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Subject: Mysteries of the DC5
Sent: 12/31/18 3:23 pm
Received: 01/06/99 12:59 am
From: Greg Matecko, motXXXXXXXXama.com
To: Spectropop List, spectrXXXXXXXXties.com
Howdy folks!
I don't know if this has been discussed in the past, but let's
throw it out and see what happens...
One 60's act you don't see a whole lot of talk about is the Dave
Clark Five. I guess it's common knowledge amongst most of the
music historians present here that Dave was one smart cookie way
back when. He leased masters to his record company as opposed to
signing a deal, so he's got control of all his recorded output.
He also bought the rights to "Ready, Steady, GO!"
The last we saw of Dave was when he showed up on the Disney
Channel here in America as a kind of promo for his best-of on
Hollywood Records. There was also an interview in Goldmine
Magazine.
In spite of that, we still don't have a clear picture of this
fellow, and no one seems to want to talk. Interviews with Mike
Smith don't really say very much, and another Goldmine interview
many years ago with some of the other band members left me with
the impression that they were somewhat afraid to really go into
detail about the group's inner workings.
Dave apparently isn't interested in allowing any of the group's
performances to be shown on any of the Sullivan specials, and on
some of the Ready Steady Go videos that were out a few years back,
the DC5 segments were from other sources.
Does anyone have any info? Will any DC5 sessions show up in any
of these upcomimg books mentioned here recently? Were the band
members "set for life" by Dave in return for keeping quiet on
group secrets?
After the less-than-spectacular showing of the Hollywood CD, one
wonders why Dave hasn't hooked up with Rhino, who's been after
him for years. I recall an interview in MIX, or one of the other
studio-type mags where the Rhino guys said that the DC5 was their
ultimate goal, but Dave was looking for "mucho dinero."
Greg Matecko http://www.telerama.com/~moteeko
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Subject: An excerpt from Liberty Records, re the Ventures:
Sent: 01/04/19 9:15 am
Received: 01/06/99 12:59 am
From: Doc Rock, docrXXXXXXXXcom
To: Spectropop List, spectrXXXXXXXXties.com
An excerpt from Liberty Records, re the Ventures:
Tommy Allsup is known as "T" by his friends. He is best known as
a sometime Cricket, a member of the group that Buddy Holly formed
in Texas in the '50s. But he was better known in the '60s in L.A.
as a session musician and session contractor who did a lot of
work for Liberty Records -- and of course, his overlapping
function was as a producer, besides heading the Liberty Country
and Western Division and writing songs in his spare moments.
"I played guitar on the Ventures Twist album. Jerry Allison
[drummer for the Crickets] and I made up two songs on the session.
We went in and knocked out that album in a couple of days. The
Ventures were broke up at the time. Bob Bogle and two of the guys
were there, but the lead guitar and drummer were gone, so Jerry
and I played with them. Half Crickets, half Ventures. We made
some bucks off of those songs over the years. Especially the
foreign royalties were very good on it. We just got the session
money the first time though, no royalties. We got songwriter
royalties for those two songs. That was a bonus. Bob Reisdorff
was a nice guy. Since we kind of helped him out of a tight spot
and filled in for those guys who were gone, he rewards us by
letting us put in a couple of original songs on the album." Those
songs were "Guitar Twist" and "Opus Twist." "I've never heard that
album, I haven't run across it in years. I'd like to hear it."
"Bluer Than Blue" was a Ventures song that charted really high
that me and Dick Glasser wrote. I play guitar on that. It was
about the same time that the twist thing happened. It was one of
the few times that the Ventures recorded with strings, I think.
It lent itself to that melody. "The Fleetwoods, I played on their
stuff with Reisdorff, and Vic Dana. I guess I worked with most of
their artists. I was dong most of the contracting for Liberty and
I'd set up the sessions. "Hal Blaine [session drummer and
contractor] had been on the road with Patti Page. Dick Glasser
used Hal for some demo sessions for Metric Music. I know for a
fact that that was the first time he ever did session work. He
might have recorded with Patti Page or someone before that, but
he did not do session work. I don't know if he thanked Dick or
not, but Dick sort started him out. We also started Leon Russell
out. I used to have Glen Campbell show up at my sessions when I
couldn't do them I was there just a little while before he was.
"I did guitar for Jan & Dean, Timi Yuro, Johnny Burnette, Gene
McDaniels. I did almost everyone who was on the label. Except
ones where they picked up the masters recorded someplace else,
like the Rivingtons. But me and Jerry Allison were on the biggest
part of them. Earl Palmer was the drummer. If Earl wasn't there,
then Jerry was. We did Bobby Vee sessions, too.
"I was doing Jan & Dean sessions when Lou Adler could hardly pay
for them. He was just barely making enough money to do the
sessions. They'd had a couple of pretty good records on Dore
Records, but Lou was just barely getting by on Liberty with them.
Liberty had a little studio where Lou worked. And he had some
other studios where he had extended his credit. Then he got a job
with Aldon Music, with Don Kirshner, and then he made history in
music. They had all those rock and roll hits [on Dunhill --the
Mamas and Papas, the Grassroots] before they sold out to Columbia.
