ALLAN NICHOLLS at Brock, Ontario University
"2 Days In Canada" Conference
December 2010



VIDEO CLIP


Sixties Music—What a Trip!
By Allan Nicholls

 

Okay why would I use “trip” in the title of the paper?

A “trip” is defined as a noun is a journey, a fall caused by catching your foot, a light step, an error, something acting as a switch, a drug induced hallucination, a stimulating experience, a brief intense interest or an unusual or amusing thing and as a verb to stumble, to move with rapid light steps, to cause a device to operate (using the afore-mentioned switch), to go on a journey, to experience drug effects, to free anchor, to tip up yard (?), or to raise upper mast. The trip that I was referring to in the title of my paper is the actual journey that I went on as a result of my intense involvement with sixties music.

The answer is that I thought that by using trip in the title of the paper I might cause you to think about all those definitions in the context of the subject and how they might relate to music. The other reality is the journey or trip that I was afforded the opportunity to undertake as a result of my playing and performing music in that decade is definitely worthwhile relating as a memoir and then a lesson to be learned.

I had yet to read “Oh The Places You’ll Go” by Dr Seuss at that point of my life…but my goodness, I quickly learned that the touring with a rock band can take you everywhere and if you have enough energy to get out of your hotel bed, you’ll always learn something, meet someone, and find that one moment that will cause you to think. The trip really is the journey and the journey really is a trip!

I started my musical career singing with my brother on local radio talent shows in the 1950’s. Our repertoire consisted of “BYE BYE LOVE” and “WAKE UP LITTLE SUZIE” by The Everly Brothers. We performed the songs with a really great vocal blend (the natural family blend of David’s mid-range and my high baritone) of our voices. For our trip, we would ride and transfer a total of three city buses to the radio station (with our mom at first, then later shows on our own) and arrive for the early Saturday morning auditions and remain for the broadcast (assuming we were selected) and return, usually successful (in the top three) on the three buses home…our first road trip.

It didn’t take long before my brother became part of a rock band abandoning our “brother” act. Some three years later in 1959, I played my first live performance with my rock band “The Montereys” performing instrumentals and one vocal that I sang lead on…”Hey Little Girl in the High School Sweater” I will never forget that night, as we were playing at St. Laurent High School, in front of all of my schoolmates and my drums did not show up. I had ordered the set from the local music store and the drums were not shipped to the store B-Flat Music, on time. I performed by beating my sticks on a chair, a guitar case and a suitcase… the sound wasn’t the best but I kept the beat and that was the important thing!

The audience loved us. Years later I was to miss the only booking in my career at that same school (my alma mater) because of a weather-delayed flight in Nova Scotia, where I sat in the small airport coffee shop all night with the Pozo Seco singers. After a summer of playing in pubs in The Laurentians, the band took some time off and I received an invitation to join a band in another part of Montreal. The new band members included Bill Hill who was a stellar guitarist and had played with my brother’s group earlier on that year. My next trip was about to begin…the trip to rehearsals in another part of town. In those days, I took two buses (From St.Laurent to Montreal West) for Saturday rehearsals in our drummer’s basement. We gelled…the drummer Doug West, was so steady and rhythmical, the other guitarist, Andy Kaye was creative and inventive, and the bass player Louis Atkins was solid. This was a step up…a big step up!

We worked diligently at our rehearsals and added original material to the set lists and soon we could perform three 40-minute sets without batting an eye. We had custom tailored suits made. We grew our hair long. We wore boots. We hired a manger. We incorporated couple of songs into our sets from this new group from England, The Beatles. We developed our “sets” into a mix of original and non-original material that we presented with a dynamic energy and a sense of excitement to our “live” performances. We gave the audiences 100% and were always well received.


