Brent Rademaker would like to think that GospelbeacH’s Pacific Surf Line is a celebration of our country’s two left coasts—though maybe he would’ve preferred a bit more Old Florida charm to counter the L.A. swagger. “I really wanted to make this album sound like the kinds of music I listened to growing up in the ’70s,” says Rademaker, a native of the Gulf Coast. By and large, though, Pacific Surf Line celebrates Rademaker’s return to Southern California. For a collective ef fort, the LP is surprisingly lean, with more refined nods to the Flying Burrito Brothers twang that informed Rademaker’s former group, Beachwood Sparks. GospelbeacH—Rademaker, Neal Casal, Jason Soda, Kip Boardman and Tom Sanford—isn’t afraid to broach the breezy accessibility of yacht-rock mainstays like the Eagles and Loggins & Messina, either. The band will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on them.
Rademaker: If you’re a true rock ‘n’ roll fan, you love to read the liner notes and credits on your favorite albums. One name I kept coming across over and over on my favorite LPs was Joe Lala. I never crossed paths with Joe in my many years in Los Angeles playing in bands, but after running home to Florida with my tail between my legs and settling down with my beautiful wife Kathleen in Ybor City, I’d pretty much given up playing music. Until one day Kathleen came home from work and said her co-worker was dating a former rock star who played with the Byrds or CSNY or something. I said, “Oh yeah, who?” And she said “Joe something or other” and he was playing with a lounge act out at the Indian casino.
So we headed out that night, and sure enough, there he was right in the midst of a “Midnight At The Oasis” lounge act getting a smattering of applause when the sequined dressed lady lounge singer announced incorrectly that Joe had played Woodstock. (He didn’t because, as I would later find out, his band,s manager feared it would be rained out). Nevertheless, after his set they brought him over and he plopped down next to my wife; I think he developed an instant crush on her. He indulged me, and so our friendship began. Turns out Joe was born in Tampa and graduated from the same high school as me about 20 years apart. In 1968, he and his band Blues Image moved to Miami and then quickly to L.A. and became the house band at the Whisky A Go Go and had a hit with “Ride Captain Ride.”
Stephen Stills, while still in the Buffalo Springfield, struck up a friendship with him over music, Latin rhythm and the fact that Stills was also a Tampa native. The two would later be joined by Chris Hillman and others and start the “country conga” band Manassas. Joe would also be a card-carrying member of the Stills/Young band as well as part of two of Neil Young’s most ambitious projects: the Time Fades Away tour and Trans tour of Europe in ’82. Joe and I started hanging out and playing a little music, but often I would just listen to Joe talk about his career as a very sought after and fun loving studio and live percussionist while he sat behind his three white congas from the Trans tour.
Joe was “best man” at Chris Hillman’s wedding and he called him Chrissy. A fact that was not lost on this super Byrds/Burritos fan. Joe had some very discreet words about Gram Parsons that he knew would blow my mind. Joe developed a very serious case of carpal tunnel that really sidelined him as a percussionist but not before he carved out a legendary career playing live but mostly recording with everyone imaginable.
Walking into his mother’s West Tampa high-rise condo, where Joe was living after having returned home from L.A. in 2004 to take care of his ailing mother (he was still a good Italian mamma’s boy), you were immediately blown away by his mother’s collection of Joe’s more than 50 gold and platinum albums on the wall. The Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever jumps right out at you amongst Barbra Streisand, Crosby, Stills And Nash, Jackson Browne, Joe Walsh, Whitney Houston, Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr, the Allman Brothers, Rod Stewart—to name a few. Of course, my interest laid in his work with Byrds and Byrds-related recordings by Gene Clark, Souther, Furay, Hillman, David Crosby and McGuinn, Clark, Hillman, etc. The stories connected with the recording of the records are all fascinating considering most of these records were attempts to break back into the charts with the exception of No Other, which Joe said was as “artistic and heartfelt” as anything he ever played on. He also played on some real cool ’70s watch-rock-type stuff, Jay Ferguson (Thunder Island) and lots of Firefall. There’s many, many more; I strongly suggest you research your record collection or the internet. When carpal tunnel seriously side-lined him, he turned to acting and voice characterizations and very successfully, too. Besides major roles in films with Robert Redford (Havana, 1990). Television (Miami Vice, Seinfeld) and a slew of animated series.
Next time your dancing or tapping your toes to “You Should Be Dancing,” listen close to Joe’s syncopated handwork slapping the conga skins in one continuous take … no loops, no sampling … no sweat! He made it look easy and breezy and was a great friend to all he came in contact with. To demonstrate just how appreciative Joe was of our friendship, in the last years of his life, he took Kathleen and me to see Neil Young in Largo, Fla. Neil and Joe hadn’t seen each other 35 years, and at the moment of the reunion as Neil stepped off his tour bus grinning from ear to ear, Joe stopped him in his tracks and introduced Kathleen and me as his “good friends” to Neil. That really says it all about the man. Joe sadly passed away in 2014. He was in the midst of making plans to return to Los Angeles and revive his career. He will forever be remembered as “The Man” when it comes to percussion and friendship.
Video after the jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Pf7v7RMxM
