Apple Record Group "Trash"
Charles Reinhart
I have an Apple Records single by a group called "Trash" doing "Golden
Slumbers / Carry that Weight". It is a note for note copy of the
Beatles Version. The record is produced by Tony Meehan. I picked up
the record in Europe (probably Spain) in the early 1970's. Does
anyone know anything about this single or when and how this group came
about recording this song? I've never seen it listed in any Apple
promos. Was this released in the US or UK? The flip is "Trash Can"
Mark Zutkoff
If you can find a copy of the book "The Longest Cocktail Party", by Richard
DiLello (the Apple Records "House Hippie" in the late '60's), you'll find the
story of the band "Trash". They started out as the Pathfinders, a Scottish group
from Glasgow, doing a Goffin-King song called "Road To Nowhere", which Tony
Meehan brought to George and Paul (Apple Records executives, who were
also members of some group called the Beatles) who liked it and said
"Let's put it out." DiLello worked in the Apple Press Office,
interviewed the band, and came up with a better name -- White Trash.
Unfortunately, the record distributors didn't go for that, so they
censored the offensive word "White" and just called the band "Trash".
The band consisted of:
Ian Crawford Clews, vocalist
Fraser Watson, lead guitar
Colin Hunter-Morrison, Bass
Ronald Leahy, organ
Timi Donald, percussion
(Richard DiLello was writing the press biography for the band and was
trying to come up with a tag line for them. His choice? "They begin
where the Cream leave off!" "No!" said the Press Officer [Derek Taylor]
emphatically. A bit later, he came up with an alternate: "They LEAVE
OFF where the Cream BEGAN??")
In 1969, White Trash hooked up with singer Marsha Hunt and went on
tour. When she ripper her vocal chords one night, a long rest was
recommended for her, and by mid-September (I'm quoting from the book
again) White Trash found themselves rehearsing to perfection their
version of Golden Slumbers from the Beatles' "Abbey Road". When they
recorded what was supposed to be a demo of it, Paul was furious: "I
asked for a demo and I'm handed a finished master of a full production
with strings on it and the lot!" Everyone thought the record was dead,
but press officer Derek Taylor grabbed the record and took it to John.
When it was over Lennon pointed to one of the speakers and declared,
"That's a good imitation of us! It's going out!"
And that's the story of White Trash as best as I can tell it, gleaned
and repeated from DiLello's book. The record's cool (I heard it a good
number of years ago). Wish I had a copy.
--
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z mzut...@ix.netcom.com z people that you just can't stand" z
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biffy...@aol.com
rein...@netacc.net (Charles Reinhart) wrote:
>I have an Apple Records single by a group called "Trash" doing "Golden
>Slumbers / Carry that Weight". It is a note for note copy of the
>Beatles Version. The record is produced by Tony Meehan. I picked up
>the record in Europe (probably Spain) in the early 1970's. Does
>anyone know anything about this single or when and how this group came
>about recording this song? I've never seen it listed in any Apple
>promos. Was this released in the US or UK? The flip is "Trash Can"
Trash was also known as White Trash. "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"
was their second Apple single, released in both the U.S. (Apple 1811) and
the U.K. (Apple 17).
Here's a blurb about the band from the May 1970 issue of Hit Parader
(apparently taken directly from an Apple press release written by Derek
Taylor):
WHITE TRASH
Maybe Not So White
In the days when there were four Beatles and no apples, Lennon and
McCartney wrote songs for other people: Billy J. Kramer and Cilla Black.
Once in a while they'd record these same songs themselves. And then, as
the Beatles became *the* pop group, artists would rush to the recording
studios with freshly opened copies of the latest Beatles' album. They'd
get a cover version of a Beatle song out so fast it'd make you wonder.
With White Trash, who were just called Trash for a while in Apple press
releases, the process seems to have combined. Here is an Apple/Beatles'
act who are covering a Beatle song from a Beatles album, "Carry That
Weight." And again, the question arises, what is it all for, why Apple?
And like the Iveys, what are Fraser Watson, Ronald Leahy, Timi Donald, Ian
Clews thinking about when they answer questions about their music.
(Photo caption:) Their first Apple single, "Road To Nowhere," had world
wide sales of twenty thousand but failed to make the charts anywhere. But
a flop here and a setback there doesn't break a rock and roll band like
White Trash. They just keep on burning through the splendour of three
hundred watt amplification as only they can.
...Not very informative, perhaps, but there you go. BTW, I've never heard
either single myself. If anyone has a copy he or she doesn't want, send
it over...
Your pal,
Biffy the Elephant Shrew @}-`--}----
Visit me at http://users.aol.com/biffyshrew/biffy.html
"In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place."--Mohandas K. Gandhi