Rock Geography: Whisky A Go Go (Expanded Edition)

 

 

Today, on this latest edition of Rock & Roll Geography, we take a stroll down to California to check out The Whisky A Go Go, one of LA's most historic music landmarks.  Still in business today, this venerable club is located along the infamous Sunset Strip at 8901 Sunset Blvd (between the Clark and Hilldale streets). 

The story behind the Whisky a Go Go begins in 1947 when a dance club of that name was opened in Paris, France under that name. By the late 50's, the concept of dance clubs or "discotheques" (as they were called then) began to spread to the U.S. In fact, plans were afoot to open a string of Whisky A Go Go discotheques across America. In 1958, one of them opened in Chicago, another in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. in the early 60's.

 

 

 

Elmer Valentine

The Whisky A Go Go that most rock & roll fans know & love was opened on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles by a group of investors consisting of Elmer Valentine, Phil Tanzini, Shelly Davis, Theodore Flier and Mario Maglieri. Originally true to the European concept of being a club which featured recorded music only, Elmer Valentine, noticing the proliferation of live music on the Sunset Strip, quickly realized that only live music would put his little boite on the map. 

"Elmer Valentine opened the Whisky à Go Go in January of 1964. Johnny Riv­ers, later famous for the song 'Secret Agent Man,' was the headliner. The club was an instant smash, a cultural trendsetter from the outset; we have Valentine to thank for introducing the terms à go gogo-go girl, and go-go cage into our vernacular, and, more significantly, for helping launch the careers of some of the best rock ʼnʼ roll bands ever. 'Once the Whis­ky started to happen, then Sunset Boule­vard started to happen,' says Lou Adler. 'L.A. started to happen, as far as the music business—it blew up.' Indeed, the mythologizing of psychedelic San Francisco and Brill Building–era New York often obscures Los Angelesʼ status as the seat of American pop in the 60s, the city that gave us not only the explicitly California-identified Beach Boys and Jan & Dean, but also the Doors, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Mamas and the Papas, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and Sonny & Cher. (To say nothing of the fact that Phil Spector, a man often presumed to be a New Yorker, was actually an L.A. kid who recorded the bulk of his celebrated Wall of Sound output at Gold Star Studios on Santa Monica Bou­l­evard.) Today, the words Sunset Strip may auto­matically summon a men­­­tal montage of sleaze— cocaine, skull tattoos, breast implants, hamburg­­er grease—but 35 years ago there was no place more sunshiny and brim­ming with possibility. 'It was an amazing time,' says Gail Zap­pa, who met her future husband, Frank, when she was 21 and working as Va­l­en­tineʼs secretary. 'In those days [on the Strip], people with long hair who had cars waved to each other—long hair was a mark, a signifier. Like ʻWow: thereʼs another one! Weʼre actually mak­ing prog­ress!ʼ The Strip offered the Aq­uari­an good vibes of Haight-Ashbury with a Hollywood difference: ­better-look­ing people and no body stink.

The Whisky was the hub of this remarkably fertile scene, a place for the aforementioned acts to perform and/or hang out, and for these actsʼ fans to share in the rapture. Valentine was the sceneʼs unlikely paterfamilias—an ex-cop and jazz aficionado from Chicago who was already past 40. 'Back then, we really believed in Donʼt trust anyone over 30, but Elmer was different,' says Cher. 'He was the one older person we trusted.' The kids loved Val­entine not only for his peace­­able de­mean­or and soft, jowly mug—Jack Nich­olson has described him as looking like 'all seven of the dwarves'—but also because he genuinely enjoyed their music and their company." (David Kamp, Vanity Fair)

 

 

 

The world-famous Whisky a Go Go opened on Jan. 15, 1964 with a concert by Johnny Rivers. A DJ named Joanie Labine (the first DJ at The Whisky) played records in a booth that was suspended to the right of the stage in between Johnny Rivers’ sets.

 

 

 

Joanne Labine the first DJ at The Whisky

Labine entertained the crowd by dancing and the idea of the go-go dancer was born. Very soon a ‘costume’ of the go-go dancers also emerged: a girl wearing a short, fringed skirt and high, white boots: a trend that will spread to all discotheques and nightclubs all across the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jayne Mansfield & John Lennon @ The Whisky circa 1964

"When the Beatles arrived in Los Angeles that year on their first American tour, they let it be known that the Whisky was the place they wanted to see. Elmer Valentine took it upon himself to personally chauffeur John Lennon and Paul McCartney to the club—and brought Jayne Mansfield along for the ride as a bonus. 'John was put­ting Jayne on,' says Valentine. 'Jayne, those arenʼt really your tits, are they?ʼ ʻYes they are!ʼ ʻNo, no, I can tell'. Lennon got her to show them to him.” (David Kamp, Vanity Fair)

 

 

"The Whisky A-Go-Go became the principal hangout of Sunset Strip musicians and hipsters in the 1960s - and it was hip enough for Dustin Hoffman's character Benjamin to be seen running out of The Whisky in the 1967 film The Graduate.  Johnny Rivers was the first sensation to come out of the club, soon after it opened (on January 11, 1964), and that is when the club initially started the whole ‘trend’ of having a mini-skirted girl dancing above the crowd in a cage. Somehow, the Whisky became the cool place for bands to play. 

The Whisky always had two or three bands playing, but they were not always billed.  Often the unbilled bands were simply local bands, but it being Hollywood and all, sometimes unbilled local groups acting as the house band went on to become hugely famous. Bands all apparently got union scale, regardless of their status. At times, the billed bands couldn’t make it, and another band was substituted.  While this is common in nightclubs, what was uncommon about the Whisky was that the band substituting could be just as good or better, and possibly even better-known, than the band it was replacing.  These listings are generally from advertisements, and at times they overlap or conflict with other performances by these groups. It was not uncommon for a group to be booked for a week at the Whisky and then to skip a night for a larger gig. It appears that the Whisky was open six or seven nights a week, with local groups playing when no one well known was billed." (www.chickenonaunicycle.com)

 

 

 

Between the sets of live music, club goers were entertained by go-go dancers who danced in cages suspended from the ceiling!

 

 

 

"Just about the only person who didnʼt care for the go-go girls was Johnny Rivers. When they danced during his sets, he let Valentine know how peeved he was: RIvers said, 'When Iʼm playing, I want people to listen to my music. I donʼt want any side­shows.ʼ It was agreed that the girls would contain their enthusiasm while the star artiste played, though Rivers turned out to be the only Whisky act ever to make such a demand. Generally, everyone involved in the Whiskyʼs first year reveled in the exhilaration of instantaneous success. Riversʼs built-in following ensured that the Whisky drew sellout crowds from the night it opened. The novelty of rock ʼnʼ roll on the Strip, plus the added novelty of the girls, attracted national media attention and Hollywood stars. Within months of the Whis­kyʼs debut, Life magazine had written it up, Jack Paar had broadcast an episode of his post-Tonight weekly program from the club, and Steve McQueen and Jayne Mansfield had installed themselves as regulars, Watusi-ing away on the dance floor almost every night while flashbulbs popped." (David Kamp, Vanity Fair)

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Gibson, who ran a PR group called The Group that represented such popular bands as The Byrds, The Doors and Buffalo Springfield, said, "If you had to put your finger on an event that was a barometer of the tide turning, it would probably be the Sunset Strip riots."  While the 'riots' were immortalized in the 1967 film Riot on Sunset Strip, there was no one particular incident; rather, a summer long simmering tension between longhairs, police and shop owners along the street. "The cops would hassle kids for being underage," claims Rodney Bingenheimer, who now hosts a radio show on KROQ, but was then dubbed by Sal Mineo, the Mayor of the Sunset Strip. "The Sunset Strip was like Las Vegas. People would actually walk from La Cienega to Gazzari's at 2 and 3 in the morning. It was a 24-hour party, but it was all very innocent. It wasn't until later that the scene turned ugly and people started taking a lot of drugs. It was still a mod thing then."  The Whisky entered the national spotlight as the youth riots made the news. The club's hip credentials expanded with the appearance of such sixties icons as The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Love, The Doors, Cream, Led Zeppelin and other seminal rock acts of the day. The prevailing sentiment among musicians at the time was "if you're playing LA, you have to play the Whisky."

