Of Yes. Need I say more?

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jon-anderson/id1316200737?i=1000621004013

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/3bee3d46-bc13-45a2-a874-73537a4ec618/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-jon-anderson

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/jon-anderson-305237766

Trailer: https://tinyurl.com/26vjsvcj

It’s FANTASTIC!

Not that I was eager to watch it. The e-mail started to come in last week, absolute raves. So I read the reviews and said…maybe, but not right now. But watching a disappointing comedy special tonight Felice suggested it, and WOW!

Started off cheesy. I mean the titles. Like the Motley Crue movie. A wink, a fabrication, a step away from the real nitty-gritty. But momentarily thereafter…

This is a document of an era. The MTV era.

But even more it’s a document of the post-punk world of Britain.

It’s a smaller country than the U.S. And therefore there’s more of a feeling of being in it together. Music is followed like sports, like horse racing. Everybody reads the charts. Which are a mash-up of all kinds of genres. And stuff that is gigantic over there never makes it here, frequently unjustifiably, like Rag’n’Bone Man’s “Human.”

The label screwed that one up.

Used to be the label was everything. Wham!’s breakthrough was an appearance on “Top of the Pops.” The doc says it was a phone call out of the blue, but anybody on the inside knows it never works that way, that the label worked the TV show until the opportunity arrived.

And then Wham! delivered.

Times were different. The sixties were about revolution. The seventies, licking our wounds and cynicism. And the eighties were about hedonism.

Then again, Margaret Thatcher ruled from ’79-’90. Not that the average person in Americas knows much about her and her conservative government, how she broke the backs of unions and musicians and the underclass resented her, to this day. Today politics is everything. You might be misinformed, but you’re aware of the players. Ergo, Brexit. The perpetrators are out of government, the country is suffering economically compared to the EU and the musical touring business has been hindered in both directions, Britain to the EU and EU to Britain. But the nationalism of the ignorant drove Brexit. And the same uninformed wanting no part of the EU were supported by the EU and didn’t even know it, kinda like the Republicans who bitch about the government and social programs when they’re the beneficiaries thereof. Voting against your interests, it’s the twenty first century way.

So Wham! was huge in England.

But it took a while for them to cross over to America and MTV. This was before the channel was a worldwide phenomenon. Today you can make it from anywhere. Who knew Latin was gonna be this big? Other genres from other countries will come down the pike. Back then, especially as the eighties played out, you were either on MTV or you weren’t, you were either a hit act or marginal. That was the power of MTV. Nobody has that power today.

Nor do the labels.

Sure, the labels rejected Wham! at first, but Wham! needed a label to make it. And the band signed an horrific deal. Sure, people will sign anything to make it, but today musicians are much better informed, they know you need an attorney, and the royalty standards have improved. 2%? Nothing on twelve inches? Today an act can get 50% after expenses, or release the music themselves and make even more. And although terrestrial radio is not yet dead, it’s less powerful than ever before. It was the bastion of the major labels, still is, it’s where hits were solidified. Now active customers don’t listen and acts are broken online in ways the major labels do not control. It’s very different from yesterday, even though the oldsters like to tell us it’s just the same.

And speaking of different…

I’m not sure you can find an American or Briton conscious in the eighties who does not know “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” Nothing is that ubiquitous today, NOTHING! Everybody aware back then could sing the chorus and still can, that’s how catchy the number was and still is.

And that’s a point of the film, what a great songwriter and producer George Michael was.

And his father didn’t believe in his career and he was gay and closeted…

The people who make it need it. They’re not normal, they’re flawed. They believe the success, the adulation, will fulfill them, cover up that hole inside, and when they finally realize it can’t, they stop being able to deliver. But before that, they’re DRIVEN!

Like George Michael.

He needed it. He reveled in it. He wanted four number ones in one year. And the power of the audience, of being on stage, is evident time and again in this movie.

So the film is a time capsule. But in this case, there’s footage and photos. Yes, the eighties were documented. This separates the Wham! movie from the documentaries from earlier eras. It’s all right there to see, no imagination is needed, you’re just overwhelmed.

And China is still backward.

And publicity is everything. Press, TV news… They’re nearly powerless today, especially for developing acts. You put it out there and try to engage your fans.

But a difference between yesterday and today is in the old days you had to build your career over time. Today, one album and you can be playing arenas. The road work was important for Wham!, as it is for developing acts today, but George Michael lived for the studio, for the hit records. Today live is everything. It’s the visceral experience everybody desires in a digitized world. It’s unique, you can own it.

