Gary Pig Gold:
September, 2004
This Is Rebel Music:
The Harvey Kubernik InnerView: Part One
with Gary Pig Gold
"If there is a secret history of
LA's music scene -- the real dirt, the telling minutiae, the
diseased spirit of the place -- then it exists in the mind
of Harvey Kubernik, the fanboy who cares so deeply about the
sounds in the grooves and knows more than is healthy for one
rock supernerd. If L.A. were Dante's Inferno, Harvey would
be its Virgil: he's the greatest guide this Brit ever had
in Babylon." -- Barney Hoskyns, author of Waiting
For The Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes, and the Sound of
Los Angeles
He's that most rare and precious of musical
creatures: A man who recognized and surrendered himself totally
to his passion at an early age, yet grew not only to be consumed
by what he saw and heard, but to then successfully nurture
that fervor into both a lifestyle and a career.
It is important and, yes, bittersweet to
realize, of course, that within a previous socio-melodic environ
Harvey Kubernik would most comfortably find himself right
there alongside the Sam Phillips, Leonard Chess and Ahmet
Erteguns of the world, assembling record labels, recording
studios and talent rosters to challenge every status quo within
eye and earshot. Yet today, unlike others of Harvey's age
and ilk resigned to filling their hours and times eBaying
at the collectors' moon as it were, this still delightfully
precocious mover and shaker has instead committed some of
his most essential musical moments and encounters into
This Is Rebel Music: The Harvey Kubernik InnerViews, a
landmark new book now available from the University of New
Mexico Press.
For this, his first book, Kubernik has produced
an impressive cast: Ray Manzarek, Berry Gordy Jr., Grace Slick,
Allen Ginsberg, Andrew Loog Oldham, Steven Van Zandt, Jim
Keltner, Jack Nitzsche, Chrissie Hynde, Ravi Shankar, Marianne
Faithfull, Keith Richards and, in an Epilogue, reggae scholar
Roger Steffens. The man's interview methods -- the study of
which alone makes this a very worthwhile read for any music
journalist -- are, for lack of a better word, oblique. Non-linear,
certainly: a typical Kubernik interview does not begin with,
say, "So, you were born in Newark, right?" So what
might otherwise seem odd notions, like talking basketball
with Ray Manzarek, jazz with Ravi Shankar, or mic placement
with Keith Richards, turn out to both reveal surprising things
about the subjects themselves and contribute to the overall
tapestry.
Good stories, ultimately, are what make a
good book, and This Is Rebel Music has plenty of them.
Active as a music journalist, writer and
interviewer since 1972, Harvey's work has already been published
nationally and internationally in ** Melody Maker, The
Los Angeles Free Press, Crawdaddy!, Musician, Goldmine, MIX,
The Los Angeles Times, MOJO, Music Life and HITS,
among other periodicals. Kubernik writings have also appeared
in several book anthologies, including
The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats and Drinking
With Bukowski. He is the project coordinator of the recorded
set The Jack Kerouac
Collection as well.
Kubernik also penned the liner notes on the
expanded re-release of The Ramones' End Of The Century
CD that was issued in 2002. More recently, he served as creative
consultant and contributing writer with Domenic Priore on
the music-in-film documentary Hollywood Rocks The Movies:
The 1970's that aired on the American Movie Classics
cable network in 2004.
Harvey was formerly a studio session percussionist
with Phil Spector on several recordings, including End
Of The Century, and subsequently produced over fifty spoken
word and oral history music albums during the last twenty
years. His studio credits include producing and editing audio
biographies on Paul Kantner and Ray Manzarek, jazz activist
and educator Buddy Collette, and Basketball Hall Of Fame members
John R. Wooden and Bill Walton, among others. He's also a
former West Coast Director of A&R for MCA Records.
The man's enthusiasm and true wonder at all
he has seen, heard and done absolutely pours from the finely
tuned words and observations collected not only within
Rebel Music, but throughout our exchange below as well.
And through it all remains a zeal I cannot be alone in recognizing
as comparable only to the pure, simple joy that can still
come from unearthing a rare Stax promo 45 at a sidewalk sale,
or catching a mint print of Carnival Rock on cable
at four in the morning.
In the first part of my extraordinary virtual
conversation with Harvey the K, I concentrate on his story,
his background, and the sights and sounds which shaped the
man's musical world. Next time around, we'll dive more deeply
into the book itself and some of its most colorful characters,
from Stones to Beach Boys and well, well beyond. My questions
are in italics.
In the prologue to "This Is Rebel
Music," you draw an important musical AND social thread
from Phil Spector's "He's A Rebel" clear on through
to Bob Marley's "Roots, Rock, Reggae" and "Rebel
Music (3 O'Clock Road Block)."
