New! Jimmy Webb at Spectropop
http://www.geocities.com/spectropop/sp/jimmy_webb.html
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Life is Sweeter with a Dansette Gem
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There are 10 messages in this issue of Spectropop.
Topics in this Digest Number 119:
1. Roger Scott
From: Kingsley Abbott"
2. BORN TO BE WITH YOU
From: john rausch
3. Accusation hurled
From: James Botticelli
4. Re: I Stand Accused
From: "Timothy"
5. RE; JFK
From: "Warren Cosford"
6. Re: Johnny K. & the toppermost of the poppermost
From: "Joseph Scott"
7. The Origins of "Stage Door"
From: Mullins Geoff
8. Jackie DeShannon
From: Will
9. Buried treasures of tomorrow
From: David Parkinson
10. Free Design 2001
From: LePageWeb
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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 09:48:19 -0000
From: Kingsley Abbott"
Subject: Roger Scott
Very good to see Jamie mention Roger Scott recently.
Roger was and is still very sadly missed by many of us
over here in the UK. I seem to recall he had started
collecting records whilst in the Merchant navy and was a
lovely man with splendid Spectropop taste in music. He
was also an active supporter of the Beach Boys Stomp fan
conventions here. His Cruisin' show on Capital Radio was
excellent, helped as he was by the extremely knowledgable
James Hamilton who helped put the shows together.
James is sadly also no longer with us. I can't recall
now how it happened, but I got hauled in to help on one
of the shows - The Surfin, Draggin, Bikin' Show - as I
believe this was one area that James did not cover so
well. I took a load of good rarities to James' London
flat and we trawled through, selecting nice ones for the
show, and then met up a couple of days later at the
Capital studios to put it out. James had "The Last Drag"
by The Voxpoppers, and amongst my ones were "Summer USA"
>from The Rip Chords, "Mighty Morris Ten" from Episode 6
and some other throaty engine roars with music attached.
Roger was great and loved such thematic shows. He also
championed the wonderful Chris Rainbow's "Dear Brian"
track and others from that man's second album. Happy
days...
Kingsley Abbott
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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 11:08:48 -0500
From: john rausch
Subject: BORN TO BE WITH YOU
Jamie wrote:
> Do we love this record or not? Opinions?
My first listen to Dion`s Born To Be.... was a very
vague reaction, took me 2 or 3 more listens before it
finally hit home and now I find it a most enjoyable
listen. I play this for friends and get the same
reaction from them. The first spin will go in one ear
and out the other, then I`ll replay it over a time or
two and it will finally grap their attention. Guess it
is one of those songs that needs a few listens before
it sinks in.
John Rausch
Phil Spector`s Wall Of Sound @
http://members.tripod.com/~rauschj/
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Message: 3
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 16:17:14 EST
From: James Botticelli
Subject: Accusation hurled
In a message dated 3/5/1 3:54:05 AM, you wrote:
>I haven't heard the Tony Colton or Elvis Costello records
>but I'm pretty certain they're different songs
Elvis Costello's version was one and the same as Jerry
Butler's version (on I Stand Accused) but Costello made
it into a punk-paced rock rekkid.
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Message: 4
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 18:12:54 -0000
From: "Timothy"
Subject: Re: I Stand Accused
Alex wrote:
>
> I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Tony Colton's
> original version of "I Stand Accused" with the Big Boss
> Band (Pye, June 1965). It's a slower, more kinda
> nightclub/mod arrangement, but equally cool.
The Merseybeats did a fine single of "I Stand Accused"
on Fontana in the UK. The songwriters being credited as
Tony Colton and Ray Smith. This is the version that was
later covered by Elvis Costello.
Tony Crane and Billy Kinsley (who later became the
Merseys) are still touring as The Merseybeats and
sometimes start their live set of with "I Stand Accused".
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Message: 5
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 09:56:50 -0500
From: "Warren Cosford"
Subject: RE; JFK
> For a couple of decades, I've been hearing that a
> reason that the Beatles succeeded in 1964, the reason
> the British Invasion did so well, the reason the
> Raindrops "That Boy John" tanked, or the reason the
> Spector Christmas album fizzled was the national
> depression caused by the death of JFK.
>
> My thoughts were still on my girl friend, my homework,
> and rock and roll radio. My musical interests and
> day-to-day attitude and activities were not affected in
> the least.
