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Volume #0390 February 28, 2000
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To prevent scratching surface, hold by center hole and outer edge
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Subject: punchin' all the buttons, tryin' to find a station...
Received: 02/27/00 9:26 pm
From: Jack Madani
To: Spectropop!
...with a screamin' jock...
Actually, I think I found one. It's "jammin' gold 95.7"
out of Philadelphia, and I don't even know the call
letters but that's okay because you can listen to an
internet stream of the station at the url
www.jammingold957.com.
The station is an 60's-70's-80's oldies station but with a
"black audience" orientation, which is to say that they
play motown, mussel shoals, gamble & huff, thom bell,
rodgers & edwards, etc. They also pump up the bass on the
radio signal, which means that it's hilarious to listen to
them old supremes tracks being broadcast with a heavy
bootstompin' backbeat (the opening to "where did our love
go" sounds like the Wehrmacht marching into the
Sudetenland). On the other hand, I have been utterly blown
away to re-listen to a track like Chic's "I Want Your Love"
and really *hear* that outstanding bass being played at
warp speed like it was a lead guitar track. And Freda
Payne's Band Of Gold never rocked harder. Cool.
Listen weekday mornings to the early drive-time slot,
because the deejay is named Terry Young and man, he is
shoutin' and spittin' and ragin' like he was the son of
Jerry Blavat or something. He does stupid celeb imitations,
rags on callers ("is this Terry?" [in slightly eastern
european voice:] "no, he stepped out. What can I do for
you?"), and talks over the intros of songs right up the
nanosecond before the singing starts. I swear, there are
times when I can't tell what he's saying, he talks so fast.
Plus the station has ID jingles that have that oldtime
PAMS sound. What a great throwback.
On another note, for those who like that sort of thing, I
found an interesting web site dedicated to Bubblegum music.
It can be found at
http://home.att.net/~bubblegumusic/.
Spectropop continues to rule.
jack
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Subject: Gypped
Received: 02/23/00 1:20 am
From: David Mirich
To: Spectropop!
"Give 'em what they wan." I saw CCRevisited (Stuart and
Tom) last summer with the Beach Boys (Bruce and Mike).
What the heck, we all had fun. When I see a movie, a play,
or symphony, I am not expecting to see the original artists
who brought the work to life. Yeah, I wish Ricky Wilson of
the B52s hadn't died so long ago. But it doesn't diminish
my enjoyment every single time Iv'e seen then live, they
still rock! But I sure don't complain when I get to see
the real-deal either (CSNY tomorrow night!)
Dave Mirich
<< Consider yourself lucky to have been gypped? I'm sorry, I
just don't see how this is defensible. Billing yourself as
Person X of Group Y is one thing, but if the band only has
one of the original members (especially if this member
wasn't the singer or other focal point), then I don't see
how you can in good faith call yourself that band.
Stewart
>>
--------*-----------*-------------*-------------*------------
David Mirich, Ph.D. School Psychologist
Multilingual Assessment Services Team
Denver Public Schools
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them
pick themselves up and hurry off as it nothing had happened" Winston
Churchill
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Subject: Jerry Lewis ... and Sagattarius
Received: 02/25/00 3:53 am
From: Bates, Robert (Cahners-NYC)
To: Spectropop!
I was just looking up "Present Tense" by Sagittarius on
Amazon.Com -- and noticed it was the #7 record in France
(based on purchases)! I was pretty stunned that this record
that was a dud in the sixties has suddenly become a hit in
France. Anyone know any reason for this?
Rob
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Subject: Jimmy Webb/Marionette
Received: 02/23/00 1:21 am
From: AVIRS
To: Spectropop!
Does anyone have any information (cover versions) on this
song? The 5th Dimension recorded a version for Magic
Garden but it was never finished. Just curious. Thanks.
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Subject: Russ Wapensky's Musician Union Studio Musician credit book
Received: 02/24/00 1:58 am
From: Carol Kaye
To: Spectropop!
One of the reasons why it's taken so long lately, the
toughest trickiest stuff to research is all the names
added to Musicians' Union contracts, names that have
nothing to do with our bunch of regular studio musicians.
Some are bona-fide, like a few times one or more temporary
studio musicians recorded for 2-20x then never were heard
of again, and that list even includes Mike Post who sat in
on some of Phil Spector's dates, no problem there.
Then you have the "office clerk's name" (maybe), or a
friend's name added to the contract just so they get paid
by the record company, they probably weren't there in the
studio either, but the name is added on the contract....
all this besides the usual changing of the recording date
to avoid paying a late penalty fine for late payment from
a record company, or any contractor who is filling out the
forms the least mistake can throw off the research.
Some contracts list all the musicians, the artist, studio,
company but "no names of tunes", which has taken months to
track down sometimes.
Plus many contracts are still missing, or worse, stolen,
like a 1-2 of the Beach Boys contracts that made their way
on the back of a record album (pirated record) put out in
Japan.
Russ has his hands full with all this last-minute detail...
he's a perfectionist, a trusted government employee also...
and this has set him back a long time in research....he
expected to have the book done 1-2 years ago. But the wait
will be worth it.
Our Union/Federation knows how important this book is and
will be and has thanked Russ many times in straightening
out our contract situations too, he's found missing
contracts, put them in good order, etc. and has more than
helped with all this which has a direct bearing on our
re-use checks too, thanks Russ!!!!!
