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Jamie LePage (1953-2002)
http://www.spectropop.com/Jamie.htm
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There are 10 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Old business; "missed" tracks; Les Innocents; Wadsworth Mansion
From: Country Paul
2. Re: Cranking up the speed
From: Phil Milstein
3. Warren Schatz - message for Michael Rashkow
From: George Ritter
4. Ciao Baby (Lynne Randell, The Montanas)
From: Lindsay Martin
5. Re: Gordian Knot
From: Paul R
6. New Colony Six and the Chicago sound
From: David Coyle
7. I Wanna Meet You -- Cryan Shames
From: David Coyle
8. Shames/Montanas
From: Kingsley Abbott
9. Nancy Holloway
From: Mike Edwards
10. Solitary Man
From: Mike Edwards
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 23:14:19 -0400
From: Country Paul
Subject: Old business; "missed" tracks; Les Innocents; Wadsworth Mansion
Some references from prior posts:
Mark Wirtz, the Spyderbaby track you posted on your website
http://markwirtz0.tripod.com/mw/id32.html is really
nice. He does indeed channel the spirit of Brian Wilson -
and the song has a major hook for a chorus!
....Brett Berns, welcome out of the lurking zone, and thanks
for turning us on to http://www.bertberns.com. Some superb info
and excellent links. I never realized he passed away so young.
Considering the monumental amount of classic music he was
involved with, it seems his passing was much more recent;
so much of his work has endured. I haven't checked out your
sister's album, but will.
Jeffrey Glenn:
> there's a huge, glaring fault on the Rose Garden CD. There
> was a post-LP single ("If My World Falls Through"/"Here's
> Today" Atco 45-6564, 1968) which is the group's finest work
> IMHO. These should have been added as bonus tracks.
Atco did the same with Cross Country [the Tokens] - Their best
track under that name was "In The Midnight Hour" (only on a 45
until the B. T. Puppy reissue - completer, but pricey, at
http://www.thetokens.com. I also never understood why the
Derek and the Dominoes 45 of "Tell The Truth" (same label) was
not only not on the album, but was even pulled as a 45. This
could actually be a possible thread - hits, "top tracks" or
exceptional B-sides left off albums. I'd start with "Don't Pity
Me" by Dion & The Belmonts, which didn't make it to a greatest
hits collection until a long time after their other material
had been reissued.
Re: the Moulty thread - whatever did happen to the Barbarians,
especially Moulty? Just curious....
Steve Fromm wrote regarding "Beatle fakes":
> There were plenty of European fakes... The Rattles, for
> example, were huge in Germany. Not to be confused with
> The Ruttles...
The Rutles (one T, by the way) were a satire, but like the best
satire (in which I'd include them) they were as good at what
they were satirizing. (OK - almost, in this case.) I'd like to
put in a bid for a recent French group, Les Innocents and their
remarkable album "Post-Partum" (Virgin, 1995). If the Beatles
were together in the mid-90s and spoke French, they would have
recorded this album. It's one of my favorites. (Other Les
Innocents CDs don't quite have what this one does. "Post Partum"
is a strong recommendation.)
Dan Hughes: Wish I had the 45 of "Sweet Mary" to A-B with the LP,
which I do have. I remember the album being very flat in its
production, quite unlike the band live. Incidentally, the second
generation of my band, Benefit Street, contained Carl Armstrong,
who played bass for Wadworth Mansion after the album was released;
and guitarist Leo Genereux, who wrote two songs on the album for
them and also sat in with them - I don't remember if he was a
regular member. I saw Wadsworth live once - great, high energy
and funky! Even "Sweet Mary" really rocked out as opposed to
"popped." By the way, Wadsworth Mansion is a real place - a
historic house on College Hill (on the front cover) in Providence,
where both our bands were from. The back cover is the long-
abandoned but still standing Point Street railroad bridge;
Benefit Street was and is a very hip street of 18th and 19th
century restored - and expensive - houses.
Country Paul
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 23:53:58 -0400
From: Phil Milstein
Subject: Re: Cranking up the speed
Laura Pinto wrote:
> Robin....explained that the speeding-up process not only
> raised the pitch of the singers' voices but also cut down
> on the length (running time) of the 45s, making them more
> attractive for airplay.
On top of that we must also factor in the fact that certain
Top 40 stations played their 45s at about 47rpm or so, which
must have pushed the higher-pitched areas into the frequency
range of doggie whistles!
--Phil M.
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Message: 3
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 05:51:17 -0000
From: George Ritter
Subject: Warren Schatz - message for Michael Rashkow
Rashkovsky wrote:
> Associated Recording--THE businest demo place in NYC and also
> where a lot of records came from. They were the best at mono
> to mono to mono to mono O.D's . Also from that shop came
> Warren Schatz. Good writer and producer.
Hello!
I noticed your thread and wonder if you might know where
veteran producer Warren Schatz is working these days. Band
members of a group (Banchee) he produced 35 years ago are looking
for him.
Many thanks for your help!
Sincerely,
George Ritter
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 03:12:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lindsay Martin
Subject: Ciao Baby (Lynne Randell, The Montanas)
Norman mentioned the 1967 versions of "Ciao Baby" by Australian
Lynne Randell and British band the Montanas. In my never-ending
search for the "original versions" of Australian pop songs, this
is one of the tricky examples. For a start, although it was an
Australian hit by an Australian singer, and is inevitably claimed
sentimentally as "Australian", it was an Epic single recorded in
the States, written by Larry Weiss and Scott English.
