Planet Money - Planet Money Records Vol. 1: Earnest Jackson

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

We try to start a real record label. Just to put one song out there. It's a song about inflation, recorded in 1975... and never released. Until now.This is part one of the Planet Money Records series. Here's part two and part three.Update: We now have merch! We released a line of Inflation song gear — including a limited edition vinyl record; a colorful, neon hoodie; and 70s-inspired stickers. You can find it here: n.pr/shopplanetmoney.Listen to "Inflation" on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Tidal, Amazon Music & Pandora.Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoneyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Planet Money from NPR. So the other day we got this cassette tape in the mail. Dusty. Old. And someone had written a word on this cassette that we are very interested in. The word? Inflation. So we put it in the cassette player. And? One, two, three, four.

You know, with the food and rent going up there. It's a song. Man, it's becoming a day-to-day hassle. A cool one about inflation. And taxation has taken over our great nation. People, stop what you're doing and listen to what I have to say. And it's so good, right? A little jazzy, funky, kind of muddy. Inflation is in the nation.

I can see a depression coming on. We honestly got a little obsessed with this song when we first got it. And the song that we think is pretty good was never released. So we had to know what the story was behind it. So we started calling up everyone who was on it. And the more we looked into this song, the more we got sucked in and all tangled up in the music industry. This song was recorded 47 years ago in 1975 when inflation was 9%, about the same as now. The band that recorded this song was called Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Roo.

Yeah, Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Roo. This is the singer, Ernest Jackson. You see, it takes a lot of ingredients to make a good gumbo, you see. You can't make a good gumbo without a roux. It's like a butter and flour base, very important part of a gumbo. And Ernest, he is kind of like the roux to this song. He wrote it and is the lead singer on it. Of course, he sounds a little different today.

I guess it's because I'm older, you know. A lot of people say I sound like Satchmo now, you know, even when I talk. That you sound like what? Satchmo, Louis Armstrong. The guy who sings What a Wonderful World. I kind of hear that, yeah. Yeah, because I do have a little extra gravel in there, but there's more gravel now. All right, when Ernest and the band made this song, they were young, teens in their 20s, but they were talented.

And everyone from this band went on to make it in the music industry. The keyboardist, the guitarist, the bass player, they're playing with famous people in famous bands. One of them even won a Grammy and got like real legit fame. But the person who wrote the inflation song and sings the inflation song, Ernest, he never got his big moment. Ernest got that moment stolen from him, personally.

That's what I feel. And I've thought about him often. This is the guitarist on the song, Freddie. Ernest Jackson was, he was special. And he just didn't have the run he should have had. Ernest Jackson, the rude to the song, the voice, he's dreamt of stardom for almost 70 years. Of course, yes, indeed, because that's been my dream since I was a little boy. I've always wanted to be a superstar.

I feel like I had the potential. And I, you know, I haven't given up my dream. I pray on it all the time. Ernest, by the way, did not send us this cassette. Ernest actually hadn't heard this song in a long time. Neither had anyone else in the band.

Really, no one has heard even a piece of this song except us. You and us. Nobody else has heard that song except the people who recorded it. Other than that, it's just been a song that's been sitting in the can a long time. And listen, there are millions of people like Ernest Jackson, artists who maybe should have made it.

And there are millions of songs like this, too. Great songs that no one ever hears, that don't get released or don't become hits. This song kind of missed its moment 47 years ago. But when inflation goes away, it is by no means final. And the fact that inflation is back means there's this rare opportunity to change music history. We've always been curious about the music industry. And when Inflation, the song, just kind of fell into our laps, it felt like we were meant to be together, like we are supposed to do something with this. So we're going to take this long lost song from the 70s and resurrect it. long lost song from the 70s and resurrect it.

Get everyone in the world to hear Inflation, the song. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Sarah Gonzalez. And I'm Erika Barris. Inflation is back. It's back. But the music industry has completely changed in the 47 years since Ernest and the band recorded their song. And now, just because a song is good and of the moment

doesn't mean it'll be a hit or make someone famous or make anybody any money. But over the next few episodes, we're gonna try. We're gonna try to understand why some music is profitable and some is not. Here at Planet Money, when we don't understand something, we throw ourselves into the business. We made a t-shirt to explore global trade. We drilled for oil, sent a satellite into space, created a comic book. Today on the show, we're getting into the music business. We're going to try to start a real record label just to put this one song out there.

