WEBVTT - Harold Bronson 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.520 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Stats Podcast. 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.920 My guest today is the one and only Harold Bronson, 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.560 one of the original Rhino Brothers, and he is the 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.159 man who started the Rhino Records label. Harold, good to 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:25.480 have you, happy to be here? Okay, So what do 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.960 we know? You know, we're parking our cars, and I say, hey, 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.159 do you come here to Hollywood often? And then you 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.760 merely start going into rock history? So tell me what 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.680 was going on here? Okay? Well, first of all, um, 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:39.880 when I was a rock rider in the nineties seventies, 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:42.199 I used to come here quite a bit because the 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:46.360 record companies were here except for Warner Brothers in Burbank 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.400 and Universal and Universal City. And then, uh, Rolling Stone 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.600 was on Sunset Boulevard at the l A office. Where 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:56.639 was Where were they on Sunset Boulevard? I think it's 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.680 I think the cross street was Seward. Okay, outside of 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.400 the street didn't looked like a building that Raymond Chandler, 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.120 you know, might have been in. Well, how much of 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:10.240 a presence did they have in Los Angeles? Rolling Stone? Um, well, 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:16.919 initially very little. And then at this point, Um, Judy Sims, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.759 who had been a publicist at Warner Brothers Records. Then 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:22.560 she became the l A editor and she's the one 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:27.040 who found the space. But anyway, as we were walking in, UM, 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:32.120 I remarked that, um, on this street, at sixteen oh 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.080 a Cosmo Street, there used to be a club called 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:39.080 beato Letos, which was really significant. Um. I think it 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:44.360 was to sixty eight. But uh you heard a lot 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.600 about it because I love played there a lot. But 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:51.000 also the doors, um, the seeds, the iron butterfly. And 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:55.080 according to Arthur Lee, if my memory is correct, that's 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.200 where the Rolling Stones came in and saw them do 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:01.600 a long song which is fired them too when they 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:06.360 recorded Aftermath to do uh um coming home for the 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.040 lengthy one. Wow. Now did you go there yourself? I 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.160 was a little bit too young, A little bit too young. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:16.079 Now were you too young to go to Pandora's Box? Yes? Okay, 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.079 So when did you start going to shows? Okay? So 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.280 I grew up in Westchester, which is the community, the 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.320 l A community by the Los Angeles International. And let's 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:27.440 be clear, because I got in trouble once the you know, 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.560 I said somebody, I went to a record I went 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.360 to a ski shop in Westchester, they said they have them, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.760 and I was this person was from Los Angeles. We're 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.920 not talking about Westchester County outside of New York. We're 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.120 talking about a town a burg here in Los Angeles, right, 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.960 Which is interesting is yeah, if I didn't clarify it, 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.880 when I would say Westchester, most people would think New York, right, Okay, 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.840 But anyway, it was a little bit too far out 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.800 of the way to have easy access to Hollywood. So 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.200 for instance, you mentioned Pandora's Box, it was probably like 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:01.520 twelve miles away. That's, you know, pretty far if you're 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:07.200 taking one or two busses. Um so um. I first 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:11.799 started seeing notable rock and roll groups in ninety seven, 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:16.119 but mostly in the early uh and and throughout most 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.280 of the seventies. Now, these were on their way up 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:21.000 in clubs. Who you're talking about going to shows and 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.320 a Monica, you know, the Forum, etcetera. Yeah, all yeah, 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.080 all that stuff. Yes, Okay, Now you started the Rhino 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.840 Records label. What was the first release on the Rhino 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:37.800 Records label? Okay? Um? Wild Man Fisher was a an 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:43.840 outrageous street singer that Frank Zappa really loved what he 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:48.000 was doing, and so Frank Zappa recorded a double album 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.480 with him, Caught an Evening with wild Man Fisher, and 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.560 actually didn't sell that well. Um I checked later on 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.240 about twelve thousand copies, but there was a legendar. Everybody 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.400 knew about it, right, everybody knew at it. And so 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:03.520 what's the famous song on that? All of a sudden 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.880 there you go round, which I could sing if you want, 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:11.200 but so um. Anyway, Uh, he used to come into 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.440 the store on occasion, and he felt like a rock 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.560 star because not only do we know who they he 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.360 he was, but I had his record, Richard Fouss had 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.320 his record, just his record, Yeah, like we all had 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.360 his record, so we felt like a star. And on 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:27.880 more than one occasion he would come in when we 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.320 opened and he stayed the whole day, which was not 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.760 the most pleasurable experience, but anyway, as a way to 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.040 show his appreciation, he made up the song A cappella 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.880 called go to Rhino Records, and I called up Jeff 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.000 Gold and I said, come on over with your cassette 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.479 recorder and we recorded him doing two passes in the 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.400 back room and we put that on an A side 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:54.440 and then Richard and I a couple of other employees 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.600 recorded a B side, and originally we pressed that up. 