- Place – Del Lane Lea Studios
- Time – Mid 70s
- Artist – Tommy Boyce
- Engineer – Kenny Denton
Tommy Boyce was a wonderful complex character
So I wanted to capture the time I spent with him, without understating or exaggerating who he was.
On completing my story, I contacted Caroline Boyce and asked her if she would be kind enough to read through my text and said if she wanted anything changed, to let me know.
I also said, I would not publish if she was unhappy in anyway.
I was so overwhelmed when I received Caroline’s endorsement, which confirmed I had captured the essence of Tommy.
Caroline’s reply
Hi Kenny “OH MY GOD … You had me laughing out loud as it wasn’t hard to visualize this at all; he was exactly like that in real life too and would give you the shirt “literally” off his back … life was magical, exciting and a performance and it was wonderful to experience the world through his eyes.
This touched me sooooooooooooooooo much; well written really capturing the essence of Tommy …
Thanks so very much for sharing this with me I absolutely loved reading it and it brought back some funny and super fond memories of Tommy; he truly was one of a kind with a giving heart that surpassed anyone’s I’ve ever known.
He is so sadly missed so thanks for helping to keep his memory and legacy alive
Thanks again, and have a happy holiday season and keep me posted xoxo”
Tommy Boyce’s first big success as a writer was
Be My Guest for Fats Domino.
Then in 1961 with Curtis Lee he co-wrote, Under The Moon of Love and Pretty Little Angel Eyes, which were produced by the legendary Phil Spector.
In 1964 Tommy teamed up with Bobby Hart and had their first hit together with Lazy Elsie Molly by Chubby Checker, closely followed by Jay and the Americans’ Come A Little Bit Closer, a top 10 record later in the same year.
In 1966 they recorded the demos for the pilot of a new TV show called The Monkees.
TV producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson had the idea of casting a rock ‘n’ roll band that could star in its own weekly television series.
Schneider and Rafelson placed an advert in Variety looking for four young men who would be selected to serve as members of the band:
Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz all passed the auditions.
There is a rumour that Charles Manson was one of the applicants that were turned down at the auditions, this is not true.
The infamous Manson dabbled in writing songs and his musical career gained some notoriety after The Beach Boys and Guns ‘n’ Roses recorded songs he had written.
Boyce and Hart were hired to write several songs and record the backing tracks and vocals for the band’s first album titled The Monkees. Davy, Micky, Peter and Michael replaced their vocals later.
Boyce and Hart went on to write over 300 songs and sell more than 42-million records.
My First Encounter
I first met Tommy Boyce In 1975, at one of those euphoric, back slapping music business occasions.
Everyone there was mingling and hoping for the ultimate accolade – recognition! It was a furness of networking in a sea of ambiguity.
Tommy was a good looking, silver haired, baby-faced guy surrounded by an real aura of success.
I was very aware of Tommy’s achievements as a producer and a songwriter.
We got on well and we were soon talking about his three favourite subjects-music, songs and girls.
By the end of this initial introduction Tommy asked if I would engineer his next project.
I gave him my studio contact details so he could book the studio, I would always welcome the opportunity to work with new clients especially such successful ones.
I had no idea that over the next few years how much I would learn, laugh and be driven mad by this guy.
The insanity meter that registered heavily throughout my career with various artists was off the scale for the mercurial talents of Tommy Boyce.
A few weeks later Tommy arrived at the studio with his new partner Richard Hartley, a very talented musician with almost the exact opposite characteristics to Tommy,
He was quiet, unassuming and almost motionless in comparison.
Tommy the Producer
As the session got underway it soon became apparent Tommy enjoyed using his prerogative as the producer, directing me to use unusual microphone positions which could be somewhat unorthodox.
He was also meticulous about certain sounds but not too concerned at all about others.
Once he was happy, he would spend the rest of the session dancing around the control room usually playing air guitar, only stopping to relay instructions to the musicians or myself.
I don’t think that he ever sat in a chair for more than a few moments on any of our recording sessions.
On the first run through I made the mistake of altering the master volume half way through the recording,
Tommy shouted,
“What the fuck are you doing? Never change the volume once the track has started, how am I supposed to know if the feel of the take is right?”
Tommy carried a small bag that he would leave in the corner of the studio.
Every hour or two he would take out a different shirt or top and change it for the one he was wearing.
I asked him why he did this, he said,
“Kenny, I’m just changing my mood man, just changing my mood.”
I began to wonder just what I had let myself in for.
Vocal Sessions
Lead vocal sessions with Tommy were painstaking, he would coach and direct the artist in each and every syllable.
He would then usually join the backing vocalist to add his “magic touch,” as he would call it.
Occasionally he would like to do all the backing vocals himself. I was sworn to secrecy not to mention to anyone how we achieved the Boyce block vocal sound (sorry Tommy)!
With each vocal we overdubbed, he would squeeze his nose making a very strange nasal sound. He would then move to a different position around the microphone each time he did a harmony.
When we had finished, he would proudly say
“See Kenny it sounds amazing, even better than the Beach Boys.”
Tommy would also love to play percussion on the tracks; recording him doing this was a nightmare, especially the tambourine.
When I asked Tommy to hit the instrument to set the correct record level he would stand still and hit the instrument normally.
As soon as the red light went on and the music started, he would start dancing around like John Travolta, throwing the tambourine in the air, whilst spinning around and catching it.
He would then came back into the control room to listen to the playback and ask why the tambourine was changing volume all the time.
It was hard to explain to him that his stage technique didn’t look quite so great in the studio.
I learnt to watch his every movement whilst recording so when he moved away from the microphone I could lift the fader up and down accordingly.
Along with some heavy compression across the track I could satisfy Tommy with the result.
Boyce and Hart
How mad can one person be. Well let me tell you
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