The first year I was in Calgary - 1968 - I started hanging out with a kid that I met at Crescent Heights High - Brian Downey. He lived in a duplex in Renfrew just across 16th ave from the Trailer Park going up the hill from Deerfoot his brother - Dave Downey - was the Bass player for the 49th Parallel - along with Guitar player Danny Lowe ( inventor of something called QSound - the surround sound codex used in almost all video games and most of the movie soundtracks you hear) ... the guys in the band used to hang out at the Downey household and for me as a 16 year old - it was wild!!
I hung around there for most of 1968 until they moved. On one of those afternoons after school I met Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett the founders of Delaney Bonnie & Friends) they seemed to be there working on some material with Danny Lowe and ?? ... not sure what came out of that - would really like to know actually... there was a recording studio here at the time that was in an old church on 16th ave and about 2nd Street NW... can't remember the name of it anymore... anyway the recording engineer (Frank ??) was getting a pretty good name for himself and was attracting a lot of really top names to town back in the day... since Delaney was a respected session musician that might have had something to do with things.
Incidentally a guy named Steve Fischler (Fischer Warner) who works for Delaney just contacted me to say that you can check out Delaney's new CD, which is up for a Grammy at http://www.myspace.com/delaneybramlett
Labourer was 49th Parallels first really big hit... enjoy... they were successful North America wide...
Now... WHO invented RAP?? This is 1967 folks - and a Calgary group to boot!!
More Nostalgia from the 49th Parallel - Notice the Animals influence:
A departure with new band members - this is when Dorn Beattie joined. - Also a hit... very British influenced and much lighter in tone...
They eventually created a group called Painter which had a couple of North American hits as well - interestingly enough when I went to Vancouver to work for awhile my Location manager was Wayne Morice who was the bass player for Painter in the day... notice the influence that Guess Who had on this already - blame Randy Bachman for that - I believe that he was part of the last 49th Parallel lineup... maybe even part of early Painter - haven't been able to find that yet...
Painter became Hammersmith
Hmmmm.. Doobie Brothers sound-a-likes anyone - didn't notice that at the time....
Hmmm I'm enjoying this way too much. Reminding of my stint as a DJ as well. Later folks. Hope you enjoyed this little compilation.
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