Caleb Quaye
Caleb Quaye (he is the half-brother of Finlay Quaye) was
employed in the late 60s as resident
guitar-prodigy-cum-teenage-studio-whizzkid-producer for Beatles
publisher Dick James' company, which subsequently became DJM.
As
a result he helped shape recordings by a number of disparate
talents including future Who sideman Billy Nicholls, psychedelic
pop bands The Living Daylights and The Mirage, and former
Bluesology pianist Reg Dwight (before he was called Elton
John).
In fact, Quaye - who would briefly join Bluesology after Reg's
departure - would play on pretty near every recording made by
Elton, from such heavily psychedelic late 60s demos as Regimental
Sergeant Zippo to million-selling releases like the 1976 double
album Blue Moves.
In the spring of 1967 Caleb took time out from
his frantic schedule to cut his own stab at stardom. The single,
Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad b/w Woman Of Distinction , was his only
solo release and is regarded by those in the know as the classic
double-sided underground psych pop record - chock full of distant,
disembodied vocals, fried lyrics, lashings of phasing, reverb,
distortion and backward tapes.
By the end of the 1960s he had
formed a group called Hookfoot, who persevered for some years
without ever really fulfilling their potential.
When he found
religion in the early 80s after what he has since described as 18
years of drug dependency, Caleb sold what - according to drummer
Roger Pope - was the biggest private record collection in the
country to Elton John.
Caleb then left the secular music industry
to become a preacher in California. He now heads the New World
Music Ministries Inc.
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