Lee Fields: Soul survivor

By Brian Braiker

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Lee Fields recorded his first single 55 years ago at just 19. From a childhood in Wilson North Carolina — where his parents ran a speakeasy out of their house on Saturday nights and took him to church on Sundays — Fields developed an electrifying performance style influenced by James Brown in particular and the broader explosion of soul music in general

After a move to New Jersey and hitting the New York Club circuit, Fields had a good run in the 1970s performing live and recording a string of soul and funk records that would later be coveted by collectors. But the 1980s — and disco — hit him hard, casting him into relative irrelevance until the soul revival of the 1990s hit and he was recruited to record again by Gabriel Roth and Phillip Lehman’s Brooklyn-based Desco records (before it split into Daptone). Through them he would meet Sharon Jones and enjoy a comeback that continues unabated to this day with The Expressions and producer Leon Michels, among countless other collaborators.

Today we are speaking with Lee Fields for “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast” because he is adding a new line to his resume: movie star. This week, on February 27, Gravitas Ventures is releasing the documentary “Lee Fields: Faithful Man” on demand across all streaming platforms.

From his childhood in North Carolina to his rise in the 1970s to the dark days fo the 80s and up through his seemingly unstoppable comeback, the film — by Jessamyn Ansary and Joyce Mishaan — is a tribute to a man and a soul that will not quit. And the feeling is mutual — we cannot quit this man.

Here, we talk about his upbringing in the religious South and those early days in New York and Brooklyn. We talk about the blow the 1980s dealt to his career and his incredible comeback story and more.

The following is a transcript of our conversation, which airs as an episode of “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast,” edited for clarity. Listen in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.

I want to personally thank you. I’ve been a fan of yours for over 20 years now. I saw you at the Bell House in Brooklyn on New Year’s Eve, 2011. Sugar Pie DeSanto opened for you. Killer show. One of my favorite New Year’s of all time, so thank you for that. 
I appreciate that. Thank you.

And you perform around a lot. I remember seeing you at Southpaw when that still existed.
Southpaw, we played them all.

You see that in the documentary that’s out now, the performance is electric even still to this day. You just have that drive?
It’s a part of my existence. It’s something, just, I need to do. A person need to walk, a person needs to keep their body in as good a shape as they can. They need to do certain things to maintain that. That’s the same thing with performing for me. It’s like therapy.

Keeps you sane. Keeps you grounded. How are you feeling these days?
I’m feeling great. I had a few days to relax. My wife and I, we enjoyed the holidays and we did a run in Australia at the end of the year, so that was good. It was just beautiful. I mean, I couldn’t imagine it being any better.

So this documentary is coming out. I think a lot of people know your music or have heard it, may not know it’s you. What made you want to tell your story at this point? It certainly is almost a redemptive story in a lot of ways.
These two young ladies, Joyce and Jessamyn, came to me a little over 10 years ago and they were interested in my story and they wanted to document my story. Everything follows suit from that point to now. We communicate, we do some filming here and there and it’s been one thing after another one. It has been a constant build. So I’m very excited about what is happening and I’m looking forward to greeting the people and whoever’s interested, I’m willing to chat.

Let’s go back to the beginning because that’s where the documentary starts. You grew up in Green County, North Carolina, born in 1950. You had a very colorful childhood or home life, by the sound of things?
In those times, I’m quite sure it’s like that somewhere in these times as well. My parents, they weren’t rich, so they did their best to provide for their family, and so my story is about how they survived and how we lived. The gospel was always there and it still is.

You almost had a parallel musical track. Your parents, to your point, did what they could to live. They started a speakeasy in their house and at the same time you’re going to church and singing, so there’s like the heaven and hell all in one place, kind of.
I look at it more like heaven and survival because this world seems like it’s seasoned with good and it’s seasoned with bad. It’s a combination of all elements coming together. With my story, with my parents hustling and doing what they did to survive, it opened up a section of my awareness where I see things from a religious standpoint and also I see things from a secular standpoint and just try to do the best I can because I know we’re all born in this world, we’re born into sin. That being said, what we can do is try to redeem ourselves as we go along. So that’s what my life has been, trying to be as good as I can in a situation where you can’t be totally good. In this episode of life, man, survival is the name of the game.

