Tuneage Tutelages

Album Review - Adrienne Osborn & S.T.A.R. - “The Phoenix, The Flame”

2011-01-12T00:10:00.001-06:00

What do you call a band with a shared belief that “we can all access a multitude of other frequencies than the five senses allow,” one that has a mission to “encourage people to live truthfully and courageously?” A band that calls their fans SuperSTARS and encourages them to send in short inspirational stories by sending verses and will then cut additional versions of the song with those submissions?

In this case, you call them Adrienne Osborn &
S.T.A.R (which stands for Spontaneous Thin Air Radio), and they succeed in their stated purpose, “to engage and move you on multiple frequencies.”

Hailing from Boulder, Colorado and comprised of Adrienne Osborn on vocals, long-time collaborator Alec Sims on guitar and a rhythm section of Kyle Comerford on drums and percussion and Otis Landis on bass, they present their album The Phoenix, The Flame chock full of funk, rock and some Latin flavors that will draw listeners back again and again.

The album opens with a funky guitar lick added to by the rhythm section and then Ms. Osborn’s smooth vocals join the mix. Lyrically the song is an exploration of that person you think you know, but do you really? “You’re a jigsaw puzzle, baby, picture incomplete/Jigsaw puzzle, you’re missing a piece/You’re a jigsaw puzzle, is there something I don’t see?/You’re a jigsaw puzzle, baby – You want a piece of me?”

This song is only an introduction to the many flavors offered up by S.T.A.R. throughout the album. Alec Sims spent 15 years on the road honing his skills before hooking up with Ms. Osborn and he is talented in whatever style of guitar he plays. Whether it is a funky lick or a rocking solo, he hits the mark each time.

“Faster Disaster” is more of a straight ahead rock and roll song with Lande and Comerford laying down a solid bed for Sims to style and Osborn takes the reigns solid. Her vocals range from ballsy rock chick to sultry songstress, making you lean in closer and then blasting you back when she hits the chorus. Andrew Vogt’s saxophone solo is a perfect accompaniment to the overall song structure reminiscent of the Big Man playing with Bruce.

“Spark” brings the band back to the funky sound they do best. Powered by a strutting bass line and a staccato guitar line Osborn is given range to let the lyrics flow. She has a voice that will evoke thoughts of Joss Stone and Natalie Merchant and the later is certainly evident on “25 Years Gone.” The song is very 10,000 Maniacs in its structure and sound, though S.T.A.R. adds their own distinct feel.

With “Amnesia” the band lets the Latin out with a smooth salsa rhythm. Congas in the background add more of the Latin flavor. As with all the songs on the album, the lyrics tell a tale, but not in the most obvious way: “black and white and alone too long/I need some color, i need to belong/so i find a home in this sea of souls/all shedding lives, playing roles.” Sims takes the opportunity to lay out a Santana-esque guitar solo here and he hits the bull’s-eye, layering one run over another.

It is in songs like “The Chase” and “Star Shine” when the full musical power of S.T.A.R. hits its stride. The former is a jazzy number with the band empowered by the poetic reading of the lyrics by Osborn. In between verses they spin off into solo laden jams but it always comes back to Osborn tugging you into her world with her smooth delivery. The latter is the song mentioned in the opening. Each line or two is about actual people the band has encountered over their journey, and they are giving their SuperSTARS the opportunity to rewrite the lyrics with their own stories. Layered guitars give this one more depth. Again, Ms. Osborn’s delivery will evoke thoughts of Ms. Merchant.

The closing song on the album is “One” and it is the most different of all the songs on the album. It opens with Ms. Osborn over the minimal piano of Carmin Sandim and they are eventually joined by the rest of the band, but this is all Adrienne Osborn. She sings softly but with purpose, and as the song builds she shows her full vocal power. She is not going to blow Ella or Janis out of your brain, but she might just earn a place alongside them.

Adrienne Osborn & S.T.A.R. are at their best when they are in a funky rhythm. The two songs on the album which did not stack up against the others are “Alchemy” and “It’s Mine,” both are more rockers than the rest and this is the one area where S.T.A.R. did not make a connection as they did with the rest of the album. Overall, this is a keeper and makes one anticipate future endeavors from the band.

4 out of 5 turntables

Album Review - Bradford Monk & The Foggy Hogtown Boys

2011-01-12T00:01:00.009-06:00

Americana, bluegrass, roots; it seems recently these are the fastest growing musical genres. Many bands try to capture the pure sound of mountain music but most end up with a weak impersonation of the music.

Out of Canada comes country-bluegrass that would make Bill Monroe smile.

Brad Monk has been making music for years, mostly country and gospel styled recordings. On his newest release, Bradford Monk & The Foggy Hogtown Boys, he teamed up with the Toronto-based Foggy Hogtown Boys to make an album of bluegrass music that will please the musical soul of any fan of the genre.

Brad met the Foggy Hogtown Boys during a record release party and he and the band immediately hit it off and decided to record together. The Hogtown Boys consist of Andrew Collins on mandolin, Chris Coole on guitar, Max Heineman on bass, Chris Quinn on banjo and John Showman on fiddle and they are each superb musicians in their own right.

The album would be less if the band backing Brad were not as skilled as these gentlemen, but make no mistake; this is a Bradford Monk album. He is an excellent storyteller, which is the first mark of a true country/bluegrass artist. His songs all tell stories that could be put to rock or pop music, but they would not have the same impact as they do here.

Songs like “Maybe Baby” with a solid banjo laid underneath lyrics like “I may be crazy, but maybe baby, I was wrong. I never meant to make you cry, maybe there is a way or something else we can try”. Now, who has not had to say words similar to that after a relationship has gone bad? Bradford has real balladeer skills in his telling those waltzing country ballads such as the above mentioned song, and the equally fine “Suzanne” and the most stirring ballad on the album “Rosie”, where the story-teller laments the loss of his lady and his plea; “Oh Lord, please lay me down, please lay me gently into the cold ground”, so as to join her.

He is equally adept in the stirring bluegrass up-tempo songs such as “I’m Alright” that contains some great banjo picking by Chris Quinn and superb fiddle by John Showman. The whole band joins in with the call and response type lyrics on this one.

On “Titanic,” Monk puts his spin on the tale of the great cruise ship and its destiny. “Remember Everyday” is a soft ballad wherein Monk tells his love “I hope that we remember everyday, it feels like it’s supposed to be this way. It has taken too long for me to say, to tell you that I love you.” Singing over a slow weeping fiddle, Monk makes you want to grab your gal and give her a big hug.

“Sweet Mary” will make you want to snap your fingers along with the band as Monk tells you all about his lady. Included in this song are some of the best lyrics on the album, including the line; “You know my woman makes love like a submarine. It’s up and down and side to side. When the water gets rough you gotta hold on tight,”

This is an album that deserves a comfortable chair, a fine lady sitting close, maybe a libation, and no interruptions to be enjoyed to its fullest the first time out. Bradford Monk is a true country singer-songwriter with too much talent to not be noticed and the Foggy Hogtown Boys are a first class band of musicians.

One wonders if this collaboration will have legs and continue onward. It would seem a shame not to continue to build on a solid starting point, and we can only hope that Brad and the Boys decide to hit the road together. From the sounds on this album, a live show would be filled with laughs, stirring banjo and fiddle and some of the most well constructed lyrics you will hear, no matter the genre.

If you are one who says “I don’t like country and bluegrass,” it is strongly suggested you take an hour and listen. Bradford Monk & The Foggy Hogtown Boys will turn you into a fan.

4 out of 5 turntables

Tuneage Tutelage Album Review - Barbara Blue "Royal Blue"

2010-10-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

Ms. Barbara Blue is a Memphis original, even if she was born in Pittsburgh, PA.

Holding court at Silky O’Sullivan’s Pub on Beale Street some 5 nights a week for the last 13 years, Ms. Blue has released seven albums in that time, the last three all Live recordings.

This week, her 8th album will drop. It is called ROYAL BLUE and it is a winner.

Recorded at the famous Royal Studios here in Memphis (the history of this studio is fodder for a post of its own), with Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell as producer, the album is a throwback to those great blues records of old.

Barbara’s band includes; Lester Snell on Fender Rhodes, B3 Hammond Organ and Acoustic Piano; Skip Pitts on Guitar Rhythm and Lead; Steve Potts on Drums and Dave Smith on Bass.

Additionally she has brought in Lannie McMillan and Gary Topper on Tenor Sax; Marc Franklin on Trumpet and Jim Spake on Baritone Sax.

She then sprinkles in some fabulous special guests including Robert “Nighthawk” Tooms on Harmonica (tracks # 7 and 10); Brandon Bailey on Harmonica (tracks #11 and 12); Josh Roberts on Slide Guitar (track # 12) & Guitar (track #11); Preston Shannon on Guitar (track #9); and Cody Dickenson on Electric Washboard (track # 2).

Background vocals are supplied by Daunielle “Pie” Hill and Jackie Johnson.

This is a true collection of blues, funk and soul. On the album, Ms. Blue has writing credit on 3 of the 13 tracks. The other 10 are classics she has put her own spin to.

The horn section gives a tremendous layering to the entire album with stand-out tracks including “If I Could Reach Out (And Touch Somebody)” and the opening tune “Beware”.

I found her take on the Al Green penned song “Rhymes”, as a wonderful tribute to the great man.

She takes the Syl Johnson song “Back For A Taste Of Your Love” and gives it a feel Jonny Lang misses, in this writers opinion.

You have to have total confidence in your abilities to take on “Heartbreak Hotel”, especially being from Memphis. Ms. Blue slows the number down and adds big horns and some tasty guitar licks by Skip Pitts and turns it into a brand new song.

Ms. Blue takes ownership of every song she sings, but even more so on her original tunes. “Blue” starts off the trio and seems autobiographical in nature. A fine example of Memphis Blues.

One of my favorite cuts on the album is the song “All You’ve Got” which was written by Ms. Blue along with Robert “Nighthawk” Tooms. Robert is the keyboard and harmonica player from the Reba Russell Band and it is some fine listening to hear him collaborate with Ms. Blue and add his sweet harmonica playing to this track.

Other songs on the album include “Your So Fine”; the J.D. Loudermilk tune “Turn Me On” on which Ms. Blue shows off her vocal chops on a sweet bluesy ode; “8 Men and 4 Women”; another Barbara Blue original “Too Late”; “Going Back To Iuka” and the final song on the album “Let’s Stay Together” penned by Al Green, Willie “Pops” Mitchell and Al Jackson.

Her interpretation will just send you soaring as high as Ms. Blue’s vocals on the song. This is as close to a capella as you come, with only minimal piano and some tasty horn work during the breaks.

Want to listen to a true Memphis soul but can’t afford to get in your car or jump on a plane or train, then click on over to Barbara Blue’s website and purchase Royal Blue. As a bonus, Ms. Blue autographs every album bought on her website.

But my suggestion IS to get in your car, jump that plane or train and get yourself down to Silky's and watch this stellar artist live and full force.

5 out of 5 Turntables

Tuneage Tutelage Review - Moreland & Arbuckle - "Flood"

2010-06-15T00:01:00.002-05:00

It was the night before the 2010 Blues Awards here in Memphis, Tn and I found myself at The Juke Joint on Beale Street to see Brandon Santini and Delta Highway.

During the second set of the night Brandon invited musicians in the room onto the stage to jam and one of the participants was Dustin Arbuckle. That night I heard his harmonica playing for the first time and was immediately struck by his technique.

Later that evening, Brandon waa gracious enough to introduce me to Dustin and his partner, Aaron Moreland. I noted them and told myself I would get them on Music On The Couch as soon as possible.

That will happen next Monday, June 21st, when Dustin joins me. Prior to that, I received their album FLOOD, just released on the Telarc International label.

This is their third album, the first three being self-published. What is a trio live - Moreland plays Electric, Parlor, Resonator and Cigar Box Guitars and Banjo; Arbuckle is lead vocalist and plays Harmonica and Brad Horner is on Drums and backing vocals - is augmented by Tom Page (guitar on "Can't Leave Well Enough Alone"; Michael Moreland on keys; Trevor Stewart-Chapman plays Stick on "Before The Flood" and Dave Spindle contributes on bass.

The album opens one of three songs not written by Moreland/Arbuckle, the Little Walter blues classic "Hate To See You Go" and you are immediately struck by the sound of Arbuckle's harp layer over the bottom layers of Horner and Moreland. I was struck by the similarities to the East Texas sounds of ZZ Top - a compliment from this lover of that genre of blues.

Then a traditional blues song "The Legend Of John Henry" follows. A live performance, (no credit given as to where it was recorded) this shows the band as they are on stage. Just Harmonica, drums and guitar. Moreland's Cigarbox guitar is unique in that it has one string which feeds to the bass amp and three strings that feed to the guitar amp. The sound is gutsy and raw and transports you back to the delta.

Arbuckle's vocals are compelling on this song. He makes you feel the legend down to your soul and his harmonica riff in the middle of the song home is something special.

"Before The Flood" follows and is a departure from what came before. a combination of feedback from Morelands guitar as he picks and underneath various notes from the harmonica of Arbuckle it would be as if they added harp to one of the Dead's jams.

It smoothly segues into "18 Counties" a lamenting tune of the destruction of property and lives after the flood. "I am too damn old, too damn old, to start over now". The song is fueled by the rhythm of Horner and Moreland, that driving beat of roots blues and is tied up perfectly with the haunting harmonica riffs played by Arbuckle.

"Your Man Won't Ever Know" showcases the bands delta blues side. Stripped down to just Moreland's simple guitar run and Arbuckle's vocals and harp work. When I got to this song I really began to wonder why these guys are not huge.

"Don't Wake Me" brings us to the sound of Chicago blues, beginning with a barrel house run on the keys by Michael Moreland. Each player takes their turn to show their wares here...

"Bound and Determined" adds Tom Page to the writing credits and has what I call that railroad blues rhythm pushing it forward.

"Can't get Clear" appears twice on the album, first as an electric blues version and then a banjo version & Personally, I preferred the banjo version as I think it holds the song together better.

"Can't Leave Well Enough Alone" is an acoustic Piedmont-type blues song that is well formed and brought me to a different place than the rest of the album.

"In The Morning I'll Be Gone" brings us back to roots blues with an influx of electric blues.

"What You Gonna Do" is the one weak point on the whole album. It sounds like thousands of songs out there.

"Red Moon Rising" a delta blues based song is also acoustic in nature, but does not have the strength of "Can't Leave Well Enough Alone"

Here is what I know. Throughout the weekend as I was doing mundane chores outside the house, I found snippets of these songs rolling around in my head. Now this happens with songs I have known for years, but rarely, if ever, does it occur with an album I have only listened to a few times.

FLOOD is a winner in my book, Moreland and Arbuckle are on the cusp of being household names in homes where the blues is admired and appreciated.

This is a band to watch and a band to listen to. This is a MUST BUY.

5 Out Of 5 Turntables

Tuneage Tutelage - Miles, As Fast As You Can

2010-05-24T00:01:00.006-05:00

The band is called Miles and is composed of Marc Plotkin on vocals, guitar, saxophone, percussion, organ, and Benjamin Jacobs on bass, vocals, guitars, percussion, piano, organ, synthesizer, and drum programming. Then they surround themselves with talented musicians like Kenneth Flax, Ryan Andrews and Nick Svoboda on drums, Brandon Sherman on guitar, and Adam Ahyia on piano and what you come up with is a truly enjoyable set of music from this band from Brooklyn, NY.

The album is called AS FAST AS YOU CAN and from the opening riff of acoustic guitar that morphs into a rocking backbeat, you know something is different here.

I have to say it took me two songs to find a comfort zone in Marc Plotkin's vocals. At first his tone kept pulling me away from the music, but then you begin to feel more embraced by it.

As I have said before, I would rather hear the true voice of a singer and not some auto-tune creation of a voice.

Since the creation of this album, the band has solidified themselves as a quartet with Adam Ahuja on keyboards and Jon Smith on drums.

The opening number "Where You Were" puts the band out there with a jaunting riff and a rock back-beat.

"A Little Crazy" might be my favorite track on the album. Opening with a short accapella it then becomes very 60-ish rocker. I kept flashing to Manhattan Transfer during this one.

The band lists its influences as Death Cab for Cutie, D'Angelo, Vampire Weekend, Justin King and Counting Crows.

Throughout the album they bring you into their world. On "Just In Case" they explore that break up, where you want to stand strong, no matter what...

And just in case you wanna leave
The words she chose to use
Slipped right through the armor protecting you
The pain distorts your face
Love never had such a bitter taste

The album took over two years to record and was recorded in a dozen different locations. It show the perseverance these two young men had to get their music out there. All the songs are credited to both Jacobs and Plotkin and they even mixed 4 of the tracks themselves.

I like these guys and look forward to their next step. I will be reaching out to see if they will appear on MUSIC ON THE COUCH as I think their back-story is interesting.

Two from the band Miles..."A Little Crazy" and a more bluesy number entitled "Nothing Wrong At All".

RATED (out of 5)

The Young Rascals - The Rascals

2010-05-14T00:01:00.004-05:00

Today, I get to take over here and share with y'all a bio of a band that was huge for me as a teen.

This Tutelage will be archived on my blog TUNEAGE TUTELAGE .

It was the early 1960’s and a young Felix Cavaliere (keyboards and vocals) was a student at Syracuse University and playing in a band called Felix & The Escorts. One day a call came asking if he would join the band Joey Dee and The Starliters (they of “Peppermint Twist” fame) for a European Tour.

This proved to be momentous, as Felix met two other members of the band, Eddie Brigati (vocals) and Gene Cornish (guitar) on this tour. As they made their way through Europe it soon became apparent to all three that this is not what they wanted for their musical lives – being back-up to a front man.

After a few months the three left the Starliters and recruited drummer Dino Danelli to join them in Felix’s basement.

Quickly the four realized they had hit gold…As told by Gene Cornish, "All of a sudden we hit magic in Felix's Lodi, NJ basement. We'd all been in bands before and we just looked at each other and went, 'woah!' It was just amazing; I can't explain it. That day literally changed my whole life. I think we blasted through 30 or 40 songs at that rehearsal. We knew we belonged together."

The band found a believer in one Sid Bernstein, who signed on as their manager. This was another huge move for the band as Bernstein was the promoter who would bring The Beatles to Shea Stadium in 1965.

Ahmet Ertegun saw the band playing in a club in Westhampton, NY on Long Island and offered them a contract that night, but before they could move on, one problem had to be addressed. Borrah Minnevitch's and Johnny Puleo's Harmonica Rascals, objected to their release of records under the name Rascals. So, Sid suggested the name the Young Rascals and history was made.

In the member’s own words, the band was about “Marvin Gaye's voice, Ray Charles' piano, Jimmy Smith's organ, Phil Spector's production and The Beatles' writing -- put them all together and you've got what I wanted to do." Says Felix.

On February 27, 1965, The Young Rascals appeared on the TV program “Hullabaloo” where they performed their debut single, "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore".

The song went to #52 on the US Charts and reached #23 in Canada. An even bigger break came when Bernstein put The Young Rascals in the lineup of August 23, 1995 concert when The Beatles took over Shea Stadium.

On March 28, 1966 the debut album THE YOUNG RASCALS was released. It was a collection of covers with only one original song “Do You Feel It” included.

The band was on the rise now and followed up their debut single with “Good Lovin’” from the first album, which rocketed to the #1 in both the US and Canada and earned the boys their first gold record.

The song writing team of Cavaliere and Brigati (Cavaliere wrote alone much of the time in actuality), began cranking out hits. Six of the 11 songs on their second album were penned by band members.

“You Better Run” (covered by Pat Benetar some 14 years later) reached #20, “Come On Up” topped off at #43 and “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long” went to #16.

These songs were included on the second album COLLECTIONS released on January 9, 1967 and the third album GROOVIN’ released on July 31, 1967.

In those days, singles were released prior to the album to build up popularity for the album. The song “Groovin’” was released on April 10, 1967 and jumped to the #1 spot on the charts and spent four weeks on top. Showing it (and the group's) crossover appeal, it also reached number 3 on the Billboard Black Songs Chart.

It was around this time that the band decided to drop the word “Young” from their name and became simply “The Rascals”.

In 1968, The Rascals had their biggest hit and their last #1 song with the political “People Get Ready”. Written in reaction to the Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy assassinations, there was some initial resistance to the song, but the fact that it was a damn good song it took hold.

"That the song was #1 in places like Berlin and South Africa meant a lot to me," said Felix.

In the next year the band took a different musical direction that resulted in less than enthusiastic support from the record label. PEACEFUL WORLD and THE ISLAND OF REAL were both more jazz-tinged and the commercial success balloon was punctured.

Cavaliere believed that THE ISLAND OF REAL was the best record he ever made, but the public did not agree.

With little support from Atlantic Records, the band moved to the Columbia label in 1971 but that did not cure the ills. Then personal frictions began to build and Brigati and Cornish left the band being replaced by Buzzy Feiten (from the Paul Butterfiled Blues Band) and Ann Sutton who had been singing with various soul and jazz groups in the Philadelphia area.

It did not help matters and the following year The Rascals were no more.

In 1974, Cavaliere began his solo career with the release of the album "Felix Cavaliere". Eddie Brigati recorded a solo album with his brother David in 1976. Cornish and Danelli started a new band called Bullfrog and later teamed up with former Raspberries guitarist, Wally Bryson in Fotomaker. In April, 1980, Felix Cavaliere released a solo single called "Only A Lonely Heart Sees", which climbed to # 36 on the Billboard chart. In 1982, Danelli joined Steve Van Zandt's Little Steven.

Danelli, Cornish and Cavaliere reunited in 1988 for a US tour, but split soon after and were involved in a nasty law suit over the use of the band's name. Cavaliere continued as a solo artist and a producer, releasing a new album in 1994 as well as playing keyboards for Ringo Starr's All-Star Band.

In 1997, The Young Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, but even here, the tensions that tore the band apart, rose again. All four former members of the band appeared for the ceremony, but Eddie Brigatti refused to join the others, accepting his award from The E Street Band's Steven Van Zandt on the opposite side of the stage.

It wasn't until April 24th, 2010, that all four original Rascals gathered again at the Kristen Ann Carr Fund gala in New York after being invited by Steven Van Zandt. Van Zandt and his wife Maureen were honored by the charity for all of the work they've done for the fund, which was founded in 1993 by Bruce Springsteen's co-manager Barbara Carr and her husband Dave Marsh to honor their daughter, who died from sarcoma. Hopes for a more permanent reunion were dashed by Gene Cornish, who said: "I speak on behalf of the band when I say all the money offers in the world could not entice the Rascals to reunite."

A short run for a band with so much talent. Their songs still stand up today and have a special place in my memories…The Young Rascals.

I selected a mix of familiar and maybe not so familiar for TRAVIS' "Five On Friday", where you post five songs - your choice of subject matter, the set can be as random as - I love these five songs - I thought it would work well with this post, especially my doing the five songs inspired me to share their tale. Just hit the play button and all five will stream.

"It's A Beautiful Morning"
"If You Knew"
"People Got To Be Free"
"Island Of Love"
"Groovin'"

10/03/08 - Allman Brothers Band - Wrap Up

2008-10-03T00:01:00.003-05:00

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND - Part 4

To read Part 1 go HERE
To read Part 2 go HERE
To read Part 3 go HERE

We end this week of Allman Brothers with some basic facts, more pictures (remember, all photos enlarge by clicking on them), and music for you to enjoy...

