The WELL: inkwell.vue.254: Lisa Rhodes: Electric Ladyland

#208: If gopod's on our side s/he'll stop the next war (karish) Fri 25 Nov 05 13:14

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 13:14:00 PST

Isis from New York: My friend Lolly Bienenfeld played with them early on. She said that most of their gigs were on the bath house circuit, where they were very well received and had a lot of fun.

I saw Lolly's sister a month ago. I'm sure I can get in touch with Lolly if anyone wants to hear more. [Read entire topic]

#207: Berliner (captward) Mon 26 Sep 05 09:45

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 09:45:00 PDT

Genie was famously Richard Thompson's girlfriend, which is why she was in the van when Fairport had the accident (it also killed their drummer, I think). And Jack Bruce did Songs for a Tailor for her. I had no idea she was American until I read this. [Read entire topic]

#206: Low and popular (rik) Mon 26 Sep 05 08:45

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 08:45:00 PDT

I didn't read the article about Genie, so I can't say anything about it either way. All my knowledge came from the fact that she was in the same social circle as me in the late 60s, when a gang of us hung out backstage at, and in the alley behind, the Troubadour. A bunch of Laurel Canyon type, some of whom worked for Teen Set magazine. Genie was something of a legend among them. She used her sewing talents for access. I thought she was nice, but never knew her biblically myself.

And yeah. Connie and here posse were pros. Just rackin' 'em up. [Read entire topic]

#205: Lisa Rhodes (lisarhodes) Mon 26 Sep 05 06:33

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 06:33:00 PDT

In the letters sent in to Rolling Stone following the groupie issue, Genie the Tailor (who was included in the article) wrote in and was very upset at the article and her portrayal. She said that RS has gotten it all wrong and that all they had to do if they wanted the truth was to ask, while slamming Frank Zappa and his groupie connections. I was so sorry that RS never asked her as she died that year (car accident). They did include her in the book version of the groupie issue but she was dead by that time.

M, I always got the feeling that Connie Hamzy (?) was much more a "professional" groupie than someone like Genie who was a rock clothes designer of some reknown. [Read entire topic]

#204: Life Is Easy When Considered From Another Point Of View (dam) Mon 26 Sep 05 06:15

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 06:15:00 PDT

yeah, me too! [Read entire topic]

#203: Sharon Lynne Fisher (slf) Mon 26 Sep 05 04:59

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 04:59:00 PDT

I do hope you do a book someday, <rik>. [Read entire topic]

#202: Low and popular (rik) Mon 26 Sep 05 02:37

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 02:37:00 PDT

Really. Remember that my heyday, the 70s, was far looser sexually than it is today. In the era between the widespread adoption of the pill as safe, effective contraception, and the rise of STD's that got their own covers of Time and Newsweek, sex lost its SIGNIFICANCE and was just something you did with people you liked. Hell, you didn't even have to like them.

I may also be using the term, "groupie", a bit more loosely than you. There was an almost professional gang in the major urban areas, like the girls in "Almost Famous" - the Pamela des Barres/Pennie Lane types - but to me that was a small piece of the sexual banquet available in the world of touring. The first one of those I met, a woman who just liked to rack up rock stars, was Jeannie the Tailor, who got access to bands by making artful clothes for them. This was in the late 60s. A few years later this type was exemplified by Connie from Little Rock, an Arkansas school teacher who had the local franchise nailed down. She only went with members of the headline acts.

Being in a second-tier outfit, most of what we saw were women who used us as an excuse to break free from their normal lives for a night. Or that girl from the record company who was there to arrange and manage the local radio interviews. And yes, several budding publicists. One of the better known publicists, and someone I still know, had a regular thing going with our equipment manager.

I'm told things changed in the mid eighties, which is when I came in from the cold. [Read entire topic]

#201: Margaret Moser (fairblonde) Sun 25 Sep 05 18:40

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 18:40:00 PDT

Really, Rik? I've seen little transfer of groupies into publicists. Wives and girlfriends into publicists (or managers, agents, etc.), yes. My experience is that groupies like the chase and variety and the musicians prefer the groupies to be outside their personal lives and not part of their professional lives. I am speaking of the "average" groupies I knew and consider Pamela Des Barres and Pennie Lane to be exceptions. [Read entire topic]

#200: Lisa Rhodes (lisarhodes) Sun 25 Sep 05 17:29

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 17:29:00 PDT

Rik, agreed. I would love to hear the perspectives of some of you journalists and male musicians on this, as I have only one perspective.

Ed, just received the Phinney book. It looks intriguing. [Read entire topic]

#199: Low and popular (rik) Sun 25 Sep 05 08:31

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 08:31:00 PDT

There's a lot of overlap in the groupie-wife-girlfriend-publicist groups, with women moving from one group to another. [Read entire topic]