MONOCLES RECORDINGS

Newsclip from 1966.

Les: Do you know how it went about that you made your first recording?

Robb:  Oh yeah, oh, man, that was a hoot.  We were getting good enough that we thought that if we could get us a record that would be our launching pad.  Well the first thing we had to do was come up with some songs and, what was that first record? 

Les:  In the bio info sheet, one of the things listed was that you had recorded your first two songs and it says they were "You Don’t Know" and "Let Your Lovin Grow."

Robb:  Those were never cut on records.  We made a tape at Norman Petty Studios down in New Mexico where Buddy Holly recorded.  We took the tape to California to see if we could get it put on record but not until later when we won the Battle of the Bands in Colorado, and then we went to California to a studio.  We just got that tape out of Norman Petty Studios but we never did cut records with it.  Those were the songs.  Tinkerbell set up the whole deal.  We basically went down there and paid them to record us.  We had to have something we could take to a record company.  I think she might have mailed that thing off to the record companies hoping for a response.  I don’t remember anything ever coming of that tape.  I kind of forgot about it.  

Les:  What was it like recording at Norman Petty Studios? 

Rick:  Norman Petty Studios; we were scared to death.  We got down there and we had never been in a recording studio.  Norman was just phenomenal as far as babying us through a lot of these things.  He was very patient with us and worked with us quite a bit because recording in a studio is a whole lot different than playing on stage of course, and we weren’t used to that.  He told us all kinds of stories about Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs and this and that, and (about) when Buddy Holly recorded there, and all these guys pictures are all over there.  And he told us about how he’s got all this magic going on in this studio. 

"Yeah.  Yeah, this is cool."  And he told us about recording the song "Sugar Shack".  You know the little (hums the hook.)  It’s a little chord organ that he had bolted under the control panel and he could just pull it out and nobody would ever know.  They recorded that whole song and Norm put in that little ditty and didn’t tell the band about it at all.  So they did the rough mix and let the band hear it and they go, "Oh, wow.  That’s pretty good but it just needs that little something."  So Norm says, "Well let’s run it through again."  He rewound the tape and played it for them again and brought up that track and he said everybody just went nuts.  

Well, Mr. Petty anything you can do for us would be fine!

Jon Floth pictured recording at Norman Petty Studios.

It was Sunday night, cause we’d only come down there over the weekend, and I can’t remember which song we were recording but we’d been in that studio for hours and hours and hours.  I was adding a bass track to one of the songs.  I can’t remember what it was and it had like four bars to go, maybe six, I don’t know, right towards the end of the song.  I don’t know what happens, eventually in a studio I just burn out.  I couldn’t play that bass part to save me.  Take 23, I remember that.  Take 23: bass part, Rick Hull, and I messed it up and I’m just going, I can’t do this.  This guy comes out who’d been kind of hanging around helping Norm hook things up and we talked to him a little bit, you know.  Definitely a cowboy guy and we kinda dug that and had a good rapport with him. 

He says, "Tell you what, I’ve been there myself."  He says, "I play a little bit of bass guitar, do you mind if I just do these four or six bars, whatever it was, for you?"

I said, "God, please.  I would be indebted the rest of my life."

"No.  No problem, I’ve been there."   So he gets in there, doo doo doo doo, we’re done.  Five minutes, we’re done.  I’m going, God, thank you.  So anyway all the way back to Colorado from Clovis, NM all the guys are giving me, "Hey, old Take 23," you know just razzing me to death. 

So we get back and Norman Petty keeps immaculate track sheets.  I don’t know what happened to those.  I’d have loved to had those.  I think Tinkerbell had them.  I don’t know.  The Floths might have them.  They’re somewhere.  But we had these track sheets and of course anytime we’d come back from a big thing we’d have a big family gathering, you know, all the families.  Our families really supported us.  That was neat.  So we were listening to the recordings and of course everybody was giving me a hard time about old Take 23, and so somebody said, "Well, who was that guy that played bass for you?"

When we recorded there it was at Studio One.  They only had one studio at the time but it was called Studio One.   I believe it was "Boogie Man" I was having trouble with as I remember.  Cause "Pychedelic," I mean we started out relatively normal.  There’s one verse to the song and then we just went bananas.  Do whatever you want, you know.  Playing feedback man, Jon was in heaven.  He got to feedback his guitar and do all the weird stuff. 

Moving up 5 notches on the charts to number 26 this week, it's The Monocles with their wild double A smash, "Psychedelic" backed with "Boogie Man".

Robb:  So it wasn’t until we went out to California to cut  "Psychedelic" that we actually got something pressed.  That was more fun; "Pychedelic".  That was my favorite song ever from The Monocles.  I mean we had more fun.  We always saved that song ‘til towards the last at our gigs.  

I remember going to California to record after winning the Colorado Battle of the Bands – the song "Psychedelic" won that contest and we got a gift certificate to the Fender Music Company which we cashed in at the factory in California after a tour of the place.

In California we visited a club or two – saw the Byrds play "Mr. Tambourine Man" and bought our bell bottomed outfits (in 3 different colors) that we changed out of at every music break for awhile.

As far as the studio was concerned, it was in Hollywood, and it was the only time that I ever recorded in California.  After that, I was off to the Air Force and six months later I came home and sold my guitar and amp to buy an engagement ring!

Click here for more photos from the event.

The Fender bio photo of The Monocles can be seen on the Monocles 4 page.  Shortly after winning the Battle of the Bands, The Monocles headed for Hollywood to record.  This happened sometime after September 5, 1966.  They returned on the 12th.

We had played a dance or two before that Battle of the Bands, and just after we wrote that song.  Boy I wish I could remember the first time we played it cause we kind of surprised ourselves.  It evolved.  It was not a song.  It just evolved out of jamming—practicing.  Floth was getting really good as a lead guitarist at that time and he would take the mic stand and use it.  Jon Floth was a steel guitarist before he started playing with The Monocles so he played on a guitar on a table.  He played with a bar, the old steel guitar stuff in his Uncle’s polka band.  He would use the mic stand as a bar on his frets and when he was picking out the heavy stuff in here, he was using the mic stand to hold down the frets.  And I tell you that it was as much showmanship as it was music for that Battle of the Bands, and that won us the title. 

Les:  I can imagine because nobody had really done anything like that before.

Robb:  No.  It was new.  Brand new stuff and then to come up with a title like that, you know, like everybody thought we were probably a little psycho anyway. (laughs)  That was some hot licks on guitar.

Les:  That was pretty early for that kind of stuff.  

Rick:  Gosh, that must have been early ‘66.  It was a four part harmony.  I did the falsetto.  

Click on the records above to hear clips of the songs.

Les:  How about "Boogie Man."

Robb:  "Boogie Man" was a song that I found the words to in the library.  After a certain period of time the copyright expires on the music and this was a song that somebody had written long enough ago that the copyright had expired.  Well we took the words because the words were kind of interesting and we put our own music to it.  It was kind of unique.  It was kind of fun.  It was our first chance at trying to come up with some original music and we were all struggling.  None of us were writers at the time so this was a way that we kind of got around the whole process.  "Boogie Man" has the jawbone rattle in it.  The producer came out in the studio and he said I’m going to add something to the background of this song to make it a little more interesting.  He came out with the jawbone of an ass. (laughs)  It was all dried out.  It was the lower jaw of a donkey, you would hold the back side of it with the loop coming back at you and you would just kind of strike it with the palm of your hand and those teeth would rattle and that’s what that sound is.  It was the most unique thing.  

Les:  That was recorded at Norman’s also wasn’t it?

Robb:  Man, I don’t remember.  I think it was because the only thing I remember really recording out in California was "Psychedelic".  I was thinking "Boogie Man" and "Psychedelic" came from California but I’ve kind of forgotten.

Les:  Did "The Spider and the Fly" come after "Psychedelic" and "Boogie Man"?

Robb:  Oh yeah.  Yeah "The Spider and the Fly" those guys did after I went in the service.  Matter of fact I sang "Boogie Man" and they had a real problem with that because we knew at that time that I was going in the service.  The only way they were going to let me sing on that record was with a back up singer that could carry that song after I was gone.

Les:  But that is you on the record? 

Robb: Yeah, that’s me. 

Les:  Who is singing "Psychedelic"? 

Robb:  I gotta listen to it.  (Plays it.)  There’s that jawbone.  We used it in that song too.  This is the one, ok I sang lead on "Boogie Man" and then, "Psychedelic" I think it was Rick and I.  They wouldn’t let me (sing solo).  I sang lead on this all the time when it was live.  Let’s see did Jon try to sing on that?  It had to have either been Jon, I don’t know Tom might have been singing on the background.  I know Don never sang anything.  Jon sang quite a bit.  Jon had a few songs that he sang.  I’m guessing that’s Rick and I and possibly Tom Behm singing the vocal on "Psychedelic". 

Les:  Do you have any memories of "The Spider and the Fly"?

Rick:  This was recorded in Clovis, NM at Norm's studio.  The voice is Tom Behm's and Frank Slay re-mixed it when we signed with him.  I think Tinkerbell recorded the woman's voice when she took the music out to him (she went to L.A. by herself).  (NOTE: Rick is the voice of The FLY.)  Tom Behm was our drummer.  As I remember we recorded this just in case "Psychedelic" was too progressive for the time.

 Click on the record to hear a sound clip of "The Spider and the Fly."

Rick:  (He’s looking at an 8-track that has Monocles written on it.)  My father and Jon Floth’s father sold cars for 30 years at different dealerships.  Jon’s dad sold Lincolns and my dad sold Fords.  Neither one of them were really in favor of their sons having long hair first of all, second of all being in a band we needed to get a real job.  Well that all changed when we finally made enough money and I went down to my father and said, "Well, Dad, we need a new vehicle.  I want to buy a brand new Ford van."

He kind of looked at me and went, "OK, fine."

And I said, "I have the cash."