And our 40th Bonus Post!
Glad you guys are enjoying this enough to keep those comments coming.
We've got a brand new batch to share with you today ...
Along with some memories from Jim "Hooke" Pilster of The Cryan' Shames about The Summer Of Love and their big Chicagoland #1 Hit "It Could Be We're In Love" ...
Enjoy!
From Jim Pilster of The Cryan' Shames ...
I could never equal Tom's or
Fairs's recollections ...
as James said, we all remember differently.
as James said, we all remember differently.
I do remember how everything just
seemed to fall into place and we got to keep playing and I had fun and the
people in front of us were having fun.
We don't have a lot of old clips from back then - we were SO early that any pictures you have of us were taken on a Brownie - I don't think I really have ANY film of us from then either - we didn't do a lot of television - it was tough being the first one out of the box - and in this city, we really were the first. We were the first one to sign to a major label - I think The New Colony Six may have had a record or two out before we did, but their dad ran their label.
I didn't really go out and try to join a group - I mean, I didn't really play anything - my voice is not that good - I just always had a lot of enthusiasm - and a friend of mine, Fred Bohlander, who managed The Shames before they were The Shames - The Travelers - he was one grade ahead of me in high school - and we got to be friends and I saw the group play at the high school one time - and I think they might have even had a girl singer at the time - and I liked it and it was fun and Fred was trying to help them and he got them some gigs and somehow he got me up on stage and then my mom and I had a down rod and we made a hook with a screw in it and I started wearing that so that I didn't have to bang my hand on a tambourine and it got to be kind of a little thing - I mean I wasn't really lookin' for this, it just kind of happened, and I never really wanted it - I just wanted to be out there - and movin' - I've gotta keep movin', ya know. Fred ended up owning Monterrey Peninsula Artists, a giant booking agency that at one time handled everyone from Aerosmith to Huey Lewis and Bonnie Raitt ... and he is still working. We dedicated our first album to him.
I really don't remember that much
about it because it just happened so fast - and it was just all so matter of
fact for me - sort of like meeting two beautiful women and marrying them and
getting four holes in one, one-handed.
Shit just
happens.
And even
when we thought we had a big hit, it was really hard feeling like big shit when
you were driving down the East coast in a van and a station wagon on your
promotion tour which, when we played live, we had such a GREAT live show - it
was so different from anything they had seen - other guys would just stand there
and we were all over the place - me and Doody were jumpin' around all over the
place and the other guys would just have to step back - we had such an
energetic, mesmerizing live show that it just carried the band ... it just made
us hard to forget. And then when I started wearing that big hook, that was REALLY weird. At some point, I cut everybody in the group - to where our only rule on stage was "Hooke, don't hurt anybody!" It was REALLY sharp when I first got it, but we honed it down and tried to keep it safe - but along the way I cut me, I cut everybody in the group.
It was hard to feel like you were
hot shit when you were traveling in a van and a station wagon and I remember
when we crossed over the Georgia / Florida line in the middle of the night and
we were going down to Miami for the Columbia convention and we were listening to
WLS and we heard that our song went #1 - that was the most excited I ever got
about charts or anything else - we were just jumping around inside the van - it
was amazing.
Fairs was wrong about one
thing ... I was happy; when we were on stage, making people smile, moving. Everything else
... recording, rehearsing, meetings, management, record label ... were all
bullshit we put up with so we could get up and perform and please the fans ...
and we were awesome in concert with me and Tom jumping around ... and those
Shames harmonies ... the band was tight and everything just seemed to
fit.
I really hated recording - it was really boring and Doody and I would go out and walk around while Fairs worked on getting his special sound for a day and a half. He really was the producer on that album - I don't care what anybody says or what it says on the cover - he produced it. Golden and Monaco were up in the hallways while Fairs got drum sounds for ten hours, bass sounds for eight hours - he produced the whole thing because he knew what he wanted.
