STeVE's ever-evolving tall tales
Mar 10, 2018 12:58:52 GMT
Post by Boozin' Susan on Mar 10, 2018 12:58:52 GMT
One way to tell that STeVE's anecdotes are pure bullshit is that the perfectly-recalled (heh!) tiny details change from telling to telling.
Another variable is STeVE's age and the timeframe of his amazing adventures. This time he might be a high school student, but next time he'll be in college or maybe even elementary school. The randomness of each retelling is what makes his stories so compelling.
The point of this thread is to document each of STeVE oft-told tales so it's easy to see how Daddy can't get his own lies straight.
Let's start off with an easy one – Steve's exploits with Kim Fowley (with John Oteri along for moral support).
From May 2004:
August 2004:
One night Kim Fowley, Rodney Bingenheimer, Sky Saxon of the Seeds, John Oteri and I were hanging out at Kim's place off of the Sunset Strip. These three guys spent about two hours phoning every "personal" ad placed in the LA Free Press. John and I were bored by this and we were in the next room watching a 15" black and White TV (and the roaches crawl around from behind the picture frames). I distinctly remember Kim asking some one on the phone what they meant by "Testicular Torture". :eek:
We still thought it was cool hanging out with these dudes (having hitch-hiked out to the Strip from the Valley), but the bloom was off the rose after a few of these "hangings".
This was when I started calling Hollywood HOLLYWEIRD.
A pathetic SHite soon asks STeVE for more. And, hoo-boy, Daddy doesn't disappoint! :
We hitch-hiked often to Hollywood and the Strip. I guess we just wanted as many chances to get murdered as we could take or something. (Actually, our dream was of a beautiful girl picking us up and teaching us the facts of life. Beautiful girls did pick us up but we never got lucky.)
Thanks to John, we waltzed in to the Whisky Au Go Go any time we wanted. The record companies wanted John to write articles about their groups so he got free LP's and free passes to everything. I remember seeing HUMBLE PIE and a bunch of other great bands at the Whiskey. And we sat in the back in the GOOD PART, drinks on the tab and everything! We didn't even have a driver's license between us. Things were lax in those days.
I remember seeing the ILLUSION play there one night (the band on Steed Records, "Have You Seen Her Face" was their hit, right?) Everyone in the audience booed them for some reason. I could hear their manager (sitting in the next booth over from us) imploring them to "stay cool, don't walk off"...
After the shows were over we hung out with the bands (or tried to). I remember ending up at a Hollywood Hills house that Steve Stills was renting. He had his new test pressing of "Love The One Your With" and played it for us. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. John even met a girl there who he dated for about a month, until she found out he was in school, heh.
Some bands didn't want us hanging around for some reason. We got real close to Humble Pie though and that was a thrill. Right around the time of "Stone Cold Fever" and the LP ROCK ON. Boy, Steve Marriot and the rest of the band got about 10 groupies between them. John and I watched everything. This was like the big time to us Valley Boys.
Yeah, I was exposed to a lot of Rock Weirdness at a young age.
The SHites beg for more, but STeVE has already said too much. He ends things with this:
Don't want to tell more. I just wanted to reminisce about ol' Kim Fowley. He was a trippy guy then as well as now.
He produced NUT ROCKER by B. Bumble And The Stingers and ALLEY OOP by the Hollywood Argyles. Two really great records. Oh, and he produced POPSICLES, ICICLES by the Mermaids. I guess he found his true calling with the Runaways, heh.
With STeVE now out of the picture, what will the SHites do? Enter John Oteri (a Hoffman sockpuppet) to liven things up:
It was memorable for me, though!
More sick shit fromDaddy John Oteri:
Of course, that might be when I devolped my quirky sense of humor!
And some of those experience left me looking like my avatar!
And this:
I pulled the car over. Threw him out, and drove off without him. Needless to say that ended our friendship.
