ALIVE FIVE-0!
an interview with
DON WILSON of THE VENTURES
by Robert Silverstein
Just over fifty years ago, guitarist Johnny Smith was telling everyone
about a song he wrote called Walk Dont Run. Word
has it that Smith even called Les Paul, thinking hed pick the
masters brains and inspire the songs first cover, perhaps?
Les was too busy mining his own gold on the charts with Mary Ford,
but meanwhile up in Seattle, Don Wilson and Bob Bogle had crafted
a fresh and unique version of Walk Dont Run, taking
it to new heights with their new band The Ventures. Aspiring guitarists
who had no idea fame and fortune was around the corner, Wilson and
Bogle forever immortalized that Johnny Smith track with a rocking
Venture-ized instrumental version and during the summer of 1960, The
Ventures finally took Walk, Dont Run to the top
of the charts. The trademark Ventures song, Walk, Dont
Run provided the liftoff point in the career of a classic guitar
instrumental band that has now spanned five full decades. Its
been a long time since that historic summer of 1960, but The Ventures
live on in the hearts and minds of instrumental music buffs and guitarists
alike. Bringing the Ventures story up to date in 2008, the Rock
And Roll Hall of fame is inducting the band on March 10, 2008an
honor that is long overdue in the minds of many fans. Ventures co-founder
and rhythm guitarist Don Wilson, who just turned 75 years young, remains
the perennial rock instrumental guitarist. In this February 20, 2008
interviewwritten and produced by MWE3.com publisher Robert Silverstein
for 20th Century Guitar magazineDon sounds totally upbeat about
the rock hall induction, new Ventures recordings and tours coming
in 2008, the guitar company that bears his imprint, Wilson Brothers
Guitars and much more.
{The Ventures are without a doubt America's all
time greatest instrumental rock and roll band. This interview with
Don Wilson first appeared in the April 2008 issue of 20th Century
Guitar magazine and the interview was also featured in the Winter
2008 issue of England's Pipeline
magazine. MWE3.com now presents
the interview with Don Wilson in it's entirety, complete with many
of the classic vintage photos Don was kind enough to send for the
magazine article.
With the passing of Bob BogleDon
Wilson's co-founding partner in The Ventureson
Sunday, June 14, 2009, a piece of rock and roll history has changed
forever. Bob will be missed but his legacy and fantastic guitar is
always alive on the hundreds of song classics that have appeared on
all those great Ventures albums over the years. For a good example
of Bob Bogle's guitar prowess, take a listen to his final studio album
with The Ventures. The all instrumental 16 track Rocky!, released
by EMI in Japan in early 2008 finds Bogle sounding great, playing
lead guitar on most of the tracks with added guitar leads taken by
long time Ventures guitar aces Nokie Edwards, Gerry McGee and Bob
Spalding with rhythm guitars handled by Don Wilson, and added rhythms
and arrangements by Art Greenhaw. Rock on in heaven Bob! - editor
July 4, 2009}
RS: Rock instrumental rock fans are looking forward to seeing The
Ventures get inducted into the Rock n Roll hall of fame. Is there
a story behind the hall finally inducting The Ventures?
DW: Well I dont know. Weve been passed by. (laughter)
For 22 years weve been eligible and never been nominated. Well,
if wed have gotten in then we would have been forgotten about
by now. It just could be it kind of worked to our advantage by getting
in now. Because, believe it or not, and Im sure you do, its
our 50th anniversary on 09. The 50th anniversary since our very
first first recording, which wasnt a hit. But Walk, Dont
Run was our second attempt. So, its our 50th anniversary
and I think getting into this now is pretty good timing because itll
be fresh in peoples minds. And the other thing is that just
last year Walk, Dont Run got into the Grammy hall
of fame as one of the most influential records ever pressed. By The
Ventures. So thats quite an honor too.
RS: Its amazing that the Dave Clark Five are also being inducted
this year. Theyve been pretty low key for a long while.
