Saturday, January 17, 2015

Kim Fowley - WildFire


Rock N Roll lost one it's glorious Freaks on Thursday when Kim Fowley died. I hope he would not be offended by my calling him a freak but it is meant with respect. He was essential.  I try not to think of the Rock N Roll Hall of Shame too much, especially when I know that individuals like Kim won't be in inducted. When you look at a who's who list of the artists he discovered, produced, the songs he wrote and the artists he worked with, it is mind boggling. And he won't be in...he is all but ignored by the mainstream as he was an enigma. An outlier.  Granted, he had a huge ego which is how he probably kept plugging away. But I guess that is probably not out of the normality for artists. If you listened to him on the Underground Garage, or just watch any of the interview videos on youtube or look at his blog to get an idea of how large an ego he had.  He was a freak but he was an honest freak. Take the song from tonight. There is one point at the end where he says, "It's too dirty. i't'll be banned, oh God". He pushed the limits. I am posting a link to a youtube video and there is one point near the end where he says, "What was more fun, doing the records no one ever heard of- those were the honest ones, this [as he points to the gold records] was paying the rent"
I'll start out my week tribute with this juicy morsel from his Imperial years.

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