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.
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. He became the biggest fad of 1968. But his lifelong dedication to early 20th-century music was without equal. Episode Playlist Prisoner of Love: A Tribute to Russ Columbo Girl: Tiny Tim…
View Episode DetailsTHE 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 joins the cast of this season’s Dead Heroes. Episode Playlist The Worst, Bela’s Funeral Dirge heard in this episode.
View Episode DetailsPACHUCO BLUES Ferguson avoids the Vietnam draft, plays Houston lesbian clubs with young Johnny Winter, and joins the Thunderbirds. Like an old wolf, Keith paces his communal porch in Austin. It was his last refuge. Recommended Playlist Girls Go WildT-Bird Rhythm The TailGators Second Winter
View Episode DetailsAUSTIN’S GREATEST FALLEN MUSIC HERO In a town known for its fallen musical heroes, Fabulous Thunderbirds bassist Keith Ferguson was a tour de force. He submerged into semi-retirement on his rustic estate, a hangout for wounded animals, reptiles and old pachuchos. The music biz turned ugly, but Austin’s beautiful losers—as well as the heroin—remained pure. And…
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