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Thaddeus James Lowe is an American musician. Best known as the lead singer of psychedelic rock group the Electric Prunes, he has also worked as an engineer and record producer with Todd Rundgren, Sparks, and others, and as a television producer.

He was born in San Luis Obispo, California, and is related to Thaddeus S. C. Lowe,

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http://www.terrascope.co.uk/MyBackPages/Electric%20Prunes.htm THE ELECTRIC PRUNES The James Lowe interview

The rock and roll section of Los Angeles' Walk of Fame on the cold annotated concrete of Hollywood Boulevard would be incomplete without a prominent star representing the Electric Prunes. Although they may not have had as many hits as Love, the Seeds, the Doors or the Leaves - other homegrown Smogtown combos from the same era - the mind-shattering strains of the Prunes' "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" is enough to forever assure their place in pop music history.

The band had five albums released on Reprise, but only the first two - their self-titled debut and Underground - are truly representative of the Electric Prunes. The third, Mass In F Minor, was an idea that didn't quite get off the ground, and Lowe hit the bricks soon after its release. By the time album five, Just Good Old Rock And Roll, poked its shaggy head out of the nursery, the band was composed of four guys named Moe - with no original members left. Lead singer James Lowe was never content to take the motorway when he could spend all day poking along on roads that aren't even listed on the map. "I wanted to make free-form garage music," he told me recently, explaining why the Mass album convinced him his tenure as a Prune was up. Though still incredulous that anybody could possibly care about music he created thirty years ago, Lowe agreed to shed some light on a band that's been skulking in the dusty corners of the attics of your mind for far too long.

How did you become interested in music as a kid, James?

When I was about fifteen I went to Hawaii. I'd been raised in West Los Angeles. My dad was in the service, so I was actually born in San Luis Obispo (halfway between LA and San Francisco), but I grew up in West LA. And while I was in Hawaii, I got very interested in Hawaiian music. Up until then, I hadn't seen very many guys actually playing music - being able to play instruments and sing - but there were a lot of guys in Hawaii who were really interested in playing Hawaiian music. It seemed a much stronger part of their culture than it was where I was from. It was a lot of flat key stuff - traditional Hawaiian and Tahitian songs - and a lot of it on uke. It was pretty simplistic, but I was just enamoured with the way people would have a good time with it. It was a lot of fun, singing and playing at these get-togethers. I'd played a little bit of piano before that, but I'd never been that interested in playing music. That's when I wanted to learn how to play the guitar. I bought my first guitar over there, an acoustic that got cracked in the airplane coming back.

What other kinds of music did you get into after you got back to the mainland?

I'd grown up listening to rhythm and blues and from there I got into wanting to play rhythm and blues songs, like "One Kiss Led To Another" or "Young Blood" by the Coasters. I got very interested in the fact that you could play an instrument and sing and be a full ensemble on your own.

Do you recall your first public performance?

I played a little bit with a guy who played banjo and I was on guitar. It was sort of sea shanty/Kingston Trio/Limeliters kind of stuff. We actually played a couple of little folk clubs. I don't remember where, Pasadena maybe. We'd go around on talent night, get up and play and make fools of ourselves.

Listening to a bluegrass band the other night, I saw a connection I'd never made before: that the Kingston Trio were really bluegrass for the masses - a bit like what Johnny Horton was for Cajun music.

Right. It's amazing what kind of a pop bridge the Kingston Trio were. They really brought it to the mainstream.

Did your folk duo have a name?

No, if we did I'm sure it was innocuous, and I wouldn't remember what the hell it was.

Did the Beatles get you into rock and roll, like everybody else in California?

Actually, it was a little bit before that. I always liked surf music. For a while I lived down by the Rendezvous Ballroom in Newport Beach,

Wow, Dick Dale!

Right. Dick Dale was a friend of ours. I lived on the peninsula and we saw him play many times. We'd go stomping at the Rainbow, and that was our weekend. Dick had a little shop there, and he was really into delays and echoes and a lot of really cool things. When I was a kid, my parents were really into Les Paul and Mary Ford. And to me, Les was the guy who started all that stuff. Multi-track recording always fascinated me - the sounds he could make. And Dick was the same way. You'd go into his shop, and he'd be sitting there with eight amps all hooked together, playing, and it would be astounding, the sounds he'd be getting out of those guitars. He'd play the Rendezvous on Friday and Saturday nights and just pack the place. He had a band with horns, and Dick was real versatile. He could play drums and he was a trumpet player. He could play everything. And well too, not just get up there and "Sammy Davis" it. I never really thought of it before, but if I really had to say, then that's where I got the fire for a band: from Dick Dale. I'd say, "Look at the power that music creates. You could move mountains."

Did the Electric Prunes sprout from previous band discards?

The group sort of evolved from a couple of different bands. We had kind of a surf band, I guess you would call it, although I don't even know if we knew it was a surf band. But that's the kind of stuff we were playing - that and attempting to play some blues. Garage band stuff, you know. I think we called ourselves the Sanctions at that point. I know that Mark Tulin was in it at that time, and Ken Williams, our guitar player, and a guy named Steve Acuff...I remember his name but not what he played. I know that eventually he said, "I'm not good enough to play with you guys," and left. I think he played a little guitar.

You came along at just the right time to make records. The Byrds and Paul Revere & The Raiders had proved that Mitch Miller's reign at Columbia was coming to an end.

It was really an exciting time. The coolest thing about it, for me, was all this technological advance coming along at the same time. It was the first time ever that street people had been allowed into the studio to do what they wanted to do - to mangle the records a little bit. Everything before that had been left to these stuffy engineers and stuffier artists.

Did the Sanctions become the Electric Prunes?

We went through a few other members, different combinations of people. We played a few clubs. I was married and had a young child, so I was working the graveyard shift, trying to make the band happen. I wanted to do something to be able to make a living at it. And since everyone else was still in high school, they didn't care whether they made a living or not. They were being supported by their parents. But I'd have to race off in the middle of the last set to work this graveyard job at Rocketdyne, a defense plant, x-raying rocket engines. We'd play this club out in the San Fernando Valley, the Casbah, and most of the guys were under-age, so we'd have to hide that. They'd end up playing the last set without me, because I'd have to punch in on time. We decided at that point that it wasn't worthwhile anymore playing clubs - that we'd still be doing this twenty years from now. That's when we locked ourselves up to just rehearse, and try to get some different kind of a sound so we could record something.

Which 60's bands influenced the way you put the Prunes together?

Well, no one could escape being influenced by the Beatles, and of course, the Rolling Stones. They were always my favourite group. And the Beach Boys. I don't think I can go any further than that - the same people that everyone else was influenced by. And the music scene then wasn't what it is now. Nobody knew how to play anything. People were just learning how to play guitars. Today every young kid is a virtuoso. But back then everybody was just trying to work out chord patterns. For me, I always liked sounds. They always intrigued me. I was just fascinated by making different sounds with instruments and by recording things different ways. In fact, I always wanted to have a band that just recorded and didn't ever go on tour. That Les Paul material was probably the most interesting stuff I'd ever heard. I thought to make a living doing that kind of thing would be unbelievable.

Do you remember how the band name came about?

It came about because somebody had turned us on to a producer, Dave Hassinger, who was looking for a group. We recorded a couple of songs, and we were about to release the record. We were Jim and the Lords at that time, and we didn't want to use that name, but we couldn't come up with anything else. So it came down to: "This is the weekend. We're going to lock you in a room. Either come up with a name by the time you come out or we're going to give you a name (laughs)." The name Electric Prunes started off as a joke, sort of, but with every list of names, that name kept coming back in as a laugher. And eventually it was so strong, I think I just beat everybody into submission. I said, "It's the one thing everyone will remember. It's not attractive, and there's nothing sexy about it, but people won't forget it. Someone asked me recently, "Aren't you sorry you called yourself that?" And I said, "I don't think you'd be talking to me if we'd been Irving and the Quagmires (laughs)." Reprise was incredulous. We had two days of arguing with them over it. They said, "We can't have a name like that." They kept asking us, "What's really the name?" No, no, that was really the name.

Electric Prunes photo credit: Bob Irwin / Sundazed You recorded a lot of other people's songs. Did you ever meet those song demo legends, Annette Tucker and Nancy Mantz, the people who wrote "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night"?

Right, we knew them. Annette Tucker was a friend of this girl Barbara Harris who discovered us. If anyone discovered us, Barbara was the one. We were rehearsing in this garage in the west end of the (San Fernando) Valley, in a place called Woodland Hills. The parents of our bass player, Mark Tulin, had converted their garage for us. They were really nice people. So, this friend of Annette Tucker's was selling a house up the street. She was one of these affluent, attractive housewives who was into music and art. And she happened to come wandering down the street, knocked on the door and asked, "What are you guys playing?" She sat and listened to us for a while and she said, "I know somebody who might be interested in you guys." We thought, "Sure, sure." But sure enough she called back and said this guy's name is Dave Hassinger, and he's recording the Rolling Stones. And we went, "Uh-huh, right." But she brought him to a club date we had. He told us, "You guys are OK, but you've got this problem and this problem and this problem. So work up some things, and we'll meet in a week or two. We met with him every once in a while for a couple of months to play him something we'd done. He was encouraging us to arrange things in different ways, and we were trying to break out of that mold of copying other bands. People said a lot of our things sounded like the Rolling Stones, but we were trying to come up with something different.

Did you get to watch Dave in action with any of his legendary clients?

We'd go up to Leon Russell's house to record, because Dave was doing Gary Lewis and the Playboys there at the time. At that time Dave was a staff engineer at RCA, so we'd go down and watch him doing sessions with the Stones or the Monkees. And he was looking to get an act of his own together, so he could break out of the lock-in with RCA. Dave was one of those guys in a v-neck cashmere sweater with a shirt underneath. He looked like he should be playing golf rather than recording the Rolling Stones. Dave actually wound up getting fired from RCA because of us. He tried to shop the record to them, and they didn't want it. Then he went to Terry Melcher at Columbia. Later on, when I worked on the Grapefruit album with Terry, I was kidding him, "Do you realize you turned me down?" (laughs). Dave finally got us a deal with Decca, but that didn't happen, so we ended up at Reprise. Then he got canned by RCA because they thought there was some impropriety about him working for someone else.

Did you work with Nancy Mantz, the other partner in Tucker/Mantz?

Nancy was sort of there and not there. I think she co-wrote with Annette long distance. Annette would play the piano and solo the songs for us that way. Or in some cases they would give us a finished demo, like "Too Much To Dream," which had some crooner kinda guy singing it.

What do you remember about the "Too Much To Dream" session - the big breakthrough?

We actually cut five or six songs on that session. Of all of them, it seemed to have the most interesting arrangement and seemed to be the one that everybody responded to. We'd already had "Ain't It Hard" out, and that didn't do anything, so we sort of thought that's the way things went. You just kept putting things out, and they didn't do anything. "Too Much To Dream" with a song Mark and I wrote, "Luvin'" on the b-side was released before Christmas (1966) and went through the slag of Christmas. It was on the charts for a long time, just muddling along on the lower end. But it kept building and building, and it finally got far enough off the ground that I got to quit my job, a glorious day. That enabled us to go on tour.

How did you adapt to life on the road?