I think it was Bob Marley who said something
like "Don't follow the pack, let the pack follow you."
Yet many claim what I only semi-facetiously
call the Clear Channeling of today's media has effectively
knotted that thread, excluding the more off-center creators
from ever reaching the worldwide audiences they so deserve.
Have you any idea where exactly ARE the true Rebels of twenty-first
century music - the Spectors and Marleys for starters -- and
how badly has rebellion's relegation to beneath-the-radar
status harmed both the quality and evolution of rock and roll,
not to mention popular culture overall?
I actually believe the true rebels are people
doing their art or music after the age of forty! Remember,
the entertainment media wants you to retire by thirty. And
sure, it would be wonderful if today's Rebels had more visibility
and clout, but few of them have access to the star-making
apparatus.
Because I've been around for over thirty
years professionally, made records and worked in the business,
I extract results without any tabloid reporting or conning
juicy information. My book really isn't about gossip, networking,
sex or drugs. I go instead into areas few books have ventured,
because my central theme is the artistic process, content,
and occasionally and particularly my own subject-specific
Los Angeles and Hollywood interactions I've enjoyed with the
contributors for decades.
And because I am a bi-product of real Hollywood,
the results connect to your soul. Bio-regional aspects of
my life lace the chapters for my readers.
Yes, some of us have been relegated to beneath-the-radar
seating location in the great rock 'n' roll ride. I never
had the luxury of a career. I navigate on instinct and vibe.
But maybe because people such as myself, and other better-known
cult musical artists and true rebels like my good pal sixty-year-old
Chris Darrow have had very long gestation periods to develop,
both of us may still yet penetrate pop culture in new media
formats. Personally -- and Chris will tell you this as well
-- the evolution of rock 'n' roll has been slightly harmed
because both of us still haven't ever gotten our real full
swings on the baseball diamond of opportunities. We know we'd
help nurture and bring forward so many other talented musical
people as well, which always makes our hero journey on some
Joseph Campbell level more difficult at times.
I spin Curtis Mayfield and still get fortification.
I play "The Seeker" by The Who for some answers.
For instance, do we ever read about how Chrissie
Hynde writes her songs? The blow-by-blow on how Grace Slick,
Andrew Loog Oldham, Berry Gordy Jr, and Marianne Faithfull
wrote their books? I was brave and determined to chronicle
a lot of artists - I think every one of them is over age fifty
or sixty -- in Rebel Music.
I've made records with musicians over seventy,
and athletes and educators over eighty. I'm not afraid of
age and wisdom. I pass it on to others. Check out the credits
in This Is Rebel Music.
Yes indeed! Nine full pages which read
like a litany of heroes and just plain hard workers from the
past half-century of music and music-making.
One thing I learned from Ram Dass is "Honor
the incarnation." And the albums I've produced have always
contained scores of Thank You credits and acknowledgements.
There's a nice review of my book in the new issue of High
Times and the writer suggested reading the credits first
before devouring the rest of Rebel Music. You don't
see that observation very often, do you?
See, I'd like to know what happened to the
DIY nation. America was built on those principals! Or at least
on the independent chance-taker. Rock 'n' roll, blues and
jazz especially started on record labels like Sun, Chess,
and Dot, without overt networking and kowtowing.
Sure, bands play for radio stations and at
their fund-raisers for charity to get airplay favors. But
now it is a madhouse full of political machinations, and I'm
sure it's a battle getting those bookings at radio station-sponsored
shows these days. Even National Public Radio and other subscription-driven
perceived hip and cool outlets produce live music events where
there are elements of basically pay-to-play priority seating
involved in the scenario.
Also, what I hear on Howard Stern's radio
show about the way he is being treated by Clear Channel, and
their dysfunctional ownership seemingly governing his freedom
of speech -- or should I say specifically some of the ongoing
business concerns over his show -- is a bummer. But there's
a radio station in L.A. that Clear Channel is involved with
and sell the advertising time for, Indie 103.1 FM, that's
pretty good. Steve Jones and Henry Rollins have weekly slots.
There's also a reggae and heavy metal program.
College stations such as WFMU still feature
quite a rebel creativity in their programming and playlists,
and Air America Radio is surely bringing a sense of adventure
back to the airwaves, turning over entire blocks of airtime
to Steve Earle, for example.
That's healthy. Good for WFMU!
The evolution of rock 'n' roll on the radio
dial might truly be in the hands of Little Steven now. To
have heard Little Steven's plans for his "Underground
Garage" show, and see him actually execute it later on
135 radio stations with a million listeners a week, is thrilling.
The re-investment of his E Street Band arena-rock monies and
his own Sopranos paychecks right into the uncharted
radio business, and his energy pushing grassroots music and
archive-driven record and radio syndication, is truly inspiring.
I am so proud of what Steven is doing, and happy to call him
my friend. What a groovy role model, and a new-version rock
'n' roll star!
His recent International Underground Garage
Festival had a unique booking policy, and democratic production
logistics as well. I steered Kim Fowley over to Little Steven
for some projects and he asked Kim to be one of the principal
MC's for that event. And Steven earlier this summer had Kim
MC his Battle Of The Bands event in New York that MTV2 broadcast.
Steven also has an existing relationship with Sirius Satellite
Radio, one of the subscription radio services. He has hired
Kim and other characters as on-air personalities that select
records from Steven's hand-picked 1,500 song list. Trust this
dude.
You see, rock 'n' roll is a religion to Little
Steven, and to a lot of us. Steven is like Gandhi with a Fender
guitar walking stick.
How much faith do you also place upon
the Internet to level our global playing field, in benefit
of these more "subversive" creative forces?
I have great belief in the Internet. I like
the info flow. I like seeing playlists and DJ slots that go
deep catalogue. Real music people doing their thing. Clear
Channel doesn't have to worry about the small guy. Those driven
and loveable businessmen and program consultants can all relax,
keep cutting deals, and produce radio and other products that
they're closely involved with, whether it's tied in with a
live venue they control, or in the promotion of an artist's
record on a chain of stations they have exclusive agreements
with. It's a free country…
Still, I notice Clear Channel keeps expanding
their concert division. And their trip, "owning"
radio exposure, is adding a timid climate to music and exposure
for others, and I don't know if that's a good thing for our
ears. Why don't they just put all the Clear Channel executives
and administrators in the bands, and that way they can pay
themselves after they perform on-stage in places they own?
Besides, most of the deals and networking,
and influential radio / video playlist adds and awareness
these days from all station owners and competing networks
are linked to or reflect nepotism, intimidation, favors, fear,
social and political skills, sex, as ladder climbing and positioning,
and not a result of a level field exclusively based on talent
anyway. That's one of the reasons we keep returning a lot
to the past for our musical sounds and reissue product: A
good deal of the current alternatives offered are lame, non-original
and not organic. The passionate talent managers will find
ways to spread the goods and infuse the product flow chart.
That's what is cool about the Internet. If
you follow a trail, if you explore the options and the links,
you will find some noteworthy news and sounds that will enhance
your life. It might be cultish and in the fringe, but that's
always been where the fun is.
But how feasible - economically, and otherwise
- is it to expect "cult figures" to wield sufficient
clout towards making real and lasting changes?
"Cult figures" may never have the
perceived power of arena rock or stadium headlining acts,
but some cult figures can co-exist. The audience can support
talent and grassroots music, but it's a small, already converted
consumer group.
But some traction and new popularity is occurring
for change. The Dave Matthews Band, Phish, even the Grateful
Dead previously -- now the Dead -- are models that have clout
and influence in consumer-deliver methods, and those acts
have always let you tape their live musical performances.
That might say something about the relationship and bond these
groups have with fans. I followed The Kinks from 1966 through
1969 when they couldn't tour in America. It was harder to
collect them, let alone see them. The audience has to extend
more than ever to demonstrate their hunger for sounds and
records as a means of passionate artist and "cult figure"
bonding with the audience.
And don't even waste your time hollering
"corporate rock sucks." Punk and new wave, for all
the acclaim, didn't really change the rulebook. Some great
music was made, but the 2004 version of the music and record
machine is bigger and more powerful than ever now. Don't blame
Clear Channel for everything. They're not greed heads or
cochinos (pigs). It's business.
So the Internet becomes one of the tunnels
used in The Great Escape movie. And I've always subscribed
to the "If you can beat them, don't even think about
joining them." It's not about competition. It's about
collaboration. That might be a general path to follow in housing
or moving creative forces towards at least getting examined.
My book reinforces some of this root foundation
floor plan, but I didn't want to live in cyberspace when I
was putting it together. I don't have to look the Sixties
up and use the web as a research tool to access and find out
about that decade, because I lived in it, and I lived
it where rock 'n' roll was my tour guide and the audio its
trademark. That's why my book is so potent. I trusted the
music and many of the artists, and some show up with me and
dance in the pages.
Where specifically, and how, did you grow
up to learn about and love the Rebel Music in the first place?
I'm a native Angeleno. Born in downtown Los
Angeles, raised as a child in South Central Los Angeles in
Watts …before any NWA members were even born.
