Terry Dolan Terry Dolan 1972 us amazing classic rock with psych country and blues flavours 2016 remaster and expanded
Terry Dolan Terry Dolan 1972 us amazing classic rock with psych country and blues flavours 2016 remaster and expanded
On April 24, 1971, the San Francisco Examiner ran a piece titled �The Hit That Isnt a Record.� It was about an unsigned local musician named Terry Dolan who was �doing the impossible � having a hit without making a record.� A demo tape Dolan had cut with Rolling Stones piano man Nicky Hopkins had found its way into heavy rotation on two FM underground stations, and one of the songs, Inlaws and Outlaws, was lighting up the phones. The article would prove strangely prescient, because after the demo helped land him a deal with Warner Brothers, Dolan made a record that never became a record. At least not until forty-four years later.
Music history is peppered with lost albums, those vinyl equivalents of Atlantis � from The Beach Boys Smile to Princes Black Album. But what if not only a landmark album went missing in time, but along with it an artist and the potential of an entire career?
�Who knows what wouldve happened with Terrys career had it come out in 1972?� says Mike Somavilla. �Who knows what his next album for Warner Brothers wouldve sounded like?�
Somavilla, a resident San Francisco music expert and fan, spent twenty-seven years, on and off, considering these questions as he worked to get Dolans lost album released. �I made it my lifes ambition,� he says. �A long time ago, Terry gave me a cassette of it, then when I moved out to the Bay Area in 1987, he gave me one of the original test pressings. It was like getting one of the lost pieces of San Franciscos music scene, the holy grail.�
That holy grail, co-produced by Nicky Hopkins and Pete Sears (a multi-instrumentalist featured on Rod Stewarts early work), included a stellar cast of 70s-era west coast musicians including Greg Douglass, Prairie Prince, John Cipollina and Neal Schon. Heard today, the album brings to mind classics from that year like Leon Russells Carney and Elton Johns Honky Chateau - a soulful singer-songwriter collection given rock and gospel muscle through energetic arrangements and Dolans powerful tenor voice.
Born and raised in Connecticut, Terry Dolan picked up a guitar at age 14, soaking up songs by Hank Williams and Leadbelly. Inspired by the burgeoning folk scene of the early 60s, he dropped out of college to pursue a career. In 1965, he moved to San Francisco, quickly finding a place strumming in the citys Haight-Ashbury and North Beach coffee houses. As he sang in Inlaws and Outlaws: �When I came, I came along for the ride / yeah, we were coming into �Frisco, I believe so good to be alive��
In the mid-1960s, San Francisco was briefly nicknamed �Liverpool of the West� because of the burgeoning music scene. KSOL radio disc jockey Sylvester �Sly� Stone was moonlighting as a producer for bands like The Mojo Men and The Beau Brummels. Experimental author Ken Kesey was throwing the first of his infamous �acid tests� at the Fillmore, with psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane supplying the fuzzed-out soundtrack. And at the hippie church known as the The Avalon, the first trippy light show projected pulsing liquid blobs across the laid-back country rock epics of the Grateful Dead.
London-born Pete Sears, whod end being a co-producer on Dolans record, and moved to San Francisco in 1968, says, �It felt like a new frontier. The scene was like folk music plugged in. There was a freedom, a character. Being next to the bay, having all these clubs that were open late at night, a community of musicians. It was an anything goes atmosphere, with bands everywhere.�
Dolan sometimes joked that he was �too hard for folk, too soft for hard rock,� but by 1970, hed found his niche in clubs like Matrix and Keystone Korner, mixing his east coast coffee house ballad sensibility with a more energetic, jam-friendly west coast sound.
