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| A 1964 photo of the Whisky A-Go-Go, with a dancer on the raised stage over the crowd (from the indispensable Alison Martino and her site Vintage LA) |
Hollywood likes to style itself as the center of the universe, and when it comes to mass culture that's not far wrong. It's one thing to talk about art and artists and how they form up into a larger whole, when a few creative individuals find something that catches on for more than just their friends, because sometimes that fades away. Rock music had begun in the 1950s, gotten popular, gotten trivial and seemed to be fading away. Yet some unexpected developments, namely John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bob Dylan, returned rock music to cultural prominence. So it's no small thing to look at when the realization that rock music wasn't just for kids was apparent to the entertainment establishment. Conveniently, however, Hollywood itself--or at least nearby West Hollywood--provided a petri dish of its own for us to examine in 1966.
In the 1960s, West Hollywood was just over the Los Angeles county line. Hollywood itself had been absorbed into the city of Los Angeles in the 1930s in order to guarantee access to water. West Hollywood was centered on Santa Monica Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard, East of Beverly Hills and West of Hollywood proper. The infamous "Sunset Strip" was Los Angeles and Hollywood's own entertainment district, out of reach of the Los Angeles City Council, zoning restrictions and the LAPD. Many nightclubs on the Sunset Strip have a lengthy history under multiple owners, from Prohibition through the 40s, into the 60s and then the sleazy 70s, since West Hollywood could not be restricted by Los Angeles. For rock and roll, no West Hollywood establishment could ever be more central than the infamous Whisky-A-Go-Go on 8901 Sunset Boulevard.
The Whisky A-Go-Go opened in January 1964 and was an instant sensation, befitting a hip joint in the World's entertainment capital. For all its importance, however, the Whisky underwent a profound change in early 1966 that has largely been unnoticed. This change reflected a profound change in the nature of the audience for rock music, as rock evolved from dance music for teens into serious music for adults. Whisky proprietor Elmer Valentine had two Hollywood clubs, The Trip and the Whisky-A-Go-Go. In early 1966, he changed the booking policy of the Whisky to reflect that of The Trip. Valentine's evolution was reflected by the fact that he also started advertising in the UCLA Daily Bruin, a sign that he needed to attract college students.
This post will look at the bookings of the The Trip and the Whisky A-Go-Go from January through May 1966. We are able to see in real time how the Whisky was at ground zero for the rock audience, and how the West Hollywood nightclub foretold what was to come for rock music in the 1960s.
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| A 1964 Julian Wasser photo of the Whisky A-Go-Go (via Vintage LA) |
The Trip and The Whisky-A-Go-Go
Most major American cities in the 1960s had restrictive and eccentric laws about music, dancing and drinking, mostly left over from Prohibition or World War 2. These laws account for why the development of live rock and roll varied so much around the country. In Portland, OR, for example, it was not legal to present live music in a bar. In San Francisco, music could be presented, but establishments needed a permit to allow dancing, even if they did not serve liquor. Manhattan, conversely, had no such restrictions. The Peppermint Lounge, opening in 1958 at 128 W. 45th Street, was the home for the global Twist craze. Celebrities flocked to the club to dance and drink, and various house bands became famous, like Joey Dee and The Starliters. The Beatles had even visited the Peppermint Lounge in 1964.
The Whisky-A-Go-Go was opened by Elmer Valentine, a transplanted Chicago cop, and a couple of partners. Valentine, a legendary raconteur, had a story that the name came from a club in Paris, but of course there had been a Whiskey-A-Go-Go club in Chicago (at Rush and Chestnut) since 1958. In any case, while the West Hollywood Whisky was supposed to be a "discoteque," playing records for patrons to dance, they had live bands from the opening night. For the first two years, the Whisky featured guitarist Johnny Rivers and his trio, seven night a week. Los Angeles apparently had a proscription against clubs being named for alcohol, so Valentine spelled the name "Whisky" without an "e."
What made the Whisky a sensation, however, also stemmed from the very first week. The idea was to play records between Rivers's sets, so that patrons could keep dancing, and Valentine had the inspiration to have a young woman dj. According to Valentine, the scheduled dj could not show up--her mother wouldn't let her--so the Whisky's "cigarette girl" filled in. Not only did she spin the hits in a raised booth above the dance floor, she danced up a storm while the record played. Soon after, Valentine hired a couple of other dancers, and the mini-skirted dancers were an attraction in themselves. You can debate whether the Whisky "invented" Go-Go dancing, but they sure provided the name. Soon after the Whisky opened, clubs all over America had "Go-Go Dancers," wearing mini-skirts and inspiring patrons to work up a sweat.
The Whisky A-Go-Go was a sensation. Hollywood had the cultural firepower to match the Twist craze from Manhattan. Celebrities like Steve McQueen were photographed at the club dancing to Johnny Rivers, and Go-Go Dancers in fringed skirts and big white boots were always in the background. Imperial Records released Johnny Rivers At The Whisky-A-Go-Go in February 1964. The album went Gold and would reach #13 on the Billboard chart. Rivers's hit single "Memphis" would reach #2. Rivers would go on to record 4 more live albums at the Whisky (as well as studio material). So everyone knew about the Whisky and Go-Go dancers, even if they had never been there. Smokey Robinson would write "Going To A Go-Go" for the Miracles, and it was a big hit in late 1965. The Whisky A-Go-Go was Happening, it was a Thing, it was West Hollywood's most famous destination.
The Trip, 8572 West Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA
The Whisky-A-Go-Go became a huge Hollywood sensation. By 1965, Johnny Rivers was now a big recording star, too, and sometimes went on tour. When Rivers wasn't there, the trio playing the dance music was led by a Tulsa guitarist named John Cale. No, not that John Cale, he's from Wales via Greenwich Village, and he played viola. The Tulsa John Cale was an aspiring guitarist and songwriter, but mostly made his living as a recording engineer. For various reasons, Elmer Valentine gave him the stage name "JJ Cale," which remained with him throughout his career. Whether it was Rivers or Cale, however, the Whisky always had the same act seven nights a week.
For all the success of the Whisky, however, there was something else going on in popular music, and Elmer Valentine surely knew it. Johnny Rivers had sold some records, sure, but what was popular in 1965 was The Beatles. Recording artists in London, New York and California were writing their own songs and singing three-part harmonies. Now, sure, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were great dance bands and covered Chuck Berry songs and the like, but that was an add-on. It was "Hard Day's Night" and "Satisfaction" that made the teenage world turn.
On top of the Beatles and the British Invasion, rock music had an unexpected incursion from our own shores, in the form of Bob Dylan. Dylan was the premier folksinger of the early 1960s, with his serious songs providing a contrast to songs like "I Want To Hold Your Hand." Now here was Dylan, going "full electric" on "Like A Rolling Stone" and performing with the Butterfield Blues Band at the Newport Folk Festival. Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Byrds and the Rolling Stones were making popular music serious, and they were doing it by making their own music, not just as record company puppets.
In September of 1965, Elmer Valentine and two of his partners at the Whisky took over a nearby club called The Tiger's Tail, joining owner Carl Greenhouse in a partnership. The Tiger's Tail had opened in April of 1965 at 8572 Sunset (at Londonderry Place), on the site of a former jazz club called The Crescendo. The Tiger's Tail waitresses wore low-cut "tiger" outfits, clearly inspired by Playboy bunnies. Local "name" djs spun records, and some bands played too, including Sonny & Cher and The Turtles. The dj model was slumping after a while, however, and Valentine and his partners had a new concept.
In September, The Tiger's Tail became The Trip. The name itself was pretty forward looking. More importantly for our chronicle, however, was that the booking policy of The Trip was that there were new bookings each week. Every week or two, a headliner would come through and play, and then move on. The acts broadly fell into the category of "Folk-Rock," at least as it was understood in Fall '65, but all of the bands played their own music. While of course some of these groups covered various songs, the covers themselves were subject to the band's interpretation, such as when The Byrds played "Turn, Turn, Turn" or "Mr. Tambourine Man," not just copping licks from Chuck Berry because they made for good dancing. The very first booking at The Trip was Barry McGuire, who had scored with the song "Eve Of Destruction," who performed with The Grass Roots, who also had their own hit with "Where Were You When I Needed You."
The other innovation at The Trip was booking soul acts, mostly from Motown. Today, we take for granted that one of the principal audiences for popular soul bands was young white people, but booking white rock and black soul bands on consecutive weeks was not typical in the rest of the country. Other acts at The Trip from the Fall of 1965 included The Byrds (October 4-17), The Leaves (later in October), The Miracles (November 11-17), Marvin Gaye (November 18-27), Lovin' Spoonful (December 1-9) and The Mothers (later in December). As cool as it could get for late '65.
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| The marquee for The Trip, at 8572 Sunset Boulevard, around February 1966 (via Vintage LA) |
January 1966: A Change Is Gonna Come
The Whisky-A-Go-Go was America's best known and most popular dance club, but after less than two years its time was past. In the middle of 1965, Valentine had tried to franchise the Whisky to different cities. There were Whisky-A-Go-Go clubs in San Francisco, San Jose, Denver and Atlanta. All of them flopped. Valentine never mentioned them again--and he was interviewed a lot--but whatever the plan had been, it didn't work (I have written the only substantial attempts to understand the San Francisco and San Jose area clubs, while Denver and Atlanta remain mysterious).
In early 1966, however, Elmer Valentine quietly changed the booking policy of the Whisky-A-Go-Go to that of The Trip. Johnny Rivers was no longer the nightly entertainment. A new band headlined the club every week or two. Sometimes an opening act might have a persistent booking to ensure that there was live music every night, but the new look Whisky was about the new look recording industry. Rock and roll was dance music, sure, but it was also music for adults. That was important, since adults could buy a drink, and that was the basis of the Whisky's profits.
Rock music was changing, and fast, and the Whisky was not only reading that change, it was influencing it too. The Whisky went from being a celebrity hang-out for movie stars to the seismometer of the rock music industry. If something was hopping, you could find out how much by checking them out at the Whisky-A-Go-Go. The Whisky and the Fillmores pretty much told the tale for what was happening in the American rock market. In early 1966, what was happening was The Trip, so the Whisky hopped on board.
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| Van Nuys Times January 14, 1966 |
January 13-28, 1966 Whisky A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: Young Rascals/The Enemys (Thursday>Friday)
The first surviving whiff of the new and improved Whisky-A-Go-Go was a wire service note in early 1966. It said "On the Sunset Strip...a glittering re-opening last night of the renowned Whisky a Go Go featuring the Young Rascals, The Enemys and the sprightly Go Go'ettes chorus line...The Whisky's sister club chirps up with The Byrds and Paul Butterfield's Blues Band."
It appears that the Whisky had closed temporarily in December '65. In 1965 and '66, a Los Angeles ordnance allowed clubs to obtain a "youth dancing license" to allow 18-year old patrons to dance at clubs that served alcohol (clubs without alcohol could allow 15 and up). Because they were considered a restaurant, the Whisky still allowed a minimum age of 18. This meant that a 22-year-old man could have a 19-year old date, no small thing. Hypothetically, at least, the 19-year old couldn't drink, but of course she wouldn't have been buying the drinks. Initially at least, The Trip appeared to have a 21-year-old minimum, but at least by February, ads for The Trip offered food and thus 18-year-olds were welcome.
The Byrds and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, at The Trip, were as cool as any two American rock bands could be. The Byrds' second album, Turn Turn Turn, had been released by Columbia in December. The title track had been a hit since October. The album would peak at #17 on Billboard, but the single went all the way to #1. As for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Elektra had released their debut album in October 1965. More famously, most of the Butterfield Blues Band had backed Bob Dylan when he had shocked the folk world by "going electric" at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965.
The original Paul Butterfield Blues Band was probably the best live rock band in America at this time, and everywhere they played, stunned young folk musicians dropped their acoustics and plugged in. Mike Bloomfield was America's first true guitar hero, and Elvin Bishop was an underrated player, too. They combined with Butterfield's slashing harmonica to make an amazing front line. The rhythm section was African-American (Jerome Arnold on bass and Billy Davenport on drums), and the impact of a multi-racial band can not be overstated. The Butterfield band would play the Fillmore two months later (March 25-April 1) and they all but single-handedly upended the fledgling San Francisco music scene by being so good.
The Byrds and Butterfield got a glowing review in the Los Angeles Times from critic Charles Champlin. This was no small thing, as it elevated the bands to the status of artists worthy of review, rather than merely teen celebrities. Champlin did complain about the "deafening" volume of the bands. The Byrds were the premier rock band in Los Angeles at this time, and they were booked at The Trip. The Butterfield band, too, had an underground cool status that stood out.