DW: They have, yeah. But were still working. We work all the
time and go to Japan. I just got back from Japan. I just turned 75,
which I cant believe. I mean, I dont know where the time
went to. But Im fine. I feel like working. I can probably work
another 2, 3 or 4 years if I want to. And the reason I do is because
I dont golf, I dont fish, you know what I mean? Its
something that I enjoy doing. People say Dont you get
tired of playing? Well, no I dont. Do you ever get tired
of playing Walk, Dont Run? You must. I say, (laughter)
No, I dont! I dont know how many times Ive
played but I never get tired of playing it. Anyway, we just got back
from Japan. We did, believe it or not, seventeen shows in nine days
without a day off. And me at my age, and people say how do you do
it? I just have to say, I dont know, I just do it. (laughter)
Ive been doing it for so long its just kind of a matter
of pacing and not even thinking about it.
RS: Music must be a longevity career. I mean, look at Les Paul and
even Segovia.
DW: Yeah, I guess he plays once a week in New York?
RS: Yeah Les is still playing in midtown Manhattan every Monday night.
DW: Yeah, thats right. Thats what I heard. Id love
to go and see him.
RS: Id like to be a fly on the wall to hear the stories you
guys would tell.
DW: Oh, my god yeah! (laughter) Yeah, we have a new book coming out
too, about The Ventures. Its 400 pages and actually my mom,
and a fan from Canada, which has become a friend of course and hes
been to my house a few times. He and my mom and Bob and I have been
writing this book for eight years. Like I say, its 400 pages.
Its probably the size of an 8x10, its not a hardcover.
But anyway, this should be out by spring. Thats another thing
that Im sure Venture people would really be interested in because
its a lot about behind the scenes and what happened to us here
and there. And a lot of pictures probably people have never scene,
like Nokie when he was about 13, holding a guitar sitting on his front
lawn. (laughter) Things like that so it should be very good.
RS: Whos going to be with you when The Ventures get inducted
to the rock hall of fame on March 10th, 2008?
DW: Itll be the current lineup. Unfortunately, my partner Bob
Bogle hes not well. Hes not going to be able to make it.
And its a shame because he played lead guitar on Walk,
Dont Run. But we have a guy thats been with us for
25 years now, off and on, doing recording and going on the road. His
name is Bob Spalding and he is actually considered to be, and he has
a CD out, called The 5th Venture. And hes a real utility
man. I mean he can play rhythm, lead, bass. I guess hell be
playing Walk, Dont Run. Nobody can play it exactly
like Bob Bogle because he has sound that is quite different. Anyway,
he comes as close anybody. And then Nokie will be playing the bass
on that. Then well switch around and well play Hawaii
Five-O with Nokie playing lead, that he did on the original
recording. And then we have a guitar ourselves. I dont know
if you know that. The Wilson brothers guitar.
RS: I want to get back to that. Whos inducting The Ventures
at the rock hall of fame? I hope its someone worthy of your
status.
DW: I hope so too. I dont know who. Its undecided at this
point. They wanted to get Eddie Van Halen but hes not available
at that time. I guess hes on the road or something. But I read
something about him at one time. He said the first song he ever learned
was Walk, Dont Run. But Im thinking maybe
Joe Perry is possible. Or Steven Tyler. I know theyre big Venture
people. Just to give you an example. We were playing The House Of
Blues in Los Angeles. The place was packed. I mean there was no seats.
Those people like Billy Bob Thornton was there. Anyway, the Aerosmith
group came in late. They wanted to see The Ventures and they came
in late. And my family and friends had two tables. And so the manager
walked around with them he said, Gee, Im sorry, there
just is no place. And so he just happened to say right by our
relatives table. And they said, Well, we have two tables,
why dont we move over to one and you can take this table?
