Artwork Fein, a longtime fixture of the Los Angeles music scene who achieved his biggest success because the host of Artwork Fein’s Poker Celebration, a music-focused public entry TV present, died on July 30. He succumbed to coronary heart failure whereas recuperating from surgical procedure for a damaged hip. He was 79.
Artwork Fein’s Poker Celebration, which debuted in 1984 as Lil Artwork’s Poker Celebration and ran for twenty-four years, drew such friends as Brian Wilson, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Love with Arthur Lee, Dwight Yoakam, Spirit, Dion, Joe Strummer, Etta James, and session musician Carol Kaye, a member of the fabled Wrecking Crew. And that’s only for starters.
Every episode ran for half-hour, and featured dialog and performances. Lots of the movies are archived at Fein’s YouTube channel.
“Terribly saddened to listen to that Artwork Fein, producer/supervisor, music historian and actually, the Ed Sullivan of public entry TV, has handed away,” bass participant Toni Pambianco wrote on X. “He’ll be tremendously missed.”
Fein particularly preferred to present a platform to roots music artists comparable to zydeco star Clifton Chenier, Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams, and Ray Campi & the Rockabilly Rebels. Fein was influential in placing a highlight on this style, lengthy earlier than the Recording Academy added devoted classes to acknowledge this music, particularly greatest regional roots music album in 2012, greatest American roots tune in 2014 and greatest American roots efficiency in 2015.
“He simply did such an excellent job,” Rosie Flores instructed author Randy Lewis, who wrote an in depth tribute/biography following Fein’s loss of life. “We may get on tv, you recognize, and we weren’t well-known folks – a number of us weren’t well-known — however we have been cool, and he would give us airtime and who else was doing that? No person.”
Fein was fast to capitalize on a 1984 FCC coverage that allowed cities to require a public-access channel any time they enter right into a franchise settlement with a cable firm. The present was taped in Los Angeles, the place Fein relocated in 1971 after faculty, but additionally aired on local-access channels in Austin, Texas, a stronghold of roots music, and, on a much less common foundation, New York Metropolis and Seattle. It was at a taping of the present at Century Cable in Santa Monica, Calif. that Fein met his spouse, Jennifer, who labored there.
The present was a really perfect car for Fein, showcasing his ardour for music and his gregarious persona in a method that common, 9-to-5 jobs by no means had. Within the Nineteen Seventies, Fein had labored in promotion or publicity for 3 report corporations — Capitol, Elektra/Asylum and Casablanca — however he didn’t final greater than a yr at any of them. He was additionally music editor for Selection for a few yr. That wasn’t a superb match for his skills and temperament, both.
The present is the place he actually flowered. In 1992, when the present was eight years and 400 episodes into its run, The Los Angeles Instances ran a major feature on Fein and his present. The author of the piece, Bob Baker, famous that previous to the present, Fein “had been making an uneven residing within the margins of rock music —working as a music guide on movies and TV exhibits, writing freelance articles, writing album liner notes and, for a pair years, managing the Blasters.”
“If this present is a springboard, I’ll be mighty glad,” Fein instructed Baker, “but when it’s not, I’m having a ball doing what I wish to do. I’ve at all times had a creative temperament, however earlier than I began the present I by no means had any artwork. I couldn’t sing; I didn’t wish to write a novel. However that is one thing I really feel actually good about. I nearly really feel like a knight going off to battle after I go away the home, like I’m going to actually say one thing.”
Fein was a catalyst who liked nothing greater than making issues occur (he was much less involved with whether or not he acquired paid for his function). He performed The Blasters’ “Marie Marie” for Shakin’ Stevens, who recorded it and landed a prime 20 hit on the Official U.Ok. Singles Chart in 1980. He organized annual occasions comparable to an annual Elvis Birthday Bash, held on or round The King’s Jan. 8 birthday annually for greater than 4 many years, and a New 12 months’s Eve Bash for six years from 1978 to 1984.
