With a backing band of studio killers dubbed the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, \u201cAdversity\u201d has an expansive modern atmosphere, yet a lived-in, filament-bulb quality in the playing that carries through funk, jazz, rock and R&B. It\u2019s largely a covers record, but you wouldn\u2019t know it from the depth of the revisions \u2014 veering from the Yusef Lateef standard \u201cNubian Lady\u201d to Hank Williams\u2019 \u201cI Ain\u2019t Got Nothin\u2019 But Time,\u201d closing with funk group Cameo\u2019s \u201cInsane.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been carrying it around in my head for 30 years,\u201d Was said. \u201cThis first album to me is really a handshake, a \u2018nice to meet you,\u2019 this jambalaya of Detroit sounds.\u201d While much of the source material comes from elsewhere, the cumulative mood is extremely personal to an artist who has spent his life helping the greats find true expression.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve come to admire artists who are willing to go in deep inside their most personal thoughts for the sake of helping the listener understand their own lives,\u201d he said. \u201cTo help them deal with the trauma of being human \u2014 especially in these times, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tops on that list is the late Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir \u2014 who died in January at 78 <\/a>\u2014 as a model for a band staying fearless and uncompromising. Was, still heartbroken about the loss of his friend and bandmate, recalled their first time on tour.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Bobby called asking me to play bass with the Wolf Bros, I thought at the very least, this is going to be a master class in losing self-consciousness and forgetting about fear,\u201d Was said. \u201cIf the band stumbled, the audience wouldn\u2019t walk out. They appreciated the fact that you were trying to do something new for them. Then there\u2019d be a couple moments every night with an incredible exchange between the musicians and you can feel the audience becoming a member of the band.\u201d<\/p>\n Playing the Dead\u2019s \u201cBlues for Allah\u201d on this tour \u2014 an LP rooted in Middle Eastern scales, pirouetting time signatures and improvisational telepathy \u2014 put him in communion with his old friend.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to think that songs like \u2018King Solomon\u2019s Marbles\u2019 were just jams and conversations on the spot. But when we really got into it, there\u2019s a form underneath and you can take tremendous liberty with that form,\u201d Was said. <\/p>\n Was\u2019 production career was built on a similar principle. <\/p>\n His early band Was (Not Was) remains a visionary electro-pop act with subtle, salient politics. \u201cOut Come the Freaks\u201d is a favorite on Pride month dance floors \u2014 \u201cIf you just wanted to do poppers and dance all night, it worked, and if you wanted to think about the government careening out of control, it worked too,\u201d Was said of the band\u2019s club material. <\/p>\n The late Ozzy Osbourne<\/a> sang on the band\u2019s international hit \u201cShake Your Head,\u201d alongside a winking, very game Kim Basinger. The actor was a replacement after Madonna backed out, leaving the proto-rave tune one of the era\u2019s most unlikely collaborations.<\/p>\n He recalled Ozzy fondly. \u201cIn 1975, this folk group I was in booked us to open for Black Sabbath at the Toledo Sports Arena, playing for a bunch of 14-year-old white boys on amphetamines,\u201d Was said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t having it. I\u2019ve heard the tape of that show, and the drummer was bleeding from being hit by so many bottles that we had to stop playing. That was my first exposure to Ozzy, so I was a little afraid to do the session, but he was up for an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble<\/p>\n (Gemma Corfield)<\/p>\n A Stones confidant and producer from 1994\u2019s \u201cVoodoo Lounge\u201d up until 2023\u2019s \u201cHackney Diamonds\u201d (where Andrew Watt<\/a> took the helm), Was had nothing but praise for the band, and still admits to a twinge of fandom in their presence.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s never been a day in the studio with the Rolling Stones where I didn\u2019t look around the room and go, \u2018Oh my God,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve known Mick for over 30 years, but the last time they played L.A. at SoFi Stadium<\/a>, Mick came walking down that stage and I was like, \u2018Wow, there he is, it\u2019s 1965 again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n With Dylan, he recalled the mercurial genius\u2019 impish side. \u201cI was producing Dylan, and George Harrison came in to play guitar. Bob was messing with him, Bob pushed the engineer aside and he ran the tape machine. George had never heard the song before, didn\u2019t know what key it was in, and Bob just starts the tape. George played a respectable solo, but clearly it was rough. Bob, just to be funny, stopped the machine and said \u2018That\u2019s it, perfect.\u2019 George turns to me and said, \u2018What do you think, Don?\u2019 And Bob goes, \u201cYeah, what do you think, Don?\u2019 I\u2019m looking at these two guys and time slowed down. I remembered trying to sell my car to get a ticket to go to New York to see the Concert for Bangladesh. Now they\u2019re asking me what I think. I was paralyzed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA voice appeared in my head,\u201d he said, \u201cTelling me, \u2018He\u2019s not paying you to be a fan.\u2018 So I said to George, \u2018It was good, man. Let\u2019s see if we can beat it.\u2019 You can\u2019t allow the iconography to dictate the outcome in the studio. You have to put that aside.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Don](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/233d46e\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4627x2603+0+0\/resize\/2000x1125!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7a%2F26%2F4e82fd4d447b8d1a1f5c25d30aaf%2Fdwpde-photo-1-photo-by-gemma-corfield.jpg\")
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