CLIFF PECKNOLD: December 2007

Saturday, December 29, 2007

THE WAILERS

The Wailers
(from l tor) Kent Morrill, Rich Dangel,Mike Burk, Ron Gardner, and Buck Ormsby
The historical importance of the Wailers is undeniable. They were one of the very first, if not the first, of the American garage bands.The very beginnings of Seattle's grunge rock sound can be directly traced back to the pioneering efforts this of the rock 'n' roll combo.The Wailers are probably directly responsible for the sixties rock explosion in the Northwest. Paul Revere and the Raiders aspired to be as big as the Wailers were; the Kingsmen had a hit with their arrangement of "Louie Louie; the Sonics were groomed by the Wailers and the list goes on and on.
The fifties in the Northwest were an interesting melting pot. Clubs such as The Black and Tan, Birdland, and the Evergreen Ballroom routinely brought black R&B acts to town, and Ray Charles was based in the area. Rockabilly had made its presence known, and Elvis Presley was huge. It was out of this environment that five teenagers from Tacoma, Washington formed the Wailers.
Originally an instrumental band the Wailers had a national hit with "Tall Cool One" (#36, June 1959) while still in high school. They then went to the East Coast for some appearances, including the Alan Freed Show and American Bandstand.
Unhappy with the way they were being handled they returned to Tacoma and formed their own label Etiquette Records. Thus their material was self recorded and self promoted. The Wailers also produced a number of other acts, and Etiquette has left a fine history of some of the Northwest's most gritty recordings.
Gail Harris
Wailers with Rockin' Robin Roberts
The Wailers had several fine vocalists in Rockin' Robin Roberts and Gail Harris who was only 13 years old when she first sang with the Wailers, and eventually became a regular during the early sixties. With Harris and Roberts the Wailers started moving in a far more R&B direction. With Robin Roberts doing the vocals, the Wailers turned an obscure R&B song "Louie Louie" into a 1961 local hit that served as the prototype for the countless subsequent versions of the 60s most popular garage song.
The live album The Wailers At the Castle was the first record featuring The Wailers, Gail Harris and Rockin' Robin Roberts all together. They often toured and recorded with female back-up singers the Marshans, thus emulating and updating the R&B revue/extravaganzas that had been so influential years earlier. Songs such as "Hang Up" and "Out of Our Tree" showed their abilities with mid-sixties "punk rock", but they were certainly as talented in any other musical sub-genre of that magical decade.
Rockin' Robin Roberts died in aa automobileaccident after leaving the Wailers in 1967
It was their hard-nosed R&B/rock fusion that inspired the Sonics and Kingsmen. Though the Wailers anticipated the British Invasion bands with their brash, self-contained sound, their inability to write first-rate original material, as well as their rather outdated sax and organ driven frat rock, that led to their decline in popularity. As the decade progress they did adsorb mild folk-rock and psychedelic music without much success.
Beginning in the late seventies and through the 80's The Wailers joined together for a number of successful reunion concerts. Today a new wave of interest and fans all over the world have enticed the Wailers to once again pick up their instruments and play their rock 'n' roll.

THE SONIC'S

http://www.mp3.com/albums/14893/summary.html Louie ,Louie, and "Have Love will Travel" are Fantastic.

