TABLE OF CONTENTS :
JUMP, JIVE, and
HARMONIZE: The Eastside Sound of Los Angeles As It Relates to the National "Garage Rock" Narrative
INTRODUCTION
The Eastside Sound of Los Angeles has always been part of the soundtrack of my life. Wax copies of “Where Lovers Go” and “Angel Baby” were highlights of my parents’ collections, as were compilations like “East Side Story” and “Barrio Chingon.” El Chicano, Los Lobos, or Tierra could usually be heard blaring from a hi-fi in my music teacher’s Boyle Heights studio–and, in fact, El Chicano keyboardist Bobby Espinosa could often be seen there. Otherwise, during the summer months, I could be found at the North Figueroa Lowrider Festival, where songs like “Queen of My Heart,” and “As I Sit Here” filled the air. Significantly, I crossed paths with Eastside legend Lalo Guerrero at a music festival in Hermon when I was an adolescent– I had just started playing music at the time.
Along the way, we will also learn some new musical parlance!
VV Click "READ MORE" to continue reading VV
____
I. THE ROCK N’ ROLL FAD, THE BRITISH INVASION, CIGAR-CHOMPIN’ OLD GUYS, AND THE BIRTH OF THE “GARAGE” ETHOS
THE ROCK N’ ROLL FAD
For a solid decade from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, being in a rock n’ roll band was one of the coolest fads that a young person could partake in. In the mid-1950s, The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet were some of the first far-reaching television programs to broadcast the rambunctious new genre–although Mr. Sullivan was not exactly a risk-taking bastion of musical expression in his own right! The energetic performances of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley enthralled young viewers in the United States and around the world, moving many of them to form their own groups. THE BRITISH INVASION In the resulting cross-country and international rock n’ roll competition, the “British Invasion” bands began touring countries like the United States and Germany in the early 1960s. However, with the general feeling that these “guitar groups” would soon go out-of-style, many veteran record execs of yester-decade wrote them off. They soon came to regret this–for obvious reasons. Decca’s (and others’) rejection of the Beatles has got to be one of the greatest miscalculations in the entire history of commerce.
CIGAR-CHOMPIN’ OLD GUYS Along with the proliferation of small, independent labels, many of these “garage” groups notably also had their moments with the major labels. After all, it was the big-wigs who were reeling from their rejection of the British Invasion Acts. Frank Zappa, who was on the forefront of LA’s Eastside Sound and SoCal garage rock epochs of the 1950s and 1960s, had his own explanation for the sheer diversity of musical acts who were signed during this period:
Zappa goes on to make the point that the entrepreneurial spirit of record producers up until the late 1960s was such that they took more risks, and recognized that even if they did not necessarily fully comprehend the musical product that had come before them, they did not think themselves to be the final arbiters of “good” music.
____
All of these factors made for an era of unprecedented musical diversity, in which young musicians from all over the United States – aided by affordable and widely-available musical equipment and sought-out by a plethora of prospective music producers – had their music recorded and distributed at a velocity that has only since been replicated with the advent of the internet.
The development of the Eastside Sound of Los Angeles bore many of the same characteristics as the national “garage rock” narrative, but in many ways, the Eastside Sound’s pathology was vastly different from that of the suburban "frat rock" that was popular around the nation during this period.
____
II. THE EASTSIDE SOUND of LOS ANGELES -
ETYMOLOGY and MUSICOLOGY
Los Angeles’ Eastside Sound is a name collectively describing the doo-wop, soul, rock n’ roll, and Motown-influenced music that originated primarily in LA’s East Side, as well as the San Gabriel Valley, unincorporated East Los Angeles, and occasionally other sections of Los Angeles. The bands from the Eastside tended to be from Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, while those from the San Gabriel Valley often called the cities of San Gabriel and Pomona their homes.
