In accordance with Muslim law, the burial ceremony was then held outdoors in the small Ertegun family plot, where Ahmet’s father and mother had been interred in an old cemetery on a hill overlooking the Bosporus in Uskudar, the section of the city where Ahmet had been born. As Lyor Cohen would later say, “Muslims believe the community buries people. The community believes they are supposed to come to an open burial ceremony so everyone was invited. So it was full of pandemonium and emotion and very physical.” Just getting to the actual gravesite was difficult because a couple of hundred people had jammed themselves into the narrow alleyway leading to the cemetery. In Wenner’s words, “It was the chaos of Turkey but you started to get the sense Ahmet was back among his people.”
In Mica’s words, “The chauffeur missed the way to the cemetery and in the Moslem religion, the minute the body comes, they put it in the ground. They don’t wait and when I arrived with my niece, the body was already in the ground and she began screaming and yelling. The current prime minister of Turkey, who was then the foreign minister, put me next to the grave during the ceremony and it is not usual to do that.” As Jann Wenner would later say, “Mica was incredibly stoic throughout the entire thing and then she would break down. But she was so involved in making sure everyone else was getting through it and so into decorum and handling things right that she was almost preoccupied with making other people feel comfortable.”
Wrapped in the traditional Muslim burial shroud made of clean white cloth known as a kefen, Ahmet’s body was lowered into the ground without a coffin. After placing a bouquet of white roses on the grave, Mica stood there for a long time staring at the photograph of Ahmet beside the grave. She then crossed herself, lifted some dirt, and scattered it into the grave. All those who had come to pay their last respects to Ahmet, including the gardener from his home in Bodrum, then followed suit.
As Erith Landeau described the scene, “When Ahmet was put into the ground, they were praying and there was a fence around the family plot and Lyor Cohen was holding the fence and crying like a child. Not sobbing but crying. I could see he really, really loved Ahmet. And then he told me, ‘When I came to Atlantic and they told me I would have to share a floor with Ahmet, I thought, ‘What do I need this old guy for? He’s eighty-something. What is he going to teach me?’ He said, ‘Erith, he taught me everything. In the end, he would sit in my office because I wanted him to be with me. I wanted to be next to him all the time.’ ”
After the burial service was over, everyone went to the house in which Ahmet had been born for lunch and another prayer service. At eleven o’clock that night, the plane that had brought Ahmet and his friends and family to Turkey returned to New York. Mica flew to Paris. After a life that had taken him around the world and back again so many times that every page of his passports was completely covered with entry and exit stamps, all of Ahmet’s rambling was finally done.
Ahmet Ertegun at the Lenox Lounge in Harlem, 1997.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to thank Mica Ertegun for making it possible for me to write this book by giving me her unending cooperation and support. Without the help of Ahmet’s sister, Selma Goksel, who sent me countless e-mails from Turkey, I could never have reconstructed Mehmet Ertegun’s role in the formation of the Turkish republic or the childhood she shared with Ahmet and Nesuhi in Turkey, Switzerland, France, England, and Washington, D.C.
I will also be eternally grateful to Craig Inciardi, curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who opened the vault in New York for me so I could spend four days wearing white gloves as I examined the sixty boxes of Ahmet’s personal papers that now comprise the Ahmet Ertegun Archive at the Hall of Fame Library in Cleveland. Never failing to respond to my endless requests for more material, Craig also provided me with DVDs and videotapes I could never have found without him. Performing tasks above and beyond the call of duty, the inimitable Jesse Reiswig served as my research assistant in New York. I can never thank him enough for patiently reading Ahmet’s oral history interviews into a tape recorder so I could then transcribe them for this book.
Having worked for and with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone for the past forty years, I owe him a debt of gratitude for unearthing sources for me and for his continuing concern that I get everything right about Ahmet. I also want to thank his assistant Ally Lewis for her help. Merci beaucoup aussi to Mica’s assistant Monique Mirouze for putting up with all of my requests for information and for sending me digital copies of letters Ahmet had written that were not among his personal papers.
Had Will Dana, the managing editor of Rolling Stone, not asked me to write the tribute to Ahmet that appeared in the magazine shortly after his death, I would never have been able to write this book. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Jason Fine, who was then the executive editor of Rolling Stone, who made that piece better than it would have been without him. He also arranged an invitation to Ahmet’s tribute at Lincoln Center, bought me lunch at Patsy’s so we could gaze at the hallowed doorway at 234 West 56th Street through which Ahmet, Jerry Wexler, and Ray Charles had once walked, and took me to dinner at the Waverly Inn, where I accosted Lyor Cohen for an interview. My thanks as well to Nicole Frehsee for all her help.
David Brendel provided me with valuable information. Richard Havers in England graciously sent me priceless material concerning Duke Ellington’s appearance at the Palladium in London. Catherine Tackley also provided me with information about this event. My thanks to Linda Moran for responding to questions no one else could have answered.
My thanks as well to Paul Wexler for the CD of the original version of “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.” I would like to thank Brian Higgins for providing me with material from the Lefsetz blog about Ahmet and patiently explaining the mathematics of publishing and songwriting royalties. Thanks to John Thompson for the Buffalo Springfield boxed set and for singing their songs with me on the streets of Rome that day. Thanks to Bonnie Simmons for the CD of Ahmet instructing Ray Charles how to sing “Mess Around.” My gratitude to Chris d’E. Vallencey in England for providing me with information about the cost of an Aston Martin in the mid-1950s. Thanks as well to Frances Chantly for graciously providing me with an actual ticket to the tribute to Ahmet at Lincoln Center.
My thanks to Paul Bresnick, who came up with the idea for this book, and then placed it with Simon & Schuster, where I have had the great good fortune of working with Bob Bender, who has been as patient and gracious throughout this long process as anyone I have ever known. Thanks as well to Johanna Li for all her aid. The always brilliant Josh Maurer helped me find the title for this book, which comes from a remark Veronique Simon made when I interviewed her.
Thanks to Craig Kallman for the guided tour of Ahmet’s office at Atlantic, to Bob Kaus for supplying the photos from the Atlantic Records Archive, and to Grayson Dantzic for all his help in locating and identifying them. Thanks as well to Ahmet’s good friend Jean Pigozzi for making his extensive collection of photographs of Ahmet available to me, and to Tasha Seren for all her help in compiling them.
Thanks to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for allowing me to use the photographs of Ahmet from their collection and to Jodi Peckman at Rolling Stone, who compiled the wonderful tribute book for Ahmet that was distributed at Lincoln Center and then uploaded all those images for me. My thanks to Michael Randolph for providing me with his father’s astonishing photographs of the golden days at Atlantic. Thanks to Brian Lipson, Bryan Besser, and the very erudite Eric Reid for all their help and sage advice. My thanks to Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker for helping me locate those who worked alongside George Trow at the magazine.
After seeing Ahmet in action during the Rolling Stones’ tour of America in 1972, I interviewed him for the first time while researching my book S.T.P.: A Journey Through America with the Rolling Stones. I then spoke to him again for Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out. I was also fortunate enough to have spent many hours on th
e phone with Jerry Wexler and then wrote the tribute to him in Rolling Stone following his death in 2008. Barbara Abramson was a great source of information and also sent me to the documentary Atlantic: Hip to the Tip as well as the Atlantic press release announcing Herb Abramson’s return to the label. Miriam Bienstock was also unfailingly gracious in responding to my many questions. I would also like to thank the late Charlie Gillett, who died shortly after I spoke to him, for having written Making Tracks, his book on Atlantic Records. Much like Ahmet, Charlie also truly loved the music. To the great Solomon Burke who passed on in 2010, rest in peace, rest in peace.
Closer to home, my thanks to Jeff Greenberg for bringing me The WPA Guide to Washington, D.C. and Ray Charles’s autobiography, Brother Ray. A true artist, Michele Frantz performed Photoshop wonders for me. Thanks to Kevin Daly for the unbelievable rock ’n’ roll golf tournament hookup and to all the boys at Monterey International for hanging out with me. Thanks to Bill Sagan, Nathan Nishiguchi, and Katherine York for providing me with a copy of my long-lost 1988 interview with Ahmet.
I would like to thank Donna for the author photograph and for putting up with the impossible work schedule I kept while writing this book. After all is said and done, she is the one with the gold record. As always, I send all my love and best wishes to Sandy and Anna.
Robert Greenfield
May 16, 2011
(1) Ahmet, eight years old, on the beach in Deauville, France, in 1931 with his brother, Nesuhi, standing behind him.
(2) Ahmet being read to by his father, Mehmet Munir, in the embassy in London.
(3) Ahmet with his sister, Selma, at the piano and his brother, Nesuhi, in the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C.
(4) Top row, left to right: Sadi Koylan, Nesuhi, Selma, Dr. Vahdi Sabit, a family friend, and Ahmet. Ahmet’s father and his mother, Hayrunnisa, sit beside one another in the center of the first row.
(5) Ahmet with drink in hand, Duke Ellington, Bill Gottlieb, unidentified woman, Dave Stewart, and Nesuhi in Gottlieb’s home, 1941.
(6) Jerry Wexler, Ahmet, and Miriam Abramson with the Cash Box Award at Atlantic Records, 1954.
(7) Jerry Wexler and Ahmet presenting Ruth Brown with a gold record on-stage at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, 1956.
(8) The great Ray Charles at the piano.
(9) Jerry Wexler, Alan Freed, and Ahmet (front row) onstage with Big Joe Turner at Freed’s Rock ’n’ Roll Party at the St. Nicholas Arena, January 14, 1955. Ahmet’s wife, Jan Holm, stands behind him.
(10) Herb Abramson, Jerry Wexler, Ahmet, and Clyde McPhatter, February 25, 1958.
(11) Jerry Wexler and Ahmet with Jesse Stone behind them in the recording booth, February 27, 1958.
(12) Beaming in sharp suits, Jerry Wexler, Nesuhi, Bobby Darin, and Ahmet.
(13) Sonny and Cher at Atlantic with their gold record for “I Got You Babe,” August 15, 1965.
(14) The Buffalo Springfield fooling around under the pier in Malibu, 1967. From left to right, Richie Furay, Stephen Stills, Dewey Martin, Bruce Palmer, and Neil Young.
(15) Graham Nash, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and David Crosby rehearsing at Neil Young’s ranch, 1974.
(16) Ahmet and Mick Jagger.
(17) Clockwise from left: John Bonham, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.
(18) Ahmet in excelsis, celebrating the Cosmos’ championship victory with coach Eddie Firmani, August 14, 1977.
(19) Mica and Ahmet.
(20) Steve Ross and Ahmet partying together, September 1989.
(21) Henry Kissinger and Ahmet.
(22) Ahmet and Phil Spector, 1990.
(23) Ahmet, Seymour Stein, and Jann Wenner, 1991.
(24) Mica and Ahmet playing backgammon in the study of their town house.
(25) Kid Rock on tour, 2010.
Photo Credits
Armen Khachaturian/courtesy of Atlantic Records Archive: p. ii; Courtesy of the Ertegun family: 1–4; Delia Potofsky Gottlieb/courtesy of the Library of Congress: 5; PoPsie Randolph: 6, 7, 9–13; Atlantic Records Archive: 8, 17; Ivan Nagy/courtesy of Atlantic Records Archive: 14; Joel Bernstein/courtesy of Atlantic Records Archive: 15; Courtesy of Jean Pigozzi: 16, 18–23; Courtesy of Mica Ertegun: 24; Courtesy of Kid Rock: 25; Norma Jean Roy/courtesy of Atlantic Records Archive: p. 355.
ROBERT GREENFIELD is an award-winning journalist, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. The former associate editor of Rolling Stone magazine’s London bureau, he is the author of nine books, among them acclaimed biographies of Bill Graham, Jerry Garcia, and Timothy Leary.
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Notes
Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations are from interviews conducted by the author.
AE = Ahmet Ertegun
EPIGRAPHS
“He was”: Atlantic: Hip to the Tip.
“Ahmet had”: Wexler and Ritz, Rhythm and Blues.
“Ahmet was”: Kissinger, Author Interview.
PROLOGUE: A DAY OF TRIBUTE IN NEW YORK
“the little Turkish prince”: Burke, AE Tribute.
“I loved”: Clapton, AE Tribute.
“a ducker and”: Hackford, AE Tribute.
“irony and”: Wexler, AE Tribute.
“Hey, homes”: Ibid.
“had no”: Ibid.
“Ahmet, thank you”: Ibid.
“Well, he hasn’t”: Wenner, AE Tribute.
“Ahmet was”: Jagger, AE Tribute.
“a diverse”: Ibid.
“Here’s our”: Nash, AE Tribute.
“Here’s something”: Ibid.
“entertaining”: Clapton, Clapton.
“I still felt”: Ibid.
ONE: COMING TO AMERICA
“The older I get”: Wade and Picardie, Music Man.
David Geffen first heard: Geffen, Author Interview, 6/10/09.
posted on a well-read music blog: lefsetz.com/wordpress.
“a bit Barnum and Bailey”: Curbishley.
“Do you know why”: Ibid.
Trinity College: Motion, The Lamberts.
had been commissioned: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Lambert.
“feel snubbed by”: Trow, “Profiles.”
“Ahmet, don’t go”: Howar.
“Boys”: Rudge.
was shocked to see: AE, Columbia University Oral History Research Office, AE Archive.
“the Turk”: Kinzer, Crescent and Star.
“Europeans came to perceive”: Ibid.
“The Turks are”: Ibid.
“I shall always”: Ibid.
was present when the Treaty of Lausanne: Selma Goksel e-mail, February 12, 2009.
“in a house on the rocky hills”: AE, AE Archive.
a truly primitive land: Kinzer, Crescent and Star.
the grand
son of a Sufi sheik: Selma Goksel e-mail, March 23, 2009.
Ozbeker Tekkesi: Selma Goksel e-mail, October 7, 2010.
Exempt from military service by imperial decree: Hanioglu.
short-lived first marriage: Selma Goksel e-mail, April 13, 2009.
“probably would have become a singing star”: AE, Columbia University Oral History Research Office, November 13, 2002, AE Archive.
Bespectacled, with a thick mustache: Photo, www.londra.be.mfa.gov.tr.
piercing blue eyes: Kinzer.
they were now being held as hostages: Hanioglu.
soul searching: Selma Goksel e-mail, February 12, 2009.
chief legal adviser: Official Document, Department of State, Division of International Conferences and Protocol, June 25, 1934, AE Archive.
The Last Sultan Page 44
