Music Before the Money

“I’m a drug addict and an alcoholic, and I’ve been fighting those demons every day. I have this self-destruct button and I don’t know where it comes from. I’ve talked to many, many therapists. It’s a battle.”

- Jack Russell, singer, Great White

Fires in nightclubs are mini holocausts because once the cry is heard nice people became stampeding beasts. The worst was during World War II when a fire at the Cocoanut Grove club in Boston killed 492.

On May 28, 1977, a performance by John Davidson’s band was cut short at the Beverley Hills Club in Southgate, Kentucky killing 165 people.  The majority of the deaths would be blamed on poorly marked exits, flammable carpeting, and seat cushions that emitted toxic fumes when burned

Jack Russell, the singer for Great White, knows this all too well. On February 23, 2003 the pyrotechnics in his act set off the 4th deadliest nightclub fire in American history killing 100 people, four of whom died at local hospitals, and injuring 132. Although it was a combination of things that made the nightclub into a deadly inferno the  band did set off the pyrotechnical display that caught the flammable ceiling material on fire.

Russell and the remnants of Great White have been struggling to move ahead for 6 years. Many of those who died in the inferno were close friends and crew members, including Great White guitarist Ty Longley. The singer has been criticized  for continuing to make music and not donating enough money to survivors.

With the piles of correspondence flinging all sorts of accusations at Great White it’s amazing that they still can go one. Their manager, Daniel Michael Biechele, pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter even though he had nothing physically to do with the fire. He knew the pyrotechnics were a part f the show but gave the stage manager credit for having the sense to figure out what is appropriate and what is not. It’s like knowing people can smoke in a lounge and getting blamed because they struck a match to close to a flammable pillow.

The blame went as far as JBL speaker company who had flammable foam inside the cabinets. They settled for $813,000.

I saw Davey Johnstone with Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour in September 1973. He was hard to miss.  With long blonde hair he had an aura of invincibility as he walked his part of the stage, his guitar complementing everything Elton John sang or played until he was called on to pound out a solo of his own.

After playing most of his hits a young Elton John said, “We’re going to play some songs from our new album.” The first part of Funeral for a Friend was recorded, with Elton coming in on the piano after the orchestral parts ended. Johnstone played eerie notes over top of the piano and then took over the song with blistering lead lines, bringing the song into Love Lies Bleeding.

To follow a man like Elton John takes an incredible musician. Dee Murray on bass and the great Nigel Olsen on drums were basically the only sidemen in Elton’s band at the time.  Johnstone had to fill a lot of empty space with rich background, a talent that is lost as synthesizers fill almost every void now.

Although the Scottish-born Johnstone joined Elton John in 1972 he was a founding member of Magna Carta and had contributed to two albums before meeting EJ.  During his 1973  tour with the great piano man Johnstone recorded a solo album, Smiling Face, and another in 1977.  He still records and produces, having composed over 60 songs with his writing partner Steve Trudell. He evn joins up with Sir Elton and plays short tours.

(Photo by Gloria Ubardelli)

The childhood home of legendary guitarist Jim Hendrix in Seattle, Washington has been demolished. But it just didn’t slip through the fingers of rock enthusiasts. It was bandied about like a bad loan and then destroyed like someone crushing a matchbox house with a boot.

In August 2001 the Hendrix family home went on the auction block and sold for a paltry $44,000.  Word has it that the attack on September 11th frightened off the original buyer (strange reason).

Real estate investor, Peter Sikov, was to move it to the site of an old trailer park which, incidently, was across the street from the cemetery where Jimi’s body is buried. however, certain conditions weren’t met and Sikov tore the place down. His only remarks were that parts of the home would be salvaged and that parts would be sold.

“Can you imagine a guitar made out of wood from Jimi’s house? Who wouldn’t want that?” said Sikov. He was speaking of the shell of the 85-square-metre house that remains on the  lot across the street from the cemetery.

