(part 55) COLOR HIM IN: KRLA BEAT 1967

Verve Recods poster of Me, Frank Zappa, and Janice Ian

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Cover of KRLA BEAT for "Color Him In" release in 1967

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KRLA BEAT 1967

(part 54) "COLOR HIM IN" THE FINAL MIX...

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Making "Color Him In" was an act of love as well as being frustrating. All the potential in the world was there, but the frustration of always being dominated by the money clock was a pain in the ass. We couldn't work when we were ready. We had to work when the time was available. I know I have already stated this, but it deserves repeating, because it dominated the way in which "Color Him In" was made.

There were shortcuts where there shouldn't have been, such as in the song "Jenny." It's basically a lounge singers song, granted, but there are parts of the vocal where I and the background singers are out of tune slightly and this weakened the impact of the recording overall. Instead of fixing it, Steve Clark would say, "It's good enough for government work" or something similar and have us move on.

The problem with that, and there were many, was that I started getting the feeling that the whole album was going to end up suffering as a result which it did. Likewise the ending of "Windows And Doors" has a crowd applause that Steve added, because again, a note was missed by me at the end of the song. Rather than get it right dumb fixes were used to offset the mistake. What you end up with by doing that, is the mistake plus another mistake. You can well imagine the frustration over having to work in this manner.

When "Color Him In" was being made we had no record deal. The cost of recording was fronted by Steve Clark's production company "Our Productions." If a label had been involved from the start we possibly could have had more freedom to do what needed to be done. But the way it was Steve was always looking over our shoulders and trying to cut costs which hurt the album overall.

Don't get me wrong, "Color Him In" even with it's mistakes and weaknesses has held it's own over a period of 41 years. Like Chris Lucey's "Songs Of Protest And Anti Protest," both albums have managed, on their own merit, to be regarded as viable period representations of the 60's.

In point of fact it was my relationship with FranK Zappa that led to the album being released on Verve Records which Frank and "The Mothers Of Invention" were on. I have always assumed that Frank felt he owed me something because of my openness with him regarding Gail. I was never a problem for Frank, and his intervention regarding "Color Him In" and Verve, was his way of saying thanks. It was Frank who asked Tom Wilson to take a personal interest in "Color Him In" which Tom did. So you see, even the deal itself with Verve was handed to Steve Clark. He didn't have to go out and shop the record. The label came to him via my friendship with Frank.

The ongoing difficulty between "The Association" and Curt Boettcher was again one of the problems that interfered with our work. Curt would get depressed over it and his creativity would suffer as a result. The way that showed up in his work on "Color Him In" was lack luster ideas instead of his usual genius and creativity.

The clearest example of this would be on "Who's Putting Who On" and the horn parts which at best are annoying. Instead of using Jim Bell's talent to make those parts what they could have been, it was passed over and left as is which was never adequate. These imperfect pieces of "Color Him In" are some of it's weaknesses and have always bothered me personally, but the main criticism of the album was the final mix.

It was always mushy! Too much bass, too little mid range, and almost no high end. This kept the record from ever having the clarity it could have had, and negatively affected the separation that was built into the original recordings. It was a sloppy mistake and I complained about it from the very beginning.

When the album was being mixed it was played back through those Goddamned "Voice Of The Theater" speakers at high volume. When you played it on those, and mixed it, there was no possible way it would sound the same as it would when played on smaller speakers like people had in their homes or cars. It took years to get people to quit using those damn mammoth speakers for mix down. There is pretty much zero clarity of sound when that is done which would explain a lot of the muddiness in recordings from the 60's and 70's.

Because of Curt's personal clash with both "The Association" and Steve Clark, the final stages of production for "Color Him In" suffered. You know how that goes. You work hard on something in the beginning, but as time passes your enthusiasm wears thin. If you add a few other major distractions to the mix it gets worse. "The Association" had a hit and they understandably had to be dealt with, by both Curt and Steve, but as a result "Color Him In" did not finish in the same way it started. It was as if we were just trying to finish it as fast as we could in the end.

