Connections 9 : Bert Berns : From Bowie, to the McCoys, Van Morrison and Solomon Burke

Not many people have heard of Bert Berns but from the late 50's to the late 60's he was an influential writer and producer in the development of popular rock music. Last year I read this interesting biography of the man.  It was a frustrating but fascinating look into the development of the soul and R'n'B music that came out of New York.

Songs he wrote and produced include The Isley Brothers' Twist and Shout, The McCoys Hang on Sloopy, Them's Here Comes The Night, Solomon Burke's Cry to Me and Every Body Needs Somebody to Love among others that most people interested in music would or SHOULD be aware of.

I first came across the name on one of the first records I ever owned. Bowie's Pin Ups had a cover of  Here Comes The Night and I noted at the time it was written by Berns.  Interestingly he also produced the first version of Sorrow on that album (not by the Merseys as known by Bowie at the time but by the McCoys) Later I remember reading about how the same Bert Berns had an acrimonious break up of the relationship with Van Morrison after Brown Eyed Girl and had discovered Neil Diamond.

When reading this book I was initially irritated by the fact that Selvin would take large tangents seemingly (and frequently actually) not directly related to Bert.  But they were always fascinating tales of the times that Berns contributed to, especially the close relationship between many of the New York record labels and The Mob.

It is also apparent that without the one two punch of signing up Stax Records and co-opting Berns as a producer in the early 60's Atlantic Records would have remained a small New York label and not the key corner of the WEA empire it became.

As a casual observer it is hard to recognise the contribution that he made as for a variety of business and contractual (and at that time it may have meant Mob related) reasons he wrote and produced under a variety of aliases including his own name, Bert Russell and Russell Byrd among others. Selvin has done a great job of tracing all the clues - a great bit of detective work.

As is usual with a good music book it added a few more records for me to track down.