ALLMAN BROTHERS DISCOGRAPHY:

November 1969 - The Allman Brothers Band
September 1970 - Idlewild South
July 1971 - At Fillmore East (Live)
April 1972 - Eat a Peach (Part Live)
September 1973 - Brothers and Sisters
August 1975 - Win, Lose or Draw
November 1976 - Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas (Live)
February 1979 - Enlightened Rogues
1980 - Reach for the Sky
1981 - Brothers of the Road
October 1990 - Seven Turns
July 1991 - Shades of Two Worlds
March 1992 - An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: First Set (Live)
May 1994 - Where It All Begins
1995 - An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: 2nd Set (Live)
November 2000 - Peakin' at the Beacon (Live)
March 2003 - Hittin' the Note
March - 2004 One Way Out (Live)

"Retrospective" live albums are various recorded, unreleased, archived concerts during the early years of The Allman Brothers Band. Most were recorded before the death of lead guitarist Duane Allman.
1991 - Live at Ludlow Garage: 1970
1996 - Fillmore East, February 1970
2002 - American University 12/13/70
October 2003 - Live at the Atlanta International Pop Festival: July 3 & 5, 1970
2003 - S.U.N.Y. at Stonybrook: Stonybrook, NY 9/19/71
2004 - Macon City Auditorium: 2/11/72
2005 - Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY: 5/1/73
2007 - Boston Common, 8/17/71

Compilations and box sets
Beginnings (1973), a re-release of the band's first two albums
The Road Goes On Forever (compilation, 1975)
Dreams (box set, 1989)
A Decade of Hits 1969-1979 (compilation, 1991)
The Fillmore Concerts (2cd box set, 1992)
Ramblin' Man (compilation, 1992)
Hell & High Water: The Best of the Arista Years (compilation, 1994)
Legendary Hits (compilation, 1995)
Mycology: An Anthology (compilation, 1998)
20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Allman Brothers Band (compilation, 2000)
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: The Allman Brothers (compilation, 2003)
Stand Back: The Anthology (compilation, 2004)
The Essential Allman Brothers Band: The Epic Years (compilation, 2004)
Gold (compilation reissue of expanded The Road Goes On Forever, 2005)

SINGLES:
1969 "Black Hearted Woman"
1970 "Revival" - US #92
1972 "Ain't Wastin' Time No More" - US #77
1972 "Melissa" - US #86
1972 "One Way Out" - US #86
1973 "Ramblin' Man" - US #2
1973 "Jessica" - US #65
1975 "Nevertheless" - US #67
1975 "Louisiana Lou and Three Card Monty John" - US #78
1979 "Crazy Love" - US #29
1979 "Can't Take It With You" - US #105
1980 "Angeline" - US #58
1980 "Mystery Woman"
1981 "Straight from the Heart" - US #39
1981 "Two Rights"
1990 "Good Clean Fun"

BAND LINE-UPS:
(1969-1971)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Duane Allman - guitar, slide guitar
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Berry Oakley - bass, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion

(1971-1972)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Berry Oakley - bass, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion

(1972)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Berry Oakley - bass, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Chuck Leavell - piano, synthesizer, background vocals

(1972-1976)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Chuck Leavell - piano, synthesizer, background vocals
* Lamar Williams - bass, vocals

(1978-1980)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Dan Toler - Guitar
* David Goldflies - bass

(1980-1982)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Dan Toler - Guitar
* David Goldflies - bass
* David "Frankie" Toler - Drums
* Mike Lawler - Keyboards

(1989-1990)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Warren Haynes - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Allen Woody - bass, background vocals
* Johnny Neel - keyboards, harmonica

(1991-1997)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Warren Haynes - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Allen Woody - bass, background vocals
* Marc Quiñones - drums, percussion, background vocals

(1997-1999)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Marc Quiñones - drums, percussion, background vocals
* Oteil Burbridge - bass, vocals
* Jack Pearson - guitar, vocals

(1999-2000)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Dickey Betts - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Marc Quiñones - drums, percussion, background vocals
* Oteil Burbridge - bass, vocals
* Derek Trucks - guitar, slide guitar

(2000)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Marc Quiñones - drums, percussion, background vocals
* Oteil Burbridge - bass, vocals
* Derek Trucks - guitar, slide guitar
* Jimmy Herring - guitar

(2001-present)
* Gregg Allman - organ, piano, guitar, vocals
* Butch Trucks - drums, tympani
* Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson - drums, percussion
* Warren Haynes - guitar, slide guitar, vocals
* Marc Quiñones - drums, percussion, background vocals
* Oteil Burbridge - bass, vocals
* Derek Trucks - guitar, slide guitar

Live/Studio Musicians:
* Thom Doucette - Harmonica and Percussion(for the At Fillmore East concert and various albums)
* Randolph Carter - Saxophone (for the At Fillmore East concert)
* Bobby Caldwell - Percussion(for the At Fillmore East concert)
* Elvin Bishop - Vocals(for the At Fillmore East concert)
* Steve Miller - Piano(for the At Fillmore East concert)
* Les Dudek - Lead and Acoustic Guitar on Brothers and Sisters
* Johnny Sandlin - Acoustic Guitar, Percussion on Win, Lose or Draw
* Bill Stewart - Percussion on Win, Lose or Draw
* Joe Lala - Percussion on Enlightened Rogues
* Jim Essery - Harmonica on Enlightened Rogues
* Bonnie Bramlett - Backing Vocals on Enlightened Rogues

Resources: wikipedia; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; Allman Brothers Band web site; The book, “Skydog – the Duane Allman Story” given to me by my friend TurnBaby; My own knowledge of this band.

Eat A Peach For Peace!

10/02/08 - Allman Brothers Band - Part 3

2008-10-02T00:01:00.002-05:00

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS - PART 3

You can read Pt.1 HERE
You can read Pt.2 HERE

2008 - (L-R)Jaimoe, Marc, Butch, Greg, Derek, Oteil, Warren

The Allman Brothers had to pick themselves up after the double tragedy. It was the end of 1972 and they were in the middle of recording their next studio album Brothers & Sisters. Lamar Williams was asked to join the group to take over for Berry.

Dickie became the unofficial band leader at this point and contributed more music to this album. "Ramblin' Man" hit the Billboard charts and rocketed to the #2 position and the 7-minute instrumental "Jessica" became an FM radio staple. These two songs were the catalyst for national recognition and the band's popularity exploded.

The band was one of the to concert draws in the country now, selling out arenas from coast to coast. On July 28, 1973 the Allman Brothers joined with The Grateful Dead and The Band in Watkins Glen, NY for what was billed as Summer Jam. It was a one day concert attended by 600,000 people including the author of this Tutelage. The concert entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest pop concert (since eclipsed). It was a day filled with incredible music and comradely for the fans and for the bands.

Although the concert was scheduled to start on July 28th, thousands of music fans were already at the concert site on the 27th. Robbie Robertson of the Band requested to do a sound check, but was perplexed that so many people were sitting in front of the stage. Bill Graham allowed the sound check with the crowd of people in front, and the Band ran through a few numbers to the delight of the audience. The Allman Brothers Band did their sound check next, playing "One Way Out" and "Ramblin' Man". The Grateful Dead's legendary sound check turned into a two set marathon, featuring their familiar tunes such as "Sugaree", "Tennessee Jed" and "Wharf Rat".

The Dead played first for over 3 hours. The Band took the stage for a 2-hour set - which was interrupted by a thunderstorm - and then The Allman's did a 3-hour set. Finally all three bands jammed for about 2 hours.

The success of the Allman Brothers also resulted in the rise to prominence of other Southern Rock Bands including Charlie Daniels, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band (who were given national exposure as the opening act for the Allman brothers during the 1973 tour to promote Brothers & Sisters).

On New Year's Eve, 1973, The Allman Brothers played the Cow Palace in San Francisco and concert promoter Bill Graham had the show broadcast nationwide on the radio. It was a three set evening with guests such as Jerry Garcia and Boz Scaggs.

Throughout the early 70's the members of the Dead and the Allman's would show up to guest at each others concerts.

Moving into 1974, turmoil began to raise it's ugly head within the band. Both Gregg and Dickie began solo careers. Gregg had his infamous on again, off again marriage to Cher and drugs were taking a large part of both Gregg and Dickie's time away from their creativity.

In 1975 the band released Win, Lose or Draw and it was mainly a lose proposition. Band members recorded their parts separately or on some tunes members did not even appear. The Road Goes On Forever was also released that year and did not sell well.

In 1976, Gregg was arrested on federal drug charges and turned states evidence on the band tour manager John "Scooter" Herring. Dickie went to concentrate on his solo career and Chuck Leavell, Lamar and Jaimoe all formed a jazz fusion band Sea Level. The members swore they would never work with Gregg again.

Capricorn Records tried to keep the band alive, releasing the live album Wipe The Windows, Check The Oil, Dollar Gas, which also did not sell well, though I personally think it is a good history of where the band was at. It contains recordings made at different venues between December 1972 and October 1975.

In 1978 the band worked out their differences and reformed with new members Dan Toler on guitar replacing Chuck's keyboards and David "Rook" Goldflies replacing Lamar on bass. The band released Enlightened Rogues and it was well received by the fans.

There was not a ton of success in airplay though. The band had lost it's edge and financial problems plagued both the band and their record label Capricorn, which was built on the foundation of the Allman's. In 1979 Capricorn collapsed and the band signed with Arista Records.

Reach For The Sky (1980) and Brothers of the Road (1981) were both utter failures and the band fired Jaimoe before disbanding once more in 1982.

Gregg formed the Gregg Allman Band with Dan Toler and his brother Frankie on drums and began touring small venues and clubs. Dickie, Chuck, Butch and Goldflies formed the cumbersomely named Betts Hall Leavell Trucks Band (BHLT for short).

Neither band had even a nibble from the record companies and BHLT broke up in 1984.

In 1986 the Allman Brothers band reunited once more for a pair of benefit concerts for Bill Graham held in New York and Macon, GA. Allman, Betts, Truck, Jaimoe,Leavell and Dan Toler performed at these. The following year the Gregg Allman Band and the Dickie Betts band co-headlined a series of theatre and club shows. Each band would play a set and then Betts, Allman and the Toler brothers would play a set of Allman music.

In 1990 Epic Records signed both Gregg and Dickie to solo contracts. Gregg had the hit "I'm No Angel" that year and the band followed with the album Just Before The Bullets Fly in 1988. The Dickie Betts Band released the album Pattern Disruptive in 1988 and it did not cause a huge stir.

In 1989 the band reformed and the people began to take notice once more. This was helped by the release of archival material by Polygram Records (which bought the music when Capricorn folded), Gregg's FM success as a solo artist and the band playing a round of outdoor summer concerts.

It also helped that the band enlisted the services of great guitar player Warren Haynes, Johnny Neel on keyboards and harmonica and an excellent bassist, Allen Woody, who joined Gregg, Dickie, Jaimoe and Butch. The band had the stuff with Haynes being a much more accomplished guitarist that Toler.

The band did a 20th Anniversary tour and at the end signed a contract with Epic Records a better fit for the band than Arista could ever be.

Neel left the band and Marc Quiñones was added as a percussionist.

The band released two critically acclaimed albums Shades Of Two Worlds (1991) and Where It All Begins (1994). In between three live archival albums were released that also helped to generate more buzz; the incredible Live At Ludlow Garage:1970(1991), The Fillmore Concerts (1992)and Evening With The Allman Brothers Band (1992).

In 1995 the original Allman Brothers Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and in 1996 they won The Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Jessica"

Haynes and Woody had been working with a side project, Gov't Mule for 2 years and in 1997 decided to concentrate full time on that project. Haynes was replace for a short time by Jack Pearson and Woody by Oteil Burbridge.

In 1999, Derek Trucks, nephew of drummer Butch, replaced Pearson on guitar.

Sometime in 2000 Dickie Betts was forced out of the band for "personal and professional reasons". Unfortunately Betts' drug habit had gotten out of control and there were nights he could hardly stand up on stage to play. Betts responded with a lawsuit and the split became permanent. For the summer 2000 tour Jimmy Herring was brought in to replace Betts.

That summer, bassist Allen Woody was found dead in a Queens, N.Y., hotel room on Saturday Aug. 26, 2000; he was 44. The exact cause of his death was not determined.

Also that year the band released Peakin' At The Beacon, a salute to the concerts the band gives annually at the 2900-seat Upper West Side Beacon Theater in NYC. Since 1989 the band has played over 200 shows at this venue and is know as the "Beacon Run".

Also in 2000 Warren began appearing with the band more and more frequently and rejoined full-time in 2001 while he continued to play and tour with Gov't Mule. The prolific guitarist also toured with the reformed Dead in 2004. With Haynes return came a new found desire for stability and productivity.

In 2003 the band release Hittin' The Note which garnered huge fan and critical acclaim. Also that year the DVD Live At The Beacon was released and was certified Platinum the following year. In 2004 another album chronicling the Beacon Runs, One Way Out was released.

In 2003 and 2004 the Allman's received Grammy nominations in the category of Best Rock performance of "Instrumental Illness" which appeared on Hittin' The note and the DVD.

In 2003 Duane (#2 behind Jimi), Warren (#23), Dickie (#58) and Derek (#81 and the youngest on the list) were all named in Rolling Stone MAgazine's listing of the 100 best guitarists. This list has many problems in it and it will be a subject of an upcoming post.

Obviously the band continues to tour today with the same lineup for the last 5 years and have built upon their reputation as being an incredible live performance.

I hope I kept your attention for the last three days. Tomorrow we will post more music and some other general information facts about the band. This is the longest Tuneage Tutelage I have ever done and you must know it as a total labor of love. The entire thing took over 10 hours of research to endure the facts and aother 6-8 hours of writing it all to present to you.

I am curious if this was too specific a Tutelage and if shorter ones are more appreciated.

My list for continuing these grows and I love presenting them, if you, my special guests, do also.

Resources: wikipedia; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; Allman Brothers Band web site; The book, “Skydog – the Duane Allman Story” given to me by my friend TurnBaby; My own knowledge of this band.

10/01/08 - Allman Brothers Band - Part 2

2008-10-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

ALLMAN BROTHERS - PART 2
For Part 1 - Please Go Here

1973-Back Row: Greg Allman, Lamar Williams, Butch Trucks, Front Row: Chuck Leavell, Dickie Betts, Jaimoe

It is March 26, 1969. Gregg has arrived back in Florida from California having completed his agreement with Liberty Records.

Six men have found something special in their music.
With Gregg on organ, Duane and Dickie Betts on guitar, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johanson on drums and Berry Oakley on bass, the band was ready to get into the clubs and see what they could do.

After playing numerous shows in the Florida area, the band moved to Macon, Georgia to be near Phil Walden and the new recording studio he was opening, Capricorn Sound Studios.

Their first album, the self-titled Allman Brothers Band was actually recorded in New York City and released in November 1969 to critical acclaim, though the album did not attract many buyers. It was basically a blue-rock album with the exception of “Dreams”, which was a spacey tune played in 12/8 time. This timing would become the hallmark of the infamous Allman jams that became a hallmark of their live shows.

While in NY, the band opened for Appalosa and Blood Sweat & Tears at The Fillmore East, fulfilling the prediction Duane had made some 7 months earlier while at the Johnny Winter concert.

The band went back into the studio in Macon at Capricorn Studios, Miami, Fl at Atlantic South – Criteria Studios and some final dubbing in New York City at Atlantic Studios. This album entitled Idlewild South was produced by Tom Dowd who had a real feel for the sound the band was looking to produce.

It was released in September 1970 and quickly hit the Billboard charts. Two songs stand out from this album, the rocking “Revival” and the darker, resolute “Midnight Rider”. Both songs were more ‘radio-friendly’ and got much airplay.

It was right after the recording of Idlewild South that the Allman’s had a date to play in Miami. At the same time Eric Clapton had the band that made up Derek & The Dominoes laying down tracks for the Layla album at the Criteria Studios.

Clapton remembered the guitar player that had gotten his attention on the Wilson Pickett song and he insisted that he go to the concert. After the show, Clapton went backstage to introduce himself. The lore is that both Clapton and Duane were both like star-struck kids, each nervous about meeting the other!

After the show that night both bands went back to Criteria and had an all-night jam session (Wouldn’t it be great if there were tapes of that session and they were to be released!?!).

At one point in the evening Duane asked Eric if he could come by and watch Derek and the Dominoes record their album. Eric is said to have refused the offer, insisting if Duane came to bring his guitar because “you got to play”.

Layla & Assorted Love Songs is some of the most incredible work by Duane in the studio. There are live recordings where his is brilliant, but for studio work, Layla is the best. Duane was offered a full-time position in the band, but refused. He made two appearances with Derek & The Dominoes on December 1, 1970 at Curtis Dixon Hall in Tampa, FL and the next night at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, NY.

In an interview, Duane explained how to tell who played what part on the album; “Eric played the Fender parts and I played the Gibson parts.” He continued by explaining, “…the Fender had a sparklier sound and the Gibson produced a full-tilt screech”.

On March 12th and 13th, 1971, the Allman Brothers took the stage at the Fillmore East in New York City.

The result of these shows is the consummate live album Live at the Fillmore East. This album was listed as #49 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was truly the first time the multitude of musical genres The Allman’s played were showcased in one place.

A unique mixture of jazz, classical, hard rock and blues with arrangements propelled by the dueling lead guitars of Duane and Dickie, the rhythm section of Butch and Jaimoe laying a foundation that was solid, yet fluid based upon what was happening around the, the strength of Berry’s bass runs, some becoming a third lead guitar in places and all of this layered behind the gritty, soulful vocals provided by Gregg as he completed the wall of sound with his organ and keyboards.

During this time, Duane continued to do session work, just showing up at studios and sitting in, getting cash payments, but not recording credits. The amount of music out there with Duane as a contributor will never be known.

The Allman Brothers were the ‘unofficial house band’ of the Fillmore East having played over 25 shows in 2 short years and were given the honor of being the last band to play when it closed its doors in June of 1971. The band literally played all night, and as Gregg recounted years later, the band literally lost track of time until the side doors of the Fillmore were opened and the morning sun shined into the hall.

One of the last concerts the band played before tragedy struck has recently been released. It is their date at Stony Brook University on September 19, 1971. It is not the show I saw, as I believe that was in April of 1970, but from reviews I have read it reveals that Duane’s slide playing on songs like “Dreams” was touching the farthest reaches of both the instrument and his imagination. I plan on acquiring this and will share when I receive it.

Forty days later it all changed. On October 29, 1971, just a few weeks after the Fillmore East album was certified gold, Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident at the corner of Hillcrest and Bartlett in Macon, GA.

As Duane was approaching the intersection, a truck began making a turn. Suddenly, the truck stopped in the middle of the intersection. Duane tried to avoid the truck by going to his left, but the bike hit the back of the truck, throwing Duane from the Harley. The bike landed on top of Duane and dragged him, caught underneath, several hundred feet. He died about two hours later from crushed internal organs. He was less than a month from his 25th birthday.

Radio airplay of Fillmore East continued strong and many FM stations took to playing the 23 minute version of "Whipping Post" and the 13 minute version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”, unusual for radio to do so at the time.

The band decided to continue on after a short period of mourning. At the time of Duane’s death the band had been in the studio beginning to lay down tracks for their album Eat A Peach (contrary to myths, the truck that killed Duane was not a peach truck, it was a flatbed carrying lead pipes).

The title of the album was selected in honor of Duane and based upon an interview he had given. When asked in the interview “How are you helping the revolution”, Duane responded “There ain’t no revolution, only evolution, but every time I am in Georgia I eat a peach for peace.”

The album contains a side of live and studio tracks with Duane and then two sides containing my favorite composition “Mountain Jam”, recorded at the Fillmore East concerts. One side is studio songs with the remaining members of the band and Dickie Betts taking on the role of leader.

A short time later, the band decided to add Chuck Leavell, a keyboardist to give them a chance to have another lead instrument without replacing Duane. Leavell took over most of Dickie’s roles in songs, while Dickie stepped up into Duane’s roles.

Then the band was struck by tragedy again. Eleven months after Duane’s accident and three short blocks away, Berry Oakley was riding his Harley and had an accident with a city bus near Napier and Inverness Street. Oakley insisted he was fine, refused medical treatment and returned to the house the band shared.

A few hours later Berry was rushed to the hospital where he passed away from a skull fracture.

The Allman Brothers Band, just 3 short years into their existence was forever changed.

TOMORROW - Part Three - The Brothers Continue...

Resources: wikipedia; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; Allman Brothers Band web site; The book, “Skydog – the Duane Allman Story” given to me by my friend TurnBaby; My own knowledge of this band.

09/30/08 - Allman Brothers Band Part 1

2008-09-30T00:01:00.000-05:00

The Allman Brothers Band (circa 1970)

Nashville, TN is the birthplace of brothers Howard Duane & Gregory Lenoir Allman. Duane was born to Willis & Geraldine Allman on November 20, 1946 and baby brother Gregg was born on December 8, 1947.
Their dad was a career Army sergeant and moved the family to Norfolk, Virginia soon after Gregg arrived.

In 1949 Willis Allman was murdered by a veteran after Willis befriended the man. After Willis’ death, Geraldine moved the family back to Nashville and finally moved the boys to Daytona Beach, FL when Duane was 11 and Gregg 10.

In 1959 while visiting relatives in Nashville, young Duane & Gregg attended a concert by the great B.B. King. Both boys fell in love with the music they heard that day and at one point Duane turned to Gregg and said “We got to get into this.”

Soon after, Gregg began playing guitar after hearing a neighbor playing country standards on an acoustic guitar. It was 1960 and older brother Duane decided to also try his hand at guitar. A few weeks later, Gregg stopped playing guitar and concentrating on his vocals because, as he recalled in an interview, once Duane began playing “he…passed me up like I was standing still”.

In 1961 the two brothers began playing in local bands and Duane quit high school to concentrate on his learning the guitar. The band the brothers eventually began playing with was called The Escorts. This band morphed into the Allman Joys, with Maynard Portman on drums and Bob Keller on bass.

When Gregg graduated from Seabreeze High School in 1965, the Allman Joys hit the road, performing throughout the Southeast and eventually being based between Nashville and St. Louis.

In 1967, the Allman Joy merged with a band out of Alabama who had been on the same club circuit as the Allman Joy. The new band was called The Hourglass and consisted of Duane on guitars, sitar, vocals; Gregg on organ, piano, guitar and lead vocals; Paul Hornsby on piano, organ, guitar and vocals, Johnny Sandlin on drums, guitar and gong and Mabron McKinney on bass. In 1968, McKinney was replaced by Pete Carr.

The new band was booked in St. Louis for a month-long gig when they met Bill McEuen, who was the manager of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. McEuen got the band signed to Liberty Records and the boys moved to Los Angeles.

Once they got there, they began opening shows for bands like The Doors and Buffalo Springfield, gaining some popularity.

Then, Liberty brought them into the studio and it all went wrong. Liberty was not really interested in the band per se. They really wanted Gregg for his vocals. The band was not used in many of the recording sessions and the music that was given to them to record was not even close to the type of material the band was playing in clubs. The album was a mish-mash of light-hearted pop-sounding soul and the band was not happy.

Dallas Smith, a formulaic producer noted for his work with Bobby Vee, knew the group was from the South. He knew they had formed from the ashes of groups that had performed liberal amounts of blues covers. And he heard soulful qualities in the voice of nineteen-year-old Gregg Allman. Therefore, he referred to them as a "Motown band", much to the chagrin of the group.

The self-titled album, The Hourglass, was recorded with an emphasis on lead vocalist Gregg's voice and dispensing with nearly all original material. Of the eleven tracks on the original LP, only one was penned by a group member, Gregg's "Got To Get Away".

The remaining ten were written by songwriters running the gamut from Curtis Mayfield and Jackson Browne to Del Shannon and the team of Goffin-King. All great songwriters, but definitely not suited for this group of musicians. The Hourglass performed the basic tracks, which were overdubbed by Smith with layers of vocals and instrumentation.

Just looking at the album cover would have told you what Liberty was thinking. The band was taken to a costume shop and told to pick things out. Gregg & Johnny were in Sgt. Pepperish uniforms, Duane was dressed like an English nobleman and Mabron was in top hat and tails. The whole album was described by Ben Edmonds who was editor of Creem Magazine as being "like a Woolworth bargain-basement concept of West Coast psychedelia", and as Gregg has stated "We were in debt and stuck in California, so we had little choice but to go along."

The Hourglass

The album flopped.

The band continued to perform in clubs, rarely playing any material from the album, instead playing music like Otis Redding and the Yardbirds. The record label forbid the band from touring outside of Southern California which caused even more tension between the label and the band.

It was during this time, in 1968, that a famous story of the Brothers Allman occurred. Duane was sick in bed on his 22nd birthday and his brother came to visit, bringing along the debut album by an artist named Taj Mahal as a birthday gift. He also brought a bottle of the cold medicine Coricidan to help his brother get better.

About two hours after Gregg had left, he received a phone call. “Baby brother, baby brother, get over here now!” When Gregg arrived, he found his brother sitting on the bed. All of the Coricidan pills were scattered on the bed. Duane had washed the label off the bottle and was using it as a slide. He proceeded to play the old Willie McTell song, “Statesboro Blues”, which Taj covered on his album, for his brother.

“Duane had never played the slide before”, recalled Gregg years later, “he just picked it up and started burning. He was a natural.”

A second album Power of Love was planned and the band was given more control over the music they recorded, using many songs written by Gregg. However, this album was also a huge disappointment.

Frustrated, the band left Los Angeles and traveled to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL to try and record some music they could be proud of without the heavy hand of the label being involved. They recorded a handful of tracks which made the group excited about their future.

Liberty rejected all of the tracks out of hand. They wanted a pop group, no matter what the pedigree of the members.

Duane and Gregg Allman traveled to Jacksonville, Florida where they jammed with folk-rockers The 31st Of February, which featured drummer Butch Trucks. The rest of the band stayed at Muscle Shoals and became the base for some of the great music which was recorded there over the years, as the house band.

Liberty Records threatening to sue the group for disbanding, and finally dropped the threats when Gregg agreed to travel back to LA to make a solo record. These recordings were not released for 25-years until the two Hourglass albums were released as a double album set.

It was late 1968. Gregg was in Los Angeles, a prisoner of Liberty records and Duane was kicking around Florida jamming with a number of bands. Rick Hall, the owner of Fame Studios had been impressed with what he had heard during the Hourglass sessions at his studio. He was especially interested in the guitar work of Duane.

Hall called Duane and hired him to work on an album being recorded at Fame by Wilson Pickett. The album was entitled Hey Jude, and Wilson performs the Beatles hit on the album.

This session brought Duane into the spotlight. Eric Clapton recalls, “I remember hearing Wilson Pickett’s “Hey Jude” and just being astounded by the lead break at the end. …I had to know who that was immediately – right now.”

Hall called Jerry Wexler; Atlantic Records famed executive and producer, and played the Pickett song over the phone. Wexler immediately bought Duane’s recording contract from Hall and began using Duane on many of the sessions that were done for Atlantic at Muscle Shoals and up in New York City.

Duane appears on albums by Clarence Carter, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin (it was Duane who suggested she record “The Weight” for her This Girl’s In Love With You album), Otis Rush, Percy Sledge, Johnny Jenkins, Boz Scaggs (all of the lead guitar on the song “Loan Me A Dime” is by Duane), Delaney & Bonnie and even the great jazz flutist, Herbie Mann.

While in NY for the sessions with Aretha, Duane went with fellow Shoals session guitarist Jimmy Johnson to see Johnny Winter at the famous Fillmore East. During the show, Duane turned to Jimmy and stated “I will be on that stage within a year".

While recording at Muscle Shoals, Duane rented a small cabin away from everything and spent most of his time practicing his craft. Some of this session work is considered the best Duane ever played and ironically, most people do not even realize it is him playing.

Around this time Phil Walden, who had been manager to the late Otis Redding, was managing Duane and looking to build a 3-piece band around him. Walden sent R&B and jazz drummer Jaimoe Johanson to meet Duane. The two men called to Florida and convinced Chicago-born bassist Berry Oakley to come up from Florida and jam as a trio.

Berry came up, but he was committed to a band he was playing with, The Second Coming, which included a guitar player named Dickie Betts. After a few days of jamming, Berry returned to Florida.

It was now March 1969 and Duane was antsy. He enjoyed the session work and meeting the many artists, but he wanted something to call his own. He convinced Jaimoe to join him and they headed south, back to Jacksonville, FL, where they moved in with drummer Butch Trucks.

A short time later, a jam session occurred which included Duane, Jaimoe & Butch on drums, Berry on bass, Dickie Betts on guitar and the keyboardist from the Second Coming, Reese Wynans. Later that evening when the session was over the men all looked at each other in silence. Words did not have to be spoken for them to realize something special had just occurred.

The next day Duane called Gregg and convinced him to come on back to Florida. When Gregg arrived, he replaced Wynans on keyboards and vocals and during the last week of March, 1969, The Allman Brothers Band was formed.

As a side note, Wynans did not do so badly, ending up as organ player for Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble.

TOMORROW: The Allman Brothers Band has its coming out party

Resources: wikipedia; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; Allman Brothers Band web site; The book, “Skydog – the Duane Allman Story” given to me by my friend TurnBaby; My own knowledge of this band. Pictures of the Allman Joys borrowed from www.robertoreg.blogspot.com

09/28/08 - Concert Review - The Allman Brothers Band

2008-09-28T00:01:00.001-05:00

Brilliant...tight...in a groove...fun...all of these describe the Allman Brothers on stage at Bluesville at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica on Saturday evening.

The show was a bit short for an Allman concert clocking in at just over 2 hours, but every second was filled with music new and old.

The band today consists of Greg Allman - vocals & keyboards; Butch Trucks - drums & percussion; Jaimoe - drums; Warren Haynes - guitar; Derek Trucks - guitar; Marc Quiñones - percussion; and Oteil Burbridge - bass. The first three are original members of the band.

Nancy and I arrived at our hotel around 2:00pm after finding out that Charlene would not be joining us due to her father having had a bad day on Friday in rehab.

When we got to our room we had some lunch (delicious left-over pork loin on rolls, parmesean reggiano cheese, summer sausage and crackers) with a few cocktails.

We headed over to Bluesville and sniffed around for people looking for tickets. There were others with extra tickets and we almost had two sales which, for various reasons did not come through.

Finally about 10 minutes before showtime, we went in and found our seats. They were not where I thought (I hate the seating charts in most venues)...but in a room that holds about 2,000 people, there are no bad seats. We did go up to the side of the area where general admission was set up (the same area our seats were in for B.B. King) and watched the show from closer for a while.

In the future, if we can not get ducats for seats up front, Nancy and I have decided, we would sit in the balcony along the sides. The seats are unobstructed and closer to the stage.

The band hit the stage right on time and, as I said above, were in incredible shape. Playing as well as I have heard with this lineup. It is interesting to watch Warren and Derek, as they hardly ever look at each other as is the case with many two-guitar bands. Yet, they are so totally in-sync as to what they are doing and are going to do, trading lead and slide guitar parts over and over throughout each song.

The show contained "Walk On Gildered Splinters", "Elizabeth Reed", "You Don't Love Me", "Soulshine" and "One Way Out" to name a few.

One of the cool things the Brothers are doing now is putting all their music on their own label and get distribution through a third party. Also, every concert is recorded from the soundboard and you can order online at their website or even order it at the show. I will be getting the CD in about a week or so, and will share some of it when I do.

I even found they have the Stony Brook University show I saw back in 1971 in the archives and I want to look for some of the other shows I have seen. I think this is a great way to share you live shows with your fans. The CD run about $25.00.

At Saturday's show, Greg sounded great. His voice was strong and his keyboard playing some of the strongest I can remember. The trio of drummers; Jaimoe, Butch and Marc were really pounding out the beat last night. When I first read that the Brothers were adding a percussionist in Marc Quiñones I was not sure why as Butch and Jaimoe have always been such strong drummers, but Quiñones adds runs on the congas and timpani that seem natural in even the older numbers where there were none.

Warren and Derek dueled all night long. Searing guitar solos have always been the hallmark of the Allman Brothers and for a while were lost in the 80's when Dickie Betts dueled with keyboards and lesser skilled guitar players. Even when Warren joined in the 90's and before Dickie left the band, the intensity that forms on the stage with Warren and Derek was missing. This is reminiscent of the old Duane/Dickie days.

Everyone who I spoke with or overheard as we were leaving was on fire about the show. As I was taking pictures one guy came over and said "Man, I bet you are getting some great shots, can you email them to me" and handed me a business card. I will be getting them out to him, but you get to see them first...

For the show, the shirt came out again (the only time I seem to wear it now). It was made for me in 1973 by a woman I knew in college. As I have recounted in the past, the day she gave it to me I was offered $150.00 for it.

I did receive comments on Saturday from some people.(all photos enlarge with a click)

And next to it is a closeup of the 'french-knots' used for the peach...it has held up incredibly well...and finally, tickets all set to go...

Shots from the show...

The slide that was up before the concert began - The band with light-show behind them - Warren & Derek

Greg - Warren - Derek - Oteil, Marc & Butch (Jaimoe was impossible to get from my angle)

Nancy got a t-shirt. This is actually from the 2006 tour, but was the one she liked the best...and I added a new shirt to my collection.

On Sunday we lounged around until about noon and then headed over to Harrah's to donate some money to their coffers and to have a great brunch at the Paula Dean buffet.

Then it was time to head home and that is always sad.

I am working on the Tuneage Tutelage for the Allman Brothers and believe part one will be tomorrow. It might end up being Wednesday. There is jsut so much info...I have figured out how I am planning on presenting it over a few days to not inundate y'all...some will be driven away fro the week, but it is time to share the story of this band that will be celebrating FORTY YEARS of playing together next year.

Incredible!

09/18/08 - R.I.P. Richard Wright

2008-09-18T00:01:00.005-05:00

Richard William Wright
(July 28, 1943 - September 15, 2008)

Some sad news in the music world came out yesterday. Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65.

Pink Floyd's spokesman, Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain.
He says the band member's family did not want to give more details about his death.

Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.

Wright wrote significant portions of the music for the albums Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, as well as for Floyd's final studio album The Division Bell.

Wright was educated at the Haberdashers' Aske's School and the Regent Street Polytechnic College of Architecture, where he met Mason and Waters.

Wright sang lead on Barrett-penned songs like "Astronomy Domine" and "Matilda Mother", as well as notable harmonies on "Scarecrow" and "Chapter 24". Examples of his early compositions include "Remember a Day", "Paintbox" and "It Would Be So Nice".

Wright recorded his first solo project, Wet Dream, and released it in September 1978 with little fanfare.

He was forced to resign from Pink Floyd during The Wall sessions in 1979, by Roger Waters, who threatened to pull the plug on the album's tapes if Wright did not leave the band. However, he was retained as a salaried session musician during the subsequent live concerts to promote that album in 1980 and 1981.

Fittingly, Wright became the only member of Floyd to profit from those hugely spectacular shows, since the net financial loss had to be borne by the three remaining "full-time" members. He was the only member of the band not to attend the 1982 premiere of the film version of The Wall. In 1983, Pink Floyd released the only album on which Wright does not appear with The Final Cut.

In 1996, Wright released his second solo album, Broken China, considered to be a more focused and artistically successful work than Wet Dream and it contained extensive use of computer-based recording and production techniques, assisted by Anthony Moore with whom he co-wrote the album's lyrics.

He married his first wife, Juliette Gale, in 1964. The two had two children and divorced in 1982. He married his second wife Franka in 1984. They divorced in 1994. Wright married his third wife Millie (to whom he dedicated his second solo album Broken China) in 1996. Their one child is named Ben. In 1996 Wright's daughter Gala married Guy Pratt, a session musician who has played bass for Pink Floyd since Roger Waters' exit.

His keyboard playing was an integral part of the incredible music produced by this band. He was never an attention seeker as were his band mates...he just played brilliantly.

David Gilmour stated: "In my view, all the greatest Pink Floyd moments are the ones where he is in full flow. No-one can replace Richard Wright - he was my musical partner and my friend. In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognized Pink Floyd sound. Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously. I have never played with anyone quite like him."

He will be missed by all Floyd fans...but his music lives on forever!

Floyd in 1968
(L to R) Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright

09/18/08 - Album Review - David Gilmore "Live At Gdansk"

2008-09-18T00:01:00.002-05:00

It seems almost cosmic, because next week, David Gilmour Live In Gdańsk a double live album plus concert DVD will be released on September 23rd on Columbia Records.

Why cosmic? Well Monday I received TWO copies of the 2-disc CD (DVD not included) and Richard Wright appears with Gilmour, playing keyboards and contributing vocals.
As I write this, it is playing in the background and let me tell you folks...it is fantastic.

David Gilmour Live In Gdansk, the first solo live album from Pink Floyd’s singer / guitarist, captures the magic of his concert held in front of 50,000 in the Gdansk shipyards, the final performance of his critically acclaimed 2006 On An Island tour.

That album has achieved multi-platinum status around the world, reaching number 1 in Europe, number 1 in the UK and number 6 in the U.S. It is the first ever live recording with an orchestra of Pink Floyd’s "High Hopes" and "A Great Day For Freedom", the latter performed here as a one-off for this special Solidarity anniversary.

The rest of the band includes Phil Manzanera on guitars and vocals; Jon Carin on keyboards; lap steel guitar, programming and vocals; Guy Pratt on bass guitar and vocals; Steve DiStanislao on drums and vocals and Dick Parry on saxophone and keyboards.

They perform with the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zbigniew Preisner.

The sound on this recording is vibrant and full. Gilmour's vocals and guitar playing sound as good as I have ever heard. The Orchestra behind them add a special dimension to the new songs and turn old favorites into new experiences.

The song collection includes "Time", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", and "Wish You Were Here""Comfortably Numb" along with 18 other musical treats.

If you are a 'Floyd Fan', this is a must have for your collection.

YES, I said I received TWO COPIES. My contact at Sony/BMG was kind enough to include a copy for me and one to give-away to one of my lucky guests.

Personally, I saw Floyd twice live in concert and both times were spectacular events. Once was at Stony Brook University on Long Island during their Atom Heart Mother tour in 1970-71 and the second was at Madison Square Garden during their Wish You Were Here tour in 1975-76.

I have always been a huge fan of the space-psychedelic-improvisational album Ummagumma and would use various tracks to open and close my radio show in Rochester.

So, are you a fan of Floyd? Want to have this historic album in your collection?

Simple enough...write a comment telling me why you should have it. Tell me a story about a Floyd experience, whether it was seeing them in concert or one of their songs making an impact on your life.

ENJOY.....

08/19/08 - R.I.P. - Jerry Wexler

2008-08-19T00:01:00.002-05:00

R.I.P.
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler
January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008

On January 10, 1917 in The Bronx, NY, Harry and Elsa Wexler welcomed their son Gerald into the world. The window washer and his headstrong wife both hoped their son would aspire to a life above theirs. But could they ever have imagined how much above he would ascend?

Their son was not a school-loving child however and his youth was spent skipping school in pool halls and record stores while visiting Jazz Clubs in Harlem in the evenings. The music that drew him into those stores was Jazz…and he became part of a loosely knit group of record collectors streetwise intellectuals who praised trumpeter Henry “Red” Allen and quoted Spinoza.

This circle of friends could never have imagined (though they might have dreamed about it), that they would become the leaders of the record industry in the coming years. In that ‘band of musical-brothers’ were John Hammond and George Avakian (Columbia Records), Milt Gabler and Bob Thiele (Decca Records), Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff (Blue Note Records) and Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun (Atlantic Records).

From his autobiography “Rhythm & Blues”; "We were absolutely a cult. It was 'we happy few' as the English say. We used to hang out at the Commodore Record Shop, this little in-group, and get together in the evening. We loved McSorley's Ale and maybe we'd smoke a cigarette without any name on it. People would bring their favorite records and we'd be listening to Louis and his Hot Five, Hot Seven, whatever."

How would you have liked to hang on the street-corner with that crew!

Gerald eventually graduated George Washington High School at the age of 15 and went to City College of New York for two semesters. After that he dropped out of school and joined the US Navy during World War II. After his stint in the Navy, his mother convinced her son was a great writer pushed him to Kansas State University.

Gerald was a marginal student who found him self traveling the 100 miles to Kansas City, MO as often as possible so that he could listen to a new music he had fallen for, the blues.

After graduation, Wexler found himself back in New York and eventually became a cub reporter for Billboard Magazine. Back then the black popular-music charts were titled “Race Records”. One Friday the editor at Billboard asked the staff to come up with a new term for this section and on Tuesday when the staff returned, Gerald Wexler suggested “Rhythm & Blues” and it was readily accepted, thus changing the landscape for black artists from then on.

In 1953, after his partner at the time left for the Army, Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic records, brought Jerry Wexler into the company as a partner. Wexler recalls that “In a way, he (Ertegun) handed me a life”.

Together these two men changed the landscape of music, bringing Rhythm and Blues to the white world.

They also hired the astonishing writing duo of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller who were responsible for some of their biggest hits. Wexler forged innovative contracts with the two which allowed them to work as independent A&R men for the company. He made the same arrangements with Phil Spector and Bert Berns. This type of arrangement was unheard of at the time, but now, it is common practice in the industry.

In the early years at Atlantic, Wexler was the driving force behind the music that built the foundation of rock and roll. This was the music that introduced young white America to the pounding rhythms of the black culture, such as Big Joe Turner’s riotous “Shake Rattle & Roll”. The music tended to contain biting racial satire as with the Coasters “Yakety Yak”, or pushed the limits of the songs that had more to do with the action in the back seat of cars than the action on the dance floor. Clyde McPlatter’s "Honey Love” was banned by many radio stations for indecency and the Clovers’ “Down In The Alley” poked fun at the decency of the day with lines such as “I plant you now and dig you later/Because you’re my sweet potato”.

Wexler was also the force behind getting radio stations to play the songs being marketed by Atlantic. This was no easy task as almost all stations of the day were white owned and playing the likes of Perry Como and Doris Day.

Wexler was the face of Atlantic records when the ‘payola’ scandal of 1959 took place, traveling downtown all alone to be questioned by the NY District Attorney. Ertegun would spend that summer enjoying the cool sounds of the Newport Jazz Festival, while his partner worked the phones in their NY office trying to get more and more airplay for their growing roster of artists.

One of these artists was Ray Charles. Mr. Wexler was certainly the driving force in combining spirituals and ‘jump blues’ in the creation of “I Got A Woman”. Wexler went on to produce or co-produce every Ray Charles Album and single until Ray left Atlantic in 1961. He did produce the first album released on ABC Records and then Ray began taking producer credit.

In the early 60’s Wexler also innovated another record label first. Subsidiary labels were born under the Atlantic umbrella. The first of these was Rolling Stones Records, followed by Swan Song Records for Led Zeppelin (who Wexler signed to Atlantic) and the more successful of the group, Capricorn Records; home for the Allman Brothers Band.

When Wexler convinced Dusty Springfield to go to Memphis to record her breakthrough album, he discovered Stax Records and developed a distribution deal which allowed Atlantic to market their product. (Small factoid…Dusty ended up doing her vocals in NYC after all!)

This brought some huge Southern Stars to Atlantic records including Rufus and Carla Thomas, Booker T. & The MGs and Otis Redding. It also introduced Wexler to a more improvised and organic way of recording records both at the Stax Studio and at the nearby Muscle Shoals, AL Studio. This led him to bring some of Atlantic’s stars to the South to record including Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave.

It was 1966 when Jerry Wexler made the ‘deal’ that gave him his biggest triumph. Columbia records had just ended their relationship with a singer whose records had been a disappointment. This singer was a gospel prodigy, but was produced with a sea of strings and a catalog of music that did not fit.

Wexler convinced her to join the Atlantic label and brought her down to Muscle Shoals to record her first album for them. It was here where he says he “urged Aretha to be Aretha.”

And that she did and was. Sitting at the piano with her band, her voice soared to new heights. Wexler produced “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)”, “Do Right Woman – Do Right Man” and the biggest hit of her career “Respect”.

His love of black music and his years helping bring it to the masses did not stave off some troubling times though. In 1968 at a music convention in Miami, the word was spread that he was ripping off royalties from Ms. Franklin. Saxophonist King Curtis and a pistol packing Titus Turner escorted Wexler from the banquet room after word went out that someone was going to shoot Wexler.

A year earlier, Wexler made what he has called his major mistake. “I mistakenly figured we were at our zenith” he stated later on when discussing his persuading Ertegun and Nesuhi to sell Atlantic to Warner Brothers-Seven Arts for $17.5 million, a pittance for what the company would be worth in the coming years. "What a mistake. Worst thing we ever did. It was because of my own insecurity when I saw all these other independent record companies going out of existence. We were sort of done in by the broker who was supposed to be representing us. He undersold us." The men were no longer owners, but employees and the relationship between Wexler and Ertegun was forever strained.

Wexler was now free of worrying about the bottom line and began focusing in on other music he enjoyed. He began working with Ronnie Hawkins, Donnie Fritts and Tony Joe White, a new blend of music combining Southern rock, country and R&B, what Wexler called “Swamp”.

He had some commercially failed records with Donnie Hathaway and considers two commercial flops; Dr. John’s GUMBO and DOUG SHAM AND BAND as two records he is most proud to have been a part.

In 1974 he tried to establish Atlantic records in Nashville, a move that did not work well. He did produce two albums with Willie Nelson SHOTGUN WILLIE and PHASES AND STAGES.

Jerry Wexler left Atlantic records in 1975 began freelancing his talent producing albums for Bob Dylan (SLOW TRAIN COMING), Dire Straits (COMMUNIQUE), Etta James, Allen Toussaint, the Staple Singers, George Michael, Jose Feliciano, Linda Ronstadt (WHAT’S NEW) and Carlos Santana(HAVANA MOON).

In the late 90’s Jerry Wexler retired to Florida and shut himself off from the music industry, even canceling his subscription to Billboard Magazine.

Mr. Gerald (Jerry) Wexler died peacefully in his home this past Friday from congestive heart failure, leaving behind his wife Jean Arthur and his two surviving children Paul and Lisa (a third child, daughter Anita died of AIDs in 1989).

Mr Wexler was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1987. "He played a major role in bringing black music to the masses, and in the evolution of rhythm and blues to soul music," Jim Henke, vice president and chief curator for the Hall of Fame, said in an interview. "Beyond that, he really developed the role of the record producer. Jerry did a lot more than just turn on a tape recorder. He left his stamp on a lot of great music. He had a commercial ear as well as a critical ear."

A documentary about Mr. Wexler was produced and directed by Tom Thurman in 2000. It is entitled "Immaculate Funk", Wexler's phrase for the Atlantic sound, characterized by a heavy backbeat and a gospel influence. "It's funky, it's deep, it's very emotional, but it's clean," Wexler once said.

"He was a bundle of contradictions," said Tom Thurman, "He was incredibly abrasive and incredibly generous, very abrupt and very, very patient, seemingly a pure, sharklike businessman and also a cerebral and creative genius."

When trying to describe to Wilson Pickett the sound he was looking for in the back-beat, he demonstrated by doing the newest dance craze "The Jerk"...he knew how to get his message across.

When asked what he would like on his tombstone, Jerry Wexler said "Two words....More Bass"
Thank you for your vision and your ears Mr. Wexler. You brought us some stunningly beautiful music over the years and your legacy will live on for generations.

SOURCES USED: ROCK & ROLL HOF, NY TIMES, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, WIKIPEDIA

08/11/08 - R.I.P. - Issac Hayes

2008-08-11T00:01:00.002-05:00

ISAAC HAYES
August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008

Over the weekend we lost a great American musical icon. Isaac Hayes was found dead in his home here in the suburbs of Memphis, TN on Sunday afternoon. He was found next to a still operating treadmill and it appears he suffered a simultaneous heart attack and stroke.
Mr. Hayes suffered a stroke in 2006.

A police spokesman said last night: "Family members believe it is a medical condition that might have led to his death. Mr Hayes was being treated for a number of medical issues." He was 65 years young.

Born August 20, 1942 in Covington, Tennessee, Hayes' beginnings with his sharecropper family were never far from his mind. He eventually bought an estate in East Memphis overlooking the same cotton fields where he grew up.

He began singing in church at age five and in high school caught the attention of a guidance counselor who persuaded him to enter a talent show.
"When I finished, the house was on its feet, man, and I was a hit ... So I started pursuing music big time," Hayes said on his official website.

He was renowned for his characteristic baritone voice and mastery of several instruments, including the saxophone and the piano.

After graduating high school in 1962 and winning seven college scholarships for vocal music, Hayes turned down higher education to launch his music with Stax Records, where he worked with some of Rhythm and Blues biggest names at the time, including Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and Booker T & the MG's.

Hayes became Stax's rising star starting in 1966, and over the next few years some 200 Hayes-David Porter compositions became standards.

His career took off in 1969 with the landmark Hot Buttered Soul album, which stayed on the pop chart for 81 weeks and forced the music industry, for the first time, to conceive of soul music as an album art form.

At the time of emerging Black Power and with the death of Martin Luther King as a conscience building experience, Hayes transformed his image into a revolutionary statement, dressing in black leather, draping his bare chest in rows of gold chains and shaving his head completely.

Hayes also acted in scores of movies and television series. His guest star appearances included TV shows "The Rockford Files" and "Miami Vice." He also appeared in feature films such as "Escape from New York" and "Hustle & Flow."

But of course Mr. Hayes is best known for two projects. His career-defining soundtrack for the 1971 movie "Shaft," for which Hayes picked up an Oscar, three Grammy awards, a Golden Globe award, and an Edison award, Europe's highest music honor, and then for a new generation, the voice of "Chef" on the animated TV show "South Park".

Hayes left the show after the the episode "Trapped In A Closet", which lambasted the Church of Scientology to which Mr. Hayes belonged.

A brilliant writer, musician and singer, Mr. Hayes put his stamp on the music industry of the 70's and 80's and paved the road for the R&B and Rap artists of the 80's, 90's and into this century. His influence will be felt for years to come.

06/30/08 - Album Review - John Mayer "Where The Light Is"

2008-06-30T00:01:00.000-05:00

Now, I have to begin by saying that only recently have I begun listening to John Mayer. Sure I have known of him and all, but listening...well that just started recently. I only had a couple of his songs on my iTunes and I always enjoyed them. I have never seen him in concert either.
That is going to have to change.

