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Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Record Industry

Page 42

by Gareth Murphy


  “I had no interest in the Jewish liturgies,” he says, “although some of it was really quite beautiful. I was moved by the constant sadness, which was a strain through Jewish life. Some of it’s genetic, having been inherited from people who had to escape Russia or live through pogroms in Poland. But coming out of Israel, there was a rich sense of hope and possibility. So I got interested in the middle of 1955 in recording Israeli songs. Actually, Israel was into singer-songwriters much earlier than we were in America, because of the whole kibbutz thing.” Now eighty, Holzman realizes that in escaping religion, music became his own, superior brand of prayer. “I’m an agnostic Jew, but a culturally sympathetic one. Not being a believer in God didn’t mean I didn’t believe in stuff. I believed in the music. And I have always sought to protect it and do it right. I’m a nut on the subject; always the music—it’s all that counts. The rest of it is business, and we figure that out so we can keep doing it.”

  Holzman’s story is similar to Geoff Travis’s, another teenager who wandered off to find his own artistic promised land. “When I was very young I went through a phase when I took being Jewish quite seriously,” confesses Travis, whose family observed a traditional interpretation of Judaism. “I spent half my life in evening school, Hebrew classes, and all the rest of it, so they had plenty of chances to get their hooks into me. We used to have our lunches in different places to everyone else, so there was always a bit of separation going on. I just don’t really believe in religion, I have to say. Having been inculcated with it hugely since I was a young boy, I just think it’s a lot of nonsense really.” With age, however, Travis does recognize “you could definitely make an argument for the displacement of religion by music. I’d definitely much rather listen to the Velvet Underground than listen to a rabbi singing tunelessly.”

  Another Jewish rebel is Rick Rubin. “I’m not religious, but I am very spiritual. I was lucky to have learned Transcendental Meditation at the age of fourteen,” he explains. “That and my interest in Dao are probably what have kept me grounded throughout this roller-coaster ride.” As someone who has long contemplated the subject of creativity, Rubin instinctively wonders if the puzzle of why so many major players in the record business came from Jewish families should not be widened to that other conspicuously well-represented ethnic group. “In the same way there are a lot of really talented black musicians,” muses Rubin. “Both cultures share a strong past of suffering. And maybe both used music as an escape from that genetic suffering. Maybe there’s a deeper understanding of music, a deeper insight, because of suffering?”

  The cornerstone of Jewish culture is the powerful story of the flight from slavery, as told in the Book of Exodus and celebrated by Passover, one of the holiest of Jewish rituals—possibly why so many humanist record men from Jewish backgrounds identify so strongly with the uplifing music passed down from African slaves. “[Chris Blackwell] always told me the Rastas related to Judaism because of the thirteenth tribe that disappeared,” confesses Lionel Conway, a Jewish friend and Island lifer. “He was very proud of that relationship … He always told me they were Jews.”

  The founding father of rock ’n’ roll, Sam Phillips, a former cotton picker himself, was another who felt a profound identification with black people. What has perhaps intrigued generations ever since Elvis is that beneath all its carefree energy, rock ’n’ roll was steeped in black evangelism. “Even the most religious [white] Southern people would have an hour or hour-and-fifteen-minute service,” he observed, “but the blacks, their services would go on four hours or even all day. That kind of fascinated me. These people never seemed to be really down in the dumps. And I wondered why. I guess their solace came from their belief in God, and it’s gonna be all right somehow.”

  Nearly every new genre of modern music has evolved from these ancient forms of theater and religion, and the men at the top know it. “I’ve always thought what we do is to evangelize, to crusade,” says Beggars boss Martin Mills, citing his favorite quote from black punk Don Letts—“If music is a religion, then Rough Trade has always been my church.” Chasing the muse, the indie hunter, hearing our Top 40 airwaves as an injustice, plays midwife to ignored, downtrodden genius. Since his retirement to northeastern New Mexico, 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell spends one day every week taking impounded dogs from his local animal shelter out for a run in the desert wilderness. “Poor things,” he sighs. “While waiting for a Forever Home, they don’t really see much of their beautiful surroundings unless volunteers go and walk them. I never had kids, but I went from nurturing musicians to rescuing dogs. There are similarities to all three responsibilities, I would imagine.”

  As an older man contemplating the historical importance of African American music, Sam Phillips believed “we’ve now learned so much from some of these people we thought were ignorant, who never had any responsibility other than chopping cotton, feeding the mules, or making sorghum molasses. When people come back to this music in a hundred years, they’ll see these were master painters. They may be illiterate. They can’t write a book about it. But they can make a song, and in three verses you’ll hear the greatest damn story you’ll ever hear in your life.”

  For centuries, folk and blues was accumulated wisdom passed ever downward. “Think about the complexity, yet simplicity, of music we have gained from hard times,” says Phillips, “from the sky, the wind, and the earth. If you don’t have a foundation, you won’t know what the hell I’m talking about.” His proudest discovery was not Elvis, or even Johnny Cash, but blues shaman Howlin’ Wolf.

  Whether it’s in dense cities or across open country plains, the search for the divine comedy is a timeless art that just adapts to different environments. In the big city, cut off from the elements, records have become our folklore, our spiritual medicine, our last sacred connection to the tribal godhead. In a game populated by snake-oil salesmen, the real record man is the one selling the magic potions that actually work.

  Music is one of several domains—sports, politics, movies, books, and fashion included—that will always remain governed by tribal genes inherited from the campfire. Thousands of years of technological progress and where are we? Still huddling up at night around the glow, trying to make sense of it all—dreaming our lives into the stars.

  Seek and ye shall find.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Birch, Will. Ian Dury: The Definitive Biography. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 2010.

  Boyd, Joe. White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2006.

  Carlin, Peter Ames. Bruce. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.

  Cohodas, Nadine. Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

  Cornyn, Stan, with Paul Scanlon. Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and Hustlers of the Warner Music Group. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.

  Crouch, Kevin, and Tanja Crouch. Sun King: The Life and Times of Sam Phillips, the Man Behind Sun Records. London: Piatkus Books, 2008.

  Dannen, Fredric. Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business. New York: Times Books, 1990.

  Davis, Clive, with Anthony DeCurtis. The Soundtrack of My Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013.

  Dylan, Bob. Chronicles: Volume One. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

  Foster, Tony. The Sound and the Silence: The Private Lives of Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing, 1996.

  Gelatt, Roland. The Fabulous Phonograph, 1877–1977. New York: Collier Books, 1977.

  George, Nelson. Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise & Fall of the Motown Sound. Sydney: Omnibus Press, 1985.

  Greenfield, Robert. The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.

  Hammond, John, with Irving Townsend. John Hammond on Record. New York: Ridge Press/Summit Books, 1977.

  Harris, Larry, with Curt Gooch and Jeff Suhs. And Party Every Day: The Inside Story of Casablanca Records. New York:
Backbeat Books, 2009.

  Heylin, Clinton. The Act You’ve Known All These Years. Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2007.

  Holzman, Jac, and Gavan Daws. Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Culture. Santa Monica, CA: FirstMedia Books, 1998.

  Hoskyns, Barney. Hotel California: Singer-Songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons, 1967–1976. London: HarperPerennial, 2006.

  Houghton, Mick. Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label. London: Jawbone Press, 2010.

  King, Tom. The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood. New York: Random House, 2000.

  Knopper, Steve. Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age. New York: Free Press, 2009.

  Kusek, David, and Gerd Leonhard. The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Revolution. Boston: Berklee Press, 2005.

  Lawrence, Tim. Love Saves the Day: A History of Dance Music Culture, 1970–1979. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.

