Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hello and thanks for joining me today. I know we’re going to have a terrific time together.
Now, if you’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air for a while, you’ll already know that I’m totally besotted with the music and the musicians of the 60s, 70s and 80s. I really love tracking down the artists and having a chat with them to get in behind some of my favourite songs. There’s always interesting stories to hear, and this week is no exception.
If you were around in the 60s, you’ll definitely know the name Felix Cavalier. He’s a legendary singer and songwriter whose message has always been one of peace, love and happiness. As the founder of the band The Rascals, Felix is a classically trained pianist who’d been destined to follow in his family’s footsteps and become a doctor.
As you’ll hear though, all of that changed when he first encountered the Beatles and switched from performing cover songs to writing his own material. I caught up with Felix Cavalier from his home in Nashville. I’ve been down here for quite a few years.
I came down here for the songwriting committee. What a legendary career you’ve enjoyed so far and still going strong. Felix, are you happy to walk me down the road a bit and tell me how it all got started? Well, how it got started? Well, it all started many years ago when my mother decided I had some musical talent and enrolled me in a classical music school, a very serious one for about eight years of my life.
That’s where it all started. And it went from there to Syracuse University and then from there to the Catskill Mountains. And this is where things started to really become interesting.
This group came in to work at the Catskill Mountains called Joey D and the Starlighters. They had a big hit in the early 60s called Peppermint Twist. One story short, I mean, basically, the group went, they went to Europe and their organist quit.
And they remembered me, called me up just as I was about to go back to university and invited me to play with them in Germany. And as luck would have it, there was this group opening for them called the Beatles. So I was able to see the Beatles before the United States saw them.
And that kind of opened up the door for me where I said, well, I think I can really do this. I think this could be not only musically, but it looked like a lot of fun. Gosh, the Beatles had such an impact on so many of today’s musicians, didn’t they? It’s incredible.
The more people I speak to, the more tell me how influenced by that band they’ve been. Well, you know, for many reasons also, besides the fact that they were brilliant, the doors that they opened up, for example, prior to them, and of course, people like Bob Dylan and a few others, no one really wrote their own music. You know, that was unique.
There are exceptions. Buddy Holly, I think, did and some of his group. But for the most part, they opened that door to all of us to become songwriters.
So they kind of gave you permission to do your own thing. Yeah. Prior to that, people would go to publishing houses and they would have professional songwriters write songs and then they would submit them to artists.
But that opened up a whole new career for many, many people to become songwriter artists. Okay. And that’s only one of the contributions.
Yeah. The other contributions, I mean, seriously, you know, from a radio point of view, radio in those early days was pretty strict. You know, they’re still pretty strict, but I mean, the rules were like, you know, you have to have an under three minute song and has to, you know, like be, you got to watch your lyrics and, you know, the type of music, the genre has to be pointed towards a certain demographic.
Well, when the Beatles put out a record, the radio stations had to play it. It was mandatory because otherwise people would tune in somewhere else. So they opened the door by, for example, Yesterday and Michelle for me to come up with How Can I Be Sure, which was a ballad in 6-8, you know, which was unheard of, but they did it, you know, so why can’t I do? For me, I wanna die.
But you know I wanna stay with you. How do I know? Maybe you’re trying to use me. Flying too high can confuse me.
Touch me, but don’t take me down. Those doors that they opened up, we’ll never be able to repay them. They were just so revolutionary then in so many ways, weren’t they? In more ways than just the fact that they had, you know, great songs and, you know, great singers, you know, much more than that.
They opened up so many doors. So you came home from having witnessed them before America even got a view of them, and you decided that you can do this. What happens next? Well, we had a little obstacle in those days called the United States Army.
We had to make sure that we had freedom of movement to not have to go serve the country at that time before we could start anything. But once that was kind of removed from my schedule, they were pretty choosy in the beginning. And so they passed you over.
I mean, that’s a very, very short synopsis of what it was like. It was pretty difficult, the fact that, you know, I was really very, very scared to go over to Vietnam. Fortunately, they thought I was not Army material, which was fine with me.
Yeah, it wouldn’t have worked. But anyway, so then I felt free to actually start a group and be part of something that had, you know, possibilities because I wasn’t going to be taken away from. So that’s when it actually started for me.
It was around 1964 and beginning of 1965. Music was always going to be your career, wasn’t it? There was never a question of doing anything else. No, that was not necessarily true.
I started off in pre-med at Syracuse University. My family were all in medicine of some sort. And I really had no idea that I was going to be, as I said earlier, my mom wanted me to be a classical pianist.
And I kind of rebelled against that because, first of all, I found it very difficult to play exactly what this 200-year-old person wrote instead of contributing my own ideas or nuances. And I wanted to create, but I guess that the part of the universe had different, different thoughts for me. So you’re back in 64 and you decide you’re going to form the band.
How do you find the guys? Well, again, you know, the band that I was with at that time, Joey D had a club in New York City and he had members of this band, two of which and myself became Rascals. Because when I was relieved of the commitment, I said to these two other gentlemen, the other singer was named Eddie Brigotti and the guitar player was named Cornish. Would you like to try this on our own? And they said, yes.
Now, the drummer that was with us at the time did not want to. So through this very lovely lady that I was seeing at the time, I met this phenomenal drummer by the name of Dino Dinelli, who was a perfect fit because he was just magic, really magic. And we started the band.
The band started and within six months of that date, we had a recording contract. It was a really good band that I’m really proud of because of the fact that they were all really good at what they did. So you were a hit from the get go.
Were you surprised by that? Well, I was surprised by everything in those days because, you know, as I say, I really felt that, you know, I was on a path that was kind of divine for me because I really had nothing to do with it except for the idea, you know, and it just happened and it happened. And it was just so fun, you know, because people struggle, struggle, struggle to do something that they’re not supposed to do. And it’s so wonderful when you don’t have to struggle to do something that you are supposed to do.
And you find immediate success by doing that. Your first hit was the 1966 cover of the Rudy Clark and Artie Resnick song, which actually celebrates its 55th anniversary this year. What made you choose that one to begin with? Well, in those days, the nightclubs were 21 and over.
So they had a rule, the people who are the proprietors, that you could not do original songs in those days. You had to do what they call covers, which means someone else had already recorded it and you’re, you know, playing it live for the audience. So naturally, again, you know, the constraints of creativity are tremendous when you have that.
So I would go out and I would look and search and find records that we felt we could play that, you know, I literally had to go to a music store and buy their records to prove to the proprietor that these were not our songs, that these were records that were out because some of them weren’t hits, see, but they were things that I heard on the radio that really caught my ear. Yeah. One of them was Good Lovin’, another one was Mustang Sally.
I think you go slow, you must hang down You keep on running around, my baby Half a put your big feet on the ground It’s alright All you wanna do is ride around me Sell it right, sell it right All you wanna do is ride around me Just ride, sell it right All you wanna do is ride around me Just ride, sell it right All you wanna do is ride around me Just ride, sell it right You’re gonna be wiping your weeping eyes It was not a hit at all when we first heard it. We took those and arranged them for the nightclub audience. Immediately, people let us know whether you had a hit or miss song.
Of course, it wasn’t a record yet, it was just a song played live, but you knew the way the audience reacted to Good Lovin’, everyone got up and danced. Well, a record company years later came and saw us play and said the same thing. We’re going to take that into the studio with you guys and we’re going to record it and lo and behold, it became the number one record.
What was the rationale behind nightclub owners not letting you bring original material into the club? Well, as I say, it was over 21 and they really were not interested at all in anybody’s creativity. They were interested in one thing and that’s selling liquor and making people come back. They had no musical, I don’t think, really idea of anything other than sales and they knew that if people recognized the song, they would probably get up and dance, get up and drink and there was really no market in most of the clubs, most of the nightclubs.
