August 25, 2025 • 39 mins
Bradley Jay Fills in on NightSide
Biographer, critic, and musician Bill Janovitz detailed the formation, rise, and career of the hit band, The Cars in his book, “The Cars: Let The Stories Be Told.” Bill joined Bradley in studio to discuss the impact The Cars had on New Wave music and the musical, cultural, and commercial impact of the band.
Biographer, critic, and musician Bill Janovitz detailed the formation, rise, and career of the hit band, The Cars in his book, “The Cars: Let The Stories Be Told.” Bill joined Bradley in studio to discuss the impact The Cars had on New Wave music and the musical, cultural, and commercial impact of the band.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
That's right right to Jay for Dan, and I'm with
Bill Jenevits. His book The Cars, Let's Let the Stories
Be Told, comes out September thirtieth, but if you want
to get a copy of day early and get it signed,
they'll tell him.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
How twenty ninth at the Berkeley Performance Center and Greg
Hawks and David Robinson will be there. In conversation with
myself and Oedipus.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We're talking about all things cars and we go to
Tim and Woolburn. How's that for efficient?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Boom boom? Hi Tim?
Speaker 5 (00:35):
Well Ja, Yes, what a program. David Robinson right from
the Cars. Yeah, my high school I graduated.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I was gonna say he's a Woolburn boy.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Yeah. He used to play at the reschool dances. Battle
of the Bands. The name of his dan was p
VD Apples and he was the drummer wailer Joe. I
talked to him a thousand times. A guy named Nick
Dayley Jogus from Moving who wrote a book and they
made a movie out of it.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
What was the name of the band again at the time.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Pvd applect Have you heard of that?
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I don't. I don't think he mentioned that name.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
No, he mentioned he played it in some bands and
they used to go up to Hampton Beach and play
up there.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
But no, I don't know that. I don't know that name.
So when you do your gig at Berkeley.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
I used to see him every Friday night at the
reschool dances over the West Side.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You probably know. He's the only local guy in the
cars right right, the.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Car that cars. I love the cars. There you go,
a great guy. Anyhow, he was really something. But the car.
They got a book coming out.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Oh tell him about the book.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I wrote a book with with Greg Hawks and David
Robinson and the guitar player Elliot Easton. It's called The
Cars Let the Stories be Told. They all they all
participated enthusiastically and generously.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
I'm gonna get that book anyhow, Grade programmed. David Robinson.
What a nice guy. I talked to him at the
over the West Side on Friday nights and they were
great Grade program. I called Dan Raylwat He's on vacation
this summer, but I had to call. I got home
at airclock late night work. Anyhow, I've had it on
(02:28):
since airclock.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Yeah, excellent. Thank you very much. Tim. That's nice. So
I was gonna tease this, but.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I ran out of time for the teas, So now
I'll ask it as a question. Tell me about the
first actual cars gig as the cars the first official show.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Folks, you will never ever ever guess where this was.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Paradise, No, Don Ratty's, no Boston Common, no much much weirder.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
It's like a spinal Tap scene, right. It's the way
they play the Air Force base. It's Peas Air Force
Base in New ham.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Sure, which is where I'm from.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I went to Una Cents or Air Force Bass, right
in my neighborhood, and I used to go there with
my father on Armed Forces Day.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
So how did that come about?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It does sound like very much like spinal Tap and
the manager convincing them, oh, this is gonna be good
for you.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It was sort of before they had a manager, but
this guy, Alan Kaufman was helping them out, and he
eventually became a much beloved music biz figure himself out
in Los Angeles. But he didn't end up really managing
the cars for very long. He was just sort of
a friend helping him out. He was the guy that
really got Elliot Eastern at the band. He said, you gotta,
(03:38):
you gotta, you gotta, you gotta listen to my friend play.
They were actually roommates, but anyway, he had somehow got
you know, I forget how how it came to be,
but I think it was New Year's Eve, if I'm
not mistaken. So they needed a band to play up there,
and I think Alan Alan knew it because he was
a sound man, so he had probably been up there
doing sound before for different things, and said, yeah, they
(03:59):
offered his club. You guys gotta get this new band,
the Cars.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Okay, now about the personalities of each member you need
to have. You can't have everybody be the same thing
and with the same skills. Can you talk to me
about how the final official lineup gelled because of each
offered a separate and valuable thing.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yeah, I mean Rick.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Rick had led his way through a few different permutations,
as we talked about in the last thing, and he decided,
you know, I'm taking full control. I'm going to be
the only songwriter. But he knew the value of Ben
singing at least, you know, half of the songs.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
At that point.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Ben had that great voice, a natural singer, whereas Rick
was a bit more angular and sort of lent itself.
I think his time was right finally.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
For new Wave. He had this sort of like talk.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Singing kind of thing going on, a little bit of
irony to it, a little like as somebody said, quote,
I'm singing, you know, kind of quote quote unquote singing.
You know, it's this like very conscious sort of delivery. Anyway,
they put together this band that as you know, as
soon as David Robinson of Woolburn sat in with them,
he and they all said, well, everything just clicked. They
(05:09):
just didn't want to stop playing in rehearsal out in Newton,
and it was all the parts were finally into place.
Actually except for Greg Hawks, who had been out on
the road with Martin Mull. Everybody will know Martin Mull
as an actor maybe from a Roseanne, but also was
a musician and did like sort of musical comedy. And
Greg was out on the road with Martin Mills fabulous furniture,
(05:30):
this kind of musical comedy show, which was perfect for
Greg because he could play all these different instruments and
it was a little bit vaudeville. But then they had
this one keyboard named keyboard is named Dan what his name,
Danny Lewis is what he went by. He he eventually
joined Government Mule, but he wasn't quite right for the cars.
(05:53):
He wouldn't play synth, whereas Greg was getting really into
since and they really wanted synths as a part of
this sort of new sound. So yeah, you know, I
can go into their different personalities if you want, but
they're all you know, it was a real balance of guys.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, that's good, especially since you brought up SyncE. So
this is a real turning point where things started heading
towards synth. And that was a large part of what
new wave was. And they were new wave and there
was a thing that was huge called Midi and it's
I want to explain it to you because it's cool
and it's integral to the discussion. You can have a
(06:30):
regular keyboard which has all the sounds in it. You
push the keys, sound comes out, it comes out of wire, it.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Goes to the speakers, or you can you use it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
The keyboard is simply an actuator which plays software. It
plays these little lines into If you're recording, it plays
lines into the recording, or it's simply if you're playing
live activates the software, it plays the software, and what
are the advantages of that? How did that the face
of music? And and it well, it helped usher in
(07:05):
the keyboard since thing.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, I mean MIDI was still not quite around, and
when these guys started, they were more analog sense still
and then it became sort of more digital sense. But
the fair Light computer, you know, that's what they made
their their big Heartbeat City record with ifs. Everything went
into this computer, the fair Light, And this was an
early version of MIDI. It's like digital notation basically, So
(07:27):
it's like digital information that Okay, I don't like the
sound of that, I'm gonna swap it in for this. So,
you know, they sampled David's drums once and then they
he didn't play live drums on that whole record for
I don't know, months and months and months.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
You played the drums with the keyboard after that, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And back then it was just it was still very
much this primitive computer compared to what we have now.
But yeah, MIDDI is basically a musical It's it's what
is an instrumental digital.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Interface, musical instrumental digital interface.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, so it's basically a way for a butt you
can use it, and people do now still very much
to have a bunch of instruments, and not just instruments,
but like you can set your lights to it, and
you can set all these different cues. Everything will you know,
a guitar player could be playing this, but his effects
will change. Everything is running on this basically on this
digital clock, and it's all these signals being sent out
(08:14):
to all these different things. But when it's just a
keyboard player, yeah, I mean it's basically I want this
same keyboard now to sound like trombones as opposed to guitars.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So if you're recording in a digital audio workstation or
DAW as they call it, you you can play the
notes once and it just turns the sound on and off.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
It's like ones and zeros.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You can see the little lines where you push the
key and it plays the sound. But if you want
another sound, if you want to have something play along
with that, exactly, you just create a duplicate track, drag
those same notes down and apply another instrument. So you're
gonna have You can do that two or three times
and playing the same notes will be four or five
different synthesizers or drums or what you want to get
(08:58):
a lush sound, You do not have have to play
it a lot through each time and then line those
notes up separately. You can line them up once and
duplicate him and put different instruments on him, which makes
it pretty attractive.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah, it gets but it's also a like so
you know, it's also a way for people that like,
you know, my previous book was on Leon Russell. Instead
of having a band out with him, he would have
basically himself and maybe one.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Or two guys. So he used to have these big.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Bands, and I'm I'm personally am the kind of guy
that wants to hear a bunch of humans play it
together and playing real instruments, you know. But I love Since,
but you know, since Since has come to me a
bunch of different things. Back then, it was like this organic, fat,
analog sound that fit in with all the other guitars
and stuff, and it was a guy playing it. Then
you get into samplers and sequencers and things that are
(09:47):
sort of playing themselves as you're playing other stuff.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
But it's a matter of taste.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Right, It's like, where do you want to draw the
line like I want to see Leon Russell playing piano.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
I didn't want to see him playing trombones and strings
with his.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Feet, yeah right, or the keyboard, yeah exactly. So after this,
I want to find out about the first record deal,
and that's always a very tense time, how that went,
how the first record did. Oh and I don't even
know if we exactly addressed how they got the name
the Cars.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
We talk about the other names.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I don't know if Maxan gave it to him, but
we'll get the official word on that after this.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
On WBZ It's.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
We continue on Night Side with Bill Jennivis, the author
of the Car's book let, The Stories Be Told. Also,
we're going to talk about his career because it's very interesting,
a very very big, interesting career, lots of touring, what
life's like on the road, and we'll get to that
after we finish up with the Cars once again. A
reminder is going to be a kickoff event for this
(10:52):
book at Berkeley Performance Center September twenty ninth, and a
couple of members of the Cars are going to be there.
