Gary Pig Gold:
October, 2004

This Is Rebel Music: The Harvey Kubernik InnerView: Part Two

with Gary Pig Gold

This Is Rebel Music: The Harvey Kubernik InnerViews by Harvey Kubernik (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM; 233 pages, hardcover)

This extraordinary assemblage of interviews by journalist and record producer Harvey Kubernik is, as Brian Wilson's blurb on the back cover says, "inside stuff." It's deep stuff, too. Note I used the word "assemblage." To call this a collection of interviews would convey no sense of what's going on in this book. This Is Rebel Music is a spiritual design," writes Kubernik in his Preface, "and it's reminiscent of Tibetan monks making a mandala out of sand." There is, indeed, something numinous in this book's construction, the unexpected ways in which the interviewees connect and bounce off each other, the way themes and characters reappear throughout. This is Rebel Music operates on a number of levels. By turns a meditation on music, poetry, memory, drugs and spirituality, it's also very much a love song to L.A., Kubernik's home turf. -- David Biasotti, Ugly Things Magazine, September-October 2004

For the literal flipside of our long and winding conversation with my all-time favorite under-assistant west coast promotional man, the one the only Harvey Kubernik now reveals some of the true stories and personalities behind key chapters of his utterly remarkable This Is Rebel Music book, available right now from the University of New Mexico Press.

So let's dive straight in with important words indeed on one of rock 'n' roll's most all-time criminally under-sung movers and shakers, shall we?

Read, absorb, learn …and TURN IT UP!

I consider your interviews with the incomparable Andrew Loog Oldham to be the centerpiece of your book. You obviously realize the key role Andrew played in shaping the 1960's by launching his headline-grabbing "alternative Beatles." Would I be correct then in concluding you possess not only a deep affinity towards ALO, but feel he has not been given due credit whatsoever for his many, many accomplishments both pre- AND post-Stones?

The interview I conducted with Andrew not only underscores the affinity I have for his work and influence on my record collection and subsequent journalism / writing endeavors, but also the emotions and gratitude I have for his vast contributions to our universe. So many roads lead back to Andrew, and as you pointed out, he is the spine of my book.

But I made it a point not to make our long-form Rebel Music dialogue a conversation exclusively about the Rolling Stones. And my own agenda was to really acknowledge and illustrate several events, his pioneering music and record industry ventures, as well as focus on his writing abilities by discussing his autobiographies and some observations on pop music this last half century. In addition, I personally think Andrew's one of the most overlooked and neglected genius characters in all of pop culture. The liner notes he penned on the early Decca (London) Stones albums were sheer filmusic long-line narratives that stung all of us when we first discovered them on those LP sleeves. I'll also add that ALO's Stoned and 2Stoned rank right up there with Kerouac's On The Road on my book shelf.

That said, I don't want to paint myself like the patrons in France decades ago who rediscovered or re-examined Buster Keaton well after his salad days. Andrew has been a public figure for close to forty years, and has contributed, survived and lived in his own rhythm long before I showed up and gave him big play. Still, I felt I owed him a psychic debt that extends back to an era when I became a teenager, and I delivered a public dream that is lined with kudos and appreciation for his rock 'n' roll gestures that changed the world.

He lands in Hollywood, for example, meets Sonny Bono and then Jack Nitzsche when he brought the Stones to RCA in Hollywood on their first trip to California. What a welcoming committee! So I hope other writers and pop music scribes and fans pick up the ball and run with it as well, while admiring Andrew's new literary and production work, lecturing, and re-releases of his classic productions and especially his liner notes.

It's amazing, isn't it, that names like Andrew Loog Oldham and Brian Epstein aren't more widely known, not to mention understood, by the world at large …to say nothing of the music business itself.

That's because for the most part the music media, national publications, the press coverage around the Stones' tours of the last few decades, even the web world and a good deal of the books written about the band, have made conscious decisions to relegate ALO to the margins, railroad his achievements, or leave him out of the documentation completely. But I know that's been fixed now, in part, by the publication of Rebel Music. Another factor in Andrew's now larger media profile was the earlier cover story I did on him that appeared in DisCoveries magazine a few years ago. My karma is really clean in this department. I don't think a week goes by where someone doesn't say to me over the phone or email, "I didn't know all these things about that Andrew Loog Oldham guy."

I asked Steven Van Zandt to do an interview for Rebel Music, and when I mentioned Andrew was going to be featured as well, he changed his schedule so I could do an extra hour with him to talk and was deeply touched that I later sequenced them together in my book. Now ALO's even hosting a stint on the Sirius satellite edition of Steven's "Underground Garage" radio show, and I hooked them both up. They're pals. That's rock 'n' roll. We're a trinity. Andrew inspires this in people, which is why he blew your mind with the Stones and with his Immediate Records catalogue too. Think of him every time you hear the Small Faces' "Tin Soldier."

Oldham's discovery, management and production of the early Rolling Stones really did help change the world. So now, when people read the interview that I did with Andrew and quote lines back to me in record stores and in lobbies at concerts, I know I hit the ball over the fence with our chat. And if my own book steers someone to his own available 2Stoned, that's a bonus.

I also know Brian Epstein is being written about more often now; documentaries on him screened at local movie festivals and on Stateside cable TV.

And speaking of literary flow, your chapter on Keith Richards sits happily right there next to Marianne Faithfull's!

The book's arc and story line grooved and concluded with Marianne and Keith, pairing and then bleeding immediately right into my Roger Steffens' reggae world epilogue.

My interview with Keith actually started at a recording studio when the Stones were cutting Bridges to Babylon and I was talking drums with Jim Keltner, one of my true friends in rock 'n' roll. The guy has always looked out for me since I was a teenager. Besides genetics, I owe my memory and hair to him! Anyway, we were talking in the studio lounge about Eddie Cochran on Town Hall Party, the L.A. music show of the late Fifties, and a voice from another room pops out and it's Keith. "Eddie played drums on a lot of his record tracks," he tells me by way of introduction!

And he loved talking for the book about recording his Wingless Angels album. He's a soulful cat and introduced me to the band. Charlie Watts is my favorite drummer. Do I need to say anything else? If a girl likes the way Charlie plays, I'll probably go out with her.

I was also extremely relieved to read your talks with Marianne do SO much to delve into and explore the artist, and woman, beneath all of the Mars Bar-coated mythology and misinformation. Personally speaking, I've often associated Marianne Faithfull, her life, and her career with that of Brian Wilson, another seminal figure who has not only survived, but actually THRIVED over the years (and over supposedly insurmountable odds to say the least). Compare and contrast, if you can, these two true Rebel Musicians.

Marianne and Brian… I go back a long time with these folks, and comparing them and contrasting them is both easy and difficult. They are not alike.

Marianne has had it much harder than Brian, partially due to her economic situation, and the fact that among her drugs of choice for a period of time was heroin. It was cigarettes that took the top register off Brian's once gorgeous voice, while smoking only made Marianne's vocal chords huskier and more alluring.

Marianne has confidence and an ego, sometimes arrogant and defiant, and is a ham; something that has been happening over decades and serves her life and personal appearances and recordings.

Both like melodies; both love the music of Phil Spector and Motown. Brian is reclaiming his confidence these days, and seems not nearly as depressed as I remember him from many years ago. Marianne is a way more daring artist though, in terms of chance taking, duet albums, movie roles, theater plays, seventy-five-city tours, embracing younger talent like PJ Harvey, and not being exclusively tarred by the Rolling Stones' paint brush. Brian, however, will always have a tattoo that partially reads Pet Sounds and Beach Boys oldies. Although the new Smile album and current 2004 tour will further establish Brian as a more serious American composer.

Brian and Marianne have been in public recovery, which I applaud them for, but I always feel that stuff in the media should be kept to a minimum. Still, I can see that people reading their life stories, or hearing Brian explain his emotional framework or his own history of depression on The Larry King Show, can be of help to others. I am just so glad both of them are alive and working.

And Marianne is a woman. Something that has both helped and hampered her life and career. She is a very bright and well-read person. With our conversation in This Is Rebel Music, you get to really know her journey. From her own words and vocal rhythm, without me pushing the interview to accommodate my personal needs. She is an incredible talker, a real yenta, has a memory of chronology and some environment. She's also a real good hustler: Check out her record label jumping!

I admire her determination, and she always works old school and new school simultaneously. A real survivor. I mean, anyone who can exist independent of the Rolling Stones' orbit -- like Andrew too -- after being close and inside the flame, and still participate in 2004 is a real trooper in my book. I really dig her big time.

Brian Wilson is not a really good interview. He gives short answers and "OK" responses. It works for him because the reporters and writers have to write more about him, or get quotes from his concentric musical family. But he's not a man of words. That's why there are some co-writers and lyricists on his classic songs. He's also written amazing songs like "This Whole World" and "Til I Die" all by himself, too. But his melodies are the way he talks.

I'm happy he is working and touring. He proved to be a very strong individual, especially since he became more active in the music business.

I catch him around town a lot 'cause he lives nearby, and when I see him eating I leave him alone and I know he appreciates the space. Brian really enjoys food. He amusingly said something in a parking lot a few years ago like "Have you ever asked me for an autograph?" And I said not really, but can you sign my copy of Beach Boys Today ? So I quickly darted home and he inked it. And that lead afterwards to a whole chat about Phil Spector, the sound baffles at Gold Star studios and recording techniques. When guitarist / producer / jazz legend Barney Kessel died this year, Brian also provided a quote to me about him for a couple of tributes / obits I was writing. And he made the quote specific to Barney playing on Pet Sounds. Yes, that's BK on "Wouldn't It Be Nice."

I do gain some strength from Brian and Marianne. When I read they are working and happy, I realize they have dealt with their demons and are productive in society.

And speaking of Brian Wilson, when will you, as a native Angeleno, be publishing YOUR much-needed insights into the Beach Boys' own California saga?

I tried for many years to publish some of my reporting on the Beach Boys. All the book publishers I approached in the Seventies and well into the Eighties couldn't deal with my offerings that were based pretty much on recording, songwriting and band activities, not tied to chaos, dirt, drugs, sex, sadness and tabloid mentality.

I body-surfed with Dennis Wilson at Zuma Beach. But those anecdotes ain't gonna sell books. I carry them with me, and don't really exploit them as an author. I've never had a book agent, either.

But in 2003 and 2004 I've been filmed by director Brian Chidister on a documentary he is making about Brian and the Brother Records 1969-1974 Beach Boys era, out in 2005. Writer / director / producer David Leaf just lensed me for his Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smilemovie, premiering on Showtime cable October 5th, followed by a DVD release later this year. The film also includes fascinating on-camera interviews with Andrew Loog Oldham, Lou Adler, Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb, Richard Williams and Sir George Martin. It is a must-see film and is breath-taking in scope and execution.

Besides, Brian Wilson wrote the back cover blurb for my Rebel book. He respects me and knows I'm a lifer. That's what really counts, and I'm the one keeping the statistics. Brian has always realized I have always pretty much followed the music, and he of all people knows about dreams, records and plans that have been shattered, suspended or put on hold. But we both kept at it.

Traveling down that long promised road, so to speak!

And I still have fans and friends that ask me about old interviews I did with Brian for Melody Maker and Phonograph Record magazine in the Seventies. The Internet has displayed my writings, and I don't even post them! So a new crowd of music geeks and hardcore record collectors and pop fiends are seeing these texts and cribbing from my action. It's fine …especially if they buy Holland.

Around 1974 I wrote the Los Angeles Times Sunday Calendar record review on the Beach Boys' Endless Summer package that re-ignited the gold rush around their Capitol Records catalogue. It was over a million circulation paper at the time. I've had people come up to me for decades who took another chance on the Beach Boys just because they read that feature review. I'm still waiting for my gold record from the label, by the way!

The fact that Marilyn Wilson called the paper to track me down, then invite me up to her home with Brian for milk and cookies is one memory I draw on yearly.

Last month I did some work for legendary record executive Russ Regan, who gave the Beach Boys their name when he worked as a promo man at the Candix Records label. Russ also signed Elton John for America, and discovered Berry White. He also ran the incredible Loma Records label for Reprise. Things happen for a reason.

Speaking of which, I was very glad indeed to see an entire "Rebel Music" chapter devoted to Berry Gordy, Jr., as I believe he and his story have simply not been given a clear enough voice within, nor a proper historical and musical link been made from it to, our current musical environment.

It's the music business now, not the music business anymore. My chapter on Berry Gordy Jr. concentrates on the music, and particularly his legacy. Kim Fowley's comments about Gordy that end the profile -- Kim, then working out of a phone booth at his local gas station, was nevertheless hired as Motown's first white west coast promo man in 1960 -- says a lot about Berry's ground-breaking musical and business achievements and decisions in the late Fifties and all through the 1960's.

I wanted BG to have a forum, as well as discussing his spoken word label. My only regret is that I only had an hour with him, and the interview wasn't long enough. Like great Motown records, it was a short blast but a real sizzle. Still, we all learn about his life, his reflections on Motown artists, plus the text will bring you back to some Motown sides you've forgotten about.

Gordy and I also go step-by-step on how he wrote his autobiography To Be Loved . I had a very supportive editor and publisher -- after all, I'm on the CounterCulture imprint -- who never once complained how Rebel Music would showcase other artist-published autobiographies in our book. That's what I'm talking about: an example of collaboration, not competition.

Which brings us to the dilemma of why, and to what effect, do you think today's lingering Black Station / White Station demographic mindset has stifled, and perhaps even lessened, the impact of the rebel musician upon mainstream culture?

The real rebels and mavericks always reside outside the mainstream …until someone cuts a big enough check and the outsider / rebel product gets distributed more widely in the retail pipeline. It's always been about access. The audience going to shows at the big halls and arenas can afford the tickets, so the show is geared for them -- more hits in their set list -- and the buyer and concert-goer is not as demanding as they were many years ago, where you had to sing for your supper and deliver to get over. A number of current rotating radio music participants and talking heads on entertainment or music television want to be famous, or sell more units, not improve their craft. Some acts tend to become performing puppets. I can understand that. But it's akin to most stand-up comedians these days that don't rail against the system anymore; their goals are a TV sitcom from jump street.

So now the real rebel music and rebel artists have their own web pages and fan base to support them. Word of mouth is still the link to expansion. Fanzines and Internet chat groups are the communication sites that house and propel rebel music and artists these days. Also, unlike the Sixties and a portion of the Seventies, it is a tough economic climate these days for everyone.

Years ago, a greater sense of community existed; rock bands and relationships could develop over a period of months and perform in so many venues generating food money, while rents were cheaper. Non-mainstream artists then didn't have to have two or three jobs going so they could nurture and prepare their repertoire until they were signed by a record label or management company. Health insurance wasn't a major concern years ago: That medical check was traditionally or usually cut then for new equipment or rent and rehearsal rooms!

Unlike the bands and artists of thirty years ago, the 2004 corporate mindset now is geared more for the gate-keeper and the bean-counter who market and control the game. The artist is even lower on the totem pole. Invading the mainstream culture, let alone existence, is much more difficult.

Still, you and I can both easily recall those historic days when the latest seven-inch marvel from Motown proudly took its place right there in the Top Ten alongside all our favorite Beatles, Beach Boys and even Roger Miller hits. But honestly, can Outkast alone really be expected to "pick up where Sly and the Family Stone left off," as so many musical pundits are now fond of proclaiming?

Right now, it seems like just about everyone is trying to enter and exist in the music business in accommodation roles with safe, three-minute songs. Who really wants to go blow like John Coltrane and other such artists who delivered long album selections?

One observation I have, and I hope it comments on your question, is that for the last ten or twenty years -- especially the last decade with more cable TV stations, more music artists in movies and music -format programs -- as an audience it means we often see or view the artists and acts before we really get to hear them. From the 1950's clear through the 1980's, when you heard a song on the radio -- especially in the Sixties when it was a 45 RPM world -- you dug the tune and wanted to see pictures of the person or act. Maybe a glimpse on The Ed Sullivan Show or Shindig! Or the regional pop TV music shows of the time. But radio was your pulse beat.

