Reviews of underground and indie music and films, 60s/70s pop and soul music and cult movies. And the occasional wacky tale about life in the Hollywood flatlands.
If you’ve read Motley Crue’s The Dirt or seen the
Penelope Spheeris documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II:
The Metal Years, you probably have a good idea what it was like to be in a hair
metal band in L.A. in the late ‘80s.
But you didn’t learn about the day to day drudgery,
desperation, and infighting that the struggle for a record contract entailed.
Billy McCarthy’s Beat Me Til I’m Famous follows the
career of a third-tier (or fourth-tier, depending on your criteria) hair metal
band called D’Molls. McCarthy was the band’s drummer, and he went by the name
Billy Dior. The book offers a blow-by-blow description of what it was like to
be in a hometown band (or bands), and finagle your way out of the Midwest
to make in big in mid/late 1980s L.A.
McCarthy joined the D’Molls in the mid-'80s in Chicago,
and they soon moved to L.A. to vie
for a recording contract with hundreds of other bands. By the time they signed to Atlantic Records, the public’s appetite for guys with big hair and makeup
who sang about sluts was fading. And, of course, there were the usual management and record company screw-ups that added to the band's bad fortune.
The side characters in Beat Me Til I’m Famous are
often as interesting as the main players. There’s Rodney’ Dangerfield’s
songwriter son, Brian, various shady record company people, managers, groupies,
professional rock star girlfriends, sneaky, cutthroat band members, drug
dealers, and pushy hangers-on. In fame-hungry Hollywood,
there was always someone willing to give a band money and a place to crash, and hope to get a piece of the action if the band made it.
Beat Me Til I’m Famous captures the sleazy minutiae of the hair metal era with an
intelligence and self-awareness you wouldn’t expect to find from someone in that scene.
In 2011, McCarthy sued Poison over authorship of "Talk Dirty to Me" and some other songs. The D’Molls Wiki entry says the lawsuit was settled with McCarthy
receiving an “undeclared sum”, but this is the only mention I’ve found online
about any settlement. (McCarthy played in a band called Screamin’ Mimis with
C.C. Deville in 1984.)
Surviving Agent Orange: And Other Things I Learned From
Being Thrown Under the Partridge Family Bus
by Gretchen Bonaduce
Rare Bird Books,264 pages
Most people recognize Gretchen Bonaduce from the reality
series “Breaking Bonaduce” with her ex-husband, ex-child star, and current DJ
Danny Bonaduce. Her new book, Surviving Agent Orange: And Other Things I
Learned From Being Thrown Under the Partridge Family Bus summarizes the
good, the bad and the ugly from her 16 year long marriage to the erratic
redhead.
Gretchen met Danny when she was a promotions assistant for
one of the guests on his radio show in Phoenix.
A day (or so) later, they were married in a civil ceremony. They toasted their
new life together with champagne from a local 7-11.
Shortly after the wedding, Danny managed to encounter and
assault a tranny prostitute. Well,
Gretchen stayed with Danny even after this snafu. It didn’t take long, however,
before Danny’s crack addiction became evident (Pieces of aluminum foil started
appearing around the house, for example). And we all know the trail of
shenanigans that followed until the couple divorced in 2007.
Why did Gretchen stick with Danny so long? (Remember, he was
always an on-again, off-again pain in the ass with everyone.) Gretchen
admits that she always seemed to attract men who were fixer-uppers, and Danny
was the most challenging fixer-upper of all.
A few people I know refused to read this book because it has
a suspicious subtitle “And Other Things
I Learned From Being Thrown Under the Partridge Family Bus”, but would anyone read the book if it had a boring title like” My Life with Danny
Partridge?”
The author’s self-deprecating humor and earthy take on life
can be refreshing. She writes about a TV director who critiqued her acting ability
by saying,“That was the most unnatural walking through the door I’ve ever
seen.”
