Little Village Foundation’s label has just released “Like I Said,” a posthumous recording by the legendary Barry Goldberg who died in January after a decade-long battle with cancer. Just a few weeks before his passing, Goldberg collaborated with guitar great Johnny Lee Schell (Phantom Blues Band) on a track for which Goldberg, then under hospice care, sketched out the tune he envisioned on a portable keyboard that was brought to his bedside. The track, conceived as a sinewy instrumental, is punctuated by Goldberg’s own voice uttering the phrase “Like I Said,” reinforcing the fact that the song is the realization of Goldberg’s musical vision. Any revenues realized by the recording now streaming on all digital platforms are earmarked to the care of his widow Gail Goldberg; had her husband lived, the two would have celebrated their 54th anniversary last month.
Listen to Barry Goldberg’s “Like I Said” through the streaming service of your choice
Barry had told friends and relatives that he had a tune in his head, an homage to early ‘60s soul/jazz instrumentals by the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver and Herbie Hancock, that he would title “Like I Said.” While Barry was too ill to go to the studio, the track was realized by fellow musicians Tony Braunagel (drums), the aforementioned Johnny Lee Schell, trumpeter Matt Von Roderick and Barry’s cousin Rob Feinfeld, the latter of whom is a physician and musician who helped catalyze the gathering. Sitting in a wheelchair, Barry played the basic chords he had in mind and was recorded singing/saying “Like I Said” on an iPhone. Schell hummed a melody he thought fit and Von Roderick joined in on trumpet. Feinfield commented, “We were all quite moved by the power of that little session. I promised Barry we would see to it that the song would be produced over at Johnny Lee Schell’s Ultratone studio and that it would get a release.” Schell wrote the arrangement and on March 7 the rhythm track was recorded with Schell, Braunagel and Mike Valerio on upright bass. A few days later, piano and organ parts by Carey Frank were incorporated as well as additional sax and trumpet by Joe Sublett and Matt Von Roderick. Less than a week later, Andy Garcia added five percussion instruments. All that was needed for release was mastering and a record label. This is when the help of Jim Pugh, founder of the Little Village Foundation, was sought. The Foundation is in essence a nonprofit record label that releases music that would otherwise be unheard, with proceeds from sales and streaming returned to the artists who own the intellectual property, with production costs, studio time, sessions fees absorbed by Little Village.
More about Barry Goldberg
In recent times, Barry Goldberg headed the Chicago Blues Reunion, a band that over the past two decades toured and recorded with an array of seasoned blues practitioners including Sam Lay, Nick Gravenites, Harvey Mandel, Corky Siegel, Tracy Nelson, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Vivino, Marcy Levy and others. Barry Goldberg, the centerpiece of the documentary film Born in Chicago, was in fact born in the Windy City on Christmas Day,1941. His mother Nettie Goldberg, née Nettie Becker, was a barrelhouse piano player in her own right and a veteran of the Jewish theater circuit. His father Frank Goldberg was one of eight children born to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrant parents, including US Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg.
While still in high school, Goldberg befriended guitarist Mike Bloomfield; the two often ventured from Chicago’s northern suburbs to the inner-city night clubs on the South Side where they, along with Paul Butterfield, Musselwhite and Siegel, became acquainted with, and were ultimately mentored by such first-generation blues legends as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, the aforementioned Sam Lay and others. Goldberg played live with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (which included his friend Bloomfield) when they backed Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when he “went electric.”
Goldberg’s relationship with Dylan transcended that historic moment as they would later go on to jam with Doug Sahm and The Band in Woodstock, NY. When Goldberg was on the cusp of signing a contract with RCA to record a solo album in 1973, Dylan told him to hold off until he spoke to Jerry Wexler at Atlantic. Dylan biographer Robert Shelton chronicled Dylan’s side of the ensuing conversation: “I’m on the phone with Jerry Wexler from Atlantic Records and I think we can work out a deal but I’m gonna have to produce you; that’s cool, isn’t it?” Barry’s response: “That’s really cool.” Barry Goldberg (1974) would become the only album Bob Dylan ever produced for another artist. When Wexler asked where the album should be made, Goldberg suggested Muscle Shoals, AL as that was where he had cut some of the fabled collaborations with Bloomfield that became the Two Jews Blues album in 1969 (which included Duane Allman). Some of the same players would also end up backing him on the Dylan/Wexler-produced project. Dylan, who had never been to Muscle Shoals, drove from California in his van with the ensuing sessions spanning five days and nights in August of 1973. Years later, Goldberg returned the favor when he produced Bob Dylan’s version of “People Get Ready” for Flashback, the feature film starring Dennis Hopper and Kiefer Sutherland for which he served as music supervisor.
As a session player, Goldberg contributed organ to Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels’ 1966 Top 5 hit “Devil With A Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly” and later worked on albums by Leonard Cohen, Ramones and Flying Burrito Brothers, among many others. His bond with Bloomfield continued as they formed The Electric Flag with Buddy Miles and Harvey Brooks. This band recorded A Long Time Comin’, a groundbreaking album for Columbia in 1968, and well as the soundtrack to The Trip, starring Peter Fonda.
Goldberg was the co-writer, with Gerry Goffin, of hits including “It’s Not The Spotlight” (Bobby Blue Bland, Rod Stewart) and “I’ve Got To Use My Imagination” (a #1 R&B record for Gladys Knight & The Pips; also recorded by Joe Cocker). Goldberg also co-produced with Saul Davis two award-winning Percy Sledge albums. He was co-writer with Gram Parsons of “Do You Know How It Feels,” recorded by the Flying Burrito Brothers. More recently, he toured and recorded with The Rides, a musical partnership with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Stephen Stills. Their two albums, released in 2013 and 2016, both hit #1 on Billboard’s Blues Albums chart.