Vacation thoughts: I'm having a good time relaxing(when we can) with my wife and 3 yr. old son while on vacation. Luckily the ocean is big and the pool serves drinks.
Here is what I know.
Most everyone in the USA are easily pleased lowest common denominator grease engulfing sheep who drink coke in buckets, coors light in one hand, poker chips or vouchers sopping in armpit grease in the other, possible chicken wings between their chubby toes, sitting like gelatinous jabbas in front of quarter slots with their SS checks converted into quarters in big Slushee cups mixed with Marlboro ash to feed the need to try and win enough filthy lucre to save up and come back to the very seat they've melded their cheesburger asses into within the smokey cancer caves of the casino. The circle will never be unbroken in the church, casino, boardwalk,strip mall, swap meet, AA meeting,Boat Show, Monster Truck Ralley, Bingo Hall, White Castle, Cracker Barrel, Subway, Applebees, tanning booth, Daytona 500, Creflo Dollar- Tony Robbins-Carlton Sheets convention Atlantic City boardwalk way of life.
Most everyone in the USA are pathetically self loathing enough to want to tan themselves raw and rusty orange as they glow even at dusk and carcinoma throws a party in their melanin. They want tits bigger than their heads so illogically placed on anorexic chests that they look like Biodomes on a desert floor. They want flounder lips and ass implants and big blotchy blue tattoos of obscenely gaudy crosses on their biceps to remind everyone that they worship "him" as much as the gym. Vericose veins under a 69 year old's petrified and bruised orange thighs are highlighted by white bikini bottoms with fringe, you know... Most everyone could give a shit about the ozone as long as their hair spikes and teases perfectly and they got the right Ed Hardy party to be at. Their teeth are capped, their texts are tight and their IQs are off the charts(meaning they never got on).
Most people could be entertained by a tone deaf organ grinder/serial killer with 11 children if he had rock hard abs and had his own reality show where he was trying to find love among bloodsucking dirty jersey girls who were fashion school ugly ducklings now trash talking in broken ebonic swans who pick fights with people in fat suits on an obstacle courses made of rubber facades and things found on an island if you waved a 100 dollar bill in their face or promised them a spin off season right after the tribe spoke while moving that bus.
Most people buy Daughtry/Kenny Chesney/Jimmy Buffet/David Cook/Doobie Brother/Steve Miller/Dave Matthews/Boyz II Men/Big and Rich/Poison/Sponge/Nickelback/Harry Connick/Creedence Clearwater Revisited/Linkin Park/Black Eyed Peas/Tribute to Sublime/George Thoroughgood/Blink 182/Manhattan Transfer/Temptations/Good Charlotte/yellowcard/Featuring members of Bachman Turner Overdrive/Kid Rock/Bon Jovi/Jonas Brothers/George Strait/Hinder/Lyle Lovett/Saliva/Incubus and 3 Doors Down tickets and know it as music and laugh at Carrot Top/Dane Cook/the Wayans Brothers/Louie Anderson/ Bill Engvall/Ron White/Jim Belushi/George Lopez/Paula Poundstone/Ellen deGeneres/Jay Leno/Sinbad/Larry The Cable Guy and Jeff Foxworthy and know it as comedy.
Most people trust Ryan Seacrest, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, The Sham Wow Guy, Ron Popeil, Emeril Lagasse, Bill O Reilly, Terry Bradshaw, Rick Dees, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Shaquille O Neal, Tom Brady, Casey Kasem, Billy Bush, Lauren Conrad, Tyra Banks, Rob Sheffield, Jimmy Johnson,Wayne Brady, Heidi Klum, Maury Povich,Frank Rich,Pete Hammond, Heidi Montag and the Gosselins to make their decisions for them.
Most people in the USA smoke while they eat, smoke in the rain, smoke at the pool, smoke between train cars, smoke at the beach(one huge ashtray) smoke after working out, smoke at my sister's calling hours(she died of lung cancer) smoke on motorcycles, while mowing the lawn, while taking a shit, while leaving a shit, smoke before and after church, smoke before, during and after pregnancy, smoke while hooked up to a breathe machine, smoke through blowholes, smoke with wrinkly elephantine grey skin and curdled up fingers through nicotine stained mustaches and fogged up glasses on park benches, around campfires and candy stores, while hunting and bowling and walking and laughing and coughing and hurling and dancing and dying in line for lotto tickets, or at OTB.
