Andrew Loog Oldham has a fantastic conversation with veteran Vancouver DJ Red Robinson on his latest Sounds and Vision podcast, posted on March 7: http://soundsandvision.libsyn.com/0006-red-robinson.
ALO: “Once you stop being a student a lot of your life is over.”
Over one hour, 22 minutes and 13 seconds the two dig deep into the early history of rock n’ roll as a trade. ALO starts off with memories of Bobby Darin’s last recording session in New York in 1973 working on Smokey Robinson’s song “Happy” (the love theme for the Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack) with Berry Gordy et al. The discussion then jumps back to 1958 and the necessarily dubious writing credits for Darin’s first hit “Splish Splash” to get some radio airplay.
Each name brought into the conversation (Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Keely Smith, Al Kooper, Snuff Garrett) opens up a new flood of memories and stories. ALO is keen to get Robinson’s perspective on the overall arc of rock n’ roll history from the vantage point of the West Coast back in the day. Red: “Rock n’ roll’ was dying.” ALO: “Rock n’ roll’ was dying ... I never thought of it that way.” Red: You know what brought it back? England.” Great stuff. Essential listening.
A descriptive intro from the Sounds and Vision website gives us some introductory background for the session in Vancouver: “Andrew Loog Oldham is the original manager/producer of the Rolling Stones, founder of Immediate Records, writer of STONED, 2STONED, and ROLLING STONED, and the longtime lead DJ on the Underground Garage channel on SiriusXM. Sounds and Vision is the next chapter.
On this episode, Andrew catches up with his Vancouver pal Red Robinson. Red has been said to be the first radio disc jockey to play rock n’ roll music in Vancouver on CJOR. Robinson was emcee for the Elvis Presley show at Empire Stadium in Vancouver in 1957 and for the Beatles in 1964. He also became the program director of two Vancouver radio stations, CFUN from 1962 to 1968 and CJOR from 1968 to 1970...”
