We learned more about Marshall Lytle last year when he was hospitalized and had to have part of his leg removed. Long-time friend and dee jay Jimmy Jay filed regular reports with us to keep our Forgotten Hits Readers up to date ... and I know that many of you sent Well Wishes along to Marshall while he was still in the hospital.
Lytle also released a brand new book last year, documenting the early days of Rock And Roll. Titled "Still Rockin' Around The Clock", it is available at fine bookstores everywhere (or through online services such as Amazon.com.) He truly is a part of Rock And Roll History.
So when FH Reader Bob Rush ... who just happens to be the U.S. Correspondent for "The Beat", a British publication that specializes in '50's, '60's and '70's Rock And Roll Music, told me that he was interviewing Marshall Lytle for his column in the magazine ... and wanted to know if I might be interested in also running the interview on our Forgotten Hits web page ... naturally I said "YES!!!" ... and that's EXACTLY what we're featuring here today!
So, with Bob's kind permission (many of you know him as "Dr. Robert", columnist for "The U.S. Beat"), here we go!
Kent,
Meet Marshall Lytle. Marshall, meet Kent Kotal.
Marshall is the original bass player of Bill Haley and his Comets.
I have attached the interview that is running in the June issue of THE BEAT (http://www.kingsleyhousepublishers.com/), in my monthly column, "The U.S. Beat with Dr. Robert."
Thanks!
Bob
Greetings from the U.S. Beat! I read the morning paper every day this week. But my neighbor finally came back from vacation.
This month THE US Beat is pleased to be speaking with Marshall Lytle, original bass-player with Bill Haley’s Comets, and his co-author, Michael Jordan Rush. Marshall has a new book with Michael entitled, STILL ROCKIN’ AROUND THE CLOCK.”
Marshall Lytle: I am just fine, Bob. It’s nice to be with you here.
US Beat: Thank you, Marshall. I know The Beat readers are really going to enjoy hearing from you. You guys got together in 1952 as I recall?
ML: Well, I got together with Bill Haley in October / November, 1951. I had just turned 18 years old. Bill was a friend of my family, and used to stop by the house, and so on. I was doing my own radio at WVCH program - 15 minutes a day – at a competitive radio station (Bill Haley also had a show on a rival station) in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was a little 1000 watt radio station, and Bill Haley was on the other station we had in Chester – WPWA. Bill had built up quite a following with his one hour daily lunch hour radio show.
One day Bill walked into WVCH and told me his bass player had just quit and that he wanted me to join his band. I was a guitar player and I said, “Bill, you know I’m not a bass player.” And he said, “Hell, I’ll teach you to play that thing in 30 minutes and I’ll show you how to slap it.” He had an old bass fiddle at his station and we rode out there and he showed me how to do a shuffle beat. I felt good with it so Bill said, “Get yourself a bass fiddle and come to work for me tonight.” So I went down, got a new Epiphone B5 bass fiddle that’s on display today at the Hard Rock Café in Orlando, Florida. I beat the hell out of it. It was on all of the hit records. But it was terrible to travel with. So then it sat in my brother Gene’s attic for 25 years. About 1957 or 58 I quit playing it and got a Fender bass.
USB: when you got together with Bill Haley was that The Saddlemen?
ML: Yes, The Saddle Men. Just 4 or 5 pieces.
USB But it was formed with the intension of being a country band?
ML: Yes, we played country music, we wore the cowboy suits and hats and boots. We did everything but ride a horse.
USB: Was that teenage music of the northeast part of America then?
ML: Well, I wouldn’t call it teen music. It was more adult music. Country and Western was very, very popular before the days of television and Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and all that. C & W got popular right after the second World War because of radio. There was a 50,000 watt station out of Nashville, Tennessee, with a Saturday night show called ‘Grand Ol’ Opry.”
USB: so when did you guys change from the Saddlemen to Bill Haley & the Comets? What was the transition between CW and rock?
