This is fascinating stuff -- thanks! I remember the Strawberries part on the Boston news and was sort of amazed it was the same legendary guy. Aside from the great _Hit Men_, another book on this , one that is probably not on many jazz fans' radar, is Tommy James' _Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride_. It's a fun and fast read, the writing is not bad, and the stories are outrageous. It tells some of this from a personal perspective, the career of one artist who was caught inside it from an early age. It's interesting that James has some mixed feelings at the end, although the relationship was sometimes really scary and cost him a huge amount of money in royalties on his many hit records.
Don Lanphere long ago told me the story about playing a BB gig and coming off stage to the club manager bleeding to death in the hallway. It's nice to have a date, time and victim! The cops kept the band there all night, thinking it conceivable that one of them did it, but Don's main issue was getting hold of his wife to convince her he hadn't fallen off the wagon *again* and wasn't just out partying. She didn't believe the dead manager story until it hit the papers.
Yes, a great but scary book.
This is fascinating stuff -- thanks! I remember the Strawberries part on the Boston news and was sort of amazed it was the same legendary guy. Aside from the great _Hit Men_, another book on this , one that is probably not on many jazz fans' radar, is Tommy James' _Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride_. It's a fun and fast read, the writing is not bad, and the stories are outrageous. It tells some of this from a personal perspective, the career of one artist who was caught inside it from an early age. It's interesting that James has some mixed feelings at the end, although the relationship was sometimes really scary and cost him a huge amount of money in royalties on his many hit records.
Don Lanphere long ago told me the story about playing a BB gig and coming off stage to the club manager bleeding to death in the hallway. It's nice to have a date, time and victim! The cops kept the band there all night, thinking it conceivable that one of them did it, but Don's main issue was getting hold of his wife to convince her he hadn't fallen off the wagon *again* and wasn't just out partying. She didn't believe the dead manager story until it hit the papers.
Show business......
To fully grasp the history of the massive influence of organized crime and payola upon the music business, the book “HIT MEN” is required reading.