JerryYester

Last month I enjoyed a delightful telephone conversation with Jerry Yester.
As many of you know, Jerry produced both the “Goodbye And Hello” and the “Happy Sad” albums for Tim Buckley. Jerry is also an accomplished arranger, guitarist and singer. He has either produced or arranged albums for The New Christy Minstrels, The Association, Tim Buckley, The Turtles, Tom Waits, Judy Henske (his first wife of twenty years and the mother of his first daughter), and The Lovin’ Spoonful, just to name a handful of many. He was also a member of The Inn Group, The Christy Minstrels, The Easy Riders, The Modern Folk Quartet, and of course he’s a member of, and still tours with, The Lovin’ Spoonful. He certainly knows what it’s like to be on both sides of the control booth in the studio, and he’s performed on many a stage throughout his lengthy career. What follows is the transcript from that conversation. It’s divided into four parts.

PART ONE…HOW IT ALL STARTED FOR JERRY YESTER

PART TWO…FRIENDS THAT HE’S MADE AND THE EVENTS THAT LED TO "GOODBYE AND HELLO”

PART THREE…ANECDOTES ABOUT TIM AND LARRY DURING THE “GOODBYE AND HELLO” DAYS

PART FOUR…“HAPPY SAD”…THE ARTIST/AUDIENCE RELATIONSHIP…AND THE CONCLUSION

Each part follows the previous one as a separate message.

I know you’ll enjoy learning of Jerry’s roots and his many experiences, as well as the production aspects that went into the making of Tim’s two most successful albums.
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PART ONE
Jack: Thank you Jerry for participating in our forum. Would you please tell us all about yourself and the events that eventually led to your collaborating with Tim Buckley?

Jerry: I was born in Birmingham Alabama, but the family left Birmingham when I was 6 months old and moved to Burbank California. When I was 17 and just out of high school, my parents moved up to Joshua Tree California and my brother Jim and I stayed in Burbank living in a small house that our parents rented for us before they left. Between then and the time that my brother went into the army we started singing together. I actually started playing guitar when I was 15, and I was playing music in a rock and roll band called Tom Driscoll and the Tomcats, doing Junior High dances, and Women’s Clubs. In my senior year at Notre Dame High School in 1960 , I sang a Kingston Trio song with a couple of friends at the Spring Musical. The Kingston Trio was real popular at the time. In 1961, a guy who was a year behind me at Notre Dame called and asked if I could get back together with those guys to sing for a dance at Corvallis, a girls high school in Van Nuys, that coming Saturday night. I said I hadn’t seen those guys since graduation, but my brother and I could do it. Jim and I had been singing Kingston Trio songs around the house for a while, and I was sure we could pull it off. He said okay and when my brother got home that day I said: "Guess what. We're playing at Corvallis high Saturday night" . My brother couldn't believe what he was hearing because it was such short notice and he became extremely nervous. I said don't worry, it'll be all right. So, between Monday and Friday night he learned to play the guitar well enough to meet the challenge. We come from a real musical family and Jim played Boogie Woogie piano and he had heard me play guitar, so he only needed to learn 3 chords. It wasn't tough. He had a natural ability for it. We did six songs that night and then Jim kind of got bitten by the bug. The next thing I knew, Jim went to the Garret Coffee House in West Hollywood and asked the owner Terea Lea, if we could play there. She said okay but if you're not any good I'm gonna yank you off. She liked us a lot and afterwards she told us to go down to the Unicorn and talk to Mutt Cohen. She said that he could probably help us out. So, we went down there and auditioned and he became our manager and we started working there on a regular basis.

Jack: I didn't know that Mutt was a manager. I knew he was a lawyer, and I thought of Herbie as the only manager in the family.

Jerry: I think this was before Mutt passed the Bar. He was managing the club and he was managing acts. Herbie hadn't really started yet, because he was off as a mercenary soldier at that time . He was fighting for Che Guevara or one of his friends. Anyway, Herbie came back eventually, but not until Jim had left for the army. My brother and I sang together for about a year before the army and when he left, I started doing a solo and eventually ended up forming a trio with John Forsha and Karol Dugan calling ourselves the Inn Group. We got a lot of work and then we became part of the original New Christy Minstrels, which was actually a collection of groups. Randy Sparks went around to these different little duos, trios, and quartets and put them all together into this big group. We did an audition for Columbia and got a contract to do the first album. It was recorded in two three-hour sessions and it was a beautiful album. It was absolutely wonderful. Since the Christy’s were not supposed to go out and perform, the Inn Group went out on it’s first road trip. We were working in Oklahoma City, Denver, and Salt Lake City when Randy called and said that the Christy’s were doing the Andy Williams show and we had to get back there. We said: "wait a minute, we've got contracts for these gigs, and you said the Christy Minstrels weren’t going to perform live." Then Randy said: "Well we are now". So, we said he’d have to replace us, and he did. Of course, the Inn Group broke up about six months after that.

Next I did an album with a group called the Easy Riders. They had a hit with "All Day, All Night, Marianne". I replaced Larry Ramos in that group and he left the Easy Riders for a slot in the New Christy Minstrels. The Easy Riders made the album, but never performed live.
From there I went on working as a solo when in June of ’62 I met Judy Henske. I had already fallen in love with her from just looking at an album cover of Dave Guard's Whiskey Hill Singers when the Inn Group was in Oklahoma. John Forsha bought the album and he showed it to me and I said "…I'm gonna marry that girl". And John said: “yeah right”. It was a couple a years after, when I did marry her. We went to Palm Springs that first night we met and stayed together for the next nine years.

I then joined the Modern Folk Quartet who had come over from Hawaii. Audiences were really starting to love their music, and everybody was sure that they were going to take the country by storm, when one of the guys in the group went nuts. He just flipped out and hacked his landlady's mantle piece in half with a Samurai sword. So, Herbie kicked him out of the group. This guy was a good-sized Hawaiian beach boy and he came back to the Unicorn one night by himself to "take care of Herbie". When he was taking off his leather jacket, Herbie grabbed the jacket around his shoulders, preceded to beat the shit out of the guy and kicked him out into the street. He was committed and escaped from Camarillo Mental Hospital about six times, and after the last time, he went back to Hawaii to live on the beach. I took his place in the MFQ.

A very short time after that we made an appearance in the movie called "Palm Springs Weekend". It plays all the time on AMC. We did an album for Warner Brothers and then kind of started off on the road. We moved to NYC where we played Greenwich Village clubs and college concerts, and also made another album. We lived in the Village and we were in New York when the British Invasion happened. When we were taking our second album cover picture, three kids walked by and asked us if we were the Beatles. We said: “who”? And then Henry Diltz said: “wait a minute, I read about those guys in Newsweek. They're from England, They've got long hair and getting really popular”. We started hearing more and more about them, and in February of ’64, we were doing concerts with Judy on the East Coast, and driving in the snow when we stopped and rented a motel room just to watch the Ed Sullivan show because the Beatles were on. And they changed our lives. We stopped getting haircuts and the MFQ slowly started playing rock and roll. It was like a tad pole losing its’ legs and losing its’ tail. Over the course of the next year and a half we turned into a rock band. During that time, I also met John Sebastian, Zal Yanovsky, and all these other folkies who were getting into rock and roll. That was at the time that the Spoonful started and I played piano on their first single, "Do You Believe In Magic". Erik Jacobsen, their producer, also asked me to help them out with some of the vocals because of my experience with MFQ.

The Association, the group that my brother Jim was a part of, was also influenced by MFQ and they asked me to produce their second album called "Renaissance". I told them that I really appreciated them hiring me even though I thought they were crazy. They were coming off a number one record and I had never produced anything. As their producer, I thought that they should do everything themselves...play their own instruments and sing all their own parts. Unlike the Monkees, who were very big at the time and kind of had the playing done for them. The record company wanted the Associations’ album to be like that, and I kind of persuaded them to let the boys play. That album produced two moderately successful singles entitled “Pandora’s Golden Heebie-Jeebies, and "No Fair At All".
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PART TWO
Jack: Did you have any other friends living in and around Greenwich Village or L.A. who were involved in the music scene back in the mid-sixties?
Jerry: Sure. There was Barry McGuire and Roger McGuinn in the Village and in L.A. there was Erik Jacobsen, The Clancy Brothers whenever they were in town, Stuart Scharf who was playing with Leon Bibb, Felix Pappalardi, Cass Elliott, Denny Doherty… a lot of people . John Sebastian and I sang on a couple of Eric Jacobsen's things when he was first trying to get a hit as a producer. Sebastian and I did one with Felix Pappalardi and Henry Diltz called "Lady Godiva" which was a surf record. Everybody in the Village at that time was kind of into surf music because Felix discovered "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys. We loved it because it was like rock and roll mixed with Bach. I don't think that Brian was really that aware of Bach, but he had it in his musical genes. It became a big thing to make a rock and roll record with a madrigal somewhere in the song. Everyone loved that idea and "Lady Godiva" was written in that vein. Then, Sebastian did a solo record, and Jesse Colin Young and I played on it. There was a lot of stuff like that happening in the Village. Everybody was into folk and then slowly into folk/rock.

