Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - John Finley: Toronto Mike'd #1072

Episode Date: June 28, 2022

In this 1072nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with musician John Finley about his years with Jon and Lee & the Checkmates, Rhinoceros, I Will Serenade You, Three Dog Night covering it as Let Me Serenade You, SoulBop! and moving home for love after 40 years in LA. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Duer Pants and Shorts.

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Learn more at canacabana.com. Today, making his Toronto Mike debut, is musician John Finlay. Welcome, John. Hey now, Mike. Hey now, hey now. I thought you were going to sing to me there. I was in for a treat because you're quite the singer, John.

I like to sing. I've been singing longer than I've been talking. How long have you been singing? Did you come out of the womb singing? How long have you been singing? Kind of, yeah. My grandmother, my parents were worried I wasn't talking when I was three years old. My grandmother said, no problem, all of them

talking in no time. She sat me down beside her at the piano and taught me songs. Wow, three years old. So you sang before you spoke? Yeah, literally. And you know, that would be, I think, fine. You could spend your whole life just communicating in song and people would, I would think, would love it. They just want to be around you. You're the guy who communicates in song yeah but my vocabulary i had a vocabulary five words at that point five words okay well there's some songs i think that only have five words in it so john a lot of ground to cover yeah uh let's right off the top you mentioned to me before i press record that your dog knocked out your teeth. What happened?

My front tooth. This one. That's why I'm lisping right now because this is a temp until I get my implant. So they just stick like a temp tooth just because you don't want to walk around with a tooth missing. Well, I don't mind walking around without a tooth missing. But when it comes time for show business, I got to put that tooth in. I don't want to look like I'm from tennessee tennessee tennessee and well i i remember you'd see you know in the playoffs doug gilmore would be missing the front teeth or whatever and then when you saw him like

afterwards he stuck in his like temp his fake teeth and he had a you know a beautiful smile so yeah so when you come on toronto mike you put on the you get that fake tooth in there. That's right. That's right. This is your first hard-hitting question, John, and there's a lot of ground to cover. I got some songs loaded up, so we're going to hear a lot of great music. Of course, you've been singing since you were three years old. But here's the big question right off the top.

Is James B. famous? Now soak it in. You don't answer right away. Drink it in because that's an interesting question. I think of it as a philosophical question and it's a debate we have on this program all the time. Is James B. famous, John? In many parts of the world, he's famous. In some parts of the world, he's famous.

In some parts of the world, it's pockets where he's famous. In other parts of the world, it's wide areas where he's famous. So I'd say he's a worldwide guy. Not everybody in the world knows him. But, I mean, he's known in Cuba. He's known in Cuba. Wow. He's known in New Orleans. He's known in New York.

He's known in L.A. He's known in this basement? He's definitely known in this basement. And my dog loves him. But I told my dog that, no, no, one head butt is enough. I'll put up with it, but James can't have that happening to him. How long have you known James B.? I met James B. in March of 2015.

I would have guessed earlier, so it's fairly recent, 2015. I just moved back to Canada in 2011. Okay. I would have guessed earlier. So it's fairly recent, 2015. Well, I just moved back to Canada in 2011. Okay. I was gone for 40 years. Okay. And so there were people that, I mean, I would come up for little visits, do guest shots here and there through the years. I'd come up once or twice a year for a few weeks.

And a friend who i'd kept in touch with lou pomadi yes and so lou i was here i'd been here back here almost four years and we were in touch and uh he said hey i'm i'm i'm uh i got my trio over at the, what's that little bar, the Smith something, something at the Old Mill. By the way, I bike by it all the time. Yeah. I love the Humber Trail. Yeah. So he said, come on by and sit in.

You feel like it? And I said, yeah, you bet. And I came by. He said, what would you like to do? And I told him a little story about save your love for me and he said oh let's let's do that i'll pull it up on my tablet and we did it but in walks james b just before it started right and i looked at his shoes and he looked at mine and we went,

oh, we must be birds of a feather. Right. And so Love at first sight. Yeah. And then I sang

Save Your Love for Me and Nancy Wilson, well, it was a great standard that Nancy Wilson really was one of the foremost singers of it. And he said to me, hey, I have these salons at my place. Would you like to come by and sing? I said, sure. And I came by, and it was a wonderful musical family of singers and singers and singers and wonderful players.

And had a good time, sang a couple of tunes. And then he said, hey, we're doing a one-stop at Lula Lounge. Would you like to be on the show? Okay. And it went from there. The rest is history. The rest is history. A little birdie tells me that there's a James B. documentary in the works.

Firstly, are you aware of this? And secondly, if you are aware, are you going to be featured in this documentary? Well, um... He's wondering if he's allowed to talk about it. My answer is I don't know anything about it because if I did... You signed an NDA. I can read your eyes, John. You know everything about it.

And I hope there's lots of John Finley in this documentary about James B. Oh, James B. He's my brother. I love James. So, for those listening at home, FOTMs, in my world, in John's world, James B. is very, very famous. Yeah.

So John, you left for 40 years. We're going to talk about why you left. But may I ask, what neck of the woods, like what part of Toronto are you from? I know you're a Toronto-born guy. I grew up, I was born at St. Mike's. I grew up in the West End my first 12 years in Parkdale, Sunnyside.

Yes. Back when there was an amusement park there. How come you weren't born at St. Joe's? I don't know. My brother was. Yeah, I was too. But you know what? We didn't, actually, my mom and dad, they didn't live in, although my mom and dad, they didn't live in, although my mom's mother lived in the West End,

but they first settled, the first couple of years, they lived up in Briar Hill. Yeah, up there. So you're not far from the Palais Royale there, where you could... Yeah. Have you played the Palais Royale? Royale there where you could... Have you played the Palais Royale? Once did a...

It was a memorial concert for Donny Troiano. Just after he died. Okay, so that was at the Palais Royale. It's funny when you mention these spots that are on my bike routes.

