Ray Manzarek, 1939-2013

In honor of the life of Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Doors, the following is an excerpt from The Doors FAQ by Rich Weidman.

The oldest Door, and the band’s cofounder along with Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek often came off as a kind of bespectacled, perpetually stoned professor, somewhat akin to Donald Sutherland’s character, “Dave Jennings,” in Animal House (“Would anybody like to smoke some pot?”). Onstage, however, with his head flailing wildly and fingers flying maniacally across the keyboard while improvising the bass parts on his Fender Rhodes organ, Manzarek evinced a total psychedelic, blues-driven intensity.

Raymond Daniel Manczarek (he dropped the “c” soon after cofounding the Doors) was born on February 12, 1939, to a working-class family in Chicago, Illinois. His grandparents had immigrated from Poland in the 1890s. Manzarek started practicing piano at an early age, and he eventually studied classical music, including Bach, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky, at the Chicago Conservatory. However, Manzarek was blown away when he first heard the Chicago blues and eventually fell under the sway of such legends as Muddy Waters (in his official Elektra biography, Manzarek listed Waters along with Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel as influences), Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, and others. He also discovered jazz artists like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ahmad Jamal, Ramsey Lewis, and Bill Evans to round out his musical education.

After graduating from the Catholic all-boy St. Rita High School, Manzarek embarked on a conventional career path, earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePaul University. After briefly attending UCLA law school and serving a two-year stint in the army (where he got the opportunity to smoke some genuine “Thai stick” in Thailand), Manzarek headed back to UCLA, where he majored in cinematography, completed three well-received short film (Evergreen, Induction, and Who and Where I Live), and met fellow film student Jim Morrison. According to Manzarek in his autobiography, Light My Fire, “instead of realizing our parents’ dreams, much to their chagrin, we created our own dreams.” To help pay for tuition, Manzarek took the stage as “Screamin’ Ray Daniels” on weekends at a total dive called the Turkey Joint West with his brothers, Rick (guitar) and Jim (harmonica), in a local surf/blues band called Rick and the Ravens. Manzarek would frequently coax fellow film students, including Morrison, to join him onstage and help him belt out such classics as “Louie, Louie,” in front of the crowd of blitzed college students. In the summer of 1965, Manzarek and Morrison cofounded the Doors after a chance meeting on the beach in Venice. Soon later, at a Transcendental Meditation session, Manzarek recruited drummer, John Densmore, who in turn brought guitarist Robby Krieger into the Doors.

Post-Doors, Manzarek recorded two solo albums, The Gold Scarab (which was billed as “a busy fusion of Jazz, Exotica, Rock, Rumba and Salsa”) and The Whole Thing Started with Rock ‘n’ Roll. He also performed in several bands (including the Nite City), recorded a rock adaptation of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with Philip Glass, produced four albumbs with influential Los Angeles punk band X (Los Angeles; Wild Gift; Under the Big, Black Sun; and More Fun in the New World), backed Beat poet Michael McClure’s poetry readings, and collaborated with poet Michael C. Ford. In 1996, Manzarek recorded The Doors Myth and Reality: The Spoken Word History. Manzarek’s autobiography, Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors, was published in 1998. In 2001, Manzarek published his first novel, The Poet in Exile, which explored the myth that Jim Morrison had faked his death. In 2002, Manzarek organized the highly controversial group the Doors of the 21st Century with Robby Krieger that later morphed into Riders on the Storm and then Manzarek-Krieger. In 2006, Ray Manzarek published a second novel, Snake Moon, an “erotic ghost story” set during the Civil War that was a reinterpretation of the Japanese film Ugetsu (directed by Kenjo Mizoguchi).

The Doors FAQ: Drawing upon unique sources, Rich Weidman digs deep and serves up fresh perspective on the music, from the garage to the hits to the outtakes; and on the band’s members, from their roots, influences, and key industry partners to their rare talents, personal foibles, love affairs, and arrests. This volume also details every studio album and live recording, all the highs and lows of the Doors in concert (including the notorious 1969 Miami concert), Morrison’s 40-day trial, and the death of the “Lizard King” in Paris in 1971, as well as post-Morrison milestones. Unlike the straightforward narratives of other Doors biographies, this inventive, ceremonious biographical collage leaves no stone unturned, covering the band both with Morrison and post-Morrison, including the 2010 When You’re Strange documentary and the recent pardon of Morrison by the State of Florida for the Miami concert. Countless rare images from album art to ticket stubs to posters accompany the text, in this dazzling edition of solid rock scholarship.

