The Smiley Smile Message Board

Just got word that Kim Fowley has passed away at age 75.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6443499/kim-fowley-legendary-record-producer-dead-at-75 (http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6443499/kim-fowley-legendary-record-producer-dead-at-75)

 RIP , Quite the character in the golden age of rock and roll.

I met and spoke with him for 15 minutes at SXSW in '91. I remember almost every second of that conversation.  Which is not usually the case with people I meet just once, or even a bunch of time.  Most of all I remember that stare.

When the movies The Runaways came out, I remember a lot of reviewers saying that Michael Shannon's portrayal of Kim in it was a bit over the top. Hardly. If anything it was a little bit understated compared to the real thing.

Kim once said that "one thing I can tell you about Bruce Johnston from when we were growing up is that he was a good man to have around when it was time to lift some hubcaps." Or words to that effect.

RIP

Oh my gosh! So sad to hear about this. RIP

Such a wonderfully weird dude, his radio show such a delight to listen to.

Note: I moved this to the main forum because of his many connections to the Beach Boys through Bruce Johnston, songs he recorded or produced or was involved with which they covered (like "Papa Ooo Mow Mow" and "Alley Oop"), and just in general. His first gig as a manager was working with Bruce's band The Sleepwalkers.

Definitely on-topic.  :)

Aw man, what a shame. He was definitely QUITE the character, a marvelous freak, and absolutely hilarious to banter with. I thought he was off making bizarre underground videos these days, not dyin' of cancer. Fucking cancer. There's some fun compilation discs of his weirdness floating around, time to blast one...

I disagree. Definitely NOT on topic. Just another memory/obit thread. Maybe I should ask a mod....  Hey Billy!

I first became aware of Fowley as a performer on the hypophone on The Mothers of Invention song "Who Are The Brain Police?" That's him during the fadeout. RIP, sir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuABc9ZNtrA

Kim also did a nice cover of "Almost Summer" on the "Caroline Now!" tribute album. RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV3ttufv9IA

Didn't the Sleepwalkers also include Sandy Nelson and, occasionally, Phil Spector? The mind boggles at the thought of the many projects and hustles this guy was involved in.

One of my favorites is 'Girl on the Beach', a beautiful one-off single with Rick Henn which seems fitting to post now that there's been much discussion of 'Soulful Old Man Sunshine.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMxdXCL_hqQ

RIP

Kim Fowley...The term unique doesn't even touch this guy.  Mothers, hide your daughters - but his honesty about himself was, in the midst of being someone I could only describe as a "professional character," something to see.

Uncalled for and not cool. If you want to take a swipe at me, do it via PM. Tired of this nonsense, I don't find it funny.

My call on this one. 

If a guy who has personal connections to an actual Beach Boys member that go back to high school, and was involved in creating some of the music that the band recorded and performed passes away, it's going on the main forum. If fans might not know the connections find out more about that person via this forum and find some of those connections they didn't consider before, it's part of what makes this board cool.

Seriously.

I get( obviously) it's your call, but I disagree
 Kim was, at best, a side note to the BBs.    Will everyone that cowrote a song the BBs covered rate main topic inclusion?
Being a friend with Bruce, doesn't qualify him for inclusuion here., at least not as I see it
And I still don't think this thread belongs here. I didn't see any reason to take this to PM to say so, tho perhaps I should have omitted the Mod part...  (I'd have had the same qualms about this thread no matter who posted it here)

<<I get( obviously) it's your call, but I disagree
 Kim was, at best, a side note to the BBs.    Will everyone that cowrote a song the BBs covered rate main topic inclusion?
Being a friend with Bruce, doesn't qualify him for inclusuion here., at least not as I see it
And I still don't think this thread belongs here. I didn't see any reason to take this to PM to say so, tho perhaps I should have omitted the Mod part...  (I'd have had the same qualms about this thread no matter who posted it here)>>

I can't possibly disagree more.  Kim was connected with everyone in this world... had big connections with many of them... in the early days of Jan & Dean (Jan Berry and I think Dean were also on Alley Oop; wasn't Bruce as well?).  But he was an integral part of the LA music scene in the 60s & 70s.  I met the guy once... interesting character.  He once tried to sign a management deal with a close friend's band here in LA in the late 70s (The Furys).  Everybody knew him in those days.

Kim Fowley...what a guy. I was the greenest pop rocker in L.A. in 1979, fresh from my adolescence in Livermore Ca. I had a band called The Point, and we sent about a dozen demo cassettes to label people and writers around L.A. We knew nothing. One day we are rehearsing acoustic in our apartment on Little Santa Monica Blvd, 1979, knock knock on the door. We open, it's Kim Fowley. Not only has he listened to our tape, he has driven to our apartment to tell us what he liked about it, and of course what he didn't like. He began, in Svengali fashion, telling us what to keep, what to change, what to wear, who's in, who's out etc... It was a whirlwind performance in our living room. Long story short...we danced around with him for a couple months, he asked us to make another tape, he offered to let us back Stiv Bators on a single, he invited us to his studio Kitchen Sink...we resisted his manipulative suggestions, the romance ended quickly. But it was an unforgettable thing to be courted by Kim for a few weeks. Fast forward to 1999...20 years later. I hadn't talked to him since '79, but someone, maybe Rodney, suggested I talk to Kim when writing my Dennis Wilson book. He gave a few great Dennis stories, he loved Dennis, all positive about him, which was a rare thing for Kim. During our talk i told him he and I had crossed paths back in '79, I mentioned the demo tape, and The Point...he immediately went into rant..."Little Santa Monica Blvd, your apartment smelled like a boys gym, you had an Elvis Costello poster on the wall...great tape, what ever happened to the other guys? You should have listened to me and done what i said and you'd be rich now!"  Anyway, one of a kind guy, amazing memory. RIP Kim. You made an impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV3ttufv9IA

Great story, Jon!  My friend Jeff Wolfe had the same experience with his band the Furys around 1977-78... got the Kim Fowley courtship for a few weeks before they turned him down.  Twenty years later Jeff ran into him and got the same lecture!  Interesting guy... and his father was a famous character actor, Douglas Fowley.  Made a lot of westerns.  He was also a bit of a counter culture type at a time (1940s-1950s) when Hollywood frowned on such things.

RIP

Obit with songs:

http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/kim-fowley-rip.html

Kim told me a story that when he was a kid, he was angry because Van Dyke Parks played the onscreen son of his father, Douglas Fowley, in the movie Heidi; he said to himself at that time, "Why didn't they let me play my dad's son?" Kim also had some involvement with the Skip Battin single, High Coin.  Kim delivered Jan & Dean to Arwin. He also mentioned that, in his mind, Lou Adler "stole" J&D from him (and Arwin) and thus, he never received the credit for kickstarting J&D's career. Kim went to high school with Bruce (and Jan Berry and Nancy Sinatra), they had musical involvement together and remained friends. Bruce wrote him from England on his first Beach Boys tour. In the letter he mentions the opportunities for producers in England and basically encouraged him to go there for work. Kim produced the pre-Sunrays Snowmen on Challenge Records; Kim produced the Rick Henn single Girl On The Beach. Kim in some ways tried to emulate the Beach Boys vocal aura when he co-produced, with Earle Mankey, Helen Reddy's Ear Candy album at Brother Studios. He used Rick Henn and Curt Boettcher (among other great singers) for the harmony parts on the album. Kim's career runs parallel to and is intertwined with the same Beach Boys related people who get attention here, such as Jan & Dean and Phil Spector. His mention here at this time is pertinent.

Good story! 

I first heard about Kim Fowley through reading articles by Greg Shaw and others in Bomp! magazine in the 70's.  Interesting guy.

That's interesting.

Jon's story puts me in mind of one told to me years ago by a lady who used to be a notable figure in LA's garage/psychedelic revival scene.  She had known Kim since she met him, when she was very young, right in the last days of the scene around Rodney (Bingenheimer)'s English Disco on the Strip. 

