| And Party Every Day: The Inside Story Of Casablanca Records |  | Authors: Larry Harris, Curt Gooch, Jeff Suhs
Publisher: Backbeat
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
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Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 36,457
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 310
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0879309822
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.64097309047
EAN: 9780879309824
ASIN: 0879309822
Publication Date: October 6, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Now it can be told! The true, behind-the-scenes story of Casablanca Records, from an eyewitness to the excess and insanity. Casablanca was not a product of the 1970s, it was the 1970s. From 1974 to 1980, the landscape of American culture was a banquet of hedonism and self-indulgence, and no person or company in that era was more emblematic of the times than Casablanca Records and its magnetic founder, Neil Bogart. From his daring first signing of KISS, through the discovery and superstardom of Donna Summer, the Village People, and funk master George Clinton and his circus of freaks, Parliament Funkadelic, to the descent into the manic world of disco, this book charts Bogart's meteoric success and eventual collapse under the weight of uncontrolled ego and hype. It is a compelling tale of ambition, greed, excess, and some of the era's biggest music acts.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
 Highly Recommended October 28, 2009
E. Dvorin
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
I heard about AND PARTY EVERY DAY earlier this year and have been waiting for it ever since. I got my copy the other day and was blown away. I had some high expectations and they were all surpassed ...by a mile.
The book is full of stories about Casablanca's wild parties (the money and drugs flying around the place were just amazing...how did these guys not get arrested?) and their very high profile acts like Donna Summer, The Village People, and Kiss. I thought I knew a lot about Casablanca Records, but I didn't. The book is very well written and even though it's full of details, it's very easy to read, and very hard to put down.
I enjoyed learning about the business side of the music industry, but I was just adddicted to the feeling it gives you of being right there when it was all happening. You feel transported into the 1970s and I was rooting for Neil Bogart the whole way through and found myself thrilled when the label broke through and cringing at all their mistakes.
I've always been a big fan of the 1970s and have read a ton of books and articles about it, but AND PARTY EVERY DAY is the first time I've felt like I was actually there. Highly recommended.
The Party October 31, 2009
Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
No one in this book gets out alive, or so it seems, for Larry Harris and his co-writers have the scoop on everyone whether high or low, and most of them were quite high during the Casablanca years.
From a business point of view, the revelations here are mainly about hos the company never was successful, despite a milliondollar promo campaign and a lot of money juggling on Harris' part. he was ordered to cook the sales figures for PolyGram to show many more sales of Casablanca products than actually occurred; this despite the fact that the returns would be coming in constantly to contradict his lies. Harris seems to think this is a standard business practice, but for his sake I hope the statute of limitations on fraud will prevent them from carting his butt to hail like Bernie Madoff! Neil Bogart characterized the Casablanca years as a time of "profitless prosperity," and that seems apt.
I enjoyed hearing how a group of Brooklyn-born salesmen with great ears for what would sell turned the industry on its ear by making a commitment to disco, or all things. The discovery of Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer is an amazing story, but even the flops of Casablanca have their charm. Take for example the signing of "Stallion." Ever heard of them? They were going to be Casablanca's answer to the Eagles, but when Harris asked their Svengali to make them sound more like the Eagles, he should have known right away it wasn't going to fly, since the producer genuinely puzzled, asked, "Who are the Eagles"?
The Village People and Kiss are the other big names here, but every page has a good story about someone, usually revolving around "blow." "Blow" allowed Larry Harris, one of the plainest men in show business, to live the Hugh Hefner lifestyle with a revolving cast of available and beautiful Hollywood starlets. Thus he was living every man's dream, and never had to look at a mirror throughout the entire 70s. Go, Larry, go!
"And Party Every Day" - a witty and wild ride! October 22, 2009
N. Watson
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a thoroughly entertaining and informative book for anyone interested in the music business of the 70s; the flamboyance, the excesses, the daring risk-taking, and the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the music charts. Casablanca Records was at the epicenter of the disco scene and author Larry Harris was at the epicenter of Casablanca; he dishes in juicy detail about all aspects of Casablanca's rise and fall. What a fun and fast-paced story, and the photos are epic; reading it is like being at the party!