I attended Coliseum Street Elementary School
and then went to Muirfield Elementary in Crenshaw Village,
and before I was a teenager we relocated close by to Culver
City for the late Fifties. In the early Sixties my family
eventually landed in the Fairfax / Wilshire Miracle Mile district
to complete that decade. I went to junior high on Wilshire
between Highland and Crenshaw then I actually returned to
Culver City after Fairfax High School obligations before graduating
West L.A. Junior College. I also briefly attended Los Angeles
City College on Vermont Avenue very close to Hollywood. So
the first twenty-two years of my life before I bunked solo
a block from Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood were a swing back
and forth between deep Los Angeles, the beach region of Venice
and Santa Monica, and Fairfax / Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
But it's all the 213 area code in my book.
The Los Angeles area especially had some
very important radio stations from the 1950's through the
Seventies, but you never really read about them. They are
cited in my book. And, at the time, those essential channels
weren't all cramped on the left side of the FM dial. So those
AM, and later few FM stations from decades ago still reside
and resonate in everything I do.
So many historic positive trends and cultural
events, like classic R&B and cool rock and rockabilly
records broke out of the Los Angeles market initially that
eventually informed the rest of the universe. And many recording
artists and producers came from Los Angeles, whether it be
Charles Mingus, Buddy Collette, Lou Adler, Herb Alpert, Jan
Berry, Berry White, Bob Hite, some of the Coasters, Timi Yuro,
Ricky Nelson, Jerry Goldsmith, Brenton Wood, The Electric
Prunes.
I grew up exposed to music because AM radio
was very much part of the environment in the 1950's and Sixties,
and later FM radio until the late Seventies. Even the record
shops of the late Fifties well through the Sixties didn't
segregate or hide the small label records from the popular
best sellers on the shelves. It was all available, and on
the airwaves everywhere.
The Forties and Fifties had intense R&B
and jazz all over Los Angeles and Hollywood, which poured
into the rock and pop being brewed in the Sixties. Capitol
Records was like the Library of Congress.
And because my parents were, and still are fans of music,
mostly big band and vocalists, I would hear Frankie Laine,
Herb Jeffries, Julie London, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Nat
King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jackie Gleason albums while
I was being exposed in the late Fifties / early Sixties AM
radio and the R&B / race music. Jazz, big band stuff,
then surf music exploded and I was right in the middle of
it. A couple of years before the Beach Boys and Dick Dale,
Jan and Dean were on the airwaves, who with The Coasters,
Elvis Presley, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Berry and others set the
table for my education.
In 1964 the English Invasion happened, and
that really made the city rock, and the airwaves a
delight to investigate. The film and TV business was located
in Southern California and were tied in together with existing
record labels and radio holdings that shoved it collectively
at the rest of the world. Los Angeles and the West Coast Sound
then wasn't laid-back and plastic. It was a territory receptive
to this new English music.
Themes from TV shows also made a big impression
Route 66, The Twilight Zone , and later The Fugitive.
Personally, the filmusic merger made a greater impact on me
because these shows were produced locally. You could see **
Rod Serling driving on Sunset back to his home in Pacific
Palisades. You could meet George Maharis on Beverly Boulevard,
and David Janssen went to Fairfax High School and I heard
him in our campus auditorium. It all seemed very accessible,
yet it was still our secret society. Especially rock 'n' roll.
You could go to music shows and buy tickets
at the door: A policy that existed until the mid or late Seventies,
even for arena concerts. Parking wasn't a big hassle then,
logistically or economically. There weren't huge guest lists;
the accommodation of both the music and film industry "money"
to the bookings, let alone laminates, defining backstage geography
and band access. Security many years ago wasn't an issue regarding
the performers. Those concerns really only emerged after the
unfortunate death of John Lennon in 1980.
Did you ever grow excited and inspired
enough to pick up an instrument and get in a band yourself?
No, I didn't really want to play guitar or
be in a band. I saw too many egos, jerks and politics even
as a child to seriously attempt it. I was always talked out
of things by some students and "so called" friends
as a teenager. I did play drums for a few years, and was in
a band very briefly, The Riptides, in 1964. They were a surf
and instrumental group, but rumor had it that I was tossed
out for being Jewish. Probably a blessing in disguise. Made
me hang out with surfers, Negroes and Mexicans, who invited
me into their culture. Hence my extensive first-hand knowledge
and appreciation of soul, surf and Chicano music. Later I
was brought to more record collectors and long-hair rock music
pals. Phil Spector's records were a unifying rope that tied
us all together.
My regular habit of reading Jet, Sepia
and Ebony, along with the KGFJ Soul station paper
directed me to cool R&B and the initial Motown records.
There was also all the action in the KRLA Beat magazine.
KFWB also had a weekly station paper. Plus I still had my
surf music, Spector pop, Shindig! filmed locally,
and I started to learn about who played on these records,
or who was the musical supervisor or arranger or producer.
See, I wanted to know who wrote the things.
And I didn't concentrate on the business aspect of the product,
either. After school I didn't intern at a record label; I
didn't hustle or push my way onto some music or film lot,
or get connected through family friends or religion. My parents
didn't pull strings. No woman later ever got me a job or brought
me into an office for big employment opportunities. Consequently,
that's why my books are so refreshing, choice, honest, and
packed with information and illustrations and graphics you
haven't seen, or read, know or researched on the Internet,
anywhere. I lived it, and now I write about it.
Later, I was always content to hang, bang
and clap on a bunch of Spector's records between 1975 and
'80, like the Ramones, Leonard Cohen, The Paley Brothers,
Dion, as well as some Kim Fowley sessions, Dennis Dragon and
Drew Steele / Surf Punks dates, and various things, vocals
and percussion with the late, great Ethan James and his Radio
Tokyo studio scene in the Eighties. I'll be back in the recording
studio, maybe doing a solo album.
Somewhere right now, I hear The Crystals
and "He's A Rebel" being played in your honor!
My books are now my wall of sound. Although
not the bombastic driven sonic gems Phil Spector gave us.
I always sought out the underdogs
and the rebels. I followed Phil at Fairfax High, then even
wrote high school term papers on Ravi Shankar and the Beat
generation writers like Allen Ginsberg, both of whom I interviewed
in my book and that Phil, ironically or logically, produced
afterwards at one point. Lenny Kaye sent me an email in August
2004 to say the Ginsberg interview in Rebel Music
is priceless.
Another factor why my book has heat is that
it's written and researched by a native of Los Angeles. A
true California man. Most books written about the Los Angeles
music scene, or the history of L.A., or the majority of music
reporting done on the city have been from out-of-towners who
moved here, university academics, U.K. reporters, the caustic
New York writer, and carpetbaggers who came here to work,
steal and/or bring their baggage with them when discovering
and later describing this city. And, there is inherent East
Coast bias towards anything birthed out West.
I'm a guy from the neighborhood that has
finally gotten a chance to publish a book. It's about my city
because I am the city.
I carry the legacy of Los Angeles on my shoulders,
especially the musical heritage, and have done a pretty good
job as far as documentation and giving many opportunities
to others. I've done my third of a century ditch digging,
and now I've reached the surface by getting my work out in
hardcover book form while providing some real heat to the
energy and real-deal Los Angeles. I've delivered one third
of the trilogy I'm working on with Rebel Music, and
just completed the second book, Hollywood Shack Job: Rock
Music In Film And On Your Screen.
Describe then your earliest and most profound
musical experiences and encounters.
It seems every musical exposure did something
to my DNA. I still see bands, sometimes due to my association
with Little Steven's Underground Garage, or old favorites,
new artists every few weeks, and friends in groups, but off
the top of my head?
There are just too many, but when I compiled
Rebel Music these gigs and seminal face-to-face musical
exposures fed me: A 1958 Spike Jones performance at the Los
Angeles County Fair. Mickey Katz with my family somewhere
like the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in the early 1960's.
Beach Boys 1962 in Culver City, next to Currie's Ice Cream
store. Herb Alpert 1966 at the Fairfax High auditorium in
a benefit concert for Mexican earthquake relief. He was magnificent,
the band was tight, the horns sounded like they escaped from
the Olvera Street sidewalk -- and the gesture, a benefit performance,
was years before George Harrison put together Bangla Desh.
The Byrds played Fairfax the year before: David Crosby in
a black cape. I also saw the Sunshine Company and Peanut Butter
Conspiracy at the school. A Rascals concert twenty years ago
that was really groovy in Anaheim: Dino and Felix did not
let me down.
John Mayall and the Blues Breakers 1968 at the Rose Palace
in Pasadena. The original Deep Purple also played, and "Hush"
was spectacular. Later, Mayall's new Turning Point Band in
1969 at the Whisky A Go Go. Savoy Brown at the same place.
Albert King at the Ash Grove in 1968, Mose Allison and Muddy
Waters in the Ash Grove around 1971. Muddy at the Troubadour
in the late Sixties. An April 1967 Hollywood Bowl KHJ concert
for the United Negro College Fund: full Motown Orchestra and
road band headlined by the Supremes, Buffalo Springfield,
Johnny Rivers. Years later it was revealed to me that Flo
was not on stage that night. I didn't notice the difference.
