Wah Wah 'Zine #1 by Gonzalo Sepúlveda

â&#x20AC;&#x153;To play soul music first, you play like your mother had died and to play the second half as if you had found out she was alive.â&#x20AC;? -George Clinton

A small introduction to the Wah Wah ‘Zine. This zine was created with the purpose of bringing to the readers the same feeling of freedom, relief and psychedelia that musicians from the 60’s wanted to show in their work. The whole psychedelic scene is a style that tends to fascinate people for their graphic possibilities or even just for its groovy and chilly sound. The whole point in this small publication is to show you how something powerfull like Soul music joined forces with the whole psychedelic and how it was more than just guitars and drugs. Soul music was already a genre with its roots on the Blues which was the music that voiced the victims of opression and racism, mainly black people. Even though the social fight is still active and is unfortunatly still very common in a lot of countries, when Soul got together with the psychedelic influence, the music will change its form of protest in a whole different way.

A message of love and peace is what most of the sixties and seventies artists tried to bring to their work and include it in a social panorama. It’s all about feeling the freedom and escape the heavy mood that resided, specially in America Instead of situating people on their problems and how wrong the world is, the psychedelic soul and this publication will transport one away from problems.

In this first issue of “Wah Wah ‘Zine” you’ll find all you need to know about the energy that America had in the air, mostly during the Sixties. From a brief introduction on Soul Music, social and cultural disasters like the KKK and the Communist Witch Hunt and to the message of freedom, this publication will be a collection of feelings and moods rather than just facts. We hope you enjoy it.

This Number Summary-> This zine is a lesson is for life. We hope in the end you’ll have a different taste and idea of :

- - F r e e d o m - Right next you’ll find a brief introduction of soul music and some illustrated feelings. Followed by a sex liberation song of Marvin Gaye called “Let’s Get It On” you will find what you need to know about Eddie Hazel, one of the most iconic guitar players in the psychedelic scene. But did you know how psychedelia and soul got into the same bowl? And what about how people react? Looks interesting... Finally, after being stuck to so much of world drama, why not getting to know a really not so talked-about producer, one of the few men that pioneered and embraced psychedelic soul, Norman Whitfield.

Have a nice reading.

WHAT --IS-SOUL More than any other genre of popular American music, Soul is the result of the combination and merging of previous styles and substyles in the 1950s and 60s. Broadly speaking, soul comes from a gospel (the sacred) and blues (the profane). Blues was mainly a musical style that praised the fleshly desire whereas gospel was more oriented toward spiritual inspiration. There are many different types of Soul music, including, but not limited to: Southern Soul, NeoSoul and Psychedelic Soul (which paved the way for Funk music in the 1960s. Soul music was born in Memphis and more widely in the southern US where most of the performing artists were from.

Soul music did a good job giving a voice to the black community and fighting for the civil rights and all the hatred torwards them. It was the voice of the opressed and the prayer of the hurtful. The feeling of being left by your loved one and the cry for it to return. It is a stone cold message with a flaming melodic touch to show how beautiful it is to feel and to have a soul.

M E A N W H I L E in-psychedelic s o u l - - What happened when Psychedelic Soul showed up, was a world of equality. There were no fights for no one rights. The world was for everyone and everyone was together grooving in the same vibe and feeling the freedom and beauty of Nature. It is a never ending feel of calm.

This ainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t soul.

This is more like it. Pyschedelic Soul is a world filled with a variety of cultures and feelings. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that funky feeling of being relieved of current problems.

Fight for love! No one should tell you when, how, and who to love to begin with.

I’ve been really tryin’, baby Tryin’ to hold back this feelin’ for so long Stop beatin’ ‘round the And if you feel bush like I feel, baby Then come on, Let’s oh come get iton on Let’s get it on, oh Let’s baby get it on Let’s get it on You know what I’m talkin’ Let’s love, babyabout Let’s get it on Come on baby, hey hey Sugar, let’s get Let it on your love come out If you believe in love We’re all sensitive Let’s people get it on With so much to Let’s giveget it on, baby Understand me, This sugar minute, oh yeah Since we got toLet’s beingget it on Let’s live Please get it on I love you I know you know There’s nothingWhat wrong I’ve been dreamin’ of with me Don’t you, baby? Lovin’ you, baby Mynowhole no body is in love And givin’ yourself Whoo to me You don’t have to worry that could never be wrong it’s wrong If the love is true, I ain’t oh gonna baby worry, If theno, spirit I moves you, let me ain’t gonna push groove you good Don’t you knowI won’t how sweet push you, Letbaby, your love come down and wonderful whoo Oh, get it on, come on, baby Life can be Come on, come on, come I’m asking you on, baby come on, come Do you on, know I mean it? To get it on with darlin’ me I’ve been sanctified Stop beatin’ ‘round Hey, the hey I ain’t gonna worry bush, hey Girl, you give me good I ain’t gonna push feelings, so good I won’t push you Gonna babyget it on So come on, come Beggin’ on, come you, baby, Oh, Ibaby want to on, come on, come get iton onbaby Let’s get it on