The Eastside Sound began to take shape in the early-mid-1950s. The groups drew upon the styles and techniques of earlier African-American soul, doo-wop, rock n’ roll, and Motown musicians, and the overall essences of these earlier styles are evident in the Eastside Sound. However, the usually low beats-per-minute ("BPM") of many Eastside songs, along with the deep production and melancholic articulation, is a huge part of what makes this regional genre so distinct. If you like oldies, and you come across the Eastside Sound, it is hard not to let this SoCal genre evoke the feeling of cruising down the boulevard or slowly strutting down the sidewalk.
As was the case with other “garage” scenes around the United States during the 1950s-1960s, many Eastside bands did not appear before national audiences or achieve that level of fame. A small number of these Eastsiders did transcend their local relegations into the national consciousness– either achieving fame for many years in their own right (such as Thee Midniters, Los Lobos, and Tierra), or briefly tasting national stardom as local support acts opening for other big names of the time (as was the case with Cannibal and the Headhunters, who opened for the Beatles).
Most of these Eastside bands primarily had personnel who were of Mexican descent, but depending on where they called their home, many groups featured integrated lineups with members of African-American, Italian, or Anglo descent. Eastside and San Gabriel Valley groups like Don Julian and the Meadowlarks (of South Central), The Jaguars & The Salas Bros. (of Lincoln Heights), The Jaguars (of South Central), the Illusions (of Bellflower), and Ronnie & The Pomona Casuals (of…Pomona) contained varying mixes of Mexican, Black, Italian, and Anglo personnel. The Carlos Brothers, of Long Beach, were of Filipino-Spanish ancestry and performed with Chicano musicians. This demography of the Eastside Sound groups (and their audiences) is yet another unique and beautiful aspect of the movement. It is also a testament of the integration, early on, of many Los Angeles neighborhoods, and even *certain* suburbs outside of Los Angeles–strong emphasis on that “certain”! This level of ethnic diversity was largely absent in many other “fratty” rock scenes around the nation.
____
III. SOME EASTSIDE IDOLS
There are far too many Eastside groups from the period 1954 to 1969 (and beyond) to afford each group their own synopsis…and gracefully fit all of the content into one blog post. The good news is, most of the information in this section is derived from the historical recollections of Guy Aversa, who publishes the brilliant, comprehensive blog “You Found That Eastside Sound” as well as the YouTube channel EastLAGuy. For more information on the bands in this article, and countless other Eastside artists, please visit the two sites linked below. In the interim, I have selected a small number of Eastside artists based on their significance to the development of the Eastside Sound…and also whose records I happen to be the grateful owner of.
Thereafter, Little Julian Herrera recorded a series of flippers for the Iris (a subsidiary of Dig), Starla, Essar, Emmo, and Eldo labels, including “I Remember Linda,” “I Wanna Be With You,” and his last release, “Your Careless Love,” on Eldo Records. What ultimately happened to Little Jullian Herrera after the mid-1960s is a mystery, as are most of the details of his life and career.
Above: The author's copy of "Symbol of Heaven" b/w "Here In My Arms" on Iris Records, a later reissue label of Dig Records' catalog.
Above: The author's copy of "Lonely, Lonely Nights (Take 2)" b/w "I Want to Be With You" on Essar.
____
RITCHIE VALENS
Little Julian Herrera may have been the first Eastside Idol. However, if there is a singular, most recognizable teenage rock n’ roll idol from 1950s Los Angeles, it would probably be Ritchie Valens. Born Richard Steven Valenzuela on May 13th, 1941, he was raised in the Pacoima district of the San Fernando Valley. Valens began playing guitar when he was young, influenced by the R&B and blues of the United States as well as the traditional mariachi music of his parents’ native Mexico. Attending Pacoima Junior High and San Fernando High, he soon established himself as the “Little Richard of San Fernando,” assuming the lead role of a local group called the Silhouettes and appropriating them as his backing band.
In the first week of May, 1958, Bob Keane heard a tape of Richard playing at American Legion Post 176 on Pico Street in the City of San Fernando. After recording a full demo of him in the former’s Silver Lake basement and recommending a name change to Ritchie Valens, Keane signed the now-Valens to his new Del-Fi label. Valens’ first recording session at Gold Star Studios (with famed musicians Carol Kaye, Rene Hall, and Earl Palmer as session players) produced the Eastside classic written by Valens, “Come on Let’s Go,” and a B-side cover, “Framed.” The rest is history.
