Dennis Bowles
11-12-2012, 12:26 AM
Dr. Beans Bowles was musical director for Smokey Robinson & The Miracles back in the seventy's for about 6 years. In and interview taken from the book [[Dr. Beans Bowles "Fingertips" The Untold Story),
Smokey payed Tribute to Beans Bowles.SmokeyRobinson: http://soulfuldetroit.com/webkit-fake-url://44F06B5E-6034-4505-BB2A-329BE74E9C1B/image.tiff :o:o
http://soulfuldetroit.com/webkit-fake-url://00174B40-1F18-4194-BFDE-3C38A5634CFF/image.tiff
“Beans, I just want to say I love you and I want to thank you for being such a big part of my life! We’ve been down a many of roads together man and we’ve had some wonderful times. We know that you are the first hot pants conductor in the history of show business. And I’ve still got that film and I look at it from time to time and I see all of the fun we were having and all the things we did together. And your contribution to what went on at Motown all of that stuff is irreplaceable man. So I just had to take the time to pay tribute to you. You’ve been my brother, my father, my friend and my adviser, many things man, and I appreciate you so much. “I love you”!
Everyone at Motown remembers the first tour of 1962, Most of all Beans. “I was everything on that tour. I was road manager, chaperone and diplomat. This was our first major tour. We played 55 one-niters. It was too long, too hard and too big. We had crammed 45 people onto one bus. Of course tensions ran high. By the time the tour was over, there wasn’t a single good nerve left among the musicians and crew. The musicians, who always sat in the back of the bus, smoked reefer and exhaled out the window”. Melvin Franklin of the Tempts recalls, “Attempting to sleep in an overhead luggage rack”. The revue nearly cost Beans his life. On a deserted stretch of the interstate between Greenville, South Carolina and Tampa, Florida, driver Eddie McFarland fell asleep at the wheel. “We were performing in Greenville and everybody was packed up and on the road before I left. Marv Johnson, Smokey, Claudette Robinson and Marvin Gaye all wanted to ride with me”. Motown had purchased a heavy duty white Buick La Sabre for this road trip. It had everything on it. “We went to the General Motors Company and asked them what the strongest car they made was, because we were going to go on all kinds of road. I usually did the payroll in the backseat at night as we traveled. When I told all the headliners no, they were mad as hell”. Smokey told me: “Ain’t nobody in that big car but you. You got it all to yourself”. Marvin Gaye went off. “You ain’t up on that damn stage every night. I’m going to call Berry and see why we can’t ride with you”. Beans would not relent. “Forget it. I got paper work to do. Get on the bus. The disgruntled quartet joined their fellow musicians in the rickety bus. When they got to Tampa, they found out I wasn’t going to get there”.
When Beans left Tampa, he noticed that McFarland didn’t look right; yet McFarland refused to give Bowles the wheel. “I had chewed him out the week before in Virginia because I had to drive. He was out partying when he should have been resting up for the drive on the road. In Greenville, I left him at the motel and told him to get some sleep. We went to the arena and did the show. Apparently, somebody came by and got him and he went off somewhere drinking that bootleg whiskey. Then it was time to pick me up. He had started taking No-Doz. I was in the back seat. After I finished the payroll, I played the flute for a little while. Then I dozed off. When I woke up my flute was jammed between my eyes”. Beans had been slammed into the front seat. He was rapidly losing blood. McFarland had fallen asleep and ran head on into a semi truck. [[excerpt from the book "Fingertips" The Un-Told Story!)
www.beansbowlesfingertips.com [[http://www.beansbowlesfingertips.com) E-book Amazon.com/beansbowles
Smokey payed Tribute to Beans Bowles.SmokeyRobinson: http://soulfuldetroit.com/webkit-fake-url://44F06B5E-6034-4505-BB2A-329BE74E9C1B/image.tiff :o:o
http://soulfuldetroit.com/webkit-fake-url://00174B40-1F18-4194-BFDE-3C38A5634CFF/image.tiff
“Beans, I just want to say I love you and I want to thank you for being such a big part of my life! We’ve been down a many of roads together man and we’ve had some wonderful times. We know that you are the first hot pants conductor in the history of show business. And I’ve still got that film and I look at it from time to time and I see all of the fun we were having and all the things we did together. And your contribution to what went on at Motown all of that stuff is irreplaceable man. So I just had to take the time to pay tribute to you. You’ve been my brother, my father, my friend and my adviser, many things man, and I appreciate you so much. “I love you”!
Everyone at Motown remembers the first tour of 1962, Most of all Beans. “I was everything on that tour. I was road manager, chaperone and diplomat. This was our first major tour. We played 55 one-niters. It was too long, too hard and too big. We had crammed 45 people onto one bus. Of course tensions ran high. By the time the tour was over, there wasn’t a single good nerve left among the musicians and crew. The musicians, who always sat in the back of the bus, smoked reefer and exhaled out the window”. Melvin Franklin of the Tempts recalls, “Attempting to sleep in an overhead luggage rack”. The revue nearly cost Beans his life. On a deserted stretch of the interstate between Greenville, South Carolina and Tampa, Florida, driver Eddie McFarland fell asleep at the wheel. “We were performing in Greenville and everybody was packed up and on the road before I left. Marv Johnson, Smokey, Claudette Robinson and Marvin Gaye all wanted to ride with me”. Motown had purchased a heavy duty white Buick La Sabre for this road trip. It had everything on it. “We went to the General Motors Company and asked them what the strongest car they made was, because we were going to go on all kinds of road. I usually did the payroll in the backseat at night as we traveled. When I told all the headliners no, they were mad as hell”. Smokey told me: “Ain’t nobody in that big car but you. You got it all to yourself”. Marvin Gaye went off. “You ain’t up on that damn stage every night. I’m going to call Berry and see why we can’t ride with you”. Beans would not relent. “Forget it. I got paper work to do. Get on the bus. The disgruntled quartet joined their fellow musicians in the rickety bus. When they got to Tampa, they found out I wasn’t going to get there”.
When Beans left Tampa, he noticed that McFarland didn’t look right; yet McFarland refused to give Bowles the wheel. “I had chewed him out the week before in Virginia because I had to drive. He was out partying when he should have been resting up for the drive on the road. In Greenville, I left him at the motel and told him to get some sleep. We went to the arena and did the show. Apparently, somebody came by and got him and he went off somewhere drinking that bootleg whiskey. Then it was time to pick me up. He had started taking No-Doz. I was in the back seat. After I finished the payroll, I played the flute for a little while. Then I dozed off. When I woke up my flute was jammed between my eyes”. Beans had been slammed into the front seat. He was rapidly losing blood. McFarland had fallen asleep and ran head on into a semi truck. [[excerpt from the book "Fingertips" The Un-Told Story!)
www.beansbowlesfingertips.com [[http://www.beansbowlesfingertips.com) E-book Amazon.com/beansbowles