By Ralph Greco, Jr.
The very first piece I wrote for VintageRock.com in 2006 was a review of a Vanilla Fudge show. I have always been a big fan of what I consider the best rock band America ever produced. Having the opportunity to speak to the band’s founding lead singer and keyboardist Mark Stein was a real thrill.
I tried not to gush too much as we discussed the deep history of Vanilla Fudge, their remastered version of their rocking cover of Led Zeppelin’s “The Immigrant Song,” their recent signing to Australian rock label, Golden Robot Records, and how COVID-19 has left us all aching for live music performances.
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I guess the most obvious question to start off with is how are you faring in the face of the worldwide shutdown? Nobody is out there playing, and that has got to be affecting the Fudge as it is everybody.
Yes, the pandemic has completely driven the music industry down. It’s been a real drag for bands like Vanilla Fudge and every other band out there. The last time we played live was around Thanksgiving of last year (2019). Then COVID hit, and we were first told we had to postpone shows for a few months, then it became until the end of Spring, and now we’re hoping for late spring 2021 or summer.
Do you guys have dates planned now for that far out?
No, we don’t have any set at the moment. It’s just wait-and-see. I mean, every place is shut down, if people can’t congregate, where can we play?
2017 marked Vanilla Fudge’s 50th anniversary. Does it feel like that much time has passed?
I always think about that line, “The whole damn thing feels like it was five minutes ago.” (Laughs) Sure, it’s a bit bizarre when you consider we were a bunch of kids in our twenties starting. But were doing great — 70-year-old guys out rocking like a bunch of 40 year olds!
As luck would have it, last night Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood was on Showtime, and I once again marveled at the scene where your version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” was used so perfectly. How does something like that come about? Did you even know that was how it was going to be used?
That’s what they refer to as the Quentin Tarantino edit. He’s a big fan of classic rock; in fact, the entire soundtrack to that movie has great songs on it. He took it upon himself to use the song that way. Although, we are grateful though that he used it.
When I saw you perform “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” live, I remember sliding unconsciously to the edge of my seat, feeling that the song was on the precipice of falling off a cliff. You four managed to keep it tight and reigned in; controlled menace. It was fantastic!
That’s the way we approached the songs we put together back then, cinematically, as if they were being written for a movie.
So, fast forwarding on all the tunes that you guys could cover, why “Immigrant Song?” Vanilla Fudge already covered Led Zeppelin on record (2007’s Out Through The In Door: Tribute To Led Zeppelin) and live. You could have picked from a wide variety of stuff.
It’s just one of the great rockers of all time. You can’t beat what Zep did on this tune.
It definitely rocks. I especially like what you do with the opening. I did not expect that at all.
Oh cool. Yeah, we were in L.A. at the time and I was sitting there with a Trident synthesizer, and I came up with this thing that everybody locked into. We just wanted to have fun. We didn’t really do the song all that much different. It’s not like what we have done with “Eleanor Rigby,” “Season Of The Witch,” or even “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” where we broke those songs down. Here, we just kind of put our own flavor to it.
Fudge-a-fied it!
Exactly.
Now, the next record you will put out with Golden Robot is going to be called The Supreme Vanilla Fudge.
Yes, sounds like a new coffee flavor (laughs). Whenever we get the chance to congregate again after this social distancing is a thing of the past, we’ll start to rehearse and record that, put down Supreme songs and other Motown stuff. That’s really part of our heritage growing up — all that kind of great music.
What’s it like these days to find a label, to be signed as a more ‘mature’ classic rock band?
Certainly, it isn’t easy, but our manager handles lots of classic bands like us and is plugged into lots of labels around the world. The head of the label is a big fan of Vanilla Fudge. We are really thrilled to be on their roster. They really do have some great bands. They are re-releasing Out Through The In Door: Tribute To Led Zeppelin, leading off with the “Immigrant Song” remastered single and a video on September 22nd.
Being an east coast guy like yourself, born and raised in New Jersey, as you were, do you think there is a certain flavor to the music made from musicians who come from the New Jersey and New York area specifically?
Yeah, man, it’s the streets — the smell, the way things are so alive, a whole attitude. The whole New Jersey, New York metropolitan area thing, but certainly Jersey has its own thing. I mean, I’m from Jersey, as you said, Tim Bogert too. Carmine was born in Brooklyn, Vinnie the Bronx — we all have the same attitude. Then there’s the mix of northeast Italian and Jewish heritage — music, food, lifestyle.
Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco describes the distinction between Italian and Jewish heritage as “same corporation, different divisions, and yes, family, food…
Oh yeah, definitely the food!
So you have new music coming out with a new label, waiting on this freaking COVID-19 to clear, just biding your time.
Right, Joe Biden is biding his time, Trump is biding his… what a crazy world. But let’s not go there, next question.
I just want to make sure Vanilla Fudge keeps recording and touring until you guys sail into the great blue yonder.
That’s the plan. As Steve Morse says, “I’d rather die on stage than on a couch.”
I saw him with Purple as well as with the Dregs when they reformed a few years ago. Like you all, he’s still going strong.
One of the thrills of my life was being asked to join Deep Purple on stage in Florida a few years back. We go way back with them, played with them many times. Don Airy asked me to come up and play “Smoke On The Water” with them. Playing Deep Purple with Deep Purple — what a thrill. He’s got the Hammond and those two huge Leslie speakers. Man, what a heavy sound!
The people you have played with and the things you must have seen…
You can read all about it in my book, You Keep Me Hangin’ On.
Can we leave here with you giving us one of those spectacular stories from your history?
Man, just one of thousands? OK, how about at The Ed Sullivan Show: 21-years-old, standing backstage singing “My Girl,” with the Temptations, having fun, having a few beers. Then, going on stage in front of America, all those households for a TV appearance that would change our lives and fortunes forever. How’s that for a story?
Man, that is incredible.
Yeah, and who knew how it was gonna come off. But it brought us a higher level of fame and income, yada, yada, yada and here we are, I can’t believe it — it’s crazy, 50 years have gone by and we’re still talking and rocking.
You can’t do much better than that. Thanks so much for your time Mark.
Thank you and keep that Jersey thing going. Hi to everybody, all my best.