And:
Another one:
More shit fromSybil...STeVE....John Oteri!:
Now, here's STeVE (in his John Oteri guise) talking about hanging out with himself:
Even though soon we were Hollywood Veterans, I think the most fun Steve and I had at that age was cruising around in the Chevy. No wonder Twain said "Youth is wasted on the young!' :agree:
And here too:
On to 2013. Looks like John Oteri's book is now going to be written by STeVE...:
Yes, we realized that they pretty much sucked, each song pretty close to every other song, same two chords over and over again but I didn't care back then, still don't. Real LA pissed-off Punkie sound.
One night when I was playing "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" on my Zenith, my dad stuck his head in my room and said "What's the matter with him, tummy ache?"
The organ player (Darryl Hooper) used to hang around Wallach's Music City (upstairs in the musical instrument department) at Topanga Plaza mall when I was a kid. He was always wearing a purple scarf or something. I was so excited when I saw him there ("he's famous, Mom!") Had to have been late 1966 or so..
The guitar player (Lowell Wexler) in my first band in middle school knew the guitar solo to "Pushin' Too Hard", and knew it well. In fact, it was the only guitar solo he knew and he used it in every song we ever did. Good thing it was a damn good solo.
I hung around with Sky Saxon and Kim Fowley a few times when I was in high school when my buddy worked at "Rock On" magazine or whatever the heck it was called. What Sky and Kim were up to in that bleak time would make for a scary bedtime story.. It'll be in my book "Stuff That Happened In The 70's That No One Cares About"..
Too bad that GNP only offered Audio Fidelity the fake stereo first album and dreadfully sucky remix of the second album. I would have liked to have remastered them.
More from 2013. Now, Daddy (not John Oteri) is the one who hung out with Rodney B.:
Wish I could jog my memory better about this phase (basically telling my parents I was at my friend's house and having his brother drive us on to the Strip).
After the shows we walked around (walked over to Kim Fowley's place, etc.) All around Sunset area. Sometimes we hitchhiked up and down the Strip, into Tower Records, the other stores around there. Hung out with Rodney B. and tried to meet girls. Even though it was the 1970's, it seemed like the 60's there still...
I want to say it was a magic time, but it really wasn't. Just I was at a "magic" age!
One more from 2013:
I remember one night in 1973 I was with my friend and we were at Kim Fowley's grungy Hollywood apartment with Sky Saxon. Sky and Kim were eating Chinese food from the carton and wasting the night away by calling all the girlie phone numbers in the back section of the LA Free Press. I remember Sky asking this girl on the phone is she would give him some Testicular Torture". My buddy and I were just two Valley Boys, way out of our depth and league but we realized that Kim Fowley and Sky Saxon were really just a couple of dudes who couldn't get laid no matter how many past glories they had.
We got out of there after a few hours. I remember using the bathroom there and when I flushed the toilet, a zillion cockroaches crawled out from behind a picture frame.
This was the music business? Get me outtta here!
"Stay in school, kid!" Kim called after me as we left.
We did.
From 2014:
I've written about my time hanging out with the dynamic duo (Sky Saxon & Kim Fowley) on the Sunset Strip when I was in high school, right? Somewhere on the Forum.
Can't believe Sky is gone.
Now, we cut to 2015. And Daddy lays this steaming pile:
Don't believe me? I was there, were you? I can say that MOST of these girls were BAD NEWS, they were mostly underage parasites, leeches, opportunists praying on the rock musicians of the time. Oh, yes. The groupies went after the musicians, usually not the other way around. I wouldn't go near any one of them back then (not that they wanted me to) but the musicians were flattered, pursued and conquered. Another notch on the Groupie bedpost.
Yes, the musicians (most of them, of course not all) were for the most part sensitive artists, creative people who suddenly were surrounded by mini-skirted, heavily made up girls for the first time. Hard to resist, hard to ask for an ID when fake ID's were common. Sex was always by mutual consent. The girl might have been 16 and the man 26, that's against the law but it never stopped anyone that I knew, nor gave anyone pause. No one even thought about it. The bad old days.
Does this shock you? Would you be surprised to learn that this is still going on? It is, once again, I was there, not for that but I was working on a rocker's stereo two months ago during a party, groupies everywhere. It was like 1977 all over again. I pulled aside the owner of the house and asked him why he let those girls in. He said that his rock star buddies expected it and pointed out one girl that he said was "pure poison."
