March 2011
1 post
Table of Contents
The Night I Beat Minnesota Fats (2/2/12)
After The Rumble And The Roar (1/20/12)
Bruce Lundvall & The Red-Headed Stranger (3/1/11)
Songwriting Can Be a Beast (10/5/10)
“I Feel Like Goin’ Home” - The Silver Fox Has Met His Bride (7/29/10)
The Lost Liner Notes from Sun Records’ Sam Phillips (7/15/10)
Living HIStory (6/8/10)
Social Networking Without A Net: The...
October 2010
4 posts
The Night I Beat Minnesota Fats
Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up. In the passing of the incomparable Etta James, whose music was the truth; mystery surrounds the folklore of who her father actually was. I might have encountered him once late one night…
Yeah, if you are of a certain age, you remember the legend, the folklore, and the tales of the infamous Rudolf Wanderone Jr. He was a character who became known through...
After The Rumble And The Roar…
One of my favorite people and favorite music journalists, Jim Bessman, tweeted a note marking the passing of Charlie Collins, the last surviving member of Roy Acuff’s Smokey Mountain Boys. It reminded me how often we brush near people in the music industry, but maybe never directly connect… and yet you have incredible connection.
Fact is I never met Charlie Collins. However, as a young...
Bruce & The Red-Headed Stranger
When I came to Nashville in the early ‘70’s, the Outlaw Music scene had long been percolating, but still had not become a commercial force in Nashville, and certainly not on a national level. Johnny Cash had launched a prime-time network television show that was more Middle America than outlaw. He was solidly ensconced in Hendersonville, TN, and though actively recording, seemed more into...
Songwriting Can Be a Beast
Back in 1972, I was extremely fortunate to land my first job at Record World magazine in Nashville, a music business trade publication that competed very successfully nationally with Billboard and Cashbox. I had worked for free for several months on their annual country music industry advertorial that came out that October. Today, we would call that an internship, but internships really didn’t...
March 2010
10 posts
“I Feel Like Goin’ Home" – The Silver Fox Has Met...
Most people probably don’t remember Charlie Rich today. It’s hard for me to fathom that the world is generally so unknowing. He was a soul and jazz singer who struggled through the late ‘50s and ‘60s trying to have a rock and roll career. Through his color and his age, he must have finally caved in to becoming a country singer. Charlie Rich was known as The Silver Fox.
Rich hooked up with...
The Lost Liner Notes from Sun Records’ Sam...
Back in 1978, after a couple of years in the music business in New York, a few of my friends in Nashville, kept urging me to come back. The artist management business was somewhat undeveloped there at the time. The major country artists often had managers in New York or LA. The bigger Nashville-based managers were, for the most part, considered purely country managers, who did not always have a...
Living HIStory
Maybe the key to short stories is in the word short. Keeping it short has always been a problem for me. However, in thinking about it recently, I came to the realization that the best short story I have ever written was just seven letters long…HIStory. I’ve reflected a lot over this past year following his death on the extraordinary opportunity that I had to know and work with Michael...
Ted Nugent: Parental Warnings Are Just Ducky
Pushing the boundaries of socially acceptable expression has been a controversy that has been fueled by the artistic community throughout history. Sculptures, writers, painters, poets, filmmakers and comedians have all pushed the envelope of the public comfort zone. Music, of course, has had its own prominence in expanding political discourse, inciting political change, and exploring...
Social Networking Without A Net: The Indigo...
The indigo girls, with no caps, always seemed to understate their success. Finding their audience looked easy, but before the advent of online marketing, the challenges were formidable. Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, in caps, have made significant contributions to contemporary music over the years through their folk, pop, rock harmonies, melodies and lyric. When Epic signed them in 1988,...
Baseball & The Curveball of Inspiration
Sometimes the great things we get from our efforts are more abstract and very different from what we expect. Sometimes what we think is inspiration is something else. And sometimes we inspire things that we aren’t even aware of. Back in the late ‘70’s, I had the opportunity to write songs with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and legend in the truest sense, Dion DiMucci. However, something...
