Empathy for Bob Welch, ex-member of Fleetwood Mac.

Like too many people of my generation, I believed that Fleetwood Mac began in 1975 with the self-titled album and then-new members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. And in 1977, I bought Bob Welch's album FRENCH KISS, only to find out later via ROLLING STONE that Welch's hit single "Sentimental Lady" was a remake of an album track from Fleetwood Mac's BARE TREES, recorded during Welch's tenure with the band. Welch's brand of pop music fit well on Late 70s AM radio--then, after the 1979 TWO HEARTS, I never heard his later music. Welch committed suicide today at the age of 65 in Nashville, TN--apparently he was distressed over health issues according to the RollingStone.com site. What follows is an excerpt from Welch's Wikipedia biography, which probably gives an idea of the used-to-be-Somebody heartache he may have carried through his life over the past three-plus decades: Hall of Fame controversy When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, original band members Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were named to the Hall, as were Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Welch, who anchored the band for several years and three albums, was not. "My era was the bridge era," Welch told the Cleveland newspaper the Plain Dealer in 1998, after he was snubbed by the Hall of Fame. "It was a transition. But it was an important period in the history of the band. Mick Fleetwood dedicated a whole chapter of his biography to my era of the band and credited me with 'saving Fleetwood Mac.' Now they want to write me out of the history of the group. It hurts." Welch went on to tell the Plain Dealer, "Mick and I co-managed the group for years. I'm the one who brought the band to Los Angeles from England, which put them in the position of hooking up with Lindsey and Stevie. I saw the band through a whole period where they barely survived, literally." At the time, Welch believed that he had been blackballed by the Hall because of the breach of contract lawsuit against Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie. At the time of his snubbing by the Hall, he believed that the falling out with three band members led them to pressuring the selection committee into excluding him from the Hall.[17] In a 2003 online question and answer session on the Fleetwood Mac fan site The Penguin, Welch revised his opinion of why he was snubbed by the Hall. He had recently attended a Fleetwood Mac show and visited the band members back stage after the show. The visit reconnected him with Mick Fleetwood, his ex-band mate and ex-manager, after being estranged for many years. (He had never been estranged from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who were not party to the lawsuit.) By 2003, Welch believed that he had been snubbed by the Hall as the directors in New York, music industry insiders, did not like his style of music. However, he did believe that the lawsuit was a factor in his being blackballed, as it prevented him from getting in touch with Mick Fleetwood, whom he was not talking to at the time of the induction, who may have otherwise have used his influence to get Welch included with other members of the band. (Jerry Garcia had used his influence to get 12 members of the Grateful Dead inducted into the Hall, including some band mates whose contributions were considered marginal.) Welch said he had also communicated with Christine McVie but was still estranged from John.[18]

New poem WISCONSIN

Saw the grin of triumph from CNN's Erin Burnett
Yeah, we got those money-gulping
Workers-rights-happy unions on the run!
Don't cry over Citizens United.
Don't do contortions over Obama
Playing political poker by
Refusing to stand up
For ordinary people.
Just organize.
And keep organizing.
And keep voting.
And even in defeat,
Brush yourselves off
And organize and vote some more.

Coda to poetry book review post on full disclosure.

No, I'm not tearing the fabric of the poetry community to shreds by writing a blog post about poetry book reviews--though I get the impression (from the commenter on my previous post) that a number of people will think otherwise. All I'm saying is that reviewers should flag their connections to small press publishers if conflicts of interest are too blatant to be ignored, no matter how small the community believes itself to be. And, if necessary, reviewers shouldn't be afraid to recuse themselves and let someone else do the review if necessary. In the case of G. Murray Thomas and Poetix, there's a second reviewer, Eric Morago. He can take up the mantle.

The art of full disclosure when writing poetry book reviews.

First, I'll start with a full disclosure of my own: I once had a book published by Lummox Press and was included in an anthology of its Little Red Books series.

G. Murray Thomas, who reviews books for Poetix.net (alongside Eric Morago), knows the proprietor of Lummox and has toured with him in recent months. 

But Murray routinely reviews poetry volumes published by Lummox and even more routinely fails to offer any kind of full disclosure.  This modus operandi has also occurred with books from Write Bloody.  There, the ethical conundrum gets a bit stickier because Derrick Brown's Long Beach-based small press recently offered up the NEWS CLIPS AND EGO TRIPS anthology, based on the NEXT....poetry magazine edited by....G. Murray Thomas.

Once again, I'm aware that a certain segment of the SoCal poetry community views itself as small enough where friends write reviews of each other's books and few people don't care to see this as any kind of an issue.

