| »History Of The Left Banke - Steve Martin Caro's Story 1985 |
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I met Michael through Tommy, actually. I was working with George
Cameron downtown in the Village. Tommy Finn was standing in front of the City
Squire, and we hung around for a little bit because there was a big commotion
down the street ‘cuz The Rolling Stones were there. One day
I went up to Harry’s studio. Tommy had mentioned coming up to sing. I made an
appointment, and I went up. I just hung around the studio and was introduced to
Harry. He said, “Hi, how ya doin,’” and nothing happened. But we made an
appointment to go back there. George and l had been bumming around Broadway
together tryin’ to get a deal, so we made an
appointment to go back up and together we met Michael Brown.
Looking back, The Left Banke
was only a positive experience for a few months. Mostly it was negatives – bad management, bad
vibes. The initial talent was there on
my part; I gave it all I had, but I came from European ancestry and I wasn’t
ready for New York
in the sense of everyone lyin’ and cheatin’.
The way we did things in Europe wasn’t cut-throat. I don’t want to mention any names, but here
were several people in the organization who were not looking out after my best
interests. The only thing between us and the door to success – if you study the Left Banke history – was a succession of constant negative output not only on behalf of the members, but just bad vibes all around. I’m not a bad person, I’m just average, I don’t go out of my way to hurt anybody. And I’m not a slick operator either. But there were people in New York who just tore me apart. Nobody ever treated me fairly, nobody gave me a fair shake. I’m not retired. I plan to regain my rightful place in the music industry; a lot of people wanna work with me. I never asked for any publicity, I never bother anybody, I never want anything from anybody, but people call me all the time. I’ll never work with The Left Banke or any people from the past again. |
