Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast am on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: So Harvey, that's cool tune.
Speaker 3: Listen. I'm just it's in a world where we have
Speaker 3: so much variety, whether it be rap music or ed
Speaker 3: m or singer songwriter ballads, acoustic music. Something happens when
Speaker 3: you kind of hear a raucous rock and roll, you know,
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry inspired riff, even as bumper music. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: kind of things start jumping a bit, yeah, and it builds.
Speaker 3: I haven't felt that way on the Rolling Stones albums.
Speaker 3: For the live thing is a different scenario. I haven't felt,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe close to them in the audio world.
Speaker 3: I'm talking product for a very long time, and maybe
Speaker 3: I'm being maybe I'm rejoining the fan club a bit,
Speaker 3: you know. And I guess you feel the same way too.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 4: And what I caught myself doing was hitting replay on
Speaker 4: that tune.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I want to hear it again.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 3: I do want to amplify one other thing. And not
Speaker 3: because I'm a child of Hollywood, but when the Stones
Speaker 3: come to town and record in Hollywood, like some of
Speaker 3: the new record on Sunset Boulevard at the studio, I
Speaker 3: think a lot of people forget maybe that's my job
Speaker 3: is on the expedition that literally, I don't know, ninety
Speaker 3: percent of their recordings from nineteen sixty four to nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty seven we're done on Sunset Boulevard, where a lot
Speaker 3: of the new record was done at this studio. They
Speaker 3: did a lot of their seminal albums with the producer
Speaker 3: Andrew lou Goldham at RCAA Studios, and then they did
Speaker 3: Bridges to Babylon in the same facility. And so there
Speaker 3: is the influence of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard. And I mean,
Speaker 3: I've always said that the Rolling Stones records. Could you
Speaker 3: imagine if the albums you cherish from sixty four to
Speaker 3: sixty seven, that little block, imagine if they were recorded
Speaker 3: in New York instead of the flexibility and the environmental
Speaker 3: graphic of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard. The setting, the bioregional
Speaker 3: environment does play a part in what we eventually hear,
Speaker 3: and I think some of that has seeped in this
Speaker 3: new recording.
Speaker 2: You know, you remind me of the conversation around the
Speaker 2: Tammy Show.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm the expert on that one, I will believe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm going to turn you on that because
Speaker 4: I think it's still a lot of people don't know
Speaker 4: about this, but it's still a little bit like in
Speaker 4: the biopic with James Brown and you know, as legend goes,
Speaker 4: the band was still in nineteen sixty four when the
Speaker 4: first toured America, they hadn't even had a hit right
Speaker 4: on American radio.
Speaker 2: They were kind of obscure.
Speaker 4: I think didn't Bill Wyman or somebody describe it as
Speaker 4: an absolute disaster the first tour or the other you know,
Speaker 4: there's a.
Speaker 3: Lot of myths about that. And listen, I was twelve
Speaker 3: years old across the street from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium,
Speaker 3: you know, at a surfboard shop. I did not know
Speaker 3: what was going down, although I sure noticed a lot
Speaker 3: of girls wearing short skirts. I was too busy with
Speaker 3: my surfer pal, longboarder Peter Piper, buying paraffin wax for
Speaker 3: our con surfboards. I actually had a Macaha skateboard. I
Speaker 3: didn't know what was going on. But in the fifty
Speaker 3: years of reporting and interviewing everybody associated with the Tammy Show, director, producer,
Speaker 3: band members, choreographers, you know, and Sting references it in
Speaker 3: one of his songs as well with the Police. Let's
Speaker 3: just be really clear that it was a two day
Speaker 3: shoot with a rehearsal. It was sort of, shall we say,
Speaker 3: like all Hollywood movies, because I've been a lot of
Speaker 3: film sets, it's shot out of sequence, and so you know,
Speaker 3: even the order of what we see on DVD now
Speaker 3: or on TV, that's not with the exception of the
Speaker 3: hosts Jan and Dean. I mean, sure, you know the Stones,
Speaker 3: James Brown, the Stones had to follow James Brown. But
Speaker 3: you know there was an hour to wait, or there
Speaker 3: was a lot of break time to set up equipment
Speaker 3: and things like that. It isn't this situation as perceived
Speaker 3: by all of us. What counts is the product that
Speaker 3: impacts us and the genius work of Jack Nietzsche as
Speaker 3: the musical director of The Tammy Show. I just have
Speaker 3: been in the studio with a wonderful guitarist, Don Peak.