Greg Douglass, guitarist for psych-rock band Country Weather, (and later Steve Miller Band) says of Dolan, �He had balls for days, getting up in front of our audience, armed with only his voice, guitar, and a fiery, Irish inner-flame goading him.�
Douglass was a key player in the demo session with Hopkins that led to the record deal with Warners. But he recalls that there were problems right out of the gate. �Things became bogged down due to Nickys schedule,� he says. �Everybody wanted his time and talent, and the Rolling Stones were a tad higher on the food chain than Terry. Finally, Terry tearfully appealed to Nicky, and time was scheduled.�
With a band that included John Cipollina, Prairie Prince, Lonnie Turner, and The Pointer Sisters, the first side of Dolans album went to tape at Wally Heiders studio in January 1972. Expectations were high. But the momentum was soon halted, as Hopkins was called away for overdubs on the Stones Exile on Main Street, then a US tour. Warner Brothers hedged on the budget to finish. �Terry had lost not only his producer, but also one of the chief bargaining chips that got him his deal in the first place,� says Douglass. �Terrys album was the first thing Nicky had ever produced, and Terry became a victim of the fact that Mr. Hopkins was now the hottest keyboard player in rock. Terry was beyond distraught. The label was pissed.�
Enter Pete Sears. �Thered been a really long gap,� he says. �It was August when I came in to do side two. The label was running out of money, and there something going on with Warners. I think Terrys A & R guy had left the label, and the relationship had deteriorated.�
Sears called in favours to get a good deal at Pacific Recorders and recruited guitarists Greg Douglass and Neal Schon, and David Weber on drums. �I played bass, piano and organ,� he says. �Its hard to remember the details. We did the entire side in three and a half days. It was just another session, in some regards. But it was good fun, and Terry was a great singer.�
With the master tapes, artwork and photos by Herb Greene in hand, Warner Brothers slated the record for February 1973. But two months before, they canceled the release and dropped Dolan from the label.
Sears says, �Its a very common story in the music business. An artist gets signed, everyones excited, then the champion at the label gets fired or leaves, and its like turning off a tap.�
Douglass adds, �Without Nickys complete participation, Warners deemed the album not commercially viable and decided not to release it. Terry was inconsolable and I didnt hear from him for a very long time.�
Somavilla says, �He eventually moved on and got over the disappointment, and kept making music.� His band Terry and The Pirates, including Greg Douglass and John Cipollina, were beloved mainstays of the San Francisco scene through the 1980s, releasing several indie albums. By 1989, Somavilla had befriended Dolan and told him he intended to get the rights back to his lost album.
�Terry said, Good luck, have fun,� Somavilla says. �When I contacted Warners the first time, they ignored me. As time went by, I couldnt live with no answer, so I tried again, and was told that the master belonged to them in perpetuity. I still didnt like that answer. More time went by. Then George Wallace from High Noon Records was out here looking for lost music, and I played him the test pressing. From the first notes, he fell in love. We got a lawyer down in LA. The pieces finally came together, and my dream came true. And Terrys too.�
Unfortunately, Dolan didnt live to see the release (he died of heart failure in 2012). But his wife Angie and several of the session musicians have joined Somavilla in celebrating the lost album, which came out in November 2016.
Sears says, �Terrys record really captures the Marin County scene that was going on in the early 1970s. It was a moment in time. Theres a rawness about it. All this collision of folk and rock and gospel, this interplay between the musicians. We did what we felt like doing. There wasnt much thought about whether it was commercial, but there are some songs on there that couldve been radio hits.�
Somavilla says, �Ive done forty-three record deals for different artists since 1992 and Im proud of each and every one, but this is the high bar. Terry gave me my start in the business and to bring this out for the public, with it looking so sharp and sounding so good, its really gratifying.�
He adds with a laugh, �Now Im just waiting it for it to go gold.�
by Bill DeMain
Tracks
1. See What Your Love Can Do - 3:20
2. Angie - 5:33
3. Rainbow - 5:01
4. Inlaws And Outlaws - 5:21
5. Purple An Blonde...? - 4:54
6. Burgundy Blues - 5:36
7. Magnolia - 7:26
8. To Be For You - 1:16
9. Inlaws and Outlaws - Take 18 - 6:08
10.See What Your Love Can Do - Take 14 - 3:21
11.Angie - Take 12 - 5:22
12.Rainbow - Take 2 - 6:13
13.See What Your Love Can Do - Take 12 - 3:24
14.Inlaws And Outlaws - Dirt Leg Mix - 6:08
All songs by Terry Dolan except Track #7 by J.J. Cale and Track #8 co-written with Pete Sears
Musicians
*Terry Dolan - Guitar, Vocals
*John Cipollina - Guitar, Slide Guitar
*Angie Dolan - Handclapping
*Greg Douglass - Guitar, Soloist
*Spencer Dryden - Percussion
*Mic Gillette - French Horn
*Nicky Hopkins - Arranger, Piano
*Kathi Mcdonald - Vocals
*The Pointer Sisters - Vocals
*Prairie Prince - Drums
*Neal Schon - Guitar, Soloist
*Pete Sears - Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Piano
*Lonnie Turner - Bass, Wind Chimes
*David Weber - Drums
*Dallas Williams - Vocals
1973 Copperhead - Copperhead
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