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Martha Velez has led a rich and full life in the entertainment industry as a singer, actress and playwright and her groundbreaking blues album “Fiends and Angels” recorded in 1969 with some of the most legendary English Rock musicians is still talked about today. This interview was written as a narrative rather than a formal question and answer piece, from Martha Velez’s own words (she really is that smart- she has a Ph.D.)! A follow-up Blog Post dealing with Martha Velez’s life before and after “Fiends and Angels” working and interacting with John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Dennis Hopper and other notables will be published in this Blog within the next month or two. All the text in this article is (c) by M.Velez and the Gifts and Free Advice Blog (P.Hersh). Feel free to use up to 500 words for any summary in a blog, newspaper article or magazine, as long as this link for the URL of the complete Blog Post is provided:
www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/free_advice/martha-velez-interview-fiends-and-angels-eric-clapton-paul-kossoff-cmvelez/ Any commercial publication wishing to republish the complete Interview should contact this Blog via the comments section (It will not be shown in the Blog).

The musicians on “Fiends and Angels” track by track from what Martha remembers are:

1. I’m Gonna Leave You
Eric Clapton Lead guitar, Jack Bruce Bass, Mitch Mitchell (probably) Duster Bennett harp
2. Swamp Man
Paul Kossoff Lead guitar, Jim Capaldi drums
3. Fool for You
Paul Kossoff Lead guitar, Jim Capaldi drums, Christine McVie(?) piano (She was Christine Perfect at the time-shy girl – the only other female musician at the sessions)
4. In My Girlish Days
Chicken Shack: Stan Webb Lead Guitar, Christine McVie Piano, Andy Silvester bass, Dave Bidwell drums
5. Very Good Fandango
Martha Velez Opera Vocal Only No Instruments
6. Tell Mama
Rick Hayward lead guitar
7. Feel So Bad
Eric Clapton Lead guitar, Jack Bruce Bass & Harmonica, Mitch Mitchell drums
8. Drive Me Daddy
Eric Clapton. Lead Guitar, Brian Auger organ
9. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
Chicken Shack: Stan Webb Lead Guitar, Christine McVie Piano, Andy Silvester bass, Dave Bidwell drums
10. Come Here Sweet Man
Paul Kossoff Lead Guitar, Chris Wood Flute, Jim Capaldi drums
11. Let the Good Times Roll
Chicken Shack Stan Webb Lead guitar, Christine McVie Keyboards, Andy Silvester bass, Dave Bidwell drums
Names to instruments not remembered have been left out. There were no unreleased tracks from the recording sessions. You can buy “Fiends and Angels” as well as many of Martha Velez’s other albums on sale at www.GiftsandFreeAdvice.com Just put the name Martha Velez in the Search Space. This huge online store with thousands of great Discount Gifts as well as our Discount E-Commerce Stores below help support this blog so please check them out.

Martha Velez tells the Story of ‘Fiends and Angels” in her own Words:

Like a Hollywood Dream

I had met a guy on the subway whom I’d known from the Village.. barely knew him. He asked me if I would cut the demos for a group of songs he had written. He was looking for a songwriting deal – I don’t remember his name- would love to thank him. At the time, I was playing the lead in the Broadway show, Hair. I said, “Sure. I could do his songs, but it would have to be in the afternoon.” I had Studio experience from being with a folk group a few years earlier called the Gaslight Singers. We recorded for Mercury Records, so my recording chops were still there. However, these songs were wild and psychedelic, they really brought out another voice that I had not yet tapped into. I let loose at the demo session and had a great experimental time… as luck would have it, Richard Gottehrer and Seymour Stein were there. They were just launching Sire Records and they signed me pretty much on the spot. It was crazy. I had the lead in Hair and they wanted me to record. When I mentioned that I loved the Cream and groups that were doing the blues, earthy but filled with the energy and innovation of the time, they immediately contacted Mike Vernon, a noted Producer of British Blues like Fleetwood Mac and Ten Years after. I guess he heard the songwriter’s demo, lined up the British greats and the next thing I knew, I was taking a leave of absence from Hair and flying off to London to meet with some of the most extraordinary players of the day in that genre.

