It's magic if the music is groovy, it makes you feel happy like an oldtime movie

Happy Valentine's Day!

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The Troggs Tapes is a bootleg recording of the English rock band the Troggs. It was originally recorded in 1970, and consists of band members having an acrimonious argument over the production and recording of a song, with frequent use of profanity. It has become one of the best known spoken word bootleg recordings, and has influenced later work such as This is Spinal Tap.

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By 1970, the Troggs' commercial success was on the wane. The production company Dick James Music offered them studio time in the hope of recording a hit single and revitalising their career. The band were booked into DJM's studios in London, which suffered from having the control room and recording room in separate locations, linked only by a tannoy system and closed circuit television. Because the band had not rehearsed material, the session quickly descended into acrimony, with singer Reg Presley verbally assaulting the other band members' ideas and competence. Drummer Ronnie Bond was unable to copy Presley's idea of a drum pattern, which culminated in Presley exclaiming "frickin' drummer. Oi shite 'em!"

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The argument was captured on tape by an engineer, and made its way onto bootlegs in the early 1970s.

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Listen to The Trogg Tapes (NSFW)

Ronnie: Whether you think so or not, that is a number-fricking one, and if that bastard don't go, then I'll fricking retire! I fricking do!

Dennis: I think it is a good song. I agree, it is a good song.

Ronnie: But it fricking well won't be unless we spend a little bit of fricking thought and imagination to fricking make it a fricking number one. You gotta put a little bit of fricking fairy dust over the bastard, you know…..

Dennis: Oh, we'll put some fairy dust over it. I'll piss over the tape.

Reg: I'm a fairy!

Ronnie: Do you know what I mean? I don't know what it needs then…

Let There Be Drums

Three session drummers I'd never heard of before yesterday

Cesario Gurciullo was born in Siricusa, Sicily in 1924. At some point he came to the US and changed his name to Gary Chester.

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According to The Complete Idiot's Guide To Playing Drums, "When talking about the great studio drummers, Gary Chester deserves a place near the top of the list." His work appears on thousands of tracks, including hundreds of hit records from the '50s, '60s and '70s. He logged over 15,000 studio sessions over three decades.

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Gary Chester plays on:

"Save the Last Dance for Me", The Drifters, 1960
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow", The Shirelles, 1961
"Twist and Shout"", The Isley Brothers, 1962
"My Boyfriend's Back", The Angels, 1963
"On Broadway", The Drifters, 1963
"Remember (Walking in the Sand)", The Shangri-Las, 1964
"Walk On By", Dionne Warwick, 1964
"Brown Eye Girl", Van Morrison, 1967
"Sugar Sugar", The Archies, 1969

I never knew the name of the guy who plays one of my all-time favorite rock and roll drum parts:

Gene Pitney - "It Hurts To Be In Love"

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Buddy Saltzman was also born in 1924.



The Four Seasons - "Dawn (Go Away)"

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Drummer Buddy Saltzman accented the recording with bombastic around the kit fills and ghost notes while never using a cymbal once.

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Buddy Saltzman with Frankie Valli



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But the most curious drummer I've discovered recently has got to be Bob Crowder.



Bob Crowder played on sessions for Howlin' Wolf, Marvin Gaye, and even "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees.

But for me his most intriguing gig was as Pete in the Hardy Boys:



The Hardy Boys was a 1969 Saturday morning cartoon version of the venerable teen sleuths, re-imagined as a touring rock band who travel around in their van solving crimes.

"Oh boy -- here come the Hardys!"





Yes it's the same premise as Scooby Doo, which The Hardy Boys was actually scheduled against. As any history book will tell Scooby won that war, and this version of the Hardy saga was quickly forgotten.

Except by bubblegum cultists. In the Monkees tradition, Bob Crowder was one of those hired to make up the band. Another of the performers, Reed Kailing, would later join The Grass Roots (neither did the cartoon character speaking voices -- those were provided by veteran voice actors).












The Hardy Boys - "Namby Pamby" -- pretty good bubblegum rocker

Oh I almost forgot to mention Bob Crowder's claim to immortality -- Pete on The Hardy Boys was the first black character to be a regular on a cartoon series, predating Valerie from Josie & The Pussycats by a year.

In-depth interview with Bob Crowder

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Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era, 1976–1995 is a four compact disc compilation album of alternative pop music recorded between 1976 and 1995, although most of the recordings are from the 1980s. It was released on Rhino Records in 2005. The title refers to the original Nuggets LP, which was first issued in 1972 and whose music influenced the bands featured on Children of Nuggets.

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Children of Nuggets is the third box set in Rhino's Nuggets series. The first two sets focused on 1960s garage rock and psychedelic music, expanding on the track selection of the original Nuggets LP, which was compiled by Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye and released in 1972.

The tracks on Children of Nuggets were chosen by Alec Palao and Gary Stewart and represent a later period. Palao writes in the liner notes that they were following Kaye's original objective which, he said, was to "compile together the good tracks from all those albums that only have one good track".

The song selection gives particular prominence to the artists that formed Los Angeles' Byrds-influenced Paisley Underground scene in the 1980s, with tracks by Rain Parade, Dream Syndicate, The Three O'Clock, Green on Red, and the Bangles (recording under their earlier name as the Bangs) all featuring.

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This is a great compilation of garage rock and power pop, what I suppose would now be called alternative (or would it be indie?). Anyone looking for some solid rock & roll should check it out. All four discs are currently on YouTube, and last I heard the set was available at the Bluebonnet Library in BR.