You survived with integrity. The documentary is called “Faithful Man.” What I came away with after seeing it was it’s not just about faith in a god or a spiritual faith, but also faith in yourself. You wouldn’t be here today if you didn’t maintain that faith in what you were doing and faith for your own passion.
The work of faith to me is to believe and work toward that belief that it’s going to transpire. It’s going to happen, and just try to have as less doubt as one can possibly have and be reasonable. You expect God to do things, but give God his grace and time as opposed to say, “Well, I thought you said you can do it. It’s not done,” and go berserk. You have to be patient.

That’s the theme that comes up in the doc. You’re growing up, you have those twin influences. You go to bed at night, your parents open up the speakeasy, you’re hearing music that way.
This was on a Friday and Saturday night. During the rest of the week everything was nice and quiet and easy, but on Friday night and Saturday night, that’s when they made their money and then Sunday we went to church.

I love that they went from speakeasy Saturday night to church Sunday morning. That’s great.
It shows how things operate in this world. We have to figure out how to get what God wants in the midst of the confrontation, the daily confrontation that we have for survival, so it’s got to be a happy medium. If a person feel that they should or should not have done something, then they are living with doubt. You got to make that decision and live with that decision as you go along and pray that you make the right decisions, although nobody’s perfect. And hopefully at the end we will be deemed as being passable. In the final analysis, it’s about choices every day.

And I certainly wasn’t bringing it up to question choices or anything like that. I’m more curious about your own experience with the music, your own experience coming into the world as a musical person and where that became a conscious thing for you — whether it was hearing your parents play music, going to church, a combination of the two and where that first spark of inspiration came from.
It’s all about the choices from the beginning. I learned early in life that the choices the person make in life basically has a great deal to do with where they end up toward the end of their lifespan, the choices. I used to see this picture of the Christ on our walls and there was so much racial chaos in the ’60s where I was at in North Carolina.

You were in Klan country, right?
I was in Klan country. Matter of fact, the head of the Ku Klux Klan, at one time, the leader, was living in Goldsboro, North Carolina. That’s about 30 miles from me. That being said, I see this Caucasian guy on the wall in my house and I see Mama and everybody just kneeling to this picture and I see the Caucasians that was living close by us, they was kind of hostile. There was a lot of good people that weren’t hostile, but there was a lot of hostile individuals. So I was confused, man. I was totally confused. We’re down on our knees and we’re asking for the best of life or the best things in life from this individual and I see all these other individuals out here, that look like this individual, that’s trying to kill us. What is going on there? [Laughs.]

But of course now we understand Jesus was probably not a white man. He probably had brown skin and curly hair, right?
I think everybody saw Jesus as [He] delighted them the most.  But I had no issue with the image itself, but I do know that it makes sense to do right. Everybody’s telling me to do right and I go to church, I see the preacher touching all these women. Like he come out and put his hand on them and they fall on the floor and stuff. That was another amazing thing, man. I said, “What is going on here? This is too much to be putting a little kid through.” I said, “Please, don’t let him touch me.” Them ladies was falling on the floor, man, look like I didn’t know what they was going through. I said, “I don’t want none of that.” And then they were looking up at the ceiling and stuff and I’m trying to figure out what are they looking at, because I didn’t see nothing but a ceiling. And they had their hands stuck out like they were looking and talking to somebody. My childhood, man, it was like trying to catch on to what these adults are about. If I can figure out what they’re about, I can make it from here.

I’m still trying to figure that out. Were they speaking in tongues?
Some of them, man, be talking in tongues and stuff. It put fear in me, man, because I said to myself, “Whatever it is got into them, please —”

“Don’t put it in me.”
“Right now, I’m not old enough to understand.” [Laughs.] I had a great deal of fear of all of this stuff happening, man, and so through the years I managed to see what it was about. God is real and those people were really seeing God and I guess at the moment I couldn’t see because I was trying to figure out what everything was all about. It was my introduction to being on this planet. My childhood, man. It must’ve been okay because they kept me straight through all of these years. [Laughs.] Apparently, the way Mama and them raised me was probably the right way because I stayed out of trouble. I didn’t get into any trouble in my life as far as having repercussions. Other than a traffic ticket.

We’ll let that slide. I’ve got one of those. The documentary certainly lays out what a good person you’ve been throughout. Do you remember, though, when you started singing? You didn’t initially want to be a singer, you didn’t want to be an artist. It was not practical.
My mother had more intentions on me singing than I did. Me and my brother, she bought us a guitar and used to have us to sing for company when they come. “Sing a couple of songs.” Okay, we get a couple quarters. Man, it was about getting that money. And we’d come out and sing and they’d throw quarters and stuff on the floor. That was fun because I used to love to sing with my brother, Tommy, but my intention was to be a business guy because, as I said, all of the people of color that I knew in my neighborhood, nobody had too much. And I look at the business people, the professionals in town The teachers and the people that had gotten a more fuller education seemed like to me they were living in the better houses and stuff. I figured it was about business. So I was a paperboy, but I knew all of the songs that was on the radio because I had a transistor radio and the only thing I did was took out papers and listened to all of the music that was on radio.

It was a good time for music.
So I knew all of the songs. How I got into music was on a dare. My buddy dared me at a talent show to go on stage and sing a song, because he knew I knew every song and he knew every time I would come by his house delivering papers to his house, I’d be singing. He dared me to get into the talent show in which I took him up on the dare and when I won. Not only did I win the prize on the show, the band asked me to be their singer. I took him up on it and I started to sing and it never stopped.

Was this the Stingrays, the band that you were singing with?
Yeah, the Stingrays were my first band.

And you gained a little local following and this is your early, mid-teens?
I’m about 13. The Beatles, they were just on the “Ed Sullivan Show.” After I got into the band and I saw the Beatles, that really made me really want to perform because I really liked those guys. But other than that, man, other than following one gig after another one all my life, it just metamorphed into different things. Next thing I know, I’m singing this kind of music. I’m singing soul music, I’m singing dance music. I did dance music with Martin Solveig on his first hit, “Everybody.” That was me. Now, I’m singing dance music. I’m in the dance club. This is like early 2000.

Like more house-infused?
Yeah. I mean, Ibiza, Spain. I’m in all of these big dance places, man, where they just dance all night long.

It’s a long way from Green County to Ibiza. You mentioned the Beatles. You were influenced by James Brown. You were compared a lot to James Brown early on. I don’t know if that comparison, if you embraced it or if it started to bug you because you wanted to be your own person?
I truly admired James Brown because, man, you never heard anybody … a Black man with a jet at the time? Well, I guess, there were Black people had jets back then, none that we were reading about. He was such an influence on, I would say, people in general because he sort of brought people together. He brought closer ties, Blacks and whites. I like things like that. I like things that bring people together. So James Brown was definitely a great influence, and the Beatles and people like that.

You moved to New Jersey in 1967. You were just 19 and you start playing all over New York City. You do something that is surprising for a young man in the big city for the first time. You get married, which feels like a counterintuitive thing to do for a striving artist, a single man who’s young.
Well, you know what it was? My whole life I’ve been about, man, trying to be happy. So when I met my wife, there was something about her that I knew this is the one. And I knew that. I found earlier in life, you can’t wait for things to get to a certain point before you start making your life happy. You have to get it as it comes along. I saw that this was the one and I knew she was the one.

And you’re still married. Christine, right?
Yeah, and I realized that this is a must-be. When things must be, it happens. I saw all of the signs that it’s a must-be and it happened and it stayed, ever since. We’re still together and it has been an exciting life, no doubt about it. If I had to live all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.

You had some hard times in the ’80s, though. You had some success in the ’60s, ’70s, and the scene sort of dried up in the ’80s. I wonder if you can talk about New York in the ’70s when you arrived? The film mentions the 521 Club in Brooklyn in Clinton Hill. It’s not here anymore. Do you remember that place?
Yeah. The 521 Club. Not there. The Wilt Chamberlain Smalls Paradise is not there anymore. It was like certain clubs that you knew there was going to be live entertainment in, those clubs, they’ve been gone a long time now. They went out close to the end of the ’70s. They were done.

Disco came in and killed it?
Disco came in and just wiped them out. When it wiped them out, we know from the time we kids, little kids, that everything is changing. So I try to figure out now, “How can I change with the time but still remain who I am?” Only thing a person has to do is just pay attention to what’s going on around them. That being said, when the ’80s came about, all of the fanfare of the ’70s were gone. Now we’re into a time now which club owners are saying that, instead of live entertainment, they would rather to have a DJ. A person have to adapt. So I started listening to groups that I wouldn’t have listened to before. If it was selling, I listened to it. I listened to everything from classical music to rap to funk, country and western. You name it, I listened to it. Because in order for a person to be themselves, and to be different but remain the same, you got to be watching a whole lot of stuff in order so you can just feel a little something different. People are not going to know exactly what it is, but it sounds fresh. Although you’re changing right in front of them, you’re changing in such a subtle way. Once the change is there, it is accepted. People don’t know why, but the music stays fresh, man, but they can’t tell you how I’m changing, but they know something is a little bit different.

