Big thanks to Dorothy McKinsey for today's picture. This was the back cover on the November, 1965 issue of 16 Magazine. More on that later.
Survey results are in. Though replies were sparse, and there was no overwhelming winner, it looks like All the Harvests, Rien Ne Va Plus, and Lady Wants a Gentleman seem to be the the favorites for an add to the new CD. Folks who had seen the live show tended to choose songs heard in concert (If I Had A Hummer, Dog House Blues, Tell Me Something Else) over CD cuts, though of course there was cross over. I was a bit surprised that the '83 concert CD had a couple of inclusions (This House is Haunted, Summertime Ain't It Fun), but maybe that's just because I hadn't listened to that CD in quite a while, and had forgotten about just how varied the songs on that CD were. I will only say this, but I do remember from my phone call with Chad that all of the winning songs were, at one point, at the very least, considered for inclusion. Whether they'll make the cut is anybody's guess, certainly, but know that they haven't been forgotten :).
Next up is a link to an interesting blog by John Hartmann, Chad & Jeremy's former agent,
http://theholodigm.blogspot.com/2009/08/hartmanns-law-manage-wife-august-19.html
The C&J mention begins at about the 5th paragraph down.
And now, finally, Jill Stuart had a column in 16 called "Jill Stuart's Letter From London," that was about, you know, things in London. Several interesting tidbits in this issue; Chad had produced two songs for Jill, Without You, and All Over the World, which were "probably" going to be released on Columbia. And, there were plans for Chad to release his first single, Funny How Love Can Be. You'll recall that YouTube video of Chad and Jill doing that song on Shin Dig. Having just done a headphone check to the Scorpio issue of that CD, I'm going with Chad doing that one solo on the LP.
That's it for now. We are all no doubt looking forward to the release of the DVD Yesterday's Back in early October. As well as some shows on the East Coast.
Interesting results to the poll, the winners were a bit predictable, but I am really surprised to hear that those concert songs finished so high up!
ReplyDeleteAgain, I can safely say nothing is going to be "lost" forever even if something doesn't end up on the next album. The guys and the record label won't let that happen.
Great detective work on the 1965/6 singles, too.
As for "Funny How Love Can Be", I hope I can shed a little light on that. It it actually introduced on their 9/16/65 Shindig! appearance as Chad's new solo single, with Jill joining in on that performance "so he doesn't get lonely". The idea was to do a Brian Wilson of sorts and release a C&J LP track concurrently as a solo single.
The idea behind the song selection was to take a song that was a big UK hit for someone else (a #8 for the Ivy League) but a US bomb (it failed to even chart) and have the US hit with it. In the end artistic sense prevailed and it was decided he should record a brand new single of his own instead of just using a Chad song from a C&J LP.
Chad decided instead of going solo he should involve Jill, which some will argue worked, some will argue didn't. He chose "The Cruel War" and had it in the bag in time for a major tv appearance to promote it on Hullabaloo in November (which the aforementioned John Hartman at William Morris would have lined up for him).
Unfortunately Columbia then decided to sit on the finished product for an ice age, and didn't release it until they got wind that Peter Paul & Mary were releasing their own version.
PP&M took theirs to #52 while our heroes bubbled under at a measly #110. If Columbia (who were not particularly supportive of the whole Chad & Jill thing, if the contemporary paperwork is to be believed) had stuck to their guns and released it to tie in with the November Hullabaloo performance, then who knows what would have happened? It certainly would not have had any competition.
The only solo Jill track that is listed in Columbia's files as having been properly recorded on the C&J account is "Around The World", which was done in August. I remember when I came across that reference to a second song in that 16 I was left a bit puzzled, but she does say they will "try to" so I suspect she wrote that prior to going into the studio, and they only managed the one master on the date. The only thing I can think of off-hand is that they could well have returned to "Without You" on November 3rd, when "I Can't Talk To You" was recorded - because that session doesn't appear on their account at all (likely because Columbia was putting their foot down regarding Chad's extra-curricular activities and trying to get the group back together in early November), but obviously it exists and was finished. So "Without You" is a bit of a mystery, and was definitely not recorded in that August session she was anticipating - if it was recorded at all.
Meanwhile, something everyone forgets (to his eternal gratefulness) is that Jeremy was the one who was actually spending all of his time in London in the fall of 1965 - making his own (hideously embarrassing) solo single of a special re-recording of "I Love My Love" from Passion Flower Hotel. Ouch!
I hope that helps a bit clarifying that little bit of minutia from one of the more confusing periods of their career (OK, let's be honest, it is all confusing).
You've got my email (and I think Chad gave you my phone number) if you need it, I'm always around to help or just chat about such boring-to-non-fan details!
J