A decade later, she was looking for a manager for the combo she led.  She approached Kim and sounded him out. "You're no longer a teenager," was his immediate reply. After a little back and forth, he grudgingly agreed to go to a rehearsal. 

Kim watched her band play a few songs, then gave her that famous stare and said: "I can make you a star." A pause, then he continued: "As soon as you lose twenty-two pounds and six ounces." He pulled out his card, jotted down an address on the back, handed it to her and said: "Be at this gym at noon tomorrow." And walked right out.

She didn't go to the gym.

She also mentioned that a little while after that,  Courtney Love auditioned for him. But I don't know how many pounds he said she should lose or even if it got to that point.

I never realized all the Kim Fowley/BB connections, very interesting.

A little off-topic, but I love reading about tidbits of stuff like this pertaining to the edges of the LA music scene at the time. My mom, while attending UCLA, was briefly (for about a month) roommates with Kim Fowley's sister, Gretchen. This was in Westwood, on Landfair Ave, as she recalls, at some point during the '66-early '67 timeframe. Apparently, Gretchen relayed a story to my mom about being propositioned by Gene Clark, and Gretchen turned him down. My mom, being a massive Byrds/Gene Clark fan, got a kick out of hearing that. Separate from that, another friend UCLA of my mom, was dating John Densmore during this same timeframe. Amazing how small a world the LA music scene was then.

When Bruce Johnston traveled to the UK in 1966 to drum up publicity for the Beach Boys and make appearances promoting them, we all know the story of how Bruce took with him an advance pressing of Pet Sounds. In Bruce's hotel room, a listening party was set up with an audience including John Lennon and Paul McCartney, as well as Keith Moon who would also act as Bruce's tour guide of sorts around town on the visit.

After John and Paul heard Pet Sounds at Bruce's listening session, they were so blown away and inspired that they went back and worked on music based on what they had just heard. It's how some of the more Beach Boys-centric sounds on Revolver came to be, and Pet Sounds remained a constant influence on the band as they recorded Sgt Pepper months later, asking that a turntable be brought in so they could listen to Pet Sounds as they worked up the new songs.

That promotional trip made by Bruce had a big impact, as minor as it may seem it did a lot to stoke even more interest in the band leading up to the big UK concert stand in the fall. And the Pet Sounds listening party also influenced those musicians who were there that night.

And here is the description of it, from the Pet Sounds booklet and reposted on Kim Fowley's web page:

Pet Sounds - Because of Kim's Publicist background with Doris Day-Marty Melcher, The Beach Boys Press Officer Derek Taylor commissioned Kim to deliver John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles, Keith Moon of The Who, Dave Clark, Marianne Faithful, and The Merseys to Beach Boy Bruce Johnston's hotel room to hear an advance copy of this Brian Wilson masterwork... Reference Page 34-35: The Making Of Pet Sounds Booklet {included in Box Set}

So it was Kim Fowley who in his publicity-press agent role who set that up, a minor event but one which most Beatles and Beach Boys fans know about and consider an important part of the history.


PS...this is more of the early history with the LA music scene that I'd love to hear Bruce speak more about, those days when he was in high school and just after when he and the other "kids" in his circle of friends from that area were cutting records totally independent and totally home-brewed in many ways that actually got them top-40 radio airplay and hits. And most of that circle of friends like Berry, Spector, Bruce, Sandy Nelson, and Kim Fowley would go on to be major players in the 60's LA music scene and beyond. I'd really like to hear more from Bruce as he was smack-dab in the middle of what would become the LA music empire of the 60's as it was all getting started by a group of high school kids in SoCal.

Even though Bruce doesn't seem to be interested to write a book about his life, maybe that's just because he thinks the expectation would be to talk about the unpleasant times that were surely part of the experience of being a BB at various times. But maybe he could be convinced to contribute significant writings pertaining to stories like these. I'm sure his stories could still be told without the gossip.  It's historically important.

RIGHT ON!

R.I.P. Fowley...... :-\


(http://oi59.tinypic.com/2nsumgn.jpg)

Source?

