________________________________________________________________________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ S P E C T R O P O P ______________ ______________ ______________ ________________________________________________________________________ Stereo has Come of Age ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are 10 messages in this issue of Spectropop. Topics in this Digest Number 241: 1. REPARATA & the DELRONS From: mick patrick 2. Re:GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS From: mick patrick 3. Life's A Beach From: "Martin Roberts" 4. Thanks John From: "Martin Roberts" 5. Castro From: Doc Rock 6. Important NARAS message from Mike Melvoin From: Carol Kaye 7. Re: Studio Musicians From: Carol Kaye 8. MacAuley & MacLeod Release From: Steveronic 9. Ronnie Spector From: Robert Tirado 10. GOIN' BACK: THE SONGS OF GOFFIN AND KING. From: "Donny Hampton" ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 21:24:43 +0100 (BST) From: mick patrick Subject: REPARATA & the DELRONS Greetings, Despite their lack of commercial success, Reparata and her cohorts made some of the very best girl-group tracks around. And Mary "Reparata" Aiese possessed one of the definitive voices of the era. Gawd, her New Yawk whine was second only to Mary of the Shangs! It's a big mistake to judge this group without hearing their RCA sides. "I'M NOBODY'S BABY NOW" is the best of the lot. Here's what Ian Chapman had to say about the track in Philately #4 back in 1984: "Damn shame that Reparata & the Delrons are remembered here in the UK mostly for "Captain Of Your Ship", a damp piece of sea-sickness if ever there was. But if you've ever investigated beyond and before that you'll know that the group was capable of far better things. "Although the Delrons' earlier stuff on World Artists provided some truly wonderful moments, Reparata herself has often said that she felt their best period, material-wise, was their stint at RCA, which ran from late-'65 to mid-'67. I, for one, tend to go along with that, and I'd also venture to suggest that "I'm Nobody's Baby Now" is in turn the jewel in the RCA crown, and therefore, Reparata & the Delrons' finest-ever 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Their Ne Plus Ultra. "The song comes from the pen of a solo Jeff Barry - and if you thought it was always Ellie's touch that provided the magic, you're in for a surprise. This is pure Shangri-Las drama from start to finish, beautifully blended with a Spectorish "Walking In The Rain"-type backing; but most of all, it has that essential ingredient that always goes to make up the best girl-group slowies - bells. As with all the group's records right from the word go, it's produced by Steve and Bill Jerome, and arranged by John Abbott; a team to be reckoned with (check out their Jubilee sides with Renee St Clair and Marie Applebee). Reparata, too, turns in one of her best performances, wringing every drop from the forlorn, love-lost lyrics. She half-sings, half-murmurs at first, as if in a state of bewilderment at being abandoned, her voice gradually building up to the crashing chorus, while the Delrons supply true Ganser Twin back-ups. Then, to top it all, she delivers one of the saddest, most beautiful spoken-parts on vinyl, to the accompaniment of those bells. She sounds almost suicidal! It's all too much for flesh and blood to bear." (Ian Chapman, 1984) Unfortunately, "I'm Nobody's Baby Now" is one of the most difficult Delrons discs to find. I made do with a cracked copy for many years. MICK PATRICK --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 2 Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 22:05:41 +0100 (BST) From: mick patrick Subject: Re:GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS GREETINGS, Jimmy Boy Crescitelli wrote > ...I just got Westside's "Girls Will Be Girls" Volume I... > what fun! A few standouts after repeated listenings: > > Toni Wine, "A Boy Like You." I think it's the CD's primo > cut...what excellence! I love her tough-girl voice, and > those backing singers are excellent... anyone know who; > the Cookies? Hi Jim, Would I lie to you? I told you this was one of the best girl-group CDs around. To my ears, the heavenly voice in the background on the Toni Wine track belongs to none other than our Fairy Godmother, the lovely Ellie Greenwich. Maybe someone out there could contact Toni or Ellie for confirmation. Or you could just take my word for it. > Barry Sisters, "I Must Be Dreaming." The liner notes > cracked me up-- "This pair of raven-haired borscht > belt yentas... " (But too young to be yentas,nu?) This > is a tuneful little number; very catchy, and their > East Flatbush accents come through loud and clear. This song was previously a B-side for Neil Sedaka. What a drag those yentas made so few hip records. Have you ever heard their album of songs from "Fiddler On The Roof". I believe the expression is "Oy, Vey"! (With a surname like mine I'm expected to be fluent in Yiddish argot yet?). By the way, the chicks pictured on the cover of this CD are United Artists girl-group THE REASONS. You do all realise that I'm missing the new series of Absolutely Fabulous, don't you. MICK PATRICK --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 3 Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 23:35:00 +0100 From: "Martin Roberts" Subject: Life's A Beach Hello Keith!, Can't let Keith's sneaky little entry into the World Of Spectropop go unannounced. Like Mick, Ian & Phil he is one of the original P.S.A.S. general all around know it all good guys! A nicer bunch of fellows would be harder to meet, being much younger they were all sort of Phil Spector 'Heros' Keith did a lot of the designing for Philately, That Will Never Happen Again and wrote the occasional piece plus the most detailed Dusty Discography. Those of you who missed out on these mags through age, madness, drugs or all three might have seen Keith's work in Goldmines December 1980 'Wall Of Sound' issue. Good to see Keith has beaten two of the above afflictions and hope to see some interesting mails in the future! Martin --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 4 Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 00:26:00 +0100 From: "Martin Roberts" Subject: Thanks John While still waiting release of The Tammys/Lou Christie CD another one to get! Do you know the titles of the Reparata/Delrons unreleased. Any good? Sure they're good. They're great! A tip! Beside the wonderful Delrons, Maire & Rene's look out for Aldora Britton "Am I Ever Gonna See My Baby Again" Columbia 44375 another fab Real Good/World United Girl Group record. I'll start on boy Jerome stuff later! Martin --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 5 Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 16:02:40 -0400 From: Doc Rock Subject: Castro > Bernadette Castro, "A Girl In Love Forgives." Has achieved > classic status. And the flip, "Get Rid of Him," is twice as good! Doc --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 6 Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 21:59:44 -0700 From: Carol Kaye Subject: Important NARAS message from Mike Melvoin This message was originally forwarded to me by Mike Melvoin, once pres. of NARAS for many many years, and a good friend. It points out the problems with today's major record labels of which I tho't would be of some interest here, Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/ As the article points out, 04 out of the 5 major labels are foreign-owned nowadays, read-on..........from Mike Melvoin: For those who think that somehow NARAS is not relevant in your life or that it's leadership doesn't speak for you, I ask you to consider: who else speaks for you? And how well? Here is Recording Academy Pres./CEO Michael Greene's testimony before the California legislature yesterday. MM Thank you for the opportunity to appear here today to discuss with you the issues surrounding Labor Code 2855, which impacts not only the members of the Recording Academy, but virtually every recording artist. The Recording Academy is a non-profit organization comprised of more than 20,000 rank-and-file music industry professionals, and on behalf of our members, we respectfully request the repeal of subdivision (b) of Labor Code 2855 which excludes recording artists from protection under the seven-year statute. Our members include, among others, artists, songwriters, producers, musicians, and engineers representing such diverse music genres as classical, bluegrass, jazz, polka, rock and rap. While we are perhaps best known for our annual awards ceremony and telecast, the GRAMMY Awards, the Recording Academy also is a staunch advocate for the creative music community on a number of fronts, including music education, archiving and preservation, cultural enrichment * which includes supporting governmental funding for the arts * protection of intellectual property rights and providing human services for the members of the recording community. We are here today to ensure that the California Senate is informed so a conscientious and fair debate will ensue. As you know, California Labor Code 2855 was designed to protect all employees in the state from being tied to personal services contracts for more than seven years; in the case of recording artists, these are typically onerous contracts. The work of this committee and the state senate is to vigorously protect the interests of all of our citizens, including influential artists such as Don Henley, Courtney Love, the Dixie Chicks, and Patti Austin, and let's not forget the preponderance of music people who are not household names. In 1987, the recording industry-engineered exemption to the labor code successfully consolidated contractual power in the hands of five conglomerates, four of which are not controlled by