Say You Love Me Again Gap Badn

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DJ Rogers at The Total Experience Night Gild, circa mid 1970s / ©Bobby Holland

*It was erstwhile in 1978,  only after midnight  at  Total  Experience Recording Studios  in the  heart of  Hollywood, and through gigantic wall audio monitors, D.J. Rogers was blasting  a  track called "Dearest Brought Me Dorsum."

The singer/songwriter/keyboardist had invited me and Bobby The netherlands—fledgling Soul Paper music announcer and the paper's staff photographer, respectively–to hear his new music, and we were eager to oblige.

We didn't even bother to drop off our dates.  Subsequently taking them to a concert at the Roxy Theatre, we simply  brought the ladies with united states of america to the studio.

D.J. didn't heed.  The more ears, the amend.  In the studio, there was just the five of us—six, if  you lot count Gap Band bassistRobert Wilson,  quietly intoxicated more than whatever human should ever be, who periodically wandered in and out of the studio to have an approving listen.

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The so portly Rogers,  in a vino colored, long sleeve push button down apparel shirt and gray slacks, alternated between sitting backside the studio audio board turning  knobs  and occasionally continuing  upwards and rocking to the music,  occasionally firing  off soulful song ad-libs with the groove.

And  "Love  Brought Me  Dorsum"  was quite the groove.  A mid-tempo system driven past a chugging, funky rhythm  department  and a  choir's  worth  of  joyously singing background session voices,  all of information technology accented past  dramatic, majestic strings charted by virtuoso  arranger Jerry Peters, "Honey Brought Me Dorsum," was more than than the title song  of D.J.'s  fifth album  and  his first for Earth, Current of air & Burn  founder Maurice White 's Columbia-distributed ARC label;  the large, anthemic rail represented the celebrating proclamation of one homo's resilience through funny  coin, bad tape  deals  and contrasted personal woe,  to rising back up.

The lyric said "Love" brought him back, but since  D.J. never  wrote  a  secular vocal that wasn't a lyric away from being uncut gospel, you knew who he was really singing  about.

Recorded in parallel "Wood"—at Total Experience studio, owned by  black  music impresario, the tardily Lonnie Simmons, D.J.'s director at the time, in Hollywood, and Ike Turner's legendary Bolic Sound facility in Inglewood–the album was going to be D.J.'s undisputed  breakout.  At least, that'south how Bobby  and I  felt that   dark, and we  told a effulgent  D.J. every bit much.

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DJ Rogers - Lionel & Brenda Ritchie
D J Rogers, Lionel Richie, Brenda Richie, Benny Ashburn (Commodores Manager) Motown Records effect mid 70's Hollywood CA. / Photo: ©Bobby The netherlands

I  beloved DeWayne Julius Rogers.  I say this in nowadays tense  because,  while  he passed away on Baronial  22,  D.J. hasn't  gone anywhere.  Through  8 R&B albums, plenty yet-to- be-released R&B material and extensive recorded work in gospel genre, Mr. Rogers is still here, moving  and inspiring us with his music.

Hither, I choose to laurels D.J. by sharing parcels of  memories I have of the man.

Kickoff: freely I admit that over the years,  during the hundreds of times  I've  played D.J.'south  sentimental "Say You Love Me,"  I've often listened through tears.  Who wouldn't want to feel near somebody what D.J. expresses in the song?

While "Say You Love Me" has been recorded by Natalie Coleand Jennifer  Holliday,  unwittingly,  it's D.J.  himself who keeps his  song  from  being  covered  over and again.

That's  considering a cover tin can't do "Say Yous Love Me" justice. What appears elementary is a masterpiece of subtle, intricate chording and the melding of a capable rhythm section, sweetened by the harmonics of ane Keith Hatchell on bass. That arrangement possess a feel that will  remain  elusive.

So there'due south D.J. Explaining and pleading, his folksy, impassioned delivery  transforms  often downright  corny lyrics into sheer, unmitigated swooning romance. Once again: who wouldn't desire to experience that  mode  most somebody?

D.J. was down to globe. Funny. Kept me laughing throughout our 1975 interview at RCA'southward Hollywood building.  The characterization had just released It'south Adept To Be  Alive—featuring "Say You lot Love  Me"—D.J.'s second album after he'd released his first on songwriter Leon Russell's Tulsa-based Shelter characterization (where he worked with a fledgling Gap Ring; it was D.J. who introduced  them to  Lonnie Simmons, who in plow launched Gap, downsized to Charlie,  Ronnie and  Robert  Wilson, into a run of hits),  and he  was hopeful.

