Lots of Couture.Very little Chaos.There was a lot said about this exhibit at the MET before it even
opened.The costume gala was
dedicated to it. There were very few in attendance that got the memo. Madonna
did wear her Tartan.
Bricolage (Garbage Bag Clothing)
Without Vivian Westwood and her shops, there would have been
no chaos at all.Granted, as
Deborah Harry said, these clothes were old when they wore them.They recycled and reused.Nothing survived.Something had to, but if it did, the
curators didn’t find it.They
recreated the bathroom at CBGB’s (which looked much cleaner than I remember it)
but couldn’t get their hands on one of Joey Ramone’s leather jackets?(Not enough chaos in a leather jacket?)
They couldn’t exhibit photos of Deborah Harry in all her garbage bag
glory?She was genius at making
anything look good on her.I saw
Blondie several times in the 1970’s and she was the coolest person on the
planet.Nobody came close. Except
for a magnet in the gift shop, there wasn’t any representation of her.There is a whole runway (it does
look like a runway) of clothes constructed of garbage bags, but they were all
done recently, none worn by Ms Harry.They totally ignored Siouxsie Sioux.
Moth Eaten Chanel
The London punks were way more colorful than those in NY and
that’s basically what commandeers the chaos part of the show.Tartan prints and lots of T Shirts with
writing and pop culture images compromise Westwood’s contribution.What looks like a moth eaten Chanel suit is donned by the model in the
exhibit posters. In person, the outfit looks plain stupid.It was dated this year, which might
mean it was created especially for theMET.
Only one Stephen Sprouse piece exhibited?Granted his first collection didn’t
come out until 1983/84, which by that time Punk was evolving into New Wave and
the look was evolving from what it had been in 1976.Sprouse was a big influence on the pop, fashion and
the music scene. His first runway show was at the Ritz, a downtown nightclub
now Webster Hall and it was set to the music of Siouxsie and the Banshees.Andy Warhol was a fan and Keith Haring
became a collaborator.
I had great expectations for the exhibit, which were
lessened by friends who had seen the show prior to my viewing.It didn’t meet the lowered expectations.
It was a disappointment.The
video is so large and grainy that you’d have to be a football field away to
actually see it.Did we really
need to see video footage of a shirtless Sid Vicious?No clothes, but he was wearing the
padlock around his neck and the gallery was labeled hardware. It's a stretch. I can’t recall who was quoted, but he said that Sid
could not remove it, because he lost the key. Now that is punk.
Hardware + The Shirtless Sid
Punk:Chaos to
Couture is at the MET until August 14th.
Tonight's All Star baseball game is at Citi Field. All Stars in Chevys paraded down 42nd St a few hours ago.
Photo by Keith Eland
Our own Met Matt Harvey is the starting pitcher. No one really know what Matt looks like (he does look different all the time). Jimmy Fallon took note and let Harvey himself, interview fans about Matt Harvey.
There are two very similar named and similar in approach art shows that happened this weekend in the Hamptons. ArtHamptons is the bigger of the two. We chose to go to ArtMRKT. All the temporary galleries are situated under a big enclosed tent which makes it easy and fun to browse the contemporary and modern art. Things happen when you don't expect it.
Masked Words by Doug Beube
In looking at a fascinating sculpture cut from a dictionary, the artist name looked familiar to me. It was Doug Beube. Our wedding photographer had been working on books at the time he filmed our wedding. This was 15 years ago. My husband and I were able to reconnect with Doug and he took us through his process. I'm always blown away by the unending creativity of artists. Using a dictionary, (opened to the word low-life) he created a sculpture. He told us that its necessary to position the book in the middle to be able to work with it. The artwork is similar in structure to the Roman heads on display at the MET. He doesn't coat the sculpture with any material as he wants it to still be a living breathing book.
Doug is represented by the JHB Gallery. Their website has a few more works by Doug to explore. There is nothing like seeing art in person, but I recommend checking out these sites to see his creations. They are fascinating.
