Sunset Strip: There's not a riot going on

This weekend marks the first annual Sunset Strip Music Festival; many classic venues, including the Whiskey a Go Go, are hosting dozens of rock bands. But with sponsors that include Virgin America, Ticketmaster, Vitaminwater and this paper's own Metromix, it's clear this isn't the Doors' Sunset Strip anymore.

For five nights in November 1966, teenagers and police clashed on the Sunset Strip; the 2007 book "Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood" tells the whole story. Only the last chapters focus on the riot itself -- most of the book provides a deep, detailed picture of the Southern California music scene in the mid-1960s, connecting the visual arts with TV and surf culture.

Author Dominic Priore's encyclopedic knowledge, it seems, encompasses everything from the origin of every garage rock band with a local hit to the industry's most powerful producers. He keeps it all tidy though, and the narrative that emerges is surprisingly detailed and informed for what appears, on the surface, to be a big pretty picture book.

It is also a big pretty picture book. More about that after the jump.

Many of the pictures have a backstage, insider feel. LAist notes:

Many of the book's highlights are visual: Jan and Dean flying off the hood for their “Dead Man’s Curve” promo shot; Teri Garr and Toni Basil go-go dancing at the Action; Bobby Fuller surrounded by teenyboppers, one of whose boyfriends might have put him down. One photo catches a denim-clad, clean-shaven Neil Young hollering at a bar crowd in 1966, one well-coiffed debutante stuffing her ears and looking put out, while other dudes look up with heavy expressions of disbelief.

It was nearly impossible for me to reading without being sucked forward by the pictures. I loved the shots of the Standells, the Count Five, the Seeds, Love and Buffalo Springfield, as well as a young David Hockney, Andy Warhol on the back of a motorcycle and Beat icon Neal Cassady (at a Grateful Dead acid test). Plus the shots of all the kids on the Strip, girls in short skirts and heavy eyeliner, boys in shirt sleeves who were just beginning to grow their hair. The only downside is that they're all photographed in black and white.

The riot happened when some businesses complained about the teenagers hanging out on the Strip; they might have been attending music shows, but some young people thought they were being targeted for not buying enough. Police began draconian enforcement of vague 10 p.m. curfew regulations -- arresting teenagers leaving Canter's as they walked to their cars, for example. There was a protest, peaceful at first, which soon got out of hand. Streets filled, a bus was stopped and kids jumped on top of it, police descended in riot gear, and Stephen Stills sat on a curb penning the of-the-moment yet sadly prophetic "For What It's Worth." 

The riots became a media sensation -- as the numbers of protesters dwindled, Priore explains, the numbers of press following them ballooned. Before a year had passed, the histrionic (yet stylish) drama "Riot on Sunset Strip" was in movie theaters. In the meantime, some of the key music venues on the strip were shuttered. Priore would tell you it's never been the same.

But the bands still play there. They're playing there this weekend ... probably, riot-free.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Comments

[The Strip is Dead]

Hey Sunset Strip, Hollywood called, they've found your demographic and they don't want to come back.

No one under the age of 30 even remembers the Doors. Saddleback? It's Universal Studios with liquor. Rainbow Room? It's a nursing home. Hustler Store? Who buys porn in a store? The Whiskey? Who plays there? House of Blues? Too much $ and for what? Dublin's? Torn down. Restaurants? Nothing on Sunset worth the price. Celebrities? Try the Robertson shopping district. Sunset Plaza? Eurotrash. Tourists? Yeah they're still here, they don't know any better. The Strip is busted.