Hey sister soul sister, go sister, soul sister

Hey sister soul sister, go sister, soul sister

–LaBelle / Lady Marmalade

In the moments before the landmark Wear Something Silver concert at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1974, I can still remember standing backstage listening to my grandma Chubby fussing at my pregnant aunt Patsy about descending from the ceiling and jumping around wildly on the stage as she normally did during her shows.  Chubby feared that all that activity might make the baby come early and she was having none of it.  All I kept thinking was, ‘Why is Patsy dressed like Big Bird? And why are Sarah and Nona dressed like characters from outer space?’  Little did I know that, as I sat there in the front row of that grand venue, amid all those flamboyant gay characters swathed in silver from head to toe, I was watching history being made.  I was LaBelle’s biggest fan under the age of ten.  To me they were the favorite aunties I had grown up watching rehearse in the living room, but to the world they were revolutionaries…the original soul sisters.

As the incendiary soul-rock trio that was LaBelle, Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash defined girl power long before the Spice Girls ever warbled their very first notes.

Transforming themselves from a talented, if standard-issue, tiara-wearing sixties girl group, into a sexy, genre-bending, rock supernova, LaBelle defied convention and categorization in the free lovin’ seventies and in the process forever reshaped the role of women in music.  While their contemporaries sang light-hearted disco and sweet songs about love, LaBelle evolved a unique sound that democratically blended glam rock, funk, soul and gospel with an eclectic repertoire of songs that spoke frankly about sex, racism, revolution and prostitution. Whereas a then solo Diana Ross became the queen of mainstream pop with songs like “Love Hangover” and “Do You Know Where You’re Going To?”, the ladies of LaBelle became the darlings of the underground, alternative music universe with experimental tracks like “Going Down Makes Me Shiver” and their remake of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

Dressed in shimmering, psychedelic sci-fi couture paired with sky-high platforms, LaBelle played to both towel-clad audiences at gay bathhouses alongside Bette Midler and to the cultural elite. They opened for legendary acts like The Who and The Rolling Stones and became the first rock group ever to shake the rafters atManhattan’s Metropolitan Opera House with their historic Wear Something Silver concert in 1974.  They even supported music great Laura Nyro on her classic Gonna Take A Miracle album and found themselves supported during their British reinvention by a then unknown Elton John, who played piano for them in their backup band under his birth name, Reginald Dwight.

However unwittingly, the three independent thinking black women behind the socially conscious LaBelle, who got their start doo-wopping on the Chitlin’ Circuit with seminal hits like “I Sold My Heart To The Junkman,” united their talents in an extraordinary way for a space in time and together broke new ground with provocative lyrics, gut-wrenching, revival-like performances and a sense of theatricality that brought together the rich and the poor, the gay and the straight and the saint and the sinner. It is a feat that had never before been accomplished by a female band, black or white, and one that has never been achieved since.

In 1976 LaBelle disbanded, with lead singer Patti LaBelle going on to become one of pop and R&B’s grande dames amassing a number of solo hits and prestigious accolades of her own along the way.  Similarly Nona Hendryx has found solo success both as a chart-topping recording artist and in-demand songwriter, while Sarah Dash has enjoyed a diverse post-LaBelle career in which she has notched dance hits, performed on Broadway and recorded with some of the biggest names in the music business.

Now, thirty years later as self-described “grown ass women”, the members of LaBelle are back together in a Philadelphia recording studio working on a new album and planning a new tour.  Though their careers have taken them in wildly divergent directions over the years, they have found that little has changed about their dynamic over the last three decades.

“It’s like a family re-union where you haven’t seen your family members for a long time,” Hendryx says of being back together with Patti and Sarah in the studio.  “Like anything the creative process is a birthing period.  There’s joy and pain attached to it…[but]…the joyful moments override everything.’

“When it comes to our personalities what we’re looking at is that for the first time we’re women and we’re allowing each other to be who we are without finding it offensive to our purpose and that is our music,” says Sarah.