I am not just passing judgement on my own creation here. I am attempting, as best I can, to relay to you with some clarity how it was this record was made. The ups and downs, the good and the bad, the successes and failures. I have waited 4 decades to explain some of the inner workings of the process and voice some opinion about what went wrong and what went right with "Color Him In."

In the long run the album is what it is, and some people hate it and others love it. My feeling has always been "Let me back in the studio so I can fix what is wrong. Let me make it sound the way it could have sounded and the way it should have sounded." But alas that was not to be, and I have had to accept "Color Him In" for what it is. "Color Him In" is a part of me. My life was changed because of it. The story about that part of my life is not ending here but only beginning. The release of the album and what transpired over the next couple of years was as important to me, maybe more so, than the making of the record itself.


"The New Age" from the album "Color Him In"

(part 53) "THE PLACES, TIMES, AND THE PEOPLE"

SO MANY THINGS TO REMEMBER
AND SO MANY MORE TO FORGET
AND ALL THAT I REMEMBER
IS ALL THAT I'M TRYING TO FORGET

THE PLACES TIMES AND THE PEOPLE
A TANGLE OF MISFORTUNE I HAVE FOUND
LORD THE EAGLE CRIES HIGH ABOVE THE STEEPLE
TO THE PLACES TIMES AND PEOPLE ON THE GROUND

WHEN WILL THE PEOPLE
GO WHERE THEY'RE GOIN'
WHEN WILL THEY ALL COME BACK
THE PLACES THEY GO TO
THE TIME THAT IT TAKES THEM
MAYBE THEY'LL NEVER COME BACK

STANDIN' LOOKIN' OUT OF MY WINDOW
THE RAIN IS LIKE THE TEARDROPS I HAVE CRIED
LORD THERE'S NOTHIN' BUT A ROOM AND A WINDOW
AND THE TIMES IN THE PAST I HAVE TRIED

THE PLACES TIMES AND THE PEOPLE
A TANGLE OF MISFORTUNE I HAVE FOUND
AND THE EAGLE CRIES HIGH ABOVE THE STEEPLE
TO THE PLACES TIMES AND PEOPLE ON THE GROUND

Robert Parker Jameson 1966-67

This song as much as anything on "Color Him In" clarifies the questions of the times, and the possible futility, felt by many, including myself, who looked out across America and tried to explain the "Vietnam War." Their displeasure with what the "Establishment" was doing personified the times.

It also is one of the pure reflections of myself personally, and my growing distaste with the world I saw before me. Coupled with the song "Jamie," which I wrote about and to my brother Bill, who had gone insane earlier in 1966, these 2 songs exemplified for me a bitterness toward fate and the questions I had regarding the stupidity of the war and my purpose on the planet.

The loss to mental illness of my brother Bill was a cruel reality that still haunts me today and has always been a source of anger for me. "Jamie" was a futile attempt, by me, to call my brother back from insanity and see him whole again. "Jamie" was his nickname, and for me, the song is the most important one on "Color Him In." I tried to believe that if I could just will it hard enough it would bring him back to reality.

(part 52) "MY MUSIC IS WHERE I'VE BEEN" Jameson '67

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Steve Clark was one of the funniest guys I ever met. He was also an alcoholic and a gambler. The fact that he had some success with a number of hit records allowed him to pursue his habits openly. No one really questions you when you're doing well.

When Steve agreed to pay me a $100 a week, it was for song writing. I became a Since Music writer and that's what I got a weekly sum of money for. Since Music was the name of Steve's publishing company at the time, and I wrote a lot of songs for him. All of what's on "Color Him In" is listed with BMI as published by Since Music, which is now defunct, and Steve Clark is dead.

I learned to drink on a daily basis with Steve, I mean really drink. He would drink at lunch in a place called "The Room At The Top" which was on the very top of the tower on Vine and Sunset, where Our Productions and Since Music had their offices. I hung out a lot with Steve so if he drank I drank. It wasn't like he set out to make me an alcoholic, he just drank a lot and so I drank with him. At the end of the day it was back up to "The Room At The Top" for cocktails and snacks. We did this every day, 5 days a week, for a couple of years.

