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Tim Rose

Encyclopedia : T : TI : TIM : Tim Rose

This article refers to the singer-songwriter. For Tim Rose, the football coach, see Tim Rose (football coach)
Timothy Alan Patrick Rose (September 23 1940 – September 24 2002) was an American singer-songwriter.

Contents

Early years

Tim Rose was born in Washington, D.C., and raised by his aunt. He learned to play the banjo and guitar, and won the top music award in high school. He trained for the priesthood, but was thrown out of the seminary for inappropriate behavior (‘I realised I wasn’t going to be the Pope,’ he said later, ‘and if you can’t be the boss, why join the company?’). He worked as a merchant seaman and in a bank, before becoming involved in the music business.

His first band was The Smoothies, which included John Phillips and Scott McKenzie. In 1962, following a stint as a navigator in the US Air Force, Tim teamed up with ex-Smoothie Michael Boran as Michael and Timothy. Later, Tim met singer Cass Elliot at a party in Georgetown, DC, and formed a folk trio with James Hendricks called the Big Three. They soon landed a job at the Bitter End, a well-known folk club in New York’s Greenwich Village. Their success grew, with appearances on national TV shows, and they recorded two albums: The Big 3 (1963), The Big 3 Live at the Recording Studio (1964). Songs included the old standard Grandfather’s Clock and an anti-war dirge Come Away Melinda. Rose and Elliot had musical differences - both were inclined to want things done their way - and the band fell apart after Elliot and Hendricks secretly married.

Solo career

After the Big Three, Tim went solo, and by 1966, things were looking good. In November of that year he played two gigs at the famous Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco; headlining were the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. CBS signed Tim to a multi-album record deal; the first album, Tim Rose, came out in 1967. It featured a new version of Come Away Melinda and Long Time Man (a version of the traditional It makes a long time man feel bad) as well as two songs that would become standards: Hey Joe and Morning Dew. Both were released as singles.

The album was moderately successful but there was no big breakthrough for Tim, who later claimed that the mix of blues folk and rock made it impossible for the record company to market it.

In 1966, he was getting a lot of airplay with his single of Hey Joe. The orgins of the song are disputed (see article under Hey Joe for more detail), yet it was copyrighted in 1962 by singer Billy Roberts: Tim claimed he heard it sung as a child in Florida. Prior to Rose's recording The Leaves, The Surfaris, Love and The Byrds had all recorded fast paced versions of the song. Tim’s version (crediting himself as author), unlike the others, was a slow, angry ballad, which received US radio airplay and became a regional hit in the San Francisco area in 1966. Jimi Hendrix had seen Rose performing at the Cafe Wha? in New York City, and released a similarly slow version in 1967 which became a huge hit, first in the UK, then worldwide. Tim always regarded the Hendrix version as a copy of his, and regretted not having been cut in on the royalties of the song, which would have been substantial.

Rose re-recorded Hey Joe in the 1990s, re-titling it Blue Steel .44 and again claiming authorship. As of 2006 Rose's official website still controversially claims that Hey Joe is his own work based on traditional themes.

Morning Dew was to go on to become a rock standard. Tim heard Fred Neil singing a version of the song penned by Canadian folk singer Bonnie Dobson, arranged it with a harder, rock feel and added his name to the writing credit. This time he managed to legally get a royalty, due to a loophole in US copyright law. Although Dobson consistently questioned his right to a credit, it is unlikely that without Rose's version the song would have become the classic it did, covered by the Grateful Dead, The Jeff Beck Group and many others.

Another CBS album, Through Rose Colored Glasses, followed in 1969. It met with disappointment and did not sell well. Love: A Kind of Hate Story was recorded at Island Studios in London and released in 1970. In addition to his musical career, By now Rose had moved to London and would spend much of his life there. Other albums followed in the decade: Tim Rose (1974), The Musician (1975), Unfinished Song (1976).

The lost years

By the late 1970s, his career was going nowhere. He recorded The Gambler in 1977, with a group that included guitarist Andy Summers, only to find that the record company refused to release it. He returned to New York for a number of years. Having lost his contacts in the music industry, he was forced to work as a labourer until an opportunity arose to sing jingles for TV commercials. This funded his return to college, and after graduating he became a Wall Street stockbroker and got married. After the 1987 market crash, he got out of the business. He continued writing and performing at select venues. He battled with alcoholism and these years were often not happy ones.

Return

By the late 1980s, Rose had reached the lowest point in his career. After his marriage broke up, he gave up drinking. In 1986, Nick Cave included Long Time Man, a version very close to Tim’s, on the album Your Funeral, My Trial. According to Tim, Cave was under the impression that Tim had died years before. However, he went on to assist Tim in recovering his career.

By the 1990s, things were beginning to look up. In 1991, The Gambler finally got a release. In 1996, encouraged by Cave and Dutch film makers, Suzan Ijermanns and Jacques Laureys, he returned to Europe and played a small but well regarded gig at the Half Moon, Putney. He went on to perform at the Royal Albert Hall with Nick Cave and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. A new album, Haunted, was released with recordings from these performances. He also appeared on the BBC show Later with Jools Holland. He performed with Robert Plant's band The Priory of Brion.

The new century began hopefully for Tim. He began an extensive tour of small venues in the British Isles, and sometimes further afield. In April 2001, the Tim Rose Band was the opening act at the Bergen Blues and Jazz Festival in Norway. Jacques Laurey’s film about Tim, Where Was I?, was premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the same year. His final album, American Son, was released in February 2002 to some acclaim, but as usual, not very many sales. It contained some good songs, including the valedictory Once He Was A Hero.

The CD Not goin’ anywhere by Norwegian band Headwaiter, featuring four songs with lyrics by Tim Rose and a duet with the lead singer Per Jorgenson, was launched in Norway in September 2002.

In 2002, Tim had completed a successful tour of Ireland and had a number of gigs planned around the UK. He died after an operation for cancer in September 2002. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. He had no children. A number of recordings featuring Tim were released after his death.

Discography

Albums

Singles

External links

 

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