My neck hurts from shaking my head, my brain hurts from dreaming up plans for elimination, my eyes hurt from staring in disbelief, my throat hurts for cursing under my breath. My shoulders hurt from either shrugging in excess or because I missed a spot with the SPF 15.
And now my fingers hurt from typing.
Some people are good.
Show me where to find them.
Let me bring my family, a good book, an 80 gig ipod, a pen and some anti-depressants.
I wouldn't mind access to pale ales, an animal sanctuary and some balmy, boogie- board free water, either.
Thank You...I must go now. The men in the white uniforms are coming.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Heartless Bastards- The Mountain
I haven't given any lady rockers props in a long time. I guess I'm just as hard on female vocalists as I am for the males. I look for vocalists who stand out...so many female chick rock vocalists sound the same (sorry, in my opinion I see no difference between Amy Mann,Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, Meredith Brooks,Kristen Hersh,Juliana Hatfield and Ani Difranco. Even much hyped ladies Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) or St. Vincent have voices that are very strong, but just don't take me anywhere. I'm talking VOICES. One of a kind voices like Aretha, Stevie Nicks, Janis, Joni...even Bjork are very hard to find..but I found one in Erika Wennerstrom from the band Heartless Bastards. She has an amazing voice that teeters in and out of decipherability blossoming with wear and tear, shaky depth and sadness that just hooked me when I heard this album recently. Here is a video of a live session featuring the title track to their latest album "The Mountain" :
Let me know what you think and give me any suggestions you may have on where to look for more one of a kind female voices.
Let me know what you think and give me any suggestions you may have on where to look for more one of a kind female voices.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Soundgarden Guitarist Comes Out Of His Rusty Cage
Kim Thayil, guitarist for the decade defunct Soundgarden, has resurfaced to grant Rolling Stone an interview. He talks about a long awaited box set and the possibility of a reunion. Soundgarden was my tour guide with a flashlight through the dark 90s. Maybe Kim, Ben and Matt can do a drive by sucker punch at Timbaland's house and drag Cornell out of there to make this happen...so I can give my flannel some purpose again. here are some excerpts :
What have you been up to since Soundgarden's split?
Mostly I've done session stuff with friends now and then. Most of the time, I've declined opportunities to play live, record or form bands. Just keeping it a little bit "lower," so I have time to do other things besides be on the road [laughs]. I think the one I've enjoyed the most is sitting in on the Altar sessions with Sunn O))) and Boris. There's a sort of pop-grunge singer from Japan, a woman named Aya, that was being produced by Adam Kasper. Matt Cameron and Krist Novoselic also played on that record, and I played solos on five songs. The album [titled Senjou no Hana] was only released in Japan. Spent a long time mixing that No WTO Combo record [Live from the Battle in Seattle, with Novoselic and ex-Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra]. Also, the work I did with Steve Fisk — both with Pigeonhed and the last solo Steve Fisk record, 999 Levels of Undo, I wrote some parts and came up with some leads. Besides working with the guys from Sunn O))) and Boris, I really like the work I've done with Steve Fisk. Believe it or not, in the early '90s, I did some TV commercial soundtrack with Steve! It was a Christmas spot — lots of weird, chaotic noise — for a retail store.
Looking back, what's your favorite Soundgarden album and why?
I think I have three albums that stand out for different reasons. Screaming Life is distinctly different with Jack Endino's production and our original songs from that period that Hiro [Yamamoto, original bassist] played on. I just like those songs, and the sound of the production — the ambience and the feel. Just the way the room sounds. We recorded that at Reciprocal Studios, which a lot of early Sub Pop records were recorded at, including Nirvana, Mudhoney and Tad.
And Superunknown. Once again, it's the ambience — the implied and created room. And I like the material and the performances very much. There's a dark feel to it that is powerful, and is great with headphones on. Badmotorfinger I love because it sounds great in a car. It's got a lot of weird quirks in it — as is typical with Soundgarden. We always added that element of crazy and weird. We had an ability to not take ourselves too seriously, while committing to the heaviness. Sort of like laughing while kicking your ass.
What exactly is the status of the much talked about Soundgarden box set of B sides and unreleased material?
