Before

     I Let Go

david knight

 
 
 

Written By: Frankie Beverley
Produced By:  Clayton Gittens & David Knight
Keyboards: Clayton Gittens
Guitar: Spudy
Bass Guitar: David Knight
Album Artwork: Yevhen Karpenko
Graphic Design: Dominic Fillippone
Released By: 41Records LLC


Composers Notes

I was talking with my keyboard player Clay, I was telling him I need a song to release. We were working on an original song for the album, but I wanted to put out something that people were familiar with as a first release.

That's when he said. "you know Dave, I have a version of "Before I Let Go." I said, "the Frankie Beverly and Maze jam?" He said, "yup, though it might be a little too jazzy for you!" He knows I'm not super big on jazz, shame on me, I'm working on it.

I said, "let me hear it," he emailed me the track and I loved it! It was full of jazz and loaded with funk! I "slapped" a funky bass line on it, adding to Clay's killer track, and it was a wrap!

"Before I let go" came out in 1981 during the early days of my music career. I have fond memories of being in my wreck of a car, on my way to band rehearsal, when "Before I Let Go" would come on the radio. Right away, I'd pull out my "air bass" and start playing. The groove was so funky and infectious, it made no difference to me that I was sitting behind the wheel driving my car! The song just made me want to dance and play my instrument whenever I heard it.

Thirty-nine years later, Before I Let Go continues to rock parties and events. Beyonce did her version of the song as well. It's just one of those classic songs you can never get enough of.

 
 

Music Video

For the life of me, I could not figure out how I wanted to produce this music video. I seriously did not want to go crazy with high-end video production, I wanted to keep it simple and make it fun!

Then I realized sometimes simple can be challenging, I thought sitting in my studio playing my bass would be cool. On playback is when I realized how "boring" it was, no one wants to watch me play my bass for 4:26mins in their social media feed!

I had to figure out a way to keep the viewer's eyes moving as if it were a more elaborate video, while at the same time engage their minds by telling a story. I began playing with different things in my video editor, it hit me! Do something like "pop-up video!"

I started writing down a short version of my life story, grabbed a few pictures, dumped them into the video editor and it all started to make sense! Before I knew it, I had images, text, emojis, and more popping up all around the screen while I played my bass guitar in the video!

Making this video was so much fun! Telling my story over my version of this classic R&B song was priceless!

Meet The Players

A small tight team can create magic!

Keyboards & Synths

Clayton Gittens

Childhood friend, first bandmate, musician, producer, and co-writer. Clay killed the keyboard parts!

Guitar

Arnold "Spudy" Hunter

When Spudy returned "Before I Let Go" back to Clayton and I with his Guitar parts, we just did a high five, and screamed "YES!"

bass guitar

David Knight

I Just added some extra funk! It was so much fun recreating this classic song. Thank you Frankie Beverly & Maze for writing magic! 😎


Testimonials

I really enjoyed this song it has a fun, summer, driving with the windows down feel to it. "Before I Let Go" has that 1980’s sound and this instrumental version does justice towards the Maze hit.

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Mike Rozelle

Wow, I was thinking how can you make “Before I let go” any better. Loved it!

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Karen Allwood-Yzola

I really enjoyed the new life that you've breathed into this. I love the subtle changes to the bass and guitar!

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Rea White

This reminds of the back yard BBQ'S that my God Brother use to have.

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Stephanie Threadgill

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