(part 40) CHRIS LUCEY, THE LITTLE ALBUM THAT COULD.

Chris Lucey was an album I made out of the need for money. When it was finished, I had an album that had somebody else's name on it and somebody else's picture on the cover. Those of you who like the album, I'm afraid, have missed the point of it's creation.

I was Bobby Jameson, not Chris Lucey, not Brian Jones, who's picture is on the cover. Think about it! What the hell was I supposed to do with an album that led people away from me as an artist to someone named Chris Lucey who really didn't even exist except within the context of that album? I couldn't and didn't promote my own career with it, because, if you think about it, what was I gonna say, and believe me I tried.

"Hey here's my new album and look it's not my picture and it's not my name, but it's really me." Well that's exactly what I was confronted with. People just didn't get it when I showed them or told them about it. They would simply ask me why wasn't my name and picture on the record if it was mine? I finally gave up on using it at all.

It was 1965, and Chris Lucey did not exist as anything except a bailout for Randy Wood's Surrey Record deal. I'm sure this context does not fit into anyone's perception of Chris Lucey, but in fact, that's how it was at the time. Randy realized I was a better artist and writer than he had given me credit for, once he heard what I could do, but no one was running around heralding Chris Lucey, as an artistic achievement.

It took 30 years for people to figure out that Bobby Jameson was Chris Lucey. The telling of this story is difficult for me in that I run into a lack of perspective by everyone with regards to how the true facts were viewed at the time they took place. The view from what I have encountered in the last few years, is so far off the mark that I have found myself arguing with people, who don't know shit about the facts as they truly exist.

The so called music historians have written so much bullshit that people have accepted as fact, that I am slowed to a painful crawl as far as clearing up myth. The arrogance of these people who relate stories, as if they had been there, is a pitiful attempt at self glorification on their part, along with those who print and distribute this bullshit.

I'm available, but have found that nobody is particularly interested in my opinion, even though I am the only living person who was actually there. Some of you may wonder what is bothering me, because I at times become so frustrated that I threaten to just say the hell with it. Well, I am always ready to quit and say the hell with it, because it is the only protection I have. I do not have to do this if it's going to kill me. I already lived through it once. Dragging the bottom of my misery, so I can relate my past currently, is one of the most truly painful things I will ever do.

I am constantly remembering things that hurt so bad at the time, that I found them difficult to digest as they occurred. To relive them again, for the purpose of writing them here, is not a pleasant task at all, but something I choose, a day at a time, to continue to do or not to do. There isn't any guarantee, whatsoever, that the whole story will ever get told.

Chris Lucey was a throw away album when it was created. Like it or not, that is a fact. It has, in recent years, taken on a life of it's own and for that I am grateful, but it needs to be viewed in real context, to see how it has risen on it's own merit to a position it never held when it was created.

This, in fact, from a historical point of view, makes "Songs Of Protest And Anti Protest" better as a work and in no way diminishes its intrinsic value. To attach a lot of untrue rhetoric to Chris Lucey, is to belittle it as a work and as a part of musical history. Chris Lucey is what it is. The little album that could.

(part 39) ZONE X

It has taken days of thinking and extreme reluctance before I could even return to this story at all. My music site on myspace was destroyed by someone who thought attacking me was in some way a good thing to do. I put up a new site, bare bones, and have 6 new songs.

In my last post I received 1 comment where I was asked what I hoped to achieve. I thought about that for days. Nothing! That's my answer. That's why this is titled Zone X. I have never received anything from the music business but misery. The only people that ever helped me were the women of Southern California who put me in their beds and their hearts. So when I am asked that question, and I am in no way belittling it, I thought long and hard about an answer.

I am too afraid to ever think that anything good will come out of me telling this story. I am telling this story because it has never been told, and I grew tired of reading the lies and non-facts about me on the internet. I have nothing but my story and my music from which I have not gained financially. I came here to tell my story for me. That is the only reason I am even continuing at all.

If I relied on getting anything else but that to continue writing, I would have to stop now. To think, which I have, that I would benefit in any way from writing this, and then find out in the end that it was just like it's always been, and still is, I don't think I could stand it. I think that if my disappointment becomes any greater than it has been and continues to be, that I would just give up and disappear for ever.

