the  morality of virgins - jermaine stewart

One of the many albums that I played on in the 80's was  by a new signing to one of the major labels. His name was Jermaine Stewart. Jermaine had been singing  back up for Shalamar after being discovered dancing on  'Soul Train' an American pop T.V show. It was now his  moment in the spotlight. The album that I worked on was a  mid-eighties rock/dance hybrid. Lots of Fairlight, big snare  drums, digital keyboards and heavy guitars. I had helped  work on the arrangements and had actually got on quite well  with Jermaine . I say this advisedly because had I  seen a list of his behavioural attributes written down prior  to meeting him I would have doubtless had an uncontrollable  urge to punch him in the mouth. Jermaine acted like a  star even before it happened. Shopping trips to Paris,  backstage parties, and endless name dropping phone  conversations in the studio while we were trying to work.  However Jermaine possessed a childlike charm that  somehow overshadowed his more irritating excesses and  endeared the cynics of the control room to him. The record  came out to limited interest in the U.K but did rather well  in the States. The title track's chart success as a single  paved the way for the following album. Keen to capitalise on  his new found fame he wanted to acquire as many writing  credits as possible. Being neither a musician or technician  he needed a collaborating partner. As we had got on quite  well during the recording of the first record he asked me if  I would like to have a go. So Jermaine and I spent a  day or so at my little music room at home and came up with  the basis for five tracks. I spent the next week tarting the  whole thing up. Drum programs, keyboards, bass, brass and  guitar parts. We went to a studio near Cambridge that I used  to frequent at the time and I put the whole thing down on 2"  24 track. Guitars, backing vocals the lot. Jermaine turned up late on day two and sang the lead vocals.

The following week I took copies to the record company  for their approval. They seemed genuinely impressed. Inspite  of the limited time that I had to record what were fairly  complicated tracks they did sound very classy and  accomplished even though I say so myself. Bearing this in  mind I decided to have a bit of a chat with the head of  A&R. All I wanted was some kind of assurance that should  any of the tracks that I had done be used as Masters or the  basis for Masters that I would receive some remuneration and  credit. The publisher had footed the bill at this point and  I had done it all for nothing as this was a speculative  venture that would hopefully result in having some songs on  a big selling album. The head of A&R however virtually  laughed in my face at the mere suggestion that they would  use any of my hastily put together demos. I was told that  the album was to be produced by two of the most successful  producers in the World at the time. Jelly Bean  Benitez was an ex D.J who specialised in remixing to the  stars and had produced, amongst others, his ex girl friend Madonna . The bulk of the record was to be produced by 'Narada' Michael Walden who was basking in the light  of his success of the first Whitney Houston album.  What need had these leading lights of the record industry of  my cheap Cambridge recorded demos. Suitably chastised and  not a little embarrassed at my own stupidity for even daring  to suggest such a thing I made my excuses and left.

Some months later I received a call from the label  informing me that three of my songs had made it to the album  and that they were now in possession of some pre-release  cassettes should I want to hear how it all turned out. So I  went to London picked up a tape and eagerly put the cassette  in to the cars tape player. The first of my tunes started.  They had done a lot of work on the arrangement used live  players and changed the lyrics. It was interesting and  improved. The next of my songs came on and was one that Mr. Jelly Bean had recorded in New York. The arrangement  was exactly the same. Note for note in fact. With American  session guys copying not only the parts but also the style  in which I had played them. Much more alarming however was  the recurring chants and samples that the whole song was  based on. These weren't standard library samples that came  free with the sampler but some very peculiar stuff that I  had done. Having had an interest in ethnic music I had a  pretty large collection of obscure recordings from various  sources.

Luckily for me my Publisher was not prepared to let this  lie so they called the company and insisted that I receive  some cash and the credit that I deserved. Next thing I knew  the Doberman like A&R man called me on the phone and was  frighteningly abusive to me. He called me a 'cunt' and 'an  aresole' and said I should be pleased enough that my songs  were going to be used at all. His final threat was "I'm  going to make sure you never fucking work in this business  again". To say that I was shocked and very upset by this is  something of an understatement. I was, after all, just  trying obtain a bit of money for the work that I'd done and  credit for production. It was all my own work after all.  Seeing as the record company were showing signs of  intransigence my Publisher suggested that we do nothing for  a while. Then, once the album had a release date, we would  with hold the mechanical copyright license. For those of you  who do not know, any new composition being recorded and  released for the fist time has to obtain the mechanical  rights from the publisher. Of course this is rarely a  problem, as most publishers want new songs out in the market  place so they can earn some money. What we did though was  wait until we knew the record company had pressed tens of  thousands of copies and then refuse the license so that they  could not legally release the album. It was not very long  before I was summoned to the record company's office in  order to speak to the managing director. He is English,  charming and very respected in the industry. Now I had  established something of a bargaining position I felt sure  that we could sort something out and get this unpleasant  situation behind us. With great calm I was informed that  they would be releasing the album regardless and that if I  objected I was perfectly entitled to take them to court. I  was also reminded however that as they were a major player  in the industry they could and indeed would drag the case  out for years if necessary.

This was in the mid eighties before it became a popular  thing to do and before the 'World Music' explosion made this  kind of stuff readily available. There was no way in the  world that Jelly Bean would completely coincidentally  have sampled the same few sections of the chanting washer  Women of the Bamilike Tribe of Northern Cameroon from some  long deleted vinyl recording. Indeed the timing mistakes of  my own cack handed keyboard playing on my original demo were  there on the final recording. He had taken them off the  original multi track there was no other explanation. Worse  was yet to come though. A ballad we had written was next on  the tape. With the exception of some cymbal overdubs this  was my demo in total. My guitar playing, my backing vocals,  everything. By the time I arrived home I had run the  emotional gamut from surprise and confusion to intense  anger. I called the studio in Cambridge where we had  recorded the stuff months earlier. Did they still have the  multi track tapes of the session? No the record company had  had them flown out to America several months ago. I called  the A&R man that I had spoken to about this possible  eventuality when I'd first delivered the demos. He wouldn't  speak to me. So I drove back up to London and insisted on  speaking to him. He was a gruff, aggressive and fairly  muscular American and he wasn't going to mince his words  with me. They had done a deal with Messers Walden and  Benetez to produce and deliver an album and this they had  done. They didn't care exactly how they did it. It wasn't  their

They could afford to do it and, as a mere individual with  limited resources, I couldn't. He also mentioned that he had  heard that I was a solo artist who was about to sign a deal  with a label that was a smaller subsidiary of his for a not  inconsiderable sum. Wouldn't it be a pity, he speculated, if  that deal suddenly just fell through for no apparent reason?  This is, of course, blackmail but what option did I have?  Lose the chance of making a solo album, take a  multi-national corporation to court and end up going  bankrupt in the process or just accept it.

Jermaine's album had a big hit on it. The 'B' side  in the States and across the World was one of my tunes. When  it was released in this country though they changed it to  something else. Shortly after this another album that I had  played on was released on the same label and for some reason  I was the only musician they forgot to credit. I wonder why?

Jermaine's album sold over a million copies. Michael Walden will have earned around 20,000 per  track and doubtless enhanced his reputation as one of the  world's most successful producers. I received my publishing  royalty but nothing else. On the back of this my publishers  sent me on a writing trip to the States. My one pleasure was  saying in response to the frequently asked question "I see  you played all the instruments and sang the backing vocals  on one track, what was it like working with Narada Micheal  Walden?" "I wouldn't know I've never met him."