Geoff Emerick, the engineer who won a Grammy for Sgt. Pepper.

Check out the book 'Here, There, and Everywhere' by Emerick, Appak. It's a great read, and yes, does delve into the Pet Sounds influence a bit.

Rolling Stone's Obit:  http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kim-fowley-runaways-dead-at-75-20150115

I have heard this too, and also own the book, and can't find such a statement anywhere.

I don't have the book, but does this help? http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php?topic=856.0

 

In the wake of Kim's death, Mike Stax has just posted the entire, very long interview with him he did in Ugly Things magazine in 2001.  It primarily covers the period from the start of '64 to the end of '69, but Kim manages to work in many references to his pre-'64 career.

In it he describes precisely what he did on behalf of Pet Sounds in the UK.  It's interesting that Derek Taylor acted as the middleman when Kim arranged to help Bruce bring PS to the attention of the UK's pop royalty. (With some assistance from Keith Moon, which is rather ironic because the latter, who loved the early BBs and insisted that the Who cover Jan & Dean's "Bucket T," turned out to not much like the band's post-PS direction.)

He also tells what Brian said in '63 when Kim asked him the secret to his success.  The whole talk is much more interesting than a lot of those interviews of Kim's when the person talking to him didn't know much about his career beyond the Runaways and Alley Oop.

http://ugly-things.com/kim-fowley-sins-secrets-of-the-silver-sixties/

http://www.examiner.com/article/kim-fowley-an-appreciation

Jim Bessman's column above has a quote from Brian (as spoken to Andy Paley some years ago) about Kim.  As short as it is, it's a pretty high compliment.

That is one of the best interview/articles I've read in a long time, just fascinating. I'd highly recommend anyone interested in 60's rock read this, you won't forget it. It again makes connections in and within the LA scene that makes it seem even smaller and more closely-related than a lot of people might think. Danny Hutton spinning and talking up those Vee-Jay Beatles records in late '63 when no one would listen, holy cow.

Love to know more about Kim writing songs with Bruce when they were in high school together.

Best part for me: John Lennon revealing the secret to The Beatles in one sentence. Never, NEVER heard that before in all of the Beatle books and mags I've read, but it's the stone-cold truth if you think about it and listen to their records. Dylan, Brian Wilson...one-sentence answers to Kim when asked what their secret was. Amazing.

Very enjoyable and informative, thanks for posting!  :)

You're welcome guitarfool2002.   Incredible as it may seem, there was something Kim left out of the interview about his '60s days. On Facebook a couple days ago, Ruthann Friedman who wrote the Association hit Windy said that she used to see a lot of Kim around the start of '66.

And where was that? At Van Dyke Parks' pad - apparently the one above a gas station with no bathroom where VDP was living when Brian asked him to collaborate on Smile. Ruthann says Kim was crashing on Van Dyke's sofa.  Man.....think of the late-night conversations those two must have had. 

Below, an interview Kim did in more recent years, where he says the first song he ever wrote and published was titled "Baby Don't Leave Me" and that he co-wrote it with Bruce. He is  (in keeping with his habit of stressing his music-biz "cred" despite his wild rep)  very quick to remind the interviewer that Bruce later composed "I Write The Songs."

Although I should add that this interview seems to be the only place anywhere that Kim mentions this song.  It does not show up under his name or Bruce's in the BMI or ASCAP databases. But then again he might have misremembered the title.

http://www.antimusic.com/morley/12/KimFowleyPart1.shtml

Like Guitarfool, I also want to chime in thanking you for that link. That has to be the most funny interview I've ever read. Hands down! I laughed out loud several times. Who knows how much of it is true, but if nothing else, Kim really was a great storyteller.  :)

His passing prompted me to post on my blog about one of his more obscure recordings, - one that was produced by Phil Spector no less. And as you can imagine, the sh-- really hit the fan when those two madmen hit the studio. All very entertaining as relayed by Fowley...

www.cuecastanets.wordpress.com

Guitarfool and Kwan_dk: if Fowley's tales of life in London with PJ Proby entertained you, the interview below is worth looking it. It is pretty much the only time Proby talked at length about his career to a reporter in nearly the last 20 years.  The rule of thumb with his stories - as I guess was true of the ones Kim told - is that the more insane and improbable they appear to be, the more likely they are to have actually happened. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/pj-proby-could-the-nowpenniless-singer-be-ready-for-a-comeback-403806.html

Now that Brian has joined us, I have half a mind to ask him what his favorite Fowley production is.  I have the feeling that it's Popsicles And Icicles, but maybe there are some others he likes.

Mr. Fowley may have been entertaining in the public eye, but a very good friend of mine happened to interview him a couple years back, and it was a demonic, misogynistic experience much along the lines of Gene Simmons vs. Terry Gross, according to her.

I know some people say, "hey, that's just rock'n'roll", but I say it's just abusive.

That is how he was. Believe her.
He never got called out for his behavior.

I had a bizarre experience with Kim Fowley once, around 1991.  I was living on a friend's floor in North Hollywood, fast asleep, and the phone rang at 3 a.m.  A voice on the other end barked, "this is Kim Fowley" and proceeded to go on a half hour long non-stop monologue about music, style and life.  I was so out of it and confused I just listened and tried to take it all in, but I couldn't follow anything that was being said.  After a while I couldn't do it anymore and begged off.  I had had a column in a local music paper at the time, so I assume that's how he got the number, but that was never made clear.  I was never even sure if he knew who I was.

In fact, I never found out what he was calling about, what he was talking about, or what he wanted.  And I don't believe I ever encountered him again.

Below, most of the chapter about Fowley that appears in Evelyn McDonnell's book about The Runaways, Queens Of Noise.  Some of the book is a bit overwritten and bombastic - probably the effect of Kim subjecting McDonnell to several three-hour phone calls a week for months on end, since that much exposure to him would undoubtedly affect one in a lot of ways.  But this is written in a somewhat more restrained manner. Anyway it's a good introduction to what he was about.


https://medium.com/cuepoint/legendary-prick-192b8bfada06

I should also mention the book California Confidential, published in Australia in 2000. It is a 70 page transcript of an interview Stephen J. McParland did with Kim, with 20 pages of footnotes, and focuses on Kim's career from its start with Bruce Johnston and Sandy Nelson in '57-58 until the end of 1963.  So it complements the Ugly Things interview as an account of his work up to 1970.  But nothing from it is online, and the book (like most of McParland's works) has long been out of print and was hard to obtain even right when it was published. I don't see any copies being offered online now.

For five bucks, the downlodable PDF version with two extra interviews is available here: https://payhip.com/b/Q6uP

Heh.  It must have been snowing heavily that night wherever Kim was.

Meaning? 3am was late afternoon to him. If he caught you on a late night hustle call, it could go for hours. 

Joan Jett, Rodney Bingenheimer & More Pay Respects to Kim Fowley at Hollywood Funeral

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6450378/kim-fowley-funeral-joan-jett

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/25/funeral-for-a-fiend/

Above, an account of Fowley's funeral by a journalist who was there - and who earned the privilege of an invitation by interviewing Kim for Hustler magazine. (And also rockerzine.com)

The Animal God Of The Streets said in 2012 that he wanted his remains dismembered by crazy teenage goth chicks and put on display on the cover of Girls & Corpses magazine afterwards, but there was a subsequent change of plans and instead he's in Hollywood Forever Cemetery with Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone...and Rudolph Valentino.

I suppose it's now time for his widow to gather up his effects - the ones he had in LA and the memorabilia that is supposed to be in Glenn A. Baker's custody Down Under - and put together a Kim Fowley Museum. The best location for that would have to be a former Oki Dog. Or at least a Fatburger place.

Author Pamela Des Barres' Tribute to Kim Fowley: 'He Had Faith in Humanity and We Constantly Disappointed Him'

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6457958/pamela-des-barres-kim-fowley-tribute?utm_source=GooglePlus