Monday, July 30, 2007

ROCKIN' author tapes GM Exhibit voice-over at historic Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA

(above) Yours truly, at Fantasy Studios
(above) Jesse Nichols, Fantasy Studios engineer (and gearhead)
(above) creating the MP3 file for transmission to Detroit
(above) Jesse w. ROCKIN' and his Chevy-in-progress
(above) Jesse w. Nina Bombardier,
longtime Studio Manager at Fantasy, and ROCKIN'
(above) yes, Creedence famously recorded at Fantasy
-
-
And so, after lo these many years of working in the Bay Area rock & roll scene (most of these 30 or so years spent as VP/Sales at Winterland Productions, Sony Signatures, and Signatures Network--the great merchandise firms) I finally walked through the famous Fantasy Studio doors in Berkeley . . . to record.
-
Next week, a major exhibition based on ROCKIN' goes up at the General Motors Heritage Center in Detroit (this is by corporate invitation only; not open to the general public). This is a huge honor for the book, as the exhibit is wholly devoted to images from the book placed in relation to some of GM's classic rock & roll-era cars which they pulled from their vault to flesh out the ROCKIN' theme.
-
I'll share photos with you next week. As you can imagine, I'm tremendously excited, and personally honored as well, by the opportunity.
-
So, Joe Schulte, one of the great Detroit communications guys--who's masterminded the exhibition--asked me to do a voice-over that kicks off the GM's ROCKIN' expedition-through-time. He'll add a music bed now that he has the MP3 file which engineer Jesse Nichols helped me create there at Fantasy.
-
Hey, and I'm proud to say we did it in one take!
-
Studio Manager Nina Bombardier and her staff ooohed over the book, so I'll be dropping some more copies off next week for her, the studio lobby waiting area, and potential clients.
-
Then, she told me that Jesse is a gearhead, which he confirmed by walking me out to his Chevy-in-progress, which should be finished in time for the next Billetproof car event in Antioch, CA (which astute readers of this blog will remember as the site where ROCKIN' was first unveiled by book designer Brent Rector to me and James Hetfield, among others--a historic day indeed).
-
So a great morning in Berkeley! Wonderful friends old and new, a historic studio and building, memories of Creedence, be-bop and classic jazz, and the legacy of Stax-Volt (the original archives for these great labels is housed at the Fantasy vault), and huge anticipation for the GM exhibit about to open.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

a ROCKIN' tour of the Golden Age of Trucking Museum (Middlebury, CT)

(above) Big fun at the Golden Age of Trucking Museum.
That's yer author, atop, with son Jordan and wife Jane below
(above) 1955 International Harvester model DFC 405,
known as "The Emeryville," also known as
the "wedding cake truck"( see below)
(above) Jordan, about to rock on down the highway
(above) the view from the cockpit (and we're talkin' HIGH UP THERE)
(above) the sleeper behind the drivers seat
(above) my wife Jane Eskilson, heading out for Chicago and points west
(above) now you can see why this model Emeryville is
known to be one of the tallest trucks ever built
(above) another size comparison, that with two classic Autocars.
(middle) 1974 Autocar model DC9364; (right) 1962 Autocar model DC75T
(above) Joe Beers' "Big Blue" Mack
(above) a classic ('30s?) Diamond T stakebed, kinda
reminiscent of the trucks in the George Raft, Humphrey Bogart movie
THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT
(above) 1940 Mack, a transitional model between the old and new styles
(above) the classic Mack model AC, which helped build the
great dams and the early major highways across the nation
(above) here's something very rare . . . a 1946 Hudson "Big Boy" pickup
(above) a 1954 Diamond T model 951S . . . lotta rollin' steel.
(above) one of the museum's great treasures,
a 1952 Diamond T model 950RS stakebed, the largest
Class 8 on-highway vehicle produced by Diamond T in Chicago
(some 80 may have been produced from 1951 to 1957).
(above) Museum Director Kathleen D. Jones, daughter of
the late Richard J. Guerrera, Sr., a major truck collector
and head of R.J. Guerrera Inc., a significant East Coast transportation company
in operation for thirty five years, headquartered in Naugatuck, CT
(above) This depicts all my childhood fantasies in one inspired picture.
(above) one example of the many stunning truck models on display
at the Museum, built by Ken Swingle of Huntington, CT.
-

I'm proud to be a founding member of the American Truck Historical Society, of which there are now well over 25,000 members worldwide. I also support the work of the Hays Antique Truck Museum in Woodland, CA, about an hour from my home. So it's no surprise that on my recent East Coast tour of colleges and universities with my college-bound son Jordan (a high school senior this year at Salesian) and my wife Jane Eskilson, I finagled a visit to The Golden Age of Trucking Museum, located in Middlebury, CT (about an hour from New Haven).
-
GATM was founded in 1998 by the late Richard (Dick) Guerrera of Middlebury (see picture to left). He passed away before the museum was fully built, but his widow Frances Guerrera and their children carried on with the plans, and the ribbon cutting was held in September, 2002.
-
Many of Mr. Guerrera's prized trucks are on display. Both he and I loved (and love) Macks, Diamond T's, and Autocars especially, and there are some absolutely outstanding examples, beautifully restored. A portion of what's exhibited is on loan, so the museum changes every year to some degree.
-
Kathi Jones, Mr. Guerrera's daughter, is the Museum Director. I asked her at one point in our tour if we could climb into one of the trucks and take pictures. She was so very kind to say yes, and without realizing that one of Dick Guerrera's favorites was the Emeryville shown here in many of the photos, I asked for access to that one. So we climbed up! And I mean climbed!
-
The Emeryville DFC 405 cabover was built by International Harvester in its Emeryville, CA plant in the mid-1950s. It's a legend all itself because of its height (only the Mack H-series would rival it).
Imagine being atop one of these beasts--you're indeed the king of the highway and all that passeth below and beside.
-
Some truckers call this model the "wedding cake truck" because to them it appears it was "built in layers." Few examples exist, although members of ATHS have brought them to their annual conventions, and jaws always drop. It's one of my absolute favorites too, so I must salute Dick Guerrera and Frances, their family, and especially Kathi, for founding the museum, hosting it so delightfully, and allowing Jane, Jordan, and me to poke around.
-
I commend this museum to you, and you can read more at www.goldenagetruckmuseum.com.
You must ask for permission before touching anything on exhibit--generally people are not allowed to climb into the trucks, as we did.
-
Thanks Kathi, it was a blast. And, thanks much for acquiring copies of ROCKIN' for sale in the Museum gift shop. There's a good truckin' story in there too (pages 130-131), so it fits!!

Sunday, July 08, 2007

a ROCKIN' reminiscence on events in '69






(above) Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (l), Phil Lesh (r)





(above) German single (1970); note photo was
taken by poster artist Stanley Mouse for the LP cover
(above) French single (1970)
(above) Dutch single (1970)
-
1969 was my Summer of Love. I didn't make Woodstock, but I sure came close--about a hundred miles away. It was my senior year in high school; I'd just graduated, and was a counselor at Camp Regis (where Bonnie Raitt and her brothers went), near Saranac Lake (close to Lake Placid up in New York State) and of course I heard all about the outrageous goings-on. Just a few weeks before, I'd hitchhiked into town to see a movie--any movie. As fate would have it, what was playing was MONTEREY POP. I walked in to the theater one kind of person, and walked out having seen my people for the first time. And, I was headed to Stanford, on the West Coast.
-
When I arrived, one of the first things I noticed was that the freshman football players were listening to a brand new LP--the Grateful Dead's LIVE DEAD. Within weeks, I'd see the Dead at Bill Graham's Fillmore West dance-concert hall on Market Street in San Francisco. In fact, I was there the night before Altamont, dancing to the Dead, on December 5, 1969.
-
I didn't go to Altamont on December 6. I was an editor at the Stanford Daily, going to two, sometimes three concerts a week, and valiantly trying to keep my academic scene intact. While the spectacle-to-be sure was intriguing, I just didn't have the resources to make my way over to the East Bay, thru Livermore, and up into the hills where Altamont Speedway was. As things turned out, probably it was for the best.
-
Altamont was not the Stones' first choice for their post-Woodstock free concert. They couldn't get the permits for a site in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and negotiations with Sears Point Raceway in Marin County broke down. So Altamont was a last- minute set-up and the lack of preparation was obvious, all the way to a rickety, too-close-to-the ground concert stage. And then there was the Stones' choice of security (allegedly at the recommendation of the Dead) to be handled by the pool cue-wielding Hells Angels, who were paid off in alcohol. Bad acid trips, bodily injuries and even death resulted.
-
A lot of my buddies went and most everyone came back bummed. Sound was horrible, insufficient for what turned out to be 300,000 fans. The magic of Woodstock was just not there.The experience was well chronicled by the landmark film GIMME SHELTER, which focused on the Stones epic year of 1969, including their NYC Madison Square Garden concert where GET YER YA YA'S OUT was recorded (with the all-time inspired shout from the audience, "Paint it Black, you devils!!!").
-
Maybe Altamont was a major turning point in rock & roll, and in pop culture in general. But I say maybe, even though I'm a rock historian and know the big picture involved. See, for me, my best years as a young rocker were still ahead, particularly as I grew with the Grateful Dead, absorbing some of their best work in the 1970s and '80s--ultimately leading to my co-authoring GRATEFUL DEAD BOOK OF THE DEAD HEADS, my first book, in 1983.
-
For the Dead, Altamont was most definitely a major bummer--an in-yer-face scene of horrifying serendipity. They never played that day or night, although they were scheduled to follow the Stones. But they absorbed a lot of flack. In fact on Dec. 8, famed columnist Ralph J. Gleason, who had celebrated the rise of San Francisco-style psychedelic rock beginning in 1965 and was a huge champion of the Dead, the Airplane, Quicksilver, and Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, wrote scathing commentary about the planning of and the lingering effects of Altamont in the San Francisco Chronicle. Reading those alternately sad, bewildered, and angry musings, The Dead's lyricist, Robert Hunter, responded with "New Speedway Boogie" (excerpts below):
-
"Spent a little time on the mountain
Spent a little time on the hill
Heard some say better run away
Others say you better stand still
-
Now I don't know but I been told
It's hard to run with the weight of gold
Other hand, I heard it said
It's just as hard with the weight of lead
-
You can't overlook the lack, Jack,
Of any other highway to ride
It's got no signs or dividing lines
And very few rules to guide
-
Now I don't know but I been told
If the horse don't pull you got to carry the load
I don't know whose back's that strong
Maybe find out before too long
-
One way or another . . ."
-
This was the beginning of the Dead's semi-acoustic period, when they released WORKINGMAN'S DEAD and AMERICAN BEAUTY in June and November, 1970. "New Speedway Boogie" was a B-side single off WORKINGMANS. In the recent auction conducted by www.ItsOnlyRocknRoll.com, I snagged three rare European singles of "Uncle John's Band" (the signature piece for the band in that era) backed by "New Speedway Boogie", all shown above. These are what brought back my memories.
-
The Dead played "NSB" 4 times in late 1969, 21 times in 1970, and then did not play the song again until 1991. Looking at DEADBASE, I also note that the Dead played these venues:
-
04-67: Speedway Meadows, Golden Gate Park (SF)
(actually numerous free gigs there, that spring and summer)
-
12-28-69: International Speedway, Hollywood, FL
-
7-28-73: Grand Prix Racecourse, Watkins Glen, NY
-
9-3-77: Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ
-
WORKINGMANS DEAD was the fourth studio album by the Dead. In 1970, the readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted it the best album of 1970, in front of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's DEJA VU, and Van Morrison's MOONDANCE. In 2003, the album was ranked number 262 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
-
"New Speedway Boogie" excerpted lyrics reprinted with the permission of Ice Nine Publishing, all rights reserved. Thanks much to Alan Trist.
-
some useful sources:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Monday, July 02, 2007

a ROCKIN' Super Bee Six-Pack poster, in honor of Detroit's garage-band rockers The Von Bondies


Being the rock poster guy that I am, I was cruisin' thru one of my favorite sites, http://www.gigposters.com/ and came across this poster, by the otherwise unknown (to me, that is) designer Joe Camacho, for The Von Bondies' gig at The Casbah (a San Diego club). I went a step further and looked at the comments and found this inspired dialogue that includes artists Greg Reinel ("Stainboy" and Mike Fisher ("MaximumFluoride")--two of my most rockin' buds--and artist Mike Saputo.
-
"Stainboy: The only six pack in the world that I need.
-
MaxFlo: This is the exact car I want. It is the exact car I have wanted since I was 9 years old. One day I will have it.
-
MSaputo: This is the (new) 440 Magnum V8-powered Dodge Super Bee Six Pack. With? Three Holley two-barrels on an Edelbrock aluminum manifold. Your choice of a 4-speed manual with Hurst shifter or 3-speed automatic. A 4:10 ratio, 9 3/4" Dana axle with Sure Grip differential. G70x15 Polyglas tires on 6" wheels. A fiberglass scoop so mean-looking it'll scare you. And a hood you take off, held down by four NASCAR hood pins. 'Nuff said? Well, how 'bout this? 390 bhp @ 4700 rpm, 490 lbs-ft. of torque @3600 rpm. Now get with it. At your nearby Dodge dealers. Ask for the Super Bee Six Pack. That'll do it.
-
MaxFlo: This is the car I still want. Although I want the one with the steel hood. And no vinyl top. I'd prefer the two door post over the hardtop but I'm willing to be flexible on that."
-
Anyone who's thumbed through ROCKIN' knows the work of Stainboy--just check out his Mustang Sally full-page illustration on page 179 and his picture with his Mustang on page 155. MaxFlo, who comes out of the hard core school of rock, is an inspired artist who's brought boucoup imagination to the video games world, and is a stone-cold gearhead himself. I almost shoe-horned some of his Roth-like car-monster designs into ROCKIN' but we plumb ran out of space--to my everlasting regret.
--
FYI, The Von Bondies are a Detroit-based indie/garage rock band formed in 2000 by leader Jason Stollsteimer. Jack White of the White Stripes, along with The Dirtbombs' Jim Diamond, produced the Bondies' debut album, Lack of Communication, in late 2001. It was recorded in only three days. Pawn Shoppe Heart came out in February, 2004 on the Sire label, co-produced by Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads.
-
The Von Bondies' single "C'Mon, C'mon" is featured in the TV series Rescue Me. You can read more about the band at www.vonbondies.com/.
-