chameleon

Out Of The Closet - Part 1

This is the first in a series of posts by Jean Thomas-Fox (former lead singer of the ‘Rag Dolls’) on her music and sessions as a back-up vocalist in New York during the 1960s. “ I wanted to say thanks for all the hard work and devotion shown by so many people still interested in the early 60s New York music that I was associated with.  I never imagined that all this would come alive again.  Nice to know there are still people out there who care so much about this music. I've really enjoyed being able to put together songs I worked on contributed by Spectropop members.  How amazing to have all this music we created with so many other artists now on CD so I can hear it anytime I want, or drive people crazy by playing it all to them  !!! I was going through my closets over the Christmas holiday and found some records I don't think many of you will have ever heard. So I’ll feature the story behind some of them here. Click on the images of the label scans for writer and production details" Tony Pass  ‘Spring Fever/ True True Love’ (Atco Records 6421) This single was a session on 10th May 1966 for two sides written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Jeff and Ellie did the production and Ellie, Mikie and myself did the background vocals." Mike ‘Doo-Wop Daddy’ Miller told us……"Tony Pass real name Tony Passalaqua, was lead singer of The Fascinators, a late 1950's doo wop group. They had a few real nice songs like "Rose Marie". Later he recorded under other names, Tony pass, Tony Michaels, then hooked up with Steve Tudanger of The Four Evers, and Ellie Greenwich, doing backup work, and was in a group called the Definitive Rock Chorale which Jean was in with Ellie Greenwich. Tony Pass was lead singer on one side, a Steve Tudanger song, "Let Me Be Forever" as well as that he may have done some work with The Bob Crewe Generation. “   "In response to a question about how Ellie, Mikie and I created our "special" sound and what were the special ingredients, I'd like to say I have no idea.  We were just lucky our voices blended so well together.  Mikie, who sang bottom, and Ellie, who sang middle, had powerful voices.  I had power in my chest voice, which was my normal singing register, and a lighter sound in my head voice.  Since I sang top, I spent a lot of time in my head voice or upper register.  It seemed to all come together and make everyone happy. We would learn our parts on the spot when we got to a session.  It didn't take more than 10 or 15 minutes to be ready to record.  Sometimes we didn't even have that much time.  You had to be fast or you didn't work.  There were usually no rehearsals before a session." "I found a really good version of Martha and the Vandella’s hit, ‘Dancing in The Streets’ which we’ve posted to my player. It’s by Trade Martin from 1976. I did lots of work with Trade who was also a very good singer. I can’t remember who else was on this session with us. It was Trade’s record and production and he asked me to sing on the session. That’s the whole story. Maybe Trade has that information . He’s a terrific guy. We also sang some commercials together. He was very active in this area too. We did “Campbell ’s Soup” (um um good spots) as a duet and they were on radio and TV for a number of years" "I also found that some sessions from 1968  matched up to a single I have. I sang in a group called the Tompkins Park Singers. They had a sound somewhere between the Rooftop Singers and Peter, Paul and Mary. Len Maxwell produced the session. The A side was ‘Did You Give The World Some Love Today Baby’, b/w ‘Gee, It’s A Lovely Day’ The first session was on18th March with another on 10th April when we recorded ‘The Man In The White Mustang’ and then again on the 18th June when the A side of the single was recorded. I can’t remember anything else about the group nor can I identify the other singers. If anyone can it would be great. The B side is very appropriate for Valentines Day so I hope you enjoy it.” Check out the details of Jean's log books here. We are currently working through 1965. And if you can add to the info let us know. Please note….. The tracks in the players will be available for a limited period. More 'Out Of The Closet' lost tracks soon.. Casey Chameleon

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The Future Of Music Is 'Free'- The Latest War Report

This week has been a milestone week for changes towards the ‘Future Music’ models.

With CD sales falling(10% last year)…..the ever decreasing cost of CD’s and burners …and the continuing popularity of P2P software(always amongst the top downloads at CNET), it is no surprise that not only has the download leader I-Tunes been challenged but every element of the market is changing.

This weeks announcement was about Qtrax….”the world's first fully-licensed advertising-supported peer-to-peer (P2P) music-sharing service -- free to listeners -- and offering the largest selection of musical tracks of any authorized online music source and the highest quality of service (QoS) in the industry.”

Arguments abound about what music will be available and if it will succeed……but you can bet we will all try them…….and hope that it does.

Although the war goes on as reported by Mark Charmer this week. The fans will eventually win….it’s just a matter of time…..I recall saying that before. But the evidence is growing daily

So why do we want our music for free, and will the cost of music continue to move to zero.

The fact is we love music….but now we have so much it has become disposable. When we don’t like a track any more we dump it from the I-pod. Music moves in web based groups......specialist groups of consumers. They abound on the Internet in blogs like this and fan clubs. Richard Jones when asked whether users would not prefer to own music - and be able to put it on a portable player - rather than just being able to stream it,  said: "The way people consume music is changing - sometimes you just want to listen to it there and then."

Whereas back in the 60s to the 80s we had to rely on cassette tapes and the mail to keep our collections of much loved music together…..we can now discover virtually all music on-line. Much of it is available free through blog sites where you can find virtually any rare album from the 50s to the 90s available as a Rapidshare(or some other sharing service) download. Then you can get help through groups like the Yahoo network to find lost or unheard recordings in specialists e-groups.

Gone are the days when you had to buy an album to hear it and to see if you like it. Download it as a zipfile dubbed from vinyl ….and if you want clean out the clicks for your personal collection using de-clicker software.

The impact is being felt by the vinyl resale outlets as the BBC reported the further closure of a major record shop. But now the supply of vinyl is rationalizing and stabilizing and in the future the ‘Record Shop’ will be a browsers library of ‘high end’ collectibles with the run of the mill vinyl passing through the internet vinyl resellers at knock down prices or through E-bay for 99p!

And then Last.fm disrupt everyone with their announcement of ‘the world's biggest free music service.’

Our approach is to try to persuade the artists to share their music with their fans. These are artists who had their career through the 60s and 70s in the main. Some are millionaires and they don’t need the royalties. Irrespective of their current circumstance they are lucky to have been part of the ‘pop century’. What they do need and we seek to help them do it, is tell the story of their creativity. In many respects the importance of preserving music almost lost in time is a daily crusade for many of us ‘music detectives’. Whatever the situation artists or former artists are in, it is virtually impossible for them to be ‘ripped off’ today as a result of the download culture. With the value of the music plummeting there is too little profit in it for the ‘commercial pirates’ to succeed. Once this is realized by the artists it is hoped that they will use their back-catalogue to tell their story illustrating it with the songs and stories of its creation from their past. Each track tells a story. Whether these are good, bad or ugly the stories entertain and this allows the music to shine through.

The subscription service model will we hope soon materialize as a viable access point to libraries of past years music. Last.fm have made a breakthrough as have Qtrax. The real battle is to find and preserve what has been created during this unique window of 50 plus years. That’s a war worth fighting. Whether we tune to it via Last.fm or want it for our I-pod the music is within our grasp.

Casey Chameleon

FOOTNOTE

The day after posting this note I found a blog link to all the Four Seasons Motown albums where they can be downloaded as mp3's for free. So these tracks will probably never get an official release and neither Motown Universal or The Partnership will make money from them again.Perhaps! This was a sheer coincidence and we have no association with the blog but now we can all enjoy the great quality of these tracks. You'll find lots of other great albums here too including the Seasons 'Christmas' album. Click here for the link.