| Paul Nelson's White House Connection |
[29 Jan 2009|06:15pm] |
In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, David Browne reports that in 1979 Paul Nelson was recruited as an advisor to a commission headed by legendary producer John Hammond to update the official White House Record Library. As a result of the commission's efforts, President Obama can enjoy vinyl versions of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Springsteen's Born to Run, Randy Newman's Good Old Boys, Led Zeppelin IV, the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed, the Ramones' Rocket to Russia, the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, the Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace of Sin, as well as records by Santana, Neil Young, Talking Heads, Isaac Hayes, Elton John, the Cars and Barry Manilow.
It's not difficult to surmise which selections were high on Paul's list of suggestions.
The entire article, "Obama's Secret Record Collection," can be found here.
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| Paul Nelson Mentioned |
[13 Jan 2009|07:14pm] |
Last week, William Zantzinger, the murderer made famous not by his heinous act but by Bob Dylan having written a song about him, passed away. Michael Yockel's excellent article, "Willian Zantzinger's Lonesome Death," examines not only the man who inspired Dylan's classic "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," but also the truth behind the song. In doing so, he wraps up his article by quoting Paul Nelson.
The trouble is, as fitting as the quote may be in the context of Yockel's article, the words—critical of Dylan's having played fast and loose with the truth—do not belong to Paul. To the contrary, Paul had called the tune "Dylan's best protest song."
The quote actually belongs to another fine writer, Clinton Heylin, from his 2001 book Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. Circa 1999, he interviewed Paul and, in the book, writes about Paul's Dylan connection.
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| No More, No Less |
[27 Oct 2008|11:14am] |
In 1972, Paul Nelson was promoted from publicity to East Coast head of A&R at Mercury Records. His first real signing was Blue Ash, a band from Youngstown, Ohio. The group's 1973 debut album, No More, No Less, earned a place on several critics' best-of-the-year lists but, as these things often go, didn't make a connection in the marketplace. Blue Ash's MySpace page remembers it this way:
In July of 1972, the group signed a contract with Peppermint Productions of Youngstown and began recording and sending out demos. In October, legendary A&R man and rock writer Paul Nelson from Mercury Records flew to Youngstown to see Blue Ash "live" and immediately began signing procedures. They started recording their first album No More, No Less in February 1973 with Peppermint's John Grazier producing and with Gary Rhamy engineering. Executive producer Paul Nelson introduced them to a never-before-published, never-before-recorded Bob Dylan song called "Dusty Old Fairgrounds" and suggested they record their version of the Beatles' "Anytime At All" both of which appear on the lp...
On May 15, Mercury released the first Blue Ash 45 "Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her?)" b/w "Dusty Old Fairgrounds" On May 25, No More, No Less was released. Rave reviews and feature articles followed in Rolling Stone, Creem, Crawdaddy, Zoo World, Circus, Phonograph Record, New Times, Record World, Billboard, Rock Scene, Fusion and many others. That summer they began touring and opening for acts like Bob Seger, Iggy and the Stooges, Ted Nugent, Nazareth, Aerosmith and more. Blue Ash along with Raspberries, Big Star and Badfinger became "critical darlings" of a new sound later to be called power pop. Despite the good press Blue Ash was not getting much national radio airplay or sales...
Thirty-four years later, No More, No Less has finally been released on CD. As Blue Ash's bassist and vocalist, Frank Secich (now of the Deadbeat Poets), recalls in the Cd's liner notes, "In June of 1974, Blue Ash was dropped by Mercury Records (under heated protest from Paul Nelson) for lack of sales. Paul was subsequently sacked from the label, too, in large part for signing Blue Ash and the New York Dolls."
While that has indeed been the legend of Paul's departure from Mercury, it's not quite that simple. Reasons for leaving seldom are.
Blue Ash and friend in 1973 (left to right): Frank Secich, Jim Kendzor,
Bill Bartolin, Paul Nelson, and David Evans. Photo by Geoff Jones.
Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.
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| David Forman |
[19 Oct 2008|07:33pm] |
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August of 1974 was a memorable month for singer/songwriter David Forman. A few days after being involved in the most benign and fanciful takeover ever of the World Trade Center—high-wire artist Phillippe Petit's 45-minute walk back and forth on a steel cable strung between the Twin Towers—Forman penned his amazing song "Dream of a Child" and somehow, in some way now lost to memory and time, came to the attention of Paul Nelson at Mercury Records.
