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psst....
HEY KID ...WANNA MAKE A RECORD? ....sign here... you don't have to read it ...its a "standard" contract |
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I THINK THE VAGRANTS CUT IT BEFORE ARETHA DID?
You can hear Respect over on this page by their photos |
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THE RECORDS TITLE IS ONLY HALF THE STORY.... IF YOU AIN'T GOT THE SONG KID, IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN THE FACT THAT HIS UNCLE WAS PERRY COMO, DIDN'T HELP DENNY BELLINE THAT MUCH EITHER... OTHER |
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THE SMUBBS
They were based out of the Lake Ronkonkoma area and got their name from their surname intials . There were two sets of brothers in the intial group Segall & Braunreuther, along with Utter & Mollinelli |
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Sonny Bottari Started Aesop's Fables Around 1967 From The Ashes Of The Kingsmen. His Fables Were Together With A Variety Of Members For About A Decade
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Pardon The Pun But Sonny & His Guys Went For Baroque On This Version
Which I Believe Was Out Before The One By The Supremes Was ? |
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WHATZ IN A NAME ? DETAILS SMEETAILS THE GROUP SPELLED IT MYNDS EYE AMY was a susidary of Bell Records AMY ARTISTS INCLUDED DEL SHANNON, LEE DORSEY and PAUL SIMON Courtesy of Bruce Gentile |
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THEY WERE ORIGINALLY KNOWN AS THE ELECTRIC PIGEONS ...
The story goes that they stumbled upon their signature sound & first chart record , because organist Marc Stein was slowing down the Supremes record of You Keep Me Hangin' On to learn the changes ? Sounds plausible... My first impression of them upon hearing them at the Action House was, They Out Vagrant, The Vagrants With Their Big Production Numbers |
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RE: THE HOUR OF THE WOLF by THE HASSLES 1968
I WAS THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED.... DON'T YOU THINK, I OUGHT TO KNOW .... Those lyrics were part of the chorus the late great Carl Perkins, sang on his 1985 tune "The Birth Of Rock & Roll". They ring true for me and the events that occured during the swan song UA album of The Hassles and the unfinished one of Mrs. Murphy's Basement. See both were recorded at the same place, Studio 3,in NYC by the same people Tommy Kaye, Stefan Bright & Mallory Earl from about September - November of 1968.
SING US A SONG YOUR THE ORGAN MAN ! The Organ Is My Hammond A-100 model ,( A B-3 In A Home Style Cabinet) The Organist I Think You Know...
DANNY MAZUR WITH THE HASSLES CIRCA 1967 Not seen in this pic is Richie McKenna the guitarist for the Hassles. That's the headstock of his Gibson guitar pointing at Lil John's chin. The photo of which I wish I had the original, was spread across two pages in Newsday. Photos of Danny Mazur are RARE!
Club owner, Danny Mazur, managed both The Hassles and Mrs. Murphy's Basement back then. He actually called me around New Years in 1967, asking me if I wanted to play organ for The Hassles. I took a pass on that and then someone, I think Jon Small? called Billy Joel.... By 1968, Mrs.Murphy's Basement, actually had two Misses in it. Celeste "Phitchie" Rehm replaced Steve Murphy lead guitar and Susan Muchka took Joe Ciampa's place on bass, By August of '68, Mazur had both of his acts scheduled in to record albums. The Hassles were about to start their second record for UA and we were going to do our first. Studio Three was located in an old apartment house just a few doors down from Carnegie Hall. B-3's being wider, I'm pretty sure my Hammond was the only one that could fit up the narrow two flight stairway and once we got it up there,it stayed parked for months while we both slaved away trying to record for producer the late Tommy Kaye, who was so stoned most of the time, he could barely function.
