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Maria "Funkyflyy" Granditsky: According to the credits on "Another Man", you didn't write it, but I think I can hear a lot of Barbara Mason in it..
(Laughs) What have you been doing since "Another Man"? I understand you just recently got back into the business? -Yes, I have been gone for a while, basically to set up my own publishing company, which I formed in 1980. Hopefully one day it will be as successful as the first publishing company which I don't own, where all the vintage stuff is. So, I formed my own publishing company which is called Marc James Music. If you have the WMOT album, you'll see that I wrote a lot of the songs on it and those have been put into my publishing company. After "Another man", I stopped performing. Well, I performed maybe a year or so with "Another Man", but then I decided to come off the road because I couldn't get the kind of work I was looking for. Then all of a sudden a gentleman by the name of Mark DiCostello called my manager and asked if I was available to perform on the west coast. Of course I said yes and then he told me it would be at the Greek Theatre! I went there and I did so well that other promoters on the west coast started calling me. Allen Beck, from Pacific Concerts, called me and I ended up working every city on the west coast that I can think of; Sacramento, San Bernardino, San José, Los Angeles.. Every venue was completely sold out and it was for Latino kids! Latino kids that were fifteen, sixteen! They came because their parents grew up with my music and the children now love it. These children knew every record I ever made! It was quite exciting for me to learn that a Latino would know Barbara Mason! I was constantly on the road from 1992 to 1996, but only in the United States. I've never been to Europe, but I've always wanted to. I've had so many hits in Europe.. As you told me, "Another Man" was a hit in Sweden, and I really want to go there before I die, because Europe has been so good to me. When I get my statements from BMI, it shows well over twenty or thirty countries where they are playing my music. Every country you can imagine.. Japan, South Africa, Sweden.. I've had a wonderful thirty-three years in the business and I expect to be around for another thirty-three years. At the present, I am still writing, I am still performing and I am looking for a publishing administrative deal. Someone who can publish the songs I have written, so that other singers can perform them. So you've never been to Europe to perform. In what countries outside the United States have you performed? -The only foreign country I've performed in is Brazil. That was in 1975, when I was with Buddah Records. I had a hit in Rio De Janeiro with "From His Woman To You". I performed for the people there and the president of the country came to my show. I stayed on an island called Ipanema and performed at a club in Rio called The Copacabana. The president of the country came out and I have a thing in my show where I bring a gentleman up on the stage and I do some things.. Sometimes I make them take their clothes off, but I don't do anything that's too risqué. Mostly I just start with their shirt, but sometimes they get a little carried away.. I may take their belts off, things like that.. One year I remember being in a place called Kansas City here in the States and I brought up six men. I just told them to take something off, but they took off everything except their underpants and they all had funny underwear, like with hearts on them. I was quite embarrassed so I walked off the stage, but the audience thought it was magnificent (laughs). (Laughs) Oh,my goodness! -I thought I would die. It was so embarrassing! I only asked them to take off a little something, but they were really getting ready to get crazy! (Laughs) Is having men undress on stage a trademark of yours? -Yes it is. I could possibly do anything when it pertains to the audience because I always like to include the audience in my show and make it personal. I feel that when they've spent their money and have been fans of mine for all these years, the least I can do is give them the best of me and that's what I've always tried to do. Have you recorded since 1984 or was "Another Man" your last record?
