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.
Foxy: My Life in Three Acts: A Memoir By Pam Grier (with Andrea Cagan) Hachette Book Group $16.49
Iconic actress Pam Grier is famous for her roles as tough, ass-kicking Coffy, Foxy Brown and for her comeback film role in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. The road to those iconic performance was hard and involved lots of hard work, sacrifice and heartache. Grier ‘s autobiography “Foxy-My Life in Three Acts (co-written with Andrea Cagan), exposes the back-story that lead to her career.
An Air Force brat, Grier’s family lived in Colorado, where dealing with prejudice was a daily occurrence. When officers found out that her father, a light skinned African-American, was Caucasian, her family was relegated to living in cheaper quarters and riding public transportation (when the driver would stop to pick them up). While Grier had a supportive and loving network of relatives, problems bubbled underneath the surface. One of her aunts was a closet alcoholic, and her father left her mother and remarried, unable to accept the fact that Pam’s mother earned more money than he did. Left alone in the house one day, at six years old, a group of local boys raped Grier. After that, she went out of her way to disguise her good looks and developed a stutter. She was raped again at 18, by a family friend, and retreated further into her shell.
While working part-time at a radio station, one of her co-workers suggested she enter a local beauty pageant. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Los Angeles, working several jobs while hoping to break into acting and film. She met the first of her famous boyfriends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor, and their relationship blosommed-untol he converted to Islam. Unsure of the way his new religion treated women, Pam wavered on accepting his marriage proposals. He eventually married a Muslim woman who had been chosen for him.
Pam was flown to the Philippines for her first B-movie role in The Big Doll House to fight and tousle with other actresses in a “caged heat” type movie. This lead to a string of exploitation roles like Black Mama White Mama and Coffy, which began her reign as queen of blaxplotation films.
She dated two of the biggest and most troubled comedians of the 1970s, Richard Pyror and Freddie Prinze Sr. Freddie was “a great love of my life” she writes. After meeting him when they appeared together on the Irv Kupcinet show in Chicago, they began dating and had a whirlwind courtship. Once Freddie’s fame escalated, so did his ego and cocaine use, and Pam broke up with him after disagreements about whether or not she should get pregnant. She lived with Richard Pryor, hoping to help him get off drugs, but that relationship ended soon after a gynecologist told her she had a buildup of cocaine on her cervix due to his drug use.
While her love life faltered , Pam’s career flourished, with her signature role as Foxy Brown and a supporting role in the miniseries Roots. She hung out with John Lennon and Harry Nilsson during John’s infamous “Lost Weekend” in Hollywood, co-starred in Fort Apache, the Bronx with Paul Newman and guest starred on Miami Vice.
Grier’s dedication to the acting craft is demonstrated in her audition for the role of a drug-addicted hooker in Fort Apache. Using tips learned from her favorite book The Actor Prepares by Constantine Stanislavski, she arrived at the audition for the role of crack whore Charlotte in character, dressed in a dirty Mickey Mouse satin jacket, with greasy hair and a healthy dose of “motherfucker” sprinkled in her speech. She got the part.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Pam had supporting roles in several movies and TV shows and acted in Sam Shepard’s play Fool for Love in Los Angeles. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and successfully battled it with the help of Chinese medicine. Her acting career was revived after Jackie Brown. She enjoyed full-fledged success on the Showtime series The L Word as nightclub owner Kit Porter. After enduring the deaths of family members, her good friend Minnie Ripperton, and a few more ill-fated relationships, she now lives in Colorado and operates a non-profit organization, the Pam Grier Legacy Fund, to benefit women, children and animals.
Foxy is more than a typical Hollywood autobiography. It’s the story of a strong-willed woman who overcame several obstacles that would have permanently roadblocked weaker females. There are some great lessons in Foxy for young women starting out in their careers, and even for older women who are going through rough times.
This 627 page bio of Clash frontman Joe Strummer seems like a daunting undertaking even for a loyal fan, but it's actually an easy to read if you have the time. Author Chris Salewicz, a friend of Strummer's, wrote Joe's obituary for The Independent, and spent the next few years writing and researching Redemption Song. The book answers lots of questions about him and humanizes a complex man. Certain punk legends like John Lydon, Debbie Harry, Patti Smith , Joey Ramone, et al, could be encapsulated in a phrase or blurb. One could sum up their personas as combative, ice queen, poet, heroic misfit, and so on. Despite all the information in Redemption Song, Strummer still remains somewhat of an enigma, so it's hard to pinpoint a phrase to describe him even after finishing this hefty book.
We learn that that his father was a diplomat and the family lived in several different countries, including Egypt, and that his brother committed suicide as a teen-ager and Joe found his body. There are lots of anecdotes to pique the memories of older punk fans (Paul Simonon was married to Pearl Harbor of & Explosions fame, for example). There's a pic of a crude drawing of a chord chart Joe used when he first learned to play the guitar, and an account of the first time he saw the Pistols play at the Nashville. (They opened for the 101ers). And there's pesky Clash manager Bernie Rhodes, alternatively guiding the band and undermining them. There's no strategically placed denouncement or rush to christen Strummer with a label. Written by a friend without an agenda, the book is void of pretension.
Redemption Song, along with the Julien Temple documentary The Future Is Unwritten, gives us an incredible amount of material on Strummer's life. Redemption Song draws a picture of a complicated man, neither cartoon or tragic figure, who just happened to be one of the icons of the punk rock era.
(This review first appeared on the Punk Rock Demonstration website in September 2007).
Infinity Entertainment Group continues its DVD releases of rarely seen but beloved TV variety shows with The Judy Garland Show, Volume 3. The two shows on the DVD, from the critically acclaimed show’s only (1963-64) season, features Judy singing with Tony Bennett and Lena Horne and performing standards on her own. Brit fixture Terry-Thomas and Dick Shawn, along with show regular Jerry Van Dyke, provide comic relief.
Twenty-six episodes aired before CBS canceled the show due to low ratings. (It ran opposite Bonanza on Sunday nights.) The variety show had a controversial run, with the firing of musical director Mel Torme and several changes in format during its brief tenure. He even wrote a book about it , the controversial The Other Side of the Rainbow, which was denounced as inaccurate by many others who worked with Garland.
The first episode on The Judy Garland Show, Volume 3 stars the late Lena Horne and the gap-toothed Terry-Thomas ( It’s a Mad Mad Mad World, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines). Lena and Judy, in matching outfits, sing "Day In, Day Out" to kick off the festivities. Lena has a solo number, "I Want To Be Happy," and sits with Judy for some dueling divas vocals on "Meet Me in St. Louis," "Honeysuckle Rose,"and other standards.
Later in the show, Thomas joins them for Noel Coward’s "Mad Dogs and Englishmen." It’s one of those kitschy musical comedy number that’s more curiosity than humor.
Despite all the negative publicity that surrounded Garland at this stage of her career, she still performs with her trademark authority and charisma, even during an awkward “Tea for Two” interview segment with Thomas.
The second show, which aired on December 15, 1963, featured guests Tony Bennett and Dick Shawn. Capri-clad dancers with I Dream of Jeannie ponytails and their beatnik male counterparts join Judy, Tony, and Dick for the gospel-tinged version of "Yes, Indeed."It’s a finger-snapping tune, the kind of beatnik/show biz hybrid that filled up variety show musical segments before the Beatles and AM style pop artists rendered them obsolete.
There’s a pseudo-Elvis rock ‘n’ roll skit with Shawn teaching Van Dyke how to gyrate for the girls. Shawn has an appealing insouciance. And this bit, though dated, still conjures up a few laughs. Both show ends with Garland sitting behind a set of trunks, relating show biz tales to the audience in a folksy manner before capping off the show with a song.