We really got control - when we went to the studio in Chicago, we had four-track mono studio, which I didn't like - me and Doody slept underneath the piano while they were doing all the tracks. We would go up and play in Wisconsin, do our show, and then drive down to the studio and then be there all night. And then we'd be driving home and hear the song we were doing in the studio that night on the radio - it was crazy times.
I really hated recording - it was really boring and Doody and I would go out and walk around while Fairs worked on getting his special sound for a day and a half. He really was the producer on that album - I don't care what anybody says or what it says on the cover - he produced it. Golden and Monaco were up in the hallways while Fairs got drum sounds for ten hours, bass sounds for eight hours - he produced the whole thing because he knew what he wanted.
We really got control - when we went to the studio in Chicago, we had four-track mono studio, which I didn't like - me and Doody slept underneath the piano while they were doing all the tracks. We would go up and play in Wisconsin, do our show, and then drive down to the studio and then be there all night. And then we'd be driving home and hear the song we were doing in the studio that night on the radio - it was crazy times.
And when we got the contract with
Columbia, we had to record in a Columbia studio per the contract - and the
Columbia studios in Chicago were terrible - so we either had to go to Nashville
or New York or LA - and management decided that we would go to New York - and we
would just go in there and we'd think, "Oh God, this place is SO great" - and we
would have these LONG sessions, getting everything we wanted - and of course
later we found out it all came off our royalties - so did the studio time - I
think we spent fifteen hours recording the first album and then the next one was
112, I think, with tracks like "It Could Be We're In Love" and "Up On The
Roof". Great sounds - great songs.
And Jim (it's still hard for me to
call him James!) just had such persistence - he knew exactly what he wanted to
hear but we didn't know what he was doing - it was taking a long time, I know
that - but obviously it worked.
We kept The Beatles out of #1 - we
kept The Doors out of #1 - we kept The Monkees out of #1 - but we couldn't keep
Bobbie Gentry out of #1! (Go figure that!)
But hey, four weeks at #1 is a hell
of a run, you know - and Columbia didn't do nothing with it. Wherever we played
live, it went Top 10 - but they would send us on these Goddamn promotion tours
and we'd come into town with just guitars and maybe a tambourine and go to the
radio station and then go to the record hops and then we'd lip sync - go do a
television show and lip sync - it got to be such a joke because Doody would play
bass and I would play guitar - and it was just a joke. And it never made much
difference because we'd come into town and they'd be playing our record and we
just used to joke that we could hear the radio station pull our record -
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzip - right off the turntable as soon as we were leaving and
driving out of town. They just played it while we were
there.
But where we played live, we would
got Top 10. We finally talked them into letting us go out and do some live
shows - and paid for us to do it - and it worked. We got it into the Top 80
nationally, but it was never #1 in any market at the same time. We'd be #1 here
for four weeks - and then we'd be #1 in Cleveland for four weeks - but
AFTERWARDS - never at the same time - they'd never work it right.
We were the first or at least one
of the first and they didn't know what to do with us. Fairs blames it on Moby
Grape but there was more to it than that. We'd go play a town and find out that
the week before or the week after, Moby Grape would be through there. And they
would just be assholes. They would pull up in a cab and open the cab doors and
then just literally roll out of the cab and roll down the street - they were
trying to be really weird - so all the promotion guys really loved them and they
were always a lot of fun. They were partiers and we'd come along and they
wouldn't know quite what to do with us - I mean, let's face it - we were NOT the
average rock band.
First of all, you've got a
one-armed guy in the band with a big hook - and they can sing like angels - but
they're jumping all around and rockin' like crazy - so what are you going to do
with them? I mean Columbia could hardly handle a regular rock
band!