A familiarity with the life and personages related to Ritchie Valens is important for understanding the Eastside Sound, first, because of the immense influence that Valens had on other Eastside and SGV groups, and second, because of the numerous personages and connections related to Valens. As Ritchie Valens toured around the Los Angeles area, he crossed paths with several groups, two of whom are Eastside legends in their own right: The Velveteens of Pomona, and The Carlos Brothers of the Harbor Area.
Fun fact: Ritcie recorded one flipper on Del-Fi under the alias “Arvee Allens”
(...Get it? Because……. R…..V….alens……Clever, clever.)
Above right and left: the labels to "Fast Freight," released under the alias "Arvee Allens."
(Source: The author)
____
THE VELVETEENS
The Velveteens were formed by a young Johnnie Valenzuela Jr., born April 10th 1945 in Pomona, California. Originally a saxophonist, he saw Ritchie Valens play at one of those fateful El Monte Legion Stadium shows in 1958, and was inspired to switch to the electric guitar. The band’s first flipper, released in 1960, is a double instrumental containing “Dog Patch Creeper,” b/w “Johnnie’s Jump.” The former song, written about some of the band members’ formative neighborhood in La Verne, is SO punk. The latter song is a minimalist, droning, vamping instrumental that could be an opening theme for a period horror film.
Performing around Los Angeles County, the group met 16-year old San Dimas local Mary Unzuetta, who became the group’s first dedicated lead vocalist. As “Mary Lou Zuetta & the Velveteens,” they recorded the beautiful, doo-woppy “Oh Baby” b/w “Come Back.” The latter 45, featuring Unzuetta’s soprano vocals over eerily faint instrumentation, is one of the rarest in all the Eastside discography.
Both of the Velveteens’ first two 45s were released on Emmy Records, belonging to Paul Buff, an immensely important figure in the development of independent record production. By all accounts, Buff’s friend and partner Frank Zappa probably sat in on the Velveteen sessions at Buff’s Pal Studios in Rancho Cucamonga. The Buff-Zappa team are connected to numerous other Eastside and Southern California musical personages.
The next year, the Velveteens released “Bells of Love” b/w “You’ve Broken My Heart” on another of Paul Buff’s labels, Kerwood Records, with added Chino, California vocalists Terri Bonilla and Lucy Duran. I still pinch myself that I have a good-quality original pressing of the Kerwood flipper.
Above: The author's copy of "You've Broken My Heart" b/w "Bells Of Love" on Kerwood Records. A mega-rarity.
With Terri Bonilla on lead vocals, the band recorded “La Flor,” a beautiful Spanish ballad with quasi-flamenco guitar strumming, and “I’m Waiting,” both recorded at Art Laboe’s Original Sound Studios on Sunset Boulevard and released on the South Gate-based Arc Records.
There is a scarcely documented alternate version of “I’m Waiting,” probably recorded straight onto an acetate, which surfaced on YouTube in the early 2010s. This mysterious version is tonicly different from the Arc version, utilizing mostly minor scales and voicings instead of major ones, albeit with mostly the same lyrics and song structure. This version is, to me, one of the most emblematic recordings exemplifying the Eastside Sound, with its deep lo-fi production, melancholic guitar fiddling, and Terri Bonilla’s near whistle register vocal range.
As for how Ritchie Valens fits into this whole picture....
Valens was evidently aware of the fledgling group through their performances around the San Gabriel Valley, and Johnnie Valenzuela said in a 2017 interview that Valens promised them a slot on his label, Donna Records, a subsidiary of Bob Keane’s Del-Fi. Valens tragically died shortly thereafter, but the now-husband-and-wife Terri Bonnilla and Johnnie Valenzuela would eventually release a beautiful flipper on Donna Records under “Terri & Johnnie” called “Your Tender Lips” b/w “I Miss You So.” Johnnie Valenzuela continued to play music for the rest of his life. He and vocalist Terri Bonnilla were married in 1962 and remained together for 59 years before Mr. Valenzuela passed away on December 4th, 2022.
