Spectropop - Digest Number 75

• From: Spectropop Group
• Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 23:07:03

                  http://www.spectropop.com

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______________        S  P  E  C  T  R  O  P  O  P        ______________
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          Flavour that lasts and lasts through a stack of pops!
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There are 11 messages in this issue of Spectropop.

Topics in this Digest Number 75:

      1. Re: Simon & Garfunkel
           From: Carol Kaye 
      2. Re: Born to be Together.
           From: "mikey1" 
      3. Re:chad and jeremy
           From: Andrew Sandoval 
      4. Chad & Jeremy Singles
           From: "David Feldman" 
      5. Greetings, and a tale
           From: "Charles G. Hill" 
      6. Re: CHAD, JEREMY & SHEL
           From: Andrew Hickey 
      7. Re: CHAD, JEREMY & SHEL
           From: "mikey1" 
      8. Mortimer
           From: "Antonio Vizcarra" 
      9. BOSTON '60'S ROCK
           From: DAVID LYSAKOWSKI 
     10. Re: Margo Guryan - Take a Picture
           From: "Jennifer Sullivan" 
     11. Checkmates
           From: "David Feldman" 



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Message: 1
   Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 10:40:10 -0800
   From: Carol Kaye 
Subject: Re: Simon & Garfunkel

> Carol made mention of playing on some of the Simon
> and Garfunkel tracks (pictured in the box set!), and
> the sessions were described as "boring."  Carol, can
> you elaborate?

Simon is and was a very talented man I always
thought...had his own good ideas for lines on his
recordings, but was usually very a very "remote" man,
not chummy at all, which is fine, but I kind of got the
feeling that he was a rather cold person....probably I'm
wrong, but he was not the usual warm person that all the
rest of the stars were that I worked for at all.

Maybe he was put out by all the friendly chats I had
with Art Garfunkel who was just the opposite of Paul
Simon, we had some lively discussions philosophically and
warmly until the looks from Paul Simon but I took that
as a sign to "let's keep it to business"....

I really liked Art a lot, still do, and having heard him
recently sing on TV, I think he's also a good
singer...but I was spoiled back then, working for
everyone from Bobby Darin, to Ray Charles, to Mel Torme,
to Righteous Bros. to Wayne Newton, Lettermen, Joe
Cocker, Mel Carter, everyone who could really sing well,
and I didn't think that Art was that great of a "singer"
at that time compared to the ones I'd been working for
-- Paul seemed to be the one who carried a tune better. 
But hearing Art sing again recently, I feel that Paul
couldn't have carried it off without Art's lilting voice
that's for sure.

It was folk songs really, and that's kind of boring to
sit around while Paul was figuring out what to do. 
Nothing new actually, the rock groups did the same thing
(except we're the ones who created on those dates mainly)
but at least the musicians were kidding more when that
was going on....we had to keep absolutely quiet (except
for my chat with Art until we were stopped) and the
dates get long when you're doing 3 hours with 1 or 2
tunes only in silence...the usual was 4 or 5 tunes with
some band kidding on practically all the dates.  Paul
was professional, just very silent and sort of stuck-up
imo and you couldn't read what was on his mind at all.

It's not easy being a star, and so many stars get the
bad rap for demanding excellence....and probably Paul
gets his share of flak, yes, I've heard some things
too....but being on-stage is a tough thing to do.  I
liked his African group.

> Not knowing the situation, it would almost seem that
> their music would be more of a challenge than your
> usual 60's sessions,

No, the boredom made it tedious that's all.  When you're
in the business of creating hit records for everyone day
and night, every day of the week for years, it's business
as usual - no big deal with any style of music.  His
music was simple, simple to play on, simple to do.  But
sometimes the simple stuff is hard because you have to
keep that same "hit-song" attitude, it has to be fresh
and interestingly a good groove every time you do a take.

In contrast, I kidded a lot with Tony, and others of the
Lettermen group, it was always fun to do their dates (and
other groups and singers like that too), and I had the
highest warmest feelings with them on their dates.  I'd
speak with their manager, I forget his name now, but he's
the ONLY manager in town I'd trust....he later became a
VIP at one of the large booking agencies too....the
Lettermen did very good with him.  Theirs was a class act,
and treated the studio musicians especially well, sung
great, had good charts, good music to record...a real
pleasure which makes the dates go good without being
boring etc.

Having done the Claudine Longet tracking dates at
Columbia where we also cut the Andy Williams things, I
thought the music was great that we laid down for her,
she was very very nice....but I got caught by a prankster
trick of Tommy Tedesco's tho'......I forgot that I was
playing an extra acoustic guitar part (over-laying it
after I laid down the bass part) and we, Tommy and I,
were talking together.

