I was very sad to receive this news about the physical passing of Andy Paley. Over the last handful of decades I knew and worked with Andy Paley. A true pop musicologist. Earlier this decade I interviewed him for a documentary on Del Shannon I'm co-writing and co-producing. Paley was in Del's band many years ago, and Del sent him a pair of Beatles Boots from Liverpool after a tour. Andy was such a team player, he touted the Del documentary endeavor to Seymour Stein, who agreed to also do an interview. Seymour joined Andy and I for lunch. That was a three-hour music history noshfest. Over dessert, Seymour mentioned he met Andrew Loog Oldham in 1964 at the Brill Building in New York and handed the Rolling Stones' manager/record producer a Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller produced Alvin Robinson single, "Down Home Girl," which the Stones later recorded.
In 1978 or '79, I was a percussionist on the Paley Brothers' "Baby, Let's Stick Together," produced by Phil Spector at Gold Star recording studios. Many of the "Wrecking Crew" session musicians were on the date. We always called them the "A-Team," or Local Musicians Union 47 Hollywood members. Gold Star remained in operation until 1984.
It was Andy who actually brought Darlene Love to Gold Star just before Spector produced the Ramones' "End of the Century" album at the landmark studio. Many years ago when Andy was dumped from the Brian Wilson band, I had written the tour program notes and did the interview with Brian for the booklet for the "Pet Sounds" 40th anniversary tour, Andy called me and we laughed about his sacking. Our chat was short as Brian Wilson phoned. I knew then they had a musical and personal bond that was fractured from outside parties. The next day I saw Brian at a local delicatessen. A place Brian, songwriter/poet Stephen J. Kalinich and I ate on occasion last century. It was called Kenny's Deli then.
In 1969 and '70, Stephen, Brian and I would meet up once in a while at a health food restaurant, H.E.L.P. (Health, Education, Love, Peace). Del Shannon and his manager Dan Bourgoise were frequent customers. Incredible Boysenberry shakes and carob cookies...I first met Mike Love and Dennis Wilson there. This was before Brian had The Radiant Radish health and vitamin store. In the very late eighties, Brian took Stephen to meet Andy, and Stephen recited poems on the way to Paley's apartment. As this new century was unfolding, Brian was preparing for his debut tour of "Smile" in the UK, and invited Andy and myself to a rehearsal.
When a Paley Brothers' collection of their recordings was released in Japan last decade, Andy sent me a copy. The last time I saw Andy was a few years ago at the Pasadena City College record swap meet. At 6:00 am he asked me how did I discover this swap meet? I told him, I discovered the college first because Brooklyn Dodger baseball legend Jackie Robinson went there, before transferring to UCLA. In 1988 I worked at the school's radio station and interviewed Rudy Ray Moore. Andy then replied, "Let's go look for some R&B records..."
Below is a statement from Bob Merlis about Andy Paley's musical exposition.
Andy Paley, who has been described by Brian Wilson as “the most frighteningly talented person that I've met and the greatest musical genius I’ve come across in many years… maybe my whole life,” has died following a brief battle with cancer. He was 72 and passed away in hospice care in Colchester VT with family members present. Paley loomed large in behind-the-scenes studio work for more than four decades, collaborating with a remarkably diverse array of recording talent. He worked primarily as a music producer, but also as a session player and composer. Among the many artists’ projects in which Paley took part were recordings by Ramones, Madonna, Jonathan Richman, Hank Ballard, Deborah Harry, NRBQ, Julia Sweeney, John Wesley Harding, Elton John, Brenda Lee, Ofra Haza, Little Richard, The Mighty Lemon Drops, Mandy Barnett, Jerry Lee Lewis, k.d. lang and Brian Wilson. He most recently provided original music for the long running SpongeBob SquarePants animated series, working with Tom Kenny, who voices the title character. He was an Emmy winner and produced Brian Wilson’s track on the Grammy-winning album Folkways: A Vision Shared – A Tribute to Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly. Paley had been musical director for Tom Kenny & The Hi-Seas, the16-piece rock and soul band that he and Kenny, the cartoon voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, assembled that has become a live performance attraction.