I asked him why he let her in his house then. He said: "Have you seen her? Wow."
So, yeah, it still goes on. These were not "hired" girls I saw there, no, these were groupies, just like the old days. Hangers on, friends of friends. The "rock stars" themselves were sitting in their full outfits (scarves, headbands, etc.) outside by the pool. When I came back 15 minutes later all of the girls were naked in the pool. I couldn't believe that this type of thing still goes on, naïve me. One thing, and one thing only has changed. No one under 18 was there. But I can tell you that under all of that makeup, most of these girls were barely 18.
And so it (still) goes.
Please, enough with the talk of rape on this really old thread, the moderators will shut it down (probably a good idea.)
And here:
When these musicians (again, the guys I knew in LA bands, older than me) got famous, all the rules of courtship went out the window, along with morals. The groupies were a new breed, aggressive, the time honored rules of courtship were ditched, the girls just latched on to these guys, many of these dudes having no prior physical knowledge of the opposite sex. A few of these guys would fall in love with some of these girls and just get wrecked when dumped. What to do? Become cynical and jaded, just like the groupies. Girls became more important to these guys than writing a song or rehearsing, and when drugs were added to the picture, the attention span of these band members went down the crapper.
Remember, people back then were brought up with manners, values, etc. for the most part. But two weeks on the road in a rock band can kill all sense of that in no time. Being on the road with long stretches of boredom, that disorienting sense of not quite knowing where you are at any given time, all this brings out the worst and adding drugs and girls can just end some musicians.
Now, Kim Fowley and that crowd were older, not in bands, just lurking at that time. They stalked the girls on the Strip, tried to convince them that they could make them famous or introduce them to their favorite musicians or whatever. Guys like that were bad news and I stayed away after getting too creeped out.
Just for the record, I had a high school girlfriend (she's still my Facebook friend), I was 17 in 12th grade and she was 15 in 10th grade. I guess we broke the law.
Wow. Lots of words. Was it 1972 or 1973? Who got STeVE into the clubs – John Oteri (due to his writing) or an older brother named Lee who worked for Mercury Records? Did the cockroaches emerge from behind the picture while they were watching the B&W TV, or after STeVE took a dump?
STeVE not remembering what he originally had John Oteri doing is what I found to be the most amusing.
Anyway, what other "evolving" Hoffman anecdotes have you run across? Please post your findings here.
Another variable is STeVE's age and the timeframe of his amazing adventures. This time he might be a high school student, but next time he'll be in college or maybe even elementary school. The randomness of each retelling is what makes his stories so compelling.
The point of this thread is to document each of STeVE oft-told tales so it's easy to see how Daddy can't get his own lies straight.
Let's start off with an easy one – Steve's exploits with Kim Fowley (with John Oteri along for moral support).
From May 2004:
Steve Hoffman said:
My long-time buddy John Oteri was a writer for ROCK ON magazine while still in high school. He and I hung out with Rodney and Kim Fowley many times in Hollyweird. Boy, if I was a blabbermouth, I could tell you some amazing stories. I wish I could tell you of the day that Rodney, Kim, John and I and the Seeds' Sky Saxon got together for a night of weirdness. Geez, from that moment on I became aware that not everyone in show biz was, um, normal...August 2004:
Steve Hoffman said:
Both John Oteri and I have had some experiences with Kim back in like 1972. One night Kim Fowley, Rodney Bingenheimer, Sky Saxon of the Seeds, John Oteri and I were hanging out at Kim's place off of the Sunset Strip. These three guys spent about two hours phoning every "personal" ad placed in the LA Free Press. John and I were bored by this and we were in the next room watching a 15" black and White TV (and the roaches crawl around from behind the picture frames). I distinctly remember Kim asking some one on the phone what they meant by "Testicular Torture". :eek:
We still thought it was cool hanging out with these dudes (having hitch-hiked out to the Strip from the Valley), but the bloom was off the rose after a few of these "hangings".
