Chords for Down the Rhodes Webisode: Maurice White

[Ab] _ [Bb] _ [Fm] _ [Ab] What's happening is that I started out _ in jazz, and so I [Eb] developed, in fact I came up in Memphis. _
The blues was there too, available to me in gospel.
So I had a chance to _ participate in all different types of music.
So as an adult, and having [Ab] musical training from [Bb] conservatory, I wanted to like bring
together a whole [Eb] different sound of music.
So it's like, and then [E] with my experiences, I had a [Eb] chance to bring the music to like
another level, [E] and just experiment with it out with the people.
[Abm] And I would take the [E] music that was very complicated chord-wide, and I put very simple hooks on
it, [Eb] and then would draw the ear.
So that's really what my thing is [C] all about.
[F] _ _ [C] _ _ _
[F] _ [C] _ [F] _ _ [C] You got the [F] best of [C] my [F] love, [C] demonstrating [Dm] sweet [C] love and affection, [F] that you [C] give so [F] openly, yeah.
The way [C] I feel [Dm] about you baby, can't [C] explain [F] it, want [C] the whole _ [F] [C] world to see it, [F] now. _
_ _ [C] I met [Dm] Maurice White in Chicago, which is where I'm from, [C] and at the time I think he was living
there, or [Ab] maybe he was just playing with a group, a band, [Am] at Charles Stepney's house.
And they were looking for a group _ for I guess, Columbo Productions, we didn't know then what
it was, for his production company.
He had Denise and Ramsey, and he wanted a girl group.
Great group, Maurice _ produced their records, and [Dm] we, _
_ _ [C] it was his production, but we played
on all of their records.
We sat there, and I played my songs, which I played on a Fendi Rose, the I Don't Wanna
Lose Your Love was the first song I played for them, and then we played How Can You Stop,
I've played about six or seven songs, and me and the girls sang them, Sheila and Jeanette,
and he says, wow, Charles went, whoa.
We used to call them Baby Earth, Wind and Fire, okay, because Maurice produced them
basically like the fire.
Emotions, Denise, Ramsey, Lewis, and that was the tour, 1976.
But we actually recorded in 1975 of December, and it came out in 76, and Flowers was the
single that Alma Kaye and Maurice wrote.
And then Reese did Denise Williams, and Denise used to be with Stevie Wonder, [E] but Neesey
was doing all the demos for the Emotions, on the songs that Maurice would hear, and
Stepney said, well, we ought to record her too, and that's how she started recording with Reese.
You know, Reese did some great productions too, great, great productions, you know.
I was in the studio one day, somebody said, cut that [Eb] tape machine off, and I hit the stop
button, and all of a sudden I realized, I can do this.
Just like it dawned on me that, wow, you know, it's not so hard.
[E] So I got [Eb] into production, you know, by accident.
I met Maurice in _ 1978 to meet him, like, on a working relationship, but I met him in 76,
very passingly, in Omaha, [Gb] Nebraska, in Des Moines, Iowa.
It was a show, Brothers Johnson, Emotions, Earth, Wind, and Fire.
Wayne Vaughn, another great keyboardist and writer, and really great, came up with [Eb] the
[G] song on this groove.
And it was a real simple song, you know. _
_ We didn't think of it in terms of a hit record at the time, because that was a Rays album.
We thought songs like Winner, You Are a Winner, was going to be the singles, and Les Groove
ended up being really a great, great song for us.
We still play it today, yeah.
As I was writing Les Groove, I happened to have nobody over there, so I just got on drums,
and I had this bass line, and I just played it, and [Eb] blah, blah, blah, blah.
The next thing I knew, put the Fender Rhodes on top of it, and put the melody down, and
it turned into Les Groove tonight.
Everything is metaphysical, so we would tend to try to employ that in the [Gm] show.
And [Ab] like, it would come out of pyramids, [Eb] and pyramids exploding, [E] and going up in rocket
ships [C] and all this stuff.
It was a Les Groove tour, [Fm] actually the last one.
We had a stage with a 45 degree angle, whatever.
They were having some problems with the stage, or something like that, and it was a flatbed
stage that went down this way.
So what had happened was, Maurice, or somebody spilled some Coca-Cola on the stage at sound
check, and then Maurice had a bright idea, because it was sticky, right?
Sticky.
So he goes, you know what?
He talked to the main stage guy, said, Frank, I got a great idea, man, so we can get more traction.
Just cover the whole stage with Coca-Cola.
So we wouldn't fall to spray Coca-Cola all on the stage.
And then on top of that, we had all the smoke bombs.
So the guys came out, and [Abm] actually, first it was just the three, Maurice, Phillip, and _
Ralph.
And then this laser comes on, and we did the soundtrack. _
_ [N] And as soon as it hits, Maurice was the first one that just had to do a 360, and he went,
_ shaboom!
Right on the old bum.
And then the other guys started coming up one at a time.
Shaboom!
Shaboom!
[E] And we were falling.
Guys were falling.
Every time somebody was falling.
Sat would fall.
Ronald Bautista would fall.
[Gb] When they turned on the fog machines, and the fog met the Coca-Cola, what happened? _
Sludge!
We'd see somebody up there, you'd be playing, you know, you got ten guys up there.
All of a sudden, a body falls over here.
Boom!
Another body falls over here.
Good thing we didn't have YouTube then, because it would have been the number one.
And you could see Maurice went, oh, shh.
That was a funny [N] night.
We laughed.
We said, you know, we laughed about that one, because the stage at the time, and we had
the drums in the middle that were going down, that were coming up out the ground.
We had guys falling down there in the pit down there.
It was, that was pretty funny.
That was pretty funny.
That was pretty funny.
Well, I also had a working with him.
He's a great man.
_ The best big brother that a little brother could ever have.
You know, he brought me out here.
_ At that time when he brought me out here to Los Angeles, we didn't have any mentors.
We didn't call them mentors [A] at that time.
We called them the cats. _
_ And it's just great just being around him and learning from him.
And it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Even my mother said it was the best thing.
Our late mother, yes.
They're still touring today.
When they started touring, I didn't believe it.
_ _ How are they touring?
Because we're always into what's current.
But the people love that catalog.
So it's good that the fellas can still [D] go out and do tours and play and people are still
reminiscing or getting [A] just first time introduced to [Gbm] the [A] music. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ [Gm] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _