we don’t want to look cheerful.”
“And then what? We can’t come back here,” Money insisted. “That’s not much of a plan.”
“I don’t know. I’m going to make some calls. I’ve got a few ideas.”
“I don’t trust you, Lament.”
“Yeah. So you’ve said. I don’t trust you either, Money,” I hissed, nerves shot. “And I sure as hell don’t need you. So you can be quiet or you can stay here. Doesn’t matter to me.”
“You’d like that, huh? Having Esther all to yourself? Leaving us here with the mess you made?”
“Money, stop,” Alvin chided. “Benny and Esther are the whole show. Nobody’s coming to see us. Esther can sing . . . but she needs Benny. We all do.”
Esther zipped her valise closed and pointed at Money. “You couldn’t have done what Benny’s done. We’re on the radio, and we’re opening for Ray Charles. He did that. He’s the boss. So shut up.”
“You choosing him, baby sister?” Money asked. “Or have you just decided you’re not our sister after all?”
Esther flinched again, and my hands formed fists. Money Mine was an asshole. “You want in, or you want out, Money?” she asked, her voice low. “Decide now.”
He stared at me, sullen. I stared back, and Gloria prayed, though I wasn’t sure who she was praying for.
“When opportunity comes along you take it. You don’t wait for the next bus,” Esther warned. “This bus is pulling out.”
“You aren’t going to stop the train, Money. So you’d best get on board.” Alvin added a metaphor of his own. He made a motion like he was tooting a horn. “That sounds like a song lyric, doesn’t it, Benny?” He was smiling again, his good humor restored. Nothing seemed to get him down. But I felt like throwing up.
The Barry Gray Show
WMCA Radio
Guest: Benny Lament
December 30, 1969
“It’s hard to describe to the audience what happened in a very short span of time,” Barry Gray says. “People were talking about you two. Everyone was talking about you two. It wasn’t just your music. It was you. Esther Mine and Benny Lament. It was your story, Bo Johnson’s story, and Maude Alexander’s story all colliding in spectacular fashion. You can’t buy that kind of exposure. I like to think I had something to do with it, that WMCA radio had something to do with it, but the truth is, you two exploded onto the scene. And once you captured public attention, there was no stopping it.”
“It was Pandora’s box,” Benny Lament says.
“Like your song?”
“The secret’s out, everybody knows, people are watching wherever we go,” Benny sings the popular lyrics. “We wrote that one in the car on the way to Pittsburgh, along with quite a few others.”
“You wrote it in the car?” Barry Gray laughs.
“Esther and I were always writing. It was constant. It was how we communicated best. We were either writing or arguing. Sometimes both at the same time.”
“So the tussle is real . . . it’s not just part of the act?”
“We have always worked off each other in a way that was so natural that we didn’t have to plan the give-and-take. In fact, that might have ruined it. The verbal wrestling kept us sharp, and it actually saved us both from breaking during what was a really stressful time. We always had a strong set, but the order was never set in stone. We both had the freedom and prerogative to change it up to make a show work. The band just learned to keep up.”
15
LINES
We left New York before daybreak Monday morning, loaded in my car. Money, Lee Otis, and Alvin in the back seat, and Esther beside me. Lee Otis’s drum kit and the other instruments were tied up top and we each had a bag in the trunk. I had the money from Pop’s wake—it wasn’t insignificant—and the money from his mattress, which would take care of the cost of cutting an album and mass distribution. I hadn’t been able to withdraw any money from my account, but I could write a check if I needed to. I wasn’t worried about money. Money—the brother and the bank—was always a pain, but it was the least of our problems.
Sal told me to lie low, but we weren’t going to. After Pittsburgh, we would head to Detroit. I had to talk to Berry Gordy and convince him to let me buy studio time without using the Motown label. I didn’t want to bring the devil down on his back. His was the