Dean Goodman's Blog, page 7

George Harrison’s houses

It all started for George Harrison at No. 12 Arnold Grove in Liverpool, in 1943. He lived here until the age of 5 with his parents and three older siblings.

The modest dwelling is on a tiny street where parking and U-turns are virtually impossible. I would advise parking on one of the nearby streets and walking. There is not a hell of a lot to see, but you do get a sense of the, er, close-knit working-class neighborhood that enveloped George in his very early years at a time when England was bravely going through its finest hour. (Do not disturb the owners or neighbors!)

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And it ended here at Friar Park in Henley on Thames. (Well, actually, George died in Los Angeles. But he was very lucky not to die here in 1999 when an intruder smashed his way into the place.)

By 1969, having enjoyed some success in the music industry, George bought Friar Park, a decaying 120-room mansion in Henley on Thames. He devoted the rest of his life to the upkeep of the mansion and its wonderful gardens.

It’s still the family home for Olivia and their son Dhani. As she told me in 2007, “I often walk around here, say to Dhani, ‘Your Dad bought this place when he was 27.’ Who would do that? I wouldn’t even buy it now.”

The main house is not visible from the road. What you see below are various cottages on the estate. Parking was surprisingly easy, and you can walk up the very busy road to the end of the property.

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NOTE: Completely unrelated to the above story, my gossipy rock bio Strange Days: The Adventures of a Grumpy Rock ‘n’ Roll Journalist in Los Angeles is available here. For more info, go to strangedaysbook.com

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Published on September 16, 2015 07:10

The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” turns 50

(Click here Satisfaction turns 50 to buy the “Satisfaction” 12-inch vinyl reissue.)

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Back in 1985 when I was in my last year at boarding school and filled with the usual teen anxieties, one of my greatest fears was that the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” would pass without appropriate recognition. So I wrote to my local DJ to ask, among many other things, if the station planned to commemorate the milestone.

In his 2-page written response, he indicated that he hadn’t heard anything around the office, but would ask the program director (see the letter at the end of this post). Of course nothing happened, and I celebrated solo.

Cut to 2015, and I’m still worried. This time, about the 50th anniversary of “Satisfaction,” which is either May 10-13, when the Rolling Stones recorded it in Chicago and Los Angeles; or late-May, when it was released in the USA; or late-August, when it came out in the UK.

So I took matters into my own hands, and wrote a story about the anniversary for a major Brazilian online outlet, UOL. I got quotes from academics, Gene Simmons, and the song’s producer, Andrew Loog Oldham. I also learned that ABKCO Music, which owns the rights to the band’s ’60s output, planned to reissue “Satisfaction” as a 12-inch single (pictured above), along with the B-sides from the both the U.S. and UK versions. I wanted to get the Stones or Bill Wyman, but no luck. I also tried and failed to track down the song’s reclusive engineer, Dave Hassinger.

Click here for the story in Portuguese, controversially headlined (translated): Satisfaction is 50 years old and still intrigues: masterpiece or sexist swipe?

And following is the English-language draft I sent to UOL. (Many thanks to Ben Camp at Berklee College of Music, and to Stephanie Doktor at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville)’s McIntire Department of Music.)

The anthem that turned the Rolling Stones into rock gods is about to turn 50, just as the band prepares to the hit the road in North America where cheering fans spanning multiple generations will doubtless sing along to it at every show.

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” a pulsating repudiation of modern consumer mores, was recorded in the United States in May 1965, released there a little over three weeks later, and quickly vaulted up the charts to spend four weeks at No. 1.

Not only was “Satisfaction” the first of the Stones’ nine chart-toppers in the United States, it was also a worldwide smash, and eventually went to No. 1 in Brazil a year later in 1966. It has been decreed the greatest rock song of all time by both Rolling Stone magazine and VH1.