U.S. interests * the Japan-based Sony Music, the Germany-based Bertelsmann, the United Kingdom-based EMI Recorded Music, and the France-based Vivendi, which owns Universal Music Group * all bleeding much of the power away from many U.S. citizens, specifically, recording musicians. It might shock you to know that this oligopoly controls the vast majority of the music industry's market share. Now, more than ever, with the consolidation of not only the record companies, but also the radio industry, the concert business and virtually every other element that affects the artist's life, this exemption is causing undue hardship for the seemingly powerless recording artist, while providing unnecessary protection to those who need it least * the five multi-billion dollar music corporations. Just a brief retrospective. In 1985, the recording labels sought to extend the limit on personal services contracts to 10 years for recording artists, a crusade that rightfully failed. But in 1987, the industry again lobbied state politicians, this time winning an exemption to the code that allowed labels to sue artists who failed to "fulfill" their contracts by not delivering the contractually stated number of albums over the seven-year term. Labels were allowed to claim damages for each undelivered album. The result of this exemption was to effectively lock out recording artists from the protections offered by the code, rendering the code moot on any practical level for only one group of individuals * the music makers. The labels insist that this exemption is necessary to protect them against rogue artists, on whom they spend millions of dollars building and marketing a career, who leave the label before fulfilling their contracts * typically, requiring the delivery of seven albums in seven years. Labels also claim artists fail to meet this obligation because they are negligent, deliberately avoiding the contractual obligation for their own purposes and gain. But let me tell you what real life is like in the artist/label relationship in 2001, where the labels shift executive players faster than artists can update their phone books. As Patti illustrated, the development and nurturing of an artist is a very personal thing. When she signed with Clive Davis, or with Quincy Jones, those were personal relationships. That's the way this relationship should work. But today, the only thing an artist can count on is that everything will change, many times before the ink is dry on the contract. Let's just look at the last 10 years in the life of the last remaining major U.S. record company, the Warner Music Group family of labels, which was once the most stable, artist-friendly label in the business. In 1994, seven years after the implementation of Subdivision (b) of the Labor Code, Steve Ross stepped down as Chairman of Time/Warner and a seismic shift took place in these companies. Label stalwarts Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker * the people who cultivated some of our greatest talent, from Joni Mitchell to Van Morrison, Neil Young to Van Halen * were fired in a highly publicized move many considered the end of the non-corporate record business. Since then, it's been an executive revolving door. If memory serves me right, Bob Morgado became CEO; HBO's Michael Fuchs was brought in to head the music group. Fuchs was gone within months. Morgado hired Atlantic's Doug Morris. He then fired Doug Morris, who now heads Universal Music. Danny Goldberg was hired as President of Warner Bros. He was quickly fired and became president of Mercury Records, and now heads Artemis Records. The Reprise and Warner labels were split, headed then by Howie Klein and Steven Baker, overseen by Russ Thyret. Phil Quartararo was brought in from Virgin to replace Thyret. Roger Ames is now head of the group, coming from Polygram, and about a month ago, Tom Whalley became the new president of Warner Bros, coming over from Interscope, a division of the Universal Music Group. Jeff Ayeroff came in last week as head of creative services; he was previously at Virgin and A&M prior to that. Klein recently stepped down from his post. And on it goes. We don't even have time to go into the changes at the other Warner music labels Elektra and Atlantic. The personal relationship an artist should have with the label as they make music * arguably the most interpretive art form * seems to be over. Obviously, we should end the exemption that keeps them tied to these relationships even the word "relationships" doesn't seem appropriate here! The artists are suffering. The message is clear: If you're an artist today, you better have a way to get out of these contracts if they're not working because you can get lost in a maze of corporate shifts, leveraged buyouts, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and upsizing and downsizing. In closing, let's remember, the odds are totally stacked against the