Back at one time I was publisher of the Lake Flaccid News Dictator, hell, I was the Lake Flaccid News Dictator--its publisher, writer, editor, proofreader, janitor. As I went about operating, managing, and getting out the paper, I kept notebooks--like I would see something on the wire or on the Internet (it wasn't that long ago) that interested me and I'd publish it, then comment on it, then do an editorial page, then handle the "Letters to the Editor." [Example: "Dear Dick-sucker-tator Editor: Your recent editorial making fun of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and saying there were more miracles happening every day in hospitals and clinics all around the world than Jesus Christ could do in his whole 'Reform Jew' life, as you so heretically put it. Such a statement is to me formed in your thick-skulled mind by Satan himself and spewed out by that faithful servant of Satan your blasphemous tongue (the tongue of your pen) onto the pages of your unread locally ignored atheistic rag! Jesus Christ for your information raised Lazarus from his grave. Jesus Christ himself beat the grave by being buried and then resurrected...." Jokey letters like that one from a Rev. Algar Strimm of the Church of the Vernacular Baptist God in Templetown, Gawjah.]
The other eve as I was blowing out the candles that light my lake cabin when I noticed on the floor behind the magazine basket--the big Mexican machine-woven authentic handwoven basket that sits by my gas-log fireplace and holds magazines I buy for show and never read--one of those old notebooks I kept from back in those days. It's dated 1997. Word up:
--Nov. 1997: "David Hackett Fisher, The Great Wave--on deflation and inflation. "Deflationary economy"--raising prices plunging commercial values." Later note: "Greenspan follows the new paradigm (Inflationary economy--raising interest rates)--can't save us from inflation."
--"Screw up your courage to the fitting place" Lady Macbeth.
--"Filmmakers love putting women in horrible traps...like the movie 'Sleeping With the Enemy'--the woman must be submitted to overwhelming cruelties, rationalized endurable by the surround richness and wealth of the abuser. It is always sexual and antifeminine abuse."
[This "Jot" is still in effect in today's filmmakers.]
--"These infertile women are now having babies in litters thanx to these high-powered fertility drugs" [a woman had just had a litter of seven little nippers--in New Jersey or somewhere infertile like that].
--"They are calling it 'the radiated north'--results of global warming--ultraviolet rays cooking down through the hole in our ozone layer."
--"The MIT Dictionary of Economics (Pearce, 1992) defines Positive Economics as 'that part of economic science which concerns itself with statements that are capable of verification with reference to the facts.'"
--"'Normative Economics: 'economic analysis which provides prescriptions or statements about what "should be" rather than "what is."'" (MIT Dict. of Economics)
--"Governments target IMR (Infant Mortality Rate) at the neglect of policies that benefit other groups--like the elderly."
--"Lake Natron in Tanzania is the most caustic (soda) lake in the world. "Stinging waters" it's called locally. Large flocks of flamingos inhabit the lake at various times of the year."
--"James Watson, one of the discoverers of DNA was a Whiz Kid on the radio show of the same name as a child prodigy--this was a radio show where kids from 10 up to 16 or so competed in a quiz show setting with field experts--Oscar Levant, the great pianist and Gershwin interpreter, was also a Whiz Kid. The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies were called the Whiz Kids, though in losing four straight to the New York Yankees in the World Series that year they proved they really didn't deserve that title at all."
--From G.W. Greene's Life of Nathaniel Greene Vol. III [G.W. Greene was Nathaniel Greene's son--George Washington was Nathaniel Greene's best friend--the son was named after George Washington]:
1) Washington was called "the American Fabius" by his opponents; "the American Scipio" by his followers.
2) George Washington said, "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force."
--He also said, "Like fire, it [Government] is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
From Remy de Gourmont (d. 1915):
"Conformism, imitativeness, submission to rules and to teachings is the writer's capital crime. The work of a writer must be not only the reflection, but the larger reflection of his personality. The only excuse that a man has for his writing is to write about himself, to reveal to others the sort of world that is mirrored in his own glass; his only excuse is to be original; he must speak of things not yet spoken of in a form not yet formulated. He must create his own aesthetics - and we must admit as many aesthetics as there are original spirits and judge them for what they are, not for what they aren't." (Gourmont in his introduction to the first Book of Masks, 1896-98)From Emmett Ientilucci's "Tribute to Buddy Rich" Website
Here are a few audio excerpts I cleaned up that demonstrate Buddy's persistence for perfection. Note he says the f-word 132 times. The transcriptions can be found below and on Page2, Page3.
AUDIO
1) After the first set
2) In the bus between sets
3) In the tour bus between sets
4) In a tour bus traveling to the next gig
Buddy Rich, The Person
Notes: This is a transcription, with sound files, of some memorable moments off of "The Tape", the infamous bootleg tape of Buddy screaming at his band between sets, often on a tour bus. Adult language abounds, so read at your own risk.
The tape was created by a pissed off band member or two, who hid a walkman in their clothes between the sets to capture Buddy.
On a Positive Note...
I recently received an email from a trumpet player in Buddy's band. Read what he had to say about Buddy.
Emmett,
Hi, I have been looking at your site and I wanted you to know that Buddy Rich wasn't at all the way you have him portrayed, as a "prick". I played trumpet and stood next to him every night for almost three years from 1975-1977. We had a great band that loved and respected him and he was 95% a sweetheart the whole time. The only time I saw him as he sounds on the tapes is when he had a bad back, or a band full of young guys who couldn't play well but thought they could, who showed disrespect towards him and thought they were too good to be there. I went back later for a few weeks and the band was like that. He and I were both miserable. Steve Marcus and Buddy and I sat together on the bus one night and he asked what he could do to get the band back to a high level. He was frustrated that yelling didn't help. It only made the lousy players band together and feel persecuted while continuing to suck.
I know that tape sounds funny to most people, but to the people who knew him to be unbelievably generous, (I could tell you stories) funny, loving and a whole different kind of drummer than any other on Earth, that tape hurts because we hear his pain and confusion as to how guys can suck and not know it.
I'm sure you appreciate his playing or you wouldn't have bothered to design such a great site! (I'm from Buffalo originally. Are you in Rochester? We probably have mutual friends,) Anyway, I just thought you should know the real Buddy.
p.s. I played with Barry Kiener (keys) for most of my stay with the band. He was amazing. Not only could he play his ass off, he could remember what rooms everyone stayed in on any date of any year. (one of those freakish kinds of memory) We all loved him. Buddy was absolutely crazy about him. Anyway, keep up the good work with your love of music and I'm glad you didn't mind my spouting off about Buddy.
Sincerely,
Ross Konikoff
______________________________________________________________
barabasmunn-dayne
for The Daily Growler
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