Hendrix, lived in the house from ages 10 to 13 in the 1950s. At 27 he choked to death on his own vomit in 1970 at age 27 after taking sleeping pills and drinking heavily. It was the place where Hendrix first picked up a once-string ukulele and strummed the theme song from the television show “Peter Gunn.”

The demolition crew did save original parts of the home like kitchen cabinets, the claw-foot bathtub and the back door. He and the James Marshall Hendrix Foundation hoped to renovate the little house as a music center.

Years from now, someone may be playing a piece of Hendrix’s back door as a guitar.

Saw your picture on a poster in cafe out in Phoenix,
Guess you’re still the sweetheart of the rodeo.
As for me and little Casey, we still make the circuit,
In a one-horse trailer and a mobile home.

- Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold): Dan Seals

He was Born Danny Wayland Seals on Feb. 8, 1948 but got his start in music with the unlikely handle, “England.”

Dan Seals, the singer of both Nights Are Forever Without You as England Dan and Cowboy Logic as Dan Seals, died at the early age of 61 from lymphoma. He was was also the brother of Jim Seals of the popular early-’70’s duo,  Seals and Crofts.

With John Ford Coley, “England Dan” Seals had hits with I’d Really Like to See You Tonight and Nights Are Forever. However the Seals brothers were raised in rural West Texas where his father was an amateur country singer. Dan and Jim grew up watching their father play the roadhouses and country dances and when he was older he used to play on stage with his dad.

When the “pop” thing grew tiresome for him  in 1980 he and Coley parted company and Seals went back to his country roots. His country hits in the ’80s and ’90s with Bop, You Still Move Me, Love on Arrival, and a duet with Marie Osmond called Meet Me in Montana that won them both Vocal Duo of the Year at the Country Music Awards in 1986.

My favorite Dan Seals video was Cowboy Logic and this was right about at the beginning of country music videos. It shows him demonstrating how a cowboy thinks and gets the better of most people. However the most memorable song was Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold)s about a rodeo man and his little daughter surviving on the road after his wife deserts them to pursue a career as barre-racer in the rodeo circuit. The song itself is a mini-movie and shows the talent of Dan Seals.

I have England Dan and John Ford Coley on vinyl. So like I usually do when an “old friend” rides off into the sunset I’m going to spin the platter and have a few drinks as I remember the times when I first heard his or her song.

I like watching The Buddy Holly Story, even 30 years after it first debuted in late 1978. It was during the heydays of disco and the polyester-knit crowds still flocked to see a rocker that had been gone for 20 years. Gary Busey gave an Academy Award-nominated performance as Charles Hardin Holley, shortened to Buddy Holly.

The movie has many inaccuracies that were forgiven at the time but nowadays they would not make it past the editing. For example, in the movie Lubbock, Texas was shown with mountains whereas the Lubbock area is flat. Also Busey’s guitar is a 1970’s Fender Stratocaster with a large machine head and lettering. A 1958 Strat would have had the “spaghetti” lettering with the model barely legible from farther away than ten feet. In addition, Buddy was never to known to have played a Fender Telecaster on stage. In fact, Holly made the ungainly Stratocaster a rock favorite.

So it is the performances by journeyman actors Don Stroud (The Choirboys) and Charles Martin Smith (American Graffiti) who help Busey get the feel of a 1950’s band, especially in the roller rink. In fact, many venues for bands at the time were such places as well as bowling alleys.

It is reported that Busey had to lose almost 35 pounds to play Holly who was not more than 150 pounds at the time of his death. He also sang all the songs.

A few years later Busey had a motorcycle accident that changed his life. His brain function is not what it used to be and his behavior can be unpredictable.

Still, the movie is a cult classic, warts and all. And his widow, Marie-Elena, gave it a thumbs-up despite the irregularities. It is rumored that Paul McCartney (who owns the Buddy Holly publishing) plays the movie every year on Holly’s death date.

In addition, Busey bought a guitar once belonging to Buddy Holly for $242K.