WEBVTT - Harvey Kubernik 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:13.720 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Leftstats Podcast. My 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:19.720 guest today is writer and music historian Harvey Kubernick. Harvey, 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:21.600 good to have you on the podcast. 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:24.600 Delighted to be here, Bob or Robert. 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.560 Okay, you've written nineteen books. Which one is your favorite? 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.360 It's I'm not one of those people. Oh the songs 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:40.559 are like my children. No, there's one book that has 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.919 penetrated the difference deep into me, and it's the one 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:45.760 I'm asked the most about. It's a book called Turn 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.000 Up the Radio Rock pop ' Roll in Los Angeles 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:53.080 nineteen fifty six to nineteen seventy two, partially because it's 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.280 a big coffee table book with color, black and white 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:59.680 and illustrations. And it was the book that was the 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:05.119 most joyous to do because the publisher and the editor 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:09.400 at Santa Monica Press said, do what you want. And 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:13.399 I think there were two or three emails or a 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:18.039 couple of notes, but no intrusion. And it helped that 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.720 he was an LA native as well. And it really 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.600 speaks deep to me because I got to stretch back 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.240 and really chronicle something from nineteen fifty six to nineteen 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.399 seventy two. Kind of my wingspan from like age six 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.320 to twenty one. I mean, that's a pretty seminal time 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:42.640 period for all of us, and it's still remains my 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:44.880 most potent title and the one that people ask me 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:46.080 to autograph the most about. 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:51.440 Okay, you're born in fifty one, so you're five or 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.800 six years old. Were you listening to the radio at 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:54.880 that point? Oh? Yeah. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:02:00.400 By nineteen fifty six, I'm like almost six, the radio 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.360 was blaring. I mean there wasn't even a transistor radio then. 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:10.200 It was on my parents' kitchen table in downtown Los Angeles. 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:16.400 I was going to Colisseum Street Elementary School and we 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.840 had a black and white Philco television, but the radio 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:26.400 was always on stations like KMPC and a lot of 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.760 the rhythm and blues stations and some jazz stations. I 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.920 didn't know who the people were, but my parents were 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:38.640 so sinatraed out and Tommy dorseyed out and into Julie London. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:43.200 It was always on because there were middle of the 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:48.079 road radio stations in this town with big wattage, and 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.760 so I just heard this music. But I was drawn 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.120 to kind of the R and B music because it 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.520 was loud and raucous, and there were horns. I didn't 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.640 know what brass or horns meant, but I recognized after 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.760 three four five there were rotation songs. I didn't know 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:07.720 you could play a song more than once on the 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.040 radio back then. I didn't know there were playlists or whatever. 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:16.639 But it it was very It was de penetration. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.920 Okay. I remember my own introduction, and I'm two years 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.320 younger than you, not that we're both not old at 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.000 this particular point in time, however, young at heart. And 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:32.840 first I remember buying cartoon records like Rough and Ready, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.480 who were on the television. Then at the turn of 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:40.040 the decade to the sixties, that's when the folk boom 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.000 was happening. I remember my mother buying if I had 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.800 a hammer, Peter, Paul and Mary, I would listen to 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.960 the baseball games. At this point there were transistors. But 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:56.760 I certainly remember becoming addicted when the Beatles broke really 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.920 in January of sixty four. So what was your experience. 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.839 I have to tell you, the two years that i'm 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.920 older than you on feels like ten years as far 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:15.720 as you know, legacy archive, catalog and just library action. 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:20.320 Because I knew a world of the Beatles for five, 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:23.760 six or seven years. I mean I went with my 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.160 parents at about age nine to the Pomona Affair to see 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:33.080 Spike Jones, which well eventually led me to Zappa. But 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:39.480 you know, I did see Elvis on the ed Selvan Show. 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:41.640 Oh you got to see this wacky guy Harvey. I 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.840 didn't really know what was going on, but I saw 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.599 that my parents embraced rock and roll in music. They 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.960 didn't keep me away from it. But the fifties, and 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.479 this is the other thing you mentioned baseball. Initially the 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.839 middle of the road radio stations were on places like 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:05.560 MPC or KFI, which stands for Farmer Information, so you'd 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.280 listen to baseball. And then there weren't pregame and postgame 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.600 shows back then that much, so you'd have that station 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:16.360 on waiting for baseball, vinskull A, Jerry Doggett, but you'd 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.719 have two hours before and two hours after, and the 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.960 disc jockeys were sometimes in the booth or at the games, 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:25.599 so it all kind of collided. But I mean I 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:32.200 started collecting records. I started looking at records at Wallack's 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:39.039 Music City in nineteen fifty eight and fifty nine. I 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.440 didn't have funds to buy them at age eight or nine. 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:46.560 But I did buy for sixty nine cents Hailey mails 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:52.240 Let's Get Together because I saw the parent trap. Now, 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.279 did I know it was done at Sunset Sound with 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.839 Twoty Camarada. Did I know any of that stuff? No? 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.159 All I know is she was a pretty girl. She 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:05.120 didn't look like the girls in my school. She also 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.240 talked funny. But on the record Let's Get Together, I 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:13.960 thought it was an American girl with blonde hair and that. 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:18.440 But it wasn't hitting me as hard as buying the Coasters. 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:22.720 At the same time shopping for clothes search and I 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:28.080 bought the Coasters. There were no albums then. Really I 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.960 bought the Coasters records literally the same time, and I decided, well, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.400 why don't I have one foot in pop and R 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.520 and B. Then they had this thing called race music 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.120 that they kept mentioning, here's something from the race department. 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.920 I didn't even know what it meant. But the music 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.480 had comedy and tension and drama and multi voices. I 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.279 couldn't quite grasp all the lyrics the way I grabbed 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.719 now and somehow that devotional art that I put my 0:06:55.800 --> 0:07:00.720 shelf self through brought me to people like Meaningly and Stoller. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.919 This was unfathomable to me, So it was planted early. 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.440 And then, by the way, in late sixty I heard 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:12.080 Jane Deine and the Beach Boys on the radio because 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.240 they're on the AM Ray, They're on KFWB, they're on 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.960 car La. And then I went to see the Beach 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.560 Boys in nineteen sixty two in Culver City at a 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:25.560 record store. It was kind of a SOCCP. I now 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:29.560 realized they were lip syncing, there were no amps, they 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:34.160 were holding the guitars wearing penaltons. I just thought, wow, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.520 this is really cool. So I was already in the 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.960 rock and roll scheme dream before the Beatles showed up 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:47.560 and then the big bang. My parents were devoted. And 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.120 I'm sure you watched it to the Jack Parr Show. 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:50.640 Of course. 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.920 Wait, you're just gonna tell me that on that Friday night. Yeah, 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.040 got the video. Most people don't even know that exists. 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.080 You're talking to Harvey Kybrinic. I got two witnesses. We 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.560 didn't call them on the phone right now. Bob Kushner 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:07.520 is one of them. So I was watching Jack Parr 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.560 because I liked, you know, Arthur Treacher and I like 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:15.280 seeing Judy Garland and Morgan Mason and all these people on, 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:19.480 and James Mason, and I liked his demeanor and he'd 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.720 been in World War Two, where my father was in 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.720 World War two. I kind of felt, this is really good. 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.440 And remember I was also hooked on the Oscar Levant show. 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.840 But Oscar Levant, which was filmed out here, he didn't 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.040 have rock and roll music people on. But I remember 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:36.600 I was so beach boyed out. And yes I did surf, 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.360 but I had a five foot limit and a nine 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:45.199 to six con board. We have at My daughter Randy 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.680 saw this music, this group attracting a lot of attention 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.400 in London on our trip there. I'd like you to 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.400 see it or something like that. I saw that clip. Now, 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.360 I didn't know it was called some other guy. I didn't, 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:07.920 but I saw that, and I'm eleven. I walked downstairs. 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.760 And I threw out my brill cream and I combed 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.040 my hair down, and my mother said, you're going to 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:17.120 the barber tomorrow. I said, it's the same hair. I 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.520 just comed it down. She said, what happened to you? 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:22.160 Are you hanging out with hood libs or something? I 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:26.559 said no, And there's no VCR there's no repeat. I said, 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.360 I just I heard a new music. I something happened 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.440 on And we also we were all pretty bummed out 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.679 in the winter of nineteen sixty three because of the 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:43.720 John F. Kennedy murder. It was just a good light. 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.240 And what I did is I took my Beach Boy 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.760 fan club button and I put it in a safe 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:56.600 and I sort of defected to the Beatles temporarily. Then 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.839 in February sixty four, I heard they were coming to town. 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:06.079 It's not the Ed Sullivan Show. I read that there 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.160 was some kind of they were going to be in 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:12.079 town or some television event. I couldn't get it. 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:13.800 And my bar. 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.960 Mitzvah was end of February nineteen sixty four. And I 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.920 got some early bonds earlier or some gifts, and my 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:26.320 parents said, well, some mails arrived for you. There was 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.000 like money there and I said, I'm taking some of 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.160 that money and I'm buying a ticket to go to 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.960 the Wilshure Theater on Wiltshire in Losi, Aanaga because the 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:37.640 Beatles are going to be there. They're not going to 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:39.600 be there, Harvey, I said, they're going to be there. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.880 He said, oh, it's probably something that they're doing in 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:46.120 a studio. Go ahead, just be home by eight o'clock 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.160 at night. You know, there was always the deal. You 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:51.320 can stay up till eight, and you could stay up 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.400 till ten when you're sixteen, and you could stay out 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.080 till midnight when you were eighteen. I saw that show, 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:02.080 I thought they were there in person. First of all, 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:06.280 it's the longest Beatle set that they ever did. Did 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:08.839 I know that the Beach Boys and Leslie Gore taped 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.960 their segments? I believe in a studio in Burbank. No, 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:18.840 there was Leslie Gore, there was the Beach Boys, but 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:23.760 the Beatle thing. And then I went to a department 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.400 store and I bought the album on VJ, and I 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.200 went to Walllex Music City and there were people lined up. 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.200 We waited till they cracked the thing up because there 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.600 were shipments coming up the street from Capitol Records. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:38.640 I don't know. 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:40.280 That's one of the reasons I'm here today. 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.760 Okay, let's go back to Wallicks Music City. I grew 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.200 up on the East Coast. I didn't come to l 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:52.120 permanently until I was twenty one. The story was always 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:56.280 you could preview the Records in a booth. Was that true? 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.000 It's so true. I was talking to Rus Titelman, who 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:04.520 you know obviously about this. I'm living in West Hollywood, 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.520 going to Junior High, and of course sixty six to 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.120 sixty nine, I'm going to Fairfax High School. You notice 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.120 I never hide my age or do any of that stuff. 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.120 I will tell you specific stuff. So I am in 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.600 Hollywood sixty six to sixty nine, but I'm also in 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:25.000 Junior High in the area. I made a bike ride 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:28.840 and a skateboard ride from Wallax Music City. But I 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.319 had gone to Wallax Music City in the late fifties. 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:36.400 They had six or eight preview booths. You could take 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.720 a record that had demonstration marked on it, a white label, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.080 not an acetate. The labels would have testers. You could 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.959 go into a listening booth and you could play a record. 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:53.160 And I remember playing albums not forty fives. My brother 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:58.280 and I heard Jan and Dean's Command Performance album my record. 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:05.200 Well there it blew my fucking mind. Like Jannandeine. I mean, 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:09.160 these guys that I that were on like something called 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.520 Liberty Records, or they were on this Story label. Because 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:15.360 I was kind of I knew it I was reading 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.199 the kif WB hitline the Carely Beat. I was on it, 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.240 which is why I never could even get through the 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.400 law school application. It just didn't work for me. So 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:30.200 Wallax Music City, you'd go up there with your friends. 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:33.920 I was talking to Mickey Dolans about this because he 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.160 worked for a summer in sixty three behind the counter 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:37.360 at Wallax Music City. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.640 After he was already circus boy. 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.800 No yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's before Monkeys and before 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.640 he did episodic television. And I said, you were behind 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.280 the counter, but I know you. I didn't really know him, 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.800 but he said yeah. Bobby Darren came in and I said, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.040 what about those listening booths, Mackey, wasn't it cool to 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.719 play the records? He said, well, you're to buy them 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.960 after and I said, yeah, but my friend Peter Piper, 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.560 who I still talk to, longboarder surfer. This is a 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.959 little later, when the Hair album came out and the 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.120 Vanilla Fudgie album came out, with the Psychedelic and some 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.560 Hendrix albums came out. He would go to the listening 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.640 booths because he was going to Hollywood Professional School pretty 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.240 much down the street. Because I knew the Hollywood professional people, 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.560 Peggy lipped in the guys from the sun Rays. Peter 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:32.160 would do a one hitter. I'm outing you, Peter. He'd 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.440 have a joint, he'd take a big hit and he'd 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.360 hold it for like three minutes because he was a 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.000 surfer with good lung power. And then he'd put on 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.600 our experience and then he would just inhale. We'd look 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.200 at the booth and you'd see this smoke in his booth, 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.280 and then he'd quickly opened it up, you know, and 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.080 it was it was you would go there. Well, I 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.119 was going there once a week for twenty five thirty years, 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:56.880 not every day and every night. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:58.880 Okay. One thing you've informed me of that I never 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.040 knew previously is these were not records from the stock. 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:06.560 They were demonstration records. How long could you listen? And 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.600 how many records could you listen to before a clerk 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:11.440 said get the hell out of here? 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.520 I do know one thing. There was some sign that 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:18.920 said three or six albums limit. I remember that you 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.760 could spend an hour if you wanted, but there were 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:30.240 people lined up to also listen. And sometimes I mean 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.880 I remember when the Beatles album shipped and I'm talking 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.000 about the Beatles story some double interview album. Yeah yeah, 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:41.240 yeah yeah. Gary Usher was involved putting that together. Every 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.200 booth was stacked. All of a sudden, girls started showing 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:47.400 up in the listening booths. You know, it was kind 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.240 of a male That's not true. There were women listening 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.920 to Bobby Rydell and all that stuff, but when the 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.040 Beatles showed up, we couldn't get near the listening booths 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.360 anymore because there were three or four girls in five 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:03.760 or six both booths listening to the Beatles Interview album, 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:08.440 which were press conferences being mashed together. The world had changed. 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.840 Okay, let's go back generally, pull the lens back, because 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.600 I know the New York radio market and I know 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.560 certain things about LA, but I didn't experience You talked 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:26.040 about KRLA. Okay, and then you there's KHJ, there's b 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:31.240 Mitchell Reid. What was Top forty radio like and how 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.440 did it evolve into the FMSUND. 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.840 Because I had the luxury we'll call it, of listening 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:43.600 to the radio in the late fifties. I even think 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.160 Tennessee Ernie Ford was on camp See when I first 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.840 heard it, or he had just departed. But there were 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:56.400 some big disc jockeys Johnny Magnus, Dick Whittington. You heard this. 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:00.000 I mean FWB was a jazz station at about nineteen 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:04.680 teen fifty eight. B Mitchell Reid was on U. B 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.640 Mitchell Reed was a jazz teja for well, first of all, 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:09.760 he was a better, more jazz guy than people. He 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:11.560 was there at KIWB. 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:12.879 It was. 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.920 It was a jazz station with some Mr. Laning Sinatra 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.760 gave him a watch one time, thanking him for playing Weathers. 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:23.480 I remember him showing me that, and then he departed us. 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.760 I was almost gonna sit shiva. What do you mean 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.080 he's not on there? Where's b Mitchell Red? I didn't 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.440 know he flew the coop and went back to WMCA 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.280 with that good guy stuff and all that. And you know, 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.520 because I was reading sixteen magazine when Glorias S. Davers 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.680 jumped in, you could kind of track Dick beyond you DJ. 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.719 You could hear about b Milcha Reid and the good guys. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.880 I regret I never heard this guy that my New 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:52.440 York friends that have all moved here told me, Boy 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:54.760 you had really did? Was his name Dan Ingram? 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:55.480 Yeah? 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:56.760 Of course was he good? 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.639 He was good? But you have to know that it 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:08.520 was really a superstar lineup on WAB Scott Scott Muni's No. 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.240 It went from dann Ingrams in the morning. Suddenly I 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:14.960 forgot it was in the afternoon. Then came cousin Brucey, 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:19.520 then came Scott Muni. Okay, so it was a murderer's row. 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.600 There was ten ten wins in WMCA for those who 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:27.560 were really hip, but most of the listening was done 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:29.640 on WABC to the flip format. 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.280 In the seventies, I'll tell you when things really changed 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:36.320 this town. So car La KFWV went kind of color 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.879 radio with Chuck Lord sixty they were playing the Richie 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:46.000 Vallens people. Wink Martindale was on the channel that was 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:50.200 rock and roll. But then Cara La, I think they 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.360 were birthed in nineteen sixty, but they were actually involved 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:58.200 putting on teen dances, and I'll use the word they 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.639 had a slightly more adventurous playlist. Now they were playing 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:04.040 deep cuts or albums. 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:04.680 Well. 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:09.600 KIFWB, I think was really pretty rotation oriented. Top forty. 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:12.600 You heard a lot of the same records over and over. 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:17.879 But Caro La had hit bound stuff or just sneak peets. 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:23.240 It Peaks. Something was happening there, but the Big Bang happened. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:30.119 Maybe it was April nineteen sixty five. Bill Drake decides 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:35.600 or it gets involved with changing kh J into this 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:43.240 top thirty outlet. And kg J had had broadcast The 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:47.000 Lakers from like sixty one to sixty five. The Lakers 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.080 when they came to town in sixty sixty one did 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:53.480 not have a radio or a TV deal. And then 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.639 Bill Drake comes to town and also on that channel 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.119 was Michael of Michael Scotland Yard, Mikechael Jackson, who you 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:03.440 probably knew, and he was like k Sea for years. 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.680 He was he he had a South African accent. I 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.439 don't think he was English. But all of a sudden 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.600 he's kind of gone, and Chick Hern is gone, and 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.280 all of a sudden we're unveiling Boss Radio, and then 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:22.840 all of a sudden there's there's Don Steele, real Don Steele. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:27.560 There's Sam Riddle. There's eighteen songs being played in the 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.760 hour with such fluidity and copper tone ads and teen 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:37.760 dances and no interviews that and you're thirteen, fourteen years old. 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:43.640 Kg J was sort of like the Sea Party because 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.320 it had great black I mean, there were billboards of 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:51.439 the original jocks. That's what they look like. It was 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:55.159 like always six white guys were like pompadours, but the 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.720 music and they also kh Jane Carrolla did this. Dick 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.840 Mortland was the program director there. They had an alliance 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.760 with the regional music. They were in bed with them, 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:13.480 maybe promoting shows or doing exclusives, or people from gold 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.480 Star Recording Studios who were running up there with acetates 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:19.640 of a morning session of Sunny and chare to break 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:23.000 it worldwide or have the first debut. And so you 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:28.080 were surrounded by carle KFWB. I of course had two 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.800 transistor radios on my bike. It was a schwin stingray. 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.879 I'd want an each dial, but I didn't have a 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:39.840 third radio to go hear KGFJ or KD or the 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.679 R and B stuff. So that's what I listened to 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.879 late at night. And then around sixty five or sixty six, 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:53.400 Wolfman Jack arrives through XCRB. That's a border radio thing, 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:55.960 but I had fifty thousand watts from chew La Vista, 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:01.720 San Diego area. He was playing different music than everybody. 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:06.399 Plus it was a shtick when there was howling and 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.880 nobody had headphones. You were just trapped by this stuff. 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:11.719 But you know it was not. 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:15.360 It just felt that they were our guides or they 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.639 got us through our homework. And then, of course you 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.800 always had the Dodgers, and then the Angels had come 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:26.760 to town in nineteen sixty one. And also it's an era 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.720 in the sixties. And when I bring this up, New 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:34.720 Yorkers just shake their heads and go, you're right. What 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:39.320 happens is the Lakers come to town in sixty the 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:43.960 Dodgers come to town in nineteen fifty eight. UCLA wins 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:48.280 their first ten championships of twelve starting in the sixty 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:51.760 two to sixty three seasons. The Rams are here, The 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:57.119 Olympic Auditorium is buzzing. We're watching teams like the Lakers 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.840 play the Boston Celtics and the finals. And even though 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:03.120 you don't only see one game a week on television, 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.720 LA is getting all this attention that used to be 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:09.760 pretty New York and East Coast centric. And then the 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:14.359 whole enchilada busted open. The Dodgers win the championship in 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:17.520 fifty nine against the Chicago White Sox. It just brings 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:21.160 media attention. When you're a local team, and they're playing 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:23.760 rock and roll songs at rallies and all that. But 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.680 in sixty three the Dodgers swept the Yankees in the 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.760 World Series, and all of a sudden, LA is really 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:33.640 under the microscope. So I think all kinds of disc 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:40.960 jockeys then start transferring here, relocating. There's English accents, there's 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:43.919 Lord Tim and Tommy Vance. There's like British people on 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:46.440 the radio. What do you mean Sam Riddle has gone 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:50.120 to another station? B Mitchell Reid is, Where's he? After 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:53.919 kV BB, he goes on to KPBCEE. All of a sudden, 0:23:53.920 --> 0:23:58.240 there's so many new outlets and voices. I lost track 0:23:58.280 --> 0:23:59.840 of some of this stuff, but I was in and 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:04.760 with it. It was you know, it was it was deep. 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:16.719 Okay, certainly I lived through this era California was everything? 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:20.679 Was this just your environment or did you feel that 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:22.159 it was all happening around you? 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:27.159 I knew one thing I had advantage over some people. 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:29.760 I think because my parents moved here from Chicago in 0:24:29.840 --> 0:24:36.600 nineteen forty seven. They're from the Midwest. I met New 0:24:36.680 --> 0:24:39.840 Yorkers and people from Chicago or relatives coming from out 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:42.760 of town. I knew there was other worlds out there, 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:47.520 But I knew what the power of this music. I mean, 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:50.000 I met you maybe in two thousand and four. Didn't 0:24:50.000 --> 0:24:51.800 you tell me the Beach Boys were one of the 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:53.119 reasons you moved here. 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:56.120 I wouldn't say one of the reasons. I would say 0:24:56.240 --> 0:24:57.320 the reason. 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:00.400 I remember you telling me, and you weren't hiding your 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:03.880 loyalty and devotion to them. And I also know you're 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:07.120 one of those guys who obviously probably went to law 0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:09.640 school here instead of the deal back east, and then 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:12.240 you move out here to make a living or something. Right, 0:25:12.280 --> 0:25:13.520 Did you go to law school out here? 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:15.399 Absolutely? Okay. 0:25:15.480 --> 0:25:18.239 So the thing is, you were so proud of the 0:25:18.280 --> 0:25:21.720 magnetic pool of I get around and stuff. I remember 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:30.160 that conversation, you know, because you were just so upfront 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:33.240 of what the pool of that music did to you. 0:25:33.480 --> 0:25:37.520 And I didn't know it would start that kind of migration, 0:25:38.320 --> 0:25:42.600 but I just knew something was happening. And I can't 0:25:42.640 --> 0:25:44.679 avoid this. But you also need to know this a 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:50.080 slight backstory. From nineteen sixty two to nineteen seventy two, 0:25:51.640 --> 0:25:55.560 my mother worked for Columbia Pictures in Gower Gulch as 0:25:55.560 --> 0:26:00.400 a secretary stenographer, but in sixty five to sixty eight. 0:26:00.560 --> 0:26:02.320 She worked for Raybert Productions. 0:26:02.440 --> 0:26:03.720 Wow, I didn't know that. 0:26:04.160 --> 0:26:06.280 Well, if I ever got a chance to write some 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:08.840 winer notes on Monkeys' albums, I'd roll that all out. 0:26:08.880 --> 0:26:12.600 But you know, I asked a couple times and somebody said, well, 0:26:12.640 --> 0:26:15.679 you know, you don't really know the monkeys. I said, okay, 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:19.240 I just did write a Monkey's Book of five hundred 0:26:19.280 --> 0:26:23.400 pages with my brother Kenneth, Gary Strobel and Henry Doltson's photograph. 0:26:23.480 --> 0:26:26.040 So I met sixty seven. So my mother worked for 0:26:26.119 --> 0:26:31.159 Raybert Productions. I was at the Monkey's press conference, and 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:36.159 she also typed some of the scripts. I'm at the 0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:40.440 two press conferences, and sixty five sixty six. Really I'm 0:26:40.440 --> 0:26:43.200 at the preview house with my family seeing the pilot, 0:26:43.240 --> 0:26:46.199 which wasn't very funny. They had to recut it and 0:26:46.240 --> 0:26:51.280 do some dances. But you know, I'm meeting people sixty six, 0:26:51.400 --> 0:26:54.399 sixty seven, sixty eight in the commissary. And remember I 0:26:54.400 --> 0:26:57.240 had an after school job in junior high and especially 0:26:57.320 --> 0:27:00.880 high school, so I couldn't go every day and hang out. 0:27:01.040 --> 0:27:04.119 I even couldn't go weekly. But I it was also 0:27:04.200 --> 0:27:08.040 about one hundred yards from Wallax Music City. So my 0:27:08.200 --> 0:27:10.720 deal was I'm going to Wallax Music City. Then I'm 0:27:10.720 --> 0:27:12.879 doing a four hour hang to watch a few episodes 0:27:12.960 --> 0:27:15.479 or an episode, and then three weeks later maybe something. 0:27:15.920 --> 0:27:19.359 But you're running into Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson pre 0:27:19.720 --> 0:27:22.800 easy writer, Hey kid, how you doing? Have a milkshake? 0:27:22.840 --> 0:27:25.680 In the It was I can't even call it a commissary, 0:27:25.720 --> 0:27:29.600 it was a canteen. And I can't say I remain 0:27:29.640 --> 0:27:32.240 friends with them, but for decades I say, kid, hey, 0:27:32.280 --> 0:27:33.600 hell does s I mean you? 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:33.840 You know? 0:27:34.400 --> 0:27:38.360 It was just fascinating watching the phonetic energy of the monkeys. 0:27:39.240 --> 0:27:41.440 And I also got to peek in or bring some 0:27:41.480 --> 0:27:45.200 sheet music up the RCA studio where they recorded right 0:27:45.400 --> 0:27:50.040 adjacent to Walllex Music City. I didn't know all the specifics, 0:27:50.119 --> 0:27:53.720 but it was just great to kind of not learn 0:27:53.760 --> 0:27:56.600 about the business, but to hold an acetate or could 0:27:56.640 --> 0:27:59.159 you use the Xerox machine for the sheet music of 0:27:59.640 --> 0:28:03.119 I'm a Believer. All this stuff is happening, which is 0:28:03.160 --> 0:28:05.800 why the monkeys, especially turn up the radio and you 0:28:05.880 --> 0:28:11.960 name it. They're prominently displayed in my adventures. I just 0:28:12.000 --> 0:28:14.720 thought the music was fantastic, and then you get to 0:28:14.720 --> 0:28:19.080 meet Paul Williams a songwriter, or Harry Nilsen maybe he 0:28:19.160 --> 0:28:22.800 was still working at the bank. I'm not sure, but 0:28:22.960 --> 0:28:25.480 you get to meet these people because I didn't do 0:28:25.560 --> 0:28:28.320 the math, but I know there were all kinds of 0:28:28.400 --> 0:28:31.639 people involved in these records. It just wasn't like I 0:28:31.640 --> 0:28:35.160 thought the Beatles did it all with mel Evans turning 0:28:35.760 --> 0:28:40.520 the drum set around. So it was very important hanging 0:28:40.520 --> 0:28:43.240 out beyond the monkeys, being able to say hello to 0:28:43.280 --> 0:28:45.840 Kerry Grant and this kind of stuff. I wasn't starstrupp. 0:28:45.920 --> 0:28:49.400 I didn't ask for autographs, but I just felt I 0:28:49.520 --> 0:28:52.640 was in Hollywood when the studio system is kind of 0:28:52.640 --> 0:28:55.920 breaking up and rock and rolling soundtracks. I went to 0:28:55.960 --> 0:28:59.840 the head premiere. I remember that Elliot Mintz was there too, 0:29:00.040 --> 0:29:04.760 broadcasting or something. But it was just it was what 0:29:04.800 --> 0:29:08.880 we did. Plus everything was so collaborative. Then people from 0:29:08.880 --> 0:29:11.600 other studios would send you a soundtrack of the sound 0:29:11.600 --> 0:29:14.600 of music or something like that. Everybody seemed to be 0:29:14.680 --> 0:29:16.959 in this game. There seemed to be about three hundred 0:29:16.960 --> 0:29:20.480 people in the trip instead of three thousand or thirty 0:29:20.560 --> 0:29:24.480 thousand or three hundred thousand like now Small World. A 0:29:24.480 --> 0:29:27.840 lot of gnashing together and there weren't a lot of 0:29:27.920 --> 0:29:33.920 twenty four hour restaurants. There was the Hollywood Ranch Market, 0:29:33.960 --> 0:29:38.200 which was our savior, where you could get oh god, 0:29:38.320 --> 0:29:42.880 Jan Henderson used to eat chicken gizzards there that I 0:29:42.920 --> 0:29:46.600 couldn't do that. I like the turkey leg stuff. But 0:29:46.800 --> 0:29:49.200 you'd go there after rock and roll concerts, like at 0:29:49.200 --> 0:29:52.600 the Kaleidoscope, which was our short lived kind of Fillmore 0:29:52.680 --> 0:29:57.000 East and sixty seven to sixty eight. It's all there, 0:29:57.080 --> 0:29:59.320 and then you'd hitch hik homb nobody had a car. 0:30:00.080 --> 0:30:05.960 Everybody was cool. It was just wonderful. And then, thank god, 0:30:06.080 --> 0:30:11.680 things like age restrictions started lifting. I could go to 0:30:11.720 --> 0:30:15.520 the Whiskey Go Go in nineteen sixty seven or sixty eight. 0:30:15.600 --> 0:30:19.760 Really it was eighteen instead of twenty one. I didn't 0:30:19.800 --> 0:30:22.680 drink liquor, and I also looked fourteen. I think I 0:30:22.720 --> 0:30:25.200 was the only person at Fairfax Hi without a fake ID. 0:30:26.040 --> 0:30:29.440 My mother said, no smoking, no fake ID, no beer drinking. 0:30:29.960 --> 0:30:33.000 I said, okay, I'm with it. I think I told 0:30:33.000 --> 0:30:39.880 her I smoked pot in nineteen sixty nine, and you're 0:30:39.920 --> 0:30:40.880 allowed to do it once. 0:30:43.160 --> 0:30:48.760 Okay, you're in high school, your mother's working for ray Bert, 0:30:49.120 --> 0:30:52.880 you go to Wallack's Music City. Has music taken over 0:30:52.920 --> 0:30:56.040 your life? Or you know, are you a regular high 0:30:56.080 --> 0:30:59.240 school student and this is just your interest and are 0:30:59.280 --> 0:31:01.480 you going to shows? 0:31:01.520 --> 0:31:06.320 At this point, I was a little bit possessed, but 0:31:06.400 --> 0:31:11.040 I wasn't obsessed because I had a twenty hour a 0:31:11.040 --> 0:31:14.920 week after school job Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Clinton 0:31:15.040 --> 0:31:20.800 laboratories like Lebryan and Pico. So I was diligent that 0:31:20.840 --> 0:31:24.479 I had to go to high school and have this job, 0:31:24.560 --> 0:31:28.680 but I had income for shows and records. I had 0:31:28.760 --> 0:31:32.040 sixty had eighty dollars. I could go to the Frigate 0:31:32.080 --> 0:31:36.480 Record store on Third and Crescent Heights, and then friends 0:31:36.520 --> 0:31:38.920 of mine that had a car would occasionally take me 0:31:39.000 --> 0:31:43.400 down to downtown La almost Watts to Dolphins of Hollywood 0:31:43.440 --> 0:31:47.080 record store or Flash Records, and they had all this 0:31:47.400 --> 0:31:50.360 interesting what we now call ll R and B and 0:31:50.440 --> 0:31:56.040 soul music. I was going to two concerts or clubs 0:31:56.040 --> 0:32:04.560 a week from sixty five to seventy to eighty twice 0:32:04.600 --> 0:32:10.560 a week concerts. They were affordable three dollars and fifty cents. 0:32:10.640 --> 0:32:14.160 I went to six of the thirteen Shrine Exhibition Hall 0:32:14.240 --> 0:32:18.920 concerts that Pinnacle Productions put on sixty late sixty seven 0:32:18.960 --> 0:32:23.560 to sixty eight into early sixty nine maybe, and you 0:32:23.840 --> 0:32:26.680 spent three and a half dollars. The girl gave you 0:32:26.800 --> 0:32:28.880 change out of the cigar box, and you'd walk in 0:32:28.920 --> 0:32:33.160 there and another grover hand you a piece of bazooka bubblegum. 0:32:33.600 --> 0:32:38.080 You'd see the Vanilla five, you'd see Richie Havens. So, 0:32:38.520 --> 0:32:41.640 but I also was going to baseball games and sporting events. 0:32:41.640 --> 0:32:44.480 So I had the budget for maybe two concerts or 0:32:44.520 --> 0:32:48.080 club things, and maybe a sports event. But I should 0:32:48.120 --> 0:32:52.600 also say three hundred yards from Fairfax High which was 0:32:52.640 --> 0:32:59.840 on Melrows and Fairfax was the Ashgrove Club, So that 0:33:00.200 --> 0:33:03.640 was sometimes two dollars and fifty cents plus. We had 0:33:03.720 --> 0:33:06.560 hip school teachers for field trips. They would take us 0:33:06.560 --> 0:33:09.880 into the ash Grove and it had no there was 0:33:09.880 --> 0:33:14.479 no age limit, and you could see Muddy Waters, you 0:33:14.480 --> 0:33:17.440 could see Albert King, you could say hello to them. 0:33:17.640 --> 0:33:20.400 It was mostly folk and blues stuff. Occasionally there was 0:33:20.440 --> 0:33:23.719 a rock deck. I saw Taj Mahall with Jesse Davis 0:33:23.800 --> 0:33:28.200 in sixty eight or nine. But that was quite an education. 0:33:28.520 --> 0:33:31.040 I mean, I never knew there was an ethno musicology 0:33:31.080 --> 0:33:33.400 department at UCLA. I probably had have majored in it. 0:33:34.320 --> 0:33:37.560 I never even thought about those things, but it was 0:33:37.600 --> 0:33:40.520 certainly in my dna. I didn't want to be in 0:33:40.560 --> 0:33:43.040 a band. I was in a band for three weeks 0:33:43.040 --> 0:33:45.600 in nineteen sixty five as a drummer and a surf 0:33:45.640 --> 0:33:49.640 group called the Riptides. It just didn't work out. The 0:33:49.680 --> 0:33:52.040 guitar player had a big ego or something. I said, 0:33:52.080 --> 0:33:55.640 I'll just be a librarian and a collector and groove 0:33:55.680 --> 0:33:58.800 on the music in the back of my mind. A 0:33:58.840 --> 0:34:01.240 couple of girls of email me recently and said, why 0:34:01.240 --> 0:34:03.680 didn't you ever become the DG that we wanted. 0:34:03.360 --> 0:34:03.840 You to be? 0:34:04.480 --> 0:34:07.120 And I said, I didn't know the right people. I 0:34:07.160 --> 0:34:09.960 didn't even have the funds for audition tapes. I didn't 0:34:10.000 --> 0:34:13.880 know anything. But here I am now, so thank you. 0:34:14.719 --> 0:34:18.560 Okay, how did you end up going to San Diego 0:34:18.640 --> 0:34:22.200 for school? And for those of us who live in 0:34:22.239 --> 0:34:26.719 southern California, it's really a different mentality, even though it's 0:34:26.760 --> 0:34:27.840 not that far away. 0:34:29.600 --> 0:34:35.040 There was one requirement regarding college. Harvey Kubernick, with a 0:34:35.080 --> 0:34:40.960 two point one GPA, with the Vietnam War raging on, 0:34:42.480 --> 0:34:45.200 has to make a decision, Oh, I can get a 0:34:45.239 --> 0:34:47.319 student to ferm it. If I go to West La 0:34:47.440 --> 0:34:52.440 Junior College or LACC. I went to both. Okay, you 0:34:52.480 --> 0:34:55.760 can go to school for six dollars and fifty cents. 0:34:56.800 --> 0:34:59.239 And if I go to West La College, I'm five 0:34:59.320 --> 0:35:03.120 miles away from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and there's concerts. 0:35:04.440 --> 0:35:08.279 But it meant a lot to me up to it's important. 0:35:08.360 --> 0:35:11.880 I remember when they were building West La College and 0:35:11.920 --> 0:35:13.520 I walked in there and I said, I want to 0:35:13.520 --> 0:35:16.239 go here when you're finished. Well, all you have to 0:35:16.239 --> 0:35:18.040 do is I have a two point OGPA or be 0:35:18.160 --> 0:35:21.640 age eighteen and you can enroll. And I said, well, 0:35:21.680 --> 0:35:24.200 I want to enroll right now. But it was just 0:35:24.239 --> 0:35:27.719 about six bungalows and I said, I want to go here, 0:35:27.719 --> 0:35:30.680 but also I need to find a job. I need 0:35:30.719 --> 0:35:34.560 to go see concerts and buy records. Well, they're building 0:35:34.600 --> 0:35:36.680 a library over here. Why don't you go talk to 0:35:36.760 --> 0:35:39.920 the construction site. I walked in there and said, I'm 0:35:39.960 --> 0:35:42.520 going to go to this school. I want to work 0:35:42.520 --> 0:35:46.920 at this library. And they said, we're actually looking for 0:35:46.960 --> 0:35:50.240 a student for the library. Would you like a job. 0:35:51.239 --> 0:35:55.480 Myself and my friend Bob Sherman from Fairfax High each 0:35:55.520 --> 0:35:58.400 got fifteen or twenty hour jobs, so you can go 0:35:58.400 --> 0:36:02.279 to class, go to the library. But I was like 0:36:02.360 --> 0:36:06.560 stocking shelf. But I was making sure Downbeat rolling Stone 0:36:07.120 --> 0:36:12.719 Ebony ramparts were stocked in the magazine section. And then 0:36:12.760 --> 0:36:16.560 i'm I have a student afirment. I graduate with an 0:36:16.600 --> 0:36:20.200 AA degree. Well, you got to go to college, you 0:36:20.200 --> 0:36:23.239 got to finish up what There was one requirement. I 0:36:23.280 --> 0:36:25.640 had to find a school where I could still hear 0:36:26.440 --> 0:36:29.920 KOs FM or the FM radio or some of the 0:36:29.960 --> 0:36:33.600 AM radio stations at night. San Diego was one hundred 0:36:33.600 --> 0:36:35.560 and thirty miles and some of the you could still 0:36:35.600 --> 0:36:39.200 pick up some of the radio stations. And I followed 0:36:39.200 --> 0:36:42.920 the San Diego State football team, and I said, you know, 0:36:43.320 --> 0:36:47.440 just maybe I should go down to San Diego. I 0:36:47.480 --> 0:36:51.879 have a surfboard. I could have gone to Valley State. 0:36:52.080 --> 0:36:55.719 You could even have gone to UCLA. They welcomed you then. 0:36:56.360 --> 0:36:58.839 So I went to San Diego State. It was a 0:36:58.880 --> 0:37:04.000 fantastic path horrible experience because every weekend I would hitchhike 0:37:04.120 --> 0:37:06.640 back or if I got a car or something, and 0:37:06.719 --> 0:37:10.200 come back home Friday afternoon till Sunday night. It just 0:37:10.320 --> 0:37:13.440 wasn't working for me. But I graduated. That's how I 0:37:13.480 --> 0:37:15.320 ended up in San Diego, and I would listen to 0:37:15.440 --> 0:37:18.799 kpe HE or IFM and see some great concerts down there, 0:37:18.840 --> 0:37:22.520 because luckily I didn't know the routing of rock and 0:37:22.640 --> 0:37:26.040 roll then that if you played in Santa Monica or 0:37:26.080 --> 0:37:29.880 the Fabulous Forum, you would include a San Diego date. 0:37:30.840 --> 0:37:33.839 So I got to see traffic at Fairport Convention in 0:37:33.880 --> 0:37:37.200 Mose Allison at Funky Quarters, or Mark Allman on the 0:37:37.239 --> 0:37:43.080 campus at San Diego State. It made my world operational. 0:37:44.080 --> 0:37:46.200 Okay, so you graduate from college, then what. 0:37:47.800 --> 0:37:51.440 Well. I got a degree in health, literature and sociology, 0:37:51.520 --> 0:37:54.839 some cock and Amy experimental thing which was sort of 0:37:55.000 --> 0:37:58.399 evolved out of the Hero experiment or something. You could 0:37:58.440 --> 0:38:01.200 pick three upper division things and it's your own major. 0:38:03.320 --> 0:38:07.360 And I said, okay, I wanted I was. My major 0:38:07.440 --> 0:38:11.360 was library science, but I didn't get accepted to the 0:38:11.400 --> 0:38:13.600 library science program, so they said, why don't you be 0:38:13.600 --> 0:38:15.239 a special major. It's going to be the hip thing 0:38:15.280 --> 0:38:17.960 in the future. I think it was discontinued after a 0:38:18.040 --> 0:38:22.200 year and a half. So I have this degree in 0:38:22.239 --> 0:38:27.759 sociology and health and literature, and I thought, well, maybe 0:38:27.760 --> 0:38:30.720 I'll think about being a probation officer or something. Maybe 0:38:31.840 --> 0:38:33.719 I'll do something like that. I didn't want to be 0:38:33.760 --> 0:38:36.960 a teacher. There was always this little thing in the 0:38:37.000 --> 0:38:40.600 back of my mind. I didn't even know what a 0:38:40.640 --> 0:38:46.319 record label really was until seventy one. Maybe I'll do 0:38:46.400 --> 0:38:48.880 this and it'll lead to something else. Well what happened 0:38:48.920 --> 0:38:53.279 in nineteen seventy two, under the direction of doctor James L. 0:38:53.320 --> 0:38:53.760 Wheeler. 0:38:56.920 --> 0:38:59.600 He started I was almost like the teaching assistant who 0:38:59.640 --> 0:39:03.480 I was. I helped build the curriculum. I had a 0:39:03.520 --> 0:39:05.960 conversation with him and I said, this rock and roll. 0:39:06.120 --> 0:39:09.799 He was a Dylan fanatic and a lyric freak. I said, 0:39:10.400 --> 0:39:14.000 we dialogue. He said, let's start an upper division, fully 0:39:14.040 --> 0:39:19.759 accredited rock and roll literature class for full credits. And 0:39:20.080 --> 0:39:23.960 the paperwork was done and all that, and all of 0:39:24.000 --> 0:39:28.319 a sudden, Okay, it's been sanctioned. A story ran in 0:39:28.440 --> 0:39:32.960 Billboard on it. All of a sudden, Okay, what are 0:39:32.960 --> 0:39:37.240 we gonna do? Well, may invite Iggy Pop or Danny Sugarman, 0:39:37.239 --> 0:39:41.239 who knew some of the doors, or Carolyn Hester who 0:39:41.840 --> 0:39:44.640 records out. I picked her up at a Greyhound station. 0:39:44.760 --> 0:39:48.760 I remember that Sharon Lawrence, who worked with Al Cooper 0:39:48.840 --> 0:39:51.600 Sounds at the South label and Elton John for many years. 0:39:52.120 --> 0:39:55.759 People in the industry I would like they would find 0:39:55.840 --> 0:40:00.440 us initially, but the game changer was a guy named Grayland, 0:40:00.560 --> 0:40:04.840 landed at RCA Records at seventy two, called me in 0:40:04.920 --> 0:40:10.160 the dorm at Sarah Hall. I was probably listening to 0:40:10.200 --> 0:40:14.320 the doors and said, I'm very I went to USC. 0:40:14.440 --> 0:40:16.880 I'm very proud of what you're doing. On the seriousness 0:40:16.920 --> 0:40:20.080 of what you're doing. You have a librarian aspect, and 0:40:20.280 --> 0:40:22.600 you know you're looking at this the future of the 0:40:22.719 --> 0:40:27.040 music being preserved. We're going to start doing a series 0:40:27.080 --> 0:40:32.120 of monthly students and people being involved in seminars at 0:40:32.239 --> 0:40:37.120 RCA studio. Why don't you come. There's also tuna sandwich 0:40:37.200 --> 0:40:41.400 lunches on Saturday, and you go there and this I 0:40:41.440 --> 0:40:44.000 mean you'll like the irony. Of course, there are no accidents. 0:40:44.040 --> 0:40:47.400 As Andrew lou Goldham says, I walk in there and 0:40:47.440 --> 0:40:52.560 there's Henry Mancini, who I practiced. Leland lived at the 0:40:52.640 --> 0:40:55.920 rc studio. Must have done twenty albums for the label. Harvey, 0:40:56.120 --> 0:41:01.080 this is Henry Mancini. Hello, Henry, call me hand. Are 0:41:01.120 --> 0:41:04.600 you a musician? Not really, he said, we'll stick around. 