John Beland Interview

I first met John Beland at the Mervyn Conn Festival in Rotterdam, Holland, where he and Gib as the Burrito Brothers were backed up by Billy Joe Spears' band and I only remember that Gib said, that compared to Dutch beer, American beer was pis.

The next time, probably, was in Frankfurt, Germany, in '87 where we talked a lot. By that time I wasn't

only doing my American Music radioshow but was also writing for a very progressive country music magazine called "Nashville Tenessee", and that didn't look like it but matched my show perfectly as it had stories about Mellencamp, Jason & the Scorchers, Rick Nelson and Doug Sahm as well. So I felt quite at home there.

Anyway, here comes the first of many fine moments I spent with John Beland.

Interview with John Beland

John, would you tell me something about the start of your career and in which bands you played,briefly?

"The first thing that I ever did that got any kind of radiosucces was after cutting a demo in '67 when I came to California, that was "Take a letter, Maria" which became a major hit for R.B.Greaves, in the last year of Spanky & Our Gang and I toured with them. That' s how I met Linda Ronstadt; she used to hang around with all of us, we were good friends and when Spanky broke up I went to Linda, then to Arlo Guthrie, Swampwater after I worked a long time for Johnny Tollotson, here and overseas, and when I was in England I was signed as a solo act for the Apple label of Ringo Starr, and I did a record which came out on Sceptre because Apple folded.

After that I worked with Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, The Bellamy Brothers during "Let your love flow " in 1976, then with Kim Carnes, Mac Davis, Billy Joe Royal, Dolly Parton, the great late Rick Nelson, back to the Bellamy Brothers, Bobby Bare and for Nicolette Larson and the Burrito Brothers."

What was your favorite artist to work with?

"That was Rick Nelson, the highlight in my career. But there were so any great moments with all those people through the years. I was fortunate to be involved in the careers of superstars when they were trying to make it. With Kris, with Dolly, with Linda. It was a real exiting time. But still the best time I had was when I was working with Rick. Although it was great too to work with Gib as the Burrito Brothers and hear our songs on the radio. But I had a good time with everybody and can't say a bad word about them so I consider myself as quite lucky for having made so many friends in this business."

You' re also a songwriter. You wrote, a.o. "Forever you" for the Whites. Who else recorded your songs?

"I had tunes recorded by Engelbert Humperdinck, Anthony Newley, Rick Nelson, Shelley West. I wrote four hits for the Burrito Brothers, I had one for Marie Osmond and even in Holland Cees Veerman of The Cats did one. Lee Conway did a few but the biggest probably was "Forever you".

It was the only song I specificly wrote for someone. It could only been done by the Whites. And they did it probably better than anyone else recording my songs. When I was hospitalized last year for hip surgery, I went to a bad period in my life, because they had given me the wrong medicine and had to put artificial hips, and the doctors didn't expect me to walk again.

So I was in the hospital for a month and many friends came by to see me like Howard and David (Bellamy) . But the Whites; they called me when I was laying there just after the first surgery still being doped up. No, it was Neil Wharf who was the drummer for the Forester Sisters, who used to play with the Whites, who called me from the Grand Ole Opry, where they were about to go up and play and he said to put on the radio on.

And as I had nothing else to do, I did. And after being introduced the Whites said: "We wanna do a tune for a friend of ours, who's in the hospital. And they did "Forever You" dedicated to me. That was very touching and the song went top 10 that week."

Can you remember on how many albums you played?

"No.I can't . A hundred would be a modest figure I guess. All I remember is, I was raised ina studio since I was 17. I really can't tell. I 've done demos, albums,TV things. Like I worked on "Plain and Fancy", which was the Bellamy 's second album, but because of some dispute my name was removed from the album although I played on every song. So Richard Bennett "did" all the lead guitars.

No big deal. we were kids then. I also played or Katy Taylor, James' sister that featured myself , Russ Kunkel, Carole King, Bernie Leadon and Cass Elliott.

The best was probably "The Memphis Sessions" because it was Rick and me that did it. And there was Digby Richards, bless his heart, he became a dear friend. He came from Australia to cut an album in the States. He was such a great guy but we lost Digby to cancer last year. Swampwater backed him up.

