Category: Blogs A-J

Lesley Gore / Party for Preservation

LESLEY GORE — HAIR IDOL

Lesley Gore

As most of us know, 1964 was a pretty big year for music. The English youth scene was just taking off and the British Invasion had just begun to take over America, even as American pop music was coming into its own. The Beach Boys were rocking out, having huge hits all across the country, spreading their sun-bleached love to teenage girls everywhere. James Brown & his Famous Flames were creating a stir, and Motown was starting to make it big with the Supremes, Marvin Gaye and the Tempations all happening at the same time. Lesley Gore, who was born in Brooklyn, New York had her first pop hit, “It’s My Party” in April 1963 and her star kept rising throughout the next few years.

In October 1964, The TAMI Show was shot in front of a live audience of screaming teenagers at The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Southern California. The biggest names in music of the day were there, Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Miracles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, the Rolling Stones (the latter three representing for the Brits), Provincetown, Massachusetts’ own garage godz the Barbarians and then, Lesley Gore, with hosts Jan & Dean. The TAMI Show was a huge concert that captured the excitement over everything that was happening in music at the time, and everything was new.

The theme from The TAMI Show, sung by Jan & Dean, written by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, told of all the amazing acts that were going to be performing (“here they come, from all over the world”) and wrote in “the representative from New York City is Lesley Gore, now, she sure looks pretty.” And Lesley did look pretty, with her gorgeous smile and her signature flipped hair. It’s quite possible that because she was so young and so pretty, she left a strong impression on the Beach Boys, who she hung out with at the taping of The TAMI Show.

Lesley Gore — TAMI action with hosts Jan & Dean in the background (right)

The next summer, the Beach Boys came out with their great album Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!!) that featured the song “The Girl From New York City”. Connection? Probably. Lesley Gore wasn’t someone who was easy to forget. She had a very distinctive voice, deeper than was usually normal for pop stars, and almost raspy in some songs like “Hey Now.” She was very pretty, and very energetic, two things which probably helped her become a star.

While Lesley did sing many songs like “If That’s The Way You Want It” (Tell me that you aren’t ready to settle down with one / Want to keep me on a string while your having fun / If that’s the way you want it / So be it, my love) she also went out on a limb with songs like “You Don’t Own Me” (“You don’t own me / I’m not just one of your many toys / You don’t own me / Don’t say I can’t go with other boys / And don’t tell me what to do / and don’t tell me what to say / and please when I go out with you, don’t put me on display”), which she recorded in ’63, and she was rewarded with a number 2 hit.

While Lesley is known and remembered for her voice and her catchy pop hits, I am a fan of hers for an entirely different reason. I love her hair. Lesley Gore is my undisputed hair idol.

I have the greatest hits collection, It’s My Party; The Mercury Anthology and the photo that was used on the cover really is something else. I would have to imagine that it’s one of the first publicity photos of Lesley Gore because she looks very young, and her hair is done up into this magnificently tall, gravity-defying bouffant with these saucy bangs.

Lesley Gore — It’s My Party

I remember seeing this picture of Lesley Gore amongst my mother’s extensive CD collection when I was growing up, before I ever listened to it, and was always amazed by the pretty girl’s hair. Lesley’s hair almost seems like it’s so tall that it continues outside of the frame for at least another foot.

Lesley Gore seems to have managed to have the perfect hair for every era of hair fashion during the ’60s, if her publicity photos are anything to go by. She had a short, bobbed flip for most of her early career, but she also had a long flip kept in place with headband, and various bouffant hairstyles (some better than others); I have even seen an amazing photo of her that was probably taken in the late ’60s with this large bouffant compiled of large soft waves with white beads strung throughout.

I have been trying to imitate Lesley Gore’s different ’60s hairstyles for a while now, but can only pull off a half hearted flip. I probably just need to use more AquaNet hairspray, lots more.

Late this last winter my mother found out that Lesley Gore was going to be speaking live in front of an audience at the 92nd St. “Y” and immediately bought tickets. I was thrilled, I couldn’t wait to see her, have her sign my much listened to Mercury Anthology, and inspect her hair. When Lesley walked out on stage I couldn’t help but feel a little overwhelmed, just knowing that the woman standing in front of me was Lesley Gore, my hair idol. But after a few minutes of a boring interview, the shock wore off, and I looked, really looked at Lesley’s hair.

While I suppose her current style is a good, modern choice for someone her age, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. Her hair was bleached blond, straight, and cut into a choppy, short look. Compared to her hair from her youth, it was pretty boring. I kept picturing her stylized hair that curled up around her cheeks, drawing your eyes to her smile, bouncing as she walked, and her current hair that just fell flat around her face couldn’t compare.

Lesley Gore belting one out in Paramount’s Girls on the Beach (1965), also featuring the Beach Boys and the Crickets

In the middle of her interview Lesley broke into song, getting a roaring ovation from the crowd who was thrilled to be hearing the songs they love her for, but again, she disappointed. Instead of giving the crowd what they wanted she sang a short medley of her hits and then sang a song off of her new album to scattered applause.

After the interview, Lesley sat in front of the auditorium to sign her albums, old and new. I approached her with my old CD and tentatively said, “I’m a big fan of yours.” Lesley didn’t look up, but silently signed my CD and pushed it back to me.

I mustered up all the courage I had and said, “Lesley you’re my hair idol.” She didn’t look up; she was busy signing another CD. I’m sure she just didn’t hear me.

SYD GOTTFRIED

PARTY FOR PRESERVATION

This month Dumb Angel noticed a short paragraph by Steve Lopez of The Los Angeles Times that pretty much sums up how we have arrived at our journalistic approach to Los Angeles, the music industry, the film industry and all that goes on here in mainstream circles that we prefer to avoid and circumvent. It’s the same for everything here, so listen close to Lopez:

And standing up to people is what I like about (former NYC Police Chief, now in L.A.) Bratton. We all know by now that Broadway Bill likes to run his mouth, which isn’t a bad thing around here. Los Angeles is corrupt and content, and one reason for it is the unwritten code that calls for polite and cordial relations among local leaders. It’s an old boys’ network, you might say, with one guy covering for the next and expecting the same in return.

We’ll have none of that at Dumb Angel. We spent our first year back in Los Angeles eliminating this backwards “booster” mentality from our work environment . . . we mean people surrounding “the music business” . . . who carry the same kind of mentality that would have you tearing down the Cineramadome and the Capitol Tower. Industry back-watchers are the kind who would go along with the pack and say it’s o.k. to dismantle such area-identifiers and put up a shoddy mixed-use development instead. (Example: how much does the music biz spend to sell bands like Velvet Revolver?)

New York City soldier Carmine Priore’s photographs and postcards of Hollywood on a stay during World War II. The NBC Radio Studio on the corner of Sunset and Vine is long gone, but the Hollywood Palladium, CBS Radio Studio and Earl Carroll’s Vanities buildings remain . . . if mixed use developements don’t rape what’s left of Hollywood’s most historic district. (Thanks, dad, for the pix…)

Today, the Hollywood Palladium, the original CBS radio studio next door where the Byrds, the Monkees and Brian Wilson recorded during the mid- ’60s, and especially 6230 Sunset Boulevard, just East of Vine . . . are all threatened by mixed use developers. The latter building was originally the home of Hollywood’s most glamourous nightclub, Earl Carroll’s Vanities, which became the Moulin Rouge (often headlined by Louis Prima and Keely Smith with Sam Butera & the Witnesses), the Hullabalo (same for Love, the
Yardbirds and Jan & Dean), the Kaleidoscope (the Doors, Big Brother & the Holding Company), the Aquarius Theater (Hair, Zoot Suit) and a bunch of other stuff as the years passed. Someone’s gotta stop this kinda cultural destruction from happening; these are all major landmarks of Los Angeles history.

Therefore, we present photographs of a recent party held by the people who are doing this kind of work. After checking out our February blog on Balboa, it was decided that the birthday party for Chris Nichols, speaker for the Los Angeles Conservancy’s ModCom Division, would be held in the Balboa Fun Zone area. Yes, there was news that the Balboa Fun Zone too would be torn down by developers, but the end result was reasonable; all of the oldest attractions would be staying, and the Maritime Museum they are putting there is basically in the space of a structure that was not a part of the Fun Zone’s early charm. (We are losing, however, a very cool haunted house in the deal). All that said, here are the pictures from the the ModCom birthday party for Chris Nichols this past June, 2006.

