The Yardbirds

In a southwest suburb of London in the year 1963, vocalist-harmonica player Keith Relf and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith formed The Metropolitan Blues Quartet. After recruiting guitarist Chris Dreja, drummer Jim McCarty and guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham they changed their name to The Blue Sounds and a couple of gigs later settled on the name The Yardbirds. This name was either a reference to an expression that described hobos hanging around railyards or saxophone legend Charlie "Yardbird" Parker, depending on who happens to be telling the story. At first performing as the backup band for British blues pioneer Cyril Davies, they soon gained their own following as part of the burgeoning blues scene in the U.K. In september of 1963 they took over as the house band for The Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, succeeding The Rolling Stones, drawing their repetoire from the best of the Chicago blues artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley and Sonny Boy Williamson II. Songs like "Rollin And Tumblin'", "I'm A Man", "Smokestack Lightning" and "Boom Boom" became theirbread and butter.

Topham left the band and at this point the group began its role, among other things , of exposing legendary guitarists to the world at large. This was started by replacing Topham with Eric Clapton in October of 1963.

The band's first manager was Giorgio Gomelsky. Under Gomelsky's guidance the group signed to EMI's Columbia Records and released their first LP, Five Live Yardbirds, recorded at the legendary Marquee Club In London. After releasing two singles, "I Wish You Would" and "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" it was the third single, the Graham Gouldman-penned "For Your Love" that gave the band its first hit. Selling over a million copies, it was awarded a gold disc.

For Clapton, this was all well and good, but the young man was a blues purist and was none to pleased at the distinctly un-blueslike direction the band seem headed in. He quit the band to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Gentleman that he was, Clapton suggested prominent studio guitarist Jimmy Page as a replacement. Page declined, preferring the relative financial security of session work, but made a recommendation of his own, friend  Jeff Beck. Beck took the job and performed his first Yardbirds gig a scant two days later. Clapton, blues enthusiast as he was, probably should have hung around another couple of years in light of the fact that the group would in 1966 record an album with none other than Sonny Boy Williamson II. Well, hindsight and all that.


Jeff Beck was one to experiment. His usage of distortion, controlled feedback and fuzz tone pedals fit in well with the increasingly raw British beat music in general, as well as The Yardbirds' experimentation in particular. Various European and Asian elements and even Gregorian-style chants began to appear in songs like "Still I'm Sad", "Hot House Of Omagarashid" and "Over Under Sideways Down". Though the band's commercial appeal was spotty, Beck himself gained more and more of the critical acclaim that would make him a future guitar hero.


In June of 1966 Paul Samwell-Smith left the band to concentrate on producing. Jimmy page agreed to sign on as bass guitarist while Chris Dreja learned how to play bass properly. The Beck-Page guitar tandem is heard on the studio version of the psychedelic-tinged "Happening Ten YearsTime Ago" with future Led Zeppelin member JohnPaul Jones, also a respected session musician at the time. Eventually Dreja switched to bass full-time and for a while the band used the dual guitar line-up featuring Beck and Page.

The Yardbirds recorded very little in the studio with the two guitar line-up and no live recordings. They did however, appear in Michaelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blow Up, where they mimed to a track they recorded called "Stroll On" which was basically a cover of the blues classic "Train Kept A Rollin'" with a title change. In this appearance Jeff Beck smashed his guitar, a cheap Hofner model supplied for the purpose of destruction.


In late October of 1966 Jeff Beck was fired for missing gigs, starting fights and other random acts of Beck-ishness leaving Jimmy Page as remaining guitarist and the band carried on as a quartet for the rest of its existence. Their commercial fortunes began to decline as "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" made it to only #30 on the U.S. charts and barely cracked the top 100 in England. Not even a partnership with hitmaking writer Mickie Most seemed to help. The Most-penned single "Little Games" flopped so badly in the U.K. that EMI didn't release another recording there until after the band broke up. The Yardbirds spent most of 1967 touring the U.S. with new manager Peter Grant. The band's final official gig was on July 7, 1968 at The Luton College Of Technology in Bedfordshire, England.

Relf  and McCarty became interested in doing music that was more folk and classically oriented. they left to form Renaissance which included Relf's sister Jane. Later, in 1975 Relf and McCarty formed a hard rock quartet named Armageddon which released two albums that went widely unheard but of fine quality nonetheless. Jimmy Page, still wanting to go the heavy rock route, recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham. In time Chris Dreja left the band to pursue photography as a profession. He was replaced by session ace John Paul Jones. They remained The Yardbirds until the end of 1968 when prompted by a cease and desist order filed by Dreja, claiming rights to "The Yardbirds" name. As anyone who has been paying even the slightest attention would know, the band changed its name to Led Zeppelin and began creating a whole other rock legend. Singer Keith Relf unfortunately was killed in an electrical accident in his home on May 14, 1976.
The Yardbirds were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1992. All the surviving members including Beck and Page attended, with the exception of Clapton who was touring at the time. Keith Relf''s wife April and son Danny accepted the induction on his behalf.
The band re-formed in 1992 with Dreja, McCarty and new members Gypie Mayo on guitar, John Idan on bass and lead vocals and Alan Glen on harmonica and vocals. The band still are active as The Yardbirds performing occasionally with guest artists such as Steve Vai, Brian May, Slash, Jeff Beck and on one gig were actually joined onstage by original guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham.

Rick James

James Ambrose Johnson, Jr, later to be known as Rick James, was born February 4, 1948 in Buffalo, New York and is the nephew of the late great Temptations basso profundo Melvin Franklin. Early on in life James developed a tendancy towards doing things his way. Dropping out of school at the age of 15, he began singing on the street corners with friends. In order to avoid being drafted, he enlisted in The U.S. Naval Reserve. Weekend training and a fledgling musical career proved to be a poor mix as James began to skip training more and more until finally going AWOL. Fully aware that the armed forces took a particularly dim view of such activities, James relocated north to Toronto, Canada in the summer of 1964 and formed his first band with future Steppenwolf bassist Nick St. Nicholas. The band was called The Sailor Boyz and later renamed The Mynah Birds. This group also included at different times future members of The Buffalo Springfield, Bruce Palmer and Neil Young. After a successful audition for Motown Records, the band fired its manager for pocketing the advance money. The manager responded by outing James as an AWOL sailor. This prompted Motown to turn James in to the authorities and the Mynah Birds project was shelved. After a year in a naval prison, he returned to Toronto, formed a new line-up of The Mynah Birds during the summer of 1967, which broke up shortly after. In early 1968, he returned to Motown as a  writer and producer working with Smokey Robinson, The Spinners and Canadian band Bobby Taylor And The Vancouvers. Yet another change of residence, this time to Los Angeles, resulted in James Being involved with a number of failed band projects. So it was back to Detroit and Motown, where he finally released his first solo album, Come Get It! , which featured the funk hit "You And I".

This album, released in 1978, on which James played most of the instruments, launched his solo career and was followed up with Fire It Up. At this point he embarked on his first tour as a headliner with an up-and-coming artist named Prince as the opening act. The two artists' relationship began cordially, then became strained as James began to accuse Prince of stealing elements of his act. The situation became unmanageable and James finally cancelled the remainder of the tour. Early in 1979 his third album, Bustin' Out Of L Seven was released.


Rick James' fourth LP release, 1980's Garden Of Love was heavily pop-RnB flavored. It tanked. The next album was Street Songs, a much grittier hard funk collection which was also contained rock and new wave influences. This would prove to be his most successful outing featuring James' signature song "Super Freak" which went to #16 on the Billboard Top 100 and earned a Grammy Award nominaton. The album itself went to #1 on the RnB charts and #3 on the pop charts. My personal favorite on this album is "Ghetto Life", which along with "Super Freak" features backing vocals by The Temptations.


James, along with his touring and studio group The Stone City Band, rode the tidal wave that Street Songs generated well into 1983 when his next LP Cold Blooded was released, the title track of which became yet another hit. The relationship between James and Motown remained lucrative until business conflicts of one type or another led James to leave the label and sign with Warner Brothers in 1986.


During his Motown heyday James was in demand as a writer and producer. He was asked to produce and provide songs for singer Teena Marie's much-anticipated debut Wild And Peaceful, an album that not only launched Marie's career but began a long-running personal and professional relationship between the two. The album's stand-out track was a hit duet with James called "I'm A Sucker For Your Love"
For The Temptations Reunion LP, James wrote and performed on the top 10 track "Standing On The Top". These tracks were saturated with the distinctive style James developed through the years.


In 1983 A collaboration with Smokey Robinson resulted in the top 30 RnB hit  "Ebony Eyes", a finely crafted throwback soul ballad. His first Warner Bothers album release was Wonderful, which featured "Loosey's Rap", another RnB chart hit with guest artist Roxanne Shante. The video for the song was banned on MTV and BET for sexual content, Rock Roots however, has no such restriction.


Rick James' fortunes began a downward slide as the 1990s came in. By this time his drug abuse, mainly with marijuana and cocaine, dating back to the 60s, was publicly known. In 1993 he was convicted of two separate assault charges and served two years in Folsom Prison. He also lost $2 million in a civil suit brought by one of the women he assaulted. He was released in 1996. His drug addiction finally overtook him as he suffered a stroke in 1998. He ended up needing a pacemaker and battling health problems from obesity.
On the morning of August 6, 2004, Rick James was found dead in his Los Angeles by his caretaker, having succumbed to cardiac and pulmonary failure due to complications of his deteriorating health. He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetary in Buffalo, New York. He had lived an all-too-brief life...always on his own terms.

The Pretenders

In 1973 Chrissy Hynde, a native of Akron, Ohio and student at Kent State University relocated to London, England where in between working for the weekly music newspaper New Musical Express and at a music store owned by Malcom McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, she found the time to record a demo of her music. In 1978 Anchor Records A&R (artists and repetoire) executive Dave Hill heard the demo while in the process of forming his own label Real  Records, and was impressed enough to arrange for Hynde to record more material enlisting future Motorhead drummer Phil Taylor and Chrissy Hynde's former bandmate in The Moors Murders Mal Hart on bass. At Hill's suggestion Hynde formed a more permanent band consisting of bassist Pete Farndon, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and drummer Martin Chambers, all three U.K.-born. Up to this point nameless, Hynde named the band The Pretenders after The Platters' classic song "The Great Pretender". Included on this band's initial studio effort was a cover of The Kinks' song "Stop Your Sobbing".

This song was released as the band's first single, produced by Nick Lowe in January of 1979. It garnered much positive critical attention despite the fact that it didn't exactly burn up the charts. It was pretty much the same situation with their second single release of one of my own personal favorites, "Kid".

Even a casual observation revealed this band to be something special. In Hynde and Farndon you had two of the coolest looking rock musicians to grace a stage, Farndon had the look everybody wanted to pull off with the same gum-chewing nonchalant presence. Hynde was the prototype rock and roll bad-girl-with-a-gutar, spit and vinegar vocals, topped off with her Jeff Beck haircut paving the way for the likes of Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson. Honeyman-Scott perfected that jangly, new wave guitar sound while Chambers' drumming was savage yet impeccable. The songs, mostly written by Hynde were nail-on-the-head dead wicked.There was no way this bunch could go much longer without a hit. And so it was with their third single release that the proverbial jackpot was hit. Reaching #1 on the U.K. charts and  #14 on Billboard's Top 100, in conjunction with the band's self-titled debut album, also critically acclaimed, this would prove to be the band's signature song to this day as well as a perennial FM radio fixture. The song was titled "Brass In Pocket".


In March of 1981 the band released an EP titled most literally Extended Play which contained a live version of "Precious" and two more hits, "Message Of Love" and "Talk Of The Town". this was followed by their second full-length album The Pretenders II in August that same year. June 14, 1982 Pete Farndon was fired due to assorted misbehaviours, then two days later James Honeyman-Scott died due to a cocaine overdose. While in the process of forming a new band with former Clash drummer Topper Headon, on April 14, 1983, Farndon was found dead by his wife, having drowned in the bathtub, passing out while on heroin. This left only two surviving
members .  


Carrying on, Hynde and Chambers recruited Rockpile guitarist Billy Bremner and Bassist Tony Butler of Big Country to record their next single, "Back On The Chain Gang". This became their biggest hit, released in October of 1983 and staying at #5 on the U.S. charts for three consecutive weeks. The b-side, "My City Was Gone" was used as theme music for The Rush Limbaugh Show, much to Hynde's chagrin.

That particular line-up was not meant to be a permanent one, so in came guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bassist Mal Foster for 1984's album Learning To Crawl which featured the top 20 hit "Middle Of The Road". After the band's appearance at the 1985 Live Aid Concert ,Chambers and Foster werer replaced by T.M. Stevens on bass and ex-Haircut One Hundred drummer Blair Cunningham. The album Get Close was the released in 1986 containing the two top 10 singles "Hymn To Her" and "Don't Get Me Wrong".
Following a hiatus in musical activity,The 1990 album Packed was released, and although credited as a Pretenders album, it was done with session musicians leaving Chrissy Hynde as the only official group member. This was fitting enough given that since the band's formation in Hereford,England in 1978, Hynde was always the driving creative force of the band. This collection contained a song that was very reminiscent of the band's early days and another favorite of mine called "Never Do That". It was a big hit in Canada but was only fairly successful elsewhere.                                                                       
                                                   


In 1993 Hynde formed a new Pretenders line-up with ex-Katydids guitarist Adam Seymour, ex-Primitives bassist Andy Hobson and returning original drummer Martin Chambers, a line-up that would last over a decade  and would produce the album Last Of The Independents. songs from The Pretenders appeared on the soundtracks of the James Bond film Living Daylights and the Demi Moore film G.I. Jane.
The Pretenders were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March of 2005. Only the surviving original members Hynde and Chambers attended, though in her acceptance speech Hynde thanked all past members of the band with a special tribute to Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott . Hynde and the band remain active in various projects to this day.

So You Think You Know Michael Bolton...

If you are a Michael Bolton fan today, chances are you don't know that he wasn't the blue-eyed soul ballads crooner we know and love. Fact is, Mr. Bolton was making a very different kind of music during the late 70s and early 80s with a guitar oriented heavy metal band called Blackjack (above left). It was in the late 80s that he embarked on the extreme stylistic change of direction that made him a super star. Always a big fan of classic RnB, one of the first hits for him was a rendition of the Otis Redding classic "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay", a rendition so impressive it drew compliments from none other than Otis's widow Velma Redding. Presented here for comparison's sake is first a performance of "Everybody's Crazy" by Bolton with Blackjack followed by Bolton performing a song that won him a Grammy Award in 1991, a cover of the great Percy Sledge's hit "When A Man Loves A Woman". Very often in this business versatility is a virtue, and change is good.

Jackie Wilson

I have a personal list of five 60s-era solo RnB male vocalists that in my opinion were the best. Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. is definitely one of them. (said list appears elsewhere in this blog, by the way) Born June 9, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan, he grew up rough in the very rough section of Highland Park, ran with a local street gang and was often finding himself in many varieties of trouble. Hoping to tame the young man, his mother took him to church where he sang in the choir. In his early teens he joined The Eveready Gospel Singers, a quartet popular in the churches of the area. Young Mr. Wilson however was hardly the religious type, he loved to sing because the group made a bit of money. He was fond of the money because he was also fond of the cheap wine he developed a taste for at the age of nine (yes, nine). Dropping out of school at fifteen, he'd been sentenced twice to the Lansing Juvenile Corrections System. During his second stint in juvie he took up boxing and fought as an amateur achieving a less-than-stellar Golden Gloves record of two wins, eight losses. Returning to music, He joined The Falcons, a local group that also included his cousin, future Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs. Later discovered by the legendary Johhny Otis, Wilson cut a few tracks on Dizzy Gillespie's Dee Gee Records

before he was recruited by Billy Ward And The Dominoes to replace the great Clyde McPhatter.

