Vintage Article on Ventures: Ventures vs. Shadows

[RUSSET]

Yes, Viva Los Ventures for their early records ....... WDR, Perfidia, Lullaby of the Leaves, Night Train, Ram Bunk Shush etc.
Apart from one or two of the later recordings, in my honest opinion, I feel that they had poor deal in the recording studio & an unimaginative choice in material. They were a good 'Beat Group' from the early sixties, & stayed that way. They inspired me, along with the Shads from about 1960-62, as we had heard nothing like it at the time. Then the Shads went all 'Cocktail Lounge' & daft pantomime & films & the Ventures slipped from view.
Yes, Nokie was an excellent guitarist, & the others quite adequate, but they are (were) a nostalgia act for those early years.
I'm not putting them down; my band does play a couple of early Ventures tunes in our act, & we really enjoy them, & even get complimented on them by the audience.

Tony.

[JimN]

I'm with Ivan...

Some of the Ventures early stuff was great (WDR, Perfidia, Ram-Bunk-Shush, Lullaby Of The Leaves, etc). But a lot of the stuff on their first few albums was fairtly uninspiring and did little for me (Torquay, Bulldog, etc).

They really came into their own (as far as I was concerned from late 1963 onward: El Cumbanchero, Journey To The Stars, Diamond Head, Walk-Don't Run! '64 and the albums from the period, stretching from "The Ventures In Space" to "Batman".

Great guitar tunes, played with fire and brimstone by Nokie. I tried to copy that style (in my limited way) with The Secrets.

JN

[Stan666]

[Thanks Ivo,

I saw them on Barcelona at the same tour. At last I have confirmation that they sang Green, Green Grass of Home. I went alone to attend the show and my friends never believe me about they performed that song.

Thanks again.

[Monty]

just adding my views to this interesting older thread

I too love BOTH The Shadows and The Ventures

The Ventures went through notably different 'sound' eras

The Late great Bob Bogle & Don Wilson who formed the group in 1959 were the core of that band (Like Hank & Bruce), Don always on rhythm guitar but early on (1959-1963) it's Bob on Lead guitar with a pleasant slightly 'country' sound...plus Nokie Edwards on (in truth) a bit 'plodding' bass guitar & Howie Johnson on drums - and it IS true (as Hank observed back then) the Nokie/Howie rhythm section was not the tightest...or that well recorded

BUT in 1963 Howie Johnson was injured in a car crash (I think that year) and dropped out to be replaced by The Late Mel Taylor (to The Ventures what Brian Bennett was to The Shads) - a RED HOT Drummer !

also Bob & Nokie swapped instruments...Bob was a great bassist & Nokie was a tremendous lead guitarist - the result was The Ventures complete sound suddenly 'beefs up' incredibly !

Listen to; 'The Ventures In Space', 'Walk Don't Run Vol 2', (both 1964) and 'Knock Me out' (1965) albums - The Ventures transformation was incredible from a competant almost 'genteel' guitar band to a powerhouse outfit in the Who/Cream mould !

[MikeAB]

I saw the Ventures on late night TV in the eighties ( I think) just as I was vaguely starting to attempt to play myself. I said to myself and my wife 'if that is presumably the best I could do I shouldn't bother'.

[Monty]

so do we take it from that you could reel off guitar solos like The Ventures ...?

[MikeAB]

Definitely not - but they just 'sounded' awful