Digitally restored from the original print, the black and white picture is razor sharp.The sound, remixed to 5.1 surround, is crisp and unmistakable. (Purists can choose mono from the set-up menu to relive early Zenith B & W memories.) There are no extras included on the DVD, just the original shows with chapter selection. Infinity has just released the fourth DVD in the Judy Garland Show series (with Chita Rivera and Ethel Merman). There’s no word as yet on future reissues.
(This interview was conducted via email in November 2005 )
England's Third World War released two albums in the early 1970s. The combination of radical, left wing lyrics (I'd Rather Cut Cane For Castro is one of their song titles) and Terry Stamp's choppy, beyond heavy metal guitar style confused some listeners, beguiled others (including a young John Lydon, ) but bypassed most. Now, some thirty-odd years later, the band is getting some recognition from the press, webzines and music biz folk like Steve Albini. I recently conducted e-mail interviews with vocalist/guitarist Terry Stamp (who has lived in Southern California since 1976) and bassist Jim Avery, who still resides in England.
Interview With Terry Stamp
1-How did you meet John Fenton, who gave Third World War its first break?
Answer: John Fenton got a job for a New York publishing outfit called Schroeder Music as manager of their London office in Berkeley Street, must have been around 1968ish, (I was around 22 years old, Fenton, in his early thirties). At the same time a friend had dropped off a demo of mine at the Schroeder office called Heaven and Hell. I got a phone call from the office, asking me to come and see them, which I did. I did the usual "wait", sitting across from a secretary, when a door opened and John Fenton greeted me, big smile, arm's open, beads around his neck swinging, he was kinda half hippy like. He acted like we knew each other in some other twisted life, which was probably true. He took me into his office and said he had listened to "Heaven and Hell" and that this is what he thought of it, he then thru the demo out of the window and told me to get out of his office, to stop wasting his time, to rewrite the song and bring it back to him as soon as possible. That was Fenton for yer's, of course treatment like that can be upsetting, when I left the office and got out into the street, I actually looked around to see if I could spot any remnants of my demo, back then demo's where made of that same material they made the old 78 records from and where very fragile, I stood there in Berkeley Street looking around and chewing over Fenton's behavior, then I figured OK, I would do what he asked, rewrite the song and take it back, but old John had thrown up a flag to me, how'd that old blues song go, "Your time now, My time after a while", yer, if I had half the chance, I was goner play this cat and guess what, my chance came up, big time.
P.S. I did rewrite the song Heaven and Hell and Fenton placed the song with a number of artist's of that time, the best version being by a band called "Harsh Reality".
P.S.S At that time TWW was not even on the horizon, the TWW name came from John Fenton after Jim Avery and myself came up with a number of the songs for the first TWW album, probably late 1969, also if you look at the first TWW album cover, you will notice that there are three "r"s in red, within the TWW name, John said that stands for "reading, w'riting and a'rithmetic".
2-What was it like playing the Oz Police Ball? (Benefit for counterculture zine Oz )
Answer: I do not remember playing the Oz ball thing, we played quite a few gigs, usually which turned into mayhem, so I was in the habit of getting out and onto the street as soon as possible and not giving a damn who the gig was for, there were gigs we had to literally fight our way out of, a lot of years have gone down, but I have always held this snapshot, in my head, of Jim Avery fighting his way thru a crowd of extremely pissed off "students" and saying to me something like "Ahhh, the rock and roll life", cracks me up to this day. I think that gig was at the London Polytechnic. Thinking about it, the gig that may have been the Oz thing, could have been held at a London club called Bumpers, the only way in was by freight elevator, as I recall. I remember we shared a dressing room with about six transvestites, who seemed to all be dressing up like Marilyn Monroe (which John Fenton had probably arranged, he would have got a charge out of that, all of us in with a roomful of transvestites). We were the first band on, the place was just jammed with people, as I got up onto the stage, they had this kind of black and white, on and off strobe light going, which made any physical movement look staggered. Around the walls of the club, there was all kinds of group porno being projected, but kinda sped up somehow. I went into my "verbal greeting", and opened with Ascension Day. Looking down in front of the stage and staring at me, with his arm around a woman I did not recognize, was John Fenton He looked like he'd thown a wad into his pants. He was in heaven, maybe he was tripping, who knows, but his "vision" was now top of the London Underground scene, at that point (1971?) there was no UK band close to doing what we were doing.
3- What sort of audience did your live shows attract?
Answer: I think, for the most part, they were people looking for something outside of the mainstream popmusic of that time, like Steve Albini said in an article he did for the Melody Maker in the 90s, "it's a mindset", you either have it, or you don't."
4- You wrote overtly political lyrics before punk rock and after the folk rock/flower power fad. How were the lyrics received by fans and the press?
Answer: I never heard anything, I guess the press just backed off, in fact the whole UK music business backed off. I think the TWW did what John Fenton really wanted and that was to throw a wrench into where the UK music biz was at, at that time. Why bother writing about a deaf, dumb and blind kid called Tommy, when you have a chance to tell it like it is/was, back then. I read a piece someplace about how The Clash got their name, they just looked in the London newspapers and here was the word "clash", clash here, clash there. That was the same for us, just look at the news, and there it all was.
5- What did you think about Dana Gillespie's cover of Stardom Road?
Answer: Never heard it. I believe Dana and Mick Liber (he played on the TWW track) were friends, hence Mick knew the counter chording and riffs in that song and I guess recorded it with Dana. When I put the vocal on that song for TWW, I thought they were getting a sound balance on my voice, I was halfway thru the song before I realized, "Oh, they must be recording this",. Stardom Road is not an easy song to sing or play. I met Dana once, back then, she was one of the best a lovely lady.
6-Who designed the 3WW album covers? They are quite affecting, in a stark way.
I don't know too much about them, the baby's face cover was by an American feller, living in London, Jim Avery probably knows more info. On the second TWW cover, man, that ink work was obviously by a genius, it is of me and Jim, me on the left and Jim on the right, I can tell by our different body shapes. I kinda recall that the guy was living in Rome, again Jim may know more info.
7-It's said that Third World War was the first punk band. Jello Biafra, John Lydon and the late Joe Strummer were fans of your music. What did you think of the punk scene that started shortly after 3WW disbanded? Did you follow the scene at all?
Answer: I had left England for the states, directly after finishing the "Fatsticks" album for A&M Records, around June 1975, so I missed out on all the UK fun. TWW was thru in 1972, I was back driving a truck until Roger Cook pulled the "Fatsticks" thing together.
8-Tell me about your CD, Bootlace Johnnie & The 99s.There's an interesting story on your website Stardom Road about how you met up with Alistair Murphy, who produced that CD.
Answer: Alistair contacted me by email a few years back and is a TWW admirer, especially the Stardom Road track. He turned out to be an arranger who had a studio in his home (in the UK). It kinda just escalated, I sent him some basic demo's that I thought would never see the light of day and he has the talent and golden touch to give them another dimension, unbelievable really. I spoke to him a few weeks back and apparently he is working on Bootlace Johnnie Two. I think he was maybe a little worried where it would all take him, but Bootlace has got good reviews,
9. You've continued to make music since moving to L.A. in 1976, playing live with The L.A. Rockmotor and your rockabilly trio. You've also recorded several albums through the years vial GSL Music, a few of them with former bandmate Jim Avery. Which ones are your favorites?
Answer: Bootlace Johnnie and the 99s (Burning Shed BSHED0404). The Complete Chicago Recordings (GSL Music GSLMCD023) Jim Avery's Seven Angels Of Dust (GSL Music GSLMCD030) See WWW.GSLMUSIC.COM I have recently put all the Los Angeles Rockmotor material onto five CDs, having every cut we recorded from rehearsals, recordings, sound checks, etc.
