Bernie Finkelstein - True North: A Life Inside the Music Business

Copyright 2012 by Bernie Finkelstein

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency is an infringement of the copyright law.

L IBRARY AND A RCHIVES C ANADA C ATALOGUING IN P UBLICATION

Finkelstein, Bernie
True North : a life inside the music business / Bernie Finkelstein.

eISBN: 978-0-7710-4794-7

1. Finkelstein, Bernie. 2. Concert agents Canada Biography. 3. Sound recording executives and producers Canada Biography. 4. True North Records History. 5. Record labels Canada History. I. Title.

ML 429. F 499 A 3 2012 781.64092 C 2011-904432-3

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

Published simultaneously in the United States of America by McClelland & Stewart Ltd., P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901

Library of Congress Control Number: S2011931121

Cover photo courtesy of the author.

McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
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v3.1

To my Mom and Dad

FOREWORD
by Murray McLauchlan

A s I write this, I am sixty-three years old. I am still making records. I am still performing, both as a solo act and with a band called Lunch at Allens. Mostly it is in nice theatres or good festivals. It is considered miraculous in this country to be making the music you want under your own terms and to have been doing it as long as I have and to be able to make a living at it while remaining in your own country. It has something to do with being good at it. It has a lot to do with the guy who wrote this book.

This is a self-penned biography and so it is up to Bernie to tell his own story in his own way. But in spite of his fearsome reputation for planting himself in peoples offices and hectoring them until he gets what he wants, he has always been better at blowing other peoples horns than his own. Compliments leave him speechless. So this is in some ways a book that alludes to things and that in its judgments of people and situations tends towards a kindly diplomacy. Of course, many of the people in it are still alive and kicking, as well as still working in the music industry (how we all used to hate that term), so some reticence about shooting first and asking questions later is understandable.

If this was the United States, Bernie would be revered in the same way as Ahmet Ertegun or Sam Phillips are. He should be! But this is Canada, after all, and we dont do that. Generally you have to succeed somewhere else in order to earn your star on the walk of fame in this funny little country.

Curiously enough, Bernie has succeeded elsewhere, but he is still underappreciated as one of the founders and driving forces of a cultural movement that became an industry. Go figure. Perhaps it was something he said. He does point out rather eloquently that elements in the music industry can be somewhat small and more than a little vindictive.

What is important is this: In a world of bean counters, Bernie has always shone brightly as a pure music man. Thats why I would put him in the same league as those other guys I mentioned. He is the most passionate appreciator of what Keith Richards calls the real shit that I have ever met. I think that is why he has been able to do what he has done in the face of indifference and opposition. When he was starting out, he had no idea what he was doing and was thrown back on that passion. It gave him a drive to doggedly outgun anyone who got in his way and to make them believe that whatever he was representing was the single most important thing to ever be created in human history.

What was it like to be an artist and work with Bernie? In the early days we were like a merry band of outlaws making up the rules as we went along. Bernie had a tremendous respect for the freedom that people needed to create the work that was in them. He had a very open mind about social matters and a revolutionarys disposition. That was what allowed him to embrace the political leanings of Cockburn, the outrageousness of Rough Trade, and my bullheadedness, all at the same time. He went at the world on our behalf with everything he had. We also had a hell of a lot of fun.

On a more serious note, we all came up at a time of great change, during a wave of cultural nationalism that coincided with the advent of a new medium (FM radio). Bernie read the tea leaves and understood better than anyone else the changes that were taking place. I still remember us talking to Pierre Juneau at LHibou coffee house in Ottawa in those days. Bernie expressed great frustration that the art being produced, no matter its quality, was destined for the trash, just because it was homegrown. That was the climate then, but you could tell he categorically refused to accept it.

Its hard to imagine the mountains Bernie moved to get True North Records up and running and built into one of the most progressive independent labels in the world, but move them he did!

For me? Bernie was a champion; a guy who stuck up for you. In the cocoon of True North and the management company I was happily shielded from negative opinion and lived in a climate of optimism that allowed me to take chances with my art, which I might not have been able to do under different circumstances. Do I regret coming back from New York to join up with him? Not for one second!

Bernie convinced people that what I had to offer was important, and to this day there seem to be a lot of people who remain so convinced.

I read this book in a single night at the cottage. I thought that was a good sign.

Yes, there are references to sex, drugs, and rock n roll, but Bernie also takes a good hard look at how we view our artists, as well as at the institutions weve created that control our culture.

Bernie and I remain close friends. We get together for a dinner or a lunch a couple of times a month. I always joke that ceasing to work with him probably saved our friendship, and I suppose many a true word has been said in jest. Bernie was always drawn to the idea of getting hits. In his view, the most important thing was plugging a song into that classic marriage of radio and the record business, and then motivating the promotions people to drive the project home, internationally, but especially in the U.S.A. Thats why Bernie got on so well with guys like Walter Yetnikoff, Bill Graham, and Donnie and Jimmy Ienner. In his heart, he really was one of them, and they accepted him as such. If he couldnt make the record happen, he took it hard and he took it personally.