Podcast appearances and mentions of warner brothers records

In which The Curmudgeons give loud, deserved props to one of modern rock's most influential bands. Hûsker Dû started out as a revered hardcore punk band in Minneapolis in 1979, but by the mid-1980s, the band had veered toward a style that became known as punk-pop--loud and abrasive but also unquestionably melodic and heartfelt. During this episode, we extol the virtues of Hûsker Dû and what made them truly great. We discuss their six studio alums plus a rocked-out EP and a sensational live album.   Enjoy the music of Hûsker Dû by accessing our special Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4z536uqdfmR7VVoAkZaCk8?si=a8db8b22da0d4a8e   Here's a handy navigation companion to this episode:   (00:52 - 04:12) - Arturo Andrade sets the parameters for our discussion of Hûsker Dû   (06:17 - 16:49) - The Parallel Universe, featuring reviews of new music from Moonchild Sannelly and J.I.D.    (17:47 - 50:49) - WE discuss Hûsker Dû's origin story and then analyze four full-length albums and one EP the band released on indie label SST. These include Zen Arcade, New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig.   (52:41 - 01:09:04) - We discuss two albums Hûsker Dû relased on Warner Brothers Records and also a live album that hit record-store shelves long after the band broke up.    Join our Curmudgeonly Community today! facebook.com/groups/curmudgeonrock   Hosted on Podbean! curmudgeonrock.podbean.com   Subscribe to our show on these platforms: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-curmudgeon-rock-report/id1551808911   https://open.spotify.com/show/4q7bHKIROH98o0vJbXLamB?si=5ffbdc04d6d44ecb   https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/5fea16f1-664e-40b7-932e-5fb748cffb1d/the-   Co-produced and co-hosted by The Curmudgeons - Arturo Andrade and Christopher O'Connor

It was 65 years ago this month that the Everly Brothers signed a 10-year, $1 million deal with Warner Brothers Records following an incredible three-year run at tiny Cadence Records. It was one the first big money contracts for a rock and roll act, and their first two years provided an incredible return on investment for Warner. But 1962 brought a drought that effectively ended their incredible chart run and, as the brothers desperately tried to regain their chart footing, they were confounded by the seemingly endless onslaught of British Invasion artists. In his latest article for the Strange Brew, music historian Scott G. Shea talks about this time in the Everly Brothers' long career and how their blend of perseverance and role as rock and roll influencers churned out a slew of incredible records.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

It was 65 years ago this month that the Everly Brothers signed a 10-year, $1 million deal with Warner Brothers Records following an incredible three-year run at tiny Cadence Records. It was one the first big money contracts for a rock and roll act, and their first two years provided an incredible return on investment for Warner. But 1962 brought a drought that effectively ended their incredible chart run and, as the brothers desperately tried to regain their chart footing, they were confounded by the seemingly endless onslaught of British Invasion artists. In his latest article for the Strange Brew, music historian Scott G. Shea talks about this time in the Everly Brothers' long career and how their blend of perseverance and role as rock and roll influencers churned out a slew of incredible records.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

 This week Joe is featuring Pianist/Keyboardist Joe Sample from his 1993 Warner Brothers Records recording, titled “Invitation.” 

In this episode, we invite the excellent Gene Sculatti to talk us through his career from Crawdaddy! magazine to the Atomic Cocktail radio show he still hosts at Luxuria Music. Commencing in San Francisco in the summer of 1960 — when Gene first heard Dion's 'Lonely Teenager' — we ask our guest about his lifelong love of surf music and the Beach Boys. From there we jump to his mid-'60s radio show "Blues and Such", then on to the first stirrings of the Haight-Ashbury scene he captured in a landmark 1966 report for Crawdaddy! ... and later in San Francisco Nights, the classic 1985 book he co-wrote with the late Davin Seay. Gene recalls his 1973 move to Los Angeles and his subsequent years as the editorial director of Warner Brothers Records in Burbank. We hear about the company's super-hip in-house publications Circular and Waxpaper, as well as about working under the legendary Derek Taylor. We also discuss his deep love of '80s dance-pop and his 1990 sleevenotes for Madonna's Immaculate Collection. The episode with clips from a 2012 audio with The Band's sainted keyboard genius Garth Hudson, who was lost to us on 21st January, and finally with quotes from Mark's and Jasper's favourite new additions to the RBP library. Pieces discussed: San Francisco Bay Rock, Mojo Navigator: Memories of Mojo, "Home Runs, No Bunts" — Solar Power On The Rise, Madonna: The Immaculate Collection, Barry Goldberg Interviews, Articles and Reviews, Barry Goldberg & Bob Dylan's Secret Gem, The World According to Garth Hudson, The Band's Garth Hudson audio, The Walker Brothers, Pop Eye: The New Jazz, Burt Bacharach, Derek Taylor, Sly & Robbie Come On Like Assassins, Wu-Tang Clan: One of These Men Is God, and Thundercat.

The Path to Success: "You just have to be open to all different kinds of experiences and choices that you make, because you don't know how those puzzle pieces come together in the end to paint you a really beautiful picture."Julie Smith and Glenn Harper welcome the multifaceted entrepreneur Kerim Kfuri. From his family's immigrant background to navigating and excelling in various fields, Kfuri shares his extraordinary story of adaptability, cultural exchange, and relentless pursuit of success.Kerim, cohost of the "Supply and Demand Show" on YouTube, founder of Global Crosswalk, and president of the Atlas Network, recounts his versatile career—from early entrepreneurial ventures like selling blueberries and custom shirts to pioneering dot-com initiatives and shifting into regulatory roles at Warner Brothers Records and the SEC. With a background rich in finance, marketing, and international business, Kfuri reveals how he's continued to evolve alongside industry changes and chased his entrepreneurial passion, even picking up multiple languages along the way.Throughout this conversation, Kfuri discusses the importance of human interactions, balancing differences in partnerships, and staying open to unplanned opportunities. With heartfelt reflections on his family's influence, educational pursuits, and unique career paths, Kfuri offers profound insights into the entrepreneurial spirit and the constant drive to make a meaningful impact. Empowering Moments03:35 Entered supply chain via finance and experiences.07:57 Adapting involves learning language, exchanging cultures.09:52 Family business shaped by immigrant experience and work.13:08 Created misterproducer.com: music industry B2B platform.17:13 Ambition to leave a lasting impact.20:40 Entrepreneurial leaders must self-motivate and self-regulate.23:31 Casual encounters deepen human connections in society.27:51 Loved science, realized medicine wasn't right fit.31:49 "Industry shifted, aiming for audience-driven monetization."32:38 IPO flop led to career in business law.36:39 Supply chain management: supplier selection to delivery.40:25 Global supply chain lacks regulatory best practices.44:28 End game: Make impactful contributions towards goals.46:25 Atlasnetwork.com, kareemkafuri.com, supplychainupsanddowns.com.This episode is brought to you by PureTax, LLC. Tax preparation services without the pressure. When all you need is to get your tax return done, take the stress out of tax season by working with a firm that has simplified the process and the pricing. Find out more about how we started.Empowering TakeawaysAdapting and Language Learning: Embrace the necessity of adapting and learning new languages when moving to a new country. This effort not only facilitates communication but also fosters cultural exchange and personal growth.Cultural and Family Influence: Your family's work ethic and cultural background play a significant role in shaping your entrepreneurial mindset. Kerim's immigrant background and family support were foundational to his development.Early Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial spirit can start young. Kerim's experiences selling blueberries and custom shirts as a child laid the groundwork for his future business ventures.Market Adaptation: Entrepreneurship often requires pivoting. The obsolescence of Kerim's dotcom venture due to...

This week on Jazz After Dinner Joe features Guitarist and Composer Pat Metheny from his 2002 Warner Brothers Records recording, titled “Speaking Of Now.”

Welcome back to another episode of The Richer Geek Podcast! Today, we have a very exciting guest, Kevin Davis. Kevin's journey began as a recording artist signed with Warner Brothers Records, but his passion for finance led him to Wall Street, where he gained experience as a stockbroker. Seeing a need for accessible investment education, he created Investment Dojo, a gamified stock simulator app that helps people of all ages build confidence in investing. In this episode, Kevin shares his inspiring story, discusses the importance of understanding your investments, and explains how Investment Dojo is empowering families to learn about the stock market together. In this episode, we're discussing: Challenging Start: Kevin was kicked out of his house at 17, living place-to-place while juggling part-time work at UPS and college. Wall Street Entry: Inspired by the movie Trading Places, Kevin began his Wall Street career at Stratton Oakmont after a serendipitous conversation with a neighbor. Research Skills: Kevin mastered stock research by focusing on free cash flow and business models—skills that became the cornerstone of his success. Founding Investment Dojo: During his retirement, Kevin recognized the lack of accessible financial education. He founded Investment Dojo to teach others how to research and build wealth. Education-First Approach: Kevin emphasizes teaching people how to analyze stocks and make informed decisions rather than relying on stock picks.   Resources from Kevin LinkedIn | Investment Dojo | Who's Your Daddy by Kevin Davis Resources from Mike and Nichole Gateway Private Equity Group |  Nic's guide

iamthedelo.com www.barandrestaurantinsurance.com Come check out what we offer ! Mastermind, Insurance, and other great coaching ! In this solo podcast episode, the host reflects on his journey in the music business and how it parallels modern marketing strategies. He expresses gratitude for being recognized as a top podcast and shares insights from his new book, "Just Getting Started." The discussion begins with his early experiences in music marketing during his internship at Warner Brothers Records, where he learned the importance of visibility and name recognition for artists. He emphasizes that the music industry operates like a business, where record labels focus on selling based on existing popularity, often regardless of the quality of new releases.Transitioning to contemporary marketing, the host highlights the challenges and opportunities of digital advertising in today's landscape. He notes that while social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok can be effective, they require a strategic approach to ensure a good return on investment. He acknowledges his own struggles with online marketing but emphasizes the value of traditional methods, such as handing out flyers, which foster personal connections and community presence.The host introduces the concept of "hanging flyers" as a metaphor for building relationships through direct engagement rather than relying solely on digital interactions. He argues that personal connections are crucial for solving problems and creating value in any business. He encourages listeners to embrace their purpose and be proud of what they offer, stressing that genuine energy behind transactions leads to better outcomes.Ultimately, he calls for a return to authentic interactions in business, advocating for a balance between leveraging technology and maintaining human connections. The episode serves as both a motivational message and practical advice for entrepreneurs looking to navigate the complexities of marketing today.

Pat welcomes the "Concert Wife" Suzanne Dillingham into the Rock Room to discuss Rod Stewart's first solo albums released on Warner Brothers Records from 1980 to 1989.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode 118- Join host Troy Saunders as he hosts Sherry Winston! Not only is Ms. Winston one of Jazz music's most esteemed flutist, but she is also a record executive, promotional manager, educator, public speaker, composer, author, chef, booking agent, a world renowned performer and all around great person. Come get to know this legendary artist in this episode.Sherry Winston has performed in many of the major concert halls throughout the U.S. including Carnegie Hall, Constitution Hall, Lincoln Center and at the Kennedy Center. Sherry performed with Icon Stevie Wonder in NYC to honor the legendary Hal Jackson on his 97th birthday. Sherry had the honor of performing for two sitting presidents. For President and Mrs. Clinton during their last holiday party at the White House and for former President George H.W. Bush at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC.Sherry has been featured in The New York Times, Ebony, Black Enterprise, Essence and More Magazines. Sherry has been a featured guest on the Today Show, "Emeril Live," and has co-hosted and performed on 8 shows for Bet TV. Sherry has released 6 CD's with her first "Do It For Love," going to #1 on BRE and the Black Excellence Charts. "Love Madnes," and "Life is Love & Love is You," was Top 10 at Billboard Magazine.They start the episode by discussing Sherry's humble beginnings growing up in Corona, Queens NYC, her college years at Howard University, how she began working as a secretary at Warner Brothers Records via their Elektra and GRP subsidiaries and her move up the ranks becoming Director of Jazz Promotion at Columbia Records.The next part of the conversation they converse about what happened at Columbia Records that made her concentrate on recording her own Jazz records. The struggles of an independent artist and how she copes with the ups and downs of being in the the music industry. This is a must listen for anyone that is in or planning to start a career in music. Words from a wise lady that has been maintaining a successful career for many years.Of course throughout the episode Troy plays some of his favorite songs by Ms. Winston. Beginning with "Sherry Love" and ending with her latest single "Spice Island". Sherry tells wonderful stories on working with legendary artists Hubert Laws ( and the rest of his family), Patrice Rushen, Jon Lucien, Najee, Kirk Whalum, Grover Washington Jr, Eric Gale and more. You can tell that Troy and Ms. Winston thoroughly enjoy each others company. It was as if they knew each other for a long time even though they just met.This is a wonderful episode that will keep you intrigued, make you smile and fill you soul with wonderful music. Listen and subscribe to the BAAS Entertainment Podcast on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Podchaser, Pocket Casts and TuneIn. “Hey, Alexa. Play the BAAS Entertainment Podcast.”