Bill will be there. A long time friend to call
the Oedipus will be the moderator. You've probably heard of him.
That's cool. And you can get a book there. He
won't have to bother to go to the store and
you can get it signed, which is wicked cool. Yeah,
and will you sign my book even though it's the dog.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, that's the and that's the that's the galley. But yeah,
oh that's cool. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Now, the name of the cars, I don't think we've
actually figured out where that name come from. And I
get it, of course, it's cars America, sex drug, rock
and roll, cars American thing. And then the way that
the cover looked, it's so exciting with the colors and
the steering wheel and this Russian model, I mean, what else.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, they had been in this band, Cap and Swing,
which was like some goofy name with a goofy logo
of a guy with a beard and a superman cape.
It was like, you know, it was like sort of
mid seventies vibe. And then David Robinson of Wolburn joins
and he brings the name as well. He's like, you know,
everything clicked. I guess he had been carrying. Elliott said
they had been they were tossing around the the it
(11:57):
was the you know whatever, the this, the that, the this, you.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Know, because it was that everything.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
It was the mid Yeah, it's like the Beatles coming
back to the sort of the the early days of
it was going to be the something as.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Everyone's in there. And now if it were the cars,
it would be just cars.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, like talking heads, right right, not talking right right right. No,
it was the cars. And in fact, I capitalized the
throughout the book. Now it was very much the name
and he you know, it just it worked for everybody
because it's like, first of all, think about it, it's
at the top of the alphabet, so it's going to
be near the front of the record store and when
you start searching for records. But it's also, yeah, captures
(12:33):
that whole sort of American rock and roll pop. They
wanted to be sort of pop art.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
They had come from this being influenced by especially Rick,
very much influenced by the Beats and pop artists like Warhol.
So they wanted to be in that tradition.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Now it comes a time when they're every band when
they want the record deal, but then it comes along
and it's got to be a horrifying experience because you
make a mistake and it is bad news.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
For a long time. How did that go with him?
And who was it with?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Well, there was a great guy named fred Lewis. I
don't know if you ever came across him, but he
was Peter Wolfe's side man.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
He was Freddie Blue.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
He was on one of the earliest shifts on BCN
and he had been a skippy white record store guy.
And so that's how that's how Peter got to know him,
I believe. And then he then he was working for well,
he started working for the Giles Band on the roads,
mainly as a road manager.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
And he's still around.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Freddi Lewis, he's out right outside of Boston, and not
a lot of people knew he was still around. I
gave him a call, I had lunch with him. But
he managed the car. So first he was road managing
Jay Giles. He saw the cars, he heard the tapes.
He after after Jay Giles, he had been working at
Warner Brothers Electra. I talked about the wives and girlfriends
being at h at we here in Medford I think
(13:49):
is where Leo was Warner Electra and Atlantic Records. Anyway,
he was one of these promo guys, along with Charlie
and Paul who broke Boston. These guys all Star Yeah,
Paula Hearn and I can't remember Charlie's last name, but
they you know, these were colleagues of his. And he said, well,
I want to do this, you know, I want to
find a band of my own. And he found the cards.
(14:09):
He had heard the tapes, he had heard Max Anne
playing the demo, and he said, you know, he came
down to see him at the Rat and he took
took them on and very quickly within the first year
from the from the year they formed to within a
year they were recording their first album for Electra Records
in London with Roy Thomas Baker who had who had
(14:30):
been a massive producer coming off of huge hits for Queen.
So yeah, there was a bidding war the tape got
out there.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
So it was about the tape. It was about the tape.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
It was about them getting you know, phone calls on
the in requests on BCN. It was about the lines
out the door. Multiple shows at the Rat, multiple sets
per night, which was like multiple houses they call it,
you know, which didn't happen really at the rat it
was like a one night kind of place. But they
became huge and they were any and Fred Lewis got
them opening up for like Bob Seeger and he got
(14:59):
them some some.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Other shows like that. And yeah, Elektra Arista.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Those are the two bidders. I think like there was
another one in the mix there as well. But but
they signed with Electric because that was like, first of all,
there weren't there were very few sort of you know,
rock acts at the time that were that were like
them on there. They didn't feel like they'd get lost
in the shuffle, and it was a label that was
that was some home to Iggy and the Stooges, like
(15:26):
many of their favorite favorite albums you know, were on Electra.
So yeah, they signed to Electra. Electric bank rolled them
to go over to London and record with Roy Thomas
Baker at George Mike George Martin's Air studios.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Wow. Yeah, a whirlwind first year.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Give me an idea of how massively uh successful the
first album was.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Well, it's eventually sold more than six million copies, but
within the first year, I think by the by the
end of the year it had gone platinum. I believe Uh,
it was a slow you know, relatively. It sounds silly
to say now, but it was. It was a regional
sort of breakout thing, you know. But you can kind
of I go, I go in the book, I kind
(16:07):
of like, you know, you're going through the timeline. They're
out on the road. They're opening for this band, that
band Sticks, you know, going you know whatever they're they're
they're opening up for Dicky Betts in Chicago, one of
their worst gigs ever, where they got ashtrays thrown at
them on beer can or thrown at them by Southern
Rods character building. Yeah, exactly, it really was. They've got
the stories of this day. But you can see them
going up the charts and it's nineteen seventy eight. It's like,
(16:29):
you know, it's it's the Gibbs, It's it's uh, they
passed Sticks themselves on the on the album charts, but
then they're going up the singles chart as well. They're
going up the top forty, and it was just they
were just like, yeah, their heads are spinning.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Did they expect that?
Speaker 5 (16:44):
No?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I don't think anybody can reasonably accept that that.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I think in their wildest dreams they thought, you know,
maybe maybe maybe we can headline the paradise for a
couple more years.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah, and a big break What was the the one?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Was there a gig or something that put them over
the top or was it just the slow build of
the tape the gigs?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And I think it was the slow build out in
the road. I mean, you know, some key stations aside
from WC and started playing because they were it was
reported that how well it was doing it. And they
would see the journal, the you know, the business journals,
the radio journals, and they would see as they said
in there, as Elliott Easton said in their Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame induction acceptance spee you said, you know,
they would see Elton John MCA records, they would see
(17:29):
Queen Electrical.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
It's like the cars tape. You know, who is this?
Who are these guys? But yeah, I mean I think
their big.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Breakout moment before they became actually big was was was
Roy Thomas Baker coming to see them. He's like one
of eight or ten people in a blizzard in a
school gymnasium somewhere.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Lost to history.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
The Elliott swear as it was holy Cross College, but
other people said it was a High School somewhere on
the South Shore. But either way, Fred Lewis drives. Roy
Thomas Baker, famous English producer who was like I think
he was. He was he was producing Journey that week
or something. He drove up from New York to see
them and it was a blizzard and literally hardly anybody there.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Under twelve people there.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
And Roy Thomas Begker was one of them and said, well, Chops,
would you lot to come in London Rat to record
at Air Studios.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I just want to share a little story.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
When I think of the cars, I think of this
this scene over and over and over. I was up
in New Hampshire going to school and at you and age,
and I was, you know, it's nice there, but I
needed to get to the city.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
You know how it is. You're drawn, you got to go.
You'll do anything.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
So he used to hitch it, hitchhike down here and
I would go to Kenmore Square because he didn't know anybody,
and that was where things were kind of happening.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
You had kick Kakadies.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That was a club, you know, which became Celebration and
I used to go there and there was the Rat.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
But this was earlier, earlier, in the evening.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I didn't they weren't open yet, So I would go
sit on Strawberries Records and Tapes steps. They had a
store there in Kenmore and they had a stoop kind.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Of and they put.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Speakers out on the steps, which was fantastic. I think
they were JBL forty three eleven's. How's that for a memory?