There are bits in the book about Gretchen’s pre and post
Danny life, and some of them are pretty funny, too.She had a stint as a bar band singer and worked a day job at a Pizza Hut
between gigs. There’s also a heartbreaking bit about an ex-roommate whose life
spiraled out of control, and a section about Gretchen’s early life as an Army
Brat.
It’s been almost a decade since the chaos of Breaking
Bonaduce and the divorce, and both Danny and Gretchen are doing pretty
well.Danny has remarried and has a
radio show in Seattle. Gretchen is
the singer for a 1980s cover band, Fatal 80s, and has worked on several reality
TV shows and pilots.
Bonaduce’s writing style is stream of consciousness, like
conversing with a friend who has lots of funny stories and can’t wait to tell
you all of them. The book doesn’t have a straightforward chronological
framework and skips around occasionally. Some readers may find this casual style
disconcerting.
Another reality show star, former “Top Model” Adrianne Curry
wrote the introduction. She refers to
Gretchen as the “Mother Teresa of Hollywood”
and credits her with helping her through her divorce from her first husband, Brady
Bunch actor Christopher Knight. (Curry left showbiz and now lives in Montana
with her second husband, voiceover artist Matthew Rhode.)
Despite the sub-title, Surviving Agent Orange is no
hatchet job. It’s pretty even-keeled, and alternates between complimenting
Danny’s good points and exposing his devious side. Danny often
credited Gretchen with putting him on the road to redemption, both on-air and
in his 2001 autobiography,Random
Acts of Badness.
For its honesty and humor, Surviving Agent Orange: is a fun read
for anyone who is curious about Danny Bonaduce, the Partridge Family, wacky B-list
celebrities, or any dispatches from the outer edge of pop culture .
Some of the most hated rock groups of all time are also the most
loved. People can’t hate you unless they know you, and they’re not gonna know
you unless you’re successful. Look at that modern-day phenomenon, Nickelback. Many
people who have never heard Nickelback’s music know that they are the most
hated band of the 21st Century.
Even after Glenn Frey passed away, many writers couldn’t
help but lambaste the Eagles as the most hated successful band of the 20th
Century.
Yacht Rock is hip now,so how can Eagles music be
“horrific”, as a NY Daily News article described it after Frey’s death?
“Hotel California” is more horrific as compared to what, “Feelings” or
“Afternoon Delight”, two other songs that shared the chart with Eagles hits in
the mid-70s ?
People hate the Eagles because:
Songs are overplayed
An unlikable duo helmed the band (Henley and Frey)
Songs are too wimpy
It’s hip to hate them, gives you street cred
Lebowski hated them
The popularity of the “The Big Lebowski” was the
deal-breaker that turned the public reaction to the band from, “They’re OK,” or
“Meh” to “I hate the Eagles, man.”
But a lot of music fans aren’t quite as cynical. Marc
Eliot’s beautifully written article
about Glenn Frey’s passing reminds us that youth has long gone for fans who liked the band and their music in the ‘70s. ( Read Eliot's book "To The Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles" for an in-depth look at the band.)
YouTube commenters tend to come up with the most poignant
assessments, though, as Baby Boomers move closer to that Great Gig in the Sky.
“Makes a grown man cry... Everyone is so happy. Everyone
in the building is young, in their prime, and full of life. I wish every day
could be half as perfect as these moments.”
Imagine the World
Before Sirius, the Internet, MTV or Walkmans!
I can’t listen to the ballads, because like everyone else, I
heard them too many times in the ‘70s. Even though I haven’t heard some of the
songs for decades, I still get out of earshot when I hear one start to play.
Everybody bought Eagles records in the ‘70s, which meant your irritating,
non-musical classmates and co-workers, including the squarest of the square,
counted the Greatest Hits 71-75 among their albums.
I bought the single “The Best of My Love” in high school,
but I listened to the flipside, “Ole 55” instead.
Despite being crazy about bands as a teen, my friends and I
never got into the Eagles that way. We didn’t care about their personalities,
looks, etc., just the music. I studied the Hotel
California gatefold sleeve with my friend Mary, (before we made fun of my
John Travolta album and after I proudly introduced her to the Runaways’ first
album).We did like Joe Walsh, however.