My educated guess is that neither the Montanas' nor Lynne Randell's
version is the "original", as I doubt that either actually "covered"
the other, and it is more likely that the song was sourced from the
publisher in each case. Lynne Randell's version is a familiar oldie
in Australia, and the Montanas' version - which I never heard till
last year - is quite different. The Montanas arrangement makes it
reminiscent of the Fortunes' "You've Got Your Troubles", though the
similarity never once struck me over decades of listening to Lynne
Randell's recording. The Toys also recorded "Ciao Baby", in 1968,
and - from what I can gather - in the UK (is that true?).
Lindsay
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Message: 5
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 09:09:02 EDT
From: Paul R
Subject: Re: Gordian Knot
I wish someone would re-issue this LP, the tracks I've heard
("Year of the Sun", "We Must Be Doing Something Right")are
fantastic dreamy harmony pop. I can't believe anyone would give
this LP a review of only 1 star considering the quality of these
tracks alone. I also understand there is video footage of this
group around but so far, I haven't had any luck in getting hold
of it(the guy who has the footage of the group was also derisive
of them - some people have no taste!)
Paul R
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Message: 6
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 11:39:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Coyle
Subject: New Colony Six and the Chicago sound
Sundazed Records has done well in covering the earlier
garage roots of the New Colony Six, but I think it's
high time for a comprehensive overview of their later
harmony-pop output, typified by "I Will Always Think
About You" and "Things I'd Like To Say," their two
1968 hits and the songs they are best remembered for
outside of Chicago.
The American Breed, Buckinghams, New Colony Six, and
maybe to a lesser extent the Cryan Shames are
purveyors of the typical Chicago rock sound -- that
blending of British beat with jazzy horns and a lot of
experimentation. But the other "Chicago Sound" was
typified by the garage punk/blues of the Shadows Of
Knight, the Warner Brothers, the Little Boy Blues,
Saturday's Children, and the Mauds.
The Ides Of March seem sort of an archetypal Chicago
band. Like the NC6, they started out as British beat
wannabes, although more Beatlesque than the NC6, who
mixed in some Stones and Them influences. Then they
added the horns, but rhythmically they "brought on the
funk" so to speak, a harder edge than other Chicago
"horn bands" of the time. Thus, the Ides of the
"Vehicle" days were virtually unrecognizable as the
same guys who did "Roller Coaster" and "You Didn't
Listen."
Unfortunately, by the end of the '60s, Chicago, the
group, came along and kind of homogenized everything
that the bands that came before them had put down. In
this respect, they were like the Eagles, who took an
interesting, innovative musical genre, i.e.
country-rock, and turned it into formulaic radio and
chart fodder. Luckily, the revived interest in all
things '60s pop kept the above-named bands out of
total obscurity.
David
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Message: 7
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 11:47:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Coyle
Subject: I Wanna Meet You -- Cryan Shames
One thing I miss about the original Cryan Shames CD on
Columbia is that "I Wanna Meet You" immediately
followed "Ben Franklin's Almanac," meaning the
extended "freakout" at the end stopped suddenly,
perfectly seguing into "I Wanna Meet You."
Same feeling gotten from hearing "We Will Rock You"
going into "We Are The Champions" by Queen, or
"Fortunate Son" leading into "Travelin' Band" on CCR's
"Chronicle," or "Yes It Is" leading into "I'm Down" on
the Beatles "Past Masters" CD.
There's something missing having to reprogram your CDs
to replicate such perfect pairings of tunes...
David
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Message: 8
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:35:49 +0100
From: Kingsley Abbott
Subject: Shames/Montanas
Question for Clark Besch or anyone who knows -
Is the Shames CD on Varese? Still available?
I really enjoyed them when I got their singles in the
sixties (they were issued in the UK on CBS), but
I seemed to have missed the arrival of a CD.
The Montanas Sequel CD is still in the new
Sanctuary catalogue so should still be available
to order - NEMCD 994 - very nice collection that
includes their cover of Roger Nichols' 'Let's Ride' -
one we also put on Ripples Vol 8. Tony Hatch wrote
some fine songs trying to break that band, but sadly
to no avail. He rated them highly I believe.
Kingsley
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Message: 9
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:15:32 -0000
From: Mike Edwards
Subject: Nancy Holloway
I received a request from a Belgian friend asking for some
information on Nancy Holloway. It appears Nancy relocated
from the US to France and specialized in covering early 60s
US (and some UK) hits in the French language – a practice she
shared with Richard Anthony, Dick Rivers and Johnny Halliday,
to name a few. She cut original French language material as
well. Nancy had one US 45, "Big Noise From Winnetka"/"Chante"
on London in 1963. Does anyone have any information
on Nancy or know where we could find some.
Thanks,
Mike Edwards
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Message: 10
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:16:59 -0000
From: Mike Edwards
Subject: Solitary Man
I am looking for a clean copy of Eddie Rambeau's version of
"Solitary Man" released in the US on Bell 873 in 1970.
Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Mike Edwards
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