And so I would sit there enjoying a beverage, a
soda probably, and I'd sit there a couple hours and
listened to the music that was cool at the time
(19:29):
because that time was Pretender's first album, Squeeze, first album, XTC,
first album, all this really good stuff by the time
I got there. Yeah, and I always have this very
fond memory of the cars and those moments.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Everyone has stories related to that. Well, are you gonna
tell me the story about Greg Hawks as well? Okay, well,
thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So when I first got to Boston, did college radio
and ran into this couple of art teachers and musicians
named Jeff and Jane Hudson, and then usually and I
played with him, and then years later, well I should say,
at some point Jeff Hudson, who was a go getter
and a very innovative guy, decided he wanted to do
a performance art thing which included music and video and
(20:20):
live making sushi on stage and serving.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
What were we talking about? These are eight eighties, so
actually this is maybe the first thing I did with Jeff.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And we had these bouncers on the other edge of
the stage. It was all in a theater, like folded
arm bounces, so no one would rush the stage to
get the sushi and the music and the videos. The
animated videos might have been made by Jane, his wife,
because they were really cool in groundbreaking and I did.
(20:49):
I made sushi live on stage, not with the raw fish,
but the California roles. I would make California rolls with
the nori and I had a little roller and I
would do it live on stage while they're doing it.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Then I would go serve it to the audience.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And I did this sort of I was in acting
school then too, so I had an acting audition piece
I would do about how I got into making sushi,
and just a spoken word about it. And it strangely,
we got to do colleges and we made some money
and other people got involved, like APIs ask him about
(21:24):
Sushi Bar. He was involved too, and then somehow it
became a song. There was a Sushi Bar rap song,
kind of in the style of Blondie's Rapture. I guess, well,
I won't sing it for you, but it does exist.
Still have the MP three and there's a promo photo
(21:45):
of Jeff Lisson and I in kabuki makeup bowing to
each other.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
And it was good fun and the only problem was
it was just so you.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Know, it takes days to get waxy kabuki makeup off.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I remember we were doing a gig.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I think we were doing a gig when the ball
went through Bill Buckner's legs eighty six.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Yeah, that dates it. Yeah, yeah, we were at some
gig and that. Everyone was like, oh, no, so that's
that's my well. But Greg Hawks was oh I didn't
even tell yes.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Later on that music that that recording. Greg Hawks of
the Cars did the synthesizers on that song.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
So when you hear it, when you hear it, no,
that that was great. Did did he appear with on
stage and everything?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I don't remember that he did, but I I know
he was on he did that.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Yeah, I got to meet him. So that was cool.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Well, they had their own studio. Did you record it
at the Cars Studio Syncro Sound on Newberry?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
No, no, no, we had to go went into into
the suburbs. Yeah, we couldn't afford.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
It was some mom's basement studio. I only I didn't
go to Single Sound much. I went. I remember to see.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
A uh Simon and got who's the Simon, Paul Simon?
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Who's that Simon? Simon? Paul?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
He had he had a record and he wanted to
do a little thing, Oh, an acoustic thing, And I
got to go to that.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Oh cool. Yeah, because BC I used to do some
tie ins, lots some live stuff there. Yeah. Okay, Wow,
we're running out of time.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I do want to talk more about our guest himself
and his career, because trust me, it's super interesting, and
we'll get to a little more car stuff and then
Bill's career after this.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Still here, shouldn't say still, He won't leave. Happy to
be here with the author and musician Bill Janovitch. The Cars,
just the book, The Cars, Let the Stories be told,
And you can go check out the big event at
Berkeley Performance Center on the twenty ninth and get a
signed a book ahead of schedule. It's not coming out
for everybody else on the next day. So I recently
(23:59):
spoke with Pete Wolf about his book. I'm fascinated. And
by the way, Peter's book is Waiting on the Moon,
Artist poets, drifters, grifters and goddesses, I think that's the name.
And you know, it's so interesting to see what goes
into writing a book.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
It's a lot more than people think.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
It's really hard to write a good book and not
have it be and have the writer disappear kind of
and have it be transparent. But there's more to it
than just locking yourself in a room and pounding on
a typewriter. Yeah, can you kind of go through what
is involved? You have to first think of it and
then pitch it. That's an art and the research for
a book like yours has got to be.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Unbelievable, right. Yeah, what Peter did was make that's even
more challenging. It's a great that's an amazing book. I
really recommend it. What I mean Peter had probably has
multiple books in him, but he chose to write more
about other people. As this has this you know this
erudite star of him that he is himself.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
He cheat.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
He approached it as a writer, as a literary writer,
and wrote these beautiful vignettes. And I'm sure that was
way more work because he very much had an idea
of not wanting to it to be about like two
of the biggest things in his life and have that
be the focus, which was his marriage to Fade Dunaway
and the Jay Giles Penner.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
And he also didn't make it about him really.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
That's what I mean is like you sort of you
write yourself out of it, or you write yourself into
it as a character. Right, So that's a different thing.
Like I don't think I could write a book about myself.
It's if I do, it'd be a completely different kind
of thing than writing about the Cars or Leon Russell
or the Stones. There's there's certainly some stuff, varying degrees
of stuff out there, certainly a lot about the Stones.
(25:43):
So I took it in a different, different direction. You know,
I wasn't going to write just another biography of the Stones.
I've written two, one on Exile on Main Street just
the album, and one on fifty Songs telling their fifty
years modeled on this book called Revolution in the Head
about the Beatles contextualizing these different so Ian McDonald great book. Anyway,
Leon Russell was one hundred and forty different interviews, but
(26:05):
it was fantastic because it was like anybody that I
wanted to talk to, from Elton John to Bruce Bringsteen
to Steve when went to Eric Clapton to read a Coolidge,
to Claude Ellineer. Pretty much everybody said yes. They all
happened to be home because it was COVID so I
could get on zoom and they all wanted to talk
about Leon Russell. The cars was very intense research as well,
(26:27):
but I had the benefit of the three guys, three
of the survived, three of the five. The survivors pretty
much answering any question I had and being very generous
with their own perspectives and stories, and then other figures
around them. Pauline A Portaskova, who was married to Rick
at the end, gave me amazing insights about Rick. You know,
different different friends and family members, all chipping and ex girlfriends,
(26:51):
whatever it was. It was very intensive interviews as well,
but it wasn't one hundred and forty It was probably
I don't know eighty or something like that. Yeah, there's
the commercial aspect. You've got to pitch a book to
the subject or the people that are in you want
to get maybe participation. You don't have to, but it
makes the book a lot more interesting and sellable, frankly.
(27:11):
And there's a lot of artists that I would love
to write about that I just think, you know it
would be it'd be twenty people that and myself that
would read it, you know. But so you have to
find the right balance of bands or interest or subjects
that are interesting to you, meaning me as an author.
But I can also sell to a publisher and saying
I think you know there's a readership for this, and
that's part of the proposal. You've got to You've got
(27:32):
to talk about the marketing concerns and the commercial prospects
and what other titles are out there.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Art to the pitch is it called a query, a proposal,
a proposal, So you got to know the magic words.
There are courses that people take on how to make pictures, right.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, I have a great literary agent who says, here's
here's the template basically that you should use. It's not
just a template that you would find online. It's like,
here's here's a couple of templates that have been really
successful for certain authors of mine.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Here read their proposal. We got a deal on this,
you know so, and then I give him my proposal.
He tweaks it.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
He says, you know, we need more of this, we
need less of this. We need something that's punchy ready here,
you know.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
And that's how you do it.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It's great because you learn how to write a book
that people want to read hopefully.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
How long have you been writing? Well, I've always sort.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Of written, you know, even when Buffalo Tom was on
the road, I would write little you know. I wasn't
a great diary keeper as more of a journal. If
there's a distinction to be made, there's more sort of impressions.
I wasn't writing this is what happened to us today.
It was more poetic stuff, more images, more feelings, more emotions.
But I mean, I always wanted to write about music.
I didn't want to be I don't know. I just
(28:40):
as the band went on, I felt like I would
tell stories like we're talking tonight, like we talked about
medi How do you make this stuff accessible to the
people that where their eyes aren't glazing over. And I'm
successful at people's eyes not glazing over. Maybe ten percent
of the time I look at them and I see
their eyes glazing over a lot. But I just love
having conversations about bands and records. And it's like when
(29:02):
you're sitting down with a friend and you're having whatever
beverage or smoke of your choice, you're listening to music.
You're going, this is what I love about this, you know,
And that's what that's what writing is for me.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
You try to make it feel like a kitchen table
experience or a barroom experience. Yeah. Yeah, Actually, speaking of Wolf,
that's what it was.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
It was like sitting He's a wreck on tour and
a bar. Yeah, and let's see, is there anything else
on that?
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Oh? Yeah? About how many hours of interviewers were there
for this the cars, I would say one hundred and
sixty if you two two times eight on average eight.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Circle back quickly. Talk about you mentioned you got some
real insights on Poulina. What can you share on that?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Well, it was more Paulina giving me insight to her
relationship with with Rick and being very candid, but also
you could tell she's had years of speaking to interviewers,
you know, since she's eighteen or nineteen years old, and
she wrote her own great book about you know, not
just aging in the business. It's interwoven with her really
(30:06):
amazing story of being a child in Czechoslovakia. You know,
it's it's a it's an and her parents leaving her
and coming back for her and smuggling around. I mean,
it's a it's a page.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Turner, and arrested and thrown in some sort of political prison.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, living with growing up with her grandmother.
I mean, it's a great and she's she's very articulate
and and tells an amazing story. So when she gives me,
when she's giving me answers to my interviews, they're just
like quotes that are just like these beautiful sentences that
I don't have to take pits of them, Like wow,
she's she kind of summed it all up for me.
And she had summed a bit of her relationship a
(30:41):
lot of it with Rick in her book, but I
think this has had now a few years since, and
she's talking about it in terms of the cars and
how he felt about the cars and lead and how
how devastated he was when ben Or died, for example,
after being years decades, almost as strange from the guy,
just insight like that. And and and she's just so
(31:02):
psychologically savvy and able to sort of put it in
a very plain spoken way that I really admire and.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Real quickly external person's like bb Bule is the name
that pops up in Boston rock a lot. You know,
what can you tell me about it?
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Well, bebe the effect she had or her Yeah, I mean,
Bibi was sort of stereotyped as a groupie. I guess
you know.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
She was a model, and she came I think from
Maine originally down to New York at least has main ties.
She had a liaisons with different guy with different musicians.
He was very attracted to musicians. So liv Tyler was
her daughter. She grew up thinking that Live did thinking
that Todd Runnggren was her father because that's who was
(31:52):
raising her with baby. They were together. Then Biby was
with Elvis Costello for a while. I wasn't until Live
This is a subject of a of a head song
called I Think Stephen.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Is My Father.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
She found out that Stephen Toller was her father late
later in life. I think this is this is my
understanding of it. I didn't write that book, but Biebe's
got her own books too. But she had a at
least a friendship with Rick, depending on who you talk
with ric ocastic and but she said that Rick, you know,
was one of Rick and Rick Deringer maybe were two
of the of the people that really respected her ability
(32:25):
as an artist. As a musician herself saw that she
had some potential. She felt like to do some music,
and Rick produced some an album A n Eep for her,
and the Cars actually made the backing tracks for a
lot of the songs, if not all of the songs.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Perfect the Cars let the stories be told. I have
about ten more minutes after this break, and I wanted
to find out the inside scoop on life on the road.
Our guest Bill Janovitz was in what Buffalo Time? Was
Buffalo tom or a significant part of it? On the
road a lot in Europe. It's not what you think.
Let's find out what being on the road I really like.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
After this on w b Z, You're on Night Side
with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
If you just joined us, where we Bill Janovitz author
of the brand new book The Cars.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Let the stories be told.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
But Bill, as a musician of his own right, he
really knows what it's like to spend a life on
the road or big chunks of time on the road.
Tell me about your band or the band, probably more
than one band, but Buffalo Tom is your primary.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, Buffalo Time is pretty much it. I mean we
formed in eighty six at UMass Amherst three friends. I
played guitar and they all played. They were basically three
guitar players. But we're still together. We stopped doing it
like as full time. This is our living in around
nineteen ninety nine two thousand, when the kids started coming
(33:45):
and the music industry was changing. We had sort of
ridden this wave. We were around before Nirvana or around
but then when Nirvana really broke through, we benefited from,
you know, being about having our career extended. But our
first our first stuff was you know, on independent, very
much independent labels, and we kind of stayed indie all
the way through. We were signed to Beggars Banquet, which
(34:07):
we were talking about this some bands like The Fall
and they had they also had four A D Records
out of England, so we were signed to them. We
were signed to a d D. We were on Beggars Banquet,
which is the parent of D Yeah, no throwing muses
and you know, Belly and Pixies were for a D
but they were. They were in the same building across
from the same pub, the Slug and let us So
(34:30):
I have all those records and yeah, it was just
a blast to be like twenty something yearly early twenties
going over to Holland and Belgium and and all the
way through Western Europe and the UK. And we became
fairly big there, you know for us, So we're gonna
be back. Were headlining there before we were headlines.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
When I wanted the Rat zu UMass Amherst basically yeah,
he played here, Sam, But somehow you skipped a whole
chunk of localness and went pow.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Not quite not quite.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
The Pixies did, like we we we were well, Pixies
were playing locally as well. We played Chet's Last Call,
we played the Rat, we played Tet's. But it was
like begging to get onto these There were a lot
of places to play back then in the late eighties,
a lot of competition, even though people there was a
lot of competition, So on any given night, Galaxy five hundred,
the you know Lemonhead, Dinosaur, Junior, Volcano Sons, you know,
(35:19):
some bands that were not necessarily giant internationally but big
in Boston, moving targets. There were so many bands that
we loved, the Liars we talked about the Nets, they
were sort of had come and gone, but we did.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
We did that.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
And and and John Bernhard at w MBR and you
know the Mit station, he played us. Billy Rowayne a
beloved figure here. He started putting us on shows at
the Middle East, and Alberto would play us on his
local shows and his and his college shows and on
Boston emissions on BCN. So we started to become known
as a Boston band. But we were really took off
(35:53):
faster over in the UK and Battleux because we had
sent our tapes to SST Records in LA who put
out you know Who's Could Do and Sonic Youth and
Black Flag and Denosaur Junior sort of these indie sort
of post punk bands. But we also set to every
label we could think of, one of which had put
out this a live record by this band that we
love called the gun Club, and they were a Dutch label.
(36:15):
He was the first guy to respond to us really
in finance some more demos and you know, one thing
led to another and we.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Were on the road for you know, six weeks. I'm
glad you brought up road. Yeah, so make people understand.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
What life is like on the road, Well, it's it
depends where you are at the stage in your career.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
And if you're a buffalo.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Thomas starting out a White Vans days, we were in
the White Van's day. Yeah, we had a blue Dodge
Ram van here that our fathers helped finance and give us,
give us a loan for and and the record label helped.
But yeah, it's like crashing on people's floors everywhere pretty much.
On that first tour, you know, it's like wherever you can.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
But you know, we went over to Europe.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
We were staying at some some the promoters apartment in
Nymegan Holland, and it was really you know, Bare Bombs
was exciting because we're making all the friends.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
You're in your twenties.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
It's like, you know, you go over on a euro pass,
maybe backpacking, maybe you meet somebody that you stay in
touch with. I mean, I go back to Holland. I
just just did last year for like a memorial for
a friend who and I. These are like dear friends
of mine that I've I've known for thirty years, you know,
so we don't get to necessarily do all the tourists stuff,
though we eventually do a lot of it, because you're
(37:24):
like in and out of these cities and you're you're
barely getting any sleep. For example, Rome, Rome, I've only
seen at night. Yeah, it is exhausting, but it's also
exhilarating when you're when you're that young, you've got the stamina.
You know, you're hungover, but you can sort of roll
over and get up again and go play. And yeah,
but I mean, you know, years into it, we started
(37:46):
taking opening slots for other bands and that could be
hit or miss. Usually hit, and I'm sure usually miss.
But you know, there's always an upside to it. And look,
we're out there playing music. We weren't working. We were
putting off our day job careers and basically suspending our
adolescents as long as we could.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
So you don't get paid to do the gig, you
get paid for the travel. That's exactly what I said.
That's once again, this has been wonderful. Thanks for having
and thanks for being.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Your first let me be your first and best hopefully interview.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Certainly, yeah, absolutely the best and longest.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Most of the time you get like three minutes exactly
some shows very much.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So I'm going to give a little plug to the
next the next segment. So, folks, we're talking about job
jobs and one of the more dangerous jobs. When I,
you know, on the air, I met someone through being
they were a caller. They called me from Boston Harbor
on a boat. That was their job and what their
job is called Boston Harbor pilots. And any ship that
(38:50):
comes into Boston has to have a licensed harbor pilot,
but somebody has to get those harbor pilots to the ship,
and the procedure that that gets done through is very dangerous,
very interesting, especially in high seas. And I believe, if
I'm not mistaken, now once again we're going to hear
from those same folks and they are currently live doing
(39:11):
their job out on Boston Harbor. I believe there are
two harbor pilot boat captains and two actual harbor pilot boats.