I am not a person who gets help. I am a person who could surely use some, but at 63 years old in April, I have resigned myself to the completely concrete notion, that I have not been helped much and probably never will be. I can live with that. I cannot live with false hope.

Maybe you think I just need a better attitude or a more positive outlook. Hopefully you have not, and will not, have to live through my life or anything similar to it. If you have, or are, then you are a brother or sister of mine forever. My position is born out of bitter experience, not a negative outlook on life. The reason I am still around is because I have never given up on Bobby Jameson. Pretty much everybody else did, with the exception of my family.

On April Fool's Day I will have 32 years of sobriety. Free from drugs and alcohol, so that is who I am, a story from the past to now, and a sober individual who is writing it down. I am ZONE X. My life is ZONE X. I hate it, but it's the hand I have been dealt.

Many people have sat in judgement of me and many still do. One would think that after all this time I could just share my story and music without getting my head beat in, but that is not the case, as I have found in the last week. For what ever reason, and if you use your imagination I'm sure you can come up with a couple, I seem to bring out the worst in some people. I have always done this. I brought out the worst in Randy Wood, Andrew Oldham, and Tony Alamo, and I am still paying the price.

As I continue to relate my story, you will see that it gets progressively worse. No matter how hard I tried, I could not find one person who was worth trusting in the long run. I am in no way trying to imply that I did not share in the calamity that was my life, but I do believe, that if I could have found one fair person to work with, I possibly would not be here now telling you this story, the ZONE X story.

(part 38) DUCEY/LUCEY CONTRACTS?

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The Leaves album with my song GIRL FROM THE EAST

Because there was no contract for Chris Lucey, Mira/Surrey was left in much the same situation they'd been in with Chris Ducey's contract problems. The difference was that I, unlike Ducey, had no legal or any other representation at the time.

Randy Wood was not about to hold up the album's release and stop Surrey's move into Europe again. He and his partner, Betty Chiapetta, along with Abe Somer, decided to go ahead with the scheduled release, based on their assumption that no one would question me or Mira/Surrey about contracts back then. That of course proved to be accurate at the time and true as well for ensuing decades.

Had Mira/Surrey offered me a contract with even the slightest of benefits given to me I probably would have signed it, but in Randy Wood's mind I was due nothing. I was simply expected to roll over when asked. But I'd already played that part with Tony Alamo, Andrew Oldham, and Brit. I was unwilling to go along with Wood's and Somer's demands after completing Chris Lucey. In my mind I had saved their ass and believed they owed me much more consideration than they were offering.

Mira/Surrey was focused on their deal in Europe not on whether Bobby Jameson was treated fairly. With or without a contract they moved ahead, dismissing any problems with me as details that could be sorted out later. It was not as if anyone expected the Chris Lucey album on it's own to be a hit. It was just one of the cogs in a larger wheel.

Randy Wood was such an ego maniac that he in essence dismissed me and my rights as irrelevant to his forward motion. The fact there were never any legal agreements between me and Mira/Surrey for the Chris Lucey project was literally buried in a box that had "Who Cares!" stamped on it. Business was business in Randy's mind and no little piss-ant like Bobby Jameson was going to get in his way.

The history of Randy Wood had already been written by the time I worked for him. Long before there was any Mira/Surrey, Wood's reputation as President of Vee Jay Records had been well established along with his partner Betty Chiapetta. The addition of Abe Somer was just another black mark against the likes of Mira/Surrey's reputation of questionable ethics and business practices.

In the picture above you can see my song Girl From The East, from the Chris Lucey album, on the Mira release of The Leaves record which followed Chris Lucey. It says that Girl From The East was published by Mirwood Music another of the many companies belonging to Randy Wood and Betty Chiapetta. The songs from Chris Lucey have been moved and moved again for decades, creating an endless trail of "hide the pea."

I have never been paid a penny for Girl From The East no matter which version or record we are speaking of. Nothing! Ever!

(single releases)
Hey Joe / Girl from the East: Mira 222 (1966)

Too Many People / Girl from the East: Mira 227 (1966)

(part 37) NO CONTRACT ON CHRIS LUCEY ALBUM

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Original Surrey album and logo

The Chris Lucey album is what it is. The people who worked on it worked hard as I recall. Everybody got wrapped up in this odd little record and gave it their all. It was a strange time in 1965, and Songs Of Protest And Anti Protest seemed to capture that in some a way.