ML: Right around ‘51, after I went with Bill, we started experimenting with different sounds with R & Blues music. And it all started at WPWA radio station. There was a white D.J. playing what was then called Race Music. He came to Bill one day and he said, “Hey, Bill,
there’s a record here that’s getting really a lot of requests. It’s really a jump beat sort of number. You ought to listen to it and maybe learn it.” It was called “We’re Gonna Rock this Joint Tonight,” by Jimmy Preston. We started doing it two or three times a night in a bar in Glouster, New Jersey. Bill would say, “All right, all you hillbillies – we’re gonna do some rockin’ now!” and we’d do “Rock This Joint Tonight” and they loved it. And Bill said, “Man, we’re gonna record this.”
USB: So your performances were country western with some rock thrown in?
ML: Yeah. With no drums. It was steel guitar, rhythm guitar, bass and accordion.
USB: So the beat was made by your slapping the strings?
ML: Yes. Actually, do you know what Perfect Pitch is?
USB: Sure.
ML: That’s when you throw a banjo into a dumpster and it hits the accordion. [laughter]
USB: Marshall, do you know what you throw a drowning bass player?
ML: What?
USB: His amp! [laughter]
At this point, Marshall began telling some musician jokes, and of course, I took the bait. A good period of musician joke “cutting” transpired, as:
ML: Do you know how to get a drummer off your porch?
USB: You pay him for the pizza!
ML: yeah! [gagging laughter]
USB: You know how you can tell if the stage is level?
ML: No, how?
USB: The drummer drools out of both sides of his mouth.
ML: Do you know what the accompanist said to the vocalist?
USB: No, what?!
ML: Do you want me to play this too fast, or too slow?
USB / ML: [laughter and snorting]
USB: Do you know what you call a guitarist who broke up with his girlfriend?
ML: No, what?
USB: Homeless! And finally, what do you call 8 accordionists up to their necks in sand?
ML: [still laughing]: No, what?
USB: Not enough sand! But enough gay banter!
[laughter, gagging and some crying sounds] Well, I hate to leave this but, what happened next?
ML: Well, we had a recording session for “Rock This Joint tonight.” It was on a little record company out of South Philadelphia called Essex records. The fella from the record company wanted us to go to Cleveland to promote this record. We took the record to Cleveland and we met with Alan Freed. He liked us and we were a Country band. We were Bill Haley & The Saddle Men at that time. Alan Freed …
Michael Rush: The King of the Moondogs!
ML: The King of the Moondogs! He liked our record and he played it on his radio show. We did an interview with him. He had a switch on the wall that he could turn his microphone on and off at will, and while the record was playing he kept shouting, “Rock and Roll, everybody! Rock and Roll!” He kept yelling it, and the telephone at the radio station rang off the hook. People were calling and saying, “Play that rock and roll record again,” and he played “Rock This Joint” 12 times. And I think that was the night that rock and roll was born.
USB: And when was that?
ML: It was 1952, April or May.
USB: Spring of! Spring of ’52.
ML: And, after that Alan Freed situation, we were playing – Bill liked to play high schools where the kids could hear our music.
USB: How did the teacher like it?
ML: They got some free music and the kids loved it. It was in the assembly hall. After our show at Eddystone [High School, just South of Philadelphia] we were putting the instruments in the car and we were talking to some kids around the car and Bill said, “How’d you kids like our music?” And one kid goes, “It’s crazy, man! Crazy!”
USB: Ah, I hear a song title.
ML: Bill took a pen and wrote “crazy man crazy” on his hand. We went back to Bill’s house and his wife was making lunch for us. I had ridden with him and my car was at his house. So, Bill reached over in the corner and grabbed a guitar. He played a big ol’ chord and he says “crazy man crazy!, crazy man crazy!, crazy man crazy! … man, that music’s gone.” And then I started throwing lines it with him, and he and I wrote “Crazy Man Crazy” within 30 minutes.
USB: Now, let me guess – he ran and copyrighted it.
ML: Yeah. He knew that he and I wrote it and it was just an understood thing. And then when we did the record session … we did this one in New York and it was the first record we used drums on. We hired a drummer that played great. [Billy Gussak, and also guitarist Art Ryerson was used] He had a great feel. And when we first met he said, “Now, Marshall, you and I, let’s go in this corner and play some time together. I just want you to play what you normally play and I’ll play around you. I played my slap beat and he started to play a shuffle but with an accented 2 and 4, “buh-doo-doo-WHAP! buh-doo-doo-WHAP!” and we just created such a damn infectious beat that it became Bill’s trademark. And we used that guy on just about every recording because Bill called him his lucky charm.
USB: Did he travel with you?
ML: No, but we hired a drummer named Dick Richards who traveled with us and stayed with us until about 1955.
MJR: I just want to say that Billboard calls “Crazy Man Crazy” the first rock and roll song ever to hit Billboard’s charts [No less and authority than Joel Whitburn confirms this fact].
USB: Really?! And when was that?
ML: 1953. What did it go to? #21, or … ?
MJR: 12, I think.
ML: Yeah, 12.
USB: I’m surprised that fact isn’t more quoted. It’s so important. I always hear 1955. 1953, huh? [A reliable post-interview internet source check reveals that this is so. And it was also on the Cash Box charts. It is also the first rock and roll record to be performed on National Television. The record is credited to “Bill Haley with The Comets. Further, according to Wikipedia, the writing was first credited to Bill Haley, but it is now known to also be written by Marshall Lytle, who received printed credit when The Comets re-released a live version in 2002.]
ML: Yeah.
MJR: Well, you’ll clear ‘em up on it.
ML: Now back to “Crazy Man Crazy” : the A&R man, Dave Miller, asked Bill Haley who wrote this song. And he said, “Oh, just Bill Haley.” And I was livid. I went to him and I said, “Now Bill – you and I know we wrote that song together.” In those days, Bill was my hero. Whatever Bill wanted to do, I wanted to do, too. So he said, “Oh, Marshall. I want to take credit for this for another reason. But, I’ll take care of you. I’ll put you on another song.” So I sad, “OK, Bill.” But I had in my own mind here – I said, “Now this relationship has to be watched.” I lost a lot of my feelings for Bill at that particular time because I was shut out of something that I would have liked to have credit for.
USB: Sadly, this is a similar story to so many I’ve been told. I think this needs to get out to the public, if it’s the only victory you get out of this ... it's a story that needs to be told. Credit for talent applied, should never be stolen.
ML: Right. That’s my feelings, exactly. And Bill’s ex-wife even acknowledges that I was part of the writing of that song. She was there when we wrote it.
USB: Oh boy. So – are you guys the Comets at this point? And how did you make the name transition
ML: I don’t remember what the label says. I think it says The Saddle Men, but it might be The Comets at this point. The name change came right after we got back from Cleveland. There was a program director at radio station WPA in Chester, named Bob Johnson. (LORD JIM FERGUSON? ACCORDING TO YOUR BOOK ???] I remember because he used to drive a Jaguar. An old 1951 Jaguar. He used to park it around back. I have pictures of it. He came to us one day and said, “You guys don’t look like Saddle Men ... and you don’t sound like ‘em either. You oughta change your name to Haley’s Comets. You know that big ol’ comet that goes across the sky every 75 years? You oughta call yourselves Bill Haley’s Cometa. So Bill asks what we thought of it. I said, “Hell, I think it’s great, not good,” and the other guys agreed. We got rid of the cowboy outfits and went to get matching suits, and we tried to get matching bowties, but the first pictures show us wearing four different bow ties.
USB: So, “Rock This joint” was by The Saddle Men? And “Crazy Man Crazy” was released at Bill Haley’s Comets.
ML: Yes.
USB: Tell me more.
ML: OK. We had been recording using sidemen – drums and a saxophone. And we were playing in a night club and we said, “Hell, we ought to hire a drummer!” We hired Dick Richards at that time and he’s still with The Original Comets. And Joey Ambrose, who was a saxophone player. He was about 16, maybe 17 and he was just learning. But he was good because he had an individualized sound. When you heard Joey play, you knew it was Joey. We used Billy Gussak on drums again for the recording. On “Rock Around the Clock,” they wanted a guitar solo, and then they wanted Joey to play a sax solo. “Rock Around the Clock” was in the key of A. For a saxophone player, that puts him in the key of B. So he couldn’t maneuver around too much in B. So he just started with “Bah-bah-bah! Bah-bah-ba-da-ba-doo!” Then everybody just joined in, and it just gelled. It really hit. It was an ensemble thing that really worked, and it got Joey off the hook from having to play a sax solo by himself in B.
UB: And made musical history!
ML: That’s right! And the guitar solo, by the way, was done by a guy named Danny Cedrone ... he was a studio man ... and he had played the guitar solo on “Rock This Joint,” which is the same solo he used on “Rock Around the Clock.”
USB: Right! And incidentally, as you probably know, an unbelievable solo!
ML: I know. And it was on “Rock Around the Clock” because I had suggested it on there. We recorded that after we had recorded the A side, “13 Women and Only 1 Man in Town.” Milt Gabler owned a piece of the song so he forced it on us.
MJR: And the producer was Milt Gabler, [American comedy star] Billy Crystal’s uncle.
USB: Oh!
ML: We did two takes on it, and one of them had a little problem [the levels were not good in the first take, and the vocals were drowned out] so they spliced the two takes together.
Then Milt Gabler threw us a song called “13 Women” and we didn’t know what it was. It had no arrangement on it, or anything, so it took us 2 ½ hours to get that song completed and in the can. And it sold 80,000,000 records. [it became the B side of “Rock Around the Clock”]. Then Milt Gabler said, “OK, record your rock song.” We had a four hour session that day, and we were on a ferry stuck on a sandbar for an hour (on the way to Decca records in New York to record), then 2 ½ hours to record “13 Women” left us only 35 minutes to record “Rock Around the Clock.” Danny Cidrone was not at the rehearsal where we rehearsed “Rock Around the Clock” in Bill’s basement the night before we left for New York. Bill always wanted a guitar solo on the recordings, so Danny was looking for a solo to play. And because of the clock just ticking away, I said, “Hey, Danny – why don’t you use the solo you used on ‘Rock This Joint?’ “ He said, “Do you think that’ll fit?” And so we tried it and it just worked out! absolutely perfect. And that solo has become world famous with guitar players.
USB: Yes it has. Now, I heard a tragic story about the guitar player – is it true?
ML: Yes. Two weeks after we recorded “Rock …” he got drunk and fell down some very steep steps and broke his neck.
USB: Now what is that rhythmic ticking sound throughout the record? Spoons? Another rhythm instrument?
ML: No, that’s my fingers clicking on the neck of the bass so I get that sound.
MJR: And they mic’d the bass using two microphones in different placements to get that sound recorded like that.
ML: Brian Setzer wondered, too. He said, “Marshall, how did you get that clicking noise? We tried everything!”
MJR: They banged on boxes …
ML: “We banged on boxes, barstools and everything to copy that sound and we never could get it right!” I told him it was just down on the bass.
USB: So did “Rock … ” sell 80,000,000 copies?!
ML: No! It sold about 75,000 records. Then we were in the studio 2 or 3 weeks later and recorded “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” and the other side was “A, B, C Boogie.” The first gold record we got was for “Shake, Rattle and Roll.”
USB: So, “Rock … ” was recorded first, but “Shake…” was successful first. What did it take, the movie?
