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Originally Posted by fumo30
@vienna
Thank you for your fine post vienna. Seems like I never figured out how big name Sheila E (and her family) really is. Of course her unquestionable talents can be witnessed by anybody.
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The Escovedos are part of a long tradition of Latin musical families that go back several generations. Particularly in Mexican and Cuban musical cultures, entire families, both close and extended family members, pass down musical knowledge to each succeeding generation. In Los Angeles, there is a thriving Mariachi community and it is almost always family groupings. Another well-known star who had his roots in Mariachi is Carlos Santana...
Quote:
Originally Posted by fumo30
I'm surprised the way LAPD harassed punk bands in LA. What motivated them for such mean actions. Was drugs their excuse or what? Sure our own police force too was ready for interfering local rock artists life in 70's, but not quite that extent.
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It may surprise people not familiar with California, but for a very, very long time, Southern California was a hot bed of Right-Wing Conservatism. While people outside of CA may have imagined the entire state was a hippie, Left-Wing paradise, down South it was literally more like the Down South you'd see in movies about rednecks. Where San Francisco had been settled very early in CA's history and had spawned a burgeoning population that welcomed culture and diverse populations, up until around 1920, San Francisco actually had a larger population than LA. What happened to more than double LA's population by 1930 was the Great Depression combined with the Dust Bowl disasters; hordes of people who had been bankrupted by the Depression and/or dispossessed by the Dust Bowl swarmed into LA seeking to find better pickings; along with their general cultural attitudes, they also brought racial/cultural prejudices from their home states. As time went on, those attitudes became dominant in the city's political structure from the Mayor on down to the Police Chief. When I first came to live in LA in 1970 (I had been in and out of the area since the mid-60s), a lot of the 'hillbilly' attitudes still persisted; in fact, going into the Valley part of the city was akin to taking a trip into the US South; not a good place to be if you were of color or if you were one of "them damn hippies"...
The LAPD, in particular had the 'Southern Sheriff' sort of attitude. The police chiefs were a lot of Far-Right wingnuts and ran their departments like their own little kingdom and fought off any efforts to curb their authority, going so far as to use intimidation and blackmail of other city officials to get their way. It wasn't until the LA Riots of 1992 and its aftermath that the last of the 'Big Boss' police chiefs was ousted and some degree of sanity and accountability was imposed on the police force. Today, the force is much better managed and has seen a dramatic change in the public's perception of the police for the better...
The war on Rock music by the LAPD was a product of the Right-Wing rule of a series of LAPD chiefs who viewed Rock, and those who enjoyed it, as anti-thetical to 'good ol' 'Merican' values. The LAPD went way out of their way to crush down any possibility of sustaining a thriving Rock scene. Starting with the Sunset Strip Riots in 1966 (immortalized in Buffalo Springfield's
For What It's Worth); here is a clip of the 1966 incident that inspired the song...:
...the whole thing finally came to a head when Pink Floyd played some concert dates in LA at the downtown Sports Arena and the LAPD decided to make an extraordinary show of force to get the Police Chief's message of displeasure across; more than 500 people were arrested and the incidents were so shocking, bands and concert promoters refused to book into LA city venues; this resulted in a windfall for surrounding cities who welcomed the revenue to be gained by hosting major rock concerts. The Floyd Sports Arena incidents were depicted in the film
The Wall where the scene outside the arena was recreated:
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-...fans-arrested/
Eventually, years later, demographics and changing cultural attitudes caught up to the LAPD and their 'ban' on Rock was removed by the City Council who realized the city was losing millions in tax revenue, licensing fees, etc., and by the business community who didn't particularly like seeing sales going to outside businesses that surrounded non-LA venues. Happens all the time: Dollars Defeats Dogma...
Quote:
Originally Posted by fumo30
BTW Sex Pistols' were not allowed to play here at all, think they were considered too vicious. 
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Gee, I don't know why...
They seem like such nice, stable geniuses...
<O>