New Music from Vampy coming soon!

Vampy and Buzzy Linhart to work on a new danceable Goth recording - keep watching this blog for more information.

Buzzy Linhart Loves You and Wishes all his friends and fans a Merry Christmas 2009!

---

---

http://vampirefreaks.com/

Linhart works on new music with Vampy & The Dead Star Band

Buzzy Linhart working on new music with Vampy & The Dead Star Band!

Vampy & The Dead Star Band Gothic / Metal / Trance

http://www.myspace.com/vampyband

---

It's Buzzy Goes Goth as Bay area Death Rock/Gothic legend Vampy teams up with the illustrious Mr. Linhart to record new music.

Due to an unfortunate accident Vampy has been sidelined, but we're hoping the project which could include the song "Noc Noc It's The Night" can resume shortly.

Janis Reed spoke with Vampy for 41 minutes on December 3, 2009 and with Buzzy on December 4th and as soon as more information is available it will be posted here. Reed is trying to get the two to collaborate on a new version of the Blue Cheer classic "I'm The Light" from the album Oh! Pleasant Hope.

N.E. Informer, Goldmine Reviews of Buzzy's Buzzy

Just published last night or this morning in New England Informer:

http://neinformeronline.com/music.html

CD Review Corner "Buzzy's Buzzy"

by Rock Journalist Joe Viglione

November 2008

Buzzy Linhart is a legendary film/music figure having appeared in the 1974 movie "The Groove Tube" with Richard Belzer and Chevy Chase, drumming and playing vibraphone with Jimi Hendrix, co-writing Bette Midler's signature tune (You Got To Have) "Friends", appearing as Buzzy weekly on Bill Cosby's original "Coz" television program, his enormous talent spans multiple spectrums. The re-release of Buzzy's debut lp, "Buzzy", on he and his partners' own BuzzArt Inc. imprint, is interesting in that the company has a number of unreleased masters to distribute, the first being the 2006 title "Studio". Why interrupt the flow by re-issuing a previously available album from 1969? The answer is the pirates! Bootleg, pirate copies of this album have reached the marketplace, a devastating strike against artistic purity and the opportunity for the composer/singer to be paid for his musical efforts. With digital editing available for most computers, savvy thieves
take the music from the vinyl discs and re-issue massive quantities of private property. There are safeguards, eBay will remove product when alerted that it is not a legal, official release, but the pirates navigate these waters with clever dexterity.

The pirate/bootleg illicit copy of "buzzy" (with a small "b") has the original vinyl lp cover.

The new version has a beautiful Richard De Sinto design with a super photograph by Dunstan Pereira, but there's more. Produced by Linhart and Arthur Berggren, the audio editorial revisions to the material are by Buzzy and engineer Bill Black. They've taken the original tracking order and totally reinvented the song placement. "End Song", which concluded the original vinyl disc, starts off the new album. "I Wish I Could Find" comes second where it was fourth when the LP was first released, and the music shimmers with groove, exotic rhythms and passionate vocals that are so very absent in this world of machine shop production in the new millennium.



Nov 8, 2008 5:00 PM
Number # 3 Americana Charts for October 27, 2008 Kalx

…the AMERICANA chart! from THE BERKSTER / KALX FM

Americana Charts for October 27, 2008

1. Jolie Holland - The Living And The Dead (Anti-)
1. Blitzen Trapper - Furr (Sub Pop)
2. Jon Langford and Kat Ex - Kat Jon Band (Carrot Top)

3. Buzzy Linhart - Buzzy's Buzzy (Buzzart)

4. Taj Mahal - Maestro (Heads Up)
5. Old Crow Medicine Show - Tennessee Pusher (Netwerk)
6. Golden Smog - Stay Golden, Smog: The Best Of Golden Smog (Ryko)
7. Buddy Guy - Skin Deep (Silvertone)
8. Cephas & Wiggins - Richmond Blues (Smithsonian Folkways)
9. Jolie Holland - The Living And The Dead (Anti-)
10. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue (Warner Bros.)
11. Loudon Wainwright III - Album II (Atlantic)
12. Charlie Haden - Family & Friends - Rambling Boy (Decca)
13. Axton Kincaid - Silver Dollars (Free Dirt)
14. Woodbox Gang - Drunk As Dragons (Alternative Tentacles)
15. Longview - Deep In The Mountains (Rounder)

THE BERKSTER
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=26470579

http://www.myspace.com/kalxradio

---

GOLDMINE MAGAZINE
http://www.goldminemag.com/article/Picture_Sleeve_Archive_Discover_the_buzz_about_Buzzy_Linhart/

Picture Sleeve Archive: Discover the buzz about Buzzy Linhart
October 30, 2008
by Stephen M.H. Braitman
Buzzy Linhart
“You Got What It Takes” b/w same
Kama Sutra KA 548 (1972)

Did Mick Jagger really ruin Buzzy Linhart’s music career?

The way Buzzy remembers it, Mick sent out the word he wasn’t too pleased that the latest album by his band wasn’t getting as much radio attention as Pussycats Can Go Far by Buzzy Linhart.

In an instant, toadies moved throughout the industry to freeze out Pussycats from radio, retail, the media, and… pfffft… that was the last album Buzzy Linhart was allowed to make.

Of course, this being the recollection of the present-day Buzzy, who has suffered through professional, personal, and physical hardships like Job on a bad day, details may be, well, fuzzy.

No matter. Whether the 1974 album failed because of industry politics or a fickle public, it’s still a pop-rock classic.

“James Taylor calls it the greatest rock album of all time,” Buzzy beamed recently from his Berkeley pad. “He gave away more copies of this album as gifts than any other.”

Again, whether this is entirely accurate, “pop-rock classic” holds true for all four of his albums, which started with Buzzy on Philips in 1969. (True aficionados, however, know the man’s recording career more dramatically debuted as a member of The Seventh Sons, a Greenwich Village mainstay in the mid-’60s, with one rare, essential album released in 1968, 4 A.M. at Frank’s, on ESP Records).

Actually, Buzzy’s career began long before that and continued in another entirely different direction after his recording days. The subject of this latest Picture Sleeve Archive affords an overdue look at the interesting career of another of rock’s underappreciated journeymen. Buzzy Linhart never had hits on the popular level, but his success in several different areas is history. For example:

• Bill Cosby and his mid-’70s hit variety show, “Cos.” That was Buzzy as his sidekick and musical director.

• Jerry Paul & The Plebes, “Step Out,” Holiday Records, 1960. Yep, that was Buzzy playing piano and singing background in his first recording experience.

• Bette Midler singing “Friends,” over and over and over again. Yep, that’s Buzzy’s song.

• Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Yep, that’s Buzzy playing vibes with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Fred Neil, David Crosby, Mama Cass, Tim Hardin, Richie Havens. Who didn’t he know during those heady times?

When it came time for his third solo album, Buzzy, recorded for Kama Sutra in 1972, he enlisted the efforts of other friends, like Moogy Klingman on organ (co-writer of “Friends”), future Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers session man supreme Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on acoustic and electric guitars, and Ten Wheel Drive’s Luther Rix. In the engineer’s seat: Todd Rundgren.

Buzzy relates that Todd’s involvement was constrained by his schedule. He was probably the most-wanted producer and engineer of the era, an industry superstar. The recording sessions at the Record Plant were plagued with equipment breakdowns.

“A tweeter was broken in the right-hand speaker of studio B when we were mixing. All engineers thought they were losing their hearing. When we finally found out and fixed it, there was no more time to finish the record.”

With the final tapes having to be delivered in a matter of days, Rundgren was called in on the weekend to finish the record. Only problem: He had to fly out to England on another job at 4 a.m. on Sunday.

