Cal Tjader's Monkey Beams = Gary McFarland's Over Easy

[Teasing the Korean]

On the CD reissue of "Soul Sauce," there is a bonus track called "Monkey Beams." For the writing credit, it says "composer unknown."

It is the EXACT same tune as "Over Easy" by Gary McFarland, credited to Gary McFarland, on his album "The In Sound."

What's the story here? Is Verve so lazy and/or incompetent that nobody caught this when they did the reissue?

Edited April 24, 2007 by Teasing the Korean

[mikeweil]

Don't know about any story, but wouldn't be surprised if this particular reissue was handled by someone not familiar with McFarland's music - e.g. I know a lot of music, but McFarland's was a lot harder to get acquainted with than Tjader's.

And I also wouldn't be surprised if Cal used Gary's tune: It seems the two were friends. Verve has at least two tracks from an unissued session with them both in the can, but I doubt we will ever get to hear this.

p.s. I will incorporate this into the upcoming Tjader discography and forward it to Tjader biographer (that board name is to be taken literally).

Edited April 24, 2007 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

Just found out I already had this in the disco - Doug Payne, the undisputed Gary McFarland expert on the web, also noted this.

See http://www.dougpayne.com/gary1.htm

Edited April 24, 2007 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

Well, it could be it wasn't Verve's fault - Tjader recorded the tune November 23, 1964. McFarland's session was early in August, 1965 - maybe he re-titled his own tune. The same happened with Fried Bananas, only that the change took place before any issues were made.

So the session logs probably identified the tune as Monkey Beams - why shouldn't they trust the original session files? That the composer wasn't noted may have been sloppiness, or caused by the fact that they decided against releasing the tune. If you take a look at the differing personnel and stylistics involved until that Soul Sauce LP was issued .... producer Creed Taylor and Tjader must have had differing ideas about the album, and maybe Taylor and McFarland clashed ..... all speculation, of course.

Edited April 24, 2007 by mikeweil

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks for your replies. Yes, your theories make sense. When I googled the two titles, the only hits were from Doug Payne's (terrific) website.

[GA Russell]

Not to beat a dead horse, but let me point out, TTK, that the records for the bonus tracks session were so poor that they do not know who the personnel were. Because of the poor record keeping, I don't think a conclusion can be fairly reached regarding why the discrepancy you mention exists.

The CD liner notes say, "Two selections with possibly the same stellar line-up as 'Afro-blue', Monkey Beams and Ming..."

The use of the word "possibly" indicates to me that they don't know for sure who is even on the record. If they can't get that right, why should we expect them to get anything else right?