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.160 What what was the B side? Rhino the Place to Go. 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.200 It was talking about how we were so much better 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.919 than all the other stores like Errand's and Moby Disk 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.960 and places like that. And who wrote that? Richard and 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.080 I wrote it? Okay? And was it acapella? Also? No, No, 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.560 it was he played bass, I sang, Steve Rosen played guitar, 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.640 and his brother Uh played drums. Steve Rosen was a 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.480 writer who people would know. And he worked at a time. 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:28.799 I hired him for a time at the store. Okay, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.359 And that was recorded also in the back room. No, 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:36.880 that was it the Rosen family, Uh residence in Culver 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.000 City in the garage okay. You know it's funny because 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.560 people always hear about stuff being made in the garage 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.560 in l a one thing they don't know it's warm. 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.560 But converted garages, I mean like Jan of Verry, of 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.239 Jan and Dean, A lot of people started in the garage. Literally, 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.200 this wasn't converted garage. This was just a garage. And 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.400 I brought in my tape recorder and Mike's and that's 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:02.680 how he did it. But you had a tape recorder UM. Yeah. 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.880 First of all, UM, I had my first tape recorder. 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:08.960 I think I'm not sure if I was like fifteen 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.760 or sixteen. And then I upgraded, but you know, the 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.159 whole thing was, hey, you can take the songs off 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.880 the radio, which which I did, but then that didn't 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.440 necessarily mean that it stopped me from buying records or 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.359 lots of records. And then UM, at a certain point, 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:32.560 UM I upgraded to a UH A Sony tact multi track. 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.160 I got a deal on it. I'm new, but I 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.919 got a deal on it. But anyway, we're getting ahead 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.240 of the story. So what happened was we just pressed 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.240 up five hundred forty five just to give away to 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.440 our UH customers as a present whether they thought it 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.760 was there, and then somehow it filtered over to England 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:54.880 and John Peel, a noted UH underground disc jockey who 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.680 has then had a show on the BBC for many years, 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.920 had a show in the BBC he's toted playing at 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:06.760 and UM so our record came out in and then 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.440 we started getting requests from England and other places, so 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.400 we pressed up a thousand to sell. And what's interesting 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:17.600 is UM at the end of nineteen seventy six. Again, 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.560 this is in England. John Peel had a top fifty 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.960 listener requests and most of it was typically Number one 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.760 was Stairway to Heaven, No surprise there. Number go to 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.400 Rhino Records by wild Man Fisher. Okay, now you've got 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:33.400 a lot of ink in the calendar section. It was 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.800 a tabloid in the l A Times. And you told 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.520 me it happened organically that you weren't busy pitching them. 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:42.960 Is that the same way it worked with wild Man Fischer? 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.080 Did someone send it to John Peelard? He just find it. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.720 I have no idea how it got to him, No idea, 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:54.440 no idea. Okay. Rhino Records was a store now. Originally 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.240 Richard Fuss had sort of a record department in the 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:02.600 store in Santa mob. When did Rhino Records the actual 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:09.400 store start? Um? Yeah? So uh, Richard out grew Apollo Electronics. 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.239 He had a little concession in part of the store. 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.800 Um and it was October nineteen seventy three that he 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.760 opened the one on West with Boulevard. I guess rent 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:20.680 was a lot cheaper on West with Boulevard. Then well, 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:22.040 then it went up and then it went back down. 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:26.040 Again what happened was it was Ninon's Electronics, this guy 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.880 who used to repair electronics back when that was still 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.640 a thing. Right, He moved to the back room and 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.839 he rented Richard you know the bulk of the space 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:37.000 that I remember that I was wondering what was going 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.120 on back there. Now I got the complete story. Okay. 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:47.240 Now when he established Rhino Records, did you shop there? Well? I, um, okay, 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.880 here's how it happened. Um. A famous record store in 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:55.359 l a history, Lewin's Record Paradise on Hollywood Boulevard. Um, 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.520 they had the English imports. Okay, just to stay for 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.480 those people going back to this history. What was Wallax 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.400 Music City in this whole hierarchy. Well, Wallax Music City 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.920 was big. They were on the corner of Sunset in Vine. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:15.200 Um big records selection. Um, they only sold it list price, 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:19.840 which meant that but they had listening booths and but 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.599 they also had sheet music and they had uh instruments, 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.160 you know, smaller part. But it was so let's say 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.960 like if you were in the music business, you would 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.480 shop at Walax Music City was right there. And in fact, 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.640 Glenn Wallack was one of the original partners in Capitol 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:40.680 Records right now. Obviously forty five didn't come shrink wrapped. 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.440 But let's say you wanted to listen to an album 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:43.880 and they let you listen to an album and the 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.839 we're listening booth, we're not too unshrink it. But they 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.760 would have playable copies. And did you ever do that? Yeah? 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.280 Not often because again you know, driving from Westchester, but 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.520 I would say maybe at least two, maybe three times. Okay, So, 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.200 but there was this other story you were talking about, Okay, 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.400 Lewin's Reck Your Paradise. So, um it was local exactly 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.120 where I'm not sure the exactly address meanybe like sixty 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:16.760 SidD Hollywood Boulevard, um you know around um Um Highland. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:23.040 I saw um some roughly. Um So the idea with 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.920 the English imports at the time, they were like extra 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.839 songs because of a different way of calculating the publishing. 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.079 And we'll just explain that to my audience how they 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:37.280 calculated the publishing difference where they understand. Okay, so um 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.280 uh in England the publishing of course was for the 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.679 songwriting and the publishing, not the uh, the recording artist, 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:50.040 and um so that was a flat rate per side, 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.680 per album. So if you had five songs one side 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:55.600 or eight songs on one side, it was the same. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.880 In America, it was always a sense rate per song, 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.600 so if you had a thirty second song or a 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:04.960 two minute and thirty second song, it was the same. 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.599 So that's why our Beatle albums were totally different, Yes, exactly. 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:11.680 In fact, a lot of those you'll see there were 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.160 less tracks on the American albums. I think only later 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.679 did people realize that the English pressings probably sounded better. 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.360 So it was originally for the either songs that weren't 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.280 that you couldn't get here because they were extracted from 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:30.240 the albums, or else different lineups. But anyway, in um, 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:34.200 this was early nineteen seventy two. At that point, um 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.599 the albums were the same on both sides of the Atlantic. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.720 So Lewin's was um uh. To try to survive, they 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.320 were selling bootlegs, and I was, you know, as any 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.679 music fan is, you know you wanted the bootlegs, right, 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:53.080 So I was, you're talking about bootleg live recordings or 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.040 studio What kind of bootlegs did they have there? Well, 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:58.199 it was mostly live recordings at that point, and then 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.000 you know, a little bit later than they started doing 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:04.880 out takes. But as I was thumbing through the bin, 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.559 I can't remember if I said something to the southern customer, 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:09.680 but because you know, I thought the prices were high, 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:11.440 and he said, oh, there's this guy at you know, 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.480 Paul Electronics in Santa Monica that you could you know, 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.400 he's cheaper and you could also trade your records so 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:21.880 you're not out of pocket. So that's where I met Richard. 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.640 And then from going to the store, you know a 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.920 number of times I really liked him. Um, he was 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.040 low key, but there weren't not there weren't many customers, 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.800 so you could talk with them. And as many records 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:36.920 did he have? Since I never went there, how many 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:47.640 records was his inventory? Generally? Um, um, hundreds if not thousands? No, No, 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.840 And so anyway, so I knew him. And it's interesting 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:55.840 is that when I left for England, um, for my 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.800 second trip. So so again this was probably uh Lates 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.920 timber ninety three. That's after you graduate from college. He 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:09.960 graduated June juno. Yeah, so he Um, he didn't have 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.600 a name for the store. But I thought because I 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.280 liked him so much, I saved up my good promos 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:17.319 and I brought him and I said, look, you know, 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.200 I want you to start, and you have, like the 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:23.400 bins look really good. So I mean he paid me 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.240 for him, of course, but it was a type of 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.920 thing that um uh, the suggestion I had for the 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.280 store because I was this is not when he's opening 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.840 the new store in Westwood. Yes, I said, because I 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.720 was a big Kings fan. I said, like Waterloo Sunset Records. 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:38.760 And then I left and then of course when I 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.120 came back, the store was open and it was Rhino Records. 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.000 Well it's funny. There is a Waterloo Records in Austin. 