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Interview with Jim Avery
1 Re Oz Ball
Sure great gig - all underground revolutionaries - thought revolution was going to happen - vive la revolution!
2 Audience
Revolutionaries - would be revolutionaries - people who wanted to make a change.
3 Punk Scene
Followed the scene - breath of fresth air - good news for me - Track records wanted me back - because of the emerging Punk scene - punks roaming around Track Records - Track handling Punk - Hired me to co-ordinate punks as they did not know what to do with them - I was on the same wave length ( Re Third World War) - The Who were considered respectable at that time. I was as hired as a Music Liaison Officer - handled Siouxsie and the Banshees - Sid Vicious was around he was not with the Sex Pistols in the early days - In fact he borrowed Terry Stamps Hagstrom Guiter - not to be seen again .
4 Memorable Experiences
Bomb scare in Germany - on tour with Golden Earings - Barry one of the band receiveing a electric shock via the lips and being blown 20 feet across the stage.
Women populate the business and political scenes worldwide in a way that would do early feminists proud. If you think it was hard for a woman to become a mayor or CEO in the first half of the 20th century, imagine what it was like for female physicist or chemist.
Julie Des Jardins’ book, The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science, records the experiences of females who entered and excelled in the cloistered, male-oriented world of science. All school kids know about Madame Curie, but how many people have heard of Nobel prize winning physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who researched the shell model of the atom’s nucleus? Or Annie Jump Cannon, an astronomer who classified stars while working at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, along with other female catalogers known as “Pickering’s women”?
Even though the idea of a woman scientist may conjure a stereotype similar to that of the straitlaced librarian, the women of The Madame Curie Complex are interesting characters who endured initial resistance from male co-workers, juggled family life and long days in the lab without bitterness or complaints. There is a lot of emphasis placed on how childrearing and duty to husband and hearth shared time with scientific work.
One of the busiest ladies chronicled in The Madame Curie Complex, Lillian Gilbreth, was branded the first lady of modern management. She developed the forerunner to the “flow chart” used by businesses to define company organization and work processes, along with her husband Frank. The couple had 12 children, and their family life was made into the movie Cheaper by the Dozen. Lillian was responsible for designing the first advertising campaign for Modess Sanitary Napkins. Prior to that, the males in charge at were at a loss about how to pitch the product.
Meticulously researched and peppered with anecdotes that bring its subjects to life, both as people and scientific heroines, The Madame Curie Complex is a must-read for anyone curious about the role of women in science.
Floria Sigismondi’s film The Runaways, is an accessible, mainstream version of the short-lived career of the groundbreaking all-girl rock band. Lead singer Cherie Currie and guitarist Joan Jett are the focal points of the film, which traces their first meeting at a glamrock club for underage kids to the unraveling of the band a few years later.
Kristen Stewart channels Joan Jett in this film. Not only does she look like Joan, she has Jett’s posture, walk, and budding tough girl bravura down pat. Dakota Fanning likewise plays Cherie Currie’s doppelganger, whether she's strutting onstage in her infamous molded white corset or maneuvering between the sleazy rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle and her troubled family. The 2010 faux Runaways performing Cherry Bomb will leave even older fans doing a double take before realizing it’s not the real band. The lead actresses were coached extensively by Jett and Currie prior to filming , and it shows in their realistic performances.
The other band members are represented in recording and performance scenes and little else. Stella Maeve as drummer Sandy West shares a few pivotal scenes near the film’s beginning with Stewart and Fanning. Scout Taylor Compton as Lita Ford has one major blow-up scene and little else; composite bass player Robin (Alia Shawkat) has no dialogue.
But Michael Shannon as creepy manager/Svengali Kim Fowley steals the show. There’s no telling whether we’ll laugh, groan or be grossed out by his antics. Fowley uses such endearing terms as “dogcunt” while addressing the girls. In the film, has a bunch of local boys throw dogshit at the girls to teach them how to handle hecklers (This was an exaggeration. They only got tomatoes toilet papers rolls, et al thrown at them in real life.) The allegations of sexual abuse hinted at in Cherie’s autobiography and in Vicki Tischler-Blue’s Runaways documentary Edgeplay are left out of The Runaways.
First time feature film director Floria Sigismondi cut her teeth making bizarre videos for Marilyn Manson at the height of his popularity in the 1990s. “The Runaways” bears little resemblance to Sigismondi’s past efforts. It’s crisp, linear storytelling that compacts several years of plot in an hour forty five minutes. Sigismondi takes no real liberties here. She changed a few things like the exact time of Cherie leaving the band. The facts remain basically unscathed.
If you want the hard, unvarnished reality of the band’s history, check out Edgeplay, a documentary directed by former bass player Vicki Tischler-Blue. Edgeplay expands on a lot of the All the major players in the Runaways saga expect Joan were interviewed for the film, including Kim Fowley and Kari Krome, but Joan was noticeably absent from the documentary except for archival footage. (Joan and her manager Kenny Laguna were The Runaways’ executive producers.)
Rock ‘n’ roll shenanigans abound in The Runaways. After a bunch of nasty, longhaired hippie musicians insult the girls, Joan goes into their dressing room and pisses on one of their guitars. Joan teaches Cherie how to masturbate (to a picture of Farrah Fawcett). There’s a sense of fun and discovery to Joan and Cherie's relationship even when they’re snorting coke in an airplane bathroom. It’s not sordid business as usual (as it seems to be for teenagers today) its fun, it’s experimentation. The much-ballyhooed lesbian scene between Cherie and Joan is more sweet than prurient, starting out with a kiss in a strobe-lit roller rink.
There’s a subplot involving Cherie’s alcoholic father, and another one involving all the media attention focused on her Brigitte Bardot like sex kitten image. Fowley arranges for a photographer to take a slew of racy pics of Cherie, unbeknownst to the other girls in the band. Needless to say, this causes an insurmountable rift in band dynamics.
I bought the Runaways' debut album at a record store in Chicago’s Ford City Shopping Mall the day it was released in 1976. The Runaways framed album cover is hanging up on my wall above my workspace. Most of my other 1970s albums are long gone, left behind, thrown out, or scratched beyond repair. But that original vinyl pressing of The Runaways survived almost 35 years of cross-country moves and wear and tear.
The Runaways is great entertainment, whether you’re familiar with the band’s history or not. Hopefully, it will pique younger viewers' curiosity about the band and send them to their computers to download some Runaways MP3 albums, and do some more exploring about the founding females of hard rock.
This review is based on a screening of the film at the L.A. Film School, 3/9/10 for the Rock & Roll Camp for Girls
This is a repost of phone interviews I conducted with Brett Smiley and Nina Antonia in February 2005, shortly before the publication of Nina's book, The Prettiest Star.
Through The Looking Glass:
Brett Smiley's Long, Strange Journey
Glam rocker Brett Smiley recorded his sole album Breathlessly Brett in 1973. Smiley was touted as a wunderkind by his producer, the legendary Andrew Loog Oldham. After the single "Va Va Va Voom" proved a minor success on the UK charts, Smiley and the unreleased album disappeared til author Nina Antonia and music historian Phil King unearthed the long forgotten gem in 2003. The album, now available from RPM Records has received somewhat of an underground buzz, being played on KXLU and Indie1031 in Los Angeles, London's Resonance FM and WFMU in New Jersey. I recently interviewed Antonia and Smiley about those heady glam days of the early '70s, and their collaboration on the book The Prettiest Star, Smiley's bio/glam memoir.
Interview with Nina Antonia 2/16/05
Author Nina Antonia is a child of glam. Raised in London, in a dysfunctional household, she grew up in the early '70s Glam boys like the New York Dolls and Brett Smiley left an indelible impression on her. Antonia eventually forged a career as a music journalist, penning biographies of Johnny Thunders, the New York Dolls and Peter Perret of the UK phenomenon the Only Ones. Her latest undertaking is The Prettiest Star, a bio of "junkglam" rocker Brett Smiley. I spoke with Nina about meeting Brett, the idea behind "The Prettiest Star" and glam rock in general.
For The Prettiest Star, Antonia wanted to employ a more personal, emotional approach to the subject than her previous biographies. "The last book I wrote, in 1998,"Antonia says, "was the New York Dolls biography. After I wrote that book I wanted to keep writing about the music experience and my heroes, but I wanted to write about it in a less biographical way and The Prettiest Star is actually like split screen, juxtaposing between my life and Brett's life. It's really about searching for a lost pop idol."
Antonia wanted to approach the book in a more emotional way than most music bios, which tend to detail only the most glamorous and debauched images of fame. "It doesn't explain why people become fans of things and ways that it might become a problem I had a very dysfunctional family so music gave me as it did for thousands of people another dimension. But I just wanted to explore that. I don't know what it's like in the States, but over here the pop or the rock experience is male dominated. You don't have as many women talking about why they got into music hundreds of books testifying why men got into the rock scene. We have books written about the rock experience by guys but we really don't have any by women, so I wanted to try and do that." The road to The Prettiest Star was not an easy one. "I ambled along trying to find things out about Brett from 1974 onwards and, eventually, I sort of gave up. It seemed too difficult, especially long distance. Then Antonia went to a gallery opening for a Marc Bolan photo exhibit. "I met a guy, Danny, who was well versed in glam. I hadn't asked anybody about Brett Smiley and he said a friend of mine got in touch with him through the Internet and I was really shocked." Danny's friend was Phil King, who helped compile the Glitterbest and Glitter From the Litterbin glam collections. (King also played bass in Lush and Jesus and Mary Chain.) "Between the two of us we worked on getting in touch with Brett and getting the CD Breathlessly Brett out. I called Brett one night and we just got to talking. I told him that I had his single as a teen-ager and his picture on the wall.
"It took me about 3 years to finish the book." Says Antonia. " I'm not interested in superstars. I'm interested different aspects of the popular music experience other than the typical mainstream. I wanted to explore the glam days and make them live again. So it was like a journey into the past for him and for me."
"The crux of the book deals with stardom, music and its effect not only on the performer, but on the fan. When I was 14 and saw him on the show you think people on TV are having this fantastic life and he looked particularly glamorous. So you daydream they sort of live on the stars and you live on earth, so I liked writing about that. Just the daydream about wanting to be a star. The thing the crux when I was Brett was on the Russell Harty Show (a talk show in England that featured an eclectic variety of guests) you think, "what a fantastic life." It looks glamorous. They live in the stars and you live on earth. It's about that and it's also about. the daydream about wanting to be a star. What happened to him was far from starry, but it was a nice fantasy."
I mention that I know many teenage kids today who seemed consumed by images of the 1960s and 1970s and eschew the current MTV culture crammed in their faces. "It's a search for free space," Antonia comments, "It's not sponsored by this or taken over by that. It's freer . You take an active part It's not homogenized, not something you can find in a shopping mall. It's important to young people to be unique in some way."
The first half of the book deals with childhood and Brett's life up to the making of Breathlessly Brett. "They were difficult years for both of us in completely different ways. What Brett and I both shared even though we were growing up millions of miles away was the desire for escape and transformation through music." The Prettiest Star, Antonia adds, is also about how you perceive stardom. It's looking through the looking glass and what do you find?"
Interview With Brett Smiley 2/17/05
Brett Smiley was involved in show biz practically from birth. A precocious child, he made his onstage debut as a tot. The youngest of four children, Brett insisted on singing in a local revue his sisters and brother were in, "I went up to the woman who was directing it and said 'I wanna sing" and stole the show from my sisters and brother." Some of his fondest memories are of his move to New York and debut on the Broadway stage as a child star in Oliver!
" I spent 4-5 years in Lionel Bart's "Oliver" on Broadway and in the touring company. "My sister (actress Brenda Smiley, who stared on Broadway with Jerry Orbach in "Scuba Duba.") was here in New York, studying acting and saw in the trades they needed boys who could sing. I was very young and they were concerned about my age, but I could sing and was really cute." Smiley was still new to the show and observing from the sidelines when the cast of Oliver was on the Ed Sullivan Show-- the same night as the Beatles "We were on the elevator about a dozen kids with long hair and scrappy clothes, except for me, I was still observing. We were all talking about who had long hair first." While on tour with "Oliver", Smiley and some of the other cast members put together a band called the Bedbugs. (One of Smiley's castmates, Davey Jones, left to join the Monkees.) "Growing up in the theatre, it's a different sensibility I didn't much like the idea of acting at that time. It was sex, drugs and rock n roll." He moved to California in the summer of love. The girls in California were much more open about sexuality than (the ones in) New York at that time. I was amazed at the difference between New York and California." While in California, Brett cut school to play guitar with his friends. While there, he encountered Russ Gibb, a. promoter looking for bands to produce. "He heard me play and really liked me."
Gibb represented the band Sky, Doug (The Knack) Fieger's first band. "Doug and I are friends now," says Smiley. "Doug kept announcing he was quitting," Smiley recalls, "He was a prima donna. We all were prima donnas, c'mon." Brett got his big break when Gibb finally let Fieger leave Sky. "Russ Gibb said, 'OK, quit the band.' They were going to England and he took me along. I said, 'How am I going to learn, I don't even play bass!' I went to England with Sky and Russ Gibb, who eventually took me back to Detroit." Smiley met Andrew Loog Oldham in Detroit when Oldham was producing records for Motown. "I sang my songs and played him my demo tapes. Andrew said, 'I want to record you.' In keeping with the spirit of the times, alcohol and drugs flowed freely "I was doing a lot of drinking and a lot of drugs. I could handle it then." It took three years to record the album. "It took a lot of perseverance on my part. I'd been to Seattle and L.A. I was always trying to get something going." The deal Oldham secured for Smiley was bigger than the recordbreaking deal Jerry Brandt had gotten for New York art rocker Jobriath. Today, Oldham and Smiley are on good terms; they even recorded some songs in New York in 1986. "I spoke to him last week," Smiley says, "He is a DJ on Sirius radio. He's not much into recording anymore and is writing books."
As if the delayed recording of Breathlessly Brett wasn't enough, its release was soon in jeopardy. "I started not trusting Andrew, he started not trusting the label. Bands usually get to go out and do something first before that conflict comes up. Then I split to Los Angeles and I kept wanting to know what's the delay? There was a lot of disillusionment. I believe drugs had a lot to do with it, not just my use but Andrews' and everybody else's use." When Columbia Records decided to focus their attention on a band called Ace who had the nondescript hit song "How Long," Breathlessly Brett was shelved.
In the "lost" years that followed, Smiley went to hell and back. The whirlwind of drugs and drinking took their toll. Eventually, Smiley was admitted to UCLA Neuropsychiatry Center "Iggy Pop had gone there so it was ok," Smiley jokes. After years of drug use and jail time in Florida , Smiley found out he had HIV. Smiley's long-time girlfriend, B movie actress Cheryl Smith ("someone who I think about to this day," Smiley says), died of complications due to hepatitis in 2002. Smiley had survivor guilt. "I questioned it. I did as many drugs and drank as much as she did….. I'm very lucky to be alive." What was the rehab process like? "Rehab? I've been given 30 years of rehab," Smiley says. "When I got clean and stayed clean it was about living outside of rehab. Anybody can stay clean in rehab or jail."
It's been a long, sometimes treacherous journey, but Brett Smiley is a survivor and is now doing quite well. He lives in Brooklyn, and is studying to be an acting teacher, and has recently played live shows on the East Coast and in London. A new song," Our Lady of the Barren Trees" will appear on a UK compilation CD later this year.
And he's grown his hair long again. "Everybody's got such groomed hair now. I've got to be different.," he laughs. And what are Smiley's future plans? "I'm crossing the bridges as I get to them," he says.
The Plimsouls Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal: October 31, 1981 Whiskey A Go-Go Alive/Natural Sound Records
The Plimsouls’ lean and catchy melodies lit up the the L.A. club scene in the late 70s/early 1980s. Singer/guitarist Peter Case formed the Plimsouls in 1978, after his first band, the Nerves, disbanded. Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal: October 31, 1981 Whiskey A Go-Go captures the Plimsouls during their heyday. Recorded on Halloween 1981 at the Whiskey A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip, it’s a slice of that coveted time in L.A. music history. Recorded the same year the band released their first (currently out of print) studio album. Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal features live versions of most of those songs and a few boisterous covers.
The Plimsouls are known to the public primarily for the song “A Million Miles Away” from Valley Girl. If you think that song was catchy, how’d ya like 17 more like it? Yes, L.A. was chock full of great bands and clubs in 1981. Hard-core punk and alternative bands were a dime-a-dozen on the scene, but the Plimsouls carved out a fresh and frenetic power pop sound. They retained a garage rock edge that cemented their identity. You can pick out a Plimsouls song from the soulful opening riffs of Eddie Munoz’s lead guitar every time.
There’s no lull in the action here, from the urgent opening of “Lost Time” to the jangly beat of “Zero Hour.” One party song segues into another, with every tune as energerized as the next. It’s a reminder of what grassroots rock ‘n’ roll was meant to be — kicky, unadorned fun. Members of New York’s Fleshtones join the band for of Gary “U.S.” Bonds’ “New Orleans.”
This is the Plimsouls’ second live album. 1988’s One Night in America, was released long after the band had ceased to exist. Case went on to a solo career, but the Plimsouls albums remained legendary among fans of garage rock, power pop and the L.A. scene.
The sound on Live! Beg Borrow & Steal is crisp and clean. It really gives you the sense that you’re standing right there in front of the stage listening to the band. Even the cheering and shouting fans come through clearly.
The band sits in front of the original Sunset Grill (the same one made famous by the Don Henley song) in the cover photo. The CD insert contains striking photos of the band by renowned rock photographer Robert Matheu. A note to vinyl collectors — Alive Naturalsound Records is releasing a limited edition LP version of Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal, with a free poster.
Black Irish Texas hails from, appropriately enough, Austin, Texas and they’ve been playing their own high-energy, smart-ass brand of Celtic rockabilly since 2004. On To Hell With the King, their debut CD, they commit some of that Irish rock mayhem to disc. They’ve shared stages with the Dropkick Murphys, the Street Dogs and their fellow Texas hell-raisers, the Flametrick Subs. Ya can tell a tongue in cheek sense of humor is an integral part of the band’s raison d'être from the lyrics of their first song “Get ‘Em Off”--.”Forget your Catholic morals, girl/ you and I belong in hell” Their wild get off your butts & mosh (or dance til you drop) sound infiltrates all eleven songs on To Hell With The King. And while you’re moving around the room, work the brain cells a bit cuz the lyrics are some funny shit. (Bonus Point—a Hot Rod Lincoln-esque interval in the middle of the title track.)
Women’s voices were rare on the radio, even in broadcast hungry Chicago til about 1970, unless you were a singer on a hit record or a character in a commercial. It was downright strange to hear a female disc jockey on an AM oldies/Top 40 radio station. That is, until Connie Szerszen, the self-proclaimed “Polish Princess” broke the barrier and became the first female DJ to host a prime time show on a major market AM station. Szerszen's autobiography, Top Rock Girly Jock, is a breezy and heartfelt look at the days when AM radio ruled the roost in Chitown.
Szerszen began her broadcasting career at all-girl, all-jazz WSDM-FM, where Linda Ellerbee also got her start. WSDM’s “Den Pals” as the DJs were called, announced songs in sultry voices and posed for sassy promo pics in their maxidresses and flowered hotpants. Soon, Connie caught the ear of bigwigs at WIND, one of Chicago’s popular AM stations, and her spunky, All-American personality made her a favorite with fans, but she still had to deal with resentful male DJs and executives. In 1973, the station promoted her from weekend DJ to a full-fledged member of the on-air staff.
“The Polish Princess” blazed the same trails as feminists of the day with out being loud or abrasive. She appealed to listeners across the board—young, old, male and female. “I myself, had nothing to do with women’s lib” she writes “I just wanted to dee-jay.” She referred to herself as “your top rock girly jock’ and introduced an ultra-clean version of strip poker as between song banter, extolling listeners to take off their dentures, hearing aids or similar innocuous items.
Through the years, Szerszen encountered many of the era’s well-known celebs, and the book is sprinkled with photos of her with famous singers (Tom Jones, Stevie Nicks, Bobby Vinton) pop culture icons (Tiny Tim, Steve Allen) and her fellow DJs. Chicagoans of a certain age will get a kick out of pics of Connie posing with a plaid-suited Wally Phillips and “Chicago Ed” Schwartz wearing a pumpkin Halloween costume. Szerszen also recalls her “unconsummated” date with Neil Diamond, and a hallway fan “ambush” of Elvis (Presley, that is, not Costello). Szerszen was a fan of the celebrities who passed through the radio station and affiliated promo events, and her enthusiasm shows in her writing.
There were no “turkey drops” sponsored by Chicago radio stations like on WKRP in Cinncinnati, but station DJs were trotted out to local amusement parks, zoos, parades, and sporting events on a regular basis. WIND even hosted a kite fly in Grant Park til kite flying was declared illegal in the Chicago city limits. The station and its fans staged a light-hearted protest about that ban. And Connie has some funny anecdotes about her remotes from the zoo. (Those pesky primates!!)
Top Rock Girly Jock covers a lot of ground. It’s not merely a memoir about Szerszen’s radio days. She writes lovingly about her upbringing in a Polish Catholic family, and updates us on her life since WIND. She DJed for a local country station, worked in real estate, took up portrait painting, and returned to radio in 2002 to host 70s Saturday Night on oldies station WJMK.
If you’re a fan of radio history, or a current or former Chicagoan who likes to relive memories of “the good old days”, you'll find Top Rock Girly Jock to be a fun read packed with some great photos of the Windy City’s AM radio heyday.
Colin Bannon’s indie film Love Conquers Paul is a bit confusing at first glance…in a good way. During the first few scenes, we get a glimpse of handsome but socially awkward young Paul, (Brendan Bradley), going through his daily routine, which includes videotaping unsuspecting young women on the streets. So, we wonder, is Paul a stalker or just a lonely misfit?
Sure, it’s a creepy premise, but we grow to like Paul. Instead of using the videotapes for untoward purposes, he uses them to learn more about his “crushes” so he can approach them without fear. He’s so clueless and likable that we we root for him to climb out of his social morass. Paul’s adventures are a pastiche of despair, witty banter, and personal growth. There’s nice guy Paul, eating his dinner by himself every night and polishing his pottery collection - and then he spends the night watching videotapes of women he fancies. His only confidantes are Mr. Feigenbaum (Peter Riegert) his boss at the dry cleaners where he works, and his gay best friend Ray (Russell Garofalo).
Love Conquers Paul isn't always what it appears to be on the surface. It's a romantic comedy, but parts of it are downright depressing in an off the cuff, real life way. Even potentially icky scenes spin into something genuine. Ray tries to seduce Paul, but they get past this faux paus and their friendship grows stronger. Paul’s chance encounter with beautiful and brash artist Esoterica (Elizabeth Wood), evolves into his first love affair and unleashes a chain of events that transform his life forever.