That yr I was at the Troubadour in West Hollywood  when  D.J. and  his  band  nearly burned the identify down  during a rollicking,  2-set ane-night-stand.  Onstage,  you couldn't fuck with D.J.

He's from the church.  That'due south all you have to say, really. If you're a musician in the church,  you larn how to make people experience the Spirit.  That ability is indispensable.

From Los  Angeles,  his begetter was a  minister  and  singer.  D.J., self-taught on piano, nurtured his skills in various choirs,  including that of  the legendary Reverend  James  Cleveland.

And Rogers  was  a  masterful  squaller—that  time-honored, soul-stirring vocal  technique passed down through blackness gospel lineage over the centuries.

Best described equally a  cross between the  audio  of a guttural shout  and  someone  trying to articulate  their  throat  of phlegm while somebody is  choking  them  (okay, so it'due south not the best clarification),  a great squaller, like a gale  forcefulness air current,  can set a listener back on their heels.  D.J. would unleash his squall during "Bulah Jean," his churchy, drama-filled, center-tugging show-stopper about a poor, saintly babyhood friend, and bring  the house down.

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DJ Rogers & fans at the Total Experience night club prove in  – Mid 70s / Photo: ©Bobby Holland

In  L.A.  I'd become see Rogers anywhere:  the Simmons-owned  Total Experience nightclub on Crenshaw Blvd;  The Name Of The Game Jr., over on Slauson (I think)—and always left   a  venue pleased and  ever astounded  by D.J.'southward gift.

Oft  referred to as the westward declension'due south Donny Hathaway, vocally Rogers could "run" his  ass  off. I was at the Shrine   Auditorium in 1977 when, during 1 of those zillion-R&B-acts-on-1-neb shows  (Ohio Players protégé ring funk band Faze-O opened the evening,  playing their hit "Riding High"),   an up and coming Peabo  Bryson was endmost his    set with "Feel The  Fire,"  when out  of the wings,  mic in hand,  emerged  D.J. Rogers.  The  ii  went  toe-to-toe trading thunderous song runs  and  ad-lbbs ("OoooOOOOhhhhh!"… "OOOOooohhhhhh!") similar two  soul singing gunslingers.  It lasted all of a  infinitesimal.  The Auditorium  was  on  its  feet.

Not just a  perceptive singer, writer and  keyboardist, D.J.  was also  a  great bandleader who trusted the players he  chose.

"D.J. would  simply let me become," says the  legendary  bassist  Keni  Shush, whose aesthetic  moaning,  bending  and string-popping  holds down the funky bottom on  D.J.'s  "Love  Brought  Me Back."  An alumnus  of the iconic  '70s  sibling  group  The Five  Stairsteps  ("Ooh  Child"), Shush  went  on to  become  a  solo creative person  and  producer  whose  1982  hit,  "Risin'  To The  Top," is one of the  nigh sampled tracks  of all  time.

"He inspired  the  musicians  he  worked  with," says Burke,  "because  he'd permit you  do your matter.   The rhythm  track  on  'Love  Brought  Me  Back?'  Nosotros cut that in 1 take.  D.J. rehearsed u.s. a few  times, and so we recorded  information technology.  He didn't spend fourth dimension doing something  over and  over;  y'all  wanna  capture  that  burn  on  the runway.  I  loved  D.J.;  he   was similar  a  big brother to me."

Indeed, both gospel and secular music communities revered  Rogers.  Amongst the groovy players who  insisted  D.J. guest  on their recordings–Patrice Rushen, who duets  with Rogers during the wicked prowl, "Givin'  Information technology  Upward  Is Givin'  Up"  from her 1979 album, Pizzazz.

Alas,  Love Brought  Me  Back, a vital LP in the Rogers canon, wasn't the commercial success it deserved to be.  That—the idea that an artist every bit brilliantly talented  equally D.J. never bankrupt out—is non  only Rogers' story, just the unfortunate tale of a multitude of deserving acts whose recording careers were shortchanged by a music  industry that  historically took more than than it gave.

Thankfully, an oftentimes dastardly  business  didn't  stop D.J. Rogers from  creating piece of work that every true  lover of soul music deserves  to  hear.

Steven Ivory
Steven Ivory

Steven Ivory , veteran journalist, essayist and author, writes about popular culture for magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and the Cyberspace. Answer to him via [e-mail protected]

australlessed84.blogspot.com

Source: https://eurweb.com/2020/09/03/steven-ivory-d-j-rogers-say-you-love-me-singer-gone-but-not-forgotten-exclusive-bobby-holland-photos/

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