Now, there were exceptions, of course, down in Greenwich Village, New York, they would have the folkies, you know, they would do their own kind of song, but they didn’t command the type of audiences in those days that a nightclub would, which was a paying crowd, you know, with a cover and with liquor charges, so they were catering to that audience. It wasn’t very long after that, though, that you started writing your own material? Yeah, well, the idea was to do that all along, we just had to kind of prove ourselves and, you know, once you have a big hit record like that, the record company kind of pays attention to you. So, at that time when you did have that as a hit record and, of course, it did go to the top of the billboard charts, could you have gone back into the nightclub then and performed it because you’d already recorded it? Well, by then, the transition was taking place now because now you have Beatles and Stones and Kinks and Animals and people coming over here who are doing things that are to be their so-called records of tomorrow, you know what I mean? So, they’re new, but however, they’re not on the radio unless by them.
So, this was a period of change, this was a major change in the music business. Prior to that, as I say, everybody did covers, everybody did other people’s songs, but as the 60s progressed, that all changed. Don’t go anywhere.
Next up, Felix Cavalierie tells us about how the British invasion affected the Rascals in setting the bar way high.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. Thanks so much for being here with me.
I’m chatting with the founder of 60s band The Rascals, Felix Cavalierie, who tells us how things really took off for the band once he started writing his own material. I’m sure you’ll recall his very first original song, Groovin’. Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon.
Really couldn’t get away too soon. That’s the first one that really was a big hit. We had a song prior to that that was called Lonely Too Long that was a pretty good hit.
But, you know, it was a big challenge because you’re following a number one million seller, Good Lovin’, and you’re basically trying to write on your own. It was not that easy because, you know, first of all, we’re not professional writers. You know, we had to have really good luck, good fortune to be able to find a hit out of our own repertoire because it’s a pretty high level was out there in those days coming from England and places.
There’s always lots of things that we can do. We can be anyone we’d like to. All those happy people we could meet just groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon.
Really couldn’t get away too soon. No, no, no, no. She found your songwriting voice in a very big way.
Very fortunate. You know, we had a couple of near misses and we were fortunate to find a mother load. Well, groovin’ was huge.
What were you writing about? What was the inspiration for that one? Well, basically, there’s two aspects to every song. Of course, one is musical and one is lyrical. The musical part of it is, you know, we grew up in New York City area.
There was a tremendous Latin influence. You know, I mean, the music was everywhere and these people really supported their music. So I was exposed to it many times in my life and I put just a conga in this song.
Just no drums, conga. The record company went completely bananas. But, you know, it was a perfect idea because it fit the mood.
And as far as from a lyrical point of view, you know, what people really don’t understand or they do understand and don’t like it is the fact that musicians usually work on Fridays and Saturday nights. That’s the main, you know, time when most folk can go out. And our women friends hated that.
Of course. Because they felt completely left out. They were left time alone, yeah.
Yes. So the easiest and nicest thing to do is to tell you I love you on Sunday afternoon, you know. And so groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon became very, very popular with musicians.
And our women, thank God. So it was like a way of making amends, making it all okay for you to head out again on the next Friday night. It’s true.
I mean, you know, they have to sit around and they can either come to the show, which, I mean, after a while, I mean, you know, they don’t like. So, you know, I understand. So that was what was in your mind when that song came to fruition.
Yeah, I think, you know, that’s really the, if it was conscious or subconscious is another question. But that’s it. Sunday afternoon was our time.
Yeah. Oh, that’s so nice. You followed that one up with a string of other hits that you had.
How Can I Be Sure, A Girl Like You, A Beautiful Morning. Each one better than the next. Hard to pick between them.
I mean, you were just on fire. Yeah. Very fortunate.
As I say, when you hit that certain line, you know, where things are clicking like that. But again, you know, first of all, Atlantic Records provided an environment for us, just a perfect environment to make music. First of all, we were given free studio time, which is unheard of.
So we were allowed to stay in there as long as we liked and just make music. Second of all, I really wanted to produce the band myself, ourselves. I really did not want outside influence because I felt that there was something there that people liked that I really felt I could reproduce.
However, the audacity of that is ridiculous because of the fact we had no training. So Atlantic put two wonderfully talented human beings in the room with us. One was Tommy Dowd, who was a legendary producer and engineer.
