Darondo

Derondo is William Daron Pulliam, a Bay Area songwriter and performer who was famous for his flamboyant personal style and a voice that combined the entrancing sensitivity of greats like Al Green and Ronald Isley with a rawer, idiosyncratic touch that was all his own. Though he’d been making music since the mid-’60s, he only received his due for songs like “Didn’t I” after being rediscovered by obscure vinyl seekers in the aughts. Pulliam’s funk-infused Let My People Go album was ... [ more ] Derondo is William Daron Pulliam, a Bay Area songwriter and performer who was famous for his flamboyant personal style and a voice that combined the entrancing sensitivity of greats like Al Green and Ronald Isley with a rawer, idiosyncratic touch that was all his own. Though he’d been making music since the mid-’60s, he only received his due for songs like “Didn’t I” after being rediscovered by obscure vinyl seekers in the aughts.

Pulliam’s funk-infused Let My People Go album was released in 2006 by Luv N’ Haight, a “rare groove” imprint of the reissue-favoring Ubiquity Records. The compilation drew from material he’d recorded in the ’70s and was precipitated by BBC DJ Gilles Peterson digging up 1972’s “Didn’t I” and adding the tender ballad to his radio playlist and 2005 …Digs America release. The renewed interest in his work led to a handful of live dates featuring Pulliam backed by San Francisco sidemen the Park.

Pulliam’s life was nearly a mythological thing, mostly by design and in part due to his fans’ desire to paint him into an even more colorful corner (to wit, in interviews he has steadfastly denied rumors that he was a pimp). He was born in 1946 and grew up in Berkeley playing the guitar his mother bought for him when he was 10. Inspired by the recordings of Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery, he wrote R&B and rock’n’roll with an ear for jazz chords and phrasing. He was then known as Junior.

Writing collaborations with jazz pianist Al Tanner led to an opportunity to record with producer Ray Dobard at S.F.’s Music City studios. Many of the songs heard on Let My People Go were recorded during those sessions, and “Didn’t I” became a success on local radio, selling 35,000 copies. In a 2007 Pulliam told SF Weekly, “They just played it and everyone thought it was Al Green. I don’t know how many copies it sold before they said it was Darondo.”

His rising profile resulted in a chance to open for James Brown at Bimbo’s 365 Club in the early ’70s, plus a fleeting friendship with Sly Stone. Though he claimed his only non-musical source of income at the time was as a hospital janitor, Pulliam purchased a white Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, which included, among other features, a bar, a hot plate, a picnic table that slid out of the trunk, a phone, and police scanners. He wore a mink coat and diamond rings. [ less ]

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