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Post by thejanitor on Sept 15, 2020 13:15:22 GMT
As it's the man's birthday tomorrow, I thought I might make a Bernie themed thread. 😊 But there are two things mentioned on his Wikipedia page I've been curious about for a while. The first of which is the quote "After the tour [of Scandinavia where he replaced Eric Haydock], Calvert played on an Everly Brothers album, and on the Hollies' single, "Bus Stop", before returning to his factory job. Shortly after that, he was invited to join the Hollies permanently in 1966." This might go back to the Two Yanks sessions we were discussing on another thread and one of you guys might be able to correct me or quickly solve this, but is Bernie playing bass on that album? The various credits I look for and read about for that album still baffle me!
The second of these is the mention of Bernie being friends with Cass Elliot, but there are no citations for this. Of course, we know Graham was very close with her and she helped bring together the future members of CSN, but I do remember last year watching an interview for his autobiography where he said they first met after The Hollies dropped by a Mamas and Papas recording session while they were in L.A. in 1966. Presumably Bernie's friendship with her also began here as well, but what I want to know is where this info comes from (a teen magazine article about one or the other maybe?)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2020 13:40:27 GMT
This might go back to the Two Yanks sessions we were discussing on another thread and one of you guys might be able to correct me or quickly solve this, but is Bernie playing bass on that album? No. |
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Post by stuball on Sept 15, 2020 13:56:48 GMT
I tend to believe Bernie did not play bass on 'Two Yanks In England'. The studio session sheets pretty much prove that. Studio time was and is very expensive, and I'm fairly certain 'the standard LA aces' were brought in to do the job. Of course, that was all kept quiet back in the day, and group members took the credit instead. Nothing would kill a band's appeal quicker, than the fact that they weren't up to the job when it came to studio work.
And I don't put much credence into the Bernie/ Mama Cass close friendship. I'm sure they were pleasant to each other, but somehow I can't see Mama Cass's drug-fuelled, free-love, party-all-night lifestyle, meshing with 'church-on-Sunday', conservative Bernie. Like oil and water, they don't mix.
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Post by Mevrouw Bee on Sept 15, 2020 16:01:29 GMT
Nah, I think Cass Elliott would have gotten along with everybody. She was more than the hippie cliche.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2020 16:15:50 GMT
I tend to believe Bernie did not play bass on 'Two Yanks In England'. The studio session sheets pretty much prove that. Studio time was and is very expensive, and I'm fairly certain 'the standard LA aces' were brought in to do the job. Actually it was John Paul Jones (with Jimmy Page, Andy White and Arthur Greenslade) who played on 6 of the 8 Hollies compositions. I recently posted full details elsewhere on the forum: elevatedobservations.proboards.com/thread/584/river-little-thing-love. |
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Post by thejanitor on Sept 15, 2020 18:54:32 GMT
👆Thanks again for those, that's what I was trying to refer to in the first post about player credits. 😊 Looking now, the Wikipedia page for the Two Yanks album says "The backing band on most of the recordings is actually The Hollies", so I think someone needs to correct both pages!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2020 19:22:41 GMT
Wikipedia is generally OK for getting the basics, but I'd never rely on it for hard facts (especially when there are several good Everly Brothers sites out there).
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Post by cameron on Sept 16, 2020 9:36:42 GMT
I've always doubted the Hollies' active involvement with the 'Two Yanks In England' album. I know that Jimmy Page is one of the most respected guitarists of all time, but the solo on 'Hard Hard Year' is missing the finesse that Tony played it with on 'Would You Believe?', and I've never for a moment thought that it was him. Plus he's said a few times over the years that he advised Jimmy how to play it.
Interestingly, Bobby alludes to playing on "one song" on the TYIE album in his book, though he doesn't say which one or elaborate on the session at all, other than saying something along the lines of "I got there too late to play on anything else", but the session details in the thread linked above suggest that the UK sessions were completed first. Unless the Hollies popped in to visit towards the end of the session, because it's a pretty marathon session to commit all of those songs to tape. I should imagine it was eight hours at least.
Regarding history not remembering things properly - only the musicians paid by the studio/recording company would have been noted on the session logs. Due to clashing contractural obligations (the Hollies on EMI and Everlys on Warner Brothers), if the Hollies had any involvement, they'd have gone to great lengths to disassociate themselves from the meeting.
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Post by cameron on Sept 16, 2020 9:43:53 GMT
Getting back to the theme of this thread, I've also heard of Bernie's friendship with Mama Cass. I'm sure it was the 'Echoes of the Canyon' film that I recently saw where Graham Nash alludes that the Hollies in fact stayed with the M&Ps in late 1966 at their legendary $1,500 per month house in the Canyon. I'm fairly sure that Bobby touches on this in his book, specifically Mama Cass showing them around and taking them under her wing.
I'm 100% certain that Bernie didn't play on the Everlys album. The dates of the sessions are from when he was on the cusp of becoming a full-time member. If anything, he may have visited the UK session with the guys, but most likely not when you look at the time frame.
Bernie did break away to play bass for the Bread and Beer Band with non other than Elton John in 1969/70. Perhaps Bernie had a special friendship with Elton John to be asked to do such a thing?
Is anyone in touch with Bernie? The "quiet Hollie" always has something interesting to say when he's interviewed and has a great recollection of everything, albeit quite played down. I don't think he ever saw himself as a fully-fledged group member, perhaps just grateful to be taken along for the ride and paid for the experience. But he had the interesting perspective of joining the band once they'd made it big and saw a major line up change with Graham leaving and Terry joining.
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Post by sandy on Sept 16, 2020 18:57:00 GMT
Thought I had read this on an old post here.Bernie talking about which musicians they hung around with in 1967...
"tell you who was really good to us back then was Cass Elliott. She came to our gig in Chicago, the day before my birthday. And we had a few days off, so Cass said, "I'm gonna treat you for your birthday. I'm flying all of you out to Los Angeles." The Mamas & Papas were absolutely huge at the time. She got us first class seats on the airplane, and we stayed at her home in Beverly Hills, a big A-frame house up in the hills. It was about that time when Graham started to meet up with Crosby and Stills."
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Post by thejanitor on Sept 16, 2020 20:52:32 GMT
What a cool story (set 53 years ago yesterday)! 😁 I guess that makes the second part of my post kind of true, although the fact it is on his Wiki page makes it look like the two had a famous friendship or something when this seemed like just a one-off thing.
Also happy 78th birthday today to Bernie! 🎉
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