Ron Murphy interview

[G F]

I've just uploaded this interview with Ron, who knew his stuff...

 

[The Yank]

Thanks for posting. Really looking forward to listening.

[Mgm 1251]

Great interview and some lovely looking record label scans...

[Valentina]

these videos are really game changer for me, many thakns again for all your informative work 

[Tom Creeden]

ANOTHER GREAT INTERVIEW WITH LOTS OF INFO ON DETROIT MUSIC SCENE.  THE LATE GREAT RON MURPHY CERTAINLY KNEW HIS STUFF AND HAD A GREAT RECORD COLLECTION.

[Okehsoul1952]

An absolutely fascinating listen....some great film and music clips....had to listen to it a second time.....hilarious in parts, just wonderful....would love to listen to more of the same. Thank you for posting!

[Nick Soule]

Nice to hear Ron's voice. Thanks for posting this.

[Our Kid]

Great piece of work, thanks.

Ron Murphy sounds like my kinda guy, could listen to him for hours.

Paul

 

[G F]

Thanks to all for the positive feedback. I think these interviews I did need to be heard and saved.

[Robbk]

Thanks Graham, for posting this great tape of Ron telling an inside view of what went down back in the day.  Like Nick wrote, above, - it's nice to hear Ron's voice again.  I learned some things in this one.  Nothing unexpected about The Lemons.  Some unpleasant happenings about small record labels, and how they got treated.  I went through that stuff, too with Airwave.  You had to put up with a lot if you wanted to bring good music to the People.  You could hear it in his voice, that Ron was excited about making good music.  He had a LOT of energy back then, especially back in the '60s and early '70s.  Interesting stuff about Forrest Hairston and Viney Records and his recording studio.  Too bad, not only for Ron, but for Hairston, HIMSELF, that he let his ego ruin his chance to make a decent living in the music business.  I just thought that he had no chance from the beginning because his operations were so small, and he couldn't get a major backer.  I didn't  know that major outside producers wanted to rent out studio time and he turned them down because he was recording his own artists whose projects had no financial backing.  Tough break for Ron, who could have had regular work if Hairston had only listened to reason.  I can't believe the pressing plant sent thousands of pressed records that Viney didn't order, and made Hairston pay for them, that killed the chances for his record company to get off to a decent start.  To be honest, I didn't like either side of his record, at all.  I would have steered clear of The Lemons(es).  They had a terrible reputation.  That was true of a LOT of people in the record business.  But, walking right up and asking for trouble isn't my idea of a good decision.  But, I love to hear stories about what went down in the '60s and '70s.  It brings back a lot of fond memories.

Edited Saturday at 19:04 by Robbk

[Mal C]

Great interview/s Graham, really enjoyed it. So much in there, but how the sound was achieved on Bob And Fred  was really interesting, listening to it back now you know immediately those  strings were dubbed over later,  and it’s great to learn how they got the basic tracks bass sound. 20 rca type mics hung from a ceiling of a theatre in front of the band playing the track live.

I have never really liked George Lemon's  on Gold Soul, I’ve warmed to it, but the vocal although has a quality is not good, I never knew they operated the way they did, really interesting stuff. 

Great interview, Can I ask is this all you have on Ron, or do you have enough for a part 2? 

[G F]

3 minutes ago, Mal C said:

 

Great interview, Can I ask is this all you have on Ron, or do you have enough for a part 2? 

I do have one interview from around 1998 that's on cassette tape (these two interviews were done on a mini-disc recorder). There's not much on it that would add to what's covered, but I feel there may be more interview material somewhere which may surface when I go through other discs. I recall subjects we talked about (Marv Johnson springs to mind) that are not on the two interviews included in this video, but maybe I just didn't record those chats. I met Ron numerous times.

[G F]

12 minutes ago, Mal C said:

...how the sound was achieved on Bob And Fred  was really interesting, listening to it back now you know immediately those  strings were dubbed over later,  and it’s great to learn how they got the basic tracks bass sound. 20 rca type mics hung from a ceiling of a theatre in front of the band playing the track live. 

 

I've often wondered who Bob and Fred were. I've a feeling that it could be just one singer who overdubbed himself, and  yes, I know there are two songwriters listed. The F Brown isn't the one (Fred Brown) who discovered J. J . Barnes and had Kable and Mickay's etc.

[Robbk]

8 hours ago, G F said:

I've often wondered who Bob and Fred were. I've a feeling that it could be just one singer who overdubbed himself, and  yes, I know there are two songwriters listed. The F Brown isn't the one (Fred Brown) who discovered J. J . Barnes and had Kable and Mickay's etc.

The F. Brown could be Detroit songwriter and producer, Frank Brown, who wouldn't be the singer named "Fred".

[Mal C]

Blimey that did my brain, very nearly an Oxymoron Robb...!  lol

Could B. Thomas, be Bob? and if so, who was B. Thomas? if one singer, maybe one of these credits is simply a joint writer... I know thats obvious given two singers / writers mentioned on the label.

[G F]

5 hours ago, Robbk said:

The F. Brown could be Detroit songwriter and producer, Frank Brown, who wouldn't be the singer named "Fred".

Sorry - I didn't construct my post very well, Robb. I think the writer could be Fred Brown, but he never sang, so that makes me wonder if the 'other' guy singing simply overdubbed himself - the two voices sound very similar.

I've not traced any of Fred Brown's writing credits in BMI, which is strange. You can see on record labels that he wrote songs with Joe Hunter and J.J. Barnes.

[G F]

4 hours ago, Mal C said:

Could B. Thomas, be Bob? and if so, who was B. Thomas?

 

It's highly likely Bob is the B Thomas, but who he is/was is another mystery.

[Robbk]

On 15/02/2025 at 16:43, G F said:

Sorry - I didn't construct my post very well, Robb. I think the writer could be Fred Brown, but he never sang, so that makes me wonder if the 'other' guy singing simply overdubbed himself - the two voices sound very similar.

I've not traced any of Fred Brown's writing credits in BMI, which is strange. You can see on record labels that he wrote songs with Joe Hunter and J.J. Barnes.

Yes, I knew all about Freddie The Mailman Brown, who part-owned Kable and Mickay's records, and bought out Mickay's Record Shop.  He wrote a LOT of songs with Joe Hunter.  Yes your sentence referencing Brown wasn't clear at all.  I didn't know he wrote for McCoy.  In fact, I think this was a different F. Brown.

Edited Monday at 05:38 by Robbk

[Eddie Hubbard]

Fantastic interview ,and quite humorous in parts ,well done Graham 

[Dysonsoul]

Another fabulous throw back interview, Ron was always very sharing of his knowledge and experiences when we visited - a bygone era that is fortunately still alive with this content!