Into the Blues

When I was singing folk music with the Gaslight Singers right out of college, I always gravitated to bluesy style tunes. I actually started off singing opera with some opera scholarships I got in Junior High School and during my years at the High School of Performing Arts. However rooted music was always what moved me, i.e folk, blues, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Pete Seeger, the Weavers,

the fabulous Odetta and eventually Taj Mahal (my son’s namesake) and, of course, later in the Reggae genre, Bob Marley, whom I had the privilege of working with as the only American artist for whom he ever produced an album. Blues with players like Clapton, Bruce, Mitchell etc. was a natural place of synchronicity and I was grateful to work with that caliber of musician that Mike Vernon brought to the mix. Once Mike Vernon showed interest in my voice we ran with it.

London Bound

I met Mike Vernon for the first time when I got to London. Thankfully, he turned out to be a very calm, but diligent producer who really regarded the artist. He was very encouraging to me. He looked like a rock star too, with a great A&R business brain and an acute vigilance for the blues, ergo his Blue Horizon Record Label. Before we went into the studio, Mike Vernon and I went through a ton of his blues records collection to see what songs might work for me…what I could get into emotionally, psychically and musically. From that batch we honed it down to a few. I had brought with me from the States, Drive Me Daddy, Fool For You, Tell Mama, Let The Good Times Roll, It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Dylan was eventually my neighbor when I lived in Woodstock). The songs I ended up choosing in London were Feel So Bad, I’m Going to Leave You and In My Girlish Days while we were working the album. Before the sessions began, I locked myself in a hotel room for about a week just rehearsing, singing with the original records of a bunch of songs. I sang them a million times before I decided which songs to present to Mike and which songs would jive with the musician lineup we had. I wrote the lyrics to Swamp Man from a groove that Paul Kossoff wound up at the recording session …and then, Sweet Man which came as an extemporaneous blues…pretty much written on the spot.

For the most part, I wanted to find a way to make the old songs my own – tried to give them my take. I was singing these songs so intensely and ferociously, day and night, that many times the Hotel manager knocked on my door, saying he liked the music, but people were trying to get some sleep. I just sang softer until I just konked out!

Recording “Fiends and Angels”

All of the musicians on “Fiends and Angels” were Mike Vernon’s buddies or at least players he had worked with to help create their originating mark on the music world. Every time another amazing musician walked into the studio, I was wide-eyed and gleeful. Everything about the sessions was magical…gathering with these players, the producer, the engineer, all of it was so transcendent, I was happy for the experience. The first time I heard I’m Gonna Leave You on the radio, I was in San Francisco. I was concentrating on something else, when Clapton’s intro guitar lick came on and I heard myself and suddenly it all congealed like a surreal recollection. But then, there it was, I was on the radio…it was a great kick.

What happened at the recording sessions was extraordinary. Musicians who command admiration by virtue of their musical abilities seem larger than life. I was not so much intimidated, but very grateful to these young men for responding to the call. I was a bit awkward with them at first, but London musicians really have a yen for the American sound, and that’s where we coalesced. They listened to some playbacks, thought it sounded really immediate and cool, and spread the word. Jimmy Page came by, wanting to play…actually, I ran into him on the street as he was coming to the studio. I was standing outside of Decca Studios, with Clapton, Bruce and Mitchell, Jimmy Page walked up and said he would love to play. As luck would have it, we had just finished for the day and he was heading out on tour or some other place….or, he too would have added his vibe.

The album title, “Fiends and Angels” came to me because everyone was such a fiend, ferocious, dangerous, mad about playing, that is when they played, and sweet, pristine, shy and innocent angelic when they were not playing. As far as I remember there were no tracks recorded that were left off the album.

Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce

Although this was early in the career of Clapton, Bruce, Jim Capaldi and Mitch Mitchell, the image in my head had created these rather larger than life individuals. When we met that day in Decca Studios that image was ameliorated by reality. They came in. We met – both Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce were soft spoken and polite. Clapton was almost shy. I’m a rather tall girl, and in those days, I was into wearing these suede patchwork boots, so I felt like a towering lanky tree branch gazing down at these pristine pale-faced boys. They were trim with tight hipped bell bottoms and snug silk tee shirts. Their hair was long enough for the era’s cool mode, their demeanor did not betray any secrets they held about impending destructive habits at the hand of narcotics. They were simply beautiful young men at the precipice of greatness in the music of the day. Clapton cast his eyes down when he spoke with this urgency to be shielded by his instrument and staved off his shyness by speaking through the language of his guitar. Bruce was more talkative and talked about his recently born son….and, if I remember this correctly said he had named him Joe, “a good cab driver’s name” he said. We told each other quick quipping stories of our respective music deals. We laughed a lot at the language of the “suits”, but were grateful for them and their ways of seeing us as more than talented but business partners in this magic of music. Clapton had this thing about looking around the room checking out the people there, slightly leaning forward like a telescope, searching out any discrepancies. That day, there was a very young girl that Clapton had brought with him to the session. She was quite beautiful, but the most astounding part of her presence were the sparkles that she had somehow put on her cheeks…Later, I found out that she was some British Lord’s daughter who was barely 15 years old. She never uttered a word…I know now why she was so discreet. Eric played for her and gazed from the fire in his guitar to her serene very still sparkled baby face. As they set down to play, Clapton, who was rather shy and careful, seemed to caress his guitar, passed a soft cloth over it, and appeared to caress it as a shield of personal discretion. The musicians and I got down to the business of making music together. Most of the tunes were “head arrangements”, ideas that came on the spot. I had practiced the tunes on my own, so when the players arrived, I had an idea as to what my thoughts were on the songs, how they could be sung, but only imaginings as to how they could work with these players. They, of course, had their musicianship flowing and after a few rehearsal run throughs, we hit the songs running.

Decca Studios in London

Decca Studios in London, where we recorded, was a vintage studio owned by London Records. What made it so appealing and memorable, was that the whole studio was set in tiers for orchestral recordings. Above these tiers was the control booth where Mike Vernon and the engineer, Derek Taylor, lorded over the music. I was on the tier just below them, but above the player’s tier, with the old Sennheiser microphone on a stand and no headphones. No one used headphones, this way it all felt live, urgent and in the moment. They played, I just wailed away …and, hoped for the best. A batch of the songs were recorded live on the spot…vocals and instrumentals. I realize now how the sounds were bleeding into each other…I think the drums had baffles around them, but the players and I were not separated by baffles or in separate control booths, we just played. Certainly, the Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Mitch Mitchell cuts, were recorded on the spot, so were the Chicken Shack cuts. Some tracks were overdubbed - the harp, the organ .etc. But, the challenge was to make music on the spot, back to that “rooted” notion. Finding the reality of the song, finding the raw spirit and adding whatever each artist in the room came to deliver to that moment of time. A time that has become a pivotal experience of my history. It was amazing that it worked and has lasted these many decades. Maybe it is because the spontaneity, the reality of it all was captured almost like a time capsule…something that probably could never be repeated…at least not with the chemistry of that instant in time… we used this approach when I later recorded with Bob Marley and Wailers, with Lee Perry in the control room at Harry J. in Jamaica. Musicians who are used to that live energy, used to hearing each other in the instant, seem to work best in the urgency of performing. We approached that album, Escape From Babylon much like Fiends and Angels. I have been really lucky to play with such incredible people.

Stan Webb and Christine McVie (Perfect) of Chicken Shack and Paul Kossoff of Free

Stan Webb had a crazy energetic violent style. He scratched and clawed on his guitar like it was the last day ever that he’d get to play. He was a great scrappy character, very funny, very ready to fly on his guitar. Christine McVie, she was Christine Perfect then, was a very disciplined keyboard player. Quiet, pretty and sweet. But, when it came to playing she transformed into a road house babe on the keyboards. Paul Kossoff was a different breed. He was impatient, brooding, smart, wanted to make more of an impression. He was extremely creative and gave a lot of original input to the sessions in Sweet Man and Swamp Man. Don’t remember who “Bellinger” is. He’s credited with co-writing Swamp Man…Yikes! Brain cells have lapsed on that image over time.

Very Good Fandango

I recorded “Very Good Fandango” For my parents, they really wanted me to stick to Opera, not Blues & Rock…so, it was an homage.

