CAR WASH, Gary Stromberg and Me…
Gary Stromberg and Chelsea Brown, swingin’ 60s
In my dogged pursuit of music memorabilia, I have met hundreds and hundreds of legendary musicians, everyone from Frank Sinatra to Johnny Rotten, Dizzy Gillespie to Tito Puente, Johnny Cash to The Grateful Dead, and lots in between. Most of the interactions have been cursory and ephemeral, lasting just long enough for a signature on some vinyl, or perhaps some fleeting insight into a particular album or recording. In rare instances, chance encounters have developed into friendships. Two that spring to mind as more fully developed relationships were with soul singer Lou Rawls and Hammond B3 master Jimmy McGriff (who later performed at our wedding). The only relationship which bonded in friendship first, autograph stalking afterward is with Gary Stromberg - author, bon vivant, movie producer, and nonpareil raconteur.
I met Gary in Westport in 2001 when our family moved to Connecticut. I had heard that he was a major player in the 1960s-1970s Los Angeles music scene - he had co-founded Gibson & Stromberg, an influential music PR firm that repped The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Ray Charles, and The Doors, among others - but we bonded over our mutual love of Jazz. I knew that I had met a kindred soul when he told me that when he signed The Doors (after seeing them at The Whisky A Go Go) that he passed the band off to his partner, whom Gary deemed as a better cultural fit. "I liked their music and I knew they were going to be big, but Morrison had a very big ego and I didn't want to deal with him. I'm more of a jazz guy, anyway." A prescient insight, and yet Gary was able to keep The Doors as a G&S client. Everybody won.
Laugh-In dancers - Judy Carne, Goldie Hawn, Chelsea Brown Ebony magazine, 1969
Gary's stories have stories. A rich life, full of adventure, Gary shared close proximity with some of the greatest artists of the Twentieth-Century. Whether it was signing The Doors on the Sunset Strip, touring with Ray Charles where Gary met his first wife, Chelsea Brown, the solo dancer in Ray’s show, who later starred in the hit TV show Laugh-In, or doing PR for the 1974 concert in Zaire which preceded Muhammad Ali's epic "Rumble In The Jungle" with James Brown, Celia Cruz and The Fania All-Stars, and The Spinners, Gary's life has a Zelig-like quality. As a challenge, I would casually mention a rock or jazz artist, and Gary would invariably have a first person remembrance: a dinner with Ringo Starr and Marc Bolan of T. Rex, hanging out with Ike and Tina Turner at Ike's converted studio which had an actual bank vault serving as a sanctuary for Ike's illicit activities, dating Claudia Lennear for whom Mick Jagger wrote "Brown Sugar" and David Bowie wrote "Lady Grinning Soul"... it would all be so unbelievable, if it weren't told by Gary with so much honesty, humility, humor and wit.
Ike and Tina Turner, Mick Jagger and Claudia Lennear,
backstage, Madison Square Garden, November 1969
One of my favorite Gary jazz stories involved the unique multi-reed instrumentalist, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Rahsaan was a ridiculously talented musician who had mastered the tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute as well as the obscure saxophones, the manzello and stritch. On stage, Rahsaan would have three or more instruments hanging around his neck and he would often play these instruments simultaneously, playing melodies and harmonizing with the sounds which he said were always running through his head. A one man band, Rahsaan was a singular wall of sound, and it was said that Jimi Hendrix wanted to jam with him although, unfortunately, that never happened.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
One late night, Gary's friends (sans Gary) were performing as a jazz quartet at The Purple Onion, a jazz club off Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Then Rahsaan walked into the room. The boys asked him to sit in with them and soon, they were grooving with the inimitable Rahsaan in full-flight. After the set, they asked Rahsaan if he wanted to hang out with them. He accepted their gracious offer and when asked what he wanted to do, without hesitation, Rahsaan said that he wanted to bake a cake! The boys laughed and agreed that was a good idea, so they left the club to venture off into the wee hours of the warm, dark narcotic night. They piled into a tiny Volkswagen and drove to the all-night Hollywood Ranch Market and began scouring the aisles for the requisite ingredients. A 4am grocery stroll in search of Betty Crocker with five junkies, higher than kites, was a perfect misadventure. Because Rahsaan was blind, he preferred to keep his instruments around his neck at all times, so as he walked around the store, banging and clanging, he was making as much of a joyful noise offstage as on. Finally, this rag tag crew made it through the checkout, and went back to the car for the trip to the apartment where they would show off their culinary skills.
Rahsaan had one important last request though: he wanted to drive! The fellas agreed that anyone who could play as well as Rahsaan should be able to drive. Sure, why not? Let's let Rahsaan drive, they reasoned. Though blind, he probably wasn't nearly as impaired as they were. Their experiment lasted about thirty seconds when Rahsaan started the car, threw it in gear and drove directly across the street into the block long display window of a Cadillac car dealership. Stunned, the boys sat in silence until the local gendarmes showed up to investigate the accident. You can imagine their surprise when they found a blind Rahsaan sitting behind the wheel, saxophones hanging around his neck, and someone mumbling, "Officer, he said he could drive." Though a blind man can see, he still cannot drive!
