User:RScottH/Richard Scott, bassist and vocalist

About Richard Scott

Richard Scott has had a long career in all forms of music. At six years of age he began singing in choirs. After years of classical training he played french horn professionally in an orchestra at the age of 13. At 15 he played trumpet in a dance band in Puerto Rico. After returning to the U.S. to finish high school and enter college at 16, he took a semester of instruction in bass and played in a jazz trio, leaving to play in a Ray Anthony styled big band and later in Eddie Bascal's polka band. He was a late comer to rock music. At the age of 19 he played his first rock and roll with the Dukes, the first rock and roll group in Hays, Kansas. In the group were Jon Flickinger and Val Stecklein, two very talented musicians. After the Dukes went their own ways, he played in a local R & B group, the Spinners, again with Jon Flickinger, but left after a year to play bass and do some singing with The Flippers, a more popular regional group where he was joined later by Jon Flickinger again. After three years and several cases of pneumonia, he was forced to drop out to recover his health. Three months later, he began playing with the Barrons, a local college R & B group where he met Mike Chapman, the guitarist. Mike and he found they had a great deal in common, including their admiration for the Beatles and other vocal harmony type groups. With Rich (Laz) Larzalier, the drummer, they began opening for the Barrons as a trio performing Beatle styled group vocals.

Based on their growing local popularity, the trio decided to break from the Barrons. An agent, Jim Reardon, was contacted and began booking a complete summer tour for the trio, who now were named The Blueboys. With the tour booked The Blueboys decided to add a fourth member, a rhythm guitar player who could sing at least harmony. With four days remaining until the tour started, they found Val Stecklein, from the Dukes who had turned his back on rock and roll to become a locally successful folk singer.

After four days of crash rehearsal the group was ready. They were an instant success live and by September they were cutting their first demo records. Ray Ruff, a Texas promoter and musician signed them to Ruff Records. Shortly thereafter, the first single was issued on the Sullivan label and was followed by two more singles and a tour with the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. After that, the group had to change its name and became The Bluethings. Their fame continued to grow and in 1965 they signed with RCA Victor in Nashville, Tennessee. Seven songs were cut in the first session. The first RCA single, "I Must Be Doing Something Wrong" was written in the car on the way to Nashville, Tennessee and prompted the producer, Felton Jarvis, to add a high voice doubling the lead. This was supplied by the bass vocalist for "The Jordanaires" and was the only non-Bluething voice ever recorded. Usually Val Stecklein sang the lead, with Mike Chapman singing the harmonies below the lead voice and Richard Scott singing all the harmony parts above the lead, sometimes as many as four parts. Bobby Day replaced Laz after the first RCA session and remained the definitive drummer until 1968. On the second trip to Nashville, "High Life" was written in the car by Mike, Val and Richard and finished by Val and Mike after arrival in Nashville. The single "Doll House" was 101 in the nation with a bullet in Billboard Magazine when an untimely article in Time Magazine about questionable lyrics in "the Devil's Rock and Roll" kept the song from achieving the top forty ratings it deserved. A lot of group writing was done in the car and "One Hour Cleaners" was written in the car on the way to Nashville for the last session with Val. The group moved from vocal rock to folk rock and into psychedelic rock in a three year period, always on the leading edge of music. In late 1967 Val had some personal problems and was asked to take some time off from touring to gather himself together and he decided not to return. He was replaced temporarily by Larry Burton from Topeka, Kansas for the last RCA session. In turn, he was replaced by Mike Kelly on guitar and Mike Doyle on drums and vocals adding a second drummer to the group.

After parting from their agent the new group changed their name to Fyre and in June 1968 moved to California with Rich Bisterfeldt replacing Bobby Day on drums as Bobby did not want to move. After only a few weeks they were working in the Whiskey A Go-Go in Hollywood where they were seen by a producer for Dot records. He signed them to Dot and cut four sides at Hollywood West Studio before sending them out on a tour of the nation with the group "Them". The tour ended after months on the road and the group returned to California to find that Dot was in financial difficulty and no music from new artists was being released. The group died of a broken heart at that point. Richard was the only one to remain in southern California, doing a tour with "Life", a tour with "The Knickerbockers" and performing studio work as bassist and vocalist. He began playing as the understudy bassist for the play "Hair" where he played for some time. He and two of the lead actors, Teddy Neeley and Willy Weatherly formed a country rock group, "Indianhead", releasing two singles on Decca Records. This group broke up when Teddy left to take the lead part of Jesus in "Jesus Christ Superstar".

While working at an audio electronics company, Cerwin - Vega, as a supervisor and later production manager he stayed active in music by owning and operating Bittersweet Sound, a concert sound system company, supplying sound for many major acts including Seals and Crofts, Anne Murray, The Doobie Brothers, War, Tower of Power, Alice Cooper, Gentle Giant, Sarah Vaughn, Sammy Davis Jr., Ann Margaret, The Dramatics, Stevie Wonder, The Isley Brothers, The O-Jays, Al Green and many others. In 2001 BMG Records bought the rights to the old RCA songs and re-issued them on Rewind label. After being interviewed for the new album notes Richard was once again bitten by the music bug and began writing again after more than twenty years. The result was more than 40 songs were written between 2002 and 2009.