chameleon

Joe Long Cover-up

After our last post Joe Long tried to suggest the previous post was just a publicity stunt but this is just a cover-up by Joe who can be seen here helping Frankie destroy the tapes.

And to make matters worse, Frankie ate the tapes.

and Bob Gaudio was not the least impressed.

Enjoy......Casey Chameleon

Thanks again to the sound engineer George Schowerer for photos from his archive.

Shock News of Four Seasons Master Tapes

We’ve always wondered what happened to the Four Seasons multi-track masters and now we have photographic proof that Frankie Valli destroyed them himself. !!! We knew he was a demanding performer but isn't this a bit extreme! Fans will be sad that they will never get to hear ‘Ronnie’ in stereo.

 

Photo courtesy of George Schowerer – Sound Engineer

 

And below his photo of the latest technology as it was back then. The very first Ampex G-1000 on the day it was installed in the Mirasound studio in NYC. George told us that it was used later in the day to record The Platters on ‘With This Ring’ with Luther Dixon producing

 

Casey Chameleon

The Cemetery Of Tracks

Whilst reading ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I was reminded how collectors of 60s and 70s music view the record companies who hold the masters of this music. The hero of the book finds himself in a place that made me think of the vaults of old tapes that must still exist.

“Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the ‘Cemetery of Books’.A labyrinth library of obscure and forgotten titles”. These books were often the last remaining copies of old books……So it must be in the vaults of the big music companies. Who are the keepers of these libraries and do they even know what is there?.

Well we know that the team with Harry Weinger at Motown are continuing to discover material as they play tapes from the vaults and find things on them that shouldn’t be there, whilst finding tracks missing that should be there.

 We can only hope that this year will bring some relics out for the first time since they were recorded some 40 years ago from all the major vaults still in existence.

 As another year starts for Four Seasons collectors there is the promise of a number of releases to support the increasing profile of the music. Obviously the Partnership’s 'business plan' aim is to respond to the increased awareness of the Seasons sound as a result of the musical Jersey Boys and to coincide these releases with the progress of the touring show, thereby expanding potential sales of all Valli/Seasons material over the next few years.

This year will bring the re-mastered 76 track compilation box set with DVD from Rhino…so although long-standing fans will not get any new tracks they will have to buy the box set to get the DVD and Charles Alexander’s amazing notes(we’ve seen them and they are!). Then there is a new album recorded last summer by Frankie Valli that still awaits a release date…………but the prospect of anything from the vaults remains a dream. The material is there even though Bob Gaudio has always maintained there is nothing unreleased.

 A few years ago we picked up a sessionography which listed an interesting unreleased track as Matrix No 38006 (which puts it in 1966 right after the ‘Working My Way Back To You’ sessions). ‘Bad Can Be Good’ remains a frustrating question mark. BMI lists this as written by Tommy Roe. So it did exist as a song?...... but why the Four Seasons should record it we don’t know.

 Then there was Steve Tudanger’s claim(ex 4-Evers member) that they backed the Four Seasons on a version of ‘Ramona’. We will probably never hear this like so many lost tracks by artists from those days.

 Back in 2001 we had the copy of ‘One Man’ found in the vaults at Philips and clearly recorded around 1970 when the Ben E King version of the song was released. There is definitely more to be uncovered from the Philips days. Although the original multi track master tapes were allegedly lost in the 60’s we know the current masters contains unreleased tracks like ‘One Man’. We understand the Partnership library doesn’t contain either the mono masters nor the multitracks -- only the stereo/mono masters are available.

 And of course there are the Motown unreleased which according to reliable sources include some 19 tracks never heard since their recording, and another potential 27 tracks in the database which Motown haven’t as yet found. Whether or not these are multi track masters we are not sure.

 However now that Rhino are in charge of the back catalogue we can only hope that Bill Inglot cares as much as we do about the music and can persuade Bob Gaudio to consider their release. A CD of the remains of the Philips era must be possible and surely Harry Weinger will let Bill Inglot review the Motown tapes and maybe he can persuade Bob Gaudio to give us these lost musical moments. Or will they continue to collect dust in what is becoming ‘The Cemetery of Tracks’. Maybe it is a case of demonstrating that such releases would sell very well.

 We will keep pushing for these because those of us who experienced the 60’s are becoming less by the day and as they say in ‘Neverland’ “"It is all the work of the ticking crocodile. ‘Time’ is chasing after us all." We need to hear these tracks before the curtain comes down!

 Ken Charmer

'Seasons' Connections - The Four Knights

A ‘Seasons’ Connection track that helped start our research into Bob Crewe, Charles Calello and the Four Seasons has just popped up on t’Internet . ‘One Night’ by the Four Kings was released on Canadian American 173. The guy singing lead on that track produced by Seasons Nick Massi and Tommy Devito has just issued it on CD. Here is the link to read about him and hear the track. http://cdbaby.com/cd/waynetevlin We are unsure if he was on the B Side ‘Lonely Lovers’ but we’ll try to find out more. These tracks appeared for the first time on the bootleg CD ‘The Fantastic Early Years’ back in 1995.Thanks to Kingsley Abbott for spotting this. Casey Chameleon

The Magic Of JB

As Jersey Boys roars into another successful year on Broadway the reason for its success remains puzzling…..well perhaps to those who haven’t seen it! Rick Elice has perhaps captured some of the reasons why in an interview at insidebayarea.com.

 

The mystery of why?.....continues as Rick explains.

 

“This is something for the theater: a compelling story, characters you care about, music to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck and make you thank God for the day you were born ……………But what happens when the audience is there is more than any of those things. It’s the extra bit, and I suppose with any hit show there’s something magical in the relationship between the stage and the audience. With our show, I think it’s that people are familiar with the Four Seasons’ music but not with the guys. The audience may not be in a band, but they know what it’s like to want to belong, to be respected, to find home.”

We highly recommend this interview. Click above or the link in the side bar