CAR WASH (1976) poster signed by Gary
As Gary's career expanded beyond his music clients, he became an unlikely movie producer. After a cocaine-fueled night chasing his demons, Gary woke up one morning with a couple of pieces of paper stuffed in his jeans, written the night before in a fevered delirium. Upon reading them, he found the basic outline for a musical, set in a Los Angeles car wash. Originally, Gary envisioned CAR WASH as a Broadway musical, but that changed when he went to Universal Pictures and they gave him a $2 million budget for a movie. A movie it would be. Using his vast connections, Gary reached out to the greatest Motown, producer/songwriter Norman Whitfield ("Just My Imagination", "Ain't Too Proud To Beg", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", and Marvin Gaye's “I Heard It Through the Grapevine" among countless others), and Norman wrote and produced the soundtrack which included the Top 10 single "I Wanna Get Next To You" and the infectious #1 title smash "Car Wash." The Grammy award winning soundtrack, performed by Rose Royce, was released a month or more before the release of the movie, which was part of the marketing genius of CAR WASH. Urban audiences were already hip to "Working at the Car Wash" through the enormous radio air play these singles enjoyed. CAR WASH became a cult classic, helped by the guest appearances by Gary's friends, Richard Pryor and George Carlin, and no less an authority and arbiter on all things pop culture than my wife, Erin, puts CAR WASH in the top three of Twentieth-Century cultural achievements. And I have learned over the years not to challenge Erin's unassailable and impeccable taste!
Gary's next foray into the movies - The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh - was not as successful, personally, commercially or critically. The plot strains at credulity - a hapless Pittsburgh team is magically transformed into a championship contender when an astrologer (an early role for Stockard Channing) brings in other players who share the same astrological sign, Pisces. Although the basketball footage contains real ballers ballin' - Julius "Dr. J" Erving, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Connie Hawkins, "Sweet Lou" Hudson, and Harlem Globetrotter deity Meadowlark Lemon - the rest of the movie is a barely watchable pastiche. Yet, it has become a camp and cult classic.
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1980) Yugoslavia poster signed by Gary
Gary's second life began when he got sober in the early 1980s, and this is where his journey has had the most meaningful impact. Since then, Gary has written three acclaimed books - The Harder They Fall, Feeding the Fame and Second Chances - about men and women in recovery. The first is about celebrities, the second deals with eating disorders and the third is about prominent business people in recovery. All three deliver first-hand accounts of the harrowing descent into addiction and alcoholism, and the ensuing recovery which is so rewarding and uplifting. Redemption, a dominant theme throughout the vignettes, is powerful as people recover, reclaim and restore their sanity while fighting their demons and disease. One day at a time, Gary has been a witness and friend to so many in recovery over the past thirty-six plus years, that it is truly as inspiring as it is remarkable.
When I was visiting with Gary in Los Angeles recently, I asked him to sign a couple of posters for my collection. It felt a bit strange, given our deep personal connection and friendship. He said, "Do you want me to personalize them?" 'Nah, don't do that. I'm just gonna sell this shit on Ebay someday!' We both laughed, rigorous honesty indeed.
Thanks for all your love and support, Gary. You have helped me more than you will ever know. Oh yeah, and thanks for CAR WASH, it's top three, for sure.
Phew! (1973) sadly unsigned, “How come you dance so perfect?!!”
Choice Gary Cuts (per BKs request)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Qr6omvRVI
"Car Wash" Rose Royce singing with movie clips 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss0GT6x66ZQ
"Car Wash" Rose Royce bringin the funk to Soul Train! 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kfI7NHM-EE
"I Wanna Get Next To You" Rose Royce with movie clips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiI2ZHmxPPo
"My Favorite Things" Rahsaan Roland Kirk with McCoy Tyner, Stanley Clarke 1975
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIqLJmlQQNM
"The Inflated Tear" Rahsaan Roland Kirk live Prague 1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsxEf53OhAU
"It Ain't Easy" Claudia Lennear Phew 1973
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Cm3cezU_0
Claudia Lennear - An Ikette with Ike & Tina Turner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjQUblWNy6E
"Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky" Claudia Lennear Phew 1973
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycEq2B2pzuo
"Try Me" James Brown in Zaire 1974
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W777MIR8-ko
"Guantanamera" Celia Cruz & Fania All-Stars in Zaire 1974
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXN-_asIaYs
"Quimbara" Celia Cruz & Fania All-Stars in Zaire 1974
Great Books! Buy ‘em while supplies last!
https://www.amazon.com/Second-Chances-Executives-Addiction-Recovery/dp/0071591621/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1510843000&sr=8-2&keywords=gary+stromberg&dpID=414xgZfcHcL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch