Circus Magazine, Rock Immortals #1

I,...,OL-. S,.ORIES. FULL-COLOR Pl.-UPS .,he S-ears .,ha-e Shocked .. .,hrllliled .,he World poe 55037-7 55086-4 $2.50

DAVID BOWIE How His Bisexuality Stunned Society

BLACK SABBAYH Where Did They Get Their Secret Powers?

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Excerpts From New' Reveal

Historic Robert Plant Interview & Full-Color Poster

Plus BEAYLES. WHO • HEIIDRIX "ARC BOLAII. GRAYEFUL DEAD DEEP PURPLE • ELYOII • ELVIS It nore •••

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PETER BOYLE • BILL MURRAY as Dr. Hunter S. Thompson . "WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM" co-starring BRUNO KIRBY and RENE AUBERJONOIS • Screenplay by JOHN KAYE • Music by NEIL YOUNG Produced and Directed by ART LINSON A ~.!..~~~~!2s!.~~~ R ";~::;::l:w..:::", STARTS APRIL 25th AT SELECTED THEATRES NEAR YOU

/!;JIJ~?I REO '--_ _ _ _ _....1

SPEEDWAGON

A SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S EDITION, TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING.

REO SPEEDWAGON'S "A DECADE OF ROCK AND ROLL 1970 TO 1980:' FEATURING " ROLL WITH THE CHANGES'; " RIDIN' THE STORM OUT," "TIME FOR ME TO FLY " AND MORE GREAT HITS•

. RELIVE THE EXPERIENCE, ON EPIC RECORDS AND TAPES. Buy it ~ EnJOY it ,lifetime. RecoI"dedmus!C is your best entertainment Ylllue. &nd o.rec1IOfl: John &lruck ~ment Co.

Ma~lTIff'It

"Eplc~

Is, trademark of CBS II'IC. C 1980 CBS Inc

;J I Black Sabbath Dabblers with the occult , they ex·

plored a dark vision at high volume-(Richard Hogan)

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Grace Slick & Jefferson Airplane An exclusive interview with Grace wherein she recounts her old days with the Airplane and explains why she split---(David Fricke)

The Beatles

The classic supertrio's sound lives on, even if the band doesn't.

See them, hear them, touch them, remember them

The Grateful Dead

Led Zeppelin

The trippy wizards of San Francisco were there when the power was flower.

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Robert Plant recounts their earty

flights in a vintage interview(Richard Hogan)

HISTORIC LED ZEPPELIN POSTER

Traffic Early fast-lane life with Stevie Winwood , Chris Wood , Oave Ma-

son and Jim capaldi.

The Rollina Stones

Jeff Beck

A look back at boys

Rowdi ness , outrage and a great

rOCks classic bad

imagination for guitar playing were among his inimitable traits .

Jimi Hendrix "The Star Spangled Banner" will never be the same because of him. Neither will rock-(Oavid Fricke)

Deep Purple They were masters of the kind of rock that shaUered eardrums(Richard Hogan)

Jim Morrison & The Doors

Blue Oyster Cult Exploits of a thinking-man's version of macabre musicians.

A look back at Morrison with exclusive excerpts from a forthooming biography.

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Grand Funk Railroad

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Roger Daltrey of the Infamous Who, p. 36

Janis Joplin The brief, fiery ride of this classic rock mama-(Carl Arrington)

Marc Bolan Notes on this poetJperfonner who

banged a gong and got it on --(David Fricke)

Elvis Presley There was nothin' hound dog about The King

58

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AM Sonic Boom

Do you remember rock radio?

Then you'll recall The Monkees, Mamas & Papas , Beaell Boys, Herman Hermit , Paul Revere & The Raiders , The Young Rascals and MORE-(David Fricke)

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G Mick Jagger of the Stones mugs, p. 42

ENTERTAINMENT. MUStC AND Publisher-Editor in Chief Gerald Rothberg Managing Editor An Director Associate Editors Special Features Concen Guide Associate An Director Contributing Illustrator Design Correspondents New York

St. Louis Washington Contributing Photographers Boston Chicago Los Angeles

Was ever there a star so gloriously arrayed?

New York

New York Dotls They were punks before there was a word for it.

7I

David Bowie There was method to his artful madness that made him a strange legend--(Carl Arnngton)

Alice Cooper The nightmare is Dver, but seems

merely an amusing dream in retrospect-(Carl Arrington)

Back Pages

Washington Europe Office Manager Staff

Associate Publisher Circulation Publicity Advenising Director Advt. Coordinator Display Classified Classified Western Sales Representative

Remembering great moments in rock history-(Lou O' Neill Jr,)

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David Bow/e 's glittery career. p.71

CIRCUS ROCK IMMORTALS # 1 is published by Circus Enterprises Corporation . 115 East 57 SI. , New York, N.Y. 10022. Entire conlents Copyrigh t @ 1980 by Circus Enterprises Corporation. All rights re served . Reproduction or u sewilhou l written pe rmission 01 editorial or picl orial matter in any l orm is prohibited. Printed in U .S.A.

Musical Instruments Editor Oavld Bowie by Barry Schultz Janis Joplin by Waller BredellPhoto Trends Ouy Osbourne by Don Hawryluck

Carl Arrington Lonnie Heller David Fricke Richard Hogan George Nobbe Renee Ford Jeffrey Salzer Kimble Mead Milton Glaser Shel Kagan Scott Cohen Lou O'Neill Jr. John Maher Michael J. Weiss

Paul McAlpine Kwasniewski/Star Jeff Mayer/Rainbow Neal Preston Glenn Brown Christopher Makos Lynn Goldsmith Robin Platzer Mark Weiss Michael Putland Ebet Roberts Garry A. Tausinger Robert Sherbow Peter Mazel Roslyn McKofke Lorelle Alexander Derek Freedman Eric Lerner An Ford Gerald Levine Michael D. Beinner/ Localmedia Dennis S. Page Lani Zarief Mitch Herskowitz Marianne S. Ettisch Rick Edman The Patti s Group 1800 North Highland Hollywood , CA 90028 (213) 462·2700 John Stix

THE ACID AGE

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Grace Slick & Jefferson Airplane: Some bodies to love

by David Fricke

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hey :-;ClY lifp begin:, at 40.

Grace SliCk-wh.o turned 40

la;-;t Ocwber-:-;a\'::: that [01' HeYer ~lopi)cd.

The :-:clf-de:-:cl'ibed "(:ombinalion mus i c ia nl ~o ng \\' r j lC' 1'1:-; l' III i-to n t c rt a inc 1'1 pm'liai a~~holc" from Palo A ilo. California alrcctd,\' ha:-: behind he r a turbulent decade :-;(:aiin).{ oclaye:-: and ruffling- e1'tabli:-:hmenl feather:, a:-:. the face. voice. and acidic public LOllb'1lC of the Jeffel'::,ol1 Airplane and it:-: commercial mutat ion Jeffcl':,on Star::;hip. I t \\"a~ (;1"<1(':c':-; :-:.ong:-: "Some body to L o\'e" and "While Rabbi t"-\\,I'itten durin g hpr prcviou:-;

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tenure with the Great SOCif'lV-lhat look the Airplane LO the T op T el; in 1~ 6 1 CIR CUS

and :::et the p:-,y chedel ic ball rolling for a fa:-,cin<twd young Ame ri ca ready u,:-,hed what \\'a~ le ft of it~ inh i bition~.

Th e for me r G race Wing ha:-, ~pent mo.:-'t of he r life .:-'hedding her inhibition.:-' and challenging tho~e of the people arou nd her . In 1959. ~he boldly walked into th e ba~ement unite of a blatk 1'('cord cumpan.'· in San Fl'an ci:::co and auditioned fo r a contract by .:-'inJ.,ring "Summe r time" from P or,qy (Ii/d Hel'i8 (,' 1'11 be t they we re jU.:-'l crack in g up").

S he asked her fi l'.:-'t hu :-;band .J e rry Sl ick to malTv her. tol d Paul Kanlllel' ~he wanted 'to have a baby by him. and admits even no\\' th at '; if I \\'alk into a r oom and :$ee Sk ip I J ohn~ol1 . he r hu~-

band I ~ i ll i ng the re and there i:::n't enough going all . if I' m high e nough, I'll jll~t about throw 3n a~ht l'ay again st the \\'all j ll~t to j!ct ~()mC'lhing go ing. " i\ ow eme rging con fid entl~r from a ~elf-impo~ed reti rement following her ~to r m'y exit from the Sla r~h ip in '78.

Gnlcc S li ck ha :-, mal'ked t he end of one period \\'ith the publication of Grace . .·Nick: A Hiography by Barbara Rowes and the :::tart of another with her new ~ ol o LP Dreams ( RCA). Di smis~ i ngher '73 album .Hwdwle a~ "an cxpe l'imel1l ," 0" 1I01l/(>II/O !.:;" 9: ··11·.... (' uf/ .... l ip(l lin g I /n",1 10 h(> (' itlu' r dl'(Ill'i"9 01' It/a!.:i''9 IIII/ sic."

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Th e Airplane .'J lrikelf a clnssic pose-lrom left , (;roce. Jorma, Marty

she expresses more enthusiasm about Drelt1ns, an eclecti c affair t hat features

her in exceptional voice on a punkish rocker, an "MGl\'l -K ismet" spectacul3l', a three-year-old song she calls "the closest I ever come to a ballad ," and an exotic Spanish item called "EI Diablo," he's kicked her notoJi ous alcoholism, has retained all her curv es despite a "compulsive" fondness for Black Forest cake, and joyously adm its enjoying playing mother to nine-year-old China.

Circus: After you quit th e Starship in '78 during the German tour, you pretty mu ch disappeared from the face of rock music. Where did you go?

Grace Slick: The Starship got kind of tangled up and I sort of fired myself. I thought, "Oh Chlist, th e music business stuff is so crazy and it's all falling apart, so I'm just going to go home and knit. " So 1 just stayed home for about six months-I did so me cooking, look Chi· na to school, which I still do.

Bu t it's constipating for me, I want to be either ch-awing or maki ng music. I couldn't stay away.

Circus: Paul Kantner said recentl y that you attend ed some Stal'ship reheal'sals while they we re working with singel' Mickey Thomas with the idea of maybe joining in.

Slick: The way Kan t nel-'s house is set up-th ey practice there-there are t hese stai l'S you can sit 011 dow n in the room where they play. And J sat on the steps for fiv e hours everyday . But I could never get on down and sing with them because they sound ed fin e the way they were. It wasn't them; it was me. It was like looking at a puzzle that was already done and t hin king you're the missing piece wh en thel'e isn1t one.

While I wa ' fa rting around being a 8 / CIRCUS

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housewife for six months , they were becoming a unit.

Circus: Now you're embar king on a full-tim e solo car'eer , but at the same ti me you' re the subject of a new biography. And th e thing about a biogl'aphy written about so meone you I' age is that it suggests t hat your best yea rs are al ready behind you.

Slick: Yeah, it does and that annoyed me. Because the thing ends in Hamburg, but the problem is t hat t he book ends in a fi er'y ru bble [after Grace quit the band, the Starship cancelled a FI'ankfurt show and Sloo,OOO wOI·th of equipment was destroyed by rioting fansl. It's like here's this old burned·up piece of something.

Ci r cu s! During t he intervi ews fol' t he book, did you have any t roubl e remembeJing old times'?

Slick: Oh Christ, yeah. I'm amnesiatic.

I don't I'emem ber my name unl ess 1 look at my driv er's license, Circus: But did you ever get a feeli ng of pain in conjuring up memories you'd prefer to forgeL-the al coholism, car accidents, lovers, bad ba nd scenes?

Slic k: Not really. Well , maybe undm'neath. Bu t she Ithe au t hor] wou ld say :;tuff like "When t his tenible even t happened, how did you feel about it?" So I'd say, at the time I didn't really care, Someone said it makes me sound cold.

But it wasn't that I was cold- I really didn't c",·e. If you have a bottle of scotch and a gram of co ke and a brtly says "I'm leaving you fol' Sally ," I say 1 don't give a shit 'cause I don't. Go ahead, go away, I'll crank up th e amplifier and play some music. I t's not tha t I was cold of heart; I was j ust numb-a lot of lhe time.

Circu s: Now that you've kicked the bottle, how do you loo k back on your

past excesses, the alcohol and th e dJ1.1gs?

Slick: When I first started , we were slamming our parents and the '50s generation, saying " You're hanging on to the old stuff, you're afraid of change, just a bunch of old lumps sitting there."

And it occurred to me in t he last three or four years that I'm doing t he same t hing-" Let's all take (h-u gs and get high and be hedonistic, fu ck responsibility." And that doesn't work all th e time.

That me- me- me is ni ce for a short period of time, but I was trying to hang on to that" Let's just be high forever" attitude. I didn't bum myself out to the extent that anything went wrong physically, but I saw that coming.

Circus: But you did have two very serious auto accidents. Didn't that indicate to you t he end produ ct of what you were driving yourself to?

Slick: No. I t ri ed to fool myself. Forth e first one, I fibrtll'ed it was foul' o'clock in the mOl'l1ing, it was raining, I hi t oil and water on t he road. And I'm not considering the fact that I'd been drinking and snorting coke for ten houl's. I'm real good at fooling myself-forever.

Circus: Were you consciously aware of the fact that you were an alcoholic?

Slick: Yeah, and what I did was say "I'm also Norwebrian and have black hair. So whal'! I'm an alcoholic and what does an alcoholic do? Drink alcohol."

That's what I did for a long time. until I started to get th rown in jail, ye lling at cops and waking up in the mOl'lling thinking, "That's stupid. Okay, so you're an alcoholic, but it's not fun anymore. Just stop light there," Cir cu s: DUling your time in the Airplane and St",·ship. did you eve r feel like a role model, the liberated example

THE ACID AGE of th e hippie ethic the media mad e you out to be?

Slick: That's a lot of that '60s thing.

There 'Was a whole ethic and th e people who were in th e media-in rock & roll, politics-the people who I'ead about it would make th eir judgments and follow it to a ce rtain ex tent. Yeah, probably some of th e stuff we did at that point was emulated on ... it's too bad, too , because a lot of that stuff you hang on to and you think it's neve r gonna change.

Part of t he '60s-a lot of it was joyous and th ere was a lot of naive thinking, this is gonna keep on and get better and better. But I read The Decline and F all afthe R oma1l Empi re and kne w better.

E verything rolls uv er itself. Somebody's gonna come and roll right over us-and th e '70s rolled right ovel' the '60s like a big blob.

Circus: Ye l a 10l of th e battles the Airplane had wilh RCA wel'e sy mbolic of the arlisti c freedom }'ock bands were pushing fOl'.

Slick: I re member Paul Kantner in '70, '71 had a line in a so ng that said "Jesus balled a lady." And he talked to t he

t hen-president of RCA for about four hours everyday long di stance to New York about wheth er that line should be in the song, It was more spor't for him, for us to see just how far you can get away with it.

I wrot e a song t hat said "Seven inches of pleasure/Seven inches going home/ Somebody must have measured down the old bone." I was waiting. I 'wa.nted RCA to call up and say something, jW'5t so I could tell th em I was talking about a pearl-handed .38. I was just waiting and th ey didn' t say anything.

Circus: Can you draw any paraliel between th e new wave and the revolutionary atmosphere of the '60s?

Slick: I see it more in myself than in anyone else I was with because the people I was with were dope smokers and pleasant for th e most part, They were n' t going around being obj ectionable on pUI1)ose, So when th e pun k- rock t hing started , people jumping up and down on each other in piles seemed sort of normal to me because I'd been doi ng that for years on pU'1)ose, for no other reason than "Why not?"

Circus: How do you feel what you' re doing with a recol'd like Dreams relates to the '80s? Who are you trying to reach?

Slick: I'm just t rying to make music and talk through some form of communi cation between human beings that is recognizable. The thing about kids saying "Oh, fuck everybody else, he's a boring asshole," well, you hav e to do that to concentrate on your own t hing and learn it and get it , hav e it imp};nted on your head so you hav e your own form. Then soon as you know your own form , you can start. pu tting feelers out for other people's stuff. And the other things are less offensive to you.

There's a contrabassoon on one of the new songs. Te n years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of putting a contrabassoon on a record because the guy behind it would be a square asshole wit.h a Wall Street J ournal in his lap, He still reads t.he Wall Street J01t1"na,l" but what comes out of his contrabassoon has nothing to do with reading the Wall Street Journal. It's not my pl"Oblem what he reads.

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THE RESIDENTS

Cream: Three wheels of fire

GINGER

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THE ACID AGE

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re am \\"<1 5 a s tal'mak e l" s dream: Th e t rio had a mystic pop~art look. but played and sang with authority and bite.

Guitarist Eric Clapton. late of the Bluesbreakers, crossed A Iber t King blue~ with the radiant image ofa British While Hope. Bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce and hi s writing partner Pete

III / 967. Cream (Jack Bruce. Eric Clapioll , Gil/ger Bak er) pioll eered th e power-trio con figura tion , (In set) Blu es revival fa ded alld psy(-h ec/elia arrived, aud Cream ae/opted a ll artier look (or the lim e.

(Left)

Brown (not a member of Cream) wrote love -and -drug-d l'enched numbers ("Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room") that were hi ts with d rum rnajOl's and English majors alike. Peter "Ginger" Baker drummed with COI1trolled fury and shook his red locks like an ep ileptic.

Together with the Hendl;x Experience, Cream virtually defined the band genre that carne to be known as t he power u·io. A testament to the band's staying powe l' was the reissue of their studio albums in 1977-rnore than seven years after the band's demise. 0

- THE ALLMAlIMIIIERlIAU. GUILD 1·312 • last year, a couple of the Allman Brothers heard " Rook" Goldflies playing in a Florida bar. That's how he became the newest, youngest member of the Allman Brothers Band. David plays a hard·driving, progressive style. " I like the feel of the B·302AF," he says. " The maple neck is well·proportioned, the balance is very good, and the weight is right. It's comfortable to play--sitting or standing!' Something else David likes is the ash body, with its extra sustain. The fretless finger· board is a natural, because he originally studied violin .

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The Grateful Dead: Dark stars

T

he Grateful De"ld had a great idea: They would start their own r eco rd label and t he product would be deli ver ed in Good Humor t rucks. Toofuckingfa l'oll t,

12 1 CIRCUS

eh? Wi ser minds p revail ed , howev er , and th e Good H umOI' t ru cks id ea remained mer ely that.

Good Humor is a lot of what the Grateful Dead were all a bout. T hey

remain t he qu intessent ia l hippi e jam band made up of a kind of fl oating crapga me of mu sicians , t he most conslant players of wh ich were gu ita ri st! ~'U ru J e r ry Ga r cia, bass-playe r Ph il

THE ACID AGE

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Garda (obove) form ed th e earliest

illcama tioll of wha l became tire Graleful Dead afl er he gol oul of Ih e ormy ill 1959. AI l eft , he ix sh oll.UI peliormitlg at otle of th e /Jefld's mflruillOlI gigs with flob Wei,. (lml /lOll " Pigpen" ,llt路K emall .

Lesh, dl j'thm gui tari :st Bob Weir, piano playe r Ke it h Godchaux, vocali 5t Donna Godchaux. pe rcu:,:,ionisl Mi ckey Hart. drumme r Bill Kreutzma nn, ol'gani:;t and Hon "Pigpen" McKe rhan(wh o di ed in 1973).

The gl'Dup wa s ha tched in th e ferti lc fi eld!" of San Franci::;co durin g t he Haig ht-A ::;hbury heyday whcn add be-

came more t h~tll something t o be neut ralized by H-O- L-A- I-D-S. After ki cking around in ::;uch varied in carnati ons a:s Th e Zcx:liacs, Moth er McC ree'::; Upt.oown Ju g C hamp i o n~, and th e Warloc ks , th e Dead coale:-iced into a reiativ e l~' ::; table unit. Th ey became f'am ou::; as t he house band for t he Ken Kesey's drug cro wd immor t al ized in TUIll

Wolfe's volume The E leclric Kool-Aid

Acid Test .. 路 Adopting th e <ln t i-matel'ialis m I'ampant in th e late '60s. the Dead played lots of free gigs with !"uch fellow Bay Area stalwarts as J efferson Airp lane , Country J oe & the Fish and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Th ey became known for th eir marathon jams.

CIRCUS / 13

THE ACID AGE

Th e Dead ill full vo;ce-lrom left , B ob Weir, /l ow-departed earlh moth er DOl/flU Godchallx, arid J erry Garcia .

What t hey co mlnitt ed to viny l, howeve)', Ilever really capt ured t he spiri t of the band until they issued t heil' in esistabl e li ve set-what else?-L'ive Dead.

Other classics are A nthem of the Sun , A oxomoxoa and A merican Beauty.

The Dead's mu sic, mu ch of whi ch has been created by t he composing tea m of

Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter , mixes chemical metaphors with neo- mysticism and dope humor deliver ed along a 14 / CIRCUS

winding mus ical t rack. The resul ts ar e gleefully excessive. Bob Weir su mmarized theit:. phi losoph y saying, " Life is a

series of im provisations."

Th ough the Dead conti nue to issue albums sporadically , it is as a performing band that t he gr oup main tain s its r eputation , Flashier gr oups se ll mOl'e recor ds, but the Dead keep on t ru ckin' in a my ri ad of ways, Ma ny of the pri ncipa ls have issued so lo al bu ms , t hey have

coll ective ly been responsible fo r at least two mov ies (A ngel Foreva, Fm'ever A ngel a nd Gmtejid Dead) and have kep t their t hum bs in a variety of musical pies, -Carl A1Tington K eilh Godchallx, shown here at Ihe k eyboard with bass-player Phil Lesh said of the Dead, "When fm et th em , J knew these were people J could trust my head with, ..

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the editors . . new book (8'/" n ) ~60 best al1_,,.;"I,on Weekly. wildest Rock

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and full the Year and I k!he and W h'te I ge . ludes posta hotos in b ac p il $5.95 (which Inc ney order to: '" Ma . . heck or mo handling) '~ ~ox 265; I ~'''NJS Weekly , 54

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eXCiting Photos o f YOUr la.Or/le rOck an PerformerS_in the" WII"eSI, IreakieSI and Weak moments est Pletel

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ROCK N' ROll TODAY,

BUGS ~

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From Casablanca Record & FilmWorks

THE ACID AGE

Sieve Willwood (len ) and Chris Wood of Trafflc: with Jim Capaldi, th ey were "a batld with lalellt to bumo "

Traffic: Sparks of well-heeled boys

by Richard Hogan

xpectations ran high in the

word s, as 'more of a mood than a sound.'

summer of '70 when word

Togethe!' they brewed a druggy, heady

reached th e States that Traf-

poti on . . . the fantasy atmosphere they weav e . . is fearful ih '40 ,000 Headmen,' despairing in 'No Time to Live.'

Th e mood grows out of Ste vi e's voice, organ and guitar and Chri s' flute and saxophone, while Jim's <houms ... serv e mainly to steady the flow." Another re vi e wer wrote s imply, "Traffic is a band with talent to burn ."

Those who went to hear Traffic at

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fic was reunited and back on th e road. Stev e Willwood , Jim Capaldi

and Chris Wood had sCOI'ed on record with Mr, Fantas y, Traffic and Last Exit, but American s had rare ly had a chance to hear their jazz-inflected Blitis h rock live. John BU1'leycorn Must Die was about to change all that.

With Blind Faith behind him , Winwood needed help playing new mate l;ai , and soon the same three mu sician s

whose pictures had graced that longago cover of the mys teriou s M '1', Fantas y we re touling once more . In th e July Circus Magazine, Phil Ardel'Y wrote in

his Traffic ,'eport: "With Chris and Jim (and , previ ously, Dave Mason), all of

the m boys from Birmingham,

tevi e

experim ented wi th a mixture of blues and jazz that came ou t, in his own

places like Philadelphia's Elechic Factory weren't di sappointed. Mixing old hits with ne w numbers like "Freedom Rider" and the sparse ly-accompanied "John Barley corn," Traffic tightened its hold on its fan s and head ed s tloaight into four years of record s and tourS before di spersing in front of th e final red light.

The jump from the tiny Renai ssance club in Ne w Jersey (,68) to the mon-

st!'ous Philly Spect!'um (,73) had been a

quantum one, and a memorable measure of th e band's growth and blilliance over th e course of a now-los t era.

-Richard Hogan Traffic Records M,', Fantasy (United Artists) Traffic Last Exit John Barleycorn Must Die Welcome to the Canteen The Low Spa'rk of High Heeled Boys (Island) Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory Traffic on the Road When /lte Eagle Flies (Asylum) Recording as Jim Capaldi: Oh How We Danced (Island), Short CutDraw Blood (Antilles) (ce!'tain tracks only) Recording as Steve Winwood: Steve Winwood, Island Records 9494: "Time is Running Out" 0 CIRCUS I 17

NDe Ro,jio'"YounclA,jultl Nerwork

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THOROGOOD& ROCKIN' RHYTHM &BLUES. el back to basics with

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George Thorogood and Ihe Destroyers. Cookin' chord by chord, Thorogood makes his music a celebration.

He gives new life to old stan-

dards by Chuck Berry. Bo Diddley and others. Gut tearing blues.

Hard driving rock and stunning moves on the slide guitar.

Joined by Jell Simon on drums and Billy Blough on bass they form a rhythm section that drives you there and back, An exclusive concert recorded live for The Source by EDRI Media, Hear "Who Do You Love".

"Johnny B, Goode". and "One Bourbon. One Scotch. One Beer", Plus more from their latest release on Rounder Records "Move It On Over", Foot stompin' boogie. Basic blues. And hardcore rock 'n' roll.

Their music. On their terms.

OUf gain.

The weekend of April 18th, 19th and 20th . On more than 200 radio stations throughout the country. Check your newspaper for specific time and station.

Prelster Beck mvages his Simi. ('fop) With a frielldly look Ihat exceeds kindlless. B eck bids gOOllby 10 blu e,~ .

(Bottom) S tevie Wouder, J eff & Cozy Powell al Electric Lady sessioll.

Jeff Beck: Wild & wired hen rock's bad-boy guitarist left the Yardbirds, it was only to go on to something even more tempe rame ntal-t he se lf-titl ed J eff Bec k Group. Beck's outfit signaled t he rise of th e guitarist as focal point in late '60s bands, The J eff Beck Group went through a personn el shuffle before settling on the classic line-up whi ch tou red t he States and cut the searing '69 al-

W

bum, Beck-Olu : singer Rod Stewat't, bassist ROil Wood and drummer Tony New man 'alongside J eff.

A madman on stage, Bec k would altel'l1ate fastid ious pedal and feedback effects wit h more hisu'i onic moves in which he'd scrape his stlings across any object t hat stru ck his perv erted fancy, Highspots of the group's live repertoire included "Morning Dew," " r evel'," "0)' Man Ri ver," "You Shook Me," and "I

Ain't Superstitious."

With Stewart's departure at the close of the decade, t he Beck Group was never t he same. After more personnel changes and a stin t with 1'im Bogert and Carmine Appice, Beck crossed over to the funk路fusion scene, Sick as they sometimes were, his rocking innovations are more immor tal t han his tantrums. Truth and Beck-Ola are neve r to be forgotten.

- Richm路d Hogan CIRCUS ' 19

HEAVY METAL

fjo rd wall t ed to ad,

"but som eoll e gave me (l

job ill (l bal/d." Lo,.d','i "OW w ith Whit eslI(lke.

Deep Purple: Who do they think they were!

by Richard Hogan

B

lackmore, Lord, Gillan, Glover and Paice-their names made them sound like a firm of stodgy banisters.

But t he rocking quintet that arose in 1969 from th e ashes of the ori ginal Deep PUll1ie and th e slirvivol's of Episode Six was anything but stodgy . The band went on to make fiv e immortal albums that threa tened even the Jeff Beck Group in the hard rock sweepstakes of the day- before.illness , fatigue and di sputes over style put an end to th e perfect line-up.

The classic Purple fu sed the baroquetinged organ of Jon Lord with the bluesbased guitar of his boyhood frie nd, Ri tchie Blackmore. The notoriou s Blackmore, moody and unpredictable onstage, was a quiet man given to castles, cocktails and seances when not performing. Bandmates Ian Gillan (the 20 1 CIRCUS

scream ing, emotiv e singe r) and Roge r Glover (bassist and co-producer), who both wrote songs, hooked up with the others after Episode Six broke up and they became available to fill the boots of Purple cha r termen Rod Evans and Nic Simpe r. PUI-ple's cireamy mu sical di rect ion soon gave way to a penchant fol' hammering, hard -rock hits: "Bhtck Night," "S moke on the Water, " " Woman from Tokyo ." and (ov erseas) th e chilling "Child in Time. " In such material Purple found its forte, and broke so big in America that even after Gillan's departure in 1973 , the band (with new singer David Cove rdale) was able to cut loose at huge stadium s and fest ivals like the explosive Summ er J am, televised in 1974.

The last foul' Purple albums-Bul'/I, Stormb"ingel', Made in Europe and Come Taste lhe Ba ltd-moved Cover-

dale and bassist Glenn Hughes into the spotlight anclleaned in a funkie r mu sical direction. PU I-p le went under in 1976, yet its spiri t lives on not only in record s and print but in the performances of its s urvivors. (The late guitarist Tommy Bolin is th e tragic exception.) Th e Ian Gillan Band tours and record s in EuI'ope and Japan. Glenn Hugh es has gone solo, while J on Lord and David Coverdale are with White::;nake , the bloodcu rdling bluesmeis ters of UA Recol'c! s, Ritchie Blackmore and Rogel' Glover are paired once more in Rainbow, whose recent single HAll Night Long" \\'a..; a Top Five British s mash.

Circus Magazine interviewed Deep PU1-ple while Lord and Blackmore wel'e (;uitllr-demo/ishcl' IJI(l(:klllul'c, wh o

IIO W

lealis Rainbow, said of his (If/tic s, ,,' just like to

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off. "

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both with th e band. Some of the mu sicians' r C8j>on8cs to Qur questions, mad e befOl'c PUI-ple I'eached the zenith of its success, seem ironic or modest when cons idered in the light of later chart and festival t riumph s.

C irc u s: What wa s th e original intention behind the format ion of Deep PUI'pie?

Jon Lo rd: To find five people who knew of each others' playing and enjoyed it. We started Olil doing othe r people's song::; our way, but soon found a need to gel heavi er .

Circus: Isn't it t ru e, Jon, that you were a Chlssical mu sician, and avoid ed playing r ock even du r ing t he " British Invas ion," wh en you lurn~d to jazz'!

Lord: I played classical music t ill I was 17. I lUrn ed on to rock, but only as a listener. I nevel" t.hought. I'd 1}lay it. I wanted to be an actor, but someone offer ed me a job in a blues ba nd lthe Arlwoods J a nd I g rab be<J it. because of th e moncy.

Circus: How do you feel about losing your cont ract with Te t rag rammaton '!

22 / CIRCUS

CI'US!WV e ,., Japl", lCW~

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for

/Jeep />urple.

Lord: We wound up with Warne ,'s by default.

Circ u s: What was Episod e Six like?

Ia n G illa n : T he most un orga nized band in r oc k & r o)) history.

C irc u s: Are your stage anti cs and tantrums a t,rimm ick?

Ritc hi e Blackmore: Ideadpan I I just like to show off.

C irc u s: Will you be enlisting a hi t p,'odu cer ?

Lord: T her e is nobody who can p rodu ce us but us. IThe com ment late r p roved t ru e of Rainbow, wh ich couldn't gel hits umil Glover joined Blackmore t o prod uce and wri te. I C irc u s: Wha t was the mU ::lical t urni ng point for Deep Plil-ple?

Lord: Once we s tat'ted w"iLi ng. t hings immediately fell togethe r.

Circ u s: Is n't it a paradox that such a technically proficie nt g roup should att ract such <1 teeny-bopper audie nce'!

Gillan: Ou r attilud e is that we don't care who we play for. We don't need to pl"Ove any thing. We co mpromise not one li ttle bit.

C irc u s: Your g reatest ::lingle U.S. exposure has probably been t hroug h the telev ised Summ er Jam. Why did you hav e s uch p roblems with that performa nce'! (host ility to promote r, lOp-billing feud) Blackmore: We wer e r ea lly pissed off about that whole brig, becau se t hey had all these came ras set about , and t he kids in th e audi ence couldn't see a t hing.

Th ey had paid their $ 15, and t her e we,'e all these ca mel'as in t.heir way , so I sta"ted smashing t hings up , :lkn ow, the usual.

C irc us: Do you hate to play Ame r ican concerts?

Blackmore: J used t o hate American audiences; J used to get s ick whe never I came over he re, Hu t now I've beb'1l1l to "eall y dig America. I used to hat e it, but they' re ou r fa ns. I love t hem now.

