Sunday, July 12, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Far Away Guys
Some Girls Resented 'Drag Queen' Smear
The original Some Girls LP (COC 39108) from The Rolling Stones featured the famous die-cut cover and a picture sleeve insert that included face shots of Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Raquel Welch, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. The ladies still living at the time, and the estates of those deceased, objected to the drag queen context of the layout. The amended version that then came out was faceless.
As mentioned before in this blog, Bakersfield is given a nod in the first cut on the B-side, "Far Away Eyes," with Ronnie Wood's searing country lead on the guitar.
...
The original Some Girls LP (COC 39108) from The Rolling Stones featured the famous die-cut cover and a picture sleeve insert that included face shots of Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Raquel Welch, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. The ladies still living at the time, and the estates of those deceased, objected to the drag queen context of the layout. The amended version that then came out was faceless.
As mentioned before in this blog, Bakersfield is given a nod in the first cut on the B-side, "Far Away Eyes," with Ronnie Wood's searing country lead on the guitar.
...
Friday, October 10, 2008
Denver jazzman knocking out rhythms
Gigging With Colin Gieg
by Bryce Martin
Colin Gieg was born in San Mateo, Calif., and moved to the Bakersfield region around age five when his father took over Ken's Chevron, a family-owned business in Mettler.
He graduated from Bakersfield High in 1960. At age seven, Jimmy Thomason invited him to play piano for one of his radio shows. Gieg took piano lessons from Ralph Yaw, first at a place on Chester Avenue and later in a back room of Yaw's music store in East Bakersfield. Yaw, he remembers as "having a mustache, short and with stubby fingers." He credits Yaw, a former arranger for Stan Kenton, as being a fabulous instructor.
"I still have an old chart where he wrote out all the notes. For the first six months, I never had anything printed. He wrote out every note. He taught me so much and really inspired me to make music a big part of my life."
He played guitar, piano and accordion and at age 15 took up the upright bass, taking lessons from a member of the Kern Philharmonic. In high school, he played bass in coffee houses around Bakersfield and in school assemblies.
"While in high school my last two years, I played as much as four nights a week sometimes at The Bamboo Room on East California. The manager, Charles Strong, played drums. A tenor sax, and an organ player, Ted Shirley, would come up from Los Angeles."
One musician he worked with was guitarist Paul Raley.
"Paul Raley was such a great guitar player. He was left handed but played the guitar right handed. Since he was left handed, he started practicing left handed so he could convert. So, he was practicing all day left handed and then he'd come and play at night right handed. He was finally able to make the transition to playing left handed. He was a great player either way."
Gieg remembers just one occasion where he was involved with Bakersfield's country music scene.
"Jimmy Thomason got my name from somewhere and called me to work a show with him. I reminded him about being on his radio program when I was really young. We went to Tehachapi and did a show at the prison. It was a lot of fun."
In the late 1960s, after a tour with the U.S. Army, he played for a time with the Charles Strong Trio at the Penthouse on Union Avenue.
Gieg lives in Denver where he has long been a prominent fixture on the local jazz scene.
He has played on many recordings. One of his first was when he contributed on bass to a chart album issued in 1965 from female trendsetter Rusty Warren, one entitled More Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2059). The LP was a followup to Warren's smash party record from 1960, the "sin-sational" Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2029), an album that managed to stay on the charts for three years running.
-30-
by Bryce Martin
Colin Gieg was born in San Mateo, Calif., and moved to the Bakersfield region around age five when his father took over Ken's Chevron, a family-owned business in Mettler.
He graduated from Bakersfield High in 1960. At age seven, Jimmy Thomason invited him to play piano for one of his radio shows. Gieg took piano lessons from Ralph Yaw, first at a place on Chester Avenue and later in a back room of Yaw's music store in East Bakersfield. Yaw, he remembers as "having a mustache, short and with stubby fingers." He credits Yaw, a former arranger for Stan Kenton, as being a fabulous instructor.
"I still have an old chart where he wrote out all the notes. For the first six months, I never had anything printed. He wrote out every note. He taught me so much and really inspired me to make music a big part of my life."
He played guitar, piano and accordion and at age 15 took up the upright bass, taking lessons from a member of the Kern Philharmonic. In high school, he played bass in coffee houses around Bakersfield and in school assemblies.
"While in high school my last two years, I played as much as four nights a week sometimes at The Bamboo Room on East California. The manager, Charles Strong, played drums. A tenor sax, and an organ player, Ted Shirley, would come up from Los Angeles."