The MFQ moved to California and we started working out there. The Byrds were getting together and my brother Jim and I already knew David Crosby from our folk days at the Unicorn. Everybody seemed to know everybody because there was a great camaraderie back then. There was this incredible thing going on with musicians on every coast. Everybody was in the same game, kind of like being in the same family. The MFQ worked as a rock band in '65 and '66, and then we broke up.
I wanted to be an arranger and I was also a big fan of Jack Nitsche's and when we moved to California I became a real good friend of Jack's .The MFQ had a little bit of a successful single called "Nighttime Girl" which Jack Nitsche produced for us.

Jack: For what it's worth, my favorite songs that were arranged by Jack Nitsche are: "Expecting To Fly" by the Buffalo Springfield; "A Man Needs A Maid" and "There's A World" which appeared on Neil Young's Harvest album; and "String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill", "The Old Laughing Lady" and "I've Loved Her So Long" from Neil Young's first solo album. I've always loved his work. As a matter of fact, "Elusive Butterfly" by Bob Lind was oft times used as a theme song for the Scott Muni afternoon radio show here in New York when WNEW FM ruled the airwaves. I always thought that the string arrangement on the Tim Buckley “Wings” composition was a little reminiscent of “Elusive Butterfly”.

Jerry: Jack Nitsche was one of the most popular arrangers in the sixties and seventies. Aside from "Elusive Butterfly", Jack worked alone (the "Lonely Surfer"); with Phil Spector (all of the band and orchestral arrangements on the Ronnettes' album; a lot of the Righteous Brothers; Bobby Soxx and the Blue Jeans); Jackie DeShannon (with whom he co-wrote "Needles And Pins"); he also produced a ton of other songs. Now he’s a prodigious Movie scorer. He did “the Exorcist”, “Starman” and lots of others. In the mid-sixties, Judy and I hung out with him a lot. We stayed at his house, and we often rented movies, I mean real 16-millimeter movies. We had some good times.
The MFQ actually signed with Phil Spector when we moved back to L.A. He only produced one record for us and Brian Wilson was at the session. It was called "This Could Be the Night". It's still played every week and it has for the last twenty years as the theme to the Rodney Binganheimer Show in L.A. It was an experience working with Phil. I was a big fan of his also. Brian Wilson is quoted as saying that "This Could Be The Night" is his favorite record. He later recorded it himself on his last solo album.
Henry and I ended up playing on a lot of other sessions for Phil, because he loved Henry's electric banjo. He said it was a great sound. We played on Ronnettes' recordings and we played on the Righteous Brothers' single "Ebb Tide". You can't really hear us, we're just part of the background. He basically wanted Henry, but I went along as Henry's interpreter, so I could tell Henry what chords to play. I was able to describe them to him because I was a banjo player too. I played electric 12 string and so we became a small unit in Phil Spector's bands for a little while. And speaking of “Elusive Butterfly”, we played on that single also.

Jack: And then along came Buckley ?

Jerry: I met Tim in either late '65 or early '66 over at Herbie's house and he was the shyest kid you ever want to meet. He was wearing like a white shirt and a string tie and Jim Fielder was playing stand-up bass and wearing a blue suit, with his hair combed with Brylcream in it like it was Prom Night. Judy and I were over there for dinner and Fred Neil was there. It had to be the first time that Tim met Fred Neil. Fred was like a huge influence on Tim. He was Tim's idol. Well anyway, Tim sang three or four songs for us and Herbie wanted to know what we thought. "Very good", we said. "Very good"!