For us, since we'd spent so much time organizing ourselves and rehearsing, by the time we started playing these ten act touring shows, we could play really well. We played with people like the Beach Boys, the Left Banke and Question Mark and the Mysterians. And it would be fun to see if you could blow 'em off the stage (laughs). We toured probably more than anybody. From the time the record hit we were on the road for three years. Eventually, however, that became a detriment, because we never had enough time to rehearse. You'd wind up doing the same songs you've been doing. And you'd stop thinking about recording new things and start just wanting to go home. It sours you to playing when it becomes just a business. I remember that happening, playing night after night and not even knowing where the hell you were.

Did you run across that anti-longhair prejudice so prevalent in the south?

Yeah, of course we did. We were on the front edge of some of that stuff. I can still remember sitting in a diner in the south - with a sheriff seated two tables away - and this guy's looking at me, saying, "I'm gonna kill you." And everybody, including the cop, was laughing. We were just a band on tour trying to make a living, but because we looked weird, compared to them, we got all that. I remember they told me not to step off the front of the stage in Birmingham, Alabama and don't touch anybody. And I did something they didn't like - getting too close to screaming girls, I think - so this big cop grabs me backstage and says, "You're not in California now son. You're in Birmingham." That's why we were so amazed when we went to England. It was treated more like a business there, and everybody was glad to see us. Here, if you were touring, it was like a bunch of prostitutes just hit town.

Any particular memories of clubs you played on the Sunset Strip?

Yeah, there was this place called The Haunted House. It had a big head out on the sidewalk with smoke coming out of it. And you'd have to walk on the tongue to get into the place (laughs).

You toured Europe in 1967. That must have been a kick.

We ended up staying in England for three or four weeks, and we got an apartment in London, in Harley Street, so we didn't feel so much like guests.

I love that Stockholm 67 album that's come out recently, from that same European tour. Sounds like you're at the top of your game.

Well, actually that was the slide. It was recorded on a bad night at the very end of that tour. We'd played some really crazy stuff and we got no response, so we just went back to playing blues. We were disappointed that people weren't more interested in our more abstract stuff. We'd had so many concerts where people just stood there with their mouths open, so we said, "We'd better just play some blues." It's pretty crude and simplistic, but I guess it's OK.

The pictures are certainly great.

They were done by Gered Mankowitz. I'd always liked his photography on Aftermath and Between The Buttons. So I looked him up, he came to a couple of our gigs, and he agreed to shoot some pictures of us. We went out to Hyde Park on a cold morning and recreated some of his sessions with the Stones. I thought that would be cool, doing put-ons of that stuff, so I asked him if we could go out to where he shot the pictures for Between The Buttons.

When did you leave the band? It's pretty unclear from the album evidence. Were you still there for Release Of An Oath?

No, I bailed before that. We offended the Christians with Mass In F Minor and we I guess we were headed for the Jews and the Buddhists next (laughs). So I just said, "I can't do this anymore." We did the Mass album - an all right idea - but it wasn't really us, although that's what got us on the Pat Boone show (laughs). The first three cuts are all us. After that, Mark played on everything, and I sang everything, but the guitarists were a couple of guys from this Canadian band called the Collectors. We weren't moving fast enough for them in the studio, I guess. But that wasn't the way we were used to recording. And it had gone far beyond what I'd originally wanted to be involved with. It just wasn't what I'd started out to do, which was free-form garage music. I wanted it to be cruder, more home made, and it was just getting way too slick.

James Lowe was interviewed for the Terrascope by the one and only Jud Cost. Thanks also to David Katznelson and Simon Edwards for their help in getting this together. © Ptolemaic Terrascope, November 1997. http://shadwell.tripod.com/ephist.html

http://graphikdesigns.free.fr/thaddeus-james-lowe.html THADDEUS JAMES LOWE - PRODUCER Thaddeus James Lowe - producer of Sparks' Bearsville second Lp. Thaddeus James Lowe in 1972 The man who engineered and produced : Thaddeus James Lowe - Sparks Self Titled Album Sparks first Lp James Lowe - Sparks - A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing Lp Sparks second Lp Thaddeus James Lowe (producer). Thaddeus James Lowe was the singer of the Electric Prunes a legendary band who had had a hit in the 60's with a song called "I Had Too Much To Drink Last Night". Thaddeus James Lowe was with Todd Rundgren and Miss Christine (ex-GTO's) when they went to see Halfnelson practice out in "The Doggie Bed Factory". - read more...

Thaddeus James Lowe had engineered Nazz and Runt and a few other albums with Todd Rundgren and that is why he became involved. Thaddeus James Lowe engineered the "Halfnelson/Sparks" very first album which was produced by Todd Rundgren. Todd was doing some other project and couldn't produce the second album so Sparks asked Thaddeus James Lowe if he would be interested. Thaddeus James Lowe did "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing" Lp as a producer. - read more...

Once he heard Sparks/Halfnelson, Thaddeus James Lowe became entranced with the "left handed" approach they were taking to music since he had tried a version of that with The Electric Prunes a few years earlier. Thaddeus James Lowe used his full name on that album because it was special to him (He has never used it on anything else). Thaddeus James Lowe stopped making records in part because "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing" was not successful. It was a deal he made with his wife saying : "If this thing doesn't qualify as a good album I will find something else to do."... Thaddeus James Lowe went into the film business ! Twenty five years ago, Thaddeus James Lowe bought 20 or so acres in a remote part of Southern California, in the hills north of Santa Barbara. At the top of one of the hills he built a beautiful home. - and he built it himself ! Then this remote area became very popular with movie stars and wealthy exectives.

