http://www.spectropop.com
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Volume #0414 May 2, 2000
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Unbreakable 45 RPM Record
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Subject: Re: Carol Kaye on tabloid books
Received: 05/02/00 12:55 am
From: Viceroy Fizzobottom
To: Spectropop!
Carol Kaye wrote:
>Since I knew many of the artists very well (Glen Campbell,
>Sonny & Cher, Brian Wilson etc.) especially spending
>years in the studios with them, these books not only
>disgusted me but did teach me one thing: THEY ALL LIE.
Well, that's the downside of show business. The sleazy
stuff sells, whether it's true or not. A balanced book on
the life of Brian (yes, pun *is* intended, sue me :-))
would probably reveal he didn't take more drugs or was
more insane than Paul McCartney or a Byrds member...but
that wouldn't sell as much as the ABC movie stuff, eh?
>people to publish my book (in the works), etc.
>and found out that you can go ahead and write the "truth"
>but ALWAYS, the publisher will ALWAYS have an editor
>rewrite many of your own writings, totally (and maybe
>secretly too) against your wishes most of the time.
On the other hand, you could probably find independent
publishers who'd give you more freedom. It's just like
record companies - big usually means less control over
what you're doing. There must be indies which are still
big enough to garantee you large sales. Didn't A&M start
out as an *incredibly* low-budget indie label? That didn't
stop Herb Alpert from having his hits, y'know!
Speaking of books and how truthful they are, can somebody
post a review of the new Dennis Wilson book?
>"People living in New Orleans just like music, period,"
>Palmer said. "They like something they can shake their
>fannies to
I hope Palmer isn't British :-)
>seeing drugs in the studios then too, different from the
>fast-efficient-4 tunes a 3-hour session thing in the
clean >60s).
This gets me thinking of Chris Montez. You played bass on
some of his tracks, right Carol? I just bought a Montez
"Best of" and nearly every song got the same beat, rhythms
and arrangement. "Call Me" must've been some kind of blue
print for him...do you know who arranged his music? As far
as I know, Herb Alpert only was the producer. Anyway, most
of his songs sound like they were indeed recorded in the
same 3-hour session!
Tobias
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Subject: again with the spectropop radio
Received: 05/02/00 10:13 am
From: Jack Madani
To: Spectropop!
Spectropop Radio is really getting into a good groove
lately. Something that recently caught my ear was a Chris
Montez track called "Where Are You Now." Before this
pretty recording, the only other version of this song that
I had heard was by Vicki Carr or Edie Gourmet (yikes, I
can't remember how to spell Edie's name)--I'm not near my
record collection right now so I can't check to see who it
was for sure. Anyhow, Chris Montez's version was very nice,
and so I went over to Amazon.com and found an expensive
import that includes this song, plus Call Me, plus The
More I See You, plus a whole bunch of standards (including
Fly Me To The Moon, Going Out Of My Head, Just Friends,
Look Of Love, and the sublime Neil Hefti-penned Girl Talk).
Would I be correct in assuming that all the recordings
on this disc are similar in sound to Call Me, The More I
See You, and Where Are You Now--i.e., that they're all in
the "big beat" sort of style?
There wouldn't be a disc that anyone knows of that would
give me all of the above PLUS "Let's Dance," would there?
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Subject: Thumbs Up and label query
Received: 05/02/00 12:55 am
From: Hans Ebert
To: Spectropop!
Carol Kaye writes about an album called "Thumbs Up." What
is this, who's on it and which label has it been released
on?
And on another subject, does anyone know which label Glen
Campbell, Rita Coolidge, Toni Tennille and Frankie Valli
are currently recording for?
Many Thanks,
Hans Ebert
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Subject: Mirasound and Ultra-Sonic
Received: 05/02/00 12:55 am
From: WASE RADIO
To: Spectropop!
To Phil:
The Shangri-las did not record at Mirasound. They
recorded at Ultra-Sonic on Long Island. The Dixie Cups
recorded "Chapel of Love" and their other hits at
Mirasound. It is true that Phil recorded his first hits at
Mirasound, such as the Crystals' "There's No Other Like My
Baby" and "Uptown" and Curtis Lees' "Pretty Little Angel
Eyes". According to the Mark Ribowsky Phil chose to record
there because the "walls were thicker".
Michael G. Marvin
WASE radio
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Subject: More Mirasound
Received: 05/02/00 12:55 am
From: WASE RADIO
To: Spectropop!
