I met Reg and the boys in New York, maybe a year or so after Wild Thing went to #1 on the U.S. charts. I liked them immediately. There was no rock & roll posing – these were just damned good guys. Every so often our paths would cross again.

Then, about seven or eight years ago Reg & I were in each other’s company on a few occasions. We played Wild Thing on a UK TV show (with Carrie Rodriguez) and then Reg & Brenda showed up at a few of our shows. Each time he’d come with his trusted ocarina in his pocket and gladly join us for a show-stopping version of “that song.” I love those memories.

About Wild Thing

Back in the “Brill Building” 60s, my biggest concern as a writer, was that the artist and producer recording my song would capture the feel or the groove of the song correctly .. that is, like the demo recording that I produced. I’m happy to say that many did. I’ve been very fortunate in that regard. But none captured the feel and the intent of the demo, better than the Troggs recording of Wild Thing, thanks to the true rock & roll spirit of Reg & the boys and Larry Page’s instincts not to overproduce. I remember the first time I heard it .. it killed me!

And Jimi Hendrix felt exactly the same way. I love the story about Jimi jumping out of the shower butt naked when he heard Wild Thing playing on his radio to tell his girlfriend, “That’s the record I was telling you about!!” Thanks to Reg & the boys, Jimi immediately included the song in his shows and his legendary Monterey performance soon followed.

REG – THE SONGWRITER

Aside from his unique – humble but passionate – delivery as a vocalist, it should be remembered that Reg was an important writer in his own right. Sandwiched between and around Wild Thing and another of my songs, Anyway That You Want Me, in the space of a couple of years, he wrote and had hits with some cool, simple little rock & roll heartfelt songs, With A Girl Like You, I Can’t Control Myself and Love Is All Around. Those honest blasts of rock & roll energy were unique in their day. Later on, you could feel similar energy with the Ramones and the Velvet Undergound. Reg & the boys should be remembered as sort of pioneers of that great stuff.

My deep condolences to Brenda, daughter Karen and son Jason – as well as to Jacqueline (Jackie) Ryan and all those from his passionate and wonderful fan club, who saw the beauty in what Reg & the boys did from the very beginning and were their champions for all these years. I’m proud to have known so many of you.

Here’s to Reg .. a talented guy – a humble guy .. a nice guy. It’s wonderful that he came by when he did.

[Jerry died a few days ago and what follows is what Chip Taylor remembers about working with Jerry during the 60s. At the end we'll discuss some of Jerry's other indelible work.]

I was so saddened to hear of Jerry’s passing. Here are a few recollections.
 
Although I didn’t see him often, I loved just being with Jerry. He always met me with a warm, humble, welcoming smile. He was a bit quirky in nature – slightly nervous in a nice honest way. I viewed it as the shy kid in him. And, although a great writer himself, he always made me feel like it was special for him to work with me.
 
I think that was one of his great qualities. Although he brought genius to the table, he was quick to recognize and encourage that in others – whether that person was a singer or another writer of songs. He brought out the best in talented people.
 
I had first heard about Jerry from my old bandmate/friend Ted Daryll (aka Ted Meister). Somehow Ted got connected with Jerry in Philadelphia where he produced a recording of Ted singing “She Cried”. I was impressed with the orchestration and sound of that record and the fact that Jerry had the “ears” to hear Ted’s cool song, which later became a number one hit for Jay and the Americans.
 
(I’ve heard that as a kid growing up in Philly, Jerry worked as a record buyer in a black neighborhood. It was there that he learned to play piano and totally immersed himself in gospel and rhythm and blues.)
 
WRITING WITH JERRY
 
I seldom wrote songs with others as that process was usually painful to me. Alone I can quickly get to the layers underneath – where the real magic comes from. I craft late in the game. When most people co-write, the crafting is usually immediate and almost the entire game. I hate that.
 
But with Jerry & me, it was different. We were both able to allow the organic stuff out in each other’s presence. During our first writing session, working on a new song “I Can’t Wait Until I See My Baby’s Face”, he allowed things out of him that were honest and guttural – the same kind of honest stuff that I might do by myself. I remember thinking, “Man this is going to be special – and so, so easy!”
 
So there we were, with Jerry creating a setting by paying chords on a piano with a cool little Bossa Nova-like feel on the piano and me playing a bit of acoustic guitar. As words, with a cool little melody flew out from each of us, we grabbed a bunch and within an hour or so, the song was finished. It was that easy.
 
Shortly after we wrote it, Baby Washington’s version of “I Can’t Wait Until I See My Baby’s Face” was a big R&B hit, and the Pat Thomas version, arranged by Jerry, went to the top of the jazz charts. Great versions by Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin also followed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acEdIcC814U

 
 
TRY (JUST A LITTLE BIT HARDER)
 
Jerry and I originally wrote this song as a ballad for Garnet Mimms – kind of like an Otis Redding thing. It was sweaty & good. A few days later, Jerry called me and asked if I could change it into an up-tempo song for Lorraine Ellison. He needed to have a version by the following day.
 
