Mailbag

Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Bobby Keys Primer

Hi Bob,

Horns don't often get the respect they deserve in rock/pop/r&b, so many thanks for the nice tribute to Bobby Keys. We in the Uptown Horns -- Crispin Cioe, Arno Hecht, Bob Funk, and Larry Etkin (who replaced original trumpeter Hollywood Paul Litteral) -- toured with the Stones on their Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tours; we first met Bobby in late August, 1989, onstage at Nassau Coliseum, which the Rolling Stones were using a rehearsal room in advance of that tour. We bonded immediately, and for the next year and a half, he became a member of our horn section. . . and we remained friends going forward. Besides doing 115 Stones shows worldwide with Bobby, we did some recording session work during that period where we pulled him on the dates with us, including two songs on Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus, Hal Willner's tribute album to Charles Mingus (Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and longtime Stones backup vocalist Bernard Fowler also performed with us on that album).

Bobby couldn't really read music, but any time we gave him notes to play in a section part, he would lock in with our sound instantly -- always in tune, on time, and with the right attitude. With the Stones, Bobby was like the ultimate garage-band sax player, which made sense to me, because the Stones were, especially in their early days, pretty much invented the form, as the ultimate and original r&b/blues-based garage band par excellence (and for a telling and heavily sourced look at their '60s incarnation, I recommend Paul Trynka's excellent new biography, ). But Bobby Keys was also a solid sender of an all-around ace soloist in his heyday, as evidenced on the records you mentioned, and on big, mainstream pop hits like "When I Need You", by Leo Sayer.

On the road, I constantly badgered Bobby with questions about his growing up in Texas and playing in teenage groups with Buddy Holly, hanging out with rock sax god King Curtis, hard partying with Keith Moon and John Lennon, etc., and he invariably took the time to regale me with stories and inside details that I still treasure. And of course, I probably got into a little trouble here and there with Bobby, including one or two possible naughty bits . . . but I felt like I was walking alongside the real history of rock 'n roll hanging out with Bobby, so somehow it always seemed to make sense -- even when it was a walk on the wild side.

He came up with more funny improvised one-liners and phraseology than any stand-up comedian I've ever known (except for maybe Richard Belzer).
Once we were standing in a hotel lobby in Vienna, Austria, and a journalist walked up to Bobby and asked, "Mr. Keys, what are the Rolling Stones really like?". Without hesitation, Bobby turned to the guy and, in his unmistakable northwest Texas twang, drawled, "Buddy, those are some straight-up,
carte-blanche m*ther-f*ckers!"

We'll miss Bobby Keys.

All the best,
Crispin Cioe

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From: Eric Carmen
Re: Rhinofy-Bobby Keys Primer

Hi Bob,

A quick, funny story re/ Bobby's sax solo on "Brown Sugar."

One night, during the "Boats Against The Current" sessions, I was sitting in my hotel room at The Sunset Marquis with David Wintour, who played all the brilliant bass stuff on that album. We were listening back to some of the takes we had recorded that day, over a small set of stereo speakers, and we heard someone knock on the door. I got up and opened the door, and there was a guy standing there, and he asked what we were listening to. I told him, and asked him who he was, and he said "Jimmy Miller." I thought "Jimmy ('You Can't Always Get What You Want') Miller? And he said "Yeah," so we invited him in.
At some point, a bit later, I thought I might ask him a few questions about some sounds that he recorded that had always intrigued me, so I said something like "Bobby Keys' sax on "Brown Sugar", how did you get that sound? It almost sounded like you put it through an amp, turned up loud, to get that slightly 'distorted' sound." He thought for a minute, and then said "I think we blew the mic up."

And that was that. Brilliant!

Eric

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From: Spencer Davis
Subject: RE: Jack Bruce

Believe it or not, Jack was one of my closest friends.
I was with him right from the beginning,when he played at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester circa 1963.
The band then was the Graham Bond Organisation.
Line-up - Graham Bond, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Ginger Baker and Jack.
I opened for them playing 12 string gtr.and harmonica.
I shared the dungeon-like dressing room with them, but not their heroin!

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From: Dennis Tufano
Subject: Thank You!!!