Everybody talks about The Shames'
harmonies but everybody was singing harmonies - our first set, even as The
Travelers, before we started writing our own material, our first shows were
always three sets - one set was The Beatles, one set was The Stones and one set
was The Byrds - and that's a LOT of harmonies, except for The Stones ... but The
Stones rocked. And the guitarists were good, Dave Purple on bass was excellent
and Dennis on drums could carry it as far as it could go - and Doody's voice was
excellent. And at the time, when we first broke, even the radio disc jockeys
kept saying that he was from Liverpool 'cause he always talked in a British
accent - and we'd be on the air, on the radio, and the disc jockey would say "So
what part of Liverpool are you from?" and Doody would pour on this thick,
British accent - and Doody could bullshit anything - so we went with that and
that got a lot of girls all over us - and that's what I went for! That's what I
was in there for!
It was a weird time in music - and
when we signed on with Columbia, I guess there was like a $100,000 signing bonus
(or at least I've heard this since) and the managers got it - and that would be
like a million dollars today, probably more, and we never saw any of
it. But everybody was getting screwed back
then.
Things could have been so much bigger and better than it was with Columbia - but the live shows really carried this band, at least at the beginning. Doody and me jumping around on stage and these guys putting down really good music in the background - and, to be honest with you, the harmonies in the group live were kind of a joke because the PA systems back then were so terrible - SO terrible - we had a sponsorship with Shure - Shure sponsored us with microphones and PA's - and we ended up using their PA as monitors - and if you look on the back of the original "Sugar And Spice" album, you'll see us at the original Arie Crown Theatre at McCormick Place before it burned - we were opening for The Byrds - which we did for like $600 because we loved The Byrds - and we got to meet The Byrds - and we loved them so much we would have done the show for free just to meet them - but if you look at the back cover, we were using Shure columns for guitar amps, which was crazy. PA systems were so bad that people would hear them on the record and then you couldn't really hear them when we played live because everybody played SO loud and the PA systems were SO bad - but even after we had the hit record and it went to #1, we'd still go back and play Dex Card's Wild Gooses and The Green Gorilla, The Purple Penguin or whatever it was - and we'd play wherever we could because there really weren't that many places to play. We didn't play nightclubs until right at the very end - downtown - no big concert venues.
Things could have been so much bigger and better than it was with Columbia - but the live shows really carried this band, at least at the beginning. Doody and me jumping around on stage and these guys putting down really good music in the background - and, to be honest with you, the harmonies in the group live were kind of a joke because the PA systems back then were so terrible - SO terrible - we had a sponsorship with Shure - Shure sponsored us with microphones and PA's - and we ended up using their PA as monitors - and if you look on the back of the original "Sugar And Spice" album, you'll see us at the original Arie Crown Theatre at McCormick Place before it burned - we were opening for The Byrds - which we did for like $600 because we loved The Byrds - and we got to meet The Byrds - and we loved them so much we would have done the show for free just to meet them - but if you look at the back cover, we were using Shure columns for guitar amps, which was crazy. PA systems were so bad that people would hear them on the record and then you couldn't really hear them when we played live because everybody played SO loud and the PA systems were SO bad - but even after we had the hit record and it went to #1, we'd still go back and play Dex Card's Wild Gooses and The Green Gorilla, The Purple Penguin or whatever it was - and we'd play wherever we could because there really weren't that many places to play. We didn't play nightclubs until right at the very end - downtown - no big concert venues.
We played The Auditorium Theater with Procol Harum - and that was great - that was a great show - Procol Harum and Mavis Staples and Rotary Connection - that was a great show - tickets were probably ten bucks.
We were the first ones - the first rock band - to ever play The Aragon Theater - which was the worst place to play ever - We played with The Turtles on Wacker Drive - we did some great shows.
Keeping a group together is like
keeping a marriage with six wives - you just can't do it and please everybody if
all of them have a voice ... and that's what broke up the group originally. If
we were organized to the point that somebody had final say ... you could voice
your opinion, take it under consideration but then ultimately one person had
final say ... we would probably still be together today ... with all the same
guys.
I guess that's what made me
keep the Shames playing for the last four decades. But being the booker,
manager, road manager, advance man, AND performer have kind of taken it's toll.
The band would love to work more ... do more group shows as just The Cryan'
Shames ... but I just don't have the fire in my belly anymore to do
it.
Bottom line is "It Could Be We're In
Love" was a great song and its success allowed us to work more and experience
better gigs. Sure, it should have been a much wider hit ... but you gotta work
with what ya got. I think we have done very well with what we were given. As I
said, I was proud of every single we released, and our stage show was always
unique and energetic. To be able to perform for this long has been a
blessing.
I love the fact that the
Cornerstones shows are drawing some attention to our music again but the truth
is, it'll never be better than it was - I got to live through all the excitement
of The Cryan' Shames the first time and I know we'll never create anything like
that again because it was truly magical. I love the attention Forgotten Hits has
been paying to the band ... but you can't live in the past.
Keep up the great work,
Your friend,
Jim P
Keep up the great work,
Your friend,
Jim P
You can say "don't live in the past," but
you've got to remember that the audience - YOUR audience - LOVES these songs -
grew up on these songs - and we all have very special memories of this time and
this music. When The Cryan' Shames come out as part of The Cornerstones Show
... and only get four songs ... and then waste half of their time by playing
newly worked up arrangements of "First Train To California" and "Sunday Psalm"
and "It Could Be We're In Love," I'm thinking that you're wasting your moment. This is
your chance to SHINE - all of the other groups put forth their very best tracks
and remain faithful to the music and the memories ... that's what this show is
supposed to be all about. My word of advice ... Don't Mess With The Memories
... they're sacred.
In the context of a full blown Cryan'
Shames show, sure, experiment ... play around a little bit ... have some fun and push the envelope here and there to see what works ... but during an all
hits show, stick with the music that got you there ... put "Up On The Roof" and
"I Wanna Meet You" back into the set, and crank out the best four song set
possible. It may not necessarily be what the band (or certain members of the
band) want to do ... but it IS what the fans want to hear.
(kk)
Doody LOVES singing "Up
On The Roof" - and it's a stand-out Cryan' Shames track - and "I Wanna Meet You"
is a James Fairs song so you're right, it would be nice to have these in the set
list - and they used to be - but part of doing these Cornerstones shows is a compromise. When we did
the show up in Waukegan, we did all of these songs - "I Wanna Meet You" and "It
Could Be We're In Love" -- "Up On The Roof" and "Sugar And Spice" and the crowd
went nuts - because we did all the songs they wanted to hear. I can assure you
that if we do solo Cryan' Shames shows, these songs will be back on the list and
performed in the arrangements we originally recorded
them.
JP
It's tough, I know. I asked James Fairs one time why he didn't just do "It Could Be We're In Love" like the record and response was "Because I've already done that."
I get it ... as a musician ... as an artist ... you need to grow ... but within the context of this particular show, THIS is what the fans want to hear ... and The Cryan' Shames should present their best collective effort to make their set stand out with all the others. It's not "playing it safe" ... it's giving the fans what they want and what they came for.
The Cryan' Shames will be appearing (on their own) at The Arcada Family Theatre at Pheasant Run on October 27th - tickets are available now at www.oshows.com. They'll be back at The Arcada Theatre on Saturday, November 25th (Thanksgiving Weekend) as part of The Cornerstones of Rock Show that will also feature The Ides Of March, The Buckinghams, The New Colony Six and The Shadows Of Knight. (kk)
Hi Kent,
Really
enjoy your stories about the Cryan' Shames! I never get tired of seeing them
perform or just listening to their music. I have ALL their albums. What a
variety of music they composed and performed so well! But I had one
question????
What
was the story behind or inspiration for their tune "Dennis Dupree from
Danville"??
When
in doubt ask the master ...
