Post by darkstar3 on Feb 4, 2011 21:44:35 GMT
LINER NOTES FOR DAVID ACKLES'S SUBWAY TO THE COUNTRY
By Richie Unterberger
David Ackles's 1968 self-titled Elektra debut (also reissued on CD by Collectors' Choice Music) had unveiled one of the most unusual singer- songwriters of the late 1960s. Brooding and intense, if leavened by a certain proud resilience and touches of mordant whimsy, it also merged the late-1960s Elektra house rock sound with elements of Ackles's background in musical theater. His 1969 follow-up Subway to the Country was still, just about, a rock singer-songwriter record.
Yet it amplified the theatrical facet of his work, while expanding
from a rock base into more involved and orchestrated arrangements.
Ackles had cut his first album with rock musicians (most of whom
would later play in Rhinoceros) who had played with Iron Butterfly, the Electric Flag, and Buffalo Springfield. Only one of those session men, guitarist Doug Hastings, would reappear in the credits to Subway to the Country. More than 20 musicians, in fact, would contribute to the record, produced by Russ Miller (who had co-produced David Ackles with David Anderle), among them such A-team L.A. session cats as drummer Jim Gordon and bassist Larry Knechtel. For all that traffic, the arrangements were sharply honed, with Fredric Myrow adding the most orchestral colors with his arranging and conducting.
Like Ackles, Myrow had no background to speak of in rock music, but somehow got drawn into the unpredictable net of Elektra's rock roster in the late 1960s, when borders of all kinds were falling right and left. He'd been a composer-in-residence under Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic, but by the late 1960s was scoring an experimental movie for former UCLA film student-turned-rock-star Jim Morrison, Highway. Myrow would go on to discuss a creating a musical with Morrison, with Myrow doing the music and Morrison the text and lyrics, although those plans were scrapped after the Doors' singer's death in 1971.
Source: www.richieunterberger.com/subway.html
Here's a few comments from Fred Myrow about his relationship with Jim Morrison that I found in an interview with G.A.S.P. Magazine. Interesting that these interview excerpts doesn't show up in books. I find it odd that the Jim biographers didn't expound on this information during their research phase. Fred Myrow died of a heart attack January 14 1999.
The following interview with Fred Myrow was conducted by G.A.S.P. etc. Magazine publisher Mike Baronas in the Summer of 1994.
G.A.S.P. Magazine
The Fredric Myrow Interview
G.A.S.P.: I've read that you worked with The Doors' Jim Morrison. To what extent was your rapport with him?
FM: When I was at the New York Philharmonic I met Jim through a mutual friend and we got along really well. He decided that he wanted to try to work something out with me, so after the season was over at the Philharmonic I went out to Los Angeles to score an experimental movie called Highway that he wrote, directed and starred in. There were all kinds of crazy things in that picture. I used a lot of music from different cultures and countries and I did strange things with it; I made collages and used the music backwards and at half-speed. I also was experimenting with some synthesizers at that time, including a Mellotron, which was very hush-hush - the union was not happy with Mellotrons because they imitated instruments. Now we're talking 1969, before the synthesizer revolution and before I got into film scoring. So, as a result of doing Highway for Jim, as well as some discussions, we were well along in the plans for a musical that he was going to write the text and lyrics for and I was going to do the music. It was all planned for me to join him in France - he was going to rent a chateau and we were really going to move into the next phase of work on this piece that we very thoroughly discussed - but, unfortunately, we all know what happened. In fact, it happened just 2 or 3 weeks before I was supposed to come over.
G.A.S.P.: Wow, what a shock that had to have been.
FM: The worst shock of my life. But I had a very unique relationship with Jim. He had a very spilt-personality and he was different things to different people. In my case, I think he was very interested in a lot of the musical places I had been that were not in his immediate experience. Actually, when I left for Ireland to do my first picture for John Boorman called Leo The Last, Jim sublet my house so that he could listen to all my music, read my books, and figure out how we were going to work together. So when I came back, he was already focused in on what we were going to do together and it would have been one hell of a collaboration. Jim really wanted to expand his musical opportunity and not get locked into what he could do with the band. Towards the end, he was starting to get the 7-year itch and I was sort of in a good place to help to open up doors, excuse the expression {laughs}. I cherish my memories with Jim. I have no idea what happened to Highway. I think they've just decided never to make it public. It wasn't very good, but it was very promising and indeed the work we were going to do was inspired in some ways by that film.
www.phantasm.com/hpages/Gasp.html
By Richie Unterberger
David Ackles's 1968 self-titled Elektra debut (also reissued on CD by Collectors' Choice Music) had unveiled one of the most unusual singer- songwriters of the late 1960s. Brooding and intense, if leavened by a certain proud resilience and touches of mordant whimsy, it also merged the late-1960s Elektra house rock sound with elements of Ackles's background in musical theater. His 1969 follow-up Subway to the Country was still, just about, a rock singer-songwriter record.
