|
Fein Mess Sept 2001
Wise Guy
Recently I was chided by Harvey Sid Fisher* for my "critic vivisection" items.
He's right. There's too much negativity in the world, so let me simply sit back and tell you the story of my life.
My Musical History
JAN 6, 1957. See Elvis's last appearance on Ed Sullivan. Entranced.
JAN 7, 1957. Purchase Elvis's latest record (78), "Too Much."
EARLY 1957. Hear "Suzie Q" on the radio, am hypnotized. The radio opens up its arms and embraces me.
JUNE, 1957. My mother takes me to Howard Miller Rock & Roll show, Chicago. I see Chuck Berry, Little Brenda Lee, Tab Hunter, Charlie Gracie, Everly Bros, Collins Kids, others. I am hooked.
DECEMBER 1957. Second Howard Miller show. Sam Cooke, others. Jerry Lee Lewis closes show. He is like a roaring lion, his mane of hair cascading forward. He rips off purple satin shirt to reveal white shirt. I run to the front heeding the call of the Pied Piano Pumper.
JUNE 1959. Howard Miller show. Things are bad. Lineup: Poni-Tails, Paul Anka, Bobby Rydell (I like him). Only Ronnie Hawkins saves the night. Rock & roll is dead or dying.
SUMMER, 1961. Travel to California with parents. Only "find" is "Turn On Your Love Lights" by Bobby Bland.
FALL, 1961. At Laury's record store in Evanston, Illinois, I find Bobby Bland's "Two Steps From The Blues" album. A world opens up.
NOVEMBER, 1963. Hear Xmas music from the Spector album. I am dimly aware of him, but hypnotized by this music. See Beatles film clip on Jack Paar show, and go 'ho hum,' as they are not wild like Little Richard so it's a certainty that rock & roll is still dead.
FEBRUARY, 1964. See the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Not bad, but shaking a shag haircut is nothing compared to Jerry Lee's cannon-shot mane. I see no reason for hope.
JULY, 1964. See "Hard Days Night." Then see it four more times.
DECEMBER, 1964. Local Chicago singer Ronnie Rice (later lead singer of New Colony Six), takes me to Ral Donner's house, which is entirely 'decorated' in pictures of Elvis. It is my first meeting with an actual rock star.
DECEMBER, 1964. I see that Jerry Lee is playing on Shindig. Rock & roll IS coming back! Visiting Passaic, New Jersey, I drive by instinct to Brooklyn, where I've never been, and find the Brooklyn Paramount. See Little Anthony, Miracles (?), others on the Murray The K show. In the pizza parlor next door I see longhaired guys, and discover later they are the Nashville Teens.
JUNE, 1965. Pick up Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home." Play it for friends who see nothing in it. I am fascinated by his coiffure.
SEPTEMBER, 1965. I arrive at University of Colorado, Boulder. Nothing, but nothing is happening musically. (Al Hirt plays the homecoming dance.) Hitchhiking to school I get a ride from a guy who has a copy of Billboard in his car. Yow! I learn he is the Billboard campus rep. I am green with envy. Soon I meet Chuck Weiss, whose family owns a record shop (!), and John Carter, who has just written "That Acapulco Gold" (with Tim Gilbert) for the locally-based Rainy Daze. (He will later co-write, or something, "Incense & Peppermint.")
OCTOBER, 1965. KLZ-FM is the first FM rock station in Denver. I befriend deejay Bill Gardner, and he gives me their throwaway singles. Treasures!
APRIL, 1966. Denver. I attend Bob Dylan concert with Weiss and Carter. The new arrangement of "I Don't Believe You" slays me. I am wriggling in my seat, punching my neighbors with joy. They're not as excited.
SEPTEMBER, 1966. I am Billboard campus rep. I review first Barry Fey promotion, The Association at the school ballroom. I am stunned by their seeming precision footwork, like white Temptations. Also interview Judy Collins, and am petrified. Also Phil Ochs, who was very recalcitrant about speaking to a member of the music business press. Billboard pays me in albums, mostly from MGM. Thusly I discover Mel Torme.
