Screen's 66-69 Rare Single and Album of the Day!
 

Going through a lot of research, I discovered a whole bunch of hand-written chart data that will be of great use for a new Journal focusing on the world of rare Late 60's singles of interest that you could get into. Without any long introduction, memories of growing up, or crazy concepts, as this era would see me being about 3, let's continue.

All research is based on US Release and success from Billboard and Cashbox. I will usually give something that Bubbled Under or did not chart the important vote, but I will consider something peaking in the 50's as a stopping point for singles, and about the 70's for albums. I also have notes about when many interesting albums and singles were given a review, so expect a lot of non-charters as well as worldwide hits that never got a proper airing in The US.

Being 4/13 as I write this, let me check my research for this time in 1968, a week that saw The Rascals' classic "A Beautiful Morning" starting it's way to the Top 10 in The States...


Starting out with some Soul, **** and the Blazers' "Funky Walk" started to move it's way into the lower reaches of the Hot 100 on this day, reaching #67 within a few weeks, but the effect that this has on the listener is timeless. Released in Original Sound, the label that Garage Punk legends The Music Machine were on in their heyday, Arlester Christian's "Funky Broadway" band would see their commercial highlight in 1969 with "We Got More Soul". Christian would pass away in 1971 (March 13) after being shot, leaving a legacy of very influential Soul music behind which still is an influence to many - he was 27.



As my notes don't have an rare album of interest on this day (There will be some for the next week!), let's go for another single, this one from the Pop world that's standing out in it's own cheesy way.

Although a big UK and worldwide hit, Dave Dee and the rest had yet another under-performing disc in The States with The Legend of Xanadu, which was campy Trumpet-filled fun that at least must have attracted the very few into Western Movie soundtracks. First appearing on the US BB charts this day in '68 in the Bubbling Under section, it crept to #123, then goodbye! Produced by Steve Rowland, Written by Ken Howard and Alan Blakley (The Honeycomb's "Have I the Right" and more).

Let's take a trip to Apr. 15, 1967! On this week, a band called the Doors Bubbled Under with a song called "Break On Through (To the Other Side)", but almost everyone knows that one already. The record moved to #126 in The US, but became a hit in other countries later on.

Moving on, once again, we have a Soul classic from the one and only Otis Redding, who was making some major waves in the Top 40, but this single sadly did not make it past #78 on the BB chart. It's B-Side, "Let Me Come on Home" charted in The UK. I think that this was a single-only release at the time, following four from the Dictionary of Soul album, the best known being "Try a Little Tenderness" (Later to be covered by Three Dog Night among many others).

"I Love You More Than Words Can Say" is a good ballad.




While my notes don;t have much on 4/15 when it comes to rare albums, I'll take a step back for the week before and find that the G-Punk-Tastic soundtrack to Riot on Sunset Strip was given a mention in Billboard on 4/8. Back in March, the title theme by The Standells made a small mark, and I'm sure that 4/15, the film was playing in a couple of markets here and there, more than likely at Drive Ins and downtown theaters (films were usually not dumped all over back then like they have been since The Late 70's).

Here, The Chocolate Watchband do some Milk Cow Blues on "Don't Need Your Lovin' ", which despite not being very original, was a great example of how the band attracted a following with some very exciting sounds thanks to Dave Augilar's singing. The soundtrack was released on Tower, then home to a lot of AIP soundtracks (like this and The Wild Angels), the Standells and The Watchband, but very soon a then-unknown Pink Floyd would appear on Capitol's subsidiary which would later be a noted company by Garage Punk fans, but that's for later.

After this, the Watchband would face complications with members leaving through 1967 shortly after this, including guitarist Mark Loomis and vocalist Augilar.

April 15, 1967 - The Yardbirds, Produced by Mickey Most, debut on the US singles chart with what was to be the title track to what was a half and half album which I think was only released in The US at the time (of course, there will be all the reissues to come). Creeping up to #51 by the next month, it would be a sign that the Most era would find very few takers, although of course they would be still pretty popular on the Sunset Strip as a live attraction - a great pic is on p. 159 in the great book Riot on Sunset Strip of the four-man Page era line up. Not one of their greatest, but it was a nice and catchy tune...although most fans were not expecting (or wanting) nice and catchy out of a band who helped popularize the tern Rave Up who instead went for the Greatest Hits compilation. The Little Games album only shot up to #82 in the late summer while the hits album was doing very well.

Detroit-wise, in 1968, The Yardbirds played the Grande Ballroom on May 3 and 4, with the later concert being an exciting night billed with The MC5 (On the 3'rd The Frost was on the bill). Would have loved to see that show!




Nothing all too rare about this band, who's version of "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" and their follow-up hit "Get Me To the World on Time" are high in the charts for all 60's Pop fans, but their albums were not strong sellers. Their debut album itself only went to #113 on the BB charts, although it remains a favorite for 60's Music Fans who dive deep into the Garage Psych. This is a B-Side and an Album Track that's a fan favorite.

A good amount of this album was written by the team of Annette Tucker and Nancy Mantz, who wrote their greatest hit as well as a few songs on their follow-up album Underground. The featured track is another one of their many songs as a team on this album, but don't let that cloud your judgement about the band who at least do their best with the situation at hand with most (not all) of the songs being a great quality. Jim Lowe has a cool voice for this while Ken Williams plays some fine guitar. The Engineer is Richard Podolor, who's later Production work includes Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, and Three Dog Night.

Detroit-wise, The Prunes reportedly played The Grande on March 8, 1968, obviously not playing songs from Mass in F Minor (The first of two Producer-Dominated albums), but the Garage Rock they were best at.

Time for a random date! Feb. 10, 1968



Joe South may have started out with the novelty "Purple People Eater", but thankfully went serious and turned into one of the most respected songwriters of his day, mainly with Country but with some songs rooted in Southern-style Rock. Also, his studio session work with people like Bob Dylan (Blonde on Blonde) and Aretha Franklin (Aretha Arrives, Lady Soul) should be noted. This is the guy who wrote "Hush", the song best known through it's Deep Purple version, and "Rose Garden", made famous by Lynn Anderson.

"Birds of a Feather" was originally a single that Bubbled Under, stopping at #106, before it's brief 1969 chart run that stopped at #96 as a follow up to one of his more successful singles, "Games People Play". The lack of success of the single, let album the two albums it appeared on - Introspective in 1968 and a re-vamp of the album with some new songs to exploit the success of Games People Play in 1969 - was not deserved, but it later turned into a hit through a version by The Raiders in their "Indian Reservation" days.

Thankfully, his songwriting in The 60's and 70's was popular thanks to Billy Joe Royal's performance of "Down in the Boondocks" and The Osmonds' version of "Yo Yo". "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" was also covered many times by various artists through the years. He's a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

South passed away in 2012.



The Bonniwell Music Machine may have been the name of the second line-up of the noted Garage Punk band, but the album that carried the name which was reviewed for the Feb. 10, 1968 issue of Billboard, it actually had a lot of music recorded by the first line-up carried over, like the song featured here. "To the Bottom of the Soul" was recorded in Feb. 1967 and released as a single in December. A non-charting single from a non-charting album, this is a stand-out when all is said. Sean Bonniwell's songwriting was trying out different things after the Garage Punk attack of the first album, and this showed where the original line-up could have went to if the split-up that happened some time after never occurred, although of course the usual intense disagreements between a visionary songwriter and ultra-talented musicians happened as they usually do.

On Bonniwell Music Machine, the second line-up including musicians like Harry Garfield only covered up the spaces left after the pick of the first line-up's Early 1967 sessions was chosen. Some may possibly say that on these tracks, including "Me, Myself, and I", there was a loss of focus, and in my view it was all down to trying to develop a writing style that would catch the public's attention after losing the best line-up that did, and it was very tough after a classic first hit and a striking "all-black-clothes with one black glove image" that was put aside by Late 1967. Moving to Warner Brothers after leaving Original Sound for a number of reasons, more troubles would occur when the second album was jam packed with music, resulting in the lack of a full sound on the original vinyl release, let alone having a very clumsy-looking cover which possibly resulted in the public indifference it received.

After the band's final split up in Late 1968, Bonniwell would later switch to Capitol for his Singer/Songwriter solo album Close before moving to Exploitation Soundtrack work, including Day of the Wolves and one of the first Mason Exploitation films in The Other Side of Madness (aka the Helter Skelter Murders), retiring from the music business, and then witnessing a new interest in his music in the 80's. He wrote Beyond the Garage, a book detailing his life experiences.

