The All Night Workers (rare syracuse Lou reed single)
$
83
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket [2:25]
(Bill Elmiger)
Why Don't You Smile Now [2:30]
(Phillips - Vance - Reed - Cale)
The All Night Workers
7 inch single, Round Sound RS-1, 1965
Side A: PPC-1005-A-1
Side B: PPC-1005-XB-1
Pink/orange label stock copy. vg condition
This single produced by Lee Harridan Productions has a B-side track - Why Don't You Smile - credited to Terry Philips, Jerry Vance (alias Jerry Pellegrino), Lou Reed and John Cale. This is the first known collaboration between Reed and Cale. Jerry Vance is credited as Music Director. Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket was a bit of a regional hit in a few regions.
The workers consisted of Syracuse-area mates of Lou Reed: Otis Smith (band was previously known as Otis and the Headliners - Syracuse University frat band mid-60s), Lloyd Baskin (later of Seatrain), Billy Elmiger, Steve McCord (the man Felix Cavaliere asked to be in the Rascals but settled for Gene Cornish instead 'cause Steve knew music was no replacement for a degree!), and some other guy. Lou had been a McCord roomate during his Syracuse years. The All Night Workers were a great fraternity band. Some members went to NYC circa 67-68 and metamorphised into the Albert (who had a couple of albums in the late 60s) without Baskin but with Otis Smith the singer. There is also an Otis and the Elevators single out there someplace.
Alan Reddig says: "The "some other guy" you allude to was drummer Herb Flower, a Syracuse University music student at the time, who was later a percussionist with the Syracuse Symphony orchestra.
Lloyd Baskin went on to graduate with a B.I.D (Bachelor of Industrial Design) degree from the industrial design program at S.U., which is surprising because it's a five-year program and very difficult, but to my knowledge he never practiced industrial design; he went directly on with his music career. One of his teachers told me that Baskin was not a particularly conscientious student, but only because he was always preoccupied with the band.
Baskin played a Wurlitzer 140B electronic piano in the band, but he didn't use the screw-on legs or the flimsy piano bench seat that came with the instrument. Instead, he would rest it on top of a speaker cabinet so that he could play and sing standing up. This configuration meant that he also couldn't hook up the piano's sustain pedal, which attached to the bottom of the piano housing just about dead center. As a result, the absence of sustain meant Baskin's playing style was always a bit choppy. The opening notes of Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket, thirteen chords from Baskin's piano, are a perfect example of the choppy sound he used.
Baskin told me that the name of the band had to change from "Otis and the Headliners" because there already was a recording group named "The Headliners," and changing the name was a condition of signing the band's record deal."
price rating
