So a number of weeks ago I was setting up a display at Chain Name Bookstore where I work, and saw that Nick Hornby had released a new book – Juliet, Naked! I love just about everything Nick Hornby touches. Writing about music is a very hard art to master, but Hornby has a way with it that is both entertaining and not condescending. Juliet, Naked is basically about three people. Tucker Crowe, a Jeff Buckley-type singer/songwriter who abruptly left music two decades previous and has been in seclusion ever since; Duncan, a fanatically Crowe follower – running a Tucker Crowe website and writing numerous essays about him and at times lecturing on him; and Annie, Duncan’s long-suffering live-in girlfriend. A new Tucker Crowe album is set to be released, a collection of stripped down acoustic demos of the songs on Crowe’s greatest (and last) album Juliet called (fittingly enough) Juliet, Naked. Duncan sees this new album as a great breakthrough in learning about Tucker Crowe’s emotional breakdown at the time the album was made, and Annie thinks it lacks a lot that the finished album offered. Both post reviews on Duncan’s website (Duncan’s umpteenth, Annie’s first) and Annie begins to get e-mails from a mysterious correspondent who identifies himself as THE Tucker Crowe. An unusual friendship sparks, and the lives of Tucker, Duncan, and Annie (and a whole slew of characters from Tucker’s past) collide.

Having had a few phases of being the Obsessed Fan, I could completely identify with Duncan’s character. He did have a life outside of Tucker Crowe, but not much of one. I understand the power some musicians can have over people, and I know enough musicians that they don’t always know how to deal with that power (which on occasion results in retraining orders). The characters are in their 30s or older, dealing with getting older and growing up. Despite that, I found it a funny, charming, and entertaining read. Definite recommend. Hornby has not lost his touch.

The next up is Miss O’Dell, a rock autobiography by the “not even almost famous” Chris O’Dell. I noticed this book a few weeks ago as well, but only recently picked it up. What a fun read for a Beatles freak like me! This woman was not a groupie, not a rock star’s wife (but once Leon Russell’s old lady), but a devoted friend and employee of some of the best rock stars of the late 60’s and early 70’s. She met Derek Taylor, press agent for the Beatles and later Apple Corps, flew to London from California to see if she could break into the business. She started doing odd jobs, bought lunches, and worked her way up to personal assistant and one of the first female tour managers. She counts Pattie Boyd Harrison as one of her closest friends, and was even present at the infamous intimate dinner party when George Harrison turned to Ringo Starr and announced, “I’m in love with your wife.” She’s lived an extraordinary life, a fairy tale of a music-ridden and drug-addled sort, and lived to tell the tale. I was floored by what she witnessed and did. It’s on my shelf next to I’m With the Band by Pamela Des Barres and Under Their Thumb by Bill German. A great vacation read for the classic rock fan.

This is a pretty amazing picture. People should be more crazy, specially in CA. Look at this 70’s Pamela des Barres 4 example. 

Photo: Diario UNO de Santa Fe.

Clip Review:
Pamela Des Barres removes her clothes to show her breasts to a man siting i front of her .
file size: 13,04 MB

Clip Stats:
duration: 0,42 min
resolution: 672 x 364

http://rapidshare.com/files/282559438/PamelaDesBarres-SlaughtersBigRip-Off-01.avi

Yesterday I went to the bookstore to buy myself a bunch of magazines. The summer isn’t the most inspiring time for magazines. They’re usually full with articles about how to look good in a bikini, miracle diets that make you lose half your body weight in ten days and luxurious holiday destinations to tropical islands……..so I started to look for something different and to my surprise, I found a wonderfull magazine called Russh. It’s an Australian bi-monthly magazine and their May/June ‘09 issue is now in Dutch stores (altough their July/August ‘09 issue is already published!!!).

What I like about Russh is it’s perfect mixture of retro and modern. I’s not as sentimental-romantic as Lula, but it’s also not a big parade of trends that only last two months. I usually tear out the pages of magazines I like to make scrapbooks, and I wanted to tear apart the whole magazine…. so that’s good!

Some images from Russh: 

For more info check their website: http://www.russhaustralia.com, blog: http://blog.russhaustralia.com and myspace: http://www.myspace.com/russhmagazine.

Viime kesänä suosittelin teille rokkiaiheisia kirjoja. Koska tuntuu siltä, että kustannustoiminta tämäntyyppisen kirjallisuuden osalta tuntuu vain lisääntyvän, on myös viime kesän jälkeen julkaistu monta ja monenlaista överiä kirjaa rock-legendojen, -noviisien ja taustavaikuttajien elämästä. Tässä siis lisää rokkikirjoja kesienne iloksi! Tänä kesänä laajensin otantaa myös yleisesti musiikkikirjojen saralle – miltäpä kuulostaisi vaihteen vuoksi vaikkapa Jaakko Tepon tarina? Linkit vievät kustantajan sivulle.

Viime kesän rock-kirjakattauksen voit lukea täältä (joskin noin yhdeksän kertaa suppeampana kuin tämä).

LISÄÄ BÄNDISAAGOJA

- True, Everett: Hey Ho Let’s Go – Ramonesin tarina
- Palm, Carl-Magnus: ABBA
- McIver, Joel: Slayer (ilmestyy elokuussa)
- Gilbert, Pat: The Clash – Lontoo liekeissä
- Fong-Torres, Ben & The Doors: The Doors
- Davis, Stephen & Aerosmith: Walk this way – Aerosmithin tarina
- Davis, Stephen: Jumalten vasara – saaga Led Zeppelinistä
- Wall, Mick: Run to the Hills – Iron Maiden -elämäkerta

(BÄNDI)KUVIA KUMARTELEVILLE

- Halfin, Ross: Metallica kuvina
- Palsa, Tomi: Rockkuvia (ilmestyy syyskuussa)
- Kaila, Ben & Schütt, Henrik & Vuorimies, Risto: Ganes – valokuvia Hurriganesista
- Halfin, Ross: Iron Maiden – Kuvat

URANUURTAJIA JA VAHVOJA PERSOONIA

- Marsh, Dave: Bruce Springsteen – pomon tarina
- O’Brien, Lucy: Madonna – elämäkerta
- Wall, Mick: W.A.R. – W. Axl Rose
- Kiedis, Anthony: Arpikudos (Red Hot Chili Peppers -laulaja)
- Sandford, Christopher: Kurt Cobain
- Slash & Bozza, Anthony: Slash (Guns ‘n’ Roses -kitaristi)
- Bloom, Jerry: Musta ritari Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple- ja Rainbow-kitaristi ja -biisintekijä) (ilmestyy elokuussa)
- Echols, Alice: Janis Joplin – paratiisin arvet (ilmestyy elokuussa)
- Lawrence, Sharon: Jimi Hendrix – Mies, musiikki ja totuus
- Sandford, Christopher: Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones -kitaristi ja -biisintekijä)
- Curtis, Deborah: Etäinen kosketus – Ian Curtis ja Joy Division (katso myös blogikirjoitukseni Control-elokuvasta)
- Cooper, Alice: Alice Cooper, golfhirviö – rokkarin 12 askelta golfaddiktiksi
- Guralnick, Peter: Nuori Elvis – Viimeinen juna Memphisiin
- Pytlik, Mark: Björk
- Kosmos, Kari: Bob Marley – Mies, musiikki & mystiikka
- Cash, Johnny & Carr, Patrick: Cash. Omin sanoin
- Tosches, Nick: Helvetin tuli – Jerry Lee Lewisin tarina
- Ambrose, Joe: Iggy Pop – Raakaa voimaa
- Wood, Ronnie: It’s Only Rock’n'Roll. Rolling Stones -kitaristin ihmeelliset seikkailut
- Hopkins, Jerry & Sugerman, Daniel: Jim – No One Here Gets Out Alive
- Zimmerman, Keith & Zimmerman, Kent: Johnny Rotten
- Gordon, Robert: Hoochie Coochie Man – Muddy Watersin elämä ja teot
- King, B. B. & Ritz, David: Everyday I Have The Blues – B. B. King omin sanoin
- Miles, Barry: Frank Zappa
- Pegg, Bruce: Let It Rock! – Chuck Berryn tarina
- Heath, Chris: Feel. Robbie Williamsin tarina
- Montandon, Mac: Tom Waits – Takapihan taikuri

SUOMEN LAHJAT MAAILMALLE…

- Väntänen, Ari & McCoy, Andy & Monroe, Michael: Hanoi Rocks – All Those Wasted Years
- Nevalainen, Kimmo: Värttinä
- Mattila, Ilkka (toim.): Eläkeläiset – Suuri suomalainen juopottelukirja
- Ollila, Marko: Nightwish
- Puustinen, Viljami & 22-Pistepirkko: 22-Pistepirkko

…TAI AINAKIN SUOMELLE

- Kontiainen, Vesa & Starck, Kjell: Popeda – ilikeesti kiitää – vuodet 1977-2008
- Vesala, Paula & Luoti, Mira & Kostiainen, Pasi & Ylönen, Hanna: PMMP
- Sir Elwoodin hiljaiset värit: Varjoja, varkaita ja vanhoja valokuvia 3
- Hurme, Juha: Radiopuhelimet
- Lyytinen, Jukka: Lapinlahden Lintujen tarina
- Tuomola, Pauliina: Ari Koivunen – Karaokebaareista hevilavoille
- Kontiainen, Vesa & Aaltonen, Honey: Hurriganes
- Rinne, Harri: Juice On (Juice Off)
- Salo, Markku & Lindfors, Jukka: Jytinää Eestissä. Sleepy Sleepersien pitkä ja kivinen tie
- Kaukonen, Martti & Teppo, Jaakko: Jaakko Teppo – Haaska mies
- Tuomola, Pauliina: Voittajan tarina (Koop Arponen)

LEVYNTEON IHANUUDESTA JA KAMALUUDESTA & KIERTUEELLA SATTUU JA TAPAHTUU

- Hynynen, Jouni & Karmila, Mikko: Ukonhauta
- Juntunen, Juho K.: Tuuliajolla – Suuri rock and roll -risteily
- Tiitinen, Jarkko: Rakkaudesta hulluuteen – Uniklubi
- Juurikkala, Ville & Linnankivi, Jyrki: Route 69
- Rautio, Timo: Rokatessa roiskuu (jatko-osista lisää linkin takana)
- Kela, Anssi: Nummela – erään albumin anatomia
- Des Barres, Pamela: Let’s Spend the Night Together – Bändäreitä ja takahuoneiden muusia

LAAJEMPIA ILMIÖITÄ POPULAARIMUSIIKIN KENTÄLTÄ

- Chang, Jeff: Can’t stop, Won’t stop – hiphopsukupolven historia
- Miettinen, Kimmo: Hilse – suomipunkin alku ja juuri
- Inkinen, Juha & Etholén, Katriina: Punk on kuollut, eläköön hardcore!
- Echols, Alice: Uhoa ja unelmia – 60-luvun jälkijäristyksiä
- Tiber, Elliot & Monte, Tom: Taking Woodstock (ilmestyy lokakuussa)
- Röyhkä, Kauko: The Velvet Underground ja Lou Reed
- Kontiainen, Vesa: Aitoa suomirokkia – Poko Rekordsin historia
- Yun, Josephine: J-rock
- Puustinen, Viljami: This is USA – Hellsinki rock’n'roll underground ‘89-’99
- Kosmos, Kari: Natty Congo Bongo
- Hilamaa, Heikki & Varjus, Seppo: Reggae! – Jamaikan pop 1959-1997
- Guralnick, Peter: Sweet Soul Music – Etelän soulin nousu ja tuho
- Halme, Markku: Rumba – 20 vuotta rockin takahuoneessa
- Halme, Markku: Nisse M
- Nikula, Jone: Rauta-aika. Suomimetallin historia 1988–2002
- Moynihan, Michael & Søderlind, Didrik: Kaaoksen ruhtinaat – Mustan metallin messu
- Saastamoinen, Mika: Parasta Lapsille – Suomipunk 1977–1984
- Rinne, Harri: Laulava vallankumous
- Tirronen, Antero & Tirronen, Sari: Selluloidi soi! Rock’n'roll – ja twist-elokuvat 1953–1963

POPMUSIIKKI KAUNOKIRJALLISUUDESSA, esim.

- Grytten, Frode: Popmusiikkia 24 tuntia, 24 kaupunkia, 24 laulua, 24 tarinaa
- Kesti, Jouni: Musameduusan Sepalus-Akatemia

MUUTA OLEELLISTA

- Hyttinen, Cyde: Festariopas

Hyviä ja antoisia lukuhetkiä kaikille!

Anita Pallenberg

This model had affairs with three members of the Rolling Stones (Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards) and was rumored to have inspired several of their songs (including “Angie,” “You Got the Silver” and “Gimmee Shelter”). She was and is best friends with another famous groupie, Marianne Faithfull.

“Miss” Pamela Des Barres

This famous groupie had affairs with Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, Waylon Jennings, Chris Hillman, and Noel Redding, traveled with Led Zeppelin, lived with Don Johnson, turned down a date with Elvis Presley, and was close friends with Robert Plant, Ray Davies, and Frank Zappa.

Morgana Welch

She was a fixture on the Sunset Strip and an avid Led Zeppelin groupie.

Pattie Boyd

I just finished reading Wonderful Tonight, Pattie’s memoir about her modeling career and how she came upon meeting her two husbands, George Harrison and Eric Clapton. The  inspiration for the song “Layla, ” she is not as band-aid-like as some of these other groupies, but she is a musician magnet nonetheless.

Pattie Boyd and George Harrison

Pattie Boyd and Eric Clapton

Photos: iamthechildofthemoon.blogspot.com, facebook.com, googleimages.com

Hier Klicken um zu bestellen

Das berühmte Rock-Groupie Pamela Des Barres unterhält sich in ihrem Buch Im Bett mit den Rockgöttern: Die intimsten Bekenntnisse der Supergroupies mit den legendärsten Rock-’n'-Roll-Groupies über ihre Erlebnisse mit berühmten Rockstars.

Und wer hätte es gedacht: Lori “Lightning” Maddox , die Ex-Freundin von Ex-Led-Zep Jimmy Page, hatte was mit Keith Emerson und Carl Palmer.

Textauszug:

Ahhh, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Ich hatte natürlich was mit Keith Emerson. Das machte Spaß mit ihm, weil er mich auf seinem Motorrad mitnahm. Dann später hatte ich auch was mit Carl Palmer. Er sah so gut aus. Er war ein verdammter Gott. (!!!)

Die Dame hatte nach eigenen Angaben auch Affären unter anderem mit Iggy Pop, Mickey Finn (T.Rex), David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Ron Wood und Mick Jagger.

Fotos von ihr gibts hier

This is what cilantro looks like when you let it go.

I know that with herbs one should trim the buds and keep them low and bushy but I wanted to see the blossoms.

Very nice.

I did trim them this morning.

They are sitting in a dark blue cup on the kitchen table.

This is the spinach sprung completely. I used one of these tiny bolted stalks in eggs the other day.

Pulling the big spinach bucket down allowed room for the lilies and cactus on the raised bench.

That way we can see them from the kitchen window.

The lilies are so bright and perfect. Yes, truly bitchen like a naughty GTO.

Which GTO would you choose? Miss Pamela is gorgeous.

See more of her at www.pameladesbarres.com

A Review

Catherine James

Dandelion: Memoir Of A Free Spirit

by

R.E. Prindle

I looked at the sea and it seemed to say,

“I took your baby from you away.”

I heard a voice cryin’ in the deep,

Come join me baby in my endless sleep.

Ran in the water, heart full of fear,

There in the breakers I saw her near.

Reached for my darlin’, held her to me,

Stole her away from the angry sea.

-Jody Reynolds- The Endless Sleep

Texts:

Des Barres, Pamela: Let’s Spend The Night Together, Chapter- The Elusive Miss James, Chicago Review Press, 2008

James,  Catherine: Dandelion Memoir Of A Free Spirit, St.  Martin’s, 2007

http://idynamo.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/a-review-pamela-des-barres-lets-spend-the-night-together/

     Dandelion by Catherine James is an excellent read whether you consider it a memoir, a novel, or based on a true story.  As a memoir it is a little too sketchy, while as a novel it is a charming read with some effective, real touches of pathos.  The tenderly related death scenes of  her Grandmother and mother may not rank with the passing of Little Nell but they do choke you up a bit.

     Dandelion was apparently written by Miss James unaided by a co-author.  When one considers that she had no schooling beyond the seventh grade this is a remarkable achievement.  In the explanation of her skill, apart from a native intelligence, at a rather advanced age she returned to Jr. College where she took a writing class apparently with good effect.  After a remarkable childhood and youth she is now entering an equally remarkable old age, uh, maturity.

     Miss James had a childhood a bit out of the ordinary in its horridness, a crazy mother, and a succession of housing changes including a stint in a reformatory and a couple years in an orphanage.  My own childhood experiences parallel those of Miss James to some extent so I think I can write of her situation with some sympathy.

     Miss james’ narrative is a coherent psychological whole progressing from beginning to end in an impressive manner, but I am only going to deal with the first half of her memoir.

     I understand the following:  Catherine’s mother, Diana, was vain of her appearance while aspiring to a recording and performing career.  She did succeed in recording an LP titled Dian And The Greenbrier Boys.  I’m guessing that she had no intention of having children but as she married at seventeen on an impulse Catherine is probably a result of that impulse.

     Diana probably then resented her daughter for inhibiting her ability to realize her ambitions.  She then took her frustrations out on her child.  She apparently developed a Hydelike personality in relation to her child.  Mad to the nth degree.  On her death bed she c0nfessed to Catherine that ‘the witches got her.’  One assumes then that Diana was what in the old days was known as being ‘possessed’ by the ‘witches’ when she was around her child.  In a manner of speaking she wasn’t responsible for her actions toward her daughter.  She was severely psychotic.

     By all rights Miss James should have developed into a schizophrenic.  That she didn’t is the result of peculiarity of mind that I share.  Like Miss James I had some difficult years and like her I was able to maintain a separate identity in a world seemingly insane.

     When Catherine’s mother divorced her father she was placed in a high class orphanage, call it a boarding school perhaps, for a period of time.  Understandably Catherine’s notion of time is hazily remembered at this period although she seems to have retained startlingly clear memories beginning from about the year two.  Catherine has no memory of an explanation being given to her for the removal to the boarding school.  It just happened one day.  She was inexplicably dropped off where she remained uncontested by any of her family until one day Grandmother Mimi picked her up from the home.  Catherine lived for perhaps two years with her grandparents without any communication from mother until for some reason her mother reclaimed her.  Perhaps because she had remarried.  The marriage flopped and after some time her mother took up with Travis Edmundson (deceased this year) of the Bud and Travis folk duo.  Her mother had aspirations to be a folksinger having, as mentioned, actually recorded an album as Dian And The Greenbrier Boys.  Dian was shortened from Diana.  More exotic.

     According to Catherine Travis was as bizarre as her mother with the result that at the tender age of ten or eleven she left the house.  The police picked her up but she refused to give them any information.  Stangely they sent her to Los Padrinos Girl’s Reformatory in Downey, California.  She either was or believes she was committed until she was eighteen.  This seems extraordinary to me, although stranger things have happened I’m sure.  But to lock a very young girl up without charges, trial and sentencing for six or seven years boggles the mind.

     With her child safely behind bars, Diana renounced her daughter making her a ward of the State.  Good God! Talk about cruel and inhuman.  One can’t be sure exactly what Catherine knew of what was going on but Diana and Travis refused to allow the girl to be released to her grandparents care.  Since her mother  had made the girl a ward of the State it isn’t clear what she would have had to say about it.  Her grandparents now sought to reclaim her but after legal maneuvers the best they could do for her was to get her released to an orphanage.  Orphanages are slight improvements over lockups.

      Here Catherine becomes intentionally vague.  Her grandfather was named Al Newman and he wrote musical scores for the movies.  The only Al Newman who wrote for the movies I have been able to locate over the internet is Alfred Newman.  Alfred Newman wrote scores for about a hundred movies receiving an incredible amount of awards.  Catherine mentions that when she was staying with her grandparents a large number of Hollywood film people visited the home including Harpo and Chico Marx.  I would assume that she is coyly indicating that her grandparents were the Alfred Newmans.

     If that’s so then her mother’s maiden name was Diana Newman and Randy Newman must therefore be Catherine’s cousin.  Now, she was placed in a country club Jewish orphanage.  Her grandfather Al Newman, she tells us, was a benefactor of the orphanage, so she assumes that is what got a Catholic girl into a Jewish orphanage.  If Al Newman was a benefactor then whether he was the famous Alfred Newman who was Jewish or not, Al Newman must have been Jewish.  In that case it shouldn’t have been that difficult to place her in the Jewish orphanage.  Even so, she says, she was not allowed to visit her grandparents on weekends.  An inexplicable lack of clout, but this is Catherine’s story.

     She implies that efforts were made to convert her from Catholicism to Judaism which she stoutly resisted.  This all requires some clarification here.  She nevertheless learned Hebrew and could at the time recite some Jewish prayers in the language.  She was in the orphanage for about two years from eleven or twelve to fourteen.

     Once agains this seems odd.  Things are done differently in different places no doubt but I also spent a couple years in the municipal orphanage which was much less posh than the place she describes.  She says they gave her good food; the food in our place was so execrable that I virtually didn’t eat for the two years.  She implies she had rather been in a Catholic orphanage but I do believe I can disabuse her of that notion.  An orphanage immediately declasses the inmates placing them outside society so that upon entry a child becomes a societal outcast.

     In the municipal orphanage we were pretty free to come and ago as we chose provided we were back for dinner but even if  we hadn’t I’m not so sure anything would or could have been done about it.  We were a coed facility but the kids were moved out into foster homes at ten to avoid the inevitable sexual problems of old boys among younger girls and boys so I’m surprised Catherine was allowed to stay until she was fourteen.

     I have a little experience with a Catholic orphanage.  There was one down the street from our place.   This place was a hell hole.  The municipal orphanage had a chain link fence around it but the Catholic place had a ten foot high brick wall.  The difference between that and Los Padrinos was non-existent.  Los Padrinos guards probably were more lenient than the nuns and priests.  The latter were not lovely people.  We used to be invited to the Catholic home for special occasions like Catholic movies and other events.  They used to show the Catholic kids what the world outside their institution looked like through the movies.  Like they say, no matter how bad off you are there are others worse off but of course that doesn’t improve your own situation.  I was very happy to return to the municipal home after visiting the Catholic home.  I think I ran all the way back.

      Theirs was a rough life.  I’ll tell you a little story.

     Catherine mentions that kids at the Jr. High she attended didn’t want to have anything to do with orphans.  True in spades all over the world.  We had this kid, all this happened to him in one year, who began the school year with the Catholics.  Those kids were schooled on premises, I’m not kidding you, they never saw the outside world, never.  His parents transferred him to the municipal home where he had to try to fit into the public school we were abused at.  Then he was transferred back to the Catholic home.  I was never so happy to see anyone leave as I was him.  He was already stark raving mad.  Then they transferred the kid back to the municipal home.  Barely holding unto to my own sanity the bastard was pushing me over the edge when fate intervened once again and he was sent back to the Catholic home.  I have no idea who or what he imagined he was by that time.  I had enough trouble surviving in the public school without switching back and forth.  Of course, with the right attitude it would have been a real learning experience but I hadn’t learned to dissociate like that yet.  I lived in total fear he would return.

     A couple years later after my mother remarried and we moved into a garage I was reading the paper where I read that this kid, having returned to his parents from the Catholic home, locked all the doors of the house one night and torched it incinerating parents, siblings and himself.  I was shocked when I recognized who they were writing about.  I understood the situation expliclitly.  I had to keep my mouth shut of course but I lustily cheered what he had done although I certainly would not have burned myself up.  What could they do to you that already hadn’t been done?  It would just be a move from one institution to another.  I’m sure this kid was thought of as the ‘monster.’  Nobody knew the trouble he’d seen, man’s inhumanity to man.  Well, we all have our crosses to bear.

     He was an extreme case but not that far gone compared to the rest of us.  Getting to my point with Catherine.  The boys in the orphanage tended toward violent reactions, rebillion as it was amusingly called.  I would imagine most of them became criminals of one stripe or another.  The girls on the other hand responded to their emotional neglect by offering themselves to anyone who would give them seemingly tender attention.  And there were a lot of them waiting to do that.  The fence of the orphanage was lined with perverts hitting on their preference- either boys or girls eight to ten years old.  Cops said there was no way they could run them off.  Free country.  Whoever said this wasn’t a great country, right?

     So, at puberty, Miss James fled the orphanage, unchaperoned, into the great wide world with an instiable desire to be loved and somehow regain her social status as provided by the Al Newmans.  She fled into a world of rock ‘n roll where unlimited opportunites with guitar ‘gods’ existed.  This was a unique historical opportunity to realize her desires.  A couple years earlier…?

     The story she tells must be a severely edited and corrected version of the reality.  One wonders what really happened.

     Let me explain the genesis of this review.  I wrote a review of Miss Pamela’s ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ in which I was critical of Miss James’ claim that she met Bob Dylan while in an orphanage.  She appended a comment to the review suggesting I reread Miss Pamela and then read her own book- Dandelion.  As she said, she doesn’t make things up.  All right.  I did both.  As I say, I am sympathetic to any former alumnus of Orphanage U. but you don’t want to drift too far off the band in your reminiscing; that way lies madness.  Who wants to burn their own house down except for the irretrievably damaged- destroyed.

     Miss James’ book of adventures is very tightly edited to produce a certain effect or opinion of the author while not all her memories check out.  Not terribly unusual in itself but she tries very hard to convince you that she is absolutely truthful and accurate.  I will say I’m getting a heck of an education checking her stories out though.  As they fit in with my agenda I have no problem with that.  The extension of my folk knowledge through the investigation of Bud and Travis has been very beneficial.

     Miss James career was essentially from 1965 (possibly very late ‘64) to 1970.  That’s five years more or less.  She managed to live two or three lifetimes in those years.  Ah, the sixties, weren’t those the times though?

     Her mother’s agent who was hot after a ten, eleven or twelve year old Catherine was named Jim Dickson (Catherine says some names have been changed so…but then there was a Jim Dickson, talent scout and producer who helped work up the Byrds around LA at that time.)   He was working with the Byrds in ‘63-’64 and he had something to do with Dylan according to Miss James.  The orphanage would barely allow Al Newman, a large benefactor of the home to visit his grand-daughter and yet they allowed an adult unrelated male to pick a 13 year old girl up and drive away with her.  Well, OK, if Catherine says so…

     Dickson then took her to a Dylan concert.  Dylan was in LA in May and/or June of  ’63 for a short time according to biographer, Sounes, and again in ‘64.  In ‘63 Catherine, who certainly must have looked young, if Dickson hadn’t told Dylan that she was 13, says that Dylan asked her to a party where he spent, she says, several hours sitting talking to her while ignoring the big girls and execs.  Well, I don’t know, but I doubt it.  I can’t imagine how Dickson explained things to the orphanage when he brought Catherine back in the wee small hours of the morning.

     Dylan was interested in her, she says, to the extent that every time he came to town he called on her at the orphanage.  These were in addition to the ‘63 and ‘64 visits so it is difficult to account for them.  Hard to believe, but as we’ll see she says all these famous rock musicians beat a path to her door, she didn’t pursue them.

     Al Newman’s influence with the orphanage notwithstanding his large contributions was pretty limited so that he would have been unable to prevent Catherine being sent back to the reformatory which was then proposed.  One night she scooted out the back door to take her chances.  Brave girl; I shudder to think of it.

     She says she took two hours to hoof it down to the Troubadour Folk Club at the junction of Melrose and Santa Monica.  Doug Weston founded the club in ‘57 and this was early ‘64.  Catherine is usually shy about identifying the seasons so one can’t pinpoint time within any given year.  She says because her step-father Travis of Bud and Travis was a performer there she was also allowed to perform at the troubadour as a twelve or thirteen year old.  Seems like a trifle of a stretch; she gives us no idea of her repertoire, Mary Had A Little Lamb or whatever.

     In two short hours the orphanage had missed her presence, not very likely in my experience, divined that she was headed for the Troubadour, called the plice who were already on the spot passing her picture around:  Seen this here thirteen year old around here, anywheres?  OK.  Sure, why wouldn’t the cops have her photo already on file? Handy.

     Rather than turning tail she slips into the club ascending the balcony to the right rear seat that just happened to be the only seat left.  I didn’t get to the Troubadour until the early seventies.  Saw Pentangle there.  I din’t go back.  The club was already on the way to becoming the rough place it became.  Anyway I know where she’s talking about.

     This girl cannot possibly have looked, spoken or acted any older than she was.  She tells the guy next to her to pretend he knows her.  She later describes this guy to be in his early twenties although he was only nineteen.  He obligingly wraps his arm around a 13 year old.  Alright!  That’s a chance I wouldn’t have taken.  Probably worth twenty to life in California and we had been terrorized at the prospect of statutory rape.   That was when you looked cross eyed at underage which was against the statutes.

      Catherine tells him all those cops swarming the place are after her.  Can he get her out of there?  Nothing daunted by anything like a statutory rape charge he throws his jacket over her shoulders and he and 13 year old  Catherine stroll out right under the noses of the coppers.  I think I saw that movie.

     The Good Sam turns out to be the brother of John Stewart of the Kingson Trio, Michael.  In 1964 he was up at San Francisco State where he was forming the We Five but at the time he hadn’t.  You Were On My Mind was a year in the future.  He first drops her off at a house with a whole bunch of guys way back in the hills but she was not afraid.  Michael then drives her North to Mill Valley, remember those statutory rape laws if caught, and brother John’s house where she is taken in as a nanny, and California’s Most Wanted Child, for his kids.  The Stewarts want to adopt her which is her cue to split.  It is amazing how lovable this troubled child is.

     As I say, I’ve been researching these astounding stories.  The problem with this one is that John Stewart was single at the time not marrying until 1968 when he wed Buffy Ford.  This story is definitely on the shaky side so that affects Catherine’s credibility a little more than somewhat.

     Traveling to Berkeley with some ‘hippie’ kids she hit the high spot of fabled Telegraph Avenue.  Hippy kids seem a stretcher in ‘64.  Now, we’re on home ground though.  I was around Berkeley a bit from ‘64-’66.  she appears to be describing a later edition of Telegraph.  In ‘64 the street was in transition from trad collegiate to what it later became.  It was the first time I  had ever been panhandled.  Some girl wanted 3.98 to get her dog out of the vet.  Could have been Catherine for all I know.  Naw, this girl was well past 13.

     On Telegraph she chances into the son of Barbara Dane and Rolf Cahn.  Cahn, a guitarist, is living up at Inverness on the ocean side of Marin County.  The younger Cahn puts her up at a sorority, which might seem plausible unless you’ve met some of those stuck ups.  To get her over to Inverness he invents the story that the police are passing pictures around.  Well, they couldn’t find Patty Hearst a couple years later either.  Not to worry, his bed in Inverness awaits.  Just one look was all it too, having his fill of her he splits the next morning with no intention of returning.  His dad also splits leaving her alone in the house.  A different world than I grew up in, no offense.  These things can happen, I don’t say they don’t, but ten or fifteen in a row is worthy of Guiness.

     The next day this guy from Boston shows up looking for Rolf, he’s a music lover.  Likes the stuff, flew out from Boston to listen to Rolf for an afternoon.  He is vastly amused at this endlessly charming 13 year old offering to fly her back to Boston with him which offer she accepts.

      Once in Boston she’s hot to get to NYC so someone going that way offers to drive her down to the East Village while Dr. Cummins, for that was his name, gives her a twenty for bus fare back.  Am I going too fast?  Catherine tells a fast paced story.

     Now, in NYC where Dylan mostly hangs out she has to locate this lad who found her so charming in California.  We’ve moved up from ‘63 to very late ‘64 or early ‘65 so Bob is heading into the thick of his ‘64-’66 epiphany.  Thanks to Peter Paul and Mary he is now – Somebody.  Things are rollin’ for Bob.

     At this point Catherine tells two different stories.  In her memoir she calls Woodstock where she says a woman answers and informs her that Dylan has gone on tour.  In Miss Pamela’s book she says she asked some kids where to find Bob Dylan.  Dylan obligingly pulls to a stop in front of her, slow moving traffic.  She runs over to say hi.  Dylan rolls down the window, coldly says he’s on his way to a concert, driving off.  She made no further attempt to contact him and he would have been easy to find.

     Alright, I read and reread.  What am I supposed to believe?

     So, this is 1965, the next five years are truly spectacular.  Unlike any other groupie I’ve ever heard of the rock stars gravitated toward the now fifteen year old Miss James with no effort on her part.  She doesn’t have to shriek for their attention or bare her boobs, she’s stunning and they come running.  Here she makes another minor error.  She says she sees Morrison and The Doors performing Light My Fire in NYC.  A couple of years ahead of the facts.  A small error doesn’t mean much but what about the rest.

     From this point on in order to create an impression of herself Catherine severely edits the facts distorting the reality at the least, what one puts in, what one leaves out.

     In ‘65 she met Denny Laine, make-up naturally fooled him, although still young she is now 15.  Close but still statutory.  I’m surprised the Moodies were in the US in ‘65 because Go Now, their first hit, didn’t make that big an impression.  Still, on their website the Moodies describe themselves as part of the British Invasion.  In my experience they didn’t hit until ‘68.

     The two met more or less formally at a party so the meeting was formalized rather than a groupie-star existential encounter.  Catherine always wishes to create a meeting Southern Belle style where the stars are impressed by her as much as she is by them.  “Oh, Rhett, you don’t mean it?’

     Laine forms the central theme of her groupie years.  She has a child by him which carries her into seventeen and 1967.  It isn’t easy creating a time frame or setting for her cast of characters.  During the three years 1967-1970 she has relations of some sort with the following  without mentioning Bob Dylan who dropped off the radar in 1965.

Roger Daltrey

David Gilmour

John Mayall

Jimmy Webb

Roman Polanski

Jimi Hendrix

Jimmy Page

Eric Clapton

Jackson Browne

Ginger Baker

Mick Jagger

Geno, partner in Granny Takes A Trip

+ Denny Laine

     As you can see it is a regular A list.  George Harrison could be included but she had no relations with him, just a friend.

     Catherine doesn’t mention Geno or David Gilmour herself.  Miss Pamela provides that in Spend The Night.  The gig with Geno and Miss Pamela also took a couple months.  Miss Pamela came to England with Geno’s partner.  The four then took up residence together all sleeping in the same bed with baby Damian in a crib in the corner.  He must have a Freudian memory or two.

     Catherine artfully tells her groupie career bringing the story to a grand climax before she throws in the towel and tries to establish a life as a respectable hausfrau.  The apex of groupiedom was Mick Jagger.  A story made the rounds at the time of a groupie who finally made it to the bed of Mick.  When asked how he was the next day, her reply was:  Well, he was OK, but he was no Mick Jagger. 

     Catherine characteristically was wooed by Mick, herself doing no chasing.  She was staying at Eric Clapton’s when Mick came over for a party.  Catherine tells it this way:

     I remember being engrossed in a book in the study when he peeked in and said:  “You’re pretty.”  With a blush, all I could think to say was a faint “thank you”, and went back to reading my book.

     Just like a debutante Catherine was engrossed in her book.  As the party got into swing and as the mescaline punch was about to hit Catherine thought to call Denny Laine while still coherent.

     As I was speaking with Denny, Mick came into the room and closed the door behind him.  I was seated at the desk in a regal, antique high-back chair with ornate carved arms.  Mick walked up next to me and just stood there.  He was wearing these delicious black-and-white checkered houndstooth wool trousers with a soft cotton white shirt.  When I looked over, all I could see was the undulating moving pattern of the houndstooth.  Mick didn’t say a word, but I felt the electricity.  He was clearly waiting for me to get off the phone.

     I think that’s pretty effective writing for a girl who barely finished grade school.  Obviously she put her time to good use after giving up the life.  Just picture sweet Lady Catherine sitting there as her Prince Charming came into her life, ‘regal, antique, high backed chair with ornate carved arms!’

     The above passage is for the girls who never made it with Jagger.  You can just hear Miss James cooing: Eat your hearts out girls.

      Catherine not only has one night with Mick but moves into the mansion for ‘a couple of months’.  The absolute untopable climax comes next.

     For the event I wore my long, whimsical, gypsy dress from the posh Ozzie Clark’s boutique.  The velvet bodice was formfitting, buttoning down to a billowing skirt of colored silk layers.  My pale pink platform boots with appliqued silver cresent moons and stars from Granny Takes A Trip went perfectly with my outfit.  Stevie Wonder was the hottest ticket in town, and I felt like a female divinity sitting between Mick and Eric, taking in Mr. Wonder’s stellar performance.

     Yes, there was the fairy princess sitting with not one but two Prince Charmings watching Stevie Wonder.  There was no way to top that so apparently Catherine’s philosophy was quit while you’re on top.  I quite agree with her if you know when that is.  And thus perhaps after having gratified one compensatory fantasy she returned to the US to begin her redemption by hard work.  As she has written this book she apparently did that too.

     After knowing all those rock gods so intimately I think it noteworthy that only Roger Daltrey deigned to write a blurb for the jacket.  He and Miss Pamela.

     The book was a very interesting read leading me to some other interesting discoveries that added substance to my understanding of the era.  I have Miss James to thank for that.

     As an alumnus of the orphanage, and believe me orphanages are all one form of horror story or another, I have solidarity with Miss James and wish her well.  I’m sure everything she wrote was based on the facts but I still want some corroboration for the Dylan bit.

     Miss James’ book has enjoyed some success.  My copy is of the second printing so she sold out the first.  At the last check the title was listed as about the 100,000th best seller on Amazon.  I’m not sneering, mine is at about 5,500,000.

     If anyone likes horror stories of this nature may I direct them to my description of  an orphanage- Far Gresham Vol. I- that can be found at reprindle.wordpress.com.  May I also direct your attention to my The Sonderman Constellation by R.E. Prindle published by iUniverse available through alibris, Amazon etc.  I need some readers and sales too.  I probably don’t need more than two sales to jump up to the 1,000.000th best selling.  C’mon help a fellow out   It’s a good book, you won’t regret it.

At SXSW in Austin, we caught up with Steve Jones, former guitarist with the Sex Pistols.  He played an odd little gig far from the SXSW action, at a Best Buy store in south Austin.  Because it was out of the way (and out of range for the SXSW shuttles) there were no official badges or wristbands present, just hardcore fans.

Jones is, of course, the self-taught guitarist who stole his equipment from Mick Ronson at a David Bowie gig and with Johnny (Lydon) Rotten, founded one of the most influential rock bands of the 20th century.  Since the Pistols crashed and burned in 1978, Jones has played with a number of illuminaries including Bob Dylan, Thin Lizzy, Adam Ant, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop, Megadeth and his band the Neurotic Outsiders.

Since 2004 he has also been a radio personality in L.A., broadcasting his “Jonesy’s Jukebox” from Indie 103.1 until this year, when the station went Spanish.  That’s what we asked Jonesy about first.

30 Days Out: Do you have another radio show lined up?  You’re not going to learn to speak Spanish are ya?

Steve Jones: Well, I have a couple of irons in the fire right now … there’s another station in L.A. that might be getting something together along the lines of Indie 103.1, and I could do that.  I’ve also been talking to Sirius (satellite radio) and could do something for them too.  Right now I’m just taking it easy and sort of enjoying the down time, you know?

30 Days Out: You were really involved in picking the music for the radio show, right?

Steve Jones: Oh yeah.  If it was just talking between the songs and bits like that, I wouldn’t have done it.  All the music on that show, that was music I like.

30 Days Out: What brings you to South by Southwest this year?

Steve Jones: I actually drove down here from L.A. and eventually I’m going to make my way up the East Coast to New York.  I did one of these Best Buy things in L.A. and it was very popular, so I was asked to do this one.  The past few years I’ve been at SXSW doing my radio show from here, did you ever hear it?

30 Days Out: Well, we were here … but you did a great interview with Iggy Pop a few years ago.

Steve Jones:  Yeah, the Stooges reunion in 2007.  I have talked with Iggy about doing something with him again, maybe playing guitar in a lineup of the Stooges.  Not that I could hope to replace Ron (Asheton, who died earlier this year) but we could mix it up a bit, do a few Pistols songs.  You know, we were influenced by the Stooges … the Sex Pistols did “No Fun” on our American tour.

30 Days Out: So is that Stooges thing on?

Steve Jones: Well, it won’t happen this year because Iggy doesn’t want to tour.  Maybe next year … don’t really know what form it could take, really, it’s all just talk.

Sex Pistols: Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones

30 Days Out: I saw you play with the Pistols in San Antonio in 1978 … do you have any memory of those shows?

Steve Jones: Yeah, what a hoot.  We knew it was going to be wild when we came to Texas, because we played in the most redneck areas.  We were like lightning in a bottle … That kind of thing can’t be planned, it may never happen again.  Not the same way, anyhow.

This wasn’t really a formal interview, I certainly didn’t tell anyone I was going to write this up.  I actually didn’t think I was going to write this up.  I asked Steve the questions over a two hour period, just tossing ‘em out when he took a break.  He answered between sips of bottled tea and loud open-mouthed burps (once into the microphone).  He was at the Best Buy to give away a Les Paul guitar, and conveniently playing it while doing (as advertised) a “guitar seminar” where he was to give tips on tuning and stuff.  Well, Jones called a Best Buy employee over who held an electronic tuner while he got the guitar in tune.

At first Jones didn’t know what to do, strumming a few chords and whistling a tune and asking people to guess what he was playing.  After that failed, he invited people from the sparse crowd (about 25 people at first, it grew later to a throng of 35) to come up and sing.  This guy in a three-pointed pirate hat came up and ripped out a wild version of “God Save the Queen” then this other dude who had a cassette copy of Never Mind the Bollocks came up and did a great version of “Pretty Vacant.”  Steve also did a solo version of the Pistols’ “Bodies” and threw in all the “fucks” and “fuckings” from the original. 

Pamela Des Barres dancing at Best Buy

Then Jones invited his running buddy Michael Des Barres (yeah, that guy) to sing “Anarchy In the U.K.” and we had a rockin’ time going.   A second guitar and amp materialized, and other guys stepped up to play with Jones.  Finally, Des Barres and the pirate guy “Captain Fleabag” jammed with Jones on a nice version of “Everyday People” which segued into a rockin’ “Proud Mary,” while Pamela Des Barres (yeah, that chick) danced. 

Needless to say, it was a strange and strangely exhilarating Saturday morning at SXSW – in a Best Buy, of all places.

MP3: “Bodies” by the Sex Pistols

The other day I mentioned I wanted to go to the library to get books because I actually have time to read. I did in fact go to the library last Sunday and got The Beatles: the Illustrated and Updated Edition of the Best-selling Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies and I’m with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie by Pamela des Barres. Both were very good and I’m already done reading them. I feel so accomplished. Oh and I got my grades back and I did pretty good if I may say so myself. I can now breathe and hope next semester is the same.

There will be another blog entry tomorrow about my recent Slow Runner exploits, but I’m too tired to get into it now (I’m still relishing the moments!). What I can say is that I’ve been reading Take Another Little Piece of My Heart by the fabulous Miss Pamela Des Barres. It’s the sequel to one of my favorite books I’m With the Band, the holy grail of groupie books, and was recently reprinted. I love her because she’s unapologetic, a fun and energetic writer, and her experiences (to an extent) hit close to home. Just loads of fun. So the sequel is about life after the groupie heyday – she got married, had a kid, grew up in a sense of the word. And while all of it is just loads of fun to read, I just came across a passage that made me cry with laughter. She’s at Bob Dylan’s birthday party and mentioning all the famous faces in the room…

Hmm, there’s Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Debra Winger, Joycie, Carole, various cool musicians, hip record-business types, George Harrison… GEORGE HARRISON!!! Fab Four flashbacks stung my head like blazing confetti; bobbing-head Beatle dolls, goopy teen Fab Four mush stories, a gently weeping guitar, “I’d be quite prepared for that eventuality.” (p. 197)

Being the HUGE George Harrison fan I am (something I will no doubt get into sometime in the future), this passage hit me like a down pillow at a slumber party. That would totally have been my reaction had I ever had the chance to meet my idol The Quiet One Beatle. Especially that last line from A Hard Day’s Night.

Sorry, just a funny little moment from my evening. Carry on.

Conversations With Robin

Page Two.

Chatter Between

Robin Mark and R.E. Prindle

     Well, you know, the river just keeps right on a flowin’ and you have to stay afloat but the bozos in Washington just don’t seem to have a clue and they’re so cynically dishonest.  Eighty percent were against the bailout but they said we had to have it or the world would end yesterday.  Now the bailout has gone away.  first there was a bailout, then there was no bailout.

     I thought both Obama and McCain were genuninely crazy to want to step into Bush’s shoes and I hope Obama gets what he’s got coming.to him before I get mine.  The Commies have to be stopped this time; twice was enough of that bull roar.

     But to turn the radio back up.  Have you read any of Miss Pamela’s latest:  Let’s Spend The Night Together?  she interviews twenty-four groupies mining their minds for golden memories.

     As super Presley buff you’ll want to read the first chapter by someone called Tura Satana.  Taught Elvis nearly every thing he knew.  How to kiss, the whole works.  Came to her as a country bumpkin and left as The Sheik.  Funny I haven’t heard you vent on her before.

     And then a Catherine James invents the most improbable story about Dylan you’ve ever heard.

     Elvira makes her guest appearance with some more info on Elvis that sounds like it might be as true, at least, as a Hollywood movie.

     It’s kind of a kiss and invent book but Miss Pamela is her usual charming self.  Get’s a little gruesome after a while though, but, Hey, here it is 2008 and they’ve all survived.  Even Miss Mercy.  Carazy mama but she’s got a few more tidbits on Elvis.  Did he ever have an interest in a Memphis area club called Hernando’s Hideaway?

     Those girls did get around but the question is what can they actually remember?  It makes you wonder how Jimmy Page ever had a spare moment to practice guitar.

     Good luck with your school.  We’re a long way from the bottom yet.  It amazes me how few people understand how far its fallen and that it is absolutely impossible for it to bounce back.  For crying out loud the Faller has barely gotten ‘Timber’ out his mouth already.

     I pity those poor Liberals who’ve finally gotten their wish.  Now what are they going to do with General Motors.  There is no forgiveness in my heart for them.

A Review

Let’s Spend The Night Together

by

Pamela Des Barres

Review by R.E. Prindle

Des Barres, Pamela, Let’s Spend The Night Together, 2008 Chicago Review Press

Wild thing,

You make my heart sing.

Wild Thing,

You make everything,

groov-eh.

Chip Taylor

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

For tomorrow brings but sorrow,

The girls that are so sweet today

Will be mothers-in-law tomorrow.

College Humor

     Pamela Des Barres having apparently exhausted what appeared to be an inexhaustible fund of rock n’ roll memories returns to the publishing fold with a whole book full of other groupies’ memories.  She introduces some twenty-four supergroupies to tell their back stage secrets of rock gods.

     If you’re into titillating sexual stuff you’ve just found the Dutchman’s lost gold mne.  For those into this stuff Cynthia Plaster Caster is pictured fondling the immortalized member of Jimi Hendrix.  At least we know that one’s true.  However some of the memories recorded seem to be sort of stretchers to me.  Making a good story better is OK but pure invention is something else.

     I did catch one of the girls, women, mothers-in-law, almost all grandmothers, in a fabrication or, shall I say, a delusion.  I don’t want to be unkind because the lady in question, Catherine James, did time in the orphanage while having one of those mothers from hell.  I can sympathize, a double whammy like that can do things to you.  I had a number of issues with my mother, who has now gone to her greater reward wherever that may be, while she too put me in the orphanage. So, as I say, I can sympathize.

     Well, Miss James says she quit the groupie game in 1971 at the age of nineteen while she began at age thirteen.  That would have made her beginning in 1965.  As she tells it those six years were eventful enough for any busload of wayward girls.

     As I read my eyebrows kept going up.  This was too amazing, it seemed, to be true.  After reading her chapter I put the book down while my eyes were spinning around in my head.  Then I began going over the details looking for that fatal flaw.  As there was no way I could contradict her stories based on her revelatory details, I would have to examine dates and when I did I found that flaw. Not gentlemanly, but I do have that inquisitive mind that just won’t be satisfied.  As it happened the flaw involved the ’spokesman of his generation’ Bob Dylan.

     Miss James says that she met Bob, as I gather he was the first, at thirteen.  As she tells it Bob gave her some good soul saving advice about her mother; otherwise she might have been driven mad.  I can dig that, too.

     But there was a problem with that.  Miss James lived in the LA area.  She says she met Bob in California between the recording of Bob Dylan and The Free Wheelin’.  That would probably have been about the time Bob was heavy with Suze Rotolo in NYC.  At any rate in ‘62 Miss James would have been about ten years old not thirteen.

     Miss James who has extraordinary faith in the art of cosmetology believes that at thirteen she could make herself up successfully enough to fool a guy into thinking she was minimally legal.  That alone seems like a mega stretcher to me.  But what are cosmetics going to do for a ten year old?

     Quite clearly Miss James could not have met Bob when she was thirteen in LA.  She would like to have met Bob and gotten that good advice but she couldn’t have.

     Making a good story better she compounds the delusion by saying that still at thirteen she made the pilgrimage to Greenwich Village to be with Bob.  In an interesting dream sequence she describes arriving in NYC broke, not unlike Bob, with no place to stay.  Talking to some young people in the Village she told them she was there to visit Bob.  Naturally this admission was greeted with snickers.  But, lo and behold, who should drive up to the street corner at that instant but Bob himself.  She ran over to greet him.  He rolled down the window to say he was off to a concert and drove away.

     As I say I don’t wish to cause Miss James distress and I’m sure she ins’t any less truthful than any of these girls, women, mothers-in-law, but much of this stuff requires that extra grain of salt.

     The opening chapter concerning the adventures of someone called Tura Satana and Elvis requires some documentation.  But, why go into it.  As Samuel Johnson said who but a blockhead wouldn’t write for money.  I presume that Miss Pamela would like to see a nice fat royalty check.  Lord knows Frank Zappa left Miss Pamela short when she was a member of the GTOs, so buy a copy if you like this stort of thing and make that ageing Wild Thing’s heart sing.  She’s got it coming, believe me.

Today’s post is courtesy of Dear Jessica Pratt, XOXO, just as beautiful as either of the ladies below. Open this link while you’re reading and listen to her beautiful music. You’ll be glad you did.

We had talked about my doing a painting of Pamela Des Barres and I have been wanting to do more women. These ladies are dreamy.

We Love You Miss Pamela!!

Here is Jessica’s proposal:

“Speaking of the ladies, it’s ’bout time you did portraits Des Barres and Faithfull. I’ve tried here to collect a few photos of these ladies in order to assist your creations. Both Pamela and Marianne have strikingly pleasant and beautiful faces, but very much unique in their features. Pamela has her daintily-diveted chin, slope nose and bunny teeth. Marianne has her masquerade mask flat face, wide lips and “lizard eyes” as Mr. Brian likes to put it. And don’t forget those freckles! Also, they both have at least two very different eras of self to choose from:

Young, pre-Beefheart Pamela is wholesome and sunny.

More radical Des Barres is strangely sexual and look at how curly her hair is!

GTO’s era Des Barres would probably be the most interesting and colorful subject for your paintings.

Then there’s red-head Des Barres which is a whole other ball game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As far as Faithfull goes:  

The full-blown, mid-to-late-seventies junky Faithfull is pretty interesting, I think. Her teeth seemed to get smaller and smaller and I feel like you could hear her gums when she spoke and sang. I think of a strange elegant, garbled sound when I see her face in pictures like these.

Well, I love you and I’m eager to see the results.”

Jessica

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aww! I am inspired, sweet girl. I always do a much better job of painting when I love the person to be painted and love the person who will receive the painting.

Thanks, honey bunch.

I found this website written on a loose post-it in my junk drawer:

www.groupieratings@metalsludge.tv

Now before you go thinking that I’ve taken my love of music too far, this website was part of legitimate research. It dates back to the article I wrote for Racket Magazine about famous groupie/writer Pamela Des Barres. You can check out the finished article in the “music” section of my portfolio.