This is a bio-tune mostly about Jerome “Doc Pomus” Felder but also to a certain extent it seems about the Brill Building sound in general. (None of this is surprising now that I see how much Nick Hornby has written about the music business) Doc Pomus along with Mort Shuman composed a ridiculous number of popular tunes during the height of the Brill Building Sound, “Turn Me Loose”, “Lonely Avenue” and “Suspicion” among them. They are a if not the prime example of this sound. Doc was crippled by polio in his childhood and confined to a wheelchair and for many years he holed up in a hotel in NYC called “The Forrest”. Doc never lacked for material as he was emerged in a time and place in New York where all he had to do was watch the life that swarmed around him. He even stopped song writing at one point and just ran a big stakes Poker game that was, as far as I could tell, taken down by the Mob. I’m so glad for this song, although it just scratches the surface of someone who reads as THE most colorful character in the history of Rock and Roll, it was great trying to piece together the puzzle pieces Nick and Ben put in the song (especially hard to find bits about Doc’s time at the Forrest). It is a brilliant piece of work as is the entire album…not bad for a “Coffee shop” work eh Mr. Ben? This link is a pretty good overview of Doc and his career in Music http://www.spencerleigh.demon.co.uk/Feature_Pomus.htm
This is a bio-tune mostly about Jerome “Doc Pomus” Felder but also to a certain extent it seems about the Brill Building sound in general. (None of this is surprising now that I see how much Nick Hornby has written about the music business) Doc Pomus along with Mort Shuman composed a ridiculous number of popular tunes during the height of the Brill Building Sound, “Turn Me Loose”, “Lonely Avenue” and “Suspicion” among them. They are a if not the prime example of this sound. Doc was crippled by polio in his childhood and confined to a wheelchair and for many years he holed up in a hotel in NYC called “The Forrest”. Doc never lacked for material as he was emerged in a time and place in New York where all he had to do was watch the life that swarmed around him. He even stopped song writing at one point and just ran a big stakes Poker game that was, as far as I could tell, taken down by the Mob. I’m so glad for this song, although it just scratches the surface of someone who reads as THE most colorful character in the history of Rock and Roll, it was great trying to piece together the puzzle pieces Nick and Ben put in the song (especially hard to find bits about Doc’s time at the Forrest). It is a brilliant piece of work as is the entire album…not bad for a “Coffee shop” work eh Mr. Ben? This link is a pretty good overview of Doc and his career in Music http://www.spencerleigh.demon.co.uk/Feature_Pomus.htm