(216) HISTORY MOMENT NOVEMBER 29 1961 ANOTHER CHIMP BLASTS OFF

Another chimp blasts off into space, leading the way for mankind...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from WES BRYAN and CHRISTINE TRZYNA

Though our American economy is in trouble, especially in Los Angeles, we want to be thankful for what we do have and that certainly includes our loyal friends.
I was thinking of Elvis Presley, a man who never took for granted his gifts from God. Elvis gave thanks to God - to Jesus Christ - for his talent and he felt it was a gift he was meant to use, to be an entertainer and help people forget their problems for a while. He also chose to record Gospel as a means to uplift their spirits - and his.The Elvis I knew was a dichotomy in his way. He was a famous Rock and Roller and a sensualist, but also a Gospel Singer, a devout believer in Christ, with great loyalty to family and his family of friends. To be part of his musical Rock and Roll family at the house was a honor.

ROULETTE - RADIO STATION COPY OF MELODIE D' AMOUR - WES BRYAN

My tour for Roulette to promote Melodie D'Amour took me through many cities including my new home town of Los Angeles in 1961. I performed on the Wink Martindale Show on KCOP and on Alan Freed's Radio Show, as well as the amusement park in Pacific Palisades with the Pacific Ocean view.

Meanwhile I was a staff song writer at American Music, the publishing house owned by Sylvester Cross.

Here's a "Radio Station Copy" of the record that Elvis said was one of his favorites. He put it in his juke box at the house and carried a copy with him to Vegas.

READERS - LET US KNOW IF YOU FIND A BAD LINK OR VIDEO !

We check our links and videos from time to time and are able to replace them when they become obsolete in most cases, but please let us know if you come across a bad one! You can leave commentary for us two ways. You can e-mail us at wewritethebook@yahoo.com or you can leave a message using your Open ID (even if you blog on another format) or Google blogger ID!

THANK YOU!
Christine and Wes

(215) NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME

This link takes you to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame honors list.

http://www.nndb.com/honors/545/000129158/

Among the honorees mentioned in this blog are Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Mac Davies, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, and Gene Autry.

Use the Google search feature above to read what we have to say about these talented people and the music!

(214) MARTY ROBBINS - WEST TEXAS TO LOS ANGELES

One of the stars who passed through Los Angeles on tour in 1961 was Marty Robbins who got the first ever country Grammy Award for "El Paso" in 1959, the song he is most associated with, and which got him into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Marty continued with hits like "If I Had A Hammer," which was covered by many other singers including Peter, Paul, and Mary. He was one of the singers I liked to go hear, along with some of the guys that I knew from Elvis'.

MARTY ROBBINS OFFICIAL updated March 2013
"Don't Worry" was a 1961 hit for Marty. (video replaced March 2013)
  
In 1970 after years from hits, Marty won a Grammy Award for the best country song in 1970. He was inducted into the Nashville Song Writers Hall of Fame in 1975. He got into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982.

Link to The Country Music Hall of Fame... NEW LINK January 13, 2011 Click on title!

"El Paso" is classic Marty Robbins and reflects the Hispanic culture of Texas.

  Here's a bio of Marty from Billboard.com
BILLBOARD MARTY ROBBINS PAGE  updated April 2014

(213) THE BROWN DERBY and HOLLYWOOD PHOTOS BY BRUCE TORRENCE

Here's a link we found to some Hollywood photographs of the Brown Derby and many other famous sites and restaurants on the website of photographer Bruce Torrence. This is an impressive collection. And there are lots of Brown Derby exteriors from the 1940's through 1950's

http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/

The Brown Derby was one of those places where the walls were covered with studio photographs of stars. Though a lot of studio executives an movie stars dined there, just about anyone could get in. It was one of the most famous restaurants then and it's legend goes on now.

Wes

Christine here: I once had a friend who swore that her mother, who was a waitress at the Brown Derby, bought a house in Van Nuys for cash, tips she made there. She described a time when the San Fernando Valley was where people went hunting and fishing.

(212) WHAT CLUB ARE WE GOING TO TONIGHT ?

"What club are we going to tonight?"

My friends seemed to go out to a club most every night, either looking for girls, or on dates, mostly in Hollywood, sometimes in the San Fernando Valley. Clubbing was the thing to do.

Now the truth is, I wasn't as much into clubbing as many of my friends were. First of all I had been the entertainment in a heck of a lot of clubs myself. You could say that I'd had my fill of clubbing. Like Elvis Presley I barely drank in comparison to some of them. Also like Elvis Presley I like to retreat and have private time.

If you've ever had to perform you know that even when you have complete confidence in yourself things can get out of control or go wrong despite your best efforts. A performer needs the support of his fellow performers, and so for this reason more than any other I went clubbing.

I always found more quiet moments to be with the music outside of the music business when I found that retreat... And I still do... Just me and my guitar...

ELVIS IS A GRANDPA TWO MORE TIMES !

Congradulations are in order to Elvis and Pricilla's only daughter Lisa Marie Presleyand her husband Michael Lockwood on the recent birth of twin daughters, Finley and Harper, who came into this world on October 7th.

If you'll click on the title above you'll get to the news agency Reuter's report.

Here's to Lisa Marie's own MYSPACE that is linked to her charity to help the homeless in Memphis and New Orleans...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.Channel&ChannelID=42291868

(211) RIDING MOTORCYCLES WITH RICK NELSON

I met Rick Nelson when my Roulette Records tour which had taken me to places as far flung as Santa Fe, New Mexico, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Saint Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee, landed me in what was becoming my new home town, Los Angeles California. Rick and I both appeared on KCOP - Wink Martindale's local show - the same week.

I don't know how to tell fans this but when you're on a promotions tour and in particular you have to play the same song radio station after radio station, it gets boring. Riding bikes was one of my stress busters!

While Johnny Burnette and Johnny Rivers and me stopped at the hot dog stand across from the Brown Derby in Hollywood, Rick Nelson and I actually went into the Brown Derby.

Use the Google Search feature above to look for our previous postings on Rick Nelson, including some YouTube video!

1960 CAPITOL RECORDS and THE KNICKERBOCKER HOTEL

Capitol Records and the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood circa 1960, credited to photographer Roy Hankey, through Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Database. We've been looking through free image collections for a good photo of the Capitol building which looked a bit like a stack of records...

Besides Capitol records, we also see the Plaza Hotel- where I had tea with Christine White, the Huntington-Hartford, and the Broadway Department store.

(210) HOLLYWOOD REALLY WAS FULL OF STARS !

When I moved to Los Angeles - Hollywood - one of the first things that I noticed that's different today - fifty years later - is that Hollywood really was full of stars. Not only were movies being made locally but the stars took it upon themselves to dine out and shop and be seen right there along Hollywood Boulevard where the Hollywood Walk of Fame is now. The photographers prowled and it seemed everyone was dressed, made-up, ready, willing, available for a "photo op."

I had met the actress Christine White in Hollywood as a tourist, before I was discovered in Akron, Ohio in 1957, and when I moved to Los Angeles Hollywood became my scene. I went to restaurants and clubs where business and pleasure were conducted. The area around Capitol Records which had the famous circular building that looked like a stack of albums - if you stretched your imagination a bit - seemed to be the epicenter of my scene.

When Johnny Rivers, Johnny Burnette, and I would motorcycle around town, we'd park our bikes across from the Brown Derby restaurant where there was a hot dog stand we liked near the Huntington-Hartford theatre. From there we watched the girls.

(209) DRUMMER EARL PALMER - A "SECRET" HIT MAKER

Another great musician that I met at the Musician's Union and became friends with was Earl Palmer.
Earl just went into Eternal Life September 18, 2008 - several weeks ago - at the age of 84.

He worked with Elvis. He worked for Motown and Phil Spector. The Righteous Brothers. Frank Sinatra.

I used to go into the Union looking for Earl and get on him about being from Louisiana in the way that only one Southerner can get on another Southerner. Out in LA it seemed like no matter what your race or background, being from the South was like being from the hood.

And he earned it; Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, here's Earl's link there.

ROCKHALL : EARL PALMER BIO
updated March 2014

(208) ERNIE FREEMAN - THE MUSIC ARRANGER

I started hanging out at the Musician's Union when I didn't have anything else to do, though I was busy - so busy! - in those years. Ernie was an African-American pianist arranger who "Made The Strings Jump." (He also produced but was rarely credited for it.) Like many other musicians who worked in the studio playing first, Ernie had a lot of studio recording experience before he started arranging.

The Musician's Union was a great place to meet accomplished musicians, singers, arrangers, producers, and songwriters and network.

Linked at the title: Here's the Rockin' Country Style discography for Ernie Freeman, who in 1962 was the arranger for the Buddy Knox album that made it Gold, with the song "All By Myself" on it that Buddy and I wrote.

Here's a link to great information on Ernie's career as an album maker that has a picture of him.

http://www.rocky-52.net/chanteursf/freeman_ernie.htm

UPDATED APRIL 2012 with this video!

(207) THE MUSICIANS UNION - A WISE MEMBERSHIP

I joined the Musicians Union when I was still in New York City, and when I moved to Los Angeles, I transferred my membership to California. I still think of membership in The Musician's Union as an important step for any musician. Of course I'm no fool when it comes to the fact that then as there is today there is a lot of non-union work and that musicians are often "between jobs" and can't necessarily afford to turn down a non-union job. But it's the musician union that tries to keep the pay livable and through documentation of recording projects, provides a pension.

Click on the title above to be taken to link for the Musician's Union, Professional Musicians Local 47.

When I joined the headquarters were in Hollywood on Vine near Melrose and Max Herman was the President - The God Almighty! - for years. He had several terms. He was tough - ruthless some thought - and he threw more than one friend of mine out of the Union. He had people going around from one recording studio to the next busting in to find non-union sessions.

ELECTION DAY ! A NEW PRESIDENT BY MIDNIGHT TONIGHT !

Friends if you are reading this, right now, and you HAVE NOT YET VOTED Please go now to the polls! Participate in a historic American event.

Check back tomorrow to read more about my life in music...

Wes

(206) ELVIS - INTO THE HOLIDAYS

My friend Elvis Presley lived in Los Angeles during the years he was making movies. His houses in the early 1960's were party houses he rented in Bel Air. I was a frequent guest there, welcome to stay entire weekends if it suited me and often it did. I had some of the best times of my life there.

Of course Elvis loved his family a great deal and when he was feeling sentimental for the South, he would head for Graceland TM for the holidays. Perhaps for that reason there is no better time of the year to see the house than decorated for the holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Elvis I knew was a dichotomy in his way. He was a famous Rock and Roller and a sensualist, but also a Gospel Singer, a devout believer in Christ, with great loyalty to family and his family of friends. To be part of his musical Rock and Roll family at the house was a honor.