VICTOR
MAYMUDES
Born in 1935--Pased away January 28th, 2001
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is proud to announce that Victor
Maymudes
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Victor Maymudes and Bob Dylan (photo by Lisa Law) |
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It Is Good To Look Back
Victor was 65 years old when he passed away there in the Pacific Palisades.
I had spent many
hours with him personally and on the phone the last couple of years of
his life. I know I was
hearing stories about his life of music no-one had ever heard. We
had many times together where
we would talk and I would help him go back and remember where he had been
on the musical
trail that he had made through his life. I was helping him write
his book about his years in the
music business and work on a book about his years with Bob Dylan, which
by the way, was
only a chapter in a man that was no doubt part of the history of folk and
rock and roll himself.
In 1999, I became his Webmaster for a site we were dreaming up called LittleFeather.net.
The
idea was to be a online publishing company that would publish books
by and about some of
the characters that he had run into over the years, and several books that
he wanted to write. He
wanted it to be a family company that his kids and friends could benefit
from helping with and
owning.
Victor got his first guitar in 1949, hence began his musical career.
Victor produced the first concerts
by Odetta. In 1955, Victor was part of the energy that became the
Unicorn, which was the first
coffee house in Los Angeles. It was on Sunset Blvd., and became the
place where Allan Ginsberg
and other new poets were reading their material. Victor was always
around the new cutting edge
of music and in many respects was making it happen. As a producer
he was helping many young
musicians make their music.
In 1957, Victor worked again with Herb Cohen to open the Cosmo Alley where
the whites and
the blacks were first hanging out together. "Marlon Brando, Dennis
Hopper, Odetta, Peter Fonda
and all the other 'hipsters.' Lenny Bruce was working the Cahunga
Burlesque and he would come
down after work and do his own special comedy at our place," Victor once
told me.
He ran with Ramblin' Jack Elliot and Woody Gutherie. It was Ramblin'
Jack Elliot that took Victor
to New York and introduced him to "the kid," who was in fact Bob Dylan.
Victor went on to work
with and for Mr. Dylan for two plus decades serving as tour manager and
wearing many other
hats for Bob Dylan. He was tour manager for some of the biggest tours
like Rolling Thunder and
when Dylan and the Band cut trails everywhere. He was at the Monterey
Pop Festival, with Dylan
at the Pyramids in Europe, on the Never Ending Tour, there when Dylan posed
for Andy Warhol,
he built Bob's Bus (and Neil Young's and Waylon Jenning's bus)
Victor worked with and was friends of folks like Paul McCartney, Will Geere,
Johnny Cash, Al
Cooper, Aldous Huxley, William Borrows, Waylon Jennings, Hugh Romney
(Wavy Gravy),
George Harrison, Tom Petty, Joan Baez, the Mamas and the Papas, the
Grateful Dead, The
Beatles, The Band, Neil Young Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Pete Seeger,
Harry Dean Stanton
to just mention a few. His tales and times with Woody Gutherie, Will
Geere and Ramblin' Jack
Elliott, who first introduced Victor to Bob Dylan, is the kind of story
that not only movies are
made of...but are stories of what history is made of.
The man was at the beginning and an intricate part of the Bohemian scene
that gave birth to artist
like Allen Ginsberg, William Borroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Gregory Corso and Gary Snyder,
then he was there when the coffee house and folk scene were born in Los
Angeles and in New
York. Victor had an important story that he wanted to tell and it
is sad that his words are only
in notes and now who he was is in memories.
As I had mentioned, I was working as a "goast writer," if you will, for Victor on his book about his years
working for and with Bob Dylan. Victor also had several other writing projects and below you will find the
short synopsis on each of the books that he wanted to write over the next years and be part of his
publishing company LITTLE FEATHER PUBLISHING. Little Feather was to be a Publishing company
that was to be family owned and operated. Victor and I colaborated to created this idea and I always
felt like a creative partner with Victor on this dream. Most of the idea came together over the year we
were working close on the Bob Dlyan book.Victor was one of my best friends and he appreciated my visions of the Internet and we worked together
to get his publishing up in cyberspace. In the spirit of that and to help me take all that he told me come
to some word to be read by maybe his family and friends, and for the archives of history I plan to
begin to write my chapter on Victor and you will be able to read it right here.
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Children's book about a 170 lb.
English
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IT IS GOOD TO LOOK BACK
will discuss how jazz and poetry first fused, how this new art form influenced folk music, how folk became rock, how rock helped to set the western world free, how the beats turned Bob Dyan on, and how Bob turned the Beatles on before the Beatles changed the entire world. From Victor Maymudes, the man who lived it, a book about music, revolution, politics and the fight for liberty of expression in the last four decades. |
BOOK WILL TELL STORIES ABOUT MANY
NAMES IN ROCK & ROLL
George Harrison and his friend Victor joined eachother above in 2001 |
Josh Hassle, James Rado & Victor Maymudes |
MY LIFE STORY IN
ROCK AND ROLL 44 Years of Rock and Roll history from the man who lived it.
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Another book coming from Victor's pen
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by Victor Maymudes. This is a story of four guys
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"I went home to my bus." Book
will tell stories about the
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