Tandyn Almer
Tandyn Douglas Almer (July 30, 1942 – January 8, 2013) was an American musi… Read Full Bio ↴Tandyn Douglas Almer (July 30, 1942 – January 8, 2013) was an American musician, composer, lyricist, and record producer. Almer wrote, co-wrote, or produced numerous songs performed by other artists in the 1960s and 1970s, including The Purple Gang, the Garden Club, Dennis Olivieri, and The Beach Boys.
Almer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Almer attended a music conservatory in Minnesota, and became fascinated with the jazz of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Ahmad Jamal. At age 17, he quit high school and moved to Chicago to become a jazz pianist. In the early 1960s he relocated to Los Angeles, where his musical interests shifted to pop and rock. He attended Los Angeles City College.
His most prominent achievement was writing the 1966 Top Ten hit "Along Comes Mary" for The Association. Claudia Ford, wife of Association producer Curt Boettcher, claimed that Almer wrote "Along Comes Mary" as a slow song. Boettcher helped Almer arrange the tune, sang the vocal on the demo, and accelerated the tempo. That version, as provided to the Association, became the group's breakthrough single from their debut album, which Boettcher produced. The two also co-wrote "Message of Our Love," another song on the same album. After the success of "Along Comes Mary", Almer was featured alongside Frank Zappa, Graham Nash, Roger McGuinn, and Brian Wilson on Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, a 1967 CBS TV News feature presented by Leonard Bernstein. Almer's sole commercial release under his own name was a 45 rpm single, "Degeneration Gap", on Warner Bros. in 1969.
In 1970 he produced the Dennis Olivieri album Come to the Party. While a songwriter for A&M Records in the 1970s, he was introduced to and became friends with Brian Wilson. The two collaborated in the early 1970s on several projects, including an aborted album of re-recorded Beach Boys songs with topical lyrics for A&M. He co-wrote the Beach Boys singles "Marcella" and "Sail On, Sailor".
Almer invented a waterpipe called the Slave-Master, described by Jack S. Margolis and Richard Clorfene in A Child's Garden of Grass as "the perfect bong".
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Almer wrote songs for Washington, D.C.'s annual Hexagon (comedy show) satirical revue. He also wrote several "fake books," consisting of simplified arrangements of popular songs. A member of Mensa International, he moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1977, and lived there for the remainder of his life.
Almer died on January 18, 2013 aged 70 from a combination of illnesses, including atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Shortly after, Along Comes Tandyn, an album of vintage recordings of his songs, was released in 2013 on Sundazed Records. In the liner notes, Parke Puterbaugh, a former senior editor of Rolling Stone, called Almer “one of the lost and hidden voices of the '60s," adding that Almer "left behind a body of work that's ripe for rediscovery.”
Almer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Almer attended a music conservatory in Minnesota, and became fascinated with the jazz of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Ahmad Jamal. At age 17, he quit high school and moved to Chicago to become a jazz pianist. In the early 1960s he relocated to Los Angeles, where his musical interests shifted to pop and rock. He attended Los Angeles City College.
His most prominent achievement was writing the 1966 Top Ten hit "Along Comes Mary" for The Association. Claudia Ford, wife of Association producer Curt Boettcher, claimed that Almer wrote "Along Comes Mary" as a slow song. Boettcher helped Almer arrange the tune, sang the vocal on the demo, and accelerated the tempo. That version, as provided to the Association, became the group's breakthrough single from their debut album, which Boettcher produced. The two also co-wrote "Message of Our Love," another song on the same album. After the success of "Along Comes Mary", Almer was featured alongside Frank Zappa, Graham Nash, Roger McGuinn, and Brian Wilson on Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, a 1967 CBS TV News feature presented by Leonard Bernstein. Almer's sole commercial release under his own name was a 45 rpm single, "Degeneration Gap", on Warner Bros. in 1969.
In 1970 he produced the Dennis Olivieri album Come to the Party. While a songwriter for A&M Records in the 1970s, he was introduced to and became friends with Brian Wilson. The two collaborated in the early 1970s on several projects, including an aborted album of re-recorded Beach Boys songs with topical lyrics for A&M. He co-wrote the Beach Boys singles "Marcella" and "Sail On, Sailor".
Almer invented a waterpipe called the Slave-Master, described by Jack S. Margolis and Richard Clorfene in A Child's Garden of Grass as "the perfect bong".
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Almer wrote songs for Washington, D.C.'s annual Hexagon (comedy show) satirical revue. He also wrote several "fake books," consisting of simplified arrangements of popular songs. A member of Mensa International, he moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1977, and lived there for the remainder of his life.
Almer died on January 18, 2013 aged 70 from a combination of illnesses, including atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Shortly after, Along Comes Tandyn, an album of vintage recordings of his songs, was released in 2013 on Sundazed Records. In the liner notes, Parke Puterbaugh, a former senior editor of Rolling Stone, called Almer “one of the lost and hidden voices of the '60s," adding that Almer "left behind a body of work that's ripe for rediscovery.”
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Blackberrie
on Alice Designs
Alice Designs
(LSD signs)
Just about the time that I’m aware
Of where it’s at I think of where it’s been
There is no others covers out
Who’ve falsified the die or sink or dare to swim (??)
But, everything I am
Belongs to Alice
Unveil the fundamental truth
Inside her palace
She gives me food for thought
All the gold could not have bought
Her energy of life floats from her trellis
Alice designs her name all upside my brain
Alice delights the garden of my soul
Alice designs her name all over my time
But she’s not mine, she belongs to all
All of us who cling beneath her cape
And realize they no longer must escape
All of us who gaze into her eyes, and see themselves in unfamiliar guys
All of us who wanted to be real,
But we’re forced to hide the way we try to feel
All of us rejected by the trapped,
When they ask us if we’ll kill for her then we laugh
All of us who used to wear a mask,
Now they need us
They’ll do anything we ask
You have to choose when you fall in a space
Would place the quest for reposition on the pole (??)
As our moral codes expire,
a road as I rule schools regard
with no tier god (???)
But, everything I am
Belongs to Alice
Unveil the fundamental truth
Inside her palace
She gives me food for thought
All the gold could not have bought
Her energy of life floats from her trellis
Alice designs her name all upside my brain
Alice delights the garden of my soul
Alice designs her name all over my time
But she’s not mine, she belongs to all
(Any updated lyrics would be appreciated)