In 1991, the group made its first of a series of recordings for Epic/Sony, titled Monster on a Leash. The rest is history from "What is Hip?" to "Don't Change Horses (In the middle of a stream)" to "Soul Vaccination." Tower went through a down period in the 80's, but never disbanded and kept performing. The group was soon a fixture in the Bay Area music scene, and in 1970 cut their first record, East Bay Grease, for the legendary Bill Graham's San Francisco Records. The first song the pair penned was the band's signature classic, "You're Still a Young Man." we clicked immediately." Out of their partnership came the beginnings of the Tower of Power repertoire. "He loved soul music and that was my passion…. "Doc was the strangest bird I'd ever met," Castillo recalls. He changed the group's name to Tower of Power and discarded the sharkskin suits and razor-cut hairdos, but kept the sound and began writing original material with Kupka. In 1968, Castillo hooked up with baritone saxaphonist Stephen "The Funky Doctor" Kupka and the two moved to a house in Oakland determined to compete with the Bay Area's reigning psychedelic rock bands. You have to experience it for yourself, and then, as Tower fans say, "seein' is believin'.īandleader Castillo, whose heritage is half-Mexican and half-Greek, was born in Detroit, then moved with his family to a working class neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area's Fremont, a place he calls a "hot rod town." There, at 17, he formed a band called the Motowns, performing obscure soul tunes on the East Bay circuit. Says founding member and saxophonist Emilio Castillio, "What Tower plays is urban soul music." Former lead singer Brent Carter calls it "old school funk with new school flavor." And says former Tower saxophonist Lenny Pickett, now musical director for the Saturday Night Live television band, "TOP is the world's greatest rhythm and blues band." In reality, Tower of Power's horn driven, in-your-face sound is all its own, and verbal descriptions fail. It has always been difficult to describe TOP's music even band members, when asked, give a myriad of responses. It has been a long, hard road, but lately, things just keep getting better and better. Now, Tower of Power is experiencing a renaissance, touring most of every year and packing venues in the United States, Japan and all over Europe with its audience of new and old fans. They performed on records with the likes of Elton John, Smokey Robinson, Rod Stewart and Dionne Warwick, and influenced a generation of musicians (including Sting, who has told Emilio Castillo, founder of the group, that he once had a "Tower of Power clone band" before he formed The Police). (Someday you'll understand just what it means when a man comes to you with his whole heart in his hands just to love you) You're still a young man baby Oo oo don't waste your time.With almost 40 years of recording and touring experience behind them, Tower of Power still garners reviews calling them a "very contemporary sounding band." Melding jazz, funk, rock and soul in a way no group ever has, the ten-piece outfit is, as a recent Hollywood Reporter review called them "tighter than a clenched fist." Well known in the 70's for tunes such as "What is Hip?" and "You're Still a Young Man," Tower of Power toured with Sly Stone and Creedence Clearwater Revival, creating traffic jams when they started to headline their own shows. (I'm not a young man baby and I don't feel that I'm wastin my time, not when it's you girl you better believe) You're still a young man baby Oo oo don't waste your time. You're still a young man Baby Oo oo don't waste your time. The damage is done You see that you were wrong You wake up wonderin just How well I've done Well I've done alright Yes there are some girls but you know I dropped them on site Just for you Becuase I love you.
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