A mythical figure, original Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel pioneered an innovative funk-metal sound in the early ‘70s, best exemplified on his mammoth classic instrumental jam “Maggot Brain.” This mythological status arises from his brief, mysterious era of productivity, a shadowy three-album cycle capped by Maggot Brain that came to a close as Hazel’s notorious drug problems began to haunt him, resulting in personal disputes with George Clinton, a jail sentence, and ultimately his slow death to liver failure. Yet even though Hazel’s notable accomplishments are few -- reserved mostly to the first three Funkadelic albums, a 1977 solo album, and legendary live performances -- these accomplishments were highly influential. At the time, Hazel seemed a clear successor to the deceased Jimi Hendrix, one of the few black guitar players merging an acid rock approach with an R&B aesthetic. Furthermore, Hazel took things a step further, integrating a heavy dose of funk into his fiery guitar work as well, setting the precedent for successive Parliament/Funkadelic guitarists, as well as later generations of funk-metal guitarists. In 1967, another much more established Plainfield group, the Parliaments, had suddenly found themselves experiencing a considerable level of success and wanted to mount a tour. They needed a backing band, though, and looked to Nelson for help. Unfortunately, Hazel was nowhere to be found, supposedly in Newark, NJ, working with producer George Blackwell. When Nelson returned from a short summer tour in August, the first thing he did was hunt down Hazel in hopes of beefing up the Parliaments’ rhythm section. There was one problem, though -- Eddie’s mother. She wasn’t crazy about the idea of letting her 17-year-old son head out on a tour with George Clinton’s ensemble of wild musicians. Yet after a little begging and some convincing on both Clinton’s and Nelson’s part, Ms. Cook agreed to let her son follow his ambitions. The Parliaments went back on tour in September 1967, with Nelson and Hazel anchoring

the rhythm section. In Philadelphia during a show at the Uptown Theater, Hazel met Tiki Fulwood, who was the Uptown’s house drummer. The two instantly became close friends, going out partying after the show together. Furthermore, since both Nelson and Hazel were unhappy with their drummer at the time, they argued with Clinton about replacing the Parliaments’ inadequate drummer with Fulwood. By the time they left Philadelphia, the Nelson/Hazel/Fulwood rhythm section was finally in place, a tight squad that spawned Funkadelic.

Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow In essence, Funkadelic was just a continuation of the Parliaments. With group member Calvin Simon gone off to the war, and with Hazel and Fulwood now in the group, the Parliaments abandoned their uniforms, donned extravagant costumes or street clothes, and began playing increasingly rock-influenced music driven by Hazel’s dirty fuzz tone and Hendrix-influenced acid rock approach. The change to Funkadelic then became official with the introduction of Tawl Ross on rhythm guitar and Bernie Worrell on keyboards, resulting in a series of three landmark albums: the group’s self-titled debut (1970), Free Your Mind...and Your Ass Will Follow (1970), and Maggot Brain (1971). Maggot Brain ended up being one of the group’s more essential albums, thanks primarily to Hazel’s guitar playing. In particular, the title track has become his legacy, an epic instrumental piece fashioned as an emotive eulogy that has become a perennial staple of the group’s live shows over the decades. The song’s origins are supposedly rooted in a recording session where Clinton told Hazel to envision the saddest thought possible, his mother’s death, and use that vision as inspiration. Other myths involve Hazel’s voracious drug intake, a characteristic that led to the nickname “Maggot Brain.” Either way, the song made Hazel famous and secured his legacy for successive decades.

No more opression. People want freedom. People want one nation under one groove.

B u t how-did eveyry- t h i n g happen?