But Liberty gave Lou money to produce session and got him going."
Tommy Allsup maybe didn't consider himself a total Cricket, but
he put in his session time with Buddy Holly. "With Buddy Holly, I
was on 'Heartbeat,' 'Reminiscing, 'Love's Made a Fool of You,'
'It's So Easy,' I did quite a few. It would have been nice if
Buddy could have been on Liberty. But they weren't cookin' when
Buddy was alive."
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Subject: Herb Alpert-Ventures
Sent: 12/29/18 2:43 am
Received: 01/05/99 12:05 am
From: Carol Kaye, carolXXXXXXXXlink.net
To: Spectropop List, spectrXXXXXXXXties.com
>recall reading somewhere that Herb Alpert sometimes used a
>different trumpet player on some of his peak era TJ Brass
>productions. Did you ever hear anything about that, Carol?
TRUE. We all knew it was Ollie Mitchell, fine #1 call trumpet man
who did the most technical Herb Alpert solos, and when I asked
Ollie (just before he moved back to Hawaii about 1996) "did you
do 'all' of Herb's recorded solos or just some of them Ollie" --
he answered "all, from the Lonely Bull on".
Now, I don't know if he literally meant "every single one" as we
all have a habit of saying "all" meaning "all the important ones",
so not sure if he meant "all" or "most" by that, but he sure
had that sound down pat.
Herb's a nice man, I don't want to take anything away from him,
but too many times, the instrumentalists had others doing their
solos for them. Herb's forte I think was in producing, and
there's no harm done, he did go on the road, but Roy Caton and
others were there to "beef" up the trumpet solos for sure on the
road.
>There are a probably a few Ventures fans out there who are
>surprised to read that. The Ventures recording career spans
>decades. Can you recall any song titles or albums or which
>years...
I'm sure they will be surprised. You should have seen the Beach
Boys list when I said that "we" cut all their favorite groups too,
totally. I got quite a few "flames" as they didn't believe me
(they really didn't know who I was, but now they know since I was
on the VH-1 film, and will be out on another one about Brian
Wilson too).
The Ventures did have some of their guys in the group recordings,
and studio players "added" to the group (like with Frank Zappa too).
I'm on the "Hawaii 5-O" recording from the git-go, and they
used me on all the scorings at the movie studios after that
Ventures hit too.
Sorry, I really don't know which hits I've played on outside the
Hawaii 5-O, and I only learned that when they kept calling me for
the film episodes of that. One group looked just like the other
day after day in the 60s -- but Russ said, yes, it was me on that
w/Ventures, Hal too. etc.
I don't know at this date which ones I'm on, several but of
course I'm not sure which and Russ Wapensky's book is not out yet.
I don't want to bother him too many times with this, it'll be
in his (Russ's) book of musician contract credits due out in
spring of this year.
The Ventures were the "only" group that were similar to Frank
Zappa's band, in the sense that they "added" some studio
musicians to their band members. The rest of the groups never had
their bands record their records, we did them all for them.
>they would rush off to record it and get it released before the
>original had a chance to hit. They'd put it on an album with big
>letters...
Hal Blaine had to teach his recorded parts to Mel Taylor, thought
the world of him, but of course "they" (the Ventures) included
"us" - 60s stuff I am speaking about here.
>I admire the Ventures for their enterprising spirit.
They all did have a lot of talent for sure (compared to many
other groups who really couldn't play well). It's simply that the
studio musicians recorded hits "for a living", every day we could
record hits records, they (like the rest of the bands) wanted to
get hits. But it's true that we augmented their band, rather than
totally replaced it.
The multi-CD package of "Pet Sounds" with the booklet where Brian
Wilson let us have interviews in, that set a precedent. The first
time someone acknowledged the presence of studio musicians on
their dates -- it was a "first" -- very interesting thing with all
this.
>Carol Kaye, did you ever work with Bacharach? I think he recorded
>in LA, at least...
Not much, just the part of the score of "Butch Cassidy & Sundance
Kid", think 1-2 other things. Yes, he's a big talent, was pleasant
to work for, just like you see on-screen.
Studio musicians are the elite of the musicians, and can read any
time-signatures, key changes, etc., no problem. You wouldn't be a
studio musician if you couldn't do that. Recording musicians
sometimes were not asked to do that that much, but when you work
the movies, TV films, etc., you have to be able to read anything
(and sometimes create anything too right on the spot, most styles
of music).
As I've said, there's very few rockers who recorded as studio
musicians. It was mostly, out of the 350 or so studio musicians
just a handful who were from the rock world, the rest were from
the big-bands (and before that, out of highly-trained military
bands, practically all the movie men were from military bands
before their big-band days), and/or the tough highly creditable
jazz nightclubs, playing with the best of the finer jazz
musicians.
Yes, you do get your reading together fast if you want to work in
the studios. And no allowance is made for more than 1 mistake a
week, no kidding, in the movie and TV film studios, there are too
many waiting in line to get your place.
I loved that, it was very strict there, and after you've done so
many dates, the only pressure you feel is trying to stay alert
and awake (hence the coffee all the time).
Best, Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/
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