He was the only animated person in the band, and we appreciated his sense of
humor and hotel-trashing skills.
I was particularly intrigued by the lyrics to “Life in the
Fast Lane” and wrote a novel based on it in my senior year of high school.
Thankfully, the only manuscript I had is long gone now, but it would have fit
right in with the exploitation flick craze of the 70s/early 80s.
You think “Take It Easy” is overplayed on classic rock radio
now? Ha! Were you even alive in 1972? I was. The summer between sixth and
seventh grade holds many fond memories for me.I identify it with that transitional period in my life, so I like the
song, no matter how many times I hear it. (The song reached #12 on the
BillboardTop 100 in July 1972.) The
Eagles songs were popular when I was in junior high and high school, and their
music just happened to be everywhere.
However, Eagles songs don’t rate that high on the list of
the offensively overplayed. “Take It Easy” is number 19 on this list. The worst
offenders, to my ears, are “Black Water,” “Old Time Rock n Roll”, “Stairway to
Heaven”, and “Don’t Stop Believing”. Enough already!
On my Bucket List: A trip to Standin’ on the CornerPark
In the ‘90s, I watched the Hell Freezes Over tour on
MTV. I was more interested in hearing the Henley solo
songs, but I did watch the whole concert. I didn’t know, however, that the band
included original material on the Hell Freezes Over album. I also had no
idea the Eagles released an album in 2007 – sold exclusively at Walmart!
Eagles Songs I Listen
to On Purpose
Rock and Rock-ish
Witchy Woman
Outlaw Man
Already Gone
James Dean
Victim of Love
Too Many Hands
Those Shoes
Ballads
The Last Resort
King of Hollywood
Try and Love Again
Country-esque
Doolin Dalton
Seven Bridges Road
If You Never Heard It before, You’d Like It
Hotel California
Life in the Fast lane
Take It Easy
I Can’t Tell You Why
Take It to the Limit
Tequila Sunrise
Desperado
With all the emphasis radio and mainstream media place on
just a handful of songs, it’s probably been years since you’ve heard “Outlaw
Man” or “James Dean” and maybe decades since you’ve heard “Too Many
Hands”.
“Witchy Woman” hit #9 on the charts in November 1972, and it
was played almost as much as “Take It Easy”. It had that sinister vibe which
was intriguing to a junior high girl. It’s the closest the band had to a sexy
song. Ugh! I said Eagles and sexy in the same sentence.
Waiting for Randy Meisner to hit that high note on “Take It
to The Limit” or Timothy B. Schmidt on “I Can’t Tell You Why” is a lot more
pleasant than listening to “Best of My Love”yet again.
Also, “Desperado”, later covered by Linda Ronstadt, is
dismissed as country rock tripe by idiots who don’t listen to the lyrics.
$$$$$$$$
I read Don Felder’s book, and he comes off as a really thoughtful guy. Of course, he seemed too nice and a bit of a push-over in some
situations (well, that is until he sued them), but when you’re up against
Azoff/Henley/Frey, you don’t have much bargaining power. One non-lawsuit
subplot in the book involves a male stalker and is a reminder that weird,
overzealous fans can make life hell for even less-conspicuous celebrities.
The facts, as laid out in Felder’s book, state that the band
had an agreement in the early days wherein monies would be split between the members equally.Of course, then things
changed, as Henley remarked in the History of the Eagles. The
fact that there was a pesky legal document in the way was a minor
inconvenience, and Azoff took care of it, with only Felder putting up a
fight.
This brings to mind the same situation that occurred when Van Halen cut Michael Anthony out of their original agreement. Once the band reached
a certain point, the main songwriters figured they should get a bigger slice of
the pie, regardless of any agreements made at the beginning of the band’s
career.
The Eagles’ business choices may not endear them to many
people, though. Here’s an entertaining bit from Letterman, where Dave wants to
play an Eagles song but the show can’t afford it.
