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RELATED LINKS

• Ms. Baker's official site
• Article on Ms. Baker
• Ms. Baker on Soul Tracks
• Ms. Baker's "My Everything"

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Tavis: 10 years is a long time to wait for anything, but for fans of Anita Baker, and I'm certainly one of them, the wait is over, thank God. The singing sensation has released her first CD in 10 years. A disk, which already includes the hit single, 'You're My Everything.' The new CD is called 'My Everything.' And later on in the program we'll hear that voice, we'll hear Anita perform the first single. Anita Baker.

Anita: Tavis Smiley.

Tavis: Nice to see you.

Anita: Nice to be seen.

Tavis: How you doing?

Anita: I'm doing.

Tavis: You are doing.

Anita: I'm doing.

Tavis: Took you 10 years to do, but you are doing.

Anita: Oh, man, you know what. It didn't seem like it was that long.

Tavis: I'm glad you said that, because we were talking before you walked in here. It felt like 10 years to me because I wanted some new stuff.

Anita: Thank you.

Tavis: But Brian, my stage manager, was like, 'Has it been 10 years?' he said. 'They play Anita all the time. I've been hearing her every day for 10 years. It didn't seem like 10 years to him.

Anita: God bless him. Thank you all, radio. Thank you.

Tavis: What did you make of that? That you on radio never disappeared?

Anita: I, um... Things like that are just miraculous. You know, I've been in the music business for a very long time. I won't date myself specifically, but I really--I don't know what to say, except that I'm grateful. I don't know why. I'm just happy that they do. And--

Tavis: A lot of folk, respectfully, who have been in the business, to use your phrase 'for a long time,' most folk complain about the fact that they can't get radio airplay and for some reason, you've been favored by radio.

Anita: Again, it's some sort of anomaly. I really can't explain it. And I almost--I almost hesitate to try to--

Tavis: Try to figure it out, yeah.

Anita: Yeah, to try to figure it out because it's like, you know, maybe the fairy dust will leave. But that is an issue in the business where artists that deserve to be heard, you know, don't necessarily get all the airplay that they deserve.

Tavis: Well, you're awfully modest. I think your talent has just a little somethin' somethin' to do with it.

Anita: Oh, bless your heart.

Tavis: Now, I've been in this broadcast business since 1991. And I don't think that I've ever, and I shouldn't confess this, but I don't think I have ever been so anxious to get a project in my hands...

Anita: Ohh!

Tavis: ...that I went through and actually read the liner notes. Now, for those of you-- My mama's watching. She don't know what liner notes are. So the liner notes, you pull this thing out; mama, you open this thing up. It's a little book, that's got all kind of stuff in here about the songs, about Anita. Liner notes they call these things. And I'm just fascinating to walk through some of these liner notes, if I might. I've never done this.

Anita: Yeah, please. Sure.

Tavis: But I'm fascinating by some of the things these liner notes actually taught me about this project and about Anita Baker. First of all, I gotta tell you that, and I should confess this up front, I ain't heard the whole CD.

Anita: Oops.

Tavis: And the reason why I ain't heard it--

Anita: Uhh!

Tavis: Oh, I know, I know. Don't hate me, though. I haven't heard the whole CD because I'm stuck on song number two.

Anita: Oh, yay. OK. Yay!

Tavis: I can't get past--I was stuck on 'You're My Everything,' the first song, for, like, days.

Anita: Thank you.

Tavis: I finally, just a couple of days ago, I finally got to track number two 'How Could You Love Me Like That.'

Anita: Oh, my goodness.

Tavis: But I haven't gotten past the rest of them. So first of all, you know, next time you do a CD, put the worst songs at the bottom. Like number 10, 11 and 12, because I'm still stuck on number two. Having said that, you know how to work with some people who know how to do what they do well. I mean, it's almost as if, if you couldn't sing--with all these folks around you--you'd have to sound good.

Anita: Absolutely.

Tavis: What do you love so much about George Duke that you will not do a project without George Duke?

Anita: We don't do a project without George Duke. We do not do a project without Nathan East. We do not do a project without either Ricky Lawson or Steve Ferrone or Barry Eastmond. These are people, as you said, who--no matter who steps in that environment, something good is going to come out of it.

Tavis: Can they make me sound good even?

Anita: Absotutely. Posilutely. We have to call George and...

Tavis: They'd be working overtime, but they would--

Anita: He could do it.

