#17: Doc Pomus Comes Back/Part 2
THE GREAT BLUESMAN TELLS IT STRAIGHT Doc Pomus no longer had to cater to the teenage rock ’n’ roll market. He wrote sophisticated songs for...
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Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman
TALES OF. . . MY DEAD HEROES is the second season of podcasts from Josh Alan Friedman. But DEAD is a politically incorrect term. Their songs and books and records resonate everywhere, and if...
Episodes
20 of 35 episodes#16: Doc Pomus Comes Back/Part 1
THE EARLY STIGMA OF ROCK 'N' ROLL After a dormant decade, the great songwriter Doc Pomus was back in business by the late 1970s. I became hi...
#15: The Fall of Al Goldstein/Part 2
FROM PARADISE TO THE GUTTER The Great Pornographer went from Upper East Side family man/pornographer-next-door to Bowery bum. The First Amen...
#14: The Fall of Al Goldstein/Part 1
THE GREAT PORNOGRAPHER GETS SCREWED With the creation of Screw and Midnight Blue, Al Goldstein liberated sex from the shadows of shame and i...
#13: Mel Shestack: Magazine Management Trickster
AN EDITOR’S EDITOR A legend among his peers at the old men’s adventure magazines, Mel Shestack made people believe the impossible. And anyon...
#12: Jack Bruce Follows His Own Path
A BASS PLAYER PREPARES Jack Bruce reinvented the bass guitar and wrote spectacular songs. Cream lasted a mere three years. But he remained a...
#11: Cy Coleman: Broadway Jazz Maestro
A COMPOSER PREPARES Cy Coleman wrote the scores to a dozen legendary Broadway musicals. But he was a jazz pianist first, and virtually inven...
#10: Mario Puzo
WHEN ADVENTURE MAGAZINES BEGAT MOVIES My father hired Mario Puzo as associate editor at Magazine Management at 655 Madison Avenue in 1960. W...
#9: The Masked Announcer – Joel Dorn
A HUSTLER WITH EXQUISITE TASTE Joel Dorn was one of the last record producers standing from the old music biz. When the new industry pushed...
#8: Lou Reed – A Foul and Bitter Interview
UGLY PEOPLE GOT NO REASON TO LIVE As a new, 22-year-old writer for The SoHo News in 1978, I was sent out to interview Lou Reed. He gave the...
#7: The Lullaby of Tiny Tim
A DIVINE MADMAN Tiny Tim lived in his own bubble with angelic girls dancing in the clouds, while 1920’s Broadway lullabies played on harps....
#6: Seymour the Kike
THE BRUTE PIMP OF WHITECHAPEL The 19th century life model for anti-Semitic caricatures was quite a guy. Except I made him up. And he now joi...
#5: Keith Ferguson Remembers/Part 2
PACHUCO BLUES Ferguson avoids the Vietnam draft, plays Houston lesbian clubs with young Johnny Winter, and joins the Thunderbirds. Like an o...
#4: Keith Ferguson Remembers/Part 1
AUSTIN'S GREATEST FALLEN MUSIC HERO In a town known for its fallen musical heroes, Fabulous Thunderbirds bassist Keith Ferguson was a tour d...
#3: Midnight Jerry Leiber/Part 2
IS THAT ALL THERE IS? Writing songs with Jerry was, for me, like having a catch with Willie Mays or Joe DiMaggio—when they were old. But his...
#2: Midnight Jerry Leiber/Part 1
THE IRVING BERLIN OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL We worked on a book in which he would tell off the world, to be called Kiss My Big Black Ass. It remained...
#1: Almost George
BUT ALMOST DOESN'T COUNT When Josh auditioned for Beatlemania in 1977, he was just one hopeful in the callbacks for George. Thousands of Bea...
Tales of… Season Two Trailer
Josh's dead heroes. Interviews, memories and short stories. First up, A 20-year-old Josh auditions for Beatlemania in 1977. Coming September...
#17: Josh in Times Square
So long, Sucker Old Times Square was at the brink of extinction and my job was done. The finale of this series. [gallery columns="2" size="l...
#16: Old Flesh Agents
OLD FLESH AGENTS Irv Charnoff and Jess Mack were the last remaining vaudeville/burlesque booking agents in 1984. They mourned the decline of...