4
i
Tht Daily Tcr Hfl
Tuesday, April 15, 1975
'Analyzing a song is like analyzing the person you love. '
Me
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by Greg Porter
Staff Writer
"" I I Mil
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They call him the Iceman.
He doesn't strut James Brown. His act
isn't choreographed like the Spinners. He
doesn't perform in the peacock's plumage of
an Elton John, the "bad" chains of an Isaac
Hayes or even the garish threads of a Marvin
Gaye.
Jerry Butler has sold over 1 1 million
singles, 500,000 albums and has played all
the name nightclubs including the Copa. But
he has risen to success in the recording
industry not by packaging himself as a
nightclub act, as a showman, but as a pure
singer and writer. Jerry Butler stands alone
among established performers for his ice
clean style on stage.
He sings with little wasted motion, clad in
a simple grey suit, eyes often closed, the
microphone in his right hand, the energy of
his performance clenched in his left fist. He is
the same man off and on stage, an
entertainer with no stage persona, just a
talent and a magic pristine as ice. In an age of
showmen, Jerry Butler is an artist.
"George Woods, a disk jockey in
Philadelphia started calling me the Iceman'
early in my career as a kind of joke," Jerry
said.
"At that time, most of the guys in the
business like the Isley Brothers and Joe
Tex were turning flips and sliding across
stage. ..and I wasn't. George said, 'This guy is
so cool that he's got to be the Iceman. "
"I grew up in a neighborhood where
almost every cat either wanted to be one of
the . Globetrotters, or make a record, or be
Jackie Robinson or Joe Louis," Jerry
recalled, sipping a beer backstage at
Raleigh's Embers Club. "In that
down and write this song and blow
everybody's mind' I think that's being
rather facetious. 1 think that in anything a
person does he must start with Number 1.
Usually when I do something that knocks me
out, it's a hit. I know when I'm doing
something mediocre and when I'm doing
something that's great. A lot of times.
'The black entertainer is better educated,
has more tools to deal with his particular
problems now than ever.9
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would ever make it. I was 1 8 years old when I
made it and it still blows my mind that I can
be so blessed."
Indeed, Jerry was blessed. In nine years he
rose to the top of the industry, netting in
1968 and 1969 alone, over $600,000. Now he
owns his own publishing firm and a beer
distributing company in Chicago, where he
makes his home with his wife and two sons.
"1 write about true-life situations," Jerry
claimed. Music, he said,' comes from the
soul.
"1 don't analyze my songs. Analyzing a
song is like analyzing the person you love.
You get so far into the analytical part that
you start missing the things you really
enjoy."
Jerry also makes music to please himself.
"As far as me saying, 'Hey, I'm gonna sit
' """" ' "
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because, of contractual commitments and
other pressures you have to deal with things
that are mediocre just based on the fact that
the contract says you must record V amount
ol sides per year."
Jerry's individualistic viewpoint carries
over into his comments on music in general.
Music, Jerry claims, is not part of a
professional trend but "what people like,
what they feel for, what they want to hear,"
not what the companies want to sell.
I hate to say there's ever a trend
happening in music," Jerry -added. "I was
coming over here on the plane with Ramsey
Lewis and we talked about his new album
Sun Goddess. Now Sun Goddess" is a song
that Ramsey felt was a strict jazz tune and
didn't expect it to be a big single. So now
Sun Goddess" is a big hit and all the things
they cut trying to stay within the trend are
sitting in the album getting passed over
because nobody's into the 'trend'."
"Groups like the Ohio Players and Kool
and the Gang are playing self-contained
kinds of things," he continued. "They aren't
doing the big string arrangements. A girl like
I
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Minnie Ripperton comes along and makes a
smash ("Loving You") without even a drum
in it."
Jerry's disdain of pure promotion reflects
the quality that won him the name "Iceman".
"Sometimes people have promoted a thing
into popularity like Tiny Tim and the
Monkees. They take it to TV and shove it
down your throat. People will buy it for a
little while but after the fad of it is worn out,
they're through with it. When you're talking
about genuine artistry, it's hard to say we are
going to take this and promote it into
greatness.' There has to be something to
sell."
Jerry Butler really believes that "only the
strong survive," and that same ethic of
personal responsibility applies to all facets of
his life, including his contribution to
improving the lot of the black man in
America.
"If a guy represents his race well, which is
what I've always tried to do, whether it be in
music, personal appearance, public life, then
he's doing his job. I've always tried to be the
best of all the things my race is about because
that's what 1 wanted to be as a person. If that
means standing up for what 1 believe is right,
No James Brown strut swiWBNwhi,
then so be it whether thats going into a
restaurant to eat, or getting the proper deal
with a record company."