http://theregents.net/mp3/sonics1strycnine.aiff Strycnine

The Sonics
The Sonics whose name it is said was inspired by both the Boeing factories in and around Seattle and the jetlike sound this fivesome produced. A premier garage band with hit after hit on the local charts, the band inexplicably was never able to break out nationally, leaving their sound largely undiluted for mass consumption.
They played classic songs by Little Richard and Chuck Berry, but wrote their own work too. It is by those songs that the Sonics have reached the legendary status they still have. The horror inspired texts, distorted and loud guitar playing and the hysterically screaming vocals make songs such as “(She's a)Witch”, “Boss Hoss”, “Cinderella”, “Psycho” and “Strychnine” true classics.
Andy Parypa, Jerry Roslie, Bob Bennett, Rob Lind, Larry Parypaphoto courtesy Here are the Sonics
The Sonics from Tacoma, Washington were formed in 1963 in the wake of the early 60s success of local favorites the Kingsmen and the Wailers (whose Etiquette label they recorded for). The original members were Gerry Roslie (lead singer and piano/organ), Andy Parypa (bass), Larry Parypa (guitar), Bob Bennett (drums), and Rob Lind (saxophone).
The Sonics combined the classic Northwest-area teen-band raunch with early English band grit (particularly influenced by the Kinks), relentless rhythmic drive, and unabashed '50s-style blues shouting for a combination that still makes their brand of rock and roll perhaps the raunchiest ever captured on wax.
Lead singer Gerry Roslie was no less than a White Little Richard, whose harrowing soul-screams were startling even to the Northwest teen audience, who liked their music powerful and driving with little regard to commercial subtleties.
The Sonics started out playing at St Mary's Parish Hall, then Tacoma's Red Carpet teen dance club, Olympia's Skateland, Evergreen Ballroom, Pearl's and the Spanish Castle Ballroom. It was the Wailers bassist, Buck Ormsby that discovered the band as he was out talent scouting for their label, Etiquette Records.
Unlike what was customary in those days the Sonics used to play as loud as possible. One of the semi-legendary stories going around about their recording sessions tells that the Sonics were only satisfied about the studio sound when all VU-meters were continuously in the red, thus driving the technicians to despair.
"The Witch" became a hit in November after the Sonics had performed at Tacoma's Curtis High School. Andy: "We had just played their homecoming dance and Pat O'Day (the regions biggest DJ) came in the next week to do one of his sockhops and give a few records away. A bunch of kids kept requesting, The Witch so I guess he finally played it and the place went nuts. The next day Pat started playing (the record on the air). The single then became the all-time best-selling local rock single in Northwest history. In fact this radio station (KJR) wouldn't air the tune prior to 3pm. Andy: "O'Day later told me that eventually the song had reached No 1 in sales, but the station policy said it was too far out to chart at No 1. The station only played it after kids got out of schools". Their first album was a masterpiece: rough, aggressive, distorted with sweaty and frantic rock and roll. The songs "(She's a) Witch", "Psycho" and "Strychnine" written by Gerry Roslie were outstanding. For those who are not familiar with the Sonics, the first lines of “Strychnine” give a nice impression of their world: “some people like water / some people like wine / but I like the taste ... / ... of straight Strychnine”Their second album was not that frantic, but still fantastically good - (their "Louie Louie" is really the best version ever recorded!) In 1966 they were the opening act for the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Jay & the Americans, Ray Stevens, Herman's Hermits, the Righteous Brothers, the Kinks, Lovin' Spoonful, Mamas & Papas and the Byrds. They also played together with another garage band, the Liverpool 5 and the female trio, Shangri-Las.
Their third album, which was produced by Jerry Dennon of Jerden Records, was called Introducing The Sonics because it was their first on a major label. This album was later re-released in the late seventies under the title The Sonics' Original Northwest Punk. The last 45 recorded by the original line-up was "Any Way The Wind Blows." After this members departed to go to college or join other bands with Rob Lind being the last original member to leave in 1968. Breaking up in the late '60s, after attempting to water down their style for national attention, the Sonics continue today to be revered by '60s collectors the world over for their unique brand of rock & roll raunch
Gerry Roslie, reformed the band in 1979 with a new line-up to record an LP called Cinderella for Bomp. Rob Lind now lives in LA where he is involved in the film industry. Gerry Roslie still records and writes songs today. Andy Parypa is now teaching.
Even nowadays, more than 30 years later, the Sonics' music can make a crushing impression on someone who hasn't heard anything from them before.