He asked me what I thought of Claudine's singing, and I
said, "well she's a nice girl, but she sure can't sing"
and of course that went right into the mike and Andy
heard it in the booth.  Needless to say, I didn't get
called for the Andy Williams dates anymore for a short
time until Pet Clarke insisted on using me when they did
something together, and I think Andy forgave me
then....boy was I mad at Tommy for baiting me like that,
I had forgotten the mike was right there and he knew I'd
speak the truth.  Am sure he got the biggest bang out of
that...but of course you never show any emotion on the
record dates.

Andy, I have to say, was always a good guy, and we had
some nice minutes of talking together at the theatre in
Denver about 1992....good to see him again, and he fondly
remembered our dates at that great little Columbia studio.
Now that man can sing!!  Always admired his singing.

Sending those Gold Star attachments to that fellow.....

best,
Carol Kaye
http://www.carolkaye.com/


--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------

Message: 2
   Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 21:26:13 -0500
   From: "mikey1" 
Subject: Re: Born to be Together.

"andreas nyberg"  wrote

> If someone knows anything about Gold Star studios, the
> place, the walls or the tape recorder Spector used on his
> tracks, feel free to mail me at:
> anteluring@hotmail,com

Guy...heres some info...Gold Star is kind of a hobby with
me. Mikey

Gold Star Studios was founded in 1950 by Stan Ross.
Initially, they had only disc cutting machines which
would cut an acetate record of the sessions. Later, they
got tape machines, 02 Ampex 300 mono machines. With these,
they were able to do primitive overdubbing from machine
to machine, altho the quality suffered with each dub.

in 1962, Gold Star joined the world of multitrack with an
Ampex 3 track 1/2 inch multitrack machine.  They tried to
progress with the times, eventually ending up with a 16
track  Master Maker Recorder. The original Gold Star
mixing board was expanded, rewired, modified and kludged
to work with all the different tape decks the studio
accquired. It is unknown where the console is today.

In 1984, Stan Ross Sold GoldStar studios to a real estate
developer.  The developer had scheduled demolition of the
building. However, a suspicious fire destroyed the
building, and today it is a parking lot.

It is my feeling that the town should buy a marker to
designate the place where some of the greatest Rock and
Roll records were made.

Mikey A


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Message: 3
   Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 14:22:06 EST
   From: Andrew Sandoval 
Subject: Re:chad and jeremy

A couple of things on C&J:

They have a new reissue out of their classic soft pop
album Distant Shores on Sundazed - it sounds great.
In particular one of the 12 (!) bonus tracks is a
version of Love Is Strange. However, it is not done
like Mickey and Sylvia or even Don and Phil, rather
it is produced like Phil Spector! The backing track
is mainly a Lovin Feeling like bass riff repeated
over and over with C&J crooning a different melody
(and some different lyrics) for the Love Is Strange
classic over the top. It's kinda like what Brian
Wilson did with some cover tracks - very cool.

Also, to my knowledge Cabbages and Kings has never
been on CD. There is a Japanese import of the Ark,
but no Cabbages. It was supposed to be issued on CD
in the US on Scorpio, but nothing ever came out. Does
anyone know definitively different?

Andrew Sandoval

PS Great to see Jim Gordon, a fantastic musician,
finally getting some credit on this list. Despite the
personal tragedy that scarred his reputation, he made
a very important contribution to music. He in fact
double drummed with Hal Blaine on many famous dates
too, if I'm not mistaken.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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Message: 4
   Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 12:26:39 -0500
   From: "David Feldman" 
Subject: Chad & Jeremy Singles

There was often no correlation betwen commercial success
and the quality of C&J's albums and singles.  Possibly my
two favorite singles of theirs went nowhere commercially
-- the gorgeous "You Are She" and the hilarious "Teenage
Failure."


--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------

Message: 5
   Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 17:29:03 -0600
   From: "Charles G. Hill" 
Subject: Greetings, and a tale

I do hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and
finds every last rare record on the want list.

At the moment, I am recalling an appearance by Chad and
Jeremy on _The Dick Van Dyke Show_,  in which they
played British musicians (of all things) who were booked
for the Alan Brady Show, and at some point they paid a
visit to the Petrie household.  Laura was all a-flutter,
and one of them turned to her, smiled, pointed to one of
the furnishings, and said, "Do you know what we call
this in jolly old England?"

"What?" asked Laura, still starry-eyed.

"A _chair_," said the smirking British musician.

If I have remembered this incorrectly, feel free to
amend....cgh

==================================================================
 Charles G. Hill  |  chaz@doubt.com  |  http://www.dustbury.com/

       The worst thing about censorship is ******* *******.
==================================================================

--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------

Message: 6
   Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 20:56:39 -0800 (PST)
   From: Andrew Hickey 
Subject: Re: CHAD, JEREMY & SHEL

> SHEL TALMY That's a name worth entering into this group
> now that Chad & Jeremy are being discussed.  His "story"
> is at least interesting if not amazing.  Not only did he
> produce the earliest recordings by C&J....but also many
> of the earliest recordings by The Who, The Kinks, David
> Jones (Bowie), The Easybeats and others.  

