http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Fri, 2 Dec 2005 11:10:57 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/12/02/111057.php Marty ThauAs a former Blondie business associate, I guess I get the last laugh after all. You see the music business really blew it when it came to Debbie and cohorts, and a slew of record honchos -- who should have known better -- ended up looking rather pathetic when the world embraced the band."She looks great, but the band sucks and can't play to save themselves," the record honcho know-it-all/know-nothings whispered back in '76. Just goes to confirm my theory that A&R people should not be older than 17 when it comes to evaluating young rock 'n' roll -- and that's what Blondie was about - young, '70's new wave r'n'r. You can't sell 60+ million records and suck. Obviously someone loved 'em big-time. Such an accomplishment cannot be ignored and the Hall's acknowledgement and induction of the band was appropriate, contrary to what some naysayers are currently moaning and foaming at the mouth over.That said, I usually try not to respond to any controversy surrounding any of the artists I've worked with in past years -- and I've had my share of controversy with artists from my days at Cameo-Parkway and Buddah Records in the late-'60s, to the likes of the New York Dolls, Suicide, Richard Hell, Ramones, John Cale, and Blondie in the '70s -- but there are a few things I'd like to say and I'll cite the Velvet Underground's membership in the Hall to make my point.Question: Does VU belong in the Hall? Some say they were tres influential. To some they were but to me they were pretentious. I much prefer someone like Bob Dylan, or the Yardbirds, or Van Morrison -- not a bunch of Andy Warhol-schooled manic-depressives -- but I still can agree with their inclusion because I think inclusion should be determined by a combination of factors like a)Commerce - an artist's amazing sales accomplishments over an extended period of time, or b) Artistry - an artist's high skills, or virtuosity, or c) Influence - an artist's musical or social impact on others.Each discipline can be argued for, and against and can stand on its own merit and Blondie scored in at least two of the three categories when just one will usually suffice, as in the case of the VU. In the meantime, why aren't Iggy and the NY Dolls members yet? There's gotta be many, many thousands of bands out there that are, or were influenced by those two. They do call it the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, don't they? Are there many better purveyors of the form than those two? How could the Ramones, Clash, Sex Pistols, and Blondie be Hall of Famers and Iggy and the Dolls be ignored?Those Hall selectors: Fans and industry professional alike are wondering if it's an even playing field at R&RHOF, or is it a case of music biz back room finagling. I'm sorry to say that because I know some of those folks, and have respect for many of their accomplishments, but I do believe they sometimes get tangled up in their own web of pretention and unjustly serve their own causes to the exclusion of others.My Opinion: Blondie deserves inclusion but perhaps there are some others that could've / should've been considered before them. It's debatable. I could name a few, and so could you, but let's not diss Blondie anymore. They made some really great records and their fans loved 'em.Your comments are welcome. Music40398@blogcritics.org Fri, 2 Dec 2005 11:10:57 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/08/082326.php Marty ThauAs September 11 approaches once again, here are some thoughts that circulated throughout the Internet shortly after THE September 11: As the Bush Administration promises to provide Americans with a sense of security, it will depend on our not eradicating terrorists but addressing the root causes of terrorism. Terror will define our future unless we learn that our profound insecurity in this last century derives precisely from our demands as Americans to maintain our unsustainable medley of privileges. The American Way of Life may be precious but not to the disenfranchised, humiliated, and traumatized people of Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. If we were problem-solvers rather than ideologues, we would know that the arrogance of our super-affluence can only guarantee a permanent insecurity that will haunt us unless we start the conversation between civilizations and allow the democratization of global politics to truly begin.How to begin? We can start by demanding from our government a saner, more humane foreign policy towards the non-West. We can start by not walking out of key Third World conferences on global issues. We can start by no longer pretending that we are a neutral partner in the Israeli-Palestinian peace fiasco and allow Israel and the Palestinians to grow up and act according to international law. We can start by paying Africa's horrors some real attention. We can start by refusing to help create political Frankenstein's that we must later disavow. We can start by not humiliating others simply because we can, by shedding the supremacist discourse that infects our sense of identity and power. We can ask ourselves genuine questions without practicing selective amnesia, the track record of our foreign policy in the world since the Second World War.Killing Osama and his clan will not stop terrorism. Americans cannot afford to criminalize the world's discontent by calling it Osama. An occupation of the Middle East by proxy or military strikes against nations we demonize as "rogue" will not yield positive results. History and common sense tells us that violence only breeds resistance, crusades, jihads, humiliation, and a trans-generational thirst for justice.Real security results from a contract of coexistence and equity between people, an agreement about shared responsibilities and agendas. Bombings, assassinations, military bases, occupations, government-overthrows, and years of jingoism will save neither us, nor future generations any grief.Let's start the conversation before we return to doing business-as-usual and embarrassing ourselves before history. Let's refrain from continuing the shame of the twentieth century into the twenty-first. We can start by thinking.Written by Babak Nahid, an Iranian resident in the U.S. who teaches in the English Department at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles. This article was edited by Marty Thau and appears in America.com, a book-in-progress about 9/11 and the Internet by Eric Olsen and Thau. Politics19590@blogcritics.org