It’s Cher’s Birthday!

Happy 67 years, Cher! Enjoy an excerpt from Cher: All I Really Want to Do by authors Daryl Easlea and Eddi Fiegel in honor of a remarkable woman.

As much as she is known as a singer, an actress, and an entertainer, to many of her fans Cher is, more than anything, the ultimate survivor. There are even jokes on the internet about how, in the event of a nuclear catastrophe, all that will be left will be “cockroaches and Cher.”

Increasingly, she has come to symbolize a resilience and invincibility— both professionally and personally—that is central to her appeal. She may have achieved the extraordinary feat of scoring hits in every decade since the sixties, but her career has nonetheless not been without its lows. She is also a woman who can be seen to have had her fair share of life experience, from a difficult childhood through two divorces and numerous relationships.

In fact, many of her hits since the eighties deal with surviving heartache and coming out the other side, stronger and wiser. As she sings in ‘Believe’: “I know that I’ll get through this / Cos I know that I am strong.”

Cher is the first to admit that she has amazing staying power. Back in 1990, when ABC News’ Diane Sawyer asked her which of her lyrics she liked to sing most, she immediately thought of Jimmy Cliff’s ‘Too Many Rivers To Cross.’ “I’ve been licked, washed up for years, and I merely survived because of my pride,” she said, quoting back the lyrics. “It’s me! It says everything about me in those two lines. I’ve been on my way out for twenty-five years. At this rate I’ll be 100 before I’m gone!”

To many, Cher also epitomizes the idea of the outsider who has overcome hardship and adversity to reach the upper echelons of fame and wealth. Like a modern-day Cinderella, she is the poor girl from the valleys of California who looked radically different to the cookie-cutter blond, blue-eyed ideal that was so prevalent when she was growing up in the fifties and yet still managed to become a star—mostly through her own determination and hard work.

“I invented someone who was funny and interesting: not the most beautiful person on the block, and yet still could convey that kind of feeling across,” she told Barbara Walters in 1985. “I think that you can invent your life as you go along. You’re born with a huge piece of paper or a canvas and you can put anything on it you want to.”

 

Cher: All I Really Want to Do takes readers through the ups and downs of a career that spans more than 50 years in show business. Beginning with her breakthrough alongside husband Sonny Bono in the ’60s, it takes in the high highs – and low lows – of the ’70s, the big-screen success of the ’80s, and global superstardom in the ’90s, and continues right up to her latest comeback alongside Christina Aguilera in Burlesque. There’s detailed coverage of every major album, film, and tour, from “I Got You Babe” to “Believe,” “Half-Breed” to Moonstruck, “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves” to Mermaids, and beyond.

Q & A with John Kruth

credit: Paul Hoelen Mandarine Montgomery

 

John Kruth is the author of Rhapsody in Black: The Life and Music of Roy Orbison (Backbeat Books). The following is part of a Q&A on MusicTomes.com. Please visit their site for the full interview.

 

 

 

You’ve previously written about the life and music of Townes Van Zandt and Roland Kirk, how did you come to choose Roy Orbison as your next subject?

I have pretty eclectic tastes and listen to all sorts of music from Don Cherry to George Jones to Ravi Shankar to Glenn Gould to Captain Beefheart…. but ultimately its passion for my subject when it all comes down to it. You better love your subject! Roy’s classic sides for Monument, to me, are some of the greatest records made in the last century from the way they were written, performed and recorded. Also the story of his life fascinated me, the way he overcame incredible tragedy and managed to continue creating in spite of the devastating cards that fate dealt him. Ultimately he was a sonic alchemist who turned pain into beauty.

Orbison’s widow, Barbara, has a notoriously tight-grip on all things Roy, and as you chronicle in the book, had a lot of control over Roy himself. Did this present any problems in your research or in contacting people who knew and worked with Orbison?

