ripvw
Active Member
History of the Eagles Parts 1 and 2
20 Feet From Stardom
Story of the female background singers - usually black - with special attention paid to the great Darlene Love
Lynyrd Skynyrd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow
Martin
Interesting story about Skynrd.... I'm doing sound at a theater thing, and this older guy comes in to do FOH. His neck is all crooked, he said he got thrown from one of the horses he had in Central PA.
So I start talking to him. He mentions that he's an award winning jingle writer... Addy's they're called. Did Coke, Cadillac, etc...
He mentions having a studio in the late 60's early 70's with a partner in north FL. Had one of the first 16 track machines
- I'm guessing the ol' Ampex MM1000 behemoth
So he goes on to mention that one day these kids come in. Not sure how they knew about the place but supposedly some record store guy mentioned it to them. They have this little 7" reel of their rehearsal and wanted to know how much it cost to record. So he gives them the nickle tour - including the small disc mastering and pressing plant (back then you sent demos out on 45's).
As he's walking them around, he sees they're getting more despondent. "Well thank you Mr. Sutton, it sure was nice to show us around - we could never afford this...."
"Let me hear your tape..." he says.
So he puts it up, and is floored. He then asks them if they'd be OK with him and his partner recording it. They'd put it on their label - Shade Tree Records.
He stated nothing happened after he sent out demos and they let them out of their contract. He mentioned that about a year or so later he heard one of the songs on the radio. When he told me the song I thought the guy may have hit head a bit hard when that horse threw him.
Nope - it was Jim Sutton... I had no idea
So here's those demos:
Like the time as a late teen I went to The U of Penn Uniontown campus to buy an ounce of hash with my buddy and his brother and his friend. We were going to go see the brother's friend's older brother to hook up.
So we get there and it's some trailer. We walk in and there's all these hot babes sitting on the floor (I think there was one chair - like no furniture) and they're googling over some guy with long blond hair and a big handle bar mustache. So my friend's brother and his entourage leave to go score and leave me and Bobby in the living room.
We were like Beavis and Butthead... "Whoa, these chicks are hot... wonder who the dude is?"
So a few minutes later this guy with really long brown hair look around the wall from the kitchen and says, "Hey you guyz... come on in"
We're like, "Uh... us?"
"Yea..."
So we go in. Him and this black guy are in there smoking some kick ass black hash. The give us each a hit.
So we go back in the living room and I hear the blond dude mention something about his prof in I think it was psychology move him to the back of the room 'cause he feet stunk so bad..
Yep - that dude, I came to learn later - was Skunk Baxter. The guys in the kitchen were Simmons and Porter. So I got high with the Doobie Brother and had no idea who they were at the time...
Oh... and we never got the hash...