Wed, 8 Sep 2004 08:23:26 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/02/194432.php Marty ThauC'mon people, when both sides of an argument are at such odds, the truth is usually found halfway between the finger pointing and the facts. And as much as Bush is suspect of being psychologically unfit to be our leader - try reading "Bush On The Couch" -- he just might be the right man for the moment. Perhaps such an unpredictable loony toony is enough to scare off the craziest of foes. Hey, ya never know - maybe we need a psycho to lead the way. (Just a wild and crazy theory).Anyway, our cornball fuddy duddy Republicans are now so whipped up -- thanks to the GOP big lie strategy -- all they can talk about is the war effort because their dismal domestic record and lack of achievement is so pathetic. (Editor's Note: Ever hear the phrase "it's the economy, stupid?)"I've been hearing lots of patriotic rhetoric but little else. I'm happy to hear Arnold is so happy to be here in the USA but what else is new? It's nice to know that the Bush twins love their daddy but they sure ain't halfway as impressive as Kerry's daughters - and that's a fact. (We're talking bright, intelligent young women versus eensy weensy cutsie little spoiled Texas princess types of the most irrelevant nature.). Whoever wrote that dumb script for them to recite should be immediately dumped. (These two make Paris Hilton look like a genius). How about this observation - that Bush is the president for only half the population. Hey, what about the rest of us - don't we count? -- like the shrinking middle class and our many minority groups (translation: anyone who is not a white Christian fundamentalist geek) -- and that includes 25 million gay folks who are absolutely no threat to anyone but the most twisted religious zealots who claim gay marriage threatens the family and the one man / one woman tradition. (Like how, I ask? I wonder which genius in the Bush camp came up with that doozy)?And how about this one, too -- we file our taxes on April 15th, but everywhere we turn we're being taxed, too - food, clothes, you name it. Everywhere and for everything. (Yeah, I know, you received $600, and it paid off your Visa Card, (big friggin' deal), but you're still stuck with deadly rising health care premiums, rising car insurance payments, rising real estate taxes, and rising gas prices and rising everything else. (Clever guy that W -- throw 'em a bone and they'll laud you to the skies. Those Gopher spin machinists are no fools - they know how to pull the wool over our apathetic eyes). Where is ANY conversation about the deficit, corporate lobbyists and their hold over our politicos, stem cell research, corporate corruption, bogus job loss figures and false unemployment statistics, an outdated minimum wage structure, the environment, a failing education system - and these are just some of the issues and problems confronting us but they are the real issues - not whether Kerry is too sensitive to lead the way and faked his Purple Hearts - but they're swept under the rug in favor of personal attacks on each other. And where is the media in the midst of all of this? (Answer: no-where to be found. They've capitulated to big brother).Cheney and Bush both say Kerry's war record is beyond reproach but those Swift Boat ads keep coming, don't they? How about Medicare? Check it out and you'll see that no one can explain the details of that new program yet. (Bush needed to resolve that problem, or at least look like he cared, and came up with a one- sided last minute "solution" to save face but instead it has turned into an outrageous drug company rip-off of the elderly and those in need of affordable drugs. (For what costs $360 in the USA you can purchase for $60 in Germany. Pay, or die. Is that what our country has become - that the dollar is more important than the individual)?I don't claim to have any answers - I'm just a poor disgruntled schmuck with a bone to pick - like the 250,000 other schmucks that marched on Sunday in protest of all this bullshit -- but I do know this - America is mentally dysfunctional and both parties suck. If I were Bush I'd immediately resign and beg Clinton to return. (If our politicos had paid more attention to things like the USS Cole bombing back in the day instead of a few meaningless blowjobs we might be further along now in the war than we are. Ok, Clinton disgraced the office but he also did a great job in balancing the budget and providing job). I close with this - all you so-called "patriots" wave your little flags and claim to be for America, but you have no clue what America is supposed to be and how abused the system is because you've been too busy enjoying your pedantic versions of the good life -- and living on credit cards (that if you had half a brain, you'd rip up immediately). We've all been serving the God of comfort for too long. Something must be done. Wake up my fellow Americans. Let's throw out these bums now - and if John Kerry is the only alternative, let's go with him.I welcome all your hateful comments and irrational and venomous snide retorts.A Faithless Leftover Politics19395@blogcritics.org Thu, 2 Sep 2004 19:44:32 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/01/125458.php Marty ThauAfter watching the Olympics, with its sculptured bodies and magnificent athletes in all their splendor, I've now turned my attention to the tube's next spectacle - the Republican Convention - a.k.a. the meeting of our unconscious "patriots." (Editors note: George Romero - if you're still alive, here's the script for your next flick). In my first 3 minutes of viewing I observe this - a delegate is interviewed and is wearing a bandage on her chin with a Purple Heart drawn on it. A Senator is interviewed and thanks New York City for its warm and cordial reception. (Meanwhile 100,000 people - some say it was closer to 250,000 -- marched in protest of this meeting of these self-proclaimed compassionate simpletons on Sunday and you better believe that the mood in the city is downright mean and that hate is in the air. Nobody's brandishing guns, or throwing paint at anyone, or anything like that, but the vibe is not friendly, to say the least). In my first 30 minutes of viewing I've seen very few blacks, Hispanics, etc. - just overweight balding white men with jowls and their not too attractive spouses, with their 50's hairdo's and flower design house dresses covering their sagging bosoms and expanding rear ends. (Don't these people ever look in the mirror, or exercise? Have they no taste, or style)?There's a certain smug arrogance in the air. Perhaps W's little smirk is now being emulated by these unconscious retard fans of his. (Yeah, I know ... the word retard is discriminatory and has been replaced by "challenged" but there's no other word in our vocabulary to describe these folks better than retard). Sorry. Screw being politically correct. I'm way past that. Sue me.A friend sent me an email that quotes the late Democrat statesman, Adlai Stevenson. It goes like this, "if the Republicans stop telling lies about us we will stop telling the truth about them."This will be an interesting and revealing week for anyone with half a brain because our cretin friends will surely make fools of themselves at every turn. And they won't have the slightest understanding of what someone like me is ridiculing, or questioning. And then, in typical fashion, they'll lash out and call me an elite-ist pig -- and all in the name of Jesus. My Republican friend (who shall remain unnamed) calls Kerry a "sissy-boy" and Edwards a re-incarnation of Gomer Pyle. He calls all dissenters America-haters and commies.A Faithless Leftover Politics19331@blogcritics.org Wed, 1 Sep 2004 12:54:58 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/22/083000.php Marty ThauA great many pundits have predicted the imminent doom of the music industry, citing such disparate factors as illegal file-sharing and downloading, increased consolidation in the radio industry, exorbitant pricing, one sided artist royalty contracts, a young audience distracted by computer games and the Internet, and a distinct lack of artist development producing new superstars.These days, technology, the fuel that spurred almost 20 years of unprecedented growth in the music industry, threatens to tear it apart by replacing objects and actual products that can be sold with a series of 0's and 1's that make up digital music. But for the record industry to embark on another growth period thorny issues of copyright, music ownership and solid business models for peer-to-peer file sharing must be resolved, and not just flouted.As long as there are adolescent teenage boys and girls whose testosterone and estrogen levels are on the rise, there will be popular music. And as long as those same teenagers mature into 20-year-olds who want something more than bubble-gum Top 40, there will be an abundant supply of all styles of rock & roll, pop music, singer-songwriters, hip hoppers and the like. There will always be a music industry but it will look a lot different, with new companies like Apple, Microsoft, Real Networks and their ilk taking over the traditional role of the record label.With the merger of Sony-BMG about to be approved, there will only be four major companies, and, if EMI and the Warner Music Group team up, as is expected, there will be three. That could mean an increasingly depressed atmosphere for music, but it could well be that the business can't grow unless it's leveled first, and then built back up.The major labels are big corporations now run by accountants and lawyers and, too often, they just don't get it. It's a numbers game to them but music has always been a feelings game. You can't tell that to bean counters and expect them to have an inkling of what you're talking about. To them it's more like "get me a lead singer" -- sort of an androgynous blonde hair pretty boy type, and a guitar player who wears a hat and is very dramatic, and a pounding drummer and an olive skinned bass player -- but no keyboards because I don't like keyboards, and we'll call them the Funky Punks and we'll spend $500,000 promoting them -- and we'll make tons of money." (OK, I'm exaggerating a bit ... but just a bit. You have no idea - or maybe you do). Record companies have a unique set of problems -- they're despised by politicians (for supposedly corrupting youth), by Webcasters (for demanding royalties), and by their customers (for inflating prices). The Tower Records, the Virgins, the Sam Goodys of the world are having an impossible time just trying to survive. For the big stores -- the Best Buys, the Targets, the Wal-Marts who account for 50% of a label's sales -- the record companies mean nothing to them because they only account for a miniscule percentage of their gross revenues. The bottom line is this - the big stores control the music business and, to some degree, its content, too. (In this day and age major corporations are particularly sensitive to anything that might offend potential customers and one could conclude that music is being censored) Years ago promoting records was relatively simple. You went to the PD of a radio station and turned him on to the music, and you stood a good chance of it being aired. These days, in today's broadcast universe, you have to go to Regional Programmers, who must go to their Regional Vice Presidents, who must go to their superiors in a way that almost completely eliminates music from the equation. With programming decisions centralized at the corporate level, most stations now follow a mandated play list. In some cases its just 14 songs per week - leaving little airtime for the introduction of new artists and, as a result, the majority of records go absolutely nowhere.But, fortunately, technology is a two-edged sword, and although it has created these centralizations, it has also created the ability to easily make CDs and easily do mail order through the Internet. The Internet is a plus in finding audiences that are underserved.But where there's a will, there's a way -and satellite and Internet radio are two of the ways to bypass the radio congloms - and there are others, too, including the use of music in advertising, movies and TV. Despite the roadblocks placed on music by radio consolidation, there are now more alternatives than ever i.e. the ability of individual artists to run their own websites, where they can sell music, merchandise their wares and communicate directly with their fans. It is possible, and safe to say, that it will become increasingly possible for newly inspired entrepreneurs to market more efficiently to niche audiences utilizing the technological tools and the power of the Internet.Making music should be its own reward and if it makes you happy, and you have some talent to spare then financial success should follow. That's how it's always worked and there is no reason why it shouldn't continue to be that way once the dust settles.But this is true, too, that nobody ever said that life isn't cruel, or that the music biz is simply fun and games. Far from it ...By Marty Thau & Roy Trakin Music17706@blogcritics.org Thu, 22 Jul 2004 08:30:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/22/091344.php Marty ThauBy early 1976 New York City's CBGB and Max's Kansas City rock venues had become the mecca of punk rock activity in America. To visualize what its setting was like I've taken the liberty to excerpt a few words from CBGB.com: The Bowery was a drab, ugly and unsavory place. But it was good enough for rock and rollers. The people who frequented CBGB didn't seem to mind staggering drunks and stepping over a few bodies. Having a rock club under a flop house does have its advantages; the rent was cheap and most of our neighbors dressed worse than our rock and roll customers.Bands like the Dead Boys, Mink De Ville, Alex Chilton, Pere Ubu, Contortions with James Chance, Robert Gordon, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Lydia Lunch and Brian Setzer's Bloodless Pharaohs eventually secured recording contracts when the record labels finally realized something major was developing. By early 1977 a stunning diversity of music could be heard, ranging in style from the arty minimalism of the Talking Heads to the basic three chord ethic of the Ramones to the poetic consciousness of Patti Smith to the pre-Madonna innocence and romance of Blondie to the futuristic and stunningly perverse confrontational art rock psychodrama of Suicide.This was the climate the day I opened my doors as Red Star Records, arguably America's first post-hippie independent Punk / New Wave label. Facing me was the task of convincing America's kids that New York's music rebellion could cross over the Hudson and reach out to the kids in Iowa, too. Not an easy task. Would Manhattan's Punk microcosmic sensitivity to its generation's malcontents translate and reach America's numbed down arena band audience of unconscious teenage numbskulls?Enter Suicide, Red Star's first signing in June 1977. Picture a blend of psychosis and sentimentality wrapped up in minimalist drones, menacing vocals, mad scat lines, heavily echoed screams and screeches, incoherent mumbles topped with a dash of sugary crooning thrown in for good measure and there you have it - the "primal duo" as they were affectionately dubbed.Born and raised in New York City (Vega, Brooklyn -- The Rev, Bronx), Suicide was part of the performing arts scene in New York in the early-to-mid-'70s New York Dolls era. The Rev's spooky keyboard washes of dissonant sound coupled with vocalist Alan Vega's ranting neo-beat lyrics was uncompromising and confrontational and inspired love or hate - there was no in-between.Utilizing only a 1950's rhythm machine and a cheap Farfisa keyboard, Vega's voice expressed his schizoid neo - Presley paranoid sci-fi vision of contemporary street life and The Rev, with his funky leather boy junkie looks intact, pounding out his relentless and alluring mix of digital electronic recycled jazz / '50s funk - junk noise, unpredictable Latin rhythms and electro dance lines - were considered too real for the major label market research MBA's.Onstage Vega would bait the crowd into a riotous frenzy that occasionally led to full-blown violence, usually with the audience finally attacking him with anything they could lay their hands on. Opening for the Clash on a tour of England they were bottled off stage and arrested on suspicion of drug possession, which later proved to be a bogus charge. Opening for Elvis Costello in Brussels, the Gendarmes had to tear gas the audience out into the street when tempers flared and bottles, chairs and wall paneling went flying through the air towards the stage. It was too much even for punks.Their self-titled debut LP was released on December 28, 1977 and sold less than 4,000 copies in the USA and even less abroad but was widely praised for its brilliance and originality. In 1978 MTV was still on the drawing boards, no national alternative scene existed to speak of, and radio exposure for someone named Suicide was but a dream and a prayer.Unlikely fans like the Cars' mastermind Ric Ocasek and even Bruce Springsteen went on record as loving Suicide's eleven minute "Frankie Teardrop" masterpiece but their music found few takers and their eponymous debut went unnoticed until its reissue in 1998 in England. Today it's considered a classic. In fact, Rolling Stone magazine lists it as one of their 500 Best Albums of All-Time.By 1979 Punk had begun to penetrate the boardrooms of the major labels, thanks to artists like the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Television, Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith and Suicide, the primal duo ... the "old school" punk stars who paved the way.This staggering, no frills, raw and wild punk ritual was recorded in 1980 and features the distinctive Suicide sound in its most passionate and primitive form. Never intended for commercial release, it contains 3 unreleased songs - "Cadillac, Touch Me / Be Bop a Lula and Jesus," and illustrates why Suicide are considered one of rock 'n' roll's most ardent performers and, along with Kraftwerk, one of the pioneers and founding fathers of the Synth Pop and New Wave movements, and had a profound influence on the likes of Jesus & Mary Chain, Soft Cell, Spacemen 3, Stereolab, and even more adventurous and extreme artists like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire.Not for the faint of heart, Attempted: Live at Max's Kansas City 1980 is perfect in all its imperfection ... even 20+ years later. Music13956@blogcritics.org Mon, 22 Mar 2004 09:13:44 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/16/120623.php Marty ThauPART 2; MORE CALLOUS DISREGARDDo you remember last year's dispute between punk producer Marty Thau and Heineken Beer? Thau claimed Heineken's usage of the Red Star Records name was a violation of his rights. Heineken claimed they didn't intentionally or maliciously violate anyone's rights but since Thau hadn't trademarked the Red Star Records name back in 1977 they assumed it was free and clear and usable.Well, it seems Heineken didn't do their homework because, even without a trademark registration, Thau is legally protected under what is known as Common Law Rights, having operated as Red Star Records for 26 years and releasing records by seminal punk artists like the Ramones, Blondie, New York Dolls, Suicide and Richard Hell. Thau agreed to settle the dispute amicably, and proposed Heineken use the name Red Star Sounds instead of Red Star Records and only release a limited number of urban music CDs per year with the proper acknowledgement that their Red Star entity was a non - profit corporation designed to benefit urban musicians and was not to be confused