Jack: How did you come to produce "Goodbye And Hello"?

Jerry: "Goodbye And Hello" is one of my favorite albums that I've ever done or that I've ever owned. Six or eight months after first meeting Tim at Herbie's house and after Tim's first album, I was back in New York finishing up the last two things that I would produce for the Association when Herbie called. He said: "Tim's in town, I want you to talk to him". I was staying at Eric Jacobsen's house while he was out of town and Tim came over and we talked. Tim said: "You know, I'm not really a big fan of the Association". And I said: "Well, you don't have to be. It doesn't have anything to do with what you do." I told him that when I got back to California we could talk again and when we did, we decided to work together.

Jack: Had you ever heard his first album before that?

Jerry: I was given a copy of it and I listened to it and I thought it was okay. I liked Tim. So Tim, Herbie, and Jac Holzman got together and decided that he should do a rock and roll single. Larry Beckett and Buckley kind of said okay, we're gonna sell-out and write us a hit. So, they wrote these two songs called "Lady Give Me Your Key" and "Once Upon A Time". We recorded it with Jim Fielder on bass and Eddie Hoh on drums. A real hot band but playing these lighter-weight songs. John Forsha played an incredibly hot lead guitar on both those tracks. When Jac Holzman heard them, he wanted to meet with us and so we met at my house. It was Tim, Larry Beckett, Herbie, Jac and myself. So, Holzman said: "These are good recordings Tim, but I don't really feel this is your strong stuff. So, let's forget about these and let's start on the album".

We started recording basic tracks at Whitney Studios in Glendale because they were cheap there (about 15 bucks an hour) for a good studio. We then went to Western Studio 3, which is where Pet Sounds was done and most of the Mamas & The Papas' stuff was done. It was like the most popular little studio in town. We lucked into a nice big fat piece of time that was open. We did 95% of it there. Western is now called Oceanway. There's a lot of good karma there. It has every ancient state of the art piece of gear that you could ever want to use in that place. I remember working down the hall with the Association when the Beach Boys were recording Pet Sounds and Brian Wilson was standing by the doorway listening to the playbacks and I was hearing "Wouldn't It Be Nice", wondering what he was doing with the tympanis and all that other stuff. Those were neat days.

Well anyway, all but a couple of basic tracks were done with Tim singing. Generally, Tim worked with the drummer right there and he would just sing. Some of the stuff he did in just one or two takes, and some it took like 21 or 22 takes. Always going flat out, never compromising his performance on any of the 22 takes. That was on "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain" and it was Tim who wanted to do it. I'd say: "That's pretty good, Tim" and he'd say "No, not there yet." Then he'd do another one. Balls out every time, you know. When he was happy with it, we'd go with it.
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PART THREE
Jack: On the album credits you are described as the Recording Director, but you were actually the producer were you not?
Jerry: Jac Holzman wanted to change the term "Producer" to "Recording Director". He thought it made more sense because the producer of an album is like the director of a movie. It was the same kind of function. He wanted to change the term for the whole industry starting with that album. It caught on like a fart in a spacesuit. That was the only album on which that term was used.

Jack: You were responsible for the album in total, weren’t you? Jac Holzman just oversaw the project?

Jerry: Actually, Jac tried to stop part of it. It's that famous story during the actual recording of the song "Goodbye And Hello". I hired a fourteen piece orchestra and it was my first three section orchestra so I was really excited about it. It was Tim and Larry's idea. They wanted an orchestra on that song. Right before we began to do the first take, someone came in and said: "You've got a call from New York in the office". It was Jac and he says: "So, you've hired 14 musicians and you didn't tell me". I said: "Jeez Jac, it's part of the album. I didn't think I had to."
Jac says; "You've got to check everything with me. If I could, I'd cancel that session." I said: "Well, it's a little late now Jac, They're all sitting in there now just waiting for the downbeat". He just huffed and slammed the phone down. So, I went back to the studio and we did "Goodbye And Hello" and the last part of "Morning Glory" which has the orchestra on it.
Anyway, Holzman was there for the mix and he says: "This is the greatest thing I've ever heard".

Jack: Was that all the apology you got?

Jerry: No mention at all that he almost canceled the thing. But, Jac and I had that kind of a relationship.