As I look back, I’ve always been more interested in “New
York Minute” and other Henley solo songs than Eagles
songs because of the lyrics. Yes, the lyrics are more mainstream than New
York intellectual, but more haunting because of their
simplicity. “Sunset Grill”, “Boys of Summer”, “I Will Not Go Quietly” are undisputedly well-crafted and poignant. I wore out my cassette of The End of the Innocence in ’89 and ’90.
I managed to make it all the way through a Youtube video of
Billy Joel interviewing Henley at the 92nd
Street Y. A few minutes in, I thought, “Ya know, Henley
has so muchVirgo in his chart, it’ll
make your head swim." I checked his horoscope and yes, his Ascendant and Moon
are in Virgo and he has three planets in moody Cancer.Frey had his Sun in Scorpio (like you
couldn’t tell from his facial features) and Moon in Capricorn. That’s a match
made in hell if you’re on the wrong side of the twosome. And I don’t even want
to know Azoff’s chart.
Henley made a comment about seeing a
Lawrence Welk concert as a kid. He said he saw Welk backstage with two groupies
– nuns. His delivery and expression were so deadpan it took me awhile before I
realized it was a joke. It’s hard to tell with those Virgos. Roger Waters is another
classic rock Virgo (Sun sign and Venus) who is not known for his rollicking
sense of humor.
The Eagles in 2018 consist of Henley, Walsh, Timothy B.
Schmidt, Travis Tritt and Frey’s son, Deacon.
The band (such as they are) will be playing three nights at
the Forum in September. Ticket prices range from $59 for nosebleed seats to
$700 for main floor, according to a recent look at Ticketmaster and StubHub.
Verdict: No, the Eagles aren’t horrific. Bland maybe, when
compared with some of their overplayed contemporaries. (Which group has more
interesting songs/personalities, Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles?)Try listening to one of their lesser known
songs if you can’t stand the overplayed ones.Don’t
be afraid. You won’t lose your coolness factor by listening to a few Eagles
songs.
Jonathon Brandmeier, Kevin Matthews, Steve Dahl & Garry Meier, mid-1980s
I finally watched the Twisted Sister documentary on Netflix a
few weeks ago. I’d been avoiding it for awhile, but figured, “Well, I’ve
watched every other rock doc, I’ll give this one a try.” The doc was almost
three hours long, and it covered the band’s slow climb to MTV fame.
Twisted Sister’s tale of slogging it out on the Long
Island club scene in the ‘70s was more interesting than you’d
expect. The tackiest part of a pretty tacky story involved scenes about the
band’s onstage anti-disco tirades.
I was shocked at how vicious the Long Island
anti-disco movement was, or that they even had such a movement in the first
place. After all, I grew up in Chicago,
where the most infamous anti-disco event of all took place, and I was there.
Disco Demolition
The stoner, Dazed and
Confused ethos of my college days was accompanied by non-stop music, visits
to Rose Records and Wax Trax, and wacky DJs. The soundtrack to my first year in
college was provided by WLUP, and to a lesser extent by the other rock stations
in town, WXRT, WLS and WMET.
Known more commonly as the Loop, WLUP
was the home of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. Steve and Garry were the dynamic,
shock-rock duo that gained infamy – and a rowdy audience of teens and
20somethings - in Chicago and
environs in 1979 and throughout the 1980s.
Their biggest bit was an anti-disco spiel, which involved
blowing up disco records via sound effects on their radio show. They
brought their anti-disco message to listeners in person at public
appearances, and more fans showed up than the venues and the
station expected. The biggest anti-disco rally of them took place at the old WhiteSoxPark
(ComiskeyPark)
in 1979.
I thought that blowing up disco records was a comedy bit. I
didn’t think it was a pop culture revolution. (Apparently, other people did.)
My friends and I loved Steve and Garry and the Loop, so
we penciled in the night of July 12,
1979 for a visit to Disco Demolition Night at SoxPark.