Now, you often see the acts first, and then check out their recordings. With MTV and VH-1, the videos are jammed at your eyes and ears, then like a Pavlov dog or the Laurence Harvey portrayed character in The Manchurian Candidate you're programmed to go into your chain store and purchase the product. And with downloading, most people, especially college kids with demanding reading schedules, just want to hear the sounds, and don't even give a fuck about the lyric sheets and information inside the artwork.

It is a visual entertainment arena more than ever. In the old days on the screen it was about pimple cream to cover up skin disruptions; now it's about changing your face and whole body. Record labels now market artist lifestyle products propelled by hours of TV news shows, programs, news breaks and commercials about diets, police arrests, fashion, juicy hookups, politically correct or often covered and obvious social issues, birth control products, irrelevant awards shows, numerous program blocks about getting your breasts fixed or plastic surgery, or how guys can get their hair back, paint it darker, or have your penis work better, or make it longer. As my mother said, "Harvey …It's a sick world."

Musician and activist John Wood -- he invented the bumper sticker that reads "Drum Machines Have No Soul" and whose father Randy founded Dot Records and produced thirty-seven million sellers - said, "People in the Fifties and Sixties made records live in the studio, direct to two track records at night; they didn't go to award shows every other week or once a month to be seen and work the room."

Only last year I was sitting and interviewing the Funk Brothers on Hollywood Boulevard, and we could hear some American Idol participants in the next building singing one of the Motown hits and getting huge applause. I could walk into that room with drummer Uriel Jones, who played on a lot of those hits, and no one would know who he was. And the major record labels and management companies are all in collusion and charting together. That's fine. It's business. It's so contrived and pathetic, but I have no real relationship to it, yet I'm happy some songwriter and publisher is getting a pay-day from the series.

True or False, your most unforgettable character (as "Reader's Digest" used to say): Jack Nitzsche? What an incredible interview with him in "Rebel
Music."

Yes. I was born at Queen of Angels Hospital Los Angeles, the same place he died at.

Jack had the most pure musical talent, both in arranging and producing as well as talent scouting. Jack was on many of my favorite records. Not just his immortal arrangements for Phil Spector, but vinyl with Jackie DeShannon, Neil Young, Bob Lind's dreamy "Elusive Butterfly." All the numerous studio sessions with the Rolling Stones. I mean, Jack played tambourine on "Satisfaction," and the story goes he took the tambourine for a second take of the tune after Charlie Watts or Mick Jagger banged it for the first take and Nitzsche said, "too white boy sounding!"

He also possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of music from 1940 through 1980. Not as a record collector, but beyond, 'cause he arranged and orchestrated big budget sessions as well as cool rock bands. He educated so many people to how the music was created and what musicians played on the sessions. Jack explained to both me and Denny Bruce (record producer / talent manager and original 1965 Mothers of Invention drummer) who Gary Chester was: he did the drums on Gene Pitney's "Every Little Breath I Take."

I loved the colorings and keyboard work Jack did on records 'cause I knew some of the records and arrangers he respected (Billy May, Stan Applebaum, Leonard Rosenman). I'm totally in awe of his work on The T.A.M.I. Show and his big band-like arrangements for that classic rock and soul music event. By the way, every Motown act on the bill asked Jack for copies of his T.A.M.I. Show charts.

I really liked his Monkees "Porpoise Song" arrangement, and Denny Bruce played tambourine on the track. I love Jack's production of the Crazy Horse album, and his single-finger piano hits on Neil Young's "When You Dance," which is a terrific pop gem. His arranging and work on Buffalo Springfield's "Expecting To Fly" is a dream. Jack's production / arranging and playing all over the debut Neil Young album is landmark in sound and delivery. Nitzsche's "The Lonely Surfer" theme still holds up over forty years later, and even informed the Rolling Stones' "Blue Turns To Grey" recording. I also play some of his movie music soundtracks like Performance and The Hot Spot, two films I discuss with him in Rebel Music.