“He mixed so f**king fast. Fortunately he had a golden ear and a golden touch,” remembers Buzzy. “What a cheat!”

The resulting album, which included some stone classics like “Tornado” (co-written with Artie Traum), “Sing Joy — Tutti Frutti,” and “Tell Me True,” also included worthy covers of “Take Me To The Pilot” and — in a disputed choice as a single — “You Got What it Takes.”

Kama Sutra label head Neil Bogart chose “You Got What It Takes” as the album’s first single. Buzzy disagreed with that choice. Having first been heard as a massive hit for Marvin Johnson in 1958, the song was a perennial with well-known versions by the Dave Clark Five, Joe Tex, even Johnny Kidd & The Pirates. Although a charming, rather laid-back remake, the song didn’t have the dynamism of other tracks on the album.
“Bogart didn’t believe we could get airplay with a song that ended, only one that faded,” Buzzy said. This was pretty arcane reasoning, but you couldn’t argue with a label head.

“You Got What It Takes” was released to radio stations with a very nice promo-only picture sleeve, showing Buzzy lifting up his new wife, Jeannie, in front of the New York building they lived in at the time. All was happiness then, but it was soon to take a darker turn. Despite having glowing industry reviews on the sleeve’s back cover (raves from Record World, Cashbox, Billboard, etc.), the single disappeared. And with it, the whole album. The marriage didn’t go well, either.

After 1974’s final try for the pop limelight with Pussycats Can Go Far (and the possible Stones’ shutdown), Buzzy moved to movies (“Groove Tube,” “Rush It”) and television (“Cos,” “Fox And His Friends”), and continued songwriting. There was no lack of interest in his material. Folks as varied as Barry Manilow, Jake & The Family Jewels, LaBelle, John Sebastian and Mother’s Finest all performed his songs.

Jumping to today, Buzzy Linhart works out of his Berkeley house on various projects, including the imminent release of two CDs from the archives, Buzzy Linhart Live at Café Au-Go-Go, and the official reissue of his debut album from 1969, Buzzy. His Web site (http://www.buzzylinhart.com) is filled with all sorts of interesting history and trivia. Drop by and say hello. It’s good to stay in touch with friends.

Stephen M. H. Braitman is a writer and music appraiser in San Francisco. His Web site is http://www.musicappraisals.com

New Buzzy Disc on the way at last!

For Immediate Release 8/7/05:

BUZZY LINHART AND THE BIG FEW
is going to be released on Buzzart Records

http://www.buzzylinhart.com/

Current new albums!

STUDIO

LIVE

buzzy (the original "buzzy" album with a little 'b')

---

Review on AllMusic.com
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:mpzyxd0b4ol7

Review

by Joe Viglione

Buzzy Linhart Presents The Big Few is a take-off from a band name created when Buzzy Linhart and his partner in the BuzzArt record label, attorney Arthur Berggren, were walking down the street and one fellow walking by said "big" while another in the other direction said "few." It's a 2001 compilation re-mastered by Perry Lancaster in 2003 and it features music from the soundtrack to the 1981 film Rush It! that was scored by Linhart, including three selections culled from over three hours of music recorded originally (but not used) for the proposed soundtrack to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Two, as well as selections from three additional releases: 1997's The BuzzArt Publishing Catalog, Vol. 1, 2000sThe Buzzy/Moogy Sessions, 1983-1994 on Mark "Moogy" Klingman's label, and 2001's Buzzy Linhart Loves You album. The result is an amazing sound trip through styles and ideas brought to life by talents ranging from Big Brother & The Holding Company's James Gurley to members of Utopia, Paul Winter Consort, Parliament, Weather Report, Wings, Vanilla Fudge, and other highly influential recording acts. The inclusion of "Friends," which Cher performed on her TV special in 2003, "I Believe It Tonight," and "Last Train Out" play like a "best of" compilation, while the film material is just very special, making Buzzy Linhart Presents The Big Few one of the prolific musician's most accessible discs. Murugá Booker of Weather Report adds a different dimension to Buzzy's world. Just listen to the 11-minute-plus "Silent Village," which closes out the disc, and play it against the dreamy 12-minute Mark "Moogy" Klingman/Buzzy Linhart epic that is "Fountain Of Youth." What would really bring this package home would be the addition of the promotional-copy-only 45 RPM cover of Albert Hammond's "If You Gotta Break Another Heart," which was climbing the charts until it got pulled back by the record label. That pop moment would bring it all full circle as this collection contains that very solid "Hurts So Bad It Must Be Love," from the Beatles convention record (featuring ex-members of WIngs along with Nicky Hopkins) and a modern revamp of that song, two-and-a-half minutes called " (Hurts So) Bad" — a wild dub mix full of scratches by Muruga and K-Os; a side of this artist the dance floors are crying for. The experimental music from Buzzy Linhart Loves You and the Rush It! film soundtrack is exotic and immense, sort of like Kraftwerk meets Jerry Goldsmith's vision for the original Planet Of The Apes while taking a detour in The Time Tunnel. Good stuff to play when you want to invite the neighbors over and blow their minds.

