Danny Goldberg Remembers

[michelej1]

This was a San Francisco Chronicle interview with journalist turned WB president Danny Goldberg. His new book is Bumping into Geniuses:

October 17, 2008

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DDTF13HF22.DTL


Q: You lived around the corner from the Fillmore East in Greenwich Village during the '60s. See any landmark shows you remember?

A: I saw the early Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green at the Fillmore East. I have always been a big fan of great guitar players - I now manage Tom Morello, who, to me, is one of the great guitar players - and Peter Green, who I never met and never worked with, the night I saw him was transcendently good. It was something that was not a famous rock event, but it spoke to me. ... Obviously anything Jimi Hendrix ever did was amazing, as far as I was concerned. Anything Janis Joplin ever did was amazing, as far as I'm concerned. I saw her at Madison Square Garden and I thought she was amazing. I tell in the book, I was such a poor candidate to be a critic because I just hated to criticize anybody. I was in awe of all these people. I wrote this rhapsodic review for Record World saying, "Janis is alive. Happiness is possible for everyone." That's not the kind of thing that got me a lot of respect at ('70s hipster hangout) Max's Kansas City with the Bob Christgaus of the world. I was that kind of fan. I was better as a PR guy or manager than I ever was as a critic.