DOMENIC PRIORE

From the south side of the Balboa boardwalk heading north (through a bustling summer crowd), this vintage neon for the Bay Arcade is the first thing you see . . . inside they still have a photo booth from the mid-’60s (with original Peter Max-style artwork and Mod-girl sample photos on the side — see our first blog about Balboa). Photo by Larry Underhill.

The entrance to the Ferry Boat, from the Balboa Peninsula side, boasts the old ferris wheel and another classic neon depicting a Populuxe family. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Ahoy, skipper! The Auto Ferry boat to Balboa Island. Photo by Larry Underhill.

A wide-angle view of the Balboa Pavillion with carvings in the foreground from a cruise boat dubbed, The Tiki. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Ferry Landing . . . The theme of the party was a mad Scooby Do chase scene in Balboa . . . bring a portable a.m. radio to hear Bubblegum music and clues . . . and wear a scarf, Hanna-Barbera style . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

Only fun is in store . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

Groovy Go Go girl Maria Basaldu diggin’ the sounds and gettin’ clues to solve the mystery. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Dumb Angel editor Domenic Priore tunes in . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

DJ Penelope Pitstop spins Bubblegum records out over the local airwaves (shortwave radio transmission blanketed Balboa all evening). Listen to her radio show Bubblegum & Other Delights each Friday nite from 7-9, PST on www.luxuriamusic.com . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

John Arroyo gets advice on the mystery from his talking monkey. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Held up as a relic o’ the times, Balboa stages and original bumper car next to the ferris wheel. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Balboa Fun Zone bumper cars. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Dumb Angel’s front cover design man Chris Green tries out the photo booth. Photo courtesy of Chris Green.

Daniel, Aimee, Domenic, Brian, Steve, Jason, Chris and Vincent love the psychedelic photo booth in the Bay Arcade. Photo courtesy of Chris Green.

DJ Senor Amor hams it up with Jill McGraw. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Hanford Lemoore and tiki journalist Humuhumu. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Beatniks rule — Todd the barber and the lovely Elvia. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Julian Nitzberg with Chris and Charlene. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Cap’n Sharkey Waters reminisces about his tuna canning days whilst handing out the clues to solve our Scooby Doo mystery. Will the group solve it? Will they catch the bandit? Stay tuned . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

Meri Pritchett and her boy Nathan think they’ve got the mystery solved! Photo by Larry Underhill.

8-Ball Naomi with Book of Tiki Sven Kiersten, Greg and Domenic Priore . . . check out Naomi’s bitchin’ store in Burbank, on Magnolia, and visit her website at 8ballwebstore.com . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

Stephanie, Shikaya and Rachel — our teenage detectives. Photo by Larry Underhill.

The entrance to the Balboa Fun Zones haunted house ride . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

Enter at your own risk . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

Inside the haunted house ride, neon warnings light up like in a crowded montage. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Gretchen and David Zalkind go deep undercover. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Dionysus Records head-honcho, Lee Joseph. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Dig . . . Dumb Angel #4 cover artist, Chris Green (in blue shirt), with Vincent, Marjorie, Jason, Steve . . . eating nothin’ but paper napkins. Photo by Larry Underhill.

The gang tries to “Play Faro” with the great Merlini, but he keeps eating the cards. Photo by Larry Underhill.

The great Merlini as portrayed by Charles Schneider. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Guk-guk-guk-guk-guk . . . Dino Fantini, the REAL Popeye. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Daniel Paul and the lovely Aimee Boice. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Alan Leib (left) talks with friends by the Balboa Fun Zone carousel. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Caretaker Kent really kept this place clean. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Are those g-g-g-g-ghosts? . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

The gang gets ready to pin down the monster… Photo by Larry Underhill.

Now inside the Balboa Pavillion, Chris Nichols drags the captured sea monster through the crowd . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

Who is it? Is it Sharkey? Is it the caretaker? Is it Merlini? . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

Har Har! It’s Greg Brady! [Barry Williams] . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

“And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

“Well, I do know a little choreography!” – Barry Williams . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

“I think I’ll go for a walk outside now the summer sun’s callin’ my name (i hear ya now) . . .” Photo by Larry Underhill.