And I'll give Murray the benefit of the doubt and guess he does his best to be objective when writing reviews of Lummox and Write Bloody offerings.

But, if the poetry community in SoCal wants to trumpet its idealness more convincingly, then it should avoid too many occurrences of even the appearance of conflict of interest.

UPDATE 6/5/12: Heard from Murray privately (sent him comminique via Facebook); essentially, his response is that "most people" know he knows people from local presses and that he's not interested in full disclosure.  Case closed.

JAY LENO (inspired by The Beach Boys' Johnny Carson)

GRATEFUL DEAD TRIBUTE--"Throwing Stones"

Fwd: For Max

Thanks to e amato for forwarding this via Facebook: Dear Family, Friends and Community:   On Saturday, June 2nd, Brenda Petrakos’ nephew, Max, was killed in a car accident.  The car he was traveling in with his mother and brother was hit by a drunk driver.  His mother and brother are in the hospital.  Max was 13 years old.   As many of you know, Brenda’s role in Max’s life went well beyond that of Aunt. This is a devastating time for her and her family.   Max was beloved.  He was insightful, smart, irreverent, creative – much like his Aunt.  He had a sweet spirit, a curious mind, and a perhaps odd addiction to Scrubs and Sanford and Son.   As a community, we have come together before to buoy those who need it, and steer people away from rough shores.  We are asking if we can do that again.   The family needs your prayers and support at this time.  They are also in need of financial assistance.   A funeral for Max may cost up to $10,000.  This is a burden that the family cannot bear.   We are asking for donations to raise the money so that Max may have a funeral.  He deserves one.  We must also raise this money as quickly as we can, and have set a goal of June 15th.   Donations may be made via PayPal  (https://www.paypal.com/) to bcpetrakos@yahoo.com.  For those who prefer to write a check, or drop off cash, you may do so to:   Brenda Petrakos 1055 Lincoln Blvd., #2 Santa Monica, CA 90403   For more information, or questions, please feel free to contact me, or Marie Lecrivain:   E. Amato eamato@mac.com   Marie Lecrivain marie.lecrivain.pd@gmail.com   We will do our best to post information about the funeral, and the fund.  We hope that you will help to share this message, as well as any future information about services for Max, with the community.  Those of you with venues, if you would be kind enough to either read an announcement and share the information, or post this to your lists, it would be much appreciated.   On behalf of the family, thank you so very much for your compassion.     Max's last performance at Downbeat 720 Youth Open Mic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOb47a0N3Nw Downbeat 720 on FB:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/downbeat720/ Max's FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/iamphoenixpetrakos

Deadhead misbehavior at L.A. Coliseum June 1, 1991.

Haven't written about this until now, twenty-one years later.

Saturday, June 1, 1991, was a beautiful sunny day in Downtown Los Angeles.

I bought a walk-up ticket for $25.00 to sit in the upper rows of the Los Angeles Coliseum to see The Grateful Dead (for what was to be the first of three Dead shows for me).

The opening act on that tour was South African musician Johnny Clegg and his then-band Savuka.

After an interval, the Dead came out by mid-afternoon.

The late, legendary-and-controversial Bay Area-based promoter Bill Graham took center stage to warn the audience that no one was to leave their seats and go down to the field.  In retrospect, this seemed a bit unusual since I remember at least field seating for the previous Coliseum shows I attended (the 1988 Amnesty International concert and the 1989 Who reunion tour also known as "The Who On Ice").  But that's what Graham said--and apparently what the Coliseum wanted.

But certain Deadheads in the crowd seemed to think Graham denied them a Divine Right.  So about a song or two into the Dead's first set, a lot of people ran down the aisles onto the field.  I saw a security guard trying to hold people back and he was knocked backwards from the first-row entrance by the force of the crowd.

I watched all of this from the opposite stands--as I heard an audience member near me say under his breath that Bill can't make the audience stay seated because it was a GRATEFUL DEAD show and the crowd should do what it wants to do.

Being a relatively young man of thirty-one, I quickly focused on the show and put aside the stupid behavior of asinine, ferociously selfish people who thought they were Misunderstood Heroes rather than genuine rebels of the recent Occupy Wall Street//Egypt/Syria movements.

And, in the end, I'm wondering if the Deadheads realized they handed a victory to the Man.

The Grateful Dead never again played a show at the Los Angeles Coliseum in their four remaining years before the death of Jerry Garcia.

UPDATE 6/2: Here's streaming audio of the concert, plus comments from those who were there relating to the Incident discussed in the post.  http://archive.org/details/gd91-06-01.sbd.barbella.6020.sbeok.shnf