__________________________________________________________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ S P E C T R O P O P __________ __________ __________ __________________________________________________________ Volume #0237 March 6, 1999 __________________________________________________________Subject: Who, Creation, Powder, Smoke Received: 03/04/99 7:23 am From: Andrew Sandoval, APSXXXXXXXXom To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXXXXXXties.com On the subject of the mighty Creation, I have always prefered (in my own peverse way) the lesser known Smoke (not the American band on Tower Records). The Smoke, a UK band who's big hit was "My Friend Jack," had a fantastic riff laden guitar pop album called "It's Smoke Time" which is widely available on CD via Repetoire in Germany. Songs are great, lyrics are amusing, guitars are super chunky and these guys could be the greatest of the B level mid-period Who type groups. On the C-level of that bunch is the Powder who are also very enjoyable, if a little bit derivative. If you love the Who and the Creation, Powder's music can and should be found through Distortion Records. P.S. My thanks to Alec for introducing the world to the Powder! --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Re: Randy Newman Received: 03/04/99 7:23 am From: Bob Hanes, BobHaXXXXXXXX.net To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXXXXXXties.com ANY of Randy's lps are worth the effort, the two you mentioned are even better than that. Pick up Sail Away at all/any costs. Randy is a great songwriter and arranger and his vocal delivery is a joy to listen to. His lyrics are always inteligent and entertaining (if not a bit cynical for humor's sake) Tobias, questions are always a good thing, how else would anyone gain any info? The Right Reverend Bob, dumb angel chapel, The Church of the Harmonic Overdub --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Randy Newman/Tandyn Almer Received: 03/05/99 7:51 am From: harvey williams,XXXXXXXXetuk.com To: spectropop, spectroXXXXXXXXties.com Tobias! You seem to have consummate taste. Randy Newman's debut LP is indeed one of the best records ever made. And quite unique too; I can think of no other record by any artist (least of all Newman himself) that has the same widescreen feel as this. Only 'Song Cycle' comes close. Not that Randy's other LPs aren't great too; although perhaps more mainstream in feel and arrangement, you should certainly get hold of 'Sail Away' and 'Good Old Boys' for starters. Also highly recommended is 'Nilsson Sings Newman', which is 20-ish minutes of Harry N. accompanied by Randy at the piano (and occasional mumbling)... And that's it. The most effortlessly beautiful record ever made. While I'm here; a question. What does anyone know about Tandyn Almer? I guess he's best known for penning 'Along Comes Mary' and cowriting 'Sail On Sailor', but I've recently picked up a couple of 45s with his writing credit simply out of curiosity; 'Little Girl Lost & Found' by The Garden Club, and 'Poor Old Organ Grinder' by Pleasure. They're both great, ambitious-sounding singles; has he written any more like them? Bye for now, Harvey Williams. --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: A Girl Called Dusty Received: 03/04/99 7:23 am From: wsXXXXXXXXtyenet.com To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXXXXXXties.com I was very sad to hear of the passing of Dusty Springfiled. At 59, she really died before her time. I first fell in love with her voice on "Stay Awhile," and "I Only Want To Be With You," but as I delved deeper into her songbook, I found gems like "Can I Get A Witness," "Breakfast In Bed," and "24 Hours From Tulsa." We've lost a great voice, a great performer, and a great person. I hope Dusty's former labels can come to some sort of agreemet to release a definitive and extensive box set for future fans to enjoy. Will P.S. Dusty is the most requested artist on my show, beating out the Supremes and the Ronettes. I think I'll do a tribute show. Would anyone like to make a request? Please email me if so, I don't want to clutter up the list. wsXXXXXXXXt.com --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Dave Mirich, redux... Received: 03/04/99 7:23 am From: Robert Charles-Dunne, XXXXXXXXlt.com To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXXXXXXties.com At the risk of overwhelming poor Dave Mirich, and boring the bejeezus out of other members who aren't into this stuff, a couple more pop acts came to mind that you might consider, Dave: DWIGHT TWILLEY - With his partner, the late Phil Seymour, Dwight managed to mix up a bit of Elvis, a lot of Beatles, some Beach Boy harmonies and a dash of something distinctly Twilley. Well written tunes, usually produced with lots of wobbly reverb, performed with passion. Personal standouts for me are the first two albums, though there's no such thing as a 'bad' Dwight Twilley album. I understand the Right Stuff label has reissued a bunch of stuff, but I'm still wearing out my vinyl originals for now. I'm sure Dave and other members already know about Twilley but he shouldn't be forgotten on our growing lists. TOM PETTY - The first album on Shelter found him mining largely the same vein as his label-mate Twilley [on whose records Tom has made sporadic appearances. Seems to me I also recall tuning into some Saturday morning kids show 25 