Sunset and Cahuenga - A novel by Paul Zollo

What follows is an excerpt from my second interview with Paul Zollo, Conversations with Paul Zollo ~ Part II and my review of his novel Sunset and Cahuenga.

In my last interview with you, you mentioned a few things that have intrigued me.  You said that you would like to have your novel published and maybe write another someday.  A Paul Zollo novel sounds to me like a definite must have read.  Can you tell us about your novel and are you any closer to having it published (if not can I read the draft)?

Yes, of course, you can read it, Syd!  I'd like that.  It's called Sunset and Cahuenga, and it takes place in Hollywood in 1982, revolving around a recording studio at that spectral intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Cahuenga. It's all based on the truth – when I first moved to Los Angeles in 1982, I got a job as a third engineer – a gopher, really, at first - at a major recording studio at that very intersection.  And it was total madness.  It was exciting, heady, fun, educational, sexual, druggy, insane, wild, mind-boggling, glamorous, funky, laborious, difficult, funny, friendly, warm, cold, political, musical, technical, simple, complex, easy and amazing – all at once.  We had major bands in there and some famous artists, and also many that were not famous. Great musicians and very awful musicians.  Classical and jazz and rock and roll.  The full gamut of what a recording studio is and was.  And now much of it seems historic, though it was not that  long ago.  This was pre-digital – there were no CDs, no pro-tools – everything was done on analog 24-track tape.  There were no computers, no cell-phones.  We had a typewriter in the front, and a regular phone.  A red one with a cord.  And there was much drug-taking going on.  Coke mostly, and pot. (also, lots of strong coffee.)  In fact, the owner had a boat in the harbor, and would bring in immense quantities of coke from Mexico or elsewhere, and then sell it, and that is how he acquired the studio.  But I didn't know that at first. He was a mystery to me for a long time.

All I knew is that the place was gorgeous.  It was a dream to me.  I was new to Hollywood, and wanted nothing more than to spend my days in a studio like this – a dream Hollywood recording studio, state of the art – grand piano, beautiful woodwork, romantic lighting, amazing control room, big spacious game and party room and bar, Hammond organ, vintage microphones – the whole thing.  Many British bands recorded there, as our chief engineer was a Brit who had worked with Gentle Giant and Peter Green and others.  And so my novel is about this place, and also about the darkness and bliss of a young man in Hollywood trying to balance the glamour and the gloom of the place, the illusions and the reality, the glitz and the grit, the beauty and the sorrow. It's a sad-jubilant, serious-comic, insane-rational exploration through the romance, the rock and roll, the madness of life on the razor's edge, the music business, the state of recording art in the early eighties, the sex, the drugs, and more. All of which takes place in, and is all about, Hollywood.

I have an agent in New York who took it on, but has had no success in getting me a deal yet, and I'm losing faith that he will.  It's a different world than getting my non-fiction books published, which has been easy for me, relatively.  Getting a first novel published is no easy feat.  But I know it will happen eventually. I know it.  But I am impatient, especially when I write about it like this. I don't think many people who have been through this kind of life inside the music business here have written about it.  The engineers and producers are busy engineering and producing.  The businessmen are doing business.  The musicians are making music or are mad or dead.  Not many people have stood back and written about it.  There is one – a woman I knew who was there – but her book is mostly about the sex she had with famous people.  Mine is more.  I would be very happy to send it to you, Syd.  And to ANYONE who wants to publish it. Please do!!

And send it he did, two weeks later, and to say I was very happy to receive it would certainly be a great understatement.  I was ecstatic to receive it, as since reading Paul's response to my question excerpted here above, my appetite and interest had been more than whetted.  The early eighties, 1982 to be precise, in which this true-life novel is set was a time period I can relate to in many ways.  Paul and I, as I have discovered share very much the same tastes in music and also that music and musicians have played an important and inspirational part of our lives.  Paul also being a friend with whom I connect with on so many things naturally led me to wanting to know more about him and his life.  I am also inquisitive by nature, so I guess that also had its part to play in my wanting to read what essentially is an autobiographical account of someone else's life.  People interest me.  A behind the scenes account of life within a recording studio also fascinated me, the old adage of sex, drugs and rock and roll comes to mind.  Moreover, I have come to appreciate Paul's writing style, having communicated with each other in writing over the years and having read his excellent commentaries and captions that go alongside his photographs in his Flickr photo-stream, our conversations that were put together to make up my two interviews with him, his interviews with some of the world's greatest singer-songwriters, such as Dylan, Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Tom Petty (which were published as Conversations with Tom Petty - which sits on the bookshelves of many a music lover)  The list is as expansive as Paul's writing.   Paul can be very funny in his writing, which will leave me in fits of laughter.  He can be soulful too and some of his words have brought tears to my eyes.  He can be gentle, compassionate, knowledgeable, and descriptive to the point that his words can really take you there; his narratives make the reader feel included, part of the picture and more than just an audience.  So for many, many reasons I wanted to read his very first and yet unpublished novel Sunset and Cahuenga.

By the time I had finished reading page 300 and the start of the final chapter of the book, the beginning of the end, I found I was drawing it out, savouring every word, every punctuation and as slowly as I could bare.  So, what's it all about?  It's about the main character's arrival in the legendary Hollywood, the land of dreams, what brought him there, the characters he meets, his friends, his lovers, his neighbours, his experiences, the ups and downs, the craziness, the sobriety, based around his job and life at Abbey Studios that once existed in Paul's words at "the spectral intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga".  This excellent read is full of twists and turns, surprises and suspense, rolling on the floor laughing humour and funniness, sadness, love stories, exposes and everything else that goes to make a million fine novels and history books all neatly rolled and packed into one very fine read.

The very first page has a great surprise for anyone who knows Paul, his photographs and recent writings . . . that surprise is (and I shan't ruin it for anyone), is the very name he has chosen for the main character of this true story and who represents himself.

I have read a great many novels over the years and Sunset and Cahuenga more than compares to the very best of them.  Paul tells me he is to endeavour to have his book published (as he mentions in the above excerpt of my interview with him) and I would recommend and suggest to any publisher that this very fine novel is sure to be a best-selling hit and has massive potential for a great movie.  And as a warning, I would remind any publisher of Decca Records Dick Rowe's turning down the Beatles for a recording contract declaring that guys playing guitars were on their way out.  What was Decca's great loss was EMI's greatest gain.

To the potential reader of Sunset and Cahuenga ~ you have something to look forward to reading, and a story you will never forget, it will touch your heart, make you laugh a lot and is full of delightful surprises.