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There are 5 messages in this issue #22.
Topics in this digest:
1. I Want to Stay Here
From: Bobby Lloyd Hicks
2. Re: Misunderstanding about Joe Osborn
From: Carol Kaye
3. Re: bass
From: Len
4. Re: Jamie, you're right about thud-thud
From: Carol Kaye
5. Bass Question for Carol Kaye
From: "jake tassell"
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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 11:03:48 EDT
From: Bobby Lloyd Hicks
Subject: I Want to Stay Here
I was listening to the Tiny Tim/Brave Combo collaboration
"Girl" and the song "I Want to Stay Here" is haunting my
brain. I found out that it's an old Steve and Eydie tune,
but can't find it on any of their records listed at cdnow
or amazon.com. Anyone know what collection it's on and
where it can be found?
Thanks
Bobby Lloyd Hicks
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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 02:18:39 -0700
From: Carol Kaye
Subject: Re: Misunderstanding about Joe Osborn
Alex Valdez of the "Yellow Balloon" recordings and I have
been discussing the misunderstanding of Joe Osborn and
some other things surrounding the recording of Motown
dates in LA during the 60s....very nice person Alex is,
I'm impressed. He remembers a lot about the Lewis Sisters,
a couple of nice white girls who were singing while we
were laying down tracks for Motown with Armin Steiner
engineer for LA-Motown (their mikes were not plugged in --
we were complaining about the tracking not being paid for,
so Motown producers Hal Davis, etal. put them up there as
a front).
Alex got it confused with acoustic Jimmy Bond, thinking he
was Joe Osborn. Evidently one of the Lewis Sisters was
pulling his leg saying "Carol won't work without him on
bass because she's dating him", totally FALSE. I wasn't
dating at all during those years for #1, and #2, Jimmy is
black and Joe is white and not an acoustic bass player.
I don't know why she said that unless she was just kidding
around, I didn't know those women hardly at all...only saw
them a few times when they were attempting to sing (and
not very well either, but they were friendly).
Jimmy played on 1 or 2 dates at the most with me (and Alex
remembered it correctly -- they had him in back of me
standing up). I did remember the one date when we
recorded the hard triplets of "Love Is Here And Now You're
Gone" track for the Supremes. James Bond (we called him
007) is a fine jazz bassist and we both enjoyed playing
those hard triplets together.
Carol Kaye
http://www.carolkaye.com/
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Message: 3
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 02:22:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Len
Subject: Re: bass
Jamie - you basically said - " a lot of "today's music" ain't music"
i know many people who agree with you.. and i am one of them
|=================================================================|
| Len |
| |
| '63 1/2 Galaxie 500 fastback - 289-V8, auto |
| '69 Galaxie 500 Sportsroof (fastback) - 429-V8 |
| http://www.geocities.com/donutbandit
- my "Radio Legends" pages |
| |
|=================================================================|
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Message: 4
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 02:10:55 -0700
From: Carol Kaye
Subject: Re: Jamie, you're right about thud-thud
Jamie, I suspect you're one of a great majority of
listeners who are very tired of hearing the
"thud-thud-thud" in the recordings of today. And also,
it's probably (imo) because there is no bass, or little
bass, why so many turn up the bass drum so there is
"something" on the bottom.
I'm busy teaching a lot of bass players here in LA (both
privately and at the Mancini Institute, and seminars
around the country), who are quickly being put to work so
that's a good sign in live-playing -- they all play real
notes, know how to support the band tastefully, playing
the right kinds of patterns for the multiple styles
required, etc., IOW, a throwback to the 60s and 70s for
good bass work -- and they're enjoying playing real music
like the audiences enjoy hearing real bass too, very
rewarding all the way around.
Yes, if the drummer is playing too much, then it becomes a
"drum" record. When good hit recordings were created,
parts were played simply and supported the top end (singer,
instrumentalist) -- that was the role. There was no
starring role underneath. You played what was required
for the song, the singer, the arrangement (whether head,
that is, improvised - made up by the studio musicians
which was the case early in the 60s until the arrangers
such as Perry Botkin, Don Ralke, others got their
arrangements going and even then needed the lines
sometimes that studio musicians could make up)....it
didn't matter what style and less was more -- everyone
back then was cognizant of what the listener and the
dancer required for music.
But there again, I've often wondered especially lately
just how important "songs" are now to people vs. how
important the beats, and songs were back then to people.
People lived their lives through songs, singers, the
dance-beats, etc. back then (60s-70s) but just how
relevant and important those elements are to people's
lives now? It's an interesting situation.
People still enjoy hearing a lot of live musicians, that
fact is very clear, the live musicians are greatly
appreciated, but for recording....they are all used to
synthesized, and layered-on sounds.....not the real sounds
of the instruments, and not the real feelings of musicians
playing together, communicating together, but rather
robot-like performances, and technically oriented sounds.
A sort of split personality in the music business.
I'm finishing up teaching at the prestigious Henry Mancini
Institute at UCLA, and I can assure you we will have some
of the finest musicians out there more and more with the
excellence that is taught and experienced with this fine
institute but we all hope there will be the finest of jobs
for them besides the regular symphonies too. Recording
work here in LA is in flux, sometimes not very good.
Nashville is having some slow-downs too as is NYC, other
places are not happening well. We'll see how it evolves
-- if the public still wants to hear good live musicians,
good music, etc.
Carol Kaye
http://www.carolkaye.com/
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Message: 5
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 10:46:02 +0100
From: "jake tassell"
Subject: Bass Question for Carol Kaye
Hi Carol
A question you've probably been asked a thousand times.
I've often wondered how you got the bass sound on The BBs
'God Only Knows'. Did you use a Fender Precision?
Flat-wound strings or roundwound? And was the bass
recorded with a mike/directly-injected, or both?
Thanks
Jake
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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