David Litvinoff: Between Scenes

Sometime in the early 1960s, a man called David Litvinoff awoke to find himself bloody and bruised, his head shaved, tied tightly to a chair that was hanging from the railings of his balcony high above Kensington High Street in west London. He had been knocked out and then hung out to dry, high above the Aldermaston marchers passing obliviously below on the way to Jerusalem. It was a punishment carried out by experts in violence, and it had been ordered by someone he knew.

David Litvinoff was, by nature and temperament, a wanderer between worlds: between the Chelsea set and hardcore criminals, between Soho and the East End, between the Scene and Esmeralda’s Barn, between Lucian Freud, George Melly, Peter Rachman, the Krays, John Bindon, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger. He was a shape-shifter whose story – painstakingly unearthed in a new book by Keiron Pim – offers a window into a secret side of the 60s.

A vivid memory to his friends, Litvinoff was one of those people whose performance was their life. His most lasting achievement was the profound influence he had on Performance – the hallucinatory film directed by Nic Roeg and Donald Cammell, and starring Mick Jagger, which captured the London of the late 1960s, merging pop stardom, violent criminality, illegal drugs, gender-blurring, the occult and Jorge Luis Borges...

The great Jon Savage, The Long Read in The Guardian.

Thought For The Day: Chelsea Kelsey

“My mum said to me when I was a teenager that after the age of 27 you don’t feel like you’re getting any older. And that’s about the age we all were when we started so I suppose I still feel about 27.” 

Chelsea Kelsey, Readers Wifes (with Kim Phaggs, left), in a Guardian article celebrating 20 years of Duckie.

Same.

It's tonight!

PS For the record today's Guardian Guide contains things about Ian McKellen and Olly Alexander, but they're not that interesting. Read this instead; Bob Stanley reviews Jon Savage's 1966: The Year The Decade Exploded.

Teenage: The Movie

Matt Wolf follows his acclaimed documentary Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell with this fresh look at the energy and angst of adolescence. Based on Jon Savage’s book Teenage: The Creation of Youth, the film captures milestones in youth culture from some of the brightest and darkest moments of recent history. Skillfully constructed from stunning footage from the beginning of the 20th century up to the end of the 1940s, Wolf’s film finds a thousand different ways to escape adult oppression and influence society, culture and politics.

The film has a very nice website - check all the fascinating articles and photos on the blog.
Here is an interview with Jon Savage and Matt Wolf.
Here's a video of Jon and Matt discussing stuff.
They're doing a Q&A at the BFI on January 22nd.
Teenage is showing at the BFI London Southbank from January 24th.

Kurt Cobain: And On That 20 Year-Old Bombshell!!!

A recently unearthed interview with Kurt Cobain has revealed that the Nirvana frontman thought he was gay as a teenager.

In July 1993, less than a year before his death, the singer chatted with music journalist Jon Savage in New York. The cassette tape recording has now found its way onto YouTube, thanks to US broadcaster PBS.

Cobain claimed that he had a bad time at high school, and when asked whether he experienced any problems with "people thinking that you were gay", he responded: "Yeah, I even thought that I was gay. I thought that might be the solution to my problem [of feeling isolated].

"Although I never experimented with it, I had a gay friend, and then my mother wouldn't allow me to be friends with him anymore because... well, she's homophobic. It was real devastating because finally I found a male friend who I actually hugged and was affectionate too, and we talked about a lot of things... I couldn't hang out with him anymore."

The Independent et al.

This "recently unearthed interview" was actually published in The Observer - a popular British newspaper - in August 1993, and is anthologised in Jon Savage's 1996 book, Time Travel: From the Sex Pistols to Nirvana - Pop, Media and Sexuality, 1977-96.

Perhaps there's a clue in the title?

David Bowie: "Golden Years"

A few years back I had an amusing email exchange with Angie Bowie when I was trying to fix up an interview.
She broke it off with the immortal line that she was bored with talking about David Bowie. 
Anyway, I'm happy to report that she's in-no-way bonkers, nor has she ever tried to trade on David's name nor cash in on his success.
She's also a reliable source of information on the Dame back in the early days, and - by golly - she's never told any of these stories in the Sun Sunday before has she?  
If you haven't OD-ed on DB coverage in the media recently, you might want to read this Guardian piece - When Bowie Met Burroughs - by Jon Savage instead.
A strange title, as it's actually an overview of his glittering career and - though it's been a cliche in all the recent safety blanket coverage - his terrific cultural impact.
Whatever it's a rare interesting and insightful piece amongst a tidal wave of tired old guff.  
Most papers seem to think they can get away with stars reminisces of the golden years, or by filling a few pages with some old photos and "insights" cribbed from the book accompanying the upcoming V&A exhibition David Bowie Is...
(It opens in a fortnight - interesting timing seeing as no-one knew about this comeback). 
The Sunday Times Magazine has lifted a whole article from the book, Oh! You Pretty Thing, by... Camille Paglia.
Can't believe anyone still takes this silly old fraud seriously anymore.
For once be grateful if you can't get behind the Murdoch paywall.    

