FAMOUS A**HOLES I HAVE KNOWN...Chapter One ©1996-8 by Tommy Mandel
Women in Rock - Strange creatures that they are these days, women have
played an important role in my career as a suck up and let it loose
sideman. I was always playing in one kind of band or another, starting in
7th grade with 7 guys that read Dixieland arrangements out of these little
books, then "graduating" to a Beatles and James Brown cover bandQuartet,
with this GREAT black singer, Barlow Davis, who knew all the chords and
was the nicest guy who ever left town to join the army and move to
Germany;. His "little" sister Hilda still inspires moist dreams when I
contemplate the bucktoothed full bodied riot she caused when she "Walked
the Dog" at the talent show in 8th grade. Hands splayed on bent knees, butt
extended at an impossible angle, the sweetest look of soul travel on her
face, giving new, divine meaning to the word "twitch"...Whew. Bobby and
Tommy Hall, brothers in every sense, were playing bass and guitar, behind
their heads, pumpin like Baby Isley's to Land of 1,000 Dances and the
auditorium was goin up in flames. Bobby is no longer with us sadly; he had
an accident on I-95 one night, but I'll always remember his good nature
and whimsical "Well, I'm black, cooler than you could ever be, yet you
rule, but so what, can't change that"cackle. Tommy was another story.
Aries and angry, with a kid on the other side of town, and he could give Jimi a run
for his money. Eeeeeee-Lectric!!! The Real Deal. He was a year or two younger than
Bobby, and there were others....Artie...and John, the oldest, worked as a prison guard
upstate and got us a gig there once. By then,
it was an acid rock quartet, Fluid; whose members now
*Run a Drum Store, *Create Jingles,*Apprehend Criminals,
*Program Computers, and *Write Memoirs, oops, that's me! Tommy
Mandel, keyboard sideman to the greats: Mark Knopfler, (whom we diss at a
later date), Bryan Adams, (not bad for a boss,) Pete Wolf of J.Geils fame,
Ian Hunter; and Mick Ronson,(Gemini brothers, and my link to the biz), John
Waite, Bo Didley, Paul Butterfield, Paul Young, Little Steven, Nils Lofgren,
David Johansen (a/k/a Buster Poindexter), Richie Sambora, Jon BonJovi,Tina
Turner, Cyndi Lauper, Chrissie Hynde,*
Interesting, how the women have to have original-sounding names, not
like Bryan, Mick, Mark, etc. Tina...Cyndi....Chrissie....and...Sophie! Sophie
B. Hawkins, Oh, let's start on her.