While Paul was unsuccessful convincing his higher-ups to offer a recording contract to the artist (Forman says, "They looked at him like he was out of his mind"), Forman ultimately was signed by Clive Davis to Arista, where he recorded one classic, self-titled, and now very collectible album (there's a used CD on Amazon right now going for $109.99).
Forman, who went on to forge a musical career and an alter-ego with Little Isidore and the Inquisitors, can currently be seen on the big screen in James Marsh's brilliant documentary about Phillipe Petit, Man on Wire, where he even performs "Dream of a Child."
Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.
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| Max's Kansas City |
[19 Oct 2008|12:54pm] |
In January of 1973, a few weeks after Elliott Murphy first played his demos for Paul Nelson, then an A&R guy at Mercury Records, Paul presented him the recently released debut album of another songsmith: Bruce Springsteen's Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Later that same month, Paul invited Murphy to join him at Max's Kansas City, where Springsteen was playing with a very early incarnation of the E Street Band.
This week over at Wolfgang's Vault—which features free streaming of vintage live concert performances—the featured concert is, with relative certainty, the show in question. Recorded January 31, 1973, after the show Paul introduced Elliott to Bruce, thereby launching a friendship that continues to this day.
Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.
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| «Приключения Электроников» презентуют новый альбом |
[01 Oct 2008|12:32am] |
10 октября в 21-00 в московском клубе «Точка» группа «Приключения Электроников» презентует публике свой пятый альбом «Давайте созвонимся!».
На концерте прозвучат все песни с нового альбома и, безусловно, не обойдется без всеми любимых «Прекрасное Далеко», «Крылатые Качели», «Трава у дома».
Однако группа готовит своим поклонникам сюрприз – собственную песню. Для сочинения композиции «Уходит детство» музыканты привлекли экс-участника коллектива, лидера московской группы Тараканы! Дмитрия «Сида» Спирина, написавшего для нее текст, а музыку сочинила Даша Давыдова – настоящая участница коллектива.
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| Bumping into Geniuses |
[25 Aug 2008|01:14pm] |
Rock journalist. PR guy for Led Zeppelin. Nirvana's manager. Good friend to Kurt and Courtney. Record company executive. These are but a few of the descriptions you might apply to Danny Goldberg, whose latest book, Bumping into Geniuses: My Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business, hits the bookstores next month. In addition to the appellations I've already dropped, among the many behind-the-scenes tales Goldberg tells are how he covered Woodstock when nobody else wanted to, when he talked Kiss into taking it all off (makeup-wise), and how he launched Stevie Nicks' solo career. What emerges is the profile of someone savvy enough to know that doing business is all about relationships—and that you can't succeed at either one at the expense of the other.
For our purposes here, Goldberg also writes about such Paul Nelson favorites as Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Ian Hunter (whom Goldberg now manages), and Neil Young. Most importantly, he writes about Paul.
Touching on Paul's five years at Mercury Records, when Goldberg was writing for Circus magazine, he also reflects on Paul's role in the Warren Zevon saga in a lengthy and loving chapter about the singer/songwriter's final years (Goldberg was head of Artemis Records and released not only Zevon's last three studio albums but also the fine tribute album, Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon). He also reflects on Paul's memorial service at St. Mark's Church on September 7, 2006.
What emerges is Goldberg's admiration for both Paul the man and Paul the writer. As he wrote for RockCritics.com shortly after Paul's death:
Paul was hopelessly miscast as a PR guy. He was literally incapable of hyping an album or artist he did not believe in and was always apologetic when he called about a Mercury artist.... Paul was far more likely to go into a track by track analysis of the latest Leonard Cohen album on Columbia than even to mention a mediocrity on Mercury. I don't know how he got himself into a position where he was able to sign the Dolls (not normally the kind of thing a PR person could do at record companies) but I suspect he just wore out his superiors. But he did enjoy the expense account that allowed him to take a long list of writers to La Strada and other Midtown restaurants.
Towards the end of Bumping into Geniuses, Goldberg realizes that "People like me were only valuable to record companies to the extent we could identify and sign commercial talent. And the way that the business world judged your talent for picking and signing and working with artists was not how smart you were, how much you loved music, how hard you worked, what skills you had, or what critics thought of your taste. To be taken seriously by the grown-ups you had to be associated with big hits. That was the coin of the realm."
Which pretty much sums up why Paul Nelson's record company career ended in 1975.
Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.
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| Bob Dylan Revisited |
[14 Aug 2008|09:08pm] |
Paul Nelson wrote: "It is hard to claim too much for the man who in every sense revolutionized modern poetry, American folk music, popular music, and the whole of modern-day thought; even the strongest praise seems finally inadequate. Not many contemporary artists have the power to actually change our lives, but surely Dylan does—and has."
