How inspiring to see that Orville J. “Red” Rhodes — the legendary steel guitarist who, by the late 1960s, was one of the most in-demand session musicians on the West Coast — got his start on budget label, Crown, whose offerings are wryly characterized by Discogs as “musical junk food on plastic plates.”
(1961)
(1964)
(1968)
Rhodes would be backed by The Road Runners on his first two LPs for Crown, while “Pony Tail” from 1965’s Guitars Go Country (attributed simply to Red Rhodes) sounds, most intriguingly, like some long lost Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant number:
[Pssst: Click on the triangle above to play ”Pony Tail'” by Red Rhodes.]
Red Rhodes would go on to release a live album on indie label, Happy Tiger, in 1969 — Red Rhodes & the Detours – Live at the Palomino — with a backup band that included Jerry Cole, another Crown alumnus.
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Everyone Loves Red:
A Selected Red Rhodes Sessionography
The Ventures in Space – The Ventures – 1964
Begin – The Millennium – 1968
Notorious Byrd Brothers – The Byrds – 1968
The Wichita Train Whistle Sings – Michael Nesmith – 1968
Bubble Gum, Lemonade & Something for Mama – Cass Elliot – 1969
Instant Replay – The Monkees – 1969
It’s Not Killing Me – Mike Bloomfield – 1969
John Phillips – John Phillips – 1969
Hand Sown, Home Grown – Linda Ronstadt – 1969
Nancy – Nancy Sinatra – 1969
Weeds – Brewer & Shipley – 1969
The Blue Marble – Sagittarius – 1969
Magnetic South – Michael Nesmith – 1970
Loose Salute – Michael Nesmith – 1970
Sweet Baby James – James Taylor – 1970
Tom Rush – Tom Rush – 1970
Nevada Fighter – Michael Nesmith – 1971
Possum – Possum – 1971
Lead Free – B. W. Stevenson – 1972
One Man Dog – James Taylor – 1972
Rhymes and Reasons – Carole King – 1972
Son of Schmilsson – Harry Nilsson – 1972
A Song for You – The Carpenters – 1972
Summer Breeze – Seals & Crofts – 1972
Tantamount to Treason – Michael Nesmith – 1972
And the Hits Just Keep on Comin’ – Michael Nesmith – 1972
Willis Alan Ramsey – Willis Alan Ramsey – 1972
Five & Dime, 1973 – David Ackles – 1973
Pure Country, 1973 – Garland Frady – 1973
Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash – Michael Nesmith – 1973
Valley Hi – Ian Matthews – 1973
Calabasas – B. W. Stevenson – 1974
L.A. Turnaround – Bert Jansch – 1974
Black Bach – Lamont Dozier – 1974
The Prison – Michael Nesmith – 1974
Diamonds & Rust – Joan Baez – 1975
Marriott – Steve Marriott – 1975
Midnight on the Water – David Bromberg – 1975
Sweet America – Buffy Sainte-Marie – 1976
Frolicking in the Myth – Steven Fromholz – 1977
Road Songs – Hoyt Axton – 1977
The Way I Am – Billy Preston – 1981
Tropical Campfires – Michael Nesmith – 1992
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Crown:
King of the Budget Labels
A Brief History from Both Sides Now
Crown Records was a budget label for the Bihari Brothers, who ran the Modern and RPM labels. Crown started in December, 1953 with four artist signings (including Joe Houston), as the Bihari Brothers’ R&B label, but they didn’t release albums on Crown until 1957. In March, 1957, Saul Bihari announced that Modern and RPM albums would be discontinued and reissued on the Crown label at $1.98 per album. Later in the year, the price dropped to $1.49 per album to compete with budget labels like Tops.
As a label, Crown has a mixed reputation. Many of their albums contain early rock and roll or jazz and are sought after by collectors. On the other hand, Crown put out a lot of schmaltz, knockoffs, and otherwise forgettable music, all packaged in cheap covers, giving Crown the “other” reputation as the King of junk labels.
Crown albums started out by reissuing the material from Modern and RPM, which was often excellent and sought-after. After running out of Modern and RPM reissues, Crown soon settled down to become another of the low-budget labels putting out generic music, knockoffs of current hits, or deceptive artist names meant to confuse the undiscerning buyer, much like Tops or Pickwick’s labels. And Crown became one of the earliest labels to start hawking music with a famous artist’s name in huge letters, but the music inside was by “members” of their former orchestra.
As the Bihari budget label, Crown quickly earned itself a reputation as a junk record label, and by sheer volume of issues and reissues became known as the King of junk record labels (yeah, they even have a crown…). Cost savings measures (= “cutting corners”) were obvious everywhere. The covers were cheaply made, and fell apart almost instantly. The back slicks were the only thing that held the two slabs of cover cardboard together, and the paper didn’t last long; finding a Crown album today without a seam split is indeed unusual. The back and front slicks themselves were often recycled unused slicks from old records; on many you can see the pictures from old front covers right through the paper.
The records themselves often sounded worn out right out of the package, with all kinds of bumps and wrinkles or other vinyl anomalies. The preference for material for release was public domain tunes so no royalties need be paid (check how many times the song “Ida” shows up – scores of times. How many other labels have that song?). Other songs were purchased outright for a few bucks from the artists used for recording, who were paid a flat fee for recording, with no possibilities of future royalties. Songs were recycled, too, with generic artists’ names rotated so the same recordings could be used again and again under different names. Some masters were even “traded out” to other budget labels, who renamed the artists and provided Crown in turn with their generic recordings that Crown could name for themselves. For this reason, the same recordings would show up on several labels under different artists’ credits, and even under different song names.
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