WHERE THE LIGHT IS - JOHN MAYER LIVE IN LOS ANGELES is his newest effort and the first album I have listened to start to finish. It drops from Sony/BMG into your stores tomorrow, July 1st.

The concert opens with Mr. Mayer on stage playing acoustic. On Friday, we let you hear one of these tunes "Stop This Train". These song showcase his guitar playing, a combination of chords and picking intertwined to create a kaleidoscope of colors behind his voice.

In our comments section, Another Desert Rat heard the early James Taylor in the guitar and the whistling...and I have to agree. I felt transported back to those early songs by Mr. Taylor.

Mayer's voice is strong in falsetto and he endears you to the melody with some breathless passages during "Train" and "In Your Atmosphere".

"Daughters", from his HEAVIER THINGS album, which won Mayer the 2005 Grammy for Song Of The Year, is included during the acoustic set.

He ends the acoustic set with a most wonderful interpretation of the Tom Petty hit "Free Fallin'". I love Petty's version, but this might have moved a tad above. Mayer owns the song, infusing it with his unique vocal styling and the guitar work is just remarkable.

Next is the trio set along with Steve Jordan on drums & vocals and Pino Palladino on bass.

They open with "Everyday I Have The Blues" and set the stage for an 8-song set of guitar laden rock and blues.

"Wait Until Tomorrow" and "Who Did You Think I Was" are both reminiscent of the power trios of the 60's and 70's.

Then a walking boogie "Come When I Call" stops you in your tracks. This is when the trio really meshes with Jordan & Palladino laying down the road and Mayer traveling across the surface smooth as silk.

"Good Love Is On The Way" which appeared as an acoustic version on the EP THE VILLAGE SESSIONS is next and could be mistaken for any number of songs released by other artists...at least in the electric version. It is the one song on the CD I have not listened to twice.

Then back to what I believe is what the trio does best...a slow blues number entitled "Out Of My Mind". Mayer shows us how his mastery of the guitar is in the vein of Stevie and Eric and B.B..

"Vultures" from CONTINUUM opens with Palladino and Jordan laying down a hard blues beat and then Mayer lets his guitar pick it's place...Once again showing the solid relationship between the three musicians.

The trio's set ends with Mayer's cover of the brilliant Jimi Hendrix tune "Bold As Love". His bandmates create the carpet of sound originally laid down by Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. No one can truly recreate the magic of Jimi, but Mayer shows, once again, why Rolling Stone Magazine has had him on the cover of their Guitar Heroes issue for the last two years.

Disc two is dedicated to the band set, which consists of Mayer, David Ryan Harris on guitars, tambourine and vocals; Robbie McIntosh on guitars, dobro and vocals; JJ Johnson on drums; David Labruyere on Bass; Tim Bradshaw on keys, lap steel and vocals; Bob Reynolds on tenor and soprano saxophone; and Brad Mason on trumpet and flugelhorn.

The set opens with the song that earned Mayer the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal in 2006, "Waiting On The World To Change".

Also included in this set is "Slow Dancing In A Burning Room", the song featured on 2 episodes of C.S.I. in 2006 and the funky "I Don't Need No Doctor" written by Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson and made famous to millions of rockers by Humble Pie in the 70's. Mayer's take has a little more of an R&B feel to it and I could see taking darlin' Nancy in my arms and spinning across the dance floor to this one.

Also included is "Gravity", the song Mayer has been quoted as saying is "the song I have always wanted to write". A slow ballad featuring a solo by Mayer that sweeps the listener away.

Other songs are "Why Georgia", "The Heart Of Life", "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)", "Belief" and "I'm Gonna Find Another You".

Over all you'll get the full spectrum of the John Mayer experience on these two discs. The concert is also being released on a DVD, though we were not able to obtain a copy.

If you are a Mayer fan, you need to check out this effort. If you are on the fence about this talent, this collection just might push you over to his side.

The packaging is well done with a separate booklet of pictures from the concert.

One thing, and YES, this is a nit-pick that bothered my A-type personality and my advertising mindset, was that two of the songs had misspellings in their titles when they transferred into my iTunes. Not sure if this was corrected by the time the CD was mass produced, but for an artist that seems to have control of his career, I can't believe he would be happy.

In our opinion, worth your money...worth your time...and it will stay in your rotation once you give it a listen.

3 TUNEAGE TURNTABLES -

06/03/08 - R.I.P. Bo Diddley

2008-06-03T00:01:00.002-05:00

December 30, 1928 - June 2, 2008

If you had not heard, yesterday morning the great Bo Diddley passed away. He was 79 years young and left us due to heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa.
Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

Mr. Diddley was known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards in Los Angeles in 1996, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards.

In 1989 Mr. Diddley was introduced to a new generation when he appeared in a Nike commercial, telling baseball and football star Bo Jackson, "Bo, You Don't Know Diddley."

The man who would become Bo Diddley was born Ellas Otha Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, in McComb, Mississippi. His mother, who was about 15, asked her first cousin, Gussie McDaniel, to raise the child. Diddley never knew his father.

After Gussie McDaniel moved her family to Chicago during the Great Depression in 1935, she changed the child's last name to Bates McDaniel. Ellas McDaniel attended public school, where he learned how to box. At one point, he dreamed of becoming a prizefighter.

Like other great blues and rhythm-and-blues artists, Mr. Diddley first exposure to music came from church, in this case the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side. He learned to play the violin and the trombone. At age 12, Mr. Diddley took up the guitar after hearing John Lee Hooker's 1949 rhythm-and-blues hit, "Boogie Chillen."

"Diddley claimed that playing the violin influenced his muted-string, choke-neck style of rhythm -- an early forerunner of funk that can be heard on songs like 'Pretty Thing,'" the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame says in its official Bo Diddley biography.

Mr. Diddley's influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly borrowed the bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp rhythm for his song "Not Fade Away."

The Rolling Stones' bluesy remake of that Holly song gave them their first chart single in the United States, in 1964.

Mr. Diddley was also one of the pioneers of the electric guitar, adding reverb and tremelo effects. He even rigged some of his guitars himself.
"He treats it like it was a drum, very rhythmic," E. Michael Harrington, professor of music theory and composition at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., said in 2006.

Growing up, Mr. Diddley said he had no musical idols, and he wasn't entirely pleased that others drew on his innovations.
"I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it," he said. "I don't have any idols I copied after."

"They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.

Despite his success, Mr. Diddley claimed he only received a small portion of the money he made during his career. Partly as a result, he continued to tour and record music until his stroke. Between tours, he made his home near Gainesville in north Florida.
"Seventy ain't nothing but a damn number," he told The Associated Press in 1999. "I'm writing and creating new stuff and putting together new different things. Trying to stay out there and roll with the punches. I ain't quit yet."

Mr. Diddley, like other artists of his generations, was paid a flat fee for his recordings and said he received no royalty payments on record sales. He also said he was never paid for many of his performances.

"I am owed. I've never got paid," he said. "A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun."

One of the great sins perpetrated by the record labels was this type of injustice.

As our good friend Travis said in one of his emails "There are no replacements for legends like these. There are new blues musicians, but when the originals go they go forever." So very true.

I got to see Mr. Diddley back when I was in Rochester. It was the early 70's and Mr. Diddley could rock a joint like very few I have seen live.

Rest In Peace Mr. Diddley. You may have left us, but the brilliant music you created will live with us forever.

Enjoy Mr. Diddley along with some of the artists who adapted his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as "shave and a haircut, two bits."

Resources used: The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, Bloomberg News and the Associated Press.

05/12/08 - Album Review - Neil Diamond "Home Before Dark"

2008-05-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

NEIL DIAMOND. My experience is, there are three camps when it comes to Neil Diamond. There is, of course, the fans who L-O-V-E Neil Diamond. Then there is the camp that just do not get the attraction to Neil Diamond. And then the third camp who have always been ambivalent about Mr. Diamond.

Right here and now, I will state that I fit into the third camp for the most part. There are songs that I enjoy but I have never owned a Neil Diamond album, cassette or CD.

I was interested in hearing his new outing when I heard that Rick Ruben was the producer for this project. If you do not know Rick Ruben, THIS is from the NY Times. It is a 10 page article, so if you want Rick Ruben Lite, you can read of him HERE.

Rick Ruben produced Johnny Cash's last album and I love how he gets to the rawness of any artist he produces. So, putting Rick with Neil sounded like a choice idea.

The first thing that struck me about HOME BEFORE DARK is, even though there is a full band playing on many of the songs and even an entire string section on others, the sound of the album is basic. The main instrument you hear is Neil's voice. Behind that you can hear the guitar and piano and the rest of the instruments, but they are merely the canvas Neil Diamond is painting on.

Unlike Cash's album where Rubin selected a collection of currect songs for Johnny to craft, this album is all Neil Diamond. An album that he spent 10-months working on before even entering the studio.

On "Pretty Amazing Grace" there are layers of guitars over the strings and piano with Neil's voice weaving in and out. Tempo changes allow the song to flow out of your speakers. You can see a streaming video of the song HERE.

The CD comes with a small brochure and Mr. Diamond outlines the process by which this album took birth. He talks about isolating himself from the world and "most of all, other peoples' music", and the uneasiness this isolation causes.

The album's music comes from his faith and the feelings a new love relationship has brought to him. He speaks of how a friend told him that he should feel lucky to have "another bite of the apple"...another chance to be successful in love and that comment translates to the song "One More Bite Of The Apple", a song that will sound comfortable for Diamond fans.

On "Slow It Down", Neil looks at the world we are all caught up in, and makes the simple suggestion to "See the view, it's for you, just pay some attention" and "Forget about the competition, you're due for an intermission". The music behind the lyrics remind me of floating down the river , slowly enjoying the water carrying you along.

The album was crafted in the studio without charts for the musicians, just Neil Diamonds lyrics and chords and each song was crafted as a group effort. The backing band improvising and adding their skills.

What has been put on vinyl - YES, you can by this on vinyl also - and CD is a uplifting experience. For you Diamond fans, you will be extremely happy. For those of you in camp three, this is the album by Neil Diamond you want to add to your collection. For those of you in group two, those who are not fans, give it a try...you might just surprise yourself.

THE COUCH RATES THIS ALBUM: Home Before Dark by Neil Diamond:

+ 1/2 Turntables (2.5 Out Of 4)

Neil Diamond is touring behind this effort.
July
19 St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
22 Sioux City, IA - Tyson Events Center
24 Omaha, NE - Qwest Center Omaha
26 Chicago, IL - United Center
29 Indianapolis, IN - Conseco Fieldhouse
31 Detroit, MI - The Palace of Auburn Hills

August
3 Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena
5 Washington, DC - Verizon Center
7 Hartford, CT - XL Center
9 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center
12 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
18 Pittsburgh, PA - Mellon Arena
20 Albany, NY - Times Union Center
23 Boston, MA - Fenway Park
25 Columbus, OH - Value City Arena at The Schottenstein Center
27 Green Bay, WI - Resch Center
29 St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center

September
14 Winnipeg, MB - MTS Center
16 Edmonton, AB - Rexall Place
18 Calgary, AB - Pengrowth Saddledome
20 Vancouver, BC - General Motors Place
22 Portland, OR - Rose Garden
24 Seattle, WA - KeyArena at Seattle Center
26 Sacramento, CA - ARCO Arena
28 San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion

October
1 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
7 San Diego, CA - San Diego Sports Arena
10 Phoenix, AZ - Jobing.com Arena
12 San Antonio, TX - AT&T Center
14 Houston, TX - Toyota Center
17 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
19 Oklahoma City, OK - Ford Center
21 Tulsa, OK - BOK Center
24 Tampa, FL - St. Pete Times Forum
26 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - BankAtlantic Center
28 Orlando, FL - Amway Arena Orlando
30 Jacksonville, FL - Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena

05/02/08 - B.B. King

2008-05-02T00:01:00.004-05:00

Itta Bina, MS…September 16, 1925, the place is a small sharecropper’s shack, the home of Nora Ella and Albert King. On this day they welcome a baby boy into the world and name him Riley, after the only known living relative of his father, his long lost brother.
The last time Albert had heard about his brother was when he was 7-years old and Riley was in a Texas prison.

When young Riley was 4-years old, his mother Nora left he and his father for another man and moved to the hills east of the Delta, sending young Riley to live with his grandmother in nearby Kilmicheal, MS.

Riley’s father Albert did not interfere and lost touch with his ex-wife and son for many years. Riley moved between his grandmother and his mother and her two subsequent husbands. As both the women in his life were very religious, Riley attended church each Sunday at the Holiness Church in Kilmicheal. This is where his love of music began to develop. The preacher, a man named Archie Fair became the first of many influences on the music in Riley’s life. The young Riley had a dominant singing style in the choir.

He also became fascinated by the guitar, which preacher Fair used to lead the congregation in song. He learned his first three chords from Preacher Fair and took a liking to the instrument.

When he was 9-years old, his mother, Nora, passed away and he stayed with his grandmother. When his father Albert heard of Nora’s passing he reached out to young Riley and invited him to come live in Lexington, MS with him, his new wife and family.

Because of his schooling and the gospel singing group Riley had just formed with his cousin Birkett Davis and friend Walter Doris, Jr, he decided to stay with his grandmother in Kilmicheal.

When Riley’s grandmother died in 1940, he continued to live in his grandmother’s cabin and farmed one acre of land to raise a cotton crop. He barely made enough money to live, so in the fall of 1940 Riley packed up and moved to Lexington to live with his father.

For two years Riley stayed in Lexington, but yearned to go back to Kilmicheal. As a 16-year old, he moved back to attend the Elkhorn School and rejoined the gospel group. A white family, cash tenants for Edwayne Henderson, took Riley in to live with them and he worked the land to pay for his keep. Flake Cartledge and his family were kind to young Riley and Flake even lent Riley the $2.50 needed to buy his first guitar.

In 1943 Riley and his cousin Birkett jumped in a borrowed car and moved to Indianola, MS to form a new singing group and to find better work.

Johnson Barrett, an Indianola planter hired Riley to work his land. Riley worked as a sharecropper and learned to drive a tractor. This skilled position earned him $1.00 a day. At night he and Birkett practiced with the new group they formed. “The Famous St. John’s Gospel Singers” comprised a five man chorus including Birkett and Riley and was led by John Matthews. The group performed mainly at churches and also performed live on broadcasts aired on WGRM radio.

At the same time, Riley played the blues on the Indianola street corners on Saturday nights. Riley’s cousin Bukka White was a working musician in Memphis, TN and when he visited family in Kilmicheal he would fascinate the young Riley.

Riley used the money he earned during the day on the plantation to travel to nearby towns to play in the juke joints and he soon learned he could double or triple his money this way. This additional money and the exposure he got to other Delta bluesmen moved his musical expression away from the gospel and squarely into the blues.

In 1944, Riley had to register for the military draft. Johnson Barrett was not happy about possibly losing a skilled tractor driver and, on Riley’s behalf, petitioned the local draft board for a deferment for Riley. He also told Riley that by getting married it would help get the deferment. On November 11, 1944 Riley B. King married Martha Denton and a short time later received his deferment.

Having the possibility of military service disappear, Riley tried to convince the St. John’s Gospel Singers to move from Indianola to search for fame and fortune. He soon realized that if he was to continue his musical journey it would be alone. Then one night when returning the tractor, the machine did not shut down properly and the exhaust stack broke off. Not wanting to face an angry Johnson Barrett, Riley headed out of town with his guitar and $2.50 in search of his cousin Bukka in Memphis.

The summer of 1946 saw Riley searching for his cousin up and down Beale Street. When he finally found him a few days later, Bukka took in his cousin. Over the next 10-months, Riley was a student under his cousin, learning the blues. Riley never played in public, but did benefit from impromptu jam sessions with other Memphis bluesmen. Bukka tutored his young cousin in everything from how to hold the guitar to the phrasing of the lyric to being durable, a trait that seems to have given Riley his durability to this day.

At the end of the 10-months, Riley decided he was not making any headway in his career and moved back to Indianola ad his wife Martha. They both worked to raise crops on the Barrett plantation and by the end of the season in 1948, had earned enough money to pay off their debts. At this point, Riley decided to try his luck in Memphis once again and headed back north.

When he arrived, he looked up Aleck “Rice” Miller, who most knew as Sonny Boy Williamson, who had a radio show on KWEM. Riley convinced Williamson to allow him to play on the radio show and when he did, the radio station was flooded with calls. Williamson had overbooked himself and sent Riley to take one of his gigs at Miss Annie’s Salon in West Memphis.

Miss Annie told Riley if he wanted to continue the gig in her saloon, he would have to promote it on the radio. On June 7, 1947 WDIA had gone on the air and by 1948 it was one of the first black owned and staffed radio stations in the country. Riley asked one of the DJ’s at the station if he could help him make a record. Bert Ferguson, one of the two owners of the station, had a better idea. WDIA had a new sponsor, a health tonic called Pepticon. This was a rival product to Hadacol, which Williamson promoted on his radio show.

Ferguson told Riley he could have a 10-minute show to play his guitar as long as he promoted the product. Riley wrote a jingle for Pepticon which went “Pepticon,Pepticon, sure is good – You can get it anywhere in your neighborhood”.

Riley became known as “Pepticon Boy” and the show became very popular. Riley was promoted to a DJ and given a real shift, entitled the “Sepia Swing Club”. He played recordings by black artists, played his guitar and even sang requests by the listeners.

The station management told him he needed a catchy name and he began as “Beale Street Blues Boy”. It was then changed to “Blues Boy King” and finally Riley B. King became known as B.B. King.

B.B.’s first recording came in 1949 for Bullet Records. Later that year he signed a contract with Modern records.

Though B.B. was not a national success, locally he was a huge hit playing Roadhouses and juke joints as the main attraction. Wanting his fame to spread, B.B. hired Robert Henry, a local record shop, amusement park and restaurant owner as his manager.

Just after Christmas in 1951 “Three O’Clock Blues” hit Billboards R&B charts. This hit allowed Robert Henry to get B.B. a recording deal with Universal Artists in NYC. The record label immediately booked B.B. at the three major black theaters in the country; the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., the Royal Theater in Baltimore and the Apollo Theater in Harlem, NY.

This new success led to a strain on his marriage and while on tour, B.B. received word that Martha had left Memphis and filed for divorce. Crushed by the news, B.B. allowed the hurt to be transformed into music and the resulting “Woke Up This Morning” became his second big hit.

B.B. toured throughout 1952, making stops back in Memphis, where he would do his radio show on WDIA. He also reconsidered his management and in 1953 he broke his contract with Robert Henry and signed with Maurice Merritt at the same time hiring a Houston based booking agent named Don Robey.

In 1955 a friend, Cato Walker, bought a used bus from Greyhound for $5,000.00. He spent another $3,000.00 fixing up the bus which was christened “Big Red” At the time B.B. was traveling with 18 people, 13 in the band and 5 roadies.

In 1958, outside of Dallas, TX as Big Red crossed a bridge a car tried to pass. At that moment an oil truck entered the bridge from the other side. The car came so close to the bus, that driver Millard Lee had to swerve to avoid hitting it. The bus hit the bridge embankment and caromed into the oil truck causing the truck to burst into flames. No one on the bus was injured, but one of the truck drivers died in the fiery cab and the other near the river as he tried to jump in the water to dose the flames that had engulfed him.

B.B. was not on the bus that day, and was thankful no one in his party was hurt. Unfortunately the Friday before the insurance on the bus had been dropped. B.B. had planned on renewing the policy on Monday and had taken the chance to operate the bus over the weekend. His liability was settled at $100,000.00 and it took him years to pay it off.

B.B. bought a new bus from Skyliner for $427,000 and named it “Titan” which became the bands transportation for the next 7-years.

In 1958, with a successful career, B.B. married his second wife, Sue Hall. She was the daughter of the manager of Club Ebony in Indianola and was 15-years B.B.’s junior.

She traveled with B.B. for the first 6-months and then they bought a house in LA and she began making it a home for when B.B. came off the road. The marriage lasted until 1966 when the tension of a constantly touring husband got to be too much for Sue.

Again, this sad time became music for B.B. and became one of his biggest hits, “The Thrill Is Gone”.

In the early 60’s in the hope of breaking out of the small “black artist” bucket and trying to become more mainstream, B.B. signed with ABC Records. Unfortunately, ABC did not understand his music and how to promote it. Prior to 1968, B.B. had made only two appearances in front of predominantly white audiences and both were total disasters.

He was still making great music though including “Sweet Sixteen”.

The race barriers began coming down around 1965. The big catylst was the Newport Folk Festival where both Sun House and Mississippi John Hurt performed. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and their interracial lineup also helped to bring down the barriers. It did not hurt when reporters would ask Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield where they learned to play guitar and they replied “By copying B.B.’s licks” When they were met with blank stares and asked “B.B. who?” they would reply “The real monster, B.B. King”.

The word of this man named B.B. and the popularity of “The Thrill Is Gone” caused a total change from the chitlin circuit to gigs in jazz clubs and rock palaces, such as the Fillmore East and West. Then B.B. began playing colleges and even dining rooms of luxury resort hotels. People began to know the name B.B. more and more. In 1969 B.B. performed on “The Tonight Show”, as a result of Flip Wilson sitting in as host for vacationing Johnny Carson. The same year, he opened 18 American concerts for The Rolling Stones. Then the ultimate…1971…”The Ed Sullivan Show”.

In 1973, B.B. was master of ceremonies at a concert at Philharmonic Hall in NYC. The show that evening featured “Big Mama” Thornton, Arthur “Big Daddy” Crudup and Muddy Waters to name a few.

During the 80’s, 90’s and up until today, B.B. has recorded less and less. His touring, however, has never slowed down. B.B. King travels the world over, performing between 200 and 300 times a year.

It is B.B.’s love of music and the desire of today’s rock musicians to play with this legend that allows the fame of B.B. King to continue.

A whole new generation was introduced to B.B. in 1988 when he joined U2 in Memphis at the original Sun Records Studio to record “When Love Comes To Town”.

In 1998, B.B. appeared in “The Blues brothers – 2000” playing the leader of the Louisiana Gator Boys which also included Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Koko Taylor and Bo Diddley.

In 2000, he recorded the fantastic album “Riding With The King” with Eric Clapton.

In 2003, King joined Phish on stage in NJ for a three song set and a 30-minute jam in front of their fans…

In June 2006, groundbreaking was held for the B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, MS. The scheduled opening is this September.

Over his 52 years B.B. has given over 15,000 performances. He is a licensed pilot, loves to gamble, is a vegetarian and does not drink. He has also lived with Type II Diabetes for over 20 years. His favorite singer? Frank Sinatra. B.B. explains in his autobiography that he is an avowed “Sinatra nut” and credits Frank with helping black performers make it in a white world, getting B.B. dates at Las Vegas hotels in the 60’s.

How did his guitar become known as Lucille? In the 50’s B.B. was playing a juke joint and a fight broke out between two men. A fire ensued and after B.B. had left the club, he realized he had left his guitar inside and bolted back into the flaming building to retrieve it. The fight was over a woman named Lucille and it is said she might have even started the fire to end the fight. Or that she was knocked into a gas heater starting the inferno. B.B. named his guitar Lucille as a reminder to never ever run back into a burning building again!

There are now five B.B. King Restaurant & Blues Clubs around the country. The original at the head of Beale Street here in Memphis opened in 1991, another at Universal CityWalk in LA, opened in 1994. The third was opened in 2000 in Times Square in NY and the last two opened at the Foxwoods Casino in CT in 2006.

The Blues Foundation Hall of Fame inducted him in 1984.

The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame opened their doors to B.B. in 1987.

He received the NARAS Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1987.

He has honorary doctorates from Tougaloo (MS) College in 1973, Yale University in 1977, Berklee School of Music in 1982, Rhodes College of Memphis in 1990, Mississippi Valley State University in 2002 and Brown University in 2007.

The University of Mississippi awarded him the National Award of Distinction in 1992.

In 1990 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

In 1995 he was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors.

2004 he received a Ph.D from the University of Mississippi.

In 2006, President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He has won 18 Grammy Awards, nine of them for Best Traditional Blues Album.

B.B. King…Now and Forever, he is and will be, the King Of The Blues…

Resources: wikipedia.com, Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, bbking.com, worldblues.com

04/22/08 - Howlin' Wolf

2008-04-22T00:01:00.002-05:00

http://www.howlingwolfphotos.com

On June 10th, 1910 in White Station, MS, Chester Arthur Burnett was born to Gertrude Jones and Leon “Dock” Burnett. Named for the 21st President of the United States, Chester was given the nicknames “Big Foot” and “Bull Cow” as a child because of his massive size. He eventually grew to be well 6’3” and weighed about 275 pounds.

When Chester was still young, Leon left the family and moved into the Mississippi Delta. Gertrude was a very religious and a very strict woman. Her relationship with her son was strained from early on. While he was still a child, Gertrude threw him out of the house for refusing to work around the farm.

Chester moved in with his uncle Will Young, a man described by those that knew him as “The meanest man between here and hell.” This description seems to have fit perfectly, as stories tell us he was abusive to the young Chester.

When he was 13-years old, fed up with the abuse from his uncle, Chester took off walking barefoot some 85 miles to find his father in Ruleville, MS where he was welcomed into their home on the Young & Morrow Plantation. There he met his half-sister and step-siblings and found a warm home in which to live.

There are a number of different stories regarding his nickname. One was that his grandfather (John Jones) gave Chester the nickname he would carry the rest of his life – HOWLIN’ WOLF. The story says that granddad would tell Chester stories about the wolves that roamed that part of Mississippi and warned the young rebellious boy that if he misbehaved, they would get him.

Another bases the nickname on Chester’s trademark growl, which he fashioned after the “blue yodel” he learned from Jimmie Rodgers.

Around this time he began listening to Charley Patton and when he was 18 his father bought him a guitar and Chester began taking lessons from Mr. Patton who lived and worked on the Dockery Plantation nearby.

Chester began listening to and learning from the great Delta musicians who lived on the plantations and played in the local juke joints. They included, besides Patton, Mississippi Shieks, Tommy Johnson and Jimmie “the Singing Brakeman” Johnson. He learned the harmonica from Rice Miller (known as Sonny Boy Williamson II), who was dating Chester’s step-sister Mary for a period of time.

For awhile, he played music while wearing tiny wire-rim glasses and a dark suit like the only known photo of Lemon Jefferson.

Drafted in 1941, Wolf went into the Army Signal Corps and spent his time in the service mostly in the Pacific Northwest at Fort Lewis, Washington and Camp Adair, Oregon. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1943 and was discharged from the Army, and soon moved with his girlfriend to a house in Lebanon, Tennessee.

In 1945, his girlfriend also suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. Wolf left Tennessee and returned to playing music, and helping his father on his farm during the spring and fall. The rest of the year, Wolf was traveling through the South, playing with Delta blues men such as Willie Brown and Son House.

In 1948, Wolf moved to West Memphis, Arkansas, where he put together a band that included harmonica players James Cotton and Junior Parker and guitarists Pat Hare, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, and Willie Johnson. He also got a spot on radio station KWEM, playing blues and endorsing farm gear.

Ike Turned spotted Wolf and brought him to Sam Phillips, the famous record producer, who went into the studio with him and recorded some material.

These first recordings were in 1951 when he was simultaneously signed to Modern Records and Chess Records. That August, Chess released the song “How Many More Years”. Around the same time, Wolf recorded some cuts for Modern with Ike Turner. Eventually, Chess won the war of the record labels and he moved to Chicago in early 1953.

Wolf formed a band that eventually included Hubert Sumlin who became the only regular member for the remainder of Wolf’s recording career (except for a short time when Sumlin went to work with Muddy Waters).

At that time, Muddy Waters was making a big name for himself and the two, who were friends, began a competition that lasted for years. This competition began as Wolf tried to obtain songs written by Willie Dixon at the same time Muddy was hopeful to record them for the label they shared, Chess.

Some feel the rivalry between Wolf and Muddy pushed each of these men to greater success than if the rivalry had not existed.

In the 1950’s, Wolf had four songs chart on the Billboard National R&B charts; they were “How Many More Years” (1951 - #4); the flip side “Moanin’ At Midnight” (1951 - #10); “Smokestack Lightning” (1956 - #8) and “I Asked For Water” (1956 - #8). In 1958 the album Moanin’ At Midnight was released containing previously released singles and a couple of new tunes.

In 1962 the album Howlin’ Wolf was released. Many refer to this album as “The Rocking Chair” album due to the photo on the cover of an acoustic guitar leaning against a rocking chair. The album contained four songs which have become iconic in the annuals of rock and roll, having been covered by a multitude of British and American artists. They are “Wang Dang Doodle”, “Goin’ Down Slow”, “Spoonful”, and “Little Red Rooster”.

The relationship with his mother was never mended. A while after finding success in Chicago, Chester went home to visit his mama and find some peace in their relationship. It is said she drove him from the house, refusing to accept any of the money he offered her since it came from “the devil’s music”.

Chester Burnett was a rarity among those who came out of the Delta with music in their soul in that he avoided the pitfalls of alcohol and gambling and actually saved his money. At one point, Howlin' described himself as “the onliest one to drive himself up from the Delta.” This he actually did, with $4,000.00 dollars in his pocket and piloting his own automobile.

Many who tried to escape the hard life of the Delta by traveling the “Blues Highway” were not as successful as Howlin' Wolf. The “Blues Highway” still exists today, though it is a bit more modern – even becoming a 4-lane highway in spots – then it was back then. Highway 61 stretches from Vicksburg, MS to Memphis, TN, traveling through the infamous town of Clarksville, MS.

COUCH NOTE: I am planning a trip sometime in the early fall to just get in the car with the Tuneage loaded up and a number of rolls of film and discover the heritage that exists along this stretch of road. I will be sharing it with you all when it happens.

Wolf met his wife Lillie when she attended one of his shows in Chicago. From an urban family, Lillie was more refined than most of the women in Wolf ’s life, but they built a strong bond, which lasted until his death. They raised two daughters, Bettye and Barbara. After their marriage, Lillie managed their finances giving Wolf the ability to pay his band members more than others could at the time.

Several musicians who played with both Muddy and Wolf say Wolf was a more professional band leader. Wolf paid his people on time and withheld unemployment insurance and even Social Security, which some of his band members are drawing today.

Wolf also stood up for his band and wouldn’t be taken advantage of. Jimmy Rogers, who played for years in Muddy’s band, said, “Wolf was better at managing a bunch of people than Muddy or anybody else. Muddy would go along with the Chess company. [But] Wolf would speak up for himself.”

In the early 60’s Wolf traveled to Europe to appear with the American Blues Festival tour, making a name for himself on the other side of the Atlantic.

He seemed to understand that these young rock artists were the next generation of musicians as he was after the great Delta blues artists and he built strong relationships with many of them.

This led to the 1970 album The Howlin’ Wolf London Sessions, recorded in London with Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr and Steve Winwood among others.

In the early 70’s his health began to deteriorate. Having already suffered a heart attack a few years before, an auto accident in 1970 caused irreparable damage to his kidney, necessitating frequent dialysis treatments.

Despite failing health, Wolf continued to play live and released three final albums; the 1972 Live and Cookin’ at Alice’s Revisited (a Chicago blues club), a second London album London Revisited with Muddy Waters and his last studio album Back Door Wolf.

His last performance was in Chicago in November of 1975 with B.B. King. Two months later he passed from kidney failure. His wife Lillie was laid by his side when she passed in 2001.

Chester “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall Of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame under the “Early Influence” category in 1991 and in 2003, he was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.

The Howlin’ Wolf Blues Society was formed in West Point, MS in 1996 and the Howlin’ Wolf Blues Festival is held each year since 1996.

It does not matter if you are a fan of rock, soul, alternative, metal, or folk, Howlin’ has been covered by them all. Here are just a few examples:

01/10/08 - Huddie William "LeadBelly" Ledbetter

2008-01-10T00:01:00.000-06:00

This is the first in a series of TUNEAGE TUTELAGE dedicated to the music and musicians of the Delta Blues.

We will lead up to the weekend of May 2nd , 3rd & 4th which is the beginning of the month long Memphis In May celebration and the weekend of the Beale Street Music Festival.

One of the most renowned of the Delta Blues musicians is a man whose name many have heard, but just as many do not realize his contribution to the music of the last 100 years.

Huddie William Ledbetter is better know as Leadbelly or Lead Belly. Just as he has many names, his actual date of birth is also numerous according to the records. Some show January 23, 1988, his gravestone reads January 23, 1889. Other records show January 29, 1885.

There are other sources that state his birth date is January 20th or 21st and his 1942 WW II draft registration, which he helped to fill out, states January 23, 1889.

Whatever his date of birth, he was the only child of Wesley and Sallie Ledbetter on a plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana and moved with them to Leigh, TX when he was five years old.

Music seemed to be in his blood as he was introduced to the guitar by his uncle, Terrell Ledbetter and became enthralled with the instrument. He also learned to play the accordion, mandolin and piano. After witnessing a Mexican guitarist playing a 12-string guitar he worked to master the instrument.

By the time he was 14 he was playing in the redlight district of Shreveport, LA, known as St. Paul’s Bottom.

He married Aletha “Lethe” Henderson when he was 29 and she was 15. A few years later, Huddie left home to find his living as a musician, working as a laborer between gigs. Legend has it he could pick a 1,000 lbs of cotton a day.

Women were drawn to the young Huddie and later in his life he could “make it with 8 to 10 women a night”. He also once said that when he played “women would come around and their men would get angry”.

This was probably the cause of a confrontation in 1918 when he was put in prison for the murder of one of his relatives, Will Stafford. It was during that time in prison, Hudy wrote the song “Midnight Special”, which later a huge hit for CREDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL.

A few years into his incarceration, Huddie wrote a song to Governor Pat Neff for a pardon.

Please, Governor Neff, Be good 'n' kind
Have mercy on my great long time...
I don't see to save my soul
If I don't get a pardon, try me on a parole...
If I had you, Governor Neff, like you got me
I'd wake up in the mornin' and I'd set you free

Neff liked the song and that combined with good behavior (including entertaining the guards and other prisoners) got him a get out of jail free card.

Huddie journeyed onto the road again finding places to play his music, but his penchant for getting into fights derailed that plan once again. In 1930 during a party in Louisiana Huddie found himself back in jail at the infamous Angola Farm Prison Plantation.

This sentence brought two things to Huddie. First was his nickname “Lead Belly” as a play on his last name and due to his toughness. It is also where he met and was discovered by John and Alan Lomax. The folklorists were traveling the South recording songs for the Library of Congress.

There in the prison they recorded hundreds of his songs using portable recording equipment which to this day reside in the vaults in Washington, D.C.. The Lomaxes took a petition to Governor O.K. Allen who signed a pardon for Lead Belly. They recorded the appeal on the flip side to a recording of the song “Good Night Irene”, one of Lead Belly’s more covered songs.

He traveled to NYC with the musicologists where he performed on college campuses around the region. Lead Belly relocated to NY where he built a reputation on the folk circuit.

During the 1940’s Lead Belly recorded with Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry among others.

In 1949 Lead Belly began his first European tour. During that time he fell ill and was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

On December 6, 1949 he died in NYC and his body was brought home to the Shiloh Baptist Church in Mooringsport, LA.

During his life Lead Belly earned fame but not riches. His catalog of music he shared with the world numbers over 500. A year after his death THE WEAVERS put “Good Night Irene” at #1 on the music charts.

Lead belly is known as “The King Of The 12-String Guitar” and was elected into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988 in the Early Influence Category. During his introduction, Pete Seeger said of The Weavers putting "Good Night Irene" at #1 on the charts, “It’s a poor tragedy he didn’t live another six months, because all his dreams as a performer would have come true.”

The reach of Lead Belly can be felt in folk, blues, rock, punk, children’s music and more.

The opening lines of “Astral Weeks”, by Van Morrison are “Talkin’ to Huddie Ledbetter, Showin’ pictures on the wall…”

Morrison has stated in a Rolling Stone Magazine interview that he owned a picture of Lead Belly and put it up wherever he was living. He also called Lead belly “his guru” during the same interview.

We by no means are attempting to claim all of the songs in this post, attributed to Lead Belly were written by him. Some were written by the others who came from the Delta area, some were traditional songs passed down from generation to generation on the plantations of the south, with origins untraceable.

It is, however, accepted that Lead Belly spread this music to the world...

Lead Belly has been covered by ABBA, Harry Belafonte, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Ry Cooder, Lonnie Donegan, The Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Billy Childish (who named his son Huddie), Mungo Jerry, Nirvana, Paul King, Michelle Shocked, Tom Waits, British Sea Power, Rod Stewart, Ernest Tubb, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The White Stripes, The Fall, The Doors, Smog, and Raffi, among many others.

Lead Belly has been mentioned in songs by Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Pearl Jam, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Dead Milkmen, Bubbi Morthens (an Icelandic musician), Dulaney Banks and Stone Temple Pilots.

Information gathered from: wikipedia.com; The Lead Belly Foundation; The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame;

Albums By Lead Belly:

• KING OF THE TWELVE-STRING GUITAR, 1935
• ALABAMA BOUND, 1940
• SHOUT ON!, 1948
• LEADBELLY'S LAST SESSION, 1953
• LEADBELLY SONGS FOLK SONGS, 1968
• LEADBELLY, 1969
• LEADBELLY, 1973
• ALABAMA BOUND, 1989
• COMPLETE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SESSIONS, Includes:
• Midnight Special (1991, Rounder Records)
• Gwine Dig a Hole to Put the Devil In (1991, Rounder Records)
• Let It Shine on Me (1991, Rounder Records)
• The Titanic (1994, Rounder Records)
• Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen (1994, Rounder Records)
• Go Down Old Hannah (1995, Rounder Records)

• LEADBELLY SINGS FOLK SONGS, 1990
• BOURGEOIS BLUES, 1991
• KING OF THE TWELVE-STRING GUITAR, 1991

12/10/07 - Stax Records

2007-12-10T00:01:00.001-06:00

In 1957 Jim Stewart started a record company in Tennessee. He named his baby Satellite Records.

In 1958, Stewart's sister Estelle became involved by making a financial contribution in the company and they moved their studios from Brunswick, TN to an old movie theater, The Capitol Theater at 926 East McLemore Avenue in Memphis.

The first successful artists for Satellite was Rufus and Carla Thomas, a father-daughter duo. Their sound attracted the attention of Atlantic Records and Stewart made a deal allowing Atlantic the right of first refusal on distribution of Satellite artists. At that time, the records would be distributed under the Atlantic or Atco label.

That changed in 1961 with the release of the MAR-KAYS hit "Last Night" which was released nationally using the Satellite Records label. The result of this was Stewart learning of another Satellite Records out of California.

The label was renamed using a combination of Jim and Estelle's last names Stewart and Axton and thus was born STAX RECORDS.

The Original Stax Label
DJ's always talk about
'Spinning stacks of wax on the wheels of steel'

Within a few months, pianist Booker T. Jones joined the label and combined his talents with some members of the Mar-Kays forming BOOKER T AND THE MEMPHIS GROUP. This was shortened to BOOKER T AND THE MGS. The band exemplified the southern style of soul Stewart was hoping to achieve and besides recording on their own, they became the house band for Stax Records. Besides Booker, the band included Lewie Steinberg on bass (later replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn), Al Jackson, Jr. on drums and Steve Cropper on guitar.

Jerry Wexler, co-founder of Atlantic Records became enamored with the sound being recorded out of Memphis and learned that it had come totally by accident. When Stewart converted the movie theater into a recording studio, they had removed all of the seats, but the floor was still sloped and this contributed to the unique sound of Stax.

In 1965 they signed a formal deal becoming the sole national distributor of Stax Records. Atlantic Records also began sending their artists down to Memphis to record. Wilson Pickett recorded many of his hits there, though they were distributed on the Atlantic label. Conversely, the duo of Sam & Dave were "leased" to the Stax label which oversaw their recordings and their records were distributed under the Stax logo.

At that time Motown Records would combine their acts and send them out on the road together in 'revues'. Stax infrequently used this practice. Their first attempt as doing so was almost a disaster. In the summer of 1965 the revue began in Los Angeles, CA. The next day the Watts Riots occurred, trapping several Stax artists in Watts during the violence.

The label did sponsor a Christmas show each year in Memphis. The most notorious of these shows occurred in 1968 when a drunk Janis Joplin appeared and was booed off the stage. The most successful Stax package revue was a tour of England and France in 1967. Playing to sold-out crowds across western Europe, Stax released several live albums from the tour recordings, including the best-selling Otis Live In Europe.

After the payola scandals of the late 50's, many radio stations, hoping to avoid the appearance of favoritism, adopted a policy not to introduce more than one or two new songs from the same label at the same time. As other labels did, Stax formed subsidiary labels to continue to get their artists heard. These included Enterprise, Chalice, Hip, Safice and the most famous, Volt which was the home for Otis Redding.

As the 60's went on Stax and its subsidiaries were producing many hits. The songwriting team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter was a major contributor to this success.

In 1967 everything changed for Jim and Estelle and for the Stax label. Atlantic was sold to Warner-Seven Arts which immediately activated a clause in the Stax-Atlantic contract calling for a renegotiation.

Warner quickly pointed out to Jim Stewart that he had signed away the rights to all of the master recordings to the Stax-Atlantic released material when he signed the deal with Atlantic Records. Warner refused to renegotiate the deal or to return the masters which forced Stewart to sell his company to Gulf & Western. Estelle left the company, but Jim stayed on under the new ownership.

Stax had to continue on without the meat of their releases and without Sam & Dave who stayed with Atlantic Records. If things were not bad enough, Otis Redding and a good portion of the Mar-Lays were killed in a plane crash in December of 1967.

When the Atlantic distribution deal expired in 1968 Atlantic briefly marketed Stax/Volt recordings made after the split. These recordings feature the alternate Stax/Volt logos used on the album covers on their labels, as opposed to the original Atlantic-era logos, such as the "Stax-o-wax" logo. Stax label recordings were reissued on the Atlantic label, and Volt label material on the Atco label. Gulf and Western-owned Stax/Volt releases used new label designs, new logos (including the recognizable finger snapping logo) and new catalogue numbering systems to avoid confusion among the record distributors.

Stax continued on as an independent label and had their first hit with Johnny Taylor's "Who's Making Love" in 1968. Isaac Hayes also scored a hit with "Hot Buttered Soul" in 1969 and became the biggest star on the label by 1971 when the soundtrack to the movie "Shaft" was released. All of Hayes' music was released on a subsidiary label Enterprise Records formed in 1967.

Unfortunately Gulf & Western did a lousy job of marketing for Stax and record sales sagged.

In 1970 Stewart and Al Bell purchased the label and Stewart sank most of his personal fortune into the label to try and keep it afloat.

Bell began signing mainly black artists and even formed another subsidiary, Partee Records to sign comedy artists like Richard Pryor and Moms Mabley.

When the STAPLES SINGERS moved from Gospel to R&B, they began producing hits for the label and one of its original stars Rufus Thomas had a resurgence during the 70's.

On August 20, 1972, the Stax label presented a major concert, Wattstax, featured performances by Stax recording artists and humor from rising young comedian Richard Pryor. Known as the "Black Woodstock," Wattstax was hosted by Reverend Jesse Jackson and drew a crowd of over 100,000 attendees, most of them African-American.

Wattstax was filmed by motion picture director Mel Stuart ("Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"), and a concert film of the event was released to theaters by Columbia Pictures in February 1973.

Clive Davis at CBS Records signed a distribution deal with Stax to help break his company into the African-American market. Shortly after the deal was signed Davis was fired and CBS lost interest in the Stax label.

One of the main problems is CBS ignored the smaller record stores located in the African-American communities and did not push the label to the larger retailers, as they were afraid of losing rack space for their other more mainstream artists.

The last big chart hit for Stax was "Woman to Woman" from Shirley Brown in 1974, and the single's success help delay the inevitable demise of the company for several months. Al Bell attempted to stave off bankruptcy with bank loans, while Jim Stewart mortgaged his Memphis mansion to provide the label with short-term working capital.

However, bank officers soon got cold feet, and foreclosed on the loans, costing Stewart his home and the fortune he had earned. Stax/Volt Records declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 1975, and its assets, catalogue, and McLemore Ave. headquarters sold for about a million dollars.

Fantasy Records bought the non-Atlantic Stax recordings and continued to repackage and re-release the Stax catalogue on the Stax label. Atlantic still has the rights to the Atlantic-era Stax recordings released up to May 1968, most of which have been reissued by co-owned Rhino Records or licensed to Collectables Records.

Concord Records purchased the Fantasy Label Group in 2004, and in December 2006 announced the reactivation of the Stax label. The formal relaunch came with the release on March 13, 2007 of "Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration", a 2-CD box set containing 50 tracks from the entire history of Stax Records.

The first acts signed to the new Stax include Isaac Hayes, Angie Stone, and SOULLIVE. The first Concord distributed Stax album of all new material is a various artists CD which was released on March 27, 2007 and titled "Interpretations: Celebrating The Music of Earth, Wind & Fire". Soulive is the first Stax artist to release an album of all-new material with "No Place Like Soul" released July 10, 2007.

The Stax Museum Of American Soul Music is located in Memphis on the original site on McLemore Ave. and is a recreation of the old Capitol Theater recording studio.

Until April of 2008 they are featuring a history of Otis Redding with pictures and memoribilia of the artist.

Stax Records...what the music industry used to be like...no pun intended, but it had a heart and a soul and was there to showcase its artists. Unlike the monolithic record industry of today where new artists must struggle to get attention and it is all about the dollar...

Stax nurtured their roster and was about the music...the tuneage...

10/08/07 - The Doors

2007-10-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

When you listen to the TRACKS recorded by a group of four men out of California, you will hear a sound unlike any other from the time.

The time was the mid ‘60’s, early ‘70’s and to this day the band is one of the most talked about of all time.

It was July 1965 in Venice Beach, California. A 30-year old Ray Manzarek and 23-year old Jim Morrison were both students at UCLA Graduate School Of Film and on this day they began chatting.

Morrison mentioned that he had been writing songs and sang “Moonlight Drive” to Manzarek. Ray was so impressed he suggested they start a band.

Currently playing keyboards in a band called RICK AND THE RAVENS with his brother Rick. In August they recruited drummer John Densmore from the band THE PSYCHEDELIC RANGERS and along with bass player Patty Sullivan they recorded a six-song demo in September. Later that month they recruited guitarist Robby Krieger from THE PSYCHEDELIC RANGERS and settled on the final lineup of Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore.

The name of the band came from the book "The Doors Of Perception" by Aldoux Huxley, which was borrowed from an 18th century poem by William Blake which read “If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.”

While in the studio, THE DOORS used a collection of bass guitar players including Jerry Scheff, Doug Lubahn, Harvey Brooks, Kerry Magness, Lonnie Mack, Larry Knechtel, Leroy Vinegar and Ray Neapolitan, but when they played live Manzarek used the newly invented Fender Rhodes Bass Keyboard with his left hand and all other keyboards with his right hand. This was totally unheard of at the time and was one of the things that made the band unusual….but there was so much more that added to that.

In the beginning, Morrison and Krieger would contribute lyrics and a base melody to the songs and then Densmore and Manzarek would provide the rhythmic and harmonic sections. In the case of “Light My Fire” the intro was all Manzarek.

THE DOORS began playing at The London Fog Club but quickly became the house band at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go in LA in the early summer of 1966. Electra Records President Jac Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw a few sets by the band at the Whiskey, and on August 18th signed the band to a contract.

Three days later the band was fired from the club after Morrison sang a profanity-filled version of their epic “The End”. Morrison, tripping on acid that night, recited his own rendition of “Oedipus Rex” using the line made famous in the Oliver Stone film, “Father? Yes son? I want to kill you. Mother? I want to f**k you.”

Within a few days of being fired, the band went into the studio with Rothchild and recorded their debut album “The Doors” in about two weeks with most of the songs being recorded in one take. The album did include an 11-minute version of “The End”.

The album was released on January 4, 1967. In what might have been the first music video, Morrison and Manzarek directed a promotional film for the lead single “Break on Through (to the other side)”

The summer of 1967 saw the second single “Light My Fire” become a huge hit for the band when the edited version played on AM stations became a hit #1 on the charts. On ‘progressive-FM’ radio, “The End” became a staple with many of the DJs analyzing the song. Remember back then DJs actually talked about the music, spending time between songs to discuss their meaning and the bands.

Morrison quickly became a duo personality star with his dark foreboding lyrics and stage persona conflicting with his appearances in the teen magazines like “16” and “Tiger Beat”.

One of the first of their many controversial performances occurred on September 17, 1967. The appearance was on the biggest TV show of the time, “The Ed Sullivan Show”.

CBS network censors met with the band before their appearance and demanded on changes to the lyric in “Light My Fire” where Morrison said “Girl we couldn’t get much higher.” The band agreed to change the line to “Girl we couldn’t get much better”, but Manzarek has always claimed that they agreed knowing they were never going to change the line.

The show aired live, with no tape delay and Morrison used the original line infuriating network executives and Sullivan himself who refused to shake the hands of the band after they had completed their set, which included the song “People Are Strange”.