So they did and they could hear every word they were saying. Of course,
the chairs were back to back. We start playing something, maybe Perfidia
or one of our originals and they say, Oh my god! Its the
first song I ever learned. And then somebody came up to them
and said, Boy, you guys are legends. And Steven Tyler
pointed down to the stage and he says, No, those guys are legends.
(laughter) And then I met them again in Japan. They were playing the
Tokyo Dome. We
were waiting on the platform for a train and I see a couple of foreigners
over there and they looked like musician types. And a guy comes up
to me and says, Arent you with The Ventures? And
I said yeah and he said Im Joe Perry with Aerosmith.
And I said, Nice to meet you. And he said, Can I
have my picture taken with you? And I said, Yeah, sure
come on. So we all line up there with him and he says to his
manager, Come on, get up here! This is history. (laughter)
So then, he invited us, we happened to have night off, which is rare,
which just happened to be on the night they were playing at the Tokyo
Dome. So they invited us and we were back stage and this is word for
word. Steven Tyler comes out of his dressing room and he comes right
up to me and he said, Do you know what an honor it is for me
to be standing here talking to you? And (laughter) and Im
thinking, Really? (laughter) Thats great and you
dont know, you just dont know. I wouldnt know that.
Somebody did say that they had a book out and mentioned the Ventures.
And then my daughter called me and she said, Something in Starbucks,
theyre selling, has the Ventures name on it. So I go down
to Starbucks and I look for it and I cant find a thing that
says Ventures. So I do see Elton Johns favorite Christmas songs.
So, he had all different artists, not him. And he had one song by
The Ventures Christmas Album. He had a booklet in there that
said Walk, Dont Run and Perfidia and
The Ventures were a big part of my growing up. I would never know
that!
RS: I would think every guitar player playing today was influenced
by The Ventures. I know the Ventures also just played at the NAMM
show in L.A. What was that like?
DW: That was fun. The time before, they were hanging from the rafters
out there because it was in the afternoon. But when we played this
last time in the lobby, which is a monster lobby there as you know,
we played real late and a lot of people had already left. But then
the next day we played for the Fender company. Because when we started
with Fenders, I dont know how many Fender guitars we must have
sold for the Fender company. Anyway, we did get a half hour there.
Because its their 50th anniversary of the Jazzmaster. And Bob
and I both played the Jazzmaster. Its got a different sound.
And I love it. I mean, Ive always loved it. And I did a whole
interview with that guitar saying, You have a lot of your best
friends. And this guitar right here is one of my best friends.
Ands thats the way it comes out. Its a 68 and it
used to be beautiful but (laughter) its beautiful in a different
way now. Its pretty much worn but its still a lovely guitar.
RS: I heard youre putting that Jazzmaster guitar into the rock
hall of fame.
DW: Yes I am. And then my partner Bob Bogle, he gave a guitar...of
course, you dont know at that time and hes okay with it...he
gave that guitar thats on The Colorful Ventures album...he
gave that guitar to a friend of his just about a couple years after
that. And he still has it! He said, I wouldnt part with
that guitar for a million dollars! And it might be worth that.
I dont know! (laughter) Anyway, so hes going to put that
in that rock and roll hall of fame too. So theres going to be
two different guitars. One Jazzmaster and one Strat. And then a bunch
of old shiny jackets that we used to wear. A lot of things like that.
Posters from the 60s. The original posters. Its going
to be very interesting. And getting back what to you said, somebody
once told me if they didnt learn from Ventures right? Playing
guitar? They learned from somebody that did learn from The Ventures.
(laughter) So its kind of a trickle down thing.
RS: Its just amazing that next year is the 50th anniversary
of The Ventures forming. After the rock hall induction, what plans
are being made to honor that anniversary?
DW: I really dont know. What theyre trying to do in Japan...as
you know were very popular there. We started a guitar boom over
there. When Bob and I first went over there, they could not afford
all four of us, so it was just he and I. And we just played two guitars.
They had a Japanese guy playing the drums and a standup bass for the
simple reason they didnt have an electric bass in the country.
