Reg Presley of the Troggs, wild thing no more

Loved the Troggs! Schniff...

Will put what I have of theirs on random as a tribute.

On ya!

Ronnie Bond: "That is a fuckin' No 1! If that baaa-stard don't go, then Oi'll fuckin' retoire. Oi fuckin' do!"

Dennis Berger (producer): "I agree – I think it is a good song."

Ronnie: "But it fuckin' well won't be unless we spend a little bit of fuckin' thought and imagination to fuckin' make it a fuckin' No 1. You've got to put a little bit of fuckin' fairy dust over the baaa-stard!"

Dennis: "Well, we'll put some fairy dust over it – I'll piss over the tape."

Ronnie: "Oi don't know what it needs, Den …"

Dennis: "Aaah! I know that it needs strings – that I do know."
Reg Presley: "You've got to have a fuckin' bloke who says: 'Oi've got a fuckin' sound in here that's fuckin' great.'"

Tony Murray: "We need a producer who says: 'You're not doing that; you're fuckin' doing this.'"

Dennis: "Did you do exactly what Larry Page said?"

Chorus: "Yep!"

Tony: "That's how they had hit records."

Reg: "Because there was just one fuckin' mind on it – not fuckin' seven or eight."

Ronnie: "We didn't even fuckin' get a say in it – it was fuckin', wham, it was in the can regardless. You reckon that was bad? **** me! One take, that's it, finish. You never 'ad a fuckin' say – it was out. As weak and fuckin' insipid we used to think."

Reg: "We thought With A Girl Like You was fuckin' terrible and let's go and do it again. And that was the only fuckin' time he let us fuckin' have our way. And could we get anything fuckin' better?"

Ronnie: "No."

Reg: "Fuckin' … the first thing he fuckin' did was it."

Ronnie: "All fuckin' day. We went in there at nine o' clock and we didn't come out till, ****, about three o'clock the next fuckin' morning, and they had Mick Jagger, you name it, they were fuckin' in there to try and make it better."

Reg: "What about a fuckin' 12-string on it?"

Dennis: "Play the beginning again, Barry."

(The identity of "Barry" is now lost in the mists of time. Vigorously-strummed guitar chords are affirmed as just the ticket by a slightly demented shriek of "Yeah! … No!!" from Reg.)

Reg: "You 'ad it there at the beginning. Ron. It was soundin' good. Ron?

Ronnie? Just listen for a sec …"

Ronnie: "You can say that all fuckin' night, but Oi just cannot feel it any other than what Oi've been fuckin' doing it."

Reg: "You have played it tonight."

Ronnie: "Don't expect fuckin' miracles just like that.

Reg: "It's fuckin' there – better than there. Oi can't fuckin' hear it any other way but that."

Reg: "But you have done it. You did it."

Tony: "Play duh-duh duh-duh duh duh."

Reg: "No, no more beats."

Tony: "Play duh-duh duh-duh duh-chuh on whatever drum you were playing it on originally."

Reg: "You did it. You went duh-duh duh-duh duh chuh."

Ronnie: "You can say that all fuckin' night, but you won't listen."

Tony: "We can keep on trying …"

Ronnie: "You can say that all fuckin' night, but you won't listen."
Tony: "We can keep on trying …"

Ronnie: "Yeah – well just shut your fuckin' mouth for five minutes and give me a fuckin' chance to do it. Don't keep fuckin', right into that fuckin' microphone. Duh duh derh duh duh derh. **** me, Reg. Just **** off, in there, and just keep going, fuckin' do it, don't just …"

Reg: "Well, just fuckin' think, then."

Ronnie: "Don't just keep saying they're not loud enough. Oi know they're fuckin' right. Oi can hear it ain't right. Weeell, **** me."

Reg: "You can hear it's fuckin' not right, too."

Ronnie: "Oi fuckin' can, and Oi'm the one that's playing it so Oi don't want to hear … **** … **** … in me fuckin' head, that's what Oi gotta fuckin' do, then Oi'll do it. Yer big pranny."

(Tum-tum-tum-ti-tum, goes the bass guitar. Tum-tum-tum-ti-tum, tum-tum-tum-ti-tum...)

Reg(quietly): "Fuckin' drummer. Oi **** 'em. Duh duh derh duh duh derh, duh duh derh duh duh derh."

(Enter the guitar)

Reg: "One, two, a one, two, three, four … Yer doing it fuckin' wrong!"

Ronnie: "Oi know Oi am."

Reg: "Dubba dubba dubba chah, dubba dubba dubba chah, dubba dubba dubba chah, dubba dubba … You din i' in the beginning. Bloody hell, Oi can't play to tha'."

Ronnie: "Nor can fuckin' Oi."

Reg: "Well, you're fuckin' doin' it!"

Ronnie: "Well, Oi can't fuckin' play to it either."

Reg: "Hahahaha. Why don't you just do what you fuckin' started out doing – dubba dubba dubba chah. On your top one, dubba dubba dubba chah. Dubba dubba dubba chah."

(On tom tom, Ronnie attempts to follow his singer's sage advice. It sound hopeless.)

Reg: "Nooooo!"

Ronnie: (very heatedly) "Why don't you fuckin' … You're talking out of the back of your fuckin' aaaarse because all you want then is the same fuckin' thing that Oi was playing fuckin' originally in that baaa-stard."

Reg: "But on different fuckin' drums!"

Ronnie: [agitated] "Then all you want, then, is fuckin' tha' one, and the fuckin' bass drum playing the same thing."

Reg: "You're the fuckin' drummer!"

Ronnie: "Yes, you fuckin' do, 'cos that's all you're fuckin' doing. You ain't playing any fuckin' thing else – orl roi', Oi'll play tha'. Oi'm goin' nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-bomp, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-bomp …" (He thumps in dull accompaniment, sarcastically).

Reg: "You don't fuckin' listen, that's your trouble. Oi'm only asking you to do half of it on one drum, half of it on the other and the bang wherever you want to bang … Ronnie, can you 'ear me? Wha' abou' trying' i' not just on that top skin floor and then your floor tom-tom, but split your hands so's that one beat is doin' it on the top drum, one's doin' it on the floor tom tom, then your bass."
(A tinny tattoo beats out gamely.)

Reg (philosophically): "Fuckin' drummer. Oi **** 'em."

sorry for the long post, but too many good quotes to single any out

I remember hearing this berry, wasn't there an album of these studio conversations? Don't suppose you know what it was called?

yeah dennis berger left it recording between takes of the backing track for "tranquility", ironically enough.

it's called "The Stooges Tapes", and rumour has it, it was the inspiration for Spinal Tap.

i think it's available on iTunes

i've not actually heard it myself. i only found out about it the other day when the transcript was published in an obituary.

i was giggling all the way through though.....i really want to hear it in a Dorset accent.

*edit: it's a hampshire accent, but might as well be dorset lol