Posted by Bud on November 09, 2009 at 11:34:18:
Thank you, Paul! Shaffer memoir is pop-cult goldmine
Musician, David Letterman bandleader, hipster and onetime wannabe Chicago teen Paul Shaffer has experienced a lifetime of swingin’
November 8, 2009
BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Sun-Times Columnist
Paul Shaffer is poolside. He is lounging at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, on holiday from his gig as the “ Late Show with David Letterman” band leader. Shaffer is in L.A. to promote his new memoir, We’ll Be Here For The Rest Of Our Lives: A Swingin’ Show-Biz Saga, written with David Ritz.
The 314-page memoir is a great read as you keep this in mind: The Canadian- born Shaffer absorbs American pop culture like Sheryl Crow soaks up the sun:
• Shaffer’s hipster lingo is authentically sourced from early 1960s vacations to Las Vegas, where his father snuck him into Juliet Prowse’s late show on the strip. The crowd consisted of Frank Sinatra, his confidant Jilly Rizzo and Jerry Lewis.
I crack up when Shaffer says he is by the pool. “Where else do you think I’d be?,” he asks.
This must have been what it was like when Kup called Peter Lawford.
• Shaffer became a smooth mix of legendary “Tonight Show” sidekick Ed McMahon (the timed laugh) and “Tonight Show” bandleader Doc Severinsen (the far-out quotient), on marching orders from Johnny Carson, who didn’t want Letterman’s new show to resemble the “Tonight Show.”
• Shaffer began his career in the strip joints of Toronto. The title (and bawdy cover) of Shaffer’s book comes from those days. “The set requirements were stringent,” Shaffer says. “Fifty minutes on, 10 off. And you better not be late. No instrumentals. So you couldn’t goof off on ‘Green Onions’ for a half hour. We sang ‘Joy To The World’ or whatever the song of the day was. We’d go on at 6 and play until 1:30. At the end of the night I’d say, ‘Thanks for being here, come back and see us, we’ll be here the rest of our lives.’ And I thought we would be.”
And now he is living the dream.
A stand-up guy
Shaffer points out he is not lying in the California sun with a cabana person bringing him drinks.
“I’m pacing,” he says.
Of course. Shaffer stands on the “Late Show” because “I saw Mike Smith of the Dave Clark 5 do it on ‘Ed Sullivan’ and I haven’t sat down since.”
His approach to music is without pretension. He has been musical director for the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony since its 1986 inception. Shaffer is an underrated band leader with a deep love of rhythm and blues and the soul of the Hammond B-3 electric organ. His book reveals how spirituality comes into play in his music. He writes, “I viewed the organ metaphorically. It represented the universe in its entirety. The various drawbars were built to create the series of harmonic overtones. Manipulate them correctly and create harmony. Manage them poorly and cause discord. Such is life.”
Shaffer loves the Hammond B-3 organ so much he writes that he purchased James Brown’s Hammond B-3 at a 2008 Christie’s auction of the Brown estate. “If you can penetrate that harmonic series on B-3 it is like finding the secret of the universe,” Shaffer says. “Everybody else is programming digital synthesizers and computers running sequences. I’m still lost in the 10 drawbars of the Hammond B-3.”
Shaffer has been thinking about writing his memoirs for a while. He turns 60 on Nov. 28. He recently ran into co-author Ritz, who co-wrote the 1979 definitive Ray Charles biography, Brother Ray, as well as Don Rickles’ memoir. Shaffer says, “If I didn’t do the book now the brain cells would totally go.”
Shaffer and Ritz worked on the book over the last 18 months. Shaffer was able to revisit scenes with detail, such Bob Dylan telling him about his fascination with the late Letterman semi-regular Larry “Bud” Melman (Calvin De Forest), whose words were more modest than his thick horned-rimmed glasses. “I’m famous for having a crazy memory,” Shaffer says. “Sometimes if someone says something I repeat it to myself just to lock it in. It’s paid off. I had some notes. I was thinking of doing a book 10 years ago. I had a deal but I gave back the advance.”
But Shaffer never writes why Dylan liked Melman.
“He mentioned he always saw Larry Bud [walk on] with those gorgeous models,” Shaffer says. “Dylan said, ‘Why is he with those chicks?’ It is as simple as that.”
Wannabe Chicagoan
Shaffer has many sweet ties with Chicago. He listened to WLS-AM in a transistor radio earphone from his childhood home in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He pretended to be a Chicago teenager. “A lot of my musical knowledge comes from WLS-89,” he says. “We could receive it after dark. The top three requested songs in Chicagoland at 10 p.m. was a daily ritual. I remember [the 1963 hit] ‘Wonderful Summer’ by Robin Ward. I never heard it anywhere else. Art Roberts. Ron Riley. Don Phillips: ‘East of Midnight!’ [chuckles] Clark Weber. I go as far back as [current WLS-FM icon] Dick Biondi. I have been on his oldies show.”
