent and the entire vibration. Like, this is, this is when you know you came here to do a specific thing. I feel like at that point, Maurice White was just like... Put on this earth for a reason.

This is why I'm here. And he was fearless. Like, because imagine that you're getting booted to within an inch of your life and you're like, everyone quiet. I'm going to play this something. I'm going to play this something.

And you're all going to calm down. You're going to relax. It's not even a drum solo. No. He understood like it's people's spirit. And it's really about energy. That he understood it. That's something.

To me, that's like, oh, that's, yeah, that's affirming. That's beautiful. It's so beautiful, yeah. Yeah. After the break, we'll dive into how Let's Groove was made and share the spice of life. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to one song, luxury. Tell us, how did Let's Groove get made?

So in 1981, they were just coming off of a big little flop after many, many, many hits. Their record faces where they were actually actively trying to not write big hits. They'd become these. huge hit machines and they were starting to get a little self-conscious about like are we coming a punchline it's one of those moments so they're in l.A and they're listening to the radio and cbyss is saying we need a hit record and they're they're actively listening to the new music so they are hearing some of this early kind of early proto break dancing you know roller skating jams the vocoder which plays a part of the song zap and roger right so they are actively hearing what sounds can we

put into the music to get us back on that darn top 40 radio so that's where we get into this song and Just one more thing before we start listening to the delicious stems and hear everything we've been discussing and teasing. One thing I found interesting, I looked into the songwriting splits. Maurice White is a songwriter on the song, but he's very minimally credited in terms of the percentage overall. The number one percentage getter is a gentleman named Wayne Vaughn. And there's a third songwriter who isn't in all the public credits, but I did find her name in the actual database. And her name is Wanda Vaughn. Now, Wanda Vaughn is an important and is the unsung hero of our song.

story because Wanda Vaughn, who was married to Wayne, they were a couple, they were a husband and wife songwriting team, but Wanda Hutchison Vaughn was in the emotions. And the emotions were for a while kind of a sister act with Earthwind and Fire. So it's a sister band. It's Sheila, Pamela, and Jeanette and Wanda. That's it. So the emotion, the same background for them. They did. All through their music, you can hear. And in fact, if you ever go to Boogie Wonderland, I'd never noticed before Boogie Wonderland is credited to Earthwind and Fire with the emotions. Yeah, yeah. So that's who's singing on that song.

That's it. They're perhaps most famous for this song. It's so freaking epic that you could really go to, To Be Real. Right? And that was one of their best songs, but they also had, I think it was Don't Ask My Neighbor. They sounded like the female contemporary to Earth and a Fire. Exactly that. And they were.

And Maury's White heard that too. and begin producing them and working with them, bringing them into the songwriting fold for this song in particular. So on Best of My Love, what you're hearing on the song we just heard from 1977, went to number one. That's the Emotions, Best of My Love,

and Earthwind and Fire are the backing band on that track. So it's written by Maurice White, the guitar player Al McKay, and the rhythm section, Verdeen, the boys, the brothers and Fred. And that song, of course, is sampled in this. That's De La Sol, say, no go from 1989. It's the, oh!

Now it's time for the stems. Luxury, where should we start? Should we start with the drums? Let's start with the drums, my friend. One fun thing about the stems this week that I have that special is I actually have a guide vocal, which I know you're going to love, especially as a singer. So we have, I'll be playing it intermittently, but we have Maurice White's instructions on what should happen for the rest of the band.

I can't wait to know. Should we just do that now? I mean, like, sure. I can play a little bit of his music. mouth noises at the beginning. How about that? Here's mouth noises. So it's kind of like musical instruction or maybe it's just added percussion. I'm not sure if it's in the mix buried somewhere, but I hope it is. I hope it is too. Like what? It is definitely hair stand on end kind of thing to hear like the vocalist like you can picture

being, especially as a singer. You can picture the cans on your. This is the blah blah blah track that you're not thinking anyone's going to ever hear. Right. Isn't that you? me nervous. Oh, no. He doesn't do anything wrong. No, I just think to myself, I'm doing these blah, blah, blah, blah. Listen, since we're already into it,

here's a couple of quick fun moments. Here's him providing instructions for what's to come. Cora's coming up. Let the school, tighten up your shoes, it's all right. That's for Philip. He's like, here, Philip, here's what to do. Just do this higher.

