ROCK AND ROLL NEWS

Joe Cocker is presently recording his fourth album in Muscle Shoals, with Denny Cordell again handling production. No details are available on musicians or material. The Mad Dogs & Englishmen flick is complete and A&M wants to get it out before the first of the year, so it can be considered for Oscar competition. Cocker’s old band, the Grease Band, has also signed with A&M — Chris Stainton will produce.

Rita Coolidge is ready with her new album and is getting a “super” group together to take on the road.

Don Everly is releasing a solo album .. . doesn’t mean the Everlys have split, he’s just done a solo album, like a thousand million other people.

Lee Micheals is back to organ, with a new drummer, Joel Larson, replacing ex-Michealette Frosty.

Phil Ochs, presently in Europe with the vaudeville duo of Jerry Rubin and Bernadette Devlin, is ready for his next album.

We reported, and Leon Russell stated, some weeks ago that Heads Over Heels, the Detroit rock trio, had been signed by the Russell/Cordell label Shelter. It turns out that that is no longer the case, that the band is somewhere out on the Coast and that the Shelter pact is no longer. The Heads are a fine band so something good will undoubtedly happen to them shortly. Stay .tuned for details.

Meanwhile, the supposed legitimacy of the Dead’s Vintage album was called into question by Rock Scully, the Grateful Dead’s longtime manager. Scully said that the album, composed of old live tapes, was supposed to be released as part of a three record set, the other two records to be composed of tapes by Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Jefferson Airplane. “We haven’t seen any money from them and I don’t expect we ever will,” said Scully. Asked about Curb’s drug campaign, Scully replied, “He just needs to be dosed.” Perhaps an effective remedy for the most obvious asshole of the recording industry.

The Jefferson Airplane have added a fiddler, Papa John Creach, who has played with them on several studio dates and also on a modicum of live dates. No one is saying that the 53 year old violinist isn’t a permanent fixture, either.

The title of Janis Joplin’s last album, only partially complete at her death, is now Pearl, changed from Full Tilt. Pearl was Janis’ nickname among friends.

Ex-Buffalo Springfield member Jim Messina is now an ex-member of Poco, too. He’ll now do independent production work in Los Angeles.

Spencer Davis is now signed to Mediarts, the label which brought you the famous Begatting of the President album by Orson Welles. Maybe Orson and Spencer can get together and jam.

Bonzo Dog will probably re-form for one gig in Britain in December.

Manfred Mann and Chapter Three are recording their second album for Vertigo in England (Polydor over here). The band should also begin touring the States after the new year.

Jack Bruce, now with Tony Williams’ Lifetime, will release a jazz album called Things We Like in January. The record was recorded over two years ago and features John McLaughlin, also of Lifetime and Dick Heckstall Smith and Jon Hiseman of Colosseum among the sidemen.

The Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed has split, due to being fucked over by management, to become a solo act. Lou will probably now record his tunes as a solo artist. Despite implications on the back of the new Velvet’s album Loaded, the primary impetus behind that, as with all the other Velvet Underground albums, is Lou Reed.

Carl Wayne, who quit as lead singer for the Move a few months back, will be released shortly. It’s called “Maybe God’s Got Something Up His Sleeve”. A solo album is also slated.

Micheal Lang, the Woodstock promoter, and Marvin Grafton (publisher of CrawdaddyTs latest incarnation) have a new record company called Just Sunshine, which will operate out of (where else?) Woodstock. Just Sunshine will distribute through the Paramount label.

Johnny Almond and Jon Mark, the two former Mayall sidemen, have just signed a three-year contract with Capitol/EMI’s Harvest label. The group will have an album, 14 Belvedere Drive, released in January.

Alan White, the drummer with Denny Laine and Trevor Burton’s new band, Balls, has already split. He left three nights before their first gig, for reasons unspecified. Laine and Burton then did an acoustic set as their premiere.

Jimi Hendrix may have some material released soon in Britain according to Track Records. A single “Dolly Dagger” was to have been released by Warner Brothers in the United States but that’s up in the air at this point.

What Track has in the can are tapes of Hendrix performances at the Albert Hall in London, at the Isle of Wight this summer and half of a new album. The new album will probably be complete by a selection of unreleased cuts, according to Track representatives.

Douglas records in the United States also has some tapes, and if they’re anything like the Power of God cover we saw at Stanley Mouse’s Motor City exhibit, then that album is decidedly something to look forward to.

Track recently released a three-track Hendrix single, “Voodoo Chile”/“Hey Joe”/“All Along the Watchtower” in stereo.

Mott the Hoople will release a live album next March. They had originally intended to have at least the British version available by the end of the year but delayed it because of their impending second Amerikan tour. They will release a new single shortly however.

Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles are recording in London for Track subsidiary, Fly. Track owners Kit Lambert (who produces the Who) and Chris Stamp (who is actor Terence’s brother) will produce.

Jesse Winchester now has a new band gigging in Montreal. He’s reportedly speaking French now, as well. Winchester, of course, cannot perform in the U.S. because he moved to Canada in order to escape the evil clutches of the U.S. Selective Service System.

Doug Weston’s San Francisco Troubador, designed to resemble a Frisco version of the Troubador in L.A., has been shut down after three months of little business.

Jane Fonda now says that pornography is capitalistic; she said that she didn’t think that there was anything wrong with the human body, mind, but that “pornography (is) ... an unfortunate exploitation of human anatomy. It’s part of capitalistic society such as ours.” While visiting and speaking in the Motor City area in December, the newly radicalized Fonda (Peter’s been supposedly far-out for years) was staying with the White Panthers in Ann Arbor. It sure ain’t no Easy Rider trip.

James Brown and Deidre Jenkins were married a few weeks ago in Brown’s home, Augusta, Georgia. But complications arose in the middle of November when a paternity suit was filed against Brown in Florida courts. The suit claimed that the young lady had known Brown for over ten years and that he fathered her month old child. No word yet on the results of that but these things are generally settled out of court.

Representatives of the recently formed Jazz and People’s Movement (the same group which stormed Merv Griffin with Rahssan Roland Kirk at their head) have demanded equal time on television for their art. Representing the Jazz and People’s Movement on Dick Cavett’s show were pianist/genius Cecil Taylor, trumpet man Freddie Hubbard (“the greatest trumpet player in the world” he called himself), Billy Harper, Andrew Cyrille and Mrs. Roland Kirk.

The group had also disrupted previous performances pf Cavett’s and Johnny Carson’s shows. “You have Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell on TV,” noted Roland Kirk, “So why not give our music a fair chance?”

The Jazz and People’s Movement was slated for a fifteen minute visit on the Cavett show but the ever-liberal Cavett had them stay for an extra fifteen. During the proceedings, Cavett constantly mumbled liberal phrases about how guilty he was feeling. But whether any concrete action will result is another story.

The Movement demands include: the appointment of a board of jazz musicians to coordinate three to four network jazz specials a year, to educate viewers about jazz, blues, r and b and gospel (i.e., Black Music in general); the presentation of jazz musicians whose reputations are not yet established; the highlighting of black musicians on talk and other shows where they would be interviewed and not just restricted to playing music.

Governor Lester Maddox of Georgia plans to become a singer when he quits governing the state. Maddox said he would concentrate on songs of a “political and religious nature”. Some of the records would have him speaking, a la the Everett Dirksen, and some of them would feature him singing in front of a band, a la ex-Louisiana governor Jimmy Davis, who wrote “You Are My Sunshine”.

“I hope to become the first ex-governor to sell a million records”, the patriotic racist exclaimed.

Marianne Faithful, actress/songstress and former companion of Mick Jagger, was rushed to the hospital November 12th. She had collapsed in her hotel room in Birmingham, England. Miss Faithful, who was registered as “Christine Roberts”, had her stomach pumped and was reported doing well.

When Marianne Faithfull, lately linked with British Lord Rossmoor, was granted her divorce in London the other day Mick Jagger was the one who was handed the bill for the $480 in costs.

Dave Mason has finished his second solo album, again with out Mama Cass Elliott; that one should be released by the first of January. Two weeks later, the third Dave Mason album, this one WITH M.C. Elliott. A veritable glut on the market, as they say in other sorts of biz.

Joy of Cooking, a well-known San Francisco band, is set to release their first album on Capitol around the first of the year. Joy features female musicians, not just singers — their lead guitarist is a woman, Terry Garthwaite and according to reports is truly excellent.

A pirate radio station operated by Tennessee State Troopers from their speed trap near Cookeville, featured David Lannan, San Francisco records recording artist, last week. Having finished up. studio work on his new album in Nashville with Area Code 615, Lannan and his producers, Bruce Good and Jeffery Cohen headed for the Smokey Mountains. Caught in the speed trap with many other cars, Lannan made the most of the delay for all concerned by walking along the road, singing to the people as they waited. The state troopers seized the chance to play disc jockey by holding up their car radio mike’s so that all the troopers, the station and the country side (via the bull-horns) could hear. Are police with radios really frustrated broadcasters? It may be the first time anyway, that their tickets were signed with a smile.

The Stooges tour the South in December and then it’s off to Los Angeles to record killer album number three. “Big Time Bum” is slated to be the daring quartet’s next single.

The Beatles may get together again in ’71 according to business manager Allen Klein. The story about the telephone argument between Paul and the gentle George was apparently only that-a tale. The band has not been together (all four at the same time) in about two years.

Ringo and Maureen Starr are now proud parents of their third child, a girl. The baby was born on the weekend of November 14th. The Stones will almost definitely be on Atlantic; their new album is finished and they’re looking for a new hit single to regain their sales potency.

The Stones Altamont movie is now promised distribution before Christmas. The film will be called Gimme Shelter and will be released through Cinema V, which also did the Eldridge Cleaver documentary and Z.

Meanwhile, the Stones are being sued for thousands of dollars in unpaid bills from the tour. Diners-Fugazy travel bureau, for example, has already obtained a $24000 judgement against the Stones’ representatives. Apparently, the suits are a result of people who were supposed to take care of those kind of details not doing so. '

Ian Mathews and Southern Comfort are being wooed by both the Rolling Stones new label and Apple, the Beatles’ label. Mathews is a former member of Fairport Convention and the band’s sound is somewhat similar to that group, though more electric. Southern Comfort previously released a pair of albums on Decca, with a third (Later That Same Year) due out soon.

Janis Ian is recording a new album in Berkeley, produced by ex-Youngblood Jerry Corbitt.

A percussionists battle is shaping up in London where Ginger Baker and Elvin Jones are practicing in preparation for a duel to the death. Jones, ex-Coltrane sideman, said of the killer toad, “I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble,” which was also the opinion of Buddy Rich, regarded by some (not all, by any means) as the equal of either of the others. Ginger’s practicing was hassled by an appearance in court on dope charges — Baker was fined $180, a mere pittance to the ex-Cream-star.

WABX-FM now features a live radical-sports program done by Jeff Mortimer, late of the Ann Arbor Daily. Mortimer raps about radically relevant sports programs three or four times a week during newscasts.

WABX disc jockeys will be hosting their own series of two hour, color tv specials on WXON-TV, Channel 62; the first program, on November 22, featured Catfish, Frijid Pink and a number of other guests. Overall director of the series is Dave Dixon, who also directed the station’s experimental programs on Channel 56, the local educational station.

There will be a total of 13 shows, beginning with the one in November and continuing into the summer. The show will not be limited to rock and roll musicians but will also feature other members of the burgeoning Motor City youth culture community. The next two programs will be aired on December 13th and January 27th. The name of the program is Detroit Tube Works.

MGM President Mike Curb, himself a youth twenty five or thereabouts, has announced that he is dropping eighteen acts that “advocate the use of drugs”. Curb has, so far, refused to specify which acts will fall prey to his reign of terror — it is a fact however, that MGM recently released a Best of the Velvet Underground set and you know what their big number is.

Jesse Colin Young, of the Youngbloods, was stricken with appendicitis in Louisville a few weeks ago so his wife, Susan, flew out to meet in the hospital. She arrived just in time to give birth to their new son. Everybody’s in fine condition, with our congratulations.

Traffic has moved over to Columbia records, with their first release slated to be Live November 1970, recorded live in Port Chester, New York last month.

According to the AJ Weberman Bob Dylan Waxworks, if you play “If Dogs Run Free” backwards, you’ll find the words “IF MARS INVADES US”. No context, just those words. Ho and hum.

There is now (of course, of course) a Janis Joplin bootleg album. The Joplin memorial is so far available only in the Bay Area, with legal circumstances tieing up even that. It was recorded at a concert in San Rafeal, Cal. last May. Tunes include “Tell Mama”, “Half Moon”, “Get It While You Can” (which she performed on the Dick Cavett show last summer;that show was recently reshown and it was truly killer), “Try”, “Moreover’ and the obligatory “Try”, “Piece of My Heart”, “Cry”, “Summertime” and “Kozmic Blues”. The Joplin thing has been pulled off ’Frisco counters, however, by an injunction from Alameda Superior Court. The bootleggers-named as David and Katherine Brunettewere sued for a wopping million bucks.

Tony Williams Lifetime has cancelled jobs in England because of contractual restrictions concerning mentioning of previous associations with other groups in advertising. According to Melody Maker, the Stigwood Organization’s contract for the group compels the advertiser not to mention either Miles Davis or Cream in the advertisements nor may any of the individual member’s of the band’s names be mentioned in print over 50% as high as the word Lifetime. The group presently consists of Jack Bruce, Tony Williams, John McLaughlin and Larry Young.

Albert Ayler is dead in New York, His body was discovered in the Hudson River on November 28th. No autopsy findings have been reported; some suspect foul play but others note that Ayler had been “strange” ever since tenor master John Coltrane died two years ago.

Ayler was one of the giants of the new jazz. His initial recording as a soloist was done on ESP, with a disc called Spiritual Unity. Later, he recorded a number of albums for Impulse, including the devastating Love Cry. Later, he moved into a free jazz, r&b conglomerate that many listeners found confusing and not to their liking. But whatever one thought of his later works, his first few are a testament to his genius.

Ayler was buried in his hometown, Cleveland, the first week in December.

After a disappearance of two years, Seatrain is set to record in London. The first album is almost completed, with ex-Beatle producer George Martin at the controlboard. The group, led bv ex-Blues Project member Andy Kulberg (“Electric Flute Thing”), will release the record on Capitol and is set to tour the States when they return in December.

Mary Hopkins says that she will no longer record for the Beatles’ Apple label when her contract expires. That’s in about six months; Mary apparently feels that her career has been neglected by Apple, though her star is rising in Britain. She currently has a tv show there, for example.

Hopkins was being produced by Paul McCartney but says she hasn’t seen him in over a year. “Paul had to do the things he wanted to do. I couldn’t expect him to give me any more time,” she said.

Both the Amboy Dukes (Polydor) and MC5 (Atlantic) are expected to release new albums on January fifteenth beginning another dynamic year of Michigan music, no doubt.

Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull, never known for oversolictiousness before, recently appeared in a benefit for Phoenix House, the New York smack clean up program.

New addition to Leon’s Russellettes: Pacific Gas and Electric, whose new single and LP were produced by the Bramletts, Delaney and Bonnie. As Jimmy Durante once said...

Creedence Clearwater will have their sixth album out shortly. Called Pendulum, it is supposedly a long way from their usual basic attack. Irregardless, it sold a million copies (which earns a platinum, not gold, record;you get a gold record for a million dollars worth of albums, which is a lot less) before it was released.

At press time a number of journalistic personae were being flown to the West Coast to see the group and their environment. That story is coming up shortly.

In Miami, reports that Little Richard ripped off $250 from a Black chairty have been set straight. Richard merely wanted a receipt, see, and when it wasn’t forthcoming, neither was the bread. So explained his manager “Bumps” Blackwell. A reasonable request when dealing with “charities”. As for the Queen Mother’s stomach, Blackwell said that it was doing all right but that the prognosis was indefinite.

Ray Davies has completed a new film score, Percy, which concerns the world’s first penis transplant.