Albert Goldman
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- For the Trotskyist and labor movement lawyer, see Albert Goldman (politician).
Albert Harry Goldman (April 15, 1927 – March 28, 1994) was an American professor and author.
Born in Dormont, Pennsylvania, Albert Goldman wrote about the culture and personalities of the American music industry both in books and as a contributor to magazines. However, he is best known for his controversial biographies of Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Lenny Bruce.
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[edit] Written work
Goldman's breakthrough bestseller, Ladies and Gentlemen - Lenny Bruce!!! won praise from the likes of Norman Mailer and Pauline Kael, who called the book "brilliant."[citation needed] The book was largely positive in its appraisal of Bruce's talent, though it was attacked by many of Bruce's friends for exaggerating the comedian's dangerous behavior. Goldman had done legal work for Bruce during one of the latter's battles with prosecutors over what constitutes obscenity. In this book Goldman set a precedent when he questioned Lenny Bruce's heterosexuality, claiming that during his World War II stint in the U.S. Navy the future comedian had gay experiences. Goldman made similar claims about his next two biographical subjects.
Goldman's 1981 biography Elvis probably aroused more controversy than any biography of a musician ever written. In this book, the author drew on more than four years' research into Presley's life. But for many, his research was undone by his intense personal dislike of Presley. For instance, Goldman dismissed Presley as a plagiarist who never did anything of note after his first records at Sun Records, insisting that he was inferior as an artist to Little Richard and other early rock'n'roll singers. He also portrayed Presley as nearly insane, using stories that some might see as innocuous (such as Presley taking his friends halfway across the country to buy them peanut-butter sandwiches) to "prove" that the singer had lost his grip on reality. At one point, Goldman writes of Presley: "Like most country boys of his time, he was uncircumcised . . . he saw his beauty disfigured by an ugly hillbilly pecker."[citation needed] The author also belittled the late singer over his weight problems, his diet, his choice of performing costumes, and his sexual appetites and peculiarities. He even suggests that Elvis's promiscuity masked latent homosexuality. Goldman saw himself as a purist, and is quoted as saying: "Commercial to the core, Elvis was the kind of singer dear to the heart of the music business. For him to sing a song was to sell a song. His G clef was a dollar sign."[citation needed]
Of the more than four hundred books on Presley, none ever upset his fans as much as Goldman's did. In a famous review in the Village Voice, Greil Marcus wrote: "The real significance of Goldman's 'Elvis' is its attempt at cultural genocide. . . . The torrents of hate that drive this book are unrelieved." Furthermore, he particularly objected to Goldman's constant slurs against Presley's background, including his characterization of Presley's parents as "the original Beverly Hillbillies."[citation needed] Other critics liked the book. Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post called it a "nasty book, written in spectacularly execrable prose, but the view of Presley that it expressed dovetailed in many instances with my own, and in spite of itself I found things in it to admire."[citation needed] Lamar Fike, the Presley insider and former member of the Memphis Mafia, who introduced Goldman to many of his sources, recalled: "The problem was Albert's personality. At first, he liked Elvis. But later, he started disliking him. And by the end of (writing) the book, I think he hated him. I said, 'Albert, you can't do this.' But I couldn't stop him."[citation needed]
In 1982, Goldman wrote a very unflattering article on actor Bruce Lee which was divided into two parts for Penthouse Magazine (Jan, Feb 1983 issues).
In 1990, Goldman published a second book, entitled Elvis: The Last 24 Hours, on the circumstances and events of Presley's death, arguing that the singer had committed suicide. The book drew some attention for its sensational thesis but was largely ignored.
Because of the controversy surrounding his Elvis book, Goldman told interviewers that he planned to write his next biography about John Lennon, whom he greatly admired: "He was a figure of great intelligence and courage—the opposite of Elvis." However, while researching his next book, The Lives of John Lennon, Goldman became disillusioned with Lennon: "As the dilineation of his personality became clear to me, I was very dismayed at what I was finding out."
In the book, Goldman made many controversial allegations, among them the charge that Lennon had a homosexual relationship with The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein. Although Goldman was not the first to make that allegation, he did originate the particularly serious charge that Stuart Sutcliffe, an early member of the Beatles whose sudden death was ruled a brain tumor, actually died from a brain injury sustained when Lennon kicked him in the head during one of many fights in which the band members were known to be involved in Hamburg. Yoko Ono was portrayed by Goldman in an even worse light than her husband. Goldman alleged that Lennon visited Ono's London gallery exhibit with his first wife Cynthia, who had no idea their marriage was in trouble until they offered Ono a ride from the gallery to the place where she was staying. In Goldman's account, Ono brazenly sat next to Lennon inside the car and made it obvious that she wanted to bed the married man. Years later when Lennon and Ono were married and settled in New York, the two had many extramarital affairs, according to Goldman, even though their entourage knew about just one: Lennon's flamboyant liaison with May Pang.
