Development of the British Blues & Rhythm
--- show 14 --- 9-10-2014
Beck’s Yardbirds 1965/66
Dave Berry
1963/64
Jack Bruce with M. Mann 11-29-65 thru June 66
While Yardbirds fans were hailing Eric Clapton as God, it took the
merely mortal Jeff Beck to transform a pretty good Blues band into perhaps the
most innovative and influential band of the sixties.
Jeff
Beck in 1973
It is only natural that the record
companies made their albums representative to what the concert goers would
recognize, and since the American albums were not released until after Clapton’s
departure, it was Beck who appeared on the first two Yardbirds American LP
covers even though Clapton had the lion’s share on the For Your Love release
and the live half of the Rave-up album. I’ve
already said that Five Live Yardbirds is still the best live LP I’ve come
across, so if you take half of that away to make room for a side of studio
recordings by God’s replacement there must be a bigtime diminishment in the
quality, right? Well, I may be biased
(no doubt, actually), but for only one half of an album Beck was already making
an impact (listen to his guitar’s impersonation of a sitar on Heart Full of
Soul).
I got Rave-up as soon as it came out, or
as soon as I could afford it, and it was likely the most played of all my
albums (both sides) until the long-awaited follow-up Over Under Sideways Down
came out. Beck’s half began with the
soul-searching protest of Better Man Than I, had three dark hearted songs (including
the Gregorian chant-like Still I’m Sad), and also took Clapton’s version of I’m
a Man and tightened it up in the studio to make the song as much his as Eric’s
or even its author, Bo Diddley. The coup
de grace was the side closing Train Kept a-Rolling, the definitive version
based on the Dorsey Burnette Trio’s recording rather than the original by Tiny
Bradshaw back in the 40s.
So we constructed our opening set with the
two Bluesy tracks from the EP , Beck’s first recordings with the Yardbirds,
followed up by five of the songs from hjis half of the Rave Up album. It is my recollection that the Yardbirds
first tour of America was cut short due to visa and work permit problems, but
the band took the opportunity to record at two of the classic recording sites,
Sun Studios in Memphis and Chess Studios in Chicago. One of the band’s concerns was that the
English recording crews did not know how to properly put to tape a high energy
and high volume band such as the Yardbirds, but such was not the case with The
Train Kept a-Rolling, both recorded in this span and concluding the first set.
Our second set came mostly from the Roger
the Engineer CD, most of which was released on American vinyl as the Over Under
Sideways Down LP, with the addition
of Scratch My Back, Too Much Monkey Business, The Sun is Shining and Smokestack
Lightning taken from the BBC
sessions CD.
All in all, if this was the direction the
band was heading when Clapton departed as he stayed more of a Blues purist, he
might have been better served to stay.
But that might have robbed us of Beck’s innovations. So, for that, thank you Mr. Clapton.
It is unfortunate that Beck did not have
any of his early stage performances recorded for public consumption, unlike his
Yardbirds counterparts Clapton and Jimmy Page.
Even his Jeff Beck Group featuring Rod Stewart released only one live
track, that being Blues Deluxe on their Truth album. It would seem that if there is one, there
must be more buried away somewhere. The
closest we can come to live performances for his duration with the Yardbirds
would be the BBC sessions and we did supplement his vinyl output with three
tunes from those sessions.
\
2007
with bassist Tal Wilkenfeld
For background on the pre-Beck Yardbirds,
I recommend you look at the blog for show #5, posted on April 9th.
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What happens when you combine one of
Britain’s best R&B bands, most of whom have their hearts set on playing Modern
Jazz, with the strongest bass player in the British Isles who also has a
penchant for his first love of Jazz, especially if you add an extra pair of
horns to the mix at the same time? I
guess we’ll hear the answer to that pretty quickly, won’t we?
We’ve already been introduced to Jack
Bruce, from when he pleaded to sit in with Ginger Baker and Dick
Heckstall-Smith and impressed so much that they convinced Alexis Korner to
bring him into his Blues Incorporated.
From Graham Bond, unbeknownst to his rhythm section, telling Korner the
three were leaving to form their own group to Baker telling him at knifepoint
he was fired from the band and not to come back to any of their gigs. To his brief time spent with John Mayall’s
Bluesbreakers before jumping ship to join Manfred Mann, leading to the
composition of the song Double Crossing Time.
