Russ Giguere - Along Comes The Association: Beyond Folk Rock and Three-Piece Suits

This is a Genuine Rare Bird Book

Rare Bird Books
453 South Spring Street, Suite 302
Los Angeles, CA 90013
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Copyright 2020 by Russ Giguere and Ashley Wren Collins

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever, including but not limited to
print, audio, and electronic.

For more information, address:
Rare Bird Books Subsidiary Rights Department
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Set in Minion

Photos provided from Russ Gigueres personal archives unless otherwise noted.

1968 Paul McCartney / Photographer: Linda McCartney. All rights reserved.

Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

epub isbn : 9781644281406

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Giguere, Russ, author. | Collins, Ashley Wren, author.
Title: Along Comes the Association: Beyond Folk Rock and Three-Piece Suits / Russ Giguere and Ashley Wren Collins.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index. |
First Hardcover Edition | A Genuine Rare Bird Book | New York, NY;
Los Angeles, CA: Rare Bird Books, 2020.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781644280270
Subjects: LCSH Giguere, Russ. | Association (Musical group). | Folk musicUnited States. | Folk-rock music. | Popular music1961-1970. | Rock music19611970. | Folk musiciansUnited StatesBiography. | Rock musiciansUnited StatesBiography. | BISAC BIOGRAPHY &
AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Music | MUSIC / Genres & Styles /
Folk & Traditional | MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Rock
Classification: LCC ML421.A83 G54 2020 | DDC 784/.092/2dc23

Contents

Along Comes The Association:
Beyond Folk-Rock and Three-Piece Suits

Acknowledgments

A great woman goes a long way toward helping a man accomplish more than he ever could were he left to his own devices. To that end, Id like to acknowledge three women without whom this book would still be a pipe dream. (And by that, I mean a dream Id still be having while taking a toke on a pipe.)

First and foremost, Id like to thank my wife, researcher/fact finder/truth seeker extraordinaire Valerie Yaros, for her invaluable, indispensable, and indefatigable scholarly efforts hunting down impossible facts and figures, recreating long forgotten timelines, sourcing and organizing pictures, and too many other things to list that made this book possible. If you had to rely on my memory alone, wed be in trouble. Thank you, Valerie, from the bottom of my heart.

To my cowriter, Ashley Wren Collins, for putting up with meI told her many stories, and she researched and dug deeper (nearly six feet under to an early grave!) to help me get my experiences on the page and give them a historical perspective to boot! Thanks, kid, for helping me make this dream come true.

And to my agent, Charlotte Gusay, for her perseverance, unflagging enthusiasm, and belief in me and this book.

(Wait, theres a fourth woman!) Last but not least, to my daughter, JillI love you.

And now I turn to the men and mixed company:

To Tyson Cornell, Hailie Johnson, and the wonderful team at Rare Birdthank you for being delightful, patient, and a joy to work with.

To Brian Cole, Larry Ramos, and Pat Colecchionone of you are with us any longer, and Brian, you left far too soon, but I hope my version of our story would make you proud.

And last but not least, I thank the following people for their contributions to this book. Depending on my memory alone was not enough. Others perceptions and recollections were very helpful in putting the pieces of the old memories puzzle together. So to Terry Kirkman, Ted Bluechel, Jim Yester, Jules Alexander, Jordan Cole, Del Ramos, Bruce Pictor, Henry Diltz, Danny Hutton, Bob Stane, J. D. Souther, Marty Nicosia, Elaine Spanky McFarlane, Paul Holland, Jayne Zinsmaster McKay, Joe Lamanno, Rick Colecchio, Paul Stanley, Mason Williams, Guy Pohlman, Ray Staar, Chrystal Starr Russell Klabunde, Barry DeVorzon, Donni Gougeon, Bob Werner, and David Jacksonthank you for your time, your talent, the memories, and the laughs weve shared together over the decades.

Valerie Yaros has been a historian/archivist for Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists since 1996. Historic sleuthing and fact-checking is her specialty and passion, and she has assisted numerous authors in the quest for historical knowledge. Valerie first recalls hearing The Association singing Goodbye, Columbus as a child on the car radio en route to Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland, with her mom. She then thought Columbus referred to the man who discovered America, but now knows better.

Foreword

By David Geffen

I n 1967, our country was at war and rock and roll music was the anthem of the antiwar protesters. I had dropped out of college and fudged a document to make it look as though I had indeed graduated from UCLA, all to keep my job at the William Morris Agency, and I was interested in advancing my career in the music industry by working with the best rock and roll talent.

I was representing Janis Ian at the time and she was on a split bill with The Association at the Village Theatre (later the Fillmore East) in New York City. The concert promoter, Bill Graham, had accidentally put both Janis and The Association down as headliners. Well, you cant have two headliners. There were afternoon and evening concerts lined up, but I walked into the theater to find Lee Liebman, The Associations road manager, and Janiss manager arguing over who should headline. For me, the solution was simple. She headlines one, I said, pointing to Janis, and they, I nodded in the direction of six twenty-something men, headline the other.

If anyone ever tries to use words to describe what happens when you hear beautiful music liveincredible, rich, complex vocal harmoniesit cant be done; you just cant do that feeling justice. No group sounded like The Association. They were the real deal. Eager and ambitious to make my mark in music, I was determined to sign them.

Pat Colecchio, The Associations manager, rang me up to thank me for handling the headliner incident. Colecchio got the group out of their contract (with an agency that was thought to have mob connections), and I signed them to William Morris.

The rest, as they say, is rock history. In this book, Russ Giguere has gone back in timeover fifty years nowto chronicle the experience of what it was like to be in the music scene in 1960s LA, where everyone knew everyone, played and sang with one another in various bands at all the clubs, and forever changed musichow we hear it, how we feel it, and what it means to us. His memoir is candid, frank, and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. If you know Russ, you certainly wouldnt expect anything less from the man who used to call my office and answer my assistants question, Who shall I say is calling? with a dramatic pause followed by, The Phantom. My assistant would patch Russ straight through to me without missing a beat.

The Phantom days are long gone. The music business aint what it used to be, thats for sure. But music made by The Association, well, theres a reason its still living on in the airwaves today.

Turn the page, and cherish .