with Thau's Red Star Records, a rock 'n roll label. Heineken agreed with Thau's proposal but are not sticking to their urban music only pledge. Thau contends Heineken are violating the agreement by sponsoring and promoting rock videos on Canada's Much Music TV network under the Red Star Sounds banner.It seems that brand marketers, especially beverage companies, are hoping to establish broad connections between music and their products and marketers are looking at all sorts of models for hitching their wagons to digital music.The big trend on Mad Avenue is for beverage companies to jump on the downloading bandwagon and offer free music on bottle caps and labels. Apple Computer has inked a deal with Pepsi to give away 100 million downloads in a promotion that kicked off with a Super Bowl ad. Miller Brewing will give away Napster branded digital music players next summer and other beverage suppliers, MP3 player manufacturers, airlines and credit card companies are also getting in on the act. Pepsi works closely with Sony Music and Coca-Cola has a similar relationship with the Universal Music Group.Some, like Heineken, are sponsoring rock music programming. Where all this goes remains to be seen. Music12796@blogcritics.org Mon, 16 Feb 2004 12:06:23 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/23/161845.php Marty ThauI was a leading music industry promotion executive for Buddah Records in the late sixties and early seventies but then unexpectedly dropped out ... burnt out and sick of the hype. It took a new band I discovered at the Mercer Arts Center in NY's Greenwich Village to bring me back. I became their manager and made rock 'n' roll history. The band was called the New York Dolls. This is their story ...It was the last concert the New York Dolls would ever play. Malcolm McLaren had put them in red patent leather outfits, hung a hammer and sickle flag behind them and sent them off to Florida for a 1975 "spring break" gig. It had been three years since the band formed and things had since turned sour. Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan had become druggies and Arthur Kane's drinking was so bad he was often replaced on stage by Dolls roadie Peter Jordan. I had broken my ties with them and Malcolm, who would later go on to create the Sex Pistols, swooped in to get them in shape and resurrect their careers. Often referred to as David Johansen's "haberdasher in London," Malcolm would soon realize that the Dolls had become unmanageable.When Thunders and Nolan couldn't score dope in Florida and left for New York, it was the last straw and the end of the band. But what the Dolls ended that day was the beginning of everything that came after them in the music business. They were the first band to give a voice to the alienated kids of the seventies who were sick of listening to the "pap strains" of Loggins & Messina and Carly Simon on the radio. The "no future" concept that spawned punk started with the Dolls. They paved the way and, in the process, made all the mistakes.It goes something like this ... the late Neil Bogart and I lived in the Top Ten at Buddah and were fresh faces in the business, young New York City record hustlers who promoted their way onto the worldwide record charts with hits like "Green Tambourine," "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy," "Simon Says," "1-2-3 Redlight" and "The Worst That Could Happen." Those records sold millions but the record industry hated them because they were teenybopper hits. We didn't care because those teenybopper hits gave us houses, cars, bank accounts, and careers.But, with the emergence of the counter culture and the Woodstock Nation, the record biz changed. The Vietnam War, protest marches on Washington, the partisan politics of Richard Nixon, women's liberation, gay rights, racial strife and civil unrest were just some of the issues of the day. A cultural revolution was underway and rock 'n' roll was challenging the very essence of America's beliefs and principles. Youth-in-dissent, to the lies and deceitful ways of government, was the prevailing mood. The birth of FM radio and anti-establishment "message music" was taking hold until Nixon diffused the revolution by threatening non-renewal of their licenses. The record industry capitulated and followed suit. By the early seventies all you heard were singer/songwriters and soft, unthreatening sounds.The night my wife Betty and I decided to celebrate my newfound freedom was the night I happened upon a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was a lovely spring evening in early '72 and Betty and I went down to the Village, had dinner and afterwards were walking around when we came across the Mercer Arts Center, a complex of Off-Off Broadway theaters.Mercer had 5 or 6 rooms of different sizes, floor to ceiling mirrors throughout and looked like the set of the movie Clockwork Orange. Business wasn't that good and the owner, an air conditioning mogul with a love of the arts, had been forced to open the complex to rock bands on off nights. The marquee outside read "New York Dolls $3/2 shows.""Hmm," I thought, "great name," and remembered my friend Danny Goldberg had mentioned they were the best unsigned downtown band. We paid the six bucks, went in and sat by the stage in what was called the Oscar Wilde Room. Betty and I were ready for anything. The lights dimmed and the Dolls came out and tore into one of their anthems, "Personality Crisis."At first I couldn't get past the sight of them. They were visually remarkable. While everybody in America were wearing army coats and earth shoes, here were these guys decked out in leather and leopard skin with bouffant hairdo's, black nail polish, lipstick, six-inch platform boots, chopped jeans, feather boa's, armbands and pantyhose. It was a style beyond femininity and thrown together in such a way as to appear natural. Then I zeroed in on their music ... loud and hard ghetto music about girls, sex, drugs, loneliness, heartbreak and the rites of teenage romance. In other words ... real rock 'n' roll.I had never seen or heard anything like it and instantly knew they made everyone else look tired, which at that time meant David Bowie, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Roxy Music. Betty and I looked at each other and smiled. One thought was spinning through my mind ... "what would the world think of the Dolls indeterminable gender bending ... is this too real?" I was gonna find out.Two weeks later we met in the legendary back room of the Max's Kansas City club to discuss careers - theirs and mine. David Johansen, a witty and