Idle Talk

    After two months of calls for justice for citizens of color in Connecticut and elsewhere, the state legislature took action. On July 31st, the state’s governor Ned Lamont signed House Bill 6004, “An Act Concerning Police Accountability”. Among its proponents was Will Haskell, a state senator who garnered a lot of attention when he was first elected in 2018 at the age of 22 (and seen above in a 2019 town-hall meeting with State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff). However, his support of these measures seem to be in conflict with the goal of a bill he put forward earlier this year that also related to the role of the police.

    In November of 2019, just ten months after Mr. Haskell was sworn in for his first term, he received a perfect score of 100 from the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, based on the legislative measures he’d supported during the year with respect to the environment – and a press release about his score made sure to mention how much higher the Democrats’ scores tended to be than Republicans’. The CTLCV listed measures ranging from offshore wind legislation to the much-debated ban on plastic bags as victories – although since its scorecard stated that 17 of the 23 bills it supported didn’t pass, that indicated that there was more work to be done.

    In February of 2020, Will Haskell announced that he had sent a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Environment Committee, requesting that they consider legislation to deal with another issue: the excessive idling of cars. Current law only gives power to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to enforce the statute that limits a car’s idling time to three minutes. In a column he wrote for the Wilton Bulletin, Mr. Haskell suggested that local police departments should also be granted this power. He stated that DEEP is supportive of the idea, although the CTLCV has not made any public statement about the legislation yet.

    Since that announcement, there has been no further postings about the issue. However, he has been vocal in his support of the bill on police accountability – including through a Facebook video he posted this summer, shortly before the bill was passed and signed into law. There have also been calls to deal with accountability again, with some talk centering on whether cars can be pulled over for minor offenses.

    In the case of idling, what complicates matters, naturally, is that the car has already been pulled over. If a police officer was to have a valid claim that unnecessary idling was taking place, that officer would have to watch or film the driver’s car for three straight minutes, without interruption. As we’ve seen, however, many of the tragic encounters between motorists and officers that have received nationwide attention in recent years began with a minor traffic violation. Motorists of color who potentially receive citations for idling could have reason to think that they are being unfairly targeted, just as so many others have been for various traffic violations.

    Where did the idea for more police involvement originate? In his column, Mr. Haskell wrote: “After watching cars idle in their school parking lot, students from New Canaan brought this issue to my attention and collaborated with me every step of the way. If the bill receives a public hearing, I’m sure they will continue to make their voices heard.” He doesn’t say anything about the race of the students who spoke with him, but it should be noted that only about 1% of New Canaan High School’s student body is African-American. (The number for Wilton is about 2%.)

    For those who think that the likelihood of something like this happening at all is rare, it should be noted that such an incident has already happened – and in of all places, Wilton, which Will Haskell now represents. On February 4th, 2015, a bus driver (who has asked to have his name withheld) drove a team of students from a school in Stamford to Wilton High School. The assignment required him to stay around for a little over two hours, and like other drivers, he chose to stay in his bus during that time. A letter from one coach to others the next day describes what happened while the driver was waiting for the meet to end:

    Our driver … was sitting in our bus with the engine running, when a representative of Wilton High School … came up to him and told him he had to shut his engine off. He tried to explain that the weather would make the bus unreasonably cold while he waited, and that he was only turning on the engine for a few minutes at a time, to warm up the bus as needed. Nevertheless, she insisted that the engine stay off, and so he complied. He made it clear that he was not singled out, as he saw the woman go up to other buses outside the school. (She also did not approach them until we had already been at the school for a couple of hours.)

    Our bus driver … has always been courteous and respectful. I have also never had any driver inform me before of anyone expecting drivers to sit in the cold. Even if this is not as likely to be an issue next month, I’m still disappointed to hear about this treatment that he received. I want to know if anyone else has heard similar stories from their drivers. I am also hoping that someone from Wilton High School will explain why this happened and why the situation wasn’t handled better.

    One reply to the coach’s letter the next day indicated that another team’s coach had heard nothing from her bus driver. The following was the only other reply from the remaining recipients, sent February 9th:

    According to the Stamford coach, the driver already knew this and was adhering to the rules. On February 10th, more information was provided by the original writer to fellow coaches:

    Furthermore, he told me that she actually banged on his door and was more blatantly rude to him than how I made it sound in my previous e-mail.

I spent parts of Thursday and Friday trying to track down answers.  The one piece of the puzzle that would help me would have been the name of the female representative of Wilton High School.  I am trying to find out who that might have been.

