I'm kicking off the new year with one of the crown jewels in my collection; The Dovers singles collection issued by Misty Lane Records in 2001. These recordings have proven to be a most influential part of my musical upbringing and one of my greatest discoveries. I've easily listened to this set hundreds of times over the ensuing years and continue to get fully wrapped up in the excellence of each track. This post will focus on side 1 which compiles the two singles released in the latter half 1965. I'll leave it to the experts to provide the details.
Here's part one of the article/interview insert conducted by Mike Markesich with original band member Bruce Clawson:
Bruce Clawson can recall the exact time frame for when the rock & roll bug flew in his ear...
"I was a freshman in high school. A rock & roll combo performed during an assembly, and I was blown away! I thought right then that looked like the cool thing to do."
So, circa 1960, Bruce began entering the world of rock & roll via various groups, all of which lasted seconds, if not minutes, the typical norm of the day. His first "real" band saw Bruce on lead guitar, along with his pal Alex Nova on keyboards, accompanied by other members, names eroded by time. This grouping found regular gigging opportunities at the two high schools in their home town of Santa Barbara, California, namely Santa Barbara High and San Marcos High. By the time Bruce graduated in 1963, he became a co-founder of a combo dubbed the Van Dels, which included Tony Rivas, a big, burly teen affectionately christened "Goosey" by friends. Performing what is now dubbed "frat-rock" by the garage cognoscenti, along with the instrumental sounds so in vogue for the day, the Van Dels became a popular combo for parties, dances, and record hops. A year later, the Van Dels acquired Rick Morinini to man the drum seat for the group.. "He was just a baby," recalled Bruce. "A freshman in high school. Rick came by the garage where we rehearsed, sat in, and impressed us. My friend from school, Randy Busby, who I wanted to get into the group had joined the Orosco Brothers, who became the town's most popular combo, Ernie & The Emperors."
A change was on the horizon, thanks to a chain of events which typify the times... Tony Rivas introduced the group to a local Hispanic tough (as Bruce described him) named Tim Granada, who brought along his well-to-do pal Robbie Ladewig. In turn, Robbie knew a local hipster with cash and connections named Tony Cary. "Tony wanted to be the next Phil Spector, or Andrew Loog Oldham. He financed his own record label, made friends with some session guys in Los Angeles, and recorded a single on his own which bombed. He couldn't play a musical instrument, so Tony decided to check us out." The 'us' in question was now the grouping of Bruce on lead guitar, Tim on lead vocals/rhythm guitar, Robbie on bass, Tony Rivas providing harmony vocals as well as saxophone, and the youngster Rick on drums. Cary came by, liked what he heard, and agreed to manage the group, renamed by Cary as the Dovers. "I hated that name, we all thought it sucked," lamented Bruce. "Tony Cary told us to adopt a name that sounded British. I think we were all to lazy to bother coming up with a name ourselves."
It is interesting to note that all of the guys in the group had graduated from high school at this juncture; only Rick was still yet to graduate (class of 1966). Bruce himself had gotten a job (a map maker), and was already married, his wife expecting a child. Tim and Goosey also held down day jobs, while Robbie, the son of affluent parents, hung out with Cary, and began experimenting with (egad!) drugs. rehearsals where often interrupted for a "break" which sometimes included smoking grass. Bruce reflected: "I was a newbie to drugs at that point. I was always a curious sort, I'd try anything once. Goosey and Rick, they were clean cut guys. I tried to get the others to cool it while they were around." Neverless, the beginnings of a faction within the Dovers began to take hold, and the group hadn't even begun to record as of yet. The Dovers relied on Cary to get them gigs, but according to Bruce, all Tony was interested in was "...driving around LA in his Continental and going to parties."
Whenever Cary did attend a group rehearsal, he strove to get the guys to perform sould and R&B sounds: "We played, at that point, a lot of Beatles, some of the bluesy Rolling Stones tunes, any of the British Invasion type stuff. Then here comes Cary, always critical of our selections and playing anyway, and he pressures us to go in another direction. We in turn kept telling him what we really needed was to make a record." Cary finally acquiesced, and told the guys to come up with some original material. Tim came up with the sublime "What Am I Going To Do," which utilized Goosey's high harmony vocal range. The Dovers worked on the song at rehearsals, which became established at the mansion of Robbie's parents. Bruce remembers: "Robbie's parents had BUCKS! He lived in this estate, a mansion which all of us 'poor boys' couldn't relate to. really swank. We had one whole wing of the place to keep our equipment and rehearse."
With "What Am I Going To Do" taking shape, Bruce struggled to pen his first 'real composition, titled "She's Gone" : "I really had a hard time with that one. I had the music, it needed a little something, which the guys helped out with (the bridge part). Then I came up with simplistic words." Cary then booked some studio time down in Los Angeles at the famed Gold Star Studios in the summer of 1965. The guys recorded both of their originals, along with possibly 4 or 5 other tunes. Bruce seems to recall other tunes cut at this session, but isn't sure. He does remember watching Jim Messina work the board, engineering the session, then during a break, playing some of his own stuff for them. Cary noted upon playback that "What Am I Going To Do" needed some keyboards to fill it out, but since he wasn't good enough to play, the talents of a jazz session player named David Wilson were tapped. Satisfied with the results, Cary sent the master tape off to Monarch pressing, while Bruce got his mom, a professional graphic artist, to design the cool-looking updated Miramar record label logo. (Note: The first record to display the new logo was the Road Runners "I'll Make It Up To You", on Miramar 116 released in August).
In mid September, the records arrived back from Monarch, and Cary immediately fired off his copies to his buddies in radio, namely on Johnny Fairchid, a disc jockey at KTMS in Santa Barbara. On the local level, "She's Gone" sold well, and battled the other local guys, Ernie and The Emperors, who had a regional hit breaking with the Gerry and The Pacemakers inspired "Meet Me At The Corner". But "She's Gone" failed to break out of Los Angeles despite some success there. The Dovers began to feature both songs at live shows, which according to Bruce, "were few and far in between ...especially for somebody that needed the money. We all wanted to make the band more than just a fun thing, but Cary wasn't a good influence there. Seems Cary and his buddy Robbie were hanging out on the strip quite a bit, and getting more immersed in the drug scene."
On the upbeat side, since Ernie and company's disc did so well for the Reprise label, albeit at a regional level, the Dovers found their next release picked up by the big label a couple of weeks after it appeared on Miramar. Again at Goldstar, the two tunes recorded were the jangly, ebullient "I Could Be Happy" countered with the haunting, downtrodden "People Ask Me Why", both tunes again courtesy of the neighborhood tough guy, Tim Granada. Rick recalls overdubbing the drum parts on "People" to give the tune added dynamic tension. The guys were elated with the results, and the disc came out on Cary's Miramar label in November. But none of them even knew the record was picked up by Reprise, at least in the beginning; "We never met anybody from the Reprise label. We took no promo pictures or anything," said Bruce. Regarding photos, it seems any surviving pictures of the Dovers are as rare as those of Robert Johnson! Bruce does recall that Robbies older brother did take quite a few pictures of the group, but none of them can be found.
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