C irc u s: Would you eve r play someone el::le's mate"ial't Blac km ore: 1 d on't. kn ow whethe r I could play someo ne else's so ngs. l Blackmore la ter lU rned to Ru ss Ballard for "Since You 13een Gone ." I

Circ u s : I s there really a song included on Sto l'mbriugel' that you thought was ter rible'!

Blackmore: You tend to put out ,1 lillie bit of junk. The content of the music on this particular track isn't so hoI.,. I wrote the progression, unfOl·llIll<ltely . I didn't stick around to find out the title.

Circ u s: How much rehearsing does the band do?

Blackmore: We rehea rsed in a castle in Wa les fo r two 01' three weeks, but we had more ::;eances and game::; of football than we rehearsed.

Circ u s : Do ~'o u hav e trouble with Pur· pie's new, funkier style IBurn, Storm· bringerJ? .

Blackmore : I like ext remes·vel'Y hard music and classical prelly mu::;ic like Bach-and I don't like anything in be· twee n. I' m not Ion hung up on fu nky music. Funk ca n tend to get ted iou::;.

(Black more quit Purple soon after Storm bl·juger·s relea::;e; even with the addition of Tommy Bolin. t he band was neve r the same again.)

0

I~"rple,

(Top ) Roger Glover, Ritchie Blackmore, laft 1~(liCl', Olelow) laft Gillaft . Jot! Lord.

(;lIitarist Tomm.'l Bolill filled Blackm ore'." shoes itt th e elld. Bolill died of a dmy overdose ill 1976.

CIRCUS / 23

Presenti ng " U ndertow," the new album from Firefall.

It's everything you love about Firefal l. And more.

Firefall. "Undertow."

Ten solid tunes and the tightest playing ever. Straight-ahead, good music.

No-nonsense rock 'n' roll.

â&#x20AC;˘

On Atlantic Records and Tapes.

Includes the single, MH eaded for a Fall:'

Produced by Roo & Howard Albert

!'Of Fat Albert ProduCllon~.

Kyle l ehn,ng and FirefaH.

HEAVY METAL

E riC' IJloom flefl ) lIlI d /J Qlwld " 11m:!.: IJllllrm u " Iloese r do .<jix-.'1tri" y battle

(I"';

'h e dil1l(1x to every B OC .. llOW.

Blue Oyster Cult: Tyranny & mutation (with a knowing smile)

by David Fricke

B

lu e O,'iSler Cul t brought collegiate cool lO heavy metal and rock & roll has never been t he sam e. Like t he motorcycle club in "Transman iacon M. e." lha t dared to cross t he t hreshold of ph ysica l pa in in to psyc ho-te rr or (" We' re pain/we're st eel/we' I'e a pial of kni ves"), Blue Oyste r CUll drapes t heir sledge hamme r attack of guitars and

battering- ram rhythms wit h a melodrama tic c l ml ~ of black leather image ry and heal'l-stopping d read. It all sound s so easy on the hi t Cul t single "Don't F ear th e Reaper" or t he Tyranny and Mutation LP, but the Cules disti nctiv e brand of metalman ia wa s a long time fOl'gin '.

"The formativ e years was playing th ese ten ible bal's, " re minsced singer E I"ic Bloom in a Mal'ch '75 Circus Rav es

Magazine on the occasion of the release of On YouT FeelorOnYau,'rKnees. "By tenible 1 mean th ere would be fight s every night.

You know , li ke someone wou ld grab another guy and shove his head in the bass drum and start beating the pu lp out of him and we would start playing tunes like 'St reet F ighting Man ' and all the hard- edged tu nes we could think of. It seemed like

CIRCUS / 25

ClIlli ... ts. from lefl. !Jloom . /lo eser. AI !Jouc/lflrd. Lallier, .Joe 1I01I('//(/I'd-

this was where we were going, like this is what we wanted to do."

"We" at the t ime was Bloom, dmmmer AI Bouchard and his ba~s-playing brothe l' Joe, b'1.l.it<:ll'ist Alle n Laniel', and ~ ix- st rin g whiz Donald "Bu(.;'k Dhal'ma" Roese r. Working under t he unlikely nomb de mek Stalk Forrest Group (and before that, t he Soft \,yhite Underbelly), th ey had recorded (with shifting pe rsonnel) two unreleased albums for E lektl'<:I before signi ng with Columbia and releasing th e bdlliant Blue Oyster

C"U. Gilding their inst rumental menace with in ~iste nt meio{lies, black lyrical magic, and the id iosy ncra tic ideas of Sandy ly ri cist/prod uce r/ mi:lll<lge r Pearlman , the Cu lt caught both critics and headbange l's in t heir stylistic web, head li ning (.;'oncerts by 1974's Secret Treaties without benefi t of either a hit single 01' gold album. They were also 26 / CIRCUS

do th ey look

among t he first acts to incorpo rate laser light ~ how s in their co nce rts. Not bad for a bUil th of former Long I sland college stud ents who majored in enginee ring, romance languages, and-oh , yes- musk.

Separating the fan tasy from BOC's reality isn't all that easy, given the legends and sto ri es t ha t havl:! grow n up out of the ban d's history. These al'ej ust so me of th e facts as reported over t he years.

1) Sa nely Pea rlman d iscovered Roeser , AI Boucha rd , and Laniel' jamming at' StollY Brook U ni ve r ~ i ty on Long Isla nd. Deciding they'd make a good balld, he called lhem SOfl Wh ile U ncl erbelly.

2) After recording one album fOJ' Elekt ra an d play ing the Fillmore East as Soft White Und el'bell y, the band und envent a Pea rlman-supe rvised name change, Afte r th rowing out

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they

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Knife-wielding Scumbag and 1-2-3 Black Lighl, he sellied 0 11 Slalk FOlTesl Group. They I'econled another album , un released, from wh ich a single ("What is Quicksa nd ?"I"Al'thur Co mi cs") was released and sank without a trace.

3) The band auditioned fo r Columbia in a CBS conference room, setting up t hei r equipment in a 20 x 10 foot I'oom a nd played five songs. They changed t heir nam e to Blue Oyster Cult because Columbia had already turn ed them dow n as Stalk Forrest.

4) The Cult arc not as mean as t hey seem. Said Bloom, "Some people would like to th ink I' m some ~o r t of raunchy, semi-bike r character with a college ed ucati on. I t just amazes me th at there are people wh o think I'd beat them up just as soon as look ~lt them. I heal' people say 'that b'1.l.y Bloom, 1 wouldn't wallt to meet him in a dark a lley.' That just c l' ack~ me up. " 0

]:HE BEATLES ,.

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HEAVYMETAL

Murk FUrfl f!r (If!h. )

(III(/

Dolt Brewer were m embers o f manager Terry Kllight's Pack in their pre路Fullk days .

Grand Funk Railroad: An American band

E

ver since Cream, trios have held a certain devastating, angular image . They are always being conj ured as an

enormous 'powerhouse group capable of knocking down buildings with their music, then standing proudly over the ruin s, coming for blast after blast just to

show how powelful they are. Now we have Grand Funk Railroad who fi t the mold perfectly."

With that, Circus Magazine generated th e first steam on Grand Funk Railroad in the March, 1970 issue. By that time, the Detroit bluesbreakers- guitaristJsinger Mark Farner, bassist Mel Schacher, and drum mer Don Brewer-

had already played at the '69 Atlanta Pop Festival to ecstatic reaction and released a debut album On Tinte , described by Circus as "a swinging soiree 28 / CIRCUS

of watered down Cream and beefed up Stooges." "

That was only the beginning of the press put-downs. But und er the tutelage of hard-boiled svengali Terry

Knight (he actually waived a fee fOI" the Atlanta Pop date just to get the ex posure), Grand Fun k were selling five million dol lars worth of record s by 197 1

and playing two SRO shows at New York's Shea Stadium. No mattel" that when in 1971 Terry Kni ght called 150 press and media folk to a Grand Funk press conference , only six accepted the in vitation. Grand Funk not only made money and hits (" I'm Your Captain," "We' re an American Band"), they pro-

moted the politics of "P-A-A-R-T-Y" to a young '70s America who thought the revolu tion was supposed to be a rave-

up.

The GI"and Funk g ravy train roll ed on

right th.路ough 1976, making stops with Todd Rundgr en as producer , Craig Frost (a Flint, Michigan buddy from the early clays) as a fourth member on or-

gan, and finally cruising to a halt with Frank Zappa as producer on their last

LP for MCA. Mark Farner then \lied the solo route and the other three

formed F li nt, all to no avail.

When the Grand Funk Railroad rolled , it rolled over everything in its path , includ ing critics. As one Miami critic was quoted in a '74 Circus Magazine, "Bring up the name Grand Funk

and people used to laugh. Even this ti me I didn't want to go to the concert.

But when I sa w and heard them last night I was totally converted. In essence, Funk are the Amel;can Band."

Or were.

-David F'I'icke

Fllltl.:sters Schacher alld Farner pOIllld through th eir paces. For five years, CFR were oll e ofrocl.:'s biggest draws.

Gralld FUIII.: ill form er day!~ ~lY)m left, M el chacher , Marl.: Farner, Cmig Frost, lind DOli Brewer.

CIRCUS / 29

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30 1 CIRCUS

.~

HEAVY METAL

Clad ill magicians' attire alld fra Il led by Ozzy Osboume. Sabbath in its classic lineup mesmerized millions of fans .

Black Sabbath: Masters of reality

by Richard Hogan

he image Black Sabbath project is often occult and diaboli cal , but their album lit le, Master of ReaUty, comes closer to th e band's identity. The Bt'iti:sh foursome-made up in its heyday of Ozzy Osbourne, T OllY lammi, Terry "Geezer" Butler and Bill Ward-wrote and played heavy songs about topics which Circus Magazine once called "noxious elements that stay with us: war , hard drugs, pollution. " F or all their :sorce re rs' trappings, Black Sabbath we re and are the han/-rock mastel's of reality.

Kn own until 1969 as "Ear th, " Black Sabbath drew t heir voodoo looks and bnllai sound from the inspiration of Gothic hol'l'ol' movies (like Bori s Kal'lofrs Black Sabbath) that mirl"Ored the confu sion of the dyin g decade in which t he band was born. Poiso n-penned reviewe r Ken Tucker wrote of the Sabs: " In the ea rly '70s their murky drone was all t he more appealing for its cynicism-the philosophy that everything is

T

B elow a m ystic flaming cross, Bill Ward fla ils his drums at a deafellillg B lack Sabbath perform f!nce.

shit, and a flirtat ion with pre-Exorcist demonic possession. " Anothm' correspondent had t his important co mm ercial a::i~essmen t to add: "With an alchemy that confounded the critics, Sabbath tUl'l1ed leaden riffs into seven gold albums."

After Sabbalh ', e ighth , mo s t thoughtfull y-structured LP, N ever Say Die (1978), tattooed 路singer Ozz), Osboul'l1e left (fOi' good) and was replaced by ex- Rainbow lungsman Ronnie James Dio. Sa bbath are now doing sessions for a new longplayer whose working title is Heaven and Hell.

Below are t he reflections of th e origi nal Sabs: Circu s: How would you label your music'!

Ozzy Osbou rne: Depression rock.

Circ u s: What is the purpose of this mu sic?

Ozzy: English bands te nd to play a d il' t~I,eart h y, vicious type of mu sic. Like OUI' type of mu sic. it's like trying to get back, or get at, 0 1' blo\\' it out at someone. You see, we're j ust foul' ordinary guys and we come from a I'eally I'ough al'ea of BiJ'mingham ... all the Irish

people fighting, evel'ybody always fighting everywhere. It shows in our music. Our e nvironm ent shows in our music. lAnd I my feelings co me out when I'm singing.

Ci r c u s: Why has th e " Dow ner Rock" of the Sabs softened up (" Laguna Suntise," "Changes")'!

Ozzy: How will anything get done if you don't experiment? It's not a change from heavy to soft. It's still vel'y heavy, but it's just going in a different direction. It's more ... worked out, if you like, lVol IV uses a to-man string seclion, Sabb<Llh Bloody Sabb(tlh and T ech1iical Ecstasy have acoustic guitar/piano arrangements I Circu s: How do you feel when you play?

Ozzy: When you are playing, you can build a little wall around :voui路self. You just play and your emotions come out.

You really go mad. If we' re playing th e song " Black Sabbath" and somebody annoys us 0 1' so mething goes wrong, I just sound against th e guitarist. Bill Ward once ... we were just playing a jam, and Bill got fli ghtened, he thought we were going to kill everybody!

CtRCUS / 3t

HEAVY METAL m or e q ui et si n)!i ng

~' o u ' r e

d oin g

(" Changes")'?

With 1I smU" , gllit a r ;xl TOllY Ifllum; (llId bf'({JI'(> till f' xp l oxi n 路 SlIb bl.llh !(h Qlt'.

bt' XXIIJ UIJ

C irc us: Can ."Ull "go mad" wOI'k ing- Oil

(;(' t'zt' rll"lIf' r 1"1111

dmal

II r iff

Ozzy : I'm :-;0 pleased with it because I'm able to sing a differ ent \\'a ~' t ha n li ke. screculling. It '::; ve ry un- Black Sabbath .

C ircu s: SCLbotage was del ayed by legal and management hassles. Du(;!s Technical E cs t (l~!/ ha ve to do extJ'a well to mak e up for lost l ime'! Sabbath has fall en behi nd Zeppe lin and Ki ss.

Tony l o mmi: We a ll real ize t hat we ha ve to gu out a nd lig ht fur it again.

But . in a way. it' ~ enjoya ble. We gotlo one par ticu lar stage where we tend ed to take things for g ranted .

Bill Wa rd: You ha ve to remembe r t hat Sa butage was probably the only al bum ever mad e wit h lawye r~ in the s tudi o.

C irc u s: 1:-; fam il y life more important t han r uck & 1'011 :;tarcl om'!

Ozzy : A t h o u ~a n d li me:-; mo rc impol'ta ill.

C irc u s: Wh at do yOll t hin k of Sabotage-the "la wyers' a lbum"-now'?

Ozzy: If I heal' it again, I' ll :-; hout my:-;clf.

C irc u s: Do you like Kiss? T hey see m to have :-;ucceeded wit h a style not u nlike t he one you pionee r ed .

Io rnrni : I du n't pal'titul al'iy like Kis:;.

Th ey' re not my type of band (It all.

Th ei r :;tage s how was done lo ng befor e

by Ar thur Brown.

Wa rd: We' re not in compctition Iwit h Kissl. We' re not ou t to :-iaj' , "We' l'e bette r tha n ~' ou, J ack." We did si x year:; of [hal.

C irc u s : Was Te('it uica/ Ecstas!J more pleasan l to ma ke t ha n Sabotage'?

Ward: We hid uurselves a way to avoid any i ntc r r up t i on~ . We had a good party.

C irc us: " A ll Mov ing' Parts (Stand Sti ll),' is about a P resident who i ~ ~1 wo ma n in dral-{. Wh ere'd ~t Oli get t!/{/ ( idea'!

Geeze r Butle r : I ca me up with t hat th eme when I w a:-; being per ve rted oll e nig ht.

C irc u s: An d the :>.ong about hooker s.

"Dirtv 'Women'''!

ButI ~r: ITh o :-;o ng i:-;I a reflection of wha t I' ve ~cen watching di l'ty ol d mc n ~ go ing into porno bouk:;LOl'e:o: a nd ma:>.Ii) sage parlO1'~.

C irc u s : I f Black Sabbath ha:-; moved away from black magic an d :-;<.lta ni:;m, \\'hy do yOli :-;till wcal' t hc u<:l:ul t guld cl'o:-::-;e:-;'! lommi: Ju::;t it l'e minder ...

o

an .tl bulTI'!

wa::: d ream ing' thfJ l'c \\',,1:-: a t ape mathille (.'oming- into my TnOIll and eal-

F or

Ozzy: Blw:k Subbath Vu/. IV druve Illl' iliad in the I:' lId; I u:-:.ed Lu freak uut. I

ing' Illl', C irc u s: Huw do ,v ou feel about t he

Ill'f'll III " ""'lixh tlllief' of /J/(I('k Sabbath , Oll/Y 10 no ,'1,0/ 0 lasl !leflr.

32 1 CIRCUS

011(' 1' (I

d(' ('Uf/(' . ()==y Osbourtlf! Iws

BIG BANDS

(Cl ockwise (rom l op l eft ) J. Outspoken

John Lennon . who once leaned to th e left , holds Florida real es tal e. 2. Paul McCartn ey, th e most entrepreneurial B eatie. 3. George lIarriSOIl. once th e budding capitalist, gave a concert for BangJa-Desh . 4. Th e B eatles chat with th e lale Ed Sullivan. 5. John's marriage to Yoko helped split th e B eat/es.