Jamming with Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Mitch Mitchell at the Speakeasy

I sat in with Clapton, Bruce and Mitchell at a club called, I think, the Speakeasy. It was dark and smoke filled, they were on the bandstand when they saw me at the foot of the stage they called me up to sing an impromptu blues in E…I got up, made up lyrics and had a blast…but, I had to leave early because I had a morning session the next day with Chicken Shack. It would have been a night to remember, but I could have blown the session the next day…and no one counting on me would have appreciated that move. Also, I had gone to London alone. When I recorded future albums, I did the same thing, finding it easier to operate solo. But that also meant that at 1 am London, leaving the Speakeasy as a lone lass I needed to get myself to the hotel safely on my own….However, that evening sits in my memory as one of those very smokey nights. Just 3 musicians on stage, Clapton, Mitchell (instead of Ginger Baker) and Jack Bruce on bass. They weren’t playing Cream songs or Jimi Hendrix music. They were simply jamming on the Blues. Eric and Jack were trading off on verses – half the lyrics sounded made up, impromptu…it was one of those nights when they were inventing, exploring sounds – wish I could have stayed longer.

After the recording sessions were over, I got to catch some of the Fiends musicians and other groups live. Chicken Shack were great…If memory serves me, Peter Green was playing with the early version of Fleetwood Mac also amazing…Clapton, Bruce, Ginger Baker, Cream – woodshedding at small clubs in London…don’t remember the name. I kept in touch with some of the musicians sporadically. I caught some of their concerts, they caught some of my shows…Mitch did come to my gigs. He was friendly with my brother, the incredible percussionist, Gerardo Velez. Gerardo and Mitch had played with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock and were gigging the East Coast getting their repertoire going. I ran into Christine McVie on the road in Boston …that’s another tale.

Singing at Woodstock with Jimi Hendrix, Not!

I never gigged live with the Fiends players – everyone was making different circles around the world, however, Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell were preparing for a “little” festival called Woodstock. Jimi asked me if I wanted to come up and sing with them at Woodstock, because I had just come back from London, and clearly, this goes in the annals of career faux pas, I said, “Oh, no, that’s O.K.” What was I thinking???

Fiends and Angels in Retrospect 40 Years Later

“Dangerous” comes to mind. There was so much urgency, so many performances that I didn’t think I could take on the road with me, so much kick-ass singing and playing…hard to replicate. When I returned to the states, I was living in Woodstock and formed a band with some members of the Butterfield Blues Band, Keith Johnson, Buzzy Feiten and the great Saxophonist, David Sanborn, along with my brother Gerardo Velez ( played with Jimi Hendrix, Spyro Gyra, Patti LaBelle) along with a wonderful gospel based singer named Jerry Moore, who was also incredibly fierce. We were a family with music we took pride in playing.

I love the guitar lead in that Eric Clapton plays on I’m Gonna Leave You. My favorite song on the album though, is In My Girlish Days …it is such a great Road House shuffle recorded with Chicken Shack.

I think “Fiends and Angels” wasn’t a bigger album due to lack of follow-through, timing and strategy. I think the only thing I would have done differently is that I would have stayed in London for at least a year to promote the album there and have the advantage of performing with the players with whom I had recorded. Then, I would have returned to the U.S. with a different energy – having had established a presence in Great Britain and played LIVE with the players with whom I had worked. I had personal family commitments at the time and I was contracted to return to Hair on Broadway, so, hindsight, you know what they say…

I didn’t have a management team, so there was no follow through. The timing would have been to do a London tour and strategize getting to all the radio stations at that time that would have played this music….or, simply hitchhike naked on the Highway like Madonna did and get some unavoidable attention. Needless to say, none of these things were done, especially the naked Highway hitchhiking. But truly the biggest problem was management. I did not have the kind of team people have today. I strategized with Richard Gotterher and Seymour Stein the heads of Sire Records. They believed in me. We recorded 5 albums for the label and a compilation CD.

It makes me proud and happy of the alignment of the Universe in that moment in time…and, No, I could have never predicted its longevity. I have to thank people like you who appreciate all that coalesced musically in those London sessions in 1969.

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