Do you have plans to release another record in the near future, perhaps on a label of your own? -Yes. I am looking for a record deal. If someone would love to record me, I'm probably in better voice than I've ever been. I'm in better form. I'm ready to do it. But no matter what I'll always sing. I never wanna stop singing. That's what I always dreamed of doing and it came true. For me to be talking with you in Sweden means that someone knows me in another country, other than the country that I was born in. That is just a blessing to me and I don't ever want to abuse that blessing. I'm just waiting for the right opportunity to come along. If someone is ripe and ready to it, I'm ready too. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to let public know that I am around, Maria. Some people think that I'm dead, there were rumors out that I had died.. It's like when they don't see you or hear anything they start these rumors. As you can see, I have not died, thank God (laughs). I'm just as much alive as I've ever been and just ready to do whatever it is. Many of the artists from the great R&B era of the sixties and seventies can not get a record deal today. That is sick, if you ask me. -Yes. They tell us that we're too old and that's just so stupid. We're never too old if we still can do it! If you, in twenty years from now, are still able to interview somebody, are you then too old to write? It's really disrespectful towards us. I mean, I can still do it, nothing's happened to my voice. A lot of artists here in the U.S. can't get record deals, can't get work unless an oldie show goes out. Once we're gone, the only thing that we have left is our legacy of music. We have nothing else to leave. Someone ought to get us now while we're still here. There is only a handful of us left and from Philadelphia, it's only myself and Patti LaBelle. I saw Dee Dee Sharp and she is not recording anymore. Brenda from the Tabulations died... There's no one left. I'm very fortunate that there are some people on the west coast who have been calling me to come every since they booked me there in 1992. I did my last performance there in 1997 because I wanted to concentrate on building my publishing company. They wanted me to perform this past Valentine's Day but I had to turn them down because I just don't have the time right now. But I do know that it is open. But where I wanna go is Europe because for thirty years I've never been allowed to go there. My managers wouldn't let me go. I don't know why. They kept talking about the dollar value and that it wouldn't be worth my while. But after I got older I realized that I really should have gone. That's where I wanna come now. I love my fans, all the people that come to my shows, but I must also say that I am a little tired of the United States. They treat us like we're an old shoe, like they just wanna put us out to pasture and we are certainly not ready for that. I think part of the explanation as to why things are the way they are is that back here, people had so much to choose from. They just took everything for granted because they had so much music. In Europe, they keep you up, they make everything seem like it was yesterday. They don't care if you have a new record out, they look at what you have done. Before we hang up I have to ask how you got the nickname "Lady Love"? -That's another great story. In 1973, I was touring with the O'Jays and we had stopped off in Dayton, Ohio to do an engagement. I went by the radio station as I always do whenever I go into towns. I like to call up the discjockeys, thank them for playing my product, I go to the record shops and sign autographs with the fans. So I went by this particular radio station, I can not remember the DJ's name or the name of the station, but I remember the conversation. The D.J. said "Barbara, you know you do a lot of great love songs, you need a title!" I said "well, what would you call me?" He said "First of all, to me, you're a lady. You're the first lady of song from Philadelphia. You do love songs.. Would you like the title 'Lady Love'?" I said: "That's perfect!" and that's how I got it. That was in 1973. Oh, I know you didn't ask, but a lot of people do, and yes, Barbara Mason is my real name. That is my birth name (laughs). (laughs) I didn't ask because I assumed it was your real name, I mean, it doesn't sound made up. What is your full name?
I do. I think "Lady Love" really suits you, Barbara. Not only because of your capability to write and sing love songs, but because of your affable personality. And by the way, you got the memory of an elephant! -Thank you! That is so kind of you to say. My business manager says that I have total recall and she asked me if I was like that as I child. I said "yes", because everything that I've ever done from about the age of four, I have total recall of. So when I got to recording, I was able to remember events and dates and when I went into the studio to record, if I had written five songs, we could just knock 'em out in a couple of hours and they were so impressed with that. When they would send me out on the road to be interviewed by a discjockey, he never had to ask me but one thing. Just ask me one thing and I can give you a whole book on my life. And let me add that the kind of memory and recollection of details in events that happened many years ago is not something you will find when interviewing artists who have used drugs. I'm saying this because -as you may have heard- there is information about you having been a drug addict in the liner notes to a compilation on Rhino records from 1988. Since some of the people reading this interview may have that record and believe what they read in the liner notes, I encourage you to comment on it. -Yes, I would very much like to say that during the thirty-four years that I have been in the business I have never used any kind of drug! Never in my life! How did you manage to stay away from it? I understand drugs were and are abundant in the entertainment industry. If you want it, it's not hard to get it, so to speak. -First of all, I was brought up in a family where there was love. I came from a non-violent family, a family that was (and still is) very close and drugs were never in my family. Then when I met the four gentlemen that I named; Mr. Dougal, Mr. Styles, Mr. Randolph and Mr. Bishop, they were not drug users, so I was never around it. And when I went on the road, they made sure that I was kept away from it. I had no inclination to do it either. I'm not saying that I haven't seen it. Of course I have seen it on the road among some my colleagues that did it in the early sixties, but I was never influenced by it. I never felt the need to go to another level of thinking because I felt it was hard enough to live on this planet. Why would I want to go into outer space somewhere? It seems that when people do drugs, they're no longer being themselves. They become another character and then they don't have control over themselves. I always wanted to have control over Barbara. I figured that since God created me as an individual that I can have this control over, I wanted to keep that control. I always wanted to know why I was doing a thing. If things go out of control, as it did with Mr. Bishop and Mr. Ingram, then I'd be aware of it. Like "you might be doing these things to me and I'm aware that you're doing them and I'm going to get away from you". Had I been under the influence of drugs, I would not have known what was going on. You probably wouldn't be talking to me, had I done drugs. I probably wouldn't even be here today. A lot of my friends died because they got involved with drugs. So many of my friends have gone, there's hardly anyone left in Philadelphia that recorded. Many of them died from illnesses, from drugs, many of them died from natural causes and I think to myself sometimes "Here I am, the last one left". I just feel really, really blessed that God has allowed me to stay around, with all my faculties intact. Barbara, how can I thank you for spending so much of your precious time on the phone with me? It's been so much fun! -Oh, no, you don't have to thank me. I am the one who should thank you and I thank you very much. God bless you, Maria.