Friday, December 28, 2007

JIMMI HENDRIX

In his brief four-year reign as a superstar, Jimi Hendrix expanded the vocabulary of the electric rock guitar more than anyone before or since. Hendrix was a master at coaxing all manner of unforeseen sonics from his instrument, often with innovative amplification experiments that produced astral-quality feedback and roaring distortion. His frequent hurricane blasts of noise and dazzling showmanship -- he could and would play behind his back and with his teeth and set his guitar on fire -- has sometimes obscured his considerable gifts as a songwriter, singer, and master of a gamut of blues, R&B, and rock styles.
When Hendrix became an international superstar in 1967, it seemed as if he'd dropped out of a Martian spaceship, but in fact he'd served his apprenticeship the long, mundane way in numerous R&B acts on the chitlin circuit. During the early and mid-'60s, he worked with such R&B/soul greats as Little Richard, the Isley Brothers, and King Curtis as a backup guitarist. Occasionally he recorded as a session man (the Isley Brothers' 1964 single "Testify" is the only one of these early tracks that offers even a glimpse of his future genius). But the stars didn't appreciate his show-stealing showmanship, and Hendrix was straight-jacketed by sideman roles that didn't allow him to develop as a soloist. The logical step was for Hendrix to go out on his own, which he did in New York in the mid-'60s, playing with various musicians in local clubs, and joining white blues-rock singer John Hammond, Jr.'s band for a while.
It was in a New York club that Hendrix was spotted by Animals bassist Chas Chandler. The first lineup of the Animals was about to split, and Chandler, looking to move into management, convinced Hendrix to move to London and record as a solo act in England. There a group was built around Jimi, also featuring Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass, that was dubbed the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The trio became stars with astonishing speed in the U.K., where "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze," and "The Wind Cries Mary" all made the Top Ten in the first half of 1967. These tracks were also featured on their debut album, Are You Experienced?, a psychedelic meisterwerk that became a huge hit in the U.S. after Hendrix created a sensation at the Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967.
Are You Experienced? was an astonishing debut, particularly from a young R&B veteran who had rarely sung, and apparently never written his own material, before the Experience formed. What caught most people's attention at first was his virtuosic guitar playing, which employed an arsenal of devices, including wah-wah pedals, buzzing feedback solos, crunching distorted riffs, and lightning, liquid runs up and down the scales. But Hendrix was also a first-rate songwriter, melding cosmic imagery with some surprisingly pop-savvy hooks and tender sentiments. He was also an excellent blues interpreter and passionate, engaging singer (although his gruff, throaty vocal pipes were not nearly as great assets as his instrumental skills). Are You Experienced? was psychedelia at its most eclectic, synthesizing mod pop, soul, R&B, Dylan, and the electric guitar innovations of British pioneers like Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, and Eric Clapton.
Amazingly, Hendrix would only record three fully conceived studio albums in his lifetime. Axis: Bold as Love and the double-LP Electric Ladyland were more diffuse and experimental than Are You Experienced? On Electric Ladyland in particular, Hendrix pioneered the use of the studio itself as a recording instrument, manipulating electronics and devising overdub techniques (with the help of engineer Eddie Kramer in particular) to plot uncharted sonic territory. Not that these albums were perfect, as impressive as they were; the instrumental breaks could meander, and Hendrix's songwriting was occasionally half-baked, never matching the consistency of Are You Experienced? (although he exercised greater creative control over the later albums).
The final two years of Hendrix's life were turbulent ones musically, financially, and personally. He was embroiled in enough complicated management and record company disputes (some dating from ill-advised contracts he'd signed before the Experience formed) to keep the lawyers busy for years. He disbanded the Experience in 1969, forming the Band of Gypsies with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox to pursue funkier directions. He closed Woodstock with a sprawling, shaky set, redeemed by his famous machine-gun interpretation of "The Star Spangled Banner." The rhythm section of Mitchell and Redding were underrated keys to Jimi's best work, and the Band of Gypsies ultimately couldn't measure up to the same standard, although Hendrix did record an erratic live album with them. In early 1970, the Experience re-formed again -- and disbanded again shortly afterward. At the same time, Hendrix felt torn in many directions by various fellow musicians, record-company expectations, and management pressures, all of whom had their own ideas of what Hendrix should be doing. Coming up on two years after Electric Ladyland, a new studio album had yet to appear, although Hendrix was recording constantly during the period.