I owned lots of disco records, and I had a hard time
deciding which record should be blown up. I wasn’t going to part with my “Saturday
Night Fever” soundtrack, Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You, Baby”, and certainly
not the Blondie ten-inch disco version of “Heart of Glass”. I finally decided
on the single of Peter Brown’s, “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me?”
We traveled from my friend’s parent’s house near MidwayAirport to SoxPark. As it turned out, we were
part of a contingent of what seemed like thousands of kids swarming the city
buses headed to WhiteSoxPark. They all wore the same
uniform- a black Loop T- shirt, jeans and sneakers. (A jeans jacket was
optional if it got chilly.)
I wore the same uniform as the other kids, but I carried an
additional item with me- a copy of Newsweek,
in case I got bored during the first game of the Twi-Night double-header.
A sea of kids descended from city buses and stormed SoxPark in droves. It was like the Day,
or rather, the Twi-Night, of the Locust, right there at 35th and
Shields. When we got out of our bus, we saw kids scaling the side of the
stadium like some kind of artificial mountain.
I don’t even remember if the ticket takers were bothering to
collect the 98 cents (WLUP’s frequency was 97.9) entrance fee by the time we
got there. I remember throwing my record into a bin. I felt sad about that, and
looking in, I could see a copy of Saturday
Night Fever.It looked brand-new,
like someone had specifically bought it to be “blowed up.” That, of course,
would have actually helped disco’s
bottom line.
The stands were full of kids drinking beer, smoking pot and
flinging disco records like Frisbees. We sat down in the grandstand, passed
around a joint and a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps, and watched the craziness
around us.
My friend Kathy and I escaped the vinyl Frisbees for awhile
by hanging out on the ramps between levels. When she told me Minnie Ripperton
had died (that’s Maya Rudolph’s Mom, for you youngsters out there), I almost
fell off the ramp railing I was so shocked. (She died on the same day, July 12).
When we returned, a young married couple sitting in front of
us, who had obviously come to see the game with their kids, couldn’t take it
anymore and left. They shielded their bewildered children from the flying
records as they walked to the exit. I
wonder if they asked for a refund.I’d
be mad if I were in their position.
Finally the first game ended, and
Steve, Garry and Lorelei, the station's sexy spokeswoman, took the field.
It was great to finally see the guys we had listened to on the radio for
the last few months get their due. The between game record blow-up was louder
and more intense than I expected. I didn't expect them to literally
blow up the records, but they did, right there in center field.
I sat next to an Indian engineering student from my friend’s
dorm. We spent most of the first game talking about a Newsweek article I was
reading about how the world was going to hell in a handbasket. The moment the
interlopers stormed the field, right on cue, the kid said “Now, see, this is
what I was just talking about.”
People said it was a riot, but it looked like a bunch of
kids standing on a baseball field not quite knowing what to do. Some kids turned
over the batting cage and started a small bonfire. That was the riot part, I guess.
Future celebrities Bob Odenkirk (Better
Call Saul) and Michael Clarke Duncan (Green
Mile) were in attendance, though not necessarily on the field. White Sox
broadcaster Harry Caray couldn’t get the kids to disperse, and then the cops
cleared the field.
Most of the barbs on the radio and from the kids I knew were
directed at John Travolta and the BeeGees, white upper middle class guys at
North Side discos, rich celebrities at Studio 54, disco records by Cher, Rod
Stewart, Charo and Ethel Merman, and the radio programmers and management types
who catered to the trend. Anybody who made disco records was a target. If the
Village People or Donna Summer made hard rock records instead of disco records,
I doubt the kids or DJs would have complained.
Kids hated the music for two intertwined reasons – it wasn’t
rock ‘n’ roll, and it was taking over the culture. Funny thing is, what we
would call disco music was around in the mid-70s. "Disco Duck", "The Hustle", hits
by the Hues Corporation, George McRae, Barry White, Shirley and Company, Thelma
Houston and Donna Summer’s "Love to Love You Baby" constantly saturated the
airwaves then, and no one complained about the music. (Well, except for “Disco
Duck.”) The anti-disco movement didn’t start until Saturday Night Fever become a hit.
