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<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 07 January 2003 at 11:20 AM.]</p></FONT>
Actually Campbell and some of his 1960s bands are part of some research I'm doing on steel guitar in rock bands. Besides the Misunderstood and Campbell's previous surf band, there was the various rock bands that Bobby Black worked with (Green Beens, US Six, etc), and the Norm Raleigh Band which became Sir Raleigh & The Coupons with Sneaky Pete Kleinow.
All this were Californian acts, although the Sir Raleigh Band moved to Seattle and later evolved into a standard rock band. It's genrally thought that they were a Seattle act which recorded in L.A. using sessions guys, but my research indicates they were all country pickers from the Hollywood scene who recorded and went to Seattle. Still researching some of Campbell's earlier exploits as well.
This thread is frustrating to me, because I saw Juicy Lucy, about 1969 or 1970, and have no recollection of the steel guitar (but I'm not sure I knew what one looked like back then...). They were on a show at London's Royal Albert Hall, headliner was Leon Russell, along with the Grease Band (in which guitarist Henry McCullough played bottleneck slide because he had a broken left hand in a plaster cast, with just a couple of fingers free) and opening act Status Quo - one of the very few, if not the only, acts to have a top 10 hit in the UK in each of 5 decades - 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. One of which was a boogie version of 'The Wild Side Of Life'...
And getting back slightly closer to the topic... - it seems like there is/has been a lot of musical (and steel) activity in or coming out of Riverside CA...
Nick
Juicy Lucy did an appearance on national TV in Britain in the early 70's (BBC's Top Of The Pops). I remember some of the older steel players in the UK nearly had apoplexy when Campbell rocked his Fender backwards on its legs while he stood over it strumming it and getting some very non conventional sounds out of it. He actually got a few younger guys interested in the instrument who would normally have run a mile from a pedal steel.
There is a detailed article about the Misunderstood,focusing on Glenn in a recent issue of a magazine called Ugly Things http://www.ugly-things.com/ .There's a lot of great photos of Glenn playing the steel.
I am at a loss to describe how amazing the steel playing on this stuff.If you like sixties garage and psychedelic music,you will weep tears of joy when you hear this.The Juicy Lucy stuff is pretty standard boogie rock,though.
I got a Misunderstood compilation CD, and Adam has stated it pretty well:
<SMALL>I am at a loss to describe how amazing the steel playing on this stuff.If you like sixties garage and psychedelic music,you will weep tears of joy when you hear this.</SMALL>
I was indeed very pleasantly surprised. I didn't weep, but it did take me on the wayback machine... way cool psychedelic steel...
What was most amazing to me was that in my 30 years of trying to shoehorn steel into different genre's , that no one ever pulled me aside before and said- hey, check this out....
In a word, obscure.
I have a lot of friends who are fans of psyche bands, real collector madmen, and none of them had heard of the Misunderstood, although a few knew Juicy Lucy. The latter specialised in blues boogie, nothing too exciting and I believe Campbell was gone by about 1971.
Nick if you saw Juicy Lucy around 69-70 you definitely saw a steel guitar. I remember seeing them on top of the pops (English TV show)and I think it may have been my first ever exposure to a steel guitar.
And talking about exposure does anyone know if Juicy Lucy's first album was released over here with the gatefold sleeve featuring a nekkid lady covered in juicy pieces of fruit? Boy did that have an effect on my teenage hormones
Who can give us more information on Glenn Campbell???
I just read an incredible article on him and want to read/hear more. I found this old thread in a search but this thread, a listen to one Misunderstood track on a Rhino complilation, and what I just read are all I know.
This guy appears to be amazing. Bands included the Misunderstood, Juicy Lucy, the original backing band for Joe Cocker, blues guy Rod Piazza when he still lived in Riverside, Cock Robin, Sammy Hagar at the very beginning of his solo career, and a bunch of southern California rock, blues, and country bands in and around Riverside, including local some roadhouse bands called Dog Breath and The Fugitives. From what I read and the one track I heard, he seems to have had a truly original approach to both lap steel and pedal steel.
Surely one of you can give us more information and maybe point me towards some other recordings. The link above to Juicy Lucy - apparently still very much alive in New Zealand - seems to be mostly new members and there's certainly no steel guitar in sight.
Anyone know if Campbell is still playing and, if so, where and with whom?
The Misunderstood are amazing, Juicy Lucy, who I've recenly heard a lot more of, are basically the British Little Feet and a great act.
Campbell did not play for the original backing band for Joe Cocker, his original band was a brit outfit back in '64, the Grease Band evolved out of said band.
Cocker's first american band, the short lived Mad Dogs were in 1970, at which time Campbell was with Juicy Lucy and on their way to cutting their second album.
Campbell played in Cocker's band around '72, after he'd left Juicy Lucy and while Chris Stainton was building a new transatlantic band for Joe. Thsi outfit went through a series of line-up changes and I'm not sure if Campbell appears on the live album from this period that surfaced a few years later.
There's a rumour that Campbell has moved or plans to move back stateside, although I have been unable to confirm this.
Thanks, Jason. Seems I got the Cocker chronology a bit sideways. Sorry about that.
If I understood correctly, though, he's not on the album because of having been cut out of the band somewhat uncerimoniously at an early stage when the transatlantic band went back to England without him. If the article I read was correct, he lost huge amounts of money he was owed as well as many personal items and music gear when left behind by the band. It seems to have been an extremely sordid deal in the way so many music-related stories are...
When you say he may be coming stateside again, where has he been? With Juicy Lucy in NZ (UK?)?
Any known recent recorded output?<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Chris Bauer on 19 February 2006 at 06:17 PM.]</p></FONT>
Hi guys - Glen Campbell is living in Auckland still I think. If anyone wants a contact number for him then I will dig it out and put it up on the forum ... not sure if he is on the net or not !
Hi Paddy - Thanks! Has he been playing? If so, anything you can tell us about what he's been doing and if there's anything recently recorded by him that's available?
Gidday Chris --- I'm not dead sure whether or not he is currently playing or not, but let me make an enquiry or two and I will get back to you on that.
Steve England said, "And talking about exposure does anyone know if Juicy Lucy's first album was released over here with the gatefold sleeve featuring a nekkid lady covered in juicy pieces of fruit? Boy did that have an effect on my teenage hormones"
I know that it was sold here in the US. I bought a copy sometime in the '70's, not for the steel guitar (which I though was very mediocre), but for the fact that some of the band members were also members of some of Britain's seminal blues-rock bands.
Steve, e-mail me about getting a copy of it to you.
Ivan -- thats good to hear, nice to know he is still doing some playing ! Even for TOSD ha !
Glenn, message has been passed to Glen and he will respond to me and let me know if he wants his details forward to you.
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Paddy Long on 20 February 2006 at 12:03 PM.]</p></FONT>
Ok guys heres the oil from the horses mouth!!
Glenn emailed me this morning to say he is still doing some playing in a blues type band - doesn't play much of any country stuff (apart from the occasional session) and church on sundays!
He wasn't aware of the forum, so I have passed on DVA's and Glenn Suchans emails to him - he may, or may not respond !!!
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- it seems like there is/has been a lot of musical (and steel) activity in or coming out of Riverside CA... 
