Roy Trakin Hollywood Reporter/HITS magazine www.thr.com/music www.hitsdailydouble.com www.twitter.com/roytrakin www.facebook.com/roytrakin

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TRAKIN CARE OF BUSINESS: WHEN I REPAINT MY MASTERPIECE

Harvey Kubernik, It Was Fifty Years Ago Today: The Beatles Invade America and Hollywood (Otherworld Cottage Industries): For my 29 years as a New York transplant in Hollywood, venerable L.A. cheerleader and pop culture historian Kubernik has served as my soulful guide to all things SoCal. This compendium of his four decades as a tireless pop chronicler is kind of like his version of Springsteen’s High Hopes, a compilation of outtakes and previously unreleased excerpts that serves as a veritable oral history of the Fab Four’s various connections to Hollywood, along with some nifty repro-ductions of artifacts of the time. The typically eclectic cast delivers juicy sound bites, from local scenesters like Rodney Bingenheimer (who tells of going shopping for a day withGeorge Harrison), Kim Fowley (who recounts MC'ing the 1969 Toronto Revival which featured ’s first post-Beatles solo appearance) and musician-turned-photog Henry Diltz to personal interviews (several of which first appeared in HITS) with George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Allen Ginsberg, Albert Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker, Deepak Chopra, Roger McGuinn, Leiber and Stoller, Berry Gordy, engineer Ken Scott, producer George Martin and son Giles, among many, many others, not only the famous, but everyday fans. There are also matter-of-fact revelations from people only Harvey could dig up, like Troubadour manager Robert Marchese, who offers juicy details about Lennon’s "Lost Weekend" in L.A., when he and pal Harry Nilsson drunkenly heckled Ann Peebles (John famously donning a Kotex on his head) and the Smothers Brothers, only to be forcibly escorted from the famed venue. Best of all, Kubernik includes highlights of Lennon appearing as an on- air host on local radio station KHJ, promoting his just-released 1974 solo album, Walls and Bridges, taking phone calls from astonished listeners, doing commercial spots for Tower, giving the weather and playing personal faves like Bob Marley’s "Get Up, Stand Up," Gene Vincent’s "Be-Bop-a-Lula" and ’s "Long Tall Sally." The Beatles’ 50th anniversary celebration may have long since turned into media overkill, but Kubernik’s focused, tirelessly completist approach to the Fab Four’s Hollywood connection offers firm proof how important this town was to their eventual world conquest. Anyway, how can you deny a native Angeleno who grew up less than a mile from the actual "Blue Jay Way"?