Musically, 2006 has been the year of the elder statesmen, with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and T-Bone Burnett all releasing lauded albums.
So it is only fitting that South Africa’s rock’n’roll royalty, in the form of the Flames’s Blondie Chaplin has joined the throng, releasing his first solo album in 30 years.
The new album, Between Us, slipped on to shelves without much fanfare, because he is currently on tour with the Rolling Stones, helping them take their new album Bigger Bang to the world.
For Chaplin touring with the Stones is like “coming full circle”, having grown up in Durban in the Sixties and idealising the British rock band, which he used to listen to on Springbok Radio.
“Yeah, it is really funny,” says Chaplin. “I think I said that to Keith [Richards] not too long ago, it took me 40 years, because all I wanted to do was meet you guys and hang out and play and he said ‘better late than never’.”
But Chaplin’s famous band mates are just the tip of the iceberg in a career that includes musical collaborations with the Beach Boys, The Band, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes and David Johansen of the New York Dolls.
Between Us is a beautifully crafted, acoustically driven soul album, which demonstrates Chaplin has definitely not lost that rich voice Flames fans know so well.
Beautiful harmonies, acoustic guitar and gentle string arrangements intertwine to create an intimate experience, probably the most personal album that Chaplin has recorded to date. It is a real statement for an artist who last recorded his own compositions decades ago.
“What I like best about this record is its simplicity and purity. There’s not too much adornment,” says Chaplin. “It’s an album where you can hear the singer sing the songs, it is very honest.”
Chaplin recorded Between Us in New York more than a year and a half ago, with fellow South Africans Keith Lentin and Anton Fig, who originally performed with Chaplin in the early Nineties New York-based rock outfit Skollie.
Chaplin says he would love to return to South Africa next year to tour his new album. “I haven’t played in South Africa in so long, I just miss going there,” he says. “When you leave home when you are really young, you do lose a certain part of yourself. It still gnaws at me.
“I need to come home at least once a year. I mean, when I [first] left home I didn’t come back for 17 years because of apartheid.”
In 1968 The Flames, which comprised the three brothers Fataar and Chaplin, were one of South Africa’s most popular live acts, before deciding to head to London and take a look around.
“It was a pretty tough time with apartheid, we were very popular but it wasn’t easy,” says Chaplin. “The music kind of saved our lives, that was our focus, we knew what was going on and we used music to try and get out.
“We were green, we just got off the boat in Southampton. It was 1968 and everything was so exciting and new,” says Chaplin. “Things were pretty explosive at the time, we enjoyed it tremendously.”
In 1969 Beach Boy Carl Wilson acting on a tip off, went to catch a Flames live show in London, hoping to sign the band to their freshly launched record label, Brother Records.
Wilson was suitably impressed and soon The Flames were hightailing their way to Los Angeles to record their new label.
“LA was crazy,” says Chaplin. “England felt free after South Africa, as you can imagine, and Los Angeles was even more open.”
Having released one record on Brother Records, The Flames disbanded and Chaplin returned to South Africa with no future prospects, severely depressed.
Then out of the blue he received a call from the Beach Boys manager asking him to join the band, alongside Ricky Fataar, the Flames drummer.
Chaplin jumped at the opportunity, recording three albums with them and even singing lead vocals on Sail on Sailor, a track off the band’s 1973 album Holland.
From there the rest is history, a musical career that includes playing with the band, Bonnie Raitt, David Johansen and the Rolling Stones.