Clough Has Done It Again

[admin]

Roy Clough has just added a new article to his Clough Links Site entitled Searching for A Song. It is a very nice look at those Searchers' recordings that were originally released by others. It is chaulked full of historical gems and I trust you will delight in reading it as much as I did. Certainly this is a reference that many will use over the years. Quite simply another Clough Classic.

Thanks Roy, your continued efforts in keeping the music of The Searchers in the spotlight is much appreciated.

As a teaser to illustrate some of the gems in his fine work, I learned for the first time that Gerry and the Pacemakers were not the first to release "Don't Let the Sun Catch Your Crying." This one of a collection of articles by Roy at Clough Links, a site that has been at RickResource for 9 years. Time flies when you're Searching for information.

[JeffZ]

Yes, very nice article Roy. I occasionally listen to Spencer Leigh's show on the Internet. He had Jackie DeShannon on about 2 years ago. Regarding "Needles & Pins", she said she loved the song but Liberty (her US label) did not want her to record it. She had a long meeting with label execs about it, and had to throw something of a temper tantrum before they would let her record the song! It broke well in New York, but she felt it would have charted higher in the US if Liberty had pushed it more. (And we all know that UK Liberty did not do much for The Searchers later on either).

"Take Me For What I'm Worth"--PF Sloane was a songwriter/producer for Dunhill Records. A somewhat shadowy figure, he was a major player in the early success of The Grass Roots ("Where Were You When I Needed You" ,"Things I Should Have Said To Her"), who's lead singer Rob Grill just passed away last week. I always have loved The Searchers version of this song.

[admin]

Whether by design or accident, the combination of Mike Pender's Gibson ES345 and John McNally's Club 60 created a moment of magic that would become one of the most cherished guitar riffs of the day. Tony Hatch was able to capture this so very nicely in the studio. This song captured the attention of a number of influential groups during the mid 1960s not the least of which were The Beatles and The Byrds.

[royclough]

Peter
I imagine you meant to post a video of Needles And Pins

[admin]

Yes I did Roy. I was torn between two videos, one that was a great one showing the guitars and performance and the other that had the opening riff to which I referred. I am posting the one with the better audio here.

[wrd]

"Needles and Pins"

Their recording of this song has always been amazing to me for many reasons;

Mike's and John's guitar sound(s). I think (not totally sure) that the dominant guitar one hears (the chimney almost 12 string like one) is probably Mike's ES 345. John's is a bit more muffled and we all know his playing style back then was extremely fast rhythm stokes, which can be heard. At the beginning of the song when Mike starts to sing I hear one guitar (which I believe is John's) go up to the fifth fret A chord while the other (Mike's) continues to strum the lower A chord on the regular 2ND fret. This is typical of most 2 guitar groups to spread the string voicings around like an orchestra would do.

Another neat thing was the way Tony played his bass line. Its very simple but almost makes the song - for me. He hits his notes in conjunction with Chris's bass drum, again typical but So effective on this song. Tony also played each note button up, so its sort of a Gallup like run- very interesting and a very cool choice.

They also really captured Chris' unique drumming style on this one. The opening drum riff is one of music's all time best openers. It simply is a classic intro. He also duplicates it on the outtro (SP), again very cool.

The vocal(s) are just perfect. Perhaps Mike's best (Good By My Love is probably his best- to me). As Chris comes in on the Harmony - its almost Everly Brothers heaven.

I would be curious to know how much of the song was recorded live (at one time). They didn't have many open tracks back then so I'm guessing that the drums, both guitars and bass along - maybe - with Mike's vocal were recorded live. I understand Mike doubled tracked his vocal and then we have to decide when Chris put his vocal on?

I would love to hear from Roy, Peter and anyone else with your thoughts on this magical recording. They don't make them like this anymore!

[winston]

I just got around to reading your article Roy. It's very well done and full of interesting tidbits. Thanks for posting that, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[royclough]

Appreciated someone actually told me they didn't think people would be interested

[JeffZ]

Those of us here are very interested Roy. It's so hard to get good history these days, thanks for the work that went into the article.

[chriscurtisfan]

Boy, I'll say we are interested!!! The one I most enjoyed hearing about was Needles & Pins -- always wondered how that came their way...

Thanks to all the music experts who provided the analyses of the various parts of the songs. I love understanding what is going on instrumentally, as I do know a little about guitars.

It's always miraculous to me that a song can be assembled into something as beautiful as Needles or Don't Throw. I'm glad that Tony Jackson came up with the "Twiddly Guitar" portion of Don't Throw -- it's sooo lovely. Everything about Don't Throw is perfection. Being a Chris Curtis fanatic, when he comes in at 1:37 -- it's just breathtaking.



Any historical information is appreciated, Roy. Thank you for taking the time to put it into words, and thank you for not blaming Chris Curtis for the demise of The Searchers charting success!

I do not understand, and never will, why it is that when a member of The Searchers exits, that individual is immediately the villian.

There is another opinion in Frank's book, that I find unnecessarily cruel towards Chris Curtis. Considering that Frank states that Chris is responsible for getting Frank into the band, that remark reflects back on Frank very negatively. I gather there is a great deal of anomosity that went down, and nothing to be done about it to this day.

I only know that when it was John, Chris, Tony and Mike, it was magic.

Thank you, again, for sharing your knowledge.

[royclough]

Thank you for kind comments always appreciated