“We compromise and guess what else we do?  We fight!” Patti chimes in.

“Our personalities are all f*!#d up!  The problems that we had when we left each other 35 years ago are still the same but in having these talks we bring out the bad points of each other ok?” Patti says bluntly.

“We’ll tell each other what we don’t like.  That way, when we go into the studio tonight because we’re recording our first songs with Kenny Gamble, we’ll know what pisses each other off and then come together like sisters and sing the crap out of it.  I mean, I’m gonna’ always fight. I’m a Gemini and I’m never the same. I’m going through menopause and have diabetes and I’m an evil bitch! But we’re blending well. Nona’s still a great writer.  As far as I’m concerned she’s one of the better writers in the universe.  We work through the music.  Sometimes Nona comes into the studio with the music and lyrics and then we go into the studio…and give birth to a beautiful baby,” Miss Patti concludes.

Making beautiful musical offspring is at least in part what inspired the ladies of Labelle to reunite.

“I think what we have to offer is that kind of healing balm that we were to people thirty years ago.  The world needs all the healing that it can get,” Nona offered thoughtfully when asked why Labelle decided to get back together.. “Songs like ‘What Can I Do For You?’ and ‘Are You Lonely?’ – to be able to bring that to people again, I think that’s why we’re back together.  I don’t know whether we know that, but a lot of times forces outside of us are working.”

Patti’s reason for reuniting with LaBelle is more personal however. She cites the “need for each other” as a big part of her decision. “Usually when groups do reunions, they use the original lead singer and two anybodies. If we were going to do it, we wanted to do it with the real girls…the originals. A lot of LaBelle fans are missing this music. They’ve been waiting for it.”

Picking up on that point, Sarah adds, “We are music messengers. There are kids whose parents heard our music and now they want to see what the heck their parents were so excited about. They look back and they say, ‘Oh wow, I’d like to see them coming out on a space ship.’”

What has not spurred the return of LaBelle, however, is the recent attention their music has gotten from contemporary acts like Common, Sugababes and Christina Aguilera, all of whom have sampled or covered some of the group’s best known hits in the not so distant past..

“It was such a compliment to have people sampling our music. Knowing that we still mean something to the younger generation of artists means so much. But with that said, it didn’t inspire us to go back into the studio together,” Patti says.

“Evidently we made a mark when we did what we did but that didn’t give us the incentive to come back together…it was way before those trolls did our music” Labelle says laughing. “That’s just my word I use in love, they’re not really trolls!” She goes on to explain.

For their new album, the legendary ladies of LaBelle plan to continue pushing boundaries and making history.  So far they’ve teamed up to record three tracks produced by popular rocker Lenny Kravitz, with whom they expect to make more music.  They are also laying down tracks with legendary Philly soul producer Kenny Gamble.  But, though their new music promises to challenge the conscience, don’t expect Labelle’s latest offering to be quite as racy or titillating as their earlier work or for their stage performances to involve Patti descending from the ceiling with twenty foot wide silver wings.  After all, they’re no longer wide-eyed young girls.

“It’s kinda difficult to say we’d like to be just as revolutionary now because we’re really at a different time in our lives.  But we’d still love to give a real show to people. We’ll see how that’s going to come about. We’re going to have to work with people and see how we can present ourselves so that we don’t look like we’re trying to be Destiny’s Child when we’re actually Destiny’s grandmothers,” Nona says choking back a laugh.

“We have to make sure that we’re doing things that are age-appropriate, that show the feminine side of us…the women that we are…[and]… the messages that we want to bring. Pat does that anyway in what she does today and I think Sarah and I do that but you know Pat, because she is who she is, has continued her shows and has brought that kind of performance to an audience. We’ll see what happens as we go along. We’ll see what we’ll create,” Hendryx continued.

Whatever Patti, Nona and Sarah create next it will undoubtedly get tremendous support from the gay and lesbian community who embraced Labelle’s original artistry when mainstream audiences didn’t.  A favor none of the group’s members have forgotten.