Or did we quite get that far? No
matter, that is where we are now.
When Jack came into Manfred Mann it was a
time of general dissatisfaction for the band.
In almost three years, they had five singles that had made it into the
top five chart spots and two more at numbers seven and eleven while their two
albums climbed to numbers three and seven, but the members felt that they were
not being truly represented in that the music they really wanted to put out was
relegated to B-sides and album tracks.
Guitarist Mike Vickers gave his notice, initially wanting to take three
months off to compose the musical score for the movie The Sandwich Man, but it
eventually became permanent and his last performance was on October 25th. Bass player Tom McGuiness took advantage of
Vickers’ departure to return to his original instrument as the new guitarist.
When Vickers informed the group of his
intentions, lead singer Paul Jones voiced a similar decision. “Mike Vickers made it easy for me because he
handed in his notice in September 1965, and I said, ‘Actually, while Mike’s
about it, I also want to go.’ And they
said, ‘Well, you can’t -- there’s a legal responsibility.’ I said, ‘All I’ll do is stay until you find
somebody else.’ I didn’t know they would
take eleven months to find somebody else! My main reason for leaving was that,
here I was having all these hit records, and one by one they were gradually
being notched up to someone called Manfred Mann, and I was not Manfred Mann!”
It was the recommendation of old friend
Graham Bond that the Manfreds choose Jack as their bass player and, feeling he
could make a better living for his family, Bruce informed John Mayall but had
to serve out a month’s notice. According
to McGuiness, “We all said, ‘We want to get Jack Bruce. He’s the best bass player around”, and
Manfred said, ‘I can’t ask him. John’s
my neighbor. I can’t!’ We kept badgering Manfred and saying, ‘He’s
the one – we gotta get him!’”
Between November 18th and
December 6th, Mann and the Yardbirds co-headlined a 16-date
multi-artist cinema tour called The Marquee Show. For the tour, they decided to go with a
larger ensemble and brought in trumpeter Henry Lowther (he was also highly
capable on violin) who recommended Lyn Dobson to play tenor sax and flute, filling
out the expanded horn section. All of
Manfred Mann were happy with the additions, but the fact that too many venues
had either space or sound system limitations hindering the performances was
what likely led to the expansion’s duration being shortened to merely four
months.
Mann had to use temporary bass players
until Jack’s time was served and he joined the band on November 29th. “I came in at the last minute and I learned
the whole set. I mean, I played the
whole set without rehearsal and I think that impressed them.” Three nights into the tour the interim bass
player had quit, so the Mark Leeman 5 allowed David Hyde to pull double duty as
bassist for both bands until Bruce’s arrival.
I have heard good things about the Leeman band but their recordings are
hard to come by and very expensive when they do show up. In January 1965, they put out Portland Town,
an album produced by Manfred Mann, but in June that year the lead singer /
guitarist Leeman died in a car crash.
Although the Mann ensemble favored Jazz,
it often turned out that Jack was too far ahead of them. As McGuiness put it, “He was, in fact, quite
impossible to play with at times, and we often could not literally follow
him.” Not only did Jack sometimes add
his vocals to Paul’s, but on December 28th, 1965 the audience at the
Marquee was treated to a surprise guest visit by Eric Burdon sharing the
microphone. Jones was involved in an
automobile accident on January 13th which took a long time to fully
recover from, causing recording session, television and stage performance
cancellations and, on their Marquee gig on the 25th, Eric Burdon
fronted the band. Mike Vickers and Eric
Clapton also joined on stage for part of that evening.
On March 9th 1966, Bruce and Jones from Manfred Mann got together with Stevie
Winwood and drummer Peter York from the Spencer Davis Group and pianist Ben
Palmer to record three songs (I Want to Know, Crossroads and Steppin’ Out) as
Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse, released on Elektra’s What’s Shakin’
multi-artist LP. Shortly afterward, Jack
took advantage of a lull in the Mann stage schedule to rejoin Mayall, Clapton
and drummer Hughie Flint for two weeks between recording sessions. Much of the March 17th show at the
Flamingo would show up on Mayall’s Primal Solos LP with another track appearing
on Looking Back.