The beloved metal tags you get with an admission to the Metropolitan Museum of Art are gone. As of yesterday, the museum stopped using them. The rising cost of metal and fewer and fewer manufacturers have made the buttons obsolete. Now you get a paper sticker.
Having seen Chaos to Couture (I will get to that in a later post) on Friday, I was one of the last visitors to receive a robin's egg blue button. According to the article in the NY Times, the color might actually be Mole, huh? The buttons were introduced a year after they enacted the suggested price policy in 1971. According to the Times they replaced both paper and stick pins. The buttons were a souvenir to the patron for her/his donation. They were costing the museum about 3 cents per button, up from 2 cents a year ago. The paper tickets will cost a penny each. To cover the 1 million visitors a year, the museum would manufacture 1.6 million buttons a year and they were made by a local company in Chelsea. In keep with the times, the new paper tickets will have space for corporate sponsors.
Like the Ramones, CBGB's and subway tokens, New York no longer has the MET button.
Since I'm on my Darlene Love Train (pun intended), I'm posting a few photos from her interview with Brian Gari yesterday at Barnes and Noble. She was promoting the re-release of her book, My Name is Love. Brian enhanced the interview by bringing audio clips (The Blossoms first recording, Stumble and Fall, Vickki Carr's version of He's A Rebel) and video clips (Shindig). Loved the clip of her performing with the Righteous Brothers. Darlene closed the evening with a performance of Lean On Me.
--> I love a racket.I love it when it seems like a group is slipping in and out of phase,
when something lags and then slides into a pocket, like hitting the number on a
roulette wheel, a clatter, like the sound of the Johnny Burnette trio, like
galloping horses’ hooves.It’s
like a baby learning how to walk, or a little bird just barely avoiding a crash
to the dirt, or two kids losing their virginity.It’s awkward but it’s riveting and uplifting and funny.In a way it’s the aural representation
of that feeling the makes the first time people feel the possibilities of rock
and roll music in themselves the benchmark of hope and freedom and euphoria.
-Richard Hellfrom I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp
It’s important to know what excited Richard Hell. It leads
to a clearer picture of his life until age 34, as he lays it out in his
autobiography.He followed
that quote by saying he and friend/fellow Television bandmate Tom Verlaine
disagreed on how they wanted their music to sound. According to Hell, he was
exhilarated after the band’s first performance.Verlaine was not.It was the end of Television for Hell before it really even began.This is a pattern that would follow him
throughout his music career.
Richard Hell’s influence on both music and culture is
understated.I mentioned I was
reading his book, I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp and only 1 of the 20
people I spoke to had a passing knowledge of him. A handful of them were my
partners in crime in frequenting the NY clubs mentioned in the book.We lived these times and Hell still
didn’t register with them.It’s
not a name you would forget.He
was the first to have choppy spiky hair, wear torn closes, paint words on them
and use the safety pin as a fashion accessory.He performed with abandon.
I never paid much attention to Television or Richard
Hell.I knew the song Blank
Generation.I was into bands with
tight songs mixed with pop sensibilities.Even the anarchy of the Sex Pistols could fit in with that description,
although I wasn’t a big fan of them either.I love Blondie and the Ramones, both of which Hell has
distain for.He mentions that
Chris Stein (Blondie) and Dee Dee Ramone auditioned for Television but didn’t
make the cut.While Dee Dee had
his problems, I think both fared better with their respective bands.
The writing is erratic, but so was his life.He was a heroin addict who kept
journals.Without the journals how
would he be able to describe in such detail all of his sexual conquests
breasts?(There are many references.)
His childhood was unremarkable. He grew up in Kentucky. It’s
not a charmed life, but it certainly isn’t the broken home of a truant which he
later became. His father dies at an early age. At sixteen, he and
best friend Tom Miller (later re-christened Verlaine) have their Thelma and
Louise moment by fleeing home and driving a car as far as Alabama where they
get picked up by the cops.They
were heading to Florida.Shortly
after that Richard earns enough money to come to New York City. His mother
agreed to let him go at 17.His
early tales of a grizzly Lower East Side are accurate and intriguing.He has many menial jobs, but it was
possible to live off of next to nothing those days in the city.The book then starts to read like many
a candied musician memoir:lots of
drugs, lots of sex, record company screws artist.(Somehow Keith Richard’s book didn’t fall into that trap.)
