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| "Wild Plums" by Smith, new CD/EP release November 2012 |
Smith who uses songwriting to keep his soul and mind at ease, just so happens to get a couple of well played recordings out of the situation from time to time. Not real magic, just soul exercise. From time to time, Smith starts a new chapter of his book "Vinyl Knights: Kenneth Howard Smith" a series on ups and downs in the music business. Below is a peep into the book, chapter 11:
Kenneth Howard Smith, Genius or Derelict?
©1986-2012 SDC OmniMedia Group
Published by SDC/Vollintine Books
Published by SDC/Vollintine Books
Not to much is known about Kenneth Howard Smith, born in
1948 in Bakersfield , California
Kenneth was the third born of the family, but the first
child to live as his older brother and two sisters died from early childhood
infantile births. It took approximately
seven years after the death of his younger sister for little Smith to come into
this world.
In between those seven years, the Smiths marriage broke up
and Berry
Re-marrying Mr. Smith again, five other siblings were born
to the Smith family after Kenneth that included Theodore, Brenda, Wanda, Clyde
and Sandra. Emma Jean with the nick name
of “Baby May” was adored and loved by her younger brothers and sisters and
visited with her all of the time, even spending the summers at her Los
Angeles
As the years progressed forward, young Kenneth remembers the
times when their father worked part-time at an up and coming television station
with the call letters KERO-TV Channel 10 that was located in a barn at the home
of West coast Country and Western pioneer Cousin Herb Henson.
Herb Henson, known as Cousin Herb, was a country music performer and television host on KERO-TV, channel 10 (now 23) inBakersfield ,
California
Herb Henson, known as Cousin Herb, was a country music performer and television host on KERO-TV, channel 10 (now 23) in
Cousin Herb Henson was a pivotal figure in the development
of country music's Bakersfield Bakersfield San
Joaquin Valley Fresno
Mr. Smith was one of the stage hands and janitor, and would
help setup the bands for the broadcast and clean up the place after the
broadcast. During these times, young
Kenneth was introduced to the would be new kings of the west coast country
music scene, like Lee Talley, Spade Cooley, Buck Owens, Bonnie Owens, Merle
Haggard, Porter Wagoner, Tommy Sands, Glen MacArthur and a very young Dolly
Parton.
As the drive from Bakersfield Lancaster California Kern County
As the family settled in to the Rosamond area, Mr. Smith
would occasionally take a couple of the children to his job on the weekend to
see where he worked and meet some of the people he worked with.
After the decision to build the facility had been made,
contractors experienced with rocket engine development were solicited for the
proposed test station design plan. These contractors included Curtiss-Wright
Corporation; North American Aviation; N. W. Kellogg Company; Reaction Motors;
and Aerojet Engineering Corporation (AEC), a subsidiary of Aerojet General
Corporation, which had been formed earlier by GALCIT scientists. Because the
type of large-scale static test stand required for the test facility had no
precedent, the use of an engineering subsidiary of a rocket manufacturer
promised the best possible results for construction of the test facilities
(TetraTech 1997).
In 1947, the Air
Materiel Command, through its Rocket Branch, and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (Corps) contracted with AEC for the design of the rocket engine test
stands and auxiliary facilities at Muroc Army Airfield (Renamed Edwards AFB in
1949) (U.S. Army Air Force 1948; U.S. Air Force 1964a). AEC was the logical
choice to advise the Corps. Since Aerojet's inception as a spinoff of GALCIT,
it had concentrated on rocket research and development, whereas competing
contractors at the time were multidisciplinary organizations and aircraft
manufacturers.
In 1952, ERETS was
activated. Its primary mission was "to accomplish research, development,
and static testing of experimental and production rocket power plants, and to
provide authorized contractors and other Governmental agencies with facilities
and engineering assistance in research, development, and testing of experimental
rocket power plants". Rocket Branch personnel
performed liquid rocket propellant servicing operations for aircraft and
provided engineering and consulting services to AFFTC activities using rocket
engines and their components.
It's true. Back in 1948, military personnel were working on
a rocket sled experiment at the Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force
Base) in California
After the test, researchers were dismayed to find that the
sensors used in the harness's restraining clamps had returned no measurements.
Edward Murphy discovered that his assistant had installed the sensors
incorrectly, with each one wired backwards.