Yet it amplified the theatrical facet of his work, while expanding
from a rock base into more involved and orchestrated arrangements.
Ackles had cut his first album with rock musicians (most of whom
would later play in Rhinoceros) who had played with Iron Butterfly, the Electric Flag, and Buffalo Springfield. Only one of those session men, guitarist Doug Hastings, would reappear in the credits to Subway to the Country. More than 20 musicians, in fact, would contribute to the record, produced by Russ Miller (who had co-produced David Ackles with David Anderle), among them such A-team L.A. session cats as drummer Jim Gordon and bassist Larry Knechtel. For all that traffic, the arrangements were sharply honed, with Fredric Myrow adding the most orchestral colors with his arranging and conducting.
Like Ackles, Myrow had no background to speak of in rock music, but somehow got drawn into the unpredictable net of Elektra's rock roster in the late 1960s, when borders of all kinds were falling right and left. He'd been a composer-in-residence under Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic, but by the late 1960s was scoring an experimental movie for former UCLA film student-turned-rock-star Jim Morrison, Highway. Myrow would go on to discuss a creating a musical with Morrison, with Myrow doing the music and Morrison the text and lyrics, although those plans were scrapped after the Doors' singer's death in 1971.
Source: www.richieunterberger.com/subway.html
Here's a few comments from Fred Myrow about his relationship with Jim Morrison that I found in an interview with G.A.S.P. Magazine. Interesting that these interview excerpts doesn't show up in books. I find it odd that the Jim biographers didn't expound on this information during their research phase. Fred Myrow died of a heart attack January 14 1999.
The following interview with Fred Myrow was conducted by G.A.S.P. etc. Magazine publisher Mike Baronas in the Summer of 1994.
G.A.S.P. Magazine
The Fredric Myrow Interview
G.A.S.P.: I've read that you worked with The Doors' Jim Morrison. To what extent was your rapport with him?
FM: When I was at the New York Philharmonic I met Jim through a mutual friend and we got along really well. He decided that he wanted to try to work something out with me, so after the season was over at the Philharmonic I went out to Los Angeles to score an experimental movie called Highway that he wrote, directed and starred in. There were all kinds of crazy things in that picture. I used a lot of music from different cultures and countries and I did strange things with it; I made collages and used the music backwards and at half-speed. I also was experimenting with some synthesizers at that time, including a Mellotron, which was very hush-hush - the union was not happy with Mellotrons because they imitated instruments. Now we're talking 1969, before the synthesizer revolution and before I got into film scoring. So, as a result of doing Highway for Jim, as well as some discussions, we were well along in the plans for a musical that he was going to write the text and lyrics for and I was going to do the music. It was all planned for me to join him in France - he was going to rent a chateau and we were really going to move into the next phase of work on this piece that we very thoroughly discussed - but, unfortunately, we all know what happened. In fact, it happened just 2 or 3 weeks before I was supposed to come over.
G.A.S.P.: Wow, what a shock that had to have been.
FM: The worst shock of my life. But I had a very unique relationship with Jim. He had a very spilt-personality and he was different things to different people. In my case, I think he was very interested in a lot of the musical places I had been that were not in his immediate experience. Actually, when I left for Ireland to do my first picture for John Boorman called Leo The Last, Jim sublet my house so that he could listen to all my music, read my books, and figure out how we were going to work together. So when I came back, he was already focused in on what we were going to do together and it would have been one hell of a collaboration. Jim really wanted to expand his musical opportunity and not get locked into what he could do with the band. Towards the end, he was starting to get the 7-year itch and I was sort of in a good place to help to open up doors, excuse the expression {laughs}. I cherish my memories with Jim. I have no idea what happened to Highway. I think they've just decided never to make it public. It wasn't very good, but it was very promising and indeed the work we were going to do was inspired in some ways by that film.
www.phantasm.com/hpages/Gasp.html