Maybe inflation could be a good thing. It's part one of a series, A Second Chance for Ernest. Okay, Ernest Jackson story. And what happened to the inflation song is, to us, kind of like a classic music industry story. His success, and more importantly, his lack of success, tells us a lot about how anyone makes it in this industry. Ernest started singing when he was five years old. By the time he's 14, he's in a band, Little Ernest and the Titans. He's doing a lot of Ray Charles back then, Sam Cooke. I like rhythm and blues because I started singing at first in nightclubs when I was 14. 14 in a nightclub? Yeah, 14 in a nightclub.

That's how it was down deep south here in Louisiana. We could do our thing in the nightclub at 14. And I mean, I used to have them jumping all on top of the tables, you know? This is when Ernest really develops his stage presence. His big thing is the color burgundy. He's always liked how burgundy looks against his brown skin. And Ernest had presence and confidence.

I had that swag. You know what I mean? Yeah. This is when Ernest says he recorded and wrote his first song with a friend. Let's see. Give me your love

And all your time Don't ever leave me Cause I'd lose my mind Give me your love And all your time Don't ever leave me Cause I lose my mind This is 14-year-old Ernest.

14, yeah, 14. Were you writing it with a particular person in mind? Well, I had a little girl back in high school, and we were pretty jammed. But, you know, life goes on. Ernest graduates high school in 1966 and joins the Air Force during Vietnam. He gets out in 1970, gets married, has kids, goes to college, still singing. He joins new bands now when he's in college, like this one called Black Blood and the Chocolate Pickles. Ernest was one of the pickles. He was trying to

get gigs wherever he could, perform as much as he could, because in the 70s, there was really only one way to make it in the music industry. You had to get a record deal, and only a few people in America could get you one. The A&R guy at a record label, the artist and repertoire person, their job was to find the talent. They were the gatekeepers. The right A&R guy had to be at your gig, the right gig, the one where you're really doing your thing, the audience is loving you. So sometimes you just had to get lucky. And it helped to have something to set you apart. For Ernest, the thing was, he could write a pretty good song about anything, Like, really anything.

Like, soda. I always did like Dr. Pepper as a kid, as a soda pop, you know? And, you know, at the time, Dr. Pepper had a thing on the little bottle, 10, 2, and 4. If you remember, if you got to go way back, you got to be old school to know about this. Dr. Pepper bottles used to have, like like this little clock logo on it with just 10, 2, and 4 o'clock on it. Meaning like, drink a Dr. Pepper every day at

10, 2, and 4. So much soda. I thought about it. I said, now, you could call a dude Dr. Pepper. Alright, listen. I'm Dr. Pepper. I'm Dr. Pepper. I'm your friendly pepper. Yes, I'm Dr. Pepper.

I'm your friendly pepper. You know I sometimes come around at ten, two, and four. Don't you be surprised when I knock at your door. I'm tasty too. And I know just what to do. That's Dr. Pepper. Uh-huh. I'm your friendly pepper-upper.

Uh-huh, uh-huh. I get it. I'm going to go ahead and say this song is genius. It should be in a Dr. Pepper commercial. And listen, everyone we spoke to said, Ernest was talented. He had something. And this is where Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Roo come in. This band hears Ernest on a famous-ish cover Ernest had recorded, and they think, he's in Baton Rouge. We're in Baton Rouge. We need to play with this guy. And this is how the band meets. And this is where Inflation, the song, starts. It's the 70s, right?

And there was like this oil embargo with the Middle East. Gas prices were through the roof. People were lining up for gas. There was a big recession. And inflation is going up and up. Ernest remembers his wife would come home from the grocery store with a lot less groceries than she used to. Telling me about, well, this is all I could get, so don't complain. I'm not going to complain.

And the children needed their cereal and their milk. Oh, my God. Everyone Ernest knew felt the pinch of inflation. Yeah, it was hard back then, I'm going to tell you the truth. Money could only go so far, you know. And it's just like today. It's just like today. It's just like today right now.

And Ernest, being Ernest, decides to write about it. He sits down in the music room at his college, Southern University and A&M College. And the only thing he knows is he wants the bass to be dominant, like a very New Orleans bass. Yeah, that bass, that bass, that bass, that groove, that boom, that puts the funk into the thing, you see? He's kind of like thinking about the bass as he writes the lyrics, finishes the song in one sitting, then heads home.

And when I got in my little yellow 66 Mustang. Ooh. Oh, it was a canary yellow with black interior. It was cold. Wow. And I'm on my way home, and I was just singing Inflation. Windows down, belting it out. Ladies on the sidewalk just saying, that's Ernest.

He's always singing out of his car. Ernest decides to sing the song for the band, for Kenny, Freddie, Randy, and Roy. That was Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Roo. And they decide to record it. Kenny, the keyboardist, he was an apprentice at this pretty famous studio in New Orleans, C-State Studios.