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:46.559 I've been there. Yeah, the guy runs it, owns it, 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:48.960 a great guy. But how do you know how it 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:53.960 ended up becoming Rhino? Um, I know exactly. Um. Okay, 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.240 they didn't have a name, so he and a few 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:58.160 of his friends they were just throwing out, you know, names, 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.440 and this one who was a budding DJ by the 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.839 name of Jerry k he suggested Rhino. And I think 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.120 just primarily because of the alliteration, you know. I just 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.880 maybe later on we found meaning behind it, but at 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.080 the time that's all it was. Okay, let's go back. 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:20.280 So you're in Westchester, Uh, what does your father do 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:28.320 for a living? Um? Okay um? So my father UM 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.080 didn't see a need to go to college, and he 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.600 took what he said in high school was a commercial course. 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.040 And he was like he was born in America, born 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.240 in Los Angeles, and now his parents were they born 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:45.880 in America? His parents Romania um so Um. He became 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.640 like a bookkeeper and he was working in the Mojave 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:51.920 Desert for the Torazzo company, which people know draws roso 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.720 because of the floor with the you know, the and 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.440 it was like so hot out there. He told me 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:02.440 that in the morning for breakfast he would have like 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.520 a steak in a malted milk and not eat the 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.360 rest of the day because it was too hot. And 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:11.760 again there probably wasn't air conditioning back and you know, 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:14.760 at a certain point he had, you know, like this 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.400 is it and he quit, not realizing that it was 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.760 the early stages of the depression and getting another job 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.520 was not going to be so easy. So your father 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.840 was born in what year? Okay? So your father was 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:36.400 relatively old? Yes, okay, so um anyway is uh um? 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.120 I mean to make a long story not short. But 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:43.120 his brother in law UM was in the hostel produce business. 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.640 So just to be clear, he married your mother when 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.920 he was working in open mohave no much later, but 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.600 his brother in law for one of his siblings, exactly 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:57.320 for sister, so he had two sisters. So anyway, um 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.600 so uh so, and then that kind of went bankrupt 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.680 and he stayed in the wholesale produce business, not because 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.120 he liked it, but because he needed to, you know, 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.600 have an income for his family. And then at a 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.920 certain point, um, when I was in high school, when 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.600 he got um eased out by the competition, he went 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:18.080 to work for the post office. And originally he thought 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.560 he'd be really great to be a mailman, but he 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.880 worked in the weight room downstairs for fourteen years until 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.640 his vision deteriorated. But he really liked you know, working, 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:33.800 so um. Yeah, my my mom was just basically a homemaker. Okay, 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:35.920 but this begs the question where did you get money 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.880 to buy records? Well, initially I had very little, and 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.920 it was I did chores around the house. And my 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:49.360 first job, um was the summer after I graduated west 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:54.920 Chester High and um it was working as a ostensibly 0:16:55.080 --> 0:17:00.080 a bus boy at the restaurant or coffee shop on 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.720 the top of the Broadway department store in Westchester. Um, 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:08.160 a dollar six, I was promised, oh yeah, plus tips, 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.520 but I never signing tipps. Um. And also the other 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:16.640 thing is, even though I was hired as a bus boy, Um, 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:22.520 the dishwasher quit and they were very very rarely replacements. 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.920 Sometimes there would be like a replacement from one or 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.440 two days, usually with alcohol on their breath. So that 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:29.639 means I was busting all the tables and washing the 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:35.040 dishes totally on my own. Um. And but I did 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:39.880 learn how to make an egg cream. Okay, but let's 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.119 go back a little bit. Um, how did you first 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:48.359 get turned onto let's call it rock and roll? Well, Um, 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.480 I was aware of music here there, and bought a 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:55.240 record infrequently because I didn't really have much money and 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:58.040 wasn't a big fan until of course, the Beatles. So 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:02.399 the Beatles chain did it all for me. Um, not 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.199 only the music and how vibrant and exciting it was, 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.879 but also in the UH press conferences, their sense of humor. 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.160 You know, you have to really give that um uh 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:19.760 a lot um because if you'd heard comments from like 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.000 the four seasons of the Beach Boys, they were really 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.760 dull and you know, or Elvis, you never had anything 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.720 to say, and you know, the the Beatles were like comedians, 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:32.000 so that kind of drew you in. And then of course, uh, 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.200 you know, a year later, I mean I was already 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.680 a big rock and roll fan, but A Hard Day's Night, 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.280 UM was just uh then as well as now, such 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:44.320 an amazing movie. And even though when you read about 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.840 the Beatles much later and you heard about the unseeming 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.320 elements about them, but still, you know, Hard Day's Night, 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.760 for however fictionalized it is, I mean, that's you want 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.840 them to be. That that's who you want, Okay, but 