RIP Kim Fowley

[guitarfool2002]

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

[SMiLE Brian]

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

[rn57]

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

[Michael Edward Osbourne]

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

[Rocky Raccoon]

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

[guitarfool2002]

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. 

[ontor pertawst]

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...

[bgas]

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.  

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

[JK]

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

[SloopJohnB]

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

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

[kwan_dk]

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. 

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

[Debbie Keil-Leavitt]

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.

[guitarfool2002]

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.  

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

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.

[bgas]

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.  

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

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)

[Steve Latshaw]

<<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.

[Jon Stebbins]

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.

[Smilin Ed H]

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

[Steve Latshaw]

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.

[Smilin Ed H]

RIP

Obit with songs:

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

[SBonilla]

<<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 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...

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.

[Mikie]

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.

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.

[Mikie]

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 kick starting J&D's career.

That's interesting.

[rn57]

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.

[CenturyDeprived]

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.

[guitarfool2002]

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.