FUCK GUNS !!!!!

Nathan Nothin' here.

It is with an anguished heart that I post today.

Yesterday, my dearest friend, guitarist & composer Rick 'G-Funk' Smith of Joyride, lost his seventeen year old son, Alex "Young Ace" Smith to senseless gun violence.
Alex was at a party where a fight amongst some other party-goers erupted into gunfire. Alex was struck in the back by a random bullet that pierced his lung & he bled out before doctors could save him.

I have not the words to say to convey how I feel---the mixture of sadness, loss, & anger.
As always for me, when overwhelmed by life (or in this case death), I turn to music for solace.

Shot Down With a Gun - Steve Diggle & Flag of Convenienc
If It Were Up to Me - Cheryl Wheeler

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE: Suspect held in Smith slaying

January 26, 2008

Yuba City police arrested a Williams man Friday in the death of Alex Smith.

Gregory Kevin Wilson Jr., 19, was arrested at 1:45 a.m. Friday on suspicion of murder, according to Police Department records. Wilson also was arrested on suspicion of attacking 19-year-old Deandra McGraw during the same Frederick Street house party where Smith, 17, was murdered last Saturday, said Webster. McGraw suffered a broken jaw.
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I was working on a new posting when this all transpired, & I just lost interest in it all.
Here's something to fill the void for now...
New Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductees - The Ventures

100,000,000 albums

While pop diva Madonna's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2008 struck many 'rock 'n' roll' fans as curious (though no stranger than the 2006 induction of jazz great Miles Davis), inclusion of the best selling instrumental rock group of all time, The Ventures, is a good albeit long overdue fit. With worldwide album sales in the neighborhood of 100 million, The Ventures have served as a major influence on generations of rock 'n' roll guitarists over the more than 40-year lifespan of the group.

Formed as a duo in 1958 by lead guitarist Bob Bogle & rhythm guitar player Don Wilson, the pair added bass player Nokie Edwards (who would later trade roles with Bob Bogle & then be replaced by guitarist Gerry McGee when Edwards left the group in 1968) & drummer Skip Moore (soon replaced by Howie Johnson then long-time drummer Mel Taylor, today the drum chair is filled by Mel Taylor's son, Leon Taylor) to record the 1960 hit "Walk Don't Run," which reached #2 on Billboard's Top 100. By 1963, The Ventures had five albums on Billboard's Top 100 - at the same time.

It would be difficult to overstate the influence of The Ventures on the development of the electric guitar's role in rock 'n' roll with respect to the instrument itself due to the group's association with Mosrite guitars & their later Ventures Fender models; their early use of guitar effects, such as Nokie Edwards use of a fuzz pedal on 1962's "2000 Pound Bee"; & playing style - one of their '60s instructional albums also made it to Billboard's Top 100 album chart.

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"The Ventures are the biggest selling instrumental rock group of all time: they created albums rather than just collections of songs & were able to adapt their 'surf guitar' sound to a wide range of styles. The solid body Fender guitar sound of the Ventures' Bob Bogle & Don Wilson worked with surf, country, spy, or psychedelic music. Who but the Ventures could pull this off? Few have even tried. Busloads of rock guitarists profess the Ventures' influence (like the Who's Pete Townsend). With well over 100 million albums sold, they are the definitive (& first) 'big in Japan' act. Though their following is slightly more modest everywhere else, the Ventures will be cool forever." ...Nick Dedina

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The Ventures are one of the first, best, most lasting & influential of instrumental guitar based combos.

The Ventures, originally the Versatones, were formed by Bob Bogle in 1959, in Seattle, Washington.

Bob was born in Oklahoma but grew up in Portland Oregon. Bogle had started playing guitar by his teens. In his mid-teens Bogle moved to Seattle to work where he supported himself by bringing wet cement to bricklayers. There he met Don Wilson, who had learned trombone & piano as a child, & bass & guitar while in the Army. By mid-1959 they had begun playing in local clubs. They soon added Nokie Edwards, who they had met while doing a local TV show in Tacoma. Eventually they completed the group with Howie Johnson on the drums.