 

 

 

Capt. Beefheart & The Magic Band

 

 

 

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention

For most of America, the Whisky was one of the cool­est things going in 1965. It quickly spawned imitators, complete with hit-spewing Rivers-alikes and hastily hired go-go girls frugging in hastily erected cages; even the Whisky itself spawned two short-lived satellite franchises, in San Francisco and Atlanta. Patty Brockhurstʼs unthinking little shimmies of joy were reverberating through­­out popular culture: from the Strip to the soundstages of Shindig and Hullabaloo to prom halls to the White House, where First Teen Luci Baines John­son was shakinʼ her ample thang Whisky-style before the year was out. 

 

 

 

"If there were dissenting voices, people who found it all a bit corny, no one in the mainstream paid them any mind. But certainly the voices were there—the voices of the folkies, loons, and freaks looming on the horizon. People like Frank Zappa, who reflected in his memoir, “During this period in American Musical History, anything with ʻGo-Goʼ pasted on the end of it was really hot. All you were required to do, if you were a musician desiring steady work, was to grind your way through five sets per night of loud rhythm tracks, while girls in fringed costumes did the twist, as if that particular body movement summed up the aesthetic of the serious beer drinker.” (David Kamp, Vanity Fair)

 

 

 

 

 

February 25,1966 Love, The Leaves 

 

Love, featuring guitarist and singer Arthur Lee, had been the hippest group in Hollywood for some time. 

 

 

 

April 1 - 7 Otis Redding plays The Whisky 

 

 

During his 7 day run, Otis Redding recorded a live album at The Whisky in 1966. Bob Dylan apparently attended one of these shows, and proposed writing a song for Otis (reputedly Just Like A Woman).

An article in the LA Times (A Special Time In Rock: 1966 On The Sunset Strip by Roy Trakin) describes the emerging music scene in Los Angeles at this time: "Before the Byrds played Ciro's in 1965, the pop music scene in L.A. consisted of people like Johnny Rivers, Trini Lopez and the Walker Brothers playing old-style nightclubs like PJ's (the site of what was later the Starwood rock club at Santa Monica and Crescent Heights) and Sneaky Pete's (now Duke's Coffee Shop). The bohemian folk scene held forth at Doug Weston's Troubador on Santa Monica off Doheny, Ed Pearl's Ash Grove on Melrose (now the Improv) and the Unicorn at Sunset and San Vicente."

 

 

 

May 3, 1966 Buffalo Springfield

The Buffalo Springfield, opening for the Grass Roots, had only been performing in public for a few weeks at this point.

 

 

 

May 9, 1966 The Doors (audition) 

The Doors, then playing other, lesser clubs in Hollywood, have a successful audition and by June they become the “house” band for the next few months, playing every night regardless of whether other acts are booked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Doors begin their run as the house band at The Whisky a Go Go opening for every group to play there from May 23 to August 21, 1966. They typically performed two sets per night. Exposed to a wide-ranging audience, The Doors began to experiment daringly. Allegedly, the experiments often took the form of drug trips, and weekly tales of The Doors’ freaked-out adventures flew.

During this period The Doors opened for artists as Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band, Buffalo Springfield, Love, Them, The Turtles and Johnny Rivers. The Doors perform as the house band at the Whisky a Go Go for the final time on August 21,1966. 

 

 

 


Jim Morrison misses their first set and the other band members play without him. Before the second set, they go looking for him and find him in Room 203 of the Tropicana Hotel. Jim has dropped acid and is wearing only underwear and a pair of boots. The guys quickly get Jim dressed and drag him to the Whisky for their next set. The last song they perform is “The End” and Jim improvises the Oedipal section into it for the first time, inserting lyrics about his mother and father. 

Jim later explained what happened in a 1967 interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “One Sunday night at Whisky a Go Go — we were the second band — something clicked. I realized what the whole song was about, what it had been leading up to. It was powerful. It just happened. They fired us the next day.” 

 

 

 

June 2-18, 1966 Them, The Doors 

Strange as it may seem today, Van Morrison’s moody but dynamic performances as the lead singer of Them were a significant influence on Jim Morrison’s Lizard King persona as lead singer of the Doors.