Russ Wapensky has been welcomed and given carte-blanche in
our records which are now closed to everyone after so many
thefts and pseudo-researchers got into our files....the
records are kept safe in a vault, guarded very well.
And he's gained our trust and confidence with all the
years of interviews he's done with I'd say 100s of our
group of studio musicians, arrangers, producers, record
company execs, and singers also, inc. backup studio
singers....believe me, this will be an eye-poppin' book
when it comes out.
Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/
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Subject: Meaningful Connections
Received: 02/23/00 12:35 am
From: Jamie LePage
To: Spectropop!
Following the Cake thread, I wrote:
>"Priscilla sings Herself," the Priscilla Paris solo album
>on York Records (4005). I was reminded of this record
>because it sounds like it was recorded around the time of
>the Cake's "Baby That's Me."
>
>Produced by Greene & Stone, arranged by Don Peake and
>Harold Battiste, engineering by Doc Siegel and Stan Ross.
>This pinpoints Gold Star as one of the studios...
>
>Where did Doc Siegel usually work and what other
>of his records fall into our area of discussion? Also,
>York Records was Greene & Stone's imprint, wasn't it?
Alan Ackerman wrote about the Cake:
>...The Cake. I...cherish the first three cuts on
>Side One. The rest of the album is flat and
>uninteresting.
Thanks for that. I suspected their albums couldn't be
consistently as good as "Baby That's Me."
>"ALL SELECTIONS WERE PRODUCED BY CHARLES GREENE AND BRIAN
>STONE FOR YORK-PALA RECORDS INC. AND WERE ARRANGED BY
>HAROLD BATTISTE."
>
>"THE RECORDINGS WERE ENGINEERED BY DOC SIEGEL, JIM HILTON
>AND STAN ROSS AND WERE RECORDED LIVE AT GOLD STAR."
These are all the same names that are connected with the
Priscila record. What I thought to be a vague similarity
between Cake and Priscilla Sings Herself turns out to be
the work of nearly the same lineup. That's helpful;
it fits together two pieces of the Greene-Stone puzzle.
>There were other engineers at Gold Star besides Larry
>Levine who, as we all know, was Phil Spector's.
For some reason, I don't think Doc Siegel was a Gold Star
regular. Anyone know? Also, the name Jim Hilton is
unfamiliar. Perhaps he was a later Gold Star staff
engineer?
>Greene and Stone were not record producers...
Your point is taken, and in comparison with Spector,
Leiber/Stoller, Bacharach and other "total sound"
producers, no one can argue. But this gets into the area
of "what is a producer?" It's anyone assigned that role,
and it varies between doing virtually everything to doing
nothing more than ordering lunch. In defense of Greene and
Stone (whom I know very little about), they did try to mold
themselves after the Phil Spector pattern, and their downfall
as far as I perceive was that they came in too late to
succeed with that formula. The girl group thing was on the
wane and groups like Buffalo Springfield were part of the
movement toward artists having creative control over their
output. Greene & Stone may have been Spector wannabes, but
I think they were on the right track trying to make
records the old-school way but with a contemporary
approach. Despite their efforts they seemed to have been
consumed in the tsunami of FM and "serious" rock.
The early Buffalo Springfield records by Greene and Stone
are my favorites of the band's catalog. Clean, straight,
and to the point. Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing is a
great fave. As soon as Greene and Stone rescinded creative
control, the band started to lose it. The album Again
hopelessly tried to hide the strain of the transition, but
it was obvious. The more Gold Star-ish tracks like
Expecting to Fly are in my mind the great last recordings
of the Spector/L.A. era sound. Again, I think we need more
of these.
I am not saying Greene and Stone were musical geniuses,
but judging from the few things I have heard I find that I
very much like their records.
Alan continues on Baby That's Me.
>"World of Dreams," by Mac Rebennack, is as perfect a girl
>group ditty as was ever written. The arrangement and mix
>here are a clinic in how to produce a Phil Spector song.
>The musicians listed are all the usual Spector/Beach
>Boy/Gold-Star suspects of the 60s, including one Carol
>Kaye who posts to this Board. I really hope Carol will
>add her memories for us about the Cake sessions.
Carol wrote she didn't recall the Cake sessions, although
the record sure sounds like all of Phil's regulars bathed
in glorious Gold Star echo (and is so credited). It's not
hard to imagine the sessions were probably rather
uneventful. Greene and Stone probably just hired all the
right people and let Stan, the arrangers and musicians
hold their "clinic" and come up with the desired
faux-Spector sound.
>The best part of "Baby That's Me" is from the second
>verse on when the strings are allowed to enter the party
>in the Spector manner and remain there the rest of the
>evening. The strings on this record are as near perfect
>as I've ever heard on record. Maybe even better than
>Spector did except for a couple of times. The echo
>becomes a whole other sound, very ethereal and compelling.
Well stated. It is precisely the strings and resounding
echo that pushes this record past "very good" to
"essential." Not many records achieve this powerful state,
may I suggest the aforementioned "Expecting to Fly" to be
one of them.
Wonderful post, Alan. Thanks for that.
Jamie
P.S. I guess it doesn't hurt to ask...If anyone can make a
clean reference copy of the Cake's first album for me,
please email me off-list.
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