Keep mentioning spots on the Waterfront Trail or the Humber Trail. Those are the two favorite trails for me. Hey, I'm going to hijack. You mentioned that memorial and Dominic, what a loss. But I just want to just hijack that to just tell listeners, okay, so I only learned about this this morning, but there's a gentleman who loves Toronto, loved i hate to say them the past 10th loved toronto mike i would get

notes from him all the time and he shared a birthday with me so every year on my birthday he'd send me a lovely tweet about how it was our birthday i literally heard from this gentleman on june 25th that was uh saturday saturday he was he wrote me about the new Tragically Hip album because he knew we were both big fans. And this gentleman passed away suddenly on Sunday, which was the day before he would have turned 51 years old, Sean Hammond. So I just want to say to anyone who knew Sean, his friends, his family, that this guy was a bright light in my digital universe. I heard from him often in the most supportive words and lots of thoughtful, caring words

that he would share with me. And I'm just gutted to learn this news this morning. So much love to Sean Hammond's family and friends. Gone far too soon. Way too young young I know and so my so his birthday was going to be yesterday which was my birthday and I thought it was strange that I didn't

get my yearly Sean Hammond tweet because I'd heard from him Saturday and I didn't get it and I thought it was strange but you know people are busy and I've never met the man like maybe he had other things to do so when I heard this morning that he died on Sunday, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Like the dude was turning, he was 50 years old. Yeah. John, way too young. And you know, you're going to double that, right? I have to. I move so slow. It takes me so damn long to get anything done.

You're like a tortoise. Tortoises live a long time because they just go slow. That's right. A tortoise tortoise. And not like a rhinoceros, which we'll get to in a minute here. Okay, so you see what I'm going to do there. That's a teaser. But you, raised in the West End, I know that area well, Parkdale. Shout out to Parkdale.

And, of course, Sunnyside is popular right now because the pool is open. And a lot of Torontonians are getting relief from the heat. The tank. The tank. That's what we used to call it. Okay, nice. It's always very popular. I know when I bike by it, it's jammed.

Okay. So when do you... I want to get you to John and Lee and the Checkmates. That was a tell me all, maybe here, let's do this. Let's do this. You have headphones on for a reason. Okay. So I'm going to play a bit of something and then we're going to talk about it. Okay. Here we go.

And maybe I'll bring it down so you can hear your voice, but maybe a little louder and then I'll bring it down so we can hear your voice, but maybe a little louder, and then I'll bring it down in a moment. Yeah. John, tell everybody, what are we listening to here? John, tell everybody, what are we listening to here? We're listening to something that's official title is Porkchops. But it's real title. Yes. Are four letter words okay here?

Yes, indeed. It was originally called Fuck Up. Okay, Fuck Up. Neil Young has a jam called Fucking Up, I think he's got a jam. But anyway, this is called Fuck Up, but we know it as Pork Chops because you can't say fuck up on the radio. Who's performing this jam? Well, it's the Sheckmates.

The four guys are Larry Leachmeel on guitar, recently deceased Michael Fonfara on B3, Jeff Cutler on drums, and my cousin Peter Hodgson on bass. All right, you've got some explaining to do, sir. I want to hear it.

Like, what do you have to do with the Checkmates here? And is this a Toronto band? Tell me everything you can about this. Okay. So, Checkmates was my second professional band that i was involved in i was john and lee john was me and lee was mike ferry uh but lee jackson was his stage name um the group had been lee jackson and check. I joined them in March of 64. By March of 65, we'd all quit our jobs,

quit school, and had gone full-time. Wow. Well, it was back in the days when, in the 60s, there were probably 50 bands in Toronto making a living full-time. I mean... Amazing. That's so different from today.

So, yes, in fact, I tell the story of, it was about five years ago, a band in New York had a national hit, and they couldn't quit their day jobs. A national American hit? Mm-hmm. Wow, that's changed. Wow. Wow. Wow. So, I mean, you know, today you get a hit, you can make tens of dollars.

So, anyway, checkmates. So, we were produced by, it was a company that was Daniel Secunda, who was Tony Secunda's cousin. Tony managed the move, a UK guru. And Bobby Weinstein and Billy Barbaros. Bobby Weinstein partnered with, I'll never forget, what's his name right now? Tony Randazzo wrote all of the Little Anthony hits. You know, I'm on the outside looking in, hurt so bad and all them.

And he co-wrote with, that was the B side, the instrumental. The A side was Bring It Down Front. And he and a fellow from Nashville wrote Bring It Down Front. And let's see, what else can I tell you? This is a Toronto R&B band, basically. And you said it was your second band, but what was your first band?

Oh, first band was... Actually, first band was kind of interesting. It was August of interesting it it was uh august of 1962 so 60 years ago this august was my first gigs wow and uh as opposed to your poor friend who's passed away at 51 uh so um i remember the gigs the band specialized in um j Reed, John Lee Hooker, and New Orleans. And it lasted about a year. Okay, what was the name of that band? They were first called the Esquires, and then they changed their name to the Vibrations.

And can you, please, because I'm always interested in, you know, the defunct venues and also the ones that have survived, like the Palais Royale. But like when you play, where were you, where would these gigs be? Oh, at Don Mills Ball, a lot of high school gigs. Okay. And Ron Scribner, who was a big-name agent in Toronto, he really had a lot to do with the explosion of music in Toronto, I think. And he had a network of dance halls called the Purple Candle Club.

And we used to play his halls in Willowdale and in Richmond Hill and even out in Grand Bend and up in... Love Grand Bend. Up in Bala and Port Carling. And so that's the kind of, you know, we played high school, we played CYOs, the church dances, and we played high school hops and some of these dance halls awesome sorry for the pause there

there's the A side Eddie Reeves was the co-writer of this tune. Bring it down front. So am I hearing you in vocals here, John? Yeah, I've got the upper harmony. The original melody is the lower harmony.

