Saturday, June 2, 2007

The Denems play Nowhere Man

here's the story:
the denems recorded 3 beatle songs and 3 of our own songs in 1966 at King Studio in cincinnati. they were put on what was called an "acetate". an acetate looked like a slightly larger vinyl single. it was only meant as a reference and was not meant to be played more than a few times. after that acetates completely degrade. that's why the sound is terrible.
still it's the first recording I have of myself.
I sing the high harmony and play the drums.

so as a tip of the hat to Sgt. Pepper's birthday,
here are the denems doing nowhere man
as a FREE download
now.

Terry Dalhover: lead guitar
Dave Behle: rhythm guitar and low vocal harmony
Robbie Workman: bass guitar and lead vocal
Steve Belew: drums and high harmony
engineer: Lee Hazen
recorded in 1966 at King Studio, Cincinnati, Ohio

*note: King Studio was made famous by James Brown. in fact, the studio drum kit (which I used) had James' autograph on the tom tom head.

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tune. Your acoustic version of If I Fell is really nice too.

    Jimmy Page couldn't sing like that.

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  2. Grinned through every gorgeous second of it. Nice little drum fill @ 1.11.

    ADG

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  3. Thank you for that little gift on a Saturday morning! That was an excellent cover.

    How much of a strain was it for your Robbie Workman to sound THAT much like John Lennon? That brings to mind what I was pondering about your voice the other day as I was listening to Discipline: you have a seamlessness between your speaking an singing voices that gives your vocals an unusually natural, "unforced" sound that's pretty much critical to your music.

    As an off-the-cuff contrast, as neat as Alanis Morrisette's voice is, I watched her sing on t.v. once thinking, jeez, what if she talked using the contorted style she sang in...that would be kinda funny. :) I still like her, though. Variety=fun.

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  4. Love it! I amazed you still have stuff like this.

    Thanks for sharing with us.

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  5. Adrian - when I turned 40 (about 8 years ago), I went through a mid-life crisis and joined a classic rock band (just like when I was in my teens and twenties). In our first gig, we did two sets of Beatles and then a set of other classic rock songs. The cigarette smoke in the club/bar made me so sick that I quit the band the next day!

    Dan

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  6. Adrian, what a great gift!

    From one Beatle fan to another...Thank You.

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  7. I thought you might get a kick out of this...

    So I download this track the other day and leave it playing on the PC. I'm busy in the next room and can hear my little six-year-old singing his heart out....

    "he's a nowhere man
    sitting in his nowhere land
    waiting for nobody..."

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  8. While listening to some James Brown I got at Shake-It a couple days ago, I took a break from something I was working on and googled "King Studios Cincinnati" which led me to discover your blog.

    And this track.

    And this history.

    I've been toiling over ways to better salute some sounds and folks connected to Cincinnati.
    Whether my own tune "Rock-N-Roll Conceived (In Cincinnati)" -- www.myspace.com/elliottruthertrio -- or with a King page I've been doing (www.myspace.com/kingrecords)
    or with some efforts to form a foundation.

    I would love to talk to you about this stuff someday down the line. There are several very good people getting involved.

    And, since you brought up the James Brown drum, I have to tell you that the first time I went into a studio (groupeffort), when I was sixteen, my guitar chord went out. A mentor, who taught me in 8th grade was with me on the session -- Jan Diehl.

    Jan lent me a "custom made for Adrian Belew" chord so I could put down my first track.

    Thank you.

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  9. Will the "Dust" collection ever appear as CDs?
    (Or at least as FLAC downloads?)

    Thanks for all the great music,

    John

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  10. Was one who went every time I could, sometimes by Greenline, to Denems dances. I booked you for a dance at LaSalette Academy...took some convincing the nuns that long hair wasn't unholy...even used Jesus in my argument...and pulled it off. So much fun in those days to see you all. Do you remember the black three- cornered hats we made you with green fringe all around (like Paul Revere and the Raiders)?...gave them to the four of you at The Hoffbrau Haus. We were such loyal fans that even your girlfriends liked us. Have some photos of those days and I'll find them and send some along. Love from a Ludlow, Ky. girl to you, your family, and all the other Denems wherever they are...

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  11. Those songs were played very good, they are actually great musicians.

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  12. The Beatles Acetate Collection Vol. 2 is another release on the Unicorn Records label. According to the liner notes for this release, “Ten years have passed since the release of Unicorn’s Acetate Collection in 2001, although some were controversial, it did compile a comprehensive selection of rare and unreleased Beatles acetates.

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