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I was already working with the guys of Canned Heat just out of High School. I went to school with Richard Hite, brother of the Bear, Bob. I even painted his Topanga Canyon house in 1970. There I met all sorts dropping by. Once Donovan came by, we smoked a few joints and hung out. He's a real nice fellow, although at that time I didn't know who he was, just a nice guy with a funny accent. Only later some one told me it was Donovan.
A couple of years ago I went to a concert at the Kodak Theater with him and David Lynch. Backstage I talked with Donovan and he remembered me! He still sounds great and is quite a good guitar player as well.
Then in the mid seventies I did some guitar stuff for Leon Russell. I went to his Encino home studio (one of the first) and visited a few times. He was the original home studio pioneer back then.
Once I was at Frank Zappa's place on Woodrow Wilson Drive in the early 80's. I came up with Ike Willis and Joe Conti. We brought up some nice instruments for Frank to use. He ended up using one of Joe's custom basses, it was an 8 string Ricky bass with custom pickups, active electronics and EQ I had installed. I'd already done most of Frank's guitars so he wanted a custom bass sound. We used it on that session. I don't remember the song but is was a 1/VI/IV/V fifties diddy. Frank just got the new Sony 3324 DASH machine, one of the first. He was really digging it. After a couple of takes he played them back, stopped and looked at me. He said, "what do you think of the Sony?"
I paused, then looked straight into his eyes and said, "Frank, that 's the best reproduction of analog hiss I've ever heard".
He gave me that look. The same look I aways got when he caught me pulling his leg. No one was brave enough to challange Frank, but I always did, mostly because that's who I am and I'm not intimidated by anyone.
He respected me for that, more than the yes men got.
I also have a MJ story, but that should wait for awhile. It's sort of weird.
Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades
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