David Rea, "First" Lead Guitar Player for Lightfoot, Passes Away

[jj]

there's a story about a drug bust...the folks David was renting to, had some operation going and so Rea was deemed responsible, according to police

he was going to be hauled away, when Tyson boldly intervened with police and let them know of all the money he had tied up in their current recording session...he asked if they could wait and take David away AFTER the session was through, lol

it's said that Ian offered the boys beers as well...anyhow, they actually did let the session finish before they arrested David

Rea's (apparently well off) parents came up from the States for support and once the assembled defense had their say, it was shown that David had nothing to do with the operation under his roof, and he was free to go

[Four Strong Winds]

[jj]

Originally Posted by lighthead2toe

Time to put on that very first "Lightfoot" album and have a good listen.

in trying to figure out which tracks David is on, according to Wayne's cool review, i understand that Bruce and David were both on the first track

or perhaps they both gave the lead a go, and then one recording was later chosen... in listening, i can't tell two from three guitars.. then again, sometimes i've heard a single guitarist play live, and it sounds like two or three to me!

" It was the fall of 1964. Lightfoot enters a downtown New York recording studio on a gloomy evening to begin work on his debut album. They choose a small room in the studio to record, thinking that the smaller room might capture the intimacy of Gordon accompanied only by two guitars and bass.

Rich Man's Spiritual is the first tune laid down on that night. It is the type of song Lightfoot enjoyed playing live in those days, going back to his days as one half of the Two Tones, when they would close their sets with Children Go Where I Send Thee, the traditional folk spiritual."

http://www.lightfoot.ca/lightrev.htm

[jj]

Rea contributed one self-penned track to Ian and Sylvia's "'Movin' On" LP

check out a sampler of the lovely tune below....track 8

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/...3A+1967-68.htm

I adore David's honesty here (we've all used the "they're at home" line, eh)

""We were in rehearsal, we were just getting ready to go to Nashville, and I was playing the chord progression," recalls David with amusement. "I was just goofing around; I'd written it as sort of an instrumental exercise. Ian said, 'Man, that's really great. Have you got some words for it?' I said, 'Oh yeah, but they're at home.' Of course, I had no lyrics for it. Nothing. He said, 'Well, bring it to rehearsal tomorrow. We want to record it.' I woke up the next morning and said, 'I better show up with some lyrics.' 'Cause the one thing about Ian & Sylvia is you never lie to them. I mean, that's the kiss of death. Scratch-scratch-scratch on the yellow tablet, and that's how it got written."

[Lovin' Sound liner notes]

[jj]

some other interesting excerpts [Lovin Sound/Full Circle reissue liner notes]:

...Still a teenager at the time of the sessions, Rea had first met Ian & Sylvia in 1962 at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Ontario. He'd already played on Gordon Lightfoot's 1966 John Court-produced Lightfoot album when Ian & Sylvia asked David to join them ("I don't know if Gordon's ever forgiven us for that," jokes Sylvia). Prior to Lovin' Sound, Rea had already recorded with Ian & Sylvia as a guitarist on So Much for Dreaming. "Ian & Sylvia were firmly based in traditional music, and this was at a time when the whole music was in flux," observes Rea when asked about the challenges the pair faced when moving into folk-rock. "And we kind of didn't know what to do. I remember very clearly Ian [Tyson] and I went to see Buck Owens at the old Kingsway, a huge barn of a place in Toronto. Ian and I were both rabid Buck Owens fans. We saw Buck and Don Rich playing two Telecasters out of a Fender Super Reverb amp, and the next day after the show, Ian called me up and said, 'Come on over and bring your guitar.' So I walked in, and he had two DeArmond pickups. Paleolithic! I could go on at length at the adventures we had trying to figure out those damn things. So we started experimenting with electric music. Ian and I were listening to [the Beatles'] Revolver, the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, and we started exploring Burt Bacharach's arrangements." In fact Ian & Sylvia had covered a Burt Bacharach-Hal David-penned classic, "24 Hours from Tulsa," on their Play One More LP.

Adds Rea with a laugh, "I can't speak for Ian & Sylvia, but I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I was working on my first electric guitar. We were all experimenting, and the technology was changing day by day. Looking back on it, I think [Lovin' Sound is] an interesting album. I'm pleased with it."

...Full Circle was one of numerous late-1960s country-rock and folk-rock albums to be recorded in Nashville. Other folk-rockers such as Dylan, Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Eric Andersen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, John Stewart, and the Beau Brummels also recorded in the city, valued both for its high-skilled session musicians and relatively low-pressure environment. "There were some wonderful players there," says Sylvia Tyson today. "They found not just us, but all of the people from outside, interesting. Because as far as those players were concerned, they'd been playing the same-old same-old forever. It kind of breathed a little new life into their whole studio scene."

Likewise, Rea affirms the experience as "one of the most rewarding sessions I worked on," adding that he'd rehearsed with Ian & Sylvia for about nine hours a day in their Toronto home before they went into the studio. "When we made Nashville, Fred Carter took over on most of the lead guitar, and that was okay with me, because one of my favorite things to do is play rhythm. That's a great way to learn how to play guitar; that way, you get to steal everybody else's licks! But for some reason or other, Carter bailed out of the [Full Circle] sessions. When we got to [the famed Nashville studio] Bradley's Barn, I was ready to play all the rhythm parts, but all of a sudden I had to make up all the lead stuff. Back in those days, I was young and agile."


...Full Circle also featured a cover of Hamilton Camp's small 1968 chart single "Here's to You," Ian & Sylvia having known the singer-songwriter since he was part of a duo with Bob Gibson in the early 1960s. "Please Think" came from the pen of Keith McKie of the Canadian group Kensington Market, whom Rea had recommended to producer Felix Pappalardi. David also recommended "Please Think" to the Tysons, as "I thought it really fitted Ian & Sylvia. When we were rehearsing, I played them the song, and they liked it. So it went on the album, and I worked on kind of a weird open tuning on that. This is when they were starting to experiment with a lot of overdubbing; you can hear that in 'Please Think,' 'Woman's World,' 'Jinkson Johnson.' 'Jinkson Johnson,' Sylvia did eight overdubs; she did a whole chorus."

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what a likable guy... he had me at "I didn't know what the hell I was doing" lol

apparently, Rea's subtle contribution to this recording is somewhere under the layers...the past few days I've been humming the lovely chorus section (that starts at 0:48) as I've revisited early Ian&Sylvia and the Lightfoot! LP... all so Heavenly

More Ian and Sylvia folk songs - YouTube