Before American Idol. Reality Television. Before today's HUSTLE. There was Kim Fowley's HUSTLE.
Who is Kim?
Click the photo above and go to Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) for just the facts... (please return!) TROCK
Kim's Mad Genius: The homemade poetics of the struggle for "oddball rights" in a system that denys personal freedom of expression. His Failure Clock. Tick...tick...tick... Kim made sure to always let the world know he was Not Interested in being manipulated or in being a Big Media Personality.
Click/pic to go to Ugly Things Magazine- get linked to "the scene..."
The Hard Rock: Kim, Steven T. (center)
Kim and Suzy Shaw
Kim Fowley is one of the living masters of that artform known as The Hustle. To some, the Hustle is a disco dance, but to those in the music industry it is a subtle formula of grooming an act, spreading the word throught adroit manipulation of the media and the egos of certain influential persons, and finally connecting with the one A&R man or company president with the right combination of interest, credulity and a surplus budget to make The Deal whereby the act is afforded that rare shot at the top. Some may consider it crass to reduce the exalted purity of artistic inspiration to such a sleazy formula, but to Kim Fowley, it's merely the reality that underlies every success story-at least in Hollywood. And crass or not, Fowley is enough of an expert that hundreds of artists each year seek him out, eager to sign long-term exclusive contracts on the chance that He can do The Hustle for them.
The late Greg Shaw. Notes from "Vampires From Outer Space." Bomp/1979
"Be ready man! Let' s do this hustle..." Kim went "Live" at parties, bar-mitzvas, and business meetings.. improvising with him, Steven T. and I had three or four pre-set " guitar-ready accompanyments"--3 chord rock, soft ballad picking, and heavy metal thumping...
Dr. Filth he keeps his world...inside of a leather cup... Desolation Row
