Surviving the Good Times, Dreaming of Better Day

STEWART FRANCKE'S GLORIOUS METAPHYSICAL SOUL REVUE

By Robert E. Martin

Thematically and lyrically, however, his latest outing finds Stewart

delving deeper into such metaphysical topics as the opposing forces of life

& death, fidelity & distraction, faith & fear, with a clarity that plunges

to the bottomless depths of emotion and emerges to find comfort and hope in

the fundamental embrace of family, friends, and 'home' - a special place

that is as evanescent as it is eternal, and as durable as it is fragile.

The power of What We Talk Of can be traced to the fact that Stewart Francke

has stared into the abyss and fought his way back. Diagnosed with leukemia

two years ago, an experience that also transformed him into a cancer

activist through the formation of the Stewart Francke Leukemia Foundation,

which seeks to help minorities and the disadvantaged find suitable donors

and provide financial assistance, the sense of immediacy embedded with the

grooves of his new work is obviously that of a man who does not take life

for granted.

And there's even a Rap song on the CD - the emotive & majestic, From Where

Shall Comfort Come? which leads into a trilogy of songs that form the

spiritual heart of the album.

As Craig Werner, author of Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of

America, writes in the liner notes: "While Francke's music sounds a soul-deep 

response to his musical elders & ancestors, there's not a hint of nostalgia 

in it. Listening to this album is like waking up and finding yourself in an 

alternate universe. It's a place where rock & soul still speak to each other, 

where you catch glimpses of what the '70s might have become if we'd lived 

up to their long-forgotten promise."

In short, this is one of the best collections of music I've heard in this

or any year, with memorable songs that touch one deeper with each repeated

listening. And the lesson is simply one of courage - the notion of finding

the strength to explore our lives honestly, realizing the human touch that

makes the daily chores of life secondary, and realizing that our conflicts

can be a source of salvation as opposed to despair.

Recently we caught up with Stewart to discuss the metaphysics behind his

'New Soul Revue'

Review Magazine:  Last year when we spoke you made an interesting observation that

unlike most people making rock music, your recovery from cancer created

immediate emotional & spiritual chaos, so consequently you were striving to

create some elegant rock 'n roll with a sense of moral order as opposed to

anarchy.

Do you find, one year later, that your recovery has strengthened that need,

and if so, was it easier to construct the material for 'What We Talk OfŠ'

because of the way you consciously have polished and directed that 'moral

compass'?

SF:  Well maybe it's gone a step further.  For much of the writing of "What

We Talk Of" it felt like I was taking dictation.  In a way, instead of

searching for that elegant desire, that nearly divine motivation, and that

applied moral order to music, it came to me by being more settled and just

having more faith in what was to come.  So yes I definitely ASKED and

SOUGHT out evidence and truths to these deepening spiritual issues, but

realized as time went by that the answers are not glib nor tidy.

 I was given a book written by a friend of mine, Craig Werner, called

"Change Is Gonna Come: Race, Music and the Soul of America."  In it, Craig

cites three main tributaries to modern (and Arcane) American music: the

Gospel Impulse, the Blues Impulse and the Jazz Impulse.  The Gospel impulse

says, in effect, that we can transform life's burdens, depression and

heartbreak into redemption, salvation and peace.  Now that's very much at

the heart of the Black church ethos.  And I had to suffer, really suffer,

to understand it.

White people in America just have no idea of the hardship that continually

comes with being black. So to LIVE by this ethos, and then allow it to

creep in with the previous elements of music I've known and trafficked

in...you can't help but come up with a more balanced, more insightful, more

spiritual kind of music.

To be very specific as to your question: You said before that I was

"striving to create some elegant rock with a sense of moral order."  After

my diagnosis, arduous healing and then some complications, then watching

people I went through this with die, I know the answer is only in having

faith in the search...the search for understanding.   Does that remove me

from mainstream rock'n'roll or soul or pop?  No, it just gets me writing

about things closer to the human

condition.

Review Magazine: You've managed to release an album a year for the past 10 years,

usually always around the month of November. Is that a conscious deadline

that you impose upon yourself?   Some artists release an album every two or

three years, preferring to take their time to 'get it right' (arguably out

of laziness) while others like the Clash & The Beatles would issue a new

album every six months, from a sense of fertility or urgency.  Do you find

yourself 'on a deadline' to create your music?

 SF:  I do feel more immediacy now more than ever 'cuz if I should die

before my time I want there to be a record of how I lived and where, and

whom I loved, and where...and what I stood for.  But on a lighter side I

just love making music, love writing songs, I love being with musicians and

being in studios.  And it was very healing for me.

 On the most pragmatic side there's the issue of chicks and dough, those

time immemorial rock'n'roll incentives that get a young man into this

game and keep him  there.  I'm lucky in that they weren't my principle

motivations. I was more like a poet or a novelist, looking for what it

meant to live here and now, and what it took to carve out a moral and

purposeful life.  Not that I didn't efficiently recognize both chicks and

dough as something that entrepreneurs would call "By-Products."  But man I

always LOVED rock'n'roll..nothin' like it.