So this is kind of a profile on a wicked interesting,
very dangerous job right here on Boston's own, very Boston harbor.
I think you're going to like it a lot. WBZ
(39:33):
News Radio ten thirty
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
That's right right to Jay for Dan, and I'm with
Bill Jenevits. His book The Cars, Let's Let the Stories
Be Told, comes out September thirtieth, but if you want
to get a copy of day early and get it signed,
they'll tell him.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
How twenty ninth at the Berkeley Performance Center and Greg
Hawks and David Robinson will be there. In conversation with
myself and Oedipus.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We're talking about all things cars and we go to
Tim and Woolburn. How's that for efficient?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Boom boom? Hi Tim?
Speaker 5 (00:35):
Well Ja, Yes, what a program. David Robinson right from
the Cars. Yeah, my high school I graduated.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I was gonna say he's a Woolburn boy.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Yeah. He used to play at the reschool dances. Battle
of the Bands. The name of his dan was p
VD Apples and he was the drummer wailer Joe. I
talked to him a thousand times. A guy named Nick
Dayley Jogus from Moving who wrote a book and they
made a movie out of it.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
What was the name of the band again at the time.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Pvd applect Have you heard of that?
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I don't. I don't think he mentioned that name.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
No, he mentioned he played it in some bands and
they used to go up to Hampton Beach and play
up there.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
But no, I don't know that. I don't know that name.
So when you do your gig at Berkeley.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
I used to see him every Friday night at the
reschool dances over the West Side.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You probably know. He's the only local guy in the
cars right right, the.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Car that cars. I love the cars. There you go,
a great guy. Anyhow, he was really something. But the car.
They got a book coming out.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Oh tell him about the book.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I wrote a book with with Greg Hawks and David
Robinson and the guitar player Elliot Easton. It's called The
Cars Let the Stories be Told. They all they all
participated enthusiastically and generously.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
I'm gonna get that book anyhow, Grade programmed. David Robinson.
What a nice guy. I talked to him at the
over the West Side on Friday nights and they were
great Grade program. I called Dan Raylwat He's on vacation
this summer, but I had to call. I got home
at airclock late night work. Anyhow, I've had it on
(02:28):
since airclock.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Yeah, excellent. Thank you very much. Tim. That's nice. So
I was gonna tease this, but.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I ran out of time for the teas, So now
I'll ask it as a question. Tell me about the
first actual cars gig as the cars the first official show.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Folks, you will never ever ever guess where this was.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Paradise, No, Don Ratty's, no Boston Common, no much much weirder.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
It's like a spinal Tap scene, right. It's the way
they play the Air Force base. It's Peas Air Force
Base in New ham.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Sure, which is where I'm from.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I went to Una Cents or Air Force Bass, right
in my neighborhood, and I used to go there with
my father on Armed Forces Day.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
So how did that come about?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It does sound like very much like spinal Tap and
the manager convincing them, oh, this is gonna be good
for you.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It was sort of before they had a manager, but
this guy, Alan Kaufman was helping them out, and he
eventually became a much beloved music biz figure himself out
in Los Angeles. But he didn't end up really managing
the cars for very long. He was just sort of
a friend helping him out. He was the guy that
really got Elliot Eastern at the band. He said, you gotta,
(03:38):
you gotta, you gotta, you gotta listen to my friend play.
They were actually roommates, but anyway, he had somehow got
you know, I forget how how it came to be,
but I think it was New Year's Eve, if I'm
not mistaken. So they needed a band to play up there,
and I think Alan Alan knew it because he was
a sound man, so he had probably been up there
doing sound before for different things, and said, yeah, they
(03:59):
offered his club. You guys gotta get this new band,
the Cars.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Okay, now about the personalities of each member you need
to have. You can't have everybody be the same thing
and with the same skills. Can you talk to me
about how the final official lineup gelled because of each
offered a separate and valuable thing.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yeah, I mean Rick.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Rick had led his way through a few different permutations,
as we talked about in the last thing, and he decided,
you know, I'm taking full control. I'm going to be
the only songwriter. But he knew the value of Ben
singing at least, you know, half of the songs.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
At that point.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Ben had that great voice, a natural singer, whereas Rick
was a bit more angular and sort of lent itself.
I think his time was right finally.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
For new Wave. He had this sort of like talk.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Singing kind of thing going on, a little bit of
irony to it, a little like as somebody said, quote,
I'm singing, you know, kind of quote quote unquote singing.
You know, it's this like very conscious sort of delivery. Anyway,
they put together this band that as you know, as
soon as David Robinson of Woolburn sat in with them,
he and they all said, well, everything just clicked. They
(05:09):
just didn't want to stop playing in rehearsal out in Newton,
and it was all the parts were finally into place.
Actually except for Greg Hawks, who had been out on
the road with Martin Mull. Everybody will know Martin Mull
as an actor maybe from a Roseanne, but also was
a musician and did like sort of musical comedy. And
Greg was out on the road with Martin Mills fabulous furniture,
(05:30):
this kind of musical comedy show, which was perfect for
Greg because he could play all these different instruments and
it was a little bit vaudeville. But then they had
this one keyboard named keyboard is named Dan what his name,
Danny Lewis is what he went by. He he eventually
joined Government Mule, but he wasn't quite right for the cars.
(05:53):
He wouldn't play synth, whereas Greg was getting really into
since and they really wanted synths as a part of
this sort of new sound. So yeah, you know, I
can go into their different personalities if you want, but
they're all you know, it was a real balance of guys.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, that's good, especially since you brought up SyncE. So
this is a real turning point where things started heading
towards synth. And that was a large part of what
new wave was. And they were new wave and there
was a thing that was huge called Midi and it's
I want to explain it to you because it's cool
and it's integral to the discussion. You can have a
(06:30):
regular keyboard which has all the sounds in it. You
push the keys, sound comes out, it comes out of wire, it.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Goes to the speakers, or you can you use it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
The keyboard is simply an actuator which plays software. It
plays these little lines into If you're recording, it plays
lines into the recording, or it's simply if you're playing
live activates the software, it plays the software, and what
are the advantages of that? How did that the face
of music? And and it well, it helped usher in
(07:05):
the keyboard since thing.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, I mean MIDI was still not quite around, and
when these guys started, they were more analog sense still
and then it became sort of more digital sense. But
the fair Light computer, you know, that's what they made
their their big Heartbeat City record with ifs. Everything went
into this computer, the fair Light, And this was an
early version of MIDI. It's like digital notation basically, So
(07:27):
it's like digital information that Okay, I don't like the
sound of that, I'm gonna swap it in for this. So,
you know, they sampled David's drums once and then they
he didn't play live drums on that whole record for
I don't know, months and months and months.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
You played the drums with the keyboard after that, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And back then it was just it was still very
much this primitive computer compared to what we have now.
But yeah, MIDDI is basically a musical It's it's what
is an instrumental digital.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Interface, musical instrumental digital interface.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, so it's basically a way for a butt you
can use it, and people do now still very much
to have a bunch of instruments, and not just instruments,
but like you can set your lights to it, and
you can set all these different cues. Everything will you know,
a guitar player could be playing this, but his effects
will change. Everything is running on this basically on this
digital clock, and it's all these signals being sent out
(08:14):
to all these different things. But when it's just a
keyboard player, yeah, I mean it's basically I want this
same keyboard now to sound like trombones as opposed to guitars.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So if you're recording in a digital audio workstation or
DAW as they call it, you you can play the
notes once and it just turns the sound on and off.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
It's like ones and zeros.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You can see the little lines where you push the
key and it plays the sound. But if you want
another sound, if you want to have something play along
with that, exactly, you just create a duplicate track, drag
those same notes down and apply another instrument. So you're
gonna have You can do that two or three times
and playing the same notes will be four or five
different synthesizers or drums or what you want to get
(08:58):
a lush sound, You do not have have to play
it a lot through each time and then line those
notes up separately. You can line them up once and
duplicate him and put different instruments on him, which makes
it pretty attractive.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah, it gets but it's also a like so
you know, it's also a way for people that like,
you know, my previous book was on Leon Russell. Instead
of having a band out with him, he would have
basically himself and maybe one.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Or two guys. So he used to have these big.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Bands, and I'm I'm personally am the kind of guy
that wants to hear a bunch of humans play it
together and playing real instruments, you know. But I love Since,
but you know, since Since has come to me a
bunch of different things. Back then, it was like this organic, fat,
analog sound that fit in with all the other guitars
and stuff, and it was a guy playing it. Then
you get into samplers and sequencers and things that are
(09:47):
sort of playing themselves as you're playing other stuff.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
But it's a matter of taste.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Right, It's like, where do you want to draw the
line like I want to see Leon Russell playing piano.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
I didn't want to see him playing trombones and strings
with his.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Feet, yeah right, or the keyboard, yeah exactly. So after this,
I want to find out about the first record deal,
and that's always a very tense time, how that went,
how the first record did. Oh and I don't even
know if we exactly addressed how they got the name
the Cars.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
We talk about the other names.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I don't know if Maxan gave it to him, but
we'll get the official word on that after this.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
On WBZ It's.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
We continue on Night Side with Bill Jennivis, the author
of the Car's book let, The Stories Be Told. Also,
we're going to talk about his career because it's very interesting,
a very very big, interesting career, lots of touring, what
life's like on the road, and we'll get to that
after we finish up with the Cars once again. A
reminder is going to be a kickoff event for this
(10:52):
book at Berkeley Performance Center September twenty ninth, and a
couple of members of the Cars are going to be there.
Bill will be there. A long time friend to call
the Oedipus will be the moderator. You've probably heard of him.
That's cool. And you can get a book there. He
won't have to bother to go to the store and
you can get it signed, which is wicked cool. Yeah,
and will you sign my book even though it's the dog.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, that's the and that's the that's the galley. But yeah,
oh that's cool. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Now, the name of the cars, I don't think we've
actually figured out where that name come from. And I
get it, of course, it's cars America, sex drug, rock
and roll, cars American thing. And then the way that
the cover looked, it's so exciting with the colors and
the steering wheel and this Russian model, I mean, what else.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, they had been in this band, Cap and Swing,
which was like some goofy name with a goofy logo
of a guy with a beard and a superman cape.
It was like, you know, it was like sort of
mid seventies vibe. And then David Robinson of Wolburn joins
and he brings the name as well. He's like, you know,
everything clicked. I guess he had been carrying. Elliott said
they had been they were tossing around the the it
(11:57):
was the you know whatever, the this, the that, the this, you.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Know, because it was that everything.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
It was the mid Yeah, it's like the Beatles coming
back to the sort of the the early days of
it was going to be the something as.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Everyone's in there. And now if it were the cars,
it would be just cars.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, like talking heads, right right, not talking right right right. No,
it was the cars. And in fact, I capitalized the
throughout the book. Now it was very much the name
and he you know, it just it worked for everybody
because it's like, first of all, think about it, it's
at the top of the alphabet, so it's going to
be near the front of the record store and when
you start searching for records. But it's also, yeah, captures
(12:33):
that whole sort of American rock and roll pop. They
wanted to be sort of pop art.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
They had come from this being influenced by especially Rick,
very much influenced by the Beats and pop artists like Warhol.
So they wanted to be in that tradition.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Now it comes a time when they're every band when
they want the record deal, but then it comes along
and it's got to be a horrifying experience because you
make a mistake and it is bad news.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
For a long time. How did that go with him?
And who was it with?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Well, there was a great guy named fred Lewis. I
don't know if you ever came across him, but he
was Peter Wolfe's side man.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
He was Freddie Blue.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
He was on one of the earliest shifts on BCN
and he had been a skippy white record store guy.
And so that's how that's how Peter got to know him,
I believe. And then he then he was working for well,
he started working for the Giles Band on the roads,
mainly as a road manager.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
And he's still around.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Freddi Lewis, he's out right outside of Boston, and not
a lot of people knew he was still around. I
gave him a call, I had lunch with him. But
he managed the car. So first he was road managing
Jay Giles. He saw the cars, he heard the tapes.
He after after Jay Giles, he had been working at
Warner Brothers Electra. I talked about the wives and girlfriends
being at h at we here in Medford I think
(13:49):
is where Leo was Warner Electra and Atlantic Records. Anyway,
he was one of these promo guys, along with Charlie
and Paul who broke Boston. These guys all Star Yeah,
Paula Hearn and I can't remember Charlie's last name, but
they you know, these were colleagues of his. And he said, well,
I want to do this, you know, I want to
find a band of my own. And he found the cards.
(14:09):
He had heard the tapes, he had heard Max Anne
playing the demo, and he said, you know, he came
down to see him at the Rat and he took
took them on and very quickly within the first year
from the from the year they formed to within a
year they were recording their first album for Electra Records
in London with Roy Thomas Baker who had who had
(14:30):
been a massive producer coming off of huge hits for Queen.
So yeah, there was a bidding war the tape got
out there.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
So it was about the tape. It was about the tape.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
It was about them getting you know, phone calls on
the in requests on BCN. It was about the lines
out the door. Multiple shows at the Rat, multiple sets
per night, which was like multiple houses they call it,
you know, which didn't happen really at the rat it
was like a one night kind of place. But they
became huge and they were any and Fred Lewis got
them opening up for like Bob Seeger and he got
(14:59):
them some some.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Other shows like that. And yeah, Elektra Arista.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Those are the two bidders. I think like there was
another one in the mix there as well. But but
they signed with Electric because that was like, first of all,
there weren't there were very few sort of you know,
rock acts at the time that were that were like
them on there. They didn't feel like they'd get lost
in the shuffle, and it was a label that was
that was some home to Iggy and the Stooges, like
(15:26):
many of their favorite favorite albums you know, were on Electra.
So yeah, they signed to Electra. Electric bank rolled them
to go over to London and record with Roy Thomas
Baker at George Mike George Martin's Air studios.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Wow. Yeah, a whirlwind first year.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Give me an idea of how massively uh successful the
first album was.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Well, it's eventually sold more than six million copies, but
within the first year, I think by the by the
end of the year it had gone platinum. I believe Uh,
it was a slow you know, relatively. It sounds silly
to say now, but it was. It was a regional
sort of breakout thing, you know. But you can kind
of I go, I go in the book, I kind
(16:07):
of like, you know, you're going through the timeline. They're
out on the road. They're opening for this band, that
band Sticks, you know, going you know whatever they're they're
they're opening up for Dicky Betts in Chicago, one of
their worst gigs ever, where they got ashtrays thrown at
them on beer can or thrown at them by Southern
Rods character building. Yeah, exactly, it really was. They've got
the stories of this day. But you can see them
going up the charts and it's nineteen seventy eight. It's like,
(16:29):
you know, it's it's the Gibbs, It's it's uh, they
passed Sticks themselves on the on the album charts, but
then they're going up the singles chart as well. They're
going up the top forty, and it was just they
were just like, yeah, their heads are spinning.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Did they expect that?
Speaker 5 (16:44):
No?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I don't think anybody can reasonably accept that that.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I think in their wildest dreams they thought, you know,
maybe maybe maybe we can headline the paradise for a
couple more years.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah, and a big break What was the the one?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Was there a gig or something that put them over
the top or was it just the slow build of
the tape the gigs?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And I think it was the slow build out in
the road. I mean, you know, some key stations aside
from WC and started playing because they were it was
reported that how well it was doing it. And they
would see the journal, the you know, the business journals,
the radio journals, and they would see as they said
in there, as Elliott Easton said in their Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame induction acceptance spee you said, you know,
they would see Elton John MCA records, they would see
(17:29):
Queen Electrical.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
It's like the cars tape. You know, who is this?
Who are these guys? But yeah, I mean I think
their big.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Breakout moment before they became actually big was was was
Roy Thomas Baker coming to see them. He's like one
of eight or ten people in a blizzard in a
school gymnasium somewhere.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Lost to history.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
The Elliott swear as it was holy Cross College, but
other people said it was a High School somewhere on
the South Shore. But either way, Fred Lewis drives. Roy
Thomas Baker, famous English producer who was like I think
he was. He was he was producing Journey that week
or something. He drove up from New York to see
them and it was a blizzard and literally hardly anybody there.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Under twelve people there.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
And Roy Thomas Begker was one of them and said, well, Chops,
would you lot to come in London Rat to record
at Air Studios.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I just want to share a little story.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
When I think of the cars, I think of this
this scene over and over and over. I was up
in New Hampshire going to school and at you and age,
and I was, you know, it's nice there, but I
needed to get to the city.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
You know how it is. You're drawn, you got to go.
You'll do anything.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
So he used to hitch it, hitchhike down here and
I would go to Kenmore Square because he didn't know anybody,
and that was where things were kind of happening.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
You had kick Kakadies.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That was a club, you know, which became Celebration and
I used to go there and there was the Rat.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
But this was earlier, earlier, in the evening.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I didn't they weren't open yet, So I would go
sit on Strawberries Records and Tapes steps. They had a
store there in Kenmore and they had a stoop kind.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Of and they put.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Speakers out on the steps, which was fantastic. I think
they were JBL forty three eleven's. How's that for a memory?
And so I would sit there enjoying a beverage, a
soda probably, and I'd sit there a couple hours and
listened to the music that was cool at the time
(19:29):
because that time was Pretender's first album, Squeeze, first album, XTC,
first album, all this really good stuff by the time
I got there. Yeah, and I always have this very
fond memory of the cars and those moments.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Everyone has stories related to that. Well, are you gonna
tell me the story about Greg Hawks as well? Okay, well,
thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So when I first got to Boston, did college radio
and ran into this couple of art teachers and musicians
named Jeff and Jane Hudson, and then usually and I
played with him, and then years later, well I should say,
at some point Jeff Hudson, who was a go getter
and a very innovative guy, decided he wanted to do
a performance art thing which included music and video and
(20:20):
live making sushi on stage and serving.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
What were we talking about? These are eight eighties, so
actually this is maybe the first thing I did with Jeff.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And we had these bouncers on the other edge of
the stage. It was all in a theater, like folded
arm bounces, so no one would rush the stage to
get the sushi and the music and the videos. The
animated videos might have been made by Jane, his wife,
because they were really cool in groundbreaking and I did.
(20:49):
I made sushi live on stage, not with the raw fish,
but the California roles. I would make California rolls with
the nori and I had a little roller and I
would do it live on stage while they're doing it.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Then I would go serve it to the audience.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And I did this sort of I was in acting
school then too, so I had an acting audition piece
I would do about how I got into making sushi,
and just a spoken word about it. And it strangely,
we got to do colleges and we made some money
and other people got involved, like APIs ask him about
(21:24):
Sushi Bar. He was involved too, and then somehow it
became a song. There was a Sushi Bar rap song,
kind of in the style of Blondie's Rapture. I guess, well,
I won't sing it for you, but it does exist.
Still have the MP three and there's a promo photo
(21:45):
of Jeff Lisson and I in kabuki makeup bowing to
each other.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
And it was good fun and the only problem was
it was just so you.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Know, it takes days to get waxy kabuki makeup off.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I remember we were doing a gig.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I think we were doing a gig when the ball
went through Bill Buckner's legs eighty six.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Yeah, that dates it. Yeah, yeah, we were at some
gig and that. Everyone was like, oh, no, so that's
that's my well. But Greg Hawks was oh I didn't
even tell yes.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Later on that music that that recording. Greg Hawks of
the Cars did the synthesizers on that song.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
So when you hear it, when you hear it, no,
that that was great. Did did he appear with on
stage and everything?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I don't remember that he did, but I I know
he was on he did that.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Yeah, I got to meet him. So that was cool.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Well, they had their own studio. Did you record it
at the Cars Studio Syncro Sound on Newberry?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
No, no, no, we had to go went into into
the suburbs. Yeah, we couldn't afford.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
It was some mom's basement studio. I only I didn't
go to Single Sound much. I went. I remember to see.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
A uh Simon and got who's the Simon, Paul Simon?
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Who's that Simon? Simon? Paul?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
He had he had a record and he wanted to
do a little thing, Oh, an acoustic thing, And I
got to go to that.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Oh cool. Yeah, because BC I used to do some
tie ins, lots some live stuff there. Yeah. Okay, Wow,
we're running out of time.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I do want to talk more about our guest himself
and his career, because trust me, it's super interesting, and
we'll get to a little more car stuff and then
Bill's career after this.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Still here, shouldn't say still, He won't leave. Happy to
be here with the author and musician Bill Janovitch. The Cars,
just the book, The Cars, Let the Stories be told,
And you can go check out the big event at
Berkeley Performance Center on the twenty ninth and get a
signed a book ahead of schedule. It's not coming out
for everybody else on the next day. So I recently
(23:59):
spoke with Pete Wolf about his book. I'm fascinated. And
by the way, Peter's book is Waiting on the Moon,
Artist poets, drifters, grifters and goddesses, I think that's the name.
And you know, it's so interesting to see what goes
into writing a book.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
It's a lot more than people think.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
It's really hard to write a good book and not
have it be and have the writer disappear kind of
and have it be transparent. But there's more to it
than just locking yourself in a room and pounding on
a typewriter. Yeah, can you kind of go through what
is involved? You have to first think of it and
then pitch it. That's an art and the research for
a book like yours has got to be.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Unbelievable, right. Yeah, what Peter did was make that's even
more challenging. It's a great that's an amazing book. I
really recommend it. What I mean Peter had probably has
multiple books in him, but he chose to write more
about other people. As this has this you know this
erudite star of him that he is himself.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
He cheat.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
He approached it as a writer, as a literary writer,
and wrote these beautiful vignettes. And I'm sure that was
way more work because he very much had an idea
of not wanting to it to be about like two
of the biggest things in his life and have that
be the focus, which was his marriage to Fade Dunaway
and the Jay Giles Penner.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
And he also didn't make it about him really.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
That's what I mean is like you sort of you
write yourself out of it, or you write yourself into
it as a character. Right, So that's a different thing.
Like I don't think I could write a book about myself.
It's if I do, it'd be a completely different kind
of thing than writing about the Cars or Leon Russell
or the Stones. There's there's certainly some stuff, varying degrees
of stuff out there, certainly a lot about the Stones.
(25:43):
So I took it in a different, different direction. You know,
I wasn't going to write just another biography of the Stones.
I've written two, one on Exile on Main Street just
the album, and one on fifty Songs telling their fifty
years modeled on this book called Revolution in the Head
about the Beatles contextualizing these different so Ian McDonald great book. Anyway,
Leon Russell was one hundred and forty different interviews, but
(26:05):
it was fantastic because it was like anybody that I
wanted to talk to, from Elton John to Bruce Bringsteen
to Steve when went to Eric Clapton to read a Coolidge,
to Claude Ellineer. Pretty much everybody said yes. They all
happened to be home because it was COVID so I
could get on zoom and they all wanted to talk
about Leon Russell. The cars was very intense research as well,
(26:27):
but I had the benefit of the three guys, three
of the survived, three of the five. The survivors pretty
much answering any question I had and being very generous
with their own perspectives and stories, and then other figures
around them. Pauline A Portaskova, who was married to Rick
at the end, gave me amazing insights about Rick. You know,
different different friends and family members, all chipping and ex girlfriends,
(26:51):
whatever it was. It was very intensive interviews as well,
but it wasn't one hundred and forty It was probably
I don't know eighty or something like that. Yeah, there's
the commercial aspect. You've got to pitch a book to
the subject or the people that are in you want
to get maybe participation. You don't have to, but it
makes the book a lot more interesting and sellable, frankly.
(27:11):
And there's a lot of artists that I would love
to write about that I just think, you know it
would be it'd be twenty people that and myself that
would read it, you know. But so you have to
find the right balance of bands or interest or subjects
that are interesting to you, meaning me as an author.
But I can also sell to a publisher and saying
I think you know there's a readership for this, and
that's part of the proposal. You've got to You've got
(27:32):
to talk about the marketing concerns and the commercial prospects
and what other titles are out there.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Art to the pitch is it called a query, a proposal,
a proposal, So you got to know the magic words.
There are courses that people take on how to make pictures, right.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, I have a great literary agent who says, here's
here's the template basically that you should use. It's not
just a template that you would find online. It's like,
here's here's a couple of templates that have been really
successful for certain authors of mine.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Here read their proposal. We got a deal on this,
you know so, and then I give him my proposal.
He tweaks it.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
He says, you know, we need more of this, we
need less of this. We need something that's punchy ready here,
you know.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
And that's how you do it.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It's great because you learn how to write a book
that people want to read hopefully.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
How long have you been writing? Well, I've always sort.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Of written, you know, even when Buffalo Tom was on
the road, I would write little you know. I wasn't
a great diary keeper as more of a journal. If
there's a distinction to be made, there's more sort of impressions.
I wasn't writing this is what happened to us today.
It was more poetic stuff, more images, more feelings, more emotions.
But I mean, I always wanted to write about music.
I didn't want to be I don't know. I just
(28:40):
as the band went on, I felt like I would
tell stories like we're talking tonight, like we talked about
medi How do you make this stuff accessible to the
people that where their eyes aren't glazing over. And I'm
successful at people's eyes not glazing over. Maybe ten percent
of the time I look at them and I see
their eyes glazing over a lot. But I just love
having conversations about bands and records. And it's like when
(29:02):
you're sitting down with a friend and you're having whatever
beverage or smoke of your choice, you're listening to music.
You're going, this is what I love about this, you know,
And that's what that's what writing is for me.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
You try to make it feel like a kitchen table
experience or a barroom experience. Yeah. Yeah, Actually, speaking of Wolf,
that's what it was.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
It was like sitting He's a wreck on tour and
a bar. Yeah, and let's see, is there anything else
on that?
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Oh? Yeah? About how many hours of interviewers were there
for this the cars, I would say one hundred and
sixty if you two two times eight on average eight.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Circle back quickly. Talk about you mentioned you got some
real insights on Poulina. What can you share on that?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Well, it was more Paulina giving me insight to her
relationship with with Rick and being very candid, but also
you could tell she's had years of speaking to interviewers,
you know, since she's eighteen or nineteen years old, and
she wrote her own great book about you know, not
just aging in the business. It's interwoven with her really
(30:06):
amazing story of being a child in Czechoslovakia. You know,
it's it's a it's an and her parents leaving her
and coming back for her and smuggling around. I mean,
it's a it's a page.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Turner, and arrested and thrown in some sort of political prison.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, living with growing up with her grandmother.
I mean, it's a great and she's she's very articulate
and and tells an amazing story. So when she gives me,
when she's giving me answers to my interviews, they're just
like quotes that are just like these beautiful sentences that
I don't have to take pits of them, Like wow,
she's she kind of summed it all up for me.
And she had summed a bit of her relationship a
(30:41):
lot of it with Rick in her book, but I
think this has had now a few years since, and
she's talking about it in terms of the cars and
how he felt about the cars and lead and how
how devastated he was when ben Or died, for example,
after being years decades, almost as strange from the guy,
just insight like that. And and and she's just so
(31:02):
psychologically savvy and able to sort of put it in
a very plain spoken way that I really admire and.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Real quickly external person's like bb Bule is the name
that pops up in Boston rock a lot. You know,
what can you tell me about it?
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Well, bebe the effect she had or her Yeah, I mean,
Bibi was sort of stereotyped as a groupie. I guess
you know.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
She was a model, and she came I think from
Maine originally down to New York at least has main ties.
She had a liaisons with different guy with different musicians.
He was very attracted to musicians. So liv Tyler was
her daughter. She grew up thinking that Live did thinking
that Todd Runnggren was her father because that's who was
(31:52):
raising her with baby. They were together. Then Biby was
with Elvis Costello for a while. I wasn't until Live
This is a subject of a of a head song
called I Think Stephen.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Is My Father.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
She found out that Stephen Toller was her father late
later in life. I think this is this is my
understanding of it. I didn't write that book, but Biebe's
got her own books too. But she had a at
least a friendship with Rick, depending on who you talk
with ric ocastic and but she said that Rick, you know,
was one of Rick and Rick Deringer maybe were two
of the of the people that really respected her ability
(32:25):
as an artist. As a musician herself saw that she
had some potential. She felt like to do some music,
and Rick produced some an album A n Eep for her,
and the Cars actually made the backing tracks for a
lot of the songs, if not all of the songs.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Perfect the Cars let the stories be told. I have
about ten more minutes after this break, and I wanted
to find out the inside scoop on life on the road.
Our guest Bill Janovitz was in what Buffalo Time? Was
Buffalo tom or a significant part of it? On the
road a lot in Europe. It's not what you think.
Let's find out what being on the road I really like.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
After this on w b Z, You're on Night Side
with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
If you just joined us, where we Bill Janovitz author
of the brand new book The Cars.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Let the stories be told.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
But Bill, as a musician of his own right, he
really knows what it's like to spend a life on
the road or big chunks of time on the road.
Tell me about your band or the band, probably more
than one band, but Buffalo Tom is your primary.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, Buffalo Time is pretty much it. I mean we
formed in eighty six at UMass Amherst three friends. I
played guitar and they all played. They were basically three
guitar players. But we're still together. We stopped doing it
like as full time. This is our living in around
nineteen ninety nine two thousand, when the kids started coming
(33:45):
and the music industry was changing. We had sort of
ridden this wave. We were around before Nirvana or around
but then when Nirvana really broke through, we benefited from,
you know, being about having our career extended. But our
first our first stuff was you know, on independent, very
much independent labels, and we kind of stayed indie all
the way through. We were signed to Beggars Banquet, which
(34:07):
we were talking about this some bands like The Fall
and they had they also had four A D Records
out of England, so we were signed to them. We
were signed to a d D. We were on Beggars Banquet,
which is the parent of D Yeah, no throwing muses
and you know, Belly and Pixies were for a D
but they were. They were in the same building across
from the same pub, the Slug and let us So
(34:30):
I have all those records and yeah, it was just
a blast to be like twenty something yearly early twenties
going over to Holland and Belgium and and all the
way through Western Europe and the UK. And we became
fairly big there, you know for us, So we're gonna
be back. Were headlining there before we were headlines.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
When I wanted the Rat zu UMass Amherst basically yeah,
he played here, Sam, But somehow you skipped a whole
chunk of localness and went pow.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Not quite not quite.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
The Pixies did, like we we we were well, Pixies
were playing locally as well. We played Chet's Last Call,
we played the Rat, we played Tet's. But it was
like begging to get onto these There were a lot
of places to play back then in the late eighties,
a lot of competition, even though people there was a
lot of competition, So on any given night, Galaxy five hundred,
the you know Lemonhead, Dinosaur, Junior, Volcano Sons, you know,
(35:19):
some bands that were not necessarily giant internationally but big
in Boston, moving targets. There were so many bands that
we loved, the Liars we talked about the Nets, they
were sort of had come and gone, but we did.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
We did that.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
And and and John Bernhard at w MBR and you
know the Mit station, he played us. Billy Rowayne a
beloved figure here. He started putting us on shows at
the Middle East, and Alberto would play us on his
local shows and his and his college shows and on
Boston emissions on BCN. So we started to become known
as a Boston band. But we were really took off
(35:53):
faster over in the UK and Battleux because we had
sent our tapes to SST Records in LA who put
out you know Who's Could Do and Sonic Youth and
Black Flag and Denosaur Junior sort of these indie sort
of post punk bands. But we also set to every
label we could think of, one of which had put
out this a live record by this band that we
love called the gun Club, and they were a Dutch label.
(36:15):
He was the first guy to respond to us really
in finance some more demos and you know, one thing
led to another and we.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Were on the road for you know, six weeks. I'm
glad you brought up road. Yeah, so make people understand.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
What life is like on the road, Well, it's it
depends where you are at the stage in your career.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
And if you're a buffalo.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Thomas starting out a White Vans days, we were in
the White Van's day. Yeah, we had a blue Dodge
Ram van here that our fathers helped finance and give us,
give us a loan for and and the record label helped.
But yeah, it's like crashing on people's floors everywhere pretty much.
On that first tour, you know, it's like wherever you can.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
But you know, we went over to Europe.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
We were staying at some some the promoters apartment in
Nymegan Holland, and it was really you know, Bare Bombs
was exciting because we're making all the friends.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
You're in your twenties.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
It's like, you know, you go over on a euro pass,
maybe backpacking, maybe you meet somebody that you stay in
touch with. I mean, I go back to Holland. I
just just did last year for like a memorial for
a friend who and I. These are like dear friends
of mine that I've I've known for thirty years, you know,
so we don't get to necessarily do all the tourists stuff,
though we eventually do a lot of it, because you're
(37:24):
like in and out of these cities and you're you're
barely getting any sleep. For example, Rome, Rome, I've only
seen at night. Yeah, it is exhausting, but it's also
exhilarating when you're when you're that young, you've got the stamina.
You know, you're hungover, but you can sort of roll
over and get up again and go play. And yeah,
but I mean, you know, years into it, we started
(37:46):
taking opening slots for other bands and that could be
hit or miss. Usually hit, and I'm sure usually miss.
But you know, there's always an upside to it. And look,
we're out there playing music. We weren't working. We were
putting off our day job careers and basically suspending our
adolescents as long as we could.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
So you don't get paid to do the gig, you
get paid for the travel. That's exactly what I said.
That's once again, this has been wonderful. Thanks for having
and thanks for being.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Your first let me be your first and best hopefully interview.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Certainly, yeah, absolutely the best and longest.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Most of the time you get like three minutes exactly
some shows very much.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So I'm going to give a little plug to the
next the next segment. So, folks, we're talking about job
jobs and one of the more dangerous jobs. When I,
you know, on the air, I met someone through being
they were a caller. They called me from Boston Harbor
on a boat. That was their job and what their
job is called Boston Harbor pilots. And any ship that
(38:50):
comes into Boston has to have a licensed harbor pilot,
but somebody has to get those harbor pilots to the ship,
and the procedure that that gets done through is very dangerous,
very interesting, especially in high seas. And I believe, if
I'm not mistaken, now once again we're going to hear
from those same folks and they are currently live doing
(39:11):
their job out on Boston Harbor. I believe there are
two harbor pilot boat captains and two actual harbor pilot boats.
So this is kind of a profile on a wicked interesting,
very dangerous job right here on Boston's own, very Boston harbor.
I think you're going to like it a lot. WBZ
(39:33):
News Radio ten thirty
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