Okay, let me drink this in a bit here. We've got to talk it out till we get it straight I'm gonna tell me Lay it down on me before it's too late If you've got the pain And trouble in mind Trouble in my eyes Bring it down front

Bring it down front And you will find John, this is the soul of Toronto, buddy. Amazing. And you opened, am I right, you opened for the Rolling Stones? Twice, yeah. Okay, tell me that. This is back in 65, right?

Well, first time was in the spring of 65, April, and there were about eight bands on the show, I think, and we played like a little medley for about five minutes. Okay. A bunch of 30 seconds of one tune, 30 seconds of another. And then the second time was the main, that was, by then we had become an item, and there was just a little seizure in the consoles and us opening for the Stones. And there was just a little seizure in the consoles and us opening for the Stones.

And it was a moving experience. We went out on the stage. We opened with the Junior Walker shotgun. Instead of doing medleys, we just did the tunes. Then we did the James Brown Please, Please, Please, which was a real signature for us. And then closed with the Ashley Brothers Shout. But when I walked out on the stage, the people reacted to the checkmates. Right. And 14,000, 15,000 people, or 20,000 maybe because the floor was

and I felt this big huge warm wet blanket wave of humanity pour into me and all I could do was just stand there and cry it was so moving

like listening to that again we're going back to you know mid-60s here but that that jam that was your big that was your big moment right like i guess i'm wondering why why weren't you why weren't you and lee jackson uh the righteous brothers like what's the difference to my ears like like why why didn't you make it to that level? Well, there's a number of things that you got to have going. You got to have a machine behind you. We didn't. I mean, we had people behind us and people that love this

and people that helped us and the production company. But the production company's job is in the studio, not outside of the studio. got to have that two um after we did we had that single uh bring it down front yeah it it got attention from r&b the sole uh part of the industry a little bit in the U S there was a guy named Hal Jackson out of New Jersey. He really was into it. And it went top 10 here. But, okay. So the production company, they said, Bobby and Billy and Daniel Scunda said, okay, let's go in and do an album.

You guys can have to write it. And we weren't ready to write. We couldn't come up with songs. You needed the people in the Brill building to... That's right. And we didn't have that going on. And, you know, I mean, they came up with that A-side single, and it was a beautiful song.

The words were great. Well written. The two people that and it was a beautiful song. The words were great. Yeah. Well written. The two people that wrote it were real accomplished pros, but they wanted us to write our own stuff because that was what was happening. Right.

And we couldn't do it. Wow. Okay, but, okay, so that's John and Lee and the Checkmates. Yeah. I want to talk about, so it never happened, so you guys just broke up?

Is that the deal? Well, yeah, I think it, when we weren't able to do it, it was a little demoralizing, I think, and we started to drift apart a bit, you know, and some of that's just coming of age, of growing up. We're all getting in our early 20s.

Jeff was by then at 26. Right. And so, you know, Lee went, kind of was going in one direction. I was going in another, and the band was kind of going in another, although I was closer to the band. And, yeah, so we, it was October of 67. We broke up and, you know, it was a good run. It was three and a half years

and most bands don't last that long. I mentioned Rhinoceros earlier. Oh, yeah. Let's drink this one in and we got to talk about this song, my friend. Yeah. I was there running All along the way

And this is you, John? Yeah. Wow. I was there running I will serenade you Any way you say So let me serenade you You know that's what you come for. I'll serenade you.

Take you to the country. I'll take you to the show Show you to my garden I know you'll make it grow If you let me serenade you You know that's what you come for I will serenade you singing all around us all along the way coming home

my music Just any way you say So I can serenade you I don't even want to fade it down, John. This sounds amazing. This is I Will Serenade You by Rhinoceros. Now, before we talk about the song, tell me everything you can about Rhinoceros. How did this come to be?

Tell me everything. Yeah, Rhinoceros was put together by the label. It was the idea, the brainchild of Barry Friedman and Paul Rothschild. Paul produced The Doors. He produced the Butterfield Blues Band. Right. And he produced her last album. What's her name?

Big Brother and the Holding Company. Janice Joplin. Janice. In fact, finally he pulled out I think the real Janice. He helped her really discover herself.

Nice. And she was a rough, diamond in the rough until that album. And that album was, you know, Pearl was a Pearl. It's, everyone owns Pearl because it's amazing. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting though, just quickly, and this is Electra Records, right? Yeah, yeah. Wonderful label.

So you mentioned the Doors. That's two of the three 27 club members we lost in that 18-month period because that's Jim Morrison and that's Janice Joplin. So you're only missing – don't tell me they also worked with Jimi Hendrix or you got the trifecta. No, no. Okay. Jimi's not there.

Okay. But, yeah, so you were basically like a super group is that can you call that a super group oh well you know i mean that's kind of their concept was that um so the first they had two sets of tryouts and from the first set of tryouts maybe two guys came from it, maybe three. And then I came to the second set and it was like, you know, 20, 25 guys in a room, including the guys that had, you know, that survived the first round.

And the second round added a couple more people. And then we went home for break for Christmas. Right. And for me to get my papers. And I had arrived on the 30th of November of 67. And I arrived back in L.A. on the 12th of February. I arrived back in L.A. on the 12th of February, and by then, the band was complete. In my absence, Danny Weiss, who came in right near the end of the three-week period in December, he was brought in.

And while I was away, he brought in his bass player. And then the drummer, Billy Mundy, came in from the Mothers of Invention. He quit the Mothers, I guess, and joined with Paul. Oh, and that's Zappa's band, right? Yeah. Frank Zappa. Oh, he had some great stories about the Mothers. Did you know Zappa by any chance? I've met him a few times.

There is a sharp cookie. Can cookies be sharp? Oh, he is. He was a sharp businessman and a very creative artist. You know, a writer. Right. Okay. So this is Rhinoceros.

