The most poignant moment during today's Michael Jackson Memorial came from Michael's beloved older brother Jermaine. The brothers often had issues over the years but in the end Jermaine stood very tall today for his little brother...
Oddly enough a few weeks back a RK reader wrote to me to ask for my help in obtaining the royalties that Allen Klein managed to abscond with from his former clients. He represented Sam Cooke, The Animals, Herman's Hermits, ? and the Mysterians, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and many more.
The character of Hesch on the Sopranos was undoubtedly based on Klein and his tactics of tricking his less fortunate musician clients into signing deadend contracts. Rumor has it that Klein got Sam Cooke's drug addicted spouse to relinquish all rights to Cooke's music as well.
Allen Klein made a handsome living off the creative efforts of musicians for decades. It will be most interesting now to see the law suits pop up in court demanding those "rights" be turned back over to their rightful owners, the artists and their families.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Infamous record label owner Allen Klein, who played a key role in the demise of the Beatles and also nabbed control of some of the Rolling Stones' best-known songs, died in New York on Saturday after a battle with Alzheimer's disease, a spokesman said. He was 77.
During a career spanning more than 50 years, the New Jersey-born accountant enjoyed a reputation as a savvy gangster-like figure. His ruthless business practices were reviled by many, but he also earned grudging respect for bullying labels into giving rich deals to his clients.
"Don't talk to me about ethics," he told Playboy magazine in 1971. "Every man makes his own. It's like a war. You choose your side early and from then on, you're being shot at. The man you beat is likely to call you unethical. So what?"
It did not hurt his reputation when he was sentenced to two months in prison in 1979 for tax evasion.
He once said John Lennon hired him to protect his interest in the Beatles because he and wife Yoko Ono wanted "a real shark -- someone to keep the other sharks away."
2 readers turned me on to John Belushi's "Ron Decline" so I just had to share this video...
Happy Sunday Retro fans...
We met the fantastic rock photographer Heather Harris and are in the process of making a blog suitable for framing her fabulous images. Heather rides horses with the fantastic psychedelic innovator Marijke Koger Dunham. Heather graciously introduced RK to MKD to do a bit of a post on her marvelous life and work.
Marijke Koger-Dunham is one of the founding members of THE FOOL the retro fantastic group of musicians and art designers of the 1960's London Rock scene. The Fool designed clothing, recorded music, painted murals and custom painted instruments for the most famous of rock icons of all time. Their works helped tp create the Psychedelic Modern Art Movement.
RK asked Magical Marijke about how she came to be a artist/muralist and she replied:
Had some big fun last night I met with our favorite video producer Dan Boyd the Wizard O Livonia and Brother Crimewave at his studio Rockdigi. DETROIT'S MOST UNDERGROUND RECORDING STUDIO. Essentially RK went there to meet the band Circus Boy. Three techno geeks hanging around a computerized recording studio for 3 hours is a no brainer eh? Lots of toys to play with...
Mr.Crimewave has a very storied rock n roll past, present, and future within the Motor City Music Scene. Hollywood loves him as well and have featured BC in several films see his clips HERE. BC has worked with damn near everyone you can think of.
From BC's My Space Page
Brother Crimewave is a Detroit-based multimedia personality. He plays guitars and basses and is a singer-songwriter.
He began playing guitar, receiving his first 1/2 hour lesson from John Goff who owed him $3.50.
His first stage appearance was with The English Ryders whose rhythm guitar player quit. The club owner hired a 5 piece band and would settle for nothing less. Brother Crimewave's amp was on but the volume turned all the way down. The club owner was none the wiser. BC did however get to sing backup vocals. And he got paid full band member share!
Shortly thereafater, he began actually playing and being heard in a few other bands. In 1967, while in Mexico City, he played one night at the Hullabaloo Club with Los Profetas, whose rhythm guitar player was too hungover to perform. BC was paid 100 pesos ($8.00).
Back home when one of the bands he was in needed a bass player he switched to bass. In 1968 his playing was suspended while attending Wayne State University in Detroit. That didn't last long. BC was radicalized and joined the White Panther Party.
In 1970, while living at the White Panther pad in Detroit, one of his fellow Panthers, David Gaines let him use his acoustic guitar and suddenly Brother Crimewave could play lead guitar.
In early 1972, BC had bought a Gibson SG Deluxe and a couple of 15watt Univox amps. Ahead of each amp was an ElectroHarmonix LPB1. A Y-chord was attached leading to an LPB2 which was plugged into the SG. Feedback and sustain for days!
Brother Crimewave started a power trio, Synthetique 999, playing all original material. The drinking age was lowered to 18 and the bars hired no bands playing original music. So instead, BC and other bands playing their own tunes resorted to playing "keggers" (hall parties).
In 1975, Brother Crimewave formed yet another power trio, Kenny Mirage and the Hallucinations. Then BC continued playing Keggers. BC did play at two different bars during that time. One, the 5 Dueces at 22222 Fenkell (5 Mile Road), was eventful for the fact that the bar owner pulled a gun on Brother Crimewave because his feedback and tape echo effect woke him from his nap at the bar!