KISS frontman Gene Simmons was 15 when he first heard it, an Israeli immigrant trying to adapt to the American way in New York City, where he lived with his Hungarian mother, a Holocaust survivor. The song immediately resonated with him.

“I had heard the Beatles and was [blown] away by the whole thing, and I’d heard the Stones before. We’d heard some of their other songs. And then when ‘Satisfaction’ came on it just stopped me in my tracks,” he said.

Indeed, “Satisfaction” bore little resemblance to the blues- and R&B-based songs the Stones had released in the prior two years of their existence, including their covers of “Not Fade Away,” “Time is on My Side,” and “Little Red Rooster.”

Its dominant feature is Keith Richards’ distorted guitar riff, which kicks off the song and reappears with every chorus. “Within the first two seconds of the song … probably anybody who’s not a huge Stones fan could still name the song,” said Ben Camp (http://www.bencamp.com), assistant professor of songwriting at Berklee School of Music in Boston, who teaches “Satisfaction” in a course surveying 100 years of popular music.

“‘Satisfaction’ is an archetype of the riff song,” Camp added. “And riffs are something that are as effective today as they have been throughout the beginning of recorded music history and even before then. It lets you grab the listener’s attention with something distinctive right from the very start of the song.”

Before long, singer Mick Jagger grabs the spotlight with the first of three stanzas that draw on an age-old theme, the generation gap and its attendant frustrations. In this case, young baby boomers such as 21-year-old Jagger are spurning the consumerist messages of their hopelessly square elders, picture the manipulative advertising executives in Mad Men. Jagger wants nothing to do with the “useless information” spewing from the radio or the TV pitchman’s promises about “how white my shirts can be.”

“The lyrics were profound,” Simmons said. “They were much deeper than most lyrics at the time. People started to wake up to the idea that it wasn’t just about chasing skirt.”

But of course since this was the Stones, the song’s final stanza does end with a skirt-chasing tale, albeit a pathetic one. Jagger’s character is a globe-trotting rock star who just wants to have sex with a girl. But she turns him down saying, “Baby, better come back later next week ’Cause you see I’m on a losing streak.”

The reference to menstruation is unmistakable, and one can picture the blushing faces of teens listening to the song. Some accordingly see “Satisfaction” as an inadvertent nod to female self-empowerment from a singer who would a year later be assailed for alleged misogyny in such songs as “Under My Thumb” and “Stupid Girl.”

But an American feminist academic has described “Satisfaction” as quintessential “cock rock.” Stephanie Doktor, a graduate student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, argued in her master’s thesis on cross-gender cover versions of “Satisfaction,” that the song “contains the formulaic ingredients of a music that has often been interpreted as thriving off of masculinist expressions of aggressive sexuality.”

Such thoughts were probably far from the minds of Jagger and Richards as they struggled to write the song. Indeed, “Satisfaction” came awfully close to never existing at all. Richards came up with the song’s initial concept in his sleep, woke briefly to hum the melody into a cassette recorder, and promptly fell asleep snoring with the tape still running. He adapted the grammatically dubious “I can’t get no satisfaction” line from a Chuck Berry song, “Thirty Days.” Neither he nor Jagger, who worked on most of the lyrics, were hugely enthusiastic about its prospects, envisaging it as a folk-driven album track.

The Rolling Stones started recording “Satisfaction” at Chess Studios in Chicago on May 10. This studio, on the city’s gritty south side, was sacred to the fresh-faced English boys, the home of their heroes such as Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters.

They didn’t have much to show for their efforts – just an acoustic version with Brian Jones on harmonica – and resumed work on the song two days later at RCA Studios in Hollywood. Paradoxically, it was an outsider who played an outsized role in the song’s development.

Jack Nitzsche, a composer and arranger at RCA, had worked on records by artists such as Frankie Laine and child star Eddie Hodges where “Wrecking Crew” session guitarist Billy Strange plugged his guitar into an obscure effects pedal called a Fuzz-Tone. The sound was designed to approximate a brass instrument such as a trumpet or tuba.

