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
[5:51-5:54] Black guy [to Keith]: Well, like, no reaction. He went back to what he was talking about, so...
[5:54-5:56] Keith: Well, y'know, it's cool, y'know I, I [inaudible] we'll get it together.
[5:55-5:58] Black guy: Yeah yeah Ok (exits)
[6:00-6:07] Jimi: Been watching too many formal dinner parties on TV. Everybody HAS to do this. You HAVE to say [mock ass-kissing, bowing and scraping] "Oh yes, Mr richards--"
[6:07-6:12: laughter - inaudible chit chat]
[6:12-6:14: silence]
[6:15-6:18] Jimi: D'you know--? nah, I shouldn't ask [scratching his head, laughing]
[6:18-6:20: Keith and Jimi laughter]
[6:19-6:26] Jimi: I dunno that's a big [inaudible] ever since I seen you Monday. Have--? When's last t-ttime you see- s-seen [clears throat]. Naaah, I shouldn't--
[6:25-6:26] Keith: [inaudible]
[6:26-6:27] Jimi: No. What was the last time you seen Linda?
[6:28-6:34] Keith: Oh, man, a long time ago. I mean, I tell ya, uh, some time last summer in--
[6:34] Jimi: Yeah...
[6:35-6:38] Keith: --on the coast [inaudible]
[6:38-6:39] Jimi: Oh, that far? You ain't seen her here?
[6:39-6:44] Keith: I haven't seen her for [inaudible]...You?
[6:44-6:45] Jimi: No. No...
[6:46-6:48] Laughter - Keith smooshes affectionately into Jimi.
[6:48-6:53] Keith gets up and walks away
[6:48-6:51] Jimi: I been watching too much TV too.
[6:54-7:01] Jimi sits smoking.
For more information, pictures and everything about Jimi with the Rolling Stones, with much more about the takes of "My Little One", check http://rocksoff.org/jimi.htm
Roger Mayer, left, with Mitch Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix and Noel Redding.
I just talked to Roger and he is doing well, still being a guru to countless tone-freaks far and wide. Big hugs from him and Connie!
Mark Bosch: Got to admit, I miss the ole boy and u too G-whiz! where is he living these days?
Noe the G: He sez he's in Kingston, the posh-ier part north of London. Worcester Park, Surrey KT4 7DF, to be exact. Still salty as ever and Celebrated far and wide as a "FOJ" (Friend of Jimi): www.roger-mayer.co.uk/history.htm
It was ever so charming talking with you this a.m.
I think I'm gonna do up a blog entry just about you for old times' sake.
PS, Karin sez we have a couple of plane tickets for London, so we may be seeing you around Christmas time! Big hugs to Connie.
Attached are a couple-a pics I dug up from my "bin" I also have one of the Rocket done up as Eddie Van Halen's paint job and some more I'll be sending you. This one on Flickr can be accessed by this link:
JimiGalaxyAd#2.jpg P. 165 "Do You Know This Face? Then you know THIS Face. ... You know Roger Mayer's Classic Fuzz, the very same fuzz distortion circuit that Roger designed for Jimi Hendrix during his tenure as the master's sound technician ..." This is one of the ads I published in numerous music magazines of the mid-'80s in which I touted my Guitar Galaxy mail-order company. Guitar Galaxy continues to flourish today!
Vol. 9, No. 2 MARCH 1988 THE UNPUBLISHED HENDRIX >"}}}}”> 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 THE UNPUBLISHED HENDRIX. Noe Gold blogs at Doctor Noe's Smooth Gadgetdoctornoemedia.blogspot.com. >"}}}}”> Subscribe! To, Doctor Noe's Smooth Gadget doctornoemedia.blogspot.com/ (and share with others!) at: feeds.feedburner.com/
Here's a page from my Tribute to Jimi. We published stills from Albert Maysles' footage in Guitar World: The unpublished Hendrix Vol. II. That would be Guitar World March 1988, Special Issue. Hendrix Lives! Tribute to a Genius. The Unpublished Hendrix Vol. II. P. 33, "Backstage With the Stones."
Three of the four photos on the page (two of Jimi and Keith, two Jimi and Mick Taylor) were indeed stills from Maysles' unreleased footage. This is a fourth one by photographer Ethan Russell.
Now here is the kicker: Stones are going out on the road again next year, another "endless tour," but guess what? They will most likely include some guest spots on the tour by a very great-sounding Mick Taylor! Here is a video tribute to Ian Stewart featuring Ben Waters, Charlie Watts, Dave Green with Jools Holland, Ronnie Wood, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman, Mick Hucknall and other guests at the Ambassadors Theatre 9 April 2011.
Here's Mick on his discography: "I played lead guitar for the Rolling Stones from 1969 till 1974 and played on some of the group's best albums, including "Let it Bleed," "Get Yer Ya Yas Out," "Sticky Fingers," "Exile On Main Street," "Goat's Head Soup" and great live bootlegs!
"My fluid lead guitar shaped some of the Stones' best songs and albums. Songs like "Honky Tonk Women," "Gimme Shelter," "Love In Vain," "Brown Sugar," "Sway," "Bitch," "Tumbling Dice," "Rocks Off," "Shine A Light," "Ventilator Blues," "Heartbreaker," "Coming Down Again," "Silver Train," "Star Star," "Time Waits For No One," "If You Can't Rock Me" – these all feature my lead and slide guitar contributions."
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Just in time for
Halloween ...
... my updated essay on classic horror films entitled “Fear of Fright Night.” Wrote the original in 2001 for an AOL site called Entertainment Asylum. Find the page here. I wrote numerous pieces for Entertainment Asylum in my tenure as an AOL correspondent/content editor, but only this one was saved for posterity.
Flashforward to 2010, and I can now put up this considered reprise, recollected in tranquility entitled ...
FEAR OF FRIGHT NIGHT (redux)
Halloween Goes to the Movies
Watching Scary Movies in the relative safety of a theater with hundreds of other people around us will not turn us into raving, bloodthirsty lunatics. On the contrary, it's a cheap alternative to seeing a shrink.
By Noë Gold
We are now in the midst of another cycle of shock films, loosely categorized by film historians as the horror genre but I'll just call 'em Scary Movies, since these film historians tend to quarrel and quibble about what exactly is a horror film. I say "cycle" because these films come in bunches, about every twenty years or so, and are extremely popular. The films in the late-'90s crop (typified by "Scream," "Scream 2," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Disturbing Behavior", the latter-day "Halloween: H2O" and the equally sequel-tastic "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer") have one thing in common: they're not "monster movies" like "Frankenstein" or "The Fly" or any of the creepy horror films that were popular in the fifties.
1530 North Orange Grove Ave.across the street stood in for the Doyle residence, where Laurie was baby-sitting Tommy in "Halloween." Looking the same as when the movie was filmed there 30 years ago, except the brick pillars in the front are filled in with hedges. The panicked children ran from the house between the pillars and onto the street. Photo by Noë Gold
The Scary Movie of the nineties relies more on psychological terror than the obvious makeup-enhanced movies of that more innocent era. It deals with ordinary people in ordinary situations who come across a deviant like "Halloween's" Mike Myers. The suspense in H20 is more on account of the audience's expectations and the throbbing, spooky music than from any obvious monster. Mike Myers comes with a lot of baggage, and it's all hidden beneath that very ordinary white Halloween mask. The effect is much more chilling than Godzilla or Keith Richards could ever hope to be.
Why is this Scary cycle surfacing again now? On the surface, things are fairly stable in modern-day society. Crime statistics are down, the economy is whistling along and Charles Manson is tucked away neatly in prison with no hope of escape. So why do we flock to movies that scare the gizzards out of us? Because it gives us pleasure. When there are no real things to be scared of, we go to the movies to shake things up. In a weird way, it's therapeutic.
To illustrate this point, I call forth a reference in a seminal book by an author I used to know who taught me a lot about the genre, Carlos Clarens. On the frontispiece of his Illustrated History of the Horror Films, Carlos quotes sociologist Roland Penrose from his work, Violence in Contemporary Art: "The bogey of violence is particularly horrifying and intolerable to us when we meet it in cold blood. The arts, however, avoid its brutal impact by their appeal to the emotions, they warm us to its presence, turning terror into enjoyment and cruelty into compassion. We participate in the act of violence without suffering its evil consequences. Art, in fact, allows us, as in certain rituals, to satisfy our Olympian yearning to stimulate the forces of nature. Its nonviolent power has a therapeutic and catalytic influence."
So, watching Scary Movies in the relative safety of a theater with hundreds of other people around us will not turn us into raving, bloodthirsty lunatics. On the contrary, it's a cheap alternative to seeing a shrink. For the same reason we pay money and wait in long lines to ride the shriekiest roller coaster, we go to the movies to get our hair lifted. Steve Miner, who directed H20, says it this way: "My favorite scary film of all time was Psycho, which I could not sit through. I never saw the whole movie until I was an adult. Halloween I found reminiscent in spirit of that kind of movie: unrelentingly scary and suspenseful and atmospheric. I think people like to be scared because they can go to the edge without really being there."
