by Chris Epting
As far as what’s always allowed the amazing growth of music in Orange County, everyone’s got their own theory and I’ve got mine. I look at it like it’s a bedroom community; every house has a garage, so there you have lots of places for bands to be created. Then you look at the fact that Orange County is made up primarily of families. So parents would help their kids out when they were starting bands. They would support them and get them the gear they needed and the lessons or whatever, and so you have this kind of structure that allowed a lot of bands to exist. Of course, there were a lot of other bands that were just rebels and got things done on their own. But generally speaking you did have a real support system of family and friends in Orange County, and you still do.
But then you also have the sense that bands, even when they got big, never really wanted to leave because they liked Orange County. It’s a beautiful and comfortable place. So even when a band like Leatherwolf, who became one of the premier metal acts in the 1980s, when they got big they never really left Huntington Beach. They still hung out there and whenever they weren’t touring that’s where they hung out. There’s just this sense of community throughout the county that I think has really contributed to all of the different music scenes over the years.
When I look back on the old days and compare it, I still see reasons to get excited today. The rebirth of venues like the Observatory to me is really exciting because they are so eclectic in their booking policy. That’s kind of a throwback to how it was in the 1970s and ’80s. You never knew some nights what you were going to get that was a really exciting feeling. You would get surprised by bands you’ve never heard of, and they would just change your life.
And while the music industry has changed a lot since then and there aren’t as many venues for local bands to play live, it isn’t like there is any less amount of great players and great writers and amazing young performers right here in Orange County. They’re here. They just don’t have as many places to play, so it’s going to be tougher for them to get the word out. But it can still happen. You never know when you’re going to get one of these resurgences, and then all of a sudden, a band like No Doubt explodes out of Orange County or more recently, Avenged Sevenfold.
When I first came to California, I thought all I was going to hear were bands like the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. But when I arrived here in Orange County, I got slammed right away with the new wave scene, lots of hair metal and a whole lot of other things that I never expected. There are a lot of misconceptions about music in Orange County, but from what I’ve seen and learned over the years, it has long been a place for good music. Back in the 1960s, you could go down to Newport and watch Dick Dale. Then in the ’70s, you had clubs like the Golden Bear where you can see all of your favorite bands. In the ’80s and ’90s into the ’00s, all sorts of new bands sprang out of Orange County. I think back to the early days when Korn and Sublime were just starting out, and you almost couldn’t believe your ears of just how good they were.
There’s something very special here that results in a lot of cool musical history.
AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
As I sit down to write this, Orange County has just turned 125 years old. It will never get the respect that Los Angeles does when it comes to almost anything, but to truly know and understand Orange County is to not even let L.A. enter the equation. You see, Orange County easily stands on its own when it comes to many things, whether we’re talking sports teams, restaurants or rugged countryside for some of the most beautiful beaches in the country.
And yes, it even boasts its own unique and definitive rock ’n’ roll history.
That may be hard to imagine for those that did not grow up here, but talk to any kid that came of age during the late 1970s and early ’80s—they’ll describe to you one of the most dynamic and intense punk rock scenes that ever existed on this planet.
Go back about twenty years earlier, and you’ll discover the impact that surf music had throughout Orange County, along with lots of folk, soul, blues and virtually every other genre of music that we tend to lump to the basic rock ’n’ roll envelope.
Orange County is where Rickenbacker guitars were born and, soon after, where Leo Fender made a name for himself. It’s where the Everly Brothers broke up and where Marvin Gaye performed his last concert. And stunningly, as you will soon learn within these pages, it is also the place where the seminal garage band classic “Louie Louie” was born.
This is where Elvis learned karate and Meatloaf first performed.
The history of rock ’n’ roll in Orange County is a gloriously diverse tale of classic clubs, legendary bands and all of the usual myths and lore that seem to live so easily in the shadow of rock ’n’ roll.
It is a story featuring some of the biggest names in history along with some of the more obscure characters that, while less famous, also play an important part in the tale.
The Orange County music scene to this day features lots of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. It has for decades, and it probably always will. You just have to know where to look for it.
It would be impossible to try to document every single band and venue that has existed in Orange County for the last sixty or so years. There simply is not enough space in this book. But I’ve tried to capture many of the highlights to help create as complete a picture as possible. That said, there is always room for more, and with the hope that perhaps someday there could be a second volume on this topic, I would encourage you to reach out to me with news stories and things I might’ve missed. Additionally, along with weaving in some exclusive interviews I conducted for this book, I have also included, as part of the narrative, a series of articles I’ve written as a journalist over the years.
So with that, let’s put on our all-access passes and take a trip back in time to live and relive the many musical moments that have given this county much of its character.
Chapter 1
THE LATE 1940s–MID-1960s
Chronologically speaking, I suppose we could start this book back in 1932, when the Rickenbacker International Corporation, the electric and bass guitar manufacturer, first started its operations in Santa Ana. But I think we will save that for later. After all, those gorgeous guitars that would go on to heavily influence the Beatles’ sound would not be designed for decades. In fact, until rock ’n’ roll became popular in the 1950s, Rickenbacker specialized in steel guitars rather than the iconic beauties that John Lennon would be cradling in the early 1960s. I mean, who can forget seeing Lennon during the Beatles’ famous 1964 debut on the Ed Sullivan Show holding his Rickenbacker 325 Capri?
But again, we will get back to Rickenbacker later in our story.
It would probably make the most sense to begin this book with the story of a highly imaginative dreamer named Clarence Leonidas Fender. Born in 1909 to Clarence Fender and Harriet Wood, who owned orange groves between Anaheim and Fullerton, “Leo” as he was called was something of an electronics whiz as a child. At thirteen years old, after visiting his uncle’s automotive-electric shop, he became mesmerized by the loud music emanating from the speaker of a radio that his uncle had built from scratch.
Leo Fender graduated from Fullerton Union High School in 1928 and was studying to be an accountant while continuing to tinker and develop his fascination with electronics.
In 1928, while working as a delivery man for an ice company in Anaheim, Fender was approached by a Southern California band leader who requested that he build a public address system that could be used for dances held up in Hollywood. Fender wound up designing and building six of these PA systems.
Fender married a woman name Esther Klosky in 1934 and then took a job as an accountant in San Luis Obispo working for the California Highway Patrol. He was let go due to the Great Depression and wound up back in Fullerton, where he opened his own radio repair shop called simply Fender’s Radio Service in 1938 (after borrowing $600). Once word of his reputation got around, musicians and bandleaders began hiring him to b
uild more PA systems, which he would then turn around and rent.
It was an interesting time in the music business. Amplified acoustic guitars were beginning to gain popularity, and so soon after, Fender joined forces with Clayton Orr “Doc” Kaufman, an inventor and lap steel guitar player formerly employed by Rickenbacker. Together, Fender and Kaufman, after forming the K and F Manufacturing Corporation, began designing and building amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers.
In 1944, the pair patented a lap steel guitar with an electric pickup that had already been patented by Fender. One year later, they began marketing the guitar in a kit with an amplifier designed by Fender.
Noticing that the big band era was beginning to wane toward the end of World War II, Fender understood that the next wave of music would be based around small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, honky-tonk and western swing, among other styles. Within these combos, guitar players automatically embraced the new electric models because of the power they delivered. All of a sudden, one electric guitar player could provide all the power and verve of an entire horn section. Fender implicitly understood that an electric guitar, which was easy to hold and play, could have a profound effect on the industry.
In 1945, once Fender had begun manufacturing and selling guitars, he realized that he needed more retail space. The small storefront at 107 South Harbor Fullerton, where Fender’s Radio Service was located, simply became too small. In 1946, he built two makeshift metal buildings in the 100 block of South Pomona Avenue in Fullerton. Soon after, he added a large brick building to his complex.
In 1949, he created the prototype for a thin solid-body electric model. One year later, it would be released as the Fender Esquire, a solid-body guitar with a single pickup. One year after that, the Esquire was rechristened the Broadcaster, and then soon after that, it became known as the Telecaster. Originally equipped with two single-coil pickups, it was almost instantly embraced by country and western players, thus making it one of the most popular guitars in history.
Leo Fender. Author’s collection.
By 1950, the first “Fender Fine Line Electric Instruments” were being produced at the factory complex on South Pomona. It was here that the first telecaster, Stratocaster and Precision Bass were made.
For the next forty years, Leo Fender revolutionized the industry and kept Fullerton on the musical map. Today, the buildings where Fender worked, for the most part, no longer exist. There is a parking lot near the train station were the factory once stood. A small plaque affixed to the parking structure in a pair of murals pays tribute to the legendary guitar maker whose instruments are revered by the most influential and important musicians in the world.
The building where Fender’s Radio Service was once located was recently nominated for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination text, which provides a solid yet succinct overview of Fender Guitars’ history, reads:
Fender’s Radio Service is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A and B at the local level of significance in the areas of performing arts and entertainment/recreation. Under Criterion B, the radio store is closely associated with guitar legend Clarence Leo Fender, and under Criterion A, it is associated with the revolutionary basses, guitars, and amplifiers that he designed and manufactured. Aside from President Richard M. Nixon, no other individual from Orange County, California, has had so profound an effect on the world as Fender. While there has always been disagreement over who invented the first solid-body guitar, there has never been any question that it was Fender, with his designs for affordable, easily mass-produced guitars, which facilitated the transition in popular music from big bands to small, guitar-driven groups. The instruments that he invented dominated and shaped popular music of the latter half of the twentieth century, music that was often at the forefront of social and political change, and more recently, has gone on to revolutionize the sound of African style and other world music. His amplifiers set the gold standard for reliability against which all amps are judged to this day. From the humble beginning at this radio store in downtown Fullerton in the mid-1940s, Fender was able to become one of the most radical guitar makers of the 1950s and 1960s.
The Fender mural in the parking structure stands where the Fender guitar factory used to be. Author’s collection.