And that was in 1962. Anyway, at rehearsal, they were playing Glenn
Miller stuff for gods sake. They didnt know anything about
rock and roll. So during the rehearsal we had the interpreter say,
I think maybe you guys ought to sit down, and just Bob and I
will play. Because theyre slowing the beat down and it
just didnt work. So thats how that happened and then the
next time we came, which was 64, we fly into the airport and
theres like people on top of the airport roof and all around
waving things. Im going, I wonder whos on the plane?
And we got closer and it said welcome The Ventures. There must have
been six, seven thousand people. They had been playing our music,
I guess all that time. And when we got off the plane and started going
around and everything, we were like The Beatles. You couldnt
even go out of your hotel room. There were people outside that, you
couldnt do it. We had to have things brought to our room and
catered and all that. And actually we outsold The Beatles two to one
in their first couple years that they came out. In Japan, not here.
And I know that for a fact for the simple reason that Toshiba Records
had both The Beatles and The Ventures. And they said, You not
only outsold them, you outsold them two to one for their first couple
years. Which was quite a thing. We had twenty number one hits
in Japan. Unfortunately, Japan is like Las Vegas. What happens in
Vegas, stays in Vegas. And generally what happens in Japan, stays
in Japan too, so a lot of people dont know what weve done
there. Theyre trying to put together a Ventures 50th anniversary
TV special for Japan. Hopefully thatll come about. It wouldnt
do that much good here because itll be all their very famous
Japanese artists that we have done concerts with or that have talked
The Ventures when we first came over, and how they learned to play
from the Ventures. Itll be strictly Japanese and in that language.
It would be nice to have something like that here too. I might work
work on it.
RS: One way fans can celebrate the 50th anniversary is with the appropriately
titled Alive Five-0. That was recorded over the years in Japan
and theres some great playing on there too.
DW: Yeah, thank you very much. Im pretty proud of the things
we do live. Hawaii Five-0 without all the backing still
sounds like Hawaii Five-0 and it sounds good, I think.
As a matter of fact, a disc jockey that called me. Hes been
retired for quite a while but he said, Thats your comeback
album. You should get that out here. Release it. Well, of course,
we did. (laughter) Were always recording. Japan wants two or
three CDs a year still. And so were working on one now. It will
be released here. I dont know when but its a more or less
inspirational album. Weve done so many different kinds of albums,
you gotta do something different. So were kind of inspirational.
Songs like Oh, Happy Day is on it and Hes
Not Heavy, Hes My Brother, those kind of things. And were
having a good time doing it.
RS: Can you say something about the latest Ventures album Rocky,
which came out in Japan?
DW: Oh, yeah well thats what the Japanese wanted. We did the
theme from Rocky, because it hadnt been released. So
they called us from EMI Japan and they said We want you to record
the Rocky theme and Eye Of The Tiger. So, we did
and we sent it to them and they put it on their web site and it had
fifty thousand downloads in the first two weeks! (laughter) That was
the Rocky theme, yeah. So were still going in Japan.
RS: So therell be another Ventures album out in Japan this year?
DW: Yeah, that would be that one. The inspirational thing. What they
wanted to do was to try to be current. So what they wanted us to do
was do the Rocky theme, Eye Of The Tiger,
an updated version of Diamond Head, which was one of the
biggest selling records we had in Japan. And something else that we
did called Little Green Bag, or something like that. I
dont know if youre aware of that song. And that was a
huge commercial in Japan. I dont know what group it was but
they wanted us to do it. And so we did it. But they wanted to stay
ahead of everything and record four songs and then four songs a little
bit later when something else came up for downloads. Then four more
and four more. Now, weve done twelve, so we have four more to
do and I think were going to be doing that very soon.
RS: So what brought about the Wilson Guitar company? Youve got
some mighty cool looking guitars there.