And, of course, the anti-disco movement didn't kill dance music. It just helped repurpose it in a better way as house, techno, trance, etc. by putting an end to the mainstream "blanding and corporatization" of disco.
I woke up on the floor of my friend’s dorm room the next morning,
hungover, and heard Steve and Garry on the radio. “You were bad little Cohos,”, Stevegleefully admonished. (The anti-disco army was called the "Insane Coho Lips".) We listened to as much of the show as we
could, guzzled coffee, and headed for class.When we got home, we had to explain to our parents, grandparents and
siblings that we did not go on the field and were not wooed into a vortex of
juvenile delinquency, never to return.
The Rest of the Loop
There was much more to WLUP than Disco Demolition. To me,
that was probably the least interesting aspect of the station’s heyday.
It was 24/7 wall to wall hilarity, with Steve and Garry, Les
Tracy, Mitch Michaels, Sky Daniels, and Patti Haze. And, of course, Joe Walsh subbing
for Steve and Garry when they were on vacation.
I teared up hearing this sound bite for the first time in close
to 40 years. “Get jaked and blow lunch
tonight.” Good times.
The station even had a Loopfest (not to be confused with
Chicagofest) in the early 1980s. One
year they had the biker band The Boyzz from Illinois introduced by Ma Nugent (Ted’s
Mom), but the event also featured local bandsPezband, the Hounds and Tantrum.
And I somehow missed this comic book, released in 1980, which
featured the Loop DJs in nonsensical adventures.
Steve & Garry’s newscaster Buzz Kilman did the Blues
News - Buzz played harmonica as Steve read "down on their luck" news stories. (Buzz would
later become Johnny B’s newsman). Steve's musical parodies included “Heal Me”, a parody of Blondie’s “Call Me”, which addressed the
underhanded shenanigans of preacher Ernest Angley and his “faith healings” and
“Another Kid in the Crawl”, about serial killer John Wayne Gacy, set to the music
of “Another Brick in Wall.” (For obvious reasons, this parody was quickly
shelved.)
Stan Lawrence did the All
My Children report; there were traffic reports from “Tyrone”, complete with
helicopter sound effects. Steve and Garry lambasted old-school Chicago
radio heroes like Wally Philips and Cliff Mercer, the WGN announcer. Most of the
bits were silly and harmless. However, Steve and Garry’s calls to Iran
would result in an international incident or possibly World War III
today. Eventually, Steve and Garry were fired for “violating community
standards.” They then went to WLS and
continued their affront to decency.
The great thing about the Loop in those days is that they
played all types of bands - AC/DC, Van Halen, Graham Parker, Ian Hunter, Pat Benatar, Tom Petty, The Police, Cheap Trick,
Journey, The Stones, and local bands like Off-Broadway and Pezband. I even remember hearing an interview with Annie Lennox when she was in band called the Tourists.
It was a mix of rock
music, regardless of genre. The other rock stations in town did the same. We’d
listen to WLS, WMET, and WXRT, too. (If you
wanted the greatest mix of genres, that was up the dial at WXRT. They played
Kate Bush, the Raincoats, obscure prog rock and even some jazz.)
I taped an interview one of WXRT’s jocks did with REO Speedwagon
in 1978, so there was a lot of musical
crossover between genres and stations. It was hard to keep track of what you
heard and where sometimes. This was a time where you didn’t have to choose your
party and stick with it, forsaking all others.
The
Loop, Part 2 – Late 1980s/1990s
In 1983, I left for Los Angeles.
Friends would occasionally send me cassettes of shows, but the Loop
was always there when I came back home. By the time I returned in 1987, things
got wackier, and less subversive.
The hyperactive Jonathon Brandmeier was the new wacky radio guy now. Brandmeier’s humor was more frat boy than
current events. I remember him commenting on a news story about a new exhibit
at the Art Institute saying he didn’t understand that “art crap.”
