Mike's Blog Round Up
By Mike Finnigan Friday Aug 15, 2008 10:00amJerry Wexler, RIP: I'm proud and grateful that Jerry was a friend of mine, beginning the day in 1975 he called me, out of the blue, and said, "I like the way you sing. Let's make a record." I couldn't have been more surprised and thrilled if I'd received a phone call from God. I'd grown up listening to Jerry Wexler-produced records. He's one of the reasons I'm a musician. He took me to Muscle Shoals, Alabama and we did an album for Warner Brothers. Being around Jerry was a constant joy. He was a walking encyclopedia of popular American music, especially R&B and jazz. Aside from his important contributions as a genuine musical pioneer, and his unique talents as a producer, he was a wonderful raconteur, a man of exquisite taste, a tough businessman, but a gentleman, and a soft touch for musicians.
I could ask him something like, "tell me about Solomon Burke..." and he'd do an hour of lively, informative and often hilarious commentary on that subject and related topics, one story sparking another. I spent countless hours with him in New York before and after our project, in Alabama while we were recording, and on many occasions in the succeeding 30 years, pestering him to talk about his life in music, which he was always happy to do. I learned a lot. About his experiences with everyone from Ray Charles, to Willie Nelson, to Wilson Pickett, to Aretha Franklin, to Bob Dylan, and on and on. The last time I spoke with him several weeks ago, I opened the conversation by asking how he was doing. "How the hell you think I'm doing," he replied..."I'm 91...!!" What an honor it was for me to have had the opportunity to work with Jerry Wexler. I lost a friend. American music lost one of the greats.
Thought Theater: Compare & Contrast: Family Values and the 2008 election
Frameshop: What America needs to hear about Jerome Corsi, and the denialists riding the slime machine.
Pam's House Blend: Do your homework or Teach might pop a cap in your ass.
The Big Picture: Financial Innovation
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Will America recover from the shame and dishonor heaped upon her by the neoconned Bush Regime?
I'm not so sure
Every time I see the name on the byline, I think,, "I wonder if that would be the same Mike Finnigan I knew back in the seventies, R&B shouter and Hammond B3 player, came out to California from Wichita with Lane Tietgen and The Serfs, teamed with Jerry Woods as "Crazed Hipsters," Jerry Hahn in the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood, later with Dave Mason and Steve Stills?
That you, Mike? If so, it's me, Charlie, sound guy at The Lion's Share, roadie for Sons of Champlin and for a few days in 1971, roadie for the Brotherhood. Hit me back!
If not, never mind.
I was with The Sanford Townsend Band and recorded for Warner Bros in the old Muscle Shoals studio on Jackson Highway, in the mid '70s. I was proud to have known and worked with Barry Beckett and Jerry Wexler. RIP Jerry you will always be one the greatest names in music.
Otis Hale
Corsi and the Political Cesspool.
hmmmmm?
Appropriate.
Yep, the Klan is flexing it's political muscle. Ugly and Pathetic. And Wrong!
Who knew there were progressives in Alabama?
I mean mechanical dildos are illegal there. How much more right wing christian repressed conservative Republican McCainish can you get?
Blue Gal (yours truly) spent eleven years there. The "Alabama for Obama" t-shirt was on backorder recently. - BG
Hey Mike, I just did the Google thing, and IT IS YOU! This is awesome! You are the baddest B-3/vocalist alive with the possible exception of my Main Man Bill Champlin. I think the last time I saw you was at an outdoor gig at Kirkwood Meadows in '77, when you were playing with Dave Mason.
I just scored a B-3 for my studio that will make you drool, it was rescued from the Phillipines when the Japanese invaded, and spent WW II at the Treaure Island Officers Club. Gotta be from the thirties.
Regarding Corsi and his 9/11 myths... I'm so confused. Are we now supposed to believe -- or at least not question-- the official line about the WTC bombings? I've never totally believed the airplanes-caused-them-to-fall-theory. I can't stand Corsi, but why should I send the linked video to my also-skeptical Democratic friends, as the blogger suggests?
whaddda fuukin AWESOME band. AND Johnny Gimbel? Mustabeena a great session.
Jerry Wexler's passing is indeed a great loss. Probly, wasn't he best known--outside the inside of the biz--for all the songs he either wrote or co-wrote, with Gerry Goffin and Carol King?
Nice collection of links, too...
Yeah anyone who grew up in the sixties and really likes music knows that Jerry Wexler was a music industry giant.
RIP Jerry.
Jerome Corsi was on C-SPAN this morning claiming his book was just like the anti-George Bush expose books on the market, which ignores the point that most of those books were written by former insiders such as Scotty McCellan or others with a strong area in their field of expertise to make such criticism as does Vincent Bugliosi. Jerome Corsi has no inside information but reports hearsay based on other biased non-insiders.
eric @ 10:
I should have added at the last sentence: non-insiders with little or no expertise to make criticism.
kerplunk @ 5:
Alabama, land of $10 an hour media studies interns being promoted to $57,000 per year special assistant to a top Republican and McCain buddy,
and let nobody say young college age boys dont deserve promotion, and a place to sleep... until the politicos wife catches them in bed together.
Condolences about Wexler. I've heard some great tributes to him this week. There was a great discussion I heard I can't find online, unfortunately, but All Things Considered did this one:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93625915
Wexler was the last of the old school record biz hustlers, guys who actually liked the music and went out to clubs to listen and socialize with the people who made it. Nowdays, the suits couldn't care less. It's all "product" to them, which is a big part of the reason the business is in the toilet.
I could tell a few stories on Solomon Burke myself, having had the, um...'pleasure' of working for him in a horn section a few times, but those yarns are not for here. I believe it was Dorothy Parker who said, "if you can't say anything nice about someone, sit next to me."
They put out some great music down at Muscle Shoals! I, too, did not realize that you were THAT Mike Finnigan.
It is the same Mike Finnegan. And he's touring with Joe Cocker these days...
Thanks for the link, Bluegal!
L.A. Confidential @ 1:
Especially since half the country is ready to vote for a neoconned McCain regime.
My tribute to Wexler, courtesy of James Hunter.
Mike,
All of us back here in western Missouri/eastern Kansas remember those days going back to the Serfs. For you to become a friend of Wex and make a record of him must have been a watershed moment in you life. You still sound so fine after all these years and your blog roundup here is a daily read for me. Thanks for the post.
Mike,
My condolences on the passing of your friend. May he rest in peace. He had a full, fruitful and beautiful life and I'm sure your happy memories with him will live on in your heart.
You got Amos Garrett on your album? I love that guy, totally plays a style of his own.
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