His description of drug addition has become the norm for
these autobiographies:
Addiction is lonely.It starts as pure pleasure, and the degeneration, in a few quick years,
into a form of monumental compulsive-obsessive condition is actually more
psychological than physical.One
the drug use has replaced everything else, life become purely a lie, since in order
to keep any self-respect, the junkie has to delude himself that use is by
choice.
Richard doesn’t stick with anything that isn’t
solitary.He can’t hold on to
jobs, he moves from one band to the next.He didn’t hang around long enough with either Television or The
Heartbreakers.When both bands
released their debut albums, he was long gone.
It makes sense that he eventually settled in a career that
is solitary:a writer.
Probably most overlooked was how smart he was about
marketing his bands early in his career.He went to the owner of the newly opened CBGB’s and asked for and got a
Sunday night residency. He knew the importance of having people know where to
see the band and being able to see them on a regular basis.He created posters for specific shows
using band photographs as well as eye-catching graphics and text.He gave a performance.
There are passages that are so ripe with description that
you can see the scene play out in your head.They are also very humorous.In describing the girls in his neighborhood:
They were a skittish herd of scaled-down giraffe girls with
pretty, flat kitty-cat faces.I
liked all of them.We were going
to drive into the country out by Versailles, where another of the giraffe girls
lived on a horse farm. It’s those moments that make reading about his early
childhood so rewarding.
His tale stops cold at age 34, which is when he decided to
get out of music.He has since
dipped his toes back in on several occasions, including a stint with the band
Dim Stars.Life in New York in the
70’s and early 80’s was raw, gritty and oh so much fun.
The story flows. It’s not sappy or self-pitying.It’s a story of very strong, talented
women.Twenty Feet From Stardom is
a powerful documentary. Kudos to the director and editors.
Darlene is better known as the voice of the Crystals among
other bands.Remember He’s Sure
The Boy I Love, He’s A Rebel and Christmas Baby Please Come Home (she is
actually credited on the track)? In the 1960’s her group The Blossoms were the
hottest session singers in the country.Gimme Shelter probably wouldn’t be a classic without the voice of Merry
Clayton.It’s worth seeing the
movie just to hear her tell the story of the recording of the song.If you saw the Rolling Stones perform
that song live in the past 25 years, you heard Lisa Fischer bringing down the
house with Mick Jagger.
In Fischer’s humility she said there is no way she would come
close to the truth that Merry delivers on that record, so she could only be
inspired by her performance. That is the beauty of these women, they all truly
like, respect and believe in one another.There doesn’t seem to be a cutthroat rivalry among them either then or
now.Merry thanked Darlene for her
tutoring early on in her career. Darlene said The Blossoms, were in such demand
that she would refer producers to Merry.She also said that Merry was the best or she wouldn’t have recommended
her for the job.This of course
didn’t exclude playful digs between Merry and Darlene.Darlene was ready to pass the plate
after Merry’s heartfelt preacher-like tale of growing up in the church.
Darlene and Merry both had fathers who were Pastors.Singing in a church choir gave them the
tools to be the best session singers. They knew when to sing and how to
delivery it.At the time Darlene
was breaking into the business, session singers were white and rather
restrained.As Bette Midler says
in the film, they knew when to put their hands up and when to lean into the mic
and that was about it.Darlene and
the Blossoms couldn’t read music but they could feel it and could run with
it.They made the producers’ job
easy.They upped the ante for any
singer.
