By Noë Gold Doctor Noe is a veteran cultural commentator, former Features Editor at the Hollywood Reporter and Founding Editor of Guitar World. For the complete interview of Frank Zappa by Noë Gold for Guitar World, go to http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Zappa%27s_Inferno
Monday, March 15, 2010
Jerry Seidenfeld at Newport '65 by Dave Gahr
I was there too, at Newport '65. My buddy Jerry Seidenfeld is sleeping it off on a cot on page 20 of Dave Gahr's "Festival Songbook" (a whole drawerful of Dylan prints Dave gave me were stolen from my garage in Santa Monica years later.)
True dat about the crowd reaction. From where I was standing (in the rear) I thought they were all yelling, "Down in front!"
To quote Dylan, "There was magic in the air."
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Scrapper Blackwell
In 1962, he was ready to resume his blues career when he was shot and killed during a mugging in an Indianapolis alley. He was 59 years old. Although the crime remains unsolved, police arrested his neighbor at the time for the murder. Blackwell is buried in New Crown Cemetery, Indianapolis.
Scrapper Blackwell (February 21, 1903 – October 7, 1962) was an American blues guitarist and singer; best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was an acoustic single-note picker in the Chicago blues and Piedmont blues style, with some critics noting that he veered towards jazz.
Kokomo Blues
Scrapper Blackwell also made solo recordings for Vocalion, including "Kokomo Blues" which was transformed into "Old Kokomo Blues" by Kokomo Arnold before being redone as "Sweet Home Chicago" by Robert Johnson.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CZEGJfes1c
Monday, February 15, 2010
"The Catcher in the Bourbon," a parody
This parody of "Catcher" by Bill Majeski is a case in point. And then there is the cover story by Nat Hentoff on Lenny Bruce and a nice article on Miles Davis, bebop and new jazz by moi.
I've created a deluxe limited edition, signed and numbered, of this Salinger tribute. It's a collector's edition, based on a facsimile of the original, printed on TWO SHEETS OF 11" x 17" PREMIUM CARD STOCK.
Please contact me at noemedia@pacbell.net and I will send you info on how to get one.
This is a parody published by College Monthly October 1974.
© 2010 noemedia.
© 1974. All rights reserved under international conventions. No material may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.
Cover photo by Basil Pao
With retouching by Rainbow Graphics, body by Doug, hand by Noë of New York. T-shirt by Harry Gross; photo by UPI, lighting by Chris Callis, and body English by Tom King.
J.D. Salinger R.I.P.
www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/02/08/100208ta_talk_gopnik
Postscript
J. D. Salinger
by Adam Gopnik
J. D. Salinger’s long silence, and his withdrawal from the world, attracted more than the usual degree of gossip and resentment—as though we readers were somehow owed more than his words, were somehow owed his personal, talk-show presence, too—and fed the myth of the author as homespun religious mystic. Yet though he may seem to have chosen a hermit’s life, Salinger was no hermit on the page. And so his death throws us back from the myth to the magical world of his writing as it really is, with its matchless comedy, its ear for American speech, its contagious ardor and incomparable charm. Salinger’s voice—which illuminated and enlivened these pages for two decades—remade American writing in the fifties and sixties in a way that no one had since Hemingway. (The juvenilia of most American writers since bear the mark of one or the other.) But if it had been Hemingway’s role to make American writing hardboiled, it was Salinger’s to let it be soft, even runny, again. ....
And this just in ...
Salinger and Lennon: A Fatal Distraction
Posted by Simon Warner
on Rock's Back Pages
www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/2010/01/salinger-and-lennon-a...
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Jerry Seidenfeld at Newport '65 by Dave Gahr

I was there too, at Newport '65. My buddy Jerry Seidenfeld is sleeping it off on a cot on page 20 of Dave Gahr's "Festival Songbook" (a whole drawerful of Dylan prints Dave gave me were stolen from my garage in Santa Monica years later.)
True dat about the crowd reaction. From where I was standing (in the rear) I thought they were all yelling, "Down in front!"
To quote Dylan, "There was magic in the air."
This is my reaction to a post about Bob Dylan at Newport, 1965:
http://carnivalsaloon.blogspot.com/2010/02/bob-dylan-at-newport-1965.html
"... I've just finished reading White Bicycles, Joe Boyd's excellent memoir of the 60s ("I was there, I do remember"). The record producer and self-proclaimed éminence grise was one of the organisers of the infamous 1965 Newport Fok Festival when Bob Dylan plugged in and blew dust from the ears of thousands of folkies ...
... My favourite anecdote is when Dylan returned to play two acoustic songs after pissing off the folk faithful with the Butterfield Blues Band. He asked the audience, "Has anyone have an E harmonica? Anyone? An E harmonica?" As Boyd writes, "Only at Newport would this request be followed by a shower of half a dozen harmonicas on to the stage". You can hear them all thud in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvrlniDO5oo
... Boyd puts forward a good argument that this was rock's Year Zero. "Some loved it, some hated it, most were amazed, astonished and energized by it. It was something we take for granted now, but utterly novel then: non-linear lyrics, an attitude of total contempt fot expectation and established values, accompanied by screaming blues guitar and a powerful rhythm section, played at ear-splitting volume by young kids. The Beatles were still singing love songs in 1965 while the Stones played a brand of blues-rooted pop. This was different. This was the Birth of Rock."