articulate 19 year old with no fear, emerged as their spokesman ... "we're gonna conquer the world and we're here for your sons and daughters." He resembled a young Mick Jagger, something many rock writers made an issue but that's where the comparison ended. The Dolls were on common ground with a developing new generation the kids of the seventies while the Stones were already in their thirties.Johnny Genzale, a.k.a. Mr. Johnny Thunders, was an Italian street kid, a walking/talking rock encyclopedia who once tried out for the Philadelphia Phillies. Sylvain Sylvain had been born in Cairo and raised in NYC. He was very extroverted and looked like an impish Harpo Marx. Arthur Harold Kane, Jr., the bass player, had worked one legit job in his life for the telephone company but was fired for ransacking pay phones on his repair route. The original Dolls' drummer was Billy Murcia. He was from Bogota, Columbia and would die a few months later in a drug related accident in London that shouldn't have happened. These were the raw Dolls hungry, inspired, loose and eager to turn it up beyond the red zone.I signed on as the Dolls' manager in June '72 and brought in two former William Morris booking agents, Steve Leber and David Krebs, to co-manage the band. They would handle touring and I'd interpret the Dolls for fans and the record business. The team was set. We were ready to shape history and shake the rafters, too. Moms and Dads would hate this band. I loved it.Meanwhile, the Dolls were selling out the Mercer Arts Center every Tuesday night and had moved to a larger theater within the Mercer complex. New York's intelligentsia crowd heard this downtown buzz, too. Rock stars, writers, artists all showed up - Elton John, David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Peter Max, Fran Lebowitz - along with the seventies hard-core kids the Dolls spoke to and for. The Dolls, in the meantime, were moving further towards confronting the issues of the day - violence, abuse of women, the war, sexuality in all forms, answers and solutions for unconscious teens. Information and entertainment was what it was all about ... and the bottom line was there were no limits to the Dolls intentions to disrupt the establishment.Behind the scenes, Leber and I were discovering the price they were paying for it. The record business perceived the Dolls as too dangerous, too radical, too difficult to market, too frightening to even be in the same room with - too hard to sell. Every time Leber and I talked to record people we came across an invisible wall ... "could they play as well as the Allman Brothers" ... what is this gender bending thing" ... "are they gay?" The homophobic record honchos didn't understand and, as a result, superficially evaluated the Dolls. "Steer clear," they whispered.The Dolls, of course, did nothing to tone it down and believed if they were just themselves, eventually people would accept them. Leber and I knew it was going to be a drawn out uphill battle, and were forced to conclude that the U.S. record industry was too conservative and the band was too outrageous for kids outside of Manhattan. The rest of America would need to learn somehow that the Dolls were okay. We decided to take them to England, where it would be obvious the Dolls were the hottest unsigned band in the world. England's sexually repressed society would freak out and love them. We flew to London in October 1972, but what should have been the beginning of the band's success turned into a major tragedy. They opened for Rod Stewart & the Faces at Wembley Auditorium in front of 13,000 people, never having played to more than 350 people anywhere. The reaction was mixed. One reviewer later wrote, "The future belongs to the New York Dolls. English glitter bands like Slade, the Sweet and T-Rex are soft by comparison."Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, managers of the Who, were in the audience. In the Dolls they saw a reflection of the young Who and Stones, and wanted to sign them to the Who's new Track label. Within 24 hours the offers came flying in from the other labels. Ahmet Ertegun, the president of Atlantic Records, sent a telegram from NY saying, "We'll give you $50,000 to come with us." Mick Jagger's Rolling Stone Records wanted them too. There was no doubt about a deal anymore. It was just a matter of how much would be paid.On the night I was hoping to make a deal and secure all of our futures, I received a phone call in my hotel room from Billy Murcia asking to borrow five pounds. He said he had been trying to call a friend, got a wrong number and ended up in a conversation with people he didn't know, but who knew all about the Dolls.They invited him to a party and he needed a little extra money. I told him to take the limo we had parked downstairs and to send it back to pick me up for my meeting later that evening with Lambert and Stamp to discuss the Track offer. Leber and I were asking for a ridiculous amount of money - something like 350,000 pounds, which was unheard of at that time. In the middle of the meeting I received a frantic phone call. The conversation lasted 15 seconds, "Marty, come quickly. Billy Murcia is dead."Stunned, I left the meeting without explanation. Five minutes later my cab pulled up to the tenement building where Billy had gone to party. I identified myself and was led into a bedroom where Billy was propped up against the bed on the floor. Nobody knew what had happened, or so they claimed. I learned later from the autopsy report that Billy had mixed Mandrakes (the British equivalent of Quaaludes) with alcohol and collapsed. Someone placed him in an ice-cold bath and poured coffee down his throat and he choked on his own regurgitation.The other Dolls pulled up when I went downstairs. They were in shock and were crying. I identified Billy's body for Scotland Yard and sent the Dolls back to NYC on the first plane out. I knew if I didn't get them out of London immediately, it would hit the front pages of the trashy London tabloids. I wanted to spare the Murcia family and the Dolls any further anguish.Oddly, Billy's death caused greater interest in the band: it garnered them worldwide attention but also blew their big moment. Everything was put on hold. The record honchos weren't about to invest in a band that might not even exist. About a month later the word came down from the band ... "let's find another drummer and do it for Billy." Auditions were held and Jerry Nolan, an army brat and great musician, was chosen to be the fifth Doll.On December 19, 1972, the Dolls played their first gig with Jerry at the Mercer