You will be blown away by this impressive and diverse
contribution of The Blossoms:
That’s Life -Frank Sinatra
Johnny Angel -Shelley Fabares
Monster Mash –Bobby Pickett
Rockin’ Robin –Bobby Day
The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss) -Betty Everett
Chain Gang –Sam Cooke
You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling
Unchained Melody
(You’re My) Soul and My Inspiration –Righteous Brothers
River Deep Mountain High –Ike and Tina Turner
It wasn’t always easy. There were failed solo careers.Darlene Love was contracted to Phil
Spector.She finally got out of
her deal, signs with Gamble and Huff and then they sell her contract back to Phil
Spector.Could it be more
devastating?She decided to clean
houses.As she pointed out Tuesday
night when referring to Phil Spector, what goes around, comes around.
The film also highlights Judith Hill who was set to backup
Michael Jackson on his last unfulfilled tour.She is the youngest of those profiled.I had no idea she was a contestant on
the Voice this season.She is
pursuing a career as a solo artist and unlike the other women profiled, she
writes her own music, which gives her an advantage.It’s probably what moved Sheryl Crow from the background to
the forefront.Sheryl appears
briefly in the movie.Also
appearing are Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Sting.
There has to be a lot of valuable footage left on the
cutting room floor. The interviews are engaging and entertaining, which I think
is a testament to the performers as well as the filmmakers. I would love to see the “rejects” from
Morgan Neville.I’d pay to view on
the web.It’s a no-brainer.
Twenty Feet From Stardom is a joy.It will have people talking.The archival footage is riveting.Don’t be surprised if this movie revitalizes the careers of
these highly talented musicians.
Of note:I
focused on the women, but The Waters should be mentioned.They are featured on Michael Jackson’s
Thriller: Julia, Maxine and of course, Oren.
Of second note: The movie was produced by Gil Friesen. He was chairman of A&M records and I had the pleasure of working with him. He's one of my favorite record company people. Sadly he passed away last year, but not before hearing his film was accepted to the Sundance Film Festival.
The song is based on a true story of running into a former lover at a friend's wedding. Yikes. That sounds uncomfortable. Her record company describes her as “Mos Def plus Dorothy Parker”. It sounds like she's been listening to a lot of Luscious Jackson.
The Minneapolis native weaves her production much like the ladies of Luscious. Dessa is labeled an emcee/writer, but that doesn't paint a big enough picture. I have a soft spot for Minneapolis artists (Trip Shakespeare, Prince, Husker Du). They put out good records. Dessa's album comes out the end of the month.
Speaking of Luscious Jackson, rumor has it that Jill, Kate and Gabby have mastered a new album and we should be hearing something new from the ladies this year.
I'm walking the dog up 1st Avenue this afternoon. Without seeing anyone, I hear a person singing in a loud/bad Liverpudlian accent "and I'm happy just to dance with you". I then see a white haired man wearing knee socks, camouflage shorts and a Chicago T-shirt walking past me. The T-shirt commemorated the band's 1989 tour. He was thoroughly enjoying his walk and the music.
One of my favorite TV characters of all time is LorelaiGilmore.She’s witty, strong (even
when she thinks she’s not) and houses a great knowledge of cultural
trivia.She’s my kind of gal.Lauren Graham who so wonderfully played
Lorelai just released a novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe.
The story centers around Franny Banks, the actress/waitress
who is trying to make a go of life in New York City and realizing her dream of
one day being interviewed on the stage of the 92nd St Y. That would mean she had made it as an
actress, a well-respected theater actress.She has 6 months left in her self imposed quest to make it
happen. Franny’s a little bit Lorelai and probably a lot of Lauren.Lauren had said in an interview that
it’s loosely based on her life and what she couldn’t remember, she made
up.She credits Diane Keaton with
the suggestion to put these stories into a book.
The story is about struggle and self-realization.Anyone who has a dream, no money and
lives on their own, can relate to it.Franny occasionally asks her dad to supplement her income.She deals with each situation with
self-depreciating humor and determination.The story also drives home that support, understanding and
kindness can come from unlikely resources.