“I mean, truly, without the gay community LaBelle would not have been,” Nona says flatly.

“We’ve had a gay audience who supported us when all of our product wasn’t what John Q. Public wanted to hear but they’ve still supported us down through the years anyway,” says Sarah.

“Some things they voiced that they didn’t really like but they were still there. It’s like having a family that loves you in spite of and still tells you the truth. Yet when we were on the stage, they’d take us to where we were going because the wilder we got, the bigger our gay following became and they loved Nona’s writing and Patti’s voice and they meant a lot to us because that community set the pace for what was going on in America,” Dash continued.

“I think also, the transformation from the Bluebelles to LaBelle, there was a huge gay community within the arts and they were our friends and they helped shape LaBelle,” adds Nona.

“Larry LeGaspi and Richard Erker were the designers of our look. We didn’t ask them to make us look like the way we did, it just evolved out of our relationship with them. There were twelve of them in their group that came to all our shows. Even when we were playing tiny little spots in the Village going through our transformation, they were there all the time. There are many people in the gay community who have booked us in concert, have worked as our roadies, it’s just a part of the community of the arts,” she continues.

Thinking back on the impact their gay fans have had on their careers, clearly made the women of LaBelle more contemplative when they reflected about the imprint that they hoped their music and their performances would leave on the world of entertainment.

“I would hope people would think of us as three positive women doing things before most women thought of it.  That we were taking chances, making people look at us by the way dressed crazy. Then after they looked, they were finally held captive and they had to listen.  We took the chance.  We took the chance to ask if we could play the Metropolitan Opera House.  When no would think of three black women performing there, we did that. When we went out it was like an event.  It wasn’t just a show it was monumental,” says Patti.

Clarifying LaBelle’s point Sarah Dash added, “What we want to leave with the industry is that you can be different women…you can be creative…and you can take risks.  Every day in the workforce you hear women who often times want to leave their mark on the corporate world.  I guess without thinking we did leave a mark on the world. We want to say to people that you can take a risk.  You can stay away from each other, come back and still make music.  Also you can see that who you are never leaves you.  You just become more mature.  Let that be a legacy.”

Sixty-plus and still going strong, Patti, Nona and Sarah stand poised to spark yet another revolution in music.  While their contemporaries rest on their laurels, LaBelle continues to test new waters while simultaneously inspiring a new generation of artists.  They may no longer descend onto the stage wearing silver metallic costumes or croon lyrics too sexy for radio, but they are coming back nonetheless.  They are still the original soul sisters and there can be no gitchy, gitchy yaya dada about that.

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There is probably no other singer on planet earth who sings a song quite like the incomparable Patti LaBelle. Whether as a part of the seminal 60’s girl group, Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles or as the leader of the space age glam rock band, LaBelle, or as the definitive soul diva she has become as a solo artist, LaBelle’s signature style, complete with swooping vocals and glass shattering notes, has left an indelible mark on music.

You’d think that it would be hard for Patti LaBelle to top herself at this point in her career, but with a voice that just seems to get better with age, the ever-changing diva once again raises the bar with her latest release.   On her ninth MCA album, When A Woman Loves, LaBelle delivers a career-defining set of heartwrenchingly beautiful songs that trace the many stages of a relationship from a woman’s point of view.   Paired with lyrics written entirely for her by multiple Grammy award-winning songwriter Diane Warren and standout production by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Miss Patti is at her all out best.

I recently chatted via telephone with the down-home diva who was in the midst of packing for her promotional tour in support of When A Woman Loves.  Characteristically, Miss Patti told it like it was about everything from her recent separation and impending divorce from her husband of nearly 30 years to what really matters in a relationship.  Now the diva speaks.

DW:    Let’s start with the important things.  How many pairs of shoes are you up to these days?

