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Read "Gone and Also ... A Work in Progress" | Claude Hall
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June 21, 2010 Commentary Last week, I stated – hopefully tongue in cheek -- that Jack Gale, Gary Allyn, and Bill Taylor probably clued George Wilson onto what makes a hit record. Thus, this note from Jack Gale, Florida: “Claude...yes, I taught George his musical skills, but he never did grasp them. Ask him about the voices he did on his show for Frank Cope back in the '50s. By the way, I'm still doing national voiceovers. You may catch me on radio and TV for Ford Country in Las Vegas. Just polluting the air a bit. Best to Barbara, and keep a bit for yourself.” Hah! But George has always admitted he “lifted” some voice tracks from you, Jack, for that aircheck. As I recall, you were the greatest voice tracker in radio. WAYS was never WAYS without you! And even Stan Kaplan would more than likely admit to that. I just did a double think. Isn’t a pity that they’re not making radio men like Stan Kaplan and Howard Kester anymore. Lord, but I miss those varmints! Gary Allyn, Southern California: “Howdy, Claude. (‘howdy’ is what real country music fans say). I read with interest last week's column wherein you mentioned George Wilson's new country version of his memory music, and where he obtained his knowledge of C&W since he was a ‘damned Yankee’. You lightly touched on the small fact that maybe George's taste in this genre may have come from his hanging out with Jack Gale, Bill Taylor, or me. I can't take FULL credit, of course, but I did have to convince George that Spade Cooley was NOT an R&B artist, Country Joe and The Fish was NOT a Western swing band, and that Moon Mullins was NOT from outer space! It can be said that some have an ‘eye’ for Art, others have a ‘nose’ for News, but in George's case, he has an ‘ear’ (and a beer) for Country Music. Most ‘salt-of-the Earth’ folks like G.W. and me, can quickly recognize reality in music that stems from ordinary circumstance. Much is the same with ‘The Blues’ and Soul Music -- which George is also good with. Much of it springs from the well of Innateness, the ability to hear and feel from the roots of one's upbringing. ‘Gut Feel’ isn't there by accident, I believe. Some people are just ‘a natural’, others have to work at it. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were ‘naturals’, while Pete Rose had to work at becoming great. I kid George, but he is BOTH a ‘natural’ and a worker at becoming great. I, too, have some of that same trait. Fortune or fate had it that George and I would cross paths in Radio to share this commonality. But I yield to George as a man MUCH older than I. Was always taught to respect my elders you know. Tom T. Hall wrote these lyrics about what ‘Country Is’: ‘Country is sittin' on the back porch listening to the whippoorwills late in the day ‘Country is mindin' your business helpin' a stranger if he comes your way ‘Country is livin' in the city knowin' your people knowin' your kind ‘Country is what you make it country is all in your mind ‘Country is workin' for a living thinkin' your own thoughts lovin' your town ‘Country is teachin' your children find out what's right and stand your ground ‘Country is a havin' the good times listen to the music singing your part ‘Country is walkin' in the moonlight country is all in your heart Amen to that.” Ah, Gary. Just hope Tom T. Hall forgives us for quoting one of his tunes. One of his best – and I have it on an album somewhere – is a song called, I think, “I Wanta See the Parade.” A tearjerker of the first water. There is nothing like a Tom T. Hall song. He’s a different kind of animal. I once wrote an article mostly about him for one of the weekly tabloids published by Jonathan Fricke, circa 1981 or 82. Wish I had a nearby copy of that article; I’d reprint it for you. Winston Mclendon: “Claude, I love your work, you are the gold-standard in what is left of the radio industry. However, I'm mystified by all the kudos to George Wilson, he must be the world's nicest guy. Bill Drake was so much more influential, Wilson helped usher in the screaming no-content era of Top 40 with Buzz, Clifton, etc. Anybody emulating that kind of radio in the last 25 years? I haven't heard the shotgun jingle anywhere since the 70s, however, to this day the Drake Johnny Mann jingles are playing somewhere in America at this very minute. Drake came back with his success in the 90s on KRTH, and it was used as a template throughout the country for successful oldie and classic hits. Where is the Bartell Q influence? He had some great talents, but many were inherited rather than found by Mr. Wilson. He also seems to be the guy who drove the awesome Jimmy Rabbitt out of KCBQ years ago because of his Milwaukee-style radio in Southern California. I'm just saying, maybe George is the best and I've missed something. “Then, your politics. With all due respect your left-leaning opinions are insulting to anyone who may be conservative. You likely don't care, but it's fairly annoying. Not all right wingers as you would call