Rhino Records four CD set highlights L.A. music and influences of the 60s, including The Doors, Bob Dylan, The Monkees and more

BY TOM WALDMAN

Los Angeles took several years to emerge as a prime center for rock and roll. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the city featured some performers of note, including Ricky Nelson and Eddie Cochran, as well as the Penguins, the black Doo Wop group whose song “Earth Angel” was among the first of its kind. The one rocker from the area who might have equaled the accomplishments of the great stars of the 50s’ – Pacoima’s Ritchie Valens – died in a plane crash in 1959 at the age of 17.

From 1960 to 1963, Southern California created, promoted, and packaged surf music, one of several sub-genres of American rock and roll and pop quashed by the arrival of the Beatles in 1964. But other than the Beach Boys – who due to Brian Wilson’s songwriting skills were soon regarded as not just another group of tanned guys with guitars – plus Jan and Dean and Dick Dale, surf music was essentially several performers that recorded a catchy song or two.

No American city was as profoundly affected by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan circa 1964-65 as much as Los Angeles. Their collective influence – musical, cultural, and to some extent political – made LA home to the most creative, energetic, and diverse rock and roll scene this side of London between 1965 and 1970.

Deadheads, ex-Rolling Stone writers, and Summer of Love historians will argue on behalf of San Francisco — but they’re wrong. I would take the Byrds, the Doors, Love, Thee Midniters, Frank Zappa, the Buffalo Springfield, and “Pet Sounds” any day over the Dead, the Airplane, Moby Grape and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

The splendid new collection from Rhino Records entitled “Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968” ($64.98) should establish the city’s supremacy in the minds of all but the most ardent of the “Garcia is God” crowd, not to mention the New Yorkers who maintain the Velvet Underground is vastly superior to any 50 LA-based groups.

You won’t have to delve far into this boxed set – four CDs, 101 songs, superbly- researched liner notes – to get the message. The second track on Disc 1, a demo the Byrds recorded in late 1964 called “You Movin,’” displays the self-assurance of a band that even as virtual nobodies knew precisely the sound they wanted. We hear not only the familiar soaring harmonies, which groups through history have emulated but never equaled, but a choppy guitar break from Roger McGuinn that anticipates his famous solo on “Eight Miles High.”

The other best-known LA bands of the era have one or in some cases two songs on “Where the Action Is” —  the Doors, the Monkees, Love, the Buffalo Springfield, the Turtles, the Association. Among the high points is an acid rock-like demo from Randy Newman and a never-before released version of the Buffalo Springfield’s “Sit Down I Think I Love You,” performed in a bluesy style on acoustic guitars by Stephen Stills and Richie Furay.

Among the low points, but perversely entertaining, is a 1967 song by Rick Nelson (he dropped “Ricky” as he matured) called “Marshmallow Skies,” which features the cheesiest sitar this side of a 1960s AIP film about hippies and drugs.

Of course, this set would not bear the Rhino stamp without including a slew of groups that probably die-hard rock collectors never knew existed. I defy anyone not affiliated with the label or related to the band members to name a song by the Moon, the Joint Effort, or Ken & The Fourth Dimension.

Yet many of the contributions of the heretofore “unknown” bands on the collection are good if not exceptional; definitive proof that the mid-to-late 1960s was an extraordinary period for rock in and around Los Angeles. Out of riots, smog, freeways, heat waves, drugs, and suburban angst came many great songs.

WHERE THE ACTION IS! LOS ANGELES NUGGETS 1965-1968, FOUR-CD SET, RHINO RECORDS $64.98

Tom Waldman is co-author of “Land of a Thousand Dances: Chicano Rock and Roll From Southern California”, which had its second printing in 2009, and author of “the Best Guide to American Politics, “We All Want to Change the World: Rock and Politics From Elvis to Eminem” and “Not Much Left: The Decline of Liberalism in America”. He currently serves as chief of staff to LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan.

West Hills author on the roots of L.A. Music and the Rise of Chicano Rock

BY ATINA HARTUNIAN

Tom Waldman is an Angeleno, Chief of Staff for LAUSD School Board Member Tamar Galatzan, and an established author with four books under his belt — who just happens to have a deep love for rock music, including Chicano Rock.

So, how did this hazel-eyed Anglo, who resides in West Hills, come across Chicano Rock in the first place? Furthermore, what prompted him to co-author a book, Land of a Thousand Dances: Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll from Southern California, about its history?

The start of this journey takes place in the late 70s at a Tower Records in West Covina where both Waldman and co-author David Reyes worked. The two had a common interest in music of the 50’s and 60’s and became fast friends.

“David [Reyes] had known a lot of these bands and I got to know the Chicano audience and the scene through people coming into the store,” said Waldman.

At the time, Waldman was a budding writer attending the graduate journalism program at USC. “I wanted to write about music. I wanted to write a story that was also Southern California based and about groups that hadn’t been written about.”

Reyes, an avid record collector, had a strong sense of the musical history in Los Angeles. With their mutual interest, the two created an historical account of the rise of Chicano Rock in Southern California.

They started by writing various articles about the Chicano Rock movement and the scene. During the process of researching, interviewing musicians, and hearing stories for the first time, the project evolved into a collaboration — documenting what it was like to be  a Chicano rock and roller in Southern California.

The book, now in its second edition, chronicles the rise of stars, such as Ritchie Valens, the political hostilities that ignited Los Illegals, and the unique success of Los Lobos.

“I think Ritchie Valens is the first Rock and Roll star from Los Angeles. It’s very much a Southern California story,” said Waldman.

As the authors indicate in the book, at a young age Valens demonstrated his musical skills by writing the melodies and the lyrics to such favored hits as “ Donna” and “ La Bamba.” Valens died in a plane crash at the age of 17 on February  3, 1959, along with Buddy Holly and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson; a historical event memorialized in Don McLean’s “American Pie” as “the day the music died.”

“When you think of Southern California, you think of surf music, the Doors and Gun’N’Roses,” explained Waldman. “Most bands that have made it in Los Angeles have come from other parts of the country that met here in L.A. and played music here. In Chicano Rock, all the musicians are authentic locals who grew up here.”

Aside from tracing the roots of Chicano music, Land of a Thousand Dances also discusses their style of music. “It’s rock, the way it’s supposed to be; simple but passionate,” said Waldman.  In the late 60’s through the 70’s, the Chicano community participated more and more in politics. Chicano groups started to reflect these political times by singing about it, playing at rallies and demonstrations.

This was also the time when Chicano groups began incorporating traditional Mexican melodies and styles into the type of rock they were playing. It sparked a cultural revival within the Chicano community. Groups blended the rock and roll they grew up listening to, with the musical styles of their ethnic heritage.

“Music from the 50’s and the Valens era were all in English with the exception of La Bamba,” explained Waldman, “all of a sudden these songs were in Spanish and took on Spanish names, which was unusual even for the Chicano audience.” This change in style marked a radical shift in the genre of Chicano rock but it also opened the door for groups like Los Lobos, who hit it big nationally with a revival of  “La Bamba.” The flexibility to fuse traditional styles in music, despite the current trend, is the singular contribution from Chicano groups that is made common today.

“I would maintain that this was the beginning in the interest of what we now refer to as World Music,” said Waldman.

Tom Waldman will be featured in Latin Music USA, a 4-part documentary on the influence of Latin music across America. Waldman will be featured in Part 3, on Chicano rock from California and the Southwest, due to air this fall on PBS on October 19. Other books by Tom Waldman —The Best Guide to American Politics, We All Want to Change the World: Rock and Politics from Elvis to Eminem, Not Much Left: The Fate Liberalism in America.
Atina Hartunian’s articles have appeared in the North Valley Community News, The Armenian Reporter, The Pasadena Weekly, as well as current urban development for Fourstory.org. She is also a website content manager and freelance writer: www.atinahartunian.blogspot.com.