{"id":332,"date":"2010-11-03T05:14:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T10:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=332"},"modified":"2010-11-03T05:14:01","modified_gmt":"2010-11-03T10:14:01","slug":"day-of-the-reamins-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2010\/11\/03\/day-of-the-reamins-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Day of the Remains, Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

continued from part two…<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the most infamous moments of the Beatles <\/strong>’66 tour was the \u201ccherry bomb incident\u201d during the show in Memphis, Tennessee. Part way through the George Harrison<\/strong> song \u201cIf I Needed Someone,\u201d a concertgoer lit and threw a firecracker. It can clearly be heard on an (unreleased) audience recording of the show. Even though it\u2019s quite loud, the Beatles keep right on playing, never missing a beat. \u201cThey very much did hear it,\u201d Remains <\/strong>leader Barry Tashian<\/strong> asserts. \u201cThey looked all around, and they looked at John <\/strong>because they figured he was gonna be the one\u201d to be targeted.<\/p>\n

Tashian continues with memories of Memphis. \u201cThey were being extra careful at that concert, and we had been told to get ready to go as soon as we were finished playing. So we did. We packed up and got on the bus. We parked right outside the back door; our bus was sitting there with the engine running. When the Beatles were done, I remember that they ran directly out the [venue\u2019s] door and hopped on the bus. They were still soaking wet with sweat, and they had towels. The bus took right off and went to the Air Force base where the charter plane was waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked which show from the tour was the most memorable, Tashian pauses. \u201cWhat I recall most was my experience with the Beatles. That’s what my memory is the most \u2018green\u2019 about. I really don’t remember many specifics about any one show. I do remember the indoor shows were the favorites because we were much closer to the audience. We could look at the girls, and smile, and wave and stuff.\u201d But concerning the tour as a whole, Tashian quotes something band mate Bill Briggs<\/strong> said right after the tour ended: \u201cIt wasn’t really a musical event. It was a theatrical production of a musical event!\u201d<\/p>\n

Though a number of bootleg recordings document the Beatles\u2019 shows from that tour, there are no recordings of the Remains. Well, except one, a recently-surfaced recording from Toronto\u2019s Maple Leaf Gardens. While the sound is predictably rough (Tashian: \u201cthe sound quality is not what you would call real pleasant\u201d), listeners are treated to a complete version of \u201cI\u2019m a Man\u201d plus snippets of a few other songs, including \u201cWhy Do I Cry.\u201d Though it\u2019s a mere few seconds, the group\u2019s onstage power \u2013 often written about but officially undocumented \u2013 is undeniable.<\/p>\n

Bootleg recordings aren\u2019t the only bits of history to turn up years after the fact. \u201cLast year I got a 1966 photograph of The Remains with George Harrison and (Beatles roadie) Neil Aspinall<\/strong> standing on a tarmac, outside of the plane.\u201d The photo was sent to Remains band mate Bill Briggs by a friend in Poland.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Looking back at the tour, Tashian observes that \u201cI actually came away from the tour wanting to calm my on-stage persona. I felt that I would be more \u2018respectable\u2019 if I stood still while singing. Having said that,\u201d Tashian smiles modestly, \u201cI do know that on more than one occasion, John Lennon commented that he would like to have had the energy that The Remains had on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeling that they had taken things as far as they could commercially, and that further success would not be forthcoming, Tashian folded the Remains shortly after the tour. Their self-titled Epic LP belatedly hit store shelves not long after, too late to capitalize on buzz from the Beatles tour, and too late for the group.<\/p>\n

Vernon Joynson<\/strong>\u2019s Fuzz, Acid and Flowers<\/em>, the indispensable guide (long available in html format)\u00a0 to U.S. psychedelic and garage music contains two listings relating to Tashian. The primary one \u2013 the listing for the Remains \u2013 contains concise and accurate details of the band\u2019s limited discography. Their only 1960s album release was the 1967 self-titled Epic LP. The previously-mentioned New York session album saw release some twenty years after its recording.<\/p>\n

That listing references another band: \u201cBarry was also connected with Chirco <\/strong>who released one rather rare LP The Visitation<\/em> on Crested Butte.\u201d The link to the Chirco listing notes that Tashian \u201chelped the band record\u201d their lone album.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d says Tashian, he did no such thing. \u201cBut I know the group, and can tell you about them. The group was named after the drummer, Tony Chirco<\/strong>, who was a very fine studio and jazz drummer in Fairfield County, Connecticut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tashian recalls the group\u2019s vocalist. \u201cBobby Lindsay<\/strong> was, to me, a legendary singer. He was previously part of a group, Dick Grass and the Hoppers<\/strong>. They had a regional hit when I was in junior high school (\u201cMr. John Law\u201d b\/w \u201cPlease Dear\u201d). \u201cMr. John Law\u201d had a siren and the sound of a car motor and everything. They would appear on local rock n’ roll shows that I would go to in Norwalk, Connecticut. They were heroes to me, because they were up there. I was in the 8th grade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBobby Lindsay,\u201d Tashian says, \u201ccould sing anything really high. And he had a great voice. I used to go to a function hall in Norwalk, Connecticut on Wednesday nights and watch that big band rehearse, and I just dug it. You know, all of the saxes and trombones and trumpets.\u201d This was in the period just after the Remains broke up, a time during which Tashian says he was doing \u201cnot much. Pretty much just hangin\u2019 out. I was staying at my mother\u2019s house. But I used to like going to watch these guys rehearse. Tony Chirco, the drummer, was great. Duke Ellington<\/strong> stuff. Count Basie<\/strong>, whatever. I got to know Tony, and this group was recording, and was looking for material. I had this song called \u201cMr. Sunshine\u201d and I gave it to him. And the next thing I know he sends me a copy of the album which they recorded in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI listened to it,\u201d Tashian\u00a0 says, \u201cand it’s nothing like what I would do, and to me it’s totally different than anything I would expect of Bobby Lindsay’s vocals.\u201d He recalls something Lindsay told him at one of Chirco\u2019s rehearsals: \u201cI’m giving this one more try, and if this doesn’t work I’m just gonna sing for the Lord.\u201d Chirco\u2019s album didn\u2019t sell in large quantities, and despite later overtures from impresario Don Law<\/strong>, Lindsay never recorded again. He passed away some years ago.<\/p>\n

continued<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

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continued from part two… One of the most infamous moments of the Beatles ’66 tour was the \u201ccherry bomb incident\u201d during the show in Memphis, Tennessee. Part way through the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","cat-41-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}