Here is the third and final part of our interview with singer/guitarist Mickey Carroll. Here Carroll talks about what he thinks of today's music. He also reflects on the changes in music business technology that have taken place over the years:
BBP: I’m just curious, you’ve been in the business
half-a-century, more than
half-a-century. What do you think of the music that’s out now?
Carroll: You know, to me, there are two kinds of music,
nowadays. There’s commercial art, and it’s art, and it takes a lot of
creativity and academics to get that done, what we’re listening to, some of
that stuff. I do get a little
indifferent about—I know this is going to strike you as odd—but I’ll tell you
the truth, since you asked me: I miss drama; I miss people that know how to act and sing. Like Nancy Wilson, Nina
Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Eartha Kitt. These
people knew how to dramatically sell a song by putting their heart into it. You
could see it. You could feel it. Now the churchy thing that where people are
hitting three octaves and twisting it around in a gospel way, and all the white
kids too as well, it’s powerful and it’s wonderful but boy, there’s so much of
it, Kirk, it’s just crazy. I want to see
acting. I love acting. I like
people to become the part that they’re singing, you know.
BBP: But when you say that though, do you mean like they’re
acting on stage? When they’re doing records? Videos?
Carroll: If you listen to Nancy Wilson’s “Guess Who I Saw
Today?” you’re going to be told a story.
She’s going to act it out; she’s going to let you know what she saw today.
(laughs)
BBP: Yeah, you’re cheating on her, right…
Carroll: She’s not after knocking you out with her vocal chops;
she already knows those are there. She’s very confident in that part of it.
But—I don’t know, you asked me and that’s what I miss. I’m not saying that there
are not talented people out there, because there’s some wonderful talent out
there. But I’m starting to get a little bored with the “stay in the studio”
thing and pile up tracks, and see how you can shape the sound. I kind of like
the truth, I like to see people hit the floor and be what they are.
BBP: But we talked about this earlier. You mentioned when
you were starting out, they used to record the bands as a band. And after that they started laying tracks
down. Would you like to see a return to that approach?
Carroll: (laughs) I’m doing it! I don’t know if the younger generation will
be even interested in it. I did like it when Eric Clapton did his live acoustic
thing with Chuck Leavell –“Layla.” I think was one of the tunes he did, and I
always like Tony Bennett when he hits the floor, but he’s not a stranger to
that. If he stood up in a room and started singing, he wouldn’t even need a
band…because he knows how to deliver things. Some people just have that. I
don’t know…you’re not so worried about...well what can I say? Am I out of line
saying this stuff? 
BBP: No! No! Not at all. It’s interesting, because I mean
you worked in the industry for so long and your observations are very
interesting.
Carroll: …if you watch an old Jackie Gleason “Honeymooners”
show, that was done live. Those laughs you were hearing, that was a real
audience. And, uh, we’re talking about an hour show, buddy. Same way with the studio. When you sing, there’s no time for you to
worry about this or that and ”can you do this” and “can I come back and sing over that.” Just go
in and do it, baby! You’ve had plenty of time to practice. You know, half of
your life, some of these people (laughs)… I mean, can you imagine Miles going
in there and saying, “you know I think I want to add another trumpet over that
one” and “that one’s a little out of tune, I’m going to tune that up and
then...” it’s just not real.
BBP: I see what you’re saying. But another thing I was curious about was the
way they distribute music and how that’s changed. I mean, you know when you
were coming along they had records, 45’s I guess, and AM radio, and now they
have satellite radio and IPod, and…
Carroll: I feel as though everything is going to go to the
Internet. Television, everything is heading that way. It’s all going to be
right in your living room, you know, you’re going to have so many choices. I don’t see it as a negative. I see it as a
powerful tool. Satellite is going to serve us well. Right now, everybody’s
looking for copyright, licensing, what are we going to do, they’re taking this
or that, they’re downloading that for free, you know these are the issues right
now. Well, hey, I’m sorry but somebody had to answer up and take care of
that. And find out where it belongs and
how to handle it and that accounting is something that has to be done. It’s not
just music; it’s a lot of things. So, what’s going to happen with the business
is, it’s starting all over again like it did in the fifties. You know when all of the independent little
rock and roll labels started, and all of the independent artists and
everything. And all of the conservatives kind of had to take a back seat
because they weren’t buying the product.
And the same thing’s happening. Guys back in those days selling their
45’s at a record hop or out of the trunk. You know, they go into a drive-in
movie theatre and pay the guy that has a theatre to play their song while
people are sitting in their car.
