Mailbag

RE: BILLY JOEL
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Hello Bob,

Thanks for pointing me to the great Billy Joel interview with Alec Baldwin. Two pure products of Long Island as am I. Guys like us learn the gift of gab while endlessly riding around on the Long Island Expressway with our pals looking for something to do. One night in 1967 that's exactly what I was doing when I found myself sitting in some deserted joint in Hicksville (The Place?) and The Hassles came out and opened with a note for note spectacular version of Gimme Some Loving and the guy who sang lead and played the Hammond B3 was just unbelievably good and immediately raised the bar for all the Long Island cover bands of the time. And that was the first time I heard and met Billy Joel.

Later on in the early seventies we were momentarily linked when my first album Aquashow came out and Billy and I were featured in a Newsweek article called "A Pain in the Suburbs" - I had a song called White Middle Class Blues (which is probably more apropos today than it was then) and Billy had Captain Jack from The Piano Man. Anyway, they put my photo in the article but Billy went on to sell a gazillion records. And he deserved to. I remember sitting in his apartment one evening and him telling me he had an idea for a new song and he sat down at the piano and played a bit of New York State of Mind as the the boats were passing on the East River below us. A moment fit for Rock Dreams ...

He is, and remains, a fine, fine musician and, in my humble opinion, an excellent lyricist. I opened quite a few shows for him "back in the day" (that's what my 22 year old son Gaspard calls the early days of my career) and the way he connected with his public while glued to that piano bench and the energy that created was explosive. It was his sincerity, humility and awesome talent that worked magic then and still does, in this moving interview. Alec asked all the right questions and did his homework. Bravo!

Been living in Paris, France these past 22 years and really enjoy your letters. It's like getting a message in a bottle, found on a distant shore, and they often bring me right back to an essential moment in the history of this music we continue to love and long for and that I am proud to be a small part of.

Sincerely,
Elliott Murphy

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SO glad you wrote about this. I've been a closet Billy Joel fan for years (though I have covered All For Leyna live before), and my wife is a huge fan.

I listened to this podcast and then listened to it again. Billy is totally compelling, charming, human and self-aware. And he talks about all of what I consider to be his best songs. "Summer, Highland Falls" is still one of the greatest. Listen to his vocals on the Songs From The Attic version; truly gorgeous. And then for him to then describe the song as an "ode to manic depression," it sealed the deal for me.

Sometimes when one listens to an interview with an artist one admires it can tarnish the whole thing. This was the exact opposite.

Steven Page

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RE: Billy Joel On The Alec Baldwin Podcast

Bob:

Cold Spring Harbor is a lost gem. It is likely that the lp's title was inspired by percussionist (Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Beck, Bogert, Appice) Carmine Appice's place in this idyllic (Long Island) north shore town, which was a local music (the Hassles, Barnaby Bye, Twisted Sister, Good Rats anybody that played My Father's Place in Roslyn) hang. Cold Spring Harbor was recorded on a malfunctioning machine at Hempstead's UltraSonic Studios, where WLIR became famous for broadcasting a series of weekly (Tuesday) live concert broadcasts. I was PD at the station. As a measure of how angry Billy really was over the product that was released, he cold-cocked me after I asked why it sounded like a bunch of Chipmunks covers... Mr. Joel was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and to this day I remember the look on his face right before my lights went out.

Cold Spring Harbor is a lost gem that deserves a Joel sanctioned digital re-master at the correct speed - with the original orchestration restored.

Paul W Robinson

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(I think you know this) the Tropicana was originally Sandy Koufax's Tropicana, with an autographed baseball as part of the sign.

Harold Bronson

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"Billy Joel: I was glad I did it at the time because I needed to use my own musicians. I didn’t want to use session men. I didn’t want to use studio players. I wanted my road band. It was a Long Island band and we were doing great on the road. We weren’t selling any records but the crowds were going crazy. We were blowing headliners off the stage. The Doobie Brothers, everywhere we played, The Beach Boys â€" we would get better applause than them."

Bob,

Not sure which Beach Boys' tour he's referring to, but the one I recall being on back in the mid - '70s (when he was rep'd by Chip Rachlin, long time agent for The Beach Boys), Billy quit in the middle of the run (I think after the show at Pine Knob, Detroit) because he got tired of being distracted and hit in the head by all the killer beach balls that sailed through the air during his set. Going to his hotel room after I got the news, I tried talking him out of the decision since it was during a tough economic touring season and I enjoyed his opening set so much (Carl Wilson was also very supportive of Billy and his band), but his mind was made up. As I recall, he vowed to never be the opening act for anyone ever again and, to his credit, I believe he stuck to that decision.

Later,

the "other" Billy
Billy Hinsche

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RE: JAY LENO
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Back before I got all kinds of lucky and won an Academy Award I used to run into Jay at Claudio Zampolli's on Van Nuys Blvd where Jay and Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar and tons of gear heads would get their gray market Lambos and Ferraris serviced. I gotta say that Jay Leno was the only guy who treated a $5 an hour assistant engineer on Scarface and Cop I and whatever Bruckheimer/Simpson things were goin' on like a human being. Who cares what a bunch of crippled up show business mental cases say? Jay's alright. The haters? Who cares? Life is short. Be happy, Tom Whitlock

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I Love Jay Leno. Each time I was on the show with an artist he remembered me and always made it a point to come up to me and ask how I was doing. At one point he said to me we were standing on the stage. "You're here so much you should be working here." Well the head of audio heard that and soon brought me in and started training me to sub on the show as an mixer and which I had the pleasure of doing for about 4-5 years whenever I wasn't on tour with someone. Jay loves cars and I had a couple of nice ones. He was leaving the lot after taping and gave me a compliment on one of my cars. He didn't have to, it was just two guys who like cars vibing for a sec. I was totally surprised and didn't even see him along side my car as I was doing something else while waiting to exit my parking space. He's a good dude. He's not "Hollywood" and good for him. More people would do well to follow his example. Treat everyone as cool as they deserve to be treated. Do the work and shut the fuck up.

Kenneth H. Williams
Production Manager / Audio Engineer
Widow Nikjamdra Productions

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As someone who owned a comedy club in the 80's and hired Jay Leno several times, I can affirm that there is no harder working comedian, and no one more deserving of success.

Jay and I discussed his work ethic one day when I was taking him back to the hotel after we did a TV promo for his show on the local noon news. He stated that he believed that to be a successful comedian, it was about training his brain to think funny, and to do that he must write comedy for hours every day... Read the newspaper and write jokes about the news and personalities of the day.

Jay never hung around the club after the gig, he was intensely focused... do the act, analyze the results, and write, write, write. And every night he had new material relating to the day's headlines. I was impressed then, and I remain impressed with his work ethic now; and the results speak for themselves. I often tell wannabe comedians, musicians, and actors, about Jay's dedication to achieving his dream.

By the way, all of the other top acts of the era, the ones who hung out to get drunk and get laid... Most are forgotten, none have achieved the career Leno has.

Jay Leno might not be the edgiest, or the funniest, but he is the Bob Hope of his generation, and that's an amazing accomplishment. Decades of success at the top of the game in entertainment is rare, you have to respect this man... And he is a genuinely nice and humble individual.

And yes, each time Jay played my club, he delivered... Two sold out shows every night, 60 minutes of solid laughter, and a happy club owner that made a bunch of money.

Frank A. Gagliano

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Bob,

A friend of mine toured w/Jay for a few years in the 80's. He opened for Jay. They shared rides and Jay to this day remembers my friend and takes his call.

Years later, my friend went club side and into radio... and has had a good run and still going. Years after he left the road, 1989, Jay was hired to do the Indiana State Fair. My company had the giant screen IMAG (and had a 5 camera, 2 (giant) video screen setup which allowed for 3-5,000 more tickets to be sold) and we had to talk to Jay about "using the cameras." BTW, he sold the place out big time.

Impressed, he said he would take advantage of the video/camera/screen set up which was new to outdoor shows at the time. Boy did he.

Furthermore, he was picked up in a shit car by a runner. Sat in a green room under the stage that smelled like hell. Scanned the Indy Star newspaper to localize the show. And, spoke directly to all of the people passing by the room just wanting a glimpse of Mr. Comedy.

Jay's show was a home run. He bid ALL of us goodbye one by one, got back into the shit car with the same runner and disappeared into the night.

No complaints. No show biz crap. Just a pro doing what he was hired to do and then some.

I don't like the Tonight show frankly. But I respect Jay and his team of writers. Good people in showbiz. And a great memory.

Bill Edwards

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He used to come down to The Beverly Garland Hotel after taping the Tonight Show And do a 20 MIN monologe in front of a corporate band gig I used to do. He said he always wanted to keep his stand up act fresh even though he was hauling in that Tall cake from NBC.

Kenny Lee Lewis

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Hi Bob,

You are right on the money about Jay. In 1973 we signed on with Jay's manager, Gerry Purcell, (Eddy Arnold, Maya Angelou...)
whose old-time philosophy was you had to work every night for years before you developed enough to possibly become a star.
With Dancing in the Moonlight on the charts, we did an East Coast college tour, in a Chrysler station wagon, with Jay as opening act.
There was a cancellation somewhere in Georgia and Gerry filled it by booking us into a Southern Baptist Church.
I still remember Jay doing Elvis imitations for the audience of 10 to 16-year-old African-American kids.
It didn't matter to him. He was working.
I've still got a poster from St. Bonaventure - King Harvest and Jay Leno - $3.00 Admission.
At those prices I don't know if Jay was actually getting paid for the tour!
Anyway, he deserves everything he's got.
He's one of the nicest guys we ever had the pleasure to work with.

Rod Novak
King Harvest

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From: Bob Lefsetz
To: Rod Novak

Tell me the story of "Dancing In The Moonlight"!

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Hi Bob,

Thanks for your email.

First of all, let me say that I appreciated your heartfelt remarks about Larry Hoppen, who was an old friend of ours, and part of the Dancing in the Moonlight story.

Second, I'm incapable of writing a short story so I apologize in advance for this saga.

Ithaca music in the mid 60's was influenced big time by Buffalo soul bands and WUFO with disc jockeys like Eddie O'Jay and George "Hound Dog" Lorenz who helped to bring "race music" into mainstream AM radio. There was a bunch of us going to school in Ithaca and we were all heavily into the "Ithaca Sound" strongly influenced by artists like Wilson Pickett, Wilmer Alexander Jr. and the Dukes and Little Bernie and the Cavalliers. We all played together in one band or another from 1964 to 1969. The bunch included Larry Hoppen and Sherman and Wells Kelly. Sherman wrote Dancing in the Moonlight. Wells, his younger brother, later played drums with lots of names including Harvey Brooks, Bonnie Raitt, Clarence Clemons, Orleans,.. and was doing a tour with Meatloaf in London when he died way too young. http://www.orleansforever.com/wellskelly.htm

Also in our band of friends was Huey Craig (AKA Huey Lewis), Eric Blackstead, who later recorded and produced the Woodstock album, and the future King Harvest - Ron Altbach, Doc Robinson, Eddie Tuleja, and myself.

I also have to mention our friend Ricky Jay the Magician, who did magic gigs and had a music club in Ithaca. http://articles.latimes.com/print/2011/jun/01/entertainment/la-et-book-20110601

In the mid 60's Sherman got beaten almost to death in St. Croix, V.I. and barely survived. A lot of his music afterward took a look at the dark side of life i.e. Jumby Queen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmSJDpA-iGM&feature=plcp

In the late 60's he wanted to write an upbeat tune to balance out the negativity.something to celebrate the simple innocent joys of life. He came up with Dancing in the Moonlight. He definitely succeeded. You wouldn't believe how many comments we still get from people who tell us how that song helped them thru some really bad times in their lives; soldiers in Iraq, cancer patients, teenagers going thru tough times. We get 12-year old girls saying this is the song they want to have played when they get married someday. It still amazes me. I think it has become a classic because, for three minutes, it allows one to imagine living in a Utopian world. Bottom line.it just makes people feel good.

As an aside, 2 or 3 years ago I believe it was WCBS in NYC that had listeners vote on their top 500 favorites of all time. On Memorial Day weekend they played down from #500 to #1. Late on Sunday someone emailed us that they had just played DITM at #24. Another surprise is that 50% of our European listeners today are between 12 and 20.

Anyway back to the story:

In 1969 Ron was studying classical piano with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and got me a job playing sax with Nancy Holloway, an expat African-American singer who was famous in Europe. He also got Eddie to come over to start a band and "bring the Ithaca sound to France". Wells joined us in 1970 and brought a copy of Boffalongo's (Larry, Sherman, Doc, et al) recording of Dancing in the Moonlight which had failed to make it in the US. We added it to our repertoire and recorded it a couple times on albums (We did many unsuccessful singles and 11 unknown albums in France ranging from American folk music to Greatest Hit's of 1970). Wells later returned to the US and started with Orleans

Meanwhile we had written and recorded the score to a movie (Le Feu Sacre) which inaugurated the Cannes Film Festival in 1971 and with a new drummer, we were the featured band at the Whiskey A Go Go in Cannes for 2 weeks, where we met Ringo Starr and Maurice Gibb who, over a period of weeks discussed producing us with Robert Stigwood.

Doc then joined us in Paris. His voice on DITM really seemed perfect for the tune. We recorded it again in the smallest studio in Paris where Doc recorded the lead vocal in the stairway (since they didn't have any echo or reverb), and pulled a scrub brush out of a utility closet to add a little soft percussion to the intro. Jack Robinson, our producer from Criterion Music, came up with some arrangement ideas and the record was scheduled for release in Europe.

We were regularly playing French casinos and Paris nightclubs and got a nice break opening for BB King at the Olympia. It went really well and shortly after that we were invited to showcase in London by Ashley Kozak (Donovan's manager). Every record exec in London was there when our drummer showed up drunk and could hardly stay on his stool. We went back to Paris drummerless and pretty depressed and found out that DITM was becoming a big flop.

We decided to take some time off for a while and figure out what we wanted to do. Unbeknownst to us, our record company leased the master to Perception Records in NYC on the last day of MIDEM that year. By late 1972 it was starting to get play in the Seattle area thanks to Jack Robinson. By spring 1973 it was in the top 20 nationally. It stayed on the charts for 20 weeks! We all came back to the US and moved to Olcott, NY near Buffalo. Our French company had unloaded a strange bunch of tunes we had recorded for various projects which Perception released as the DITM album. Contractually free in the US, we were offered tons of money to do a real album with Clive Davis, Ahmnet Ertugan and the other majors. We were broke, but decided to stay loyal (for almost no money) to the little company that made the hit, hired Gerry Purcell as our manager, recorded a follow up single, and went on tour with Jay Leno. Shortly after our 2nd single, "A Little Bit Like Magic" came out, Perception started getting ready to file for bankruptcy.

So we ended up playing the bars of Olcott and western NY until Kip Cohen called from A&M Records and said they wanted to sign us. Moved to LA, recorded with producers like Jeff Barry, Jimmy Guercio, Kenny Nolan, Steve Cropper, but never got another hit. In 1976 we packed it in and the four of us went to work with the Beach Boys for a couple years. In 2007 we did a PBS special and that was it until this summer on July 14th (Bastille Day) when we did a 40-year-reunion concert in Olcott, NY for an estimated 3200 people.

So Bob, that's the Dancing in the Moonlight story with its cast of characters and international intrigue. As if this isn't enough, I've added our bio below which includes some other characters like Jacques (Kiki) Morali, a friend from Paris I recorded with who created The Village People. The 60s and 70s were great times to be in the rock and roll business. We met a lot of great people along the way, had too much fun, not enough money, were usually broke, but got to play a lot of rock and roll. It sure is a pleasure to be alive and sitting around 40 years later looking at how it all played out - sometimes tragic, sometimes better than we ever could have imagined.

Thank you for asking.

All the best,

Rod Novak

PS. Attached is the Jay Leno poster. Two dollars advance purchase. Three dollars at the door!

BIO:

It all started in Ithaca, NY in the mid-60s, when the four core King Harvest members showed up at Cornell University for an education and found a college where there were 53 fraternities - that's 53 opportunities to play fraternity parties, and for musicians, too much to let pass by...


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