Yeah. Do this like three octaves higher. Right? You can listen to this all day. Speechlessness is a part of the show. We understand. Because my whole thing's like, well, how did, I know that somebody else maybe wrote it, but like, how did you?

It's like an actor, you know, sometimes you're handing a script. Yeah. And you elevate those words far beyond what even the writer thought. Or I even heard Spielberg say that, like, you know, I would hand John Williams my movies. Yeah. And at some point, his music would become more of the movie than what I even envisioned. Right. Because he knew what the scene looked like without John Williams's music.

And then, you know, suddenly E. ET's flying across the moon with that score underneath it. And he's like, you know what? This is John. He calls him Johnny. He's like, this is Johnny's film now. Right. You know, like, it just works sometimes.

Can I actually, on a related note, actually, I love to ask you, when you make music, is there, when you collaborate, basically, is there an untouchable thing that for you, it has to be your, for example, melody, but you'll collaborate on words or it'll be your words, but you can collaborate. Is there anything like that that's sacred that you want to be your own? I'm a very collaborative person in the room. I come from a rap. One of my first records, I learned how to, my first 5,000 hours were being a rapper.

So I had to write my own raps. I always had melodies in my head. And I was told later on you're a singer, you should probably sing. Interesting. So that means you're fast with the lyrics? Yeah, fast for lyrics, fast for words. But I'm also, I used to be very open to like, not used to be. in learning how to do my 10,000 hours, I would listen, you know, be like,

okay, well, maybe I could try that. That might be better. And then I got to the point where I was like, no, I'm clear and sure the first time I said it was good. And that's me now. You know, but in doing that, I'll go back and I'll relist and I'll relist and re-listen and be like, maybe I should say that instead. Or I keep singing this instead of that over this.

Maybe I should go back and cut it with this line instead. So I'll do that now more than more than be like, hey, let me take your melody in my words. for me it's like I'm trying to intend a certain thing into the world. You have to believe it. Yeah. I have to believe it. Yeah, I have to believe the words and the melody I'm singing. And most times, if it's coming from somebody else, it's their whole experience.

If I don't know you, I haven't lived with you to a degree. I don't know what you're talking about. And I can't translate that truthfully. I think that's also part of the true artistry thing we talked about at the beginning of the episode. It's like if you're an especially place in your life right now, I think you've been like this most of the time. But it sounds like especially now what you're, what you make needs to feel like very real to you and very connected.

Yeah. And that's going to come much more directly. And you'll have an attachment to the product if it's more yours than been collaborated on. And there's been records I've done for sure in the past. There's been records I've done. People have to take it and make it mine though. Like there's no version of me singing it verbatim how I was told to sing. And it's been like one of those, two of those records.

And two, conqueror and thank you. And I'm literally in there. I don't sing like that. I'm not going to do it like that. Let me get out. Let me get it off. And then they'll let me do it. And they're like, oh, fair.

You know, I understand everybody's approach. But my approach is you want it to be truthful, right? You want people to connect to it, right? Let me get it. There's always a dialogue too with, like, you know, the importance of who you're working with. You know, maybe it's a little bit of one big one for you and one like artistic one for me, like across your career. Trust it. Yeah.

You got trust. You know, and if I don't trust you, but I still got to sing this song because the label of decided. It's the situation I found myself in years ago. You're going to give it your best anyway. I'm going to give it my best. I'm going to try. We're going to see how this is not going to work. So let's talk about the drums.

This is his little brother, Freddie White. And he is playing the drums. And I was thinking about what you were seeing earlier. This is not a very drum-centric song. It's basically a disco beat. There's no syncopation really happening. It's just sort of laying down the groove. And we'll get to the bass in a second.

I'll start to bring them in. But that's where a lot of the fun happens. But here is the drum beat. One, two. There's the count in. One, two, three. What's interesting is he did the first thing one way with the kick on the downbeat. Never again.

But that's a one drop beat. That's a reggae beat. There's no downbeat. He's not hitting the kick on that downbeat. I'd never notice that before, but that intro is very... What did you call it? Because you called it something interesting. It's like hip-hop.

It's like hip-hop. It was just like that missing bass, that missing break, that missing four, if you know what I mean? Like, it's like a... There's something syncopated and, like, floaty about it. You call that, you said a one drop. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. You got to think about what was going on in that era. Like, 1979 was also 79 to 81 was also like the beginning of lover's rock in the UK, which is another genre I really loved.