DW: Yeah, they are. We get more accolades from people that have bought
those and just say, That guitar just plays like butter and it
sounds great.' And it looks great. How it started was, Aria guitars
in Japan wanted to us to put the Ventures name on some guitar that
they had and we said, Well we just dont want it on any
guitar.
I said, lets come up with a different design than youre
used to and then well talk about what we want. The hardware
and how it plays, neck size, all those things. That guitar actually,
I dont know how many times we sent it back to them. Theyd
give it to us and say, Hows this? No, you
gotta take it back and make that right. So that guitar is two
years in the making actually, by Ventures standards. Its my
sons company actually. So thats how that guitar got started
was in Japan. Then he wanted to sell it here in the United States,
so we did. And now we have a different one. Its been going on
for about five years. Were in Costco in Canada and talking about
Costco here and possibly QVC. The guitars are doing very well actually.
RS: Theyre really beautiful looking guitars. Are they still
all made in Japan?
DW: Some of them are made in Japan, yeah. And some are made in Korea,
which is okay. And of course, China is coming around. It used to be
kind of a bad word, China? Made in China? Yeah, okay. But the Chinese
are catching up now and doing very well about making guitars. Our
more inexpensive models are made in China. But theyre still
a real good guitar. Dont get me wrong. Even though theyre
not as expensive. The one from the Japan, which was our 40th anniversary
of coming to Japan. Thats why they call it the 40th anniversary.
That sells for three thousand dollars in Japan. And we sell it here
for I think $1995.oo but we have down to like $299 guitars. Thats
reasonable. Anybody should be able to afford that. And theyre
still very good guitars.
RS: How do the Wilson Guitars compare with the legendary guitars youve
played like the Fenders and Mosrites? Are they modeled after those
guitars?
DW: Yeah, theyre kind of. Thats what were used to.
Thats all we know. Especially Fender. I wanted it to sound like
a Fender. Were going to come out with a guitar that it is going
to be different. We just keep trying to work on it. My son Tim Wilson
is the president of the company. What were going to do now,
our next project is to come out with a guitar called Surf Pro. Fender
calls a guitar a Jazzmaster but you dont play jazz on it, only.
You know what I mean? If we come out with a Surf Pro of course you
can play anything on it. I think its going to be unique and
very appealing to a lot of guitar players.
RS: What a great way to spread the Ventures guitar legacy. First
in music and now with your guitars.
DW: Well wouldnt put our name on anything thats inferior.
We just wont do it. One reason were not with Mosrite is
because Semie Mosley, who made the guitar, we did the same thing with
him that we did with Aria guitars in Japan. Things werent right.
The neck was a little bit to fast for us and we wanted him to change
it. It took a couple years. Thats why we played it that long.
Because he always promised to change it and do this and do that. Not
that is was an inferior guitar. It wasnt. So then we just gave
up and said, No, if youre not going to change it then
we dont want our name on it. So thats how that happened.
RS: The Ventures signed early on with Dolton Records and then with
EMI / Liberty Records in the U.S.
DW: Dolton was an independent label actually. When we first started
we went in and did a song, recording two songs. Took us a long time
to save that much money to go in and do some recording in Seattle.
What happened was it didnt do anything. But it took us a long
time to save enough money to go ahead and do it. And we thought we
needed a gimmick. I used to do an impersonation of a TV show with
Walter Brennon called The Real McCoy's, where I did an impersonation
of him (imitates Brennon). (laughter) One of the those and then go
back in to the rock beat. Of course, locally it went to number one
around here. (laughter) And in the small towns around here but it
never did spread out. And then we had an idea to do a song called
Walk, Dont Run. A guy named Johnny Smith, who was
a jazz guitarist wrote it the mid 50s. And my partner Bob Bogle
had... Chet Atkins had recorded it and put it on an album called Hi-Fi
In Focus. And of course Bob and I were just learning how to play
the guitar. I didnt learn how to play the guitar till I was
25. (laughter) Both of us. So we bought two guitars in a pawn shop
for about 15 bucks a piece and I know guitar players from that era,
or maybe even now, would know. One I think was called a Stella and
the other was a Harmony. And we paid about 15 dollars a piece for
each one of them. And we thought we were getting pretty good so we
went in on hock and bought ourselves a down payment on a couple Fender
guitars and then we recorded Walk, Dont Run but
anyway... We couldnt play it like Chet Atkins played it. He
used finger style and kind of jazzy. So it evolved after a year or
so of playing it on stage. And people would come and say, Whats
that song you just played? Its really good. I said, its
called Walk, Dont Run, and they said, Can
you play it again? So we did and you know thats how we
got started with that.