As I said before, music and the music business were in a state of massive change and not everyone was sure about what that meant. Even Marshall Leib finally admitted that the record had it's own unusual charm and said it came out better than he'd expected. Randy Wood was a happy man and made no attempt at downplaying his enthusiasm.

Pam Burns was hailed as a genius by Randy Wood and there was a sense of relief at Mira/Surrey over the completion of the project that had had them so hung up. I was getting a lot of pats on the back for coming through under pressure, and Marshall Lieb and Randy seemed to have squared their differences, what ever they had been, with the completion of the Chris Lucey album.

I never saw Marshall much after that, and have always wondered what happened to him. Pam reminded Randy that he'd said that if I got the Chris Lucey record done on time, and Randy approved of it, he'd let me make a record of anything I wanted and release it on Mira Records as a single under my own name.

Randy said, "Damn! You ought to be this guy's manager." "Just making sure you remembered what you promised," said Pam. She was always looking out for me. From the moment I met her she was always on my side. I have the fondest memories of her. She was a true friend, probably better than I deserved.

There were still things to be done to the album. A couple of overdubs, like the harmonica part I played on "That's The Way The World Has Got To Be," the final mix, and then mastering. But for all intents and purposes the album was done and I was glad. It was hard writing songs to someone else's titles and I swore I'd never do it again.

I was now Chris Lucey in an odd sort of a way, even though Chris Lucey didn't really exist. He was a figment of the the printing press and imagination of some weird destiny. No one, with the exception of those at Mira Records and the musicians, knew who Chris Lucey was or cared. The public certainly didn't know I was him nor did anyone else for years to come.

Chris Lucey was released in other parts of the world as "Too Many Mornings" by Bobby Jameson sometime after it was released as Chris Lucey "Songs Of Protest And Anti Protest" in 1965. Although both albums are identical, they were seen as separate from each other until many years later. The album was also released on Crestview Records in the 70's, another Randy Wood label, and in a box set of Vee Jay masters as well.

It wasn't until 2003 that I even knew anyone cared about the album or knew that Bobby Jameson and Chris Lucey are the same person. I spent over 40 years trying to forget that I ever made the album, because so many people had put it down as a worthless piece of junk.

At some point after most of the work on Chris Lucey was drawing to a close, Randy and Abe Somer got me alone in Randy's office one evening. They said they wanted to talk to me about my plans for the future or something to that effect. After going in to his office Randy closed the door, which he almost never did, and started smiling at me and telling me what a good writer and singer I was.

I eye-balled Abe Somer who was standing there with a thick stack of papers in his hand grinning like a cheshire cat. I immediately felt uncomfortable, because this scenario was completely out of the ordinary. I was used to being treated like the odd man out most of the time so I sensed that something was up. Randy went on and on about how surprised he was with my ability and that because of it he was prepared to offer me a contract as an artist and writer.

I asked him if that included Chris Lucey? He said it did. I asked him about what the contract said and how long it was for. He told me seven years and that he would be willing to publish all and anything I wrote from then on. There was no talk of anything for me, just what he and Mira would get if I signed. The feeling in that room was like a kid being ganged up on by two bigger kids.

I told Randy that this was totally unexpected, and that I didn't know if I wanted to be tied up with somebody for seven years. Randy's expression changed immediately from that point on. "Whatta ya mean for that long? That's standard," he said, "for an artist's contract." "It might be Randy," I said, "but I don't know if that's what I want to do or not. I'd have to think about it for a while."

"Think about it," he yelled, "I just gave you a chance to cut a whole goddamn album you ungrateful little prick. What's there to think about?" I stood there looking back and forth between Abe and Randy, trying to gather my wits, as the whole meeting seemed to go out of control. "Did Abe write the contract?" I asked, "You know he did. What's that got to do with it?" yelled Randy. "That's why I'm not going to sign it," I said, remembering what I'd learned from Randy about Abe Somer contracts.

Randy moved in on me like a street fighter and grabbed the collar of my shirt with both hands and threw me up against the office wall with a thud. "Listen you little son of a bitch, I..." He trailed off realizing what he had just done. I stood there motionless until he released me from his grip. I looked over at Abe who had not moved one inch since the whole thing began. Not because he was afraid, but because he was a steely little prick who was unaffected by Wood's occasional outbursts.