And to see Wham!’s contemporaries… Especially recording the Band Aid single. Everybody is so young. Sting is somewhat dorky. Bono is wearing that ridiculous hat. Phil Collins can still play the drums. It’s a window into what once was, and now no longer exists.

You watch the Wham! movie and remember why you wanted to be in the music business, why you NEEDED to be in the music business! Music was everything, all wrapped into one. The music, the look, the money, the meaning, the edginess… Music was pushing the envelope in ways no other art form was. And if you made it, you were more famous than anybody in the world, politicians, never mind business people.

This is not “Behind the Music.” This is not a false arc. This is the story of two guys who wanted to make it, and worked hard to do so. That’s the power of youth, the ignorance and the lack of experience. You believe in your talent and push on. And back then there wasn’t the constant sour grapes. Most people couldn’t even get a record deal, whereas today everybody can be on Spotify. And Wham! had number ones and was still broke. And then they hired Simon Napier-Bell.

A good manager is crucial.

And I love “Father Figure” from George Michael’s solo career, but I can’t say I was a big fan of Wham! I go for something more meaningful. But what is clear here is that George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were incredibly self-aware, they knew what they were selling. There were no false airs. Ultimately it was good time music, for partying. And the eighties were all about partying.

You’ve got to see this movie, even if you hate George Michael and Wham! It’s a window into what once was, which you didn’t know everything about. It puts the act and the eighties in context. If this were still the eighties…

MTV would make the Wham! movie an event. Everybody would know about it. It would be the talk of the youth.

But we haven’t had that spirit here…for decades.

And the Eagles are a good analogy to Wham! Don Henley never would have made it if it weren’t for Glenn Frey. And as the act evolved, it was clear that Henley was the superior talent, and Frey was down with that. Ridgeley is self-aware. He went for a ride with one of the greatest songwriter/performers of the era, and he’s thrilled about it, anything but bitter.

Of course Glenn Frey was much more talented than Andrew Ridgeley, but the bottom line is it’s very hard to keep an act together. They break up even if their fans want them to stay together. You see it’s not a business venture, but an artistic quest. Artists don’t play it safe, they evolve. They’re willing to change, to put it all on the line, risking everything for their vision.

Today hits require more money than ever before. As a result, there are cowriters and remixers and everybody’s trying to buy insurance. But the moment in the Chateau, when George Michael is talking about pulling the line from deep within, being amazed at what comes out, unaware it was there and stunned that he’s got it in him…that’s the essence of creativity. You’ve either got it or you don’t. Andrew Ridgeley didn’t have that, so he had to retire.

As for George Michael, he became one of the biggest stars in the world, but that was not enough. He stopped making records on principle, wanted off Columbia, and the label broke him, he never recaptured his glory. And then he died at a young age.

You think you want what George Michael got. But almost nobody really does. It requires an incredible amount of hard work. The aforementioned drive. It’s not for the well-adjusted. You must sacrifice so much. And when it’s all over everybody knows your name yet you still might feel hollow inside.

Watch the movie.

From: James Montgomery

Subject: Thank you

Bob, Thank you so much for writing about me and Tom Rush.  I’ve heard from people all over the globe responding to the article.  Since the stuff on Wikipedia I was in The Johnny Winter Band for 6 years and one of the people responsible for getting him off prescription drugs during that time. I also was featured in a movie about Delta Blues with Morgan Freeman, Willie Nelson, Charlie Musslewhite and others.  I currently have 2 documentaries I Co-Produced, one about James Cotton that was one of 5 finalists in The Library of Congress Ken Burns Prize for Film, and another about my brother Jeffrey, an LGBTQ warrior who fought so diligently for Gay Rights that he ended up on the Aryan Nation hit-list (they actually tried to kill him a few times).  Anyway, I continue to play out, have never stopped and never will.  Thanks again for your kind words.  Means a lot to me!

James Montgomery

www.jamesmontgomerybluesband.com

mail@jamesmontgomery.com

Grammy Nominated with Johnny Winter

Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame

New England Music Hall of Fame

Co-Producer: Bonnie Blue – James Cotton’s Life in the Blues

Co-Producer: America You Kill Me – Jeffrey Montgomery LGBTQ Warrior

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Subject: James montgomery/Duke and The Drivers

Bob,

I could not have been happier to Read what you had to say about James Montgomery. Early in my career I was given the wonderful opportunity to help James Montgomery first as a booking agent, and then as a manager. I felt exactly as you did about him.

I spent five years trying to convince the music industry and the world in general about the authenticity and incredible performances James Montgomery consistently  delivered. It was an uphill battle.

