The Legends of Music Awards

Norfolk, Virginia

April 2007

The Road to Success

The road to success is a long and difficult journey of disappointments, frustrations and sacrifices. The wise traveler tries not to acknowledge how far he or she has come because that only distorts the dream and blurs the vision of the true destination. The ultimate destination is to be the best that you can be.

My hometown, Norfolk, Virginia, recently honored me with the legends of music award, an honor that I will cherish forever. I gratefully share this honor with Tidewater greats Ella Fitzgerald, Pearl Bailey, Bruce Hornsby, Ruth Brown, Clarence Clemmons and many other tremendously talented artists from the Tidewater area.

As my family, friends and well-wishers gathered around me, I unveiled my award, a large bronze medallion embedded into the sidewalk of Granby Street. It reads “The Legends of Music Walk of Fame - General Norman Johnson.” When the crowd began to applaud, my mind began to wander. I was taken back in time to a boy raised on the poverty stricken side of Norfolk, to a boy who dreamed of one day recording million selling records, performing at the Apollo Theatre, appearing on American Band Stand and the Tonight Show, touring and performing around the world. Although I could only play three chord progressions, I also dreamed of becoming a successful songwriter. During the award ceremony, the proud expressions on the faces of my family and friends magnified what I already knew but very seldom think of. Against all odds, I have accomplished all of my boyhood dreams.

As I hugged, shook hands and received congratulations from my family, old friends and other well wishers, I’m embarrassed to say my mind was trying to drift away from this incredibly wonderful moment to a song that I’m writing a for a new recording.

I feel truly honored that my hometown has recognized me for the work I’ve done in the past but my brutally frank mind keeps reminding me that the road to success is a never ending experience. “It ain’t about how far you’ve come but all about where you’re trying to go.” Like the boy from my past, I still have dreams. I’m still traveling.

Picture from the Legends of Music Awards

In The News:

4-17-2007

Beach Music's Five-Star General

"You could make a blind man see,

You could make a cripple man walk

You could make the quietest man in the world talk."

— General Norman Johnson

"39-21-40 Shape"

Jim Newsom
Tuesday, Apr. 17, 2007

Was there an actual girl with such measurements who inspired that 1960s Beach Music classic?

"I was only about 14 years old when I wrote that song," General Norman Johnson laughed when he called me last weekend from Myrtle Beach. "I don’t know—maybe it rhymed with ‘ape-itty ape.’ That came from a young teenager’s brain!"

Johnson, who comes back to his hometown this week to be inducted into the Legends of Music Walk of Fame, has been singing since he was a youngster living at 852 Washington Avenue in the Huntersville section of Norfolk.

"I started when I was about 6 years old," he said, "singing in churches and stuff. We formed our first little neighborhood group called The Humdingers. Our first professional job where we got paid a little bit of money was with Ruth Brown in a place called Chowan Beach.

"Noah Biggs from Norfolk put some money behind The Humdingers. He was our manager, and he took us down to New Orleans to record our first records—which had ‘It Will Stand’ and ‘39-21-40 Shape.’ The people at Minit Records said ‘no’ to the name Humdingers, so we had to come up with a name right on the spot. We came up with The Showmen there in New Orleans."

"It Will Stand" was a national hit for The Showmen, but around here it was "39-21-40 Shape," mislabeled "39-21-46" on the 45-rpm record, that really took off.

"Most people say they printed the label wrong," he explained, "but I think they did it as a ploy because it was more commercial, it aroused curiosity. Actually, when I wrote the song it was called ‘You.’ And ‘It Will Stand’ was ‘Rock and Roll Will Stand.’ So they just changed the names of the songs."

Johnson has one of the great voices of rock and soul, an instantly recognizable sound that wraps itself around a lyric and pulls every ounce of emotion out.

"You know what’s so funny?" he asked. "Up until the age of about 14, I sung the range of female alto. I went out at lunch one day at school, and I started coughing. I thought I had laryngitis. My voice changed and this is what I ended up with. And I thought, what am I gonna do?"

He is also a successful songwriter. When The Showmen split in 1968, he moved to Detroit where he formed The Chairmen of the Board. It was there that he hit his songwriting stride, writing lyrics that were simple yet poetic.