Carolyn
"Dennis Dupree From Danville" comes from
their "A Scratch In The Sky" album. It was one of only two songs on this album
not written by the band so unfortunately I don't know that I can shed much
insight. (For the record, they got the tune from another local Chicagoland band
named Saturday's Children, who were also quite popular in the bars and on the local scene at the
time.)
One of MY personal favorites is
"Cobblestone Road," which I believe could have been a hit single in its own
right. In hindsight, I think this song could almost be their "L.A. Goodbye" ...
a feel-good, countrified track that I would LOVE to hear them perform in concert
again some time. (Maybe at the "Songs And Stories" show at Pheasant Run coming
up this fall???) It's a real departure from their traditional sound (if there
IS such a thing!!!) The Cryan' Shames were able to pull off ANY genre of music
... rockin' pop tracks like "Sugar And Spice" and "I Wanna Meet You" ...
beautiful ballads like "It Could Be We're In Love" and "Up On The Roof" ... and
a bit of the unexpected like "Sunday Psalm," their killer rocker "Greenburg, Glickstein, Charles David Smith And Jones" and the tracks mentioned above. I'm
hoping when they do their own full-length show, they show off a little bit of
this versatility on stage. (kk)
I really like Tom's piece; filled with detail.
James Fairs
I had to push him a little bit but I think he'd
be the first to agree that it came off very well! (kk)
Yes, it's a great piece.
Actually more 'on subject' than my 'ramblings' ... but then I'm a circuitous writer anyway. I have NO idea what Mr. Hooke's memories will be, but I'd guess that he'll remember the way the gigs, crowd and vibe changed. I'm hoping he does, as that would fill out the whole picture. The kids started jamming the venues, just to hear 'that song' (ah, the power of radio).
I remember the cars parked for miles around "The New Place" in Algonquin. There was a smile on everyone's face. So cool. They may have enjoyed the song in a way that we never could. We were more or less like the car-maker, who had to design, work with a budget, make compromises ... the kids got to drive the car, throw some theme music on that fit 'The Summer of Love' ... and take off into the world.
Thanks for running this feature, and all the best,
James
Clark Besch (who wrote the liner notes for all of The Cryan' Shames Sundazed Reissues a few years back) sent in these vintage newspaper clippings announcing Shames appearances all over the area. (How'd you get these living in Lincoln?!?!?) Cool stuff to be sure. (kk)
Yes, it's a great piece.
Actually more 'on subject' than my 'ramblings' ... but then I'm a circuitous writer anyway. I have NO idea what Mr. Hooke's memories will be, but I'd guess that he'll remember the way the gigs, crowd and vibe changed. I'm hoping he does, as that would fill out the whole picture. The kids started jamming the venues, just to hear 'that song' (ah, the power of radio).
I remember the cars parked for miles around "The New Place" in Algonquin. There was a smile on everyone's face. So cool. They may have enjoyed the song in a way that we never could. We were more or less like the car-maker, who had to design, work with a budget, make compromises ... the kids got to drive the car, throw some theme music on that fit 'The Summer of Love' ... and take off into the world.
Thanks for running this feature, and all the best,
James
Clark Besch (who wrote the liner notes for all of The Cryan' Shames Sundazed Reissues a few years back) sent in these vintage newspaper clippings announcing Shames appearances all over the area. (How'd you get these living in Lincoln?!?!?) Cool stuff to be sure. (kk)
Thanks all for the great comments
and to Kent for the stage for all of this.
One thing I want to mention is how
amazing it has been with all the CD reissues. First, the 1991 comp "A
Collection" with new first time stereo and hearing a small bit of studio talk on
"Mr. Unreliable" as well. I can remember Bob Irwin at Sony / Sundazed
calling me one night and saying, "Hey Clark, listen to this and see if I got it
right." It was the middle break of "It Could be We're In Love" and he was
trying to get the echo right without the chatter in it. It sounded great OVER
THE PHONE!
Later, he sent me a cassette dub of
the planned release and I featured "Mr. Unreliable" IN STEREO on my radio show
that next week as an exclusive. Of course, being on a Lincoln, Nebraska,
station had its drawbacks for excitement from listeners. Haha. As you can
imagine, that did NOT matter to me! For some reason, Bob had "July" in mono, so
I called him and told him that it should be available in stereo and that was
changed for the CD. I asked if we could possibly get the ending of "Ben
Franklin" to instantly jump into the first notes of "I Wanna Meet You" and I
think he accomplished it. Also, getting some cold endings on songs from
"Synthesis" was great to accomplish. Getting to write the liner notes was a
dream come true and I was very self conscious about doing something like that
for my all-time fave band, when I knew none of you. They DID edit them a bit,
but the main goal was accomplished. In 1996, when I got the chance to see you
in Iowa, I was thrilled to go backstage and chat while watching the NC6
onstage. I was happy that the band approved. Sadly, my notes were so long that
the pics I sent in went unused.
Later on, Bob called me and asked
me if I had the 45 of "Your Love." I was blown away. WHAAAT??? What are you
talking about? There was NO 45 of "Your Love." He said, "Well there was a
catalog number for it issued: 4-44839." I said it must have
never been released. Thus, we KNEW it was planned as a single, but Columbia
shelved it, possibly after "First Train" and "Synthesis" did not live up to the
label's expected sales(?) The catalog number issued would have put a release of
about April, 1969, as a followup to "First Train." Sad that it did not workout
to issue it. The 45 DOES exist in one way.
Back before there was internet for
most of us, I cut and pasted a 1997 30th anniversary Cryan' Shames calendar
together. I sent about 30 of these by mail to Shames fans / friends. I hope
some of you got these. Anyway, attached are a few pages of my cut and paste
example of 20 years ago's efforts. I sent the front cover of the wall hanging
calendar and as you put on the wall there is a top page filled with Shames
memorabilia, different for each corresponding month. On the bottom page would
be a stock calendar month but inserted for each week would be things that
happened THAT week in Chicago 60's band music history. It was kind of a
"Forgotten Hits before FH!" Anyway, if you look close, you will see that I cut
and pasted together what the actual 45 of "Your Love" would look like down to
every detail.
Then, there were the individual
album CD reissues with bonus tracks a decade later in 2003! Amazing enough to
get these released AND again Bob let me do the notes! Plus, they used many of
the photos I had submitted for "A Collection" a decade earlier. Altho I was not
happy that they used songs that did not fit the era as bonus tracks,
sometimes, Bob told me they had to do that in order to get the right number of
total tracks even for each CD. HEY, that worked for me!!
Getting the 45 only mixes of some
songs was great as well. He said the only unreleased thing they found was a
version of "It Don't Matter To Me" that he did not feel lived up to the
standards, if I remember correctly. That is the Bread song and would have been
recorded well before Bread's 45 hit with it later on in September, 1970. The
song was first on their debut album around the time of the Shames' "Rainmaker,"
but that LP failed. Bread's 45 came a year later after "Make It With You" on
their second album was a hit. It was much like 1969's debut 45 "Questions 67
& 68" became a 1971 hit AFTER "Make Me Smile" put Chicago on the charts high
in 1970. Speaking of which, did you know that Nilsson's "Rainmaker" was an A
side single in late '68 and the B side of his "Everybody's Talkin'" breakthrough
hit in 69? Did I miss something? WHERE was the Shames' breakthrough single?
HOW I wish it woulda happened with ANY of those great 45s.
Fast forward from 2003 to a year
ago and I was again working on the "Scratch In The Sky" MONO reissues. Not with
liners, but with pics and such. How amazing to make a fuss over the red albums
every decade!!! I liked the mono versions, of which I have DJ copies of most,
but did not see a reissue coming for them. That said, I thought the original
STEREO mixes were just great. I would ask, did you guys try to mainly mix the
stereo versions in the studios (especially "Scratch"), as stereo was just about
to take over in late '67 from mono for LPs. I gotta think so when I hear the
cool way you panned vocals left to right and back again on "It Could Be We're In
Love" and the stereo workings on songs like "Sailing Ship" and "Town I'd Like To
Go Back To."