I did a session in Hollywood for Gene Vincent before he died. But the only thing I can remeber is that I never got paid for it. Gene had the image of being tough but he was very gentle. He had a very warm and soft handshake. Totally absent from his image and he died three weeks later.That sticks in the head quite a bit.

There's a neat album Gib and I worked on with Ry Cooder; a tribute to Woody Guthrie. We backed up Joan Baez, Odetta, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan. We did a double live album at Carnegie Hall. That was great, especially working with Ry Cooder."

So now you know a little about John Beland. He's a guy that knows exactly how to please a journalist, not repeating himself, always interesting stories and you never have to pull them out of him.

Rick Nelson died in a planecrash when 1984 turned into 1985 at a time that John didn't play for Rick anymore, After Rick's untimely death Sony thought it would be a good idea to release The Memphis Sessions. As I already had a copy of the original recording I was really shocked when I heard what Steve Buckingham had done with it, making it a disco album so I had to talk about that with John. The next story has been published in the Nashville Tenessee magazine as well.

The truth about Rick Nelson's Memphis Sessions.

So John, tell me some about how you got to work for Rick.

"I first met Rick in 1972 when I was with Swampwater. I knew Rick from a club called 'The Troubadour' where we all hang out and there we became friends. In 1978 Rick wanted to go to Las Vegas for the first time and put a band together, with real great pickers. He called me, I came and from then on we became real close. I was very active in the new direction he was heading; back to his rockabilly roots. Until that time he was only playing country, countryfolk. So we got Rick doing his old hits again. And I did an album with him called "Goodnight Vienna", which was a total disaster because of producer Al Kooper."

What caused the disaster?

"It was an example where a rock 'n' roll producer wanted to use Rick Nelson as a vehicle for their own talent. In other words Rick's role in the album was basically that he showed up and sang. None of the songs reflected Rick's musical direction.

So the album was shelved and Rick was frustrated. So one day he decided with his manager that he wanted to go Memphis for the first time in his carreer leaving L.A. . So Rick and I flew to Memphis where we would get a drummer and a bass player and record an album with just tunes we wanted to do. The kind of songs we always liked and had fun with. But we didn' t have any ideas which songs we would pick, except a few. We recorded in a 16 track studio called "Little Lew' s Studio". I think it's still there only it's a 24 track studio now. We had Larry Rogers as a producer. The studio was a house with a veranda giving it a very homy atmosphere and as it was January. I believe, it was snowing.

Rick picked up his guitar still not knowing what to do and started joking about being in Memphis where Elvis recorded all his great records and began singing 'That's allright mama' in the microphone and we picked it up and recorded it. That's how the album went, just a spur of the moment.

But the farther we went the more special it became to Rick, and we went back to the old style of recording with echo on his voice. The album became a mix of his rockabilly roots and his days with the Stone Canyon Band. We spent three weeks working on the album. We mixed it, Rick and I wrote a song and meanwhile I came up with Bobby Darin' s "Dreamlover". We recorded it and Rick a little later had a chartrecord with it. So when the album was finished we went on the road, hired a rhythm guitar player named Bobby Neal (who crashed with Rick seven years later).

But unfortunately CBS thought the album wasn't strong so they never released it. So it stayed in the shelves until after his crash. Then I called CBS and asked them for no charge to re-mix and re-master it to put it out the way it was intended to be, because as an intimate friend I was probably the best person to package the album up for release.

So they said that they would get back to me, and the next thing was that they wanted me to write the liner-notes. So I wrote all these personal notes about what was going on during the sessions, and that it was a personal album for everybody involved. But then I heard the album. They had brought in producer Steve Buckingham who hired Nashville studioplayers, to overdub all my guitarsolos, remixed Rick's voice, got the slab-echo off of his voice and overdubbed everything, so raped a product that probably was Rick's most personal album ever."

Then I pulled my linernotes from the album which obset CBS very much because they had to call back all the albums. Against the wishes of Rick' s mom, his brother, his manager and all of us they still wanna have it released.