Nitzsche introduced the Fuzz-Tone to Richards, who later claimed he had envisaged a horn section on the song, and history was made. The Fuzz-Tones reportedly flew off shelves in the months after “Satisfaction” was released.

Coincidentally, Otis Redding released a horn-driven version of “Satisfaction” hot on the heels of the Stones’ recording. To this day, the Stones’ live version of “Satisfaction” usually features a horn section.

Nitzsche, by the way, provided other indispensable ingredients – that’s him banging on the prominently mixed tambourine, and barely audibly on the piano.

“[His] piano is so brilliant that on most equipment you cannot even hear it, but if it was not there …” said Andrew Loog Oldham, the band’s manager and producer, adding that the Stones followed the piano’s lead.

Oldham recalled the recording process was a “simple” affair. After the Stones were done. Oldham, assisted by engineer Dave Hassinger, transformed the throwaway tune into the anthem we know and love.

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Fast-forward 36 years later, to 2001, and Jagger is strolling in Miami when a 9-year-old girl politely walks up to him. If there’s one thing she knows about the Rolling Stones, it’s “Satisfaction.” Or rather, Britney Spears’ recent cover of the song, with some lyrical updates. They both agree it’s quite good. His inquisitor would now be about 23, old enough to appreciate the real thing in an American football stadium. Satisfaction guaranteed.

As far as the Rolling Stone celebrations are concerned, it seems we don’t have anything special planned, but I’ll mention it to our programme director when he gets back from a holiday + see what he says. I hope you’ll keep listening to 2ZM. All the best for ’85. Sincerely, Lloyd Scott.

As far as the Rolling Stone[s] celebrations are concerned, it seems we don’t have anything special planned, but I’ll mention it to our programme director when he gets back from a holiday + see what he says. I hope you’ll keep listening to 2ZM. All the best for ’85. Sincerely, Lloyd Scott.

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NOTE: My gossipy rock bio Strange Days: The Adventures of a Grumpy Rock ‘n’ Roll Journalist in Los Angeles is available here. For more info, go to strangedaysbook.com

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Published on May 01, 2015 22:45

Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne in Los Angeles, February 2015

Most days I wake up about 10 a.m., and it soon dawns on me that I have nothing to do until bedtime. Such are the perils of enforced early retirement. But I was mildly busy in recent months interviewing Ozzy Osbourne at his home on Feb. 4, and then Gene Simmons on the phone on April 8.

I have to double-check, but these were probably my first interviews since 2013 when, coincidentally, I met up with Ozzy and bandmate Geezer Butler to discuss the new Black Sabbath album for Billboard Brasil. Out of the hundreds of rock stars I interviewed over the decades, Ozzy and Gene were the ones I spoke to the most.

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Both my recent interviews were for Brazilian publications ahead of upcoming concert performances there by both rockers. They did not get much traction in the English-speaking world, but I don’t mind too much: It was great to be creative for a change, and to get paid. Still, I wish my chat with Ozzy had gone viral. He told me he agreed with the Fox News “expert” who had been hauled over the coals for claiming that Ozzy’s UK hometown of Birmingham was a “totally Muslim city.” Ozzy also said Sabbath would not record another album, but would instead launch a farewell world tour later this year. After that, he would focus on his solo career. None of this has been reported elsewhere.

Click here to see the story in Portuguese, courtesy of Folha de S. Paulo, the biggest newspaper in the biggest city in the Americas.

Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed in Los Angeles, October 2013

The Gene Simmons interview, posted here on Brazilian online portal UOL, focused on Simmons’ new book, Me, Inc., and on the dire state of Brazil’s economy and political situation. You can get more back story on the interview here.

Both interviews were fun, and I got a thrill doing them. I like to think I added to people’s understanding of both men, and it hasn’t escaped me that my retirement has been a loss to rock ‘n’ roll scholarship. Oh well.

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NOTE: Generally unrelated to the above interviews, my gossipy rock bio Strange Days: The Adventures of a Grumpy Rock ‘n’ Roll Journalist in Los Angeles is available here. For more info, go to strangedaysbook.com

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Published on April 22, 2015 11:48

Lally Stott: Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep (UPDATED)

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Lally Stott would have been 70 in 2015. “Who’s Lally Stott?” you ask. Harold “Lally” Stott was an English singer/songwriter whose best-known creation vied with “Maggie May,” “My Sweet Lord” and “Brown Sugar” as one of the biggest songs of 1971.

Stott’s “Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep,” a happy-go-lucky, toe-tapping, sing-along seemingly untroubled by deep lyricism, topped the charts in Australia (and possibly Rhodesia), and was also a hit in Argentina (No. 2), France (No. 7), the Netherlands (No. 8), South Africa (No. 9), and Italy (No. 11).

It peaked at No. 92 on the U.S. Billboard chart where it was overshadowed by a top-20 version by West Indian siblings Mac & Katie Kissoon.

The most successful version was by the cheesy Scottish boy-girl group Middle of the Road, which took it to No. 1 in the UK, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Singapore; and No. 2 in West Germany, Australia, and Israel. Stott’s label, Philips Italy, apparently had little confidence in his version, and pitched it to the other acts at the same time. Given Philips’ tacky artwork for Stott’s Italian single (at right), maybe their shortsightedness is just as well.

My introduction to “Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep” came courtesy of a greatest-hits record released in New Zealand in 1971, 20 Solid Gold Hits. The LP is basically unplayable now, riddled with scratches and loud pops. It got a real workout during my childhood, and the images from the cover are seared into my memory. It’s safe to say that my love of music and my career as a music journalist stem directly from Solid Gold and a few other compilations in my parents’ otherwise rudimentary record collection. Less proudly, I doodled all over the covers, an unspeakable crime that still makes me shudder.

A few years ago, I rescued the decrepit discs from my parents’ house and brought them to the USA so that I could glance at them during periods of creeping middle-aged nostalgia. And one weekend in March 2015, I decided it would be fun to look up the songs on Youtube and learn about them on Wikipedia.

Lally Stott was one of the first I researched because I have not heard “Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep” in decades. Unlike many of the other songs on the compilations, it does not get oldies-station airplay. One look at the title, and it’s probably considered too bubblegum, like Yummy, Yummy, Yummy or Mah-Na-Mah-Na, two more childhood favorites, I admit.

I remembered Stott’s warm smile and thick, lustrous hair from the awkwardly cropped photo on the Solid Gold album cover, and wondered whether he would still have either. Maybe I could interview him about the creative process.

“Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep,” arranged and produced by Stott, is surprisingly minimalist. There is no audible guitar, no instrumental break, no bridge. He shares the vocal spotlight with an excited female chorus. The only lyrical difference among the four stanzas is the alternation of “mama” and “papa.” The dominant instruments in the chorus, which is sung five times through to the fade-out, are a sinewy bass, a high-hat cymbal, and a jubilant trumpet.

I will make a huge leap and suggest that Stott, a journeyman musician raised in the rough-and-tumble Merseyside beat scene that also produced the Beatles, finished the whole thing in five minutes and considered it a throwaway ditty. It may even be a demo. I guess I’ll never know.

I was heartbroken to read that he had died in 1977, aged 32. All this time, and I had not known of his tragic fate, which occurred mere months before the death of Marc Bolan and then the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash.

So I jumped on a plane to England in September 2015 and made my way up to Stott’s home town of Prescot, about nine miles east of Liverpool, to pay my respects at his grave (which does not appear on findagrave.com) and do some research at the nearby Huyton Central Library. According to the now-defunct Prescot & Huyton Reporter, Stott’s new Yamaha 50 motorbike collided with a car travelling in the opposite direction on the Saturday afternoon of the Queen’s 25th jubilee weekend. He suffered serious head and leg injuries, and died two days later. Full details from the news reports are reproduced at the bottom of this post. Otherwise, biographical details are somewhat sketchy.

