The Boy Who Cried Freebird

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by Mitch Myers


  “Mood Indigo,” 171–172

  Moog, Robert, 203, 259

  Moore, Scotty, 32

  Morales, Pancho, 163

  Morales, Rocky, 129–130, 135

  Morgan, Lee, 61

  Morris, DJ Mixmaster, 204–205

  Morrison, Jim, 86, 230

  Morrison, Van, 30

  “Motherless Child,” 94

  Mothers, 179

  Mothers of Invention, 178, 179–183, 184, 189, 191

  “Motorhead Baby,” 159

  Mountain, 214

  Murcia, Billy, 67

  “Murder Mystery, The,” 285

  “Murder Was the Case,” 286

  Murphy, Michael, 135

  Murray, Sunny, 239, 245, 247, 248, 255

  “My Generation,” 121

  “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your

  Mama,” 285 “Mystery Train,” 154

  Namath, Joe, 109–110

  Ned, 110

  Nelson, Willie, 127, 135, 136

  Newman, David “Fathead,” 136

  Newman, Thunderclap, 233

  “Newport Jazz Festival Suite,” 172

  New Riders of the Purple Sage, 162

  New York Dolls, 67, 68

  Nolan, Jerry, 67, 68, 69, 70

  “Nothing,” 33

  O’Hearn, Patrick, 187

  “Oh Happy Day,” 123–125

  Oliveros, Pauline, 43, 200, 201

  Ono, Yoko, 20, 42

  “On the Road Again,” 31, 160

  Orlovsky, Peter, 35

  O’Rourke, Jim, 24–25

  Osbourne, Ozzy, 45, 48–49, 52

  Osbourne, Sharon, 48–49, 52

  “Other One, The,” 89

  Page, Jimmy, 49, 233

  “Paranoid,” 44–52

  Parker, Charlie “Bird,” 57, 60, 204, 243, 247

  Parks, Mary (Mary Maria), 252, 253, 254, 255, 256

  Parsons, Ingram Cecil “Gram,” 291–296

  Patton, Charlie, 93

  Peacock, Gary, 246, 247, 248

  Pearls Before Swine, 247

  Pearson, Lloyd, 241

  Pedersen, Neils-Henning Ørsted, 245

  Pentangle, 87

  “Perdido,” 155

  Pere Ubu, 2, 26

  Petty, Tom, 121

  Pickett, Wilson, 162

  Pierce, Webb, 128

  “Pinetop’s Boggie-Woogie,” 29

  Pink Floyd, 122 “Planet Rock,” 155

  Plant, Robert, 49, 233

  Pogues, 118

  Ponty, Jean-Luc, 184

  “Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band,” 204

  Powell, Bud, 57, 58, 59, 174

  Pran Nath, Pandit, 206–207, 209

  Presley, Elvis, 31, 126, 154

  Preston, Billy, 163

  Preston, Don, 181

  Price, Lloyd, 241

  Prince, 121

  “Prophecy,” 248

  Purdie, Bernard “Pretty,” 163

  Queen, 121

  Quicksilver Messenger Service, 133, 219

  “Radar Love,” 158, 160

  Rainey, Gertrude P. “Ma,” 38

  Rains, George, 133, 135, 139

  “Rains Came, The,” 132

  Ramone, Dee Dee, 68

  Rapeman, 212

  Rath, Billy, 68, 70

  “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” 166

  Rebennack, Mac, see Dr. John

  “Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today,” 94

  Redding, Otis, 131

  “Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog),” 135–136

  Reed, Lou, 18–28, 69, 198, 233

  Reich, Steve, 43, 200, 202, 203, 207, 208

  “Respect,” 162, 164

  “Return of the Son of Monster

  Magnet, The,” 180

  “Rhythm-A-Ning,” 63

  Rich, Buddy, 157

  Righteous Brothers, 6

  Riley, Terry, 199–209, 259

  “River Deep, Mountain High,” 5–9

  Roach, Max, 58

  “Road Runner,” 160

  Robbins, Ira, 21

  Robertson, Pat, 47

  Robinson, Smokey, 238

  “Rock and Roll Pt. 2,” 121

  “Rocket 88,” 159

  “Rocking Down the Highway,” 160

  “Rock Island Line,” 154

  Rolling Stones, 15, 120, 126, 130, 131, 214, 292

  “Rollin’ Ocean,” 295

