As noted recently, a rather significant announcement, PBS American Masters Archive Releases 1,000+ Hours of Uncut, Never-Before-Seen Interviews: Patti Smith, David Bowie, Neil Young & More.
David Geffen, Elliot Roberts, & Neil YoungFrame from 'Inventing David Geffen': American Masters
In December 2012, PBS | American Masters broadcast the documentary film "Inventing David Geffen. American Masters: Inventing David Geffen is "an unflinching portrait of Geffen, who narrates his unorthodox rise from working class Brooklyn boy to billionaire entertainment power broker in extensive interviews."
Interviewees include Neil Young, Elliot Roberts, David Crosby, Henry Diltz, Gary Burden and many others.
From the unaired interview with Henry Diltz on working with Geffen and his clients, Neil Young and his manager Elliot Roberts. (Ed. note, unedited raw transcript)
Henry Diltz: It seems amazing that so many huge artists came out of that one little office [Geffen-Roberts], you know, with Hoagy Carmichael upstairs, you know, who wrote, Stardust and Skylark and Old Buttermilk Sky was one of my favorites.
And downstairs, you had these amazing this new generation of songwriters, you know, of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne and Henley and Fry and Dan Fogelberg, you know, and Joe Walsh and a fellow David Blue (?). They didn't stick around long enough to get famous. But he was kind of a Dylanesque character and a good friend of Elliot Roberts. But it's amazing that all these huge artists came out of that that one little club house office, you know.
Photographer Henry Diltz, with his iconic photograph of Crosby, Stills and Nash 1969 debut album cover is featured prominently in the exhibit at the Grammy Museum exhibit "California Dreamin': The Sounds of Laurel Canyon, 1965 - 1977"
(See more on full Gary Burden: Uncut, Never-Before-Seen Interview | 'Inventing David Geffen' | PBS American Masters Archive.)
There have been many iconic photographers in music during the 60’s & 70’s and Henry Diltz is one of the most influential and gifted. For me, he ranks right up there with the likes of Jim Marshall, Bob Gruen, Linda McCartney, Dezo Hoffman, Annie Leibovitz, Mick Rock, Robert Knight, Storm Thorgerson, Robert Whitaker, Ray Stevenson, Jorgen Angel, Karl Ferris, Michael Putland, Mick Gold, Pete Smith, Peter Sanders, Alec Byrne, Barrie Wentzell, Don Hunstein, and Francine Winham. Some of these names might be unfamiliar to many, but anyone who loves music has seen their work. An influential medium that still flourishes today.
ReplyDeletePeace 🙏
PBS is a national, cultural treasure—and rarely gets treated as such. Usually, it’s only mentioned as as a convenient scapegoat when it’s time for some candidate (who is usually independently wealthy and thus minimally reliant on public resources) to demonstrate their “fiscal responsibility”, while still carving out comfortable exceptions for assorted corporate interests with no priority placed on funding things that are actually of cultural value.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days, I’m gonna sit down and write a long letter, although I’m skeptical that a number of our elected representatives would have the reading comprehension (let alone intellectual honesty) to consider it.
Ian, or PBS is on the liberal propaganda list, listening and viewing home for ex-hippies. I hear this a lot from deplorables. Your second paragraph, our governor recently lifted the mask mandate, along with all mandatory social distancing protocol. So I sat down to write a letter and was faced with an egregious sense of futility. What would ever make me think that this person would listen to me when she apparently does not listen to the CDC or anyone else? I must be deeply deluded. It is this sense of futility that works at me in the worst way: confirmation that our voices really do not matter.
ReplyDelete@ Dan - great listing of iconic photographers in music.
ReplyDeleteIt really was a different time and place between artists and their documentary and the unwritten rules of knowing when to put down the camera.
Respect & honor of the subject. Today's media knows only how to glorify and destroy.
@ Meta Rocker - relative to broader media, yes PBS is a treasure.
These American Masters uncut interviews are priceless. 2 hours of unplugged Elliot was an amazing discovery to emerge from the vaults.
What else will emerge in the years ahead? Might this be a crack of daylight for full disclosure and start of reconciliation?
@ Abner - no.
Do not ever think that our voices really do not matter.
Obviously if we thought that, TW would have ceased to exist long ago.
Some of these little private conversations we have here on TW are really valuable and enriching to us thrashers, as well as many others.
we do not seek multitudes.
we are multitudes.
carry on and never stop trying and believing.
try...
It does not follow from futility that there is no sense in trying...one must look for the cause of the futility. The cause in this case being public servants who do not listen and so our voices are not heard by them. I am not a nihilist. My life has been spent working to educate and think, the opposite of giving up. I need to make myself more clear. Full agreement with "try" but I am not going to bang my head against the wall and write letters to someone who clearly does not listen.
ReplyDelete@Abner, My letter comment was a tad facetious, but I appreciate your heartfelt reflections. As NY sang very poignantly, "I try to make amends and I try to count my friends". Hope I got the line right. One thing that has distinguished the "human condition" (whatever that may precisely be) throughout history is that we are continually trying, striving, believing that perhaps a song can change the world if the right people hear it (or if all the people sing it). Pragmatically, we must pick our battles.. . my view is, if it's worth losing, it's worth fighting, as contradictory as that may sound... and strategize productively, so we aren't wasting resources or killing our own brain cells by banging our heads against the wall.
ReplyDelete@Thrasher--I try to digest a balanced media diet. A bit of this and a bit of that, to get a reasonably diverse range of voices discoursing in my mind. Balance really is key, along with discernment of course.