Ventures book

[Deke Dickerson]

My take on the Ventures book--

A lot of stuff was finally answered for me, in the form of direct quotes from the Ventures themselves. I think most of the guitar related stuff that comes from direct quotes with the Ventures is accurate, or at least--accurately reflects the Ventures' opinions. Some of the things that have been pointed out already in this thread on the forum were revelations for me, so I felt the book was worth it for that.

On the other hand, the book was written by a fan and you can tell that the author is not a guitar "geek," some of the facts that are presented (like the "Merle Travis was the first to play a Mosrite" when all it takes is a google search and 15 minutes to find out that Joe Maphis was the first guy to play a Mosrite) seem ill-informed and poorly researched. If you think I'm rushing to judgement let me just state that I'm a huge Merle Travis fan and have even been in talks with Merle's daughter Merlene Travis about writing the Travis biography myself, and I have seen thousands of photos of Merle Travis, and he has never been photographed with a Mosrite guitar over his shoulder. Before I digress too much, I'll just state that there is a lot to the book that comes off as "fan" research and not professional research. Not to knock the guy, I can tell it was a heck of an undertaking. But that's my 2 cents on the book....it's worth getting, but don't take anything in it to be gospel or undisputed fact, because it's mostly a bunch of quotes, recollections, and opinions.

Deke

[Veenture]

.... I see it suggested here that the Ventures were often on the road while their albums were being recorded...//...Seems a common practice of the business of that era at least. Is it really them on all those records ? jv

The Ventures certainly hired many guest (studio) musicians for their recordings over the years but some of the (studio) recordings put out under the Ventures' name weren't their works ...at all! see also: ...viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1047&p=9556#p9556

[Chemo]

some of the (studio) recordings put out under the Ventures' name weren't their works ...at all!

I have the Rocky Road album on a 2in1-cd. It must be the worst misuse of a legendary name that I've ever seen.

Otherwise I am more concentrated on the 60's albums. Driving Guitars is a very nice companion book to them. I probably also mentioned this before, but I enjoyed Del Halterman's book too.

[Veenture]

I have the Rocky Road album on a 2in1-cd. It must be the worst misuse of a legendary name that I've ever seen.

In the Dan Halterman book one can read that the Ventures strongly objected to their record company using their band's name for the Rocky Road album. The Ventures of course did not object if the record company would choose another band name for the album. Ha, so the company chose "The New Ventures"!! I don't know if the Ventures received any royalties out of this issue but they were outraged upon learning how they were tricked...but it was too late. Having said that, I cannot vouch for the historical correctness in all this "record company business" with their artists. I do remember being very disappointed with this LP but have it anyway on cd-r just for the sake of 'completeness' in my V-collection.

[Chemo]

Ventures strongly objected to their record company using their band's name for the Rocky Road album.

Yes, I read that part again when I got Rocky Road. I can only imagine what they must have felt when they heard the album...

[Haole Jim]

So even though they sold a hundred million albums and toured for four decaeds, the guys were not each multimillionaires?

If that's the case, THAT is an effing pity.

[juan_10]

LOL Jim ...that was 'the white collar crime known as the music business ' ..
an appropriate description for the era we are talking about. I like to think it's got better these days with PRS and
those sharky music lawyers. jv