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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #101 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Sun 9 Sep 07 13:41
permalink #101 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Sun 9 Sep 07 13:41
In the Goodman bio, I delve into the Steve Martin tours for 15 pages, and you're right, David, the opportunity for Goodman to open 200-plus times for Martin was immense. Other than an English rock festival in 1972 and countless millions seeing his several stellar TV appearances on PBS, Goodman played to his biggest audiences while opening for Martin -- 10,000 to 15,000 or more people at a time, rock-show crowds night after night. This was in 1978-80, when Martin was an inspired phenomenon the likes of which we may never see again. At the time, Goodman labeled Martin "the Beatles of comedy," but he was much more than that. His multiple talents and appeal to both the mainstream and the counterculture gave Martin entree to most any cultural field, and today he has great cinematic and literary stature that transcends his trenchant wit. Goodman came into Martin's professional life because Martin literally was hell to open for. The openers, ranging from John Sebastian to John McEuen to Bryan Bowers to Megan McDonough, routinely were booed by the fanatic balloons-on-the-head, arrows-through-the ears crowds. McEuen was the one who clued in Martin's people that only one performer could solve this dilemma: Steve Goodman. They tried out Goodman in spring 1978, and instead of boos, Goodman drew encores. Instantly, Goodman became the perfect complement for Martin. Probably the most revealing story about Goodman's participation on the Martin tours relates to a unique shtick that Goodman developed while with Martin to cope with the fact that his vigorous guitar-playing (especially on what he called "shtick-kicking" songs like Leroy Van Dyke's "The Auctioneer") often resulted in broken strings. For any guitarist, a broken string is a nightmare, a sure-fire momentum killer. But for Goodman, it was a launching pad for a never-the-same-way-twice routine that apparently no one before him ever executed and no one has since. When Goodman broke a string, he didn't merely pick up a backup guitar or halt his set to change the string. Instead, he vocally kept the song going in the same key and tempo but improvised a series of 10 to 15 rhyming couplets that addressed the fix he was in, while simultaneously restringing and retuning the guitar. When the new string was in place and in tune, he resumed the interrupted song and finished it to wild applause. It was a maneuver designed for the appellation of "vituoso." Jazz violinist Randy Sabien, who saw Steve pull it off several times, told me: "Thats two diverse, opposite things, to entertain an audience and do a technical procedure. Thats like a dentist filling a cavity and tuning a car at the same time. Or changing your pants while doing heart surgery." Goodman's development of the string-changing shtick is just one of many stories in the book related to the Martin tours. Suffice to say that Goodman had a deep effect on Martin, who graciously agreed to an interview early in my research in large part because of his affection for Goodman. "The greatest thing about Steve (Goodman) was his nature," Martin told me via cell phone while driving in Los Angeles. "He was a happy, up guy. He did not assault the audience. They werent exhausted by the time I got onstage. It was a perfect match. He was a single act, I was a single act, both playing acoustic instruments. I like economy, and I dont mean financial. He was one guy with a guitar. It was easy. It was simple. And it was somehow in the spirit of my show, too, which was just clean." I'm further grateful to Martin because he didn't hesitate to write a blurb for the back cover of my book, saying in part, "In 30 seconds, he (Goodman) would have them. It was amazing to see, and this biography captures every incredible detail." Recently, Martin told me that the book sits on his nightstand and he is regularly reading chunks of it. That's quite the compliment. I'm one of many who are eagerly awaiting Martin's own book-length memoir, due out next year, "Born Standing Up."
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #102 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Sun 9 Sep 07 14:20
permalink #102 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Sun 9 Sep 07 14:20
I saw the combination at least once, and I saw Steve do his string-changing schtick many times. He handled it brilliantly.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #103 of 249: Scott MacFarlane (s-macfarlane) Sun 9 Sep 07 19:01
permalink #103 of 249: Scott MacFarlane (s-macfarlane) Sun 9 Sep 07 19:01
Great anecdote about Martin using Goodman to open, and hearing the business side of your publishing arrangement is likewise fascinating.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #104 of 249: John Ross (johnross) Sun 9 Sep 07 21:13
permalink #104 of 249: John Ross (johnross) Sun 9 Sep 07 21:13
The only other person I've heard of who did something like that while changing strings was Josh White. Not exactly the same improv, but he would sing while mounting a new string. Which leads to a question: Did Josh White have any influence on Goodman?
