6/12/65 – The Beatles are announced as recipients of The
Member of the Order of the British Empire Medal by Queen Elizabeth.(There is a immediate outrage amongst former
recipients, many of whom return their medals in protest)
Also on 6/12, The Supremes notch their fifth straight #1
Record on the American Charts, the first American Group to do so, as “Back In
My Arms Again” follows “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Come See About
Me” and “Stop! In The Name Of Love” to the top of the charts.
Also on 6/12, Sonny and Cher make their first television
appearance on “American Bandstand”
Sad to say it's the headline you've been expecting to read for nearly fifty years now ... only this time it's actually true
Just nine days shy of his 83rd birthday, Brian Wilson, the genius, heart and soul of The Beach Boys, is gone.
There are certain people that affect your life in ways that no others can ... be it family and friends or mentor and idols ...
It's just a connection that you make on a spiritual level that most others wouldn't understand or be able to relate to unless they've experienced it themselves ... yet even if you've never actually had the chance to meet or bond with this person, the connection is there and the impact is intense and in some way life-changing.
Truth be told, it's a wonder he lived this long ... and I'm not saying anything here that you haven't already thought to yourself many times before ... with all he's gone thru over the years in the way of self abuse and mental and physical challenges, I don't know that anyone really ever expected him to reach the age of 83. Then, after losing his wife this past year and himself going into conservatorship after being diagnosed with dementia, it just felt inevitable that there was no way he was going to be mentally and physically able to face this last round of challenges life threw his way.
Still, the sadness is there.
He gave us SO much over the years in the way of innovative music and vision. He's been called a genius since the '60's and there is no doubt in my mind that there is some element of this in his make-up. He heard things that no one else could hear ... and then he was magically able, with literally no musical training of any kind, to bring these sounds to life so that the rest of us could enjoy them, too. In that respect, he was a visionary ... gifted in ways we cannot even comprehend.
And we are all SO fortunate that he was able to share these visions with the rest of us mere mortals, using the band that he founded ... and then stepped away from in order bring these sounds to life, using them as his voice to be heard by the rest of the world.
It was his brother Dennis that suggested "Why don't you write a song about surfin'?" that launched The Beach Boys in 1962. Taking the harmonies of The Four Freshmen, the rock and roll beat of Chuck Berry and the production techniques developed by his idol Phil Spector, Brian Wilson crafted a sound that was uniquely his own. Thirty Eight National Top 40 Hits followed, including six #1 Hits.
His music will live on forever, long after all of us are gone. Of this, there is no doubt. But perhaps the best news of all is that Brian Wilson is finally at peace. Love And Mercy, Brian. (kk)
Ron Onesti, Frannie Kotal, Brian Wilson, Kent Kotal - backstage at The Arcada Theatre
Now this Father’s Day Thought from our Forgotten Hits
In-Resident Dad Dude, Chuck Buell . . .
This Sunday, June 15th, is
Father’s Day.
And while most every other
publication suggests many items “Great for Dad,” we here at Forgotten Hits
present a Unique Dad’s Day Gift you actually may want to think twice about
before you “pull the trigger.”
Here from the “Straight to Hell”
Toy Company’s “Morally Reprehensible Toy Collection” is the “Phil Spector
Action Figure!”
And, no, I’m not making this up!
Not the name of the toy company; not the figure’s categorization; not the
action figure itself; and not the price. They’re all True!
For just $55, your Dad can be
the first on his block to display this Rare Pop Music Collectible in his own
Home or Office!
If you can say about your Dad, “To
Know Him is to Love Him,”that “He’s
a Rebel,” and “There’s No Other”like him, then maybe this might be the
ideal gift for him!
So, “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah!”
Good Luck!!
CB ( which stands for
In-“Corrigible Boy!” )
I think I'd rather have a Pet Rock!!!
That being said, I guess it would be irresponsible of me NOT to plug our Phil
Spector Series at this point, right? (Yeah, right!)
Anyway, despite what you may think, it really IS an
exhaustive recap of the man’s career as a RECORD PRODUCER (focusing on the
strides he made in THAT department while choosing to ignore, nee disregard entirely),
anything else he may have been involved in.(kk)
Sly Stone (Sylvester Stewart), the innovative leader of Sly
and the Family Stone, has died at the age of 82.His cause of death is given as a prolonged
battle with COPD (lung disease) and other underlying health factors.