Jerry sees some racial progress in the
recording industry.
"I think that the black entertainer, the
black athlete, the black politician, etc. is
better educated, has more tools to deal with
his particular problems now than ever.
There's no comparison in, say, a Joe Louis
and a Muhammed AH as far as the amount
ol knowledge at the same age level Take
Jerry Butler and Nat Cole. At the same age
level there's no comparison between what he
knew about the business and what I know
about the business."
For the moment, Jerry Butler is finishing
up a nightclub tour that will take him across
tUa xnunfni After tVto trttir lerrv nlanc i
sign with a new record company (his
contract with Mercury terminated in
February), the name of which he won't
reveal because negotiations are not yet
complete. A new album should hit the
market in about a year. The Iceman hasn't
had a big hit in five years and is looking
iorward to a fresh start because, as he says,
"I'm still not the best Jerry Butler 1 can
be...yet."
S
m
Wh&x is EBAt?" Asked the Rsbb&one da$.t
"Does it mean havio thing that inade
"Real iTt how fou te made? ai4 the Sia , '
Horse. "It's i thing that happens t5 you,"V7fcen
child Jem you for long, long time, not -1
to play with, but REALLY loves yoys, then you
become Real." " ,
"Does U h&rtT asked the JUkHf. ' w :,
"Somctimesr Skin Hot$e. for. & -
was always rrutbfui When yoo axe EeaJ you
doa's ttand being tout" ' ' r
"Oos happen all at otrce, like being
WWfltd ujv" ti? a?k?d, w?r bit by bit?" ' ,
"It does'ot happen all at oace" saJ4 th Skin ' ;
Hot$e, Tcu become It taite$ a long fee' ;
TW 'wity if doesn't oiteo liappen to people ,
who bleak emUf , or iave sliarp oies, r wbo
have to be careiuUy kept. GeftsratHy by th',-
rime you te Real most of yoar hxtt h&s beta ' '',
fove4 55, tni your eyes drop mt w& yop:
foose ia the Joints n4 very ihabby Cut thsts - '
things XLi t&Lttst ar because aics yti--are
Real you can't be agly, except to peo-fs ' ';
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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT
by Margery Williams
$1.50 Camelot Books published by Avori
Crossword Puzzler
ACROSS
1
2
Answer to Yesterday's
Puzzle
1 Stitch
4 Call
8 Flap
11 Macaw
12 River in
France
13 Turkish
commander
15 Waterways
17 Baker's
product
19 Proceed
20 Attempt
21 Fondle
22 Torrid
23 Dillseed
25 Weight of
India
26 Humorists
27 Article of
furniture
28 Ventilate
29 Dance step
30 Latin con
junction 31 Long steps
33 River in
Italy
35 Southwest
em Indian
36 Grain
37 Uncouth
person
38 Endorsement
on a
passport
40 Sum up
41 Peel
42 Peer
Gynt's
mother
43 Cyprinoid
fish (pi.)
44 Ethiopian
title
45 Saint
(abbr.)
46 Brick
carrying device
47 Nimrod
50 Lamb's pen
name
52 Ireland
54 Falsehood
55 Goal
56 Soaks
57 Bitter
vetch
3
4
5
6
7
8
DOWN
Algonquian
Indian
Period of
time
Needed
Consecrated
Three-toed
sloths
Exists
Sufferer
from
Hansen's
disease
Golf mound
9 Part of "to
be"
One
obstinately
devoted to
his own
opinion
Decays
Skill
Pronoun
Portions of
time
Pronoun
Man's
nickname
Openwork
fabric
10
14
16
18
21
22
23
24
glAJSIP.' QPSN iojW
A Ljlgf :H oL& WA
IjlAlRvg Tim NtUo
IE Im EJStol1?
itfrvm (smmi tetetg
40
41
25 Title of
respect
26 Existed
28 Devoured
29 Darling
31 Music: as
written
32 Parent (col
loq.) 33 Equality
34 Poem
35 Employ
37 Pretentious
home
38 Urn
39 Fiber plant
Snake
Shallow
vessel
Maiden
loved bv
Zeus
Hurries
Possessed
Strike
Goddess of
healing'
49 Things, in
law
51 Preposition
53 Note of
scale
43
44
46
47
48
2 3 t94 I3 I6 I7 iSSi1 I9 I10 fe&
mizl:ni-iti;" "
15 16 H7"" IP
23 24 25 26 "
Uftl " XK
27 sC 23 7 29 rr
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Ditr. by Umua feature Syndic. Inc.