Bonniwell passed away in 2011.

In the first line-up was a Bassist by the name of Keith Olsen...yes, the Keith Olsen who went onto produce The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Bennitar and others. He learned a lot about the recording process in his Music Machine days and later being part of the development of what was known as "Sunshine Pop" as a Producer for Eternity's Children.

Guitarist Mark Landon, now noted for makeup work in film, went to be a musician for the Ike and Tina Turner Review.

April 19, 1969 - The Bob Seger System's "Ivory" debuted in the Bubbling Under section only to reach #97, and I'm sure that the band had a major buzz kill after getting a Top 20 US hit from "Rambling Gambling Man". It would take Seger many years to actually break out of the Detroit music scene with Beautiful Loser, but at least he stuck to it. Those who have only heard his 70's and 80's hits may be surprised at this and many other 66-71 Seger songs that have the edge missing from his best known work.




For the album, let's go for Ike and Tina Turner's Outta Season, the one with a sound based more in their Blues side than their Soul sound which debuted in this day in '69. Released by Blue Thumb, a label led by Bob Krasnow that had a number of interesting albums including two by the post-Forever Changes version of Love as well as commercial successes, it only went to #91 and R&B #19 through the strength of their devoted following who turned it into a cult classic.

Here's the show-stopper from the album, "I've Been Loving You Too Long", a song known to wow the audiences. One of their performances of this classic was used in the film Gimme Shelter.



I'll get to a track from Tim Buckley's Happy/Sad sometime in the near future (#81...well, at least it did better than Goodbye and Hello), but I feel that Ike and Tina deserve more of an airing with an album that's easy to find for streaming, but not as noticed as much. This was their debut album chart appearance, with River Deep Mountain High being next appearing on the US album chart in Sept. 1969.

Their next Blue Thumb album was The Hunter also in '69, and a small hit that again deserved better.

BONUS TRACK TIME!!!!!


In the Winter of 1966, The MC5 went into Tera Shirma Studios in The D to record a number of titles that will partially form the basics of their Pre-Kick Out the Jams recorded history, including a version of "I Can Only give You Everything" and the song featured in this post.

In the Spring of '69, AMG re-issues their cover of the Them classic and replaces the original B-Side of "One of the Guys" with something more relevant to what was going on with the High Energy sounds they were creating with "Kick Out the Jams" for Elektra. "I Just Don't Know" seriously blows the original B away, substituting decent Garage Punk with a wild feedback drenched mania.

After a long time away...time to start again!
4-20-68 - BB Magazine - The soundtrack to Richard Rush's Dick Clark-Produced Hippie Exploitation classic Psych Out starring Jack Nicholson is given a review. The album, released on the all mighty Tower Records, who were going to have one of it's biggest hits that year with the Wild in the Streets soundtrack, this was a nice souvenir of it's existence. The theme song performed by the Strawberry Alarm Clock is a reminder that they may have been a one-hit wonder, with that song featured in the film itself, but they had some other songs worth noticing.

As a bonus in this post, I will feature my favorite scene featuring the legendary Seeds with another two chord killer "Two Fingers Pointing At You".




For the single, It's very early George Clinton, in his Soul years, with The Parliaments! OK, it's a little before the Mothership showed up, but still this is a nice and catchy song that showed that they could have been contenders, but it had to take a full on re-arrangement of the show to break through.

Chart-wise, this debuted at #126, then the next week went to #124, then off the face of the page. As you can see, the game plan had to be changed.

Look At What I Almost Missed is an apt title...I almost forgot to put the You Tube on here!!! Teaches me to rush-post before going out.



One bonus track for you from an album that also got reviewed by BB on that day, also on Tower...The Inner Mystique by The Chocolate Watchband which is a cult favorite, but not the best place to understand why The CWB are ranked high with Garage Punk fans. Featuring instrumental songs created by Producer Ed Cobb just to fill in the gaps as the band was fragmenting (Mark Loomis was already in another band in Late 1967, Tingle Guild, before returning to the CWB), hardly anyone except for those going to their concerts and noticing the line-up changes seriously knew what was going on with the band. Still, especially with the title track, Cobb's contributions are seriously on par with an AIP Exploitation film when it came to faux-Psych even if they were not representative of the band.