0:41:04.760 --> 0:41:07.279 I'm going to be here and jose Felisano's gonna come 0:41:07.280 --> 0:41:10.600 by next month. You mean you could fucking meet these people? 0:41:11.600 --> 0:41:11.839 What? 0:41:13.040 --> 0:41:18.279 But it was it showed me I should be involved. 0:41:18.560 --> 0:41:21.600 I wanted to be maybe a writer. I didn't want 0:41:21.640 --> 0:41:24.120 to be a music critic. I didn't want to write 0:41:24.200 --> 0:41:28.560 record reviews. I wanted to see how the music was made. 0:41:29.320 --> 0:41:31.920 And instead of focusing on the lead singer or the 0:41:31.920 --> 0:41:35.320 pretty girl in a band, I'd seek out the engineer 0:41:35.320 --> 0:41:38.520 in the back room people. I inherit because I learned 0:41:38.560 --> 0:41:41.880 that from my mother watching her type monkey scripts. She 0:41:41.920 --> 0:41:47.080 also typed monkey scripts for Banyan, a TV show. Robert Forrester, 0:41:48.360 --> 0:41:51.440 I said, there's a lot of people involved. Since everybody 0:41:51.440 --> 0:41:53.640 wants to talk to those same people, I'm going to 0:41:53.719 --> 0:41:56.760 go into areas where the people are always sitting alone 0:41:56.840 --> 0:41:59.640 or nobody wants to talk to them. It's like talking 0:41:59.680 --> 0:42:02.360 to the eighth laker off the bench instead of the stars. 0:42:03.000 --> 0:42:06.080 So the RC seminars were very important, and I said, 0:42:06.120 --> 0:42:08.040 I think I can do some writing. I know I 0:42:08.080 --> 0:42:11.960 can talk to people. And it all kind of started there. 0:42:12.280 --> 0:42:15.919 Then I have to tell you in nineteen seventy four, February, 0:42:16.719 --> 0:42:18.759 I go to see Bob Dylan and the Band at 0:42:18.800 --> 0:42:23.479 the Forum. Bob Sherman's with me. We are seated next 0:42:23.480 --> 0:42:28.000 to Henry Mancini. I don't think Chris Man singing at 0:42:28.080 --> 0:42:34.120 the show. Hi, mister Mancini called me, Hank, I met you, Yeah, yeah, 0:42:34.239 --> 0:42:38.440 and but would have. And I said, you know, I 0:42:38.480 --> 0:42:40.160 want to say something to you. I mean, never see 0:42:40.160 --> 0:42:42.879 you again anytime I see you do. Some of these 0:42:42.960 --> 0:42:47.160 interviews in Life magazine or Downbeat, you talk about how 0:42:47.200 --> 0:42:50.320 you love the group Cream and some of this music. 0:42:50.360 --> 0:42:55.560 You're the only guy over forty that doesn't say weird 0:42:55.600 --> 0:42:58.640 stuff about long haired people. You like rock. He said, well, 0:42:58.760 --> 0:43:02.040 I got my kids tickets for the Monoli Pop Festival. 0:43:03.160 --> 0:43:06.680 You were there. I got them tickets and I said wow. 0:43:06.920 --> 0:43:09.360 And he said do you like classical music? And I said, 0:43:09.400 --> 0:43:13.160 oh no, I don't do that. He said, well why not? 0:43:14.640 --> 0:43:17.120 I said, I think part of it was in junior high. 0:43:17.160 --> 0:43:21.239 Miss Molloy used to say, young man Andre Previn used 0:43:21.239 --> 0:43:25.840 to sit where you sat are sitting. I just couldn't 0:43:26.360 --> 0:43:30.359 groove with it. And then he said, well, maybe one 0:43:30.480 --> 0:43:35.200 decade you'll get into classical music. But it was a 0:43:35.239 --> 0:43:40.880 big lens. It was a tunnel that you could go 0:43:40.960 --> 0:43:44.799 to record companies. They'd hand you albums. And then I 0:43:44.840 --> 0:43:48.200 started writing for things like the Hollywood Press fifteen dollars, 0:43:48.640 --> 0:43:52.120 thank you, Justin Pierce. Then I'd call up the La 0:43:52.200 --> 0:43:54.200 Free Press John Carpenter. 0:43:53.960 --> 0:43:58.040 Oh, I'm just personally interested. What was Justin Pierce doing? Then? 0:43:58.800 --> 0:44:02.160 Justin Pierce was the amusing editor of the Hollywood Press 0:44:03.600 --> 0:44:06.440 before he went to work for Norman Winner for about 0:44:06.480 --> 0:44:10.040 eight years, and then he went to law school after that. 0:44:10.840 --> 0:44:14.160 In fact, to this day, he's serving as an advisor 0:44:14.239 --> 0:44:19.320 for me. It just I keep friends a long time. 0:44:19.840 --> 0:44:22.759 I'm still friends with four people from elementary school, three 0:44:22.800 --> 0:44:27.560 from junior high, five from high school, but nobody from 0:44:27.560 --> 0:44:28.359 San Diego State. 0:44:35.200 --> 0:44:37.120 So how do you end up getting a job as 0:44:37.160 --> 0:44:38.560 an A and R guide? MCA. 0:44:40.360 --> 0:44:42.600 I don't think the world works this way anymore. 0:44:43.280 --> 0:44:43.600 I was. 0:44:43.960 --> 0:44:46.480 I was writing for Melody Maker. I went to England 0:44:46.520 --> 0:44:51.920 in seventy five and said I want to write, and 0:44:51.960 --> 0:44:54.120 I was constantly hearing you can't write, you have no 0:44:54.200 --> 0:44:58.640 communication skills. I never used that energy as revenge or 0:44:58.680 --> 0:45:02.200 any of that stuff. Mother said, revenge is a wasted emotion. 0:45:03.200 --> 0:45:05.840 You can kind of do a lot of things. You 0:45:05.920 --> 0:45:10.080 know how to talk, you're fucking yenta, but you know 0:45:10.320 --> 0:45:12.160 you have to be able to put that stuff on 0:45:12.200 --> 0:45:14.840 the page. And I said, well, I never got a 0:45:14.920 --> 0:45:20.279 journalism career. I never could write for the school newspaper. 0:45:20.280 --> 0:45:23.279 I got rejected from the San Diego State Daily AZTEC. 0:45:23.920 --> 0:45:27.640 Of course, now they're sending letters asking for you know, money, 0:45:27.680 --> 0:45:30.920 with Marion Ross and Art Linkoln and all their extinct 0:45:30.920 --> 0:45:33.840 you know alumni. I'm now like listed, you know, like 0:45:33.960 --> 0:45:37.640 distinguished alumni. You weren't very helpful people. You're not getting 0:45:37.680 --> 0:45:41.640 a check. But I realized, I think I can talk 0:45:41.680 --> 0:45:44.960 to musicians, even though I can't really play an instrument. 0:45:46.320 --> 0:45:50.840 Interviewed Brian Auger for LA Free Press. Went to England 0:45:50.880 --> 0:45:53.719 in seventy five, and I said I'd like to do 0:45:53.800 --> 0:45:56.400 some articles for Melody Maker, which had a readership of 0:45:56.440 --> 0:46:00.400 a million a week. And Ray Coleman and some sequently 0:46:00.440 --> 0:46:04.040 and editor Richard Williams, who I still dialogue with, said 0:46:04.160 --> 0:46:06.920 send us some stuff. And I was writing weekly the 0:46:07.120 --> 0:46:12.799 LA column in Melody Makers seventy five to eighty one 0:46:13.640 --> 0:46:20.799 in nineteen seventy into seventy seven. The phone rings, It's 0:46:20.880 --> 0:46:29.799 Denny Rosenkrantz working at MCA Records. I really like the 0:46:29.840 --> 0:46:35.239 way you've scouted bands because I went to see like 0:46:35.400 --> 0:46:39.320 the Dickies at the Whiskey wrote about it, and Derek 0:46:39.360 --> 0:46:41.319 Green from the A and M label, I think, flew 0:46:41.360 --> 0:46:44.880 in and signed them. And Danny Rosenkrantz was noticing that 0:46:45.000 --> 0:46:49.759 I was touting people before it was fashionable. I just 0:46:49.840 --> 0:46:51.080 would catch them. 0:46:51.920 --> 0:46:52.400 Come on, I. 0:46:54.120 --> 0:46:57.480 Could be a talent scout. I never knocked on a door. 0:46:57.520 --> 0:46:59.719 And he said, how would you like to work for 0:46:59.800 --> 0:47:06.080 him Records? And I said, yes, what do I do? 0:47:06.160 --> 0:47:11.640 He said, find people to sign. I said, I think 0:47:11.719 --> 0:47:16.560 I can do that. He said, well, let's give you 0:47:16.600 --> 0:47:21.800 a year to see what you can do. So kids, 0:47:22.640 --> 0:47:26.319 you used to be able to get jobs without connections, 0:47:26.360 --> 0:47:29.480 nepotism and all the cronyism and all the other stuff. 0:47:29.520 --> 0:47:32.319 This thing, honestly. I also ran into Denny at a 0:47:32.360 --> 0:47:34.480 Bob Marley and the Whalers show. I'm sorry they were 0:47:34.520 --> 0:47:37.359 called the Whalers then. I don't want any emails. I 0:47:37.400 --> 0:47:41.960 saw Denny at the Roxy. I kind of was introduced 0:47:42.000 --> 0:47:44.560 to him when Springsteen played the rox Syne at seventy five, 0:47:44.600 --> 0:47:46.719 and then we went to the I saw him at 0:47:46.719 --> 0:47:51.239 the Santa Monica Civy show Springsteen in seventy six, and 0:47:51.760 --> 0:47:53.520 I didn't really know well, but I would run into 0:47:53.600 --> 0:47:56.200 him and our mutual friend Russ Reagan at a restaurant 0:47:56.239 --> 0:47:59.640 called ting Ho which was on Hollywood in Highland, and 0:47:59.680 --> 0:48:03.280 he said said, why don't you come join the label? 0:48:03.560 --> 0:48:05.960 I said, I'm there and I did eleven and a 0:48:05.960 --> 0:48:09.600 half months there and I think I really delivered. Their 0:48:09.719 --> 0:48:10.839 history has proven me right. 0:48:11.640 --> 0:48:13.840 Oh who did you sign or what'd you do? That 0:48:14.440 --> 0:48:17.200 history has proven you were correct. Well. 0:48:17.239 --> 0:48:20.839 In nineteen seventy five, I met a young engineer named 0:48:20.920 --> 0:48:24.200 Jimmy Iveen and did a full page story on him 0:48:24.200 --> 0:48:28.400 and Melody Maker, and he was he wanted to be 0:48:28.440 --> 0:48:32.480 a record producer, not just an engineer, and he invited 0:48:32.480 --> 0:48:36.080 me to actually it was the Springsteen people invited me 0:48:36.120 --> 0:48:38.640 to see all the shows that the Roxy show. Jimmy 0:48:38.719 --> 0:48:41.640 was in the booth of the truck. I knew he 0:48:41.680 --> 0:48:46.120 had talent, and so in seventy eight I get a 0:48:46.120 --> 0:48:48.520 call from Jimmy Iveen and he said, I've just done 0:48:48.560 --> 0:48:52.200 the south Side Johnny album with Stephen van Zant. We 0:48:52.320 --> 0:48:54.600 thanked you on the album. I go thank you, because 0:48:54.640 --> 0:48:58.600 I was giving some initial early print to some of 0:48:58.600 --> 0:49:03.440 these people. I said, listen, he had done a Golden 0:49:03.480 --> 0:49:06.040 Earring record for MCA, and he maybe had worked on 0:49:06.120 --> 0:49:09.560 a Returner Forever record. And he said, I'm a record producer. 0:49:10.000 --> 0:49:13.719 I've just seen Tom Pitty at the bottom Line. I 0:49:13.760 --> 0:49:16.640 need to work with him. And I said, it's funny. 0:49:16.719 --> 0:49:19.200 I'm having a meeting this week with all the people 0:49:19.200 --> 0:49:24.400 at MCA because MCA has bought ABC Records, and I 0:49:24.520 --> 0:49:27.759 was doing some interesting concepts about bringing in people to 0:49:27.800 --> 0:49:30.200 write some liner notes. I did a little bit of 0:49:30.200 --> 0:49:33.719 work with John Hyatt on the Slugline album. I brought 0:49:33.760 --> 0:49:36.600 in a drummer. My friend Andy Bruce produced it. John 0:49:36.680 --> 0:49:41.279 Van Hamersfield did the front cover, and I lobbied for 0:49:41.400 --> 0:49:45.840 Jimmy to be considered to be a producer. Obviously the 0:49:45.880 --> 0:49:50.600 engineer comes with it. For Tom Pitty, who was looking 0:49:51.040 --> 0:49:54.080 actually with his manager, Tony Demicciatti's who I knew as 0:49:54.120 --> 0:49:57.440 early as nineteen seventy five when he worked for Conk 0:49:57.600 --> 0:50:02.000 Records and he'd come to town and I knew him, and 0:50:02.640 --> 0:50:05.000 I dialogue with him, and then I said to him, 0:50:05.120 --> 0:50:08.080 I went up to his house in Nichols Canyon. I said, 0:50:08.120 --> 0:50:13.120 I'd like to recommend you need to really meet and 0:50:13.160 --> 0:50:16.400 work with Jimmy Ivan. He gets a really crisp sound. 0:50:17.440 --> 0:50:22.080 Listen to the Southside Johnny Record. I flew to New 0:50:22.160 --> 0:50:25.440 York to Jimmy's apartment. I was introduced to the DJ, 0:50:25.560 --> 0:50:29.240 Carrol Miller was her name. Then I had a meeting 0:50:29.280 --> 0:50:33.680 with Jimmy at the Sunset Marquee and I was initially 0:50:33.800 --> 0:50:38.560 greeted by some of my fellow workers. Oh, Harvey, he's 0:50:38.719 --> 0:50:42.560 just an engineer, I said, But the engineers are now 0:50:42.600 --> 0:50:50.360 becoming producers too, I you know. Denny Rosenkrantz liked the idea. 0:50:50.520 --> 0:50:54.360 Tony Demitchari thought it was interesting. I never heard anything 0:50:54.440 --> 0:50:58.040 after that. I was let go by MCA at the 0:50:58.080 --> 0:51:00.439 eleven and a month mark, not just me, a big 0:51:00.440 --> 0:51:04.000 one hundred people layoff. And then three weeks later I 0:51:04.040 --> 0:51:06.800 open up Record World or cash box and I see 0:51:06.800 --> 0:51:09.640 like a signing photo of like Tom Petty MCA. Maybe 0:51:09.760 --> 0:51:14.919 Jimmy's in the photo were mentioned. Okay, that felt good. 0:51:14.920 --> 0:51:19.799 But also at MCA, because I knew Tom Petty not 0:51:20.000 --> 0:51:23.680 just from singing at clubs, I invited him to a 0:51:23.800 --> 0:51:27.200 Carl Perkins party I put together for Jet Records when 0:51:27.200 --> 0:51:31.240 I was doing some work for Jet Records and interested 0:51:31.320 --> 0:51:34.680 him to Carl Perkins and realized what a record nut 0:51:34.719 --> 0:51:37.799 he was and how much he loved Los Angeles, And 0:51:37.880 --> 0:51:40.840 I said, you know, I'm going to meet Del Shannon. 0:51:42.239 --> 0:51:45.160 I think there has to be something where the new 0:51:45.200 --> 0:51:46.880 people work with the old people. 0:51:47.040 --> 0:51:48.960 I have this I. 0:51:48.880 --> 0:51:50.799 Don't even want to say vision or idea. It wasn't 0:51:50.840 --> 0:51:53.400 like that. I love Del Shannon. I saw him at 0:51:53.400 --> 0:51:56.000 the Roxy in seventy five with the Robs backing him. 0:51:56.239 --> 0:51:58.640 He can still deliver, he can still sing. He just 0:51:58.719 --> 0:52:01.520 needs some songs and people to work with. And he 0:52:01.680 --> 0:52:04.160 still can go to the Philippines in Ireland and do 0:52:04.280 --> 0:52:07.960 all of it. And I set up a meeting at 0:52:08.000 --> 0:52:11.640 Bug Music on Hollywood to Highland with Dan Burgoye, who 0:52:11.680 --> 0:52:18.160 was Dell's manager, And there's Tom meet Dell, and that 0:52:18.239 --> 0:52:22.799 deal got put together. It came out subsequently, subsequently on 0:52:22.880 --> 0:52:26.919 Al Corey's Network Records label. By credit on the back 0:52:26.960 --> 0:52:31.239 of it is Organic Catalyst. So I think I was 0:52:31.280 --> 0:52:33.600 doing some very Oh let me tell you another thing. 0:52:33.960 --> 0:52:38.520 If it means something. The first person, Russ Reagan said 0:52:38.520 --> 0:52:44.560 to me, don't sign your friends. Okay. He had run 0:52:44.719 --> 0:52:48.600 UNI Records that became MCA Records. Don't give your friends 0:52:48.640 --> 0:52:51.880 record deals your last three weeks. But I have a 0:52:51.920 --> 0:52:55.160 friend who's in a really good band named the Nac 0:52:55.320 --> 0:52:58.440 Bruce Gary. I hang out with him. He went to 0:52:58.480 --> 0:53:02.040 taft t Hi. This band. I've just seen them at 0:53:02.080 --> 0:53:06.239 the Starwood. I've seen them in Redondo Beach, at Sweetwater 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:11.160 In you want to hit records, I've got the group. 0:53:12.880 --> 0:53:18.239 Quit trying to sign your friends, Okay. So I kind 0:53:18.239 --> 0:53:20.279 of watched the next thing happen. But I will say 0:53:20.320 --> 0:53:24.120 Doug Figer and Bruce invited me to the My Sharona 0:53:24.360 --> 0:53:30.359 recording session ironically at MCA Whitney Studios, and I watched 0:53:30.400 --> 0:53:32.400 my showIn ar I was given a platinum album by 0:53:32.440 --> 0:53:36.879 the group for My Sharona, and I wrote about them 0:53:36.880 --> 0:53:39.720 a bit a melody maker, but I just thought hits 0:53:40.239 --> 0:53:45.239 well done. So I look back at that world of MCA, 0:53:45.719 --> 0:53:47.799 I just kind of thought, well, somebody will hire me 0:53:47.880 --> 0:53:49.840 again at record labels to do the same thing, and 0:53:49.880 --> 0:53:53.280 it just didn't quite work out, and so the writing 0:53:53.320 --> 0:53:56.400 thing became maybe the priority. So when I see Jimmy 0:53:56.440 --> 0:53:58.239 Ivy in Every three four or five years at a 0:53:58.280 --> 0:54:03.240 function or some you know, screening or something. He's always 0:54:03.280 --> 0:54:07.320 very accommodating, hugs great. I saw him at Patty Smith 0:54:07.360 --> 0:54:11.600 at the Roxy and he said, I'm really happy you're 0:54:11.600 --> 0:54:14.680 doing these books. My daughter would like to really get 0:54:14.680 --> 0:54:16.680 a copy of your Lennard Cohen books. I sent it 0:54:16.680 --> 0:54:21.040 to him at Apple, and you know I take pride 0:54:21.040 --> 0:54:24.440 in that. And I will say one thing. Until Warren 0:54:24.560 --> 0:54:27.160 Zanes put out his book on Tom Petty, which I 0:54:27.200 --> 0:54:33.200 was interviewed for, you don't really see the Harvey Kubernick 0:54:33.360 --> 0:54:37.480 small connection in the in the parade. But I will 0:54:37.520 --> 0:54:42.200 say in twenty fourteen, when I was doing Turn Up 0:54:42.200 --> 0:54:46.000 the Radio, I said to Tony Demitriotti's who I remained 0:54:46.000 --> 0:54:51.400 in contact with, will Tom write the forward. 0:54:51.080 --> 0:54:51.920 To my book? 0:54:53.080 --> 0:54:56.319 I know what shin dig and all these TV shows 0:54:56.360 --> 0:54:59.080 means to him. He said, I'll run up by Tom. 0:55:00.160 --> 0:55:04.920 Days later. Tom would love to do it, huge intro, 0:55:05.120 --> 0:55:11.680 name on the front cover, gorgeous essay. And that's meant 0:55:11.719 --> 0:55:15.600 a lot to me, because books get discovered over decades 0:55:15.640 --> 0:55:18.800 and years. I need to know you knew Tom Petty, 0:55:19.360 --> 0:55:22.000 and so the pity people start buying the book just 0:55:22.080 --> 0:55:26.200 because Tom wrote an intro in website. People we call them. 0:55:26.840 --> 0:55:32.800 So that is my connection to Tom and Jimmy and Del Shannon. 0:55:33.200 --> 0:55:38.560 And it continues today because forty years later, Dan Burgoyce 0:55:38.719 --> 0:55:41.239 calls me and said, this looks like there's a Del 0:55:41.320 --> 0:55:44.960 Shannon documentary that's going to be done. It won't be 0:55:45.080 --> 0:55:48.759 done until you're involved. And I said, oh, you know, 0:55:49.080 --> 0:55:51.759 meet my quote, I'll go on screen. He said, oh no, no, 0:55:51.880 --> 0:55:55.040 you are needed to be in production. Can you be 0:55:55.160 --> 0:55:58.640 the consulting producer and help out on the writing? I said, 0:55:58.719 --> 0:56:02.800 I'm in. So these things have paid some dividends later. 0:56:02.880 --> 0:56:07.399 But I will say my dad was a stockbroker from 0:56:07.440 --> 0:56:11.480 age forty to eighty six, and I knew that seeds 0:56:11.920 --> 0:56:16.120 and plantation sometimes take a long time to come to fruition. 0:56:16.719 --> 0:56:20.759 So that's my MCA story. I could bore you with 0:56:20.840 --> 0:56:23.799 bands I tried to sign or brought them tails up there. 0:56:23.840 --> 0:56:27.799 I thought Martha was magical. It just, you know, the 0:56:27.840 --> 0:56:31.680 company wasn't set up. I think for me and some 0:56:31.719 --> 0:56:33.080 of the things I wanted to do. I want to 0:56:33.160 --> 0:56:35.920 have Fagan and Becker write liner notes on the Jazz 0:56:35.960 --> 0:56:37.280 Impulse stuff. 0:56:38.160 --> 0:56:38.640 Did I know? 0:56:38.840 --> 0:56:41.480 I said, it makes sense. They're on ABC Records. They're 0:56:41.520 --> 0:56:44.920 jazz people. All jazz doesn't sell, Okay, it won't happen. 0:56:45.480 --> 0:56:48.800 So that's the MCA world pre ume. 0:56:49.560 --> 0:56:54.240 Okay. So prior to MCA, you're writing for Melody Maker. 0:56:54.760 --> 0:56:57.120 Is writing your only job or do you have to 0:56:57.120 --> 0:56:59.080 have a day job to support yourself? 0:57:01.120 --> 0:57:05.680 I was writing. I was writing for Crowdaddy magazine. I 0:57:05.719 --> 0:57:08.800 did a cover story in seventy six on Robbie Robertson 0:57:08.840 --> 0:57:12.000 and I went to the Last Waltz. I started writing 0:57:12.040 --> 0:57:16.200 for Sounds magazine. Anywhere there was ten, fifteen or twenty 0:57:16.240 --> 0:57:20.480 five dollars to be made. I don't I never got 0:57:20.480 --> 0:57:25.720 in Rolling Stone, that's been fifty years, not interesting, not interested. 