Paul McCartney recorded there, Patti LaBelle, Elvis Costello, and in the spring of 1975, Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Roo. They walk into the studio, half the guys in one room, half in another. They pick up their instruments and they're looking at each other through the glass like, all right, ready? And then Ernest steps to the mic. Plug in, Flasher. One, two, three, and boom. You see? to the mic. Plug in Flasher. One, two, three, and boom. Then boom, boom, boom, boom.

You see? Uh, then uh, in the beginning. That was me. This is the guitarist on the song, Freddie. Then the keyboardist comes in, Kenny.

Mm. Bop, bop. Mm. Bop, bop. That kind of a part. So everybody's doing their thing, you know, the drummers.

Ruh-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh. Pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah- apart. So everybody's doing their thing. You know the drummers. And the bass call that. People, stop what you're doing. Oh, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. They are clicking. They all feel it. I'm talking about really clicking. We knew feel it. I'm talking about really clicking. We knew it.

This is it right here. This is it right here. This is it. They recorded the song, put away their instruments, and walked away with the cassette. A demo. And then nothing. Nothing happens. Are you performing at places? Oh, no.

I've never done that. No. No. I've never done that. No. I wouldn't do that out in the public. Ernest says he would never play a song he wrote out in public that didn't have a copyright registration because someone could just, like, hear it and say it's theirs. And Ernest didn't know how to register a copyright for a song.

That's right. I didn't know. I did not know. And listen, getting ripped off in the music industry was a real thing that happened, especially in the 70s and especially to Black artists. In general, Black artists were getting exploited by white record label executives. So when he performs, he's mainly doing covers. And maybe a thing to know about Ernest's experience in the music business at this point is that he'd been burned. He had a hit once.

This is Ernest doing a cover of an Al Green song. If you've heard this song on an old jukebox, chances are you've heard Ernest's version, not Al Green's. His cover gets on the Billboard charts, like the official Billboard magazine charts. It peaks at number 22 on the Hot 100. And Ernest is on the radio a lot. He'd get in his car and hear himself singing this cover on the radio.

It felt great. But Ernest kind of got screwed with this song. There are a few ways that you can get royalties on a song that you're on, but Ernest never got any royalties for his hit cover because the deal he made basically said, you, Ernest, are what is called a session musician, and session musicians get paid a flat rate for performing. Ernest got paid $150 one time. And that was it. The song made money, but Ernest didn't. And since then, he's been excessively cautious.

So he doesn't do anything with the inflation song. Never even sends the demo to anyone. Inflation eventually goes down. And Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Ru go their separate ways. Man, they start doing pretty well in the industry. You guys all go on to have, like, pretty successful major careers. Yeah, yeah. This is the guitarist, Freddie Wall. I was Robert Palmer's guitar player for 12 years, if that tells you anything.

You know Robert Palmer. Most famous for singing, simply irresistible. Kenny Landrum, the keyboardist, he goes on to score movies, write jingles. He's on hit songs. If I could fly, I'd pick you up, take you into the night. Maybe you've heard this song. Anyway. And the bass player, Randy, he is Randy Jackson.

Like, from the band Journey, Randy Jackson. Like, shatter your Hollywood dreams, Randy Jackson. It's a no for me, dog. I don't think it was really good enough for me. He's super famous, yeah. He was on American Idol. One of the judges. Yeah, one of the judges.

And Ernest, the singer, he stays in Baton Rouge. He's singing, but it's not enough. No, I had to work. I had to work. I had to because I had my children and my wife. At first, Ernest works as a bricklayer, mixing mortar, wheeling around bricks. Then he waits tables at nice restaurants, the kind where you serve the drinks from the right, food from the left. I waited tables for 33 years, Sarah.

Excellent tips. I got double tips because after I served my party, then I hit them with a beautiful song. Oh, man. Yeah, I was known as the serenading waiter. Oh, of course you were. I made a very good living. I raised all my children and my family. We did pretty good at that time.

Today, Ernest has a nice house. He's a grandpa and a great-grandpa, and he's retired. He gets Social Security and a check from the VA. So, yeah, Ernest is happy. He still sings at nursing homes, and he has shows here and there. But the A&R guy, the talent scout in the back of the room, they're not showing up. Because that's not really how it works these days.

That's not how a record label discovers you. I've never been signed by a label. That's my hope and dream. Still is, at 74 years old. And we thought, we could try to get Ernest a record deal. But then we thought there's a planet money way to do this. So we're going to try to become a record label ourselves just to get this one song out there because inflation is back. It's at 8% now. So inflation, the song might have a shot, but we can't really do anything with this song without everyone's permission.