Late December 1966 KBLA concert in Santa Monica with Love,
Music Machine, Sonny and Cher, Buffalo Springfield, Captain
Beefheart and his Magic Band. 1967 Seeds show at the Valley
Music Center: yes, Sky Saxon could dance. The Who, Association,
Everly Brothers and Sopwith Camel at the Hollywood Bowl, second
row box sets for $3.00. If you bought an album at White Front
you got discount tickets for that concert: a world before
additional convenient service charges were added to the ticket
prices. George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic at Maverick's
Flat over thirty years ago. Bobby Blue Bland at The Total
Experience in the Eighties.
In 1981 I saw Richard Pryor live for the
first time and he blew me away. I sat with Quincy Jones, his
wife Peggy Lipton, and Patti Austin at the Hollywood Palladium
for the Richard Pryor Live On The Sunset Stripperformance.
That event did have some impact on the spoken word and poetry
albums I produced in the Nineties.
All Motown acts at the Greek Theater in the
late Sixties. The 1969 Stones / Ike and Tina Turner and BB
King shows at the L.A. Forum: I went to both shows that night.
The Beatles' 1964 Wilshire Theater gig with The Beach Boys
and Lesley Gore. In 1971 I saw Marvin Gaye on the corner of
3rd and La Cienega and he smiled and nodded at me. A mind-blow
Canned Heat and Sweetwater concert 1968-1969 New Year's Eve.
And Larry Taylor, "The Mole," picked us up hitch-hiking
home on Figueroa and drove us back to the Fairfax area. A
couple of years ago I checked out Charles Lloyd and Billy
Higgins at the Jazz Bakery, and Billy did a one-hand drum
solo that was magical.
I liked watching the 1966 Paul Revere and
the Raiders on TV's Where The Action Is, and later
going to see them in person at the Hullabaloo Club. I had
to go with an adult to the show. Great clothes and showmanship.
They also had an after-hours show later where for $3.00 you
could see a midnight jam by Muddy Waters. I also got to go
to the special Sunday matinee all-ages Hullabaloo show by
the Mandala from Canada. George Oliver was one of the best
white R&B vocalists I ever saw. Domenic Troiano was the
guitarist. A neat light show as well. Jimi Hendrix doing "Red
House" at Newport '69. Janis Joplin ran on stage and
said hello to the crowd.
I'm also fond of the 1968 L.A. Forum Doors
concert I saw. The first time I saw a singer read poetry on
stage in front of 17,505 people. Dented my head, and
I started concentrating more on lyricists and discovering
poets, especially the ones from the Los Angeles and Venice
area.
I went alone to see Elvis Presley at the
L.A. Forum just after his Comeback Special TV show aired in
1968. One hour of flash bulbs but he sang spectacularly. The
last time I saw Sinatra was in 1990: there were moments, but
a 1978 show of his was splendid. I took my mother to that
show and Los Angeles Dodger baseball broadcaster Vin Scully
was there. How L.A. is that?
I also dug seeing The Kinks, especially a
1970 third-row-center Civic gig that was a Village Green
show. Arthur Lee and Love were smoking in a 2003 Knitting
Factory show. Mose Allison at a 2004 Jazz Bakery show was
classy as ever. Still digging in my mind the late 1997 Bob
Dylan El Rey Theater concerts. I saw a few Dylan / Band 1974
concerts that were exceptional as well. I went to the Last
Waltz, and I'm in the movie. Muddy Waters was incredible,
and The Band were the shit. In my next book on film and music
I have a really wonderful interview with Robbie Robertson
about The Last Waltz.
I am still recovering from every Bruce Springsteen
and E Street Band show I saw at the Roxy Theater in 1975,
and Bruce and band Troubadour gig in 1974. U2 at the Los Angeles
Coliseum around 1989, but it might have had something to do
with the gal Lisa who took me…
Going to see the opening of the film
The Monterey Pop International
Festival in 1969 in Beverly Hills was very special, but
my mindset might have been influenced by a girl named Lesley
I went with. Gypsy Boots was there and that was nice. He handed
us health food bars on the street and we talked about
The Steve Allen Show.
A 1971 Beach Boys show I saw in Santa Monica,
front row -- believe me, no one slept in line for them then
-- was truly magnificent. It was just before they became an
oldies band. The set began with "Long Promised Road"
from
Surf's Up. Carl Wilson is still my favorite white
rock 'n' roll singer, at the top of the list, along with Gene
Pitney, Howard Kaylan, Marty Balin and Burton Cummings.
I almost cried when I saw the 1971 Bee Gees
concert with full orchestra. I
did cry when I saw Van Morrison in 1969 or 1970 at the Civic.
