Hello Gib, start talking...
You know I'm from Louisiana so it was obvious that I learned to play guitar and fiddle. I played in local bands and at 17 I decided that I wanted to make a living out of music. Since then I worked with everybody in the business from Linda Ronstadt to the Flying Burrito Brothers and developed the craft to write songs.
(Interrupted by John Beland ; If it wasn't for me he probably would be playing in a whorehouse in Louisiana! )
Were the Swampwater albums your first recordings?
No, before that I did some singles. I've been in several groups one of them called Four Young Men (Beland again: Four Young Men? That's an original name. Gib: Well, we were four and young,so.. Beland: You couldn't use that anymore. Gib: I guess not.)
After years of playing in Las Vegas and honky tonks John and I started Swampwater and worked with people like Linda Ronstadt and Arlo Guthrie. But I've been walking the streets of Los Angeles long before that.
(Beland: I knew Linda before I knew Gib and she said she wanted me in her band and I said who else will be in the band? She said: Gib,this guy Gib Giulbeau. I said: Who is he? And Linda said: He's some cajun who plays fiddle, he's real weard but he's a nice guy,that's exactly what she told me before I met him. Boy, was she right!)
Gib , you had solo albums out like Cajun country and Toe Tappin' Music. What can you tell about them?
These were never supposed to be real albums. I was writing for Allshire Publishing Company. These were demos, not real records. But later on some guy took my demos and put it out on albums. And I'm not ashamed of these songs, they are good songs, it's just that the records are not that great because they were never meant to be albums.
You wrote some classics like Big Bayou and Take a city bride.
Swampwater had the first version of Big Bayou, later on it was recorded by Ron Wood, Bobby Womack, the Flying Burrito Brothers. The song made me a lot of money.
Rick Nelson recorded Take a city bride. Clarence White was doing a session with Rick and he said he wanted to do a cajun song. Clanence said he knew a writer who writes cajun songs. And the very next day I played the song for Rick and he cut it. At that time a lot of people recorded my songs even the Byrds. And I was writing a lot then.
After a few years of silence the Flying Burrito Brothers started again with Sneaky Pete and Chris Ethridge as original mebers along with Joel Scott Hill, Gene Parsons and you. How come?
I knew Sneaky Pete a long time and the others too. At the time we all were working in bands mostly in bars. The Burritos quit three years ago and one day manager Ed Tickner called me up and said: We should put the Burritos back together. There are a lot of calls for music like that. So do you wanna play? I asked who was supposed to play in the band and it were all my friends. The only one I didn't know was Joel Scott Hill. So we rehearsed and got on the road.
What stopped the Flying Burrito Brothers and what started the Burrito Brothers?
We were on the road for some years and some of us wanted to do something else. We had been everywhere, all over the world even in Japan. John already joined the group and we were about to sign for CBS but nobody wanted to go on the road a lot. So it scaled down to just John and me. So the two of us did a few albums and were quite succeful.
Could you name a few?
We had 9 chartrecords from 2 albums: Hearts on the line and Sunset sundown. The biggest was a song that John and I wrote: She belongs to everyone but me. Several did about as well but that was the biggest. It became top 10 and so did Canada Dry.
Were that your first charts singles?
Yeah, they were the first chart singles. I had some albums in the charts before but it's very hard to get in the charts anyhow.
So it was a great feeling to hear your songs on the radio?
It was. I'm in the music business all my life and that was something I wanted real bad so I was very happy when I finally managed to do so. And I wanna do it again.
John and I are no longer recording together but Sneaky Pete and I are reforming the Burritos again. And we wanna have album- and single charts records. Like everybody else and as we have some good material,we will. I'm writing and co-writing the majority of it. I won't do it unless it's real good.
This could be the right moment. Look at Chris and the Desert Rose Band.
Probably. We don't wanna quit. We only don't wanna make the same mistakes as years ago. We won't consider the Nashville bullshit. Just cutting good songs. Songs that can be hits if the radio wants to play them. The time is right. There are a lot of people who wanna hear the music we played through the years. Now more than ever.
Sounding more up-to-date?
Yeah,it will be better recorded than it had been because there is better equipment. It won't be bubblegum stuff, just good stuff that could make it. So we have to record it the best we can.
But what actually broke up The Burrito Brothers?
We had a manager for a long time who was a real nice guy and a good friend. But he suddenly died and things kinda fell apart. We were about to sign a new contract with CBS but when he died everything turned out wrong for us, so we said before getiing enemies, let's stop this thing and stay friends and so we did. And now I'm managing my son Ronnie's career, hoping he doesn't make the same mistakes as I did. He's really talented. You'll hear from him. He plays, writes and sings very well and I'm not only saying this because he is my son. That would be a waste of time.
What was the best record of one of your songs?
I had a hundred songs recorded. The one that made the most money is the one recorded by Rod Stewart. But the best is hard to say. Many of them were by people you never heard of. Jimmy C Newman recorded a lot of my songs that were really good but I have no favorites. I like Rick Nelson's version of Take a city bride. Clarence White did a few. Gene Parsons recorded some I really like. But if anybody records a song of mine it's a compliment. And as long as they do their best it's ok with me. I makes me happy because that's great.
Because there are thousands of songs and they pick one of yours?
That's right and therefor it's a compliment they choose mine and everybody is doing their best if they record an album.
What did you feel when when the first of your songs was recorded by someone else?
The first song was recorded by Vern Gosdin. I didn't think too much of it then. I was quite impressed because they did it very different from the way I did it but nevertheless sounded great. It's on an early Gosdin Brothers album and it's called No matter where you are, there you go.
You didn't think of money?
It was more important to me that they liked the song that much than I was thinking of money. Because I had other ways of making money. I was pretty young then and younger people don't look at money the same way older people do.
Thanks Gib.
Schelluinen, Holland 1987.
