The Soul Belter & the Ultramaroon
“As you can see, it's a good idea to have a good idea.”-Gilles Leroy
The Gories, A Beatle and the Art of Washing Windows Pt. 3: The Epilogue
(to be read following Pt. 1 and Pt. 2)
I never saw George Harrison again and as you can probably guess, I never received a glimmer of a song from The Gories demo tape deal. But the story of my relationship with members of The Gories was not yet done, nor my ability not to learn from past mistakes…
During the process of signing the contract for the demo deal, I connected with Gories singer Mick Collins. Mick was garage rock’s link to the great soul belters of the 1960s. To Otis. To Wilson Picket. Gorie partner Dan Kroha was a killer psych/garage vox-er but Collins set the band apart with his unique sound within the genre. The first time it hit me…really hit me…was on the bridge of the song Sovereignty Flight from their debut album Houserockin, where Collins showcases his gift of morphing lyrics into soul stirring birds of prey. And then there is that chorus on Sister Ann, the album’s penultimate hat-tip (in title, at least) to fellow Detroit royalty the MC5, where Collins’ performance, from gospel to grunge, steals his place at the pantheon of the rhythm and the blues.
Collins laughed on a phone call talking about the Gories demise and the unfortunate-but-who-really-cares ill-fated demo tape deal…but had a proposition that would solve everyone’s problems, in true Detroit car dealership tradition. He was putting together a new band where he was the lead singer, with Fireworks’ Darren Lin Wood on guitar, Darren’s girlfriend Janet Walker as the Mo Tucker tom-tommer, and young bassist Alex Cuervo rounding out the quartet. As it turns out, Wood had been badgering In The Red Records’ owner (and dear friend) Larry Hardy to fund a record with said band…and Larry seemed into it. Supposedly they had a bunch of songs…I would produce them…and all I had to do was procure some high-end gear that Collins was dreaming up for the session especially, and I quote Collins, a specific “extremely rare and valuable microphone.” He never thought I would find one as much as rent one, but the long arms and influence of the golden age major label A&R guy should never be doubted.
Wood and Walker lived in the cracks and crevices of Dallas, TX…on the avenues where Leadbelly once roamed. To lay down the tracks, Wood had secured Resin Recording Studio in Denton, a college town about an hour north. (Ok, please get ready for my next mistake) So I sent the money needed to pay for the studio to Wood, who agreed to book the session and get everything ready to go. Larry and I decided to make a true journey out of it, and like Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, coursed the blacktop of fractured Route 66 heading towards Texas, blasting The Silver Apples out of the cars’ speakers as we hot-rodded through the heated desert of southwest Americana, record shopping the whole way.
We arrived in Dallas and met up with Wood. Over a plate of mediocre Texas BBQ, Wood headlined that the money we sent to him to book the studio…which he acknowledged that he had received…had inexplicably disappeared. Yes, as it turns out, Wood and Walker were good old fashion heroin users. The wrong types to send work money to; the most unreliable creatures that hunt in the wild kingdom of the music underground. And yet, Mick and Alex were arriving the next day…and we had driven thousands of road weary miles to see this project through…and I had painstakingly found and carried this extremely rare and expensive microphone Mick wanted all the damn way: this record needed to get made.
Larry and I somehow scraped together the money for the studio…which I am sure my Warner Bros. credit card helped out with a little…enough for three days in the studio. At least the band had the songs that were practiced and ready to go, right? Well, as it turns out, no. They had a few. Two? And covers by Ritchie Valens and Captain Beefheart? Darren had taken our money, and Mick had come with very little work done…and with laryngitis (the latter obviously not his fault). The crows were cawing in the afternoon sun.
For the next sleepless seventy-two hours, I oversaw a session of chaos: Mick writing lyrics to a melody, teaching the band, playing the song through a few times, recording it, getting a great take (phew), and moving on to writing the next song. Thankfully, we were able to dial-in a raw, powerful sound in the studio, with over-driven crunchy guitars and thundering crash symbols; forgetting everything that had gone on in the outside world, the four members of the band had momentarily grab ahold of that glimmering passionate feral rock ‘n’ roll dreamscape. And thankfully, Mick is a talented motherfucker who can pull multiple rabbits out of a hat while also delivering—while sick—a larynx-burning all-star Stax review vocal performance.
As we sat bleary-eyed, outside the studio as we finished mixing the marathon that became the one and only record by Blacktop, Mick told me about three other bands he had going, including one with two bass players and another that was a unique take on underground Detroit techno. He told me that for one demo tape deal, I could have three songs from all three of the bands to listen to. If I were living in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, a bodyless arm would come in frame-right holding a pointer sign, pointing at me, stating: ARE YOU REALLY THAT STUPID? And the answer: I do believe I am. What an ultramaroon! Within a month of our time in Dallas, Mick Collins was signed to another Warner Bros. Records demo tape deal.
There are differences of opinions as to what happened next, but the truth is (which can be backed up by others) I received but one song from that deal, a techno cover of All Your Goodies Are Gone by Parliament. What should I have expected to get, anyway? A few years later, Mick Collins’ double-bass band The Dirtbombs released their debut record Horndog Fest on In The Red Records. Mick and I had not talked in the time between…and I had long since written off the latest demo tape deal as a bit of stupidity and a loss…thankful that I had enough success at Warner Bros. that they did not think twice about a small development deal as such going bad.
