Early life
Fields grew up in Richmond Hill, Queens. He attended Harvard Law School in 1959, but left during his first year. He moved to Greenwich Village around 1960, briefly enrolled at New York University, and became involved with the downtown arts and music scene. He eventually fell in with Andy Warhol's social circle. He hosted a radio show at New Jersey's WFMU during its groundbreaking free-form years, 1968-1969.Career
Fields became a journalist, then got more deeply involved with Warhol's Factory scene. He shared a loft with Warhol actress Edie Sedgwick, and wrote eyewitness accounts of the Velvet Underground during their early years. (He later penned liner notes for the band's historic Live At Max's Kansas City album, recorded in 1970 but released in 1972 after the band broke up.)After drifting away from the Warhol circle, he was hired by Elektra Records as a publicist. Elektra, once primarily a folk music label, was having huge success in the rock market with The Doors. Fields visited in Detroit and Ann Arbor in Sepetember 1968 on the recommendation of two fellow djs at WFMU. He recommended to Elektra that the label sign the MC5 and The Stooges, the latter launching the career of Iggy Pop. Both bands served as huge inspirations for the US and UK punk music movements of the mid- and late-1970s; both bands were later kicked off of Elektra Records.
After he moved back to New York, Fields discovered the Ramones at the club CBGB, and helped get the band signed to Sire Records. After he became their co-manager, with Linda S. Stein, they took the band to England in 1975, where they had a huge impact, inspiring the nascent UK punk movement, which spawned The Sex Pistols and The Clash. However, back in the US, Fields took the Ramones on their first tour across the U.S. with little success outside of New York. Fields also managed Steve Forbert and The Modern Lovers. After leaving the music business, Fields worked in a variety of roles including photography. He also ghostwrote the biography for Warhol superstar Cyrinda Foxe (Dream On). Fields currently lives in New York City.
Tributes
Legs McNeil, co-author (with Gillian McCain) of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, dedicated his book: "To Danny Fields, forever the coolest guy in the room." The 2006 book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk (A Cappella Books/Chicago Review Press), by Steven Lee Beeber, includes a chapter about Fields, entitled, "A Nice Jewish Boy."Interviews with Fields are included in the documentaries "It's Alive 1974-1996" (2007); End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones (2003); 25 Years of Punk (2001); We're Outta Here! (1997); and MC5: A True Testamonial; and Nico: Icon (1995).
External links
- Interview (2004) with Danny Fields on WFMU's "Music to Spazz By" (host Dave Abramson)
- Danny Fields at the Internet Movie Database
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Last updated on Saturday July 12, 2008 at 22:01:02 PDT (GMT -0700)
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