We need everyone from the band to sign off, like officially sign off. We called up all the band members to see if we could actually do this. Kenny, the keyboardist, he was the one who first told us about the cassette. He had it sent to us. He is in. He says Ernest deserves a second chance. He's one of the best singers I know. And Freddie, the guitarist, he really wants this for Ernest. Anything I can do to help him,

I'm in. You know, it's, it's, he deserves this. Freddie actually reached back out to Ernest after we got our hands on the song. He wants one more shot at this, one more chance. I said, Ernest, I'll do whatever I can for you, you know, to help you achieve this. The next Gumbo Room member was going to be a little trickier because he's super famous, Randy Jackson. We tried to get in touch with Randy for months. We went through all the people you go through to get to a famous person, you know, the lawyer, the manager, the talent agency, another talent agency, but nothing. Then we found Randy's brother Herman. He actually plays gigs with Ernest, our Ernest.

So we asked Herman if he could reach out to his brother for us. And half an hour later, I was, no joke, having a bowl of gumbo when my phone rings. Randy didn't remember recording the Inflation song, but he remembers the band and he remembers Ernest. And he was like, go for it. Do something nice for Ernest. Randy was in. So we now have a verbal yes from everyone. And when we tell Ernest that all his old bandmates said all this nice stuff about him, it made Ernest feel really good. These guys really loved me and admired me. And they really wanted it to happen for me, Sarah.

So now, now we can build our music empire. Do what a label would do for Ernest. In part two of our series, we find out exactly what that means. Wait, can we be a label? Sure, why not? Like, what do we have to do to be a label? Say you're a label. All right, we're a label.

Planet Money Records. And once there's money to be made, people start to sing a different tune. But first, the world premiere of Inflation. The song. It made its debut in a very 1975 way. That's after the break. Okay, we were thinking about how we wanted to premiere the Inflation song. And at some point, Ernest told us that he really wants to be able to get in his car one day and hear himself on the radio again.

No, I didn't realize that was to happen. I would feel so good because I haven't had that feeling in quite some time. Is there a radio station like somewhere where you're like, okay, that's a good goal to try to get on that radio station again? Yeah, Q106.5. Q106. that radio station again. Yeah, Q106.5. Q106.5? You want to be on Q106.5? Yeah. A few months later, we go back down to Baton Rouge and pick up Ernest.

Get in. I'm in. Ready to ride. We are driving around Baton Rouge and we just happen to have the station on Q106.5. Everybody's in the queue, you know? Wait5. Everybody, too, was in the queue. The queue, you know? Wait, let me just hear. I kind of want to hear this song.

This is a highly orchestrated car ride. We asked the station if they'd play Ernest's song, and they just texted me. We're up next. Ernest doesn't know. You want to turn it up a little, maybe? With Q106.5, Bat Rouge is number one for R&B and throwbacks. It's DJ dj incredible today we're shining a light on a song sung by one of bad roots's own ernest jackson backed by sugar daddy and the gumbo roof the song is called inflation it's 47 years old he's like looking at me like what is happening? Here's inflation on Q106.5.

Ernest says nothing for almost a full minute. Just to survive. You see, inflation and taxation has taken over our great nation. People, stop what you're doing and listen to what I have to say. Inflation is in the nation and it's about to put us all away. I can see a depression coming on, but like most of you, I hope that I'm wrong. With the money they pay For man to live on How long can it carry on

I said it's been a fake shot He's just kind of smiling and shaking his head like, no, no, no, no, no. It's bad communication Oh, this is, this is blowing my mind. Is this actually SQ106, right? Yeah. How did they get that?

How do you think they got it? We sent it to them. Oh, man, that's out of sight. I mean, I can't believe this. Ernest never really said much. That really got to me. That really got to me. So we got one station in one city to play the song. Next up, the whole world. We actually have a video of the moment that Ernest hears Inflation's song on the radio

for the first time. Honestly, you have to watch it. So go to our Instagram, at Planet Money. We're also on TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, at Planet Money. Today's show was produced by James Sneed with help from Emma Peasley and Dave Blanchard. Sam Yellow Horse Kessler helped fact check. It was mastered by James Willits. Robert Smith consulted on this episode and Jess Jang edited it.

The clip you heard of 14-year-old Ernest singing, Jimmy Wells is the composer on the song. Many thanks to Dan Bobcoff, Jacob Gans, Hazel Sills, Devin Meller, and Alex Goldmark. Also, Arthur Roos, Herman Jackson, Vicky Nauman, and Kevin Cassini. I'm Erika Barris. I'm Sarah Gonzalez. This is NPR. Thanks for listening. And a special thanks to our funder, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, for helping to support this podcast.