Smitty: (Laughs.) And he tried to jump in there a little bit with some vocals, but it’s a wonderful track and Jill, boy, I tell ya, she was really incredible. I mean, she was on another level with that track.
GB: Especially that bridge.
Smitty: Oh Yeah.
GB: When she came in and did the bridge, (singing) “Money, got lots of friends. Hanging around….” Well, she just ripped that apart and when she got finished, man, that was my inspiration to, you know, lay it on heavy.
Smitty: (Laughs.) Yes, now, Al told me a little bit about Paul McCartney coming in to the studio, but just talk to me about what you were feeling as you and Paul were doing this track (“Bring It On Home To Me”) together because the way Al described it, I got a chill. It was that good.
GB: Oh yeah, it was definitely….it was an inspired moment, man. He came into the studio unannounced, he just walked in and when I saw him I said “That looks like Paul.” I said “That is Paul."
Smitty: (Laughs.)
GB: The rest of the people turned around and said “Man, that’s Paul McCartney! What’s he doing in here?”
Smitty: (Laughs.)
GB: We’ve been friends for a little over 20 years. So I went over and hugged him and everything. He came in for two reasons: he wanted to meet Al Jarreau and he wanted to say hello to me. Everybody was in the studio, Herbie Hancock, and we had the song up, the Sam Cooke tune. Paul was listening to it and I said “You know this song, man?” He said “Yes, I know it.” I said “You sure you don’t wanna get a piece of this, man?” (Both laughing.) He looked pretty strange at me, but I had to try and had a suspicion that he might want to. So he said “Well, not right now ‘cause I’m next door doing my own thing, but I’ll come back when I get some space” and I thought he was just being nice. But I said to myself when he left, I said “You know something? He just might come back and do that.”
Smitty: (Laughs.)
GB: And I saw him in the hallways ‘cause it’s a big complex. And we took some photos and stuff. The next day he came back in the studio and I said “Man, put that song up, man,” and everybody was there, the engineer put the song up and I said “Man, are you sure you don’t wanna take a stab at this?” He said “George, I’ll take one take.” He actually did end up doing two or three takes and that was phenomenal, man.
Smitty: Oh, wow. And I’ll tell you, that track, you put it in the right place on the album.
GB: Yeah.
Smitty: Because you cats all just brought it home.
GB: (Laughs)
Smitty: Man, what a way to close out a great project, very cool. The mixing, it’s a great mix. Everything about this record is top notch. I mean, it’s just pristine and it’s just got that nice funky vibe, it’s got some blues in there, some jazz, some pop….
GB: Oh yeah.
Smitty: .…anything you would ask for. I can’t say enough about this entire project and all the people that had something to do with it. You cats really…you brought it home, man.
GB: I appreciate you mentioning the producer, John Burk, too because he was the cat who had the record company put their whole resources behind it. Whatever thing we dreamed up, they were behind it and they made it happen.
Smitty: Oh, absolutely.
GB: And John is…I knew him as a young man when he was producing a record by Jack McDuff and his big claim to fame is he did the Ray Charles project that was so big a couple of years ago that ended up winning an Academy Award, and Grammys and the whole thing (Genius Loves Company). So he’s a very important cat and he did it himself. He worked hard at producing artists that he liked and he put his heart in every project as he did this one, so I’m glad you mentioned him. He’s a good man to know.
Smitty: Yes indeed, a brilliant man, and I really anticipate some fantastic things with this project. I can’t wait to see you cats play some of this stuff live.
GB: Yeah, we were on tour this summer….four weeks of concerts, about 10 or 15, I can’t remember now, but I’m sure we’re gonna put it back together.
Smitty: Yes indeed.
GB: But we gotta get down your way.
Smitty: Yeah man, that would be very cool.
GB: It wouldn’t make any sense to not get down there.
