By Gary Peterson
OK, I’m glad I waited. Over a week ago, I interviewed singer Barry Tashian— Nashville-based songwriter, former member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band, and leader of the Remains, who opened for the Beatles on their last tour that ended at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 29, 1966.
Barry sent me some stuff including the Remains CD, 2006’s Movin’ On, and a copy of his one-of-a-kind book, Ticket To Ride: The Extraordinary Diary Of The Beatles’ Last Tour. The Remains are the subject of the upcoming documentary: They Were How You Told A Stranger About Rock ‘N’ Roll, a title lifted from Jon Landau’s famous quote in the 60s about the band. Landau, of course, went on to parlay his “future of rock ‘n’ roll” quote about Bruce Springsteen into his second career as the Boss’ manager.
While Tashian wanted to bring the original Remains lineup to the planned 40th Anniversary Monterey Pop Festival, he had a slight scheduling conflict stemming from his other band, a duo act with his wife, Holly.
Such is life.
The Remains broke up right after the 1966 Beatles tour and their first album, which garnered Landau’s quote, came out after that. “The Beatles tour was the windiest gig we ever played,” Tashian remembers. “It was mostly done in outdoor baseball stadiums, but there were a couple of indoor concerts where you could see people — smile at the girls and they’d wave back.
”Being from New England, and as no one had heard of us, we were trying to prove ourselves,” Tashian added. And a lot of publicity came out of that.”
Aside from breaking up the band after the Beatles’ tour, Tashian, the Remains’ guitarist and lead singer has another regret.
“A guitar player gets his sound by using his special amp,” Tashian remarked. “He gets it just right, but we had to use the Beatles’ Vox solid state super amps.”
There are probably a million guitarists who wished they could use the Beatles amps, but Tashian isn’t one of them. “The Beatles tour was loud and it cost us,” he stated matter-of-factly.
Tashian went on. “The reason I wanted to get a guitar was cowboy guys.” His parents bought him a guitar, and he was into Frannie Beaches, the guitarist in Bill Haley’s Comets. “The solo on ‘Rock Around The Clock’ is just outrageous.”
Chuck Berry, with his duck walk, and Carl Perkins’ “very cool, very rhythmic” playing and tone also influenced him.
A guy acquires a lot of influences in and over a 40-year-plus career. Tashian earnestly listed all the Kings — Albert, Freddy and B.B. — and Mickey Baker of Mickey and Sylvia (Love Is Strange). And, of course, Buddy Holly is another big one. But Bo Diddley, who played St. Anthony’s Hall in Tashian’s hometown of Westport, Connecticut in 1957, is still the man. Tashian was only 12 years old.
The singer’s “A Man’s Best Friend Is His Automobile” on the recent Remains CD sort of explains that. A musician you see at 12 has more or less the same lasting impact on you as your first car.
“He had Jerome (who wrote Diddley’s “Bring It To Jerome”) and a drummer and his homemade amp. It looked like a car radio — very impressive. His body language was like playing drums on guitar,” Tashian said.
Little surprise that this “Man’s Best Friend” is also Bo Diddley.
Tashian remains in love with 45s or what we used to call “singles’ in olden times before rappers had nine bullet holes in them.” What I basically liked about it was when I put on a 45 in my bedroom upstairs. I loved the place it took me — out of my world and into a place where I stayed for years.”
Which may just be the secret of the Remains. They made great singles on their first and reissued self-titled album. Movin’ On exhibits many of these same traits.
”Big Ol’ Dynaflow” is another car song, but the almost country-like ballad, “Hard To Find (So Easy To Lose)” is credited to Tashian and one Will Smith. Is it that Will Smith? Je ne sais pas?
But there’s more country here as in “Trust In Me,” and bassist Vern Miller gets a couple of tunes in — the very Beatleish “Listen To Me” and the forward-looking “Time Keeps Movin’ On.”
So where else do you go after you’ve been there and done that?
“If we had stayed together, we’d have had a couple of hits and be suing each other,” Tashian said. “Instead we went to Europe last year and played five cities. Thing was, I’d been to most of those places with Emmylou.”
Touring with the Beatles was, for Tashian, something else altogether. Here’s an excerpt from Ticket To Ride:
“Journal: Sunday, August 28, 1966 – We took the bus to Dodger Stadium and faced the WALL again: 50,000 people. I couldn’t feel any of them. The stage was in its usual distant position on second base, over a hundred feet from the audience. I felt so isolated out there trying to compete with Beatlemania. If I’ve learned anything from this tour it’s how insignificant I am in this whole scenario. The Beatles gave a great show and the crowd was absolutely wild…
”As I was walking back to the dressing room after our set, I saw Edward G. Robinson sitting just behind the dugout…”
And another entry:
“Journal: August 17, 1966, Toronto Bound – I asked George if he ever had any trouble getting through customs. The response: ‘Nobody wants to bust a Beatle for anything.’ I asked John about the use of the backwards tape on their song, ‘Rain.’ He said when they recorded the song it was too short. He took the tape home late one night and really loved the effect!”
