Off Hollywood - Allee Willis

I set out with my Polaroid camera to photograph and interview disappearing Hollywood—the directors, actors, special effects artists, producers, even composers, who’ve had great influence but have since fallen under the radar. This is a record and a reminder of the true soul of the movies.

Allee Willis
Songwriter

Allee Willis is not ashamed to list off her accomplishments, but why should she pretend to be modest about the things she has done, when the goal of her creations is to bring joy into the world? Her work as a songwriter, vintage collector, and multimedia artist are majorly impressive. Highlights of her career include writing hit songs for The Pointer Sisters, Patti LaBelle, Bonnie Raitt, Nona Hendryx, Boy George, The Pet Shop Boys, Dusty Springfield, the less soulful Friends TV show theme song, and Earth, Wind & Fire. I always catch people singing along to "September" when it plays in a drugstore. Tell me that's not proof of joy.

VICE: How did you get your first record deal?
Allee Willis: I was working at a record company, writing ads for all the black and female acts, which was all I cared about anyway. Many of the groups I wound up writing songs for--like Earth, Wind & Fire--I met while I was doing their radio commercials.I took a few of my own demos to my boss but I didn't tell him it was me. In those days if you were good, I don't even think you had to be great. Especially if you were a singer/songwriter, you got a record deal. My boss took it to the head of Epic and the head of Columbia and they all said yes. Then I had to divulge my identity.

I quit my job at the record company, which was my only source of income, and worked as a hatcheck girl while I recorded my first and only album. When I had to go on tour, I was miserable. I was losing my voice all the time. I was terrified to go onstage. I could not find one thing pleasurable about it. I lost my recording deal because the album did not sell and I hated touring. I’m not saying I was happy about it, but when I got dropped from the record label, instinctually I knew it was a blessing in disguise. The day I was dropped a friend of mine who was a big backup singer said, "You really shouldn't be alone today. Come with me, I have a recording session tonight."

That was the last place I wanted to be and she was recording with Bonnie Raitt, who I had heard of but I didn't really like because she was a singer who had a deal and kept a deal. So I felt like a piece of shit going to someone else's recording session. As soon as I opened the door, Bonnie Raitt began to praise me for my album Childstar. I guess she was one person that bought the album. She sent me home and said, "Write me a song. It's got to be a good. If it's good I’ll do it."

She cut one of my songs and I wound up going on tour with her singing back-up. It was there that I realized that I didn't mind being in the background.

How did you start working with Earth, Wind & Fire?
I was working with Patti LaBelle and Herbie Hancock, who recommended me, and then a friend of mine was sleeping with someone in the band and she was very powerful in the record industry…. The first song we did was "September" and it was a rocket ship after that.

You grew up in Detroit. What was your childhood like?
My mother was a first-grade teacher so there were always lots of little crafts going on in our house. My father was a scrap dealer. So that’s where the collecting comes from. My brother and my sister are also collectors, and are just as fanatic about it as me. This disgusted my father, who believed it all should be crushed down and recycled. My father came to visit me once in 1982, don't get me started on that topic. My house had been in magazines, my vintage collection was becoming well-known, my Studebaker sparkling in the driveway. He walks in take a look at my house and says, "Ill give you $22 a ton." I have to thank him though. I remember my childhood as being really great.

It was a time when Motown was just coming up so it was thrilling to be in that city. Everyone got a new car every year whether you were rich or poor. In those years cars just came in colors. Then when I was 16 my mother passed away suddenly, and that was the end of that era for me. So my memories of Detroit kind of freeze there.

Do you think that is why you collect so many things from the mid-60s?
I definitely think that is where most of my inspiration for music comes from. Having Motown in my backyard and the radio stations in Detroit were phenomenal, especially the black ones.

Were you ever attracted to white music?
Yeah, I liked white pop, which was the top ten music on the radio. I love pop and I loved soul, but I gravitated towards the black radio stations. There was one DJ in particular that I loved. She was the first female owner of a radio station. Her name was Martha Jean The Queen. She had a very high-pitched voice and she was on both of the black radio stations in Detroit and I became very attached to her as a DJ. That woman and Motown are my biggest influences as a songwriter.