Speaker 3: I did ten years with Ray Charles. He's on a
Speaker 3: lot of the big the Jackson five records. He did
Speaker 3: many years with Barry White. Don Peak is in both
Speaker 3: the Tammy Show Band in the orchestra. He's also in
Speaker 3: the Big T and T Show, which is kind of
Speaker 3: this sister element to the Tammy Show. So I have
Speaker 3: talked extensively with these people. And the last time I
Speaker 3: was on your show, when I was touting my book
Speaker 3: on music documentaries, Rock Set doc you know, we we
Speaker 3: we talked about the Tammy Show and some of these things.
Speaker 3: And so I've made it a point to talk to
Speaker 3: the participants, and you know, they have their own stories.
Speaker 3: The truth is often in the middle, but it does work.
Speaker 3: And both Mick Jagger, you know, has told the story
Speaker 3: that he actually had to sort of do some ministry
Speaker 3: work with James Brown when it was explained to James
Speaker 3: Brown listen to them, you know, you're going to be
Speaker 3: kind of we're going to be kind of following you.
Speaker 3: And even Nick said, you know, it's kind of shot
Speaker 3: out of a sequence. It's going to be a put
Speaker 3: together project. I don't think James Brown was having any
Speaker 3: of that, but I actually think and I've talked to
Speaker 3: Jack Nietzschee, you know, the late Jack Nietzschee extensively about
Speaker 3: the Tammy Show, and he thought James Brown opening if
Speaker 3: you want to use that term for the Rolling Stones
Speaker 3: or them following his act. Oh, if James was an act,
Speaker 3: it was life on stage that he thought it inspired
Speaker 3: the Rolling Stones to take it to another level. And
Speaker 3: and you know, for all of us as consumers, guess
Speaker 3: what we like both of them, James Brown and the
Speaker 3: Rolling Stones and the Motown Acts and janed Dean, And
Speaker 3: it's such a time capsule of a rock and roll,
Speaker 3: isn't it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 4: I will go over the old ground that we tackled
Speaker 4: last time, but I will say what I like most
Speaker 4: about the story, sorry, is that Mick Jagger got has
Speaker 4: come up. And if that part of the story is
Speaker 4: true of James Brown telling Mick Jagger follow that because
Speaker 4: he knows that, you know, Jagger had been ripping off
Speaker 4: a lot of his moves and nobody did it better
Speaker 4: than the original hardest working man at show business. So
Speaker 4: I mean, I look at that and I say, I
Speaker 4: hope that part of the story is true. I do
Speaker 4: know that, as you have said before in the past that.
Speaker 2: I think maybe it wasn't you.
Speaker 4: But so somebody said that, I mean, didn't they didn't
Speaker 4: they regret doing it? I mean, wasn't it Like many
Speaker 4: of the Stones performers were like, that was a huge
Speaker 4: mistake to try and go on that stage sort of but.
Speaker 3: The interesting thing is the bands, everybody who participated. It
Speaker 3: was a package deal, and everybody got paid quite handsomely.
Speaker 3: In nineteen sixty four phase.
Speaker 2: What would be a nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 3: I think every person involved, I'm talking every act got
Speaker 3: twenty five grand each. Wow, they did surrender all the rights.
Speaker 3: They're talking about product television, sure, a movie exhibition.
Speaker 2: That is a ton of money.