The band was told ‘they would never do the Ed Sullivan Show again’ to which Morrison replied “So what, we just DID the Ed Sullivan Show.”

The performed both songs on Murray The K’s (known as the Fifth Beatle) TV show on September 22nd, without being asked to change the lyrics this time.

On December 10th in New Haven, CT, Morrison was arrested for the first time when he began badmouthing the police from the stage claiming they had maced him when they caught him backstage with a girl.

On December 24th, the band recorded “Light My Fire” and “Moonlight Drive” for an appearance on “The Jonathan Winters Show” which was to air on December 27th.

On that night they were performing at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The following account comes from a book on Morrison by Stephen Davis entitled “Jim Morrison: Life, Death Legion”:
"The next night at Winterland, a TV set was wheeled onstage during the Doors set so the band could see themselves on the Jonathan Winters Show. They stopped playing Back Door Man when their song came on. The audience watched the Doors watching themselves on TV. They finished the song when their bit was done, and Ray walked over and turned the TV off. The next night was their last ever in Winterland."

They performed in Denver, CO on December 30th and 31st ending a year that saw the band touring almost constantly.

During breaks in their touring schedule in May and August of 1967, the band went into the studio and recorded “Strange Days” and the album was released on October 7th.

As the debut album had “The End”, this album contained the closing TRACK “When The Music’s Over”, firmly establishing the dramatic music of THE DOORS and solidifying Morrison’s reputation as the shaman of rock. In addition, the album contained songs which were very commercial including the now classic songs “Love Me Two Times” and “People Are Strange”.

This success had its downside also. The band continued to be featured in the teen magazines crumbling their status as ‘underground heroes’ and their live ‘spontaneous stage-show’ was also exposed as more scripted than previously thought.

In the February 10, 1968 edition of “Rolling Stone” magazine Jerry Hopkins wrote:
"One shtick, or piece of stage-business, missing at the Shrine performance, was Morrison's carefully-executed 'accidental' fall from the stage into the crowd. For months this had been a part of the act. It got a lot of screams from the teenyboppers. Then a review appeared in a local newspaper which called the fall one of the phoniest things ever. Morrison was asked if he had read the article. 'Yeah,' said Morrison, 'and I guess he's right.' Morrison did not take the fall that night at the Shrine."

The album reached # 3 on the charts that year.

From February to May of 1968, the band recorded its third album “Waiting For The Sun”.

Much of the material of this album had been written around and before the time of the group's formation, such as "Hello I Love You", and "Summer's Almost Gone". The highlight of this album was supposed to be the lengthy theatric piece "Celebration of the Lizard", but in the end only the "Not to Touch the Earth" section was used.

"Celebration of the Lizard" was intended to take up an entire album side, but the group was never able to get it right (they would revisit it later in its full-length form on their 1970 album "Absolutely Live").

Many fans have suggested once "Celebration of the Lizard" was shelved, two of THE DOORS earliest tracks were resurrected and rerecorded for use to fill in the void, such tracks being "Hello I Love You" and "Summer's Almost Gone". These two tracks had been recorded in an earlier arrangement for THE DOORS original 1965 demo.

Though the song was not used, this marked the appearance of Morrison’s alter-ego “The Lizard King”. The entire poem “Celebration of the Lizard” were printed on the inside of the album jacket.

There was also increasing tension within the band as Morrison began to let his dependence on alcohol take over his days. The band was also beginning to do stadium shows and on May 10th there was a large confrontation between fans and police at the Chicago Coliseum.

This album reached #1 on the charts, the first for the band and “Hello I Love You” became their second (and last) #1 single. The popularity they were gaining with AM radio play further separated the band from their 'underground' reputation and in the 1969 “Rock Encyclopedia” Lilian Roxon wrote that this album “strengthened dreadful suspicion that THE DOORS were in it for the money.”

Another riot occurred in New York at The Singer Bowl and a month later the band flew to Britian for their first shows outside of the US. This trip resulted in a broadcast on Granada TV’s “The Doors Are Open” which was later released on video.

For their show in Amsterdam, the band played without Morrison who had flown back to London on September 20th after collapsing from a drug binge.

“Waiting for the Sun” contained the song “The Unknown Soldier” which was banned from airplay due to its controversial lyrics. The band did produce their second music video for the song…again far ahead of anyone else at the time.

In October of 1968 the band went back into the studio to begin work on their fourth album “Soft Parade”. While recording they played a sold out show at Madison Square Garden in NY on January 24, 1969 and premiered their newest single from the soon to be released “Soft Parade”. The song was “Touch Me” and it eventually reached #3 on the charts.

Just before this concert Morrison attended a theatre production at USC’s Bovard Auditorium “The Living Theatre” he performed a show that appealed to his fight for freedom. The band had a studio jam on February 25th which was released in 1997 on "THE DOORS" box set. The recordings are the “Rock Is Dead” section.

It also was probably the key to the most infamous incident in Morrison and THE DOORS history. It was on March 1, 1969, Miami, FL at the Dinner Key Auditorium.

Morrison missed his flight that day and had been drinking heavily. The 6,900 seat auditorium had been oversold and the crowd was in a state already.

At one point in the concert Morrison screamed into the microphone “Anything you want, let’s do it”. This is when he supposedly exposed himself to the audience.

Ray Manzarek’s says it never happened and this is his account of that night:
"It was mass hypnosis. He told them he was going to show it to them, and by God, they believed he did. He was holding his shirt in front of him, pulling it quickly back and forth, back and forth, like a bullfighter, and saying, 'Did you see it? Did you see it? I showed it to you! It came out. I'm not gonna just let it hang out there. Now watch, I'll do it again.' And he'd go whip, whip back and forth with the shirt. It was hot and there were too many people in the place, and people were going crazy, screaming swirling and pushing at this temporary rickety stage. We thought the stage was going to collapse - eventually a side of it did fall over. It was total insanity."

Morrison was arrested for obscenity and scheduled concerts were canceled all over the country. Out of the twenty cities the band had booked over the next month, nineteen canceled.

It was around this time the band confronted Morrison about his alcoholism, but it does not appear it did any good.

During April, Morrison recorded some of his poetry which the band later put to music and released in 1978 as “An American Prayer”. At the same time he began recording an experimental film called “HWY”, playing a hitchhiker. The film contained almost no dialog and is only in circulation among collectors.

On June 25th “Soft Parade” was released. The band had added brass and strings and the music was more pop-oriented than ever before and the hard core fans were pushed even further away by this release.

The lead single “Touch Me” featured the saxophone of Curtis Amy. While the band felt they were trying to stretch their sound, the critics also attacked their musical integrity. Morrison was drinking more and more and the band that recorded their first album in a couple of weeks took almost 7 months to record this album, causing cost overruns and almost breaking up the band. Additionally, most of the lyrics on this album received individual credits and Robby Krieger wrote most of the lyrics.

In November 1969 the band went back into the recording studio and returned to their roots in many ways. Each side of the album were named; side one being “The Hard Rock Café” and side two “Morrison Hotel”. The name on the cover was “Morrison Hotel".

The cover photo was taken at the actual Morrison Hotel located at 1246 South Hope Street in L.A.

The band asked the owners if they could photograph the hotel, and they declined, so the band went inside when nobody was looking, and took the photograph.

Additional musicians included harmonica whiz G. Puglese (aka John Sebastian) and blues master Lonnie Mack on bass.

During the recording of this album Morrison grabbed a flight to Phoenix, AZ to see a ROLLING STONES concert and found himself arrested once again. The charges this time were abuse of airline staff. He was acquitted the following April when a flight attendant mistakenly identified Morrison as his traveling companion actor Tom Baker.

1970 began with two sold-out shows at NY’s Felt Forum, and a return to the concert scene.
In July “Absolutely Live” was released featuring music culled from shows between July 1969 and May 1070. THE DOORS producer, Paul Rothchild, painstakingly edited the album from many different shows to create one cohesive concert, the perfect DOORS show.

For example the best part of a song from the Detroit show may have been spliced together with another part of the same song from the Boston show, again trying to create the perfect concert. When it comes to identifying which song came from which show, it becomes very difficult.

Rothchild has said "I couldn't get complete takes of a lot of songs, so sometimes I'd cut from Detroit to Philadelphia in midsong. There must be 2,000 edits on that album".

Morrison was facing his trial in August, but the group did perform at the Isle Of Wight Festival on August 29th alongside Jimi Hendrix, THE WHO, SLY & THE FAMILY STONE and Miles Davis among others.

On September 16th, Morrison took the stand at his trial and the jury returned a guilty verdict for profanity and indecent exposure on September 20th. He was sentenced to eight months’ in jail, but was released awaiting appeal of the verdict.

On December 8th Morrison recorded another poetry session.

The band’s last public performance came on December 12, 1970 at The Warehouse in New Orleans, LA. During the concert, Morrison acted even more incoherent than normal, smashing the microphone into the stage on numerous occasions.

During December 1970 and January 1971 the band recorded their next studio album, “L.A. Woman”. During this recording session the band had a falling out with producer Rothchild who called the music being recorded ‘cocktail music’ and quit.

Production for the album was handed to engineer Bruce Botnick. This album was a return to the R&B roots the band had wandered from and contains two classic DOORS songs, “Love Her Madly” and "Riders On The Storm”.

After the album was completed, Morrison traveled to Paris with his girlfriend Pamela Courson in March. His drinking intensified in June and on June 16th (the day Bond turned 17!), Morrison befriended two street musicians and brought them to a studio where his last recordings were made. In 1994 these appeared on a bootleg entitled “The Lost Paris Tapes”.

On July 3rd, Morrison was found dead in the bathtub in his apartment. The death was ruled a heart attack, but an autopsy was never performed. The body was buried quickly, on July 7th in Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

Morrison had curtailed his drug use in the last two years of his life, preferring alcohol. He had gained a lot of weight and was wearing a thick beard.

The rumors persist over the circumstances of his death. Some say he faked his death so that he could get away from the fans and spotlight. Another rumor is he died in an nightclub and his body was secretly taken back to the apartment and left in the bath tub. In the book “Wonderland Avenue” Danny Sugarman states that he was with Pamela Courson just before her death from a heroin overdose and she confessed she had introduced Morrison to heroin while in Paris and since he was afraid of needles, she injected his dose that evening resulting in his death.

The three remaining members of the band decided to continue touring, even considering adding a lead singer to replace Morrison. Instead Krieger and Manzarek took on the vocal roles and they released two albums “Other Voices” in October 1971 and “Full Circle” in August 1972. Neither album generated any real interest and the band stopped recording and performing at the end of 1972.

In 1978 the third album post-Morrison was released entitled “An American Prayer”. The band took the spoken-word recordings done by Morrison and set them to music.

In 1991 Oliver Stone released the movie “The Doors” starring Val Kilmer. The movie – like many of Stone’s – contained many inaccuracies, but was praised by the critics.

The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993 and the three remaining members reunited to perform during the ceremony with Eddie Veder of PEARL JAM singing vocals.

In 2001 Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger appeared on the VH1 Storytellers series. Vocals for this performance were provided by THE CULT’S Ian Astbury, CREED’S Scott Stapp, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS’ Scott Weiland, JANES ADDICTION’S Perry Farrell and DAYS OF THE NEWS’ Travis Meeks.

In 2002 Manzarek and Krieger created “THE DOORS OF THE 21ST CENTURY”. Astbury sang vocals and Angelo Barbera played bass.

A whole new controversy came out of this group, as it was announced that due to tinnitus Densmore would not play drums and Stewart Copeland of THE POLICE would take his spot. When Copeland broke an arm falling off a bike lawsuits were filed by both sides and Ty Dennis was hired to play drums.

In February 2003 Densmore claimed he was never asked to join this latest lineup and filed an injunction preventing them to use the name THE DOORS OF THE 21ST CENTURY. In May of that year his motion was denied.

In July 2005 Densmore and Morrison’s estate won a permanent injunction against the use of the name causing Manzarek and Krieger to change the name to D21C. They are now touring as RIDERS ON THE STORM.

Densmore has been steadfast in refusing to license THE DOORS' music for use in television commercials, including an offer of $15 million by Cadillac to lease the song "Break on Through (to the Other Side)," feeling that that would be in violation of the spirit in which the music was created. Densmore wrote about this subject for "The Nation". His notes are as follows:
"People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music. I've had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music, other people say they know someone who didn't commit suicide because of this music…. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That's not for rent."

Ray Manzarek was quoted as saying, "We're all getting older. We should, the three of us, be playing these songs because, hey, the end is always near. Morrison was a poet, and above all, a poet wants his words heard." When Morrison was asked what he would most like to be remembered for, he responded, "My words, man, my words."

Jim Morrison also said: "I like any reaction I can get with my music. Just anything to get people to think. I mean if you can get a whole room full of drunk, stoned people to actually wake up and think, you're doing something."

Their popularity is reflected by continuing sales of their work.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked The Doors #41 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

A flurry of activity was announced in 2006 for the upcoming 40th anniversary of the group's debut album. This saw another box-set of the studio recordings, a coffee table book "The Doors by The Doors" and the beginning of production of an officially sanctioned documentary about the group.

THE DOORS, along with the GRATEFUL DEAD and Joan Baez, received a lifetime achievement award at the 2007 Grammy Awards.

On February 16, 2007 Ian Astbury quit Riders on the Storm, and relaunched his old band THE CULT.

On February 28, 2007, THE DOORS received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On March 14, 2007 Brett Scallions, former lead singer of the band FUEL, was announced as the new lead singer of Riders on the Storm.

On July 24, 2007, THE DOORS released a live 3-Disc album. Recorded at Boston Arena in April 10, 1970.

DISCOGRAPHY:

Studio albums
• The Doors (January 4, 1967) (RIAA:) 5x Platinum
• Strange Days (October 7, 1967) (RIAA:) Platinum
• Waiting for the Sun (July 11, 1968) (RIAA:) Platinum
• The Soft Parade (June 25, 1969) (RIAA:) Platinum
• Morrison Hotel (February 1, 1970) (RIAA:) Platinum
• L.A. Woman (April 1971) (RIAA:) 2x Platinum
• Other Voices (October 1971)
• Full Circle (August 1972)
• An American Prayer (November 17, 1978) (RIAA:) Platinum

Live albums
• Absolutely Live (July 1970) (RIAA:) Gold
• Alive, She Cried (October 1983) (RIAA:) Gold
• Live at the Hollywood Bowl (September 1987)
• In Concert (May 1991) (RIAA:) Platinum
• Live in Detroit (January 9, 2001)
• Bright Midnight: Live in America (2001)
• Live in Hollywood (May 2002)
• Live in Philadelphia (November 2005)
• Live in Boston (July 2007)

Compilations
• 13 (1970) (RIAA:) Platinum
• Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine (1972) (RIAA:) Gold
• The Doors Greatest Hits (1980) (RIAA:) LP: 3x Platinum/ 1996: 2x Platinum
• The Best Of The Doors (1985 album) (1985) (RIAA:) 10x Platinum
• Essential Rarities (2000)
• The Best of the Doors (2000 album) (2000)
• The Very Best Of The Doors (2001)
• Legacy: The Absolute Best (2003) (RIAA:) Gold
• The Very Best Of The Doors (2007 album) (2007)

Box Sets
• The Doors: Box Set (1997) (RIAA:) Platinum
• The Complete Studio Recordings (1999)
• Perception (2006)
• The Doors: Vinyl Box Set (2007)
• The Doors: Love, Death, Travel (2005)
• The Doors: Boot Yer Butt (2003)

Singles
1967 "Break on Through (To The Other Side)" / #106 US Hot 100
1967 "Light My Fire" #1 US Hot 100 #49
1967 "People Are Strange" #12 US Hot 100
1967 "Love Me Two Times" #25 US Hot 100
1968 "The Unknown Soldier" #39 US Hot 100
1968 "Hello, I Love You" #1 US Hot 100 / #15 UK Singles
1968 "Touch Me" #3 US Hot 100
1969 "Tell All The People" #57 US Hot 100
1970 "Roadhouse Blues" #50 US Hot 100
1971 "Love Her Madly" #11 US Hot 100
1971 "Riders on the Storm" #14 US Hot 100 / #22 UK Singles
1972 "The Mosquito" #85 US Hot 100

09/24/07 - Janis Joplin

2007-09-27T00:01:00.002-05:00

She came out of the small town of Port Arthur, Texas on January 19, 1943 at St. Mary’s Hospital; Janis Lyn Joplin was the eldest daughter of Seth Ward Joplin and Dorothy Bonita East.

Her dad worked for Texaco and mom was the registrar at a local business college and Janis had two younger siblings; Michael and Laura. Janis had a knack for being a painter which is credited back to her mom and dad.

Joplin attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Port Arthur from 1957 – 1960. As would be the case in her adult years, Janis was different from most of the kids in high school and was therefore shunned until she met a football player named Grant Lyons.

Lyons could probably be credited with giving us this remarkable artist, as it was he who played Janis her first bit of the blues; an old Leadbelly record. From that point on Janis began listening to blues musicians such as Bessie Smith, Odetta, and Big Mama Thornton and singing in the local choir.

"I got treated very badly in Texas. They don't treat beatniks too good in Texas. Port Arthur people thought I was a beatnik,
though they'd never seen one and neither had I." - JANIS

After high school, Janis attended the University of Texas in Austin and lived in a building nicknamed “The Ghetto” at 2812 ½ Nueces Street. In 1962 she was the subject of an article in the campus newspaper entitled “She Dares To Be Different”. Fashioning herself after her blues heroines, Janis sang at the local coffee houses.

In 1963 Janis headed off to North Beach and then Haight Asbury, California continuing to play the coffee houses singing the blues and folk music.

On June 25, 1964 Janis was at the home of Jorma Kaukonen (who two years later would help found The Jefferson Airplane), and they recorded a group of songs including “Kansas City Blues” and “Hesitation Blues”.

These songs were recorded on a non-stereo reel-to-reel tape machine with Jorma’s wife Margareta playing the typewriter as a percussion instrument. These songs found their way onto a bootleg album entitled “The TypewriterTape” a number of years later.

"Onstage, I make love to 25,000 people - then I go home alone." - JANIS

At this time Janis’ drug use began to increase, with speed and heroin becoming more prevalent in her life. She had also acquired a taste for Southern Comfort which became synonymous with Janis throughout her life.

A few months after the session with Jorma, her friends in California began to get very concerned as Janis was down to 88 pounds and doing far too many drugs. They bought her a bus ticket back home and in April of 1965 Janis was back in Port Arthur, TX. Her lifestyle changed as she sobered up and enrolled at Lamar University in nearby Beaumont, TX.

During this time Janis continued to correspond with a man she knew back in California. He was a methadrine dealer and he had asked Janis to marry him a number of times. A one point he showed up at the Joplin home, dressed in a suit and tie and asked Janis’ father for her hand in marriage.

Almost immediately after that, he broke off all contact with Janis and she never saw him again. Was this the catalyst to the heartbreak in the music Janis sang afterward? It is speculation, but it seems to make sense.

"People, whether they know it or not, like their blues singer’s miserable.
They like their blues singers to die afterwards." - JANIS

Janis began to drive to Austin and perform at clubs there, just she and her guitar. This continued her love for music and when an old Texas friend, Chet Helms, called her from San Francisco and offered her a job singing with a band he managed, she headed back to there.

Chet Helms also ran a company called “Family Dog Productions" which along with “Bill Graham Productions” became the two largest promotion companies of the time.

The band he managed was named Big Brother & The Holding Company and on June 10, 1964 the band performed at The Avalon in San Francisco for the first time.

In August of 1966 the band signed with “Mainstream Records” and recorded their first album. The singles off the album made nary a squeak and the album was not released at that time.

On June 18, 1967 Big Brother (pictured on the left) performed at the Monterey Pop Festival and everything changed. The performance was hailed as a career changer for Big Brother, but especially for Janis.

She became an international star almost overnight – similar to another performer who made one of his first appearances at the festival that same year. His name? Jimi Hendrix.

If you ever see the documentary on this festival, you will see a shot of Mama Cass in the audience during Janis’ performance and she is mouthing the words, “Wow, that’s really heavy”

In November of 1967 the band left the management of Chet Helms and began working with noted manager Albert Grossman (most famous for his client; Bob Dylan) and he began to book venues for the band outside of San Francisco and California, where they had only performed thus far.

An East Coast tour began in Philadelphia on February 16, 1968 and then headed to the Anderson Theatre in NYC for a show the next day. On the last day of their East Coast swing, April 7, 1968, the band performed at the “Wake For Martin Luther King Jr.” concert in NY along with Jimi, Buddy Guy, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop.

"I was the same chick, because I've been her forever, and I know her, and she ain't no star: she's lonely, or she's good at something. I have to get undressed after the show, my clothes are ruined, my heels are run through, my underwear is ripped, my body's strained from my clothes, my hair's stringy, I got a headache and I got to go home, and I'm lonely, and my clothes are all fucked up, my shoes have come apart, and I'm pleading with my road manager to please give me a ride home, please, please, just so I can take these fuckin' clothes off, and that ain't no star, man, that’s just a person." - JANIS

Between April and June Big Brother spent time between LA and NYC recording the album Cheap Thrills which was released in August and debuted as the #1 Album on the Billboard Charts, selling 1,000,000 copies in the first month alone.

It was a collection of studio and live performances and cover artwork by the famed Robert Crumb. The breakthrough hit from the album was, of course, the incomparable “Piece Of My Heart”.

The band made another East Coast swing between July-August 1968 which included a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. The picture on the left was taken during the Festival.

Upon returning to San Francisco Janis announced she would be leaving Big Brother at the end of the year and made her final performance with this lineup on December 1, 1968 at a Family Dog benefit concert.

Janis then formed a band called the Kosmic Blues Band which was modeled after the classic soul revue bands. Their first performance signaled their intent on their playing soul music as it was at the Stax-Volt Christmas Show in Memphis, TN on December 21, 1968.

Kosmic Blues Band:

The band, including a complete horn section, began touring non-stop throughout North America and Europe throughout 1969. In September 1969 I Got Dem Ol’ Kosmic Blues Again Mama was released and certified Gold, but never had the success of “Cheap Thrills”.

It included the bluesy, tough sounding song "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder"

The band was short-lived however and played their final gig with Janis at Madison Square Garden in NYC on December 21, 1969 exactly a year from their first performance.

"I read a story about some old opera singer once, and when a guy asked her to marry him, she took him backstage after she had sung a real triumph, with all the people calling for her, asked, 'Do you think you could give me that?' That story hit me right, man. I know no guy ever made me feel as good as an audience. I'm really far into this now, really committed. Like, I don't think I'd go off the road for long now, for life with a guy no matter how good. Yeah, it's the truth. Scary thing to say though, isn't it?" - JANIS

In August 1969, Janis performed at the legendary Woodstock Festival. Depending upon who you speak with or read, she was brilliant, or she was below par that weekend.

For 25 years after Woodstock, the only portion of her performance there that was available commercially -- in either sound or picture -- was a spontaneous dance she did with her band's African-American tenor saxophone player, Cornelius "Snooky" Flowers, during an instrumental break. It is part of the 1975 theatrically released documentary Janis.

The feature film, Woodstock includes several seconds of Janis walking with her friend Peggy Caserta to the festival site in broad daylight hours before she went on stage, but this film omitted her entire performance, even the dance with Flowers.

The 25th anniversary director's cut of Woodstock includes just one of her selections from the concert: "Work Me, Lord".

In February of 1970, Janis traveled to Brazil with her friend Linda Gravenites and got clean and sober. Gravenities had designed all of Janis’ stage costumes since 1966 and led a clean and sober lifestyle.

While there Janis met David Niehaus an American schoolteacher who was traveling the world at the time. He also led a clean lifestyle and it appeared Janis had kicked her habit.

Upon returning home, Janis formed a band with a group of drug-free Canadians who had no association with her San Francisco crowd and the Full Tilt Boogie Band came into existence.

"I gotta go on doin' it the way I see it...I got no choice but to take it like I see it. I'm here to have a party while I'm on this earth...I'm gettin' it now, today. I don't even know where I'm gonna be twenty years from now, so I'm just gonna keep on rockin', cause if I start saving up bits and pieces of me...man, there ain't gonna be nothing left for Janis." - JANIS

In late June 1970, Janis and the band joined the Grateful Dead and The Band on a tour of Canada called the Festival Express.

During this tour Janis began designing her own costumes. Linda Gravenites and she split company after returning from Brazil for no known reason and once again Janis took on the ‘tough first lady of rock and roll’ mantle and did not replace her, instead deciding to ‘rebuild her image’.

Feathers in her hair, multi-colored outfits, downplaying her cleavage and sexuality became the norm. Around this time she also requested that her band and entourage begin to call her “Pearl” though she did not want the press to report the nickname.