Doing some investigative work myself, I was told by a bus driver and campus security officer that there is a limit on how long a bus is supposed to idle.  After Googling, I found some links to initiatives in the state of Connecticut that seek to eliminate idling buses in school zones due to wasting of fuel and also the possibility of air pollution being drawn into HVAC systems and degrading Indoor Air Quality.

    The coach then gave a description of the woman that the driver offered – including that she was white – and again asked if their own drivers had dealt with the same woman. These were the two replies that followed on February 11th – the last messages in this e-mail chain:

IMHO,
I am amazed that this is still an issue… let’s move along! I think we are making a mountain out of a mole hill. The unidentified woman was most likely doing the job she is emplyed [sic] to do by Wilton PS – enforcing the no idling rules to keep emissions down and avoid a dense cloud of exhaust greeting [everyone] leaving the high school. Perhaps the bus driver could have found an indoor location to wait out the meet, saving gas and abiding by the rules. Can we classify this as “water under the bridge” yet??

– – – – – –

There is a no idling policy at Wilton and I think it is important that we follow their rules since they are good enough to let us inconvenience the bus line once a month as we drop off our teams during their end of the day bus routine.

I would suggest the person may have had a bad day, or was upset about having to go out in the cold … either way it is their rule.

Sorry your drive was singled out (I haven’t heard this from any other team)

    The two respondents – both of whom are white, but neither of whom lives in Wilton – assumed that the driver, who is Black, was breaking the rules, despite what the coach, who is also white, said in the e-mails. It does not appear, though, that the respondents knew the race of the driver from Stamford.

    In the case of bus drivers. the law is a little more restrictive on what can be done during cold weather. Connecticut law requires that “the operator of any school bus shall not operate the engine of any school bus for more than three consecutive minutes when the school bus is not in motion”. The exceptions include “when it is necessary to operate heating, cooling or auxiliary equipment installed on the school bus when such equipment is necessary to accomplish the intended use of the school bus, including, but not limited to, the operation of safety equipment” or “when the outdoor temperature is below twenty degrees Fahrenheit”. There’s no record as to what the temperature was on that afternoon in February, although under twenty degrees is unlikely. However, the first exception is a little more nebulous. Wouldn’t the well-being of the driver, who has been entrusted to provide transportation to the team, be a priority? If this driver simply didn’t perfectly time his idling time so that it was occasionally over three minutes, is this a true violation?

    In this incident, no police officer was involved – and since the woman was never identified, no further action was taken. If this hadn’t been a bus, perhaps no action would have been taken, anyway: for those driving something other than a bus, the first exception instead reads: “when it is necessary to operate defrosting, heating or cooling equipment to ensure the safety or health of the driver or passengers”. For whatever reason, the statue on buses doesn’t mention the bus driver’s health.

    Five months after the incident, Wilton began an initiative to promote a no-idling policy. At the time it granted exceptions to school buses and claimed that it would not enforce the policy during winter months. (Peg Koellmer, a member of the group Wilton Go Green, went as far as to say, “When the outdoor temperatures are below 20 degrees, you can idle your brains out.”) However, to promote an event in town that November on the topic – including the showing of a film called “Idle Threat: Man on Emissions” – Good Morning Wilton’s website posted an article saying that “school bus drivers … may be ticketed for prolonged idling, while drivers of idling passenger vehicles are not subject to a fine.”

    At the same time, Wilton has made headlines over a couple of race-related incidents – including one at Wilton High School the next year. During a football game against Danbury, young fans of Wilton’s football team started chanting “Build a wall”. The school’s student government later issued an apology on behalf of the student body – while claiming that the chant was being “solely used to cheer on the football team’s defense.” In June of this year, residents of both Wilton and New Canaan participated in marches against racism – an encouraging sign of possible change taking place.

    We reached out to Will Haskell’s re-election campaign by e-mail this week for clarification on his stances, but did not receive a reply by Friday evening. While he has not been talking at length about idling since his letter from February, the question remains as to whether or not his position has changed since then. Much has been written about “driving while Black”, and there has even been at least once case described as “parking while Black“. Now steps may be needed to ensure that “idling while Black” isn’t next.

R-And-B Singer, Rock Guitarist

    When people think of R&B songs with a rock guitar solo, the first thought, not surprisingly, is Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, with that legendary cameo from the late Eddie Van Halen. But that first thought shouldn’t be anyone’s only thought on the topic, and yet that’s often the case. In reality, “Beat It” wasn’t quite the first song of its kind (although it was close), but its popularity led to a long line of similar alliances over the next decade, helping to bring at least a temporary breakdown of the racial barriers between the rock and R&B formats of that time.