And another one was a Turk by the name of Arif Mardin, M-A-R-D-I-N, who was sort of our George Martin. In other words, he was our musical thesaurus. We threw an idea at him and he immediately was able to put it into either an arrangement that fit or just something glorious that, you know, would command like, you know, wonderful ears to hear.
So we were very fortunate, very fortunate to have a very fertile environment to plant seeds. Of all of those massive hits that you had, Felix, is there one that’s closest to your heart? One that you could point to that’s your absolute favourite? I don’t know about absolute favourite, but I mean, seriously, you know, like there’s certain ones that, you know, you’re really proud of. You know, like, for example, when People Gotta Be Free became a hit, that was a direct result of an accident, actually, an assassination of Robert Kennedy.
I was working for him and I was dating a lovely lady who was actually present when that horrible event took place. And so it triggered an emotion of gotta say something, gotta make a statement, you know, it’s time to put our views on table so that people can see. And what I was so gratified by is that at that time, there were a number of places in the world that were oppressed, such as Hong Kong, such as Union of South Africa, such as Berlin.
That song became number one in all those places. And, you know, that has always been something that I’ve been very proud of. I was reflecting on that song just last week, People Gotta Be Free.
I thought he’s just so pertinent today. Also, with so many trouble spots still exist, not a whole lot’s changed. I mean, it’s kind of changed, but not changed, doesn’t it? Well, it’s time for a change, though.
I mean, I’m not too pleased with the state of the world right now. You know, I mean, our generation, we really tried our best to make some changes that would be lasting, you know, based upon a lot of kind of like consciousness of cosmic oneness, if not one of a better word. I don’t know that we’ve achieved that.
I think it’s gone a little bit further apart rather than closer together. And, you know, we really I really sincerely believe in that, you know, that we should all get together as human beings. We haven’t quite got there yet, to say the least.
To say the least. Who knows when that will ever be. I have to ask you, because I keep thinking about what your parents must have been thinking this whole time.
If they both wanted you to have a career in medicine, as everybody else in your family had had, what did they think about you branching into music? And did they become extremely proud that you were having hit after hit and their own kind of desires for you settled down? Well, my father survived. My mom did not succeed. Oh, I’m sorry.
My father, he, well, that’s probably the only reason I was able to leave classical music, because she was pretty, pretty strict about me learning the classics. But my father, he enjoyed it very much because of the fact that it was total phenomenon to him because it was very conservative type of human being. And he’s getting exposed to this mad, mad, mad world that I was part of.
But he enjoyed it because he was able to travel with me. Like, for example, during the World War II, he was in Hawaii while the Rasmus were huge in Hawaii. So I was able to bring him and many other members of my family over to the islands many times.
That’s one of the memories that I have of the whole band bringing their parents to places that they, you know, they dreamt of always going to like Hawaii and things like that. And, you know, he enjoyed it. Let’s put it like that.
Oh, I think I’ll go out and just smile. Just take in some clean, fresh air for a while. Got a sense to stay inside.
If the weather’s fine and you’ve got the time. It’s your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day. It’s a beautiful morning.
There’s a joyous occasion for most of it. You know, until as we got to the later years, when things started to get a little crazy, you know. I still get confused about when you changed from being the young Rascals to the Rascals.
Was it just because you got older? No, it basically there was there was a kind of a misunderstanding in the beginning. We started off with this idea for the name The Rascals. And as we approached the second record, which was Good Lovin’, our manager was given a notice that someone else had asked us to that name.
It was called the Harmonica Rascals. So unbeknownst to us, he changed it to The Young Rascals. And, you know, the name of a group, I mean, if you’ve been exposed to any kind of musicians, you know that the name of a group means a lot to them.
You know, it’s something that, you know, you don’t just take it out of it. So The Young always bothered, always bothered us. There’s a connotation to that with this television show called The Little Rascals, for example, which was on for many years.
So as soon as we established sort of like a credibility, I said, look, let’s go back to The Rascals. I understand that from a business point of view, it created some confusion. But it was a very personal thing, the name.
