Mary Martin Died

The Mary Martin who died decades ago was an actress and the mother of  actor  Larry Hagman. 

No one is denigrating this particular individual.  We are having fun with the fact that she shared a name with a well loved artist and using that to make a point about where we, as music fans , prioritize Artists vs. Record Company executives.

  This Mary Martin does seem to have promoted important artists and therefore benefited music lovers.  She must have also been an interesting person to have succeeded as a woman in a male dominated industry 

And the other Mary Martin did indeed bring J.R. Ewing into the world 

Mary Martin worked for Albert Grossman, who managed Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Peter Paul And Mary, Janis Joplin, and Ian & Silvia. In 1965 Mary heard a band named The Hawks performing somewhere in the Northeast (I believe is was out on Long Island), and was very impressed. She knew Dylan was looking for a band to back him on the road (the musicians heard on his recent albums, which were partially acoustic, partially with electric instruments and drums---were not road musicians), so told Grossman and Dylan about them. The two checked out The Hawks, and hired them for Bob’s upcoming wold tour.

Partway through the tour Hawks drummer Levon Helm had had enough of being booed by Dylan’s audience, and left the tour. A replacement drummer was found, and the tour continued on into 1966 (I have two friends who saw the show at The San Jose Civic Auditorium). After the tour Dylan kept The Hawks on retainer, and they moved into the infamous Hotel Chelsea in NYC, waiting to head on the next leg of the tour. Before that happened, Dylan had his motorcycle accident, and after leaving the hospital headed up to Woodstock (where he had bought a house) to heal.

Dylan suggested The Hawks come up to Woodstock to look around, which they did. They found a pink house in nearby West Saugerties for rent, and moved in. The hired drummer returned to Los Angeles, to resume his career as a studio musician. The four remaining Hawks set up their musical equipment in the basement of the house, and throughout all of 1967 Dylan visited the house daily, making music with The Hawks in the basement of their house, seven days a week, four or five hours a day

Hawks organist Garth Hudson had set up a tape recorder and microphones in the basement, and recorded Dylan teaching The Hawks all manner of songs. Dylan also used that opportunity to record demos of his new songs, which were sent to his publisher to pitch to artists and bands looking for material. The recordings were never intended to be heard by the general public, but were soon available in the first Rock ’n’ Roll bootleg, The Basement Tapes. The sound quality of the recordings is abysmal, but the music very interesting.

Albert Grossman thought very highly of The Hawks (from the book The Story Of The Band, From Big Pink To The Last Waltz by Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik: "Albert was in love with The Band. He thought they were the Holy Grail"---Elliot Mazer, record producer/engineer), and went to work on getting them their own record deal. Capitol Records offered them a million bucks, so Hawks bassist Rick Danko gave Levon Helm a call, telling him of the offer. Levon was in West Saugerties the next day.

In early-1968 The Hawks recorded enough songs for a album, and were looking for a new band name. They had signed the Capitol Records contract as The Crackers, and considered The Honkies. When the album was released in July of 1968 it bore the name The Band. No one can quite agree on where that name came from, but it’s quite appropriate.

So it can be argued that Mary Martin discovered The Band, and influenced the course of Rock ’n’ Roll.

The way I heard it Rick Danko sent a tape of his band to Mary Martin.  She thought they would be good for Bob Dylan and passed the tape along to him.  Dylan didn't go for them, but Martin persisted.  She ultimately set up a face to face with Dylan, Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm.  Dylan liked them and offered the two a place in his band, but Helm insisted that he had to take the whole group.  Dylan relented and the rest is pop music history.

Talent can only get you so far.  Artist need somebody to champion them.  Someone to tell people that you got to hear so and so.  Think Jimi Hendrix and Chas Chandler or even Elvis and Colonel Parker.  Mary Martin was one of the best at her job.