- welcome
- bamboozles
- long live Rock nroll
- dope deals (gone bad)
- casino swindles (accidental)
- rock festivals i have known
- the voice
- links
- credits
Sometimes you get the worm, sometimes the worm gets you. Several tales of pulling wild capers off and some that didn't quite come out right...
Johnny Brower NEW from Oliver Watson on Vimeo.
It was 1968, I was living back at home in Toronto with my Mom and two sisters after a nearly two year stint in LA where I escaped from a Toronto winter in 1966 to follow my heart and my 15 year old sweetheart whose parents had relocated there and wanted her back. But we had eloped to Ensenada Mexico and after a kerfuffle with her parents we were back home in Hog Town wondering what the hell to do about the dearth of the weekly doses of rock and roll we had become addicted to on the Sunset Strip while living first at her parents apartment and then my Hollywood pad after I got a job selling photocopy paper and started making gobs of money.
I mustered up some capital from a rich Uncle of a former school chum, got the CNE Coliseum from another friend's dad who was the facility manager, and using a helpful information operator, (remember them) started phoning booking agents in New York and after I think only one other, Associated Booking, got Agency for The Performing Arts and asked for the agent for The Doors.
Richard Loren came on the phone and for $10,000 US against 50% of the gross with a $5,000 deposit, I was sitting a week later with a contract for The Doors to play their first Candian gig April 20, 1968. I could and should write a book about the ensuing year or two but for this little story I will keep it short. Two limos were called for in the rider and Richard had instructed me to bring 6 beers for Jim who would ride in one alone, the band and manager would use the other. After the band departed I found myself at the curb with Morrison and we both got in and headed into the city.
The six beers sat on the floor between us and Jim opened one (Heineken, I had been told no Budweiser, which were not even for sale in Canada at that time). He finished it and opened another and with a slight shift of the shoulder indicated for me to have one. I complied and began to sip as Jim enjoyed the others as he stared out the window at this new city. The limo pulled up to the curb in front of the hotel , the driver rushed out and around to open the door for Jim who stepped out and while with one foot still in the car turned to me and said, "Hey man, thanks for not talking." I was too terrified to say a word and we had ridden into Toronto in silence. Loren told me the next day after they of course sold out, " You did good man, Jim told me he likes the promoter."
The next year after what seemed a lifetime of promoting concerts and festivals, including being on stage most of Saturday and Sunday at Woodstock, I brought The Doors back despite furious opposition from my partners, to headline The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival in September '69. This of course was after Miami and Jim's felony charges, but it was The Doors and as a promoter the music meant more than any police-state misunderstanding of performance art. It took a surprise appearance by John Lennon and The Plastic Ono band to sell out the 20,000 seat stadium but after a brief discussion about who would/should close the show between Jim and John it was agreed as scheduled The Doors would close after John and Eric, Yoko, Klaus and Alan played.
In one of the most electrifying performances of his career, Morrison, although no longer looking like the Lizard King of a year and a half before, gave testament to why your piece Crystal Ship has such meaning. And included in their spellbinding set, Robby Kreiger magically wove the melody to Eleanor Rigby into the guitar solo of Light My Fire. ( I have the bootleg). As was his wont, Jim most often began The End with a brief or longer recitation of his current observation of life and that night would be no different. I share them with you now.
"I can remember when Rock n’ Roll first came on the scene. And for me it was, uh, a very liberating experience because it burst open whole new strange catacombs of wisdom that I couldn’t remember about and didn’t know anything about and I couldn’t see any equivalent for in my surroundings. And that’s why for me this evening it has been such a great honor to perform on this stage with so many illustrious musical geniuses."
Of course he was referring to Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent, and John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman and Alan White.
Long live Rock and Roll. A night for the ages. Yeah, I think I'll write that book.
--
Johnny Brower
Why can't these simple transactions between friends be left alone by the cops?
Right in the middle of E.F. Hutton goes down...this sh*t happens.
From POP 69 to Woodstock and The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival and on to Strawberry Fields with The John Lennon Peace Festival in between, here come the chestnuts.
No they didn't steal their show from this name and I didn't steal this story from them but The Voice is the only way to describe this one.
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