0:57:26.280 --> 0:57:32.040 Enough money could trickle in because I think rent, and 0:57:32.040 --> 0:57:35.040 we're going back to the mid seventies might have been 0:57:35.080 --> 0:57:38.240 three hundred dollars a month or something. You could kind 0:57:38.240 --> 0:57:40.520 of live there. Plus I also want to say another thing, 0:57:41.240 --> 0:57:46.840 the luxury of nineteen seventy two to nineteen eighty of 0:57:47.000 --> 0:57:50.480 press parties. There were at least two or three a week. 0:57:50.960 --> 0:57:53.880 There was food at Chasin's, there was food at the 0:57:53.920 --> 0:57:57.800 brad Scaler. There was nash you could eat and I'd 0:57:57.840 --> 0:58:01.520 have to eat the next day, so I wasn't co 0:58:01.720 --> 0:58:05.920 dependent on fast food and stuff like that. And the 0:58:06.120 --> 0:58:08.360 RCATH went on for about a year and a half 0:58:09.160 --> 0:58:12.880 and grayland Landon, I never knew what the word mentor met. 0:58:13.440 --> 0:58:18.000 He just saw something in me that I had. Again, 0:58:18.040 --> 0:58:22.000 I'm coming from a library record collector world. But the 0:58:22.080 --> 0:58:25.720 writing was kind of run on sentences and sloppy. But 0:58:25.800 --> 0:58:29.080 he knew the information was so different. He said, one time, 0:58:30.320 --> 0:58:33.560 meet jose Feliciano. Justin and I and Pierce came to 0:58:33.600 --> 0:58:37.880 the recording session. You need to know that George Tipton, 0:58:38.040 --> 0:58:40.720 or Rick Gerard or Al Schmid or Richie Schmidt. Who 0:58:40.720 --> 0:58:43.640 are these people? They're the engineers. Make sure to meet 0:58:43.680 --> 0:58:47.600 the engineers. They're really important. Try to get their name 0:58:47.640 --> 0:58:50.360 out there. And I will say, for the first five 0:58:50.480 --> 0:58:54.120 or ten years of my journalism career, if you didn't 0:58:54.200 --> 0:58:57.680 call it career, it was just an expedition. The exception 0:58:57.760 --> 0:59:02.200 of the Jimmy ive In feature. When I would quote engineers, 0:59:03.040 --> 0:59:05.600 nine out of ten times the editors would cut the 0:59:05.640 --> 0:59:08.760 engineers out of the article. Sometimes there was word counts, 0:59:09.200 --> 0:59:15.040 space problems. They weren't sexy. I was told that, But 0:59:15.160 --> 0:59:18.360 there's no really vibe about them. I just went I 0:59:18.520 --> 0:59:22.720 went deeper into engineer stuff, and so the RC seminars 0:59:22.720 --> 0:59:26.400 were very important because you could hear god. I went 0:59:26.440 --> 0:59:29.800 to a press party there the company playback of the 0:59:29.840 --> 0:59:37.120 Elvis and Hawaii show Wow, and then Graylan, somebody from 0:59:37.160 --> 0:59:41.040 a record company, bad Mouth made a Graylan, and Graylan 0:59:41.160 --> 0:59:43.320 called me at home. He said, I'm beginning to know 0:59:43.440 --> 0:59:46.160 you. You you're not the kind of guy that would take 0:59:46.160 --> 0:59:49.480 somebody's girlfriend. I said, no, I'm just happy if there's 0:59:49.520 --> 0:59:53.800 a girl near me. And he said, I've got two 0:59:53.800 --> 0:59:58.280 tickets for you and Justin Pierce for Elvis Presley seventy two. 1:00:00.240 --> 1:00:02.760 I said wow. My parents went to Vegas to see him, 1:00:03.240 --> 1:00:05.840 and my mother said, take down that Mick Jagger poster. 1:00:06.000 --> 1:00:08.720 Elvis Presley is the most handsome devill I've ever seen. 1:00:09.400 --> 1:00:10.240 My parents love. 1:00:10.320 --> 1:00:12.520 I said, well, I saw it was Presley in nineteen 1:00:12.600 --> 1:00:15.000 seventy at the Forum. I took three buses to get there, 1:00:15.600 --> 1:00:19.160 and he said, I knew you love Elvis Presley. Pick 1:00:19.240 --> 1:00:23.080 up your tickets. Don't tell anybody, but if you come 1:00:23.120 --> 1:00:26.760 around five point thirty, you'll be able to say hello 1:00:26.880 --> 1:00:32.200 to Colonel Parker. I said, really, you mean, there's like 1:00:32.600 --> 1:00:39.200 his manager, right, yeah, I wait there, the Colonel comes 1:00:39.200 --> 1:00:41.360 out of the elevator in a cane. Hello, we made 1:00:41.400 --> 1:00:44.400 him blah blah blah. He was going to the ranch market. 1:00:44.480 --> 1:00:47.520 I remember that. And every word out of Colonel was 1:00:47.560 --> 1:00:52.520 the word promotion, marketing, and merchandise. I was hearing these 1:00:52.600 --> 1:00:59.360 terms marketing and merchandise and standalone items and billboards. I 1:00:59.400 --> 1:01:01.640 didn't know what was going on, but I was grasping. 1:01:01.760 --> 1:01:09.720 There's machines behind the music people. There's teams. I knew 1:01:09.760 --> 1:01:12.960 there was William Morris, Marshall Burrell, who I knew started 1:01:12.960 --> 1:01:16.200 the rock division at William Morris and signed the Beach Boys. 1:01:17.320 --> 1:01:20.240 I knew about agents. I didn't know there were all 1:01:20.280 --> 1:01:24.080 these other people int of alignments had my mind blown 1:01:24.120 --> 1:01:27.120 in seventy two on the Elvis Show, Sam in seventy 1:01:27.120 --> 1:01:34.000 three saw five or six times and Graylon really he 1:01:34.200 --> 1:01:39.640 just helped out because as this guy was bad mouthing 1:01:39.680 --> 1:01:43.360 me comically, I should say, some of the record label 1:01:43.440 --> 1:01:46.560 publicists weren't calling me back anymore. Or I wasn't getting 1:01:46.600 --> 1:01:51.000 the I wasn't getting the records in the mail. Wow, 1:01:51.080 --> 1:01:54.920 what's going on here? But he said, let's have lunch 1:01:54.920 --> 1:01:58.280 every six months. I think you're going to be around 1:01:58.320 --> 1:02:02.000 for a while. He ever, I didn't really need that 1:02:02.120 --> 1:02:05.200 big push. Looking back, I did need that big push. 1:02:05.960 --> 1:02:08.960 It was Tim Harden. I look for a reason to believe, 1:02:09.880 --> 1:02:12.240 and he said, you got to work on the writing. 1:02:12.920 --> 1:02:16.000 But what you get out of our artists is so different. 1:02:16.400 --> 1:02:18.800 I said. He said, you know what's good about you. 1:02:18.800 --> 1:02:22.600 You don't hate disco music. I said no. He said, 1:02:22.600 --> 1:02:25.520 would you like to interview the Hughes Corporation who have 1:02:25.520 --> 1:02:28.520 a hit with Rock the Boat. Nobody will talk to 1:02:28.600 --> 1:02:32.520 them because your other rock people don't want something to 1:02:32.560 --> 1:02:35.720 do with disco. They think it's phony and mechanical. I said, 1:02:35.800 --> 1:02:40.520 I'm there and I just liked. And then I got 1:02:40.560 --> 1:02:45.280 invited to Donna Summers. Neil Bogart's people called. I went 1:02:45.320 --> 1:02:48.640 to the Donna Summers listening party where she was introduced 1:02:49.760 --> 1:02:54.840 in Beverly Hills, and then I got an assignment from 1:02:54.920 --> 1:03:00.960 melody maker Barry White was going to England. This is 1:03:01.000 --> 1:03:06.520 maybe seventy six. Do you want to meet Barry White? Yes. 1:03:08.200 --> 1:03:11.120 I didn't have a problem with women wearing spandis dance. 1:03:11.200 --> 1:03:14.080 I didn't never try to colude my Disco World is 1:03:14.120 --> 1:03:17.160 I love the thraw Vicky Sue Robinson. I love the 1:03:17.400 --> 1:03:20.680 I just liked the music because it was loud and 1:03:20.720 --> 1:03:25.480 it could bring me to studios like RCA United Sunset, 1:03:25.800 --> 1:03:27.720 and you could also talk to the engineers and the 1:03:27.760 --> 1:03:30.760 producers about well. Elvis was just in two days ago 1:03:30.880 --> 1:03:35.480 doing pre records on a you know what. PAINK Crawford 1:03:35.520 --> 1:03:39.040 was the guy's name, and engineer Leslie Crawford was his daughter. 1:03:39.120 --> 1:03:39.600 Remember that. 1:03:40.760 --> 1:03:45.000 And I go to meet Barry White. You know, there's 1:03:45.000 --> 1:03:47.160 some people you connect with and like Arry White is 1:03:47.160 --> 1:03:50.240 the closing chapter, and I turn up the radio book again. 1:03:50.480 --> 1:03:53.880 I wasn't in competition with people. I was in collaboration. 1:03:54.440 --> 1:03:58.760 That's why if you investigate my work or books. I'm 1:03:58.800 --> 1:04:02.160 a big believer in the multi voice narrative, other people 1:04:02.280 --> 1:04:05.560 coming in. I'm like John Ford with his stock company. 1:04:05.720 --> 1:04:09.920 Plus I like bringing people into the action. I realize, 1:04:09.960 --> 1:04:11.960 you know, I'm writing for Melody Maker, that's a million 1:04:12.000 --> 1:04:16.600 people a week, Crowdaddy magazine, it's really respected. There are 1:04:16.720 --> 1:04:20.640 people that are going to invest in me. I'm going 1:04:20.720 --> 1:04:24.439 to bring them into my own world and not care 1:04:24.480 --> 1:04:28.240 about fawning over somebody or meeting somebody or why does 1:04:28.240 --> 1:04:32.920 this lead to? And I met Barry White. There's some 1:04:33.040 --> 1:04:35.479 people in life where you meet and you feel you've 1:04:35.480 --> 1:04:39.920 known them your whole life. And I said, I know 1:04:40.000 --> 1:04:43.960 a lot about you Berry White. Well, what do you know? 1:04:44.760 --> 1:04:48.240 I said, Oh, I know that because I read a 1:04:48.280 --> 1:04:53.160 couple articles. I know that you were involved with Bob 1:04:53.200 --> 1:04:56.960 and Earl's Harlem Shuffle and Arranging. I know you were 1:04:57.000 --> 1:05:00.000 the drummer of Jackie Lee's do the Duck at least 1:05:00.080 --> 1:05:03.600 the road Drummer. I know that you made an album 1:05:03.760 --> 1:05:07.600 on Delphi Records and you did an amazing version of 1:05:07.720 --> 1:05:13.680 in the Ghetto. He said, let's do this interview at 1:05:13.680 --> 1:05:18.160 my home in Encino, and uh, I've got a movie 1:05:18.280 --> 1:05:22.800 theater there. He said, really? He said, do you like 1:05:22.880 --> 1:05:25.960 science fiction movies? I said, I'm the King of the 1:05:26.000 --> 1:05:30.480 Twilight Zone. He said, oh, I'm going to be playing 1:05:30.480 --> 1:05:34.920 Invaders from Mars today. Will you watch Invaders from Mars? 1:05:35.520 --> 1:05:38.360 He said, I know you dig Hillary Brook in that movie. 1:05:38.560 --> 1:05:41.120 I said, I know that movie backwards and forward. But 1:05:41.200 --> 1:05:44.360 can we do an interview for Melody Baker? After? He 1:05:44.480 --> 1:05:48.400 said yeah, but will you also come to my recording session? 1:05:49.400 --> 1:05:54.920 Can't get enough of your love at MCA, Whitney, I said, what, 1:05:55.520 --> 1:05:59.680 I don't even have to think about this stuff. I 1:05:59.760 --> 1:06:03.440 walked there and I recognize a guy named Don Peak 1:06:05.320 --> 1:06:08.720 kind of knew who he was from the Hollywood Ranch Market. Wait, 1:06:08.760 --> 1:06:11.320 that's the guy from the Hollywood Ranch Market. He's actually 1:06:11.360 --> 1:06:16.560 a guitar player. Harvey, do you know wal Wall Watson? No? Wow. 1:06:17.760 --> 1:06:22.680 I watched that session and I remember they ordered ribs 1:06:22.760 --> 1:06:26.479 in and had so much sauce on it you could 1:06:26.520 --> 1:06:28.920 like carve your initials at the back of the ribs 1:06:29.000 --> 1:06:35.040 on the sauce because Barry like Nash and it was incredible. 1:06:35.200 --> 1:06:39.680 So Barry, I was so thankful for the introduction to 1:06:39.760 --> 1:06:42.560 him and a few other hangs over ten years, because 1:06:42.600 --> 1:06:48.160 he had quote struggled for maybe ten years to cut 1:06:48.200 --> 1:06:50.919 a record under his own name, or get his work 1:06:50.960 --> 1:06:53.240 out there, or done little things for indie labels under 1:06:53.280 --> 1:06:57.600 other names. But he was Barry White. And even though 1:06:57.640 --> 1:07:01.160 my friends, oh, it's just disco music, Don Peaks said, 1:07:01.200 --> 1:07:03.920 you know, it's love music. It's not disco music. 1:07:04.560 --> 1:07:08.040 Listen to Gene Page's charts. 1:07:08.120 --> 1:07:11.800 Charts. Harvey, you think you're cool because you know the 1:07:11.880 --> 1:07:15.280 name of an engineer. You need to know about the 1:07:15.400 --> 1:07:19.360 role of the arranger, well, I know, you know Don 1:07:19.440 --> 1:07:23.120 Costa and Gordon Jenkins that Sinatra. He said, the arrangers 1:07:23.120 --> 1:07:26.320 are the secret sauce. So I kind of watched this 1:07:26.520 --> 1:07:31.160 session and I said, I'm sticking in this business. I 1:07:31.160 --> 1:07:33.760 don't know where it's gonna go. I'm going to keep 1:07:34.000 --> 1:07:37.680 writing and if nobody else wants to talk to these people, 1:07:38.640 --> 1:07:42.160 I'm going to talk to these people. Now. The disco 1:07:42.240 --> 1:07:47.160 thing dried up pretty quick and your punk rock came in. 1:07:47.200 --> 1:07:49.280 We were both at the Whiskey and seventy seven for 1:07:49.440 --> 1:07:56.360 Elvis Costello's debut and did Johnny Cougar open? No, okay, 1:07:56.920 --> 1:08:00.680 there was a local band I forgot who opened, so 1:08:00.800 --> 1:08:04.800 that was good, and I said, what can I really 1:08:04.880 --> 1:08:07.600 like this Elvis Costello. I'm aware of all that energy 1:08:07.600 --> 1:08:11.560 at Stiff Records. I have to give this guy an album. 1:08:12.360 --> 1:08:16.640 I have a feeling he really likes the International Submarine 1:08:16.680 --> 1:08:19.679 Band and stuff like that. I handed him a rare 1:08:19.840 --> 1:08:23.879 vinyl of that album, which he could never find in England. 1:08:24.320 --> 1:08:28.280 He was so thankful he ended up writing a liner 1:08:28.320 --> 1:08:31.600 notes for I think a double gram Parsons reissue on Reprise, 1:08:32.360 --> 1:08:34.160 And over the years I've got to talk to him 1:08:34.160 --> 1:08:38.000 and interviewed him for Musician magazine. So some of this 1:08:38.240 --> 1:08:42.240 journey starts not because I'm determined I'm going to do it. 1:08:43.560 --> 1:08:46.280 I often will eat the food nobody else wanted to taste. 1:08:46.720 --> 1:08:49.920 And I also wanted to bring the people, the readers. 1:08:50.240 --> 1:08:53.759 This is pre Internet. I wanted to bring the people 1:08:53.880 --> 1:08:58.479 with me. I just thought there was a little bit 1:08:58.720 --> 1:09:01.559 of obligation. Springsten talks about we're all in this together 1:09:01.600 --> 1:09:05.080 and not free until everybody's free. But I knew, because 1:09:05.120 --> 1:09:08.720 I developed a friendship with Steve van zandt going back 1:09:08.720 --> 1:09:13.960 to seventy five, that you just don't report. You have 1:09:14.040 --> 1:09:18.320 to bring people into the action and bring something different 1:09:18.360 --> 1:09:22.120 and new. And I think I do that either with 1:09:22.240 --> 1:09:26.120 other people's interviews or visuals or finding the photos. Again, 1:09:26.200 --> 1:09:30.120 it's my librarian skills that I have access to collect 1:09:30.200 --> 1:09:35.160 pictures and tune DEXes that augment the narrative that I 1:09:35.200 --> 1:09:35.880 put out there. 1:09:42.840 --> 1:09:49.880 Okay, in your fifty year career other than MCA, did 1:09:49.920 --> 1:09:53.960 you ever have to get a day job? Also, how 1:09:53.960 --> 1:09:58.080 did the economics work? The last time we discussed this, 1:09:58.160 --> 1:10:00.559 which is not recently, you were living in the San 1:10:00.640 --> 1:10:03.839 Fernando Valley. You did not own a car, you rented 1:10:03.840 --> 1:10:05.320 a car when you needed one. 1:10:05.439 --> 1:10:09.520 Yeah, I started renting cars for rite off purposes and transportation. 1:10:10.600 --> 1:10:13.880 Part of that was I was either on the cusp 1:10:13.960 --> 1:10:17.080 of always getting a company car from a company or 1:10:17.120 --> 1:10:20.240 something that would fall through. So I said, well, I 1:10:20.280 --> 1:10:22.680 fix this car. In three weeks, I'm going to have 1:10:23.720 --> 1:10:27.559 a new job with the company car. And so I 1:10:27.680 --> 1:10:31.920 made myself do a lot of walking and not be 1:10:32.080 --> 1:10:37.920 car dependent. This is even pre pandemic. And I like 1:10:38.040 --> 1:10:42.120 the idea of renting a car for a weekend and 1:10:42.160 --> 1:10:46.639 then being landlocked during the week and doing the twenty 1:10:46.720 --> 1:10:52.920 hours of writing, revision editing, phone interviews. It just it 1:10:53.120 --> 1:10:56.719 was the best way to get my action out there. 1:10:57.240 --> 1:11:01.040 Okay, you talk about these jobs, potential jobs with a 1:11:01.080 --> 1:11:05.760 company car. So have you survived all these years since 1:11:05.880 --> 1:11:10.559 MCA on your writing alone or have you had to 1:11:10.600 --> 1:11:12.479 supplement it with outside income. 1:11:13.600 --> 1:11:17.120 I've had to do some outside income income streams, but 1:11:17.439 --> 1:11:21.160 ninety five percent of them are music related. For example, 1:11:22.120 --> 1:11:29.880 I started I started writing bios for record labels and bands, 1:11:30.400 --> 1:11:33.639 and I would get a fee because they liked my writing. 1:11:34.720 --> 1:11:39.720 It was music related, and I got to also veer 1:11:39.880 --> 1:11:44.559 away from the oldies music in the classic rock world. 1:11:45.160 --> 1:11:48.559 I got to new bands that grew up reading me, 1:11:48.640 --> 1:11:51.400 say hey, I have a band, will you work with us? 1:11:52.280 --> 1:11:54.280 Will you write a press release or you write a bio? 1:11:54.320 --> 1:11:56.800 Will you come to the show, And I'd say no 1:11:56.920 --> 1:12:00.920 more freebies? No, no, well you want to hire you. 1:12:02.080 --> 1:12:06.320 The world changed when the Internet arrived in the late nineties. 1:12:07.680 --> 1:12:12.320 Why did it change my old catalog from all my 1:12:12.479 --> 1:12:17.040 articles seventy three to ninety eight, all of a sudden 1:12:17.120 --> 1:12:22.719 are available, people are and all of a sudden box sets. 1:12:23.200 --> 1:12:29.439 It's post CD reissues. These all these new products are 1:12:29.439 --> 1:12:33.160 coming out of old music. But new bands would seek 1:12:33.240 --> 1:12:37.280 me out or an R consultancy. I did some of 1:12:37.280 --> 1:12:42.439 that because the MCA credit was on my resume. I'm 1:12:42.479 --> 1:12:46.120 not even in LinkedIn. I It's just people find me. 1:12:46.400 --> 1:12:49.839 Or I was still going to music or book events 1:12:50.040 --> 1:12:53.400 or still I was always on record company and film 1:12:53.439 --> 1:12:57.800 and TV lists, and a lot of the work was organic. 1:12:58.680 --> 1:13:02.400 The first book deal was in two thousand and four, 1:13:04.160 --> 1:13:10.160 thirty five hundred dollars advance. Wow, you mean a real 1:13:10.200 --> 1:13:12.479 book here, Yeah, we want to do a book with you, 1:13:12.800 --> 1:13:16.080 University of Mexico Press. We want to do a second 1:13:16.080 --> 1:13:21.519 book with you. I think I can. I could keep 1:13:21.600 --> 1:13:25.920 this going because I saw the Internet, and I saw 1:13:25.960 --> 1:13:30.880 the music that that people thought didn't have longevity maybe 1:13:30.960 --> 1:13:33.760 a decade or two. It was going to have a 1:13:33.800 --> 1:13:37.519 fifty year career. I didn't know it would turn into 1:13:37.560 --> 1:13:41.200 what it's turned into. But Russ Reagan said in the eighties, 1:13:41.840 --> 1:13:43.919 one day you'll be able to go to a concert 1:13:44.000 --> 1:13:47.280 and leave with a recording from it. And I had 1:13:47.280 --> 1:13:50.000 people like Russ Reagan and a few other people that 1:13:50.040 --> 1:13:53.280 would check in with me and said stick with it, kid. 1:13:53.640 --> 1:13:56.320 I said, well, I'm fifty years old. Now there's no 1:13:56.360 --> 1:14:00.760 book deal, but I can't get an agent. But I'm 1:14:00.760 --> 1:14:02.840 not going to be And then Patty Smith and I 1:14:02.840 --> 1:14:07.560 did an interview. She said, don't give anybody a sob story. Said, no, 1:14:07.640 --> 1:14:09.639 I'm not going to bitch. How the way things work out, 1:14:09.680 --> 1:14:14.959 it could be better. I believe I'm doing a service. 1:14:15.920 --> 1:14:21.960 I believe something is it's devotional art, and that maybe 1:14:22.600 --> 1:14:26.800 what I write might introduce five, ten, fifty, or one 1:14:26.880 --> 1:14:31.559 hundred people to the Mamas and Papas, or the music 1:14:31.600 --> 1:14:35.280 of East La or the group's spirit or God forbid, 1:14:36.000 --> 1:14:39.280 will you find out about Lauren Nero already and I 1:14:39.400 --> 1:14:44.639 realized that was happening when I would meet people. Oh 1:14:44.680 --> 1:14:46.840 my god. Me and my boyfriend bought this out by 1:14:47.160 --> 1:14:49.320 Blah Batye Black because we read it about something you 1:14:49.360 --> 1:14:54.680 did years ago. Thank you. That stuff was just it 1:14:54.720 --> 1:14:57.519 was like getting a booster shot. It's some saying. It 1:14:57.640 --> 1:15:01.920 really pushed me forward. The book started happening. 1:15:02.000 --> 1:15:05.880 Yeah, you're in your seventies. You could die tomorrow, you 1:15:05.880 --> 1:15:09.120 could live another thirty years. How do you plan to 1:15:09.160 --> 1:15:12.080 support yourself as you continue? If you have any savings, 1:15:12.080 --> 1:15:13.519 you've inherited any money. 1:15:14.200 --> 1:15:18.960 Well, what has happened in the last twelve or fourteen years. 1:15:19.479 --> 1:15:23.920 The world of music documentaries has really happened, and I've 1:15:23.960 --> 1:15:27.040 been asked to be in them, and not just on screen, 1:15:27.880 --> 1:15:35.280 but actually production consultancy. Money comes in the mail, direct deposit. 1:15:37.120 --> 1:15:40.960 Working on documentaries all the time. You also about to 1:15:40.960 --> 1:15:44.880 sign another book deal for a book on the photographer 1:15:45.040 --> 1:15:48.000 Ed Carriff. My brother Kenneth and I did a book 1:15:48.040 --> 1:15:53.080 on Guy Webster, the photographer, and I'm currently involved in 1:15:53.240 --> 1:15:57.200 a music documentary on the history of LA recording studios 1:15:57.240 --> 1:16:00.479 with the focus on gold Star Studios, where I'm like 1:16:00.520 --> 1:16:04.160 a writer involved in the interviews, writing the questions, and 1:16:04.200 --> 1:16:12.439 co producing. These are fee based jobs. It's all working. 