“Everybody’s smilin’, sunshine day . . . everybody’s laughin, sunshine day . . . everybody seems so happy today!” . . . Photo by Larry Underhill.

The birthday boy, Chris Nichols, with Barry Williams. Photo by Larry Underhill.

Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee chair Adriene Biondo enjoys a Balboa moment. Photo by Larry Underhill.


Photo selection and captions by Brian Chidester, Chris Nichols and Domenic Priore

“For anybody who grew up in Hollywood, who went to school here, what’s happened to it in the last 25-30 years is heartbreaking. Groucho Marx once said that, you know, ‘all of the places, when they talk about ‘the good old days,’ that what they’re really longing for is their youth. That the hotels were dirty and cold and so forth. What they remember was that they were young’. As a kid, everything looked rosy, but the place was much cleaner, physically and geographically”. — journalist Nick Beck, from from the Morgan Neville film Shotgun Freeway

Laughing All The Way To The Bank

Yo Guys, You can stop sending me emails. I am now adding new content. Thanks so much for the nice feedback, and please keep checking out Blue Fringe, Chris Mills, and The Fray.

It is the world’s most scoffed-at art form. It has been denounced as vulgar, irreverent, and irrelevant. It has been decried as filthy, simple and, for lack of a better word—stupid. It is stand-up comedy, and despite the way that the rest of the pop-culture universe looks at it, stand-up is performed in basements, attics, and back rooms of countless Chinese restaurants across the country. And, what’s more, it’s blasting its way past every barrier en route to your sophisticated eyeballs and carefully maintained eardrums. Whether you like it or not.

For a long time, music has distanced itself from comedy, especially stand-up, and rarely does a comedy album reach a prominent spot on the record charts. Large record labels usually do not put out comedy albums, and at the end of 2005, only two of the top 200 albumDane Cook's Retaliations were of the comedy variety. But in 2006, one comedian with a great idea and a few hundred thousand friends flipped the entire world of pop culture on its ass. His name is Dane Cook, and his album, Retaliation, is helping comedy move out of the “Soundtrack” and “Spoken Word” sections, and onto the Billboard charts.

If one had to pinpoint an exact moment where comedy’s Retaliation began, you would have to go back to 1979, at about the time that Barry Crimmins, an aspiring comic, walked into the Ding Ho restaurant in Cambridge, MA and convinced the owner to let him book a few shows. The products of those sessions, which featured chucklemeisters like Steve Sweeney, Lenny Clarke, Denis Leary, Tony V, and Steven Wright, cemented Boston’s place in comedy history, and kickstarted a New England laugh scene that is still going strong today. The Ding Ho shows stopped in 1984, but the torch has essentially been passed to another Cambridge restaurant, Rick Jenkins’ The Comedy Studio, a joint that also features rising stars at decent cover price.

While not as impressive in size as the New York and Los Angeles—you can count all of the city’s comedy clubs on your fingers—Beantown promises instant success to anyone that can get a few laughs, puts a little work in, and distinguishes himself from the crowd. A scene is defined by its devotees, not its fans. Fans may own a Carlin album, catch one show every six years if Seinfeld comes to town on a weekend, and never even think of going to see an unknown comic. Devotees study comedy, they see it once or twice or three times a week. Devotees are often the first to see a rising star, and, much like local music aficionados, know the local ‘scene’ and everyone in it. Boston is filled with these enthusiasts.

But long after the Ding Ho closed, the restaurant’s old patrons caught a glimpse of genius in the explosive, violent style of Dane Cook, and soon, the word was out. Now, five years later, after two albums, hundreds of shows, millions of laughs, the Daneiac is quite possibly the most popular man in the United States. If Cook went on the Ed Sullivan Show today, he’d be a tough act for The Beatles to follow.

But unlike musicians, comedians aren’t signed by top record companies, and don’t receive instant stardom. Fame is not handed over on a silver platter. So how did Dane Cook go from Nick’s Comedy Stop near Chinatown to hosting SNL? By making his fans bosom buddies. By ‘friending’ every MySpacer who asked him. By signing every autograph. By shaking every hand after every show. By pouring his life savings into building an interactive website. By devoting time, energy, and money into connecting individually with fans, Cook has become the hottest name in showbiz.