In the latest episode of the DealQuest Podcast, I had the privilege of sitting down with the multifaceted Kevin Davis, a true Renaissance man who has seamlessly navigated the worlds of music and finance. From his early days as a rapper signed to Warner Brothers Records to his transition into stockbroking, Kevin shares his compelling journey and the lessons learned along the way. He also discusses his latest venture, Investment Dojo, a social trading competition app aimed at democratizing investment education. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to gain valuable insights into the worlds of music, finance, and entrepreneurship. Kevin's story is a testament to the power of hard work, determination, and a willingness to take risks. This episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiring stories that will leave you feeling motivated and empowered to pursue your passions.THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY Kevin's journey in the music industry highlights just how crucial building relationships can be for achieving success. Throughout his career, he made it a priority to connect with others in the industry, from fellow musicians to producers and label executives. These connections were not just casual acquaintances; they were meaningful relationships that he nurtured over time. By cultivating these relationships, Kevin was able to open doors that might have otherwise remained closed. For instance, when it came time to secure record deals, it wasn't just his talent that impressed the decision-makers; it was the trust and rapport he had built with them. His ability to leverage his network played a vital role in landing opportunities that propelled his career forward. ADAPTING TO CHANGING LANDSCAPES IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY The music industry has undergone significant transformations over the years, particularly with the shift from physical sales, like CDs and vinyl records, to digital streaming platforms. This evolution has dramatically changed how music is consumed and how artists promote their work. For instance, the rise of platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube has reshaped how artists distribute their music and connect with audiences. Rather than relying solely on traditional sales, artists now have the opportunity to reach millions of listeners worldwide through streaming. However, this also means that competition is fierce, and artists must find innovative ways to stand out. Kevin pointed out that those who refuse to adapt risk being left behind. It's not enough to create great music; artists must also understand how to market themselves in this new digital landscape. This includes using social media to engage with fans, collaborating with other artists, and leveraging data analytics to understand listener preferences. THE IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY In today's music industry, marketing is more critical than ever. Kevin emphasized that artists should not sit back and expect their record labels to handle all their promotional needs. Instead, they need to take charge of their marketing efforts and actively promote themselves. This proactive approach is essential for building a successful career in music and is a principle that can be applied across various fields, including publishing and entrepreneurship. Traditionally, many artists relied heavily on their record labels to market their music and manage their careers. While labels certainly play a role in promoting artists, they often have numerous clients and may not prioritize each artist's unique needs. As a result, it's vital for musicians to step up and actively engage in their marketing strategies. This can include a wide range of activities, from using social media to connect with fans, to creating compelling content that showcases their personality and artistry. In today's digital age, artists have unprecedented tools at their disposal. Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter allow musicians to directly engage with their audience, share behind-the-scenes content, and build a loyal fan base. By taking an active role in their marketing, artists can create a brand identity that resonates with their listeners and sets them apart from the competition. MAKING LEARNING FUN: THE VALUE OF ENGAGING EDUCATION Kevin highlighted a crucial aspect of education that many people overlook: learning can and should be enjoyable. He shared his experience with the Investment Dojo app, which transforms the often complex and intimidating world of stock market education into a fun and engaging experience. By gamifying the process of learning about investing, this app shows that education doesn't have to be tedious or overwhelming; it can be an exciting adventure. The concept of gamification involves incorporating game-like elements into educational experiences, making the learning process more interactive and stimulating. With the Investment Dojo app, users can participate in challenges, earn rewards, and track their progress, all while gaining valuable knowledge about stock market dynamics. This approach not only makes the content more relatable but also encourages users to stay committed to their learning journey. UNDERSTANDING FINANCIAL STRUCTURES IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY Navigating the financial landscape of the music industry can be a daunting task for many artists. One of the main reasons artists often find themselves in difficult financial situations is the way record deals are structured. When an artist signs a contract with a record label, they usually receive an advance payment. This advance is essentially a loan intended to support the artist while they create their music. However, it's important to note that this advance is not free money. Artists are typically required to repay this advance through their future earnings from music sales, streaming, and performances. In addition to repaying the advance, artists often have to cover various expenses related to their music career. This can include costs for recording, marketing, and promoting their music, as well as paying for music videos and touring. These expenses can quickly add up, often leaving artists with very little profit after all the bills are paid. Tune into Episode 310 to hear Kevin Davis' insights on the intersections of music and finance, the significance of financial literacy, and the journey of entrepreneurship. Whether you're interested in trading, music, or building a successful business, this episode offers a wealth of practical knowledge and inspiration. • • • Listen to the Full DealQuest Podcast Episode Here: https://www.coreykupfer.com/podcasts/dealquest-podcast-with-corey-kupferCorey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast. Get deal-ready with theDealQuest Podcast with Corey Kupfer, where like-minded entrepreneurs and business leaders converge, share insights and challenges, and success stories. Equip yourself with the tools, resources, and support necessary to navigate the complex yet rewarding world of dealmaking. Dive into the world of deal-driven growth today!

Keith sits down with Ben Jorgensen to discuss early musical influences, the formation of Armor for Sleep, recording the debut LP "Dream to Make Believe" and some struggles the band endured during the making of the record and after its release. We also discuss the making of their follow up LP "What To Do When You Are Dead", the band's rise in notoriety after its release, signing with Warner Brothers Records, their major label experience and first hiatus in 2009, their reformation, the band's 2022 LP "The Rain Museum", mental health, physical fitness and more.

Daniel Sollinger is a graduate of New York University's Film School, and the producer of more than 400 commercials, music videos, and short films for clients including Pepsi, Warner Brothers Records, CBS, Sony, and Comedy Central. His work has won awards from New York University, The American Film Institute, The Accolade Awards and the American Motion Picture Society. His work has played at SXSW, Tribeca, Toronto, Berlin, and many other film festivals, and can be seen on multiple streaming platforms throughout the world.After working on numerous rap videos for artists such as Will Smith, and A Tribe Called Quest, Daniel produced "Rhyme & Reason," a feature film documentary on hip-hop culture, which has been named by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the top 35 music documentaries of all time.Since then, Daniel has gone on to produce or line produce over 60 independent feature films, including "Clean", "The Alphabet Killer," "Girls Against Boys," and "Without Men." He also directed the feature documentary, "Immortality or Bust" and is in production on another called, "AgeLess"He is a member of the PGA and a DGA Unit Production Manager.Connect with Daniel:➡️ TikTok: @producerdaniel➡️ Instagram: @danielsollingerwww.danielsollinger.comhttps://www.jellyfishdao.org/About The Lot1 Podcast ✨The Lot1 Podcast is designed for anyone who is interested in or working in filmmaking. Whether you're just starting out or a seasoned veteran, we hope you gain the knowledge you need to improve your craft, achieve your filmmaking goals, or simply get an understanding and appreciation for the roles and duties of your peers and colleagues.✅ Become a VIP subscriber to get early access to our episodes, exclusive access to The Lot1 Podcast After Show, and much more!www.patreon.com/thelot1podcastListen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts!☕Tourist Hat Coffee Companyhttps://touristhatcoffeecompany.com/

Episode 127 Terry Riley—Analog Organ Works Playlist                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Time Track Time Start Introduction –Thom Holmes 08:08 00:00 1.     Terry Riley, “Journey From The Death Of A Friend” and “Happy Ending” from Happy Ending (1972 Warner Brothers Records). Music composed for the film "Les Yeux Fermes," a film by Joel Santoni. made at the "Strawberry Studio" Château d'Hérouville-France. This is a studio recording. “Journey From The Death Of A Friend” was recorded in real time with the tape delay system timed for a shorter delay, expressly for the Yamaha YC-45D combo organ. The track called “Happy Ending” features Terry on saxophone and uses a longer delay sequence than the organ piece, plus electric piano and organ. Recorded March-April 72. 36:53 08:10 2.     Terry Riley, “Performance Two,” sides 3 and 4, from Persian Surgery Dervishes (1972 Shanti). Composer, performer, Yamaha YC-45D combo organ, Tape Feedback, Terry Riley. Riley plays a modified Yamaha electric organ tuned in just intonation and using a tape delay system. Performance Two performed May 24, 1972,  Théâtre de la Musique, Paris. 47:46 45:01 3.     Terry Riley, “Parts 1 and 2,” sides 1 and 2, from Descending Moonshine Dervishes (1982 Kuckuck). Composer, performer, Yamaha YC-45D combo organ, Tape Feedback, Terry Riley. Riley plays a modified Yamaha electric organ tuned in just intonation and using a tape delay system. Recorded in concert November 29, 1975, at Metamusik Festival in Berlin. 52:00 01:32:54   Opening background music: Terry Riley, “A Rainbow In Curved Air” from A Rainbow In Curved Air (1968 Columbia). Electric Organ, Electric Harpsichord, Rocksichord, Dumbec, Tambourine, Terry Riley.   Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz. Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes. My Books/eBooks: Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, Routledge 2020. Also, Sound Art: Concepts and Practices, first edition, Routledge 2022. See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation. For a transcript, please see my blog, Noise and Notations. Original music by Thom Holmes can be found in iTunes and on Bandcamp.  

GARY WRIGHT 'THE LOST INTERVIEWS' EPISODE 4 with RAY SHASHO Gary Wright (April 26, 1943 – September 4, 2023)   Gary Wright is a celestial keyboard virtuoso, idyllic songwriter, and vocalist with powerful soulful pipes. Wright is an innovator of the synthesizer and over the years has managed to condense his many synthesized melodies into a single keyboard strapped around his neck. Although born and raised in Cresskill, New Jersey, Wright founded the British rock group Spooky Tooth in 1967. Wright would later become most recognized for his two solo hit singles “Dream Weaver” in 1975 and “Love Is Alive” in 1976.  Gary Wright will be joining the ‘Sail Rock 2013' tour along with Christopher Cross, Orleans, Firefall, John Ford Coley, Robbie Dupree and Player beginning August 5th in West Allis, Wisconsin. Visit Pollstar.com for all the latest concert dates.  SPOOKY TOOTH: Gary Wright joined the band 'Art' in 1967. The ‘V.I.P.'S' morphed into 'Art' after several lineup changes since its inception in 1963. The British R&B music ensemble had featured various distinguished musicians including Mike Harrison, Greg Ridley, Jimmy Henshaw, Keith Emerson, Luther Grosvenor, Walter Johnstone and Mike Kellie.  Keith Emerson (The Nice, ELP) left in 1967 when the name was changed to Art. The band eventually turned into Spooky Tooth with a lineup of Wright (organ, keyboards, and vocals), Harrison (vocals, keyboards) Ridley (bassist), Grosvenor (guitar, vocals) and Kellie (drums). In 1968, Spooky Tooth released their debut album entitled … It's All About. The album featured covers by Janis Ian and Bob Dylan. Most of the other tracks were either written or co-written by Gary Wright. The bands next release Spooky Two (1969) released on Island Records was hailed by critics as one of their finest recordings. The album featured many of the bands standards including “Evil Woman” and “Better by You, Better Than Me” a tune written by Wright and eventually covered by Judas Priest in 1978. Spooky Tooth quickly became a highly sought concert attraction and a mainstay on progressive rock radio. The band shared the stage with such legendary music acts as Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones. Bassist Greg Ridley left in 1969 to join Humble Pie, Andy Leigh replaced him.  Also in 1969, the group released Ceremony (Spooky Tooth and Pierre Henry album) a progressive collaboration with the French electronic composer. Session musician: Wright left Spooky Tooth briefly to produce albums for Traffic and Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller and his production company. Gary Wright became an esteemed session musician and was asked to play on George Harrison's triple- album set All Things Must Pass (1970). Wright and Harrison began a long lasting friendship and musical collaboration that included Wright playing or sharing songwriting tasks on several of Harrison's subsequent albums including … Living in the Material World (1973), Dark Horse (1974), Extra Texture (Read All About It)(1975), Thirty Three & 1/3(1976), George Harrison(1979), Cloud Nine (1987). The Last Puff album (1970) primarily featured Mike Harrison while Wright focused on other projects. The release featured an incredible cover version of The Beatles, “I Am The Walrus.” Joe Cocker Grease Band members Henry McCullough, Chris Stainton and Alan Spenner were brought into the studio to work on the album. In 1971, Gary Wright performed “Two Faced Man” with George Harrison on the Dick Cavett Show. He also played piano on Harry Nilsson's #1 hit, a Badfinger cover tune entitled, “Without You.” In 1972, Gary Wright and Mike Harrison reformed Spooky Tooth with a different lineup. The new lineup featured future Foreigner founder and guitarist Mick Jones. Subsequent Spooky Tooth albums … (You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw (1973), Witness (1973), The Mirror (1974) and Cross Purpose (1999) (Reunion album without Wright, Greg Ridley returned). Spooky Tooth disbanded in 1974. Gary Wright and George Harrison visited India in 1974 as a guest of Ravi Shankar. Wright developed a long-term relationship with Shankar after the visit. SOLO CAREER: Gary Wright released two critically acclaimed solo albums on A&M Records … Extraction in 1971 and Footprint in 1972. Wright signed a record deal with Warner Brothers Records in 1974 and achieved his biggest commercial success with the release of The Dream Weaver album (1975). The single “Dream Weaver” reached #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart and #1 on the Cash Box charts. The album also spawned the hit “Love is Alive” (1976) reaching #2 on Billboard's singles chart. The album peaked at #7 on Billboard's Hot 100 albums chart. The song “Dream Weaver” has been spotlighted on numerous television shows and motion pictures. “Love is Alive” was covered by several legendary artists including … Chaka Khan, Joe Cocker and Richie Havens.  The Dream Weaver album featured guest musicians …guitarist Ronnie Montrose, drummers Jim Keltner and Andy Newmark, Hammond organist David Foster and Bobby Lyle on additional synthesizers. In 1981, Gary Wright scored again commercially with “Really Wanna Know You” (#16 Billboard Singles Hit). Gary Wright Solo albums … Extraction (1971), Footprint (1972), The Dream Weaver (1975), The Light of Smiles(1977), Touch and Gone (1978), Headin' Home (1979), The Right Place (1981), Who I Am (1988), First Signs of Life (1995), Human Love (1999), Waiting to Catch the Light (2008), The Light of a Million Suns (EP) (2008), Connected (2010). In 2004, Wright, Harrison and Kellie reunited Spooky Tooth for several concerts in Germany. As a result of their triumphant return, they released the Nomad Poets DVD in 2007. The same lineup played a series of European dates in 2008. Most recently: Gary Wright toured with Ringo Starr and His All-Star Band in 2008. In 2010, Wright released his latest studio album entitled Connected and features guest artists … Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. Gary Wright is currently writing his 'memoir' for the Penguin Group and should be available sometime near the end of 2014. I had the great pleasure of chatting with Gary Wright recently about ‘Sail Rock 2013,' Spooky Tooth, George Harrison, the music business, metaphysics and much-much more.   Support us on PayPal!

