Nokie Edwards

[mosriteer]

Some timing on the HFO release needs to be clarified. HFO was recorded in April *68*, when Nokie was still around, released in Sept 68 and charted in March 69 - the following year. Gerry did play lead guitar on significant hits in Japan in the 70s that did not, alas, have a dent on the US market. When it came to making money, US album sales and hit singles were made with Bob and Nokie on lead and Nokie was involved in some capacity on all of them.
Speaking of the Wrecking Crew, Hal Blaine's own site indicates that he played drums on Diamond Head, with Saraceno as the producer in 1966. How believable is that unless there is a second version of DH that is stashed away in the vaults?!!???
-Kanad

[vibramute]

Gerry did play lead guitar on significant hits in Japan in the 70s that did not, alas, have a dent on the US market. When it came to making money, US album sales and hit singles were made with Bob and Nokie on lead and Nokie was involved in some capacity...

The H50 album had Gerry on lead and hit #11 and earned them a gold record. It was the highest charting album they had since '63 when Bob was still the lead guitarist (at least officially...Bob and Nokie were switching off and they were also using session guys a bit during that period). The Ventures last charting US single (Theme from Summer Palace) also featured Gerry. I still don't believe Nokie is on the H50 single or Josie's cockamamie story, but if you want to keep drinking Nokie Kool-Aide...bottoms up!

"Diamond Head" and Hal Blaine? Okay...I'll bite: Joe Saraceno was a prominent producer of surf/hotrod/instrumental records in the mid 60's and Hal Blaine was the first call drummer on most of those sessions. It's possible Hal is remembering a cut of "Diamond Head' he did for one of the the other Saraceno bands. Another (likely) scenero is Hal did play on a cut of "Diamond Head" by The Ventures, just not the released version. There is a take of the song on Youtube that has been rumored to be an early take or demo but it's clearly not Bogle/Taylor/Wilson/Edwards playing. It's very possible Hal was referring to that version. I doubt he kept tabs on what made it to vinyl (I'm sure he played on hundreds of unreleased sides by various artists), but he did keep track of what he did play on.

[mosriteer]

The DH version that's on youtube is an early acetate with the original title of Blue Coral and one can *easily* make out Nokie on lead. DH was released in 64, so a 66 version is kind of questionable. I am not aware of other bands from the era playing DH: some specific pointers will be useful. There was another gold album just a few years back - Golden Greats in 67 and, of course, Telstar before that. No need to bite, use strong words, bring up a lady's age or get personal (I hate Kool-Aid) . The point I was making is that you cant trust any source. If you cant trust the hits or the sales data, it may be worth an informal survey to find out how many on this forum or elsewhere care about the HFO LP over *any* Nokie album. Just for the record, I love Gerry's playing on that LP.
-Kanad