I, Napoleon?

[Motley Mike]

did I, Napoleon ever make any music videos?

[manicego]

>> did I, Napoleon ever make any music videos? <<

 

Nope

[martinsane]

>> did I, Napoleon ever make any music videos? <<

 

Nope

 

Dave,

 

What about the supposed demos for a 2nd album? Know anything about this?

 

Terry

[manicego]

>> What about the supposed demos for a 2nd album? Know anything about this? <<

 

I don't remember anything about that. The album bombed horribly as there was really ZERO support from Geffen for it (and when I say ZERO, I mean it, all they did was release the album).

 

I last saw Steve back in the mid 90's when I ran into him on the street in Hollywood. He had a very successful jewelry company and was much happier in life.

[martinsane]

>> What about the supposed demos for a 2nd album? Know anything about this? <<

 

I don't remember anything about that. The album bombed horribly as there was really ZERO support from Geffen for it (and when I say ZERO, I mean it, all they did was release the album).

 

I last saw Steve back in the mid 90's when I ran into him on the street in Hollywood. He had a very successful jewelry company and was much happier in life.

 

Glad to hear that. Must be an urban legend on the additional recordings.

[manicego]

>> Must be an urban legend on the additional recordings. <<

 

Oh, yeah, definitely - unless Steve did something on his own and after I left them. Unfortunately there was absolutely no demand for a new record from Geffen.

 

Kinda funny (and very telling of what I said upthread about the label doing zip for the band) - a former Geffen publicist (and then A&R - she signed Thunder) is a friend on Facebook and someone put an I,Napoleon "video" up on You Tube so I put it on her page for a bit of a laugh. The joke was on me, though as she said, "I had no idea who these guys were, I had to actually look them up! We signed them?!??!"

 

Ooooopsie

[Geoff]

>> Must be an urban legend on the additional recordings. <<

 

Oh, yeah, definitely - unless Steve did something on his own and after I left them. Unfortunately there was absolutely no demand for a new record from Geffen.

 

Kinda funny (and very telling of what I said upthread about the label doing zip for the band) - a former Geffen publicist (and then A&R - she signed Thunder) is a friend on Facebook and someone put an I,Napoleon "video" up on You Tube so I put it on her page for a bit of a laugh. The joke was on me, though as she said, "I had no idea who these guys were, I had to actually look them up! We signed them?!??!"

 

Ooooopsie

Can you really blame them, though? What the hell did those guys do to get signed anyway? One of the great mysteries in music history, imo.

[heaven&hell]

>> Must be an urban legend on the additional recordings. <<

 

Oh, yeah, definitely - unless Steve did something on his own and after I left them. Unfortunately there was absolutely no demand for a new record from Geffen.

 

Kinda funny (and very telling of what I said upthread about the label doing zip for the band) - a former Geffen publicist (and then A&R - she signed Thunder) is a friend on Facebook and someone put an I,Napoleon "video" up on You Tube so I put it on her page for a bit of a laugh. The joke was on me, though as she said, "I had no idea who these guys were, I had to actually look them up! We signed them?!??!"

 

Ooooopsie

Can you really blame them, though? What the hell did those guys do to get signed anyway? One of the great mysteries in music history, imo.

 

Backed X 50.

 

I even started a thread about these guys and how bad I thought they were or at least how dissapointed I was when I finally got around to hearing them.

[Geoff]

>> Must be an urban legend on the additional recordings. <<

 

Oh, yeah, definitely - unless Steve did something on his own and after I left them. Unfortunately there was absolutely no demand for a new record from Geffen.

 

Kinda funny (and very telling of what I said upthread about the label doing zip for the band) - a former Geffen publicist (and then A&R - she signed Thunder) is a friend on Facebook and someone put an I,Napoleon "video" up on You Tube so I put it on her page for a bit of a laugh. The joke was on me, though as she said, "I had no idea who these guys were, I had to actually look them up! We signed them?!??!"

 

Ooooopsie

Can you really blame them, though? What the hell did those guys do to get signed anyway? One of the great mysteries in music history, imo.

 

Backed X 50.

 

I even started a thread about these guys and how bad I thought they were or at least how dissapointed I was when I finally got around to hearing them.

It's truly amazing to me to see the calibre of some of the bands that never got signed, and these guys were signed to a major label. I don't know if Geffen offered them a $100 deal or something and they just took it or what? I am seriously all out of ideas how these guys got signed over so many other bands back in the day.

[manicego]

>> It's truly amazing to me to see the calibre of some of the bands that never got signed, and these guys were signed to a major label. I don't know if Geffen offered them a $100 deal or something and they just took it or what? I am seriously all out of ideas how these guys got signed over so many other bands back in the day. <<

 

Well, I handled them and they were friends of mine who I took on because ... well, just because. Steve Napoleon (aka Steve Batky) was the one with the deal and the other guys were brought in after the fact. And then OTHER guys were brought in after they left / were let go.

