When he got out of high school, he'd already published some 200 zines, and been written up in The Saturday Evening Post for his zine Entmoot, one of the first devoted to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. But in 1966, these interests took a back seat to the music scene that was starting to erupt in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury.
ON LOVE STREET
With a couple of school chums, he started hanging out and getting to know the bands on this scene. Living on his own now and supposedly attending college, he started a new fanzine devoted to what was then still a very small scene, in which everyone knew each other. Mojo-Navigator Rock & Roll News started as a 2-page gossip sheet and by summer's end was up to 32 pages and multi-color printing. It was more than a year before Rolling Stone was to begin (borrowing its early format completely from Mojo, it might be noted) so it filled a void and became the bible of the local music community. Soon his friends included people like Janis Joplin, Chet Helms, the Charlatans, the Dead, and Country Joe & the Fish. He was able to meet many of his musical heroes, from Jimi Hendrix to Syd Barrett.
He also took an interest in the cultural aspects of what was going on: the drug culture, the writings of people like Ginsberg, Burroughs and Watts, and certain radical thinkers in the new generation. He didn't much care for the Oracle, but he was active in the same circles and gave them advice when they started. When the Underground Press Syndicate was launched, he was a founding member. He corresponded with John Sinclair in Detroit and Oz Magazine in England, and other alternative media moguls around the world, comparing notes and networking ideas. He was a member of the Communication Company, who did some very radical guerilla publishing in the Haight (with a mimeograph, of course). Jann Wenner became a fan of his, coming around to ask questions about how to start a magazine. He tripped with Tim Leary. He partied way too much. The magazine grew too big to manage, and folded. College was long-forgotten.
MOVING ON
He moved out of San Francisco in 1968, first to Marin County, where he had further adventures not particularly relevant to this chronicle (though excellent grift for the autobiography he'll probably never get around to), and then to Los Angeles in 1972, when he received a job offer to work at United Artists. To backtrack a bit, after a couple years apart from the music scene, the itch came back and he started writing reviews and articles for the rock press. There was an explosion of rock magazines at the time, and he was a major contributor to them all, from Fusion to New York Rock Press to Vibrations to Creem, of which he became West Coast Editor, and wrote a monthly column devoted to singles, from about 1971 to about 1974. In the meantime he had launched another fanzine, called Who Put The Bomp. Starting in 1970 from the old Mojo subscription list, it picked up new readers after Ed Ward wrote a glowing article about it in Rolling Stone, and became a favorite of rock writers and people at record companies. This led to the job offer.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
What's really sad about this obit is in the coming years how rare the statement: "he/she made a real difference in music" will be.
But geez, 55? That's mortality looking you in the face.
There was an article in The Observer today about Iggy Pop who was a Bomp! veteran.
2 - Mike Kole
Eric- thanks for this post. I wouldn't have known about Greg Shaw's passing if it weren't for you putting it up here. (Nose deep into political grindstone.)
I'm eternally grateful to Shaw and Bomp! for the Stiv Bators solo LP "Disconnected" and for the Wierdos' ep "1977, 1978, 1979", and Shaw's contributions to the Nuggets and Pebbles comps.
Man, 55 is just too young.
3 - Julie Patchouli
Greg Shaw was and still is a pioneer in the Rock N Roll World. He introduced particular genre's to many generations that without his introduction probably would not have seen the light of day due to its rarity and obscurity. This is Julie Patchouli, bass player for the famed "Pandoras" signed to Greg's label Voxx.
Greg Shaw's inspiration and true enlightenment will be missed. Greg was always big hearted, eventhough we, (the"Pandoras") never recieved a salary per say, Greg paid us in merchandise, he would allow us to run wild in his warehouse and pick out whatever we wanted.... I felt like a kid in a candy store!! Thanks Greg !! We love you and miss you.....
Sincerely
Julie Patchouli
4 - Eric Olsen
thanks Julie, I saw you guys play a few times in LA and you rocked!
5 - Douglas Mays
Yes, BOMP was a label that made a difference in the modern world. Greg's work was a crucial cog in the wheel of modern independent music in the USA. The artwork alone on some of the albums were worth it (Calamari/Zincavage/Pettengill).
Anyway, good job Greg, maybe you can serve as A&R for the astral world. We could use it here on earth...
peacloveguidance
6 - Susan (Sutton) Crawford
I first got to know Greg through Phonograph Record Magazine, which I LOVED. I was 16 and had written to ask for a copy of the issue with a cover article he wrote on John Fogerty, saying how much I loved it. Imagine my surprise when it showed up in my mailbox with a really great letter from Greg himself. A few years later, I had become a big fan of Dave Edmunds et al, and started going to alot of club shows in L.A., just an hour from where I lived (Ventura), and had printed up a fanzine of two of my own (Top Of The Rockpile). Again, Greg helped me out. He had that wonderful little Bomp store where I could find so MANY cool things, where so MANY cool people hung out, spilling out onto the sidewalk in that cheesy L.A. neighborhood it was in. In my mind, it will always be there, a freeze-frame memory, circa 1977.
Thanks for being there, Greg, and...do they have mimeograph machines where you're at now??? I bet they do.