And why did you choose The Rascals in the first place? Well, that’s a great story also. There’s this television personality in the United States called Soupy Sales. I don’t know if you’re aware.
I’ve heard of him, yeah. Soupy was like a, he was almost like a kid comedian. In other words, he had a show on that basically was supposed to be for kids, but all of us loved it and adored it.
I mean, he was silly. So basically what happened is he had a hit record called The Mouse. Hey, do the mouse, yeah.
Hey, you can do it in your house, yeah. On the rug or on the wall. If you folks get bucked, do it in the hall.
Do the mouse, yeah. Let’s do the mouse. Come on and do the mouse with me.
We were being big fans. We were undiscovered. So we decided to go to the television station where he was broadcasting from and address him if he would need a band to go on the road.
He had a meeting with him in which it was historic because he started making jokes immediately about us. And, you know, he said, OK, everybody grab your wallets. Be careful, these guys around here, you know.
And so we started laughing. And then he asked us after we told him, you know, Super, you’ve got a hit record. Maybe you could use a band to go on the road.
And he said, you know, I never realized that I needed a band. But now you bring it up. What do you guys call? We didn’t really have a name.
So he said, gee, I know what I’d like to call you, but we couldn’t put it on a billboard. So he gave us this name, The Rascals. He could have just as well said The Cheeky Rascals.
He could have said whatever he wanted. We were ready. We had a ball with him.
And he said, look, you know, he says, I noticed that since we started, you laughed at everything I said. This could come in very handy on a show. So you worked with him for quite a while.
We didn’t really. It was a short lived thing. But, you know, it was something that, you know, I’ll always cherish because he was just a wonderful, wonderful human being.
He’s gone, of course. But it was a joy to work with Soupy Sales. Hey, do the mouse, yeah.
Hey, you can do it in your house, yeah. Be the first one on your block. Every cat will be in shock.
Do the mouse, yeah. Let’s do the mouse. Come on and do the mouse with me.
Soupy Sales with the Mouse. Soupy’s real name was Milton Suppman, and he was best known as a comedian, actor, radio and TV personality in the 60s. Soupy also made famous that old pie-in-the-face gag, which became his trademark.
Stay tuned. Up next, the Rascals founder, Felix Cavalieri, takes us for a walk through the 70s, and explains how the new decade brought with it lots of radical change.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. Welcome back.
We’ve been hearing from the Rascals’ Felix Cavalierie about the highs and lows he’s experienced since the 1960s. He’s told us about how the Beatles altered the course of music history by giving artists permission to write their own material. He’s recounted his disappointment with how much unrest still exists in the world today.
And he’s shared his feelings about the demise of the band brought about by Eddie Brigatti’s sudden decision to leave the group. It actually gets to the 70s now, and in 72, the Rascals disband. You haven’t been together all that long.
I mean, not even a decade. No. What’s the story there? No, we had a tremendous amount of success in a short time, yes.
Yeah? Yeah. So what happened that you broke up? Well, you mentioned the name Eddie Brigatti. I mean, we were going from Atlantic Records to Columbia Records.
We were free agents at the time. And one of the main reasons that we wanted to be on Columbia was that Columbia was an international label, whereas prior to Led Zeppelin coming to Atlantic, they were a different record company in every country of Europe, including Australia. We had a tough time because of that.
So Columbia would have given us the international presence that I really thought we deserved and I thought we should get. But I guess Eddie had a different idea. At the contract signing, he decided to leave.
Just like that? I’m out of here. To us, it was just like that. Now, it may not have been that way to him because he had also tried to leave earlier than that.
And I used to study very, very, very much with a guru from India during those years. And he was respected by Eddie and all the rest of the guys, the band. So we had a meeting.
And prior to his leaving for finalizing it, he had tried to leave about a year before that. But Swami kind of talked him into, this is what you’re supposed to be doing on this planet. This is why I got here.
So you really can’t leave what you’re supposed to do, can you? And he stayed. But it was in name only. He was unhappy.
