Fou Fou! Yeah. I know. What's a Fou Fou?

Or is that Fou-Fou?
Turns out, a Fou Fou is a pretty cool cat!
That's drummer, Clifton Eddie.

(Fou Fou (Clifton Eddie) and myself 2/7/14)

 

I interviewed him recently for an edition of an

arts' and entertainment show I produce, KVC-Arts.

This interview was a long time coming. One that started,

with another interview.

 

(Ray Brooks - 4/21/13)

I first interviewed Ray Brooks

for the 1st Annual Hi-Desert Music Festival in 2012.

In 2013, he played again and I was asked to come emcee a

portion of the festival. Clifton was Ray's drummer,

and I met him backstage when we were all eating.

 

(Fou Fou, Ray Brooks, Michael(?) - 4/21/13)

   

The interview that I did with Clifton was

some 9 or 10 months later. Unfortunately - this is

how it works sometimes.

 

Anyway - Clifton.

 

(KVCR's Rick Dulock and Fou Fou - 2/7/14))

 

Let's begin with how I started

the interview - by asking him where that
name Fou Fou came from. He was stationed in

France while in the Army Band in the early '60's.

He met up with a young French woman, who later 
showed up at the barracks one day while Clifton was
in the shower. He was quite surprised with her showing
up, as when he was... um... spending time with her, he
never really let her know where he could be found
otherwise. You know. Well, narrowing down
what base it was wasn't difficult, so
that day Clifton found himself
(in a towel) saying,

"Yes, I'll see you soon."

She was hollering back,

"Eddie Eddie Eddie! You always happy.
You always so fou-fou, so..."

 

So fou fou?
And that's all it took.

 

A saxophonist
in the band was in the barracks and heard it, 

and Clifton was known as Fou Fou from then on out.
Even after he got out of the Army. He had kind of escaped
it. But one night he was playing in a club in Chicago. The
place held some 500 or so, and it was packed! Between
songs, a bit into the night, after the applause died down somebody from the back hollered out,

"HEY FOU FOU!"

With that, Clifton knew two things.
One was that one of his buddies from the

Army band had made it to the gig that night. The

other is that the nickname was back. But he's

embraced it since. He said the relationship

didn't last, but the nickname did,

and he kept it in

honor of her.

Fou Fou had been banging on things

since the age of two, and that soon gravitated
to actual drums. In high school, it took a while,
but he eventually landed in the band as the drummer.
Clifton kinda had to wait for THE drummer to graduate.
That was Jack DeJohnette. After DeJohnette graduated, 
Clifton was then able to absorb and play jazz and pop standards for the rest of his time in high school, which unfortunately ended with Clifton getting into a bit of
trouble (he didn'e say, and I didn't ask - yet). He DID
say that it wasn't really a big deal, but one of the school
officials had it in for him, and he ended up facing one
of those "jail or the Army" options. So - he joined to
be in the Army Band. Problem is, when he went to
report, he was told that all of his records had been
lost. Lost? Actuallllly - Seems the guy that ran the
band had been caught fooling around with some
General's daughter. He was transferred, and
took all of the records with him.

Fou Fou, without a band, 

had to then pick a different MO.

He opted for Clerk Typist, completed that
school, and was sent to his NEW new station.
This station was an Army trucking unit, comprised
 of what Fou Fou described as the entirety of one, quite
racist, town in Virginia. His welcome wasn't that great,
based pretty much on the evidence of more melanin in
his system than they had, so they sent him out to learn
how to drive the 5-ton trucks. He learned that pretty
easily, but when it came time to start driving
ammunition trucks in Vietnam, Clifton
started grinding gears and stripping
transmissions.

Really, anything to show he wasn't the
right driver for the job.

 

They sent him back to the office,

where he was told he would just spend
a lot of time filing paperwork. Eventually they
asked what he DID, and even arranged for a transfer
to (finally) be in the band. While still encountering
problems due to racism, he was well received in the
band, as he could go from marching music,

to the jazz and big band arrangements
with which he was already familiar.

 

(Fou Fou - 4/21/13)

Fou Fou IS a multi-percussionist,

but is usually on the kit. As such, he's a guy
who often carries his sticks around with him.
After his stint in the Army, he's out for dinner with
his wife one night, and this guy notices the sticks, and
says hang on - I'll be right back. The guy went up on
stage and sang a few songs before coming back. One
of the tunes was quite probably "I Only Have Eyes For
You," as this was Tommy Hunt, who had JUST left the Flamingos. They arranged to meet later, and the next
thing you know, Fou Fou's on his way to The Apollo
in New York to perform his first professional
gig in the U.S.

 

He ended up being the drummer for The Dells,

and during this same period worked with Patti LaBelle,

Jerry Butler, Betty Evrette (The Shoop Shoop Song), and eventually became friends with Preston Epps, with whom he still works from time to time. Preston Epps was the one to
give us "Bongo Rock," a sound that eventually people
started calling surf-music. Remember this one?
Not sure? You probably do.

Click HERE for a reminder.

 

At some point, Fou Fou was in a band called

The Three (____). I'm gonna have to back to the

interview to fill in the blank on this one, but it was

apparently Maurice White's inspiration for Earth Wind

and Fire. Anyway, Fou Fou got a call about three in the morning, saying the band had book some gigs in LA and

was leaving soon. After they arrived, the band broke up,

and Fou Fou found himself landing roles here and there

in films and TV shows as - by golly - a drummer. Only

in the last year or so, he was part of a film called

Whiplash. This either just WAS, or is about

to GO to Sundance.

 

Clifton has a LOT of years of performance behind him,

and at the age of 65, I hope to God he has a buncha years

ahead of him as well. It's common enough to ask someone

in that position what kind of advice he'd like to pass on

to others. His was simple, really.

 

He said if you don't believe in what you're doing,

if your heart's not in it... don't do it. Plain and simple.

Before we closed he also took a moment to point out

just how much it pains him to see the manner of dress

in some performers today. He's of the era - or perhaps

simply the style - of dressing UP to play. Get suited

up, as it were. Go out there with some style.

 

(Fou Fou - 4/21/13)

 

When we did close,

he turned to the mic and said, "I love you all,

I thank all of you, and please - no matter WHAT you do today...

 

(Me and Fou Fou - 2/7/14)

 

 

...Use your turn signal when ya driving, okay?"

To me, THAT was a great close,

and Rick faded the microphones, as Fou Fou and I 

couldn't - stop - laughing.