Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Thanks for the kind words, Gail. Passion's what it's all about.
  

    
This was a fantastic Inkwell interview.  Thanks to everybody,
especially David and Clay.
  

    
The book is terrific, Clay. Sorry to be another later bloomer but I
wanted to read it before chiming in. 

You couldn't have picked a better subject for such an exhaustive
biography. I thought I knew a lot about the guy and enjoyed a couple of
conversations with him over the years but you floored me with the
great trove of information, thanks.

One of my favorite personal memories was seeing him at the now defunct
Great Southeast Music Hall (where the Sex Pistols ended up opening
their one US tour) and I asked for his a capella anti-war song, The
Ballad of Penny Evans, he sang it to a silent house who were too
stunned to applaud for a moment after he finished then he looked down
from the stage and thanked me for the request. Huge applause for his
performance followed. It was a moving experience.
  

    

A classic Steve Goodman story!  Thank you fr telling us.
  

    
Alan, thanks for the kind words on the book, and for reading it! Nice
story about "Penny Evans" at Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta.
Could the night you're speaking of be one of these:

-- Tuesday, Aug. 14, 1973. Opener: Lori Jacobs, of Detroit.
-- Monday-Tuesday, Oct. 20-21, 1975.
-- Tuesday, Nov. 1, 1977, two shows.

If it was the 1977 date, I have tape of his second show, which was
simulcast on WKLS-FM. Goodman says near the beginning that he thought
that the first show that was simulcast, so he was apologizing for
having to repeat some songs that Asylum expected him to get onto the
radio airwaves. His second-show voice also is a little hoarse,
reflecting that he had given it his all in the first show.
  

    
Wendy Waldman was the opener and there were two shows but the
simulcast business doesn't ring a bell. There was the potential for the
string break business but there weren't any spare strings on stage. He
asked a couple of times for someone to grab a set from the green room
but after no response from the sound booth he went for the strings
himself. I believe he asked us to keep singing the song or keeping time
while he was gone but couldn't swear to that.
  

    
Wendy was one of many who told me of the "nightmare" it was to open
for such a "warm and sweet but sidesplitting" act such as Goodman.
"It's like, 'Oh, I love him, but don't put me there! He's gonna
slaughter me, and he doesn't mean to, but I'm gonna get slaughtered.' I
was nowhere near his caliber, but I loved him, and we got along really
well."
  

    
Any Cub fans out there? Check out this announcement, just released:

=====

State of Illinois
OFFICE OF LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR PAT QUINN

To:             All Media
From:   Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (o. 312-814-5220; cell 312-485-1852;
Elizabeth Austin (o. 312-814-8760; c. 708-912-2247) 

What:   Lt. Gov. Quinn declares Steve Goodman Day in Illinois as
die-hard Chicago Cubs fans prepare for the first playoff home game in
Wrigley Field

Great visuals! Goodman’s "Go Cubs Go" plays on giant video screen!!

When:           1:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 
Where:  Blue Room, 15th floor James R. Thompson Center, Chicago

Lt. Gov. Quinn declares "Steve Goodman Day" to honor legacy
of great Chicago musician, composer and lifelong Cubs fan

(CHICAGO) – As Chicago Cubs fans joyously (if anxiously) awaited the
first Wrigley Field home game of the 2007 National League Championship
series, Lt. Gov. Quinn Friday paid homage to a legendary musician — and
legendary Cubs fan — by declaring Steve Goodman Day in Illinois.

Quinn will be joined by Goodman’s mother, Minnette Goodman, Goodman’s
close friend, longtime WGN radio and television host, Roy Leonard, and
Goodman’s biographer, Clay Eals, author of Steve Goodman: Facing the
Music," at a ceremony in the 15th floor Blue Room of the James R.
Thompson Center in Chicago.

"Today, nearly a quarter century after Steve Goodman’s untimely death,
his anthem 'Go Cubs Go' is played at Wrigley Field whenever the Cubs
win at home," Quinn said. "Tomorrow night, Cubs fans throughout our
nation will be waiting to hear his voice resonating once more
throughout the Friendly Confines, and they will pay homage to Steve
Goodman’s talent and his undying faith in his home team by singing
along."

Goodman, born and raised in Chicago, was a singer-songwriter whose
warm voice, engaging stage presence and masterful guitar playing made
him an icon of the Chicago folk music scene of the 1970s. Best known
for his enduring ballad, "City of New Orleans," Goodman wrote
intelligent, insightful and often wickedly funny lyrics that spoke to
the heart of Chicago.

Whether he was eulogizing the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, skewering
illegal car-towing services or — in two of his most popular tunes —
expressing the bittersweet emotions of the often heartbroken but ever
hopeful lifelong Cubs fan, Steve Goodman and his music were, most
profoundly, Chicago’s very own.

The Chicago Cubs commissioned Goodman to write "Go Cubs Go" in early
1984, as the opening theme for WGN’s game broadcasts. At that time,
Goodman — who had been battling leukemia for some 15 years — was better
known for his wry song, "A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request." But with
the bouncy, upbeat "Go Cubs Go," Goodman expressed the undying optimism
of Chicago’s North Side fans.

