Relations between Jerry Lordan and Shadows' individuals

[JimN]

Dear Old Mrs Bell has to be considered in its contemporary context.

In late 1967, the rather similar Massachusetts had just been a smash hit - number one - for the Bee Gees, newly arrived back in their home country from Australia.

DOMB does rather take its stylistic cue from that Bee Gees song and also from their other recent hit New York Mining Disaster 1941.

[EJK]

All this speculation is interesting in itself but, whatever you think of Dear Old Mrs Bell as an A-side, the decision will have been made by Norrie Paramor. It was his job to make the record and sell it. I'm sure there were many factors to be weighed up and unfortunately we can't ask him.

An interesting topic.

Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing, however I would suggest that Norrie Paramor was not in touch with the youth, he already had a track record in this respect re thinking that the flip sides of Move it and Apache were the better for single A sides, thankfully his daughters knew better.

Regarding other material for singles during the mid 60s until the break up, there were pretty good choices of material for singles which ended up on the LPs. For example,
Breakthru', The Lost City, Santa Ana, Naughty Nippon Nights and Scotch on the Socks.

[JimN]

Scotch On The Socks was released as a 1966 single, albeit a B-side.

[Peter K]

Dear Old Mrs Bell has to be considered in its contemporary context.

In late 1967, the rather similar Massachusetts had just been a smash hit - number one - for the Bee Gees, newly arrived back in their home country from Australia.

DOMB does rather take its stylistic cue from that Bee Gees song and also from their other recent hit New York Mining Disaster 1941.

Hi Jim,

I was 20 years old in 1967. Though being a great follower of the Shadows I also loved the Bee Gees' "New York Mining Disaster" and "Massachusetts" even more.
But I was shocked when I first listened to "DOMB" though I was very familiar with everything else released at this time.

[Moderne]

I think they were all involved in deciding what material to record - as well as choosing what to release as A-sides - it wasn't just Norrie's decision (The Savage being a notable exception, ironically as it's one of their best loved A-sides despite Hank and Bruce's unhappiness with not being consulted at the time).
I've always quite liked Dear Old Mrs Bell as it was a track on Somethin' Else which was the second Shadows LP I bought (after 20GG), in 1978. It was a good track selection...including Tomorrow's Cancelled, The Breeze and I and Trying to Forget the One You Love - as well as including Saturday Dance and Lonesome Fella - the only pre-Apache tracks available on new vinyl at the time!

[Monty]

I think they often got it wrong on singles after 1965

[Arpeggio]

[album][/album]Well..all of this, plus the previous few comnents is / are vety interesting.....erm, but none of it has anything whatsoever to do with the original subject of the thread!!

[Fenderman]

I often wondered about Bruce's guitar too. Listen to 'Farewell mu lovely' and there seems to be no Bruce at all.
If i was Bruce i'd be saying to Dick Plant 'Hang on, bring my guitar into the mix so that people can hear it!'.

[Monty]

Jerry Lordan's 'Diamonds' sounded great by Jet & Tony, I wonder what Jerry thought of The Shadows later 80's version ?

[Fenderman]

The mystery of Bruce's guitar lost in the Polydor tracks could be explained in the liner notes of the SFM Guardian Angel CD in which Hank stated by Simply or Stepping 'there wasn't a equal contribution from everyone' so maybe he didn't play on some tracks and left Cliff to fill in on keyboards instead.
Who knows? We'll probably never know the truth.