For Michael: Sons of Adam

Post by **silentseason** » Tue May 17, 2011 1:08 am

Michael, For the uninitiated (myself included), what kind of a sound did the Sons of Adam have?

Post by **MichaelStuart-Ware** » Wed May 18, 2011 5:10 pm

One night at Gazzari's a guy came up to me and said, "When you close your eyes you think you're listening to The Rolling Stones," because we could play those early Stones songs dead on, instrumentally and vocally. Same with The Kinks and Yardbirds. So, I guess that made us a hard rock band.

All bands start out as "cover groups" and the Sons of Adam were no exception. The early Beatles and Stones albums have lots of cover tunes, but then they made the transition and began to write. That's where we fell a little flat. Instrumentally, The Sons of Adam were superb. We could play anything. Vocally, we could handle material similar to that recorded by Mick Jagger or The Yardbird's Keith Rolf or the Davies brothers, but we just couldn't quite write. That was a big stumbling block, and one unfortunately that, in many people's minds, permanently categorized us in later years as a "garage band" but one of the great ones, nonetheless.

Post by **BallroomDays67** » Wed May 18, 2011 5:36 pm

How did the Sons of Adam come to record Tommy Boyce's "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day"? Is it the original version of the song, which was eventually covered by The Monkees on their debut album? Did Boyce offer the Sons of Adam any other songs?

Post by **MichaelStuart-Ware** » Wed May 18, 2011 7:45 pm

You know, I really don't have the answer, as to how The Sons of Adam came by "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day." Could be they offered it to us, or it could be like what Snoop once said said about David and Bacharrach's "My Little Red Book"...."They wrote it and we took it."

Post by **jamestkirk** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 7:23 pm

A SLENDER THREAD.....Sons Of Adam clip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCtFLNDt ... re=related

Michael...what was it like doing this set? Was this the only appearance Sons Of Adam made in the movie?

Was this really 1965?!! That is some pretty hot music for 1965.

It seems like you and the others may have had some of the longest hair in the business....did you all get a lot of hassles from the straights?!

Randy had some licks even then....when you left for Love did Sons Of Adam break up or linger on for a bit...1966 right?

When Sons recorded Arthur's "Feathered Fish" did you already know you were going to join Love?

Feathered Fish...a very Love-like cover...man Randy and you were cookin'!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQMuA-iz ... re=related

Make Me Good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBej1yti ... re=related

I Told You Once Before
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecvAFW3u ... re=related

Post by **MichaelStuart-Ware** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:47 am

Man, it was a lot of fun being in a high-budget film...Anne Bancroft and Sidney Poitier, each in their first film after winning Best Actress and Best Actor the year before (The Miracle Worker and Lillies of the Field)... and directed by Sydney Pollack in his first directorial effort. But that wasn't us playing, actually. The music you hear was dubbed in later by studio people.

Yeah, 1965 was not a good time to have long hair. We used to get hassled all the time where ever we went, but woe be to the cornball that gave Mike Port a hard time. He was the toughest guy I ever knew. It would have been a good fight between him and Arthur, but I think I might have put my money on Mike. Although he didn't look tough, like Arthur, he most definitely had the fearsome killer instinct. In a fight, he was relentless.

The Sons of Adam got a fine young drummer name of Randy Carlisle to replace me. They went on for a while with Craig Tarwater on lead guitar. Craig played on Arthur's Vindicator album, I believe.

Feathered Fish was recorded shortly after The Sons of Adam refused Arthur's invitation to record "7&7 Is". Long before I quit.

Post by **jamestkirk** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 1:03 am

Too bad you got overdubbed but sound was probably the issue on a movie set.

It is fun to see you there for that brief moment banging on your drum kit!

Post by **BallroomDays67** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:23 pm

Do you recall why they didn't use a track from one of the singles, or have the Sons of Adam go into the studio and record something for the movie?

Post by **MichaelStuart-Ware** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:04 pm

I'm not sure why they didn't use one of the Sons Of Adam's singles for the film. Could be we hadn't recorded any singles at that point.

Actually, we recorded a track that was used for the dancers to dance to during the disco scene. It was an acetate that was recorded (I believe) at Goldstar. Sydney gave it kind of a "play on words" name I can almost remember.

The way it worked was, during filming, they cued up the acetate on a small record player on the set, and we faked playing, while everybody danced and a stage hand pumped what was suppose to be cigarette smoke into the air from a smudge pot. Then, when it came time for a speaking part, a person manning the record player would turn the record player all the way down and the actors would speak their lines and the only other sound you would hear would be the shuffling of feet. No music whatsoever.

I had the acetate in my possession for years and finally threw it away.

BTW, nobody was more surprised than we were when we saw the film and other people's music was dubbed in. Kind of insulting, it was. What we recorded was much better than the squeeky-clean crap they substituted.

Post by **jamestkirk** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:44 pm

It sounded like surf music....not like Sons at all. Too bad. Didn't do much for your rep!!

Post by **Bruno** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 9:09 am

For the most comprehensive account so far about The Sons Of Adam take a look at my "The Fender IV - Sons Of Adam Story" in my blog:

http://rockprosopography102.blogspot.co ... -adam.html

Post by **silentseason** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:09 am

Bruno wrote:For the most comprehensive account so far about The Sons Of Adam take a look at my "The Fender IV - Sons Of Adam Story" in my blog:

http://rockprosopography102.blogspot.co ... -adam.html

Great stuff, Bruno. Alot of fascinating info about the Sons and their evolution and dissolution.

Post by **Bruno** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:48 am

silentseason wrote:
Bruno wrote:For the most comprehensive account so far about The Sons Of Adam take a look at my "The Fender IV - Sons Of Adam Story" in my blog:

http://rockprosopography102.blogspot.co ... -adam.html
Great stuff, Bruno. Alot of fascinating info about the Sons and their evolution and dissolution.

thanks!!!!

For Michael: Sons of Adam

For Michael: Sons of Adam

sons of adam

sons of adam

A Slender Thread

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film track