I think a lot of your songs bring instant joy to people.
You know, Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire and I like to send each other funny covers of “September.” Recently we had a discussion about why that song is the most joyful song. It is so sing song-y and lyrically it's not as sophisticated as I like to be, but I learned an invaluable lesson writing that song. I kept telling Maurice White, "We have to change out that BA DE YA" and he said "Absolutely not! You cannot let the lyric get in the way of the groove."I’m so happy I lost that fight and learned the importance of a groove.

Last year I was playing records at a party and everyone was outside talking. I put on “Neutron Dance” and suddenly there was a conga line to the dance floor. Can you tell me the story behind that song?
In the beginning of the 80s I was really broke. I had bad business management and I didn't watch my money because all I cared about was going to thrift shops. My publisher told me about a movie coming out called "Streets of Fire" and they need a song about a couple who have escaped the nuclear holocaust with a 50's Doo Wop band. I didn't want to do it but I had nothing going on.

They paired me with Danny Sembello, who just gotten a publishing deal because his brother had a big hit the year before with “Maniac.”So based on his brother’s talent and the fact that he was in Stevie Wonder's band, he got a publishing deal. I thought to myself, I have sunk so low they are just putting me with somebody's brother, not even the real deal. We go into the studio and I said, "I have an hour. Give me the tritest 50's baseline you can think of, because it needs to instantly identify as that." He was a phenomenal keyboard player. He instantly started playing that “Neutron” dance bass line, and I can hear a melody over anything. I sang the melody in one pass.

As we were recording and working on the lyrics, I looked out the window and there were some kids with a screwdriver trying to break into my Chevy Corvair. So that's where the lyric "Someone stole my brand new Chevrolet" came from. Fortunately the song got turned down and but my publisher loved it and took it over to the Pointer Sisters, who recorded it for their album “Break Out.” It was used in the opening scene of Beverly Hills Cop.

I was shocked to learn you wrote the theme song for the TV show Friends.
During that time, I desperately wanted out of my publishing deal. A lot of the music for the theme song had already been written and when I heard it, I thought this is the most idiotic white country song!  But I thought if this will get me out of my publishing deal, I’m going to do it. I usually don't tell people I wrote that song until after I’ve listed a whole bunch of others.

From a kitsch perspective, that song is absolutely genius. Were The Rembrandts a real band?
Yes, they were a real band who had been together for ten years and had little success. They resented the song from the minute they cut it and refused to release it as a single. No one was more surprised that song was a hit than me.I bitched through the whole thing because when you write songs for TV, tons of people are involved in the writing process. It took 25 versions and 30 pages of notes to get one 45-second song approved. One line that got taken out was "You eat all my food and then chew my ear off." So that's Friends.

I hated Friends, I’ve never watched a single episode. However, I can sing you the whole theme song, it's just so damn catchy! So you didn't win the Emmy for it but you did win a Grammy. How did it feel to win that and then later receive it in the mail?
It's the least exciting thing you can imagine. It comes in a box with those hideous packing peanuts. You open it up, pull out the little horn first, then the base. Then you pull out the tiny little plaque with your name on it and apply it with double stick tape. Basically you have to assemble your own fucking Grammy. I'm very thankful to have won it, but I make fun of it a lot.

I know you are a big vintage collector and the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch is world-renowned, but if you could take one aspect of the past and bring it into the future, what would it be?
An innocence and a sweetness. I’m very into the time when the American Dream was very much alive and people had a strong belief in the future. I think that is completely dead now. I don't think there is a lot of hope and in these days people find themselves in a situation and they don't see a way out.

So how does one keep an inner strength in this day and age?
You have to like yourself as a person and believe in what you're doing and try not to fall into any of that psychological crap. I've seen myself go through great times and hideous times and I made it through. I sincerely believe it is in the hideous times that the best things are brewing. I proved that with “Neutron Dance.” During the times of the valleys it's time to put the pedal to metal and make things. You never know what is going to hit.

Previously - Off Hollywood - Stuart Gordon