Eddie Willis Talks about Making $5 per Song as a Motown Session Player
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- Опубліковано 15 лют 2021
- This clip was shot in July, 2005. I drove to Mississippi and interviewed my good friend, Eddie Willis.
Eddie talks about how he got started as a session musician at Motown.
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as much as we all love the music, we love these people and their stories just as much
Thanks MM... I appreciate you watching too....Joe
I SO agree with you. Well said.
Wow. You all are just hitting the stratosphere with these
I’m very happy you’re enjoying them 567.......Joe
Eddie “Cool Breeze” Willis...
These interviews are my favorites on the web. Candid, laid back, fun & informative. Thanks Joe. We appreciate all your efforts! You’re a champ ⚡️
Vids.... thanks for watching and such a cool review of these interviews, I appreciate your very kind words too.... best, Joe
Privileged to have been alive when Motown happened. 🎶👍
Bronco.... I too have felt the very same way for years. Actually you’re including basically the late 50’s through late 70’s. Best.........Joe
@@MusiciansHallofFameMuseum I was 6 when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan and I remember. Then later when the Supremes and Temptations were on that show it was special. The confluence of talent in the 60s-70s will never be equaled.
Greetings of peace..Joe Sir,hope your fine n injoying the ride..always good to see you here..Mr. Willis made some history for sure...much love to you Joe💜🤴
Back at you Joe.... best..............Joe
Learn something new with every video.
This is history that needs to be told thx Joe.
Thanks Blake.....Joe
Wonderful to hear Mr Willis tell that history Great stuff Thanks Joe
Thank you again too Nelly....Joe
Always look forward to these interview nuggets. They're Gold. Keep 'em coming Joe.
Thanks as always for watching G....Joe
RIP Eddie and the rest of Funk Brothers who have passed away! The Funk Brothers were incredible musicians who have influenced so many other musicians throughout the world including me and I appreciate that! Kudos to you and posting this and other videos because this is amazing history!
Thanks Adrian.... I really appreciate it...Joe
Sorry to hear about Joe Messina passing away recently. I definitely want to come and visit your Musicians Hall of Fame this summer! Thanks for all your great interviews you’ve done with these great and talented people!
Thanks Mr. Chambers! Your videos make my day!!
mine too!
Hi EL.....I’ve said it before... you’re watching my interviews means as much or more to me.... Thanks, Joe
As a 57 year old "kid" who made a living playing guitar for the last 40 odd years.... Joe, this is THE BEST UA-cam channel for musicians. You are an inspiration, and these interviews help keep me going and focused through these troubled times. God bless you, sir.
From a friend in Canada.
Thanks Mac.... I am very happy you’re enjoying watching them. Thanks for the nice comment. Sincerely.....Joe
Pure Motown Gold Joe! I would love to have met Eddie myself. You were really lucky to have him as a friend & be able to spend that time interviewing him. Hope that you are doing well......👍😉
Thanks again Steve... yeah... I always felt really lucky to know much less truly be friends with all these guys. So many times I guess because our interest were so much the same we seemed to feel like old friends after our first meetings. Very strange how they said that same thing to me. Thanks as always....Joe
Wonderful interview. Eddie was blessed to be around all those Motown greats.
Great story, thanks!
Side note: $5 in 1965 is equivalent to about $40 in 2021. Mr. Willis mentions they would sometimes do 7-8 tunes a day...that would be $300 a day. Good money for songs that mostly never made any money.
Man, great stories this man has... thanks, Joe.
Thanks Ernesto...Joe
Watch "Standing in th Shadows of Motown" if you can, its awesome, and the musicians/Funk Brothers FINALLY got the credit they deserve, for all those Motown Hits. That credit was a long time coming, and some of the musicians had died before they ever got any recogniton at all. You can watch it on Netflix, and it is something you'll never forget..
Thanks Vickie.... yes that’s a great documentary... really started all the documentaries about studio musicians.... Best, Joe
I put you guys on hold and listened to Marv sing Come To Me. I liked it, interesting. I liked Eddie a lot too. Seems like a really nice man.
Another interesting interview!!!! Thank you!!!!!
Thanks Jim.....Joe
What a great interview Joe, thank you so much!
David… thanks for watching… Joe
Awesome stories, great interview with another Motown great. Thanks Joe, as always.
Thank you too Roger......Joe
Lots to take in here. Another excellent interview. Thanks Joe!
Thanks again Tusked....Joe
Joe, really enjoy Eddie’s stories, hope there’s more! Awesome interview! RIP Eddie Willis!💫
Thanks again Larry....Joe
Being a Detroiter, and living thru that era,,,,,we never thought that much about it,,,stuff was good as well as plentiful,,, from motown to Bob Seger to Mitch Ryder and Alice and on and on,,,thats what life was. I didnt realize what a impact Detroit had on the musical influences of the world till much later in life. I remember seeing the Supremes at the bandshell at the state fairgrounds,. pre teen years,,,,was just another day back then
Great memories Tom... thanks for sharing...and watching....Best, Joe
Most awesome :) Thank you
Thanks Brian.... Joe
A great interview!
Thanks 100..... Joe
Interesting hearing Eddie's music history. Eddie followed his passion and made it happen. Sure seems like a heck of a fine genletmen to boot. Thanks for capturing this music history.
Thanks Barry... I appreciate your supporting our videos...Joe
Love these interviews. The Funk Brothers were amazing. Keep up the great work, Joe.
Glad you’re enjoying them Chris....Joe
Eddie nails it. When you have the Muse working in you, you can DO that stuff you normally wouldn't. Great vid, Joe.