RS: The Ventures really turned the beat around on that song, because
before The Ventures there wasnt that much attention to the beat.
DW: I know. Or guitars! Really. You had guitars but people are saying,
Youre going to go in and record with just two guitars,
a bass and a drum without a saxophone or a piano keyboard? And were
saying, Uh-yeah... (laughter) So we were among the very
first. I dont know if we were the very first to get a hit with
just two guitars, a bass and a drum. Because we didnt know a
saxophone player or a piano player. Probably, its a good thing
that we didnt because it made it unique.
RS: Walk, Dont Run was a serendipitous start to
the West Coast rock instro sound.
DW: Really. I dont know how things work out but by god, they
sure do. And I dont know if its fate or whatever you want to
call it. Or somebodys looking down on you, and favorably. But
yeah, things like that just seem to happen. And theres so many
things that have to happen. Anybody that goes in and records something
would know. First of all, you gotta have a song. Second of all, it's
an instrumental, which is really tough...you gotta have a great arrangement.
You gotta have a great sound. And when you go into the studio and
it doesnt turn out right... This just happened to turn out great.
And we did it in Seattle on two track. Bass and drum on one track
and rhythm and lead on the other. And the guy here in Seattle that
had a studio. There were others, rinky dink studios, but he had a
great studio in his basement that was fixed up with the carpet and
whole thing. And he did this on two track Ampex. And he was very clever.
He had a microphone hanging from his shower head in his shower to
get echo. (laughter) And then he would use delay. Thats how
we got that sound on Bobs guitar. And then he said, Theres
something I want to try. And I never really heard it once the
thing worked, but it could be there... I want to mic your picks.
You know, when youre picking the strings? I want to put a microphone
right next to that, which he did. So he was a pretty clever
guy. And then we did our first two albums there it turned out so good.
Our first couple albums are all just two track. Anyway, we went down
to Los Angeles and they had a three track! We were saying, Oh,
my gosh. And then not long after that, they had four track and
were saying, Oh! We can put each instrument on one track
and work with it! (laughter) So now its infinity of course.
You can put as many tracks as you could ever want. Technology has
changed so rapidly in the the last even five years, ten years. My
god it goes so fast as to make your head spin.
RS: The sound of the albums The Ventures made in the 60s sound
so much better then recordings today.
DW: Its analog too you know? As opposed to digital. A lot of
people still have turntables. Its the warmth of it. Its
hard to explain but I think thats a true statement, yeah.
RS: Do you prefer the early Ventures mono mixes or the stereo? Walk,
Dont Run was recorded in mono originally right?
DW: Absolutely. Stereo, it was called Hi-Fi. High Fidelity. (laughter)
And thats why that Chet Atkins album was like Hi-Fi in
focus. Anyway when we started stereo was not heard of yet. I mean,
it just didnt sell. Nobody had a stereo machine to play it on.
And so eventually it got into stereo and then they took Walk,
Dont Run I suppose. Because it was on two track, theyd
take the bass and drum and put it on kind of one side or move it over
to about three quarters, in the middle or whatever they did in kind
of a pseudo stereo. But they had to do it. I prefer coming right out
of the middle. Its the way you recorded it. And thats
just basic hi-fidelity.
RS: Back in the 90s One Way Records put out a bunch of Ventures
album on two-fer discs. Those are out of print so will there be definitive
U.S. reissues of the Ventures catalog?