Now I've got so many questions about the song because, of course, I'm about to play a cover of that song. But who wrote Let Me Serenade You? I did. So you wrote that song. Okay, so you did have it in you to be a tremendous songwriter. Well, I was going to say to you,

what a difference a year makes. When you listen to my vocal on Bring It it down front which is march of 67 and you listen to my vocal on june or july of 68 it's like it's a universe apart what you hear in 68 is the beginning of like a real um a little bit of virtuosity where I had I had vibrato control. I could change textures and I had, you know, I mean, it was it was beginning as far as songwriting. I couldn't write a song to save my life a year earlier. Wow. And, but for the album, I was involved. I wrote two songs and I co-wrote two others. So I was discovering myself. And it was like just the difference between being 22 and 23.

You know, I mean, you have those periods in your life when you just all of a sudden, oh, like the hundredth monkey story, you know? Right. Now that song, I Will Serenade You. Yeah. Of course, we just heard your vocals. That was Rhinoceros. I will.

I'm just emphasizing this. I will serenade you. But let me play. Let me play something else called Let Me Serenade You. So let's listen to this. Is this the dog? This is the dog, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Let Me Serenade You I will serenade you all along the way I will send you Any way you say I'll take you to the country I'll take you to the shore Show you to my garden I know you make it grow If you let me serenade

You know that's what you come for So that I will serenade you I'll wake you in the morning But I will serenade you. I'll wake you in the morning. I'm your sunrise high. You'll fire in the evening. When it blows outside. If you let me serenade you

You know that's what you come for So that I will serenade you And when the walls begin to fall Can't hold back the joy that love will conquer all Every moment Woo!

Every night Three Dog Night. And this was a hit. What are we talking here? Top 20? What was this? This is top 20. Top 20 hit and the Billboard Hot 100.

And so how was that? I'm curious. Was that good for your wallet? Like what's it like when a song you wrote is covered and it becomes a top 20 American hit? It changes things, you know? It makes life more comfortable, you know? It helps.

What year is this? Do you remember? Sure. It was 73. 73. Okay. So it's... And we'll talk more about what happens to rhinoceros in a minute.

But when did you find out they were going to cover this? Did you have any... Yeah, it was I think in August of 73, I heard... I mean, it was between the publisher, Warner Brothers, who bought Electra's catalog. Okay. They had two main artists interested in the tune. One was Ray Charles and the other was Three Dog.

Okay. So it was who was going to ask for it because it was rewritten, they re-copyrighted it. With a new copyright, the first person who covers it can have what's called an exclusive. And it means that you grant them the right of mechanical license. Interesting. After that, anybody can record it if they want. But the first one, you have to give them permission so that they can ask for an exclusive. And so who was going to ask for it first?

Was it going to be Ray or was it going to be Three Dog? And who knows? I mean, you know, it's, who knows? I mean, truth be told, who I really wanted to have recorded? Tell me. Aretha. Wow. And I just thought it was kind of a natural for her because if you listen to mine, there's a real strong gospel kind of thing about it. And,

uh, no, I can think in my, now as I, as I, uh, listen in my head, uh,

Aretha would knock that out of the park. Absolutely. She's, she's, uh, yeah, what a singer she was. So anyway,

um, but, uh, I was so fortunate that Three Dog did it. And then it was in October that I found out that it was going to be released as a single. And that's when everything changed. Wow. And what was your, do you remember your reaction when you first heard their version

and what you thought of Three Dog Night's version? Two reactions I had. One was I was so excited and so thrilled. And the other reaction was, oh, I wish Aretha had done it. You know, Ray Charles would have been great too. Yeah, yeah. I can hear that in my head too.

Wow. But it must be flattering that an artist like Ray Charles, anyway. Was interested in it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And Three Dog Night. It's funny because I know uh they they went to number

one with a cover by of a randy newman song of course so they were sort of like not that i'm not going to say three dog night was a cover band because uh you know no it's but they had a lot of hits with covers let me jump in yeah of course they didn't write their own songs they wrote i mean i think danny Hutton wrote two or three songs out of their whole catalog for their whole career. He was the most creative guy in the group. Right. But they were an act that gave so many songwriters career opportunities.

Their thing was, and I don't call them a cover band because they weren't covering other artists' hits. They were doing original material brought in by their producer and by them of major songwriters. And Randy Newman, I mean, they did two of his songs. They did Mama Told Me Not to Come. Right. And they did You Can Leave Your Hat On, which was filthy lovely.

I love that tune. But they did, of course, their biggest hit, Joy to the World, Hoyt Axton. So Hoyt was penniless, and he was living in a friend's garage. And out this comes, and his first payment is like fifty thousand dollars wow right you know i mean you know it's it's wonderful what they did all kinds of people laura nero they did two or three of his of her songs wow eli's coming and uh i think there was one other so good point he's not covering hits you're right

you're absolutely right oh they were three dog nights making them hits yeah absolutely yeah good point what go ahead oh i was going to say the one cover they did do a real cover was try a little tenderness which was a great old standard and then it was updated by by otis redding yes and then they based their their their rendition on otis's arrangement well look uh what do you think about changing the title i guess you don't care but you you named it this song you named it i will serenade because really named it let me serenade because well one the title should have been Let Me Serenade You, because that was sung in the hook. Yeah, Let Me Serenade You.

It's only I Will Serenade You is the opening line. But I think that somebody had said, Let Me Entertain You, and I thought, oh, that, what's this, Earth Ethel Merman? I don't want it to be called Let Me. I want it to be called I Will. I'm going to separate myself. Can I just jump back on one little thing? Of course. The Checkmates.

The band. When I listen to Porkchop's Fuck Up, I think we were kind of the Canadian Booker T and the MGs. That's what, you know, and so Yeah, yeah, it's very Green Onions-esque. Yeah, and like there was a record of theirs called Red Beans and Rice.

