Happy Birthday Johnny Rivers!

[roll plymouth rock]

According to the internet, its is Johnny Rivers birthday today! So happy birthday Mr. Rivers...anyone else a Rivers fan on this board?

[dogear]

Only got one of his singles: "Secret Agent Man" (Imperial 66159) from the great TV series starring Patrick McGoohan - song was written by Sloan-Barri, who did a lot of amazing stuff in the mid sixties - it's in my collection because of them.

[roll plymouth rock]

I was fortunate to have spent some time with Phil Sloan over a week or so this summer. He's a really cool guy, amazing musician, prolific, inspiring and full of extremely interesting stories! Aparently he wrote the original, "Danger Man", in 15-20 minutes and made a couple minor changes to what we now know as Secret Agent Man. Also, did you know he produced The Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man, played a guitar solo on it and suggested they use the "Summer Means Fun reverb" to get that warm, reverb sound we hear on the record. He told me a million neat little things like this

So you collect PF Sloan stuff too? Along with Sloan-Barri and Boettcher/Usher, I also am into Tandyn Almer and Gary Zekley records. And other general sunshine goodness as well

[dogear]

Yeah some of the Zekley stuff is really great.
I recently got the 45 by The Visions "Small Town Commotion/Keep Your Eyes On The Sun" Uni 55042, the A-side is just amazing, time changes all over the place - quite daring production.
The other 45 by The Visions is "How Can I Be Down/Threshold Of Love" which seems to be a Zekley Solo record, I can't detect his vocals on "Small Town", both seem to be studio projects.
Best thing for me - besides The Yellow Balloon - is The Group "Baby Baby It's You/Can't Get Enough Of Your Love".
He also borrowed the intro from "God Only Knows" for The Fun And Games non-LP single "We" (Uni 55128) - also a good one.
Sad to say that is later stuff is quite bad: Silver, Platinum and Gold "LaLa Love Chains/Yes You Are (Tutti Fruiti) WB 8057 from 1974 is the same disco trash Curt Boettcher was into when he did "Music Music Music" or "Here Comes The Night".

Didn't Terry Melcher produce "Tambourine Man"? Yeah, you guessed right - I collect his stuff, too - but that another story...

[roll plymouth rock]

Yeah some of the Zekley stuff is really great.
I recently got the 45 by The Visions "Small Town Commotion/Keep Your Eyes On The Sun" Uni 55042, the A-side is just amazing, time changes all over the place - quite daring production.
The other 45 by The Visions is "How Can I Be Down/Threshold Of Love" which seems to be a Zekley Solo record, I can't detect his vocals on "Small Town", both seem to be studio projects.
Best thing for me - besides The Yellow Balloon - is The Group "Baby Baby It's You/Can't Get Enough Of Your Love".
He also borrowed the intro from "God Only Knows" for The Fun And Games non-LP single "We" (Uni 55128) - also a good one.
Sad to say that is later stuff is quite bad: Silver, Platinum and Gold "LaLa Love Chains/Yes You Are (Tutti Fruiti) WB 8057 from 1974 is the same disco trash Curt Boettcher was into when he did "Music Music Music" or "Here Comes The Night".

Didn't Terry Melcher produce "Tambourine Man"? Yeah, you guessed right - I collect his stuff, too - but that another story...

Phil was "ghost producer" on this session just as he ghosted California Dreamin' and Monday, Monday by the Mamas & the Papas..he also was ghost producer on the Stones' Paint It Black. Anyways, Mr Tambourine Man, Terry called him in after 3 different versions of the single were rejected by Columbia..PF Sloan did his magic and the rest is history. He did tell me to specifically note the correlation between the Mr Tambourine Man reverb/echo and the Bruce & Terry Summer Means Fun reverb/echo.

I don't have the Visions 45s, but I've heard them and they are pretty crazy. Do you like the Ragamuffins?

Also, have you heard the last Ronny & The Daytonas 45 from 1968 - boys and girls...its a nice slab of sunshine Just like Flower Smile by Hyle King.

Lately I've also been a fan of the Paper Fortress 45 Butterfly High/Sleepy Hollow People

PS-What is "The Group"...I haven't heard of that one?

[dogear]

"The Group" seems to be a Zekley solo effort (Warner Bros. 5840 - August 1966), he wrote, arranged and produced both sides and sings lead as far as I can detect.
"The Fun we Had" sounds a bit too barebone to me, rather like a demo, B-side is much better, Spector-style as was his co-written song "Missin' My Baby" by Clydie King (Imperial 66139).
Thanks for mentioning the other records which I hadn't heard of. Two of my favourites are
The Giant Jellybean Copout "Awake in a dream/Look at the girls" (Poppy 504) Jimmy Ryan of the Critters was behind that. A-side follows the structure of Good Vibrations, but isn't a copy at all. B-side is kind of The Association go Busy Doin' Nothin'. Also worth picking up is
The Full Treatment "Just Can't Wait" (A&M 878) great Harmony stuff ( a Buzz Clifford song).

[roll plymouth rock]

"The Group" seems to be a Zekley solo effort (Warner Bros. 5840 - August 1966), he wrote, arranged and produced both sides and sings lead as far as I can detect.
"The Fun we Had" sounds a bit too barebone to me, rather like a demo, B-side is much better, Spector-style as was his co-written song "Missin' My Baby" by Clydie King (Imperial 66139).
Thanks for mentioning the other records which I hadn't heard of. Two of my favourites are
The Giant Jellybean Copout "Awake in a dream/Look at the girls" (Poppy 504) Jimmy Ryan of the Critters was behind that. A-side follows the structure of Good Vibrations, but isn't a copy at all. B-side is kind of The Association go Busy Doin' Nothin'. Also worth picking up is
The Full Treatment "Just Can't Wait" (A&M 878) great Harmony stuff ( a Buzz Clifford song).

cool...if i'm not mistaken, dave marks did some work with buzz clifford, did he not?

i gotta look into these other singles you mention too

[roll plymouth rock]

Thanks for mentioning the other records which I hadn't heard of. Two of my favourites are
The Giant Jellybean Copout "Awake in a dream/Look at the girls" (Poppy 504) Jimmy Ryan of the Critters was behind that. A-side follows the structure of Good Vibrations, but isn't a copy at all. B-side is kind of The Association go Busy Doin' Nothin'.

tried to bid on this ebay auction, but ended up at $179!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230225152385&ssPageName=STRK:MEDW:IT&ih=013

[michael]

To you two P.F.Sloan collectors.I have been sitting on a 5 disc set of Sloan related material I recieved a few years back.It was fan made.Regrefully I did not get a set list/artwork.Any chance either of you have heard/have this and can help me with art?

[roll plymouth rock]

Also worth picking up is The Full Treatment "Just Can't Wait" (A&M 878) great Harmony stuff ( a Buzz Clifford song).

Interesting story....ended up tracking down this 45 and making a comment on Buzz Clifford's Myspace page about how I liked it. Just received an e-mail from Buzz himself today saying he hasn't heard the record in years and can I send him an mp3 file of the track? Neat, hey?

Found any good new tracks lately??