Where the Wild Things Lived

The glory days of rock ‘n’ roll on the Strip weren’t confined to the ‘60s, when the Doors, Byrds and the Buffalo Springfield were at work and at play. It was during the ‘70s that Los Angeles’ clubs became the absolute center of American pop music, when the latest hopefuls--from Elton John and Tom Petty to Bette Midler and the Police--were served up to taste-maker audiences and often overnight stardom.

For me, many of the most exciting nights were in the late ‘70s, with the dynamic young artists of the punk/new wave generation. Whether from England (Elvis Costello, the Jam) or New York (Talking Heads, Blondie) or Los Angeles (X, the Blasters), these artists exhibited on the Strip’s stages an intensity and desire that left you exhilarated and inspired. (And that tradition continues in the ‘90s from Oasis and Elastica to Ani DiFranco.)

On the best nights, so much talent was on those stages that it felt like a personal music festival. Typically, there were two shows a night, which meant you could walk, on a warm summer evening, from the Roxy to the Whisky and see two bands. Of the hundreds of nights I’ve spent at the Roxy and Whisky, two stand out. The first, around 1970, was when the Flying Burrito Brothers headlined the Whisky. Led by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the band played with as much soulful character as any I’ve ever seen--yet the room was almost empty. The original Burritos broke up a few months later, and Parsons subsequently died of an overdose.

If that night reminds us of the loneliness of the artistic struggle, the other underscores the joy that occurs when an artist connects on a grand scale. When Bruce Springsteen opened at the Roxy in 1975, he enthralled the audience so fully that his future was assured.

Whenever I go into the clubs today, I still think of Springsteen and Parsons all those years ago. However different their fate, they were, on those stages on the Strip, all that rock ‘n’ roll can be.