Recording The Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by John B, Mar 11, 2003.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. John B

    John B Once Blue Gort,<br>now just blue. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Steve,

    Really?

    The Rhino archivists cannot identify the guitarist on many of the early songs. Wouldn't Bill Porter have been able to identify that Chet was the electric guitarist on Cathy's Clown? He claims to not remember but surely he would remember if it were Chet. No?

    Regarding your "slumming" comment, I had to laugh because some of Chet's guitar parts for the Everlys are quite easy to play, while still tasteful and perfect. When Chet played for himself, he left most of us clutching our axes with a big ?

    John
     
  2. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    John,

    I don't know about the WB stuff. On the Cadence stuff, you can clearly hear Chet's licks on the outtakes. It's our boy. When I played the three-track of "Cathy's Clown" without all the echo it sure sounds like our boy, his tone and attack and all...

    Amazing how he can dumb down the parts without being condescending towards the music.
     
    John B and McLover like this.
  3. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    Which explains why I always loved the mono version, I guess; the purity of the drum sound. Yet the answer leads to other questions:

    1. When Bill Porter recorded, is it safe to say the mono and stereo takes line up, regardless of anything else going on? That is, if I have mono and stereo copies of an album he did, I should have the same takes on both editions? The answer would seem to be yes, but with vocal takes, you never know when something might have been edited in(except for "Oh Pretty Woman" which is obvious).

    2. Do you think any extra Eq work was done on the mono mix(especially the 45's)relative to the stereo? My mono Everlys and Orbison's suggest that yes, there were, however mild. And in stereo, as Gary pointed out, often, it seems like there's extra 'verb(but not always).

    Love this music so much, the more I know, the happer I get:)

    ED:cool:
     
  4. John B

    John B Once Blue Gort,<br>now just blue. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Steve,

    That would explain it. Nice to think that it's Chet playing those parts. He could easily have taken the attitude "I'm better than these guys" but he was the country gentleman, wasn't he?

    So, did you master the SACD from the 3-track? (If I can be so bold).

    John
     
  5. Cousin It

    Cousin It Senior Member

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    I agree !!
    Whenever I hear "I Wish It Had Been A Dream"or "You're Learning",I wish the Everlys had cut it back then.It is obviously based on the Everlys pop style and would be classics up their with their other Cadence stuff if they had.The Louvins back catalogue is one of the most consistent in all of country music,very few clunkers.Ira Louvin was one of country music's greatest and most consistent songwriters but never get the kudos of Hank Williams,Harlan Howard etc...
     
    Fender Relic likes this.
  6. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Ed, first of all, Bill Porter never recorded live to mono at RCA, Nashville. Three-track and two-track at the same time. The mono "hit" mix was created later.

    NOW, that being said, this was NOT an RCA-Victor job, so the Three-track and two-track were sent to Warner Bros. along with Bill's mono creations. Warner's are the ones who fashioned the "sound" of the final stereo versions. I doubt the original two-track was ever used, and is now considered lost.

    The three track and mono take match.

    The two-track cutting master for the original Everly album that this song was on is shot. The mono tapes are still sitting there and probably haven't been played for 35 years.
     
    McLover likes this.
  7. rontokyo

    rontokyo Senior Member

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    Another contributing factor to the Everly's diminished popularity [though this occurred before the British Invasion] was a rift between the duo and their publishers, Wesley Rose [over, I believe, the recording of "Temptation"--publishing owned by others??] which resulted in their being prohibited from recording additional songs from the Boudeaux & Felice Bryant catalog, to name one. There were of course some great Don Everly songs, among others, that followed, but the song writing just wasn't up to earlier standards.
     
  8. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    Thanks for the info, Steve. Mono tapes just filed away, waiting for their day that will probably never come. It really is a strange world, isn't it...no idea of what they have, and what it's really worth:( ;)

    ED:cool:
     
  9. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I enjoyed that...Anyone have the Great Bear Family EB Boxset?
     
  10. Stax Fan

    Stax Fan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midwest
    Great box. :thumbsup:
     
  11. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!


    Some fun outakes on that one!...
     
  12. Evan L

    Evan L Beatologist

    Location:
    Vermont
    Hey Steve,

    As far as Chet Atkins "slumming" on playing on Everly Brothers dates....don't forget the Everly's were and are highly regarded in country circles. I think he probably regarded playing on their sessions as much as he did playing on Elvis cuts. IMHO, anyway!

    Evan
     
  13. chip-hp

    chip-hp Cool Cat

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Blue Gort ... Thanks for the informative post ... Where did the info about 'Cathy's Clown' (one of my favorite EB's songs) come from?

    For those who don't own Rhino's '94 Everly Brothers 'Heartaches & Harmonies' box set, here is what they had to say about 'Cathy's Clown':

    "To kick off their deal with Warner Bros. (an unprecedented 7 year contract, with three 1 year options), the Everlys delivered this inventive single. It was remarkable in many ways, from its martial snare drum rhythm in the chorus to its reverse song structure, with the chorus sung before the piano-pounding rock 'n' roll verse. One of Don and Phil's biggest sellers, 'Cathy's Clown' also turned out to be their final #1 single.

    Phil: Donald had the chorus for that. I went over to his house, because we lived across the street [from each other] at that time, and wrote the verses - although my name's not on it any longer. That chorus you knew was a hit. He wrote that about two days earlier. We were cutting an album for Warners and had already done two or three things. There was a Ray Charles song ("What Kind of Girl Are You") that they wanted to put out. But We said, No, no, we don't have anything yet." 'Cathy's Clown' turned out just at the tail end of these sessions.

    Don: We needed a song and nothing sounded new and different. We were already living in Hollywood, moving around now - growin' up quick! That was written about my high school sweetheart Catherine. I remembered stories our father had told me about his problems as a kid, and then my problems - it sounded like a great idea.

    It was also my little letter to Cathy - I had gotten married and already had a kid and was very unhappy. I even called her, I think, and she'd heard I was married. I just used her name. The story really doesn't have anything to do with what she did to me.

    Musically, I loved the 'Grand Canyon Suite" so much at that point, and I wanted to do something that sounded like it. This does.
    "
     
  14. Peter D

    Peter D Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Anyone have the import twofer of "It's Everly Time/A Date With..."? How's the sound?
     
  15. chip-hp

    chip-hp Cool Cat

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    I do ... and it sounds good to me ... "Sound by Bill Inglot" and "Remastered by Dan Hersch at Digiprep".
     
  16. d.r.cook

    d.r.cook Senior Member

    John,

    An excellent piece on the legendary Everlys!

    A couple of points:

    That Merle Travis "thumb-picking" style was widely used throughout Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, home ground for both Ike Everly and Merle Travis. Ike has been referenced as an influence on Merle's playing, but from what I know, it's one of those deals where it's associated with Travis because he brought it to popular light (and was such a great player!)

    A minor "point of matriculation" worth clarifying: The Everly family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1953--not Kentucky (though there is a Knoxville, Kentucky).

    As radio stations shifted more and more toward deejays and away from live acts for economical reasons, these live show gigs became tougher to find and keep. That's what happened with the Everly Family Show in the Midwest, prompting Ike to load everyone up for Knoxville and WROL's Cas Walker Show.

    The advantage here - Cas Walker operated a chain of cut-rate grocery stores throughout Knoxville, and hosted his own early morning radio show featuring farm reports, live music and Cas's "folksy" (often inadvertently hilarious) meanderings. So, Cas's ready sponsorship made it a little more secure situation?if you can call $90 a week for all four Everlys security!

    (Cas would later move his act to local TV, where he introduced his viewers to a young teen from nearly Seveirville - Miss Dolly Parton. Sorry to share so much personal history here, my Mom watched Cas many mornings during my pre-school years, '54 - '57, roughly.)

    Don and Phil both attended West High in Knoxville, and though they've been jokingly accused of having too many hometowns, they generally acknowledge Central City, Kentucky (in their Dad's native Muhlenberg County) as hometown #1. The annual Every Brothers Homecoming Concert there every Labor Day since 1988 has endowed a $100,000 scholarship fund for local college students. (John Prine, also a Muhlenberg native, has been a regular at the homecoming shows.)

    Ten or twelve years ago while working on an annual report for a client, I interviewed an older gentleman in the Muhlenberg county seat of Greenville, KY, Arch Wilkins, who had known Ike Travis and the Everly family well. He recalled seeing the Everly Brothers playing atop the concession stand at the drive-in movies during intermissions. Not sure what year this would've been.

    A side note: The Everlys' first major national tour - 78 cities between Sept. 6 and Nov. 24, 1957 - featured: Chuck Berry, Buddy Knox, the Drifters, Fats Domino, the Crickets (pre-Buddy Holly moniker), Eddie Cochran, LaVern Baker, Frankie Lymon, Clyde McPhatter, the Paul Williams and, of course, the Everly Brothers.

    Now that's a bill!

    Doug
     
  17. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    I recently bought Steve's EB DCC gold CD (at Tower in January, on sale!) and compared it to my only other source of EB material, a 3" Little bit O Gold single with 4 songs (Wake up little Suzie, All I have to do is dream, Bird Dog, Let it be me). The great thing about your re-mastering, Steve, is the vocals really stand in front, whereas the other sources had the vocals almost even with the music. It made much more sense to have the vocals stand out, that's the best part of the Everlys. Also, you restored Bird Dog back to its original mono. Thanks for a great CD, Steve.
     
  18. John B

    John B Once Blue Gort,<br>now just blue. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Doug,

    Thanks for the extra Everly history.

    John
     
  19. chip-hp

    chip-hp Cool Cat

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Did you miss my question?
     
  20. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Reopened by request.
     
    HoundsOBurkittsville likes this.
  21. vanhooserd

    vanhooserd Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville,TN
    Two inconsequential comments: 1) To anyone from this part of the world, the mention of "Knoxville, KY" was a real howler. 2) Interesting story about Bill Porter & Leslie Chase. I only knew Chase from his having engineered a few of the RCA Living Stereo classical recordings that were not done by Lewis Layton.
     
    McLover and beccabear67 like this.
  22. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    This is an oldie but a goodie! I remember there used to be this consensus that the Everly's Warner years started with Cathy's Clown and then faded off into footnotes to their earlier career at Cadence (like Roy Orbsion when he left Monument and moved to MGM had the first song do great and then interest faded for awhile). I think the Warners records were excellent recordings; they still had top drawer originals into the late '60s and were charting outside America (like Roy). Collector's Choice reissued all the Warners albums on CD (I think) awhile back and set the record straighter. If you ever get a chance to see the 1984 BBC documentary for Arena it is incredible!

    The Everly Brothers: Songs of Innocence and Experience, Arena - BBC Four »
     
    Grampire likes this.
  23. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    what is the story with a tape sample at 60ips?? were there machines made to actually run these, cos I have never heard of one, nor
    can find information regarding it and as to why?
     
    Tim S likes this.
  24. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    I'm confused about this section of the original post, including the 60ips part. Can someone clarify or re-word for thick headed folks like me?
     
  25. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    I remember Cas well, if you lived in Knoxville everyone did - especially the famous "you can't beat Cas Walker's meat" grocery store phrase.
     
    McLover likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine