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Music, life and Los Angeles, Back Then
Jun 23, 2010 Life, Music Leave a comment
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sdmla
I love this town of Los Angeles. I have most of my adult life. I’ve seen it change so much from the early 70′s through today. The town is rich with history both in film and music. It’s a beautiful area that once saw Santa on street corners wearing red shorts ringing his bells in hopes of many a donation and musicians as well as actors just enjoying life without the evil eye of the public always on them.
Hollywood was beautiful. The streets clean and busy. The traffic bearable and the law enforcement personnel a little more open minded and less brutal. We used to set trends out here with music, fashion and even cuisine. You could drive through just about any neighborhood and see the beauty of the architecture and design in the buildings, landscaping and ongoing development.
As a young musician I never had to worry about where I was going to crash. Or if I was going to eat. You could always pull your Volkswagen Van up to any beach and catch some sleep day or night. You were always invited to someone’s pad to crash as a musician most often not even knowing who’s place it was. It didn’t matter. We looked out for each other. The studio’s were numerous as were the opportunities to gig either live or in some studio and the labels were screaming for talent, good or bad, it seemed. Yes, you had to know someone to get these gigs, but we all knew each other. If not by name maybe by reputation, but certainly always by face. Very few had the attitude of “I’m a star”, stay away and don’t bother me. It was a constant social club and yes, even radio announcers where invited. The only non-invites were writers or those who made their living reporting on the musicians and music locally or nationally of the time. There was no real fame in our eyes. Just a passion to play music and somehow get paid for it.
I can honestly say that some of the best music EVER played has never been recorded. It came about by us just jamming and enjoying ourselves without having to put on a persona given to us by a label or adoring fans. Just hours of impromptu music by musicians who had a passion for the sound. Made no difference if they had a number one hit or were the musician behind the scenes of some television show. We were all equal just enjoying our craft sitting in someone’s house or apartment, vacant warehouse or even sitting in some studio at 2 or 3 in the morning getting lost in our music.
Those were good times filled with many good memories. The only negative I can come up with about the area back then was the dome of pollution you would see over LA as you flew into LAX. And I kid you not, it was thick.
