THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 19, 1995 TAG: 9505190080
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
SO HE'S HEADLINING a festival dedicated to the style. Just don't tell General Johnson he's a beach music artist.
``It's strange, you know,'' the Chairmen of the Board's lead singer said by phone from his manager's office in Charlotte last week. ``We're a little more versatile. We work a lot of college clubs and a lot of country music clubs.''
A graduate of Norfolk's Booker T. Washington High School, Johnson is the man behind shag favorites such as the Showmen's ``39-21-46'' and the Chairmen's ``Give Me Just a Little More Time'' and ``Carolina Girls.'' But, he notes, ``every song you shag to is not beach music.''
What, then, is beach music? ``It's rhythm and blues. It's a music that at that time, Caucasian, white people, would look down on. When I was in Norfolk, they called it the bop.''
Vacationing in such spots as '50s and '60s Myrtle Beach, S.C., however, those kids would fill the dance floor when the likes of the Drifters and the Dominoes hit the turntable. In the '90s, beach music is a flourishing regional phenomenon with entire record companies devoted to its spread.
Johnson warns, though, that ``as time has gone by, the real feel of what it is is really lost. Some things are just too fast to shag to. I'd like to see somebody try and shag to `Higher and Higher' by Jackie Wilson.''
As for his current work with the Chairmen, Johnson said: ``I think presentation set it apart. Young people can get into what we're doing. If it's too slow and old-fashioned, they don't want to have anything to do with it.''
He's happy doing 250 or so dates a year and said he still enjoys them.
``Oh, man, heck yeah. You know why? `Cause we don't do calisthenics. We work with energy and psychology. It never gets tired and boring, because we don't plan it. We don't say, `This is what we're gonna do.' With some groups, there's nothin' psychological about it that will pull a person out of himself and make him have a good time. Your audience is real people. You may see some of the same ones, but it's always fresh, always true.''
Likewise, Johnson and the group continue to add to his discography with a series of releases on his Surfside label. After a 30-year-plus career that includes not only hit records but also a songwriting Grammy for ``Patches,'' Clarence Carter's 1970 hit, he still finds inspiration.
``Hey man, I was in Detroit,'' he said. (The Chairmen of the Board's career began at legendary Motown songsmiths/producers Holland/Dozier/Holland's Invictus Records there in the early '70s.) ``It came from the thing, you better write a song. It was like a factory. It was great times.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MARK YOUNG
General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board perform tonight at the
Beach Music Weekend in Virginia Beach.
by CNB