Their first demo "Walk Don't Run" was sent to various record companies. Receiving no response, Wilson's mother released it on her own Blue Horizon label. "Walk Don't Run"was picked up for distribution by Dolton Records (distributed by Liberty), the group re-named, & became an instant regional hit in 1960. In August 1960 "Walk Don't Run" became a #2 hit. The Ventures followed it with a rock version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky", then "Perfidia", "Lullaby of the Leaves", "Diamond Head", & "2,000 Pound Bee", all which were hits through the early & mid-Sixties.

In the wake of the success of "Walk Don't Run", Wilson and Bogel left their jobs in the building
industry to pursue music full time. The group issued a cover of "Perfidia", a Latin song that had been made popular by Alberto Dominguez in 1939. "Perfidia" reached #15.

In 1961 Johnson was replaced by Mel Taylor after he was hurt in an automobile accident & left the group. Hits kept coming with versions of "The Lonely Bull" & "I Walk the Line" in 1963 & a top ten surf remake of "Walk Don't Run" in 1964. In 1965 they released what was one of the first instructional records, Play Guitar with the Ventures.

In 1967 Edwards was replaced by Gerry McGee, who left in 1970 to record with Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, after which Edwards returned. By that time keyboardist Johnny Durrill had expanded the Ventures to a quintet & the group had delved into fuzz-tone a& wah-wah guitar modification as well blues, calypso, & Latin material.

Throughout the 60's & 70's there were several personnel changes. Nokie Edwards left & was replaced by Gerry McGee. Edwards later returned to the Ventures & left again. Keyboard player John Durrill joined the group in the late 60's. Mel Taylor left at one point & formed his own group, Mel Taylor & the Dynamics, but later returned to the group. Some of the artists who worked as guests or session players with the Ventures in the 60's included Leon Russell, Harvey Mandel, & David Gates.

In 1969 the Ventures had a hit with a version of the theme from the TV show Hawaii Five-O. In 1981, with Bogle, Wilson, Edwards, & Taylor, they released a regional West Coast single "Surfin' & Spyin'" & embarked on a successful tour of the U.S. & Japan. Bogle, Wilson, & McGee are still active in the group. Mel Taylor passed away in August, 1996. His son Leon is now the Ventures drummer.

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I seem to be one of vast millions. I have my share of Ventures albums. The era I prefer is the 60s Ventures. I've picked several tracks from three different Ventures albums from the 60s that show some of the range of their material..."Surfing", In Space, & Swamp Rock.

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"Surfing" - The Ventures, Dolton Records BST-8022, 1963.
All three tracks I selected are from side two. I bypassed the obvious "Pipeline" for a Ventures surf theme song, a heavy (ha-ha), & one of my all time favorites (you can practically hear the surf & the gulls...oh, wait, you can actually hear them).


Barefoot Venture
The Heavies
The Lonely Sea

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In Space - The Ventures, Dolton Records BST - 8027, 1964.
Now the Ventures have moved from the Pacific waves to the Galactic flow. They've updated the surf with a bit of psychedelics. Far out, man. "Penetration" is probably the crossover tune, kinda surfpsych. "Fear" is the Main Title Theme from the TV show "One Step Beyond". "Exploration in Terror" was by written by Bob Bogle, Don Wilson & Nokie Edwards.

Fear
Penetration
Explorations in Terror

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Swamp Rock - The Ventures, Liberty Records LST - 8062, 1969.
A Sound Idea...New? No...Been doin' it...sayin' it...just now hearin' it?...Time passin'...little else to do...listen...crickets...mouthharphummin'...ax 'n' hammer...beatin'...strummin'...what they sayin'?...Delta doin's...raised...braised...'n' bayou blistered...generations new? No. Tell me 'bout it.


Swamp Rock (the only original courtesy Bob & Don)
Niki Hoeky
Catfish Mud Dance


Enjoy,
NØ

Sometimes I Feel Like I'm on LSD

This post has been updated August 3, 2013.