I actually submitted the idea to
use the "Synthesis" working tapes without the added orchestration as a possible
CD release by Now Sounds (the label who did the mono CDs), but they have not
said anything but that they would think hard about doing so. Maybe there is
more for the future in Shames CD issues???
Thanks for reading and good luck on
future shows.
(Hey Tom, how's that book coming
along???)
Clark Besch
And hey, how about this?
Here's one that no one in the band or on the
internet has ever heard, I hope.
As we hit the 50th anniversary of the Cryan'
Shames' "It Could Be We're In Love" reaching #1 in Chicago, mid-August is ALSO
the 35th anniversary for one of the last times the Cryan' Shames performed with
most of their 60's group members. On a Saturday night in early August, 1982,
the reunited Cryan' Shames took to the WLS Vintage Rock Stage to play their
music for fans. From there, the band has now played for over three3 decades,
but at that time, one wondered if this would be a one time thing. It was, to
some extent.
That summer would be the last time the Shames
members of Tom Doody, James Fairs, Jim Pilster, Lenny Kerley, Gerry Stone and
Isaac Guillory would perform the Shames songs together. Now, more members DID
reunite on June 27, 2009, and one or two other dates that are historically
significant as well, but it took another two decades plus for that to happen
again. Isaac had passed away and his last performances with the band were in
summer of '82 at Chicagofest and McGreevey's in Glenview, Illinois. McGreevey's
was an 80's "juice bar" that catered to under-18 punks and club (pre-techno)
patrons. There were two main rooms - one of which played "punk" and new wave
music, and the other played more techno-ish dance stuff. I'm not sure how the
Cryan' Shames fit into this grouping, but they performed there and, as a
Forgotten Hits exclusive, here's a recording of their performance at McGreevey's
from that night in '82 ("After four days of practice,"
said Toad) of the song that celebrates 50 years of bringing lovers together
this summer.
Here are some of the 1982 Chicagofest newspaper
blurbs too:
Another great Bobbie Gentry clip. (It's a
pretty sure thing that Hooke won't want to watch this one either! Lol)
kk
>>>I have a tune called "A Teen Poem To God" that could be a great new single (we'd need one). (James Fairs)
Kent -
Any way I can get a copy of these lyrics?
Love this kind of stuff for my blog ...
Phil
PrayForSurf
PrayForSurf
I asked James about that (for fear
that perhaps it hadn't been published yet) and he told me that the song was
written to be heard ... and, since he's the guy who wrote it, to go ahead and
share it with the group.
(This is a worldwide exclusive ...
and keep in mind that it's just a rough demo ... honestly, it sounds a lot like
that Coldplay song, "When I Ruled The World," to my ears ... maybe a little bit
TOO much ... but the song was written to reflect back on the memories of "It
Could Be We're In Love" being ALL over the radio here in Chicagoland fifty years
ago today.)
[It certainly is and was written as a
rememberance - James]
Wouldn't it be cool if The Cryan'
Shames performed this song at their upcoming show at The Arcada Family Theater
at Pheasant Run this fall ... to show fans they're still creating NEW music,
too??? (kk)
TEEN POEM TO GOD
(written by James Fairs)
(written by James Fairs)
It was more than just rock and roll
It was a key into the soul
Of everything goin' on
And the song was
everywhere
It was something in the nite
We're all lookin' for the light
There was something in the air
And you could feel everywhere
It was more than just rock and roll
It was a key into the soul
Of everything goin' on
And the song was everywhere
(rock / rock rock and roll / rock / rock rock and roll)
Wow ... FOURTEEN brand new premiers
on this week's WLS chart! That's a third of the entire chart. Music was coming
out fast and furious back in 1967, when a REALLY big record might stay on the
chart for 8-12 weeks ... unlike today when a year or a year and a half seem to
be the new standard. WCFL added five new tracks to their Top 20 ... a full 25%
of their chart. What an exciting time in music! (kk)
I am absolutely addicted to the weekly charts - I hope this keeps going for 1968!