Right. It really had that flavor and hip hugger. And we kind of looked at ourselves as like Sam and Dave, Bob and Earl, Harlem Shuffle, the Righteous Brothers. Righteous Brothers, we got, some people said that, I guess because we were- What's Blue Eyes Soul? We were two white boys singing-

And I'm looking in your eyes right now, blue eyes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Right, so, and I mean, you know, here's a quick fun fact, and you probably already know this, but what do you think was the most played song on American radio in the 20th century? And it's related to,

the clue is that it's on topic to what we're discussing right now. But if you don't have a guess, I will let you off the hook here. Give me a hint. A hint is people would refer to this as blue-eyed soul. You've lost that love and feeling? Correct.

Holy. Most played song on American radio in the 20th century. Whoa. Yeah, and that's a fact. And it's just played all, it's probably being played right now. It's just, yeah. Amazing. It's just, yeah.

Amazing. And that's not even the jam that got resurrected by Ghost, right? It's not even Unchained Melody. So, yeah, they've got a bunch of big radio singles. Did you ever hear the original Unchained Melody? I might have heard it, and I forget I heard it. Al Hibbler. Okay. 1955.

Right. He wasn't the only person back then, but he had the major hit. It wasn't in 12-8. It was a... Okay. Yeah, he was a cool singer. Wow. Now, I don't want to leave.

Let me serenade you to find out what happens to Rhinoceros yet. And by the way, you know you said, can I go back to one point? You can go on any tangent you want, John. You can revisit anything you want. This is your time to shine here. But here is. Yeah. Yeah.

Never heard this. I think you have, but it'll come to you in a moment. Oh, yes, now I remember. Yes, I knew it. It's Melissa Manchester. Correct. So let's hear this for a minute. I will serenade you Any way you say it I'll take you to the country

Take you to the shore Show you to my garden. I know you'll make it grow. If you let me serenade you. Let me serenade you. You know that's what you come for. So that I Will serenade When you wake up

In the morning I'm your Sunrise high Your fire in the Evening When it blows outside If you let me serenade You know that's what you come for

So that I will serenade You know that's what you come here for And when the walls begin to fall You can't hold back the joy in that Love will conquer all.

Yeah. Woo! Woo! What do you think of Melissa Manchester's version? Pretty damn good. And just to let people know, this is from 1977, I believe. Go ahead, John. Yeah, I have the album.

And I think that listening to it now, it's kind of like in between Three Dog and what Aretha would have done with it. It's more, it's got more of a... Like a gospel-y? More of the black church in it. Right away, the keyboardist was, he was really fine. He was a good keyboardist. The pianist.

And she is more her vocal is more adventurous. Right. You know, she does these little melismas. And, yeah. I'm fascinated when I hear, like, the songwriter commenting on different versions of his song.

This is really cool for me. Very cool. Oh, thank you. So let me serenade you. No, okay. So again, we are going to get back to Rhinoceros, and I know you've lived quite a life since then, but I'm going to play this.

Ah. Yeah. And I know you've lived quite a life since then, but I'm going to play this. I will serenade you Just any way you say You say Wake in the morning I'll be your sunrise high Your fire in the evening Raining blows outside If you just let me serenade ya You know that's what you come for. So that I could serenade you.

Yeah. I'd take you to the country. So here's what we're going to do, John. Don't reveal the answer quite yet, but for those listening at home, FOTMs, listen closely. You're listening to Let Me Serenade You, and I want you to now guess who's on vocals here. So your job at home is to listen for a little bit more and then try to think in your head,

whose version is this of Let Me Serenade You? And then John will tell us. All of our walls begin to fall I can't hold back the joy in that La, la, la, la, la la, la Every moment Okay, John. Who are we listening to here? Some old dude who still gets by. So this is James B., you're telling me.

No, older than James. Yeah, it's, did that with Lou Pomadi. It's, I guess three years ago was the recording of it. Wow. How old, am I allowed to ask how old you are? Because you keep referencing your age. How old

are you? 77. So you're 77. Okay. So this is you at 74? Yeah. Wow! You sound fantastic. Okay, so just so people know, this is John. John Finley. Rerecording his song. But I

noticed you changed the title this time. Oh yeah, I was letting me serenade you. So this is not I Will Serenade You as it was with Rhinoceros. So that's amazing to hear you now at the age of in your 70s singing this song that you first sang when you were in your 20s. That's wild, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which version do you prefer, the Rhinoceros version or this one? This one. Yeah, you know what? You know what Lou did with the arrangement in the back end of this? What? The harmonics. Listen to the end of this. Okay? The harmonics. Listen to the end of this thing. Okay, let's listen to the end here. I swear I like it now

Oh Lord, yeah Don't it feel good? Woo I will, I just wanna Serenade you Wow. Okay, let's shout out, I know you did it earlier, but so Lou Pomonte, am I saying that right?

Pomonte? Pomonte Okay, I knew I'd butchered that, but Lou, by the way, who's going to come on Tronamite? So this is a chance for you if you want to say anything to Lou Heck, I might cut this out and play it for him when he's in my studio What would you like to say to Lou? Hey, that's your ringtone? What song is that?

That's okay. I'm hearing John's ringtone, but the mics are not picking it up. You can ignore it if you want. It's Nat King Cole singing Welcome My Baby Back Home. And I Know Who It Is by the ringtone. Okay. Is it somebody you want to get it?

It's Lee Jackson. Do you want to answer it or? It's Mike, it's Lee Jackson. Do you want to answer it? That's amazing. It's gone to voice. That's amazing. So that's, that's the guy who sings with you in the, in the,

with the checkmate. In the checkmate. How's he doing? He's doing good. You know, uh, he's, uh,

he's living in Toronto now. Where is he? Same age as me. He lives, uh, around high park. Okay. Now he could be here in 10 minutes get him get him away

and he that's his favorite singer um nat king cole nat king cole well fine singer and but as are you and where can we hear this version of let me serenade you that i just played like what album is on and then get back it's on the soul singer okay so what is the Soul Singer? I know we've skipped a lot of time here. Soul Singer is an album that Lou produced, and it's me, and it's on VMI, Vesuvius Music, Inc. What is Vesuvius Music? Vesuvius Music is a small, new label, really artist-dedicated. James B. is one of the partners on the label.