They put a cartoon picture of Rick on the cover and said it was the way Rick intended it to be; to me it was closer to gravedigging. If Rick would have been alive he would never have allowed it to come out like this. He didn' t wanna record in Nashville, that' s why we did it in Memphis. He hated the way of guitarpicking there and that's what they did on the album. So what CBS and Steve Buckingham did was a terrible slam against rock'n'roll. That's the kind of thing Nashville used to do with Hank Williams jr, they took the old masters to re-do them. They lack integrity. You'd think they have respect for an artist like Rick Nelson who died in an airplane crash but they took the apes into the studio, changed everything and had the nerves to call it The Memphis Sessions. And a far as I'm concerned anyone who's reading this and is a Rick Nelson fan shouldn' t spend any money on this. Because it's not Rick and it's a slam against Rick and his memory, it's a total disgrace and I'm very bitter about it."

What was the result of all this manupulation? Did it sell?

"No, it did not. A writer from U.P.I. called me for the story and my comments on it and the story made headlines in America, pretty much what I am telling now. The result was nobody bought it. You know, when it comes down to real rock'n'roll fans who like Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, there no dummies. But the record companies always think they can fool the public for a quick dollar. So rather than buying that album Rick whould have wanted them to buy one of his old albums. But Larry Rogers and I will try to get back the tapes from CBS and put them out in a package the way they were intended, I still have all the memories and the photos from the sessions. If CBS had any class they would make a nice package as a tribute to Rick."

What kind of person was Rick actually?

"He was a dear friend. I really did love Rick. Everybody close to Rick did. He was a teenager, he never really got old. He was a Peter Pan. He was very shy. He was very hard to get close to. I mean to get intimite. He only had a few intimite friends. He was a very underrated pioneer in rock 'n' roll. People tended to look at him as another Fabian, Bobbie Rydell or Frankie Avalon. But in fact he was a pioneer. He helped starting rockabilly and paved the way for all the others. He made them accepted. Later he was one of the country rock pioneers in L.A. But he had that image of a teenage idol and he didn't care for that kind of stuff. He was very sensitive and we had a lot in common. We both lost parents to cancer. That was very devastating to us. He was very close to his father and I was very close to mine. I learned so much from him professionally. When I got the offer to join the Burrito Brothers in 1980 I was still with Rick and it was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life. It was harder than a divorce but Rick was all support to me going on my own. By that time I was Rick's bandleader, involved with his recordings so when I left him , it was terrible because I left a very dear friend. Some two years later Rick and the Burritos shared the same bill and that was fantastic so we kept in contact over the years. He was of the kindest, most creative, wonderful people I've met in my entire life. I've worked with alost everybody in the business but he was one of a kind. Anybody who has ever met him will have walked away with a warm feeling. He was as you've seen him on the Harriet and Ozzie Show. It was very similar to how his family was, his Mom, his Dad and his brother David; they were all warm, friendly people."

Amazing was that he later turned into a terrific songwriter and that for someone who always depended on others.

"He was, we wrote together the flipside of the single from the Memphis Sessions that was released in 1979: Dreamlover. We wrote: That ain't the way love supposed to be. He was great to write with. We mainly sat until 3 pm in our hotel having burgers and coke meanwhile writing, I think Garden Party finally gave him credit with those who've always seen him as just another star from the fifties. The only reason he didn't follow that all the way because he was always very busy travelling. But yes, he was very creative in all kinds of way."

How succesful was Dreamlover actually?

"It was his first big song since Garden Party, that's why we were all so exited about the Memphis Sessions. It got til about 30 in the country charts. It was a great version. We did it as a James Taylor / Stone Canyon Band version. We used acoustic instead of electrical guitars, pretty Eagles type ooohs and aaahs along with Rick's warm voice. It was his comeback. Then we went doing all the Nashville shows and out in America like the Saturday Night Live Show with John Belushi. We previewed the record on that show. During the concerts the people were screaming like in the old days; it was fantastic but CBS never released the album. To me that was their tribute to Rick Nelson; they blew up a whole comeback. Because it could have brought him back where he belonged like Kenny Rogers, but they blew it."

He had the talent and the vocal abilities.

"Yeah and the looks too, and the stagepresence. When he hit that stage with his guitar with Rick on it, he looked great like he was in his early thirties. Style was written all over the guy. Strange, I'll never be able to figure out the music business and I 'm in it now for twenty years."

