Steven Stancell

(This excerpt was originally published in Rap Whoz Who: The World Of Rap Music, Performers, Producers, Promoters by Steven Stancell in 1996 Schirmer/Simon & Schuster.)

Producer Larry Smith was responsible for some of the early hits on the Def Jam Recordings label. His collaborations with Russell Simmons, and his album productions for Run-D.M.C. (Run-D.M.C., King of Rock) and Whodini (Escape, Back in Black) helped establish those two groups and the Def Jam label. Initially a bass player, Smith is also…

Glad to see someone actually did a documentary on Kathleen Hanna. Known for her work with the group Bikini Kill, and the whole Riot Grrl movement, I was first turned on to Hanna by way of Carla DeSantis’ publication ROCKRGRLback in the mid 1990s, a magazine which focused on female musicians. (A magazine that I still miss to this day.) I never thought Hanna’s work was completely appreciated. Oh yeah, she’s got her fans and all that, but it always seemed to me that when I wanted to find out what was…

One of the most revolutionary places for a gearhead to get a car back in the day (late 1960s) was at the Motion Performance shop in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, headed by Joel Rosen. Rosen, who raced on the weekends and changed back into a businessman during the week a la Clark Kent/Superman, knew how to tune an engine, and would guarantee your car would be an 11 second  car on a quarter-mile track when he got through with it. The deal was this: a person would purchase a car (Chevys we’re talking…

I met Frankie Crocker at a party many years ago, and you wanna know what we talked about? His program directing at WBLS-FM? No. His VH-1 VJ gig? No. His professional beginnings in Buffalo, New York? No. We talked about Cuban cigars! During that period I smoked Havanas every single day for over 25 years, so when I met him I was surprised to see him with one in his hand. I was already familiar with his value as an artist, so we didn’t have to talk about that. That’s right.…

(Fred Neil, Bruce Langhorne, Felix Pappalardi, and Jack Nitzsche) photo Fred Neil website

Bet you didn’t think that when Bob Dylan wrote his iconic piece, “Mr.Tambourine Man,” that a Mr. Tambourine Man actually existed. Well he does, and his name is Bruce Langhorne.

Langhorne, who was influenced by Staple Singers’ patriarch Roebuck Staples and Sandy Bull (one of the first artists to use tape recorders and loops on stage), started out as a session guitarist in…

Walking to the yearly Indian Larry Grease Monkey block party to see heavy metal band Judas Priestess, I heard the band’s lead vocalist MilitiA, three blocks away, above the Williamsburg din of cars and horns and trains I hear over here all the time. There’s nothing like the power of a good female vocalist!

And there’s nothing like a woman who wears many hats. Listen to this: she writes, she sings, she performs solo, she heads another hard rock band, Swear On Your Life, as well as her Judas…

Stefanie Eulinberg. Drummer and vocalist. Been with Kid Rock’s Twisted Brown Trucker band for over 10 years now. One of the hardest working drummers in the business today. She’s played cruise ships, lounge circuits, bars, prisons, everywhere she could. Hailing from Berea, Ohio (a western suburb of Cleveland), Eulinberg also plays bass, guitar, writes jingles and does soundtracks, something she went to school for when she lived in L.A. Sometimes you might find her…

Seems like people have forgot about Phil Lynott. He headed the group Thin Lizzy, the band known for its dual lead guitars. If you’re not familiar with the band, you can hear elements of them in some of Bruce Springsteen’s earlier work. Thin Lizzy had hits with “The Boys Are Back in Town,” “Jailbreak” and “Don’t Believe A Word,” to name a few.

Phil Lynott, who hailed from Ireland, was a black man, with an Irish mother and a father from Guyana. He was a black…

Yeah, that’s the title. ‘Cause while we appropriately condemned him for the widely disseminated accounts of abuse he bombarded on the great Tina Turner, we have forgotten his real place in rock ‘n’ roll history.

Ike Turner was a key figure in rock ‘n’ roll in the early 1950s. He was a performer, a businessman with his own band, the Kings of Rhythm, and a talent scout, for RPM/Modern Records, as well as the legendary Sam Phillips. He recorded everyone from…

Fats Domino (L) and Dave Bartholomew, Courtesy of Franck-Bertacci Collection The Historic New Orleans Collection

Woke up this morning thinking about Dave Bartholomew for some reason. Dave Bartholomew: a legendary historic figure in rock n roll production, known for his work with Fats Domino, Shirley and Lee, Lloyd Price and others, it was THAT guy who asked me to come and perform as a guitarist at his club, on a permanent basis, and I couldn't go! One of the things you…