Okay. Of the label. And Lorenzo DiGianfelis is another partner. Okay. And they're just wonderful people. And this album, I'll just tell the people, because you might be a humble, but soul singer, this album that features that version of I Will Say It Made You, got rave reviews.

Like, this was a big album for you, and you put it out, and it came out in 2020. And so that's very recent, and it was a great, great comeback of sorts for you. Yeah, it was wonderful to come it's funny you use the term comeback because i came back to canada so how long ago again you told me earlier but what when did you come back to canada uh 11 years ago and why did you come back what part of the states were you living in i was in la well i was in la for 40 years and, I was in L.A. for 40 years. Okay. And so.

Like what called you back? Love. I met the love of my life in 2005, and we did the airlines for about six years, and then I was spending half my time up here, and so I was kind of neglecting my life there and i had to make a choice between la or the woman i loved well that's a no-brainer buddy no shit that's a slam dunk but how did so because you're from toronto and now you're living near we'll call it near toronto yeah yeah yeah uh

but how did you fall in love with somebody from here? Was that a coincidence? Because I was up here. I would come up here for the little visits. And so there's this online music company back in 2005, 2010, called Iridescent Music. And so they were having a night at a place called Hollywood on the Queensway, which is, you know, this area. So, you know, it's... Etobicoke.

Yeah, on the north side of the Queensway between, yeah, Kipling and Islington. Anyway, so... You know it well. So Michael von Farrer was close with all these people. And so the idea was, well, have the checkmates. And each act just did two tunes. And it was a thing that ran from 6 o'clock till midnight. Okay.

There were like 30 acts. And so it was like, well, let's put the checkmates together for a couple of songs. So I came up. And we rehearsed. and we went on late around 11 30 i think and um so in the meantime michael von farah back in the checkmate days in the 60s had gone out with a young girl then. Her name is not important, but her baby sister, who was only seven at that point, was my wife. Now my wife.

Now your wife. Okay. So what happened was that night, so in the meantime, she had remembered me as like, I was 20 20 she was seven i was a nice man i didn't tease her when i came over like some of the people did right and uh so after the checkmates she met somebody who had been our roadie and they and he had a super eights on us performing live. Okay. And so she saw them and she was,

you know, that's where she became, Oh, that was that guy that came over when I was a little kid. Right. So anyway, we're going to do this thing and she hears about it because it was publicized well.

And she wanted to see Michael because Michael had gone out with her big sister. And she wanted to meet me. So she saw us and she said that when she, when we got on stage, she saw this blue light around me. And we, I, you know, I was in the spirit that night. I came, I got up on stage

and it was just like, okay, we're going to do church here. Right. And we did Serenade, and we did a song of Eddie Floyd's called Raise Your Hand, which I turned into more than maybe what the record was as far as meaning. Anyway, so afterwards, and we tore it up. It was a good time we had. Right.

Afterwards, she met Michael. She talked with Michael. And then she went looking for me. And she said she saw this gaggle of geese, she calls it. Right. And from inside the gaggle of geese, she saw this blue light. So she figured that was me. She came over.

She saw me me she reached in she shook my hand i shook her hand after we talked for a second and when we touched hands i literally inside literally heard a voice say do not let let go. Wow. This is your life. Wow. And it was reciprocated. And that was it. And that was it. And that's why I ended up moving here.

Okay, that's the best reason I've ever heard for coming back home. We're glad you're back. Me too. And that's great because I just did some quick math and she's 13 years younger than you, so good for you, John. Hi. Yeah. Wow. And that's great because I just did some quick math and she's 13 years younger than you. So good for you, John. Wow. Okay. You came back for love.

And then one of the results, of course, is in 2020, we get Soul Singer, which is amazing. And here's a little teaser. We're going to get back to what happened to Rhinoceros and then we're going to cover a couple of other things. But I just want to take a time out here to ask you a couple of quick questions. One is, John, do you enjoy Italian food? Is that a type of food that you like to eat? Yes. Okay.

Good answer. Because you're leaving here today, my friend, with a frozen lasagna courtesy of Palma Pasta. This is delicious, man. They're in Mississauga and Oakville. And just authentic Italian food from Palma Pasta. This is delicious, man. They're in Mississauga and Oakville. And just authentic Italian food from Palma Pasta. In fact, I got a birthday call from Anthony Petrucci. His family owns and operates Palma Pasta.

And you're going to love this lasagna. So that's going home with you today, buddy. Well, yeah. I'm surrounded by wonderful Italians. Lou Pomonti. Okay, yeah. And we're going to get back to him too, I'm surrounded by wonderful Italians. Lou Pomonti. Okay, yeah, and we're going to get back to him too, I should also say, because I know I set you up to talk about Lou and then we moved on. So we talked about the love of your life.

But okay, so I'm also going to send you home with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. They're available all across Ontario at LCBOs. But, of course, if you're in Toronto, you can go to greatlakesbeer.com and get free delivery in the GTA here. Oh my! We love Great Lakes Brewery. One of them says Sunnyside. You know what? I know. It's kismet, right?

That is the Sunnyside IPA which I love during the summer. I love it. And you talked about Sunnyside off the top and that was completely, I had no idea what part of Toronto you grew up in. See what's happening here? You know, sunnyside was an amusement park you know i every once in a while like there's like uh i'll see photos from back in the day where it was so much more and it was a popular gathering place and now it's just the pool but it's beautiful oh there was a big dance place. I forget the name of it, but it was like, it was all

art deco. Wow. And it was beautiful. I almost remember the name of it. When it comes to you, you call me up. A Ferris wheel. There was a roller coaster. Wow. All kinds of rides.

Yeah, and it was open like three months of the year, four months of the year, four months of the year. You know, I love hearing these stories of old Toronto. The Top Hat. The Top Hat, good for you. That was the name of my mom and dad.

