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This is later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear weekday

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afternoons on the Drive and looking forward
to talking to this guy because I think

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I owe a good deal of my
career to him and his record company,

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Rhino Records. You may not know
the name, but it is synonymous for

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reissues of many of the oldies that
we remember that came back into vogue in

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the eighties and nineties. Harold Bronson
has written a memoir about his adventures not

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only doing that but in rock and
roll history. Time has come today and

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he's joining us today. I gotta
tell you, Harold, if it weren't

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for you back when I was playing
these reissued oldies, I don't think I

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would have had a career. Well, thank you for the compliment. You

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know, the music was always really
important to us, and this started when

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we had our record store. It
was just you know, a little record

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store. We got a lot of
uh collectors, and but we also had

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a good relationship with our customers and
uh, you know, we're really attuned

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to you know, reissuing this great
music. But this was you know,

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way before we were able to do
it. Yeah. Yeah, And so

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how did it all start for you? I mean, it just didn't.

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You didn't just wake up one day
and say, yeah, I think I'm

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on to start a record company.
You were you initially were writing about all

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of these artists. Well, really
what happened is I was at U STL.

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I was writing for the UCLA paper. I was good enough to actually

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make money writing about music for Rolling
Stone and some of the rock magazines.

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I was a college rep for Columbia
Records my last year, and I was

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really primed. I wanted to I
wanted to work for one of the major

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labels. For whatever reason, that
didn't happen. Well, even though I

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was, you know, working at
a Rhino store and became manager. I

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said to Richard, who became my
partner in the label, I said,

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oh, you know, let's start
a record label in the back room.

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You know, we could have fun
with it. But originally we were recording

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novelty records because you could make them
really cheaply, and this would be like

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you know, Alan Sherman and you
know, and and you know, much

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later we're down yank of it.
So for people who have a reference to

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what novelty records are, and then
local bands which unfortunately radio didn't really support.

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So ultimately it evolved over to when
we made at least enough money,

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we started reissuing this great music that
we grew up with, that we loved,

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that in many cases wasn't available,
No, it was out of print.

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And then there was the new technology
that had come along, the digital

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technology, So reissuing some of this
stuff meant you had to do some homework.

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I did. Well, this is
way before digital. See you have

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to remember in the late seventies,
the record companies were valivating over multi platinum

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martis like Sweetwood Mac and Michael Jackson. So you know, for us to

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sell ten thousand of the best of
the Spencer Davis group, I mean,

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you know, they can get out
of bed for it. I mean really

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yeah, by the way, I
mean you know, it's we just really

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loved this music and we just felt
it should be available. But for when

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labels had some of this out,
it was how could we squeeze profits out

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of this older music? How can
we make a few more dollars? And

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for us, it wasn't that at
all. It was you know, let's

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track down some rare photos for the
cover, let's have informative liner notes,

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and in some cases we were able
to make make the music sound better and

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when they originally came out. Let
me give you one example. At one

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point we made a deal with Barnaby
Records for the early Everly Brothers. We

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were able to use the first generation
tape, and we found out that the

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you know, the old releases were
maybe second or third generation, so our

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Everly Brothers or are Beau Brummels,
they actually sounded better than the original reporting

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were these four track two track what
the masters? We didn't remix the masters,

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and these were the I mean,
the way it would work as the

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first generation masters. Then if they
had two or three pressing plants in other

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parts of the country, they would
make a second generation tape and those other

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places. So that's kind of how
that's why the first generation tapes weren't used

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back. His name is Harold Bronson
and he is co founder of Rhino Records.

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But he's written all about his adventures
in rock and roll history as time.

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Time has come today as the name
of the Rock and Roll Diaries.

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In nineteen sixty seven to two thousand
and seven. Along the way, you

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established a lot of great relationships.
Yeah, well probably, I mean Initially

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it was the Turtle because they had
gotten their master's back and we did a

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whole reissue on the whole catalog.
But they were still Mark Howard I shuld

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be Howard Kalin and Mark Bohman smart
guys, fun guys. I would say

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some of the most fun I had
was hanging out with them in working on

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these projects. Like you know,
Howard told me about the Turtles playing the

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White House. They were the first
rock band and played the White House,

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so they were like a Trician Nixon's
favorite band. But it wasn't just playing

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the White House. It was like, you know, everything that they were

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talking about, like snorting cocaine on
Abraham Lincoln's desk and Mark getting drunk and

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faring off stage four or five times. I mean, it was, you

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know, there's really great stories.
So but probably the best experience was with

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the Monkeys because we were big Monkeys
stands and we went through the whole catalog.

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But also it related to reissuing and
doing the box set of TV show.

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It resulted in the H one movie
it's called Daydream Believers. So the

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idea was our passion as fans propelled
us to create more as it relates to

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some of these artists where we could
along the lines of the monkeys. Did

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you cross paths with Don Kirshner,
Yes, a character not totally honest in

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our brief experience with him. But
I'll give you one. I've heard that

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before, Harold, and I've heard
that before about him. Go ahead,

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So here's a Don Kershner story that
he told us. We a few of

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us went out to took him out
to dinner. He was saying, he

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was telling us how Bobby Darren grit
his name where they were, you know,

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walking down the street and there was
a Chinese restaurant with the sign that

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was half down and it was Mandarin. So the part of the sign that

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remained was dar I N. And
that's where he got his name from.

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Ah, I didn't realize that at
all. Excellent, we're talking to Harold

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Bronson. His memoir time has come
today, Rock and Roll Diaries nineteen sixty

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seven to two thousand and seven.
And this was also at a time when,

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yeah, the record industry of the
big old piles of cocaine on desks

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was was quite a thing. Yes, well, I think probably fortunately I

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didn't see that, but again,
there you know this isn't This isn't so

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much a book about you know,
sex and drugs. It's more rock and

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roll and the stories behind the hits
and in some cases you know what they

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were like as people. But you
know there's some drug stuff in there.

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Herbie Flowers was a notable session musicians
and then he played on a lot of

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hit records, a lot of you
know, playing Beatles solo records, but

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on Diamond Dawg and he was talking
about, you know, the mountains of

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cocaine that the producer Tony Visconti and
David Bowie, you know, which were

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part of those the sessions. So
you know some of that, you know,

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filter's in, but you know,
it's more about stories behind the hits

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and the music and the creation and
in some cases what they were like as

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people. Where I had, you
know, a longer relationship that has some

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insights. So what would it be
like to hang out? Was Peter Noon

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for Herman's Hermits or one of the
special stories is we did a special Platinum

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Awards ceremony with the Monkeys and I
rode with all four monkeys and the limos

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of the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant,
you know in Los Angeles. But they

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had got together, and the four
of them hadn't been together in six years,

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So what was it like to be
on a fly on the wall in

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that limit. And what's interesting about
it wasn't like, oh, here's a

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business meeting, we have to talk
business and it's serious. It wasn't that

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at all. It was they were
just relaxed and enjoying each other's company.

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And it was just really, you
know, nice to see that, and

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also, you know, to see
them you know, they actually liked each

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other. Harold Bronson is the author
of the book It Is Time Has Come

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Today, Rock and Old Diaries nineteen
sixty seven to two thousand and seven.

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He was co founder of Rhino Records. The book is out everywhere, and

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if you love the behind the scenes
stuff about this like I do, you'll

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love this book. Harold Bronson,
thank you for joining us and for bringing

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us the story. Thank you,
leg Thanks for listening to Later with Lee

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Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The Drive Live

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weekday afternoons from five to seven and
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