Well, you grew up, this is an English version for people who don't know. This is an English translation of roots reggae, but with more of a lover's romantic feel to it. Exactly. But that was key. That one drop was key to it. Like, it was very much that, like, we're still going to groove. We're still going to baseline. and we're going to miss every other snare and just like, but don't do good.

Right. And it's a whole different feel. You kind of float for a minute. Exactly. Just floating feeling. Exactly. So that's happening at the beginning of the song. And then we get into the groove.

And there's a big old clap that's added. I love that. You need that clap big time. And there's the bass. There's Verdeen. Light. But you know what? There's another bass on synth.

And it's right here. I'll take out Verdeen for a second. Now one thing I want to take it. to point out because you mentioned it, and you kind of hit the nail on the head, that bass is doing the sort of longer notes. But check out what, by contrast, Verdeen is actually kind of playing a little more staccato. Here's Verdeen alone. I never heard that in the mix before because the other bass notes are longer. Yeah, I'm a big fan of main bass. That's the groove. That's the groove. Longer bass bass notes. It's also its own melody. It's melodic and groove at the same time. And what's unusual, we've had a few

songs on the show where we've talked about how, you know, two bass things is challenging because it's the same like EQ space. But, but Verdeen, the genius, solved it by only being in the middle of the note. Yep. You know, the synth bass is giving you that entire thing and he's just kind of popping up in the middle to get a little bounce. Yeah. And the sound of the bass. And the sound of the bass. Like that's a, that was very Ae's real. It was a different type of bass. It wasn't just, you know, like a regular movie bass. This was a different like, um, it, oh, my matter. was in there like the sound of song or magic. The bass, you know.

The Bainter Sisters? Yeah, exactly. I want to say metallic. It's not metallic. Metallic's a great word, I get it, yeah. It just feels like synth. It just all feels like synth base, like the entire thing. I only hear synth when I hear the song.

I really never noticed that there was any Verdeen playing the bass guitar, but he's in there. Now, you're saying synth. Is that a synthesizer or is that? This is a synth bass. It's being played probably by Larry Dunn. There's a lot of credits on this record. You have to do a little bit of guesswork based on interviews. and sort of triangulating.

But I'm pretty sure that's their longtime synth player, Larry Dunn. And here's just that isolated bass again. It's just the left hand on the keyboard, probably. And he's just playing that all the way through, the little imperfections. Humanity is there. By the way, because we're giving Verdeen some love, in that intro section, the part with the,

I'll play it with the beat in a second, but the one drop beat that it starts with, he's playing something really fun and frankly a little cute. And here it is, these little glissondos at the base. beginning and then I'll give it context after I play them for you. This is the part... This is what I'm talking about. Like, there's so many elements, sorry.

There's so many elements. No, no, tell us, elements. Yeah, go ahead. There's so many, I mean, elements, F and the 5. There's so many elements, like, to making a song, like, you don't even, it just completely bypasses you when you hear something is smooth and easy sounding at the beginning is that. And then you're pulling that part and you're like, there's like this and there's this and there's

is and there's 25 parts to make this thing with seemingly nothing under it at the beginning. And it's seven or eight parts. And this intro part is interesting too because it is really an intro. It's a pre-chorus. But like we only hear it here and then towards the end it comes back one more time. Can you play? I don't think I've ever really noticed that. Can I hear that with everything in the mix and just see like.

I'll bring in some more of the parts. So let's add because the guitar is also playing a little fun of Losando. Yeah. They're trading up Up Down It's break down It's hip up

They're having a great time Doing it too They've rehearsed the song I don't think I ever heard Either those days Because I was so focused on the That's getting your entire attention You're right

Consuming You said that there's a rose piano on here I did Let's hear a little bit of that And in the same section I'm going to give it to you solo And I'll bring it in Just doubling

Actually, it's giving us that bass line because the bass is being silly. This is the moment where Verdeen is like, this is the moment where Verdeen is being kind of funny. So you're actually locking it down. That's the only thing that's kind of playing on the groove, really. I never noticed that before. Everyone else is like playing around. Rhodes is going, that's what's locking you in.