Arts Center and were great. Four hundred and fifty people squeezed into Mercer's largest theater to see if these were the same Dolls they had loved. The record honchos came, too, and still didn't like what they witnessed but were now afraid to ignore the band. The Dolls were reborn. It was a triumphant return to New York City.By springtime of '73, everything was back on track. Leber and I continued to fuel the fire and to make it virtually impossible to ignore the Dolls. We booked them uptown, downtown and out into the 'burbs on a non-stop schedule. Friends advised "don't overexpose them" but no matter how many shows they played the crowds kept getting bigger. The Dolls were now hotter than ever. Everyone wanted a piece of them, to be seen with them, to sleep with them, to get high with them. Finally, we got a break. Mercury Records, thanks to the efforts of A&R man Paul Nelson, signed them. We didn't get our asking price of $250,000, which they truly deserved, but did receive a substantial advance and serious commitment from a major record company.Now the difficult part: the record they would make would have to embrace the mainstream without blowing off their hardcore following.They recorded their first album in two weeks for $17,000 with Todd Rundgren producing. Although the production was adequate, his personal treatment of the band caused resentment and friction in the studio and most of the Dolls thought he hadn't captured the true raw power of their sound. Nonetheless, the record is considered a rock classic. The debut album was released in July 1973. The "transvestite" photo of the Dolls on the album's front cover scared the hell out of people and seemed to confirm rumors they were gay. In reality, they were taking shots at the glitter scene and its one-dimensional fashion agenda. Their "camp" humor missed the mark but for those who understood, it was a typically on-target Dolls statement. The Dolls saw themselves as musicians, not just the latest trend, and while they were poking fun at glitter, the rest of the country saw them as queers and drug addicts, which, in the end, turned out to be partly true.We booked a national tour. The night before it was to begin in Los Angeles, I received a call: Arthur's girlfriend had tried to cut off his thumb with a kitchen knife. Connie later dated Dee Dee Ramone, and stabbed him too. Dolls roadie, Peter Jordan, filled in while Arthur healed. They were booked into L.A.'s Whiskey-A-Go-Go club for four nights, two shows a night, and sold it out in two hours. The word was out ... the Dolls were coming to LA for the first time and it was a big event. They appeared on the nationally televised Midnight Hour TV show, giving America a first glimpse at what they'd been reading about for months. In Memphis - in the heart of the Bible belt - the local papers ran articles warning mothers and fathers not to let their children attend the upcoming Dolls concert. These articles portrayed the band as obscene perverts and New York degenerates. Almost three thousand fans turned out to see the Dolls but the show was halted after a few songs and David was arrested for obscenity after an excited fan broke through the police lines in front of the stage and kissed him on the cheek. Three months later they were voted "Best New Group of the Year" and "Worst New Group of the Year" in the 1973 Creem year-end reader's poll. "Hmm, promising," I thought, and took out full page ads in Billboard which said, "The Dolls ... the band they love to hate." The most memorable Dolls show took place at NYC's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in October 1973. The hotel believed it was booking a debutante ball, but when 6,000 crazed and costumed fans showed up for a Dolls Halloween bash, there was hell to pay. One-half of the crowd had to be turned away for lack of space in the main ballroom, and the hotel lobby was left in shambles. This amused downtown rockers, but seemed to confirm that the Dolls and their crowd spelled trouble.Similar incidents plagued their second tour of Europe. A major riot occurred at the Bataclan Ballroom outside of Paris when 4,500 enthusiastic fans were turned away for lack of space and were dispersed by police with clubs. During the show, Johnny Thunders smashed his guitar over the head of a fan who kept grabbing his leg. This, of course, overshadowed the police brutality in the media reports of the event.The controversy seemed endless. For all their success with interviews (David could control interviews and deflect the most pointed questions with hip humor and finesse), incidents continued to hurt their reputation. There was the time 300 journalists from all over Europe assembled in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel in Paris for a 12 Noon press conference, but the Dolls were not to be found. I opened the bar and ran up an $8,000 bar tab until the Dolls finally appeared around 4 PM. Mercury/Europe went berserk. (Actually I thought it was an excellent public relations investment and that the best press conferences are fueled by drink. The resultant rave publicity couldn't have been purchased for 10 times the amount spent on booze). "This happened to Elvis and the Stones," I reassured Leber, who by now was convinced I was an absolute lunatic. These events signaled the beginning of my differences with him. We were in the second year in the life of the band and Mercury wanted a second album. George "Shadow" Morton was chosen to produce. The critics jumped all over it with a vengeance and pronounced it "too commercial." It was obvious to me that we'd have to suffer through a "critic's backlash." They build you up and then rip you down. By the summer of '74 the band still wasn't turning a profit. We weren't losing money and each Doll was receiving a $200 weekly paycheck, but we were barely staying afloat. What pained us most was that we were still unable to get across what was so real about the Dolls - they were simply a great rock 'n' roll band. The invisible walls were taking their toll. First Johnny, then Jerry started shooting heroin; I noticed changes in their appearance and behavior. Arthur's alcohol intake escalated and he had to be constantly watched. David and Syl were aware of what was going on and became increasingly displeased. Mercury told me the second album's sales should have been better. I asked them how many new groups on your roster have sold as well and received as much press all over the world? I never did get an answer. By this time I was fighting with my partner, my record company, and my marriage was falling apart.Once again we hit