Oh, yeah, I'm just Club Top Hat. I'm looking at it from vintage Toronto. I'm looking at a photo right now. It was beautiful. Wow. It was a real cool place, and my mom and dad used to go dancing there. Wow.

Love it. John, love it. You're a true Toronto guy. That's why you're on Toronto Mike right now here. But I'm not even done yet. So I have a sticker you, but they're in Liberty Village. But anywhere you have an internet connection, you can go to stickeryou.com, get your stickers and such. I want you to have a Toronto Mike sticker.

Cool. Courtesy of. So that's for you, buddy. From sticker you. We love sticker you here. Yeah. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. I know I shared some, a sad story off the top of Sean Hammond who passed away the day before he turned 51. You know, in this community, New Toronto, the pillars of this community are the good people at Ridley Funeral Home and much love to Brad Jones. I produce his podcast, Life's Undertaking. We just did a fantastic episode with a woman who looks at how funeral

services are depicted on television and then comments about how realistic it is. And then I found it fascinating. If anyone's seen the new season of Dexter, we went in depth there about some stuff you'll see there, how realistic that is. So listen to Life's Undertaking with Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home. I want to thank Dewar. This is important because tomorrow my daughter graduates high school, and I missed my oldest graduation because COVID canceled the ceremony. And tomorrow, nothing's keeping me away.

I'm so excited. I've got my ticket. I'm going to see my daughter graduate. Much love to my daughter, Michelle. But she told me to look good. And I told her what I'm going to wear. I showed it to her. And she blessed it and said, that's going to look amazing.

I'm going to be wearing Dewar pants and a Dewar shirt. D-U-E-R. They have a retail store on Queen Street West. But you can go to Dewar.ca, D-U-E-R. They have a retail store on Queen Street West, but you can go to duer.ca, D-U-E-R.ca, and check it out. And either way you buy, and you should, because they support this show, and it's quality, rugged, comfortable,

good-looking clothes, you should use the promo code TRONOMIKE, all one word, TRONOMIKE, because you'll save 15%, and it helps the show. So that's your marching orders there, John. I'm going to do that. Do it up.

And you got excited in the beginning when I mentioned Canna Cabana. Do you partake? Do you enjoy cannabis? No, I don't. But my youth certainly did. Well, you know, it's legal now. Maybe that tickled the fun out of it when it became legal.

Oh, you know, a funny thing. Back in the checkmates, there were a lot of RCMP undercover guys in the village, Yorkville, back when it was the village. By the way, quick, quick, because I'm pausing you here, but did you ever go to the Purple Onion?

Well, I knew people that, I knew friends of ours, Luke and the Apostles played there. Okay, just only because it's funny, the guy who founded Sticker U, his name's Andrew Witkin, his father, Barry Witkin is one of the founders of the Purple Onion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there you go, it's all

connected. Now, please, back with your story. Well, you know what? home yeah was the avenue road club and the the after hours club in the basement of that was called the devil's den and that was the checkmate's home wow and that was 53 avenue road and i think they were at the corner of yorkville and avenue road and that was probably like 47 49 avenue road because there were four four i think there were four there was a hamburger joint then there was a another place and then there was the onion so wow wow love love all this yeah yeah just you know so many and and i so just to finish my thought on cannabis, anyone who's consuming cannabis, regardless of how you consume it,

because you can smoke it, you can drink it, you can eat it. It's available at Canna Cabana. They will not be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. And there's a hundred locations across this country.

So it's pretty easy to find a Canna Cabana location and check them out. Thank you, Canna Cabana. What happened to Rhinoceros, John? So Rhinoceros, like the checkmates, lasted about three and a half years, but it went through a lot of changes during that time. From the first album to the second album, one personnel change.

From the first album to the second album, one personnel change. The original, who was going to be the bass player, was my cousin Peter from the Checkmates. He replaced, I'll never forget what's his name right now, Danny Weiss's buddy from Iron Butterfly. so he he came in and did the second album then shortly after that um doug hastings left the group and alan ger first and then doug doug left and then uh billy mundy left and in came larry leishman from the checkmates on guitar okay and duke edwards on drums and duke was from new orleans he was about 10 years older than me. And he was,

going back to the Checkmates, he was the Checkmates' papa, musical papa. He was our mentor, our musical director. He wrote Fuck Up. Porkchops. I love that alternative title.

Yeah, man. That's the real thing. I love it. i love that alternative title yeah man that's the real thing and um so uh in came duke and brought a whole other feel and then uh and that was for the third album and then um after that duke left and larry stayed and another drummer came in. And then it just, by this time, this was the last year that the group was together. Right. Going into, I think, the fall of 71.

That was the end of the group. Now, it sounds like Elektra did put some money into this, like into promoting. So it wasn't for lack of promotion. It just didn't result in, I guess, the sales that were expected from Vinoceros. That's one of the things. And the other thing was is since the group wasn't self-made,

it didn't have a natural leader. It didn't have a natural chemistry. And I mean, the chemistry was, it wasn't that it was bad, but in fact, I mean mean the band was a great band but the real leader of the band was Paul Rothschild

and when Paul was only in for the production of the first album when he was gone in a sense the band was gone. The band fired him, right? Yeah.

But you didn't want him fired. No. You objected, and they did it anyways. Yeah, well, you know, it was a democracy, so. And that's sort of, that you can point to the firing of Paul Rothschild as sort of one of the nails in the... You could say that.

In the casket, yeah. We had three nails, and that's one of them. in the... You could say that. In the casket. We had three nails, and that's one of them. One of them. Hey, I'm playing... Oh, yeah. ...Ivan Neville.

This is actually... I want to shout out the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack. I loved Pump Up the Volume, a movie I really dug. It was cool. Very cool, and it caught me at the right time too

I was like a 15 year old and maybe what I do now is sort of because of that like here I'm in my basement broadcasting because I saw it and pumped up the volume but this song is called

Why Can't I find a house? And now I see, it's always been me I thought I was paid off, in my misery Just trying to get real, And change where I'm at But the same old questions Keeps holding me back Why can't I fall in love? Woo!