Jack: Were there any new recording innovations or techniques born with that album?

Jerry: I'm sure there were, but I can't think of any off hand right now except maybe that it was the first time that a kalimba was used. It was that strange instrument that Dave guard played on "Hallucinations". It was the first recording that I ever did with Dave Guard on it. He was my hero. Don Randi played that Elizabethanly altered piano on "Knight Errant".

Jack: On the liner notes it says that you played the organ, piano, and harmonium on the album. On which songs did you play?

Jerry: On "Pleasant Street" I played the pipe organ. We took the tape over to Whitney and we over-dubbed it there. The harmonium was played on "Knight Errant", and I played the piano on "Morning Glory".

Jack: I always thought that "Pleasant Street" was a song about heroin. A couple of people in our forum thought it was about LSD. What do you think it was about?

Jerry: I know what it was about . It was about heroin. They told me it was. You wouldn’t know what to call a song about LSD. "Pleasant Street" or "Horror Street"…it was up for grabs

Jack: Was that you playing harmonica on "Once I Was"?
Jerry: No, that was Henry Diltz.

Jack: I don't think he got any credit for that on the liner notes.
Jerry: Well, he should have.

Jack: I apologize for not doing my homework, but I can't say that I'm familiar with the work of the Modern Folk Quartet. I didn't even know that Henry was a musician. I've always loved his album cover photography and I enjoy the photos on his web site called "Henry's Gallery", but I wasn't aware that he was a musician.

Jerry: Oh yeah. If you ever get a chance to see the movie "Palm Springs Weekend" (which is one of those Connie Stevens/Troy Donohue/Robert Conrad /Warner Brothers' movies in the early sixties), you can see the MFQ playing a song in a night club in the desert in Palm Springs. We were all acting our way out of wet paper bags, doing this real angry version of the "Ox Driver Song", with Henry Diltz in the biggest paper bag doing the lead vocal. The movie plays quite often on the AMC cable station.
We were all there when Henry bought his first camera. The whole group bought cameras that day in a second-hand store in East Lansing Michigan. I've got this great picture of Henry trying to figure out his first camera. It's a classic shot.

Jack: Any other contributions from you on “Goodbye And Hello”?

Jerry: Well yes. Not too many people know that the choir voices on "Morning Glory" were done by Tim and me. It’s four part, with us singing each part unison to make it sound more like a choir.

Jack: How personal was this whole experience for you. Did you take it home with you every night ? Was it something that you were really into ?

Jerry: Absolutely. To this day anything that I do is part of my life at the time. I don't know how to work any other way. A lot of times I wish I could do 6 or 8 hours a day or 10 or whatever and say "that's it", and not have it be a part of my life. But, it is. Tim's album was definitely a part of my life, and I was into it like I was a part of the group. Sometimes after a session we would drive down to the Canyon Store after a session and just sit in the parking lot and drink a few beers and talk about the sessions, and other music and stuff.

There was a lot of humor in everything we did. Beckett and Buckley themselves were just so comical. They were such a rag tag pair . I always mention them together because they really were a team. Even though Beckett didn't write all the lyrics on "Goodbye And Hello", they talked about the direction of them as if he did. All of the decisions on that album, as far as the sequencing of the songs and everything, was done by the two of them. Beckett and Buckley decided who would play on what song. Except where John Forsha was concerned. That was usually my idea. I really like the way that John plays. Tim and Lar were a team. Inseparable. They looked like a couple of the “Eastside Kids”. They drove this ’37 Chevy that weighed 19 tons and they were just a riot. It was a delightful humor. They weren't a joke by any means. It was just whimsical and coupled with Tim's talent and his magnificent voice, it was a terrific experience. After the sessions, we would sometimes go out to the Topanga Corral, or we'd hang out, have dinner at our house and Judy would cook. She was real tight with them too. She loved Tim and she loved Beckett, because she was a writer as well. She loved Beckett's poetry. He's incredibly gifted. Beckett's stuff is gonna be around in 200 years. I'm convinced of it. He's one of the great American poets. There's no doubt about it in my mind.
So, when that album was done, it was like the end of an era. A very small one, but a little piece of time that was absolutely wonderful. I expected it to continue. But the next time I saw Tim, he was like another person.
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PART FOUR
Jack: In what respect was Tim like another person ?
Jerry: Well, on “Goodbye And Hello”, Tim was partners with Beckett. On “Happy Sad”, Tim was more like a member of the band and not the leader. He was open to a lot of suggestions from the others. I don’t know, maybe because they were older or something. I only know what I saw during the “Happy Sad” sessions. In my opinion, Tim for some reason needed their approval.

Jack: I read somewhere that one of you guys said that Tim’s band was putting you & Zal down because you had worked with Pat Boone.

Jerry: We were right in the middle of working with Pat Boone when we did “Happy Sad”.

Jack: A lot of people believe that Tim's band took him in a direction that was great for the "Happy Sad" album and of course the songs on "Blue Afternoon" were beautiful. But, taking him into that avant-garde jazz arena wasn't really in Tim's best interest.

Jerry: Tim was like an American Irish tenor. He had this beautiful voice, and to tell him that he can't sing the same thing twice is like telling Isaac Stern that he can't play Prokofiev's first violin concerto again with the same notes. You CAN’T play the same thing twice. YES! YOU CAN play the same thing twice, if only to see if you can top the last time you did it. You know, you sing the same notes again to see if you can do it better. Not everybody is Charlie Parker for Christ sake, or needs to be, or wants to be.

Jack: Lee Underwood has said that Tim called “Happy Sad”: "Lee's album". Would you agree with that assessment?

Jerry: Sure, why not?

Jack: What other projects and career moves were going on in your life at the same time that you were producing "Goodbye And Hello" and "Happy Sad"?

Jerry: I went right from producing "Renaissance" for the Association to working for Tim Buckley. So, "Goodbye And Hello" was my second production. A week after "Goodbye and Hello" was finished and I didn't even have a copy of it yet, John Sebastian called me and asked me to join the Spoonful. I said: "I'm gonna have to think about that John". I called him back 5 minutes later and said: "Sure I'll do it". I replaced Zal Yanovsky who was leaving the group. Two days later, on the night of Zally's last gig at Forest Hills, I drove John and his wife out to Long Island and we started doing the Spoonful. That lasted for a year to the day, really from like June 10th til June 10th the next year. During that year Zally and I became producing partners by producing his album, a really wonderful piece called "Alive And Well In Argentina". I hear it's being re-released. I'd like to see that happen. It's a great album. I then co-produced, with the rest of the group, the last Lovin' Spoonful album. It was being produced by Joe Wizzert, and I wished that he would have finished it. Anyway, I got back to L.A. at the end of the summer of '68 and started producing Judy’s and my album "Farewell Aldebaran". Pat Boone owned the studio that we were working in and Pat's manager and his studio manager heard what Zally and I were doing and really liked it, and asked us to produce Pat. And, in the middle of that, Herbie called and said that Tim's gotta do another album. I said: " well.., I'm right in the middle of doing our album (which was on Herbie's label) and we're doing Boone's album..." And Herbie says: "Buckley's got a band, they know all the tunes, and all you have to do is record it." And I say: "Yeah, Okay, but Zally's gotta be there because we're partners." And he said: "I've got no problem with that".

Jack; Did anything interesting happen during the “Happy Sad” sessions?

Jerry: There was this one time during the sessions when Bruce Botnick fucked up on the recording of "Love From Room 109". The take was almost 11 minutes in length and it was superb. There was only one problem. Bruce forgot to switch on the dolby during the recording, and there was a lot of hiss. Tim went ballistic, and he was in a rage. He was angry with Bruce and angry with me because I let it happen, I guess. And all I could say was: "Man, I’m afraid that's the way it is, so you either do another take or use this as it is." I said there’s one other possibility. We can mask the hiss with some kind of atmosphere. Something in the same frequency range. The song is about Coast Highway, so maybe surf. Tim was living at the beach, so we had Bear, his road manager go to Tim’s house, and hang two mics on the bottom of the place as the surf washed under it. It sounded great, and covered the hiss. It actually turned out real nice. I've always been a fan of atmosphere in an album or in a song. It's really effective sometimes. It worked perfectly for that one.

Jack: As far as performing during a concert, do you feel that the artist owes the audience anything at all?