This was when I started calling Hollywood HOLLYWEIRD.
A pathetic SHite soon asks STeVE for more. And, hoo-boy, Daddy doesn't disappoint! :
Steve Hoffman said:
John, in High School was a journalism major and he wrote some articles for ROCK ON magazine. This got him (and by reflected glory, me) a sort-of "pass" to all the clubs and people who generally were on the fringe of the music biz in those days. If those guys knew that we were so young that we couldn't even drive yet, they probably would have been surprised.We hitch-hiked often to Hollywood and the Strip. I guess we just wanted as many chances to get murdered as we could take or something. (Actually, our dream was of a beautiful girl picking us up and teaching us the facts of life. Beautiful girls did pick us up but we never got lucky.)
Thanks to John, we waltzed in to the Whisky Au Go Go any time we wanted. The record companies wanted John to write articles about their groups so he got free LP's and free passes to everything. I remember seeing HUMBLE PIE and a bunch of other great bands at the Whiskey. And we sat in the back in the GOOD PART, drinks on the tab and everything! We didn't even have a driver's license between us. Things were lax in those days.
I remember seeing the ILLUSION play there one night (the band on Steed Records, "Have You Seen Her Face" was their hit, right?) Everyone in the audience booed them for some reason. I could hear their manager (sitting in the next booth over from us) imploring them to "stay cool, don't walk off"...
After the shows were over we hung out with the bands (or tried to). I remember ending up at a Hollywood Hills house that Steve Stills was renting. He had his new test pressing of "Love The One Your With" and played it for us. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. John even met a girl there who he dated for about a month, until she found out he was in school, heh.
Some bands didn't want us hanging around for some reason. We got real close to Humble Pie though and that was a thrill. Right around the time of "Stone Cold Fever" and the LP ROCK ON. Boy, Steve Marriot and the rest of the band got about 10 groupies between them. John and I watched everything. This was like the big time to us Valley Boys.
Yeah, I was exposed to a lot of Rock Weirdness at a young age.
The SHites beg for more, but STeVE has already said too much. He ends things with this:
Steve Hoffman said:
Yeah, Did You See Her Eyes. Great 45.Don't want to tell more. I just wanted to reminisce about ol' Kim Fowley. He was a trippy guy then as well as now.
He produced NUT ROCKER by B. Bumble And The Stingers and ALLEY OOP by the Hollywood Argyles. Two really great records. Oh, and he produced POPSICLES, ICICLES by the Mermaids. I guess he found his true calling with the Runaways, heh.
With STeVE now out of the picture, what will the SHites do? Enter John Oteri (a Hoffman sockpuppet) to liven things up:
John Oteri said:
Ah...but what Steve mentions is only the tip of the iceberg! When Steve and I split up for a while (over a girl, no less) we went our separate ways...after Rock On I wrote freelance articles for a music mag that will remain nameless, under another name that will also remain nameless...but one of the staffers was Rodney Binginheimer. Because I could actually form a complete sentence, Rod The Mod Jr. befriended me and we actually worked together for an entire summer, until I just got too freaked out by his behavior. He couldn't drive then, and by this time I had my license, so I drove him all over. I met everybody and went to some uh...interesting parties. His best friend was Kim Fowley. So the three of us hang around for an entire summer together...and I could tell you stories. But some of which I'm sworn to secrecy. Though I will tell some of it in my book. But I have to admit, they did introduce me to a lot of people, and opened quite a few doors for me, and for that I'm entirely grateful, and why I keep my promise to not talk about certain things. But some of our experience together is fair game, and will be in the book someday...if anyone else is interested.It was memorable for me, though!
More sick shit from
John Oteri said:
"Brother John" is not far off! I've mentioned in previous threads that I'm an "old fashioned" guy. But hanging around with Mutt and Jeff, as I called them, to their faces and they loved it (Fowley is like 6-4 or something, Rod's about 5'5'' at most) was like Fred Flintstone hanging out with the Jetsons. It was quite an experience...and "losened me up" to say the least. I actually liked those guys. And Kim is really quite down to earth...but has this real impish side. He was like me, a straight arrow on the border of a psychedelic Disneyland. Surprisingly enough Kim and Rod were very non-drug, and so was I, and that's another reason why that relationship lasted as long as it did. Rodney and I did not part on good terms which is why I don't talk about him very much anymore, though I still live up to my promises and won't talk about certain things about that incredible journey when I was all of 17!!!!!!! Of course, that might be when I devolped my quirky sense of humor!
And some of those experience left me looking like my avatar!
And this:
John Oteri said:
I've had time to think about this...and though I believe disgretion is the better part of valor, I thought, why am I protecting that guy? Maybe this isn't the best place to reveal this, though I owe it to some of my Forum pals who might be interested to the know the truth. Not that it really matters anymore, though will be included in my book, with the names changed of course. I'm sure the movie about Rodney, the so-called mayor of Sunset Strip probably didn't show this...and I'm sure he's long forgotten this little incident, and hopefully me...but one night Rod and I were double-dating. I was in the front seat with my date who was 16, and he was in the back with her sister. Because she was taller, I just assumed she was the "older" sister. But while driving through the Hollywood Hills, I heard this coming from the back. "Rodney, stop. I'm only 14!" When I turned around, Rod, who was 25 at the time, was pulling of her clothes and forcing himself on her.I pulled the car over. Threw him out, and drove off without him. Needless to say that ended our friendship.
And:
John Oteri said:
And then there was this time I went to a party with Kim Fowley, and he'd brought this girl with him called the Queen of Rock and Roll. He had everyone form a circle around her on the living room floor and... Oh nevermind. It would get Gorted for sure! :agree:Another one:
John Oteri said:
You know...that's what Kim said to her! But he meant it as a COMMAND! More shit from
John Oteri said:
For some reason I remember the song was on an Ampex reel-to-reel. But I must confess, Steve's much better on the tech than I am. I just remember, on hearing the song, thinking Stills must've used a different tuning on the main guitar. But I was so nervous I was afraid he'd laugh at me if I was wrong. I was also more concerned that the girl I was trying to impress might think I was a clod (I think that's what I called a dork then). Funny, after all these years I remember the tuning. But not the girl. I guess I am a clod! But I do remember the house was on stilts with a huge picture window overlooking Hollywood, and it scared the crapola out of me. We just had a major earthquake back then! :eek:Now, here's STeVE (in his John Oteri guise) talking about hanging out with himself:
John Oteri said:
Steve got his drivers' license a few months before me (sheesh---and he taught me to drive...no wonder I've had so many fricking accidents!) he could borrow his Dad's Chevy, so the first thing we did was crusie the Sunset Strip. We'd pick up groupies on thier way to parties in the hills and we'd tag along. Geesh, it sounds so bizzare now. I remember meeting Cynthia Plastercaster at one. She told us about Jimi Hendrix who was infamous with the groupies. We met a lot of people. But we were so young, and so naive then. But we were exposed to a lot, and soon were both calling it Hollyweird. It's funny, that I decided to live here now!Even though soon we were Hollywood Veterans, I think the most fun Steve and I had at that age was cruising around in the Chevy. No wonder Twain said "Youth is wasted on the young!' :agree:
And here too:
John Oteri said:
Oh...we have some goofy stories too! Years later, when we were both in bands, together and seperately, we...uh...didn't drive around so much! :winkgrin: But at a very early age, we'd seen what happened to the real burnouts (they were already starting to burnout by then) and so we approached things and experiences with a different perspective. Steve got really into the technical end, and for some reason, I kept writing and thinking...hmmm, this might make a good scene in a book someday. If and when it's out I'll be sure to see that you get a complimentary advanced copy just for your incouragement. Thanks! :righton:On to 2013. Looks like John Oteri's book is now going to be written by STeVE...:
Steve Hoffman said:
I loved the Seeds when I was a kid. My best friend had the first album (in fake stereo) and the Mr. Farmer album as well in true stereo (drums bass, left, other instruments right, vocals in center).Yes, we realized that they pretty much sucked, each song pretty close to every other song, same two chords over and over again but I didn't care back then, still don't. Real LA pissed-off Punkie sound.
