LEON VOLSKIS
FELIX CAVALIERE
When Felix Cavaliere was inspired to co-write “People Got to Be Free,” it was the turbulent summer of 1968, and his Jersey/New York-bred blue-eyed soul band The Rascals were going through some things.
The group ran headfirst into ugly street while touring in the south, where they faced constant taunts because of their long hair, and then outright resistance over their refusal to play for segregated audiences.
“People Got to Be Free” was released on July 1, 1968, sandwiched between the assassinations of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4) and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (June 6) and the chaotic Democratic National Convention in Chicago in late August.
Fast forward to summer 2024 and you could say that the more things change, the more they feel like déjà vu.
“I do believe the words to that song are still relevant today,” said Cavaliere from his home in Nashville, where he has lived since 1990. So it’s not an accident that the name of his latest concert tour is People Got to Be Free.
“We’re trying to once again promote peace and love — it’s an exciting time now, with all this election stuff going on,” Cavaliere said during the same week that the Democratic National Convention was back in Chicago. “In the old days we were very involved in politics. But it’s a little more difficult to do now without turning off the other side. You’ve got to be careful. Otherwise you won’t be able to go back home.”
Gene Cornish, left, and Felix Cavaliere.
Despite the present political tumult, Cavaliere has yet to wear out his welcome in New Jersey. He will bring the People Got to Be Free Tour, with Rascals co-founder Gene Cornish on guitar, to The Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway on Oct. 4 (visit ucpac.org) and Resorts in Atlantic City, on Oct. 12 (visit ticketmaster.com).
“It’s always good to be home,” said Cavaliere, who was lured away to Music City by its gentler attitude toward music makers.
“I came here to try and continue my career,” said the 81-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter and keyboardist. “When I first got here, I saw a lot people that I knew in the music industry. There were guys from Bruce’s (E Street) band. Garry Tallent’s still down here. Then I saw The Four Seasons’ Bobby Gaudio. They all told me about a bank that has a special department that helps musicians. And I said, ‘In New York that’s called the exit.’ ”
But Cavaliere quickly learned that in Nashville, it’s called the entrance. “It’s really lucrative down here. So I immediately felt a respect for what we do.”
And these days, as a senior member of the Flower Power generation, what Cavaliere is most intent on doing is producing new music. You can listen, below, to his latest release: a remake, featuring Dolly Parton, of the 1968 Rascals song “My Hawaii,” benefiting a Maui United Way fund that provides financial assistance to those devastated by the 2023 wildfires there.
“We used to be The Beatles of Hawaii,” he said. “No kidding. There was a DJ, Tom Moffatt, who promoted us really heavily there. It was our link to white R&B that people related to. So we decided, ‘Let’s just be famous here.’ The heck with the rest of the planet.
“So when the fire happened, because we know the place so well, we figured, ‘Why not re-release “My Hawaii” and do it for charity.’ My guitar player used to work for Dolly Parton. He contacted her people and she agreed. There’s still a lot of despair in Maui. So we thought we’d help a little bit.”‘
He said the most important thing for him “is to continue creating: to come up with a new idea, a new thought. It keeps you young. And I hope I never lose that kind of enthusiasm. It’s like Picasso and other artists in their later years. They did great work. Of course, it’s a lot more difficult to get that work out to the public now because there’s so much out there. But I think the pursuit is what keeps me young.”
The cover of The Young Rascals’ self-titled 1966 debut album (from left, Eddie Brigati, Gene Cornish, Dino Danelli and Felix Cavaliere).
Though Cavaliere remains a forward-thinking musician, he doesn’t shy away from looking back, because, frankly, he’s proud of what he sees in the rearview mirror.
“I’ve always had good memories, especially at the beginning of our career when we started off at The Choo Choo Club (in Garfield),” he said. “The stage was behind the bar and the place was literally right in front of the railroad tracks. So in the middle of the show, you’d hear the train go by. But it was a landing place for us.
“It was a special time, when the bar for music was set so high. Most of the bands were from England. And here we were, a bunch of guys from New York and New Jersey. But we had the long hair and we played rock ‘n’ roll and we kept pace. We developed a bond.”
And eventually the band — which consisted of Cavaliere, Cornish, co-lead vocalist Eddie Brigati and drummer Dino Danelli, and originally was known as The Young Rascals — was discovered. “I’m proud to have been a part of Atlantic Records, because the people they had there were brilliant,” said Cavaliere. “I’ll always be thankful to (president) Ahmet Ertegun, (producers) Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin. It was a magical time. And so I guess it’s good to look backward and smile. A lot of people don’t have that luxury. They look back and cry.
“It (The ’60s) was an American music renaissance. I don’t know if we’ll ever have another period like that. The McCartneys, the Dylans, the Paul Simons, the John Sebastians. I feel very happy and lucky to have been part of that because now it’s so very different. And you hate to sound like, ‘Oh, when I was young …’ but when you say you want to be a musician today, you better start praying because it’s really, really difficult just to be heard.”
Even though Cavaliere looks and sounds 20 years younger, he can’t deny the reality of his age and the fact that he had open-heart surgery last year. “Health is a matter that you have to take into consideration when you see those numbers ticking off,” he said. “I’m doing really well, but you have friends that aren’t here anymore. (Danelli died in 2022.) You read somebody’s name in the paper and you go, ‘Oh man, I knew that guy’ or ‘Oh, I knew that woman.’ So keeping healthy is very important. I’ve been doing serious training and PT. I know that Mick (Jagger) works out like crazy. He’s onstage running around like a kid. The secret is, move it or lose it.”
The cover of The Rascals’ 1968 single, “People Got to Be Free.”
If Cavaliere has any regrets after all these years in the music business, it centers on the band’s breakup in the ’70s after so much success: six Top 10 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100, three of them No. 1 hits (“Good Lovin’,” “Groovin’,” “People Got to Be Free”).
“We had tremendous success with the music when we started in ‘65,” he said. “But it was the internal conflicts that changed it from being a lot of fun to being uncomfortable. It was that good old thing called ego. When I started the band, my plan was to find the finest musicians and singers. So I started with a group of alphas. We had a lot of leaders. And when you have a situation like that, you have to be able to control it. It really still bothers me that we ended up quarreling.”
It’s such a sore point for Cavaliere that when he wrote his book “Memoir of a Rascal: From Pelham, NY to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame” in 2022, he didn’t include stories about the band’s discord. “I told the story without the aggravation,” he said. “I left out the agita. I don’t think people want to hear it.”
But Cavaliere is all about the future these days: keeping the music going and embracing modern technology, not being stuck in what was, but always looking ahead to what can be.
“You always think that there’s one more awesome song in you,” he said. “And now with the technology we have, you no longer just think the idea, you can play the idea right into your computer. You can hear the idea. You can orchestrate the idea. It’s really a lot of fun. It’s amazing what you can come out with: just a demo, but it sounds great! It’s the joy of doing that, that keeps you going. It’s like, ‘Hey man, that just came right through the connection’ — from up above, from wherever you get that inspiration.
“I still have tremendous faith — especially in the young people. We’re going to be fine, because they’re smart. Really smart, man. That makes me smile, because I got grandkids, you know? I look at them and I go, ‘Wow, we’re going to be all right.’ ”
For more on Cavaliere, visit felixcavalieremusic.com.
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