Elvis Costello throwing Jane Scott out of his dressing room'

[johnfoyle]

http://www.westlifenews.com/2006/11-29/insights.html

Journalist pens fun folk history of Cleveland rock

By Benjamin Pogany

Insights

Published Nov. 29, 2006

In his new book, “Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories,” local journalist and author Carlo Wolff takes a fun, incisive look at three decades of Cleveland’s music history. The result is a well-researched work that is an absolute blast to read.

“Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories,” released by Cleveland publisher Gray & Company, documents the city’s biggest rock milestones in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. The book isn’t an exhaustive history, which Wolff himself admits in the introduction: “This is not meant to be an encyclopedia. It’s not conventional history, either. It’s nostalgia, a book by, for, and about fans.”

Wolff sums it up well. Lengthy quotations from local rock celebrities such as musician Michael Stanley, journalist Jane Scott, and promoters Jules and Michael Belkin comprise most of the book. The book discusses every aspect of rock & roll in Cleveland: bands, venues, famous shows and even record stores. The margins are also packed with photographs, old fliers, concert tickets and other memorabilia.


Reading “Rock & Roll Memories” feels less like following a detailed history text than flipping through a scrapbook, or watching a documentary. The effect is sometimes disorienting – there’s no consistent narrative running through the book, the quotations jump back and forth in time, and the book rarely follows a single subject for more than a page or two. Nevertheless, gripping firsthand accounts of the Beatles’ appearance at Municipal Stadium in 1966, and Bruce Springsteen’s at the Agora in 1978 easily overshadow the book’s slow spots.

Though Wolff is obviously a fan himself, he rarely injects his own opinion, instead allowing the storytellers to speak for themselves. The many fans Wolff talks to across the city spin out detailed, personal and sometimes shocking anecdotes. One highlight is a former band manager’s story about an enraged Elvis Costello throwing Jane Scott out of his dressing room. Another is Bay Village journalist Michael Heaton’s story about his fight with WMMS in the 1980s.

Of course, not everything is covered in equal detail. Wolff devotes several pages to James Gang, but fellow Akron band Devo gets only a mention. The book as a whole trails off around the mid-‘80s. But Wolff includes more than enough to satisfy his target audience – the fans who lived through it. As a child of the ‘80s, I have to admit that a lot of the book’s anecdotes are lost on me. I never went to a show at the old Agora or listened to MMS in the ‘80s, and I’m only dimly aware of what the Michael Stanley Band was all about.

But nevertheless, in reading “Rock & Roll Memories” I still caught glimpses of the nostalgia that Wolff is chasing after. There’s a certain excitement in merely seeing the names of places you’ve been or bands you’ve followed – a feeling that Cleveland isn’t a minor or marginal city, but one that’s been at the center of rock & roll’s major currents since the beginning. Readers from Wolff’s generation will likely find even more to reminisce about.

Overall, “Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories” is a sharply written piece of folk history. It’s a quick read, and certainly an enjoyable one for Cleveland rock fans who were there the first time around. Carlo Wolff will be autographing copies at Borders Books & Music in the Promenade of Westlake, 30121 Detroit Road from 7 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 7. He’ll also be at the Waldenbooks in Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted from 1 to 2 p.m. Dec. 16. Stop by to pick up a copy and relive the good times all over again.

[Extreme Honey]

lol so costelloish.

[johnfoyle]

Vern from listserv allows me to share this -

Here's the deal, from p. 115-116 of the new book Cleveland Rock & Roll
Memories.

The first part is attributed to Peanuts, who is identified as a
"former band manager." I've never met the guy, and if he has a
non-street name, I have no clue what it is. He's been called Peanuts
for more than 30 years. Every year, the day before Thanksgiving, he
hosts an all-star jam, wherein any musician age 18 or over who wants
to jam is welcome on stage.

Here's a link to a story about Peanuts:
http://www.coolcleveland.com/index.php? ... uizPeanuts

Anyway, in the words of Peanuts:

====
Eddie Money and Elvis Costello were playing the Cleveland Agora, this
is '77 [Dec. 5, to be exact, EC's first Cleveland appearance, and one
of the two EC shows in Cleveland that I was dumb enough to not attend
--VM]. They were doing a flip tour, where one would open one night,
one the other. They get to Cleveland, Eddie's headlining. Elvis goes
first and after the Elvis set, Jane [Scott] stands up, off to the side
of the stage, and she's all bent out of shape.

I said "Jane, what's wrong?"

She says, "I got the wrong color pass, I can't go see Elvis."

I say "Jane, don't be silly, follow me."

I take Jane past Louie Carter, the security guard backstage that
night. I go, "Louie, Jane Scott." Louie waves her right in. She
walks into the dressing room; there couldn't have been more than six
people in the dressing room. Elvis and his manager [Jake Riviera] are
catty corner from the side, they see Jane come in, they go "Out, out,
you fat sow. Get out of our dressing room!" They chase her out. I
say to Louie, "Somebody's going to pay for this."

The next day, the review comes out in the Plain Dealer. Five glowing
paragraphs about Eddie Money. Elvis is at the end, he has the sixth
paragraph and it's not real flattering. For the next week in town,
people are going, "Did you see what Jane wrote about Elvis Costello?"

====

The next part is attributed to Jane:

Elvis Costello and his manager were on somebody's show and they said
that we could watch them, but when we came to the show we could not
ask them even one word. Without thinking I said "How'd it go?" Three
little words . . . it had to be a very cheap show because they were
cheap. I think it was their manager who made them that way and played
up to that quality. I didn't like them.

====

If I can find that PD review on microfilm at the library I work for,
I'll print it out and post it here.

The book says that Jane was born on May 3, 1919, the same day as Pete
Seeger, which means she is now 87 years old. She would have been 58
on the day she got bounced from EC's dressing room. Elvis used to be
a right prat, innit?

[verbal gymnastics]

Great Scott! Hell hath no fury...

[johnfoyle]

Hear this show -

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS - LIVE AT THE AGORA 1977

http://thattruncheonthing.blogspot.com/ ... elvis.html

[johnfoyle]

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/ ... deale.html

RIP, Jane Scott: Tributes pour in for beloved Plain Dealer rock critic

Tuesday, July 05, 201

(extract)

Jane Scott, the legendary journalist who covered four decades of rock 'n' roll for The Plain Dealer, died early Monday at age 92.

# She was always one to take the high road. I heard a story about Elvis Costello being less than kind to her backstage at an Agora show - Jane's response on the following day didn't involve slamming Costello in print, but instead, she gave additional column space to the young opener, Eddie Money. -- Addicted to Vinyl: Matt Wardlaw