Spott Farm Music 1970-'75: December 2010

TEST YOUR MEMORY,

You may have seen Spott Farm at one of their Shows:

Concert Highlights and Frequent Haunts:
(Mostly chose NOT to play Hotels, Bars or Cabarets, but DID have a few favourite venues):

Sebringvilla Motor Hotel (near Stratford, Ont.)
Kincardine and Sauble Beach Pavillions
Brock U. pub (St. Catherines ,Ont.)
Downstairs John, McMaster U. (Hamilton)
Western U. pub (London, Ont.)
Carleton U. pub (Ottawa, Ont.)
Sonny's Boarding House, (Niagara Falls , Ont.)
(sonny's had excellent meals but no accomodations for traveling acts, so the band camped out a quarrie/campground outside of town. Came to look forward to this annual summer vacation gig)
Kitchener Public Library (A.F.M. concert series)
Dundas Music Festival, (Dundas, Ont.)
The Picture Show, (Waterloo, Ont.)
...................................................................................
OPENING ACT FOR:
Perth County Conspiracy (dne), Harrison, Kincardine -'70. & Waterloo Lutheran U. -'74
Edward Bear, Kincardine -'71
James Gang, London Arena -'74
Bob Segar, C.N.E. Bandshell, Toronto -'75

And occasionaly seen as back-up band
(in whole or in part) for:
Richard Knechtal
Doug Jameson
Michael Lewis
Luke Gibson
Ed Koenig

THE MUSIC

The tunes which the band chose to cover reflected a compromise between the Music and Artists we loved and respected; and the need to have recognizable or danceable material to satisfy our audience expectations of what a cover band should be. The ideal was to pick material which had a positive, uplifting lyrical content along with intelligent musical arrangement, regardless of style or era. Thus an average set would run the gamut from Countrified (Buffalo Springfield and it's offshoots: CSN+sometimes Y, Poco, Messina and Loggins,) to Futurist (Yes, Genesis, Spirit) and any genres in between.

We took some pride in learning all these songs straight off the record, painstakingly copying every lick and nuance. It was a tremendous musical education!

This partial list includes some of the songs we cared about or artists whom we admired the most, listed in the order by which they entered the repertoire (approximately).

Bonnie and Delaney- Only you Know and I know (Dave Mason), Someday, Where There's a Will

Traffic- Empty Pages, Shanghai Noodle Factory, Freedom Rider

Blind Faith- Sea of Joy

Joe Cocker- With A Little Help From My Friends, Delta Lady (Leon Russel was such a big part of Joe's sound, Delta Lady was his love song to Rita Collidge)

Gordon Lightfoot- Oh Linda (we used this unknown Lightfoot song as a free jam vehicle, sometimes played it for a whole set while Nick held down the repeated Bass pattern)

Jimi Hendrix- Little wing, Angel

Elton John- Take me to the Pilot, Country Comfort (loved those Paul Buckmaster string arrangements and Nigel Olsen's funky beats.)

Santana- Oyay Como Va, Black Magic Woman (with Bob on conga)

the Who- We're Not Gonna Take It/See Me Feel Me/Listening to You

Bush- I Can't Hear You Callin', Turn Right Down (Don Troijano's band after 'the Mandala' another almost completely unknown Canadian band, until '3 Dog Night had a hit with 'I Can't Hear' in '73)

Spirit- Mister Skin, Animal Farm, Morning Will Come, Its Nature's Way (all from the excellent "12 dreams of Dr Sardonicus" LP)

Stevie Wonder- Too High, Living for the City

Chicago- Lowdown, Saturday in the Park, Wishing You Were Here. (Tom's violin and Rick's Hammond made a pretty convincing horn section substitute)

The Band- The Shape I'm In, We Can Talk About it Now, Cripple Creek, Stage Fright, WS Walcott Medicine Show, Time to Kill

Neil Young- Cinnamon Girl, When You Dance, Don't Let It Bring You Down, Heart of Gold, Old Man, The Loner, Southern Man (the only song which featured Dave on an extended improvised guitar solo,. Sometimes he'd wail till the cows went home)