Buzzy Linhart article on Jimi Hendrix in new Metronome, May 2005

THIRD STONE TO THE SEVENTH SUN

Buzzy Linhart and Joe Viglione have been working on a new book -
THIRD STONE TO THE SEVENTH SUN - a Jimi Hendrix Bibliography, Part 1

The first installment appears in Metronome Magazine May 2005
http://hendrixreviews.blogspot.com


Buzzy Linhart's webpage http://www.buzzylinhart.com is under construction right now.

More information today, April 10, 2005

write to Buzzy buzzylinhart@sbcglobal.net


BUZZY LINHART recording a new album with RAY CEPEDA

You can get the updates on the sessions here on Buzzy's blog!

FRIENDS as performed by THE NEW SEEKERS

Dear "FRIENDS" of Buzzy Linhart (and Moogy):

It was my pleasure to play The New Seekers version of"Friends" for Buzzy at 3 PM E.S.T. today 12/31/04. This rendition appears on a 1972 album by the groupand was found on Buzzy's page on Emi Music Publishing:

Log down to the ninth title which is credited toWilliam Linhart and Mark Klingman

This should be the direct link:
http://www.emimusicpub.com/worldwide/servlet/displaySong?id=55677&version_id=669270&aka_seq=

You'll have to get a passcode to get into the MP3 (though the 30 second soundclips are easier to hear) EMI mails you the passcode, then you can hear all the MP3s.

The great thing about this site is how it is set up.
1)30 second soundclip

2)MP3

3)who recorded the song (Midler, Manilow, New Seekers in the case of "Friends". They have a version by Buzzy but they don't have Moogy's rendition. They also don't have Carly Simon listed on Buzzy's "The Love's Still Growing"

4)Hit year

5)Lyrics

6)Label Copy

7)Request a Quote (on what fee the Publisher will let you use the title for)

8)Add to the project

Pretty amazing site, if not complete, at least it is functional and makes sense.
This was as much a thrill for me as when I played Bobby Hebb the version of Mieko's "Sunny" which was released in Japan allegedly prior to his version in America. Jazz artist Dave Pike on Atlantic and Mieko Hirota in Japan (on Columbia? I think) had versions of "Sunny" out there before Bobby's became the international smash.

You can go to Musicstack.com
http://www.musicstack.com

to find the New Seekers version:
http://www.musicstack.com/listings.cgi?find=the_new_seekers&t=best_of&media=All

Check out Buzzy's own publishing page:http://www.buzzartinc.com/
and Buzzy's homepage
http://www.buzzylinhart.com/which brings you to the blog:
http://buzzylinhart.blogspot.com

For more news on publishing activism subscribe to our little club: BMISongwriters@yahoogroups.com
Go to Yahoogroups.com put in BMISongwriters and join!
Happy New Year
Joe Viglione for Buzzy's Blogspot! 3:22 PM December 31, 2004

The Buzzy Linhart Tribute Album: Masquerade Ball

Leata Galloway recorded Buzzy Linhart's MASQUERADE BALL "In 1974 we went into the studio and cut more than one song; this one closed the second act of the Broadway musical THE TRIALS OF OZ."
The material was recorded at Bell Labs - produced by Buzzy.