Rocking The Casbah February 10, 2010
Tim Brough (Springfield, PA United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you were into popular music in the seventies, you knew Casablanca. Started in 1973 by Neil Bogart, Casablanca became the house of Disco and the home of KISS. They also became synonymous with the drug fueled excesses of the seventies and the triumph of image over substance, despite the fact that the label delivered some of the best music of the decade. Hell, Casablanca was the seventies for many in the music world. Head Honcho Neil Bogart was a talent finder extraordinaire and a showman on a level with PT Barnum. No claim was too exaggerated and no gesture was too grandiose. It was once said that he would spend five dollars to show one dollar in profit, and when Casablanca ultimately fell under its own weight, a certain magic of the music industry evaporated with it. Author Larry Harris worked at Buddah/Kama Sutra Records in the summer of 1971, and in 1973 joined his cousin Neil Bogart in founding Casablanca Records. He saw firsthand the carnival of wilding that was Casablanca, and it's his first hand story that fuels "And Party Every Day."
While there are plenty of anecdotal stories about Casablanca's biggest stars, like initial signing Kiss and superstars Donna Summer and The Village People, the bulk of "And Party Every Day" focuses on how a young Neil Bogart took his idea for an artist driven record company and built his empire from the ground up. Larry starts the story with a reminiscence of being at Woodstock and realizing he's found his place in the world, then joining Neil in his dream. Along the way the two of them make millions of dollars, spend even more, give the world Kiss, Parliament, Angel and cover the globe with Disco.
But there's also the seamier side of egos, drugs, industry politics and manipulations. The decision to release the four solo albums by the members of Kiss and ship over a million copies of each that started the beginning of the end of Casablanca and the behind the scenes battles that caused it. The fudging of figures and the turf wars. Greed, excess and flamboyance. The world of Casablanca Records and Filmworks was both magic and the crazy tale of the man behind the curtain, and Harris does a terrific job in making it readable. Casablanca not only was a record and entertainment company, it was a universe unto itself. "And Party Every Day" takes you on a time machine when music people not only made and sold the music, they sold the dream along with it. It makes me miss the dream, miss the people that built it, makes me wish they were my friends. And I wasn't even there.
Creative and fun snapshot of the legendary Casablanca Records October 12, 2009
Tim McPhate (California)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A must-have for the KISS book library, or any library heavy on music and entertainment books.
While KISS is frequently mentioned in the text, this is about Neil Bogart, a true record industry pioneer and legend, and the formation/evolution of Casablanca and its philosophy of "perception is reality" -- which funnily embodies a lot about KISS.
The book is essentially Larry Harris' take on things. Harris is the label's cofounder and rose to the ranks of senior vice president. The book is written very well and given his close proximity to Bogart, the book comes off as accurate, compelling and fun.
Alongside KISS are the tales of Donna Summer, George Clinton, Angel, the Village People; drugs and sex in the office; Studio 54; stories including a list of various label staff and industry professionals; paying off Billboard and 'fixing' the charts; and Casablanca ultimately becoming 'the disco' label -- all to a backdrop of 1970s excess and glamour. Also mixed in are fun pop culture factoids, which helps provide a nice snapshot of the times.
A couple of KISS points detailed nicely in the book....Harris cannot "overemphasize enough" the importance of "Beth" to Destroyer and KISS' career; KISS was dangerously close to leaving the label before Alive! broke -- Aucoin issued a formal letter of intent and Bogart caved; the solo albums are again painted as a commercial failure and a huge problem for the label. And a couple of fun early stories....Harris recounts driving to a Who show with the band, the "Kissin' Time" fiasco, the Century Plaza industry showcase, etc. It's written clearly early on that Casablanca believed in the band and in Bogart's words, "KISS is magic." Well-known KISS authors Curt Gooch and Jeff Suhs collaborated with Harris on the book as well.
All this and much more. This book oozes 1970s and transports you to an industry before the dawn of the CD, Internet, smartphones and torrents. Fantastic read.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
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