Tavis: You know, George did the theme song for my radio show.

Anita: Absolutely. Absolutely. But these guys understand that even though I'm executive producer and Barry Eastmond is our producer and our leader, that this is a collaboration. For example, when Barry and I write a song and we record a demo tape, before we cut it, we play the tape for the musicians. And I mean, they will take what's on that tape, but then they will take it to another level. You know, you don't have to tell Nathan East what to play. You don't have to tell Steve what to play. When Barry sits at the piano, he plays with his 10 fingers and somebody else's 10 fingers. It's like another arms come out behind his back.

Tavis: Although I'm trying to juxtapose these two things because the word is that you are a control freak, that your stuff sounds so good because, even though people don't have to be told, Anita will tell you if she wants it to sound a certain way.

Anita: Well, I think that because--and that's true, but these are my friends, and I tell them in a way that makes musical sense. I don't go, 'Well, I want it like this and you need to do it this way.' I go, 'You know what?' For example, 'Men in My Life.' We were talking about an arrangement before we started, but I just felt unarranged as we were starting out. I said, 'Guys, you know what? Let's not have an arrangement. Let's just start, you know, at the intro and let's just vamp that and let's move as we feel like moving.' That's the way I tell these guys what I'm feeling. I communicate to them how I want to feel. It's like 'OK, Steve'-- You know, Steve is a freight train, I mean, he get there is and it's just a freight train, and you better get on if you can. But there are times when I'll say, 'Hey, Steve, you know, I just want to feel beautiful. I just... Just kiss me first.'

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Anita: You know, and we all laugh, and they know where to go. It's a collaboration. It's fun with these guys. And they--we all take direction from each other. You know?

Tavis: What was it like working with Babyface? You all have a duet on this CD, you and Babyface.

Anita: Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do.

Tavis: How fun was that?

Anita: That was just-- That was too easy.

Tavis: That's just too much perfection in one room is what it is.

Anita: That was too easy.

Tavis: You two together.

Anita: But, see, the commonality that brings us together in that room... And he articulated it. I didn't realize exactly what it was. But we're both romantics. We both approach a song from a romantic place. And we both kind of, you know, grew up around the same time. When we all sat--I mean, he flew into Detroit, Barry flew in, we sat on the floor for a day and a half. We just started talking about our favorite television shows when we were growing up. And so a lot of these--the metaphors out of that song come from just old television shows.

Tavis: 'Like You Used to Do.'

Anita: 'Like You Used to Do.'

Tavis: What is it about-- You mentioned that you and Babyface both love--you're both romantics. Anybody that knows your stuff, and clearly we all do, we've been waiting on it for 10 years.

Anita: Yay! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Tavis: Anybody that knows your stuff knows that you love a love song.

Anita: Oh, baby.

Tavis: Where, what happened? Take me back. What about you and love songs? Where did that connection come from?

Anita: I think--I mean, you know, I think we're each given various gifts. And as we play around with those gifts, we start to learn where our roots are. We start to learn what feels right when it starts to come through you. And, um, you know, I would love to be a political satirist, you know, with my lyrics. I would love to be more glib. I would love to be a lot of things. But when the music starts playing, and I need to write the lyrics, those are the things that come to me: love songs. And I don't try to fight it. I don't. I give into it. And so I think that's just my perspective, the perspective that I was given. And also, I mean, Tavis, when you hear an acoustic piano being played beautifully, or... When I hear musicians--when I feel musicians, I should say--love is what comes through me. You know?

Tavis: I was talking to a mutual friend of ours the other day. I'm not trying to drop names, but let me pick this up. Prince. I was talking to Prince the other day, who told me he had conversations with you some time ago.

Anita: Absolutely. Oh, yeah.

Tavis: And when I think about him, I think about you in this sense. You insist on, or obviously you--I shouldn't say insist, but you certainly get something out of writing your own stuff. There are a lot of folk who walk into a studio and can perform their stuff and/or somebody else's stuff. But I get the sense that you feel a lot more comfortable doing, not unlike Prince, what you write.

Anita: Um, I... You know what, and 10 years ago, I would not have said this about myself...

Tavis: Right.

Anita: ...because I was aspiring to be. But I am a writer. You know?

Tavis: You say that with confidence now?

