by Ian Port
CHAPTER 28
earned less than $35,000 . . . by about 600 percent: Rough draft of Fender internal history dated May 26, 1964, in Don Randall Private Collection, 11.
fourteen to sixteen weeks . . . estimated at $1.5 million: Ibid.
not to take orders for more amps and guitars: Smith, Fender, 246–47.
“Are you sure everything’s locked?”: Fullerton, Guitar Legends, 59.
forty-seven employees . . . a thousand electric guitars every week: Rough draft of Fender internal history, 3–14.
$242,000 each: Ibid., 17.
largest maker of electric guitars and amplifiers: In 1963, according to “Evaluation of the Guitar Market 1965,” 10.
he felt that he didn’t belong: Smith, Fender, 243.
would become irrelevant soon: Ibid., 245.
didn’t figure he’d live very long: Gans, “Electric Guitar Pioneers,” 36.
expanding meant borrowing money: Smith, Fender, 245.
“Prone to loose talk”: Ibid.
everyone who wanted a Fender instrument by now had one: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017.
CHAPTER 29
“He played all the time”: Ernie Isley, quoted in David Henderson, ’Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child (New York: Atria Books, 1978, 1981, 2008), 73.
seized by homosexual tendencies . . . discharged from the army: Charles R. Cross, Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix (New York: Hachette Books, 2005), 93–94.
Hendrix would often ask to hold Jones’s guitar: Ibid., 100.
Hendrix’s amp couldn’t match Jones’s: Ibid., 101.
“That man just done wiped you up”: Ibid.
pawn or lose numerous guitars: Michael Heatley, Jimi Hendrix Gear: The Guitars, Amps and Effects That Revolutionized Rock ’n’ Roll (Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2009), 34, 44–50.
“Five dates would go by beautifully”: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 105.
“I am Little Richard!”: Henderson, ’Scuse Me, 78.
“He’d turn his git-tar down but he would still overshadow a person”: Charles Shaar Murray, Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and the Rock ’n’ Roll Revolution (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989), 162–63.
CHAPTER 30
and wearily open the trunk: Author interviews with Carol Kaye, December 21, 2015; July 31, 2016; and January 7, 2017.
I can’t believe I have to play this shit: Ibid., July 31, 2016, and January 7, 2017.
storied R & B producer Bumps Blackwell: Ibid., January 7, 2017.
shuttered or transformed into rock clubs . . . accepted starvation as a way of life: Ibid.
live with the fear that there might not be enough to eat: Ibid.
Carol Kaye had died: Ibid.
that fall of 1963: Carol Kaye, Studio Musician: Carol Kaye, 60s No. 1 Hit Bassist, Guitarist (self-published, 2016), 106.
who loathed the fact . . . were often black men: Author interview with Carol Kaye, January 7, 2017.
bought two Fender Precisions: Kaye, Studio Musician, 71; author interview with Carol Kaye, December 21, 2015.
“bus driver”: Author interview with Carol Kaye, December 21, 2015.
a few months after Carol’s first encounter: Kaye, Studio Musician, 134.
$104 per three-hour session: Ibid.
free to lay down all the Fender bass grooves: Author interview with Carol Kaye, July 31, 2016.
CHAPTER 31
reached Francis Carey Hall in the fall of 1963: Andy Babiuk, Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four’s Instruments from Stage to Studio (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2002), 108.
set technical specifications . . . himself: Smith, Complete History of Rickenbacker, 62.
NBC News: The Huntley Brinkley Report, NBC News, November 18, 1963, accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjuKaJjsNA&t=29s.
the New York Times: “Liverpool Cellar Clubs Rock to Beat Groups: Long-Haired Youths with Guitars Take Charge as Cult,” New York Times, December 26, 1963, 34.
“pudding-bowl haircuts”: Huntley Brinkley Report.
refusing to issue music: Philip Norman, Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981), 225–26.
“We’ll need samples of both these models”: Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 108.
“We think it would be an excellent idea”: Ibid.
“Buck, this is the hottest group in the world today”: Smith, Complete History of Rickenbacker, 69.
“To keep them on Rickenbacker”: Ibid.
