smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | snap_crackle_pop@comcast.net (Craig Leve) |
| Subject | R.I.P. Phil Walden |
| Date | Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:38:21 +0000 |
[Part 1 text/plain (3.3 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
This has been circulating on a couple other lists today.
From RollingStone.com:
Southern Rock Pioneer Walden Dies
Founder of Capricorn Records launched the Allman Brothers, Otis
Redding
Music impresario Phil Walden, who managed Otis Redding and helped
define Southern rock through his work with the Allman Brothers, the
Charlie Daniels Band, the Marshall Tucker Band and many other acts,
died Sunday after a long bout with cancer. He was sixty-six years
old.
After managing several R&B acts in the 1960s, including Al Green,
Sam and Dave, Percy Sledge and Redding, Walden helped create the
Southern rock genre with Capricorn, where the roster featured the
Allmans, Elvin Bishop, Bonnie Bramlett and the Dixie Dregs.
Personal and financial difficulties led to the demise of Capricorn
in 1980, but Walden resurrected the label ten years later in
Nashville, kicking off the return with the debut album from
Widespread Panic. More recently, the label had successes with Cake
and 311.
After graduating from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, in 1962,
Phil Walden became a booking agent and then a manager. His work with
R&B acts led to his affiliation with Atlantic Records and producer
Jerry Wexler. During a stint in the military, Walden recruited his
younger brother, Alan, to take over the management business. Alan
Walden later managed Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Working with Wexler, Walden established Capricorn -- an imprint of
Atlantic named for both men's star signs -- in Macon in 1969. Walden
met guitarist Duane Allman, then under contract as a session player
for Atlantic, through Wexler, and set about making him a star in his
own right.
The Allman Brothers were not an instant success, selling just 33,000
copies of their debut album. But the breakthrough of their 1971 live
double set, At Fillmore East, helped convince Walden to end
Capricorn's affiliation with Atlantic and move to Warner Bros. A
later agreement with Polygram ended in 1979; Walden declared
bankruptcy in 1980.
Redding's death in a plane crash in 1967 had been a huge blow to
Walden, who considered the client one of his closest friends. He
suffered another devastating loss in 1971, when Duane Allman died in
a motorcycle crash. Yet Walden soldiered on, creating a small empire
in Macon with the label, a recording facility, real estate holdings
and other ventures. In 1976 Walden and the Allmans threw their
support behind a presidential candidate from Georgia named Jimmy
Carter.
Walden dropped out of sight during the 1980s, struggling with drug
and alcohol dependencies, a court decision that found he had
underpaid royalties to the Allmans, and other setbacks. When he
returned to artist management, his anchor was not a rock band but
the comic actor Jim Varney, whose "Hey Vern" commercials made him a
hillbilly icon and the star of a string of movies.
In recent years, with the Capricorn name retired, Walden tried his
hand with another label, this one called Velocette. The entire staff
was made up of Waldens, including his son, Phillip Jr., and
daughter, Amantha.
"Phil was one of the preeminent producers of great music in
America," former president Jimmy Carter said in a statement.
Walden's work with Redding, the Allmans and others, Carter
said, "helped to put Macon and Georgia on the musical map of the
world."
JAMES SULLIVAN
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.