artist. Contracts are grossly one-sided. Virtually every expense is recoupable to the artist * that is, every cost for recording and marketing the record is applied against the artist's royalty before he or she ever sees a penny, most of the time years after a CD is released. In fact, the labels, in their ongoing zeal to wrest every semblance of power from the artist, surreptitiously inserted a work-for-hire clause into the 1976 federal copyright law last year that took away artists' one hope to regain their copyrights via the 35-year reversion. It took many voices before the U.S. Congress in this same kind of hearing to help overturn that incredibly wrong-headed law. Moreover, the labels afford artists no health benefits, no 401k plans, no pensions * it's everyone for his- or herself. This exemption discriminates against the recording artist. While entertainers working in other related fields, such as motion pictures and television, enjoy the protection of labor code 2855, recording artists continue to work under draconian subjugation, and we believe that situation conflicts with their civil rights and the sense of justice for which this body stands. You have the opportunity, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, to help re-balance the power between the individual artists * all hard-working citizens of the state of California * and the monolithic corporations who use their clout and financial standing to ensure the growth of their coffers, no matter at whose expense. We respectfully urge you to take that opportunity by repealing subdivision (b) in Labor Code section 2855. Thank you. --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 7 Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 11:13:31 -0700 From: Carol Kaye Subject: Re: Studio Musicians Chris Montez was wonderful to work for - just saw him recently too, he comes over to my house and we play some jazz guitar things together, good musician...he's out on that road all the time.... I don't know if that's Joe Sample or not on piano, can't remember who he used, could have been Don Randi too, but you might be right about Joe...he did a tremendous amount of fine studio work in LA and is still going with his jazz concerts. Below is a recent post I put on my Forum to talk about the different ways in which studio musicians were hired between pre-rock days and after our group got going in the rock recording dates late 50s, mainly 60s. We all sort of phased out of recording for the various groups, I was the first to quit altogether in late 1969 for 8 mos., wouldn't record for anyone, no films either except for the Academy Awards show….and wouldn't take any calls (when I went back) for any rock group or Motown and certain others after that....just wanted to work the record dates for people I wanted to work for and did a ton of TV film things (Ironside, MASH, Mission Impossible, Haw. 5-O, Kojak, Brady Bunch, etc. see credits on site) as well as all the fun-great movie scores that I had been doing in the 60s too....so essentially, the 70s marked the end of recording for those types of groups for us all, as everyone sort of followed what I did in the 70s, just sleep-deprived and probably burned out. Here's the post FYI, hope this clarifies some things: Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/ Since the motion picture industry had sound 1929-30s, to the 60s rock and roll hot era, there's been a little bit of difference in the way studio musicians functioned. It was motion pictures (I believe) that started the idea of "on-staff", each motion picture company having its "on-staff" orchestra, a certain amount of set musicians hired each time a film was scored with music - I'm sure if you've seen some old old movie (1933 or so) on TV, you've remarked at the huge orchestra that movie had and the musicianship was quite remarkable...that was all from sight reading music they never saw before, you go to the studio and look through your music then you start to record it and you better be accurate ....different conductors and composers/arrangers but normally the same staff musicians on each film. And I've heard some old tape recordings of staff live radio musician orchestras too....I've never heard anyone read so fast so accurately....really amazing musicianship back then....they had acetate masters so there were no "re-takes", you had to get it right on the first take Perry Botkin played an old tape of his Dad for me a few months ago, Perry Botkin Sr. on guitar on one studio orchestra broadcast, think it was CBS, and it was something to hear, his Dad played some great guitar single string (as we called soloing in those days) and chordal improv too as well as read some fantastically hard parts, boom, perfect no matter the fast tempos, first take etc. Musicians for movies and radio broadcasts proved themselves with professionalism, being on-time, not taking more than the proper am't of 5-minute