It's a matter of just working with the record company. Y'know, a year or two after we disbanded, A&M Records disbanded — it got bought, and all of our friends there got fired. The record company dissolving and our management company dissolving put a big hit on Soundgarden's catalog and merchandise. I think our merchandising catalog suffered quite a bit due to neglect from the record company and management. Which wasn't intentional, it's just the record company was gone and the management company wound up being a P.O. Box and a voicemail.
Basically, a box set slowly and surely will happen. We need communication with the band, our record label and management. I really cannot emphasis my apologies to all our fans worldwide — it pisses me off to no end that you can't walk into a mall, go to the local head shop or record store, and find a Soundgarden T-shirt or poster. It bugs the hell out of me, and everyone in the band. Just be patient — nobody's more bugged about it than I am. It's all inertia, if it's a big giant stone wheel, it comes down a hill really fast. But it goes up a hill very slow. Right now, it's at the bottom of the hill, and we've got to push it back up.
What will be on the box set?
Stuff that was released only in Europe, Australia, and Japan, on movie soundtracks, sessions we did for John Peel in England, and then stuff that was never released — demo versions of things, alternate versions of songs, and songs that were recorded, but never released in any form, that we would simply have to mix and maybe re-edit, which would be like brand new Soundgarden songs. Songs that no one's heard, except for maybe a few people close to Soundgarden's circle.
What are some titles of these unreleased tracks?
"Dirty Candy," "Ocean Fronts," "Open Up," "Summation" — that was a pretty heavy song, in 5/4 time. "Ocean Fronts" is a little bit more of a trippy, arpeggiated song. A song called "Beast," which is going to sound exactly like the title. "Beast" and "Summation" were really strong songs live — from the mid-late '80s. I cannot believe those two songs have never been released. "No Shame" is another title. There's enough stuff out there to fill up three or four albums. There's enough original stuff that's been released but hasn't been compiled — B sides — to make an album. There's enough covers to make an album. There's enough remixes that Moby, Steve Fisk and Bill Rieflin did, that could constitute a pretty interesting EP. There's enough unreleased stuff to make an album. It's just getting the business and creative machine on the same page.
Ben told me he thinks that if Soundgarden were to get back together, you guys could pick up exactly where you left off.
I think he's right. We all play enough and are acquainted with the material enough that I think it would take a few rehearsals. When Ben, Matt, and I got together with Tad, it was like falling off our bike and getting back on.
That said, could Soundgarden ever reunite?
People would have to want to. I think more importantly, tending to the merchandising catalog is something that would be satisfying for the band members and for the fans. I never say never ... but I'm not losing too much sleep over it, either.
I've been losing sleep over it since 1997. Help a grunge brutha out, Kim.
What have you been up to since Soundgarden's split?
Mostly I've done session stuff with friends now and then. Most of the time, I've declined opportunities to play live, record or form bands. Just keeping it a little bit "lower," so I have time to do other things besides be on the road [laughs]. I think the one I've enjoyed the most is sitting in on the Altar sessions with Sunn O))) and Boris. There's a sort of pop-grunge singer from Japan, a woman named Aya, that was being produced by Adam Kasper. Matt Cameron and Krist Novoselic also played on that record, and I played solos on five songs. The album [titled Senjou no Hana] was only released in Japan. Spent a long time mixing that No WTO Combo record [Live from the Battle in Seattle, with Novoselic and ex-Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra]. Also, the work I did with Steve Fisk — both with Pigeonhed and the last solo Steve Fisk record, 999 Levels of Undo, I wrote some parts and came up with some leads. Besides working with the guys from Sunn O))) and Boris, I really like the work I've done with Steve Fisk. Believe it or not, in the early '90s, I did some TV commercial soundtrack with Steve! It was a Christmas spot — lots of weird, chaotic noise — for a retail store.
Looking back, what's your favorite Soundgarden album and why?
I think I have three albums that stand out for different reasons. Screaming Life is distinctly different with Jack Endino's production and our original songs from that period that Hiro [Yamamoto, original bassist] played on. I just like those songs, and the sound of the production — the ambience and the feel. Just the way the room sounds. We recorded that at Reciprocal Studios, which a lot of early Sub Pop records were recorded at, including Nirvana, Mudhoney and Tad.
And Superunknown. Once again, it's the ambience — the implied and created room. And I like the material and the performances very much. There's a dark feel to it that is powerful, and is great with headphones on. Badmotorfinger I love because it sounds great in a car. It's got a lot of weird quirks in it — as is typical with Soundgarden. We always added that element of crazy and weird. We had an ability to not take ourselves too seriously, while committing to the heaviness. Sort of like laughing while kicking your ass.
What exactly is the status of the much talked about Soundgarden box set of B sides and unreleased material?
It's a matter of just working with the record company. Y'know, a year or two after we disbanded, A&M Records disbanded — it got bought, and all of our friends there got fired. The record company dissolving and our management company dissolving put a big hit on Soundgarden's catalog and merchandise. I think our merchandising catalog suffered quite a bit due to neglect from the record company and management. Which wasn't intentional, it's just the record company was gone and the management company wound up being a P.O. Box and a voicemail.
Basically, a box set slowly and surely will happen. We need communication with the band, our record label and management. I really cannot emphasis my apologies to all our fans worldwide — it pisses me off to no end that you can't walk into a mall, go to the local head shop or record store, and find a Soundgarden T-shirt or poster. It bugs the hell out of me, and everyone in the band. Just be patient — nobody's more bugged about it than I am. It's all inertia, if it's a big giant stone wheel, it comes down a hill really fast. But it goes up a hill very slow. Right now, it's at the bottom of the hill, and we've got to push it back up.
What will be on the box set?
Stuff that was released only in Europe, Australia, and Japan, on movie soundtracks, sessions we did for John Peel in England, and then stuff that was never released — demo versions of things, alternate versions of songs, and songs that were recorded, but never released in any form, that we would simply have to mix and maybe re-edit, which would be like brand new Soundgarden songs. Songs that no one's heard, except for maybe a few people close to Soundgarden's circle.
What are some titles of these unreleased tracks?
"Dirty Candy," "Ocean Fronts," "Open Up," "Summation" — that was a pretty heavy song, in 5/4 time. "Ocean Fronts" is a little bit more of a trippy, arpeggiated song. A song called "Beast," which is going to sound exactly like the title. "Beast" and "Summation" were really strong songs live — from the mid-late '80s. I cannot believe those two songs have never been released. "No Shame" is another title. There's enough stuff out there to fill up three or four albums. There's enough original stuff that's been released but hasn't been compiled — B sides — to make an album. There's enough covers to make an album. There's enough remixes that Moby, Steve Fisk and Bill Rieflin did, that could constitute a pretty interesting EP. There's enough unreleased stuff to make an album. It's just getting the business and creative machine on the same page.
Ben told me he thinks that if Soundgarden were to get back together, you guys could pick up exactly where you left off.
I think he's right. We all play enough and are acquainted with the material enough that I think it would take a few rehearsals. When Ben, Matt, and I got together with Tad, it was like falling off our bike and getting back on.
That said, could Soundgarden ever reunite?
People would have to want to. I think more importantly, tending to the merchandising catalog is something that would be satisfying for the band members and for the fans. I never say never ... but I'm not losing too much sleep over it, either.
I've been losing sleep over it since 1997. Help a grunge brutha out, Kim.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Reviewing An Instrumental Band
The other night I had to review a show. My dream job is to actually get paid to review shows, befriend bands or make them pariahs of the scene. That comes later. But for now, I am the east coast concert reviewer for www.mxdwn.com. I get to see shows for free(that is how I'm paid) and review them(works for me). The band I went to see was Tortoise..an instrumental rock/funk/fusion...no, jazzy/electronica/calypso..no free form/indie/math based band. A very good band whose been around since the 80s and many may say are responsible for the term "post-rock".
There was a slight problem. Trivial as it may be. They are an instrumental band and mood is conveyed with conviction through their songs and the lack of words such songs tend to have. I take notes at shows with my Moleskine pad. Its small enough to fit in my back pocket. I usually rely on song lyrics and structure to set up my framework for the review. I have to burn off wordy calories and get my review down to a fighting weight of 275 words or so. Let me get to the point. How do you review a show FOR THE MASSES when the show is instrumental and you don't know the titles of the songs???
I thought of reviewers everywhere who cover jazz and classical and what their plan of attack was....with no words, no frontman and no real verbal interaction with the paying public to use as a foundation for their review. But those reviewers are usually academics who research hours of taped performances beforehand and know one movement from another. I'm a moody rock singer who loves to criticize everything. I could only come up with one method of getting this assignment done, and lets just say I'm gonna need a Plan B.
