Record Collector

As I mentioned The Cyrkle in John Simon's album , I picked up The Cyrkle's Red Rubber Ball today! Don Dannemann and Tom Dawes met at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and formed a band called Rhondells, and Brian Epstein, The Beatle's manager at that time, found them and that led to their contract with Brian Epstein's NEMS Enterprise in 1966. They were renamed as The Cyrkle (and it is said that John Lennon provided them with their unique spelling of their new name!), and released their debut album called Red Rubber Ball . Tom Dawes toured as a bassist of Simon & Garfunkel's band, so it is said that Paul Simon gave him a song "Red Rubber Band" penned by Paul Simon and The Seeker's Bruce Woodley. This debut album was produced by John Simon as I mentioned before, and this was released from Columbia and became the first hit for both The Cyrkle and John Simon.  Red Rubber Ball reached No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Paul Simon also reco...

Hungry Chuck - Hungry Chuck The information of Hungry Chuck is hard to come by, for they only released one album whose sales were poor and broke up soon afterward.  All I know is that most memberd of Hungry Chuck played in a Canadian band called Great Speckled Bird.  Great Speckled Bird were formed by Canadian duo, Ian & Sylvia in 1969. They joined Festival Express and traveled across Canada by train, along with Janis Joplin and Grateful Dead.  I found a video of their performance at Festival Express on YouTube but Ian & Sylvia basically dominated the video so you can't see Great Speckled Bird a lot here lol.  But their performance is awesome! Amos Garrett was one of the members of Great Speckled Bird and also Hungry Chuck formed in Woodstock, NY. FYI, Garrett played the guitar solo on Maria Muldaur's "Midnight At The Oasis."  In addition, he recorded with Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren and Emmylou Harris. Ben Keith was also a member of both G...

John Simon's Album - John Simon John Simon is a producer who produced Janis Joplin, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Simon & Garfunkel.  He has been familiar with music and a music lover since he was a child, and he produced The Cyrkle's Red Rubber Ball after he graduated from university. Red Rubber Ball - The Cyrkle I personally like this Cyrkle's Red Rubber Ball and want to cover the title song someday.  I think I should pick it up to write about here in the near future, for I have this album as well, and I think it's worth listening. Anyway, before I can write about that here, here's The Cyrkle's "Red Rubber Ball." This song became the first hit to John Simon as well as The Cyrkle, and his turning point was when he met Bob Dylan and The Band in Woodstock in 1970. That was a year after the famous Woodstock festival, and Bod Dylan inspired him to write his own songs and record them.  It is little known that he recorded several songs ...

The City was a band that was formed in the late 60's by Carole King, Danny Kortchmar, and King's second husband, Charles Larkey.  And they only released one album, Now That Everything's Been Said . King, who divorced her first husband, Gerry Goffin, moved to Laurel Canyon with her children, formed this band there.  The other two members, Danny Kortchmar and Cahrles Larkey left The Fugs to join this band.  Later, Kortchmar joined a fusion band called The Section. Lou Adler, who later produced King's Tapestry , also produced this album, and Jim Gordon, who palyed the drum in Derek And The Dominos and Delaney & Bonnie joined this recordings. This was released between when King and Goffin divorced and when King released her solo album, so I don't think this album is known to many people. But I think this is as good as her Tapestry . "Snow Queen" is a song written by King and Goffin that was covered by Roger Nichols and The Association. And I love ...

Forever Changes - Love When I talk about this band to my friends, some still don't know them.  Love are sometimes called as "obscure" or "underground," which makes me very sad.  Though they are often described as "underground," they affected The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and even The Rolling Stones (Love's singer, Arthur Lee recommended The Doors to Elektra Records, and The Stones wrote "Goin' Home" after they saw Love on stage).  You can see the similarity between "Goin' Home" and Love's first album.  Since the band were fans of The Byrds, they invited The Byrds' manager and singer songwriter, Bryan MacLean to join their band. Jac Holzman's Elektra signed Love in 1966, and this is their 3rd album.  It's surprising that Neil Young, who was a fan of the band, and Bruce Botnick, who was The Doors' producer at that time planned to produce this album, but Neil Young wanted to focus more on his own pr...

久々の投稿となってしまった今回は、今まで英語で書いてきたのですが、これからは日本語でも少しづつ書いていこうと思っています。 目標は一日一投稿！(といっても本当に続くのかｗ) ということで、今回は元ピンク・フロイドのメンバーで、バンドを作ったとも言ってもいい、私の大好きなシド・バレットについて紹介してみたいと思います！ といっても… 日本語で彼の名前を検索にかけても、あんまり引っかからないことが多くて、日本での知名度はいま一つ(汗)な感じですが、この人、実はいろんな意味で伝説的なんです(笑) まずは、このソロ第一弾の紹介ですが、68年にピンク・フロイドを離れた後、バンドのプロデューサーであったピーター・ジェナーが、このアルバムをプロデュースしようと試みるものの、2か月で断念。シドの精神治療後、69年4月に録音が再開され、ソフト・マシーンのマイク・ラトリッジ、ヒュー・ホッパー、ロバート・ワイアットの3人、ハンブル・パイからジェリー・シャーリー、またピンク・フロイドからはデヴィッド・ギルモアとロジャー・ウォーターズもバックに参加し、ピーター・ジェナーから引き継いだマルコム・ジョーンズのプロデュース下で録音されました。 ソフト・マシーンとシドとの交流といえば、他にもケヴィン・エアーズに頼まれてシドがバックに入ったReligious Experienceという曲もあります。 これがねぇ～、サイケ好きにはたまらないんですよ～ このアルバムには関係ありませんが、一応ビデオ載せときますね！ さて、少し脱線してしまいましたが(笑)、このアルバムの魅力は、まずカオスさにあります（ディスってるわけじゃない)。 曲も幼少期に乗った思い出のタコ型の遊園地の乗り物や、ロックが好きじゃない彼女を尻目に彼女の妹と付き合っちゃう歌まで色々ですが、一番カオスなのは12曲目のIf It's In Youでの声裏返ってやり直してるのに全部カットせずそのまま入れているところ(笑) シド本人までカットしてくれとその曲で言ってるのにも関わらずしていないっていう(笑) いや、フツーになんでやねん！ってツッコミたくなるけど、そこが良いところなんです(？) ということで、ここまで書いたんだからちょっと聴かせろよって方もいらっしゃると思うので、もちろん載...