JANUARY, 1967. Visit girlfriend Pam's sister in San Francisco. We go, my knowing nothing about SF, just another port town. I am stunned by the looseness (like Tales Of The City), and go to the Fillmore and see Jeff Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service. I prefer the latter, who rocked a bit: The JA turned their back on the audience mid-set and smoked cigarettes, the jerks.
SUMMER, 1967. I take student bus tour of Europe, ending in England, where I stay with a girl named Clare Brook. (Such a name!) I go to a Love-In and see Eric Burdon and the New Animals (ugh!) and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. It lasts all night, and I am bedazzled. (Also saw "Bedazzled" being filmed on street.) My mementos are Ike & Tina's "River Deep Mountain High" album and an album of Jerry Lee rarities.
AUGUST, 1967. At Laury's Records in Evanston I find the Spector "A Christmas Gift For You." It is like finding the Holy Grail.
DECEMBER, 1967. With now-outdated Billboard credentials, picture pasted over the expiration date, I attend shows free. See Chuck Berry at the short-lived Family Dog in Denver, many other shows.
FALL, 1968. I am estranged from most current music, Doors, Hendrix, Who, I've lost interest in the Beatles, and play "Here's Little Richard" daily. Music From Big Pink is good though. Elvis TV special shocks me and my girlfriend, who wasn't a fan. Now it is certain: Rock & roll is coming back.
JANUARY, 1969. See local Colorado Springs band Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids. They were dazzling brilliant -- fresh and funny -- a sure sign that rock & roll was coming back.
OCTOBER, 1969. The WB Medicine Ball Caravan comes to Boulder. I see Doug Kershaw for the first time. I become a Cajun, and Kershaw, fanatic.
MARCH, 1970. The day before we move to Santa Cruz, we attend Elvis show in Denver. Worst possible seats, section ZZ, all I could afford.
1971. Start reviewing albums for Sundaz, the Santa Cruz hippie paper, and learn that record companies will send me free records. Holy cow! See Stoneground 20 times, and a free Jack Bonus concert in downtown Santa Cruz. Also see Flash Cadillac "transition" show at Club Zayante in the hills: first night for Sam McFadin**, the new Flash.
FALL, 1972. Move in with friend Ken Sasano in L.A. He works at Capitol A&R, gets me a job as college coordinator. Befriend Band members during "Moondog Matinee" sessions. I'm IN! I meet Ronny Weiser of Rollin' Rock Records, dedicated to "real" rock & roll. His very existence confirms that rock & roll is returning. I join his merry band of rock & roll agitators.
MARCH, 1973. I'm OUT! After two-week huddle with John and Yoko (I was the college rep setting up phone interviews with her, spent days with John talking about old records at their Beverly Hills hotel suite) I am fired for press slip.
MAY, 1973. I arrive at Hollywood Palace at 11:30 a.m. for Little Richard performance (I have never seen him live!) on Dick Clark 20th Anniversary show. I wait with a few dozen others til 10 p.m., and it's worth it. Richard rocks like mad, and is surprised at how appreciative we are. Not surprisingly, I make several friends among the hardcore fans.
JUNE, 1973. I walk into Variety on a Friday and offer to be music editor. They look at my Sundaz portfolio and say "Start Monday." Suddenly I am going to five or six shows a week, a pattern that lasts a long time.
JULY 13, 1973. I attend the last Everly Bros. set at Knotts Berry Farm. It is their penultimate performance, as the next night they break up during the second set.
SEPTEMBER, 1973. I am fired for generally not getting it. I was committed to music, but not the music business. Another long-lived pattern. I begin many years of musically-rich poor-paying freelance work.
NOVEMBER, 1973. Seeing Bobby Bland at the Whisky, I sashay past John Lennon's table. He pulls me over and introduces me to Phil Spector as "the guy who knows everything about rock & roll." That feels pretty good.
EARLY 1974. During Charley Pride's Anaheim show, his piano player, Gary Stewart, sings his new song "Drinkin' Thing." He sounds like Jerry Lee meets Hank Williams, and I feel like I am hit by lightning. Helzapoppin! Rock & roll is coming back! David Allen Coe, a stone weirdo covered with home- (prison-?) made tattoos, plays the Troubadour and stands, shirtless, in a cruciform position for ten minutes while the band vamps. He is astonishing. It looks like country music has taken a radical turn, for which I'm ready. Also, I see Springsteen open for Dr. John at the Santa Monica Civic and it's great. His Troubadour show, later that week, starts at 2 a.m. and goes til 4. Both those country guys and Springsteen point to the imminent return of rock & roll.