In this house, Thaddeus James Lowe & original members of the Electric Prunes had started recording some tracks during the summer of 1999. For the first time in over 30 years, the original Electric Prunes line-up have reformed to release an album called "Artefact". A brand new Electric Prunes Cd is still in progress featuring original Sparks' drummer Harley Feinstein on some tracks ! - Read more...

SPARKS "A WOOFER IN TWEETER'S CLOTHING" - BEARSVILLE RECORDS 1973 Sparks Lp on Bearsville Records produced by Todd Rundgren Sparks "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing" original blurred photo cover sleeve - feb. 1973 Sparks' second album, "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing" was produced by Thaddeus James Lowe (ex-singer of The Electric Prunes). Thaddeus James Lowe had engineered Nazz and Runt and a few other albums with Todd Rundgren and that's why he became involved. Thaddeus James Lowe engineered the Sparks self-titled album which was produced by Todd Rundgren. Todd was doing some other project and couldn't produce the second album so Sparks asked Thaddeus James Lowe if he would be interested. The album was mainly recorded at ID Sound at La Brea and at Walley Heider Studios. The sound was dense and acrid, with the lyrics taking on a slightly uncomfortable tone, the songs were far less accessible in an instant way, and many were fragmented in the extreme. Sparks' "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing" album was no less more idiosyncratic, diverse, inventive, witty and literate than its predecessor and featured several more examples of marvellous, mysterious Maelmusic. Here we had "Girl From Germany" and a tale of paranoïd parents checking to see if Adolf Hitler was not alive and well in their panelled den. "Beaver O' Lindy", a zani chorus centering around the murmurings of a rock protegy of sinister and gigantic proportions, complete with drums, guitar crashes, cheerleader chorus and Mark Tulin's 15 year old brother Kip Tulin playing accordian (Mark Tulin was bass player in the Electric Prunes). The metallic blitzkrieg of "Whippings And Apologies" was recorded loud and without bass guitar. "Here Comes Bob", which belies its' story line of a gentlemen who meets young ladies by crashing into their automobiles, was the only excursion into the land of supplemental instruments on the first two albums (strings). There's also more to "Angus Desire", than Russell Mael explaining "It's about drawing nude models in art class"."Nothing Is Sacred" had people running away in droves, as it was the first real evidence of the younger Mael's falsetto. "Do Re Mi" from the "Sound Of Music" soundtrack was there, sans snowflakes confetti, but with the added attraction of Jim Mankey's bombastic bass. "Do Re Mi" was developped from one of Sparks infrequent jam sessions. "Moon Over Kentucky" intro was written by Ron Mael after seing the movie "Death In Venice". The gloriously keyboarded "The Louvre" was sung in french and Russell Mael didn't know any French when he sang it either... Russell Mael recorded the vocals totally in french, then totally in english. After countless debates all centering around which language worked best, a compromise was reached. The french translation of the lyrics was writen by Josée Becker.

http://montesnewblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/sparks-and-electric-prunes-project.html MONDAY, MAY 26, 2014

Sparks (and Electric Prunes) Project: James Lowe! It's fun being able to do this stuff. That's the message.

James Lowe is the founder – and one of the key driving creative forces behind – the Electric Prunes. The Electric Prunes’ unique and immediately identifiable style of music – heavy emphasis on production values, grounded in but not beholden only to psychedelic-rock, and fastidious musical craftsmanship – reflect Lowe’s vision. The Prunes have been around in various incarnations since 1967; the critical constant throughout this history is James Lowe.

The Prunes have just released a fantastic new record entitled Was. The CD, which can be purchased here, has no less than 15 songs, with no loss of vision, power, energy, or musical direction.

James Lowe is an affable man, appreciative of life's opportunities (he lives half a year in the Dominican Republic), and proud of his work with both the Electric Prunes and Sparks. We talked about the new Electric Prunes’ CD, as well as Lowe’s experience as the engineer on the 1971 eponymous debut album by Sparks, and as the producer of that album's follow up, 1972's A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing.

I hope you enjoy reading this interview with James, who was so generous with his time – for which I am greatly appreciative. Was

Electric Prunes - WaS album coverMonte: Can you talk a bit about the new CD?

James: This CD, with Mark Tulin and myself, was probably going to be the last studio CD that we’d do. We started collecting material for it about four years ago. Some things were left off of other albums; some things we’d partially started and didn't finish, and then Mark died three years ago. So for three years I've had this thing on my back – I wanted to finish it because it’s what we had talked about and were going to do. It’s been kind of nagging.

I’ve wondered, “am I going to finish it or am I going to die myself and it’s not going to happen?” So I decided at one point that I had to finish it, no matter what. And thankfully my guitar player Steve Kara and the other guys in the band were willing, so I was able to put together the pieces over about three months.

We’ve been together about ten years. This band is very tight, we’re all friends, and they get the music, which is the most important thing. They are not the original members of the Electric Prunes, there have been different members, but the band was always about an idea, rather than anybody. It was about trying to do things a little differently. That’s what we tried to bring to this CD, and that’s what we've always been about.

Monte: There is a continuity of sound. It doesn't sound exactly like the Electric Prunes 40 years ago, but it sounds like a natural evolution of the Electric Prunes sound and style.

James: I believe that.

Monte: Well, you’re the thread that has kept this all together. Your love of working in the studio and as you said, your commitment to creating an idea is the continuity.

James: That’s right. My interest was always the studio. After we did a record they’d say “you have to go play it,” I’d say “you’re kidding.” I never was that interested in that part of it, it was always the production – making it sound a little different. Kind of a mystery. You create a mystery.

Well, I knew Frank Zappa, and I knew that the guys that played with him always had to play something they hadn’t played before. I had that philosophy for us. We didn't listen to other bands together, we didn't hang out, we kept to ourselves, and it kept everything more pure. To me, that’s making it, when you can just be yourself. That’s the fun.