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© Maria Granditsky
May 1998. |
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Barbara
Mason: -Let me tell you about "Another Man". I was vacationing, I had taken
my son and the lady that now handles my business, Dale Wilson, on a vacation to Puerto
Rico. This was around 1984 and I just needed to get away for a rest. When I got back I had
a call on my answering service and it was Butch Ingram. He said "Barbara, I just did
a track for you called 'Another Man'" and I said to myself "God, am I still
doing these kinds of songs?". I thought it was a song like "She's Got The
Papers". I didn't want to do that again. But I returned his call and he said
"come down to the studio. If you don't like it, we don't have to do it". I tell
you, when I got to the studio and heard it, I thought it was so hot! He did not have
everything together, though. He did not have the front part where I talk, I wrote that,
and he did not have some of the lyrics. I co-wrote "Another Man", but he did not
give me the credit for it. When he sent in the papers to BMI, he put himself down as 100%
writer, when in essence I should have been a part of that. I didn't sue, I let it go, but
it allowed me to see that I did not belong with Mr. Butch Ingram. But I want to say that
it was a brilliant idea of his; to come up with this great track. I had never done a track
like that before. Now, "Don't I Ever Cross Your Mind", I wrote that and we
produced it together. I had started to write more, kind of, dance songs. I wasn't
sure if I could write uptempo songs up until that point. I did write a couple uptempo
things in the sixties. On the back of "Yes I'm Ready" there is a tune called
"Keep Him", which was a pretty good dance tune. But as I got older, I didn't
write that many uptempo tunes, basically I wrote love ballads, so I didn't think that I
could write uptempo songs anymore. But just before Butch Ingram came along with this great
song for "Another Man", I had written "Tied Up" which is an uptempo
song, which also is on the "Tied Up" E.P. Oh, and I wrote another uptempo song
on that record called "All Of A Sudden". After that, I looked at myself and said
"gee, I can write uptempo songs" (laughs).
-Yes and no. I did record
another song, for a label called I.T.P., that stands for In The Pocket, in 1996. The
owners of Pacific Concerts, they have a label and they asked me to come back to California
and re-record "Give Me Your Love" for their label in '96. It is out on a CD, but
they did not market it or promote it, so very few people know about it. I sing it with a
Latino guy called MC Boulevard. He and I did a uptempo duet version of it and I thought it
was quite great. We did the track in Los Angeles. They sent me a copy of the track in
advance and when I got to Los Angeles, I did it in about two takes. They couldn't believe
it. They said they'd never seen anybody come in the studio and record that fast. I.T.P.
Records has asked me to become their artist, but I keep telling them no. They do great
concerts and I don't mind working for them from the concert standpoint, but as a record
label... I mean, made a record, it was a great session and I enjoyed it. They paid me good
money, I have no problem with that, but what's the point of signing with them? The song
just sits in their office, no one ever heard me sing it. So I feel that I might as well
not have done it. It's just crazy, I mean they paid me to do it and if they're not
promoting it, how are they gonna get their money back?
-Barbara
Juanita Mason. My father told me that when he was in the war, World War II, he met someone
called Barbara. My father married my mother when she was just fifteen years old and they
stayed together until her death. She died at 39. My father met my mother when she was
twelve. They got married when she was fifteen. I was born when my mother was 20 and my
father was 25. It's kind of a strange story because a lot of my friends came from single
parent homes. My situation was a very unique and blessed one. I was blessed to have come
from a two parent home which gave me another outlook on life. I think that's why I write a
certain way about certain things. I think quite differently than maybe some other artists
that may be just basically singing other people's feelings, if you know what I mean.
