Metro Art has partnered with local community driven radio and arts foundation, dublab, to create this special programming series. Each episode is a multimedia dive into the various intersecting musical histories embedded into the streets, buildings, and neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Hear from a spectrum of musicians who defined their respective scenes along with a collaged soundtrack of hand selected music, interviews, archival photos, and a broadcasted livestream of the accompanying geographies as seen from a Metro Bike as visual accompaniment.

The first three episodes corresponded with a Metro Rail transit corridor that is currently under construction: Regional Connector in Downtown LA, Purple Line Extension along the Wilshire Corridor, and Crenshaw/LAX connecting to Mid-City and Leimert Park. The next three episodes connect more music and social history geographies multi-modally accessible via Metro Rail, Bus and Bike: the Sunset Strip extending west from the B Line (Red) from Hollywood via Metro Bike and Bus, Hyperion Blvd. in Silver Lake, and the future Los Angeles River Path project.

DEEP ROUTES EPISODE #4 — RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, 1966

On the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles during 1965 and 1966, an electrifying scene appeared out of nowhere, exploded into creativity, and then, just as suddenly, vanished. So much remarkable music, art, and social revolution came from one place at one time, that it’s difficult now to grasp how it all happened.

This was an astonishing moment, when for a few years, rock ‘n’ roll and social consciousness displaced movies as the centre of action in Hollywood. From the moment The Byrds debuted at Ciro’s on March 26th 1965—with Bob Dylan joining them onstage—right up to the demonstrations of November 1966, Sunset Strip nightclubs nurtured and broke The Doors, Love, Buffalo Springfield (featuring Neil Young and Stephen Stills), Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Billy Preston, Brenton Wood, The Turtles, The Chambers Brothers, The Mamas & The Papas, and many others.

The Strip was a hotbed for Nuggets-styled garage punk bands such as The Standells, The Seeds, The Electric Prunes, The Bobby Fuller Four, The Music Machine and The Leaves. Folk-rock and psychedelia were born on a club scene that included such dynamic places as The Trip, It’s Boss, The Hullabaloo, Whisky a Go Go, The London Fog, Bido Lito’s and Pandora’s Box. The Strip was also a favourite hangout and inspiration for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and The Velvet Underground. It all came to a head during the Sunset Strip Riots, the outcome leading to the organization of the Monterey Pop Festival, the most significant event of 1967s Summer of Love. L.A. shifted into high gear the social and artistic revolution that was the ‘60s.

EPISODE HOSTS:

Domenic Priore is the author of Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood, Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece and the AMC documentaries Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years 1955-1970 and Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The 1970s, hosted by Ringo Starr and David Bowie, respectively.

Becky Ebenkamp was an advertising critic for Brandweek magazine, and is currently a consultant in the advertising business. She is also the host of Bubblegum & Other Delights on Dublab.com and Bubblegum OD on WFMU.org.

FEATURED GUESTS:

Johnny Echols was the lead guitar player for the band Love, one of the first inter-racial rock ‘n’ roll groups. Love recorded two solid LPs in 1966 before their third, the legendary Forever Changes in 1967.

Pamela Des Barres was an omnipresent scene-maker in L.A. beginning in the mid-‘60s. Her memoir I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie had a tremendous, liberating impact when it was released during the late ‘80s.

This project is made possible by a mini grant through the Southern California Association of Governments’ Go Human program, funded by the CA Office of Traffic Safety.