Over at the Whisky, meanwhile, were the Young Rascals. The Young Rascals were a white R&B band from New York, signed to Atlantic, which hitherto had been an anchor label for black artists. They had just released their first single "I Aint' Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore." Though not a major hit, it had established the band. The Young Rascals first big hit, a cover of "Good Lovin'" would be released in February. The Rascals (as they were later known) were a terrific live band, and here they were right at the start of their career. It was this kind of booking that made the Whisky. Hollywood loved to see the Next Big Thing, right before they broke.
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| The Whisky A-Go-Go marquee showing The Enemys, sometime in 1966 |
Opening act The Enemys featured singer Cory Wells. A few years later, Wells would go on to become one of the lead singers of Three Dog Night.
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| Wilson Pickett had scored a big hit for Stax in 1965 with "In The Midnight Hour" |
January 17-30, 1966 The Trip, W. Hollywood, CA: Wilson Pickett/Paul Butterfield Blues Band/MFQ (Monday>Sunday)
The Byrds ended their booking at The Trip, but they were replaced by no less than Wilson Pickett. The Wicked Pickett, as he was known, had scored a #1 R&B hit with "In The Midnight Hour" in 1965. His new hit single was "534-6789," which had just been released on Atlantic. Here was a top soul artist playing at a rock club in Hollywood. This seems normal to us now, as white people love old soul hits, but it was cutting edge then.
It's surprising that there were three acts on the bill. One characteristic of these lengthy bookings was that the headliners did not always play every night. If Pickett (or Butterfield) had a better booking, they simply played it, skipping a set or the entire night at the club. Advance tickets weren't really part of the deal, so a sign on the marquee sufficed if the booked headliner wasn't playing that night. The goal of The Trip or the Whisky was to ensure that there was someone playing live every night, famous or not. So multiple bands on the bill ensured that someone would always be playing each night.
The Modern Folk Quartet had formed in Hawaii in 1962, and had moved to Los Angeles and then Greenwich Village. They had released albums in 1963 and '64, with sophisticated arrangements and harmonies. The band name was intentionally evocative of the Modern Jazz Quartet. By Fall '65, the band had returned to Los Angeles, and were playing a brand of folk-rock. The group featured Cyrus Faryar on guitar and many other instruments, Jerry Yester and Henry Diltz on guitars, and Chip Douglas on bass. They had added Eddie Hoh on drums, and were "officially" known as the MFQ (for Modern Folk Quintet).
The MFQ were managed by Herb Cohen, who also managed Frank Zappa and others, and there were various attempts to record that only led to a few singles. The band broke up in July 1966. Most of the band members went on to other kinds of success (Douglas produced the Monkees, Diltz became a famous photographer) but MFQ were somewhat lost to history.
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| The Mothers at The Whisky A-Go-Go, circa 1966 (via Vintage LA) |
January 31-Febuary 2, 1966 The Trip, W. Hollywood, CA: The Mothers (Monday-Wednesday)
The Mothers were advertised for three days, but there's some good evidence that they played a longer stint than that. Probably they played through the weekend (February 6) and were replaced by the Rising Sons the next week. Frank Zappa and the Mothers had not yet recorded their debut album, and Freak Out! would not be released until the end of June. An anxious MGM Records changed the band's name from The Mothers to The Mothers Of Invention. Eyewitnesses say that The Trip and other clubs would put "The Muthers" on the marquee.
In early 1966, The Mothers included Ray Collins on vocals, Roy Estrada on bass and vocals and Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group) on drums, all three from the Pomona band The Soul Giants that Zappa had joined and taken over the previous year. Guitarist Henry Vestine had just left the band, and was briefly replaced at The Trip by Jim Guercio. Vestine would end up in Canned Heat, while Guercio would go on to produce bands like Chicago Transit Authority. Singer Tim Buckley met Jimmy Carl Black at The Trip, who in turn introduced him to Herb Cohen, who became Buckley's manager.
Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs were right on the cusp of the old and new music industries. Domingo Samudio (b. 1937 in Dallas) mixed classic rock and roll with Tex-Mex conjunto rhythms, and recorded his classic "Wooly Bully" at no less than Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis in 1964. MGM picked it up in 1965, and it became a massive, million-selling single. Today we might call it "World Music" but at the time it was just rock and roll for dancing. Samudio toured with various "Pharaohs," and there were some follow-ups to "Wooly Bully." Still, he peaked at the beginning of his career.
The Rising Sons were a hip blues band, in some senses a Los Angeles counterpart to the Butterfield Blues Band. Lead singer Taj Mahal (b. 1942 as Henry St. Clair Fredericks Jr) had relocated to the West Coast from Massachusetts in 1964. On the East Coast, Taj Mahal had a band with singer and guitarist Jesse Lee Kincaid. Out West, the pair were joined by a teenage Ry Cooder, up until then playing blues on acoustic guitar. The Rising Sons "went electric," with Gary Marker on bass and Ed Cassidy on drums. They played "car clubs" and other gigs outside any Hollywood mainstream, since the industry couldn't grasp a multi-racial electric blues band.
By 1966, The Rising Sons had been signed to Columbia. They would record an album produced by Terry Melcher (Doris Day's son), but it was not released until many decades later. Taj Mahal's 1967 debut album on Columbia, with Cooder on guitar (along with Jesse Ed Davis) was a whiff of how far ahead the Rising Sons really were. Cooder, though young, had a unique understanding of guitar tunings, and would be a huge influence on Duane Allman, Lowell George and Keith Richards.
I think Sam The Sham played two weeks, but The Mothers opened the first week and the Rising Sons opened the second week. The Rising Sons also continued on for another week after that, opening for the Temptations (see below). By the time of this booking, Ed Cassidy had injured his wrist, and had been replaced by Kevin Kelley (Kelley was the cousin of Byrds's bassist Chris Hillman).
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| UCLA Daily Bruin February 11, 1966 |
There is no clearer marker for the status upgrade of rock and roll than the ads in UCLA's Daily Bruin. UCLA was a substantial university in every respect, with a huge student body. Southern California being what it was, however, it's fair to say that far more students in UCLA had access to cars than at most schools. While UCLA was located in the Westwood district, the Daily Bruin had advertisements for stores, restaurants and entertainment all over Western Los Angeles, a clear indicator that students weren't just walking into town like it was some Northeastern college enclave.
Every Friday edition of the Daily Bruin, not surprisingly, featured ads for live entertainment playing over the weekend and beyond. Because the Daily Bruin was pretty much only available on campus, we know exactly who the newspaper was aimed at, in a way that doesn't apply to the Los Angeles Times or even the underground LA Free Press. College students were 18-22 years old, graduate students a bit older, and young men were looking to invite young women to go out with them, whether on a date or as a group. So the entertainment ads were focused directly on that readership.
Prior to February 1966, live rock music wasn't advertised in the Friday Daily Bruin. The live music ads were for folk and jazz, both attractive and respectable genres for young men looking to woo the co-ed of their choice. In the February 11, 1966 edition, for example (above), Shelly's Manne Hole was an establishment run by and featuring veteran session drummer Shelly Manne, just 24 minutes and 8 miles from UCLA, in Hollywood proper. The headline act this weekend was singer Carmen McCrae. On Mondays, Ruth Price sings with the Dave Grusin Trio. If you google, I assure you that you will find that Dave Grusin is a monster pianist, but that wasn't being emphasized here. The jazz would be good, but with singers there would be popular songs tastefully covered, not just a bunch of soloists wailing over no discernible melody.
Over at The Troubadour, just twelve minutes and 4 1/2 miles from UCLA, but very near the Whisky, there was Buffy Sainte-Marie. Now Buffy Saint-Marie is a fine performer, and a serious one too, so a young college man could impress his girlfriend with the idea that he's thoughtful. They would be followed by Judy Collins and then the Smothers Brothers. Both acts were proud of their folk traditions while in fact emphasizing that they were "entertainers." In 1966, the Smothers Brothers were a year away from their infamous CBS variety show, but they had already appeared regularly on network TV.
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| Daily Bruin February 11, 1966 |
February 4-20, 1966 Whisky A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: Paul Butterfield Blues Band/The Leaves (Friday>Sunday)
The significant ad in the February 11 Daily Bruin was the joint ad for the Whisky and The Trip. The ad would run every Friday through May. Because of the way newspaper graphics worked at the time, the design of the ad was identical each week, with different group names and sometimes other text inserted.
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| The marquee for the Whisky a Go Go, with the "y" disabled. Alison Martino of Vintage LA reported that the rumor was there was a trademark dispute, and the y remained silent until it was resolved. |
For a reason I don't understand, the Whisky ad was headlined as "WHISK a' GO GO." It's not a typo, not if they ran it for four more months. Why elide the word "whisky"? Alison Martino, proprietor of the indispensable Vintage LA suite of sites, points out that the "y" on the Whisky marquee was blacked out for several months. The rumor on the Strip was that there was a trademark dispute with the original Paris club. This seems extremely unlikely--Paris trademarks would hardly affect Los Angeles County--and also exactly the sort of thing Elmer Valentine would say. The various "franchised" Whisky outlets were all failing in 1966, so perhaps there was a dispute in the air. In any case, according to Martino, the "y" stayed blacked out until the dispute was reportedly resolved.
More culturally intriguing is the way The Trip is shown as
ehtT
R
I
P
The reversed -e-h-t mirrors the marquee. Today we look at it and think, well, given the graphic limitations, it's an attempt to be "trippy" and has a vaguely stoned aspect to it. While LSD was still legal in California, few people really knew about it, and fewer still had actually taken it. Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which immortalized concepts like "tripping" would not be published until 1968. Yet there was already some notion in the culture that "The Trip" was about altering perception.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who had been second on the bill at The Trip, were moved over to headline at The Whisky for most of February. They had just been well-reviewed at The Trip by the Los Angeles Times (see above), and now they were moving over. Even college students read the LA Times in 1966.
The Leaves were another pioneering Sunset Strip band. The members had all been students at San Fernando Valley State College (now Cal State Northridge), and initially played surf and dance music for fraternity parties and the like. When the British Invasion and then The Byrds hit, The Leaves switched to a more folk-rock style. The Leaves had replaced The Byrds in 1965 at Ciro's, and they had played The Trip in late 1965. The band actually recorded for Pat Boone's label, and rather infamously, their "logo" was a marijuana plant leaf, an early "If You Know, You Know" moment.
The Leaves were the first Hollywood band to record "Hey Joe," although Love and The Byrds were already performing it live. The Leaves released it in 1965 and re-recorded it for release in early '66. It flopped both times. By May 1966, however, "Hey Joe" would become a big hit for The Leaves, and it is the song they are most remembered for.
Any Bruins who went to see Sam The Sham at The Trip would have seen the Rising Sons, another blues band with a multi-racial lineup. Rising Sons didn't have the national impact that the Butterfield band did, but they added to the air of cool hipness that permeated The Trip.
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| Daily Bruin February 11, 1966 |
There was another ad for a rock club in the February 11 Daily Bruin, because rock and roll was in the air. This was an ad for what appears to have been a go-go style club on the theme of Batman. The Batman show had debuted on ABC-tv on January 12, 1966, starring Adam West. The show was temporarily a huge sensation, with two episodes a week, so there were 120 episodes in two years (the show was canceled after March 14 1968). All over the country, there efforts to capture the TV show's camp ambiance.
All I know about the Los Angeles Bat Cave is the ad, but it tells a lot. It says "BAT girls BAT dancing BAT beer and BAT music--live" so it is clearly a version of the Whisky A-Go-Go using the Batman theme. 3115 Pico Blvd is about 10 minutes (6 miles) from the UCLA campus. Today, the address is across the street from the Santa Monica Trader Joe's. The fine print says "BAT things are happening...after The Game" so it's clearly directed at college students, but of drinking age.
One of the Whisky-A-Go-Go franchises had opened in a suburb of San Jose, in late 1965. It failed within months. In January, the 11-year old son of the club owner persuaded his Dad to re-open the club on a Batman theme with the name Wayne Manor. I have detailed the genesis of the club here, and we have a complete list of acts who played Wayne Manor here. Interestingly, there was another Bay Area club called The Bat Cave in suburban San Mateo, about 20 miles North of Wayne Manor and nearer to SF. I know nothing else of the San Mateo Bat Cave, but it's plausible that it had a connection to the Los Angeles one.
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| Daily Bruin February 18, 1966 |
February 15-27, 1966 The Trip, W Hollywood, CA: The Temptations/Rising Sons (Tuesday>Sunday)
The Temptations had formed in Detroit in 1960, and in 1964 they had scored a #1 hit single with Smokey Robinson's iconic "My Girl." Motown Records had numerous fine singers, but musicians and fans often consider the five Temptations to be the best of all the label's vocal ensembles. In early 1966, the Temptations had just released"Get Ready." Their single would reach #1 on the Billboard R&B charts, but only #29 on the pop charts (in 1970 the group Rare Earth would have an even bigger hit with the song). The Temptations were amazing singers, and like all Motown acts of the era were great performers. In early 1966, a black soul group headlining a white rock venue was cutting edge territory indeed.
On Sunday (February 27) there was a 5pm matinee at The Trip. Very likely this was an "all-ages" show, no liquor served, for the high school crowd.
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| Daily Bruin Feb 25 |
The Leaves took over the headline slot at the Whisky, and were joined by the group Love. Love, led by singer and guitarist Arthur Lee, had existed in some form since 1964. Initially they had played R&B, but Love had seen The Byrds and was inspired to play in a more folk-rock style. They had changed their name to the Grass Roots, but subsequently changed to the name Love by late '65. The fashionable Lee was friends with Jimi Hendrix, and Lee's stylish multi-colored psychedelic look was a direct influence on Hendrix's style as well. Love had become a popular band locally, playing at various clubs on the Sunset Strip throughout 1965.
Love had been signed to Elektra Records after label head Jac Holzman had heard the band perform their version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Little Red Book" in a Sunset Strip nightclub. Love had learned it from the Manfred Mann recording in the movie What's New Pussycat. Love had actually gotten the chords wrong--they had learned it from watching the movie--but it didn't matter. Their single was probably just starting to get played on the radio when they started their booking at the Whisky. The single was officially released in March, as was Love's debut album. The single would go to #1 in Los Angeles (though just #52 nationally), making Love a local legend.
With a huge local hit and Lee's fashion sense, Love was happening on the Sunset Strip. The Whisky A-Go-Go had booked the band right before they broke, and no message could be clearer: if you want to see what's going to be happening, check out the Whisky. The original incarnation of Love, though legendary, never performed outside of California, and had disintegrated by 1968 after their third album (Forever Changes), but the Whisky had staked its claim for being Ground Zero for the Next Big Thing.
In this week's Daily Bruin ad, the "Go Go Ettes" are not mentioned. Women in miniskirts were still dancing in platforms above the crowd, but the nickname had been dropped.
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| The London Records (UK) 1965 picture sleeve 45 of the Sir Douglas Quintet's "She's About A Mover" |
March 2-6, 1966 The Trip, W. Hollywood, CA: Sir Douglas Quintet (Wednesday-Sunday)
The Sir Douglas Quintet had been formed in San Antonio, TX in late 1964. Producer Huey Meaux combined the best young musicians in San Antonio and presented them as a "British Invasion" band, pretending that lead singer and guitarist Doug Sahm and his bandmates were English. They scored a huge hit with the lively "She's About A Mover" in February of 1965. The song had a rolling Tex-Mex beat provided by Augie Meyers' Vox Continental organ, and would reach #15 on Billboard. Thanks to oldies and commercials, the sound is still familiar worldwide.
In late January 1966, members of the Sir Douglas Quintet were busted for pot (by Joe Arpaio!) in Corpus Christi, TX at a time when marijuana possession was a serious felony. Lawyers managed to get probation, but as a consequence Doug Sahm and some other members of the band moved the Sir Douglas Quintet to re-start the band in California (Augie Meyers stayed in Texas, and he too had a version of the band, and there was yet another version that toured the Midwest--only in the '60s). The booking at The Trip was the Sir Douglas Quintet's first gig when they arrived in Southern California.
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| The Band's With Me, by Sally Mann Romano (Big Gorilla Books, 2018) |
Decades later, it is difficult to comprehend how the Sunset Strip rock scene was blazing new trails for art and culture. I have a clinical approach--being me--describing the bookings, the bands and their records as they stood at the time of their performances. But I can't capture the excitement on the ground for the people who were there. While they had less perspective, down in the center of it all, the young people in the bands or in the audience still knew they were in the middle of something.
We are lucky, however, they we have an eyewitness account of the fun and the madness, from somebody who was right there at The Trip. Sally Mann Romano, then just Sally Mann (and, briefly, Sloan Williams), came to West Hollywood from Texas in February 1966 in a car with members of the Sir Douglas Quintet. It seems fantastic, but Sally, whose boyfriend was the road manager of the Sir Douglas Quintet, drove from Texas to West Hollywood with members of the Quintet to join Doug Sahm in Southern California. Also along for the ride was Quintet drummer Johnny Perez's grandmother, and they were all in a big station wagon. The ensemble took a quick detour to Mexico, so Sally and her boyfriend could get married, since taking 17-year old girls across state lines was potentially illegal.
Sally Mann Romano wrote a book and, boy, is it a book. The Band's With Me (by Sally Mann Romano, Big Gorilla Books) was published in 2018, and I recommend it to everyone. The story of the Sir Douglas Quintet and Sally's trip to Hollywood is just chapters 2 and 3, but they are worthy of a Netflix series by themselves. I can't summarize the rest of her story, since you wouldn't believe it anyway, and the next several chapters are equal parts madness and legend (Sally ends up on the cover of Rolling Stone, marries Jefferson Airplane's drummer, Grace Slick was her best friend, and so on). But she captures the wonder and excitement of the Sunset Strip in Spring 1966. My dry list of bands and bookings only hints at the spiraling supernova of 60s rock and roll in West Hollywood.
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| Daily Bruin March 4, 1966 |
With the departure of Love and The Leaves from the Whisky, two more rising local bands filled the bill. At this distant remove, both the Hard Times and the Grass Roots are '60s trivia answers, but at the time it's important to note that neither of this week's groups had any more status than Love or The Leaves had the week before. The Leaves would not succeed with "Hey Joe" until May, and while Love would start to score with "Little Red Book" later in March, at the time when they had been booked at the Whisky they were just aspiring groups that had been signed by hopeful record companies. Hard Times and the Grass Roots weren't much different, but neither of those groups now have old singles that go for big prices on Discogs.
Hard Times were a San Diego band getting their first taste of Los Angeles. They would release a number of singles in 1966 and '67, and would release an album (Blew Mind, on World Pacific) in 1967.
The Grass Roots were a different story, and what a '60s story it was. In late 1965, producers PF Sloan and Steve Barri would record and release singles using imaginary group names, to see what would hit. The song "Where Were You When I Needed You" was assigned to The Grass Roots, and became a Central California "turntable hit," meaning djs began to play it on the radio. Sloan and Barri quickly found a group to become The Grass Roots and tour around to promote the single.
Sloan and Barri hired a Bay Area R&B group called The Bedouins, winner of the Battle Of The Bands at the 1965 San Mateo Teenage Fair. Bedouins singer Bill Fulton overdubbed a lead vocal on "Where Were You When I Needed You," and the single had been re-released so the Bedouins could support it as the Grass Roots. Thanks to Sloan and Barri's connections, the Grass Roots played what few rock gigs there were. The Grass Roots had opened The Trip in October '65, backing Barry McGuire ("Eve Of Destruction" was a Sloan/Barri hit) and playing their own set. The Grass Roots also toured with Sonny & Cher, also backing them after performing their own set. The Grass Roots didn't have much material, but it didn't matter since they had been an existing band, so they could play blues, soul and rock covers as needed.
The Grass Roots story only becomes wackier after this, but I don't have time for all of it. After a falling out with Sloan and Barri, most of the former Bedouins quit, and the producers replaced them with a band from the San Fernando Valley. The "new" 1967 Grass Roots, with bassist and singer Rob Grill and guitarist Creed Bratton (later an actor) went on to considerable success, but it's simply too much to unravel here.
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| The Rising Sons, ca 1966 |
March 10-20, 1966 The Trip, W. Hollywood, CA: Martha & The Vandellas/The Rising Sons (Saturday>Tuesday)
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| Daily Bruin March 11, 1966 |
March 17-30, 1966 Whisky A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: Beau Brummels/Grass Roots (Thursday>Wednesday)
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| Daily Bruin March 18, 1966 |
March 24-31, April 1-2, 1966 The Trip, W. Hollywood, CA: Donovan/Jagged Edge/MFQ (Thursday>Saturday) All ages Matinees Saturday (26) and Sunday (27)
Donovan's appearance at The Trip was a notable event, and one of the bookings that magnified how valuable it could be to appear on the Sunset Strip even when the gig barely paid. Because The Trip would close in May (see below), it was the Whisky A-Go-Go that benefited from this dynamic, but Donovan started it off.
Scottish folksinger Donovan Leitch had first become well known from his debut single "Catch The Wind," framing Donovan as a Dylan-styled folkie. Pye Records had released "Catch The Wind" in February 1965, and the song had climbed to #4 in the UK and #23 in the States (on Hickory Records). Donovan had a few other lesser hits, and in the end of '65, he had changed management. Donovan was now managed by Ashley Kozak of NEMS (which was run by Beatles' manager Brian Epstein) and his new producer was hit-maker Mickie Most.
In December 1965, Billboard announced that Donovan had signed with Epic Records in the US. Most and Donovan were moving away from the Dylan sound and towards a genuine psychedelic feel. Donovan's next single was "Sunshine Superman," a catchy hit that featured both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, among others. Donovan was looking forward. A lawsuit by Pye Records, however, having to do with their American distribution (Pye had an agreement with Warners) would delay the release of both the single and album of Sunshine Superman until July '66.
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| Daily Bruin March 25, 1966 |
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| Donovan had a huge hit on Epic in July 1966 with "Sunshine Superman." The b-side was "The Trip," an homage of sorts to the Sunset Strip nightclub |
The single and the album Sunshine Superman were released in the States on Epic in July '66, to massive success. The song "The Trip" on that album clearly commemorates his booking at The Trip. Another track on the album, "The Fat Angel," name-checks Jefferson Airplane ("fly Jefferson Airplane/Gets you there on time") long before most fans had ever heard them. Donovan went on to sell many records and headline huge concerts through the next few years. Since Donovan didn't have a big '70s profile, his enormous stature in the '60s has been somewhat obscured by time. But Donovan was huge, and three months before he blew it open, everyone recalled that he had been playing the Sunset Strip.
Besides MFQ, who were pretty much a house band, there was a group on the bill called Jagged Edge. There were unsigned bands in Michigan and Brooklyn called Jagged Edge, but there's no hint that either of them were booked at The Trip. Presumably the Jagged Edge at The Trip were a local band, but I know nothing about them.
Christopher Hjort, who wrote the definitive Byrds chronology So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star (2008: Jawbone Books) said that Jagged Edge joined Donovan for some songs. When Donovan toured, he generally had a sort of folk-rock backing, with another acoustic guitar, some percussion and sometimes flute or piano. Since I don't know who the Jagged Edge actually were, I can't say what they might have added. Donovan always had high standards for supporting musicians, however, whoever they may have been. Possibly "Jagged Edge" was a name given to an ad hoc assemblage of local players.
On the last day of Donovan's booking at The Trip, The Byrds played a 4pm show on Sunday afternoon. Back in '66, bands had almost no equipment, so The Byrds could step in, play and load out without interfering with the set-up for Jagged Edge, MFQ and Donovan. The Byrds' afternoon gig was probably just announced on the radio, but that would have been sufficient.
April 4-10, 1966 The Trip, W. Hollywood, CA: The Byrds/MFQ (Tuesday-Sunday)
The Byrds returned to The Trip. Since their previous booking in January (see above), The Byrds had released their legendary "Eight Miles High" single. The song, released in March, was so far ahead of its time that it sounds normal to us today instead of dated. Roger McGuinn's raga-like solo on electric 12-string guitar, inspired by John Coltrane, was the forerunner of a million sixties guitar solos. A few heavy players like Mike Bloomfield were already doing this kind of thing at the Fillmore, but "Eight Miles High" was heard on AM radio in cars and bedrooms all across America.
The most important difference to fans, however, was that Gene Clark had left the band, and The Byrds were now a quartet. The Byrds' live sound wasn't critically affected. Clark was an important songwriter and vocalist, but he didn't play an important instrumental role in their live sound, and Chris Hillman was an excellent singer who simply stepped up to play a more important role in their vocal harmonies. According to various eyewitnesses, particularly their road manager Jimmi Seiter (who was not road manager until 1967), the early Byrds were not a particularly disciplined live act anyway, with inferior equipment, so the actual performances were probably on par with what had come before.
The Byrds, however, were huge stars in a way that only mid-60s rock stars could be. The five Byrds were prominently featured on albums, in TV appearances (mostly lip-synched) and in teen magazines. The departure of one of the band's key "faces" was a disruption in the process, like a star leaving a sit-com. In fact, the Byrds survived Clark's departure just fine, both musically and as a personality, but it was a real music industry question. The Byrds' success at weathering Gene Clark's departure was one of the signs that rock music was a different industry than television. This may seem obvious now, but it wasn't then. This was doubly true since The Byrds were on Columbia Records, part of the CBS entertainment machine.
Hjort quotes a variety of reviewers, and Clark's absence is a key theme. According to one reviewer, Clark came onstage to introduce the second set one night, and although he tried to leave the stage the crowd cheered until he returned. Clark sang along for the set--remember, it was probably about thirty minutes--to big applause. The issue of whether The Byrds could "survive" without him was a serious one, and perhaps the first time the personality-driven nature of 60s rock groups was tested by significant personnel changes.
A flyer had the Grass Roots as the opener instead of MFQ. Either or both were plausible.
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| Daily Bruin Apr 1 |
While Donovan and The Byrds were playing melodic folk-rock at The Trip, Otis Redding was getting down at the Whisky. In the early and mid-60s, Motown was popular with both black and white audiences, but Stax-Volt artists like Redding were considered "more black." Of course, white people liked Stax just as much, but the context here was that Otis at the Whisky would have been perceived as decidedly more down and funky than, say, Martha And The Vandellas or The Temptations. Whether that was actually true or not is beside the point, since the Whisky was about perception, and Otis Redding was showing that he could deliver the goods to a mostly young, white audience in Hollywood.
Otis Redding had scored a number of big hits by 1966, including "I've Been Loving You For Too Long" and "Try A Little Tenderness." Redding had also had soul hits with rock songs like "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" and "Day Tripper." Although we cheerfully group these songs today with other classic soul songs (and rightly so), the charts show that while these songs were big hits on the R&B charts, they didn't get much action on the teenage rock stations. So Otis at the Whisky was definitely a crossover.
On April 8, Bob Dylan went to see Otis Redding at the Whisky. Michael Simmons wrote about it in a 2011 LA Weekly article celebrating Dylan's 70th birthday. Dylan attended the show with photographer Lisa Law and her husband. Bob apparently went backstage and offered Otis Redding a song, supposedly giving (or sending) him an acetate of "Just Like A Woman.
Dylan was no stranger to the Whisky. Simmons also included a fond recollection from Johnny Rivers who explained how Dylan had come to see him at the Whisky in 1964. At that time, Dylan's fondness for electric music was not yet widely known. Dylan and Rivers have remained friends throughout their careers.
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| Daily Bruin April 15, 1966 |
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| Daily Bruin April 22, 1966 |
April 28-May 8, 1966 Whisky A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: The Gentrys (Thursday>Sunday)
The Gentrys were a group from Memphis that had scored a big hit in 1965 with "Keep On Dancing." MGM Records released several follow-up singles, and the band got opportunities to appear on TV shows like Hullabaloo, Shindig! and Where The Action Is, and toured around. None of their later singles hit the mark, however. The Gentrys would break up at the end of 1967, although they would re-form in 1969 for a few more years.
Although this Tuesday night was in the middle of the run by The Gentrys, bookings at Sunset Strip clubs were often fluid, since there were no advance tickets. The Grass Roots were booked--they may have been booked with The Gentrys in any case--and the opening act was the newly-formed Buffalo Springfield. Neil Young and bassist Bruce Palmer had driven from Toronto in Neil's hearse, looking for Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. They gave up and were heading North to San Francisco but got stuck in a traffic jam on Sunset Boulevard. Furay, going the other way, recognized Young's distinctive car and Canadian plates, and the two pairs got together. Reputedly the meeting was on April 6, and the band's first gig had only been April 15.
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| Daily Bruin May 13, 1966 |
May 3, 1966 The Trip, W. Hollywood, CA: Andy Warhol & His Velvet Underground/The Mothers (Tuesday)
The last booking at The Trip was its most legendary. Andy Warhol was a famous artist, and he was "sponsoring" the Velvet Underground. Warhol and his associates had put together a multi-media show that included the Velvets, and had called it The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol had no influence on the Velvet Underground's music, but as a result they were free to be as experimental as they liked. MGM Records had just signed the Velvets to a record contract, with the condition that Warhol would create the cover for their debut album. Although the Velvet Underground had released no records, they were a media sensation as only an underground New York band could be. They were booked for two weeks at The Trip, from May 3 through 18, also on condition that Warhol was present.
The thinking of the Warhol camp was that film stars and "Hollywood people" would show up to see the latest New York sensation. The Exploding Plastic Inevitable included a sophisticated light show for the era, films and elaborate staged dances by Gerard Malanga and Mary Woronov, all integrated with Lou Reed's amazing songs and the Velvet Underground's unique music. As for Nico (b. 1938 as Christa Paffgen in Germany), she couldn't actually sing very well, but she was so beautiful it didn't matter, and the light show and staging used her to great effect. As if the booking at The Trip wasn't portentous enough, the opening act was The Mothers.
The next few nights at The Trip are foundational moments in rock mythology. No one entirely agrees on what actually happened. I am following the research of the exceptionally good White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day by Richie Unterberger (2009: Jawbone Books). While I think Richie Unterburger has worked out the twists and turns pretty well, I'm aware that there are other versions of the subsequent events.
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| An ad for The Trip that calls it the "New Shrine To Pop Culture" |
In any case, the Velvet Underground opened at The Trip on Tuesday May 3, supported by The Mothers, to a relatively packed house. As anticipated, all sorts of cool Hollywood people showed up to check out the newest sensation from Manhattan. All was not well, however. Lou Reed and Frank Zappa, both underground legends already and with epic careers ahead of them, did not hit it off. Zappa hated the Velvet Underground, apparently, not surprisingly, apparently both for their drug use and their fundamentally (and intentionally) primitive music. The Velvets crowd, in turn, apparently saw the Mothers and their fans as unsophisticated West Coast barbarians.
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| After the The Trip, the Velvet Underground and The Mothers shared the bill at the Fillmore on the weekend of May 27-29, 1966 |
The booking at The Trip triggered a supposed "feud" between Reed and Zappa that would last until Zappa's death in 1993. While there seems to be no doubt that Zappa didn't like the Velvets' music, Zappa and Reed were OG masters at manipulating the fledgling rock press, so the idea that there was really a feud may have been Zappa winding up journalists while Reed played along, which continued for the next 27 years. At the end of May (May 27-29 '66), however, the Velvets and the Mothers were booked at The Fillmore, the other West Coast cultural touchstone venue and I think the timing of that booking accelerated talk of the "feud."
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| The Velvet Underground on stage at The Trip on May 4, 1966 (photo: Steve Schapiro) |
May 4-5, 1966 The Trip, W. Hollywood, CA: Andy Warhol & His Velvet Underground & Nico/MFQ (Wednesday-Thursday)
The Mothers did not return to The Trip. For the next two nights they were replaced by MFQ. Since Herb Cohen managed both The Mothers and MFQ, it makes sense that if the Mothers stepped away, they would have been replaced by another one of his acts. Despite the opening blast, however, the next few nights had thin crowds. The Mothers had a local following, but while there was an underground buzz about the Velvets, they have no records. The buzz was there for opening night, but then the crowds thinned out.
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| A May 19, 1966 news article in the LA Times headlined "Legal Problems Cause Closure Of The Trip." The club would re-open for a few months in the Summer with different management. |
After the May 5 show, the Los Angeles County Sheriff closed The Trip. The story gets even murkier here. Maybe it was closed because The Trip was presenting a pornographic exhibition (mind you, there were topless dancing clubs on the Sunset Strip). Maybe Velvet Underground actually did play the club longer than just three nights. But there was definitely a dispute between the owners. A May 19, 1966 article in the Los Angeles Times (above) had some background on the closure:
Legal Problems Cause Closure of The Trip
The Trip, rock 'n' roll night club on the Sunset Strip, has closed. Management decided to suspend operations after the wife of one of the owners, Carl Greenhouse, sued in Superior Court to obtain $21,000 allegedly due on a promissory note.
A keeper from the sheriff's office has been posted to enforce a writ of attachment.
According to Elmer Valentine, who partners the nitery with Phil Tanzini, Ted Flier and Greenhouse, the keeper allows no operational fund so they decided to go dark until the case is settled.
Mrs Virginia Greenhouse filed for the $21,000, naming as defendant a firm called Shelter Inc.
Valentine said a buy-or-sell arrangement with Greenhouse may solve the problem. He also said the note in question and subsequent suit came as a surprise to him.
"We have a big potential at The Trip," he declared. "It's the first time in my memory that night club has had to suspend operations despite flourishing business."
The closing came when Andy Warhol's Velvet Underground, a seven-person act, was entertaining. A claim has been filed with Local 47, American Federation of Musicians, for balance of the contract.
The property on which The Trip is located is owned by the Playboy Club.
[Notes: Phil Tanzini and Ted Flier were Valentine's partners at the Whisky A-Go-Go. The Velvet Underground was a "seven-person act" when dancers Gerard Malanga and Mary Woronov were counted. The Playboy Club was next door to The Trip.]
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| Whisky A-Go-Go marquee on May 1967, when The Byrds and The Doors returned |
Whisky A-Go-Go, May and June 1966
With The Trip closed, the Whisky A-Go-Go became the premier rock and roll club on the Sunset Strip. There were plenty of rock clubs, mind you, but The Trip and the Whisky had the hottest bands, and now it was just the Whisky. More was yet to come, and soon. The Trip actually re-opened in June, but it was under different management and it did not last through the Summer. The Whisky A-Go-Go had ascended to the pinnacle as the hippest rock joint in West Hollywood.
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| The Doors onstage at the Whisky A-Go-Go, some time in 1966 |
May 9, 1966 Whisky A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: The Doors (Monday) audition
On a Tuesday afternoon, The Doors auditioned at the Whisky. They had been attracting attention at other Sunset Strip clubs like the London Fog and the Sea Witch. In those days, it was impossible for unsigned bands to make a listenable tape on their own, so in order to get gigs they had to lug their gear down to a club and actually perform. The Doors impressed the Whisky owners, who immediately wanted to book them as the "house band," the band who would open every night for whatever stars were advertised on the marquee. This did not happen immediately, since Jim Morrison had no fixed address and it was hard to contact him.
I'm not sure who was actually booked at the Whisky on Monday, May 9, but the Doors did not open for them, as they were just auditioning.
May 11-22, 1966 Whisky A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: Johnny Rivers/Buffalo Springfield (Wednesday>Sunday)
Johnny Rivers returned to the Whisky for two weeks. By this time, he was a huge National recording artist. Buffalo Springfield, meanwhile, continued as the house band.
May 23-27, 1966 Whiskey A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band/Buffalo Springfield/The Doors (Monday-Thursday)
The mid-week booking featured Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, supported by Buffalo Springfield and the Whisky debut of The Doors.
Lancaster artist Don Van Vliet, among many other things, had been a close High School friend of Frank Zappa. Van Vliet had sung on an early Zappa recording, a 1962 teenage rock opera called "Captain Beefheart versus The Grunt People." Apparently the Beefheart nickname dated back to High School, although the origins are confusingly obscure. Around 1964, Van Vliet became the singer for a local rhythm and blues band, and adopted the stage name of Captain Beefheart. Beefheart's unique multi-octave growl stood out, and the band had a harsher and more powerful sound than other white blues bands. In late 1965, A&M Records had signed them, and--incredibly--Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band had scored a local hit with a cover of Willie Dixon and Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy."
Opening the weeknight shows were the Buffalo Springfield, with Stephen Stills and Neil Young, less than two months after they had formed, and the first Whisky A-Go-Go appearance of The Doors. Anyone who saw these shows was able to brag to their friends for the rest of their lives.
May 28-31, 1966 Whisky A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: Love/Buffalo Springfield/The Doors (Friday-Monday)
Love came in as headliners for the Memorial Day weekend. Love's single "My Little Red Book" had climbed to the top of charts in LA. Arthur Lee told Elektra Records head Jac Holzman that he should sign the Doors, too. Since Love had a hit single, his word carried weight. Holzman went and checked out The Doors, and did indeed sign them.
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| Jim Morrison and Van Morrison, on stage at the Whisky A-Go-Go in June 1966, likely singing "Gloria" |
June 2-18, 1966 Whisky A-Go-Go, W. Hollywood, CA: Them/The Doors (Wednesday>Thursday)
Them was on a tour of California, and it was some tour. A few weeks earlier, behind the San Leandro bowling alley where Them were playing, Van Morrison had met Janet Rigsbee, later his wife and the world's Brown-Eyed Girl. On stage, Them careened between reflective love ballads like "Ballerina" and absolute rock and roll. Jim Morrison was hugely influenced by the moody, intense Van and his ability to explode on stage. By the end of the two-week stand, shows would end with Jim and Van Morrison on stage together rocking out on "Gloria."
The Trip was gone. The Whisky A-Go-Go was what was happening on the Sunset Strip. Anything could be happening any night, and even the opening act might very well be the Next Big Thing.
Aftermath
The Trip, after it's brief re-opening, receded into the mists of time, commemorated by a Donovan song, some photos and the ever growing legend of the Velvet Underground. The Whisky A-Go-Go was the center of the rock explosion for the balance of the '60s. Also the '70s, and also punk rock, and also metal. Although the Whisky has been sold a few times, it is still open and it's a tourist attraction in its own right. West Hollywood is an incorporated town, now, and teenagers don't rule the strip. But the Whisky A-Go-Go remains a living shrine to what once was.
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