BONUS Producer Cuts - Peter Wolf and Marc's May Monologues
Guest:Hey, all you Full Marin folks.
Guest:It's Brendan here, the producer of WTF, and it's time for another month of producer cuts.
Guest:This is all stuff that came from the month of May, and I had to cut it out of the show, mostly for time reasons, sometimes for other reasons.
Guest:But what we're going to do this month is kind of split this up into two parts.
Guest:First, you're going to hear the collection of material from Mark's monologues that didn't make it into the episode.
Guest:And then the second half will be a larger extended chunk from the Peter Wolf episode.
Guest:Peter and Mark talked for about two hours.
Guest:There was a lot of stuff that didn't make it into the episode.
Guest:So I've got a big, nice chunk of that for you here.
Guest:But first, we're going to go to the monologues that Mark was doing in the month of May.
Guest:This was all stuff related to his new medication journey, the situation with his cats, the days leading up to his
Guest:Special taping in Brooklyn and a lot more stuff that you've heard bits and pieces of.
Guest:And here's kind of some supplements to that.
Guest:This is stuff coming from episode 1639 with David Harbour, 1641 with Samantha Crane, 1643 with Carol Liefer, 1644 with Sarah Silverman, 1645 with Peter Wolfe and 1646 with Nick Kroll.
Guest:And in one of these, I should point out that you're going to hear a portion of an ad read.
Guest:And because you full Marin people don't hear ads on these programs, unfortunately, you lost this chunk, which was, you know, just about a minute or so.
Guest:But normally it doesn't go like this.
Guest:So here you're going to get a little treat of what you don't get when you're not hearing ads on the show.
Guest:So let's get into those monologue chunks now, starting back at episode 1639.
Guest:Are you guys holding up?
Marc:I got it.
Marc:I got to get off these ends.
Marc:That's where I'm at.
Marc:Such a sad time.
Marc:Such a sad time where, although I've been through it over and over again, that you hit a wall with whatever minor compulsive behavior you have.
Marc:There's that day where you realize, well, you know, I'm doing a lot of this stuff and I still kind of like it.
Marc:And I've grown to need it, but it doesn't feel great.
Marc:And it's probably not great for me.
Marc:And then you're kind of like, oh, I got to let it go.
Marc:And I got to get off of these things.
Marc:And that period could go on for years.
Marc:I mean, I've been on and off nicotine my whole fucking life.
Marc:And you just want to be able to do the thing that
Marc:You know, you kind of rationalize it like maybe it's a little bad for me.
Marc:It's better than this, better than that.
Marc:I feel good.
Marc:But like, I'm just, man, I'm getting tired.
Marc:I'm up and down all day, nicotine and coffee.
Marc:I'm burping a lot, getting a little heartburn.
Marc:And it's just like I have to face up to it.
Marc:I'm going to have to take life as it is.
Marc:Just going to have to confront the big empty head on.
Marc:But yeah, other than that, I'm good.
Marc:David Harbour, you know, it's an odd thing.
Marc:You know, I struggle with mental issues.
Marc:And as you know, Charlie, my cat, he's struggling with mental issues.
Marc:But we're both on the level now.
Marc:Charlie's sort of back to normal.
Marc:And I kind of think the supplements I'm giving him are making a difference.
Marc:But now I don't know anymore because he seems to be just the he's back to standard asshole Charlie.
Marc:And I really don't know what's going to happen when I go away.
Marc:In terms of his behavior, it's making me anxious, but I've got backup.
Marc:You know, someone suggested I leave my dirty clothes around so he can have the smell to burrow in.
Marc:I bought him a cat tree.
Marc:I've got some new toys coming.
Marc:I'm doing everything I can to keep that little fucker occupied while I'm away to the point where he doesn't, you know.
Marc:beat up on Buster or shit all over the house.
Marc:We'll see.
Marc:We'll see how that unfolds.
Marc:But also in terms of my own mental space, it's just very interesting, especially if you're somebody who does
Marc:Creative endeavors, art or whatever, if your business is expressing yourself, if it's not just a job or a job that you're good at, but it's not your passion, whatever, there are different types of lives people live.
Marc:I live the life of creative people.
Marc:And, you know, when you are that person and, you know, you struggle with whatever you struggle with, there's a constant dialogue in your head about like, you know, well, do I want to try and fix this?
Marc:You know, do I want to try to, you know, get on medicine?
Marc:Should I be pushing back against the way my brain works a little bit because it is causing me some discomfort?
Marc:And you have to weigh that.
Marc:against whatever you've decided your creativity is or whatever makes you feel engaged in the world.
Marc:And it's, you know, it's tricky fucking balance.
Marc:Because, you know, as I told you, I decided to try a little bit of stuff.
Marc:And, you know, and I believe it is working.
Marc:But I do think it's like, you know, fucking with my memory a little bit, this busporin.
Marc:But I do think it's helping me stay out of the loop of anxiety and focus on...
Marc:You know, being in the world and doing my work.
Marc:But, you know, but every day I'm sort of self-conscious about it.
Marc:My brain's always looking for reasons why, like, well, this is not good.
Marc:I mean, I'm having a little trouble with my memory and I don't even know if that's part of it.
Marc:That could be something else.
Marc:Could be stress.
Marc:Could be tired.
Marc:Could be having so much to do.
Marc:Who knows?
Marc:But my brain's always looking for a reason not to do it.
Marc:And it's very funny when it comes to those type of medicines versus these nicotine fucking pouches where my brain is just looking for ways to keep doing it.
Marc:I guess there's a big difference between the stuff that gets you a little buzzed and the stuff that you're like, I don't know, maybe it's working.
Marc:Of course, there's a difference.
Marc:You want to feel good now, not wait and maybe feel good later and kind of not know whether or not it's working.
Marc:Where's the stuff that works now?
Marc:But it's a tough balance and ongoing conversation with myself.
Marc:I'm kind of amazed that this is my process, and when I have to converge on these specials, I definitely try to get it into a shape and into a time.
Marc:I time it out in my mind, and I just worry...
Marc:heading into these things, even the last one, I don't know if you watch bleak from bleak to dark, but I do get locked in and I just want to make sure that there's a variation in terms of my tone and nuance that I'm not so locked in.
Marc:So these are my worries.
Marc:Like I've got it all pretty set.
Marc:There's a,
Marc:couple of jokes that i don't know if i'm going to do that i might not do and i keep adding things but just tweaking things and then there's always the element of am i going to remember the sequence because they're the first 10 minutes or 12 minutes is they're all separate thoughts that have to come together and usually i work with longer form and getting that sequence together has been a real chore but this is the job when one has to do a uh a special
Marc:Or a set that's televised back in the old school way.
Marc:You know, it's a big deal.
Marc:A life's worth of detritus.
Marc:Let's see what it means.
Marc:Waste or debris of any kind.
Marc:Am I saying it right?
Marc:Am I saying it right?
Marc:Don't they have a little thing on here where you can make it say it?
Marc:Make it say it.
Marc:Just make it say it.
Marc:Detritus.
Marc:Oh, yes.
Marc:Did you hear her say it?
Marc:Ah, nailed it.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, why am I including that in the intro?
Marc:I think it's important to have these moments with computer voices where you feel reaffirmed and seen and heard and you bond with them.
Marc:That's what it's all about.
Marc:Huh?
Marc:Oh, I don't like that noise.
Marc:That means my ring camera that's set too sensitively probably saw a squirrel or a tree move.
Marc:I did get a coyote on there, though.
Marc:That's what you're looking for.
Marc:You want the coyotes and some of the larger rodent-type animals.
Marc:I don't know what some of them are.
Marc:I don't know what a possum is.
Marc:I think a possum is a tactoderm.
Marc:So I'm not good with that word.
Marc:What is it?
Marc:What is that word?
Marc:It's like a kangaroo.
Marc:A marsupial.
Marc:A marsupial.
Marc:Thank God I was in the wrong zone entirely.
Marc:What am I doing?
Marc:How's it going?
Marc:This is my show.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Marc:How are you doing?
Marc:What are you doing?
Marc:What are you doing for yourself?
Marc:What are you doing for the rest of the world?
Marc:Man, some days are worse than others, that's for sure, both personal and globally.
Marc:But I'll be honest with you, the last few days have been okay for me.
Marc:I think it's okay to acknowledge that.
Marc:It's okay to acknowledge a good day.
Marc:And by good day means I take in all the information that I feel I need to be abreast of the situation from sources that I believe give me a relatively...
Marc:Good idea of what is happening in a truthful way.
Marc:And then I integrate that into my morning.
Marc:And that integration could be could be pretty rough sailing for about an hour.
Marc:And then I check how I feel.
Marc:I usually get up.
Marc:Don't feel great.
Marc:Usually I don't pop out of bed and think like, God damn it, let's do it.
Marc:I'm kind of like, holy shit.
Marc:I better stretch out a little.
Marc:Man, am I still sleeping?
Marc:What is happening?
Marc:I think the medicine I'm on makes me have some pretty deep dreams.
Marc:I can't remember them really that well, but I'm deep in it, sleeping pretty good, not enough.
Marc:I just never sleep more than seven hours, really.
Marc:And then, you know, I try to pull it together, caffeinate heavily, nicotize a bit and then see what unfolds.
Marc:And sometimes I'll have pretty good, pretty good physical energy day till about three in the afternoon.
Marc:And then I'm usually saturated with nicotine, have done way too much coffee, and I need to go into some sort of strange nap of paralysis and then wake up to do the second day that I have in a day.
Marc:But it's been okay the last few days.
Marc:I hope you're doing okay as well.
Marc:Results vary based on studies of topical and oral minoxidil and finasteride.
Marc:Prescription products require an online consultation with a health care provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate.
Marc:Restrictions apply.
Marc:See website for full details and important safety information.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Get your hair going.
Marc:I think it's better than flying to Turkey to get, like, I don't know how they do it there.
Marc:Where they just pull a flap off your ass and put it on your head.
Marc:I guess I'm fortunate in that.
Marc:My hair is fine, but it's not falling out.
Marc:My hairline has gotten higher.
Marc:My forehead has gotten bigger.
Marc:But I guess because of my age, I welcome it.
Marc:I am not freaking out about it.
Marc:It is interesting to me.
Marc:But I guess understandable just how much of a man's ego hangs off of their head in small strands that somehow defines 40 to 85 percent of their masculinity.
Marc:And I understand not being condescending.
Marc:I'm fortunate.
Marc:But I am letting mine slowly recede until I have one of those situations where I've got a nice full head of hair and back, but not much in front.
Marc:But it's happening slowly.
Marc:Maybe I'll get through the life without it going too far back.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:There's things I just don't know about life, folks.
Marc:You know, it's good to be home for a while.
Marc:I haven't been home like this in a while.
Marc:It's nice.
Marc:It's getting hot out.
Marc:Can wear short sleeve shirts.
Marc:I'll probably take the shorts out soon.
Marc:I like hot weather more than I let on.
Marc:I enjoy wearing the sort of complicated short sleeve shirt.
Marc:Complicated is not the word.
Marc:Maybe, you know, boldly patterned.
Marc:I'll be honest, I've gone through periods where, you know, I'd load up on Hawaiian shirts for the summer.
Marc:But not like, you know, not, what is it, Tommy Bahama?
Marc:Is that what it is?
Marc:Yeah, I'm not like that guy.
Marc:Not high-end ones.
Marc:I'd just go to like...
Marc:What was the name of that company?
Marc:Oh, God damn it.
Marc:Now I can't remember.
Marc:Just some surf shit and just go get some Hawaiian shirts.
Marc:Now I go to Urban Outfitters every summer, pick up like five of those boldly patterned, interesting short sleeve shirts.
Marc:I guess that's who I am.
Marc:And some part of me is like that.
Marc:I've got Western Shirt Me and then I've got...
Marc:Kind of a boldly pattern, but not Hawaiian.
Marc:I don't want, I'm not, I'm not that guy.
Marc:All right.
Marc:I'm not, I'm not, I'm not tending towards the doughy kind of khaki shorts, Tommy Bahama shirt guy.
Marc:I'm, I'm, I'm kind of tending towards, you know, worn denim boots, silver bracelet, Western shirt, old man.
Marc:Eventually it all, it'll all give way to just, you know, whatever's comfortable, but I like summer.
Marc:After the special, we've been looking at cuts, and I got to be honest, I'm very happy with it.
Marc:We'll see how it lands, but as I get older, and I don't know, maybe more grounded-ish, I find that if I can watch my work...
Marc:At the very least, the best thing that can happen is I look at it and I think, well, that is the best I could have done.