McPhatter coached Wilson and became an influence on the young singer. Already blessed with an operatic tenor and easy stage presence, Wilson became a fine addition to the group, and while not matching the group's former success, served them well for the three years he was a member. He then left to become a solo act and signed with Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca Records. Nat Tarnopol became Wilson's manager and Wilson's first single "Reet Petite" was released from the album She's So Fine to moderate success . The song was written by another former boxer, Berry Gordy, Jr. along with Roquel Davis and Gordy's sister Gwendolyn. The trio wrote six more singles for Wilson, "To Be Loved", "I'm Wandering", "We Have Love", "That's Why I Love You So", "I'll Be Satisfied" and his 1958 signature song "Lonely Teardrops".


"Lonely Teardrops" went to #7 on the pop charts, #1 on the RnB charts and established Wilson as a bonafide superstar. His incredible multi-octave range was accompanied by electrifying stagecraft. Splits, knee drops, spins and one-footed slides inspired  artists such as James Brown, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Presley in fact was so impressed he sought Wilson out and the two became good friends. Wilson also incorporated basic boxing moves in his dancing. He even acknowledged coppng a few stage tricks from Elvis as well. He was also a savvy stage poser, making it easy for photograpers to capture him in countless performing images.

In 1958 Gordy and Davis parted ways with Brunswick Records due to disputes over royalties. The success of their work with Jackie Wilson did pay off for Gordy who used $800 in borrowed money along with the composer royalties from Wilson's hits to build his own recording studio, Hitsville, U.S.A. The rest of that particular story has been well chronicled, to say the least. Meanwhile, Wilson entered the 60s with more hits co-written by himself and Alonzo Tucker, a member of Hank Ballard And The Midnighters. These top 10 hits included "I'm So Lonely" "No Pity (In The Naked City)", "Alone At Last", "My Empty Arms" and the popular dance number "Baby Work Out".


In 1961 Wilson released a tribute to Al Jolson, of all people, called  Nowstalgia...You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet. While such a departure showcased the singer's impressive versatility, it was a commercial failure. He hit a slump in his career between 1964 and 1966 with a series of poorly selling singles. He did make critical and artistic gains with an album recorded with Count Basie and a series of duets with gospel singer Linda Hopkins and blues great Lavern Baker. He made a comeback in 1966 with the help of Chicago producer Carl Davis, releasing "Whispers Getting Louder" and 1967's  #5 pop hit, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher", one of his last and perhaps best-known top 10 hits.


As with  many of society's truly gifted artists, the personal life of Jackie Wilson was tainted by misfortune...some self-inflicted, some not. Known well as a quick-tempered man at the best of times, he was arrested in 1960 for assaulting a policeman when fans tried to climb the stage at one of his shows. On February 15, 1961 Wilson was injured in a shooting that left one bullet lodged too close to his spine to remove and another bullet that caused the loss of a kidney. He was shot twice in the back by an overzealous fan trying to commit suicide or a jealous girlfriend, depending on who happens to be telling the story. Having had all she could take from his notorious womanizing, his first wife Freda Hood divorced Wilson after 14 years of marriage in 1965. His son, Jackie Jr. was shot and killed on a neighbor's porch in 1971 sending Wilson into a deep depression for the next two years, as he consumed large amounts of marijuana and cocaine. His daughter died in 1977 of  an apparent heart attack at age 24, and in 1988 another daughter Jaqueline was shot to death in a drug-related incident in Highland Park. On September 9, 1975 Wilson was performing at The Latin Casino near Cherry Hill, New Jersey as a featured act in Dick Clark's Good Old Rock And Roll Revue. In the middle of performing "Lonely Teardrops", the singer collapsed onstage from a massive heart attack. Cornell Gunter of The Coasters was able to recuscitate him and he was rushed to the hospital. Despite medical personell working for 30 minutes to stabilize Wilson, lack of oxgen to his brain caused him to slip into a coma in which he laid for nine years until finally passing away due to complications of pneumonia on January 21, 1984. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Westlawn Cemetary near Detroit until a fund raiser purchased a headstone in 1987.

"Mr Excitement", as he was known throughout his career, was a two-time Grammy Hall Of Fame inductee. He was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1987. Popular music still benefits to this day from the awesome standard set by Jackie Wilson.