{"id":333,"date":"2010-11-04T05:20:37","date_gmt":"2010-11-04T10:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=333"},"modified":"2010-11-04T05:20:37","modified_gmt":"2010-11-04T10:20:37","slug":"day-of-the-remains-part-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2010\/11\/04\/day-of-the-remains-part-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Day of the Remains, Part Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

continued from part three…<\/em><\/p>\n

In the years after the Remains<\/strong>, Barry Tashian<\/strong> began a move toward sounds beyond rock\u2019n\u2019roll. \u201cI played in clubs around Los Angeles for most of 1967 and early 1968. It was an R&B band, with some of the International Submarine Band<\/strong> (Gram Parsons<\/strong>\u2019 group), and Bobby Keys<\/strong>,\u201d (later sax player for the Rolling Stones<\/strong>). He recalls that they played \u201cStax material such as Otis Redding<\/strong>, Sam and Dave<\/strong>, and Eddie Floyd<\/strong>. This was a new thing for me. I was copping Steve Cropper<\/strong> licks. The other half of my learning was in country and blues. I was soaking up records that I had never heard, by anyone and everyone that I could: George Jones<\/strong>, Hank Williams<\/strong>, Lowell Fulson<\/strong> and Elmore James<\/strong>. I was not very prolific making records or writing at that time, but I was learning a lot about life and playing the guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tashian recalls that by early \u201968, that group was \u201cin the process of disbanding, and I was part of a new \u2018bar band\u2019 that we formed called The Flying Burrito Bros<\/strong>. We played in clubs around Los Angeles for about a year. That was the original Burritos.\u201d Though there are no officially-available recorded evidence of his time with the group, \u201cI have a few home tapes,\u201d he reveals. Asked if that material has ever been considered for release, he shakes his head. \u201cIt\u2019s not fit to be licensed, really. It’s just a bunch of guys jamming around in the living room, not really playing any complete songs. The only record I’m on with Gram is G.P.<\/em> (1973), and that’s from after the Burritos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remains keyboardist Bill Briggs<\/strong> was also in Los Angeles at the time and was involved in many of the same projects as Tashian. Bassist Vern Miller<\/strong> recalls that he \u201cdid not stay in L.A. very long after The Beatles\u2019 tour. I came back east shortly after The Remains broke up began playing in a band named Crow<\/strong>.\u201d That band\u2019s lead singer was a young Donna Summer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The 2007 film Superbad <\/em>featured The Remains\u2019 Why Do I Cry,\u201d and as a result Tashian finally enjoyed some significant royalties from the more than 40-year-old song. \u201cI was lucky,\u201d he says. \u201cI got the publishing rights back from the New York publisher, but it took a few years before that happened. It’s nice to be 61 and get a taste of some of that kind of money.\u201d He mentions that the song was included on a Wal-mart-only soundtrack CD packaged with the DVD. \u201cAnd they paid in advance for quite a large number of units. So put those two together, and that was the best year in show business I ever had in the music business, as far as income goes!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Remains (the four original members, including Chip Damiani<\/strong> on drums) did attempt a reunion in the 1970s. But, says Tashian, \u201cwe weren’t ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

But eventually the Remains again bowed to fan demands and reunited for a show. \u201cI was ready this time, and everybody else was too. I think it was 1998,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThat was when we got a call from Spain. So I called the guys. They were ready to go, and I was ready to go, and everything was copasetic. So we did the show [Purple Weekend Festival in L\u00e9on] in Spain, and it went over really well. That spawned a gig in New York a couple of months later: the Cavestomp.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2002 the reunited Remains recorded an album \u2013 officially their second \u2013 titled Movin\u2019 On<\/em>. Tashian muses, \u201cIt\u2019s a mystery why we did it. All I know is that the time was finally right. It was in us and it had to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tashian continues the latter-day chronology of the band. \u201cSince then, every year we’ve played a concert once or twice a year, which is enough. And we did Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, The Garorock Festival in Bordeaux, and London in a 10-day run. And that was so much fun. It was a dream come true for the band. And other than that we played in Boston, New York, a wedding in Chapel Hill, Las Vegas at the Grind, and then in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early 2009 the Remains played the legendary Ponderosa Stomp Festival in New Orleans. \u201cWe had to follow Dale Hawkins<\/strong> and James Burton<\/strong>,\u201d Tashian marvels. \u201cIt was the best swamp-rock band I ever heard.\u201d He says that Ira Padnos<\/strong>, the Stomp founder and organizer is \u201clike a saint\u201d for his efforts to give underappreciated artists their due. He says that the Ponderosa Stomp is \u201ca pretty intense experience, and I was very inspired by the trip to New Orleans. We were already riding high, because of the film America’s Lost Band<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

continued<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on Twitter<\/a> and get notified
\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

continued from part three… In the years after the Remains, Barry Tashian began a move toward sounds beyond rock\u2019n\u2019roll. \u201cI played in clubs around Los Angeles for most of 1967 […]<\/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-333","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\/333","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=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}