the road. A tour featuring the Dolls, Aerosmith, and Kiss - with the Dolls headlining - played the Midwest to crowds of 5,000 one night, 200 the next. It was totally unpredictable. Leber blamed me for Johnny and Jerry's substance abuse, as if I could control it. Dolls sycophants were whispering "get new managers, go to another label." I decided that in order to keep the ship afloat I'd take a back seat and watch Leber steer the helm. But I knew it was too late.The Dolls were forced back to the club circuit: a step down and a tough pill to swallow. The press backlash, personal excesses, management differences, coupled with two years in the "eye of the rock hurricane" had taken its toll. Contrary to popular belief Mercury wanted another album, but only if the Dolls would clean up, write new material and understand this was not just a rock 'n' roll party. It was business. Enter Malcolm McLaren. He convinced what was left of the Dolls that he could resurrect them ... and almost did. The new Dolls were unveiled to rave reviews and looked again like they might happen as so many of us had believed they would. I was rooting for them as a believer, and because they were still under contract to me.Then came the Florida incident (Johnny and Jerry couldn't score drugs in Florida and returned to NYC). Malcolm was forced to conclude, as I had before him, that the Dolls were unmanageable. The Dolls didn't survive but Malcom did, returning to London loaded with valuable information and insights to create the Sex Pistols: Dolls attitude, Ramones riff, Richard Hell's look. As it turned out, the world wasn't ready for the Sex Pistols either.I broke up with my wife. David did a few solo albums, created alter ego Buster Poindexter, had a big hit with "Hot, Hot, Hot," married noted photographer Kate Simon, and acted in some major movies. These days, from what I hear, he spends much of his time painting in watercolor. He recently released a new solo album that has been well received. Sylvain lives with his teenage son live in Atlanta, where he produces new artists and records with his band. Arthur inherited family money, moved to California and no longer drinks. Johnny and Jerry formed the Heartbreakers and toured the world ... but continued drugging until it killed both of them within months of each other. Leber made millions with Aerosmith. I started Red Star Records and produced Suicide, the Fleshtones, Real Kids, and worked with Blondie and the Ramones. I'm still here.I remember meeting Johnny in London years after the Dolls broke up. We talked into the wee hours of the morning about our unique adventure. He was a tremendously likable person, which comes as a surprise to people who couldn't see past his outrageous exterior. He was a real musician at heart in the end. Everyone blamed everyone else for the Dolls' demise. The New York Times wrote a touching obituary. Leber and I attacked each other for years and finally buried the hatchet. The general consensus was they were ahead of their time: too much, too soon.I see it like this: the Dolls reflected their generation's frustrations and were a source of information and inspiration for many kids who were marginalized by society and felt locked out. Despite scornful criticism the Dolls still managed to laugh at themselves. In their wake came the Ramones, Blondie, Sex Pistols, the Clash, Motley Crue, Guns 'n' Roses and scores of others who were amused, informed and inspired by the Lipstick Killers, despite or because of their human frailties. Music4024@blogcritics.org Sun, 23 Mar 2003 16:18:45 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/11/22/125844.php Marty ThauIn terms of this CD introducing a collection of a new category of music called 'electroclash' it succeeds. Out of 20 tracks at least 13 stand out and all the rest each have at least something to justify inclusion in this cool package. Much to my surprise it has been on the market for close to 6 months and has sold only 5,000 copies to date but that doesn't indicate anything. It's just a statement on the mediocrity of American radio and the difficulties facing creative new musicmakers and distributors in America. Hey, we can build robot planes up the kazoo but can't recognize cultural changes that stare us in the face until after the fact. Maybe the Euros are right about us -- that we're slow on the uptake.Once over the realization that there actually is a new style of music developing and that it can be immediately understood and identified (and that's part of the beauty of the electroclash sound, its accessibility) we can analyze its quality if it is to assumed that its main features are melody, lyrics, beat, creativity, modern sound. Dare I say it -- it's modern commercial music that is listener friendly. It's naughty, sexy, sentimental, minimal and maximum, romantic, humorous, passionate, provocative and fierce. It's young and modern. You can sing to it, dance to it, smoke to it, hump to it and smile, too.Check out NAKED, DRUNK AND HORNY ... and if DESTROY SHE SAID isn't a hit (if ever played on the radio) I'll eat your socks! Check out the phenomenal FISHERSPOONER duo, too. One track, called SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT by TIGA & ZYNTHERIUS sold over 200,000 copies in Europe alone as a single. I've been around forever and haven't been this impressed in quite some time. This is real.This is not retro rock as in the new rock revival ... but it can and does rock, too. It's dance, disco, rock, electronica -- you name it -- all rolled up in one. One shouldn't be surprised -- it's a new century, a new generation, a new everything ... that is except for the major record companies who will be dragged -- screaming and kicking as their greed is unveiled -- to the back room for a hearty ass kicking . Shame, shame. Time to pay the piper now, boys. (A little aside -- BMG, you gotta be kidding with your new proposal on the reconstruction and sharing of the wealth).A few tracks are even capable of being hits in America -- no mean feat considering that American radio plays nothing but rap crap. Enough already. Prediction -- rap will fit in nicely in the electroclash world when its next generation of players arrives. Currently it's tired.Yes, this is the commercial face of electronica ... finally. What started with the moog synthesizer, Can, Amon Duul, Kraftwerk and very few others back in the '60's, '70's and '80's has reached puberty. The 21st century now has its own form of rock and roll and it's in its infancy. Good things to come. Buy this CD. It's a must." Music1974@blogcritics.org Fri, 22 Nov 2002 12:58:44 EST