OMG! Billy Mays has died suddenly! We knew Billy from our many years of doing public shows with him as an exhibitor. Bill was a really quiet, nice and organized exhibitor. He was the kind of pitchman that came to life when the light came on. Our prayers and thoughts are with his wife and family. RIP BILL
My friends Bobb and Karin Schmitz of Easy Way Products had this to say about Billy's death:
Bobb and Karin:
Yesterday Billy got home to Tampa from shooting a commercial in Philadelphia. There was a blow out on one of the plane's tires during the landing. Something fell down and hit Billy on the head. It was a very rough landing. Billy was interviewed by a Tampa TV station and he told them he was hit on the head but that he had a hard head.
This may be something similar to what happened to Natasha Richardson.
Thanks guys!
TAMPA, Fla. – Tampa police say Billy Mays, the television pitchman known for his boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean, has died. He was 50.
Authorities say Mays was pronounced dead Sunday morning after being found by his wife at home. There were no signs of a break-in, and investigators do not suspect foul play. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.
Mays' wife, Deborah Mays, says the family doesn't expect to make any public statements and asked for privacy.
Mays was also featured on the reality TV show "Pitchmen" on the Discovery Channel, which followed Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs.
RK: One of the best songs to come out of the 6Ts was the rocker anthem "I FOUGHT THE LAW" by the Bobby Fuller 4. It had driving guitars and riveting beats. Love that song to this day and so do the new hot bands that have done covers of it like Green Day see their version HERE
WIKI BIO: BOBBY FULLER
Born in Baytown, Texas, Robert Gaston Fuller spent most of his youth in El Paso, Texas, where he idolized Buddy Holly, a fellow Texan (Holly was a native of Lubbock, Texas). He played in clubs and bars, and recorded on independent record labels in Texas, with a constantly-changing line-up, during the early 1960s. The only constant band members were Fuller himself (on vocals and guitar), and his younger brother, Randy Fuller on bass.
Fuller moved to Los Angeles in 1964 with his band The Bobby Fuller Four, and was signed to Mustang Records by producer Bob Keane, who was noted for discovering Ritchie Valens and producing many surf music groups. By this time, group consisted of Bobby and brother Randy on vocals/guitar and bass respectively, Jim Reese on guitar and DeWayne Quirico on drums.
Here is the Story of the Death of Bobby Fuller:
It was sometime during the hot late afternoon hours of Monday, July 18th, that Bobby Fuller's body was found, lying across the front seat of his mother's Oldsmobile, which was parked in the large lot beside the apartment he shared with his younger brother, bassist Randy Fuller.
The car had mysteriously appeared after hours of searching the local area had not turned up any clues to his whereabouts. The doors were unlocked, the windows were closed tight, and no keys to the vehicle were found inside. When the first Hollywood-division police officers arrived and opened the driver's side door, they noticed there was a book of matches on the seat beside Fuller on the front seat.
An eyewitness to the gruesome discovery remembers that Fuller had traces of dried blood around his chin and mouth, and that his face and chest were bruised as if he had been beaten. Fuller's hair and clothing were also soaked with gasoline, and his right hand still clenched a rubber siphoning-tube.
Crime scene investigators made so many baffling errors in judgment that it seems some kind of "police cover-up" may have actually taken place. An empty gas can, found in the back seat, was removed by a policeman (who apparently didn't consider it vital to the investigation) and thrown into a nearby dumpster.
The Olds was not dusted for fingerprints, nor was it ever impounded and searched for further clues. Members of the radio and television press at the scene were told that it looked to be a clear case of "suicide," despite much visual evidence to the contrary, and this off-hand remark was the first news of Fuller's death to be broadcasted to the world.
Many people still believe what they first heard that day to be the truth, and despite the fact that a coroner's autopsy report--which originally listed the death as suicide---was changed months later to read "accidental" due to "inhalation of gasoline." (The accompanying case report also stated that Fuller had been "despondent over job situation recently.")
There were also rumors that he had actually drank gasoline, though a Stanford University crime professor reported (in 1966) that "no one has ever successfully killed themselves by drinking gasoline. One could not be able to keep it down, if they could get it down. They would simply throw up before they could die from it."
Another rumor was that Fuller had overdosed on LSD or some other kind of hallucinogenic drug at a Malibu Beach party the night before. The people at the parties were celebrities, and to avoid a scandal, they poured gasoline down his throat, saturated his hair and they planned to torch the car---to make it look like a "mob slaying"--yet no trace of drugs appear in the autopsy report, and no traces of gasoline had actually been swallowed.
Fuller was buried four days later at Forest Lawn Cemetary in Burbank. Case closed.
Read the story of Bobby's death on FIND A DEATH
According to the official Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office autopsy report, "Deceased was found lying face down in front seat of car--a gas can, 1/3 full, cover open--windows were all rolled up & doors shut, not locked--keys not in ignition".
The report also noted excessive bruising on his chest and shoulders, and attributed the cause of death to asphyxiation "due to inhalation of gasoline". Bobby had been drenched with the gasoline, and he was in a state of rigor mortis. His body appeared battered, and his right finger was broken, as if it had been bent back.
The police attributed his death to suicide, with the report stating that there was "no evidence of foul play." So basically he beat himself up, broke his finger, and then drenched himself with gasoline. Oh yeah, that makes sense. The case remains closed and sealed under California law.
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