DW: I hope there will be. You know what we did anyway? While all of
us were still alive, for gods sakes, we went in and re-recorded
everything that were the original players to begin with. And so we
went in re-recorded everything we could think of. We were in the studio
for about five months doing 63 songs from the 60s that we did.
With the four original players, it sounds like The Ventures! And the
reason you do that is because once you sign up with a company like
we did, and every artist knows this, they have those masters. They
own them in perpetuity, which I never thought was fair. I mean, there
must be some time limit. But no, there isnt. They own them forever.
So theres a lot of artists that are going in and doing their
own....especially singers. They sound the same and they can get the
same arrangement and backing from whoever. But like I said, the four
of us went in and did these songs and I think they turned out very
well. And with the new technology, I gotta tell you, its a real
good sound. Its not even released. We havent done anything
with them yet. We did this ten years ago, for gods sakes. We
have an album or CD coming out. Its a whole package, a box set.
And it has DVDs of some different things that weve done.
Some in Japan, some here. And then they put a CD in there, which is
called The Ventures Greatest Hits - Single And Album Hits. Now
I dont want to pop anybodys bubble. Were not the
original version of Wipe Out, were not the original
version of Pipeline, but our albums probably outsold their
singles. Mel Taylor, our drummer, played the drums on Herb Alperts
Lonely Bull.
RS: What was it about the 1960s for you, that youll always
remember? I cant remember a decade where there were so many
brilliant melodies written.
DW: Absolutely. To me the 60s, therell never be another
60s or anything like it. Even getting up into the 70s
everything changed. Walk, Dont Run went to number
two. This is kind of connected to your question or your statement.
And the reason it only went to number two, it would have went to number
one in a heartbeat if it hadnt been for the timing. Our competition
in the top five at that time was The Twist - Chubby Checker,
Only The Lonely - Roy Orbison, Itsy Bitsy Teeny
Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and Its Now Or Never
- Elvis Presley. Wed go and get the Billboard, couldnt
wait till it came it to see if we ever went to number one, which we
never did. (laughter) We stayed at number two for about two months.
And they kept switching. The Twist was number one and
then Elvis Presleys number one and then Itsy Bitsy.
And so to me the 60s were just the greatest. We didnt
make a lot of money. If you wanna know, we got four percent royalty
and we split it four ways. And it sold a million records. We got ten
thousand dollars a piece. (laughter) We were fortunate to get four
percent. And get paid.
RS: I always mention The Ventures and The Shadows as the definitive
60s instrumental groups. Did you have any contact with The Shadows
and Hank Marvin back then?
DW: One time we were in Japan and they were over there too. This was
1966 or 65 and I met Bruce Welch. We were all staying at the
Hilton. I dont know where the rest of the group was but he and
I went down to the bar and had a drink together. And we were talking
about, Were probably the highest paid rhythm guitarists
in the whole world! you know the two of us, and he said, yeah,
youre probably right. So I did meet him but I never met
the other. I havent met Hank Marvin.
RS: It amazes me that Walk, Don't Run hit Billboard's
Singles chart on July 18, 1960 which was the same time The Shadows
were number one with Apache in England and each of those
bands first two songs are always thought of as the signature
songs of each band. And The Ventures and The Shadows were on the same
label, EMI, essentially. Seems like 1960 was the maiden voyage of
rock instrumentals.
DW: Instrumentals, yeah definitely. Because the sound of guitars were
getting very popular. Duane Eddy in the late 50s. I dont
know how many number one hits he had. Three or four. Instrumental.
Thats amazing! To tell you the truth, I learned to play from
Duane Eddys stuff. Its simple but so effective. And I
love that sound. Getting back to what happens with The Shadows. They
recorded Apache. And then when it came in the U.S. it
was Jorgen Ingman. And he recorded it later. And hes from Sweden
or somewhere and that was the big hit here. Id never heard of
The Shadows, never heard of them. And then you know what happened
with Walk, Dont Run is we had it here and they sent
it over to England to a company called Top Rank Records. And they
were late putting it out. I dont know why, but it got covered
immediately by The John Barry Seven. Hes a big orchestra leader.
