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The Hit
If you sat through Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and paid enough attention, you would have heard Silver’s “Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang.” I’m pretty sure I heard it, but can’t make any promises.
Like everything on the Guardians soundtracks, it is very damn 70s - that smooth, warm production, the keening treble of the guitars, the layered vocals, etc. etc.
There’s a little disconnect in the history of the song, at least based on what I’ve read. In Wikipedia’s telling, Silver’s label, Arista Records, handed them the song because everything else they’d recorded lacked “single potential.” In this telling, Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, co-produced it with Tom Sellers (who did the rest of the album). In the other telling - this from a very long interview with Silver’s bassist, Tom Leadon - another member of Silver, John Batdorf, had “cut” the single with his earlier act, Batdorf & Rodney. Part of that same story, though, lends some credence to Wikipedia’s phrasing: once Davis got his hands on the audio, he cut out Rodney’s vocals and had the three original members of Silver - that’s Batdorf, Greg Collier and Brent Mydland - and had “studio people” (what the hell? “Dean Parks on guitar, Jim Gordon [on ?], Scott Edwards on bass”) handle the recording session. This went unmentioned in the record.
The Rest of the Story
What’s above is, in a lot of ways, the rest of the story - at least when it comes to Silver. Based on the few bios I could find, most members had been knocking around the latter days of the Laurel Canyon scene (Leadon gives a full accounting of his innumerable connections), all this while various record labels squeezed that area/sound for everything they could get out of it. Batdorf had moved out to LA in 1967 and formed Batdorf & Rodney with Mark Rodney in 1971; that group managed a minor hit with “Somewhere in the Night” in 1975. Mydland actually came on as a member by way of a mutual friend and Arista was Batdorf & Rodney’s label, and they just stuck with Arista (or were kept on) when they became Silver.
Leadon’s career started in Gainesville, FL, where he played in Tom Petty’s first (major) project, Mudcrutch. It was Leadon’s brother (and member of the Eagles), Bernie Leadon, who lured him to California, where he played with what reads like half the city of Los Angeles at one point or another. His connection to Silver came through his management, Hartmann/Goodman (who also managed America and Poco); after things didn’t work out with a group called Gypsy Hollow Boys, Hartmann/Goodman sent him over to audition for Clive Davis to join Silver. That’s how Leadon and drummer Harry Stinson joined, which leaves only Collier, but I’m not sure I’ll ever learn where he came from (hold that thought, and God bless the internet; his Linked In profile describes him as a “self-employed musician/singer/songwriter,” but also something about “Shito-Ryu Karate-Do Genbu-Kai,” so he’s keeping busy).
Arista’s instincts about “single potential” proved accurate: none of Silver’s other singles - e.g., “Musician (It’s Not an Easy Life)” and “Memory” - charted or went anywhere in particular. When the band started working on a follow-up album, they couldn’t agree with Arista/Davis on who would produce it: per Leadon, members of the band wanted Bill Halverson, who engineered Crosby, Stills and Nash’s first album, while Davis wanted someone else. With Davis holding all the cards that counted, Silver gave up and disbanded in 1977 (or 1978, according to Wikipedia).
Silver’s members went their separate ways from there - e.g., Stinson went on to become a country studio musician and played in Steve Earle’s Dukes in the 80s, Leadon bounced (literally) all over before rejoining Mudcrutch when they reformed in the mid-2000s, while Batdorf continued with songwriting and sessions vocals. It was Mydland who went on to the biggest career. A “connection” from Batdorf & Rodney connected him to the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, then working on a side project, which later caught the attention of Jerry Garcia, who invited him to audition to join the Dead. Mydland went on to become the Dead’s longest-serving keyboardist - 1979-1990 - but that’s a whole other (happy-tragic) story (because Midland died from an overdose in 1990, a heartbreaking detail when you see him sing “I Will Take You Home” to his daughter and inspiration for the song, Jennifer, sitting beside him). At this point, you can find all kinds of things on Mydland - including this solid bit with Al Franken - only none of it pertains to Silver.
Uh…the end.
About the Sampler
Because Silver had just the one eponymous album, that's the sampler for this one. Wikipedia calls them a “country rock” band, which makes some sense if you wade through all the sources, but I think the Mydland 30-year memorial/retrospective (see "happy/tragic" link) comes a lot closer with “a slick Los Angeles-based soft-rock outfit.” Most of the material sounds like the songs already linked to above, with “All I Wanna Do” as my personal stand-out. All the rest of it is very of the time, place and era - e.g., “No Wonder,” “Trust in Somebody,” “It’s Gonna Be Alright,” “Climbing,” etc.
As I’ve said for other bands/artists from the era, I feel fairly confident that this was what punk rock responded to. As much as it listens like a parody of itself by now, it’s good music on a technical level. It was just a really specific era/sound in popular music, the mid-1970s.
