1.-10. David Crosby.
Buddy Rich. He was supposed to be a phenomenal drummer but every time I heard him play it was painfully disconnected from the music accompanying him.
And he always acted like Johnny Carson just got done peeing on his cornflakes.
It’s no secret that Jimmy Page had a 14-year-old girlfriend for a while, until she turned 15, anyway. I’ve also heard that she was basically a beard - that he’s at least bisexual if not outright gay. NOMB, of course, even if I knew him personally.
I could totally see said overweight Jim Morrison doing poetry slams 30 years before they had a name, and other people just plain old not getting it.
Charles Manson was a singer and songwriter. I’m not sure why, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way.
Yeah, he had quite the reputation for being an asshole. There’s even a joke I’ve heard told by drummers that basically involves somebody calling up Buddy Rich’s house after he’s dead three times, with the person answering the phone getting more and more irate saying “I’ve already told you twice…Buddy Rich is dead!” To which the caller responds, “I know, I know. I just wanted to hear it again!”
There’s also a famous Buddy Rich rant where he just goes off on his musicians on the bus after what he perceived to be a sub-par gig. A few lines from that rant were used in Seinfeld episodes. I believe James Brown had a similar reputation of being hard on his musicians and docking them pay if they played “clams.”
Yeah, Rich was a dick (and a crappy drummer), Stan Getz was a colossal dick, and Sinatra was a mega-dick.
Oh, for sure, David Crosby! Everything about him inspires loathing, from his hideous pornstache, his insane crack habit, his buying himself a new liver, his agreeing to inseminate Melissa Etheridge with his bad genes…just creeps me out. (though I admire his music). Yes, I’m shallow, and for all I know he is a fine, fine person IRL but just looking at him makes me cringe.
Miss Diana Ross of the Supremes - not a nice person, and to this day, still displays one of the biggest egos on the planet.
Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane - why that C-word gets so much luuuuvvvv from men is beyond me, if she was an actual girlfriend she would be an utter nightmare. (same with Chrissie Hyndes, of the Pretenders)
If 1967 Grace Slick was my GF she’d be a Siamese cat of a girl. Under my thumb, she’d be the sweetest pet in the world.
Loved his big hit, “Almost Cut My Nose Hair.”
Bob Markley was one of the creepiest figures of that era. He was a trust fund kid who failed to make inroads as a musician. In his 30s he ended up managing the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band comprised of some teenagers who were under this thumb. Some of their lyrics are quite creepy, in the vein of some of Gary Puckett’s material, and in real life he had a penchant for getting with girls who were too young. He was also a friend of Kim Fowley’s.
I’ve never heard the gay thing. If he was undercover, he was deep undercover considering he has 5 children with 5 different women over 3 decades…
The musicians I’ve heard the worst about from people who have worked with them include Paul Simon (who knew nothing about musicals but ruined Capetown by insisting it be done his way), Kris Kristopherson (mostly lucky), and Jackson Browne (whose first wife committed suicide and who once put Daryl Hannah in the hospital). And while I don’t know anyone who knows him, Mick Jagger does creep the hell out of me.
Joke I heard:
Why did Diana Ross get a DUI?
You’d drink, too, if you looked like Michael Jackson.
Speaking of covfefe, I misread your first sentence as Bob MARLEY, lol.
Too Rich To Let Pass…
I am surprised that your many Close Personal Friends in the Music Industry didn’t clue you in that the musical Paul Simon wrote, produced and perfomed was entitled “The Capeman” NOT “Capetown”.
Seems like ol’ Paul Simon (a true musical genius, but by all accounts a truly vain, arrogant, egotistical little man) isn’t the only one who “knows nothing about musicals” around here.
I read a biography on Simon. I think the guy may be a low end sociopath or perhaps has Asperger’s.
And he has a reputation for claiming “borrowed” material as is own, going back many years before the notorious Graceland allegations.
Tasmanian cartoonist Linzee Arnold illustrates the bus episode:
http://buddyshabits.blogspot.com/
Ginger Baker
Brilliant drummer and a complete a-hole, then and now. I met him 30+ years ago at a breakfast radio show and he while he wasn’t a complete jerk, but he was arrogant, joking about if I was going to pay for his and his groups breakfast . I got his autograph figuring he’d be the first to go from Cream. Well he fooled me…he’s not only still alive, but he’s still (arguably) the best drummer around!
I had to look up “clams”. when have enough free time I’m going to superimpose Riche’s face on a clam shell with a red diagonal line through it. Maybe print it out on some business cards and sneak them into music venues. Or better yet, make beer coasters.