I don't know whether the Raindrops actually recorded all
their songs at Mirasound. I read in Alan Betrock's
excellent book, "Girl Groups-Story of a Sound" that the
Raindrops' 1963-1964 mid charter "What a Guy" was a
demonstration record made at Associated studios in New
York. I would speculate that "The Kind of Boy You Can't
Forget" was done at Mirasound. According to the Ribowsky
book on Spector, the engineer at the time Bill Macmeekin
would put a microphone by the bass drum, giving the sound
a good kick. For example Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion"
was recorded there, and that had a huge drum sound. Same
way with "The Kind of Boy"-that loud rudimentary drum part
towards the end. Other artists who have recorded at
Mirasound were Ruby and the Romantics ("Our Day Will Come"),
The Chiffons ("He's So Fine"), The Jellybeans ("I Wanna
Love Him So Bad") and many others.
Michael G. Marvin
WASE radio
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Subject: Re: Compression
Received: 05/02/00 12:55 am
From: Carol Kaye
To: Spectropop!
Glen, about compression, no I didn't know about it much.
All I know is basically how it works, but it was never
used on me except for the Motown stuff (bass). You have a
lot more data about it than I ever had, good work. And the
other good posts too, Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/
PS. BTW, some interesting news is coming to me about the
great NYC studio guitarist of the 60s, VINNIE BELL, also..
..he played on Hermit's Hermits, Rolling Stones, some
Motown demo things cut back there too. And NEVER got his
name on anything either. I'd hear Tommy Tedesco mention
his name with great reverence. More later.
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Subject: Vinnie Bell, #1 NYC studio guitarist
Received: 05/02/00 12:55 am
From: Carol Kaye
To: Spectropop!
My post on my Message Board, tho't you'd be interested:
I just heard from a wonderful person, Ed Bell, son of the
No. 1 NYC 60s studio guitarist, VINNIE BELL. He speaks of
the dozens of dates his Dad would do every week (yes, more
than 2 dozen dates a week) in the 60s, and he'd go to the
sessions with his Dad, who I remember Tommy Tedesco and
others would speak with great awe, Vinnie Bell must have
been a monster guitarist. Yet, he was never mentioned on
any poll of GP (Guitar Player) Magazine interestingly
enough.
I did answer Ed's message about how I wouldn't have been
on their poll either if I had't written my tutoring books
which got me the column in their magazine (for awhile) and
gone out to play live with the great Hampton Hawes jazz
trio (73-74) which got me on Playboy poll, and Downbeat
poll...and the GP jazz elec. bass poll too. I think a lot
of that is purely political. I asked to have my name
removed from the GP "advisory board list" as it was
apparent after many tries to get them to write a feature
about RAY POHLMAN, that that was a shuck and jive list (
still is with BP too I feel).
Ray Pohlman was the very FIRST and very prominent Elec.
Bassist in the studios who had done 1,000s of dates 1955
through the 60s, altho' I stepped in and kind of filled up
the void when he left recording bass dates in 1964 for a
short time to be the musical conductor of the Shindig Show
(Larry Knectel on bass on that TV show), but came back and
did some more work too.
The fact that he was IT in LA while I was playing guitar
on those dates, seemed to clash with the "revisionist"
(somehow people love to rewrite history) viewpoint that
someone else "started" elec. bass recording and so my many
attempts to get Ray's story out there failed -- they had no
plans to write about him, and just shunned my many attempts
to have an article done about Ray -- I protested by telling
them to drop my name from their list. Wanted no part of
that magazine, and shame on them for using my name when
they don't want to hear the truth about anything.
Shortly afterwards, Ray died (he had been a heavy smoker)
from a heart attack after moving to Santa Fe NM (around
1990) and yes, he finally got an "article", an obit
written by our wonderful Russ Wapensky in BP Mag. which
was new then.
And now.....another untold story (ugh, I hate these things,
but know from my own experiences and the slander out
there about me about the Motown stuff, it's TRUE, so many
so-called self-named "researchers" just love our business,
want to be a "part of the music business" and thus, they
can get "into our business with their gift of gab and just
balls period.
VINNIE BELL. An inspiring name, a well-respected name. I
heard his name mentioned by Tommy Tedesco, so many out
here in the course of talking about the NY fine studio
musicians also in the 60s. Vinnie played on Hermit's
Hermits things, did Rolling Stones, some Motown "demos",
etc. yet never had his name on anything, no credit, zip.
Just to let you all know, here's another example of a fine
talent DENIED! Hurry up Russ Wapensky!!
Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/
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