Mike Deasy | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Michael William Deasy |
Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. | February 4, 1941
Genres | Rock |
Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, musician |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, sitar, vocals |
Years active | 1958–present |
Labels | Capitol, Sparrow, Saltmine |
Website | www |
Michael William Deasy (born February 4, 1941) is an American rock and jazz guitarist. As a session musician, he played on numerous hit singles and albums recorded in Los Angeles in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He is sometimes credited as Mike Deasy Sr.
He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where he learned to play guitar as a child. [1] While still in high school, he played in bands backing visiting musicians such as Ricky Nelson and The Everly Brothers, and also played in Ritchie Valens' touring band with Bruce Johnston, Larry Knechtel, Sandy Nelson, and Jim Horn. After graduating in 1959, he joined Eddie Cochran's band, the Kelly Four, where he played both guitar and baritone sax and made his first recordings. [2] [3] [4] He also played with The Coasters and Duane Eddy. [1]
Following Cochran's death in 1960, he became an active session musician in Los Angeles [5] after winning a Down Beat magazine collegiate jazz music scholarship in 1961. [6] Deasy married Jim Horn's sister Kathie in 1961, and the couple later set up their own recording studio and production company, Saltmine Recording. He worked as a member of "The Wrecking Crew", with Hal Blaine, Joe Osborn, Larry Knechtel and others, on sessions for Phil Spector, and contributed guitar parts to The Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds . [1] [5] In the 1960s and later years he also worked on records by the Monkees, the Association, Scott McKenzie, Johnny Rivers, the Fifth Dimension, Rick Nelson, Randy Newman, Spanky & Our Gang, Tommy Roe, Fats Domino, The Byrds, Michael Jackson, Helen Reddy, Frank Zappa, and others. [1] [2]
In 1967, he contributed to albums coordinated by record producer Curt Boettcher, including Friar Tuck and His Psychedelic Guitar, effectively a Deasy solo album with wordless vocals by Boettcher. [7] Under the pseudonym Lybuk Hyd, Deasy also played guitar and sitar on the psychedelic concept album Tanyet, credited to The Ceyleib People, which also featured Ry Cooder. [5]
Deasy played guitar (with Tommy Tedesco and Al Casey) on Elvis Presley's 1968 TV special, Elvis . He also performed live with musicians including Cannonball Adderley and Little Richard. In 1969, he was invited by record producer Terry Melcher to work with a newly discovered singer-songwriter, Charles Manson. [8] Deasy left Manson's home after three days, "in a state of drug-fueled paranoia". [5]
Deasy continued to record with leading musicians, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Chet Baker, and Mel Tormé. [1] His guitar playing has appeared on the soundtrack of many films including The Graduate , Guess Who's Coming to Dinner , Duel , Bullitt , and Dirty Harry , as well as on many commercials. [1] [9]
From the early 1970s onwards after becoming a born again Christian at the 1969 Billy Graham crusade in Anaheim, California, Deasy became increasingly involved with Contemporary Christian music, producing and writing songs for several successful albums, often in conjunction with his wife. In later years, he has had a parallel career as a motivational speaker, and since 1988 has run a "Yes To Life" educational and inspirational program in schools and colleges in the US, Canada and Europe. [3] The Deasys also co-pastored Rock Church Southeast in Port Arthur, Texas, until it eventually shut its doors when Hurricane Harvey flooded the building.
Mercury Rev is an American rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York, with singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue and guitarist/clarinetist/sound generator operator Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak as the only constant members. The band's music has incorporated indie rock, psychedelic rock and American roots, amongst other forms. Mercury Rev have been closely associated with The Flaming Lips, and the two bands have shared historical ties.
Monster Magnet is an American rock band, founded in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1989 by Dave Wyndorf, John McBain (guitar) and Tim Cronin. The band has since gone through several lineup changes, leaving Wyndorf as the only constant member. Monster Magnet has released eleven studio albums to date, and are best known for their 1990s hits "Negasonic Teenage Warhead" and "Space Lord". The band has also been credited for developing and popularizing the stoner rock genre, along with Masters of Reality, Kyuss, Fu Manchu and Sleep.
Bread was an American soft rock band from Los Angeles, California. They had 13 songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1970 and 1977.
Ray Edward Cochran was an American rock and roll musician. His songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody" and "Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Cochran experimented with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing, even on his earliest singles. Cochran played the guitar, piano, bass, and drums. His image as a sharply dressed and attractive young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death, Cochran achieved iconic status.
The Blues Magoos are an American rock group from The Bronx, a borough of New York City, United States. They were at the forefront of the psychedelic music trend, beginning in 1966. They are best known for the hit song "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet", their only single to reach the Billboard top fifty.
