The Cocktail Waitress by James M. Cain

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Once, years ago, while buying a couple of Black Lizard editions of James M. Cain books, the cashier looked at the books, frowned slightly and said, "You know, he only wrote three good novels. The rest are crap." I was as much surprised by this opinion of Cain's oeuvre as I was at finding a bookstore cashier who had actually read all of Cain's novels.

With every subsequent book I've read of Cain's since The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce and Double Indemnity, I've begun to fear that that cashier might have been right after all.

Cain's writing is at times mediocre, which tends to point to the quality or amount of editing by publishers. The Cocktail Waitress is no exception, or, I should say, the first half of it. It would appear that Charles Ardai, the editor, took more of a hand in the latter part of the novel and, interestingly enough, the writing improves vastly as the story goes on. But unless you've read and enjoyed Cain's later books, you might not like this one.

Although Charles Ardai seems to have information that the book was written around 1975, the book is actually set in about 1961 or '62. I suppose, judging from the number of manuscripts Charles uncovered, Cain might have originally started the book in the early to mid-sixties and reworked it over and over again until his death.



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Redheads Die Quickly and Other Stories by Gil Brewer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Professor David Rachels, English professor and crime blogger has launched his career as a scholar of 1950s crime fiction with this collection of Gil Brewer's short stories he's put together. His well-written introduction is the most information on Brewer's life I've read since Bill Pronzini's sketch on Mystery File and only hints at his tortured life.

One aspect of Brewer's writing that comes into sharp focus with the reading of this collection is his misogyny. What an interesting case study this book would be for the student of psychoanalysis. Just about every one of the 25 stories collected here has as its focus a depraved, scheming, evil woman who brings the mail protagonist to his demise, be it physically, emotionally or spiritually.

Besides the informative introduction there is a complete bibliography of Brewer's short fiction. Suffice it to say there are enough uncollected Brewer stories to fill quite a few more volumes and, in fact, David has said that he's working on a volume of Brewer's unpublished stories.

If I could find any fault with this nearly perfect collection it would simply be with the title. I don't think the story, "Redheads Die Quickly" was very representative in plot or title of the rest of the stories contained therein. In fact, it was one of only three stories that didn't feature a femme fatale and actually one of the weaker stories. I think David probably chose it as the title story because its a good noir title. But I think the book would have been better titled My Lady is a Tramp and Other Stories, or better yet, Femme Fatales: Stories by Gil Brewer.

Bottom line: If you're a fan of noir fiction, especially if you're a fan of Gil Brewer's, this volume is a must.


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Coney Island, 1940

Naked City by Arthur Fellig Weegee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Weegee's Naked City is, of course, New York City and this photo essay of the city is a must for anyone interested in the history of this great city. Written in 1945 it mostly covers the early forties, the war years, and includes now famous photos such as the beach shot at Coney Island (see below), opening night at the Met and bobbysoxers at a Sinatra concert.

Weegee (Usher Fellig) also includes a chapter of advice for those who would choose photography as a profession as well as brief chapters on the photographers Alfred Stieglitz and Pat Rich.

Although many of the photos included are familiar, reading Weegee's captions and insight add a new dimension.



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Romney--Great for 68 Posters
Make your own large poster at Zazzle.

A lot of young people don't realize that Mitt Romney's father, George Romney, ran for president in 1964 and 1968, while he was governor of Michigan.

Canadian Pacific by Jeff Vorzimmer

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Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" by David Bianculli

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The first three-quarters of this book rates five stars, but the last quarter, which should have been omitted, turns into a political rant in which Bianculli offers idiotic opinions and lame-brain conclusions. Bianculli obviously sees the canceling, or firing, of The Smothers Brothers as some kind of conspiracy and some kind of right-wing conspiracy at that, rather than what it was--Tommy Smothers self-destructiveness spiraling out of control. Rather than spending so much time trying to uncover blame elsewhere for the battles that ultimately led to the cancellation, why didn't Bianculli try to find out what was really going on with Tommy Smothers at the time, since he seemed to have unfettered access to the brothers during the writing of the book.

