Danny Says Page #7

and I said I think it'll sell

way over 100,000.

And it sold probably 600,000.

(cheering)

In 1968,

I became a DJ at WFMU,

- two nights a week,

- four hours a night.

This is Danny Fields,

this is WFMU-FM,

freeform radio from.

East Orange, New Jersey.

Going backwards up the half-hour

are the Beach Boys of course

and "Good Vibrations."

Pearls Before Swine,

"I Shall Not Care."

Silver Apples, "Program,"

the Righteous Brothers...

- "You've Lost That Loving.

- Feeling."

- Lot of us will be out at the.

- Pavilion next Wednesday night.

To see the MC5,

The Stooges and David Peel

& the Lower East Side.

WFMU has been the first to play

any of their records remember.

As we go into the next half-hour

again with Otis Redding, Cream,

David Peel, Captain Beefheart,

- The Byrds.

- And The Rolling Stones.

Bob Rudnick was of our world.

He was brilliant and funny

and Jewish and crazy and

he wrote an alternative column

called "Kokaine Karma" with Ks

in the East Village Other,

with Dennis Frawley.

And they had

a radio show on WFMU.

He taught me a great deal.

He steered me in directions

of political activism

that I thought were simply

ludicrous, but if he liked them,

I knew they had a little style

as well, and he was right!

The MC5,

- they had fabulous clothes.

- And physiques,

And they were all 6 foot 2.

They had amusing politics

and great hair.

Here, I was coming from an Andy.

Warhol crowd in New York,

and we were the most effete

people in the most effete city

in the most effete crowd.

And I was so effete.

I was just poised for...

- (claps)

- Being slammed with something.

That was full of blood

and lust and sweat

and cum and smell and vigor,

and they had it.

- Rob Tyner:

- Brothers and sisters!

The time has come for each and

every one of you to decide

whether you are gonna

be the problem,

- or whether you are gonna be.

- The solution!

That's right!

It takes five seconds,

five seconds of decision,

five seconds to realize your

purpose here on the planet.

It takes five seconds to

realize that it's time to move!

It's time to get down with it!

Brothers, it's time to testify

and I want to know,

are you ready to testify?

- (cheering)

- Are you ready?

I give you a testimonial,

the MC5!

("Ramblin' Rose"

(by MC5 plays)

I saw them at the Detroit at

the legendary Grande Ballroom.

- It was great,

- everyone jumped up and down,

- There were thousands.

- Of people there.

They had great costumes,

they twirled, they jumped,

and they landed,

and that very same weekend,

Wayne Kramer,

who I always loved,

a great guitar player

with the MC5 then said,

"If you liked us, you'll really

like our little brother band,

The Stooges."

("I Wanna Be Your Dog"

(by The Stooges plays)

I heard the music coming

from just down the hall,

and I got just transfixed.

And I've been listening

to music my whole life,

and this is a new take

on the word music.

Iggy:

The Stooges had left the stage,

I got to the back of the room

when this guy said,

"Hi, I'm Danny Fields,

I work for Elektra Records.

You're a star."

I thought,

"Oh, he's probably just...

wants to party or hang out or

pick me up, or something."

You know, I...

I felt a little of that,

and then we talked to him

for two minutes after,

and I knew,

"No, this a real sharp guy."

- We couldn't play.

- "Johnny B. Goode."

He wasn't gonna look

at the Ramones and think

that there was

any problem because

they couldn't play.

"Johnny B. Goode" either!

(laughs)

They couldn't play it

f***ing either, you know?

I'll bet Metallica

can't play it either, you know?

(laughing)

You know?

So...

Whereas somebody else might

want to address that issue,

he didn't see it that way.

And this was a guy

who would look at something

that nobody else was really

ready to see and he'd say,

"People could enjoy this,

people should enjoy this.

This should be everywhere!"

Wayne Kramer:
We were in

the basement at Translove

where John had his office.

Danny got on the phone

with Holzman.

- John Sinclair:
"I'm gonna tell.

- Him they oughta sign you guys."

I said, "Great, Danny!"

"Hey, go get 'em, baby!

(laughs)

Tells them he saw the MC5,

they were spectacular,

and then they had their little

baby brother band with them,

called The Stooges.

And he says, "I think we ought

to sign both of them."

He says 20 for the MC5,

5,000 for the Stooges.

And John said, "Yeah, that's

sounds like a good deal to me."

"Okay, it's a deal, all right.

Okay, see you back in New York."

- (claps)

- That was it, it was done,

All by Monday morning

at 10 o'clock.

It was done.

Here I got...

two of the greatest bands

in the history of the world

with a phone call.

- John:
For the Stooges to get.

- Signed to a record contract.

At a major label after about...

Oh, I don't know,

not a year of existence...

Never really having a tune.

It was just unbelievable that

this would happen, you know.

And I always thought, 25,000,

we could pay off all of our

debts,

we could pay off our equipment.

And then everybody

got a leather coat, you know?

(laughs)

Rob:
Yeah!

Yeah, come together!

Come together!

Thank you, thank you.

Come together.

Thank you kindly.

We hope you all did

come together.

Wayne:
I wasn't cynical about

him because he was too cool.

He wasn't...

obnoxious like

most music business types.

I didn't know that there are

powerful economic interests

that control how a band

ends up in the newspaper,

or a band ends up on television.

- Those were the kind of things.

- That I wanted to learn.

From Danny Fields.

- Like all that publicity.

- About The Doors,

"You made all that happen, huh?"

And he said,

- "No, man,

- I didn't make that happen.

You know, they did that."

Which is of course,

the brilliant publicist way

to answer that question.

- John:

- He was from the underground,

The bohemian quarter, you know,

the arts and weirdness

and drugs.

But I mean, he schooled me.

We really liked each other!

And he saw something

in me that...

I was this raw intellectual

from Detroit,

who wanted to do

some sensational sh*t.

I just saw him as a guy

who knew everybody

and knew how this sh*t worked.

Our idea was to take over

the world, you know, so...

(laughs)

- First, starting with.

- The music business.

Totally out of our way.

White Panther program is

cultural revolution

by any means necessary,

including rock 'n' roll, dope

and f***ing in the streets.

Danny:
People were wary then,

it was getting serious.

There was a moratorium,

- and the marches.

- Were getting more serious.

- The country was getting.

- More divided.

It was now getting out of hand,

you could see it in Chicago.

And the MC5 called their parent

organization

the "White Panther Party."

They had a minister of defense,

- I don't know many.

- Rock 'n' roll bands that had.

A minister of defense.

People carried machine guns

around the house!

Kick out the jams,

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