  Rollins, Sonny, 58, 242, 244, 249, 251

  “Roll on Waters,” 295

  Ronettes, 6

  Rooks, Conrad, 36

  Rosenthal, Bob, 38

  Ross, Diana, 166

  “Round Midnight,” 59

  Rouse, Charlie, 62

  “Ruby, My Dear,” 59

  Rudd, Roswell, 239

  Rundgren, Todd, 233

  Russell, Leon, 7, 135

  Sahm, Douglas Wayne, 127–140

  “Saints,” 248

  “Saint Stephen,” 74, 89

  Sanders, Ed, 37–38

  Sanders, Pharaoh, 252, 256

  Santana, 214

  “Satisfaction,” 120

  Schoenberg, Arnold, 203

  Schultze, Klaus, 259

  Scorpions, 49

  Sender, Ramon, 200

  Sex Mob, 3

  Sex Pistols, 68

  “Shaft,” 122

  Shanghai Film Orchestra, 202

  Shangri-Las, 69

  Shepp, Archie, 249, 251, 253

  Sherwood, Jim “Motorhead,” 182

  “She’s About a Mover,” 131, 132

  Shilohs, 292–293

  Shines, Johnny, 13

  Silver, Horace, 59–60, 61

  Silverstein, Shel, xi, 291, 294, 295

  Simmons, Sonny, 238–239, 240, 253

  Simon, Paul, 165

  Simon and Garfunkel, 233

  Sir Douglas Quintet, 87, 130–134, 136, 137, 139

  “Sister Ray,” 19, 25

  “Sligo River Blues,” 97

  “Slip Away,” 233

  Smith, Albert, 30

  Smith, Clarence “Pinetop,” 29

  Smith, Harry, 33–40

  Smith, Patti, 69, 107, 109, 110

  “Some Kind of Wonderful,” 169

  “Something in the Air,” 233

  Sonic Youth, 24, 28, 41–43

  “Sophisticated Lady,” 171–172

  Soul Giants, 179

  “Soul Serenade,” 163

  Spector, Phil, 5–9

  Spinal Tap, 49

  “Spirit in the Dark,” 165–166

  “Spirits,” 248, 254

  “Spirits Rejoice,” 248, 254

  Springer, Jerry, 47

  Springsteen, Bruce, 107, 121, 197

  “Stairway to Heaven,” 122

  Starks, Jabo, 155

  Starr, Ringo, 260

  “Star-Spangled Banner, The,” 240

  Steppenwolf, 162

  Stevens, Cat, 233

  Stewart, Rod, 233

  Stillwater, 234

  Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 143, 259

  Stooges, 168, 198

  Stravinsky, Igor, 179, 182, 203

  Strawberry, Darryl, 68

  “Street Hassle,” 198

  Streisand, Barbra, 51

  Stubblefield, Clyde, 155

  Styx, Ty, 69

  Subotnick, Morton, 200, 201, 205, 259

  “Sugar Bee,” 131

  Sugarhill, 155

  “Summertime,” 94, 245

  Sun Ra, 237, 239, 240, 246, 247

  “Superfly,” 122

  Sweethearts of Soul, 163, 165, 167

  “Take a Litle Walk with Me,” 13

  “Take the ‘A’ Train,” 154, 172

  “Takin’ Care of Business,” 122

  Tangerine Dream, 203

  Tatum, Art, 57, 178

  Taylor, Cecil, 237, 239, 244–245, 246, 247, 250, 256

  Taylor, Steven, 37

  Tchicai, John, 243

  Television, 68 “Tell Me Mama,” 13

&nb
sp; Tenacious D, 261

  Tenney, James, 43

  Ten Years After, 31

  Texas Tornados, 138–139

  Theater of Eternal Music, 19, 200–201

  13th Floor Elevators, 132, 135–136

  “This Land Is Your Land,” 296

  Thomas, Truman, 163

  Thompson, Hank, 128

  Thunders, Johnny, 67–70

  “Time Machine,” 169

  Timmons, Bobby, 61

  Tintweiss, Steve, 254, 256–257

  Tiny Tim (Herbert Khaury), 54

  “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” 54

  “Torparvisan,” 242–243

  “Torture Never Stops, The,” 187

  Tosches, Nick, xii, 30, 108, 110, 116, 260–262

  Tower of Power, 163

  Townsend, Pete, 51, 121, 199, 232, 233

  Traum, Happy, 35

  Tripp, Art, 182

  Tudor, David, 204, 259

  Turner, Ike, 5–9

  Turner, Tina, 5–9

  Twisted Sister, 121

  Tyler, Charles, 249

  Underwood, Ian, 182, 183

  Underwood, Ruth, 184, 185