____
THE CARLOS BROTHERS (a/k/a THE SHADOWS)
Another group that Ritchie Valens encountered in his travels around the Southland consisted of two half-brothers from the Harbor Area of southern Los Angeles County, James “Jimmy” Carlos and Pete Antoniano. Jimmy and Pete grew up in the Cabrillo Housing Projects in Long Beach (now The Century Villages) and attended Banning High School in the nearby Wilmington district of Los Angeles. Valens liked the traditional Mexican duet style the brothers had brought into doo-wop, soul, and pop, so he asked them to open for his group at El Monte Legion Stadium. With the evidently warm reception, Valens vouched for the brothers, then performing as “The Shadows,” so that Keane would sign them to Del-Fi.
Below left and right: In both photos, Jimmy Carlos is on the left and Pete Antoniano on the right. In the bottom right photo, the bassist is none other than Raulie Garcia, later known as the enigmatic "Johnny Chingas."
Thanks for the fun fact, Guy A. ! *Mind blown* (Source: DooWopBlog)
Their first release was “Under Stars Of Love” b/w “Jungle Fever,” the former being a tender doo-wop ballad (again utilizing those “50s progression” chords) and the latter being a comedic pop tune about going to see a witch doctor and falling in love. After the modest success of this single, Keane recommended a name change for Jimmy and Pete, as he had with Valens, to “The Carlos Brothers.”
Above: The author's copy of the Carlos Brothers' first Del-Fi single. This copy is pressed on vinyl rather than styrene, the latter of which is much more common of Del-Fi pressings.
Above: The author's copy of the Carlos Brothers' second Del-Fi single, "Tonight"--signed by Jimmy Carlos! This copy is also pressed on vinyl rather than styrene.
(A later recording attributed to the brothers and released on the Heliodor and Del-Fi labels, “A Little More Wine, My Dear?” is actually a recording by The Hawks, another Del-Fi artist. )
Jimmy Carlos passed away on December 20th, 2006. His obituary provides some other information on his life:
The members of Thee Midniters were mostly from Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles and attended a mixture of Garfield, Salesian, Montebello, and Cantwell high schools. They had a “big band” lineup, complete with horns and multiple percussionists, a setup that was not exactly frequent but also not uncommon amongst the Eastside bands. When present, though, these gargantuan lineups further distinguished many Eastside bands from others in the national garage rock scene. Lincoln Heights’ The Enchantments were another example of an Eastside “big band”, with 10 members.
According to Aversa, after a performance at St. Alphonsus High School in East LA, record producer Eddie Torres approached the band and offered to be their manager. Following the band’s performance at the now-legendary 1964 Salesian High School Battle of the Bands, a moment captured on the equally legendary and rare vinyl LP “The Salesian Rock n’ Roll Show,” Torres negotiated a recording contract with Chattahoochee Records. The band’s first release was a cover of “Land of 1000 Dances.” The song had been originally written and recorded by Chris Kenner in 1962, followed up with covers by Eastsiders Cannibal & the Headhunters and Thee Midniters three years later. The song’s narrator lectures a lover that they are behind on the fad dances of the time–the Jerk, the Chicken, the Slop, and other fascinating examples.
The success of this single marked the beginning of a career that would produce 20 singles and four albums, released primarily through Chattahoochee Records, as well as the band’s own Whittier Records. Among them are the flute-punctuated “Dreaming Casually,” the soulful “Sad Girl” (ever wonder where that phrase came from?) the cruising “Whittier Boulevard”, and the wailing “It’ll Never Be Over for Me,” “I Need Someone,” and “Brother Where Are You?”
Above: The author's copies of some other great Midniters rolas.