Join host Peter Woolfolk as he embarks on a journey through the vibrant world of music promotion with Alison Ball, the visionary CEO of JBR Creative Group. This episode peels back the industry curtain, detailing Alison's ascent from her humble beginnings to her influential role at Warner Brothers Records. She graciously imparts her expertise on the critical elements of artist promotion in the digital age, where social media dominance and streaming services are reshaping the rules of the game. You'll be privy to the thoughtful strategies and team dynamics essential for propelling new talent into the limelight, offering a rare glimpse into the meticulous craft of guiding musicians toward their dreams.The conversation takes an innovative turn as we tackle the groundbreaking influence of blockchain technology on music distribution, with Alison at the helm of the forward-thinking Tune Go platform. Her perspective on the music industry's transformation is both enlightening and inspirational, especially as we explore Maxine Ashley's rising trajectory post-Madison Square Garden. This episode isn't just about business; it's about heart. Alison shares a touching narrative of the transformative effect of music education, tied personally to the triumphs of her son. It's an invitation to witness how passion and philanthropy harmonize, celebrating the enduring power of music to change lives.Request for listener Reviews We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA. Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode. To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to orApple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast." Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and leave a review.Support the show

This week, we discuss a music film that my guest, Andy Zax (a Grammy-nominated archivist and the Music Geek on Comedy Central's ‘Beat The Geeks'), begs us NOT to watch--the 1970 psychedelic romp ‘THE PHYNX.' We take a deep dive into the film's history, mystique, and weirdo cast (James Brown, Colonel Sanders, Dick Clark, Richard Pryor), as well as a fascinating look at Zax's time at Warner Brothers Records & on ‘Beat The Geeks'. We also discuss liner notes legend & the screenwriter of The Phynx Stan Cornyn, the fascinating pain that this movie brings to any viewer, Lieber and Stoller's soundtrack, Phil Spector parodies, the star power ranking of UltraViolet, a 400 Vox Guitar army, album artwork, Van Dyke Parks, Joni Mitchell, bootleg VHS tapes, fake band album artwork, sense memories from music, promotional items from movies, writing about psychedelia without knowing psychedelics, the difference between the original script and the finished movie (which included scenes with Allen Ginsberg & Timothy Leary), and Chris tries to beat ‘The Geek'!So PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM EVER (or do you?) on this week's episode of Revolutions Per Movie.ANDY ZAX:https://www.andyzax.com/REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.New episodes of Revolutions Per Movies are released every Thursday, and if you like the show, please subscribe, rate, and review it on your favorite podcast app.The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support the show is through our Patreon at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie, where you can get weekly bonus episodes and exclusive goods sent to you just for joining.SOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieX, BlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.comARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Click here to get EXCLUSIVE BONUS WEEKLY Revolutions Per Movie content on our Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the podcast is part two of our conversation with Mario Grigorov. He's a Bulgarian-born, London-based film composer and pianist. Early in his career he  signed with Warner Brothers Records and toured extensively with icons such as Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman, and more.  He has composed music for dozens of films and TV shows, and his most recognizable film work comes from his long-standing collaboration with Academy Award-winning director Lee Daniels. You won't want to miss our interview with this highly creative and versatile artist!  https://www.mariogrigorov.com/In an intimate conversation with the illustrious film composer and pianist Mario Grigorov, we peel back the curtain on the sometimes spontaneous, sometimes painstaking art of musical invention. Mario shares with us the beauty of yielding to the subconscious mind in composition, and reminisces about the thrilling unpredictability of jazz tours, which taught him that the most genuine artistic expression often comes from the chaos of live performance.Navigating the film industry's tides can be akin to hitchhiking through a desert of creativity, not knowing where the next ride might take you. Mario Grigorov lays bare the professional trials and triumphs he's encountered in shaping his cinematic sound. With a blend of humor and hard-earned wisdom, he discusses the pitfalls of revisiting past compositions and emphasizes the importance of crafting music that adheres to the unique vision of each film. His stories reveal the sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes liberating discovery that a piece rejected from a movie might just be the seed for a new musical endeavor.We round off our chat with an exploration of the personal hurdles artists face, the doubts that can derail us, and the missed opportunities that come from playing it safe. Mario opens up about instances when his own hesitations led to lost chances, offering a candid reminder of the importance of faith in one's work. He encourages emerging creators to absorb the lessons etched by the successes of others and underscores the profound impact that sharing our art can have not just on our audiences, but on our own spiritual paths. Join us for this heartfelt exchange that is as much an ode to the art of music as it is a call to action for artists to embrace their craft boldly and share it with the world.

This week on the podcast is part one of our conversation with Mario Grigorov. He's a Bulgarian-born, London-based film composer and pianist. Early in his career he  signed with Warner Brothers Records and toured extensively with icons such as Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman, and more.  He has composed music for dozens of films and TV shows, and his most recognizable film work comes from his long-standing collaboration with Academy Award-winning director Lee Daniels. You won't want to miss our interview with this highly creative and versatile artist!  https://www.mariogrigorov.com/ Join us as we explore the delicate dance of professional networking and the personal evolution in the competitive realm of music. Mario Grigorov imparts invaluable insights into the alchemy of social acumen, humility, and the courage to share one's work with the world. He poignantly illustrates how pivotal moments and influential relationships have sculpted his path, weaving an inspiring narrative that harmonizes the dedication of the artist with the spirituality that fuels their creative fire.We delve into the collaborative heart of music production, where the magic happens not in isolation, but through the collective work of composers, orchestrators, and sound engineers. Mario illuminates the unsung brilliance of technicians like Peter Cobbin and Olga Fitzroy, whose meticulous craft elevates music to its zenith. His anecdotes celebrate the symbiotic relationship between musical vision and technical mastery, a partnership that culminates in the rich tapestry of sound that is Mario Grigorov's life's work.

TEDDY ASTIN'S NEW BOOK RELEASE. “A GOLDEN PAST -AND- A PLATINUM FUTURE” An Industry Insider's Historic Insights on Black Music and Entertainment and Atlanta's Emergence as a National Music & Film Mecca a former six-year-old paperboy to the warehouse of Warner Brothers Records. Teddy Astin eventually became a supervisor of the mailroom in Atlanta, to the company's boardroom in Burbank, California as an award-winning record promotion executive. With an impressive work ethic and a creative approach to the music industry, he enhanced the record sales of some of the world's most popular artists across multiple genres: from Prince, Morris Day & The Time, Vanity 6, Sheila E, Zapp featuring Roger to Madonna, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Tevin Campbell, James Ingram, Patti Austin, Bob Marley, Sly Stone, Larry Graham, Donna Summer, Sylvester, Chaka Khan, Ashford & Simpson, George Clinton, The Funkadelics, Bootsy's Rubber Band, Rod Stewart, Ice-T, Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, Michael McDonald, Al B. Sure!, Karyn White, George Benson, Earl Klugh, Bob James, Foreplay, (Featuring, Bob James, Lee Ritenour, Nathan East & Harvey Mason), Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, The Isley Brothers, Joe Sample, Rose Royce, Frankie Beverly, Jennifer Holiday, Keith Washington, Atlantic Starr, Jasmine Guy, The Force M. D. S, Club Nouveau, Tom Tom Club and many others. Tough Act Publishing, Inc. Post Office Box 870948 Stone Mountain, GA 30087 www.toughact.net teddy@toughact.net Contact Teddy Astin: 404-358-8349 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bj-murphy9/support

Darryl Swann was born and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio suburb of Shaker Heights. Darryl's fascination with music production began at age 9 upon reading the book Modern Recording Techniques. He played lead guitar in the garage band "The Lab Rats" and mixed live sound for many Cleveland area bands throughout his teenage years. After graduating from Shaker Heights High School in 1983, Swann acquired his Liberal Arts degree from UCLA in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. In 1984, Darryl and his new rock band "Haven" relocated to Los Angeles and played with Poison and Warrant at The Troubadour." -Wikipedia Co-Managing Member Darryl Swann is a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning music Producer with over thirty-five years of experience in the music business. As a record producer and audio engineer, he has worked with such artists as Macy Gray, producer Rick Rubin, Mos-Def, John Frichante of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Erykah Badu, and the Black Eyed Peas. Darryl has also done substantial work for Atlantic Records, Sony Records, and Universal Records. Darryl also recorded, produced, and mixed the first Linkin Park record that got them signed to Warner Brothers Records. As a music publisher with Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music. Darryl is also an Audio, Music Production, Mixing, and Mastering Instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is a music consultant and recurring lecturer of Music-Technology at NYU, the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, and a voting member of the Reco. Darryl Swann, founder of Moshpit, introduces a groundbreaking platform for musicians and concertgoers. Using VR, Smartphones, or any cloud-connecting device you can create on Moshpit. It allows artists to create custom concerts in various popular venues. The user-friendly interface lets creators fully design immersive with pyrotechnics, and lighting, all making you the director for your dream concert experiences. Patrons enjoy concerts at home, supporting artists through tips, subscriptions, and virtual merchandise. Moshpit accommodates up to 50 viewers per concert so invite your best concert buds to join you. Just like a real video game, they can fully enjoy the experience just like a real concert with a few extras to give your audience a unique experience. Swann discusses how he built his team to create Moshpit and offers tips for audience engagement. Moshpit emerges as an exciting platform for creators to connect with fans and generate income. Moshpit doesn't go live until 2024, I am thrilled to be the first to share about Moshpit.Live! Learn More about MOSHPIT.LIVE Coming Soon Eminem on Fortnite: The Big Bang Event! Travis Scott virtual concert on Fortnite Ariana Grande on Fortnite "Camille Kauer is a dynamic powerhouse! She hosts, produces, and directs her own show/podcast, "The E-Spot with Camille”. She focuses on connecting beauty, entertainment, and the interior design industry. Camille has a unique perspective and a way of personalizing her guests' individual stories which touch her audiences. " Learn more about The E-Spot and host, Camille Kauer --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/camillekauer/message

Ever wonder what a music publicist does and why it seems every successful team has one? We had a great visit with the legendary music publicist Bob Merlis. Bob was head of publicity at Warner Brothers Records for 30 years before breaking out on his own as a successful independent music publicist working with stars like ZZ Top, Dion, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, it goes on and on, over a brilliant career that's still successful and thriving. Bob even escorted a young 20-something Susan Cowsill on a publicity tour promoting her singles deal with Warner Brothers in the mid-70's. The best news is Bob, as of last week, is now the publicist for The Cowsills!!! Enjoy this unique insight into a unique position in the music industry.

About the guestFounder Jen DiSisto is a Manhattan native who brings with her over fifteen years of experience within the Music and Art landscape. This includes: celebrity assisting, radio promotions, public relations, book publishing and talent management. Two defining moments directed her career path: her job as the Art Department Coordinator at Warner Brothers Records & befriending iconic illustrator Alan Aldridge. Jen has collaborated with Art of Elysium, Bookmarc Marc Jacobs, Chronicle Books, Design Within Reach, Hennessey & Ingalls, Hard Rock Hotel, Hurley, Incase, Lipps LA, Legions of Bloom, LACMA, Taschen, Thompson Hotel Group, TOMS Shoes, The Marley Foundation, The Sundance Film Festival,  The Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center and The Museum of Monterey.Art DuetInstagram Must Have Tools For Visual Artists Resource link  Subscribe to the Art Biz Talk NewsletterApply to be a guest Ask a question for the show Become part of the community for professional visual artistsIf you're a late emerging or mid-career visual artist earning $5K or more a month and are ready to scale your studio practice, Art Biz Pro is the place for you. (Re) Emerging ArtistsStarting to build your full time studio practice and need a DIY guide with templates for your artist statement, Press Kit and pricing your art? Sounds like you need our Artist Starter Kit. CREDITSOriginal Music composed by Hillary Albrecht at Rhapsody on MarsArt Biz Talk is hosted by Andrea La Valleur-Purvis, Artist and Art Business Coach at Vivid Creative

In this engaging episode, host Gary Scott Thomas welcomes the legendary comedian Killer Beaz. They discuss their shared experiences growing up in the South and the challenges they faced in pursuing their dreams. The conversation takes a spiritual turn as they delve into their rediscovery of faith and the importance of changing one's mindset. Killer Beaz shares a powerful story of how he and his wife reached out to a couple in need and how their act of kindness had a profound impact on both the couple and those who witnessed it. They emphasize the importance of leading with faith and generosity, and how it can bring happiness and blessings to others. Overall, this episode is a heartfelt and inspiring conversation about faith, kindness, and the power of laughter.Here are three key takeaways from this episode:1️⃣ Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life: One of the biggest revelations discussed in this episode is the ability to change our mindset. Our thoughts have the power to shape our reality, and by consciously choosing to think positively and let go of negative thoughts, we can transform our lives. As one of our guests shared, "Change your freaking mind. Change that mindset. It's painless and it works." 2️⃣ You Have the Power to Stop Negative Thoughts: We all experience dark thoughts from time to time, but the key is to recognize that we have the power to stop them in their tracks. By acknowledging our ability to choose happiness and not worry, we can shift our focus towards a more positive outlook. As our guest emphasized, "When you have those dark thoughts, you have the power to stop them in their tracks and go not today, not today." 3️⃣ Let Go of Limiting Beliefs: Our mindset can sometimes be like a lid on a jar, holding us back from realizing our full potential. We often limit ourselves with beliefs that are not true or no longer serve us. As one of our guests shared, "You've got to get rid of that mindset because all things are possible for us." By letting go of these limiting beliefs, we open ourselves up to endless possibilities and true freedom. This episode is sponsored by:Habana Cuba (Use "Gary20" to get 20% off your order.About Killer Beaz:Comedian Killer Beaz is currently filming his fifth season as a cast member of the Discovery Channel's hit series, “Moonshiners”, and returning to his standup comedy tour. He is returning to his tour of his DVD and Download Video, "There's That!", and is looking forward to his tour of clean comedy, “Killer Beaz PRESENTS” featuring the standup of Beaz and outstanding comics handpicked from all over the countryWith many thousands of radio, television, and stage appearances, Beaz has been entertaining audiences for over three decades. He is an award-winning artist, and has been signed with both Sony and Warner Brothers Records, and received reviews such as:  "Beaz is 'Killer!'" - Rolling Stone Magazine“Killer Beaz lives up to his name, “Killing” his audience, night after night, show after show!”  - Entertainment Today/Las Vegas, NV“Killer Beaz has a universal appeal that makes him a crowd favorite!” – SHOWTIME/Reno, NV“Gut-busting takes on life! No matter if you live in L.A., New York City or the Deep South, you can relate.”-Country WeeklyKiller Beaz has his own, unique brand of “Hard Hitting” – "Laugh out Loud" – “Laugh A Lot” – “HI-PROOF” – “High Energy” – “Everyman” style humor that appeals to any audience. When asked, Beaz says about his shows, “I love the art of stand-up comedy, the performance, seeing the room absolutely erupt in laughter and fun, it's fun to me, and I enjoy having an effect on the room and making people belly laugh with tears rolling down their face. There is such delight in that! I love my job! I have a ball at my shows!”  For more information on Killer Beaz gwww.GaryScottThomas.com

EPISODE #91 - Since we last left filmmaker Alan Berry, writer/director of “The Van Halen 1984 Documentary Series,” he has been through quite a wild ride with Warner Brothers Records, Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth. Berry returns to the podcast to give the Daves the full scoop on what happened when his series got taken down, put back up by Roth and so forth. Drummer Jason Bonham of The Circle discusses the band's VH-themed touring plans for next year plus VH News and monthly mailbag segments complete this July 2023 episode.Download the podcast for free on Spreaker, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Google podcasts, Amazon Music, Podvine or iTunes. Connect with the Daves on Twitter: @ddunchained, Facebook: Dave & Dave Unchained – A Van Halen podcast, Instagram: ddunchainedpodcast or via email: ddunchainedpodcast@gmail.com

Former Record Theatre (Buffalo NY) Clerk/Buyer/Assistant Manager and Warner Brothers Records promoter, Jeff Criden, joined Rockabilly Greg "In the Flamingo Lounge" on Thursday, May 11, 2023 to talk about his career working in the music business.