 

 

October 22, 1966 Buffalo Springfield, Sons of Adam 

 

Buffalo Springfield substituted for Love on this date, and Jim Fielder played bass for an indisposed Bruce Palmer.  Fielder would briefly end up as a member of the Springfield (from March to May 1967).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a list of some of the cool shows

that happened at the Whisky A Go Go in 1966: 

The Rascals 

Paul Butterfield Blues Band/The Leaves 

Love/The Leaves 

Grass Roots/Hard Times 

Beau Brummels 

Otis Redding 

The Doors (audition) 

Johnny Rivers/Buffalo Springfield 

 Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band/Buffalo Springfield/The Doors 

Love/Buffalo Springfield/The Doors 

Them / Capt. Beefhert & The Magic Band 

Them/The Doors 

Gene Clark and The Group/The Locos/The Doors 

The Turtles/First Review/The Doors 

Johnny Rivers/Chambers Brothers/The Doors 

Love/The Doors 

The Byrds 

Chambers Brothers/Hard Times 

The Mothers of Invention 

Beau Brummels 

Love/Sons of Adam 

 Love/Buffalo Springfield/Sons of Adam 

Sir Douglas Quintet/The Sparrow (one week) 

Buffalo Springfield/The Poor 

Jefferson Airplane/Peanut Butter Conspiracy 

The Turtles/Buffalo Springfield

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Them (featuring Van Morrison) @ The Whisky circa 1967

 

 

 

May 16-21, 1967 The Doors, The Byrds 

Two of the most famous bands to graduate from the Whisky herald the return of rock to the club. According to Chris Hjort’s chronology, due to an illness to Jim McGuinn, the Byrds do not play on the first night (May 16), and possibly not the next night either.

 

 

 

July 2, 1967 Jimi Hendrix Experience

 The Experience played a surprise guest set at the Sam & Dave show.

 

 

 

September 4-6, 1967 Cream, Rich Kids 

Cream, on their first American tour, had just come from two amazing weekends at the Fillmore, and would never play a venue this small again.

 

September 7-10, 1967 Electric Flag, Rich Kids 

The Electric Flag was created by ex-Butterfield Blues Band guitarist Mike Bloomfield as a sort of all-purpose super group.  It had many talented musicians and lots of promise, but never put it all together.  These shows were among the earliest gigs of the band, right after being billed at the Fillmore with Cream the week before.

 

 

 

October 25-29, 1967 Eric Burdon & Animals, Spirit

 

 

December 5-10, 1967 Blue Cheer

 

Blue Cheer were the loudest and hardest of San Francisco bands, very different from almost anything else coming out of the Bay Area. Blue Cheer actually played a benefit concert at the Santa Monica Civic on December 9 (Saturday night). It was common for bands billed at the Whisky to open a show somewhere else in LA and then go back to the Whisky to play later sets.

 

 

 

December 14-17, 1967 Big Brother & The Holding Company,  Sweetwater

"Janis Joplin and her group Big Brother and The Holding Company also became regulars at The Whisky. Mario Maglieri (manager of The Whisky A Go Go) describes one night sitting at a booth with Janis: 'She was a great entertainer, but a raunchy chick. Dirty nails, stringy hair. Looked like she hadn’t bathed in a month. And she had that raspy voice. Well, she was at the Whisky one night. I was sitting next to Janis, don’t know what the hell we were talking about. The waitress came up to the table. Janis says to her 'Gimme a drink'. So the girl brought over a Southern Comfort on the rocks. And what do you think Janis said? 'I want the whole fuckin’ bottle!' That was Janis. I truly loved her musically and as a person. She was just a great chick, you know what I mean?' " (Whisky A Go Go site)

 

 

 

Here’s a list of some of the cool shows

that happened at the Whisky A Go Go in 1967: 

Peanut Butter Conspiracy 

The Doors/The Byrds 

Sam & Dave / Jimi Hendrix Experience 

Mitch Ryder Revue 

Eric Burdon and The Animals 

Buffalo Springfield 

Kaleidoscope/Sunshine Company 

Peanut Butter Conspiracy 

Moby Grape / The Byrds 

Gene Clark 

The Byrds 

Cream/Rich Kids 

Electric Flag 

Jackie Wilson 

The Byrds 

Spirit 

Hour Glass (later to become The Allman Brothers Band) 

Bo Diddley/Jimmy Smith 

The Byrds / Steppenwolf 

Big Brother and The Holding Company/Sweetwater 

Moby Grape 

Country Joe and The Fish

 

 

 

 

 

Steppenwolf & John Mayall's Bluesbreakers

January 25th - January 26th

 

 

 

March 11-13, 1968 Blood, Sweat & Tears 

The original line-up of Blood Sweat & Tears, featuring Al Kooper on vocals and keyboards was still intact.