The Family Stone was a racially and gender mixed group who
supplied some of the best, unique and inspirational funk of the early ‘70’s.Between 1968 and 1974 they placed a dozen
songs on The National Top 40 Pop Charts including three #1 records:“Everyday People” (1969), “Thank You
Falettinme Be Mice elf Agin (1970) and “Family Affair” (1971.)“Hot Fun In The Summertime” just missed,
peaking at #2 in 1969, while “Dance To The Music,” their first chart hit in
1968 also made The Top Five.
Sly was a controversial character from the beginning … a
recent documentary produced by Questlove (“Sly Lives,” still available “On
Demand’ on Hulu) profiles his erratic career both on and off the stage.Stewart earned a bad reputation for not
showing up to shows, cancelling gigs, inciting riots and generally just being
out of his head due to the tremendous amount of drugs he was taking.A former San Francisco deejay, his band
earned a key spot at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969 which propelled them
to national recognition.If you didn’t
know the music of Sly and the Family Stone before August of 1969, you sure did
afterwards.
So many of his songs qualified as “anthems,” including “I
Want To Take You Higher” and “Stand!” among them, despite lower chart peak
positions.
His biography as well as a profile written by Joel Selvin
are both “must reads” … and we spent last night rewatching the
documentary.Our profile of the riot Sly
caused here in Chicago in 1970 when he was a no show at their scheduled concert
at Grant Park is still talked about some 55 years later.(kk)
Would an appropriate epitaph on
Sly Stone's grave or memorial marker be ~~~
"Thank You (Falettinme Be
Mice Elf Agin)"
CB
What a great artist.
If he had just not gotten hooked
on drugs.
His documentary last year was
phenomenally great. As an early teen when his hits were on the charts, I
never realized how his songs really reached out to try and pull the world
together with his lyrics. He really had his heart and head in the right
place in the beginning.
Before that, a DJ and producer
in LA of Mojo Men, Beau Brummels, and more.
He was REALLY "Everyday
People!"
Clark Besch
High Moon RecordsSly and the Family Stone Live at the Winchester
Cathedral1967 April Record Store Day
In July, 1968, I went to The
Kaleidoscope club in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd with my pal Bob Kushner for a
show featuring Sly & the Family Stone, Canned Heat and the Sons of
Champlin.
We might have initially gone to
The Kaleidoscope in ’68 to watch Canned Heat, who were great, but we were just
amazed by the energy and showmanship Sly and his musicians displayed. From the
revolving stage they hurled tunes at us like audio swords, including “I Can’t
Turn You Loose” and “Are You Ready?”
During 1968, I bumped into Sly
and his entourage at the Shrine Exposition Hall in downtown Los Angeles. It
might have been a Frank Zappa gig. In a brief exchange with Sly, I cited “Dance
to the Music,” which was all over AM radio stations. I pointed out that his horn
arrangement was similar to the chart on Bob & Earl’s “Harlem Shuffle.”
Stone smiled and replied, “Good
ears …”
In May, 2025, check out a
terrific CD release by the vaunted High Moon Records label who just issued Sly
and the Family Stone Live at the Winchester Cathedral 1967. In April it
dropped from the label on Record Store Day on LP. The CD has an extra track.
Triple Grammy-nominated reissue
specialist Alec Palao assembled this album that showcases Sly Stone’s band
prior to their signing to Epic Records in 1967.
Around his late 1964 and 1965
era recording studio endeavors with the Beau Brummels, Bobby Freeman and the
Great Society, with vocalist Grace Slick for Autumn Records, Slyvester Stewart
had a popular radio shift in the Bay Area. He had gone to radio school and then
forged a program format of soul and rock sounds that influenced future
hitmakers.
“Sly Stone was the most popular
DJ among all my friends when he was on KSOL radio,” Emilio Castillo, bandleader
for Tower of Power wrote to me in an email. “He played the best soul music and
had a really great radio personality. We loved him!!! He started playing at a
nightclub called Frenchy’s in Hayward near me and we would sneak in every
weekend because we were underage. They played before and after hours so there
were many sets to listen to and they always put on an exciting show. We stood
to the side and watched closely in absolute awe!!!”