 

Vicky Hamilton (google her if the name isn't familiar) heard Steve's demos and freaked out over them, simple as that. She took him to Ed Rosenblatt, the then head of Geffen (and a very nice guy) who basically said, "You're Vicky Hamilton, if you wanna sign it, then sign it" so she did. As it came time to do the album, someone on Geffen's roster started to break a little - can't remember who, Jackyl maybe?? - and the label showed no more interest whatsoever in I, Napoleon. David Geffen took the band to his friend Sandy Galin for me ( I basically begged him) and Sandy did a mgmt deal with the band. Then did nothing. Sandy's company at that time was the biggest mgmt company on Earth and he was David Geffen's "friend" so we thought something might come of it. But the album was too weird for the hard rock crowd and not weird enough for the alternative crowd and only really had one marketable song ("Perfect Absolution") so it was pretty much left to me to get all their press - and I got them a pretty fair amount of that actually (although not all of it was good, mind you) - and whatever else I could do. I got them on The Rick Dees Show (Rick Dees was managed by ... Sandy Gallin!). They were good on the show but the interview was a disaster, as Rick reacted to the band as if they were Poison or someone and asked them ALLLL the wrong type of questions (questions about chicks, drinking, partying) so the guys were kinda thrown as that wasn't what they were about AT ALL.

 

We did two showcases for agencies at the China Club but noone signed them. Bang Tango kept telling them they'd take them out but never did. Not too long after that I just had to own up to the fact that nothing was going to happen and I left on good terms but they were dropped right afterward anyway.

 

They didn't even have a publishing deal so radio or MTV was totally out of the question. The vision Steve had for it was fantastic, almost Queen like in presentation, but, yeah, it fell WAY short of the mark.

 

And there ya have it.

[Geoff]

Man, I love that shit. Thanks for the info mate. Just out of curiosity, did that Steve fella always sing like that, or did he have a better singing voice in there somewhere?

[martinsane]

Agreed Geoff, I could read stuff like that all day long and I've told Dave on more thanone occasion to right a book. Let's hope he does I am sure the stories in Dave's memroy banks are quite entertaining.

[manicego]

>> Agreed Geoff, I could read stuff like that all day long and I've told Dave on more thanone occasion to right a book. Let's hope he does I am sure the stories in Dave's memroy banks are quite entertaining. <<

 

Ha, ya never know what may happen in the future - but there's a lot of stuff that I'd probably get myself killed over telling LOL

 

Not patting myself on the back or anything but I did get to "rub elbows" (is that the phrase?!??!) with some pretty important (on one level or another) people back in the 80's and 90's. I got to hang out with Dick fuckin Clark one day for an hour or so, even, in Geffen's lobby, while he told me - and 2 or 3 other people - hilarious stories of the early days of American Bandstand. It just doesn't get much better than that. Even though I was never an actual employee at the label, Geffen was verrrry good to meeeee. I even got into a "fight" with Vanilla Ice at an EMI Records party while the members of a band called Sugar cheered me on LOL Got to lock Dana Strum out of his own studio and delay the recording of a Slaughter album ... good stuff.

[manicego]

Missed this, sorry ..

 

>> Man, I love that shit. Thanks for the info mate. Just out of curiosity, did that Steve fella always sing like that, or did he have a better singing voice in there somewhere? <<

 

Yeah, he pretty much did ... certainly wasn't up for any "Vocalist Of The Year" awards. He was actually a drummer and was in the metal band Witchkiller who were signed to Metal Blade in the early / mid 80's.

[martinsane]

>> Agreed Geoff, I could read stuff like that all day long and I've told Dave on more thanone occasion to right a book. Let's hope he does I am sure the stories in Dave's memroy banks are quite entertaining. <<

 

Ha, ya never know what may happen in the future - but there's a lot of stuff that I'd probably get myself killed over telling LOL

 

Not patting myself on the back or anything but I did get to "rub elbows" (is that the phrase?!??!) with some pretty important (on one level or another) people back in the 80's and 90's. I got to hang out with Dick fuckin Clark one day for an hour or so, even, in Geffen's lobby, while he told me - and 2 or 3 other people - hilarious stories of the early days of American Bandstand. It just doesn't get much better than that. Even though I was never an actual employee at the label, Geffen was verrrry good to meeeee. I even got into a "fight" with Vanilla Ice at an EMI Records party while the members of a band called Sugar cheered me on LOL Got to lock Dana Strum out of his own studio and delay the recording of a Slaughter album ... good stuff.