For many years all through the Sixties I would see him around town. Even as a kid. Record shops, concerts, TV shows, The Hollywood Ranch Market… always mysterious in sunglasses and a velour. I really got to further know him when he was married to Buffy Saint-Marie and I was living with her keyboardist for a two-year period. She also recorded with Jack on movie scores. So we were then both guys hooked up with musicians and performers in domestic scenes. We did some Indian meals together around some of his Leonard Peltier benefit work. I went to a bunch of his Mink DeVille sessions at Dave Hassinger's studio.

So, we had some time to hang, talk, nosh and go into areas away from rock 'n' roll. I learned a lot of things from Jack. He would always point to the underdog, America's neglect of the native American Indian, the racism of the record business, and so many spiritual things. The thing with Jack was that in one conversation you could talk about pussy and recording and mixing techniques simultaneously.

He used to say about his tenure with Spector, "What an education!" And I can say that same thing about Nitzsche. Jack respected my own studio productions with some poets and especially the efforts I did to advance people of color, even though it cost me lots of potential employment. He had empathy to wounds I received from mean people in the performing arts and music business. Jack was always amazed I never got a grant for my poetry recording work. I would tell him people like him were going to be in my book one day. And he would say, "putting me in is not a good idea…"

I'm SO glad you ignored his advice!

My Nitzsche profile and interview is from a 1988 taping and another 2000 interview. He was unforgettable because he was both shy and a tyrant at times. He could be so sweet and loving and then, sometimes depending on alcohol or his drug at the time, so wicked and mean. He was brilliant and charming, but full of self-doubt and anger. He was sort of an early punk rocker in terms of attitude.

To this day I still go a few times a year to Musso and Frank's Grill in Hollywood, one of Jack's favorite restaurants. I sit at his regular table if it is available. Recently, maybe because I am eating meat again after ten years, I ordered a rare steak and vodka mix. I don't really drink alcohol at all, but I was celebrating a birthday, and the waiter impulsively commented, "that's exactly what Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones orders! He's my best tipper. Ask the bartender, too." That's another reason that makes Jack Nitzsche unforgettable. I had a friend tell Keith the story afterwards and he laughed. I had no idea Keith had been going to this restaurant for decades when he was in Los Angeles. And, naturally, it was down the same Hollywood Boulevard block from where I actually purchased my copy of the English version of Aftermath.

So far, along with the comments and response about Andrew Loog Oldham and Ray Manzarek from my initial book reviews, the Nitzsche keeps getting referenced and mentioned. That makes me feel good. His friends appreciate my efforts; his son, Jack Jr., actually drove over and gave me a photo when I was putting Rebel together. Jack was even buried on the same street as Gold Star Studio in East Hollywood.

It might sound corny but he always stressed: Be truthful and get to the core of the music. Not the surface layer which the media and most fans and followers usually relate to and support. Jack also did great impressions of the suits at record labels and movie studios that covered 1960 through 2000. He really hated phony people, and like Keith Richards would tell you exactly what he was thinking if you asked a question.

I do have a fond Hollywood memory walking down Franklin, from a session at Capitol Records, and there was Jack cruising in his T-bird, yelling out the window, "I'm going to New Orleans!" I followed his wheels up Highland when the light turned green, and knew I might ever see him again.

I must say my phone and voice mail was flooded with a number of calls when he was on Cops, a police reality TV show. He got arrested on Hollywood Boulevard with a concealed pistol gun after some punk stole his hat off his head and Jack then went tracking him down for a physical showdown. Nitzsche was busted and braced on camera. On his way to the jail cell while waiting for bail to be posted, an officer kept prodding Jack, "Keep moving, Academy Award winner…"

Some people around him made sure he had some extra years on the planet and I'm grateful for the job they did on his behalf. I miss him.

Wrapping up then, what's been happening lately in the Wide World of Harvey Kubernik?

The last half decade I've been concentrating on writing and book-related areas. I've helped a lot of authors with their own books in research, production, photo editing and fact-checking. I must have name credits in over one hundred books. I chose an arena of service and collaborating with others. I was taught to help first and then receive. Boy, big mistake, and definitely not applicable to music, books or show business.