6. Ilichord Starkey as B eatie Rin,qo S tarr.

The Beatles:

WAR , IS

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•

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~

Three charier /Jeatles: (I. to r.J J ohn /~en n on, George Harrison. Paul McCartney. S kinny black ties. ears. Hofn er basses and Gretsch guilarH would Hu rfoce oga;n near Ih e end Qf th e 70s. but th e /J eatlelf' style has alwalls been an influence.

Magical mystery tourists he final months of 1963 saw the laul1chi ngofthe most brillian t marketing campaign in th e hi!'tory of pop mu sic. A Liverpool ba nd called the Beatles. with a novel combimttion of ra w mu sical energy and personal brashness . was preparing to un leash itt'cM upon a public milk-fed on th e Murmaids and Soeur SOUlire. Behind the mischievous, iITC\,ere nt fou l't'ol11~} o h n Lenn on, Paul McCartn ey. George Harrison and Ri chani Stark ey-the mighty machinery of t he El\'11 corporati on ami the publicrelations brai n-storming of Brian Epstein wen:! at wor k. Wi t h the cooperati on of t he media and the A mel'iean public's need to esca pc the poli tical turmoil a round it, the moptop musicians got the U.S. to tul'tl to Britain for its fullest-blowl1 ca:-le of hero-wor:-:hip since Jack Ke nn edy.

From parochial. Merseyside begin-

T

nings. t he Bcatl es broadened their base and extended t heir innucnce fal' beyond t he world of English rock. They remained heroes fol' aimost seven ycars because t heir audi ence look ed to t hem in matte rti of art (the Revolver cove r). film (A Hard Day's Night). religion . trav el. drug use , ~t udi o techniqu e . and expe ri menta l al bu ms that were far more th an j ust 45:; ~ tl'ung together.

Th ei l' tllu ti ic mirrored their lives; roc k and life style were becoming interlocked. The B e atl e~ took coun te l'cul t ural ideat' and put their own yout hfu l implin t on the m. They seemed immorLal because they appeared t o inve nt. collectively, every advance and t rend they happened to collide with in th e changing culture. There we re , of course, more t.han th e fOllr of th em respoll:5ible for thi!\ image of pionce r he roics-a fact that became most apparent when the Beatie!' !\pli t in 1970.

None of the four separate voices could equal th e magic impact of the chon.l s.

Time ha:; proven that th e Beatl es were morc than ephemeral mdio fod de r. Th eil' songs ha ve been covered successfull y by a broad s pectrum of artists, and much of t heil' materiallransce nd s the era in which it was created (" Penny Lane," "She aid She Said ," "While My Guilar GenUy Weeps."

While lhe BeaUes have gone lheir separate ways, th eir legend continues to att ract cultural scavengers. Lawyers still haggle ove r t he fine pl;nt of their business malters, their record company continues to I'c-package their works (t he latest example of which is Beatles Rarities). and there arc even a nu mber of not-so-fab copycat foursomes t raveling the world prov iding an "incretlible simula tion" of t.he OI'iginal band in an unauth orized hit show call ed BeatienUl nia.

- Richard H oga-n CIRCUS / 3S

BIG BANDS

Th e origi"a llVh o~ o h" EtHcistle. Roger DaltreU, Keith Moofl and P eter Toumshelld-w er e all

ve l e rafU~ Qf

th e

fashiol/able English Mod move mellt.

The Who: Beaty, meaty,

F

ifteen year s ago, two Mod

hustlers wi t h an eye out for a hot film property heard a raw young band pel'fol1l1 in a Har-

r ow, England dive called the Railway 'Tavern. The High Number s, as t he gr ou p was known , had a tough, blueeyed s inger (Roge r Dalt r e)" ), a jack-int he-box gu ita rist (Pe te Towns he nd ), a

36 / CIRCUS

madcap , hig h-speed drummer (I\: eit h Moon ), and an imm obile bass i:4 (.John ';Ox" E nlw i;;;tle) \\'ho :-;pr ved a ~ a fo il to t he re5t. T he impresa rios , Kit Lamber t and Chris Stam p, had an intere:.;t in film and saw t hat the band- which t hey preferred to call the Wh(}-\\'as a ;;; hooin for a Mod epic 0 1' a t l'en d~ ' Pop A 1'L production campaign. They snatched up

t he High Number s' cont rac t for a

m e~l足

ge l' (500 and proceeded to steer th e quartet to stard om .

It was luck\" foJ' rock & roll t hat the Wh o had the l~lenl toj usti/'.v t he Stamp!

Lamber t h,"I)c. The \Vho has prover! itse lf' on four Ic \'els: wi t h puls ing hit s ingles . progr am albums (Qlladropliellia). conce r tI' . a nd fil ms . The ir non-

mod & madcap "operat ic" albulll" (H app!! Jack . 1I'I1o's N e:l,'t) hav e been supe rb. their Tom 111 y projel'l W:-1.!' an influe nce on man~' othc r bands (including t heir peers. the "iJ1 k~). and th e powerhou se dl'i\'e and melody of their fir:-t two LP ~ inspil'ed ~ lI ch ~CCOl1 d-\\,il\'e Briti~h bands as. lhe .Jam. No\\' with Kennev JOIlCF on drulll s r epI<H: ing' the latc \\"il~lman :\'Ioon. the

\Vho i ~ poised on th e (..'(Igc of more ~'ea l's of gTea t mu s ic- and film-making. \V~\nler Records signed lhe b(lJl(l at the ne w year for an obscenely high sunl.

To\\"n~ h e nd

hH ~

a .!'olo album due on

Aleo. and Rogel' Daltre~' is safely launched on a d ramatic <lcting career in the \Vho Films' fo r thcoming McVicar.

- Ric/lOn! H ooa 1/ CI ACUS J 37

Led Zeppelin: Stair climb to heaven

by Richard Hogan

Y

ollr head is hummin g and th e hum won't go. It's th e sonic

residue that lodges t here after you've heard Led Zep路

pelin on a good nig ht. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, J ohn Paul J ones and John Bonham have n't t reated Am erica to a

tour fol' three years. But th eir heart th l'ob beat was still rattling in the ears of enough fans to make last year's I n Thraugh The Out Door a No. 1 album without the cl'uLch of accompanying roadwol"k. On t he strength of t hat LP alone, Zeppeli n won in eight categories c: of the Circus Music Poll , and placed in ~

two others-almost win ning even Best ;.

Sing le fo r " AII of 1\'l y Lov(>. "

Heirs apparent to t he '80s, t he membel's of Zep first hooked up in 1968. It . .

I was a li me 01 spli ts allc reali gnment in rock. The Yanl bi rds splin tered and gave way first to t he J eff Beck Group, t hen to the New Yardbirds of Ji mmy Page. Gui tat'ist Page recrui ted Plant, J ones an d Bo nham to hon or a Yardbird s touting contract. Plant had been a blues shouter with Alex is Korner's band; J ones was a well-known English keyboardi stlarranger whose resum e included t he innovati ve Mellow Yellow (Donovan). By t he second half 01" 68 the new band had dropped the Yardbird s moni ker . signed with Atla ntic and lau nched its hea vy metal craft in a bid for dominion of the hard -roc k ai rspace.

Zeppeli n's nine al bums have been Iyl'icall y ex plo ratory , musically Ull even , and co mmercially aw esome. The band has lo ng capi talized on th e interplay between the "whi te magic" of blond singe r Plant and the "black magic" of brooding, dark-haired gui tat'ist Page (see inte rview). Some Yardbil'ClsI Page fan s were dismayed at first with Zeppeli n's bl'U tali ty and histrionics.

But as timc passed and Zep became more and more successfu l. t hey bough t themselves more musical roo m and branched out. Led Z eppel'in III , with its tasty mi x of ballads, blues and acoustic ex pel'ime ntat ioll , \Va!" the first gi an t step fo r t he ~tage-st ru t ti ng band. On la ter a lbums (Zoro, fl ou8es of the H oly), Zeppelin co ntinued to progress und e r t he perfectionisti c gu idance of leader Page . but was producing such mclancholy so ngs that t he quartet's dl1.l.gged vision of Roman t ic poctry , exotic lands. mythology and medieval history seemed almost suffoca ting.

38 f CIRCUS

: Z

Zeppelin drumm erJohnllotrham was one of the firtlt percutltl;oll;sttl ill a bluetlballed rock band to branch out with the drumJl.

- - - -- - - -- - - - - - The foutoso me's t wo most recent studi o albums, PTesence and In Th rough The Out Door, hav e been more mu sically direct, more list enabl e and al together more palatabl e than ma ny of Zeppelin 's earli e r (t houg h mu ch loved ) outings.

Former Circlls edi tor Steve Demorest conducted th e following tillk during t he intermediate period when Physica l.

GTaffili was th e current LP! and Zep lyri cisUWels h landhold er Robert Plant was broadcasting his fascination with poets Shelley and Byron- in sharp cont rast t o tunesmith Jimmy Page's pre(Jilection for th e dark Conf essions of the scol'cerer Aleiste r Crowley , "the Laird , of lloleskin. " Circu s: There's a dichotomy at your shows becau se Jimmy has it sinister side to his image . wh ereas you seem pretty steadil y radiant. White mabric and black magic.

Robert Plant: Well , I love Jimmy ...

I love him wi th my whole heart . really, becau se we' ve shared so many experiences . . But he's far ... he's a ve ry wi8e man , he kn ows so mu ch more t han I abo!-'t the l.hings that mystify us all.

Cir c u s: But you find yourself leading each othet"!

Plant: POl' sure. Jim my and I have a fan tastic rapport which see ms to be building more and mOI路e. Sometimes my motivation will take him by t he arm and grab him and pull him and say . "Come on , thi s is it." Sometim es it's his t urn . 1 t hink we do augment each othe r , t hat is

JtJhll I~au l J ones tltoptl for th e pautle that refreshetl. Before joinillg Z ep , J o" es' J.:ellboardJJ graced Ileck and Do/lOua" LPH.

the essence of it, and we do highli ght cach other in a subtle way.

Circ u s: Was there something you'd just bee n doing . like reading 0 1' tramping on t he moOt'S, which sparked "Stairway to Heave n" ?

Plant: No, not really. I was sitting with Jim my and was feeli ng really, really t ranquil.

Circus: Do you feel like you're plunging into anothe r u 'adi tiol1 of t hc count ry (out there I? 1t's almost medi eval . .. Do you t hink you'd have been comfortable in previous centuri es in England'!

Plant: Oh , for SlI re. Alth ough it was survi val of the fi tt est , th ere was always the bard , t here had to be th e ma n to bring th e news and sing it out under the oak t ree. The bard had to know hiti way a round a big country-he postiessed whi te m(lbric and news of wha t we nt on over th e hill. I suppo:;e he was in qui te "I ri diculous position . I'cally. He could start all SOI1.S of t roubl e. He could di ctate the altitudes of people by what he said. As it is today.

Circu s: You sound very reli giuus (mol'all sometimes.

Plant: I do'! 1 don't know about t hat. I know abuse of na tm'e is wrong and you must n't ta ngle with it. All magic should be whi te.

There's nothi ng e lse I'd rather leaI'll about t han th e myste ries of oth e r times land places l ... I mean , it's okay being t he swash buckling rock & roller , bu t who got t he best, who dug it the most, E lvis P,"esley or Marco Polo?

0

BIG BANDS

Z eppelin

c()m e~

in for th e kill: (I. tu r. ) guitarist Jimmy Page. and leonine lead sillger Robert Plalll.

CIRCUS / 39

BIG BANDS

A m id- '6'Os S totl es mim e sum e of 'h eir early hits

011

th e lu be. God, what snappy dressers th ey were.

Rolling Stones: Honky tonk delinquents

T

here':, a lot. to say about the Rolling Stones-over 30 albu ms in the U .S. alone, 17 years' worth of chart hits, their tlu'bulent British Invasion beginnings, the 011- and off-stage flamboyance of singer Mick J agge r. the public and private lives of Jagger. ,b'1l itari sl and a llerego Keith Richards. drumm er Charli e Wa lls. bassist Bill Wyman. the 42 { CIRCUS

late Brian J ones, and successors i\'Iick Taylor and Ron Wood.

No olle says it better than the Stones th emselves . Keith Ri cha rd s got to say hi s piece in a Septe mbe r 1977 Circus Magazine interview in which he discussed, among other t hings, the genesi:; of hi s songwl'iti ng partncl'ship with J agger. " We started out like mo~t bands, I

should t hin k. For the first album, you pretty much pu t down all t he slUff you've been doing onstage whil e you'vc been gett ing lh e band together. Then . after about the second 0 1' third album, you reach a point where you've got to Mid: Jagger (center) amI Keith liic/wrds

(right). as S tones songwrit ers, ha ve pellll ed mallY Qf rock 's greates t hils ,

3

••,

"•

·•

~

~

make a new album and you say to yourself(What are we gonna do?' Until then, we were used to playing other people's matelial, having it all done for us-all we had to do was learn how to play it.

"This was the point where Andrew Oldham [the Stones' manager and producer in the '60sJ got hold of Mick and me and said 'Start wdtingso!lgs.' It was a shock to us. We'd never even thought of it. My first reaction was 'Who do you think I am-John Lenn on?' But we were fortunate enough to have someone naive enough to think we could do it.

Andrew's approach was simple: 'You play guitar, write a song,' that was how he was. So, like good little boys, we went back to our little rooms and started to tl'Y and do it. And after a few horrendous nights of geLLing everything off our chests and writing songs that sound ed exactly like everybody else's, suddenly something clicked. " 'The Last Time' was the first of our own songs that we really liked. I sup- ~ pose we'd been wl'iting for about nine ~ months to a year by then, just learning how to put songs togethe r. And with 'The Last 'l'ime,' it became fun. After that, we were confident that we were on OU I' way, that we'd just got started."

A "Satisfaction," "Ruby Tuesday," "Brown Sugal'," and "Miss You" later, theJagger-Richal'Cls songwliting method is still intact-sort of, as he ruefully admitted in the.intel'view. " It's easiest to WOl"k together, yeah. but it's a lot moredifficulttogettogether these days-that's the hassle. Before, it was so easy because we were on the l'Oad all the time, and if you got an idea for a song, you just went two doors down the corrid or and put it together. i Nowadays, we're often 3000 miles apart, and it just doesn't sound as good .g over the phone."

- David F1icke m

a

44 I CIRCUS

BIG BANDS

Every Stones pictllre tells a story, counterclockwise from len: an impish Brian Jon es (insel) and the '69 Hyde Park concert th e S toll es did ;" his memory,. '-h e ' 75 touring S tones with Billy Preston, Richards, Ron Wood, Jagger, Ollie Brown , Wyman , all(/ Watts ; Jagg er and Richards ill a lypical stage pose,. and Keith gels down with Woody as a New Barbarian.

CIRCUS / 45

ROCK TRAGEDIES Jimi Hendrix: Electric gypsy

by David Fricke

"Ha ve !Iou ever been eJ:perienced?

Well . 1 "-a -a-u-e ' -Jimi H e ndlix "Arc You Experi enced ," 1967

C

otT cc lion-Jimi H endrix was the ex pcl'ie nce . Technically . conceptually.

phy~i cal 足

Iy . Jimi Hen(h'Lx revolutionized rock & 1'011 and his weapon was the elecu;c guitar. Ne arl~' len years after hi s death in Septembe r. 1970 from an ovc rd o~e of sleeping pills. Hendrix has been filed under "rock legend" by a younge r generation who re me mber the Jimi He nch'ix Exp e ri e nce o nl~' from older brothel's and sisters' record s. But Are Y ou E' :rpe~'ienced !, A.cis: Bold as Love . El ect/'ic Ladyland and The Cry of Love-as roo ted as they arc in the late 'GOR Acid Age-arc cndu l'ing classics (among olhe r s) that rev eal as much about Jam es Mars hall He ndrix the man as they do aboUl Jimi He ndrix the guilari :o:; l.

Bol'll in 194 2 in Seattle, Was hington.

Henddx got his first electric guitar from his fath e r Jam es S r. at age 12.

Th ough he ne ve r receiv ed any formal edu cation on the inst rum e nt, he leal'l1ed to play in schoo l and late r in th e army (he was a paratroope r for a time before being di:-;charged in Hl63 for medical r easons). Th e n~ foll owed for H end rix seve ral yean:) of dragging hi s bod y . bru itar, and toot hbl'u :o:; h cross-count ry on R&13 package tours backing Sam Cooke, So lomon l3urke, the Isley Brothel':-;. and Littl e Ri chard befor e He ndrix sett led in New York (backing souls te r CU11.is Knight and leading his own G"ee nwi ch Vilbge cl ub band) and t he n moving to London in 1966 at the behest of former Animal and future manager e has Ch andl e r.