Yeah. Look, we want to get to the guitar. Okay, so here are the guitars during the let's groove tonight. And as always, I'll start solo and then I'll add parts back for context. And that's just one of two ideas going through the whole song. To be a guitar player in Earthwind and Fire, your function, similar to the drummer is to just sort of like do the same thing over there. Which is good, but it's also to like play a whole other thing than what's actually happening in general because that's nothing to do with nothing. That's another hook for you.

Yeah. Another piece of ear candy. Just something else. Yeah, just something else. And it lifts the entire thing. It wouldn't be Earthwin and Fire without horns. I associate this band with horns so much. Can we hear some horns, sir?

Okay, well, the horns are obviously a huge part of the sound of this band. There's a few horn lines. Let me play the first one. This is what's happening during that first Let's Groove Tonight. Bring the bass back. Now, that's a much more fun position to be in Earth, Win and Fire, I would guess. The horn player versus the guitar player. Still, I would be like, where we start in the day?

Where are we beginning? Because that starts like maybe, a half or a core before the entire thing. It's a swoop into it. It's like, play it like this. And he's doing it and, you know, I do this with my guys. I play it like this. Bo, blah, blah, bo, bo.

They're looking at me like. You sing the parts you want to hear? Yeah. I work with the particular basis because he, at this point, he just looks at my fingers going and plays with my fingers. Oh, wow. That's how we, like, it works. Yeah.

Kenny's incredible. So it's like we've built that. But I understand. The communication. Yeah. I understand the language of life. Like, play like this. I know exactly what she means.

Yeah, I know where you. That's stuff. Translate that to more language. Make it three part. Now, add another fourth. Go over there. Like, crazy. Absolutely.

Yeah, there's some more parts to, I'll play you another section of the song. So this is the horn parts. And this is in the third chorus. Yeah. So happy. Night. And so many different people shining.

I mean, like, I think that's one of the things that we've lost now that everybody's pretty much working on their laptop and trying to program everything is that, you know, this is so many people like the horns are trying to shine. The guitarists are trying to track. There's a little competitive.

There's a lot of people competing for that spotlight. And as a result, you get a lot of really cool, interesting parts. But the brilliance of Maurice White is as an arranger. He's the one, like, making sure nothing's conflicting. Like, you do this and then the bass and guitar interlocking, like, the guitar was doing the up thing. And then Verdeen did the down thing.

So there was no, like, car crashing happened. He's brilliant. He's been doing this. He's been doing it. Yeah. Another interesting thing about this song is that it's just a two-bar loop the entire time, except for the bridge. So we're just getting this in the... There's a verse, there's a pre, and there's a chorus, but they're all doing the same thing, basically. So the differences are taking place on top. That's the horn lines and the melodies and the lyrics. But there's one bridge, and I'm going to play that for you a little bit, building from the drums. And I'll add the vocals in for context now. And then it modulates up, three semitones.

And I just love that turnaround. You get a little break from the groove, and then you're ready to hear it again. It literally sounds like the air. The breath, like letting out a breath. I like, okay, fuchs and release. That is how they go down on the word down. Yeah. That is one of my own moments, too.

Down. Like, it's like doing what he says to do. Let's hear what you're talking about. Pitchin for me on down. Yeah. I mean, I want to hear some vocals. To me, like, as a kid, like, that vocoder at the very beginning was like, so it defined the song. It's a little scary.

No. You know what? I could see why you would think that, but to me. I still was not scared. To me, it sounded like, it sounded like shockwave that Transformer, who was a boombox. Who is scary? Isn't he scary? Or he's one of the good ones?

He's a good one. He was a bad guy. You get in front of the fan and you just do your voice. This is everything from Zab to Daft Punk. To robotic sound. To sylons on Battlestar Galactica. It's a robot. That's why they're bad guys probably in my mind.

Because of the sylons. It was very of the time, though. Again, that's the part that, again, that hit me for them. They did them, but they did it in the time and the age. Yeah. Like, they were arguably a group that's been around for like, 20-something years or whatnot in various formats. And they came to the 80s and that might have been the farewell.

And they came back with this reference. Not everybody was able to make that transition. Exactly. Tower Power doesn't have any real big hits in the... Beyond there. We're not here to throw shade in time. You're right. Or Confunction.

They did their thing. Or... I mean, hold on now. You said, Confunction now. Come on now. No, I mean, I love Confunction. I love these groups. But I'm saying a lot of groups in the 70s were not able to...

