KCRW’s acclaimed music documentary podcast, Lost Notes, returns for its fourth season. Co-hosts Novena Carmel (KCRW) and Michael Barnes (KCRW / KPFK / Artform Radio) guide you through eight wildly different and deeply human stories, each set against the kaleidoscopic backdrop of LA’s soul and R&B scene of the 1950s-1970s. Support KCRW’s original programming like Lost Notes by donating or becoming a member.
Lost Notes details the darkly hilarious schemes of record-label magnate Ruth Christie, who instigated one of the most absurd court cases in music history.
Novena Carmel
Imagine: 1959 is the year, and you are a Black woman running an independent record label … out of your own house that you share with your female life partner.
Michael Barnes
And not just one record label, but two record labels! They had the one that was called Tide, and then a sister label called Edit … which was just Tide spelled backwards.
Novena Carmel
Very, very clever. I mean, in general, name creativity is definitely a thing in this story.
Michael Barnes
Oh yeah.
Novena Carmel
Ruth’s real name was a mouthful: Ruth Stratchborneo. And her partner’s name was Paula Sapp. But Ruth recorded under the name Ruth Christie … which is a lot cuter … and then Paula also worked as Paula DePores and Cathy Saunders.
Michael Barnes
It reminds me a bit of Gloria Jones when she was writing songs for Motown as LaVerne Ware.
Novena Carmel
Ah yes, yes. Definitely. Same idea! But back when Ruth and Paula first met, they were still using their government names, so they hadn’t switched it up yet. And in 1958, they were working for a small record label out of Pasadena called Vita, like vitamin: nutritious and delicious. And their first single came out under the name - a name that I really love - The Candletts.
Michael Barnes
Oh yeah.
Novena Carmel
That’s actually Ruth on lead vocals right there. She co-wrote that single with Paula, and they dropped it in October of 1958.
Michael Barnes
And musically, it’s nice. Personally, I love the handclaps, but for the time period, it’s pretty standard teenybopper stuff. And that’s true for a lot of the stuff they write and produce for Vita. But their last record for the label gives us some sense of what’s to come.
Michael Barnes
This is a song called “Bitter Winds.” And it’s the only single by a group called the Christy Sextet. If you look at the songwriting credits, you’ll see Ruth and Paula’s names. But there are two other things…
Novena Carmel
Well, for one, this sounds a lot like the song “Sleepwalk” by Santo and Johnny, which conveniently came out earlier this same year.
Michael Barnes
That’s one, for sure.
Michael Barnes
The other thing is that Ruth named the band after herself, even though she doesn’t play a single note on the record. So, no one else gets credit …which is really a shame, ‘cause she put together an amazing band of L.A. session folk to make “Bitter Winds,” including Earl Palmer, an absolute legend on the drums.
Novena Carmel
Right, so what she’s doing here is positioning herself as this impresario, even before she goes off and starts her own label.
Michael Barnes
Which is exactly what she does next.
Michael Barnes
In 1959, Ruth’s father loaned her the money to start her label, Tide. As the story goes, he’d given her that money to help her to be self-sufficient & independent…and also so she wouldn’t fall in with the wrong people.
Novena Carmel
Is it too much of a spoiler if I say that’s ironic?
Michael Barnes
I’d call it foreshadowing in this story. But anyways, Ruth starts the label with Paula, and also a third woman, Orena Fulmer, who Paula and Ruth knew from when they all worked at Vita Records. And, of course, Orena has another name that she went by, which was Rena Wright. So the three of them form a songwriting partnership under the name Triune. And Ruth and Paula literally run the labels - both Tide and Edit - out of their own house, which was located on West View Street, just north of the 10 freeway in Mid-City. And I can almost imagine, like, what this must have looked like. I’m not sure if there’s plastic on the couches or not, but I just see boxes and records and…
Novena Carmel
…sketchy contracts all over the dining room table. But it’s quite the image, right? It’s the late 1950s. There are these two Black women in the middle of Los Angeles, in their house where they run their label. It’s pretty cool. And it’s an area that a lot of us drive by all the time.
Michael Barnes
The thing about it is, when we’re driving around Los Angeles, you may be in a really similar situation. Because this period of time saw an explosion in especially Black independent record labels in Los Angeles, and people running these labels just out of their home: literally the address that you see on the Tide record labels.
