Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Recent Reads Round-up

I can't believe I missed this one--the Village Voice blog did a wonderful Q and A with Allan Arkush in May, during their week-long salute to what would have been Joey Ramone's 60th birthday.  Thanks to my Bomp buddy Ted L. for the link.  Here's my fave quote, in a piece with a million of 'em:


"Riff Randell was based on three women I knew at the Fillmore East, when I was an usher and backstage hand there, while I went to New York Film School. Diane, Gayle, and, uh, I can't remember the third one. Just three girls from Brooklyn and Queens who used to hang out, and we'd talk about music. And they had different taste than I did. They were much more into the flash English bands than I was, like Bowie and T. Rex. And whenever there was an open seat, I'd get them good ones. And they were such avid rock fans--they were Riff Randell. And in 1969, they got on line for tickets for a Rolling Stones show in town, and got their picture in the paper. And that's where I got that stuff in the movie, with Riff sleeping on line for the tickets to the Ramones show."


I knew he must have worked there--you can see him sporting a Fillmore jersey during the ticket-taking scene.  Here's my DVD booklet cover, with Mary Woronov's autograph:




The latest issue of Shindig has a cool piece by Domenic Priore on John Sebastian's Village days. Here's a moody shot of him most likely taken at the Night Owl--I think it was scanned from an ancient teen mag by my pal Allison.






Lastly, I just finished Steven Tyler's memoir.  As I'd been forewarned, it's mainly full of anecdotes about sex, drugs, rock and roll, and still more drugs (severe later-in-life painkiller dependencies from over-medicating his numerous aging rocker stage injuries).  But I read it mostly for his account of his early years on the NYC scene, and while he doesn't linger in that part of his past for very long, I did enjoy his recollections.  However, I've been advised that his Left Banke story leaves much to be desired in terms of validity...and later I was stunned to see him take a writing credit for "Big Ten Inch Record."  So while the book is an entertaining read on the whole, it's probably best to take much of what he says with a surfeit of sodium.  I'm told another book on Aerosmith called Walk This Way goes into greater detail about the Chain Reaction, so I may check that out at some point.











I'd also be discussing the new 33 1/3 volume on Television's Marquee Moon here, were it not for the Canada Post strike of the last couple of weeks.  Thanks Bryan!

Monday, June 27, 2011

1976 Ads: Other Venues and Miscellany, Part 1

1/12/76 issue (previous week's ish was missing):






"Scoop" gossip column excerpts.







First Tramps ad I've found.  So far they've only been for cabaret acts but I'm collecting them anyway.




1/19/76 issue:

"Scoop" excerpt.  Sounds like a potential Altamont II to me--thank goodness it was a hoax.

More from "Scoop."

"Centerfold" section excerpt.













1/26/76 issue:









Did they ever have bands here, or just bewbies?  I seem to recall it mentioned as a rock club in a book or article somewhere, but so far the ads I've found for it only extol its titty-bar virtues.



Illustrations from a Christgau piece on the "rock-crit establishment."


2/2/76 issue:
The paper began publishing Robert Crumb's "Mr. Natural" comic in this issue.  This panel made me wonder about the etymology of "fanboy."  I don't recall hearing that term bandied about much until the '90s, so I was surprised to see it here.








Speaking of fanboys...I wonder if this article was reporting on the earliest known Trek-specific convention.

2/9/76 issue:


At first I thought the name of this store was "Bull," but as you'll see below I was mistaken.








"Scoops" excerpt.







2/16/76 issue:

"Scenes" excerpt.



"Scoops" excerpt.











2/23/76 issue:













Reviews, articles, etc.:

1/12/76: "Why They Hate the Village Gate" by Denis Hamill--a report on an attempt to shut it down.

2/9/76: Emmylou Harris feature by Geoffrey Stokes

2/16/76: "Kitsch Me Deadly" by Frank Rose--discusses KISS, Grand Funk Railroad, BTO, and ZZ Top.

2/23/76 "Scoop" column has an item entitled "Bowie Accused of Breach of Concept"...kinda reminds me of Bongwater's "David Bowie Needs Ideas."  Also, "Riffs" has a great R. Meltzer review of Redd Foxx's "You Gotta Wash Your Ass."