If Joe Boyd is correct then this was arguably the most important gig in music history.
wikipedia: In the summer of 1965, as the headliner at the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan performed his first electric set since his high school days with a pickup group drawn mostly from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, featuring Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Sam Lay (drums) and Jerome Arnold (bass), plus Al Kooper (organ) and Barry Goldberg (piano). Dylan had appeared at Newport in 1963 and 1964, but in 1965 Dylan, met with a mix of cheering and booing, left the stage after only three songs. As one version of the legend has it, the boos were from the outraged folk fans whom Dylan had alienated by appearing, unexpectedly, with an electric guitar. An alternative account claims audience members were merely upset by poor sound quality and a surprisingly short set.
2-6-10:
From that original post by Nigel Smith:
Laurence J. said ...
I was there...rode up on a '64 BSA 650 Lightning...other electric acts performed without problem - Howlin' Wolf, for example - and really, the crowd reaction wasn't negative: just as many cheers as boos. The Forest Hills concert about a month later was a real riot; fans rushing the stage, fights breaking out in the audience. At Newport the sound was the real problem (and Jerome Arnold missing a change in "Maggie's Farm"). ...
________________
On a personal note re Newport '65: The performance by Mel Lyman at a harmonica workshop was where I miraculously learned how to play harmonica. From that day on, it all fell into place and I became the virtuoso that I am today. If you google Mel you will find some Rolling Stone articles about his leading a cult. Well, he did have some powers.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Noe by Shanghai Sky
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Kodi & Viggo Venice 9-09
You know, I really do not care for the tastemakers who have already dismissed this film for serious Oscar consideration. For me, it was the most important film of 2009, dealing as it did with this incredible relationship of a father and his son.
Profile in LA Family Mag Nov. 2009 by Noe Gold:
Here's a link to my article in our recent LA Family Magazine November issue in the new "V-Mag" format, a profile of young acting sensation Kodi Smit-McPhee:
www.webpublished.com/gallery/view.asp?seq=107914&page...
Young Actor Spotlight
Kodi Smit-McPhee, "The Road
By Noe Gold
When Viggo Mortensen read the script for "The Road," a film in which he portrays a father who wanders with his son, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, through a devastated landscape after the earth has imploded, he thought it would be a good picture if they found the right 12-year-old to play the boy.
"Dramatically or practically speaking, I thought, 'Well, they need to find the best young actor in the world to play this part,' he says. "No matter how well it's shot, how well it's cast, if the boy – who is at the center of the story really – isn't extraordinar
y, it can only be a good movie, at best."Now that the movie is finished and about to be released, Mortensen acts like he is the one who had something to learn from this neophyte. "I don't think anyone could have done it better than the way Kodi has played the character. He's an extraordinary actor. His performance will be a historic performance, I think, honestly that it's going to be one of those that people remember for years … for years."
That is praise indeed coming from an actor who has garnered his share of awards, and who is being talked up himself as a favorite for Oscar gold this year.
Kodi Smit-McPhee got the world's attention in 2007 after starring opposite Eric Bana and Franka Potente in the critically acclaimed "Romulus, My Father," for which he received the Australian Film Institute's Young Actor Award and was also nominated for the Institute's Best Lead Actor prize.
The young thespian – he was born June 13, 1996 – comes from an acting family. His older sister Sianoa is an actress and Kodi's father Andy has appeared in dozens of films and television shows in his native Australia and serves as his children's acting coach. He was on the set of "The Road" constantly, guiding his son through some difficult scenes. Besides acting, Kodi enjoys skateboarding and making music on his computer.
Editor's Note in LA Family Mag Nov. 2009 by Noe Gold:
Here's a link to my Editor's Note in our recent LA Family Magazine November issue in the new "V-Mag" format, giving thanks for the movie "The Road":
www.webpublished.com/gallery/view.asp?seq=107914&page...
And here's a link to my write-up in the new Family Movie Guide Sneaks feature in the LA Family Magazine November issue in the new "V-Mag" format, in which we recommend the movie "The Road":
www.webpublished.com/gallery/view.asp?seq=107914&page...
The Road
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Charlize Theron with Robert Duvall; Directed by John Hillcoat
The Weinstein Co.
Based on Cormac McCarthy's beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen leads an all-star cast in the big-screen adaptation of The Road, the epic post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son across a barren landscape that was blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and most life on earth. This is not for the kids, but we recommend it here because it is an absolute chiller of a tale of the devotion of parenthood. Destined for Oscar greatness for Mortensen. See our profile of young Scott-McPhee in this Family Entertainment section.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
By Noë Gold
Finally, it can be posted under my name. You see, when you go here, for some reason it says the article is by Andy Hunsaker, and then below that it says it's by me. Who the fuck is Andy Hunsaker anyway?
Anyway, the Flickr post above gives you a tease, an excerpt of Keef's wit regarding his adulation of Mr. Guy. ...
Noe Gold: Speaking of that, after your number with Buddy Guy, Buddy carries your guitar off the stage. I don’t know how he did it but he got Buddy Guy to be your guitar carrier at the end of the shot.
Keith Richards: What happens there is that I give Buddy Guy my guitar. And you haven’t heard the overdub because I hand Buddy Guy my guitar and say, “It’s yours.” That’s the point there. (laughs) I had to do the voiceovers in Barcelona for Marty because we didn’t quite pick it up on the stage. I handed Buddy my Gibson guitar and said, “Hey Buddy, this is yours.” I’m happy to clear that one up. No way would I ever ask Buddy Guy to carry my guitar, man! KM-079 Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur (Left to right) Buddy Guy, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts performing onstage at the Beacon Theater during the Rolling Stones concert film “Shine A Light.”
Paramount Classics in Association with Concert Productions International and Shangri-La Entertainment Presents A Martin Scorsese Picture “Shine a Light” starring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. The film is directed by Martin Scorsese. The producers are Victoria Pearman, Michael Cohl, Zane Weiner and Steve Bing. The executive producers are Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. This film has been rated PG-13 for brief strong language, drug references and smoking. © 2008 by WPC Piecemeal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
... So here's another one for the ages: I'm going to pste the entire double interview with the Glimmers right here:
Fancast Interview: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards Shine A Light On Their Latest Documentary
By Noë Gold Fancast.com
Beginning in August 2005, the Rolling Stones spent two years the globe on their “Bigger Bang” tour, taking in more than $580 million. Director Martin Scorsese captured two nights on film [watch him direct] when the band stopped at New York’s intimate Beacon Theater. The shows featured different set lists and guests Buddy Guy, Jack White, and Christina Aguilera. The effort turned into the documentary Shine A Light, which critic Roger Ebert said “may the most intimate documentary ever made about a live rock ‘n’ roll concert.” Fancast contributor Noe Gold spoke to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards about the film, which the Stones’ seemingly ageless frontman originally envisioned focusing on their free concert on the beach in Rio. “It was going to be a big event, a million people on the beach, a huge audience, a big occasion,” said Jagger. “And then we started to think, if we’re going to do this, we might as well start with a really top-flight filmmaker, even if we don’t get one, it’s good to start at the top, you know? (laughs). And so then we started thinking about who could do this and so on. I was talking to Martin Scorsese about another film project, and we said, well let’s ask Marty, because we know he’s actually not shooting at this period. So we asked Marty and he said he’d love to shoot the Rolling Stones concert. That’s the sort of short version.
Shine A Light [watch the trailer]:
NG: And then you got to work? Jagger: Then we had a meeting with Marty in where we had a sit-down in New York where I chatted with him – it was this stunning meeting in my hotel room. There was a storm, the wind was blowing, there was a window that wouldn’t close and the curtains were blowing and the chandeliers were wobbling and everything and we’re all sort of laughing about it. So we talked about shooting in 3-D, and shooting in Imax, whatever. Because it was such a big event. I was focused on this big event because I thought it was different.
Marty seemed very excited by this idea, but then on the next meeting, he came back and said, he’d been thinking about it and what he really wanted to do was shoot something more intimate. So we’d come around completely — I’d gone from a million people … and he’d gone to … something small. So I said, you know Marty, the other problem is, we don’t have any intimate places booked on the tour. We have lots of not-intimate places but we don’t have an intimate place. We have a fully booked tour schedule — you know, how are we going to do this? And he had to convince me – he said, this is my kind of forté, is to shoot these intimate things.
Keef Brings out the 12-string on the rare “As Tears Go By”
NG: You’re no stranger to working to working with auteur filmmakers. Jean-Luc Godard for one, Robert Frank … Richards: and “Hail, Hail Rock and Roll” – Taylor Hackford. To me, this one is on a par with that one. It’s different because it’s a Stones show but – a very superior rock and roll film. NG: What’s different about prepping for a big concert in a big arena from a small filmed theater show. Jagger: That’s just part of the bigger question. Because it’s a film to watch in a movie house or on a DVD. So it’s not just for a theater audience. It’s got its own aesthetic. You’re not going to do the same show that you do in a big place. The problem was, we didn’t have a theater show on this tour. In the previous tour we’d had a theater show. In other words we’d had a set list that was different for theater which featured different numbers, It was more intimate. These had to all be invented. And then, the other thing was it’s always nice in a film like this to have guest artists. So you had to think about them, what kind of numbers are they going to sing and what can they do. How’s that all going to dovetail into the rest of it. So it’s not just think of a set list per se. It’s think of a movie set list of the presentation.
