When Beauty Turned Dark: Revisiting Performance (1968)

 

When Beauty Turned Dark: Revisiting Performance (1968)

Joy House

 

Joy House by Tosh Berman

Tosh's Journal: July 27, 2023

 

Tosh's Journal: July 27, 2023

My Fortress by Tosh Berman

 

My Fortress by Tosh Berman

Exile on Sunset Blvd., The Rolling Stones by Tosh Berman

 

Exile on Sunset Blvd., The Rolling Stones 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

"Mick Jagger's Shadow Is Gone" by Tosh Berman (for PLEASE KILL ME)

From the film "Performance"

Here is my piece on the legendary and always fascinating the late Christopher Gibbs.  Read it here: 

https://pleasekillme.com/mick-jagger-christopher-gibbs/?utm_source=PKM+Newsletter&utm_campaign=4cb4119012-PKM_Weekly_Newsletter_8_10_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4491fdd1df-4cb4119012-261917027&mc_cid=4cb4119012&mc_eid=f9f7b6687e

"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. 

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.

"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.

Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra

Bob Dylan and John Lennon in the back of a Limo 1966

Fascinating documentation of a time and place and two guys in the back of a limo.


Part One


Part Two


Part Three

It took me awhile, but i finally found this book (thanks Alias East!) and like the pleasure of finding something that you really tried to find - the pleasure of the book even becomes more important, and sensual,  to you.  My interest in the photographic works of David Bailey is pretty much set in the 1960's. He's consistently fine, but the peak of his powers i feel is when he documented the faces of London.  Or I should say the various 'Face" of London.  That would include Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton, a very young Jane Birkin and various beautiful models of that period.

David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton

Michael Caine by David Bailey

Bailey had the East London street know-it-all, and its interesting he did a series of iconic portraits of the Kings of East London - The Kray Twins.  The mixture of the visual arts, rock n'  roll, filmmakers, fashion, and gangsters is a heady mixture and a dynamic cocktail.  You got to find this book and buy it. Essential recording of London circ. 1960's and other ports of the world.  But it is seen through the eyes of an East London lad.

Mick Jagger by David Bailey

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

Donald Cammell -The Ultimate Performance Documentary Part 4

Part Four