Forget Johnny Carson. Forget Letterman. Today, comedians are quickly following CooJoe Listk with their own MySpace sites. Future superstars and established comedy veterans like Myq Kaplan, Danny Hirshon, Gary Gulman, Bobby Kelly, Joe List (at left), Sarah Silverman, Jim Norton, and Jay Davis all have profiles, and use cyberspace as a vehicles to build support and fill seats. MySpace is the new town crier, and the operators of the service fully embraced the site’s new role as Chief Chuckle Lighthouse by setting up a MySpace comedy section. But the major beneficiary of this MySpace boom has not been the comedians themselves, but the network that validates them. Comedy Central.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade, you know what Comedy Central is. It brought you the shows that you quote the most often. Fine programs like “South Park,” “The Dave Chappelle Show,” “Mind of Mencia,” and “Reno 911!,” the left-right punch combo of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” and Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report,” both bastions of earnest, balanced reporting; but at the nucleus of Comedy Central is the Comedy, and it is the “Comedy Central Presents…” series is what has made it the Center of Comedy (thus the name). The success of the aforementioned shows has brought a special, well-deserved reputation to the network—as the channel to turn on when you want a laugh. Comedy stars like Jim Gaffigan, Bill Burr, Bob Saget (yes, THAT Bob Saget), Lewis Black, Brian Regan, Greg Giraldo and Stephen Lynch appear regularly, and, as a result, Comedy Central has threatened Fox News’ once secure position as the biggest joke on television.

But on a completely unserious note, armies of comedy fans have overrun record stores in search of a few chuckles. And of course, many of them are passengers on the “Dane Train.” Cook’s sophomore album Retaliation, which debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts, has now become the best-selling comedy album ever. As if to cement Cook’s celebrity status, his new show “Tourgasm,” a behind the scenes look at Cook and three comedy compadres who hit the cross-county road in an awesome tour bus, ripped it up at the (Home) Box Office, and enforced the belief that Stand-Up comedy is dynamite “Dane-o-mite,” and it’s coming to taking over a record store near you.

And that is some serious LOL.

Take that home and chew on it, it’s delicious.

Till later,

Alex E.

Some Boston Comedy Clubs:
The Comedy Connection
The Comedy Studio
Dick Doherty’s Comedy Vault @ Remington’s
Nick’s Comedy Stop

 

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This article is unedited thus far.

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Alex Edelman’s Myspace is www.myspace.com/alexedelmancomedy

“Around Again”……..and much more

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket The songs from Blue Ash’s "Around Again" (a 2004 two cd retrospective) will soon be available for collective and individual downloads. Also, over 170 Blue Ash songs that were found in the vaults a few years ago will also be available for the first time anywhere. Some of the titles are "Walls", "I’ll Be Standing By", "Dinner At Mr. Billy’s", "Make It Easy","It’s All In Your Mind", "Look Out Your Window Baby I’m On Your Porch", "Baby Doll", "It’s Alright By Me", "Dangerous! Dynamite!", "You Know My Number", "Freeloader","When I Get You", " If I Were Ever Minus You","Movin’ Right Along","You Really Get To Me",…and dozens of other tunes that have never before been heard by anyone outside of the band members themselves. All of it was written by the Blue Ash songwriting team of Bill "Cupid" Bartolin and Frank Secich. The songs were recorded in Youngstown, Ohio at Peppermint studios between 1972 and 1976. More details will be forthcoming here at "Lost In The Grooves" in the next few weeks.

