David (Was) Weiss, Sweetpea Atkinson
and Don (Was) Fagenson: Reteaming for
a reunion tout; dubbed by the brothers
Was as the "Life After Meth!' tour.

Was (Not Was) reunites for New Year's Eve appearance at Royal Oak Music Theatre.

LYNNE KONSTANTIN
Special to the Jewish News

T

12/24
2004

36

his is not the first time a story about Don
Fagenson (aka Don Was) has appeared in the
Detroit Jewish News. Before the Oak Park High
School graduate co-founded the 1980s band Was (Not
Was) with friend David Weiss (aka David Was), before
he produced award-winning albums for Bob Dylan,
the Rolling Stones and Bonnie Raitt, before he won a
Grammy for Producer of the Year in 1994, even before
he became bar mitzvah at Temple Emanu-El, he was
discovered at age 8 by our own Danny Raskin.
"I think it was 1961. I was in the third grade," says
Fagenson. "I don't even remember what I had done
that was so extraordinary. I probably won a race on the
swim team or something. But I do remember that I
was 'It' for that week, and then I had to deal with the
depressing fact that someone else was going to be 'It'
the next week."
A heavy lesson for a third-grader. But pondering
fame and its existential consequences at such a tender
age may have set a precedent for Fagenson, as the

theme would recur later in his career.
Best friends since the seventh grade, Fagenson and
Weiss went their separate ways after college.
Weiss became a jazz critic for the L.A. Herald.
Examiner."When we were kids," says Weiss, our par-
ents would drive us down to Cobo Hall, and we'd see
Coltrane, Monk, Davis. I'm sure we were the only
white, Jewish 13-year-olds from the suburbs there.
"One time, Dizzy Gillespie zipped down the hand-
powered window of his limo and put his hand out for
us to give him some skin."
Around 1980, Fagenson beckoned for his friend's
return, partly inspired by the national success of the
Knack, the band of fellow former Oak Parker Doug
Fieger (it is his brother, attorney Geoffrey, whom
Fagenson thanks for helping him receive custody of his
children when his first marriage ended).
"Don called me with some urgency," says Weiss.
"He'd been toner boy at a copy place and playing bass
at a cocktail lounge in Madison Heights and was losing
his mind. He had identified a particularly helpless
looking girl at a dry cleaner's and was contemplating a
heist. To save him from a life of crime, I came home.

"We cut a couple of songs. I returned to L.A.,
slipped some Herald letterhead into the typewriter,
wrote a letter of endorsement for our new band, and
bada-bing, we had a record deal at Island," he says,
both awed and somewhat amused.
The band, fronted by Sweetpea Atkinson, was a
funky, punky, jazzy mix of all that had been happening
in Detroit at that time, and often featured those locals
who inspired the group, including George Clinton and
the MC5.
The band eventually released four albums, one of
which was listed in Rolling Stone magazine as one of
the "Top 100 Albums of the '80s."
As Fagenson's side career as producer gained momen-
tum, Was (Not Was) eventually parted ways, in 1993.
Since then, Weiss became involved in television and
film projects, including The X-Files movie soundtrack,
titled Songs in the Key ofX (his title, "thank you very
much"). Fagenson took a trip down the dark side.
"Every person is programmed to go into serious self-
evaluation in the early 40s," he says. "I lost my mind
when I was 48. And the thing that set it off was the
Grammy.