Kevin Williamson, the Dawson's Creek director who wrote the screenplay of H20 as well as that of Scream, credits Halloween for what he is today. "Halloween is and always has been my favorite film of all time," he says. "It wasn't just a movie, it was an experience. ... The audience participation factor was one of the most incredible parts of the movie. The way the audience jumped and screamed at the characters on screen got my blood pumping. It was this effect in Halloween that made me realize that I wanted to be a filmmaker.
Okay, what about that "every twenty years" theory? It's no coincidence that the current Halloween is subtitled H20, since the original Halloween was released in 1978. That one put its director, John Carpenter, on the map and kicked off the career of Jamie Lee Curtis as well (it was her first feature film). H20 has among its co-stars Jamie Lee's mom, Janet Leigh, who was the star victim of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, released 18 years before Halloween in 1960 (and later to be redone in a faithful translation by Gus Van Sant). Carpenter's stated purpose in conceiving Halloween was that he wanted to create a picture that would play like a full-length version of the shower scene in Psycho.
Go back roughly twenty years from Psycho and you have the beginning of another Scary cycle in the early forties. A series of films produced by Val Lewton has a lot in common with what the Scary cycle of the nineties is going for - psychological horror with no monsters or creatures in sight. The great director Jacques Tourneur did more with camera angles, lighting and sound to chill the audience's bones with his masterpieces the original Cat People and his follow-up I Walked With a Zombie. I command you to go out and rent these right now so you can see what I mean.
The first of these twenty-year cycles, just to round out my argument, goes back to Germany in the twenties. You won't be able to rent Paul Weggener's Student of Prague or his series of films about the Golem, a vengeful Jewish monster who haunted Czechoslovakia. But there is also The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, the original vampire story (with Max Schreck as the Vampire). And rounding out the cycle is The Hands of Orlac, with Caligari's Conrad Veidt, about a concert pianist who has the hands of a murderer grafted on after he loses his in an accident. The fright genre moved (along with a number of German filmmakers escaping the Nazis) to America for its next cycle, and it is also no great coincidence that another one of these German exports, Peter Lorre, made his American film debut in 1935 in a remake of Orlac called Mad Love, another one that you must rent or seek out on cable TV.
Which is all to say that what comes around goes around in the world of roller coasters and Scary Movies. Now that I have given you a quick sense of its history, it's a good time to grab a ride.
PS, there’s also a neato keeno compendium of creature features here on the same site:
I anticipate Bryan's show at the Greek Theater Oct. 15.
My favorite Roxy show of many was in a little town in Lorraine (Salzbourg, actually), France, circa 1974. The band played in a high school gym, which they transported to the sophisticated realms of Radio City once the music started. I think I wrote about it in my piece on the trip for Crawdaddy, but being now a denizen of the"aging crowd," I can't find this piece of writing anywhere except in the smoke dreams of my mind.
This just in! I did go to the concert and grabbed this little snippet of Chris Spedding on vid.
... to which Bruce Malamut adds the following comment:
"I remember you also liked Spedding's first three solo albums Songs Without Words, Backwoods Progression (recorded in-between Nilsson Schmilsson sessions) and The Only Lick I Know. Spedding is copious!"
Like Ferry, I like to think I have aged like a fine wine.
But the ultimate erudite benediction comes from the great Bruce Malamut, of the Kings Crown Radio (WKCR) mavens and the Crawdaddy Magazine punters – what are you, some kinda rock crit or sump'n?:
"Style + Substance, well hell yeah – the thrill of it all! I saw Roxy play The 100 Club London, June, '71 and was floored by the hooks, the asymmetries, the film noir refs, the pounding pose of ennui and anti-romanticism, electronic sheen and wailing sax ... oboe, even – these guys screamed avant-garde, loud, hard rock, but I just fully dug the hooks!
"Then the first album was released in '72 and it became clear to all – some of the best players in UK in one band tossing off hooks and choruses effortlessly – sweet! I give it an A- for Side One, which was Ferry's full-tilt rock, and A+ for Side Two, which debuted Eno's virtual keyboard world. There seemed a palpable tension between these two guys live – each a forceful leader in his own right – and it was clear on their first album as well. One of them might need to leave this band, I'd thought, and chart his own path. To me, Roxy the band is far from Brian the singer.