And about the crash?

"Everybody knew the plane had a bad reputation but no one let Rick down, because he was too nice to do so, and because of Rick's kindness everybody they followed him until that fatal moment.

Rick had financial problems with Kris, his wife. They split up. Rick was living in Errol Flynn 's old house in Hollywood and he had a big overhead. The divorce was kinda sticky and dirty like most Hollywood divorces are. And yes, the plane had a bad reputation. It belonged to Jerry Lee Lewis prior to Rick and the bandmembers were ready to quit. They didn't wanna ride in it anymore; it broke down a couple of times so they were all squared of it but still they wen. It was just an old plane and in all honesty, Rick should never have flown it. What he should have done was driving around in a new custom bus if he had such a busy schedule. And I 'll never know why they kept pushing him like that and put him on that old plane. It's really a tragedy.

Oh yeah, there's one more song from the Memphis Sessions released. That's allright Mama came on a CBS compilation of Rockabilly songs. It was a double album that featured tunes by Carl Perkins, Sleepy LaBeef , Everly Brothers and Rick's version of the Elvis classic. I think it's called Rockabilly Stars. If you can get a hold of that you'll understand what i've been talking about. And you'll understand why I was so onset with the final result. I admit that Steve Buckingham has done a great job with the Sweethearts of the Rodeo or Janie Fricke; he is competent. I guess for him it was an opportunity to put his name on a Rick Nelson album. I hate to burn bridges but I will never work with Steve Buckingham or the people that were involved in the rape of that album. You should think that those younger people would pay some respect for the roots and the pioneers but that's an illusion because the younger people step into a position where a dollar is a dollar and that's very sad.

And that's all I have to say about it.

Thanks John.

(Frankfurt Germany, 1987)

John (l) and Rick, Las Vegas 1978

John Beland's solo album for Scepter, 1973, with a.o. shuffle king John Ware (Emmylou's Hot Band), Thad Maxwell and Sneaky Pete.

Forever You by The Whites on MCA, 1984.

Containing, a.o. Cowboy Beat, the last big hit the Brothers had, also to be found on

the Latest and Greatest.

Backpocket's Buzzard Bait on Joyce Records, 1976 with Swampwater.

Kim Carnes' St Vincent's Court on EMI, 1979, with John on dobro, guitar, mandolin.

T.G. Sheppard's last hit album, 1987 for Columbia. John playing lead on 1ne 4 the $.

Frankfurt 1987

A little later after the

Burrito Brothers' last gig.

John and the late great Rick Nelson.

Digby Richards on RCA, 1974 with, a.o., J.B., Emory Gordy jr. and Herb Pedersen

Both albums contain tracks of the original Memphis Sessions. On the right CD #4 from the box set Rick Nelson Legacy on Capitol. You rather buy these!

Memphis Sessions, Epic 1986.

Forget about this one. Sony made it up for this error by releasing

Stay Young, the Epic Recordings (below).

John and I got back together in Schelluinen Holland after.....

You stopped working as the Burrito Brothers some 2 years ago but suddenly at the end of 87 there was Back To The Sweethearts Of The Rodeo.

Before we broke up I suggested that we should work on an album we produced, selected and wrote the songs for. Something that had no outside interference from anywhere and with the help of Al Jones we did this double album in Muscle Sholes in Alabama. Originally it was called The Burrito Brothers Farewell Album but we figured why not Back to the sweethearts of the rodeo? Back to our countryrock roots and as a tribute to the first countryrock album which was Sweetheart of the Rodeo by the Byrds. But we broke up after recording it. We had a lazy manager and it stayed in the shelves. But I came to Holland last year where I met Paul Smit of Disky Records. I played him the tape and he loved it and prurchased the European rights for the album. So booking agent Cor Sanne called me to do one more gig with Gib and that's why we are here. But we are doing seperate things now although still the best of friends. We live next door to each other and that's good for both of us.

So this was the last Burritos gig?