Jerry: I don't think that the artist owes the audience anything. If an artist wants any kind of success then there's just a certain amount of respect that you have to give an audience. If you don't give a shit about the audience and all you care about is the inward meaning of your art then you can do it and go merrily on your way. Chances are though, that no one will know the difference. If you want to make a living as an artist then I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If you want to be able to share something that you feel with somebody else, then you need to be aware of how it's going to get through to them. Of course, an audience must respect the artist for what he's doing as well. Audiences tend to want people to stay exactly the same. In other words they want to go to a performance and hear an album. Not ready for anything new. I can see it from both the standpoint of an artist and as an audient. I'll give you an example of me as an audient. We did a gig with Pat Benatar, and she sang my two favorite songs of hers and they were nothing like the way she recorded them. She had sung them so many times that she never wanted to sing them again. Well then I say, don't sing them. If you're going to bastardize them that much then don't sing them. Don't friggin' do it. It's like you're giving me a song that had a melody, so why don't you sing the melody? As an audient, that's what I want to hear. I love that melody, why aren't you singing it? Be like Isaac Stern then and perform it better than you've ever done it before. But, sing the friggin' melody, or just don't sing the song. So, that's me as an audient.
Now me as a performer with the Spoonful for the last nine years, some songs are sung exactly the same while some have changes but performed as well as possible. It's kind of a mixture. It's a deep question. It also depends on what the artist is trying to get. If the artist is there to try to make a living, then it's not the same as like just playing and people show up, and if you don't like it then you can just leave the room. You're there because you've made a contract with the people putting on the concert. If you don't want to do it, then don't sign the friggin' contract.

Jack: What are you up to these days?

Jerry: I’m working with the Spoonful and producing albums for other artists in my home recording studio. Right now, I'm working on an album by an Irishman who lives in Chicago, named Gavin Coyle. I'm also finishing up an album by a band from New York called the No Neck Blues Band. Larry Beckett and I have written forty-five or forty-seven songs together over the years and I want to do an album of some of those songs when I have some time.
The Spoonful does fifty to sixty gigs a year. The band includes Joe Butler, Steve Boone and myself. We play mostly the old stuff and we've got a girl named Lena Beckett and a guy named Mike Arturi playing with us. Lena is my daughter. My wife Marlene and I gave her the middle name Beckett. She likes to use it as her stage name.

Jack: You guys have great admiration for Larry I see.

Jerry: We're great pals. He's been one of my closest friends for the last 30 years. My wife loves Larry a lot and we're really good friends, and so we just chose that for Lena's middle name. Lena's amazing. An incredible writer and artist.

Jack: Does she do any Spoonful lead vocals?

Jerry: She does from time to time but she also sings one of her own songs in the show. Her time in the group started when she heard Steve and I talking on the phone about our keyboard player and the fact that we had to replace him. Lena said that she wanted to audition for the job. I said: "Yeah right, you're still in high school and the last thing I want you to do is go on the road for God sakes." But then I softened up and said: "Well listen, we'll give you the same shot we’d give anybody else. I'll give you a tape and you put your parts on it and I'll submit it to the band and we'll see what we think." And she just blew the other keyboard player away. Plus, she plays guitar and sings, which he didn't. I'm very proud of her.

Jack: What it's like to hang out with a poet like Larry Beckett?

Jerry: Lar is one of the best people I know, and I enjoy his company immensely. We laugh a lot together about the same things and "no", he doesn't talk in rhyme.

Jack: Any last thoughts about Tim and his legacy?

Jerry: I only wish that he were still with us. I would have loved to see him broaden his legacy. Finish it, so to speak.

Jack: When was the last time you saw Tim?

Jerry: Actually, I never saw him again after the “Happy Sad” sessions. I did talk to him on the phone about two months before he died. He sounded like the same ol’ rattlesnake I use to drink beers with back at the Canyon Store parking lot in 1967. He wanted to work together again. I don't know what direction he wanted to go in, but I thought that it would have been terrific and I told him so. Obviously, we never got that opportunity.

Jack: Thank you Jerry on behalf of all our forum members. We’ll be looking forward to hearing some of those songs you’ve been writing with Larry Beckett. Good luck to you, your daughter Lena, and your current band. We certainly appreciate your giving us your time and the wonderful insights you’ve shared with us.

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