Novena Carmel
I have to say, the first few records on Tide are really not that different from the kinda stuff they were doing before. But as the decade changes, it’s January of 1960. They put out two singles which really change the perception of what they were up to. The first one is a Ruth Christie song called “Strange Exotic Melody.”
Michael Barnes
“Strange Exotic Melody” is definitely a different vibe than before, but it didn’t totally come out of the blue. A few years earlier, a bandleader by the name of Martin Denny released an album called Exotica.
Novena Carmel
And Martin Denny’s whole idea was incorporating these “exotic” sounds from Polynesian and Asian music into a kind of Western colonialist fantasy mash-up. But, of course, the album became a total smash.
Michael Barnes
Of course.
Novena Carmel
Yes. It spent five weeks at #1 in 1959. And it was actually a predecessor to the “lounge music” scene that became so huge. So, just like the ladies - we’ll say borrowed - from the song “Sleepwalk” for “Bitter Winds,” once again we get this pretty blatant imitation of a recent hit sound.
Michael Barnes
Yeah, even right down to the “exotic” title. But those two songs are just a warm-up for what comes next.
Michael Barnes
This is where Larry Bright enters the picture with his song, “Mojo Workout.” Larry Bright is a Navy brat and a blues fan from Texas. He moves to L.A. in the mid-1950s and plays in the house band at a place called the Sea Witch, on the Sunset Strip. In 1959, he goes into the studio to record his own version of “Hound Dog,” but in the heat of the moment, he changes course. He wants to try out this other song idea that he picked up somewhere in New Orleans, apparently.
Novena Carmel
Mr. Bright is a little cagey about where this idea comes from, right. Like, maybe it’s his song, maybe it’s not, maybe he dreamt it, maybe he heard it somewhere…
Michael Barnes
Mm hmm. Likely heard it somewhere from somebody else, but … He’s trying to recreate this song from memory, and it’s just a kinda jumble of ideas, but he puts it down on tape anyway. Y’know, it’s just a demo. Everyone assumes eventually they’ll work everything out and, at some point, cut a proper final version.
Novena Carmel
What’s the worst that could happen, right?
Michael Barnes
Well … the worst is kinda what happens. The demo gets shopped around and falls into Ruth’s hands. And she puts out the record as-is in January 1960. She doesn’t clear up any of the authorship business. Not the songwriting credits. Doesn’t re-record it. She just puts out the demo.
And the wild thing is, to everybody’s surprise, “Mojo Workout” takes off.
Novena Carmel
And it really is a surprise, because up to this point, the label Tide has mostly specialized in pop records, and things that were marketed to white audiences … and not with a ton of success. But all of a sudden, this record by a white Texan shows up on the R&B charts!
Michael Barnes
The song makes its way to KGFJ, which is a big R&B station in Los Angeles. Their program manager, “Big” Jim Randolph, hears the song and wrongly assumes that Larry is a Black musician putting out this R&B music, and puts it into rotation. Then it crosses over to KFWB, which was one of LA’s big Top 40 stations at the time. And from there, it enters into the regional charts, climbing all the way to #16 in May of 1960. And even for a hot second, it breaks into the Billboard Hot 100 too!
Novena Carmel
And all of a sudden, Tide has a hit!
Michael Barnes
And a bigger hit than anything they have ever done.
Michael Barnes
Larry gets invited to be on the Dick Clark Show ... but he’s broke, because Ruth and Tide hasn’t paid him any royalties. So he goes to Ruth asking for an advance to buy himself a suit. He’s gonna be appearing on national TV with Dick Clark, and after all, it’s her record that he’s promoting.
Novena Carmel
And Ruth won’t do it. She won’t get him the suit.
Michael Barnes
Even though he’s promoting her record, no. Ruth is not gonna do it. So Larry goes out, maybe gets a little too drunk, and starts shopping himself around town by saying, “My name’s Larry Bright, and I’ve got a hit record and no money.” He ends up at another Black-owned record label, Rendezvous, which was run by Leon René. And Leon gives Larry a thousand dollars, right under Ruth’s nose.