Lauren uses reproductions of Filofax pages to show the
passing days.If you don’t
remember Filofaxes, they were the lifeblood of daily organization.Before Palm, Blackberry or the smart
phone, there was the Filofax. At the end of the year I would flip through mine
and think, wow I guess I did accomplish something.The voicemail messages from her English teacher father are
sarcastic and sprayed with love. You can hear his voice in your head.Franny had to have a cool, good-looking
boyfriend, who you know will turn out to be a jerk.I believe a guy like James is a rite of passage for every
single girl in the city.I could
relate.
Loved reading this book.Someday, Someday, Maybe is sweet, charming, snappy and
engrossing.Oh did I mention, it’s
also well written.
I started watching The Following for one reason: Kevin Bacon. He is one of our best actors and he played Fenwick in Diner, that alone is reason enough to love him.
The three episodes had me. It was like a page turner on TV, then.....
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/04/the-following-season-finale-review-finishing-the-story/
Bacon plays Ryan Hardy and ex-FBI agent who captured a serial killer, Joe Carroll who is now running a cult via his jail cell. Hardy is called back into action to track down Carroll, despite being fired from the FBI. He's an alcoholic who we don't see drinking after the first few episodes.
The show really got stupid when Carroll escapes from jail with the help of the warden (the beginning of a tiresome show of law enforcement being totally inept). He exits into a helicopter and Hardy misses him by seconds. This will be played out in every episode, as well as several dead people (most of them are FBI and lots of stabbing. It became tiresome, but I held out and watched the whole season which concluded last night because Kevin Bacon is a good actor.
Who on this show gave the ok to light the show the way they do? Regardless of them being in a dark room, why does it have to be so dark the viewer can't see anything? There is a big fight scene at the end, but I had no idea what was happening because I couldn't see anything. This has been going on all season.
For my amusement, I could not stop reading online reviews of the season finale. I have been laughing out loud all day. I have to share some of my favorite lines. It's clear that I am not the only one to find that that show lost it's way early in it's first season. It has been renewed by Fox.
Sweet Claire is dislocated herself, waking in a dark room that shouldn't surprise her because hey, everything in the set design is dark.
Weston [an FBI agent], convinced they don't have to play by Joe's rules, utters perhaps the finest line of the series thus far: "WE CAN CHANGE THE STORY." (If right after this you screamed at your television "WE CAN CHANGE THE CHANNEL," then tweet me so we can become best friends.)
Bodies move around in space (I really do apologize but I can't see anything on this show) until somehow, someway, Hardy and Joe's tussle lands them in a boathouse full of gas tanks.
THERE SHE IS, HARDY, THERE'S YOUR CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND STABBING YOU NOT IN THE BACK BUT RIGHT IN THE STOMACH OH HOW DID WE MISS THAT ONE.
Are you surprised that law enforcement didn’t rise en masse and demand that the second season of The Following be killed for portraying all cops as mentally slow and unable to hit a target?
Ryan goes to the address that Joe described in the book. There he finds Emma and gets syringed in the neck. Because he’s an idiot.
Richard Brody pays tribute to Roget Ebert in this New Yorker piece. It's worth reading for Roger's thoughts on what it takes to make a film and what a filmmaker puts into her/his work. Being able to appreciate what goes into making a film, is probably what made him so good at critiquing them.
Every obituary I've read about Phil Ramone talks about the artists he worked with which is long and illustrious. Of course there is Billy Joel; Phil's first production with him was The Stranger. That album was the beginning of catapulting Joel into music legend status. Joel has always given Phil credit for his work. Phil was mainly engineering at that point in his career. The Stranger was one of many in his string of big time producer credits. Phil was behind the board for the famous duet records of Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. He has numerous Grammys.
I've yet to read an article that mentions his short lived record company N2K Encoded Music. That's how I know Phil. I was managing the band mini-king, who passed up a deal with Columbia Records to sign with Phil and his new label. The label was all about new technology, which always interested Phil. Their office was on Wall Street. What? They needed to be in a building that was equipped with the latest technology and the Wall Street building had it. N2K had their own online music seller: Music Boulevard. This was 1997.
Phil signed on to produce mini-king's first record. The band was schooled and influenced by the great 60's and 70's pop songs, so working with Phil was a dream come true. The band's founding member Michael LaMorte remembers working with Phil.
While he was completely comfortable in his own skin, he could sense any sort of discomfort that most artists tend to have - especially before making a record, and would remedy this by describing the studio, or a place you have only read about - in great detail just to let your mind wander, thus putting you at ease. Not many people have a gift like that. Sort of a soothing/descriptive way about Phil. I learned so much from him - I wish every artist could work with someone like Phil at some point in their career.
Back Cover mini-king unreleased album
The band and Phil recorded at Sony Studios. The record was completed. We hired a stylist. The band took publicity shots and the album was suppose to come out on a Tuesday. Monday we got word the label, cut staff and was restructuring, which was one way of saying the label would no longer exist in a short time. That week's Billboard Magazine had a full page ad on the back cover promoting the album. The biggest loss was that mini-king did not make another album and the Phil Ramone produced record never was officially released. (Listen to 3 tracks from the album on Reverb Nation.) The good news is Michael LaMorte is still playing music under the name Miguelito LaMorte, scoring animated projects (The Rattles) and is getting ready to unleash his film project Superstitious.
Phil was upbeat and had fantastic stories to tell. He lived and breathed music and then shared it with us.
Related Note: I watched the documentary Family Band: The Cowsills Story on Showtime. Ironically their first big hit The Rain, The Park and Other Things was recorded at A and R studios in New York. Phil Ramone owned A and R Studios.
Chances are you are British if you saw Joy Division live. They had a tour of the US planned, but they never made it here, another short lived band-span (just like the Sex Pistols). I don't even think the band existed for 3 years.
Peter Hook's book (I had to say that), Unknown Pleasures does a great job of capturing the exciting, but limited time he lived as a member of Joy Division. I felt like I had a bird eye's view of what it's like to be a 20 year old in a band gaining momentum in England in the late 70's. Read this book to get insight into their recording process, the trials and tribulations of performing live (when a show wasn’t cancelled) and the dynamics of a band.
Peter owns his behavior. He lets his immature self shine through. I think a lot of people forget just how young and inexperienced these musicians were. It was interesting reading this book back to back with Rotten. They occur in the same time period and they were the same age when starting their bands. In the case of Joy Division, they had a manager who cared and got them an exceptional record deal even by today’s standards. (The band’s royalty rate was 58% to Factory Records 42%. The band didn’t get an advance, but retained financial and creative control.) We all know that The Sex Pistols manager Malcolm MacLaren didn’t have a clue and no one saw any money. Not that the members of Joy Division got rich from record sales. Money came later.
There is plenty in the book about Ian Curtis, the band’s lead singer who suffered from epileptic seizures and killed himself on the eve of the band’s US tour. Ian underplayed his illness and band members went along with him. They just wanted to play music to make enough money to quit their day jobs.
Martin Hannett, their record producer believed for a record to have a lasting effect and impact it has to have clarity and separation. Joy Division’s records certainly have that. Originally Peter and Barney hated the sound of their album Unknown Pleasures. They wanted it harder and harsher, sounding more punk, which was hitting its peak at that time. Martin had an interesting way of recording the drums: which was one drum at a time, meaning the snare drum part was recorded by itself, the bass drum part by itself, etc. I can’t imagine the music having the same feel or a musician being able to play that way. That being said, Martin definitely carved out a distinct sound for the band.
There is a thread of humor in Unknown Pleasures. Peter in a typical British way takes a piss on everything including himself. Apparently Martin wasn’t a fan of his and he describes Martin’s feelings about being in the studio. “He used to get pissed off with us, especially me and Barney; we were about as welcome as a dog at a bowling alley.” It should be noted that Martin was an eccentric.
