Guest Reviews - 6

A Go-Go

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Here's a sixth guest review of Ventures albums. Again by fellow Ventures fan Tony Meloche.]

When your are really good at something, they say that you "make it look easy". In these days of pop "stars" making new albums in the studio, it's common to see a new CD release that has 10 (not 12) cuts on it, and the artist or artists involved slaved away at this recording from February until November. Let's rewind to the mid sixties, for a moment, when The Ventures, in a three-year period beginning in late 1963, recorded at least eight albums, by my count - that's an average of just about one album every four months. And the albums, with only the exception of a song here and a song there, were filled to the brim with top-flight rock intrumental music. This does not even address the many more things taped during this time, that for one reason or another, did not make it onto those original albums (more on this later). They worked hard. And they made it look easy. Fans of other artists, then and now, waited interminably for new releases by their favorite performers, while the Ventures went merrily on, giving their fans "as much as they wanted" - which, by the 1960's definition, is the meaning of the phrase "A Go-Go".

The first cut on this disc was a cover of the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction". A pattern had been set years earlier with the Ventures and their producers: Each album would be roughly half covers of current hits (instrumental and vocal), and half Ventures originals. "Satisfaction" was tremendously popular at this time, and leads off the side. A good cover, with the keyboardist doing their best to bring out an instrumentaly acceptable version of the extremely simple melody - the final result being a good cut, if not a great one - but much more "danceable" than the Stone's original.

Track two is the Ventures original "Go-Go Slow", which might almost be termed a "driving ballad". Don's famous rapid-fire rythym work here, with Nokie entering with a good, aria-like melody, using (unusually) both fuzz and strong tremelo. The use of the organ in this cut is a perfect backup to the lead guitar. A "not bad" on the first hearing, this one becomes a "darn good" on successive hearings - a rather daring "venture", and ultimately a succesful one.

Track three is "Louie, Louie", which could have been a trivialized disaster in the making - but the Ventures, and producer Joe Saraceno saw that coming, and neatly sidestepped it. I have mentioned in other reviews, that the Ventures had the uncanny ability to take an established hit and serve up the *definitive* version of it - as they do here. Compare the anemic opening chords of the original to the sparkling proclamation of those same chords in this arrangement. Nokie enters, placidly (for him) at first, and then begins to build from the simple thematic material into a seamless series of short, tasty solos. A brief solo for the organ, and again, never "on" the melody, but never far from it, Nokie works the magic of translating a famous vocal line into an instrumental standard, returning to the original material only for the final chords. Nicely done all around.

The next cut, Track 4, can foster much debate among Ventures fans. All listeners to the disc know that "Night Stick" (track 4), and "A Go-Go Dancer" (track 10), are different versions of the same material. In fact, I believe they are merely different mixes of the same master tape. Is this cheating? On two counts, no, I think. First, it was the greatest of raritys for the Ventures to find themselves "a song short" when it came time to wrap up an album - quite the opposite was the usual case. And secondly, this would not have been part of the final release without their agreement, I am sure. They had to have felt that this was what they really wanted to do with this material. So, we are left with the question: "Does the musical quality of the two versions merit this?" In my opinion yes, but I think it would have been more sensible, (and admittedly, more honest), to call this "Night Stick Part I", and the tenth track "Part II". They are so similar in most ways, that one review (for track ten) will suffice for both, below.

Track five is magic time! It's easy to imagine how "throwaway" an instrumental cover of "La Bamba" could have been, but an inspired arrangement, a *perfect* beat structure, (God bless you, Mel Taylor), and straightforward playing - with no overplaying - by all of the Ventures turn this into a classic that took on a life of it's own. The well-known opening figure is doubled on the lead guitar (possibly Nokie double-tracked, or possibly Bob on second lead,) as the opening riff continues throughout in the background. Excellent bass work, and Don on acoustic rhythm guitar to help preserve the Spanish flavor. Augmenting this are maracas and claves in the rhythm, and a truly fine harmonica player, giving the tune a sunny poignancy. Nokie sticks religiously close to the original melody here - not sure why, but it *works!* - and with a once-through in C, followed by another once-through in A, and then back to C for the coda, it's over all too soon. This recording was much admired. There was work aplenty in those days for "go-go dancers" on television and in live appearances, and one of the prima troops was led by dancer Maria Ghava. This was one of her favorite tunes (in this version) for teaching routines to her dancers.

Side one of the original disc ends with "The In Crowd", popular that year both as a vocal, and in another instrumental version by the Ramsey Lewis Trio. It's a *super* album cut, but fair is fair - a series of breathtaking solos by the "organist du jour" is the centerpiece of this number. Nokie's solos are a perfect counterpoint - if the excellent organ solos are a sermon from a pulpit, Nokie is a gum-snapping standee in the back, grinning and saying "You tell 'em, Rev!"

Track one of side two is a cover of Sam the Sham's "Wooly Bully". Not great music, the tune is nonetheless fun to play. Nokie does it as well as anyone could. In the second chorus, a second lead guitar enters, this one "fuzzed" a bit. Good organ solo. All said, a good instrumental cover of the tune, but nothing special. Fun to listen to how much Don got into the voiceovers, though!