Randy kind of mellowed as fast as he went off. He was like that. He'd change back and forth in a matter of minutes. "Go ahead, get outta here," he said. I pulled myself off the wall and headed for the door not saying a word. I remember thinking, "No one will ever do that to me again. No one! Ever!"

I never signed a contract with Mira/Surrey for writing the songs for "Songs Of Protest And Anti Protest" or performing as the artist Chris Lucey. To this day that remains the case. No one owns the rights to those songs except me. I never gave them away knowingly or unknowingly. I created them, and until someone can come up with a contract with my signature on it, stating a legal difference, I own the rights to my songs and performance on the Chris Lucey album.

(part 36) RECORDING THE CHRIS LUCEY ALBUM 1965

Along with Randy Wood and Abe Somer there were others who shared the offices that made up Mira/Surrey Records. Phil Turetsky, one of the better people I met in the music business, also had an office in that suite. Phil had, among other things, Pacific Jazz Records. He was also a business manager and his primary client and music partner was Johnny Rivers, who at the time was doing very well with both with live performances at the Whiskey A Go Go, and hit records like "Memphis."

I got to know Phil pretty well. I would watch him sitting behind a desk reclining in a chair like he was on vacation. He seemed to know where all the bodies were buried, let's say. He wasn't like anyone else I knew in the music business. He didn't make moves on you, or if he did, they were so subtle and well placed that you either didn't notice or didn't care. I liked Phil and we got to be pretty close over time, as you will see later.

I continued writing the songs for Chris Lucey and ended up with nine completed songs and a tenth one without lyrics. It was good enough for Randy who was chomping at the bit to get into the studio and start recording them. Like I said, Marshall Lieb was not a pleasant guy to work with, so when I would try to get him to talk to me about what his plans were for the album he refused to tell me anything and would not allow any input from me.

I complained bitterly about this and threatened not to cut the damn record if he kept it up. Randy intervened to some degree, but not enough to give me much of a chance to have any real say about who was gonna play on it. Marshall had his mind made up from the outset, and I guess it worked out OK in the long run. I did not know any of the players that he got for the Chris Lucey album, and to this day I can't tell you who played on that record. I don't know if it was a union date or if it was done under the table.

We recorded it at American Studios on Ventura Blvd. in North Hollywood. It had been a house and was converted into a recording studio by the engineer who I believe owned it. I do not remember his name. This may all sound pretty vague to the reader, but that's the way this record was done. Everything about it was hit and miss. Randy was so cheap that I would assume the whole thing was done non-union and recorded at a relatively cheaper studio on purpose. He just wanted a record any way he could get it. In the end I was not paid any more for playing on the album or singing all the songs. All I received was the original $200 or $250 for everything I did on that record.

As we began laying down the first basic tracks, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how Marshall had charted them out. They began taking on a distinct personality from the beginning, and I was able to interact with the musicians more and more. Randy Wood was pleased with what was happening. I think he was surprised that the whole project was ending up a lot better than what he'd originally anticipated. Marshall's choice of instruments was odd to me at first, but created a unique texture for the songs. We thought up creative ways to use them in the best possible way, like the echo on the piano in "That's The Way The World Has Got To Be." "I Got The Blues" was distinctly folk rockish and was most likely influenced by the recently released Byrds version of "Mr Tambourine Man" which came out in 1965.

The album's problem, in a way, was that it couldn't decide whether it was blues, jazz, pop, or folk rock, so what you get is a combination of all those elements mashed together. The song "Saline" has a guitar part that was played, by the engineer, directly into the mixing board so it has a distinct and very alive sound. The echo chamber in this place was an old tile covered shower stall with a stand up mic in the middle of it. Patch cords everywhere and things that worked and didn't work with great regularity.

The song "I'll Remember Them" was the tenth song I mentioned, which I hadn't written lyrics for. I told them just play the track and I'll make something up. So the lyrics to that particular song were made up as I recorded it. One take, one song. That more than anything else sums up Chris Lucey. If you don't have it, wing it. The whole damn record was "wingin' it." It's also part of the magic, if there is any, to the process. Everybody was inventing it as we made it, and that's what gives it it's particular feel.