Love Conquers Paul won the Lynn Redgrave Award for Best Feature at the 2009 Kent Film Festival and was an official selection at 2009’s Dances with Films, the 2009 San Luis Obispo Film Festival, and the 2009 Syracuse International Film Festival. Love Conquers Paul is a quirky gem of a film with excellent performances by Brendan Bradley and Russell Garofalo.
I’m so old I heard "Bohemian Rhapsody" when it was first released. I’d cut school on a frigid winter day in January and kept the radio on low so the neighbors wouldn’t know I was home and report me to the truant officer. Anyhow, when I heard the song I was stunned. “This is amazing. I can’t believe they’re playing this on the radio!” I thought.Then I first saw Queen at the Chicago Stadium on the Jazz tour in 1978. It was a revelation. Freddie commanded the stage in his leather jacket and biker cap. He performed an an acoustic set with Brian May featuring “39” (one of my fave Queen songs), and then the entire band rocked out on "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Get Down, Make Love” Sigh. Those were the days! Reading Queen The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock by Phil Sutcliffe piqued these memories.
Freelance journalist Sutcliffe compiled a plethora of old photos (some never before published), memorabilia, and both published and original interviews to fill up this lush, 300-page biography of Queen. The author also enlists the help of fellow journalists to offer their reviews and memories of Queen’s albums. Jim DeRogatis remembers Jazz, Greg Kot reviews Sheer Heart Attack and Chuck Eddy critiques News of the World.
Musicians and rock stars from every conceivable stripe also pay homage to the band as well. Billy Squire reminiscesabout opening for the band on their Hot Space tour. Rob Halford talks about Freddie’s singing style; Slash about how Brian May influenced his guitar playing. The book is peppered with quotes about the band from a diverse bunch of musicians including Sammy Hagar, Brian McKnight, Kid Rock, Tom Morello and Neil Diamond.
Reinhold Mack offers many tales about working with the band (he produced several Queen albums, including The Game) and shares family pictures of his son John-Frederick with godfather Freddie Mercury. One sidebar is accompanied by a photo of a touching postcard from Freddie to his godson. Longtime Queen road manager Peter Hince recalls the recording sessions for "Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” and there are a few different recountings of the legendary meeting between Freddie and Sid Vicious.
Queen: The Illustrated History differs from many other coffee table, photo-oriented rock books because it has just the right combination of band photos, text and pictures of memorabilia-ticket stubs, backstage passes, show posters, single sleeves, and even pages from the infamous Rock ‘n’ Roll Comics are part of the package, not just filler. All sorts of Queen trivia is revealed throughout the course of the book (Brian May’s father helped design the Concorde; a man dressed as a piece of liver performed at one of Queen's notorious late ‘70s parties ). Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock is a beautiful, impressive book that reads as good as it looks.
When you think of Jerry Lewis, The Nutty Professor, Dean Martin, the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, and "Hey, Laaaady…” all come to mind. Chances are his solo TV variety show doesn’t ring a bell. The Jerry Lewis Show aired on NBC from 1967 to 1969, and went largely unnoticed by critics and viewers alike. Infinity Entertainment Group has released The Jerry Lewis Show Collection, a two-DVD package of “best of” bits and sketches from the show’s first season, and highlights from one of the second season’s shows.
Lewis portrays his trademark fumbling nerds with an array of guest stars. Janet Leigh, Nanette Fabray, Don Rickles, Ben Gazarra, Flip Wilson, Joey Heatherton, Laurence Harvey, Shirley Jones, Harold J. Stone — the list could fill up this page. They play straight man (or woman) to some of Lewis’s most recognizable characters. There’s the perpetual loser Sidney, screwing up a job at supermarket and trying to fit in at a Swinging Singles apartment complex; the hyper Canadian mountie Sergeant Goodguy; the Chinese detective with the politically incorrect moniker Sam Lichee; and Ralph Rotten, the mustachioed bad guy "fighting the forces of niceness and goodness." Jerry’s co-stars, (notably Ben Gazzara during a sketch set in a talent agency), have a hard time keeping a straight face when he ad-libs.
As a slice of 1960s variety show nostalgia, The Jerry Lewis Show Collection isn’t bad. Since the DVD's contain only selected skits, minus musical numbers and the show’s original opening and closing credits, we get a “YouTube” version of the shows, not complete, cohesive performances. Longtime fans of Lewis (or of vintage TV variety shows in general) will find this frustrating. One of the most fascinating aspects of ‘60s comedy/variety shows was the juxtaposition of burlesque type comedy skits with musical guests like the Jefferson Airplane and Strawberry Alarm Clock (or even Enzo Stuarti!). We get none of that here. The Osmond Brothers appear in a comedy skit, but we don’t see them perform any songs. Were the show’s musical performances excised from the finished DVD because it was too expensive to obtain rights to them?
The only DVD extra is a generous photo gallery, complete with captions. The Jerry Lewis Collection is appropriate for serious collectors only; other folks should check out a copy of Jerry Lewis: The Legendary Jerry Collection, which features The Nutty Professor and other classic Lewis films, and The Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Collection.
Rapper 50 Cent’s life as a hustler (aka drug dealer) in Queens and subsequent rise to fame as a rapper and entrepreneur served as the inspiration and the framework for the book The 50th Law. So what is The 50th Law? The back cover of the book bears the imprint “Nihil timendum est.”, Latin for “fear nothing” and that’s the gist of The 50th Law's message. Fiddy, a fan of social science writer Robert Greene's 1998 book,The 48 Laws of Power, approached Greene to work on a possible project. The result was the The 50th Law, a street-smart primer on power and self improvement.
Greene’s prose and research hinges on historical and psychological underpinnings interspersed with tales of Fiddy’s life on the streets. Napoleon, explorer Andrew Selkirk, and the philosopher Seneca have a lot more in common with a rapper like 50 Cent (and other successful modern people who’ve overcome adversity) than you might think.
Touchy-feely self-help books and the “everyone’s a winner” mumbo jumbo favored by women’s TV talk shows and California psychic/chakra types may make people feel good temporarily, but they don’t spur the complacent into action. Robert Greene ‘s rational, proactive approach in this book, as in his previous works,The 33 Strategies of War and The 48 Laws of Power will do just that. I discovered Greene’s work after reading a list of The 48 Laws of Power on some random website. I noticed that I had unwittingly followed some of those laws during several happy and productive times in my life. So there is something relatable about Greene’s writing for people from all walks of life.
The 50th Law distills the doctrine from Greene’s other books, including the brilliant The Art of Seduction. While The Art of Seduction brimmed with examples (and quotes) from the lives of European courtesans and philosophers, The 50th Law quotes Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I knew very little about 50 Cent before reading this The 50th Law and have only a cursory knowledge of the rap world, but I have utmost respect for him as a businessman and artist after reading this book. Now as for all those controversial feuds with other rappers mentioned in the book, that’s way over my head. Maybe a rap expert can clarify all that for me.
The fact that 50 Cent is a co-author might scare away middle of the road types looking for some life coaching, but that would be a mistake. There’s a lot of good advice here. Whether you seek fame or fortune or just want to live life on your own terms, The 50th Law will shake you into repositioning yourself for success. The book isn’t sugarcoated or simplistic, but it’s not Machiavellian either. I know many people use that term to describe Greene’s work, but I don’t agree. The 50th Law is a dose of reality, assertiveness and common sense.
Writing an icon’s biography must be a daunting task. You have scads of material to sift through and an adoring public ready to criticize any false turn you may take regarding said idol.