Janis thought differently then many of the other stars of the time who encouraged free-concerts. In an article in Newsweek in 1970, Janis was quoted as saying; 'I don't believe in gate-crashing. The people aren't up there when I'm sweating on a stage at a festival, breaking my ass. You can get the money, man. Sell your old lady, sell your dope. Look at me, man, I'm selling my heart.'

She was also very against the common practice at Dead shows to dose people with LSD without their knowledge. In 1970, she said in the presence of Myra Friedman, her long-time publicist, that Deadheads who did that were comparable to the Chicago police officers who had beaten hippies on the head at the 1968 Democratic Convention. A pretty heavy statement for the times.

Janis had a nasty drug and alcohol habit but was never late or missed a show, always telling people she believed in the American work ethic.

In 1970 Janis and the band went into the studio to record a new album. On October 1, 1970, Janis completed the song “Mercedes Benz” in one take and then recorded a birthday greeting for John Lennon, the Dale Evans song “Happy Trails”. It may have been prophetic.

Two days later, Saturday October 3rd, Janis visited the Sunset Sound Studios to listen to the instrumental track for “Buried Alive In The Blues” so she could lay down the vocals the next day. That night at the studio she had a long angry conversation with her boyfriend Seth on the phone, which was overheard by the members of the band. All say she was in great spirits before and even after the phone call when they all went out for Chinese food.

According to many sources, here is what happened next. Her boyfriend Seth was at Janis’ home in Marin County playing strip poker with a waitress he had met that day. This caused him to miss the date with Janis.

Sometime Saturday Janis bought heroin from a known dealer. She was staying at the Landmark, which was known to draw drug users as its guests. That afternoon she told the front desk to not put any calls through to her room.

It seems that Janis ended up making her way to Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood and drank for a while there.

The next day when she had not shown back up at the studio, Full Tilt’s road manager drove to The Landmark and found Janis dead on the floor. It would seem that the dealer’s normal ‘cutter’ (the person responsible for taking pure heroin and mixing it with a substance to lessen its strength) was not available and whoever cut this batch lef it much too pure. There were other deaths in Los Angeles around that time that were linked back to this dealer and that batch.

A service only attended by Janis’ parents and her aunt Mimi was held at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary in LA and then her ashes were scattered by plane into the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach in Marin County.

Two months before her death, Janis provided a gravestone for her idol, Bessie Smith at Philadelphia’s Mount Lawn Cemetery.

In 1979 Bette Midler stared in and earns an Academy Award nomination for “The Rose”, a story loosely based on Janis’ life.

Janis…along with Grace Slick of The Jefferson Airplane opened doors to women in rock. The genre was dominated by men until these two remarkable women came along and changed the face of the music.

Music journalist Ellen Wills asserted that “Joplin belonged to that select group of pop figures who mattered as much for themselves as for their music. Among American rock performers, she was second only to Bob Dylan in importance as a creator-recorder-embodiment of her generation’s mythology.”

Rock critic Lillian Roxon summed up her influence with these words: “[Janis Joplin] perfectly expressed the feelings and yearnings of the girls of the electric generation – to be all woman, yet equal with men; to be free, yet a slave to real love; to [reject] every outdated convention, and yet get back to the basics of life.”

Janis's albums have gone gold, platinum, and triple-platinum. Her Greatest Hits album still appears on the charts in Billboard. Several new releases have followed her death, with wide acclaim for her boxed set, Janis.

She was the subject of a 1973 feature documentary, "Janis" and numerous TV documentaries, the most notable being VH-1's Legends program. She is currently the subject of two hotly contested biographical movie projects.

Not recognized by her hometown during her life, she was remembered much later. In 1988, her life and achievements were showcased and recognized in Port Arthur, Texas by the dedication of the Janis Joplin Memorial, with an original bronze, multi-image sculpture of Joplin by Douglas Clark.

Joplin was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

"I hope you're going to edit this stuff. I don't want to sound like a
senile, self-pitying chick babbling on and on about her days of glory." - JANIS

So much information on Ms. Joplin...we hope we gave you a little insight into this remarkable woman and her music...

Discography

Janis Joplin & Jorma Kaukonen
• The Typewriter Tape (1964, bootleg recording)

Big Brother and the Holding Company
• Big Brother & the Holding Company (1967, Mainstream Records)
• Big Brother & the Holding Company (1967?, Columbia) Contains 2 extra single tracks.
• Big Brother & the Holding Company (1967, CD 1999 Columbia Legacy CK66425) Contains 2 extra single tracks.
• Cheap Thrills (1968, Columbia)
• Cheap Thrills (1968, CD 1999 Legacy CK65784) Contains 4 extra tracks.
• Live at Winterland '68 (1998, Columbia Legacy)

Kozmic Blues Band
• I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969, Columbia)
• I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969, CD 1999 Legacy CK65785) Contains 3 extra tracks.

Full Tilt Boogie
• Pearl (posthumous 1971, Columbia)
• Pearl (posthumous 1971, CD unknown date Columbia CD64188)
• Pearl (posthumous 1971, CD 1999 Legacy CK65786) Contains 4 extra tracks.
• Pearl (posthumous 1971, 2CD 2005 Legacy COL 515134 2) CD1 contains 6 other extra tracks, CD2 contains a full selection from The Festival Express Tour, from all 3 venues.

Big Brother & the Holding Company / Full Tilt Boogie
• In Concert (1972, Legacy CK65786)

Later collections
• Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits (1973, Columbia)
• Janis (2 discs 1975, Columbia Legacy)
• Anthology (1980)
• Farewell Song (1983)
• Cheaper Thrills (1984)
• Janis (3 discs 1993, Columbia Legacy)
• 18 Essential Songs (1995, Columbia Legacy)
• The Collection (1995)
• Live at Woodstock: August 19, 1969 (1999)
• Box of Pearls (1999, Sony Legacy)
• Super Hits (2000)
• Love, Janis (2001)

08/29/07 - Grand Funk Railroad

2007-08-29T00:01:00.003-05:00

It was the mid 60’s…music was dominated by the San Francisco bands and the rock and roll coming from across the ocean.

It was a mixture of psychedelic and pop for the most part.

In Flint, Michigan in 1965 a young guitarist named Mark Farner was playing with a band called TERRY KNIGHT AND THE PACK, led by a DJ turned musician name
d Terry Knight. Don Brewer was the drummer for this band that had a few regional hits during their time together.

Farner left the band to join a succession of other groups including MOJO AND THE NIGHTWALKERS, THE BOSSMEN (1966), THE PACK (aka The Fabulous Pack) (1967-1968), while Brewer continued on with Terry Knight.

In 1969, Farner and Brewer recruited Mel Schacher, a bass player who had been in ? AND THE MYSTERIANS, (they of the 1966 #1 Billboard hit “96 Tears”) to join them in a new band.

Terry Knight became the manager of this trio, who saw the popularity of CREAM and decided to put together an American Power Trio.

Knight named the band GRAND TRUNK WESTERN RAILROAD, after a well known rail line in Michigan. Shortly thereafter the band was ordered to change their name and they became GRAND FUNK RAILROAD.

After a successful appearance at the Atlanta Pop Festival, Capitol Records signed the group to a contract.

The group began to pump out albums at an astonishing pace with 7 albums released between 1969 and 1973. In 1970, they sold more albums then any other American band.

They built an incredible following in a short period of time, but this was only with the fans. The critics hated GFR. Rolling Stone, in particular loved to lambaste the group calling them ‘wretched’. Even Rod Stewart took a swipe at them, calling the bands sound ‘loud, white noise’.

One British critic wrote: 'All three are pretty bad, but outstanding in his awfulness is Brewer, whose drumming is so pedestrian it's laughable... the riffs they play are simple in the extreme, verging on the monotonous. Vocals are flat, but usually mercifully short introductions to dire lead guitar solos…’

This band seemed to lead the way in firsts. They could truly be considered the first band labeled “Heavy Metal”, their manager Terry Knight was one of the original Svengali types in the business, ruling the band with an iron hand and lashing out at the critics who came after the band, especially Rolling Stone magazine.

When the critics reigned down harsh words, Knight used them to build an audience for his group. It was quite simple, he called all the critics THE ESTABLISHMENT and the youth of America should embrace the ‘peoples Band’. AND IT WORKED!

Hot on the heels of GFR was LED ZEPPELIN, who when they came to the States in 1969 were told if they played their cards right, they just might topple the great GFR!

So, why were GFR so popular with the audiences who came out in record-breaking numbers to see this trio? Was it the straight-forward way Farner wrote his music? There were no subtleties to his lyrics, which could explain their attraction to the young rock and roll crowd.

They played loud, they even earned the moniker of the ‘loudest rock and roll band in the world’. They didn’t use classical influences like DEEP PURPLE, the ‘satanic-influences’ of BLACK SABBATH, And they certainly did not have the skills of LED ZEPPELIN.

They just played loud very simple rock and roll. As the reviewer cited above stated, the musician ship of this band was certainly not to be confused with many other bands of the day, but the record company hardly cared as the money just rolled in.

I read somewhere that a good way to describe GFR from a musical proficiency standpoint were they were far south of CREAM way north of the band BLUE CHEER, and from my point of view, that pretty much sums it up.

Their first album in 1969 “ON TIME” earned the band a Gold Record. The only real song on the album, in our estimation, worthy of radio play is “Heartbreaker” and that song did not even get the respect it deserved from the stations around the country.

In early 1970, “GRAND FUNK” was released, earning the band their second Gold Record. This album is a perfect example of what we discussed above. Totally unpretentious, a ‘poor man’s LED ZEPPELIN’ is how I remember it being described once upon a time.

Did it matter, absolutely not! The fans ate it up (myself included), with “Mr. Limousine Driver”, “Paranoid” and probably the best song on the album “Inside Looking Out” included. The rest of it is very forgettable for so many reasons.

Next up was “Closer To Home” in July 1970. On this album the band toned down their style. Terry Knight spent $100,000.00 on a billboard in Times Square to promote this album and it went multi-platinum as the critics continued to trash the band and their sound. The juxtaposition of the reviews against record sales is still, in our mind, one of the more interesting aspects of GFR. (though the album just says Grand Funk on it).

This is the album that contains the songs many people remember to this day; “Mean Mistreater”, “Hooked On Love”, “Aimless Lady” and the runaway hit “I’m Your Captain”.

The band tried to ‘funkify’ their sound, but in the hey-day of Sly and Funkadelic, well; it tended to come off as exactly what it was a white-man’s attempt at that genre.

In December of 1970 the band sold out two concerts at Madison Square Garden in less than two hours. At this time, they were not talking to the press at all. Only Terry Knight spoke for the band and this increased the animosity between the press and the group.

They also released a live album of their music which truly showed the intensity the band played live. The songs from the studio albums that were mediocre became anthems on this album. They showed the ballsy, angry, metal that was GFR (again, on the album cover the ‘Railroad’ was left off…).

In July of 1971 GFR broke the record of the BEATLES selling out two concerts in less than three days (the BEATLES took three weeks to do the same). Around this time is when the title ‘World’s Loudest Band’ was bestowed upon them. The neighbors around Shea Stadium complained bitterly about the ‘noise emanating from the stadium’.

In April 1971 “Survival” was released. Was the album title a reference to the band’s ongoing struggle with the music industry and the critics? The cover art has the three members looking like cavemen surrounded by half eaten bones and meat (the critics, perhaps?).

The album contained covers of some of the hot songs of the day including; “Feelin’ Alright”, the TRAFFIC hit, “and “Gimme Shelter”, from the ROLLING STONES. This was an abysmal album in our estimation.

“E Pluibus Funk” followed in November 1971 as the band continued its prolific recording sessions. This album showed the band in a much better light than their last effort and contained the rousing “Foot Stompin’ Music”.

1972 was a year of change for the band. First they fired Terry Knight, which plunged them into a long legal battle with their former manager. They also decided to add another member and after Peter Frampton turned them down, they reached into their past and brought on keyboardist Craig Frost, who they knew from their days in THE PACK.

This gave them a little more R&B feel to their music and though it turned off part of their fan base, the band continued on releasing their sixth album “Phoenix”.

In 1973, the band hired the brilliant Todd Rundgren to produce their next album “We’re An American Band”, in July of that year, with the title song becoming a mini-anthem for the group from that moment on.

Rundgren also produced the March 1974 album “Shinin’ On”…which contained the Little Eva hit, “The Loco-motion”.

In December of that same year, they changed producers to Jimmy Ienner and released “All The Girls In The World Beware”, which gave us “Some Kind Of Wonderful”. But stress within the band began to show.

A major tour, which resulted in “Caught In The Act” followed in August of 1975. The band went into the studio planning to record their last album “ Born To Die”, which was released in January of 1976.

Then Frank Zappa stepped into the picture as producer of “Good Singin’ Good Playin’” , not much of which appeared on this album that felt more like an opportunity to turn a quick buck...Zappa was also featured on the album cover…now think about it, when is the producer shown on the cover with the band?

After this album, the band went their separate ways with Farner beginning a solo career and the other members forming FLINT along with Billy Ellworthy.

The band then began a back and forth with a reunion in 1980 as Dennis Bellinger replaced Schacher on bass guitar. They released two albums that few even know exist to this day and then disbanded again.

Farner went solo again and began a career playing Christian music, while Brewer and Frost joined Bob Segar’s SILVER BULLET BAND.

Another reunion in 1996 (with Schacher) found the band playing 14 shows in thee months. The next year, the band did three concerts in support of Bosnia with a full symphony orchestra, selling them all out, and resulting in a two disc benefit CD “Bosnia”. The man they once tried to recruit Peter Frampton appeared on the CD.

Farner then left the band for good to resume his solo career.

In 2000, Brewer and Schacher recruited .38 SPECIAL lead singer Max Carl, former KISS guitarist Bruce Kelick and keyboardist Timothy Cashion and went out on tour as GRAND FUNK RAILROAD.

The band continues to tour to this day and will be playing here in Memphis at the DELTA FAIR AND MUCIC FESTIVAL on September 8th.

An American Band? A mishmash of music by sub-par musicians? The original Metal band? All of the above?

We guess it depends upon your ear and point of view. We certainly have enjoyed their music, while realizing that there was more filler on their albums then most.

Whatever your opinion, you can not deny that this band packed them in wherever they went and certainly have a place in Rock and Roll history.

DISCOGRAPHY:

Studio albums
1. On Time - (August 1969)
2. Grand Funk (The Red Album) - (December 1969)
3. Closer to Home - (July 1970)
4. Survival - (April 1971)
5. E Pluribus Funk - (November 1971)
6. Phoenix - (September 1972)
7. We're an American Band - (July 1973)
8. Shinin' On - (March 1974)
9. All the Girls in the World Beware!!! - (December 1974)
10. Born To Die - (January 1976)
11. Good Singin', Good Playin' - (August 1976)
12. Grand Funk Lives - (July 1981)
13. What's Funk? - (January 1983)
14. Monumental Funk -(1974)

Live albums
1. Live Album - (November 1970)
2. Caught in the Act - (August 1975)
3. Bosnia - (October 1997)
4. Thirty Years of Funk: 1969-1999 - (1999)
5. Live: The 1971 Tour - (June 2002)

Compilations
1. Grand Funk / Live Album - (1970)
2. Mark, Don and Mel: 1969-71 - (1972)
3. Grand Funk Hits - (1976)
4. Hits - (1977)
5. The Best of Grand Funk - (1990)
6. Capitol Collectors Series - (1991)
7. Heavy Hitters - (1992)
8. Collectors - (1993)
9. Thirty Years of Funk: 1969-1999 - (1999)
10. Super Best - (1999)
11. Rock Champions - (2001)
12. Very Best Grand Funk Railroad Album Ever - (2001)
13. Classic Masters - (2002)
14. Trunk of Funk - (2001)
15. Greatest Hits (CD/DVD) - (2006)

Singles

US Hot 100 Position Listed

1969 "Time Machine" #47 - On Time
1969 "Mr. Limousine Driver" #97 - Grand Funk
1970 "Heartbreaker" #72 - On Time
1970 "Nothing is the Same" - Closer To Home
1970 "I'm Your Captain" #22 - Closer To Home
1970 "Mean Mistreater" #47 - Live Album
1971 "Inside Looking Out" #40 - Grand Funk (aka Red Album)
1971 "Feelin' Alright" #54 - Survival
1971 "Gimme Shelter" #61 - Survival
1971 "People, Let's Stop the War" - E Pluribus Funk
1972 "Footstompin' Music" #29 - E Pluribus Funk
1972 "Upsetter" #73 - E Pluribus Funk
1972 "Rock & Roll Soul" #29 - Phoenix
1973 "We're An American Band" #1 - We're An American Band
1973 "Walk Like a Man" #19 - We're An American Band
1974 "The Loco-Motion" #1 - Shinin' On
1974 "Shinin' On" #11 - Shinin' On
1974 "Some Kind of Wonderful" #3 - All the Girls in the World Beware!!!
1975 "Bad Time" #4 - All the Girls in the World Beware!!!
1975 "Take Me" #53 - Born To Die
1976 "Sally" #69 - Born to Die
1976 "Can You Do It" #45 - Good Singin', Good Playin'
1977 "Just Couldn't Wait" - Good Singin', Good Playin'
1981 "Y.O.U." - Grand Funk Lives
1982 "Stick in the Middle" - Grand Funk Lives

08/07/07 - Cream

2007-08-07T00:01:00.003-05:00

Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce & Eric Clapton.

The original super group "CREAM" was formed in 1966. It was short lived due to the pressure of being this huge entity and due to the animosity between Bruce and Baker which was a carry-over from their years together in the Graham Bond Organisation.

The music made by this trio stands up against any music recorded in the 41 years since their formation.

It is a long, winding road for all three of these musicians and today, we hope to give you a ride down this path.

Eric Patrick Clapton was born on March 30, 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, the son of unwed parents Patricia Molly Clapton (aged 16) and Edward Walter Fryer a 24-year old soldier from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Clapton grew up believing his grandmother Rose and her second husband Jack were his parents and his mother, his older sister. Their surname was Clapp, which let to speculation over the years that this was Eric’s real name. It was not, he was given his mother’s maiden name upon birth.

Shortly before Clapton’s birth, Fryer shipped off to war and later returned to Canada. A few years later, his mom married another Canadian soldier and moved to Canada, leaving Clapton with his grandparents. When he was 9, his mom returned home with his new half-brother who was 6 at the time.

It was then that Clapton found out the truth about his parentage and it affected him greatly. He began to stop working at his schoolwork and became moody and depressed.

When he was 13 he received an acoustic guitar and a marimba for his birthday. He struggled with both and almost put the guitar away for good. The influence of the blues and the black artists from America, Clapton buckled down and began practicing for hours upon end teaching himself the sounds of the artists he admired.

In 1962, Clapton one year foundation art course, but never went on to obtain a degree.

He began playing around Kingston, Richmond and the West End of London and joined “THE ROOSTERS” in 1963. Later that year he joined “THE YARDBIRDS”, and Clapton soon began to cause whispers around the British music scene. The Yardbirds, played a fusion of Chicago blues and music influenced by Buddy Guy and B.B. King, to name a few.

When the Yardbirds began to move in a more “pop” direction, Clapton began to get antsy and suggested they hire Jimmy Page as his replacement, but Page was, at that time, happy with the session work he was doing, so Jeff Beck took Clapton’s place.

Clapton joined “JOHN MAYALL & THE BLUESMAKERS” after leaving the Yardbirds. The reactions he received from their club dates and from the album “BLUES BREAKERS’ began to build and his name was talked about by people everywhere. This guitar player who could bring the sounds of the blues to his instrument with a intensity and fire rarely seen.

It was around this time that the ‘message’ appeared on a wall in the Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967. Unlike some reports, the slogan did not appear on wall all over London. The ‘message’ was captured in the famous photo of a dog urinating on a wall of the underground. The message was simple…three words…

“CLAPTON IS GOD”

In 1987, Clapton told "The South Bank Show", the message embarrassed him at the time.
"I never accepted that I was the greatest guitar player in the world. I always wanted to be the greatest guitar player in the world, but that's an ideal, and I accept it as an ideal." Clapton said at that time.

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce was born May 14, 1943 in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland to musical parents who moved often.

This resulted in Bruce attending 14 different schools. He won a scholarship studying cello and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; however, he left at the age of 17 claiming he knew more than the teachers

While still at college Jack Bruce played with orchestras in Glasgow music halls. After leaving college he toured Italy playing double bass with the "MURRAY CAMBELL BIG BAND". In 1962, Bruce became a member of the London-based band "ALEXIS KORNER'S BLUES INCORPORATED", in which he played the double bass.

He then joined the Graham Bond Organisation, which played bebob, blues and R&B and this is when Bruce switched from double bass to electric bass.

Also in the band was Ginger Baker and the two held extreme hostility towards each other. Baker eventually fired Bruce in 1965.

After that Bruce began playing with the John Mayall Bluesbreakers and this is where he met Clapton. He moved on to spend a short period with Manfred Mann, earning him his first commercial success.

Bruce’s background is heavy into the jazz movement. His work since Cream has been an eclectic mixture of music and musical partners.

In September 2003, he underwent a liver transplant, which was almost fatal, as his body initially rejected the new organ. He has since recovered.

Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker was born on August 19, 1939, in Lewisham, South London.

His career began playing with big bands and then he eventually moved on to be the leader of the Graham Bond Organisation. This is where he met Jack Bruce and their volatile relationship began.

Baker's drumming attracted attention for its flamboyance, showmanship, and his pioneering use of two bass drums instead of the conventional single 'kick' drum. He is also noted for using a variety of other percussion instruments and for his application of African rhythms to much of his drumming.

Around 1966, Baker began growing tired of the drug usage and instability of the GBO and was ready to move to a new group. It was at just this time that he met Clapton.

Baker had met Clapton after a gig (during Clapton's time with the Yardbirds). "I had always liked Ginger," explained Clapton. "Ginger had come to see me play with John Mayall. After the gig he drove me back to London in his Rover. I was very impressed with his car and driving. He was telling me that he wanted to start a band, and I had been thinking about it too."; each was impressed with the other's playing abilities, prompting Baker to ask Clapton to join his new, then-unnamed group. Clapton immediately said yes, but only on one condition: that Baker hire Jack Bruce as the group's bassist.

Clapton had met Bruce when the bassist/vocalist did a short stint with the Bluesbreakers in March 1966; impressed with his vocals and technical prowess, Clapton had wanted to work with Bruce on an ongoing basis.

What Clapton did not know was that while Bruce was in Bond's band, he and Baker had been notorious for their quarreling, the confines of the GBO had proved too small for their egos. Their volatile relationship included on-stage fights and the sabotaging of one another's instruments.

After Baker fired Bruce from the band, Bruce continued to arrive for gigs; ultimately, Bruce was driven away from the band after Baker threatened him at knifepoint.

For this new group, Baker and Bruce planned to put aside their differences for the good of the new trio.

The band was named "Cream," as Clapton, Bruce, and Baker were already considered the "cream of the crop" amongst blues and jazz musicians playing the British scene at that time. Before deciding upon CREAM the band considered calling themselves "Sweet 'n' Sour Rock 'n' Roll."

Shortly after the band's formation in 1966, CREAM received an invitation to perform at the July 1966 "Winsdor Jazz & Blues Festival". The band did not have any original material yet, but Clapton’s workings of blues standards and the energy of the rhythm sction was greeted with enthusiasm of the crowd. They also got a chance to jam with Jimi Hendrix.

It was during the early organization that it was decided Bruce would serve as the group's lead vocalist. While Clapton was shy about singing, he occasionally harmonized with Bruce, and as he grew as a singer, would take lead vocals on some notable CREAM tunes including "FOUR UNTIL LATE," "STRANGE BREW," "CROSSROADS," and "BADGE."

CREAM'S debut album, "Fresh Cream", was recorded and released in 1966. The album reached #6 in the UK charts and #39 in the United States. The album consisted of blues covers, songs written by Jack Bruce and a couple of songs by Baker, including “TOAD” one of the earliest drum solos in rock music. It also included this gem, "I'M SO GLAD"

Their second album “DISRAELI GEARS” was released in 1967 and this album reached the Top 5 in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Recorded in New York, this album is considered the defining moment in the band’s life. It consisted of 8 original tracks and 3 written by others. Besides “STRANGE BREW” and “TALES OF BRAVE ULYSESS” , it also contained the popular “SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE”

“WHEELS OF FIRE”, their third album was released in 1968 and topped the American charts. It included three live recordings from the Winterland Ballroom and one from the Fillmore. This album contained the radio staple, “WHITE ROOM”. Believe it or not, this was one of the songs we sang lead on in our bands...

