Fool's Parade

Fool's Parade, Peter Wolf's most recent recording is available on Mercury Records. Pete describes this album as the most intimate and personal he has ever done. Rolling Stone Magazine calls Fool's Parade "One of the most essential albums of the 90s". Songs Long Way Back Again Turnin' Pages, sample 1, sample 2 Anything At All Pleasing To Me The Cold Heart Of Stone All Torn Up Roomful Of Angels If You Wanna Be With Somebody I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled, And Crazy Ride Lonesome, Ride Hard Waiting On The Moon The Making Of Fool's Parade - Interview, Pete shares his thoughts on the new album.   FOOL'S PARADE Album Liner Notes - by Peter Gurainick, August 1998 The first time I saw Peter Wolf perform, in the mid-'60s, he was the lead singer with the Hallucinations, a blues band that pre-dated J. Geils and included two fifths of its nucleus (Peter and drummer Stephen Bladd). Peter was playing harmonica, and the band was playing nothing but the blues-- but transformed, as I wrote a couple of years later, by "Wolf's demonic theatrics on vocals and choreography." I met Peter not long afterward, and we discovered that we shared a mutual passion for soul music as well as the blues. We both lived in Cambridge and got together from time to time to listen to Solomon Burke, the King of Rock 'n' Soul; Little Richard's "I Don't Know What You Got (But It's Got Me)"; Gene Chandler's "Rainbow '65" (recorded "Live at the Regal"); the gospel-drenched songs of O.V. Wright and the Soul Brothers Six; most of all, the off beat, just as often brilliant compositions Don Covay ("It's in the Wind"), Peter's primary vocal inspiration. It seems strange in these media besotted times, but this was an underground kind of music not always easily acquired, and we traded records and experiences with each other and with friends, like treasure-seekers looking for the rainbow that Gene Chandler had proclaimed. Listening to this album, from the opening notes of "Long Way Back Again" to "Waiting On the Moon", evokes those times. Not as nostalgia -- because the writing and playing couldn't be mote contemporary -- but for the feeling that is revealed. This is real soul music, delivered neither as formal imitation nor as ironic commentary, but full of the emotion that invested the records and shows that served as Peter's inspiration and initiation. If you've ever seen Peter Wolf in live performance, in any of his incarnations, you'll know that it's the moment that has always counted for him; as he might have said -- as I'm sure he has said many times, quoting Wilson Pickett, "99 1/2 won't do." And I've never known him to give less than 100%. The problem for any artist is to translate that incandescent moment on stage into the recording studio. Some have never fully succeeded, but the greatest soul singers, I think (and this includes country as well as r&b -- any genre in fact primarily dependent upon the conveyance of feeling), have found a way of communicating vulnerability and introspection in the studio where bravado alone can sometimes take precedence on stage. That is what James Brown's "Lost Someone" -- live and in the studio is all about; that is the desperate passion that Solomon Burke's "Goodbye Baby" conveys. And that is what you get from Peter's new album. An honest statement of belief and fear, lying somewhere between the enigma of the purely personal and the universality of any true pop experience. I've listened to this album over and over again. I have my favorites - but I won't try to impose my preferences on anyone else. There are many moments that surprise, and many moments that resonate -- let me just say that this is an album that rewards repeated listening. And where else (other than the Royal Soul Revue) would you get to hear Peter rap about listening to O. V. Wright or -- apart from the rarest of Hallucinations artifacts -- hear him play the harmonica again? This is a very personal album -- in many ways the first Peter Wolf album -- but I don't think it would be doing either Peter of the music a disservice to suggest that through it all echoes the elusive spirit of Don Covay. Fool's Parade offers up a vision that is very much of the here and now but that connects deeply, in ways that can be felt if not defined, with past and future, too. Record Label Mercury Records Produced By Kenny White And Peter Wolf "Roomful Of Angels" Produced by Steve Jordan, Kenny White And Peter Wolf Album Information Recorded And Mixed By - Rob Eaton Assistant Engineers - Dave Fisher, Karen Rome Mastered By - Bob Ludwig At Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME, And Ted Jensen, Sterling Sound, NYC Recorded At - Sear Sound, NYC Additional Engineering - Taylor Rhodes, Steve Jordan Project Coordinator - Jayne Grodd Photography - Ken Schles, Nancy Hodgins Art Direction - Margery Greenspan Design - jeffdidthis Players "Long Way Back Again" Drums - Shawn Pelton Bass - Will Lee Guitars - Duke Levine, Cornell Dupree Keyboards - Kenny White, Leon Pendarvis Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Violin - Marco Vitali "Turnin' Pages" Drums - Shawn Pelton Bass - Will Lee Guitars - Duke Levine, Taylor Rhodes, Jeff Golub Keyboards - Kenny White, Leon Pendarvis Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Background Vocals - Vanese Thomas, Ada Dyer, Curtis King, Taylor Rhodes, Robert White Johnson "Anything At All" Drums - Shawn Pelton Bass - John Conte Guitar - Duke Levine Keyboard - Kenny White Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Background Vocals - Teresa Williams "Pleasing To Me" Duet Vocal - Ada Dyer Drums - Shawn Pelton Bass - John Conte Guitar - Duke Levine Keyboard - Kenny White Horns - Arno Hecht, Bob Funk, Larry Etkin, Crispin Cioe Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Background Vocals - Vanese Thomas, Curtis King, Ada Dyer "The Cold Heart Of The Stone" Drums - Shawn Pelton Bass - John Conte Guitar - Duke Levine Keyboard - Kenny White Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Background Vocals - Steve Conte, Curtis King "All Torn Up" Drums - Tony Beard Bass - John Conte Guitars - Duke Levine, Jeff Golub, Jimmy Vivino Keyboard - Kenny White Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Horns - Uptown Horns Background Vocals - Vanese Thomas, Curtis King, Ada Dyer "Roomful Of Angels" Drums - Shawn Pelton Bass - John Conte Guitar - Taylor Rhodes Background Vocals - Taylor Rhodes, Vanese Thomas, Ada Dyer, Peter Wolf   "If You Wanna Be With Somebody" Drums And Bass - Steve Jordan Guitars - Steve Jordan, Kenny White Keyboards - Steve Jordan, Leon Pendarvis Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Background Vocals - Curtis King, Kenny White, Peter Wolf "I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled, And Crazy" Drums - Tony Beard Bass - Kenny White Guitars - Cornell Dupree, Steve Conte, Duke Levine Keyboards - Kenny White, Leon Pendarvis Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Horns - Uptown Horns Background Vocals - Vanese Thomas, Ada Dyer, Curtis King "Ride Lonesome, Ride Hard Drums - Shawn Pelton Bass - Will Lee Guitars - Duke Levine, Johnny A, Kenny White Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Keyboard - Leon Pendarvis Background Vocals - Vanese Thomas, Ada Dyer, And The Boys "Waiting On The Moon" Drums - Shawn Pelton Bass - John Conte Guitars - Duke Levine, Jeff Golub Keyboard - Kenny White Percussion - Bashiri Johnson Violin - Mark Vitali