Marc:That's the best that the people I was working with could have done or the people supporting the collaboration.
Marc:And a lot of times I don't get to where I think it's good, but I know, well, that's all of me right there.
Marc:That's all I got.
Marc:In that moment, that is it.
Marc:And I'm happy that that came across.
Marc:I think it looks good.
Marc:And as I talked about before, I'm just amazed at the production design and how that came off and the direction of it.
Marc:There are things that were completely not really my part of it.
Marc:And when those people show up, Steve Feinart's the director and Mark Janowitz, the production designer.
Marc:It's just I've watched it a couple of times almost just to watch their work.
Marc:My work aside.
Marc:And I've been going back to the comedy store.
Marc:I didn't take any time off.
Marc:And I've been going back.
Marc:And it's funny.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, when you still have all that material that I was working on, all of a sudden there's, of course, you know, I'm finding new little punchlines and tags and you're like, ah, fuck.
Marc:Why did it take so long for that one to come?
Marc:There is the benefit of just writing jokes that stand alone.
Marc:There they are.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:When it's kind of fluid over an arc of 40 years or whatever, you know, things kind of pop up that you want to throw in.
Marc:But nonetheless, I'm feeling OK, I guess.
Marc:It's nice to be home.
Marc:It's nice to have some downtime.
Marc:It's nice to spend time in my house and cooking.
Marc:With the people in my life.
Marc:Right.
Guest:OK, those were from Mark's monologues in the month of May.
Guest:But now the rest of this producer cuts episode will be a chunk from the Peter Wolf interview.
Guest:And this was a point in the interview where they started talking about stuff in the kind of.
Guest:larger Bob Dylan universe, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Al Cooper.
Guest:Then it gets into Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac.
Guest:You'll hear names get mentioned.
Guest:And this was just stuff that I didn't think was necessary.
Guest:And it was a long conversation.
Guest:I was looking to take some stuff out.
Guest:There is, however, one section in here that probably would have gotten cut out no matter what.
Guest:However, I think it's kind of amusing for you to hear Mark and a guest both try to struggle with remembering something and then kind of trying to direct each other how to Google it.
Guest:This was an amusing part to me.
Guest:And so I'm glad within the context of this larger section that I cut out, you'll get to hear that part within it.
Guest:So this is from episode 1645 with Peter Wolfe, a section you did not hear on the regular episode.
Marc:yeah that you know it's great that can't heat record he did with those oh yeah it's fucking amazing yeah with uh blind al wilson right harp there's those like because they got john talking it's like you must listen to every record i ever made because i can't shake you right and you know al wilson was also from boston yeah and uh you know him oh yeah i did know him not you know uh of course because we were always going to the same shows and stuff
Guest:and we played uh with can he after he passed you know the bear and all that yeah the guy's band played with can he quite a bit yeah because the bear was still around though yeah yeah and he was a great record collector and turned me on to a lot of really amazing stuff yeah there i think they're a profoundly underrated blues band because they were real scholars they loved that shit
Marc:Like you guys.
Guest:No, they really did.
Guest:And even the first break into as far as that kind of thing was the Butterfield Band.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And one thing you were talking with Joe Boy about when you were interviewing him
Guest:is that, you know, how great the Butterfield Band, because they were interracial.
Guest:They came out of Chicago, you know, Elvin and Paul were all from Chicago, and Arnold and Sam Lay on drums.
Guest:So, but...
Guest:Unlike bands like Led Zeppelin or Hendrix where you can hear the power in the records, I don't ever feel that the Butterfield Band's recordings actually really captured the amazing loudness in a good sense and how dynamically big they were and how they really radically changed.
Guest:You hear a little bit of it when Johnny Winters...
Guest:Does that recording of Muddy's Manish Boy get a sense of the power?
Guest:But the Butterfield Band was amazingly, you know, had a unique swing on it.
Guest:And their second record, East West, was all, they rehearsed the whole record in the Hallucinations rehearsal space.
Guest:And so it was amazing seeing Michael Bloomfield, you know, who really conducted most of the rehearsals.
Guest:And they did this great long instrumental track called Passin'.
Guest:It was East-West was the name of the track.
Guest:And Michael told me that he got the idea from a Chico Hamilton record called Passin' Through.
