Felix told us that he was supposed to be a classical musician.\u00c2\u00a0 His mother had him taking piano lessons three times a week, he didn’t know what rock and roll WAS!\u00c2\u00a0 But then she died, and some kids at school asked him if he wanted to join a band.\u00c2\u00a0 Wanting to integrate, wanting new friends in the wake of the passing of his mother, he said yes.\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S where he learned about rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 And when they took him to this club in New Rochelle, where the band featured a Hammond organ, a spark was ignited, he went to Macy’s in NYC, and laid claim to his destiny.<\/p>\n
And that destiny led him not to Syracuse, where he plied the books during his first year of college, but to the Catskills the summer thereafter, to play in a band for sixty bucks a week.\u00c2\u00a0 He got the bug.\u00c2\u00a0 He wanted this to be his life.\u00c2\u00a0 But what would his father, the dentist, say?\u00c2\u00a0 The maitre d’ said not to worry, he’d take care of it.\u00c2\u00a0 He gave Felix’s dad the best seat in the dining hall, sat him right up front in the showroom, and told Mr. Cavaliere that he’d seen a lot of musicians, but his son HAD IT!\u00c2\u00a0 And Mr. Cavaliere bought it.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, what did he know about rock and roll?\u00c2\u00a0 He gave into Felix’s wishes.\u00c2\u00a0 His son could take a year off from college to try and MAKE IT!<\/p>\n
But Felix starved.\u00c2\u00a0 After the mountains closed up shop for the summer, finding himself back in the city, there was no WORK!\u00c2\u00a0 But then he got a phone call from one of his Catskill buddies, playing with Joey Dee & the Starliters, on tour in Germany.\u00c2\u00a0 Their keyboard player had to drop out.\u00c2\u00a0 Could Felix fly and fill in?<\/p>\n
That’s where Felix saw the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 He was impressed, the mania, the girls screaming, but they couldn’t play the American music as well as he could, as Americans could, it was OUR music!<\/p>\n
And back in New York, he decided to put a band together.\u00c2\u00a0 David Brigati, who was singing with Joey Dee, coughed up his brother Eddie.\u00c2\u00a0 He found drummer extraordinaire Dino Danelli, who could not only play, but create a show, twirling the sticks by his ears, throwing them high in the air, and the schooled Gene Cornish.<\/p>\n
They did not call themselves the Rascals.\u00c2\u00a0 Soupy Sales did that.\u00c2\u00a0 When they begged to back him up.\u00c2\u00a0 And their manager Sid Bernstein added the "Young", which they hated, and subsequently dropped.<\/p>\n
And they had a couple of hits.\u00c2\u00a0 But following them up was difficult.\u00c2\u00a0 For now they were writing the material themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 But then they broke through, they found their groove.\u00c2\u00a0 And composed monsters, like this one, that Felix was playing on the piano right now, "I’ve Been Lonely Too Long".<\/p>\n
Tommy Nast has been trying to get me out to the far reaches of Burbank for a year, to view the premises of his new employer, CenterStaging.\u00c2\u00a0 But it never happened, until Friday, when he told me FELIX CAVALIERE was going to be doing their signature show, "Lessons From The Legends", for ultimate airing on their site, rehearsals.com.<\/p>\n
We toured the soundstages.\u00c2\u00a0 Saw where they shot Tom Petty and Norah Jones.\u00c2\u00a0 Took a look at the seemingly endless robotic camera workstations, where they moved sixteen units, maybe MORE, at a time, dozens of feet away.\u00c2\u00a0 Looked at the cooled data room, with the Xserves and terabytes of storage.\u00c2\u00a0 And then we went back to the room where tonight’s performance was taking place.\u00c2\u00a0 And after meeting the big bosses, were introduced to the man himself.\u00c2\u00a0 Who didn’t seem that impressed that I’d stolen Dino Danelli’s drumsticks after their show at Fairfield University.\u00c2\u00a0 "So YOU’RE the one!" he exclaimed\/laughed.\u00c2\u00a0 But maybe I needed to cut him a break.\u00c2\u00a0 You see he’d never done this.\u00c2\u00a0 Never told his story on stage.\u00c2\u00a0 Solo, with no interviewer, just riffing.<\/p>\n
I winced.\u00c2\u00a0 This was going to be AWFUL!<\/p>\n
But about half an hour later, Felix walked out of the dressing room and took the stage in front of the assembled multitude, all thirty five people, and started banging out these notes.\u00c2\u00a0 It was instantly clear.<\/p>\n
And then sans mic, looking up to the heavens, with his eyes closed, Felix started to sing…<\/p>\n
I’ve been lonely too long I discovered this song by myself, the radio didn’t turn me on, I’d bought the Young Rascals second album "Collections" immediately upon release, loving "I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" and the rest of the tracks on their debut, which I’d gotten for my birthday from my sister’s boyfriend the year before.\u00c2\u00a0 But the funny thing about a great track is you GROW INTO IT!\u00c2\u00a0 New meaning is revealed as time goes by.\u00c2\u00a0 What did I know about being lonely too long just as I was entering puberty.\u00c2\u00a0 But, as an ADULT, I KNOW what being lonely too long is ALL ABOUT!\u00c2\u00a0 But great songs aren’t about lyrics,\u00c2\u00a0 they’re secondary to the music.\u00c2\u00a0 And the riff, the essence of "I’ve Been Lonely Too Long", Felix is banging it out RIGHT NOW!<\/p>\n I’m elated.\u00c2\u00a0 Larry Solters is drumming in the seat next to me.\u00c2\u00a0 And then, when we hit the break, both Larry and I reach our right hands out in the distance, TO PLAY THE ORGAN!<\/p>\n You’ve got no idea how big the Rascals were.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you were alive back then, especially on the east coast.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, their hits eventually dried up.\u00c2\u00a0 But for a few years there, you could COUNT on them, they always delivered, they never stiffed, and each track was different, each had its own magic.<\/p>\n And Felix gets up from the piano and starts to tell his tale.\u00c2\u00a0 Leaving nothing out.