Vinyl collecting pointer: The copy of "Sad Girl" on the left is an example of a record distributor running out of their trademark label paper (yes, it was a special type of paper) and having to resort to monochromatic printing onto whatever color label paper they could get their hands on. Another great example of this is The Penguins' (of South Central) cononical song "Earth Angel." An unexpected smash hit for the humble band and their humble label, the latter had to resort to using various colors of label paper and inks to print subsequent copies of Earth Angel. The very same story is true of Rosie and the Originals' "Angel Baby."
The band were possibly thee first to employ the odd “Thee” as a prefix to their name. As the story goes, the extra “e” was a technicality employed in order to avoid a lawsuit from Hank Ballard, whose backing band was identically named. Other “Thee” bands from the Eastside include Thee Counts, Thee In-Set, Thee Impalas, Thee Emeralds, Thee Essents, and the mysterious, aptly named Thee Unknown Four.
As a local support act, Thee Midniters were documented to have opened for Van Morrison’s Them.
THE JAGUARS
The Jaguars were formed at Lincoln High School in the Eastside neighborhood of Lincoln Heights by school friends Mario Paniagua (guitar), Frank Chavez (guitar), Adrian Sansone (drums), and Anthony “Beaver” Carroll (bass). Sansone, according to his website, came from a musical family who were the musical directors at the Sons of Italy Lodge in Lincoln Heights. When Adrian was nine, the drummer in his father’s band quit, and Adrian took on drumming duties. At Lincoln High, Sansone joined a group started by his friends called the Percussions, and with Sansone’s addition, they became the Jaguars. In their search for vocalists, they hired nine- and eleven-year-old brothers Rudy and Steve Salas.
After several gigs at teen dances and other socials around the Eastside and the San Gabriel Valley, Billy Cardenas approached the group after a performance at El Monte Legion Stadium and arranged a meeting with Eddie Davis of Faro Records. Davis recorded the group’s signature “Where Lovers Go” b/w “Discover A Lover.” One of my very favorite songs ever written, “Where Lovers Go” is a simple but elegant instrumental utilizing the “50s progression” of chords, except with an added folklorico inflection created by the addition of 7ths.
David Hidalgo, the guitarist of Los Lobos, who covered the song on their 2021 album “Native Sons,” puts it very well in a 2021 interview:
____
IV. THE SOUTH CENTRAL SOUND
Going chronologically way out of order here… Often included in discussions of the Eastside Sound are the soul and doo-wop groups of South Central who played a significant role in influencing the Eastside groups. Aside from drawing heavily upon the soul and doo-wop styles, the Eastsiders covered many of their South Central forerunners’ songs, and many Eastside songs were written by South Central songwriters. South Central had already already made its pronounced (but underappreciated) impact on the history of music in the early 20th century with the jazz clubs of Central Avenue. Although such activity had begun to dwindle by the 1950s, the pursuit of showbiz carried on–notably, in the form of independent record production. The life of Dootsie Williams, along with his Blue, Dootone, and Dooto labels, tell a major part of the story of the South Central Sound. Williams’ first label, Blue Records, was a comedy label founded in 1949. By 1951, Dootsie made the shift largely to music distribution, founding Dootone Records that year. Early on, Williams changed the name of his second label from Dootone to Dooto to avoid a lawsuit from the similarly-named Duo-Tone label. In any case, Dootsie Williams sure did cast a shadow over the legacy of Duo-Tone, as his labels distributed artists like the Penguins, Don Julian & the Meadowlarks, and Carl Perkins.
Don Julian and the Meadowlarks were a major influence upon the Eastside acts. The same is true of Carl Perkins, whose short career also had an immense influence on acts like the Beatles. The Penguins’ hit “Earth Angel,” recorded in Dootsie’s little garage in South Central, has attained a level of cultural significance that is difficult not to understate. In fact, “Earth Angel” was one of the songs that NASA selected to shoot into space on the Voyager Gold Record.
Another major part of the story is conveyed through the family of record companies founded by Frank Gallo, Johnny Otis, and brothers Eddie and Leo Mesner: Aladdin Records, then Ultra Records, then Dig Records. The Messner Brothers formed Aladdin in 1950, distributing the early releases of numerous local and national artists, including latter-day releases by Billie Holiday.
