Shit

Fun facts:

His mother, single and working multiple jobs, invented Liquid Paper in her kitchen blender and made a fortune.

Contra his “quiet Monkee” persona, he had a temper.  When Don Kirshner told them he’d sue the Monkees for breach of contract for wanting more artistic control, Nesmith punched a hole in the wall, telling Kirshner it could have been his face.  He’d grown to think Kirshner was an idiot, especially after DK refused to let the Monkees record his song, “Different Drum,” which afterward became a huge hit for Linda Ronstadt.  (If you ever watched Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert back in the 70’s, he really did sound like an idiot.)

Post Monkees, one of his media companies was defrauded by PBS.  He won in court, and afterward said, “it’s like catching your grandmother stealing your stereo.  You’re glad to get your stereo back, but you’re sad to find out that Grandma’s a thief.”

Happy Birthday To Me?

I’ve never liked this song, but today I HATE it.  At least the Sgt. Pepper album allowed the convenience of skipping this song and George’s Indian drone. You could just flip to Side 2 and start at “Lovely Rita”–not a great one, but I’ve always sorta liked it.

R.I.P. Chawlie

You’ve all heard, but there has to be a shrine here.  There was nothing quite like the Stones firing on all cylinders.  The Faces tried, but couldn’t entirely replicate it.  Some of that mojo came from Charlie.  As much a musician as a drummer, I’d pick him over thousands who might be technically better.

Shit

Ok, maybe none of you bastards care about this, but you may find it interesting anyway.  Leon Fleisher died of cancer two days ago at age 83.  By age 30, maybe earlier, he was arguably the best pianist the U.S. has ever produced if you consider overall musicianship as well as technical perfection (he had both, but others have equaled or come close in the latter).  As a pupil of Artur Schnabel, he was in a direct student/teacher line to Beethoven.

Unfortunately the 1950’s, when he came of age, was a real pressure cooker for a group of young American pianists who were given the acronym, OYAPS (Outstaning Young American Pianists).  This was the height of the cold war, and there was huge pressure on them to be cultural ambassadors.  They were expected to be powerful and precise,  like Vladimir Horowitz, and to show uppity Europeans and especially Russia, a land of super-human pianists, that the U.S. was artistically on par with anyone (never mind we’d already proved that with jazz and emerging rock & roll, but those were treated as an embarrassent).  As a result,  Fleisher and the other OYAPS pushed themselves to the point of serious physical injury or emotional distress.  By his mid-thirties, Fleisher’s right hand was useless for the piano due to an insane practice and performance schedule.   After recovering from serious depression, he had a second career as a conductor, a much idolized teacher and an occasional performer of the limited one-handed repertoire.  Miraculously, in the 90’s he underwent experimental botox injections which returned his hand to service.  By the early 2000’s he was back in action, maybe not as much of a techincal powerhouse, but as good or maybe better artistically.

I was lucky to see him in a stunning recital in ’09.  I also got to meet him briefly and get an autograph.  For someone so lionized, he was very approachable and seemed down-to-earth.  Resquiescat in pace.

Shit

Ennio Morricone, age 91.  One new fact I learned in an obit is that Stanley Kubrick had approached him to compose music for A Clockwork Orange.  EM wanted to work with him but had a prior commitment to Sergio Leone.