Didn't make the transition. No. Go into the 80s. And by the way, at that time, you know, by 82, Michael Jackson has completely changed. We've talked about this. Like, you'll see, you'll see cool of the gang. Like, all of a sudden, you know,

dude's got a shirt wide open because you've got to be like MTV, you know, pretty boy at this point. They want to see you. They want to see you. They can't hide anymore. I mean, there was always something about chic and earthwind and fire. They were in some ways anonymous. Like, you know, growing up, like, you didn't necessarily know as a kid,

at least, like, what they look like as opposed to Michael Jackson and Prince. And the people who were, like, really out there with their, Rick James was a special case. You always knew who was Rick. But also those are more individual-driven operations. Right. Those are individual. This is a group.

It's a band. But I think like chic and rocksy music, like some of these bands took great pride in their sort of anonymity. But let's talk about the vocoder. Can we hear some of that? Because I will also say until we did this episode, I never really, I thought I knew what it was saying. I did not really know what it was saying. Can you play it for us? Down the phone's down.

I'm really scared and I need to leave the room. It's very terrifying. I can't believe you made me do that. What is it? I know. I mean, we made it through Metallica. You were not scared. Oh, my goodness.

The boogie sound down upon down. The boogie sound down upon down. I mean, did you know what that was? I didn't know. I was just going along with everybody else down. Proof down alone. Time to time again. And sound trumps meaning and lyrics.

Melody. Melody and sound. You hear what we're saying, folks, all you wonderful music-making listeners. You're wasting your time. Don't overthink it. No, I was going to say, don't over-thinking. Do not. I thought you said, all right-shoot-down the lyricsists are wasting their time.

Bob Dylan. It's terrible. Don't do it. Rock him. No. Per-ment-sies. Let's groove tonight, share the spice of life. Baby, slice it right.

We're going to groove tonight. I mean, so, look, it's just the song is about. song is a groove. They've left their Afrocentric, like, consciousness types of songs. I don't think they have. No? Okay. This is a vibe.

Yeah. It's a different vibe. They can do that. Fair point. They can do that. They can. This is how we heal the world now. Okay.

Okay. Like boogieing. By the way, boogie in 1981, is this word maybe a few years old? It feels a little bit antiquated. I mean, boogie has been around by this point. It feels like a 70s word. Yeah. But I've heard people call the R&B of the 80s like boogie music.

That's true. Electro Boogie. You got to think. Who's saying it? Like, I believe them when they say it. I'm saying when they say it. It's credible. If a younger eyes to come out saying boogie, I'd have been like, cut it out.

You don't, that's not what you say. But Maurice and Philip can say movie. They can say it. They can say it. I'm glad if they said boogie out now. I'm glad they weren't like, fresh. Just keep. Okay.

Exactly. We're so fresh. Strange. Okay. We're not of it. Awkward. No, sold. No one with a boy.

No, Cal. Absolutely. No, they couldn't do that. Oh, God. We got parents in the building. Good night, guys. It's been so fun. And go to sleep, kids.

Okay. Okay, guys, let's listen to verse one. Going to tell you what you can do with my love. Boom, boom. All right. Let you know, girl, you're looking good. You're out of sight. By the way, can we just hear that little.

What was that? We all want to hear that. It's got to be Philip, like, waiting for his. big moment. Let you know, girl. Here it comes. No. I think that's Wanda Hutchinson,

because she is credited, and that sounds like a female voice, not a male. That's for sure. I don't think that's Philip Bailey. So that's Miss Pluto is how it's credited. That's her nickname. Miss Pluto going. Yeah. I always notice that in the background, but I never called attention to it.

Okay, so then let's get to the airplane part because that is a very fun 1981, you know, top-notch production moment. All right, just move your city And you glide 9 for 7 on 7 In the mix Here's what they have happening in the mix In that moment

And you glide Like the 7 on 7 And move I think they just went to LA accent Put up a microphone Somebody go here recording right now Go to the airport For good time

It worked. Get that recording to the Concord Jit. Let's play some chorus vocals. Let us grow. Slep in your shoes of stay. Come on. That's the best part of the song. What are we doing?

What's the best part of the song? It's Philip Bailey. It's just off. Philip and Maurice from what we're like to believe. Yeah. I'm going to add me. And strong. That's the thing I noticed.