“Please do not mention [the meeting] to a soul”: Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 108.
singing Buddy Holly’s vocal harmonies: Norman, Rave On, 22–23.
he’d meant to buy a Stratocaster: “The Leo Fender Story,” DVD video in Herb Staher collection, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Archives, box 9.
arranging a miniature trade show: Smith, Fender, 77.
shuttled the Beatles out of the Plaza Hotel: Smith, Complete History of Rickenbacker, 77; Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 108–10.
may have brought a right-handed model: Alan Ohnsman, “Guitar Made Famous by the Beatles Is Still in High Demand,” Bloomberg News, August 21, 2008.
McCartney refused the Rickenbacker: Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 113.
snuck across Central Park back to the Plaza: Brad Tolinski and Alan DiPerna, Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound, and Revolution of the Electric Guitar (New York: Doubleday, 2016), 159–60.
a 24/7 chaos machine: Norman, Shout!, 248–49.
“Yes . . . It’s a Rickenbacker”: Smith, Complete History of Rickenbacker, 77.
shipped to him later in the month: Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 113.
a new song called “A Hard Day’s Night”: Ibid., 120–22.
radically expand his little Rickenbacker factory: Author interview with John Hall, August 13, 2015; Smith, Complete History of Rickenbacker, 66.
CHAPTER 32
was going to kill him: Gans, “Electric Guitar Pioneers,” 36.
twenty-seven buildings . . . Leo could hardly recognize it: Wheeler, Fender Archives, 69.
missed the point of its cheaper and simpler competitor: Smith, Fender, 207–8.
posting an antiunion screed: White, Fender, 128–29.
yet another sign . . . far too large: NAMM Oral History interview with Abigail Ybarra.
Doubt now filled Leo: Smith, Fender, 245.
sell the company to him: Ibid.
number had risen to $2 million: Ibid.
a million dollars in pretax profit: Untitled financial document in Don Randall Private Collection showing annual net sales and pretax profits for all Fender companies except Squier from 1960 to 1967.
“If I bought it now”: Smith, Fender, 245.
“It was a huge amount”: Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 138–39.
pegged Fender’s offer at $10,000: “Leo Fender Story.”
his firm never paid artists: Author interview with Gary Gray, March 19, 2016.
Randall sent Jim Williams: Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 138.
was likely past the point: Ibid.
“the boys had been successful with what they were playing”: Ibid.
Beatles looked upon its products favorably: McCartney and Harrison had both sought Fenders before becoming famous but couldn’t afford or find them; in 1965, Lennon and Harrison both purchased Stratocasters.
“I felt I’d broken my cardinal rule”: Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 138.
CHAPTER 33
something closer to $10 million: Baldwin president Lucien Wulsin Jr., letter to Don Randall, July 6, 1964, in Don Randall Private Collection.
had yet earned a dollar in profit: “Fender-Rhodes, Inc., Statement of Income and Expense, Year Ended Sept. 30, 1964,” and “Fender Acoustic Instrument Co., Inc., Balance Sheet,” July 31, 1964, in Don Randall Private Collection.
some $470,000: Smith, Fender, 246.
The deal even included: Unsigned draft letter from Lucien Wulsin to Don Randall, August 17, 1964, in Don Randall Private
Collection.
instead put Randall in touch: Smith, Fender, 246.
“synergy became the byword”: Clive Davis, The Soundtrack of My Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), 41.
that the company employing them might soon change hands: Smith, Fender, 246–49.
Leo seemed quieter than usual: White, Fender, 144–45.
“Unquestionably, Fender’s name ranks very high”: Arthur D. Little report for CBS, in Richard Smith Files, 23.
“Fender amplifiers can be kicked, dropped”: Ibid., 26.
“virtually all of the engineering talent”: Ibid., 28–29.
“The men we met were presentable”: Ibid., 20.
“rather substantial compensation”: Ibid., 8.
White was basically guessing: White, Fender, 151.
“Randall’s enthusiastic services are secured”: Little report, 19.
“his leadership as the factor”: Ibid., 9.
“He has the successful, practical inventor’s genius”: Ibid., 18.
“Mr. Fender finds it hard to believe”: Ibid., 17.
“a sharp diminution”: Ibid., 8–9.
“it would be highly desirable”: Ibid., 9.
changed the tenor: Smith, Fender, 246.
take all the orders they could possibly get: Ibid.