That was evident with the biographies of John Lennon and Michael Jackson. Then some rock star biographies have so many career twists and turns to cover, any controversy is just gravy. Marc Spitz's book Bowie: A Biography is one of those books. Spitz explores David Bowie's chameleon-like personas, from Ziggy Stardust to Aladdin Sane to the Thin White Duke. David Bowie championed reinvention long before Madonna. Rock journalist Marc Spitz, (whose last rock bio was about Green Day), obviously did a lot of research via magazines, other books and original interviews. Tony DeFries, whose management company ran Bowie’s career in the 1970s, and other characters that passed through Bowie's life, are recounted. Spitz reveals long lost, gossipy tidbits from Bowie’s past, among them, a party at a disco in DJ Wolfman Jack’s house.
There’s a dizzying amount of rock ‘n’ roll history here. Bowie publicist and all-around rock chick Cherry Vanilla explains “You had to be on, on,on” Perhaps that’s where all the cocaine came in handy during the mid-'70s. Spitz covers Bowie's "lost" years in L.A, his friendship (and work) with Iggy Pop, the filming of The Man Who Fell to Earth, and his notoriously erratic (and rumored cocaine-fueled) debut TV appearance on the 1974 Dick Cavett Show.
Many of the events in Bowie’s life merit a full recounting; the Ziggy Stardust/glam rock era is explored in-depth, but there’s not a lot of detail after the mid-'80s. Spitz’s account recaps Bowie’s career but offers little insight into the man and what makes him tick. There’s always a family tragedy in the lives of most rock stars, and Bowie’s story is no different. Spitz details David’s relationship with his older half-brother Terry — who helped inspire David’s musical beginnings — in the first few chapters. Terry committed suicide in 1985. David's wild, open marriage (and bitter divorce from first wife Angie) is the only off-stage scenario that gets much attention, and the obligatory first chapter about his childhood. We get a sense of the journey, but Spitz doesn’t give us a sense of Bowie's off-stage persona or tie together the recollections and make sense of them.
Spitz conducted no new interviews with Bowie himself, but interviewed Bowie cohorts like photographer Leee Black Childers, Cherry Vanilla, ex-wife Angie Bowie, Joey Arias, Peter Frampton, Spider from Mars Woody Woodmansey, and a whole cross-section of Bowie associates. So there’s no shortage of juicy stories and behind the scenes' minutiae.
However, Spitz does relate a few stories of his own life as a Bowie fan. He saw Bowie hailing a cab in NYC, but didn’t approach him. Sidetracks like this in a biography are fine if they’re short and add to the point. In Bowie: A Biography, they happen a bit too often.
Despite a few shortcomings, Bowie: A Biography packs a lot into its hefty 448 pages. That’s more than enough to jog the memory of any Bowiephile and lead to more memories not extensively covered in the book. Remember Bowie's duet with Cher on her TV show? I know, you’d rather forget.
Another sign of the apocalypse occurred recently when it was revealed Octomom Nadya Suleman and annoying media whore Jon Gosselin were in talks to do a new reality show together. At best, the Octomoms and Jon Gosselins of the world should be minor celebrities. Sadly, on any given news day these jerks are saturating the media more than many other celebrities with actual talent. Even porn stars have to be skilled at something to get where they are--have a perverted specialty like having sex with a sock puppet, etc. At least that would be original. All those morons had to do was procreate. And if you can’t support eight kids on your own or with your spouse or family, don’t expect the media to give you the money to raise them.
Now, the reason these idiots are still famous? Because people are talking and writing about them. Now 99 percent of the people who write articles, message board posts and blog entries like this one deride them and want them to disappear. But admit it, folks, its fun to have jerks like this to make fun of, and of course, they deserve it. Even apologizing to the (soon to be) ex-wife is done in public with a celebrity rabbi, documented by cameras for all the world to see. Would Jon Gosselin have apologized by his lonesome in private without making a spectacle of it? That's highly doubtful.
But they don’t care. Any publicity is good publicity. It’s the “I don’t care what you say about me, just spell my name right.” culture in full bloom. What does it say about America that "reality-dweeb" celebrities and our fascination with them have inundated pop culture for a decade now? It’s like the viewing public are fair weather friends or bullies in waiting. We love to make fun of reality stars, but they always come back for more and get paid for it, either in cash or freebies. But remember Britney's tale. Everyone participated in death pools when she shaved her head, but there were always a few people who said, “Oh, but her comeback will the greatest in history.” Well, Britney did comeback. It certainly wasn’t the greatest ever, but we got to keep her around. It’s that up and down cycle that fascinates the minions. We just can’t get enough of whacking ‘em when they are down and gushing on ‘em when they’re up.
And I can’t wait til the Gosselins or Octomom take acting lessons and take work away from talented thespians all in the name of box-office appeal. It’ll be the most highly touted acting debut since Vanna White in Goddess of Love. But wait-that will involve real effort. I wonder if any of these folks would even put in the requisite practice to be on Dancin With the Stars since they’re so used to their unscripted lives being fodder for every media outlet in America. I kinda feel sorry for the young women that hang around this Gosselin guy, too. Just think…in the ‘60s groupies had the Stones and Beatles; in the '80s Duran Duran, but now they have the Jon Gosselins and other reality show schmucks of the world. It's slim pickins' out there, ladies. Could we just get tired of the Gosselins and other self-absorbed reality stars so they can fade back into obscurity and take care of their kids sans 24/7 cameras and interviews with the Star? Then maybe the American public could get back to being entertained by, and talking about, people with real talent, substance and/or charisma.
I know, I know. Why are you reviewing a book by a Chicago sports guy on an entertainment blog calledThe Slums Off Hollywood Boulevard? I was born & raised in Chitown, and before I hit puberty and discovered rock 'n'roll, I was a grade school tomboy who cut class to watch Cubs games. This book brings back a lot of those early sports fan memories for me.
Every city has its local celebrities. These folks are local newscasters, DJs, TV show hosts, athletes and they have a longer shelf life than most national celebs. This type of fame usually doesn’t translate well from one region of the country to another. A local New Yawk type might be too real and down to earth for the surf and suntan crowd in Laguna Beach. Some local icons do cross over to the national spotlight, getting their act known to fans of a certain “niche.”
In Chicago, some of its sportscasters are as famous (or infamous) as its athletic heroes. Harry Caray is the most famous example. Harry even made it to SNL, thanks to Will Ferrell’s colorful impersonation. Chet Coppock, one of Chitown’s longest running sportscasters, made it to the national spotlight several times, as a syndicated sports talk show host and as an announcer for the World Wrestling Federation and the Roller Derby.
After almost 40 years as a sportscaster, Coppock has written his first book, Fat Guys Shouldn’t Be Dancin’ at Halftime. It’s divided into 100 ultra-short, stream of consciousness chapters about every facet of Chicago sports you can imagine. Chet leaves nothing out, even dedicating chapters to Northwestern football, Cog Hill golf course and long defunct (or long ignored) franchises like the Chicago Fire and the Chicago Sting.
Chester isn’t one of those sportscasters who just rattles off statistics. He’s a genuine Chicago sports character himself, just like Ditka and the’85 Bears. Chet praises and lambasts local execs, coaches, fans, and other sportscasters in his indefatigable, rapid-fire style, which translates surprisingly well to the page.
Pro sports are part of the entertainment biz and Chet dissects the good, the bad, and the ugly with pithy observations. In one example, about Cubs player turned sportscaster Ron Santo, (who is given to malapropisms and once had trouble pronouncing the word fuchsia on-air,), Coppock writes, “Ron and the English language haven’t had that dinner they’ve been talking about.”
