.................................."W I S H C A N _ W I L L I A M" (the remix)...................
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.......after over 27 years the "Wishcan William" odessy continues........this song was first recorded (April 2, 1982) when rap was in it's infancy and many of today's stars like Nas and Will.i.am were young children. This new track might be among the first to have a rapper on a track with his kids and GRANDKIDS...!!!!!!!!
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Story Behind the Song... YO U GOTTA CHECK THIS OUT.. !!!!!!!!!................
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Way back in the year 1982 my first bandleader, Wesley Ford and I were sitting around talking about the late 60's when we were out gigging around Washington DC. I was a teenager. The group, The DC Playboys, had long since disbanded by that time and we hadn't seen each other in a good while. Rap music was just beginning to catch on and somehow the conversation shifted to how a lot of negative influences were starting to creep into the lyrics of the songs. Wesley knew I liked to write so he suggested that I should write something positive. Having already introduced me to what he called the “ I AM “ philosophy, which he had printed pamphlets about, Wesley encouraged me to use it as the theme for a rap song. That's how the whole thing started. . ..............................
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Little did I suspect at the time, all the changes I would go through to arrive at the present incarnation of this work in progress. My own kids, who were 6 and 11 at the time, are among the voices in the background. They are 33 and 38 today and we all get a big laugh out of listening to the track. My buddy Tyrone Anderson and his friend Judy Seeger gathered up her kids, nieces and nephews and they all ate peanut butter sandwiches in the back of my van on the way to the studio. Douglas Graham aka Mr.D, put up his hard earned money for us to record. ......................
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Six years later in February of 1988 I went back in the studio with James (Man) and Forrest who were among the kids on the original recording. We made another demo with them doing the lead rap instead of me. They were about 4 or 5 years old at the original session and 10 and 11 when we did the second recording session. Remember on this one, they are rapping to their own background, recorded six years earlier. Today, of course, they are grown men with kids of their own most likely. Maybe when I catch up with them their kids can be overdubbed as well. ....................................................
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This brings us to the present when I decided to update the music to the song. First I went back to the studio with the old master tape ( frazzled edges and all ) and took the kids voices off and put them on a CD by themselves (CD's hadn’t reached the market yet when we first started this project). Next, thanks to today’s state of the art technology, I was able to add the old voices to the new track and sync the rhythm by using my son's home pro-tools setup. Pro-tools is a computer based recording system that has editing capabilities that would have been impossible with the analog tape we started with. .........................................
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Now comes the amazing part. I was then able to overdub my four grandchildren so that now they are on the same track with their parents when their parents were kids. Actually my grandson is older than his father was when we first recorded over 27 years ago. So now we have three generations on the track and who knows maybe more will be added in the future. ..............ps....Alexander Evan (my 5th grand) is here now and as soon as he gets his vocal chops together ( the volume is already happening) we will add him to the mix.....:o)
Now, does this song have a story or what ?
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Credits: ..................................................
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Douglas Graham (Mr. 'D') / executive producer, original recording 1983;
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Children's voices:.............................
James Adams (Man), Wayne Seegers (Fatty), James Seegers, Forrest Palimery, Donna Palimery, Vanessa King, Pam Diggs, Nicquel Ross (Nikki), Lincoln Ross IV
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(plus recently added grandkids).................Lincoln Aloysha Ross, Alyssa Ross, Zion Wynn, and Jayr Wynn ..........................................................................
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writer, rapper, trombone solo, and sequencing:
Lincoln Ross III aka 'grandpa'........... :o).............................................................................................
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VIBES OF TRUTH
Lead track from the 1975 Fantasy release "Vibes of Truth"......................by THE THREE PIECES...................................................
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Jerry Wilder on lead vocals and bass, Andre Richardson on percussion and background vocals and myself ..boards and background vocals.
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We were working locally in the DC area during the early seventies when I convinced Donald Byrd to produce our first and only album.
They flew us to Hollywood to record with the great Wade Marcus of Motown fame who added lush strings and big punchy brass to our sound. It was quite an experience as you might imagine.
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We opened up a few shows for Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds and once for Kool and the Gang but the album spawned no hits and the group soon disbanded.
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None the less our record has taken on somewhat of a cult status in Germany the UK and Japan and surely in more places than we even know about as it is still being marketed.
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Unfortunately other than a very small advance we have not recieved a single mechanical royalty in the near thirty years since the record was released.
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SO MUCH FOR SHOW BUSINESS !!!!!!!!!!!!!! don't get me started........
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HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ! ! ! ! !
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............really I'm laughing to keep from crying..............................
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!@$$%%^&&**(()))+_)(*&^%$@!!!!@$%%^^!@$%^&*(
+_)(*&^%$@!!@$%^%&^&*(())__+_+_()*&^%$!$^^%
....whoever coined the phrase................................
.'there's no business like show business'.........................................really knew what they were talking about.....................................:O)
cheers !!!
ps can someone please tell me why my typing becomes so disjointed?
...do you need some special code or something?
Lincoln- I know you're gonna feel this! Soul legend LEROY HUTSON joined us on our radio show Midnight Soulstice last night. For one hour, we talked about his experiences as the lead singer of The Impressions, how he wrote "The Ghetto" with Donny Hathaway, why his amazing albums on Curtom Records never made it into the Top Ten and about his future plans. This is a very rare occasion to hear the man speak and listen to much of his amazing music. Tune in today and listen to the download of the entire show right here:
You could keep this whole tradition going for generations, Mr. Ross!!! What a cool thing that would be! "Lincoln Ross VI and his kids add tracks to their great great (etc.) grandpa's rap tune". ;-)