Anita: I take it now. 10 years ago, I wouldn't take it. And I've always been growing towards that. And I enjoy that. Because, in writing my own songs, you know, people, when they hear this, they say, 'You know, it sounds just like you.' And the reason is because it came out of me. It's not someone else's interpretation of me. Barry and I sat and wrote these songs. And the songs that I wrote, they just came up out of me. And it's like you or any journalist, when that perfect metaphor starts to come through you and you just start to write, and it's out-of-body... You know what I'm talking about.

Tavis: Does it--is it-- How can I put this? Is it a bad thing, though? Is it not-a-good thing to sound like Anita Baker every time Anita Baker puts out a project? You know what I'm getting at here?

Anita: Uh, that's a good-- Wow, that's a great question.

Tavis: Every time you put something out, it sounds like Anita Baker. Is that--

Anita: Wow. That's a good question, and I don't ever really think about that. I just do what I do.

Tavis: I mean, obviously it's working.

Anita: But there may come a day, you know, where that's...'Oh, God, that's so boring. I so don't want to hear that again.' But when you surround yourself with people like George Duke, who's gonna produce the jazz record, that's gonna go someplace else, I hope. That's the whole idea of going into another genre, to find another piece of myself. If there's another piece there, I don't know.

Tavis: I'm sure there is. A lot more pieces there.

Anita: I hope so.

Tavis: Back to my liner notes. You did something in this jacket that I haven't seen done in a long time.

Anita: Uh-oh.

Tavis: Certainly not consistently. And that is--thank you for this, by the way--you actually shared the lyrics with me.

Anita: Yay.

Tavis: In the jacket, you told me what you were saying.

Anita: Yeah.

Tavis: Which I appreciate.

Anita: Right, 'cause I--and I know where you're going.

Tavis: I'm not goin' nowhere.

Anita: I know where you're going.

Tavis: I'm just saying, 'Thank you, Anita.' I'm just saying thank you for telling me the words.

Anita: See, I tend to... I've always--again, this is something I aspire to be. I want to sing jazz. I always have wanted to, it's in my heart. Don't know what's going to happen when I go there. But a word that just has maybe one syllable, like soul, when I sing it, it may turn into three syllables. So-o-o-oul. Four syllables. I sing what I feel. And I make the words go to the melody. Whereas if I were singing jazz, I could just scat and I wouldn't have to say the word. So I kind of stretch the syllables, and it's hard to know what I'm saying.

Tavis: I wasn't even trying to go there. But I appreciate the explanation. All I was saying is I love the fact that you value lyrics.

Anita: Ohh! Oh, my.

Tavis: That lyrics mean so much to you, so much so that you actually took space in the jacket, in the liner notes, to tell me what the lyrics are. So now, when I read it, the song even takes on greater meaning for me. Like, 'Oh, my God, that's wonderful.'

Anita: And people, you know, talk about the musicians and the vocals and the producers. But, good Lord, when I hear an amazing lyric, when I hear that perfect metaphor, it's like, 'Oh, why didn't I write that?' You know? And I have such respect for, again, the collaboration between the music, the musicians, and those lyrics.

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Anita: I mean, the passage that we're going through, 'You're My Everything,' does that melody and those words fit this musical composition that's underneath it? Do they all lock? Do they fit? 'Barry, what you think?' 'I don't know, Anita, let's play it again. Let's play it this way. I don't know.' It's all a collaboration. They all go together.

Tavis: It's organic.

Anita: It's very organic. That's the word.

Tavis: Good metaphor, see?

Anita: Absolutely.

Tavis: That wasn't really a metaphor, but these are word choices. Thank you, Anita.

Anita: Yeah.

Tavis: Back to liner notes here. Now I'm up to the point in the liner notes where you were writing in the liner notes, and you start your liner notes by saying--I love this gospel song-- 'My soul looks back and wonders how I got over.' I grew up in a church we sang that song all the time, 'My soul looks back and wonders how I got over.' What did Anita get over during these last 10 years when we weren't seeing her?

Anita: Wow.

Tavis: What's your soul looking back on and thanking God for getting through?

Anita: Amen. Two years ago my parents were dying, my kids were growing up, and I had to be a daughter, a mother, a wife, a nurse, and all during that, I was trying to be a creative person, which means three more hats: a producer, a writer, a musician.

Tavis: Performer.