Monte: The CD is obviously very studio savvy. But at the same time it’s not a synthesizer approach, it’s obviously a band playing.

James: That’s the idea. The idea of the Electric Prunes was that it was supposed to be electronic, even for back then, and the Prunes was the absurdity. So it was supposed to be kind of silly. Probably too silly – probably knocked us out of a lot of jobs with that crazy name. But, the idea was for it to be wacky and homemade – fuzz tones made through the amplifier with a foot pedal, not created on a mixing board.

Monte: It was fun for me to listen to this album with fresh ears. I wasn’t listening to it and comparing it to the old stuff, I was just enjoying this as a new album. I found it great.

James: That’s the idea – most people know the name but they don’t really know anything by us. They remember “oh, they had that hit about dreaming too much” (I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night) and you live with that the rest of the life. It’s really hard to get out from beneath that, and you don’t really want to get out from underneath it. We’re proud of anything we've done. And anyone we've been associated with has only helped us move along this…tunnel of dreams.

File:The Electric Prunes.jpgWe were looking at the album just last night and (my wife) Pamela pointed out to me that between the first song – Smokestack Lightning – and the second song – Tokyo – it’s 14 years. Smokestack Lighting was when we got into the studio 14 years ago and were goofing around, and Tokyo was just written before we put this record out. Some of the other stuff we intended to put on other records, and this was the perfect opportunity to expose some things and get them out there. We had so much stuff, an abundance of material.

Monte: Some of the songs have a sort of innocence…

James: There is innocence. Sometimes there’s a nasty thing and sometimes there’s an innocent one. If you don’t have the two of those you’re too up against a wall with either one.

Monte: What’s next for you guys? Do you want to tour it?

James: We would like to. It’s hard getting booked for a vintage band. If you've got a hit record you’ll have a good management company and stuff. We don’t have one. We were able to go to Japan and play, and the band loves playing. You have to string three or four dates together, make it so things work.

The one song on there – It Ain't Easy – it’s not. It’s one thing when you’re backed by a big record company but this is homemade stuff. This is the band playing because they love playing. But to me, getting to play music you like, and recording it so people can hear it – to me, that’s absolutely amazing.

Monte: When you think of these songs, what do they mean to you personally?

James: One of the greatest things is that Mark and I would go back and forth, recording voices, and most of the times I would end up singing the songs. But this time I left a lot of his vocals on there so it’s cool to me that Mark got his chance to be front and center. I think it’s fantastic. That’s the thing I hear. I hear his voice and it’s like he’s still here. I think he’d like it.

Monte: How did this band come together?

James: Mark and I had been playing…people had been coming and going…we tried to keep everybody within the framework of what we’re doing, so they understand that. These guys appeared about ten years ago, and they got it. Steve Kara is an amazing guitar player with probably about 80 foot pedals and the guy knows every single one of them. I've never seen a guy so technically adept. The same with our other guitar player, Jay Dean, an amazing voice, the drummer is good….Walter Garces is drumming with us now. He’s a Latin guy with a great sense of rhythm.

It’s fun being able to do this stuff. That’s the message.

Monte: From the technical side as the producer, how gratifying is it to do some of the things you love to do? It seems that’s a big part of what you love.

James: I worked a lot with Todd Rundgren. He used to say we “mangled” things! I thought that was about it. We took things and just squashed the living crap out of them until what came out was not what went in. And that’s the most fun part of all this – to make something that you know no one else would make it that way. With THIS record, the biggest challenge was that things came from everywhere – it was MP3s, tapping on the phone, all these weird things. So to try to take all that and put it in an order was definitely the most difficult thing.

That was always what the band was about. When we heard our first album and some of the things they did, we thought, “hold on, we can do better that this,” and that’s why from then on it was just us. We could do it ourselves. I had engineered records for other people, why couldn't I do it for myself?

Monte: I think that’s also a realization that (Sparks leaders) Ron and Russell Mael made in the late 1980s or so, that to really get their vision across as it was evolving, they had to take control of the production.

James: Absolutely. Particularly with their kind of thing. It’s so creative, it’s so special, they’re the only ones who know.

Sparks

Monte: How did you get started with Todd Rundgren (who produced the first Sparks album)?

James: I had been doing some recording in Los Angeles and Todd came to look at the studio. Someone there introduced us, and he said he was looking for someone who would stay awake at night, who wanted to do some crazy recording, and was willing to put in a lot of time. I was more than willing to do that, so we started recording together and it lasted a long time. I went from two Nazz albums, to Runt, then Something/Anything…we did James Cotton Blues Band together. We did a lot of recordings.

We were doing the same things. I was trying to make something a little weird, a little different, and he was trying to do the same thing, except that he was a great musician and writer, all that stuff. I was just tinkering around at it. I showed him some tricks and he liked tricks a lot…

Monte: The legend of course is that his girlfriend at the time, Miss Christine, is the one that turned him on to Sparks, and that led to your involvement.

James: Yes, he asked me if I’d be interested in doing another record together, so we went out and listened to them as I recall. I had just come off from working with the Electric Prunes so I listened to them and I thought, “damn, this isn’t at all what I expected to hear, this is oddball stuff.” It’s almost like what I was trying to do, something different, so I was attracted to it. My wife went with me, she thought Russell was cute, and it looked like they could make it.

Monte: Roger was the first song that you heard, right?

James: It was. I think they were playing on all the stuff from the kitchen or something!

The stuff was crazy, but it was so infectious. The first song we did together (for the first album) was High C, which is an incredible song. When I was trying to get the sounds on everything, I was asking, “what is this about?” “It’s about someone listening to opera or something.” “Really? Wow!” That’s how that stuff was, it was just so damned interesting.