Pat welcomes the "Concert Wife" Suzanne Dillingham into the Rock Room to discuss Rod Stewart's first 5 solo albums released on Warner Brothers Records from 1975 to 1979.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to work with the greats of the music industry, or how nature can inspire creativity? Join us for a lively conversation with the talented Tiffany Goss as we explore her journey to Nashville and her experiences in the music industry. From working at Warner Brothers Records and EMI Music Publishing to signing with Curb, Tiffany has rubbed elbows with some of the greats like Faith Hill and Dwight Yocum.Discover how Tiffany's connection to nature has become her spiritual experience and source of inspiration. We chat about her song 'Church Anywhere', written with the late Kyle Jacobs, and the beauty of nature's lessons in grace and resilience. Hear about Tiffany's upcoming trip to Alaska, her lifelong dream of writing songs in Nashville, and how self-knowledge can be gained through adventures and taking risks out of our comfort zones.Tiffany also shares her thoughts on persevering in the face of challenges and the ever-changing music industry. Learn how she's taken care of her mental health, navigated the music industry, and celebrated her successes - even if they don't come in the form of a big hit or number one. We wrap up our conversation by discussing the importance of being grateful, respecting the history of the music industry, and learning from those who have come before you. Tune in to hear Tiffany's insights and experiences that you won't want to miss!Follow Tiffany on IG! @tifftycent*"Sad People, Pretty Houses" was actually written with Karley Scott Colling and Brian Bunn  Support the showOutside of these inspiring interviews, Grace offers further artistic growth opportunities through semi-annual songwriting retreats held in Memphis, TN and 1:1 Zoom coaching! All details can be found at her website: GraceAskew.com