Wanting to be at Aqueduct Race Track the next day by 1:00 to bet on a horse, I worked hard that night to have something ready by morning. I took the words to our “Try” and squeezed them into the groove of another of my songs, “On My Word”. Before I went to sleep, it felt pretty good.
 
I played it for Jerry the next morning at around 10:00 and he loved it. After a few adjusts, he banged it out on piano and recorded it onto his reel to reel. I made it in time to bet my horse and forgot about the song.
 
Later I found out that Lorraine had recorded a cool version. The following year, as I was driving down the Hutchinson River Parkway, heading for New York, the DJ said, here’s the new Janis Joplin single. He played “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)” and I just about drove off the road. I had no idea she had recorded it!

 
But it all started with a ballad for Garnet Mimms – a cool, soulful one.
 
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
 
Simplicity and honesty was Jerry’s musical credo. He lived and breathed street soul.  His writing was passionate, not clever.
 
The great artist and music historian, Billy Vera, said :
 
“He was not a melody writer like Carole King or Burt Bacharach, but he really got the gospel-based black idiom.  With singers like Mimms and Tate,” he continued, referring to Garnett Mimms and Howard Tate, “and later Lorraine Ellison, New York R&B went deeper into gospel than it had previously. That was his contribution.”
 
I guess what Billy said is absolutely true. But from my side of things – from writer to writer – I loved that Jerry was one of the very few writers that didn’t let his brain screw up his honest emotion.
 
Aside from that, Jerry was just a great, quirky (in a kind, warm way), honest and honorable guy.
 
A total one-of-a kind.

[Before we end this post on a great Rock and Roll Joe, we need to mention at least a few other outstanding tracks that Jerry brought us. He wrote Time Is On My Side for a jazz artist named Kai Winding but we all know the tremendous versions by Irma Thomas and the Rolling Stones. Stay With Me, written, produced and arranged by Jerry, is one of the greatest soul tracks of the 60s that is not widely known.

And finally, one of Jerry's last projects was with Howard Tate who made an absolutely stunning 1967 record that not many heard (out of print for a long time and unfortunately gone once again) and subsequently disappeared for many years. But Howard Tate was found again, a reverend in New Jersey who didn't know that he had developed a cult following over the years, and he re-teamed with Jerry to record a solid album in 2003. To get many of these tracks in one place check out the Jerry Ragovoy Story.]

Barrett Strong was primarily a songwriter, the most well-known of his songs were done in collaboration with Norman Whitfield (another Joe!).  They wrote the massive hits “(I Heard it Through the)Grapevine”, “I Wish It Would Rain”, “War” and “Just My Imagination”.

Strong also recorded on his own, most famously the first version of “Money”, which he claims he also composed but never got credit for.

YouTube Version of Money (That’s What I Want)

By the way, the composers never got their due credit at Motown, as evidenced at Hitsville, the Motown Museum in Detroit, that has the Snake Pit, the Artists, the Musicians all getting their accolades, but strangely there is little if anything about the composers on display.

I saw Barrett twice at the Bottom Line (in New York City) participating in the phenomenal “In Their Own Words” series and he was magical, performing bare bone versions of his classic songs, accompanying himself on piano, sending chills through the unsuspecting and eerily hushed audience. On his first visit, Richard Thompson was on the panel adding unrehearsed guitar filligrees on “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” – blues, folk and rhythm in a magical stew. That performance is part of Vol. 1 of the two Bottom Line released CDs from the “Words” series.

His songs also found there way elsewhere. The Artistics “This Heart Of Mine” on OKEH 7232 comes to mind as being one of the most sought after Northern Soul tracks on the label. Others were recorded in Philadelphia, but names and titles escape me as I write this from memory (The Orlons?). While Berry Gordy abandoned Detroit for Los Angeles, Barrett stayed behind, recording on his own and developing local music talent. The last I heard about Barrett was from Dennis Coffey (another Joe, or is he too famous?) in the spring of 2009 mentioning that he was in poor health.

That’s my two cents for this time.

Baker was born in Birmingham Alabama in 1933. He played guitar, wrote songs and fronted several local bands including Baker Knight and the Knightmares.

With dreams of making it big, Baker moved to LA in 1958, hoping to get his songs recorded, secure a recording contract or become a movie star. For several years he struggled with little success in any of these endeavors.

A chance meeting with Ricky Nelson provided the songwriting break he needed.

Nelson decided to record two of Baker’s songs which helped establish him as a songwriter. The two songs Nelson recorded were Lonesome Town which reached #6 on the Billboard charts and I Got A Feeling which reached #11. Ricky Nelson recorded many more Baker Knight songs as did Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frank Sinatra and Mickey Gilley.

[This was the Academy of Country Music Song of the Year in 1975]

Throughout his life Baker continued to write, record and release his own recordings but found little solo success.

He returned to Birmingham Alabama in 1985 where he unfortunately developed and struggled with some serious health problems. He died in 2005.

Lonesome Town in my opinion is one of the greatest rock n roll ballads ever written. It certainly may be one of the saddest.

Baker has yet to be recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or the Songwriter Hall of Fame.

A true Rock and Roll Joe.

Kevin Hale
Westlake Village California