NG: Keith, what did you want the movie-going audience to get that a live arena show audience might not get? Richards: Actually to me, what was really intriguing was getting Marty’s take on it, and his vision of it. I mean, I’ve been in a lot of Stones films, and I don’t often see them. To me, the really intriguing thing was that Martin Scorsese wanted to do something like that, and I thought, well, he must have something in mind that is like beyond the usual sort of video scan, the usual stuff. So I really wanted to find out what Marty wanted.
Marty and his twin auteurs
NG: How did you come up with the guest artist list for the show? Jagger: We’d always worked well with Buddy Guy. We’d played with Buddy Guy before and we always admired him, and he was always good to play with on stage. We thought that would be good with our connection with the blues. And we always liked playing with him. He’s an easy guy to work with and he always delivers well on stage. And then I thought that Jack White, I’ve always liked him. We played concerts with him before and I knew him a bit, and I knew that that would work quite well. I thought we’d do this slightly different so instead of it being a kind of really raunchy rock scene we’d take it in a slightly different direction. And Christina Aguilera, she’s a great singer and everything, so I knew she would put in a good performance and so that’s how it worked.
NG: Keith, you said that you could recite Martin Scorsese’s dialogue. Another great segué that he did was when you guys had Jack White up there in this three-way acoustic guitar jam. Mick was playing an acoustic and Jack was playing with a slide, and then he segues to you on a 12-string for “As Tears Go Bye” Richards: How many times have we all watched fingers going up and down fretboards? The thing that Marty did with it was he turned the observation into a Rembrandt. It shows the beauty of the guitars themselves. It wasn’t just who was playing them. It was the loving shots of the instruments themselves, which I found very, very, very nice.
Noë Gold wrote these.
NG: Speaking of that, after your number with Buddy Guy, Buddy carries your guitar off the stage. I don’t know how he did it but he got Buddy Guy to be your guitar carrier at the end of the shot. Richards: What happens there is that I give Buddy Guy my guitar. And you haven’t heard the overdub because I hand Buddy Guy my guitar and say, “It’s yours.” That’s the point there. (laughs) I had to do the voiceovers in Barcelona for Marty because we didn’t quite pick it up on the stage. I handed Buddy my Gibson guitar and said, “Hey Buddy, this is yours.” I’m happy to clear that one up. No way would I ever ask Buddy Guy to carry my guitar, man!
NG: Brilliant. So that brings me to my final question, a kind of auteur filmmaker question: How does the experience of going before Martin Scorsese’s cameras compare to being “documented” by such auteurs as Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Frank, The Maysles Brothers, Peter Whitehead, Hal Ashby? Jagger: Yeah, the comparison is kind of valid I think. But you know quite a lot of those people were actually doing documentaries, and this is mostly a concert movie. They’re all great filmmakers, the ones that you mention. I think that Marty is a wonderful filmmaker and I’ve known him for some time. And I think he really has a great passion for this. It’s not something he just … tosses off in a week so to speak as a bit of fun thing. He’s very involved, super-involved in the editing, getting it just right. They’re still working on it to the last minute. He’s fantastically devoted to detail, which is very important in this, and to the concept of it before rather than any kind of … you know he hated the idea of winging it, as you could see with the set list. But in all the post-production he is extremely careful, he wants to get everything right and get the maximum emotion out of it, get the all the relationships, work on all that as hard as he can. So I think that he’s a great guy to work with. And he’s very very cooperative. He’s not a person who dictates to you or takes the sort of high ground in knowledge or anything like that and listens to your points and either takes them or doesn’t take them. He’s very cooperative.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
You are Welcome
You are Welcome
by Marion Peck
© All rights reserved
Anyone can see this photo
• Taken on May 10, 2009
• Viewed 145 times
Uploaded by elena bordignon on 10 May 09, 5.45AM PDT.
Still trying to find out who Marion Peck is but wherever she is, I thank her for this beautiful image. I found it here ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elenabordignon/
... and I intend to query Elena about more about the artist and how she came to be posted on Elena's Flickr page. If I hear back that this is not a good post, I will remove it!
– Noe the G.
PS, I found out some more from my friend Portia:
Gary Baseman is great! - Right but didn't Keane's wife paint all of them remember? Very true, but watch Mark Ryden paint a painting live on YouTube and he is really great.
Look at Mark Rydens wife's work – Marion Peck.... Baseman isn't Keane at all though.....I don't see that.
... and this from my friend Ken:
http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Incarnation.jpg
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Les Paul: The World Has Lost a Remarkable Innovator and Musician
June 9, 1915 - August 13, 2009
www.lespaulonline.com is running snippets of what it calls "The Les Paul Show." You should really go there to check it out. It's snippets of sounds ... Les joking with Mary, bits of Beck, Steve Miller and whoever of the thousands owes this man a debt.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigfrank/
Noe the G and the Guitar World crew, composed of John Peden, photographer, Perry Margouleff, guitar maven, Bob Davis, Peter Mengaziol, the techno-wiz, went on a guitar safari to Les Paul's house in Mahwah, NJ, where we got the royal tour of all his wondrous gadgets as we prepared an article about the "Wizard of Waukesha."
