herb cohen December 30, 1932 - March 16, 2010
Herb Cohen was the manager of Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention. He co-owned the DiscReet record label with Zappa. Herb Cohen contributed cash register noises to the second Mothers Of Invention album. He passed away at the age of 77, March 16, 2010.
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2 | the
mothers of invention: absolutely
free
(1967, lp,usa, verve) |
random notes
Herb Cohen worked With: Screamin' Jay Hawkins, George Duke, Alice Cooper, Tim Buckley, Lenny Bruce, Theodore Bikel.
From:
Patrick Neve (splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu)
OK, so Herb's early involvement with the Mothers is pretty well documented in
the various books about Frank. But what seems to be missing, or maybe I just missed it, is
exactly what were the particulars of the lawsuit between Frank and Herb?
It was around '75, was it not? I
thought it involved ownership of masters? Which album? Bat
Chain Puller? Who sued who? Who
won? I've heard it described as
"ugly", but beyond that I know nothing.
More importantly, what's Herb been up to since then?
I've got a Lowell George & The Factory CD produced by him in 1993,
for Bizarre/ Straight records, no less, so he seems to be musically active to
some degree. The 1989 CD of Capt. Beefhearts (magnum opus) Lick My Decals Off,
Baby was also a Bizarre/ Straight production, distributed by Rhino. So what's the deal with Herb, those of you in the know?
RE: why the breakup?
From:
Andy Hollinden (ahollind@iupui.edu)
As
I understand it, it all came down to money and how it was used. Howard Kaylan
told me (I got to spend an afternoon with him last fall) that what started it
all was that Frank found out that Herbie was "double dipping." It
seems that his contract with Frank stated that
he got a percentage of Frank's earnings, which is perfectly normal. Now, in
addition to being Frank's manager, Herbie was also his partner in DiscReet
Records. Frank was pissed when he found that Herb was taking the same percentage
of his earnings that came into DiscReet, not just the live performance earnings.
So, in essence, Herb was skimming the top off of Frank's earnings in the
business where they were co-owners. Technically, I gather that Herb was not
doing anything illegal here; his contract did say he was entitled to a
percentage of Frank's earnings. It just should have been rewritten when they
became partners in the label.
Frank
eventually charged that Herb and his lawyer brother, Mutt Cohen, were delinquent
in paying to him his DiscReet earnings and using the money to pay for the
production of Captain Beefheart's Bat Chain Puller album. That album in its
original version has never seen the light of day. Frank also claimed that Cohen
was using DiscReet money to take vacations, hence "Mo 'n Herb's
Vacation." Herb claimed that DiscReet had paid Zappa all the money due to
him. Herb was pissed when Zappa took the Zoot Allures album directly to Warner
Bros, bypassing DiscReet entirely (that album came out ont he Warner Bros.
label). Herb, I believe, sued Zappa and Warner Bros. for this.
I
don't know the details of their lawsuit; whether or not it went to court or was
settled in whatever manner. Like I said, when I called him, he just shut me down
saying, "Why bother? It's a waste of my time" and shit like that.
Totally unwilling to tell his side.
Herb Cohen is still managing George Duke.
From:
Patrick Neve (splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu)
There is another Herb Cohen, who is one of the worlds' leading negotiators.
He's talked terrorists out of their hostages, and has since taken up the
safer profession of writing books and doing seminars. Here is whom I believe to
be the "other" Herb Cohen:
http://www.leadingauthorities.com/search/biography.cfm/s/3159.htm
As closely linked to terrorist negotiations as artist management is, it would
appear to be an unrelated practicioner. Though
with a book title like "You Can Negotiate Anything", it could
certainly follow that it was the autobiography of a rock & roll manager.
From:
TFaulconer (tfaulconer@aol.com)
The Cohens are now involved with a new label - Manifesto Records.
As a matter of fact, if you check out their web site: http://www.manifesto.com/
you'll find their catalog and a short history of the label that begins:
"Our label began as Bizarre Records (and its companion label, Straight
Records) in 1968, as a partnership between rock manager Herb Cohen and Frank
Zappa. Over the next several years, Bizarre signed artists such as Alice Cooper,
Tim Buckley, Captain Beefheart, Ted Nugent, Wild Man Fischer, The GTOs, Ruben
& The Jets, and others. Later, a third label, Discreet, was added, and the
labels released albums until 1975, mainly through Warner Bros. Records
distribution."
Also, if you check out their catalog, you'll find that several releases
originally released on Bizarre/Straight/DiscReet back in the 70's and recently
in the early '90's are now available on their Manifesto label (Tim Buckley and
Tom Waits, for example...)
From:
Zootorific (zootorific@aol.com)
Evan is Herb's nephew.
From: "A.Adriaanse" (antal@cidanka.nl)
Oh, and Herb Cohen is still managing George Duke (at least, July 10 1999 he
still was.) Co de Kloet talked to him at North Sea Jazz. And to George.
Discography:
1967 Mothers of Invention- Absolutely Free (cash register on "America Drinks & Goes Home")
1967 Sandy Hurvitz- Sandy's Album Is Here At Last! (Production Supervisor)
1968 Wild Man Fischer- An Evening With Wild Man Fischer (Business Production)
1969 Jeff Simmons- Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up
1969 Jerry Yester/Judy Henske- Farewell Aldebaran (executive producer)
1969 Alice Cooper- Live at the Whisky, 1969 (Producer)
1970 Alice Cooper- Easy Action (Executive Producer)
1970 Lord Buckley- A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat (Excecutive Producer)
1973 Ruben and the Jets- For Real! (Business, Burritos)
1989 Lenny Bruce- Berkeley Concert (Producer)
1991 Screamin' Jay Hawkins- Black Music for White People (Executive Producer)
1993 Screamin' Jay Hawkins- Stone Crazy (Executive Producer)
1993 George Duke- Muir Woods Suite (Producer)
1993 Lowell George & The Factory- Lightning Rod Man
1994 Tim Buckley- Live at the Troubadour 1969 (Producer)
2000 Little Feat- Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years Of Little Feat
Filmography:
1971 Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (producer)
2010 03 19
Herb Cohen, the tough, litigious manager
and label operator who introduced such notables as the Mothers of Invention and
Tom Waits during the '60s and '70s, died Tuesday of unknown causes in Napa,
Calif. He was 77.
After beginning his professional career
as an L.A. club booker and operator, Cohen branched into management in the
mid-'60s. His biggest clients were Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, the outre
band that became a top attraction in venues on the Sunset Strip.
After the Mothers released their initial
albums on Verve, Cohen and Zappa established their own imprints, Straight,
Bizarre and Discreet. The labels issued material by the Mothers and such
off-the-wall, Zappa-produced L.A. acts as Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band,
groupie unit the G.T.O.'s and itinerant songsmith Wild Man Fischer, as well as
singer-songwriter Tim Buckley, hard rock unit Alice Cooper and comic Lenny
Bruce. The partners' association collapsed amid an exchange of lawsuits in 1976.
Cohen also handled beat-styled
singer-songwriter Waits, who secured a contract with David Geffen's Asylum
Records in 1972