Danny Fields

Fields was born to a Jewish family and grew up in Richmond Hill, Queens. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa^[2] from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959, he attended Harvard Law School, but left during his first year. He moved to Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960, briefly enrolled at New York University, and became involved with the burgeoning downtown arts and music scene.^[1]

After stints at publications such as Liquor Store and Outdoor Advertiser, Fields got a job at the teen-fan magazine Datebook. In 1966, as Managing Editor, he was responsible for shining a spotlight on John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" quote.^[3]

In the 1960s, Fields began frequenting Max's Kansas City. It was there that he developed connections to Andy Warhol's Factory social circle. Fields occasionally shared his loft with Warhol actress Edie Sedgwick,^[4] and wrote an account of the Warhol-sponsored Velvet Underground during their early years. He later penned the liner notes for the band's album Live at Max's Kansas City, recorded in 1970, but released in 1972, after the band broke up.

Fields hosted a radio show on New Jersey's WFMU during its groundbreaking 1968–1969 free-form years, and he was hired by Elektra Records as a publicist. Elektra, which had primarily been a folk music label, was having huge success in the rock record market with The Doors, and hired Fields to publicize the band, despite (discussed by Fields in numerous interviews) that he and lead singer Jim Morrison disliked each other.^[3] Despite this mutual antagonism, Fields got Morrison on many key teen magazine covers in 1968. In September 1968, Fields visited Detroit and Ann Arbor on the recommendation of two fellow DJs at WFMU (Bob Rudnick and Dennis Frawley). He recommended to Elektra that the label sign the MC5 and The Stooges.^[3] Both bands served as major inspirations for the US and UK punk music movements of the mid-to-late 1970s. Danny was also instrumental in getting the New York street musician, David Peel, released on Elektra in 1968.^[5]

In 1975, Fields discovered the Ramones at CBGB, and helped get them signed to Sire Records. Around this time, Fields was writing a regular column in the SoHo Weekly News.^[6][7] As the band's co-manager, with Linda Stein, Fields brought the band to England, where they had an enormous impact, inspiring the nascent UK punk movement, including such bands as the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. Under Fields' management the Ramones recorded Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket to Russia. The 1980 Ramones album End of the Century includes the track "Danny Says", about Fields. The song has been covered by the Foo Fighters and Tom Waits.^[8]

In 1990, Fields discovered singer-songwriter Paleface at a performance in New York's Chameleon club and became his manager: he helped the young artist get signed to Polygram Records and Elektra Records.^[9]

After leaving the music business, Fields co-authored Dream On, the biography of Warhol actress Cyrinda Foxe, the wife of Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler. He subsequently wrote Linda McCartney: A Portrait,^[10] which was turned into a television miniseries by CBS.^{[citation needed]}

In 2015, Fields discovered East London punk band False Heads in Camden and has been highly influential in the band's career and growing success,^[11] naming them as "the future of rock and roll".^[12]

Fields was one of the first people in the music business to be openly gay.^[13]

He currently lives in New York City.