An Off-The-Wall Question

[alpertfan]

Did any of the original TJB members or the Reorganized TJB take drugs?By the time BEAT OF THE BRASS was issued, the world was wrapped up in psychedelia, listening to "acid rock" and embracing "peace and love". Even though the group tried to compete with that market, did it blend into it as well?

alpert...asking really crazy questions on cold Connecticut winter's day.

 

[david]

I think this is a fair questiom but I can't answer it with any degree of certainty. I will admit that I have wondered if Herb's "Burnout" was related to drug use. (No disrespect intended at all to Herb)
I can only imagine how difficult it would be to avoid any type of drug use within that lifestyle but then again, Herb may have had a very stirct no tolerance policy to any drug use among his band.
I would think Herb is to smart not to let himself get caught up in that viscious cycle that has destroyed so many performers.
That being said, he or whomever was responsible for Joe Cocker did not have much luck

 

[Mr Bill]

When it comes to the three Music-world vices (Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll, as sung in the Ian Dury hit) it has been confirmed -- strictly off the record -- by one former member of the Brass to one prominent member of this forum that the TJB did indeed suffer from those three vices in exactly that order -- Sex, then drugs then Rock'n'Roll. No surprise that Rock'n'Roll would have the least impact on an instrumental group. No names or details, alas. And that should wrap that up.

--Mr Bill
steering the forum away from tabloid territory.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I see we're into some really weird questions now.

It's been a while, but I remember somebody mentioning that Herb used to keep a jar full of joints on his desk during the 60's-mid 70's. When I was at Berklee I met a couple of people who did some studio sessions at A&M and said Herb would indulge in pot, but they never saw him do anything else. Other than that everything would be speculation at best. I do remember seeing some VH-1 show that Herb was on and someone asked him about the "Just say no to drugs" theme that was on his videos of "Keep Your Eye On Me" and "Diamonds". Herb said that some artists seemed to need something to get their creative juices flowing, but he pretty much evaded answering whether he did it or not.

Frankly, I think this is rather irrelevant. Most people my age (and thereabouts) dabbled in it in one form or another. It was just a sign of the times for the most part. Whether Herb did it or not is unimportant. It doesn't detract nor enhance his contributions to the music or business. What he did or does with his private life is his business, not ours. Same with the members of the TJB or any other group. I'm not a big advocate of finding out every little detail about a celebrity's life. When people try to pry into someone else's life it seems to amount to nothing more than trying to knock someone off of whatever pedestal they think a person is on. Herb's not a perfect man - nobody is. He's a musician and an artist, and we should enjoy his contributions to the art form rather than trying to find his faults.

That's my stance and I'm stickin' to it!


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mr Bill]

Well, said, my dear Captain...

--Mr Bill

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Well, said, my dear Captain...

--Mr Bill

Hey, who ya callin' "dear"???


Capt. "Sweetheart" Bacardi

 

[Dave]

"Irrelevent" seems to be a term I would use, too. What little (and I mean "Little" in the sense no one was ever BUSTED for it) drug use there ever was or is among artists & musicians, I think it's just their right not to make it public or have a public pry into it.

I am curious about these matters sometimes, too. But I would never make a point of asking anyone, myself.

Dave

...clean as a whistle... :bandit:

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Cheez, I remember being really devastated when I found out (from the back of an album cover...SOTB I think) that Herb smoked cigarettes! But I wouldn't be surprised if just about any musician in those days at least dabbled in a little bit of pot.

 

[Clark]

Yes, Herb has a smoke in his hand in the picture on the back of SOTB. If you were a teenager in the 60's you can remember how widespread smoking was compared to now. If you look at any of the TJB TV specials you will find most of them smoked in a casual comfort that would be impossible today.

I have been following this forum for about a year, and I have learned quite a bit about Herb and the group - one of the things I found most difficult to accept was that the neat guys on the albums and TV weren't the same guys that recorded the songs. Now I read in another string that someone claims he played the trumpet instead of Herb. Wow!

Now the subject of drugs has come up. Lets see, they were wealthy, they were musicians, the already used tobacco and they were in the 60's - let me see - what would be the odds that they tried some other stuff?

I am definitely going to have to rethink my golden memories of 1965 and 1966. Boy did I lead a sheltered life. Sheesh!

P.S. Was finally able to get a copy of Summertime, the last album to fill my collection. Sorry to say I find it pale in comparison to those it followed.

 

[Captaindave]

Just a couple little things here...

I grew up here in the Midwest, USA(is Northeast Ohio in the Midwest or I am I too far east? I never quite get that figured out right). I graduated from high school in 1969.
I would be considered sheltered by most definitions of that idea - conservative background and family. What might have been commonplace on the West Coast never came any closer to my home than the TV screen or newspaper...it was all too remote to think much about...
What I am saying is that I had absolutely no direct contact with a lot of the stuff that was going on in the sixties, even though that was "my generation, " so to speak. All I ever knew about this sort of stuff was from TV or news or rumors. I was pretty naive about the big outside world beyond my little community, and as far as the TJB were concerned, they were my main musical "heroes." I did not associate them directly with with the rock and roll sixties, but instead saw them as a sort of different and separate sound and group, apart from the rest of the stuff that was contemporary with those times.

It was a revelation for me as well that the recordings may have not been done by the exact same people that are pictured on the album covers. I used to think that it was Herb and Tonni Kalash that I heard playing trumpet on the recordings...

I once heard a comment back in 1968 regarding the TJB as to the likes of what is being mentioned in this thread. But, I didn't consider the source very reliable, and I pretty much ignored it. It didn't compute in my provincial little world.

I never envisioned those guys as part of the sixties rock and roll culture. In my mind at that time, they were just beyond all that - maybe because they were a little older and "classier" than some of the rest - but being a teenager at the time, my perspective didn't take many ideas into consideration other than the fact that they were my musical heroes...

 

[LPJim]

My background was similar, and my impression was that Herb and most A&M artists in general were not part of the drug culture -- at least as far as public image was concerned. Nearly every adult I knew smoked and some had problems with alcohol. Pot was associated with hippies (long hair, ragged clothing, psychedlic music).
There would be occasional rumors that some clean-cut musicians and actors indulged in weed, but nobody took them too seriously. "Only hippies smoke that stuff" was the common attitude.
JB

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Clark - keep listening to SUMMERTIME. Eventualy it will grow on you. Play it when you're in a mellow mood. It became one of my favorites just a couple of years ago, so it definitely takes time to "fungus in."