| Selections from
"South Rock"
by
Kiki Lee
Dick Wooley
"Music Promoter"
Atlantic
Records: Making Music Legends
In 1968, Dick Wooley was managing bands in Atlanta,
and promoting records in the Carolina's with F & F Arnold distributors. Dick had
started several hit records, including some for Atlantic Records, when Atlantic's Miami
based super-promo man Dickey Kline introduced Dick to Jerry Greenberg at a convention
resort in the Bahamas. Jerry Greenberg was in line to be president of Atlantic Records and
Jerry invited Dick onboard the company as regional promotion executive for the Southeast
and Midwest. Dick welcomed the opportunity and shortly thereafter opened the Atlantic
promotional office in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Record promotion was not easy back in the halcyon days of vinyl records, this was long
before competition of the Interstate highway system and Dick would regularly drive
fifteen-hundred miles a week on two-lane black top roads through the Midwest and
Southeast to promote Atlantic Records to Top 40 Rock and R & B stations. Building
personal relationships with radio programmers was Atlantic Record's strength, it paid off
when stations added a new
record, it was more likely they'd select ones
from the promoters that were their close friends.
It was challenging work because at that time Atlantic/Atco was in fact a small indy label
with only six full-time promotion men covering every radio stations, show promoter and
record distributor in America. This small gang of six guys headed by new Atlantic
President Jerry Greenberg included Dickey Kline, Leroy Little, Bob Greenberg, Vince Faracci and Dick
Wooley could sometimes perform miracles
getting Atlantic records to the top of the charts. Dick reflected, "It was a privilege to be part of that group and it was a once in a lifetime experience being able to work with music geniuses like Ahmet Ertegun,
Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd."
Atlantic Records established many of their greatest R & B legends and "Rock and
Roll Hall Of Fame" artists in the 1960's, including; Percy Sledge,
Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin,
Joe Tex, The Young Rascals, King Curtis, Sam & Dave, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young,
Buffalo Springfield, Cream, Eric Clapton, Delaney and Bonnie, Led Zeppelin,
YES, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Derek And The Dominos.
It was exciting in the sixties, being in the music business and especially with Atlantic
Records as we tore down old music barriers and young people marched on Washington
protesting the Vietnam war. All across the nation protesters were uniting in protest and
they were routinely beaten and arrested by the government, some at the time called it a
Police State.
Atlantic had signed many leading voices of this movement and when Dick called on radio
stations around the country to promote these socially active artist, he found many
programmers withering in a paranoia of attracting FCC government retaliation if they
played Atlantic's progressive music. These programmers instead of exposing socially aware
artists music (today the songs are considered classics) these market dominating AM
stations chose instead to play the mindless "bubble-gum songs" they called safe.
Our country was ready for new progressive music and you can't keep an idea down who's time
has come.
Today the downside for those paranoid radio programmers is social guilt, because they
missed out on a once in a lifetime opportunity to shape our politics by music and not
exposing the legendary social artists of the time, people like; "Janice Joplin,
Bob Dillon, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton" and many others. Some of
these timid programmers "and us record guys know who they are" have recently
claimed in their accounts of the time that they were onboard the 60's music revolution
from the start... not.
Thses were tough times on record promoters who's jobs depended on getting new records on
the radio and every week it was a battle royal at stations to get new or progressive
records aired. Here's one account of the "Big Brother" era; "Dick Wooley
was invited to Miami's Criteria
Studios by Tom Dowd, Atlantic's legendary producer
while he was recording "Layla" with Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon and
Carl Radle, AKA "Dreck and the Dominos". Ahmet Ertegun, owner of Atlantic
Records was also there for most of the recording sessions and Dick recalled "the
music in the studio was magic". Later, understandably Ahmet's expectations for
airplay was big, but when the album was released, most of the market dominate AM stations
refused to play it, citing the same tired excuses as before, too progressive. Dick said,
"for me... this was the last straw in dealing with these timid programmers,"
"They sold airtime as Rock and Roll stations! So I reasoned, they should play
progressive rock... Rock and Roll is about new music... right? Wrong! - "In my
mind I knew there had to be a better way to get mass audience exposure for these great new
emerging artists".