them like Sarah Palin. With our current stumbler-in-chief making the presidency a joke, one would think you would not continue to attack conservatives. But no. “I know you won't print this but I'll continue to read your column.” First, George Wilson is not what I’d necessarily call a nice guy. I mentioned your note to one of his relatives and got this response: “Winston Mclendon? Who he?” Now me? I’m a nice guy. Because I’m a nice guy, I don’t care who he. Not everyone remains who he. After quite a few years in the business, some people become an oh, him! I hope you get to be an oh, him. I sincerely do. Without a whole bunch of oh, hims, radio would have gone belly up years and years ago. I’m certainly nicer than George. However, I’m still going to print your letter and offer some kind of defense on behalf of Wilson. Who doesn’t need it, I assure you. George Wilson did more radio and accomplished more in radio than 90 percent or more who’ve ever donned some cans. And, in comparison to Bill Drake, George is an oh, him to a who he. But the real truth, I guess, is that there’s no comparison. George Wilson could defend himself so much better than I could. But he won’t; he doesn’t care what most people think. Even me, a great deal of the time. He is, without question, his own creature. He and I, in many things, set the standard…we’ve seldom had to measure up to standards others set. I do believe he cares what Jack Gale and Chuck Blore think. Lee Baby Simms. A few others. Most of the guys who revered and respected George Wilson, and whom he respected, guys like Don Burdon, have gone on. Me? I probably met George circa 1964 or 65 and may have talked to him on the phone (New Orleans) before even that. Although that could have been Bill Stewart that I phoned in New Orleans. Regardless, I’ve known George Wilson many years and know some of his children, too. George and wife Jackie and children, all of them, are welcome in this house. But then so are the children of many radio people I have known: Jack G. Thayer, Bill Stewart, L. David Moorhead. Leo Moorhead once emailed me; he wanted to know what to tell his son about his grandfather. When Sharon Sharpe brought her daughter and son to see me a few years ago, I was honored. Basically, Sharon wanted me to tell her children what their grandfather was like. I sit here now, almost crying, as I think about that. Her father was a great, great man. I’m proud to have known him. Barbara and I once spent the night with him and wife Marlene at their home in Dallas. I would think George Wilson more than likely looked up to Bill Stewart. George, David Moorhead, and others constantly told me that without Bill Stewart, there more than likely would never have been a Todd Storz and Gordon McLendon. I was told time and time against that Bill Stewart took the ideas of these two geniuses and put them into practical and workable applications. George Wilson probably wouldn’t have looked up to Bill Drake. Although, of course, I don’t know this for a fact. I believe George appreciated Ron Jacobs. You say something negative about Bill Stewart to me and it’s fighting language. You say something negative about George Wilson…heck, I doubt that defense is even necessary. I once mentioned a name to George and he said, “I don’t know him…and I knew everybody.” He existed in a time and place when Top 40 was so new that everyone learned from everyone else. Call it stealing, if you wish. I remember when the “science” of programming was not to play two records back to back that sounded the same and never to play two women back to back. George and Kent Burkhard and Dick Starr, Pat O’Day and Bill Young and those guys blazed paths in radio you, Winston, will probably never know. George Wilson thinks that nobody will care about what we’ve done regarding radio. He may be right. I’ve had to fight off a few who were trying to rewrite the history of Top 40…mostly to put themselves in and thereby put others down. And I just meandered through several hundred pages of a Ph.D. dissertation (courtesy of Jay Blackburn who owns a bound copy) and lamented that the guy writing the damned thing got most of his information from Sponsor magazine. He did not interview Todd Storz, though he did garner some stuff from Bill Stewart. My viewpoint of Bill Stewart, of course, is quite different than that of Jimmy Rabbitt (who once had to put him to bed during a drinking spree), Don Barrett (who worked for Bill until Bill, one day over lunch, gave him his job), and Bud Connell (who didn’t like him). But we all have a tendency to rank things…from songs to radio stations to radio people. To me, Todd Storz, Gordon McLendon, Bill Stewart, and Chuck Blore were radio gods. The contributions of these four men to radio were peerless. Perhaps flawed on occasion because they were blazing new paths…but nevertheless, peerless. True, people like George Wilson, L. David Moorhead, Ron Jacobs rank below these men, but not far below. Along with quite a few others that I never grew to know very well, but know of. We’ve long debated the merits, for instance, of such as Buzz Bennett, Jack McCoy, Pat O’Day, Pat