This was also the time
that the Hillside Strangler was loose in the area and Robin was a little
paranoid about living in West Hollywood. We figured the valley would be a much
safer place to live plus we knew some other musicians who lived out there,
Chuck Fiore, Beau Segal and Jimmy Eingher that were playing in the band Billy
and the Beaters with Billy Vera. I still had a subscription to Homefinders, so
Robin and I scoured the pages for rentals in the San Fernando Valley. We found
a cute one-bedroom bungalow on Woodbridge Street not far from CBS Studio Center
–near Radford. It was a beautiful place with wooden floors and big rooms,
perfect for playing and writing music and we moved there on New Years Eve of
1977/ 1978. We had to be out of the apartment on Clark by New Years Day, so
Doug and Judy helped us move all our stuff in the pouring rain that night. When
we got to the bungalow on Woodbridge the landlord had forgotten to unlock the doors,
so we had to break in through the big window in the front. The locks were such
that you couldn’t unlock them without a key, even though we were inside the
place, so we moved all of our belongings through that window—not an auspicious
beginning.
The wooden floors were unfinished,
and a bit too bleached out looking for my taste. One day while Robin was out
working one of her temp jobs, I decided to stain the floors in a dark walnut.
Stephen said he would help me out and I rented a floor sander and bought a
gallon of stain. Stephen also said he was experienced at floor staining and
suggested that instead of applying the stain and then immediately wiping it off
that we should leave it on for a few hours. We did exactly that then and went
out to get lunch at the local Subway (the first of its kind in LA) and then walked
around the sets of CBS Studios. When we came back the floors were so dark it
looked like they were painted dark, mahogany brown if not black. It looked
terrible. I was so upset at Stephen, who still thought the floors looked great,
but they were a disaster. I had to rent the floor sander again and remove all
that walnut stain and I was cursing him for every plank sanded. I finally
re-stained the floor the proper way and I must admit I did look great, and I
forgave Stephen after a while too.
Even though I had to
commute to West Hollywood to rehearse with The Knack, it was much better and
more peaceful than living in the heart of the “pit”. I was in between jobs now
and money was short, so I decided to look for work. I found another phone sales
job in the valley selling copy machine supplies—mostly toner. The company had
one of those generic names so they could appear to be on the level—but I knew
deep in my heart that it was a rip-off. They went by the handle “National
Advertising”. It was another one of those jobs where I had to get up at five in
the morning and be ready to start dialing for dollars by six. There were some
extremely colorful characters working there, one was this black lady by the
name of Mrs. Perkins, but everyone called her Perky. She had this pitch that
was hard to deny and came off like a holy roller selling toner for Jesus. She
made a fortune there. Another character was this guy, who was also a musician
by the name of Bobby Paine, and we became friends. After the eleven o’clock
bell rang we would sometimes go over to his motel room in Van Nuys and play
music. He had some great country songs, one in particular that I loved called Honky-tonk
Hell about a bar in hell where the devil was buying ‘til the end of time
and never was going to say, “last call”.
Just before meeting Bobby
and his younger brother (the same age I am), Larson Paine, who was also a
songwriter, I had done a few sessions at a studio in Hollywood called Pranava
Studios. I had re-cut my anthem, You Hurt Me So with Richie Moore behind
the console and Robin, Doug Fieger, Mikel Japp sang background vocals. It was a
classic mixture of vocal blending, and I really thought it was great. We also
re-cut “Be My Baby in Between” with these farty saxophone parts a la Savoy
Truffle. Chas was recruited to play one of his trademark tapping solos that
we had gotten on tape while he was just running it down. I knew he was always
at his best when it was still fresh in his mind, and we ended up keeping that
take. I still have those masters somewhere and I am thinking about baking (a
process where you heat the tapes up in an oven at low temperature to remove any
of the sticky deposits) the tapes and re-mixing them.
Anyway, back to those
notorious Paine boys, I was playing the tapes from Pranava to them, and Larson
thought that You Hurt Me So, as he put it, was a real contender. It made
me think of Rocky Graciano in his hay day—that image still burns brightly in my
mind. Bobby and Larson had booked a session, and they were going to cut Honky-tonk
Hell and another song. I was hired to play Hammond B-3 organ and was even
paid for the session. I lost contact with Bobby after a while, but I always
knew someday our paths would cross again. I was right. Thirty years later, now
living near Nashville, Tennessee I had a friend, Bruce, who was a waiter at a
fancy restaurant, Mario’s near Music Row. Bruce had told me about this
character who was flashing hundred-dollar bills around and had this much
younger doll hanging on his arm. Bruce said this guy was a musician and when he
described him I knew it was Bobby. I told Bruce the next time he came in to
give him my number. He did, and sure enough it was him although he goes by
another name now, Sunset Slim. Slim and I are great friends now and we play
music and golf together at least once a week. I never knew he played golf back then,
but he is good. In fact, he was a great golf instructor—always pointing out
flaws in my swing and he was right ninety percent of the time. Got to love it!
Sorry to say that Slim passed away in November of 2018 from bladder cancer.
Another great one gone!
Selling toner was somewhat
profitable for me back then but I thought there must be a better and more
honest way to make a living. I had a pseudonym on the phone—it was Jim
Phillips. I always hated being called Jim (my father would only call me that
when he was angry with me) and I thought if I went by that name I could become
a completely different person—one that could lie, cheat or steal without guilt.
It worked, for a while anyway. But with a little money, ego and power in my
veins—bad things were going to happen soon—some good things, too.
I love this story! Bobby just passed away and I was perusing the web. He was such a great guy. I met he and Larson while working at Warner Music (I also worked at CBS Radford) and we stayed friends. RIP
ReplyDeleteI love this story! Bobby just passed away and I was perusing the web. He was such a great guy. I met he and Larson while working at Warner Music (I also worked at CBS Radford) and we stayed friends. RIP
ReplyDelete