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Showing posts from February, 2016

WALKING THE LINE: EXPLORING THE FRAGILE GENIUS AND ENDURING LEGACY OF MAURICE WHITE

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In his autobiography Hit Man: Forty Years Making Hits , Topping Charts and Winning Grammys , songwriter David Foster reflects on his encounter with friend and teacher Maurice White in the early Eighties. Foster was flying high, having made the jump from journeyman session man (he co-wrote Cheryl Lynn’s 1978 smash Got To Be Real ) to an in-demand super producer. Rejuvenating Chicago’s career, Foster turned the band with the wicked horn section into platinum power ballad kings.  Next up was a project with a certain country/pop superstar. Foster recalls sharing his success with White:   "I remember running into Maurice a few years later. I was producing something for Kenny Rogers at the time and I told Maurice about it, and he turned to me and said, “You know, I never get called for any of those jobs.” Are you kidding ? I said, with your track record! “No he said, I don’t get called for that kind of stuff.” And when I thought about it later, I understood what he mean