This Is Not Just Another Rock And Roll Book
It is a rock and roll memoir, a music industry memoir, and a personal story about what happens behind the curtain when the curtain is on fire.
I’ve never claimed to be an author, but I can tell a damn good story. It is with that understanding that I wrote Once A King, Now A Prince, my rock and roll memoir. But it is more than the glitz, fabrication, and standard polish of the usual rock and roll book. It is a book that can smack you right in the face with the truth, the truth you rarely see in rock n roll memoirs.
My rock and roll memoir starts at the beginning, as all good books do. I may even have set a world record for the youngest age to start a memoir: 2 years old. It moves through the different periods of my life as I grew older, covering the abuse from “Daddy Dearest,” the abandonment of being sent away from home at six years old, as if all of it were my fault instead of my parents’, for two separate periods that added up to four years. Coming home from those nightmares only brought more of the same, until, at age fifteen, I had an “epiphany of musical taste”: I fell in love with rock and roll.
My Childhood: Where My Dysfunctional Family Stories Began
When I arrived in this world as a ten-pound premature baby, I did not have any thoughts, desires, or aspirations other than to be given my milk and go back to sleep. Nothing else, just that. My parents, on the other hand, had their own aspirations. My mother saw greatness in me yet to come, but my father saw me as only one thing: an anchor tied to his leg, because he was in a marriage he did not want.
I cover in depth the story of how my father met and married my mother, as well as the larger family history behind several of my other posts on dysfunctional family stories. My father wanted out, but could not quite figure out how. He also wanted his daughter, Tina Louise Blacker, with him, but could not have her. Tina was from a different mother, and her mother had custody. Is it any wonder my father was a raving lunatic at home? His motto should have been, if this were a movie, “Let the abuse begin.” This is part of what makes the story more than just another rock and roll book about fame.
Rock And Roll Memoir: When I Discovered Rock And Roll
In my rock and roll book, Once A King, Now A Prince, I write about how I discovered rock and roll at the age of 15. In order to escape my oppressive home life and the dysfunction of my parents, I would head to the roof of my building on Glenwood Rd., just off of Nostrand Avenue, in Brooklyn. My bedroom was directly below where I would spread a blanket, drop an extension cord down one floor, and then go down one flight to my bedroom to plug it in. Once atop the roof, I would plug in my radio, as I could not afford a portable one at the time. It was about 1958, three years later, when I got my burgundy Philco portable radio.
I would then tune in to my favorite rock n roll and rhythm and blues stations. Jocko’s Rocket Ship Show on WADO-AM, N.Y.C., and WNJR-AM in New Jersey, which played more blues records. Jocko had this great radio patter, with his signature line being: “Eee-tiddly-ock! Ho! This is the Jock, and I’m back on the scene with the record machine, saying oo-pop-a-doo, how do you do?”
Another of Jocko’s gems was “Not the imitator, but the originator… not the flower, but the root.” The Drifters released the song “Up On The Roof” in 1962, which I thought might have been dedicated to me, since my indoctrination into rock and roll music was just there, up on the roof. That rooftop is one reason this rock and roll book begins with escape before it ever reaches the music business.
My Rock And Roll Book Is A Music Business Memoir
As a lover of rock and roll music, it was natural for me to, as they say, work at what you love. That part was true. However, another factor played a hand, only subconsciously at the time, and that was that I also had a sister in the entertainment business who was becoming a celebrity. Her name was Tina Louise Blacker, better known as just Tina Louise. My guess is that I, too, should move in that direction and just maybe get some positive feedback from my father.
My earliest days were spent as a self-employed manager of The Emeralds, who recorded, under a deal I set up with Laurie Records, as The Boys From New York City, from my borrowed and converted song title, The Boy From New York City, Recorded by the Ad-libs in 1964. From manager, it was a natural segue into the role of agent, when one smart cookie asked me, “who else did I have for him,” referring to band talent. Well, he didn’t have to ask me twice, and I was then on my way from king to becoming a prince.
As I progressed in the rock and roll agency field, working part-time while a full-time student at Hofstra University, my roster grew. I was able to book The Emeralds into the big “discos,” as they were called in the early 60s, and came under the view of the major New York music agencies. Then it happened, I was “made an offer I couldn’t refuse.” The former Capone lieutenant, who fled Chicago after the Capone gang broke up and who founded Associated Booking Corporation, made me an offer through their rock and R&B agent, Sol Saffian, to go to work there in a few months, right after I graduated from Hofstra.
Very soon after starting work at ABC, I became interested in the English music scene, having been a big fan of Cream and Led Zeppelin. My first two signings were Savoy Brown, via Dee Anthony, who was their American manager, and following my first trip to the U.K., Rod Stewart and Faces.
After three-plus years at ABC, the death of Joe Glazer, and some staff I was not fond of, led me to follow not just in the footsteps of Sol Saffian, who left right after Glazer died, but to join Sol at Action Talent, a then-small bubble gum agency, which I describe in detail in my rock and roll memoir, Once A King, Now A Prince.
As In Most Rock And Roll Memoirs, Success Breeds More Success
In my rock and roll memoir, I tell the story about how I removed the bubble gum acts from our roster and built on Savoy Brown, along with Rod Stewart, and Faces. At that time, we sorely needed a headliner to avoid having to include Savoy or Faces as support acts on bills where other agencies had the headliner. We needed our own headliner but didn’t have one. Sol, who used to be heavily entrenched in R & B with, among others, the Motown artist roster, came up with the idea of a rock and roll package.
In my rock and roll memoir, I write that on a subsequent trip to England, I signed The Grease Band, formerly with Joe Cocker, who were to be the opening act for our first three-band package. Depending on the city, sometimes Faces headlined, and in others, Savoy. We now had our own headliner, as the package gave it strength, having three well-known names, whereas others would use the opening spot to break an unknown band. The package was a smash.
My Music Industry Memoir: The Truth Behind The Glitter
It was not always pretty, as I write in my music industry memoir. Sometimes I had to play hardball, as when I sent Wally Meyrowitz to the airport to meet Jerry Bron and Uriah Heep, who had as of yet to sign their agency agreement with American Talent International, Ltd., the music agency I founded. It was sign or go home, as I would not turn over the H-1 B visas required for entry until then. I had learned the lesson of booking tours with Black Sabbath, who, due to a management change, canceled my tour and went elsewhere.
I think the biggest hurt was the loss of Deep Purple after their contract expired, following their three-year run. I received two kicks in the ass on that one: 1- The loss of Deep Purple, a major headliner, and 2- I lost them to a trusted agent, who never had the talent to sign an artist on his own, but just to steal mine. As rock and roll memoirs go, these two really depressed me, as they depressed my partners, Sol and Jeff. That is the kind of truth this rock and roll book does not dress up.
This Rock And Roll Book Is Raw Truth
This is not a myth. This is not polish. This is the truth! This book was never intended to be a rock and roll memoir. It started as a journal of my childhood and, over time, morphed into a record of my early adulthood. It was only later, after encouragement from friends, that it became my rock and roll memoir and, finally, the rock and roll book it is now.
As my original intention was never to create a music industry memoir, but as a journal describing my early life, and eventually my latter years following my exit from the music business, my guide was to tell the truth, first to myself and then, as I decided to continue writing my memoir about the music industry and life in general, that guide stayed intact. That is why this rock and roll book tells the truth, warts and all.
ROCK AND ROLL BOOK: SEX, DRUGS, ROCK N ROLL & TRUTH, WITH YOUTUBE EDITING THE TRUTH.