Paul wrote this in 1966, the year after Dylan "went electric" at the Newport Folk Festival and left behind a heretofore devoted audience of dyed-in-the-wool folk-music enthusiasts (an event that also contributed to Paul resigning his post as managing editor of Sing Out! magazine—but that's another story).
Performing Tuesday night at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Dylan remained just as artistically unyielding.
The last time I saw Dylan live was 20 years ago and also outdoors, near Park City, Utah. His face was puffy and he was slightly hunched forward, as if he were being crushed by the weight of his own reputation. One of his surlier periods, he would just blast through song after song, each one almost indiscernible from the next. This wasn't Dylan gone electric—it was Dylan gone electrically bombastic.
But I was not surprised. I knew from recordings that Dylan performing live was a chameleonic chimera. There was the bellowing Dylan (with the Band) from 1974's Before the Flood; and two years later there was the punk-rock Dylan spewing fiery deliveries on Hard Rain. What we got at Prospect Park this week was a defiantly elegant Dylan, his voice at once ravaged and ravishing, as thin as a whip and just as dangerous. His band was sharp and exact—like a surgeon's knife, or Jack the Ripper's blade. He played his music the way he wanted to play it, everybody else be damned.
So it was with some amusement that, on our way out of the park after the concert, we heard grumblings to the effect that Dylan "didn't even know the words to his own songs," which "didn't sound the same," and (my favorite) "He didn't even play 'Mr. Tambourine Man'!"
Forty-three years after Newport, he's still got it. And 42 years after Paul's words, even the strongest praise still seems inadequate.
Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.
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| Revenge Will Come |
[22 Jun 2008|02:42pm] |
One of my all-time favorite records is 1982's Revenge Will Come, the debut album by a poet/songwriter named Greg Copeland. Produced by his good friend (since high school) Jackson Browne and released on the Geffen label, the album was at once critically embraced (along with Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, David Johansen's Live It Up, and Lou Reed's The Blue Mask, it landed on Time magazine's best-of-the-year list) and commercially forgotten. It has never been released on CD.
A few years ago, preparing for my move two-thirds of the way across the country and looking for ways to lighten my load, I sold off most of my vinyl collection, saving only those records that either had some sort of sentimental value or which were yet unavailable on CD. Revenge Will Come came to New York City with me.
Imagine my surprise, then, in January of last year when I discovered, among the hundreds of cassettes Paul Nelson had left behind in his apartment, two tapes in particular: a promo copy of Revenge Will Come and an interview that he had conducted with Greg Copeland. Surprise tinged with a little bit of confusion because, to the best of my knowledge, Paul had never written about the album.
Recorded over the telephone in late August of 1982, Paul began by telling Copeland how much he admired the album—that it was thus far his favorite of the year. He also divulged to the young songwriter that, though he indeed intended to write about the album for Rolling Stone (where he'd been record reviews editor since 1978), he had just resigned from the magazine.
When I spoke with Greg Copeland earlier this year, he told me: "I remember the room I was sitting in when it happened. I remember talking to him, but I don't remember anything about what he said or what I said. Until you reminded me, I'd forgotten about it."
Unfortunately, Paul never wrote about Revenge Will Come—nor would he write much of anything else for the next seven years. His departure from Rolling Stone, combined with the upheaval that was his personal life, signaled the beginning of what his friend Michael Seidenberg calls "Paul's missing years."
The good news is that, twenty-six years later, Greg Copeland has recorded his sophomore album. "Now I'm back full circle," he says. "I work as a lawyer about half-time and write the rest of the time." The album is slated for release on Jackson Browne's label later this year.
Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.
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| Perceiving the Doors |
[10 Jun 2008|07:27am] |
Paul Nelson didn't write a lot about the Doors--and he only briefly met Jim Morrison--but what words he did put to paper were poetic, to the point, and unashamedly revealing of a critic yearning to understand not only the the band's music but the nascent and far from established new art form called rock & roll. For instance:
And Jim. To see him sing is like witnessing a man dangling in some kind of unique and personal pain. Watching Morrison come face to face with some ultimate truth in song can be truly frightening. The shrieks and screams come from a subconscious layer under the conscious artistry: Morrison is levels, not all of them pretty.
When I learned that the intense and talented writer and director Tom DiCillo (Living in Oblivion, Box of Moonlight, and his most recent film, Delirious, are among his best) is feverishly at work on a Doors documentary, I forwarded him Paul's rare writings about the group, the best of which is "Perceiving the Doors," a piece written for the long out-of-print songbook We Are the Doors. "What an amazing writer," DiCillo responded. "It is pretty astonishing. I particularly liked his analysis of the Doors' sound":
When they play, they seem to be held together by both terrific, almost terrifying, strength and by sheer nervous tension. They expand, contract, and the song is stretched like a live thing to a point of birth or breaking or both. The passion is always contained within the control. Ray [Manzarek] plays the organ like a holy man, his thoughts almost as visible as smoke, while Robby [Krieger] oozes out those slow, melted flamenco notes as if he were shaking them from a slow-motion guitar. John [Densmore] is all speed and power on the drums, a perpetual-motion machine. And Jim. To see him sing is like witnessing...
"It is close to my own view of what distinguishes the group," DiCillo continued, "but he writes extremely eloquently and with real, knowledgeable detail. I thought his review of the first album showed real perception." In fact, so alive was Paul's forty-year-old prose that DiCillo had a request: "Can you please pass my admiration on to him?"
I informed him that Paul had passed away in 2006. "I had no idea," he replied, "It touches me deeply. It has much deeper meaning now."
Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.
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| Rod Stewart |
[11 May 2008|05:01pm] |
The backstory: In the early Seventies, Paul Nelson accepted a publicity job at Mercury Records. One of the artists with whom he worked closely, and with whom he became good friends, was Rod Stewart. During Paul's five-year tenure at Mercury (he eventually was promoted to A&R, in which capacity he would sign the New York Dolls to their first recording contract), Stewart produced some of his best albums, including Gasoline Alley, Never a Dull Moment, and one of the best rock & roll albums of all time, Every Picture Tells a Story.
In 1975, the same year Paul resigned from Mercury and returned to writing full-time, Stewart switched labels and landed at Warner Bros. where his first album was Atlantic Crossing. Writing in Rolling Stone, Paul gave the album a rave review, concluding: "If Atlantic Crossing isn't Rod Stewart's best record—and it isn't—it at least comes within hailing distance of earlier masterpieces."
In 1978, Paul wrote one of his best articles, a lengthy, praising piece that sympathetically depicted Rod at odds with his ex-lover, actress Britt Ekland, who was suing him for $12 million, at odds with the burgeoning punks, who had singled him out as their anti-poster boy, and at odds with the critical mass in general, who were of the opinion that he'd sold out and gone Hollywood (which he literally had, having relocated from England).
In 1981, Paul co-wrote a book with Lester Bangs that pilloried Stewart and his music, with Paul recanting much of his earlier praise. He wrote: "As a young man in his twenties, Rod Stewart seemed to possess an age-old wisdom: some of the things he told us we could've learned from our grandfathers. In his thirties, however, he suddenly metamorphosed into Jayne Mansfield."
Fast-forward to Thursday afternoon when I received a phone call that asked: "Can you meet Rod Stewart for drinks tonight?" I'd been trying to secure an interview with him for almost a year and a half. Four hours later, I found myself at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan, across the table from a very dashing and dapper-looking Rod Stewart. (Due to a miscommunication between his manager and publicist, he'd been waiting for me for twenty minutes there in the sedate Astor Court—while I'd been waiting for him for twenty minutes around the corner in the rowdy King Cole Bar and Lounge.) Looking still very much the young rogue on which he'd made his reputation, the 63-year-old Stewart was charming and funny and, of course, occasionally bawdy. My scheduled fifteen- to twenty-minute interview ended up lasting almost forty-five minutes.
Stewart fondly remembered Paul Nelson as I did my best to stir up his memories and remind him of incidents that had occurred more than three-and-a-half decades ago. As I sipped on my Bloody Mary (which, according to legend, had been invented by King Cole bartender Fernand Petiot, circa 1939) and he on his martini, we traded stories: his about the Paul he knew, me about what had happened to Paul in the many years since Stewart had seen him last.
I even quoted Paul's contention that Stewart had "metamorphosed into Jayne Mansfield" and asked him how it had felt having his friend savage him in book form. I asked him if there had been any validity to what Paul had written. And he answered every question honestly and to the best of his ability.
What he had to say will appear, of course, in the Rod Stewart chapter of Everything Is an Afterthought.
When Stewart's twenty-seven-year-old wife Penny Lancaster arrived, he announced that the interview was over and rose to greet her. When he introduced us, he told her, "We've been talking about a dear old friend of mine." And before we parted, he wished me luck with the book and added, "Thank you for just doing it."
Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.
