And the Beat goes on.
February 27, 2011 10:51 AM Subscribe
RIP Jay Landesman founder and editor of Neurotica; publisher of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Marshall McLuhan.
A St Louis native he founded the Gaslight Square's Crystal Palace played by Woody Allen, Alan Arkin, Phyllis Diller, Barbra Streisand, the Smothers Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Mike Nichols and Elaine May and where the Beat Musical The Nervous Set written with his wife Fran, was first produced.
In the sixties he and Fran moved to London and he became artistic director at an failing nightclub which later went on to became the famed Middle Earth (after his departure).
He then became the salesman for Macrobiotic wholesalers Good afternoon, this is Stan Stunning of Harmony Foods, have you heard of us, no?, well, tell me, do you get young people coming into your shop asking for things like miso, tamari, brown rice and aduki beans?
In the Seventies he started Polytantra Press publishing Elizabeth Smart and Hancocks last half hour.
Obituaries: Guardian and NYT.
A St Louis native he founded the Gaslight Square's Crystal Palace played by Woody Allen, Alan Arkin, Phyllis Diller, Barbra Streisand, the Smothers Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Mike Nichols and Elaine May and where the Beat Musical The Nervous Set written with his wife Fran, was first produced.
In the sixties he and Fran moved to London and he became artistic director at an failing nightclub which later went on to became the famed Middle Earth (after his departure).
He then became the salesman for Macrobiotic wholesalers Good afternoon, this is Stan Stunning of Harmony Foods, have you heard of us, no?, well, tell me, do you get young people coming into your shop asking for things like miso, tamari, brown rice and aduki beans?
In the Seventies he started Polytantra Press publishing Elizabeth Smart and Hancocks last half hour.
Obituaries: Guardian and NYT.
From the Guardian:
Jay was a lubricious, some would say lecherous, old roué. His easy charm, magnetic appeal, inexhaustible line of intriguing suggestions and manipulative understanding of the feminine psyche ensured that he had a devoted following of intelligent and attractive women.
As the most tactful euphemism for 'old perv' I've ever seen in an obituary, this deserves some sort of award.
posted by verstegan at 11:55 AM on February 27, 2011
Jay was a lubricious, some would say lecherous, old roué. His easy charm, magnetic appeal, inexhaustible line of intriguing suggestions and manipulative understanding of the feminine psyche ensured that he had a devoted following of intelligent and attractive women.
As the most tactful euphemism for 'old perv' I've ever seen in an obituary, this deserves some sort of award.
posted by verstegan at 11:55 AM on February 27, 2011
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posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 1:25 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 1:25 PM on February 27, 2011
verstegan- the Grauniad obit was written by Craig Sams of the Harmony Foods link.
posted by adamvasco at 1:45 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by adamvasco at 1:45 PM on February 27, 2011
Oh, Jay. Spring can really hang you up the most. Before Jeff Koons, before Malcolm McLaren, even before Warhol, Landesman was the "pop entrepreneur" as John Clellon Holmes described him, and funnier and better at it than any of them. In "The Pop Imagination," originally published in the November '66 issue of Cavalier and reprinted in Holmes' Representative Men, Holmes described him as:
... that unique phenomenon in a status-drunk society: a man who knew that the only really hip style is the next one, the one that hasn't been established yet."
"'What I really want,' [Landesman] once said, is reasonably simple. I want economic security. I want to be around beautiful women who smell good, and I want to stay creative. It seems to me, more and more, that this means adjusting, not to the society, but to the springs of life itself—insofar as you can know them by knowing yourself. Beyond that, I guess what I want is to do everything twice." Knowing him there is nothing very unreasonable in this."posted by octobersurprise at 2:36 PM on February 27, 2011
Gaslight Square, where Beatniks rubbed shoulders with Veiled Prophet queens, and everyone had a very interesting time
was an interesting place is the 60's, when I was a teenage St. Louisan, a very rundown place, with "gaslights" serving a reminder of what it used to be. I walked into KDNA, a pretty subversive FM station, with a visiting South African student, and they ushered us into the green room, stopped the music, and had a live on-air interview. I also saw the Chicago Art Ensemble there, whose wildness knocked me out...although the historical background behind what they were doing was unknown to me at the time, me being just another suburban rock fan.
St. Louis is not known for its culture in the way Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Austin and other flyover cities are, but it had a few pockets of unique culture, including quite a few blues artists...pianist Henry Townsend being among them.
posted by kozad at 2:42 PM on February 27, 2011
was an interesting place is the 60's, when I was a teenage St. Louisan, a very rundown place, with "gaslights" serving a reminder of what it used to be. I walked into KDNA, a pretty subversive FM station, with a visiting South African student, and they ushered us into the green room, stopped the music, and had a live on-air interview. I also saw the Chicago Art Ensemble there, whose wildness knocked me out...although the historical background behind what they were doing was unknown to me at the time, me being just another suburban rock fan.
St. Louis is not known for its culture in the way Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Austin and other flyover cities are, but it had a few pockets of unique culture, including quite a few blues artists...pianist Henry Townsend being among them.
posted by kozad at 2:42 PM on February 27, 2011
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posted by spitefulcrow at 3:45 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by spitefulcrow at 3:45 PM on February 27, 2011
Those obits are needlessly circumspect. Jay and Fran had a famously open marriage, which she used to describe as "semi-detached".
posted by w0mbat at 4:47 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by w0mbat at 4:47 PM on February 27, 2011
St. Louis ... had a few pockets of unique culture ...
Absolutely - the Black Artists' Group (more) produced some wildly creative, forward-thinking musicians in the 60s and early 70s (including Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, and Hamiett Bluiett).
Thanks for this - I've always wondered what show gave us "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most", but never looked into it.
It has always been a toss up between the Blossom Dearie and Helen Merrill versions for me - now I have to hear Larry Hagman's ...
posted by ryanshepard at 5:31 PM on February 27, 2011
Absolutely - the Black Artists' Group (more) produced some wildly creative, forward-thinking musicians in the 60s and early 70s (including Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, and Hamiett Bluiett).
Thanks for this - I've always wondered what show gave us "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most", but never looked into it.
It has always been a toss up between the Blossom Dearie and Helen Merrill versions for me - now I have to hear Larry Hagman's ...
posted by ryanshepard at 5:31 PM on February 27, 2011
He wrote an autobiography "Rebel Without Applause" I love this book and know that it would be a fantastic movie if put into the correct hands.
I shot video of him back in 1999. I should try to find it and see what shape it is in.
Jay was a gentleman and lived a full and exciting life. He had a significant impact on modern society that has gone almost completely unrecognized.
posted by analogtom at 12:16 PM on February 28, 2011
I shot video of him back in 1999. I should try to find it and see what shape it is in.
Jay was a gentleman and lived a full and exciting life. He had a significant impact on modern society that has gone almost completely unrecognized.
posted by analogtom at 12:16 PM on February 28, 2011
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posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:58 AM on February 27, 2011