Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

You don't think Kodak needed tax attorneys?

My understanding is that her family was the Eastmans of Eastman Kodak, but I'll research it further or defer to anyone who has...

There's a long tradition of these rich kids in the American music scene...remember Carly Simon of Simon & Schuster?

Yes they were. Her father was a well known lawyer. As for that tape, I think it was a very dirty thing to do to her, joke or not. I heard it played on the radio once and I felt sorry for her. She handled the embarassment with class though. She was there mainly because she and Paul wanted to be together and be a part of what he loved to do...play music. He certainly didn't mind.

Yeah, maybe you're right, I don't know...

But I think lip-synching from the stage, pretending to sing into a dead mic, having an unknown player sit offstage and play parts not being 'handled' by the 'star', etc., are all dirty things to do to an audience, joke or not. Look at how the particular charade we're discussing has confused young Alex.

A guy once remarked to me, as we watched Donny and Marie Osmond pretend to play along with Roy Clark on their tv show, that "That Donny Osmond sure is a great musician!" I didn't bother to point out to him that making itsy-bitsy spider movements with your hand two inches in the air above banjo strings will not actually produce sound.

I feel sorry for every backup singer with a great voice who didn't get the job because she wouldn't sleep with the 'star'...

Linda McCartney was not related to the Eastman-Kodak family.

http://www.beatlesagain.com/bmyths.html

Her father, Lee Eastman, was a prominent show business lawyer in New York. She was born into a wealthy family (1941), and grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y. Her mother died in a plane crash when she was 19. So... she was "rich" and therefore fair game to receive potshots from those who resent wealth.

To me the question is not whether someone grows up with money but whether they had musical talent. And the answer is:

Carly Simon?... YES
Linda Eastman McCartney?.... NO

I agree, Kent...and furthermore:

Roy Clark?...YES
Donny Osmond?...GIMME A BREAK

What I resent is not wealth, but unfair 'privilege'...wealth just happens to be one of the quickest ways to achieve said privilege.
On a lighter note, I find it hilarious that one of the biggest markets for plastic surgery in this country (and therefore, the world) is called 'Scarsdale'...

I apologize for the mistaken impression concerning the 'Eastman' issue. Thanks for straightening me out on that.

It obviously doesn't hurt changing one's family name to something like Eastman, however...wish Ellis Island had let my great-grandfather call himself Rockefeller...might make it easier for me to get gigs...

Did Paul take it upon himself to "teach" her to be his keyboardist/backup vocalist (real or not)? Yes

Did he do it because she was the best "talent" available? No

Did he do it because of some urge to take his family on the road with him? Likely

Will Linda finally find respite from all of the "slagging" in the afterlife? Apparently not

Is all of this really any concern of ours? Nope

I've got to go now... got a gig to set up for!

PEACE!

Roy Clark? ... great guitarist/entertainer
Donny Osmond? ... yuk, but like it or not, Donnie and Marie did had a legit following of their own.

The Osmonds were the white alternative/sanitized version of the Jackson 5. Kinda like the various prepackaged "rock'n'rollers" (Bobby Darin, Frankie Avalon, Fabian etc) that came out in the late 50's early 60's as a non-threatening alternative to those nasty guys and their morally questionable hipshakin wild jungle boogaloo like Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Thanks to events like the Mitch Miller / Alan Freed fiasco, the music industry had managed to redefine rock'n'roll to something that was more "acceptable". It was that scene that the Beatles so completely obliterated.

As to the name thing I really doubt it amounts to a hill of beans. You could change your name to Elvis Hendrix-Lennon but if the crowd dont like the sound you make you just gotta pack up and go home.

Will Linda finally find respite from all of the "slagging" in the afterlife? .... why should she? Ever hear the tapes of her singing without instrument backup and studio effects? These recordings are out there and while everyone sounds worse without those aids, these tapes are an amazing (and horrible) thing to hear. In the end, I dont think Linda hurt Wings that much since they were able to largely take her out of the mix, but it's pretty obvious that she didn't have much musical talent at all and was only there because Paul wanted to share the experience with his wife.

Is all of this really any concern of ours? Sure it is..... why? ....because we're all music/guitar fanatics and we choose to make it so, thats why. It's not our business in the real worl, but on a free-flowing web site we can all express our opinions and praise or trash anyone we want to (within certain limits which are set by Peter M of course).

Well said...

There aren't many fields of endeavor where one can be 'taken out of the mix' and still get a hefty paycheck and a penthouse suite for the night...

...And I was just joking about the name thing...Who wants to be a Hilton? Not me...

not me either, thats for sure....

..... which leads to another interesting question. What are some great rock'n'roll names? Some fairly ordinary names seem really great because of their legend.... "John Lennon" is one of those. Some other names are downright DORKY but have become legendary... "Elvis Presley" might be one of those. Some other names (stagenames) try to be really cool but never live up to their billing... "John Cougar" (pre Melencamp) might be one of those.

So what are some cool rock names... either real or imagined?

I always liked 'Ed Marimba', Beefheart's Magic Band drummer...

Although if your real name was Artie Tripp, you'd think you would just stick with that...

Actually, Kent, some of the best Rock names I've seen are in this Forum....

Harry Bridge and Harley Lemons leap to mind...

I think Lawton Higgs, on the other hand, should run for the U.S. Senate.

Back in the early days of computer bulletin boards, someone asked if my "user" name was a slag on the AMF ownership period of Harley-Davidson.