By: Ray Nassr

Ray Nassr — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Here’s a little Hullabaloo story… Studio Guitarist and friend Vinnie Bell was in the house band for the show. Here is a great story his son had told me many years ago but I picked this off a website.
Vinnie plays the opening electric 12 string part on the electric ,and more popular version, of The Sound Of Silence on his “bell-zouki”. I think his invention is credited as the first electric 12 string. From what I heard Paul Simon was very embarassed by this incident. Here is what I found on the web…
“The Sounds of Silence” was on a folk-acoustic album that came out in 1965, and promptly tanked.
Simon went off to England, where he was popular, and played gigs, wrote songs, did albums.
Meanwhile, back in the states, a producer at Columbia Records, Tom Wilson, noting that somebody had overdubbed electric instruments on some other folk albums and punched them up, decided to do that to “The Sounds of Silence,” a cut which had gotten some air-play. He hired some session musicians, and laid in a funky guitar, bass, and some drums.
It was a brilliant idea. Boom. Instant hit, climbing the charts with a bullet, right to #1.
Nobody asked Simon and Garfunkel if they thought this was a good idea, to overdub their song, but apparently neither of them complained about it. Instead of staying one-hit wonders, they became the folk-rock duo of the period.
Um. So, the really amusing part of the story: Simon and Garfunkel were booked on a music TV show, Hullabaloo, whereupon they were to play their new hit. Unbeknownst to them, the guy who had played the guitar overdub, Vinne Bell, was booked onto the show, to back S&G.
Bell, who was an outstanding session man, invented such things as the electric twelve-string guitar, electric sitar, and other toys, and was featured on a slew of best-selling records.
Simon didn’t know the guy.
So he goes to the musical director, Peter Matz, and says he wants to show the guitar guy how to play the lead. Matz knows that Bell did the record. He says, I think he knows how. But Simon insists. He walks over, introduces himself. The guitarist does likewise. Simon says, I want to show you how this guitar riff goes, it’s kind of tricky. It’s on our hit record.
Bell grins. Oh, I know the record. I know just how to play it.
No, here, just watch me …
Whereupon Bell says: Paul — I did the record.
Big pause.
Okay … um … are you sure … ?
Yeah. This, right? And plays the riff.

By: David Gross

David Gross — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:42:45 +0000

It certainly was a great time to grow up! Stay tuned for more memories!
Thanks for the feedback!

By: Phyllis Sirois

Phyllis Sirois — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:54:11 +0000

It’s amazing how much you can forget. Thanks David for tweeking my memory to bring me immediately back to who I was how I felt and lived. (some bittersweet! memories) No wonder I freak out quietly inside when I see what my kids and their generation think is appropriate. We grew up within the roots of a genuine “cool” ground breaking culture developing right in front of our eyes…but still had Andy Griffith to keep us in line!! What a very special time for us. xoxo P

Comments on: 1960′s Television Pt 3

By: Ray Nassr

By: David Gross

By: Phyllis Sirois