Novena Carmel
And Larry’s definitely not spending that money on Dick Clark at this point, because forget Ruth, forget Dick Clark … and how much even was a thousand dollars back then?
Michael Barnes
That would be like $10,000 nowadays!
Novena Carmel
So that’s gonna get you a pretty nice suit, right?
Michael Barnes
You could get a whole closet of nice suits if you wanted! But that money isn’t for suits at all. Larry gets this money from Leon René to record on Rendezvous Records. And he records his first single before Ruth has found out that any of this is even going on. But she does find out … and when she does, she threatens to sue to get the master tape back, because Larry’s still under contract with her. But Rendezvous releases it anyway … but under the name “Pete Roberts” instead of Larry Bright. No one knows why they changed his name, but perhaps he was inspired by all of Ruth & Paula’s aliases.
Novena Carmel
So Ruth is over there like, “Okay, I’m gonna one-up your shadiness. You think you can overshade a shady one?”
Michael Barnes
You can’t out-shady Ruth! What were you thinking?
Novena Carmel
No-no-no! So she’s like, “Hmm, how can I punish Larry further? Mm, let me repress ‘Mojo Workout’ under the name of The Mojo Dancers.” That’s what she does.
Michael Barnes
Shady. So shady.
Novena Carmel
Yes. And with his name on it, but it’s about the size of an itty-bitty little footnote on the label.
Michael Barnes
Right. So now it’s shady and petty.
Novena Carmel
Shady and petty, exactly. Add ‘petty’ to the list of accolades. So he does a thing that a lot of artists have done when they want out of a contract: He gives her a bunch of crappy music and hopes that will satisfy the deal. “Here My Dear,” is what he said.
Michael Barnes
Yeah, he tried that, but Ruth does not take the bait. He turns up the heat, though. According to an article in the California Eagle, Larry shows up at Ruth & Paula’s house in the wee, wee hours of February 16, 1961. He’s got three of his friends with him as well. And somebody throws a giant rock through Ruth’s living room window. Somebody calls the cops - probably Ruth. Larry tells the cops all of this was about Ruth’s refusal to release him from his contract.
Novena Carmel
But none of that even works on Larry’s part. We’re still in the same position.
Michael Barnes
And even after that, though, somehow she gets two more singles out of him … including one with a B-side that she wrote herself. But now she really has her teeth into this whole mojo idea.
Novena Carmel
So Larry clearly has not learned his lesson, either. He’s just asking for punishment at this point. The whole thing goes down, and yet he still records two more songs with Ruth. She’s definitely got her mojo working at this point.
Michael Barnes
Oh yes. She had that mojo working, all right. And in this moment, she puts together a group called the Mojo Men, and releases a single called “Surfin’ Fat Man” in February 1964. And, although the song is clearly written by the band’s guitarist, Denny King, Ruth has added a co-write credit for Triune to the label. A few months after releasing “Surfin’ Fat Man,” Ruth puts out another version of “Mojo Workout,” this time performed by the Mojo Men with Tommy Hahn. Larry Bright is still getting his songwriting credit on this record, but he is not getting any money from it.
Novena Carmel
And then the real windfall starts, Michael.
Novena Carmel
The Kingsmen record a version of “Mojo Workout” on their debut album in 1964. And this is while they’re still hot from “Louie, Louie.” So that album sells three and a half million copies, and Larry still doesn’t get a dime. It turns out that Ruth has changed the paperwork to add Triune as co-writers … even though Larry alone is credited on the Kingsmen’s album.
Michael Barnes
Alright. So now “Mojo Workout” has become the perfect cash cow for Ruth, and also for her writing partners in Triune. They didn’t write a single note of it … but because they’ve taken over the publishing, all of this money is now flowing into their bank accounts.
Novena Carmel
It’s now being recorded by everybody: You’ve got the Regents, it was recorded by Paul Revere and the Raiders, a group called the Royal Rebels, and more … all these ‘R’ bands for some reason! Roger Rabbit and the Rudolphs! I made that one up, but might as well be. And then, Warner Brothers Records comes to Ruth to negotiate the rights for – check this – Bill Cosby to release a version of the song in 1967. Yes, that Bill Cosby. And the potential payout from that deal sends Miss Ruth over the edge. And this is how we end up in court.