Yes.after this show we'll never do it again. Gib will go on the road with Sneaky Pete if they succeed in reforming the Flying Burritos but for Gib and me it ends here tonight. I hope it sounded good because we hadn't played together for a long time. Probably a little loose and off-key but it was a lot of fun. I don't see this as the end but more as the beginning of something new.

On the album is a lot of new material. This has surely taken more than a couple of days?

We put a lot of work in it. We wrote every day and the remaining tunes are our all-time favorites. Things we always wanted to record like Take a message to Mary and My hearts skips a beat. It were songs we grew up with, songs that were influential to us in California when Gram started countryrock. We wrote especially for the album which was intented to come out in Europe.We didn't see it as an American album. People in Europe always seemed to appreciate more what we did than in the States. So we did this album with a sound that helped countryrock get off the floor.

Vince Gill once told me that Holland always had a good nose for good music, think of Gram Parsons a.s. who was always more popular in Holland than in the US. So is it a coincidence that the album was released first in Holland?

Our intention was first go to Holland and then to Germany. The people there have always followed the carreer of the countryrock artists from California wether it was Gib and I or J.D.Souther, the Eagles, Emmylou and Vince. They were fans where in the States everything is based on Top 20. It's unfortunate that America is so narrow-minded and is only concerned about the current charts. So Holland is really rewarding for us to perform, for people who appreciate us for what we have done in the past. So it's great that the album is doing well in Holland because this country always had a special place in our hearts.

John, there should be another album out, you told me?

Yeah, in Italy and it's called The Swampwater Reunion. It was recorded in 1979 in the Criterion Studios in Hollywood. I was with Rick Nelson at the time and Gib was with the Flying Burrito Brothers and Thad Maxwell was with Mac Davis. We got together to see how we sounded after all these years. So we did 15 tracks but there are only 10 on the album. Some Italian label got a hold on it last year and put it out and I wrote the liner-notes. It also had a few pictures from the seventies. It's a good album. Recorded when disco was real big so nothing happened after the reunion but a little later Gib called me to join the Flying Burrito Brothers and that's how we got together again. So get the Swampwater Reunion Sessions.

Talking about Swampwater; the 2 previous albums sounded totally different. Why was that?

The first album was done in 1970 in New Mexico and it was just the 4 of us. (John Beland, Gib Guilbeau, Thad Maxwell and Stan Pratt) on a 4 track macine in Albuquerque and we weren't influenced from others. We had a chart record with Take A City Bride that Gib wrote and the whole idea was to put an album together that had my countryrock background,Gib's country background and our Byrds influence. So nobody bothered us.Then we got a deal with RCA and typical for a major label they felt we needed a producer.In our case it was Larry Murray,a guy we liked alot. But we were under presure to come out with a top 40 single. We tried to grow up and the direction was there.But we were so busy touring that we not really concentrated on that album.So RCA dropped us in 1972..Larry told the label that they were making a big mistake because another group started making waves in L.A. that sounded just like us but RCA kinda laughed it off. That group was The Eagles and later on they also signed Pure Prairie League but the company felt they had too many countryrock groups.

There are a few tracks from those sessions that weren't released with Sneaky Pete and Jim Horn but I guess they'll never come out.That wa probably the most frustrating period in my carreer. Swampwater never got the recognition it deserved; we were one of the forerunners of countryrock. There was Buffalo Springfield but when Poco and The Flying Burrito Brothers started we were already cooking backing up Linda Ronstadt doing rockvenues.Funny that when people talk about Linda 's group it's always the Eagles but we backed her up before that and during three years. But it's changing slowly; sometimes we are mentioned in books.

Was Roger McGuinn's picking of such influence on West Coast pickers at that time?

I don't think so but he had on me. I lived in Chicagi Illinois but when I came to L.A. I probably knew more about Roger than he did himself. We became real good friends and hang out together a lot; Swampwater and the Byrds. Nobody else was doing that stuff back then. During one of the sessions for our second album Elvis was in the studio next to ours working on his come-back in Las Vegas. We met him at 3 am, having a good time drinking coffee.

You know, there were always a whole lot of people who wanted to come to a countryrock band but only a few bought the albums. It not only killed us but all the bands.