They weren't resistant to trying to make the music better. That was the coolest thing about Sparks. I thought on the second album, the one I did with them, they were just open to making the thing work.

Sparks Bearsville records - Sparks first Lp albumRon and Russ were their own little entity, like they are now. They all seemed to get along. Everybody seemed to come up with their own parts, and (at that point) Ron and Russ, if they didn't like something, they’d have a tough time telling you they didn't like it. That’s how I perceived it. They are gentlemanly.

Each guy was who he was. Earle (Mankey, guitarist), who became an engineer, I could spot that early because that’s what he was interested in. Earle and I used to always get into it about his guitar. It was always too trashy sounding to me, I liked a little more purity in the guitar. But part of it was to make the thing abrasive and irritating. I was fretting over nothing.

(Bassist) Jim Mankey was really a shy quite type until he picked up his ax. The songs were so structured and arranged that each guy had to be on mark with his part. I can't remember ever having to stop tape for Jim. He was always on it. Quietly.

Harley had a sort of independent looseness in his playing. It is kind of like the thing could get out of control at certain points but he rescues it and takes us along with him. When the Electric Prunes did Circus Freak and Hello Out There on the Feedback album he was the first person I thought of. It is kind of a swampy style in a way. I guess it is where he finds the urgency for the fills that is interesting.

Sparks - A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing BearsvilleThe drums figured heavily in the two Sparks albums that I did. I love drums and I recorded Harley on 6 or 7 tracks which was unheard of back then. Even slower numbers like Slowboat or The Louvre had cool drum changes. I get tired of the "beat"...I like press rolls and a little paradiddle now and again. Harley made it a surprise many times.

On the second album, A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing, my attempt was to try to make them sound more like a band. I thought that the first album sounded like Spike Jones. They played goofy stuff and everything but it didn't sound like it had the glue of the band. But the second album to me sounded more like a band. Our first recording on that was Girl From Germany, and I remember thinking, “wow, this sounds like a group playing together.”

Monte: It's interesting that you thought a song dealing with Nazi storm-troopers would be the hit single.

James: Yeah, about a Jewish family that couldn't take the girlfriend because she was German. But all of their songs were strange. I mean, (in Saccharin and the War) a bunch of women in town decide they’re going to lose weight or something, and put their fat on a cross, it’s the craziest stuff, but you eventually find yourself tapping your toes to it, you get sucked into it. I mean, “were I she, I’d set my sights much lower than I sing, Fa La Fa Lee…” I can’t get it out of my head!

Monte: And in the midst of all that is this beautiful ballad, Slowboat. When I listen to that I wonder, where did this come from? It’s so different than anything else.

James: Right…that’s the charm of them. You've got to listen.

Monte: I really feel like you took it to another level, as good as the first album is. For example, the cymbals on the first album don’t have a good resonant sound. But on the second one the cymbals, the whole thing just resonates and I think you really captured something special for them.

James: They were willing to try things. We brought a lot of people to the studio to record some vocal parts. I heard cohesiveness there, like a band more. I could see them on stage doing some of these songs. And that’s a big part of it – can you see that or can’t you?

At the end of Woofer, we did a commercial for it and Batteries Not Included was the theme of it. Somebody said, wouldn't it be nice if we had a kid who could do the line? So Earle ran out into the street in Hollywood and five minutes later Earle came back with a kid and his mother. The kid read the line absolutely perfectly, like he came from Central Casting. We gave him a hundred dollars and he left.

I remember playing Nothing Is Sacred for Todd and he said “Oh my God, how did you get so much bass on that?" I felt good about it. I felt that the music needed a little meat.

We recorded the first piece at Wally Heider's. We did a cut together to see if we’d want to continue. That was Girl From Germany. The assistant engineers at Wally Heider's thought Russell was a copy of Mark Bolan because of the way he looked and the way he sang. I ended up getting shit from this guy and we ended up cutting the rest of the album at ID Sound and coming back to Wally Heider's to mix it.

Monte: You've said that this album had a significant impact on your career.

James: I made a promise to my wife. I said, “I think this album has got to be accepted by people, these guys have got to get something going, I’m betting on them. But if they don’t, I’m going to change careers. I don’t know what I’m doing.” As it turned out, it didn't work out commercially. Everybody liked it, but it wasn't successful commercially. So I went into television directing and producing.

They asked me, what do I think the next album should be about? I said “how about love? Everybody can relate to love!” and I got a (pretty stony) response. So I knew I wasn't going to be doing the next album!

They did what they had to do for their band. I don’t think anybody that’s played with them resents them or has ill feeling toward them.

They moved the band along the way they needed to. This is crazy stuff – their stuff takes intense learning. You've got to become the parts. That’s the way their material is. And that’s a heavy burden. Every time you change a guy, you’re changing all the parts. Each person has to learn all the material. When I saw them (at Royce Hall in 2009), I was amazed. They were incredible. The show was interesting and funny. Everything worked.

Monte: I was there too. I took my daughter and some family members. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life.

James: I went there with Harley. It was quite a night.

Monte: You've said that Ron and Russell “dance to a drum we can’t even hear and then bring it back around to give us a treat.” That’s an incredible way of describing them.

James: That’s how I feel about them. And good guys to boot. You know, I've always stood in awe of those kinds of people. They are geniuses and they are nice. That’s what they are, they are nice guys.

Monte: Do you stay in touch with them much?

James: Not much, though I've called them on the phone a couple times and it’s just like it was yesterday. Good guys. I am sure they are hopping around somewhere.

Monte: You know they never go back, but if they did there’s just an incredible amount of creative people – like you – that they could work with.

James: They have to follow their star. Most people don’t even know where their star is!