Donna Summer: Our Love

There's been some strange comfort in how much coverage there's been about Donna Summer and her death since yesterday.
And, for someone who was rarely taken seriously by critics in her 70s heyday, much of it pleasingly placing her as a pivotal figure in popular music.
(Though I've lost count of how many tributes I've heard from Paul Gambaccini...)
Just about every story and obit said she was very popular with The Gays, and then mentioned the controversy over that alleged "Aids is God's punishment" comment.
I think it's sad how this myth, and it is a myth, became such a big part of her story - it would look odd if an obituary didn't mention it - and despite her endless refutations and a high profile libel case.
The two best articles I've read by twelve inches or more both came from The Guardian.
Here's a beautiful piece by Alex Needham on her game-changing records and the power of her music; "charged with feelings of liberation, a pre-Aids world of pansexual freedom and adventure... her best records still pulsate with that spirit, the lifeforce of pop itself."
And here's Paul Flynn on Donna Summer as the "the accidental gay icon".
(I read it soon after it went online and many of the readers' comments brought up that Aids comment, often assuming it was true. Grrr...).
I know what Paul means, and agree - though I don't think it was completely accidental.
Interviewing Giorgio Moroder some years ago he told me during the Casablanca days rather a lot of the people they worked with were gay.
Casablanca's rarely given credit as a gay-friendly and pioneering gay-savvy label.
Giorgio told me he was too naive to notice they'd queered up the sleeve of his Nights In White Satin album, by adding a K to the title, and getting Giorgio shot for the cover photo in what looks like a gay sauna surrounded by some... knights in white satin.
KISS may have built Casablanca's city on Rock 'n' Roll, but their manager, Bill Aucoin, was gay - and I bet it was him who told those four nice Jewish boys to turn up the camp to 11.
As for Casablanca's other really big act, Village People, what need I say?
Though yes, they were often coded - and their bizarro film, Can't Stop The Music (often blamed for bankrupting the label) had them playing themselves laughably straight.
Casablanca also put out two of Disco's boldest singles, The Ritchie Family's Cruising The Streets and Skatt Brothers' Walk The Night.
And then there was Patrick Juvet and Paul Jabara - the latter wrote No More Tears (Enough Is Enough and It's Raining Men - and they signed Dusty and ruddy Cher!
But anyway I'm wibbling away.
As I said, these are two great pieces.
Donna Summer deserved writing about her as good as these.

Update: There's more! Jon Savage and Ewan Pearson on How I Feel Love Changed Pop. Wow.

All Rock 'N' Roll Is Homosexual: Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be

Alexis Petridis writes in The Guardian today about how Rock music has become far too heterosexual of late, and thus, as Jon Savage points out; "it's all so dreary."
Too true.
Petridis and Savage - two of Fagburn's favourite music writers - are talking about the endlessly fascinating subject of gay men and popular music at the South Bank Centre this evening.
The title of the talk, All Rock 'N' Roll Is Homosexual, is taken from an old Manic Street Preachers slogan* - Mr Nicky Wire will also be in attendance.
Though Nicky's brother and occasional collaborator, the poet Patrick Jones, would have been just as illuminating a contributor.
If you ask me.
There are some headbangingly stupid comments after Alexis' feature, but same as it ever was.
My favourite?
"Another agenda to hi-jack what was essentially family friendly entertainment. Stop re-writing history to further your minority views."
So think on, Jon Savage, think on...

* I have an unpublished meditation on what this means by Richey Manic, by the way.

Lady Gaga: Still Born

Lady Gaga finally released audio of her embarrassing and patronising barely literate "gay anthem" Born This Way today.
At the time of typing the number of articles saying it sounds like Madonna's Express Yourself - 746.
So who are you calling unoriginal?

Update: Jon Savage writes about 'Lady Gaga's New Gay Anthem' in The Guardian on February 14th; "The point always has to be restated. While gay teens face extraordinary levels of bullying, records such as Born This Way will remain as necessary as they are generous in spirit."
Hear hear.