Still, this gig ain't as glamorous as one would imagine; chicks and dough

are gooey Easter candies, for the most part.  As far as the timetable, I'm

a big-time Michigan summer guy.  I'm dormant in winter, start writing in

spring, recording in summer and get the music out by fall.

I do really admire Van Morrison, who gives the world a record a year

whether it wants one or not, or the prolificity of the Beatles.  And I

don't understand these guys like Seger and Springsteen, where you hear

they're always writing but you get a sometimes mediocre record every 6-7

years.  That's a lifetime to me, but I don't know the demands of their

level of success.

Review Magazine: Your love of R&B and Soul music has really evolved on your last few

outings, and truly blossomed on this latest release.  With Black (and

White) artists taking over the charts in terms of HipHop for the current

generation, and artists like 'Beck' exploring full-throttled funk music ala

George Clinton, do you think this resurgence is

reflective of growth with the idiom itself, is it a fad, or is it like

Keith Richards said - 'it all  begins with Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters and

the only thing that changes is  the variations'?

SF:  I just think it comes down to whether you like rhythm music or not, or

how much you like rhythm music.  What are your options? Really good guitar

based pop is hard to do and done well by only a few, like the Foo Fighters

and Everclear and a couple others. People truly can't get past The Beatles,

me included.

R&B and rap are certainly not fads, anymore than jazz is a fad.

I tried to take the most melodic and romantic elements of soul music-

Marvin Gaye, Stevie and the whole Philly thing--and resurrect it to the

point where it could talk to the white rock elements I knew so well.

There's a guy down here in Detroit named Marc Gottlieb, a classical

composer, who wrote the string arrangements for this album.  And those

arrangements much like the arrangement to "Eleanor Rigby" that they

released on one of those Beatles Anthologies, could stand on their own as

gorgeous pieces of music.  So there was that almost Eurocentric element to

this record.

Then I added a soul/rock rhythm section and some Motown elements--horns and

the tambourine. There's not a musician worth his salt working in Detroit

who can't play the nuances of the Motown songbook. Then add a white

vocalist with black intimations and you've got something pretty funky and

pretty interesting...AND while not being anachronistic, something close to

what a lot of people have heard before.  It's familiar, but new.

On one song, "From Where Shall Comfort Come?", Marcus Cole from the gospel

group Commissioned (and a native of Saginaw) rapped it.  Despite all of its

perceived evils, rap is an extremely expedient form of communication,

almost better than a very compelling conversation.

Review Magazine:  Can you tell me a little about the song cycle on this new release?

Your emotional honesty and topical integrity has been likened to that of

Springsteen by critics, but what types of themes & topics are you striving

to explore with this latest record?

SF:  The sequencing on this new record of mine is crucial to its meaning

because I've never written songs more dependent upon one another for

meaning.

It's essentially about breaking things down to the most honest, finite and

direct form of communication we can--personally, socially, sexually,

racially and, familially.

If we don't break it down, misunderstanding can literally cause enough

disruption for the PEOPLE involved to perish.  So in that sense Bruce and I

share a corner of a subject--the HDTV, the leather chair, the gas grill,

the new car, all the amenities we call "success" etc.-- all this stuff are

impediments to real communication, real purpose, real connection.

Music is an antidote but not when it comes down to the news of the

day--Britney, Spice Girls, 98 Degrees; they're about conspicuous

consumption, not finding a deeper spirituality or even a deeper commitment

to your neighborhood or family. Now I KNOW that's asking a lot of pop, rock

or soul music, I know.  But why can't there be a little guy in a corner of

this megatropolitic culture singing funky ass songs that wonder where in

the hell his friends are, or where God went, or what it means to lose your

bearings?

To really break this record down, I'm saying I BELIEVE in the human spirit,

in the best instincts of people.  But it doesn't just happen.  We gotta

reach out, overcome the myriad streams of stagnation...reach for

transcendence, even an education...anything that elevates us out of not

basic instinct but degrading instincts.

So the song cycle of this record runs from opening up the lines, to sharing

love sexually, to asking ourselves "if we don't care of one another, who

will and what's it worth? To understanding that if a black man can be

profiled by a white cop, the opposite is a heartbeat away.  And finally

concluding with the idea of touching the glory - stop wasting time and make

coming together a priority.

Review Magazine:  At this point in your career, you remind me a lot of Bob Seger

back in the '70s. He would release these great albums year after year, was

regarded as Detroit's 'next big thing', yet still wound up the 'Beautiful

Loser',  never hitting national acclaim until the release of 'Night Moves.'

Are you still hopeful for major nationwide success, or isn't that really an

issue with you at this stage of the game?  If so, what do you think it

takes to get to that 'next level'?

SF:  I'd love it!  I'm not playing a marginalized game. But with my health

and my wife and children and the stability that requires, I don't

think it's in the cards right now for me to have the type of success you

describe.

It's my theory that everybody that ever straps on a guitar wants the whole

enchilada.  And water seeks its own level. So can I dream, at my age, with

my musician's income and a very precarious health situation?  Of course I

can...and I dream big dreams that I ain't ashamed to speak of.  It's what

life's made of.  And the dreamstompers, man they're everywhere.  Makes me

dream bigger and louder and longer. It makes the possible fruition of that

dream that much sweeter.

