Darondo aka William Daron Pulliam (October 5, 1946 – June 9, 2013) – Let My People Go (1974)

The enigmatic Bay Area singer/songwriter and guitarist wrote this powerful anthem that still speaks to us today.

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Darondo was an extremely talented singer/songwriter and guitarist from the Bay Area, best known for his beautiful 1973 song “Didn’t I.”

William Daron Pulliam was born in Berkeley, California. He began playing music at age eight after his mother bought him a guitar. His sound was particularly influenced by Kenny Burrell’s Midnight Blue LP (1963).

“I learned guitar from listening to Kenny Burrell,” Darondo said years later in an interview. “Him and Wes Montgomery. I got my chords from them. Kenny Burrell was cold.”

His first single, billed as Darondo Pulliam, was “How I Got Over” b/w “I Want Your Love So Bad” (mis-titled as “Won’t Your Love So Bad”). It was produced by pianist John Al Tanner, who also co-wrote both songs with Darondo. Released in 1970 on the small Oakland label Ocampo Records, original copies today sell for hundreds of dollars on Discogs. It was poorly distributed but went into heavy rotation at KSOL, the R&B radio station in San Mateo where Sly Stone began his musical career as a DJ in the mid-60s.

The single eventually drew the attention of Ray Dobard, who owned Music City, another small Oakland label. Darondo and Tanner went into Dobard’s studio and recorded an entire album’s worth of material. Two of the songs they co-wrote were released as a single on Music City in 1973, the love jam masterpiece “Listen To My Song” and its B-side, the beautiful, haunting “Didn’t I.“ This record took off regionally, selling 35,000 copies.

Riding high after the single’s success, he opened for James Brown and became close friends with Sly. Unfortunately, Darondo and Dobard became embroiled in a dispute over money. As a result, Music City never released a full Darondo album. Two more songs from the Music City sessions were released the following year in 1974 by another tiny Oakland label, Af-Fa World.

The very funky jam “Legs” was the single’s A-side, with the powerful message song “Let My People Go” on the flip. It was the last single Darondo would put out during the early 70s, the all-too short first phase of his musical career.

There is much debate over whether Darondo turned to pimping after he stopped making records. He purchased a white Rolls Royce, drove around in style, and was often in the company of beautiful women. But he denied ever being an actual pimp.

“This Rolls had racing lights. It had a bar in the back…I put all the scanners and other mess up in it, so that if the police pulled up behind you, you could hear everything they say. It was too cold. At that time, I had mink coats, diamond rings. I stayed sharp. When they saw a chauffeur driving me around in a Rolls, they said, ‘That boy is a pimp.’ I made money, but I was working. I had a job…I was a janitor. I drove up [to the hospital] in the back of my Rolls with my mink coat on…and I’d take the elevator down and change in [the janitor’s locker].”

Darondo became the host of several shows on Bay Area cable television in the 80s. He left the U.S. for Europe later that decade to help kick a cocaine habit and get away from acquaintances who were unhealthy influences. He returned to the Bay Area a few years later and became a speech pathologist and physical therapist.

His records were re-discovered by a wider audience in the mid-2000s, more than three decades after they were first recorded. After searching for him for nearly four years, San Francisco record collectors Justin Torres and David Gabriner finally tracked Darondo down, which led to a contract with reissue label Ubiquity Records.

Around the same time, influential London DJ Gilles Peterson championed “Didn't I” on his BBC Radio 1 show and featured the track on his 2005 compilation Gilles Peterson Digs America. “Didn't I” then began appearing in various films and TV shows.

In 2006, the world finally got to hear what a full-length Darondo album would have sounded like when Ubiquity released the compilation Let My People Go on its Luv N’ Haight imprint.

It included all six songs from his three singles, plus three more - the funky “My Momma & My Poppa,” the slow jam “Sure Know How To Love Me,” and the superb closing cut “True.” In 2011, BGP Records released the 16-track compilation Listen To My Song: The Music City Sessions, which featured the phenomenal jams “The Wolf” and “Do You Really Love Me.”

Thanks to the resurgence of interest in his music, Darondo performed live again, including a memorable performance at SXSW in 2008 acclaimed as one of that year’s best sets.

Wherever he appeared, he blew audiences away with his energetic stage presence, as confirmed by singer/songwriter Will Sprott who saw him in concert during this period:

I went & saw him play in San Francisco & not only was he good, he was one of the best performers I had ever seen in my life. I saw James Brown play. I saw Nina Simone play. I saw Bo Diddley play. Darondo could hold his own in that league. He tore the house to pieces.

Rest in Power, William Daron Pulliam.

Further info:

“Darondo: Let My People Go,” review by Tim O'Neil, PopMatters.com, January 31, 2006.

“How He Got Over: An Oral History of Darondo Fandom,” by David Ma, Nerdtorious.com, July 1, 2013.

“A music historian looks back at his search for a lost Bay Area soul icon,” by Akash Pandey, KALW, October 28, 2021.

#soul #funk #Darondo