When Jack left the Manfreds to help form
Cream, he was replaced by Klaus Voorman and, almost concurrently, Jones was
replaced by Mike D’Abo in a brand new iteration of the band.
Jack Bruce playing a Gibson EB-3,
just like the one I used to have. Some
people thought he played it better!
Our second set of the show, and our first
of Manfred Mann, chronicles the six months or so that Jack Bruce spent with the
band, including an EP that included their instrumental takes on popular songs
of the day: Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe, the Who’s My Generation and the
Rolling Stones Satisfaction. We save the
fourth song for a small closing set with both the original version by the
Yardbirds and the Manfreds’ interpretation of Still I’m Sad. Chronologically,
our second Mann set predates the Jack Bruce material, including a couple of their
earliest recordings, as these have recently become available to me.
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Dave Berry seems a far cry from the R&B we are seeking out,
but the liner notes from the 2-disc set This Strange Effect: The Decca Years
1963-1966, which are his earliest sessions, claim them as his beginnings. He would not have even come to mind for this
series were he not included in the 1994 tribute to Alexis Korner.
Born David Holgate Grundy February 6, 1941
in the coal mining village of Woodhouse just southeast of Sheffield, Berry
recalls, “My most vivid memories of childhood were hating every minute of it
until I was about 15!” Dave was
influenced by his father, a Jazz drummer.
“Band members would come by after their gigs on Friday and Saturday
night…. He would take me to Sheffield
City Hall to see Woody Herman, Stan Kenton and Dave Brubeck…. It seemed natural I should play drums. I must have been about 14. My dad taught me, just the basic style.”
Like so many others, Dave was influenced
by the mid-50s emergence of American Rock ‘n’ Roll and R&B. “Before I’d go to work, I’d listen to the
American Forces Network out of Frankfurt, an R&B / Blues show at six in the
morning. I heard Smiley Lewis, Louis
Jordan and all these 50s guys.” Dave
gave up his welding job and formed a duo with guitarist Malcolm Green. “We actually won the regional finals of a
prestigious singing and harmony competition … and went to Manchester…. We were runners up, I think.” The two were together for two years, and Dave
also occasionally sat in with a local four piece combo until their lead vocalist
signed himself into the Royal Air Force in 1960. At the band members’ request, Dave became the
new front man. Now needing a catchier
name, Dave took on the moniker of his idol Chuck Berry and the band changed its
name as well, going as Dave Berry and the Cruisers.
As the Frantic Four, the band had been
handling material in the indeed frantic style of Jerry Lee Lewis and Little
Richard. Dave guided them more toward
the Blues, picking songs by John Lee Hooker, Billy Boy Arnold and the Chess
musicians like Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters.
Initially keeping busy in Sheffield, they soon began to acquire gigs
farther from home. They appeared so
often at their manager’s Manchester nightclub that Dave surmised, “They also
had acts like Wayne Fontana, the Hollies, Freddie and the Dreamers. Many people thought we were a Manchester band
because we did so much work there”.
Dave signed with Decca in 1963, but even
though the Cruisers backed him on the successful single Memphis, Tennessee and its
flip Tossin’ and Turnin’, it was decided that they used up too much valuable
recording time and that it was wiser to wait until the studio musician pairing
of guitarist Jimmy Page and drummer Bobby Graham (also occasionally including
guitarist Big Jim Sullivan and / or bassist John Paul Jones, among others)
became available. “The original Cruisers
were a first class live act but, for some reason, we didn’t really adapt as a
unit in the studio.” Even though Dave
would very soon make his name as a crooner, we were still able to dig out a
dozen tunes that harken back to his R&B roots from the 57 tracks on the two
disc CD set.
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Credits for this week’s edition include the CD liner notes for the
entire Dave Berry portion while the Jeff Beck write-up was off the top of my
head. The Jack Bruce segment was partly
from memory but refreshed (and quotes provided) by Greg Russo’s Mannerisms: The
Five Phases of Manfred Mann. It is his
book on the Yardbirds that I must locate within my apartment to do Jeff Beck
justice by the time we get to the Jeff Beck Group, the one with Rod Stewart. The photos came from Wikipedia’s notes and if
this first attempt turns out as hoped, you can expect to see more. And thanks to Jim McKee for his heads up about
the JJ’s links, which follows today’s playlist.
