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Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 00:01:51 -0800
From: Ken Deifik
Subject: Re: Alanis the fun part

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Robert Bonfiglio wrote:
>A composer wrote music for the Joffery Ballet and put down a bad harmonica
>part; somebody then transcribed the mess with 32nd note rests and horrible
>double stops that only a beginner could do and asked me to replace it.
>Kind of like me playing the violin and asking Pearlman to make the same
>sounds.

I used to play on 'soundalike' records for Scotty Moore, where we'd make
exact copies of hit records, including the vocals. Some studio singers can
sound like ANYBODY. I suspect that when Scotty was doing a soundalike of a
record that Charlie McCoy had played on he'd use Mr. McCoy, but otherwise
he'd often use me. There were a few very big hits in the 70's that had
harp on them that wasn't played by a professional harp player, and it was
much harder to copy those parts than it would've been to copy someone who
knew what they were doing.

The soundalikes were put out on Gusto Records, which was a subsidiary of
Starday King. A few years later I had a job with a company that had bought
the Starday King publishing catalog in NYC, and we had zillions of their
records. One day I put on a hits compilation to listen to while working,
and when it got to a certain famous record I thought, Gee, that harp player
was a whole lot better than I remembered. Nice clean tone, those licks
sure sound better than I remember -- hey wait, that's me!

I guess there's a lesson here for people who believe they play badly: Don't
be so hard on yourself, it's not easy to play badly.

Ken
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Robert Bonfiglio wrote:

A composer wrote music for the Joffery Ballet
and put down a bad harmonica

part; somebody then transcribed the mess with 32nd note rests and
horrible

double stops that only a beginner could do and asked me to replace
it.

Kind of like me playing the violin and asking Pearlman to make the
same

sounds. 


I used to play on 'soundalike' records for Scotty Moore, where we'd make
exact copies of hit records, including the vocals.  Some studio
singers can sound like ANYBODY.  I suspect that when Scotty was
doing a soundalike of a record that Charlie McCoy had played on he'd use
Mr. McCoy, but otherwise he'd often use me.  There were a few very
big hits in the 70's that had harp on them that wasn't played by a
professional harp player, and it was much harder to copy those parts than
it would've been to copy someone who knew what they were doing.



The soundalikes were put out on Gusto Records, which was a subsidiary of
Starday King.  A few years later I had a job with a company that had
bought the Starday King publishing catalog in NYC, and we had zillions of
their records.  One day I put on a hits compilation to listen to
while working, and when it got to a certain famous record I thought, Gee,
that harp player was a whole lot better than I remembered.  Nice
clean tone, those licks sure sound better than I remember -- hey wait,
that's me!



I guess there's a lesson here for people who believe they play badly:
Don't be so hard on yourself, it's not easy to play badly.



Ken

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