Famous musicians before they were famous - guest spots

Phil goes on and on about his role in "Art Of Dying" but I don't know of him claiming to have been on "My Sweet Lord."

 

Clover was around as a band before they backed up Elvis Costello.

 

Most of the guys in Huey Lewis and the News started off as a band called Sound Hole.

 

Thomas Dolby

 

The Band started off as The Hawks, backing Toronto blues and rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. In the late 1950s. They had plenty of road experience by the time they backed Bob Dylan.

 

There was a rumour, back in the day, that he played on Def Leppard's Pyromania under the name of Booker T. Boffin. Not sure if it's true or not, though I suppose he was on the cusp of stardom himself by then.

 

..................and Ronnie Hawkins before that Zimmerman guy.

They were also the backing band on this garage rock classic................

 

Very fair point...but were they FAMOUS before then?...

 

Ronnie is from Arkansas as was Levon Helm. He didn't get the Canadian members into the Hawks until 1960-61

 

NOPE---if i am reading this correctly, the claim is that garcia was on the bobby fuller version---simply not true---was garcia in el paso in 1963 when fuller cut the disc? don't think so

 

They weren't famous after that either and broke up pretty soon after they came back to the U.S.

 

That is, in fact, the story that I've heard. A lot of people have heard or read that claim, by now. I don't know the origin of the story.

If that song was recorded in El Paso in 1963, I can't imagine how Garcia was playing on it. I suppose that it's possible that he did a later overdub in some California studio, but that's highly improbable.

 

I thought it was more like 1958-1959, but you probably know better.

 

Before joining Genesis, Phil Collins was in a band called Flaming Youth. They recorded one album named Ark 2.

 

Linda Ronstadt, on Carla Bley's 'jazz opera' Escalator Over The Hill -- circa 1968-71.

Here's a pretty good example - specifically with Linda...

 

Joan Osborne sang backing vocals on two tracks from Blues Traveler's S/T 1990 album - 5 years before her solo studio debut.

 

Alan Arkin was a co author and first performer of The Banana Boat Song.

 

I am aware of that, but I don't think you could say they were "famous" before they hooked up with Bob.

 

They were hooked into a network that made it happen. Hammond Jr was the connect.

 

That is true- I can't remember the name of it, but that one album where it's basically The Band backing up John Hammond Jr is pretty good. Mike Bloomfield played piano, if memory serves.

 

Big Road Blues or something. Bob made off with his band. I never was too into JHJR. I had forgot about Bloomfield, interesting. Might have to go back.

 

Fuller's original version of "I Fought the Law" was cut in El Paso in 1964 and released independently. The hit version was a remake done in LA in 1965. But there's no reason to believe Garcia (or any session musician) played on it, as the playing sounds identical to the earlier version, and the guitar part is hardly complicated or beyond Bobby Fuller's ability to play himself.

I've read that Jerry Garcia sometimes made false claims about having played on Bobby Freeman's 1957 recording of "Do You Want to Dance." Are you confusing Fuller with Freeman? That claim is obviously false... it's supported by no evidence, and Garcia would have been fifteen at the time.

 

So Many Roads, I think it's called. Got it from the library many years ago.

 

doggone if you are not correct...I had that data misfiled. Misfiled it, where it remained misforgotten until I misremembered it. Unless I had originally obtained that data scrap from an already incorrect source, that I mistakenly trusted as accurate.

(This is why I stockpile hard-copy references, when it comes to research topics of more import. )

According to Jeff Tamarkin, while Garcia didn't play on Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance", he did play on some demos in the late 1950s for Freeman, a fellow San Franciscan. ‘Do You Wanna Dance’ Singer Bobby Freeman Dies - Best Classic Bands

I'm certainly glad we got that straightened out.

 

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley first appeared as backing vocalists on the rather sought-after self-titled by Lyn Christopher. Sadly they're not on this song, which is far and away the best thing on there: