Daptone Gives Johnny’s Uncalled For A Proper Release After 55 Years: A Conversation With Johnny Golden (INTERVIEW)

For a true music geek, few feelings pale compared to digging up a diamond at your local record shop. The tradition of buying an unknown album strictly off of its cover art or band name has yielded some terrific lost releases gaining a new set of legs, such is the case for Johnny’s Uncalled Four. However, this discovery happened in person when a member of the Daptone Records team was lingering around Johnny Golden’s family-run Golden Mastering and happened to hear the reel-to-reel tapes being looked over by Golden himself. They were immediately entranced by the twangy surf-rock guitars and simplistic yet masterful songwriting and a few tracks were sent back to Daptone’s home base. The results are presented here as The Lost Album, a 14-track outing initially recorded in the late 60s that miraculously sounds as modern and honed as any other release this year. 

You may recognize the name Johnny Golden from some of your favorite albums over the past few decades. His work as a mastering engineer can be heard on releases from Bill Withers, Earth  Wind & Fire, and Brian Eno. His natural ability to bring the best out of these recordings landed him a gig at K-Disc Studio in sunny Hollywood where an assignment to master a record for a little punk outfit known as Black Flag turned into a career shift. It was the early 80s and his work for Black Flag landed him more work within the genre, mastering releases for the likes of Sub Pop, K Records, and Touch & Go. He made California his creative safe haven in 1994 when Golden and his daughter, April, opened the aforementioned Golden Mastering, the studio where The Lost Album would find a voice to speak for it and finally release it in its full glory; a collection of otherworldly rock that was way ahead of its time laced with instrumental bliss and heave-sent harmonies. 

The album kicks off with the appropriately named “Movin’ & Groovin’”, a quick instrumental track that introduces us to the relaxed sonic palette Johnny’s Uncalled Four tends to toy around in. The brightness of the guitar chords is blinding in the best way possible, the album is laced with cheery melodies and arrangements that explore what the rock and roll of the 60s could be when in the hands of a true creative. The vocals sound untouched from their initial analog recording, giving their little love songs even more warmth. Even the up-tempo “Glad All Over” still radiates with a youthful glow, although their musicianship is as mature as anything else from this era. An instrumental moment like “Jack The Ripper” showcases the band’s forward-thinking song structure with a powerful drum pattern leading the charge while those signature guitar tones continue to amaze. The Lost Album will thankfully no longer be lost and Glide recently had the chance to talk to Golden…

What year exactly did The Lost Album get recorded and how come at the time it never got released?  Do you feel it might have had an underground following if it did?

The exact recording dates are not known but the years would have been 1962-63 for the WAM recordings and then late 63 thru 65 for the Gateway recordings. Songs recorded in my attic studio were in September of 1965 when we recorded eight songs with the idea of doing an album. We were very busy playing dances and never had the chance to finish because I was drafted into the Navy on October 12th.

As a Mastering engineer and looking back at these tracks what do you find most appealing and would not change and if anything what would you change?

For the most part, the WAM (Words and Music, Youngstown,Ohio) and Gateway (Pittsburgh,Pa.) recordings were done as demos to get a recording contract.  

WAM had 2 Ampex 350 mono tape decks and Gateway had 2 Ampex 351 2-track machines. All overdubs were done by transferring from one tape to another while adding the extra part…usually to double the lead vocal.  In those days, the recording technique was ‘room sound’… somewhat distant miking. I simply trusted the recording engineer to do his job while we did ours… I really wasn’t very aware of mic technique until I built my ‘attic’ studio.  Having a limited amount of inputs to my Viking 2 track via a 5-input Bogen PA mixer meant I had to use 5 microphones placed for the most sonic advantage.  

No limiters or compressors were used at WAM and I never had any signal processing in the attic except a Fender Echo Unit and Fender ‘spring’ reverb. Gateway had a Hammond spring reverb and a Gates mono compressor although I never saw it being used.  

So it would have been nice to have had a 4 track and some limiters but we just accepted the recordings the way they were and strived for the best performance. I made 3 trips to N.Y.C. shopping the songs… those were the days you could walk into major labels and play demos for A & R people… without an appointment!

Why do you feel rock and roll can’t authentically go back to this early form that John’s Uncalled Four performed?  Are there any bands today that you see as ones doing rock and keeping it real like it was done during the time of your band?

No, it’s certainly possible to make recordings similar to what we did, it’s just that the equipment and bare-bones technique isn’t really something that most bands would want….  imagine a rock song without any distortion or effects pedals on the guitars… it can happen but not too likely. Many of the original SST recordings were done similarly to our recordings… and I appreciate that straight-ahead ‘live’ recording technique. I can only speak for the projects I’ve worked on in the past few years and i can’t think of any that sound like ours…. not that that’s bad, it’s just not something that is done anymore.

Johnny’s Uncalled Four is quite a daring band name for the time – how did you come up with it and what other band names do you remember were in contention?

As with most bands, we tossed around many names (of which I can’t remember) and couldn’t agree on anything, so I went to my Dad who was really quite witty and he said “well, since you can’t think of a name why don’t you call yourselves The Uncalled Four”, so that was it. He later told me he once knew of a barbershop quartet named ’The Uncalled Four’, but they sang ‘barbershop’ and we were a rock band, so it was never a problem.

“Maybe Baby” many people would immediately compare to Buddy Holly melody wise but the guitar work sounds very “surf” –  did those worlds come easily to merge for you?

A WAM recording and I played my Fender Musicmaster on that one and never thought much about it, I just wanted to do a little different version than Buddy Holly’s. Would have been nice to add a third harmony to the vocal ‘Maybe Baby’ parts, but just the two parts left the third harmony part for the listener to sing it.

“Please Say,” sound very British and proto garage rock – what was the inspiration behind that sound?

I just sat down at the piano in our living room thinking about the Kingsman’s ‘Louie Louie’, trying to reverse the chord pattern, but still be different. I’ve always tried to stay away from writing songs with the standard  E.B.A rock chord format, “Please Say” is one of those examples. John Cevetello recorded that at Gateway and the spring reverb he put on the recording gave the guitars a nice sustain sound.

Who were your guitar influences at this juncture having only limited availability to radio and vinyl?

 The first record I could play along with on my Fender Musicmaster was The Ventures’ “Walk Don’t Run” -the same as thousands of other guitar players. The Ventures were my main inspiration…. I bought every record they released ( until they got away from the basic sound they started with and played along with their records until I could play the songs and teach the chords to the band. I certainly admired the great Les Paul and Chet Atkins among others, but they were beyond my capability and besides, I could play The Ventures songs!

Having worked with The Fifth Dimension, Bill Withers, Earth Wind & Fire, Iggy Pop, Sonny Rollins, and Brian Eno – amongst the many names in your press release- what sessions have you most enjoyed and why? What nameworthy artists out there do you consider friends and cohorts?

The Bill Withers sessions with Booker T producing at Wally Heider’s in Hollywood was a milestone in my career, Bill Halverson recorded the tracks and I recorded Bill’s vocals and did the stereo mix.  At the time I didn’t realize the significance of those recordings although thinking nothing was on the radio like this.

 It wasn’t until several months later, driving back to Ohio for a class reunion and listening to the radio all I heard was “Ain’t No Sunshine”… going across the dial station after station was simultaneously playing the record! At that point it hit me…”I’ve recorded a hit record”! It’s still a fond memory.

Working with The Fifth Dimension at Heider’s was also an amazing experience, especially with Bones Howe producing and engineering. Bones was like a second father to me.  I observed and learned a lot from him and worked with the Fifth all very professional and nice people.

The tracking sessions with “The Wrecking Crew” was always a great experience… amazing musicians. 

Have you performed any of these songs live in any form in the past 50 years and are there any live shows on the horizon?

We got together in 1985 for dance in Columbiana, Ohio for my wife’s 20-year high school class reunion.   It had been 20 years since we had played or even gotten together.   In three hours we played more than 35 songs. There was a lo quality VHS of the show and the audio was recorded to 4 track cassette, although somewhat lo-fi , it does demonstrate ‘how it used to be’. That was a magic night for all of us. This is where I have to give credit to all the Daptone / Wick people…. to put out our album without a band! Unfortunately, various health issues and distance make it virtually impossible for us to play again.