Jerry Moss, RIP

[GA Russell]

Jerry Moss has died at 88.  RIP.

Moss was the salesman of A&M Records, to go along with Herb Alpert's musical contributions.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/08/16/jerry-moss-am-records-founder-dies/70607678007/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/herb-alpert-recalls-the-pivotal-moment-with-jerry-moss-that-set-a-m-records-course/ar-AA1fmTg4
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/music-mogul-jerry-moss-left-his-mark-in-horse-racing-with-zenyatta-and-upset-kentucky-derby-win/ar-AA1fmYIv

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I don't know that "salesman" captures what he did for A&M. From the stories I've read over the years, Moss went out and found talent as well. He was also considered one of the better label bosses when it came to treating the artists fairly. A pure businessman/salesman would not give two hoots how the artists were treated.

[GA Russell]

Kevin, I guess you and I have read different things.  What I read was that it was Moss who went around to the wholesalers and retailers promoting The Lonely Bull and other records.

I have also seen Herb Alpert referred to as the company's A&R man.

By the way, I recently read that Alpert and Moss were for a short while the co-managers of Jan & Dean.

 

[Teasing the Korean]

I love A&M Records in the 1960s.  There was a consistent aesthetic thread between most of those acts - Tijuana Brass, Brasil '66, Bacharach, Chris Montez, Claudine Longet.

My family growing up included members of the WWII, Silent, Baby Boom, and Gen X generations.  When we were all together on a long car trip and an A&M song came on the radio, it would be among the few things we could all agree on. 

RIP Jerry.

[felser]

15 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I love A&M Records in the 1960s.  There was a consistent aesthetic thread between most of those acts - Tijuana Brass, Brasil '66, Bacharach, Chris Montez, Claudine Longet.

My family growing up included members of the WWII, Silent, Baby Boom, and Gen X generations.  When we were all together on a long car trip and an A&M song came on the radio, it would be among the few things we could all agree on. 

RIP Jerry.

One of the really interesting groups on the label was the We Five, who were caught in between the label's Brasil '66 model (see their cover tunes) on one hand and early Jefferson Airplane (check out their originals) on the other.  They made some pretty great folk-rock/proto-psych records which were largely and unfairly ignored (they didn't look the part, and A&M didn't have that rep - compare the music of the first cut with the album cover), plus the justly lionized "You Were On My Mind".

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by felser

[GA Russell]

We Five's single of Get Together was my introduction to that song.

My recollection (Here we go!) is that it was their follow-up to You Were On My Mind.

 

[mjzee]

Wasn't it Moss who kicked Captain Beefheart off the label as "too negative"?  Still, you can't deny what A&M achieved.  Sun-drenched California MOR, of which The Carpenters were the epitome.  RIP.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Wasn't it Moss who kicked Captain Beefheart off the label as "too negative"?  Still, you can't deny what A&M achieved.  Sun-drenched California MOR, of which The Carpenters were the epitome.  RIP.

We have that We Five Make Someone Happy album.  Can't remember it.  Will spin this weekend (and will listen to those clips this evening.)

[felser]

On 8/17/2023 at 4:03 PM, GA Russell said:

We Five's single of Get Together was my introduction to that song.

My recollection (Here we go!) is that it was their follow-up to You Were On My Mind.

Correct, and it scraped the bottom of the USA Top 40 (#31), though they didn't play it in Huntsville, Alabama, where I lived at the time.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

On 8/17/2023 at 3:04 PM, GA Russell said:

Kevin, I guess you and I have read different things.  What I read was that it was Moss who went around to the wholesalers and retailers promoting The Lonely Bull and other records.

I have also seen Herb Alpert referred to as the company's A&R man.

By the way, I recently read that Alpert and Moss were for a short while the co-managers of Jan & Dean.

I can't find much on-line, but from what I remember, Alpert was the music guy in the beginning and his hits funded the label. But according to one article I did find, after attending the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Moss started signing rock artists. As that article suggests, he was the one who wanted Peter Frampton to do a live record, which resulted in one of their biggest selling records, so i would guess he had some input into A&R, at least in the rock side of things.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, bresna said:

I can't find much on-line, but from what I remember, Alpert was the music guy in the beginning and his hits funded the label. But according to one article I did find, after attending the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Moss started signing rock artists...

And the label began to lose its organizing principle.  

I liked A&M especially in the late 1960s, when they did the early CTI albums.  Granted, they had a few rock acts such as Boyce & Hart, the Merry-Go-Round, and Roger Nichols, if these meet your criteria for "rock." 

[JSngry]

Chris Montez sorta-kinda singing with Pete Jolly's Ramsey Lewis Trio-esque backing with vibes and percussion...why? How? 

[Teasing the Korean]

5 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Chris Montez sorta-kinda singing with Pete Jolly's Ramsey Lewis Trio-esque backing with vibes and percussion...why? How? 

This is a dream I had, and I swear, I'm not lying, this is exactly how it went down in the dream:

I dreamt I was a at a cocktail party and I was talking to Herb Alpert.  He looked like he did in the 1960s, and was wearing a turtleneck. I approached him and told him how much I loved A&M Records - the Brass, Brasil '66, Bacharach, etc.  I was gushing over how much I loved those records. 

He replied, "Thank you.  In retrospect, I wish we weren't so formulaic, and that we had taken more chances."

"Tell me about it," I replied, chuckling. "Like those Chris Montez records.  They are all identical to one another.  The same arrangement in every tune..."  Herb's smile began to fade, and he walked away from me.  I felt like I'd insulted him, even after I woke up!

[JSngry]

Imagine if Chris Montez had done "Night and Day" instead of Sergio Mendes...would the intro have changed? 

[Teasing the Korean]

3 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Imagine if Chris Montez had done "Night and Day" instead of Sergio Mendes...would the intro have changed? 

My wife and I have a gag - an SCTV-like commercial for "Chris Montez Sings The Beatles' White Album." She is the announcer. She names the tunes, and I sing and play snippets, happy versions of "Revolution" "Everbody's Got Something to Hide," etc.

[JSngry]

Do you do that at parties? 

[Teasing the Korean]

9 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Do you do that at parties? 

We're still working on it, but we will.

We have done, note-for-note and word-for-word, the Burt and Angie Martini & Rossi commercial.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

Never gets old! 

[Teasing the Korean]

1 minute ago, JSngry said:

Never gets old! 

Yeah, I could watch it on a loop for an hour!

[JSngry]

Have you ever tried Martini & Rossi? Not to my liking... 

[Teasing the Korean]

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Have you ever tried Martini & Rossi? Not to my liking... 

Oh, it's bad.  We bought a bottle to use for the gag, tasted some, and that was that.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

4 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

And the label began to lose its organizing principle.  

I liked A&M especially in the late 1960s, when they did the early CTI albums.  Granted, they had a few rock acts such as Boyce & Hart, the Merry-Go-Round, and Roger Nichols, if these meet your criteria for "rock." 

If losing "its organizing principal" meant signing great bands/musicians like Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, Humble Pie, Fairport Convention, Free, Carole King, Nazareth, the Tubes, Styx, Supertramp, Squeeze, Peter Frampton, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Joe Jackson, R.E.M., The Go-Gos & the Police, I'm very glad they lost their way. At Christmastime, I play the Carpenters' & Amy Grant's A&M Christmas CDs all the time. I'm a pretty big fan of the Police and still play their CDs pretty often.

To be perfectly honest, I don't own a single record A&M made early on, even their early pop bands but especially Herb Alpert's stuff, which was never my kind of music. I suppose I have heard some Sergio Mendes on occasion, but I don't own any of it.

[Teasing the Korean]

10 minutes ago, bresna said:

If losing "its organizing principal" meant signing great bands/musicians like Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, Humble Pie, Fairport Convention, Free, Carole King, Nazareth, the Tubes, Styx, Supertramp, Squeeze, Peter Frampton, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Joe Jackson, R.E.M., The Go-Gos & the Police, I'm very glad they lost their way. At Christmastime, I play the Carpenters' & Amy Grant's A&M Christmas CDs all the time. I'm a pretty big fan of the Police and still play their CDs pretty often.

To be perfectly honest, I don't own a single record A&M made early on, even their early pop bands but especially Herb Alpert's stuff, which was never my kind of music. I suppose I have heard some Sergio Mendes on occasion, but I don't own any of it.

I'm the opposite, I don't own anything by any of those artists you mentioned, although Ms. TTK has the Go-Gos, Joe Jackson, and Squeeze. I like it when labels have a strong sense of aesthetics, which A&M in the 1960s did, for the most part.  After the Carpenters, not so much.

[JSngry]

[mjzee]

I was on A&M's mailing list for the first part of 1973.  I couldn't relate to what they sent me - it was made for someone else, not for me.  Probably reflected a Southern California soft-rock zeitgeist (though with a few exceptions), and I kept almost none of it.  Some titles I remember are: Shawn Phillips - Faces, Peter Frampton - Frampton's Camel, Lani Hall - Sun Down Lady, Roger Kellaway - Center Of The Circle, Quincy Jones - You've Got It Bad Girl, Joan Baez - Where Are You Now My Son?, Cheryl Dilcher - Butterfly, Hoyt Axton - Less Than The Song, Tim Weisberg - Hurtwood Edge, Joan Armatrading - Whatever's For Us, and Gallagher & Lyle - Willie & The Lapdog.

Three I kept were the first Stealer's Wheel album, Charles Lloyd - Waves (I really liked "T.M." with The Beach Boys backing), and Michael Murphey - Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir.