Tommy Bolin and Dr John

[Tero Honkasalo]

Morjens,
does anyone know when and where Tommy Bolin recorded 3 promos with Dr John
(Stick With Me, Love Without An End, Hollywood Be Thy Name)? Who played
bass/drums?

T:)

[Ben Wah]

I thought tommy recorded the album "Hollywood be thy name" but Dr. John
re-recorded the album with someone else. i believe it was back in 1972.

Tero Honkasalo <tero.ho...@nokia.com> wrote in message
news:Fhpj7.2300$Kl.4...@news2.nokia.com...

[Kramer]

> I thought tommy recorded the album "Hollywood be thy name"

lol! What a silly name! I gotta have it! :o)

[Gord Jantzen]

Gord Wrote:

Just before Deep Purple and right after he left James Gang -- Bolin
played guitar on 3 tracks with his fellow Energy Bass Player -- Stanley
Sheldon. Within a few months after the recording Bolin plugged into
Deep Purple. Ironically, Sheldon whom played alot of Bass for Bolin
throughout his carreer also hooked up with Peter Frampton just before
the "Frampton Comes Alive" LP. It's the godly bass line of Stanley
Sheldon on that money making effort. Sheldon was with Frampton for
about 5 years. The Stanley Sheldon interview is available to read for
free at www.tbolin.com. Art Conner did the great interview on this
great artist.

Unfortunately I don't know who the drummer is on these 3 tracks. Dr
John is in fine form. We see Bolin playing his traditional slide parts
-- bluesy but more in the background fill feel with Dr John right up
front. (It's basically more Dr. John up front with Bolin being the
comsumate studio fill guy you'd expect from Bolin. Good stuff. Usually
this type of thing comes down to money....

Track listing from "Hollywood be Thy Name".
(Descriptive phasing: BLUES FUZION STUFF)

1). Stick With ME (2:57) Mainly slide work with some melody runs)
2.) Love Without an end (3:38) (Funky guitar with a sassy beat.)
3.) Hollywood Be thy name (3:54) (Spacey blues feel; Rolling Stones type
tune)

Horn section stuff is added on the above tracks)

Thanks to some great DP Finish newsgrouper gods for keeping this info
alive, despite me being a world away. Kudos to Finland for the info and
tunes.

Ciao,

Gord

[Gord Jantzen]

Kudos Tapani...... Thx U for the enlightment.

[Gord Jantzen]

Gord Wrote:

The drummer on those sessions was none other than Alphonse Mouzon.

Here's the qoute directly from the www.tbolin.com website. Read on:

SS: That was at Glenholly Studios, with Alphonse, Tommy and I. I had an
acetate of that, but I lost it over the years. But there is a copy that
is still out there, I think Willy Dixon had a copy of it. 1975 sounds
about right, because it was just before I joined Peter. It was Tommy and
I, Bobby and Alphonse Mouzon. And, at the same time we had met Ronny
Barron. Ronny was good friend of Dr. John. Now this is reminding me of
another thing. Tommy had taken me into a session with Dr. John with him.
I got to play bass. I still have a cassette of it. It's me, Tommy, Dr
John Mac Rebennack, and Danny Kootch of all people.

[Tero Honkasalo]

Hi Gord,
thanks for info - Did you get Tommy Bolin's "My Father's Place"-Live too?
May 22 1976. Tapsa has been busy doing these re-masters lately, he has lot's
of stuff and it seems that everything is good!!!

T:)

[hartmutk]

...don´t know who played bass and dr., but the date of the session is March
20th 1973.
This may help to narrow it down perhaps...
Regards
Hartmut

Tero Honkasalo schrieb in Nachricht ...

[Karl-Heinz Baier]

Is this still an existing recording? On any official DR. John release or does
a bootleg exist?

Tero Honkasalo schrieb:

[Gord Jantzen]

Gord Wrote:

So far it's only bootleg. The bass player on this session with Bolin
was none other than former Energy bass player -- Stanley Sheldon. Whom
later went on to play bass for Peter Frampton. Sheldon also played bass
on Frampton Comes Alive.

