Sep 042011
Who remembers that guy Paul Harvey? He used to do that radio series The Rest of the Story. He’d give the story behind the story, often in an O’Henry kind of way.
There seem to be lots of rock & roll stories where it would be good to have Paul Harvey give us the rest of the story.
Consider John Lennon & May Pang.
So, John was acting…something…and Yoko sent him off with May Pang to…something. And then John came back after his lost weekend…cured.
Anyone want to speculate on the real story here (real or fictional)? What other rock & roll stories are there of which you wish you knew the “rest of the story?”
Dylan’s motorcycle crash. Bowie and company’s Berlin cure.
It is funny how the Pang era is told so succinctly. It’s like some of the artists lived in Biblical times, with significant events summarized in a paragraph.
Here’s another Beatles period we take without question: magic Alex’s failed studio. What, no photos, so few details?
Speaking of Bowie, I’d like the rest of the story behind this (warning: NSFW).
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgxpfnT0Xu1qgkbz6o1_500.jpg
I think I remember Yoko explaining that John was so inept at taking care of himself after having lived in a bubble for so long that he asked for her help after they split. She sent along May. Not sure if she was interntionally sent as a combo concubine/maid, or if that just developed. Very advanced relationship for John and Yoko, baby!
Also not sure why it ended up being a young Asian woman for the job. Maybe John was fanatical about his laundry. Yoko may have felt that the mistress she knows was better than the inevitable tumble with Bebe Buell or Barbi Benton that would have occurred.
And why was it that John & Yoko split? I’m not sure I understand that part either.
I figured that was for the usual reasons: partying, playing around, generally being a big baby.
Brings new meaning to “Thin White Duke.”
I’d like to know the rest of the story on the death of Bobby Fuller.
I’d like to know more about the death of Grant McLennan. Heart attack, really? I still miss his music and although Robert Forester is wonderful, it’s like Paul carrying on after John died: the pull between them had led to their best music.
I met May Pang once! Nice lady.
I was just talking to andyr, who mentioned a good one: the firing of Mick Jones from the Clash. That story gets told in 2 sentences. Really? It was that simple?
My recollection is that Albert Goldman has some more sinister explanation, but I don’t remember what.
How did ZZ Top manage–was it through hypnosis?–to convince people they had seen a herd of cattle onstage?
With all the bullshit ZZ Top plays, you can excuse people for thinking a herd of cattle might have been present.
Read this book and all will be answered:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LSA8US/sr=1-1/qid=1315331584/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1315331584&sr=1-1&seller=
Get it used.
Thanks for the tip!
Was Andy Hildebrand, the Exxon engineer who created Auto-Tune (originally to interpret seismic information), proud of what he has wrought on the world, or does he feel as J. Robert Oppenheimer felt (after being a key player in developing the atomic bomb) when he quoted the Bhagavad Gita: “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”?
Fine question, BB!