Shadow Morton and Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records decided it was a great idea to do an album that would compare music with the world as far as watching history go by.The theme of The Beat Goes On was how life, war, and music goes on. We were still a green band and wanted to do another album. I said, "Is that it?" Shadow said not to worry about it and that he would find a place for it on the album.ĪV: Your second LP, The Beat Goes On, has been called "one of the gallant disasters in the annals of rock, being nothing less than a musical record of the last twenty-five years, including the entire history of music in less than twelve minutes." Do you think this is a fair assessment and didn't this album basically negate what had been a promising career?CA: It blew our careers as far as I am concerned. We went in specifically to do those little passages and it took about half an hour. Shadow decided to take other parts of it and fill in the interludes and weave it together.MS: The way I remember it is that we were all psyched up to record one night, but the studio broke down and Shadow got us into another studio. Nothing to get hung about." It was never used other than at the end of the album. It was our way of doing spaced-out nursery rhymes with an arrangement based on "Strawberry Fields" where it states: "Nothing is real. We didn't do anything as far as production goes. They had a minor hit with "Respect." Nothing ever really happened for them, but they were an amazing band on stage and attained a cult following in the New York area at a club called Action House.ĪV: How did you come up with the first LP's concept of putting the songs together with the "Illusions of My Childhood" which are played to the tunes of "Three Blind Mice" and "Ring Around the Rosie" which connect the songs "You Keep Me Hanging On," "Take Me For a Little While," and "Eleanor Rigby" as well as for "Bang Bang"?CA: Shadow Morton did all of that. I think that is where some of the heaviness came from because we were loud.MS: The Rascals' Felix Cavaliere was my strongest influence as far as organ playing, but the Vagrants really shocked me when I first saw them at a club called The Eye. We played the bigger amplifiers and because of that it made me play louder. We were basically doing material like the Vagrants and Rascals, but we made it psychedelic.We probably took a lot of what the Rascals were doing, but we took it to the extreme! We made the music more psychedelic and thus a little more heavy. Production numbers meant slowing down songs to see what kind of emotion could be put into it. More on Stein can be found here, here and here.AV: How did you develop the group's sound which has been described as one of the "first heavy rock bands" as well as the "dozens of punk mysterioso" and "psychedelic-symphonic rock"?CA: We were doing what went on in New York which was production numbers. Beyond There’s A Light, we spoke about the early days of Vanilla Fudge, his prior residence in my hometown of Long Beach, taking Led Zeppelin on the road, recording as part of Hear N’ Aid, and whether he ever met any members of Van Halen. On November 3, 2021, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mark Stein via Zoom, as embedded below. These songs are reflections of what the world is about now, and what we need to do to bring us together again.” When I started the newest collection of songs during the early weeks of the pandemic, it dawned on me that I had created an album with a theme. As John Lennon once sang, it is time to ‘Come Together.’ I have had some of these songs in the can but didn’t really have the right outlet for them. As explained by Stein in a prepared statement to the media: “This is an album about hope, but at the same time, I had to sing about the dangers of division. As due out this month via Deko Entertainment, There’s A Light was conceptualized as a thematic collection of 10 songs about what America was, has become, and may or may not face in its future. There’s A Light is Mark Stein’s first ever solo album. Stein has also made guest appearances with Deep Purple, Carl Palmer and Steve Miller, once recorded and sang with Michael Jackson, and was part of the Hear N’ Aid single “Stars.” In addition to his many years within Vanilla Fudge, Stein has also worked extensively alongside Alice Cooper, Dave Mason and the late guitarist Tommy Bolin. Sold-out world tours, hit albums and singles, and a reputation as a group steeped in cutting-edge musicianship has allowed Vanilla Fudge to be one of the most influential acts to rise from the revolutionary 1960s. Mark Stein first came into prominence as a founder of the band Vanilla Fudge, as formed alongside Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert and Vince Martell. By Darren Paltrowitz 0 Vanilla Fudge’s Mark Stein On His New Album “There’s A Light,” Long Island, Hear N’ Aid, Led Zeppelin, How To Say “Appice” & More
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