 

 

 

March 28-31, 1968 Lemon Pipers 

The Lemon Pipers were from Cincinnati, and were currently riding the charts with their hit Green Tambourine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 7-11, 1968 Traffic 

This was Traffic’s first American tour, and featured the trio line-up of Steve Winwood, Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi.

 

 

 

June 13-16, 1968 Three Dog Night, Smokestack Lightning

 

 

July 17-21, 1968 Canned Heat, Fraternity of Man 

 

The Fraternity of Man, later to become infamous for Don’t Bogart That Joint, grew out of a Hollywood band called The Factory. Among other members were ex-Mother Elliot Ingber and future Little Feat drummer Ritchie Hayward.

 

 

 

August 21-25, 1968 Eric Burdon & Animals, A.B. Skhy 

A.B. Skhy were from Milwaukee, where they had been known as The New Blues. They had since relocated to the Bay Area.

 

 

September 16-19, 1970 The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Second Coming 

The Flying Burrito Brothers were introducing new singer Rick Roberts, having fired Gram Parsons in late June. John Einarson reports the detail (in his fine 2009 book Hot Burritos) that The Burritos did not perform on the first night (Wednesday September 16) because Chris Hillman hands were sore from karate lessons.

 

 

 

September 25-28, 1968 United States of America, The Rockets 

The United States of America were a unique enterprise driven by UCLA Musicology graduate student Joseph Byrd, and featuring as vocalist Dorothy Moskowitz (who played with Country Joe McDonald in the 70s).  They released one album on Columbia and played a short East Coast tour.  However, founder Joe Byrd left the group after some gigs in San Francisco at the Fillmore, so while Moskowitz was still in the group for the Whisky shows, Byrd had left.  U.S. of A broke up, and Byrd went on to record the album American Metaphysical Circus as Joe Byrd and The Field Hippies.

 

 

 

 

October 23-27, 1968 Velvet Underground, Chicago Transit Authority 

The Velvets, with Doug Yule now replacing John Cale, were recording in Los Angeles in between performances in California.

 

 

 

November 20-24, 1968 Kaleidoscope, Black Pearl 

November 27-December 1, 1968 Flying Burrito Brothers, Taj Mahal 

Kaleidoscope, with future El-Rayo X front man David Lindley, had invented World Music some years before the world was ready for it.  Jimmy Page considered this configuration of the group (with bassist Stuart Brotman and drummer Paul Lagos) them his favourite band ever, and may have gotten the idea of bowing his guitar with a violin bow from Lindley’s similar efforts in Kaleidoscope (along with that of an English guitarist named Eddie Philips). 

 

 

 

Here’s a list of some of the cool shows

that happened at the Whisky A Go Go in 1968: 

Hugh Masakela/Steppenwolf 

John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers/ Steppenwolf 

Eric Burdon & The Animals/Eire Apparent 

Hour Glass 

Traffic 

Blood, Sweat & Tears 

Spirit/Illinois Speed Press 

Hour Glass/Word Salad 

Albert King/Evergreen Blue Shoes 

Canned Heat/Fraternity of Man 

Tim Buckley/Illinois Speed Press 

Mothers of Invention/Alice Cooper 

Siegal Schwall Blues Band 

Illinois Speed Press/Initial Shock 

Lee Michaels/Illinois Speed Press 

Love 

Buddy Miles Express 

Velvet Underground/Chicago Transit Authority 

Three Dog Night/A.B. Skhy 

Spirit 

Blood, Sweat & Tears/Spirit 

Taj Mahal/Big Mama Mae Thornton 

Velvet Underground/Cold Blood 

Kaleidoscope/Black Pearl 

Three Dog Night 

Flying Burrito Brothers/Taj Mahal 

Harvey Mandel/Pollution 

Terry Reid/Illinois Speed Press 

Lee Michaels/Chicago Transit Authority

 

 

 

The GTOs, Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman & the Flying Burrito Brothers

 

 

 

January 2-5, 1969 Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper 


Led Zeppelin were on their first American tour.  The first night at the Whisky was only the band’s fifth show in the United States.  The first album had been recorded, but not released, so while Jimmy Page was remembered from the Yardbirds, the group was completely unknown. 