"Windy" is a pop song written by Ruthann Friedman and recorded by the Association. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1967, becoming the group's second U.S. No. 1 hit following "Cherish" in 1966. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 4 song for 1967.
Curtis Roy Boettcher, sometimes credited as Curt Boetcher or Curt Becher, was an American singer, songwriter, arranger, musician, and record producer from Wisconsin. He was a pivotal figure in what is now termed "sunshine pop", working with the Association, the Millennium, Sagittarius, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Tommy Roe, Elton John, Gene Clark, Emitt Rhodes, Tandyn Almer, the Beach Boys, and others.
The Monkees is the debut studio album by the American band the Monkees. It was released on October 10, 1966 by Colgems Records in the United States and RCA Victor in the rest of the world. It was the first of four consecutive U.S. number one albums for the group, taking the top spot on the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks, after which it was displaced by the band's second album. It also topped the UK charts in 1967. The Monkees has been certified quintuple platinum by the RIAA, with sales of over five million copies.
"Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" is a psychedelic rock song written by Mickey Newbury and best known from a version by the First Edition, recorded in 1967 and released to popular success in 1968. Said to reflect the LSD experience, the song was intended to be a warning about the dangers of using the drug.
Leland Bruce Sklar is an American bassist and session musician. He rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coalesced into a group in its own right, The Section, which supported so many of Asylum Records' artists that they became known as Asylum's de facto house band, as those artists became iconic singer-songwriters of the 1970s.
And Then... Along Comes the Association is the debut studio album by the Association, released on Valiant Records in July 1966. It became one of the top-selling albums in America, peaking at number five, and remains the Association's most successful album release, except for their Greatest Hits compilation. The album's success was primarily credited to the inclusion of their two U.S. hits "Along Comes Mary" and "Cherish", which peaked at number seven and number one respectively on the Billboard Hot 100; "Cherish" was number one on Billboard's Top 40 list for three weeks starting on September 24, 1966.
Upon This Rock is the debut solo album by Christian rock musician Larry Norman, released in 1969. Produced by Hal Yoergler, Upon This Rock was called the first full-blown Christian rock album.
Insight Out is the third album by the American pop band the Association and was released on June 8, 1967 on Warner Bros. Records. It was the band's first album release for the Warner Brothers label and it became one of the top selling LPs of the year in America, peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Critic Richie Unterberger has attributed much of the album's success to the inclusion of the U.S. hits "Windy" and "Never My Love", which reached number 1 and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart respectively and were among the most-played records on AM radio during the late 1960s.
"Hallelujah I Love Her So" is a single by American musician Ray Charles. The rhythm and blues song was written and released by Charles in 1956 on the Atlantic label, and in 1957 it was included on his self-titled debut LP, also released on Atlantic. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard R&B chart. It is loosely based on 'Get It Over Baby' by Ike Turner (1953).
"Never My Love" is a pop standard written by American siblings Don and Dick Addrisi, and best known from a hit 1967 recording by the Association. The Addrisi Brothers had two Top 40 hits as recording artists, but their biggest success as songwriters was "Never My Love". Recorded by dozens of notable artists in the decades since, in 1999 the music publishing rights organization Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) announced it was the second most-played song on radio and television of the 20th century in the U.S.
If I Were a Carpenter is an album by American singer Bobby Darin, released in 1966. It was a significant change in direction for Darin considering his previous album was a collection of show tunes.
"Mary, Mary" is a song written by Michael Nesmith and first recorded by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band for their 1966 album East-West. Nesmith's band, the Monkees, later recorded it for More of the Monkees (1967). Hip hop group Run–D.M.C. revived the song in the late 1980s, with an adaptation that appeared in the U.S. record charts.
Wha-Koo was an American rock band best known for their 1978 single, "(You're Such a) Fabulous Dancer", which peaked at #101 on the Billboard and #10 on the Australian charts.
Pamela Anna Polland is an American singer-songwriter who made three albums for Epic and Columbia Records in the 1960s and 1970s and whose songs have been recorded by a number of popular artists. In the 1980s, she re-emerged as an independent recording artist and vocal coach, later working in film and TV scoring and Hawaiian music.
Rewind is the fourth studio album by the American musician Johnny Rivers, released in 1967 by Imperial Records. The album includes cover versions of "Baby, I Need Your Lovin'" and "The Tracks of My Tears". Produced by Lou Adler with arrangements by Jimmy Webb, who wrote seven of the songs. Noted Los Angeles session musicians The Wrecking Crew provided the music. The album spent 21 weeks on the Billboard albums chart and peaked at #14. "Tracks of my Tears" spent nine weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at #9, while "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" spent eleven weeks and peaked at #3.