One musician he worked with was guitarist Paul Raley.
"Paul Raley was such a great guitar player. He was left handed but played the guitar right handed. Since he was left handed, he started practicing left handed so he could convert. So, he was practicing all day left handed and then he'd come and play at night right handed. He was finally able to make the transition to playing left handed. He was a great player either way."
Gieg remembers just one occasion where he was involved with Bakersfield's country music scene.
"Jimmy Thomason got my name from somewhere and called me to work a show with him. I reminded him about being on his radio program when I was really young. We went to Tehachapi and did a show at the prison. It was a lot of fun."
In the late 1960s, after a tour with the U.S. Army, he played for a time with the Charles Strong Trio at the Penthouse on Union Avenue.
Gieg lives in Denver where he has long been a prominent fixture on the local jazz scene.
He has played on many recordings. One of his first was when he contributed on bass to a chart album issued in 1965 from female trendsetter Rusty Warren, one entitled More Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2059). The LP was a followup to Warren's smash party record from 1960, the "sin-sational" Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2029), an album that managed to stay on the charts for three years running.
-30-
Friday, September 19, 2008
1930s to 1950s
Matchbook covers were the way to advertise:
Witham's Appliances, M & M Smoke Shop, Penny Fine Foods, Snyder's Evinrude, Doctor's Ambulance Service, McCoy Tire Recap Co., Rod's Enterprises, Union Ave. Gift Shoppe, The Old River Dept. Store, Yosemite Ice Cream, King's Cleaners, Stop N' Shop Variety Store, Walt's Orchids, Frazer Service Co., M & M Smoke Shop, Cliff Greenleaf Used Cars, Sanitex Cleaners, Permanente Cement Company, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie no. 93, Maurice Coiffure, Seiler's Mens Store, Jack Landson Drugs, Robert Hill's Save More Drug, Bail Bond Binger, Richardson's RCA radios, Bewicks Flowers, Union Ave. Smoke Shop, Trones Gas & Electric, Chevrolet Motor Center, Aaron Liquor Stores, Derrick Liquor Store, Joe's Meat Processing, Joe Bertolaccini, Headlight Shrunk Overalls, M.L. Myers Texaco, Jones' Body & Fender Shop, Kimball & Stone Druggists, El Adobe Motel, Gorman Motel & Cafe on Ridge Route US 99, Dew Drop Inn Union Ave., Desert Inn, Motor Court, The Cawelo Motel, Motel Inn Union Ave., Motor Court, The Desert Inn (cowboy scene), Sierra Vista Motel, Hotel El Tejon, A Home away from Home, Tegeler Hotel, Bakersfield Motor Hotel.
-30-
Matchbook covers were the way to advertise:
Witham's Appliances, M & M Smoke Shop, Penny Fine Foods, Snyder's Evinrude, Doctor's Ambulance Service, McCoy Tire Recap Co., Rod's Enterprises, Union Ave. Gift Shoppe, The Old River Dept. Store, Yosemite Ice Cream, King's Cleaners, Stop N' Shop Variety Store, Walt's Orchids, Frazer Service Co., M & M Smoke Shop, Cliff Greenleaf Used Cars, Sanitex Cleaners, Permanente Cement Company, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie no. 93, Maurice Coiffure, Seiler's Mens Store, Jack Landson Drugs, Robert Hill's Save More Drug, Bail Bond Binger, Richardson's RCA radios, Bewicks Flowers, Union Ave. Smoke Shop, Trones Gas & Electric, Chevrolet Motor Center, Aaron Liquor Stores, Derrick Liquor Store, Joe's Meat Processing, Joe Bertolaccini, Headlight Shrunk Overalls, M.L. Myers Texaco, Jones' Body & Fender Shop, Kimball & Stone Druggists, El Adobe Motel, Gorman Motel & Cafe on Ridge Route US 99, Dew Drop Inn Union Ave., Desert Inn, Motor Court, The Cawelo Motel, Motel Inn Union Ave., Motor Court, The Desert Inn (cowboy scene), Sierra Vista Motel, Hotel El Tejon, A Home away from Home, Tegeler Hotel, Bakersfield Motor Hotel.
-30-
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Takin' the country boy out of the country...
