DOUG RHODES & THE MUSIC MACHINE
by Monte Nordstrom - Copyright 1996
from issue #33 - Cosmic Debris Musicians Magazine - Sept '96
A "Talk Talk" with Doug Rhodes 30 Years After
"The Music Machine"... and still going strong.
Victoria's own Doug Rhodes is what you
might call a renaissance man.This multi-instrumentalist /
musicologist/ craftsman/ raconteur has a wealth of talent &
experience to draw upon. As a musician he plays just
about everything; keyboards, standup &
electric bass, baritone, tenor, alto &
soprano saxes, flute, percussion, tuba &
vocals - the list goes on (he once told me
to kick him offstage if he ever picked up a
guitar). He has a staggering collection of
jazz & classical recordings on 78 and a
very eclectic rock & soul collection. I've
heard him lecture at Banff Centre on the
history of mechanical recording and I've
consulted with him on the ins & outs of the
Internet. He has a piano repair & tuning
business based out of his Colwood home
and is currently playing sax with a 12-piece
20's jazz band. He is an in-demand kind of
guy. Doug shares with us here, the
experiences of his long, colourful and very
musical career.
Doug grew up in Garden Grove,
California (near Anaheim). His older
brother Robbie played piano in a Trad Jazz
band & Doug remembers his first gig, "I
was 16, playing Soprano Sax on my first
job. I made five dollars. The next year,
though I was underage, I played a New
Years Eve gig on soprano & bass sax with
Robbie's band at a notorious club called
the "Honeybucket" down in Costa Mesa.
That band went on to be the "South Frisco
Jazz Band" and continues to record &
perform to this day (with 3 of the members
I played with back in 1962 still in the
lineup!)"
"After that I did various gigs around and
wound up playing organ in a garage band
called "the Spats". We had a single called
"She Done Moved" that got some airplay.
The band didn't last long but I made some
contacts in the LA scene, most notably with
a producer named Curt Boettcher. One of
the first dates I did for Curt was a
"sweetening session" on a few songs by
The Association. One of those songs was
"Cherish". I played the celeste on that."
(The song went on to sell millions)
In 1966 Doug lived in Los Angeles and
found himself in a band with a depth of
talent and a source of innovative material.
The group was led by singer/writer/guitarist
Sean Bonniwell. They were fortunate to
have one of the hottest young drummers in
LA, Ron Edgar in the rhythm section with
bassist/vocalist, Keith Olsen. The
innovative Mark Landon played fuzztone
guitar with Doug supplying organ,
tambourine, bass & vocals.
They were primarily influenced by the
Yardbirds and The Stones but soon
developed a repertoire of their own
material that eclipsed the musicianship of
their florally named LA contemporaries,
The Leaves, The Seeds and The
Grassroots. They became "the Music
Machine", a protopunk rock unit that had a
sinister edge.
The ensemble's talents were already
obvious when they came to the attention of
Art Laboe. Art owned a small oldies label
that specialised in re-releasing R&B
compilations.
He recognized the group's potential and
signed them to his "Original Sound" label.
Producer Brian Ross had put them in
RCA's studio with engineer Dave
Hassinger where they recorded "Come On
In" & "Talk Talk". This was on July 30,
1966. When they listened to the acetate
they knew they had a hit. Additional tracks
were recorded at Original Sounds' studio,
where engineer Paul Buff had developed a
10! track system, as well as a "Whirling
Head Echo Unit". Doug recounts, "I don't
know how the echo worked but it sounded
great & we used it on our version of "Hey Joe" which by the way,
we were the first to perform as a slow
tempo number." (Pre-Hendrix)
"The Music Machine" exploded onto the
Los Angeles Top Ten with the release of
"Talk Talk". They quickly made an
impression with their high degree of
musicianship & their dark image. Group
leader, Sean Bonniwell came up with the
group's black outfits, dyed black hair and
the theatrical device of wearing one black
leather glove. "I remember we were playing
The Whiskey A Go Go' and Jim Morrison
stood in front of the stage studying our act
throughout the whole set. "The Doors"
album hadn't been released at that time."
The guitarists and the bassist all used
semi-acoustic instruments and though they
recorded with Fender amps & a Hammond
B3, they soon had a sponsorship from Vox
instruments who were new on the scene in
LA. This gave them the added advantage
of being one of the loudest touring acts of
that time. They also tuned their instruments
down a minor 3rd to C#... "This made it
hard for other bands to cover our material."