  Uriah Heep, 49

  Vai, Steve, 186–187

  Van Vliet, Don, 65–66, 183

  Van Zandt, Ronnie, 232

  Varèse, Edgard, 144, 179, 259

  Velvet Underground, 18, 19, 27, 28, 200, 204, 279, 285

  Vestine, Henry, 254

  Voidoids, 68

  Volman, Mark, 183, 188

  Vom, 111 Wackerman, Chad, 187, 190, 192–193

  Walken, Christopher, 213, 215

  Walker, Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone,” 126, 128

  Walker, Jerry Jeff, 135, 136

  “Walk on the Wild Side,” 21

  Walley, David, 116

  Walley, Denny, 185–186

  War, 160

  Ward, Bill, 45, 49

  Warhol, Andy, 69

  “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” 135

  Waters, Muddy, 241

  Watkins, Doug, 60, 61

  Watson, Johnny “Guitar,” 159

  “We Are the Champions,” 121

  “We Are the World,” 121

  “Wear My Ribbon,” 296

  Webb, Chick, 56, 155

  “We Bid You Goodnight,” 89

  Webster, Ben, 172

  Weissman, Dick, 293

  “We’re an American Band,” 214

  “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” 121

  West, Leslie, 214

  “We Will Rock You,” 121

  Wexler, Jerry, 136, 161, 162, 164, 166, 167

  “What I Say,” 131

  White, Ray, 188

  “Whiter Shade of Pale,” 163

  White Stripes, 215

  Who, 51, 121, 232

  “Who Are the Brain Police?,” 180

  “Who Do You Love?,” 219

  “Whole Lotta Love,” 122, 163

  “Who’ll Be the Next in Line,” 137

  Williams, Cootie, 57

  Williams, Hank, 126, 128, 159

  “Willie the Pimp,” 183

  Willis, Ike, 188, 189

  Willis, Wesley, 54–55

  Wilner, Hal, 35–36, 38–39

  Wilson, Alan “Blind Owl,” 30–31

  Wilson, Brian, 7, 159, 233

  “Witches and Devils,” 248

  Wolfe, Tom, 159–160

  Wolff, Christian, 43

  “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” 121

  Woode, Jimmy, 172

  Woods, Tiger, 48

  Woodstock, 31, 86

  “Woodstock Boogie,” 31

  Woodyard, Sam, 172

  Worrell, Lewis, 239, 242

  X, 111

  Xenakis, Iannis, 19

  “Yellow Shark, The,” 183 Yes, 175, 233

  Young, J. R., xii, 91

  Young, La Monte, 19–20, 25, 200–201,

  202, 203–204, 206

  Young, Lester, 57, 244

  Young, Neil, 121, 197, 288

  “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” 6

  Zappa, Frank, 66, 177–193, 271, 285

  Zazeela, Marian, 200, 203–204

  ZZ Top, 30, 215

  About the Author

  MITCH MYERS is a writer, historian, and psychologist based in Chicago and New York City. His unique pop commentaries have been broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered and published in a variety of journals, magazines, and websites. He also maintains the Shel Silverstein Archive in Chicago.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Praise for The Boy Who Cried Freebird

  “Mitch: Loved your book—rich with truth, soul, and music…. Bravo, sir.”

  —Cameron Crowe

  “Myers recalls the glory days of rock criticism’s first decade, from the mid-sixties through the mid-seventies, when pioneers such as Richard Meltzer, Nick Tosches, and Lester Bangs viewed their craft as part of the New Journalism, aspiring to Tom Wolfe’s famous goal of treating journalism and criticism as literature, and using the skills and techniques of the novelist.”

  —Chicago Sun-Times

  “Funny and insightful, bizarre and bewildering, but totally enthralling, Mitch Myers’ collection of essays is a treasure trove for music lovers.”

  —Associated Press

  “If the record review could be redeemed as literature, Mitch Myers would rank in its pantheon. For him, ‘merely’ listening doesn’t exist and if there is such a thing as background music, it is the generator of all that takes place in the foreground—events sometimes fanciful, sometimes miraculous, sometimes ludicrous, but always fascinating. He is one of my favorite living storytellers.”

  —Dave Marsh, author of The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made

  “[Myers] creates new and wild contextual delivery systems for journalism. He’s the Houdini of music critics; a deadpan magician and trickster who uses history, fiction, science fiction, mythology, and mystery to make sound rise up from the page and sing.”

  —High Times

  “The Boy Who Cried Freebird is the greatest, grandest, Culture Cry since The Boy Who Cried Werewolf!”

  —Richard Meltzer, author of Autumn Rhythm and A Whore Just Like the Rest

  “Faux detective stories, parables, profiles dot this warm overview of pop culture…. Chicago native Myers always applies respect, humor, and imagination.”

  —Mojo

  “Myers? He’s a stone soul groove with stories most supersonic.”

  —Harp

  “[Myers] is knowledgeable not only about rock but also about blues, jazz, country, folk, metal, and electronic sounds, and he is also extremely funny—a potent combination that makes this collection of essays an insightful and entertaining look at popular music culture.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Mitch Myers’ rock ’n’ roll fables aren’t the anthropomorphic/Aesop variety, but they just as effectively get to the heart of music’s myths and mysteries…. This collection blends fiction and fact, resulting in a mind-bending inquiry into rock’s best half-truths.”

  —Magnet

  “His more celebrated works, the ‘fables,’ take a novel approach to rock criticism. In a revival of the John Henry myth (in which man versus machine is recast as a jazz drummer challenging a turntablist for a club gig), layers of drama build upon themselves with the writerly equivalent of an expert percussionist’s rolls, fills, and flourishes.”

  —Time Out Chicago

  “[Freebird’s] rock & roll fables will make your top-ten list.”

  —Boston Herald

  “Myers captures the complexity of rock music’s role in cultural communication—it’s importance in ceremony and ritual, establishment of communities, and creation of life stories. He achieves something of an ethnography of rock ’n’ roll using fables, well-chosen informants, and historical narratives.”

  —PopMatters

  “The Boy Who Cried Freebird is a
paean to musicians, fans, and especially unsung music writers, toiling in anonymity. It is like an extraordinary jam session, mixing fiction, biography, anecdotes, and fantasy into a rhythmic nirvana that is as compelling as it is hilariously absurd. Myers may be a fool for rock music, but his writing is certainly divine.”

  —Blogcritics

  “Music journalism is a tricky animal to tame, but veteran writer and public-radio commentator Myers proves he’s got the touch in this eclectic collection of essays, short stories, artist profiles, and rock fables. Myers covers blues, gospel, jazz, psychedelia, and ambient sound, all in prose that keeps a fervent tempo and pulses with electricity.”

  —Booklist

  “A groovy and endlessly entertaining place to start digging into the underground canon.”

  —Paste

  “A ragtag collection of bursts that careen between CREEM’s irreverence, The Village Voice’s intellectualism, and NPR’s absolutely narrative All Things Considered…. It is that ability to slip in and out of the oeuvres, burrow into the essence, and not flinch at the laughable that makes Myers a rock/culture writer worth reading: he infuses his work with the zeal of a fan, the honesty of the self-aware, but also the practiced eye of discernment.”

  —Yummy List

  “Myers is at his best at extreme—soberly matter-of-fact or it-goes-to-eleven bonkers…. Freebird will sate anyone lusting for intelligent, polite rock writing and dubiously weird lore.”

  —Baltimore City Paper

  “[Myers] imagination is so accurate, you’ll end up not caring where the facts end and fantasy begins.”

  —AARP

  “Refusing to be pigeonholed, Myers brings us to the music on his own terms—something many writers aspire to but don’t always pull off. And that, as much as anything, is a reason to pick up this excellent collection of music writing.”

  —Jazz Notes

  “A wonderful writer…. [Myers] has a wide range of influences, and he riffs on them all.”

  —St. Petersburg Times

  Copyright

  THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEBIRD. Copyright © 2007 by Mitch Myers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  ePub edition February 2008 ISBN 9780061734199

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