Richard Barone/The Bongos

marc61 · Post by **marc61** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:45 am

Not sure if there was ever a thread mentioning Richard.

He's a fine musician, and I always remember he loved Rickenbackers.He performs solo now, but in the early 80's he had a terrific group called The Bongos.They were friendly with a group I was in and they would try to get us opening slots with them.

Here's the link to his site. I did see one picture of him in The Bongos days with his Ric. I'm sure there are others:

http://www.richardbarone.com/

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:42 am

I still have my Bongos LP (with "Number With Wings). Totally (pardon my '80's speak) dig that song.

marc61 · Post by **marc61** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 3:02 am

I'm not sure of the exact story but I believe it was The Bongos along with another band The Db's who helped bring REM to the attention of industry people .

As I remember it, both groups raved about the band to a NY booking agent who brought the REM to NY to showcase. Dissapointed by the tunouts, he passed on the group but, Frontier Booking International took a liking to the fact that they loaded up their stuff in a station wagon, played anywhere,anytime and did it for the love of the music. Reminded the owner of his brother's band(The Police).

Obviously there's more to it,but that's how I remember it.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 9:30 am

Now that is a rare band, I'll do that too. I remember playing one cold autumn Saturday outside (for practically no one), then driving an hour and playing out in the middle of nowhere (for practically no one) then playing in a little coffee house until about 4 O'clock in the morning (for practically no one). I don't think I made much money that day either. Those were the days, haha!
This was only about three years ago.
The Police played The Rat in Boston in 76 or 77, it was a little punk rock place, held about a hundred people. I didn't see them.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 10:30 am

The Police played it smart from the beginning-took no advances, oraganized their own tours, and made a profit right away. Nowadays you'd have to sell 1.2 million units before breaking even (if you take the advances, pay the producer and marketing fees, etc)! Viva la indies!

marc61 · Post by **marc61** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 4:04 am

I remeber around that time my friend and I heard that The Police were going to play at CBGB's and we were so excited that we ended up getting the date wrong. We showed up two weeks too early. Their was some skinny British singer with glasses playing and I was so upset, I kept saying how the guy sucked,but my friend kept saying the guy was great and going to be a star.

That's why I don't work in A&R. His name was Elvis Costello.

So of course we go back in two weeks and we knew the sound man so we went up to say hello. He seemed nervous as no one had heard from the band. What were they going to do? Just walk up with their guitars and amps, plug in and play?

That's exactly what they did and they were awesome with no soundcheck.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:14 am

Those were great times with great music. I miss that stuff, a lot of the stuff that came out in the late 70's was right on (or over) the edge. Then came the dreaded synthesizor phase. That's when I turned back and started discovering a lot of the older stuff and also branched out into other forms of music besides rock.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:17 am

I vaguely remember the Bongos, were they a dreaded synthesizor group? haha! If so, sorry.

marc61 · Post by **marc61** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 12:56 pm

Nope, pop rock. No keys at all.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:03 pm

One reason I liked them. Just guitars and a pop song. I think there was another on that record that was a hit at least here in so cal. I'll have to go and look.

chucksimms · Post by **chucksimms** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:18 pm

Wasn't it the Bongos that did that great version of T-Rex's 'Mambo Sun'?

marc61 · Post by **marc61** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:37 pm

Yep!Almost forgot about that.

rickwatt · Post by **rickwatt** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 9:30 am

One of my old bands covered "zebra club" off "Drums Along The Hudson". On the back of the album the guitarist is playing a Rickenbacker 360, if my memory serves.