Interviewer: …
Phillinganes: Well, there are many things that are special about Stevie.
Phillinganes: Number one is I would say his awesome talent, and yeah, I was very much connected to him and his music when I was younger, you know, in the early teens.
Phillinganes: I had all the, I had posters of him all over my walls and everything.
Phillinganes: And I, I told friends of mine, I remember telling friends of mine in high school that I would eventually play with him.
Phillinganes: And I never met him.
Phillinganes: You know they said, of course they thought I was on drugs.
Phillinganes: But I just had this feeling, I felt, uh, really connected for some reason to his music and there were all of the songs.
Phillinganes: And uh, I sang harmonies with him and I was into and all kinds of things.
Phillinganes: And so I just, there was this kinship, I just felt really connected to him.
Interviewer: When you first heard "Music In My Mind" how did that sound to you?
Phillinganes: I'd never heard anything like "Music In My Mind." Uh, period, I mean that was, one of the most, if not the most awesome recording I'd ever heard.
Phillinganes: I mean there was all kinds of new sounds that, that, uh, I heard for the first time.
Phillinganes: And it was, uh, it just expanded my, my interest and my musicality so much and it was so much, uh, and it was, uh, I'm sure I speak for most people, musicians or not when I say that was, that was absolutely brilliant, I'd never heard anything like it.
Phillinganes: And he was able to, to bring so many emotions to life with the synthesizers which were at the time, uh, pretty new.
Interviewer: When you finally got to work with him, what was it like having all that technology?
Phillinganes: Being able to have direct access to, you know, everything that was happening at the time, all the new technology, you know, right at my fingertips was fantastic.
Phillinganes: It's was, uh, it's like being in a toy store.
Phillinganes: You just walk to this space and play this new gizmo and go over here and play this.
Phillinganes: And he had like 200 of everything.
Phillinganes: So just in case he felt like nicking one.
Interviewer: When you started working on "Songs in the Key of Life" there was something you were telling me about playing the synthesizer parts on the…
Phillinganes: Working with him on the song "Saturn" it was one of the more intimate sessions, because I remember it was on a studio in New York, the Hit Factory, the original Hit Factory in New York.
Phillinganes: And uh, Stevie had at the time this massive, uh, synthesizer with like three keyboards and it was all white and it was made by Yamaha and it was called the Dream Machine.
Phillinganes: And I mean you could feed a family of eight on this thing.
Phillinganes: It was humongous.
Phillinganes: And it was beautiful and it had these…
Phillinganes: Okay, one of the songs we were working on with Stevie's "Songs in the Key of Life" was "Saturn" and it was one of the more intimate sessions that I remember because it was just Steve and I in this huge room at the Hit Factory in New York.
Phillinganes: And we were doing synthesizer horn parts on this massive keyboard that was built by Yamaha.
Phillinganes: And you could feed a family of eight on it.
Phillinganes: And it had beautiful white, five foot speakers, and it was called the Dream Machine.
Phillinganes: And it had three keyboards.
Phillinganes: Two, uh, uh, uh, a double manual keyboard and then a smaller keyboard on top and there were all these kinds of effects, and I'd never seen anything like that in my life.
Phillinganes: It was fantastic.
Phillinganes: And I got to play it anytime I wanted to pretty much, when I was in the studio.
Phillinganes: And we were working out these synthesizer horn parts, you know, like -- [plays piano].
Phillinganes: Well, anyway, it sounded a lot better on the record.
Phillinganes: And uh, we were working these things out, and uh, I just remember it being the two of us.
Phillinganes: And you know, he has always has this thing about wagging his head.
Phillinganes: So I just I thought I'd join in, you know, the two of us wagging our heads.
Phillinganes: And I just thought it was just a nice little moment.
Phillinganes: One of the little fun things that I remember.
Interviewer: …
Phillinganes: Stevie writes, uh, in a way that is, uh, so unique it's almost hard to describe.
Phillinganes: He has a very serious jazz influence, and uh, he combines that with, uh, very deep rooted rhythm and blues elements, and um, uh, he's, he's like a litmus paper really because he's able to soak up so many different kinds of influences.
Phillinganes: I mean from country to reggae to, um, uh, to classical composers, it doesn't matter.
Phillinganes: He's able to infuse any one or group of elements at any time, you know, for any song.
Phillinganes: And he's uh, he's a master that he knows, you tend to forget how brilliant of a songwriter he is.
Interviewer: Around this same time we also had some other special music that was happening.
Interviewer: What did Earth, Wind and Fire mean to you?
Phillinganes: Oh, Earth, Wind and Fire meant many things to me.
Phillinganes: They were the epitome of class in the way they presented themselves, their music, their songs were absolutely brilliant.
Phillinganes: They knew how to give a show.
Phillinganes: Nobody gave a show like Earth, Wind and Fire.
Phillinganes: And you never knew what to expect.
Phillinganes: I remember going there, and they always had big intros.
Phillinganes: They were actually like James Bond movies, because you never knew what was going to happen in the intro.
Phillinganes: And uh, they uh, they just epitomized the best elements of black music at that time.
Phillinganes: You know, and many of their songs are timeless are now.
Phillinganes: You know, like I mean, uh, when, they had, uh, incredible elements of music in this thing, you know, Afro-Cuban, a very tribal funky sound.
Phillinganes: They had jazz on top of that, and they laid it with a smooth, uh, pop sound and they just, you know, were incredible.
Phillinganes: Everything about them.
Interviewer: What about Parliament / Funkadelic?
Phillinganes: Well, now… That's sort of in the other neighborhood.
Phillinganes: But they were just as brilliant.
Phillinganes: Nobody, nobody does it like George Clinton.
Phillinganes: Nobody did it then and nobody does it now like George.
Phillinganes: And George is in a class by himself.
Phillinganes: And uh, they, uh, they were a very big influence too on a lot of, uh, a lot of pop acts, I believe.
Phillinganes: A lot of pop.
Phillinganes: The British acts, I believe.
Phillinganes: They, uh, their music went a long way.
Interviewer: Do you remember your response to what you first felt about Sly and the Family Stone.
Phillinganes: Oh man, Sly.
Phillinganes: Um, Sly's music, uh ...
Phillinganes: I, the one thing I remember about Sly's music is it was always, it was always fresh.
Phillinganes: And again, he was, uh, really deeply rooted in R and B and gospel elements.
Phillinganes: But he, he combined that with this, part of this West Coast Frisco sound, Bay Area sound rather, that just, you know, provided a fresh, uh, a fresh ...
Phillinganes: help me I'm stuck.
Phillinganes: Just a fresh element to the music scene at the time.