Episode 165 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Dark Stat” and the career of the Grateful Dead. This is a long one, even longer than the previous episode, but don't worry, that won't be the norm. There's a reason these two were much longer than average. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "Codine" by the Charlatans. Errata I mispronounce Brent Mydland's name as Myland a couple of times, and in the introduction I say "Touch of Grey" came out in 1988 -- I later, correctly, say 1987. (I seem to have had a real problem with dates in the intro -- I also originally talked about "Blue Suede Shoes" being in 1954 before fixing it in the edit to be 1956) Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by the Grateful Dead, and Grayfolded runs to two hours. I referred to a lot of books for this episode, partly because almost everything about the Grateful Dead is written from a fannish perspective that already assumes background knowledge, rather than to provide that background knowledge. Of the various books I used, Dennis McNally's biography of the band and This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead by Blair Jackson and David Gans are probably most useful for the casually interested. Other books on the Dead I used included McNally's Jerry on Jerry, a collection of interviews with Garcia; Deal, Bill Kreutzmann's autobiography; The Grateful Dead FAQ by Tony Sclafani; So Many Roads by David Browne; Deadology by Howard F. Weiner; Fare Thee Well by Joel Selvin and Pamela Turley; and Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads by David Shenk and Steve Silberman. Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is the classic account of the Pranksters, though not always reliable. I reference Slaughterhouse Five a lot. As well as the novel itself, which everyone should read, I also read this rather excellent graphic novel adaptation, and The Writer's Crusade, a book about the writing of the novel. I also reference Ted Sturgeon's More Than Human. For background on the scene around Astounding Science Fiction which included Sturgeon, John W. Campbell, L. Ron Hubbard, and many other science fiction writers, I recommend Alec Nevala-Lee's Astounding. 1,000 True Fans can be read online, as can the essay on the Californian ideology, and John Perry Barlow's "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace". The best collection of Grateful Dead material is the box set The Golden Road, which contains all the albums released in Pigpen's lifetime along with a lot of bonus material, but which appears currently out of print. Live/Dead contains both the live version of "Dark Star" which made it well known and, as a CD bonus track, the original single version. And archive.org has more live recordings of the group than you can possibly ever listen to. Grayfolded can be bought from John Oswald's Bandcamp Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript [Excerpt: Tuning from "Grayfolded", under the warnings Before we begin -- as we're tuning up, as it were, I should mention that this episode contains discussions of alcoholism, drug addiction, racism, nonconsensual drugging of other people, and deaths from drug abuse, suicide, and car accidents. As always, I try to deal with these subjects as carefully as possible, but if you find any of those things upsetting you may wish to read the transcript rather than listen to this episode, or skip it altogether. Also, I should note that the members of the Grateful Dead were much freer with their use of swearing in interviews than any other band we've covered so far, and that makes using quotes from them rather more difficult than with other bands, given the limitations of the rules imposed to stop the podcast being marked as adult. If I quote anything with a word I can't use here, I'll give a brief pause in the audio, and in the transcript I'll have the word in square brackets. [tuning ends] All this happened, more or less. In 1910, T. S. Eliot started work on "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", which at the time was deemed barely poetry, with one reviewer imagining Eliot saying "I'll just put down the first thing that comes into my head, and call it 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'" It is now considered one of the great classics of modernist literature. In 1969, Kurt Vonnegut wrote "Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death", a book in which the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, comes unstuck in time, and starts living a nonlinear life, hopping around between times reliving his experiences in the Second World War, and future experiences up to 1976 after being kidnapped by beings from the planet Tralfamadore. Or perhaps he has flashbacks and hallucinations after having a breakdown from PTSD. It is now considered one of the great classics of modernist literature or of science fiction, depending on how you look at it. In 1953, Theodore Sturgeon wrote More Than Human. It is now considered one of the great classics of science fiction. In 1950, L. Ron Hubbard wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. It is now considered either a bad piece of science fiction or one of the great revelatory works of religious history, depending on how you look at it. In 1994, 1995, and 1996 the composer John Oswald released, first as two individual CDs and then as a double-CD, an album called Grayfolded, which the composer says in the liner notes he thinks of as existing in Tralfamadorian time. The Tralfamadorians in Vonnegut's novels don't see time as a linear thing with a beginning and end, but as a continuum that they can move between at will. When someone dies, they just think that at this particular point in time they're not doing so good, but at other points in time they're fine, so why focus on the bad time? In the book, when told of someone dying, the Tralfamadorians just say "so it goes". In between the first CD's release and the release of the double-CD version, Jerry Garcia died. From August 1942 through August 1995, Jerry Garcia was alive. So it goes. Shall we go, you and I? [Excerpt: The Grateful Dead, "Dark Star (Omni 3/30/94)"] "One principle has become clear. Since motives are so frequently found in combination, it is essential that the complex types be analyzed and arranged, with an eye kept single nevertheless to the master-theme under discussion. Collectors, both primary and subsidiary, have done such valiant service that the treasures at our command are amply sufficient for such studies, so extensive, indeed, that the task of going through them thoroughly has become too great for the unassisted student. It cannot be too strongly urged that a single theme in its various types and compounds must be made predominant in any useful comparative study. This is true when the sources and analogues of any literary work are treated; it is even truer when the bare motive is discussed. The Grateful Dead furnishes an apt illustration of the necessity of such handling. It appears in a variety of different combinations, almost never alone. Indeed, it is so widespread a tale, and its combinations are so various, that there is the utmost difficulty in determining just what may properly be regarded the original kernel of it, the simple theme to which other motives were joined. Various opinions, as we shall see, have been held with reference to this matter, most of them justified perhaps by the materials in the hands of the scholars holding them, but none quite adequate in view of later evidence." That's a quote from The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk Story, by Gordon Hall Gerould, published in 1908. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five opens with a chapter about the process of writing the novel itself, and how difficult it was. He says "I would hate to tell you what this lousy little book cost me in money and anxiety and time. When I got home from the Second World War twenty-three years ago, I thought it would be easy for me to write about the destruction of Dresden, since all I would have to do would be to report what I had seen. And I thought, too, that it would be a masterpiece or at least make me a lot of money, since the subject was so big." This is an episode several of my listeners have been looking forward to, but it's one I've been dreading writing, because this is an episode -- I think the only one in the series -- where the format of the podcast simply *will not* work. Were the Grateful Dead not such an important band, I would skip this episode altogether, but they're a band that simply can't be ignored, and that's a real problem here. Because my intent, always, with this podcast, is to present the recordings of the artists in question, put them in context, and explain why they were important, what their music meant to its listeners. To put, as far as is possible, the positive case for why the music mattered *in the context of its time*. Not why it matters now, or why it matters to me, but why it matters *in its historical context*. Whether I like the music or not isn't the point. Whether it stands up now isn't the point. I play the music, explain what it was they were doing, why they were doing it, what people saw in it. If I do my job well, you come away listening to "Blue Suede Shoes" the way people heard it in 1956, or "Good Vibrations" the way people heard it in 1966, and understanding why people were so impressed by those records. That is simply *not possible* for the Grateful Dead. I can present a case for them as musicians, and hope to do so. I can explain the appeal as best I understand it, and talk about things I like in their music, and things I've noticed. But what I can't do is present their recordings the way they were received in the sixties and explain why they were popular. Because every other act I have covered or will cover in this podcast has been a *recording* act, and their success was based on records. They may also have been exceptional live performers, but James Brown or Ike and Tina Turner are remembered for great *records*, like "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" or "River Deep, Mountain High". Their great moments were captured on vinyl, to be listened back to, and susceptible of analysis. That is not the case for the Grateful Dead, and what is worse *they explicitly said, publicly, on multiple occasions* that it is not possible for me to understand their art, and thus that it is not possible for me to explain it. The Grateful Dead did make studio records, some of them very good. But they always said, consistently, over a thirty year period, that their records didn't capture what they did, and that the only way -- the *only* way, they were very clear about this -- that one could actually understand and appreciate their music, was to see them live, and furthermore to see them live while on psychedelic drugs. [Excerpt: Grateful Dead crowd noise] I never saw the Grateful Dead live -- their last UK performance was a couple of years before I went to my first ever gig -- and I have never taken a psychedelic substance. So by the Grateful Dead's own criteria, it is literally impossible for me to understand or explain their music the way that it should be understood or explained. In a way I'm in a similar position to the one I was in with La Monte Young in the last episode, whose music it's mostly impossible to experience without being in his presence. This is one reason of several why I placed these two episodes back to back. Of course, there is a difference between Young and the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead allowed -- even encouraged -- the recording of their live performances. There are literally thousands of concert recordings in circulation, many of them of professional quality. I have listened to many of those, and I can hear what they were doing. I can tell you what *I* think is interesting about their music, and about their musicianship. And I think I can build up a good case for why they were important, and why they're interesting, and why those recordings are worth listening to. And I can certainly explain the cultural phenomenon that was the Grateful Dead. But just know that while I may have found *a* point, *an* explanation for why the Grateful Dead were important, by the band's own lights and those of their fans, no matter how good a job I do in this episode, I *cannot* get it right. And that is, in itself, enough of a reason for this episode to exist, and for me to try, even harder than I normally do, to get it right *anyway*. Because no matter how well I do my job this episode will stand as an example of why this series is called "*A* History", not *the* history. Because parts of the past are ephemeral. There are things about which it's true to say "You had to be there". I cannot know what it was like to have been an American the day Kennedy was shot, I cannot know what it was like to be alive when a man walked on the Moon. Those are things nobody my age or younger can ever experience. And since August the ninth, 1995, the experience of hearing the Grateful Dead's music the way they wanted it heard has been in that category. And that is by design. Jerry Garcia once said "if you work really hard as an artist, you may be able to build something they can't tear down, you know, after you're gone... What I want to do is I want it here. I want it now, in this lifetime. I want what I enjoy to last as long as I do and not last any longer. You know, I don't want something that ends up being as much a nuisance as it is a work of art, you know?" And there's another difficulty. There are only two points in time where it makes sense to do a podcast episode on the Grateful Dead -- late 1967 and early 1968, when the San Francisco scene they were part of was at its most culturally relevant, and 1988 when they had their only top ten hit and gained their largest audience. I can't realistically leave them out of the story until 1988, so it has to be 1968. But the songs they are most remembered for are those they wrote between 1970 and 1972, and those songs are influenced by artists and events we haven't yet covered in the podcast, who will be getting their own episodes in the future. I can't explain those things in this episode, because they need whole episodes of their own. I can't not explain them without leaving out important context for the Grateful Dead. So the best I can do is treat the story I'm telling as if it were in Tralfamadorian time. All of it's happening all at once, and some of it is happening in different episodes that haven't been recorded yet. The podcast as a whole travels linearly from 1938 through to 1999, but this episode is happening in 1968 and 1972 and 1988 and 1995 and other times, all at once. Sometimes I'll talk about things as if you're already familiar with them, but they haven't happened yet in the story. Feel free to come unstuck in time and revisit this time after episode 167, and 172, and 176, and 192, and experience it again. So this has to be an experimental episode. It may well be an experiment that you think fails. If so, the next episode is likely to be far more to your taste, and much shorter than this or the last episode, two episodes that between them have to create a scaffolding on which will hang much of the rest of this podcast's narrative. I've finished my Grateful Dead script now. The next one I write is going to be fun: [Excerpt: Grateful Dead, "Dark Star"] Infrastructure means everything. How we get from place to place, how we transport goods, information, and ourselves, makes a big difference in how society is structured, and in the music we hear. For many centuries, the prime means of long-distance transport was by water -- sailing ships on the ocean, canal boats and steamboats for inland navigation -- and so folk songs talked about the ship as both means of escape, means of making a living, and in some senses as a trap. You'd go out to sea for adventure, or to escape your problems, but you'd find that the sea itself brought its own problems. Because of this we have a long, long tradition of sea shanties which are known throughout the world: [Excerpt: A. L. Lloyd, "Off to Sea Once More"] But in the nineteenth century, the railway was invented and, at least as far as travel within a landmass goes, it replaced the steamboat in the popular imaginary. Now the railway was how you got from place to place, and how you moved freight from one place to another. The railway brought freedom, and was an opportunity for outlaws, whether train robbers or a romanticised version of the hobo hopping onto a freight train and making his way to new lands and new opportunity. It was the train that brought soldiers home from wars, and the train that allowed the Great Migration of Black people from the South to the industrial North. There would still be songs about the riverboats, about how ol' man river keeps rolling along and about the big river Johnny Cash sang about, but increasingly they would be songs of the past, not the present. The train quickly replaced the steamboat in the iconography of what we now think of as roots music -- blues, country, folk, and early jazz music. Sometimes this was very literal. Furry Lewis' "Kassie Jones" -- about a legendary train driver who would break the rules to make sure his train made the station on time, but who ended up sacrificing his own life to save his passengers in a train crash -- is based on "Alabamy Bound", which as we heard in the episode on "Stagger Lee", was about steamboats: [Excerpt: Furry Lewis, "Kassie Jones"] In the early episodes of this podcast we heard many, many, songs about the railway. Louis Jordan saying "take me right back to the track, Jack", Rosetta Tharpe singing about how "this train don't carry no gamblers", the trickster freight train driver driving on the "Rock Island Line", the mystery train sixteen coaches long, the train that kept-a-rollin' all night long, the Midnight Special which the prisoners wished would shine its ever-loving light on them, and the train coming past Folsom Prison whose whistle makes Johnny Cash hang his head and cry. But by the 1960s, that kind of song had started to dry up. It would happen on occasion -- "People Get Ready" by the Impressions is the most obvious example of the train metaphor in an important sixties record -- but by the late sixties the train was no longer a symbol of freedom but of the past. In 1969 Harry Nilsson sang about how "Nobody Cares About the Railroads Any More", and in 1968 the Kinks sang about "The Last of the Steam-Powered Trains". When in 1968 Merle Haggard sang about a freight train, it was as a memory, of a child with hopes that ended up thwarted by reality and his own nature: [Excerpt: Merle Haggard, "Mama Tried"] And the reason for this was that there had been another shift, a shift that had started in the forties and accelerated in the late fifties but had taken a little time to ripple through the culture. Now the train had been replaced in the popular imaginary by motorised transport. Instead of hopping on a train without paying, if you had no money in your pocket you'd have to hitch-hike all the way. Freedom now meant individuality. The ultimate in freedom was the biker -- the Hell's Angels who could go anywhere, unburdened by anything -- and instead of goods being moved by freight train, increasingly they were being moved by truck drivers. By the mid-seventies, truck drivers took a central place in American life, and the most romantic way to live life was to live it on the road. On The Road was also the title of a 1957 novel by Jack Kerouac, which was one of the first major signs of this cultural shift in America. Kerouac was writing about events in the late forties and early fifties, but his book was also a precursor of the sixties counterculture. He wrote the book on one continuous sheet of paper, as a stream of consciousness. Kerouac died in 1969 of an internal haemmorage brought on by too much alcohol consumption. So it goes. But the big key to this cultural shift was caused by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, a massive infrastructure spending bill that led to the construction of the modern American Interstate Highway system. This accelerated a program that had already started, of building much bigger, safer, faster roads. It also, as anyone who has read Robert Caro's The Power Broker knows, reinforced segregation and white flight. It did this both by making commuting into major cities from the suburbs easier -- thus allowing white people with more money to move further away from the cities and still work there -- and by bulldozing community spaces where Black people lived. More than a million people lost their homes and were forcibly moved, and orders of magnitude more lost their communities' parks and green spaces. And both as a result of deliberate actions and unconscious bigotry, the bulk of those affected were Black people -- who often found themselves, if they weren't forced to move, on one side of a ten-lane highway where the park used to be, with white people on the other side of the highway. The Federal-Aid Highway Act gave even more power to the unaccountable central planners like Robert Moses, the urban planner in New York who managed to become arguably the most powerful man in the city without ever getting elected, partly by slowly compromising away his early progressive ideals in the service of gaining more power. Of course, not every new highway was built through areas where poor Black people lived. Some were planned to go through richer areas for white people, just because you can't completely do away with geographical realities. For example one was planned to be built through part of San Francisco, a rich, white part. But the people who owned properties in that area had enough political power and clout to fight the development, and after nearly a decade of fighting it, the development was called off in late 1966. But over that time, many of the owners of the impressive buildings in the area had moved out, and they had no incentive to improve or maintain their properties while they were under threat of demolition, so many of them were rented out very cheaply. And when the beat community that Kerouac wrote about, many of whom had settled in San Francisco, grew too large and notorious for the area of the city they were in, North Beach, many of them moved to these cheap homes in a previously-exclusive area. The area known as Haight-Ashbury. [Excerpt: The Grateful Dead, "Grayfolded"] Stories all have their starts, even stories told in Tralfamadorian time, although sometimes those starts are shrouded in legend. For example, the story of Scientology's start has been told many times, with different people claiming to have heard L. Ron Hubbard talk about how writing was a mug's game, and if you wanted to make real money, you needed to get followers, start a religion. Either he said this over and over and over again, to many different science fiction writers, or most science fiction writers of his generation were liars. Of course, the definition of a writer is someone who tells lies for money, so who knows? One of the more plausible accounts of him saying that is given by Theodore Sturgeon. Sturgeon's account is more believable than most, because Sturgeon went on to be a supporter of Dianetics, the "new science" that Hubbard turned into his religion, for decades, even while telling the story. The story of the Grateful Dead probably starts as it ends, with Jerry Garcia. There are three things that everyone writing about the Dead says about Garcia's childhood, so we might as well say them here too. The first is that he was named by a music-loving father after Jerome Kern, the songwriter responsible for songs like "Ol' Man River" (though as Oscar Hammerstein's widow liked to point out, "Jerome Kern wrote dum-dum-dum-dum, *my husband* wrote 'Ol' Man River'" -- an important distinction we need to bear in mind when talking about songwriters who write music but not lyrics). The second is that when he was five years old that music-loving father drowned -- and Garcia would always say he had seen his father dying, though some sources claim this was a false memory. So it goes. And the third fact, which for some reason is always told after the second even though it comes before it chronologically, is that when he was four he lost two joints from his right middle finger. Garcia grew up a troubled teen, and in turn caused trouble for other people, but he also developed a few interests that would follow him through his life. He loved the fantastical, especially the fantastical macabre, and became an avid fan of horror and science fiction -- and through his love of old monster films he became enamoured with cinema more generally. Indeed, in 1983 he bought the film rights to Kurt Vonnegut's science fiction novel The Sirens of Titan, the first story in which the Tralfamadorians appear, and wrote a script based on it. He wanted to produce the film himself, with Francis Ford Coppola directing and Bill Murray starring, but most importantly for him he wanted to prevent anyone who didn't care about it from doing it badly. And in that he succeeded. As of 2023 there is no film of The Sirens of Titan. He loved to paint, and would continue that for the rest of his life, with one of his favourite subjects being Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster. And when he was eleven or twelve, he heard for the first time a record that was hugely influential to a whole generation of Californian musicians, even though it was a New York record -- "Gee" by the Crows: [Excerpt: The Crows, "Gee"] Garcia would say later "That was an important song. That was the first kind of, like where the voices had that kind of not-trained-singer voices, but tough-guy-on-the-street voice." That record introduced him to R&B, and soon he was listening to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, to Ray Charles, and to a record we've not talked about in the podcast but which was one of the great early doo-wop records, "WPLJ" by the Four Deuces: [Excerpt: The Four Deuces, "WPLJ"] Garcia said of that record "That was one of my anthem songs when I was in junior high school and high school and around there. That was one of those songs everybody knew. And that everybody sang. Everybody sang that street-corner favorite." Garcia moved around a lot as a child, and didn't have much time for school by his own account, but one of the few teachers he did respect was an art teacher when he was in North Beach, Walter Hedrick. Hedrick was also one of the earliest of the conceptual artists, and one of the most important figures in the San Francisco arts scene that would become known as the Beat Generation (or the Beatniks, which was originally a disparaging term). Hedrick was a painter and sculptor, but also organised happenings, and he had also been one of the prime movers in starting a series of poetry readings in San Francisco, the first one of which had involved Allen Ginsberg giving the first ever reading of "Howl" -- one of a small number of poems, along with Eliot's "Prufrock" and "The Waste Land" and possibly Pound's Cantos, which can be said to have changed twentieth-century literature. Garcia was fifteen when he got to know Hedrick, in 1957, and by then the Beat scene had already become almost a parody of itself, having become known to the public because of the publication of works like On the Road, and the major artists in the scene were already rejecting the label. By this point tourists were flocking to North Beach to see these beatniks they'd heard about on TV, and Hedrick was actually employed by one cafe to sit in the window wearing a beret, turtleneck, sandals, and beard, and draw and paint, to attract the tourists who flocked by the busload because they could see that there was a "genuine beatnik" in the cafe. Hedrick was, as well as a visual artist, a guitarist and banjo player who played in traditional jazz bands, and he would bring records in to class for his students to listen to, and Garcia particularly remembered him bringing in records by Big Bill Broonzy: [Excerpt: Big Bill Broonzy, "When Things Go Wrong (It Hurts Me Too)"] Garcia was already an avid fan of rock and roll music, but it was being inspired by Hedrick that led him to get his first guitar. Like his contemporary Paul McCartney around the same time, he was initially given the wrong instrument as a birthday present -- in Garcia's case his mother gave him an accordion -- but he soon persuaded her to swap it for an electric guitar he saw in a pawn shop. And like his other contemporary, John Lennon, Garcia initially tuned his instrument incorrectly. He said later "When I started playing the guitar, believe me, I didn't know anybody that played. I mean, I didn't know anybody that played the guitar. Nobody. They weren't around. There were no guitar teachers. You couldn't take lessons. There was nothing like that, you know? When I was a kid and I had my first electric guitar, I had it tuned wrong and learned how to play on it with it tuned wrong for about a year. And I was getting somewhere on it, you know… Finally, I met a guy that knew how to tune it right and showed me three chords, and it was like a revelation. You know what I mean? It was like somebody gave me the key to heaven." He joined a band, the Chords, which mostly played big band music, and his friend Gary Foster taught him some of the rudiments of playing the guitar -- things like how to use a capo to change keys. But he was always a rebellious kid, and soon found himself faced with a choice between joining the military or going to prison. He chose the former, and it was during his time in the Army that a friend, Ron Stevenson, introduced him to the music of Merle Travis, and to Travis-style guitar picking: [Excerpt: Merle Travis, "Nine-Pound Hammer"] Garcia had never encountered playing like that before, but he instantly recognised that Travis, and Chet Atkins who Stevenson also played for him, had been an influence on Scotty Moore. He started to realise that the music he'd listened to as a teenager was influenced by music that went further back. But Stevenson, as well as teaching Garcia some of the rudiments of Travis-picking, also indirectly led to Garcia getting discharged from the Army. Stevenson was not a well man, and became suicidal. Garcia decided it was more important to keep his friend company and make sure he didn't kill himself than it was to turn up for roll call, and as a result he got discharged himself on psychiatric grounds -- according to Garcia he told the Army psychiatrist "I was involved in stuff that was more important to me in the moment than the army was and that was the reason I was late" and the psychiatrist thought it was neurotic of Garcia to have his own set of values separate from that of the Army. After discharge, Garcia did various jobs, including working as a transcriptionist for Lenny Bruce, the comedian who was a huge influence on the counterculture. In one of the various attacks over the years by authoritarians on language, Bruce was repeatedly arrested for obscenity, and in 1961 he was arrested at a jazz club in North Beach. Sixty years ago, the parts of speech that were being criminalised weren't pronouns, but prepositions and verbs: [Excerpt: Lenny Bruce, "To is a Preposition, Come is a Verb"] That piece, indeed, was so controversial that when Frank Zappa quoted part of it in a song in 1968, the record label insisted on the relevant passage being played backwards so people couldn't hear such disgusting filth: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Harry You're a Beast"] (Anyone familiar with that song will understand that the censored portion is possibly the least offensive part of the whole thing). Bruce was facing trial, and he needed transcripts of what he had said in his recordings to present in court. Incidentally, there seems to be some confusion over exactly which of Bruce's many obscenity trials Garcia became a transcriptionist for. Dennis McNally says in his biography of the band, published in 2002, that it was the most famous of them, in autumn 1964, but in a later book, Jerry on Jerry, a book of interviews of Garcia edited by McNally, McNally talks about it being when Garcia was nineteen, which would mean it was Bruce's first trial, in 1961. We can put this down to the fact that many of the people involved, not least Garcia, lived in Tralfamadorian time, and were rather hazy on dates, but I'm placing the story here rather than in 1964 because it seems to make more sense that Garcia would be involved in a trial based on an incident in San Francisco than one in New York. Garcia got the job, even though he couldn't type, because by this point he'd spent so long listening to recordings of old folk and country music that he was used to transcribing indecipherable accents, and often, as Garcia would tell it, Bruce would mumble very fast and condense multiple syllables into one. Garcia was particularly impressed by Bruce's ability to improvise but talk in entire paragraphs, and he compared his use of language to bebop. Another thing that was starting to impress Garcia, and which he also compared to bebop, was bluegrass: [Excerpt: Bill Monroe, "Fire on the Mountain"] Bluegrass is a music that is often considered very traditional, because it's based on traditional songs and uses acoustic instruments, but in fact it was a terribly *modern* music, and largely a postwar creation of a single band -- Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. And Garcia was right when he said it was "white bebop" -- though he did say "The only thing it doesn't have is the harmonic richness of bebop. You know what I mean? That's what it's missing, but it has everything else." Both bebop and bluegrass evolved after the second world war, though they were informed by music from before it, and both prized the ability to improvise, and technical excellence. Both are musics that involved playing *fast*, in an ensemble, and being able to respond quickly to the other musicians. Both musics were also intensely rhythmic, a response to a faster paced, more stressful world. They were both part of the general change in the arts towards immediacy that we looked at in the last episode with the creation first of expressionism and then of pop art. Bluegrass didn't go into the harmonic explorations that modern jazz did, but it was absolutely as modern as anything Charlie Parker was doing, and came from the same impulses. It was tradition and innovation, the past and the future simultaneously. Bill Monroe, Jackson Pollock, Charlie Parker, Jack Kerouac, and Lenny Bruce were all in their own ways responding to the same cultural moment, and it was that which Garcia was responding to. But he didn't become able to play bluegrass until after a tragedy which shaped his life even more than his father's death had. Garcia had been to a party and was in a car with his friends Lee Adams, Paul Speegle, and Alan Trist. Adams was driving at ninety miles an hour when they hit a tight curve and crashed. Garcia, Adams, and Trist were all severely injured but survived. Speegle died. So it goes. This tragedy changed Garcia's attitudes totally. Of all his friends, Speegle was the one who was most serious about his art, and who treated it as something to work on. Garcia had always been someone who fundamentally didn't want to work or take any responsibility for anything. And he remained that way -- except for his music. Speegle's death changed Garcia's attitude to that, totally. If his friend wasn't going to be able to practice his own art any more, Garcia would practice his, in tribute to him. He resolved to become a virtuoso on guitar and banjo. His girlfriend of the time later said “I don't know if you've spent time with someone rehearsing ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown' on a banjo for eight hours, but Jerry practiced endlessly. He really wanted to excel and be the best. He had tremendous personal ambition in the musical arena, and he wanted to master whatever he set out to explore. Then he would set another sight for himself. And practice another eight hours a day of new licks.” But of course, you can't make ensemble music on your own: [Excerpt: Jerry Garcia and Bob Hunter, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (including end)] "Evelyn said, “What is it called when a person needs a … person … when you want to be touched and the … two are like one thing and there isn't anything else at all anywhere?” Alicia, who had read books, thought about it. “Love,” she said at length." That's from More Than Human, by Theodore Sturgeon, a book I'll be quoting a few more times as the story goes on. Robert Hunter, like Garcia, was just out of the military -- in his case, the National Guard -- and he came into Garcia's life just after Paul Speegle had left it. Garcia and Alan Trist met Hunter ten days after the accident, and the three men started hanging out together, Trist and Hunter writing while Garcia played music. Garcia and Hunter both bonded over their shared love for the beats, and for traditional music, and the two formed a duo, Bob and Jerry, which performed together a handful of times. They started playing together, in fact, after Hunter picked up a guitar and started playing a song and halfway through Garcia took it off him and finished the song himself. The two of them learned songs from the Harry Smith Anthology -- Garcia was completely apolitical, and only once voted in his life, for Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to keep Goldwater out, and regretted even doing that, and so he didn't learn any of the more political material people like Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, and Bob Dylan were doing at the time -- but their duo only lasted a short time because Hunter wasn't an especially good guitarist. Hunter would, though, continue to jam with Garcia and other friends, sometimes playing mandolin, while Garcia played solo gigs and with other musicians as well, playing and moving round the Bay Area and performing with whoever he could: [Excerpt: Jerry Garcia, "Railroad Bill"] "Bleshing, that was Janie's word. She said Baby told it to her. She said it meant everyone all together being something, even if they all did different things. Two arms, two legs, one body, one head, all working together, although a head can't walk and arms can't think. Lone said maybe it was a mixture of “blending” and “meshing,” but I don't think he believed that himself. It was a lot more than that." That's from More Than Human In 1961, Garcia and Hunter met another young musician, but one who was interested in a very different type of music. Phil Lesh was a serious student of modern classical music, a classically-trained violinist and trumpeter whose interest was solidly in the experimental and whose attitude can be summed up by a story that's always told about him meeting his close friend Tom Constanten for the first time. Lesh had been talking with someone about serialism, and Constanten had interrupted, saying "Music stopped being created in 1750 but it started again in 1950". Lesh just stuck out his hand, recognising a kindred spirit. Lesh and Constanten were both students of Luciano Berio, the experimental composer who created compositions for magnetic tape: [Excerpt: Luciano Berio, "Momenti"] Berio had been one of the founders of the Studio di fonologia musicale di Radio Milano, a studio for producing contemporary electronic music where John Cage had worked for a time, and he had also worked with the electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Lesh would later remember being very impressed when Berio brought a tape into the classroom -- the actual multitrack tape for Stockhausen's revolutionary piece Gesang Der Juenglinge: [Excerpt: Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Gesang Der Juenglinge"] Lesh at first had been distrustful of Garcia -- Garcia was charismatic and had followers, and Lesh never liked people like that. But he was impressed by Garcia's playing, and soon realised that the two men, despite their very different musical interests, had a lot in common. Lesh was interested in the technology of music as well as in performing and composing it, and so when he wasn't studying he helped out by engineering at the university's radio station. Lesh was impressed by Garcia's playing, and suggested to the presenter of the station's folk show, the Midnight Special, that Garcia be a guest. Garcia was so good that he ended up getting an entire solo show to himself, where normally the show would feature multiple acts. Lesh and Constanten soon moved away from the Bay Area to Las Vegas, but both would be back -- in Constanten's case he would form an experimental group in San Francisco with their fellow student Steve Reich, and that group (though not with Constanten performing) would later premiere Terry Riley's In C, a piece influenced by La Monte Young and often considered one of the great masterpieces of minimalist music. By early 1962 Garcia and Hunter had formed a bluegrass band, with Garcia on guitar and banjo and Hunter on mandolin, and a rotating cast of other musicians including Ken Frankel, who played banjo and fiddle. They performed under different names, including the Tub Thumpers, the Hart Valley Drifters, and the Sleepy Valley Hog Stompers, and played a mixture of bluegrass and old-time music -- and were very careful about the distinction: [Excerpt: The Hart Valley Drifters, "Cripple Creek"] In 1993, the Republican political activist John Perry Barlow was invited to talk to the CIA about the possibilities open to them with what was then called the Information Superhighway. He later wrote, in part "They told me they'd brought Steve Jobs in a few weeks before to indoctrinate them in modern information management. And they were delighted when I returned later, bringing with me a platoon of Internet gurus, including Esther Dyson, Mitch Kapor, Tony Rutkowski, and Vint Cerf. They sealed us into an electronically impenetrable room to discuss the radical possibility that a good first step in lifting their blackout would be for the CIA to put up a Web site... We told them that information exchange was a barter system, and that to receive, one must also be willing to share. This was an alien notion to them. They weren't even willing to share information among themselves, much less the world." 1962 brought a new experience for Robert Hunter. Hunter had been recruited into taking part in psychological tests at Stanford University, which in the sixties and seventies was one of the preeminent universities for psychological experiments. As part of this, Hunter was given $140 to attend the VA hospital (where a janitor named Ken Kesey, who had himself taken part in a similar set of experiments a couple of years earlier, worked a day job while he was working on his first novel) for four weeks on the run, and take different psychedelic drugs each time, starting with LSD, so his reactions could be observed. (It was later revealed that these experiments were part of a CIA project called MKUltra, designed to investigate the possibility of using psychedelic drugs for mind control, blackmail, and torture. Hunter was quite lucky in that he was told what was going to happen to him and paid for his time. Other subjects included the unlucky customers of brothels the CIA set up as fronts -- they dosed the customers' drinks and observed them through two-way mirrors. Some of their experimental subjects died by suicide as a result of their experiences. So it goes. ) Hunter was interested in taking LSD after reading Aldous Huxley's writings about psychedelic substances, and he brought his typewriter along to the experiment. During the first test, he wrote a six-page text, a short excerpt from which is now widely quoted, reading in part "Sit back picture yourself swooping up a shell of purple with foam crests of crystal drops soft nigh they fall unto the sea of morning creep-very-softly mist ... and then sort of cascade tinkley-bell-like (must I take you by the hand, ever so slowly type) and then conglomerate suddenly into a peal of silver vibrant uncomprehendingly, blood singingly, joyously resounding bells" Hunter's experience led to everyone in their social circle wanting to try LSD, and soon they'd all come to the same conclusion -- this was something special. But Garcia needed money -- he'd got his girlfriend pregnant, and they'd married (this would be the first of several marriages in Garcia's life, and I won't be covering them all -- at Garcia's funeral, his second wife, Carolyn, said Garcia always called her the love of his life, and his first wife and his early-sixties girlfriend who he proposed to again in the nineties both simultaneously said "He said that to me!"). So he started teaching guitar at a music shop in Palo Alto. Hunter had no time for Garcia's incipient domesticity and thought that his wife was trying to make him live a conventional life, and the two drifted apart somewhat, though they'd still play together occasionally. Through working at the music store, Garcia got to know the manager, Troy Weidenheimer, who had a rock and roll band called the Zodiacs. Garcia joined the band on bass, despite that not being his instrument. He later said "Troy was a lot of fun, but I wasn't good enough a musician then to have been able to deal with it. I was out of my idiom, really, 'cause when I played with Troy I was playing electric bass, you know. I never was a good bass player. Sometimes I was playing in the wrong key and didn't even [fuckin'] know it. I couldn't hear that low, after playing banjo, you know, and going to electric...But Troy taught me the principle of, hey, you know, just stomp your foot and get on it. He was great. A great one for the instant arrangement, you know. And he was also fearless for that thing of get your friends to do it." Garcia's tenure in the Zodiacs didn't last long, nor did this experiment with rock and roll, but two other members of the Zodiacs will be notable later in the story -- the harmonica player, an old friend of Garcia's named Ron McKernan, who would soon gain the nickname Pig Pen after the Peanuts character, and the drummer, Bill Kreutzmann: [Excerpt: The Grateful Dead, "Drums/Space (Skull & Bones version)"] Kreutzmann said of the Zodiacs "Jerry was the hired bass player and I was the hired drummer. I only remember playing that one gig with them, but I was in way over my head. I always did that. I always played things that were really hard and it didn't matter. I just went for it." Garcia and Kreutzmann didn't really get to know each other then, but Garcia did get to know someone else who would soon be very important in his life. Bob Weir was from a very different background than Garcia, though both had the shared experience of long bouts of chronic illness as children. He had grown up in a very wealthy family, and had always been well-liked, but he was what we would now call neurodivergent -- reading books about the band he talks about being dyslexic but clearly has other undiagnosed neurodivergences, which often go along with dyslexia -- and as a result he was deemed to have behavioural problems which led to him getting expelled from pre-school and kicked out of the cub scouts. He was never academically gifted, thanks to his dyslexia, but he was always enthusiastic about music -- to a fault. He learned to play boogie piano but played so loudly and so often his parents sold the piano. He had a trumpet, but the neighbours complained about him playing it outside. Finally he switched to the guitar, an instrument with which it is of course impossible to make too loud a noise. The first song he learned was the Kingston Trio's version of an old sea shanty, "The Wreck of the John B": [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "The Wreck of the John B"] He was sent off to a private school in Colorado for teenagers with behavioural issues, and there he met the boy who would become his lifelong friend, John Perry Barlow. Unfortunately the two troublemakers got on with each other *so* well that after their first year they were told that it was too disruptive having both of them at the school, and only one could stay there the next year. Barlow stayed and Weir moved back to the Bay Area. By this point, Weir was getting more interested in folk music that went beyond the commercial folk of the Kingston Trio. As he said later "There was something in there that was ringing my bells. What I had grown up thinking of as hillbilly music, it started to have some depth for me, and I could start to hear the music in it. Suddenly, it wasn't just a bunch of ignorant hillbillies playing what they could. There was some depth and expertise and stuff like that to aspire to.” He moved from school to school but one thing that stayed with him was his love of playing guitar, and he started taking lessons from Troy Weidenheimer, but he got most of his education going to folk clubs and hootenannies. He regularly went to the Tangent, a club where Garcia played, but Garcia's bluegrass banjo playing was far too rigorous for a free spirit like Weir to emulate, and instead he started trying to copy one of the guitarists who was a regular there, Jorma Kaukonnen. On New Year's Eve 1963 Weir was out walking with his friends Bob Matthews and Rich Macauley, and they passed the music shop where Garcia was a teacher, and heard him playing his banjo. They knocked and asked if they could come in -- they all knew Garcia a little, and Bob Matthews was one of his students, having become interested in playing banjo after hearing the theme tune to the Beverly Hillbillies, played by the bluegrass greats Flatt and Scruggs: [Excerpt: Flatt and Scruggs, "The Beverly Hillbillies"] Garcia at first told these kids, several years younger than him, that they couldn't come in -- he was waiting for his students to show up. But Weir said “Jerry, listen, it's seven-thirty on New Year's Eve, and I don't think you're going to be seeing your students tonight.” Garcia realised the wisdom of this, and invited the teenagers in to jam with him. At the time, there was a bit of a renaissance in jug bands, as we talked about back in the episode on the Lovin' Spoonful. This was a form of music that had grown up in the 1920s, and was similar and related to skiffle and coffee-pot bands -- jug bands would tend to have a mixture of portable string instruments like guitars and banjos, harmonicas, and people using improvised instruments, particularly blowing into a jug. The most popular of these bands had been Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, led by banjo player Gus Cannon and with harmonica player Noah Lewis: [Excerpt: Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, "Viola Lee Blues"] With the folk revival, Cannon's work had become well-known again. The Rooftop Singers, a Kingston Trio style folk group, had had a hit with his song "Walk Right In" in 1963, and as a result of that success Cannon had even signed a record contract with Stax -- Stax's first album ever, a month before Booker T and the MGs' first album, was in fact the eighty-year-old Cannon playing his banjo and singing his old songs. The rediscovery of Cannon had started a craze for jug bands, and the most popular of the new jug bands was Jim Kweskin's Jug Band, which did a mixture of old songs like "You're a Viper" and more recent material redone in the old style. Weir, Matthews, and Macauley had been to see the Kweskin band the night before, and had been very impressed, especially by their singer Maria D'Amato -- who would later marry her bandmate Geoff Muldaur and take his name -- and her performance of Leiber and Stoller's "I'm a Woman": [Excerpt: Jim Kweskin's Jug Band, "I'm a Woman"] Matthews suggested that they form their own jug band, and Garcia eagerly agreed -- though Matthews found himself rapidly moving from banjo to washboard to kazoo to second kazoo before realising he was surplus to requirements. Robert Hunter was similarly an early member but claimed he "didn't have the embouchure" to play the jug, and was soon also out. He moved to LA and started studying Scientology -- later claiming that he wanted science-fictional magic powers, which L. Ron Hubbard's new religion certainly offered. The group took the name Mother McRee's Uptown Jug Champions -- apparently they varied the spelling every time they played -- and had a rotating membership that at one time or another included about twenty different people, but tended always to have Garcia on banjo, Weir on jug and later guitar, and Garcia's friend Pig Pen on harmonica: [Excerpt: Mother McRee's Uptown Jug Champions, "On the Road Again"] The group played quite regularly in early 1964, but Garcia's first love was still bluegrass, and he was trying to build an audience with his bluegrass band, The Black Mountain Boys. But bluegrass was very unpopular in the Bay Area, where it was simultaneously thought of as unsophisticated -- as "hillbilly music" -- and as elitist, because it required actual instrumental ability, which wasn't in any great supply in the amateur folk scene. But instrumental ability was something Garcia definitely had, as at this point he was still practising eight hours a day, every day, and it shows on the recordings of the Black Mountain Boys: [Excerpt: The Black Mountain Boys, "Rosa Lee McFall"] By the summer, Bob Weir was also working at the music shop, and so Garcia let Weir take over his students while he and the Black Mountain Boys' guitarist Sandy Rothman went on a road trip to see as many bluegrass musicians as they could and to audition for Bill Monroe himself. As it happened, Garcia found himself too shy to audition for Monroe, but Rothman later ended up playing with Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. On his return to the Bay Area, Garcia resumed playing with the Uptown Jug Champions, but Pig Pen started pestering him to do something different. While both men had overlapping tastes in music and a love for the blues, Garcia's tastes had always been towards the country end of the spectrum while Pig Pen's were towards R&B. And while the Uptown Jug Champions were all a bit disdainful of the Beatles at first -- apart from Bob Weir, the youngest of the group, who thought they were interesting -- Pig Pen had become enamoured of another British band who were just starting to make it big: [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Not Fade Away"] 29) Garcia liked the first Rolling Stones album too, and he eventually took Pig Pen's point -- the stuff that the Rolling Stones were doing, covers of Slim Harpo and Buddy Holly, was not a million miles away from the material they were doing as Mother McRee's Uptown Jug Champions. Pig Pen could play a little electric organ, Bob had been fooling around with the electric guitars in the music shop. Why not give it a go? The stuff bands like the Rolling Stones were doing wasn't that different from the electric blues that Pig Pen liked, and they'd all seen A Hard Day's Night -- they could carry on playing with banjos, jugs, and kazoos and have the respect of a handful of folkies, or they could get electric instruments and potentially have screaming girls and millions of dollars, while playing the same songs. This was a convincing argument, especially when Dana Morgan Jr, the son of the owner of the music shop, told them they could have free electric instruments if they let him join on bass. Morgan wasn't that great on bass, but what the hell, free instruments. Pig Pen had the best voice and stage presence, so he became the frontman of the new group, singing most of the leads, though Jerry and Bob would both sing a few songs, and playing harmonica and organ. Weir was on rhythm guitar, and Garcia was the lead guitarist and obvious leader of the group. They just needed a drummer, and handily Bill Kreutzmann, who had played with Garcia and Pig Pen in the Zodiacs, was also now teaching music at the music shop. Not only that, but about three weeks before they decided to go electric, Kreutzmann had seen the Uptown Jug Champions performing and been astonished by Garcia's musicianship and charisma, and said to himself "Man, I'm gonna follow that guy forever!" The new group named themselves the Warlocks, and started rehearsing in earnest. Around this time, Garcia also finally managed to get some of the LSD that his friend Robert Hunter had been so enthusiastic about three years earlier, and it was a life-changing experience for him. In particular, he credited LSD with making him comfortable being a less disciplined player -- as a bluegrass player he'd had to be frighteningly precise, but now he was playing rock and needed to loosen up. A few days after taking LSD for the first time, Garcia also heard some of Bob Dylan's new material, and realised that the folk singer he'd had little time for with his preachy politics was now making electric music that owed a lot more to the Beat culture Garcia considered himself part of: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"] Another person who was hugely affected by hearing that was Phil Lesh, who later said "I couldn't believe that was Bob Dylan on AM radio, with an electric band. It changed my whole consciousness: if something like that could happen, the sky was the limit." Up to that point, Lesh had been focused entirely on his avant-garde music, working with friends like Steve Reich to push music forward, inspired by people like John Cage and La Monte Young, but now he realised there was music of value in the rock world. He'd quickly started going to rock gigs, seeing the Rolling Stones and the Byrds, and then he took acid and went to see his friend Garcia's new electric band play their third ever gig. He was blown away, and very quickly it was decided that Lesh would be the group's new bass player -- though everyone involved tells a different story as to who made the decision and how it came about, and accounts also vary as to whether Dana Morgan took his sacking gracefully and let his erstwhile bandmates keep their instruments, or whether they had to scrounge up some new ones. Lesh had never played bass before, but he was a talented multi-instrumentalist with a deep understanding of music and an ability to compose and improvise, and the repertoire the Warlocks were playing in the early days was mostly three-chord material that doesn't take much rehearsal -- though it was apparently beyond the abilities of poor Dana Morgan, who apparently had to be told note-by-note what to play by Garcia, and learn it by rote. Garcia told Lesh what notes the strings of a bass were tuned to, told him to borrow a guitar and practice, and within two weeks he was on stage with the Warlocks: [Excerpt: The Grateful Dead, “Grayfolded"] In September 1995, just weeks after Jerry Garcia's death, an article was published in Mute magazine identifying a cultural trend that had shaped the nineties, and would as it turned out shape at least the next thirty years. It's titled "The Californian Ideology", though it may be better titled "The Bay Area Ideology", and it identifies a worldview that had grown up in Silicon Valley, based around the ideas of the hippie movement, of right-wing libertarianism, of science fiction authors, and of Marshall McLuhan. It starts "There is an emerging global orthodoxy concerning the relation between society, technology and politics. We have called this orthodoxy `the Californian Ideology' in honour of the state where it originated. By naturalising and giving a technological proof to a libertarian political philosophy, and therefore foreclosing on alternative futures, the Californian Ideologues are able to assert that social and political debates about the future have now become meaningless. The California Ideology is a mix of cybernetics, free market economics, and counter-culture libertarianism and is promulgated by magazines such as WIRED and MONDO 2000 and preached in the books of Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly and others. The new faith has been embraced by computer nerds, slacker students, 30-something capitalists, hip academics, futurist bureaucrats and even the President of the USA himself. As usual, Europeans have not been slow to copy the latest fashion from America. While a recent EU report recommended adopting the Californian free enterprise model to build the 'infobahn', cutting-edge artists and academics have been championing the 'post-human' philosophy developed by the West Coast's Extropian cult. With no obvious opponents, the global dominance of the Californian ideology appears to be complete." [Excerpt: Grayfolded] The Warlocks' first gig with Phil Lesh on bass was on June the 18th 1965, at a club called Frenchy's with a teenage clientele. Lesh thought his playing had been wooden and it wasn't a good gig, and apparently the management of Frenchy's agreed -- they were meant to play a second night there, but turned up to be told they'd been replaced by a band with an accordion and clarinet. But by September the group had managed to get themselves a residency at a small bar named the In Room, and playing there every night made them cohere. They were at this point playing the kind of sets that bar bands everywhere play to this day, though at the time the songs they were playing, like "Gloria" by Them and "In the Midnight Hour", were the most contemporary of hits. Another song that they introduced into their repertoire was "Do You Believe in Magic" by the Lovin' Spoonful, another band which had grown up out of former jug band musicians. As well as playing their own sets, they were also the house band at The In Room and as such had to back various touring artists who were the headline acts. The first act they had to back up was Cornell Gunter's version of the Coasters. Gunter had brought his own guitarist along as musical director, and for the first show Weir sat in the audience watching the show and learning the parts, staring intently at this musical director's playing. After seeing that, Weir's playing was changed, because he also picked up how the guitarist was guiding the band while playing, the small cues that a musical director will use to steer the musicians in the right direction. Weir started doing these things himself when he was singing lead -- Pig Pen was the frontman but everyone except Bill sang sometimes -- and the group soon found that rather than Garcia being the sole leader, now whoever was the lead singer for the song was the de facto conductor as well. By this point, the Bay Area was getting almost overrun with people forming electric guitar bands, as every major urban area in America was. Some of the bands were even having hits already -- We Five had had a number three hit with "You Were On My Mind", a song which had originally been performed by the folk duo Ian and Sylvia: [Excerpt: We Five, "You Were On My Mind"] Although the band that was most highly regarded on the scene, the Charlatans, was having problems with the various record companies they tried to get signed to, and didn't end up making a record until 1969. If tracks like "Number One" had been released in 1965 when they were recorded, the history of the San Francisco music scene may have taken a very different turn: [Excerpt: The Charlatans, "Number One"] Bands like Jefferson Airplane, the Great Society, and Big Brother and the Holding Company were also forming, and Autumn Records was having a run of success with records by the Beau Brummels, whose records were produced by Autumn's in-house A&R man, Sly Stone: [Excerpt: The Beau Brummels, "Laugh Laugh"] The Warlocks were somewhat cut off from this, playing in a dive bar whose clientele was mostly depressed alcoholics. But the fact that they were playing every night for an audience that didn't care much gave them freedom, and they used that freedom to improvise. Both Lesh and Garcia were big fans of John Coltrane, and they started to take lessons from his style of playing. When the group played "Gloria" or "Midnight Hour" or whatever, they started to extend the songs and give themselves long instrumental passages for soloing. Garcia's playing wasn't influenced *harmonically* by Coltrane -- in fact Garcia was always a rather harmonically simple player. He'd tend to play lead lines either in Mixolydian mode, which is one of the most standard modes in rock, pop, blues, and jazz, or he'd play the notes of the chord that was being played, so if the band were playing a G chord his lead would emphasise the notes G, B, and D. But what he was influenced by was Coltrane's tendency to improvise in long, complex, phrases that made up a single thought -- Coltrane was thinking musically in paragraphs, rather than sentences, and Garcia started to try the same kind of th

