Huff: And Benny Krass—“It ain’t how rich you are, [ in unison with Gamble ] it’s how long you stay that way.”
Collingswood, and Fairview,” where my sister now lives. “If you go there, you’re going to get beat up. And don’t go by yourself.” My parents always told us where not to go or we’d get hurt. Even if you have your boys with you, you’re still going to get confronted. But to me, there’s one thing that Blacks did during that time that I think scared White people. This. [ makes a fist and extends right arm ] That changed the whole game.
Who was Benny Krass?
Gamble: Benny Krass was a legend here in Philly. He had Krass Brothers clothing stores years and years ago. It used to be the store to the stars. All the groups that were playing the Uptown Theater used to come down and buy their uniforms from there. My mother used to take me down to South Street to buy my clothes, so I was going there since I was a little kid. And Benny wanted to sing, so me and Roland Chambers, we went over to his house one day and started rehearsing with him. He had some songs he had written, so he says, “I want you to record me.” So we made a deal with him. We said, “Okay, we’ll record you, but we want you to invest in some of these groups that we got.” That’s how we were able to get the whole thing going with Excel Records and the Intruders and all the other stuff. Benny Krass was an astute businessman and a great marketing person. He used to have a slogan, “If you go, go in a Krass Brothers suit.”
Gamble: Black Power—that was as powerful as…who was the guy that ran the race when Adolf Hitler was there?
Huff: Jesse Owens.
Gamble: Jesse Owens! That was just as powerful, because Adolf Hitler couldn’t believe that a Black man could run that fast! [ laughs ] But the music, the music started to reflect the times. And we used to write songs based on that, but we took a new twist with it. We had a lot of songs that had social comments to them that kind of pictured that era. James Brown and “I’m Black and I’m Proud”—that was the big moment in Black America that helped unlock that final lock on Black people. I remember a time, going to school, that if somebody called you Black, it was time for a fight. They weren’t proud of being Black. So the world had changed.
Huff: [ laughs ] Then he’d lay down in the casket.
Gamble: His big one was, “If you didn’t buy your clothes from Krass Brothers, you been robbed.”
And by the ’70s, Black was beautiful.
Gamble: Black was beautiful. It still is! [ laughs ] But that was the slogan. And the thing that people of African descent didn’t really realize is that the whole world admires African American people, because we don’t see ourselves like the world sees us. The four hundred years that it took for us to get to where we are, it has taken other groups of people who have been in less [oppressive] situations thousands of years to gain their mental freedom and make a place for themselves. But a lot of it has to do with the structure of the United States of America and the government and the laws in this land.
How did you stay so prolific?
Gamble: That’s the $64,000 question. I guess you have to be inspired. And your antennas have to be out, so that you’re watching everything and listening to everything people say. Then you write about it.
Let’s talk about some of your collaborators. I’ll start with Thom Bell.
Huff: Talent.
How did you ensure long-term success?
Gamble: Tommy Bell, his sister Barbara was in my class at West Philly High School. She used to tell me about her brother, because I was always singing. I used to walk her home and everything, and when we got to the house, they had a piano in there. And we started writing some songs. I guess I was about sixteen. His family had a fish market, so Tommy couldn’t write songs all the time, because he had to work in that fish market cutting fish. But he trained himself. He trained himself and learned how to arrange, and he studied. He was a big asset to us with his arrangements and stuff like that. He and Linda [Creed] had their own career. We put them together.
Gamble: Well, we were conservative. We’re still conservative. We invested. We made some good moves and some bad moves, but we were able to survive everything. From a business standpoint, I think the investments that we made in real estate, and owning our own masters and publishing, that gave us our strength. And saving money, because money is the hardest thing to get, so that should be the last thing you waste. It’s like an old guy Sam Evans used to tell me. He’d say, “Gamble, a fool and his money will soon be parted.” [ laughs ] And he was right. He lived to be 105.
28
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting