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 Posted By: Jim Liddane on: 10/28/2008 21:01:34 EDTSubject: RE: John Rivers - Live or Studio? |
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Defnitely live! Actually, Rivers was the first act to appear on stage the night the club opened, but the album was recorded over a couple of nights several weeks after the opening, in front of huge celebrity audiences - including half of Hollywood's elite. Incidentally, the linking speech was recorded live, but is not always from the same night that the song was recorded so sometimes, they sound acoustically slightly different both from the vocals, and from each other. There is also some reverb added to some of the tracks, and the bass has been accentuated on some also. There was a TV documentary about the Go Go which showed Rivers performing, and some of the top Hollywood session men are seen accompanying him, including Larry Knechtel, Hal Blaine, James Burton etc. Although Lou Adler gets the credit, the idea was not all that original and was really based on Don Costa's Reprise Records production of Trini Lopez who did a couple of albums two years earlier at PJs which were huge for a short period of time. Bteween 61-65, lots of LA acts did genuine live albums, ranging from the 4 Preps to the Lettermen to the Kingstone Trio (all Capitol Records), to Trini (Reprise) and Johnny (Imperial). But it all went back to distances (and cost) - most of the Hollywood labels were willing to do genuine live albums as long as the equipment did not have to move too far outside Los Angeles. When it might, they either baulked, or else in the case of people live Bobby Vee or The Ventures, substituted some studio tracks for the weaker live ones (or as in the case of the 4 Seasons - simply faked the whole thing in the studio!) Actually, and this is sacrilege, I think the Johnny Rivers version of "Memphis" is the best version ever recorded (and I include Chuck Berry in that), although the arrangement owes a lot to Lonnie Mack's instrumental version from a year or two earlier. It has got a really great backing track - and if you look at Johnny live on Hullabaloo with one of his lineups, they look so relaxed while at the same time, managing to sound so solid. Apart from all that, he still does a great live act, and he was the first to discover and use the talents of both Jimmy Webb, and the 5th Dimension. You'd never guess I'm a fan, would you? |
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