Are you an artist or entrepreneur looking for world-class public and media relations expertise? Look no further than Brian Scott Gross!Brian Scott Gross is the Founder and President of BSG Public Relations. Now in its 21st year, BSG Public Relations takes a precise and strategic approach to promoting all facets of entertainment. An efficient and motivated staff handles everything from intricate details of executive publicity to positioning their clientele within compelling and effective media campaigns, street marketing teams, and creative marketing efforts. BSG PR works to broaden and help brand their clientele. They look to broaden and brand artists, companies and products.BSG Public Relations handles all avenues of communications, bringing a studied approach to marketing with creative solutions that furthers the message and the image of their clients. Multi-level publicity campaigns combined with knowledge and background in every facet of entertainment media and communications, and most importantly, always putting the client first.Brian has been in the service of media and public relations for over 28 years. He has been employed by companies such as Def American Recordings, Warner Brothers Records, Reprise Records, Elektra Entertainment Group, Vivid Entertainment Group, and such organizations as The Lollapalooza Tour. His background includes all facets of public and media relations, working with some of the largest businesses, celebrities and music acts in the world. Brian Gross was an Executive Producer for Reality-X: The Search For Adam & Eve.On this episode, Brian recalls his start in the music industry at Def American Recordings, Warner Bros and Elektra while he was in high school.Key Points and Time Stamps:[00:03:31] - Why having no Plan B helps accelerate your career growth and mindset[00:06:30] - Debunking PR job myths - crisis media and give attention to clients[00:08:27] - Do PR companies encourage their clients to portray a certain dating image?[00:09:58] - 3 key elements for branding and communicating your message[00:12:30] - The challenges of having corporates, businesses and organizations as clients[00:13:25] - How PR helps coaches, consultants and digital entrepreneurs[00:15:07] - Media and interview coaching [00:15:31] - How social media has changed the public relations industry[00:17:33] - Cultural differences in working with global clients[00:18:19] - Relationship-building in the entertainment business[00:19:43] - Why musicians go broke[00:22:45] - Brian's participation at a North Korean marathon[00:26:43] - Work-life balance[00:28:10] - Writing about a client and their work as a publicist[00:29:18] - How to establish if you are an artist or have that potential in you[00:29:53] - The impact of viral videos and publicity[00:30:30] - The criteria for enlisting the services of a publicistConnect with Brian:Website: https://bsgpr.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsgprTwitter: https://twitter.com/bsgprConnect with me:FacebookInstagramLeave a rating and a review:iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/public-and-media-relations-for-artists-and/id1614151066?i=1000613382536Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4eUyxKY6pgWwIpepqP3hY9YouTube: https://youtu.be/gpMhldnxmH4

