via BroBible
You’ve heard Charlie Bereal play a hundred times. You’ve just never known his name.
The Grammy-nominated guitarist grew up in a musical family in Pasadena, cut his teeth in church, and by high school he was touring with gospel star Donnie McClurkin. From there he became one of the most-used session hands in R&B without ever stepping into the spotlight. That’s his guitar on Aaliyah’s “More Than a Woman” and Missy Elliott’s “One Minute Man.” He co-wrote Mýa’s “My Love Is Like…Wo.” He’s worked with Jay-Z, Kanye and Raphael Saadiq, and a couple years back Snoop Dogg signed him to Death Row Records for his album Walk With the Father (Listen on Spotify + Apple).
When Bereal came on BroBible Side Quests, he told me a story I’d never heard, about a session that’s become the stuff of legend among musicians.
It started with a phone call. Raphael Saadiq and the late D’Angelo rang him out of nowhere to ask about a chord, then invited him to the studio. The first person Bereal saw was D’Angelo, who greeted him like family.
“He ran and gave me a big old hug,” Bereal said.
Even in his own room, Bereal says, D’Angelo carried himself like the least important guy in it.
“He was acting like he was a fan of me. I thought he was trolling me,” Bereal said. “Man, I love the way you played. How did you do that? Can you teach me this?”
D’Angelo pulled him into a House of Blues live recording with a murderers’ row of L.A. players, DJ Quik and guitarist Rob Bacon among them. One night, after the work was done, it turned into something nobody planned.
“Rehearsal was over, and Rob Bacon just starts playing Maggot Brain, by himself,” Bereal said. “Everybody that was packing up stopped what they were doing, put their stuff down, and started getting back on their instruments. We played Maggot Brain for like 15 minutes.”
If you don’t know it, “Maggot Brain” is the title track of Funkadelic’s 1971 album, a George Clinton landmark built on one of the most worshipped guitar solos ever recorded. A room full of the best musicians in the city spontaneously resurrecting it for a quarter of an hour is the kind of thing that turns into legend. It did.
“That one week kind of spawned a whole sound of musicians that’s playing everywhere now,” Bereal said. Players still tell him they studied it, “from all over the world, from that one time and space and moment.”
Then the tape got out.
“A lot of people have the CD,” Bereal said. “It was a CD that started leaking in L.A. of our rehearsal.”
And the man whose song they’d raised from the dead gave it his blessing. Clinton came by to hear the recording. Years later, when Bereal posted himself playing “Maggot Brain” online, Clinton turned up in the comments himself.
“He said, ‘Well, damn,’ and put some fire emojis,” Bereal said.
You could not script a more George Clinton response if you tried.
Hear the whole story, plus Charlie breaking it down on guitar, on the latest episode of BroBible Side Quests, out now on the BroBible YouTube.