Chapter 39: Frankenstein (January - May 1974)

January 1974

Gene Wilder as Jim, the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles, 1974.

Despite concerns over the content of the movie, Blazing Saddles was completed and ready for its worldwide release on the seventh of February. By now, Mel Brooks now had an idea as to what his next movie under Apple Films would be; it was an idea by actor Gene Wilder - who portrayed Jim the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles and had previously starred in the 1967 cult classic The Producers - about the grandson of Victor Frankenstein inheriting his grandfather's mansion and his research. Among the actors decided upon before the film, soon to be called Young Frankenstein, included Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman, both clients under Wilder's agent Mike Medavoy.

GENE WILDER: "Young Frankenstein soon caught Mel's interest whilst we were in the midst of filming Blazing Saddles. Although not interested in another Frankenstein movie, when I told him about about the grandson who wanted nothing to do with his the family at all, even ashamed of those wackos, he said, 'That's funny.'" (1999)

MEL BROOKS: "Bit by bit, every night, Gene and I would meet at his bungalow at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles with a pot of Earl Grey tea, a container of cream and a small kettle of brown sugar cubes, as well as British digestive biscuits. Step by step, we went down on the dark narrow twisting path to the final screenplay in which we threw caution and good sense out of the window. Madness ensued." (2016)

While it initially looked as if Wilder would take on the role of Frederick Frankenstein - pronounced "Fronkonsteen", as he insisted to his peers - it later turned out that the role would go to John Lennon, if he was interested.[1]

JOHN LENNON: "Despite the small cameo I had in Blazing Saddles, I had a fun time in Los Angeles during the filming of the movie, and when I was asked to be in Young Frankenstein, how could I say no? Mel and Gene were funny guys, so I was in. When I learned that Maddy was in the film as Elizabeth, it got better. Frederick 'Fronkonsteen' was one of my favorite roles ever." (1984)

February 7, 1974

The theatrical poster for Blazing Saddles.

Upon release, Blazing Saddles was met with mixed reviews from critics, but audience reactions were very positive and the film was a box office success, raking in $119.6 million against the $2.6 million budget, becoming Apple Films' most financially successful movie at the time. On top of that, it was the tenth movie at that point to pass the $100 million mark. At the premiere, Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder had turned up on horseback much like their characters in the movie.

Blazing Saddles was nominated three times for the Academy Awards, but lost each of them; Madeline Kahn for Best Supporting Actress (it went to Ingrid Bergman in Murder on the Orient Express), Best Film Editing (it went to The Towering Inferno), and Best Music, Original Song (the title song, which lost to "We May Never Love Like This Again", also from The Towering Inferno).

With the film's success, a television series called Black Bart was planned based on Andrew Bergman's original story to feature Louis Gossett Jr. as Bart and Steve Landesberg as his drunkard sidekick, Reb Jordan, a former Confederate officer. Production was soon underway for Black Bart, with the pilot episode set for a premiere date of the spring of 1975 on CBS.

February 10, 1974

New Musical Express

12 February 1974

Controversial producer Spector dead from car accident

Phil Spector with Ike and Tina Turner, 1966.

"On 10 February 1974, Phillip Harvey Spector was pronounced dead after a car accident in Hollywood, California at the age of thirty-five. He was thrown through the windshield of his own car and was killed instantly.[2]

Spector is known for his famed Wall of Sound that gave many artists from the late 1950s to early 1970s hit singles, including the likes of the Teddy Bears, the Crystals, Ike and Tina Turner, the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, as well as John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr of both the Beatles and the Ladders. His production style has also been a major influence to artists such as the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Velvet Underground, and more recently, the Electric Light Orchestra with their 1973 hit, 'See My Baby Jive'.

However, for all of his influence comes controversy. For the last few years, Spector has been known for his erratic, volatile behavior, often arriving with bodyguards in the studio, and dressing as either a surgeon, karate master or a priest, according to some eyewitnesses. This would often result in violence and and one night, fired his gun in the studio, nearly causing some people to go deaf from the noise.

When NME went to speak with his widow, ex-Ronettes member and former Apple Records artist Ronnie Spector (born Veronica Yvette Bennett), she revealed that her husband had imprisoned her in his mansion in California and subjected her to psychological torment. She even had her career sabotaged by being forbidden to perform, which resulted in her leaving Apple Records at the start of 1972. At the time of Spector's death, Ronnie said that she was going to divorce from him, but she felt that God had saved her the trouble. She even claimed that he threatened to hire a hit man to kill her.

Artists who have also worked with Spector in the past, including John Lennon and Sonny Charles, had no comment on the subject.

These allegations against Phil Spector by his widow Ronnie, as well as reports of his erratic behavior in the studio, appear to be putting his entire career into question. We at NME will not deny the influence he had on the music scene, but it remains to be seen what will become of his reputation in years to come. We are not even three months into the year of 1974, but with recent #1 singles in America like Al Wilson's 'Show and Tell', Barbara Streisand's 'The Way We Were', and the Steve Miller Band's 'The Joker', this could potentially be a long year for music."