Yeah - but don't a lot of those say he couldn't
produce to save his life?

=====
Buy the new Stealth Munchkin album
www.geocities.com/stealth_munchkin


--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------

Message: 7
   Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 23:26:30 -0500
   From: "mikey1" 
Subject: Re: CHAD, JEREMY & SHEL

"radiopro"  wrote:

> SHEL TALMY and "fell into" becoming (arguably)
> England's first independent producer.


Baloney. Joe Meek  was producing acts for his own 
Triumph Records as early as 1960.


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Message: 8
   Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 22:10:23 +0100
   From: "Antonio Vizcarra" 
Subject: Mortimer

Hi everybody.

Well, it's good to see that there are so many fans of
Chad and Jeremy out there. Their last album, the Ark,
was really great and I still don't understand why it
wasn't a success. At least Chad and Jeremy were more
adventurous than the more popular Peter and Gordon.

Another group who had really good harmonies, this
time a trio not a duo, were Mortimer. I have his
self-titled album released in 1968 and is a thrill to
listen. I don't know if they released more records,
singles or albums but they also met with
dissapointing sales.

The 60s was a great time for music as there were lots
of talented bands but only a handful could get to the
top of the charts while many others just tried.
Thanks to lists like Spectropop we are able to
rediscover more and more of these unknown groups and
singers every day.

I´d like to take the opportunity to wish also all
Spectropop readers a merry Christmas and let's hope
our collections grow even more next year ;-)

Antonio.

P.S. If anybody is interested in trading 60s pop
bands rare and not so rare, please contact me off
list.



--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------

Message: 9
   Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 08:22:07 -0000
   From: DAVID LYSAKOWSKI 
Subject: BOSTON '60'S ROCK

HI,I ENJOYED READING THE MESSAGE FROM JENNIFER,THE 23
YR OLD DJ INTO '60S POP. ALWAYS LIKE HEARING OF
YOUNGER MUSIC FANS THAT LIKE THOSE VINTAGE SOUNDS!

JENNIFER, SINCE YOU WORK IN BOSTON MIGHT I SUGGEST YOU
CHECK OUT BARBARA KEITH'S VOCALS ON THE KANGAROO LP
('68MGM SE 4586) AND CONNY DEVANNEY'S VOCALS ON THE
ILL WIND-FLASHES LP/CD ('68 ABC 641).THE SONG "IN MY
DARK WORLD" IS GREAT! BOTH LPS CONTAIN BOTH PSYCH/POP
SOUNDS! 

THANKS, DL 


--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------

Message: 10
   Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 09:38:43 -0500
   From: "Jennifer Sullivan" 
Subject: Re: Margo Guryan - Take a Picture

I absolutely adore the margo cd and suggest it highly to
everyone I know who loves that kind of music. She is also
the sweetest woman. She emailed me after her label
forwarded my email to her. She let me send her my cd and
she signed it! Anyway she has a great article in the
january issue of the uk music mag MOJO. there is also a
great writeup of her at
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B82964~C


and of Take a Picture at
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=A501556


I cant say enough nice things about her!!

[Margo Guryan interview now on-line!
http://www.spectropop.com/go2/margo_guryan.html]



--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------

Message: 11
   Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 12:26:39 -0500
   From: "David Feldman" 
Subject: Checkmates

I recently returned from Las Vegas, where I had a chance
to meet Sonny Charles and Sweet Louie -- the Checkmates
[Ltd.].  They have recently signed a deal where they will
perform exclusively at properties owned by Carl Icahn --
the Stratosphere, and Arizona Charlie's West and East. 

If you are ever in Las Vegas, do go to one of their shows.
Sonny Charles sounds as good as ever, and their act is
seemingly effortless, great fun, and utterly professional.
Don't go expecting cutting-edge material.  You are more
likely to hear "Brick House" (a great version, actually)
as any of the old Checkmates material.

Although they have proved to be the most durable lounge
act singers in the history of Las Vegas, obviously they
were close, at several times, to truly breaking out on a
recording front.  But they are both realists, and seem to
enjoy the workmanlike aspects of their job. They enjoy
being able to live like real people, go golfing, maintain
long-term friendships in Vegas, etc.

Sonny had no beef with Phil Spector, and said that he
enjoyed working with him quite a bit.  He did feel  that
he was "screwed" by A&M, but not by Phil.  I asked him
what song he is sickest of singing, and expected to hear
"Celebration" or "Love Train" or "Brick House," but he
replied:  "That's easy.  "Black Pearl."  He then hummed
the melody, sighing about how simple the melody is but
addding:  "Of course, I wish I could write a simple song
like that."

Both Sonny and Louie are eminently approachable and enjoy
talking to fans.  With overpriced headliners all over Las
Vegas, what a pleasure to party with the Checkmates for
free.


--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
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