LATE 1974. Visiting J&F Southern Record Sales in Pasadena, I see poster for Clifton Chenier. His show, at a high school in Watts, is the most tremendous, unexpected, rock & roll I've ever seen.
EARLY 1975. Writing story for Cash Box, I travel to Phoenix, New Orleans with Frank Zappa. Tom Waits opens shows, audiences jeer.
JULY 4, 1975. I go to Willie Nelson's picnic in pit of hell-heat in Texas. The audience looks like the prison was let out for the day. David Allen Coe is great. George Jones sings "White Lightnin'". Ray Wylie Hubbard does Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner." It is now certain, positive, without doubt that rock & roll is coming back, via country.
AUGUST 11, 1976. I see the Ramones Roxy, L.A. debut, and I am blasted with hope and joy. Rock and roll IS coming back, in a surprising new way. I attend all their shows in the L.A. area.
SUMMER, 1977. I begin to hang around outside the Troubadour Monday nights. It is a "street corner" for me, Chuck Weiss, Paul Body, Rick Dubov and Tom Waits. Each week I bring new "jump" discoveries and blast them on car stereo. "Sittin' On It" by Wynonie Harris is a curbside smash.
SEPTEMBER, 1977. I am hired to write bios at Elektra. My friends eat heartily, as I am allowed an expense account.
JANUARY 15, 1978. I attend the Sex Pistols show in San Francisco. The air is heavy with aggro. There is no agendum, political or otherwise, but the room emanates evil. I wish to leave, but can't as I'm with record company.
MARCH, 1978. I go on the road with Queen, see the "News Of The World" show three times.
MAY, 1978. I am fired. Well, told to seek other employment bec I am not becoming "team" member. True enough. I land at Casablanca, which is the absolute opposite of everything I respect.
NEW YEARS EVE, 1978. With friends Dick Blackburn, Bill Liebowitz, Bob Merlis, Gene Sculatti, and Swamp Dogg, form Pumping Piano Productions to host New Years party featuring Rubber City Rebels, Dr. Demento's Twist Contest, and Beatnik Poetry Reading sesh. Five more parties ensue featuring Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Bull Moose Jackson, The Beat Farmers, Jo-El Sonnier, The Blasters, and Roy 'Good Rockin'' Brown. Highlight is when Todd Everett arranges for Darlene Love, backed by huge band with two drummers, led by Billy Cioffi, to ring in 1984 singing "Christmas, Baby Please Come Home" for the first time live. Audience members weep with joy.
FEBRUARY, 1979. Rickie Lee Jones' "Chuck E's In Love" is hot, and I arrange for Chuck E. Weiss to record "(Yes It's Me And) I'm In Love Again." He demurs.
MARCH, 1979. I am fired at Casablanca, and hop a plane for London and meet Ray Campi & The Rockabilly Rebels as they arrive for their UK tour. I jump in the van and tour Teddy Boy/rockabilly strongholds for 6 weeks.
OCTOBER, 1979. I meet the Blasters at Ronny Weiser's house. Things look good for the return of rock & roll.
NOVEMBER, 1979. I attend second Rock & Roll Festival at Caister-On-Sea. See British thuggish bands Crazy Cavan, Flying Saucers, and Freddy Fingers Lee, who plays like Jerry Lee, but uses a paint-roller and his own glass eye and chops up the piano with an axe. In England, rock & roll isn't coming back, it's been living in exile.
MARCH 1980. Meet UK pop-rockabilly singer Shakin' Stevens. He comes to my house, I play him the Blasters' "Marie Marie," he records it and it becomes big hit in UK/Europe.
JUNE, 1980. In New York, I am taken to club in Amityville by Billy & Miriam of Kicks magazine to see the only other rockabilly band (other than their Zantees) in the area, Brian & The Tom Cats. I am flabbergasted: this is proof positive that rock & roll is coming back. I ask them if they want a manager. They say they have one and are going to London the next day, where they become the Stray Cats.
