Book : In Search of a Title
Written : December 11, 2012
Introduction:
I’ve met many musicians . Some have become lifelong friends, some acquaintances and some just a backstage moment or conversation. I have always admired musicians and their shamanistic powers. I like to participate but I don’t consider myself a real musician. I can hold my own on harmonica , vocals and acoustic guitar but I have never had the discipline to really rehearse. I must admit that at the age of 62 I am a better guitarist than I was at the age of 30. I am more patient now.
Over the years I have shaken hands with Jerry Garcia , Chuck Berry , Jaco Pastorius, B. B. King ,David Grissman, Jim Gleason, Vito Petroccitto, Joe Lomoriello,, John Platania, Harvey Brooks, Jorma Kaoukonen, Vassar Clements, Earl Scruggs, ,Tony DePaolo, Jeff Carano, Pete Townsend , John Regan, Charles Mingus, Count Basie and many more. I am always mindful of what those hands are capable of , but alas, it has not rubbed off. Some that I’ve met are famous in every corner of the world and some are only known to a select few in the Hudson Valley. There is no correlation between talent and success. To paraphrase the late great jazz sax master Rhasaan Roland Kirk : Most musicians must live the life of a gypsy to make a living. If you blow into town once a year you’re a big deal; but if you live down the road like your neighbor the carpenter or doctor and raise a family , people say..” He’s OK , he’s a local cat.”
So here’s to the gypsies and the local cats.
CHAPTER ONE…WHAT IS HIP….. SAM GOODY AND THE MOBY GRAPE SYNDROME
A few years ago a music business insider tried to convince me that he understood what was “hip” .not just at that time. .but as a matter of course. He kept using the term hip to reference his musical taste as though he had the ability to understand ( in the words of Tower Of Power ) What Is Hip?.. It was a strange circular semantic exercise. Here is a constant : We all love music.. Some love it more than others…. Some of us crave the latest flavor in a quest to introduce the next big “thing” and some of us get stuck in an era ( usually their teen years). I have amassed a sizable collection of music with over 18,000 songs on my ipod. It does get harder to allow new music into my life. I consider myself musically adventurous but more discriminating than ever. . A recent Paul McCartney album title kind of nailed it for me: Memory Almost Full . In the mid 60s I was the kid who bought the record first and brought it over to my friends house . The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who, The Blues Project, Fred Neil, Tim Hardin etc.
In 65 and 66 pop sensibilities controlled much of our listening habits, but by 67 we seemed to be constantly searching for the next thing. In the summer of 67 I began working at The Sam Goody Record Store in The Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers. I was not yet 17. I would take the number 20 bus up from the Bronx and that was when my world opened up. I worked alongside a gentleman named Mike Winfield . A wonderful soul and a great teacher. Mike was a few years older than me. He was a bass player who spoke in a bebop cadence that I had only heard from Maynard G. Krebs on Dobie Gillis. Mike turned me on to jazz and blues.
Miles and Mingus and Muddy. It changed the course of my life. I knew I would work around the music if not directly inside it. Mike went on to form the Colwell Winfield Blues Band and released two albums. The music had a jazzy blues jam feel and was similar to Paul Butterfields horn band. A year later Van Morrison would steal half the band for his Moondance album. Mike invited me backstage to The Café Au Go Go on Bleeker St. It was my first backstage experience and I was surprised to find the dressing room a crappy hole in the wall behind some crates of soda and garbage. I was getting a lesson in paying yer dues…The Café Au Go Go was the club that had introduced Cream and The Grateful Dead to New York . A 150 seat basement run by Howard Solomon, whose brother Maynard ran the prestigious Vanguard Record label. Howard had gone to jail with Lenny Bruce in 1964 over language that we would find tame today.
I remember the intense look on Mike’s face as we stood in the Sam Goody store and listened to The Electric Flag debut album. This west coast horn band that would change the rules and lead the way for Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago and so many more rock blues jazz experiments.. The Flag was a super group led by master blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Mike Winfield and I were surprised at every turn the first go round of that Electric Flag album and to this day when I put it on I remember that Saturday in 1967 when I first heard it. Upon Mike Winfield’s departure for fame in the music business I became manager of the Blues Department. All four bins. If a kid showed interest in Cream I would direct him toward Buddy Guy and Junior Wells or Muddy Waters.
A few months later The much anticipated Jimi Hendrix major label debut Are You Experienced came in. Without asking permission I opened a copy and put it on the turntable of the primitive portable Webcor stereo at the front of the store. From the opening notes of Foxy Lady I could see the classical music manager do a B line for the store manager who in turn called me over and told me to take that record off. I told him I would (as it was 10am )but I also told him that I would put it back on at 2pm when the store would be crowded with teens. I risked my job for Jimi…. I like to say I broke him in Yonkers. I got to tell this to Eddie Kramer many years later. Eddie was the engineer on that ground breaking album and lived in the Hudson Valley for a number of years. I am proud to have my copy of Are You Experienced autographed by Eddie Kramer and framed. Another anecdote about that album . One of my customers at Sam Goody’s in 67 was a 16 year old named Richie Kaplan , who now owns Max’s On Main a great restaurant/ bar on Main St. Beacon NY… look over the front door and you will see a framed copy of that Jimi album which I sold to him in 1967.
The summer of 67 was the summer of love Sgt. Pepper , Surrealistic Pillow by The Jefferson Airplane , The first Grateful Dead ( my first reaction to them was that they were a surf band trying to sound like the Blues Project) , Dylan’s John Wesley Harding, his first outing after an 18 month absence following the motorcycle accident. . Cream’s Disreali Gears, The Doors Strange Days ,Buffalo Springfield Again, The Rascals Groovin’ a summer filled with musical possibilities and what was my favorite album ? Moby Grape. Here was a band that would prove to do everything wrong. They released their first album with no song credits on the back so that nobody knows what is on it. They release 5 singles ( 45s?) simultaneously so that top 40 radio would not have a clue as to which one to play. The original cover had the drummer subtly giving the finger. It would be airbrushed out after the first 100,000 copies. They looked like rock stars. They played and sang like rock stars and they got busted multiple times like rock stars. When I look back on the summer of 67 .. the summer of love.. the hippest album of the summer goes to Moby Grape.
Ask Robert Plant ; eventhough Led Zeppelin sounded nothing like Moby Grape ; he remains a worshipper of Moby Grape .They proved that even with all the talent in the world success is elusive. As Tower Of Power said: “ What is hip today might become passé.” Not Moby Grape…. That first album is still hip.
Book : May 28,2013
Preface:
I’ve heard it said that fans make lousy journalists. Their biases cloud their judgment making them more forgiving to some and less forgiving to others. In the late 70s and early 80s I wrote a bi-weekly record review in Rick Lashinsky’s Hudson Valley Concert Calendar. My focus was on writing positive reviews..The only bad review that I can remember writing was rather tongue in cheek and only one sentence. It was for the Ethel Merman Disco Album and all I said was: “There’s no business like show business.” My mission with those reviews was to turn people on to what I believed was good music. I chose to ignore that which I did not like.
An old friend John Platania told me that he bought Bernie Taupin’s solo album because of my review. I was certainly flattered that John Platania, the guitarist on Van Morrison’s seminal Moondance was influenced by my writing. I must admit that I can not currently find that album to re-visit my original opinion. I will seek out the Bernie Taupin album on I-tunes because the vinyl is in a shed that costs me $60 a month for the convenience of having 10,000 albums out of the house.Bernie Taupin lyrics without Elton John melodies would have been Abbott without Costello
I’ve had dozens of friends and colleagues tell me that I should write a book. It could be that I am an insufferable story teller and name dropper with a greater than average knowledge of musical history. Rock ,Folk, Blues , Jazz, Country, Broadway, Classical . I love it all, or at least some of it all. My degree from SUNY New Paltz in Jan 73 was in Secondary Social Studies/History ..so maybe this book is in lieu of the masters thesis I never wrote.
I have watched blues greats Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee argue in the dressing room .After 40 years together they were like the Sunshine Boys of the blues. I had the great pleasure of having dinner with Charles Mingus and interviewing him on the air. I split a bottle of wine with Rick Danko and a bottle of bourbon with Jaco Pastorious ( gotta watch those bass players) .
So if this book is to be my musings on the musicians whose paths I have personally crossed from this modest perch in Poughkeepsie it must also be somewhat autobiographical. I am a fan …. I am a fair to poor guitarist… a decent vocalist…. And occasionally good harmonica player. I intend to share my reflections on musicians with whom I have shaken hands , made eye contact with and talked with. I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 1:
Music has always been my connection to past events. If I hear something from 1953 or 54 like Nat King Cole or The McGuire Sisters I am returned to my mother’s kitchen listening to WNEW AM ( ironically the sister station to WNEW FM which would have a profound effect on me over a decade later) . Both of my parents could carry a melody . I particularly remember my parents liking Nat King Cole’s voice. That voice has soothed me like no other. One day I realized that Nat Cole was riding the top of the charts when my mother was pregnant with me and this music was soothing me in utero. Nature Boy and Mona Lisa are like meditations to me.
Music follows us on the timeline of life….. or perhaps… we follow the music. It is always there, always available. I spent 37 years in the radio broadcast business . I have seen change upon change but I remain fascinated with the unifying effect behind the popular song. For someone who has dedicated so much time and energy to rock and roll , I have a startling confession. I did not like it at first. I was born in 1950 and was five years old when it burst on the scene and seven years old when Elvis appeared on Ed Sullivan. I remember my father saying “nonsense” and I remember giggling at how silly he appeared to my seven year old eyes …and that name Elvis?! …made me giggle even more.. I remember laughing out loud at the parody of rock and roll performed by Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner and Howie Morris in 1957.
My older brother Hank’s taste was more toward Broadway, folk and light classical . He was born in 1943 and his peers were the first generation of rockers ; but that stuff just wasn’t him. He had a Wollensak tape recorder and would play powerful stuff like Richard Rogers’ Victory At Sea. I developed a passion for movie music. One of my first albums was 12 movie themes :…from Guns Of Navarone to A Summer Place..to Theme from Exodus ...to this day I find John Barry’s music more important than special effects in a James Bond movie.
I remember my first 3 albums, although I am not sure which I bought first I did acquire them in 1962 and 1963. Vaughn Meader’s The First Family , the great comedy spoof of JFK was not even music. Alan Sherman’s My Son The Folk Singer was musical comedy parody and finally Peter Paul and Mary ‘s first album with : If I Had A Hammer. I would listen over and over and try to dissect the harmonies. The music had enough space in it to do that but the harmonies were so thoroughly woven that it was like one voice. I would do this again at the end of the decade with the original Crosby Stills and Nash . Where does David’s voice end and Stephen’s begin on the first song they learned together ; Helplessly Hoping. A song that I would arrange for my acoustic quartet at college and we continue to mangle at reunions.
So how did I become so passionate about rock and roll? Puberty .The Beatles arrived when I was 13 years old. Girls screaming at funny haircuts. Think I will grow my hair. With each album cover I worked hard to try to comb my hair like John but it was to no avail for the first few years. I would hide my hair behind my ears when I got home and comb it off my forehead .I was not allowed to grow my hair over my ears until I was well into high school and the pony tail would not come until college.
More importantly than the haircuts, the music had captured my complete attention. Ironically for reasons that I can not quite explain I did not apply myself as a musician. It is said that the fear of success can be greater than the fear of failure. It took me many years to feel comfortable playing guitar in front of people, but I was never shy about singing. I have surrounded myself with some of the greatest musicians in the world. Some of them you know, some of them you don’t but I wouldn’t dare take my guitar out in front of many of them until recent years. I guess my own inhibitions have matured. Playing music with people can be more of a connection than a conversation.
I have re-visited Elvis Presley and have developed a passion for his earliest Sun recordings and his early RCA recordings. Then I discovered El , the balladeer of You Were Always On My Mind and I got it all.
My first concert was at an amusement park called Freedomland. I was new to the Bronx having moved there from Brooklyn in April 1964. One of my first Bronx friends, Jerry Probst aka “monkey” (because of his wild antics ) suggested we go there to see Martha and The Vandellas .At his suggestion we snuck in under a gap in a chain link fence. A little muddy but in. I remember the raw sexual intensity of the music. Dancin In The Street , Heatwave ,..I was still 13 I was now hooked on live music.
Monkey and I would get on the train and go to every Murray The K show at The Brooklyn Fox 5 or 6 acts in a 90 minute show then a B grade movie .the whole process began at 10:am and ended somewhere around midnight four or five shows per day. Acts would have to be prepared to perform their 15 minute set every 3 hours . always , A soul act act , A doo-wop act a folk act and the back up band was King Curtis and The King Pins. I saw The Shangri Las, Patty La Belle and The Blue Belles, The Young Rascals, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Peter and Gordon, Wilson Pickett, Jay and The Americans, The original Moody Blues, Little Anthony and The Imperials …all..at Murray the K’s Easter or Christmas shows in 1964 thru 1966. In 1967 Murray rode the crest of psychedelia and moved the show from Brooklyn to midtown Manhattan in the spring of 67 with a bill that included the American debuts of Cream and The Who. As well as Smokey Robinson and The Miracles , Simon and Garfunkel and The Blues Project. I did not attend that much written about show but ironically it was the same weekend as the first Human Be-In in Central Park and I was on my way there with my high school girlfriend Jill when we saw the backdoor of the RKO movie theater burst open and the Who popped out in full Mod regalia . They wanted to get over to Central park between shows so we pointed the way and they ran off. Needless to say 15 minutes for Cream was one song. 15 minutes for Smokey was five well arranged hits. The Rock and Roll Ballroom was about to emerge thanks to a guy who went to my high school, Bill Graham.
There was one other show in this era Christmas of 66 at The Paramount Theater in Times Square . Soupy Sales Rock and Roll extravaganza I attended with Monkey and Kretsch ( his real last name …not a nickname) . The headliners were The Hullabaloos a british act in blonde wigs who sounded like Buddy Holly . Everyone attending the early show got a free Hullabaloos album . The band was awful and the disgruntled youths in the audience began unwrapping the album and flinging the discs at the stage like Frisbees. It was pretty dangerous for the band ..they had to duck a number of times . Also on that bill was Little Richard… white suit pegged pants…cape…. All the band in white suits… two sax players drop to their knees and play as though they were crossed swords and Richard jumps off the piano and over the two sax players. Now this is a show… I must admit that the left handed guitarist did not make any more of an impression on me than anyone else in the show. He was then known as Jimi James. He would later be known as Jimi Hendrix.
By 1966 I would spend every nickel I had on albums. I would either walk to Honig’s on Webster Avenue where I bought The Who’s Happy Jack and The Beatles Sgt. Pepper or I would take the bus to Fordham Rd. where I had five regular record stores ..most favorite of which was Cousin’s where I could find rare new British stuff. The latest Kinks, Animals, Beatles, Stones, Cream, Yardbirds and Who proved only one thing. The only way that I could support this vinyl habit would be to work in a record store. That was how I wound up at Sam Goody Record store in Yonkers in 1967.