Novena Carmel
It’s July of 1967, and Ruth files a copyright claim against a song called “Got My Mojo Working,” which was recorded by Muddy Waters a full decade earlier in 1957. To get around this, Ruth claims that she had written a jingle for a car dealership containing that exact phrase in 1955.
Michael Barnes
But the filing also goes on to imply that Larry Bright never even wrote
“Mojo Workout.” And somehow the court agrees with her. In the opinion by Judge Charles Brieant: “The author listed on the lead sheet as having created the words and music is ‘Julian Bright, a/k/a Larry Bright,’ but I am satisfied that in fact Larry Bright was not the author of ‘Mojo Workout.’”
Novena Carmel
Which may be true. Because, remember that Larry claimed to have heard the song somewhere in New Orleans.
Michael Barnes
And it was probably the Muddy Waters tune that he heard!
Novena Carmel
Yeah, true. The case also shows that Larry signed over all rights to the song to Ruth in March of 1960 - which was just two weeks after his original copyright filing. And there were three more filings made by Triune to establish ownership of the song. Which is why he never made a dime off it.
Michael Barnes
So, Larry Bright didn’t stand a chance against Ruth. But what about Muddy Waters?
Novena Carmel
Well, as it turns out, the whole mojo thing gets even more complicated.
In 1956, Muddy Waters was on tour with a singer named Ann Cole. She had a song called “Got My Mojo Working” in her opening set.
Novena Carmel
Muddy Waters decides to record his own version, with some tweaks to the words. Then he releases his record the same week as Ann Cole’s. But Waters listed himself as the sole author – effectively plagiarizing the song from Cole’s songwriting partner, Preston Foster. That same year Louis Jordan also recorded the song, but he credited Foster as the writer. So not doing that, leads to a court case between their publishers, which ended in an out-of-court settlement in Foster’s favor.
Michael Barnes
Then Ruth comes along, a decade later, and sues both Preston Foster and Muddy Waters, saying they both took the idea from her. Even though she had nothing more than a car commercial to show when the original suit was happening.
Novena Carmel
Right. You know what, why don’t we take a moment to listen to these three songs up against one another and see how they compare. Let’s start with a bit of the Muddy Waters tune.
Novena Carmel
Ok, that was Muddy Waters… And now a bit of the Ann Cole, as written by Preston Foster.
Novena Carmel
Love Ann Cole. OK, finally, let’s queue up a bit of that Larry Bright one more time. Just for contrast.
Novena Carmel
So, needless to say, the judge isn’t looking at Ruth’s case very favorably. But they still have to satisfy due process. So a good part of the court record is devoted to these very stuffy, legalistic definitions of the idea of “mojo.”
Michael Barnes
*[Reading:] “MOJO is a collective noun used to describe one or more talismanic objects believed to have power intrinsic to their nature, and believed able to impart power, or ward off evil or misfortune by being worn close to the body of, or possessed by, the person to whom the MOJO appertains. Reliance on and belief in MOJO naturally leads to the conversational gambit, ‘Have you got your MOJO working?’, or ‘I’ve got my MOJO working.’ A person approaching a crisis, such as an examination at school, would be sure to have his MOJO with him, and working.” Oh Man, I would have loved to have been in that room when someone wrote all that up.
Novena Carmel
And what’s funny is, Ruth contradicts her own defense. At some point she says she’s been familiar with the concept of “mojo” all her life, and that it’s an idea well known to the Black community. Which leads the court to inquire, “then why do you think you have ownership over it?”
Michael Barnes
She even brings in the musical director of the Apollo Theater, Reuben Phillips, as her expert witness. And he says more or less the same thing: he’s been hearing the phrase since he was a kid. So, legally speaking, none of this helps her.
Novena Carmel
We should also say that this case ends up dragging on for a long time. And someone has to be minding the store while all this is going on. But the record labels get pretty quiet.
Michael Barnes
Most of the music they put out is their own: Ruth, Cathy, and Rena each release separate singles in 1967, the best of which is probably Ruth Christie’s “Make The Devil Stop Messin’ With Me” … which may or may not be a coded commentary on all these legal troubles.