There does seem to be many similar band experiences in 1970’s England (mainly in the Manchester area). This is what I’ve taken away from reading these memoirs.
Apparently no one properly drives a car in England.
Practical jokes were constantly played on each other. I read a lot of “let’s jape their room” or “jape their bus”. Jape is archaic for an act of mischief. We need to revive the word.
Bands experienced lots of cancelled shows, whether it was due to band reputation or circumstances. I doubt that either Joy Division or The Sex Pistols put in their 10,000 hours. There wasn’t enough time and venues were limited.
There is a lot of recap and redundancy in the book. It almost reads like a self-help book in that each chapter has a timeline review. It’s filler. I could have done without it. If you’re a die-hard fan of the band, you will love Peter for writing an anecdote on every song. Peter put me in his shoes and I think that’s what made this book such a good read.
On a packaging note: If you are old enough to remember Joy Division when they were a band, you might get this reference. The book looks like a 3/4" video tape.
If you loved Gilmore Girls (and how could you not?), you will like Bunheads. It's a bit Gilmore-lite, but the fast banter and great pop culture references are there, not to mention a few of the actors also.
Kudos to Bunheads for their choreography to the Sparks song I Predict, in miner hats no less!
I have to love a song with the lyrics You're gonna eat a bowl of chow mein and be hungry real soon, I predict.
Billboard is now incorporating YouTube plays in it's calculation for the Hot 100 charts. As the magazine editor Bill Werde says in a NY Times article, "there are lots of different ways a song can be a hit, and lots of different ways that the business can benefit from it being a hit.” Hello Harlem Shakes. It lands at #1.
In 2010 Greg Prato released MTV Ruled The World, The Early Years of Music Video. I just read it. I worked at MTV as an intern in it's beginning stages and it was exciting and fun to be a part of something that really had no direction except to get music played on TV. It was a new concept to meld music and TV on one network for 24 hours. That's a lot of airtime to fill up. Everyone was interested in it, but in the early 80's, very few people could watch it. I think it took over 2 years before anyone in NYC could actually see the network. I had an advantage as it was playing all day long in the offices.
The book opens with the cast of characters that you'll hear from and follows with quotes from those musicians and the employees of MTV. I'm not sure why Frank Stallone gets so much time in this book. I don't remember him being a staple of MTV. The quotes are grouped in chapters that cover the early days, fashion, black music, etc.
The most insight comes from those who worked there, this included Nina Blackwood and Alan Hunter who are the two of the original VJ's interviewed. I'd rather have read books by both of them. (Looks like a new book by the VJs comes out in May: VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave.) They have identical stories about realizing the impact of MTV when they take road trips to towns where people can actually watch the channel. They have no idea why crowds are gathering, only to find out it's to see them. They are stunned. They basically go unrecognized in New York during the first two years, but in the heartland, they are stars.
I had no idea that MTV financed Michael Jackson's Thriller Video. I was shocked to hear that CBS/Epic records told Michael that they already paid for two videos (Billie Jean and Beat It) and were not going to lay out the money for a third video. Here is another case of a major label not knowing how to spend the money judiciously. The way MTV got around the criticism of paying for a music video was to launch it as a big making of the video documentary. (MTV was a genius network in that up until this video, they never laid a dime out for their programming. The record labels paid for it.) I remember seeing the Billie Jean video in the offices. It had not been released yet. We were all glued to it. It was amazing. It was a game changer. MTV must have felt like they owed Michael and of course wanted the Michael train to keep on rolling. People would put on the channel waiting to see his videos. Hard to believe it now with any video at your fingertips.
There are others interviewed which made no sense to me except for maybe comic relief. Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedy's claims to have not watched the channel and has seen very few music videos, so his comments don't have much relevance. The book drags and this could be because there is no narrative to carry it though, just groupings of quotes. The cover artwork is questionable. Is that suppose to be LL Cool J? J Lo? It looks more like her, but maybe it's meant to be Madonna. I'm lost on who the dude with the beard is.