EARLY 1981. I am co-managing Blasters, who split with Rollin' Rock, harming my relationship with Ronny Weiser. First Slash album is recorded over many, many weeks at 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. sessions. I am there every night, getting off the earnings track, onto which I never return.
EARLY 1982. I go on Blasters European tour, which is ill-timed as they are not in U.S. to promote WB release of first album. UK leg is billed "Nick Lowe & Support." Also, I become Cramps manager, for the year.
SPRING 1983 "My" album, "L.A. Rockabilly," released on Rhino. Sells moderately, and is widely hailed. I begin booking 'roots' acts at Club Lingerie. By the end of that job three years hence I have presented live shows from Rose Maddox, Sleepy La Beef, and many, many, many other great acts. It is very satisfying.
SUMMER, 1983. I am fired by Blasters, the greatest, most unexpected backstabbing betrayal of my life. Not that I'm bitter.
JANUARY, 1984. I begin Li'l Art's Poker Party on local Public Access station. Today I have done more than 750 shows. (Name changed to Art Fein's Poker Party around 1992. Original name, a takeoff on Li'l Wally's Polka Party, was widely not-understood.)
SUMMER, 1985. I get a tape of the Heaters, the best band I ever saw in L.A., to The World's Greatest Record Producer, and we go to his house and they play music til 5 a.m.
JANUARY, 1986. James Intveld and myself begin Elvis Birthday nights at Club Lingerie. It continues today.
FALL, 1987. I am employed both with Ken Ehrlich Productions, to produce tv segments, and as music consultant to Tour Of Duty. Both jobs end agreeably in spring.
NOVEMBER, 1989. I fly to Nashville with The World's Greatest Record Producer, where he is getting an award. A stone blast.
DECEMBER, 1989. I drive to Las Vegas with Rollin' Rock rockabilly pal Jerry Sikorski. We see Sam Butera, who is the embodiment of Louis Prima, and are put into a trance. Seeing the Treniers later that night can't compete with this transcendent experience. I write about it in the Weekly.
MONDAY NIGHTS, 1987-1990. I go to Chuck E. Weiss's midnight shows at the Central on Sunset Strip. Shows vary, all are good.
WEDNESDAY NIGHTS, 1987-1990. I see Billy Bremner's midnight shows at Raji's in Hollywood. Shows are all the same, all are good.
JANUARY, 1990. I fly to New York on the MGM Grand plane with The World's Greatest Record Producer. Attend Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame awards dinner, and parties afterwards.
MARCH, 1990. I attend the South By Southwest music convention in Austin. It is like going to heaven. Rock & roll is alive in Texas. I will attend for the next eleven years.
JULY, 1991. My first book, "The L.A. Musical History Tour," is printed. Gets solid reviews worldwide. I run a tour of L.A. rock & roll sites for charity through Tanqueray gin. Second book, of U.S. rock & roll sites is set.
JULY, 1992. Publisher decides to halt unfinished second book, as they released a similar book and it bombed. I keep advance. Back to freelance.
SUMMER, 1995. Old Rollin' Rock rockabilly pal Jerry Sikorski says he can fix my old '71 VW convertible. Takes it and never comes back.
FALL, 1995. Never say die, I begin managing the Sprague Bros. living embodiments of the absolute certainty that rock & roll is coming back.
OCTOBER, 1996. Second book, "Greatest Rock & Roll Stories," is issued by Rhino/GPG. Reviews are fun, sales rocky. (Today the book is given free when a guitar is purchased at the Guitar Center. Or so I'm told.)
SPRING, 1997. Editor of French rock magazine wants book issued in France. It is translated, then shelved. C'est la vie.
FALL, 1998. Henry Rollins' book company 21361 Press decides that the first book should be reissued. I rewrite with a hundred new entries. It's still in print! C'est si bon!
SPRING, 1999. I become more or less regular in writing Another Fein Mess on the esteemed oversight.com impramatur.
- 57 -
* Harvey Sid is best known as the Singing Astrologer. However, his new Broadway-music type recording of duets of couples fighting has been hailed by The World's Greatest Record Producer as comparable to Irving Berlin. Really. harveysidfisher.com.
** This was already written when I learned that my dear friend Sam. 49, died Friday, August 31, 2001, of a heart attack.
|