"I’ve always aimed for simplicity," he said. "I’ve always aimed for things that people could understand. A title that awakened the imagination like one I did for the Honey Cone, ‘Want Ads:’ ‘Wanted, young man single and free/Experience in love preferred but we’ll accept a young trainee.’ I mean everybody can understand what you’re saying.

"In Detroit they better be great lines! My bosses were Holland-Dozier-Holland, and you can’t even begin to count their successes. But I learned from them real good. They had just left Motown and were in a lawsuit, and I was stuck up there in the middle of that. But I was learning from them the art of how you write a song. It paid off, because in a year and a half I had amassed six million-selling songs that I had written. I got the Grammy for ‘Patches,’ I was the BMI Songwriter of the Year. That’s pretty heavy stuff."

The Chairmen of the Board had several huge hits with Johnson’s compositions in the early ’70s, most notably "Give Me Just a Little More Time" and "(You’ve Got Me) Dangling on a String." Hit versions of his songs like Freda Payne’s "Bring the Boys Home," "Somebody’s Been Sleeping" by 100 Proof (Aged in Soul), and the string of hits for label mates Honey Cone proved his mettle as a songwriter. But it is "Patches," a #2 smash for Clarence Carter in 1970, that remains his most recorded song.

"That came from imagination," he replied when I asked about the genesis of the song. "You put yourself in another person’s shoes, but at the same time I wanted to put it in a setting that everybody could understand. It’s a little bit about me, but I try my best not to write a song exclusively about me. I try to write a song that touches the emotions of everyone. And ‘Patches’ was that kind of song. I’m not born and raised in Alabama, but that made for a better song than being born and raised in Huntersville!"

He credits his father, whose name was General Johnson, for his career in music.

"I owe it all to my father," he said, then laughed, "Every slap beside the head for hitting a flat note! My father is the one who taught me how to sing, and I was singing on the radio and singing in churches from Norfolk to New York City.

"He was working over at the Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. He wanted to be a singer, he was singing with a spiritual group. But that could not be a career because he had a family. So I think he lived through me."

Though he was born General Norman Johnson, he was called Norman when he was growing up. A record company executive changed that.

"I was working at a record company called Swan Records in Philadelphia," he remembered. "The owner of the company, a big Italian guy, said, ‘General is your name and furthermore, General is more marketable.’

"It was the kind of name that you don’t want to use in school. I absolutely hated that name. That just goes to show you—I hated my name, and my name turns out to be marketable. I hated the way my voice had changed, and my voice has been said to be one of the most distinctive. You never know when you’re being given a blessing."

For the last 30 years, General Norman Johnson has been one of the biggest names in Beach Music. But when he first moved down to his current home base, Charlotte, he didn’t know what "Beach Music" was.

"Later on," he said, "I found out that way back when, black music was known as ‘blue music,’ and it was forbidden fruit for the Caucasian race. It was no different from when they couldn’t listen to Little Richard sing ‘Tutti Frutti’ but Pat Boone could sing it. Those people that wanted to hear the authentic sound could go down to Myrtle Beach to those jukeboxes and they could listen to rhythm & blues music. So that’s how it got the name as being ‘Beach Music.’

"It’s been a blessing for me because during the time of disco and all the different changes in music, I didn’t have to worry because I had a vast audience that loved the music that I loved to do. If you’re looking for melody and a strong song structure, where the singer is still the main focal point, then you’re talking about the music that I love to do."

The Power of Song

We were to appear in a nightclub in North Carolina. Upon arriving, the club owner told me that one of his patrons, Captain Harry Rogers (a retired captain of the Charlotte, NC Fire Department) wished to speak with me.

I made my way through the crowd to Mr. Rogers' table. After complimenting me for my music, he gave me a letter that is so remarkable; I have to share it with you.

February 18, 2006

Gentlemen,

I'd like to share an experience with all of you that I thought might interest you. In June, 1970, as a "short-timer" in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam I was guarding 6 Viet Cong prisoners who were helping to rebuild a sandbag bunker that their comrades in arms had demolished with mortar fire. As I kept watch over the captured enemy soldiers I was listening to The AFVN (Armed Forces Vietnam Network) on my battery powered radio. The DJ announced "and now a just released jam "Give Me Just a Little More Time" by The Chairmen of the Board!

