Stories behind memorable albums of the 1970s as told by the artists

Category: The Vinyl Dialogues Book Page 7 of 16

Adding another wonderful Father’s Day memory, with a soundtrack by Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners

Joe Rock, a young record promoter, was bit out of sorts. His girlfriend, a secretary at a radio station that Joe was promoting, had just dumped him.

A few nights later, Joe got into his car to take a ride, but he couldn’t get the girl out of his mind. Every time he got caught at a stoplight, he’d jot down a song lyric on a notepad he kept in the car.

It was 1958, and Rock had just formed the Skyliners, a doo wop group out of Pittsburgh, whose lead singer was an 18-year-old Jimmy Beaumont. Rock, who managed the group, took the lyrics to the song he wrote in the car to Beaumont, who then wrote the music for it the next night.

When it came time to record the song, an a cappella demo of it was done on a tape recorder. Thinking that the tape recorder … Read more

Hall & Oates: First-hand perspective on how their roles evolved within the band

Seeing Daryl Hall and John Oates headline the inaugural Hoagie Nation Festival in Philly May 27 reminded me of a portion of the last interview I did with Oates. It was about how each of their roles in the band had evolved throughout their careers.

There is a perspective out there – one with which I vehemently disagree – that Oates is some sort of second banana to Hall. There was even a short-lived television show called “Garfunkel and Oates” that is described as being about “two famous rock-and-roll second bananas.” (As an aside, Oates himself played a porn shop clerk in one episode and there was a hilarious off-color running joke on the show that referenced Oates’ famous 1970s mustache.)

In a dozen interviews over the past decade, I’ve talked to Oates about almost everything Hall & Oates and everything solo Oates. He’s what I’d describe as the perfect … Read more

Timothy B. Schmit keeps on tryin’ and Havana crowd head over heels for him

In a conversation with Timothy B. Schmit for an advance story on his solo show May 11 at Havana in New Hope, Pennsylvania, we talked about what it was like to play in different-sized venues.

Schmit, the bassist for Poco and more famously, the Eagles, said he likes playing in all sizes of venues, big and small. But he did point to the obvious difference of the intimacy of a smaller venue as compared to a stadium concert.

“It’s almost easier in some ways to play for thousands and thousands of people than it is to play at a smaller place,” said Schmit. “When I play my show in these smaller places . . . it’s almost like you’re in someone’s living room. It can be a little intimidating. Sometimes people are sitting right at my feet. They’re very close.”

Well, now I know firsthand what’s he talking about. For … Read more

Turning the clock back 40 years: A car, a girl and a song

Among the many cool things I get to do with The Vinyl Dialogues series during interviews with the artists is to hear the inspiration and evolution of some of my favorites songs.

Daryl Hall has shared with me the story of how he wrote “Sara Smile.” Dewey Bunnell of the band America has told me the backstory on “A Horse With No Name.” Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers has explained to me his thought process on the writing of “China Grove.” Elliot Lurie of Looking Glass offered me great detail on the creation of “Brandy.”

But I’ve never gotten to “live” the evolution a song myself. Until now.

J.D Malone is a singer-songwriter who performs often in my area of suburban Philadelphia. I’ve followed his career for a few years now, seen him perform live a number of times and have all his CDs. His songs are well-crafted and … Read more

Dispelling a few longtime rock and roll myths

The 1910 Fruitgum Company opened the Sixties Spectacular show Saturday night in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with the song “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy,” which reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in June 1968. It is considered among the first handful of songs that we now identify as the beginning of “bubblegum pop.”

And for a long time, a lot of people have believed that “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” is a 1910 Fruitgum Company song.

It’s not.

The song was first recorded by the Ohio Express in 1968. The band itself included various studio musicians and was something that was cooked up by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz, executives for Super K Productions, a recording company under the Buddha Records umbrella. Who is the “real” Ohio Express is has been a difficult question to answer over the years because Kasenetz and Katz used “Ohio Express” as sort … Read more

John Hall of Orleans: Still having fun and still the one

There was a moment during the John Hall solo show on Earth Day at the Philadelphia Folksong Society April 22 where I just had to say something.

Hall, co-founder of the band Orleans, former congressman from New York and longtime environmental activist, had gone through his set and was closing the show. He had mixed generous amounts of storytelling into the set, including stories about the songs themselves as well as his experiences on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Of course, he included the big Orleans’ hits that he wrote or co-wrote – “Dance With Me,” which made it to No. 5 on the U.S. Cashbox Top 100 chart and No. 6 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles and Adult Contemporary charts in 1975; and “Still the One,” which got to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles and U.S. Cash Box Top 100 singles charts in … Read more

Exchanging autographs with folk rock royalty Jim Messina

My dad always said, “Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, act like you do. Act like you’ve been there before.”

He also practiced what he preached. One time several years ago he and my mom were at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, during the filming of an Easter Seals telethon that was to feature performances by several country music stars. Seeing a clipboard laying unattended, Dad snapped it up and got into the area where the stars were waiting to perform, pretending to be, well, a guy with a clipboard acting like he had been there before. Before anyone figured out who he was, he had secured the autographs of Conway Twitty, Lee Greenwood, all of the Oak Ridge Boys and a then-unknown Vince Gill.

That lesson came in handy recently at a show by Jim Messina at the Sellersville Theatre 1894. Messina has a pretty good … Read more

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