Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman Podcast
1) #17: Doc Pomus Comes Back/Part 2
No longer catering to a teenage rock’n’roll, Doc wrote sophisticated songs. In his twilight, he mentored, discovered bands like Roomful of Blues and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and wrote the best lyric...Show More
2) #16: Doc Pomus Comes Back/Part 1
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 Bud...Show More
3) #15: The Fall of Al Goldstein/Part 2
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 past
4) #14: The Fall of Al Goldstein/Part 1
The Great Pornographer Gets Screwed - Creator 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. In his...Show More
5) #13: Mel Shestack: Magazine Management Trickster
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 afterwards.
6) #12: Jack Bruce Follows His Own Path
Jack Bruce reinvented the bass guitar and wrote spectacular songs. Cream lasted a mere three years. But he remained a working musician first and disregarded the pretense of rock stardom.
7) #11: Cy Coleman: Broadway Jazz Maestro
Cy Coleman wrote the scores to a dozen legendary Broadway musicals. But he was a jazz pianist first, and virtually invented the sophisticated Culture of New York cocktail jazz in the 1950’s.
8) #10: Mario Puzo
My father hired Mario Puzo as associate editor at Magazine Management at 655 Madison Avenue in 1960. While working there, Puzo would write his great novel about Hell’s Kitchen, The Fortunate Pilgrim. ...Show More
9) #9: The Masked Announcer – Joel Dorn
Joel Dorn was one of the last record producers standing from the old music biz. When the new industry pushed him out in the 1980s, he bounced back with the creation of CD box sets. “Don’t give me that...Show More
10) #8: Lou Reed – A Foul and Bitter Interview
A FOUL AND BITTER INTERVIEW WITH LOU REED - 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 nastiest inter...Show More