IVIV: Chapter Five—Head 'em off at the Past ! ! !

[Robin Landseadel]

Chapter five has a number of variations on themes by Raymond Chandler,  
but first off I'd like to point to a few anomalies of "Pop" or "Rock"  
radio in the late sixties and early seventies in Los Angeles. A  
transition in radio occurred in "Pop" radio during the brief rise and  
steep fall of the hippies. KPPC turned into one of those "Underground"  
radio stations, featuring long sets, heavier sounds and stoned DJs.  
Eventually KPPC morphed into New-Wave standard bearer KROQ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3xy8s-IQ7k

The somewhat more commercial KMET soon followed suit and KRLA loosened  
up its programming policies, making "Radio Free Oz" possible even on  
the AM band and doing some decidedly strange shit on Sunday nights. I  
suppose an indication that Doc is the preterite sort is underlined by  
the fact that he's still listening to AM radio during the time of  
Rock's ascendency into FM.

For many years I've assumed that Pynchon may have had a hand in [and  
at the very least, had to be aware of] the Firesign Theater. Like  
maybe he was the fifth crazy guy or somethin'. Since reading Inherent  
Vice, it has dawned on me that the Bonzo Dog Band—née the Bonzo Dog  
Dada Band, later the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band—is in many ways a better  
comedic fit.

First, allow me to paint the scene. Doc—who at times may appear to be  
a zonked-out fool [the drug-related incident on page 25 leaps to mind]— 
is, after all is said and done, a resourceful P.l. Shasta suggested "a  
possible laughing-academy angle" to Mickey's abduction, so Doc begins  
maneuvers upon co-conspirator Mrs. Sloane Wolfmann in order to  
determine what nut-house the real estate developer may have been  
dumped in. Doc coms up with his own bogus mental health clinic—"Modern  
Institute for Cognitive Re-patterning and Overhaul". aka "MICRO"— yet  
another echo of LSD's function [briefly] as a therapeutic aid for  
modern, over-stressed personalities. This was particularly true in  
Stanford, doubtlessly true around UCLA and Isla Vista is certainly  
close enough to Ojai for rock 'n roll.

Getting ready for his visit to the Wolfmann estate, the good Doc  
checks out some "straight" costumes in his "en suite broom closet"  
setting his sights on a "double-breasted velour suit from Zeidler &  
Zeidler" and a short-hair wig that almost matched the suit. I can't  
help wonder how lumpy and obvious that wig must have looked on Larry's  
hirsute head. Doc has his friend "Jake" make up a few business cards  
for "MICRO" and that's the last we'll ever see of Jake. The card  
reads:  "MICRO—Reconfiguring Southland brains since 1966. Larry  
Sportello, Licensed Associate" which the author points out is true  
enough long as the license you're referring to is a California  
driver's. It's also a reminder of the point where LSD stopped being  
therapeutic and started being "party time!!!", a fad doomed to fall  
apart soon enough. Just ask Count Drugula.

That "Zeidler & Zeidler"  reference reminded me of Zappa & the  
Mother's "Eddie Are You Kidding?" This is Flo & Eddie—lead vocalists  
in Frank Zappa's encomium for the low-priced leaders in Men's Fashions 
— doing their thing at the bottom line in NYC. Try around 3:45 and if  
you play the whole thing, expect to be offended.

http://tinyurl.com/neqlor

While the Zeidler & Zeidler chain of clothing stores folded back in   
1996, there still is a Zeidler & Zeidler Dental Group in Century City,  
doubtlessly still deeply enmeshed with the Golden Fang.

Back to Doc's car climbing into the Santa Monica Mountains towards the  
Wolfmann Estate. I've been a fan of the Bonzo Dog Band from the first  
time I've heard them—early 1968 in Fresno a DJ on an otherwise  
"Normal" top 40 station decided to play "The Intro & the Outro":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bxv_HLwT7U

Not that KRLA in early 1970 was anything like "Normal."

Speaking of "Normal":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIYOY10RD-M

"We are Normal and we want our Freedom!"
"We are Normal and we like Bert Wheedon!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZr14KeS6Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCJ7ycSMCkA&feature=related

In fact, that Firesign Theater connection I mentioned earlier is  
touched upon by virtue of Doc's radio being tuned to KRLA and all. One  
of the FS's first audio venues was "Radio Free Oz" on KRLA:

http://www.firezine.net/faq/fst-zine-faq-2.html

The Firesign Theater stopped performing on KRLA on January 14, 1968  
but continued to have a presence on L.A. radio through the seventies,  
over on FM stations KPFK [cited in Vineland], KPPC and KMET.

I'll expand on the figure of Vivian Stanshall—a key Bonzo and I  
suspect also a major influence on that whole George Formby thing in  
GR . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUq6ktf19WE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55-oNqY1yTU

. . . in a later post but meanwhile: here's the best link I've found  
for "Bang Bang." Just scroll down to the song and 'hit' play:

http://www.rhapsody.com/bonzo-dog-band/the-doughnut-in-grannys-greenhouse

Somehow I find this performance of Sonny Bono's meisterwerke quite  
redolent of Stewie on Family Guy.

Chapter Five—more than any other in Inherent Vice—seems like  
variations on "Head 'em Off at the Past!!!", what with another "Same"  
Mansion and as many references to 40's noir conventions as can be  
stuffed into 12 pages [be sure to check out the lighting on page 58]:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5XfXECpU6w

			NICK
	And that's why I called you today, Nancy... I mean, Mrs. Haber.
	Something reminded me of that time so long ago under the
	dwarf maples.

		NANCY
	(phone voice)  I don't know what prompted you to get in touch
	with me, but you called just in the nick of time.

		NICK
	You haven't lost your delicate sense of humor, have you,
	Nancy?

		NANCY
	 (phone voice)  What?

	Nick, I can't talk to you now. You have to get out here right
	away.  My husband he... It's the same old place in Santa
	Barbara, Nicky. Oh, hurry, Nicky, I need you, I nee...
	(click/dial tone)

. . . but this is Pynchon and as we shall, see genre conventions will  
be on full display in all their florid glory simply to underline the  
fact that after all, they're just genre conventions. Kinda like what  
"Head 'em off at the Past ! ! ! " does. Kinda like what James Wong  
Howe's lighting does.