 

 

You see. In one paragraph I am hooked like a addict...

 

Rubbing elbows is the correct phrase and hell nothing wrong with dropping names, looks and sounds like you have had an interesting life, so far and beleive me these stories are the best and you aren't the only one telling them, seems every entertainer I meet has a fist full of, "Oh one time I was here and was drinking with so and so..." stories and I eat them up like candy.

 

As always thanks Dave for the breif, yet entertaining insights into your past.

 

Annnnnddddd: I did not think the record was that bad, I think Wes sent it to me??? I have heard a hell of lot worse, of course as Geoff stated, I've heard a million times better, but like Dave says, someone at Geffen dug them and gave em a deal, who knows could have been a write off...

[manicego]

>> Rubbing elbows is the correct phrase and hell nothing wrong with dropping names, looks and sounds like you have had an interesting life, so far and beleive me these stories are the best and you aren't the only one telling them, seems every entertainer I meet has a fist full of, "Oh one time I was here and was drinking with so and so..." stories and I eat them up like candy.

 

As always thanks Dave for the breif, yet entertaining insights into your past. <<

 

haha Thanks. I dunno, I try to shy away from a lot of that stuff because it's easy to go overboard with it. And I had an assistant back in the early 90's who told her friend that "yep, Dave loves telling us stuff that HE gets to do but not us." and that kinda sucked, even though she was just picking on me. It was hard not to, though because back then I was literally somewhere nearly every single night of the week for years. There was usually free food involved so I managed to get myself invited somehow or other! It WAS pretty damn cool being moved to the front of lines and going in through "secret doors" because the owner of so and so knew who you were.

 

And there's at least one other person who lurks on here that has as many, if not more, stories as I do. At least I think he still lurks here ...

 

 

>> Annnnnddddd: I did not think the record was that bad, I think Wes sent it to me??? I have heard a hell of lot worse, of course as Geoff stated, I've heard a million times better, but like Dave says, someone at Geffen dug them and gave em a deal, who knows could have been a write off... <<

 

Ya know, I remember thinking the first half of the album was really, really good but that the second half of it was "too out there." I thought "Perfect Absolution" and "Everytime I See Your Picture" were fantastic and and could have been "hits" to some degree but again, that's pretty hard when your own label won't give you a publishing deal. I remember someone on a message board (maybe here??) saying that they ruined "Everytime ..." because of the way Steve sang but I dunno. I thought his strained and "tortured soul" vocal style fit the song - and lyrics, especially - perfectly. And then there was the song that even people at Geffen called "The Elmer Fudd Song" ... The musicianship was stellar and I thought Godfrey Diamond did an amazing job of blending voices for the backing vocal parts.

 

As for being a write off, I don't know - Vicky seemed to really love what she heard, even went so far as to co-write one or two of the songs with Steve. And, according to Tom Zutaut, "there are no write offs, just bands we don't dedicate as much attention to."

[Fat Freddy]

I honestly know nothing about this band, but I just wanted to say... DAMN Dave (Manicego) -- you oughta write a freakin book. I love reading your "insider" stories.

[JamesEagle]

I honestly know nothing about this band, but I just wanted to say... DAMN Dave (Manicego) -- you oughta write a freakin book. I love reading your "insider" stories.

 

He rocks!

[Clutch]

I honestly know nothing about this band, but I just wanted to say... DAMN Dave (Manicego) -- you oughta write a freakin book. I love reading your "insider" stories.

 

Thanks for digging this this thread up. Good stuff.

[manicego]

So, to bring this up again. I just saw Steve Batky ("Steve Napoleon") this past weekend for the first time since 1993 and yes, he did "about 20 or so more demos" after I was no longer in the picture. And they may actually see the light of day in 2016.

 

>> did I, Napoleon ever make any music videos? <<

Nope

Dave,

What about the supposed demos for a 2nd album? Know anything about this?

Terry

 

[Jacob M.]

I can't wait.

[Jason]

Just stumbled onto this thread. I love the I Napoleon album. It is a weird album though. Not heavy enough. Not soft enough. Not glammy enough. Not alternative enough. But it had some great songs and a few original (if not strange) melodies. I wish Geffen or whoever owns the rights would put it on Apple Music and Spotify. I love reading stories like this about bands that didn’t make it. It’s fascinating to me.

[Jacob M.]

I completely forgot about this. I'm guessing those demos still haven't been released. That album is still in my top ten.

[AlphaMale]

52 minutes ago, Jacob M. said:

I completely forgot about this. I'm guessing those demos still haven't been released. That album is still in my top ten.

Top ten?? Top Ten Worst??

[martinsane]

Speaking of Dave, anyone seen or heard from him in like ever?