Steve Stevens

As I drove into work this morning I heard Billy Idol's "Eyes Without A Face" and I thought of Steve Stevens.

I had the unique opportunity to work for Billy Idol's manager during the time he recorded Rebel Yell. During that time I was privy to the creative process enjoying the creation of most of the album's songs as they came to life. As a matter of course I had regular conversations with his guitarist Steve Stevens.

At the time, Steve was gaining a reputation as one of the finest guitarist working in rock music. I can attest to the fact that he took his craft extremely seriously. he was living at his parents house at the time and whenever I would call him to dish out the latest information I would invariably catch him in the middle of practising or fiddling with his effects rack to make sure that he could create sounds that no one else could copy (see machine gun sound in the solo on "Rebel Yell").

I spent allot of time in the studio while the album was being recorded. One of the most memorable days came during the recording of Steve's solo for "Crank Call." Steve was alone in the studio with his guitar and the rest of us were sitting in the control room. Producer Keith Forsey cued up the song to where the solo was to begin and, when Steve said he was ready, pushed record. Steve Stevens then laid down, in one take, what is, to this day, the greatest guitar solo I have ever heard in person! I wish I could describe what was going through my mind at the time. In one burst he through out an improvised assault that was stunning, melodic, virtuosic, fast and precise. As a guitarist all I could think was that this was something I would never even have imagined aspiring to.

When Steve was finished, Keith pressed stop and the room fell silent. I couldn't wait to hear what everyone had to say. At that moment Billy got up from his seat and leaned into the control room microphone and pressed the talk back button.

"Hey Steve," he said. "That was great. Now, could you play the same thing but with allot fewer notes?"

I was stunned. Could what I had just heard be true. He wanted that solo trashed? After a few minutes to pull himself together, Steve gave Billy exactly what he wanted and then said he wanted to go out for some fresh air. He asked me to join him for some pizza. When we got out onto 8th Street the sun hit us like a flood light. We headed over to Ray's for a couple of extra cheesy slices. Neither of us could believe that his original take wasn't going to be the solo heard on the album. At least, I assured him, he could play the solo live whenever he wanted to. He was too low though. he said that the solo had been divine inspiration and he didn't know if he could remember what he had played. Indeed, in the ensuing months, when the Rebel yell tour began to roll out across America, Steve played the solo for "Crank Call" note for note with what had been committed to the final version of the album.

Eric Clapton

I've been reading Eric Clapton's newly released autobiography. When everyone talks about bands from the sixties they take sides - Beatles or Stone. I take neither. My favourite was always the Yardbirds. What's really cool about the book for me is reading the relatively humble beginnings of the band and the English music scene on a whole.

When we started bands (in the mid-seventies) we had to plug all of the guitars and the vocal mic into one amp. Clapton and his cronies started out the same way. he learned to play guitar by painstakingly listening to his favourite records and copying them note for note, practising until he got it a close to perfect as possible. That's the way we learned to play guitar too. I would play along to KISS, Aerosmith and Ted Nugent until I could hit every note and then would practise throughout the night with headphones on so that my parents wouldn't know that I was still awake.

The Yardbirds gave birth to Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Why did they make it and not us? TALENT!

Radiohead

(It's been forever since I updated this post and I've probably lost most if not both of its regular readers. With this I hope to return to writing a regular post and regain my loyal readership)

Out of the blue, it was announced this week that Radiohead will be letting fans choose the price they want to pay for their new album. If you want the album for free, it's free. If you think it's worth 20 bucks then pay 20 bucks. The industry has been talking about this like it's the start of a revolution.

Former Warner recording artist Jane Siberry has been using this model for years. Her music has been sold exclusively on her website for years. She has a suggested price for people to pay but welcomes whatever they are willing to pony up. Peculiarly, she says that most people are willing to pay more than the suggest price.

A revolution has begun. Just a lot sooner than you think.

More Born Ready

So I joined the band and withing a couple of weeks we were in the studio cutting a six-song demo. It was my first time in a recording studio and the experience was more than just a bit intimidating. All of my limitations as a musician were captured on tape. Luckily, what I heard as ham-fisted guitar playing, the rest of the band heard as solid rhythm guitar.

When the school year ended we all pitched in a rented a loft in Hell's Kitchen. The space wasn't much more than a big rehearsal room with space divided up for individual sleeping quarters, a common area and a kitchen. I am convinced that if we had never moved into that loft, Born Ready would have been huge!

The plan for Born Ready was simple - record an album, have a hit single, dominate the world. Here's what really happened:

Born Ready played exactly three gigs. Our first "show" was in the rehearsal space where I had auditioned for the band. Our manager worked for Atlantic Records and the label was having a party in the rehearsal space. We turned out to be the entertainment. Actually I think the party revellers were much more entertaining than we were. The second show took place in a field. I can't remember why we were there but we had been asked to come out to play a huge field party in upstate New York. there were a thousand people on hand and we were the only band. We played all of our songs while the crowd restlessly called for The Doors and The Stones. We had never practised other material as a band but we culled together enough songs that we all knew to make it work. Thank god that our lead singer Nat had the charisma to distract anyone from our obvious flubs. Our final gig was at a New York club called Trampps. The NY scene at the time was New Wave pop and we were a straight ahead rock band. I know that our friends liked us that night...I can't say the same for the rest of the audience.

In between these gigs Born Ready continued to practise in our loft. But put five guys with five personalities in one living space and you get a reality show. That's exactly what happened. We argued about rent, food, rehearsal times, the band name and girlfriends. the last two owed more to Nat than anything else. He had started dating our manager, Ginnie, and their relationship got in the way of the band's name change. You see, we found out that there was already a band called Born ready and we were going to have to change our name. When Nat and Ginnie came in one day with the suggestion of Natty and The Squirrels, all hell broke loose.

A verbal match turned into a shoving match between Nat and the bass player, Steve - both of whom had had more than their share of the beer that had been stocked in the fridge. Steve was a smoker who would never respect anyone else's request to keep his habit out of the loft. During one particularly animated moment in the argument, Steve flicked a lit cigarette at Nat. The butt slid down behind the pillows of a couch, quickly melted a hole and started smouldering. A fire quickly erupted and Joe, our lead guitarist jumped for a pot in the kitchen which he filled with water and threw on the couch. The fire was doused but the loft was now filled with smoke. I quietly went to my room and packed up my belongings. Within an hour I had crashed on a friends floor. Born ready never played a note again.

Born Ready

I took my guitar with me to New York.

I moved there in September of '79 to go to NYU. I lived in the dorm in Greenwich Village. We were surrounded by art. I played my guitar on the front steps of the dorm. When I was brave enough, I took my electric out to Washington Square Park and plugged it into a Mouse amp and played Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Kiss and Adam & The Ant songs.

One afternoon in the Spring of '80 I was walking through the lobby of the dorm when I was approached by a guy who asked if I had been playing in the park the previous day.

"Yes," I answered with caution.

"We've got a band that's looking for a rhythm guitarist," he said and then invited me to an audition the next day. Intrigued by the suggestion, I accepted and took down the address to their rehearsal space.

When I showed up they were auditioning some guy that looked like a Deadhead. He played a hollow body electric and didn't fit in with the other guys at all. The song they played was sort of lame. Kind of a half-assed attempt to meld pop and rock. My enthusiasm began to wane.

When they bid the first guitarist a fond adieu, they asked me to hold on while they warm up. It seems the other guy showed up a little early and they hadn't had a chance to stretch out first. I sat back and watched while the REAL band showed themselves. I was stunned. The song they started playing was remarkable. It had a great riff and a memorably chorus. By the time they hit the bridge, I had my guitar out and began mimicking the chord changes. On top of that, Nat, the singer had tons of charisma and Jagger lips to boot.

They played one more smoking rocker and then called me up to plug in. Joe, the lead guitarist was about to teach me the chord changes for the song the original auditioner had played. I stopped him and said that i didn't like that song very much but would love to play the first song they had played on their own. The guys all looked at each other and shrugged and said "Okay." before Joe could show me the changes I shooed him off saying that I had it down already.

The band started playing the tune and I joined in immediately. I watched the bass player to make sure that I had the chord changes right. I got through the song the first time kind of tentatively and we all agreed to play it again. The second time through we flew. It was great. We were all so excited. At the end we looked at each other and laughed. Nat took off his hoody and had an Ace Frehley t-shirt on underneath. I knew I was in the right place.

We jammed for several more hours Joe teaching me some of their songs and then playing Kiss, Aerosmith and Rolling Stone songs. We were a band. They told me that the band was called Born Ready and they already had a record deal waiting in the wings. They were being courted by Carriere Records, a French subsidiary of Atlantic Records. Now that the line-up was complete, the band needed to head into the studio to record an honest to goodness demo.

More on Born Ready to come....

The Rolling Stone Interview

Rolling Stone magazine is 40 years old and is celebrating this week with interviews with a number of luminaries. I would like to take the liberty here to publish my own interview here.

RS: What do you remember about 1967?

ME: My clearest memory is of Expo '67 in Montreal. We didn't go but it was Canada's Centennial Year and I remember the commemorative money. I still have a couple of 1967 dollar bills and dimes.

RS: Did the music of the 60's have a effect on you?

ME: Oh sure. I can still picture my older brother and sister dancing around the living room the first time The Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan Show. A few years later, I became a big fan of The Monkees. I didn't listen to a lot of rock and roll back then but I was aware of it and my brother brought Rolling Stone into the house.

RS: Are there any early covers that stick in your head?

ME: You know it's hard to separate reality from historical perspective. So many of the famous covers like Lennon in the army helmet, Joplin, Hendrix and that Meryl Streep shot have become so familiar but I can't remember if they were actually in the house. But I do remember the newsprint and folded format of the magazine. I was one of those people that thought the magazine was named after the band.

RS: When did Rolling Stone start to matter to you?

ME: In got into rock and roll in the mid-seventies and started reading all of the popular magazines of the time including Hit Parader, Creem, Circus and Rock Scene. I always felt that Rolling Stone had the most insightful articles and I poured over every word in every article about music. I learned so much more about the history of music that way.

By the late seventies I had started reading more of the political commentary and formed my opinions from the views of Hunter S Thompson and P.J. O'Rourke. It doesn't mean I always agreed with them but they did get me thinking.

My Best KISS Story

When I worked for Aucoin Management, one of my regular responsibilities was to file or pick up financials in the company's warehouse in a non-descript building on the West side of Manhattan. The warehouse was also used for storage for the equipment of all of Aucoin's bands. Among the boxes of documents and cases of guitars were back lit logos that hung above the drummer of any one of a number of bands that Bill Aucoin had managed over the years (including my very fave - Starz). The way it worked was I'd show up, sign in and get handed a box of keys that opened the various locks to each of Aucoin's rented rooms. When I was done, I handed back the box and signed out.

Although Aucoin no longer worked with KISS, the band still used the very same warehouse to store there instruments and costumes from over the years. As it happens, the keys to the KISS room were still in the Aucoin box. I avoided going in there for months but one day, curiosity got the better of me. I pulled the one key I had never touched before out of the box. I slipped it into the lock and turned it over. The locked snapped open and I opened the door.

This was a dream come true. Do you remember the seventies? back then we all had giant posters on our walls of our favourite bands. Spread out in front of me were all of the bits of stage gear and guitars that were featured in the KISS posters adorning my walls. There were boots and capes and boas and guitars and a mirror. A mirror! In a warehouse! This was a sign.

I first moved to my left to slip on those famous Demon boots from the cover of Destroyer. I zipped them up and found myself floating a good six inches off the floor. Next, I grabbed Ace's cape used on the Dynasty tour and flung that over my back. Do you remember those pictures inside of KISS Alive of Paul Stanley with feather armbands? Well I slipped one on each arm and then reached for a shattered mirrored Gibson marauder guitar which I slung over my neck. I lurched over to the mirror and caught my first glimpse. No matter how hard you might be laughing right now, I was laughing twice as hard. I don't know if it looked ridiculous or if I was just giddy but I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I began to play "Rock N Roll All Nite" and then moved into "Black Diamond" and "Strutter."

I wore the get up for 15 minutes and then thought I should get it off before security walked in and kicked me out of the building for good. After I locked the door, I got the paper work I had originally come there for. I kept the story a secret for about 5 years which seemed like a lifetime. Now everyone know.

This is a true story.