This book offers no new insight into the story, although the story itself is chronicled in interesting and lively detail. What it doesn't offer is much perspective from Tommy and what was going through his mind when he pulled some of the stupid stunts he did with CBS. He doesn't take Tommy to task at all, nor challenge him in any way on his actions. Nor does Tommy seem to take any real responsibility for the cancellation. Instead its offered up as political censorship, ignoring the fact that those who censored and ultimately canceled the show weren't opposed to the brothers politics, they simply didn't want to offend the viewers on topics such as religion and sex or to offend anyone personally. It was never about the political ideas espoused.

The book could have been great if Bianculli had just kept his left-wing snarking asides out. It wasn't about Democrats versus Republicans as it so often is today. It was the younger generation versus the establishment. In fact, the Democrats of the 1960s were even more conservative than the Republicans. It was a Democrat, Pastore, who talked of censoring the brothers and most everyone involved in the censoring and ultimate firing of the brothers were Democrats. As is still the case in recent years when government censorship is pursued by Democrats such as Tipper Gore.

Here's a passage from the book that shows how much Bianculli wanted to uncover a right-wing conspiracy:
"Finding a smoking gun connecting Richard Nixon directly to the demise of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a task at which I proved unsuccessful, but not for lack of effort." Doesn't this guy have an editor at Simon & Schuster?

How can someone who spends so much time researching a story ignore the facts he uncovers and come to such idiotic conclusions? This is what partisan politics does to a writer.






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Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-And-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood by Michael Walker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Interesting take on the 1960s and 70s as seen from Laurel Canyon in L.A. Walker includes a lot of anecdotes about the musicians who lived in the Canyon and the groups that came out that environment. A good read, though Walked does indulge in a few tangents. Recommended for anyone interested in the history of those decades



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The Label: The Story of Columbia Records by Gary Marmorstein




I guess you really have to love the music business to read a 600 page book about a single label, but, if you do, you really should consider Gary Marmorstein's The Label.

How do you distill that many pages to a paragraph or two? The three most influential people at Columbia Records during the 20th century were actually the A&R men John Hammond and Mitch Miller in addition to it's long-serving president Godard Lieberson.

If you are of the belief that Mitch Miller nearly killed, or at least limited the careers of many a great singer, this book will not alter that view. It's not that Mamorstein is an apologist for Miller, although he did interview Miller for the book before his death at the age of 99, but I think Miller's career, for better or worse, speaks for itself. So the fact that Miller outlived everybody whose career he had an effect on and, therefore, had the last word, doesn't really alter the way history has and will perceive him.

I do however have renewed respect for Hammond and Lieberson. Hammond brought so many musicians to the label who would eventually become its biggest stars such as Dylan, Springsteen, Streisand, Diamond, etc. As president Lieberson created the Masterworks division and brought so many of the biggest-selling shows and soundtracks to the label.



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Alcoholic Mad Men

How to Drink Like a Mad Man by Ralph Maloney

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The 24-Hour Drink Book, retitled for this edition as How to Drink Like a Mad Man, seems like a training manual for alcoholics, although interesting as a period piece--it was written in 1962. If Dover Publishers was really serious about cashing in on the whole Mad Men craze, they might have found another, more interesting book to republish than this, although this one was probably in the public domain. One book from this era that comes to mind is From the Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor and has recently been republished with artwork to tie it to Mad Men. See my blog post from June, last summer.
 

The Original Cover

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For Denny Lovers Only

A notice to all Martin Denny lovers. Vocalion has just released two two-fer CDs of Denny Albums--A Taste of Honey (1962)/Another Taste of Honey (1963) and The Versatile Martin Denny (1963)/Latin Village (1964). Three of these have never been issued on CD and the other, Latin Village, was only issued in a high-priced Japanese paper sleeve limited edition. This are available as of last weekend on Amazon and Dusty Groove.

A Taste of Honey was Denny's second highest charting album and the title tune was his only charting single of the 1960s. Latin Village is a personal favorite of mine with Denny's version of The Girl from Ipanema and Flying Down to Rio. Another favorite is The Versatile Martin Denny with the sublime Exotique Bossa Nova. There's definitely a real bossa feel through out these albums, especially the latter pair of albums.

Black Black Noir

One is a Lonely Number / Black Wings Has My Angel by Bruce Elliot/Elliot Chaze
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Stark House has reprinted two traditionally hard-to-find, much-sought-after paperback originals in one volume--One is a Lonely Number by Bruce Elliot "(1952) and Black Wings Has Angel (1953) by Elliot Chaze. One is a Lonely Number was originally published by Lion (100) and is nearly impossible to find, but yet doesn't command the same high prices as Black Wings, a Gold Medal (296) original, which usually goes for hundreds of dollars.