An Astral Weeks and Moondance dominated set
list and some mind-bending oldies. Fantastic David Bowie "Ziggy"
concert in 1972 at the Civic, and I also really enjoyed his
1974 Diamond Dogs Universal Ampitheater multiple-show
engagement. The 2003 Simon & Garfunkel Staples Center
live appearance was stunning most of the night.
Ravi Shankar at the Hollywood Bowl in 1967.
George Harrison on the stage. Ravi Shankar later at the Roxy
Theater in the late Seventies. George Harrison invited me
to the recital; I worked for Melody Maker at the time.
I seem to remember an Albert King Shrine Auditorium show with
Creedence Clearwater opening around the same time. CCR no
encores. The Impressions at the Greek in 1983.
I sang with Stevie Wonder in a 1973 backstage
warm-up with his group before a San Diego concert. Still buzzed
from that experience. James Brown in 1965 at the Hollywood
Bowl, during which he practically played every instrument
on stage. So really, how can anything on an MTV Awards show
blow my mind? Just seeing Bobby Womack at the bank in 2004
is rock 'n' roll.
Didn't your mother have some sort of
connection with the producers of The Monkees television series?
I mean, rumor actually has you hanging with the Prefabs on
the set of my all-time favorite rock 'n' roll movie "Head,"
in fact!
Yes. She was a secretary and did dictation
for Columbia Pictures and worked for Raybert Productions,
who developed and produced the Monkees' series. I really liked
going to the studio to watch some of the Monkees episodes
being shot at Gower Gulch in Hollywood. I even attended a
couple of recording sessions at RCA: I faintly recall being
upset or stunned when I heard the Monkees doing Paul Revere
and the Raiders' "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone."
"Mom! Why are they doing the Raiders' song?"
On our kitchen table me and my brother Ken
helped my mother assemble Monkees Kits. Did not keep any of
them. Mailed and sent them all out and distributed them properly
to record stores. We all went to the press conference at the
Columbia Ranch in Burbank when the Monkees were introduced
to the world.
Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork were very friendly
in the 1966-1969 period when I would see them. Both always
had organic apple juice in their refrigerators. Micky and
I are both Pisces. This was just as I started high school
a few miles from the Raybert offices. And you bet, I was on
the set of Head a handful of days, plus I went to
an early screening and maybe the premiere. Jack Nicholson
and Dennis Hopper were very cool, and would be around the
studio lot when Head was being done. At the time I
did not grasp any of the socio-political aspects of that motion
picture, but I loved its theme song, "The Porpoise Song,"
though. But I had a curfew and missed a lot of the filming.
I also had classes at Fairfax and didn't really ditch school
and also had a job in the late afternoons. A couple of times
I went to the set before I went to school.
Obviously then, like most of us over the age of thirty,
you were raised not only on Top 40 radio, but with one eye
at least regularly peeled towards not only "The Monkees"
but "The Ed Sullivan Show," "American Bandstand,"
and your local televised dance party and variety shows as
well. How, and more importantly WHY, do you feel MTV (most
obviously) has fallen far short of ever rising to its early
promise of using television wisely and effectively to fulfill
the small-screen legacies of Dick Clark, Jack Good et al?
The day MTV went on the air, or really started
to saturate and expand in homes around 1984, I was sitting
around with Jello Biafra. We were on a spoken word tour, and
he pointed out that this new MTV figured out a way to sell
advertising twenty-four hours a day. So, I knew it was a business
from day one.
Of course MTV and VH-1 are in bed together
now more than ever with the record labels, and MTV and VH-1
will continue producing movies of artists they've been featuring
in rotation for years. So the New Frontier everyone thought
could emerge with music on television is restrictive and youth-market
driven. That channel, and the world in general, is racist
and ageist.
One unfortunate message from absorbing the
rock and pop videos on MTV is "If you're not blonde,
or thin, don't even bother." A revealing wardrobe and
a glam squad is required as well. These signals sent out regarding
required body type priorities, especially to young female
viewers, cause false illusions and psychological damage. They
also foster a desperate sense of competition. Of course the
standards are vastly different for men and women: Someone
like Billie Holiday based on the physical, or visual demands
now, would never have gotten a chance on MTV if it was operating
in the 1950's.
Her recording of "Strange Fruit"
would've made quite the video though,
right?
Yes. And you know, it's a shame they don't
put some older adults into the MTV mix. Fifty and sixty-year-old
people in videos, and even as hosts once in a while! Or VH-1
tossing some real bones to our elder R&B and jazz musicians?
Why can't I see one of our greatest and most original American
recording artists, Bob Dylan, on the screen at least once
a day on MTV? Half their singer / songwriters have lifted
his licks or posture.