>
> Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
>
> Doc (who bought the Xmas LP in an early '64 sale bin
> for 50 cents)
Hi Doc:
I first heard this "theory" expressed in an interview
we did with WLS Chicago D.J. Dick Biondi in 1970. At
the time, I worked at 1050 CHUM Toronto. We were
producing a 12 hour documentary on The Beatles which
was later syndicated to hundreds of radio stations
throughout the world. We later also used excerpts from
this interview in documentaries we produced on Elvis
Presley and The Evolution of Rock which are still in
syndication to this day.
I can't say that Biondi's theory was "original".....
only that it was the first time that any of us involved
with the production of The Beatle Documentary had heard
it.
I was 18 when JFK was assassinated, and like you,
attending highschool. We were "saddened" by The Event,
but hardly "tramatized". It didn't affect my taste in
music. In fact I was very excited by a lot of records
released at that time, particularly on Philles and
Motown. But having said that, I was living in Canada
and the U.S. seemed far away.
In the spring of '63 I heard my first Beatles record.
By then I was working part time in radio and Capitol
Canada released two or three Beatles singles over the
period of a few months. I think they were Love Me Do,
Please Please Me and one other. As far as I know they
did not receive airplay on Winnipeg Radio. I wasn't
particularly impressed by them and, in fact, gave them
away as prizes at school dances I was MC'ing. I
remember thinking they were sort of imitative of what I
thought were much better group harmony records by The
Beach Boys and The Everley Brothers that were hits at
the time.
Years later I heard that Paul White, the A&R man at
Capitol Canada, had became an "advocate" for The
Beatles within the company after seeing them in England.
As you know, Capitol U.S. "passed" on these early
singles.....some of which were released on small labels.
At any rate, for me, The Beatles "exploded" in early
'64 after their appearance on Ed Sullivan. Capitol
Canada quickly re-released those early singles....and
more.
Bottom line? It's a nice "theory".....but as with a
hurricane.....if it has any relevance at all it's only
a small part of an "equation" which included many other
factors that "came together" in a relatively short
period of time and created a lot of "energy".
Warren Cosford
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Message: 6
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 14:33:03 -0700
From: "Joseph Scott"
Subject: Re: Johnny K. & the toppermost of the poppermost
Hi all,
I share Doc Rock's skepticism about the famous
conventional wisdom that JFK's death had much to do with
the success of the Beatles in the U.S. It's sort of like
saying bobbysoxers screamed so much for Frankie Sinatra
around '45-'46 largely because they were upset FDR had
died -- I don't think so.
I think some of the main reasons the Beatles caught on
so well in the U.S. were that
-- The baby boomers generally were getting just old
enough to take a big interest in consuming youth-aimed
pop music, and there were simply so many of them that
once they did, _their_ tastes in pop were going to
dominate record sales and radio play -- The music the
Beatles had on offer up until early '65, e.g. "I Want To
Hold Your Hand" and "Eight Days A Week," was
_first-rate_, consistently very much _teen-aimed_ pop
music -- born during World War II themselves, they
happened to come along at exactly the right time to be
the baby boomers' darlings -- Capitol, one of the most
savvy record companies around, really marketed the hell
out of them beginning in late '63, and did a very
impressive job of it -- The Beatles' image was appealing,
e.g. they were genuinely witty and fun at that first N.Y.
press conference
Of course, one could argue that older people who were
also enthusiastic about the Beatles and bought their
records might have been getting over the loss of JFK in
a way that younger people wouldn't have understood. But
older people bought very few Beatles records until '67.
The Beatles didn't begin making many tracks that were
suited to the tastes and interests of older people
(who'd already heard plenty of solid, relatively
straightforward teen-oriented pop when they were
teenagers, been there, done that), such as "Norwegian
Wood," "Tomorrow Never Knows," and "Eleanor Rigby,"
until '65-'66. It wasn't until '66 and particularly '67
that the media all jumped on the
the-moptops-make-ART-who-knew? bandwagon and started
comparing them to literature and bebop and such.
Best to all,
Joseph Scott
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Message: 7
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 20:42:21 +1100
From: Mullins Geoff
Subject: The Origins of "Stage Door"
Dear members:
Can someone enlighten me on a Goffin/King track called
"Stage Door". I know that Tony Jackson of the Searchers
covered it (Pye in the U.K, Red Bird in the U.S) but who
did the original?