"If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he
will," Murphy complained. His colleagues quickly dubbed the saying
"Murphy's Law." The complaint
soon morphed into the law we know today: "If anything can go wrong, it
will."
Murphy's Law was popularized during a press conference by
John Paul Stapp, the U.S. Army colonel and flight surgeon who headed up the
program on which Murphy worked. Responding to a question about why no one had
been seriously injured in rocket sled testing, he said engineers always took
Murphy's Law into consideration when evaluating what could go wrong.
One large hangar that Mr. Smith worked in was filled with a
computer that was wall-to-wall and it was called an ENIAC.
ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer was the
first electronic general-purpose computer. It was Turing-complete, digital, and
capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems.
ENIAC was designed to calculate artillery firing tables for
the United States Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory. When ENIAC was
announced in 1946 it was heralded in the press as a "Giant Brain". It
had a speed of one thousand times that of electro-mechanical machines, which
was unmatched by mechanical computers. This mathematical power, coupled with
general-purpose programmability, excited scientists and industrialists. The
inventors promoted the spread of these new ideas by conducting a series of
lectures on computer architecture.
ENIAC's design and construction was financed by the United
States Army during World War II. The construction contract was signed on June 5, 1943 , and work on the computer
began in secret by the University of Pennsylvania February 14,
1946 and formally dedicated the next day at the University
of Pennsylvania November 9, 1946 for a refurbishment and a
memory upgrade, and was transferred to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland July 29, 1947 ,
it was turned on and was in continuous operation until 11:45 p.m. on October
2, 1955 .
ENIAC was conceived and designed by John Mauchly and J.
Presper Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania
Young Kenneth’s experience with seeing this larger then life
machine in its’ last days as young child with men and women in white lab coats with “oven”
mittens would go from computer cabinet-to-cabinet changing out burned out
vacuum tubes.
The name computer would resonate with young Kenneth for the
rest of his life. During his days in
junior high school, Smith had the opportunity to take up wood shop. One day while making a lamp, he placed the
router on the wrong part of the wood and caused a large smoke cloud in the
shop, and was asked to leave the shop and go enter into another class during
anything, but stay away from the wood shop.
Smith was very disappointed after this rejection. So, his mother entered him into the
bookkeeping and accounting classes, where he learned to type and do
bookkeeping. At first, he was upset with
this idea, but upon entering the class, he was the only boy in the class among
20 girls. From here, he joined the
school newspaper and became one of its editors and publishers.
As Rosamond had no high school, all of its students went to Antelope
Valley High School
As young Smith entered the halls of Antelope
Valley College
Smith’s interests in music continued with his up-start band
“Purple Olive” that created several local area hit recordings with “Proud Mary Sunshine”,
“Journey To The Center of Your Heart” and “Mary Beth”.
It did not take long for the Vietnam War to catch up with
Smith as he transferred to the University
of California Santa
Barbara U.S.
With the school closed, Smith was drafted by the U.S. Army
to flight helicopters, as then Governor Ronald Reagan canceled all of the
student deferments at Santa Barbara
Smith had married Irene Joanne Tarbell, his record producer
and music publishing general manager, with their plans drastically changed,
Smith wanted to head for Canada, but was talked out of it by his mother, and he
decided to join the Air Force.
After a couple of days of negotiations with the Air Force as
to what his duties were going to be, his rank upon entering, as he was in ROTC
and where he was going, Smith found himself on a air plane headed for Lackland
Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for
basic training.
After military service in several different fields, from
writing technical documents for the C-5 Galaxy transport; foreign countries
with varied duties from Postmaster, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Vietnam, working
with the American Consul General in Bangkok, Thailand; NCOIC (Non-Commissioned
Office-In-charge) Khoko Air Station, Northern Thailand; Loading cargo master
and finally Triage medical tech at Norton Air Force Base, California, Smith was
discharged from military service to his country.
One thing that all of these positions had in common were
working with computers. Smith found
himself programming and maintaining these new machines at the local company
level for the squadron. Smith was a
quick study by experience and because of this; he advanced steadily up the
latter in rank and responsibilities.
Yet, Smith found himself to be disgruntled as been passed
over for Officers Candidate
School
While in the US Air Force Reserves, Smith attended the
California School of Law, in Santa Monica , California Cranston Beverly Hills
As the requirements for getting into any law school, one
must have a college degree. Since Smith was
a good student at the law school, and he helped Robin with his homework and
studies, the senator wasted no time in securing him a commission in the
California Air National Guard as a 2nd Lieutenant.
It was a dream comes true, even with the
California Air National Guard
. Smith helped with Senator
Cranston’s re-election by maintaining bulk contributors’ mailing lists and
other donor databases. However, this too
would come crashing down, as Senator Cranston some time and months later, would
be entangled in the Savings and Loan Wars that would build to both Smith and Cranston's careers crashing down. Smith's commission would later be rejected and he dismissed from the Guard.
Keating had wanted federal regulators to stop
"hounding" his savings and loan association. Although the committee
found that "no evidence was presented to the Committee that Senator
Cranston ever agreed to help Mr. Keating in return for a contribution,"
the committee deemed Cranston Cranston
While attending school with Robin, Smith would also be
invited to celebrity parties in Malibu Palm Springs
During law school, Smith who continued to write and record
from time to time and got signed with ABC Music Publishing as a demo producer
for their songwriting division. During
this period of time, he met Lee Rogers and Jimmy Holliday. Rogers was riding high on the RnB charts with
his Loadstone Records release of “Love Bandit”, while Holliday was at the
Billboard Number #1 position with “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” by Jackie
Deshannon.
ABC Records promotions department had this record called “Margaritaville”
by this new singer named Jimmy Buffett. This
record was one of those that did not fit the record charts on any station. It was the height of the Disco music, and it
was to pop for country, too white for the RnB stations, not pop enough for the Top
40 stations. It was just an egg
completely out of its shell and nobody wanted to play it at all.
Smith needed some extra money for child support and paying
the rent. West coast promotions department needed someone to promote this
record up and down the California coast.
Smith was given three boxes of 100 - 45 RPM singles, some hotel and gas
money and off he went to work this record.
It took Smith four weeks going from San Diego Southern California , up to Bakersfield Oregon Idaho Montana Utah Nevada
One of Smith’s famous record promotion stories starts in
Bakersfield at KERN Radio, where Smith had pulled into the station’s parking
lot early in the morning before the drive time on air personality was there
waiting for the station to go live, the DJ was late and drove up to the
station, unlocking the doors, he rushed inside to play the National Anthem and
the local news. Smith with several
records in his hand entered the station right behind him. Calling out to the DJ, Smith had a couple of
cups of hot coffee in his hand, and as the DJ came running back from flipping
the transmission switches to go live and returning to the control room, Smith
handed him a cup, and said “Good Morning”.
The DJ took the cup and off to the microphone he went –live. After
the opening and the local and national news, the DJ signaled Smith to come into
the control room.
On the air, he opened up the microphone telling everyone
that it was a record promotions guy standing in his control room with some
records, and that he had brought him a hot cup of coffee that he needed so very
much, and that he was going to talk to him in a few minutes and see what he was
pushing. It’s 5:30am the sun is not even up yet, and Smith is all ready
on the air in Bakersfield
Smith tells the DJ that he has this single by a new artist
named Jimmy Buffett, and wants to know if he could give it a couple of
spends. The DJ tells him that he will
give it a listen and to place it on the pile of records on the wall. Smith turns to the wall, and sees his worse
nightmare, a stack of records in six rows over three feet high still in their
mailing envelopes.
Smith looking at the unopened records, turns to the DJ and
asks him to play his record live on the air, and if he gets just one listener
that votes against it, then he will pull it and call it a day. The DJ taking a sip from the coffee tells
Smith, he could do that and takes the single, placing it on the turntable.
Within one minute of the songs introduction, the switch
board lights up, all twelve lines. Now
it’s been a full two minutes into the song, the lights are still flashing. The first caller is asked, if it’s a smash or
trash? Ten callers like the song so far and
vote’s it a smash. By this time, the
last caller votes against it calling “Margaritaville” trash. And as Smith promised the DJ he could pull
the record if he got one vote against it.
To Smith’s a surprise, the DJ plays the record again, and off the
microphone tells Smith that he’s going to ad the single to his playlist. Since KERN Radio was a Billboard reporting
station, this gives “Margaritaville” a leg up and the rest is history.