Goldman also claimed that when Lennon started making music again in 1980 following a long hibernation, he was not immune to Manhattan's cocaine / disco era. According to Goldman, on the day Lennon was murdered he was scheduled to undergo plastic surgery several days later to repair the part of his nose he supposedly had destroyed by snorting cocaine, which he supposedly did at the Hit Factory recording studio (where he recorded his Double Fantasy album). Goldman did not cite a single name of anyone who might have witnessed this at the studio. Goldman claimed that even though Yoko Ono supposedly continued to use heroin during this period, she was so concerned about the bad influence that Paul McCartney had on her husband that she engineered McCartney's notorious arrest for possession of narcotics in January of 1980 in Japan. By Goldman's account, Ono supposedly had connections with law enforcement officials in her native country whom she notified by overseas telephone that McCartney, scheduled to arrive at customs so he could give a concert with his band Wings, was holding narcotics. Ono strongly disputed this serious charge in television interviews immediately after Goldman's book reached stores. Goldman alleged further that on December 8, 1980 (the day of Lennon's murder) not only did the singer's cocaine snorting warrant plastic surgery, but he was in such bad physical condition from drug abuse and lack of exercise that during his autopsy the medical examiner recorded observations to that effect, overlooking the four bullet wounds momentarily.
Concerning Goldman's account of Lennon's consumption of LSD, Luc Sante, in the New York Review of Books, said: "Goldman's background research was either slovenly or nonexistent." The author replied:
- "What is the basis for this sweeping and defamatory assertion? Absolutely nothing save for my quoting only one book about LSD. Yet if Sante knew anything about drugs, he would recognize that the only serious problem about Lennon's consumption of LSD was one that has no literature; namely, the question of what effect this drug has upon a man who takes it every day, eating it 'like candy.' "
Goldman died in 1994 on a plane en route to London. He left unfinished a biography of Doors singer Jim Morrison.
Shortly before his death, Goldman translated three poems by Heinrich Heine, his favorite poet. "Heine strikes the note of ironic sentimentality that is the hallmark not just of Heine but of all us nice Jewish wits," he wrote. The poems appeared after his death in a 1994 issue of Parnassus: Poetry in Review.
He was memorably portrayed by Phil Hartman on a Saturday Night Live skit on a 1988 episode hosted by Matthew Broderick. In the sketch, the Beatles are portrayed in their early stage before their first visit to the United States. Goldman, the fifth member of the band, plays the trombone. After a rehearsal in which the band's sound is ruined by the trombone, Elvis, played by Kevin Nealon, encourages John Lennon to fire Albert Goldman. This motivates him to write his mean books on Elvis 18 years later and John Lennon 25 years later (the year of the sketch).
When Phil Spector, who is portrayed negatively in two of Goldman's books (Lenny Bruce and John Lennon) was informed by a reporter of Goldman's sudden death, he was quoted as saying, "Is he really dead? Make sure he's really dead."
[edit] Family
Goldman is survived by a daughter in her early thirties. Goldman never married the girl's mother (now deceased) who had no connection with their daughter.
[edit] Trivia
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- Richey Edwards, of the Manic Street Preachers, said that Goldman's Elvis and Lennon biographies were among his favorite books.
- BLENDER Magazine, in 2006, chose Elvis as the worst rock bio ever, stating that Goldman dealt with everything about Elvis Presley but his music. The book was an example of an author hating his subject and it showed.
- In the U2 song "God Part II" from the album Rattle and Hum, Bono sings about Albert Goldman:
Don't believe in Goldman
His type like a curse.
Instant Karma's gonna get him
If I don't get him first.
[edit] References
[edit] Partial bibliography
- Ladies and gentlemen - Lenny Bruce!! (1971)
- Freakshow;: The rocksoulbluesjazzsickjewblackhumorsexpoppsych gig and other scenes from the counter-culture (1971)
- Carnival in Rio (1978)
- Grass Roots: Marijuana in America Today (1979)
- Disco (1979)
- Elvis (1981)
- The Lives of John Lennon (1988)
- Elvis: The Last 24 Hours (1990)
- Sound Bites (1992)
- Freakshow : Misadventures in the Counterculture, 1959-1971 (2001) - posthumous collection