“The Winchester Cathedral tapes
first came to light over two decades ago,” Palo emailed me in February 2025.
“Rich Romanello, the owner of
the club and the Family Stone’s erstwhile manager, had made the recordings
hoping to capture some lightning in a bottle, as the band's cathartic
after-hours performances had quickly become the talk of the San Francisco Peninsula
in early 1967, just a few short weeks after the band was formed. Romanello had
essentially forgotten about them until Sly researchers Edwin & Arno Konings
contacted him in the early 2000s.
“The reels located, Rich brought
them over to my home studio to see if the sound could be resuscitated for a
potential release. The recorded performance was dynamic and undeniably
exciting, but there was an essential flaw in that the vocals seemed to be absent.
Disappointed, we left it at that, but sometime later I went back to the tapes
and, using a different machine to transfer them as well as the careful
application of audio restoration software, I was able to recover enough of the
vocals and create an acceptable presentation.
“Sadly, Rich had passed away in
the interim, but he always advocated for a release of this historic material,
which forms a tangible memento of his stewardship of the band at the very start
of their career. The Winchester recordings are a significant discovery in that
they showcase a one-of-kind outfit that was already at the peak of its powers,
long before it became internationally famous. Even though the set is comprised
of contemporaneous soul covers, Sly is fully in command, while the unique
arrangements and tighter-than-tight ensemble playing point clearly to the road
ahead, and the enduring influence of Sly and The Family Stone’s music (indeed,
the recordings are featured extensively within the new Questlove-helmed
documentary, SLY LIVES!). The deluxe RSD version will be
supplanted by a regular vinyl release, as well as a CD with extra material, in
early summer 2025.”
Sly and the Family
Stone Live at the Winchester Cathedral 1967 houses “I Ain’t Got Nobody,”
“Skate Now,” “Show Me,” “What Is Soul?,” “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” “Baby I Need
Your Loving,” “Pucker Up Buttercup,” “Saint James Infirmary,” and “I Gotta Go
Now (Up On The Floor) / Funky Broadway.” The summer 2025 CD and digital
release has an extra bonus track “Try A Little Tenderness.”
In 1967, Columbia/Epic Records
music executive and talent scout David Kapralik, who brought Barbra Streisand
to the Columbia label, steered Sly and The Family Stone to Epic Records after
seeing them perform at the Winchester Cathedral in Redwood City in Northern
California. Clive Davis was then helming the Epic label and became an advocate
of Stone’s musical vision.
In my 2007 interview with Clive
Davis, he praised the budding musical scene of San Francisco in 1966, and
attended the June 16-18th 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival
where he signed Big Brother & the Holding Company to the
company.
“At Monterey in June, 1967, I
was really just getting my feet wet. I was in the business side of it for a
year. I was working with Andy Williams, the young Barbra Streisand and Bob
Dylan, and signed Donovan to Epic in 1966. I was observing.
“I was seeing the business
change. I was seeing music change, but I was waiting for the A&R staff to
lead into these changes that were showing evidence in becoming important in
music.
“In June, I really came to the
Monterey International Pop Festival not knowing what to expect, but seeing a
revolution before my eyes. I was very aware that contemporary music was
changing.”
Slyvester Stewart emerged from
the creative climate of San Francisco.
“I think San Francisco was full
of all these people who were talented and who were expressing themselves or
their rights or playing music,” explained Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane to
me in a 2010 interview.
“I think San Francisco has a lot
to do with that. I don’t know if it’s the geomagnetic forces of the earth and
the ocean but something went on there. It’s a lot different than the rest of
the world.”
“FM radio was one of the many
things that showed up and was going on in those days,” added Balin’s bandmate
Paul Kantner.
“So many things were going on
you didn’t take that kind of notice of them. You just assumed that was going
on. We didn’t analyze it. We didn’t think to wonder about it. It was just
another thing that was going on along with the music, the clothes, the book
stores, the poets, the artists, there was a plethora of things and you did not
have time basically to take it all in. It existed. It’s part of a whole. In San
Francisco we had no restrictions. All we had to do was roll with it. I liken it
to white water rafting. There was so much going on you didn’t worry about what
was around the next curve. Or what are you going to do on the third curve.