ML: Yes! In 1955 Glenn Ford was doing a movie with Richard Brooks called “Black Board Jungle.” Glenn’s son Peter was playing “Rock Around the Clock" in his bedroom. He fell in love with Bill Haley’s Comets so he bought “13 Women ... ” and flipped it over to find “Rock Around the Clock.” And so [director] Richard Brooks heard the song and said he wanted it for the movie. He used it in the film three times. They bought the rights for $3,000.00 and they could have bought the damn song outright for that. Who would’ve known it would become such a big hit?!
MJR: Every teenager carried a copy of the book in his back pocket and Richard Brooks had the music cranked loud, the way he had first heard it, in the movie.
USB: Marshall, how old were you in 1955?
ML: 23
USB: OK, you were 23 in 1955. What I’m getting at is, I know this is aimed at teenagers, and I’d imagine there were people your age into rock, but you were in the middle of it all. So, I’m curious to know your perspective on the music world and the cultural teenage world as you were helping to create it. Were you able to see it? Were you able to realize what was going on, or were you just doing your job and it wasn’t an issue to you?
ML: Well, actually, I was just trying to make a living. And you have to understand what the music world was like then. It was Perry Como, Patti Page, and these were the people who were the hit makers. And we listened to them on the radio. When “Rock … ” hit, we were driving on the New York throughway from Cleveland to Boston to do a big teenage show. We were driving in one of Bilateral Haley’s new Cadillacs. It was 10:00 at night and I turned on the radio, and “Rock … ” was the first thing I heard! I said, “Let me see if I can find anymore.” I pushed a button on this new “Sel-ectric” bar they had to see and “Rock ... ” was playing again, and I pushed it a third time and found it again ... and it was playing five times, all at the same time. We said, “Man, what a hit this is,” and we didn’t even know what a big hit it would be.
USB: Did you feel a sense of pride, or did you hear “ka-ching, ka-ching,” as I’m sure Bill did?
ML: Well, I thought, ‘Boy I’d like to be in on the royalty parts’ because the song was selling a lot of records and I was not on the receiving end of the royalties. And that was why Bill Haley’s band split up. Joe and Dick and I made plans to leave right after the height of
“Rock … ”
USB: Is this something that was brewing?
ML: Sure.
USB: So what happened?
ML: See, I was originally promised a junior partnership in the band, but I ended up grouped in as a sideman with the others.
USB: I’m seeing a pattern.
ML: Well, yes. We gave Bill our notice and we trained our replacement guys so we’d leave with a good taste in our mouths. The new guys sat in the audience and watched every move so they could emulate us. But first of all let me tell you how we got back together.
USB: Please.
ML: After years of being apart and out of show business, Dick, our drummer, had an opportunity in 1987 in Philadelphia to get the original Comets back together to do a one-time shot at the Academy of Music. It was promoted by a friend of Dick’s, who was a television producer. Dick Clark was given a star on the street – the Philadelphia Walk of Fame. And they brought in about 50 acts who had started their careers in the Philadelphia area. We hadn’t played together in over 25 years, all the original guys. So they put us up in a nice hotel and they rented a rehearsal hall for us and rented us some nice instruments. So we went in and an hour later the music started to come back. We started sounding like Bill Haley and The Comets. So we did that show and we just did 2 or 3 songs in it, at the beginning of the night. Entertainment Tonight”. (a regularly televised U.S. entertainment news “magazine”). A fan, David Hirschberg out of New York, an attorney there, said, “Boy, you guys are so popular in England. You’ve got some fans over there. If I book you guys a show, would you go do a show over there?”
USB: Now, Marshall, The Comets toured England in 1957, but you, Joe and Dick were gone by then, right?
ML: Yeah, we were gone by then.
USB: So England never really saw the original Comets.
ML: Right.
USB: And I say that because some of my readers may have been there, but they never did see the original Comets until 1987.
ML: That's right.