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I Ain’t Done Wrong
I’m Not Talking
Mister You’re a Better Man Than I
Evil Hearted You
Heart Full of Soul
I’m a Man
The Train Kept a-Rolling
Shapes of Things
The
Yardbirds
That’s All I Ever Wanted from You
Baby
Spirit Free
Tengo Tango
She Needs Company
When Will I Be Loved
I Got You Babe
My Generation
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
You’re Standing By
Machines
Driva Man
It’s Getting Late
Come Home Baby
Pretty Flamingo
Jack Bruce with Manfred Mann
Don’t Gimme No Lip
Ella Speed
Diddley Daddy
Not Fade Away
St. James Infirmary
My Baby Left Me
Just a Little Bit
Go On Home
You’re Gonna Need Somebody
Alright Baby
Tossin’ and Turnin’
If You Need Me
Dave
Berry
Lost Woman
Over Under Sideways Down
The Nazz Are Blue
Jeff’s Boogie
He’s Always There
Turn into Earth
Scratch My Back
Too Much Monkey Business
The Sun is Shining
Smokestack Lightning
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
What Do You Want
Hot House of Omagarashid
Farewell
Ever Since the World Began
The
Yardbirds
Why Should We Not
Brother Jack (Frere Jacque)
Mr. Anello
Bare Hugg
L. S. D.
The Abominable Snowman
Manfred Mann
Still I’m Sad
The Yardbirds
Still I’m Sad
Jack Bruce with Manfred Mann
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Fitting right into today’s show, here is W.H.a.T.’ s extended
version of Jeff Beck’s Yardbirds instrumental “Jeff’s Boogie” (20 minutes)
W.H.a.T. is comprised of guitarist John
Wedemeyer, drummer Randy Hayes and bassist Endre Tarczy. To my knowledge they put out only one album
locally in the 90s but it didn’t compare to the excitement they created in
front of a live audience.
+ + +
+ +
This was just part of one of the
last shows to be held at JJ’s Blues club on Stevens Creek. To the best of my recollection, the club
opened its doors on San Jose’s west side in the very early 1980s and quickly
became the area’s main, if not only, Blues venue with Blues bands performing
every night of the week until the bar closed at 2am. Many nights, there would be a band from 4-8pm
with the headliner playing from 9pm until 1 in the morning. They also had weekend barbecues and for
several years put on their own Blues Festival at the San Jose Fairgrounds as
well as bringing touring bands into the club.
There were also two expansions attempted with clubs opened in Mountain
View and downtown San Jose, and I believe there was a time when all three were
open. Although the annexes were short-lived,
the Stevens Creek location survived well over thirty years including going through
some rough times for bar businesses. With
all the shows and jam sessions, it gave our established players a place to show
off their talents and lots of local lesser-knowns the opportunity to hone their
chops. Likely the widest known nationally
would have to be Chris Cain and Tommy Castro.
+ + +
+ +
Here’s a reconstruction of Andy Just
and the Shapes with Andy on vocals and harmonica and former bandmates Dave
Price on drums and John Wedemeyer on guitar.
Endre Tarczy fills the shoes of Fingers Farrell on bass.
+ +
+ + +
Andy Just and John Wedemeyer: Going Down Slow (7 minutes)
John was an original member of Andy Just and the Shapes (a
reference to a Yardbirds tune) back in the early 80s. John has been and always will be one of the
bay areas’s favorite musicians and was tapped by Charlie Musselwhite for at
least one of his albums and associated gigs.
He, and particularly Andy, filled in with the Ford Band when brothers
Mark or Robben Ford had other commitments.
+ + +
+ +
Gary Smith on harmonica and bassist
Frank DeRose join Wedemeyer and Hayes on stage for Going Down Slow, Gypsy Good
Time, Mean Old World and the closer. (21 minutes)
Gary’s reputation has been established as the premier Blues harp
player in the area long before the opening of JJ’s. He was the very first Blues DJ at KKUP and
has helped the station any way he could ever since.
+ + +
+ +
This show started Saturday, August
23rd at 9pm and ended at 2:15am.
The Blues were finally locked out of the building on September 1st,
2014. Thanks go to Bobbi Goodman for the
video capture and Jim McKee for his mastery of the mixing board. I was sent a fifth link but have been unable
to access it.
