{"id":5887,"date":"2014-07-02T05:30:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T09:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=5887"},"modified":"2014-07-02T05:30:41","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T09:30:41","slug":"keith-allison-man-of-action-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/02\/keith-allison-man-of-action-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Allison: Man of Action (Part Three)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill Kopp:<\/strong> I ought to know the answer to this, but did any of your solo singles or the In Action<\/em> album make a dent on the charts?<\/span><\/p>\n

Keith Allison:<\/strong> They didn’t do much of anything. \u201cAction Action\u201d was what you’d call a turntable hit. The show [Where the Action Is<\/em>] was on national television five days a week. So it got a lot of coverage. And I went out and did a tour right when it first came out, at the end of the summer of 1966. Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels<\/strong><\/a> and myself co-headlined a tour on the east coast. Lou Christie<\/strong> was on it, The Critters<\/strong>, Tony and the Tigers<\/strong>…several other acts. Lou was pretty popular at the time, and the Detroit Wheels had those two big hits in a row: \u201cJenny Take a Ride\u201d and \u201cDevil with a Blue Dress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh…and The Trashmen<\/strong>! Of \u201cSurfin’ Bird\u201d fame. They were the backup band. They backed me up. They had a trash can onstage, came out in overalls. I’d come onstage in my little stage outfit, and there’d be these garbage guys behind me! [laughs] The first day of the tour, we played Nassau Coliseum.<\/p>\n

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BK: <\/strong>The addition of bonus tracks on this new Real Gone Music<\/a> collection (\u201cGlitter and Gold,\u201d \u201cI Ain\u2019t Blamin\u2019 You,\u201d \u201cLook at Me,\u201d \u201cWho Do You Love,\u201d \u201cI Don\u2019t Want Nobody But You,\u201d \u201cBirds of a Feather,\u201d \u201cTo Know Her Is To Love Her,\u201d \u201cJohnny B. Goode\/Whole Lotta Shakin\u2019 Goin\u2019 On,\u201d \u201cToad Jam Blues,\u201d \u201cEverybody,\u201d and \u201cWednesday\u2019s Child\u201d) more than double the album’s run time. What’s the story behind these? Are some of them previously unreleased? And if so, when were they recorded in relation to the In Action<\/em> tracks? And what was their original intended use?<\/span><\/p>\n

KA:<\/strong> A couple of ’em were unreleased. One of them has the wrong title [on the new CD]. It should be called \u201cShakin’ Johnny.\u201d I told Mark<\/strong> [Lindsay<\/strong>], \u201c I want to cut two songs together like Mitch Ryder does. I love that stuff, and I want something really rockin’.\u201d So we came up with \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d and \u201cWhole Lotta Shakin\u2019 Goin\u2019 On\u201d together. So we went and cut it; it was going to be my next single on Columbia. We were on the road; if I’m not mistaken, we were flying from Boston to Chicago. We got on the plane \u2013 Freddy<\/strong> [Weller<\/strong>] was sitting next to me \u2013 and Mark came and said to Freddy, \u201cCan you change seats with me? I need to talk to Keith.\u201d He had a long look on his face, and I went, \u201cUh-oh.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cI’m sorry. I’ve got some bad news. Before I left the hotel, I was talking to Columbia in New York. They’re not going to release your single.\u201d I said, \u201cWhat!?\u201d I really liked the thing, and I thought it had a shot at the time. But they had just signed this kid from Texas called Johnny Winter<\/strong>, and he recorded \u201cJohnny B. Goode.\u201d And since they had paid $700,000 for him, Clive<\/strong> [Davis<\/strong>] wanted to get some of his money back. So I said, \u201cSonofabitch!\u201d [laughs]<\/p>\n