Guest:But watching, you know, Michael, you know, pull this band together with Elvin and
Guest:Paul and really construct this entire album.
Guest:And because the next, they were going down to New York to record it, which they did in a day or two.
Guest:And that became, to witness them, especially Michael, who I became quite friendly with, and Al Cooper, who now lives in Boston.
Guest:He, you know, really got me into the big bands.
Guest:Michael was so into Basie and all the different harmonies and the horn sections.
Guest:He was kind of like a savant, wasn't he?
Guest:Oh, he was something.
Guest:And then they ended up putting together, what was that band, Al Cooper and Grav and I. Super Sessions?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:A blues project?
Guest:No.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:That was Al Cooper's band.
Guest:It was... Oh, boy.
Guest:I had too much to sing too fast last night, so my brain is not all there.
Guest:It wasn't Bloomfield, Cooper, and Stills?
Guest:No.
Guest:Blood, Sweat, and Tears?
Guest:No.
Guest:That was Al Cooper.
Guest:I think he produced that.
Guest:Yeah, Al Cooper.
Guest:This was with Gravenides.
Guest:You'll be able to research it.
Guest:Gravenides, Bloomfield, and...
Guest:Man, no, Blues Project was Cooper and a great guitar player, Danny Kalb, who was a friend of Bob's in University of Chicago.
Guest:Well, Cooper and Bloomfield did a few records on their own.
Guest:Right, but that was later on.
Guest:But I'm embarrassed I can't think of the name, but you'll be able to research it.
Guest:Well, I mean, we could do it right now.
Guest:Yeah, okay.
Guest:Let's see.
Guest:I remember the music.
Guest:I remember the songs.
Guest:Killing Floor was one that they did.
Guest:The Helen Wolf.
Marc:Yeah, I remember that too.
Marc:But it wasn't...
Guest:It wasn't those Super Sessions records?
Guest:No, that came later.
Guest:Al and Mike did the Super Sessions.
Guest:With Stephen Stills, I think.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, there was a bunch of them.
Guest:Let's see.
Guest:Al Cooper, Mike.
Guest:The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Cooper.
Guest:No.
Guest:Super Session Film Reads, Why the Bills, I Stand Alone.
Guest:No.
Guest:What group was Nick Ravanides, Bloomfield, and Mike Bloomfield in?
Guest:And Buddy Miles played drums.
Guest:Buddy Miles was drummer.
Guest:I don't know, man.
Guest:I can't.
Guest:Let's see.
Guest:What if you said what group... Well, there's a book called... Oh, here.
Guest:Let's look up Nick.
Guest:Who's at the Fillmore?
Guest:No, if you said what group was Buddy Miles... I'm not talking to it, though.
Guest:I'm just typing it in.
Guest:Oh, you're not doing a Google?
Guest:I am doing a Google.
Marc:But if you Google what band... I am.
Marc:I'm just looking at Gravinitis right now.
Marc:Hold on.
Marc:Electric Flag.
Marc:There it is.
Guest:Oh, thank God.
Guest:Thank you so much.
Guest:And when Electric Flag first hit the Boston Tea Party, which was sort of our Fillmore, where all the bands, like most of the English bands, first played.
Guest:Did you see Fleetwood Mac there?
Guest:I not only saw Fleetwood Mac there, but I ended up spending time with Jeremy Spence and Peter Green.
Guest:You did?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I'm a Peter Green freak, dude.
Guest:Oh, let me tell you.
Guest:Peter Green is so under-recognized.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:That concert, those concerts in 72, I think, live at the Boston Tea Party.
Marc:Holy shit.
Marc:I was there.
Marc:You were there.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And we played.
Guest:We opened up for one of them.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But Peter Green, see, one was like Otis Rush and Jeremy Spence was Elmore James.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I mean, it was like how they possessed, you know, it was like magical.
Guest:They backed Otis Rush on a record, I think.
Guest:They might have.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They might have.
Guest:Or Otis Spann, I think.
Guest:No, maybe Otis Spann, because one of the fellas that plays with me and my band now, a great guitar player, Duke Levine, also from Boston, he played with Otis Rush when they toured Europe for a long time.
Guest:But Peter Green... Otis Rush was a guitar player.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Yeah, no, Otis Spann's a piano player.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, it was an Otis Spann record that we would back.
Marc:But Peter Green, like, he must have been a deep dude.
Guest:Oh, man, yes.
Guest:And...
Guest:But so unrecognized.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:And had, you know, obviously some, you know, problems.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Later on.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And but even early, he was it was not these, you know, I think he's bipolar.
Guest:I would say so.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But bipolar has become such a broad.
Marc:No, but I mean, no one knew what that was.
Guest:Right.
Marc:You know, he got involved with the drugs and then that exacerbates it.
Marc:There's a great documentary about him from the BBC called Man of the World.
Guest:It's great.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:I've never seen it.
Guest:It's beautiful.
Guest:And, you know, I had a really good interaction with him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you could tell that there were these moods, and you just knew when not to leave him alone.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But, man, and it was so crazy because one time, you know, Mick Fleetwood called me up and said...
Guest:do I want to, he's putting together a band, do I want to come sing with it?
Guest:And I said, oh, Mick, I can't, you know, I didn't know what he meant.
Guest:I turned it down, but, you know, they were just so.
Guest:And that was that band?
Guest:No, no, no, no.
Guest:Oh, later.
Guest:Somewhere between, you know, the Fleet.
Marc:After Peter disappeared.
Marc:Yeah, and.
Marc:They got, they brought, there was that one record with just Spencer and Kerwin, and then they brought Bob Welch in.
Marc:No, I think this was after the, you know, the Fleet with Mack.
Guest:Yeah, with Green.
Guest:With Green.
Guest:No, no, later, later, later.
Marc:Oh, after the girls.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:And he was putting together, he was going to put together another kind of blues band.
Guest:Oh, interesting.
Guest:He really loved that stuff, Nate.
Guest:Oh, he did.
Guest:And he asked if I wanted to, you know, sing in it.
Guest:And, you know, those guys are just so unworldly that vocally and stuff, I just felt that I...
Guest:And he said, come on out, man, we'll just jam and stuff, which I would have loved to do, but like when I got the first call to do a duet with Aretha, I said no.
Marc:Well, it's interesting that you talk about Butterfield, because it seems like the thrust of Guiles in the way you talk about Butterfield not popping on the record as much as they popped live, that you guys were aware of that.
Marc:Because those first few Guiles records are fucking...
Guest:Oh, but, you know, we didn't know how to make records.
Guest:Fortunately, they captured some of us.
Guest:But our first, Jay Giles' first record was made in like about 18 hours because there was two producers that were doing R&B.
Guest:They were basically doing Wilson Pickett from Atlantic Records and they were doing Joe Tex and people like that.
Guest:Did you deal with Jerry Wexler?
Guest:In the book, there's a great story of John Landau, who now manages Bruce Springsteen.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:Who you met at Brandeis somehow.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That's crazy.
Guest:Being a painter, you know, pretending I was a painter.
Guest:And then I hear this Chuck Berry music coming from this dormitory.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I go in, and it turns out to be John Landau.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so I was a harmonica player.
Guest:And John was going to do a folk thing the next day in a coffee house.
Guest:And so I said, why don't we play together?
Guest:We'll do some song and I'll back you up in harmonica.
Guest:And John said, great.
Guest:So I met him the next day at this coffee house.
Guest:And when his name was called up, you know, John Landau was up next and with his friend, John turned to me and said, you know, Pete,
Guest:Maybe I should do this one alone.
Guest:So I was the first managerial decision that John Lando ever made.
Guest:Did you see the Aretha movie Respect with Jennifer Hudson?
Guest:No, I didn't.
Guest:I played Wexler.
Guest:Oh, you did?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:Well, I was very close with Jerry.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Jerry signed us.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And John was in the room and they gave us, you know, an amazing contract.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The contract that Laverne Baker signed in 1952.
Guest:That's how bad it was.
Guest:It was literally, you know, the same contract.
Guest:And it was just terrible.
Guest:And so we were on Atlantic and they forgot about us.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And for about a year and a half.
Guest:And then Wexler decided to get rid of some of these acts.
Guest:And he said he was going to get rid of the Giles Band.
Guest:And this gentleman that I talk about is...
Guest:I can spend an hour talking about him, the Big M. How was the Big M?
Guest:Mario Medias, and he was, you know, came from Mississippi, grew up in Chicago.