I don’t really know the reasons why. But at that time, we were caught really totally off guard with the transition. After that, it just kind of really fell apart.
And I tried to establish a new entity, a new rascal. It’s not easy to establish a new thing when people are used to a certain sound and a certain way. You couldn’t replicate Eddie’s sound? I really wasn’t trying to replicate it because it was so different.
Each one of the rascals seriously had their own contribution to the total. It was a group effort, even though the songs were emanating from myself, primarily musically especially. It was a group.
It was a sharing. And when that wasn’t there, it took a different tangent. And I think the audience, I think I stepped maybe too far out with the music.
I took it way out. Because it was interesting because at that time, FM radio was popular. When we started, AM radio was popular.
So groups were doing long solos. They would have extended versions. It was changed again.
So I tried to do that. And I think the audience, I don’t know whether they liked it or not. I know that the albums that I did in Columbia are sold all over the world.
In Japan, especially, in Asia, we did very well. But we didn’t quite get that success that you get in the United States from the rascals. There’s no way it goes.
Man, you just don’t love me no more I can tell when it’s late at night That the feel’s not there like before Such a shame Alone By myself When your lips meet mine That our love’s washed up on the floor And I can see that your lovely eyes Don’t smile at me like before It’s a shame We could love By myself Alone And that was the end of The Rascals by 72. And you went off and had an extremely successful solo career following that. Yeah, I did.
It’s awfully difficult to follow a million-selling act. A few people, like McCartney’s done it, of course. Sting has done it.
But most of the people, even Mick Jagger, when they go out, people want to hear The Rolling Stones. But I have no complaint about it because I think it’s very important to be happy in life and feel loved and wanted in every way, shape, or form besides your pocketbook. And all those years that I spent afterwards, I’ve been so happy with that.
I mean, I’ve been with the band I’m with right now for 17, 18 years. It’s a joyous feeling, you know? Yeah. I’m speaking with Felix Cavalieri from The Rascals.
Felix, it must have been difficult, though, to ride that emotional rollercoaster. I mean, to at one stage be so, so high and then to come down off that. How did you handle that, or was Swami still with you and helped you deal with what was coming next? Absolutely, you’ve got it.
Basically, when I met the teacher, you know, I actually, you know, I met him the same time when George Harrison and The Beatles were talking to Maharishi. And I spoke to him about this. You know, he said he highly recommended that I do get involved with this more.
When I first met Swami, Satchidananda was his name. He was the gentleman who opened up the Woodstock movie that you see if you go on. I was really at the peak of my career, but I noticed the kind of lack of stability that the music industry provides for us.
You know, and I was very young, I was still in my early 20s, but I realized you’re only as good as your last record. Yeah. You know, there’s not, there’s tomorrow who may disappear at any time.
So I was kind of aware of it, you know. Yeah, luckily. Luckily.
Well, my father told me that as well. I mean, basically, he says, you know, if I’m a doctor, I’m a doctor my whole life until I decide to take the sign down. But you guys, you better keep making hit records.
Yeah. So it’s a very unstable platform to, you know, exist on. And that’s why parents always want you to have that solid career that you can count on until you’re 95.
And they’re absolutely correct. Yeah. So I was feeling like, you know, I was feeling like, oh my God, you know, why are these people around me? Because I’m so nice? No, no, because I’m making tons of money.
But if I don’t make, uh-oh, I better wake up or grow up. So I was prepared. So you were sensible with the money that you were making too? And you didn’t get taken advantage of? I was sensible with emotions.
I mean, I realised, wow, you know. And then being around a man like this, a holy man like this, really balances you in life because of the fact that, you know, I saw him receive, like, awards, like from the United Nations and things like that. And he just never blinked an eye.
It was just like, I’m still who I am before you gave me this. And I said, wow, that’s what I want to be. I want to be a level human being.
And, you know, as an Italian, that’s not the easiest thing to do, you know. Yeah. Hard to keep your feet on the ground no matter who you are.
Hard to keep your feet on the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, well, I’m so pleased to hear that you did manage to do that.
