23 skidoo

[Robin Landseadel]

On Oct 9, 2009, at 5:49 AM, Michael Bailey wrote:

> ...so I reread Robin's post about the Byrds,
> that does sound a lot more like "Boards"...
> maybe supposed to be some kinda melding of notions
> with the Beach Boys, though...the surfboard coffee tables...

Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day, was one of the original producers of  
the Byrds and wrote and performed with the Beach Boys. It was a very  
circuitous route getting there, but Terry Melcher was also one of Gram  
Parsons producers. So there's plenty of links between the two bands  
and the juncture can be found in Terry Melcher. Dennis Wilson and  
Terry Melcher worked with and encouraged Charles Manson's musical  
persuits:

	In 1968, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson introduced Melcher to ex-
	con and aspiring musician Charles Manson. Manson and his
	"family" had been living in Wilson's house on Sunset Boulevard
	after Dennis had picked up two girls from the "family"
	hitchhiking. Wilson expressed interest in Manson's music and
	even recorded two of Manson's songs with The Beach Boys.
	For a time, Melcher was interested in recording Manson's
	music, as well as making a movie about the "family". During that
	time, Manson met Melcher at 10050 Cielo Drive, the home
	Melcher shared with his girlfriend, Candice Bergen, on different
	occasions. Manson eventually auditioned for Melcher, but
	Melcher declined to sign him. There was still talk of a
	documentary being made about Manson's music, but Melcher
	abandoned the project after witnessing his subject becoming
	embroiled in a terrifying fight with a drunken stuntman at Spahn
	Ranch.[2] Both Wilson and Melcher severed their ties with
	Manson, a move that angered Manson.[4]

	After severing ties with Manson, Melcher and Bergen moved
	out of the Cielo Drive home. The house's owner, Rudi Altobelli,
	 leased it to film director Roman Polanski and his wife,
	actress Sharon Tate. Manson visited the house looking for
	Melcher, but was turned away as Melcher had moved.[2] On
	August 9, 1969, the house that was once occupied by Melcher
	was the site of the brutal murders of Sharon Tate (who was
	eight months pregnant at the time), coffee heiress Abigail
	Folger (known as Gibby to her friends), hairdresser Jay
	Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski, and Steven Parent, by
	members of Manson's "family". . .

	. . . After Manson was arrested, it was widely reported that he
	had sent his followers to the house to kill Melcher. Manson
	"family" member Susan Atkins, who admitted her part in the
	murders, stated to police and before a Grand Jury that the
	house was chosen as the scene for the murders, "to instill fear
	into Terry Melcher because Terry had given us his word on a
	few things and never came through with them".[2] In this aim,
	the Manson Family was quite successful. Melcher took to
	employing a bodyguard and he told prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi
	that his fear was so great, he had been undergoing psychiatric
	treatment. Melcher was the most frightened of the witnesses at
	the trial, even though Bugliosi assured him that, "Manson knew
	you were no longer living there".[2]

	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Melcher

> anyway, I looked up this Glen Charlock, I mean
> Gene Clark (just like Byrds/Boards, the two GCs are pretty
> darn simular), and read up on the Byrds -
> didn't know that Eight Miles High was really not about tripping,
> although even if you read it that way, it's like, "and when you come  
> down"
> comes really early in the song...

It's impossible to sort out the Acid from the Jet plane in 8 Miles  
High. But Gene Clark was nearly out of the band by the time the  
group's masterpiece slithered onto top 40, only to be swiftly ejected  
by the powers that be.

> but (to digress just a bit) I always liked Buffalo Springfield
> better than the Byrds and somehow thought the Byrds should've
> been an East Coast group and they would've been able to
> stay together...

No way—they were all too paranoid. In any case, the Byrds were about  
as L.A. as any band would be until the Eagles appeared out of the  
ashes of the Flying Burrito Brothers.

> (there's even a Buffalo Springfield song "Nowadays Clancy
> can't even sing" so if the Byrds had been an East Coast group
> 2 of them could've got Clancy singing...)

About drug abuse of some sort, as I recall.

> but I ended up going to iTunes and getting "White Light" and
> listening to it all the way through, really some pretty nice stuff!
> According to the Wikipedia article, it was voted Album of the Year
> in the Netherlands in 1971.

Don't know what you're referring to—perhaps you can send us a link?

> -- 
> --- "Can't say it often enough -
> change your hair, change your life."
> - Sortilege

	"It's this group I'm in," Miles explained, "the Paranoids. We're
	new yet. Our manager says we should sing like that. We watch
	English movies a lot, for the accent."

	"My husband's a disk jockey," Oedipa trying to be helpful, "it's
	only a thousand-watt station, but if you had anything like a tape
	I could give it to him to plug." Miles closed the door behind them
	and started in with the shifty eye. "In return for what?" Moving in
	on her. "Do you want what I think you want? This is the Payola
	Kid here, you know." Oedipa picked up the nearest weapon,
	which happened to be the rabbit-ear antenna off the TV in the
	corner. "Oh," said Miles, stopping. "You hate me too." Eyes
	bright through his bangs.