G.H. Harding
GORDON’S DRUMS & DEMONS — (By way of Forgotten Hits) Diversion Books is ready to publish Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon by Joel Selvin on February 27th, 2024. Selvin’s riveting narrative follows the person who many take into account the best rock drummer of all time, from his humble beginnings as a teenage touring musician, to his many landmark accomplishments within the studio and on the highway, by means of his downward spiral into psychological sickness, matricide and incarceration. With the cooperation of the late rock legend’s household, and based mostly on his trademark intensive, detailed analysis, Selvin uncovers one of many darkest tales in common music, additional cementing his fame as a grasp of rock noir.
“With out downplaying the grotesque particulars of Gordon’s crime, Selvin gracefully portrays the musician as ‘greater than his illness,’” states Publishers Weekly. “This affecting account sheds new mild on certainly one of rock’s most complex figures.”
Born and raised within the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, Jim Gordon obtained his begin as an expert drummer touring with the Everly Brothers within the mid-1960’s. His penchant for inventive and astonishingly correct musicianship earned him common session work, becoming a member of the neighborhood retroactively known as The Wrecking Crew. His preternatural instinct and excellent sense of time may be heard on greater than 30 Prime 10 singles together with a number of #1 hits together with the Seashore Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” Carly Simon’s “You’re So Useless” and “I Bought You Babe” by Sonny & Cher (he additionally provided the literal beat for “The Beat Goes On” by the latter). He has been immortalized on albums by George Harrison, John Lennon and the Byrds, amongst dozens of different family title music acts.
Gordon was notably the drummer for Derek and the Dominos and offered the piano coda for his or her evergreen anthem “Layla.” Joel Selvin particulars how Gordon didn’t merely preserve time, however he was additionally instrumental in shaping compositions; whether or not it was his Latin-influenced rhythms on “Rikki Don’t Lose That Quantity” by Steely Dan or his monumental drum break on the Unimaginable Bongo Band’s “Apache” (a staple of hip-hop from the style’s inception, having been sampled on over 750 different information), he wasn’t only a participant on hits, he made them hits.
Selvin explores the thoughts of Jim Gordon and his lengthy battle with schizophrenia, which stayed undiagnosed for years whereas he self-medicated with alcohol and exhausting medicine, whereas making an attempt to carry his profession collectively all through the 1970’s. Gordon’s head turned crowded with a hellish gang of voices screaming at him, demanding obedience, finally taking him from absolutely the heights of the rock world — taking part in with probably the most well-known musicians of his era — to working in a Santa Monica dive-bar band for $30 an evening. His sickness got here to a head in 1983 when he brutally murdered his personal mom, resulting in incarceration for the rest of his life. Jim Gordon handed away in March of 2023 on the age of 77. With assistance from first-hand accounts, medical information and courtroom paperwork, Drums & Demons brings this horror to life.
Selvin isn’t any stranger to the seedy underbelly of the music world. He tackled related subject material in Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hell’s Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day (2016), he adopted New York gangsters in Right here Comes The Evening: The Darkish Soul of Bert Berns and the Soiled Enterprise of Rhythm and Blues (2014) and Peppermint Twist: The Mob, the Music, and the Most Well-known Dance Membership of the 60’s (2012), and lined kidnap and homicide in Hollywood Eden: Electrical Guitars, Quick Vehicles, and the Delusion of the California Paradise (2021).
“Jim wasn’t the beneficiary of a lot compassion throughout his life,” stated Joel Selvin, “however no person knew what ache and battle he went by means of preventing his psychological sickness.”
DRUMS BY JIM GORDON: SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Joan Baez – Diamonds and Rust
Seashore Boys – Good Vibrations / God Solely Is aware of
Jackson Browne – Right here Comes These Tears Once more
Buffalo Springfield – Anticipating To Fly
Byrds – Goin’ Again
Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman; Mild On My Thoughts
Carpenters – There’s A Type Of Hush
Eric Clapton -After Midnight
Joe Cocker – The Letter
Crosby, Stills and Nash – Marrakesh Categorical
Burton Cummings – Stand Tall
John Denver – Thank God I’m A Nation Boy
Derek and the Dominos – Layla
Dino, Desi and Billy – I’m A Idiot
Associates Of Distinction – Grazin’ In The Grass
Merle Haggard – I’m A Lonesome Fugitive
Albert Hammond – It By no means Rains In California
George Harrison – What Is Life
Hues Company – Rock The Boat
Unimaginable Bongo Band – Apache
Sammy Johns – Chevy Van
John Lennon – Energy To The Folks
Gordon Lightfoot – Sunset
Dave Mason – Solely You Know And I Know
Monkees – Mary Mary
Maria Muldaur – Midnight At The Oasis
Randy Newman – Have You Seen My Child
Nilsson – Coconut
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Strangered In The Evening
Mike Publish – The Rockford Recordsdata
Gary Puckett and the Union Hole – Girl, WOman
Helen Reddy – I Am Girl
Johnny Rivers – Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu
Leon Russell – Pisces Apple Girl
Carly Simon – You’re So Useless
Sonny and Cher – The Beat Goes On
Steely Dan – Rikki Don’t Lose That Quantity
B.W. Sevenson – My Maria
Stone Poneys (that includes Linda Ronstadt) – Completely different Drum
Site visitors – Low Spart Of Excessive-Heeled Boys
Ike and Tina Turner – River Deep, Mountain Excessive
Mason Williams – Classical Fuel
Frank Zappa – Apostrophe (‘)
VIEW TO A KILL — I’ve been house nursing an harm and have had greater than my share of early-morning TV. ABC’s The View remains to be on and apart from Whoopi Goldberg and Pleasure Behar, I’ve completely no concept who the opposite table-hosts are. Former Chase-and GMA-hostess Sarah Haines although, appears to be the one savvy shooter and she or he jogged my memory greater than as soon as of Meredith Viera, who was all the time exemplary.
Rob Base
Final week they ended the present with a efficiency from Rob Base (his “It Takes Two” was a rap-hit in 1988), the Sugarhill Gang and Doug E. Recent for host Sunny Hostin’s birthday, who grew up within the Bronx. It was cute and certainly a bit dated.
Wuxtry Information
SHORT TAKES –— Right here’s the scene at Wuxtry Information in Athens, Georgia, on Friday as they put together for an old-school, old-style in-store with Micky Dolenz to have a good time the discharge of his new EP (on 7a Information) Dolenz Sings R.E.M. on Friday, November third. With Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz (a former DJ himself) set to seem and to current Dolenz with the important thing to metropolis; the occasion is already sold-out. Wuxtry Information is the place the members of R.E.M. first met and determined to for the band. Additionally attending the occasion with be legendary-photographer Henry Diltz; archivist Gary Strobl and Glenn Gretlund from 7a Information in England … The SAG/AFTRA strike, begun in June continues. Actually, it simply reached their one centesimal day. The TV-season, no less than for this 12 months, is shot and nobody fairly is aware of what it’ll imply for 2024. Folks have misplaced homes, rents will not be being paid and plenty of have taken day-jobs … I watched Saturday’s SNL and the so-called Sister Act-sketch the place Mick Jagger, of all individuals, appeared in was not humorous by any means.
Lorne Michaels
I do know the present is in its forty ninth season, however all I can say is the writing is simply horrendous. Rumors nonetheless persist that after their fiftieth, SNL-kingpin Lorne Michaels will step down. I like him and respect him, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly time …
Alexa Ray Joel and Donnie Kehr
Right here’s another shot from final week’s Rockers On Broadway-their thirtieth occasion. Alexa Ray Joel and Donnie Kehr (photograph by Bobby Financial institution) … Completely happy Bday Chris Gilman; James Edstrom; Andrew Tobin and Jodi Ritzen. and RIP Burt Younger.
The submit The Wonderful Nook first appeared on Instances Sq. Chronicles.
Originally posted 2023-10-23 04:05:17.