I went the free thought route and just wrote what I "saw" as I listened to Tortoise plow throw an unclassifiable set. I will now share with you what I wrote for "songs" #4 and #6 as they happened in real time.
#4 : huge crowd response
2112 alarm : HAL in a panic
pod doors close
Medeski Martin and Wood introduces to Keir Dullea
geiger counter of twin xylophones
bossa nova bee bite
metal detectors going off as tsunami waves crash the beach
#6: amphetamined high hat
Steely Dan Gaucho Rhodes intro
onward to SantanaDan
timbale turrets blasting beats over hipster headspace.
Breaks out and back into
souled out sacrifice asymmetrical
hair bobs and sways
THEN Heavy Beat Steady Bass
straight into LIVE EVIL guitar
Keys sound-asylum break
rhythm is beat of running inmates
heartbeat lulls-we're in hiding
night is a blanket
we are out of sight
until the morning
we crawl out of the forest
re-live the pace- run toward freedom.
WOW... it just exhales off of the page(maybe not the screen) and I like it.
I'm a huge fan of Lester Bangs, the late great most awesomest rock critic of all time...most of you don't know who I'm talking about so go watch Almost Famous where Lester is portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman...or go read Let It Blurt by Jim Derogatis to get yerself up to speed if you care to.
Lester just "Let it Blurt" out of him as he wrote. Like a tape worm of quotes, vignettes, idol worship, Rock case studies and fascinating verbal diarrhea... Stream of Conciousness refined a little bit. You either loved him, hated him or misunderstood him.
I could never be Lester Bangs....but I like where I'm going with this. a review of an instrumental not quite jazz and not quite rock band whose latest album is called Beacons of Ancestorship and I don't know the song titles but I really like them anyhow and I let it loose as best I could.
If after one reads a review, they do not wish they were at that show, then I have not done my job.
Let me know if I've done my job.
I am up to 26 public followers now. Thank you followers....you make my work and fun worthwhile. Please comment once in a while. For anyone else ...FOLLOW ME in the far right column at the top. Love You Mean It.
Monday, July 20, 2009
2 Stories= Unbelievable.
From Blabbermouth comes this:
According to The Pulse of Radio, John Bonham's gong sold for $64,000 on July 6 to an anonymous buyer after failing to sell at auction. LedZeppelinNews.com reported that the gong was consigned by Bonham's sister, singer Deborah Bonham, and their mother, Joan Bonham. The instrument which was used by Bonham onstage, was purchased on July 6 by a buyer who wished to remain anonymous during an "after-sale" when the gong failed to sell as part of Bonhams and Butterfields Entertainment Memorabilia auction. The gong was originally thought to bring in a price as high as $120,000.
You mean to tell me the most famous GONG in history FAILED to sell at auction? Where was the auction, at a gong factory where all the gong makers are poor, blind asian day laborers? The first time I ever saw a gong was when Bonzo whalloped it into Submission during repeated viewings of The Song Remains The Same. This gong made hundreds of Hacky heavy metal drummers light theirs on fire before they hit it during the 25 minute drum solo that allowed the frontman to change into new spandex and snort a line or two backstage before coming out and doing the power ballad that made them famous!
And why do the Bonhams need to get rid of it? They surely don't need money do they? They can live comfortably off royalties from "When the Levee Breaks" alone, right? Was it taking up space in the garage where a new Beamer needed to go? How about donating it to a museum you bloodsuckers!
Here it is:
Here it was:
The second story is another one to file in the "Please let the dead guitar God rest dept.". Earlier this year I reported on an alleged confession from the shady manager of Jimi Hendrix named Mike Jeffrey in a new book by former roadie James "Tappy" Wright that says Jeffrey had the guitar icon murdered for the insurance money . Now comes claims from a UK website stating that the doctor who treated Hendrix after his "overdose" says the "murder" part may be true. Here is the story courtesy of Nightwatcher's House of Rock....
Doctor Who Tried To Save Hendrix Says Murder Claim Plausible
The UK's Times Online is reporting that the doctor who attempted to revive Jimi Hendrix on the night that the guitarist died believes that it is “plausible” that he was murdered.
John Bannister said that medical evidence was consistent with claims in a book that Hendrix was killed on the orders of his manager, Mike Jeffery.
James “Tappy” Wright, a former road manager who worked for Jeffery, as previously reported writes in his new memoir, Rock Roadie, that in the early hours of September 18, 1970, a gang hired by Jeffery broke into the London hotel room where Hendrix was staying with his girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, and forced sleeping pills and wine down his throat until he drowned.
Mr Bannister was the on-call registrar at the now defunct St Mary Abbots Hospital in Kensington on the morning that Hendrix was brought in. He had no idea who the famous patient was but remembers that he was “very long”. Mr Bannister, 67, speaking at his home in Sydney, said: “He was hanging over the table we had him on by about ten inches.”
t was apparent from the start that Hendrix had probably arrived too late for the medical staff to save him. “When you are in casualty, one always tries very hard to resuscitate people. There’s always a hope. We worked very hard for about half an hour but there was no response at all. It really was an exercise in futility,” said Mr Bannister. “Somebody said to me ‘You know who that was?. That was Jimi Hendrix’ and, of course, I said, ‘Who’s Jimi Hendrix?’.”
Mr Wright’s description of what had happened to Hendrix “sounded plausible because of the volume of wine”, Mr Bannister said. What struck him most about the unusually tall patient was that he was drenched in alcohol. “The amount of wine that was over him was just extraordinary. Not only was it saturated right through his hair and shirt but his lungs and stomach were absolutely full of wine. I have never seen so much wine. We had a sucker that you put down into his trachea, the entrance to his lungs and to the whole of the back of his throat.
We kept sucking him out and it kept surging and surging. He had already vomited up masses of red wine and I would have thought there was half a bottle of wine in his hair. He had really drowned in a massive amount of red wine.” According to the conventional account, Hendrix — one of the most charismatic guitarists in the history of rock — died at the age of 27 from choking on vomit after a drugs overdose. Wright, now 65, has stirred conspiracy theorists and Hendrix obsessives around the world with his alternative account of the guitarist’s demise. He claims that Jeffery confessed the murder to him a month before he died in an aircraft collision.
Dannemann, an ice-skating instructor-turned-drug addict, who many people suspected knew more about Hendrix’s death than she let on, committed suicide in 1996.
Wright contends that Jeffery, his old boss, was “a dangerous man” who had been in the Secret Service and flaunted his connections with organized crime. By 1970 he was heavily in debt and had fallen out with his star act who may have been looking to change management and whose behavior had become increasingly erratic as his drug taking reached uncontrolled levels.
In response Jeffery allegedly took out a $2 million life insurance policy on the guitarist. According to Wright, Jeffery told him that Hendrix was “worth more to him dead than alive”.
Mr Bannister returned to Australia in 1972 and practised as an orthopaedic surgeon until 1992, when he was deregistered in New South Wales for fraudulent conduct.
I love the british press....even a slow news day turn out tabloidish pablum. And check out the last sentence....this doc was deregistered for quackiness and wackiness. Quack is wack.
Hendrix died in 1970..he drank too much wine to wash down his barbituates. The strum stops there. If this story was true...wouldn't there be scratches or signs of a struggle? Or did Jimi just lay there while wine and pills were forced down his gullet? How does a sleeping man swallow? Allrighty then......now that we've cleared that up..
According to The Pulse of Radio, John Bonham's gong sold for $64,000 on July 6 to an anonymous buyer after failing to sell at auction. LedZeppelinNews.com reported that the gong was consigned by Bonham's sister, singer Deborah Bonham, and their mother, Joan Bonham. The instrument which was used by Bonham onstage, was purchased on July 6 by a buyer who wished to remain anonymous during an "after-sale" when the gong failed to sell as part of Bonhams and Butterfields Entertainment Memorabilia auction. The gong was originally thought to bring in a price as high as $120,000.
You mean to tell me the most famous GONG in history FAILED to sell at auction? Where was the auction, at a gong factory where all the gong makers are poor, blind asian day laborers? The first time I ever saw a gong was when Bonzo whalloped it into Submission during repeated viewings of The Song Remains The Same. This gong made hundreds of Hacky heavy metal drummers light theirs on fire before they hit it during the 25 minute drum solo that allowed the frontman to change into new spandex and snort a line or two backstage before coming out and doing the power ballad that made them famous!
