Hollywood Hills

Returning to Hollywood, I stayed with friends. I was able to spend some time with Fred Tackett and Pattie, who were renting a large house in the Hollywood Hills off of Beachwood Drive. It had 3 levels and I was able to stay in the basement.... again. But then, I don't think I paid any rent, so I couldn't complain. They were still working at promoting the band, Mephistopheles, and had released an album in 1969 "In Frustration I Hear Singing".

Also in residence was Gordon Grant, a spectacular keyboardist. He would get up in the morning and play an hour of classical music, an hour of blues, an hour of rock and roll and an hour of jazz. He could play anything, anytime. I have never met anyone so versatile.

Me and Bobbie Burch

Other residents were Daryl and Bobbie Burch. He was the drummer and most of the residents in the house were from Oklahoma. After I stayed with them for a while, people would ask me where do you come from in Oklahoma? It is a very pervasive accent.

While I was there, Patty gave birth. This was a home birth and I will remember it for a long time. We were all crowded into the birth room, animals and all. The dogs were growling, as they knew something momentous was happening.

I think Lance Wakely was at the foot of the bed, where Patty was giving birth and took photos of the delivery.

I was my job to bury the afterbirth. I couldn't do it, so Lance took the job. He put it in the trash, and as he told me later, his dog found it and ate it. Ah well.... this was Hollywood in the late 60's.

It was while we were living there that Jean Dixon predicted a massive earthquake would befall California. I have since searched and can't find a record of that, but I know it happened. Now the people at the house weren't particularly superstitious, but coincidentally, many of them decided to take a trip, just before it was scheduled to take place. I think Fred and Patty visited relatives in Oklahoma and I know Lance took the opportunity to have a picnic someplace in the Sierras. I don't remember where Gordon was, but he was not at the house.

That left Daryl, Bobbie and me in the house. I remember the night before Daryl lamenting, "Baby I don't want to die" and shortly, after calling his parents, they took a place back home. That left me alone in the house to wait out my fate.

The next morning Jehovah's Witnesses showed up at my door. I remember talking to the two girls from the 2nd story window and hoping that somehow I could open their minds to see all that I could see. They left some literature for me, at Gordon Grant's entry door. I wasn't there when they called back, because I was in New York. But that is another story.

In looking over the blog, I think I have mixed up some of the timeline. Big surprise. Anyway, this is the point where I went to New York and was a road manager for a whopping 1 gig, and returned to San Diego and then back to Hollywood. Mea culpa.