In my original post (http://doctornoemedia.blogspot.com/2008/09/les-paul-house-mahwah-nj-back-in-80s.html) I put up this cool performance by Les at the Iridium club in New York City from July 7, 1997 www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hz2HWjM9UQ guess what? I was there!!!! you can tell (if you know me) by my distinctive laugh at 1:24 into the track.
REST IN PEACE, LES!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Beatles-Butcher_Cover
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Remember him from 3rd Rock?
The former child star is having a great Summer.
July 16, 2009
By: Noe Gold
Fandango Film Commentator
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in (500) days of Summer.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been pulling on heartstrings ever since he sprang upon the scene as a child actor looking for approval from Danny Glover in the baseball movie Angels in the Outfield and as a kid looking up to Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It.. He made his bones as a young TV actor as a “3rd Rock from the Sun” regular, moving on to more serious fare opposite Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You. By the time he worked with director Kimberly Peirce in the war drama Stop-Loss, Gordon-Levitt assumed the mantle of a serious contender. Now he’s got the big-budget G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra later this summer and three movies coming in 2010.
But first, in (500) Days of Summer, it is Gordon-Levitt who has his heartstrings pulled when he falls for a quirky girl (Zooey Deschanel) who doesn’t believe in love. We talked with the young actor about making this indie romance that’s alternative programming for those not into Harry Potter this weekend, and whistling – and dancing – while you work as the film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Fandango: Your last few films have been very serious. What was it like playing for euphoria with a director like first-timer Mark Webb?
Gordon-Levitt: I loved the script when I read it. It wasn't until I met Mark Webb that I knew this was going to be awesome. Because he comes from music videos, he uses music really well. The movie has this real whimsy to it. He plays music on the set all the time. A lot of the scenes that we shoot actually he's playing music while we're doing it.
Fandango: What differentiates this film from your other movies?
Gordon-Levitt: Normally, it's difficult for me to watch a movie that I'm in. This one was an anomaly in that the first time I watched it I enjoyed it and started smiling. I was able to not be so critical about my performance.
(500) Days of Summer is a really welcome change for me. I don't have to be in pain all day, every day at work. I can go to work and feel sweet, loving feelings. I don't have to cultivate anger and suffering like I did in some of these past movies I've been doing. That's really nice.
Fandango: You had some real Singin’ in the Rain moments in this film, such as the fantasy sequence where you dance up a storm celebrating the night before with Summer.
Gordon-Levitt: It was such a fun day filming that dance number. In the script that scene is titled "The Best Morning Ever." It kind of was. There is a pretty good argument that that was the best day of my life so far. I grew up like the rest of us watching Michael Jackson videos -- ahh that's the coolest thing, to be dancing in front of a bunch of people!
Fandango: What was the goal of this movie? It seems like an almost documentary take on the characters' emotional lives.
Gordon-Levitt: It feels real because the movie's about how real life feels rather than how life objectively is. I was like, how should we do this? Should we kind of try to snap it up and pace it like an older screwball comedy? and Zooey insisted it be realistic and grounded. She was so right. We are going to do that screwball comedy down the road, we definitely will. We're going to make more movies together – we're going to be the next Hepburn and Tracy.
Fandango: The story of this movie is told so out-of-sequence. How did you deal with it as an actor? Your moods have to be in sync with that.
Gordon-Levitt: You always see a movie out of sequence. That's part of the challenge, anachronistically telling a linear story. The process of making this movie is not so different from making any other movie. The difference is that the story is also told out of sequence. But it was all there in the script, and the director had the actual sequence of events all mapped on a kind of bible. It was set up for us to finish this scene, for instance, on a really happy note because you know the next scene starts on a sad note.
Fandango: Would you call (500) Days a drama or a comedy?
Gordon-Levitt: It's not a drama or a comedy. I am proud of (500) Days for presenting a perspective of love that is a little less simplistic than your average Hollywood romantic movie. I like that this one plays with a lot of the genre clichés. Finding that balance – what to follow and what to rebel against – is what makes it individual and interesting.
Noë Gold was formerly Features Editor at the Hollywood Reporter and a contributor to Variety before becoming a staff writer at Paramount Pictures. He has been editor-in-chief of Movies USA, bikini and Guitar World and a columnist for the Village Voice and the New York Daily News. He has served as the Managing Editor of VH1 and a writer-producer for Turner Broadcasting. His entertainment news column, The Daily Fix, was a regular feature of the AOL Entertainment Channel. Noë Gold blogs at Doctor Noe’s Smooth Gadget.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Robin Trower at the Fillmore SF 07-08-09
Robin Leonard Trower (born 9 March 1945, Catford, South East London, England) is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum during the 1960s, and then again as the leader of his own power trio.Trower grew up in the seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England.In 1962, Trower formed a group that came to be known as The Paramounts, later including fellow Southend High School pupil Gary Brooker. The Paramounts disbanded in 1966 to pursue individual projects. Trower then joined Brooker's new band Procol Harum in 1967, with whom he remained until 1972. After going solo in 1973 (replaced in Procol Harum by Dave Ball), he found the individual identity and style that have brought him acclaim to this day.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Sad update 6-1-09: Manny's Music R.I.P.