https://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/BlueAsh/

https://blueashblog.blogspot.com

www.BlueAshMusic.com

Chuck Berry at BB King’s

Got dragged to see Chuck Berry at BB Kings by my friend, Dave. Never been there before. He handed me a ticket as we walked in. I looked at the price: $90. I asked him if he was completely insane as we went down the stairs. He was going to take one of his girlfriends, but her back was giving her pain.
The place is about as rock and roll as a shot glass filled with Kaopectate. It’s a dinner theater setup, like if they ran the Bottom Line through the dryer three times too many. Japanese, Fins, Brits, Des Moinees – a tourist trap set in the middle of Times Square Land. We stood at the bar and watched fat people eat chicken and spill beer on their tiny cameras. Two big screens flank the small stage and they kept scrolling upcoming shows in a loop: Rick Wakeman (of Yes), Keith Emerson (of ELP), Paul Barerre (of Little Feat), Jan Hammer (of nothing), Southside Johnny (& the Asbury Jukes), Seven Seagal (does he just do karate moves?). Very strange how this seemingly random group of musicians end up at this final frontier.
I bought us 2 beers for $15 and waited for Chuck. What was I expecting? He’s 80. Hasn’t made a record since ‘Rockit’ back in 1980. That one was pretty damn good. I half-expected them to wheel out some wizened old critter in a wheelchair with a dribble cup snapped to his collar. The lights dimmed and a band came out. Chuck is legendary for just using pickup guys, playing indifferent shows, and getting off the stage at the one hour mark. This band was some Papa Chubby New Orleans funk outfit that were popular on the dreaded jam band circuit. They were going on themselves after Chuck. They assembled onstage at 8:10 and started playing a Chuck Berry-esqe rhythm. Pretty faceless except for the keyboard player who sounded like the ghost of recently departed Johnny Johnson, Chuck’s old mainstay.
They kept playing their shuffle, looking fidgety toward the wings for Chuck. Suddenly, this guitar came blaring out of nowhere. It sounded like some avant-garde deconstruction of an old rock & roll style. That, or Keith Richard’s right after he fell out of the tree and cracked his cocoanut. It was LOUD. They were playing in A Major, but the disembodied sound kept drifting to A Flat, then B Flat. My friend said, “He must be drunk”. Then a roar came from the front as Chuck strutted from the wings in a red sequined shirt and a pair on slacks. The people seemed to have no idea that he wasn’t playing anything near what the band was playing. They were screaming and hollaring, and Chuck kept on with his Sonic Youth impersonation. Not only wasn’t he drunk, he was lean, muscular, and smiling. The bass player called something over to him and he smiled and slid into A major.
They played all the hits over the next hour. Chuck was playing a BB King Gibson ES 335 through a Fender Twin and he sounded fantastic and raw. I started to appreciate the tonal lapses that would grace all these songs. Everytime he hit a really atonal lick I screamed out, “Go, Man, Go”. The beer flowed and the Danes, Dutchmen, and Somoans cheered. He played two of my non-hit faves, “Let It Rock” and “Reelin’ & Rockin’ (which is not ‘Around & Around’ – he played that, too). One thing that was interesting was that he really used a lot of dynamics. When all the bands of yore played their obligatory CB number, it was always an excuse to go balls-to-the-wall. But Chuck would start certain songs real quiet and reach crescendos, then pull back, over & over. It was very enlightening.
The only real drag was the second guitarist. He was playing a Fender Squire that sounded like thin shit. He was terrible, too. After the first solo Chuck gave him, he smiled broadly and said, “Here’s something you don’t know – that’s my son!!” A loud roar went up. “Here’s something else you don’t know: I’m still married to his mother!” Louder cheer. The guy really sucked. Nepotism at its worst. Chuck, thanfully, took the lion’s share of the solos. During ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ he went onto the drum riser and started egging the drummer accent his phrases. He turned his guitar even louder and the ensuing raunch (which stayed in key) was the highlight of the night. 80 years old? I shook my head. He had a great line when the keyboard player missed a change on ‘Memphis’. He looked his way, smiled, and said “Son, we’ll make a hillbilly outta you yet”. After one song, he was talking about New York, how he likes it because it’s all about making money and everyone here is rich and he happy to see that. “You all know what I’m talking about, right?” That met with big applause.
During ‘Johnny B Goode’ Chuck invited ‘all the ladies’ on stage. A bunch of young good looking Swiss, Tawainese, Belgian, and Inuit babes rushed the stage and were dancing like they were on Hullabaloo. One woman with a fat ass was dancing provacatively at Chuck’s side and he turned and aimed the neck of his guitar right at her crotch and launched into his most atonal barrage yet. It was vulgar and the crowd ate it up. Then he walked off the stage, still playing, as the girls shimmied and his son said, “Let’s hear it for my father, Mr. Chuck Berry”!! I looked at my watch – it was exactly 9:10.

Fade In

  Hello all. I’ve been sending out my little opinionated bon-mots to my close friends and musical colleagues for a few years now. My pal, Gary ‘Pig’ Gold, turned me on to LITG and said it would be a great place to share my scribbles with the wider world. I knew I was in the right place when I saw artwork being advertised featuring Emitt Rhodes & Swamp Dogg.
   So I want to first thank Gary for pointing me here and to thank Kim Cooper for giving me a piece of her floor to hang out on. My mother says one of my first words was "rekka" (as I would point at the family Victrola) and that I would spend so much time staring transfixed at the damn thing, she thought something was deeply wrong with me. Unfortunately, her deepest fears proved correct…

Cruising with Uncle Frank’s Words

    “The recording of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band spanned 129 days; perhaps the most creative 129 days in the history of rock music.”
(author and “Beatle Brain of Britain” Mark Lewisohn)  

 

Whilst those “Fugs of the West Coast,” The Mothers of Invention, were spending month upon month held over in New York City’s Garrick Theatre performing their 1967 Pigs and Repugnant Revue, Frank Zappa was spending his every waking hour off stage holed up in the city’s pioneering 12-track (!!) Apostolic recording studio over on East 10th.  The ultra-productive time spent there, which resulted in not only the epic We’re Only In It For The Money but several other stellar FZ / MOI LP’s (not to mention reams of archival material which continues to dribble out posthumously via the Zappa Family Trust), constitutes what I firmly believe to be THE most fitfully fruitful time ever spent by man or beast committing rock ‘n’ roll to magnetic tape …and yes, that includes those pious Pepper sessions as well.

Right alongside Apostolic’s utterly brilliant recording engineer Richard “Dick Dynamite” Kunc and his latest audio toys (variable speed oscillators, the grand new “Apostolic Vlorch Injector,” plus assorted policemen and breakfast rolls), Zappa and band stitched together, for starters, "most of the music from the Mothers’ movie of the same name which we haven’t got enough money to finish yet" as well as the first, and I’m sure you must agree, BEST of all those late-Sixties so-called R ‘n’ R Revival elpees Cruising With Ruben and the Jets.

Now, while the Uncle Meat soundtrack still sounds as magnificently minced and phonically fully-flavored today as it did upon its ’69 release, the digitized Ruben most unfortunately suffers from a typically fool-headed remix and re-record which obliterates the Mother/Jets’ original greasy, bottom-heavy finger-snatting and replaces them all with synthesized bass sloops and Eighties-anemic drums-that-go-“pooh” (instead of poot), I’m so sorry to report.  “When I sat down and listened to the CD I got sick in the pit of my stomach, man,” so go the wizened words of Mother woodwinder Bunk Gardner (as reported in our ant bee Billy James’ indispensable Necessity Is… The Early Years of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention book).  “The music was from one era and you could tell the rhythm section was from the 1980s; it didn’t make sense at all to me.  And the thing that blew my mind was, didn’t Frank hear that?”

Apparently not.  Still, for those who naturally prefer jelly roll gum drops and Chevy ‘39’s over tangerine trees and newspaper taxis…..    

Club Wow “Live”

Club Wow "live" at the Phantasy in Cleveland 1983! Billy Sullivan, Jimmy Zero and Frank Secich

 

Club Wow was formed in Cleveland, Ohio in January of 1982. Jimmy Zero (former Dead Boy) and Billy Sullivan (Paul Pope Band) had been recording together the previous year and decided to form a group. They asked Frank Secich (former Blue Ash bassist) and Jeff West (former drummer of the Testors) to join. Club Wow made their debut performance at Pirate’s Cove in Cleveland on April 1, 1982. Over the next few years Club Wow played regularly in Cleveland, Youngstown and Buffalo, NY. They also recorded many high quality demos in Cleveland throughout 1983-84. After failing to land a record contract when playing a major label showcase at "Tracks" in New York City in early 1985, Club Wow broke up. Recently, the long lost master recordings of Club Wow were unearthed. Well, they were found in a suitcase in Frank Secich’s cellar where they had been placed and promptly forgotten years ago. The good news is that these rare recordings will soon be made available for public consumption. Stay tuned for details.