According to Alice Cooper, the two unknown bands flipped a coin the first night to see who would go on first.  Jimmy Page does not remember that specifically, but agreed that such decisions were often decided this casually between bands.

 

 

 

 

John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) rocks out @ the Whisky circa 1969

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 24-26, 1969 Bob Seger, Illinois Speed Press 

Bob Seger, already a veteran of the Detroit scene, released his first Columbia album Ramblin Gamblin Man in early 1969.

 

 

 

October / November, 1969 Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground were playing an extended run of shows in California, mostly in San Francisco where their music was not well-received. 

 

 

 

Here’s a list of some of the cool shows

that happened at the Whisky A Go Go in 1969: 

Led Zeppelin/Alice Cooper/Buddy Miles Express 

Tim Hardin/Illinois Speed Press 

Lothar and The Hand People/Illinois Speed Press 

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends/Illinois Speed Press 

Van Morrison/Flying Burrito Brothers 

Linda Ronstadt/Alice Cooper 

It’s A Beautiful Day/Illinois Speed Press 

Slim Harpo/Illinois Speed Press 

Savoy Brown 

Flying Burrito Brothers 

Love 

Hugh Masakela & Big Black/Chicago Transit Authority/Illinois Speed Press 

Cat Mother and The All-Night Newsboys/The Flock 

Flying Burrito Brothers/The Churls 

Sir Douglas Quintet/Flock 

Dunn and McCashen 

The Move 

The Zombies 

Chuck Berry/Five-Man Electrical Theatre 

Velvet Underground/Collectors 

Humble Pie/King Crimson 

Bobby “Blue” Bland/Smokestack Lightning 

Grand Funk Railroad

 

 

The Allman Brothers @ The Whisky

 

 

 

 

December 6 - 10th 1972

 

 

 

NY Dolls outside the Whisky circa 1973

 

 

 

May 9-13, 1973 Rory Gallagher

 

 

 

 

 

Alex Harvey Band @ The Whiskey circa 1973

 

By the 1970's, business at The Whisky A Go Go began to slow down.

 

 

 

In early 1975, Hollywood’s Whisky a Go Go was on the rocks. The famed Sunset Strip nightclub, which during its late 60s and early 70s peak had played host to acts ranging from The Byrds and The Doors to Led Zeppelin and the Beach Boys, faced serious financial problems. Record labels, which had used the Whisky as a key platform for promoting their rising rock acts, now turned their attention to securing warm-up slots for their new artists on arena and stadium tours. The economy, too, had gone south, with inflation making it difficult to keep ticket prices down. 

Another blow came from the presence of newer and hipper Hollywood clubs, like the Starwood and the Roxy. ‘We can’t get big crowds regularly,’ owner Elmer Valentine told the Los Angeles Times. ‘We are competing with every little rock & roll club and every concert.’ In March, Valentine, a former Chicago cop who’d held an interest in the nightspot since 1964, conceded defeat. He announced that he’d decided to convert what was once the nation’s premiere rock club into a disco, of all things. 

After a few lackluster months of business, Valentine dispensed with the trendy dance format and shuttered the club. He’d then begin leasing the Whisky to some enterprising gentlemen from back East who’d offer up cabaret entertainments like sex-themed shows and musical comedies, to little acclaim. On rare occasions, rock promoters put on one-off shows at the Whisky, such as in September 1975 when the pioneering female rock group the Runaways took the stage at the historic venue. But by late 1976, the once-proud Whisky had no relevance when it came to rock, and in fact, seemed destined to go to seed. 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine also recruited the Runaways manager Kim Fowley to help book the club and his “New Wave Nights” soon gave way to high profile acts like Blondie in early ’77. Like the early shows of Love, these performances are now part of local lore, with Debbie Harry ripping a wedding dress during ‘Rip Her to Shreds’, or crawling around and panting like a dog during ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, with Joan Jett on stage.

