Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Johnny Rivers.
Last updated on November 25, 2024.
Johnny Rivers is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His repertoire includes pop, folk, blues, and old-time rock 'n' roll. Rivers charted during the 1960s and 1970s but remains best known for a string of hit singles between 1964 and 1968, among them "Memphis", "Mountain of Love", "The Seventh Son", "Secret Agent Man", "Poor Side of Town", "Baby I Need Your Lovin'", and "Summer Rain".
What I really remember is that people camped out everywhere, and the fact everybody expected it might turn into a big nightmare with all sorts of hassles because back in those days everybody was smoking pot and taking acid.
One of the first groups we signed was the Fifth Dimension.
One thing will lead to another and somebody will come up with a riff or a line or something we build from.
I learned some chords and I started watching anybody I could, once I really got into it.
The first time I went to New York, I met Alan Freed.
The first amp I had back in the '50s was a small Fender.
I loved playing and I was actually working two jobs.
I think my favorite album was probably Realization.
In early '57, I bought a Fender Telecaster.
In 1965, Gibson made the red one I use now, and a black one, which was the first black 335 they ever made.
The web site and the Internet are a whole new ball game.
I've got a Fender Concert amp from the '60s, the one Joe Osborn used. He played his bass through it.
Alan's publishing company was in the Brill Building, and of course, the Brill Building was where all the songwriters hung out because that's where all the publishers were.
When I came back to California in the early '60s I was hanging out with Jimmy Bowen, Phil Spector, and I wanted to be a record producer and work with other artists.
I'd gone through periods where I didn't work live performances for probably seven or eight months at a time.
I accepted an offer to do a concert for the reopening of the Mall of Memphis.
After that initial success, every chance we got we'd hire that remote recording truck and just record stuff at the Whisky because it was so inexpensive.
But I always loved songs with great lyrics.
About two months into the Whisky, I borrowed some money and rented a remote recording truck.
Even Woodstock turned out to be a disaster. Everybody was stuck in the mud and people got sick.
I think after 1970 or so, after I sold Soul City, I took off for awhile and didn't do too many gigs.
Guys like Otis Blackwell and Bobby Darin, and all the guys who were writing songs for Elvis at the time, just hanging around, writing songs, talking about music.
I was working at this club in downtown L.A. from four to eight at night, just Eddie Rubin, the drummer, and I.
I got to see all these incredible blues players, like Jimmy Reed.
Jack and I usually get together and sit around in the afternoons and start throwing ideas around.