Regards,
Geoff Mullins
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Message: 8
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 16:56:42 EST
From: Will
Subject: Jackie DeShannon
Jackie DeShannon played the Bottom Line in NYC on
Saturday, in a writer-in-the-round concert with Al
Anderson (NRBQ), Darius Rucker (Hootie & the blowfish)
and Fred Knobloch. All were great, with Al Anderson
really standing out. Jackie sang acoustic versions of
Bette Davis Eyes, Put A Little Love In Your Heart, When
You Walk in the Room, You Know Me, Vanished in Time,
Don't Think Twice It's alright, and Hungry Heart. She
spoke a lot about how the music business has changed
over the years, especially for women. Her best quote,
when asked about being a singer AND a songwriter in the
60s, was, "back then they called it lack of direction.
Today they call it versatility."
She's doing a solo show with her band next weekend.
Will
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Message: 9
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 13:08:52 -0800
From: David Parkinson
Subject: Buried treasures of tomorrow
Hi Spectropoppers:
Like many of you out there, I'm compelled to check out
great lost masterpieces from the past, and I have a soft
spot in my heart for the aesthetic of the glorious
failure (this is meant in the nicest way possible, trust
me). Among these that I have discovered in the last year
or so: Scott Walker's first 4 solo records, Margo Guryan,
Billy Nicholls, Millennium, Badfinger, Sagittarius,
Ballroom, Emitt Rhodes, Free Design ... basically a
litany of great records cruelly ignored by the
record-buying public, or shafted by short-sighted
executives.
Just for fun, and to provide us all with a list of
interesting things to think about listening to, I was
wondering if folks out there had any speculations on the
great rediscoveries of the future; any ideas what albums
>from the recent past are good candidates for critical
and/or popular favour in future, even though they may
have gone nowhere on release? What albums have come out
in, say, the past decade or so, and have really excited
you? Bonus points if your attempts to make friends and
family like these albums have ended in dismal failure.
Here are some of my thoughts on this. These are in no
real order; to some extent I have tried to limit the list
to albums which in some way match the musical theme of
this group, but I have strayed a bit perhaps. Of course,
they are not all completely obscure or critically
reviled; it's more that these are the albums that won all
the Grammys in the alternate universe where the underdogs
are exalted and the wicked are punished (you know, the
universe in which Brian Wilson was elected president in
1984, instead of that other guy from California). Some
will be well-known to many of you; many will be
well-known to some of you; hopefully not all of them will
be well-known to all of you. Mostly these are albums that
I feel should be better-known to people who tend to like
melodic, well-crafted and well-produced music for
contemporary adult listening, whatever the hell that
means.
Velvet Crush -- Teenage Symphonies To God (1994)
Pale Saints -- Comforts Of Madness (1990); In Ribbons (1992)
Stephen Duffy -- Music In Colours (1993)
Lilac Time -- Paradise Circus (1989)
Sloan -- Between The Bridges (1999)
Loud Family -- Plants And Birds And Rocks And Things (1992)
Sixths -- Wasps' Nests (1995)
Yo La Tengo -- Fakebook (1990)
Heidi Berry -- Love (1992)
Pernice Brothers -- Overcome By Happiness (1998)
Cosmic Rough Riders -- Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine (2000)
Green Pajamas -- Strung Behind The Sun (1997)
Helium -- The Magic City (1997)
Aimee Mann -- Whatever (1993); I'm With Stupid (1995)
Mellow -- Another Mellow Winter (1999)
Shack -- HMS Fable (1999)
Trembling Blue Stars -- Broken By Whispers (2000)
Wondermints -- The Wonderful World Of The Wondermints (1996)
(Of course, the *real* candidates for future exhumation
of lost masterpiece are unlikely to have been heard by
*anyone* in this forum...)
I'd be very interested to know what spectropoppers would
have to offer to this discussion. My list above is
pretty much focused on the "indie rock" end of the
musical spectrum; my tastes wander around in many other
directions, some of which are extremely familiar to the
readership of spectropop, and I'm always keen to know
what like-minded people enjoy listening to.
Cheers,
David
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Message: 10
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 15:00:21 +0900
From: LePageWeb
Subject: Free Design 2001
Once again, this is posted at the Spectropop web site,
but for those who are interested the New Free Design
album is released March 6.
Go to
http://www.geocities.com/spectropop/go2/free_design.html
for details, reviews, and most importantly, soundfiles!
Bob Stanley said in Mojo "truly, it sounds like they
haven't aged a day" and after listening to the files I
have to agree the music sounds as fresh and vital as
their other work three decades ago. A must hear for soft
pop fans
Chris Dedrick rules!
All the best,
Jamie
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