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| Tim Yohannan and Jeff Bale at KPFA studio in Berkeley 1982 |
| I remember Tim telling me why a band's first album was always so much better than their second release: The debut represented 2 years of work and the follow up usually represented 6 months of work. I saw him one time at one of those Gilman Record swaps. He was selling the Euro version of my band's album. It hurt but I figured he could do what the hell he wanted with it once I gave it to him. It was our second release, you know, the one we spent only 6 months on. Tim helped me put together a mixtape one time of 1950's/1960s artists who straddled both rocknroll and rhythm and blues. I was interested in Ray Charles at the time who had hits both in R&B and Country. The one artist he recommended to me that straddled Rock and R&B was Lonnie Mack. That night I begged him to drink whiskey with me, but he refused. Instead, he helped me put that mixtape together. It was a pleasure to know him and to know so clearly how he stood on certain issues. And, if a lot of other people felt the same way, it gave me a feeling of being part of a grass-roots movement. But, it was also kind of an anti-movement because he was so self-deprecating, (no photos) so anti-commercial, (refused to accept ads from Epitaph because they had a distro deal with EMI for Japan), and probably some other quirks I didn't know about. But, I think when he died April 3 1998, for me, punk rock died. Dale Stewart punksnax@hotmail.com |
When Capitol
Punishment was in
decline, in 1990, he
responded with
kindness when I asked
him to give us an
interview. Then, almost
as a joke, off the top of
my head I asked, "Can
you put us on the front
cover?" He thought for
a moment and said,
"Yes". Three months
later, there we were on
the front cover of
Maximumrocknroll.
Never in a million years
with another person!
There were others
closer to him than I,
but none whom he
was kinder to.
Punishment was in
decline, in 1990, he
responded with
kindness when I asked
him to give us an
interview. Then, almost
as a joke, off the top of
my head I asked, "Can
you put us on the front
cover?" He thought for
a moment and said,
"Yes". Three months
later, there we were on
the front cover of
Maximumrocknroll.
Never in a million years
with another person!
There were others
closer to him than I,
but none whom he
was kinder to.
| Maximumrocknroll August 1990 |
I took this Polaroid photo when Tim and Jeff brought a bunch
of the Fresno punk bands up to Berkeley to be interviewed
and to play our tapes on the maximumrocknroll radio show in
1982. He did a lot of stuff like this, allowing us bands from the
boondocks to make connections and get gigs we otherwise
would never have gotten. I never hear of anyone in a similar
position of power (possessor of prime time radio airtime) just
giving it away to unknown bands. And we never had any
notion or ability to reciprocate with anything resembling
payola. In fact, I believe Tim's intent was, in part, to give
away airtime without payola to illustrate the corruption of the
payola system. He was so interesting. I always considered him
the most successful and talented person I knew.
One night in front of Gilman street, I stood there in
amazement as he angrily challenged several skinhead
thugs. Shouting them down, they slowly retreated down the
street. His gutsiness was something to behold, especially
considering he was such a short guy.
And one more thing: After taking this picture I found out how
Tim was so adamantly against having his picture taken. He
could put the point on the tip of the spear at times.
I'll never forget his hospitality to my band, Capitol
Punishment, letting us use his house in San Francisco like
a hotel. It was a lot of fun for us to stay there in the
basement/record room on Clipper street in Noe Valley. He had
such an unusual emotional/psychological connection to music,
almost religious-like. I could tell when he found out I had been
religious in my past he seemed to like that.
of the Fresno punk bands up to Berkeley to be interviewed
and to play our tapes on the maximumrocknroll radio show in
1982. He did a lot of stuff like this, allowing us bands from the
boondocks to make connections and get gigs we otherwise
would never have gotten. I never hear of anyone in a similar
position of power (possessor of prime time radio airtime) just
giving it away to unknown bands. And we never had any
notion or ability to reciprocate with anything resembling
payola. In fact, I believe Tim's intent was, in part, to give
away airtime without payola to illustrate the corruption of the
payola system. He was so interesting. I always considered him
the most successful and talented person I knew.
One night in front of Gilman street, I stood there in
amazement as he angrily challenged several skinhead
thugs. Shouting them down, they slowly retreated down the
street. His gutsiness was something to behold, especially
considering he was such a short guy.