There’s a section called “You Call These Sports?" Here Coppock reminisces about covering the Indy 500, the WWF, the original Roller Derby and other sports of questionable repute. (Yes, Coppock was there during the halcyon days of the T-Birds and the Pioneers. As proof, there’s a YouTube clip of a very young Chet interviewing Joan Weston and Tonette Kademas.) About the current Windy City Rollers team, he says “The old roller derby was a con, a play for laughs. The Windy City Rollers, so help me Midge “Toughie” Brashun, are completely on the level. The fact is, they beat the living hell out of each other and generally go get loaded.”
The “Fat Guys” of the title refers, in part, to half-time entertainment at Chicago Bulls games these days. Apparently, the Bulls have funny dancing fat guys as half-time entertainment in addition to the slim, female Luvabulls cheerleaders. Fat Guys is a fast and fun ride through four decades of Chicago sports history.
It’s hard to believe the New York Dolls remained an obscure but highly coveted rock curiosity for almost three decades. If you listen to the seismic activity in the New York Dolls camp since the surviving members reunited, the amount of media coverage, and the kudos from young kids and their Moms, Dads and Grandpas, you'd think they were the aging glam rock equivalent of over-saturated reality TV stars.
But from the time Morrissey reunited the remaining band members for the Meltdown festival in 2004, the reunited 2York, I mean New York, Dolls have blazed into music consciousness at an accelerated pace that makes up for the initial confusion and shunning they received from the world at large the first time around.
What with two brand new CDs of original music released since 2006, DVDs, concert tours, and renewed interest in the tiniest detail of the band’s heyday. Not to mention indefatigable Johnny Thunders nostalgia, that’s been going on forever. Lech Kolwalski has edited several versions of the unreleased (and heavily bootlegged) JT documentary Born to Lose. Kowalski’s biopic though, deals mostly with Thunders post-Dolls music (and drug) career.
The Dolls original bass player, the late Arthur “Killer” Kane, the sweetest and least flashy member of the band, insofar as a tall, lumbering guy in platform boots, boa and sparkly tube top can be considered unassuming. Kane was the subject of the 2005 documentary New York Doll, and now his posthumously released memoir I Doll: Life and Death With the New York Dolls is now available from Chicago Review Press. As far as I can tell, Arthur wrote the book without a ghostwriter, and he has a breezy, conversational writing style. Some of his recollections are hazy-the passage of time can further dim events that occurred in a drug and alcohol stupor in the early ‘70s. (There are a few pages of editors’ notes at the end of the book to correct factual errors).
It’s refreshing to read a first hand account about the Dolls first 16 months. They go from being an underground hit at the Mercer Arts Center in NYC to play Wembley Arena in London during those 16 months. They rush from a celebrity studded party in London to a hotel and find original Dolls drummer Billy Murcia dead, O.D’ed in a bathtub. They create their first costumes from vintage clothes and even sew some of their own stage clothes from scratch. They get sloshed on Newcastle Ale and ambling drunkenly though a gig on their English tour, getting so loud and obnoxious in their natural Manhattan habitat that fellow bar patron David Bowie skitters away into the night. And of course there are the drugs and groupies…
Arthur’s widow Barbara adds a foreword and an epilogue to the book. Her marriage to Arthur was full of ups and downs; when he was drunk or angry he was physically abusive; once he even beat her up and tied her up with a telephone cord. Arthur died from leukemia in 2005, a few weeks after the Meltdown reunion concert. Barbara notes in the epilogue that Arthur blamed his problems (and the demise of the Dolls, in part, on singer David Johansen Arthur refers to him as "our singer" instead of by name in the book. Anyone who saw New York Doll knows the story of how Arthur was jealous of the outgoing and outlandish Johansen.
Kane’s dislike for Johansen and managers Leber/Krebs overshadows some of the antics and narrative at times. As a firsthand look at the inner dynamics of one of the most infamous and influential bands of all time, I Doll is intriguing. A good read for hardcore Dolls fans and other lovers of early New York punk/pre punk.
Disclosure: I was provided with a free review copy of this book by Chicago Review Press.
Singer/songwriter Janis Ian, best known for her 1975 hit “At Seventeen” began her career as a child prodigy. For the next 40 years, her songs dealt with everything from domestic abuse, coming out as a lesbian, the Holocaust, teenage alienation and incest, along with ballads about loneliness and love.
The Essential Janis Ian provides the travelogue for this journey. Ian picked all the songs on this two-disc compilation. With over 30 albums dating back to 1967, alternate versions, unreleased demos, and live performances, she had a huge amount of work from which to choose. This set from Columbia/Legacy traces Ian’s career from her first tumultuous hit as a teenager to the quieter, more introspective tunes dealing with topical issues and lost love in the decades that followed.
Essential’s first CD covers Ian’s work from her teen years to the early 1990s. The first song is a demo recording of “Hair of Spun Gold,” which Ian wrote when she was 12. There is a wistful, folk tale quality to this coming of age saga. “God & the FBI” was inspired by J. Edgar Hoover and his buddies spying on her left wing parents. “Silly Habits” has a swinging piano and jazzy vocals. Ian’s early work didn’t get the airplay of other folkies and troubadours of the time like Joan Baez , Pete, Paul and Mary or Bob Dylan, but she certainly was a vital part of the folk movement, due to one song in particular.
Her first success was with the controversial tale of interracial romance “Society’s Child.” The song, produced by Shadow Morton (Shangri-las, New York Dolls), was so taboo many stations refused to play it. “But, honey, he’s not our kind’, Ian sings, mimicking a mother forcing her daughter to break up with her boyfriend. This song was so controversial when it was first released; a radio station was burned down for playing it. Her initial record label, Atlantic, considered the song too volatile for public consumption and shelved it. Verve then released it, and “Society’s Child” became a top 20 hit in 1967.
After the whirlwind success of “Society’s Child” Ian faded into the background for awhile to “find herself” and recover from dealing with sudden onslaught of fame and controversy at such a young age. In 1973, she returned with the album Stars. It’s most famous song, “Jesse,” a tender love song about an absent paramour, was popularized by Roberta Flack, and later recorded by Shirley Bassey and Joan Baez, among others.
Ian didn’t become a household name herself until 1975, when her album Between the Lines spawned the hit “At Seventeen.” Both the single and album version are included on this collection. "At Seventeen" the theme song for alienated teenage girls everywhere. And where else could you hear poetry like "in debentures of quality / and dubious integrity/ Their small town eyes will gape at you in dull surprise / wham payment dot exceeds accounts receive at seventeen..” on AM radio.
But all Ian’s musings are not bleak. The hopeful twang, harmonica and all, of “This Train Still Runs” looks at the bright side of getting older. Night Rains, her last album of the 1970s paired her with early electronica kingpin Giorgio Moroder for the disco-pop anthem “Fly Too High,” her most upbeat and commercial single (It was more successful in Europe and Australia than the U.S.). The sweeping and majestic “Love is Blind” is the only offering from the poignant Aftertones.
The second disc contains songs unfamiliar to the causal listener; since there are no radio hits included. By the early ‘90s, Ian had her own label Rude Girl, and most of the songs on this disc are selected from those releases. There’s “My Tennessee Hills” (with Dolly Parton on second vocals), a lovely ode to Appalachia. The melancholy “Some People’s Lives” dissects the ways people live in emotional squalor, while “Stolen Fire” brims with percussive verve.
The lyrics here stand on their own as sheer personal and emotional poetry. While Ian’s work (and certainly her personal stance) has always had a liberal political bent, the romantic songs included on Essential are applicable to anyone’s love life, regardless of gender or sexual proclivity. There’s an inclusive, humanistic appeal to her messages.
Ian has a sense if humor, too. She once guested on Howard Stern’s show, strumming a spoof of “At Seventeen” about Jerry Seinfeld and his young girlfriend. A snippet of the song was also famously used on The Simpsons. Her autobiography “Society's Child” is now available, and you can read more about Janis Ian’s life and music on her website.