Chand le r fix ed him up with an English t'hythm sect ion- drumm e r Mitch Mi tchell and ba:-;:-;i:-;t Noel Redding (Hedding had l1e \'e,' played bass before). HCll(hix, Mitchell, and Redding played their tirst gig together in Paris in '66 and soon afte r record ed their fir:it :-;ingle:-: and album.

Ai'e }' ou E .rpel"ienced? ( Re prise)46 I CIACUS

One U. K. roc k e ncyclopedia call s thi s 1967 album "an e mbarrass ment of Jich es" and even that's an und e r sta.teme nt. On hi s tirst long-playing t ry , He ndJix captured hi s inflammable l:.'ll ital' fu sion of urban blues and violent rock & I'oll e ne rgy, lyrical vi sion of the cosmic giggle, and hi s re belli ous. s upe rstud on-stage flamboy ance . Circu s l\'lagazine in Sept.e mbe r '69 said that a live Hench'ix pe rforman ce "turns on dark parts of the mind t hat el'Upt in e xpl osive dimensions ... " Are You E xpel'ienced? co ntain s t e n such e xplosions, including "Manic Depl'ession," th e wild , bucking " F'oxey Lad y ." ~lIl d atmosph e ri c ins trum e ntal "Third Stone From the Sun." or chest ra ted with choruses of feedback, orgasmic b'llita t' solos, manic rh ythm s, and He nddx's own voice altfmHlling bet.ween supe r cool whispers and howls of ptiychedelic t ri umph. Are you ex peri e nced ? If not. the Expe ri e nce starts he re .

A xis: Bold (I S I"oue (H eprise)-On Are Yon E xpedenced?, He ndlix redefin ed the elecuic guitar in t he sam e way J ohn Coltrane e xpanded the harmonic and melodic possibili ties of the saxophone. Axis: Bold as Love. released in late '6i ~\nd r ccorded (l ike E.tpedenced) on four-track, s howed He ndrix refining not only hi s b'l.1itar techniq ue but hi s vocal appl'oach with an ca r cocked to co mm e rcial R&IJ and black vocal harmoni e:; as well as tin e tun ing hi s ly ric wliting. hWait Until Tomon o\\' ," '; I f 6 Wati 9," "Spanish Castle Magi c." and "Little Wing" (late r cove red by Clapton with De re k and the Dom inoes) endure as some of He ndrix 's tinest I'ecol'ded mom ents. A.cis may hav e initially see med tame in com pariso n to th e bold tit cps take n on E xpe)-ienced. but it was no letiti a success-arti sticall y or comme rcially.

E lectdc Ladyla ud (Rcpl'ise)- It's no accident that H e ndtix named hi s Ne\\' York s tudi o Elect ric I,ad viand after th e title of this a lbum . On th e two- I'ecord Elecl i'ic IAuiylmul, He ndrix played the studio a~ well and <I :; inv e nt.ively as he did th e guita r . Th e creative use of echo, phas ing, gu itars creeping in and OUl of

the mix with fuzz, wah-wah. and s lid e . and othe r spat ial effec ts highlighted a heretofore 1I 1lderrecognized sid e of Hendlix 's mu s ica l pe r sonality , alth ough with ty pical modest)' Hcmhix ofte n played down hi ti achi eve men t.

"Like . for instance/' he told Ci r cus in 1969 (then still Hullabaloo). "on 'Voodoo Child (Sl ight Return).' I was playing lead guiulr, Mitch drum s. and Noel bass. and then I add ed on maybe t wo more th ings. We put t he drum s 0 11 three separate track:; and somc tim es the vocal on two to :-;pl'ead it out ."

E leclric Lady/a nd also reveal s Henchix's retit lessness with t he cons triction s of the Experie nce. He brought in the Airplan e's J ack Casad y. T raffic':; Chr is Wooel. and S te ve Willwood in to play on e xte nd ed jams like "Voodoo Chile" and "1983 ,, " He eventually disband ed th e ExpCl; e nce in 1969 to e xpe ri me nt with othe r mu:-:ical form s and playe rs . ca lling them hi s "electric :-:ky church."

The C ry of Love (Ileprise)-Hendrix asce nd ed to that gl'ea t jam session in the s k~t before t hi s album could be compl eted. I t stand s th e refo re as a fascinating, ex ube rant but fru stratingly incons iste nt docume nt of He ndrix's s truggle to transcend the psychedelic s howmanship hi s audi e nce demand ed with continually ex pe rim e ntal yet las ting mu sic, His growing inte retitl'i in contemporary funk , ne w harmonic stru ctures , and jazz-rock improvisation are all hinted at on The Cry of Love , often fu sed into a tough )'ock & )'011 prcse ntation epitomized by " Freedom" and "Ez,V Rid er."

But th e de mand:-; he mad e on him ~e lf as well as thosc mad e by hi s audience took t.heir toll. as ex pressed with ironic accuracy in the poem He nchix wrote only a month before hi s death ;md printed on th e back covel' of The C~'y of Love.

"H ell o my flienel/So good to see ~'ou again/ Bee n ~lll my !llyseiti'I don't t hink I can m"lk e it al o ne / Kee p Pu s hing Ahead."

0

Thi... Septembe,. ma,.ks th (J /(Jll tll alillivenmry of til e dcalh of Jimi lIemir;.\.'. Oflt! of r ock 's irll/Ova/ors.

ROCK TRAGEDIES

Jim Morrison & The Doors: Unknown soldiers

Th e Doors tear thruugh a Iwt '69 take uf " Roodlwus(' Blu es," The harp player is TOllY Gluver, all early Circus scribe,

hero," Ji m Morri son told CirMagazine in one of hi ~ last intel'v iews, "i::; someone wh o rebels 0 1' ::;eems to rebel against. t.h e fact.s of existence and seems tu conquer th em. " By his own defini tion, Florid a-born Jam es Douglas M o rri ~u n -s inger , ly ricist , and psycho-sexual s haman for the Doors-was and s t ill is a hero. A compulsiv e s how man wh o dal'ed hi s audience t o follow his extre me example and then pushed himself even furth er wh en they did, Morrison spent. a shOl'\. but tumultuous lifetim e rebelling agains t t he facts of hi s exist ence-a s te rn upbringing by a father who was a military ca reennan , the commercial dictates of pop mu sic, and with hi:; alleged indecent. ex-

A

Cll ::;

Gone. but 1101 forgotten: Th e lJoors' Jim Morrisoll lives agll ill ill a new biography 'No Olle lIere Gels UIII Alive,'

posure at t.he '69 Miami concer t . t he legal di ctates of wha t wa::; aI't and what was obscene.

He was al so an inn ovative filmmaker and with t he other Doo rs Ray Mallzarek, J ohn De n:;ll1ore . and Robby KI'iege r , a maker of my:; ti cal, provoking, and fUli ously physical rock & 1'011.

Th e passage of nine yeal's since his death in Pat'is hav e yet to erode the impact of " Li ght Nly Fire," "The End ," and " Wh en The ~'Iu ::; i c's Over."

Now Morri son is Lh e s ubject of a new biography by .JeITY Hopkins and Danl1~r Sugerman call ed No One H ue Gets Out Alive (Warne r Books), a li ne from the Dool's' " riv e to One." Suge rma n, a former rock journalist and Doors confidante, ex plains that Hopkins OI'ib,;nally ~LU rted t he book in 1973 and had done a til'st draft when he and Suge r man agreed to collaborate , with Sugerman spending eight month s re writing th e Ii-

nal version. " I don't t hink it's a definitiv e biograph y. I tried to keep a nebulou s concept of him because he was hat'd lopin down. I had all of these Jim MOITi-

sons before me and nonc of t hem are definitiv e. -, Possibl y th e least definitiv e aspect of MOl'l"iso l1 's life was his death at th e age

of27 in Pads. In No One Here Gets Ou.tAlive . the authors describe Morrison's Parisian exile in g reat detail, the circum stances I c~\dill g up t o hi s death, and

the rumors t hat came after- his alleged heart atlack, po:-;sible overd ose. even the claim t ha t he's still ali ve.

1\10 1"1;:;011':; estate . including hi s father "the Ad miral ," t ried to stop the book . fir:~ l PUl1>Qt'tedly seeking to preve nt publication of Jim's poe try, then IY l'ics, and finall y the book it.self. "But in the encl." laugh::; Sugerman, "Jim see m ~ to gel it hi ::; way,"

-Dcwid Fricke CIRCUS f 49

Excerpts from 'No One Here Gets Out Alive' by JerTy Hopkins and Daniel Sugennan Foreshadowing in the desert It was outside Albuquerque, while traveling with his parents on the highway from Santa F e, that J im [age four] expel'ienced what he would later SO J CIRCUS

. dramatically describe as "the most important moment of my life." They came upon an overturned truck and saw injured and dying Pueblo Indians lying where they had been thrown on

the asphalt.

Jim began to cry. Steve stopped the car to see if he could help and dispatched another onlooker to a telephone to call for an ambu lance.

ROCK TRAGEDIES Jimmy-as his parents called him until he was seven-stared through the car window at the chaotic scene, still crying.

Steve returned to the car and they left, but Jimmy wasn't calmed. He became more and mOl'e upset, sobbing hystel1cally.

4'1 want to help, I want to help

" While Clara held hi m in her arms, Steve consoled the boy. "U's all I'ight, Jimmy, it is."

UThey' J'e dying! They're dyingP' Finally his father said, "It was a drea m, Jimmy, it didn't really happen, it was a dream."

Years later Jim told his fdend s that as his father's car pulled away from t he in tersection, an Indian died and his soul passed in to Jim's body.

Con troversy dogs Morrison even in death. His estate tried to stop th e publication of his biography.

had picked up a small crowd of sycophants who accompanied him everywhere, basking in t he peculiar glow pop stardom cast in t he sixties, They dt'ov e Jim wh et'ever he wished to go, competed to light his occasional filter cigarettes, ran enands to t he liquor store, kept the vocal booth in the studio stocked with whacked·out groupie types.

Jim also began assembling his first coterie of serious drinkers, including Tom Baker, the actor; and the t hen virtually unknown singer Alice Cooper and a member of Alice's band , Glen Buxton. Jim was, by now, very seriou s about his drinking, no matter how casual he seemed. He spent his days in the bars that practically surrounded his motel. He never entered t he studio without a bottle.

Trouble at the Whisky

Flickering fires

Growing up with rock

Jim's eyes opened. He eased the microphone from the stand and glal'ed at the audience, legs braced, reciting the twelve lines t hat complete the song in its final version, and in less time than it takes to tell t he story and propel Jim into cont emporary pop mythology.

The killer awoke before dcuvn, H e put his boots on, He took a face front the ancient gallery.

And he walked on <lown the haLUli. He went into the 1'oom where his sist",· lived and . . .

Then he paid a visit to his b,'othm', And he ... walked on down the hallili.

A nd he came to a doOOOOOOO1', A nd he looked insidddddde, "Father?" " Yes, son?" "/ want to kill yo". Mother . .. / wa.n t to

Bill bent over Jim's form ag-din, peering hopefully at t he small piece of glass in his hand. Jim's face was the color of old ivory, his breathing was shallow. A doctor huffed out of the audience and after a Quick examination pronounced, "The monsieu:l' has passed out," Hearing t hat broke the spell, and as Jim was taken away to a local hospital , honest concern was replaced by pent-up fury. So irate wer e the other Doors that they performed that night, with Ray singing, as if t hey'd always been a trio, The next day at the hospital Jim's amazing recuperative powers brough t color to his cheeks.

"You shoulda heard what the doctor told me t his mOl'l1ing," he told the others. "He asked me how it happened and I said J musta been tired and, uh , he lectuI'ed me for twenty minutes about the dangers of being in enter tainment. He said I had to watch out for' greedy managers who push the ta lent too hard."

Bill and the others glared at him and Jim smiled shyly back.

"Ya see" he said "the birth of rock and roll c~incided \\;th my adolescence, my coming into awareness. It was a real turn-on, although at t he time I could neve r allow myself to rationally fan tasize about ever doing it myself. I guess all that time 1 was un consciously accumulating inclination and nel've, My subconscious had prepared t he whole thi ng. I didn't think about it. It was just thought about. I heard a whole concert situation, with a band and singing and an audience, a large audi ence. Those first five or six songs I wrote, I was just taking notes at a fan tastic rock concert t hat was going on inside my head."

tI,,,,,

FFFUUUUCKKKK YOOOOOOOU!"

Jim's voice rose in a pr'imal scream, maki ng t he sound of silk yardage being torn by broken fingernails, Behind him the instrumenLs bellowed and shrieked. Neither J ohn nor Robby nor Ray had heard t hese wOl'ds before, but they were not so star tled t hat t hey didn't continue their improvised instrum ental fill .

When he heard Jim say something about fucking his mother, all the blood in Phil Tanzini's face I'ushed to his heart, which began racing.

"That," he growled, "is the last time, Nevel', ever, will the Door's entel' the Whisky again. Not even if they're paying t heir way in."

Hanging out Jim welcomed his success in t he toth e·victor·go·the·spoils rock and 1'0 11 tradition. Besides acqu iri ng increasing numbers of girls, he started spending money furiou slynot on houses and cars but 011 huge bar bills and custom clothing including a lizard skin coat and a $2,200 suit of unborn pony hide. The latter was carelessly tossed in an airport t rash can after" one person too many had taken it for seal skin , He

Almost the end New Orleans, th ough, was a tragedy. If Dallas was t he good, Miami the ugly, then New Orleans was t he end. That night Ray saw Jim's spirit go. "Everyone who was there saw it, man, He lost all his energy about midway t hrough t he set. He hung on the microphone and it just slipped away. You could actually see it leave him. He was drained." As if to defy his own weakness, Jim picked up the microphone stand and repeatedly bashed it into t he stage, over and over and over, until finall y there was the sound of wood splintering. He t hrew the stand into the stunned audience, tur ned, and plopped down on the drum riseI', sitting motionless.

The Doors never again appeared in public as a quartet.

Copyright

©

1980. Used by permission

of Warner Books.

0

CIRCUS / 5 1

ROCK TRAGEDIES

Janis made her first big tJplash when tJhe performed with her band, Big Brother A nd The Holding Company. at Monterey in 1967.

Janis Joplin: Cheap thrill 路mama I give u p everything f or m'lt.sic. That's ,vhat I live [01'.

-Janis J oplin , 1970

J

anis had a li ttle I'ed heart. t.at路 t.ooed on her chest.. When she was sit.ling around jabbering wit.h ffi ends 0 1' st.rangers, she'd often unbu tton her blouse enough to show it off.

If ever there was a woman who didn't need a tattoo to show she had heart, it was J anis J oplin . Her performances pulsated with the passion and hurt that lacerated audiences made her one of America's foremost blues singers.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1943, she never really found a home except in th e sounds of Leadbelly and Bessie Smi th records. "Texas is O. K. if you want to settle down, but it's not for outrageous people. and I was always outrageous," she ex plained.

Like so many of her generation, Janis gravi tated to flowel'y San Francisco and became lead singel' with a local group who called themselves Big Brothel' And The Holding Company. Theil' major break carne when th ey appeared at the legendary Monterey Festival in August 1967 along with tragic legends Otis Reddi ng and Jimi Hendrix .

It was hard to listen to her sing wi thout having your emotions scalded and it seemed that her only life was on stage. E verything else was just wait路 ing: "Those few hours I feel li ke 1 can do anything. I feel like the Empire State In March of 1970 Janis was arretJted and fin ed for using profane language at a concert.

Building. That's my t.hing. I sometimes wonder ifi t's worth it , but I thin k it is," she said in 1970 Circus Magazine in terview.

SllITounded by men, she spoke poignantly and forthrightly as a woman. lIWomen are, r thi nk, more emotional.

They' re more directl y part of birth and death and everything. Thel'ejust ar en't songs around tha t tell just where it is for a woman."

J anis had some ups and plenty of downs. Her final down came in a hotel room in Hollywood on October 4, 1970 where she died of a heroin overdose.

Alone.

She left a legacy of great music behi nd. Her recordin gs of "Piece of My Heart," "Ball and Chain," "Me and Bob路

by McGee" and "Mel'cedes Benz" ar e classics.