As for the Watchband tracks, there was a re-recording of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", a song featured on their first single back in 1966 as well as a version of the G-Punk classic by the Brogues, "I Ain't No Miracle Worker". A cover of We the People's "In the Past" certainly had what it took to remain a fan favorite leading to numerous covers, including one by Ulver.




Despite the messed-up state of affairs at that time, the eye-catching cover certainly did some work to place it in a precursor of the Bubbling Under Albums chart called the Action Albums list, and it must be admitted that as a whole, the album actually works well.


Excuse some of these add-ons, just trying to make up for lost time...

The Bob Seger debut Ramblin Gamblin Man is great album, but I think it gets overlooked. I think it's partly due to the fact, that classic albums in the late 1960s were coming out virtually non-stop and it just gets passed over as just another solid album.

Liked the MC5 video and a good mention on the Chocolate Watch Band, the Inner Mystique album was one of the great psychedelic albums of its time.

Thanks!

I agree with your words about the Seger System album. I was looking through my notes, and noticed that it was one of the many albums that had a quick rise and fall on the charts in Early '69 from Feb. to Apr., pretty much the norm for a lot of Rock albums at that time (BB peak #62). This was a time when The Beatles' "White Album" was still selling strong and The Stones' Beggars Banquet was not far behind while there was interest in Elvis' return to form that resulted in a good-selling Top 10 album.

It was at a point where Seger's career was only very popular in Detroit and Florida, with some major interest elsewhere only when "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" was a hit. I can see where not much has been mentioned about it despite being in print for a very long time. Overshadowing that album with some of the industry's focus on Detroit a month after the album's check into the Top 100 was none other than The MC5's Kick Out the Jams, so right there and then you can see a small reason why the interest in the System's debut taped off quickly, resulting in yet another album fans love but gets overlooked - here's a straight ahead solid album and then here comes something loud, powerful, and controversial that turns into big news enough to eclipse the rest of the Detroit scene for a little while.

This was part of the continuing saga of Seger trying to make a strong break out of the local music scene, now with running the risk of being a one-hit wonder: "Heavy Music" was about to break through, but Cameo-Parkway closed it's doors just when the single was trying to break into the Top 100 only to stop slightly short of that; "2+2=?" was the Capitol debut single that had some interest, but was possibly making Capitol worry about aiming for Detroit talent after missing with The Rational's fine ballad "I Need You"; The Ramblin' Gamblin' Man album slightly under-performing after breaking through with a strong single. Plus, when it came to grass-roots Rock, you could say a band called Creedence Clearwater Revival were possibly stealing Seger's thunder (Right place, right time) as Bayou Country was released at the same time - talk about being overshadowed by an album you can compare it to in terms of style and quality.

The System's next album, Noah, certainly broke the momentum with only a half-good album (Tom Neme's tracks watering down the album), and then it was a series of albums that were overlooked before things changed around by the time of Beautiful Loser. Sometimes little slips like that can kill off the momentum, leaving a quality album left standing alone with it's fans, and many of it's follow-ups up to and including Beautiful Loser were championed by a lot of listeners along with that debut but not heard by the mainstream.


The CWB: Neat trivia time - as The Inner Mystique was an Action Album, another vinyl in that list a few months later was Pink Floyd's A Suaserful of Secrets, at that time also on Tower in The US! Those album had their listeners, although in the case of the Floyd, it was a case of what if it was on the parent label, Capitol instead of the sub-label that concentrated on AIP soundtracks.

I remember Noah being a poor album, but from that period his best album along with Ramblin Gamblin Man was probably Back in 72 another very good album, then after that they became the Silver Bullet Band.

Apr. 29, 1967 - The McCoys' "Beat the Clock", their final Bang era single, Bubbled Under only to crawl up to #92 in a few weeks. The song would be better known through a very comprehensive collection released through Sony Legacy of their Bang! era sides and select album tracks. Their early "Sloopy" days in their final run had a tour with The Rolling Stones in the Late Summer of 1966 and a very cool nugget in "Don't Worry Mother (Your Son's Heart is Pure)" before recording this in March, 1967. A move to Mercury for the Infinite McCoys album after that, Rick Derringer would soon find solo fame in The 70's.



To reward you and your patience for this next installment, here's a three-play from Terry Knight and The Pack's Reflections album, reviewed for the Apr. 29, 1967 BB. Of course, if you know your Detroit Rock History, you know where this was going to go - a split between band and singer, Knights failed solo singles, The Pack's credible journey to continue, then two members meeting up with Knight to ride on the Grand Funk Railroad. Actually, the first two songs in this playlist were also singles!

"Love Love Love Love Love" was a #117 Bubble.

"This Precious Time" was a #18 hit in the D according to WKNR (My choice for Detroit charts) and a national #120. Note of a familiar chord structure that sounds a but like "You Were on My Mind"!

You want more?!!! Well, you got it!



? and the Mysterians' second album Action was also reviewed. Like Knight's second album, this totally missed the BB chart shortly after making their mark a few months back - although I do recollect that both dented the Cashbox Top 100 albums (obviously they had some Detroit stores counting for C-Box!). Despite singles successes, 1967 saw to it that not many of these Garage Greats would see further big hits, and the summer 1967 single from that album "Girl (You Captivate Me)" only stopped at #98 months after the album disappeared from sight. Maybe Cameo Parkway's had some problems with the promotion department by that time (I think an SEC investigation of stock manipulations was going on at that time...got that info from a Bomp article). Sad, but still kind a fitting and at least cool way to end a golden era of Pre-1967 Riot Detroit/Southeastern MI Garage Punk as the hitmakers were fading into the sunset with sounds that were still fighting to get heard only to be eclipsed in the next year by a tougher and louder group of Grande based rockers that were more in connection with what was going on.

Action also contained a song called "Can't Get Enough of You Baby" later covered by The Colourfield and Smashmouth. Don't mind the ill-fitting video using footage from Get Yourself a College Girl, but I still want to introduce you to the original if you have not heard it yet...

I'm back - although this time is centering around a song and a piece of Exploitation film history that always got me interested in finding EVERYTHING about.

First take a look at this scene of an outside look at the Sunset Strip from Mondo Bizarro - A 1966 flick Co-Directed by Lee Frost, released by Olympic International Pictures. Fans of The Doors and Love should dig this with signs advertising Love at the Whiskey a Go Go and a then-unknown Doors playing at the Galaxy. The London Fog was also nearby, making this a capture when, according to Johnny Legend on the Commentary, all three clubs were all in existence on that street in '66.



Mondo Bizarro is a great flick, and while it was made for the "Adult" audience of that that time (Olympic International's other hits were House on Bare Mountain and the infamous Love Camp 7 among others), it also captured some of what was going on with looks into Vito's studio (with a tasteful topless model) and even an art protest against the Vietnam War on Sunset Blvd. - Olympic's offices were on that same street so you can tell they had a clue as to what was going on. It's a mix of the timely and tasteless, with the Documentary footage at least offering something for those wanting to see every documented footage of that era.

The music was something I was always wanting to know about. I love it, and it was used in many parts of Mondo Bizarro. Recently, I found out that it was Jack Nitzsche's "Surf Finger" was first gained a full on CD release on a collection of the noted producer's work. In the next year, he would work with Neil Young, and you know the rest of the story...

Here's a video featuring this song, which sounds like a more fleshed out and orchestrated version of "The Lonely Surfer". Great style!



I'll pick an album asap, but I wanted to share this with you!

^ Glad you mentioned Mondo Bizarro. It's a film I've wanted to see for quite some time but I put it off for other things and had forgotten about it.
Now I'm psyched to get a copy!

Haha, wow, this is a weird coincidence. I was just reading about Mondo Bizarro a couple days ago.

There should be copies of the Mondo Bizarro/Mondo Freudo double bill DVD around somewhere, possibly through Amazon or even Something Weird Video itself. It's the best way to go - The two films, plus commentary from Johnny Legend and Eric Caidin who were not involved with the movies but have a ton of seriously interesting stories that fit perfectly anyways, and Mondo Trailers and a gallery of Mondo Movie one sheets used to sell the films in theaters.

The real bits on Mondo Bizarro are as follows - A look into Frederick's of Hollywood that turns into a nice bra show, the Artists Against the Vietnam War happening on Sunset which gets the attention of Pro-War demonstrators, the Sunset Strip footage you saw (Re: the edit in the video - the full chapter has a little extra, if you know what I mean...1966 standards of course, but still cool.), a trip to Vito's studio, and a look into the Sunset Theater where Olympic International had a screen to show it's films in the pre-1968 days and contained a gallery of paintings of women (The "rich owner" I think was Vince Miranda, later famous for his Pussycat Theaters, of which the Sunset turned into a little after the film's release).