A plaque at the site of the former Fender guitar factory in Fullerton. Author’s collection.
He shook up an industry with his boldly styled amplifiers and instruments that changed the way in which guitars were produced and marketed, subsequently altering the way the world heard, played, and composed music. It was at this location that Fender designed his first solid-body electric guitars, and started the laboratory, manufacturing, and marketing processes and strategies that would serve him throughout the rest of his career. This early work done by Fender forged a new path for the inventor, and his innovations during this pioneering period—ridiculed by industry insiders—improved the range, durability, and affordability of amplifiers and guitars forever, while also allowing his company in the 1960s to set the standard for quality in the industry. Beginning in 1945, Fender started proudly putting Fullerton, California on every product produced by his then small manufacturing company, and that decision put the still small town of Fullerton on the map. Guitar aficionados still come to Fullerton looking for Fender’s guitar business.
In the early 1950s, while Leo Fender was making history in Fullerton, over in Santa Ana a soon-to-be-legendary musical family had also begun finding their way into the business. Today, it’s an industrial park, but back then, there was a house at 410 East Second Street where the Rillera family lived. Within that house, three brothers—Barry (guitar), Rick (guitar) and Butch (drums)—all took up instruments after being raised in a musical household. By 1955, they had formed what was likely the very first rock band in Orange County.
Calling themselves the Rhythm Rockers, they were influenced by everything they heard around them; music played by their father, on the radio, in back rooms, dance halls—wherever it happened to come from, the brothers absorbed it and spun it into their own early brand of rootsy Southern California rock ’n’ roll. Blending soul, R&B, Chicano, Latin, jazz and more, the Rhythm Rockers were at once the most innovative and flexible band in the county, able to play any kind of party or concert and always pleasing the crowd.
The Rhythm Rockers featuring Barry Rillera (third from left). Author’s collection.
Glued to the radio, they would listen to DJ Hunter Hancock, who had radio shows on stations KPOP and KDAY. Rick and his sister Nancy began pooling their money so that they could invest in all the latest records by B.B. King, Memphis Slim, Percy Mayfield and many others. Rick also owned one of the very first Fender electric basses.
As David Reyes and Tom Waldman wrote about the Rilleras in their book, Land of a Thousand Dances:
The idea of a Rillera brothers band took shape in the pre-R&B era; by the time the group actually started, R&B had begun to make a major impact on urban black music, as well as the white, black, and Chicano audience. Barry and Rick became enthusiastic fans, and they listened to Hunter Hancock’s show to learn the latest R&B songs. Their musical direction shifted slightly from exclusively blues to blues and R&B; the name Rhythm Rockers, coined by the piano player, implied a bigger beat than is common to the blues. However, they were not finished adding musical styles to the mix. The third ingredient, Latin jazz, came about as a result of the influence of their Mexican mother, many nights spent listening to Chico Sesma’s radio program, and exposure to the Chicano R&B/jazz bands that were performing around Southern California. “The Chicano bands that played car clubs [social gatherings for Chicano teenagers and young adults] all played R&B and Latin music,” said Barry. “We did, too.” This was an unplanned, but not unwelcome, musical addition. “When I started this group, I didn’t go with the idea of having a Latin sound,” said Rick. As the brothers became more and more devoted to Latin jazz, e
specially the music of Tito Puente and Rene Touzet, they brought new members into the band, again with the intent of producing an authentic sound. At one point the Rhythm Rockers included, along with guitar, bass, vocals, and drums, three saxophonists, three trumpet players, a guy playing the timbales, and another guy playing the congas.
The Rhythm Rockers had regular gigs up at Will Rogers Park in South Los Angeles as well as at many car club parties and weddings throughout Southern California. They also became the house band of sorts at Anaheim’s Harmony Park Ballroom.
Anaheim’s Harmony Park Ballroom back when it was called the German Concordia Club in the 1930s. This is where the song “Louie Louie” would be composed in the 1950s by Richard Berry. Author’s collection.
R&B singer and songwriter Richard Berry wrote “Louie Louie.” Author’s collection.
Originally called the German Concordia club after being built in 1922, by the early 1940s, the building had been renamed and was a popular spot for social dances and concerts through the 1950s and ’60s. In 1949, it even became the site of a popular country western TV/radio show called Hometown Jamboree, which was broadcast over radio station KXLA five days a week. On Saturdays, it aired over KCOP, Channel 13, in Los Angeles at 7:30 p.m. until going off the air in 1954.
A classic song was born at the Harmony Park ballroom in 1955 on a night when the Rhythm Rockers were playing there. Richard Berry, a black rhythm and blues singer from Los Angeles, would occasionally travel down to Orange County to sing with the Rhythm Rockers. On one particular night, he performed a song with the band called “El Loco Cha-Cha.” It was originally called “Amarren Al Loco” (tie up the crazy guy) by Cuban bandleader Rosendo Ruiz Jr., but it became better known as “El Loco Cha-Cha” after a new arrangement by René Touzet, a Cuban-born composer and bandleader.