MR. MELODY™

THE RASCALS REUNION - ROCK & SOUL MUSIC
My first recording industry contact with members of The Young Rascals recording team was when I met Producer/Engineers Adrian Barber & Bruce Turgeson thru the late great, Michael Kamen, leader of The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble whom they were producing. Prior to this Adrian & Bruce had been involved in producing the BeeGees concept album Odessa, (released in Flocked Red Velvet) and several Rascal albums at Ahmet Ertegun's Atlantic Recording Studios on Broadway. Eventually I recorded briefly with them (more about this another time). They told me how they had used not one, but two 16 track machines to record some of the Young Rascals hits!

Quite a number of years later I met the Brigati Brothers and their Mom at one of their homes in NJ- they were the original Starliters with Joey Dee along with Dino or Gene. I ended up producing Groovin' extracted from a 24 track analog recording produced with Jimmy Vox in Berlin, as a duet between my 'Superstar' Girlfriend and Eddie Brigati, with Gene Cornish on guitar & harmonica. These tracks were layed by computer. Now The Rascals won't speak to me thanks to my ex 'Superstar Girlfriend.' But The Rascals were always feuding- Eddie felt Sid Bernstein (Beatles, Stones Phoebe Snow, who is a personal acquaintance of mine), had sold them out. The Rascals would swing back & forth between loyalty to Eddie or Felix.

I originally met Dino on the roof of the Chelsea Hotel at a party one night and then he moved into a building that another girlfriend of mine lived in across 5th Avenue from the Metropolitan Museum next to the then Stanhope Hotel. On an inspiration, I invited the band to 'Rascal Rock' Pub for drinks, on West 43 St. which was Pat Kenny's midtown place (Kenny's, Cat Club, Biter End etc.) that I was promoting right before they were inducted into the R & R Hall of Fame.....

Several of THE RASCALS are probably still writing. We talked about starting a new label. Eddie played us one of his recent compositions- Kilimanjaro- which I still remember as being quite beautiful, but it seems they were all very disenchanted with the music business. Neil Young spoke about this at their Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Nothing can diminish the fact that THE RASCALS are one of the great ROCK& SOUL BANDS of the SIXTIES! They rank with Hendrix Experience, Arthur Lee & Love, Sly & The Family Stone, The Steve Miller Band, The Chambers Brothers. Yes, that was ROCK & SOUL!