McMahon, Bill Young, George Burns and others, but they all had a vast and major impact upon our business. Rick Sklar, too, whose ability and patience to deal with bureaucracy astonished me from time to time. Yes, I knew Bill Drake, too (see “This Business of Radio Programming,” Amazon.com). But if you don’t give Ron Jacobs a great deal of the Drake-Chenault success, you’re making a mistake. Perhaps people like Bill Mouzis and Robert W. Morgan, too, deserve some of the credit. Drake was not very successful with KRTH, Los Angeles, I’m afraid. Neither were others; I think program director Jhani Kaye probably has done a little better than just about anyone, although this is open to argument. All radio throughout the history of Top 40 is open to argument; maybe that’s why Top 40 was so great. Thank you very much for your letter. I really got a kick from it. Okay, so you laid down the challenge and because I think you're bright, I had to print your letter. I would have anyway unless you said not to although idiots are not respected here and seldom even tolerated. Rob Moorhead, a brain, doesn't like me to print his stuff. He's not quite as bright as his father was...and certainly far distant from his grandfather (who had total recall) and uncle...but I enjoy his views. Pithy and sharp. Thoughtful. I like pithy letters, thus I enjoyed what you wrote. I’ve tried to tell you some of the reasons why I personally respect George Wilson so much...hell, I love the man! He helped me immensely during my Billboard years...though a great many people could be said to have been of great help. George even chaired one of the International Radio Programming Forums, San Francisco, 1975. I trusted that responsibility with very few. I will tell you now that Bill Drake probably got more credit than he deserved, but a lot of guys in both radio and the music business could be guilty of that. I know guys with their names on songs who never wrote a note of music going back to Al Jolson, some with producer credits who weren't even in the recording studio (talk to Bobby Hebb about “Sunny” and Roy Head about “Treat Her Right”). And in radio, thieves abound. Certainly, Bill Drake was no radio god like Chuck Blore, Todd Storz, Gordon McLendon, Bill Stewart. I didn't know Todd, but I knew a lot of people who worked for and with him. Ron Jacobs, to me, was more responsible for KHJ. A lot of good radio men will tell you the same. I respected the radio genius of Ron Jacobs from the second I saw him in the 60s; his talk that day in New York City was mindblowing. Pithy. Sharp. No “ands,” no “uhs.” Real radio. With Bill Drake, you had to look deeply to see what was there. Watson and Torres, his disciples, might paint a different picture, I’ll grant you that. I’ve often wondered how they felt; Ron Jacobs is probably the only person who could tell you really about Drake. Other than Torres and Watson. You said Drake was copied around the world. Copied what? A set of jingles? No one, in my opinion, was ever copied so much as Chuck Blore (with the exception, of course, of those other three gods I mentioned). However, I don’t know any real radio person – someone I respect -- who’d be foolish enough to compare Bill Drake with Chuck Blore. Blore is both genius and a god, in my opinion. Just FYI, I've written a novel called "I Love Radio" that will probably never be published, but it covers Top 40 up to about the Drake-Jacobs era. “I Love Radio” features the personal comments of some 50 radio men who were deeply involved in the growth and success of Top 40 radio. xLibris has a deal; they’ll do a plain book for about $500, then provide the author 25 comp copies and offer the book for sale. Tempting in this day and age of publishing. I think I could get my brother Buddy to spring for the cost. But I’ll wait and see what happens with PublishAmerica.com. xLibris, though, would allow Terry Moorhead to read the novel on her iPad and Karen Hopseker on her Kindle. That seems to be the way of the future when old curmudgeons like me will be gone and books will be gone. Right now, I'm involved in writing a shortish story about David Moorhead that goes through KMET-FM until Moorhead's death. The last in the Radio Wars series. A very tough story to write. But another oh, him radio man. I ran into someone a year or so ago who didn’t like L. David Moorhead, but Moorhead happened to be one of my best friends and then and now I consider him one of the greatest ever in radio. As for politics, I’m not left-leaning, Winston. I’m so far left there’s nothing to my left. You could never comprehend my politics or understand them. When it comes to politics, Barbara and I are definitely something else. Open-minded, for one thing. Seriously critical for another. Rational, logical. Intolerant of those who should know better and do better. Hard on those who think only of themselves. My friend Bruce Miller Earle says I’m on a list regarding my left thinking. Whatever that means. However, briefly, I once attended a ball of the so-called Silk Stocking district; they might have kicked me out if they’d known about my leftwing tendencies, but I