And they knocked it down to seven pieces and played Walk, Dont
Run and covered us. And they went higher on the charts then
we did. They went to number five and we went to number eight. Thats
the record business. You gotta watch it.
We took Walk, Dont Run around to different stations
here and they all turned us down. One guy said it was pretty run of
the mill. What do you mean run of the mill? Its not run of the
mill. Its different and its unique. So finally a guy named
Bob Reisdorf heard it on the radio here. He had Dolton Records. He
had a group called The Fleetwoods who he had two number one hits with,
which was Come Softly and then Mr. Blue. And
he heard it on the radio, Walk, Dont Run, had no
idea who it was. It happened to be a local group, right here in Seattle
and thats where he was. And he was shocked that it was a local
group. He called the radio station and said, Who is that? Thats
a natural hit. He had a good ear. And they said, Its
a local group here in Seattle and if you want to get a hold of them
I can give you their number. So he did call us. He sent it down
to Liberty Records in Los Angeles, who had distributed for him, the
Fleetwoods stuff. And the president of Liberty Records says, No,
thats not a hit. We dont want it. And Bob Reisdorf
said, Ill tell you what. You put it out, if it loses any
money, Ill pay it. And so, thats what you got to
go through in this business. You gotta hang in there. If youre
gonna make something out of yourself, you gotta hang in. Stars overnight?
No, give me a break. Wed been working for ten years to be stars
overnight. I think perseverance is a little bit more important than
talent. Perseverance will overcome. Thats my theory.
RS: So The Ventures have the box set. Any other plans for touring?
DW: We can work all we want here in this country but we just dont
want to do that much, because were three months in the summer
in Japan and three weeks in the winter. So, well take a job
once in a while. We played B.B. Kings there in New York, a couple
of times and we played three different places on Long Island. Now,
the next gig that we have is in Disney World in Florida and thats
in April. Anybody can go to our web site and find out where were
going to be, what were doing and its updated constantly.
We have a new webmaster that just is amazing. So everything is very
informative on it. And its just TheVentures.com Thats
all.
RS: Im hoping the reissues of the 60s albums will come
around again, especially the out of print two-fer CDs.
DW: Yeah, Id love it. Actually, the original versions in the
early days that were analog, to me theyre just wonderful. When
I said that we rerecorded them, we came as close as we possibly could
at having the four original people that did it to begin with. Its
just modern technology has made a pretty darn good sound. So in order
for us get it out there to the public...because the record companies
from the old recordings, theyre not really releasing them.
RS: What do you think about all this downloading stuff. Its
different.
DW: Totally different. But anyway, if we can go back to people learning
on our records... We had an instruction album out, we had three of
them, and it was a phenomenon. All three of those that we had out
hit the top 100 charts, as albums. Never happened before that an instruction
album would hit the top 100 and never has happened since. Thats
quite an honor right there. A lot of people said that they had bought
that and had learned to play on that. So that was good.
RS: Can you say something about the Ventures store which I think is
ran by Mel Taylors wife Fiona.
DW: Yeah, shes our manager. I mean Mel passed away, you know
that in 96, so actually all these recordings we did were before
96, I guess that we had all four originals. Anyway, his son
took over. Leon Taylor, and he had played the drums. He learned everything
from his dad and then he had a top 40 thing of his own. And Mel used
to manage us. We didnt really need a manager and give him fifteen
percent or twenty percent because we could do it ourselves. And so
we had Mel doing it and of course his wife Fiona, she helped him with
everything. So she was the obvious one to take over when he passed
away. So shes been our manager now since about eleven, twelve
years almost.
Special thanks to Don Wilson of The Ventures and to Fiona Taylor
@ www.TheVentures.com