There is a lallystott.co.uk web site that is barely maintained, and some well-meaning folk in Prescot produced a tribute video that needs some professional assistance. This blog, Bite It Deep, provides the best overview of his recording career. This site, lankybeat.com, compiled by his former drummer Sandro Ugolini, has some excellent pictures of Lally in various bands, including Lally Stott & the Black Jacks, the Vaqueros and the Motowns.

Some interesting tidbits can be gleaned from the comments section accompanying two Youtube videos of “Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep,” which I have been playing to death. Stott seems to be a local hero in Prescot, where his family and friends still live.

The black-and-white videos depict a friendly, outgoing chap with absurdly long hair, vaguely lip-synching his song while strolling along the Kalverstraat, a busy shopping street in Amsterdam, to the delight of senior citizens and pretty shopgirls.

The angry, nose-picking toddler at the end of the first clip makes a cameo in the second. Actually, there is quite a lot of crossover. The Dutch were clearly intrigued by this flamboyant Englishman. If you were part of the cast, please contact me, especially if you are the hot, bespectacled blond wearing the unseasonal shorts in the second clip.

Playing these heartwarming clips every morning will get you through the rest of the day with a smile on your face, a spring in your step, and a song you can’t stop humming.

Just as the lack of information is frustrating, so is the lack of Lally Stott “product.” He released one LP, also called Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep (pictured at left), but it has never been reissued digitally. Nor is the song itself available on MP3. One album he did in 1976, Love Birds with his wife Cathy, is available digitally via Splash Records. The chap at Splash thought the rights to Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep were controlled by Philips Italy, which I imagine is now part of Universal Music. Or maybe the masters have reverted to his widow.

It was in Italy that Stott sought his fortune after playing with a few Merseyside groups in his younger days. In fact, “Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep” was the first English-language song recorded in Italy to be released outside Italy. Another of his compositions, Trinity: Titoli, appears on the Django Unchained soundtrack.

And that’s pretty much all I know. If you can fill in some gaps about Lally Stott, please contact me. I don’t even know what “Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep” is about.

Harold “Lally” Stott • 1945-1977 • Prescot, England

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POP MAN IN DEATH SMASH

Pop songwriter Lally Stott died two days after being involved in an accident on his new motorbike near his Whiston home. Thirty-two-year-old Lally – real name, Harold – who lived in Warrington Road, died in Walton Hospital on Monday after he had been involved in a collision on Saturday afternoon. Mr. Stott was the writer of the Number one hit of the early seventies ¨Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep.¨

His Yamaha 50 motorbike collided with a Vauxhall Cresta which was travelling in the opposite direction in Windy Arbor Road, near to its junction with Simons Close.

Mr. Stott, who suffered serious head and leg injuries, was originally taken to Whiston Hospital. He was later transferred to Walton Hospital where he later died.

The driver of the Cresta, Mr. Walter Burgess, aged 39, of Little Moss Hey Cantril Farm, was not hurt in the accident.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the accident to come forward.

(Prescot & Huyton Reporter. June 10, 1977)

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MR. H. STOTT

A service was held at St. Ann’s Church, Rainhill, for Mr. Harold Stott, aged 32, of Warrington Road, Whiston, who died in Walton Hospital. Interment followed in the churchyard. The vicar, the Reverend R. Evans, officiated.

Mourners: Mr and Mrs H. Stott (parents). Mrs. J. Smith (sister). Mrs. C. Weekes (sister). Mr. P. Smith (brother-in-law). Mr. I.D. Weekes (brother-in-law).

Mr. and Mrs. Fitzroy, Mr. and Mrs. H. Roberts, Mr. E. Roberts, Mr. and Mrs. K. Smith, Mr and Mrs. J. Ryder, Mr. I. Wilson, Miss. J. Rylance, Des and Clive Jigsaw, Mr. and Mrs. G. Stott.

Bearers: Messrs. J. Boyle, Garry Roberts, J. Watkinson and Denny Seaton.

Present in church: Mr. and Mrs. W. Weekes, Mr. and Mrs. A. Stinton, Mrs. J. Stott, Miss. A. Stott, Miss. N. Stott, Miss M. Stott, Mr. M. Birchall, Mr. R. Yates, Mrs. F. Glynn, Mr. and Mrs. J. Rylance.

Miss C. Rylance, Mr. E. Tinsley, Mrs. M. Bennett, Mrs. Tinsley, Mrs. O. Jones, Mrs. E. Crawley, Mrs. R. Harrison, Mrs. L. Crompton, Mrs. M. Stockley, Mrs. S. Stott.

Mrs. Fitzroy, Mrs. E. Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. Barron, Mrs. P. Richardson, Mrs. P. Lewes, Mrs. E. Lidderth, Miss L. Lidderth, Mrs. S. Dewse, Mrs. S. Davies, Mrs. A. Thomas.

Mr. G. Thomas, Mrs. H. Fairhurst, Mrs. S. Leadbetter, Mrs. H. Warwick, Mrs. W. Warwick, Mrs. C. Watkinson, Mr. J. Cummins, Iris Belsize Music, Brent and Alan Jasmin T. Group, Mrs. A. Roach.

Mrs. A. Hurst, Mr. J. Ward, Mr. and Mrs. A. McKenzie, Mrs. J. Hayes, Mr. and Mrs. W. Cleaver, Mrs. E. Shaw, Mrs. R. Dutton, Miss Fish and Mrs. Pemberton (representing Home Help).

Flowers: Mam and dad; Jean and Peter; Chris and Iain; Peter, Jason and Craig; Jane and Mooney; Grandad; Hildith family; Pam and John; Ray and Pam; Ian and Pat.

All at Rainhill Pet Shop; Mike Logan (Milan); RCA Studio (Milan); Nebrio (Milan); dear friends in Rome. Chaz, Pete (London). Jay and Fran.

Sandra, Joe, Eileen and Tom; aunt Elsie; Linda and John; Eric and Betty; Mr. and Mrs. W. Cleaver; Miley and Sheila; Mr. and Mrs. P. Smith and family (Thatto Heath).

Sympathy cards, Mass cards, letters, telegrams from overseas and prayers by all denominations too numerous to mention.

Undertaker: Jagger Funeral Service.

(Prescot & Huyton Reporter. June 17, 1977)

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STOTT – Lally, died tragically June 6, beloved husband of Cathy. Will always love you.

(Prescot & Huyton Reporter. June 17, 1977)

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STOTT – The family of the late Mr. Harold Stott wish to thank all relatives, friends and neighbours for the kind expressions of sympathy flowers, Mass cards and sympathy cards received in their bereavement. Special thanks to the doctors and nursing staff of Whiston and Walton Hospital, the police, Rev. Bob Evans and the many friends who attended church — 36 Weaver Avenue, Rainhill

(Prescot & Huyton Reporter. June 17, 1977)

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NOTE: Completely unrelated to the above post, my gossipy rock bio Strange Days: The Adventures of a Grumpy Rock ‘n’ Roll Journalist in Los Angeles is available here. For more info, go to strangedaysbook.com

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Published on March 11, 2015 19:04

Lally Stott: Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep

Lally Stott would have been 70 in 2015. “Who’s Lally Stott?” you ask. Harold “Lally” Stott was an English singer/songwriter whose best-known creation vied with “Maggie May,” “My Sweet Lord” and “Brown Sugar” as one of the biggest songs of 1971.