That kind of thing happened to me several times. I cut \u201cTo Know Her is To Love Her,\u201d and was going to release it. Bobby Vinton<\/strong> cuts it and releases it, and he’s coming off of a number one record, \u201cI Love How You Love Me.\u201d So what can you do? I said, \u201cWell, at least I know I can pick a hit song! It’s just that someone gets them out before I do.\u201d I was so pissed…not at Bobby Vinton, but at the situation. And with Johnny Winter, the same thing. I mean, I like Johnny Winter. I’m really good friends with his brother, Edgar Winter<\/strong>. We go to dinner together; he doesn’t live too far from me.<\/p>\n

But it had nothing to do with Johnny; it was a corporate thing, y’know? And I understand it: they did pay a lot<\/em> of money for Johnny Winter.<\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong> It’s almost as if The Raiders<\/strong><\/a>‘ curse rubbed off on you. They, of course, cut \u201cLouie, Louie\u201d and \u201c(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

KA: <\/strong>But they just did \u201cSteppin’ Stone\u201d as an album cut…<\/p>\n

And \u201cLouie, Louie\u201d they cut first, and it was number one in Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco, and Honolulu. Years ago, when the radio stations in those cities did an oldies weekend, they played The Raiders’ version.<\/p>\n

Roger Hart<\/strong><\/a>, their manager, took it in to Columbia. They were the very first rock act ever signed to Columbia. In those days, Columbia had Doris Day<\/strong>, Johnny Mathis<\/strong>, The Ray Conniff Singers<\/strong>. They didn’t know what the hell to do [with The Raiders]; the sales people, they hated that stuff. They lost the record! They could have had the hit! They’d say, \u201cI’m not taking that stuff to the stations.\u201d It wasn’t until The Raiders played \u201cSteppin’ Out\u201d at the record convention in Miami. They played for all the Columbia people, and no one knew how huge they were; kids had all watched Where the Action Is<\/em> all summer long. They turned ’em loose in that place, and the kids all started screaming and rushing the stage. After that, well hell, the salesmen and promotion people all went, \u201cHoly shit!\u201d<\/p>\n

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But that’s \u201ccorporate city.\u201d They never knew what was going on. All the little independent labels, they were the ones who knew what was going on. The corporate labels would take one of their artists and cover [the indie release] and run ’em out of business.<\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong> A couple cuts (\u201cWho Do You Love\u201d b\/w \u201cDon\u2019t Want Nobody But You\u201d) were released on the Amy label in 1968. I am guessing that was right before you officially joined The Raiders, though I believe that you’ve told me before that you were playing on records during that time anyway. So why a single release on a smallish label in 1968?<\/span><\/p>\n

KA:<\/strong> Amy was a subsidiary of Bell. That one was cut in Memphis; Chips Moman<\/strong> produced it. I hadn\u2019t joined The Raiders yet; that was in the first part of March, 1968. Our road manager at the time was Jerry Williams<\/strong>, and he was from there. The Raiders had just cut Goin’ to Memphis<\/em><\/a>. The r&b stuff. They used American Studios, and they used that whole band with The Memphis Horns<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong> Except for the single off that LP, I don’t think there are any Raiders on the album, except Mark. <\/span><\/p>\n

KA:<\/strong> No. They went there, though, and hung out. In fact I stayed in the same hotel.<\/p>\n

So I was there, and Chips said, \u201cScoot him over.\u201d I had left Columbia, and I had been working on a Sonny<\/strong> [Bono<\/strong>] album, a Cher<\/strong> album, and a Sonny and Cher<\/strong> album all in one year, in ’67, right after Where the Action Is<\/em> went off the air. Sonny said, \u201cYou need to get off that label; they aren’t doing anything for you. I’ll get you on Atlantic.\u201d<\/p>\n

So [laughs] I broke my contract with Columbia, and I cut some stuff at Gold Star Studios with Sonny producing. And I listened back to those tapes and thought, \u201cHe doesn’t understand me, either! He doesn’t get it at all.\u201d It was bizarre sounding. It never came out. It’s in the can somewhere, among the Sonny and Cher files.<\/p>\n