kk …
Happy Birthday, Eric Burdon … 5/11/41
Eric's Birthday Reminded Me Of This Story.
FLASHBACK to September, 1964.
I'm At The Paramount Theatre In New York City.
First Animals US Concert.
It’s A WMCA GOOD GUYS Oldies Concert.
Nobody Ever Heard Of The Animals Or The Songs They Were Singing.
They Got Booed ---
Since Then, The Animals Have Become My Favorite British Invasion Group.
Sorry, Beatles Fans
FB
Years ago we did a feature on “Goosebump Songs.” The Animals’ “House Of The Rising Sun” was one for me. I can still remember the very first time I heard it in 1964. I was “all in” when it came to The British Invasion … loved it all to death … but I had never heard ANYTHING like this before. It didn’t sound like all the other pop songs that were playing non-stop on the radio back then.
I didn’t know what it was … but I liked it … and to this day I still won’t turn that song off when it comes on the radio. It wasn’t pop … it wasn’t catchy … but it made you FEEL it … and nearly every version I’ve heard since has been worth a listen … but NONE will ever grab me the way that first listen did back in ’64. (kk)
More from Frank B …
kk …
My Pal Kojak Featured Fred Parris, Lead Singer Of The Five Satins, On His Show.
He Played His Music … "SHADOWS" + "WISHING RING" + "JONES GIRL" + "IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT" + "I"LL BE SEEING YOU" & MORE.
He Interviewed Fred's Widow, Emma. She Told Us How They Met & Dated. Married In 2007.
Pleasant Surprise To Hear My Pal Wild Wayne Talking To Kojak. Both Wayne & Fred Come From Conn. & Were Close Friends.
Wild Wayne Told Us A Story He Got From One Of His Fred Parris Interviews.
Fred Was In The Army & Stationed In Japan. He Didn't Tell Anybody He Was A Member Of The Five Satins.
Some Of The Guys Approached Fred & Asked Him If He Wanted To Join The Singing Group They Were Forming.
Fred Said Yes.
One Of The Guys Says He's Going To Teach Them A Song That's Very Popular Back In The States ---
"IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT." He Proceeds To Teach Fred Parris How To Sing A Song That He Wrote!
Because The Song Was Recorded In The Basement Of St. Bernadettes Church On A Small Tape Recorder, Fred Always Said That The Song Was Blessed & So Was He.
FB
We recently attended the new movie Hey God, It's Me Margaret, which is based on the July Blume book. It is set in the early 1970s and it has a good soundtrack. The very first song that plays over the opening credits is 'Birds Of A Feather' by the Raiders.
Phil
I just checked Amazon to see if there was a soundtrack album available (more so to see what else may have been included) but there’s nothing listed there yet. (Maybe yet to come … or maybe there just won’t be one.)
Googling a bit online I found George Harrison’s “What Is Life” … but not much else … but we DO love those ‘70’s period pieces! (I heard Sirius XM’s 70’s Channel play Dawn’s “Look In My Eyes Pretty Woman” the other day … talk about your Forgotten Hits!!! (kk)
From Goldmine Magazine:
Micky Dolenz details the making of The Monkees’ Headquarters album …
DIS
Steve Winwood’s performance of “Higher Love” at last weekend’s coronation of King Charles was only Winwood’s second live performance in the past four years. (At least he got to do it in style, backed by a full choir and symphony!) kk
And speaking of live performances, Ray Graffia, Jr. sent us these shots taken by John Matuk of The New Colony Six’s recent appearance at The Egyptian Theatre down in DeKalb, IL, for one of their Cornerstones Of Rock shows.
Ray tells us …
Seeing that my college career began at NIU, in DeKalb, I arrived super early and spent much of the day cruising my original college campus, but they tore down the residence hall in which I resided so no picture opportunities … but still a great day.