  Lippmann, Stephen. “Boys to Men: Age, Identity, and the Legitimation of Amateur Wireless in the United States, 1909–1927.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 54, no. 4 (2010): 657–74.

  Marmorstein, Gary. The Label: The Story of Columbia Records. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2007.

  Martin, George, with Jeremy Hornsby. All You Need Is Ears. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979.

  Napier-Bell, Simon. Black Vinyl, White Powder. London: Ebury Press, 2002.

  Oldham, Andrew Loog. 2Stoned. London: Vintage, 2003.

  Oldham, Andrew Loog. Stoned. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.

  Prial, Dunstan. The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music. New York: Picador, 2007.

  Rodgers, Nile. Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny. London: Sphere, 2011.

  Salewicz, Chris, ed. Keep on Running: The Story of Island Records. New York: Universe Publishing, 2009.

  Southall, Brian. The Rise & Fall of EMI Records. London: Omnibus Press, 2009.

  Spitz, Bob. The Beatles: The Biography. New York: Back Bay Books, 2006.

  Stone, Henry. The Stone Cold Truth on Payola! N.p.: Henry Stone Music, 2013.

  Sutton, Allan. Recording the Twenties: The Evolution of the American Recording Industry, 1920–29. Denver, CO: Mainspring Press, 2008.

  Szwed, John. The Man Who Recorded the World. London: Arrow Books, 2010.

  Wade, Dorothy, and Justine Picardie. Music Man: Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records, and the Triumph of Rock ’n’ Roll. New York: Norton, 1990.

  Wexler, Jerry, and David Ritz. Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music. New York: Knopf, 1993.

  Wilentz, Sean. Bob Dylan in America. London: The Bodley Head, 2010.

  Wilson, Brian. Wouldn’t It Be Nice: My Own Story. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

  Yetnikoff, Walter, with David Ritz. Howling at the Moon: The True Story of the Mad Genius of the Music World. New York: Broadway Books, 2004.

  Zanes, Warren. Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records, the First Fifty Years. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2008.

  AUTHOR INTERVIEWS:

  Laurence Bell, Derek Birkett, David Betteridge, Harold Childs, Tim Clark, Lionel Conway, Stan Cornyn, Ray Cooper, Simon Draper, Terry Ellis, David Enthoven, Bob Garcia, Derek Green, John P. Hammond, Larry Harris, Tom Hayes, John Heyman, Jac Holzman, Art Jaeger, Craig Kallman, Danny Krivit, Al Kooper, Andrew Lauder, Andrew Loog Oldham, Daniel Miller, Martin Mills, Jerry Moss, Bruce Pavitt, Charly Prevost, Tony Pye, Dave Robinson, Rick Rubin, Tom Silverman, Seymour Stein, Howard Thompson, Geoff Travis, Ivo Watts-Russell, Chris Wright, Trevor Wyatt, Patrick Zelnik.

  SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING FOR VARIOUS SOURCES OF INFORMATION

  Thomas H. White for his invaluable help on radio history, Patrick Feaster for his research on Thomas Edison, Rick Bleiweiss, Steve Knopper, David Ritz, Stephen Lispon, Nigel House.

  INDEX

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Abramson, Herb

  Ace

  Ackerman, Paul

  Adams, Bryan

  Adele

  Adler, Lou

  AIR

  Ales, Barney

  Aletti, Vince

  Alex, Magic

  Alexander, Willard

  Almanac Singers

  Alpert, Herb. See also A&M

  alternative rock

  Altshuler, Robert

  A&M

  British branch

  formation of

  honesty and integrity

  Human League

  Island partnership

  Jackson, Janet

  Mendes, Sergio

  New Wave acts

  sale to PolyGram

  Sex Pistols

  Supertramp

  American Federation of Musicians

  American Graphophone Company

  American Recordings

  Ammons, Albert

  Anderle, David

  Andrews Sisters

  Angel

  Animals

  Anna Records

  Appel, Mike

  Apple Corps

  Apple iTunes Store

  ARC (American Record Corporation)

  Arista

  A&R men. See record men; specific individuals

  Armstrong, Albert

  Armstrong, Louis

  Armstrong, Roger

  Aronowitz, Al

  ASCAP

  Asher, Dick

  Asia (rock group)

  Aspinal, Neil

  Asylum and Elektra/Asylum

  Atlantic Records

  Asylum financing and distribution

  Bee Gees

  Blind Faith

  Buffalo Springfield

  Charles, Ray

  Cream

  Crosby, Stills & Nash

  disco

  founding of

  Franklin, Aretha

  Hendrix, Jimi

  Hot 100 hits

  independent radio promoters

  Island distribution

  Led Zeppelin

  R&B

  Rolling Stones

  sale to Warner–Seven Arts

  Warner Communications merger

  Young Rascals

  AT&T

  Austin, Nick

  Avakian, George

  Babitz, Mirandi

  Backe, John

  Backstreet Boys

  Badarou, Wally

  Baez, Joan

  Bahlman, Ed

  Baker, Ginger

  Ballard, Florence

  Bambaataa, Afrika

  Banks, Brian

  Barraud, Francis

  Barsalona, Frank

  Basie, Count

  BBC

  Beach Boys

  Beastie Boys

  Beatles

  albums

  American tours and sales

  Apple Corps

  breakup

  British tour

  Dylan’s acquaintance and introduction to marijuana

  under Epstein’s management

  Klein management contract

  Melody Maker award

  Parlophone deal

  rejections

  singles

  worldwide sales

  bebop

  Bechet, Sidney

  Bee Gees

  Beggars Banquet Group

  Bell, Alexander Graham

  Bell, Laurence

  Bell Labs

  Benny, Jack

  Berliner, Emile

  Bernay, Eric

  Berry, Ken

  Bertelsmann

  Best Buy

  Beston, Ted

  Betteridge, David

  on Island’s management and downfall

&nb
sp; on Marley and Wailers

  on Oberstein’s reputation at CBS

  on sale of Virgin

  big bands

  Big Brother & the Holding Company

  Bihari brothers

  Bikel, Theo

  Billboard

  Bird, Gary

  Birkett, Derek

  Björk

  Black, Bill

  black music. See also specific genres

  for black ethnic market

  Great Migration north

  origin in suffering

  race records

  racism toward black musicians

  From Spirituals to Swing concert

  vaudeville tradition

  white audience for

  Black Swan

  Blackwell, Chris. See also Island Records

  achievements

  adaptability

  association with Robinson and Stiff Records

  charm

  Compass Point studio

  creative marketing

  diverse projects and fiscal irresponsibility

  founding of Island and sublabels

  import and distribution business

  management style

  on Rastas and Judaism

  Blaine, Hal

  Blatch, Harriot Stanton

  Blavatnik, Len

  Bleiweiss, Rick

  Blind Faith

  Blockheads

  Blondie

  Bloomfield, Mike

  Blue Horizon

  blues

  BMG

  BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.)

  Bob & Earl

  Bogart, Neil. See also Casablanca

  Bolan, Marc

  Bono. See also U2

  Boonstra, Cor

  Botnick, Bruce

  Bowie, David

  Boyd, Joe

  Bradford, Perry

  Branson, Richard. See also Virgin Records

  Braun, David

  Brenner, Jerry

  Britain. See England

  British Invasion. See also Beatles

  Brockman, Polk

  Bronfman, Edgar, Jr.

  Broonzy, Big Bill

  Brown, James

  Browne, Jackson

  Bruce, Jack

  Brunswick

  bubblegum music

  Buckley, Tim

  Buffalo Springfield

  Bullard, William

  Bulleit, Jim

  Bullock, Bill

  Bundrick, John “Rabbit”

  Butterfield Blues Band

  Buzzcocks

 

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