Omaha Rainbow : Issue 19
Dear John,
I set out for America with high hopes and I certainly wasn't disappointed. The two and a half weeks in Texas with Roxy and Judy Gordon would have been considered a holiday good enough for anyone, but the further two and a half weeks in California made the whole trip an unforgettable experience. I'm already making plans to do a repeat performance next year, so you have been warned.
Meeting up with you at san Francisco Airport before we set out for that evening's gig at Rancho Nicasio in Marin County gave me an immediate idea of the sort of hassles you still have to go through to be able to get your music to the people. Nothing seems to have changed since I talked to you about being on the road back in 1974. In fact, I guess it hasn't altered much since you went solo at the end of the sixties.
When I tell people about that day, they think I must be exaggerating. Bob Dylan doesn't have these problems for sure. Get to the airport and then find it takes two more hours and two more planes before all the gear has arrived. Pile it all in those Hertz station wagons before that drive out to Marin. Arrive, set-up, do a sound check, realise there's no time to check-in to the motel, and then phone them to discover they've cancelled ths reservation. I was as excited by your first set as were the rest of the audience - it's been too long since I saw you onstage. Then, of course, it was time to grab some food and spend more time on the phone trying to find motel rooms. Some chance!
What a rock 'n' roll set that second one was - I could scarcely believe all those people up and dancing. I'm not surprised you blew your voice, particularly as the sound system monitors were so shitty. By then it was well after two in the morning and we got some good news - motel rooms - and some bad news - one and a half hours' drive away in Los Altos. So it's all the gear packed in the wagons (and I was really impressed with the job your boys, Mikael and Jeremy, did as roadies) and off into the night. The stop at the Seven Eleven store at least got us something to keep us going, and one of the more surrealistic memories of my whole American trip was feeding Chocolate Haagen Dazs Ice Cream (the world's best, without a doubt) to Chris "The Mountain" Whalen as we travelled across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge at four in the morning.
Then, of course, there was the awful realisation when we finally got to the motel that those only available rooms were all on the second floor. So all the gear had to be unpacked into the elevators, humped along corridors and into the rooms. And to add insult to injury, Gary "Mad Dog" Weisberg had long since disappeared into the night with his beautiful lady, so we had to cope with his drum kit as well. I've seldom been more grateful to collapse into a bed.
The next day at Monterey where you were opening for Randy Newman was quite sane by comparison, though the end-of-vacation party for Mikael and Jeremy back at the Salinas Towne House Motel after the concert had its moments. The twenty minute jam with The Greg Morrison Band on 'Rhiannon/Cowgirl in the Sand/Gold' was something to treasure.
Back in Los Angeles, you were to tell me I struck lucky with the best spell of weather that summer. I can believe that - how on earth does anybody ever get any work done in Malibu? The whole of California seemed like one vast p1ayground to this wide-eyed limey, but Malibu was something else again. I can only think that the price of property is the one thing that ensures some energy is exerted on work.
It seemed criminal that your work should have condemned you to long hours in darkened recording studios while the sun poured down on the Pacific Coast. Still, I'm sure the end product is going to make those hours appear to have been very well spent. All the time I tried very hard to keep an open mind on the songs you were recording - try to be as objective as you had to be in your joint role as producer and artist - but I must say I was really excited by the songs and the rock feel you were getting in the studio.
You appeared to have a winning combination of musicians with Bryan Garofalo on bass, Joey Carbone on keyboards and Rick Shlosser on drums. I particularly liked the way Bryan and Joey would bounce around ideas and contribute to a really creative atmosphere. All that would have been to no avail if the material had not been up to scratch, but you really have written some of your very best songs for this second album. If Al Coury and the rest of the RSO people can't get this a high chart placing when it is released next year, then you have every right to assume you must have done something very terrible in a previous life not to get your just deserts this time around.
Even in its unfinished state, the cassette of those songs sounded absolutely right as we drove along Pacific Coast Highway ("Heartbreak Alley on the Coast Highway") into Los Angeles ("Living in the heart of the promised land.") If those songs aren't commercial which means they'll get played on the radio and have at least an even chance of being heard and bought - I don't know what would be.
Of course, I just had to delay my return to Texas so that I could take in your two nights at The Palomino. Again, what memories. It would have been worth it just to hear again you and Chris doing your wonderful Bob Dylan and NeilYoung at Las Vegas preview...surely one of the great unrecorded moments in rock. You and Joey Harris really got into some burning guitar trade-offs during the second set on the first evening. When (not 'If', please note) you come over with your band, a lot of people are going to be very surprised by what they hear. The old songs still sound fresh, and the stuff really does rock 'n' roll.
I'm glad Barry Ballard was able to catch you on the phone when he was over in America a few days ago. He told me you were breaking off from recording to do a tour of the west and mid-west States. Should help pay the bills and keep The Morning Thunder Band off the streets. I hope your new manager, Lloyd Segal, is getting that tour of the United Kingdom lined.up. I had hopes of you all coming over to join us in celebrating Omaha Rainbow's 5th Birthday. Still, the new album will be a more than welcome present to precede your visit.
Nearly out of space, so just let me send love to Buffy and hope she's fully recovered from her tonsil operation. Tell her to keep eating the Haagen Dazs!
Here's to the next five years. We'll keep going if you do.
Thanks for everything,
Peter.