Last week I entered a wormhole I haven’t quite surfaced from. It all started with a offhand remark and has now ended up to a be two-part essay on all things synthesizer(ish). You’ve all read the history of this beast (test on Friday) so I shall now segue into the “guitar synthesizer”, the “SynthAxe” and a new find…..the “Keytar”.
So, what project in your life has taken you the longest to complete? Has anything you’ve really wanted to do ever taken you 18 years? Most likely not, but that’s how long it took director Denny Tedesco to complete his documentary on a small group of musicians in Los Angeles who, from the late 1950’s through to the 1970’s, supplied the rhythm section (drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion, saxophone) for hundreds, if not thousands of hit records.
Once again, I must begin by apologizing for not mentioning something rather important in a previous column. I included the Shuffle Demons’ classic tune, “Spadina Bus,” in last week’s piece, without noting that one of the Demons, Richard Underhill, is currently running for the position of Toronto’s next mayor. You can read all about his platform here: http://www.underhillformayor.com.
Part 8 can be found here
As big an upheaval as the one between 1962 and 1965 had been for pop culture, radio, records, and almost everything else, the years between 1966 and 1970 would be much more intense and culturally explosive. Several unconnected events would lead to changes that had been unimaginable just months earlier. Most would center around the San Francisco Bay Area, but 2 of them would happen 341 miles south of The City by the Bay in a sleepy little town called Los Angeles and a tiny strip of county roads collectively known as Hollywood.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 