I was lucky. I thought (Ron and Russ) were creative with bright, fresh ideas, and I thought I was lucky that I got to spend that time with them. The same way I feel about Todd. I woke up every morning saying, “this is cool.” I still do today. I wake up every morning and say, “this is cool.”

Summing Up

Monte: It seems to me like you’re really living the life you want to be living right now.

James: That’s absolutely true. I meet so many people that say to me, I wish I could do exactly what you’re doing. You come to a point where you say, “yeah, money is terrific, but there’s a certain point where you want to be able to sit around and do what you want to be doing.”

Life has been a dream.

SPECIAL BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Additional comments from James Lowe's friend and sometime musical collaborator - and - one-time Sparks drummer - Harley Feinstein!

James is one of those fascinating people that you could write a biography about. He comes from a long line of revolutionarily thinking people. For example, one of his ancestors, Thaddeus C. Lowe, started the United States Air force.

Back in the early 1960s James was hanging around the North Shore of Oahu, surfing Sunset, crewing yachts and modeling. Not sufficiently satisfied by this lifestyle, he and his buddies started a rock band, which became “The Electric Prunes.” They would have psychedelic hits, tour the world. One can only imagine the experiences of a former Hawaii beach dude model turned front man rock star on world tour. After doing the Electric Prunes thing for a few years he teamed up with Todd Rundgren to be half of his production team. Those early hits like “Hello It’s Me?” That was James helping to make those sounds happen.

I met James when the Rundgren/Lowe production team was hired to produce sparks. After the first album it became clear that what we needed was James Lowe more than Todd Rundgren. Fortunately James agreed to do the second album (A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing) without Todd. Many people still appreciate that album 40 years later. After that James lost interest in producing other people’s music and became a successful television producer for many years. In the early 1970s James and the love of his life Pamela, bought what was then beautiful but untouched land north of Santa Barbara. He, himself, built a magnificent Puerto Vallarta beach house and recording studio on top of a mountain. Over the years the Stars began buying up land and building homes in the surrounding area. Eventually you could hear the train whistle from Michael Jackson’s Neverland.

Lucky me, I was invited to come and stay at the mountaintop hideaway and record on the album “Feedback.” Half a dozen movie star neighbors later James decided to sell and build an amazing beach house on the sand on the island of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. He is a legend in many parts of the world. I am truly honored to be his friend.

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VG33-L6J ??? http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=1&gss=angs-g&gsfn=thad+james&gsfn_x=XO&gsln=lowe&gsln_x=NS_NP_NN&msbdy=1943&msbpn__ftp=San+Luis+Obispo+County%2c+California%2c+USA&msbpn=2606&msbpn_PInfo=7-%7c0%7c1652393%7c0%7c2%7c3249%7c7%7c0%7c2606%7c0%7c0%7c&cpxt=0&catBucket=rstp&uidh=jq5&msbdp=2&cp=0&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=2976384&recoff=8+9+10&db=cabirth1905&indiv=1&ml_rpos=1

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7n515ucve20C&pg=PT60&lpg=PT60&dq=%22thaddeus+james+lowe%22&source=bl&ots=so8pk4Vf0d&sig=84gybBxYlf06wSBsT323CzlW5tQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ME0cVYi5MYi4OJ_rgbAF&ved=0CCUQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=%22thaddeus%20james%20lowe%22&f=false

http://lapilgrim.narod.ru/sstripriotphotoalbum.html The following is an interview with James Lowe conducted via snail mail in February / March 1998. I have been pondering on the questions to ask you for a while! I have tried to avoid questions that have been asked many times before. Oh well, here goes (sorry if the list is rather long!) :

Thank you for the interest in a rather obscure group. We are always amazed when anyone remembers anything about our band. Hope these answers are enough to justify your nice letter.

1. What did you do before forming the Electric Prunes?

Surfed in Hawaii and California, got interested in performing by playing blues and bluegrass in a coffeehouse with a friend on talent nights. Was friends with Dick Dale in Newport Beach California so I was interested in surf guitar music.

2. Did the band have any other names before you settled on The Electric Prunes and where did the name come from?

We were the "Sanctions" at first and "Jim and the Lords" next. Got the name Electric Prunes by locking ourselves in our practice room till we came up with something to put on our first release on Reprise "Ain''t It Hard". The record company balked at first at the name but gave in when we wouldn''t change our minds. Mark told a joke that ended with an Electric Prune punchline and I seized it as a great name for us as I recall.

3. What musical influences did the band draw upon?

Byrds, Muddy Waters, Challengers, Stones, Little Willie John, Lightin'' Hopkins.

4. Who decided on doing the cover version of "Ain''t It Hard" and releasing it as the first Prunes single?

Dave Hassinger and Jimmy Bowen, though we did not know it had ever been recorded before. The writer was there at the session and this made it tough to stray too far from the way he had written it.

5. Why was Michael Weakley (aka Quint) replaced by Preston Ritter after this single?

Mike Weakley was always looking for a better deal and didn''t think things were moving fast enough with Reprise. This lack of satisfaction characterized his personality both times he was in the band, after all he was a drummer and they are all crazy. He returned the second time as "Quint"; don�t know why? He was a great live drummer.

6. Why did both Preston Ritter and James Weasel Spagnola leave during the recording of the "Underground" album?

Preston Ritter was a softspoken drummer (this did not compute to me as I felt we needed drive in the beat department). We also had some personal differences. He was technical and precise as a drummer.

7. The "Underground" album included more songs written by the band then the first, were the band disappointed that the singles released from the album didn''t make as big an impact on the charts as the first few did?

Yes, we weren''t allowed to put our songs on the first recordings as Dave Hassinger had commitments to writers under contract to him. We did not agree with the singles released after the first few except for "Everybody Knows" b/w "You�ve Never Had It Better", those were my mistakes.

