“Mustang Sally” is an anthem for line dancers in The Villages but it means something more to Felix Cavaliere, formerly of the Rascals.
“We recorded that song before Wilson Pickett,” Cavaliere said in a telephone interview this week. “It was the B-side to our first No. 1 hit, ‘Good Lovin’.” The 45 was released early in 1966.
The Rascals were four Jersey boys who made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their astounding series of hits in the ‘60s, including: “People Got To Be Free,” “A Beautiful Morning,” “A Girl Like You,” “Groovin’,” “How Can I Be Sure,” and “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long.”
Cavaliere will be singing those songs Saturday night at 5 and 8 in the Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center with Felix’s Cavaliere’s Rascals. And he will also perform “Mustang Sally.”
None of the other original “Young” Rascals – Eddie Brigati, Gene Cornish and Dino Danelli –will be on stage with him. Here’s how the band looked in 1966:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTI24qht3e4
The Rascals, like so many other bands, hopes and dreams, vanished with the ‘60s.
“There was so much turmoil in the ‘60s,” Cavaliere said. He was deeply affected by the murders of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968, and that inspired him to write one of the bands most meaningful songs, “People Got to Be Free.”
“I was working with the Robert Kennedy campaign,” Cavaliere said. “I knew people who were in the room the night he was killed. When it happened, something just snapped in me, it got to me. That’s how the song came about.”
Despite the tragic inspiration, “People Got to Be Free,” is an inspirational song that in many ways sums up the idealism of the ‘60s. “That’s the way I am,” Cavaliere said. “I try to see the light, not the dark.”
Here is the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sastKEBZhXY
In addition to the turmoil of the times, The Rascals were also dealing with their own problems.
Eddie Brigati, Cavaliere’s songwriting partner, was growing weary of the constant pressure to write hits, travel and performing, Cavaliere said. Brigati, who has said in previous interviews he felt his role in the band was being diminished, left the group.
It remains one of the saddest break-ups in rock history, but the Rascals’ songs left an indelible mark on every Baby Boomer who came of age in the ‘60s. Steve “Little Steven” Van Zandt, of Bruce Springsteen’s band, was one of them.
“The Rascals are something else, they’re up there with the Beatles and Stones” Van Zandt told AP. He produced a 2013 Broadway “concert event” – called “Once Upon a Dream” — reuniting the band that year.
It was Van Zandt who inducted the Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Cavaliere has also been inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Hammond Organ Hall of Fame.
Despite the passage of time, the Rascals bitter end still rankles Cavaliere.
“It didn’t have to happen and it shouldn’t have happened; we could have stayed together” he said. Somehow, he said, management “lost control and once a manager loses control of the kids, forget it. And we were just kids.”
Van Zandt once put the Rascals demise this way to Rolling Stone:
“Great bands shouldn’t break up, because it’s some kind of divine spark that takes place, some alchemy that takes place, that should never, ever be taken for granted. And people take it for granted all the time.
“Bands break up. It’s a real crime against nature when you do that. It should never happen. And in this case, it was really obvious these guys should never have broken up.”
But, life goes on.
“I’ve learned to exist as a solo artist,” said Cavaliere, 73, a happily married father and grandfather. He lives and records in Nashville, and constantly tours.
“For me, getting out there, making music and having a good time still feels great,” he said. “When we first started, we worked in clubs and the whole idea was to make people get up and dance.”
One thing that made Rascals’ music unique is its diversity.
This band could rock out on songs like “Get On Up,” “You Better Run” or the R&B Motown influenced “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long.” These guys were blessed with Jersey-tinged blue-eyed soul. In the beginning many radio listeners thought the Rascals were African-American.
Cavaliere took that as a compliment, as he was influenced by the likes of Marvin Gaye and Ray Charles. But he also admired the production skills of Phil Spector.
“He was an inspiration to me, I loved that sound and I wanted to make hits like that,” Cavaliere said.
Another inspiration was a young woman Cavaliere had a relationship with during the ‘60s.
“I can’t explain it, she was like a muse,” he said. “We had a magical relationship.” But like just about everything else in the ‘60s, it couldn’t last. “How Can I Be Sure,” one of the Rascals’ most tender and emotional songs, was inspired by the break-up of the relationship, Cavaliere said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Es6qBBrrhc
Back in those crazy ‘60s’ days of hits and rock stardom, Cavaliere had no time to think about a musical legacy or singing his songs 50 years later.
“We were too busy making records and touring to think about the future,” he said. “The music business is crazy, we didn’t have time for anything but working and trying to make hits.”
Today, Cavaliere is still on stage, still singing everything from “Good Lovin” to “People Got to Be Free.” And he’s still rocking.
“The hard part is the travel, but the best part is being on stage and seeing how the people still remember and react to these songs.”
History has given the Rascals’ music lasting relevance and the music remains a staple of popular music throughout the world.
I don’t think about my legacy,” Felix Cavaliere said. “I just think about the music