Look, you're a singer. You hit those notes sometimes. I have not hit them in the same circumstances as you, but I have sung falsetto on stage, and it is very hard because you don't have the power usually. You have to, it's mic control and technique with that. But I've watched Philip Bailey do that live too. That's what I'm saying. He is hitting it with power.

This is called muscle memory. I don't know how he does that. This is cool. I do this. I would do this even if I was not in the studio. I do this in the kitchen at the house. This is what life is to me. I grew up with women.

Like, this is how voices sound. I'm used to it. It's incredible how powerful his falsetto is. training. But then, again, I talk about that era. There was no version of, oh, I sing a little bit. There's like, oh, well, that's cute. You're a singer.

You're a singer, right? It's a train. Like, you be in the house and sing. That's a great point. Yeah. And you really double, triple, quadruple down on that skill, as opposed to trying to, like, do a little bit of everything. I mean, you had to get, like, 2605 times a year.

You know what I mean? That's muscle memory. That's like, this is what I do for a living. This is where I go. I could be, if you're an artist as a performer and you sing for a living. Like, I go out and do shows for a living. Yeah, I could get on stage at any point and just go for it. And you take your instrument seriously too with tea and taking care of it.

All of it. Never too much AC, you know. I don't like to put anything on the track when I'm singing it live. When I'm in the studio, I want to hear what it sound like so I can correct it because if I have to go out and sing it. You like to sing dry, no reverb. I don't really like nothing on it. Because I want to hear what sound like.

I want it to sound like that when you take it off. I don't want to sound like, oh, the pitch was wildly trash. See, that's where we're just like Estelle. It's not. I don't want you hear my voice at all. Wow. And I'm going to say this with all the things. I embrace, I embrace technology.

I love it. Fix it afterwards. Do the things afterwards. But also, sometimes if it's good, let it be. It needs to be perfect. Can I just let in there. We did an episode about Biggie. Yeah.

And to hear his vocal with nothing on it, it actually did sound like a 24-year-old. And he might have been 23 when you recorded that. It sounded like a 23-year-old. But usually you hear bigger with all the effects on it. So he'll always sound older than me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, because he was older than me at the time. But to hear his voice with nothing on it, you're like, oh, that's a little young dude.

A kid. That's a kid. Yeah. There's some really fun little background things that I never noticed in the mix. Let's see if you recognize this or if this is also a first for you. Right? Do it. Right?

I'll play it. Give me a little more context. I just need this myself. You send me these files? Right. What? What? Ah, now I hear it.

Now I hear it. Yeah. I don't think I've ever heard of that. Never. Who knew that was there? Who knew the bup, bup, bup-bps were there? What? We've never heard it.

Well, you're too busy, you're too busy grooving. You're too busy grooving at this point. You're too busy dancing, like, you know, hitting your buddy rolls at this point. You might be feeling it, but maybe not noticing it. No, not at all. One thing we love to do on this show is to get you to hear songs. You've heard a million times, but you hear them differently now. Yeah.

You hear the digital element. Listen, just because it's fun in the bridge. we have Maurice without lyrics yet telling us what he wants to happen here and it's wonderful so let's just listen to that and I'll bring some instruments in for context one two three a da-da-da-dun-dun-da

dada da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-la if you want to be a lot He knew he wanted that one A-bos I love that he had to He had that one part. That's the only vocal, that's the only lyric he knew. By the way, it sounds a little bit like, body a, body, yeah.

If it's not a broken hook, don't fix it. If the thing is works, keep that thing. I bet you that was like placeholder. And then it's like, I'm just going to sing body out. Yeah, that's exactly what happened in September. Yeah, Ali Willis tells the story like, body, that's exactly how it. There's another body eye. There's a two body eyes.

EWF catalog. Signature, baby. If the melody work, don't break it. I love in keeping in keeping with sort of like old man lyrics I like the phrase Let you know girl

You're looking good Out of sight That's an old man game right there Wow These are late 60s These are late 60s This is who's saying it I have to believe you

Yep It's all right It sounds like you got on know about it Philip is like you know what You take this line I'm a little younger than you So Stella as we wrap up this episode What do you believe is the legacy

of Earth, Wind and Fire. Oh, one of the greatest big bands there ever was. Because if you think about what you think about, when you think about a big band, right, many different instruments playing in one big unison, right? Definition of the entire thing, they're one of the greats, one of the pinnacles. For me, in my era, in my time,

they're like a lynchpin. They're like a throwback to me wishing I was with Quincy. I was around in the Quincy era, like it's big band era. and knowing that I have them as like a starting point for my own, to affirm what I do in the studio. Like, okay, no, going bab-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. And telling the baseline. And they'll make it better, too.

Right. I'm not crazy to do that. And I didn't even know this was happening until I came on the, you know, this is my first time hearing the STEM separate and listening to them. So it's affirming for me. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah.

The fact that Maurice did it too. Yeah. It's like, oh, okay, I'm not crazy. I hear other people do it, but I'm just like, I'm in my bag. They're like, no, no, play this. You know, and hearing him do the same thing as like affirming, cool, I'm on the right path. But they're like a middle ground to me as far as like, you know, this is how you layer things.

This is how you have other people collaborate, but you still maintain what you're doing is the center of your sound. Yeah. You know? And then the look of it, like, man. If I could dress like that every day, I would. You know, I'm probably going to you're going to see me do that. that for this next album.

They're a huge influence in this next album for me. Like, looking at the way they dress, the styles, the colors, the vibe, the lyrics, you know, without knowing it again, because I have a bunch of music in the back of my head. They've had a huge impact. You're just realizing as your album emerges a lot of it's coming from the Earth, Wind, and Fire. It's coming from that era. Yeah. Inspirations.

Yeah. Freedom. Yeah. Look, the album's full of joy. The album is just, it's reminiscent of all of those, all of that music, the same. that makes you want to dance, that makes you feel good, that is like, that we forgot. You know, that's what this is. That's what we need right now.

Yeah. I can't agree more. I do feel like there is a certain joy in their music. I think there is a reason why it continues to be played. Not just black family functions, but I think there's a reason why September gets played at everybody's wedding. I think it's because you can feel the joy in this music. You know, like I'm a huge fan of contemporary hip-hop. I'll never say that it's not great.

But I also know that, like, you know, there is like a certain undercurrent of negativity in a lot of the lyrics that you don't feel in a song like, let's groove. And I think that it's okay for us to go back to something that is more sort of like soul-fulfilling, you know, and something that makes you feel happy inside and can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

I think that there's something to that. I agree. I think because what's the thing, This day, I feel like people are just reflecting, you know, and especially in music. We're not, I never want to say, oh, that's terrible. No, me neither. You should absolutely be reflecting what you feel in music. I'm reflecting something different.

But you know, sometimes I see George Benson on those roller skates skating down Venice Beach thinking, give me the night. And I'm like, this is some happy. Just joyful. I got to get some of that. I can not picture George Benson on roller skates. Is that lit, like, I took that very literally when he said that. With his guitars chopped over.

When he's. When the night is calling. You're like, ooh. Okay. Okay. Happy. What are you saying? Don't overthink it.

Throw in somebody eyes. That's what I'm saying. Travis Scott. Throw in somebody eyes. We're here for it. Some of you said about the ensemble really struck me too, because as much as on this show and in my life, I'm such a proponent of all forms of electronic music. And the ability we have as musicians to make music without other people or with one or two

other people. It is pretty special to hear like 12 musicians on stage. Something else. And that era is definitely in the rearview mirror just because of the cost of doing it. Yeah. The capabilities that you don't need to do it. So it is incredible going back and listening through the Earthwind and Fire catalog and seeing like, wow, this was a moment where you could have. And they still tour.

And they still tour. And they still tour. They were just on tour of Chicago. That is a special kind of music. And I'm like, go see them. Again, they sound incredible. Philip Bailey, muscle memory on a trillion. Vodin, Philip Bailey and Ralph are still up there, like giving us fever, signing.

and looking incredible at life. And having a blast doing it, I can't imagine. What else do you want to do in your 70s? I want to do that. Yeah, me too. I want to have the capacity to do that. I think Phillips Sun is in the group. That's my Estelle-like specific vision that I'm getting to the world.

I want to be doing that when I am 75 too. I want to be able to, I want to have the choice to with all my faculties and everything healthy. Or sleepy at hours. I want to have the choice to do one of those two things. Or sleep eight hours. I just want to make 75. Like, you know. That's awesome.

Let me wake up. You will. Yeah. I want to bring up. That's something that I heard you believe, which is that you have this theory about the Bee Gees and Earth 1 and Fire. I so, okay, so here's my, because here's my thing. I was like, I feel like they came out around the same time. And it just looked real close.

So this is part of my whole, like, my back and forth with my team and, like, people I know. I'd be like, who copied who, right? We did that too. We love that. You know, like, because it was so close. It was like looking at Earth 1 and Fire's entire thing. And then the bees came out and, like, they did it in white suits. You know, I was kind of like.

And they were white. Okay. Yeah. It was just, I love it all. I think it was all really great music. Yes, it's all great music. But I was just like, I think about how wild Prince must have felt thinking about artists who came out signing like him and the time after they were out. I would love to have been the room when Prince heard O'Sheila.

Okay. Every time that comes and I'm like. Oh, Sheila. Let me love your. He might turn to Sheila E and be like, do you know these dudes? The name is a little too close, a little on the nose of the need too. Who is this? It was just, there was such closeness.

And we don't know. We're not thinking of it 30, 40, 50 years later. We're just like, jamming. These songs are jamming. But I think about the originators and I think about like how annoyed. And then I think about the line, okay, well, you made hope, make another hope. Well, the happy ending of this straight, too, is that both bands could be hitmakers and do fairly well for themselves financially.

It doesn't always happen. It obviously is the story. Little Richard versus Pat Boone is a little bit less cool. Tiny bit. Okay, so before we let you go, we want to play a game. It's called What's One Song? Here are the rules. We'll give you a scenario and you give us one song you will play during the scenario.

And the only other thing is we want you to answer as quickly as possible. As we've been saying, all episodes. No thinking. No overthinking. All right, bet. Ready. All right. Let's begin.

All right. What's one song you've had on repeat lately? Frankie Beverly Amaze. Happy Pete. Happy feelings. We know. Oh, great song. Yeah.

What's one song that's been an influence as you've been making your new music? Three degrees. I didn't know that you were going to be my baby. Be my baby. Yeah. I don't know this song. I'm going to discover it. Thank you.

Fire. Giving me a fire song to discover. Yeah. What's one song that you could listen to every day for the rest of your life? Anything, Stevie Wonder. Really? Really? Absolutely anything.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's tough. Do I do? I agree. That's a bit. Okay, high five. Give me a word. Chocolate chips.

I'm not crazy. Chocolate chips and kisses full of love for you. I got love kisses. Yes, I got love. Chocolate. Chocolate dip in kisses full of love, I think. So I'm like, I feel like, that's what I sing. You're probably right.

Because that can't be right. It can't be chocolate chips. Yes, I got some dirty kisses for your lips. Yes, I got some money. It's like a chocolate dip and kisses full of love. Oh. Mine is another star. Oh, what?

Star. As is great. I think it's called always. It's not. As. Dot, dot, dot, dot. We should do a segment called real song name. You never knew it was really called.

You don't know what that song is called. What's one song you'd love to sing in one of your voiceover roles? It might be gone at singing Papa's got a brand new bag. And what would that sound like? a little taste. Hubb has got a brand new bag. Dun-d-d-dun-d-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That's literally what she would do.

Literally what they would do. She's like, it's so deadpatter-nothing. She's like, eh, ain't no drag. I love stripping James Brown of all emotion. Literally. What's one song we have to break down on a future episode of one song? Oh, my goodness. I think you'd have to break down my song.

Okay, will you come back with the stones? Yeah, I will. I love that. We'd love to. That sounds fun. That'd be good. That'd be good. Estelle, thank you so much for playing and spending time with us.

Where can people find you? And what would you like to tell them about? Estelle darlings on all the socials other than Facebook. Just 4-slash-Ell. It's easy. Estelle darlings everywhere. But yeah, come find me. My OI is out right now.

The new album comes early next year. Here we are. We are, man. It's vibes. I love that. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for coming on our show. It's been an honor.

As always, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo, D-I-A-L-L-O, and on TikTok at Diallo-A-L-L-O-R-R-L-R-L. And you can find me on Instagram at Luxury, L-U-X-X-U-R-Y, and on TikTok at Luxury-X. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube right now. Just search One Song podcast. We'd love it if you like and subscribe. And if you've made it this far. I think that means you like the podcast.

So please don't forget to give us five stars, leave a review, and share it with someone you think would like the show because it really helps keep the show going. Luxury help us in this thing. Well, I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist luxury. And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ, Diala Riddell. And this is one song.

We'll see you next time.