kept my mouth shut and said “howdy” and smiled a lot. It was my first time to wear a tux. You’ve got to smile in a tux. I’ve been in the home of one of the world’s leading Socialists; Sam Friedman didn’t kick me out and, in fact, once came to our home in Bel Air for dinner. I’ve also served on some kind of White House committee for a Republican president; I can’t remember who. I was there when Dr. Martin Luther King gave a black power speech. I was there when a tearful LBJ gave his step-down announcement. I’ve covered racial demonstrations for the media; both sides, I hope, fairly. Basically, I guess you could refer to me as a liberated redneck Texican liberal. I think Bruce Miller Earle could tell you what that means, if you don’t know. One thing it does mean: I’ve been called every name in the book. Some of them probably true. Like George Wilson, I don’t give a damned. Once again: Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Sharron Angle should be banished to some damned kitchen and kept there. Barefooted! And don’t ask me to eat what they cook. My very best to you, Winston...and, again, thanks for the letter. Just FYI, I sent Winston Mclendon’s note to my son John Alexander Hall, Esq., who felt that “you do not need to praise Drake by knocking George. There are a lot of great radio people. His politics are suspect, too, as a matter of intelligence. After the Bush years, how could anyone claim that Obama is a joke? Disliking his views is one thing. I could respect that. Mclendon sounds like someone who has listened to too much conservative talk radio.” Greg Duva, Brockport, NY: “RE: Palin & the Tea Party Trojan horses. There's another one: Nikki Haley. Just got voted into the South Carolina governor's race last week. Watch out for her, she's slick & slippery. Google her up. You'll see.” God help us! STATE MATTERS I think something’s wrong in both South Carolina and Arizona. Arizona has decided, now, all of a sudden, they don’t like Mexicans? Hogwash! Bring back the Apaches! And that Greene thing in South Carolina. What’s going on in these places? Some of those so-called citizens need to get a good lube skull job. MEDICAL MATTERS Noted Arizona horsewoman Karen Velline is the subject of an article in the July issue of Popular Science. Many of you know Karen, her husband, and her children. Friends of my entire family for almost four decades! The article by Elizabeth Svoboda was well-written, carefully researched, and accurate, to the best of my knowledge. Great article! SNOW MATTERS Keith James, Canada: “Been a long time. I think of
you often and apologize for not staying in touch. It's wonderful to
see you and Barbara are still doing your thing. You haven't changed
a bit. You still have that unbelievable capacity to remember
everything and write it down. I will attach a picture or two of what
I'm doing I’m the one who should say thanks, Keith. That was a grand radio conference in Toronto and largely because of you. Later, Barbara and I got to visit a few hours with some of her relatives, a doctor, in the city. I’ve always been pleased to have you as a friend. Lord, but it was nice to hear from you! (Photo: Keith James at SUN FM)
DEMENTO MATTERS Timmy Manocheo, California, reports: that Dr. Demento was honored for his years in radio on Darrell Wayne’s 7-10 p.m. June 16 show broadcast live on K-Tahoe AM/FM in South Lake Tahoe, and on KDSK in Central New Mexico. The show is also streamed live at errorfm.com, kthoradio.com, and kdsk.com. Great! Barry Hansen has a lot of fans in this family. The last time I saw Barry was in the backyard at a party tossed by Norm Pattiz. Bet Norm Pattiz doesn’t live there anymore! Hello, Mary Turner. SOCCER MATTERS I was watching a little World Cup soccer today; who wasn’t? And there was Chris Fowler. The man is everywhere! Tennis. Basketball. Soccer. And he always does a good job. I’ve had the honor of knowing a few really good sports people over the years. Most loved the game. Whatever the game. Chris Fowler is one of the very best. RUSSELL MATTERS Just listened once again to “A Little Wind (Could Blow Me Away)” by Tom Russell on the “A Case for Case” CD. Beautiful! The CD is a three-set package designed to promote songwriter Peter Case. Some good stuff on there. Various artists. The best, without question, is Tom Russell. A magnificent song you can listen to again and again. GEORGE MATTERS Happy birthday, George.
e-mail claude@claudehallonline.com |
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Content on this Web site 2003-2010 Claude Hall |
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now...virtually the same thing I've been doing for over 60 years
now. Radio! I have a small piece of the Vista Radio Group with 26
small-to-medium-market stations across British Columbia and Alberta.
Continuing to read your thoughts is still one of the great pleasures
in my life. Don't Stop! I still stay in touch with Chuck Blore and
we speak of you often. One of my fondest memories is you bringing
the ‘Convention’ to Canada. It was a great Gift from you to Canadian
Radio. Thanks for that and many other favours over the years.”