She has been the subject of one fil m documentary about hel'life (Janis) and Bette Midlel"s recent The Rose is a ~ merely thinly-cloaked version of her ~ story. There al'e also vmi ous biogra- ] phies of her , the most prominent of ~ which are Going Down With Janis by ...

Peggy Caserta and Buried A live by 8 Myra F liedman.

Janis, called "Pearl" by her friench. had Janis wasn't very good at this wor ld. her last album issued p08thumou. ly after But she understood the value of intense her death in the fall of 1970. living and ultimately paid the plice for her excess. Just about everything she said seems bitter sweet and ominously foreshadowing of her fa te in retrospect.

"You've got to realize that you'll never have as mu ch as you want and tha t when you di e, you'll be alone--everyone is. Once you've really accepted this, then it doesn't hurt so much. Groove, man."

-Carl Arrington CIRCUS / 53

GLITTER ROCK

Marc Bolan: Rock & roll unicorn

Bololl with '1'. Rex pert'lllJs;u"ist Mick ey Pitlll (r;ghf)- Ih e;r las t U.S. I... /~ was th e ditwppui"li"g 'Ugh! of Love. '

H

e was born Marc Feld, a posl-wal' baby of 1948 . BUl accord ing to th e title of Ringo Starr's 1973 film d oc· umental'Y. MaJ'c Bolan was r eally born to boogie . A nel boogie he did as the star ofT. Rex fol' seve n chart-topping years before his death in a car accid ent in 1977.

Neithe rT . Rex or its late '60s psyched elic incarnati on T y nlllll osaul1.l s Rex mad e mu ch of an imprint on th e Ameri · can pop c o n sc i ou :-me~s . As ide from one Top Ten s ingl e in "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" with its infec Li ous \Vh o-like b'1..litar driv e, Bolan managed t o establi sh himself in th e S tat es through several albums and tou rs only as a critically misund e r s t ood but mod e:; t1y popular glitter-rock cult fif:,'1ll'c .

In England. not only was Bolanmania th e biggest teen phe nomenon s inceyes-Beatlemania, he al so laid down in U.K, hits lik e "Hide a White Swan," " Hot Love ," and "Metal GUI1.l" the foun chI li ons for Sex-Pist olized punk, S taccato guitar burst s, a belligerent beal. his own coltish wai l-Marc Bolan cu t a s t ride still admired today as g mups as div erse as Blondi e and Ire land' s popular Und ertones sti ll cove r T, Rex material in conce rt.

It was, however. a long , unappreciated haul for Bolan until " Rid e a \Vhite Swan" raced like one of his my thical

stallion s up the U, K, chHl'ts in late 1970.

The y oung Eas t Lond on-bor n r eid affected th e sam e mod look as contemporaries David Bowi e (nee J ones) and Small race- to- be Steve Mani on, Hi s dark, elfi sh good looks land ed hi m work as a teenage Ill.ll e mod el be fore rock & !'Oil beckon ed, F eld changed hi s s urname to Bolan UI>OIl th e re l c~l se of hi s 1966 Decca s ingle "The Wizard" (late r )'e worked on th e T. Re.t' album ), But hi s first crack at the big time cam e as guitarist with an outrageous proto-gli tt er J'ock group called J ohn's Children.

Bolan gav e a fascinating account of hi s J ohn 's Childre n days t o Circus Magazine in a December '71 in tel'vi ew, "We were as ked to do a t our with th e Wh o [of Germany] , , . we wer e vel'y exci ted," He th en we nt on to explain about th e huge metal Chinese screen he put at'ound hi s amplifi eJ' to gel s ll s tained feedback , th e mi rror on hi s b'1.l i t~lr, and th e melal chains with which he would drag amps acroSS th e stage , "When t he Who came on , all th ey could do was 'M y Generati on' and after they 'd do 'M y Ge ne rati on' th ey'd all go off becau se th ey'd ha ve wrec ked t heir equipme nt already ," r or th eir upstaging antics, J ohn 's Children wer e rewat'Cled with pink s lips after only foul' dates on th e tour, Bolan quit th e band a month after that.

TI'UI~' a man of ex tremes, Bolan th en r etreatcd to more acousti c g l'ound \\ith Tyrannosauru s Hex, a du o he formed with per cussioni s t S teve Took in 1968.

Her e Bolan developed hi t' ecce nt ric s on g wl'iting s t y le ; populating hi s rhym e with g nomcs, im pish forest folk, uni col'lls, and all t hl:! ir Illys tical littl e buddies, Th e titl e of th eir first albulll was an imlll edi ~lt e Lip-off-M y P eople Were Fair A nd Had S ky i'll Theil' Hai l' Bu t N ow Thc!/" c Contcnt to Wcar S ta rs 0 11 Thei l' B rows. The co mbinati on of mythic imagery, folky acoustics. Bolan's voice, and-in concer t -th e ::.mell of incense mad e them darling:-i of th e und erground .

So it \\:as only appropl'iatc that. whe n Bola n reintrodu ced amplificati on in to hi s act on the pait"s fourth album A Bca rd oj S tars, outraged acidh eads would giv e him th e same bu:-. iness folki es di shed out to th e electri c Dylan at Newport in '65, "'I'. Hex used to be

by David Fricke 54 /

CIRCUS

st r eet~ ahead of oth er so-called prog ressive g r o up~ who las h hell out of their equipme nt." s norted one U, K. criti c. "bu t now th ey th emselv e::i hav e been lowe red, . , into th e meilllingiess wo rl d of heavy rock," Wi t h a ha t tri ck of hits und er the :-ihortencd moni ker T . Re x, Bolan had good reaso n to :'Il ort rig ht back that "if th ey rcally look at the mu sic and li s ten t o it, they' ll see th e re really is n't any change. I t's g r own, maw )'ed , that':,; all."

In truth, the only l'eal differ ences between T vranllosauru s Hex and T, Hex we re \;'olu me, t he insis lent drumbea t, a nd t he sc rcaming choru s of girls who turned Bola n in to t he matinee id ol he al\\'a ~' s wa ntcd to be ever since th e cla~' when an c i g h t-~' e ar·o ld MaJ'c F eld ca ni ed Eddi e Cocht'an 's gu ita r.

Bolan 's bes treco l'd s we re th c e lecu'ic ones-the :sul'l'eali :;ti call y poppish T. Re,t' and punked-up Elect l'ic WWTiol' ("Bang A Gong" was a blatant cop of Chu ck Be r ry 's "Little Qu cellie")-with a bow certainly du e th e eccentri c U nicorn from the acoustic I>e ri od.

Man; Bolan always wOI'e th e t rappin g:, of SL<:lt'dolll well, Hi:, g litte r-rock gem' \\'a :, i nst~Hlt fa shi on , he mugged for director Ringo Stan in th e Bom to Hoogie T. Rex-umentary, and for a tim e was Eng la nd 't' best·se lling poet with hi s collect ion Warlock or Love, He neve r did break the U. S, n-lal'ke l in the same wa~' ( 1974 's di sa ppoin ting Light of LO'IJe was hi~ last U,S , i::;suc), but Bolan boppel's in Britain continu e to play t heir record :, and lig ht their candl es in his me lll o r~' , a fu JI t hrce years after his death in a C~lI ' cra:,h wi t h black American s inger and brirlfriend Gl oria Jones (he'd di vorced wife June in '76), Yet it is n't so much hi ::. memory than hi s imag inati on t hat li vc:-i 011 for many fans.

"From Illy imag ina t ion, not from expe ri ence ," Holan to ld a r eporter from the Ch l'iliticlII Science 1\IJ 01litOI' (holl el'it) when the snibe a ~ k cd him wher e hi s l ~' ri cal imag-e:;, came from, ';l3ut I don't kn ow th e diffe rence between whal's real a nd wh at's not rcal, do you?" May· be Bola n di dn't kno\\' , but he mad e it fun lI'~' i ng to fi nd out.

0

'1'1/ <, fOl'lIIf' I' .J/ art' Feld fll.'~ed de('/rk Imp ami b(ll'llfJll e Iyr;('ol ima.q ery to bf't'Qme (I

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56 1 CIRCUS

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ROCK TRAGEDIES

Presley's heartbrok e" gaze & .'lollth em guitar still cm.,.ied th e magic of Ihe origillal rock explosiQI/ when this i"formal pic was tak en i ll lh e 路60.~ .

E l v i s challts

(I

familiarly with

ballad alld chats (l televi siofl audiellce.

Elvis: Ghost rider on the mystery train e was call ed t he King of Rock & Roll , and wh en he died t ragically on August 16, 1977 , the irony was that Elvis Presley was seated on t he throne.

As ten different drugs cou rsed th rough Elvis' blood, the king's heal路t stopped beating in t he mid st or a trip to the john.

If he had seemed a priest to his fans when he'd been alive, thi s sud den demise mised him to the status of a household di ety. Fans flocked to Memphis for a peek at the Mansion of Death. Some di ed there, struck down by a runaway car. Others, luckier , went home to build altai's and light votive candl es to t he memory of Elvis Aron Presley, dead at 42.

Born in Mississippi on January 8,

H

Deck ed ill glitter. p,.e~ ley wowx crowd w itll (I mix lure of sO llg & flirtatiol/, (II/ set ) E I meel s tll (, press ill '7.1.

1935, th e future king had a classic rocker's perso nali ty: poli te, sometimes shy wit h strangers, he was a hi p-shaking demon on stage. '~ I don't know what it is, I just fell into it, really ," he said in 1956 of his fi ery style and rapid rise to stardom. "My dadd y and I were laughing about it t he othe r day. He looked at me and said , 'What happe ned, Elvis?

Last thing 1 remember is 1 was worki ng in a can factory and you were dri ving a t r'Uck.' " By 1976 the laughter had stopped.

Coun t ry singer and ex-roc kabilly J erry NaylO1', member of a Nashville music circle close to Elvis, told New Musical Express that "had he [p1'esley 1not been isolated , he might have been able to hand le what's going on today a lot betteI'. Unf01'lUnately he's not hand ling it very well. He's into, er, a bit of a dl1Jg problem. He's into a t remendous psychological problem with age. He's 41

years old and he's gaining excessive weight."

The reclusive Presley continued to record t ill a short time before the end .

His late r di scs, as much country as roc k, lacked th e spontaneity of his raw , early work ("Mystery Train," "Blue Suede Shoes,"), but he could still cut it better than most. His "Promised Land" made Dave Edm unds' sound almost like Donny Osmond , and his "I Can Help" smacked of rockabi lly revival.

"The end was bt;ef and brutish," wrote a biographe r, "as it must be in all pop chronicles. The stars we deify and grant the ultimate privileges and licenses come so often to t he same drugnu mbed deaths." [n Elvis' case, t hough , it wasn't before he'd molded a whole ne w anli-hero image, complete with curled lip, quiffed hair and cocksure sexuali ty, fOl' the youth-culture idol.

- Richard Hogan CIRCUS / 57

HITMAKERS Hungry for those good tunes, baby

by David Fricke

sa / CIRCUS

DOli Kirshner wall ted 'em lu be th e 11' Hea lles, The Monkees (above-Tork , Nes mith , Dolen:, J ones) wa nt ed tu make lasting pop records, And from 1966 to '68, th ey both got their wish .

"Do you remember Hu,llctballoo Upbeat.. S hindig, (Iud Ed 'ltlliva11 too Do you, remember M'ltl'rcty the K A lan Freed and high energy.

Do you remember rock <.\:: roll m ciioT' - The Ram one:-: " Do You Re member Roc k & Roll Radi o?" , 1980

t's an old joke, but t he mo:-;t widely played instrum ent i::; not th e gui· tar. It':-; the J'adi o. Eve rybody can play it and everybody still does, But the era punk lieutenants t he Ra· mones are waxi ng nostalgic ove r i ~ t he AM heyday of t he mid· to la te.'60s whe n such hitmeist ers as th e Monkees , Herman's Hermits. th e Lovin' Spoonful. th e Beach Boys, and Paul Reve re and the Raiders ruled the ozone with a :-;ham eles:-;Iy comme rcial fi :-;L. TI1.1 C, th e psychedelic likes of Jimi He ndl'i x, J efferson Airplane. and Cream infil t ra ted t heir way in to th e top with "All Al ong t he Wa t ch towe r. " " ome bod y to Love," and "Sunshi ne of YOUI' Love," none of it stand.lrd teeny bop fa re.

Yet the hit:-; of t hat era- ';Last Train to Clarksville," "Summe r in th e City ," "Help Me Rh onda, " "H e nry t he VII I." "Good Thing" (can you match t he <lrti:-;ts ~lb ov e with th e tune?)-wel'e all j ust as

I

exhilinlting as the acid anthe ms, conceived not so much as a rt bu t as t hree minu tes' worth of escapist fu n. And radio, populated by such jive·jowled ravel's as Hy Lit (Philly), Humble Harve (L. A.) , and Cousin Bl'Ucie ( .Y .C,) , enha nced th e fantasy wit h a mystique of it:-; own- a kind of Radio Free Hip where any bod y could tune in and feel part of t he teemlge frate rnity.

And wit h t he mobility provided by t ra n· :-;istor and car radios , you could literally move to t hat beat.

The part t hat radi o (and in th e case of the Raid ers and Monkees , televi:-;ion) playt:!d in the breaking of groups and maintel1<ltlce of t heir reign on I'ecord charts in th e '60s call never be undel'es· timated. But, more impor tantly , it s us ~ tained pop star images. promotional half·l1'uths, and adolescent rock & 1'0 11 fantasies wi th a namboyant innoce nce IO:5t with the introduction of FM radi o's dl'Ug-indu ced s ~p e rhipn ess. f or exampl e, the Monkees cont inued to sell records by the truckload even after a New York pres::; co nference wh ere they admi tted they didn't play t heir own instrum ents on t heir ol'ibrinal hi ts like " I'm A Believer" and their und eniably rousing TV t heme so ng.

Maybe the Nl onkees are a n ex treme example-a sham elessly contri ved CIRCUS / 59

HITMAKERS

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package of foul' young men posing as a rock f:,rroup and weekly depicted on teenage television screen s in a series of H elp!-like predicaments. Yet fol' all mastermind Don Kirshner's puppeteering, Monkees Michael Nesm ith (now a successfu l recording artist and producer), David J ones (the token English-

man), P eter Tork , and ex-Ci'rcus Boy Micky Dolenz mad e so me ver y good pop

record s paralleling in their own way the develop ment of the Beatles, hampered (fatally by 1969) only by the kid-sisterconsumpti on image created for t hem.

Paul Revere and the Raid ers overcame bop per image obstacles with an exuberant combinat ion of comic panache and pun ky r ock & 1'011 energy.

Revered (ouch) even today by new wave enthu siasts and '60s vi nyloph iles as proto-punks, the Raiders may have looked ter minally silly in their colonial gear and pony-tailed singer Mark Lindsay was real dreamboat fodder. But 45 RPM salvos like "HungTY," " Kicks," and the fou r-chord ra vel' "Ju st Like Me" were not only sophisticated pop produ ctions, they posed a belligerent hard -rock challenge to the Blitons who monopolized AM radi o in the post-British In vasion '60s. It is unfortunately ty pical of th e low com mercial esteem 60 1 CIRCUS

the Raiders are now held in '~'etrospect t hat in Billboa1'd's 1979 sun'e), of rock's 25 yeal'S that the gr oup received nary a mention. lot of radi o regu lars of the e r a-Bri t ish and ot he rwise-would deserve ment ion in such a surv ey. A California fanzine Who Put The Bomp devoted an entire fall '73 issue to the British Invasion, detailing the rises and (where applicable) falls of no fewer than 40 groups, all of whom received some U.S. airplay , though not always of the BeaUes-Stones magnitude. One such flagrantl y com mercial act was Herman's Hermi ts, of which Bomp said "they had cute record s and a cute act and we re British, and that was enough to sell them." And sell the)' did , capitalizing on sin ge r P eter " He r man" Noone's little-boy look and their catchy fusion of English music hall traditions and the "beat" sound to score Top Tens with "Can't You Hear My Heart beat ," "Mrs. Brown." and eve n Ray Davies' cheeky" Da ndy."

With the landing of th e Airplane and the lising of the Dead in San Francisco in 1966 and '67, groups like the Hermi ts, Dave Clark 5, Searchers, and even the

A

criminally malign ed Kinks suffered in the popularity sweepstakes, chastised by a budding coteri e of cri tics as commercial fakirs with little social and no artistic redee ming value. Benefiting from this shift in attitud es were the folk-rockers-Donovan , Sonny and Cher I t he Byt'ds (who had bee n having hits since '65), the Lovin' Spoonful, and the Mamas and th e Papas.