Here are a few of my favorite tracks:

The Nashville Ramblers - "The Trains"

The Barracudas - "I Can't Pretend"

The Dukes of Stratosphear (aka XTC) - "Vanishing Girl"

The Bevis Frond - "Lights Are Changing"

The Flamin' Groovies - "I Can't Hide"

Dr. Demento's 20th Anniversary Show (1990)

TV concert special featuring live performances from Weird Al, Tiny Tim, Bobby "Boris" Pickett, and even Benny Bell (of "Shaving Cream" immortality)

The Banana - "There She Goes Again" (1967)

A nice (and very early) Velvet Underground cover, even more notable for the mind-blowing fact that it was recorded by active duty military personnel in a tent in Vietnam.

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With matching banana yellow uniforms, Vietnamese guitars and a bamboo stalk for a mic stand, the guys were in business, playing at servicemen’s clubs in the off time from their rigorous regular schedules as MP’s. Remarkably, and mostly due to their conceptual banana fever, someone got ahold of and gave Dean the first Velvet Underground LP (with the Warhol banana cover, of course) within a month of its release. The band promptly snagged “There She Goes Again” for their repertoire and even recorded it live in the middle of Vietnam about a month later

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In the best sense of American musical spirit and ingenuity, the band threw down pallets, pitched a tent, dragged over a gas-powered generator, hooked everything up and voila! Not only was it recorded, but released (sort of) in the form of ten acetates with individual custom labels crediting “The Banana,” with a copy of the finished product going to all involved.

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Dean Ellis Kohler: Rock 'N' Roll Soldier

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"During a time when none of us knew for sure if we would live or die, I came to know the true power of music."

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If you believe in magic...

Q: What singer-guitarist from Lubbock Texas recorded with The Crickets and later was killed in a plane crash?

A:

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David Box was born to Virginia and Harold Box on August 11, 1943 in Sulphur Springs, Texas. Box's family moved to Lubbock, Texas in 1946. Box was greatly influenced by his father, a self-taught Western Swing fiddle musician and started singing at the age of three, making public appearances at this time. His father taught him to play guitar, and he received one as a present for his eighth birthday. His style was influenced by early performances by Buddy Holly in 1954. In 1958, Box formed his own band, The Ravens, with Box on vocals and guitar, and classmates Lynn Bailey on bass, and Ernie Hall on drums. The band cut their first demos at Mitchell Studio in Lubbock.

As a close neighbor of Jerry Allison's parents, Ernie Hall reported that The Crickets needed a replacement for guitarist and vocalist Sonny Curtis, who had been drafted into the Army. The Ravens sent in their demos and auditioned, eventually winning the role; Box and Hall went to Los Angeles to cut the Crickets' next single. Box and Hall's composition, "Don't Cha Know" was used as the A-side, while a Buddy Holly composition, "Peggy Sue Got Married" was used as the B-side. Box played guitar and sang, Joe B. Mauldin played bass, Ernie Hall played drums on "Don't Cha Know", while Jerry Allison played drums on "Peggy Sue Got Married" and guitar on "Peggy Sue Got Married". This was the final single by the Crickets on Coral Records. For the following three weeks, Box and Hall supported the Crickets on tour before returning home to complete their schooling.

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The Crickets- "Peggy Sue Got Married" (1960) - David Box on lead vocal

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Box died on October 23, 1964, in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk which crashed nose-first and overturned at Houston, Texas. The other three people aboard the plane also died.

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Between Heaven & Earth - a sister's reflections of David Box

Love's Forever Changes May Be the Greatest Album Ever Made in L.A.

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Jeff Weiss
November 8, 2017

If you believe the accounting ledgers, yellowing newspaper praise and surviving band members, Love’s Forever Changes was released exactly 50 years ago this month. But no carbon dating or nostalgic recollection can shake my belief in its agelessness. It’s the rare, unblemished masterpiece worth constant reconsideration, a deathless meditation on mortality, a psychedelic symphony immune to the paisley trappings of the Aquarian age. Despite Forever Changes’ frequent inclusion on all-time-greatest lists, it’s easy to be unfamiliar with arguably the greatest album ever made in Los Angeles, from the city’s emblematic band.

Overshadowed by marquee records from more marketable names, the Elektra release slipped through the cracks as the summer of love failed to successfully merge into the fall. Radio shunned it, both then and now.

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Forever Changes stalled at No. 154 on the Billboard album chart. Its lead single, the Bryan MacLean–penned “Alone Again Or,” couldn’t pierce the Hot 100; to date, its biggest exposure remains its inclusion in Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket. (In the U.K., the album fared better, debuting to critical raves and rising to No. 24.)

Even at the time, Love was the proverbial favorite rock band’s favorite rock band. Robert Plant called Forever Changes one of his all-time favorite albums. Neil Young was an admirer brought in to do the arrangements for “The Daily Planet.” Jimi Hendrix collaborated with frontman and chief songwriter Arthur Lee and undoubtedly swiped some stylistic flourishes. Eric Clapton tapped Lee as an opening act. The Rolling Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow” is just a ripoff of Love’s “She Comes in Colors.”

“You know Ray, if we could be as big as Love, man, my life would be complete,” Ray Manzarek remembers Jim Morrison telling him during the early years of The Doors. “Love was one of the hottest things I ever saw,” Manzarek adds. “The most influential band in L.A. at the time, and we all thought it was just a matter of time before Love conquered America.”

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Love - "Alone Again Or"

Love - "You Set The Scene"