And why do the Bonhams need to get rid of it? They surely don't need money do they? They can live comfortably off royalties from "When the Levee Breaks" alone, right? Was it taking up space in the garage where a new Beamer needed to go? How about donating it to a museum you bloodsuckers!
Here it is:
Here it was:
The second story is another one to file in the "Please let the dead guitar God rest dept.". Earlier this year I reported on an alleged confession from the shady manager of Jimi Hendrix named Mike Jeffrey in a new book by former roadie James "Tappy" Wright that says Jeffrey had the guitar icon murdered for the insurance money . Now comes claims from a UK website stating that the doctor who treated Hendrix after his "overdose" says the "murder" part may be true. Here is the story courtesy of Nightwatcher's House of Rock....
Doctor Who Tried To Save Hendrix Says Murder Claim Plausible
The UK's Times Online is reporting that the doctor who attempted to revive Jimi Hendrix on the night that the guitarist died believes that it is “plausible” that he was murdered.
John Bannister said that medical evidence was consistent with claims in a book that Hendrix was killed on the orders of his manager, Mike Jeffery.
James “Tappy” Wright, a former road manager who worked for Jeffery, as previously reported writes in his new memoir, Rock Roadie, that in the early hours of September 18, 1970, a gang hired by Jeffery broke into the London hotel room where Hendrix was staying with his girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, and forced sleeping pills and wine down his throat until he drowned.
Mr Bannister was the on-call registrar at the now defunct St Mary Abbots Hospital in Kensington on the morning that Hendrix was brought in. He had no idea who the famous patient was but remembers that he was “very long”. Mr Bannister, 67, speaking at his home in Sydney, said: “He was hanging over the table we had him on by about ten inches.”
t was apparent from the start that Hendrix had probably arrived too late for the medical staff to save him. “When you are in casualty, one always tries very hard to resuscitate people. There’s always a hope. We worked very hard for about half an hour but there was no response at all. It really was an exercise in futility,” said Mr Bannister. “Somebody said to me ‘You know who that was?. That was Jimi Hendrix’ and, of course, I said, ‘Who’s Jimi Hendrix?’.”
Mr Wright’s description of what had happened to Hendrix “sounded plausible because of the volume of wine”, Mr Bannister said. What struck him most about the unusually tall patient was that he was drenched in alcohol. “The amount of wine that was over him was just extraordinary. Not only was it saturated right through his hair and shirt but his lungs and stomach were absolutely full of wine. I have never seen so much wine. We had a sucker that you put down into his trachea, the entrance to his lungs and to the whole of the back of his throat.
We kept sucking him out and it kept surging and surging. He had already vomited up masses of red wine and I would have thought there was half a bottle of wine in his hair. He had really drowned in a massive amount of red wine.” According to the conventional account, Hendrix — one of the most charismatic guitarists in the history of rock — died at the age of 27 from choking on vomit after a drugs overdose. Wright, now 65, has stirred conspiracy theorists and Hendrix obsessives around the world with his alternative account of the guitarist’s demise. He claims that Jeffery confessed the murder to him a month before he died in an aircraft collision.
Dannemann, an ice-skating instructor-turned-drug addict, who many people suspected knew more about Hendrix’s death than she let on, committed suicide in 1996.
Wright contends that Jeffery, his old boss, was “a dangerous man” who had been in the Secret Service and flaunted his connections with organized crime. By 1970 he was heavily in debt and had fallen out with his star act who may have been looking to change management and whose behavior had become increasingly erratic as his drug taking reached uncontrolled levels.
In response Jeffery allegedly took out a $2 million life insurance policy on the guitarist. According to Wright, Jeffery told him that Hendrix was “worth more to him dead than alive”.
Mr Bannister returned to Australia in 1972 and practised as an orthopaedic surgeon until 1992, when he was deregistered in New South Wales for fraudulent conduct.
I love the british press....even a slow news day turn out tabloidish pablum. And check out the last sentence....this doc was deregistered for quackiness and wackiness. Quack is wack.
Hendrix died in 1970..he drank too much wine to wash down his barbituates. The strum stops there. If this story was true...wouldn't there be scratches or signs of a struggle? Or did Jimi just lay there while wine and pills were forced down his gullet? How does a sleeping man swallow? Allrighty then......now that we've cleared that up..
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