breaks (1 per hour), having a good work ethic and attitude, being able to read all kinds of music -- usually former big band and symphonic musicians were the ones "on-staff". This sort of set-up was adopted in those years by the radio stations too -- it could have started at roughly the same time, but I hear it was the movie studios that started it....and they had constant on-staff radio orchestras in NYC and Chicago also. These same on-staff musicians were called "independent free lancers" when working record dates - as record companies themselves used anybody who worked movie score work, and had no "on-staff" setup....any studio musician was called to work record dates from the 30s on and usually the big-bands (Dorsey, Goodman, Shaw, Ellington, Miller, etc.) themselves had excellent musicians, many of whom later became studio musicians, and didn't need the "on-staff" musicians to do their music for them. This system continued into the 50s but the 60s were different. Rock and roll was started by rock musicians themselves who weren't especially the best of musicians but when they got them in the studios to record for others, (they were not schooled nor experienced enough to play and create music for others) it didn't work, they needed more experienced studio musicians to record and create parts on rock and roll....hence a "new" breed of studio musician came into being.... There were a handful of natural talents like Glen Campbell, Leon Russell etc. too and they made their mark, but didn't last very many years in studio work actually (some went on to be "stars") since they couldn't read well when arrangements became the order of the day in record dates eventually later in the 60s. They couldn't work hardly any movie calls (& TV film) as reading accuracy was essential. The older "on-staff" movie (and now TV) musicians sort of looked down on the new rock and roll music, which used very few chords, and was pretty crude in their opinions and maybe even making music in general "regress" a few spoke out about it, while others didn't care...but the younger new musicians, being very hungry wanted to do it and didn't mind recording rock and roll and in fact, sort of found the "grooves" to it and the creativity....it became fun to most of us for quite awhile. Jazz didn't pay well, and you sure got tired of the road, touring didn't pay that well either back in the 50s-69s, except for the really big bands....still they got tired of traveling etc....so enter the young bunch of musicians who worked everywhere - in every recording studio (us)..... Rock was adopted sometimes into film soundtracks too in the 60s especially (movie studios were suffering with their old weighty and costly studio star system then and TV was competing with movies in the 60s)...and so the old system, which was very stable for decades, the "on-staff" musician system became a lottery....with a new infusion of some younger but capable studio musicians..... but movie studios (which still includes a rare TV show these days) still tend to hire the same musicians, like the old days of being "on-staff" tho' there's literally no "staff musicians" any more with the movie studios....but they trust these same reliable musicians to be there, play great, read great, and even create where need be, and have a terrific professional attitude....very important to movie studios where time is very very costly. Outsiders could be hired, yet they tended to use the same musicians in the movie and the "new" TV music work, like the older system which could be counted on to get the finest musicians who would be on-time, wouldn't be drunks or dopers, etc. but adding a few studio musicians who were recording the new rock and roll (like drummers, some keyboardists, and myself on Fender Bass, movie engineers didn't know what a Fender bass was at first), while the record dates used literally everyone competent/experienced with proper studio gear, and fine creativity they could get a hold of who could play all styles of music and have a good open-mind (attitude) and ability (creativeness) to play the new rock and roll as well as read the necessary other movie cues, some tough reading a lot of the time as well as creating your own rock/funky parts on elec. bass. A studio musician system that carried on to the time of when the synthesizers started taking over....are still dominant in today's studios, both the record and the film studios....the keyboardists have done extremely well, taking over (practically) the TV music for recording (1-man studios everywhere in keyboardists' homes). Guitarists cleaned up in the 60s and 70s but they are not working anymore very much....string players and orchestras occasionally are working on film scores and a few record dates, but the new styles of music (hip hop, synthesized sounds, etc) and technology have dictated less work for the musician overall. Nashville became very big in the beginning of the 