1:16:13.320 --> 1:16:15.439 And yes, I have a car, you know. 1:16:15.720 --> 1:16:18.120 So yeah, wait, you'll have a car. You have a 1:16:18.160 --> 1:16:20.479 car now, yeah yeah, so when did you get a car? 1:16:20.880 --> 1:16:25.240 Very recently? And it's just but the walking. I got 1:16:25.240 --> 1:16:27.639 to lose thirty five pounds over a couple of years, 1:16:28.160 --> 1:16:32.040 and I do my editing in my head walking and 1:16:32.080 --> 1:16:35.720 then I come back and it gets done. This is 1:16:35.920 --> 1:16:40.200 twenty hour a day stuff for me because I'm not 1:16:40.520 --> 1:16:45.920 a natural writer, but I somehow feel the cloud or 1:16:45.960 --> 1:16:50.360 the endorsement of many people around me that check in 1:16:50.400 --> 1:16:55.679 with me or want me to continue. And it's just really, 1:16:57.280 --> 1:17:00.719 you know, it just really feels like and my writing's 1:17:00.760 --> 1:17:05.040 getting better. That's I'm not on an oldies tour doing 1:17:05.120 --> 1:17:08.840 Medley's and fifty five minutes sets. I'm doing three hour 1:17:08.920 --> 1:17:13.160 shows now better than ever. Read what's out there? Now? 1:17:13.680 --> 1:17:16.960 I know it. But I say to myself, well, maybe 1:17:17.000 --> 1:17:20.519 I have a story coming out in Ugly Things magazine. 1:17:20.720 --> 1:17:23.160 I'm not getting paid for it, but it's a group 1:17:23.760 --> 1:17:28.479 I want people to know about Spirit Okay, But I 1:17:28.560 --> 1:17:33.400 know that my byline might generate some ads to the magazine. 1:17:33.640 --> 1:17:35.720 Like my work with Record Collector News, which I'm on 1:17:35.840 --> 1:17:39.599 retainer and I head of editorial. I know that I'm 1:17:39.680 --> 1:17:44.800 supporting outlets. It does come back to you and Da 1:17:44.960 --> 1:17:48.839 Penny Baker told me many years ago when I interviewed 1:17:48.920 --> 1:17:51.960 him for Monterey Pop Monera International Pop Book that Lou 1:17:52.000 --> 1:17:54.920 Adler and I were involved with with my brother, he said, 1:17:54.960 --> 1:17:58.040 magical thing happened. Magical things happen when you take the 1:17:58.080 --> 1:18:00.800 money off the table. He was talking about Binoie Pop 1:18:00.840 --> 1:18:06.680 becoming nonprofit. So not all the writing gigs are fee based. Endeavors. 1:18:07.800 --> 1:18:11.040 The karma and the dividends come back when somebody says 1:18:11.760 --> 1:18:17.960 I it happened. Last week an email from France just 1:18:18.080 --> 1:18:21.320 read something about the Mamas and Papa's. You danced on 1:18:21.360 --> 1:18:22.920 American Bandstand when. 1:18:22.800 --> 1:18:23.240 They were there? 1:18:23.320 --> 1:18:27.120 Yes, I was, Yes I did. We're doing a documentary 1:18:27.200 --> 1:18:31.400 for Rarte Television France and Germany on the Mamas and 1:18:31.439 --> 1:18:35.120 Papa's We fly to town. I said, what's the fee, 1:18:35.280 --> 1:18:39.679 what's the credit? I'm there. It's happening weekly and every 1:18:39.760 --> 1:18:42.000 other week the last couple of years. 1:18:42.280 --> 1:18:46.080 Okay, Harvey. One other thing we've talked about romance, But 1:18:46.200 --> 1:18:49.599 now we're the public. You know, you've lived seventy odd years. 1:18:50.120 --> 1:18:52.000 What about romance in your own life? 1:18:54.520 --> 1:19:00.759 Very interesting question, I'm and I hope this asn't saden. 1:19:00.880 --> 1:19:04.040 You didn't you just lose your mother recently. 1:19:03.880 --> 1:19:06.040 Well about fifteen months ago? Whatever? 1:19:06.160 --> 1:19:10.840 Right, Okay, I am blessed to have a ninety nine 1:19:10.920 --> 1:19:13.040 year old Alta Cocker Jewish mother. 1:19:13.360 --> 1:19:13.719 Wow. 1:19:14.439 --> 1:19:18.200 Okay, so let's start there. Let's just say that Harvey 1:19:18.240 --> 1:19:20.880 and Kenneth Kubernick have kind of been in al To 1:19:21.040 --> 1:19:25.519 Cocker daycare when my dad made it to ninety two 1:19:25.560 --> 1:19:25.920 and a half. 1:19:26.000 --> 1:19:29.240 He died in two thousand and your parents always stuck. 1:19:29.000 --> 1:19:33.719 Together, sixty eight years together, there's no My parents started 1:19:33.760 --> 1:19:37.080 in nineteen forty seven to nineteen fifty two owning a 1:19:37.200 --> 1:19:41.240 dry cleaner in downtown LA, where laundry was fifteen cents 1:19:41.320 --> 1:19:46.439 a pound. My dad sold encyclopedia, sold swimming pools, and 1:19:46.479 --> 1:19:49.080 at age forty he took a test to be a stockbroker. 1:19:49.200 --> 1:19:53.000 Then the thing really popped. But what I'm saying is 1:19:53.680 --> 1:19:58.000 the last few years, when you have a widowed mother 1:19:58.439 --> 1:20:06.439 at ninety three, all hands on deck. She's in great health. Still, 1:20:06.640 --> 1:20:10.920 it's a daily check in it's babysitting. You can't you know, 1:20:11.080 --> 1:20:13.880 I said. I said this to Chris Daro. I said, 1:20:14.720 --> 1:20:18.040 there's no dating this summer. My brother's going to China. 1:20:18.560 --> 1:20:22.479 I have to monitor my mother. And he said, you're 1:20:22.560 --> 1:20:25.840 so lucky. My dad made ninety eight. I said, she's 1:20:26.000 --> 1:20:29.760 my Jewish girlfriend for a while. I got it. So 1:20:29.880 --> 1:20:37.520 she's doing well until three months ago, not feeling well. Subsequently, 1:20:37.600 --> 1:20:41.000 there's been there were two hard they go, they rush 1:20:41.040 --> 1:20:44.200 her to UCLA. They go, hey, kids, here's the story. 1:20:45.120 --> 1:20:47.960 There's no word. Thread on her tires, in her heart, 1:20:48.600 --> 1:20:54.000 calcium deposits. She's all, she's ninety nine. You can do 1:20:54.080 --> 1:20:57.680 nothing and see where it goes. Or we could get 1:20:57.680 --> 1:21:01.760 her a valve. He huddled. My mother said, let's go 1:21:01.840 --> 1:21:07.920 for it. Valve operation, then complications, then pacemaker put in 1:21:09.080 --> 1:21:12.160 works fine, here are A month later, she went to 1:21:13.240 --> 1:21:15.759 Ross dress for lesson, got her hair done last week. 1:21:16.200 --> 1:21:22.320 So what has happened? All energy is to help my 1:21:22.439 --> 1:21:26.280 brother and her and be on call twenty four hours. 1:21:26.520 --> 1:21:29.200 I may sound like a small excuse, but it's the 1:21:29.240 --> 1:21:30.240 super priority. 1:21:30.400 --> 1:21:32.960 Well, I guess what I'm really asking is, I know 1:21:33.080 --> 1:21:37.120 you haven't been married. Does the nature of the work 1:21:37.720 --> 1:21:42.639 or the nature of the economics of the work make 1:21:42.720 --> 1:21:46.960 it that you never got married, you know, because we 1:21:47.040 --> 1:21:49.400 all know we sacrifice it all for rock and roll. 1:21:49.600 --> 1:21:50.960 So what's it been like for you? 1:21:51.880 --> 1:21:57.720 I really like women. I have a date I think 1:21:57.760 --> 1:22:02.120 for the Ringo concert at the Greek Theater, and maybe 1:22:02.160 --> 1:22:05.479 another woman for the Elvis Costello concert, because I tell 1:22:05.520 --> 1:22:08.880 everybody I need to have some fun in June. It's 1:22:08.880 --> 1:22:11.960 all cleared, got back up, people to monitor. My mother 1:22:12.479 --> 1:22:18.639 have to produce this stuff six weeks in advance, and 1:22:19.040 --> 1:22:23.160 no alimony, no child's support. Would people say, why are 1:22:23.160 --> 1:22:27.639 you still doing this? I saw my parents have such 1:22:27.720 --> 1:22:32.760 a strong marriage. I just kind of I saw the 1:22:32.920 --> 1:22:38.439 team work involved, what it takes. I don't know if 1:22:38.479 --> 1:22:45.360 I was capable of going there, but you know, there's 1:22:45.400 --> 1:22:50.600 opportunities out there. But right now, I never thought this 1:22:50.800 --> 1:22:53.400 avalanche of work would show up. In the last four 1:22:53.479 --> 1:22:56.880 or five years. I planned on none of this. So 1:22:57.280 --> 1:22:59.719 it's like every day. I'm sure you get these emails. 1:22:59.720 --> 1:23:01.680 If they meet you your quote. You might go to 1:23:01.760 --> 1:23:04.880 France and here it is. It's not every day, but 1:23:05.000 --> 1:23:09.400 there's a request every day. Because what's happened. People are 1:23:09.479 --> 1:23:15.800 discovering well, Vinyose outsold Mono records. People are finding my work. 1:23:15.920 --> 1:23:17.800 The funny thing about this, and I don't know if 1:23:17.800 --> 1:23:20.840 this has ever happened to you on your podcast. I 1:23:20.880 --> 1:23:25.320 got a few comical, disturbing emails saying, mister Kubernick, you're 1:23:25.360 --> 1:23:27.599 such a good writer, why do you steal other people's 1:23:27.640 --> 1:23:32.120 interviews from other places? And I didn't answer, they do 1:23:32.200 --> 1:23:34.800 not happen a second or third time. But there was 1:23:34.840 --> 1:23:39.240 a contact number, and I emailed this person who actually 1:23:39.320 --> 1:23:41.200 saw me read the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1:23:41.200 --> 1:23:46.040 in Cleveland, and I said, I don't steal anybody's stuff. 1:23:46.080 --> 1:23:49.840 You said, well, it's impossible for you to have quote 1:23:49.880 --> 1:23:52.719 Johnny Cash from nineteen seventy five. I just read something 1:23:52.720 --> 1:23:56.080 you write about Johnny Cash. I said, I did those interviews, 1:23:57.920 --> 1:24:01.840 and I was, what, No, that's not true. They're my interviews. 1:24:02.400 --> 1:24:04.519 So I had a dialogue. I had a meeting with 1:24:04.560 --> 1:24:08.000 a couple of poets, Jim Doctor, James Cushing and Harry Northup. 1:24:08.680 --> 1:24:11.200 And then I emailed a journalist you might know him, 1:24:11.520 --> 1:24:16.240 author Mark Myers from the Wall Street Journal. Yeah, fantastic guy, 1:24:16.320 --> 1:24:17.880 great author, bio books. 1:24:18.840 --> 1:24:23.519 And I said, Mark Myers, the brother and he's from Canada. 1:24:23.760 --> 1:24:24.599 Of Mike Myer. 1:24:25.600 --> 1:24:29.680 No, now this is Mark. Mark Myers just writes a 1:24:29.960 --> 1:24:34.000 lot of articles, does jazz Jazz Wax has a couple 1:24:34.000 --> 1:24:37.360 of beautiful books on the history of concerts. I said, 1:24:37.360 --> 1:24:41.599 I need to ask you a question. I'm people are 1:24:42.280 --> 1:24:45.559 I've got a bunch of emails for them. People think 1:24:45.600 --> 1:24:50.240 that I'm kyping other stuff because I go. Johnny Cash said, 1:24:50.360 --> 1:24:53.200 and blah blahah. He said, you need to claim this stuff. 1:24:53.240 --> 1:24:57.240 But I said, the narrative gets disrupted if I start writing. 1:24:57.479 --> 1:25:01.040 Johnny Cash told me in nineteen seventy interview for the 1:25:01.080 --> 1:25:04.280 now defunct Melody Maker, and he said, you're going to 1:25:04.360 --> 1:25:08.599 have to do those things because today's people, he said, 1:25:08.720 --> 1:25:13.560 you look fifty. They just assume you never knew Johnny Cash. 1:25:13.600 --> 1:25:16.120 Here you are in twenty twenty three, and you're talking 1:25:16.160 --> 1:25:19.519 about a nineteen seventy five interview. I said, I did 1:25:19.520 --> 1:25:23.679 the interview. Here it is. He's so, what has happened. 1:25:23.720 --> 1:25:27.880 I've had to put blobbidy blot told me. David Ruffin 1:25:27.920 --> 1:25:31.120 told me in a nineteen seventy six interview. Robbie Robertson 1:25:31.200 --> 1:25:34.280 explained in an Interviewer and dialogue I conducted with him. 1:25:35.160 --> 1:25:38.960 It irks me, but I'm doing that now and we're 1:25:38.960 --> 1:25:42.120 not getting those emails anymore. And I guess I might 1:25:42.160 --> 1:25:46.519 be the Bald Eagle or somebody that I was, you know, 1:25:46.640 --> 1:25:49.360 But you know, I wish somebody would say Johnny Cash 1:25:49.479 --> 1:25:53.280 nineteen seventy five, I go, yeah, nobody gave a fuck 1:25:53.320 --> 1:25:57.400 about Johnny Cash. I got him at a Christian bookseller's 1:25:57.439 --> 1:26:00.920 convention in Anaheim, and I said, to also tell you 1:26:00.960 --> 1:26:03.640 the truth, I have the same birthday as Johnny Cash. 1:26:04.000 --> 1:26:06.320 I wanted to meet and talk to Johnny Cash. I 1:26:06.360 --> 1:26:12.360 saw him twenty times over the years, and it's very 1:26:12.400 --> 1:26:16.160 deep and personal to me. So now I think people 1:26:16.200 --> 1:26:20.439 realize and these platforms like you doing this today or 1:26:20.520 --> 1:26:24.400 being on coast to coast, people realized there is a 1:26:24.439 --> 1:26:28.879 fifty year thing going on here. He really did interview 1:26:28.920 --> 1:26:33.200 these people, and it's often blues or Motown people or 1:26:33.560 --> 1:26:38.320 icons like Johnny Cash. I never knew there'd be afterlife 1:26:38.360 --> 1:26:41.000 in this stuff. Rick Rubin and I had a couple 1:26:40.960 --> 1:26:43.920 of conversations. I interviewed him for a book. I said, Rick, 1:26:44.000 --> 1:26:46.600 I was down with Johnny before you got the gig, 1:26:47.320 --> 1:26:50.280 And I said, same birthday. And he said, I'm right 1:26:50.320 --> 1:26:55.479 next to you, fellow pisces. Boom clicked. So that's not 1:26:55.560 --> 1:26:59.680 an obstacle. It's just I believe in the oral, a 1:26:59.680 --> 1:27:03.479 lot of oral history, and I'm watching some By the way, 1:27:03.520 --> 1:27:07.559 I've had some things optioned for potential development for TV shows. 1:27:07.600 --> 1:27:11.680 That's been an income stream. But because I understand Hollywood 1:27:11.720 --> 1:27:16.080 a little bit and met and studied with Ramdas, he 1:27:16.280 --> 1:27:19.400 told me, well, be here in aw book. You probably 1:27:19.439 --> 1:27:23.200 looked at it at your college. Do not get psychically 1:27:23.200 --> 1:27:29.439 addicted to outcome. So when the development person calls or 1:27:29.560 --> 1:27:33.200 the studio person calls for the zoom call about optioning, 1:27:33.240 --> 1:27:35.599 and I have a couple of people with me, I 1:27:35.640 --> 1:27:38.880 will go through it. I like the experience. I like 1:27:38.920 --> 1:27:41.599 the corn showder at the IVY. I like going through 1:27:41.600 --> 1:27:44.320 some of his stuff. Ninety eight percent of the time, 1:27:44.360 --> 1:27:47.800 it doesn't go any further than the first step. But 1:27:48.640 --> 1:27:51.920 it's income. But the thing is, I know that I'm 1:27:51.960 --> 1:27:57.280 a cinematic writer. I'm born in Hollywood overlooking the Hollywood 1:27:57.280 --> 1:28:01.120 one on one Freeway on Sunset and Alvarado. I am 1:28:01.280 --> 1:28:05.320 a child of Hollywood, and I knew it can translate 1:28:05.400 --> 1:28:10.599 to screen and we're just watching where it goes. You 1:28:10.640 --> 1:28:16.960 can't plan any things anymore. But things seem to be 1:28:17.000 --> 1:28:21.920 working out. But then again, the biggest mitzvah when and 1:28:22.000 --> 1:28:24.160 maybe you've been through this and some of your people 1:28:24.240 --> 1:28:27.360 have been through this when the doctor comes out of 1:28:27.400 --> 1:28:31.880 the meets you in the waiting room, when you got 1:28:31.880 --> 1:28:34.360 a ninety nine year old on the table twice in 1:28:34.479 --> 1:28:39.240 three weeks and says, it's looking really good. That feeling 1:28:40.000 --> 1:28:42.759 is worth ten dates with playboy bunnies. 1:28:44.200 --> 1:28:48.720 Okay, Now, not only do you interview people, you maintain 1:28:49.000 --> 1:28:53.080 relationships with us with them. You talked about your relationship 1:28:53.080 --> 1:28:55.679 and interview with Barry White. Tell us about a couple more. 1:28:57.479 --> 1:29:04.520 Rule number one ask bring something to the table immediately, 1:29:04.680 --> 1:29:08.599 so you don't say the same stuff as everybody else. 1:29:08.720 --> 1:29:11.240 And maybe because I've been living out on the perimeter, 1:29:11.560 --> 1:29:14.160 like the door songs Morrison mentioned, we are stone out 1:29:14.160 --> 1:29:19.400 in the perimeter. I'm not writing on assignment most of 1:29:19.439 --> 1:29:23.360 the time for magazines. It's sort of my Bukowski training. 1:29:23.479 --> 1:29:25.559 You write it and you throw it out there and 1:29:25.600 --> 1:29:29.080 it lands. I knew him at the post office. I 1:29:29.160 --> 1:29:32.840 knew him from the mid seventies. You put it out 1:29:32.840 --> 1:29:35.320 there and see where it lands. What I like the 1:29:35.400 --> 1:29:37.599 luxury of being on staff at one hundred and fifty 1:29:37.600 --> 1:29:40.120 grand year or something at a trade Sure, I would 1:29:40.200 --> 1:29:43.040 like that pressure to see if I could do it. It 1:29:43.040 --> 1:29:49.000 hasn't happened yet. The friendships, so I always knew ask 1:29:49.080 --> 1:29:56.000 a first question nobody has ever asked. It does dent? 1:29:56.400 --> 1:30:00.520 It causes a dent. I remember meeting Burton come in 1:30:00.520 --> 1:30:05.760 in nineteen seventy four. I will love the guests who 1:30:08.120 --> 1:30:11.080 And I said, why don't you tell me about that 1:30:11.320 --> 1:30:13.519 television show you used to do in Canada in the 1:30:13.560 --> 1:30:16.280 sixties where you did a lot of cover versions. I said, 1:30:16.320 --> 1:30:19.120 how do you know about that? And I said, well, 1:30:19.160 --> 1:30:21.679 I just I know it's part of your history because 1:30:21.720 --> 1:30:23.960 I know people in Canada that used to watch you 1:30:24.040 --> 1:30:27.280 before you ever kind of came to the States. That 1:30:27.439 --> 1:30:30.439 kicked off a friendship that still exists fifty years later. 1:30:31.040 --> 1:30:36.120 I interviewed Raymond Zeric in nineteen seventy four at Mercury 1:30:36.200 --> 1:30:39.400 Records when he had his solo album out. I loved 1:30:39.439 --> 1:30:42.439 the doors I saw the original band. I was so 1:30:42.600 --> 1:30:47.200 excited to meet somebody in the doors I didn't ask 1:30:47.240 --> 1:30:50.200 for I never did the autograph thing until way later, 1:30:51.400 --> 1:30:56.280 and I said to Ray, you went to UCLA when 1:30:56.320 --> 1:31:01.600 the UCLA Bruins were the basketball champs. Did you play basketball? 1:31:02.160 --> 1:31:04.360 And he said did I play basketball? And I was 1:31:04.400 --> 1:31:07.880 getting my economics degree from de gaul to Paul, I 1:31:07.960 --> 1:31:11.439 played basketball, and he said, you know when the doors played, 1:31:11.560 --> 1:31:14.040 I'd always get mad when the promoter said time to 1:31:14.080 --> 1:31:16.840 play a set. I go, and Ray we go. But 1:31:17.000 --> 1:31:19.680 UCLA is on a run. But because I made a 1:31:19.720 --> 1:31:24.160 basketball impression on raymn xeric and then years later I 1:31:24.200 --> 1:31:30.679 introduced him to coach John Robert Wooden, these things get birthed. Also, 1:31:32.560 --> 1:31:36.120 This is pre I never was a tabloid guy. I'd 1:31:36.240 --> 1:31:41.680 ask questions. Okay, Bruce Botnik engineered your records, tell me 1:31:41.720 --> 1:31:45.040 about Sunset sound, tell me about the tape stock, tell 1:31:45.080 --> 1:31:49.000 me about the Sandheiser microphones. I sort of had some 1:31:49.120 --> 1:31:53.439 of that stuff that was just different than him plugging 1:31:53.520 --> 1:31:57.439 an album or having to talk about Jim dying in Paris. 1:31:57.720 --> 1:32:01.080 Every interview and these, and then all of a sudden 1:32:01.120 --> 1:32:07.160 they start referring you to people. I mean, I've listen, 1:32:07.280 --> 1:32:12.080 I've interviewed Keith Richards. You know, these things make impressions. 1:32:12.120 --> 1:32:14.280 So when you run into these people five or eight 1:32:14.360 --> 1:32:18.839 or twelve years later, they will walk across the room, Hey, mate, 1:32:18.960 --> 1:32:19.400 how's it? 1:32:19.439 --> 1:32:19.960 Do you know? 1:32:20.360 --> 1:32:25.599 That kind of stuff means a lot to me. I'm, 1:32:26.000 --> 1:32:29.160 you know, sadly as we get older, we're losing people. 1:32:30.320 --> 1:32:34.000 But then I could say, well, I'm keeping them alive 1:32:34.920 --> 1:32:38.439 in the work I'm doing. I mean, I have twenty 1:32:38.439 --> 1:32:42.600 books out, and I must be thanked. I don't know 1:32:42.640 --> 1:32:44.960 somebody's tracking this for me. I think I'm thanked in 1:32:44.960 --> 1:32:47.400 two hundred and thirty eight other books. And now there's 1:32:47.439 --> 1:32:51.280 a new little thing happening, which I'm cool with. Will 1:32:51.320 --> 1:32:54.559 you write blurbs for my first novel? Will you write 1:32:54.560 --> 1:32:59.120 a blurbunk testimony on the back cover? And I said, yes, 1:32:59.840 --> 1:33:05.719 but don't stick me in indie bookland exclusively. If Simon 1:33:05.760 --> 1:33:08.080 and Schuster kind of people show up and want me 1:33:08.160 --> 1:33:11.479 to write something on Leonard Cohen. Okay, I want to 1:33:11.479 --> 1:33:13.760 have a foot in the corporate world, and I want 1:33:13.760 --> 1:33:17.719 to have a foot with the first timer. Every week, 1:33:18.400 --> 1:33:20.960 David Kessel said, I have my first book coming out, 1:33:20.960 --> 1:33:23.120 will you give me a quote on the back cover? Yes, 1:33:24.000 --> 1:33:26.599 these things start happening, and no, I don't feel for them. 1:33:26.600 --> 1:33:29.800 And then another thing is started happening where people are 1:33:29.800 --> 1:33:32.479 asking me to write some letters of endorsement so that 1:33:32.560 --> 1:33:35.639 you go to graduate school. And I said, I couldn't 1:33:35.680 --> 1:33:39.080 get into these places myself. Why would you even ask me? 1:33:39.680 --> 1:33:43.920 But doctor James Cushing, a professor literatary English professor, said, 1:33:44.040 --> 1:33:47.519 you do these things because you never know how it 1:33:47.760 --> 1:33:52.439 will get the other person forward. I said, on probably 1:33:52.479 --> 1:33:54.479 never see the other person again, or maybe ten or 1:33:54.479 --> 1:33:57.960 twenty years. He said, don't even think about it. You 1:33:58.439 --> 1:34:01.120 are he said, don't you remember when you never had 1:34:01.120 --> 1:34:03.960 a book where you got turned down three hundred times, 1:34:04.479 --> 1:34:07.599 or record labels for a year, maybe weren't really taking 1:34:07.640 --> 1:34:11.320 your calls. Look what's going on? I said, Okay, where's 1:34:11.360 --> 1:34:14.880 the next person who needs a blurb? Here? And I 1:34:14.920 --> 1:34:20.080 know it's helping people. I'm a prices. It helps people, 1:34:20.160 --> 1:34:23.400 and I want to bring people on the ride with me. 1:34:23.920 --> 1:34:27.480 I know it sounds kind of hippyish. I'm from Hollywood, 1:34:27.520 --> 1:34:30.240 but you say I didn't have to reinvent myself in Hollywood. 