    It’s not as if the two genres never crossed paths before: rock music had its origins in the blues repertoire of artists like Robert Johnson, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters, along with the gospel-influenced work of fellow guitar great Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and the notorious Ike Turner played major roles in the formation of rock and roll as a separate genre in the ensuing years, while Jimi Hendrix and the Chambers Brothers managed to get played alongside their white counterparts on the emerging album-rock format of the late ’60s. Early on in the ’70s, there were more guitar sounds heard on R&B formats, too, with everyone from Ernie Isley and Pops Staples to Bootsy Collins and Curtis Mayfield getting airtime.

    By the start of the ’80s, there were still R&B bands with prominent guitarists getting pop airplay, but the guitar playing was more often in the background. Meanwhile, rock stations were playing fewer black artists, and the two genres continued to move in very different directions.  That started to change in the early ’80s, thanks to a couple of tracks that featured collaborations between soul singers (mostly black) and rock guitarists (mostly white).

The first came out in October of 1982, when Lionel Richie released his own self-titled work, his first since leaving the Commodores – and Joe Walsh, fresh off his own departure from the disbanded Eagles, played a subdued solo on “Wandering Stranger”. However, it was never a single – probably because despite Joe’s presence, it wasn’t energetic enough to get the attention of rock or even pop radio. The following month, however, one such song would challenge the status quo.

    Quincy Jones had suggested to Michael Jackson the idea of recording a contemporary rock song – and it was also Mr. Jones who, after receiving a recommendation from an unavailable Pete Townshend, contacted Eddie Van Halen about recording a guitar solo for the resulting work, “Beat It”. Eddie actually recorded the song as a favor, and did not take any payment for his contribution. (If that wasn’t enough, Steve Lukather from Toto provided its rhythm guitar work.) Van Halen had already had some crossover success at top-40 radio, but when “Beat It” and that prominent solo hit the airwaves, it opened up both artists to new audiences. Not only did the single go to #1 on the pop and R&B charts, but it even reached #14 on the AOR charts. Eddie’s band would benefit from the pairing, too, as its next single “Jump” would hit #1 and its parent album “1984” hit #2 – behind Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

    From that point on, a trend started that lasted for most of the ’80s and even into the ’90s. Once Michael Jackson successfully collaborated with a rock guitarist, many others did the same – sometimes with a hit single in mind, other times at least in an attempt to bring more diversity to an album’s sound. Only a few of these hybrid creations garnered major attention, but most had a unique take on the trend, and often did successfully bring a new edge to the singer’s musical approach

    Diana Ross was the next such artist to experiment this way – and once again, the guitarist of choice was the Eagles’ Joe Walsh! He played a significantly tougher solo on her single “Pieces of Ice” than he had on “Wandering Stranger”. The single was only moderately successful, though, making it to #15 R&B and #31 pop.

    Next up were Jeffrey Osborne, who brought on Queen guitarist Brian May for two cuts on his second solo album “Stay With Me Tonight”, including the hit title track. That was followed by Lionel Richie’s “Running With The Night”, with a lengthy stretch at the end played by – once again – Steve Lukather.

    Why was Steve so much in demand?  For one thing, his band Toto already had proven crossover success, managing to have both a rock hit (“Hold The Line”) and R&B hit (“Georgie Porgie” with Cheryl Lynn) from its 1978 self-titled debut. Furthermore, Steve had already played a major role on other artists’ soul-infused hits over the past decade, from Boz Scaggs’ “Lowdown” in 1976 to Donna Summer’s 1982 single “The Woman In Me” (which Heart would cover over a decade later.).

    A few others that did well in the following years weren’t always done to the artists’ satisfaction. While Tina Turner clearly qualifies as a rock singer, she had more than her share of R&B hits, with and without ex-husband Ike. During her comeback years, she’d record with Bryan Adams, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and Jeff Beck. Jeff’s contribution to the title cut of her “Private Dancer” was considered unmemorable by some – apparently including its writer, Mr. Knopfler – but that didn’t stop the single from becoming another top-10 hit. Meanwhile, Stevie Ray Vaughan, who had already played on David Bowie’s pop and R&B hit “Let’s Dance”, was disappointed in 1985 to find his guitar work on James Brown’s “Living In America” was buried deep into the mix for the single. A ‘rock’ remix on the 12-inch release would allow his role to be heard more clearly.