I am absolutely addicted to the weekly charts - I hope this keeps going for 1968!
My query, if anyone has the answer
tabulated:
What song, as examined for the
chart through August, 1967, suffers from the largest discrepancy (I dubbed it
the “Discrepancy Factor") when compared to the entire chart life across all
three music industry periodicals? Not just peak position, as it is more
difficult for a song to move up the survey the higher it progresses. At least
that is how it was supposed to function.
It is fun for me to compare the
REAL chart against my local area radio weekly survey lists.
I know how time consuming doing something like this project is, having spent 20+ years working on my book, so let me commend everyone involved once again for a TOP NOTCH job! I’d be first in line to buy the book for the REAL CHARTS 1960s decade!
I know how time consuming doing something like this project is, having spent 20+ years working on my book, so let me commend everyone involved once again for a TOP NOTCH job! I’d be first in line to buy the book for the REAL CHARTS 1960s decade!
The tune “It Could Be We’re In
Love” fascinates me, and epitomizes the regional airplay factor loud and clear,
something that is never considered by many researchers who are, “ahem”, lazy and
ignorant. If anything, the song’s failure to chart inside the Top 40 shows the
pervasive influence of the top major markets. WABC added the song one week,
likely on witness of the #1 Chicago status, but Rick Sklar followed Billboard
and the song was doomed from the get-go in NYC. Without NYC airplay and LA
airplay (KHJ), the song was doomed to languish at the bottom of Billboard’s Hot
100, but you guys already know that! If it had followed “Sugar And Spice”,
perhaps it could have had a larger impact outside of the Chicago vicinity. In
my area, “Sugar And Spice” by the Cryan' Shames hit the top 10 if only for a
week. Since that was a local hit, the follow-up, “I Wanna Meet You,” was an
immediate add pick hit, but it only climbed to #44 out of a weekly 60 song
chart. It did last six weeks, a pretty lengthy time for a song not into regular
hit rotation. “It Could Be We’re In Love”, never stood a chance in my area,
unfortunately.
However, “Greenburg, Glickstein,
Charles, David Smith & Jones” did chart here, peaked at #31 after only
three weeks and dropped off, probably because the person who typed the survey
didn’t want to keep typing the info every week.
Mike Markesich
"Greenburg,
Glickstein, Charles David Smith and Jones" was a Top Ten Hit here in Chicago ...
and I'm told it did pretty well in the Dallas area, too. Here is another
example of a 40-point chart discrepancy. In Billboard, it "bubbled under" at
#115 ... but in Cash Box, it climbed 42 points higher and peaked at #73. Now
how the hell can that be??? That's a full Top 40 Chart between these two peak
positions!
Apparently the
one-two punch of two 50,000 Watt AM Giants like WLS and WCFL didn't hold quite
as much clout as we were all led to believe back in the day. (I dunno about
that either ... they way I remember it, these were both trend-setting stations
that set the rest of the world on its ear ... especially since you could either
WLS across the entire country on a clear night!) It just doesn't add up ...
which again makes me feel like any rankings below the obvious Top 20 were left
to the digression of whoever was in charger wherever ... which is why you would
find such a wide-range discrepancy.
(kk)
If you haven't already done so, be sure to bookmark the Daily Calendar Page ... and check it every morning. Some GREAT stuff lately ... and lots more coming up.
Start your day with Forgotten Hits ...
Breakfast of Champions!
http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/
If you haven't already done so, be sure to bookmark the Daily Calendar Page ... and check it every morning. Some GREAT stuff lately ... and lots more coming up.
Start your day with Forgotten Hits ...
Breakfast of Champions!
http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/
