October gave us plenty of great new records, including ones from Tré Burt, Butcher Brown, Squirrel Flower, Prince & NPG, Jessi Colter, Robert Finley, The Kills, and Eric Truffaz. Check out the highlights here. [Spotify]
On Sly Stone’s new memoir: “This, his ghostwriter Ben Greenman tells me, was par for the course in the days when ‘drugs were the priority’. Greenman spent 10 years trying to make the book happen. Even after a personal introduction from their mutual friend, the funk musician George Clinton, demands would be made for Greenman to pay money upfront: ‘Someone would say, ‘OK, it’s going to be $1,000’ or whatever the going rate was at that time.’” [The Guardian]
I know I had three stories involving Lou Reed in last month’s newsletter and one of those was about Metal Machine Music, but this tells the Velvet Underground story better than the recent Apple documentary. [The Bulwark]
Joan Baez, on a new documentary: “We had a few fisticuffs. If it was something I really wasn’t going to be able to handle, we’d make adjustments. There are some things there I didn’t want in. But that doesn’t matter. That’s me still trying to protect something. When I look at it in the context of the film, I see what it means to the film.” [Spin]
Duff McKagan on panic attacks: “It just wasn’t talked about. I don’t know who I would have told about it. I just thought I was going fucking crazy.” [The Guardian]
“Now 69 years old, Robert [Finley] himself knows a thing or two about conquering the impossible—and keeping the faith. The last time we spoke was on the verge of the May 2021 release of Sharecropper’s Son, his autobiographical, funky country-soul album, its musical stories inspired by his early life in rural Louisiana, one of eight children who grew up picking cotton as soon as he was old enough to walk. An Army veteran and skilled carpenter, it wasn’t until he lost his eyesight in his 60s that Robert devoted his life fully to his music, a passion that began as a boy when he purchased a guitar with money his father gave him for new shoes.” [Spin]
Tré Burt on his new record and video. [No Depression]
For those of you who recently watched Stop Making Sense (again), this is a great contrast: the band live at Montreux only a year prior. Check out the dramatic difference in the sound and performance of “Once In A Lifetime” and others that will appear in the concert film. [YouTube]
“I picked up a copy of People magazine. It said, ‘Andy Kaufman dead at 34.’ With all the Bob stuff that had been going on, my mind had been somewhere else. I remember I just couldn't control myself. I sat down and was crying in the lobby when the rest of the band came down. It was a bad scene, but I just really just couldn't help myself.” [Flagging Down the Double E's]
Film
“I don’t mean to pick on Netflix, as this is a broader problem with streaming, perhaps even a foundational, conceptual problem: convenience breeds complacency. But given Netflix’s size and spending power, the problem feels amplified when it comes to a Netflix original. A new Wes Anderson project should feel like an event and be treated as such. It shouldn’t just show up as a tile amongst many on the app my kids use to watch Miraculous.” [ScreenTime/The Bulwark]
“The Exorcist was an instant, if controversial, hit. …Blair [recalled] the death threats she received and how people would heckle her in the street. ‘Police were hired to live at my house,’ she said. A bodyguard was enlisted by the movie studio to protect Blair. What they couldn’t protect her from, however, was the media.” [The Independent]
Wow! A movie or book (or any type of) list I agree with. [The Hollywood Reporter]
My second book is now available to preorder! The cover and price are not final; I expect the latter to drop by release day. The cover is finished (sort of— don’t share this image!) but not yet online.… Thanks to all of you who said you would preorder when the links were up! [Amazon] [Blue Cypress/Indie shipping]