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Psychedelic culture and how it relates to people and Soul. Pyschedelic music and the culture of the 1960’s had an enormous influence and impact on the way we express ourselves in the modern era. Music has always been a barometer measuring and responding to society’s problems and possibilities, and the twentieth century was a period that witnessed the emerging of a diverse range of music styles, genres and ways of thinking, each seemingly in reaction to the dominant sociopolitical concerns of the day. Even when the lyrics of the song were not overly directed towards the description of social conditions and a call to improve them, as was so characteristic of the 60’s and 70’s, music was shaped by the conditions of the larger panorama of the sociocultural moment. The variety of styles and music genres that emerged during the turbulent 1960’s should hardly come as surprise, given the diverse and intense social phenomena. There were a number of intense influences like increased government control over people’s lives coupled with the fact that many people’s lives were getting worse, not better, made musicians responde and integrate matters such as drugs, and they did so, in a creative unprecedented way. Although critics dismissed the psychedelic music of this period as being too loud, too experimental, and, most worryingly, too tied up with the emerging drugs and the drug culture, people contend that psychedelic music was characterized both by its complexity and its paradoxes. While psychedelic music was closely aligned with the drugs and the drug culture and may, in some ways, be understood as a product of that subculture it was still, like soul music, a genre of protest, but it was a specific form of protest distinct from the lyrically imperative folk music. This type of music was a response to the dominant concerns of the day and also a reaction that would shape the way people see the world and its society.

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and how Soul. and how Soul. and how Soul. and how Soul.

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It was during the 60’s that the, what we call today: global society, started to show its first flowers. Thanks to the internet, the world is more global than never and informations is gathered at incredible speed. After so much war, anti-civil rights events, groups and thinking, a free, positive vibe and united way of thinking was born and the need to free people from the so-called “System” was no longer a simple act of rebellion but also a need to calm the negative energy that was glued to the planet Earth.

Even when the lyrics of the song were not overly directed towards the description of social conditions and a call to improve them, as was so characteristic of the 60’s and

influences like increased government control over people’s lives coupled with the fact that many people’s lives were getting worse, not better, made musicians responde and integrate matters such as drugs, and they did so, in a creative unprecedented way. Although critics dismissed the psychedelic music of this period as being too loud, too experimental, and, most worryingly, too tied up with the emerging drugs and the drug culture, people contend that psychedelic 70’s, music was shaped by the conditions of the larger panorama of the sociocultural moment. The variety of styles and music genres that emerged during the turbulent 1960’s should hardly come as surprise, given the diverse and intense social phenomena. There were a number of intense

music was characterized both by its complexity and its paradoxes. While psychedelic music was closely aligned with the drugs and the drug culture and may, in some ways, be understood as a product of that subculture it was still, like soul music, a genre of protest, but it was a specific form of protest distinct from the lyrically imperative soul music. This type of music was a response to the dominant concerns of the day and also a reaction that would shape the way people see the world and its society. These are the reasons why the 1960’s music is often associated with rebellion and a period of change, particularly among the youth population. The young felt really ashamed, sorry and concerned on what the real heavy and negative mood that was laying world wide which is a consequence of a series of events like the Vietnam War, The Red Scare, the racism was growing each day and groups like Klu Klux Klan were spreading their culture of hatred. This new psychedelic scene wasn’t made for trendy or to be followed. Instead, the psychedelic soul registers a protest of form rather than substance. You couldn’t just wear what other people did and listen to it until you liked it. Psychedelic soul was something for those who

really feel the need of protest against conformity. Psychedelic soul was sexual, highly creative, nonconformist and clearly in protest of white middle class America. Musicians like The Temptations, Funkadelic, The Chamber Brothers and Edwin Starr were trying to create a similar sense of freedom but in a total different way. Many of the most iconic musicians had dabbled in drugs and drug culture, if not immersed themselves fully in it, and had, through drugs, achieved a kind of escape, relief and freedom that did not seem possible in 60’s society, whether in the US or in Britain, where psychedelic soul also thrived. There were a lots of reasons to escape and thus, the “mood” song came to replace the “message” song, as psychedelic musicians sublimated their anxieties and

