at the backer’s audition for a new Broadway-hopeful show called
Uprise
.
“A slightly odd couple of artists, who claimed to have written a new musical, a new chapter to
Hair
, spiritually speaking,” says Linhart of the playwrights. “Kirk Newrock, who is famous for doing strange often avant garde improvisational group music, with audiences performing. And his partner, Jill—I think it was Jill Gorham, a lady who wore shadesday and night, even though she claimed to be totally straight. They had written a musical called
Uprise
, and it was really quite good. In a nutshell, it was two couples: the black couple and the white couple; of course, they all stayed with their own kind. And they were activistic, and eventually they got so many kids and disenfranchised street people behind them, and everything, that it became almost its own city. And eventually what happens in the end is the government comes and builds a fence. They think it’s to separate them from the people they don’t like, and eventually they realized that they have been fenced in, and they’re in this big cage, and they’re climbing up the wall” ( 37 ).
“Anyhow, there was a need for there to be white leads and black leads, male and female. It was kind of in the style of the old-styled musicals, but with this almost kind of horror movie twinge, [like]
Rocky Horror Show
. . . . Bette was performing at the Baths. I was hired to sing the two male leads at the backer’s auditions, including our big one, [which] would be for David Merrick. . . . I rehearsed in private with the two writers, learning just the male part of the song, and Kirk squeaking out the female things, while I waited to meet the female who had been picked to do the backer’s audition with me—a lady who they said was really dynamic, and would be able to do both the white female and the black female, in the backer’s audition. We actually wouldn’t get paid for anything, but David Merrick would see us singing the things first, and of course, and we would be first choice for the roles” ( 37 ).
“After I spent quite a few weeks working on this—and personally I loved the music. . . . I was anxious to meet this great lady who had apparently played a supporting role in
Fiddler on the Roof
, and was some sort of a wild lady. One afternoon, when it was time to meet her, and us to sing these songs together for the first time, I came to the rehearsal and I brought my acoustic guitar, so when I met her . . . When I met a new female—I wanted to show people what I did right away” ( 37 ).
So, he serenaded her with his song “Friends,” right then and there. Recalls Buzzy, “And she said, ‘That’s great!’ Either on that day, or very shortly thereafter, she asked me if she could sing that song at her shows at the Continental Baths; on Fridays and Saturday evenings she was doing a midnight show” ( 37 ).
According to Moogy Klingman, “Ultimately, it became Bette’s theme song early on. Before her first album, it caught on as her opening andclosing number—and just innocently became her theme song, and was just an overnight sensation” ( 36 ).
Buzzy Linhart and Bette had an instant friendship. After she told him about her gig at the Continental Baths, Linhart said that he could sure use a paying gig. “I was so hungry, and so underpaid and starving—even though I was doing gigs—that I asked her if she could possibly get me a gig at the Baths to make some money. So she got me a gig to sing at the buffet on Sunday afternoons as a soloist” ( 37 ).
He recalls the audition at the Continental Baths that day: “She introduced me to these people. It was a weekday afternoon, and there were people cleaning up the club around me. And I sang a couple of songs to them, and they said, ‘Oh, that’s great’ ” ( 37 ). With that, he landed the brunch job at the Baths.
At the time, Bette was dating a drummer by the name of Luther. According to Linhart, “Luther
Uprise
.
“A slightly odd couple of artists, who claimed to have written a new musical, a new chapter to
Hair
, spiritually speaking,” says Linhart of the playwrights. “Kirk Newrock, who is famous for doing strange often avant garde improvisational group music, with audiences performing. And his partner, Jill—I think it was Jill Gorham, a lady who wore shadesday and night, even though she claimed to be totally straight. They had written a musical called
Uprise
, and it was really quite good. In a nutshell, it was two couples: the black couple and the white couple; of course, they all stayed with their own kind. And they were activistic, and eventually they got so many kids and disenfranchised street people behind them, and everything, that it became almost its own city. And eventually what happens in the end is the government comes and builds a fence. They think it’s to separate them from the people they don’t like, and eventually they realized that they have been fenced in, and they’re in this big cage, and they’re climbing up the wall” ( 37 ).
“Anyhow, there was a need for there to be white leads and black leads, male and female. It was kind of in the style of the old-styled musicals, but with this almost kind of horror movie twinge, [like]
Rocky Horror Show
. . . . Bette was performing at the Baths. I was hired to sing the two male leads at the backer’s auditions, including our big one, [which] would be for David Merrick. . . . I rehearsed in private with the two writers, learning just the male part of the song, and Kirk squeaking out the female things, while I waited to meet the female who had been picked to do the backer’s audition with me—a lady who they said was really dynamic, and would be able to do both the white female and the black female, in the backer’s audition. We actually wouldn’t get paid for anything, but David Merrick would see us singing the things first, and of course, and we would be first choice for the roles” ( 37 ).
“After I spent quite a few weeks working on this—and personally I loved the music. . . . I was anxious to meet this great lady who had apparently played a supporting role in
Fiddler on the Roof
, and was some sort of a wild lady. One afternoon, when it was time to meet her, and us to sing these songs together for the first time, I came to the rehearsal and I brought my acoustic guitar, so when I met her . . . When I met a new female—I wanted to show people what I did right away” ( 37 ).
So, he serenaded her with his song “Friends,” right then and there. Recalls Buzzy, “And she said, ‘That’s great!’ Either on that day, or very shortly thereafter, she asked me if she could sing that song at her shows at the Continental Baths; on Fridays and Saturday evenings she was doing a midnight show” ( 37 ).
According to Moogy Klingman, “Ultimately, it became Bette’s theme song early on. Before her first album, it caught on as her opening andclosing number—and just innocently became her theme song, and was just an overnight sensation” ( 36 ).
Buzzy Linhart and Bette had an instant friendship. After she told him about her gig at the Continental Baths, Linhart said that he could sure use a paying gig. “I was so hungry, and so underpaid and starving—even though I was doing gigs—that I asked her if she could possibly get me a gig at the Baths to make some money. So she got me a gig to sing at the buffet on Sunday afternoons as a soloist” ( 37 ).
He recalls the audition at the Continental Baths that day: “She introduced me to these people. It was a weekday afternoon, and there were people cleaning up the club around me. And I sang a couple of songs to them, and they said, ‘Oh, that’s great’ ” ( 37 ). With that, he landed the brunch job at the Baths.
At the time, Bette was dating a drummer by the name of Luther. According to Linhart, “Luther
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