And one more thing: After taking this picture I found out how
Tim was so adamantly against having his picture taken. He
could put the point on the tip of the spear at times.
I'll never forget his hospitality to my band, Capitol
Punishment, letting us use his house in San Francisco like
a hotel. It was a lot of fun for us to stay there in the
basement/record room on Clipper street in Noe Valley. He had
such an unusual emotional/psychological connection to music,
almost religious-like. I could tell when he found out I had been
religious in my past he seemed to like that.
I made a tape back in the day called "Tim and The Gang" wherein I
spliced together some of the talking in between the songs from
the Maximum Rocknroll radio show. A mishmash of nonsensical
and unrelated comments to show some of the confusion that
went on sometimes on the show. I did it to get a laugh and poke
a little fun at Tim. I gave a copy of the tape to him. He listened
and though he didn't condemn it he didn't seem pleased with it.
He had plenty of opportunity to tell me don't do this, instead he
just said nothing.
I took that as reluctant approval.
In his coolest of the cool basement, with the coolest giant
posters of punk rock stars on the walls and thousdands of LPs,
10-inchers, 7-inchers, Boxed Sets, Cracks, Chunks, Nuggets, 60s
punk, Rockabilly, Beatles (Only up to SGT. Pepper. He was very
strict about these little rules of rocknroll). And freakin' hundreds
of band demo/live, homemade cassettes. It was like Disneyland
for a record collector like myself. Underneath the raised floor
there were giant garbage bags full of thousands of photos of
small-time punk rock bands from all over the world and over many
years.
I bought a couple of his records at Gilman street with the icky
green tape on it. One was a British pressing 7-inch of the DKS,
"California Uber Alles" with photos Tim found of the DKs in
magazines, cut out and pasted on the cover with Decopauge. His
logic was, he already had the original one, why have the Euro
pressing, too.
spliced together some of the talking in between the songs from
the Maximum Rocknroll radio show. A mishmash of nonsensical
and unrelated comments to show some of the confusion that
went on sometimes on the show. I did it to get a laugh and poke
a little fun at Tim. I gave a copy of the tape to him. He listened
and though he didn't condemn it he didn't seem pleased with it.
He had plenty of opportunity to tell me don't do this, instead he
just said nothing.
I took that as reluctant approval.
In his coolest of the cool basement, with the coolest giant
posters of punk rock stars on the walls and thousdands of LPs,
10-inchers, 7-inchers, Boxed Sets, Cracks, Chunks, Nuggets, 60s
punk, Rockabilly, Beatles (Only up to SGT. Pepper. He was very
strict about these little rules of rocknroll). And freakin' hundreds
of band demo/live, homemade cassettes. It was like Disneyland
for a record collector like myself. Underneath the raised floor
there were giant garbage bags full of thousands of photos of
small-time punk rock bands from all over the world and over many
years.
I bought a couple of his records at Gilman street with the icky
green tape on it. One was a British pressing 7-inch of the DKS,
"California Uber Alles" with photos Tim found of the DKs in
magazines, cut out and pasted on the cover with Decopauge. His
logic was, he already had the original one, why have the Euro
pressing, too.
| Links to some other pages with thoughts about Tim Yohannan upon his passing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Yohannan http://www.razorcake.org/interviews/interview-with-tim-yohannan-and-jen-angel-of-maximumrocknroll-part-1-bad-taste-is-in-the-majority-part-1 http://maximumrocknroll.com/ http://www.facebook.com/timyohannan http://mlavella.blogspot.com/2010/04/thinkin-back-on-tim-yo-and-his-volvo.html http://slingshot.tao.ca/displaybi.php?0062006 http://www.diehippiedie.com/screwball/memorial/register.html |
| The Maximumrocknroll theme song comes up from time to time and I always forget the actual title of the song and who the band was that recorded it. The song is called "Last Night" by Puravida. The song appears on 3 different compilations, two of which are featured here. One from 1978, the Skydog Commando Compilation, is where Tim Yo could have gotten the song for his radio show. It is actually a cover of a song that I am totally familiar with: "Last Night" by the Mar-Keys. I remember hearing the Mar-Keys version on Top 40 am radio in the 60s when it came out. Upon hearing the MRR theme song many times I never connected the two, but indeed it is a cover. |
