my personal Pf Sloan book review... The first or many questions raised by P.F.Sloans new autobiography What’s Exactly the Matter with Me? Memoirs of a Life in Music is who exactly is P.F.Sloan ? its a question he never seems to answer... for those familiar with the seemingly endless stream of hits he wrote/ co wrote for artists as diverse as the Iguanas, Johnny Parris, The Turtles, Association, Grass Roots, Jan and Dean et al one would think he would be a confident, justly proud and fulfilled musician, sadly, like his friend Brian Wilson the entire sun drenched beauty of his compositions hid a tortured individual. His early years were blighted by the cruel practices of Lou Adler and are a series of wasted opportunities and continual artistic dead ends, his desires to take the Grass Roots or the Fantastic Baggies on the road were curtailed and stopped both from assuming their rightful place amongst the great acts of their respective eras, a situation that didnt even improve when Adler sold Dunhill to ABC/Paramount, one of PFs deepest regrets was being unable to perform a Baggies set in front of his mother, whilst the likes of Bruce and Terry, Jan and Dean, The Ripchords were placing his compositions on the American and especially the Australian charts [the Baggies were number 1 on the Australian charts during a tour that featured the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, a tour that instead of headlining with his band saw PF relegated to bass player for other artists] the name PF Sloan is still anything but a household name. He met Elvis when he was 12, was instrumental in getting the Beatles on Vee Jay and for the most part replaced Deans falsetto on the Jan and Dean classics from 64-65 and even when he unleashed Eve of Destruction sung by Barry McGuire to Adler was met with disdain and criticism that only slightly waned after it sold a million copies, so much so it was originally relegated to b side status, Sloan effortlessly moved from surf to folk rock, a transition that even the genius of Jan Berry didnt achieve with any conviction.The Turtles and yes, even the Mamas and the Papas owed a huge debt to his arranging and compositional skills and yet he was still being maligned by the very execs for whom his songs had financed their house purchases. One hugely disturbing anecdote from Sloan recalls a manic John Phillips charging at him wielding a huge knife backstage at the Monterrey Pop Festival, another even more disturbing one recounts him being given a literal death threat in the offices of Dunhill which caused him both to flee LA and retire from the business for years. . He remained not only ostracised by those he believed were his friends but fell into a catatonic malaise that left him hospitalized for years...the wonderful Jimmy Webb composed a tribute to him that has been covered by artists as wonderful as Jackson Browne and Rumor and helped re ignite interest in him, he released a slew of,mostly overlooked,solo lps the pick of the earliest ones is the soft classic Raised On Records, after a fumbled but gracious attempt by Clive Davis to bring PF back into the real world it seemed as if the world would never again her new music from one of the last centurys finest composers, but, PF struggled on and recently released his masterpiece My Beethoven, proof that genius is not a degenerative commodity foothillrecords/details-pages/msmusic/mus-1041-pfsloan_mybeethoven.html Sloans journey has been at times tortuous others celebratory, mystical and mysterious but most of all its a tale of success through adversity, of huge indomitable human spirit and of a tortured genius who finally is getting the accolades and recognition he truly deserves, its possibly the most revelatory music autobiog to date and whilst musical historians might well take issues with his recollections at times it is a superb read, please check it out JJers Id make a claim that it is a mandatory purchase. . — with Sangeeta Haindl.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 19:59:18 +0000
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