I'm a fan of Frank's but have been dismayed with his many rants against former associates and record companies he's been signed to. He recently put out a CD-R of his unreleased Motown album from '95 which, quite frankly, was awful sound quality wise to the CDR bootleg I previously had. I then read this posting on his site from Steve Harvey (also on his blog at MySpace)...

Frank Mc Comb - the real truth!!

And now Ladies & Gentlemen - The real truth!

There are two sides to every story. Up until now, the world has only heard one.....

In 1995 Steve McKeever, then CEO of Motown Records, approached Steve Harvey to produce several tracks on an artist he'd signed, Frank Mc Comb. McComb had recorded an album with Terry Stubbs and his production company, but McKeever was not thrilled with the outcome. It was decided to shelve the record and start over again. McKeever had been impressed with the album Harvey had just produced on the duo Impromp2 for the MoJazz division of the label. McKeever was confident he could repeat the chemistry with Frank. Harvey had the concept in mind to make a modern day "Breezin", the classic George Benson album, and he brought in an impressive line up of musicians, some of whom played on the Benson classic like legendary Drummer Harvey Mason. In addition, Harvey helped write several songs. That record later became widely known in soul music circles as the "Motown Sessions". Unfortunately, the project was to never see the light of day. Circumstances at Motown changed and Steve McKeever left the label before the album was complete. As is customary when the head of a label exits, there was a shake up of staff and acts. Frank was subsequently dropped from the Motown roster.

Harvey and Frank were disappointed with the turn of events as they were left with half-finished songs and an insufficient amount of tracks for a full album. However, Harvey believed so strongly in Frank's talent that he made the commitment to continue on with the album at his own expense. For the next year, Frank would come to Harvey's Scotland Yard studios to record with Harvey and bassist Bobby Watson. They recorded hours of music to 24 track tape. As a result of these efforts, they had the makings of a finished album. Although the album still needed to be polished and mixed, a small number of "rough" copies were distributed amongst several A&R executives to solicit a deal for Frank. Several parties were extremely interested in the project including Kedar Massenburg, then of Universal and Chris Swartz, then of Ruffhouse/Columbia. Around the same time period Frank started doing gigs with various artists on the road to survive. One day, out of the blue, Steve got the call from Frank stating he was extremely frustrated by the experience he'd had thus far in the music industry and decided to shelve the concept of being a solo artist. Instead, Frank said that he was going to concentrate on being a sideman for a while. That was the end of that.

Subsequently, Frank and Steve lost touch. Frank, through his affiliation with Branford Marsalis, signed a new recording deal with Columbia and recorded the "Love Stories" album. Simultaneously, Steve had moved on to produce projects on Brigette McWilliams, Bebe & Cece Winans, Donnie and a host of other acts. As the years passed, several copies of the Motown sessions album emerged and started to circulate in the UK. Very frustrating for both Frank and Steve because there was no way for either of them to be compensated for the bootlegs. Expansion Records and several other labels unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with Motown to get permission to release a "proper" version the "Motown Sessions" to negate the bootleg copies in the marketplace. Occasionally Frank and Steve would cross paths in Los Angeles and agree that the situation was a drag, but there was little that they could do.

While Steve was enjoying success and critical acclaim for his contributions to Donnie's "The Colored Section" album on Giant Step/Motown, he was introduced to manager and entrepreneur Matthew Morgan. Matthew expressed interest in investing in a recording project of Harvey's choice for a joint venture label deal. Together, the two formed the "Malibu Sessions". Steve sold Matthew the idea of doing a brand new album with Frank and after hearing some of the Motown session recordings, Matthew agreed. At this point, Frank McComb had long been out of his deal with Columbia. Matthew and Steve approached Frank and his then manager, Allen Golden, and offered him a two album deal with a sizable advance and recording budget. Frank happily signed the deal and received his advance. Over the course of the next six months, Steve, Frank and Bobby Watson collaborated and created "The Truth Volume One".

Expansion Records in the UK was the first label/territory to begin selling "The Truth" and it was well received in the soul music world garnishing rave reviews. Expansion alone sold over 20,000 copies of the record and it was clear that "The Truth" was the beginning of a new era for Frank.

"The Truth" was a labor of love. Steve Harvey toiled tirelessly on the record as a musician, producer, arranger AND mixer. Additionally, Harvey had performed live shows with Frank as a drummer and paid his own expenses on tour with Frank throughout Europe. To this day, Steve Harvey has never made ONE DOLLAR from "The Truth" album and still remains in the red for tens of thousands dollars of his own money personally invested into the project.

Unfortunately, the success of "The Truth" turned out to be short-lived. Somewhere along the journey, Matthew and Steve became the enemy in Frank's mind. To this day we do not fully understand how or why? After investing a large amount of money (still unrecouped) as well as a massive investment of time and energy to help put Frank back into the spotlight, "Malibu Sessions" was never given the decency of a phone call to explain any grievance man to man.

With Frank's telephone numbers constantly changing and the never-ending cycle of hiring and firing of managers making it impossible to communicate, we were left completely in the dark. We only became aware that something had gone wrong when we were informed that Frank had begun bootlegging "The Truth" and selling them on CDR's at his shows. It was clear Frank was in breech of his agreement with the "Malibu Sessions" and in addition he owed us another record, "The Truth Volume Two", that he had already been paid for in his initial advance.

Our only option left was legal. However, after much deliberation we decided to take the high road and let "Karma" take care of the situation. Unfortunately, the following year we witnessed an emboldened Frank releasing a new album, "Straight From The Vault", through his website and now ever-growing bootleg operation at live shows. Again, we decided to leave it alone.

However, upon the "release" of the "Bootleg" album, a line had been crossed.

Public insults at shows, talking mess to other people in the "business", subliminal disses in interviews, Internet message-board/blog posts full of lies, spin and misinformation were personally very hurtful - although ultimately ignored and un-responded to. However, the blatant THEFT of the "Motown Sessions" master recordings that Steve, Bobby Watson and others had personally invested time and money in was completely unacceptable. How could someone who references "snakes in the music business" in every interview stoop to such a low level as to STEAL music that they fully knew did not belong to them, with neither paperwork nor permission to release? In addition there was no publishing credits on the bootleg or any arrangement set up with BMI or ASCAP to pay any royalties to Steve for mechanicals etc on publishing money due from sales.

"The Malibu Sessions" has the full legal right to release a second Frank McComb album. Having not personally heard from Frank over a long period of time and in direct response to his "Bootleg" CD-R, we have elected to release all of the unreleased masters (properly mixed). In other words, the finest quality versions representing the music of Steve, Bobby & Frank. Because the "Bootleg" CD-R's audio quality leaves something to be desired. And because it contains no musician credits and publishing information, it was a logical step for "The Malibu Sessions" to release the "definitive" version of the the "Motown Sessions" as "The Truth Volume Two".

We will no longer remain silent. We will no longer turn the other cheek and watch property that we helped create be unscrupulously stolen all-the-while Frank delivering his one-sided fairy tale & fabrication of "the truth".

Our truth is this. As artists, we will always have our creative and artistic differences. These artistic differences often lead to the creation of GREAT art. However, there is an honorable way to conduct oneself in business and an obligation to communicate with the people that have:

1. Had your back over a LONG period of time.
2. Put money in your pocket when no one else would.
3. Put their professional names on the line for your behalf.

People with integrity work in earnest to iron out any grievances. Unfortunately, that has not occurred in this instance. We only ever had the best intentions toward helping Frank succeed. Even though I truly feel that Frank betrayed those intentions, I recognize and respect his genius as a singer, writer and piano player. I will continue to keep him in my prayers and truly hope that one day he will metamorphosize into the butterfly he certainly has the potential to be.

Bottom Line. The music speaks for itself. "The Motown Sessions" and "The Truth" have been consistently regarded as the finest examples of Frank's recordings to date.

Perhaps, Frank should re-examine the lyrics to his own song "Fools".

A self fulfilling prophecy perhaps?

Only "The Truth" will set you free Frank...God bless you and may you enjoy all the success in the world!

Your biggest Fan.

Steve "The Scotsman" Harvey

I then checked on this forum to see that Ralph Tee (from Expansion Records) had left a post re-emphasising Steve's points. Anyway, all these posts have now been deleted. Do any other Frank fans know the truth about this all? All I know is that I won't feel guilty buying "The Truth Vol. 2".

Mong said:

Me either! It's sad, because I'm a big fan of both Steve and Frank, especially since there so few artists with that feel for real soul music....but I have no idea why Frank would make a turn like that.... And I was really suprised at the bad sound of Frank's version of the "1995 bootleg".....






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[Edited 11/3/06 12:15pm]

Wow. Thanks 4 the post. Up until now, I have only know Frank's side of the story. Interesting.

I'm going 2 ask Frank about this.
[Edited 11/3/06 12:31pm]