 The Sterilles - On the Rag, Screaming Skull Records, 1987.

decryption code in comments

Produced by Spike Marlin at Gallery II Studios

The Sterilles (original line-up):
Dina Marie Price-Press (natural blonde) - guitars,vocals
Aan Leadingham (no tattoos) - bass, vocals
Ashley Stewart (don't ask) - drums, background vocals

Side One -

On the Rag
Shopping
You're So Glam it Hurts

Side Two -

Gravy Sucking Pig
Sometimes I Feel Like I'm on LSD

"On the Rag"
I'm on the rag
Get me a Kotex
How about a Pamprin
I hate men

I'm on the rag
I'm on the rag
I swollen like a pig
Get me a Pamprin
My boobs hurt

I'm on the rag
I'm on the rag
Get me a Kotex
I'm on the rag
I hate you
I hate me
'cause I'm on the rag

I'm on the rag
I'm on the rag
Get me a Kotex
I'm on the rag
I hate you
I hate me
'cause I'm on the rag

I'm on the rag
I hate men
Don't even think about it tonight
Of course I'd be wearing white

I'm on the rag
I'm on the rag
Get me a Kotex
I'm on the rag
I hate you
I hate me
'cause I'm on the rag

I'm on the rag
I'm on the rag
Get me a Pamprin
I'm on the rag
I hate you
I hate me
'cause I'm on the rag

I'm on the rag
I'm on the rag
Get me a Pamprin
I'm on the rag
I hate you
I hate me
'cause I'm on the rag

I'm on the rag
Get me a Kotex
I'm on the rag
I hate you
I hate me
'cause I'm on the rag

& I can go horseback riding & swimming & even put it in my sock!

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 Sic F*cks - Sic F*cks, Sozyamuda Records, 1982.

decryption code in comments

Produced by Adny Shernoff (The Dictators)
for Swingtime Productions

In memory of John Belushi & Lester Bangs
See & Hear The Sic F*cks in the Motion Picture
Alone in the Dark


Alone in the Dark (1982) – Slasher formula gets skewed all to hell in this one. Donald Pleasance, Jack Palance, & Martin Landau do what they do best: Chew up that fucking scenery with some absurd overacting!! Inventive kill scenes (a hospital orderly is broken in half across another
man’s knee) & a strange humanization of the villains shows some desire to go leftfield with what is otherwise a genre exercise. It’s as if the screenwriter had a minor stroke prior to the last three rewrites. Something must occur to release the bad guys, & it happens after Potter's sister (Lee Taylor-Allan) comes to stay. She's also had mental health problems, but is sympathetic in a 'hey, they're not all dangerous' kind of way. When she takes Potter & Nell out to see a band (the Sic F*cks as themselves), there's an electricity cut at the nuclear power plant meaning the town is plunged into darkness. Best scene: Jack Palance wondering into a punk rock club & becoming oddly captivated by the band, The Sic Fucks doing "Chop Up Your Mother".

#########################################################################





America's first punk rock shop began as an extension of Tish & Snooky Bellomo's closet. "Everybody was always copying our style," Snooky recalled, "so we wondered if we could
sell it" The result was Manic Panic, which was a fixture at 33 St. Mark's Place from its
June 1977 opening until it closed early in 1989.

"You wouldn't believe this neighborhood back then," said Tish. "the East Village had bottomed out, and most of the storefronts on St. Marks place were empty. We took this place for $250 a month, which seemed like a lot."

Snooky admitted that they knew little about operating a business when they opened the shop. "We started with a few go-go boots & two racks of clothes brought from home in the Bronx. But people were afraid to come into this neighborhood at first. Some days we'd make fifty cents when somebody bought a button from us. But then we started getting good press & things began to change."

Expanding beyond the basic stock of motorcycle jackets & Doc Martin boots, Manic Panic stocked such glitter-punk accessories as turquoise hair dye, metallic gold corsets, wigs, glitter eyeliner, stage blood, liquid latex, & spike-heeled shoes. "You couldn't order spike heels back then," Tish said. "You had to find them. We'd go into old stores and ask if they had any old stock, & they'd say 'Yes, but nothing you girls would want, just old spike heels.' & they wouldn't believe it when we'd buy them out, maybe a hundred pairs in their original boxes. We'd bring them back here & display them on the walls, put them in the windows, just the greatest stuff. Like that place down on Reade Street, remember, Snooky? That place Debbie Harry found?"

Debbie Harry was more than an early celebrity customer-- Tish and Snooky were backup singers with the punk group Blondie in its early dates at CBGB. "Before they got signed," Tish added, with no trace of regret.

"So we got together a group called the Drop-Outs," said Snooky, "& then in 1977 our friend Russell Wolinsky came by the shop & put us in this new band he was starting for one show at CBGB's. He called the group the Sic F*cks, spelled with an asterisk because 'All we need is U!' Anyway, we packed the place 'cause everybody wanted to see what kind of crazy band would call itself the Sic F*cks. Then Lester Bangs gave us this terrific write-up, so we kept doing it, made a record, & still do one concert a year."

Side One -

(Take Me to) The Bridge

Side Two -

Insects Rule my World
Spanish Bar Mitzvah
Rock or Die
Chop up Your Mother

Enjoy,
NØ

Too Mu Chi Lou Rawls

Lou Rawls, the smooth-voiced, enduring singing star whose career traced a line from gospel to jazz & pop, died two years ago today, January 6, 2006 of lung cancer. Lou Rawls was in the recording business for forty years, & his voice is as distinctive & instantly recognizable as any in music

Born Louis Allen Rawls on Dec. 1,1933? or 1935? (both dates are cited by many divergent sources, even 1936 by one biographer) in Chicago, Illinois, Lou was raised in Chicago by
his paternal grandmother. He began singing gospel at age 7 in the choir of the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church. His singing became known around town.

Lou first recorded in June 1950 with The Holy Wonders (imprint: Premium 854 : 'I Won't Be Long' b/w 'Move In The Room With The Lord'). He later recorded in February 1954 with The Pilgrim Travelers.

As a teenager, he began joining doo-wop groups with his classmate Sam Cooke, whose own singing career in the 1950's & 1960's really took off. As natives of Chicago, Rawls & Cooke were often running partners on the gospel scene when Rawls sang with The Pilgrim Travelers & Cooke starred as the lead of the Soul Stirrers with Lou singing along. One rainy night the Soul Stirrers were on their way to one of their concerts when they were in a car wreck. They collided with an 18-wheeler. Rawls was initially pronounced dead; Eddie Cunningham was killed; Cliff White broke his collarbone; Sam Cooke was hardly injured. Rawls wasn't dead, but lay in a coma for five days before waking & eventually recovering from the severe concussion.This near death experience & Sam's success as a secular artist were to influence Rawls. After he recovered, he went out on his own as a secular artist in 1959.

He applied his velvet baritone voice with effortless flexibility to gospel, blues, jazz, soul & middle-of-the-road pop, ensuring his success that will last beyond his death. He earned three Grammys, sold one platinum & five gold albums.

He said: "There are no limits to music, so why should I limit myself?"

I have in my collection a record that I have not been able to find any information about,
by the limitless man himself. It is on clear orange vinyl, pressed I believe in Korea for First Stereo Record - SFL1494. It is probably a rip of the 1967 Capitol release Too Much!

Lou Rawls was in the midst of a hot streak at Capitol, scoring smash singles & winning Grammy awards. Too Much! was one of three albums he released in 1967, all of which made the pop Top 40 albums chart. It was superbly produced & arranged by David Axelrod, with Rawls being bluesy, soulful, anguished, triumphant, & resigned. He displayed both a variety of moods & a vocal mastery at its peak.

The record is in a flimsy paper cover that looks like a copy of the Capitol cover with
First Record logo & number added to avoid legal issues. The greatest thing about this record other than the orange vinyl is the translation work. On the record, several tracks are listed incorrectly, as 'It's Anuphill Climb to the Bottom', but the best is the albums title itself:
Too Mu Chi Lou Rawls

Lou Rawls - Too Much!, Capitol Records T 2713, 1967.

decryption code in comments

 

Side 1 -

Yes, It Hurts (Doesn't it?)

It's an Uphill Climb to the Bottom

I Just Want to Make Love to You

You're Takin' My Bag

Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye

Dead End Street (monologue)

Dead End Street

Side 2 -
Twelfth of Never
Righteous Woman (monologue)
I Wanna Little Girl
Why (Do I Love You So)
I'll Take Time
You're Always on My Mind 

So, to Mu Chi, Lou Rawls!

Enjoy.

NØ

It Was 70 Years Ago Today

Sitting here in the Media Room, wanting to get back to the relative 'normalcy' that is my so-called life after the utter friction of the holidaze, watching the embers in the fireplace consumed & crumbling symbols of the past several weeks. The band is practicing again this Saturday afternoon in our living room after a brief (two week) hiatus & that will lift my spirits to the heavens but for that immediate gratification that I'm so Jonesing for, I realize I should post something (more out of 'because every other blogger does it' than real desire) here & then I realize that copy-cat or not, that is exactly what I need for a little grounding/cosmic jubilation (caught in the micro/macro loop).
I go instantly into magick mode as I enter the vinyl sanctuary, & with Nothin' on my mind I pick an album at 'random', put it on the turntable, drop the arm, flip on the Vapir, kick back in my chair, & partake. I present it here for your listening pleasure...a gift to the New Year from the past/future.

Jazz by Sun Ra, Transition Records #j-10, 12 July 1956.
Dale Young, Art Hoyle - trumpet
Julian Priester - trombone
James Scales - alto sax
John Gilmore - tenor sax
Pat Patrick - baritone sax
Sun Ra - piano, leader
Wilburn Green - electric guitar
Richard Evans - bass
Bob Barry - drums
Jim Hearndon - tympani

from the 1967 Delmark re-issue DS-411:
"Sun Ra styles himself a prophet, embroidered fez above that poached face, enrobed in dark material of dime-store sheen & spattered with a Milky way of stars. Laugh! He writes pamphlet-poetry & daydreams of a space Utopia. Go ahead, laugh! His band looks like a bunch of overgrown boys playing Flash Gordon in mother-made costumes. Snicker...snort...have your fun with this man, his strange garb & garbled strangeness, yet be warned. Don't laugh so hard that you miss his music. You may find a chorus of years & numerous musicians laughing right back in your face.

For Sun Ra is a prophet, & this album is his prophecy, preached & made a matter of record for all to hear, though few have, & too many of those few misunderstood.

July 12, 1956. Charlie Parker was but fifteen months dead, John Coltrane was barely beginning to tug ears as a sideman. No one expected the still-distant messianic coming of Ornette Coleman. The musician usually credited with being the first of the current avant-garde to make his statement, Cecil Taylor was gingerly putting together his pieces, & would have to wait two months for his first recording date, arranged by that aptly-named, far-sighted, though short-lived label, Transition.

On that day, Transition was busy elsewhere, having come to Chicago to summon to a recording studio Sun Ra & ten disciples, the men of his frankly far-out rehearsal band. On that day, this album was recorded."
J.B.Figi April 1965

Brainville
Call for All Demons

On New Year's Day 1938, Herman "Sonny" Blount was deep in the midst of religious concentration when a bright light appeared around him, &, as he later stated:
"....my whole body changed into something else. I could see through myself. & I went up … I wasn't in human form … I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn … they teleported me & I was down on [a] stage with them. They wanted to talk with me. They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye. They talked to me. They told me to stop attending college because there was going to be great trouble in schools … the world was going into complete chaos ... I would speak through music, & the world would listen. That's what they told me."

Transition
Possession

He returned as Le Sony'r Sun Ra, a member of the "Angel Race", not of this Earth.
Sun Ra developed a complicated persona of "cosmic" philosophies & lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of Afro-futurism as he preached "awareness" & peace above all else.

Street Named Hell
Lullaby for Realville

He became a world-renowned innovative jazz composer, bandleader, piano & synthesizer player, poet & philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy", musical compositions & performances. He led The Arkestra, an ensemble with an ever-changing lineup & name (it was also called "The Solar Myth Arkestra," the "Blue Universe Arkestra," "The Jet Set Omniverse Arkestra,") & many other permutations. Sun Ra asserted that the ever-changing name of his ensemble reflected the ever-changing nature of his music.

Future
New Horizons

Jazz By Sun Ra, Transition Records #j-10 (later titled Sun Song) is the debut album to be released by Sun Ra. The LP originally appeared on Tom Wilson's short-lived Transition Records, dated 07-12-1956. In the mid-1960s it was licensed to Delmark Records, finally being reissued in 1967.

Fall Off the Log
Sun Song

It may be a new year, 2008, but we still haven't caught up to the more than 50 year old offerings of this Time/Space traveler. His trip to Saturn happened a full decade before Roswell & flying saucers entered public consciousness, about fifteen years before the contactees & their stories of benevolent Space Brothers were publicized, & almost twenty years before UFO abductions were a public concept. Sun Ra was both prophesying his future & explaining his past with a single act of personal mythology. This album is just the first chapter in the Sun Ra Time/Space journey.
Enjoy.
NØ

Music in Transition (Records)

In the '50s & '60s, Tom Wilson was virtually the only African-American record producer working in mainstream American popular music. He was most productive in the 1960s, though he made his first mark in the mid-50s. Having a goal in mind of setting up a record label & recording the most advanced jazz musicians of the day, he formed a label called Transition Records. The label did release several albums, including Sun Ra's Jazz By Sun Ra (or Sun Song) which was Ra's first LP, & the album Jazz Advance by Cecil Taylor. However, the label eventually folded, & most of their material was sold to Delmark Records, a small Chicago-based label.

Thomas Blanchard Wilson Jr. (March 25, 1931 – September 6, 1978) was an American record producer best known for his work in the 1960s with Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, Simon & Garfunkel, & The Velvet Underground. He worked for Columbia Records, then went to Verve Records.

Wilson was born in 1931 to Tom & Fannie Wilson. He grew up in Waco, Texas, where he attended A.J. Moore High School. He was a member of New Hope Baptist Church. Tom was known by his initials, T.B. in his youth. While attending Fisk University, Wilson was invited to Harvard where he became involved with the Harvard New Jazz Society & radio station WHRB; to the latter he later credited all of his success in the music business.

After Transition Records folded, Tom went on to Columbia Records. As a staff producer at Columbia Records Wilson was one of the "midwives" of folk-rock.

He produced Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 debut LP Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. which included "The Sound of Silence". Seizing on local radio interest in the song in Florida & inspired by the huge success of The Byrds' folk-rock version of Bob Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man", Wilson took the duo's original acoustic track & without Simon or Garfunkel's knowledge, overdubbed electric instruments, turning the track into a #1 pop hit, helping to launch the folk-rock genre. Simon and Garfunkel, who had already split, re-united after the hit & went on to greater success.

Wilson's other major achievement was his work with Bob Dylan, producing Bringing It All Back Home. Wilson is credited as one of the producers of Highway 61 Revisited, even though he only produced one song, Dylan's 1965 single "Like a Rolling Stone," where he allowed musician Al Kooper to play the signature organ part, even though up to that point he had only been a guitarist.Tom Wilson should be remembered as the person that gave Dylan his rock and roll sound....indeed, as the person that first got Dylan to "plug in" (on Bringing It All Back Home).

After his stint at Columbia, Wilson moved to Verve. In 1966 he signed the Mothers of Invention to Verve Records & was credited as producer on the group's seminal debut album Freak Out!

About the sessions, Frank Zappa has stated:
"Tom Wilson was a great guy. He had vision, you know? & he really stood by us ... I remember the first thing that we recorded was 'Any Way the Wind Blows,' & that was okay. Then we did 'Who Are the Brain Police?' & I saw him through the glass & he was on the phone immediately to New York going, 'I don't know!' Trying to break it to 'em easy, I guess. Wilson was sticking his neck out. He laid his job on the line by producing the album."

For Verve Wilson also produced The Velvet Underground, featuring Lou Reed, John Cale, & Nico. Another of his Verve production credits was The Blues Project, which featured Al Kooper as vocalist & keyboardist. In fact, Kooper had met & joined the Blues Project after the band had auditioned for & been rejected by Columbia Records, where Kooper had been playing in Bob Dylan's band, which was being produced by Wilson.

Wilson was also credited with producing the first album by Soft Machine.

While it is undeniable that on most of his notable productions, the lion's share of the creative work is attributable to the primary artists, composers & instrumentalists on these recordings, it stands to reason that it is more than mere coincidence that Wilson was a supervising presence at the birth & blossoming of some of the major breakthroughs in American music in the mid-20th Century. From his championing of the innovative early work of Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor & Frank Zappa, to his shepherding of Bob Dylan from standout folk singer to full-fledged legend & voice of a generation; from his resuscitation of a dying Simon & Garfunkel duo, leading them to stardom & making possible the exploration of their unique musical world to his helming the session that yielded "Like a Rolling Stone", often cited as the single greatest song of the Rock 'n' Roll era, Tom Wilson was a crucial force. Though he rarely receives notice comparable with these mammoth achievements, Wilson clearly belongs in the discussion (along with luminaries such as Phil Spector, George Martin, Brian Wilson and Teo Macero) of the most important & influential producers of the 1960s.