Dick's plans changed suddenly in 1971 when he had a freak motorcycle accident that
caused him reconsider everything, including his future. As he recalled, "I'd been
working non-stop with Atlantic for many years and the timing was right for a vacation... a
very long one." Dick took the rest of the year off and traveled with his wife and
young son Christian on the road less traveled. They took narrow roads in the Atlas
Mountains through North Africa, staying in exotic and seedy French hotels inside the
ancient walled cities of Morocco. We'd stay in small villages in each countr for a day or
a week and took time to experience their culture. After our great experience in North
African we traveled by train across Europe and the United Kingdom, it was a fun filled few
months, but it seemed to go by in an instant.
"After a months living in other cultures, out of your comfort zone, your mind opens
to new a potential and all the possibilities. For me, it was the experience of a lifetime,
and I never once thought about the music business or getting a record on the charts."
ATLANTIC RECORDS
1960's-1970's |
 |
ATCO RECORDS
1960's-1970's |
*footnote: Subsequent
from Dick's leaving Atlantic Records, it took their great promotion staff, that included Phillip Rauls and Mario
Medius a year of hard work and promotion to get "Layla" on these
stubborn radio programmers playlists. By the way, Layla was recently voted the number one
song in Rock History!
Back
to Top
Capricorn Records:
The start-up
The timing for Dick's extended hiatus was perfect,
because back in the USA in 1972 the tide had turned in rock radio and when he came home to
Atlanta he found many old friends programming the independent FM stations, playing
progressive rock and they were driving the once market dominate AM stations out of
business. Hooray... at last, Bubble Gum music was dead and good relevant music was being
played on the radio. Dick reflected, "For me, it was great to get away and with the
FM stations turned the radio markets upside down that was a total bonus, but leaving
Atlantic Records had been hard, like leaving family."
Newly energized after months of traveling, Dick was full of ideas and ready for a
challenge. In early 1972, Frank Fenter who knew Dick from Atlantic Records called and
invited Dick to a meeting in Macon, Georgia with he and his partner, artist manager Phil
Walden. Dick shared band information with Frank from time to time at Atlantic, Frank ran
the European operation from the London office. Frank was a brilliant and highly respected
record man who had surprised everyone in 1969 by moving from London to Macon to help Phil
Walden start a production company. Frank had been behind the scene pulling the deal
together with Atlantic to finance their Capricorn productions that was to distributed with
their production credit on the Atco label. Mentor Jerry Wexler helped Phil and Frank start
up by giving them their first Top 10 hit record called "Sunshine" by
"Johnathan Edwards".
Some three years had passed since then, and Dick was anxious to hear what he thought these
guys had in mind as he flew south to Macon for the meeting. Having lunch with Phil and
Frank's was an eye opener, their favorite meal consisted of "Hoppin' John (black-eyed
peas, rice and fatback) washed down with three to four double Vodka Martinis".
"I couldn't keep up with those guys drinking and my head was swimming that day as
this dynamic pair began selling me on the idea of moving to Macon to help them launch a
full service record company from their, "yet to be profitable" production
company". Phil and Frank admittedly were not record promoters and they needed Dick to
get national airplay. Dick had reservations about Phil due to his well known eccentric
personality, but it never affected their relationship when working with Phil and his
brother Alan Walden when they managed Otis Redding. Toward the end
of the lunch meeting, Phil, Frank and Dick began to hash out the duties each would perform
in the new venture, Frank naturally would manage the record company production side, Phil
would manage the artists and Dick's would manage getting Capricorn records national
airplay.
Dick had other offers on the table and several friends advised him against a move to
Macon, because he'd gamble his hard earned reputation on an unknown start-up label.
Also, the industry gossips was Capricorn's most well known of the artist, the Allman
Brothers Band, would never recover from the untimely death of their leader Duane Allman.
But in reality, the biggest obstacle in 1972 was that the Allman Brothers had only sold a
few thousand albums in a single oriented business. Dick knew the numbers because he had
promoted the Allman Brother and Wet Willie releases when they were on the Atco label,
their sales progress was hindered in the "Bubble Gum" singles era when the AM
stations had refused to play progressive rock. Dick had to consider all this before move
his family to Macon, "the redneck capitol of Georgia" just to help a start-up
record company.
But, behind the scene Johnny
Sandlin played Dick the raw tracks from
the ABB's yet to be released "Eat A Peach" and after listening to the new Allman
Brothers tracks Dick said "yes" to Phil and Frank's offer. So, in early 1972
Capricorn Records had their third man onboard for the new record company adventure.
Frank Fenter just finalized the deal that separated Capricorn from their mentors at
Atlantic Records and to the yet unproven Warner Brothers family for distribution, it gave
Capricorn Records their name in the label and kept the young production company with WEA
distribution so all corporate concerns were happy. However, on the street, conventional
wisdom said, "the WB deal was the kiss of death for the new label". Dick
recalled hearing all this and said, "That didn't bother me, when you're the underdog,
you just suck it up and go. I'd fought in karate tournaments, winning my share, got my ass
kicked a few times too and it couldn't possibly be more painful or humiliating than
that."
Dick, Frank and Phil shared two small rooms that had been the late Otis Redding's office.
Dick recalled, "it didn't matter that we shared cramped quarters, we were seasoned
professionals, we had calculated the odds in winning and understood what each man had to
do under the new Warner Brothers pact, and we knew that we'd have to work like never
before to make this new Capricorn Records label a success.
Dick discovered early on it was going to be an up-hill battle after calling radio stations
around the country and they'd ask, "Capri'-what? Allman-who? Macon-where?"
Dick soon decided instead of dialing stations he didn't know, he'd be better off targeting
old friends at the progressive FM radio and a few friends still at the AM stations,
calling in old favors to play the new Allman Brothers album "Eat A Peach".
Although Southern Jam Rock was not the type of music these stations were accustomed to
playing, several of his radio pals in Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles were soon onboard
and were shocked by the great response from listeners on the new sounds of the Allman
Brothers band on their album "Eat A Peach"... and so the ride began.
Once "Eat A Peach" started inching up the charts, Dick went to work on
conservative middle-American radio markets. The ABB album was added by more and more
stations, gathered momentum and early in the next year it went gold and was the Allman
Brothers Band's first Gold, and later multi-Platinum album.
The Allman Brothers Band 1972
|
Capricorn's Macon offices
after a redesign in 1976
|
Frank Fenter, Dick Wooley, Phil Walden
(Photos, Courtesy Rob Durner-Fenter, 1972)
|
Quick to take
advantage of the "Eat a Peach" success, Dick had a radical idea and enlisting
the help of Atlanta radio-man Bill Sherard to promote a "Southern Rock" radio
show for the 1973 new year. It was an unproven idea for rock radio, because it had never
been done. Betting it all on strength in numbers Dick lined up dozens of independent AM
and FM radio stations across the South, cobbled them together, bought time on AT&T
telephone long distance lines and called it a "radio network".
The shocker was, it had only cost $700 and Dick gave the show free to his affiliated
stations, provided they'd play his ABB and Wet Willie albums in heavy rotation in the
weeks prior to the broadcast, and give Capricorn advertising spots during the broadcast.
The New
Year's Concert from New Orleans was a great rocking live show with the Allman Brothers
Band and Wet Willie. The radio program was broadcast in only eight states but got national
attention, it was a success for the bands, the promoters, the radio stations and Capricorn
Records. And not in the least, Capricorn got several great tracks to use in later ABB
projects and the classic Wet Willie live album, "Drippin Wet" was produced that
night by Johnny Sandlin.
The success of a regional New Years show proved to Dick that without spending a lot of
money, or hiring expensive promoters, there was a better way to get exposure for new
artists. It was the artist launching tool he'd been looking for; "assemble an event,
add multiple radio stations and syndicate." This was a big deal for Dick because he
was the only person promoting Capricorn's records to radio stations, and up until then,
just like every record promoter Dick called on programmers one-at-a-time to convince them
to give his new records airplay. This was an arduous, time consuming task before the 1973
New Year broadcast, but after the broadcast the radio programmers were calling Dick
seeking exclusive rights to broadcast his next show, whoever it was to be and whenever it
might be. This put Dick in the proverbial "catbird seat" for promoting his new
bands records by using the New Years show as leverage...Eureka!
With national airplay momentum gathering behind him, Dick began planning the next New
Years show, he added (150) stations to the Network, now called CapCom and acquired two national sponsors, creating the first
vertically integrated national Rock & Roll promotion. The upcoming 1974 show was
planned on a much larger scale, first it would be broadcast live from San Francisco's
(15,000) seat "Cow Palace" and Bill Graham
the legendary Fillmore East/West owner was onboard as the promoter. Bill invited San
Francisco's FM radio pioneer Tom Donahue to be the show MC and Tom, in turn he asked
several of his San Francisco friends, members of the Grateful Dead, Boz Scaggs and others
to sit in on the show and add a few surprises.
Dick didn't know Bill Graham well, they'd met before at clubs and shows, but Dick knew he
was a showman and Bill proved it during the sold-out show when he descended from the
highest balcony of the hall inside a giant Plexiglas hour-glass onto the stage at midnight
and dressed with a flowing white beard as "Old Father Time". The Allman Brothers
stopped briefly at the sight and to hail the new year, then picked up on the jam where
they'd left off... it was truly a fun and magical New Year show. The "first of its
kind" radio broadcast was a coast-to-coast event, and without other programming that
night Armed Forces Radio picked up the show and broadcast all over the world live to an
estimated (40) million listeners. (as far as we know, it's still the largest audience ever
for a radio show)
Album sales results from the world wide radio show were immediate... The ABB's Warner
Brothers album and Atlantic Records catalog albums began selling through the roof. By
design, the show also launched the career of another group Dick and Frank had brought to
Capricorn, "The Marshall Tucker Band" and the debut album by the Marshall
Tucker's sold (250) thousand copies within a couple of months and became their first gold
and later a platinum album.
The New Year's broadcast was a headline grabbing monster, the following week, the event
was splashed across the front page of every entertainment trade paper, banner headlines in
Billboard,
Radio & Records, Cashbox. Later, in July of 1975, the prestigious
business magazine Fortune ramped up a major article on the rise of Macon Georgia's
Capricorn Records, with group and individual items on Phil, Frank and Dick.
Dick in Fortune Magazine |
ABB First Platinum |
40 Mil. Listeners Headlines |
Dick & Chuck Leavell |
Check out some great photos of the Historic 70's - 80's - 90's Atlanta-Macon music
scene
by; Carter
Tomassi click here - Phillip Rauls
click here |
By 1976 the hard earned success for
Capricorn was overwhelming, all the ventures had all paid off big time.
Capricorn had signed Elvin Bishop in a production deal and one day in his office Frank
Fenter played Dick a track he thought it was a great song, and he played it over and over
knowing Dick would hear it in his office next door -- this was Frank's usual "not so
subtle" way of letting Dick know what songs he thought should be promoted next. After
a full day of Frank's good natured brainwashing Dick admitted he liked the song too, but
told Frank it needed editing because it just wasn't ready for radio play as it was
structured.