 

 

 

 

After a few lackluster months of business, Valentine dispensed with the trendy dance format and shuttered the club. He’d then begin leasing the Whisky to some enterprising gentlemen from back East who’d offer up cabaret entertainments like sex-themed shows and musical comedies, to little acclaim. On rare occasions, rock promoters put on one-off shows at the Whisky, such as in September 1975 when the pioneering female rock group the Runaways took the stage at the historic venue. But by late 1976, the once-proud Whisky had no relevance when it came to rock, and in fact, seemed destined to go to seed. 

Despite the Whisky’s decline, Valentine never gave up hope that he might find a way to return it to its former glories. In the summer of 1976, Valentine rang up former Spirit manager Marshall Berle. 'Around that time,' the angular Berle recalls, 'I got a call from Elmer asking if I would help him re-open the Whisky.' Berle, who’d maintained personal and professional relationship with Valentine since 1964, was happy to assist. 

In the weeks that followed, Berle and Valentine began hatching an audacious if not improbable plan to bring the Whisky back to life. Instead of booking well-established performers backed by major labels, they’d feature emerging local bands, most of whom lacked record deals, at the club. Unlike the commercially successful acts that had built the Whisky’s reputation, these groups played abrasive music that was generally unsuited for mainstream radio. By the fall, Valentine was all in on this scheme: he’d revive the Whisky by turning the nightspot into the headquarters for Los Angeles’s burgeoning punk and new wave scene.

Soon after Berle heard from Valentine, he called Runaways manager and Los Angeles music entrepreneur Kim Fowley. Berle knew that the intense, six-foot-five Fowley would immediately reach out to L.A. scenester and promoter Rodney Bingenheimer, a diminutive man with a distinctive pageboy haircut, and get him on board as well. This pair was sure to have their finger on the pulse of what was next in rock music and know which local street bands seemed poised for a breakout. 

The duo didn’t disappoint. By the early summer of 1976, punk and new wave had come to the fore in New York and London, and had begun creeping into Los Angeles. Bingenheimer and Fowley started spotting growing clutches of teenagers dressed in ragged denim and stained leather, hanging in the parking lot of the Sunset Strip’s Rainbow Bar and Grill. They’d talk to these street kids about the bands they were forming and groups from back East and overseas, like the Ramones, Blondie, and the Sex Pistols, that they all dug. The pair, too, kept abreast of the inchoate scene’s undercurrents through Runaways’ guitarist and vocalist Joan Jett, who’d come to identify with it.

Then in August, the Pasadena-based KROQ hired Bingenheimer to spin records for four hours on Sunday nights across the AM and FM airwaves. He’d be the first DJ in L.A. to play Blondie and the Sex Pistols too. 

As autumn arrived, this new movement continued to take shape.  As momentum built on the street, Valentine made his move. In mid-November, Valentine announced the club’s reopening in the pages of Billboard, stating, 'I feel that punk rock, which is so hot in New York now, may well be due to hit Los Angeles.'  

On Thanksgiving weekend, that proposition began to be put to the test when the Whisky once again opened for business as a rock club. With Fowley serving as MC, the nightclub featured two local (and Fowley-backed) new wave bands: The Quick; and Venus and the Razorblades. With teenagers filling the room, the Whisky’s resurrection had begun. 

 

 

 

Just days later, the scene’s eclectic nature was on display on the Whisky stage when Berle and Fowley paired Venus and the Razorblades with a decidedly un-punk rock band from Pasadena, Van Halen. Berle, who just weeks earlier had caught a sold-out Van Halen concert in Pasadena, had hired them to play the club.

By late December, Valentine and the others sensed that the punk and new wave movements seemed ready to break wide open in Los Angeles. Fowley, perhaps the most unsung scene maker in rock history, wasted no time in hyping the Hollywood music movement.

