ON THE ROAD - 26 HIT MAKERS OF THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES TELL THEIR OWN AMAZING STORIES
by Dave Nicolson
Music Mentor Books (256pp, paperback, £16.99, 2002)

This review appeared in Goldmine, November 2002.

By and large, Dave Nicolson has waited at his home for his favourite rock’n’roll stars to appear in Newcastle and then interviewed them. I know only too well the problems of interviewing hitmakers for 20, or hopefully 30, minutes before going on stage. They may get distracted (I’ve had some understandably more interested in arranging dates than talking to me), they may be tired (same problem) and there may be faulty equipment or poor acoustics. Glen Campbell was so upset by something in the Daily Mirror that he cancelled all interviews, but no one thought to tell me until I arrived, quite happily, at the stage door.

Dave Nicolson is to be commended for getting such good material from Freddy Cannon, Bo Diddley, Dion, Ben E. King and Del Shannon. There are some intriguing opinions: Pat Boone says that Bobby Darin took “a meagre vocal talent and stretched it”. Come again? Gene Pitney says, “Phil Spector didn’t really produce my recording of ‘Every Breath I Take’ in 1961: he was one of a million people who were all shouting at me.” Tommy Roe: “When I toured the UK with Chris Montez and the Beatles in 1963, I got about $3,500 a week. I was probably making more than the Beatles.” Fats Domino: “Sometimes it would take eight hours to record one number. Now you can record a session in no time.” Funny - I thought it was the other way round.

On The Road is excellently produced with well-chosen memorabilia on quality paper, and my main gripe is the way the interviews are presented. Nicolson has edited himself out of the conversations and so, lots of paragraphs begin “You mention the question of motivation” and “You ask me why I have never played Las Vegas”. Instead, Nicolson should have put more of himself into the book and linked the essays in some way. What, for example, is Edwin Starr doing with these 50s rock’n’rollers?

It made me think of doing a book of my own interviews. I would present one after the other and then on the final page, there would be two lines.
Me: “I’ve come for an interview as arranged.”
Ray Davies: “Fuck off.”

Spencer Leigh

BOOK REVIEW

ON THE ROAD AGAIN – 15 HITMAKERS OF THE FIFTIES TELL THEIR OWN AMAZING STORIES
Dave Nicolson
Music Mentor Books, (204pp, paperback, £14.99, 2005)

In 1973 I wrote my first book, Paul Simon – Now And Then. The reviews were generally sound, but even now a line from one of the music papers still hurts. It said that I wasn’t prepared to leave Liverpool for an interview. It hurt because it was true. Very few people were interviewed for the book and those who were had passed through my home city. It taught me a lesson and I have realised, I hope, that the readers come first: you have to make the book as good as you can and if it means moving around to get interviews, then so be it. Generally speaking, it improves the material as you build up rapport with the performers, note how they say certain things or if they are being evasive, and you can comment on dress, demeanour and home, if you go there. Even when things go wrong (as in the interview with Jefferson Airplane in the Features section of this website), you can get a good story out of it.

I say all this because, compared to Dave Nicolson, my 1973 approach was adventurous. Calling his book of interviews with rock’n’roll performers, On The Road Again is a joke. The writer does not leave his north-east home for an interview – sorry, yes, he does: he interviewed Marty Wilde at Knebworth in 1987. All the other interviews have been conducted by e-mail, telephone and tape. He has never spoken to six of his 15 subjects. The “cool ghoul”, John Zacherle ends his interview by saying, “This is the end of the broadcast here; we’re not going to broadcast anymore.” These are not really interviews, much less conversations.

Having gathered his material, Nicolson writes an opening paragraph and then has the performers tell their story in their own words. Only they don’t. They repeat Nicolson’s questions (“What is the highest spot in my musical career?”, “Am I a religious man?”, “Did I get all my royalties?”) as if reminiscing with themselves. Sometimes I found myself guessing at the question to make sense of the answer. The most curious example comes in an interview with the Kalin Twins. Nicolson has them speaking in harmony (“We don’t think our success changed our relationships with our family and friends”), but then we have “The fact that Herb was married didn’t affect our relationship”, so Hal must be saying that bit. These pieces read like a homage to the ghosted interviews in US fan magazines of the 50s.

Nicolson is reluctant to probe and so Tommy Sands only repeats what he has often said about marrying into the Sinatra family. The interview with Herb Reed of the Platters starts with him saying, “Forget about personal questions: I am not interested in baring my soul to the general public.” Johnny Farina of Santo and Johnny says, “I don’t know what Santo is doing now and have no comments to make on why we broke up or when we last spoke.” This interview sleepwalks in more ways than one as Farina can’t remember details.

The interviews are poorly edited. Phil Phillips tells us over and over that he saw no need to improve on his original lyric for 'Sea Of Love' but surely it would be worth asking him if the short song needed another verse. Nicolson should have asked him about the muffled sound of that hit recording – was it deliberate? It defies belief that Phillips didn’t know Marty Wilde had a UK hit with his song.

Simultaneously with this book, I was reading a book of interviews that I bought in a remainder store, Not Fade Away by Ben Fong-Torres (1999) and the contrast is telling. Fong-Torres has insight, depth and compassion and in one piece persuades a reluctant Ray Charles to discuss drug-taking. Fong-Torres is among the world’s great journalists so this may seem an unfair comparison, but it isn’t. At £15, On The Road is the same price as books by major authors and so it has to measure up to those standards. Another of Music Mentor's books, Bill Millar's Let The Good Times Rock! does all that, and more, so why aren't the same standards applying here?

Having said all that, the interviews still hold interest and contain many good anecdotes. Robin Luke talks about owning an alligator and Chas McDevitt is particularly good on the early days of skiffle The group knew they had made it when Spike Jones and the City Slickers did a parody of 'Freight Train'. Elvis Presley copied Freddie Bell’s arrangment of 'Hound Dog' and everytime he saw him, he said, ‘Have you got a song for me?’

Like its predecessor, On The Road, the book is neatly presented with photographs and memorabilia. The premise of the book is fine: it is the execution which is inept. A third volume, Back On The Road Again will be published shortly. I hope Dave Nicholson ventures outside and acquires some editing skills, but I suspect that he regards this as his trademark and will not change a thing.

Spencer Leigh