February 19 - May 3, 1974

Peter Boyle as the monster in Young Frankenstein, 1974.

The principal photography for Young Frankenstein began on the 19th of February. Apart from John Lennon and Madeline Kahn, the cast for the movie would also include Marty Feldman as Igor (pronounced "Eye-gor" in the film), Cloris Leachman as Frau Blücher, Teri Garr as Inga, Kenneth Mars as Inspector Kemp, and Peter Boyle as the monster. Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder would also make small cameo roles in the movie, though the former's appearances were merely off-camera appearances as a howling wolf, a shrieking cat, and Victor Frankenstein.[3]

PETER BOYLE: "I'd met Loraine Alterman whilst we were filming for Young Frankenstein. Back then, she was a reporter for Rolling Stone, and I was in my monster makeup when I asked her out and she said yes." (1987)

MADELINE KAHN: "When Peter told me about Loraine, I told him that I could relate to him. That was something he and I had in common in the 70s; we were actors who'd found love with people from the music industry. Loraine for journalism, and John for recording and producing. Speaking of, John and Peter became great friends while we made Young Frankenstein; it helped that they shared a lot of scenes together." (2005)

Harry Nilsson and John Lennon being thrown out of the Troubadour club, 1974.

In between filming, John Lennon had taken the time to get reacquainted with his son Julian, whom he had not seen in the past few years. Sometimes, Julian would appear on the set of Young Frankenstein and even landed up in a cameo role in the final production. He even had the chance to know his father's new lover (although neither adult would admit it at the time) Madeline Kahn.

However, earlier in the year, the elder Lennon had begun to get involved in drunken antics with Harry Nilsson which made headlines. One infamous incident in March, whilst Lennon was involved in filming, involved both men heckling a performance by the Smothers Brothers and were promptly thrown out by the staff of the Troubadour club. These antics were proving to be an inconvenience to many involved on the production of Young Frankenstein, with Mel Brooks asking Lennon to keep his drinking under control before filming days. "I don't want to keep adding to the movie's budget because you and Nilsson can't keep yourselves out of trouble," he added firmly. Acknowledging how frustrated a few of his co-stars were getting of his antics, John took the director's advice to heart. "He probably listened for Madeline's sake," Brooks speculated years later.

Despite the antics, Lennon was serious about producing Harry Nilsson's next album, titled Pussy Cats, even co-writing a song called "Mucho Mungo". Among the session musicians for the album were Klaus Voormann, Keith Moon, Jesse Ed Davis, Jim Horn, and even Ringo Starr. On the first day for producing the album, March 28, John Lennon had an unexpected visitor...

John Lennon and Paul McCartney, 1974.

PAUL McCARTNEY: "John and I hadn't been on good terms with each other since he, George and Ringo ditched me to form the Ladders. When I turned up with Linda at Burbank Studios in L.A., he started off by shaking my hand and joking, 'Valiant Paul McCartney, I presume?' I replied by saying, 'Sir Jasper Lennon, I presume?' John was first to asked me how my life was going. After that, we were talking and laughing together as if there was never any conflict between us to begin with. We'd been through several years' worth of sniping, and it took a single day for me and John to kiss and make up." (2009)

RINGO STARR: "George and I were also in Los Angeles when Paul turned up, but we were there mostly because George was overseeing Highway 61 Records' stable of artists and I didn't have anything else to do. Paul was in L.A. for a few days but he and George never once ran into each other, which was probably just as well. Whenever I saw Paul the few days he was here, he was always with John. I dare even say that was a near Beatles reunion right there." (1994)

The reunion between Lennon and McCartney had resulted in a jam session with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Harry Nilsson, Jesse Ed Davis, Bobby Keys and Ringo, the first time that Lennon and McCartney had recorded together since the final Everest sessions on January 3, 1970. The recording sessions did not produce anything of great quality, most notably a rendition of Little Richard's "Lucille" with Lennon and McCartney sharing vocals together.

PAUL McCARTNEY: "The day after we had that little jam session, John invited me to the set of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein for Apple Films, and it was there that he introduced me to Madeline. She was amazed to learn about mine and John's partnership as members of the Beatles, and I thought she'd scream like a fangirl or faint. Neither happened, but I could sense that John's marriage with Yoko was beginning to fall apart, and they hadn't even begun to finalize a divorce yet." (2009)

Micky Dolenz and Harry Nilsson, 1974.

The production on Young Frankenstein drew to a close on May 3 with fewer incidents or surprises. However, during the recording of Pussy Cats, Harry Nilsson had ruptured a vocal chord - either due to an infection he picked up after spending the night on the beach or during the March 28 sessions with Paul McCartney and friends - but not telling John about this resulted in Nilsson hemorrhaging his vocal chords to the point he had to be taken to hospital.

