Black Cracker Presents: Tales of...Season 2
Tales of...My Dead Heroes
Josh's dead heroes. Interviews, memories and short stories. First up, A 21-year-old Josh auditions for Beatlemania in 1977.
By Josh Alan Friedman
Season 2: Tales of…My Dead Heroes
Unreleased interviews with the writers, songwriters and characters Josh Alan Friedman knew, admired, and outlived.
Over four decades of journalism, Friedman recorded conversations that never fully made it into print. This season releases them, with his own short stories and recollections woven around the tape.
Voices in Season 2 include Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather; Doc Pomus, the blues singer turned songwriter behind "Save the Last Dance for Me," in a two-part episode on his return to writing after a dormant decade; Jerry Leiber of Leiber and Stoller; Broadway composer Cy Coleman; Texas blues bassist Keith Ferguson; record producer Joel Dorn; Tiny Tim; and Al Goldstein, the Screw publisher and First Amendment litigant whose fall from Upper East Side family man to homelessness Friedman documents across two episodes.
Friedman worked for Goldstein at Screw in the late 1970s, and later co-wrote his memoir, I, Goldstein: My Screwed Life.
THE GREAT BLUESMAN TELLS IT STRAIGHTDoc Pomus no longer had to cater to the teenage rock ’n’ roll market. He wrote sophisticated songs for adults. In his final years, he mentored dozens of singers, discovered bands like Roomful of Blues and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and wrote the best lyrics of his life.Episode LinksDoc’s websiteAKA Doc…
View Episode DetailsTHE 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 his sidekick, entrenched in Doc’s late-night rock ‘n’ roll whirl, where he held court like a Buddha. He was amazed that so many of his songs became iconic anthems…
View Episode DetailsFROM PARADISE TO THE GUTTER The Great Pornographer went from Upper East Side family man/pornographer-next-door to Bowery bum. The First Amendment hero became destitute. But he never lost his appetite for pussy and pastrami. Episode Links I Goldstein: My Screwed Life, by Al Goldstein and Josh Alan Friedman When Sex Was Dirty, by Josh Alan…
View Episode DetailsTHE GREAT PORNOGRAPHER GETS SCREWED With the creation of Screw and Midnight Blue, Al Goldstein liberated sex from the shadows of shame and illegal obscenity. He had no idea what it would lead to today. But in his era, the sexual revolution was a cry for liberation and the laws against sex came tumbling down…
View Episode DetailsAN EDITOR’S EDITOR A legend among his peers at the old men’s adventure magazines, Mel Shestack made people believe the impossible. And anyone who fell for his “gentle cons” felt privileged afterward. Episode Links Weasels Ripped My Flesh Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos It’s A Man’s World True Action, one of the many magazines published…
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