Various changes in music were occurring everyday in the industry, and Chris Lucey was being created as these changes were happening. This is not an over statement! One day no Byrds, the next day The Byrds, or Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone". Everybody was scrambling to try and figure out what was happening musically. At the time, this was a state of massive confusion. It is far easier to look back now than it was to see forward back then. Anyway, in the midst of all this upheaval Chris Lucey was born out of a mistake with contracts, with another artist, and a printer who changed the letter D into an L. That's why and how Chris Lucey even exists. It was born out of a fluke and I became it's voice and it's music and words.

(part 35) FAST WAS NOT FAST ENOUGH FOR RANDY

Song in video written by Bill Jameson

I would like to say to the reader that if you sent a comment to me it is appreciated in a way that you may not understand. I am gratified by any comments, good or bad, because they indicate an interest in this subject which gives me strength on bad days to keep going. I am determined to see this through, but the comments really help. Thanks to each and every one of you. If you want to send a crappy comment, I accept those too. Bobby Jameson aka Chris Lucey 2008

As I began showing up at Mira/Surrey Records daily, I began to get a feel for the way things worked there. Randy Wood, who was a pretty good drinker, would spout off about business at the end of the day when he'd had a couple of cocktails in his office.

This became a time for me to pay attention to what he was saying. He did a lot of bragging about an attorney he worked with named Abe Somer. He said that Abe could write a contract that no one could get out of, and that no one could understand until it was too late. Meaning that by the time you signed an Abe Somer contract and figured out you shouldn't have signed it, it was too late because you already had. I took this seriously when I heard it and never forgot those words.

Abe was a studious looking fellow, kind of like Bill Gates, with the personality of an assassin. He used to eyeball me when ever I was around, and I quickly concluded that I did not trust him at all. He acquired a reputation for helping change the music business from a lot of small independent labels into a larger corporate structure, which bought out the independents thus creating a larger structure, whose sole goal was to own and control more and more publishing and master rights. Abe Somer was one of those who did as much damage to the L A music scene in the 60's as any human being I know of. I was there when this was occurring. I warned people about it, but they just laughed at me and said I didn't know what I was talking about. Looking back now, I knew exactly what I was talking about.

I wrote 2 or 3 more songs for the Chris Lucey album and Randy was even more pleased than before. He started telling everybody what a good writer I was and that he ought to get me signed up. I was putting the songs down on a 2-track tape recorder at night, that was in the office, so Randy could listen to them the next day. They were pretty rough, but it was a good way for Marshall Lieb to hear what he would be producing, and get charts written for the players he was going to use on the record.

I finally met Marshall and he was unimpressed by me or the songs, in fact he was down right obnoxious. He did not want to do the album at all, but was beholden to Randy for something, so he'd agreed, reluctantly, to do it. But he made no attempt whatsoever to cover his feelings about me, my songs, and the project overall. He was a good producer, but a pain in the ass to work with. He always acted like the whole thing was beneath him, and who knows maybe it was.

While I was writing the songs for the album, I enlisted my brother Bill (Jamie) and Bruce (Baby John) Hinds to take a whack at writing something for the record. I told them if Randy liked what they wrote, it would be on the album. My brother came up with "That's The Way The World Has Got To Be" (part 2) (Too Many Mornings) and he and Bruce Hinds came up with "I got The Blues." These two songs are stand outs on the record. I helped a bit on both songs, but Bill and Bruce, for the most part, wrote the them.

Bruce Hinds, if you don't recall, was a sidekick of Danny Whitten, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina's, and became their roadie, for both "The Rockets" and "Crazy Horse" bands. Randy Wood liked "I Got The Blues" so much that he had it recorded with a full orchestra in England when he went there. As I pushed on with the writing, I encountered difficulties with some of the titles that I was forced to use. Trying to write new songs to somebody else's titles can be a real challenge at times, and that was something I found out the hard way.

If I didn't have new stuff for Randy every time he asked, his personality would shift from I like you to I hate you. It seemed to be about the deadline in Randy's head regarding his overall Surrey agreement with Europe. So the Chris Lucey album getting finished was a priority and I, unfortunately, felt this pressure from Randy, to hurry up and get done, so we could go in the studio and cut the thing. Forget the fact that I had to accomplish this all in about two weeks, the writing that it. Randy was impatient and let me know it. I learned very quickly that Randy Wood could seem like your best friend one minute, and then turn on you the next. I was always ready for his personality shifts and they would always show up.