DON'T LOOK BACK - THE STORY OF THE REMAINS

"A strong contender for the finest overlooked American band of the mid-'60s" (All Music Guide)

Exclusive interview with Barry Tashian from 60's US garage legends the Remains!

Barry Tashian came from a musical background and he soon discovered a passion for music at an early age from first watching Gene Autry and Roy Rodgers, televisions singing cowboys. He first picked up a guitar at ten years of age and in 1957 with Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and Little Richard all the rage in the Tashian household and all over the US, the young schoolboy formed his own rock'n'roll band.

In 1959, the teenager played with a group called The Ramblers where he got his first, albeit brief, taste of fame. They managed a hit with a rock'n'roll instrumental called 'Ramblin' and appeared on Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand' TV show.

In 1964, following a trip to London, England, Barry was introduced to the music of the Kinks and the Rolling Stones. On his return home, he immediately formed The Remains with three fellow Boston University students: Bill Briggs, Vern Miller and Chip Damiani. The band wisely decided to take a year off University to pursue their musical dreams. They had a string of local hits in the Boston area building up a reputation as a mean 'live' act but decided to move to New York City, as it was the place to be, in 1966.

It was here that the Remains story took a bizarre and eventful twist. Despite a lack of national hits, the Remains managed to appear on national US television shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show and Hullabaloo and were amazed to be asked to go on tour with the Beatles.

The Remains schedule during August 1966 consisted of playing an opening twenty minute set and then acting as backing band to the following two acts, Bobby Hebb and The Ronettes across 14 North American cities, playing 19 shows in what would prove to be the last tour the Beatles would ever do. Also appearing on the bill were four undergraduates from Lafayette University called, The Cyrkle. They were co-managed by Brian Epstein and had a hit record with 'Red Rubber Ball' and had just released the classic 'Turn Down Day'. Touring with the Beatles would give the Remains a unique insight to the madness surrounding the Beatles.

As Barry reveals in his excellent book 'Ticket To Ride' which tells the story of this landmark tour, "We listened to records together. I ate, drank, smoked and talked with the Beatles daily, and shared some very close personal moments with them".

The book would never have been possible had it not been for the foresight of his father who told Barry to write a journal whilst on tour. Along with intriguing eyewitness accounts and Barry's journal the book is packed with many unpublished photos, fan recollections, newspaper and magazine articles as it tells the story the Beatles last ever tour .

Before the tour began, original drummer Chip Damiani decided to quit and return home to Boston so the Remains drafted in a seventeen-year-old drummer called N.D Smart. Barry was just twenty-one years old in 1966 and playing in front of 50,000 fans at Shea Stadium, opening for the Beatles! Even today, Barry can still "feel the excitement" of those eventful weeks of August, 1966.

Had the Remains missed this unique opportunity, it wouldn't have stopped their reputation from growing over the years. Thanks to the quality of the material they recorded they have since become legendary in their own right despite being overlooked at the time.

'Don't Look Back' - is a real nuggets anthem. A real tight, mean'n'moody garage punk statement of intent. It's the first song you probably heard by the Remains and the one that got you hooked and eager to hear more.

In an all too familiar story, the Remains were destined to stay a footnote in rock'n'roll history, along with many hundreds of other bands from the sixties they were mysteriously destined to never becoming household names. Thanks, largely to Lenny Kaye's essential 'Nuggets' concept the legend of the Remains has grown. Anyone with half a brain who hears a song as cool as 'Don't Look Back' is gonna want to know if the Remains recorded any more tracks half as good.

Although the Remains career was all too brief they did leave behind an impressive musical legacy. Four great singles and a killer album packed with stunning original material. Tight, solid, buoyant arrangements and Tashian's sneering, primitive howl made instant classics such as 'Why do I cry'. 'Say you're sorry', You got a hard time coming' and 'Once before'. Tashian's fiery vocals could out do Jagger any day of the week and the band were tighter than the Beatles could ever dream to be.

Remarkably, the Beatles tour had ultimately disillusioned Barry and his ambitions for the Remains. By the time Epic records had released their debut album the band had broke up. Citing the fact that the Remains could never be as great as the Beatles coupled with the sea of change taking place in the music scene Barry decided to explore different musical horizons. Falling in love with country music and rhythm & blues, Barry moved to California and played with Gram Parsons in the original Flying Burrito Brothers. He went on to play on Parsons' debut solo album and formed his own country band in the '70's. In '80's he joined Emmylou Harris' Hot Band.

Like many of his contemporaries country music was the chosen path for Barry Tashian and it brought him the success he had originally craved for with the Remains. Barry hold great memories about his brief time with the Remains and the band have recently reformed and recorded brand new material. Now lets read all about that and the life and times of The Remains as told by Barry Tashian…

RSG caught up with Barry and in this exclusive interview Barry shares some great memories about what life was like with the Remains in the swinging sixties.

RSG: What were you like as a kid? What was it that drove you inside to want to create the Remains?

Barry: "I was a nice quiet kid that started playing the guitar at age nine or ten. Whatever angst I had growing up I didn't show. My persona to the world was always a pretty nice guy. I started The Remains during a time when I simply needed to express some of the frustration that had amassed during childhood and teenage years. I think all young kids' experience this to some degree. I found that I could express it with the band. With my hormones raging, I had lots of tumultuous relationships with girls in school and beyond. Just expressing life troubles. In those days we also expressed the pure energy of being free of parents' rather strict bonds. It was a celebration of ego! There were a lot of things mixed together".

"I had always wanted to be a rock n' roll star. When I was fourteen years of age, a 'manager type' approached my parents to "make me a star" in New York but my parents wouldn't hear of it".

"I was disappointed. So, when I got out on my own, I felt that I wanted to DO SOMETHING with my talents. I started out just making some extra money playing at fraternity parties on the weekends. I was not clear what to study at Boston University, where I was enrolled in a General Ed. Course. But after I returned from Europe the summer of my Freshman year, I got serious about it. I think my rationale may have gone something like this: "be a rock n' roll star, be cool, get the girls, get rich, and retire to the south of France by the age of twenty-five." Although I don't use any alcohol or drugs today, back then I did. These substances helped to ignite my desire to perform. I truly loved the music though. Rock n' roll records were little whirling worlds of FREEDOM to me. I could spin those Speciality 45's in my room at home and take trips into the wild world of, say, Little Richard in New Orleans. What an ambience to those records! It was great".

RSG: Can you tell us a bit about what life was like in the studio with The Remains?

B: "We recorded with Columbia in New York and Nashville. Our first recordings, in 1964 were recorded on four track with producer Robin McBride and engineer Roy Halley. Our first single, "Why do I cry', came out of those sessions. We were in Columbia's "Studio A" on seventh avenue in N.Y. Our next producer was Ted Cooper in N.Y. Then, in 1965 & 1966, we went to Nashville and were produced by Billy Sherrill, who later produced country greats Tammy Wynette, Tanya Tucker and George Jones. In all these cases we came into the studio with our original songs or cover songs and worked on the arrangements with the producer. In most cases our own arrangements worked very well. Where necessary, certain changes were made to improve the tunes or arrangements".

"We just set up and played live, with the vocals happening live as well. In some cases we overdubbed a vocal or guitar solo".

RSG: It has been said the Remains sounded better live on stage. Can you describe to us a typical live show and paint a picture of what it would have been like to see the Remains in action?

B: "All I can tell you is that we really had fun playing gigs. We tried our damndest to really interweave with each other. Our aim was to put all our energy into playing as a tight unit. We listened to each other. This was a novel idea for young rock musicians. We were kind of insecure with our original material so we played a lot of covers: Hey you get off my cloud, Satisfaction, She's not there, Oh carol, It's all over now, Route 66, I'm free, Louie Louie, I got my mojo working, Come on home, Johnny b. Goode, Hang on sloopy, All day and all of the night, You really got me, You make me feel good (zombies), I'm a man, Like a rolling stone, mystic eyes. As you can see we drew a lot from the British influence at the time. It inspired us! I think we played a few Beatles' tunes but just a few".

"If you came to see us live you would have encountered a volume level unheard at the time. We were really loud. We hired a sound company (Bill Hanley sound, from Medford, Massachusetts) to come with us on our gigs and set up a killer sound system to amplify the vocals and snare drum. The rest of the instruments were cranked up straight out of the amps. Bill Briggs, on keyboard, at first played a Wurlitzer wooden electric piano through a fender bandmaster. Then he got a hohner pianet and plugged that into a vox tube beatle amp. Sometimes he played an electric clavinet. The bass player, Vern Miller, played either a fender jazz bass or an epiphone semi hollow bass guitar. Early on he had a Zimgar six string bass, which he played on "My babe". His amp was either a fender dual showman or an early sunn bass amp with two fifteens. I used a guild starfire type guitar, then got a 1965 epihone al caiola model semi hollow electric guitar. I plugged into a fender concert amp at first, then changed to a sunn amp with two fifeens and an external custom made cabinet with an altec lansing coaxial speaker. It really screamed!"

"We would pretty much play as hard as we could and ended our shows with "I'm a man" which was pretty wild. We had a very successful band in the New England area for a couple of years before we moved to New York. We played at every college in New England!"

RSG: Can you tell us some stories from your life on the road with the Remains?

B: "Well, there's the time we were driving from Boston to Nashville and wound up seeing a sign that said "Welcome to Ohio", which is not on the way to Nashville from Boston. When we got to Nashville I remember staying at the capitol city motor inn with the James Brown band. I met James on music row. We also used Johnny Cash's fan club office as a rehearsal hall. We were the only longhaired freaks in Nashville and got a lot of stares from the locals. It was pretty intense. We stayed in our hotel room a lot when we weren't in the studio".

"One day while we were recording with Billy Sherrill in Nashville he said he wanted us to take a break for a couple of hours while he recorded an album with a small band that was just driving through town and needed to cut some songs. Well, that band turned out to be the Staple Singers and we watched them record a whole 12 song album live in about an hour. Pop Staple and Mavis Staples were amazing!"

RSG: Can you tell us a bit about your encounter with the Beatles?

"The Beatles were pretty much at the height of their popularity when we toured with them. I kept a diary of all my encounters with the Beatles on that tour and put them together in a book titled Ticket to Ride; The Extraordinary Diary of The Beatles' Last Tour. Basically they (the Beatles) were really nice to us. They didn't have to be nice…but they were!"

RSG: What do you make of all the interest in the Remains by a new generation of fans?

B: "Well I really think it's wonderful. I'm very proud to have been a part of something back then that has stood the test of time. I'm grateful that the music we made back then has found the light of day with new fans! By the way, the Remains all gathered in Nashville this summer (2000) and cut thirteen new songs. I have finished the process of working vocal overdubs. The album is now mixed and mastered. I think it sounds fabulous".

RSG: What bands did you like at the time of the Remains - Who did you most admire and why?

B: "I was a big Stones fan at the time. The Kinks, The Zombies…those kinds of bands. Of course I was a big fan of all the first generation rockers I grew up listening to: Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. WHY I liked them is that they soothed my soul. They were not phoney. They WERE their music. Does that sense?"

RSG: I notice that you were the main songwriter in the band, what kind of things did you like to write about?

B: "I liked to write about heartbreak. About the girls. About getting the girls and especially frustration about not getting the girl. Or, getting the girl, but not liking her as much as I thought I would. Those are typical issues for the late teen-early twenties psyche".

RSG: How would you sum up the personalities of the rest of the band?

B: "Hmmm, the personalities. That's a tough one but I'll try. Start with Vern Miller the bass player for The Remains. Vern was/is a serious musician who composes trumpet concertos etc. He was very masterful on the bass guitar back then. Today he's even better. But Vern always played just the right thing".

"Chip Damiani, our drummer is an athlete on drums. He had/has more energy than the rest of us. His vocation is in the construction business so he's in great shape. He always says that I taught him how to play drums. I don't remember doing that but Chip, again, always plays the appropriate thing for The Remains".

"Next would be our keyboard/harmonica man, Bill Briggs. Bill is a "rhythm piano player". His chords lay the foundation for the guitar. He's got a great imagination for song writing and has written a couple of my favourite songs: "Say You're Sorry" and "You" (not yet released). Bill was always a favourite with the girls. Tall, blonde and handsome. Bill also went to great pains to make sure all the electronic stuff was working well".

"I guess that leaves me. I just pick the guitar and sing the songs. I'm pretty quiet otherwise. But I did have this vision about the band at the beginning. When I approached these three guys about starting a band I knew what I wanted to do: play with a band that listened to each other really closely. That's what we did and the result was that we were (are) incredibly tight!"
RSG: One of the most remarkable aspects of the Remains is how 'tight' and 'raw' the band sounded without being too slick and polished. How do you feel you achieved this?

B: "We were lucky to have state of the art recording at our disposal. Also, our producer in Nashville, Billy Sherrill, really helped us get some neat arrangements together. We mostly did it ourselves but Billy helped us through the difficult parts that were tricky for us. As far as 'raw' goes, we just turned everything up as loud as we could".

RSG: Who were the bands and what were the songs that inspired you as a teenager to make music?

B: "There's a big list. All the first generation rockers. Think of anyone who made good records in the fifties and sixties. They were our inspiration. To mention a few: Lonnie Mack, Charlie Rich, Otis Redding, The Stones, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Bill Doggett, Larry Williams, Fats Domino, The Everly Bros.,etc".

RSG: When the Remains ended you moved into country rock, crossing paths with the late great Gram Parsons. Can you tell us how your interest in country evolved?

B: "Well, it was a natural path for me. After the Remains I was looking for "pure" music. I couldn't stand the psychedelic records. So that led me to Country and Blues and Bluegrass. I happened to meet up with Gram Parsons and the International Submarine Band. They were playing country music and I really loved it. Gram introduced me to Hank Williams and George Jones and The Louvin Brothers and The Osborne Brothers. This reminded me of the Everly Bros. and Jerry Lee Lewis. They were country but I didn't know it. I just thought it was all "rock n' roll". Whatever it was, I loved it. In 1972 I met Emmylou Harris through Gram. My wife, Holly, and I then had a Country band in Connecticut from 1973-1980. Then, in 1980, it was Emmylou Harris who hired me to play in her Hot Band. I learned a lot in that band. I stayed with Emmy for ten years and made ten albums with her".

"Gram was a really nice guy who took too many drugs. They ended up killing him at age 28. He was a gifted songwriter".

RSG would like to send sincere thanks Barry Tashian for his time and efforts

The Remains Discography

60's Albums:
The Remains (Epic) 1966
Tracks: Heart; Lonely Weekend; Don't Look Back; Why Do I Cry; Diddy Wah Diddy; You Got a Hard Time Comin'; Once Before; Thank You; Time of Day; Say You're Sorry

60's Singles:
I'm Talking About You/You Say You're Sorry (Epic) 1965
But I Ain't Got You/I Can't Get Away From You (Epic) 1965
Diddy Wah Diddy/Once Before (Epic) 1966
Don't Look Back/Me Right Now (Epic) 1966

Read all about it! Don't forget you can also read more about the Remains US tour with Beatles in Barry's self-penned book, 'Ticket to Ride - The Extraordinary Diary of The Beatles' Last Tour. Available now from Amazon. The Remains official website can be found at: http://www.theremains.com