The Music Machine was rapidly sent on
the road promoting their "Hit" with a
grueling series of national tours. Doug
recalls, "Talk Talk" was on the radio and
our sales in LA had us in the Top Ten in
Billboard and at #1 in Cashbox but Original
Sounds' distribution was so inadequate
that people couldn't buy our record, out
where we were on the road."
"This was in '66 and the sight of dyed
long hair was inflammatory to the rednecks
in the Midwest & Deep South. It was
dangerous for rock bands on the road. We
quickly realized our only chance for
survival was to blow the audiences away
with showmanship. They had never seen
an act like ours at that point. There were
times when we'd pull into a town and we'd
see the "No Vacancy" sign flip on as we
drove up to check in. It was very freaky!"
"We toured Arizona, New Mexico, all
over Louisiana (including some recording
time in New Orleans at Cosimo Matassa's
legendary studio), did the gulf coast of
Mississippi & Alabama. We were still
driving in our old cars. I remember listening
to Hendrix' first album fishing for catfish off
the end of a pier from our motel in Biloxi.
We set up a turntable through our Vox
guitar amps and cranked it up. It was the
first time we heard it."
"The first tour was two months long and
home for a couple days then back out on
December 26. The agent kept leap
frogging ahead, setting up dates and
appearances. We did 100 shows in 3
months. A promoter would "buy" us for a
package over a few days and work us to
death. Sometimes they'd have us do three
shows in one day."
"We were headlining most of these
shows but did some "packages" where we
appeared with acts like The Beachboys,
Clyde MacPhatter and "? and the
Mysterians". We did shows everywhere.
Bellingham, Seattle, Spokane, man, we
were working! We did the Eastern
seaboard, Philadelphia.... we played
Newport, Rhode Island with the group that
became The Vanilla Fudge. We also did
some more recording in New York City."
"We played a 10-day stint at "The
Dragon a Go Go" in San Francisco in the
tough Wentworth district. After we finished
the date we were told that Bobby Fuller
had recently failed to complete his
contractual obligations to the Club. He
wound up dead a few days later (he was
found tied up in a parked car with a gas
hose down his thoat). We weren't crazy
about the Frisco scene anyway. It was too
insular and self-indulgent for our tastes."
"Living in LA, I did manage to see some
great shows; the Yardbirds with Jeff Beck
in '65; the Beatles at Hollywood Bowl in '65
& at their second-last show ever - in '66;
the Stones with Brian Jones at the LA
Sports Arena in '65; Jimi Hendrix at the
Hollywood Bowl in 1968 - all the musicians
in town were there and got blown away by
his playing. He did the material from his
up-coming "Electric Ladyland"! I also saw
the original Paul Butterfield group a couple
of times. They opened for Wison Pickett at
a club called "the Trip" and also opened
there for the Byrds. Butterfield's show was
excellent."
"Anyways, The Music Machine were
working like dogs and not making the
money we felt we deserved. After the last
tour, Keith Olsen and I went to the
accountant's office and looked at the tour
receipts. There were some blatant
discrepancies with our pay shares and
Bonniwell's. We confronted him with it and
the result was that he lost his band. We
were really tight & polished from our
touring and he couldn't replace us with
casual players. I think it implies a lot when
a band splits from a singer as a unit."
"Mark Landon went on the road with Ike
& Tina Turner. Ron Edgar, Keith Olsen &
myself went into a lengthy project with Curt
Boettcher, called "Millenium". I acquired
my Telecaster bass at this time.
"Columbia had given Curt & Gary
Usher carte blanche in the studio where we
used an early 16-track system put together
by Roy Halee. Curt responded by running
up the largest studio bill in Columbia
history. The Millenium Begin' was released
in July 68."
"The album, Bonniwell's Music
Machine' had come out on Warner
Brothers, compiling some of the material
we had recorded in New York & New
Orleans along with songs that Sean
recorded after we left. The single 'Double
Yellow Line' b/w 'The Eagle Never Hunts the
Fly' came out but didn't go anywhere
without the original band's touring support."
Bonniwell drifted into mysticism as his
career unravelled into confusion.
"After the Millenium' project was finally
completed, I was picking up a lot of studio
work from Jerry Scheff. He would go out on
tour with The 5th Dimension and refer his
calls to me. I was doing publisher demos,
master sessions and jingles. Mostly "head"
arrangements with chord charts in 4-track
studios. In the halls at Columbia studios I'd
be bumping into the likes of Thelonius
Monk and David Crosby. I recall hanging
around a couple of Big Brother & the
Holding Co. sessions and chatting with
Janis. She was very down to earth but I
remember her reaming out an engineer
who had "punched out" of a beautiful guitar
take. She just about punched him out!
