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Greetings, Kent ...
Enjoyed the 'leftovers' today (Thurs). As to the 'From A Distance' track from The Byrds 'boxed set,' ironically, it was recorded at my studio, Treasure Isle Recorders, Inc., in "Music City, USA."
Chris had done several "Desert Rose Band" albums at our studio in the 80's with Paul Worley producing alongside of super engineer / nice guy / oldies buff, Ed Seay. Somehow or another, Ed got the call for the Byrds project and our studio was selected to record the four 'new' tracks for the boxed set. They spent four or five days with us if I recall. It was an honor to have Chris, Roger (aka Jim) and David in our studio. They took a number of photos in our large tracking room, some of which are included in the boxed set. In fact the photographer took one or two with me and the band but I never managed to run down a copy.
The Byrds are one of my all-time favorite bands ... certainly a wonderful blend of rock and country. Buffalo Springfield were super, too, but they failed to have the sustained success of The Byrds, who were originally produced by Terry Melcher with some assistance by Bruce Johnston, who actually met them prior to Terry.
Melcher and Bruce did a number of Columbia projects in the early 60's, including Paul Revere and The Raiders -- the very first true 'rock' act on the label. The early Raider tracks were primarily session players as Paul and the band toured constantly. Terry would often fly in Mark between tour dates to sing the lead vocals.
(Note: Paul had an agent in Seaside, OR by the name of Pat Mason. Pat had been involved with Elvis, Orbison, Gene Vincent, Dorsey Burnette and others in the early days. He worked his acts however he could. In between my Beach Boys dates, Pat would often call me to see if I would do a 'pick-up' date or two with The Raiders. He'd have me 'fill in the holes' between some of their larger market bookings. I booked the band several times for union scale, which was $150, against a small per cent of the ticket receipts. Pat and the Raiders would get the larger share. Pat was an incredible guy. He lived to be 93 or 94 years old. What a character.)
Of course, Melcher and Johnston had a couple of hits as "Bruce and Terry," and "The Rip Chords," whose "Hey, Little Cobra" was originally meant to be released by Bruce and Terry. As to The Byrds, three of my all-time favorite tracks, "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Turn, Turn, Turn," and the often overlooked "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better," were all produced by Melcher. He was a nice guy and I always enjoyed visiting with him. He was pretty unassuming considering his mother was Doris Day.
(Another note about Terry. When Brian was working on "Good Vibrations," originally meant to be a track on the "Pet Sounds" album, he used a number of studios and many, many hours of recording time. Terry got permission for Brian to use the Columbia studio on Sunset, which -- like Capitol's studio at the time -- was mainly used for their own label artists. I was fortunate to be at the Columbia session. There were actually several versions of "Good Vibrations" and over 90 hours of recording time).
Fred Vail, Music City, USA (promoter of early Beach Boys' concerts)
5/21/09
ALWAYS an interesting history lesson with you, Fred ... thanks so much for sharing these memories with our readers! (kk)
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