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Sad to hear about Bob Bogle of The Ventures. Some of my earliest recording sessions were with The Ventures and Mel Taylor’s solo albums. More at my blog if you are interested.

I was saddened, but not particularly surprised to hear about Phil’s fate.

I had worked many times with Phil in the 60s and 70s, first with The Righteous Brothers and then with John Lennon and Leonard Cohen. There may have been a few other sessions thrown in here and there, but I don’t recall the artists names.

I, like many others, knew Phil from his music of the late fifties and early 60s. I first met him when he was scouting The Righteous Brothers. I was playing guitar for Bill and Bob and we were performing at the Red Velvet on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles. The place was packed and everyone knew Phil was coming to scout the Brothers and we were all pretty excited. Phil and his entourage came in with a lot of commotion.
It was quite a show, both on and off stage. It must have all worked because Phil signed the Brothers and the rest is history.

When “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” came out all of us who knew The Righteous Brothers and their earlier music were extremely disappointed. Hah, what did we know! I do remember Bill telling me how grueling the vocal sessions were. Being young and naive I didn’t know at the time what making records was all about. I did work for Phil on some of the Righteous Brothers’ album cuts. Of course, for the hits Phil was using the well-known “A players”, the “Wrecking Crew”. As Bill started producing more and more he was using many of those same players, so I got to work with them, and that was an added thrill. At about this time stories of Phil’s eccentric behavior started coming to my attention.

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Play clip from rehearsal tape. Here!

I was saddened to learn that Delaney Bramlett has passed away. It immediately took me back to the early 70s. I had just recently moved to Los Angeles from Newport Beach when I got a call from Delaney to join a band he was forming. He was about to record an album for Columbia Records titled “Mobius Strip”. Of course I was thrilled and flattered. (I think this was just after I had been touring with Nancy Sinatra — ahh — the life of a working musician!).

Rehearsals were held at a funky rehearsal room on the east end of either Hollywood Blvd or Sunset Blvd., but I can still see that room today. The rest of the rhythm section included Ronnie Grayson on drums, Robert Wilson on bass, and Tim Hedding on B-3. Boy, what a rhythm section! Word was that they had been working with James Brown. I had worked with a lot of great players but these guys just kicked ass! Playing with Delaney and these guys was a dream come true for me. This was undoubtedly the best band I had ever been in up to then and to this day. I don’t remember much about recording the actual album, but I do remember those rehearsals!

After the album was recorded I hung out with Delaney for awhile, but unfortunately, he didn’t have much money or any gigs, and I was in need of steady work. I then got a call from Paul Williams. Paul was putting a band together and asked me to join. He did have gigs and steady work as he was gaining attention as a singer/songwriter. This also turned out to be a great band, just a different kind of music. Anyway, I took the gig with Paul and I don’t regret it, but boy, did I love working in Delaney’s band!

The first time I remember seeing Glen was when I was playing with Dick Dale at a high school prom and Glen was the opening act. All I could think was who was this guy? Amazing singing and guitar playing. This had to be around 1961-62.

The first time I met Glen was at the recording session for “King Of The Surf Guitar”. This was my first recording session with L.A. session players and Dick’s first album on Capitol. From what I understand Capitol and/or the producer wanted to use session players and not the Del Tones (big mistake as why would you want to NOT use the band?). Anyway Dick insisted on having at least one of the Del Tones on the session and I got to be that guy. I was scared to death but young enough not to know better. I get to the session and who am I sitting next to but Glen Campbell! I was never a good reader and at that time didn’t know much about “charts” but of course the first thing everyone gets is a chart. I said to Glen “but I don’t read music”. Glen said not to worry he really didn’t either and they would run it down a few times and by then you would know it. Of course that’s exactly what happened and I was thankful to Glen for calming me down!

I think the next time I ran into him was on the Righteous Brothers session for “Try To Find Another Man”. I wasn’t on the session but went to listen and sure enough Glen was playing that cool, low guitar part. I asked Glen about that guitar of his as it had such a great sound and he told me he had bought it in a pawn shop in Tijuana, Mexico.