Buffalo Springfield- Rock and Roll Woman, For What It's Worth

The Beatles- Get Back, She Said She Said (or "I Said She Said", a radical re-arrangement. Read the whole story elsewhere on this page with a link to the recording)

Rolling Stones- Wild Horses, Brown Sugar (the former because it was a beautiful song, the latter just to fill the dance floor)

Poco- Keep On Believing, You'd Better Think Twice (Rick played bottle-neck slide on the Telecaster)

Seals and Croft- Diamond Girl, Summer Breeze (Jerome played Glockenspiel on both tunes, rarely heard in pop music)

Procol Harum- Conquistador, Salty Dog

Sea Train- 13 Questions, I'm Willin' (the late great Lowell George tune, the Seatrain version featured the electric wah-wah violin intro: 'Wa waka Wa wakawakawaka Wa')

Argent- (Rod Argent and co, formerly the Zombies)-Hold Your Head Up, Liar, Pleasure My Pleasure, Ring of Hands (the long version of 'Head Up', Rick made a study of the great organ solo. Note for note, of course.)

Yes- Roundabout, Your Move, Long distance Runaround, Siberian Katru (why would any one put in the time needed to learn a song like 'Siberian' note for note? We was obsessed!)

Beach Boys- (medley) I get Around, Fun Fun Fun, California Girls (studying Brian Wilson's harmony arrangements was inspirational) Sail on Sailor

The Rascals- (medley) Groovin', Its Wonderful, People Got to be Free

Joni Mitchelll- Free Man in Paris (Heads would turn whenever Tom came in singing"the way I see it..." Everyone would go"where's the girl?")

Genesis- Watcher of the Skies (often an attention-grabbing opener for the 2nd set)

CSN+Y- Suite Judy Blue Eyes, Wooden Ships, Marrakesh Express, Long Time Coming, Country Girl, Carry On (Love is Coming)

Cat Stevens- Peace Train, Bitter Blue (after Tom's departure we were learning Bitter as a 5 piece. It was never performed)

Isn't it strange how just reading the title of a song brings the whole thing back, as if someone just dropped the needle on the record (i know I'm dating myself here) This exhaustive; but by no means complete list, has filled my head with so many happy memories. Hope it jogs your's in a pleasant way. Many more happy musical memories to you.

"TOUCH" a lost band from1969

When I was in my last year of high school (1969) in Collingwood Ont. My friend Herb Burnett was almost the director (there was a teacher who gave most of the directions) of a Musical Production of "Bye Bye Birdie" in which I had a feature role (singing "Kids!" and "Ed Sullivan"). It was Herb who first exposed me to this unknown group, "Touch" and we spent several after school days listening to their only album. I had never heard any thing like them before, or since.

Once I'd joined the Spott Farm band I realized I had at last found a group that could recreate this extraordinary sound. So I hitchhiked over 100 miles from the farm up to Collingwood and convinced Herb to loan me his copy of this extremely rare record so that we could learn some of the songs. (music copying was not so easy back then) I don't know if I've ever thanked him properly, so THANKS a lot Herb, sorry I never returned the record.

Back at the farm we set about learning this very involved piece "75" as well as the slightly more accessible "We Feel Fine" For the few months that John was with us on guitar we used the very dramatic showpiece "75" as the finale for our shows and I think we did a pretty faithful version. Unfortunately this was never recorded but I have discovered a "Touch" tribute page on Myspace where most of the album is available to listen to. There's also a bio of this long forgotten band which I think resonates with and compliments the Spott Farm saga. So even if you don't recall our performing this piece its still a remarkable musical effort which should not be lost.

Retro-Prog anyone?

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Spott Farm Music 1970-'75

the back 40 _ NOT_top 40

from the U of W paper 1974

Poster Collage 6 pc Spott Farm: 1973-'75

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Check out music from Jerome Jarvis