I know she's out there waiting It's time to fall in love And let her know just how I feel Give it up and give it all Something tells me this can't be real I can hear hard on Harry. He'd say, I'm dedicating this unusual song to an unusual person who makes me feel kind of unusual. Who wrote this song, John?

Kenny Lee Lewis and John Finley. Really? Any relation? All right. I just thought it would be a fun fact that something that we can hear a jam on the pump up the volume soundtrack that you wrote very cool man very cool very cool man this whole conversation has been very cool like like if i know we we threatened to talk about lou again though like so shout out lou again and just let us know what you're like. Where can we see you? What are you up to these days? Maybe tell us a little about Soulbop.

Take it away, John. Where are these days? Nothing too organized. I think next year is going to be the year where they're going to do another push on the CD. Soul singer. Yeah. Things got buried a little because of COVID big time. Yeah.

And, uh, so we lost momentum and, and gigs and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So, um, we're working on that.

Um, in the meantime, um, oh man, I got a good band. I got a good band. Oh, they're just, they kill. We are, our, man, I got a good band. I got a good band. Oh, they're just, they kill. Our album release event actually happened last October.

That's October 14th, 2021. And the band just killed. Just killed. Trumpets, sax, keyboards, bass, and drums. And the keyboardist had all those roots, the gospel and the jazz, you know. But he also had the funk. He had that Minneapolis funk thing going on. Yeah.

And so, anyway, so right now, just doing little things, little jazz things around. I'm doing a thing at the Clemens House. It's a backyard salon in Mississauga on July 7th. And I'll be one of the singers there, and it'll be a nice jazz ensemble. Cool. I'm going to probably sit in with the same situation at the Jazz Bistro

on the 5th of July and there's an artist coming up and I wish I could remember his last name but his first name is Bobby. He's being brought up by James. He's from Cuba. Okay. And he up by James. He's from Cuba. Okay.

And he's a killer. He's a killer. Yeah. Like Jerry Lee Lewis killer. Oh, he's... He's still with us, by the way. Shout out to Jerry Lee Lewis. Oh, man. You know what?

All the rest of them are gone. I know. Bobo's gone. Richard's gone. Chuck's gone. Yeah, Chuck's gone. And... Yeah.

You're right. I think maybe Jerry Lee Lewis, last man standing from that. Well, he killed them all. He killed them all so he could live longer. Yeah, that's the appropriate nickname. Hey, I want to make sure you say something to Lou, Lou Palanti, before we close here. Lou.

I can say it like it is? Yeah, just say it like it is yeah just say it like it is a bad motherfucker man that guy in the studio on on stage he's got a great mind he's he's so hip he's got musically he's a he is just really something man as, as a musician, keyboardist, and as a producer, as an arranger, and he don't sing so good, but he's got good pitch, and he's a cool guy. You want me to say something quickly about Solbop? Yeah, please.

Solbop was the best, amazing, amazing, amazing band. So the name came from because it was a fusion of soul R&B and real hardcore jazz. And we did covers plus originals. We did reharmonizations of They Can't Take That Away From Me so that it was funky. And we did Around Midnight so that you can't go out on Thelonious Monk because he's already out there. So we went in and gave it a real R&B thing.

So it was a great band. Phil Upchurch was in the group. Phil Upchurch's first hit was in 1959. He played with every jazz and blues. He recorded and played with Muddy and John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed, Hanla Wolf, and all kinds of amazing jazz people. It was quite a band. Wow.

And people can grab Soul Singer right now, right? Because I listen to Soul Singer, and it's fantastic. And this is, again, COVID kind of delayed things, but this is the fresh album, if you will, from our man John Finley here. And you did hear one cut, which was revisiting one of your old the one of your uh golden oldies as they say and it sounded fucking amazing so like where would people go if they wanted to buy soul singer uh vesuvius music uh is online um and you can order a hard copy or you can download it

you can also go to my website which which is johnfinleymusic.com. And spell it, because there's another John Finley, of course. I know. This is the Irish, the pure Irish spelling. So it's johnfinleymusic.com. And you can go to either one of those sites. L E Y music.com. And, uh, you can go to either one of those sites. You can also find it.

The soul, uh, John Finley, soul singer on YouTube, on our channel and all kinds of stuff there. And there is also, you will link you to, to being able to get the album. John,

I love this man. Thanks so much. I got the, we heard the great music. We got these great stories the album. John, I love this, man. Thanks so much. We heard the great music. We got these great stories from you. Long may you run, as Neil Young would say. Oh, Mike, thank you so much. And again, a shout-out to my brothers, Lorenzo and James especially, and to Lou.

Man, you guys make my life and my love of my life, Sandy, my wife. Shout out to Sandy. Oh, but bring Sandy home that toque. That's a can of cabana toque that you're bringing home. Oh, I will. And because I forgot to give it to you.

Measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home. You never know when you have to measure something, John. You never know. Insert joke here. And that brings us to the end of our 1072nd show. Yesterday I dropped episode 1071. It's all about Q107. It was a beast.

Thank you for the help, Tyler, because it was a monster. But check that out. I think it came out great. But here's episode 1072 of John Finley. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. John, is it John Finley Music if I want to follow you on Twitter? JohnFinleyMusic.com Are friends at Great

Lakes Brewery or at Great Lakes Beer? Go ahead, John. Oh, yeah. On Twitter, this is John Finley Soul Singer. John Finley Soul Singer on Twitter, if you want to follow him there. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

Dewar are at Dewar Performance. That promo code is Toronto Mike. Ridley Funeral Homer at Ridley FH. And Kana Cabana are at Kana Cabana underscore. See you all tomorrow with another best of Toronto mic'd volume courtesy of Al Grego I play this guitar just the best that I can.

Maybe I'm not and maybe I am. But who gives a damn? Because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away. The Snow on the Snow