In my earlier 2 biographies I worked closely with both of the widows. I wish I could have spoken with Barbara but I was warned by a number of people that she would want to control the contents of the book. So I avoided any contact and just quietly forged on. There were a few people who declined interviews with me because the book is unauthorized. Sadly Barbara was ill and has since passed away. I was hoping that she might’ve liked my book and I could have interviewed her for the 2nd edition.

What did you run across in your research that surprised you?

Writing a biography is kind of like going out on a date with someone you really like but you don’t know all that well and the relationship is suddenly on the fast track and things are unfolding at an alarming rate. There are plenty of surprises, some set backs but you made the commitment. Perhaps it’s more like a shot-gun marriage – cause you gotta see it through at least until the baby arrives! Surprises? How great (and how lame) some of the MGM tracks were – check out the Hank Williams record that Roy made. I never heard it before, and most of the musicians don’t even recall recording it. Its wild, sounds like a Lee Hazelwood production.

Keep reading this interview on MusicTomes.com!

 

About the Book

Orbison’s singing has inspired everyone who has heard it, from Springsteen to k. d. lang, and laid the very foundation for goth. While fascinating from a pop culture standpoint, it is Orbison’s life’s journey that makes a great story that has yet to be told to its fullest. Rhapsody in Black: The Life and Music of Roy Orbison doesn’t shy away from or trivialize the personal pain, alienation, and tragic events that shaped Orbison’s singular personality and music. Roy Orbison wasn’t merely a singer but a sonic alchemist who, in the end, transformed unfathomable human misery into transcendent melody and platinum records. Rhapsody in Black contains new interviews with over 20 people who worked closely with Orbison throughout his life.

 

 

20 Essential Live Reggae Albums

The following is an excerpt from If You Like Bob Marley… by Dave Thompson.

As the album that spawned the original hit version of “No Woman, No Cry,” the song that remains Bob Marley’s best-loved (and most-covered) number, the Wailers’ 1975 Live album ignited a trend for in-concert recordings that persisted for much of the next decade, at least in western markets. More recently, the regular release of archived live recordings from the same period has done much to distill the importance of such documents—even the original “No Woman, No Cry” has been supplanted on certain Marley compilations by other live recordings.

Nevertheless, an hour or so spent in the company of a great live album is almost . . . almost . . . as good as being there; or, at least, know­ing somebody who was. And here are ten of the very greatest.

Trojan Reggae Party—various artists (1971)

Recorded live in London in 1971, and the soundtrack to many a period party, Trojan Reggae Party preserves punchy performances from the Cimarons, Bruce Ruffin, Nicky Thomas, the Pioneers, Dandy Living­stone, Greyhound, and more. (All had scored U.K. hits recently, with Thomas’s impassioned “Love of the Common People” and Ruffin’s loopy “Mad About You” especially outstanding.) Hard to find, and ex­pensive when it does turn up, but a seriously magnificent album.

Live—Burning Spear (1977)

Recorded on Burning Spear’s sensational visit to London in 1977, where he was accompanied by local reggae band Aswad, Live is an electrifying set that could easily be his best album ever.

Live—U-Roy (1978)

Not an album per se, Live was a twelve-inch EP capturing highlights of the DJ’s summer 1976 visit to the U.K. Recorded at the Lyceum Ballroom, with Sly and Robbie in thunderous attendance, it whets the appetite for more. Which, sadly, has still to be delivered.

Prisoner in the Street—Third World (1980)

Third World’s studio output often painted them as the soft and sweeter side of roots reggae. This set tears expectations to shreds, delivering wildfire eruptions through “96 in the Shade,” “African Woman,” and the title track, keeping it up so long that the vinyl has practically melted by the time you hit the end.

Live at the Music Machine—Dillinger (1981)

Recorded in London before a deliriously packed house, it is no surprise to find this album has since been repackaged as The Best of Live. Because that is what it is, as Dillinger travels through all his best-known numbers: “Natty Don’t Need Glasses,” “Roots Natty Congo,” “CB 200,” “Judgement Time,” and, of course, “Cocaine in My Brain,” a thumping celebration of white powder and its power, together with a lesson in literacy that the crowd that night knew by heart.

Live at Reggae Sunsplash—Big Youth (1983)

He opens with “I Pray Thee”/“Satta Massagana”; closes with “Hit the Road Jack”; and, in between, delivers a seething greatest-hits collection that is topped by what might be a career-best “Green Bay Killers.”

Live at the Controls at Jack Ruby Sound Ocho Rios J.A. —Brigadier Jerry (1983)

A blistering dancehall celebration, with the Brigadier joined by fellow stars Sammy Dread, Michael Prophet, and, sounding great in the midst of things, the veteran Dennis Brown.

Junjo Presents Two Big Sounds—various artists (1983)

The album that introduced the world to Beenie Man, a wild DJ collection that also features Dillinger, Michael Irie, Fathead, and Ringo, recorded live at 82 Chisholm Avenue, Kingston, in early 1983.

Prince Jammy and the Striker Lee Posse Presents Music Maker Live at the Halfway Tree Jamaica —various artists (1984)

Horace Andy, Chaka Demus, Don Carlos, Super Liki, and many more gather for a night of high-energy dancehall mania. Raw and unproduced to some ears, this album redefines excitement.

Live in Tokyo—Augustus Pablo (1991)

Pablo’s reluctance to tour is good reason why there are no live recordings from his earlier period; but this set, dating from his first-ever visit to Japan in 1991, catches him making up for lost time.

Vibes Alive—Israel Vibration (1992)

Recorded in California the previous year, the long-running saga of Israel Vibration hits the road with the ever-seething Roots Radics.

Live On—Wailing Souls (1994)

Another album that you wish could have been recorded a decade-and-a-half before, but it wasn’t, so you live with it. And that really isn’t that great a hardship.

Party in Session Live—Michael Rose (1997)

Recorded at various halts on former Black Uhuru frontman’s Michael Rose’s 1997 U.S. tour, what could have been a wearying set of revivals instead morphs into a magical celebration of past and present.

Cultural Livity—Live 1998—Culture (1998)

Spanning the years with a crowd-pleasing set, Cultural Livity scarcely remedies the absence of a 1970s concert recording from this most powerful of live bands, but it’s still hot. Especially if you can ignore the keyboards.

Live at Reggae Sunsplash 1994—Garnett Silk (1999)

Garnett Silk was poised to become the biggest reggae star of his era when he was killed in a house fire in December 1994. Recorded at Sunsplash earlier that same year, this is thus the sound of Silk at his peak, neither beholden to the familiar versions of his greatest hits, nor particularly interested in them. If you own just one Silk album, make sure it is this one.

Live—Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers (2000)

A handful of his father’s songs could, but do not, overshadow Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers’ own material on an album that captures all the joy and excitement of a period Melody Makers gig.

Words of Truth—Sizzla (2000)

Two CDs for the price of one: a new studio collection and a savage Sizzla live set that is alone worth the price of admission.

Live—Luciano (2000)

The king of the 1990s roots-consciousness revival, Luciano is caught live at the end of the decade he dominated with a set that shows you how he accomplished such.

Live in Paris—Yami Bolo (2000)

Yami Bolo’s version of “Curly Locks,” which turns up at the end, is what clinches this as a fabulous album—but the entire performance is spot on.

Live in San Francisco—Capleton (2007)

Too many live albums are now delivered as DVDs these days, and the pros and cons of that approach are for you to decide. This stunning Capleton set, however, repeats the concert on an audio disc, and it’s definitely worth diving into.

If You Like Bob Marley… is the unique and utterly compulsive story of the King of Reggae, told not through the life and times of Marley himself, but through the music and magic of the musicians who grew up around and under the influence of Bob Marley and his band, the Wailers.

Houses of the Holy

Guest Blogger: Rikky Rooksby is the author of many musical how-to books such as How to Write Songs on Guitar or Arranging Songs. Below is an excerpt from his blog. Please visit his site to read the whole article.

Houses of the Holy

As Dave Lewis (see the http://www.tbl.com website and Record Collector magazine feature) reminds us, March saw the 40th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin’s fifth album. Having numbered their first three LPs and titled the fourth with four symbols, they more conventionally gave the fifth a title: Houses of the Holy (a reference to their audiences and concert halls). The Zeppelin mystique was assuaged by the fact that the title was not printed on the sleeve but came as a paper wrap-around. The sleeve itself was a strikingly tinted photo montage of the Giant’s Causeway. Nor did the album contain the song ‘Houses of the Holy’, which was eventually released in 1975 on Physical Graffiti.

Houses of the Holy was a hugely-anticipated album, following the band’s elevation to international fame during the preceding two years, and the fourth album which contained ‘Stairway To Heaven’. Many were hoping for another ‘Stairway’ on the new album, and Robert Plant revealed in one interview that the band did indeed have a song metaphorically fired from the same cannon. This was ‘The Rain Song’, a very attractive altered-tuning ballad with rising and falling dynamics. The remaining seven songs included the uptempo rollercoaster ‘The Song Remains The Same’, the delightful acoustic / electric mix of ‘Over The Hills and Far Away’, the heavy rock winter nocturne of ‘No Quarter’, the unbuttoned and joyful rifferama of ‘The Ocean’ (its opening riff combing a bar of 4/4 with one of 7/8), and the two controversial tracks ‘D’Yer Mak’er’ and ‘The Crunge’.

These were received by the more prog-rock ‘hairy’ part of Zep’s audience as ideological crimes: the first for being reggae and the other for being James Brown funk, and both for being apparently Not Serious. How dare Zep waste several inches of vinyl bandwidth on musical jokes! was the cry. What happened to the Viking-horde-clamouring-for-Valhalla head-banging which was what the World’s Official Heaviest Band were supposed to deliver?

Keep reading on Rikky Rooksby’s blog!

Rikky Rooksby is a guitar teacher, songwriter/composer, and writer on popular music. Considered the premiere author of songwriting guides, Rooksby has also written numerous music history and guitar instruction books and has published over 200 interviews, reviews, articles, and transcriptions in music magazines. He has also transcribed and arranged more than 40 chord songbooks, including music by Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, and many other artists.

A member of the Guild of International Songwriters and Composers, Rooksby is also a sought-after teacher who leads courses on music at The Oxford Experience and other international continuing education summer schools.

U2′s Controversies

In honor of Bono’s 53rd birthday today, we’re sharing some of U2′s more entertaining controversies, excerpted from the pages of U2 FAQ: Anything You’d Ever Want to Know About the Biggest Band in the World…And More! by John D. Luerssen (Backbeat Books).

1. Jamaica Mistake-a
On January 16, 1996, Bono and his family wound up on the receiving end of police gunfire when his plane landed in Negril, Jamaica. Planning to meet up with Adam Clayton on the island, somehow local police were of the belief that a plane loaded with drugs would be landing in the same area around the same time. When the gunfire finally stopped, the Hewsons, Chris Blackwell, and Jimmy Buffett were offered an apology by the local police, who had fired at the wrong plane.

2. Oasis Kiss
In March 1996, a photo of Bono and Liam Gallagher of Oasis sharing an open-mouthed kiss caused a stir. Taken backstage at the Point Depot in Dublin, fans of both bands quickly derived that it was an alcohol-fueled joke, but not before the media got a lot of mileage out of it. Bono confirmed this to Rolling Stone in 1999, saying, “Actually, what happened was he had a guitar pick in his mouth, and he dared me to take it off him while the paparazzi were standing around. I couldn’t resist.

3. Tabloid Trash
In September 1998, U.K. tabloid the Daily Star published photos of Bono’s bare ass. Bono had been changing his clothes on an Italian beach during a vacation with his wife Ali at the time the paparazzi snapped his bottom. The couple sued the paper for invasion of privacy.

4. Shut Up, Paul
In June 2008, after Paul McGuinness suggested that Radiohead’s 2007 pay-what-you-like download release of In Rainbows had backfired, Bono announced his disagreement with U2′s long running manager. Bono called the Thom Yorke-fronted band “courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience,” in an open letter to the music weekly NME. Calling Radiohead a “sacred talent,” Bono added, “such imagination and courage are in short supply right now,” and explained that U2 “feel blessed to be around at the same time.”

In U2 FAQ, award-winning music journalist John D. Luerssen goes beyond the essential facts, delving into the legendary fables and unique anecdotes that make U2 FAQ an indispensable read for all U2 disciples. How did Bono recover his cherished suitcase of lyrics 23 years after its 1981 disappearance? What movie dialogue is sampled in the middle of “Seconds”? What effect did bull’s blood have on Larry’s drumming? How did Bono’s visit to Central America inform The Joshua Tree? What are the details of Adam’s 1989 marijuana bust? How did Mick Jagger wind up on All That You Can’t Leave Behind? These are just some of the topics U2 FAQ explores.

Happy Birthday, Billy Joel!

Today is music legend Billy Joel’s 64th birthday. Enjoy an excerpt from Hank Bordowitz’s book, Billy Joel: The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man. 

Billy was the first artist to perform, in 1990, to back-to-back, standing-room-only audiences at 54,000-seat Yankee Stadium. In 1992, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 1999 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1994, he received the Billboard Century Award, and he’s been awarded doctorates in humane letters. Billy’s popularity helped power the series of “Face to Face” tours with Elton John into some of the most successful live events of all time, setting attendance records around the world. Despite not having written a song in more than a decade and having turned his compositional talents to the composed classical music arena, he remains one of the few acts that can practically guarantee a sellout on the touring circuit.

If this weren’t enough, a Broadway show, Movin’ Out, featuring Billy’s songs and Twyla Tharp’s choreography to tell a story in the best tradition of ballet, has been running for nearly three years as of this writing, and has spawned a touring company, allowing Billy to have his music tour while he stays home in the Hamptons.

That said, anyone who has followed his career and his very public (much to his chagrin) private life doesn’t need to be Freud to figure out that Billy Joel has, as modern parlance would have it, issues. He has spent most of his career at war with the media in general and music critics in particular. Early in his career, he was not entirely wrong to rail. Critics didn’t “get” the musically mercurial Billy. “Critics have accused Joel of trying to have it all ways,” Time Magazine writer Tony Schwartz noted as Billy started flirting with stardom in the late ’70s, “but it’s precisely his capacity to blend old-fashioned melodies, literate lyrics and a rock ’n’ roll spirit that makes him special.”

 

Billy Joel: The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man is a look at the superstar’s entire career, including his troubled youth as a gang member; the controversy surrounding his first hit, “Captain Jack”; his legal problems; his storied marriage with Christie Brinkley; and his continued artistic frustration. “The Beatles did ‘Michelle’ and ‘Yesterday,’” he has said. “They also did ‘Revolution’ and ‘Helter Skelter’ and they weren’t pegged as balladeers. But because I had hit singles that were ballads, I became known as a balladeer. I’ve always resented it.”

Happy Birthday, Willie Nelson!

It’s Willie Nelson’s 80th birthday today!

Guest Blogger: Randy Poe, author of Stalking the Red Headed Stranger.

Randy Poe and Willie Nelson

Unless you were listening to country radio in 1962, you probably aren’t aware that Willie Nelson had two Top Ten singles on Liberty Records that year. “Willingly” – a duet with Shirley Collie – entered the charts in March, followed two months later by “Touch Me,” Willie’s first solo venture to reach the Top Ten.

It would be thirteen years before Nelson would have another hit single. In 1975, his recording of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” went to number one on the country charts, number twenty-one on the pop charts, and number twelve on the adult contemporary charts. Before long, Willie Nelson was on his way to becoming a household name via records, concerts, movie roles, television appearances, and – well – just being Willie Nelson.

While I was researching Willie’s life story for my book Stalking the Red Headed Stranger, the main trait I personally found to be most admirable about the man was his indomitable determination.

When he scored that first Top Ten hit in 1962, Willie was twenty-nine years old. When he followed it up with another Top Ten hit a couple of months later, major stardom must have seemed just around the corner. However, his next few singles didn’t make the kind of noise those first two had, and by 1965, Liberty Records had closed it Nashville offices, leaving Willie without a label.

Despite that dry spell during his last couple of years on Liberty, Willie was soon signed to the all-powerful RCA Records – home of Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, Hank Snow, and a host of other country giants.

Chet Atkins – RCA’s head honcho in Nashville – was so confident he’d signed a winner that he assigned himself the task of producing Nelson’s records. With the combination of RCA and Chet Atkins on his side, Willie’s next hit single was virtually a fait accompli. But it quickly became apparent that Chet’s “Nashville Sound” production methods (lots of background singers, lots of strings) just didn’t work in Willie’s world. Year after year, single after single, album after album, Nelson’s career remained in neutral, if not reverse.

After seven years of failure, Willie’s days at RCA mercifully came to an end. Atlantic Records was next. By then, Willie was forty years old. Most country singers have had their last number one hit long before they hit forty. Willie was yet to have his first. Two years, two albums, and six singles later, Atlantic Records – just as Liberty had done in the mid-’60s – got out of the country music business, leaving Nashville and Willie behind.

Despite the fact that Nelson had now gone over a dozen years without anything close to a hit, Columbia Records was waiting in the wings – not only ready and willing to sign the singer, but to also give him complete creative control over his recordings for the label.

The end result was Red Headed Stranger, a concept album that broke the mold in country music with its dark story line, its stark instrumentation, and its number one single, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”

After that – as the deejays say – the hits just kept on comin’.

* * * * *

Willie Nelson turns eighty today. His musical talents have been known throughout the world for decades. But what if he’d given up after that first year on RCA with no hits, or that second year, or that sixth or seventh year? Anyone could understand why he might call it quits after none of his albums or singles on Atlantic made much noise either.

Just like millions of others, I’m a huge fan of Willie’s music. I also admire his work with Farm Aid, Habitat for Horses, and the other important causes he has championed over the years. But it’s pretty safe to say that without his incredible, indomitable determination – at least as far as his recording career is concerned – Willie Nelson might very well be remembered today as just another singer who had a couple of Top Ten hits in the early 1960s.

Happy birthday, Willie. Thanks for all of your contributions to the world of music – and for reminding us that talent is an asset, but determination is invaluable.

Stalking the Red Headed Stranger

Stalking the Red Headed Stranger is a guide to the art and history of professional song plugging. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill history book/instruction manual. It is an in-depth, up-close look into the real music business by industry insider and Grammy Award nominee Randy Poe, who has represented literally hundreds of the greatest songs in the history of popular music, including “Stand By Me,” “Happy Together,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Under the Boardwalk,” “Hound Dog,” “What a Wonderful World,” “Spanish Harlem,” “Chapel of Love,” “Summer in the City,” “Love Potion No. 9,” and “Kansas City.”

But wait! There’s so much more! Interwoven throughout this entertaining and enlightening book is the hysterical saga of the author as he chases American icon Willie Nelson across Canada – via plane, taxi, rental car, and even ferryboat – in an attempt to pitch a single song to the Red Headed Stranger. And what happens on Willie’s bus doesn’t stay on Willie’s bus.

The Great Jazz Guitarists

Guest Blogger: In honor of National Jazz Month, author Scott Yanow talks a little about his 11th jazz book, The Great Jazz Guitarists.

 THE GREAT JAZZ GUITARISTS

I have often been asked why I decided to write a book (my 11^th) on jazz guitarists. Among my other books are ones that cover trumpeters and jazz singers, so why the guitar this time?

Rather than pick an instrument that had tens of thousands of great players (such as the piano, bass, drums or saxophone), I wanted to focus on an instrument that had a smaller number of masterful players. The guitar also has a rather fascinating history in jazz. While it is an indispensable part of blues, rock and bluegrass groups, many of the most important jazz bands never included a guitarist, whether it was the Benny Goodman Quartet, the Charlie Parker Quintet, John Coltrane’s quartet or either of Miles Davis’ classic quintets.

The guitar had to win three different battles before it could be considered a major instrument in jazz. It had to find a place for itself in the music, replacing the banjo (which happened in the late 1920s/early ‘30s). It had to become audible in all settings (which did not happen until it was electrified in the late 1930s) and it had to develop several major stylists. While Eddie Lang and Django Reinhardt had emerged in the 1920s and early ‘30s, Charlie Christian became the dominant force on young guitarists during his period with Benny Goodman (1939-41). In fact Christian was such a powerful force, that most electric guitarists who emerged during 1940-65 sounded like they could have been one of his relatives! While Tal Farlow, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Raney, Wes Montgomery and Grant Green certainly had their own musical personalities, their allegiance to Christian’s ideas and approach was obvious.

It was not until the rise of fusion and the emergence on the scene of John McLaughlin in the late 1960s that the guitar finally moved permanently beyond Charlie Christian. It was in the 1970s that the guitar became a major jazz instrument, developing many different stylists who have enriched the music ever since. If one listens to McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Howard Alden, Russell Malone, Stanley Jordan, Mike Stern, Charlie Hunter and Marty Grosz, one hears nine very different ways of playing the jazz guitar. Each musician sounds very different from each other, and that is true of a few dozen other guitarists on the scene today. The jazz guitar had finally arrived.

In The Great Jazz Guitarists, I discuss the musical legacy of hundreds of guitarists whose work is well worth exploring. I hope that readers will find it to be educational, informative, entertaining and fun.

Scott Yanow
www.scottyanow.com

The Great Jazz Guitarists

The prolific Scott Yanow has outdone even himself with this book, the most comprehensive guide to jazz guitarists ever published. With hundreds of dossiers and discographies on every major (and not so major) jazz guitar player of note, arranged in encyclopedia fashion, this is the final stop on anyone’s tour of six-string wizards working the swinging side of the street.

From Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian to Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin and even Les Paul to Jeff Beck and beyond (not to mention Wes and Barney and everyone in between), The Great Jazz Guitarist hits every note, never sharp or flat, and always with the combination of edge, sensitivity and awe-inspiring depth of knowledge that has made author Yanow one of the most widely read and respected critics and historians in jazz history.

Don Kirshner’s Birthday

Guest Blogger:  Rich Podolsky, the author of Don Kirshner: The Man with the Golden Ear, writes in with a piece in celebration of Don Kirshner’s birthday today.

Don Kirshner Got His Wish

A year ago, just before what would have been his 78th birthday, Don Kirshner got his wish and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, what should have been a slam dunk didn’t come so easily.

You’d think that discovering and developing three of the greatest songwriting teams of all time—Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and Barry Mann and Cythia Weil—would have been enough to get him there in one of the first years the Hall opened its doors.

Or the fact that he developed the Monkees, created the Archies and also discovered and Kansas—the band not the state—would have put him on the Hall’s doorstep.

Or at least if anyone took into consideration that he created and hosted the most successful and dynamic rock ’n’ roll show in television history, he should have been able to walk into the Hall of Fame. Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, which ran for nearly a decade and presented more than 500 of the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll acts, ran from 1973 to ’82 and in the 30 years since it still hasn’t been surpassed.

But Don Kirshner was the bitter enemy of Ahmet Ertegun, the man who founded the Hall of Fame along with his partner Gerry Wexler, and until Ertegun passed away Kirshner had no chance for admittance. Even after his passing Kirshner was ignored by the insiders who comprise the Hall’s nominating committee.

Unfortunately Don Kirshner had to die to get in. After dying of heart failure early in 2011, Carole King campaigned vigorously and got her former boss in the Hall’s back door last April. His wife, Sheila, accepted the award, ironically named the Ahmet Ertegun Non-Performer Award.

After King made a passionate speech in his behalf she handed the award to Sheila, who hoisted it over her head in victory and proclaimed, “Donnie, you made it, babe.”

Somewhere up there Don Kirshner was enjoying the moment.

Rich Podolsky—

Author of Don Kirshner: The Man with the Golden Ear, and Neil Sedaka: Rock ‘N’ Roll Survivor (due 9/1/13)

Don Kirshner: The Man with the Golden Ear

In 1958, long before he created and hosted Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, the most dynamic rock-and-roll series in television history, before he developed the Monkees and created the Archies, Don Kirshner was a 23-year-old kid with just a dream in his pocket. Five years later he was the prince of pop music. He did it by building Aldon Music, a song publishing firm, from scratch. This is about how he did it – with teenage discoveries Bobby Darin, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, and more.

By 1960, at the ripe old age of 25, Kirshner had built the most powerful publishing house in the business, leading Time magazine to call him “the Man with the Golden Ear.” In five short years he coaxed and guided his teenage prodigies to write more than 200 hits. And they weren’t just hits, as it turned out, but standards – including “On Broadway,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “Up on the Roof,” “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” “I Love How You Love Me,” “Who Put the Bomp,” and “The Locomotion” – songs that have become the soundtrack of a generation. “We weren’t trying to write standards,” said one songwriter. “We were just trying to please Donnie.”