.....;Posted on 02/14/2014 8:32:59 PM PST by virgil283
"Vanilla Fudge" - "From their 1967 album Vanilla Fudge, enjoy their unique style and strange vocals, but they were original. This album as possibly the first progressive rock release. How many bands could produce an album that reached number three on the national charts consisting entirely of covers of classic compositions ranging from The Beatles, to The Zombies, to Sonny Bono, to The Supremes? That's exactly what Vanilla Fudge accomplished in 1967..."
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(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
I got to co-author the biography of Mark Stein, called “You Keep Me Hangin’ on” which we decided from the beginning would be more than a biography-—it is a full history of rock from the 1960s on. It’s available athis website, www.mark-stein.com and I loved learning all the inside scoop about my favorite 1960s band.
It was rock organists like Mark Stein, Gregg Rolie, and Keith Emerson, along with the jazz organist Jimmy Smith, whose music led me from the piano to the organ. I “graduated” from rock to jazz to classical, and ended up in musicology rather than performance (though I’m an organist for a small church), but there’s still a soft spot in my heart for their music, and I wouldn’t mind playing the organ for a Vanilla Fudge revival :-)
I wonder if Mark Stein ever got to meet Mark Steyn...
In 1971 I was in college in DC. In May two nights before a big war protest march I took a walk down to the mall. As I was climbing the hill in front of the Washington Monument I heard familiar music being played. As I reached the crest and looked down on the mall I saw Jefferson Airplane playing live to a crowd of about a thousand very happy and very stoned fans.
Don’t know but he is today a conservative, and wrote a youtube song called “Hey Mr. Obama” about a year into the Obama administration.
Jeff Air was very interesting. Their biographer insists that they tried to be apolitical in that they never once played a political fundraiser. Grace Slick said several times they avoided such things. Look at the book ‘Got a Revolution.’
Check out our film “Rockin’ the Wall.” Of course, for my book with him, I interviewed Mark at length, but I also read both Keith Emerson’s books, interviewed David Paich of Toto, Felix Cavaliere of the Rascals, and Billy Joel. They all cite Jimmy Smith. Mark plays excellent classical music, as you can see in our movie.
Loved their rendition of that song.
I highly recommend you go should you ever get the chance-he really puts on a good show!
Larry you always amaze me with the music and groups you have been a part of....kudos
Good times.
IIRC, the last cut on the eponymous "Vanilla Fudge" album was a jam session where each of the members recited something, and Mark quoted Deuteronomy 34, the passage about the death and burial of Moses. I've always assumed that there was something religious behind at least some of what they did.
During my "rock organ" period from 1969-72, I used to wear hunter's earplugs with built-in pistons to absorb the mechanical force of the amplified music; it's probably the only reason I have passable hearing today :-)
Mark is a Jew-—how observant, I don’t know. But I think he was the driving force behind them doing “People Get Ready.” BTW, as good as their version is, listen to Jeff Beck’s instrumental version of “People Get Ready.” Cry every time.
Well, it’s funny, when you get involved in one thing, it usually leads to others. I never would have done the movie “Rockin’ the Wall” without Mark’s contacts, including Billy Joel and Alice Cooper, both of whom I interviewed but neither of whom were in the film. The producer of “El Cid” Sam Bronstein, had a string of B-movies before he filmed something about the Cistene Chapel for the Vatican, which caught the eye of Pierre DuPont, which gave him the funding to make “El Cid,” “King of Kings,” and “Fall of the Roman Empire.”
I later got to film their producer, Shadow Morton, who died just a couple of years ago after we filmed him. He took full responsibility for the Fudge's disastrous second album, "The Beat Goes On." But the truth is they ALL bought into it, and had an over-inflated view of how popular they were. The Beatles could have gotten away with that, but not the Fudge and not Zeppelin and not Cream at that time.
I wore ear plugs the entire time I played (about 5 years on the road, 10 total)
I’ve always worn plugs - both for shooting and for music. I got lots or rolled eyes in the bands I played in but nowadays it’s from the same folks who constantly say, “What?!”
;’)
Worst cover ever.
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