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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 12 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Nostalgia Walk
From: Steve Harvey
2. Mommie Dearest - Cissy Houston
From: Mick Patrick
3. Big O PPM
From: Eddy Smit
4. Re: Hamilton Camp
From: Dan Hughes
5. Anything I Can Do?
From: Martin Roberts
6. Re: Hamilton Camp, "Here's To You"
From: Bill Craig
7. Re: Chordettes
From: Andrew Jones
8. Hamilton Camp
From: Ken Levine
9. RE: Hamilton Camp, "Here's to You"
From: Robert Bates
10. Hamilton Camp
From: David Feldman
11. Re: Brute Force & John Maus
From: Martin Roberts
12. Hamilton Camp; Bert Berns pic sleeves; Philips (US)
From: Country Paul
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 18:22:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Steve Harvey
Subject: Nostalgia Walk
Yesterday I did my weekly check down at the local
Goodwill. You can always tell when somebody's
collection get donated by alot of the same era LPs and
their condition.
I lucked out this time, there was a collection
from the 60s: several Chad and Jeremys (World Artist
and CBS), Simon and Garfunkel, Lovin' Spoonful, Mamas
and Papas, Donovan, etc. What made it great was that
most of these LPs were in very good shape and mostly
in mono.
The icing on the cake was that if there was an
insert, poster, whatever, it was still in there! The
Herman's 2nd Greatest Hits had the poster, Simon and
Garfunkel's still had its poster, the lyric sheet for
Laura Nyro's Eli lp was still there, Donovan's Best Of
still had the pages of photos inside. Open the
Spoonful LPs and they still had the original Kama
Sutra inside sleeves with shots of the band.
Anybody into the Raiders, Yardbirds, S&G, DC5,
Laura Nyro would remember the CBS/Epic sleeves - those
plastic baggies with the preferated edges you had to
cut off (try and pull it off and you ended up
stretching the rest of the bag) which I found in the
Chad & Jeremy LPs on CBS.
However, the highpoint was the Bobbie Gentry LP
(I forget the name, but it wasn't one of the ones you
usually see). Ever since Mojo did that piece on her
I've been on the lookout for her stuff since it's not
out on CD in the US. Great condition, but when I
flipped it over there was her autograph. Not bad for
$1 a pop.
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 00:31:13 +0100
From: Mick Patrick
Subject: Mommie Dearest - Cissy Houston
Jonathan Singer:
> ... Since Spectropop is devoted to my favorite period of 60s
> music, NYC/Brill Building stuff ... a book I wrote, Cissy
> Houston's autobiography, "How Sweet the Sound" (Doubleday,
> 1998) ... Although this book chronicles her life story and
> the history of Gospel music, my personal mission was for
> readers to feel what a typical NYC recording session was like
> in the early 60s. By interviewing people like Brooks Arthur,
> Mike Stoller, Billy Vera, Tom Dowd, Garry Sherman, Jerry
> Ragovoy, Hugh McCracken and Paul Griffin, I believe I
> accomplished that - from page 148 onward.
Hi Jonathan,
Welcome to Spectropop. If you search the Forum Archives - quite
easy - you'll find that your book has been a topic of discussion
here in months gone by. Until a book devoted to the Brill
Building scene is published, yours is a volume I recommend to
anyone with an interest in that subject. I *devoured* my copy in
a day - unheard of, reading usually sends me to sleep!
The other week, UK C4 re-ran a Whitney Houston documentary. I
realise that you might not want to comment on this but I, for
one, would like to know if you are of the opinion that Cissy
Houston, as an overbearing showbiz Mom intent on bestowing
upon her daughter the stardom she was unable to achieve for
herself, is in any way responsible for the mess young Whitney
seems to have made of her personal life? (Reply off-list if
you like).
One more thing. I heard somewhere that your next project was
to be a biography of Bert Berns. True? If so, can't wait!
Mick Patrick
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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 07:13:06 +0200
From: Eddy Smit
Subject: Big O PPM
Completely forgot about this, but here's what Lennon had to
say in his Playboy interview :
"That is me completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison
song, would you believe it? I remember the day I wrote it. I
remember the pink eiderdown over the bed sitting in one of the
bedrooms in my house on Menlove Avenue, my auntie's place. I heard
Roy Orbison doing 'Only The Lonely' on the radio. Also, I was always
intrigued by the words to a Bing Crosby song that went (singing)
"Please lend your little ears to me. Please ... I was intrigued
by the double use of the word "Please". So it was a combination of
Roy Orbison and Bing Crosby."
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Message: 4
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 05:01:39 -0500
From: Dan Hughes
Subject: Re: Hamilton Camp
Art asks about Hamilton Camp's HERE'S TO YOU album.