A recurring bit on Johnny B’s show involved sidekick/show producer Jimmy "Bud" Weiser trying to locate
visiting celebrities checked into hotels under aliases. Johnny’s band, Johnny and
Leisure Suits, had local hits with “We’re All Crazy in Chicago” and “The Moo-Moo
Song” inspired by a guy who romanced a cow at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Kevin Matthews (who I thought was the most talented of them
all), did a whole slew of character voices and celebrity imitations. Pee Wee
Herman did the traffic, and there were rock lyrics with Ronnie Reagan.
Matthews voiced the sportscaster character/sidekick Jim
Shorts, a foul-mouthed know-it-all with no self-editing abilities. This surly
character wouldn’t work in any other city but Chicago
(and parts of Wisconsin, Michigan,
and Indiana).
(Most people would wrinkle their noses at this and dismiss it as infantile. I’m looking for more episodes.)
The last go round for the crazy, personality-oriented LOOP
was in the mid-1990s .Danny Bonaduce, Brandmeier, Kevin Matthews and Liz Wilde were the weekday DJs, and porno star Seka had a show on the weekends.
The gags weren’t mean-spirited like Howard Stern's, but they
were silly and annoying. When Kevin Matthews or Brandmeier made prank phone
calls, you could almost hear the person on the other end going, “What the hell
was that?” after hanging up the phone.
I made a pit stop back to Chicago
just in time for the 1994 charity boxing match between Donny Osmond
and Danny Bonaduce. (Danny won.) Also, I got to hear the DJs do a play by
play of the OJ slow-speed Bronco chase. Between that and the Howard Stern
regular Captain Janks’ prank call to Peter Jennings, the commentary was like
the pre-internet version of memes and social media, and could turn anything,
even a tragedy, into a circus.
In 1992, Eddie Schwartz joined the WLUP staff. (You’re
setting yourself up for problems when you’re on the same station as a guy who
makes fun of you.)
When I was about 12, I first listened to Eddie Schwartz when
he did overnights on WIND. I had no idea
what he looked like. I was sitting in one
of my college radio classes waiting for the teacher, when he walked in as our
guest instructor for the day. To say he was larger than life is an understatement.
He was morbidly obese, and weighed maybe 500-600 pounds. He had the class in stitches,
telling a crude story or two and swearing a lot, in contrast to his nice guy
radio persona. RIP Big Guy.
In the mid-2000s, terrestrial radio faded away, as podcasts
and internet radio took over. I found the Loop
online, only to discover Mancow was the star DJ. I couldn’t stand the guy when
he started on another Chicago
station, WRCX-FM, in the early ‘90s. The station’s only other claim to fame was
their sexy calendar girls, like a Lorelei for every month of the year.
Otherwise, it was classic rock as usual.
By the time the Loop was purchased by a Christian broadcasting company in March, the irreverent DJs of the ‘70s-‘90s
were working at other stations or no where to be found. (Steve and Garry broke up
in the mid-90s. Steve currently occupies the drive time slot at WLS-AM.)
The Loop lives on the internet
without all the fanfare and comedy, and you can still buy the Loop
logo T-shirt.In keeping with the spirit
of the original Loop, the last song played before the
station’s segue into Christian pop was “Highway to Hell.”
Today’s youthful comedy podcasts are more sophisticated and
user-friendly, and music is optional. Yes, the radio we grew up with was cheeky
and juvenile, but boy, did we have fun.
When I mention the band Chicago,
what do you think of? Syrupy love songs of the ‘80s and ‘90s and endless tours
of the nostalgia circuit? That’s the recent and quasi-recent past, but that’s
not the Chicago I remember.
The jazz-rock hippies of my childhood released double albums
with songs in odd time signatures, with a prominent horn section and 12-minute
songs based on classical music song cycles. And their original guitarist, Terry
Kath, was deemed to be better than Jimi Hendrix by none other than….Jimi Hendrix.
Unless you’re a musician or a longtime Chicago
fan, you may not have heard of Terry Kath. He died in a freak accident in
January 1978 when he was cleaning out one of his handguns.