It wasn't the first time that I'd heard it and I liked it very much but this time I noticed one of the prisoners was not singing but was lip syncing the words, even the part that goes ..... "and our love will surely grow....bluuuurrrrtttt"! I asked him if he spoke English and he told me that he attended the University of Michigan. When asked how he came to be in his current predicament he told me that North Vietnamese Soldiers held AK-47 Assault Rifles to his wife's, father's and mother's heads and demanded he serve in their army or they would kill his family. He got himself captured the very first opportunity that he got.

That day, instead of being the "inhuman animals" that I had been trained, even brainwashed to believe, I saw my enemy as being human beings for the first time. I believe that event helped me to overcome prejudice more than any other single lesson in my life. You guys clearly had a part in that experience. Thank you for making such a horrible part of my life and the lives of thousands of others a little better, if for just a couple of minutes at a time, through your music.

Thank You and God Bless You,

Harry A, Rogers Captain, Charlotte Fire Department, Retired

The Chairman of the Board’s Beach Music Discography

1. Bless Your Heart	9. I Wanna Doop, Doop, Doop (Your Do Wop She Do Wop)
2. Carolina Girl	10. A Bird in the Hand
3. Gone Fishin’	11. Jerry’s in Love
4. Dreamin’	12. Down at the Beach
5. On the Beach	13. When Can I See you Again
6. It Ain’t What You Do It’s the Way You Do It	14. Beach Fever
7. Summerlove	15. There’s No Me Without You
8. Loverboy	16. You Don’t Know What Love is
	17. I’d Rather Be in Carolina
All songs written, arranged and produced by General Johnson
Click here to listen to Discography
All music featured in The Chairmen of the Board's discography can be purchased from Surfside Records at www.surfsiderecords.com or by telephone 1-888-464-8889

The Music Bandit

By General Johnson

I’m speaking on behalf of anyone who is an artist, a songwriter or music producer who has chosen music as a profession. You’ve got to love what you do because your long hours of work can be instantly stolen with the click of a button. What is amazing to me is that nobody really seems to care.

The lawmakers don’t care and those that download the music definitely don’t care. Maybe it’s because no one outside the music business really understands the long hours of work and financial costs necessary to deliver a good product of newly recorded music. Let me try to explain.

The songwriter conceives an idea and then translates that idea lyrically within the boundaries of a commercial melody. The lyric has to tell an interesting story which sometimes can take as long as a year to complete. I finished the chord progression (the music) to the song Patches within two weeks. However, I had to write and rewrite the lyrics until everyone involved was satisfied that the lyrics were the best that they could be. It took almost six months to perfect the song Patches.

The artist’s performance must capture the feeling of what the songwriter is trying to say. The performance also has to please the musical ear of the producer - - no easy task. Many hours of costly studio time is spent trying to capture the best performance the artist can project.

The arranger has to arrange the music with instruments that paint a picture of what the songwriter and the artist are trying to say. His work also has to satisfy the musical ear of the producer. Once again, costly hours of work are necessary.

The producer is responsible for overseeing every aspect of the recording project both creative and budget-wise. He spends countless hours tediously adjusting the sounds and volume levels of each instrument and every vocal performance. This process is called mixing. Mixing is one of the most important phases of the recording process. Many recordings have lost the magic because the vocals and instruments were not mixed properly.

The final process of the recording project is called mastering. Overseen by the producer, the mastering engineer perfects the overall sound of the project. When this process is completed the recording is finished.

All this costly, creative and technical work is done for one song. Most CD’s contain at least twelve songs that require the same amount of work and financial costs. Imagine the long hours spent by talents like Stevie Wonder and Prince who write, sing, play instruments, arrange and produce the recorded music.

Conservatively, the cost of a professionally recorded CD of twelve songs is approximately $100,000 to $150,000. This includes studio time, producer advancements, musicians, background vocalists, hotels, travel and a long list of additional miscellaneous expenses. All recording costs are charged to the artist. For their long hours of work, the songwriter, artist and producer depend on the royalties from CD sales. A large portion of these royalties are lost because of illegal downloading of their music.

Music thievery continues to get worse each day. As a result, independent recording companies, recording studios, recording distributors and music stores are going out of business at a frightening rate.

I know this article may not discourage the theft of music because you enjoy the music free of charge. But maybe, just maybe it will make those who steal the music feel a little bit guilty.

*This article does not pertain to the cost of recording sessions that feature samples of music previously recorded.

Music Video, Rockaway Beach....... Featuring General Johnson of the Chairmen of the board and the late Joey Ramone of the legendary rock band the Ramones

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