By early February, the Whisky featured its highest profile act to date when rising new wave stars Blondie, with a young Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in support, performed a multi-day stand at the club. Photographer Jenny Lens, whose work vividly documented the LA scene, wrote in Punk Pioneers, “Debbie [Harry] walked onto the stage wearing a Humphrey Bogart beige trenchcoat, black beret, and holding a New York paper announcing freezing weather.” As the set continued, she unbuttoned the coat to reveal an outrageously tiny black dress and thigh-high black leather boots.

 

 

 

As it had a decade prior, in the late 70s the Whisky once again served as a phenomenal launching pad for new rock talent. By 1980, Van Halen, Blondie, the Jam, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had all become stars. John Cougar joined them in that status by 1982. In contrast, the Germs never broke out of Los Angeles, and the band disbanded for good in late 1980 when Pyn, now calling himself Darby Crash, committed suicide by injecting a massive dose of heroin.

 

 

 

 

 

Joan Jett & Rodney Bingenheimer hanging out @ The Whisky circa 1977

 

 

 

Ramones rock The Whisky circa 1977

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Mötley Crüe started their career on The Sunset Strip, as they performed many nights at the Whisky A Go-Go. The band also filmed their “Kickstart My Heart” video at the Whisky. 

In 1981 Mötley Crüe were rehearsing, playing shows and partying in ways that defied conventional living. Nikki, Tommy and Vince were living in an apartment up the street from the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. They found girls to help pay for drinks, drugs, clothes, and food, and when that failed, they stole the necessities from the stores down the streets. 

Nikki Sixx still remembers when they sold out the Whisky A Go Go three nights in a row: 'That was one of the highlights of our career.' He says. 

He also recalls the wild parties they had here: 'Did I tell you about the time I tied a girl up in the Whisky bathroom with Mick’s guitar cable, and then went to get a bump of blow from Tommy? I forgot she was in there!' 

'Vince Neil is a doll when he’s sober, but one time he whacked one of my guys with a pizza because he parked his car in the back instead of the front,' says owner Mikeal Maglieri." (Whisky A Go Go website)

 

 

 

Formed in LA in 1985, Guns N’ Roses emerged from the Sunset Strip music scene as one of the great stadium rock acts of its time and one of the best-selling bands in music history. Guns N’ Roses performed at the Whisky during its formative years, and band members – including guitarist Slash and keyboardist Dizzy Reed – have performed there in various capacities since their platinum-selling heyday. 

 

 

 

 

 

Elmer Valentine in his later years

As time went on, Valentine withdrew from the club and the music scene and slipped into retirement. Though Elmer didn't do much socializing anymore, he spent his time happily at his house up in the Hollywood Hills, smoking herb and listening to his favorite jazz albums.

 

 

 

Elmer Valentine, the primary force behind The Whisky, passed away in December 2009 at the age of 85. A few hundred friends and fans gathered at The Whiskey to remember Valentine's contribution to the rock & roll culture. Besides the folks sharing their memories of Valentine, there was music performed by Johnny Rivers, Stephen Stills, Chris Hillman and John Mayall.  The ghost of Jim Morrison was ejected from the party after overturning several tables and chairs.

 

 

 

"Today, the Whisky stands open for business on the Sunset Strip, and features a wide-range of local and national talent. Yet the days when Berle and Valentine could fill the gig calendar and then consistently pack the house are long gone. To help limit the club’s exposure to financial risk, the Whisky requires local bands to purchase upfront, and then resell, blocks of tickets in order to gig there, a scheme that musicians decry as a “pay-to-play” policy. 

Despite this state of affairs, ambitious musicians still leap at the chance to play at the storied Whisky. And why wouldn’t they? When bands take the stage there, they are performing in the shadow of greatness, one that stretches back to 1964. Over and over again, as a look back at 1977 reveals, the club has served as the local mecca for musical trends that change rock history. When the next big thing in rock arrives, ground zero may very well again be at a little club on the Sunset Strip." (medium.com)

 

 

 

 

The Whisky A Go Go has been immortalized in various rock songs many times over, the best case probably being the popular ditty Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark and Hilldale from the album, Forever Changes by the popular Whisky Band, Love which was fronted by the mercurial Arthur Lee.


 

 


 

 

 

 

 

MARDI GRAS SINGLES

 


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