December 2011

Back in November of 1979, I went to a club to see David Johannson, former singer of the New York Dolls. I have always been a Dolls fan, and wanted to see what he would do solo. Opening the show was a little girl in spandex, who, although she had a great voice and some great songs, basically got booed off the stage by all the Dolls fans in the audience. So, between bands I headed to the rest room, which is situated next to the opening act’s dressing room. The dressing room door was open, and Pat was sitting by herself, crying while her band was breaking down their equipment. I knocked on the side of the door and asked if I could come in. We talked for a while, and I told her not to worry about the booing, as that happened a lot in Chicago. (I had just seen Van Halen get booed off the stage while opening for Journey- TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW! She smiled, dried her tears, and agreed to do a quick photo shoot in the hallway, and we became friends, (sort of). I photographed her several times in the next two years (several times with David Johannson opening for her) as she quickly became a superstar.

So, now we turn to November 1982, and she was playing the big hockey arena in town. I called her publicist to request a photo pass, and was told that Pat does not allow photographers at her shows any more. In those days, I very rarely took no for an answer, so I went to the show anyway, and snuck my equipment in. I found a pretty good spot and shot the whole show. The next day I sent photos to all the major rock magazines, and made a killing off of them, as there were no good photos around.

I have always thought that that was the start of the “no photos” era of the business. I tried to fight it for a while- I knew a lot of the security guys at the local venues, and they always let me sneak in, but I soon realized that the photos weren’t as good, it was too much of a hassle, and if they didn’t want me there, I would just as soon stay home. Oh well, the beginning of the end.

Sometimes sports takes over for music (every Sunday afternoon in the fall, for example). Last Sunday, the Chicago Bears were playing the Denver Bronco’s and a few friends came over to watch the Bears dismantle Tim Tebow. For the first 50 minutes of a sixty minute game, they did just that. Shortly before the end of the game, the Bears were up 10-0 and Tebow was three for 16 passing. At this point, Tebow ran in from the sidelines and I turned to my friends and said “Here we go- the Bears are going to lose the game.” Sure enough, that is exactly what happened!

Yesterday (Saturday) I watched an ESPN Special on Tebow, documenting the time between the end of his college career (Heisman trophy and 2 national championships at Florida) and the moment he was drafted in the first round by the Denver Broncos. During the entire period documented, the show kept on cutting to so-called experts explaining why Tebow would not make it as a quarterback in the NFL, and would most likely be drafted in the 3^rd or 4^th round of the draft. In between these glowing testimonials, the show followed him dedicating himself to making himself an NFL quarterback, including one amazing scene of him pushing a full size SUV down a country road and getting it up to 10 miles on hour!

So this year, Tebow was made the starting quarterback, out of desperation, and has led the Broncos to seven wins in the last eight games, and has brought them to first place in their division. Today (12/18) he goes head to head with the best quarterback playing in the NFL right now (Tom Brady and the New England Patriots). We shall see who prevails.

I would love to see someone go back and ask all the “experts” what they think now. It always galls me when I go to see a band, they give it their all, and I read the next day in the paper about how bad the band was! I always want to call the critic and ask to hear his recordings, or ask when he is next playing live!

Last weekend was very interesting. About a month earlier, I got a message from a friend of mine at the State Department. He was bringing a Malaysian folk singer and a documentary film crew to Chicago to film the singer studying Chicago blues. He wanted some suggestions, so I volunteered to set some stuff up for them and be their guide for a few days. What a cool experience! I met them Friday morning at a Muslim community center on the south side and led them to the Chicago Cultural Center where the singer (Halim Yazid- check him out on uTube; he has had 800,000 hits) performed in front of a noontime audience. We then went on a short tour of Chicago blues landmarks, and ended the afternoon at the Chess Records Museum. Later in the evening, we met at Buddy Guy’s club, where I got them an interview with Buddy and also with Lurrie Bell, who was performing that night. Shortly after that, they witnessed and filmed a jam session with Lurrie, Buddy and Billy Branch, a legendary blues harmonica player.

The next afternoon we went to Billy Branch’s house, where he and Halim jammed together in the basement and wrote and performed a song together. Just a really cool couple of days.

The following day, for something completely different, I photographed a band called Straight No Chaser. That was a challenge- 10 guys singing acappella and moving around like crazy! The guys were really nice, and put out the challenge- to get a good shot where you could see all 10 of them. Very tough, but I got a few.

Right before the show, I went out to find a good shooting spot and watch the opening, very funny video. Halfway through the video, the announcer started outlining the rules and regulations- no smoking, etc. When they came to the part of the announcement talking about no photos allowed, the video screeched to a halt and a new announcer yelled “Wait, not for our show. We want everyone to shoot as many pictures as you can, and post them to as many websites as you can. We also want anyone with a video camera to shoot as much as you can and post videos to uTube!”

WOW, WHAT A CONCEPT! And it really didn’t hurt their draw, they played in front of 10,000 people in 24 hours in Chicago.

Just got an email from my friend Joe telling me that it was nine years ago this week when a bunch of us got on a few buses in Lincoln, Nebraska and traveled around the Midwest visiting universities and churches talking about the problems in Africa.

The group was led by Bono, Ashley Judd and Chris Tucker and hit Lincoln, Des Moines, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville and ended up in Nashville. Each day was headlined with a performance at a college auditorium or a church, with Bono doing what he does best- doing his part to save the world. He would always start off each event with this comment: “There is nothing worse than a rock star with a cause.” Then he would disprove it, at least in his case. There is nobody better than him at distilling an argument down to it’s essential issues. And putting it forth so you see it in a way that makes you want to follow him anywhere. Both Ashley and Chris are brilliant speakers, and all were very funny.

Ashley’s sister Wynonna substituted for her on the final day. Not a lot of music but it put me in the mode of realization that the world can be a better place if people stop talking and start doing. I was also reminded of this trip when reading an interview with Bono in this weeks Time Magazine, where he made another impassioned plea for help in ending the AIDS epidemic- and explained how it could be done.

There were some lighter moments, as when Bono and Chris jumped up on stage with the hotel band in Cincinnati to sing covers with them at a Friday night singles party. Also in Cincinnati, at an AIDS clinic, I was standing next to a balding, middle aged guy in a blue sweater with a nametag on his sweater that said Peter Frampton. I thought that was pretty cool that a guy in Cincinnati had the same name as the famous English rock star. Then he started talking and lo and behold, it was the actual Peter Frampton, who now lives there!

Also, during that 10 day period, Bono was working on a newfangled thing called a blog! Every night about 1AM, the phone in my room would ring and this Irish voice would say “OK, let’s look at some photos.” I would grab my laptop, walk over to his room and we would go over the days photos. He would find the ones that matched what he was writing about, and I would go back to my room, size them and email them to some guy at a website that I had never heard of till that week- www.aol.com. Cool idea! I wonder if that blog thing will ever catch on.

Between all the laughs, awareness was raised in a lot of places, and maybe went a small way toward making the world a better place.