Novena Carmel
The only other new record is by an artist named Jimmie Williams. And I say “new” loosely, because he had put out the exact same single on another L.A. label as Eddie Williams … but Tide changed his name and added themselves as songwriters to a song he’d already recorded somewhere else!
Michael Barnes
Just business as usual for Tide, huh?
Novena Carmel
Yeah, so anyway, at the end of the lawsuit, none of the songs are found to owe any kind of debt to “Mojo Workout.” And, they find that Warner Brothers actually had no obligation to obtain a license from Ruth in the first place, since Bill Cosby’s song was substantially different from Larry Bright’s. So Ruth’s case is dismissed on all counts.
Michael Barnes
But the case has taken a ton of time, money, and morale. While the suit is still dragging on, Rena Fulmer leaves the label in 1969 to become a missionary. Tide pops up a few years later with a new act, Third Point, who release a pair of singles in 1976. And, one of their co-writers is a woman named June Pasternak, who I bet you can guess what her name actually was…
Novena Carmel & Michael Barnes
…Ruth Stratchborneo!!
Novena Carmel
And that’s not even the end of the story. After Third Point goes nowhere, Ruth and Paula start a new company in 1982 called … are you ready … “Sweet Rage Productions.” And in the company’s press materials, Ruth claims to have launched Dionne Warwick’s career … but the record she’s talking about was actually recorded by a singer named Dee Allen. Who has no connection to Dionne, or Dee Dee Warwick.
Michael Barnes
She also says that she “independently produced and arranged” a whole list of songs, all of which were later found to be plagiarized or fraudulently credited. (novena - damnit Ruth!) And there’s this part where she says her new investors are “knowledgeable backers from Palm Springs and Scottsdale, Arizona.” Which, I don’t know…sounds kinda like a Mafia thing or something.
Novena Carmel
Or an imagination thing. They do put out a few more records on Tide in the early ‘80s, and a video for a song called “Man Collector” that has to be seen to be believed. Have you seen the video?
Michael Barnes
Oh yes … and if you haven’t, whatever you thought a video for a song called “Man Collector” would look like, it will exceed your expectations. Honestly, in a way, it’s kind of a low-key brilliant video. And there might have been more: Sweet Rage also claimed to be working on a series of aerobics videos starring what they call “physical fitness freaks.” This is the ‘80s, after all: the peak era of Richard Simmons and the Jane Fonda Workout. So, once again, they are desperately trying to capitalize on a trend.
Novena Carmel
Desperately trying to climb that Stairmaster. The pop fitness song trend doesn’t really pan out, but Ruth and Paula live out their days in the same house where they ran their operations for almost 25 years. Ruth dies in 1998, and Paula follows in 2006. Their old colleague Orena Fulmer returns from her missionary work to become … not a preacher, not a nun: the hog-calling champ of the 1985 L.A. County Fair. And that’s the last anyone hears from her.
Michael Barnes
Nowadays, you can still find Tide & Edit records, most for really low prices, but a few have become quite collectible. You also can find a smattering of Tide and Edit sides on various streaming platforms, some of which appear to be unreleased tracks from the archives. Perhaps it’s best to go out with this one: a single credited to “Ruth & Larry” – as in, Ruth Stratchborneo and Larry Bright.
Novena Carmel
Together again! The story goes that Larry had recorded this track for a different label … but Ruth exercised some dusty clause in his original Tide contract and pulled him back. She added a few throwaway vocal tracks of her own and billed them together as a duo … with her name first, of course. Do you want to tell them what song they recorded?
Michael Barnes
The perfect song choice, given this story: It’s a version of the Barrett Strong classic, “Money.”
Novena Carmel
It couldn’t have been anything else.
Lost Notes is a KCRW Original Production. It’s made by Michael Barnes, Ashlea Brown, Novena Carmel, and Myke Dodge Weiskopf. Special thanks to Gina Delvac, Jennifer Ferro, Ray Guarna, Nathalie Hill, Anne Litt, Phil Richards, Arnie Seipel, Desmond Taylor, and Anthony Valadez.
Extra special thanks this week to Gary E. Myers, whose scholarship on this topic was essential.
MORE:
Lost Notes S4 - Ep. 1 - Tainted Love: Gloria Jones and the Half-Life of a Hit
Lost Notes: 1980 - Ep. 6: Minnie Riperton