I finished at Columbia College Chicago since they and their teaching staff were all okay with me missing classes, doing work off campus and turning it in after a tour ended. Graduation ceremony? Nope - opened an oversized package the mailman delivered before I returned from the road - contained my diploma! BA - Communications!
Ray
Hi, Kent!
I may have sent this to you a while back, but this time it's special. 50
years!
On June 8th, 1973, at 10 PM, using a 1958 Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder, I
airchecked Bob Sirott's first show on WLS-AM ("in marvelous mono")
and then trimmed the recording down from 18:11 to about 17 minutes; I first
uploaded it around 20 years ago, but it had to be cut down a bit in order to be
uploaded.
Many years later, I dropped a copy off to Bob (he was at WMAQ). Far as I
know, I'm the only person who recorded the show. I know my recording very
well; every one you find on-line is MINE, having the basic sound value of
my tape machine and the "cuts and pastes" (some of which were kinda
sloppy) are mine. Most other versions on
YouTube have been cut down to about 11:00.
Bob and I graduated from the same HS in the same year, but he was in the
January class and I, in the June. (Hi,
Bob!)
One of the "shortened" versions (11 min) of the aircheck is at:
https://youtu.be/b88wp93e5NI
Mike Wolstein
Sam Ward's redo of Mr Jaws -- no offence -- was better than Dickie's original!
Bob Frable
I thought it was pretty good, too! (kk)
And, speaking of Sam Ward, he chimes in on another topic below …
Hi there Kent,
I, too, have always really been bugged by the long version of Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells, not because it was recorded. No, I don't have a problem with the group experimenting and making a psychedelic version of the song. That doesn't bother me. In fact, it was probably good for them because the long version got played on FM radio stations while the single was played mostly on AM stations, although just to be a bit more cool, some AM stations played the long version.
But what bugs me about the long version of the song is that it was done at a different recording session, and you can easily tell that because they didn't do that section of the song in the same key. You're listening to the song and suddenly you hear the rhythm guitar drop by almost a half step in pitch, and because of that, the edit is painfully obvious.
Of course, in today's world of digital engineering, that problem could be corrected so easily. In the sixties, if you tried to correct the problem, because the tape would have to be sped up, not only would the pitch increase, but the tempo would increase as well. This is one of the wonderful things about digital recording. Pitch and tempo can be manipulated independently of each other. So, you could correct the pitch of that middle section and keep the tempo the same. Then there wouldn't be that nasty edit, or at least the edit wouldn't be nearly as noticeable.
Someone could even go back and fix the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever and, if they have the original take that was used in the later section of the song, they could match the key with the first portion of the song and then John's voice wouldn't sound so slowed down. John never liked the results of George Martin's work, but the two takes of the song were in different keys, but by slowing down the take in the higher key by 5%, he got the keys to match, but at a price which wouldn't have to be now. But getting back to Crimson And Clover, that drop in pitch always really bugged me. Also, I never liked Tommy James singing "Crimson and clover, over and over" being sung through a guitar amp with tremelo on the vocals. I don't know, I just found it rather irritating.
Sam Ward
Hi Kent,
The Grass Roots review was very nice and I’m glad this band is enjoyable. But none of these guys were in the Grass Roots and some of the songs they do (“Don’t Pull Your Love” was Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds) weren’t theirs. Why they don’t do “their own” lesser hits instead of other people’s is beyond me.
It’s like the Guess Who is out there playing and making “new” music. Gary Peterson, the drummer, is original and the other four guys have nothing to with the original Guess Who. Yet they’re out there singing “American Woman” and all the other hits and some people have no clue that these are not the Guess Who! And, if you go on Spotify, it will mention their new album!
I don’t know how these folks can look at themselves in the mirror when they know they’re imposters for people who wrote and performed the originals. Call yourselves a tribute band but don’t use the original name when you were never there. I’m guessing Peterson must own the rights to the name but in the case of the Grass Roots, it must be some management company that does. Throw some folks out there and call them the Grass Roots.
On the other side, it’s nice to see Aerosmith with all original members (less Joey Kramer who isn’t up to it) planning a farewell tour along with the Black Crowes opening!
Jim Culveyhouse
It’s getting tougher and tougher to catch some of the bands we grew up loving and listening to with original members these days. Seems a week doesn’t go by without us having to run another obituary or two … or three.
In a case like The Grass Roots, lead vocalist Rob Grill (who owned the rights to the name) passed away. What do you do when the other key members from the hits years just don’t want anything to do with their legacy anymore? Guitarist Creed Bratton went on to enjoy quite a bit of notoriety as a cast member of “The Office” … and continues to record to this day as a solo artist (with virtually no recognition) … but had no interest in rekindling his past. Warren Entner, the other lead vocalist in the band, who traded off with Grill on many of their biggest hits, also had no interest in revisiting what had gone down before.
Latter day members of The Grass Roots like Dusty Hanvey, Larry Nelson and Joe Dougherty continue to entertain fans today with lead singer Mark Dawson and do a very proud and pleasing tribute to the music The Grass Roots created over the years. (Hanvey, Nelson and Dougherty have all been members of the group for over FORTY YEARS!!! If THAT doesn’t make them bona fide members of the band at this point, I don’t know to say!) They lovingly and faithfully perform the hits the way you want to hear them. (Grill’s wife, who inherited the name when he passed, asked them to please continue to keep this music alive … and I suppose it helps to provide some income to her as well. Dawson was recruited in 2008 and he's been their lead singer ever since.)
As you can see, I’ve mellowed somewhat as to my own feelings about bands calling themselves something without a single original member … when there are no members left (living or interested), what other options are there to keep this music alive? (By the way, as to another point you raised, Rob Grill used to explain that at the band’s peak, they were offered the song “Don’t Pull Your Love” and turned it down because they didn’t think it would be a hit. Boy, were they wrong! It peaked at #4 in Billboard and went all the way to #1 in Cash Box! And actually, I think it really DOES sound like a Grass Roots song when done in their style.)
The fake Guess Who is another story … but at least here you have the option to go out and see Burton Cummings, who wrote and/or sang all of those hits … or some Burton Cumming wannabe, doing his best to sound like the real thing. (That one's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned ... I've still never seen the band that is allowed to perform under The Guess Who's name ... nor do I ever intend to.)
The fact that original Guess Who bassist Jim Kale (now retired) owns the name and allows Peterson to perform using it (as an original member) has been a real sore spot for decades with both Burton and Randy Bachman, the two names most immediately associated with the band. (Together, they wrote the hits “These Eyes,” “Laughing,” “No Time” and “American Woman,” all signature tunes for The Guess Who.)
That being said, we were very fortunate to see the reunited Guess Who perform in 2001 at a time when they were at least still talking to each other. It was a great show … and probably the last time the band performed with all four key members. (Keep in mind that Cummings isn’t really an original member either … but he absolutely DEFINED the group’s sound.)
I’ve even reached the point where under the right circumstances, I might even go see the fake Little River Band again, also performing without a single original member … and we blasted these guys pretty hard a few years ago. But I REALLY like the band’s music … and seeing any pairing of the original members isn't an option ... so if I want to hear their music performed these days … and I want to hear it done well and faithfully performed, this is really the only option out there to do so. In this case, a management company DOES own the name and lets these guys (with not only not a single original member … but also not even a single AUSTRALIAN!) go out and play their tunes. Yeah, deep down it eats at me that these "imposters" are allowed to perform under the name while the real writers and singers of these songs cannot ... but I’ve got to tell you, they do them justice … so I’ve got to give them some props for that. (kk)
Whew! We need to close with a smiler after all of that!!!
So I'm sharing THIS from our buddy Chuck Buell ...
King Charles ~~~
"The Artist Formerly Known as Prince!"