Jimi Noel Mitch - Mannys Signed Pub Shot. Sad update 6-1-09: Manny's Music R.I.P.
Originally uploaded by Doctor Noe
Manny's Music R.I.P.:
www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/nyregion/01mannys.html?scp=1&a...
Today, in the New York Times I sadly read of the closing of this iconic marketplace on New York's 48th Street. Here's a slideshow of pics that used to line the walls:
Manny's Wall of Fame.
There's more discussion about Jimi's relationship with Manny's in an interview with Manny Goldrich himself in the first of two historic volumes I produced for Guitar World, JIMI HENDRIX: THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE (GW September, 1985), which is pictured right here:
www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_noe/sets/72157605512202079/
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_noe/2369921881/in/set-72157605512202079/]
www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_noe/sets/72157605512202079/
and its companion piece, HENDRIX LIVES!: THE UNPUBLISHED HENDRIX, Vol. II (GW March, 1988), which is shown here:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_noe/2567714905/in/set-72157605512202079/]
Noe the G
Founding Editor of Guitar World
>"}}}}”> Noe Gold, aka Noe the G is the Founding Editor of Guitar World magazine. Among his most cherished achievements is the creation, with partner Bill Nitopi, curator of the Hendrix Collection Archives and an editor-at-large of Guitar World, of two humongous Special Issues: Vol. 6, No. 5 SEPTEMBER, 1985 SPECIAL JIMI HENDRIX TRIBUTE! and Vol. 9, No. 2 MARCH 1988 HENDRIX LIVES!: THE UNPUBLISHED HENDRIX, Vol. II.
www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_noe/sets/72157605512202079/
As to Jimi's elctronics tech ... Know him? I worked the genius electronics whiz Roger Mayer ... see below:
... and I am the President of Guitar Galaxy! Check out our other fine products here:
The incredible "Roy Buchanan Telly Talk" DVD with a full-on master class session with the master of the Telecaster is available by just sending me an email: noemedia@pacbell.net
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Roy Buchanan DVD cover by Noë the G and John Peden
Here's how we look on BlipTv:
And here's the "Telly Talk Teaser" on YouTube:
We wanted to test the waters to see if there would be a demand for a similar kind of musician-with-guitar talk and demo in a Guitar Galaxy series with some of our old friends ... Billy Gibbons, Steve Stevens, Steve Vai, Joe Satch, Yngwie, Eddie Van H. (my kid goes to school with Wolfie) and Keef (I interviewed him last summer -- see this:) . ...
JC-017 Photo Credit: Jacob Cohl
Keith Richards (left) and director Martin Scorsese (right) backstage at the Beacon Theater while filming the Rolling Stones concert film “Shine A Light.” Paramount Classics in Association with Concert Productions International and Shangri-La Entertainment Presents A Martin Scorsese Picture “Shine a Light” starring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. The film is directed by Martin Scorsese. The producers are Victoria Pearman, Michael Cohl, Zane Weiner and Steve Bing. The executive producers are Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. This film has been rated PG-13 for brief strong language, drug references and smoking.
© 2008 by RST Concerts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
From my interview with Keith:
Keith Richards is also a major fan of Scorsese’s and says he’s studied “every one of his movies. Some of them I know most of the dialogue,” he says. “All I heard was that Marty might be shooting the Stones, and I said, ‘Yeah!’ Given the opportunity to get a Stones show shot by a master, who’s going to say no?”
Richards and the Stones have been no strangers to the cinematic treatment by film masters. Of the more than 18 documentaries that have been made about them, “Shine A Light” is one of more than half a dozen helmed by an “auteur.” There was 1968’s Jean-Luc Godard activist-arriviste take on the band, “Sympathy for the Devil: One Plus One”; Robert Frank’s very-limited release (it was shown publicly perhaps three times) documentary about their debauched life on the road, “Cocksucker Blues”; Peter Whitehead’s 1966 art-scene film “Charlie is My Darling”; The Maysles Brothers’
“Gimme Shelter”; and Hal Ashby’s “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” Film scholar that he is, Richards says “Don’t forget ‘Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll,’” Taylor Hackford’s documentary about a legendary Chuck Berry concert, in which Richards appeared and also co-produced. “To me, ‘Shine A Light’ is on a par with that film. It’s different because it’s a Stones show but it’s a very superior rock ’n roll film.”
And why was that one so important to him as a performer and as an artist?
“Actually, to me,” says Richards, “what was really intriguing was getting Marty’s take on it, and his vision. To me, the thing was that Martin Scorsese wanted to do something, and I thought, well, he must have something in mind that is beyond the usual sort of video scan. So I really wanted to find out what Marty wanted.”