Till the next one…
If you sat through Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and paid enough attention, you would have heard Silver’s “Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang.” I’m pretty sure I heard it, but can’t make any promises.
Like everything on the Guardians soundtracks, it is very damn 70s - that smooth, warm production, the keening treble of the guitars, the layered vocals, etc. etc.
There’s a little disconnect in the history of the song, at least based on what I’ve read. In Wikipedia’s telling, Silver’s label, Arista Records, handed them the song because everything else they’d recorded lacked “single potential.” In this telling, Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, co-produced it with Tom Sellers (who did the rest of the album). In the other telling - this from a very long interview with Silver’s bassist, Tom Leadon - another member of Silver, John Batdorf, had “cut” the single with his earlier act, Batdorf & Rodney. Part of that same story, though, lends some credence to Wikipedia’s phrasing: once Davis got his hands on the audio, he cut out Rodney’s vocals and had the three original members of Silver - that’s Batdorf, Greg Collier and Brent Mydland - and had “studio people” (what the hell? “Dean Parks on guitar, Jim Gordon [on ?], Scott Edwards on bass”) handle the recording session. This went unmentioned in the record.
The Rest of the Story
What’s above is, in a lot of ways, the rest of the story - at least when it comes to Silver. Based on the few bios I could find, most members had been knocking around the latter days of the Laurel Canyon scene (Leadon gives a full accounting of his innumerable connections), all this while various record labels squeezed that area/sound for everything they could get out of it. Batdorf had moved out to LA in 1967 and formed Batdorf & Rodney with Mark Rodney in 1971; that group managed a minor hit with “Somewhere in the Night” in 1975. Mydland actually came on as a member by way of a mutual friend and Arista was Batdorf & Rodney’s label, and they just stuck with Arista (or were kept on) when they became Silver.
Leadon’s career started in Gainesville, FL, where he played in Tom Petty’s first (major) project, Mudcrutch. It was Leadon’s brother (and member of the Eagles), Bernie Leadon, who lured him to California, where he played with what reads like half the city of Los Angeles at one point or another. His connection to Silver came through his management, Hartmann/Goodman (who also managed America and Poco); after things didn’t work out with a group called Gypsy Hollow Boys, Hartmann/Goodman sent him over to audition for Clive Davis to join Silver. That’s how Leadon and drummer Harry Stinson joined, which leaves only Collier, but I’m not sure I’ll ever learn where he came from (hold that thought, and God bless the internet; his Linked In profile describes him as a “self-employed musician/singer/songwriter,” but also something about “Shito-Ryu Karate-Do Genbu-Kai,” so he’s keeping busy).
Arista’s instincts about “single potential” proved accurate: none of Silver’s other singles - e.g., “Musician (It’s Not an Easy Life)” and “Memory” - charted or went anywhere in particular. When the band started working on a follow-up album, they couldn’t agree with Arista/Davis on who would produce it: per Leadon, members of the band wanted Bill Halverson, who engineered Crosby, Stills and Nash’s first album, while Davis wanted someone else. With Davis holding all the cards that counted, Silver gave up and disbanded in 1977 (or 1978, according to Wikipedia).
Silver’s members went their separate ways from there - e.g., Stinson went on to become a country studio musician and played in Steve Earle’s Dukes in the 80s, Leadon bounced (literally) all over before rejoining Mudcrutch when they reformed in the mid-2000s, while Batdorf continued with songwriting and sessions vocals. It was Mydland who went on to the biggest career. A “connection” from Batdorf & Rodney connected him to the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, then working on a side project, which later caught the attention of Jerry Garcia, who invited him to audition to join the Dead. Mydland went on to become the Dead’s longest-serving keyboardist - 1979-1990 - but that’s a whole other (happy-tragic) story (because Midland died from an overdose in 1990, a heartbreaking detail when you see him sing “I Will Take You Home” to his daughter and inspiration for the song, Jennifer, sitting beside him). At this point, you can find all kinds of things on Mydland - including this solid bit with Al Franken - only none of it pertains to Silver.
Uh…the end.
About the Sampler
Because Silver had just the one eponymous album, that's the sampler for this one. Wikipedia calls them a “country rock” band, which makes some sense if you wade through all the sources, but I think the Mydland 30-year memorial/retrospective (see "happy/tragic" link) comes a lot closer with “a slick Los Angeles-based soft-rock outfit.” Most of the material sounds like the songs already linked to above, with “All I Wanna Do” as my personal stand-out. All the rest of it is very of the time, place and era - e.g., “No Wonder,” “Trust in Somebody,” “It’s Gonna Be Alright,” “Climbing,” etc.
As I’ve said for other bands/artists from the era, I feel fairly confident that this was what punk rock responded to. As much as it listens like a parody of itself by now, it’s good music on a technical level. It was just a really specific era/sound in popular music, the mid-1970s.
Till the next one…
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