It was no mistake that this record was given to Smith,
because several years earlier, he was a Disc Jockey at KUTY-AM in Palmdale ,
California Antelope
Valley College
The little radio station from Palmdale was in the circle of
gold, with its signal carrying deep into the heart of the San
Fernando Valley and North Hollywood . It was the 17th logical station
site to get your record played in Los Angeles
City
Smith who started out as the college’s activities announcer
on Mutual Broadcasting Systems, quickly moved into the position as the most
requested on air personality for the college circuit. Don Imus was at KUTY and liked Smith’s warm
delivery. It was not to long that he was
spending more of his time at the station, as Imus was giving him lots of on air
time for the college and Smith’s group, Purple Olive.
On of the pert’s of being on the Associated Student Body and
on the air, Smith got the chance to have a personal relationship with the
Polodor Brothers, both Don and Richard.
Don Podolor worked in record promotion and booking, while his older
brother was the record producer for the Monkees, Fountain of Youth, Three Dog
Night and Janis Joplin.
Smith was one of the first people to get demo copies of the
artists completed records, and one of the times was Three Dog Nights’ “Joy To
The World” with Smith being the first DJ to premiere the single on KUTY weeks
before anyone else got a copy. Other firsts,
included Rick Nelson’s “Garden Party”,
Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” and Smith’s last
promotional effort when he returned to the Antelope Valley from the Vietnam War
was, "Rhinestone Cowboy" a
song written and recorded first by Larry Weiss in 1973, and most famously
recorded by American country music singer Glen Campbell. The song enjoyed
immense popularity with both country and pop audiences when he released it in
1975.
Motown Records. It
was also at this time, that he obtained his first personal computer, a Sinclair
from England
-TO BE CONTINUED -
EU to Clear Sony's EMI Deal
European Approval Expected for Group's $2.2 Billion Purchase of Music Publisher
By ETHAN SMITH
European antitrust regulators are expected Thursday to approve a plan by a Sony Corp.-led investor group to buy EMI Group Ltd.'s huge music-publishing division for $2.2 billion, according to people familiar with the situation.
Approval by the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, would represent a victory for Sony, removing the possibility of a longer review of the deal's antitrust implications. Such a review could add several months to the process.
Getty Images
Beyoncé, one of EMI's songwriting artists, at the 2011 MTV Awards.
The approval is conditioned on Sony selling off certain music-publishing assets, the people familiar with the situation said. Sony initially proposed selling a more limited number of assets, but only won approval after offering to sell more, according to one of the people.
Sony and its financial partners are expected to sell off three of EMI Music Publishing's catalogs and one of Sony's, all comprising older compositions. Those include Virgin Music Publishing's songs in the U.K., the U.S. and Europe, as well as Famous Music's catalog of U.K. compositions. In addition, the company is expected to sell the publishing rights to works by a handful of contemporary song writers.
A European Commission spokesman declined to comment.
The pending approval was reported earlier by the Financial Times.
Citigroup Inc. C +0.85% is in the midst of separate sales of EMI Group's two main
components: EMI Music Publishing and EMI Music, its recorded-music operation, which Vivendi SA's VIV.FR +0.03% Universal Music Group is planning to buy for $1.9
billion.
Sony is a minority partner in the consortium that also includes the estate of Michael Jackson; Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Co.; Jynwel Capital Ltd.; Blackstone Group LP's BX -0.12% GSO Capital Partners; and billionaire
entertainment mogul David Geffen.
Citigroup made the EMI deals in November, after taking control of the storied British music company following an ill-fated leveraged buyout.
Because the buyers of both parts of EMI's business are already large players in their industries, the deals are being reviewed by the European Commission and its U.S. counterpart, the Federal Trade Commission. Both regulatory bodies want to make sure the deals don't lead to undue reductions in competition.
The FTC music-publishing review is continuing, as are reviews in both the U.S. and Europe of the recorded-music deal.
Music publishers own and administer copyrights of songs' melodies and lyrics, and collect royalties when the songs are sold or performed publicly. Recorded-music companies, by contrast, own specific recordings and distribute them on CDs, online and to other outlets.
The proposed EMI acquisition would make Sony the world's largest music publisher by market share, according to an investor presentation reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The two companies combined represented 31% of the global publishing market in 2010, ahead of the 23% controlled by Universal Music Publishing, according to the presentation. The 31% figure doesn't take into account the current asset-sale proposals.
Impala, a coalition of mostly European independent record companies and music publishers, released a statement Wednesday questioning the significance of Sony's proposed asset sales.
"We need to see the full decision but we find it difficult to imagine these remedies will make any significant difference to Sony's market power," the statement said. "This makes the outcome on Universal/EMI all the more important."
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