years ago specifically to see Twilley and Petty was pretending to be his bass player, though my memory is not to be trusted.] Sure Tom went on to have a bunch of hits that everybody knows, but they've all been paler variants of this first seminal album. In Canada, his label's promo people referred to him as 'punk,' because he was on the jacket wearing a leather jacket. Just more anecdotal evidence that promo types need not actually listen to the music when a photograph tells them all they need to know. MICHEL PAGILARO - Canada's version of Twilley, though 'Pag' actually came first. Again, Elvis, Beatles and Beach Boys all merge in one insanely talented Montreal guy, particularly on an album from the very early '70s released in Canada that contains "Lovin' You Ain't Easy" and "Some Sing, Some Dance." [I think it was released Stateside on a smaller indie of the day, but I cannot recall.] Strings, maracas, jangly 12-string, the whole nine yards. Pag also has a great double live album from the mid-70s, and a French-language album with his band Les Rockers from around the same time. All phenomenal stuff. Like Twilley, Pag has taken a few stabs since the mid-80s, but without much notice or acclaim. The Quebecois Elvis/Beatles rolled into one, Pag suffered from the ongoing language problems in Canada. Considered too Franco for Anglo Canada, too much an Uncle Tom sellout to the Anglos by some Quebecois. This was compounded by the fact that the brilliant debut album referred to above was released on a label owned by Toronto's CHUM radio chain. The CHUM chain perhaps underplayed the Pag 'product' for fear of creating the appearance of a conflict of interest, while other radio stations virtually boycotted Pag lest they help put more money into the pockets of their CHUM competitor. Warren Cosford, a Spectropop member and illustrious alumnus of CHUM [several times over], might be able to add comments on that aspect. Some Pag stuff is better than others, but rest assured that anything with the name PAGLIARO on it is worth having. Apologies for the verbosity... Robert Charles-Dunne --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Leo Kulka Received: 03/05/99 7:51 am From: Carol Kaye, carolkXXXXXXXXlink.net To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXXXXXXties.com Thanks for your description of this man, but to tell you the truth, I met 1,000's of people around that time period, and if I didn't work for them in their studio much, then I wouldn't be able to tell you if I knew them or not, based on printed descriptions. There was SO MUCH going on, so many people. Please see my website soon for just "some" select names of producers, arrangers, contractors I worked for and "some" studio and engineers names I worked with (on my Biography page, some still on the Message Board) That will give you an idea of the enormous number of people involved in our business in the 60s on a constant every-day basis. No, never saw anyone like Leo at Gold Star at all! That I do know. People were always coming up with new ideas every day in the studios in the late 50s and early 60s, it was very common. With the rock and r&b records selling like hotcakes, everyone was in a feverish pitch to come up with "new sounds", and mostly it was completely accidental.... no-one was trying to experiment with some off-beat sound to make it something of a standard at all....it was literally for 1-2 recordings and then off to some other new sounds. I remember when they put my guitar through the Leslie organ speaker cabinet at Gold Star (they tried with another guitar player at first but he couldn't trigger it very well, it didn't work good with his way of picking, and so they gave it to me to try as my way of picking is strong and even -- I was well-known for the strong playing I did on guitar). How different that sound was. And it was good for 2 hot recordings for Jewel Akens - "Birds And The Bees" etc. which I played guitar through the Leslie. BTW, I spoke with Jewel on the phone a short while ago, he's well, appearing in Las Vegas and on the road here and there. People were wise enough to know that tricks like that were only good for 1-2 recordings and they were off to do something else. It was usually the song that would supply a hint of something different to use, whether it be a hook-line of music in the arrangement (jazz musicians in the rhythm sections were quick to use their experience and great ears to create good lines) or an effect of some kind. I was there in the studios when the fuzz-tone was first used, it was a Gibson pedal (at first we'd simply take a tube out of our amp to get a "fuzz" sound late 50s, then a pedal was built for that effect). No I wasn't the "first" at that, but was one who quickly used it for an "effect". I saw the potential in it. But I was the "first" to use the Echoplex on bass, and the first to use all kinds of effects on bass for movie scores - inc. fuzz-tones (listen to "Heat Of The Night" movie), and a few record dates (one with Brian even w/sound effects)... Listen to the theme of "Airport" cut out at Universal Studios. I had my Gibson Maestro box on with the "steam" and "claves" and octave-divider buttons on (could play 2 octaves at once, and I could also trigger that just fine, again, with the strong way I pick with a hard pick). And "True Grit", same thing, others like that. But effects sort of ran their course very quickly (as they all knew in the 60s). The 12-string guitar hit big in the early 60s on a couple of big records; "Walk Right In" (no not on that one) etc., and I'm one of the first ever to put a pickup (had my trusty jazz pickup, the D'Armand) on the 12-string guitar (about 1960-61) and start recording with it..... (later the Dano bass guitar 6-string hit good too - I was doing a ton of dates on the Dano for awhile). The 12-string was HOT, according to everyone, and Barney had a similar idea for his Gibson acoustic 12-string -- the two of us worked a lot of record dates immediately with that innovation before other studio guitar players caught on. Pretty soon we were taking normal elec. 6-string guitars and making them into elec. 12-string guitars thanks to the help of our local luthier repairman, Milt Owens, a techie genius. This was long before the manufacturers got wise and started making regular elec. 12-string guitars. I got a ton of work in the studios then, playing my "drum paradiddle licks" (the same rhythmic phrases I played later as 16th fills on the bass and 16-note patterns too) on the elec. 12-string guitar. It became a HUGE staple sound of the Sonny And Cher recordings which I played the elec. 12-string on a lot, Sonny loved the way I played those fills (Phil Spector used me on elec. 12-string a lot too). It was more common for different instruments like that to become popular (and some stayed popular too, in adjunct to the regular guitars, both acoustic and electric) for awhile, a few years, but not odd things like the flangers altho' once in a while you still hear some recordings with odd uses like that of early uses of electronic stuff. In fact, one of the reasons why I started to play the elec. bass, as I reasoned "hey, this is more fun than playing rock guitars, and I only have to carry in ONE instrument, not 5 or 6 guitars". Producers told you to bring "everything" as they weren't sure themselves what they would use on their dates....and part of my popularity as a studio guitar player was that I was good on many different guitar instruments, played cleanly, as well as good, knew all the licks, could solo and play rhythm but was noted for my ability to create background licks right there on the spot according to the tune, singer, style etc.), funky rhythms as well as my Dano bass guitar work and most solo-types of background licks. Not bragging here and excuse me if I am patting myself on the back, but I knew what I could and couldn't do.....I wasn't like Glen Campbell or Billy Strange who could knock you down with some fantastic bluesy rock solos on guitar, but I sure had plenty of work and had to turn down work as my 2nd husband did NOT like me playing in the studios at all (I eventually threw him out - bad marriage, then I really worked hard, and never turned down anything again as I had kids to work for). So just to give you a little history there.....it was not unusual to try a little of this and that here and there on recordings. I don't think "flanging" was an "art-form" that was developed at all.....it was hit and miss accidental stuff. That's why I firmly believe in what Stan Ross says about this (and Russ Wapensky quotes about Stan and Larry Levine's statements about all this) as being totally ringing true according to that time and space in studio recording. Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/ --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: 12-string guitars Received: 03/05/99 7:51 am From: Carol Kaye, carolkXXXXXXXXlink.net To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXXXXXXties.com BTW, I forgot to mention in that other post that it was the Gibson acoustic 12-string guitar and both Barney Kessel and myself used at the start of the 60s and to which we both (about the same time) put the D'Armand pickup on (in the roundhole). It was about 1962-63 when I started to put a pickup on that, and in fact, I remember that I was still working quite a bit for H.B. Barnum and put it on first on a Rams party dance he hired me for. We were doing a little recording with Rosie Grier at that time and I remembered it being that Rams dance I tried to do that for as we were playing some funky stuff along with the jazz and I wanted to try the pickup on my acoustic 12-string Gibson to see what that would sound like for that dance. H.B. liked the sound, he was very interested, so I started using it for record dates. As for who played the acoustic 12-string guitar on the hit "Walk Right In", I really have no idea. Don't think that was a West Coast hit, probably cut back east and Russ Wapensky's book will have that credit listed for sure, no matter where it was cut. Tommy Tedesco, Dennis Budimer, Glen Campbell, Billy Strange, etc. all got 12-string guitars too and it was a very short time before manufacturers got wise and then they bought regular elec. 12-string guitars for their studio date arsenals of guitars -- They didn't dabble into putting on portable pickups on their acoustic 12-string guitars like Barney and I did - or change over a regular 6-string elec. guitar to 12- string elec. either. The one I changed over was a pretty good Gretsch elec. 6-string but I do remember having Milt Owens install better pickups. Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/ --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- End
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