And about Larry Murray: I can't say enough about him. He picked me off the streets, gave me a chance,discovered Kristofferson, Johnny Durrill. For years he ran The Troubadour during its best years. He's definitely one of the most unrewarded countryrock pioneers at the West Coast.

Talking about The Troubadour. Rick Nelson's In Concert album was recorded there but nowadays you only hear about The Palomino. What kind of club was that?

It was like a neighbourhood pub. It had a bar in the front then you went through a door into the main room that had a balcony. But everybody, starts to come, songwriters were sitting in the pub,drinking beer and talking.And the acts played for a listening audience, there was no dancefloor. The Monkees played there at their peak. And Mike Nesmith can still come back at a hootenanny and play some serious songs, Gordon Lightfoot too. But there will never be another club like the Troubadour. It was magic between 1968 and 1972. It was the equivalant to the Cavern in Liverpool. It was a melting pot for the countryrock sound that started from that club. Linda Ronstadt started there. Rick made his come-back, The Byrds, The Association.. evrybody played there. Somebody should write a book about it. It was fantastic being there. You could see the stars come walking in like Jackson Browne or Jose Feliciano. It was unbelievable and I'm proud it was a part of my life.

What's left of it now?

It's a punk/ rock club now. With all that magic comes show business. The owner had to pay only a few bucks for the upcoming groups. So when the groups had run their options out and became starts they didn't go back to the Troubadour and the club died. It's kind of a shadow from it's former self.

On the double album Back To The Sweethearts Of The Rodeo is a track called Gold Guitar. Is this autobiographical?

It's about a guy from Chicago where I grew up. I idolized him because he was a great guitar player but he never did anything with his life exept playing bars. His name was Danny Kiner. He was a big influence to me when I learned to play guitar. I always went to see him play. He had a red Gibson guitar. Years later when I became succesfull I came back to see how Danny was doing. But he still didn't do anything. He stayed in town,painted houses,slept with his guitar but did nothing. So I put that story together thinking of Duane Eddy who probably had his sound from a guy like Danny Kiner and wondering how Danny would feel when his style of picking would be on the radio. That's how I wrote Gold Guitar.

Thanks as always.

This picture has been taken in the '90's at John's home studio in Hendersonville, TN, where we spent a lot of time together and had many a good laugh.

Rare pictures, taken from the Burrito's last gig ever.

Swampwater Reunion, on Appaloosa (Italy), 1987. Guests: Sneaky Pete,

Charlie Harwood.

Gib Guilbeau,

vocals & fiddle

Thad Maxwell,

bassguitar, steel,

vocals

John Beland,

guitars, vocals,

banjo, organ

Mickey McGee,

drums & vocals

Swampwater's first one,

untitled, on King 1970.

Swampwater's second one, on RCA, 1972

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Introducing John Beland

Burrito Brothers. Hearts on the line, Curb 1981.

Burrito Brothers. Sunset Sundowm, Curb 1982.

Burrito Brothers. Double Barrel, MagnumUK 1995, previously unreleased 3rd album by B.B.'s. Recorded 1984.

Burrito Brothers. Back to the Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Disky Holland 1987. Re-released Appaloosa Italy, 1990 (with different cover).

Tribute to Gram Parsons and Clarence White: Wheels, featuring the Flying Burrito Brothers, Lary Maurray, John Beland, Bobby Bare, Freddy Weller, Swampwater, on Appaloosa, Italy 1989.

Flying Burrito Brothers. Southern Tracks, on Voodoo 1990.

Flying Burrito Brothers. Encore (live in Europe), on Magnum UK 1991.

Flying Burrito Brothers. Hollywood Nights, 1979-82. Compilation of Burrito Brothers albums, Magnum UK 1990.

Look out for same music, different cover. Flying Burrito Brothers. Too much hoonky tonkin', Inter Music Belgium 1996. Same as Hollywood Nights.

Carry & Ron. Legend in the making, BSC Germany, 1995. Producers John Beland & Brian Cadd.

Carry & Ron were Germany' duo of the year 5 consecutive years in the 90's.

Nashville Country Classical Orchestra, vol. 1, on Fresh, Germany 1995. Producers Carry & Ron. This has nothing to do with rock'n'roll. But nevertheless a terrific album, and the only way I can listen to classical music.