\u00c2\u00a0 Giving the kind of details you can’t get from a musician unless you’re MARRIED TO THEM!<\/p>\n And he’s no laid back Angeleno, this Marty Scorsese lookalike is pouring it all out, and we’re drinking it up, positively stunned that this guy is letting us in, that he still has it.<\/p>\n Turns out "Groovin’" was written for his girlfriend.\u00c2\u00a0 Who was in HIGH SCHOOL!\u00c2\u00a0 He almost married her, but contemplating this, he wrote "How Can I Be Sure", and ultimately convinced himself not to.<\/p>\n They did "In The Midnight Hour" first.\u00c2\u00a0 Wilson Pickett was pissed he could never get into the Atlantic studio, the Rascals were always working out, but he taught them a lesson, he had a big hit with their song, hearing it waiting to record himself.<\/p>\n And Felix is playing each and every one of these numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 Telling us the parts Arif added.\u00c2\u00a0 What was happening in the band’s career.<\/p>\n And then, after about an hour and a half, it was time for questions.<\/p>\n A dude in the back row asked him to tell the story of "People Got To Be Free".<\/p>\n Turns out Atlantic didn’t want the record to come out.\u00c2\u00a0 They felt it was unwise for a band to take a stand.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Rascals had become politicized, and after the death of Bobby Kennedy, whose campaign they’d been working on, they INSISTED it be released.\u00c2\u00a0 And it went number one in all the countries where people are oppressed.\u00c2\u00a0 And it might just be another ditty on the oldies station now, but when Felix banged it out, it was a reclaimed anthem.\u00c2\u00a0 As he said, we’re in it together, we children of the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 We lived through it, and the music holds us together.<\/p>\n I asked him why they switched to Columbia.<\/p>\n Felix said it was for the worldwide distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 Atlantic had licensees in the rest of the world, they were getting ripped off by MULTIPLE companies.<\/p>\n He talked about Eddie’s refusal to move to the new label, about the bad vibe at the R&RHOF, and then he sat down at the Hammond for a final number.\u00c2\u00a0 He implored us to sing along.\u00c2\u00a0 To the song they added to their repertoire while working the clubs, doing their job, getting people dancing so they’d drink.<\/p>\n And suddenly, the assembled multitude is standing and SINGING!<\/p>\n Sure, "Good Lovin’" is not hard.\u00c2\u00a0 But we each knew EVERY WORD!<\/p>\n And the joy…\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody was in reverie!<\/p>\n And then it was done.\u00c2\u00a0 But the crowd clamored for one more.\u00c2\u00a0 So after contemplating for the better of part of five minutes, having believed the show was over, Felix sat down on the bench and started playing "Mustang Sally".\u00c2\u00a0 Another track the Wicked Pickett stole from them.<\/p>\n And we’re sitting there, grooving in our seats, listening, as Felix lays down the groove, and sings atop it.\u00c2\u00a0 And then suddenly, it’s CLEAR!\u00c2\u00a0 This is IT!\u00c2\u00a0 This is the experience, this is the one that hooked us forty years ago!\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is what the show was all about!<\/p>\n It’s not about the set.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about the dancing.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about triggering studio recordings from keyboards.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about laying down a groove.\u00c2\u00a0 And getting the audience to jump into it, and get swept away!<\/p>\n This is a business of live performances.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m begged every night.\u00c2\u00a0 Occasionally something is good, but too many times the show has the soul of a CD.\u00c2\u00a0 Tinny and lifeless.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t have the heart of vinyl, it doesn’t penetrate you, it doesn’t REACH YOU!<\/p>\n And it’s strange.\u00c2\u00a0 This grandfather, who hasn’t hit the chart in eons, he’s not bitter, he hasn’t lost a step, he’s still got it.<\/p>\n And when it’s all done, when we’re eating pizza, eventually it’s me, Tommy, Larry and Felice with the man.\u00c2\u00a0 Talking Italian restaurants, talking careers, talking life.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t like hanging out with a star, but bonding with a PERSON!\u00c2\u00a0 Done with his show, Felix was warm and open.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone from your hometown all these years later.<\/p>\n We’re all from the same hometown.\u00c2\u00a0 Those of us who lived through the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 And the music was our soundtrack.\u00c2\u00a0 And Felix and his band were an integral part of that.<\/p>\n Felix still lives to write, works live a bit too.\u00c2\u00a0 But we told him we were blown away.\u00c2\u00a0 That he needed to take THIS show on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 Telling the story, uniting us in song.\u00c2\u00a0 Felix didn’t believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t know that he was a natural.<\/p>\n So I don’t know if you’ll ever get a chance to be in the presence of the man.<\/p>\n But if you don’t, log on to rehearsals.com in six weeks or so and watch this performance.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it won’t be like being there, recordings never are, nothing approaches LIVE!\u00c2\u00a0 But this show will rivet you nonetheless.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the intimacy, the honesty.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Felix told us that he was supposed to be a classical musician.\u00c2\u00a0 His mother had him taking piano lessons three times a week, he didn’t know what rock and roll WAS!\u00c2\u00a0 But then she died, and some kids at school asked him if he wanted to join a band.\u00c2\u00a0 Wanting to integrate, wanting new friends 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I’ve been lonely too long
In the past it’s come and gone
I feel like I can’t go on without love
I’ve been lonely too long
I’ve been lonely too long<\/em><\/p>\n