Carroll: Exactly! That’s where it comes from. And I can also; I go back far enough to
remember when jazz was doing hip-hop. I mean guys would get up with conga and
upright bass and they’d recite a straight-ahead poem. In those days I believe
they called it “beatniks.”
BBP: That’s kind of the origins of modern hip-hop, I guess
you could say. A sort of precursor to it, or whatever.
Carroll: Oh yeah. Sure. Sure. A lot of this stuff goes right
to Africa in terms of storytelling and rhythm. You know, from slavery on up. I
think everything came out of folk, including classical music, where people were
just sitting around town playing or telling a story, or doing it in church. You
know, it gets sophisticated and it should, it should grow. But at the same time, technology is bringing
us into a place where we have to communicate more. And we do have the tools to
do it.
BBP: I guess as you think about “Old Dogs,” if you had
written that song in the 1950’s, you would have thought, “Well, I gotta get it
on AM radio.” Is it hard to make that
jump to what’s going on now in terms of distributing your art?
Carroll: It’s a mindset. It’s always hard. That’s part of the road. It’s not easy for anybody,
but anything that you do from the heart—that you do with passion—is not going
to be easy. There are so many examples of that, why even get into it? But what
you need to do is know yourself. You
don’t have to be so concerned about the rest of the world—it’s vast—how many
people are doing this or that and why not me. Don’t waste your time. Go to
where you want to go creatively and say what you want to say. And if it’s meant to be, say your prayers
baby! It will be meant to be! If that’s the way it is, it will happen. You know, I was telling my son about success
and success is a pretty controversial word. I truly believe—I’m looking around
at my family and a home and I have a beautiful little home in a nice town, and
good friends, and I’m playing music. Let
me tell you what: if that’s not success, I have no idea what success is.
BBP: Yeah...So what you’re saying is that, if you have the
product, if you go learn what you need to learn, to get it out there.
Carroll: Yeah. You just listen to what you are. And say Kirk wants to do a certain type of show;
he wants to say something and interview a certain clientele or a certain type
of person, because that’s what he wants his show known for. He wants to go to
that audience, he wants to have a demo situation of all those shows that you
did and time and work that you did and all of a sudden you want to make a
presentation and network that show. That
all has to do with you, and that all has to do with your vision. And if you
compromise yourself, that could be a failure. You’ve got to go with your heart,
you got to know exactly what you’re focused on. And do it, okay? Take the punch.
If it’s not meant to be, keep on going. Keep the same process going. Tell you what;
you’re going to be happy (laughs)!
BBP: Yeah. That’s true. That’s true. As you look back at all of the people you
interacted with, all of the musicians—is there any kind of moment that you
recall, just one moment that just sort
of stands out—I mean, if someone asks you the most defining experience you have
ever had in life as an artist, what would that be?
Carroll: The best answer I could come up with is—I have
never been asked the question before—but I do have to say that it happened to
me when I was a little boy. I went to Catholic School, and I had to learn a
Mary Alonzo tune “We Three Kings,” and I also learned a tune by Johnny Ray
which was called “The Little White Cloud that Sat Right Down and Cried.” And
they asked me if I’d be interested in singing. Something in me said “Yes,” because
I already knew those tunes. And my
grandma had me singing in the living room, and of course she praised me and
gave me what I needed, and when I got out in front of those kids—I was a
horrible student because we moved a lot, we didn’t stay in one school for long
and my parents struggled, so I didn’t get to have the academics that the kids had
in my class, and I had failed a few times.
This was my opportunity to make myself known in terms of “yes, I’m
valuable too; I can do something.” And I got up and sang with
those kids and I blew them away! They were all my friends and I thought to myself,
“Kirk, this works, man (laughs)!” The grid took place, man. I followed it,
that’s all I did. Just went ahead and made it my life.
BBP: So that’s when you knew that music was what you’d want
to do with your life?
Carroll: Oh, God, yeah. To me it was a special place in
time, when you say a moment. It was a special place in time. And it stays
there. It’s like—isn’t it funny how your body changes as you get older? And yet
you still maintain the development of your soul and the things that mean much to
you, you still have them? Isn’t that cool?
BBP: Yes, it is cool, I wish…well what plans do you have in
terms of—well you have the “Old Dogs,” you want to do something with that…but
beyond that, and I guess you want to do the Mother J-style work you were doing.
Carroll: Oh definitely. I’m creating a show with these
songs. I want each song to have a video, and they do. And I want it to be known
that the show that I was doing, just like I did with Mother J—has to do with
them.
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