"Roxy the band is the drug for me – look no further than Mackay's wailing sax, the Great Paul Thompson's brutal beats (similar, yet just a few yards to the left of John Bonham's) but mostly the uncredited compositions and bold guitar work of Phil Manzanera. I think people sell Phil's "real time" composing short – true, Bryan would write a new lyric so it's "his song" and bring it to the band – but what the band, invariably lead by Phil, did with a new Ferry song was to de- and re- construct it into a wholly different beast than Bryan had first proposed. This process changed Ferry's songs musically, thus thematically too, marking them as 100% Pure Uncut Roxy Music.
"Their first U.S. tour, they naturally came up to WKCR-FM (how could they not??) for a delightful evening including a white-copy spin of For Your Pleasure. Members present were Ferry, Manzanera, Eno, Mackay (The Great), Thompson.
"In a six-hour interview, one gets a fair impression of one's guests. Everyone endorsed the theory of how Phil is Bryan's equal in the band's composition process, but that's as much as they'd give at least on this First U.S. tour. A fun time was had. Phil and I discovered that we were raised a stone's throw from each other– most unexpected news!
"–B:)"
OK, so now flashforward to 2011. I come across this great photo by Lorenzo Lessi, taken on July 28, 2011.
I am lovin' this one. Bryan is playing blues harp through a hand-held mike.
• My cousin Larry, who is five years my junior, had this response:
"You know. Sorry I missed it.. I knew he was coming , Shyster.
"He is great. … I just read yesterday's article in the Financial Times. He is a wine schmecker
"Anyway, Noë, what I do remember, is that a long time ago, I was at your house on 95th street when I first saw that album. You might have even opened it in front me, with the hot girls [Country Life].
"I was really young. That's where I got my first exposure to Roxy Music.
"It is still fresh in my mind."
• Erika Anderson, from the road, on tour, has this to say:
"I would love to go to that show. ... He keeps playing the same theaters we are but we're always about a week off!"
Roy Buchanan (September 23, 1939 – August 14, 1988), an American guitarist and blues musician, was a pioneer of the Telecaster sound. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still considered a highly influential guitar player. Ranked #57 on the Rolling Stone list "100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time," Guitar Player praised him as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of all Time."
Today's blog entry will be a quote from my discussion on this with some Facebook friends:
Hey Kicha, thanks. You might be interested in this response to a post on my Facebook page:
Noe Gold Here is a link to the 2008 Vanity Fair article about the image, and yes there the pic is on that page. It is a 5-page article, detailing not just Robert's life and times, but the lawsuits over the past 40 years over who controls the rights to Robert's estate:
Searching for Robert Johnson www.vanityfair.com In the seven decades since his mysterious death, bluesman Robert Johnson’s legend has grown—the tragically short life, the “crossroads” tale of supernatural talent, the genuine gift that inspired Dylan, Clapton, and other greats—but his image remains elusive: only two photos of Johnson have ever been found - until now.
Ed Supple, Heather Harris, Carolyne Mas and 3 others like this. Heather Harris thanks for posting this, definitely of interest
Shelley Mitchell The whole Robert Johnson 'deal-with-the-devil' legend is right up my alley.. LOVE this stuff--THANKS!!!!
Simon Nisbet If it wasn't for Robert J Zeppelin would have to of written their own lyrics. ;-)
Heather Harris @Shelley, you would enjoy his site doctornoemedia.blogspot.com/ as Noe has quite the unusual takes on rock and classic rock. I've only caught up with it recently and it's great fun to read our most outre rock musings written by a pro with such panache.
Shelley Mitchell Thanks Heather! I just took a quick preliminary glance, and you're right--this is something I will enjoy reading. I know you know music HISTORY is my real forte.. just love the OLD stuff, and the older I get, the more I like it!!!
Heather Harris the good stuff wears well, which is why I'm always interested in NEW good stuff happening, to replenish future supplies...
Noe Gold Thank you Heather. Now if only some more enthusiasts would buy my Roy Buchanan DVD I might be able to put up some more brilliant commentary.
Noe Gold Yes! and even more amusing is the YouTube comments by theguitar dweebs over who is the "best guitar player." Funny thing is, inthisclip, STeve VAi was hired to playboth guitar parts – theDevils MusicMAn that he plays in the movie and the Fender-sporting Ralph Macchio kid who represents the down home-inspired licksters.
Heather Harris I thought Ry Cooder did the Ralph M slide parts: I learn something every day. I love the fact that this scene uses music solely as the narrative.
Noe Gold Here is the skinny, with some fascinating trivia about the movie here: Trivia for Crossroads (1986) More at IMDbPro »
www.imdb.com/title/tt0090888/trivia Steve Vai played both sides of the guitar duel, while acting as Jack Butler, the devil's guitarist. Ry Cooder recorded the slide parts and produced the soundtrack.