Anita: Performer, yeah. And at a certain point, it became clear to me that all of those plates couldn't be juggled. I couldn't juggle all those plates in the air, so we basically had to step back from the business and the career side and do what pretty much everybody in my age group now is doing, is basically caring for aging parents. And some people are working two jobs while they're doing it. You know, I--I was fortunate that I had a lot of help. I'm not gonna, you know, sit here and be a martyr and say I didn't have any help, but at the end of the day, you know, just going through life, that four-letter word came knocking at the door. And along with that, you know, while you're running back and forth from the hospital and the nursing home and school and soccer with the kids, there's a husband-and-wife situation here that isn't being nurtured, you know, and that has to be fed.

Tavis: And it seems to me, no matter how much help you have, help can't help heal your heart.

Anita: Absolutely. Absolutely. Your parents are your parents.

Tavis: Right.

Anita: And, uh... At a certain point, you know, being a worker bee and growing up in Michigan, it's like, 'I can fix this.' I can fix everything. Because we just work and we can do stuff. Let me throw some money at it. OK, that ain't working. Let me throw all of my time at it. That's not working. Let me throw all of my passion at it. That's not working. And finally, my pastor told me, he said, 'You know what? You're just supposed to be here.'

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Anita: 'You're not suppose to do. It's not up to you to fix this. It's just up to you to be here with them while they pass through.' You know?

Tavis: I got three minutes left.

Anita: Oh, no! Boo.

Tavis: I know. And I'm not going to mess up this time thing because I got to hear you sing this song. So, I ain't gonna mess that up. So, in the 2 minutes and 30 seconds we have left, let's hit it and quit it. Let's take it to the bridge. All right.

Anita: All right. Drop me off.

Tavis: You said--you mentioned Michigan.

Anita: Yes.

Tavis: Your hometown has recently gotten some bad play. 'Playboy' magazine did a really nasty story about Detroit. I talked about that on my NPR show. But you love Detroit.

Anita: Heck, yeah.

Tavis: You still live there. Why do you love Motown? Why do you love the Motor City? I love it, but why do you love it? You still live there.

Anita: All the good stuff that I am, that's in me? That's where I got it from.

Tavis: Brian's lovin' this. My stage manager, he's got his Michigan hat on right now..

Anita: You can walk through... Growing up in the heart of Detroit allowed me to walk through New York, allowed me to walk through L.A., allows me to walk through pretty much every door that I walk through: black, white, Hispanic, whatever. It's a melting pot. I get to know people.

Tavis: There's one thing on this CD, these liner notes, that I cannot forgive you for.

Anita: Uh-oh.

Tavis: I love you for being from Detroit, and I love you for--

Anita: Ha ha ha! I know.

Tavis: Now you know where I'm going. But you got a whole lot of nerve.

Anita: Oh, my gosh.

Tavis: You got a whole lot of nerve to put this in here and then come to Los Angeles and expect to be on my show.

Anita: Bless him, Lord.

Tavis: She gives a shoutout to 'Detroit, Michigan, my home, my very heartbeat...'

Anita: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tavis: ...and to 'The NBA world champion Detroit Pistons.'

Anita: Whoo-whoo, yeah, yeah.

Tavis: Now, with that note, you ain't got to go home, but you got to get the heck out of here. You can't come in here and-- How much do you love the Pistons? How great was that for your city?

Anita: Oh, amazing. Amazing. But again, it's that--it's the work ethic. It's the blue-collar town. There's no hype. It's just real. We go to work. That's all.

Tavis: And your music is real.

Anita: I want it to be.

Tavis: That's why I love Detroit.

Anita: Yay!

Tavis: You real, the music is real. How do you all live in Detroit?

Anita: Eminem...

Tavis: How do you all fit in the same city?

Anita: Nobody leaves. Ted Nugent is still up north, Bob Seger's still in Detroit. I can't speak for them, but I just feel right. You know, in any other town it feels like I'm walking left, left. When I'm at home, I feel like I'm walking left, right, left.

Tavis: What feels right for me is this new CD by Anita Baker, 'My Everything.' I suspect now people might pick this up and actually read the liner notes.

Anita: OK.

Tavis: Now that we've kinda walked through them. But if you don't... You ain't gotta read the notes, but just listen to the notes on the new CD, 'My Everything.' Anita Baker is back. She's going to perform to us in just a moment. A very special performance. You're going to sing the title cut.

Anita: Absolutely. 'My Everything.'

Tavis: 'My Everything,' coming from Anita Baker in a moment. Stay with us. From the new CD, 'My Everything' here is my girl Anita Baker, singing 'You're My Everything.' Enjoy. Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith. Do your thing, Anita.

Anita: Thank you.