Is it bad to print your mix offline? John talked about the importance of arrangement, mastering dynamics in your mix, the Fletcher Munson curve, listening loud and quiet, crest factor, customer care, and why some plugins are different every time! Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: https://MixMasterBundle.com My guest today is John Mayfield a mastering engineer with over 50 years of experience and owner of Mayfield Mastering in Berry Hill. Originally a career musician, John turned to recording and mixing in the 80s travelling to studios all over the world. He has also been a guest on episode RSR036. Originally a successful touring and studio musician John started out in the studio recording and then mixing all over the world finally settling on Nashville to start his own mastering studio. Dave Matthews Band, Sara Evans, Kathy Mattea, Naturally 7, Warner Brothers Records and Universal Music Group-UK, to list a few. John notes on his website that everyone in music is trying to figure out what is next and define the new business model. Since records are being made more often by independent sources with smaller budgets that cannot always afford the high dollar mixer the need for quality mastering is very much in demand. “Music will always be a part of our lives. Maintaining and improving the quality of that music has always been at the heart of my efforts. It is not a job to me, but rather a true joy, You would be amazed at what we can do with a project in mastering that might not have been an A+ mix.” THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://UltimateMixingMasterclass.com https://www.Spectra1964.com https://MacSales.com/rockstars https://iZotope.com/Rockstars use code ROCK10 to get 10% off any individual plugin https://jzmic.com Use code ROCKSTAR to get 40% off the Vintage series mics plus get a FREE shock mount ($120 value) https://www.adam-audio.com https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% off https://www.thetoyboxstudio.com/ Listen to this guest's discography on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PQ8g3iNvYcH2XeBXDLtSl?si=938d345bee734267 If you love the podcast, then please leave a review: https://RSRockstars.com/Review CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE SHOW NOTES AT: https://RSRockstars.com/401