8. What caused the radical shift in musical direction from the release of the single "Everybody Knows You''re Not In Love / You�ve Never Had It Better" to then release "Mass in F Minor"?

We were talked into "Mass in F Minor". It was a commercial attempt at psychedelic music. We were into major differences with Hassinger at this time and he owned the name (our stupidity). Witnessed by the release of albums after we all were gone that were shit. At least our shit was our shit!

9. I read one interview that you were involved in the "Mass in F Minor" sessions. Who else was involved in this recording?

The entire band played on the first three cuts, we didn''t move fast enough in the studio (the charts were written out note for note). We were not used to this format, we were after all a f***king garage band! Mark, Quint and I played on the rest of the album with guys from the Collectors, another Hassinger property. Dave never had another chart record after us, so much for the rumour that he developed us.

10. Why did you eventually leave the band?

Touring, assholes, lack of interest. I couldn''t get along with my wife for very long either.

11. Did the others leave at the same time as you?

I left in the middle of a tour in Texas, the band tried to go on for about two months more as I understand. The subsequent band was in no way related to us. Hassinger tried to cash in.

12. What did you do after leaving the band?

Produced and engineered records.

13. "Stockholm ''67" released in 1997 showed that the Prunes were not only a studio band. Were you surprised that the masters of the radio broadcast had survived and subsequently released commercially?

Simon Edwards from Heartbeat was responsible for that record. David Katznelson from Reprise kindly let him do it. I had contact with Simon, and was allowed to have input on the Stockholm ''67 release. This was a very positive experience.

Too bad this was at the end of the tour and we didn''t give our best performance. The fact that the tape even existed is a small miracle. We didn''t want them to record that night as we had prepared a rather dull set. Most of the gigs we played in Europe ended with audiences open-mouthed at all the feedback and such, so we kept changing song selection around to try to find some connection with the people we were playing for. In retrospect this was probably not the best thing to do; but hindsight is always 20/20!

14. Have you kept in touch with any of the other band members?

Mark Tulin and I are friends.

15. Would you ever consider a "reunion" of the original Electric Prunes if the time / conditions were right?

Mark Tulin, Preston Ritter (alternate drummer) and I have been making noise with a few friends lately. We have tried to locate the other members of the group for old times sake.

16. Do you know what the current status of the new Electric Prunes compilation by Reprise is? It was scheduled for release on 10th March 1998 according to Reprise''s web site but the entry has subsequently disappeared.

The release date for the "Lost Dreams" album keeps getting pushed back; what else is new? I think it will come out eventually. David Katznelson is the reason the project went forward, he is a good guy. I was allowed to remix songs we had released before, and mix a few we never finished. After the band split I engineered albums for Grapefruit, Foghat, Nazz, Todd Rundgren, Randy Neuman, Ry Cooder, Sparks and others, so it was like reliving my musical youth to be involved in that way again. David even let me do the CD cover for the project and put the album together the way I wanted.

17. What is your favourite Prunes single and why?

"You''ve Never Had It Better", it was rough and garage sounding.

18. Finally (I think), if you have any other information about the Prunes, I would love to hear about it.

We did get to England on a tour once; but we did not enjoy much popularity or chart action there. That tour will always be one that stands out in my mind as we had a great time in music history. Everything from the Speakeasy to the Marquee Club is just as fresh as yesterday. England was where it was all happening.

We were very lucky for the experience

James Lowe

The second Sparks Lp was called "A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing" (not to be confused with the early demo tape) and this album was produced by Thaddeus James Lowe (ex-singer of The Electric Prunes). It remains Sparks'' most curious Lp, possibly because of its lack of attention. The songs were far less accessible in an instant way, and many were fragmented in the extreme. "Girl From Germany", the most normal sounding song from the album was released as a single, with "Beaver O'' Lindy" on the b-side. "A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing" became a misunderstood classic : It didnt sell either.

Thaddeus James Lowe (producer). Thaddeus James Lowe was the singer of the Electric Prunes a legendary band who had had a hit in the 60''s with a song called "I Had Too Much To Drink Last Night". Thaddeus James Lowe was with Todd Rundgren and Miss Christine (ex-GTO''s) when they went to see Halfnelson practice out in "The Doggie Bed Factory". - read more...

Thaddeus James Lowe had engineered Nazz and Runt and a few other albums with Todd Rundgren and that is why he became involved. Thaddeus James Lowe engineered the "Halfnelson/Sparks" very first album which was produced by Todd Rundgren. Todd was doing some other project and couldn''t produce the second album so Sparks asked Thaddeus James Lowe if he would be interested. Thaddeus James Lowe did "A Woofer In Tweeter''s Clothing" Lp as a producer. - read more...

Once he heard Sparks/Halfnelson, Thaddeus James Lowe became entranced with the "left handed" approach they were taking to music since he had tried a version of that with The Electric Prunes a few years earlier. Thaddeus James Lowe used his full name on that album because it was special to him (He has never used it on anything else). Thaddeus James Lowe stopped making records in part because "A Woofer In Tweeter''s Clothing" was not successful. It was a deal he made with his wife saying : "If this thing doesn''t qualify as a good album I will find something else to do."... Thaddeus James Lowe went into the film business ! Twenty five years ago, Thaddeus James Lowe bought 20 or so acres in a remote part of Southern California, in the hills north of Santa Barbara. At the top of one of the hills he built a beautiful home. - and he built it himself ! Then this remote area became very popular with movie stars and wealthy exectives.

In this house, Thaddeus James Lowe & original members of the Electric Prunes had started recording some tracks during the summer of 1999. For the first time in over 30 years, the original Electric Prunes line-up have reformed to release an album called "Artefact". A brand new Electric Prunes Cd is still in