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| Ten Thousand Motels |
This is a few days old. I don't think it was posted? First I saw it anyway.
NEW: Star maker tells inside tales of early Rolling Stones
Hector Saldana
San Antonio Express-News
AUSTIN � Andrew Loog Oldham, the brash, freewheeling press agent that discovered and produced the young Rolling Stones � "They took over my life," he recalled at SXSW 2004 on Saturday � remains one of the most captivating legends of the �60s rock �n' roll era.
His reputation as a pithy pop proselytizer made him the star attraction at one of the most anticipated interviews at the music conference.
The elusive Oldham lives in Bogot�, Colombia, today and is the author of the acclaimed books, "Stoned" and "2Stoned." Low profile, but not low wattage.
He created electricity simply by walking into the crowded conference room carrying his coffee, some notes and saying a few "good mornings" to no one in particular.
He's a bit more rumpled than his beloved Swinging London heyday � arriving in slightly rumpled suit pants and T-shirt. The trademark shock of orange hair is considerably thinner. But his youthful wiry frame has hardly changed.
In his career, Oldham moved from fashion ("Fashion was the first British pop," he insisted) to music publicity to management to production to heading his own record label.
He remains the inside man for stories about the beginnings of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He is one of the originators of the sex, drugs and rock �n' roll lifestyle, though today he is sober and straight.
There is magic and wisdom in his ability to distill pop history.
"America seized the Beatles the way people seized Davy Crockett hats and hoola hoops," Oldham said.
"The Rolling Stones were rather like the Sex Pistols in their time � but they could play, and they weren't strung out. And they had a (real) manager," he explained.
But he praised his former boss, the Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Oldham worked for him for four months in 1963.
"He was the greatest," Oldham said, acknowledging that it was "a rather off combination," an alliance between a high-society closeted homosexual and four leather-clad musicians.
"We probably wouldn't be in this room if Brian Epstein hadn't secured a recording contract for the Beatles," he said.
Oldham is remembered as one of pop's most brazen philosophers; his sale pitches to get the Stones noticed (he is solely responsible for creating their bad boy image) are among the most innovative and off the wall ever produced.
But he's a man of manners and refinement, to which he credits his mother.
Oldham's ego is another story.
"Self-esteem was never a problem for me," he said, admitting that he still likes his reflection in a shop window.
He laughed as he recalled bringing the Stones to America "as England's great hit makers � without a hit."
Early in Saturday's session, he praised SXSW keynote speaker Little Richard.
"He was inspirational, Oldham said.
It was a segue into the simpler days of the record business � and payola.
"I loved it, in the old-fashioned sense," he said.
Oldham explained that he coerced about 200 teenage girls devoted to the Stones who were responsible for record sale spikes at key store that reported to the record charts.
He wryly noted that he never paid them back for "buying the records onto the charts."
The music business is no place for the weak, he explained in the bluntest and coarsest of terms.
He described Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones as "a moaner."
"He was a pain in the ass � I didn't care for him," Oldham said, though acknowledging his talent.
Jones was the kind of artist that Oldham dreads, "living in sheer danger" because of his desperate need for adulation.
Before he met the Rolling Stones, Oldham confessed that his idea of R&B was "Leiber-Stollersongswithstrings."
"I had no reference point with the Stones," he said.
He signed them to Decca Records in 1963.
Oldham takes credit for encouraging Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to finally start writing songs. There was urgency to his request: "The R&B song barrel was being eaten up," Oldham knew the Stones "could be in trouble."
So, when he next ran into the Beatles, he asked for a song.
He recounted the day that John Lennon and Paul McCartney pitched "I Wanna Be Your Man" to the Stones. Oldham had told the Beatles songwriters that his band was desperate for original material.
The myth that the Beatles wrote "I Wanna Be Your Man" for the Stones is just that. Oldham said the group had already recorded it with Ringo Starr on lead vocal. But the Stones didn't know that.
"They actually pretended to finish writing it in front of the Stones," Oldham revealed.
The record, with Jones on slide guitar, became an early hit. Oldham recalled recording the Rolling Stones earliest records at Olympic Studios on a four-track deck. A typical session would have lasted three hours
Back then, when the recording engineer asked if he wanted him to mix it, Oldham admits he didn't know what that meant.
"I'll pick it up in the morning," he remembers telling the engineer.
Oldham said he never locked Jagger and Richard in a room (a story that also has become legend), but rather continued to sulk until the pair finally wrote some tunes. The early ones were "soppy ballads," Oldham recalled with a laugh.
When they presented Oldham with "The Last Time," built on a searing, repetitive guitar riff, the young producer sighed "finally, an up-tempo song for the Rolling Stones."
Oldham says that songs must be in everyday language, with a ear for the street and not written when ordering room service.
He added the days of record companies "managing casualties" is over. Artists need "nutritionists as opposed to a (drug) dealer."
Oldham said his relationship with the Stones ended (they parted in 1967) because drugs and fame change things.
He doesn't minimize the destructive role of drugs in his life.
"You won't need a physicians' reference book if you read mine," he said. But without missing a beat, he drew laughs by adding, "I like to keep in touch with my old dealers � I think it's only manners."
Such overhead kills, he said.
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
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| quackenbush |
When he next ran into the Beatles, he asked for a song.
He recounted the day that John Lennon and Paul McCartney pitched "I Wanna Be Your Man" to the Stones. Oldham had told the Beatles songwriters that his band was desperate for original material.
The myth that the Beatles wrote "I Wanna Be Your Man" for the Stones is just that. Oldham said the group had already recorded it with Ringo Starr on lead vocal. But the Stones didn't know that.
"They actually pretended to finish writing it in front of the Stones," Oldham revealed.
Funny story. It jives with the account Wyman gives in Stone Alone. The Beatles fooled them because the Stones were green, I guess. |
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| jb |
Is he married? |
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| Hannalee |
Yes.
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| jb |
To a woman? |
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| Joey |
" To a woman? "
You make Joey smile .
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CHAT
ROOM aka THE FUN HOUSE] [
RESTROOMS]