I have the album (wanna buy it?), and I much prefer his followup album.
I think it might have been called simply HAMILTON CAMP. It was also on
Warner's and had a mostly black cover with a small photo of Camp in the
middle. My favorite cuts on that one are a marvelous version of Simon &
Garfunkel's America, and a really quirky but catchy Bob Neuwirth nonsense
song called Trout ("Carefully measuring the distance / To the cliff /
Took her most / Of morning / What followed / Was simply in poor taste").
And a song whose title escapes me (Whole Lot of Lovin' In You perhaps?)
that has the best haunting harmonica-in-a-barrel effect I've heard
anywhere.
By the way, one of my all-time favorite songs is the Hamilton Camp and
Bob Gibson version of Shel Silverstein's Me & Jimmie Rodgers, on their
HOMEMADE MUSIC album on Mountain Railroad Records.
And finally, you probably know he's also an actor, having appeared in
nearly a hundred films. From IMDB: "Has dubious distinction of being a
cast member on two of television's biggest failures: both "Turn-On"
(1969) and "Co-ed Fever" (1979) were cancelled after only 1 episode."
The entire movie and TV listing is at:
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Camp,+Hamilton
---Dan
http://members.soltec.net/~dan (spiffy home page)
http://members.soltec.net/~dan/danhsigs.htm (crass commercialism page)
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Message: 5
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 07:51:21 +0100
From: Martin Roberts
Subject: Anything I Can Do?
Seems a shame to waste the empty spaces on musica, I've played
the earlier mentioned, The Ashes - "Is There Anything I Can Do"
- Vault. A one page web site exists:
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jason.penick/pbc/pbc_ashes.html
Martin
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Message: 6
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 12:19:29 -0000
From: Bill Craig
Subject: Re: Hamilton Camp, "Here's To You"
Art Longmire wrote:
> Does anyone besides me remember hearing this on the
> radio in 1968?
Hey Art,
I have never heard the LP but did own the 45 back in the day.
It indeed is a great record. I believe Hamilton Camp was a
writer/actor for the Smothers Brothers T.V. show and as a
songwriter wrote "Pride Of Man" which appeared on a (the first?)
Quicksilver Messenger Service album.
An interesting cat. I'm sure other'Poppers can tell you more
about him and his album.
Bill Craig
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Message: 7
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:07:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Andrew Jones
Subject: Re: Chordettes
Country Paul,
One of my local stations (as I've pointed out here before)
airs the "Music Of Your Life" easy-listening oldies format,
and the Chordettes get frequent airplay there, so I've had
plenty of opportunity to hear them. And I agree with just
about everything you've said about them.
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Message: 8
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 00:11:40 -0700
From: Ken Levine
Subject: Hamilton Camp
I can't speak for the album but I can speak for Hamilton.
When I was writing for Mash we used him in an episode.
Great guy. I asked him about "Here's to You". He was shocked
someone remembered it. Said acting was more his true calling
but enjoyed the experience.
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Message: 9
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:38:32 -0600
From: Robert Bates
Subject: RE: Hamilton Camp, "Here's to You"
Glad to see someone mention that great song "Here's to You".
If you're looking for it, it's on the "Buried Treasure: Lost
Gems From Deep in the '60s Vaults" from Collector's Choice Music
(http://www.ccmusic.com I have no connection blah-blah-blah)
which, needless to say, features a lot of other great songs,
though "Here's to You"'s probably my favorite.
Best,
Rob
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Message: 10
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 13:26:56 -0400
From: David Feldman
Subject: Hamilton Camp
Art Longmire wrote:
> I wonder if anyone here has heard the LP this song is from.
> I've seen several reviews online and most of them kind of
> slam the album although the song "Here's to You" itself gets
> good reviews. If anyone has heard this and has an opinion
> please let me know.
Art,
Hamilton Camp is an amazing guy. He has done everything from
being a troupe member of Second City and The Committee to being
a "real" folk singer-songwriter (on the Elektra album, "Paths of
Victory,", which I have in front of me now, Camp is posed with
acoustic guitar and harmonica in harmonica holder to playing Mary
Tyler Moore's date/boyfriend on a classic episode ("Toulouse Lautrec
Is One of My Favorite Artists").
Of the three Camp albums I own, "Here's to You" is my favorite.
No, there isn't anything else as catchy or pop as the title song,
but there is plenty of solid folk-pop, including a haunting song
called "Travelin' in the Dark." My guess is that one of the reasons
the album got slammed is that the album marked another folkie using
orchestral arrangements - in that sense, it reminds me a bit of
"Pleasures of the Harbor," the Phil Ochs album (that I love). I don't
think that "Here's to You" is quite at that level, but it's worth a
shot. Camp has a fine voice and he wrote most of the songs on the album.
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Message: 11
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 21:22:58 +0100
From: Martin Roberts
Subject: Re: Brute Force & John Maus
I posted message #12375 about a site which had some interesting
mp3s. The guy who runs is apparently going to be busy this summer
and the site is closed. I have checked the Brute Force track I
mentioned, "Making Faces At Each Other", and this may be the same
recording as released on his "Confections of Love" LP. I don't
have a copy of the LP to confirm. The track is 'interesting', from
the same album but released as a 45, I've played Brute's, "In Jim's
Garage" to musica. This is not only interesting but musically
enjoyable as well, in a very 'over the top' way! I recall Rashkovsky
mentioning the recording of this LP, anything to add sir?
Martin
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Message: 12
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 16:36:35 -0400
From: Country Paul
Subject: Hamilton Camp; Bert Berns pic sleeves; Philips (US)
Art Longmire asked about:
> Hamilton Camp, "Here's To You"
I believe the song and album were on a Warner product; I remember
it being a "one-cut album." However, he had a reasonably illustrious
folk career before that (primarily on Elektra), including a famous
duet album with Bob Gibson and some songs made famous by others (see
below). A film-oriented brief bio from the All Movie Guide makes no
mention of his music career:
http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?mp=b&c=35937
Both under Hamid Hamilton Camp and his two-word name, he amassed a
pile of acting credits; view them at
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-12594
(There's a link to an album and a 45 being sold on eBay at the bottom
of the page.)
An All Music Guide bio, at
http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/bio/0,,411340,00.html?artist=Hamilton+Camp
is more revelant for our purposes. An excerpt:
"The Old School of Chicago served as the backdrop for Hamilton Camp's
early musical career. Whether performing solo or in a duo with Bob Gibson,
Camp served as one of the crossroads between the Woody Guthrie and Pete
Seeger folk music of the 1940s and the singer/songwriter school of Bob
Dylan, Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs in the 1960s. Camp's tune "Pride of Man"
was covered by Quicksilver Messenger Service in 1967, while his and
Gibson's collaboration "Well, Well, Well" was recorded by Simon and
Garfunkel on their debut album, Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. in 1966.
"In the early 1960s, Camp and Gibson played in clubs, coffeehouses and
festivals throughout their United States. Their most influential album,
At the Gate of Horn, was recorded in 1961 at the famed Chicago folk club.
When the duo separated, Camp continued to perform as a soloist. His debut
solo album was a live recording at the same club in 1963. Camp's subsequent
albums included Paths of Victory in 1964, which featured his original
version of "Pride of Man" and renditions of seven Dylan tunes, including
the rarely heard "Guess I'm Doin' Fine," "Walkin' Down the Line," "Long
Time Gone" and the title track. Here's to You, released in 1967, was
produced by Felix Pappalardi and featured musical accompaniment by Van Dyke
Parks, Earl C. Palmer, Jr., Bud Shank, Glen Hardin, Hal Blaine and Larry Knechtel."
And the coda, from the All Movie Guide: "[R]ecently, Hamilton Camp has been
a prolific cartoon voiceover artist, providing a limitless array of
characterizations on such TV animated series as The Smurfs, The Flintstone
Kids, and DuckTales."
Martin Roberts:
> Just checked out http://www.bertberns.com/ and Brett's got a
> groovy new feature, "Single Of The Day". Not mp3s but great
> label and picture sleeve scans.
Thanks, Martin - and special thanks, Brett. Scan ahead a few shots to
find a Van Morrison "Brown-Eyed Girl" pic sleeve from Philco's Hip
Pocket Records! (Only 69 cents, too, on sale for 39.)
Mike Edwards:
> ...Simon White notes that Lady Luck's "Young Stranger" was released
> on US Philips. Now there's an interesting label that seemed to start
> around 1962. We have seen very little CD reissue action. From what I
> can see just isolated sides by the Secrets, Brian Hyland and Bobby
> Hebb. I think the rights lie with Polygram, so if anyone from that
> company is reading this, "From The Vaults Of Philips' Records" would
> make a fine CD compilation.
As I remember, the Philips label started in the US when the company
bought Mercury. They went through dozens of single releases (one of
the early ones: Johnny Hallyday's "Hold Back The Sun") before they
had a breakthrough hit, which was, if I remember, "Hey Paula" by Paul
and Paula. (I'd be glad for someone with a discography to prove me wrong.)
Finally, many thanks to Wendy Flynn (offlist), Andrew Hickey and Guy
Lawrence for the reviews and comments on The Thrills. The concensus
seems to be "semi-Thrilled." I haven't run right out to my record-pusher
yet....
Country Paul
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