Bob
As the original voice of the Buckinghams I wanted to...
Thank you for your piece on our recordings. Man, I appreciate your take on our music.
Good recordings of good songs with honest performances. It means a lot.
I find it resonates in audiences the same way. I tour as a solo now, since the mid seventies, two guys from the band reformed the band without Marty Grebb or me but…anyway, just wanted to acknowledge your posting.
It was anything but "Kind Of A Drag" (funny…skating rink reference…I used to call out in concert during solo ALL SKATE!, COUPLES ONLY)

I'm in SOCAL too.
be well.
Dennis Tufano

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From: Carl Giammarese
Subject: The Buckinghams

Bob,

Thank you for that very nice piece on The Buckinghams, very well written and creative, we appreciate it. We are grateful that we still have a great fan base that still wants to hear our music. I along with the other original Buckingham Nick Fortuna will be part of the 2015 Happy Together Tour, so hopefully we'll meet up during the tour.

Once again, thank you and best regards,
Carl Giammarese

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Subject: Amanda Marshall

Hi Bob
Thanks for acknowledging the Amanda Marshall debut album.
I read your dailies daily, and i know the music community at large needs your insights.
When Amanda and I first met, many of the songs that made the final roster were written already. For the life of me I didn't think that a singer in her early twenties would be open to doing some of the songs that I had co-written with Dean McTaggart or Christopher Ward, but to my surprise Amanda listened to songs like Trust Me and Beautiful Goodbye and simply said "I like them". She was fittingly open minded. She had the wisdom to know that she could put her own spin on the songs.
When I played the pre-existing Birmingham just once for her she said "let me try it. I said "ok let me play it a few times so you can learn the melody" and she replied "it's ok I got it". I pressed record but I doubted that anyone could have retained that kind of melody on one listen. I certainly couldn't. Amanda nailed it. It was stunning. In fact her first take contributed portions of the final vocal. The entire album felt like we were all being liberated to express freely without any sense of obligatory compliance to radio format. That's why we all got in to music - to express ourselves.
Thanks again Bob, all the best
David Tyson

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From: Kevin Martin
Subject: Re: When It's Love

Bob, I love you, thank you for this! Van Halen changed my life at the age of 10, made me want to be a singer in a rock band. I loved Dave but I also was the first of my friends to embrace Sammy and the bands new direction.

Eddie and Alex and Michael always pushed the envelope, they made it ok for me to allow pop music into my "rock and roll dreams" and for that I will forever be grateful.

"Why can't this be love?" is and always will be one of my all time favorites, thank you for reminding me how much Van Halen means to me and my career, couldn't imagine a life of music without them in it!!

Sincerely,
Kevin Martin
"Singer"
Candlebox

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From: Russ Titelman
Subject: Re: Raphael Ravenscroft

Stuck In The Middle With You was the last great Leiber and Stoller
production. A truly great record.

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Subject: Re: Ravenscroft...and Steve Marcus

So glad you wrote this post.
That solo represents everything you talk about - it's an iconic moment. Those come by witches brew only.

Take a listen to Steve Marcus' Half a Heart (it's not on spotify):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-kxG4U_1uv0

It appears the progression of things was:
- Rafferty hears the Marcus sax part
- lays it down as a guitar part in the Baker Street demo
- subconsciously (we may assume) says "I've always envisioned this as a sax part"
- Books Ravenscroft and either plays or explains the part to him
- Ravenscroft gets his alto and blows the iconic line

I'm not suggesting it detracts from Raphael's moment. Just another fascinating look at the "actual" convolutions of the creative process, once we pull back the shiny curtain called "the product".

Peace,
Eric Chaikin
Topanga, CA

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From: Eric Chaikin
Subject: Re: Ravenscroft, The Part, ...and Larry Coryell

Re: Ravensroft... I forgot about the Larry Coryell version.

So the sequence of events is:

1) 1968. Steve Marcus records jazz/rock album "Tomorrow Never Knows". All songs are covers, except the Gary Burton original 'Half a Heart'. Marcus plays the Baker Street part on sax. Larry Coryell is in the band.

- Album: http://www.allmusic.com/album/tomorrow-never-knows-mw0000321733
- Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kxG4U_1uv0

2) 1976. Larry Coryell releases "Birdfingers", containing Half a Heart. Plays The Part on guitar. It actually has lyrics if you listen long enough. Really awful.

- Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0uiNIdxufQ Larry Coryell – Half a Heart

3) 1978. Gerry Rafferty writes/records Baker Street, demo with The Part on guitar, sounds a lot like Larry Coryell, but ... BETTER.

- Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bcXRkMs0fs

4). 1978. Rafferty records final Baker Street version, w/ Ravenscroft on sax. Ravenscroft gets his alto sax from the car, and... transcends.

And while the guitar "plumes" make that song as much as the sax part, Ravenscroft's playing is the capstone in the arch.

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From: Gogi Gupta
Subject: Re: It's All About The Data/Lady Gaga

Hey Bob -

Great letter below, I have to correct Scott Cohen's version of events.

There were two guys (Jason Carrasco and myself) in Cambridge, not one guy in Boston. Also, the team at IGA was incredibly diligent about that campaign, they funded it at full throttle for 34 months. Aaron Foreman (now at Sonos), Lee Hammond (still at IGA) and Dyana Kass get a lot of credit for building and building and building instead of hitting cruise.

;-)

Great stuff, keep it up and feel free to name drop (we'd certainly love you for it).

Best,

Gogi Gupta

Founder | Gupta Media

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From: Marty Ross
Subject: Re: Music School

Totally agree. When I was 8 I could play guitar as good as most semi pro players. my parents would bring me out at parties and I loved hearing people applaud a squeaking kid singing and playing Simon And Garfunkel( they were current) ..... I had the ears of the record industry when I was 19 .. But I had nothing to say! I landed a spot on a TV show in my late 20s and was in all the teenie bopper mags. I was on all the Solid Golds and American Bandstands. I had nothing real to add and the 15 minutes was undeserved ... I had nothing to say.... Now after years of getting paid for for mostly pointless TV and Film songs I think I finally have something to say.... but who gives a s**t? I don't! americans want inspiration to be divine, to come from young people and I see it and understand it. I'm an old musician.. And not a 82 year old blues or jazz guy that starts selling units after the skillset has withered with Dave Grohl belching "you should hear this guys first 18 albums!".Gee ..let's
start educating music to our kids and as far as us old timers....hmm... What about a "50 and over only " American Idol on the Hallmark Channel?

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From: Stratis Morfogen
Subject: Re: The Echo Chamber

I'm a big fan! Love your pieces. Actually look fwd to reading each article then I save it or fwd them to other music execs and basically say see I told you so. Lol

I think you should do an article on the ones that are making a killing on YouTube by adapting to the fans and what they want.

Maddi Jane (who we rep at MSOCB.com) w 325 million views and 1.2 mil subscribers generates a deep six figure income since 11 years old and now she's 16. When Maddi released "If this was a movie" cover by Taylor swift and generated 20 mil views - Taylor said in an interview after Maddi Jane had such huge success w my song which I didn't factor in as a single i then released it immediately and it went top 10 in a week.

Matty B - 4 million subscribers w 750 million views at the ripe age of 12 years old makes a strong 7 figures a year and laughs at any label that approaches him and his father / mgr and explains we can do this and that and they don't bother to return the big execs (at the top 3 labels) phone calls because there is nothing they can do for them to justify taking 20-30% of their 360 w what they both generate.

These two kids have got it right and embraced the new economy 3-5 years ago and it's taking now to finally watch the labels take notice to make it work for talented artists that the public so be it 10-15 year olds go crazy for both these kids. Btw together they sold out the Nokia Theater in LA - Gramercy Theater in NYC etc.

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Subject: Re: The Echo Chamber
From: Andre' Cholmondeley

Preach!!!

I have pretty much this conversation almost daily.

Whatever. Yeah everyone wants EVERYTHIONG ELSE to change and get cheaper or FREE or more accessible. They LOVE IT!! Musicians who HATE the once a month on tour they may have to PAY FOR INTERNET...boo hoo!!!

yet they want the 1989 pay structure, the signing bonus, the $18.99 f**king CD, even after we found out they cost the label, what, $0.79 to make..????

Everyone LOVES the free instagram, free gmail, free effects apps, free soundcloud, free facebook, free reverbnation, free Audacity recording, free video editors. Free free free apps on their iPads...thousands of dollars of synthesis stuff, effects, word processing, promo tools, massive file sharing memory FREE!!! etc etc.

Yet... PAY ME LIKE IT'S THE 80s dammit!!! I'm an ARTIST...but I don't actually want the pay scale of a painter or sculptor. Just the honor of thinking I'm Dali or McCartney.

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@jamespoulos - Public doesn't want bad music. So suddenly the price of the old product, via tech filtering out bad music, crashes.


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