If you like your hardboiled crime novels gritty and violent and have never read either of these, I highly recommend plunking down $19.95 for this volume. Black Wings Has My Angel has had a cult following for years, even, as it turns out, in the movie business where it's currently being filmed for a 2013 release.

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Hall of Mirrors

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reading PKD reminds me of being in a hall of mirrors in a funhouse at that moment when you catch a glimpse of yourself ad infinitum. I get this feeling not only with his books, but also movies based on his books or inspired by his work, such as The Matrix.

I've tried reading The Man in the High Castle (1962) before and never could get through it, but this time I stuck with it and it paid off. Though the ending left me scratching my head, which I imagine is pretty typical, until you have that "Oooh" moment.

It's a book about a man who wrote a book about an imagined future, an alternate history of a world imagined that's a parallel to the real world, though diametrically opposed to the world of the book itself.

Although I'm not much of a reader of science fiction, I've been intrigued by the steady flow of movies since Dick's death based on his books, i.e., Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, Total Recall, Minority Report, etc and will probably be reading more.

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Separated at Birth? #2

Undercurrent - Bill Evans/Jim Hall, 1962
Tears in Rain - This Ascension, 1989
Oceana - Osvaldo Golijov, 2007
Whispering Sin - The Beauvilles, 2009

Thia photo taken by Toni Fissell at Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida in 1947, has appeared on four album covers and on the cover of a novel (Tethered by Amy MacKinnon. It first appeared in the December 1947 issue of Harper's Bazaar.


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Postcard of the Week #27

Bob and Joan and Richard and Mimi

Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina by David Hajdu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I considered reading Positively 4th Street when it first came out, but never got around to it. I considered reading Hajdu's second book, Lush Life, but never got around to it. But when The Ten-Cent Plague, his third book, was published I couldn't resist, it seemed like it would be such a fun book and it was. So naturally I went and got a copy of this book, the subject of which I was familiar, i.e., the tragic story of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Richard and Mimi Fariña.

I've never been a big fan of Dylan or Baez although I have albums of both, which I've always enjoyed. Nor was I fan of Richard Fariña's now cult classic novel, Been Down So Long It Looks Up, which I only got around to reading recently though I bought the book in the early 70s (see my review). Now, his wife on the other hand, Joan's sister Mimi, I recall being enamoured of in my adolescence.

I always thought that Mimi Baez was the most beautiful girl to come of age in the sixties. No other girl at that time, be it Pattie Boyd, Julie Christie, Brigitte Bardot or Edie Sedgwick, captured my attention the way she did. I first noticed her on that poster she appeared on with her sisters, the now infamous anti-draft poster "Girls Say Yes to Boys Who Say No." (Hajdu didn't doesn't mention the poster in the book, though, in his defense, it happened after the timeline of the book, I believe)

My family lived in Carmel at the same time as the four of them and we would see Joan and Bob tooling around in her Jaguar XKE, just hair and noses going by too fast for the more conservative townspeople who barely tolerated the beatnik artists and musicians as it was. I don't think Joan ever let Bob drive.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book tremendously. It was well-researched and well-written and is an intriguing story that not just anyone would have thought worth telling, which is true of his other books, as well. And it really is a tragic story of star-crossed lovers, to borrow a Shakespearian phrase. I don't think I'm giving away anything since it's well known how the story ends with two motorcycle accidents, the one in which Fariña is killed and Dylan's, which would so greatly alter the course of his life and music.

Hajdu's hypothesis, which he probably doesn't spend enough time trying to prove, is that these four people had a direct, or in some ways, indirect and subtle, influence on the music and culture of the sixties. Dylan and Baez, definitely, and Fariña with his book, which was the On the Road of the 60s, but also, with the music of the Fariñas. It was they, not Dylan, that first created a fusion of folk and rock. When you listen to Mimi's guitar playing and Richard's dulcimer you realize the influence they must have had over musicians such as Cat Stevens, Eric Burdon and the Byrds.

If you have any interest in 60s culture, the folk scene or folk-rock or in real-life tragic stories, this book is a must.

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My New Sixties Poster

The Sixties by Jeff Vorzimmer

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