RHETT FORRESTER
Gone with the Wind LP TEST PRESSING

High Roller Records, reissue 2023, white label test pressing, insert, poster, Audio mastered and restored by Patrick W. Engel in September 2021, When the late great Rhett Forrester left New York’s Riot after their 1983 »Born In America« album, it did not take too long for him to start work on his first solo album. »Gone With The Wind« was originally issued on French label Bernett Records in 1984. However, not a lot of people know that it was basically just a last-minute substitute for an aborted solo record by Virgin Steele guitarist and founding member Jack Starr. Legendary Rods man Carl Canedy, who played drums on »Gone With The Wind« and produced the album, knows the entire story. “I first met Rhett through Jack Starr,” he begins his talk. “Jack had invited me and Garry Bordonaro [bassist of The Rods] to perform with him at Le Bourget Festival outside of Paris, France. I first met Rhett on the plane to France. He and guitarist Paul Kayen drank all the liquor on the plane, or so the flight attendant said. Rhett and I hit it off immediately. Rhett was a really cool hang and a true rock star. He definitely had charisma … for better or worse.” Under the name of “New York All Stars”, Carl Canedy (drums), Garry Bordonaro (bass), Paul Kayen (guitars), Rhett Forrester (vocals) and Jack Starr (guitars) were booked to play the “Breaking Sound Festival” in Paris Le Bourget in August 1984. Following the gig, the original plan was for Jack Starr to record his new solo record in France. However, it didn’t quite pan out like this. “I’m a bit fuzzy on the actual circumstances,” confesses Canedy, “but I believe Jack and Rhett had a falling out. I, for some reason, became the default interpreter between the French and the Yanks. Dany and Christiane Terbeche were the ones hosting the event and the album. I suggested that rather than send everyone home, Rhett record a solo album. Rhett loved the idea immediately and so did our French hosts. So I guess I am the one who is responsible. We recorded »Gone With The Wind« at a small studio owned by Max Waldberg.” The musicians spent spent almost three full months in France for the production of »Gone With The Wind«. Carl Canedy laughs: “I can assure you that I was not milking my time there for a vacation. Remember that we had to write the album, rehearse it and arrange the songs prior to entering the studio. We were not a ‘band’. We were musicians who wrote an album under odd circumstances. We wrote the album together.” “I used to work that vocals would be done last to keep the quality high on the recording,” Carl Canedy explains his principle strategy for »Gone With The Wind«. “Rhett had plenty of time to party prior to doing his vocals. Once he arrived at the studio, he was on the money from note one. I love his harmonica on ‘Live With Me’ [by the Rolling Stones]. A song I suggested based on his voice. I also love the song ‘The Last Thing I Do’. Having been such a huge part of writing and arranging the songs, however, I can’t choose one over the other.”