As you can see I had two distinctly different relationships going with two entirely different kinds of people. Curt on the one hand, who was gentle and creative, and Steve on the other who was a heavy weight drinker and all business. This paradox of personalities placed me directly in the middle of a strange tug of war that, at times, caused me great confusion. I was still only 20 years old when I entered into the world of Curt Boettcher and Steve Clark and was about to learn a whole lot of stuff about a whole lot of things.

One of the high points of my life was coming in contact with certain musicians that played on "Color Him In." Jerry Scheff, who is one of the world's great bass players, was on "Color Him In" and a number of other recordings I made. He was one of the very best human beings I ever met in my life and that never changed.

Ben Benay, a world class guitar player for all time, was another who did all the tracks on the album. I have worked on more records with Ben Benay over the years than any other musician I have ever known. Mike Henderson played sax and did some keyboard work on a lot of the album. Toxi French, drums. Jim troxell, drums. Mike Deasy, guitar. Butch Parker, piano and an assortment of instruments. Jim Bell, oboe, horns, and vocals. Michele O'Malley, vocals. Lee Mallory, guitar and vocals, and of course Curt who arranged everything, and played a slew of instruments. He put together all the background harmonies and basically ran the show.

The choice of songs used on the album was for the most part up to me and Curt, but there was input from Steve and others if they had any strong views on songs and/or arrangements. In a lot of ways it was pretty democratic when you get right down to it. These people all had a say if they felt strongly about something involving the making of this record.

For example, "I Love You More Than You Know" was a good doo wop song. Everybody liked it and liked playing on it so it ended up on the album. "Candy Colored Dragon" is a lot like Curt, like a child who was visiting dreamland. Curt was "Peter Pan."

If you listen to the cut "Right By My Side" you can hear the track playing backwards in part of the song. This was something Curt and I borrowed from The Beatles and used on that track.

"The New Age" is a song I fought to put on the album against everybody's advice, and if you listen to my vocal you will notice that I have copied Arthur Lee's vocal style from Love's recording of "Little Red Book." That was the only time I borrowed from Love and I am proud of it. This is also the only song on "Color Him In" that I arranged and produced.

"Do You Believe In Yesterday" is another one of the LSD inspired tunes that arose out of Universal questions of life and death. "Do you believe in yesterday and everything she gave you? Do you believe that anything can ever really save you from dying?" Again, this album was inspired, rightly or wrongly, by the questions raised by the era of the 60's.

Everything was being questioned all of the time. The war in Vietnam. The social structure of the entire country, and for that matter, the whole world. Sex was accepted by the young as a good thing, as opposed to going to Vietnam and killing people or getting killed.

I have read on the internet where people have made fun of what was printed on the back cover of "Color Him In." They said how foolish it sounded to say that "My music is where I have been, what I have seen, how I feel, and who I am." But I'll tell you that was the truth for me. It was where I'd been, what I'd seen, how I felt, and who I was in 1966-67.

(part 51) CURT BOETTCHER AND BOBBY JAMESON: THE MAKING OF COLOR HIM IN

Telling the story about the making of "Color Him In" is different than the previous stories. This album was more specific in it's intention than the earlier recordings I made with the exception of "Vietnam/Metropolitan Man." Work started on the project in 1966 just prior to the "Summer Of Love" time period in 1967 which has been well documented as a central time frame and theme of the 60's.

"Color Him In" was a psychedelic work of the times. Much of what is on the record was inspired by LSD, Vietnam, and the Peace Movement. The overall context was freedom from the establishment or so we thought. It was basically a concept album, but most of the music's conceptual arrangements were Curt's. Songs I wrote like "See Dawn" dealt with duality. "What goes up must come down." The lyric "See dawn, see dawn the setting sun" attempts to look at things from opposite ends of a single spectrum simultaneously.

These pairs of opposites run throughout the work. Curt Boettcher was delighted by this kind of lyric. My words and melodies, according to Curt at the time, were like a playground for his arrangements. He would take the demos I made of me and a guitar, and arrange vocal harmonies and instrumentation around them. He would come up with entire arrangements based on a specific lick or chord progression of mine.