Dick took the cassette tape to his office and played around with the arrangement for a
couple of days, arranging and rearranging, trying to find the sweet combination that would
fit onto the radio formats of the day. Satisfied with a final arrangement, Dick and Frank
flew to LA as they'd done before when they played the Burbank brass the raw cassette tape
of Marshall Tucker. The new Elvin Bishop track was played for Warner Brothers president Mo
Ostin, Ed Rosenblatt and Russ Thyrett, and they loved it. Warner Brothers got behind it
and "Fooled around and fell in love" hit number one on all music publication's
Top 100 single charts.
Later on that year, after long hours and endless night life spent with the bands, Dick was
ready for a break, the success was just not enough. It seemed life was nothing but
Capricorn 24-7 especially after the Elvin Bishop single hit number one and two Allman
Brothers albums high on the charts, and two Marshall Tucker albums climbing the charts
right behind, the constant pressure to be bigger, better, faster was taking a toll on
everybody at the company.
Also, by then Phil Walden's abuse of cocaine and alcohol was out of control, his drug
addiction was evident to anyone doing business with Capricorn, local vendors, the show
promoters and our bands. It was a no win situation, Frank was worn out from cleaning up
tense personnel situations after each drug fueled tirade Phil would throw on almost a
daily basis. Phil had alienated Frank to the point that he stayed depressed and Dick was
burnt out on the drama. Dick had seen this movie before, when drugs take over the deal it
dies. Dick knew the hand-writing was on the wall for Capricorn, the ride was over and it
was time to move on.
The up side was, Capricorn's success was peaking with three artists at the top of the
charts and there would never be a better time to start a new venture and Dick resigned
from Capricorn.
In the four years since Dick came to Macon to help Frank and Phil build Capricorn
productions into Capricorn Records, the company's growth had been astonishing. Capricorn
went from a small company with three guys in a two room office, to a Southern Rock Empire
with sixty employees and a roster of great artists that were known and selling worldwide,
and with annual company sales of $30 million. "It was a sweet ride" Dick recalls
fondly.
Dick was key in launching several million-selling artists while VP of Promotions at
Capricorn, including; The Allman Brothers Band,
Marshall Tucker Band and Elvin Bishop. Dick also launched other artists into the national
spotlight, including; the great Southern Blues band Wet Willie,
comic-singer-actor Martin Mull, venerable singer-songwriters and "Eric Clapton's
favorite band" Cowboy, the
legendary Southern Rock band Grinderswitch, Bluesman John Hammond, Jr. and rising Country Music star Hank Williams, Jr.
Back
to Top
Rabbit Records
& DWA: The start-up
What a wild and crazy year 1976 was, Dick had left Capricorn Records at the
top of the charts, helped the Jimmy Carter campaign's start up with free promotions and advertising
and old friends at Atlantic Records wanted to back Dick's new record company concept.
In short order, Dick's attorney Eric Kronfeld struck a deal with Atlantic and the doors
opened at Dick Wooley Associates and Rabbit Records in Macon. Flush
with funding, Dick recruited top Warner Brothers promotion man Al Moss to his new company and
asked two solid working bands to sign on. Dru Lombar's band Grinderswitch,
managed by Alex Hodges, who today heads-up "Neiderlander Entertainment" and the Winters
Brothers Band, managed by Charlie Daniels' then manager Joe Sullivan.
Rabbit Records mid charted both Grinderswitch and Winters Brothers albums the same year
and built career momentum by working them on hundreds of tour dates opening for the
Charlie Daniels Band, The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
One day in 1977, Pat Armstrong came to Dick office to ask if he'd help launch a new band
he managed, he said they were being looked at by a major producer and a record company.
Dick's office in Macon was located across the street from the Pat's Armstrong Booking
Agency and Pat had been Lynyrd Skynyrd's first manager, now he had an extensive roster of
working bands, but was understandably upset because despite having been an early player,
he hadn't participated in the Southern Rock phenomenon.
