Rich and Johnny's Inzane Michigan John Olson

Rich & Johnny return in 2021 with a lengthy chat with Michigan poster/flyer historian legend Jack Bodnar. Intense insight to a heavy scene! Here are some post scripts from the talk via Jack himself:


Jack Bodnar talks more about The Brewery days in Lansing
By Jack Bodnar, January 18, 2021
 
I don’t know about you but when talking about the past, especially personal events that happened nearly 50 
years ago, I often walk away wishing I had said this or that instead, and that I had been clearer. In my
conversation with Rich and Johnny, I think I got most of it right but what follows are additional insights that 
might clarify a few things.
 
Terry O’Connor was the (brilliant and whimsical) Brewery graphic artist…he died of cancer in the Florida Keys a few years back. Even though he spent his career as a graphics artist, mostly for Michigan State University, his three-year Brewery and Brewery-related output (1972-1975), which came at the end of the Classic Rock Art era (1965-1976), easily puts him in the Top Four pantheon of Michigan superstar rock artists, joining Gary Grimshaw, Carl Lundgren, and Ozone (Chris Frayne, Commander Cody’s brother).   
O’Connor created 30-35 Brewery concert posters. No one knows for sure how many, not even Terry when he was still alive. Many of the posters were printed in ridiculously small print runs of 50-100, which is why most people at the time and post-1975 have never seen them. This was compounded by the fact that shortly after The Brewery changed concepts to the Silver Dollar bar in April 1975, Terry’s basement, where he stored his Brewery original art and “reference” posters, was flooded and all was lost. A true tragedy.    
Terry never realized how great his Brewery art was. It was just a blip on his radar, something he did for a short time in his youth. Even though his output was low compared to the likes of Grimshaw and Lundgren, Terry’s consistent, eye-popping creativity and use of vibrant color would rank him high on the national rock art scene if people could see his work. Hopefully, this will happen eventually, thanks to the twenty-some-odd O’Connor posters that are part of my collection at Michigan State University.  
I referred to Sloe Gin and Blue Motorcycle (the latter sometimes called Blue Hawaiian) drinks at The Brewery. The latter was basically a blue Long Island Iced Tea…blue curacao, gin, vodka, and rum. Many of the female patrons ordered them and they were deadly. On Tequila Nights, The Brewery sold a lot of Tequila Sunrises, yet another powerful drink that was ordered predominantly by the ladies. The guys tended to order straight tequila shots, as well as Tequila Sunrises on Tequila Nights.  
In our conversation, we kept referring to “Goose Lake.” Hopefully, most people know we were referring to the 1970 Goose Lake International Music Festival (7-9 August) in Grass Lake, MI, which attracted more than 200,000 mostly-stoned fans. It is recognized as the last great rock music festival of the Sixties Rock era.   
During our conversation, I offered a couple of unfortunate exaggerations when referring to multiple items in my collection. For the sake of hyperbole, I said I might have 5,000 Goose Lake Festival poker chips, which were the festival entry tickets. This is not true, though my collection does have close to a thousand of them, which is still a lot given they don’t turn up very often.   
Also, when referring to multiples, I said I had 30-40 copies of some underground newspapers (like the seminal and tough-to-find Warren-Forest Suns), which is true, but many of my underground issues number only in single digits. For instance, my collection has only one of Creem #5 (only a handful exist for some reason), plus the original cover art by Detroit artist Matthew (Matthew Radofsky).  
Rich referred to a Brewery Seger poster at East Lansing’s The Curious Bookshop, something he had mentioned to me when

 Rich & Johnny return with a big gulp of a talk with Windsor Filmmaker Otto Buj about his AMAZING new Detroit Freezer Hardcore doc "Dope, Hookers, & Pavement" movie. Read more at:
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/the-story-of-detroit-hardcore-gets-the-documentary-treatment/Content?oid=25909457
and : 
https://www.detroithardcoremovie.com

Rich & Johnny pull out an early winter pre - Covid 2020 talk with the kool Kzoo katz from the I'd Buy That For A Dollar podcast, and jaw all jammer things Kalamazoo from the past and present. Peep the source mf: https://www.idbuythatpodcast.com/

Rich & Johnny track down the uber obscure Michigan underground noise unit Caustic Frequency Generator and have a killer chat about EQ & "No Rules." Peep their amazing s/t 7" and the bands bandcamp at:
https://cfgofficial.bandcamp.com

Rich & Johnny have a lengthy unadulterated chat with OG Tom Weschler = author of "Traveling Man - On The Road with Bob Seger" and tour manager for Seger. Hear all the crazed stories from wild gigs of Michigan's past and general R'N'R inzanity.

RICH & JOHNNY's INZANE MICHIGAN EPISODE #16= Pete Wittig (Ormandy) & Steve Pinckney  Lansing underground folk hero & early progressive genius Pete Wittig is joined with his equally OG musician friend Steve Pinckney to discuss Pete's uber rare loner folk lp and his time in big unit blazers Ormandy. The duo end the killer interview with a phenom set of original tunes strummed away live in the dank walls of the Inzane Basement. Unreal yet too real!!
Peep Pete's jams at https://www.mixcloud.com/john-olson2/rich-johnnys-inzane-michigan-episode-16-pete-witting-ormandy/