exile on manchaca road & a little home wrecking?
so I just started working with this new band (the good looks) and somehow,
some way I got bobby keys to play on their new record.
If you don't recognize the name - shame on you... he is the sax player
for the rolling stones, he has played with everyone... yoko ono, buddy
holly, faces, lynyrd skynyrd, he played on a lot of john lennon's solo
albums, & now he will be on the good looks new record.
so we waited for hours and we drank... he said he would be there at 5,
then it was 6, he called back and said it would be 8:30.... then he
called again and said it would be no sooner than 9:30... at nine he
called and said he didn't want to (or couldn't) drive and that he would take a cab..
so we hopped in the van and said lets go get this mother fucker... We
pull up - he's drunk, but I guess it hadn't really sunk in that I had
set this up, and I dunno, when I saw him leaning on his car waiting for
us I just got all nervous. As he stepped into the van (which was very
nice) he said "This is just the kind of place I need to be, warm, soft
and no sharp corners." during the ride to the studio he talked about
Kieth - how they met, he talked about being from lubbock and he drank
the beer we brought him. It was a little quiet at times, we all had a million
questions we wanted to ask, like "hey what was buddy holly like?" or
"how many tv's do you think you have thrown off of a balcony in your life time"
but we figured he has to answer these sorts of questions all the time, so I went
with "what does your wife do?" I had talked to her earlier and she sounded
um, interesting and I thought it was polite... He says "she likes to go to paris
and max out my credit cards..." I didn't bring her up again.
So, we get to the studio, we get him another beer, he listened to the track
(which he liked) and then he went into the cutting room and was awesome.
sax can be really cheesy and I was worried that hey, maybe he is as old as
he looks and as drunk as he looks and maybe he is cheesy now...
maybe is he isn't what he used tobe, but like I said, it was perfect - exactly
what the band wanted. So, after 45 minutes or so of recording he is
done, we get him another beer and he comes in to listen to the track
-everyone is pleased. He says he is going to drink his beer and head home.
While he drank his beer he told us stories about john and yoko... here is my favorite:
Bobby once lived across the street from john and yoko outside of london - Yoko
didn't like bobby and wasn't crazy about john hanging out with him. So, john
came up with a plan to make yoko like him, he got bobby to play on one of her
albums. bobby comes into the studio with them and they listen to the song
she has chosen (I don't know which it was) and there is no beat or melody (of course)
and bobby doesn't really know where to start so yoko tells him what the
song is about... there is a pond and it is fall and all of the creatures have left the pond
except for this one lonely bullfrog sitting on a lilly pad. The part she wants him
to play is the sound of the breeze blowing over the frogs back....
bobby still sorta doesn't get it - he looks at john and john shrugs and motions
him in the direction of the cutting room as if to say - just go do something.
he went in a nd played the lowest note possible and yoko jumps up immediately
and says "that's it!"... she never had a problem with bobby after this....
Anyway - he talked about recording exile on main street, we took our picture
with him because we are dorks and then mark from the rockland eagles drove
him home and the rest of us headed for the bar.
I woke up the next day feeling gawd awful and I was an hour late for work... I really
wanted to call in sick, but it was pay day - so... whatever, I made it through the day -
I was really pleased with what had gone down the night before, and that was that...
end of story?
no
last night at 11:30pm I get a call from holly keys - that would be bobby's wife...
I answer the phone - she starts yelling at me.
HER: "what are you doing calling my husband?!"
I try to answer she cuts me off -
HER: "I have been married to bobby for 20 years - what the hell do you think you are doing?
see I have talked to this woman before - about hiring her husband for a studio session..
I know her through my boss.
HER: "I can't believe this, I am going to call davis (my boss) and let him know
what you are up to! Is my husband there now, I want to speak to him now..."
I tried to explain that he wasn't there, that I hadn't seen him since he got into a
van the night before and that I had no interest in her hubby who has to be at least
40 some odd years older than me... she didn't buy it - she hung up on me to
call my boss - would he fire me over such a thing if this had happened? doubtful...
anyway - she called back later and lectured austin about me calling bobby and
then hung up on him... we haven't heard from her since.
lessons learned:
1. never expect anyone involved with the rolling stones to be anything other than
5 hours late and totally loaded.
2. if one of their wives calls and accuses you of shacking up with their husband always take
it as a compliment and don't answer the phone when they call back a second time
some way I got bobby keys to play on their new record.
If you don't recognize the name - shame on you... he is the sax player
for the rolling stones, he has played with everyone... yoko ono, buddy
holly, faces, lynyrd skynyrd, he played on a lot of john lennon's solo
albums, & now he will be on the good looks new record.
so we waited for hours and we drank... he said he would be there at 5,
then it was 6, he called back and said it would be 8:30.... then he
called again and said it would be no sooner than 9:30... at nine he
called and said he didn't want to (or couldn't) drive and that he would take a cab..
so we hopped in the van and said lets go get this mother fucker... We
pull up - he's drunk, but I guess it hadn't really sunk in that I had
set this up, and I dunno, when I saw him leaning on his car waiting for
us I just got all nervous. As he stepped into the van (which was very
nice) he said "This is just the kind of place I need to be, warm, soft
and no sharp corners." during the ride to the studio he talked about
Kieth - how they met, he talked about being from lubbock and he drank
the beer we brought him. It was a little quiet at times, we all had a million
questions we wanted to ask, like "hey what was buddy holly like?" or
"how many tv's do you think you have thrown off of a balcony in your life time"
but we figured he has to answer these sorts of questions all the time, so I went
with "what does your wife do?" I had talked to her earlier and she sounded
um, interesting and I thought it was polite... He says "she likes to go to paris
and max out my credit cards..." I didn't bring her up again.
So, we get to the studio, we get him another beer, he listened to the track
(which he liked) and then he went into the cutting room and was awesome.
sax can be really cheesy and I was worried that hey, maybe he is as old as
he looks and as drunk as he looks and maybe he is cheesy now...
maybe is he isn't what he used tobe, but like I said, it was perfect - exactly
what the band wanted. So, after 45 minutes or so of recording he is
done, we get him another beer and he comes in to listen to the track
-everyone is pleased. He says he is going to drink his beer and head home.
While he drank his beer he told us stories about john and yoko... here is my favorite:
Bobby once lived across the street from john and yoko outside of london - Yoko
didn't like bobby and wasn't crazy about john hanging out with him. So, john
came up with a plan to make yoko like him, he got bobby to play on one of her
albums. bobby comes into the studio with them and they listen to the song
she has chosen (I don't know which it was) and there is no beat or melody (of course)
and bobby doesn't really know where to start so yoko tells him what the
song is about... there is a pond and it is fall and all of the creatures have left the pond
except for this one lonely bullfrog sitting on a lilly pad. The part she wants him
to play is the sound of the breeze blowing over the frogs back....
bobby still sorta doesn't get it - he looks at john and john shrugs and motions
him in the direction of the cutting room as if to say - just go do something.
he went in a nd played the lowest note possible and yoko jumps up immediately
and says "that's it!"... she never had a problem with bobby after this....
Anyway - he talked about recording exile on main street, we took our picture
with him because we are dorks and then mark from the rockland eagles drove
him home and the rest of us headed for the bar.
I woke up the next day feeling gawd awful and I was an hour late for work... I really
wanted to call in sick, but it was pay day - so... whatever, I made it through the day -
I was really pleased with what had gone down the night before, and that was that...
end of story?
no
last night at 11:30pm I get a call from holly keys - that would be bobby's wife...
I answer the phone - she starts yelling at me.
HER: "what are you doing calling my husband?!"
I try to answer she cuts me off -
HER: "I have been married to bobby for 20 years - what the hell do you think you are doing?
see I have talked to this woman before - about hiring her husband for a studio session..
I know her through my boss.
HER: "I can't believe this, I am going to call davis (my boss) and let him know
what you are up to! Is my husband there now, I want to speak to him now..."
I tried to explain that he wasn't there, that I hadn't seen him since he got into a
van the night before and that I had no interest in her hubby who has to be at least
40 some odd years older than me... she didn't buy it - she hung up on me to
call my boss - would he fire me over such a thing if this had happened? doubtful...
anyway - she called back later and lectured austin about me calling bobby and
then hung up on him... we haven't heard from her since.
lessons learned:
1. never expect anyone involved with the rolling stones to be anything other than
5 hours late and totally loaded.
2. if one of their wives calls and accuses you of shacking up with their husband always take
it as a compliment and don't answer the phone when they call back a second time