The Rolling Stones: "Necrophilia" by Tosh Berman

 

The Rolling Stones: "Necrophilia" by Tosh Berman

"Goin' Home with The Rolling Stones '66" by Gered Mankowitz -Review by Tosh Berman for Pleas Kill Me Website

 Tosh Berman on "Goin' Home with The Rolling Stones

Christopher Gibbs on Tosh Talks

The latest talk on "Tosh Talks" on Rolling Stones' associate and friend Christopher Gibbs. I wrote about Gibbs for Please Kill Me website. Watch my program, and also read the essay/article:https://pleasekillme.com/mick-jagger-christopher-gibbs/ - Tosh Berman

"Necrophilia" by The Rolling Stones (Bootleg vinyl picture disc)

The Rolling Stones

"Necrophilia" 

For me, due to the inner-world I live in, this is the Stones album for me.  And oddly enough, it's a bootleg.   "Necrophilia" is sort of the bastard version of their collection "Metamorphosis" but of course, much better.  I don't really know the history of this particular bootleg, except I think at one time this was going to be released as a rarity album of goodies - why it didn't happen, I don't know.  Still, it's my favorite Stones album.   

Some of the material on this album sounds more like the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra with Jagger on vocals - or perhaps session musicians (Big John Sullivan & Jimmy Page?) but clearly some of the recordings here were meant to sell the songwriting of Jagger and Richards to other artists.  "Neocrophilia" captures the band between being a R&B band and popster songwriting duo.   Even the 'hits' that we know are different on this album.  "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby" is either an early mix, or more stripped-down version. It has always been one of my favorite Stones cut.   It is like hearing a blending machine mixing your favorite ingredients for a drink.   Pure cocktail of sound.  Trumpet? Blaring in the background, echoy vocals fighting out with the background vocals, and it is simply wonderful.  

This album is sort of the negative version of "Aftermath," in that I'm sure it was recorded around the same time, or in a sense the "Aftermath" notebook.  Notes for an unfinished album.  The nature of recordings that are bootlegs is to see the wizard behind the thick velvet curtain at work.   It is like we are in the studio but invisible. "Hear It," is the mystery cut.  The beauty of this particular song is that it sounds like a soundtrack to a film, but discarded.  Lot of guitar pickings, and then this beautiful string section takes over, but it goes back and forth with the guitars.  Somehow I don't feel this is a Keith Richards guitar.  Brian Jones related production?   Or maybe Jimmy Page?  A beautifully arranged piece. 

"Some Things Just Stick In Your Head" is a throw-away song, but that is also its charm.  It is a country arrangement with the full pop Jack Nietzsche arrangement.   The song is not that hot, but the production and arrangement are amazing.  "Aftermath" is a jam session, and I'm sure I can hear Phil Spector's voice in the background.  So this maybe the Spector/Gene Pitney gets together with the Stones

"I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys" is the classic Mick and Keith song.  This is where they show their true worth and sensibility.  I often felt that the best love songs by Mick and Keith were really about them.  The sexual energy in that band is not going outward, but very much inward.  It is more of a yearning to be within one's gang then out with another 'girl.  "Andrew's Blues" song is about sucking. And I believe this is also Phil/Gene and I want to point out the Motown influence in the early Stones - especially during this period.

An early period of "Street Fighting Man" but here with different lyrics and called "Pay Your Dues."   The height of the Brian Jones sitar, strong bass playing by Wyman, and the great Nicky Hopkins.  It's magic really.   Now comes my favorite of the favorites, "Each & Every Day of the Year."  The slow built-up is almost Roy Orbison intensity, with his sort of lyrical world and melody.  It's a beautiful song. Majestic.  It is so good, I suspect that it isn't the Stones, but Mick with session players. "The Sleepy City" is another fave of mine.  It appeals to the Situationist instinct in me.  To walk in an urban area in the early morning - perhaps after a long night out, or just waking up to this beauty of a landscape.  I often walk around the town here, with this melody in my head. 

The version I have is a vinyl picture disc.   I wish that there was more concrete information about these recordings, like who plays what and so forth.  On the other hand, the mystery is extremely appealing.  Sometimes the information that is in my head is totally wrong, but yet, enjoyable.  Nevertheless a superb collection of songs that are lost in the Stones world. 

"The History of Rock: 1966" by the Editors of UNCUT Magazine

"The History Of Rock: 1966" by the Editors of Uncut Magazine

For sure something happened in 1964, and maybe it was the year when I turned 10, and really became aware of music pop culture around me.  To my ears, '64 was full of bouncy music made by people with odd accents.  It was the first time in my life that I realized that there was music being made that appealed to me, and not only that, and perhaps even more important, it came from another culture.  By 1966, I was introduced to the word and aesthetic of "sophistication." 

"The History of Rock" is a monthly publication published and edited by Uncut Magazine, where they use the archives of New Musical Express and Melody Maker regarding contemporary music at that time.   It started off with "1965," and now I just finished reading the entire issue of "1966."   I have read so many books and articles dealing with the British invasion, that in this late stage of my life, it is totally refreshing to read archival material as when things were happening or in proper english, as it happened. 

The Rolling Stones and The Beatles were at their dizzy heights of making incredible recordings as well as being the prince (Stones) and King (Beatles) of the pop world at the time.  The beauty of this magazine is obtaining the role of the journalist at this time.  Most I think were mostly press relations, and not only worked for the music papers, but also for the artists as well.  So, one does not get critical attacks, but mostly acknowledgment and of course, praises.   It is ironic that at this moment in time in the U.K. great music was being produced by all sorts of bands and artists:  Donovan was making great recordings with Mickie Most, The Small Faces were getting more sophisticated as they entered the Andrew Loog Oldham world, and the Fab Four was spending more time in the recording studio, where one gets the amazing "Revolver" album.   Due to the times, Brian Jones was adding more exotic instrumentation to the Stones recordings, which made their masterpiece "Aftermath" such a classic and brilliant album.   Even shit records produced in England were at the very least, good constructed pop.  

Also UK readers and listeners were fully accepting the genius of Roy Orbison, early Simon & Garfunkel, and the beautiful Beach Boys.  It seemed for once, that the UK and the U.S. were in-tuned at the same time and place.   A pop utopia taking place, and ears was stretched out to the West Coast to India.    "The History of Rock" 1966" captures that series of moments as it happened.   Also great photographs and this is a perfectly designed magazine. 

- Tosh Berman

"The History of Rock" 1965 (UNCUT Magazine)

The History of Rock: 1965  (Uncut Magazine)

One of the great joys in my life, if sometimes not the only joy, is my introduction to the world of pop music.  My parents were consistently into music, and they have brought many recordings into the household that I eventually adopted as my own.   Early Beatle and Stones albums were for sure introduced by my parents, but in 1965,  at the age of 10 or 11, I became a consumer, by buying a 45 rpm single of the Yardbirds' "I'm a Man"/"Still I'm Sad."   How I got the money is something that is lost in history, but the memory of going to a record store in Westwood Village to purchase that single stayed glued to my brain or DNA to this very day.  By my nature I'm not a nostalgic person, but I would be lying to myself if I didn't admit that the year 1965 was an important one on many levels.   That December, we lost our home to a mudslide in Beverly Glen, and that included every possession I had at that time.   For sure, it did a number on my head, that even 50 years later, continues to exist in my DNA.

It pains me that I'm not into the current music world.  I would like to think of myself as being totally devoted to whatever is happening outside my home at this time and age.  But the truth is I kind of hate the world as it is right now.    The sounds I hear at the moment always reminds me of the past, and not in a good way.   On the other hand, the year 1965 was both rich in variety as well as being "new."   Oddly enough when I re-visit the recordings of that year, I'm still hearing new things.   There is a textural aspect of the records at that time, and when you pull back and look at 1965, one is struck how fast everything is.   What the Beatles were doing in January of that year is so different from what they recorded in December.  The same goes for the Stones and the Kinks.

Which brings up the fact that I was totally devoted to the sounds that were coming from the United Kingdom.   For one, I could understand the language, but still, it was from another world.   A fantasy world for me, due to the Beatles "Hard Days' Night" as well as the fashions that was coming out of that culture.   Pure teenage pop music, but for sure, with a tough jagged edge attached to the images.    For inspiration, I often go back to the 1960s to re-discover who I'm through my childhood years, but also for the unreal look of that era through its literature and especially the press at that time.  Which comes to UNCUT's special series of publications called "The History of Rock."

The first issue magazine is "1965," with others are being released on a monthly basis.  So far it is up to 1968.  I will get back to those as soon as I read them.   But now, I want to focus on the 1965 issue.    What it is exactly is re-prints of articles that were published in Melody Maker and New Musical Express in 1965.   Uncut Magazine editors did a beautiful job in making this glossy magazine into a visual treat, by selecting wonderful photographs of that era as well as choosing the right or correct articles of the time.   Besides the original interviews and articles, one also gets letters to the editor, the original advertisements that ran through the publication, and people like Dylan, Lennon and Harrison commenting on the newly released singles at the time.   So, one is getting a great snapshot of England's take on the new music that was being produced and distributed in 1965.

It's interesting to read articles and reviews as it happened, instead of people commenting on these records now in 2015.   Also you pick up trends such as bands making films.   The Beatles of course at this time did "Help" and "Hard Days Night," so it seems to be some pressure for groups such as The Stones making their feature-length film.    As well as others, but none of these films ever got made.   Most I think came from the Public Relations department of the management offices of both publications as well as the band's management.   The other is the "Dylan vs. Donovan" thread that went on in the press for that whole year.  One wonder if the Dylan and Donovan camp decided to promote this aspect of their careers at the time.  The beauty of reading these articles is seeing the genius at work with respect to Brian Epstein and Andrew Loog Oldham.   Both orchestrated the media to their liking, as if they had their own orchestras.

One has to presume that NME and Melody Maker had large teenage readership, yet the articles are not dumb down, and very intelligent in its own right.   Oddly enough, when I read celebrity news or magazines like People, it's really dumb.  NME or Melody Maker never took that route.  In fact, it's a world that is in love with the pop music world.  The charts, releases, the bands, the artists, and the managers are all authors in this particular era in England.   There is even a thoughtful interview with Bill Evans, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, so the magazine was willing to branch out to other forms or types of music, besides the teenager's world of music.

This is truly a superb piece of history as it happened, but edited and produced for today.   I recommend it highly.

- Tosh Berman

Rolling Stones - Necrophilia (Rare Unreleased 1972 Album)

Almost my favorite Brian Jones / Andrew Loog Oldham era Rolling Stones.  Where the blues meets pop and beyond.  A beautiful album.   Do enjoy.

April 6, 2014

April 6, 2014

Some years back, while I was on the bus returning from work at Book Soup, I noticed a very beautiful young girl reading one of my favorite books of all time.  Alberto Moravia’s “Contempt.” Now to me that was strange enough, but what made it even more attractive to me was that she was reading a mass-market movie-tie of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt” with of course Brigitte Bardot on the cover.  I have never ever seen this edition of this book before, and it was obvious by the design that it was made available in America around the time of the film’s original release here in the States.     In fact, just now, I tried to find the cover on the Internet, and failed in finding this edition.  I didn’t approach her, because the moment was too abnormal for me.   But what made it odder is that I saw her a week later on the bus. On the same line, and she was reading Andrew Loog Oldham’s “Stoned, ” which is another one of my favorite books of all time.   How is it possible that this beautiful young girl is caught twice on a public bus line, reading my favorite books, and not only that, but reading either very rare or difficult editions to get.  For instance, one can’t just pop in a bookstore and buy either of those two specific books.  I was convinced that she was aware of me being there, and she was using these two books to get my attention.  Of course, me being me, I totally ignored her.

Obviously, this is the same thing that happened to the Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch, when he came upon Laura, a woman he didn’t know, but saw in the church of Sainte-Claire d’ Avignon in 1327.  Petrarch wrote many poems to and about this woman, who he didn’t know, and Laura pretty much ignored him and his work.  On a side-note, she was an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade!  A perfect woman to be obsessed with!

Anita Pallenberg must have shared some traits with Laura as well as the girl on the bus.  Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones met her while she was working as a model, and they became an iconic couple, but eventually she left him for Keith Richards, his co-player in the Stones, and some say she had an affair with Mick Jagger.  I was taught in a very young age never play in one’s playground for too long, and in this case I think the Stones put all their marbles in one place and all suffered from it, but on the other hand it was good for their art.  This I believe works for all relationships with respect to the artist who is influenced by a muse or a woman/man/ or even child, when you think of Lewis Carroll or Thomas Mann with respect to his short novel “Death in Venice.”

The Brussels-born cult comic artist Guy Peelaert was very much inspired by the French teenage singing sensation Sylvie Vartan for his erotic comic strip “The Adventures of Jodelle.” In fact he based the visual image of Vartan and made it into his “Jodelle.” I often wondered if seeing the girl on the bus was a message for me to use her as either as a muse or an inspiration to do my writing.  From those two sightings of her, she has become an ideal beauty or is that even true?   Would I have noticed her if she wasn’t reading those two rare editions of my favorite books?  Art operates in mysterious ways, as well as the affairs of the heart.  Eros, passion, and good reading material goes hand-in-hand.

Andrew Loog Oldham President's Lecture at Berlin School of Creative Lead...

"Stone Free" by Andrew Loog Oldham

I'm totally obsessed with music in all its forms, and I think one of the great relationships on this planet is the one between the manager and their artist.  In other words the manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham and his artist The Rolling Stones. From 1963 to 1967, Oldham made great records with the Stones as well as building up their public image as the 'darker' brothers to the much lighter Beatles.    Oldham is a visionary who made The Stones into a compelling and fascinating narrative.  He was a genius to market the Stones as the anti-Beatles at the height of Beatle-mania.  Of course it was an illusion, and a great manager/producer should be an illusionist in the seductive pop music landscape.

In his third (and his best) book “Stone Free,” Oldham paints a picture of 1960's pop music world and beyond.  The book is a mixture of memoir with a focus on his fellow 'hustlers' and visionaries.  He writes beautifully on figures such as Serge Diaghilev (early role model for Oldham), Larry Parnes, Albert Grossman, and Allen Klein.

The most moving chapter is on Phil Spector, a man Oldham looked up to and knew quite well in the 1960's.  The downfall of this mighty talent is a mixture of frustration and deep sadness.  Someone with Spector's talent should be wealthy, healthy and still be doing creative work.  But what we get here is the total opposite and it is truly heartbreaking that Spector chose or went on a different self-destructive path.  His chapter on Spector is probably one of the best pieces written on him.  And it is also the saddest.

 Oldham has a keen psychology with respect to writing about his contemporaries.  There are two separate type of hustlers displayed in this book.  There's the bad ass border line thuggery of Don Arden and Allen Klein.  Both had an understanding of power and how to use it.  On the other hand, there is the manager as an artist in the manner they handled their business.  The visionaries in this grouping are Brian Epstein, and the endlessly fascinating Kit Lambert & Chris Stamp, who managed The Who and started up Track Records.   Oldham belongs in that camp with Brian, Kit and Chris in that he sees the world as a large cinemascope presentation.   Music works on many levels, for instance there is the sound, but also the visuals that feed the aural aspect of an artist.