For the first time in my career I certainly feel ready--we've played

stadiums, arenas, theaters, clubs, with every type of act imaginable.  And

I think, with this new record, we've made a record that's about as good as

anybody else is doin' these days.

The age thing is one bugaboo I don't subscribe to.  I KNOW you get better

as you age and in other parts of the world it's not even an issue--Sting at

50 or McCartney at 60.  We're a little age obsessed here.  And I STILL find

it

tragic-comedic-ironic that in a country of 260 million people we  focus on

the same 35-50 celebrities most of the time.

As far as making it to the next level, it's a complex game of complicated

publicity, large dollars being spent in the right places toward the right

people, using funny oxymorons like focus groups, featured demographics and

spins per week. Basically it's still a radio game.  I might find someone

with good ears and a kind heart (Mike McDonald at K100 here in Saginaw

comes to

mind) but if the single doesn't get 25-30 spins per week, forget it; it

won't enter the public consciousness.

So basically I'm in the right place at the right time.  I just need to get

lucky and get a confluence of good press, a few big stations playing it and

a chance to open for a major act for some time.  But these are the things I

rarely think about and NEVER give voice to...its all so cheesy.  Talk of

the "Next Level" gives me the creeps.  I'm happy to be a working musician

and songwriter who can make enough to call it a living.

The deal is this, at WHATEVER you've chosen to do--you're either getting

better or worse at it; at the end of the day, either better or worse.

Review Magazine: How did you decide which musicians to use in recording the new

album? Are you still working with the same band members, apart from the

gospel group 'Commissioned', and why did you decide to collaborate with

them?

SF: Right before my transplant, in October of '98, we cut "My Girl" live

in Motown Studio A for a Tribute to The Temptations.  It was so

exhilarating, and got me reading about how the Funk Brothers (Motown's

legendary studio unit) and The Beatles and Spector's "Wrecking Crew" cut

all those tracks.

I have the good fortune of playing with the best cats in Detroit, so I just

put 'em to work after working really hard on the writing and arranging of

the album.  Then we brought in the Regular Boys

horn section and Danny White wrote the horn parts, then Gottlieb and his

string arrangements.  We used a couple varying rhythm sections but overall

it was trying to stay in that live aesthetic. Get the best feel, the most

spontaneous take and do minimal overdubs on top of that.

As far as Commissioned, they're just great singers who aren't necessarily

locked into a non-secular bag. We just hit it off.  This is one of the

reasons I have a hard time calling this record, these songs, mine. They

pretty much wrote themselves, played themselves and sang themselves.  But

it's still excruciatingly hard work to adhere to getting it right.

Review Magazine:  How is you general health nowadays?  Do you feel you're pretty

much totally recovered from your ordeal, or is it something that regardless

of the prognosis, you never really 'recover' from?

SF:  I just had a successful 2-year biopsy--no tumors, no leukemia, all

female chromosomes in the cytogenetics.  That certainly helps me move along

but there are always ongoing complications of varying severity.

I am convinced, however, that my purpose is to live on, for quite a long

time, and live up to a promise I made to myself and to God.  Am I

wracked by fear and worry?  Sometimes.  Am I happy to be alive?  Of course.

Yes, you DO recover, and things DO get better, but they're never

even close to the same.  Nor should they be.

Review Magazine:  Will you be doing any videos from this new album and sending them

out to VH1?

SF: I'd sure love to because I write little cinematic songs, brief little

narratives with real people and places. And I ain't gettin' any better

looking.  Though I can still turn a head or two on a very slow day at a

very rural mall.

Review Magazine: How is the leukemia foundation doing and can you update me on that

- has it turned into a 'second occupation' for you?

SF:  It almost became my principle occupation. That April fundraiser with

Marshall Crenshaw and Dave Marsh was a tremendous amount of work--for a

tremendous amount of people, mostly my sister.  Like saving my life wasn't

enough.

 We're looking at doing a very large marrow drive in the spring in Detroit,

again emphasizing getting the minority donor into the registry.  Then we'll

come up to Saginaw on February 9 and do a show just like last year at The

Horizon Center--part of the tix will go to the SFLF and auctioned items

will also be on sale.  We hope to make it bigger this year.

The Horizon Center was absolutely fantastic last year and we hope to do

more with it this year.  So far we've given around $80,000 to Karmanos

Cancer Institute (and the Children's Leukemia Foundation) in Detroit, where

I was treated.  We'll raise some dough, find some matches and save some

lives, hopefully. That will continue my entire life, and hopefully then

some.

Stewart Francke's new CD 'What We Talk Of, When We Talk' is available at

Harmony House outlets throughout Michigan. You can also purchase it through

Blue Boundary Recordings online at:

www.blueboundary.com

Blue Boundary is also releasing on a very limited scale and exclusive to

the Harmony House chain, an 8-CD Box Set of Francke's music called 'The

Works, 1995-2000' The box will include all of Francke's CDs and CD Maxi

singles, and include an interview with Stew conducted by the Review's

Robert E. Martin.