As a child growing up in the Albany area of upstate New York, Paley became fascinated with rock ‘n’ roll, listening to disc jockey Boom Boom Brannigan on WPTR, and was writing and playing music even before his teen years. In fact, when he was 7, he wrote “The Porcupine Song” that was recorded by children’s music performer Tom (“On Top of Spaghetti”) Glazer. He was a drummer for local bands before moving to Boston in the early ‘70s, where he formed Catfish Black. Soon renamed The Sidewinders, the band included future members of The Modern Lovers, including Jerry Harrison, who would go on to become a member of Talking Heads. They were joined by Billy Squier and relocated to New York where they played Max’s Kansas City and signed to RCA Records with Lenny Kaye producing. After The Sidewinders broke up, Paley played on sessions and performance dates with Elliott Murphy, Patti Smith and Jonathan Richman, for whose later recordings Paley would serve as producer.
With his younger brother Jonathan, he formed The Paley Brothers, who were the embodiment of the mid-‘70s power pop movement, appealing to both punk rock and bubble gum fans alike. They appeared on live dates with artists as diverse as Patti Smith and Shaun Cassidy, and recorded a Sire single produced by Jimmy Iovine before the label released the group’s full-length album in 1978. They joined forces with Ramones for a cover version of Ritchie Valens’ “Come On Let’s Go” that was featured in the film Rock ‘N’ Roll High School and recorded with Phil Spector at the legendary Gold Star Studios. “Baby, Let’s Stick Together,” their final studio recording was reportedly the last session ever to take place at Gold Star before it shuttered.
At the behest of Seymour Stein, Paley became a staff producer at Sire Records, where he produced Brian Wilson’s much lauded eponomoulsy titled comeback album in 1988. He co-wrote several of the album’s songs with Wilson as well as a handful that have not been officially released. He produced the Dick Tracy soundtrack album and wrote most of the album’s songs that featured vocal performances by k.d. lang, Take 6, Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee, Tommy Page, August Darnell, Patti Austin, Erasure, Ice-T, LaVerne Baker, Al Jarreau and Darlene Love. He continued working in the film music field, producing soundtracks for A Walk on the Moon, SHAG, Wild Orchid, A Rage In Harlem, Drop Dead Gorgeous and writing original music for Traveller, World’s Greatest Dad and the musical score for Showtime’s The L Word. Apart from his work on SpongeBob SquarePants, Paley had been active in numerous animation projects, including The Ren & Stimpy Show, Digimon, and Camp Lazlo. Heading the Andy Paley Orchestra, he worked on live comedy projects with Dana Gould, Jim Turner, Dave “Gruber” Allen, and David Koechner. Beyond that, he produced and co-wrote the songs for Joueuse, a remarkable tribute to 1960s French Yé-Yé music with JPL scientist-turned-chanteuse Victoria Meyer. At the time of his passing he was involved in production on two albums by voice actior Grey De Lisle.
In an LA Times interview published in 1990 upon the release of the Dick Tracy soundtrack Andy Paley marveled, “I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would work with Brian Wilson and Darlene Love, or that Jerry Lee Lewis would one day record a song I’d written with him in mind. These are people I listened to when I was a little kid, who meant more to me than anything. I dropped out of high school when I was 15 years old, after the 11th grade. I never got a diploma and maybe I didn’t pay attention in some of the classes, but I definitely paid attention to Darlene Love, and I paid attention to Brian Wilson. That’s what I really cared about. It’s amazing to me to end up later in life working with these people.”
Tom Kenny commented, “My friendship with Andy and our collaboration -- writing songs and my fronting the band that he formed -- is one of the greatest true joys I’ve ever experienced. NRBQ’s Tommy Andolino introduced us and from out of the clear blue, blurted out ‘You two need to write songs together!’ Never mind that I hadn’t even attempted to write a song in the preceding 20 years. Nevertheless it happened and Andy made it a pleasure. He convinced me that I could do things that I didn’t know I could do. That is a rare gift and I hope I can ‘pay that forward’ for others. He possessed not only encycleopedic knowledge of all pop music -- especially rock ‘n’ roll and girl group -- but was also astoundingly astute when it came to art and literature. That man was a true ‘multi insturmentalsit’ in every possible way.”
Andy Paley is survived by his wife Heather Crist Paley, whom he married in 2010, and Jackson and Charlie – their twin sons who were born in 2012. He also leaves three sisters, Sarah, Brewster and Debby and brother Jonathan Paley.