    Among the other singer-guitarist pairings during these years:

– LaBelle’s Nona Hendryx (a rock singer as much as a soul singer, anyway) teaming up with Heart’s Nancy Wilson for “Design By Living”

– Aretha Franklin, first with Carlos Santana (and Peter Wolf) on 1985’s “Push”, then with the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Ron Wood for a cover of Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

– Jeff Beck again, also helping out Diana Ross in 1984 (a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”) and Philip Bailey in 1986 (“Back It Up”)

– Stevie Ray Vaughan again, accompanying Teena Marie (1986’s “You So Heavy”) and Stevie Wonder (1987’s “Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down” – alongside B.B. King!)

– Eric Clapton, also joining Lionel Richie (1986’s “Tonight Will Be Alright”) and Randy Crawford (covering Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” with David Sanborn in 1989)

– Joan Jett, adding guitar to “Love Must Be Love” from Darlene Love’s first solo album in 1988

– Joe Walsh yet again, playing with the Bar-Kays on 1989’s “Animal”

    Aside from the Randy Crawford track, however, most of these were not hit singles – or in most cases, even singles at all. The only artists who had major impacts later in the decade with these collaborations would be the one who had really started the trend… and his sister.

    When Michael Jackson released his follow-up to “Thriller”, 1987’s “Bad”, it included another selection with a prominent rock guitar solo – and again he chose a guitar whiz with a growing fan base. Steve Stevens had become well-known as Billy Idol’s guitarist, and with his help, “Dirty Diana” had an even darker feel than “Beat It” five years earlier. When released as a single the following spring, it became the fifth #1 single from the parent album – marking the first time that feat had been achieved – and unlike all previous videos aside from Aretha’s cover of the Stones, the guest guitarist was actually seen in the video. While “Dirty Diana” missed out on the rock charts altogether, it did reach #8 on the R&B charts.

    At this point few black artists were getting played on AOR radio, despite some inroads by Prince and the Jon Butcher Axis, among others. (One rock station, 99.1 WPLR in New Haven, Connecticut, briefly took chances playing Billy Ocean’s “Loverboy” and Kool and the Gang’s “Misled”, but that didn’t last for long.) The trend would reverse for a while with the emergence of Living Colour in 1988, followed by Lenny Kravitz in 1989 and the Eric Gales Band in 1991.

    In 1990 Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat” became the record-breaking sixth top-5 single from Janet Jackson’s landmark “Rhythm Nation 1814” album – and its various remixes certainly helped its popularity, with both Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt laying down solos to different mixes. Despite the presence of those rock guitars, it still hit #10 R&B – and yet rock radio remained resistant. Meanwhile, Vernon could also be heard delivering a blistering intro on “You Need Me”, a deep cut from the 1990 debut release by none other than Mariah Carey.

    At the same time, of course, hip-hop was becoming a musical force of its own, thanks to a similar blending of styles found in Run-DMC’s take on “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith. Further rock-rap experiments would take place – Whodini’s “Rock You Again (Again And Again)” in 1987, Public Enemy’s revisiting of “Bring The Noise” with Anthrax in 1991, and the entire “Judgment Night” soundtrack in 1993 – but little of it got attention until the unfortunate nu-metal trends of the late ’90s and early 2000’s. (The Beastie Boys summed it up best in 1999’s “Alive”: “Goatee metal-rap, please say goodnight.”)

    It really took the two big changes in the music industry in 1991 – the rise of Nirvana, and the changes to Billboard’s chart methodology – to bring the R&B/rock experiments to a virtual halt. Such pairings became rare, even though Michael Jackson continued to work with top-name guitarists on future albums, including Slash for 1991’s “Give In To Me”. Carlos Santana collaborated twice with Lauryn Hill in the late ’90s, before contributing guitar work to Michael’s “Whatever Happens” in 2001. The last major R&B/rock work of this kind came in late 2005, when Mary J. Blige was backed by the Edge and the rest of U2 for a rendition of the band’s 1992 hit “One”.

    The trend could be seen as a cynical industry ploy to get more white consumers to purchase works by artists with primarily black followings, as the trend usually involved white guitarists playing on albums by black artists. Since it worked in the case of Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen, some executives must have thought, why not have others try it out? Maybe that was the thinking by some, but in reality, the music from those experiments actually counters that cynicism pretty well itself. There really is no common thread to the way these songs sound, as the guitarists play significantly different roles on each. Some play throughout the recording, while others just get a quick moment to shred. More importantly, those that got the most attention, like Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat” and its remixes, helped to inject some innovation into both genres. It wouldn’t be long after this that En Vogue recorded “Free Your Mind” and Whitney Houston sang “Queen Of The Night” on the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard”. The “Rock Guitarist Meets R&B Singer” may have faded out after a decade, but its legacy deserves greater attention.

    Check out our 32-song playlist also entitled “R&B Singer, Rock Guitarist”, available for listening on our YouTube channel.