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Topic: My ZB D-10. |
Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 7:22 am |
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| Larry Jamieson wrote: |
| Not that I can remember. The owner had a key mounted on the back ( made of painted plywood) which made it look like a wind up toy... |
Cool idea. I could do that to my Morris. LOL.
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www.JimCohen.com
www.RonstadtRevue.com
www.BeatsWalkin.com |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 7:25 am
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Jim - photoshop that GIF and make it the right colour!
_________________
Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Carl Heatley
From:
Morehead City,NC
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 7:35 am
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| Hi Roger...Looks like that was a Mini Van...Right? |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 7:37 am
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Correct, Carl.
_________________
Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 9:25 am
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| Roger Rettig wrote: |
| Thanks, Larry, but I have little to show for it, I'm afraid.. |
You have these awesome pics and stories!
For most of us, the Beatles and the Python are... well, as the oft-interviewed Pete Townsend once said of his rock n roll cohorts who had passed on before their time - "Icons? They may have been your f_ing icons, but they were my f_ing friends!" |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 1:20 pm
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It's all in the perception, isn't it? I realise that the Beatles eventually became arguably the most important group the world has seen but to us they were, if not exactly friends, contemporaries. Our paths would cross frequently - in TV studios and occasional gigs.
All of us - Beatles included - still looked across the Atlantic for our heroes. Maybe that changed for them by '65/'66 but it generally held true.
We did a BBC radio recording in 1964 at the Playhouse Theatre near Charing Cross (the BBC had converted an old variety theatre to a studio facility). It was a good period for us because Eden Kane had a huge current hit ('Boys Cry') that had an unprecedented twenty-two weeks on the chart. Also recording a few songs that morning were the Beatles and Jerry Lee Lewis!
I tell this story because, after we and the Beatles had taped our contribution to the pre-recorded show, we all found ourselves seats in the theatre and waited to watch Jerry Lee do his stuff. Had it been just another UK group we would have packed up for home after our last chord had died away.
I know I'll be castigated for this but listening to them from the wings in a theatre (as I often had the opportunity to do) I heard nothing special in terms of musicianship. In my view, and speaking in terms of ability, I preferred the Hollies or the Searchers when it came to UK bands - both had much tighter rhythm-sections. I was still passionately fond of the Everly Brothers and the other major American acts and these British groups I could hear for nothing most weeks.
None of this, though, means anything because the Beatles tapped a hitherto undiscovered need for something else. Their humour (which I'd always enjoyed) along with their ever-growing self-confidence secured a unique place in people's hearts - when that happens all bets are off and who can predict the outcome?
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Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 5:37 pm
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Very well said, Roger. The Beatles did indeed hold many American artists in pretty high esteem - Elvis, Everly's, Jerry Lee, Buck, Chuck, Little Richard, and just about anything Motown.
I also agree there were better bands than the fab, but it is not always just about the musicianship, as we all know. The songs...the voices, the look, the George Martin and the Jeff Emerick,...etc. Your "contemporaries" definitely tapped into something that was missing in the rest of pop music. |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 5:39 pm
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Roger, I'm curious: after they had a few albums under their belts, did you still feel the same way about them and the other Brit-rock bands? Or did you feel they rose to the top of the heap, musically, after awhile?
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www.JimCohen.com
www.RonstadtRevue.com
www.BeatsWalkin.com |
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J R Rose
From:
Keota, Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 6:31 pm
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I Love this thread, what a lucky guy Roger was to be their at that time. I am jealous. Thanks Roger for the pictures and the stories. J.R.
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NOTHING..Sold it all. J.R. Rose |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 6:53 pm
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Their first couple of LPs were done very quickly - maybe in a day? And they sound like it. Half the tunes are 'covers' and, in my opinion, don't stand up to the American originals. Eventually some real originality started to show but, to be fair, by then they were EMI's golden boys and it reached the point where they could take all the time they wanted.
They were still mediocre players, as were most of us in Britain in that era. I never heard a Beatles track where I said: "Boy, I wish I could nail that lick!" But that happened all the time with US records.
As Fred says, though, it's not just about musicianship. Quirky, anarchic humour and irrepressible enthusiasm and energy did the rest. I thought Paul was a good bassist. I thought George and Ringo average. With John it was never about playing or singing but more about being 'different' at all costs.
Sure, there are some lovely melodious moments. Some credit is due to George Martin and the tireless Geoff Emerick.
I well remember a disgruntled Don Everly saying: "I turned around and suddenly you had to be English!"
_________________
Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 2 Dec 2017 6:58 pm
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PS for Jim:
Yes, I think they rose to the top of the heap eventually but not by virtue of their playing. As I say above, the reasons are myriad and, anyway, by the mid-'60s even my precious Everly Brothers had started copying the Beatles' sloppy approach. 'The Price of Love' being a case in point.
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Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 3 Dec 2017 5:40 am
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Further to what Fred said, I'd add that all of us in Britain who were captivated by music looked to America because that's where the great stuff was coming from. It wasn't just the Beatles.
The only exception was Britain's Lonnie Donegan who, in the '50s, was the only home-grown artist of any consequence. ('Rock Island Line' was supposedly the first record Lennon ever bought but half-a-million British chaps could make the same claim.) Donegan was reworking American roots music, though, so still the influence was strongly transatlantic.
Most of this discussion, though, is moot because doesn't it really depend on what age one was when music supplanted cowboys-and-indians in one's imagination?
My estimable colleague, Jim Cohen, takes me to task for, as I believe he sees it, my lack of appreciation for the Beatles. But I'd already been won over as a 12 year-old, first by Donegan and then by Don & Phil and a host of other Americans. I don't know how old he is but if Jim was born even as early as the late-'40s (and not in 1943 like I was) then his first awakenings came later than mine, possibly from the so-called 'British invasion'.
It's only pop-music, after all. Is 'Wake Up, Little Susie' better than 'She Loves you'? It is in my head but it's all just strummed guitars and driving rhythms. Someone from another century would hear little difference.
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Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Henry Nagle
From:
Santa Rosa, California
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Posted 4 Dec 2017 6:22 pm
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| Roger, I really enjoy your perspective and your choice of words. And the stories. Particularly about Britain in the early sixties. It's such a fabled time and place for me. It's really nice to be able to see it through your words in a more realistic, workaday fashion. |
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