1st Concert First concert experience: It was the summer of 1971, and I was such an innocent nerdy 16 year old scholar that my mom let me take the family Econoline van anywhere I wanted. So I drove from our house in Los Altos (now Silicon Valley) to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for a free Hot Tuna outdoor concert. I was desperate to shed my nerd skin and was in love with psychedelic music and the hippie image. This was my chance for full immersion. Hot Tuna, featuring Jorma and Jack from Jefferson Airplane and cosmic fiddler Papa John Creach, was the alpha and omega of psychedelia and blues. This was a journey to Mecca. San Francisco was, of course, locked in a chilly summer gray. The streets around Golden Gate park were gray, and the longhairs in levi jackets were hunched against the cold. They seemed a bit worn, older, harder looking that the photos in Life Magazine from the Summer of Love three years earlier. Professional, somehow. I merged into the crowd, feeling fraudulent amidst ghosts of the dream. I barely remember the music. Joints were being passed around. I was terrified one would be passed to me. My nerdiness was my shield, and no weed came my way. I left the park sensing with finality that I'd missed the wave. In my disappointment I couldn't imagine what could come next. The drugs, music, and wandering would soon come in abundance, but without the meaning of the Movement. Forty years later, I'm still searching the landscape for psychedelia, the earth mama, the joint passed in pastoral circle, the signs that the corporate monolith is cracking from the roots of a giant tree where we will all gather. My first record was Earthworm Ensemble. Paul Lacques leads the band Double-Naught Spy Car, and plays with I See Hawks In L.A. Another Fein MessAF Stone’s Monthly February 2010 The Best I first noticed the madness of best-of’s in, oh, 1974 when Rolling Stone put out a book “The Best Rock & Roll Concerts Of All Time.” I wondered what they were talking about. The best concert of all time was Jerry Lee Lewis at the Chicago Opera House in 1957. I was there. So, then what were these people writing about? They were talking, each individual, about the most fun THEY ever had. Does that mean it was the best? Not hardly. Comes now the turnaround ... Having said the preceding, I state incontrovertibly that our Elvis show Jan 8 at the Echoplex was the greatest show ever held on this planet. Second best show was last year’s, going back to the first one on Jan 8, 1987 at the Music Machine. And strangely, in defiance of logic, each one was better than the other! This is an underground event. The Times didn’t list it (tho lauding a screening of two Elvis shows two nights after his bday) and once-reliable Steve Edwards didn’t mention it on the morning news. So the word is spread by love, and Jonny Whiteside at the L.A. Weekly. You had to search for it, like a club in New York - only here, once you find it we don’t bar the door. Who had this much fun at an Elvis celebration? Who? The hundreds of us laughed and smiled and jumped for joy from beginning to end. Elvis Show Notes There was a mixup between Candye Kane and Ronee Blakley that led right up to showtime, but both held forth wonderfully, Candye also duetting with swain Skip Heller. Big Manny and Barry Holdship were regretful last-minute drop-outs. Lisa Finnie did “Big Hunk Of Love” as a ballad. Jimmy Angel, the only person on hand who was at Humes High with Elvis, flew in from Tokyo for the event. Ronnie Mack returned as co-host after sitting it out for 12 years. The two bands that dipped into psychobilly each included a member of the late Saddle Sores. Two bands did ‘Paralyzed,’ but the Church Keys kept ‘I’m gay every morning’ in while Lightnin’ Willie bowdlerized it. The Dusk Devils did the Wanda Jackson version of ‘Party’ which softens the original “Everybody come and taste the possum papa shot.” Michelle Shocked appeared in a bowler hat like Charlie Chaplin and did cabaret versions of two songs. Glen Glenn has missed the last two years owing to health problems including the loss of one kidney. Likewise, Doug Fieger could not make it. Carlos Guitarlos was .... The Echoplex is a marvelous venue; the video projections combined both the act onstage and Elvis footage in miraculous malanges. But it isn’t marked and I know a few people who gave up trying to find it. Located under Sunset Blvd where you don’t really know you’re on a bridge (Glendale Blvd tunnels beneath it) the club is up an alley so doesn’t face the street. The show ran from 8:15 til 12:45 with about 30 acts. City Councilman Tom Labonge was on hand, but didn’t get onstage and sing: he did, however, bring Chi Chi from “Grease” in his party. The charity money goes to the L.A. Fire Dept. Fallen Firefighters Memorial Fund and the West Hollywood Food Bank. Highlights were many, but my thrill was finding the solution for forgetting to bring Elvis CDs (originally, tapes) to play between sets. Many’s the year we heard the Who or the Futon Clang. I forgot it again this year, but the engineer said “Do you have an iPod?” and he hooked it up and we were 100% Elvis. Cable-carrier Time-Warner has announced it will cease supplying Public Access channels to the public on January 1st, in violation of its predecessors' contract with the city. “That's why we pay lawyers” said Time-Warner president Slime McButt. "To hell with the public. We just raise prices. Fewer services means more money for us.” The Poker Party, and the history of rock-talk tv prior to Elvis Costello’s show.(Full guest list at the end. For highlights of the show go to sofeinvideo on youtube.)
Poker Party Memories: Eddie “The Old Philosopher” Lawrence, Dr. Demento, Todd Everett, Art Fein /Oct 10, 1991 The original name, Li’l Art’s Poker Party, was a record-collector reference: Li’l Wally’s Polka Party records were in every thrift-store bin. In 1995, nobody getting the Li’l Wally reference, I switched to Art Fein’s Poker Party, a name equally senseless because we had dropped the poker motif because they stopped letting us smoke cigars. Over 25 years (one month short: last show December 9, 2008) we drew new and not-so bands and music figures to our den, which shifted among studios in Santa Monica, Atwater, Hollywood, Van Nuys and Downey (and a few times in San Francisco and Austin). The regular crew has included Paul Body, Phast Phreddie, Hudson Marquez, Gene Sculatti, Bob Merlis, Davin Seay, Mark Leviton, Elvis Mitchell, Sid Griffin, Neal McCabe, Domenic Priore, Jim Dawson, Dr. Demento, Skip Heller, Allen Larman, Art Laboe, Dave Stuckey, Johnny Legend, Rip Masters, Steve Roeser, Harvey Sid Fisher, Swamp Dogg and Dick Blackburn. Music/art journalist Kristine McKenna was also a charter member, but grew weary of what she considered being picked on. There was more than a grain of truth to this, but that’s what she got for being published in the paper so often. Besides, we picked on each other relentlessly; she was, literally and figuratively, thin-skinned. Also, Al Kooper, Dave Alvin, Ian Whitcomb and Billy Swan were frequent guests.Poker Party Memories: Steve Allen, Art Fein, Mark Leviton Aug 13, 1992
Poker Party Memories: Spirit, Art Fein /Feb 16, 1993 The idea caught on elsewhere. In 1985, some guys in Chicago debuted a sports talk show revolving around playing poker. Then in the early 1990s VH1 debuted Four On The Floor, a music talk show featuring a roundtable of rock critics. They could have benefited from my ‘secret’ knowledge that rock crits are crashing bores, but the producers acknowledged me only by telling applicants “It’s just like Art Fein’s show.” The show died under its own weight. In 1996 a VH1 wanted a music talk show that included newspaper stuff. I sent them a demo tape but heard back nothing. Soon their veejays began asking “What was your first record?” and “What was your first concert” in their interviews, taken from my demo. This horrified me. A blonde asked Michael Richards what his first record was and he said “Wild One by Bobby Darin.” I designed this question as a jumping-off point to expand and talk, but the blonde just bobbed her head like it was empty. I would have said “You mean Bobby Rydell, Kramer!” The greatest guest, for me, was Stan Freberg, my lifelong idol. Oh yes, and the guys from Gold Star recording studio. Oh, I forgot to mention Swamp Dogg singing the soulful “We Need A Revolution.” And did I mention nineteen shows with Doug Fieger? Our Joe Strummer interview made it, in part, into a recent documentary. Four shows with Larry Geller told me plenty about Elvis. We had drummers Preston Epps and Hal Blaine. Marshall Crenshaw was my co-host interviewing Earl Palmer. Andrew Oldham. Billy Boy Arnold. Brian Wilson. Screamin' Jay Hawkins. The only people I wanted but never got were John Fogerty and Little Richard. And the bands. I was awestruck by Alison Krauss and Union Station but did not get on my knees and say, Wayne-like, “I’m not worthy,” though I felt it. The folk duo of Gibson & Camp was an honor above most. Arthur Lee’s appearance, with a band, was pretty good but tense. Local Kentucky transplant Dwight Yoakam was on at Dave Alvin’s insistence in 1985 and, as Dwight tells it, it was the tipping point for his being signed to Warner Bros Records after the president saw him on the show. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, whom ‘we guys’ flew into L.A. for a New Years party, got movie roles afer being seen on the show in 1987 and 1988. Mel Brooks had it right when he said “It’s good to be king.” The show has run also in Woodstock, Chicago, Nashville, Austin, and other places. I still send shows to Seattle, Monterey, and New York City.
Poker Party Memories: Todd Everett, “Teenage” Steve Douglas, Art Fein /Sep 2, 1992 People who know only our youtube clips miss out on the talk. Out of the thousand-plus shows, at least 600 are talk-only. It was record-bent gab about news and history and music with prompts taken from newspapers and notes. The occasional silences or talkovers (I began shushing talkers - on tv when more than one person speaks it’s unintelligible) or people walking in front of the camera added to its casualness and realness. Another constant facet was positivity. Though I made cutting remarks to my friends they were always on the right side of rude (mmmm...) because I respected them and expected the same back; it was sparring. My attitude on the show was the same as in the column, anti-negativity. We would ridicule writers who positioned themselves above musicians, an inversion which appears too much in newspapers. Since the musicians can’t respond we did it for them. Reverence for music was our way. We sought few actors. My campaign was to honor and promote music in a town known for movies. But John Davis Chandler was one I wanted. He was a raving street-gang leader in The Young Savages and also did serious roles, though I liked him best playing madmen, as in the Ann Margret/ Alain Delon movie ‘Once A Thief’ and the Mickey Spillane episode of Columbo. I met him on the street and asked him to lunch with the guys. He came and told us some great stories. Then the day of the show I got a call from The Legendary Stardust Cowboy saying he was in town so I scheduled him for the show immediately. I called Chandler and said I had to postpone, but after that he declined to ever come on again. Every 5 years I still run into him and he re-declines. Last time, outside Trader Joe’s in Toluca Lake, he said he was no longer in acting. I took that to mean he wasn’t getting studio calls and urged him to do the show - What actor doesn’t want to talk about himself?Poker Party Non-Memories: “Refusenik” John Davis Chandler, Dick Blackburn, Art Fein, Canter's Deli, L.A./1988 Another actor I wanted was John Dahl, of “Rope” and “Gun Crazy,” but I was slow in contacting him; he died. I got Darwin Joston, the prisoner in ‘Assault On Precinct 13.’ And the actor I wanted most, Timothy Carey, guested eleven times. They died too. It is important to acknowledge that the show could not have endured without the financial help of Dan and Fred Bourgouise of Bug Music and Richard Foos of Rhino Records. Their stipends carried me through the tough times. I’m glad some of the highlights are going into cyberspace on youtube, and hope that someday, when I’m gone, the whole shebang is archived and studied - after all, we reflected not only music but also the political and social stuff that was going on. The city of Los Angeles is supposed to take over the reins of Public Access, but that’s the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell. I’m sent out to pasture. Hope it’s as good as they say. Art Fein, December 2008Poker Party Memories: Willie Dixon, Art Fein/ July 20, 1990 HISTORY. An alphabetical list of some of the guests on Art Fein’s Poker Party, 1984 - 2008 A-Bones, Lee Allen, Steve Allen, Allan Arkush, Dave Alvin, Phil Alvin, Jimmy Angel, Billy Boy Arnold, Brooks Arthur, Buddy Bailey (Clovers), Hank Ballard, Arthur Barrow, Paul Bartel, Harold Battiste, Lew Bedell (Era, Dore), Ed Begley Jr., Gil Bernal, Richard Berry, Big 6, Blowfly, Sam Bobrick, Donnie Brooks, Hal Blaine, Blasters, Pat Boone, Gypsy Boots, Delaney Bramlett, Billy Bremner, Arthur Brown, Eddie Brown (Joe & Eddie),Ruth Brown, Peter Buck, Eric Burdon, Randy California, Hamilton Camp, Ray Campi, Cannibal/ Headhunters, Freddy Cannon, Jerry Capehart, Tim Carey, Richard Carpenter, Peter