.jpg)
They were discovered by local disc jockeys who were looking to sign acts to their new label, Autumn Records, where Sylvester Stewart - later known as Sly Stone - produced the group's early recording sessions. Initially, the band's musical style blended beat music and folk music and typically drew comparisons to The Beatles, while their later work incorporated other music genres such as psychedelic rock and country rock.
The Beau Brummels broke into the mainstream with their debut single, "Laugh, Laugh," for which they would later be credited for setting one of the aesthetic foundations for the San Francisco Sound, along with other bands such as The Charlatans. The band's popularity continued with the subsequent album, 1965's "Introducing the Beau Brummels", and the Top 10 single "Just a Little." The group's commercial success declined by the following year, at which time the financially struggling Autumn label was acquired by Warner Bros. Records. After recording an album of cover songs, "Beau Brummels '66", the band released a pair of critically acclaimed albums: "Triangle" in 1967 and "Bradley's Barn" in 1968.
Years active: 1964–1969, 1974–1975
History:
Formation (1964):
Sal Valentino grew up in the North Beach section of San Francisco. In early 1964, following a string of appearances as a singer on local television, Valentino received an offer to play a regular gig at El Cid, a San Francisco club. Needing a band, he called childhood friend and songwriter/guitarist Ron Elliott, who recruited drummer John Petersen, rhythm guitarist/singer Declan Mulligan, and bassist Ron Meagher. The gig led to a more lucrative deal at the Morocco Room, a club in nearby San Mateo, California. Meanwhile, San Francisco disc jockeys Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell were looking for new acts to bring to their fledgling Autumn Records label. Donahue and Mitchell wanted to capitalize on the Beatlemania craze that originated the previous year in the UK and was spreading across the U.S. by this time. Rich Romanello, owner of the Morocco Room and the Brummels' first manager, asked Donahue and Mitchell to see the band perform at the club. Romanello recalled, "There were maybe four people in the place, and they set up and started playing, and that old hair on my arm goes up. And when the hair on your arm goes up, you got something. It was a big change, to go from saxophones and black singers to a white guitar sound, but I hired 'em."
The Beau Brummels signed with Autumn, where house producer Sylvester Stewart - later known as Sly Stone, of Sly & the Family Stone fame - produced the group's early recording sessions.
The Beau Brummels took their name from a term for an excessively well-dressed person. The group liked having a British-sounding name, and the legend has been, since it so closely followed The Beatles in the alphabet, the group also knew their records would likely be placed immediately behind those of The Beatles in record-store bins. Valentino dismissed this notion in a 2008 interview with Goldmine magazine. "That's a total myth", he said. "We just needed a name, and that sounded good. We didn't even know how to spell it. Everybody now has a notion of what people were thinking back then, but we never thought of those kinds of things." Al Hazan, who produced the band's demo recording, noted, "I never thought of the Brummels in terms of the Beatles - it was Ron Elliott's talent as a songwriter that caused me to want to produce them."
Musical style:
Combining beat music and folk rock, the Beau Brummels were most often compared, especially early in their career, to British bands such as the Beatles and the Zombies.[9] The Beau Brummels were fans of these acts as well as The Rolling Stones and The Searchers, and originally patterned their overall style after the British Invasion sound. The melancholy, minor keys of debut single "Laugh, Laugh" led many listeners to mistakenly believe that the band were indeed British. As the band evolved, they incorporated different music genres into their works, ranging from hard rock to country and western to rhythm and blues. The Triangle album exhibited the band's growing interest in country music along with elements of psychedelic pop, including the use of strings, brass, woodwinds, harpsichord, and various types of unique percussion. Ron Elliott said the album was "sort of a mood swing into the world that was around us at the time. It was sort of dissolving into this drug culture. So the music became very ethereal, mystic, and mysterious."
The band's country rock fusion was most evident on their 1968 album Bradley's Barn, which Elliott said was similar stylistically to Triangle, but with more country accents.
The band members have been hesitant to categorize their music, preferring to call it a combination of styles, according to Elliott. "We don't play anything really different - we play melodically and rhythmically," he said in a 1965 interview. "I think that's why the [Rolling] Stones have made it. They don't do anything really fantastic but they have good taste, and good taste is more important than speed." Sal Valentino praised Elliott's vocal style, saying that "Ron had a great low register. He knew how to write in the best keys for me." Valentino added, "From the time I started singing in bands, I didn't really sing too many other people's songs other than Ron's. Being able to sing just one person's writing, who was a pretty able writer with ability to adjust to what he's working with, had a lot to do with the way I sang." Valentino also credited Sly Stone's input for the band's early success. "He had a lot to do with making our music relatable and anticipating how our records would sound on the radio, particularly on the bottom, rhythm end. Sly was very motivated to make a lot of money, and he was awfully talented."
Band members:
Original line-up:
Sal Valentino – lead vocals, tambourine (1964–1969, 1974–1975)
Ron Elliott – lead guitar, backing vocals, occasional lead (1964–1969, 1974–1975)
Ron Meagher – bass, backing vocals, occasional lead (1964–1967, 1974)
Declan Mulligan – rhythm guitar, harmonica, backing vocals, occasional lead (1964–1965, 1974–1975)
John Petersen – drums, occasional lead vocal (1964–1966, 1974–1975)
Subsequent members:
Don Irving - guitars, backing vocals (1965–1966)
Dan Levitt - banjo, guitars (1974–1975)
Peter Tepp - drums (completed 1975 tour)
The Wolfe of the Velvet Fortune:
Magic Hollow:
Triangle:
Discography:
1965: Introducing the Beau Brummels
1965: The Beau Brummels, Volume 2
1966: Beau Brummels '66
1967: Triangle
1968: Bradley's Barn
1975: The Beau Brummels
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beau_Brummels
No comments:
Post a Comment