That night Dick went to see Pat's new band Molly Hatchet in a basement club of a
seedy downtown Macon flop-house called the Dempsy Hotel. The Hellish venue had water
an inch deep on dance floor, Dick said, "it was a miracle nobody was
electrocuted." But, as bad the club was Dick saw the band's energy and said yes to
working their album when it was released. Later Dick got Pat's call a month before Molly
Hatchet's album released and went to work promoting it to stations. Dick added so many
stations the first week Epic Records threw a pile of cash at Pat to launch a tour for
Southern Rock's new "Bad Boys" and soon the whole world knew about Molly
Hatchet.
Molly
Hatchet's debut album was a mega-success,
first going gold, then multi-platinum. There were big smiles in both Walnut Street offices
as Pat's future was brightened with his new hit artist on the roster, and Dick was happy
because it was his first million selling success since leaving Capricorn. Meanwhile across
town, Capricorn had been unable to launch another major artist since Dick left and was
sinking into bankruptcy.
In 1980 there was a big change in music, a tsunami called "Disco" swept
over the country and sunk airplay for all Southern Rock, Progressive and Blues Rock. Dick
had no interest in disco music and decided to sit out this dance, take time off, relax and
adopt a quiet life at the nearest beach. Dick moved to Tybee Island in 1981. Tybee is a small
island at the dead-end of Highway 80 off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. At the time, it
was a quiet fishing village of about 1500 people and a perfect spot to relax, think, write
songs for his Cotton States
Music company, learn to sail a Hobie Cat,
build a beach house and look at the record business in the rear-view mirror.
Back
to Top
2004 King Mojo
Records: The start-up
Fast-forward from 1981 to 2004... we find Dick still enjoying sunset views from the deck
of his beach house, still writing songs for his publishing company and with his business
partner Benchmark/Atlantic President Arthur Schultz had just finished building 500 college
condos and beachfront investment condos.
Family interests brought Dick back to his home town of Atlanta after retiring, but not
having a new project was boring and Dick decided to look for one. Dick had always been
hooked on the process of developing new ideas, or musicians, or music and promoting them
to success and began searching the local landscape for ideas. Dick was overwhelmed after
watching a new generation of young fans pack fusion-blues festivals "this opened my
eyes to an opportunity to serve an very under-served market." The music that
attracted thousands of these young people to shows was not being played on radio!
Corporate radio today only plays what's shoved down their throats by multi-national
business conglomerates.
So after talking it over with a few musician friends a idea began to evolve. Start a
record label, Dick reasoned if he did start a label it would have to be artists driven,
they'd brand the label unique and original, not just another a cookie-cutter label. On the
short list of such artists was his good friend of thirty years, guitar-gunslinger and
blues rock legend Dru Lombar, Dru had been the founding leader of the great Southern
Rock band "Grinderswitch". Dru and Dick soon agreed to the new plan, Dru
signed on with the new label and made the start-up official.
The new label immediately gained traction behind the one guiding principle... find great
music. "Get the best original artists in
contemporary blues, jazz, roots rock and fusion and showcase them using the global power of the Internet."
After a few months search revealed several great artists equal to the challenge in mid
2004 a showcased album was on target for the first Internet based release King Mojo Allstars, Vol. 1. The
artists were; Diane Durrett, She's the cutting edge of blue-eyed soul. ~ Mike Lowry, A multi-talented guitarist, singer, he's the
real deal! ~ The
Polk Street Blues Band, A Blues
Rock Jam band. ~ The legendary Dru Lombar and the new
members of Grinderswitch
bring it all back home with Dru's first studio album in three decades, "Ghost train
from Georgia". A surprising success, other artists were added on the second release
in 2005 King Mojo Allstars, Vol. 2
- Big Shanty, who
transforms Blues into Beats, tales of hard luck, hard times and hard women. ~ Beau
Hall, An unstoppable force of energy,
you will love. ~ Bill
Stewart and the ATL, Original jazz cooked up by the very best Atlanta musicians. ~ Little Phil, A great Southern Soul singer that always entertains. ~ Dustin
Sargent, A statement from a powerful new Jazz group.
Now... the next step, stay tuned...
|