David Allan Coe & The New York Times
May 26, 1971, was the first day I ever spent in Nashville. I finished my junior year of college in Pittsburgh, PA, and bought a one-way ticket on Eastern Airlines. That first night in Music City, I found my way to the Red Dog Saloon. The Red Dog was a hippy joint, for lack of a better description. It was located on Broadway, across from J.J.’s Market, on the corner across the street from...
Aerosmith: Die or Go to Jail (3/16/10)
Through the years, I was only involved with Aerosmith for a very short period over the course of late 1976 through the end of 1977, when I was VP for Leber-Krebs, Inc. management. Primarily, my role with them was to organize the music publishing companies, which had taken a backseat due to the extraordinary success that David Krebs had orchestrated on the touring front. David did ask me to...
The Clash Meet Their Record Company (3/1/10)
March 1, marks the 30th anniversary of The Clash’s first show on US soil. (Editor’s Note: Input from our readers dates this show earlier in Feb. 0f 1979) As their US product manager at Epic Records, I had the phenomenal opportunity to be at that show in Berkley, California. Although it has been well over 10,000 days and nights since that moment in my life, what I remember most about...
From The Mail Bag:
I have received a couple of hundred notes from old and new friends related to my first stories posted here. Thanks so much for all the encouragement! There were some particularly interesting comments that I’m posting here that add to the stories or correct my sometimes foggy recollections.
On The Clash:
From Wayne Forte: (Wayne also was the first agent to ever bring Sade to America)
Nice...
February 2010
7 posts
The Timeless Career of Sade (02/25/10)
How fantastic to see Sade return with the “Soldier of Love” album and Soundscan 501,000 the first week! A #1 debut and #1 second week on the charts… and only their sixth album in 26 years. I had the absolute pleasure of working with Sade (Helen Adu), Paul Denman , Stuart Mathewman, and Andrew Hale on their first four albums for Epic in America. The first two were actually on the Portrait...
From The Mail Bag: Sade
Here are a couple of posts on the Sade story:
From Ron McCarrell, former head of Marketing and my boss at that time:
Great story on Sade!
I remember poor Lee Barrett. When his deficiencies became so apparent, I was asked by Paul Russell (CBS UK MD) to sit in on a meeting in his office in London where me, Paul, and Helen fired Lee. It was emotionally devastating to him, because as you said...
Luther Vandross & The Picasso Tour (2/19/10)
Working with Luther Vandross could often be challenging to say the least. I am sure Daniel Marcus, Shep Gordon, Billy Bass, Jim Morey, Jeff Schock, and Alan Kovac could all tell some pretty eye-opening tales of how intense and difficult Luther could be!
I had the good fortune of working with Luther as head of marketing and directly as his product manager at Epic through the reign of all...
From The Mail Bag: Luther Vandross
From Billy Bass, who had one of the most successful experiences as Luther’s manager:
“Dan, Great idea and good writing. it was a pleasure working with you particularly on the “Power of Love” tour and album. Luther, Sinbad and the “Sounds of Blackness played every major city in America and Europe and it was a lot of fun.”
From Ron McCarrell, who was head of...
Fizz Or Fizzle??? (2/19/10)
My current issue on the future of the music business.
For better or worse, the major labels funded the career development process for recording artists for many years. Now that these labels are less able and/or less inclined the make the sustained investment in artist development, who is best position and who should pick up the artist development mantle? Is it the major live music...
To Fizz Or Not To Fizz: (2/18/10)
I have started the Music Bizz Fizz blog in answer to my many friends suggesting that I should “write the book” about my experiences in the music business over these many years. Upon exploring the many stories that I have, I am not sure exactly how they all fit together! And in thinking about them, I am always reminded of the many stories that so many of my old friends and associates have...
For Those Who Don’t Know Me...
I’ve written a little set-up to my background. I hope to post a new story every couple of weeks. When I start repeating myself…
Here’s A Start:
For over 45 years, my passion has been the music business in its various aspects. Like so many of my contemporaries, one Sunday night in 1963, we saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and the flame was lit for a lifetime. I was 13, but it...