Shaffer was a “Saturday Night Live” band member (1975-1980) before debuting with Letterman. Shaffer’s gateway into the “SNL” scene was Chicagoan Brian Doyle-Murray, the older brother of Bill Murray. Shaffer bonded with Brian in 1973 when he came to Toronto from Chicago with Joe Flaherty to cast a Second City nightclub. They reunited in New York in 1974 when Shaffer played piano for “Godspell” on Broadway.
“I made Brian see ‘Godspell’ way too many times,” Shaffer says. “Brian introduced me to [John] Belushi before ‘SNL,’ when Belushi was doing ‘Lemmings’ live on the National Lampoon show. Brian taught me a lot about Second City improv, although I didn’t join that cast. The pay cut was too much coming out of ‘Godspell’: $425 a week. Second City was paying about $200. Nonetheless, I hung incessantly at Second City.”
The best show business advice Shaffer received came from Belushi. Shaffer took a 1977 hiatus from ‘SNL’ to appear in the CBS sitcom “A Year at the Top,” where he portrayed a musician who moved to Idaho only to be hassled by a ruthless promoter [Mickey Rooney]. After watching “A Year at the Top” Belushi told Shaffer to “stop acting with your mouth; use your eyes.”
Shaffer says, “The Second City training absolutely enables me to jump to the piano and if Dave says something, I’ll be there with some music. And if I’m not there he will say, ‘Who gave you the day off?’ Dave has an uncanny sense of catching me when I’m not paying attention.”
In his only comments to date on Shaffer’s book, Letterman explained their chemistry to CBS News Sunday Morning. “When we do the show without Paul, it’s like driving a rental car,” Letterman said. “You don’t know where the radio is set. You don’t know where the mirror is. And it takes a few minutes to get accustomed to it. Without Paul over there I never get accustomed to it. So I sadly have to pretend Paul has passed away [laughs].”
Shaffer adds, “We’ve never had a discussion about what chemistry is, if anything. I just know I have to support him, mainly with sound.”
Suddenly Shaffer says, “No thanks.”
What’s up with that?
“A lovely lady came here with a cold towel,” he says. “Four Seasons. It’s the best. I’ve been staying here for years.”
He continues, “Working with Dave 27 years certainly helps. The only admonishment I will get is on the air. I never see him afterwards, like going to the principal. He’ll teach me those lessons right on television. That is reality television. That’s our dynamic.
“We’ve gotten to be better friends more recently. Dave doesn’t go out much. Our families are quite close. The past four, five years I’ve visited him with my family in the summertime in Montana. And going overseas with him [to Iraq] is the greatest experience of my life, seeing our boys and girls over there. The last time we went, [Chicago comic] Tom Dreesen organized an ‘American Idol’ at each base we went to. He found the talented people at each base and they performed. He talked Sinatra nonstop all the way over there, 12 hours.
“And I couldn’t have been happier.”
Unless he is hanging with Bill Murray.
Lounge rat
Murray and Shaffer co-wrote the famous “Saturday Night Live” lounge singer sketch where Murray depicts a cheesy singer modeled after Chicago cat Jimmy Damon. Murray and John Belushi caught Damon circa 1979 at That Steak Joynt in Old Town. The bit was a key passage in Shaffer’s comedic evolution.
“When I was in Toronto, Brian said, ‘My brother Billy is in the Second City company in Chicago,” Shaffer recalls. “And he does a thing that you would love. At that time Bill was doing a parody of the [comedy team] Allen & Rossi. Billy would be the suave singer that opened the set. And then the other guy would come on in a diaper. That was the first time I heard about Bill. Brian said how we both had a love for that type of show business.”
Shaffer met Bill Murray through the mid-1970s National Lampoon gang. “Nick the lounge singer’s name changed depending on the venue he was playing,” Shaffer recalls with a sly laugh. “If he was appearing in the bar on a train, he was Nick Rails. If he was playing a ski resort he was Nick Winters. I was privileged to be one of about five people who would put those sketches together. But it was Billy who always knew what he wanted to sing.
“He did a Nick for old time’s sake on the 20th anniversary show of ‘Saturday Night Live.’ There were a lot of celebrities at that thing. He had a seating chart and knew he was going to go out and work with Drew Barrymore as Nick. He wanted to sing ‘Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls’ to her — and do Indian sign language at the same time. Where this comes from, I don’t know. But you don’t question it. He is one of the funniest people of all time.”
Shaffer apologizes for taking another call.
He is still pacing.
And swinging.