So 7:01 PM E.S.T. on August 14, 2004 we decided to put together a tribute disc - other performers covering
Buzzy Linhart. We would love to use the 45 RPM version of "Friends" by Bette Midler, different from the
two versions on The Divine Miss M.

See review written May 8, 2003:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420EDBC0C65E79D5CC73AFE7ADBA6310F0476F3982D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B9E574B066ADFF2EA01608D9CBE75CFED8765D40&sql=33:kvfwxct0ldte

In 1992 Cerebral Corps recorded "Music" on their release on Alias Records produced by Jeff Saltzman - we are considering that track for the tribute. Buzzy sang the tune that Etta James recorded in the 1950s, "At Last",
with Phoebe Snow at The Bottom Line in 2003. Buzzy has fond memories of seeing Etta onstage onetime as a guest of Bonnie Raitt circa 1982 - at The Palomino Club in L.A. Etta sat in for one song and Bonnie was so enamoured by Etta's vocals that she didn't want to sing. She said "No you sing" and Etta said "No, you sing!"
She was spellbound. Everybody was.


Re: The Trials of Oz

We were taking civil rights to the Broadway stage. Unfortunately the original producer passed away and it wasn't handled properly after that.


Leata Galloway sang these lyrics MASQUERADE BALL
Written by Buzzy Linhart and Jordan Kaplan


And the only difference between you and me,
is that you get to do what you wanted to be
And, the only difference between me and you, is that
I must keep searching, till the sun shines through

Chorus: The harder they come/the softer they fall,
but when you hold back/you get nothing at all
You used to be big/but now you're just tall
You think life is a masquerade ball

Second Verse

You move up a rung/by consuming your young
the judgment's been made/and the jury's been hung
And one last announcement/I must make to you
Is that we will take over/when you think that you're through

Last line changes and goes into chorus:

Yes we can take over/if you feel that you're through

the harder the come/the softer they call
but when you hold back you get nothingt at all
You used to be big/but now you're just tall
you think life is a masquerade
life is a masquerade
life is a masquerade ball




Bette Midler Song Reviews

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420EDBC0C65E79D5CC73AFE7ADBA6310F0476F3982D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B9E574B066ADFF2EA01608D9CBE75CFED8765D40&sql=33:hi67me9j9fco

The Rose
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420EDBC0C65E79D5CC73AFE7ADBA6310F0476F3982D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B9E574B066ADFF2EA01608D9CBE75CFED8765D40&sql=33:2fkxugq5an4k


Bette Midler Album Reviews

Bette Midler 2nd Album
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420EDBC0C65E79D5CC73AFE7ADBA6310F0476F3982D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B9E574B066ADFF2EA01608D9C9EF5CFCD5765D40&sql=10:1kd3vwmva9ek

Live At Last / Bette Midler
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420EDBC0C65E79D5CC73AFE7ADBA6310F0476F3982D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B9E574B066ADFF2EA01608D9C9EF5CFCD5765D40&sql=10:mq5f8qptbt04

The Rose
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420EDBC0C65E79D5CC73AFE7ADBA6310F0476F3982D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B9E574B066ADFF2EA01608D9C9EF5CFCD5765D40&sql=10:dl2zefbkhgf6

Bette Midler Thighs & Whispers
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDD4AAE7420EDBC0C65E79D5CC73AFE7ADBA6310F0476F3982D6DA30B47D00BE49F81B9E574B066ADFF2EA01608D9C9EF5CFCD5765D40&sql=10:64rb28oc058a