Brownstein: Montreal music scene loses another unforgettable character

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He was a soft-spoken, gentle giant of a figure, distinguished by his early-Beatles-style mop of hair and an ever-present smile on his face. But Bill Rotary, who died at 85 last weekcertainly had his place in Montreal’s pantheon of memorable characters.

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Rotari played an integral role in two of the most significant chapters of cultural life here. He took care of the details of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-in for peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in May 1969 and their recording of Give Peace a Chance. He was also credited with helping launch Céline Dion by signing her to a CBS record deal.

But Rotari rarely talked about his own accomplishments. He was far more interested in talking up baseball. A diehard Expos fan, Rotari, who played in the Braves organization, was devastated when the team left town. A fixture behind home plate at almost every game at the Big O, he would implore friends to buy season tickets to stave off the team’s departure, and many of us did. Sadly, not available.

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“My job was to promote others, not myself,” he would invariably say.

Rotari, who spent most of his working life as a record exec for Capitol/EMI, CBS and Sony Music, finally opened up about his involvement with the bed-in almost 40 years after the event.

“Everyone seems to have their version of events and lots of people are taking credit for putting the event together,” he told me in a 2008 Montreal Gazette interview. “It’s become like Woodstock. I don’t even think some of the people who said they were there were there. There have been so many misconceptions.”

In 1969, Rotari was regional managing director of Capitol/EMI, the distributor of Lennon’s music here. A few days prior to his arrival, Rotari received a call from his head office informing him of Lennon and Ono’s plans to stage a bed-in. He was instructed to greet the couple upon arrival at the Queen E. and was transferred money to make sure there was proper security for the anticipated frenzy.

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Rotari spent a few quiet hours with Lennon and Ono in their suite before they slipped into their jammies and got into bed.

“It was nuts. Anyone who was anyone wanted to be at their bedside, from Tommy Smothers to right-wing cartoonist Al Capp, who mixed it up with John over their huge political differences,” Rotari said. “In spite of all the commotion in the room, though, John was in his own space and kept singing this song softly to himself. A few days later, he informed us that he wanted to record a song in the suite and asked if we could provide him with recording equipment.”

Rotari called every recording studio in town, but all were closed for the weekend. He finally got lucky, landing up-and-coming recording engineer André Perry, who at first thought it was all a gag.

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Turned out the tune Lennon had been singing to himself was Give Peace a Chance.

“John wanted as many voices as possible for the refrain. In addition to all the people jammed in the room, hotel security rounded up people who were hiding out all over the hotel. They thought they were getting busted. Little did they realize they would be part of the recording. It was just insane. Along with these people, there was Smothers, Petula Clark, Derek Taylor and even Timothy Leary. There were hardly any instruments around, so people in the room starting kicking doors in rhythm and playing whatever utensils they could find.”

Somehow it all came together. But what really riled Rotari — who also provided background vocals on the song — was those he never knew or saw there later taking credit for everything from arranging the room to setting up the recording session, with some having even written books saying so.

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“We were his record company. Why would he go to a complete stranger to set everything up? It seems, though, that some will do anything to catch a bit of fame.”

Lennon and Ono returned to Montreal not long after to promote Give Peace a Chance. Rotari set up the press conference and, prior to it, presented Lennon with a Habs sweater. That was a tad ironic, since Rotari had one major character fault: he was a lifelong Bruins fan.

Rotari touched base again with Ono in 2009 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for the opening of Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko, an exhibition that marked the 40th anniversary of their bed-in.

He eventually moved on to CBS, which later became Sony Music.

“I ran into René Angélil at a burger joint in the early ’80s, just a chance meeting. I had known René before he had managed Céline, from his early days when he was singing with the Baronets. I had been singing with my own group at the time, the Favorites. Over burgers, I told René that before re-signing Céline to their old record label de ella, he should consider meeting me at CBS to have a chat about her de ella coming there.

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Angélil did, and Dion never looked back.

Rotari, who semi-retired from the business 20 years ago, never looked back either, although his dream had been to make it as a singer-songwriter. He performed in choirs as a kid and later with the Favorites. I have kept at it, recording the tune On a Christmas Night in 2020.

Not surprisingly, he never called to promote it, much less even mention it. But he did send some tapes of a singer he believed he had a shot at becoming a major star one day, which we would have discussed over a post-pandemic lunch that never happened.

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