One night when I was playing "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" on my Zenith, my dad stuck his head in my room and said "What's the matter with him, tummy ache?"
The organ player (Darryl Hooper) used to hang around Wallach's Music City (upstairs in the musical instrument department) at Topanga Plaza mall when I was a kid. He was always wearing a purple scarf or something. I was so excited when I saw him there ("he's famous, Mom!") Had to have been late 1966 or so..
The guitar player (Lowell Wexler) in my first band in middle school knew the guitar solo to "Pushin' Too Hard", and knew it well. In fact, it was the only guitar solo he knew and he used it in every song we ever did. Good thing it was a damn good solo.
I hung around with Sky Saxon and Kim Fowley a few times when I was in high school when my buddy worked at "Rock On" magazine or whatever the heck it was called. What Sky and Kim were up to in that bleak time would make for a scary bedtime story.. It'll be in my book "Stuff That Happened In The 70's That No One Cares About"..
Too bad that GNP only offered Audio Fidelity the fake stereo first album and dreadfully sucky remix of the second album. I would have liked to have remastered them.
More from 2013. Now, Daddy (not John Oteri) is the one who hung out with Rodney B.:
Steve Hoffman said:
You mean did I go as a kid? Of course not. Had to pass as a grown up. I saw (in the early 1970s) a bunch of groups there. A lot of record company comps with bands I can't remember but I do remember The Illusion (Have You Seen Her Eyes), Humble Pie, and some other wannabe bands. It was more about sitting in a booth and getting a real drink without being carded and having it paid for by the record company or magazine. We thought we were in heaven. Humble Pie was great, stayed for both shows.Wish I could jog my memory better about this phase (basically telling my parents I was at my friend's house and having his brother drive us on to the Strip).
After the shows we walked around (walked over to Kim Fowley's place, etc.) All around Sunset area. Sometimes we hitchhiked up and down the Strip, into Tower Records, the other stores around there. Hung out with Rodney B. and tried to meet girls. Even though it was the 1970's, it seemed like the 60's there still...
I want to say it was a magic time, but it really wasn't. Just I was at a "magic" age!
One more from 2013:
Steve Hoffman said:
My best friend's older brother Lee worked at some menial A&R job at Mercury in the early 1970s. He got us in to see all the bands at the Whiskey even though we weren't really allowed to. We were still in school.I remember one night in 1973 I was with my friend and we were at Kim Fowley's grungy Hollywood apartment with Sky Saxon. Sky and Kim were eating Chinese food from the carton and wasting the night away by calling all the girlie phone numbers in the back section of the LA Free Press. I remember Sky asking this girl on the phone is she would give him some Testicular Torture". My buddy and I were just two Valley Boys, way out of our depth and league but we realized that Kim Fowley and Sky Saxon were really just a couple of dudes who couldn't get laid no matter how many past glories they had.
We got out of there after a few hours. I remember using the bathroom there and when I flushed the toilet, a zillion cockroaches crawled out from behind a picture frame.
This was the music business? Get me outtta here!
"Stay in school, kid!" Kim called after me as we left.
We did.
From 2014:
Steve Hoffman said:
I remember speaking to Ray Manzarek about PUSHIN' TOO HARD once. He told me it was the prototype for the arrangement of LIGHT MY FIRE. He said it was the first time that he heard on the radio TWO instrument solos in a row, first the electric piano thingy and then the guitar solo. He said the Doors had that in mind when they arranged the same thing for LIGHT MY FIRE.I've written about my time hanging out with the dynamic duo (Sky Saxon & Kim Fowley) on the Sunset Strip when I was in high school, right? Somewhere on the Forum.
Can't believe Sky is gone.