Case, Del Casher, Buzz Cason, Willie Chambers, Len Chandler, Guy Chookoorian, Dave Clark, Buzz Clifford, Mike Clifford, Jerry Cole,The Collins Kids, Ray Condo, Chas Conner, Tim Considine, King Cotton, Cowboy Nation, Marshall Crenshaw, Chris D, Burton Cummings, Cherie Currie, Fred Darian, Chris Darrow, Spencer Davis, Ronnie Dawson, Willy De Ville, Pamela Des Barres, Dr. Demento,Jackie DeShannon, Levi Dexter, Billy Diamond, Jim Dickinson, Dion, disappear fear, Willie Dixon, “Teenage” Steve Douglas, Henry Diltz, Cleve Duncan, Kenny Edwards, Marshall Efron, Willie Egans, Robert Englund, Preston Epps, Tav Falco, Doug Fieger, Doris Fisher, Harvey Sid Fisher, Flash Cadillac, Flo & Eddie, Rosie Flores, Forbidden Pigs, Kim Fowley, Pete Frame, Stan Freberg, Freebo, Lowell Fulson, Jay Geils/Magic Dick, Geza X, Larry Geller, Gibson & Camp, Tony Gilkyson, Glen Glenn, Gerry Goffin, Barry Goldberg, Bobcat Goldthwait,John Gorka, Ronny Graham, Sid Griffin, Carlos Guitarlos, John Gummoe, Guitar Shorty, Peter Guralnik, Dirk Hamilton,Paul Hampton, Jimmie Haskell, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Ted Hawkins, Rev. Horton Heat, Heaters, Skip Heller, Bobby Hendricks, Carolyn Hester, Chuck Higgins, Dan Hicks, Chris Hillman Peter Holsapple, Jac Holzman, Smokey Hormel, Joe Houston, Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg, Garth Hudson, Danny Hutton, I See Hawks In L.A., Chris Isaak, Bull Moose Jackson, Wanda Jackson, Catherine James, Kris Jensen, Darwin Joston (”Assault On Precinct 13”), Paul Johnson (Bel Airs), Bruce Johnston, Don Julian, Steve Kalinich, Peter Kaukonen, Mathew King Kaufman, Carol Kaye, Scott Kempner, Nora Keyes, Terry Kirkman, Sneeky Pete Kleinow, Freddy Koella, Cub Koda, Al Kooper, Paul Krassner, Alison Krauss, Robby Krieger, Art Laboe, Eddie “The Old Philosopher” Lawrence, Arthur Lee, Johnny Legend, Lance LeGault, Bob Lind, Marcy Levy, Long Ryders, Joe Lutcher, Bob Lefsetz, Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Little Willie G, Los Straitjackets, Nick Lowe, Ronnie Mack, Jimmie Maddin, Jimmy Maslon, Rip Masters, Sammy Masters,Spanky McFarlane, Gerry McGee, Rod McKuen, Ian McLagan, Big Jay McNeely, Jack McVea, Huey Meaux, Barry Melton, Richard Meltzer, John Merrill, Dr. Millar/Nick Kelly, Katy Moffatt, Chris Montez, Mojo Monkeys, Miss Mercy, Mr. Morrison, Geoff Muldaur, Eddie Munoz, Mojo Nixon, Gene Norman, Andrew Loog Oldham, Carla Olson, Jimmy O’Neill, Shuggie Otis, Andy Paley, Earl Palmer, Panther Burns, Van Dyke Parks, Hank Penny, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Slim Jim Phantom, Johnny Powers, Don Randi, Brian Ray, Johnnie Ray, Russ Regan, Willie Restum, Lee Rocker, Roy Rogers (SF singer), Stan Ross/Dave Gold/Larry Levine (Goldstar Rec Studios), Junior Ryder, Kate St. John, Doug Sahm, Evie Sands, Tommy Sands, Joe Saraceno, Charles Schneider, Little Jimmy Scott, Brian Setzer, Charlie Sexton, Screamin’ Scott Simon, Skeletons, P.F. Sloan, Maj. Bill Smith, David Somerville (Diamonds), Southern Culture on The Skids, Chris Spedding, Sprague Bros., Terry Stafford, Mike Stinson, Cliffie Stone, Simon Stokes, Syd Straw, Joe Strummer, Swamp Dogg, Billy Swan, Shel Talmy, Howard Tate, Chip Taylor, Teddy & The Talltops, Nino Tempo, Rufus Thomas, 3 Balls of Fire, Nick Tosches, Treat Her Right, James Trussart, Ike Turner, Dwight Twilley, 2 Hoots & A Holler, Gary Usher, Sal Valentino, Randy Van Horn, Kenny Vance, Ben Vaughn, Nik Venet, Billy Vera, John Walker, Gordon Waller, Nigel Waymouth, Mary Woronov,Don Walser, Wavy Gravy, George Wendt, Ben Weisman, Chuck E. Weiss, Ian Whitcomb, Fred Willard, Paul Williams (Crawdaddy), Brian Wilson, Dwight Yoakam, Young Jessie, Candy Zappa, Billy Zoom
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