Noe Gold This is a gem: "Eugene's Trick Bag", the updated classical piece at the climax of the film, is largely based on Niccolo Paganini's Caprice #5. Paganini, as the pervading myth has it, sold his soul to the devil for his musical skills. Steve Vai, as 'Jack Butler', replicates Paganini's legendary rolling eyes, long unkempt hair and gaunt stature. And Paganini is Yngwie Malmsteen's hero, but that is another story :)
===================
Hey Kicha, here's more. Think it is worthy of a blog post?
Shelley Mitchell I loved that 'cuttin' heads' part of the article, it really appeals to my macabre sensibilities. Never heard of that before--I learn something new every day, too! Always been a rock n' roller, with a whole lotta (old) pop and soul thrown in as well--but here lately, I've been starting to cultivate a greater interest in blues stuff than ever before. Known for years that Robert Johnson was probably THE single most influential old master of all, but just now beginning to really explore that whole realm. Rock's most prominent ancestor!
John Lynch: Cutting heads if speaking of competitive jamming or stealing a gig from the people on the stand, etc. is pretty old. I don't know if the article has the latest update on the litigation, Rupert Murdoch one after establishing that Johnson had sold his soul and everything else to him.
Noe Gold OK, now I'll fill you in on something the Guitar World and Vanity Fair articles only touched on. Jimi was a self-acknowledged heir to Robt. Johnson's legacy as well:
Jimi Hendrix: The Complete January 1967 Interview With Steve Barker
" ... I turned up to see Jimi at his flat on Montague Square, cassette recorder and one cassette in hand. He was friendly and relaxed through the chat. His girlfriend – I assume Kathy Etchingham – drifted in and out. There was a huge stack of vinyl records. On top was Robert Johnson’s King of the Delta Blues Singers and under that a Lenny Bruce album. ..."
Steve Barker: What are the main influences in your music?
Jimi Hendrix: Well, I don’t have any right now. I used to like Elmore James and early Muddy Waters and stuff like that – Robert Johnson and all those old cats.
Do you feel any heritage from the old bluesmen?
No, ’cause I can’t even sing! When I first started playing guitar is was way up in the Northwest, in Seattle, Washington. They don’t have too many of the real blues singers up there. When I really learned to play was down South. Then I went into the Army for about nine months, but I found a way to get out of that. When I came out I went down South and all the cats down there were playing blues, and this is when I really began to get interested in the scene. =================================== John Lynch also points out that ...
John Lynch: Well and King appears on the cover of Dylan's Bringin It All Back Home along with Lotte Lenya, the Impressions, Eric von Schmidt
Noe Gold: You are a gent and a blues scholar, John!
John Lynch: Just loved the stiuff a long time . . . I wish I had a copy of a letter I wrote a friend after discovering Robert Johnson.
I got a call from Roy's nephew the other day, after he bought my DVD. He has posted some cool video about Roy here and here.
If you want a little taste of the DVD – a try before you buy, if you will – just go here.
Thanks for the tip o the hat. When I interviewed Marty Scorsese last year in the Hollywood Reporter, he was all about paying tribute to Roy (and Roy's protege Robbie Robertson) when he used "Sweet Dreams" for the soundtrack of "The Departed," that little old movie he made in Boston with Jack and Leo ...
“This shot of Jimi was taken during a soundcheck at the Monterey Pop Festival, 1967. Jimi was playing to an empty arena — or, more accurately, to himself. I was one of the official photographers and, for some reason, everyone was at dinner except Al Kooper, Jimi's band and crew, and some of the other stage hands. I approached Jimi and told him my name was Jim Marshall — that I was one of the photographers. He made some comment like, 'Far out, man, maybe this shit is supposed to be,' and I asked what he meant. He said the dude who made his amps was named Jim Marshall, and smart-ass me says, 'Yeah, I know that.' But then he said, 'What you don't know is that my middle name is Marshall.' We were all pretty stoned (the amp Marshall wasn't there), but there were three Marshalls onstage at once.” —Jim Marshall
He's sleeping it off the day after we saw Dylan go electric!
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!"
Someone ought to submit Scrapper's story to Unsolved Crimes ...
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.
I edited this story back in 1974, and commissioned the art, etc. Our little publication was only limited to two highly collectible issues and was seen by not many people, but some of the things in this issue especially are memorable and – it turns out, highly prescient.
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.
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’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. ....
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:
"... 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:
... 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.
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:
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 extraordinary, 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":
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":
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
My interview with Mick and Keith 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. ...
... 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.
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.
Les Paul 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.
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."
y, it can only be a good movie, at best."