The tour began….the next trip

JB & The Playboys performed at High Schools, Church Halls, Union Halls, Ice Rinks, YMCA’s, Colleges, Social Clubs, Night Clubs, Arenas, and Concert Halls, Band Shells basically anywhere we were asked to perform. We always performed with the same intensity and excitement and we always received this great response. We built an incredibly large following and they started a fan club for us. We played on the same bill as The Rolling Stones, The Esquires, The Beach Boys, Mama’s and Papa’s, Cream, The Who, The Searchers, Herman’s Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, Sandy Shaw, Georgie Fame, The Seeds, The McCoy’s, The Young Rascals, Dino, Desi and Billy, Jimi Hendrix, David Clayton Thomas, Nico, and many more… in concerts and clubs throughout Canada and the USA. The fan club grew, crowds came to see and hear us and the following became larger.

We went into the studio and recorded three 45-rpm singles for RCA Victor to be released simultaneously which had never been done before. The result was that the radio station in Montreal charted three of the singles in the top ten one week and we were getting a lot of airplay throughout Eastern Canada (Quebec and The Maritimes). We felt we needed something drastic to happen to get us on the radio throughout the rest of Canada, so we up and relocated to Toronto, where we would work of for the next year. We performed as many as four shows a week throughout Ontario, consistently, recorded and album in the RCA Studios in Toronto and our singles found there way on to the charts in Toronto, Hamilton, London, and small markets throughout the province. We had broken into the Ontario and presumably Western Canadian market! But no! There’s more to it than that.

The idea that we had to relocate to break into any areas market became extremely frustrating and time consuming. Here we were a band of five members having to pull up stakes and live somewhere to get recognized through our unique and exciting live performances. We couldn’t get airplay until we attained a certain amount of popularity from our live performances and even then airplay was not guaranteed as the number of record releases from others were increasing, the quality of the music improving, and the marketing of those artists was becoming a major force. Record companies realized in the early sixties that rock music was not going away, had a solid following, and was a potentially enormous money-maker for the once mainstream pop music labels.

After several releases on RCA Victor our manager convinced us to look elsewhere and we moved to Columbia records… where we ended our career. The recording of our records was a major part of our “journey”. Our first records were made in Montreal. We then recorded in Toronto. We were trying to maintain our Canadian status that was being encouraged with the legislation of music aired on radio stations at the time. We wanted to maintain our Canadian Content standard. Licenses were being given to radio stations based on the Canadian content of their play lists. For music, the requirements are referred to as the MAPL system. Following an extensive public hearing process organized by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the MAPL system, created by Stan Klees (co-creator of the Juno Award), was adopted as a way to define and identify Canadian content in pieces of music for the purposes of increasing exposure of Canadian music on Canadian radio through content regulations governing a percentage (25%) of airplay that is to be devoted to Canadian music. How the MAPL system worked:

To qualify as Canadian content a musical selection must generally fulfill at least two of the following conditions:
M (music) — the music is composed entirely by a Canadian.
A (artist) — the music is, or the lyrics are, performed principally by a Canadian.
P (production) — the musical selection consists of a performance that is:
recorded wholly in Canada, or performed wholly in Canada and broadcast live in Canada.
L (lyrics) — the lyrics are written entirely by a Canadian.[1]

While we spent a great deal of time and effort in compliance with MAPL, we discovered that there was a difference between the American and British recordings and the Canadian manufactured sound. Try as we may we could never duplicate or get near the rich sound quality (or volume) of their recordings. So we decided to bag it and try our luck at recording in the USA…. another trip. But before we made the journey to US to record we secured the services of an American producer, Joe Rene, who had written and produced the classic, Tossin’ and Turnin’. We brought him to Montreal in an effort to get the sound we were looking for, in that local (and Canadian) studio. After that proved unsuccessful, we left for the United States where we recorded songs in both NYC and Los Angeles in search of our sound. In the process, we were analyzed by a highly respected entertainment mogul and record executive, Mike Maitland, who loved our group, thought we had the potential to be the next “big thing”, but knew that we needed a more original sound to go where we wanted to go and be where we wanted to be…

The next journey began in the quest for an original and appealing sound for the group. First we worked hard at developing a country rock sound (borrowing from the songs of Buck Owens and Don Williams and arranging the music with our instrumentation, harmonies, and adding a steel guitar). We soon discovered that approach to be totally opposite to our live performance and contradictory to exciting our audiences to the frenzy that we were accustomed to building at our concerts. We abandoned the country rock sound, even though it was quite unique for the time period that had yet to be introduced to Poco and The Flying Burrito Brothers. We were close to developing the original sound that was being asked of us, but it seemed that it competed with our success in concerts… so we took another course.