Arthur David Fein was born on June 17, 1946, and was adopted at start by Sam and Lillian Fein. The music bug bit him when he was 10, which can be, not coincidentally, when Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and different rock and roll icons exploded.
In his 2022 memoir, Rock’s in My Head, Fein wrote about by chance catching Presley on The Ed Sullivan Present in January 1957. “My life modified in a lightning bolt,” he wrote. “Who was this side-burned Pied Piper from outer area with slick black hair like Superman, and simply as good-looking? … What was this music? This was rock & roll!”
Fein grew to become an excellent larger fan of Lewis. “If Elvis was God, Jerry Lee Lewis was the Prince of Darkness,” he wrote.
Fein graduated from the College of Colorado, Boulder on the finish of the Nineteen Sixties with a level in journalism. He moved to California in 1971, residing for a few years simply south of Santa Cruz. In 1973, he moved to L.A. He had a quick stint at Capitol within the label’s newly-created faculty promotion division. The division was eradicated lower than a yr later.
Fein freelanced music articles for a time earlier than being employed as music editor at Selection. That job didn’t final lengthy both, nor did subsequent jobs in publicity at Elektra/Asylum and Casablanca. Some folks simply aren’t reduce out for 9-to-5 gigs.
Fein did higher working for himself. He frolicked his shingle as an artist supervisor, working with Ray Campi & the Rockabilly Rebels, The Blasters, The Cramps and The Heaters. In 1983, he produced the album, (Artwork Fein Presents) The Better of L.A. Rockabilly. He was a music guide for TV and movie — Roadhouse 66 (1984), Tour of Obligation (1987) and Blood Diner (1987).
Fein was additionally a profitable writer. He wrote three books: The L.A. Musical Historical past Tour: A Information to the Rock and Roll Landmarks of Los Angeles (Faber & Faber, 1991, with a second version printed by 2.13.61 in 1998); The Best Rock & Roll Tales: The Most Outrageous, Magical and Scandalous Occasions within the Historical past of Rock & Roll (Rhino/GPG, 1997); and the memoir Rock’s in My Head (Trouser Press Books, 2022).
In The L.A. Musical Historical past Tour, Fein instructed readers the place to seek out such L.A. rock websites because the Foster’s Freeze in Hawthorne the place The Beach Boys frolicked; Morrison Lodge, the place The Doors shot the quilt picture for his or her 1970 album of the identical identify; and the placement of the “Rock & Roll Denny’s.”
He additionally wrote a weblog, One other Fein Mess. Dispatches from 1998 to 2017 are archived at Fein’s website.
Fein had a protracted and complex friendship with Phil Spector. Fein had lengthy idolized the legendary producer and creator of the Wall of Sound. The primary place Fein stopped when he arrived in L.A. in 1973 was the now-defunct Gold Star Recording Studios in Hollywood, the place Spector produced classes by such acts as The Crystals and The Righteous Brothers. Through the years, Fein introduced many buddies, together with Gene Sculatti, Bob Merlis, Dick Blackburn, Kristine McKenna and me, to Spector’s residence for visits.
Fein remained loyal even after Spector shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson at his residence in 2003. He tried to remain in contact even after Spector was convicted of second-degree homicide in 2009 and was sentenced to 19 years to life in jail. However finally, Fein appeared to just accept that he had been loyal to a fault.
“I wrote to him 15 occasions when he was in jail and by no means acquired a solution,” Fein revealed in his memoir. “By the point he died, on January 16, 2021, on the age of 81, I had accomplished my mourning.”
Journalist Chris Morris (a former Billboard author and editor), summarized Fein’s distinctive assortment of strengths in a overview of Fein’s memoir: “Artwork has served rock & roll as scribe, flack, label man, supervisor, promoter, TV host, kibitzer, schmoozer, and all-around good Joe. He has identified the well-known, notorious, nefarious, and fabulous denizens of the music and lived to inform the story.”
Fein is survived by his spouse, Jennifer, and their daughter, Jessie.