RR: Speaking of “play like Steve Cropper,” you did include a couple of instrumentals on the record, too.
SC: Basically, those came about because we didn’t have a singer for them. With “Think,” we played the 5 Royales version, but I remember the James Brown version, so it was Jon Tevin’s idea to keep it instrumental: “Let’s do James’ version and do it instrumental,” and we got Steve Jordan [drums] on the session, and he just fell right into that. There’s an outtake where Jordan and I got into another groove and they didn’t roll the tape on it (laughs), and they said, “Man, you almost played a hit, but we don’t know what you call it.” Obviously, all the songs on this album are all 5 Royales songs, so there was no room for new music, but I said, “We’ll get around to that sometime.” The other song that we didn’t know was going to be an instrumental was the one that Dan Penn sings, “Someone Made You For Me.” Jon Tiven, being in the control room, had the lyrics laying there on the console, and was flipping over to the next song we were going to do with the music and all that, and he said, “Next, we’re going to do “Someone Made You For Me,” but we didn’t have a singer. So, we’re out talking and Dan Penn goes in and said, “Well, who is going to sing on this one?” Jon said, “Well, we don’t have anybody. We’re just going to cut the track, and Steve is going to open up the melody and make it an instrumental.” [Penn] said, “Mind if I take a shot at this?” (laughter) We hadn’t asked Dan to sing, not
because we didn’t expect that he would do it. He offered on his own. He said, “Do you mind that we go ahead and finish the session, and I’ll get back in here, either tonight, or early in the morning, and I’ll play you what I do tomorrow when you come back in.”
And so he did, and there he is: “Someone Made You For Me.” And that’s one of my favorite songs that they ever did, and it has incredible lyrics. It’s funny when Dan said, “We can’t let those lyrics go unsung. Those are great lyrics.” He’s right.
RR: I also loved John Popper’s vocals and harp work on “My Sugar Sugar.”
SC: Yeah, we play that one in the car all the time, and it’s one of my wife’s favorites. She brags about it. He just did such a great job on that song.
RR: There is a particularly fine chemistry between you two on that track.
SC: Yeah, he’s a great guy and I’ve known him for a long time. A lot of people don’t know, or have even seen or watched Blues Brothers 2000, but John Popper had a little scene in that movie, and that’s where we became friends, and he played the House of Blues with us one night. He’s a great guy—a great singer and a great talent.
RR: Did you use the Peavey and the Telecaster on Dedicated ?
SC: Actually, both. I used the custom Peavey that I’ve got that was made for my, I don’t know, 55th birthday or something. I’ve played the Peavey for about 14 years, and I have one out called the Cropper Classic, which I guess we’ve had out on the market for about seven years. I’ve got some that I’ve played on a few things, but my regular road guitar is the original Peavey that was made by Jim DeLuca. He left Peavey and went to Fender. For the tracking day, I think for the second day, I brought my favorite Telecaster that I have. I think I got that one out of the plant in La Brea, California when I lived out there, and most of the engineers really liked that, so I said, “O.K., I’m going to try that again.”
For “Someone Made You For Me,” I got out my old Gibson Switchmaster ES-5, and played that on the rhythm guitar—good ole chunk and bend-type rhythm, big band rhythm. I think for the solo, I pulled out my Howard Roberts Fusion guitar. That guitar is awesome. (laughs) It’s pretty cool. Those things, I don’t take on the road. I don’t carry but one guitar on the road, and I have it on my shoulder. That’s the way I go with it, instead of like these guys who bring a box full of guitars, and they’re all up there, and they play a different song on every song. I don’t have time for all of that. (laughter) I admire the guys who do it, and I have nothing against it, but it’s just something I don’t do. I don’t have a lot of foot switches, either. I don’t have a pedal board under my feet. I can walk around stage without tripping over anything. The other guitar player has pedals, and I trip over his pedals. (laughter)
RR: How will you tour Dedicated ?
SC: The problem is, this year, I’m already booked, and most of that stuff was booked before we even talked about doing an album. That was all setup last year. I hope the record will stick around long enough and be good enough to something other than just television where we can actually do some shows, other than the one we did in New York at the Lincoln Center with the Bar-Kays and the North Mississippi Allstars.
RR: The music industry has changed dramatically over the 50 years you have been in the business. When you enter a studio, has your recording methods changed in any way, or do you still use the same style you’ve always had?
SC: (laughs) Well, yeah, I know what we want. When I go to another studio with another engineer, I just setup my amp with my sound. If it’s way out of line, I may say something, and if it’s not, I’ll just stay quiet and don’t say anything. In my studio, we get the sound that I want, that I’ve been doing forever, so not much has changed. We recorded the tracks in Dan Penn’s studio [Better Songs & Gardens] in his house not too far from here, maybe five minutes from my house. I recorded there before, and Dan gets that old sound, a Memphis sound. He has an analog ear, even though he’s cutting some stuff digitally. He knows what it’s supposed to sound like, and he got us a great sound on this record. We mixed some of it in my studio, and some of it in another studio. We were not there for every mix, but we were there to O.K. them, tweak them, and do whatever we wanted to do with them. I think we arrived at a sound that…Jon Tiven and I are old blues guys, and we kind of know what we want and we know what we want to get out of something, and I think we came pretty close.
The first song on the album, “Thirty Second Lover,” with Steve Winwood—I figured he’s the only guy that I would have asked that would have said, “Well, I’m just too tied up,” not that he would refuse me because we’ve been dear friends for a long, long time. I had the feeling that if he could do it, he would do it. He said, “Yeah, I’ll give that a shot,” (laughs) and he took the track with him and said, “I’m going to have to get back.” He wouldn’t have time to do it here, but he said, “When I get home, I’ll look at it and I’ll try to do a vocal on it and send it to you.” God bless him, he did, and it’s just awesome.
And my good buddy who lives right around the corner from me, Delbert McClinton? How good is he? [McClinton, appropriately enough, appears on “Right Around the Corner” on Dedicated.] He’s on my original notepad. We took a list of songs, and put out beside it: “Who is on our wish list?” So, Jon and I both had a wish list, and we got together a few days later and compared the wish lists. I got [McClinton] to do “Right Around the Corner,” and I could just hear that voice doing that song. He came in here, and we knocked that out in about 15 minutes, so it was awesome.
RR: Queen’s Brian May was on one of those wish lists?
SC: Jon Tiven came up with that idea. I didn’t know it. He said, “Yeah, I talked to Brian May, and he really wants to be on the album.” I said, “Are you serious ?” (laughter) I didn’t believe him. I mean, I believed him because he wouldn’t be lying to me, but I couldn’t believe [May] would do that, and he did. He just did a great job. We weren’t there for the recording of [“I Do”]. We cut the track, and he overdubbed. He’s so tight and incredible that it is just amazing. That whole thing that he puts on the end is so Queenish. (laughs) He’s cool.
RR: I’m a little surprised that you don’t believe people wouldn’t jump at the chance to work with you, Steve.
SC: (laughs) I feel very honored and I’m very lucky to be around to witness all this stuff. It’s something else. I hope to meet you someday. Just come backstage if I’m ever around.
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