You stuck with it. I mean the ’80s were tough for you. You had, like I said, pragmatism. You go into real estate, you have to put your dreams on the side. You don’t give them up. But that pragmatism and that passion, sometimes those things cancel each other out. In your case, it feels like they sort of fed each other.
The reason why I think they didn’t cancel each other out because what I did was I look at what is practical and what is not practical. If it was too far of a reach, then we didn’t try that. We tried what we knew that would reach a certain group of people and from that certain group of people, we tried to reach another certain group of people. We just connected until it all came full circle. Because we weren’t out for the ride; this is what we do. I watched the signs: “If I do this and all of a sudden the crowd get bigger, then I need to do more of this.” It is like being practical. Not going out there trying to just get a record that’s going to take the world by storm because that’s too much of a dream. I had to take one step at a time in order to make it transpire.

The saying is, “Luck is opportunity meets preparation.” And I think that’s probably what happened when Gabriel Roth and Philip Lehman call you from Desco Records in ’95, these two young white kids in New York City, they call you up and they bring you to the studio.
Well, I thought the guys were older, man.

Yeah, you didn’t know who they were when they called. And they bring you to the studio the same week they bring in Sharon Jones. Can you talk about that moment when they call you, when you show up, you meet Sharon? That is a big week for you.
I knew Sharon had that little whatever-they-were-looking-for and I knew that the people that he was pulling in were the right people because when we performed everything sounded like it’s supposed to sound. When I first met Gabe, by his appearance, I didn’t know he was as advanced as he was, other than the things that he talked about, which he sound a lot more older than what he was. I figured like, “Man, maybe these are the guys.”

You had to have an open mind for that.
And once we started working together, there’s something here. I can feel it. Like I said, I think things in life, if we look carefully, I think there’s opportunities for everybody. Many of us don’t get the opportunities because maybe we are too anxious or maybe we look too hard or maybe we’re not looking hard enough, but I think the opportunities are out there for everybody.

Yeah, or you have prejudices. I mean, you could easily have shown up and said, “These guys aren’t it,” just by looking at them. And the LP from that session, “Let’s Get a Groove On,” I love this record. “Let a Man Do What He Wanna Do” was probably one of the first tracks where I became aware of you. Incredible stuff. And that really sort of propelled the next chapter of your career through touring. You meet [producer and musician] Leon Michels from this and you start The Expressions. Talk about that. Do you feel like a rebirth or do you feel vindicated? What’s the feeling?
Your whole purpose, man, is you’re trying to make the records that you feel like you’re supposed to make. It’s all about the feeling that I’m looking for this record to bring. So every record, what we try to do, as far as when I’m with Leon or whether I’m with Toby [Pazner] or Gabe or whoever the person is that I’m writing with, it is about coming up with that song, man. The song is supposed to make you smile. The song is supposed to touch you emotionally. A song is not supposed to leave you down and out. If it’s sad, it’s supposed to be something melancholy where it feel good going back over this, but it’s all about the goodness is supposed to be better than any other feeling that it gives you. You can’t pinpoint why you want to hear it, but you just want to hear it. These guys they’re looking for the same kind of sensations out of what they record as I’m looking for. And I love recording with these guys, all of them.

Talk about Sharon Jones. Gone too soon. I loved her. I interviewed here a long time ago and I remember I saw you both perform together at Southpaw. Your duet, “Stranded in Your Love,” is a desert island classic for me. I can’t get enough of that song. It’s gorgeous. It’s a little funny and it’s very sweet and it’s just perfect. Talk about working with Sharon.
Sharon was unique in many ways. She was unique by when she spoke, she was very animated. She moved when she talked. When she discussed something of great importance, man, she has a way of physically displaying and helping describe whatever it is she’s describing. She was very unique and a very likable person. There was no one that met Sharon that didn’t like Sharon. I miss her so much. I miss Charles, too.

I bet. Yeah. Charles Bradley.
Life is a bizarre situation. Look, I’m going to have to plug this phone, plug my iPad up before I run out of juice here. Like a friend of mine, Roy C, used to say, “Saved by the bell.”

I love Roy C. You knew Roy C?
Yeah, man, we were very good friends. He was highly instrumental into me coming back after the slowdown in the ’80s. He was highly instrumental. He had a record distributing company and he took my product, man, and he’s responsible for that ’90 comeback. After the ’70s, man, I thought I was done.

