Mark Nine Musician/producer/promoter. Taught Guitar to Jakob Dylan (as well as all of his brothers and sisters). His Underworld Records released Trash Matinee's debut EP in August, 1987. Nine helped form the band around brothers Danny and Phillip Sidlow, two guitar students of his. Jakob Dylan guests on one track on the record and co-wrote another. Mark
Nine, has a CD of his own music entitled This Island Earth.
It's available from marknine.com
Read more about Mark Nine at marknine.com
and silverprotects.com
Trash Matinee The following two and a half years of working with Tim was a lot of fun, though looking back gives me a strange feeling. I went to Tim's house twice a week and there would always be some activity planned with this father following the lesson. Towards the end of Tim's lessons with me, Neil wanted to see what Tim was learning and sat in on a session. he was quiet and seemed customarily thoughtful. I did catch him smiling several times out of the corner of my eye. Neil Bogart died from cancer a week later. He'd known he was dying for two years, and he'd kept it a secret from everybody, except his wife. The day before the funeral, the phone rang and it was Bob Dylan. He asked me for directions and the time. I remember going to the house for weeks after and always seeing Neil's blue Rolls Royce parked in the same exact spot by the driveway. No one used it. It no longer had a purpose. To me, Neil Bogart epitomized hope for the future of the young and, therefore, the world. What bothers me is that the world glorifies death when life is the richest gift of all. Back in the low-tech days of WWI, thirteen million people died as a result of the politics of the that time. They said it was the war to end all wars, but that wasn't true. Most historians agree that WWII was the direct result of having had WWI. In today's nuclear age we have the opportunity to participate in the greatest funeral the world has ever seen. We should remember that it was our own military that initiated the first atomic war back in 1945, along with the decision that civilian population centers (not military) were the most effective targets. Today's children are tomorrow's future. Unlike today's spineless A&R men, if Neil Bogart were alive today he'd sign a teenage rock band in one second flat. I recall falling asleep one night as I wondered what Neil was working on in the new offices he had moved Boardwalk Records into. I suddenly had a very vivid dream that I was in his personal office (which I instantly recognized), and I began leafing through the papers on his desk looking for some kind of clue, but I just couldn't find anything. Finally in desperation I asked the furniture, "what are people working on in here?" To my surprise, the furniture answered "We're working on music for children!" A week later Joyce took me aside and said that she had something for me. It was the soundtrack album for the movie "Popeye The Sailor Man." I found out that it was Neil's number one priority at the time, but that he didn't want word to get out before it was finished. While Neil was making music for children, I was making music with children-- which brings us to Trash Matinee's origin. Tim Bogart introduced me to his friend Danny Sidlow, who also took two lessons a week from me. one for bass and one for guitar. Danny had his own checking account, although he was only ten, and I used to laugh when I saw his scrawly handwriting. Danny proved to be one of the most serious students I ever had. After seven years, I can't remember him ever canceling a lesson. Two years down the road, Danny's older brother Phillip asked me to give him keyboard lessons. Phillip was an exceptionally fast learner, and it wasn't long before I encouraged both of them to get a four track tape recorder, so that they could start writing and recording songs, which they did. By this time Danny had assumed Tim Bogart's past role, which was referring a continuous stream of new students to me. This included his friend Jakob Dylan, which led to my teaching music to all of Bob's children over a period of four years.
The formation of Trash Matinee was a dream come true. The group seemed to be based primarily on Phillip's brains and Danny's sense of humor. I had always fantasized that my students would go on to successful music careers and now they had a shot at realizing this accomplishment. I could call it a labor of love, but it was mainly just plain hard labor. Once we had secured a budget for recording their debut album, we rented Fiddler recording studios on a lock-out (which means all other clients are locked out of the studio so nothing has to be broken down from one day to the next), and we began to work. Once session in particular went sixteen hours without a break. I remember once seeing Phillip crashed out on the couch, Matt and Tobi (the drummer and bassist) long since fled, and as the exhausted engineers and I continued working on some technical detail, Danny told jokes a mile a minute and broke everybody up. I got the feeling that Danny could dispense with sleep altogether and feel just great! Jakob Dylan came in as a favor to Danny and played guitar on "What do I Know" as he had done on the original four track demo which was recorded in the Sidlows' bedroom. In true Dylan style, Jakob wore dark sunglasses and, with his guitar strapped on, proceeded to casually lean against the wall while playing. I started to feel like it was 1964, and I was producing "Like a Rolling Stone". Actually, all of Dylan's kid's looked like him. Once at the Dylan house, I came downstairs after Sam's lesson and thought I saw Jesse (who had sent word that he was too sick to have his guitar lesson) sitting at the kitchen table talking to the housekeeper. I snuck up behind him and was about to give him a big noogie on the top of his head for missing his lesson when he caught a glimpse of me and ducked in the nick of time. It was Bob. I could have died. "Sorry, I thought you were Jesse", I stammered, hastily backing out of the room. As luck would have it, that was the first time I'd met dad face to face. I'm sure he was very impressed. In all the times that I have been in the studio, I have never had a better time than when I was working with the boys. I wish it had been filmed because it would have made a great movie. I think Suzy Beal has a sense of what I'm talking about. Suzy designs all of the promotions and packaging for Underworld and often visited Danny and Phillip to consult them on their ideas for Trash Matinee's look. The first time she went to their house without me, she told me it felt like she had died and gone to the "Leave it to Beaver" show. Phillip said "You probably don't want to be in our room." Danny chimed in, "Yeah, after a while it starts to stink." About The Recording |