Guest:His father was a gambler, great friends of Muddy Waters.
Guest:Big M was, you know, this really handsome black dude that came to New York, come an accountant, and loved jazz, and particularly Miles Davis.
Guest:Now, he introduced you to your manager, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he...
Guest:He met this woman that worked at Atlantic, and she said, you know, if you love jazz, you can get a job at Atlantic.
Guest:And Mara said, Atlantic, I can get all these great Coltrane records.
Guest:And he loved Miles, he loved Coltrane.
Guest:So he got the job as an accountant.
Guest:Now, he's in the accountant office, and people like, you know, Don Covey, people like Joe Tex, people like...
Guest:Wilson Pickett are all going in to get their checks.
Guest:He's signing all the checks for Ahmet, for Wexler, for, you know, but he's saying to Wilson Pickett, you know, they're screwing you on the international royalties and he's telling them what, you know, they really should be getting paid.
Guest:And so all these artists are going down talking to Wexler saying, hey, man, what about our international royalties?
Guest:What about the so-and-so and so-and-so?
Guest:And Wexler is perplexed.
Guest:How are these guys finding out about this?
Guest:So Mario was so beloved, they called him down.
Guest:They realized they traced it back that it was Mario that was giving them all this information.
Guest:So they called Mario into, Jerry Wexler calls him into the office and said, Mario,
Guest:You can't work an accountant anymore, but we want to keep you at Atlantic.
Guest:What would you like to do?
Guest:He said, man, I want to be a rock promotion man.
Guest:There was no really rock promotion man at that time.
Guest:You know, FM stations.
Guest:So Marigold became one of the first rock promotion men.
Guest:And when groups like the Stones would come in, Led Zeppelin would come in.
Guest:Mario was the first Chicago black fella they met that knew Muddy, knew Hal and Wolfe, actually knew these guys.
Guest:And he was so fast-talking.
Guest:Wolfe, let me tell you something, man.
Guest:You were whamma jamma, Mama Juma.
Guest:And he would just be fast-talking.
Guest:And he was incredible.
Guest:And so we're about to be kicked off of, you know, just released from Atlantic.
Guest:And so Mario sets up a showcase for the band so Jerry Wexler can hear the band.
Guest:And...
Guest:In the audience was Jerry Wexler.
Guest:Sitting to the left of Jerry Wexler was Dr. John.
Guest:Sitting to the right of Jerry Wexler was King Curtis, the great saxophone player.
Guest:And, you know, it was an Aretha band and Sam Cooke's band.
Guest:And, you know, did all the yakety-yak, you know, sax solos.
Guest:And Clarence Clemens, favorite saxophone player.
Guest:And Curtis Mayfield was there.
Guest:The big M was there.
Guest:And we do our set.
Guest:And Jerry turns to...
Guest:Dr. John says, what do you think, Doc?
Guest:Doc says, you got to keep them, man, keep them.
Guest:Turns to King Curtis and he says, got to keep them, Jerry, got to keep them.
Guest:And thanks to the Big M, we remained on Atlantic Records.
Guest:Did he hook you up with the touring?
Guest:Like with the Stones and stuff?
Guest:Oh, he was very close to Stones.
Guest:And...
Guest:I got hooked up through, you know, getting to meet the Stones through Mario.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:First time I got to meet Keith and Mick.
Guest:And also, he was instrumental.
Guest:There's one of my favorite chapters in the book.
Guest:is about Don Covey, the songwriter.
Guest:And Don Covey wrote, who I wrote Lights Out with, my first solo endeavor.
Guest:Don wrote Chain of Fools for Aretha Franklin, number one hit.
Guest:He wrote Mercy, Mercy that the Rolling Stones did.
Guest:He wrote...
Guest:I don't know what you got, but it sure got me for Little Richard, and if you ever get that record or listen to that record, Jimi Hendrix is on guitar, Billy Preston's on organ, Little Richard's singing, and Don Covey wrote so many great, great, great songs.
Guest:And that'll do it for producer cuts this month.
Guest:We bring these to you every month or whenever the situation arises where I have some stuff that got cut out of WTF episodes and I'm able to bring them to you here on the full Marin.
Guest:So thanks for being here.
Guest:We hope you enjoy these bonus episodes and we really appreciate you subscribing.
Guest:Talk to you soon.