Who would have guessed that beneath the guise of the ultimate rock ‘n roll outlaw beat the heart of a cinematheque-denizen film scholar who wanted nothing more than to please a master auteur? “When you’re actually up there doing the work, you really pass all of that onto the director so that in a way, you just do what you do and try
to do it as well as you can, and at the end you see whether you did it or not and then you stop to see – ahh! his vision of it,” observes Richards. “As it slowly unfolded with “Shine A Light” – Marty’s great use of old footage and live footage, for instance, had a great feel about it. It slowly dawns on you as you’re watching it. Otherwise, you have no idea. You can’t climb inside of somebody else’s brain.” At this point in the conversation, Keith says, "Lord knows, there's been people trying to get into my brain, but that was a necessity," referring to his own brain salad surgery.
From the Production Notes for the movie "Shine A Light"
Noe Gold, aka Noe the G is featured for his interviews with Mick and Keith in the Mahalo Daily show’s report on the Martin Scorsese Rolling Stones movie “Shine a Light,” which opens stateside April 4, 2008.
Check out the episode here.
P.S. Please check out my latest links ...
This just in:
>"}}}}));> Noe Gold, aka Noe the G is now a regular
contributor to Fancast.com, an entertainment news website
sponsored by the movie-obsessed Fandango service. His blog
kicks off with his interviews with Mick and Keith in a report
on the Martin Scorsese-Rolling Stones movie 'Shine a Light,'
which opened stateside April 4, 2008:
bigpicture.fancast.com/2008/04/fancast_interview_mick_jag....
>"}}}}):;> Noe was interviewed about how he came to talk to
Mick and Keith on the Mahalo Daily show's episode here:
daily.mahalo.com/2008/04/04/md093-shine-a-light-exclusive...
[http://daily.mahalo.com/2008/04/04/md093-shine-a-light-exclusive-footage-and-interviews/ ]
April 4, 2008 -- Mahalo Daily, (http://daily.mahalo.com/) ranks
consistently in the top five podcasts on iTunes. We recently
put out a video which reached 350,000+ views on YouTube, and
was most viewed for several days.
There will be more from my Mick & Keef conversations here.
So whaddayasay, Guitar World flickr-ites? should we do it? will there be an audience for this sort of thing?
Lemme know.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Jimi Hendrix, another nice shot found!
This one, "In Concert in Vancouver! 'Vanilla Fudge' opened the show and had a standing ovation with 'Set me free,'" is by Pierre Geumet, who goes by sofarsocute on Flickr. Pierre is a way cool photog and world traveler based in Vancouver.
He says: "I saw Jimi Hendrix last performance at 'The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival' "... Other photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sofarsocute/2193669093/in/set-72157603935863689/ Uploaded by sofarsocute(slow with flickr) on 24 Feb 08, 2008.
He adds, "I consider myself a 'World citizen'
Vous pouvez me contacter en français (Español ok)
日本語。。少しだけ"
He has an amazing video on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/sofarsogut
... and this video is an interview with Jimi on the day before he died:
*This ...
... is the first of two Big-ass Hendrix Special Issues that I edited as the editor of Guitar World. You can actually find the entire issue, page-by-page, here: First the cover - contests.guitarworld.com/gwhistory/pageview.php?picname=1...
Then, my Editor's Note to the issue: contests.guitarworld.com/gwhistory/pageview.php?picname=5...
and finally, every single glorious page of the issue: contests.guitarworld.com/gwhistory/flash.php?currentissue...
... until you come to page 54, with the axology of Jimi's PINK STRAT and its provenance that started the whole voyage: dl.guitarworld.com/gw_history/09_85a/52_fs.jpg
The issue in question was Sept. '85, the first of two monumental Hendrix tributes, and the discussion of two V's Jimi was associated with can be found here (basically the left-hand and the right-hand parts of this magazine spread):
GW Sept. 85 Axology Flying V P. 54
contests.guitarworld.com/gwhistory/pageview.php?picname=5...
GW Sept. 85 Axology Flying V P. 55
contests.guitarworld.com/gwhistory/pageview.php?picname=5...
And then you get to the second Big Special issue, which inspired me to finally write this book:
Now dig this ...
I just posted a plethora of Jimi juiciness on my page, which is referred to as the www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_noe/sets/7215760 Jimi set above.
PS, Bill Nitopi, who Stevie Ray Vaughan called "The Keeper of the Frame," Has this to say about our collaboration on these Guitar World Special Issues:
Thanks Noe,
Nice photos...
Yea, it's been 20 years since it came out... but we started working on that GW issue in Jan. 87.
Historic, no one has ever come close to that in any type of publication.
I still remember the look on the face of Dennis Page coming into your office upon realizing we spent almost $10.000 on photos for a single issue.
GW '88 is still looked upon by collectors as the greatest accumulation of Hendrix photos in a single magazine or book.
Thanks again,
Love ya,
Bill
How do ya like that, peoples peoples peoples.
God Bless,
Noe the G
Founding Editor of Guitar World
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Stolen Dreams - Sneeze – by Xavier Tatarkiewicz
We Won!