In the spring of 1969, the final album “GOODBYE CREAM” was released. It hit the shelves after the band had broken up the previous November and contained six songs; three live from The Forum in LA and three studio recordings, including “BADGE” co-written by Clapton and George Harrison (who also played rhythm guitar on the track).

Non-stop touring by the band contributed to the heated tension between Mr. Bruce and Mr. Baker. Clapton was constantly put into the ‘peacemaker’ role and this put much strain on him.

Baker recounted, during a 2006 interview with "MUSIC MART" magazine that; "It just got to the point where Eric said to me: 'I've had enough of this,' and I said so have I. I couldn't stand it. The last year with Cream was just agony. It's damaged my hearing permanently, and today I've still got a hearing problem because of the sheer volume throughout the last year of Cream. But it didn't start off like that. In 1966, it was great. It was really a wonderful experience musically, and it just went into the realms of stupid."

Their management persuaded them to do one final tour to promote their new album. This "farewell tour" consisted of 22 shows at 19 venues in the United States between October 4 and November 4, 1968, and two final farewell concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on November 26, 1968.

The final United States gig was at the Rhode Island Auditorium, November 4th, 1968.

The two Royal Albert Hall concerts were filmed for a BBC documentary and released on video (and later DVD) as "FAREWELL CONCERT".

Both shows were sold out and attracted more attention than any other CREAM concert, but their performance was regarded by many as below standard. Baker himself said of the concerts: "It wasn’t a good gig ... Cream was better than that ... We knew it was all over. We knew we were just finishing it off, getting it over with."

In 1993, CREAM was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and set aside their differences and performed live at the ceremony.

The end result was an incredible set consisting of "Sunshine of Your Love," "Crossroads," and "Born Under a Bad Sign"

In 2004, it was announced that Cream would finally reunite for a series of four shows, May 2, 3, 5, and 6 of 2005 in England at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the venue of their final concerts in 1968.

Clapton would later state that he had become more "generous" in regards to his past, and that the physical health of Bruce and Baker was a major factor: Bruce had recently undergone a liver transplant for liver cancer, one that almost cost him his life, while Baker had severe arthritis.

Tickets for all four shows sold out in under an hour. The Royal Albert Hall reunion proved a success on both a personal and financial level, inspiring the reformed band to bring their reunion to the United States.

CREAM chose to play at only one venue, Madison Square Garden in New York City from October 24 - 26, 2005.

In February of 2006, Cream received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of their contribution to, and influence upon, modern music.

CREAM…three men with an enormous amount of talent. A whirlwind three years of touring, fighting and making music that holds up, even today.

There have been many ‘power trios’ over the years, but none ever had the talent, the energy or produced the music of this original band.

DISCOGRAPHY

Albums
* Fresh Cream - December 1966
* Disraeli Gears - November 1967
* Wheels of Fire - July 1968 (double album - In the Studio and Live at the Fillmore.)
* Goodbye - March 1969
* Live Cream - April 1970
* Live Cream Volume II - March 1972
* Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6 2005 - October 2005

Singles
* "Wrapping Paper" / "Cat's Squirrel" - October 1966
* "I Feel Free" / "N.S.U." - December 1966
* "Strange Brew" / "Tales of Brave Ulysses" - June 1967
* "Anyone for Tennis" / "Pressed Rat and Warthog" - May 1968
* "Sunshine of Your Love" / "SWLABR" - September 1968
* "Spoonful part 1" / "Spoonful part 2" - September 1968
* "White Room" / "Those Were The Days" - January 1969
* "Crossroads" / "Passing the Time" - January 1969
* "Badge" / "What a Bringdown" - April 1969
* "Sweet Wine" / "Lawdy Mama" - June 1970

Compilations
* Best of Cream - 1969
* Heavy Cream - 1972
* Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream - 1983
* Creme de la Cream - 1992
* The Very Best of Cream - 1995
* Those Were The Days - 1997
* 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Cream - 2000
* BBC Sessions - 2003
* I Feel Free - Ultimate Cream - 2005
* Cream Gold - 2005

Videos / DVDs
* Farewell Concert - VHS, DVD, recorded Royal Albert Hall, November 1968
* Strange Brew - largely a re-edit of Farewell Concert plus some outtakes
* Fresh Live Cream - VHS, DVD, documentary filmed just after the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame reunion in 1993 containing band interviews and previously unreleased material
* Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6 2005 - DVD, recorded Royal Albert Hall, May 2005
* Cream: Disraeli Gears (2006) - DVD, a reflection on what went into making Disraeli Gears, and the impact it had on the 60s.
* Cream: Classic Artists - DVD + CD, recorded before and after the Madison Square Garden reunion concerts; features interviews with band members, along with an audio CD containing five previously unreleased tracks from Swedish radio.

08/01/07 - Lynyrd Skynyrd

2007-08-01T00:01:00.003-05:00

It was 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida when 5 teenage friends began playing in a band together, which they named MY BACKYARD.

Their early influences included FREE, THE YARDBIRDS and THE BEATLES as well as the southern blues and country and western they had grown up on.

The five teenagers were Ronnie Van Zant on vocals, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington on guitars, Larry Junstron on bass and Bob Burns on drums.

Throughout the 60’s the band changed names including THE NOBEL FIVE and ONE PERCENT. They played local dance clubs and bars and began to develop a following.

In 1968, they won a “Battle Of The Bands” contest and used the money to record two songs; “NEED ALL MY FRIENDS” and “MICHELLE”. Additionally this win gave them the opening spot for the Southeast shows being performed by the STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK.

In 1970, the band’s roadie, Billy Powell joined the group as keyboardist and they began to rehearse at an isolated farm outside Jacksonville, which they christened ‘Hell House’.

Rossington and Burns had been students together at Robert E. Lee High School and they had a gym teacher who was a stickler for the rules. The two boys were constantly in trouble for having hair that touched their collar or sideburns that extended below their ears. (Remember...it is the 60's remember...shock, horror, sideburns below the ears...)

In a mocking tribute to this teacher, the band bastardized his name when deciding on the new name for the band. The teacher, Mr. Leonard Skinner…the band Lynard Skynard.

They began playing across the South, honing their skills and working on their song collection. In 1972 Leon Wilkeson replaced Larry Junstrom on the bass. Strangely enough, Wilkeson then left the band as they were about to start recording their first album.

In 1973, as a tribute to the BYRDS, the band changed the spelling of their name to the now well known LYNYRD SKYNYRD.

While playing at a club in Atlanta, Al Kooper of the band BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS heard and fell in love with their sound. He immediately signed them to MCA Records.

He was the producer for the first album “LYNYRD SKYNYRD (pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd)”. The album contained the song which would be associated with the band forever…”FREE BIRD”. It reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts that year.

The band called on the the guitarist for the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Ed King to play bass on the album. When it was completed, Van Zant called King “the worst bass player I’ve ever played with”, and then convinced Wilkeson to rejoin the band as the bass player and had King go back to the guitar, giving them the ability to play the three-guitar part they had created in the studio using over-dubbing.

Also on that album was "SIMPLE MAN"(Rossington/Van Zant), we have always loved the total package of this song. Great lyrics, a driving beat, multiple guitar runs played by multiple guitarists...hallmark of Southern Rock (that term was not even in existence back then...it was not an easy sell for the record company's and the radio stations...country? rock?)

In 1973, a big break came about when the band was asked to open for THE WHO for their “QUADROPHENIA” tour of the U.S. This helped them to gain a larger audience then they had been able to prior.

Their second album “SECOND HELPING” was released in 1994 and included the hit “SWEET HOME ALABAMA” (King/Rossington/Van Zant) a song written in response to Neil Young’s two songs "ALABAMA” and "SOUTHERN MAN”. “Sweet home Alabama” hit #8 on the charts that August. The album reached the #12 spot.

In 1975 the band toured the U.K with GOLDEN EARRING and did the same in 1976 with THE ROLLING STONES.

In 1975 Burns left the group and Artemus Pyle from North Carolina became the bands drummer. “NUTIN’FANCY” was released in 1975 and became the bands first Top Ten album. "SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL” from that album hit #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Also in 1975 the band added the “HONKETTES” to the band. They were Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley, and they added a special background touch to the band’s set.

In the middle of the tour to support the album Ed King decided to leave the band. They continued on for a while with only two guitarists, but eventually brought in Steve Gaines (brother of Cassie), to be their third guitarist.

The band put out a double-live album called “ONE MORE FROM THE ROAD” with the latest lineup in place. It became a Top Ten hit and the band was on their way once more.

Their next album, “GIMME BACK MY BULLETS” was released in 1976, to less acclaim then their pervious efforts.

The final album for this lineup was “STREET SURVIVORS”, released in October of 1977. This is one of our favs from this album...It shows where the band was heading...Rossington and Van Zant were really just getting their footing..."I KNOW A LITTLE" (Gaines)

We really love the boogie piano that comes in toward the end of the song...and the guitar part just before that, an interesting little run they built there...

Three days after the release of “Street Survivors” a chartered Convair 240 was carrying the band between shows in Greenville, SC and Baton Rouge, LA. Somewhere near a forest close to McComb Mississippi, the plane went down.

Killed in the fiery explosion were Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, co-pilot William Gray and pilot Walter McCreary.

Artimus Pyle crawled from the wreckage with several broken ribs. He and surviving crew members Kenneth Peden, Jr. and Mark Frank hiked through the woods until they were able to locate help.

Allen Collins had two cracked vertebrae in his neck and he and Wilkeson nearly had arms amputated as a result of injuries. Wilkeson also suffered a punctured lung and lost most of his teeth in the crash.

Rossington had both his arms and both legs broken in the crash. Leslie Hawkins had a concussion, broke her neck in three places and had severe facial lacerations. Security manager Gene Odom was seriously burned on his arm and face and lost an eye when an emergency flare was set off during the crash.

Billy Powell almost had his nose ripped from his face and had severe facial lacerations. The last member of "The Honkettes", JoJo Billingsley was not on the plane for the flight, having gone home to take care of family business.

An interesting note… The Convair 240 itself had been inspected by members of AEROSMITH'S flight crew for possible use in the early summer of 1977, but was rejected because it was felt that neither the plane nor the crew were up to standards.

In an interview in the book "WALK THIS WAY", Aerosmith's assistant chief of flight operations Zunk Buker tells of seeing pilots McCreary and Gray trading a bottle of Jack Daniels back and forth while Buker and his father were inspecting the plane.

The following is from the official NTSB accident report:
"The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion and total loss of power from both engines due to crew inattention to fuel supply. Contributing to the fuel exhaustion were inadequate flight planning and an engine malfunction of undetermined nature in the right engine which resulted in higher-than-normal fuel consumption."

In an eerie foreboding, the original album photo for “Street Survivors” showed the band surrounded by flames. The record company, MCA, withdrew the original sleeve and replaced it with a picture not containing the flames.

The band announced they were breaking up after the accident. This is to be expected as they all needed time to heal their wounds both physical and mental after the loss of their friends.

Rossington and Collins formed THE ROSSINGTON-COLLINS BAND between 1980 and 1982, releasing two albums. Neither was met with overwhelming desire by the public, but contained some good tunes.

Pyle formed THE ARTIMUS PYLE BAND in 1982. Again...nothing really came of this venture.

Collins formed THE ALLEN COLLINS BAND in 1983. Tragedy struck the band again in 1986 when Collins crashed his car while driving drunk near his home in Jacksonville, killing his girlfriend and leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

In 1987, Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited for a full-scale tour with crash survivors Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle and former guitarist Ed King.

Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, took over as the new lead singer and primary songwriter.

Because of Collins' paralysis, he was only able to participate as the musical director, choosing Randall Hall, his former bandmate in the Allen Collins Band, as his stand-in. Collins was stricken with pneumonia in 1989 and died on January 23, 1990.

This reuniting of the band as meant to be a one-time tribute to the original lineup, captured on the double-live album “SOUTHERN BY THE GRACE OF GOD/LYNYRD SKYNYRD TRIBUTE TOUR – 1987”, but because of an overwhelmingly positive reaction by fans, the band decided to stay together and record new material.

The band is still out touring, though tragedy continues to follow them. In 2001, Wilkeson was found dead in his hotel room, the result of a liver/lung disease.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked the group #95 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

On November 28, 2005, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that Lynyrd Skynyrd would be inducted at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan on March 13, 2006. Lynyrd Skynyrd had been nominated 7 times.

Southern rock is the genre for which we feel the most affinity. The Allman Brothers brought us to this style of rock and roll…Skynyrd became one of our more favored bands.

On Sunday mornings at R.I.T., "FREE BIRD" was the song we pumped into the fraternity house to get the football or basketball or softball teams psyched up prior to their playing in the Fraternity league on campus.

DISCOGRAPHY:

Studio albums Original lineup
• 1973 - (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd) (MCA)
• 1974 - Second Helping (MCA)
• 1975 - Nuthin' Fancy (MCA)
• 1976 - Gimme Back My Bullets (MCA)
• 1977 - Street Survivors (MCA)

Post-Crash lineups
• 1991 - Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 (Atlantic)
• 1993 - The Last Rebel (Atlantic)
• 1994 - Endangered Species (Capricorn)
• 1997 - Twenty (CMC)
• 1999 - Edge Of Forever (CMC)
• 2000 - Christmas Time Again (CMC)
• 2003 - Vicious Cycle (Sanctuary)

Compilations
• 1978 - Skynyrd's First And... Last - collection of 1971-1972 demos (MCA)
• 1980 - Gold & Platinum - best of (MCA)
• 1982 - The Best of the Rest - collection of unreleased demos, B-sides (MCA)
• 1987 - Legend - collection of unreleased demos, B-sides (MCA)
• 1989 - Skynyrd's Innyrds - best of (MCA)
• 1991 - Lynyrd Skynyrd - 3-CD box set compilation (MCA)
• 1997 - Old Time Greats - 2-CD best of (Repertoire, reworked in 2005 by Universal)
• 1998 - The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd - 2-CD compilation (reissued 2006 as Gold) (MCA)
• 1998 - Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album - compilation of 1971-1972 demos previously scattered across 3 albums (MCA)
• 2000 - All Time Greatest Hits - best of (MCA)
• 2000 - Then and Now - live & studio album (CMC)
• 2003 - Thyrty: The 30th Anniversary Collection - compilation
• 2005 - Then And Now, Vol. 2 (Sanctuary)
• 2005 - Greatest Hits - 2-CD best of (Universal, rework of the 1997 by Repertoire)
• 2006 - Gold - 2-CD compilation (reissue of the 1998 Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Lives and videos
• 1976 - One More from the Road - live album (MCA)
• 1988 - Southern By The Grace Of God (Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour 1987) - live album (MCA)
• 1988 - Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour - tour video (Cabin Fever)
• 1996 - Freebird... The Movie - video of live concert footage (Cabin Fever)
• 1996 - Freebird... The Movie - video soundtrack (MCA)
• 1996 - Southern Knights - live album (SPV)
• 1998 - Lyve From Steel Town - live album (CMC)
• 1998 - Lyve From Steel Town - tour video (CMC)
• 2003 - Lynyrd Skynyrd Lyve: The Vicious Cycle Tour - tour video (Sanctuary)
• 2004 - Lynyrd Skynyrd Lyve: The Vicious Cycle Tour - live album (Sanctuary)

Singles
Shade Tree Records
• 1968 - "Michelle / Need All My Friends" (101/102)
Sounds of The South/ MCA Records
• November 1973 - "Gimme Three Steps / Mr. Banker (demo)" (MCA 40158)
• April 1974 - "Don't Ask Me No Questions (remix) / Take Your Time (demo)" (MCA 40231)
• August 1974 - "Sweet Home Alabama / Take Your Time (demo)" (MCA 40258) #8 US
MCA Records
• November 1974 - "Free Bird" (edit of 1973 album version) / Down South Jukin' (demo)" (MCA 40328) #19 US
• 1975 - "Saturday Night Special / Made In The Shade" (MCA 40416) #27 US
• 1976 - "Double Trouble / Roll Gypsy Roll" (MCA 40532) #80 US
• 1976 - "Gimme Back My Bullets / All I Can Do Is Write About It" (MCA 40565)
• 1976 - "Gimme Three Steps (live) / Travellin' Man (live)" (MCA 40647)
• 1976 - "Freebird (live) / Searchin' (live)" (MCA 40665) #38 US
• 1977 - "What's Your Name? / I Know A Little" (MCA 40819) #13 US
• 1978 - "You Got That Right / Ain't No Good Life" (MCA 40888)
• 1978 - "Down South Jukin' / Wino" (MCA 40957)
• 2006 - "Sweet Home Alabama" #61 UK

07/13/07 - Rick Derringer

2007-07-13T00:01:00.003-05:00

Check out this resume:
1971 Alice Cooper "Killer" [player]

1971 Alice Cooper "Love It To Death" [player]
1971 Richie Havens "Alarm Clock" [player]
1971 Richie Havens "Connections" [player]
1971 Johnny Winter And [member/co-producer]

1971 "Johnny Winter And Live" [member/co-producer]
1971 "Edgar Winter's White Trash" [producer/player]
1972 Todd Rundgren "Something/Anything" [player]
1972 "Roadwork" [producer/member]
1973 Todd Rundgren "Wizard, A True Star" [player]
1973 Thomas Jefferson Kaye [player]
1973 Michael Stanley [player]
1973 Steely Dan "Countdown To Ecstacy" [player]
1973 Johnny Winter - Still Alive And Well [player/writer/producer]
1973 "They Only Come Out At Night" [producer/player] featuring "frankenstein" and "free ride"
1974 Jerry La Croix "The Second Coming" [player]
1974 Joe Vitale "Roller Coaster Weekend" [player]
1974 "Saints And Sinners" [played various instruments/producer]
1974 "John Dawson Winter III" [played various inst./producer]
1974 "Shock Treatment" [producer/group member]
1975 Bette Midler "Songs For A New Depression" [player]
1975 Todd Rundgren "Initiation" [player]
1975 Steely Dan "Katy Lied" [player]
1975 "Jasmine Night Dreams" [player]
1975 "Edgar Winter Group With Rick Derringer" [producer/member]
1976 Dan Hartman "Images" [player]
1976 "White Trash/Entrance" [2 - record set]
1976 "Together" [member on Johnny/Edgar Winter Together Tour]
1978 Moogy Klingman "Moogy 2" [player]
1978 Todd Rundgren "Back To The Bars" [player]
1979 Produced Cyndi Lauper Demos For Her Epic Albums
1979 Ellen Shipley [player]
1979 "Blast" [player]
1980 Eddie Schwartz "Schwartz" [player]
1980 Steely Dan "Gaucho" [player]
1980 "The Johnny Winter Story" [german greatest-hits double lp]
1980 Isle Of Wight And Atlanta Pop Festival - The First Great Rock Festivals Of The Seventies - 'Johnny Winter And' does "Mean Mistreater"
1981 Hilly Michaels "Lumia" [player]
1982 Eye To Eye [player]
1982 Donald Fagan "The Nightfly" [player]
1983 Kodomo Band "Heartbreak Kids" [producer]
1983 Meatloaf "Midnight At The Lost And Found" [player]
1983 Bonnie Tyler "Faster Than The Speed Of Night" [player]
1983 Wierd Al Yancovic "I Love Rocky Road" [producer/player]
1983 Savatage [producer of demos/atlantic]
1983 Silver Condor
1984 Colour Radio [producer/player]
1984 James House [player]
1984 Kiss "Lick It Up" [player]
1984 Madam X "We Reserve The Right To Rock" [producer]
1984 Chris Mancini [player]
1984 Danny Spanos "Looks Like Trouble" [player]
1984 Barbra Streisand [player]
1984 Wierd Al Yancovic "In 3-D" Includes Grammy Winner,"Eat It" [producer/player]
1984 Adrian Zmed [producer/player]
1985 "The Wrestling Album" With Hulk Hogan Theme "Real American" by Rick Derringer [prod/write/play]
1985 Mason Ruffner [producer/player]
1986 Hunt Sales' Space Shot Orchestra "Requiem For A Yuppie"
1987 Cyndi Lauper "True Colors" [writer/player]
1987 Meatloaf "Masculine" [writer]
1987 Wierd Al Yancovic "Polka Party" [producer/player]
1988 Rosie Vela "Zazu" [player]
1988 Guitar Speak "Sloe Moon Rising"
1988 "Piledriver" Album By The WWF Includes "Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo" [prod/write/play]
1989 Wierd Al Yancovic "Who's Fat" Including Grammy Winner: "Who's Fat" [producer/player]
1990 Wierd Al Yancovic "UHF" [producer/player]
1990 "Rick Derringer And Edgar Winter Live In Japan" [writer/player]
1993 "Hats Off To Stevie Ray" Rick Plays "Pride And Joy" [tribute]
1993 "Fit For A King" Rick Plays "Born Under A Bad Sign" [tribute]
1994 Cream Tribute Album, Rick Plays "Other Woman Blues" [tribute]
1996 "The Real Deal" [player on Hoochie Coo]
1999 "Mambo Sons" Tom Guerra / Scott Lawson [player]
1999 "One Day Away" Jeff Pitchell and Texas Flood [producer/player]
1999 "Riverview Drive" Damon Fowler [producer]
1999 "Winter Blues" [player on Good 'Ol Shoe, On The Tip Of My Toungue, player/writer on White Man's Blues]
2002 "In Concert/ Ohne Filter"
2005 "Take 2 - Priceless Collection"

OH...then his albums...

1973 "All American Boy"
1975 "Spring Fever"
1979 "Guitars And Women"
1980 "Face To Face"
1983 "Good Dirty Fun"
1993 "Back To The Blues"
1994 "Electra Blues"
1996 "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo, The Best of Rick Derringer"
1997 "Tend The Fire" (Released In Europe)
1998 "Blues Deluxe"
1998 "Guitars And Women" - CD Release w/bonus tracks
1998 "Rick Derringer & Friends" Live w/Edgar Winter, Ian Hunter, Dr. John, Lorna Luft, Hall and Oates
2000 "Jackhammer Blues"
2001 "DBA-Derringer, Bogert & Appice- doin' business as..."
2003 "Greatest & Latest"
2003 "Hootchie Koo Once More"
2003 "Free Ride" Promo Single
2005 "Coach Kelly Benefit Concert"
2006 "Live at Cheney Hall"

We are pleased to bring you...

MR. RICK DERRINGER

Back in the first week of October of 1965, American record buyers made a song by a group called The McCoys a Billboard #1 hit...that song was "Hang On Sloopy".

Formed in Union City, Indiana, in 1962, The McCoys were initially comprised of guitarist Rick Zehringer, his brother Randy on drums and bass player Dennis Kelly. Starting out as "Rick And The Raiders", then "The Rick Z Combo", the group later added organist Ronnie Brandon, becoming the McCoys soon after Randy Hobbs replaced the college-bound Dennis Kelly.

The quartet became a highly popular attraction throughout America's Midwest, it gained the the attention of Bert Berns' "Bang Records". The group's very first release was a simple, hard driving tune called "Hang On Sloopy", which shot to the top of the U.S. charts and reached the top 5 in the UK in the summer of 1965.

For a follow-up, the band chose a similar arrangement for a tune called "Fever", a remake of Peggy Lee's Top Ten hit in 1958. A series of successive releases in a similar gutsy style fared less well and a cover of Ritchie Valens' "C'Mon Let's Go" was their only other Top 40 hit.

By 1969, the group had discarded its bubblegum image with the progressive album "Infinite McCoys", and became the house band at New York's popular Scene club. The club's owner, Steve Paul, later paired the group with an up and coming blues guitarist named Johnny Winter and billed them as "Johnny Winter And..." ("And" referring to "The McCoys") featured the Zehringer brothers and Randy Hobbs, with Rick handling the production.

It was about this time that Rick changed his last name from Zehringer to Derringer.

Mr. Derringer has produced every Gold and Platinum records recorded by either of the brothers Winter. He played with Johnny on tour and then played on and soon afterward became a full-time recording-touring member of the band. Mr. Derringers rock and roll anthem "Edgar Winter's White Trash""Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo" first appeared on the "Johnny Winter And" album and has been rerecorded numerous times over the years both in the studio and also live.

Throughout this time, you can see above the incredible array of artists Mr. Derringer has either played for, produced or engineered. It is a who's who of the music industry during the years.

Mr. Derringer is still going strong, having formed "D-B-A" with Tim Bogart and Carmine Appice (both original members of the "Vanilla Fudge" and the rhythm section of Beck, Bogart & Appice), and releasing an album to some response.

Following that, Mr. Derringer and his wife worked together to release "Aiming4Heaven" and "Still Alive And Well", two albums of Christian music.

Now You Know About...

MR RICK DERRINGER
AUGUST 5, 1947 -