The hipness quotient of the last. two was boosted by their ties with the Greenwich Village folk scene that earli er spawned a radically non-commercial Bob Dylan. The Lovin' Spoonful were regulars at the Cafe Wha? and Night Owl hot spots and had in bespectacled singing-songwriting ace John Sebastian a talent already in full flowe r who could make th e good-timey sent.iment of "Do You Believe in Magic?" and cry of urban despair in "Summer in the City" equally believable. While di stinctly California in look and vocal harmonic sound, the Mamas and Papas owed a gr eat deal to the Village folk scene (Cass Elliott was a member oft.he short-lived N. Y. group the Mugwumps) . a debt they repaid in the hit "Creeque Alley."

The Mamas and Papas-Elliott. John and Michelle Phillips, Denny Dohertyencouraged A merica's cultural exodu s

Afldy Warhol said everyolle would be a star for 15 mil/ut es. but Herman'H lIermits (tup lefl) and Pauillevere alld th e Raiders (a bove (lml righl) had several years at th e tup . Paul R evere wetlt through many Raiders. but th e lineup show" above-Drake Levi" .

Michael S mith , Mark LindHa!!, R evere. alld Phil Vulk-was th e beHt.

CIRCUS / 61

HITMAKERS

Most of th eir fall li CQu ld,, '1 go to Colifortl;a, 80 the Mamas alld Papas ( above. from l eft-Mi chelle. D emiY. CaSH. and John) brought th e free alld easy West Coast lifestyle to them ill hits like ;'CaUfornia Dreamitl. ' "

to Califol'l1ia (init.iated earli er by the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean wi t h thei r surf-anel-hot rod anthems) wit h paeans to the free-and-easy life like "Californi a Dl'eam in'" and "Monday Monday." Both record s arc folk-pop gems that create Ll;le illusion of a counterculture Shang li-La through the group's ethereal harmonies, John Phillips' l'CIHXed way wit h a songhook, and a graceful production fusing acoustic gentil ity and rock &. 1'011 urgency. The Grass Roots did it with a greater emphasis on the latter in hit:s like the classic " Let's Live For Today," but the Mamas and Papas were the undisputed masters. And Papa.John Phillips stand s as a pivotal figul'e in the transition from pop to 'pl'ogressive rock for his role in OI'ganizing the Monterey Pop F estival.

T

hose who couldn't make the transition fell by pop's way~ side. Th ose who could-like Ii t= the Beach Boys and Young j Ra sca ls-we nt fr om st r e ngt h to 0. strength. Although th ey fell into critical

dis repu te for several years :H'ter the high hop es pl'ojected by Pet Sounds and only half-rea lized on Smiley Smile, the Beach Boys regrouped their creative forces in the late '60s and early '70s, at once t ransce nding their cand y-striped shirt past and building 0 11 it to reflect the rumblings in the cultural microcosm that was thei r home state of Califol'llia.

The R'lscal s had a similar problem.

Ol'iginally the nucl eus of Joey Dee's Starlig htel's a t New York's notol'j ous Peppermi nt Lounge , t he Young Rascals-organist F elix Cavali ere, pin tsized singer Eddie Brigati , guitari st Gene Corni s h, and drummer Dina DaneH i-were the hottest white R&B/rock combo of th eir day, One of the first rock g rou ps to crossover into the black mal'ket, the Rascals demonstrated theil' ability to weld the two in to ti meless dance music on the ex hilirating "Good Lovin'," bluesy " I Ain't Conna Eat My Hear t Out Anymore," and jock-I'ockin' " You BeLLeI' Run. " Casting an eye to th e arLi stic strides I'epl'esented by the Bea tl es' Sgl. Pep-

Th e Beach B oys (above)-Irollted by th e t wallgy lenor of Mik e L ove (right)tralJscended th eir mid·'60s im age as l eenybop fodder to make some of th e mosl importlml pop records of the '60s alld '70s, im,,:ludillg 'Pet Sounds,' 'SurFs Up ,' alld '-h e "mbiliOlls single "GQQ(/ Vibratiolls, "

pel', the Rascals added touches of jazz

("Gl'oovin' "), gosl>el ("People Got to Be Free"), and musical theau'e (" How Can 1 Be Sure") to theil' musical palette, But they continued to have AM hits because they nevel' forgot about how much fu n it was supposed to be, not just fol' th em· selves but fol' their audience, " We hHd so much fun, " Felix Cavaliere reminisced in a recent Circus Magazine intel'view, "See, the biggest thing 1 remember is t he f.a ntastic creative energy that was ,,11'0und, The second t hing l l'emembel' was the humanita ri an vibe. Everybody really seemed to be t rying to I'each out and louch each oth· er. And the gOo<l times we had ... I don't even know if people (iTeam of the fun we had."

The nihilism of punk , t he forced ma· eho of heavy met.al, plasticene soul of disco-th ey all represe nt the loss of innocence that paralleled the decline of AM l'adio in the Aqua rian Age and after . Do yOli remember rock & )'011 I'adio? A few of these record s may jog ~ you I' memory.

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1.0.'5

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GLITTER ROCK

EltOfI'S accomplishm ents made him the

!irst rock star to eam a place ill Madame TllSSUlld's fam ous wax muse",1/.

66 1 CIRCUS

Ilis flashy style put EIIOI' in th e company of greats (shown b e/Ol~ with

John Lennon ) "'id made him one of the most sought oner performers.

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Elton John: Captain Fantastic

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tanley . Dwight, a regal R.A.F. squadron leader refused permission for his

flUmpy son to buy the Hush

Puppies and mohair sweaters that would give him some vogue. And when

little Reg began explOling rock with his extraordinru'Y musical talents, daddy Dwight told him to "get all of that pop nonsense out of your head."

Reg Dwight, shy and dumpy, eventu-

ally left home and stlllck a final Freudian blow against his father by dispensing with the name. He borrowed monikers from saxophonist Elton Dean and "Long John" Baldry and became Elton John. Answeling a classified ad, he teamed up with 3l} unknown lyricist named Bernie Taupin and together they became to the '70s what Lennon & McCar tney were to the '60s.

Elton not only got his Hush Puppies,

but became one of the most flamboyant dressers in the world. In 1976 he made Blackwell's famo us "Ten Worst Dressed

Women"

and

gathered a

Smithsonian-like collection of eyewear including ones with mink-lined frames, another with windshield wipers and a

pair set with 57 flashing lights that spelled out E-L-T·O-N. He became the playfully baroque version of a r6ck star reveling in silly eccentriciti es to the CIRCUS / 67

GLITIER ROCK

E ft oll . seen here at Studio 54 with Rod Stewart, is a sports fanatic alld owns a soccer leam ill England.

point where he became the perfect Me Star for the Me Decade, His fashion was trashy and fl1volous, but it was only part of a rocket ride to fam e equalled only by F,'ank Sinatra, Elvis and the Beatles, His songs were bite-sized masterpieces with more hooks than there are at a crochet convention. They were upbeat mood tunes for a fickle era.

68 / CIRCUS

II Ead Blood," "Crocodile Rock/' IIGood_ bye Yell ow Brick Road ," "Rocket Man," "Philadelphi a F reedom ,lI "Don't

Go Breaking My Heal't" and others create a musical mosaic of the time. And the immense tal ent .

Elton's music could be combustably joyous, serenely melancholy or insuffrably coy , but it was hard to ignore .

Heck, for a long time it was hard to

avoid. He played f01' milli ons, sold recOl'ds by t he tl'uckload and left a pleasant. mark on the rock world. Reg seemed to know that Elton's traj ectory was a hazardous one. rn "The King Must Die" he sang:

A nel sooner or later, EVe1-ybody's kingdom must end ' , -Ca1ol Arrington

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Glitter·rock .Querillas Ih e S ell' )'Qrk Doll... look a mi,qhly fall ("0111 .Qrllcc'. bul len a legacy (or f"lure pUllks,

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N.Y. Dolls: Too much, too soon

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he New York Doll s never covered the Barbarians' garagepunk anthem "Are You a Boy 0 1' Are You a GirL " Bu t that was the question on America's mind every time the Dolls appeared on a stage, magazin e covel', record jacket, or television show during their brief but supernova-like lifetime, Dressed to the he ights of androgyny in towering platform heels, jet-black eyeliner, electroshock hair, and the trashiest threads either side of Fiorucci's, the New York Dolls were the ultimate in glittel'-l'ock excess in 1973 and '74, when they reIea.sed their two Mercury LPsNew York Dolls and Too Much Too Soon. But in the early '70s, t he protopunk Dolls were exactly that-too much too soon, Singer David Jo Hansen (he's since reverted back to his original Johansen), guital"ists Sylvain Sylvain and Johnny Thundel's, bassist Arthur Kane , and drummer Jel1",Y Nolan had the rare opportunity to live out their rock & roll fantnsies, only to see them premature ly

explode the same way the Sex Pistols' did five years later.

The first sign of trouble was t he death of original drummer Billy Murcia from an overdose of alcohol and pills during the band's debut London tour. The second was the Doll s' difficulty il.l scol"ing a record deaL The underground toast of New York as a resul t of thei r '72 shows at t he Mercer Arts Ce ntre, t he Dolls were the scourge of A&R men who dismissed them as a sloppier Stones, fl amboyant freaks who couldn't pIny .

Lou Reed went to see one Dolls show and rell asleep. Cli ve Davis caugh t a showcase g ig and left after thl·ee songs.

Even Johansen admitted in a '73 interview that. "JelTY is th e only real musician in the group." And the n there are the crippling vices that eventually crunched the group--Kane's alcoholism and Thunders' and Nolan's heroin habits.

Studied musicians, however, could liever have held a candle to the Dolls' napHlm rock attack and today's kid s continue to pay tribute to yesterday's

punks. Blondie used to encore with I'Jet Boy," Pi stols s ve ngali Mal colm McLaren (who managed the Dolls in their waning year of '75) practically molded the Pistols in their image, and young English rockers admitted punk's debt to t he band by creating a demand for the U. K. re issue of t he Dolls' two album s (still deleted stateside).

Today , t he New York Dolls are old er , wiser, and far more successfuL Thunders and olan capitalized on punk-rock mania by forming the Heartbreakers and moving to England for most of '77 (Nolan subsequently formed his own Id ols), Sylvain has just issued an LP on RCA, and Johansen has raked in rave rev iews for his two recent solo LPs and live shows, the latter including selected Dolls songs. Leave it to Circus Magazine (in the September '74 issue of Raves) to put the Dolls in proper perSI>cctive-uSome people criticize the Dolls [01· setting the music scene back ten years. Personally, I can't find a better argument in their favol', What was so bad about 1964?"-David Fricke CIRCUS 169

BACH ISSUES!

CIRCUS MAGAZINE FROM #128 TO PRESENT PLUS PAPERBACKS & SPECIALS AT $2.50 EACH. INCLUDES POSTAGE AND H ANDLING • ., 128: Best New Tal· enl-1976. BoWIe Grand Funk, Jell Bridges. Who Tour States # 12., Lou Reed. tOte. Tonvny Bolin & Deep Purple 11'1 Japan # 130: KIss. Yes. ~ ~lft ~"'I"

Abused children are heI~.

Unless you help.

Write: National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse, Box 2866. Chicago. III. 60690 A Public Service 01Tnls Magazin e

I......".'!!r.id~~pa~y.

Oueen # 131: BoWIe Interview, Rush 2112. Black Sab· bath. Lily Tomlin. HI·F,.

SpeCial Repoft " ,32: Led Zeppelin, Ted Nugent. Pelel' Frampton Inlervlcw.

Oueen. Mark Farner Calls It Ou,tS 6 133: Stones, K,ss, Paul Rodgers (Bad Co ), Drug Laws, Fonzle # 134 : AerOStTIIlh, Ian Hunter, MCCarlney & Wings. Beatie BooIteg Catalogue N135: Elton John, KISS. Queen Bllan May Inter· VIew. Amenca 11 13S: Jell Beck.

Stones European Tour, KISS: Ace Frchley Inter· View, AbortIOn Pari 1 ,, 137: King Kong.

Steve t.Mer. KISS Peter CIISS tnlCIVlew. AbortIOn Pan 2 # 138: AlIce Cooper.

Jellerson Starshlp. KISS" Paul Stanley Inlervtcw, Robert Ptant IntCfVlCW. Star Trek # 138: Caroline Kenne· dy. Bllan Wilson, KISS Gene Simmons Inter· View, Yes Tour '76 6 140: Chevy Chase.

Kiss Tour. Hall & Oates.

Chicago X # 141 : AerOStnlth Toul ' 76. Jimmy Page Intel" VIew, Reggae Roundup 6 142: Ted Nugent.

Denrws Wilson Int(Wlcw.

AerOSlTllth; Tales 01 Ear· Iy Days # 143: Captam & Ten· nille KIss Tommy Bolm Int~,ew, 't,Xlda Ron· staat, Slar Trek Conven· lIOn #1 44: Runaways, Ael' at~","". -R"'!'Er~r In, "'.. , ...... ....

Clapton # 145; John Travolta.

Black Oak. Frampton.

SlIMe Wonder. Blfth Control Pt 1 # 146: ZZ Top, Led

~t:1

& The Ad vertising Council I.DI.IIC

After of re quests, th e most soug ht afte r t-shirt in the rock worl d is fina ll y a .... a il abl e to you .

Circus I- shirt com es in midnight b lock.

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celt·Maps. Blnh Con1101 Pt. 2 * '47: Breakouts '17, ELO, KISS, Elton JOhn, Lavcrne & Shllley # 148: Klls Kflstoller·

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Halt & Oates InteMew, Guide to DfUm EquIp. ment " , ." Slone Woman, RuSh. Annual MuSIC Makers Awards. Sci' ence E..amnes Pol " ' 50 : BoWIC. Rod Stewart Oueen: Bllan May IntCfVlew. Sabbath & Nugent Concert # 15 1: Paul Rodgels Bad Co.. Queen Fred· die Mercury. Foghal & Rush Tour, V 0 .: Ame,,· ca's laslest spreading disease # 179; KISS' Peter CIISS Barry Manllow, Angel Postel # 180: Starshlp, Ma· hogany RUSh. Andrew Gold, KISS Ace Frehley Interview # ta 1: Will Heavy Metal SurvfYe? (KISS, Queen.

Aerosmlth. Nugent. Led Zep) # 18 2: Paul & linda McCartneyfW,ngs, Gen· esls, Van Halen, KISS # 183: Cally SImon, KISS ConquelS Japan, REO Speedwagon.

Heart # 184: The Band's "LaSt Waltz:' Black· mote. Rundgren. Angel # 185: Spllngsteen Poster. Summer Tours.

AerOSlT\lth. Stones, Nu· gent # 186: Foghat, KISS PhQ(O History. Hall & Oates, Tom Petty # 187: Bob Sger/Bruce Spflngsteen, See Gees, Barry Glbb, Van Halen N188: Andy Glbb, Kinks, Stones, Frank Mallno Poster N189: TelOl8S Jam. Foreigner. Moody Blues 'SOt Pepper': Frampton. Bee Gees.

Aerosmlth; Bob Dylan, The Cars ,, 191 : Rock Allstocra· cy Bee Gees. Jagger.

