THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL Adam Ellsworth
THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL When Jules Siegel stopped writing for publication, publication , he felt like an unbelievable burden had been lifted. It was the early 1980s and he had recently moved to Mexico. “I really felt as if I was released from the chain gang,” he told me in October 2011 from his home in Cancun. He‟d just had a book rejected sight unseen and he no longer lo nger saw the point. “I felt, „What am I doing? What is the reason for subjecting myself to these humiliations?‟” He went so far as to sell his typewriter. He was done.1 Of course he wasn‟t really done. He still wrote and he occasionally even tried to get
published, but from then on, writing wasn‟t going to be something he did to make a living. “Almost everything I‟ve written since 1983 has been because I just wanted to write it,” he said. “I wrote only out of what I realize now is passion.”2
It seems then that Jules Siegel has been passionate about a lot these past three plus decades. Online alone his writing has appeared on Huffington Post , Mexconnect , The Blacklisted websites The People’s Republic of Moronia, Journalist and LA Progressive. He administers the websites Café Cancun, and Newsroom-L.net . Since 1997, he has published or self-published four books: Lineland : Mortality and Mercy on the Internet’s Pynchon
[email protected] Discussion List , Cancun
User’s Guide, The Human Robot: Understanding the Emotional Effects of Industrialism, and
most recently, Mad Laughter: Fragments of a Life in Progress. Today, it‟s a piece of writing from Siegel‟s more distant past that has him back in the spotlight. “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!” his 1967 Cheetah magazine article that followed the creation and collapse of the Beach Boys‟ lost masterpiece, Smile, has been published as an ebook by The Atavist to coincide with the release of the much anticipated Smile Sessions Box Set .
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL The entire e-book project came together in about two weeks, Evan Ratliff, founder and editor of The Atavist said in a phone interview. He wanted to make sure it was out in time for the box set release, which not only meant getting Siegel on board with the project, but also getting him to read the story for for the audio portion of the the e-book. This was something Siegel was not keen to do. “It turned out great,” great,” Ratliff said. “We also have a lot of funny funny outtakes with him absolutely furious, saying, „I will never do an ything like this again in my life.‟”3 The e-book itself includes more than just the text and Siegel‟s audio. It includes footage of Brian Wilson, alone at the piano, singing “Surf‟s Up” during the fabled 1967 television special, “Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution.” There‟s biographical and other information to enhance the story embedded in the text, and a music video for the Beach Boys‟ hit “Good Vibrations,” with the band running around a firehouse. firehouse. At one point in the clip Siegel Siegel himself makes an appearance, ambling down a hill, wearing a fire helmet, and, in his own estimation, “looking like a complete idiot.”4
As promotion for the e-book, an excerpt of “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!” appeared on 5
Rolling Stone‟s website in early November 2011, Siegel‟s first Rolling Stone byline since 1971.
When I spoke with Siegel the day after the excerpt appeared, he admitted he was surprised, citing an early 1970s falling out he had with Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner. But more on that later. “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!” is the story Siegel is best known for, but it is just one
story in a career that has spanned nearly half a century. From Cavalier to the Saturday Evening Post , and Playboy to the Internet; from New York to California to Mexico; from Kennedy and
Nixon to Dylan and Brian Wilson; Jules Siegel‟s trip through the past seventy-plus years has been a unique one, filled filled with highs and lows. Buckle up.
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL ********** Jules Siegel was born October 21, 1935 “on the Island of Manhattan.”6 His father was born Elias Segalowitz in 1901 in what is today the north-eastern portion of Belarus7. “Eli,” along with his mother and his siblings, immigrated to New York in 1906, joining Siegel‟s grandfather who had come come ahead of the family. The family name was changed to “Siegel” when they arrived. arrived. The change was the result of a compromise between Siegel‟s grandfather, who wanted something American, and his children, who thought any change at all was cultural treason.8 “He was a gangster” S iegel told me of his father.
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Before Siegel was born, his father Eli,
who was known among his friends as Jimmy, was involved with The Combination or, “Jewish Mafia.” He served eight years in Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in
Dannemora, NY, for armed robbery,10 a fact Siegel used to show up and shut up a contemptuous Bob Dylan many years later.11 In the early 1960s, Siegel worked with Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather , at the Magazine Management Company. “Mario often said to me, „You have to write a novel about your father. father. If you don‟t, I will.‟ I urged him to do so,” Siegel wrote in Mad Laughter . Siegel
provided Puzo with stories and research materials, and while it would be going too far to claim that Don Vito Corleone is Eli Siegel, any resemblance is more than mere coincidence.12 Siegel‟s mother, Evelyn, was born in 1911 and married Eli after leaving her first
husband. She took Siegel‟s half-brother, Kenneth, with with her. Siegel would later write of his his mother saying: “I was only a young girl, but I knew that a child has to have a father…When your father came, he was like a knight in shining armor.”13 Siegel didn‟t know that Kenneth was his
half-brother until many years later.14
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL When Eli married Evelyn, his days days with the Combination came to an end. In the 1940s, Eli worked as a plumber‟s helper at the Todd Shipyards in Hoboken, New Jersey, though even there he ran gambling and sold his fellow workers coffee he made using “ government beans and government equipment.”15 There was no denying he worked hard though. “He woke at four
every workday morning, went to bed early at night and paid his income tax for the first time in his life,” Siegel would later write.16 After three years, Eli left the shipyard to start making loans on Eighth Avenue.17 While his days with the Combination were long behind him, in 1960, Eli stabbed the son of a partner during a fight after the the partner and his sons came to collect money they felt Eli owed them. The son survived and Eli was acquitted. Eli‟s customers spoke on his behalf at the trial. “Your father ed plenty of people around here,” one of these customers told Siegel. “I was proud to go in f ed there and testify testify for him,” the customer continued. “We all love Jimmy on Eighth Avenue.”18
Growing up in the Bronx, Siegel was artistic and liked painting and drawing, which his parents were less than thrilled about. They wanted him to become a writer. writer. “Among my earliest memories are of my mother and father in bed, each one with a nose
in a book,” he told me. “I was not very interested in writing, but they were such huge readers.”19 When he was in junior high, Siegel sat down at his “rich Uncle Irving‟s” typewriter and wrote a hundred words on another one of his interests, photography. He passed the piece in for an assignment and his teacher liked it so much that it was published in the school newspaper. Siegel was awarded the silver medal for journalism. “I was really pissed off about that,” he said, “because some jerky girl who wrote in this flowery, poetic prose got the first prize.” But his
parents were thrilled. “From then on, nothing was acceptable except that I should become a writer,” he said. On the bright side, his parents did buy him a camera as a reward.20
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL After high school, Siegel went to Cornell, but left after after one year. He wrote later that he spent his nights drinking and his days reading in the library rather than attending class.21 He did stay long enough to befriend Thomas Pynchon, a relationship Siegel described in “Who is Thomas Pynchon and Why is He Taking Off with My Wife,” published in Playboy in 1977. After dropping out of Cornell in 1954, he joined the Army,22 and served as a photographer and military intelligence analyst in Korea after the war.23 Some of his short stories, including “Déjà Vu,” which was published in Esquire in 1970 and was anthologized in
this description. After the Best American Short Stories of 1970, feature protagonists who fit this Army, he returned to college, attending Hunter College and graduating in 1959 with a bachelor‟s degree in English and Philosophy.24 He was going to become a writer. Through all of this, Eli wasn‟t well. While Siegel was in basic training, Eli attempted suicide. He‟d bet a large amount of money on the Yankees and lost. Unable to pay the rent, “he had taken enough sleeping pills to kill himself several times over,” Siegel wrote.25 Interestingly enough, when Eli woke from his coma, he was more thrilled than ever to be alive. But in 1960, there was another suicide attempt, this one successful. Police found Eli, who had been missing for days, in the trunk of his car. The autopsy showed suicide of acute barbiturate intoxication.26 It was at this point that Siegel learned Kenneth was actually his half-brother. Kenneth was afraid his half-brother would find out some other way and be traumatized, so he decided the best course of action was to tell him himself, right after Eli committed suicide.27 In December 1969, Siegel wrote about all of this. “I took the largest dose of amphetamine I‟d ever taken in my life,” he said. He was
supposed to be working on a novel, but when he sat down to write, it was “Family Secrets” that came out. “All I remember about it is twelve hours later, or however long it was, there was this
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL pile of paper by the typewriter and the story was finished.” “Family Secrets” was published in 28
The New American Review in 1970. “That was the single greatest story of my career,” he said.
After the story came out, Siegel heard from a well-to-do cousin named Helen, who wasn‟t at all pleased with the airing of family secrets. “Surely there was something you could
have left out,” she said.29 Apparently not. ********** After college, Siegel went into into public relations. He worked simultaneously for the Nixon Nixon and Kennedy campaigns in 1960, handling advertising for Nixon in Westchester County, and press releases for Kennedy Kennedy in Nassau County. He voted for Kennedy.30 Next he worked for Koster-Dana Publishing Company Compa ny under Will Eisner, creator of “The Spirit,” and father of the graphic novel.31 Koster-Dana owned North American Newspaper
Alliance, among other media properties that eventually became United Media. While working on the Koster-Dana annual report, he came across a footnote that didn‟t make sense. “I got the contract out, because that‟s the kind of person person I am, and it turns turns out that
North American Newspaper Alliance was essentially a dependent of the CIA and the Defense Department,” he said. “Or , let‟s say that two individuals, who were known to have been
government intelligence agents, had lent them money, and exercised a great deal of control over the company.”32
Soon after, President Kennedy was assassinated and two days later Siegel got a call from his first wife, Phyllis who told him to turn on the television. “They‟ve killed Oswald,” she said. “And so that was it,” Siegel remembered. “Basically, I was disgusted at where I found myself.” He soon soon left, and began his career as a freelance writer.”33
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL irst magazine assignment was to profile Sterling Hayden for Cavalier Siegel‟s f irst magazine.34 More pieces for Cavalier and then the Village Voice followed. Then, his friend Arthur Kretchmer, who would go on to become editorial director for Playboy, became Cavalier ‟s ‟s managing editor. “When the editorial director later resigned,” he said, “there was a 24-hour hiatus before the new editor arrived.” Siegel and Kretchmer had been discussing the possibility of publishing an issue on rock and roll, so to make it happen Kretchmer went into the office at night and retyped the magazine‟s schedule to include their their ideas. When the new editorial director started, Kretchmer handed him the schedules and said, “Here‟s what we‟re working on.” The new editorial director suspected nothing, and the rock and roll issue went ahead.35 It was in this 1965 issue that Siegel‟s article “The Big Beat” appeared. Siegel described the article as “ a sociological and psychological explanation of the youth culture in terms of the
music that was being played and written.”36 “The Big Beat” traces the history of rock and roll from African slaves to Dixieland jazz to big band to rhythm and blues to country and western to pop to Elvis to the Beatles to Dylan. It was an early examination of rock and roll and an early example of writing that took rock and roll seriously. “Without any false humility, I can say that I was one of the people who invented rock
journalism,” Siegel wrote for The Blacklisted Journalist in 2004. “Journalists such as Al Aronowitz, Richard Goldstein and I were among amon g the first to write about rock in mainstream media without being condescending or demeaning.”37 Today, Siegel says that invented belongs in quotes, but none the less, he helped set the tone for how to write about rock and roll.38 “I read a story by Tom Wolfe in Esquire about the guys who make the signs in Las
Vegas,” Siegel said. “They considered themselves artists and Wolfe accepted them as artists and he treated them with the res pect that you‟d give any artist.” Siegel combined this idea with his
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL knowledge that throughout history, the principal artists have almost always been commercial artist, and his style of writing about rock and roll was born. “The confluence of these different trends led me to accept the rock performers at their
own estimate, at what they thought they were doing, as opposed to what the people that published their music or broadcast their music thought they were doing,” he said.39 After “The Big Beat,” Siegel was sent by the Saturday Evening Post to cover Bob Dylan. “The original manuscript of that was much more thoughtful,” he said. “They edited almost all
the thoughtfulness out of it, and turned it into the classic celebrity caricature.”40 Dylan did not like the resulting story. “I don‟t know what Dylan disliked disliked about the article I wrote, except, maybe, that I pictured him as a crazy, whining little boy, which is what he looked like to me,” Siegel wrote in 1971‟s “Midnight in Babylon.”41 “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!” followed followed soon thereafter. Siegel spent two months
covering Brian Wilson for the Saturday Evening Post while Wilson tinkered away on Smile. So ever-present was Siegel that Wilson would sometimes turn to him for advice.42 One particular piece of advice Siegel gave Wilson was to release “Surf‟s Up,” the beautiful song that would have been the centerpiece of Smile, just as Wilson performed it on “Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution.”43 Wilson made his excuses, claiming his voice wasn‟t as good as it needed to be
during the performance. “Well whatever, do it over again, but just concentrate on that and release it as a single and you will be hipper than the Beatles,” Siegel told him.44 “It was really good advice, but in retrospect they were never going to let him do it,”
Siegel said. “The Beach Boys weren‟t going to let him do it, Capitol wasn‟t going to let him do it, nobody was going to let him do it. His own manager was going to plead with him to not do it.”45
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL As everyone familiar with the legend knows, Smile was eventually scrapped. There were two reasons for this, Siegel says. The first was that Wilson “just wasn‟t mature enough as a musician. He‟d exceeded his abilities at the time.” The second reason was “pretty obvious,” Siegel said. “No-one around him would let him do it. Mike Love‟s personal style, his career, his wealth, everything depended on „Ba-ba-ba-bar-bar-Barbra-Ann,‟ and he was perfectly content to continue in that way.”46 Not only was Smile scrapped, but the Saturday Evening Post rejected Siegel‟s story. His editor said it wasn‟t “objective” enough.47 Siegel says the people at the Post couldn‟t believe the story actually treated Wilson and his music with with respect. How could anyone take the Beach Boys seriously?48 Additionally, it turned out the magazine‟s editorial board had never approved the assignment in the first place, and Siegel was out $1,500 in expenses.49 Things weren‟t a complete loss for Siegel though. At one of the recording sessions he
met Chrissie Jolly, who would become his second wife and with whom he would have his daughter, Faera. “She is one of those perfect blonde girls you find mostly in California,” Siegel 50
wrote later. “She was a hippie and a flower child before any of that had a name.”
And while the Saturday Evening Post had rejected the story, Siegel was named editor-in-chief of the new magazine, Cheetah, and in October 1967, “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!” appeared in its inaugural issue. Soon, the cult of Smile was born. “My opinion about it,” Siegel said, “is that if it weren‟t for me, and if it weren‟t for that
story, the most likely event is that all these tracks would have been forgotten.”51
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL “There‟s plenty involved in the myth making,” Evan Ratliff, founder and editor of The
Atavist said, but he thinks it‟s completely legitimate to believe that Siegel‟s story laid the foundation.52 When Brian Wilson released his solo-version of Smile in 2004, David Leaf wrote in the linear notes that Siegel‟s story “just might be the touchstone story in the creation of the Smile fantasia.”53 In Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece, Domenic Priore notes that Siegel‟s original writing about the instrumental “Mrs. O‟Leary‟s Cow” whetted the public‟s
appetite for the song before the Wilson Wilson solo-version was released in 2004. Unlike so many other tracks from Smile that appeared over the years in various forms, “Mrs. O‟Leary‟s Cow” never received an official release until 2004. As such, it was Siegel‟s reporting that let people know
about a piece of music so powerful, that Brian Wilson was afraid it was causing actual fires to break out.54 Certainly, everyone who has tried to tell the story of Smile has had to use “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!” as the founding text. In his two-part, 1971 article on the Beach Boys for Rolling Stone, Tom Nolan quoted Siegel, quoting Brian Wilson, in an effort to explain the
meaning of the song “Surf‟s Up,”55 and Nick Kent, in his section on Brian Wilson included in The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music, directly quotes from Siegel‟s story to describe
Wilson‟s paranoid belief that Phil Spector was “out to get him.”56 So, if you‟re looking for someone to blame because you spent nearly $150 on The Smile Sessions Box Set , you may have found your man.
**********
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL As evident by the new e-book release, the story lived on, but Cheetah magazine, and -in-chief, did not. Siegel‟s time as editor -in-chief, Despite the magazine folding, the following years were perhaps the most fruitful of his h is career. 1970 saw the the publication of “Déjà Vu” in Esquire and “Family Secrets” in the New American Review.
writer. I was really respected respected as a writer, because the New “I was in demand as a writer. American Review was classier than the New Yorker ,” ,” Siegel said. “If you published in the New
important.” American Review, you were a serious writer. You were important.
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In 1971, Siegel published “Midnight in Babylon” in Rolling Stone. “No-one ever wrote a
story like „Midnight in Babylon‟ and then actually got it published,” he said.58 The story was a profile of James Taylor, though we learn as much about Siegel as we do about the stated subject. Joni Mitchell, James Taylor‟s girlfriend at the time, is quoted in the piece as saying, “Jules is an absolute egomaniac.” The response comes from Girard Landry, a friend friend of Siegel‟s. “Yes,” Landry said, “but he‟s so honest about it.”59 Despite this, the story does manage to show just how mysterious and truly odd Sweet Baby James was once upon a time. Siegel even managed to make him sound kind of interesting. interesting. The release of Siegel‟s first book, Record , by Rolling Stone‟s Straight Arrow Books, followed in 1972. The book was a collection of Siegel‟s more autobiographical work to date. “Family Secrets,” “Déjà Vu,” “The Big Beat,” “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!” and “Midnight in
Babylon,” were all included. Also included, between between the stories, stories, was the start of Siegel‟s reintroduction to calligraphy, and his first foray into book art. “I found myself one day, just kind of at the end of things, and I really didn‟t know what
to do with myself and I went and bought a journal,” he explained. At first, he wrote in in the
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL journal in his own, usual, handwriting. A few days later, he took acid. He picked up Chrissie‟s Chrissie‟s watercolors, and his repressed love and skill for art came flooding back. With this in mind he returned to his journal. 60 “I went out and bought myself some calligraphy pens and I started teaching myself
calligraphy again,” he said. His first introduction to calligraphy had come as a child when his father gave him a Webster’s College Dictionary with a list of typefaces in the back. He‟d been fascinated by these typefaces, and he soon found that he could approximate the typefaces fairly well with pen and ink.61 As an adult, his calligraphic writing represented a break through. “I realized, why don‟t I just publish this?” he said. “It was so obvious. Just the appearance of my handwriting itself told more of what I was thinking than the words themselves were portraying or conveying.”62 While his calligraphy wasn‟t the main focus in Record , it was the sole focus in Memoir , his 1975 handwritten novel that was published in a limited run of 350. Since, he has had his book art pieces, including Memoir , displayed in the Artists Book Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.63 There may have been a missed opportunity during this time however. While Siegel and Chrissie were living in a Marin County commune called the Chinese House, he was working on a story for Rolling Stone about dope dealing in Marin County, California. California. The story was taking longer to write than he originally hoped, and when it was completed, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner didn‟t like it. “He wanted a story about tough dope dealers with guns,” Siegel said. said. That‟s not what the story was about and that was the end of their relationship. “If I had
maintained a better relationship with Jann Wenner,” he said, “I probably would have been as pub lish anything that I wrote.”64 famous as Hunter Thompson, because he wanted to publish
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL His relationship with Playboy, however, flourished during this time. “West of Eden,” his story about communal living appeared in the magazine in 1970. “Who is Thomas Pynchon and Why is He Taking Off with My Wife,” appeared in 1977 and finally, “Why “Wh y Things Don‟t Work”
was published in 1982. He also also began a relationship relationship with Penthouse, where he created the concept for the magazine‟s popular “Dreams & Diversions” section.65 “Our job was to make those nude pictures respectable,” he said of himself and others who wrote at that time for 66
Playboy and Penthouse. “I was the piano player in the brothel. ”
By the end of the 197 0s, Siegel‟s marriage to Chrissie was over. Theirs had been a
difficult relationship in the final years, punctuated b y Chrissie‟s affair with Thomas Pynchon , which Siegel wrote about in his article about Pynchon for Playboy, as well as Siegel‟s infidelities and refusal to maintain an upper-middle-class upper-middle-class lifestyle. Near the end of the relationship, relationship, Siegel asked Chrissie why she hated him. “Because I married a man in a Brooks Brothers suit who was writing for the Saturday Evening Post ,” she replied, “and here I am living in the jungles of Mexico with a worried baby and a crazy hippie artist.”67 They had been living in Mexico for a time, but after this comment, Siegel brought Chrissie and Faera back to America. America. He would soon return south of the border. In 1977, Siegel met Anita Brown, the woman who would become his third third wife. He was 41 and she was 2368 and he was incredibly in love. It was during this time time that he experienced what he describes as one of the greatest moments of his life. He was walking down the street in Westwood, California with Anita. A man walking past turned to his female female companion and said to her, “That‟s Jules Siegel!” “I would have paid him $100,000 to say that at that point,” Siegel told me.69 He didn‟t — Jules have to pay for it — Jules Siegel was with the love of his life, and he was famous. In 1981, he
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL and Anita were married. That year, Anita gave birth to their first son, Eli, Eli, while they were living in Washington. In December 1981, when Eli was six weeks old, they moved moved to Mexico.70 ********** — The Human Robot Essays on the Emotional Effects of Industrialism was the book Siegel
had rejected sight unseen in the early 1980s. It had been commissioned commissioned by Playboy, which had left the book business before he finished. The contract was sold to Putnam, and soon cancelled after they claimed he hadn‟t submitted it to them by their deadline. Putnam apparently did this to
all the Playboy Press writers.71 From then on, Siegel was, at least professionally speaking, a graphic designer. “My graphic design was how we survived,”72 he said of the time in Mexico in the early 1980s when he decided to no longer write for for publication. Noting that the new hotels that were were springing up in Cancun would mean more graphic design work for Siegel, Anita pushed for a move that would prove permanent in 1983.73 It was there in 1984 that Anita gave birth to their second son, Jesse.74 As a graphic designer, Siegel was an early user of the personal computer. When he first connected to the Internet in the late 1990s, he did what most people do when they first go online: he searched for himself. himself. What he found was he‟d become a “sub-set of the Thomas Pynchon industry,” because of his 1977 article about his former friend.75 Out of this came the book Manufacturing. In the book, Siegel Siegel writes Lineland , published in 1997 by Intangible Assets Manufacturing. about his experience on the Internet‟s Thomas Pynchon message boards. In the 21st century, he self-published Mad Laughter: Fragments of a Life in Progress. In any ways, Mad Laughter is Record 2.0, as it follows his life from birth to the present day. He even included “Family
Secrets,” the story that shed so much light on whom he is and where he comes from.
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THE LONG STRANGE TRIP OF JULES SIEGEL S IEGEL ********** Asking a 76-year-old man, “What‟s next?” might seem strange, but that assumes you‟re not speaking with Jules Siegel. Siegel thinks “Cops and Robbers,” the story he was working on when his relationship with Jann Wenner went sour, could be perfect as an e-book, and he may pursue it.76 He plans on publishing a book on book art, and should know by the end of 2011 whether or not it has been accepted by a publisher. If it isn‟t isn‟t accepted, he will do what he did with Mad Laughter and publish it himself.
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Finally, he plans to produce a limited edition of Mad Mad Laughter , to be bound in Mexican leather and his own jeans. The limited edition will be available for $10,000 and will come with with subsidiary rights to the book. Basically, it will be an investment, as much as a collector‟s item. Get your checkbooks ready.78 Jules Siegel‟s trip has been a long one, and at times it has been an unconventional one. It
has had highs and lows and has brought him from the heights of the Saturday Evening Post to the lows of sight unseen rejections. Through it all, a passion for writing has endured. “Why I 79
continue to write, I have absolutely no idea,” he told me.
“It‟s an obsession,” was the closest he came to a conclusion.80 That‟s reason enough. 1
Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. Ibid . 3 Ratliff, Evan. Phone interview. interview. 14 Nov. 2011. 4 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 4 Nov. 2011. 5 Siegel, Jules. “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God: Brian Wilson‟s Tortured Effort to Finish „Smile.‟” RollingStone.com. 3 Nov. 2011.
. h-smile-20111103>. 6 “Who is Jules Siegel?” Book@rts. . 7 Biely, Ales. “Why is the Russia White?” Pravapis.org. . 8 Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 13. 9 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 2
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Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 13. Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan: Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Pg. 230. 230. 12 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 214 13 Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 18. 14 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 23-25. 15 Francisco: Straight Arrow Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 22-23. Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: 16 Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 23. 17 Ibid. 18 Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 29. 19 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 20 Ibid. 21 Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 24. 22 Ibid. 23 “Who is Jules Siegel?” Book@rts. . 24 Ibid. 25 Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, Books, 1972. Pg. 27-28. 26 Siegel, Jules. “Family Secrets.” Record. San Francisco: Francisco: Straight Straight Arrow Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 30. 27 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 23. 28 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 29 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 39. 30 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 88. 35 Siegel, Jules. Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 36 Ibid. 37 Siegel, Jules. Jules. “Brian Wilson‟s „Smile.‟” The Blacklisted Blacklisted Journalist. 1 Apr. 2004. . /column104d.html>. 38 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid. 41 Siegel, Jules. Jules. “Midnight in Babylon.” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 211. 211. 42 Siegel, Jules, in conversation with with The Atavist. “Afterword.” “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!: Brian Wilson‟s Epic Struggle to Complete Smile, the lost Beach Boys Classic. The Atavist, Atavist, Issue No. 8. 2011. 43 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid. 47 Siegel, Jules. “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 91. 48 Siegel, Jules, in conversation with with The Atavist. “Afterword.” “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!: Brian Wilson‟s Epic Struggle to Complete Smile, the lost Beach Boys Classic. The Atavist, Atavist, Issue No. 8. 2011. 49 Ibid. 50 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 94. 51 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 52 Ratliff, Evan. Phone interview. 14 Nov. 2011. 53 “David Leaf. “Linear Notes.” Brian Wilson Presents: Smile. Smile. Nonesuch, 2004. 54 Pirore, Domenic. Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson‟s Lost Masterpiece. New York: York: Bobcat Books, 2007. Pg. 83-84. 11
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Nolan, Tom. “The Beach Boys: A California Saga. Part One: Mr. Everything.” Rolling Stone. 28 Oct. 1971. Pg. 39. 56 Kent, Nick. The Dark Stuff: Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music. Music. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2002. Pg. 40-41. 57 Ibid. 58 Ibid. 59 Siegel, Jules. “Midnight in Babylon.” Record. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972. Pg. 211. 211. Pg. 218. 218. 60 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 61 Ibid. 62 Ibid. 63 “Who is Jules Siegel?” Book@rts. . 64 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 65 “Who is Jules Siegel?” Book@rts. . 66 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 67 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 217. 68 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 237. 69 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 70 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 266. 71 Siegel, Jules and Christine Wexler, et al. Lindland: Mortality and Mercy on the Internet‟s [email protected] Discussion List. List. Philadelphia: Intangible Assets Manufacturing, Manufacturing, 1997. Pg. XI. 72 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 73 Siegel, Jules. Mad Laughter: Fragments Fragments of a Life in Progress. Cancun: The Communications Communications Company, 2010. Pg. 283. 74 “Who is Jules Siegel?” Book@rts. . 75 Siegel, Jules and Christine Wexler, et al. Lindland: Mortality and Mercy on the Internet‟s [email protected] Discussion Discussion List. Philadelphia: Intangible Assets Assets Manufacturing, Manufacturing, 1997. Pg. 4. 76 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 4 Nov. 2011. 77 Ibid. 78 Ibid. 79 Siegel, Jules. Phone interview. 28 Oct. 2011. 80 Ibid.
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