I hadn't checked out the videos yet when I made my last post. The song in the second one is great!

Great journal topic.

My uncle is a Los Angeles native and was a Sunset Strip street urchin & participant in the Sunset Strip "riots" of 1966. He's given me the grand tour of the Strip along with his own wry observations about what happened in November 1966. I dutifully recorded an interview with him on the topic around five years ago, when he wrote a well received but little read book on the Sunset Strip scene in the Sixties.

He said the use of the word "riot" was a bit of a ridiculous term to describe the events on Sunset Strip in 1966, since most of the activities by protesters were peaceful and orderly.

It all began with the announcement of the closing Pandora's Box a popular hole-in-the-wall live music club at the corner of Sunset & Crescent Heights. Pandora's Box was the club where the Seeds, the most popular youth band of the L.A. youthquake frequently played, along with another popular garage oriented band, the Chocolate Watchband.

The cover charge at Pandora's was cheaper (usually $1) than the other three other Sunset Strip rock clubs, the Whiskey A Go Go, Ciro's and London Fog. Because of their cheap cover charge, Pandora's became the most popular hangout for underage high school kids. Unlike the other three competing clubs, Pandora's didn't have a liquor license and was technically the only club that could admit patrons under the age of 18. The drinking age in California was 21 in 1966 but an 18 year was allowed admission to music clubs that served liquor. It's a bit of an academic question because L.A. police patrolmen earned a nice supplementary income from club owners who paid them to ignore underage drinking violations in the Strip's rock clubs.

The ambiance of Pandora's Box seemed coffee house than a rock music club. The staff of Pandora's were amicable and friendly especially for L.A. rock club employees who had a reputation for acting more like rock stars than the rock stars who played their venues.

On the dark side of things, Pandora's became a prowling grounds for B-list Hollywood actors and entertainment industry executives who were seeking underage high school girls for sexual encounters. Most frequent among those Hollywood customers at Pandora's were Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, a trio of B-movie actors who had developed a large following of youthquake kids with their roles anti-hero types in many of director Roger Corman's teen exploitation films. The trio's club hopping entourage was comprised of an exotic collection of characters from the underground fringe of the B-movie industry and often included actors Bruce Dern, Dean Stockwell, Michael J. Pollard, aspiring & film director Bob Rafelson, and a pair of beautiful aspiring actresses with exquisite Hollywood pedigrees: Susan Stratsberg, daughter of legendary actor Lee Stratsberg who developed the revolutionary practice of method acting and Angelica Houston, daughter of legendary film director John Houston. In 1969 Nicholson, Hopper and Fonda would establish their careers as bankable A-list movie stars by starring in Easy Rider .

The events leading to the Sunset Strip revolved around the mundane issue of police enforcement of local curfew laws. Acting on noise and loitering complaints from merchants and local residents, the LAPD began doing patrols on the Strip to enforce the 10 p.m. curfew for minors under the age of 18 in the summer of 1966. The police spent targeted their enthusiasm for curfew enforcement primarily on Pandora's club goers while ignoring the other rock music clubs.

Down the street, The Whiskey A Go-Go booked the top tier L.A. bands with major label contracts while Pandora's featured less polished indie label garage bands who were regarded as outsiders by many L.A. music industry professionals. The Whiskey's connection with some of the most L.A.'s most powerful entertainment industry executives created an informal police policy in which officers frequently ignored curfew and peace disturbance violations by the Whiskey A Go Go's patrons, while they dutifully targeted Pandora's customers for curfew, loitering and peace disturbance violations.

There were long haired Bohemian types who frequented Pandora's but for the most part, Pandora's customers were kids from affluent families in suburban L.A. counties. By contemporary standards, most of Pandora's clientele dressed like preppies who were a few weeks late on a trip to the barbershop.

There were drug dealers who patronized & sold marijuana at all of the Sunset Strip clubs, including the posh Playboy key club, but Pandora's was frequently portrayed by L.A.'s civic leaders as a den of marijuana dealers who were hellbent on corrupting the innocent children of Los Angeles. Parents of high school kids in all of L.A.'s suburban counties were advised by their civic leaders to keep their children away the vile decadence of the Sunset Strip rock music clubs, especially Pandora's Box.