 The beauty of this book is one can hear Oldham's voice, and it is a mixture of showing respect, but still highly opinionated about the music business and the citizens of that world. Oldham was not only influenced by the Fashion industry, but also the world of cinema.  With the Rolling Stones and his books he made a film without a movie camera.  And that is what makes him such an unique figure in pop music.  He visualize the music business of the 60's as a theater piece.  Each actor or hustler has a role, and Andrew totally understood his part in the adventure that was the 1960's rock world.

Oldham has a deep appreciation for his fellow travelers in the entertainment world.   And all of them are deeply interesting figures. Oldham can 'read' people really well, and his ability to put that on paper makes this book such an enjoyable read, and in specific chapters, an emotional experience. Any reader that has an interest in 60's rock n' roll culture must get this book.  In one word, essential.

"Charlie is my Darling, Ireland 1965 by Peter Whitehead (DVD)

A beautiful series of moments when the Rolling Stones were kickin' and really happening. Shot in beautiful black n' white, Brian Jones still comes off as a technicolor force in the gray world of The Stones.  One could see that this was not going to last forever.  And I think even then, Jones knew the score.

Nevertheless classic stage performances, and even a songwriting session between Mick and Keith is a fantastic thing to see and hear.  So yeah, moments that are frozen in time, but still gives one a kick in the gut and head.  Also a nice touch to have the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra as part of the soundtrack.  I love that!

Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra

Andrew Loog Oldham in conversation with John Cavanagh

Fascinating interview with Andrew Loog Oldham.

Each And Every Day Bobby Jameson 1964

One of the beautiful songs by Jagger and Richards. Performed by Bobby Jameson. Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham.

all i want is my baby

Fantastic song by Bobby Jameson, with production by Andrew Loog Oldham and help from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

TamTam Books' Tribute to Immediate Records (Andrew Loog Oldham's label)

Small Faces with P.P. Arnold


Small Faces "itcycoo Park"


Small Faces "All or Nothing"


Billy Nicholls "Girl From New York (Audio only but a fantastic song backed by the Small Faces)


P.P. Arnold "First Cut is the Deepest"


P.P. Arnold "If You Think You Are Groovy"


The Nice "America" (with David O'List, who was in early Roxy Music before Phil Manzanera)


Little Andrew Loog Oldham documentary


"All I Want is My Baby" Oldham/Richards song. Recorded by Bobby Jameson and Mick Jagger


A very early Nico song (a year before the Velvets) produced by Jimmy Page for Immediate Records


The Poets "Now We're Thru"

And this is one of my favorite film footages ever of Swingin' London"

Brett Smiley

While looking up information on one of my favorite figures in pop music culture Andrew Loog Oldham, I found this clip on YouTube with him and an artist he was managing in the mid-70s by the name of Brett Smiley.



By the time the clip was over I downloaded his album "Breathlessly Brett." What can I say, the album is great. It is totally fake glam but done with such flaire, it is truly going to one of my all-time favorite albums.



There is also a book by Nina Antonia called "The Prettiest Star: Whatever Happened to Brett Smiley."

TamTam Books' Tribute to ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM

First of all watch this fantastic footage from 'READY STEADY GO' The essence of the Rolling Stones Andrew Loog Oldham era!



For those who read this blog, or my blog on Myspace, know I have a fixation on British Rock n' Roll managers. I think one of the reasons is that I identify with them as a publisher. One is basically a movie producer, with respect to getting the talent together and then giving it a vision of some sort. Andrew Loog Oldham, the record producer and manager of the 60's era Stones was and is a magnificent figure.

First of all there are the two memoirs by Oldham, which is a must for those who are interested in 60's era London and of course, The Stones.


Stoned




2Stoned


But it's a story filtered through the eyes of a young man who tasted the excitement of street fashion, the love of hustling, and music. And yet cinematic images are part of the mix as well.


"Sweet Smell of Success"




"Expresso Bongo"


The Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra recordings are probably one of my favorite sounds. Here are two of his masterpieces:



"Rarities"



"The Rolling Stones Songbook"


His great record label:



My favorite production of Oldham's:



"Would You Believe" by Billy Nicholls

And there's more...