LA timetable:
29 Jan: Hal Cragin (bassist on American Caesar bassist, lives in Silver Lake), on his first gig with Iggy:
“We went there [Argentina] and the place was bananas, four dates in the same place and it was just wild. At one point I saw Jim run in front of the speaker cabinets and Larry’s doing a crash and burn ending and he thinks Jim left the stage and just ends the song. I knew he was out there and I thought, ‘That’s interesting. Larry’s been around for a while so he knows.’ All of sudden through the monitor systems you hear, ‘Don’t stop. Don’t stop the music till I come.’ Jim comes around the front stack and his eyes are burning like ‘I’m going to kill someone.’ He looks at me like, ‘Larry’s gone!’ But he didn’t say anything about it afterwards. Then we got off stage and you can’t even hear because people are screaming so loud. Jim gets to the chair in the dressing room and says, ‘They hate me!’ and starts crying and Art Collins says, ‘No, no, listen they like you!’ There was this whole weird silent film star thing going on. Then, ‘Ok I’ll go back.’ That was my introduction and I thought this is going to be fun.”
On the way from Silverlake to see writer Harvey Kubernick, my iPod started on a weird Silver Lake tip with Beck and Paul’s Boutique all popping up on shuffle. weird. Harvey was starting out as a writer in 1974 and had Iggy crash it his place (who didn’t?):
“My friend Bob and I were ust talking about how daily Iggy would say to Bob, "Let's get a slab andbeer" at Harry's Open Pit BBQ place on Sunset and Crescent Heights. Bob always got stuck with the tab and paid. “
30 Jan: Kim Fowley in Redlands, plus an appearance on his Little Stevie show. Kim asked me to come back the next day to appear in his planned movie. Tragically for the world of cinematography I had to turn him down. Kim illuminated a couple of absolutely crucial points, including the identity of short-lived Stooges guitarist Tornado Turner. And he gives very good quote:
“Everybody needs a James Dean in their life and everybody needs a Billy The Kid and Iggy supplied us with the menace and the mystery and the magic that we needed. He sacrificed himself for us at the rock n’ roll altar and that’s what they did in the Roman Coloseum every Sunday when the lions would eat the Christians. And Iggy Pop is both the lion and the Christian....”
31 January, phoner with Hiawatha Bailey, onetime White Panther and friend of Betsy, Iggy’s girlfriend from 1970 , then a trip to the Apple Geniuses in the Beverly Mall to repair my ailing iBook. They sorted me out a loaner, thanks guys, while my old editor Tony Horkins helped me out with email facilities (he also pointe me towards the excellent Beverly Laurel Motor Hotel, and, with wife Gretchen, took me to some damn fine eateries). Then it was out to Silver Lake again to meet the affable Eric Schermerhorn who amongst many nuggets told me Iggy “is extremely sensitive to cold and hot. His thermostat is set very finely, an extreme sensitivity to his environment.” Eric’s wife did a BA in Literature and observed that Jim “did know Dostoevsky”. So not just a pose.
Later that evening on to Rodney Bingenheimer, at his customary evening haunt, IHOP on Sunset. How he stays that skinny on that horrific stodge I don’t know. Rodney told me about one time he was driving in his black Cadillac convertible with Iggy and a girl in the back. They were having sex in the backseat and Rodney decided to go to the carwash on Sunset. It didn’t stop them, of course.
1 February: a couple of Rodney’s habitués, Nancy McCrado and Lonnie, plus a phoner with Rick Derringer, lunch with Michael Des Barres at Café Med on the Strip, a phoner with Stooges fan Bob Baker (who was at the Stooges’ Metallic KO show) then in the evening out to see Tony Sales. I liked Tony a lot, a ferociously talented guitarist and bassist, laconic and surprisingly non-judgemental considering the way Iggy dispensed with his services (“You Sales brothers are like heroin. And I don’t need you any more.”) But I guess by then, Iggy and the Sales brothers had pretty much been through a lifetime together:
“It was hard, because when you’re on a run and you’ve run out of drugs and it gets dry it gets pretty nuts. That happened at Corpus Christi and it smelt of fish and it was horrible and we were all pretty strung out and we went upstairs and the door to Iggy’s hotel room was open and he had a little walking talking doll with a Nazi banner around it and we were just out of our minds.”
2 February was James Williamson in San Cupertino, of which more later, then Ygar of Zolar X on the phone, detailing why Quaaludes were the drug of choice in 1974, and Richard Bosworth, whose band were bounced from their recording slot at Mastertone in New York by the Stooges in 1969 when their sessions overran. 3 Feb, back in LA, for photographers Ed Caraeff and Jenny Lens, then an afternoon drink and long interview with Robert Matheu on the 4th, Skip Gildersleeve (another Metallic KO witness) and Nigel Harrison, both phoners, on the 5th, Whitey Kirst and Angie Bowie on the 6th. I chauffeured Angie from LAX which all went fine until we got lost. I was chastised by her stately manager Clearence for my poor navigational skills. Sorry Clearence.
Around this time the phone rang in my motel room, and I heard the cheery voice of Mike Page, Iggy’s bassist in the early 80s, whom I’d spent time with in San Diego back in the ‘90s, a terrific fellow who, 20 years after learning at Iggy’s feet, has given up alcohol. Then it was on to onetime A&M creative head Jeff Gold for breakfast on the 7th for a lightning talk and a look though his Stooges paperwork, which yielded several crucial items. Then my last in person LA interview, the delightful pairing of Cherry Vanilla and Pleasant Gehman, in which we intercut between two timeframes over a salad and Montana Sauvignon in the dappled sunlight of the Pan E Vino courtyard on Beverly Boulevard. Pleasant gives belly-dancing lessons, which I am certain I should recommend. Back to the Beverly Laurels Motor home for phoners with two Stooges fans who saw the band many times at the Whisky, Phast Phreddie and Tom Gardner. A drive with Bob Matheu around all the Stooges’ prime LA haunts on the 8th, and back to London on the 9th. 30 interviews in 12 days, three chapters to finish in the next few weeks, and one Berlin trip to come.
Saturday, 11 February 2006
LA diary