L.A. Pickers, do you remember Jerry Cole?

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 19 Feb 2003 11:40 am

I just had a great phone conversation with an old pickin' bud from SoCal named Jerry Cole. We played for a while together at Bonnie Price's Foothill Club and also did some casuals together over the years. I hadn't talked to Jerry for almost 18 years. It was great catching up with what's been going on with him. JC has just been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and is currently the conductor/Guitarist for Nancy Sinatra in her shows. Jerry was a part of the Los Angeles Country Music Scene for many years but was also a very accomplished sight reader which gave him an edge in getting other types of work. If you remember watching the Sonny & Cher TV shows and later the Cher Show when they'd pan the band in the back you'd see Jerry with that little Stratocaster. He had a custom built Strat which was 3/4 size and just looked like a little shrunken black strat. He was the one who turned me on to slide guitar and some cool jazz voicings on guitar. On top of all the guitar talent was the fact that JC was a front line vocalist. I used to love playing those Roy Orbison tunes on Pedal Steel behind him. That stuff really lends itself to steel guitar. For those who never knew Jerry, he was only around 5'1" or 5'2" tall. I'm 6'4" tall and we'd have fun doing those two guys on one guitar things like Joe Maphis and Larry Collins used to do. The crowd would go nuts. I'd walk up behind him and we had it worked out where I'd play strings 4, 5, & 6 near the nut and bridge and he'd move his hands in closer and play strings 1, 2, & 3. Anyway, I was happy to be back in touch with him after all these years and just wanted to share a little about the guy. One small dude in size but a monster and giant when it came to the guitar......JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 19 Feb 2003 3:37 pm

Jerry Cole & his Spacemen? I have him on some Surf & Hot Rod compilation Cd's, really loved his stuff, He was a big session man in L.A., I believe.

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Regards, Craig

Brandin · Post by **Brandin** » 19 Feb 2003 5:00 pm

I'm sorry, I didn't always get along with Jerry when I did my time at the 'Foothill'.
However, Jerry is one fine musician, and maybe if I had been a better player I wouldn't have been so intimidated by him.
Jerry was also the guitar player on The Beach
Boys "Pet Sounds" which many consider to be one of the best albums ever made.

God Bless Jerry Cole.

GB

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 19 Feb 2003 6:22 pm

I remember playing with him at the Foothill club as well in the late 70s and one night he just kicked off Steel Guitar Rag and played the whole thing(on guitar)all the way thru by himself and didn't let anyone else get a note in edgewise. This was OK with me because I always hated that song and was happy to let him hog it for himself. -MJ-

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 19 Feb 2003 8:00 pm

Michael, you crack me up, dude!!

The reason why I say that is because one night in 1970 onstage at the Palomino, a woman came up to me and requested I play Steel Guitar Rag. Jerry inserted himself into the conversation and said, "sure!" And immediately went into SGR, didn't let anyone else say anything on the song, and then ended it himself. Boomer and Michael Murphey were up there with me, and they just stood back, speechless.

Jerry was a great picker, fer sure,... and if you don't believe me, just ask him... but look up "Small Man Syndrome" in the encyclopedia. His photo will be the largest one there, probably by HIS request.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 19 February 2003 at 08:05 PM.]

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 19 Feb 2003 10:40 pm

Craig Stock wrote:

He was a big ... man...

If only Jerry had heard that more often.

I played a party with Jerry just a few months ago. Before I had my amp plugged in, he had mentioned his work with Glen Campbell, The Shindogs, Frank & Nancy Sinatra, James Burton, The Champs, and at least a dozen other big stars whose names I hadn't heard since 1963.

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 20 Feb 2003 5:15 am

I once did a gig with Jerry. We were backing up a singer named Frankie Howard. It was at a club called "the Plantation" in a pretty seedy part of town. I remember there were 2 drunks asleep in the sidewalk in front of the place as I walked in.

I was surprised that a player of Jerry's stature and calabre would play in such a crappy place, but he told me that no matter how successful you get you should never stop playing in clubs, even though this particular one left a lot to be desired.

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 20 Feb 2003 6:34 am

Earnest, My buddy saw Nancy Sinatra at the Whiskey about a year and a half ago and Jerry was playing for her. He noticed Jerry and talked with him. My buddy said he seemed surprised that he new so much about him.

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Regards, Craig

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 20 Feb 2003 6:56 am

Hey Herb,
"Small Man Syndrome" I like that! Ol' JC was infected with that there's no doubt. He was an @$$hole to a lot of people but for some unexplained reason we never had any problems and worked well together. He hired me for some sessions and casuals for some pretty good money and I always got paid. When we were at the Foothill, 3 piece suits were in style. The band always wore anything they wanted and most of them dressed a little raggedy at times. Cole and I would check with each other everynight about what to wear the next night and we'd wear matching suits with ties and everything. Billy Mize & Cliff Crofford really liked the way we looked on stage and I think I might have even got some extra favors from the ladies for it. After all, that's mostly what I was into in those days. I remember one night when Jerry was on a rock & blues kick with a lot of volume and distortion. He was playing with a lot of treble. We had Jimmy Lee Morris on bass and Jerry'd hit some notes and Jimmy would rub his ear. Finally I guess he'd had enough, he walked over to Jerry and said "You little b@st@rd, if you hit that note again, I'll kill you". Cole didn't say anything, he just ran through and extremely loud guitar riff and glared at Jimmy. Jimmy just walked to the other side of the bandstand and took off his bass and walked into the kitchen. We did the last 15 minutes of that set with no bass. During the break, they went out the back door of the club and came in about 20 minutes later with no problems. I don't know if they smoked something or what, but the rest of the night and after that they got along OK.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 20 Feb 2003 7:01 am

I think it's also called 'Napolian's Disease'

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Regards, Craig

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 21 Feb 2003 6:17 am

Jerry played some killer loud and crazy bass guitar on a singer/songwriter album by Lee Hazelwood in 1971. If the artist had been anyone but Lee, it would have been terribly inapropriate, but it seemed to work just fine.

Jerry had his own solo band in the early 1970s, Jerry Cole & The Trinity, they recorded very little and that was pretty much the last of Jerry's run as a solo act.
In 1969 he was playing with Red Rhodes Detours, they cut the live album on the Happy Tiger label, and that year Jerry split as the label offered him a solo deal, he also played on an LP by the Them on the same label that year.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 22 Feb 2003 9:08 am

Jerry, et. al.

Jason e-mailed me a question about my post on this thread and I thought I'd reprint my reply here, lest anyone think my opinion of JC is that of "a$$hole," which it is not.

"Jaason
Yeah, it was with "Tex (band I was in with Boomer and Murphey)." We had a hard time getting into the Palomino since we played many other clubs in the Valley and Tommy Thomas was kind of pissed off at us. But when we got our contract with Metromedia Records and Allsup produced some stuff on us... never released, incidentally

, we got a big Saturday night show and the place was packed. Then Tommy hired us for the Sunday night house band slot and we fell into the "just another bar band" category. Lots of guys would sit in with us, like Jerry. It was at one of those Sunday night sessions that the Steel Guitar Rag incident occurred. By the way, I didn't have any animosity towards Jerry or thought he was an asshole, and I probably couldn't play SGR as good as he could, but I did think it was kind of a breach of bandstand etiquette. Jerry wound up using me on a few demo sessions, actually."

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 22 Feb 2003 1:35 pm

I too have done a few gigs with Jerry. If you don't comand his respect from the gate, you won't get any room to play. I remember having a few inspired nights onstage though, acting as foils for each other to play off of.

I was pleasantly surprized how he would leave his usual grandstanding live approach at home when we did a couple recording sessions together. In that environment, he was the comsumate pro, finding only the right parts for the song.

His namedropping would get to be a bit much sometimes, until you realized he was telling you the truth. Quite a legendary cat! I'm happy to hear he's doing alright!

Chris Allen Burke · Post by **Chris Allen Burke** » 27 Feb 2003 10:25 am

Wow, I didn't know this many people had cut through the scene and "did time" at the Foothill and or with Jerry.
And here I thought I was the only one who felt as if it were a sentence.

Brandin · Post by **Brandin** » 27 Feb 2003 3:25 pm

The drummer use to fall asleep in the middle of a ballad, and Jerry would lean over and say in my ear "He does that". That place was brutal, after 3 sets I felt I had been there a week. With 14 songs a set 10 would be ballads. The drummer got a lot of sleep!
We should get an award.
GB