But the story has one last twist. Last year, over twenty-five years after the events just relayed, Mick Collins was interviewed by Razorcake magazine (issues 136 & 7) where he said that his deal with Warner Bros. Records had stunted his career…that because he was signed to the major label, he was unable to sign to others and thus was prevented from securing other recording opportunities.
It is important to remember that the demo tape deal is limited-time deal. Often a six month deal, which is stated right in contract, under the item LENGTH OF TERM. I could have extended the term (but didn’t) given the simple fact that: no demos were turned in and what was I going to do, spend my life stalking Mick Collins?! And by the way, if he really felt that he was unable to get into sign other deals, how is it that prolific Mick Collins ended up releasing recordings in multiple different bands on at least a dozen labels starting a few years after the Blacktop record was released? Hardly strictly stymied!
With all that water under the bridge, Mick and I have kept up over the years…maintained a friendship. Upon reading the interview, I texted him, challenging his accusation to being in stuck mode, signed to a major label he never put a record out with, never offered up more than one recording to, had never once called to talk through his supposed situation. At first he texted back, saying that he did not blame me for how he was treated. When I told him that he was treated more than fairly, and that the deal was only for 6 months, he retorted: “Well, that explains a lot!" If you know Mick, you know that his response is very very Mick…and you have to love him for it.
I always say that the music industry is a crazy industry—not as crazy as Broadway, but pretty crazy—created by thieves (starting with Thomas Edison), mobsters, drop-outs and beautiful nut-jobs: people who I am happy to call friends. The reason to partake in the insanity is to attempt to hopefully touch that deep source of artistic brilliance, a rare thing but a life-affirming one. Getting to know George Harrison: pretty great. Listening to Mick Collins cut to tape the vocals through gnarled chords on Blacktop’s I Think It’s Going To Rain then watching him pull songs out of the air, one after another, and have them recorded within minutes: there is nothing like moments such as these. Romancing such moments can result in unexplainable actions, like engaging in multiple bad demo tape deals or sending money to drug addicts (hopefully learning lessons along the way!). But great music has come from crazier actions.
And great music from great artists make all the craziness very much worth it.
fin
The Most Valuable Releases Sold on Discogs in 2024
Yes, I love the Velvet Underground…and true, I have one of the largest Velvet vinyl bootleg collections (how I got most of it…a long story)…and damn, if there is not a hole in my collection for an All Tomorrow’s Parties single with sleeve. But that hole is looking a whole lot nicer when I did not have to pay 30K to fill it. Good to see the Velvets have the most pricey discogs sale for 2024. The rest of the list: pretty crazy as well!!!!
‘The Last Sacrifice’: Rupert Russell’s New Film Examining the Murder That Inspired ‘The Wicker Man’
This film looks incredible. Unfortunately due to its JUST STARTING the festival rounds, there is not much out there (besides this article) to hold on to. Looking forward to seeing it! Teaser here.
Enticing deep dive on the newspaper props created to weave crazed messages into the films we love.
When Paul McCarthy tried to buy Michael Jackson's house
It would have been great to have an Extended Organ show there…
Meet the writer who added “lol” to the end of every sentence of In Search of Lost Time.
“For a long time I used to go to bed early lol. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say “I’m going to sleep lol.” And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Francois I and Charles V lol.”
In The Beginning
By Dylan Thomas
In the beginning was the three-pointed star,
One smile of light across the empty face,
One bough of bone across the rooting air,
The substance forked that marrowed the first sun,
And, burning ciphers on the round of space,
Heaven and hell mixed as they spun.
In the beginning was the pale signature,
Three-syllabled and starry as the smile,
And after came the imprints on the water,
Stamp of the minted face upon the moon;
The blood that touched the crosstree and the grail
Touched the first cloud and left a sign.
In the beginning was the mounting fire
That set alight the weathers from a spark,
A three-eyed, red-eyed spark, blunt as a flower,
Life rose and spouted from the rolling seas,
Burst in the roots, pumped from the earth and rock
The secret oils that drive the grass.
In the beginning was the word, the word
That from the solid bases of the light
Abstracted all the letters of the void;
And from the cloudy bases of the breath
The word flowed up, translating to the heart
First characters of birth and death.
In the beginning was the secret brain.
The brain was celled and soldered in the thought
Before the pitch was forking to a sun;
Before the veins were shaking in their sieve,
Blood shot and scattered to the winds of light
The ribbed original of love.
**HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROGER SESSIONS
Really enjoy these rambles through your (professional) past, especially since they often bring context to my (listening) past. Agree that Mick Collins is one of the great under-heralded rock and soul cats of our generation. Happy Holidays David!
Cheater Slicks played with Blacktop on what, I think, were some of that band's only live shows on the east coast, or maybe anywhere. We played with them at Maxwell's in Hoboken and I think in Manhattan somewhere. There was already tension in the band because of Darin's "use" of the studio money. We later played with Darin when he was in 68 Comeback on our much underattended "Gutter Rock" tour of 1995. So much drama during that tour- which I won't go in to.
Mick is truly a one of a kind. So glad that I got to hang out with him a few times during those years. We were all in a little club of bands playing a style of music a little ahead of its time, in terms of what people were accustomed to. I'm glad the Gories are now able to work it to their advantage, since their reputation and following has grown over the years.