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page 42 |
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The Hands of Destiny |
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The First 3DN Rehearsals (cont.) |
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We moved our rehearsals from the vacated house on Vine Street, to a dance studio on Yucca St., called Rainbow Dance Studios and another set of circumstances unfolded. It was upstairs and the rooms were very live sounding, having hardwood floors. Different rooms give you different musical ideas due to the acoustics. Jimmy and I were surviving on hamburgers that we got at a little burger stand called Uncle John's, which was located next to the Hollywood Palace Theater parking lot. "John" was not a happy camper. It was written all over his face. This guy would put half a head of lettuce on each burger. Heaven forbid that you would ask for less lettuce. We made that mistake once, and he only added more. He hated his job and resented young rock pukes who had that look of aspiring confidence on their faces. To this day, you can ask Fork about a "lettuce burger" and he will immediately tell you about that guy and place. Stuff of sustenance during rehearsals, though. That, and Houston's Pit Barbecue on Wilcox Avenue. Ground beef, sloppy Joe type burgers. Mmmmm. Good grease. Also, a place on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills called Stan's Health Food, which had a small lunch counter and served a special (almost) vegetarian meat loaf sandwich and the greatest boysenberry, with protein powder shake you've ever had. Jimmy swears, he used to come in early before opening and mix in the turkey or beef, for flavor behind closed doors, then sell it as a veggie burger to the cliquish Beverly Hillsters. Best tasting pseudo veggie burger around. Entering through the back door, unannounced, made us feel even more studly and daring. Ah, yes, Allsup and Greenspoon. Those were the days. We use to call Jimmy, "Parnelli Greenspoon," (after Parnelli Jones, the race car driver) due to Jimmy driving like a maniac through the back roads of the Hollywood hills, that only he knew like the back of his hand. Danny brought a song, written by Lennon and McCartney that they had never recorded. An artist named Cilla Black had made a recording and Danny got a hold of it. It was called "It's For You." Originally done in a waltz (3/4) time, it was changed to 4/4 time. Danny was the one who had the idea to do this "ping pong," three part harmony approach, something along the line of the old tune "Mr. Sandman," where the harmonies stagger in, as opposed to everybody starting at the same time. That's my analogy, not his. Very cool. The 3 singers had worked up Danny's arrangement, prior to the musicians being included. In fact, Danny had recorded all the parts himself at home, while working up the arrangement. Danny wanted to give it a try with music, all the way through behind the vocals like most other songs. We began rehearsing it with that in mind. In rehearsal, we ran it down without the musicians playing, in order to hone some vocal parts that weren't right. To help them out, we would give them the key and then just keep time by clapping. After a couple of passes through the song and fine tuning certain vocal parts, we all looked at each other and said, "that's just TOO darn good the way it is." And so, Danny's acapella approach became the final product. Only hand claps and a faded "outro" by the musicians was added to what was originally a waltz time song that had instruments all the way through it. To this day, that song stands alone as a unique showcase of their vocal talents and Danny's "genius" on the vocal arrangement. Chuck had a Harry Nielsson song called "One" that he wanted to do. I believe Gabriel Mekler first brought it to Chuck's attention. Harry had done it, but with no success. His version was much lighter and suited to his style of singing. We started with the piano part, doing the 4's like Harry had done it. I think he used a different instrument, though. Check with Greenspoon. He's a pain in the butt, having a wealth of info on this kind of stuff. The singers worked up great harmonies to the song, but it was still lacking something. They asked us musicians to just "fock" with it a little bit and see what we could come up with. For joy! We were delighted for the opportunity. We jammed on it for awhile, even going past the point of overplaying (part of the process many times) and then editing ourselves somewhat, before the singers got involved again. When they did, they liked what they heard. I had added a rhythmical "Wes Montgomery" type octaves guitar part that added kick to it. Danny suggested that I do some "violin" type lines with the volume control (Ron Morgan had dabbled in that area a little, and due to my run in with Larry Carlton a couple of years earlier, I too, was somewhat into that. Guitarist's today call them "swells.") Floyd and Joe were like a Mack truck driving the groove, while Jimmy's studio experience brought color and finesse to the arrangement. Chuck made some suggestions, made his choices from the licks we offered, then went on to record one of the great lead hit vocals of our career. I'm very proud of that song. Great performances by everyone. Great collaboration. Next was a song off an album that Jimmy brought in. It was released, but was quickly falling into obscurity, if only for the time being. It was an album called, "Music From Big Pink," by a group simply called "THE BAND." The song was Chest Fever. I had been looking for a song to do, kind of an Iron Butterfly guitar type thing, so I gave it a try on Chest Fever. What came out was our own unique guitar sound, not really to be associated with Iron Butterfly at all. It was dirtier and heavier than other songs that we were doing and I loved that. Lyrics? Who the hell knows? You tell me. In recording, the singers actually sang different lyrics over each other at certain points in the song, at least that's my memory of it. Check with them. Cory was a big fan of Randy Newman and now, so am I. How can this apparently Jewish guy from L.A., sound so pitifully soulful and write like he was from Louisiana, or someplace like that? You got me. He's a total monster of a musician, singer, writer and composer. He comes from good strong Hollywood successful stock, too. Uncle Lionel Newman, I believe. |