Next, we attempted, for lack of a better explanation, a semi-psychedelic sound. We added some rare stringed instruments and effects that created a pretty wild sound but again did not fit our performance profile. Then we thought we should hand the problem of the original sound over to a respected, reputable, record producer. Certainly they could come up with a sound for us…we were getting desperate. We were seeing and feeling the difference between the live performance and the record. We couldn’t abandon the success of our live performance, yet we could not get to the next level without a hit record. This was our dilemma… this was our situation… a great concert band, unable to produce a hit record! We decided to abandon the idea of Canadian content in lieu of finding that recording sound that we so desperately needed. We left for the United States and after some time we got the attention of some major record labels and some major record producers of some stature… thus more journeys:

First we landed in Los Angeles and recorded with Gary Paxton (famous for creating The Monster Mash) in his garage with his control room in his bus parked in the driveway. The songs “Who Do You Think You Are? And “Bad Sign” written by Ken Johnson and released on Columbia Records with absolutely no success.

Next was a session at Sunset Sound recorded a version of “Kathy’s Clown” with a little known producer and received no deal from any label. We returned to Canada and tried for months to come up with original songs that took us in a new direction, sound-wise, but would match our stage performance. The result was a five song demo that we recorded at the infamous Andre Perry studios, which scored us a record deal with Capitol Records in the USA.

We traveled to NYC and made our way to Brooks Arthur’s 52nd Street Studios. Artie Kornfeld (of Cowsills and, a few years later, Woodstock fame) produced our single “Posterman” which he wrote and the entire session was performed by studio musicians and singers. My vocals were the only representation of our band. It was a turning point in our career. We were so bent on having a hit record and we thought that this was the way it was done, so we went along with it and in the process, it was this moment that tore apart the band. The single was released on Capitol Records to very little response in the USA and a couple of chart-listings in Canada, but the very fact that the “group” was mis-represented totally would soon lead to our demise.

We returned to Montreal, pretty down, tried to pull ourselves together by rehearsing endlessly and writing new material, but it was not coming together. Then we got a call from our manager in NYC who had a plan. His plan was that there was this Broadway Show “Hair” looking for replacement performers. He suggested that I travel down to NYC, audition for the show, assumedly, get in the show, and the rest of the band follow, live with me, and we work as a band, out of NYC. This could be the final trip! It sounded good “on paper” and so we jumped at the opportunity, as we always did. However, there were a few caveats that we didn’t count on or even know existed.

The length of time of the audition process was over three months, and by the time I was accepted for the show, most of the band members had become disillusioned and embarked on other projects. Living in the back room of my manager’s “Juke Box” shop on Second Avenue, when the call went out for the group to come down, only the bass player, Les, arrived and he only lasted a couple of weeks in the Big Apple as we auditioned drummers and guitarists trying to piece something together. So there I was, at the end of my journey with the band…on my own in NYC, performing on Broadway, and still trying to find the solution to the hit record. I went on to record a few singles on my own, but it wasn’t the same without the group dynamic…I needed the band back together but that was never to be…


How and why did the music take me on that ride?
The exciting live performance concert course that the band took touring Canada and the USA, and the resulting rise in our popularity, and the never-ending search for the original and complimentary sound for the band, caused us to be traveling constantly. As I look back, we were tenacious in our efforts, rehearsing, researching and writing our music and we never quite nailed it. As it turns out, it was relying on others for help that brought us to an end. We abandoned our creative process for theirs and we failed.

How did our sound evolve?
Our sound went from a copy of the British sound (which was an interpretation of R&B music with electric guitar, bass, drums, and harmonious vocals) to a more vocal based, to a country-influenced sound, to a more ruckus instrumental sound (with the harmonious vocals), and finally, to someone else’s interpretation of how we should sound. Melody was always important. The interesting thing is that we were such fans of The Beatles that we were greatly influenced by their every move to expand their sound. We experimented as they experimented. I would have to say that reading about their process now reminds me of our process; only they had more financial stability with which to experiment. Looking back, I wish we had just continued to write our own material, in the hope that we would have gotten there eventually, instead of relying on outside sources who we thought could provide us with our “sound”.

What effect did our music have on our audience?
Our live performances were stellar. We could excite any crowd anywhere any time! We would consistently bring them to their feet, as we were extremely entertaining and musical. That was our biggest dilemma… to match our “recorded sound” with the excitement of our “live performance”. We were credited with starting the riot in London Ontario before The Rolling Stones went on stage and managed only one song before the concert was shut down.


How and why did the music take me on that ride?
The exciting live performance concert course that the band took touring Canada and the USA, and the resulting rise in our popularity, and the never-ending search for the original and complimentary sound for the band, caused us to be traveling constantly. As I look back, we were tenacious in our efforts, rehearsing, researching and writing our music and we never quite nailed it. As it turns out, it was relying on others for help that brought us to an end. We abandoned our creative process for theirs and we failed.

How did our sound evolve?
Our sound went from a copy of the British sound (which was an interpretation of R&B music with electric guitar, bass, drums, and harmonious vocals) to a more vocal based, to a country-influenced sound, to a more ruckus instrumental sound (with the harmonious vocals), and finally, to someone else’s interpretation of how we should sound. Melody was always important. The interesting thing is that we were such fans of The Beatles that we were greatly influenced by their every move to expand their sound. We experimented as they experimented. I would have to say that reading about their process now reminds me of our process; only they had more financial stability with which to experiment. Looking back, I wish we had just continued to write our own material, in the hope that we would have gotten there eventually, instead of relying on outside sources who we thought could provide us with our “sound”.

What effect did our music have on our audience?
Our live performances were stellar. We could excite any crowd anywhere any time! We would consistently bring them to their feet, as we were extremely entertaining and musical. That was our biggest dilemma… to match our “recorded sound” with the excitement of our “live performance”. We were credited with starting the riot in London Ontario before The Rolling Stones went on stage and managed only one song before the concert was shut down.

What was the reason we had local success in Canada… never global acceptance?
I would have to say that our unsuccessful attempt to find our own sound and record it properly was the main reason for our inability to be recognized worldwide. Our constant search for a sound, while trying to remain true to our Canadian roots and rules was definitely a stumbling block for us during a crucial time in the music industry….the sixties. The window of opportunity we had was so small and there were continually so many groups coming on the scene. The competition was building every day. The time we chose to focus on finding our sound that would match our incredible stage presence was crowded with new bands every time we looked over our shoulder. We could not keep up with them by moving to an area creating a fan base then moving on to another, which we had been doing in Canada. We needed the larger USA market and airplay to get us to the world.

In conclusion, I would have to say our ‘60’s trip was an incredible ride. The endless joy we found in performing and creating the music with each other will never be duplicated. The sixties provided us with the opportunity to live a dream… a dream that maybe not fully realized will never be forgotten.


Thanks to Billy, Andy, Doug and Louis for taking the trip.

I would like to also acknowledge Shawn Nagy from Duluth, Minnesota who discovered JB & The Playboys in a vinyl bin some years back. He went on to produce an amazingly accurate two CD Anthology package for his company Super Oldies. It covers the life and music of JB & The Playboys (and its successors) throughout the ‘60s. He did us a great service by providing us with our legacy on record.