Dylan Z. Gold in “Sneeze” named mtvU “Best Film on Campus”
"Sneeze" - BFOC: mtvU's Best Film on Campus:
Gesundheit!

Stolen Dreams films on mtvU!
My son Dylan — and some of his classmates — appeared in a short film, a Public Service piece, over the summer that was entered in a competition on the web. The film is called “Sneeze” and it offers a glimpse at the rapid and pervasive ways in which the flu virus is passed on and contracted from one unsuspecting stranger to another throughout a city.
Here’s a link to it --"Sneeze".
Here’s a more current link to it ... As it was featured today (10-28-08) on mtvU:
Stolen Dreams - Sneeze – by Xavier Tatarkiewicz - Best Film on Campus
My son Dylan Z. Gold stars as the kid at the birthday party for his grandma.
The Stolen Dreams films can now be seen on mtvU’s website!
Stolen Dreams films on mtvU! The Best Film On Campus site, presented by mtvU, celebrates and awards the creativity of student films. The Stolen Dreams films have their own festival homepage, and each Stolen Dreams director has a profile. The link is gone but you can see it on the aforementioned MTV site.
The films are by filmmakers from UCLA. The videos are on YouTube too -- just search for "stolen dreams."
The Stolen Dreams films are stimulating, provocative, and something worth sharing and talking about with others. A voting feature was part of the original site. Instead, all 8 films were judged by a panel of industry professionals who narrowed the field to four semi-finalists. A separate judging panel of industry leaders then selected the Grand Prize winner. This judging process took place on Thursday, October 23rd. Please watch the films and take a moment now to share your thoughts on the health care and financial security crisis in America by using the comments feature that is positioned on individual film pages.
Stolen Dreams Film Competition
http://www.stolendreams.com ... or better yet, see it right here on Doctor Noe's Smooth Gadget!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Les Paul's House, Mahwah, N.J. back in the 80s
When I went back into my files from the days of Guitar World (check those way-cool Les Paul gold-top minis me and Bob Davis are holding), there was one snap I couldn't find. It was a gathering for Les Paul Tuesdays (at Fat Tuesdays downtown Manhattan) that pre-dated the Iridium sessions you see chronicled in this awesome shot (see previous blog entry below) by my Flickr mate "Big Frank" Caico (http://www.frankcaico.net/Blog) on August 24, 2008 here -- just use this URL:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/2792662219_d75da82a1f.jpg
The snapshot I was looking for was from this incredible night of music attended by all the illustrious fans of Les, with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page -- two original Yardbirds -- among them.
The interesting thing about it was that Beck and these other guys chose to just hang out and talk amongst themselves, but Jimmy Page was effusive in his homage to Les.
You see, Jimmy Page worshipped the ground Les walked on. In an encounter with the man at his hotel room at the fabled Plaza not much before the fab night at Fat Tuesday's, Jimmy demonstrated this filial adulation. The room was darkly lit, there was a faint smell of incense about ... coming from a little shrine Jimmy had set up on the dresser. There, festooned with all manner of shamanistic geegaws and bathed in a sepulchral light, was a framed picture of the immortal Les Paul!!
You see, Jimmy not only played a Les Paul -- he was in constant thrall of one.
I have no doubt that when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honors Les on November 15, that Jimmy Page will be there.
Right after I posted this I googled "Wizard of Waukesha," which is not only the title of a documentary about the man, but also the name of a tribute November 15 to this all-time genius:
Electric-guitar pioneer Les Paul has been chosen as the honoree for the 13th annual American Music Masters series, presented by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Case Western Reserve University and Gibson Guitar Corp.
"Les played a big role in the pervasiveness of the guitar in popular music and in rock 'n' roll particularly," said Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock Hall.
Paul's search for "this golden sound" changed the course of music history, Stewart said.
"The Wizard of Waukesha: The Life and Legacy of Les Paul" is set to culminate at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, with a tribute concert at Playhouse Square's State Theatre in Cleveland.
Here's a more recent pic of Les from that story: blog.cleveland.com/popmusic_impact/2008/09/medium_les0808...
Now, you may think my own homage to Les would end here, but no ... it wouldn't be Doctor Noe's Smooth Gadget without a personal reference. Here it is:
Just as I was editing and adding this link to the Les Paul Tribute Nov. 15 (www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=...) it happened.
Now, here's the real bizarrity of this story: I was cruising around YouTube and I found this cool performance by Les at the Iridium club in New York City from July 7, 1997 www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hz2HWjM9UQ and guess what? I was there!!!! you can tell (if you know me) by my distinctive laugh at 1:24 into the track.
I wish I could add my voice to the laugh track in Cleveland come Nov. 15.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LES!
Of course, this is about Gibsons, but Peden and I did a lot of hard travelin' on our guitar safaris, notably our adventure with Roy Buchanan, whose story (and beloved guitar) is hinted at here: Roy Buchanan's Telecaster named Nancy on Flickr.
You could do worse than to buy my DVD, produced and directed by Noe the G and filmed by John Peden. Find out more about it here on Noë’s blog: doctornoemedia.blogspot.com
