The Peacock

"Clothes make the man", as the saying goes, but could they have helped unmake Tony Drake’s career?  Next to singing and women, Tony loved clothes.  Not just any clothes, mind you, but the best his salary could afford, with all the proper matching accessories, from shoes to jewelry to hats.

Even though Brunswick continued to neglect Drake's career in the two years he was signed to the label, his friendship with Jackie Wilson did bring the fringe benefit of an expense account, enabling him to at least look the part of star entertainer.  But Tony's taste in ostentatious clothing -- thousand dollar satin tuxedos accented by a diamond wristwatch -- only served to alienate people in the industry.  Remember, too, this was the 1970s, the dawn of the disco era and the time of Superfly and Shaft, a time in fashion when the old axiom "less is more" was audaciously ignored.  "They wanted to say I was a pimp, but they knew I wasn’t connected with drugs or any other illegal activity because I was too well groomed," Drake recollects.

Being an official Brunswick Recording Artist did little to pay the rent or sate Drake’s fashion habit, so he took a job with a clothing manufacturer.  With the job came discounts, and Tony's burgeoning wardrobe enabled him to hide the fact that he was working as anything other than as a singer.  But when prospective recording or performing gigs arose, clients were frequently puzzled or downright put off by Tony’s splashy sartorial style.  Looking too much like a finished product and too set in his ways, Drake muses, "It was almost like there was nothing left to be done with me, by a record company or anyone else."

With both Musicor and Brunswick promising the world and delivering nothing, and no prospects in sight for a new recording deal (he would not have another single released until 1982), Tony began to set his sites elsewhere, as a stage performer and session singer.  More important, he began to write songs.

The Other Man

In 1971, Drake was in the frequently frustrating position of loving a woman who had a young daughter fathered by another man.  His situation drove him to do something he had never done before: he wrote a song.  Never one for burning bridges, he stayed in touch with his music industry buddies, especially the members of the Chi-Lites.  When Eugene Record heard Tony’s first song, "Living in the Footsteps of Another Man," he declared that it would be the perfect tune to take back to Brunswick for Barbara Acklin to record, with just a few changes in gender.  But then the call came from Chicago announcing that the song would be recorded by The Chi-Lites on their gold album "A Lonely Man".

"Living in the Footsteps of Another Man" would eventually be recorded several dozen times (as well as its alternate version for "Another Girl"), including performances by The Pasadenas (on their platinum album "To Whom It May Concern") and Delroy Wilson, in Caribbean and Reggae adaptations, even translated into Italian.  Publishing rights were sold to Chappell Music, guaranteeing the first-time songwriter an income which allowed him the luxury of saying "No."

This luxury would be invoked when Motown offered him a deal, but found his chosen material "unsuitable" and demanded that he drop his closest colleagues, essentially ending his fledgling collaboration with keyboard player Jimmy Smith.  "I wanted to make my own way through life, and when you’re that independent, you alienate the companies", Drake observed.  "I could have been signed, but I wanted my own team, and it was too early for that.  I wanted to do what Russell Simmons would eventually do with Def Jam."

Throughout the 1970s, Drake and Smith made a number of independently-produced recordings financed by a group of New York City businessmen, but the tapes remained in their boxes (many of them are released here for the first time).  In 1982, a deal was struck with tiny Rissa-Chrissa Records, and a single, "Human" backed with "Think About It", was released.  In the mad scramble that characterized the recording industry in the post-disco era, small labels dropped like flies, and Rissa-Chrissa simply disappeared, taking with it yet another opportunity for the public’s long-overdue discovery of Tony Drake. 

The Myth and The Man

In 1984, a young East Coast promoter and DJ named Mike Boone picked up a compilation LP called "Soul of a Man" and was soon finding every chance to play his favorite track, "Let’s Play House."  A tape of the song eventually found its way to Felix Hernandez, host of the popular "Rhythm Review" radio show and, years after its initial release, "Let's Play House" no longer needed promotion: it was now recognized as an instant classic.

Outside the US, copies of the original Musicor single were going for as much as $100, and collectors were disappointed when their investments were devaluated when Drake’s tunes began to appear on CD compilations (including hot-sellers from the UK entitled "We're A Lover" and "New York Soul Serenade," both of which prominently feature the singer's name on their covers).  New popularity was found in Caribbean communities.  The story of the Brunswick years would be documented in a book in which Drake takes his place along side Louis Armstrong, Little Richard, and Lionel Hampton, and in a Jackie Wilson biography by Tony Douglas published in Australia.  The November 2000 issue of the British music magazine "In the Basement" would devote a full six pages to Drake’s story.  An overwhelmed shop owner on White Plains Road in the Bronx who spotted the balladeer in his store one day exclaimed, "Oh my God!  You're Tony Drake!"  When he asked his customers if they knew who this man was, about twenty people laughed and said, "Everybody knows 'Let's Play House!'"

At the eleventh anniversary party for "Rhythm Review" held at New York's landmark Roseland in 1994, Drake was persuaded to lip-synch "Let’s Play House" and 3,300 people were hypnotized by his debonair and dominating stage persona.  More fans were converted, word of mouth spread, and Tony was no longer pigeonholed: his music had finally transcended the categories of Soul and R&B and was recognized for its universal language.  He continues to wow the crowds that jam his well-publicized concert appearances (frequently with hundreds lining up for autographed photos), and is finally greeted with the credibility and respect it took thirty years to achieve when he takes calls from adoring listeners from around the world on radio shows.

Today, he absolutely glows at the mention of his nine year-old son.  "He sings and dances, and he’s every bit as talented as Michael Jackson", raves the proud father of Drake Anthony Garner.  Looking deep within, Tony recently told me, "I wanted to show people the glamorous side of show business, but that wasn't accepted.  My image had to be fought for, "Now that the battle has been won, he likes to think of the music on this CD as "my treasure, to finally be shared with everyone."

Perhaps this Cinderella story is best summed up by the spontaneous reaction from a radio announcer, startled to find "the world’s greatest singer" on the other end of his phone connection: "Tony, you have touched our lives with your music, your beauty as a person, as a spirit.  We love you."

Larry L. Lash

October 2001