The Terry Kath
Experience, a documentary directed by Kath’s daughter, Michelle Kath
Sinclair, retraces her Dad’s life via interviews with his friends, relatives, bandmates
and fellow musicians. She was only two years old when he died and has little
recollection of him. She produced the documentary through Kickstarter donations
after traditional funding fell through due to the usual complaint - “limited
appeal.”
A daughter interviewing friends of the Dad she never knew
gives the film an emotional appeal most other documentaries lack. (Of course,
there are a few documentaries where an unrelated filmmaker interjects himself
or herself into the subject’s life during the course of filming.) Even Peter
Cetera showed up for this one. (He
declined to be interviewed for the Netflix
Chicago documentary.) There’s a clip of Kiefer
Sutherland, Sinclair’s stepfather, at her wedding, recalling the day Kath died.
There’s lots of archival footage - notes Kath was taking for his solo album,
family photos and home movies, a concert filmed at Caribou Ranch and NewYears Rockin’ Eve with the Beach Boys (both
Dick Clark Productions).
In addition to her father’s bandmates in Chicago,
Sinclair interviews all the usual suspects (Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh, Mike
Campbell, etc.) She also talks to a Chicago
high school student who recreated Kath’s famous Fender Telecaster guitar after
studying articles about the instrument in old guitar magazines. (Yes, there’s
hope for the youth of today.)
Chicago at Caribou Ranch
The band’s first manager, James Guerico, bought Caribou
Ranch, a recording studio/playground in Colorado
for the band, and put them in Electra
Glide in Blue, a movie he financed. But he also performed that obligatory
rock manager move - cheating the band out of money. Like Cetera, he passed on
the Chicago documentary, but grants
Sinclair an interview
The documentary film crew pays a visit to the ranch on the
day it’s slated for demolition. Camelia Kath recalls some of the memories in between
the wood paneled walls. (The chivalrous way he wooed Camelia, whom he married in 1974, is endearing.)
A short interview clip reveals Kath wasn’t a connoisseur of
groupies like many ‘70s rockers. Unfortunately, Kath did enjoy cocaine, another
‘70s vice, a bit too much, and that contributed to his early death.
The Chicago documentary Now More Than Ever(currently on Netflix) will fill you on the 40 years since
Kath died. The band documentary also covers much of the same material in The Terry Kath Experience in more detail
and with more era-appropriate drug and Playboy Bunny references.
Terry's famous Fender Telecaster
Sax player Walter Parazaider recalls
Jimi tell him one night at the Whisky “Your guitar player is better than me.” (Probably the inspiration for the title The Terry Kath Experience.) The band’s
keyboardist, Robert Lamm,among others, have said that Kath’s singing voice was that of a white Ray Charles.Those commentsmay soundover-the-top
if you aren’t familiar with early Chicago. “Wait - this guyplayed guitar better than Jimi Hendrix and he sang like a white Ray Charles?” Here’s some supporting
evidence.
25 or Six to Four (OMG Did
they ever play this song on the radio ALL THE
TIME)
After not hearing the song for years, you really appreciate
it in all its glory.
If you doubt the accuracy of the statements about Kath’s
guitar playing, this solo may convince you otherwise.
Cetera lip syncs to a recording in this clip. Check the
comments section for Danny Seraphine’s memories of the filming and a great
revelation from one viewer – “Whoa! Who’s that on guitar? I thought Chicago
was weak-ass Dad music. That dude’s an animal.”
Little One (written for his daughter, it was the last song Kath ever sang with Chicago)
“Wishin’ You Were Here” (not to be confused with Pink
Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”), and “Color
My World”were other omnipresent songs
in the early to mid ‘70s. There was no relief from Chicago
ballads when I was in high school. Some kid played the intro to “Color My
World” on the piano in the gym every damn day at the same time. Even the
teachers complained, “Learn another song!!”
Listen to any pre-1979 Chicago album, especially Chicago Transit
Authority and Chicago II, for
more Terry Kath-era Chicago.
Michelle Kath Sinclair at her father's alma mater, Taft High School in Chicago