KISS. Ronstadt. Led Zep, RoI~ng Slones # 182: Beatles. Who's

,,'90:

~~~ ~.' ''~ ~NnM~~C\.

yJer postel # 193: Shaun CasSidy.

Lynyrd Skynyrd. Black Sabbalh # 194: KISS. Stanley & SImmons, Spllngsteen.

Yes, Rick Wakeman postel # 195: Spec,a1 Issue 25 Years 01 Rock and Roll # 186:' Llnda Ronstadt, Beatles, BosIon. Cheap TriCk. Chicago # 197: Jethro Tull. Hall & Oates. David Bow.e

# 198: BIlly Joel, DaVid SaMe GaJac11Ca post. er. New Rockers; Eddie Money. Heart, Cheap Tllck. Van Halen. 80$. ton. MeaUo al " '99: Elton John.

Black Sabbath. Pat Travers 6 200: Teel Nugent.

Van Momson. lnstru· ment Special On·Stage Equipment 01 Ned Young. Chicago. Bob Seger. Bob Seger post· er # 2 01 : Aael'osmlth, Styx/Cars. Rush # 202: Ouen. Heal! .

Nancy W,lson poster # 203: Alice Cooper bob Dylan. Ellc Claplon postcr ,,2041' Sieve Manln SIeve Miller. Meat LOaI # 205: Top Rock Stars 01 ' 18. Freddie MCicury Poster * 2 0 6: ManjUana Up. date, Dead, ACmC, ELI·'. o.sco Special. ACt DC's Angus Young postel' # 207; Rod Stewart.

Doors. Rundglen.

C~ap Tllck poster " 152: FTeelwood Mac. Angel. Beginner's G""eJe to MUSIcal EqUIp. mem, Starsky # 153: Jethro Tull, Kinks, Boston.

Fleetwood Mac. Young AlcoholiCS # 154: ELP. Pink Floyd, KISS; Gene Simmons on An 01 Fire·Breathlng " ,55: Alice Cooper.

KISS: Stanley &. S.m· mons. Cocaine. Rush, Oeep Purple TeenagelS & Se)!;, Iggy Pop, ELP. KISS Interview: CIISS &.

Frehley. Billion Dotlar Babies # 15 7: Led Zeppelin, KlkI Dee, Rock WIves.

Bos!on. Muhammad A~ # 1 58: Ted Nugent.

SIeve Miller. KISS In Ja. pan Pan 1. Jmwny Page Poster. Sla' WafS # 1 59: linda Blair. KIss In Japan Part 2, Women In Rock, Van MOlliSon, Slev,e Winwood # 160: Sissy Spacek, Blackmore's RainboW. Hean.lInle Oueen.

IOcC. Rock WIVes. 0..

",56:

Emerson, Nugent PosIe1 Henry W,nklel El(posed. ~ef Datlfey Solo. Punk ROCk. Bllth Control " UI5: Kettn RIChard InlclVlew. Se)!; Survcy Results. JIlT'll Hendlll( F,nal TnblJte # 1 88: Bruce Joonel.

ElviS (t6 Pagc Memorl' al). RuSt! Tapcs Nell Pearl 6 167: linda Rondstadt Rush Tapes, Geddy Lee. R.chard Pryor. Yes 6 168: Logan's Run vs Star Wars. Rita Coo"dge. Rush Tapcs Ale)!; Llleson # 169: Hean & Canadl' an Sound, Rod StewM. IOcc. AudIO EqUipment lor a Basement StudiO " 170: Elton John, ELO. Fleetwood Mac. Steety Dan * 171 : KISS InSlde·Stu· dlo Inlervtew. ProdUCing Ted Nugent. ELP. Oa, vldBowle # 172: Dotly Parton.

Rush. GeneSis. KISS Part II . $e)!; PIstols.

Boatle Lovesongs " 173: Oueen Rick Wa· kernan, Eanh. \V!rld & Fire. Nazareth # 174: .Bee ~,;;,.f.I ,'IC ~.ft,JVV " ~.M~osmlth # 175: Ronstadt & Plant Man and Woman 01 the Year. MuSIC Poll Winners " '76: Jackson Browne & Joni MitChell. Ste· vleWonder, Oueen, KISS # 177: Ted Nugent lIVe. Sex Pistols. The Ramones, Aerosml\l'l Poster # 178: SOt Pcpper Bee Gees. Aerosm,th.

Frampton elc KISS Tour Postel .

",&4:

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Bonnie Raitt

GLITTER ROCK

Bowie's first band was called Da vid Jones And Th e Lower Third. He plaued saxophon e. but later switched his name and s witched 10 singing.

David 'Bowie: Portrait of the young man as an artist

by Carl Arrington

O

ne of rock's li ttle ironies is that David J ones changed his name so as not be con-

fu sed Dav id Jones of the Monkees. He chose Bowie (as in knife).

In r etrospect Bowie probably could

have kept his original name, recorded his version of II Last Train to Clarksville" and people would still have known which David Jones was which.

androgy nous sexuali ty. He was the one catapulted to a difficult fame by 41Space Oddity ," named his son Zowie, and ap-

He was the one with the paralysed

peared on stage in everythi ng from a pink jockst ,路ap to a tuxedo. He was the

pupil , orange hair, spindl ey form and

one who had himself drawn as a slick

CIACUS / 71

GLITTER ROCK

canine on t he cover of his D iamond Dogs LP. What Bob Dylan was to the political upheaval of t he '60s, he was to the sexual realignment of the '70s.

Bowie, born in South London in 1947, was not just another rock & r oll star. H e

was an artist, though perhaps at first unawares, who chose rock as a medium of expression. With experience as a 72 / CIRCUS

mime and painter, he used himse lf as a kind of bla nk canvas upon which to

an exceptional knack for makiilg peopl e uncomfOl"table. As did Picasso. As did

project characters that tantalized a

Dada. As does Martha Graham.

throng of TV 路bl'ed fan s weaned on SY I1thetic "living" color.

He hOl'lified th e adu lt world. \楼hen

ums, " I was never really interested in

he played Ziggy Stardust he wasn't

If Bowie's brighl orange hair (right)

t errestri al enough and when he admitted his bisexuality in th e press he

waStl'1 ellollgh 10 strock people, his slage unlic.., were. Above he's shown kneeling , ill mid路acl ill fro"t of guitarisl Mick ROllso" ,

was perhaps too earthly. He displayed

B o\\~e

explains hi s choice of medi-

ShoWII above ill white路fa ce make-lip, Bowie studied a1l(1 performed with a milli e troupe for several years before fllrllillg to rock .

rock pel' se. The was a f'acetofit thatgol me involved in the und erground for a while which later overlapped into the comm ercial area with successful record s. I t was difficult because duting that pelioo Alice Cooper, myself and other artists were all lumped together in this 'Space/Glittel' Rock' thing, whl?n in reality we were working in incredibly different areas. I guess it was just a co nve ni ent labl:.'i to stir up some marketing enthusiasm which had little to do with t he m't itself. " Hi s liart" was nut merely confin ed to th e studi o or stage, but became a kind of living th eate r where he became a hu路 man chameleon taking on full路tim e pet'sonnas, Nearly all of his major tours were done as different characters, each of whom were arrayed with their own songs , wm'dl"Obe, media posture and e ntourage. If fans didn 't like t he Bo\\; e they saw, all they had to do was be patient and there was a new model.

ShOl1.Iy after making Station to Station as the Thin Whi te Duke, Bowie too k a reality check and changed his life.

He explains, " 1 was becoming too involved with characterizati on and narnltive form albums. It was pleasul'eable 74 / CJRCUS

for a few years. but I was an extremist and soon these ficlions became functional. I created amazing contraditions in points of view and it was damaging to my pel'sonallife. I mean 1 was so full of artistic pl'etenli ons it's noltrue. But it became vet'y confusing and at one point J re,dly believed t hat my sanity was at stake in Los Angeles (where he was living). Tha t's when J left and retul'lled to Europe."

Though he is less in t he media eye than he was during th e '70s, Bowie's influence as a songwriter , performe r and persoluli ity still lingers. His di stinct forays into fashion have since become common aspects of image-building by rockers. His panicky voice that he revv ed up in concert set a sUlIldard for excitement by which aspirants of the 'SOs are still judged. His experi ments with songwriting using ButToughsian fragmentation (cutting up pieces of paI>e r with words 0 1' thoughts and rearranging them) and electronic music are still unparall eled. He defines his own aims saying, " I enj oy the process and the doing rather than t he result. 1 think wha t I do paints a fairl y accurate picture through Illy eyes of what is happe ning around me. I t ry and produce musi-

cal Polaroids that depict the moment.."

I n recent years Bowie has produced a series of music collections t hal have had only mod est commercial success in comparison to his earli er work, He travels ext.ensively visiting such exotic places as the Ori ent, and Aft;ca. He lives, off and on in Berlin. A wayfarer who refu ses to stay put ph y ically 0 1' artist.ically, Bowie's restless spirit has se nt him stalking culture shock and pt'owling after innovations, He playfully refers to himself now as a "generalist," which is another way of saying t ha t his interests are no longer bound by t he conventional confines of rock. He has already starred in two films (The Man Who F ell To Em路th and Just A Gi golo) and is co ntemplating a show of a t'ecent se ries of paintings.

His musical futut'e is indefinite, though he's never been shOtt on expression 0 1' ideas. He continues to perform and th ere are tour mmors circulating, though there's not.hing confirmed.

Bowi e has certainly secm'ed his place in the rock p,lIltheol1 alre~l(ly. He is among t he few artists who can fill areIlas at whim and de mand attention for having rushed in where othet's feared to t read.

-Cm'l A1.,.ington

GLITTER ROCK

Alice Cooper, the balld: from left, Neal S mith , Michael B ruce, Alice ( lire mall ) , Deflni s Dunaway, and Gle" Buxtoll .

Alice Cooper: Nightmares, baby dolls' & snakes

by Carl Arrington

e danced with a boa constrict or , had Black Wid ow eyes, hacked dolls to death, spla tt ered himself wi th blood , threw live chickens in to th e audi ence, was at.tacked by a giant Cyclops, had himself execu ted in an electric chair and was deemed "ugly" by the New York 'l'i'm,es. E ven his name was an irritant: Alice Cooper.

Vincent Fumier, on the other hand , was a wiseacre preach er's SOil who guzzled beeI', wore tenni s shoes , golfed

H

with Bob Hope and eventually end ed up

on Hollywood Squ.a'res.

They were the same man , but as different as J eck yll and Hyde .

Vince nt was born in Detroit in 1948, but Ali ce \\ias hatched out of a ' vivid imagination in Los Angeles in about 1969. He was Lhe lead chal'acler and namesake of a band consisting of Glen Buxt on (guitar), Michael Bruce (guitar' keyboanls), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smi th (drums) who got started playing in Phoenix, Arizona.

They were di scovered by managerl entrepreneur Herb Cohen who saw th e pOLential of their loud, theatli cal rock and got th em sig ned to Frank Zappa's label upon which they released th eir fOl路gettable first a lbu ms P,路etties Po,路 You and Easy A ction.

Vincenti Alice and company tran~ scend ed cult stat us in 1970 whe n they hooked up with heavy metal mechanic Bob Ezrin who produced for th em th eir first nat.ional hit entitled "I'm E i gh~ t een" off Love 1t to Death. His voice was CtACU$ / 75

A lice was fa mous for h is stage she'lOlI egolis. Amotlg his favorite schl.ick s we re bei llg haflged (aboue), tortu red Oil the rack by lizards (ri ght) afl d hauiflg slI ak es coil arollnd his neck (far r ight) . Cooper stayed with his origillal band (s how1I above right) until he fi red them all i ll 1974 j ust before his worldwide "lYelcome to My N ightm are' tour.

quite OJ'dinary and musical style derivit ive, but it was as a showman extraordinaire that Cooper made his mark. He became a kind of ..ock & .. oil Waite ..

Mitty who acted out violent scenes that seemed to grow out of teenage rebellion and fru stration. Ali ce said , "Some of t hem are reall y deranged , those kids are, but they reall y look to us as their anti-heroes because their parent hate us so much, We're thei r defen se. That's what we want . . . most of OUI' audience are fourteen and fifteen year old kids and t hey want to be deranged ."

Early tou rs accom panying albums Killer, School's Out and Billion Dolla?'

Babies we ..e full of calculated ghoulishness. Cooper would careen around th e stage like a berserk preacher wo rking rock congregations in to a dramatic frenzy. One of his most famous I'outines was t he blugeoning of a baby doll. He told in an intervi ew how it worked: "We use a 76 / CIRCUS

doll, you know, and we hav e blood capsules taped to its back and 1 cut it to pieces with an axe. But t he thi ng is ... it's not just doing it; 'the idea is really making it look psychotic. It's a ll done with th e eyes you know , th e way you project to an au di ence ... Whe n 1 chop t he baby up and th row t he pm'ls into th e audience th ey Jov e it. I get (l, great kick out of i t too!"

Cooper axed his original band in 1974 , and by th en had pretty mu ch reached his career apex. After that his shows and music becam e more like a haun ted house at ;'a n amuse ment park. He was more impish and less th reatening. By t he time he pu t his album Welcome To My Nightmare together , ne had lost his evil edge and the accompanying shows seemed more like overblown Las Vegas productions (i n spi te of his hit with 1<0nly Women Bleed") than a genui ne "ocky horror. The excesses of th e Glit-

tel' Rockers, wi th whom Alice was lump ed , eventually led to less shock and more schlock.

Cooper , t he character, lives on culturall y in Halloween masks and rock history. Foul'lliel'-as-Cooper has settled into a backbul'l1el' showbiz life. He played Father Sun in t he ill-f(l ted movie debacle of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hea,路ts Clu b Band and appears sponltically on television tH lk and game shows . His most recent moment in the media spotlight was wh en he voluntarily we nt through a treatment program for alcoholism. Now he see ms about as t hreat ening as Captain Kangaroo.

Alice Cooper does have t he di stinct ion of becoming one of the most flamboyant rock personalities of a flashy era. He also begat a generation of show rockers like Kiss who di splayed a ne w app recia tion for th e theatrical possibili0 ties of rock performance.

c c

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by Lou O'Neill Jr,

The Beatles' legend comes to life with Ed Sullivan IT WAS T HE '60s, oh yes, it definitely was stili the '60s. Inflation didn't exist, LBJ sat in the White House and believe it

sound.

And here I was being Introduced to John, Paul, George and Ringo by Mr, Sullivan. They displayed a blazing selfconfidence. They definitely knew t heir worth. John and Paul were very confident about the sound system Sullivan was using. They had brought along their Vox AC-l00s with 100-wall power to drive the guitars. Though still a teenager and more importantly, the biggest Beatles fan in New York, I tried

or not, Quaaludes hadn't even been

invented yet. But rock 'n' roll was changing-for t he beller. For years American music had been stagnant. Elvis never seemed to recapture the old spark after his discharge from the Army. I stili loved his stuff, but it just wasn 't the same. And then came the Beatles l My taste in music had undergone drastic changes as soon as I began to " get Into" (how's that for a '60s buzzword?) what Lennon and McCartney were all about. To merely state that Messrs. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr were the greatest group ever understates their importance since, to this reporter at least, the Beatles influenced not only rock fans, but t he world as well.

I f irst met th em in August of '65. They were in New York to tape the old Ed Sullivan show for CBS, I can remember begging my Dad for weeks on end to call his old sportswriter friend, Sullivan, so we could get to the show. II's virtually Impossible to describe how excited I was when my father Informed me there would be two backstage passes waiting for us compliments of Ed Sullivan.

We walked into the old theater and within seconds I heard the opening guitar bars of " Ticket To Ride." This was too good to be true for there were no screamers present (I regarded them as less than true fans since they screeched t hroughout th e music) and the dress rehearsal was just starting, It was an unbelievable experience. Their musicianship, singing and presence was incredible ! I don't mean to be trite, but there was magic In that room.

The Beatles were doing six tunes that night. Included would be " I Feel Fine," "I 'm Down," " Act Naturally," "Ticket To Ride," " Yesterday," and "Help. " Ed Sullivan knew their value. He would keep

you watching the dancing mice or the talking puppet for three-quarters of the "shew" before you 'd see who you tuned in for in the first place.

Oh yes, it would all be live. No tapes to stop and start again if a wrong note Is hit. When Ed Sullivan offered me a chance to go back to meet them after the run through, I nearly died. There I was in the Beatles' dressing room with Brian Epstein, Ed Sullivan and the Fab Four, as was said back then, Wake me up when this dream ends I kept thinking to myself.

Minutes earlier, I had encountered Paul McCartney during a " take five. " He was warm and friendly and we talked about American mUSiC, particularly the Motown

The Bea tles near th e end: Fun while It lasted.

George and John sing harmony on '" Feel Fine , ";

Mag/cal!

to act like a mature young man in an

allemptto blend in. I sat In awe.

John Lennon did most of the talking.

Amazingly, even then he seemed quite unaffected by and scarlly accustomed to the continuing insanity and chaos swirling around the band. Lennon talked about the upcoming '65 tour, about their new film ("Help" ) and asked me a few questions about America and New York City In particular. George was very quiet ; he hardly said a word. Paul was happy and bubbly and Ringo seemed to be the comedian of the bunch. Always fooling around. There was no doubt that Brian Epstein was calling all the shots.

Later that evening, I would watch the Beatles do It all over, live. I could barely make out the songs much less understand the lyrics. It was sheer pandemonium the likes of which I have never seen before or since.

Fifteen years have come and gone, but the memories remain . The scientists say

it does happen when something leaves an indelible mark on a person. In my life,

Paul McCartney with Circus columnist Lou O'Neill Jr. in

August of '65.

the Beatles were that indelible mark. And I wonder how many millions upon millions out there feel exactly the same way I do.

Until next time we leave you with the rosen words of John Lennon and Paul McCartney : And in the end The love you take Is equal to the love you make.

o

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