Boogaloo Up Da Boardwalk by Gerry Fialka, June-July 2020 http://www.freevenice.org/Beachhead-21st/Beachhead-June2020.pdf
and https://freevenicebeachhead.com/
The Venice California Boardwalk is fertile ground for extraordinaire street musicians. In my four decades here, I have been fortunate to experience captivating music of all kinds. Since the lockdown, there’s been a courageous few that share their talents.
Roots-rocker Dale Rogers has been playing music on the Venice Boardwalk all along. He told me, “I keep the candle on till everybody gets home.” Please support this spirited troubadour. Join his fans. Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Lourdes Leon (Madonna’s daughter), and Philip Seymour Hoffman have all dropped $20 in his tip jar. Dale’s history is rich. At age 18, he invited Janis Joplin to a party. She responded, “Get away from me, kid, you bother me.” In his early 30’s, Dale hung with Miles Davis backstage. He even bought his daughter a Fisher-Price PXL2000 Toy video camera in the 80’s. The PXL THIS Film Festival has featured Dale, Sunny War, Joe Nucci, and other wonderful Venice street musicians in its 3 decades. Dale has contributed his passionate music to my events over the years. His spirited sonics always come on strong.
James Putnam is still providing Rock’n’Roll, Jazz, Cabaret, Punk, Metal, Electronic, Funk sounds on the Boardwalk as an organizer of noise. His one-man-band, Jimmy Pusher & The Pocket Operators, play hypnotic grooves as the viral & virtual worlds turn. From day one of lockdown, Jimmy’s aspirations to bring truth and give people hope have purred. . . with no tip jar, because he is too lazy to carry one. James invents mythological scenarios like GOG (Gangster forms Of the Galaxy) with Cornelius Diamond Afro, the lawyer recruiting burlesque dancers. Jimmy’s story evokes Bob Dylan (who just turned 79), quipping, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Or finding anything. Life is about creating your self. And creating things.”
Very few have really been able to play on the Boardwalk during the pandemic lockdown. SunSingStar, the roots-bluesman, bravely ventured out and got down with his bad self. These are cautionary times. I yearn for the past. I have encountered so many new wonders on the Boardwalk. Marc ThunderHead, the amazing one-armed-guitarist, blew me away just pre-virus.
I hunger for the good ol’daze when Slavin’ David held boogie lessons for Joy Rippel and company. Starla, Uncle Bill Crawford, Butch Mudbone, Joseph Baruch, Miss Daisy, Barry The Lion, Billy Harris, Edwing Sankey, Ted Hawkins, Elton & Betty, Wadada, Jingles, Dr. Geek, Abraham’s Drum Orchestra (with Paul Carey, Slim & crew), Carlos Guitarlos, Jack Sheldon, Nathan, Solomon Snakeman, Eddy LaGrossa, Greg Cruz, Petr Hronadko, Wes Parker, Eddie Zarate, Biff, Vinnie Digaetano, and the Italian accordion player (name?) have touched our souls deeply. King Sonny Zorro took us to other harmonic planets. Brad Kay performed with The Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo who conjured a Cab Calloway glee club on acid. The “Hardest Working Musician in Town” Peter Demian wanted to file a lawsuit for loss of wages against one of the Venice greatest activist because they called the cops every day to complain of “noise.” Get over it ’cause “music heals.” As we hunker, we hanker for the return of the life-affirming Peter Demian, his talented son, Hailey Demian, and infectious music-makers new and old.
I have been lucky to encounter famous musicians on the Boardwalk including Steven Tyler, Weird Al Yankovic, Vernon Reid, Jack White, Philip Glass and more. They were strolling, but a touching memory of an infamous icon actually playing was Buzzy Linhart, who headed to heaven Feb 13, 2020. Many years ago, I rode my bike up to him as he strummed guitar on the Boardwalk. I said, “Buzzy, I saw you at My Father’s Place in NY with Buck Dharma from Blue Oyster Cult, and ya’ll were the loudest bar band I ever heard.” He bent down to the volume knob on his Pignose amp, and said “I’ll turn up.” Watch the documentary of Buzzy on Youtube. He was truly a joyous siren of life and music.
Buzzy played vibes on Jimi Hendrix’s Cry Of Love album, and co-wrote the anthemic song “You Got to Have Friends.” Bette Midler and Barry Manilow made money rejoicing that tune, and the mob owned the publishing rights. Buzzy was homeless in Venice. It saddened me they could not kick back some money to help him. When Nancy Sinatra was asked, “When did the mob enter the music biz?” She allegedly responded, “Honey, they invented the music business.”
Who invented street performing? Busking dates back to antiquity. The word “busker” comes from the Spanish root word “buscar,” meaning to seek. Benjamin Franklin, Josephine Baker, Rod Stewart and Marc Bolan were all buskers. Who was the first Venice Boardwalk musician? I know that it does not matter, but it is fun to speculate.
Reimagine new wording for these maxims: “All art aspires to the condition of music” — Walter Pater. “Music is the Mother art” — Frank Lloyd Wright. “The best music does not want to be recorded” -Tom Waits. Boardwalk flutist Freaky Fred Koerner emphasized to me personally that live music is our lifeblood, and not just a leisure activity.
Billy Vera told me that Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker were street musicians in Dallas and shared one guitar. Imagine two of the most influential guitar slingers of all time starting on the street. Sidewalk hipster PK Dwyer ripped up the Boardwalk three decades ago with his Woody-Guthrie-meets-Dan-Hicks ballsy balladry. His witty line echoes: “I went to the same college as Woody Guthrie, ‘Folk You.’”
Stories abound. When the virus first started, virtuosic guitarist Michael Jost was walking on the beach after one of his mind-blowing RadioVenice.tv 4:20 Sunday podcasts. The cops came up to him in their car. He expected a hassle and, instead, they said, “Great show today, Michael.”
Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tamborine Man” Bruce Langhorne lead us, after Katrina, in a weekly N’Orleans marching band parade to raise funds for people in need. Flip “Make levees, not war” into “Mask It Or Casket.” The first hippie Eden Ahbez lived at the Boardwalk and Sunset. His song “Nature Boy” was Nat King Cole’s signature hit, and celebrates the Venice spirit with this lyric, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, Is just to love and be loved in return.”
Being from Michigan, I acknowledge my roots in revolutionary rock’n’roll like the MC5, who belted “Love is like a Ramblin’ Rose, The more you feed it, The more it grows” and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, who crooned, “I’m lost in the ozone again.” For many years, I have dug the liveliness between Rose and Ozone on the Boardwalk with the always astounding maestro Al Robinson and his killer ensembles, featuring the likes of Benny B’s euphoric guitar and Steve-Oh’s solid bass. They are itching to return to their home base.
Just a block away, the Cheetah Club hosted every major rock group in the 60’s. Marty Liboff has documented its essential history in these BeachHead pages. Venice breeds important music . . .now and then . . . Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Jelly Roll Morton, Jesse Ed Davis, Harry Partch, Sara “Sally Piano” Messenger and Alfred Johnson, who wrote 3 songs on Rickie Lee Jones’ first album and only got credited for two of them. Captain Beefheart met Lenny Bruce in a Venice pagoda.
Sorry if I did not include you or your favorites, please forgive me. Check out VirtualVenice.info for a comprehensive list. Rsvp to Gerry at pfsuzy@aol.com, 310–306–7330 for an upcoming zoom video chat sessions on Venice Street Musicians, and other topics, too.
I’ve even ventured out with my bands Black Shoe Polish (aka BSP), The Cardboards and Puke & Liar, who were once pelted with potatoes. BSP featured Dougo Smith, the preeminent Venice artist of all time. He played Hymie, the Puerto Rican Jimi Hendrix, at the Venice Street Festival in the 80’s. His performances on the Venice Boardwalk are beyond verbal description. He induces laughtears that transcend all space and time. He extends the Father-Guido-Sarducci-singing-the-Beatles-medley to eternity and beyond. Dougo has sung every bebop song by Charles “YardBird” Parker to me personally with righteous rascality. Dougo ephiphanized that Thelonious Monk heard all the notes Bird heard, but only decided to play some of them. That insight inspires me. Nothing but the hoodang in me!
Strolling down to the Boardwalk evokes the Jesse James lyrics for the The Fantastic Johnny Corley ’67 song:
So get your partner, get in line,
We’re gonna have ourselves a heck of a time.
Baby, oh baby, Boogaloo down Broadway
All day long we’re gonna Boogaloo.
But when the sweat begins to fill the air,
We’re gonna funky Broadway everywhere.
Join the clarion call into more sing-alongs like,
Function at the junction . . .
Hi-de-ho, Choo Choo Ch’boogie . . .
Singa shing-a-linga . . .
Oolla malla walla dalla . . .
Great googly-moogly . . .
Wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom . . .
Rock and roll, Hoochie Koo
Truck on out and spread the news
“So here I am, my people, saying Space Is The Place, while nations around you fight for a place in space. I want to open up to you the regions of the eternal, immeasurable and endless, so you may have a better way of life than you have ever known.” — Sun Ra, the jazz shaman who promoted music as being rocket fuel for the present cosmos and future explorations.
Let’s flip the pandemic lockdown into pundemic funky get-ups. Let’s celebrate our community as a way of dancing the exuberance of being through music on the Venice Boardwalk.
On Tuesday June 2, 2020, I spent two hours engulfed in the engrossing Venice Black Lives Matter March. I protested the Vietnam war in Washington DC in the Sixties. This retrieved the riveting spirit of the communal chorus of protest. Chanting on the street has always been an avenue for in-your-face communication. I thank all of the activists who amplify our people power.
Black Lives Matter!
Say his name,
George Floyd.
I Can’t Breathe.
Say her name,
Breonna Taylor.
Hand Up, Don’t Shoot.
Convict all four.
No Justice, No Peace! No Justice, No Peace!
Rooted in The Ecstatic Beats of the 1950s, the Blissed Out Students of the 1960s, the Anarchist Yippies of the 1970s, the Cyberpunks of the 1980s, the Hackers & Ravers of the 1990s, the Post Information Hipsters & ParaMediaEcologists of the 2000s, and the Occupiers & Millennial Matrix Dot Commies of the 2010s, the 2020s continue strong with Anarcho-Post-Post-Millennials birthing group morality.