Now, we cut to 2015. And Daddy lays this steaming pile:
Steve Hoffman said:
These groupies from the 1970's, dreadful people. Girls with one goal, screw as many musicians as they could and brag about it. A few of them wanted to be "discovered," were hopeful songwriters, etc. but VERY FEW. Most just wanted to f*** musicians, the more famous, the better.Don't believe me? I was there, were you? I can say that MOST of these girls were BAD NEWS, they were mostly underage parasites, leeches, opportunists praying on the rock musicians of the time. Oh, yes. The groupies went after the musicians, usually not the other way around. I wouldn't go near any one of them back then (not that they wanted me to) but the musicians were flattered, pursued and conquered. Another notch on the Groupie bedpost.
Yes, the musicians (most of them, of course not all) were for the most part sensitive artists, creative people who suddenly were surrounded by mini-skirted, heavily made up girls for the first time. Hard to resist, hard to ask for an ID when fake ID's were common. Sex was always by mutual consent. The girl might have been 16 and the man 26, that's against the law but it never stopped anyone that I knew, nor gave anyone pause. No one even thought about it. The bad old days.
Does this shock you? Would you be surprised to learn that this is still going on? It is, once again, I was there, not for that but I was working on a rocker's stereo two months ago during a party, groupies everywhere. It was like 1977 all over again. I pulled aside the owner of the house and asked him why he let those girls in. He said that his rock star buddies expected it and pointed out one girl that he said was "pure poison."
I asked him why he let her in his house then. He said: "Have you seen her? Wow."
So, yeah, it still goes on. These were not "hired" girls I saw there, no, these were groupies, just like the old days. Hangers on, friends of friends. The "rock stars" themselves were sitting in their full outfits (scarves, headbands, etc.) outside by the pool. When I came back 15 minutes later all of the girls were naked in the pool. I couldn't believe that this type of thing still goes on, naïve me. One thing, and one thing only has changed. No one under 18 was there. But I can tell you that under all of that makeup, most of these girls were barely 18.
And so it (still) goes.
Please, enough with the talk of rape on this really old thread, the moderators will shut it down (probably a good idea.)
And here:
Steve Hoffman said:
The thing is, at least in my limited experience back in the 1970's was that the LA musicians that I knew who "struck it big" were mainly introverts who "found their calling" in high school by learning guitar or drums/bass. They came out of their shell when they were in a band. These guys (like me and everyone else who grew up in that time) had certain rules to follow when courting girls. Getting to know someone, finding out things in common, being able to trust each other, etc. The usual courtship rituals. Most of these guys never had a high school girlfriend at all, too shy, too awkward or whatever. But after fame, the girls came after them, that can really mess one up.When these musicians (again, the guys I knew in LA bands, older than me) got famous, all the rules of courtship went out the window, along with morals. The groupies were a new breed, aggressive, the time honored rules of courtship were ditched, the girls just latched on to these guys, many of these dudes having no prior physical knowledge of the opposite sex. A few of these guys would fall in love with some of these girls and just get wrecked when dumped. What to do? Become cynical and jaded, just like the groupies. Girls became more important to these guys than writing a song or rehearsing, and when drugs were added to the picture, the attention span of these band members went down the crapper.
Remember, people back then were brought up with manners, values, etc. for the most part. But two weeks on the road in a rock band can kill all sense of that in no time. Being on the road with long stretches of boredom, that disorienting sense of not quite knowing where you are at any given time, all this brings out the worst and adding drugs and girls can just end some musicians.
Now, Kim Fowley and that crowd were older, not in bands, just lurking at that time. They stalked the girls on the Strip, tried to convince them that they could make them famous or introduce them to their favorite musicians or whatever. Guys like that were bad news and I stayed away after getting too creeped out.
Just for the record, I had a high school girlfriend (she's still my Facebook friend), I was 17 in 12th grade and she was 15 in 10th grade. I guess we broke the law.
Wow. Lots of words. Was it 1972 or 1973? Who got STeVE into the clubs – John Oteri (due to his writing) or an older brother named Lee who worked for Mercury Records? Did the cockroaches emerge from behind the picture while they were watching the B&W TV, or after STeVE took a dump?
STeVE not remembering what he originally had John Oteri doing is what I found to be the most amusing.
Anyway, what other "evolving" Hoffman anecdotes have you run across? Please post your findings here.