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Sitting In The Park Divines Interview


boba

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Hi. Today I interviewed Doug Jones, member of the South Side Chicago group the Divines. Doug first got involved with music playing different instruments in the band, inspired by a band formed by his brother and his cousin Gregory Fowler (mentor to the Five Stairsteps). In high school Doug formed a vocal group with two other males and one female and performed at local talent shows. The group was discovered by local actor and talent scout Jerry Jones (uncle of one of the group members), who named the group "The Divines" and recorded the group on his AOA (Actors of America) label. The a-side of the single "Lovers Island" had a nice throwback doowop sound while the b-side "I gotta make it" had an uptempo sound. Unfortunately the record got little play. Doug and another member of the Divines also sang backup on the Venturas' record on Jerry Jones' Green Light label. The Divines performed at talent shows throughout high school (all members attended Harlan high) and broke up before graduating.

While in high school Doug began to learn songwriting. On the way home from night classes at Hyde Park High school, Doug took the Stony Island Bus and passed by the Curtom Offices. Doug took his lyrics to the office to Eddie Thomas who told Doug to come back to meet Curtis Mayfield. Curtis was impressed with Doug's songwriting and Curtom eventually hired Doug as a staff songwriter. Doug developed his songwriting skills by working at Curtom and getting tips from Curtis Mayfield. After a couple of years working for Curtom, Doug worked as a writer for Walter Jackson and then for Jerry Butler's Fountain Records.

Around 1970, Doug formed a self contained band / vocal group called Father with ex-members of the Rotations (Roe-o-tation). After practicing together for a while, the group auditioned one day for an A&R rep for Way Out productions (War's production company) who was in town. Way Out productions wanted to sign Father. The group flew out to California and Way Out paid the group an advance just to not perform and audition with anyone else. Although the band recorded some demos with Way Out, they never recorded finished material and couldn't come to terms on a contract. Father left Way Out and shopped their band around to other labels around California (many of whom were interested) but could not come to terms with any record deal. Father broke up and Doug Jones, Joe Cash, and Gregory Miles (who eventually wrote "Love don't live here anymore" for Rose Royce) stayed in California to focus on songwriting and the record industry.

Doug got his first job writing in California in Frank Zappa's office. He then began to work as a freelance writer for Jobete (Motown) records. While writing, Doug and Greg Fowler produced an album on a group called Crystal Brandy. Capitol records showed an interest in the album but only wanted to release a single from the LP. Doug found a Canadian record label that agreed to release the entire album but it's not clear whether the company released a single or the entire album.

After the experience with the album, Doug went back to songwriting. Doug ended up working with Flautist Bobbi Humphrey, writing a track on her "Fancy Dancer" album. Soon after, Doug began working with Billy Preston, writing several tracks on his 1976 self titled album, working as Billy's co-writer for almost 30 years until Billy died. Doug has since worked on his own projects, working as "Navigator", and working on material for film and licensing old material from his catalog. You can listen to the interview at the bottom of my interviews page at:

https://www.sittinginthepark.com/interviews.html

thanks,

Bob

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