‘Cause you’re right in the river.”
“In 1967 I got a chance to
record on an album for the first time,” reminisced Chris Darrow co-founder of
The Kaleidoscope, who encountered Sly Stone when he was cutting his group’s
debut LP, A Whole New Thing.
“The Kaleidoscope was recording
our first album, Side Trips, on the first eight track recording machines
in America, and in the same studio that Benny Goodman and many of the greats
had recorded before. It was all very new to me and I would sometimes
arrive early to hang out at the CBS Studios on Sunset Blvd., and just roam
around. Moby Grape recorded in the next studio over, sometimes the Byrds,
and Donovan, who I met later, worked there as well. The studio served our
label, Epic, of course Columbia and also Okeh Records, the R&B label headed
by the great, Larry Williams.
“One day on my searching I ran
into an interesting Black man in the hallway. He had the look of the
‘cool’ jazz musician of the day. He could have been a member of the
Modern Jazz Quartet, with Milt Jackson, John Lewis and Percy Heath, the way he
looked. He was friendly, but also dead serious, and carried a slim
briefcase. The man said he was a jazz DJ from San Francisco who was obviously
also a musician,” continued Darrow.
“We walked into one of the
unoccupied recording studios in the building; he sat down at the grand piano,
pulled out some lead sheets and started to play. It was then that I took
my leave. His name was Sylvester Stewart, ‘Sly Stone.’
“By 1969 Sly and the Family
Stone had become a huge act and I was into recording with my new band the
Corvettes and rehearsing at the house of our producer, Mike Nesmith.
Michael was obviously very successful after the Monkees and he had just made a
production deal with Dot Records.
“The house had a number of
rooms, a studio, an indoor/outdoor pool, 13 cars in the large drive, a trained
guard dog and an electric gate. The house was on the top of the hill off
of Mullholand Drive and had a great view. There was always cold Dos XX in
the refrigerator by the pool. One day Nesmith announced that the house
had once belonged to Sly Stone. Full Circle! ‘If You Want Me to
Stay’ is my favorite Sly Stone song.”
Bobby Womack for years was a
neighbor of mine and always available for a local meal and interview.
One afternoon I asked him about
Sly Stone. They had a personal and musical relationship.
Bobby replied, “Me and the
songwriter Jim Ford became brothers and went to each other’s houses all the
time. ‘Harry The Hippie.’ Not just to write but to hang out and eat. I spent a
lot of time with Jimmy but that’s when I knew that drugs was a serious bad
thing for a serious creative person. Jimmy introduced me to Sly Stone. Another
Pisces, like you.
“I was just going through
divorce at the time and Jimmy said we should meet each other. ‘You’re both
Pisces and you all gonna relate.’ But he would always say, ‘never go over there
without me.’ After a while I couldn’t see myself always calling Jim Ford, ‘I’m
goin to Sly’s.’ He may not feel like it that night. So, I’d say ‘I’m going over
there. It can’t be that bad…’ believe me, he had a lot of power, but sometimes
when it becomes power in a negative sense, I don’t care how talented he was.
“Sly was in the hills. But the
thing I understood about him was that Sly was a genius and one of the sweetest
guys in the world but he let the negative side of this business turn him into
another person that he’s not. I noticed it when he was the biggest thing that
came along. Before Earth, Wind & Fire.”
High Moon Records Statement Regarding The Passing of Sly Stone
All
of us at High Moon Records were deeply saddened to learn of the passing
of a true American titan, Sly Stone. There are few who made such an
impactful and lasting change on the fabric of not just black music, but
pop culture in general.
Instrumentally
ambidextrous, musically omnivorous, compositionally ingenious – Sly’s
work reverberated – and continues to reverberate - throughout our
collective consciousness. He brainstormed a band amongst bands, Sly
& The Family Stone, stocked it with the finest local players, and
guided them through an incredible run of iconic chart smashes – 'Dance
To the Music', 'Everyday People', 'Family Affair' - and the essential
albums Stand! and There’s A Riot Going On. Rarely has there been a career both trailblazing and populist to match that of Sly Stone.
Sly was a true artist and a beautiful, one-of-a-kind human being. The world has lost one of the all-time greats.