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[18 Jan 2008|02:52am] |
January 25th @ Higher Ground in South Burlington Vermont! Hamell on Trial is opening! Tix are $15 in advance/$17 day of the show!
http://www.highergroundmusic.com/
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| Help! |
[17 Oct 2007|09:00am] |
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mood |
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I'm looking into a punk/rock project and they posted and ad for a sax player. I come from jazz and classical background. In an email they asked if I "could jam in key". Are they asking if I can improvise in the set chord changes? Are they asking if I can simply play in the the key of the song, c minor for example. I don't have experience playing rock, obviously, so thank you in advance.
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| Web Site Dedicated To Unfettered Interview Exchange For Independent Musicians And Fans |
[14 Nov 2007|05:06pm] |
Uncensored Interview (www.uncensoredinterview.com) today officially announced its launch. The site is the first of its kind, dedicated to giving independent musicians and their fans a voice through an interactive interface. Via streaming video, Uncensored Interview showcases interviews with indie bands across all genres.
"The truth is, indie music fans just don't have outlets like TV and radio to access the indie musician world," said Marisa Bangash, founder of Uncensored Interview. "Today, the internet is the place for art, ideas and intimacy to be exchanged. Uncensored Interview is the site for indie artists, fans and music aficionados to experience, learn, express, unite, and debate."
Uncensored Interview provides a needed channel for bands to reach to fans, express their feelings and share themselves beyond their music. It is a forum where theplatonicband/fan relationship which thrives in the indie music world is respected and allowed to grow.
Uncensored Interview recognizes that passive is out when it comes to online behavior and encourages users to "talk back" to the bands and share their views via video. The interviews captured highlight the indie artist's opinions and ideas. Then a grassroots, non-linear video conversation becomes the name of the game. The uncensored interviews produced for the site and user-generated content known as "v-sponses" create a forum for the two parties to interact on topics ranging from global warming to sex with fans to the state of the music industry.
"With the major labels failing, airwaves filled with disposable music and cookie cutter artists being pushed as the next big thing - fans need a way to cut through the clutter," said Bangash. "Uncensored Interview is a reference point for people to find the diamonds in the rough."
Artists interviewed also talk about what they know best and why they are recognized - their music. More than just commentary on their own albums, bands converse about everything that affects their lives as musicians, including touring, influences, the music industry, media and challenges they face. Some of the content also serves as advice for aspiring musicians.
Uncensored Interview's videos encompass broader social issues as well since artists develop their work based on their experiences as individuals. To capture what compels each artist and share it with fans introduces a new way for the two parties to connect.
The Interview Process: Step by Step
* Starts with a simple thought shared by the indie artists captured and published by Uncensored Interview producers.
* Videos featuring the indie artist are published online and are ready for viewing.
* Socially aware individuals, indie artists, fans, music aficionados and the bands themselves interact by uploading their own videos in response (the v-sponses) to the original band videos or to other v-sponses.
* The end result - video conversations that are interactive, intellectual, meaningful, ever-changing and uncensored.
Videos on Uncensored Interview are classified into several channels, delivering content based on the user's preference; whether by genre or by area of interest. Interviews take place in locations where the artist feels most comfortable - a favorite bar, rehearsal space or even a toilet seat. From here, artists speak in an unrestricted environment, enabling their fans to get a voyeuristic glimpse into their worlds. Uncensored Interview doesn't string together pieces of the interview to create an enhanced image of the artists; but instead provides raw, truthful moments as they happen.
Url: http://www.uncensoredinterview.com
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| Rodney Branigan - One Man, Two Guitars |
[17 Oct 2007|09:49pm] |
wow. is anyone else as annoyed as i am about the post a few entries below?
it should be apparent that anyone in this group is interested in hearing new music, but to shanghai the whole board and FORCE everyone to hear your music by embedding a player that starts automatically?
truly tasteless. any moderators out there?
well, you'll have to shut that one off and willingly press the "play" button on this to hear it, and you are welcome to do so of your own free will.
this guy has found an interesting angle by which to get himself noticed. i'll bet he doesn't need to shove his music down anyone's throat, either.
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[11 Oct 2007|10:10am] |
Name: rebelfilms! (also known as The Elf Ranger, for creating music, Darklis Dreamrider when publishing stuff on lulu.com, Elwing when LARPing, etc etc etc... :)
Location: Brixham, Devon, England
Favorite bands/music: medieval, celtic, shamanic. Plus some goth and experimental!
Age: 27
AIM/msn/yahoo/ICQ or other: No IM service!
Other info you'd like us to know: erm... Hi, and I am trying to create my own fantasy moozik - blurb and links at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) the_elf_ranger... Its a new project. :D
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