L. Ron Mellotron
On a walking tour of Fitzrovia, a whole host of music references, from the squat where Boy George and Jon Moss wrote “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” to the mansion flat that Robert Nesta Marley lived in for a year in 1972. Bob’s flat was in the rectangular block of streets between Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street, which is technically Fitzrovia, but in a no-man’s-land between it and Bloomsbury, known as the Gower Peninsular. We proceed to the original location of Cranks, first organic cafe in London, where Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious worked – washing up – for a short time. My favourite moment comes as we pass a large grand house on Fitzroy Street, and someone says, That’s where L Ron Hubbard lived. And I overhear a man talking to his partner, saying I was down in East Grinstead for work and we passed Saint Hill Manor [Scientology’s national headquarters, a huge brick temple with visitor’s centre] and we were given a tour by a slightly scary woman, and I got to play L Ron Hubbard’s mellotron. I ask him what he played, as the mellotron songbook is not huge. Strawberry Fields Forever, he says.
I loved this photo…
…of jazz guitarist Johnny Smith, playing in a Tucson music store in the late 1970s. It ran with the New York Times obit. It’s partly for the faded Kodachrome, partly for the light, partly for the clothes, partly for the wonderful selection of guitars. A lovely quote stood out: “He accomplished everything he ever wanted,” his daughter, Kim Smith Stewart, said. “He played with the best musicians in the world, he went deep sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, he was a great father.”
Jazz 625 from the early 60s, George Lewis with Acker Bilk’s band, The Marquee
At the end of the song, Humphrey Lyttleton says “Every great jazz musician has one number that is his one-way ticket to immortality, and that surely is George Lewis’s – Burgundy Street Blues”. Simon emails: “It may have been the extra-widescreen TV I was watching on, but George Lewis, in the 625 film, had the longest ET-like fingers, specially designed for the clarinet – I’m still reeling…” George’s performance is lovely, swooping and poised, and as he and the band finish, Acker says Yeah… softly and clasps him on the arm.
More Jazz
Reviewing Jazz. New York in the Roaring Twenties by Robert Nippoldt, Hans-Jürgen Schaal, for Eye magazine, my favourite brace of spreads are these, featuring the waveforms of the 20 songs from the enclosed CD, along with a timing graph. Only “Rhapsody In Blue”, commissioned by Paul Whiteman from George Gershwin, is over 3 minutes 20 seconds, and continues by itself onto the second spread.
Illustrator Greg Clarke put this lovely illustration on his blog
To the This Land Is Your Land Project, an interactive PBS documentary that plans to record us all (or as many who upload their version) singing Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” I dug out a version [the first song we recorded in Garageband six years ago, as a test] and made a stills-based 
that I clipped out of the Guardian years ago (see left), but four years ago I found that Bruce Johnson – a retired Disney Thrill Ride engineer – had set up shop and was loving recreating (while considerably improving) Ampeg basses. Every piece of the body and neck, virtually every part of the hardware, made by hand, on turn of the century lathes that Bruce has overhauled. On holiday in LA we made a midnight visit to Bruce’s workshop in Burbank, and spent a fascinating hour with him and his dog. More anon on how the bass takes shape. Here’s Rick (a man who, in Ralph J Gleason’s wonderful line, “looked as if he could swing Coit Tower”, so muscular was his playing, so lurching his stage movements) with his fretless at Brooklyn’s Academy Of Music, New Year’s Eve, 1971 with “Don’t Do It”. And again, in an soon-to-be-released extended version of the great Festival Express, playing “Jemima Surrender”. Dig Levon’s rhythm guitar work on an Gibson SG, which makes a mockery of the “bring over my Fender” line.
Hand-typed [as opposed to…?] lyrics to a Bob Dylan song which he never recorded are expected to sell for £35,000 when they go up for auction at Christies in London next month. Dylan’s lyric sheet for “Go Away You Bomb” will go under the hammer at Christie’s in London on June 26. Israel ‘Izzy’ Young: “I was compiling a book of songs against the atom bomb and asked Dylan to contribute; he gave me this song the very next day. I have never sold anything important to me until now and the funds raised will help to keep the Folklore Center in Stockholm going. I have always had a passion for folk music and I have collected books and music since I was a kid. I produced my first catalogue of folk books in 1955, comprised of books that nobody had ever heard of – this was the beginning of the interest in American folk music. Bob Dylan used to hang around the store and would look through every single book and listen to every single record I had. Since opening the Folklore center I have organised over 700 concerts with some of the biggest names in this music world. I’m a fun-loving Jewish boy who loves folk music and never gave up – that’s why I’m still alive.”
The sisters Mamet [daughters of David, band name The Cabin Sisters] introduce their [in their own words] unique brand of folk via body percussion, banjo and harmonies. This will be their first music video. “This music video for Bleak Love is our chance to realize through the visual artistry of some very talented people the universal feeling of un-requited love. Your support for this project will be the backbone to a body of excited filmmakers, producers and musicians all making something from nothing. we have a wonderful concept from a bright young director that includes, beautiful gowns, statues, a large opulent loft space, extensive make-up, saturated tones needing anamorphic lens (for those technically inclined). We also have those folks who are good enough to work for free that we are trying to travel and feed. It is an expensive proposition when all is said and done, but we have a realistic budget that we know we can make work. So, please please join us in the fight against heartbreak!” Apart from the hazy punctuation and capitalisation, wtf? Listen to Zosia’s stumbling and half-assed reasons why you should back her in the begging video. Well-paid, well-connected actresses using Kickstarter for vanity projects? I’m betting that, for your $8,000, the director styled chair is not cutting it.
Five Things I Saw & Heard This Week 