Throughout the years I would continue to run into Glen. At one point he was opening for the Righteous Brothers. I would stand backstage every night watching him and listening to his many, very, “hot licks”. I would also pester him to show me something he had just played and he was always kind enough to do so.

The first picture to the left is of Glen and Drew Johnson (drummer for the Righteous Brothers). This was on a tour through the south. The second picture is of Mike Patterson (piano player and road manager) and Glen on the same tour in Corpus Christi TX.

Another time we were out on the road with the Brothers and ran into Glen playing bass for the Beach Boys!

One of my favorite stories about Glen is that he and I were sitting at the bar in the Red Velvet, a hot spot on Sunset Blvd (This was probably around 1963). We were commiserating about the music business and all the ups and downs. I asked Glen how he was doing and he proceeded to tell me that things were not that great and he was thinking about moving back to Arkansas!

And the rest, they say, is history.

I believe I first heard of the Blossoms when they appeared on Dick Dale’s “King Of The Surf Guitar” (I was lucky enough to be on that session playing guitar next to Glen Campbell but that’s another story). I’m not sure if the girls were at the date but I soon learned that they were singing background on just about everything in town. I also heard of their association with Phil Spector, The Crystals and Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans.

After I left Dick Dale, Mike Patterson and a few of us started a band called The Fugitives. We had been backing up the Righteous Brothers on various gigs around Southern California before their big hit “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”. After that hit The Fugitives became the backup band for the Righteous Brothers. The Blossoms had been singing on most of the Brothers’ records so it only seemed natural that they join us on the road as the backup singers.

For some reason I became the designated driver for the girls, and the four of us spent a lot of time together. As we did most of our touring in the south (and this was the mid 60s) it became very interesting to see the look on peoples faces as I squired the gals around Louisiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Two instances stick out in my mind. On one occasion we were driving to a gig through the back roads of North Carolina. We were lost and I stopped for directions at a small general store. All I remember is that the four of us were not greeted too warmly, and I said to the girls “let’s get out of here fast!” and we did. On another occasion we were at an airport somewhere in Louisiana. Evidently, it wasn’t generally appreciated that we should be traveling together, particularly as there was much obvious camaraderie and affection among us. Of course — we were lucky we didn’t get ourselves killed!

It became obvious at one point that Bill Medley and Darlene were very fond of each other. For whatever reason it never went beyond that, maybe because of the times. In any event, as the story was told to me, the relationship was the inspiration for the song “Brown Eyed Woman” written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. I always thought that was a great record, but it was only a hit in some major cities. I guess the country wasn’t ready for that sentiment.

Another tidbit Darlene mentioned to me was how Phil Spector wouldn’t record her or release her from her contract, so she was in limbo for a number of years unable to release records under her own name.

Mike Patterson was actively involved as manager and road manager for the Brothers, but after they broke up he continued his role as manager for Bill Medley and various other acts, including The Blossoms. One day around 1971 Mike asked my writing partner, Joe Reed, and myself to write and produce some sides for a Blossoms album. This became their only album and was released on Lion/MGM Records. It was great to be re-united with them again. They were always fun to be with and of course their singing was out of this world! We recorded it at MGM recording studios on Fairfax in L.A. and used a lot of the “cool” Motown players of the time, as well as Gene Paige as the arranger. Also, here is a picture of me on a ladder dropping a pawn shop guitar plugged into a Marshall amp, cranked to the max, for the explosion on “Shockwave”.

A few years ago I was pleasantly surprised, watching one of the Lethal Weapon movies, to recognize Darlene playing Trish. I was also pleased to hear that she appeared in the Tony nominated 1985 Broadway musical, Leader of the Pack, based on the songs of Ellie Greenwich.

I was sad to hear of Jeannie’s death of a heart attack in 1983. I haven’t seen or spoken to Darlene or Fanita since the 70s but I have such fond memories of working and hanging out with them so many years ago.