His optimism proved well-founded: That very season – perhaps inspired
by Goodman’s lyric, "the Cubs are gonna win today," – the Cubs clinched
the NL East Championship and made their first post-season appearance
since 1945.

Sadly, Goodman did not live to see post-season play in Wrigley Field.
He died at age 36 on Sept. 20, 1984, four days before the Cubs clinched
the Division title — and 17 days before the Cubs blew a two-game lead
and lost the NL pennant to the Padres. 

This year, however, Cubs fans nationwide are looking forward to
raising their voices in five (or if absolutely necessary, nine) more
joyous renditions of "Go Cubs Go" (one, maybe two home games in the
Division series, up to a possible four in the National League
championships and potentially three in a World Series victory) as
Chicago’s North Side team makes its way to the World Series
Championship.

"It’s a privilege to declare Steve Goodman Day in Illinois, to honor
this great Chicago musician and Cubs fan," Quinn said. "I know that
even Cardinals and Sox fans will join me in celebrating the life and
extraordinary talent of Steve Goodman."

"Go Cubs Go"
by Steve Goodman

Baseball season's underway
Well you better get ready for a brand new day.
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.
They're singing ...

Go, Cubs, go, Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.
Go, Cubs, go, Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.

They got the power, they got the speed
To be the best in the National League
Well this is the year and the Cubs are real
So come on down to Wrigley Field
We're singing now ... 

Go, Cubs, go, Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.
Go, Cubs, go, Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.

Baseball time is here again
You can catch it all on WGN
So stamp your feet and clap your hands
Chicago Cubs got the greatest fans.
You're singing now ...

Go, Cubs, go, Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.
Go, Cubs, go, Go, Cubs, go
Hey, Chicago, what do you say
The Cubs are gonna win today.
  

    
Awwww!
  

    

Oh, that is so wonderful.  Go Cubs GO!!
  

    
go cubs, thanks for the update, Clay.
  

    
That is so fucking cool.
  

    
Yeah. Go cubs, Go Steve! 
  

    
Yeah!
  

    
totally fucking cool.
  

    
Great that that happened!  But there's lots of prediction mojo above
in this topic:


From inkwell.vue.307.84: Clay Eals (clay-eals)  Fri 7 Sep 07 11:58

> Gail, don't call it a season yet. The Cubs have been this close in
> other recent years, but Goodman's "Dying Cub Fan" remains accurate.
> I've got severely mixed feelings about the prospect of the Cubs getting
> to the Series. If they do, who will rewrite "Dying Cub Fan," and how?
 


Sooo... Wait til next year for any attempt at a rewrite. 
  

    
I have good news to announce to The WELL audience:

I deeply am grateful to all of you and many others whose support for
my 800-page biography "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music" prompted its
first printing of 5,000 copies to sell out in just eight months. My
publisher, ECW Press, graciously has taken the plunge for a second
printing of 5,000. Those copies are hot off the press and now available
at my site. Just visit <http://www.clayeals.com> and click on the
"Online Store" tab to order it at a discount. Included inside each book
ordered from my site is a signed postcard (new version) that can be
used as a bookmark.

The new edition is more than a mere reprint. It includes hundreds of
little fixes, clarifications, updates and additions, including 30 new
photos, bringing the total number of images in the book  to 575, all in
the same 800 pages. My thanks go to ECW for allowing me to revise the
book for its second printing and for taking this huge financial step to
meet the demand that has been building for several months.

If you have any questions, please contact me directly at
<ceals@comcast.net> or via a reply here at The WELL. Thanks!

Clay Eals
1728 California Ave. S.W. #301
Seattle, WA 98116-1958

(206) 935-7515 (home)
(206) 484-8008 (cell)
ceals@comcast.net
http://www.clayeals.com
  

    
Congratulations, Clay!!
  

    
That's great.
  

    
Well done.    Congratulations.
  

    

Second printing... Most excellent, Clay!
  

    
so glad you went to a second printing, clay.
what a great book.
  

    
Bravo!  That is excellent.


By the way, from the MLB site:

> Ryan Dempster plans to move from closer to starter for the Chicago Cubs
>this season. On the first day of spring training, he took on another role:
>prognosticator.
>
> "I think we are going to win the World Series. I really do," Dempster
said.
>
> That's a bold prediction before the start of a season that marks the 100th
>anniversary of the Cubs' last World Series winner.

Yet another good year for the lore and music around the Cubs, and two 
beloved great Steve Goodman tunes.  And your book!
  

    
Sorry about that Cubbies prediction.  Clay lives in Seattle and this
will be the year of the Mariners.  Maybe the M's will play the Cubbies,
though, and Lou Pinella's protogé, John McLaren will show his old
mentor a thing or two.  

Congrats on the second printing, Clay!! Excellent.
  

    

News from Clay:


Goodman bio wins IPPY Silver Medal

This just in: "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music" won a silver medal in the
biography category of the 2008 Independent Book Publisher (IPPY) Awards. What
wonderful news to receive on the book's first anniversary!

The book is one of 450 award-winning works in 64 categories, selected from
3,175 entries to IPPY. Find out more at
<<http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1231>
The 2008 awards, the organization's 12th annual honors, will be presented May
30 in Los Angeles.


California events are in the works

Speaking of Los Angeles, I've received the go-ahead from my publisher, ECW
Press, to set up reading/music events on behalf of the Goodman bio in
Southern California and the Bay Area this summer.

Dates and venues are not set yet, but I will let you know about them as soon
as they are firm. Any musicians wishing to participate in these events,
please contact me at clay@clayeals.com.

Utah Phillips on Steve Goodman

After a long bout with congestive heart failure, labor folksinger/songwriter
Bruce "U. Utah" Phillips died in his sleep Friday evening, May 23, 2008. He
was 73.

Phillips crossed often paths with Steve Goodman, and for the Goodman bio I
was fortunate to be able to interview Phillips on March 2, 2000, in his
hometown of Nevada City, California. Phillips’ comments are incorporated in
several places in the book, but on the occasion of his passing, it seems
appropriate to honor him by sharing an extended expression of his wit and
insight. To read an edited transcript of the Phillips interview, visit my
home page, <http://www.clayeals.com/>, and click on the
link, or click this direct link:
<http://clayeals.com/pdfs/2000_03_02_Phillips_int.pdf>

Goodman bio for visually impaired

New Jersey radio host John Weingart has heartening news. The non-profit
volunteer organization called Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFBD),
based in Princeton, is recording the Goodman bio so that those who have
visual impairments or dyslexia can enjoy the book.

Weingart, who has hosted a Sunday evening show on WPRB-FM for more than three
decades, was one of several "celebrity readers" recently invited to record
portions of books for RFBD. His contribution was to read the section focusing
on Goodman's leukemia diagnosis and treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center and the genesis of the poignant "Song for David."

RFBD, <http://www.rfbd.org/> serves students of all ages at
locations all over the country. No word yet on when or how the recording of
the Goodman bio will be available, but when I learn that information, I will
pass it along.

Cool updates to the Internet site

If you haven't visited <http://www.clayeals.com/> lately,
now would be a great time. Recently, we've added:

Links to stellar recent press coverage (including the Washington Post, the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Lake Forest College Spectrum magazine).
Click on the "Reviews" tab in the "Inside the Book" menu.

Vivid photos by Jef Jaisun and Jean Sherrard of recent reading/music events
in Seattle featuring eight musicians. (The event at Third Place Books drew my
largest crowd yet, more than 200 people.) Click on the "Schedule" tab in the
"About the Author" menu.

Newly posted vintage images of Steve Goodman with John Prine, young friend
Alan Brin and a very large fish, courtesy of Marcia Brin and Geoff Muldaur.
Click on the "Bonus Photos" tab in the "Inside the Book" menu.

Now we can see the broken-string song

When Steve Goodman broke a guitar string mid-song onstage, he was at his most
charming and captivating. He averted disaster by improvising a dozen or more
lyric stanzas while maintaining the song's chords and tempo and
simultaneously restringing the instrument. Once the string was intact and in
tune, he resumed the song where he had left off. This shtick was both unique
and astonishing, and the Goodman bio delves deeply into it.

Scores of audio tapes (mostly bootleg) have documented this maneuver, but
there has been no publicly available video of it -- until now. This hour-long
compendium of the 1980 Telluride Bluegrass Festival
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7298847911422706933>
includes footage of Goodman from minutes 42 through 46. Therein, he performs
two verses of "Danger" before breaking a string. The result is not quite a
full broken-string song because he doesn't end up re-stringing the guitar and
instead is handed a new one. Still, it's much the same shtick, and you get
the idea. His facial expressions and body movements are priceless, as are the
typical, post-song head-scratching and shrugging. Thanks to the poster of
this precious visual document. Enjoy!

Thoughts on the first anniversary

It was mid-May of 2007 that the first printing of "Steve Goodman: Facing the
Music" was published, with a six-event Chicago launch followed immediately by
two sessions at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle.

Evidence of the book's reach over the past 12 months boggles my mind: a total
of 39 reading/music events around the country, four TV interviews (including
a 30-minute, 11-part conversation now on YouTube), 41 radio interviews,
coverage by more than 1,000 newspapers and periodicals (aided by a widely
circulated Associated Press profile) and countless reviews and references on
the Internet.

The key statistic, of course, is that the book's first printing of 5,000
copies sold out in just eight months, prompting an updated second printing of
5,000 in February. And word keeps spreading by the day.

I am grateful beyond words to my wife, Meg, my publisher, ECW Press, my
webmaster, Valerie Magee, and the literally thousands of interviewees,
helpers, musicians, venues, media, hosts and readers who have made this
project possible. It has proven what I've long known deep in my heart, that
Goodman people are everywhere.

To order the second printing

Just visit <http://www.clayeals.com/> and click on the
"Online Store" tab to order it at a discount. Included inside each book
ordered from my site is a signed postcard (new version) that can be used as a
bookmark.

Happy spring, and thanks again to all!


Clay Eals