their angst by attempting to just feel better rather than examine how to create change that would make everyone feel better. The psychedelic musicians were indisputably affected by the same kinds of concerns that affected their soul music counterparts, but musicians and society as a whole had reached its threshold for message music, and wanted to return to the notion of a music that could transport one away from his or her problems rather than situate him or her directly in those problems and require the listener to examine them. Psychedelic music responded in several ways to the sociohistorical moment it occupied. First, he points out, the psychedelic musicians were still infusing their songs with a political flavor. The music itself, meanwhile, was characterized by its instrumental experimentation, distinguished from other forms by “long improvisatory passages

and electronically produced sound effects resonated with stroboscopic lighting to bring about a freedom of feeling. Whether they were entirely conscious of the fact or not, psychedelic musicians and their insistence upon free-flowing, open-ended, electronically distorted “impure” music was a reaction against the increasing “whitewashed conformity of everyday American life”. Events like The Red Scare and Communist Witch Hunt of the 1950s had left a lingering negative aura over American society, especially for artists and musicians and other producers of cultural creativity. Pushed to the periphery, they did not simply cease creative production, however. Instead, they went underground and gave birth to a subculture that would make psychedelic expression in the United States possible.

enter t h e psyched

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Music business was evolving and Soul music was getting behind. You think that meant the beggining of the end for Motown Records?

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“Whitfield got his break at Motown when he took over the role as producer of the Temptations from Smokey Robinson. Taking musical cues from Sly and The Family Stone and George Clinton, Whitfield developed his signature psychedelic soul style and helped transform and contemporize the Motown Sound.” “He definitely brought a very cerebral sound to Motown,” elucidates Britt. As one of the new architects of Motown. Norman contributed real heavily orchestrated soul productions with, longer song durations, atypical vocal arrangements and distorted guitars all heavy on the drums. Fan Dave Lee aka Joey Negro of The Sunburst Band explains,“Norman had a very recognizable style- long loose breakdowns, big reverbed handclaps, druggy synths, multi-layered guitar rhythms, punchy brass, and moody string parts often creating a menacing and intense mood. Take Undisputed Truth’s drawn out 11 minute “You + Me = Love” which like many Whitfield marathon productions goes from stomping northern disco into throbbing electronics – maybe best described as Philly on acid. Whitfield was one of the first soul producers to use the actual studio as an instrument,a technique that is integral in today’s dance music.Not only did Whitfield develop the psychedelic soul sound by integrating rock guitars and production techniques into the mix, but along with co-writer Barrett Strong, he brought socially conscious and political lyrics into the Motown soul sound. War, civil rights and poverty were topics that were spurned by commercially successful soul acts and Motown helmsman Berry Gordy preferred his acts to proffer less controversial subject matter in order to appeal to the White audience, but Whitfield and Marvin Gaye changed all of that and their social realism reflected the signs of the times and won over the collegiate hippy rock audience and helped Motown cross over into a new age. After earning Motown its first Grammy in 1968 with the Temptations’ “Cloud Nine” and then again in ’73 with “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”, Whitfield’s producer persona vstarted to take centrestage leaving the Temps feeling like they were a backup band for Whitfield’ s ideas. In many ways, he was the harbinger to the concept of the producer being the main impetus of the music as it is in today’s dance music.

In 1973 due to the Temp’s growing antipathy, he left Gordy’s camp and set up his own label, Whitfield Records. Here he pushed his sound even further with acts like Undisputed Truth, Rare Earth and Rose Royce with whom he earned another Grammy with the “Car Wash” soundtrack. One of the most interesting facets of Whitfield’s career is the fact that he would record his own tunes time and time again with his different acts such as the multiple recordings of “I Know I’m Losin’ You” by Rare Earth, The Temps and Undisputed Truth. Like another iconic inspiring figure to today’s dance scene, Arthur Russell, it was as if Whitfield was more into the process of recording rather than the actual product. Or perhaps like Russell, he was perpetually in search of the most perfect and definitive version of his songs. Did he achieve the perfection he so desired? Sadly, we will never know if Whitfield was ever satisfied. But in today’s, the answer is an undisputed “Yes!”

“My Mom and Dad ha Whitfield’s product and then as I got o more into soul music checked the back o liked, Norman’s name he did rock style pr music, that set it off follow. Super long ve delay and all that go heard one of his prod was him as he had s

You just dance, and hum along.

ad plenty of Norman tions layinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; around older and more and c, I found every time of an album I really e was on it. The way roductions with soul for everybody else to ersions, tons of tape ood stuff. When you ductions you knew it such a unique style.â&#x20AC;?