PL:       I don’t believe that you said that. [Laughs]  My housekeeper was just in the dining room dumping out my bag and she said, ‘This is pitiful! And this isn’t even half the shoes in this house!’.  Do you know how many shoes I carry for four days?

DW:    How many?

PL:       (Speaking to her housekeeper) What are there…about 50 pairs of shoes down there?  It’s like 50 pairs of shoes.  There are about 10 pairs of boots.  It’s so crazy.

DW:    Are you still not driving?

PL:       Heck no!  Can’t drive, can’t swim, can’t smoke…never learned to do any of those things.

DW:    Maybe that explains why your bio starts by quoting you saying “I still have so much more to do, so many other things to try”.    After such an amazing career what is it that the “hardest working woman in show business” still wants to do?

PL:       I want to obtain some platinum.  I want to become this real, real household name.  I want to become a super, super, super, superstar.  I mean I know I’m blessed… but I still haven’t gotten the recognition that…say… Madonna has gotten.  As far as my selling records, I haven’t sold enough albums yet.  So hopefully with this new album I can sell some more.

DW:    Let’s talk about When A Woman Loves.  You were going through a separation when you were recording the album.  How did that affect you creatively?

PL:       Well, none of the songs were chosen because of that.  At the time my ex-husband was choosing the songs with me because he was managing me. We just came to a point where we said we’re really outgrowing each other so we’re going to go our separate ways. The song Call Me Gone is the first single and it comes right in the midst of me going through all of this stuff, so it looks like this was planned but that’s not the way God planned it.   It just happened that I recorded it at a time in my life when I was going through a divorce.

DW:    Now you do straight up dance music on this album for the first time in almost ten years…

PL:       Dude I’m doing straight up club music!

DW:    You go Miss Patti!

PL:       Well you know I’m a thug at heart…you know this!  [Laughing] I love all that thug music and I love house music.  So I was saying to Terry [Lewis] when we were doing Call Me Gone and Too Many Tears, let’s change them to a different rhythm.  So we went into the sound room and started working on some sounds and we decided let’s go there with it.  So we ended up going wherever that was on Call Me Gone and Too Many Tears we did like house music.

DW:    You also worked with Hex Hector? 

PL:       Yeah he did Time Will.

DW:    What was that like?

PL:       It was a ballad at first and I love what he did with it.  He turned that sucker out!  I love what he came up with it because it almost sounds like ‘White Girl Patti –Cher’ and it’s not corny.  [Laughs]

DW:    Is there any song on the album that feels particularly autobiographical for you?

PL:       Maybe, When A Woman Loves, because my husband would always buy me beautiful things when all I wanted him to do was rub my feet or come in and pull out the vacuum and start vacuuming [laughing].  Just little basic things. [But] that’s not why we split up.

DW:    How does Miss Patti feel about love at the moment? 

PL:       At this moment I’m feeling very, very grown up…very, very capable of being really, really loved, but not married.  So I’m not looking for anything or anyone, but whatever it is and whatever it will be will happen when it happens.  I know I sure haven’t turned my back on love.  I’m very open and very much alive!

DW:    What has 30 years of marriage and 56 years of life taught you about relationships?

PL:       Well, that they’re wonderful.  Actually for the 31 years that I was married, it was not bad at all.  I guess I was tired of being married. I’ve learned in my life, that a lot of times I’ve done things to please other people, not really myself.  But this time I said I’m going to try to please myself and see how it works and it’s working really well.

DW:    You know speaking of 56 years of life, unlike many of your contemporaries…?

PL:       I tell my age!  (Laughing)

DW:    You do! Why is that?

PL:       I love telling my age because I don’t feel like whatever 56 is supposed to feel like.  I feel timeless.  I feel forever young. I love saying how old I am or how young I am, because most of my sisters died before they turned 45, so I’m blessed to be 46 and then after that and after that and after that.  So I just keep on talking about my age and letting people know that it’s not a curse.  It’s a blessing to be living.

And it’s a blessing to live in a world with the music of Miss Patti LaBelle.  Amen.

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