Tiffany Goss is a songwriter and from Montgomery, Alabama. Known for her playful approach to writing and natural melodic sense, Tiffany never fails to draw out the best in her co-writers. After graduating from Troy University with a degree in public relations and journalism, Tiffany made the move to Nashville to pursue a career in the music industry. She landed her first job in 1997 as the receptionist at Warner Brothers Records. It was at the front desk of Warner that Tiffany found one of her biggest Champions, then CEO Jim Ed Norman. With Jim Ed's encouragement and support, Tiffany signed her first publishing deal at EMI Music Publishing. Over the span of her career she has had stops at Buddy Killen Publishing as a staff writer and Curb Music Publishing as both Creative Director and a staff writer. Tiffany's songs have been recorded by artists like Brooks and Dunn, Brett Young, Clay Walker, Delta Rae, and Chris Janson. Her talents have brought her into the world of television with placements on shows like The Bachelor, Hart of Dixie, Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, and Fox News. @tifftycent - IGHost - Trey Mitchelltreymitchellphotography IGfeeding_the_senses_unsensored on IGtrey mitchell: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100074368084848Sponsorship Information or submitting for interviews -  ftsunashville@gmail.comTheme Song - Damien HorneTake It From Me @damienhorne

On August 1st 1960, an album on the Warner Brothers label reached number one in the Billboard Mono Action Albums Chart. It was the debut album for this particular artist and would remain at the top for fourteen weeks. The album would stay in the chart for two years selling over 600,000 copies near release and ranking as the 20th best selling album of all time on the Billboard charts. Its total running time was just short of thirty two minutes, it consisted of just six tracks, and was a recording of a live performance It won album of the year at the 1961 Grammy awards as well as best new artist for its performer. Yet this was no pop, folk or rock album. It was the first comedy album to win album of the year and the only time that a comedian had won best artist. That comedian was Bob Newhart and this particular album saved the struggling Warner Brothers Records label and changed the face of modern comedy and the way the world experienced stand up forever. Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of The Button Down Mind Of Bob Newhart.   Don't forget you can also listen to our weekly sixties chart show evey Sunday on Mixcloud. Link below: https://www.mixcloud.com/scophi/rainbow-valley-sixties-chart-show-5th-march-2023/  

Brooks Long is back and that means he and Nate are talking about a book written or co-written by the great David Ritz. While at Billboard magazine in the 1940s, Jerry Wexler coined the term Rhythm & Blues. He went on to become one of the great "record men" at Atlantic Records in the 1950s, 60s and 70s where he produced career-peak recordings by legends such as Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin. He also found time to be a villain in the stories of Stax Records, Bert Berns and FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Don't miss Nate's interview with David Ritz.Don't miss Nate & Brooks discussing:Aretha FranklinRay CharlesDon't miss Nate's interview with Bert Berns biographer Joel Selvin.Don't miss Nate's interviews with Robert Gordon about Stax Records:Part 1Part 2Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts.  

This week Joe is featuring Pianist Bill Evans from his 1980 Warner Brothers Records release titled “Turn Out The Stars, The Final Village Vanguard Sessions 1980”

Kaya Stewart has been writing and recording songs since she was 13 years old. Sure Dave Stewart of Eurythmics is her Dad but that doesn't guarantee talent or success and she knows that. After a song she wrote and recorded blew up on Soundcloud, records labels started knocking on her door.  Soon she found herself on Warner Brothers Records and out on the Vans Warped Tour but it wasn't all dreamy. Kaya decided to start over and do things her way. During the Pandemic she was diagnosed with OCD which was the catalyst to write the collection of songs that make up her new album IF THINGS GO SOUTH which was co-written and co-produced by Dave Stewart. The record comes out Sept 30th and will be available on all streaming platforms. Kaya has an incredible voice and is a great songwriter and I really dig some of the songs on her new album. I think you guys are really gonna dig this episode. Brought to you by Betterhelp use the code to get 10 percent off online therapy. https://www.betterhelp.com/get-started/?go=true&transaction_id=102996acb63fc9189196de6f8ae95e&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=2687&utm_medium=Mac+OS+X&utm_content=&utm_term=delray¬_found=1&gor=start 

EPISODE #80 - Back in 1978, Larry White went on the road with Van Halen to create a promotional radio special called “Runnin' with Van Halen” for Warner Brothers Records. Fast forward 10 years, White returned on the road with VH for 1988's Monster of Rock tour. White talks to the Daves about his experiences working during both eras of the band. The interview is followed by a collage of backstage interview clips from his radio show. A massive dollop of VH News plus a healthy mailbag segment round out this August episode.Download the podcast for free on Spreaker, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify or iTunes. Connect with the Daves on Twitter: @ddunchained, Facebook: Dave & Dave Unchained – A Van Halen podcast, Instagram: ddunchainedpodcast or via email: ddunchainedpodcast@gmail.com

Howie's back! Howie Klein has done a weekly segment with me on this show for over a decade now. He's been gone for the past month- I'll let him explain why. But he's thankfully back today and boy do we have a lot to talk about. Of course, we need to find out how he's doing. And while he was out, his former boss passed away. Mo Ostin was led Warner Brothers Records for many years and was widely respected by everyone in the industry-- artists, employees and everyone else. Including Howie Klein who worked under Mo as President of Reprise Records. I've been waiting for his return to ask Howie to tell us a bit about the great Mo Ostin. Of course, there have been a few primary elections since Howie was last here, and a lot of action in Congress too. We'll start Howie's segment a few minutes earlier than usual because there's so much to discuss. And just a head up-- I'll be out next Thursday, undergoing my own surgical procedure. Are we having fun yet?

LA is in mourning after iconic Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully died Tuesday at age 94. He called Dodgers games for 67 seasons before retiring in 2016. Mo Ostin died this week at age 95. He ran Warner Brothers Records from the 1960s to the 1990s, then helped create the record label arm of DreamWorks. 

Music Publicist Barbara Charone has written a memoir, ‘Access All Areas; A Backstage Pass Through 50 Years of Music And Culture'. A publicist at Warner Brothers Records for twenty years, Barbara Charone has experienced first-hand, the changes in the music landscape. She talks to Dave about her career and working with Madonna and Depeche Mode

While still in high school in the late 1970s, Shaun Cassidy signed a contract with Warner Brothers Records that led to three multi-platinum albums and numerous top 10 hits, including “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “That's Rock n' Roll”, “Hey Deanie”, and “Do You Believe In Magic?”Almost concurrently, he starred in the ABC television series "The Hardy Boys Mysteries." He went on to create, write, and or produce several critically acclaimed television series including "American Gothic," "Cold Case," "The Agency," "Bluebloods," and "New Amsterdam." Pre-pandemic, Shaun Cassidy took his self-penned music and storytelling and took the show "The Magic of a Midnight Sky" to the stage, playing to standing-room only crowds nationwide. He is now back on the road with that show and we'll be bringing it to universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs, New York on June 28. This weekend, he has shows in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Tarrytown, New York.

A two-time GRAMMY nominee in addition to having been nominated for a Dove Award for Song of the Year. A Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitar player, he also has an Academy of Country Music nomination and two CMA nominations. Plus, he was nominated for the 2019 Australia's Golden Guitar Award for Best Traditional Country Album. His first single had been a top 20 hit with the band The Dirt Drifters on Warner Brothers Records. During his career he has had over 100 independent and major label cuts. He is also the organizer of the Nashville Nights event taking place in September in Denmark. He will also be a featured performer next month at the 2nd Lake Martin Songwriters Festival in Alabama.

Host Nate Wilcox discusses the ethos and accomplishments of Warner Brothers Records under the legendary Mo Ostin.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts.

Host Nate Wilcox discusses the ethos and accomplishments of Warner Brothers Records under the legendary Mo Ostin.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts.

Matt Pierson is an award-winning producer whose discography is studded with the brightest stars in contemporary jazz-Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Pat Metheny, Jane Monheit, and countless others. He led Blue Note's marketing and A&R departments before taking up the post of running Jazz A&R for Warner Brothers Records. After a stint consulting for Sony Masterworks, he continues to produce albums for musicians including Bria Skonberg, Pasquale Grasso, and Samara Joy. Show Notes: Tracks Played – Samara Joy: Everything Happens To Me – Dayna Stephens Trio: Kwooked Street – Pasquale Grasso: Yardbird Suite – Camila Meza: Amazon Farewell – Taylor Eigsti feat. Becca Stevens: Little Bird http://mattpierson.net/ “The Insider” is a spin-off series with monthly episodes. Patreon members at the $10/month tier receive these episodes in advance of the general public. If you would like to support The Jazz Session, please do consider becoming a Patreon member over at https://www.patreon.com/thejazzsession

Matt Pierson is an award-winning producer whose discography is studded with the brightest stars in contemporary jazz-Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Pat Metheny, Jane Monheit, and countless others. He led Blue Note's marketing and A&R departments before taking up the post of running Jazz A&R for Warner Brothers Records. After a stint consulting for Sony Masterworks, he continues to produce albums for musicians including Bria Skonberg, Pasquale Grasso, and Samara Joy. Show Notes: Tracks Played – Samara Joy: Everything Happens To Me – Dayna Stephens Trio: Kwooked Street – Pasquale Grasso: Yardbird Suite – Camila Meza: Amazon Farewell – Taylor Eigsti feat. Becca Stevens: Little Bird http://mattpierson.net/ “The Insider” is a spin-off series with monthly episodes. Patreon members at the $10/month tier receive these episodes in advance of the general public. If you would like to support The Jazz Session, please do consider becoming a Patreon member over at https://www.patreon.com/thejazzsession

Matt Pierson is an award-winning producer whose discography is studded with the brightest stars in contemporary jazz-Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Pat Metheny, Jane Monheit, and countless others. He led Blue Note's marketing and A&R departments before taking up the post of running Jazz A&R for Warner Brothers Records. After a stint consulting for Sony Masterworks, he continues to produce albums for musicians including Bria Skonberg, Pasquale Grasso, and Samara Joy. Show Notes: Tracks Played – Samara Joy: Everything Happens To Me – Dayna Stephens Trio: Kwooked Street – Pasquale Grasso: Yardbird Suite – Camila Meza: Amazon Farewell – Taylor Eigsti feat. Becca Stevens: Little Bird http://mattpierson.net/ “The Insider” is a spin-off series with monthly episodes. Patreon members at the $10/month tier receive these episodes in advance of the general public. If you would like to support The Jazz Session, please do consider becoming a Patreon member over at https://www.patreon.com/thejazzsession

This episode of About Your Mother is my conversation with Beth Broday – a pioneer in producing who put music videos on the map beginning with Prince's Little Red Corvette. Beth Broday is a storyteller and has mastered the art of Becoming. Throughout the various stages of work and life, she saw the lessons in each experience, never afraid to make a U-turn that led to something beautiful. Her storytelling is like butter. Towards the end, enjoy our banter on working with some of the world's greatest musicians of all time.   Reflections of the Mother Beth shares that her mother always loved art and was also quite fond of theater. "She took my father and dragged him all over the world: every museum, every city, every café -- she wanted to see the world. She wanted to see it with him, and so, they went." – Beth Broday Beth's mother was a cultured and bright woman, and her dream was for Beth to experience the same things she had. Upon Beth's graduation, her mother's gift to her was a trip to Europe.   The Business of the Music Business Beth knew that she wanted to be part of the music business early on. But it was quite hard to get into, as she admits she couldn't sing or play any instruments. But she knew there were other ways she could be involved in the business. "I got very lucky, I was in the right place at the right time. I had the knowledge of how to make film, and how to make videos -- I knew how to do that stuff. Whereas most people my age in those days, they didn't know anything about that. But I did, because I went to college and studied that." – Beth Broday Later on, being hired by a major record producer opened up opportunities for her to meet people at high levels of the music recording business. As she observed a director shooting videos for artists, she thought: "I already know how to do this from college." She also thought it would be a good program idea, rather than just one-off artists' videos. So with that knowledge and collaboration with people from different labels, Beth got things done. All of this led to a call from Warner Brothers Records in 1983, asking Beth to film a video for the song Little Red Corvette by a 26-year-old artist named Prince.   Beth Broday on Working with the Artists When asked what it was like to collaborate with artists, Beth shares how much it meant to her: "For me, it was incredible that I would be able to bring something to their career. That I would be able to help them get their image out there, and help refine their image. Because over the years as music videos became very common, they became more like marketing vehicles. And so I, on a business level, not only manage production, but I had to manage the image of that artist based on what director I would put with that artist in order to create what the label and the artist wanted to achieve." – Beth Broday With the eventual launch of MTV and an even higher demand for artists to put out music videos, Beth found herself in the middle of it all. She was again at the right place at the right time, with all her connections with various directors and talent. Beth felt like she had to share this good fortune with others, so she made it her mission to find young filmmakers who did great work but needed that initial boost to break through the music and filming industry. Hence began her mission to discover all young, talented filmmakers in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, and London. To hear more from Beth Broday and her fascinating story on becoming, download and listen to this episode.   Bio Beth Broday is an award-winning executive producer with over thirty years of experience identifying, developing, and selling content that results in millions of dollars in sales and revenue. With creative leadership and an innate ability to recognize promising opportunities ahead of the curve, Ms. Broday successfully married top entertainment brands and properties with digital media. Ms.

Brian Gross, President of BSG PR, has been in the service of media and public relations for over 28 years. Gross has been employed by companies such as Def American Recordings, Warner Brothers Records, Reprise Records, Elektra Entertainment Group, Vivid Entertainment Group, and such organizations as The Lollapalooza Tour. Brian Gross was an Executive Producer for Reality-X: The Search For Adam & Eve. His background includes all facets of public and media relations, working with some of the largest businesses, celebrities and music acts in the world. https://bsgpr.com (bsgpr.com) Join us in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1247345226015053 (Morning Motivation Facebook Group) Check out my daily motivation podcast: http://motivation.guywhoknowsaguy.com/ (Morning Motivation) Subscribe: Spotify | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-guy-who-knows-a-guy-podcast/id1455257429 (Apple Podcasts) | iHeartRadio Mentioned in this episode: Network without talking to strangers Did you know that you can network without ever talking to a stranger? It's true. Networking is not about awkward conversations and elevator pitches. It is about making connections and creating value. I'll teach you how in a two minute video at https://www.guywhoknowsaguy.com/innercircle Get my MP3 I have recorded my book in audio form. Get your copy for free at https://www.guywhoknowsaguy.com