80s (a few producers like Jimmy Bowen had a lot to do with that) and put a LOT of musicians to work as new pop-country music sold very well but it too is on the decline from what I hear now too as for hiring studio musicians. I don't know what the answer is... there still is some underground work (non-union unfortunately) to record demos of people's songs. So that's it in a nutshell, the history of studio musicians and the evolvement of studio work. I'm hoping there might be a way to resurrect a popular sound of live musicians (instead of synthesized sounds) for TV shows again, for more movies being scored here in the USA (rather than the run-away movie scores, starting in the late 70s, to Europe, Canada, England, etc.) to provide more work for the excellent studio musicians here in LA, but that remains to be seen. The Federation/Union is trying. By working any non-union date, anyone is insuring that they will never get a pension, never get re-uses, and won't enjoy the benefits of a unified musicians' Federation/Union that everyone worked so hard for early on.....so that's another consideration and something one should think of....you only get what you put into it all, so it's better to do a record date through the Union. Union members are required to do this although' there have some infractions. Anyway, I hope this helps a little bit with public understanding of studio musicians, and their history. --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 8 Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2001 03:50:54 -0000 From: Steveronic Subject: MacAuley & MacLeod Release Coming soon!!!!!!! MacAuley & MacLeod Double CD - Buttercups and Rainbows - The Bubblegum Pop Of ............ >from Pye's vaults featuring Foundations, Flying Machine, Jefferson and many more!!!!!!!!! Release date I heard was the 24th of this month, the day before my birthday! I'll be praying the UK postal service is working full throttle that week! No doubt it'll be the usual superb but over familiar songs and unfortunately there will be little chance of hearing 'The Red Birds', and the wonderfully named 'Almond Marzipan' or even Adam West and his, ahem, mighty 'Batman and Robin' as their records either weren't released on Pye or didn't feature MacLeod as co-writer! Damn! Still I'm hoping it'll include lost 45's from 'Paper Dolls', 'Intentions', 'Tina Tott', etc. Pretty sure it'll be poptabulous !!!!!!!! Hope this info is of interest to some Spectropoppers! Steveronic --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 9 Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 07:04:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Robert Tirado Subject: Ronnie Spector hi just as I was leaving 34th st and 7th ave here in Manhattan, NYC, there I see Ronnie with one of her sons leaving a shoe store...she already knows me so I went over and said Hi Ronnie and she replied hi baby, and we went on our ways..she looks as beautiful as ever and as sweet. I wish her well and success! Robert Tirado --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Message: 10 Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 17:47:49 +0000 From: "Donny Hampton" Subject: GOIN' BACK: THE SONGS OF GOFFIN AND KING. Most of the people on this list probably already know about this CD and have it, but to all those who don't - the most exquisite CD collection I've heard recently is GOIN' BACK: THE SONGS OF GOFFIN AND KING. It was released by UK Sequel a couple of years ago. I recently heard someone badmouth this compilation because it doesn't contain any original versions. Utter bull! Don't let anyone turn you against it before you've listened for yourself. This CD provides all the proof you need that original versions are not necessary to make a good songbook. The British artists represented (and they include The Rockin' Berries, Long John Baldry, Jackie Trent and Petula Clark) honor Carole and Gerry with good-to-excellent interpretations of some of their best-known songs; and some cuts, most notably Glo Macari's remake of "He Knows I Love Him Too Much" are definitive. Merseybeat and Brill Building pop make for a stunning mix, and there are Spectorish production touches throughout. If you buy this release, I guarantee it will become one of the all-time favorites in your music library. I want Sequel to give the songs of Mann and Weil and Barry and Greenwich the same treatment, and I'm actively urging them to do so. Don Charles --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- End
Spectropop text contents & copy; copyright Spectropop unless
stated otherwise.
All rights in and to the contents of these documents, including each element embodied therein, is subject to copyright
protection under international copyright law. Any use, reuse, reproduction and/or adaptation without written permission of the owners is a violation of copyright law and is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.