MICKY DOLENZ: "I drove Harry to the hospital and was there for him when he was told he shouldn't even talk for at least six months. He did not want to hear anything of it and wanted to continue recording, but I talked him out of it and insisted that it was for the best of his health, especially if he stayed away from the alcohol and cocaine." (1986)

HARRY NILSSON: "I was depressed about not being able to talk for half a year, let alone record any music. It didn't help that I was being divorced from Diane [Clatworthy, his second wife] and that Cass Elliot ended up dying at my London flat of heart failure. But by the end of '74, I got my voice back and I soon put out Duit on Mon Dei as my first album under Highway 61 Records, under John and Ringo's suggestion." (1991)[4]

24 May 1974

The Rolling Stones - The Diamond Dogs of Rock 'n' Roll

Released: 24 May 1974

Recorded: November 1973 - February 1974

Producer: The Glimmer Triplets

Track listing[5]

Side A

Future Legend/Diamond Dogs
If You Can't Rock Me
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
Rebel Rebel
Till the Next Goodbye

Side B

Rock 'n' Roll with Me
Silver Train
Hide Your Love
1984
Big Brother
If You Really Want to Be My Friend

The initial sessions for The Diamond Dogs of Rock 'n' Roll had taken place in Munich, West Germany before the Rolling Stones had decided to finish up the album in Los Angeles. By that time, Bill Wyman was working on his first solo album, Monkey Grip, which he'd hoped to put out on Apple Records. He even talked about it with John Lennon at a party in December, and in the same month, Lennon and Mick Jagger had partook in a jam session that became "Too Many Cooks", which would stay unreleased for over thirty years.

During the recording sessions in Los Angeles, David Bowie had taken some influence from soul and funk music and had two distinct ideas for the album; one being a musical based on a wild future in a post-apocalyptic city, and another being based upon George Orwell's famous novel 1984. However, the final track listing for The Diamond Rocks of Rock 'n' Roll did not follow either concept, although the Bowie track "1984" was named for Orwell's novel.

David Bowie in the music video for "Rebel Rebel", 1974.

The Diamond Dogs of Rock 'n' Roll was the first album to be self-produced by the Rolling Stones themselves, although Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had done most of it, with David Bowie's assistance, being known as "The Glimmer Triplets". It marked their fourth #1 album in a row in the United States (third in the United Kingdom) and received positive reviews from critics. The lead single, "Rebel Rebel"/"Time Waits for No One", was released in February, three months before the album itself did, and hit #5 and #12 in the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively. The second single, "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)"/"Diamond Dogs", came out in June (#10 UK, #16 US) whilst the third, "Silver Train"/"1984", came out in September (#7 UK, #18 US).

DAVID BOWIE: "Mick and Keith had a lot of leftover material from the Diamond Dogs sessions, as did I. A couple of outtakes from them ended up on our next album, whilst several of my own either went to the next Hunky Dory album or on my solo album [Sweet Thing]." (1997)

Footnotes

1. In OTL, the role of Frederick Frankenstein went to Gene Wilder.
2. In OTL, Phil Spector survived, but he was physically scarred after his near-fatal accident, resulting in him wearing outlandish wigs to hide his scars. He was arrested in 2009 for the murder of Lana Clarkson in 2003.
3. In OTL, John Lennon was the best man to Peter Boyle's wedding with Loraine Alterman in 1977. Lennon and Boyle met because Alterman was a friend of Yoko Ono.
4. Harry Nilsson did indeed strain his voice during the recording sessions for Pussy Cats, and if you listen to that album against his recordings up to early 1974, you can hear the difference in vocal performance.
5. Tracks are sourced from Diamond Dogs, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and Goats Head Soup. "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)" is the single edit found on GRRR!.

Author's Comments

So now we enter 1974, one of the worst years for music and yet one of the best years for movies. It's pretty funny that this chapter focuses more on the latter than the former, and it's fitting that I post this chapter close to the 45th anniversary of Young Frankenstein. The first half of the year has been really productive for John Lennon in the midst of his separation from Yoko, and I figure that his life may be about to change for the better. How will I do it, you ask? Well, that's another chapter for another day.

And even though that doesn't have much affect in the long run for nearly thirty years, Phil Spector is dead, but I'm wondering what affect that could have on music history. Maybe an earlier Me Too movement? The Spector effect? That would be interesting to see, especially if Spector's downfall becomes a cautionary tale to the media. But will Harry Nilsson survive past 1994? That's what I'm wondering might happen and he puts out the comeback album he never did in the mid-90s. But of course, not everything post-1985 is set in stone as of yet. Things can change.

Next week's chapter will be the last one before Christmas. After that is a three-week hiatus, which should give me plenty of time to write up chapters 41-50; I've got them all outlined, and I've a bit of a head start on the outline for Phase Three. Not sure when that will officially begin, but I'm predicting it will be around May at the earliest. We shall see in due time.