USB: Marshall, let’s return to your tenure with the band for a moment - where did all of your stage antics come from? Flipping the bass around, throwing it in the air, standing on it, riding it! How did you come up with that? That was brilliant!
ML: In 1953, in May, in the Hofbrau Hotel in Wildwood, New Jersey, we were doing a matinee on a Sunday. Joey, the sax player, got off the stage and started blowing, honking people. [Marshall makes a honking sound, like a baritone goose, to demonstrate]. I thought, “Hell, he’s getting all the attention. I better do something!” So I put the bass over my head and starting playing.
USB: What a story!
ML: Then Joey would come back on the stage and I said, “Here, sit on the bass,” and he sat on the bass and I slid him around on the stage! This was in 1953.
USB: And, you left the band in ’55?
ML: Yes, that’s correct, and the other guys took our place, and we created The Jodimars, from Dick, Joey and Marshall. We had a contract with Capital Records. Two weeks after we left Bill Haley, we released our first record. [for a real treat, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhit6cBDHv4. At about 00:36 sec, Marshall gets funky with a slammin’ bass solo. Then, at about 1:08, the “Bass Antics” begin. Crazy, Marshall, Crazy!] Marshall, as Michael had mentioned to me on the telephone, you are really rock and roll’s first showman!
USB: So you left to form The Jodimars.
ML: And we had a contract from Capital Records with a $5,000.00 advance. And our first gig was at the Palace Theater in New York City and I had what was Judy Garland’s dressing room. And I left the Comets last December because of some ill feelings that cropped up with Joey and Dick. We had a three-way partnership, so the two of them started up against me and started making decisions without consulting me. They wanted to do some songs that were not Bill Haley songs. I always felt that we should play the songs of the guy that brought us to the dance.
USB: Well, that’s why people come to see you.
ML: That’s right. So we did like 20 songs in our show. And I said, “Hell, we gotta do more Bill Haley songs” and they said, “Well, we’re doing 7 now … “. I sad that wasn’t enough. Joey wanted to run things his way. So I thought, being 76 years old, life is just too damn short to live under stress and a lot of ill feelings, so I just said at the end of the year I’ll leave the band. I finished up with them on December 11th in Clearwater, Florida, and I haven’t heard a word from them since.
USB: Isn’t that something.
ML: Yeah. I did leave the door open but they never, ever did want to re-open it. I said there will be promoters who want all three originals and I said I would be willing to work those shows and they said, “Oh, that would be good.” But then, all of a sudden, they shut me out of everything. So, I’m not going to England with them this year and I don’t work with them any more. My lady and I are going to our residence in Branson, Missouri, from our Florida home.
USB: Marshall, with all that’s happened, how do you reconcile it so that you’re happy and comfortable in spite of what occurred.
ML: I guess I kind of said to myself that I have to do what I have to do so that I can do what I want to do.
USB: OK. But you’re not gonna start with The Jodimars again, are you?
ML: [laughter]
USB: So, what’s next for you, Marshall?
ML: I’m doing an acting role. I’m going to film a movie here in Tarpon’s Springs, Florida. A friend of mine, Bertie Higgins, became a motion picture producer. I invested in his last film called “Poker Run.” It’s doing very, very well. Walmart is selling about 2500 DVD’s a week. Bertie said he had a new movie and he said he has a part in it for me. I play a crusty old bartender with an attitude. I can play that! [laughter all around].
USB: And then, next year, when you’re at the Oscars [laughter again] Ryan Seacrest will come up and say to you, “Marshall, who are you wearing?” [and more laughter].
ML: That’s funny! ‘Who are you wearing?’ That’s really funny!
USB: Marshall, Michael - can we discuss your and Michael’s new book?
ML: Yes, I have a book of my memoirs, STILL ROCKIN’ AROUND THE CLOCK (“My Life In Rock’s First Super Group – Bill Haley and The Comets”)
USB: Do you have a lot of stories, anecdotes and pictures?
ML: Sure!
USB: Tell me one.
ML: Well, we were in Elvis’s dressing room and he was demonstrating karate or something, and he asked me to hold his watch. It had an inscription on the back.
USB: What did it say?
ML: It was given to Elvis in 1960 by RCA Victor. It said, “To Elvis Presley – Congratulations on the sale of your 79,000,000 millionth record! RCA Victor.”
USB: Now wait! Didn’t you say “13 Women” sold 80,000,000?
ML: Yes. When “Rock Around the Clock” hit, and “13 Women” was on the flip side, “13 Women” got a free ride! “Rock … ” went to #1 and it stayed #1 for quote some time. And Jimmy Meyers told me, before he died in 2000, that “Rock … ” had sold over 80,000,000 records.
MJR: It’s the biggest selling single by a group in history! It’s in the Guinness Book of World Records.
USB: So now, you guys have this book, and it’s a great book! Where can my readers get a copy of this book?
MJR: On Amazon.com, US.
USB: How about Amazon.com U.K.?
MJR: It’s a little hard to get on U.K. But we’ve had people in Australia get this book on U.S.
ML: And you can look us up with pictures of when I toured England and more, go to TheOriginalComets.com.
USB: Hey! Do you guys want to do something fun? Ask a trivia question for our readers, and then send the winner an autographed book?
ML: What two words were omitted from the legal title of “Rock Around the Clock”?
USB: O.K., gang. You heard the man. Email me at Doc_of_Rock@comcast.net . The first emailer with the correct answer will win a copy of Marshall and Michael’s new book, STILL ROCKIN’ AROUND THE CLOCK, personally autographed by The Man, himself – original Comet’s bassist, Marshall Lytle!
ML: That’s right.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This offer was presented in "The Beat" when Bob's article was first published ... we do NOT have a free copy of the book to give away. And, just in case you're wondering, the COMPLETE title of Bill Haley and the Comets' all-time biggest hit was "(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock". kk)
USB: Thank you, Marshall and thank you, Michael. And thank you, as always, readers of The U.S. Beat!
As a postscript, Marshall gave me computer-to-computer instructions on how to slap a bass as he does. I have an upright bass and I applied his lessons. Now I’m a rockin’ bass slapper, too! (But, I haven’t tried riding my bass, yet.) Thanks, Marshall! So, remember this: if you’re a bass player, you too can learn to slap! And if you’re not? (Come on! Let’s give ‘em a big ‘Fuggeddabowdit!)
USB, ML, MJR: “FUGGEDDABOWDIT!!!”
About the book: STILL ROCKIN’ AROUND THE CLOCK, by Marshall Lytle with Michael Jordon Rush. Marshall is clearly a man who knows his reading audience. This terrific book is actually written in 14 point to make reading extremely easy. I can actually read it comfortably without my glasses. And it’s a great read, with terrific, extremely rare photos. The U.S. Beat gives it 10 out of 10 Beats!
Special thanks again to Bob Rush (Dr. Robert) for his kind permission to run a copy of his interview with Marshall Lytle in Forgotten Hits. (With a special nod to both Marshall Lytle and David O. Parker, publisher of "The Beat", too! Some of you may remember that a few years back, David ran our interview with Peter Noone in his fine publication ... which ultimately caused quite a stir with original Hermits Drummer Barry Whitwam!!! lol) kk
Hello Kent,Marshall Lytle here!
Just wanted to say hello. I am in Branson, Missouri, a small town in the Ozarks In the middle of the US. This town is known as the Live Entertainment Capital of the World with over 50 Theatres and over 100 live shows every day and about 8 million visitors per year.
Thank you for running the interview I did with Bob Rush in "Big Beat Magazine" in your online publication, "Forgotten Hits".
Updates can always be found on the website: www.theoriginalcomets.com
See Ya Later Alligator,
Marshall