1:34:30.400 --> 1:34:33.200 I didn't come to Hollywood to make it. I'm born 1:34:33.240 --> 1:34:37.920 in Hollywood. So I'm showing a real different kind of Hollywood, 1:34:38.360 --> 1:34:43.439 which is support and collaboration and maybe possibility. All I 1:34:43.479 --> 1:34:44.960 know is it's working. 1:34:51.760 --> 1:34:55.360 Okay. You introduced me to Andrew lou Goldham, you continue 1:34:55.400 --> 1:34:58.800 to have contact. How did you meet and maintain a 1:34:58.840 --> 1:35:02.040 relationship with Andrew Wow? 1:35:03.160 --> 1:35:09.519 I will say namastay grateful for his presence in my life. 1:35:10.680 --> 1:35:14.280 When I got those first Rolling Stones albums, I didn't 1:35:14.320 --> 1:35:16.320 want to be Mick Jagger or be in a band. 1:35:17.880 --> 1:35:20.960 I liked the stuff on the back cover. I never 1:35:21.000 --> 1:35:24.240 really knew they were called liner notes. I think they 1:35:24.240 --> 1:35:29.120 were called jacket information. I said, this guy, the guy, 1:35:29.320 --> 1:35:32.320 this guy is like producing. I kind of know what 1:35:32.360 --> 1:35:36.320 a record producer is. This guy the writing is like 1:35:36.439 --> 1:35:41.560 Anthony Burgess and Clockwork Orange or something. It's vibrant. I 1:35:41.600 --> 1:35:46.600 did a term paper on his liner notes on aftermath 1:35:46.680 --> 1:35:50.519 or something in high school. I know that I never 1:35:50.560 --> 1:35:51.599 thought i'd meet him. 1:35:52.120 --> 1:35:53.160 I probably could have. 1:35:53.240 --> 1:35:55.200 I went to New York when he was producing groups 1:35:55.240 --> 1:35:58.200 on RC like the Werewolves. I don't do those things. 1:35:59.439 --> 1:36:05.000 But I I thanked him on a couple of my articles, 1:36:05.160 --> 1:36:08.880 maybe made a dedication to him because his interviews were 1:36:08.920 --> 1:36:14.400 so fascinating, because he saw the big picture, and also 1:36:14.439 --> 1:36:17.080 he did something very bold. I don't think we'd see 1:36:17.120 --> 1:36:20.400 today even in England out of his own pocket. He 1:36:20.439 --> 1:36:24.439 would take ads out in like magazines like Disc and 1:36:24.520 --> 1:36:27.400 teut things like Pet Sounds when he didn't even have 1:36:27.439 --> 1:36:33.000 a piece of the action. That's really cool. So in 1:36:33.080 --> 1:36:37.400 two thousand I go to see Brian Wilson do Pet 1:36:37.520 --> 1:36:45.240 Sounds at the Hollywood Bawl. Yes, I know, Brian. Did 1:36:45.280 --> 1:36:47.000 I know I would do the liner notes in two 1:36:47.080 --> 1:36:49.960 thousand and eight for the Pet Sounds fortieth anniversary tour? 1:36:50.280 --> 1:36:50.479 No? 1:36:51.200 --> 1:36:52.920 Did I ever know? I do the liner notes for 1:36:53.000 --> 1:36:57.679 the Elvis Presley forty edition of the of the Comeback 1:36:57.720 --> 1:37:01.599 Special that was the fulfillment to graylen Land. And forty 1:37:01.680 --> 1:37:04.680 years later I wrote about Elvis Presley and got a 1:37:04.800 --> 1:37:08.679 nice check. When you do box set liner notes, that's 1:37:08.720 --> 1:37:15.240 a car Okay. I go to see Brian Wilson and 1:37:15.320 --> 1:37:18.680 I'm sitting next in a box with Henry Dilts and 1:37:18.680 --> 1:37:22.559 my friend David Wolf who who I met in nineteen 1:37:22.600 --> 1:37:26.439 sixty two, who I'm seeing next week at a Johnny 1:37:26.479 --> 1:37:30.720 Rivers show. And I'm sitting there ready the lights are 1:37:30.760 --> 1:37:34.800 going down, and I'm not a backdoor Johnny guy. I'm 1:37:34.920 --> 1:37:39.080 very happy to see Brian because I'm watching this victory 1:37:39.600 --> 1:37:44.480 because I've seen Brian up and down through the sixties 1:37:44.640 --> 1:37:50.000 and the seventies, the houses I've been there. I'm happy 1:37:50.040 --> 1:37:55.040 Brian Wilson is going to do Pet Sounds with the Wonderments. 1:37:56.280 --> 1:37:59.439 And David Leaf walks by me because he's going to 1:37:59.520 --> 1:38:05.000 be there, mm hm, and I kind of casually say, hey, 1:38:06.680 --> 1:38:09.680 what's the back stage seem like, because this is the 1:38:09.680 --> 1:38:13.639 one time I'm not backstage at a Brian Wilson show 1:38:14.040 --> 1:38:17.599 that pony up and see, you know, box seats up front. 1:38:18.439 --> 1:38:21.920 And he said, oh, Lou Adler's here, and Andrew Luke 1:38:21.960 --> 1:38:26.800 Golden is here. I said what he said? Yeah, And 1:38:27.560 --> 1:38:31.360 he said that's him walking in the row in front 1:38:31.360 --> 1:38:35.439 of you to the box seat. The lights are going down, 1:38:36.600 --> 1:38:38.960 and I go to tap him on the shoulder and 1:38:39.000 --> 1:38:43.639 I said, mister Oldham, my name is Harvey Kubernick. I'm 1:38:43.640 --> 1:38:47.000 a big fan of your work. I would like to 1:38:47.080 --> 1:38:53.320 interview you. I'm so delighted to hear it because I 1:38:53.400 --> 1:38:56.880 know that you took out an ad in disc magazine 1:38:58.120 --> 1:39:01.120 worshiping Pet Sounds the way he did it for other 1:39:01.160 --> 1:39:07.120 records on occasion and he said, do you know Lou Adler? 1:39:07.200 --> 1:39:10.880 I said, not just hi, how are you? And he said, 1:39:12.920 --> 1:39:17.400 get a hold of lou Adler. I'm in town and 1:39:18.320 --> 1:39:23.600 we'll have a dialogue. I said, okay, got him on 1:39:23.640 --> 1:39:27.639 the phone past the acid test. I think we were 1:39:27.680 --> 1:39:32.160 talking about Sweet Smell of Success movies. It was all 1:39:32.320 --> 1:39:36.400 it was movies and Lulu and Donovan and you know, 1:39:36.479 --> 1:39:40.160 English stuff. And he said, okay, let's do an interview. 1:39:40.600 --> 1:39:45.120 And I did an interview with him for Discoveries magazine 1:39:45.320 --> 1:39:48.760 and then he said here's my email in Bogata, Columbia. 1:39:50.040 --> 1:39:56.960 And I said, wow, Andrew Louke Goldham, I'm dialoguing. There 1:39:57.040 --> 1:40:01.240 must be something going on. I could call it a 1:40:01.280 --> 1:40:05.720 psychic tap on the back. But also it was my 1:40:05.880 --> 1:40:10.680 reward for supporting Brian Wilson helping David Leaf on his 1:40:10.840 --> 1:40:14.840 book in nineteen seventy eight. I was seeing the rewards 1:40:14.920 --> 1:40:18.080 coming in. I didn't have an agenda. And I interviewed 1:40:18.120 --> 1:40:21.360 Andrew and he said, well, keep in touch, mate, and 1:40:21.400 --> 1:40:26.200 we just developed a correspondence. But then every six months 1:40:26.320 --> 1:40:31.000 or something i'd write something and he'd go, well done, lad, 1:40:31.880 --> 1:40:34.679 like he's the headmaster in England. I never had any 1:40:34.720 --> 1:40:37.320 of that kind of stuff. Well done lad, he said, 1:40:37.400 --> 1:40:42.400 nice one. You dropped in and he said wow. He said, 1:40:42.760 --> 1:40:44.880 I like your writing, and then he said and I said, 1:40:44.920 --> 1:40:48.080 I can't wait to read your biography Stone, and I 1:40:48.200 --> 1:40:50.680 talked to him about it, and then he called me 1:40:50.720 --> 1:40:52.320 on the phone and he said, would you come to 1:40:52.360 --> 1:40:57.200 Santa Monica for dinner? And I said, I will, but 1:40:58.080 --> 1:41:00.200 I'm going out with a girl and we have a 1:41:00.240 --> 1:41:04.439 weekend thing happening. But I'm telling her I'm going to 1:41:04.439 --> 1:41:06.840 meet Andrew lou Goldham. And he goes, if she's a 1:41:06.880 --> 1:41:12.120 cool woman, she'll understand. And she said, I don't know 1:41:12.160 --> 1:41:14.880 who he is. Did you say he worked with the 1:41:14.960 --> 1:41:18.880 Rolling Stones? Said I'll see on Young Kipper or something. 1:41:20.360 --> 1:41:22.800 And so I went to have dinner with him and 1:41:22.840 --> 1:41:26.960 he said I like your writing. I said, oh, I 1:41:27.040 --> 1:41:30.280 just don't say that because we're becoming friends. He said, no, 1:41:31.160 --> 1:41:36.960 it's choppy at times, but the information that the messages 1:41:38.560 --> 1:41:43.799 well done. I said, thank you. And then he said, 1:41:43.920 --> 1:41:50.559 I'm doing Stone too a second volume. I need a 1:41:50.640 --> 1:41:57.720 writer in town who really understands Hollywood, because, as you know, 1:41:57.880 --> 1:42:01.000 I did the Stones record sixty four to sixty seven 1:42:01.040 --> 1:42:06.559 at RCA Studios on Sunset Boulevard and he said, he said, 1:42:06.600 --> 1:42:09.280 look I could get somebody from a label or somebody 1:42:09.520 --> 1:42:12.679 who writes for Time or Newsweek, but you know where 1:42:12.720 --> 1:42:15.320 Ivar is and I know you've been in that room 1:42:15.360 --> 1:42:22.200 at RCA, I said, safe Lusiano Henry Mancini. He said, 1:42:22.360 --> 1:42:26.640 you know the studios. You need to tell me and 1:42:26.800 --> 1:42:31.880 especially the readers, what it's like to be a teenager 1:42:33.280 --> 1:42:39.160 sixty four to seventy in town and take us into 1:42:39.240 --> 1:42:42.679 the environment. And he said, by the way, don't look 1:42:42.720 --> 1:42:46.720 at the movie, become the movie. And I ended up 1:42:46.760 --> 1:42:49.160 having eight pages in his book, which I think is 1:42:49.160 --> 1:42:55.759 on Simon and Schuster. It led to some other interviews jobs, 1:42:56.720 --> 1:42:59.959 close calls. But the thing is, I am an Assigmon 1:43:00.080 --> 1:43:04.200 and Schuster book. I get a chance to tell everybody 1:43:04.200 --> 1:43:08.120 about AM radio and hearing the Stones and this pre 1:43:08.640 --> 1:43:12.360 FM radio thing. And then we became good friends, to 1:43:12.400 --> 1:43:16.160 the point he's in town and I said, I have 1:43:16.200 --> 1:43:19.360 an extra couple tickets for Ringo at the Greek. I'm 1:43:19.439 --> 1:43:23.160 going with a couple people and he said, can I 1:43:23.200 --> 1:43:25.200 come along? I said, can you come along? You can 1:43:25.280 --> 1:43:27.960 sit in the front seat. We went out out of 1:43:27.960 --> 1:43:30.120 a pizza dinner with my friend doctor Cushing and a 1:43:30.200 --> 1:43:32.400 lawn friend who I think you know from years ago. 1:43:33.120 --> 1:43:36.479 I walk in there to the Greek Theater and I go, 1:43:36.720 --> 1:43:41.960 there's Bob left Sits and there's Peter Frampton and I said, 1:43:42.080 --> 1:43:44.879 you need to beat Bob left Sits before Peter Frampton. 1:43:45.320 --> 1:43:49.400 Oh no, here's the sad part. He said, Harvey, I've 1:43:49.439 --> 1:43:54.559 already knew worked and helped Peter Frampton long before Bob 1:43:54.640 --> 1:43:57.720 left Sits. I said, well, let's meet them both, and 1:43:58.320 --> 1:44:01.120 I introduced you and then he wrote something really funny, 1:44:01.600 --> 1:44:05.920 said normally gods don't walk on earth or you had 1:44:06.160 --> 1:44:09.120 a funny riff. And then he sent me an email 1:44:09.120 --> 1:44:15.479 and it said thank you because he has manners. 1:44:15.520 --> 1:44:16.120 And then. 1:44:17.439 --> 1:44:20.840 He said your friend lefts It says coming to Bogata, Columbia. 1:44:21.280 --> 1:44:24.400 Did you go there ten years ago or yeah? And 1:44:24.439 --> 1:44:29.400 I said really, he said yeah, he's coming to town. 1:44:29.600 --> 1:44:33.080 I said, he said thank you. He said this is 1:44:33.160 --> 1:44:37.320 what we do for people. And I said, he just. 1:44:37.240 --> 1:44:40.840 Happened to be standing with this woman named Felice at 1:44:40.880 --> 1:44:45.120 the entrance. What if you weren't there? And then Andrews said, 1:44:45.160 --> 1:44:49.880 what are you going to learn? There are no accidents? 1:44:51.600 --> 1:44:55.599 And I will say he deeply. When my dad died 1:44:56.240 --> 1:45:00.760 in twenty fourteen, and I'm not complaining. Ninety two, but 1:45:00.840 --> 1:45:04.720 Andrew never met his father. Andrew's mother was pregnant from 1:45:06.120 --> 1:45:08.400 a guy, a World War two guy that was shot 1:45:08.439 --> 1:45:12.400 down in the war, so he never physically met his father. 1:45:13.160 --> 1:45:15.440 And he said, I heard your father, do I go. Yeah, 1:45:15.720 --> 1:45:19.000 it was a slow eighty eight to ninety two. The 1:45:19.120 --> 1:45:24.519 VA took care of him. I'm not complaining. The name 1:45:24.600 --> 1:45:26.719 game is to keep the mother going for ten years. 1:45:27.200 --> 1:45:30.360 And he said, I want you to know something. You 1:45:30.400 --> 1:45:32.559 don't have to call me if you need help, and 1:45:32.680 --> 1:45:35.559 God forbid, don't go to some grievance counsel. I said, no, 1:45:35.760 --> 1:45:38.840 I'm not doing any of that. He said, you can 1:45:38.880 --> 1:45:43.360 find your parents or the deceased people anywhere you look 1:45:43.520 --> 1:45:48.960 if you focus on it. I said wow. And he 1:45:49.000 --> 1:45:52.599 said you're also carrying on your dad's mission. I said, well, 1:45:52.640 --> 1:45:57.120 I never became a stockbroker. He said, you're working and 1:45:57.200 --> 1:46:01.800 selling your catalog, aren't you. Yeah, there's some sink rites 1:46:01.840 --> 1:46:05.120 and all kinds of stuff coming in. He said, you 1:46:05.240 --> 1:46:13.120 are a stockbroker. And he's just he's fabulous. My brother 1:46:13.160 --> 1:46:14.960 and I when he comes to town twice a year, 1:46:15.760 --> 1:46:19.639 mandatory dinner or lunch with me and my brother. Sometimes 1:46:19.680 --> 1:46:23.920 it's just him and I. I know his family. I 1:46:23.960 --> 1:46:28.920 can't tell you the support he's given me. He just 1:46:29.000 --> 1:46:31.360 shows up at the right time with the right email, 1:46:32.280 --> 1:46:35.400 like I won't get a TV gig, And then four 1:46:35.439 --> 1:46:41.080 seconds later I check my emails, what's the next shot, kid? 1:46:41.720 --> 1:46:44.559 And all of a sudden, I'm not moaning about losing 1:46:44.560 --> 1:46:48.760 a TV writing job. I just he's right there, just 1:46:48.800 --> 1:46:51.360 his name on the screen. So that's my Andrew lou 1:46:51.439 --> 1:46:57.639 Oldhams story. It's just fantastic records he produced. And he's 1:46:57.680 --> 1:47:01.120 also taught me a bit more. He said, value your independence. 1:47:01.160 --> 1:47:04.320 I said, well, I have an internal team working with me. 1:47:05.280 --> 1:47:08.120 It never worked out where there were managers and agents 1:47:09.040 --> 1:47:16.559 and glam squads and for higher publicists supporting my scene. 1:47:16.720 --> 1:47:20.200 And he said, young man, look at the freedom you 1:47:20.280 --> 1:47:23.519 have waiting then instead of waiting for the committee to 1:47:23.720 --> 1:47:27.840 vote on everything, I go yeah. Laura Niro and I 1:47:27.880 --> 1:47:31.040 had that same conversation too. I knew her last ten 1:47:31.120 --> 1:47:33.800 years of her life, which I had a picture of 1:47:33.800 --> 1:47:35.040 her in my place. 1:47:35.640 --> 1:47:39.919 Okay, that was when you know she made a comeback 1:47:40.000 --> 1:47:44.800 album on Columbia. She wouldn't go on SNL because she 1:47:44.880 --> 1:47:48.840 wasn't happy with her appearance and she sort of faded away. 1:47:49.479 --> 1:47:51.599 How did you end up connecting with her in that 1:47:51.800 --> 1:47:52.880 period of her life? 1:47:55.040 --> 1:47:59.400 In nineteen remember, I'd always engineer when I could. I'd 1:47:59.439 --> 1:48:05.040 interview the producer or the engineer when I could. Everybody 1:48:05.080 --> 1:48:08.360 wanted the lead singer. I'll go talk to John Densmore, 1:48:08.439 --> 1:48:14.000 the drummer of the Doors. He's in the band. In 1:48:14.080 --> 1:48:19.000 nineteen seventy six, I interviewed Bob Crue, who was hot 1:48:19.040 --> 1:48:22.599 on the charts. Frankie Valley Swear to God, my Eyes 1:48:22.640 --> 1:48:25.519 Adore You co writing stuff. Also had a big hit 1:48:25.560 --> 1:48:26.840 with Lady Marmalade. 1:48:27.080 --> 1:48:27.800 He co wrote it. 1:48:30.320 --> 1:48:34.040 He said, would you like to go? He said, Laura 1:48:34.120 --> 1:48:36.200 Narrow's coming to town, an old friend of mine. 1:48:37.520 --> 1:48:38.080 I said, yeah. 1:48:38.080 --> 1:48:40.200 I tried to get tickets for the Santa Monica Civic, 1:48:40.280 --> 1:48:43.040 but I wasn't going to go to a ticket broker 1:48:43.040 --> 1:48:46.040 and pay ten dollars. And he said, why don't you 1:48:46.040 --> 1:48:48.720 come with me and you'll meet Laura. I said what 1:48:49.840 --> 1:48:52.120 he said? Yeah? You know, I knew a lot of 1:48:52.120 --> 1:48:54.960 the session musicians that were on her early albums. One 1:48:55.000 --> 1:49:00.960 on Verve. I said, I'm driving let's go. Oh. I 1:49:01.040 --> 1:49:04.880 go to the Santa Manka Civic and I'm introduced to 1:49:04.960 --> 1:49:11.400 Laura Enio. Hello, and she said, what's your name, Harvey Kubernick. 1:49:11.800 --> 1:49:15.680 I have all your records and she said, and what 1:49:15.720 --> 1:49:19.280 are your parents' name? And I said, well, my father 1:49:19.439 --> 1:49:23.080 is Marshall and my mother is Hilda. And she starts 1:49:23.240 --> 1:49:27.120 giggling and she says, well my mother is named Gilda, 1:49:27.880 --> 1:49:31.800 so we can have Gilda in Hilda. And she says, 1:49:31.840 --> 1:49:35.519 I live in Danberry, Connecticut. I think that what she said. 1:49:36.680 --> 1:49:41.040 There's no internet. Then here's my phone number. You can 1:49:41.680 --> 1:49:44.880 call me. She said, we're not doing an interview. No, 1:49:45.640 --> 1:49:49.960 she said, I could tell you're different than these managers 1:49:50.000 --> 1:49:52.840 that are knocking on my door. And I had to 1:49:53.080 --> 1:49:57.120 escape from the Michi gosse of the music business. She 1:49:57.160 --> 1:50:00.679 could talk Yiddish, and I said, are you Jewish? She said, 1:50:01.640 --> 1:50:06.639 the top half is Italian, but the bottom half is Jewish. 1:50:07.280 --> 1:50:09.679 And then all of a sudden I had a call 1:50:09.720 --> 1:50:13.479 with her, and then I didn't. I'd see her when 1:50:13.479 --> 1:50:16.960 she'd come to town. Mccabs. I never bothered her. I 1:50:17.080 --> 1:50:21.120 was happy for the one off. My friend Nancy Ritchant 1:50:21.200 --> 1:50:24.320 brought her a Tuna Fish Sandwich at that same Santa 1:50:24.360 --> 1:50:28.040 Monica Civic Auditorium show. Because her publishing company, I think 1:50:28.120 --> 1:50:32.160 was called Tuna Fish Music and the Laura I used 1:50:32.200 --> 1:50:36.240 to call them the Laura Girls. She was I was 1:50:36.280 --> 1:50:40.320 a first album freak, and I appreciated Eli and I 1:50:41.120 --> 1:50:45.160 liked her. I just I felt this connection with her. 1:50:46.880 --> 1:50:52.800 And then in the nineties I get a call one night, Harvey, 1:50:53.080 --> 1:50:59.320 this is Gilda's daughter. I got Laura and Nero and 1:50:59.400 --> 1:51:02.760 two friends over and she said, you don't when guy 1:51:02.800 --> 1:51:06.080 says and he's there's a girl there, you don't have 1:51:06.120 --> 1:51:12.120 to impress us. I said, listen, Laura Niro's on the phone. 1:51:12.400 --> 1:51:14.439 Why don't you guys like smoke a joint or something? 1:51:14.640 --> 1:51:17.280 And I need to talk to her, which we here 1:51:17.360 --> 1:51:19.840 are you interviewing her? No, we don't have that trip 1:51:19.920 --> 1:51:24.479 going on. We had like a three hour talk and 1:51:24.520 --> 1:51:28.040 she said, I'm trying to record. I'm looking for an 1:51:28.080 --> 1:51:32.280 independent label. I've just recorded maybe for Cypress Records. I 1:51:32.320 --> 1:51:36.559 think that was a label or was going to she'd 1:51:36.760 --> 1:51:39.400 and I said, oh, I you know, and she and 1:51:39.479 --> 1:51:43.320 she said, aren't you so lucky? You don't have agents 1:51:43.360 --> 1:51:46.920 and managers and people telling you what to do. I said, well, 1:51:46.920 --> 1:51:50.920 I'd like to have some of that, and she said, no, 1:51:51.439 --> 1:51:55.559 you're not supposed to. I said no, the advances would 1:51:55.600 --> 1:51:58.879 be so much bigger, the other jobs would be happening. 1:51:59.120 --> 1:52:01.559 I don't like rep I think myself when the money 1:52:01.600 --> 1:52:03.920 call comes in or the lawyer email, turning it over 1:52:03.920 --> 1:52:06.680 to my lawyer and then I get his bill. This 1:52:06.720 --> 1:52:11.320 stuff is depleting me. She said, you'll realize you're lucky 1:52:11.360 --> 1:52:13.960 one day. But I'm calling you for a reason. 1:52:15.000 --> 1:52:15.639 So what's that. 1:52:17.400 --> 1:52:20.200 I'm starting to record at home. I need a record 1:52:20.280 --> 1:52:23.160 label and I just need some help. And I just 1:52:23.240 --> 1:52:28.360 kind of figured you'd know some people. I said, yeah. 1:52:28.560 --> 1:52:30.639 I said, well, why don't you talk to Larry King, 1:52:30.880 --> 1:52:35.640 the main buyer, her manager, Tower Records on Sunset. He 1:52:35.720 --> 1:52:39.120 will connect you to some of the independent labels you're 1:52:39.160 --> 1:52:42.559 looking for. She said, that is so nice of you. 1:52:43.160 --> 1:52:46.320 I said what I said, I want nothing from this, 1:52:46.960 --> 1:52:49.639 but if you come to the Caves or that venue 1:52:49.680 --> 1:52:52.439 in Santa Monica. There was a theater in Santa Monica. 