Recently, Sheldon did an interview with the Bolin Private Times'
reporter/editor Art Conner. The interview is currently posted at the
Bolin website: www.tbolin.com In this interview, Sheldon talks of 4
songs that were cut. (Perhaps Sheldon was only on 4 tracks but he still
got the tapes for those tracks.)

Sheldon says: SS: That was at Glenholly Studios, with Alphonse, Tommy

and I. I had an acetate of that, but I lost it over the years. But there
is a copy that is still out there, I think Willy Dixon had a copy of it.
1975 sounds about right, because it was just before I joined Peter. It
was Tommy and I, Bobby and Alphonse Mouzon. And, at the same time we had
met Ronny Barron. Ronny was good friend of Dr. John. Now this is
reminding me of another thing. Tommy had taken me into a session with
Dr. John with him. I got to play bass. I still have a cassette of it.
It's me, Tommy, Dr John Mac Rebennack, and Danny Kootch of all people.

[Karl-Heinz Baier]

Thanx Gord,

I've got the interview from the Bolin newsletter.
But on which bootleg is it? I have some TB bootlegs, but it's on none of them.

Gord Jantzen schrieb:

[Gord Jantzen]

Gord Wrote:

It's rare. But they do exist. Without mentioning names -- the Finish
gods were very good to me. ) I've at least sampled 3 songs with Dr.
John and Bolin. Bolin's playing is more to fit around Dr. John; the
gris grass man in centre stage. That being said, it still interesting
to listen to. Bolin would've fit well with Dr. John or even the Rolling
Stones. Interestingly enough, I think Sheldon talks about more songs
than just the 3 I've sampled. (You might want to Email Art Conner to
find out about were Sheldon's convetted tapes of these specific session
we are talking about. I believe Sheldon has the only complete copy --
as the originals went south.

Ciao,

Gord

[D. P. Roberts]

>to listen to. Bolin would've fit well with Dr. John or even the Rolling
>Stones. Interestingly enough, I think Sheldon talks about more songs

Dr. John played on Bill Wyman's "Monkey Grip" album. I found that a
couple of weeks ago and played it at the radio station. I've got a
couple of songs from there I use as bumper music -- the intro to
"Mighty Fine Time" and one other. Kootch and Kortchmar are on there
as well as a lot of other famous names.

[johnnyvi...@gmail.com]

Dr John Demos with Tommy Bolin
credits:

Dr John (Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr) vocals, and keyboards?
Fred Staehle drums
Alvin Robinson guitar
Daniel Kortchmar guitar

The above players are Dr. John "regulars" along with studio guest players:
Tommy Bolin slide guitar
Stanley Sheldon fretless bass
Al Mouzon drums
(back-up singers not listed)

info according to Stanley Sheldon and Daniel Kortchmar
websites

http://www.stanleysheldon.com/

http://www.dannykortchmar.com/


Daniel Kortchmar in kindly response to an email inquiry via his website said they also recorded a "rock" version of "The Harder They Come" by Jimmy Cliff, which is not known to be circulating among collectors. He expressed fond memories of working with Tommy Bolin, and much sadness as to his untimely passing in 1976. He stated that he had not heard the recordings since the sessions, and he was pleased to hear the three song files I sent him. The info from Stan Sheldon is posted on his website.

It has been stated online that the Tommy Bolin parts were erased and re-recorded by another guitarist on the Hollywood Be Thy Name album but this is apparently misinformation as the album is clearly a live album and a totally different recording of the song.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Hollywood+Be+Thy+Name/6842281

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Be_Thy_Name

If the other two songs appear on any Dr. John album in any form, I am unaware of it. The Tommy Bolin sessions are not mentioned in Dr. John's autobiography Under A Hoodoo Moon but the stories he does tell involve mysteriously disappeared master tapes, whole albums drastically manipulated, edited and released by unsavory manager/producers without Dr. John's knowledge or consent, and all manner of other strange and shocking goings on, so the fact that these recordings were never released is part of a long pattern of crazy happenings in the career of Dr. John. Research by Peter Z, a T Bolin fan and collector.