In "Jamie," which has a piano chord progression I used in writing the song, Curt built that progression into the dominant theme or sound for the song. He didn't just have some chords to follow, he made the progression stand out as the specific feature of the entire recording itself. If you listen to "Jamie" you will get the point.


"Jamie" from "Color Him In"

The album was recorded in it's entirety at CBS Studios on Sunset Blvd., in Hollywood. These were very up to date studios in the 60's when we worked there, but were run or engineered exclusively by Union members at the time. This was very problematic back then, because Curt was not even allowed to touch the equipment according to Union rules. Not only was this a nightmare for Curt Boettcher, but for others as well such as Brian Wilson. These guys, Curt and Brian, were better equipped to do the work than the Engineers who were running the equipment, but the rule was only the Union Engineers could run things. What you had, was two young genius's telling these old farts what to do and how to do it. It was a problem, but it also helped change things in the long run.

As far as the cover art for "Color Him In" went, it was Steve Clark's idea. The original picture was taken by Dan White in Hollywood in 1966. Steve thought up the idea about Color Him In, like a kid's coloring book, one evening when we were all drinking. The cover itself has always stood out and in some ways is more memorable than the music itself. I've had people say they didn't really like the record but they loved the cover.

Another problem we encountered in making Color Him In was that Curt Boettcher was trying to finish up an album with The Association at the same time. The Association wanted to produce themselves and argued with Boettcher all the time about who had the final say. So as you can imagine we were never just concentrating on one thing. We were always arranging time to suit numerous demands made by several different entities. This tended to make Curt crazy and unable to do what he wanted on some of our work.

Staying for a moment with problems involved in the making of this record, we found ourselves constantly up against the money clock. We always had a limited amount of time to do everything. Steve would tell us, "OK you've got 3 hours of studio time on Thursday to get something started or finished." No one ever really knew when these times were going to be available until the last minute. Because of this we were always under stress when most of the work was done. Musicians, like Jerry Scheff, would go from a Tommy Roe session to a "Color Him In" session back to back... Got pretty damn confusing.

Curt was surrounded by people who all became friends of mine, like Michele O'Malley, Jim Bell, and Lee Mallory. Fans of Curt Boettcher will readily know these names from other Boettcher works like The Ballroom and The Millenium. At one point I moved into a house with all of these people and we tried living together but it proved too difficult in the long run. Too many dominant personalities in one place. Working together was one thing, living together was another.

Curt and I were very close friends while we worked on "Color Him In." We were never anymore or less than friends. Those of you who are familiar with Curt's personal life can put your questions away. Curt and I were good friends. We liked working together and we inspired each other. We created a record in the 60's called "Color Him In." I have much more to say about the making of this record and the people who made it possible, but for now I have set up a pretty fair groundwork for the continuation of that story.

Before I go on with the making of "Color Him In" I want to tie up some loose ends regarding the other things that were occurring at the same time, like "The Monkees" audition. I had to meet with Phil Turetsky and tell him of my decision to go with Steve Clark and Curt Boettcher rather than become a "Monkee." Phil, who was extremely easy going as I have already stated, took it all in stride and said he figured that would be my decision. He was not surprised.

He told me that either choice would have been the right one. He said it was important that I felt comfortable with my choice rather than do what others thought I should do and be miserable. I thanked Phil for his help at getting me pointed in the right direction, and told him that without it I would have just continued doing the same thing over and over without ever getting anywhere. He assured me it had been his pleasure and hinted that he wanted to keep being involved with me if that was OK. He said he'd make sure that Columbia was notified about my decision to turn down "The Monkees" television show.


"See Dawn" from "Color Him In"

(part 50) STEVE CLARK, CURT BOETTCHER, AND BOBBY JAMESON

In 1966 I was at a crossroads in my life. The war in Vietnam was raging out of control and was taking it's toll on America. There was a growing split between the anti-war forces and pro-war forces, and both sides were taking to the streets. Many of the arguments for war today were heard in the 60's. They are as wrong now as they were back then. There's one reason to leave and a thousand reasons to stay. It takes a lot of guts to leave but it is the only way to allow what is going to happen to happen and then heal.

In the 60's it was the same question. The streets of West Hollywood and Hollywood saw their share of huge violent street demonstrations against the Vietnam War. I don't think I missed any of them in all the time they were happening. I knew in my heart that I had been spared going because I'd been busted for drugs, but I couldn't just forget about Vietnam simply because I didn't have to go.

Sometimes on the "Strip" guys who were just out of boot camp would show up to beat up on "hippies" who they regarded as "pinko commie fags" and cowards. We actually had a gang who were always ready to go at it with these jerks when that happened so there was a lot of street fighting in the middle to late 60's over the war.

At the intersection of Crescent Heights Blvd. and Sunset Blvd. there was an island in the middle of the street. This is where "Pandora's Box" was located. Across the street was the "5th Estate" another well known 60's coffee house and "hippie" hangout. We fought with 1,000 or more L.A. cops and sheriff's officers one night over the war, and a newly imposed curfew and loitering law. It would make sense to keep this in mind when thinking back to all that the 60's had to offer.

There were real people who had real ideas about important things that swept this country into turmoil back then. It was by no means just a drugged out musical dreamworld. The drugs and music were always present but so were a lot of other ideas that represented the dynamics of the time.

I showed up at the Vine Tower to meet Steve Clark and Curt Boettcher at the arranged time and was unsure of what to expect. I had been told by Phil Turetsky, as I said, that Steve was an easy guy to get along with and that turned out to be the truth. He may have been a little too easy to get along with. None the less, I was welcomed into Steve Clark's world of Our Productions as a long lost child and felt immediately at home in those surroundings.

I told him about the "Monkees" TV thing and said I was up for a part in it and had to make a decision one way or another. He asked what was holding me back and I told him I was somewhat reluctant to end up a TV "bubble gummer" no matter how good it sounded. Steve was vaguely aware of my past and asked about the Billboard ads and Tony Alamo. He was also interested in the fact that I'd recorded with Mick Jagger in London.

We talked about my goals in the music business for awhile. Steve asked if I wanted to meet Curt Boettcher who was waiting in another office. "Yeah!" I said. While Steve went to get him I tried to anticipate what he would be like. When Curt showed up at the door saying, "Hi!" I knew he was nothing like I'd envisioned. He was not an arrogant record guy at all. He was small and fragile looking, like "Peter Pan" and had one of the most friendly interested smiles I had ever encountered.

He introduced himself to me and I returned the introduction as we shook hands. His voice was almost like a child but filled with interest and respect. He spoke to me as if he were thrilled to be there and appeared to relish every moment of the time we spent together that day. He asked about my music and I told him the best way for me to explain it was to play it for him which he was eager for me to do.

We sat in that office for an hour or more and I played song after song for him that I'd written in the past year or so. There was nothing I played him that he didn't like. From "Jamie" to "See Dawn" and "Candy Colored Dragon," etc., he was just pleased about what he heard coming out of my mouth. "We have to work together. I can already hear the arrangements for everything you're playing," he said.

He was like some frantic genius in full animation in front of me. His excitement was catching and I began to get excited right along with him. I seemed to know at that moment that Curt and I were destined to work with each other from that time on. Our Productions would be my new home and Curt and Steve Clark would be my new best friends. When Steve finally came back to join us he could see how well Curt and I were hitting it off. "I guess every things OK?" he said. "Every things wonderful," said Curt, "better than wonderful!"

There were a lot of details to work out before our new arrangement became a reality. I told Steve that I hadn't made a penny up until then and that I was bound and determined to get paid something before I said OK to any more record deals. He asked what I was talking about money-wise, and I told him I wanted a $100 a week for a minimum of a year. This may sound like a very small sum now, but from where I was coming from $100 a week for me was a fortune. Steve looked at me and smiled a big "Dennis The Menace" smile. That's what Steve Clark looked like. A huge "Dennis The Menace." He said, "I don't think that's a problem."