Another session I watched was at
Original Sound where "Dyke & the Blazers"
were cutting the original "Funky
Broadway". I played with Jim Keltner on
another of Curt's "Association" dates. Did
a session with Mark Lindsay for a Raiders
project. Played standup bass for Taj Mahal
before his first album came out. Did dates
with Chad & Jeremy, Tommy Roe, Van
Dyke Parks but I can't remember what that
was. There was all kinds of stuff going on."
"I was working with guys like Jim Horn,
both Jim Gordons...Did another Boettcher
production called Sagittarius', Hugh
Masekela did some horn tracks on that...
but eventually I just got so tired of the LA
scene. Curt's ex-wife was living up in
Victoria and loved it there. In June of 1970
I decided to move to Canada."
"I started working with Valdy around
1971 when he had his place out in Sooke.
He was playing "Quequeg's" in Bastion
Square. This was before he "hit" with "Rock
& Roll Song". We did a CBC TV show out
in Winnipeg and played shows in Medicine
Hat and Calgary with Norm MacPherson
on guitar. I met Doug Rhodes the
drummer at that time and we confused a
lot of people by working together. I moved
to Saltspring in 1971 and along with the
work I was doing for Valdy I played in
various other bands... The Nunez Brothers
and El Bande Grande (with Kathy Stack
and the late Wende Sinclair). In 1978, I
moved back to Victoria and did a Funky
Reggae thing with Clyde Dixon, Bob
Richardson, Dave Gray and Fred Power
called "the Skanktones."
"I moved to Banff in 1985 where I
worked at Banff Centre as a piano
technician. I played music with the late
great Chuck Tracey and worked alot with
you, Monte, who I remember meeting
through Barry Dayman on Saltspring back
in '78 or so. Then I moved to Santa Cruz,
California for six months in 1987 before
returning to Victoria where I got into my
piano tuning & restoration business. That's
when I hooked up with "Monte & the
Beaumonts", recording some tracks on the
"Nothing More Better" album.
"In recent years I appear to have come
full circle. I started out playing sax in a
Trad Jazz band and I'm now active with the
20's style 12-piece Jazz orchestra, The
Belevedere Broadcasters. We recently
played the bandshell in Beacon Hill Park
and at "The Wooden Boat Festival" at the
Inner Harbour on August 31. We also do a
quartet, Monday afternoons at Butchart
Gardens from 2:30-4:30. Greg Sumner and
I do a "Dog & Pony" act there on Monday
evenings from 5:30-7:30. Greg plays banjo
& cornet and I play piano, standup bass
and the soprano & baritone saxophones.
Now I'm producing a recording of the
Belevedere Broadcasters for release later
this year. The idea is toying with me of
re-releasing some old operatic stuff that
I've got in my 78 collection."
Doug Rhodes still has occasion to
perform with Valdy and was recently seen
kicking out the jams at the Glen Lake Inn
with "Groovedigger". He is one of the best
improvisational players I've ever worked
with and brings so much talent on so many
instruments ... I'm looking forward to his
input on my next project, if he can find the
time. In my books, Doug Rhodes truly is a
Renaissance Man!
Quotes compiled from point form notes. Footnotes:
"The Music Machine" appeared several times
on "American Bandstand", "Shindig" & "Where
the Action Is". Unfortunately, none of this footage
has been located.
"Talk Talk" & other recordings by "the Music
Machine" continue to be re-released on
compilation albums such as the protopunk
garage rock "Nuggets" series (one of which
includes "The Spats" single "She Done Moved")
and are have been featured in a "Where Are
They Now?" article in Rolling Stone magazine
(Issue 482, Sept. 11,'86). They were included in
Dave Marsh's book "The Heart of Rock &
Soul-(The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made)".
They are credited with influencing the 70's
British punk act, "The Stranglers" in the "Rolling
Stone Record Buyer's Guide - (1979)". The band
was featured on the cover of Goldmine Magazine
and they are mentioned in Terry Hounsome &
Tim Chambre's book, "Rock Record" along with
the two subsequent groups that Doug Rhodes,
Ron Edgar & Keith Olsen contributed to: 1968's
"Millenium" on Columbia and 2 albums by
"Sagittarius": 1968's "Present Tense" on CBS
and 1969's "The Blue Marble" on Together
Records. "The Millenium Begin" was re-released
on CD in 1990 on CBS' Collectors Series.
You can contact Doug Rhodes at: drhodes@islandnet.com
Note: Author, Monte Nordstrom has recorded 8 albums to
date (Nov '99). He performs regularly at numerous venues on Canada's West Coast.
Email Monte at:
nordstro@islandnet.com
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