We were talking about Sharon Jones. You mentioned Charles Bradley. So many of the greats are gone. In the film, at least, you have a very clear-eyed take on that. You can’t stay here forever. I wonder what you think about when you think about either your legacy or the greats that have gone before you, or what’s on your mind these days?
The way I feel is about enjoying every day to its fullest and trying to garner whatever the experience of life has for us. That’s what I’m trying to do is just enjoy, take one day at a time and enjoy it to the fullest because I know I’m not going to be here forever.

But your music will be, which is great and you’ve stayed true to it. I wonder if you could talk about the character Lee Fields on stage versus Lee Fields the man? You talk about that there’s a performance Lee Fields and then there’s the person.
When I finish with a show, the performance Lee Fields, he’s in a sweat. I fold him up, man, put him in a bag and hang him up in a closet somewhere. Him and I, we cross paths as we change. As he walks into my existence, I step back and let him do his thing, but after he finished, hey, man, this joker goes into the closet somewhere. I don’t want to see him. [Laughs.] Because I think a lot of entertainers allow their stage persona to take over their lives. Every artist that walks out on that stage and connects with an audience, that means that person, the charisma in itself is an ego. So what I do when I come off a stage, man, I take all of the ego and all of that stuff, man, and just bag it up, put that somewhere. I don’t want to deal with that. I ain’t got time to be ego tripping. Life is too short for that. I done seen and heard enough prima donnas so I don’t want no part of that. Hang that joker in the closet, man. Let him hang up another three or four days. [Laughs.]

Like you were saying, though, it’s therapy. You get that out and then you get to be a real person.
When the stage guy finished, man, I said, “Thank you so much, man,” and we don’t have time to even conversate that much, man. I’ll be busy packing them up. Yeah, that’s what life is about, having fun, man, and savoring the moments.

You’ve done a great job and I’m glad that you stuck through it through the hard times in the ’80s because you’re certainly reaping your rewards now. Your stuff is being sampled these days. Even the stuff you’ve been doing in the past 15 years or so, you’ve got people like J. Cole, Slum Village, Travis Scott sampling you. What does it mean to you to have a new generation of artists literally sampling you and literally paying homage?
It’s an honor for them to find something that they feel that they can create by, and I’m just happy to be a part of that. It’s an honor for people to do that and plus not even counting the financial gratuity. It’s an honor.

I see on your wall behind you, you got a picture with Ed Sheeran. I wonder what the story behind that picture is, the two of you together?
There was a group in Australia that I did a vocal for and the record took off in Australia and it was hot over there. He was coming in and the group was opening up for Ed. They asked me could I come and I was over there, too. That guy had about 87,000 people in that place, man.

That’s crazy. What’s the biggest crowd you’ve played to? Was that it?
I think that was the biggest crowd probably that I’ve ever played to. It was 87,000 people, but I did a lot of festivals. I did Bonnaroo. I did Coachella. That crowd was just unbelievable. I think, pound for pound, Ed Sheeran has got to be the greatest musician, pound for pound. Now, what I mean is that, when I say the greatest musician, we’re going to judge by drawing capacity. Okay. When Michael Jackson was drawing those kind of numbers, he had an orchestra, he had dancers, he had [pyrotechnics], everything that you can name to make that show interesting. But Ed Sheeran walks out on stage, nothing but a guitar and some little things that he steps on to change the sound. One man versus a whole orchestra and dancers and everything. He don’t need nothing but himself and they still go crazy. But Michael, with Prince, with all of them, they had all kinds of stuff. Ed Sheeran walks out there with a guitar, nothing but a guitar and some overalls.

And some overalls. I’ve seen Prince out there with just the guitar. It’s not too shabby. Who else are you listening to these days? Anyone on rotation?
I like Miley Cyrus. I like her new approach. She’s singing real songs and I think real songs will endure longer than trivial songs. She’s singing real stuff. I like her. I like Meghan Trainor. She’s good.

Is there anything you want add before the film comes out or any tidbits about what you’re working on now? Any new records coming out with The Expressions?
We’re working on some new stuff now. Matter of fact, I was just down there this morning trying to put some more energy in it. I’m very excited about getting it out there. Right now, everything looks so rosy, man. The possibilities are almost endless. I’m very excited and this is a good time to really be putting out some new music again. I just feel good about recording now, man. I feel renewed. I feel like I’ve been totally refreshed. I’m anxious about the stuff that we are in the process of doing and I’m very excited to see how the public is going to receive it.

Check out this episode of “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast” for more. Subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts.