Mick was asked to talk about the Soho scene in the flower power era. We began the interview with some general comments about the club scene.
Yeah, well, me and Keef used to hang out the the Bag 'o' Nails a lot, wiv Pete and Roger, Eric, Graham Bond and Screaming Lord Sutch.
One night we were all in there and in came Syd, wiv this geezer wot none of us knew at all, you know what I mean?
Anyway, Syd was wiv this geezer, a weird boffin type of dude, and I heard him sayin' to Jimi that this bloke, Brian, was the future of rawk 'n' rowl music, all right man, like far out dude, an' all.
Keef was noddin' out a bit at that point, so I went over to Syd and asked him, like, to introduce me to the dude and Syd, who was kinda like, spaced, yer know? and he said," yeah far out Mick, this is Brian. He's got a machine, he says I can use his machine, in fact he says that I am always welcome to his machine, and he gave me a cigar too"
So, we like, shook 'ands an' all and I went back over to Keef 'n' Graham and the uvver guys and that was it, kinda thing.
Stephen Stills also remembers the first time he met Brian.
Well, it musta been '66 or '67 and we were all down on the Strip. I was there with Janis, Neil, Jerry and Bob from the Dead, some other dudes and we were all pretty high at the time, someone had a new batch of Bear's purple acid and things were pretty mellow.
Jerry was jammin' with Jorma and Jack Casady at the time and there was this kinda square dude hanging around on the fringes of the scene, no one knew who he was or anything but the buzz was that Brian (I think he was a Brian) was gonna be kinda influential, y'know? People said he was gonna be as cool as that Charlie Manson guy. Me, I wasn't so sure, I mean, there was something kinda creepy about Brian."
David Bowie also remembers Brian.
Awwwwwwww hey maaaan, you wanna leave me alone, yeah I knew Brian, everyone knew Brian, he was, like, The Maan, dude, you know? Brian had secrets, man, he knew things, people said Brian was gonna be big, like everyone said he was gonna be one of the last few peoploids, when there were no more big wheels, Brian was gonna be like a kinda Big Brother.
Me, I wasn't so sure, but, y'know, I thought I'd better take care not to catch my death, in the fog, y'know.
So I buggered off to Berlin with Iggy and got totally wasted for two years."
8 comments:
Yeah, Carole far out - and did Mick tell ya he had to change the title of the Midnight Spengler to Rambler for fear of what the Speng might do? (But if you listen to the lyrics carefully...)
Brill, CB - This will be a key reference when nilpferd does the Authorised Biography of Mr Speng, to help explain everything to the mystified newcomers to RR.
Are Speng & Austin Powers related? I think we should be told.
Course i was there when The Spengler came into the bar, borrowed a guitar off Jimi, and played even faster than Clapton ever had. I was blown away.
ah...so Speng is lefthanded? That explains a lot.
I just lurve the photo.
Manuel Göttsching has just confided to me that it was indeed Speng who pressed the record button as he was fooling around with his keyboard. E2 - E4 was the result. And the rest, as they say, is history.....
My respect my dear CaroleBristol (what an attractive name you have). Whenever one attempts to tell someone's life story - especially one whose life has been as colourful as yours truly - there are always one or two inaccuracies but all told its quite remarkable how you conjure up the heady days of my youth for me and take me back there again.
Groovy Mamma!
That's not me in the pic by the way, but I do remember Mr Wyman being approximately in this position the last time I saw him.
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