I mean, would it not be cool if Bo Diddley
was aired once a week positioned next to Britney Spears or
Ice Cube? Or Usher next to a classic original lineup Temptations?
VH-1 and especially MTV goes out of their way to erase our
pre-1975 world, yet most of their bands broadcast and the
aired melodic productions nick their chops and riffs from
heavy 1964 Beatles through 1974 glitter-world song structures.
At least with the rap music being shown on MTV, lyrically
some hard words and political topics are being hurled -- when
they are not censored.
However, there are video directors making the leap to feature
films. So, MTV and VH-1 are channels, and big stepping stones,
for careers from the executive positions to the talent behind
the camera. The musicians and bands shown are "pawns
in the game" as Dylan once sang, but lots of folks are
aware of this and I think the TV exposure does draw bodies
to the gigs, and gooses record sales.
So, approached correctly, television and
music can still co-exist and actually enhance one another.
Sure! Years ago Motown acts were always on
The Mike Douglas Show to promote new records and tours.
MTV two decades ago had shows like 120 Minutes, or
The Cutting Edge once a month that IRS Records was involved
with that I even supplied talent for one year. Some alternatives
were offered briefly. There was a promising future for MTV
that could be interesting and ground-breaking. But now MTV
is a brand, always self-promoting their logo, more than enough
award shows, and programming countless reality shows and
Real World alongside a meat market parade. Sex sells.
Or those amateur VH-1 Behind The Music "sob stories,"
as Patti Smith once told me about those band and management
sanctioned programs.
Sadly, last decade MTV ran all these Rock
The Vote commercial spots featuring Madonna and Iggy Pop,
and I'm pretty sure, or have heard from a couple of different
people that both them had never registered to vote at the
time. How pathetic and irresponsible for everyone hustling?
I then went into a zone of disengagement from the channel.
Yet, even a band's schedule of live dates on MTV can help
box office.
You know I watched a lot of MTV, VH-1, BET,
and other music channels this past year while I was working
on Hollywood Shack Job. Thankfully I had a book editor
that encouraged me to cover the last fifty years of rock music
in movies and on television. So I could escape into great
videos from yesteryear, and new DVD products of stuff captured
in the Fifties and Sixties, to remind me how open-minded the
scene once was.
…AND, you could dance to it, as the
old catchphrase went.
I liked when you actually held the girl in your arms for a
slow dance -- kind of a Paul Anka "Put Your Head On My
Shoulder" moment -- or when you went through the Slauson
Line together; not these generic choreographed dance numbers
based on group action, predictable audience reactions and
routines revolving around prick tease and sexual innuendo.
No one even slow twists right next to each other!
One time I was on American Bandstand
myself, as a dancer, for the debut of both the Mamas and Papas
and Bob Lind. Then afterwards, I went to Sunset Boulevard
for a Shindig! taping that featured the Four Tops.
It was their vocals over a pre-recorded music backing track,
but Levi Stubbs' pleading voice was electric and pretty much
kicks ass over anything on MTV, and the Mamas and Papas certainly
hold up with a lot of the stuff on MTV and VH-1.
I also danced on Shebang and the
Beau Brummels were the studio guests. I know most of it was
a lip-synch job, but it seemed so real. We danced next
to the band as they played! There wasn't this division
that exists today of audience as consumers placed separate
from the performers on the sound stage. Dick Clark and Casey
Kasem knew this key participatory element many years ago that
underscored their shows.
Alas, we must interrupt this program right
now, folks.
But stay tuned, and we'll be right back for
so much more with Harvey and friends next time...'til then
however, head straight on over to
http://www.unmpress.com/Book.php?id=10204400542278
and grab some Rebel Music of your
very own.
"The true history of rock and roll and
pop music is an oral history -- people talking about the great
music and how it happened and their experiences being part
of it. Harvey Kubernik's wonderful book is a set of backstage
passes to the greatest show on Earth -- and a terrific opportunity
for readers everywhere to learn about one of the wonders of
the modern world directly from the men and women who've been
at the center of it. A must-read!"-- Paul Williams, founder
of Crawdaddy! and author of Bob Dylan, Performing
Artist.
____________________________________________________________
To
reach any other page contained in this month's update on Fufkin.com,
read the home page for the appropriate link and click on it.
You can also search the site from any page using the search
box located at the top of each page. Merely type in the word,
phrase, name of the band, recording, name of the Fufkin writer
that you are looking for or Whatever in the search box, and
then click on "Search". If you would like to e-mail
us, go to the About Us page for a list of e-mail addresses.
Go
back to the home page by clicking
here
________________________________________________________________
|