And in your solo career, you put out some fabulous records also, most notably with the guitar legend Steve Cropper, who I love. And you just recently celebrated his 80th birthday. I did.
Yes, I did. Yeah. He lives here as well in Nashville.
There’s quite a few of us here in Nashville. Yeah. And, my goodness, I’ve known him since those days when he was with, you know, the Memphis people with Booker T. And, you know, as a matter of fact, he recorded Groovin’.
They did Groovin’ as an instrumental way back when. But he’s been a friend for many years. And around here, the kind of tradition is instead of, you know, getting together and just having a drink, you get together and you write a song.
Much more productive. Exactly. And we have a ball doing it.
And there was a third party there who said, well, why don’t you guys go after a record deal? And we had not the faintest idea of that. We just were writing. But it worked.
So, you know, we did. And it was fun. It’s just if you can enjoy what you do, you’re way ahead of the game.
I’ve been lonely too long I’ve been lonely too long In the past, they’ve come and gone And I feel like I can’t go on Without your love I’ve been lonely too long Oh, lonely so long As I look back See me lost and searching Now I’ve found that I can choose I am free It’s funny, I just have to let All my trouble be torn in half I’ve been lonely too long I’ve been lonely too long In the past, they’ve come and gone And I feel like I can’t go on Without your love I’ve been lonely too long Oh, lonely so long But to see me now Makes it worth the time I’ve waited Cause she was all I needed Made me see I’m hoping with all of my might Everything gonna turn out right Cause I’ve been lonely too long I’ve been lonely so long You know In the past, they’ve come and gone But I feel like I can’t go on Without your love I’ve been lonely Oh, lonely so long Tell me, tell me, say It’s all fun for you now, and on it goes Well, you know, it’s fun I mean, obviously, it’s a lot different fun today We have a lot more hurdles For example, the pandemic, you know And, you know, there’s just The business has totally taken a turn to I’m not sure what You know, we have the streaming happening now Of course You’ve seen a lot of changes Tremendous changes Especially in the songwriting part Yeah I really wanted to jump on and be part of it It would give me a lot more home time as well But everything’s changed, you know And it’s a different world In all aspects, especially in the music business So you have to try to adapt to that You know, survival of the fittest And, you know, I enjoy most of it But, of course, the business part Is something that I have to channel out To someone who can help me with all that You’ve still got as much energy today As you had when you were younger Yeah, and most of us do I really find a lot of the oldie but goodie guys Gals, you know We’re kind of given a little more Than the average bear, you know We get a little bit like I did a tour with Ringo in the 90s And seriously, I mean You have to pull him off the stage I mean, he’ll stay there as long as You’ll listen to him, you know The joy of So what’s the secret to all that vitality? Well, I just think I’m not sure from a genetic point of view Or from All I know is that, you know If you really enjoy what you’re doing It’s easy You know, and of course Vice versa, if you hate what you’re doing It must be very difficult Felix Cavalieri Absolute pleasure chatting with you today Thank you so much for being generous With your time and Filling us in on all your stories It’s just been awesome Well, thank you, Stan I appreciate you as well And, you know, I’ve never been To your wonderful country Haven’t you? I would really love to get there one day So hopefully we can make that happen That would be great Because you’ve got a huge league of fans here Who would just like Nothing better than to see you Thank you so much for your time And be safe I thank you All the very, very best to you, Felix Thank you Bye now What a lovely guy I hope you enjoyed hearing From the rascals, Felix Cavalieri Is there a specific artist You’d like me to chat to? If so, please reach out through the website It’s abreathoffreshair.com.au And don’t forget If you’d like to catch up With some of the other artists That I’ve had the privilege Of speaking with lately Simply find the show On your favourite podcast platform And hit follow or subscribe I’ll leave you now By reiterating the words That Felix spoke I keep thinking about them People struggle so hard To do something When they’re not supposed To be doing it, he says But when you’re on the right path And it’s something you are meant to do It always comes easy And it’s so much fun Can you relate? Thanks again for being here I’ll look forward to being Back in your company Same time next week Have fun in the meantime, won’t you? Bye now