Thanks again Johnny....Joe
Awesome store thank you
Dee.... thank you for watching too....Joe
The Funk Brothers would often accompany the artist live on the road and at times on tv shows.You can often see them in the background backing the artist on those shows from the '60's.They were a great "house band" for Motown just like Booker T and the MG's were for Staxx.This was an interesting interview Joe,thanks!...ken.
Thank you too Ken....Joe
Great music history!!
Stuff of LEGENDS. Just great Joe. 👍🏻😎
Thanks again for watching David......Joe
I sure miss that music on the radio ! Now days it just seems to be nothing but noise instead of music ! Now I have listened to all kinds of music from Classical , Rock N Roll ! Heavy Metal and Rap not so much because Heavy sounded like noise and Rap at times it was hard to understand the words ! I like to be able sit back just melt into the music enjoy all of the words and the beat ! Now I just get out my 78's , 33's , 45's , 8 Tracks , Cassettes , Reel to Reel , CD's and a few others ! Just plain miss listening to it all on the radio !
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Steve.....Joe
Thank you Joe!
Thank you too Dave....Joe
jeeze thank you
Thank you so much for sharing these interviews. These musicians are unsung, yet their music and contributions to the culture and history will live on forever. They should all be millionaires. I enjoyed each and every interview with the exception of the one that came of pompous, racist, and thought he was better than the others because he was paid more. Y’all can figure out who that was. However, that interview was important, documented and we now know that there was someone who was privileged and did not respect their colleagues or the music. Also Rest in Paradise Mary Wilson!
Thanks for watching. Yes.....Mary was great. She helped us induct the Funk Brothers into our hall of fame at our first ceremony in 2007. She was a pleasure to be around. Best, Joe
What a legend
Thanks for watching John.........Joe
Joe.....
Another interesting and informative interview with a musician. You do a good job interviewing people.
I wish I could sit down and have some catfish and orange crush and cornbread with Sourwood honey with you guys !
You’re a little bit of all right, Joe!
(Jim, guitar player for 40 years up here in Chicago )
Thanks Jim....That sounds good to me too...Joe
@@MusiciansHallofFameMuseum
Thanks Joe!
Request: If any of Jimi Hendrix’s house band members are still alive ( the King Kasuals).... please interview them. But please ask the technical musical questions for us :
What was it like sitting around deciding on what songs to practice to play in the club, how quickly could they pick up a song? Did they have any ear training exercises that would help them? did they try to turn everyone into a voodoo trance? Did they try and seduce any of the women while there were playing? Did they try and work on their ESP and modulate to a different chord while playing?
Just a few, way out- - un average questions to ask.
Above all, Thanks Joe
The women question.... yes :) the others ....I doubt it;) Best, Joe
7:22 Of all the many, many sessions he did at Motown the one he chose to do as a demo for Joe was the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin On" who first lyrics are "Set me free." Freudian slip regarding what BG was ultimately paying him?
Del... thanks for sharing your thoughts...Joe
11:34 Willis says Motown wouldn't let the remaining five Funk Brothers of Detroit jam together on sessions in LA after they moved there. The reason? Willis says "if they let us work together we would have took over the city. Seriously." Not to get in any debate about what cities across the US had the best session crews, BUT LA already had the Wrecking Crew, and nobody from anywhere was going to replace that group! I personally think the real reason they didn't jam together was because BG (Berry Gordy) wanted to keep premium players as cheap as possible with the least amount of hassle. Of course all managers want to pay the help as little as possible, it's business, but at least the mangers of the Wrecking Crew recognized that group's talent and were fair in their compensation to keep them there and busy. I suppose BG thought keeping the remaining remnants of the Funk Brothers together might create a little ex-Detroit union. They might talk to the Wrecking Crew and learn how underpaid they were. Together the FB could walk out in unison, and heaven forbid that could squeeze money from BG's pockets! So, "break em up." Again, it was about money, not "taking over the city." They could have never done that (in my opinion). Willis obviously had a lot of pride in his own group, but LA, Detroit, Memphis, Philly, Nashville, NYC, etc. all were great session cities with talented musicians in those days.
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts Del.........Joe
Tremendous stories
Thanks Toob.......Joe
I’ve long felt that many “session players” were routinely shafted. I’m guessing there were very few successful records on which session players didn’t contribute enhancements and embellishments that greatly improved the original song. In my mind, their very significant contributions to making songs great has been so largely overlooked that it seems almost criminal. The session players who reworked and rearranged songs to help improve them possibly should have be given co-writer’s credit in addition to the $5 per song rate they received.
Sidemen who add parts and licks to songs never get anything , im a drummer who had some limited commercial success in the 80’s
We rehearsed the new songs like it was our job because it was , i came up with things that added to all of the songs we recorded
Stops , riffs , fills , accents and stuff in the middle eights etc
It was never acknowledged , we just did it , all the musicians did it because we were bandmemebers
We got a piece of the mechanical royalties as part of our partnership agreement but no writing credit for arrangement contribution
@@gibsondrummer: I know that’s the way it’s been done for many years, but I’ve always felt like it wasn’t quite right if you get my drift. Just my 2C.
And all that time old Berry Gordy was getting richer and richer one of the reasons Stevie Wonder jump ship when he turn 21.. Sad deal..
Thanks again for watching Blue....Joe
Stevie got what he wanted when he was 21 so he did not jump ship. He played his hand correctly and timing is everything. Yes, the overwhelming majority of these great artists were ripped off.
I bet they were recording thousands of songs that became nothing. A few hit it big. It's called show business.
Pleasead? 70 Years later I am trying to figure out? How are You playing this ? It's very Important threee quarterters a century later?.
Anything he has to say I want to listen??
Wow, these great muscians got ripped off.
Hi Jody... yes they did. Thanks for watching...Best, Joe
Did Eddie play the intro of "Let's Get It On"? I think so.