I took an extended break from the recording studio. I've chosen to do my own literary thing and still help and aid others. I do a lot of humanitarian things. Hey, I'm from the Sixties!

In the last few years I've been supporting, working, interacting and advising everyone from Chris Darrow, Caroline (Dourley), David Carr, Dan and David Kessel, Kim Fowley, Cosmo Topper, various independent musicians, producers and studio owners, including Robbie Rist and Richard Derrick, whose label issued a D. Boon album last year. I was the Executive Producer of the Toulouse Engelhardt / Remi Kabaka album A Child's Guide To
Einstein, just released, and provided guidance and received a helmsman credit on the October debut Tea album. I have thank you credits on all the Elvis Costello packages on Rhino Records. I also penned the liner notes to the just released Rocket album, Too Hot To Be Bothered. I've had some radio meetings that are in development regarding production, writing and on air hosting.

I'm involved in music and recording projects with Richard Bosworth, Dennis Dragon, Russ Regan, Kent Jacobs, Scott Grimes, and the team of Mike and Shannon. Derrick will be releasing a new Kevin Ayers album on his label in November. Maybe I should join or form a band.

I help Little Steven out on some of his "Underground Garage" radio shows, and was recently interviewed for Sharon Lawrence's book on Jimi Hendrix and Charles R. Cross' Jimi book; both will be published in 2005. My office also handles some action for Andrew Loog Oldham, which is always interesting.

My mother and I are mentioned and referenced in author Richard Havers' gorgeous new coffee table book on Frank Sinatra that is now available. I've also helped Barney Hoskyns out on his current book about the history of the Laurel Canyon music scene. I've also been "pitching innings" for Domenic Priore's mindblow book on Sunset Strip 1965 - 1967 rock 'n' roll that will be out in 2005, and doing some work on my own Hollywood Shack Job filmusic book that the University of New Mexico Press will offer.

I still prepare select music band and recording artist biographies, 'cause I like to write them …and my fee has gone up since This Is Rebel Musicwas published. Keeps me really in touch with the independent audio world and new artists. I've actually started writing and assembling a third book that doesn't have a publisher yet, but will include my unedited interviews and Cali-centric profiles on Deepak Chopra, Dr. Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Patti Smith, Willie Mitchell, Phil Spector, The Funk Brothers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Bill Wyman, Ice-Tea and Peter Gabriel.

I still do the occasional interview for magazines and newspapers. I just interviewed Patti Smith for HITS and conducted an extensive Q and A with director Mel Stewart around his Wattstax music documentary for
Goldmine. I penned tributes on Barney Kessel and Johnny Ramone for
MOJO, and received a special thanks credit in their California Music issue. My writing I feel will lead me to some answers and physical grammar that will fuel some desires, and that will help the planet. I'm trying to be open for the moment.

I've performed a few times in public. Some readings; the most recent was in 1995 at the MET Theater in a Rock 'N' Roll Reading series I co-produced and curated. The re-formed Doors also played.

I like being on the radio -- when I'm invited -- talking and reading. About live shows, I saw so many people who didn't merit or deserve the gigs, or got them through devious ways -- welcome to Hollywood! -- I never really got too involved in doing performances myself. I decided early on to put most of my energy and team concepts somewhere else like producing, writing and music consultancy / communications. But I'm getting some interesting offers these days for personal appearances. I've been asked to be in a couple of films that I'm considering.

I need to get these books out first, and then all sorts of options and challenges will open up. But probably not locally. I really don't expect anything in my own city. As Coleman Hawkins told the critic / author Stanley Dance many years ago, "No one likes hometown."

Thankfully though, people like Allen Ginsberg took the time to explain some things to me such as why poets like Kenneth Patchen, who lived around he corner from Stanford University for eight years, never got a reading on that campus.

Ginsberg said to build a body of work, and ** then ** things will come to you. I'm doing it.

This Is Rebel Music: The Harvey Kubernik InnerViews is available through the University of New Mexico Press. It is, need I reiterate, Required Reading.

So for more information, please direct yourselves immediately 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.

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