Speaker 3: Back then, though, I was put together by GAC General
Speaker 3: Artist Corporation, kind of a booking agent. And so even
Speaker 3: shall we say, the other people on the band, the
Speaker 3: groups besides you know, the Stones and James Brown and
Speaker 3: the Motown Artists. So everybody got a nice payday. And
Speaker 3: here they are at the beach in southern California. So
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody regretted anything about that. And sometimes
Speaker 3: when you have that baptism by fire. Look, the Stones
Speaker 3: got to I'm sure it helped fuel their records that
Speaker 3: they were recording on Sunset Boulevard at RCA right after that,
Speaker 3: or when they did extra touring and then the Stones
Speaker 3: and by the way, Mick Jagger had watched Little Richard
Speaker 3: probably thirty times on a nineteen sixty three tour with
Speaker 3: the everly brothers, Don Teak and I were talking about this,
Speaker 3: so he was already looking at Icontina Turner and motown
Speaker 3: music and Little Richard and of course you know he
Speaker 3: went to the Apollo before or after to go see
Speaker 3: James Brown. He's never hidden the fact that the influences
Speaker 3: he wore on his sleeve, and eventually he became his
Speaker 3: own performer after soaking up the DNA of these legends.
Speaker 4: But okay, let me just fundamentally, since you know the
Speaker 4: Tammy Show, and for people who don't, it's worth looking
Speaker 4: at and it's worth looking into because it's so fascinating.
Speaker 4: And do we ever agree on what exactly Tammy Tami?
Speaker 3: Well? Teenage American Music International, that's kind of where it
Speaker 3: comes from. But I've interviewed the director, Steve Bender a
Speaker 3: couple of times, but you know, because I know his
Speaker 3: history and he went to LA High School and he's
Speaker 3: another native Angelino. I mean, Steve had worked on a
Speaker 3: show called Jazz Scene USA in like sixty and sixty one.
Speaker 3: So his blocking techniques there is directorial style. It came
Speaker 3: from jazz as an improv, but he also knew how
Speaker 3: lights were working, and he knew to bring in uh
Speaker 3: the choreographer David Winters and also Tony Bassel, So there
Speaker 3: was choreography and dance and energy and impulse and and
Speaker 3: also it was so well done. Plus it was in
Speaker 3: a new kind of film stock called electrona vision, which
Speaker 3: was short lived. It's if you've ever seen the movie Harlow,
Speaker 3: it was kind of a different the direct It was
Speaker 3: sort of like you shoot it on video and then
Speaker 3: you put it back to like film. It's a different
Speaker 3: kind of black and white film experience. It didn't last
Speaker 3: long due to it was kind of expensive, but that
Speaker 3: was something developed from radio state TV station KTLA out here.
Speaker 3: So the film stock is even it plays the part
Speaker 3: again like I was talking earlier about the studios and
Speaker 3: room tone and environmental aspect. It even brings you in
Speaker 3: a little deeper maybe, although it's all been transferred now
Speaker 3: and highlighted on DVD and Blu ray, and it's a
Speaker 3: little different. But it was not your traditional shoot quick
Speaker 3: black and white concert footage of a rock and roll
Speaker 3: band and lip sync. It really was a two and
Speaker 3: a half day kind of concert experience that we got
Speaker 3: to see in theaters and quick, and then it disappeared
Speaker 3: for a long time because there was no video outlets,
Speaker 3: there was no VCRs, there was no DVDs, and then
Speaker 3: it came back and now it's a really good discovery
Speaker 3: for anybody to see that era and.
Speaker 4: To see Terry gar right dancing in the back, d
Speaker 4: bat and.
Speaker 3: Man's in there too. There's it was a thriving, throbbing
Speaker 3: Los Angeles experience and it kind of bleeds into the
Speaker 3: things that Jack could would do the following year when
Speaker 3: he brought a shin dig on television, right, I mean
Speaker 3: it all comes from it. Yeah, I can see that
Speaker 3: all right, but correlation.
Speaker 4: But is it not true then though, that the Stones
Speaker 4: insisted on going last, and that that's what the regret is,
Speaker 4: is that they they should have been more respectful of
Speaker 4: James Brown and the energy that he brought to a stage,
Speaker 4: regardless as you say, whether or not there was an
Speaker 4: hour's gap for resetting cameras and lights or whatever, that
Speaker 4: they recognize, even if the story is not true about
Speaker 4: you know, James Brown passing Mick Jagger and the Wings
Speaker 4: saying to him, yet go on top that that it
Speaker 4: was still that was still the Stone's choice that they
Speaker 4: were the last act and as maybe at the time,
Speaker 4: they feel like they hadn't they really hadn't earned that yet.
Speaker 3: Well, you know it, Partymie agrees with you with pardon me.
Speaker 3: Ben's to Jack Nietzsche, the musical director who knew the
Speaker 3: Rolling Stones and brought them in and said to Steve Bender,
Speaker 3: they're hot, They're going to be huge. They do roots music.
Speaker 3: And I think Jack told me more than once he
Speaker 3: suggested or determine the order, because he knew, let's start
Speaker 3: it off with some surf music or pop vocal, you know,
Speaker 3: Jan and Dean. Let's take everybody through some other English
Speaker 3: groups early on during the pavement, Billy J. Kramer, Let's
Speaker 3: let the Motown artists, whether it be the Supremes or
Speaker 3: of course Martin Gay. Let's let Chuck Berry kick it
Speaker 3: off pretty early to set up the Stones, and Chuck
Speaker 3: Berry is their ancestral godfather. I think Jack really set
Speaker 3: it up that the Stones and management and their record
Speaker 3: label probably didn't have the clout or power in nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty four to demand this kind of stuff. I think
Speaker 3: it just kind of worked out that way. But Jack
Speaker 3: Nietzsche saw the promise of the Rolling Stones very early,
Speaker 3: and you know, he probably liked to put them into
Speaker 3: a baptism by fire thing, and by the time they
Speaker 3: played the show, and it was taped, and by the
Speaker 3: time they started playing, they took off. And Jack Meetzsche's
Speaker 3: told me in two different books when the Stones appeared,
Speaker 3: it was a new type of emotion. Now. I don't
Speaker 3: know if he was comparing or contrasting James, you know,
Speaker 3: James's gig, and James was otherworldly, but the Stones at
Speaker 3: least held their mud pretty much that it was not disaster.
Speaker 3: And I think as we look at it now, I'm
Speaker 3: just glad we have Brian Jones on screen and we
Speaker 3: can see that original band right at that moment.
Speaker 4: Not stoned out of his mind like he was doing
Speaker 4: sympathy for the devil or whatever it was, that other
Speaker 4: thing that you could see him there.
Speaker 3: It was quite passive show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's just say it was passive. Okay, So that's
Speaker 4: the Tammy Show. Do you have photos in this book
Speaker 4: Rolling Stones icons from that period?
Speaker 2: I didn't know.
Speaker 3: I know there's a nineteen sixty four photos, but there
Speaker 3: were there was probably some rights issues where they couldn't
Speaker 3: license some things, but there are, you know, pictures from
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty four, and there are you know, pictures from
Speaker 3: the rock and roll circus, and you know some of
Speaker 3: their television appearances. But I think what happened with this book,
Speaker 3: and it happens largely I think with the Stones is
Speaker 3: we are maybe you and I are a bit different
Speaker 3: in some people in your listenership. Somehow most of the
Speaker 3: Stones photos end up being live stage shots. Oh okay,
Speaker 3: you know, as opposed to because photographers and studios. You know,
Speaker 3: there weren't people weren't taking a lot of pictures of
Speaker 3: rock and roll bands in studios and sixty four they
Speaker 3: might have been a set person or somebody aligned with
Speaker 3: a television station. Nobody was carrying a lot of their
Speaker 3: own photographers in that sixty three sixty four world. That's
Speaker 3: why we're very grateful when we see early motown apps
Speaker 3: and some of those people, because you don't see tons
Speaker 3: of the photos.
Speaker 1: Then listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight
Speaker 1: at one am Eastern and go to Coast to coastam
Speaker 1: dot com for more