We all live in a big ol' world
By Bryce Martin
Pop music was never more groovier than in 1969, and no song better exemplified that than the hippie anthem, "Aquarius." Let the sunshine in, by all means, yes. Kenny Johnson provided vocals for a Gary Paxton budget album in the works aimed for Alshire Records. Johnson's moon was in the seventh house and all was copasetic while he got through on such lines as "no more falsehoods or derisions," but the country in him was exposed when he got around to another song, "Yellow Submarine," which he sang as "yeller" submarine. I asked him about it and he straighforwardly replied, "I thought it was yeller."
-30-
By Bryce Martin
Pop music was never more groovier than in 1969, and no song better exemplified that than the hippie anthem, "Aquarius." Let the sunshine in, by all means, yes. Kenny Johnson provided vocals for a Gary Paxton budget album in the works aimed for Alshire Records. Johnson's moon was in the seventh house and all was copasetic while he got through on such lines as "no more falsehoods or derisions," but the country in him was exposed when he got around to another song, "Yellow Submarine," which he sang as "yeller" submarine. I asked him about it and he straighforwardly replied, "I thought it was yeller."
-30-
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Wolfman Jack mortalized at KAFY
When Wolfman Jack didn't rule the airwaves
by Bryce Martin
Wolfman Jack, late at night crusin' down a quiet, moonlit highway with The Wolfman bayin' and howlin' from rebel stronghold XERB ("in Rosa-lita, Ba-ha Calefornya"), fading in and out between mountains and offering a delightful radio fare found nowhere else on the dial.
Who was this guy anyway? Then, the movie American Graffiti showed us and he lost much of his mystic appeal because of it.
But the worst was still to come. He showed up in Bakersfield and went on the air for KAFY, a station whose days in the sun were in the past. No fault of KAFY's, mind you, it was just that time and taste had moved beyond the Golden Years of music and radio for all America. No fanfare. No media hype. Just another DJ on the DJ Scene. No rebel in the night. America's DJ was relegated to the backyard of radio history.
He even drove a dilapidated van. Times must have been rough. You knew he wasn't going to get rich dj-ing in Bakersfield. What a comedown, for me. I hated to even think about. Still do.
Goodnight, Wolfman.
-30-
by Bryce Martin
Wolfman Jack, late at night crusin' down a quiet, moonlit highway with The Wolfman bayin' and howlin' from rebel stronghold XERB ("in Rosa-lita, Ba-ha Calefornya"), fading in and out between mountains and offering a delightful radio fare found nowhere else on the dial.
Who was this guy anyway? Then, the movie American Graffiti showed us and he lost much of his mystic appeal because of it.
But the worst was still to come. He showed up in Bakersfield and went on the air for KAFY, a station whose days in the sun were in the past. No fault of KAFY's, mind you, it was just that time and taste had moved beyond the Golden Years of music and radio for all America. No fanfare. No media hype. Just another DJ on the DJ Scene. No rebel in the night. America's DJ was relegated to the backyard of radio history.
He even drove a dilapidated van. Times must have been rough. You knew he wasn't going to get rich dj-ing in Bakersfield. What a comedown, for me. I hated to even think about. Still do.
Goodnight, Wolfman.
-30-
Bitched-on Schlock
A nod to (Wendy) Carlos Williams
by Bryce Martin
What do you do when you have a new recording studio and you've plunked down several thou for some kind of gizmo that makes funny sounds?
A wacky Moog concept album of Buck Owens tunes played on that newfangled synthesizer dumaflogy thingie.
Ten tracks include "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail," "Buckaroo," "Sam's Place."
Switched-On Buck
Jeff Haskell
Capitol ST-679
1971
How Long Will My Baby Be Gone; I've Got a Tiger by the Tail; Under Your Spell Again; Where Does the Good Times Go; Buckaroo/ It Takes People like You; Sam's Place; Raz-ma-taz Polka; The Kansas City Song; We're Gonna Get Together
-30-
by Bryce Martin
What do you do when you have a new recording studio and you've plunked down several thou for some kind of gizmo that makes funny sounds?
A wacky Moog concept album of Buck Owens tunes played on that newfangled synthesizer dumaflogy thingie.
Ten tracks include "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail," "Buckaroo," "Sam's Place."
Switched-On Buck
Jeff Haskell
Capitol ST-679
1971
How Long Will My Baby Be Gone; I've Got a Tiger by the Tail; Under Your Spell Again; Where Does the Good Times Go; Buckaroo/ It Takes People like You; Sam's Place; Raz-ma-taz Polka; The Kansas City Song; We're Gonna Get Together
-30-
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