Robben Ford Discussion

[Sonarguitar]

Thought this might add to the subject on the degrees of separation between many of our heros.

From GUITAR FOR THE PRACTICING MUSICIAN, November 1987 (pg. 18 & 19)

This is an excerpt from Larry Carlton talking about various songs thrown at him in an old feature Guitar magazine used to call “In The Listening Room”. These extracted comments came in a section talking about Gregg Allman’s “I’m No Angel”.

“…………The way we use the vocabulary is the only thing that distinguishes all of us. I play the same licks that B.B. (King) plays. I loved them, but they’re his. They sound different because they mean something different to me. I heard direct cops of my licks from the gentleman who played on this Gregg Allman track. I heard one note for note and watched it go by. It hadn’t become his yet. It was just a set of notes. There is a way and a time that lick will become his. It won’t sound like a Larry Carlton lick and I probably learned it from Robben Ford. We all do it. To make them our own is where personality comes in.”

Humble, interesting and very cool.

[sheadan]

I have been reading all these Robben/Carlton comparisons and frankly,I don't understand it.Yes,they both used 335's at the same time and Robben took Larry's place in the L.A. Express,but to me they have never sounded alike or sounded like one influenced each other.I always thought Larry had a sweeter sound than Robben.The way each of them approach soloing is very different also.No more of these comparisons,please.It's kind of like when Grant Green gets compared to Wes Montgomery.Both played Jazz based stuff at the same time,but totally different players.

[Flavum]

[BlueRunner]

I was in a bookstore recently and opened up a huge paperback guide to blues recordings and artists. Robben's entry shows that 1970's porno soundtrack album as "Schizophonic," rather than "Schizophrenic," which sounds cooler. Anyone know anything about it? I promise that if you have the actual movie, I'll turn the TV around so that only the cats see the visual, and I'll just listen to the soundtrack. Honest.

The 70's were heady days in San Francisco, with the Mitchell Brothers trying to take the porn business into the mainstream with their own production company, and a chain of "Pussycat" theaters. The videotape rental business killed the theaters, and if memory serves me right, drugs, organized crime, and other nasties eventually killed the Mitchells. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was their company that did the deal that slapped Robben's studio efforts onto a porn flick soundtrack. Oh well. For everyone's sake that was probably better than having John Holmes or Linda Lovelace do the music, and Robben the on-screen appearances.
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- BlueRunner

[Aeolian]

Schizophonic, Avenue Jazz from 1976. Paul Nagle - keys, Stan Poplin -bass and Jim Baum - Drums. Shows a picture of a young Robben with a Super 400 on the front and the back shows someone holding a tabacco sunburst Les Paul and another picture of someone holding an alto sax. My understanding is that Avenue holds these performances outright and Robben doesn't get anything out of any of their releases. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I have them but I did buy all the legitimate releases, along with concert tickets and t-shirts too numerous to mention
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There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com

[telefunk1]

I have a copy of this somewhere in the back of the closet - if anyone on the list just HAS to have a copy to complete their collection, send me a PM and we can work something out. I would rather someone here have it than one of my cats...

[sheadan]

Sometime in the late 80's I was telling this guy that I worked with
(he looked like a young Chad Everett)that I was into a guitarist named Robben Ford.Talk To Your Daughter had just come out.He said that he had this lp Schizophonic.I figured he was mistaken since I had never heard of it(and of course,I know everything!).He brought it in and just gave it to me.The cover of my copy has a sunburst Les Paul near someone's(the man?) feet. .No pickup covers.I have maybe listened to it once.If it were good, I'd have remembered.Very incidental.I guess it is the soundtrack.I heard someone ask Robben about it at Guitar Center,Chicago in 1991,and he said that it was a porn soundtrack.He didn't seem like he thought of it as one of his best efforts.On the other hand,I did read that he was very proud of "Miles Of Aisles" with Joni Mitchell.If you don't have that,be sure to get the lp.Worth the price of admission just to see him in his floppy hat!