Earlier this month (7th September) marked twenty one years since we lost the musician Warren Zevon in 2003, aged 56.
Today we commemorate him by making him the starter in our occasional effort to link a random musician to the king of shoegaze, in a feature we like to call, Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields.
Once again, we will take a series of musical meanderings to eventually link Zevon through to Shields (although we don't always stick fastidiously to the six links bit).
Warren Zevon's early life started out in Chicago, as the son of a bookie for local mobster, Mickey Cohen, before the family moved to Los Angeles, where a young Zevon would occasionally visit the house of Igor Stravinsky. He became a session musician, songwriter, (writing songs for acts including The Turtles) jingle writer and musical co-ordinator (most notably for the Everly Brothers). His fledgling solo career struggled to get off the ground until one of his tunes was picked up and sung by Linda Ronstadt. In 1976, his song, Hasten Down The Wind, became the title track for one of her albums.
Hi major label debut saw him collaborate with Jackson Browne as producer, and included a raft of special guests, such as Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, Carl Wilson, Bonnie Raitt and Ronstadt. Later, in the 1980s, he had the musicians from R.E.M. (Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry) backing him on his Sentimental Hygiene album - with an all night jam session resulting in the formation of the Hindu Love Gods, who would ultimately record an album of blues rock covers. Other guests on the Hygiene record included Neil Young, George Clinton, Bob Dylan and Flea from the Chili Peppers.
Warren Zevon: Mutineer (Beautiful, fragile live version from his last appearance on Letterman in October 2002, less than a year before he died of mesothelioma)
Hindu Love Gods: Raspberry Beret (Audio only - because I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play this)
Michael Peter Balzary, who later be known to the world more simply as Flea, was born in Australia, before moving to New York aged four. When his parents divorced he split time between Australia and the US, before ultimately settling in California. It was at a Californian high school that Balzary met Anthony Kiedis, which would ultimately lead to the formation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1983.
As well as his musical work, Flea has also turned his hand to acting on numerous occasions, appearing in films like Back To The Future II and III, My Own Private Idaho and The Big Lebowski. He is a co-founder of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit organisation established in 2001 to provide underprivileged children with music education.
RHCP with George Clinton: Freaky Styley (Footage shot at United Sound Studios, Detroit, 1985)
George Clinton, as well as linking back to Warren Zevon, also links to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as one of the acts he has produced over the years. He was behind the desk for the Peppers 1985 album Freaky Styley, for which he also wrote the lyrics for the title track.
Clinton had started out in the 1960s as a staff songwriter for the Motown label, before creating his Parliament - Funkadelic musical collective in the 1970s, who pioneered a fusion of Afro-futurism and funk, with psychedelic fashions. By the 1980s, he was working on solo stuff, starting out with 1982s Computer Games. In the 90s he contributed to tracks on Primal Scream's 1994 album, Give Out But Don't Give Up, including co-producing and co-writing the title track and the song Funky Jam. He would also work with rap and hip-hop acts including Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube, Outkast and the Wu-Tang Clan. In 2003, he formed his own record label, C Kunspyruhzy. He has also popped up on television, on How I Met Your Mother.
George Clinton: Atomic Dog (Official music video)
Give Out But Don't Give Up (1994) was the fourth album for Primal Scream, and was the much anticipated follow up to 1991s hit, Screamadelica. It marked a change in style, from the psychedelic rock and dance of the earlier LP, to a more classic Southern blues sound. It was seen by many critics as a bit of a cop out, with some comparing it as their Rattle & Hum. Lorraine Ali, writing in the LA Times, said of it; "the band might have intended this derivative sound to be ironic, but it's just mediocre rock n roll with no soul or substance." Paul Lester in Melody Maker was somewhat more abrupt in his analysis, calling it, "f**kin dreadful!"
The album included production, with a little drum and bass, from George Drakoulias, who was seen as Rick Rubin's protégé at American Recordings. He has also worked with the Black Crowes, Tom Petty and The Jayhawks, which may also explain the southern blues sound on the record. There was also appearances by Andrew Love and Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns, Benmont Tench from the Heartbreakers, and David Hood and Roger Hawkins from the legendary Muscle Shoals rhythm section. One other gust musician was drummer Toby Tomanov.
Primal Scream: Rocks (Live at T in the Park, 1994)
Philip 'Toby' Tomanov, also sometimes known as Toby Toman, started out life in Wythenshawe. He was a member of Wild Ram, before joining Ed Banger & The Nosebleeds - who managed one single in 1977, interestingly titled Ain't Bin To No Music School. The band also featured Vini Reilly, and for a brief spell, one Stephen Morrissey (yes that one) and Billy Duffy (later of The Cult). He would later join Reilly and Pete Crooks in the Durutti Column, and later on work with former Velvet Underground sidekick Nico, during her Manchester residing days.
The Durutti Column were one of the first acts signed by Tony Wilson to his now famous Factory Records label. Their name was taken from the Buena Ventura Durutti, an anarchist unit that fought in the Spanish Civil War, and was also featured in a 1966 comic strip by Andre Bertrand, called Le Retour de la Colonne Durutti.
They recorded two songs for the first Factory recording, A Factory Sample, which also included contributions from Joy Division, John Dowie and Cabaret Voltaire - all produced by Martin Hannett.
The Durutti Column: Sketch For Summer (Charming instrumental - live in Madrid, 1983)
Factory Records were established in 1978 by Tony Wilson and the actor Alan Erasmus, and over their celebrated life included acts on their roster like New Order, A Certain Ratio, Happy Mondays and briefly, OMD. They had a creative team of Martin Hannett, their in-house producer and Peter Saville who handled all the artwork. The same team also ran the infamous Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, in conjunction with members of New Order. The club, a former yacht builders and also a warehouse on Whitworth Street West, opened on 21 May 1982. It played host to many famous bands over the years, such as New Order, The Smiths, the Stone Roses, Oasis and Blur, and also became the epicentre of the Acid House and rave scenes of the late 80s and early 90s. It would close down in 1997 and ultimately be demolished in 2002.
21 May, the date of the Hacienda's opening, is auspicious, because on that date in 1963, a musician was born at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, the oldest of five siblings born to Irish parents in New York for work, as an executive in the food industry and a nurse. The family lived in Flushing and then Long Island, before heading back to Dublin (Cabinteely) in 1973. That musician was KEVIN SHIELDS.
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