The Mesners, along with Gallo and Otis, founded Ultra in January 1955, and one month later they changed the name to Dig. The label also distributed music by The Premiers (not to be confused with the later Eastside group of the same name), who also backed Little Julian Herrera on his first releases, which were issued on Dig. Numerous local groups were also recorded on this label. Otis became the sole owner in 1957 and, after just 41 singles and 4 albums, the label ceased releasing music shortly thereafter.
CLOSING REMARKS
In your arduous search to discover and collect new Eastside music, I would like to offer some guidance. 1.) Don’t pass-up on 45s. A lot of people mistakenly believe that 7-inch 45-rpm singles simply contain hits that can be found on the full album. It depends on the era you are collecting! Many of the artists who recorded before 1965 are said to have recorded in the “single era” wherein artists put out several singles per year, as opposed to one large album every couple of years. In other words, the 7-inch records are very often the original and only pressings of a particular release. I would estimate that over 90% of the Eastside groups only released 45 RPM flippers–notable exceptions would be Thee Midniters, The Premiers, and Ronnie & The Pomona Casuals. Many of the rarest records ever, in fact, are 45s. The rarest release from the Eastside Sound is probably "Beggin' You" by El Monte's Royal Chessmen. There might be a tangential Manson Family connection to that song.....but you can look all of that up. 2.) Become familiar with record labels. The period 1954-1969 was a period of immense musical diversity, and along with it came an incalculable number of independent record labels. However, early in my record collecting days, I made the mistake of ignoring releases on major-labels as possibly being Eastside rarities. This was a bad assumption–after all, Reprise distributed The Blendells, ATCO distributed Lil-Ray, GNP-Crescendo distributed Mark & The Escorts, and so on. Learn about deadwax runout inscriptions! 3.) Please stop gentrifying record collecting. Yes, I used the “G” word to describe the record collecting and resale practices of the last decade. We live in a (mostly) free market society, and consenting parties can charge and pay as they please for (legal) goods and services. However, this is just getting out of control when it comes to record collecting. Record collectors have historically charged in the low hundreds for exceptionally rare releases, but at the end of the day, major concern was afforded to who bought the record and how the record would be kept. Discogs has been an invaluable online marketplace and musical archive for over two decades. However, they also have a feature which is both a blessing and a curse, which is their highest-and-lowest-sold-for price trackers, which they attach to every single release cataloged on their site. This feature has seemingly fueled a practice of selling copies of rare records, in whatever condition they may be in, for the highest recorded sale price. If you want to sell or buy a copy of a rare Eastside rola for a price that is commensurate to its rarity, the price you purchased it for, or your general need for the cash–all the more power to you. Just make sure that wherever your copy goes, that the next owner will take care of it and carry on the tale of the Eastside artist who wrote and/or recorded it. On my to-do list: 1.) Make a “degrees of separation” chart illustrating the interconnected relationships of many Eastside groups, personages, and labels. 2.) Take a map of Los Angeles County and populate it with points demarcating the hometowns of the numerous Eastside bands. 3.) Write a piece on other Los Angeles garage rock scenes–of which there have been quite a few throughout history.
Above: Oh yeah, one more thing, I promise. As of the time of my writing this article, Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" is one of the most popular songs on the radio. Here is another great flipper with an A-side called "Flowers," a a beautiful composition of the Eastside Sound. Ricky Dean, birth name Ricardo Martinez, wrote the song with Eastside personage Paul Buff. It was pressed on Art Laboe's Original Sound label. Laboe, along with Godfrey Kerr and Huggy Boy, was a major figure in the propogation of Eastside Rolas. Everything pressed on Original Sound is amazing. Get into it for youself!
1 Comment
Hernan
3/30/2023 01:15:13 pm
Great times....walking down slauson in pico-rivera with our tape deck boomboxes playing thee midniters and tierra....those times were in a lot of ways harder but in a lot of ways so much more real and carefree...I miss those times...thank u for this article - HC
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2022
Categories
All
|