Dispatches From the Kingdom of Outsiders

Since debuting as a columnist for Trouser Press magazine when he was 16, Tim Sommer has been a participant in, witness to and catalyst for some of the pivotal moments in music history. He has worked extensively as a musician, journalist, major label creative executive, MTV and VH1 producer and VJ, record producer and club and radio DJ.As a journalist, Sommer has contributed to the Village Voice, Sounds (UK), New York Daily News, Washington Post, New York Times, Mojo (UK), LA Weekly, The Observer, Rolling Stone, Spin, Rock and Roll Globe and many other publications.From 1989 to 1992, Sommer was on staff at MTV and VH1 as an on-air news correspondent. For the bulk of the 1990s, he worked as an A&R rep for Atlantic Records. He signed and supervised record production for Hootie & the Blowfish, Duncan Sheik, Michael Crawford, Scott Weiland, Bruce McCulloch, 7 Year Bitch, Melissa Ferrick and King Missile.In 2022, he published Only Wanna Be With You: The Inside Story of Hootie & the Blowfish.The author lives in Stamford, CT.

• 001 Introduction005 About the Title009 PART 1: I WAS A TEENAGE012 Times Square, 1978017 America Underground021 A Weird Little Story About Tim and the Clash (Am I the Gump?)029 Lance Loud: The First Real Boy on the Sun034 The Well-Tempered Frye Boots: Saturday Night Live Turns 40; Tim’s Visits to the Show Turn 38038 PiL: Riot at the Ritz048 Market Correction (coughing from 30 years of Camels and Canal Street exhaust)053 PART 2: MY WEIRD GODDAMN LIFE055 I Watch in Awe and Terror While Johnny Depp and Evan Dando Nearly Kill Themselves060 December 6, 1980: Bono and the Edge Give Mike and Tim a Private Concert066 U2, 1980: “There are enough little groups around playing little sounds … We wanted a big sound.”068 Wherein Tim Plays a Small Part in the Birth Pangs of the Beastie Boys072 I Was Almost a Temporary Beastie Boy079 How I Became the “Yr.” in “Kill Yr. Idols”084 Remembering the Glory Days of MTV News … and Revisiting the Meaning of MTV092 Aim for the Space, Not the Car (an Acid Story)099 PART 3: MUSIC (IN CONTEXT)101 How R.E.M. Changed Everything105 Rock and Roll Welcomes Us to the Kingdom of Outsiders. Admission Is Free.110 Phil Ochs on A&M: Lost in America 1967 – 1970114 Sinatra’s Master Class and the Bleak Genius of Watertown118 Tusk vs. Sandinista!125 What Was the First Punk Rock Record?133 July 1959, plus or minus 9.75 seconds: When Eddie Cochran Invented the Modern138 Sha Na Na Was the Most Important Band at Woodstock (and I’m Not F*cking Kidding)145 Forty Years Ago, Young Marble Giants Exploded a Graceful Bomb Over Manhattan150 Bob Dylan 2018: Painting a New Masterpiece Every Night156 Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan Go Very Deep on an Extraordinary and Beautiful Duet162 Taylor Swift Understands the Little Girls, and Nothing Else Matters: Some Reflections on The Eras Tour Film165 Bruce Springsteen: Overrated but Still a King170 Uncle Schrödinger’s Band (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Like Listen to the Grateful Dead)174 Weezer’s Cover of “Africa” Is the Most Repugnant Pop Recording of All Time178 Hanoi Rocks Changed Everything183 Are Heilung Papa Oom Mow Mow in the 10th Century?188 Buddy Bolden Discovers the 20th Century: Zero Hour at Rhythm Trinity195 PART 4: I HAVE COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT THE BEATLES198 How England Made the Beatles204 Meet the Beatles’ First Left-Handed Bassist213 The Beatles’ Last Secret: The Real Reason Pete Best Was Fired219 “Your Mother Should Know” Is a Turd222 Where Are Our War Beatles? How Current Events Highlight the Utter Impotence of Rock and Pop228 The Little Big Horn of American Rock and Roll: “Wooly Bully” Is a Very Effing Heavy Song233 PART 5: INTERVIEWS235 Dave Davies: “The younger brother physically might be the older brother spiritually.”246 Mark E. Smith: “When you are it, you don’t have to affect it.”254 Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Rollers261 PART 6: NOT POLITICS (BUT NOT NOT POLITICS)263 Notes From a Small Town Called Rock and Roll267 Is Music Ready for the Apocalypse?270 When You Mistake the Beatles for Che, You Get What You Deserve276 We Are at War: All Free Men Are Citizens of Music281 How Kent State Helped Create the Template for American Indie Rock285 PART 7: TRIBUTES, MEMORIALS AND MEMORIES287 David Bowie: The King of Outsiders291 Scott Weiland295 Mia Zapata 1965–1993301 Alan Vega304 Tony Kinman and the Secret History of Rock and Roll308 Greasy, Angelic, Ridiculous and Utterly Holy: Thank You, Huey “Piano” Smith313 Happy Voyages, Joe Franklin316 New Orleans, Before and After the Flood: An Excerpt From Exile on Dumaine Street, a Work in Progress.324 Afterword: From Anywhere to Anywhere by John S. Hall329 Acknowledgements

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