No one really remembers if Pandora's Box owner announced the closing or if the police closed the club because of the frequent peace disturbance complaints. But young rock fans interpreted efforts to enforce curfew and loitering laws as an infringement on their civil rights.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...as31656959.jpg
A snapshot of Sunset Strip demonstration on the parking lot in front of Pandora's Box from November 1966.

On the second week of November, 1966, fliers were distributed along the Strip inviting people to demonstrate against the closing of Pandora's Box. On the day of the demonstration, rock 'n' roll radio stations made an announcement that there would be a rally at Pandora's Box but warned people to assemble peacefully. About 1000 people showed up for the demonstration, including two actors who were most often associated with the scene at Pandora's Box, Peter Fonda & Jack Nicholson. My uncle said "hippie" was the generic term used to describe the Sunset Strip kids back in 1966, but the term "hippie" fell into popular usage to describe the young people during the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967. Sky Saxon the lead singer of the Seeds coined the term "flower power" and described himself as a hippie in early 1966.

The demonstration began peacefully with protesters linking arms, singing and blocking flow of traffic on Sunset Blvd.

The "riot" began when a car full of off-duty Marines got into a fender bender with another automobile. One of the marines got into a brawl with the other driver and the fighting spread. Most of the fighting occurred among a much larger contingent of adult curiosity seekers in various stages of inebriation. When the police showed up and placed a blockade on Sunset Blvd., it made matters worse and small group of about 30 or 40 protesters broke off from the main demonstration and ran amok.

The rogue contingent of protesters rocked a city bus and forced the driver and passengers out and then broke some the windows in the bus and let the air out of the tires. One kid was arrested for arson when he allegedly attempted to drop a lighted match into the gas tank of the bus. That was the extent of the Sunset Strip "riot" except for a few incidents of bottle and rock throwing. Peter Fonda was arrested but was released when he claimed he was filming a documentary of the demonstration.

All and all the Sunset Strip riots were pretty mild, especially since a year earlier in August 1965, Watts riot in Los Angeles resulted in 34 deaths, 3500 arrests and $40 million in property damage.

The confrontations between hippies and the LAPD on the Strip continued off and on for the rest of November until about the Christmas season of 1966. Atco Record's newest superstars Sonny & Cher, who began their career as anti-establishment performers on the Sunset Strip scene, made an appearance at a rally in front of Pandora's Box in December and called for peace between the kids and the cops. Sonny & Cher's peace offering led Los Angeles County Supervisor Ernest Debs to bizarrely label them as "misguided hoodlums." The City of Los Angeles also retaliated by kicking Sonny & Cher off the float they were supposed to ride in the Rose Parade on New Years Day.

Pandora's Box opened for one last farewell night in late December and Buffalo Springfield played at the club. Buffalo Springfield guitarist Stephen Stills did the first public performance his new song about the Sunset Strip riots, For What It's Worth...And everyone knows that For What's It's Worth went on to become an anthem of the turbulent Sixties.

My uncle also said Pandora's Box was used as the location site for the club footage of the Chocolate Watchband's performance, in the 1967 B-movie, Riot on Sunset Strip. The club was already closed, but the film's producer secured a city permit to use Pandora's as a location site to film the club scenes.

The following summer in August 1966, Pandora's Box was razed to realign the streets on Sunset Strip to accommodate the growing flow of tourist traffic. The owner of Pandora's Box received a six figure government check to surrender his ownership rights for the street realignment construction project. My uncle and many other Sunset Strip club regulars came to believe that Pandora's owner had planned to close the club all along from the moment he was offered a big cash settlement to sell out to the planned public works project. Some even believed the owner of Pandora's formed a tacit alliance with city hall to use the harsh curfew enforcement policy to expedite the closure of Pandora's Box, so the owner could sell off the club at the earliest possible date.

I've passed the former site of Pandora's Box a few times during my periodical visits to L.A. but there's nothing that suggest any sort of club or or any sort of building was ever located there. It's basically a traffic island near the corner Sunset Blvd. & Crescent Heights. Below is a snapshot of Pandora's Box in 1966. It was garish pink, purple and red stucco building that Architectural Digest would probably describe as a blighted eyesore on the urban landscape.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...andorasbox.jpg