“Everything afterward was anticlimactic”: Ibid., 246–47.
on October 16, 1964: Ibid., 247.
“Sit down, I have something to tell you”: White, Fender, 145–46.
CHAPTER 34
Check number 8339: Leo Fender and Don Randall check copies, in Don Randall Private Collection.
Randall went alone: Smith, Fender, 247.
a dark winter day: Wheeler, Fender Archives, 66.
asking about a strange story they’d seen . . . “You know as much as I do”: Carson, My Life and Times, 56–60.
Ybarra was frightened: NAMM Oral History interview with Abigail Ybarra.
“We have an important announcement”: Wheeler, Fender Archives, 66.
“Which is worth more”: “CBS Plucks West Coast Guitar Firm,” Associated Press, January 6, 1965.
“It wouldn’t surprise us if CBS split the Yankees”: Bill Irvin, “CBS Strumming a Different Tune,” Chicago American, January 8, 1965, in Don Randall Private Collection.
“the largest cash transaction in music industry history”: “Fender Guitars Bought by CBS for $13 Million,” Music Trades, January 1965.
a favorite tool of Leo’s father: Author interview with Sandy Boggs, March 27, 2016.
“I don’t know what I would have done without you”: White, Fender, 146.
CHAPTER 35
Dylan himself had no idea what was happening: Elijah Wald’s masterful history of this event, Dylan Goes Electric! (New York: Dey Street, 2015) reports on page 271 that “Dylan was startled by the audience’s response.”
go back to The Ed Sullivan Show: Lee Zhito, “Newport Folk Festival Hit as Artistic and Financial Success,” Billboard, August 7, 1965, 7.
“We want the old Dylan”: Wald, Dylan Goes Electric!, 263.
“I thought Dylan was abandoning us”: Ibid., 265.
assaultive, quite literally terrifying: Ibid., 259.
Dylan’s electric set felt like a silencing: Ibid., 283, 304–5.
“What he used to stand for”: Ted Holmberg, “A Triumph to the Final Note,” Providence Journal, July 26, 1965, quoted in Wald, Dylan Goes Electric!, 273.
CHAPTER 36
reintroduced to something he already knew: Eric Clapton, Clapton: The Autobiography (New York: Broadway Books, 2007), 33.
playing to the same aging, all-black audiences: Charles Keil, Urban Blues (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), 118.
had seen Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones playing: Richards played his 1959 Les Paul as early as 1964, making him the first of the British rockers to use it. Dave Hunter, The Gibson Les Paul: The Illustrated Story of the Guitar That Changed Rock (Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2014), 49.
Furthering Clapton’s interest in this Gibson model: Clapton, Clapton, 72; Lawrence, Early Years, 248.
from 1960: Ibid.
the whole story had been concealed from him: Clapton, Clapton, 5.
“It was like the Eric Clapton show”: Dinu Logoz, John Mayall: The Blues Crusader (Zurich: Edition Olms, 2015), 41.
Jim Marshall . . . far more of it than any Fender: Austin Pittman, The Tube Amp Book (Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2003), 56–61.
“Give God a solo! We want more God!”: Ray Coleman, Survivor: The Authorized Biography of Eric Clapton (London: Futura Publications, 1986), 36.
“In a way, I thought ‘Yes, I am God, quite right’ ”: Quoted in Michael Schumacher, Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton (New York: Hyperion, 1995), 48.
“I’m very conceited”: Coleman, Survivor, 38.
Studio 2 . . . March day in 1966: Marc Roberty, Eric Clapton Day by Day: The Early Years, 1963–1982 (Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2013), 48.
tipsy bass player . . . what he was getting into: Logoz, John Mayall, 43–44.
a microphone immediately in front of the amp . . . carried it over: Ibid., 44–45.
volume knob to where he set it for a live show: Clapton, Clapton, 73.
asked him to turn it down . . . “Is this absolutely essential?” . . . “Give God what he wants!”: Logoz, John Mayall, 44–45.
“I was on top of my craft”: Schumacher, Crossroads, 65.
CHAPTER 37
“No British musicians have ever sounded like this”: Quoted in Logoz, John Mayall, 50.
hating to have his picture taken: Clapton, Clapton, 73.
recorded some earlier tracks . . . Jimmy Page: Page claimed to have produced an unreleased version of “Double Crossing Time” in 1965 (Logoz, John Mayall, 31–32), and while Vernon did the later album cut, it has a Zeppelin-ish air.
“Everybody started using the Les Paul Standard”: Gabriel J. Hernandez, “Kim Simmonds, Savoy Brown and the Incredible Journey from London, Circa 1965,” Gibson.com, October 7, 2008, http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/kim-simmonds-savoy-brown-and.aspx.
luring his American followers to do the same: Author interview with George Gruhn, May 29, 2018.
“was better than any other possible rock ’n’ roll guitar”: Quoted in Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 262.
all but retired from public performance: Ibid., 254.
find some whippersnapper longhair: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 297.
One immediate effect: Tolinski and DiPerna, Play It Loud, 204.
“I’m going down 48th Street”: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 297.
ceasing production of fully electric instruments: Ibid., 296–97.
CHAPTER 38
The first thing she noticed: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 131.
little Fender Duo-Sonic guitar: Heatley, Jimi Hendrix Gear, 48–49.
Sixty-Third Street . . . Blonde on Blonde for the first time: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 132–34.
“I don’t have my own guitar”: Ibid., 135.
pilfered a white Fender Stratocaster . . . a demo he had of a song called “Hey Joe”: Richards, Life, 186. Other girlfriends of Hendrix’s around this time claim to have gotten him white Stratocasters, too, such as Carol Shiroky (Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 135; Heatley, Jimi Hendrix Gear, 62).
“This is rock ’n’ roll history”: Richards, Life, 186.
a fuzz pedal: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 140.
“H-bombs were going off”: Quoted in ibid., 142–43.
Chandler showed up in a suit: Ibid., 146–47.
would certainly get an introduction: Ibid., 152.
CHAPTER 39
$208 per session: Author interview with Carol Kaye, July 31, 2016.
wore sunglasses inside: Kaye, Studio Musician, 109.
flipped the bird: Kent Hartman, The Wrecking Crew (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2012), 146.
Wilson pursued a mature
sound: White, Nearest Faraway Place, 251–52.
Carol and the other session players had doubts: Kaye, Studio Musician, 175.
put him on a weekly retainer: Alan Slutsky, Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson (Wynnewood, PA: Dr. Licks Publishing, 1989), 20–21.
Thanks to a new eight-track mixing console: Ibid.
he invented the pulsing, unforgettable bass part: Ibid., 29–30.
a stunning 75 percent: Jack Hamilton, Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016), 123.
“It was [Jamerson], me, and Brian Wilson”: Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 271.
Motown’s success changed this: Hamilton, Just Around Midnight, 138; Nelson George, Where Did Our Love Go?: The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 103, 201.
twelve altogether: Kaye, Studio Musician, 169.
as many as seventeen: Barney Hoskyns, Waiting for the Sun: A Rock ’n’ Roll History of Los Angeles (New York: Backbeat Books, 1996, 2003), 128.
she thought it could be a masterpiece: Author interview with Carol Kaye, July 31, 2016.
cut off two words completing a lyrical rhyme: Ken Sharp, “Mike Love of the Beach Boys: One-on-One (The Interview Part 1),” Rock Cellar, September 9, 2015, https://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2015/09/09/mike-love-of-the-beach-boys-one-on-one-the-interview-part-1/2/.
estimated by Brian Wilson at $16,000: White, Nearest Faraway Place, 264.
CHAPTER 40
Regent Street Polytechnic: Roberty, Eric Clapton, 56.
A familiar face walked in: Schumacher, Crossroads, 80–81; Henderson, ’Scuse Me, 109.
God had a funny feeling about it: Schumacher, Crossroads, 81.
plug into the massive Marshall bass amp: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 162.
the slower version recorded by Albert King: Ibid.
thought it was particularly tough: Clapton, Clapton, 80.
Live recordings from this time: A live version of Hendrix’s “Killing Floor” was captured on October 18, 1966, at the Olympia theater in Paris and gives a good approximation of what had probably happened in London two weeks earlier.
hands fell off the neck: Chas Chandler, quoted in “The Birth of Rock,” episode 1 of the BBC documentary The Seven Ages of Rock, BBC Worldwide, aired May 19, 2007.