The Hassles at least got to finish theirs, but before they did, they were at each others throats and disbanded. One day I dropped by the studio and Jon Small told me that he and Billy were going to start their own duo called Atilla "SCAT CAT" Here is a cut off that Hassle album that features the organ. Our whole band was there, the night they were cutting this jazzy tune called "Shes A Cat". I distinctly recall they were working on it in a much more laid back groove, that either got totally scrapped, or wound up on the tape cutting room floor.? She's A Cat remains as the only full tune I have, that was recorded with my Hammond A-100 at the front and center. As you can hear though, Billy knew his way around the keyboard . We actually were on our way to the Fillmore East's late show when we stopped in at Studio 3 that night. Al Kooper's Super Session group was making their debut at the Fillmore, with Mike Bloomfield and Mikes' suprise guest who he introduced to NY audiences ...... a Texas guitar slinger named Johnny Winter. ----------------------- We only got to finish 4 sides over those long drawn out months before we said no thanks to Tommy Kaye and left. Our last and most productive sessions there were just us with engineer Mallory Earl. Mallory went on to much bigger things. Just like the Hassles, the studio three "EXPERIENCE" took its toll on us too, and not long after,Phitchie left the band, leaving us as trio with Lou Stevens on Drums, Susan, on bass and me, now doubling again on organ and guitar. Sometimes I even played both on one song, like I did back in our Apple Tree days There is a scene at the end of Paul Simon's movie One Trick Pony, where when everything falls apart, a frustrated Paul goes back to the studio, retrieves his master tape and then tosses it down an alley, with the tape unraveling, it's a scene I certainly can relate to and I'm sure many other musicians can. About a year later Lou Stevens went back to Studio 3 and got our master tape, I don't know what he did with it, Lou is deceased, but it probably has crumbled by now, not that there was anything that great on it. I can say that 'cause I wrote all our songs. The best thing I can say that came out of it all for me during this time was that Susan became Mrs. Susan Joseph in 1969 and we continued working together in music for several more years.... and there were more and bigger live & recorded music adventures still ahead of us.
WEDDING BAND September 1969 |
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LAST BUT NOT LEAST ....FOR NOW
FILE THIS NEXT ONE UNDER THE TITLE OF STUFF YOU CAN'T MAKE UP ! SO I AM WORKING THIS AFTERNOON, JAN 19, 2010 ON PUTTING THIS PAGE TOGETHER AND THE MAIL LADY COMES TO MY DOOR WITH THIS NEXT ONE!!! I HAVE NOT SEEN NOR HEARD IT SINCE 1965 ! Suddenly It's Back To Basics IT IS A GENUINE ALUMINUM ( WITH THIN VINYL COATING) DEMO. THESE DISCS, COMMON IN THE MUSIC BIZ IN THE 50's & 60's WERE TRUE DEMOS, GOOD FOR AROUND 25 PLAYS OR LESS DEPENDING ON THE QUALITY OF THE STYLUS & TONE ARM ------------------------ Presenting For All You Youngsters Out There "LAZY JOE" by THE STRANGERS
IT WAS WRITTEN BY JOE CIAMPA & BILLY VALERIE, TWO MEMBERS OF THE STRANGERS & RECORDED BY THE FOUR OF US (Joe, Billy, Steve & Me) IN A SMALL BASEMENT RECORDING STUDIO IN BLUEPOINT, LI , OWNED BY A GUY NAMED CHARLIE _____?___ A SUFFOLK COUNTY POLICE OFFICER, WHOSE HOBBY WAS RECORDING LOCAL GROUPS. THE CRESTMEN ALSO CUT AN ALBUM THERE, BUT I AM NOT SURE IF THEY EVER RELEASED IT AS I RECALL IT The perfomance & recording. I am sure will be just as Hootie! Stay Tuned ! Jan 20th : WELL I GAVE IT A SPIN, BUT UNFORTUNATELY THE SURFACE NOISE & CRACKS & POPS, TEND TO SEVERLY DISTRACT FROM THE LITTLE AMOUNT OF ORIGINAL SOUND THAT WAS ON THE DISC TO START WITH. IT COULD BE RESTORED SOMEWHAT & EVEN ENHANCED TO A DEGREE, BUT IT MIGHT REALLY BE COST PROHIBITIVE. |