Much like being the skipper of a classic sailing yacht — authentic, soulful, and original — in the era of MTV and the other converging forces of disco,  rap, etc., James Montgomery got lost in the shuffle.

But James never lost his originality, and he never stopped playing. As a manager, it was tough to pull James away from playing benefits and giving back to his community at a time when it really wasn’t affordable for him.  He didn’t care. James is the real deal.

Your mention of Duke and the Drivers, though, saddened me greatly. A lot of us worked diligently for “The Drivers” as they personified everything you could want in a hardworking band. I worked for their manager Peter Casperson and was eventually privileged to handle their first reunion tour in my own company.

Without Duke and The Drivers and James Montgomery,  I don’t think there would have been an Aerosmith reunion. I got to learn the ropes from those guys and actually met Joe Perry through The Drivers’ drummer Danny “Doc” McGrath. The ties that bind Bostonian musicians and music industry folks run deep.

Perhaps it was an off night for them – or for a college aged Bob. I hope you know I have always maintained my respect for you even during times when I felt you were “off the mark”.

I do think they deserve more respect than the all too current easily thrown out label “loser” …

Tim Collins

(Note: As evidenced by Tim Swift’s e-mail in the “Re-James Montgomery” mailbag, Duke and the Drivers were a developing band when they played at Middlebury, sans even an album release. Winter Carnival is the biggest event at Middlebury, however small that may be, and to have an unknown, developing band be the talent…wouldn’t you be disappointed, especially with a history of shows by name/recognizable talent at prior Carnivals? Duke and the Drivers were not bad, they were okay, but they had the smallest attendance of any show at Middlebury while I was there. Maybe a great band at the advent of its development, but wouldn’t you expect more? I certainly did. Ultimately, this is about the infrequent and lame shows we got at Middlebury, not Duke and the Drivers. Sure, Duke and the Drivers might have been hot on the club scene in Boston…but we didn’t even have a club scene!)

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From: Peter Van Ness

Subject: RE: James Montgomery?!

Well…I’m catching up on your letters (that’s right I binge them) and come across this one about my friend James Montgomery.  Thanks for giving him some ink.  He deserves it.  My wife and I hosted his “70th Birthday Bash” concert in May, 2019 at our little club north of Boston, called 9 Wallis (it didn’t survive the lockdown).

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Subject: Re: Re-James Montgomery

Bob,

Thanks for the shout out about one of my oldest friends…James Montgomery..in 1967 my parents dropped me off at the Boston University dorms…after they left I decided to go down to the street and light up a joint…on the way down the elevator opened and this guy wearing a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows, like some professor, got in and it was James Montgomery… the first person I ever met at school !!! We shared that joint and over the years became best friends, housemates and really like family…He is an amazing survivor!!! he has been doing this for over 50 years… and one hell of a harp player…..

As far as  “Duke and The Drivers”…I was their road manager right around their first record produced by Eddie Kramer at Electric Ladyland in NYC…Although they were not the kind of name like James in Northern New England… in the Boston area they were a big draw…WBCN took them under their wing and played their great cover of Eddie Bo’s “Check Your Bucket” as a tape…their shows were raucous and great energy… the covers they did were some real R&B gems.by bands like “Dyke and the Blazers”…crowds loved them… they recently released new mixes some of their old tunes and Joe Lilly know as “Sam Deluxe” has a great roots band called “The Mystics”…man did you bring back some memories of my days in Boston…..

Peter Wassyng

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From: Holly Knight

Subject: Re: Re-My Hometown

Hi Bob

I loved your story about Fairfield .After growing up in NYC- Manhattan to be exact, I moved to LA  for my career and lived here for fifteen years before deciding I didn’t want to raise my kids in LA. It was the year of the Rodney King beatings, THE EARTHQUAKE, and the Malibu mud slides. I think I told you that I did the unthinkable- Iike totally backasswards –  I packed up all my things, and moved back east thinking how lovely it would be to experience the four seasons again- and be closer to my (dysfunctional family) cause after all NYC is in my DNA.

I moved to Fairfield- specifically the Greenfield Hill area which is affluent and waspy but very beautiful. Three and a half years later and I wanted to slit my throat…especially after I went back to LA and saw kids in shorts playing in the school yard in January – and I said- why did I leave here? So I put my house on the market and moved back – 25 years ago.  In the beginning all of my east coast diehard New Yorker friends said LA was lame, plastic and phony. And gee, they all live here now. When I need a dose of grit and film noir I go back east to visit, but honestly after a week I’m so ready to come home and take my bike on the beach path. And yeah, I wouldn’t want to have grown up anywhere else. Now my favorite people are native east coasters that have moved out here and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

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From: James Spencer

Subject: Re: Re-My Hometown

Imagine our shock and disbelief, when family friends told us that they saw our beloved family home in the local (rural Arkansas) newspaper..

It was busted for being a METH LAB..

I drove those tiny streets a few years ago, in town for a funeral..Once proud houses were condemned..Yet people were still living in them..

The farming business had gone belly-up, and religion and meth had become the mainstays.

This isn’t that idyllic quaint small town you’ll hear about on country radio..That’s pure fantasy..

Of course (The Boss’s) “My Father’s House” can’t be touched for its poignancy..

But Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” comes in a close second..

She’s the real deal..An outlaw/rock star..She does HER..Suits be damned..Her work is anything but cookie cutter..Her Vegas show is fantastic, too..She rocks hard, sans the artificial sweetener so prevalent in Nashville pop..

Why can’t we have more country acts like her?

No one has her BALLS..

“The House That Built Me”: https://youtu.be/DQYNM6SjD_o

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From: Cob Carlson

Subject: Re: Re-My Hometown

“Bridgeport is Listed as One of Top 5 Booming Cities, According to Today Show”: https://tinyurl.com/yexs4xj2

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Subject: Re: Re-My Hometown

Bob:  Long time reader.   A friend once said to me, “You can always go home, but you can’t stay.”

Marty Hecker

Denver, CO (originally from Green Bay)

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Subject: Re: Definition Of A Rock Star

Politicians are described as “Rock stars.”

Athletes are described as “Rock stars.”

A child learning how to ride a bicycle is a “rock star.”

You name it. I’ll give up there.

In other words, three chord velvet glory has gone into the mists of time.

Jumping Jack flashes no more.

No lemon juice is squeezed down anybody’s leg.

We still have the vinyl to prove our allegiance to rock ‘n’ roll & our glorious memories.

Michael Des Barres.

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From: Tony Dimitriades

Subject: Re: Definition Of A Rock Star

“Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – For Real”

“Tom Petty | What If You Had A Dream Documentary – Songwriting, MTV videos, Success, Longevity”

 

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Roberto, my newfound friend.

I loved every minute/hour of our conversation.

Absolutely one of my favorite interviews of all time. I love the way you conduct an interview. Your knowledge of the industry and your obvious intelligence make a person like myself just uncomfortable enough to stay focused, dig deep, stay honest, & be respectful.

I sincerely thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my story knowing it will be presented the way I would want it to be presented.

Let me know if I can ever do something for you Bob

Sammy

PS:  Finished the whole podcast. I love the second half of this podcast as much as any interview I’ve ever done. It’s my book written in shorthand. And not that short by the way! You certainly know how to get a lot of information in a short amount of time.

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In response to e-mail from listeners loving the podcast:

Well who coulda thunk that those four hours would be that entertaining for anyone else to listen to as opposed to being as boring as watching a truck rust… which is what my fear was about all my ramblings after we finished that night! Thanks again for having me on Bob and let me know if you want to finish as Paul Harvey would say “the rest of the story.” Thanks also for passing along that email.

Best,

Dwight

Hey Bob,

As a fellow suburban escapee, I share your sentiments regarding the life from which I escaped. When Irving Azoff called and told John Baruck, and told him to “Grab the REO guys, and come to LA.”, I semi-reluctantly packed up the smallest U-haul trailer available, and headed west. California was freedom, fun, and the center of the rock ‘n roll universe. And I knew deep down that was where I needed to be.

That said, every time we play Chicago, we stay on the familiar Near North Side. I hit the streets and stroll down memory lane past all the little clubs where I used to perform pre-REO. I usually rent rent a car and drive out to the southwest suburb where I grew up, slow down as I roll through the neighborhood where I got my first kiss, the sports fields where we played pick-up games, (I was usually picked last.) Feelings flood my bloodstream as I retrace the steps from my old house, where both my parents lived to the end, along 52nd Ave to Rossi Music, where I learned to play the guitar. When the Beatles played Ed Sullivan, and I was the only kid in town who knew some chords, I went from dork to hero …overnight!

But I too had a sense that life had more for me than the white-bread suburbs of Chicago had to offer. Oak Lawn was a nice place to visit, but Californy was the place I oughta be. Still those trips to the old neighborhood have a way of grounding and resetting me like nowhere else.

Your stories always stir up my soul, and I thank you for that, Bob. Much love, kc

Kevin Cronin

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There’s a line in one of the last episodes of The Wonder Years when Kevin Arnold is sent to the liquor store for ice or soda, while his parents were giving a Christmas Eve party.  As he walked down the block, he remarked that he no longer knew who lived in each house.  And he remembered that there was a time when he new the last name of each home owner, each kid’s name, every dog’s name and every cat’s name.  And he knew it would never be the same as that again.

Thanks,

James Starace

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Bob, I liked your post on the east coast. I grew up in LA and always wondered why people who were not from there loved it so much. I went on the road with Eddie Kendricks in 1975. 23 year old kid from Burbank, playing with the Detroit session musicians, the Funk Brothers, Uriel Jones and Eddie Willis. We did a week at Paul’s Mall in Boston. I fell in love with the place, the city was so alive, to me Burbank could not even come close to the vibe of Boston.

Then in 1996 I moved to Massachusetts, I’m in the burbs and I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. I have been a stranger in a strange land ever since. Don’t get me wrong I do like living here but it’s in spite of the life around me, I look around sometimes at the neighbors and think that I am so glad I did not grow up here. Growing up in LA gave you a sense that anything was possible. It’s a mind set that Californians have, east coasters have to conform and to dream outside the box? Fuhgeddaboudit!  That’s why everyone moves to LA! (and the weather of course haha)

Marty Walsh

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“It was like someone shrunk the neighborhood down to 3/4 size.”

I just recently did a lecture at my Alma mater Oswego State University in upstate New York, and I took the time to visit my old neighborhood. My experience was exactly like yours. My grandparents even had a convenience store called Maloney’s Superette, which is such a Syracuse landmark that the new Middle-Eastern owners haven’t changed that name in nearly 40 years. My grandparents raised four kids on selling beer and penny candy at that place.

…and you were dead-on about the calcification of dreams in your hometown. Had I been able to have the music career I wanted in the ‘Cuse, I probably wouldn’t have ever left. But like you, I heard So Cal calling and needed to up my game at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. I packed up my bass and my dreams and never looked back.

-Christopher Maloney (US)

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I’m often moved by your letters, I find them smart, informative, and deeply considered. You have a gift. You make a dent in the universe.

I was moved by your visit to Fairfield, but honestly can’t figure out why.

Maybe it’s because I left Long Island for South Florida and on my rare trips “home” the place feels alien to me, like a cover of a favorite song that doesn’t quite hit me like the original.

I miss the seasons, hate the heat, feel menaced by the tropics but don’t miss the grayness of the northeast winters which made me long for either Southern California or Florida when I was a kid, and the world was all in front of me.

But like you, I long for a “center.” I miss when facts mattered, when we had standards of behavior and it felt like we were at least loosely unified despite our differences.

I too long to make a difference, but your piece made my realize I traded one suburb for another. Mine is just hotter, more humid and now deeply red.

Jeff Perlman

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As a kid from a small town in upstate NY, this hits very close to home.  When I left that small town for LA, I didn’t know a single person west of the Mississippi, much less anyone in the entertainment biz.  However, I knew that staying put was never a viable option for me.  As Wayne Gretzky famously put it, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Glad we each get to put our own unique “dent in the universe”…

Jason Miller

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Good stuff again, Bob.  I’m in the process of getting a place in California.  My wife loves Carmel by the Sea.

I recently spent 5 weeks on Long Island looking at an opportunity there and I could feel the attitude about which you speak.

That wasn’t the coast for this hillbilly from the Ozark mountains of Arkansas either.

Have a great week and keep making dents in the universe.

Blaine Leeds

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It can be an eerie haunting and uncomfortable feeling going back home if you’ve been away so long where you’ve made a life for yourself somewhere else.  You’re a stranger to that physical place you knew so well.

I left Cincinnati with my first wife and we subsequently divorced.  I went to college in the south, married a southern woman and became an engineer.  I got into a “profession.” I have a son.

My family was merciless to me concerning my divorce and me getting into a profession.  I have multiple college degrees and engineering licenses.

I actually own a home.

I stayed gone from my hometown, infrequently returning.  My grandparents passed as did my parents.

My father’s hobby was magic.  He was a magician.  There was a magic shop in Cincinnati that recently closed but, it was where my Pop and his buddies would hang.

On one of my trips back home I went in there and saw all the pictures of my father and his magic crew on the walls of that place as a memorial. It hit me hard that they were all passed, my family members too, everything all at once.  It’s like I experienced a huge painful shift in time.  I began to cry and had to leave.  It was very painful and uncomfortable.

Tim Pringle

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Damn, Bob. This hits home. I’m only 53 and left Northeast Ohio for Nashville 15 years ago. I wrote a second lyric/poem for “My Hometown” for an English class in undergrad at Kent State but I’ll spare sharing it. I feel the same when I go back. No regrets. So many people I know there are living the same lives and it’s sad. I’m no one but I’m living a life I never could have back there. I’ve played on the Ryman stage and I have a book coming out next month. I love the place but I’m so grateful I got out.

Steve McClain

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I left Stamford twice.Last time was 23 years ago.I want a pizza and a cannoli.But the west is the best.Stay well Bob,Ted Keane

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I left Grand Rapids, Mi, my hometown, when I graduated from High School. I have been back a very few times since leaving. There still are hazy memories of the good times. But all in all it is a very small place where people want to be a big fish in a small pond or are just hanging by a thread. You see a huge percentage of high paying auto manufacturing jobs are gone.

I am glad I left, it was never the place for me!

Mike Busch

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That was a beautifully told story of a return to your place. I could relate to every detail.

I grew up in Branford, CT. My parents are side by side at St Agnes Cemetery. All the names are different, but the experience of driving around and seeing the building fires the synapses of stories long forgotten.

We had one  true love in common, on Wooster St in New Haven. Frank Pepe’s Neapolitan Pizza. To this day when we return East, Pepe’s is a must do. And perhaps like your first true love, no other pie has the same magic.

There are now numerous franchises of Frank Pepe throughout Connecticut and even near Boston.

We’ve also moved to the desert after a long radio career on both coasts. Seattle was home for 25 years.

And now that the literal final sunset looms near, life is all about meaningful moments with and for real people who care.

I’ve always appreciated what you do Bob. Thank you.

Bob Rivers

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Hi Bob. Like you I grew up in Fairfield. My recent film, THE GREATEST RADIO STATION IN THE WORLD, is about WPKN in Bridgeport. The station has moved from their 55 year plus home on the campus of the University of Bridgeport to downtown Bridgeport. Across the street there is Trattoria ‘A Vucchella, a five star restaurant. Wish I could have taken you there for a knosh.

One block away is Miss Thelma’s, a world class soul food joint. Another couple of blocks away is Berlinetta Brewing, making some of the best pilsner you’ll ever taste. New artist lofts are being built. Positive things are happening to the city. Slow, yes, but definitely happening.

Thrilled you revisited Seaside Park, one of the most scenic park combos of beach, lighthouse and playing fields you’ll find on the East Coast. All ethnicities recreating on a daily basis.

Head west on US 1 and you’ll come to the Black Rock section of the city. Terrific restaurants and the new Park City Music Hall, which has just got the local music scene exploding. And the upcoming “Porch Fest” is an absolute delight with musicians of all ilks playing on neighborhood front porches.

I hope you drove around downtown Fairfield and the beach area. In the summer it is kinda like Cali, your turf. Folks are active…bicycling, walking, skating, scootering…there is a definite energetic buzz. And Sacred Heart University bought and renovated the old Community Theater where they showcase films, live theater, and live music. In the building behind the Community sits FTC, a two stage venue that presents national music acts every week.

So, like you, even though I got out of Fairfield, in my case to work in the world of documentary film in Boston, I’m considering moving back to the home turf. Really good artistic and cultural stuff is blooming there. And a great food scene with the best pizza in the world.

Peace…

Cob Carlson

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Both my parents attended grad school at Brandeis, and my first home was down the street in Waltham, MA. We’d do Passover Seder in Queens and see the sights in NYC when I was growing up. So, I was up and down from Boston to NY frequently, and it never dawned on me how backward Connecticut was, stuck on I-95 in the middle. I lived in Burlington VT from 85-88, and by far the most broken, un-diverse place in New England is CT. I operated a business in Fairfield Center from 1990-2000, and I am forever grateful for that journey, I learned so much. But as you said, I also escaped, and I am even more thankful for that.

Micah Sheveloff

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Bob—In 1959, when I was 13, my family moved from Woodmere, Long Island (just outside Queens) to Westport.  To me, we might as well have moved to Iowa.

Still, I got used to it.  Now, 60 years later when I occasionally journey back to Woodmere and walk around (Woodmere is small and walkable), it looks weird and I feel like you felt when revisiting Fairfield.

Anyway, when I was 16 in Westport, some friends and I fell in with some kids from Roger Ludlowe.    Westport and Fairfield kids partied together, swimming in the river at Devil’s Den (Weston) and Falls Hole (Redding), and dancing at two Westchester roadhouses north of Stamford, the Hearth and the Three Pines.

We all hung out at Cindy’s, a diner in Fairfield on the Post Road at the corner of Unquowa Road.  Made out in the Community Theater balcony, or at the two drive-in theaters on the Bridgeport line.

Although the two towns differed markedly (Westport a celebrity enclave and Fairfield semi-tough) we hit it off and had memorable times together.

Paul Lanning

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Still miss CT this time of year.

Marth Winsch

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Funny my wife has been visiting her fam and old haunts in westport last several days

We often talk about those who stay or move back home. It’s a different wiring I think than those who leave for LA (best choice by far) and NYC

If u see a 15yo who looks like me flying back to la w my wife tomorrow early morn on AA say hi

Evan Harrison

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hi Bob…i always love these columns when you talk about Fairfield…like you, it was a town I couldn’t wait to leave when I was young but every now and then I have really good memories of friends, family and experiences…I hope you are well.  Bob Dranoff

Dr. Robert Dranoff
Commissioner
East Coast Conference    NCAA DIVISION II

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I too am from Fairfield, and went to Fairfield Woods when it was a Jr. High (82-84) and then to Andrew Warde HS and in my senior year we were the first year of the new ‘history’ becoming Fairfield High School, and the Mustangs.  (I lived near Lake Mohegan in a neighborhood that was built in 1973 when my parents bought the house.)  I have continued to come back to Fairfield in the decades since I left, as my father lived down the street from another landmark liquor store, Harry’s Liquor Warehouse, just off of the Post Road as Fairfield becomes Southport becomes Westport.  (He ended up there following my parents divorce).

I know exactly what you mean about the standards and expectations there.  Had I followed the path that my parents suggested- I would have ended up at Pfizer or Met Life- they were both successful in those industries, and had connections I could have exploited to leap right into the upper middle class.  Had I been very successful, I may have been lucky enough to purchase a home just like you describe, despite the fact that in Fairfield they are literally double or triple the cost of most places in the country.

Like you, I fled Fairfield and New England- my landing place ended up being in Eugene OR instead of California, but not too far from your experience I’m guessing, and I’m a bit younger than you.  I too felt the need to strike out from a corporate and conformist lifestyle- and was able to build a booking agency and now I spend my time producing shows and acquiring them for my clients.

I do feel pretty strongly that the very skills that I needed to be successful at not conforming to the Fairfield life path, were learned and earned right there in Fairfield.  How did a kid Bar Mitzvah’d off of Stratfield Rd in Fairfield end up in rural New England, running a meshuggenah music agency?  Likely because of the confidence that I gained there, and the quality education and bucolic yet civilized surroundings of that area.

I’m a little sad like you that I have lost a primary reason to visit Fairfield, my Mom moved from there around 1992 or so to Florida, and my father passed almost three years ago.  I do still have a lot of friends in the area that are helping me to keep Fairfield in my peripheral vision.

I’m always amused at the similarity of our upbringing.

Phil Simon – Simon Says Booking

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Good one, Bob.

I’ve had a similar experience but NJ to NYC.

Jack Morer

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I think the old adage “You can’t go back” is incorrect.

You CAN go back.

It’s just maybe you shouldn’t.

Mark Hudson

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Thanks for sharing — I can identify with a lot of what you wrote — very true.  East vs. West —

R. Lowenstein

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Did that trip back once… got to leave twice!

Keep giving,

Terry Gottschalk

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This resonated with me Bob. All the same we never really leave the town we were born in.

Mike Howard

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I grew up down 91 from you in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, first exit in Massachusetts north of Hartford. I’ll be 69 in a few weeks so we are of the same generation.

I am wondering if you remember the Shaperos of Fairfield? They were my cousins. Sanford Shapero was the rabbi in town until he took the pulpit of a major reform synagogue in Beverly Hills. My brothers and I were awestruck by the stories of our beautiful cousin Andy hanging with stars and especially musicians.  We would drive down to Fairfield once a month as my grandmother relocated there to be near her daughter, the rabbi’s wife. As the years passed their family fell apart, Sandy left the rabbinate and became executive director of the City of Hope in LA.

In any case your musings often closely parallel my own experiences, family, cultural etc. We probably saw some shows together…..Mountain and Johnny Winter at Quininpiac College in High School? My first Dead show was July 1971 at Yale Bowl. The entire crowd was given spiked cool aide.

Bands like NRBQ, Clean Living, Fat…..those were the days.

I was the staff cartoonist for the Valley Advocate. Anyway, nice to trip down memory lane with you….even in 3/4 scale.

Best regards

Jonathan.

Jonathan Plotkin

Chief Imagination Officer

The Spontoonist

www.spontoonist.com

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A similar story…

Last September, I returned to Massachusetts’ North Shore, where I grew up in the ‘60s. My favorite drive from Logan, up Rte 1A, through my hometown of Salem and on to Rte. 127 up through Rockport, where I used to titillate the coeds from Endicott Junior College, from my high school senior year until I left for the Navy after a fruitless freshman year at Colorado State. That was my turf. High school dances featuring Teddy & the Pandas – a killer cover band that had 2 top ten hits on WMEX radio in Boston in ’66 & opened for The Dave Clark Five at Boston Garden. We had Devereaux Beach in Marblehead & Singing Beach in Manchester. Woodman’s ‘eat in the rough’ in Essex for lobster rolls and fried clams, Treadwell’s Ice Cream for the best hot fudge sundaes.

In the summer of ’65, I ventured into Harvard Square to the well-known Club 47 to see and hear The Paul Butterfield Blues Band with Mike Bloomfield for the first time. This was before FM radio made its way into our consciousness. The folkies brought them to my attention from the Newport Folk Festival, the Bob Dylan connection and who could be more ‘in the know’. Bloomfield’s Les Paul & Butter’s blues harp blew me away – the seminal event in my passion for period rock. From  August ’68 to February ’69, I saw Hendrix first, then Cream in October, followed by Led Zeppelin’s 1st tour in February and a week later, The Jeff Back Group with Rod Stewart. I’m still gobsmacked that I saw Jimi, EC, Page & Beck in a span of 6 months while stationed outside Chicago in the Navy.

After college, I moved to San Francisco, launching a career in radio, tv and recording tech. Not long after, I moved to New York City to join ABC TV Network. Then back to the Bay Area, down to Calabasas and up to Portland, OR to follow the tech migration. The next 11 years I spent in Beijing, notching my 4th Olympics as a tech in ’08. Along the way, I saw The Stones’ and Clapton’s 1st shows in China – both in Shanghai – not to mention both acts separately in Japan multiple times.

I’ve lived in Las Vegas for the past 13 years, enjoying a more quiet life phase. But that recent trip to Boston’s North Shore struck a chord. All the old haunts have evolved – not for the better. People are less polite than I recall. Pretension abounds without foundation. Theirs is a smaller world, despite the hoopla of the New England tech corridor. They ain’t seen nothin’ until they witness a sunset at Malibu, or an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista in San Francisco. How homogenized our beautiful land has become.

These days, I yearn to return to Europe – one of my past sales territories. But these days, on my dime – my chosen destinations for whatever interval I determine. Burgundy and Tuscany in the past 14 months. Bordeaux, Spain and Portugal on tap, with a taste of Nova Scotia tossed in.

Through it all, there’s that soundtrack playing, from ‘East-West’, ‘Kind of Blue’, Derek & the Dominos, Little Feat to Chet Baker, Keith Jarrett and, most recently, Buddhattitude.

Thanks for the trip down New England’s memory lane…

Kevin Dauphinee

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At some point I wanted to move away.  But the thought of living on top or in between other people where I didn’t have a yard in a city was not negotiable.

I also played softball, hockey  still make original music, write for the regional newspaper and had a family.

Maybe Mellencamp was right
“I was born in a small town , and  I live in  a small town, probably die in the small town, oh those small communities”

John Emms

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Enjoyed reading that Bob. We were very lucky to have the era’s that we did. Not putting down the future and present, but it’s mind-blowing the talent that has flown through the years. I think in the future they will refer to the 60 years from 1950 to 2010 as a golden delicious apple for music, artists, actors and the arts. Steve Jobs included. I for one, born in ’59, would not have wanted to have missed it.

Simon & Garfunkel “America” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo2ZsAOlvEM

Eddie Gordon

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Good one!

I felt your disappointment.

Fact is NOTHING is the same. How could it be?

We grew up at the best of times. Best Music, sex didn’t kill you, drugs were weed and acid and beer and Boones Farm . haha NO one died and there was almost zero violence. You might get youir ass kicked at the flag pole after cschool. You HAD to show up no matter what

Have a good one my friend

Luke

(Steve Lukather)

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From a reader: 

Someone told me: If Columbus had landed on the West Coast of the United States, New England would still be uninhabited.