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #105 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Sun 9 Sep 07 23:20
permalink #105 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Sun 9 Sep 07 23:20
Both Josh White Sr. and Josh White Jr. appear int he index several times. Clay?
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #106 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Mon 10 Sep 07 07:53
permalink #106 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Mon 10 Sep 07 07:53
As a high-schooler in suburban Chicago, Goodman heard Josh White tracks played on WFMT-FM's Saturday night "Midnight Special" program, and Goodman played the Fickle Pickle in the Rush Street nightclub district, rubbing shoulders with White and other headliners. Later, Goodman dropped out of the U of Illinois and flew to NYC to take what might be called grassroots lessons in the same Greenwich Village scene that had spawned White and other influential folk performers. It's possible that White's string-changing procedure planted a seed in Steve's mind. Goodman and his youthful musical friends in Chicago certainly cited White as an influence, and as an adult Goodman not infrequently inserted in his sets White's 1944 "One Meat Ball."
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #107 of 249: uber-muso hipster hyperbole (pjm) Mon 10 Sep 07 14:13
permalink #107 of 249: uber-muso hipster hyperbole (pjm) Mon 10 Sep 07 14:13
Ordered the book last night.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #108 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Mon 10 Sep 07 18:22
permalink #108 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Mon 10 Sep 07 18:22
I've posted (with permission) two MP3s of Steve's music: Video Tape (from The Easter Tapes) Door Number Three (from Jessie's Jig and Other Favorites) http://www.dgans.com/goodman/ More to come.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #109 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Mon 10 Sep 07 21:15
permalink #109 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Mon 10 Sep 07 21:15
Guess this is my invitation to comment on these two songs. The latter, "Door Number Three," is a co-write between Goodman and Jimmy Buffett and affectionately pokes at a TV game show that was all but unavoidable in the 1960s and 1970s, "Let's Make a Deal." The fascinating thing to me about this song is that the co-writers decided to part ways in the final verse. Buffett chose to employ an obvious rhyme of "rich" and "son of a bitch" on his own recording, while Goodman more ingeniously lifted a section of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" that fit the tune hand-in-glove. A note of personal relevance: When I would finish interviews for the Goodman bio and sources would keep referring me to others to interview, I felt that I had to chase down these endless leads. Otherwise, it would be like ignoring the possibility of gold behind "door number three." The first song, "Video Tape," happens to be my favorite Goodman tune, and that is no doubt the reason that David chose to post it. Nice, too, that he posted a live-on-the-radio, one-guy-with-a-guitar version (from Vin Scelsa's WNEW show), again proving that the best Goodman was live Goodman. This is one of Goodman's lesser-known songs, and if you haven't heard it, please read this section before you download it so that you might enjoy it more: What makes this tune so perfect, to me, is that it covers all of the Goodman bases (mortality, humor, social commentary, romance) in three exquisitely crafted verses. The first verse focuses on the past, musing on the benefits of our life being on video tape. The second verse focuses on the future, musing on the benefits of extra-sensory perception, which would allow us to dodge the grim reaper, among other troubles. I'll let you figure out the focus of the third verse, but notice that it is here where Steve turns it into a love song. (At the end, he repeats the first verse, as if the whole song were on video tape.) It's a composition that any writer can appreciate, and it was one of Goodman's favorites. Goodman wrote or co-wrote more than 100 songs, and I admit that it's hard to pick just one favorite. The ones I like best probably number in the dozens. It would be great to those of you in The WELL audience could write in about what your own favorite Goodman songs are -- and why. If you do so, I'll be happy to chime in with some associated thoughts and factoids.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #110 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Mon 10 Sep 07 21:24
permalink #110 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Mon 10 Sep 07 21:24
Typo above: "It would be great to those of you ..." should be "It would be great if those of you ..." Or maybe that's a word-po.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #111 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 08:16
permalink #111 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 08:16
Did Steve have to get Dylan's permission to transplant a quatrain from "ike a Rolling Stone"? The "vacuum of his eyes" bit is so perfect here.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #112 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 08:19
permalink #112 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 08:19
I posted an announcement of this interview on a couple of mailing lists. I mentioned "My Old Man" as one of the song titles, and that led someone to ask if that was the same "My Old Man" that Joni Mitchell sang. This repy from Jeffrey Dreves answers that question and then goes on. REposted here with the author's permission: >>That's not the same "My Old Man" that Joni Mitchell did, is it? No, it's not. The Goodman song is heartbreakingly beautiful. The first time I heard it..really heard it...it made me cry. Very few songs I can say that about. I lived in Chicago for years, but didn't really get into Goodman until I left. Now I go through periods where he is all I want to listen to. I met a few people back in Chicago who knew and worked with Steve. Have found myself wishing in recent years that I could go back and talk with those folks again. Another thing that comes to mind....the city was renaming the stretch of Lincoln Avenue where I lived - and where the Old Town School of Folk Music now resides....Steve Goodman Way when I was packing up to leave town. Maybe it was a harbinger of sorts. Anyway, if you haven't listened to any of his music, do yourself a favour and check it out. Looking forward to reading the interview...thanks David. Chicken Cordon Blues has been in my solo a cappella repertoire for quite some time now. (That repertoire is performed only while driving, with no passengers, except occasionally my 3 year old son - so you're safe!)
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #113 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 08:20
permalink #113 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 08:20
(I am planning to sing "Chicken Cordon Bleus" on a radio show, West Coast Live, this coming Saturday 9/15, broadcasting from the farmers' market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. http://www.wcl.org for info on when it's aired and on what stations. If possible, the performance will include a plug for the book and maybe even the inkwell interview.)
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #114 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 09:37
permalink #114 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 09:37
Regarding the Dylan lyrics in "Door Number Three," I couldn't corroborate it beyond a reasonable doubt, but Steve hinted he had gotten permission for the lift when he told John Platt of Chicago's WXRT-FM, "Thanks to Bob Dylan for that last verse. It was nice of him to mail it in." Goodman and Dylan had had several significant and collegial encounters by the time the track was recorded in January 1975, so I can't believe that Steve would have proceeded without a nod from Bob. Jeffrey's comment about "My Old Man" is reflected by countless others who have heard the song. Its specifics touch a universal chord, and the fact that Steve himself gets choked up near the end of the track gives permission for even the most macho of males to shed a few tears. That's the real gift of the song, for there is no such thing as bad tears -- a worthwhile lesson for all of us who are involuntary students in society's Man 101. Chicago did give the honorary name of "Steve Goodman Way" to a two-block stretch of Lincoln Avenue next to the "new" Old Town School in November 1997. This was in conjunction with the staging of a big-name Goodman tribute show at the city's Medinah Temple, and the brown honorary signs still hang on the street today. You can see a photo of one of them at the bottom of page 16 of the book's color section. Interestingly, when it was released in early 1973, Goodman's "Chicken Cordon Bleus" predated Larry Groce's similarly themed "Junk Food Junkie" by more than three years. "Junk Food Junkie" fared far better commercially, reaching #9 on the Billboard Top 100.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #115 of 249: Gail Williams (gail) Tue 11 Sep 07 10:06
permalink #115 of 249: Gail Williams (gail) Tue 11 Sep 07 10:06
Wow, I'd never heard: http://www.dgans.com/goodman/doornumberthree.mp3 It's funny and sweet. (Reminds me also of Janis Joplin singing "dialin' for dollars is trying to call me" in her Mercedes Benz song, since I grew up where Dialing for Dollars was the afternoon local movie trivia game show.) So glad to hear both of them all the way through! Thanks David, and thanks to the rights-holders for allowing more than a tiny snippet. I notice that both of those songs are sweet, and packed with anachronisms. This is the problem of being contemporary in your lyrics I guess. Are Steve Goodman songs being covered by the generation of musicians who don't remember Carol Merrill, the Let's Make A Deal game show format, or (soon) the old time tape format for video?
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #116 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 11:06
permalink #116 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 11:06
Gail, that's a good question, one that I tried to answer at length in the final chapter of the book and to document in the book's discography. In a word, the answer is yes. Not sure how to document this quickly and to everyone's satisfaction, but let's just arbitrarily pick covers of Goodman songs starting in the year 2000. I count 18 covers of "City of New Orleans" and 31 covers of other Goodman songs in that period. Granted, a scan of this list shows that perhaps half of the artists cannot be considered members of the next generation. Also, 13 of the covers that are indeed by artists from the next generation appear on a single CD organized by Steve's youngest daughter, Rosanna, so perhaps they should be excluded from an assessment of the grass roots. But beyond the stats there is plenty of anecdotal evidence -- from live concerts and festival sets, if not recordings -- to bolster the notion that Steve's songs are being given new life by the younger generations. The whole topic of anachronism in song is fascinating. I think you make a salient point, that the anachronisms present in "Door Number Three" and "Video Tape" make those songs less likely to be covered. Bearing this out is the fact that the covers from 2000 onward do not include either of these songs, whereas timeless songs like "Lookin' for Trouble" and "A Lover Is Forever" have drawn multiple covers in recent years. But we all probably would agree that it would be nice if the subjects of other Goodman songs -- such as war, in "Ballad of Penny Evans"; nuclear power, in "Watchin' Joey Glow"; and impersonal communication, in "Telephone Answering Tape" -- were to become anachronistic. Sadly but appropriately for our times, "Penny Evans" is today among the most oft-covered and -performed of Goodman's songs. I saw this first-hand in the songs that musicians chose to perform during my reading/music events in recent months. On a happier note, for the sake of "Video Tape," the word "video" has cemented itself in our language as a reference for any kind of moving image seen on a screen. So even though video tape has been supplanted by all manner of digital media, the points made in the song are still easily understood! (A footnote to name the co-writers of several songs mentioned above: "A Lover Is Forever," Fred Knobloch; "Watchin' Joey Glow," Sean Kelly; and "Telephone Answering Tape," David Grisman.)
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #117 of 249: Sharon Lynne Fisher (slf) Tue 11 Sep 07 11:21
permalink #117 of 249: Sharon Lynne Fisher (slf) Tue 11 Sep 07 11:21
I still hear "Operator," which makes reference to a phone call costing a dime.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #118 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 11:47
permalink #118 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 11:47
Sharon, you bring up another good point about anachronism. What may seem old and irrelevant to some may, to others, constitute vivid history brought to life. That's certainly true for "City of New Orleans." Thankfully, an Amtrak train with the same name still operates on the same tracks and route. I wonder if it still carries as many as 15 sacks of mail.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #119 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 12:31
permalink #119 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 12:31
David Grisman co-wrote "Telephone Answering Tape"? How that come about?
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #120 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 13:19
permalink #120 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 13:19
Minor contribution, according to Grisman, who really can't recall it. Goodman, in the liner notes for his "Santa Ana Winds" LP, issued the week of his death, wrote that Grisman had given him a "bluegrass tip" for the song. "I remember him coming over to my house," Grisman told me in 2000. "He actually told me he wanted us to write a song together, and he came over, and we spent a day. As I recall, we didnt come up with anything because I kept saying, 'Ive got all these melodies. Just write words to one.' And he really wanted to collaborate on everything. It just kind of never happened." When I showed Grisman the co-writing credit for "Telephone Answering Tape," he said, "So we did write a song together. Thats amazing." In the late 1970s, when Jethro Burns opened for shows by Grisman's quintet, Grisman had a tape of a show in which Burns said he had just acquired a telephone answering machine and put on the outgoing message, "You have reached the home of the worlds greatest mandolin player. Now if youll leave your number, Ill get back to you." Grisman says he then used that recording of Burns' voice as the outgoing message on his own answering machine. Grisman told me that he wonders if that recording is somehow connected with Goodman's song. Of course, Goodman was known for being quite generous with song credits.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #121 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 13:26
permalink #121 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 13:26
Just added daughter Rosanna's cover of "My Old Man," from a tribute CD she put together titled "My Old Man: A Tribute to STeve Goodman." http://www.myoldmancd.com From the front page of that site: > My old man was Steve Goodman and my old man was an icon of folk music. > Because of this, I was raised around an array of singer/songwriters, acous- > tic guitars and mandolins. My father died when I was seven, but he left a > musical legacy that surrounded me as I grew. As a teenager, I rebelled > against this inherited legacy and pursued other genres, including pop, hip- > hop and metal. I even formed a rock band and wrote my own rock songs. > Years later, through my dear Canadian friends, Chris Brown and Kate Fenner, > I realized I had been missing out on the impact of a well-written song. A > well-written song can hit close to home - really close to home. I began dig- > ging through the boxes in our basement, reading clippings and listening to > Dad's music. I realized my dad was more than an incredible songwriter; he > was an American hero. > With the help of friends and talented peers, I embraced Dad's music and > legacy. I wanted to introduce it to my generation. Chris and I gathered > together the best young talent we knew. Artists like Ana Egge, Luther > Wright & The Wrongs, Crescent & Frost, Tony Scherr, Chris Brown and Kate > Fenner. These musicians have a kinship, share songs, play together and > look out for one another. > They invited me into their world so we could all share the life that > remains in songs my dad wrote decades ago. Some picked the songs they > wanted to sing. For others, I handpicked songs as my dad did years ago > with his friends and fellow musicians, John Prine, Johnny Cash, Bonnie > Raitt and Jimmy Buffet. > "My Old Man" was one of the most personally challenging songs my father > wrote and it's even harder to sing. I never met my Grandpa Bud, my old > man's old man, whose life and death the song is about, but the song became > the perfect muse for this tribute. I believe I have accomplished my mis- > sion: to express that a great song and a great spirit will always stand the > test of time. My old man would have wanted it this way. The music is posted at http://www.dgans.com/goodman
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #122 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 14:16
permalink #122 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 14:16
Rosanna's is a reverent version of the song, and it puts to the test (perhaps puts to rest) whether the song is too personal for someone other than Steve to sing it. In this case and with the words intact, as Rosanna states, it becomes a tribute to both her father and her grandfather, particularly given that there was a lot of Bud in Steve. Other musicians who have done justice to "My Old Man" include Tom Paxton, who performed it at the Jan. 15-16, 1999, World Folk Music Association tribute to Goodman at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, and Saul Broudy, Goodman's frequent harmonica accompanist, who performed at the same tribute. Paxton and Broudy also performed this summer at my Aug. 15 reading/music event at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. There, Paxton reprised his version of "My Old Man." To see photos of the Politics and Prose event, visit my Internet site at clayeals.com, go to the "About the Author" tab, click the schedule page and scroll down to the last photo collage. In addition to seeing three images of the event taken by Bruce Guthrie, you can find in the caption below a link to a page on Guthrie's photo site where there are 116 fine photos of the event. Paxton and Broudy -- who performed "My Old Man" at my Aug. 14 reading/music event at Robin's Bookstore in Philadelphia -- were among 22 musicians who graciously performed gratis at my eight northeastern U.S. events last month on behalf of the book. I would remiss not to mention John Prine's performances of "My Old Man" at Goodman tributes held in Chicago Jan. 26, 1985, and Nov. 13, 1997. At the latter show, Prine told the audience he often had absorbed the tune's title as "My Old Pal." Prine apparently was the first one for whom Goodman played it -- via pay phone from Louisiana -- after Goodman wrote it in May 1977. "Geez, that song," Prine told me. "I loved it from the get-go."
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #123 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 15:26
permalink #123 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 15:26
> Goodman tributes held in Chicago Jan. 26, 1985 Is that the one that was released on a double album?
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #124 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 15:33
permalink #124 of 249: Clay Eals (clay-eals) Tue 11 Sep 07 15:33
Yes, and it's now on CD. All of Goodman's official releases are now on CD.
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Clay Eals' "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music"
permalink #125 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 16:54
permalink #125 of 249: David Gans (tnf) Tue 11 Sep 07 16:54
Ordering now...
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