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.720 you obviously you would rich and this is sort of 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:04.600 the basis of the Rhino Empire. Had a wild sense 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.760 of humor. Did your family have a wild sense of humor? No, 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:10.960 my mom did have a sense of humor, but not 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.560 in that way. UM. So you know it's interesting, UM, 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:16.920 and you know you could identify with this from how 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.480 we all grew up. And a lot of that influence 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.320 was TV. So not only were there a lot of 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.480 um comedic TV shows like I was a big fan 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.760 of Sergeant Bilko and then subsequently Car fifty four, Where 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:33.920 Are You? Um? But also um, because of TV being 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.080 relatively new, you had a lot of older movies that 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:42.320 were uh syndicated on TV, like the Marx Brothers for instance. 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.680 So probably a lot of that irreverent humor came from 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.080 the Marx Brothers. I mean, not solely them, but probably 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:52.880 primarily then because they were so out there. Okay, now, 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.440 before the Beatles and too a certain degree concurrent, there 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.719 was a huge so cal sound. There was the surf sound, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.640 there were instrumentals, there were the beach Boys, Jan and Dean. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.359 Were you aware of all that? Yeah? But I didn't 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:08.440 really listen to the radio. So obviously I knew about 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.120 you know, Surf City and some of the surf songs 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.680 and you know, uh, you know, uh four Seasons a 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.359 little bit there, but I didn't really listen to the radio. 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.520 Was more kind of in passing or maybe a sports 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:22.919 night in junior high. The records got played, like you know, 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:25.520 Louis Louis and things like that I would pick up on. 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:27.399 But I and prior to the Beatles, I did not 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.560 listen to the radio. Okay, And did you buy Meet 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:37.040 the Beatles? Yes, of course, actually my parents did. But anyway, 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.960 what what you mentioned before? So when I had the 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:43.360 bus boy job. That's the first time that I actually 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.639 made money, and then um, after that, in the fall, 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.360 um a friend of mine worked at a small market 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:56.000 in Westchester called Hillmart. So, uh, he got me a 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:58.200 job at Hillmart. So I worked there for a number 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:02.240 of months, and then the following summer fed Coe, which 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.880 was a discount the best buy if it's era right, 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.840 and I was during the summer, I was a socker. 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.560 They called it a soacker. But after that I started 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:17.840 to make enough money so that by the following year, Um, 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:19.960 I didn't need to get a job. So I didn't 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.760 make a lot of money writing, but I made enough 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:24.960 so that I didn't have to. It would be like 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.440 the equivalent if I had a summer job. Okay, so 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:31.520 you go to college at u c. L A. And 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:36.280 you famously have a band. Were you in bands before that? Well, 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:41.040 we had a a band at Westchester High We didn't 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:42.600 play anywhere. It was just kind of because of my 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:44.520 tape recorder and be like, hey, let's what do we 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:46.840 sound like? And you know, when you're not doing much, 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:49.920 that's you know, you get together. What was your incentive 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.440 for buying the tape recorder? Well, I told you before 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:54.600 about getting the free music. Okay, so that was your 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:56.960 main incentive to buy it, so you could tape off 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.240 the radio right before, you know, before I got the 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.600 four track, which was you know, oriented more towards that's 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.919 why recording the band subsequent to high school. Okay. So 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:08.520 but in high school you did have guys come over 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:13.000 and you would sing into the uh, into the tape recorder. Yeah. Yeah, 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.040 we had, you know, people who played music and you know, 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:17.640 that's what we did it. And yeah, I mean this 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:19.840 was something you you would say you're in a band, 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:21.760 or it happened, you know, every week, or it happened 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:24.960 once a year, mostly during the summer. But it wasn't 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:27.679 like anything to brag about, like hey baby, I'm in 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.280 a band. It wasn't like that was there a name 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:34.159 well okay, because of UH, I was intrigued by certain 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.200 names like the Jefferson Air playing the Strawberry alarm clock. 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:42.600 So I came up with Mogen David and his wine 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:45.800 own and everybody agreed it. So that was an act, 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:47.119 but that was still when you were in high school. 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:49.720 You called it that. Yeah, okay. Then you go to 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:52.840 you and you were always the singer. Yeah, you know, 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:55.359 I couldn't really play an instruments. So okay, you go 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:59.280 to college u c l A first, because I thought 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:01.440 about this is a amazing. When I went to college 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:04.479 in Middlebury College in Vermont Saint Era, I was like 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:06.560 the freak. And then I came to l A. There 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:08.400 were a million people like me like it, were addicted 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:10.960