"As
long as punk music stays pure and sincere it will remain relevant" Marty Thau on bubblegum, New York Dolls, other music issues and stuff How did you first get in contact with the music business? I saw that you have songwriting credits for at least one title (Soul Struttin’, which was later covered by the Fleshtones). Did you have any ambitions as a songwriter or even as a musician? In 1963 I answered a NY Times classified ad and was hired by Billboard Magazine to work in their advertising department as an executive trainee. I did co-author Soul Struttin’ with Tony Orlando and then recorded it in 1979 with the Fleshtones when I produced their Blast Off LP. I’m not much of a piano player but did play some cocktail music on Blondie’s first LP. It was my one and only musician’s credit. What was your job at Cameo - Parkway, Buddah and Inherit Productions? At Cameo I was the National Promotion Manager and promoted 96 Tears and the early regional hits of Bob Segar, The Rationals and Terry Knight & The Pack, who later went on to become Grand Funk Railroad. At Buddah I was the Vice President and Director of Promotion and received 13 Gold Record Awards in the process. Buddah, Motown and A&M were three American indie success stories of the 60s. Inherit was a Production – Publishing – Management firm and I became a full partner in 1970. Our client roster included Van Morrison (his Astral Weeks and Moondance LPs), John Cale (his Vintage Violence and Church of Anthrax LPs) and African superstar Miriam Makeba. What made you leave Inherit Productions to manage the New York Dolls. Did you manage bands before the Dolls or was it them that gave you the initial idea? I left Inherit to join Paramount Records as VP and Head of A&R but resigned after 6 months to manage the NY Dolls. I had limited management experience when I signed the Dolls. What was it like to work with the Dolls (considering that you´ve often stated that drugs and music business don´t work together)? I loved working with the Dolls – they were my friends – but eventually concluded that drugs and the music business do not mix and that an artist must be clear headed and focused in addition to having the music people want to hear. Career development is serious business and a costly one, too, and everyone must perform at the top of their game. The Dolls were fun loving New York City bad boys with a penchant for playing hard and fast. You couldn’t help but smile at their antics but a band’s career journey has very little room for out - of - contral substance abuse and immaturity. How did the relationship with the Dolls come to an end and what kind of role did Malcolm McLaren play in this case? Drugs. Need I say more? Malcolm wanted to manage the band and believed he could resurrect them in their last days but he was never their manager, contrary to his claims. In fact, David Johansen humorously claims Malcolm was simply his haberdasher in London. However he did learn much from the Dolls during his brief New York stay and returned to the UK and formed the Sex Pistols, who were a sideways version of the Dolls’ attitude, the Ramones riff and Richard Hell’s torn t-shirt fashion agenda. What do you think of the announced reunion of the surviving Dolls members at the Meltdown Festival in London (w/ Izzy Stratlin of Guns N’ Roses on guitar)? I hope it’ll be enough of an eye opener to get them inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They deserve it and have been unfairly overlooked. They’re not the only artists that ever did drugs and it shouldn’t determine their musical and societal legacy. Was it the logical next step for you to start your own label after all your experiences in the music industry? The music I was interested in was considered too extreme and radical and the only way I could get it to the marketplace was to manufacture it myself. So I did. It was not only a logical step, it was my only step. After the Dolls implosion I was blacklisted from the industry and was considered too controversial and outspoken. In reality, I was neither but the music industry hated the Dolls and believed them to be a bad influence on the youth of America, and since I was their chief advocate, blamed me. It’s funny how yesterday’s greatest fears are today’s cartoons. In reflection the Dolls were simply a hard rockin’ band with an amusing flamboyant edge but were perceived as some kind of perverse sexual threat. Suicide were a pioneering electronica duo but were perceived as too confrontational and psychotic and, to boot, there weren’t any guitars in their lineup! How would you describe the philosophy behind Red Star? Was it an indie label? Red Star was arguably America’s first post 60s punk / new wave indie label. It was not designed to compete with the majors because it didn’t have the finances to do so. How did you find the bands for Red Star? What made them (and the bands you managed) special so that you decided to add them to your roster of bands? It was a moment in time when the rock community felt a need to return to basics and rewrite rock’s constitution because rock and roll had beome tedious, pretentious and old. Bands came to me because I had discovered and managed the highly respected and influential New York Dolls. My ideal artist walked the fine line between being artistic – avant garde – passionate and accessible. Suicide were the perfect example of such an entity. Why did you stop releasing records on Red Star? Was it for financial reasons (from what I know this was the reason why the first Fleshtones album never came out until years later on ROIR)? Has the legal battle with Heineken been settled down and, if yes, what´s the verdict? There was hardly any distribution for the type of music I was interested in releasing. The alternative indie distribution networks of today’s world didn’t exist back in the 70s. LPs were retailing for less than $6.00 per unit, CDs and MTV didn’t exist and commercial radio wouldn’t play punk / new wave music. It became too much of a struggle to stay afloat and by 1985 I concluded I had gone as far as I could and became a catalog company. I had made my point and assumed I would eventually be recognized and acknowledged. The legal battle with Heineken is ongoing but I cannot discuss it. How did you experience the Seventies and the beginning of the punk scene? What was it like to be in a place like New York at that time? Was there some kind of vibe in the air that hinted at bigger things to come? New York was the epicenter of all that was new in rock and roll. One could see 15 new artists any given night in NY’s downtown sector and most of these groups were experimenting with new approaches to music for a new generation – the kids of the 70s. The Ramones, Suicide, Patti Smith, Television – these were just a few of the American artists attempting to initiate new styles and sensibilities. Artists were optimistic but eventually were forced to conclude one cannot re-create the wheel. How would you compare the American punk scene to the British and the rest of the world? What did you think about the hype surrounding the Sex Pistols and punk in general that was generated in the UK? The emergence of American punk bands in the 70s was in part a reaction to the censorship and control of rock and roll by lawyers, accountants, strategic marketers, Wall Street hustlers and politicians. The conservative Nixon administration controlled music by controlling the licenses of radio stations and anything too controversial was banned. The English punk scene was socially and politically fueled. Jobs in the UK for kids on the dole were scarce and so they took it to the streets. When the Dolls disbanded in 1975 the Sex Pistols filled the void. The Dolls laid the groundwork and the Pistols stepped up and capitalized on it. It can be said of Malcolm that he does understand how to manipulate the media. The great majority of punk groups of the 70s came from the US & the UK. It’s a different story today; thanks to modern technology everyone can receive the same information at the same time. How does the philosophy behind punk relate to the structures of the music industry? Punk is still the bastard son of rock and roll for many in the mainstream music business. It’s still considered too primitive too angry and rebellious by many. Punk music simply reflects society and is quite often underestimated. In some instances it can be intellectual, sophisticated and enlightened. Too often the mainstream’s formulaic perceptions of what young people want is embarrassing and designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Someone once said to me that rock and roll A&R people should never be older than 17. What´s your opinion of the current state of culture and especially pop culture? Do you think that something like the punk movement of the seventies is still of relevance today? Much of today’s popular music is contrived, manipulated and disposable. The music of the 70s is a good starting point in the study of punk music but today’s forms are far more intense and diverse. As long as punk music stays pure and sincere it will remain relevant. What are you working on today? Besides licensing the Red Star back catalogue you are writing plays, what are they about? You are preparing a book about your New York days in the seventies, right? What can we expect? Hopefully you’ll be able to read my memoir, if I ever finish it, plus a screenplay about the 70s and the music business. It’s what I’ve lived through and am most capable of writing about. I prefer to write stories with morality themes and provocative dialogue -- stories about everyday people and their struggles. What do you expect from the Punk Kongress? Back in the day we naively thought we could change the music business and the world through our music and art. We learned change and evolution moves at a snail’s pace. Thanks to the computer, change is finally about to happen in a big way. I don’t know what to expect from this meeting -- perhaps some insight from some precocious young person that’ll blow my mind and make me ask myself why I didn’t think of it. I hope so. Punk is...? (This is the question we will ask all of our participants. Your description of punk in one or two sentences.) Not an easy question to answer. I’m thinking it over and will answer it at the meeting of the minds. Interview by Stefan Conrad © 2004 Schmidt productions GmbH |
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ALTERNATIVE TV IGOR BASIN MICHAEL "PANKOW" BOEHLKE BOONARAAAS! BOY FROM BRAZIL SEZGIN BOYNIK BUZZCOCKS CHEETAH CHROME CZD DEAN DIRG RONALD GALENZA HENRYK GERICKE THOMAS GROETZ DICK HEBDIGE ALFRED HILSBERG STEWART HOME SIEGFRIED KALUS THE KIDS THOMAS LAU MARLENE MARDER MALCOLM MCLAREN LEGS MCNEIL PADELUUN BERT PAPENFUSS MARK PERRY HARRY RAG ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS SEDLMEIR ANDY SHERNOFF MARTY THAU TOKYO SEX DESTRUCTION VIVA L'AMERICAN DEATH RAY MUSIC |