This music journey eventually led to my understanding of the Pink Floyd Publius Enigma Mystery and their album The Division Bell. I must tell everything from the beginning to show how I know it. It’s all relevant. I’m not just here to brag about who I met.
On November 15 and 16 of 1971, Emerson, Lake & Palmer played at the Eastown, and the band Yes opened for them. I can’t recall anything that happened those two days. I’m sure I enjoyed watching the band play. If both bands did get together later, I have no idea.
It seemed as though Carl and I stopped going in a romantic direction. He did lead me to believe we were. But I liked his drumming and felt we were friends, at the very least. I enjoyed listening to the band’s adaptations of classical music and symphonic rock style.
On November 17th, the third night, the concert switched to Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit, and it was a much larger venue that seated over 12,000 people. After the show, many of the ELP entourage, the band, my girlfriend, Carl, and I got into limousines parked outside the door. Someone shouted, “We’re gonna be in a movie!” I didn’t care for that idea because I didn’t want to get in the way, and I was always camera-shy.
After a short drive, the limo pulled up to Mario’s Restaurant, an old-world-style Italian restaurant. We walked in and then into a private room. The scene was beautiful. The tables had white linen tablecloths, tall white taper candles glowing, and several arrangements of red flowers, which all seemed a bit much for many guys. I believe my girlfriend and I were the only girls there.
We sat down at the table, but I didn’t see Carl. I figured he had gone to the restroom. A man was filming the table with a movie camera, so my girlfriend and I just faced each other and avoided it. Then Carl came in and sat down in an area of empty seats. A band assistant sitting next to me told me I should have a seat next to Carl, so we moved, and I sat next to him.
I told him I started playing drums and liked it and that my teacher was a jazz drummer. Then he said, “You might get a job in a cabaret band.” I think that meant a band that plays in small nightclubs.
When the waiter came up behind us asking what kind of dressing I wanted on my salad, I think I said French. Then Carl turned and looked at me closely and said, “Why don’t you get the kind that I got?” and I told the waiter, “Yeah.” It was strange how, all of a sudden, he seemed concerned and interested in what I was doing. I wondered why he did that.
We talked about the album Tarkus and the artwork on the album. I loved the creature called Tarkus, which was an armadillo with tank threads and guns. And how you could imagine him rolling down the street to the marching snare drum rudiments in the instrumental “Aquatarkus.” Emerson’s talent on Keyboards and Moog synthesizer on that piece is fantastic. It sounds as though Tarkus is rolling through the water.
I asked him how his brother Steven was, and he said he was doing well. I read that he was a drummer, too. Then Carl seemed suspicious of my intentions and asked, “Why do you know so much”? That was a rude question, and I didn’t reply. I had subscriptions to British rock magazines and everything I knew about him I learned from them. Melody Maker was my favorite. He was voted the number one drummer by them. After all, I was clipping out articles and was a fan. I was trying to make conversation.
(Without my knowledge, while Carl took my attention away, I was being filmed at the table. It wasn’t until 20 years later that I saw myself in an ELP film first shown in England in December 1973. I bought an ELP bootleg VHS called the Manticore film at a music memorabilia show in 1992, and that’s when I first realized I was in it. I mention more about the video later in my story and how that film was used again for several more projects.)
Not much happened after the restaurant, so my girlfriend and I went home. I unknowingly played a part and was used. And I found out why years later.
I never liked having a camera pointed at me without my permission. I felt it was unlawful. The room in the restaurant was private, separated from the public.
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I decided that following my drummer friend wasn’t going anywhere, so at a party with friends, I met a guy I liked a lot.
Rocky was a popular guy within our large circle of friends. Most girls who knew him adored him, which was a pain. He was a bit of a party boy, but then I loved music and rock stars. I enjoyed his company, and he was fun to go out with. Finally, I found a regular guy who liked me and wanted sex. He’d sometimes call me and want to go out, but I’d say I couldn’t because I had to practice drumming. I went out with him intermittently for over a year and a half.
I believe the date was 4/17/72, and ELP was about to play at Cobo again. I thought about not going because I was tired of the games. It did seem fitting to show up to see them in Detroit. I still cared for Carl, and I loved his drumming and the band itself, and it was an exciting atmosphere.
I went to the Sheraton Cadillac Hotel. I asked for Carl’s room number at the desk, and they asked for my name before giving it to me. I knocked on his door, and he said, “Who is it?” and I answered with my name. Carl said, “Come in.” I found him in his usual karate-style robe, propped up with pillows and lying on the bed. I put my purse down on the bed, and I sat down in a comfortable chair.
He wanted to know which bands had been in the area recently, and I mentioned Rod Stewart. And he seemed a bit jealous of him because he repeated his name in a funny, sarcastic way. He reached over and took my purse, and looked at it closely. It was a new red leather custom-made handbag with a colorful hand-painted dragon.
He looked at my handbag and asked, “Where did you get this?” I said, “Birmingham,” and he asked, “Birmingham, England?” And I said, “No, Birmingham, Michigan”. That was a strange coincidence because he was born in Birmingham, England. However, he liked something about that handbag, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I would find out a year later.
A friend of Carl’s, who was on the tour, walked into the room, and Carl introduced us. His name was Mark, and when he heard my name, he immediately yelled at Carl to “get her number!”. But he never asked me for it.
After that, they told me to call a girlfriend and have her come over, probably so Mark would have a date. I sat on the bed, called my girlfriend, and asked her if she wanted to come. She told me she had to wash her hair, and I told the guys what she said. Carl grabbed the phone and tried to convince her to come over. That was so funny. The biggest rock concert in Detroit that night, and the drummer invited her over, but she had to wash her hair. After that, Carl told me to catch the limo outside and go to the show, and he’d be there later.
After the show and back at the hotel, not sure whose room and suite we in, but there were a lot of people talking and walking around. I overheard someone say that an executive from Atlantic Records was to arrive there.
Carl and some of the guys were breaking out the cocaine and needed something to make the lines. I gave them my driver’s license to use. Carl grabbed it to look at it, but I took it back. Drivers’ license pictures are the worst.
Several fans were crowding around in the hallway when a girl looked in and asked, “Is Carl here?” The manager told her, “It’s not cool for you to be here,” then she left because had she been let in, I would have gone for sure.
The evening was a casual business meeting. Carl and I sat on the loveseat, and Greg and a woman seated on a sofa across from us. Keith and a few others were there. The Atlantic executive at the meeting may have been Ahmet Ertegun. I’m not exactly sure. Greg did all the talking on behalf of himself and the band. A year later, Manticore Records was founded by Greg Lake and owned by the members of the band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The record company logo was the Manticore, a half-man, half-lion creature, which the band first featured in the artwork of their second album, Tarkus.
So that’s what they were discussing, having their record label. On the coffee table was a pile of cocaine, and big English joints were being passed around. It wasn’t potent weed, and it just made me more tired.
It was getting late, and I didn’t want to get too high because I had to drive home alone. I didn’t want to be rude and leave during the meeting, but I had to go. I started getting ready to leave when Carl placed his hand on my knee. It was like a signal to stay put, so I did.
It was early morning, and I was so tired, and the meeting was finally over. Everyone walked out of the room into the hallway, and Carl said “Goodbye” to me. I said, “What? I can’t go home now, I’m too high”. I couldn’t even imagine myself walking in downtown Detroit at such an early hour in the morning wearing a sweater skirt and red leather boots and then driving while I was so tired. Someone wasn’t thinking of my well-being at all. It was a scary moment. Then he told me I could sleep in his friend Mark’s suite.
As Carl was walking away to his room, I looked at Mark, and behind Carl’s back, he waved his hand at him and said, “He’s weird.” Did he mean Carl was weird because he didn’t want sex? I was still pretty naive. All I wanted was a safe place to sleep. I wanted to leave earlier, but he didn’t want me to. So, I slept on the sofa in Mark’s suite and left in the morning.
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My girlfriend and I wanted to attend the Led Zeppelin concert at Cobo Hall. The show was on June 6, and Detroit was the first gig of their 1972 North American tour. I had a new cassette tape recorder, and I wanted to record some of the show because John Bonham was a great drummer, and Carl admired him. I planned to play the recording back to Carl when I saw him next. They were the top rock drummers in the world at the time. We didn’t have tickets, but we thought we’d take our chances that someone might have extra tickets or we could get in backstage somehow.
I clearly remember deciding on what to wear to the concert. It had to be cool and classy. I wore my new Native American jewelry. A silver butterfly bracelet, inlaid with turquoise and coral stones, and a matching butterfly ring. And another silver bracelet and more rings with turquoise. I wore my snakeskin boots from London, black trousers, and a long black and white silky top that tied around the waist and had long flowy sleeves. Since I was such a conservative dresser, I thought I might add something more fun and flirty. All I could find were my dangling antique, rainier cherry earrings.
When we arrived outside Cobo Hall, we realized there was no way we could get tickets. And I had heard security would be very tight backstage because of recent events at another show.
We went around to the backstage door area, and people were standing around, probably waiting to see if the band would come out, or they were trying to get backstage themselves, but no one was getting in. Standing there for a while, I remembered that one of my girlfriends in England knew a guy who was a roadie for Led Zeppelin. I tried to recall his name, and then I thought it was Chris Hinton (I got the name wrong and mixed it up with the musician Chris Hillman from The Byrds). I decided to try and ask for him at the door.
So, I knocked on the backstage door, and a guy opened it. I asked for Chris Hinton, and the guy said you mean “Mick Hinton.”? I said, “Oh yes, that’s right,” and then he said, “Just a minute,” and shut the door. Then someone else opened the door and said he was Mick Hinton. I told him about our mutual friend and asked if he could get us in. Then he said that since security was tight, we could come in, but we had to stay in a particular area backstage, so we said, “Okay, thanks.”
When we walked in, and he showed us where to stay, I looked, and no one was around. A few people did walk into the building, and one was the show’s promoter, Bob Bageris, the head of Bamboo Productions. He looked at us as if to ask, how did you get in? The band was probably getting ready to go on stage, and we weren’t about to go snooping around because we’d get kicked out without backstage passes. I felt like Hinton was playing a trick on us, but he had a job to do.
So we stood in that same area throughout the concert, and no one was around. I’m not sure how much of the concert I recorded, but I did record parts of John Bonham’s drum solo.
After the show, seeing our friends Sonya and her sister walk out of the dressing room was a surprise. They had been friends with Zeppelin for several years. When we were in London the prior year, Sonya came to my girlfriend’s flat to invite us to a Zeppelin party, but we couldn’t go because we were leaving to go home that same hour. I ran up to the girls and gave each of them a hug. I thought they were still in London.
I was leaning against the wall when John Bonham and John Paul Jones walked out of the dressing room and stood at the side of the door. I was almost starring at Bonham.
Then Jimmy Page walked out and walked by right in front of me. He went over to the girls standing next to me. I thought wow, this is cool. Robert Plant followed Jimmy, and Robert stopped right in front of me. He was facing me, and he stood there. My first thoughts were Oh wow, he’s so tall; look at all that hair; it’s massive, and he has such pretty skin. Then Sonya introduced us to the band. She said, “This is Tammy and Denise.” Then Robert looked at me, smiled, and said, “Hello,” and I said, “Hi”.
He seemed almost unearthly as he walked towards me, and we looked into each other’s eyes. He moved his face closer and closer to mine, looking all around my face. I felt self-conscious and didn’t want him to see my face up close, so I turned my head. I didn’t know what he wanted. Looking back, maybe he was trying to kiss me.
After that, I was in a total daze, and all I remember is my girlfriend saying, “Let’s go.” I heard some goodbyes, and we went out the backstage door. I remember thinking, what’s the rush?
I went to the show to record it and maybe meet John Bonham. I never dreamed I’d meet the entire band and have a memorable encounter with Robert Plant. I forgot all about not seeing the show. I watched the concert the following year but didn’t try going backstage.
Next up – Chapter 6
Publius Enigma Solved 