1:52:52.520 --> 1:52:57.360 She played my father's Yeah. She said, I'll get you 1:52:57.439 --> 1:53:00.559 in and she said, oh that's great. She said, you 1:53:00.600 --> 1:53:03.479 don't need tickets. I go oh yeah, yeah, I need 1:53:03.479 --> 1:53:05.599 a ticket or two. I'd like to take a girl. 1:53:06.240 --> 1:53:08.639 And she said, oh, no, you're coming to the sound check. 1:53:09.320 --> 1:53:12.360 I want to introduce you to my friend Maria and 1:53:12.439 --> 1:53:18.200 my girls. What she said, you're one of us, You're 1:53:18.560 --> 1:53:22.240 you are you know you're not like the New Yorkers 1:53:22.280 --> 1:53:26.000 at the record labels said no, and I would see 1:53:26.040 --> 1:53:30.680 her anytime she came to town. I brought her food. I 1:53:30.720 --> 1:53:34.960 didn't badger her, and we just had But then all 1:53:34.960 --> 1:53:39.280 of a sudden, the phone start. There were no calls returned. 1:53:40.600 --> 1:53:47.120 I waited a week or two, no call, left another voicemail, HI, 1:53:47.240 --> 1:53:52.320 this is Laura. No callback. Started getting a little scared. 1:53:53.560 --> 1:53:58.559 Waited another month, no callback, and my friend Rosemary said, 1:53:59.479 --> 1:54:03.519 there's some medical shit going down here. It happens to 1:54:03.640 --> 1:54:09.519 us women. I said, okay, I'm not gonna badger call 1:54:09.560 --> 1:54:12.719 anybody at the Village voice. I'll just see how it plays, 1:54:12.720 --> 1:54:16.439 and then she left the physical planet. I thank her 1:54:16.479 --> 1:54:19.760 in my books. I know I probably had eight, ten, 1:54:19.880 --> 1:54:25.360 twelve encounters with her, but that Gilda Hilda thing, which 1:54:25.360 --> 1:54:28.160 I'm telling for the first time. I was interviewed for 1:54:28.280 --> 1:54:30.320 one book by her by a guy named Mark shipper, 1:54:30.320 --> 1:54:33.040 but it never came out. I'm not in the Michelle 1:54:33.120 --> 1:54:37.120 Court book on Laura Niro. But to this day, if 1:54:37.120 --> 1:54:40.120 there's a reissue or that double album Best Of where 1:54:40.120 --> 1:54:42.200 they finally put out that film, or e show that 1:54:42.320 --> 1:54:49.520 you went to. Somebody at Columbia knew the history and said, well, 1:54:49.560 --> 1:54:51.440 they actually called me on the phone when people used 1:54:51.480 --> 1:54:54.280 to talk to people on the phone. Hi, this is 1:54:55.760 --> 1:55:01.760 Randy Hacker, Columbia. The publicist said, Harvey, there's a Laura 1:55:01.840 --> 1:55:06.320 Narro live at Fillmore East coming out. I know you 1:55:06.480 --> 1:55:08.560 thanked her in your books and you must have known her. 1:55:09.360 --> 1:55:14.800 Can we send you in advance? And then it was 1:55:14.840 --> 1:55:17.120 groovy and then you wrote about it, and I know 1:55:17.200 --> 1:55:20.440 that show blew your fucking mind, and I kind of 1:55:20.440 --> 1:55:25.920 felt I'm carrying Laura Niro forward. There'll be ten people 1:55:25.920 --> 1:55:30.760 who may hear this. They may buy the First Songs album, 1:55:31.120 --> 1:55:35.480 they might buy Eli or secretly kids check out the 1:55:35.520 --> 1:55:40.760 record with Lebelle. I mean I know something you put her, 1:55:40.800 --> 1:55:45.040 You plant her name, and some people go down the 1:55:45.120 --> 1:55:50.080 rabbit hole. She means a lot to me. I wasn't 1:55:50.120 --> 1:55:53.120 in love with her. There was no romantic stuff. It 1:55:53.280 --> 1:55:57.480 was the poet person that I thought was right there 1:55:57.480 --> 1:56:03.640 with Bob Dylan always and but you know, she we 1:56:03.680 --> 1:56:06.960 would talk about food and stuff like that. It was 1:56:07.840 --> 1:56:09.880 it was just it was really a pleasure to talk 1:56:09.920 --> 1:56:12.600 to somebody, you know, that had kind of a New 1:56:12.680 --> 1:56:15.560 York accent too, and it was these were late night 1:56:15.680 --> 1:56:19.440 calls and my whole day would be better the next day. 1:56:19.840 --> 1:56:22.760 I used to get that when I'd hear from Raymond 1:56:22.880 --> 1:56:27.640 Zeric or Brian Wilson used to call a lot if 1:56:27.680 --> 1:56:31.440 there was you know, and they would. I always felt, 1:56:31.960 --> 1:56:34.800 this is beyond a gig. These are people that I 1:56:34.880 --> 1:56:39.280 now have fifty year relations with. This is half century stuff. 1:56:39.920 --> 1:56:43.040 And a lot of these people they're either five, ten, 1:56:43.120 --> 1:56:45.680 twelve years older than me. They're kind of leaving the planet. 1:56:46.880 --> 1:56:49.600 And I told Andrew le Goldham, you know, I guess 1:56:49.600 --> 1:56:54.240 I'm becoming the messenger. I'm going to go with that 1:56:54.520 --> 1:57:00.240 because I could either get bummed out, reinvent myself, walk 1:57:00.280 --> 1:57:05.000 away from my history, or thoroughly embrace it. And the 1:57:05.040 --> 1:57:07.600 young bands and the young punk rock people, whether it 1:57:07.640 --> 1:57:12.480 be Man's Body, whether it be a Panglobu group called Tea, 1:57:12.720 --> 1:57:16.160 they're finding me because we like a lot of the 1:57:16.240 --> 1:57:21.360 same music, and I interviewed Bert Backerak with Elvis Costello 1:57:21.440 --> 1:57:27.400 in nineteen ninety for Musician magazine. Did I know there'd 1:57:27.400 --> 1:57:30.120 be an Elvis Costello Bert box set that came out 1:57:30.280 --> 1:57:33.760 a month ago? And that Bert would leave the planet 1:57:34.240 --> 1:57:37.000 and all of a sudden. When you are connected with 1:57:37.080 --> 1:57:43.200 these people, you inherit their fan clubs, their followers, or 1:57:43.280 --> 1:57:46.000 you run into them at Farmer's Market or at Musso 1:57:46.040 --> 1:57:51.480 and Franks. But I don't do social media Twitter. I'm 1:57:51.480 --> 1:57:54.600 probably going to be embracing that a bit more. But 1:57:55.120 --> 1:57:57.200 they just have the greatest things. Also, I had a 1:57:57.200 --> 1:58:00.680 friendship with Leonard Cohen Moore of an acquaintanceship with him. 1:58:00.960 --> 1:58:04.520 I did three long interviews with him in the seventies, 1:58:05.240 --> 1:58:09.560 seventy four, seventy six, seventy eight. I'd actually meet him 1:58:09.600 --> 1:58:14.200 at some restaurants. I went to both of his houses 1:58:14.240 --> 1:58:18.160 in LA When he said, I'm living in Brentwood. Do 1:58:18.240 --> 1:58:22.480 you know if there's a deli? I said yeah, And 1:58:22.520 --> 1:58:25.720 he said, I've been to Canters, I've been to the 1:58:25.760 --> 1:58:30.160 place on Sunset and Crescent Heights which just closed. Is 1:58:30.200 --> 1:58:35.040 there a deli that has smoked fish, smoked meat? I said, 1:58:35.080 --> 1:58:39.320 what is smoked meat. I said, I'm a deli guy. 1:58:39.360 --> 1:58:43.440 Won't eat tom or anything. He said, find deli and 1:58:43.520 --> 1:58:48.560 we will eat. And I took him to Jerry's or 1:58:48.640 --> 1:58:52.400 Juniors on Pico in Westwood, I think it was called Juniors, 1:58:52.440 --> 1:58:55.600 And every six months i'd get that phone call. I'd 1:58:55.600 --> 1:58:59.960 write about him. Subsequently, I'm quoted in five Leonard Cohen books, 1:59:00.680 --> 1:59:04.960 and then he just was an advice person. I will 1:59:04.960 --> 1:59:08.640 tell you this. In nineteen seventy four, I called it 1:59:08.760 --> 1:59:13.280 Columbia Records. I'd like to interview Justin Pearson. I want 1:59:13.320 --> 1:59:16.320 to interview Leonard Cohene for the Hollywood Press. Well, he's 1:59:16.360 --> 1:59:18.920 doing tenor and news that day he's playing the Troubadour. 1:59:19.360 --> 1:59:24.040 Will put you on the troubad Or guess list? What 1:59:24.320 --> 1:59:26.640 I don't have to pay? Yeah, you'll be in the 1:59:26.720 --> 1:59:31.240 rope in section. Okay, we'll try to get you the interview. 1:59:31.840 --> 1:59:35.560 You know, he's got ten interviews. Judy Painter calls back 1:59:35.600 --> 1:59:40.880 with Charlie Copeland. Leonard would love to talk to you. 1:59:41.000 --> 1:59:46.320 To gents, there's just one problem, I said, what's the problem? 1:59:46.960 --> 1:59:50.680 He said, he hasked to do a passport renewal at 1:59:50.720 --> 1:59:54.440 the Canadian Embassy. Will you join him in a limousine ride. 1:59:55.840 --> 1:59:58.320 I said, that's the problem. He said he felt he 1:59:58.360 --> 2:00:03.680 should ask first. You might be busy that afternoon. I said, 2:00:03.880 --> 2:00:08.640 we're going to the Canadian embassy with you do the interview. 2:00:09.960 --> 2:00:13.320 I had my homework down. I knew who the producers were. 2:00:14.320 --> 2:00:18.000 They said, very good, let's go to the embassy. We 2:00:18.080 --> 2:00:21.080 were bonding and I said, mister Cohn, no, the name 2:00:21.160 --> 2:00:26.320 is Leonard. Can I ask you a question. I know 2:00:26.440 --> 2:00:30.640 you have a couple of kids. I know you're thirty five, 2:00:30.760 --> 2:00:34.600 you're kind of old. You go out with a lot 2:00:34.640 --> 2:00:39.800 of women and write about them. How do you how 2:00:39.840 --> 2:00:42.400 do you get married or how do you keep a 2:00:42.480 --> 2:00:48.720 relationship going? Because what's the secret? And he turns to 2:00:48.760 --> 2:00:51.200 me and justin in the limousine riot and he says, 2:00:52.360 --> 2:00:54.960 relationships are complicated. 2:00:56.960 --> 2:00:59.200 You know we're going to leave it on that how 2:00:59.680 --> 2:01:03.400 to say relationship, by the way, as you couldn't note 2:01:04.200 --> 2:01:08.080 that wisdom. We obviously could go on for hours more, 2:01:08.160 --> 2:01:12.000 but we've come to the end of the time we have. Harvey. 2:01:12.440 --> 2:01:16.520 I want to thank you so much for doing the podcast. 2:01:17.400 --> 2:01:20.480 It's been a pure pleasure. You know, we go back 2:01:20.520 --> 2:01:24.000 a while and you know you've seen the growth of 2:01:24.120 --> 2:01:29.360 music docs. You've seen all the transitions. It's very educational 2:01:30.320 --> 2:01:31.520 reading the newsletter. 2:01:33.680 --> 2:01:34.480 But I was right. 2:01:34.560 --> 2:01:36.800 You went to law school out here, you you couldn't 2:01:36.840 --> 2:01:38.760 wait to get to the beach. True or false? 2:01:38.920 --> 2:01:41.440 No, true, I took a couple of years off before 2:01:41.440 --> 2:01:43.760 I went to law school. That's my own personal story 2:01:43.760 --> 2:01:47.480 for another time. But I will say I used to 2:01:47.560 --> 2:01:51.720 hear from Harvey. Harvey would always say, if I wrote 2:01:51.720 --> 2:01:55.880 about Linda Ronstadt, it's really Chris Darrow. Chris Darrow is 2:01:55.920 --> 2:02:00.960 the person that really, you know, there were some bubbs 2:02:01.000 --> 2:02:03.960 in the road earlier before we actually met face to face, 2:02:04.640 --> 2:02:07.480 but as you can tell by Harvey's memory, you know 2:02:07.560 --> 2:02:11.400 he's really an authority. He's dedicated his entire life to 2:02:11.640 --> 2:02:15.760 this for us, as he says, So, Harvey, thanks for 2:02:15.840 --> 2:02:16.600 doing the work. 2:02:16.800 --> 2:02:20.320 I appreciate everything. And I really have a great team 2:02:20.360 --> 2:02:22.800 of people around me now, like Chris Alpert and so 2:02:22.840 --> 2:02:25.920 many people and people like Justin Pears are still on 2:02:26.080 --> 2:02:29.680 the team, and I kind of feel we're all going 2:02:29.760 --> 2:02:35.400 toward a common cause. And I'm just delighted to do 2:02:35.440 --> 2:02:41.080 this podcast because we got to talk about music. But 2:02:41.800 --> 2:02:45.120 I will I'll end it with this When I brought 2:02:45.200 --> 2:02:50.400 up the Beach Boys to you, you weren't sheepish or apologetic. 2:02:50.600 --> 2:02:53.720 When I first met you, you raised your hand like 2:02:53.760 --> 2:02:57.400 it was a hadassa meeting or something. You don't understand. 2:02:57.480 --> 2:02:59.680 I moved here because a yeah, people all the way 2:02:59.720 --> 2:03:04.120 had Okay, that music from the West Coast, it was 2:03:04.160 --> 2:03:07.680 the music. Maybe it was the sunshine. Who knows, and 2:03:07.720 --> 2:03:11.920 you're a snow person, but you wave that flag so 2:03:12.560 --> 2:03:17.000 huge for the Beach Boys. It helped define your life. 2:03:18.000 --> 2:03:18.879 Isn't that amazing? 2:03:18.920 --> 2:03:22.560 You know you're living in California and this was before 2:03:22.600 --> 2:03:27.600 all the tax incentives, so every TV show, every movie 2:03:27.760 --> 2:03:32.440 was made in LA. There was the southern California surf sound. 2:03:33.480 --> 2:03:36.560 Let's okay, I remember one. I came to California in 2:03:36.600 --> 2:03:39.360 sixty six, but I remember coming to California in seventy 2:03:39.360 --> 2:03:44.120 three and literally crossing the line from Nevada to California 2:03:44.160 --> 2:03:48.560 in Lake Tahoe and say, it just felt different. And 2:03:48.640 --> 2:03:53.520 at this late date, it just cracks me up. With 2:03:53.680 --> 2:03:59.080 all this anti California stuff. They have no idea what 2:03:59.240 --> 2:04:04.800 they're missing to this day, Yes, real estate is expensive, 2:04:05.400 --> 2:04:10.480 yes traffic is bad, but as I would normally say, 2:04:11.320 --> 2:04:14.320 I could talk about negative things about southern California all 2:04:14.360 --> 2:04:17.160 day long, but there's nowhere I'd rather live. Every As 2:04:17.200 --> 2:04:20.080 you know, everybody in the music business has to come 2:04:20.080 --> 2:04:21.440 through at least once a year. 2:04:21.960 --> 2:04:24.400 So, by the way, I'd have a different life for 2:04:24.520 --> 2:04:27.080 career if I relocated to New York and then went 2:04:27.120 --> 2:04:29.600 to Paris. Some of those options have been on the table. 2:04:30.200 --> 2:04:32.360 Answer this one thing, because I'd like to get the 2:04:32.440 --> 2:04:35.480 question answer for me. This is Gary Strobel, who I 2:04:35.560 --> 2:04:39.000 work with. He's my archive is, he's Henry Dilton's photo library, 2:04:39.000 --> 2:04:42.960 and he's from Cicero, Illinois, one of Chicago. I said, 2:04:42.960 --> 2:04:46.000 why did you move here? And he said the monkeys 2:04:46.800 --> 2:04:51.360 were done here? And also, you have no idea what 2:04:51.440 --> 2:04:54.560 a snow day is like in school? I said, what 2:04:54.600 --> 2:04:57.640 the fuck is a snow day? He said, you can't 2:04:57.760 --> 2:05:01.360 leave the house. They you, I know what a small 2:05:01.480 --> 2:05:04.360 day is. Did they have snow days in Vermont and 2:05:04.480 --> 2:05:05.600 all that Connecticut? 2:05:05.800 --> 2:05:09.160 They absolutely had snow days. We'd turn on a transistor 2:05:09.520 --> 2:05:12.520 in Connecticut and they would list all the towns. Then 2:05:12.600 --> 2:05:16.080 my understanding was they did it via Facebook. Now, as 2:05:16.080 --> 2:05:19.280 a result of COVID, they say there may never be 2:05:19.400 --> 2:05:23.280 snow days again. However, you know, there are certain things 2:05:23.400 --> 2:05:26.800 in the East Coast. We play board games, not as 2:05:26.800 --> 2:05:30.760 big a thing here because it's rain and the snow. Okay, 2:05:31.520 --> 2:05:36.080 I like the weather here. That is not why I moved. 2:05:36.520 --> 2:05:40.040 Having said that, whenever you go somewhere else it rains 2:05:40.040 --> 2:05:42.040 one day, that's cool, then it rains another. Go, what's 2:05:42.120 --> 2:05:45.440 up with this? You know? I have people that say, oh, yeah, 2:05:45.560 --> 2:05:48.800 the summer in New York. Every weekend it rained. You know, 2:05:48.880 --> 2:05:53.000 it was like, you know, you make plans to go somewhere, 2:05:53.120 --> 2:05:56.360 play tenniss something outside of the summer in California, weather 2:05:56.560 --> 2:05:58.440 is not the issue. It's happening. 2:05:59.440 --> 2:06:02.240 I I'm just so glad that you like the Jan 2:06:02.320 --> 2:06:04.040 and Dene Command Performance Album. 2:06:04.120 --> 2:06:07.240 Wait wait, wait wait, we can go on about this day. 2:06:07.400 --> 2:06:08.360 That I'm glad. Listen. 2:06:08.760 --> 2:06:13.080 The Jan and Dene Command Performance Album was the first 2:06:13.240 --> 2:06:16.760 Jan and Dean album I bought, and I after that, 2:06:16.840 --> 2:06:20.360 I bought Ride the Wild Surf and other ones. But 2:06:21.880 --> 2:06:25.760 I played that so much the record turned gray and 2:06:25.840 --> 2:06:29.280 I had to use masking tape around the corners and 2:06:29.320 --> 2:06:33.560 I still have it. Man. And then you know, I 2:06:33.600 --> 2:06:36.480 heard from the guy who's now in Nashville, who promoted 2:06:36.520 --> 2:06:37.640 the concert. 2:06:37.960 --> 2:06:41.120 That were Fred Mail. Yeah, yeah, Fred Vail. 2:06:41.360 --> 2:06:46.200 Right, that was the shit. I can still hear the horns, 2:06:46.280 --> 2:06:50.480 you know, and uh dead Man's curve. Not to mention 2:06:50.600 --> 2:06:53.000 the fact, you know, when you come to LA, all 2:06:53.080 --> 2:06:57.960 these things you've been hearing forever come alive. You know, 2:06:58.720 --> 2:07:03.840 not only Pico and Support, but Elmonte Legion Stadium. Doheeny? 2:07:04.520 --> 2:07:06.120 You know, we know Dahiti, but when you know on 2:07:06.120 --> 2:07:09.280 the East Coast you have no reference Dohini. And then 2:07:09.600 --> 2:07:13.880 the beaches trestles also, you know, doheiny again. It's like 2:07:14.800 --> 2:07:19.520 it's living history. And just to close it out, what 2:07:19.680 --> 2:07:25.120 people don't realize the difference between East Coast and West Coast. 2:07:25.160 --> 2:07:28.080 Let's say East Coast and Los Angeles. In the East Coast, 2:07:28.160 --> 2:07:31.600 where you went to college? Who your parents are? Very 2:07:31.640 --> 2:07:35.240 important Los Angeles, the most important thing is what kind 2:07:35.240 --> 2:07:38.880 of car you drive. That's just phony enough for me. 2:07:39.720 --> 2:07:43.080 No one's sitting there talking about my parents, no one's 2:07:43.120 --> 2:07:46.400 asking me where I went to school. Everybody's on an 2:07:46.480 --> 2:07:49.280 even playing field. And when it comes to LA. In Hollywood, 2:07:49.560 --> 2:07:52.360 people are so narcissistic. They don't give a shit about you. 2:07:52.400 --> 2:07:55.120 They're not in your business. I can be. I feel 2:07:55.600 --> 2:07:59.520 free and this is the only place. Never mind I 2:07:59.560 --> 2:08:03.960 go on a politics whatever. People have no idea how 2:08:04.080 --> 2:08:08.160 great it is here. I mean I could testify ad 2:08:08.280 --> 2:08:12.720 infinitum and the people first and foremost. LA is a 2:08:12.760 --> 2:08:16.920 shitty tourist town. It's a lifestyle town. You know, it's 2:08:16.920 --> 2:08:18.720 not about going and say yay, go to the beach, 2:08:19.040 --> 2:08:22.640 go to the Capitol records tower. The people will leave 2:08:24.160 --> 2:08:28.000 are the people who came with dreams and just can't 2:08:28.040 --> 2:08:31.760 handle that their dreams of fame didn't happen. But as 2:08:31.800 --> 2:08:34.920 you say, if you spend the time and you feel 2:08:34.960 --> 2:08:38.160 I mean, you hear long enough, the world is not 2:08:38.320 --> 2:08:40.960 that big. You meet the right people but you but 2:08:41.080 --> 2:08:44.839 it takes a long time. But it's a lifetime thing. 2:08:45.000 --> 2:08:46.920 And I should I saw. I'll close it with this 2:08:46.960 --> 2:08:50.000 because it just ties it all in. About twenty years ago, 2:08:50.040 --> 2:08:53.400 I saw Willie Nelson at the Wiltern Theater. I was 2:08:53.440 --> 2:08:56.720 introduced to him backstage. I said, Willie, can I have 2:08:56.760 --> 2:08:58.560 a couple of minutes of your time? He said, sure, son, 2:08:58.600 --> 2:09:00.800 what do you need? I said, thank you for always 2:09:00.880 --> 2:09:03.920 mentioning Ray Price. Oh he's in my band, I said, yeah, 2:09:03.920 --> 2:09:06.600 But I also know he did your first song, you 2:09:06.720 --> 2:09:09.480 sure did, and I said, I'm and thank you for 2:09:09.560 --> 2:09:14.000 the work with Patsy Patsy Kline. He said, well, thank you, 2:09:14.640 --> 2:09:17.800 and I said, I have a music business question to 2:09:17.840 --> 2:09:20.000 ask you, and it's kind of a book business question. 2:09:21.120 --> 2:09:24.360 What do you need? Son? I said, it doesn't work 2:09:24.360 --> 2:09:29.840 on logic getting deals. There's agents. I don't know if 2:09:29.920 --> 2:09:34.280 talent is it five percent one percent? It seems like 2:09:34.400 --> 2:09:38.400 the game is kind of rigged. And he said. I said, 2:09:38.520 --> 2:09:41.880 I'm not really asking for advice or help. I just 2:09:41.880 --> 2:09:44.680 would like a little clarification because I know they ran 2:09:44.760 --> 2:09:48.640 you out of Nashville to Austin your hair bothered people. 2:09:49.080 --> 2:09:51.080 You had to be a songwriter, you had to do 2:09:51.120 --> 2:09:53.680 all kinds of things that didn't happen for you until 2:09:53.880 --> 2:09:56.440 a little later. I think that's going to happen for me. 2:09:57.600 --> 2:10:03.000 And he said, Son, Lena, tell you one thing, you 2:10:03.120 --> 2:10:04.960 have to outlast everybody. 2:10:07.360 --> 2:10:10.800 I'm that nobody, being Harvey. It's been great talking to you. 2:10:11.440 --> 2:10:13.920 Until next time. This is Bob Left Sets