Track two: Here we are again, at that place in every Ventures album, where this reviewer's ears tells him some noodling around evolved into a fine instrumental, this time titled "A Go-Go Guitar". Based on one riff, with a "cool" sounding organ solo midways, the solid togetherness of the sound is another fine example of what the Ventures did the very best - played their own original material. Great cut.

Track three brings us back to "Night Stick", here titled "A Go-Go-Dancer". In the former, the organ is the featured instrument, with Nokies lead pattern coming in only in the last chorus. That lead pattern is the whole number here; there is no organ. Drums are almost the same, except for the addition of the "crash" symbol on the downbeats. A good tune - as was "Night Stick" - but the discussions will likely go on as long as there are Ventures fans. But in the very next cut, the Ventures take more of the "Walk, Don't Run 64" approach to covering their own material, with *much* more electrifying results, to wit:

Track four is "The Swingin' Creeper". This is a fusion-like re-thinking of an album, cut from the "WDR 64" album, a hard rocker called simply "The Creeper". Mel settles effortlessly into the jazz mode, with with muted rhythm guitar single-string work nicely provided by Don over the sinister low E of the organ - marvelous atmosphere. Nokie, in dialouge with the organ plays his original solo line, but whereas in the original, the organ had the solo, this time Nokie takes a *searing* solo flight midway through the tune. The Creeper slinks off at the end, as mysterious and hair-raising as it approached. Excellent.

Track five is "Whittier Boulevard". If you can get past the chipmunked and sophmoric spoken material at the beginning . . . I have a feeling that may have been added late at night, with many empty beer cans lying around, but I really shouldn't speculate. The tune could have done nicely without it, let's put it that way. But that tune . . .Wow! All the more amazing, because the entire number uses only *two chords* (G and C) an astonishing achievement, and a recipe for failure if the musicians involved are not very, *very* good. Patented Bogle bass and drums lead into some sparks-flying solo work by Nokie, which gradually eases back, just as the organ starts to rise - one of the best engineered transitions between instruments I've heard. The organ does it's duty nicely (my, I wish I knew who was on organ in this session!), leading to a climax of rapid chords - then, a return to the bass and drums alone, and slowly, the organ begins to build again, with a return to the final chords once more. A great little firecracker of a number.

The last track on the original album is "I Like It Like That", then a vocal number for the Dave Clark Five. All Nokie this time, as he dutifully drives the straight and narrow of the melody one moment, and veers wildly into flights of fancy the next, repeating this pattern several times - he conveys the *fun* he has well in this number. A false "stop time" ending is a nice additional effect. Good cut.

This would normally be the end of my review, (it was the end of the album I played until it was gray in the 60's!), but on the "One Way" CD release of this are three additional tracks. I debated whether to talk about these, as they are previously unreleased material, and both Don Wilson and Bob Bogle dislike the fact that repackagers do this. "They weren't up to our standards", Bogle says, "or we'd have released them originally". But, for what it's worth, lets take a look.

First of the three is called "Gemini", an instrumental from the "Mariner 4" school. The writing in this sounds very much to me like Don Wilson's. I do not know if this was a "finished" mix, but it is in stereo. A note here: This CD transfer of "A Go-Go" is also in stereo, but it's companion album on this disk, "The Fabulous Ventures" is in MONO - caveat emptor! The "SeeForMiles" CD release has "TFV" in stereo. "Gemini" is not a bad instrumental at all until the third chorus, when a God-awful soprano doubled by high organ notes (which makes it worse) comes in. For this, or any one of many other reasons that we will never know, the Ventures decided not to go on with this one.

The second is called "Indian Summer". This is a fascinating piece that requires careful listening. I honestly think the Ventures could have *converted* it into a killer number, but in this particular recording, they cannot find the "groove" (it is too slow, for one thing). Also fascinating, (to me, anyway), is strong evidence that this was a recorded "full run through" - it is unbroken with no "mistakes", and was even recorded in stereo, but Nokie seems to be playing through what is known as a "Pignose" amp - a lunchbox-sized amp that many players used for practice - the magnificent Mosrite never sounded worse. Even if we speculate that this was a serious "take" (which I doubt), there is no studio "sweetening" in it - again, a tune that was dropped here, and I still think because of what I said in my original comment - they simply didn't find "the groove" for this one, and moved on. Playing through a number just to "see how it goes" - with the tape running - has been done in studio work forever. I think that's what this is.

The last "bonus" track is the most fascinating of all - and the one I dearly wish they had gone on with, but in spite of excellent playing from all the Ventures, in an obscenely difficult key on guitar (C# minor!), this is just a rough mono mix - in other words, counted "out" early on in the process. A shame - it's a wonderful tune called "Tarantella", and that is exactly what it is - a superb rendition of a classic Italian folk dance, though whether an authentic tune or a Ventures creation, I do not know. Most likely, the producers looked at a sea of teeny-boppers in their minds, and said "No way could we sell this". More's the pity. And with that, I believe your reviewer has stayed too long at the fair, so good listening to you until next time.

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Last Updated: January 1, 2003