While outside parties did contribute to bogging down Hendrix's studio work, it also seems likely that Jimi himself was partly responsible for the stalemate, unable to form a permanent lineup of musicians, unable to decide what musical direction to pursue, unable to bring himself to complete another album despite jamming endlessly. A few months into 1970, Mitchell -- Hendrix's most valuable musical collaborator -- came back into the fold, replacing Miles in the drum chair, although Cox stayed in place. It was this trio that toured the world during Hendrix's final months.
It's extremely difficult to separate the facts of Hendrix's life from rumors and speculation. Everyone who knew him well, or claimed to know him well, has different versions of his state of mind in 1970. Critics have variously mused that he was going to go into jazz, that he was going to get deeper into the blues, that he was going to continue doing what he was doing, or that he was too confused to know what he was doing at all. The same confusion holds true for his death: contradictory versions of his final days have been given by his closest acquaintances of the time. He'd been working intermittently on a new album, tentatively titled First Ray of the New Rising Sun, when he died in London on September 18, 1970, from drug-related complications.
Hendrix recorded a massive amount of unreleased studio material during his lifetime. Much of this (as well as entire live concerts) was issued posthumously; several of the live concerts were excellent, but the studio tapes have been the focus of enormous controversy for over 20 years. These initially came out in haphazard drabs and drubs (the first, The Cry of Love, was easily the most outstanding of the lot). In the mid-'70s, producer Alan Douglas took control of these projects, posthumously overdubbing many of Hendrix's tapes with additional parts by studio musicians. In the eyes of many Hendrix fans, this was sacrilege, destroying the integrity of the work of a musician known to exercise meticulous care over the final production of his studio recordings. Even as late as 1995, Douglas was having ex-Knack drummer Bruce Gary record new parts for the typically misbegotten compilation Voodoo Soup. After a lengthy legal dispute, the rights to Hendrix's estate, including all of his recordings, returned to Al Hendrix, the guitarist's father, in July of 1995.
With the help of Jimi's step-sister Janie, Al set up Experience Hendrix to begin to get Jimi's legacy in order. They began by hiring John McDermott and Jimi's original engineer, Eddie Kramer to oversee the remastering process. They were able to find all the original master tapes, which had never been used for previous CD releases, and in April of 1997, Hendrix's first three albums were reissued with drastically improved sound. Accompanying those reissues was a posthumous compilation album (based on Jimi's handwritten track listings) called First Rays of the New Rising Sun, made up of tracks from the Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge and War Heroes.
Later in 1997, another compilation called South Saturn Delta showed up, collecting more tracks from posthumous LPs like Crash Landing, War Heroes, and Rainbow Bridge (without the terrible '70s overdubs), along with a handful of never-before-heard material that Chas Chandler had withheld from Alan Douglas for all those years.
More archival material followed; Radio One was basically expanded to the two-disc BBC Sessions (released in 1998), and 1999 saw the release of the full show from Woodstock as well as additional concert recordings from the Band of Gypsies shows entitled Live at the Fillmore East. 2000 saw the release of the Jimi Hendrix Experience four-disc box set, which compiled remaining tracks from In the West, Crash Landing and Rainbow Bridge along with more rarities and alternates from the Chandler cache.
The family also launched Dagger Records, essentially an authorized bootleg label to supply harcore Hendrix fans with material that would be of limited commercial appeal. Dagger Records has released several live concerts (of shows in Oakland, Ottawa and Clark University in Massachusetts) and a collection of studio jams and demos called Morning Symphony Ideas. ~ Richie Unterberger & Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide