STRAWBERY ALARM CLOCK / GEORGE BUNNELL INTERVIEW
WRITE YOUR NAME IN GOLD: Since first rising to prominence in 1966-1967 as a vaunted part of the All-American and Uni label rosters, Southern California's STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK has remained one of rock and roll's most enduring and impacting bands. Their latest Big Stir label album, Where's One? finds them at the pinnacle of their art. Bassist George Bunnell shares their tales of Tomorrow with Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People Editor / Publisher Michael McDowell below. (Click on above image to enlarge)
WHERE'S ONE?:
GEORGE BUNNELL NURTURES
THE STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK
TO FRUITION
By Michael McDowell
The Southern California community of Glendale / Burbank has long fit its surroundings to a "T".
Buoyed by a magnificent mountain range as a backdrop, the 5 and 134 frewways carve a path through the midpoint of a community that showcases everything from the Glendale Galleria to a wealth of film and television studio. From that setting came (among other things) the "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" mission statement of both Freddy Cannon (via a single for the Sire label) and Rowan And Martin's Laugh In. It was in that atmopshere that the Strawberry Alarm Clock came to fruition in 1967.
"The band was actually more so from Burbank than Glendale", said bassist George Bunnell.
"It actually started in 1966. We were mostly only eighteen years old. Some older, and one younger. The manager lived in La Cañada. One of the guys, bassist Gary Lovetro lived in Glendale.
"In the beginning, the band rehearsed at his parents' house. They were called Thee Sixpence. The manager was the manager of a Safeway market. The band were box boys, along with Gregory Mumford, who sang Incense And Peppermints.
"Gregory had his own band. The manager was Bill Holmes. He paid for both bands' recording sessions and let them take the days off to do them."
To be certain, all of the elements were in place to set the stage for a whirlwind of creativity. But true to form, they drew much of their inspiration from even earlier and more esoteric sources.
"Influences? When my parents moved me to California from Massachusetts, we lived in a house behind an Italian restaurant that belonged to my Grand Aunt and Grand Uncle, the Giarussos", Bunnell said.
"Their sons had a little band with a couple of other kids in the neighborhood. This was in North Hollywood, California. I was only three years old. But watching the band rehearse at their house had a huge effect on me.
"One of my cousins played guitar, and the other played Hammond organ with the foot pedals. And they had a drummer and a singer."
At that point, an area figurehead of some reknown entered the picture in a somewhat unlikely way.
"Shortly thereafter, my grandmother and grandfather opened their own store, which was a five and dime", Bunnell said.
"It was next door to Nudie's Western Wear. My parents both got jobs at Lockheed. So I was taken care of by my grandparents. I spent the day playing in the store, and running back and forth with Nudie's daughter. She was also in the care of her dad at his store.
"Her dad had all kinds of cool friends. They used to jam at the store, playing western and bluegrass music. They had fiddle, accordion, banjo, mandolin and guitars. I had a blast! I fell in love with the music.
"The first instrument that I took up was the violin. The problem was at school. At the time, I was in second grade. They would only teach classical music. Then we would play in the Christmas show, the Easter show and so on."
Bunnell discerned in short order that a bit of initiative would be necessary to help him meet those aesthetic aspirations.
"I wanted to play fiddle", he reiterated.
"It was a whole other deal. I eventually lost interest. But in the fourth grade, I took up accordion. That didn't last long either, because I hated carrying it to school. Then Elvis happened."
Indeed, the rise to prominence of such visionaries as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Knox, Gene Vincent, Rick Nelson, Carl Perkins and others most assuredly raised the bar in terms of sheer musical might, as well as in the presentation of the art itself.
"All I could think about was playing rockabilly", said Bunnell.
"But at nine years old, there was no real way to get there. That is, until I took up playing bass on a broken guitar when I was about twelve!"
It was at that point that such periphery as chronology went out the window with respect to Bunnell's vision.
"Fast forward to 1977", he said.
" I got my wish! I was in the house band at the Landmark in Glendale, California. We were a rockabilly band. One day, we got to the club to set up and to play with a country bluegrass act called Doye O'Dell's Townhall Party. He had a weekly TV show that I used to watch with my grandmother.
"Lo and behold, when we were setting up, in walks Nudie! I went up to him and told him that I was little Georgie that used to play in his store. He flipped out and called to his daughter, Roberta.
"We had a really nice reunion, and I got to play bass behind him! How's that for a full circle moment?"
Nonetheless, Bunnell's earliest musical motivations were not solely defined by the parameters of the bluegrass / western experience.
"Music and the movies were definitely all around", said Bunnell.
"Of course I had the usual British Invasion experiences and other early things. I actually liked Broadway musicals. But I was listening to bass parts!
"When we moved to Woodland Hills, California, we moved in next door to the Bartek family. Steve was a flutist and hugely talented. We started playing together every day. His brother Jim played guitar. We had another kid in the neighborhood that played drums.
"I really liked Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian. Later the Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin and Miles Davis. I was getting exposed to all of that, as well.
"It basically sent us into songwriting mode. Or as we called it, making up songs. That's when we wrote the songs that ended up on the first, second and third Strawberry Alarm Clock albums."
True to form, the other founding members of Strawberry Alarm Clock pursued their own musical inspirations with due diligence.
"Mark Stephen Weitz was studying classical piano", Bunnell said.
"Ed King was taking jazz lessons on bass and guitar. But he was heavily influenced by blues rock, and eventually southern rock.
"Lee Freeman was mostly a street player who loved blues. He could play a mean blues harmonica. But he also played drums, guitar and bass. Lee had a really good voice, too.
"Randy Seol started playing drums as a little kid. He got professional lessons from a jazz drummer who also played vibraphone. So Randy had orchestral percussion chops! He was also a great singer.
"Gene Gunnels started playing drums at a very young age. I recently found out that he started on the cornet and played in his school orchestra.
"Steve Bartek started on flute and had studied classical and jazz. He then learned piano, guitar and a multitude of other instruments."
Going forward, it seemed unlikely that a cadre of individuals borne of such richly diverse inspirations would not once again find one another. As the first generation garage rock and psychedelic movements began to avail themselves, the stage was seemingly set.
"Everybody wanted to be in show business! But a couple of us came from the West San Fernando Valley; namely myself, Randy Seol and Steve Bartek. We lived where many of the successful show biz folk lived.
"Still, we were surrounded by inspiration. We had a few neighborhood bands, just like Thee Sixpence did in the East Valley. Our band was called Waterfyrd Trayne.
"One day, both bands played at a party, trading sets. Their manager asked Randy Seol to come by and help them with their harmonies, which he did."
At that point, circumstances took an interesting turn.
"Then their drummer, Gene Gunnels quit", said Bunnell.
"So they asked Randy if he would join their band. Since they had a record deal, he jumped at the chance. But he wanted to bring me and Steve Bartek along. We had a slew of original songs, and they only had a few.
"Steve and I were invited to a rehearsal to show them our songs. Ed King and Mark Stephen Weitz loved the songs and wanted to record them all! I played bass, sang harmonies and played percussion. Steve played flute.
"We were both asked to join their band. I said yes, because I was eighteen and able to make my own decisions. But Steve was only fifteen, and his parental permision was not forthcoming.
"But the album went to number eleven on the Top 200 Album Chart! It paid for his college education at UCLA. As a result, he switched his major from medicine to music! He eventually became the lead guitarist for Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman's orchestrator for all of his film scores."
The Strawberry Alarm Clock's music first saw release on the All-American label, which had also issued singles by Thee Sixpence, the Shapes Of Sound, the Thundermugs and others of similar intent. The label's creative team had a decisive focus in mind, and expanded upon it for all it was worth. Given the precise focus of that mission statement, it would seem that such resolve on the label's part would resonate with the band at large.
"All-American was our manager's label", said Bunnell.
"I don't think we were conscious of being with an indie label. We were all just happy to be in a recording studio and having the time of our lives!
"Any of those other bands could have made it. Gregory Mumford was in the Shapes Of Sound. He sang Incense And Peppermints. His voice profoundly impacted the sound of that record. He was an alternative artist, and so was the band. He was asked to join the band. But he declined to pursue his own success, which never materialized."
Before the end of 1967, the Strawberry Alarm Clock found themselves as a part of the burgeoning Uni label roster. The Uni label seemed to rise to center stage out of nowhere. By decade's end, Uni was a dominant factor in the market, with an artist roster that included Hugh Masekela, the Foundations, Neil Diamond, the Hook, Marcia Strassman, Rose Maddox, the Yellow Payges, the Rainy Daze, the Fun And Games and others.
Even so, Uni was not without its share of the oversight of minutiae, given the omission of the band's magnificent B-side, The Birdman Of Alkatrash from its debut album. To what degree did such developments factor into the band's perspective of its own vision versus that of those entrusted to its oversight?
"That's an interesting question", said Bunnell.
"The Birdman Of Alkatrash was supposed to be the A-side of the single, until DJ Johnny Fairchild in Santa Barbara, California on KIST Radio decided to play Incense And Peppermints as the A-side. It became such a colossal hit, that they abandoned Birdman altogether.
"I thought it was an over reaction. That wasn't the last mistake the producer, manager and the record company would make, though. My pet peeve is the release of our song Tomorrow as the follow up to Incense And Peppermints. This happened at a time when the album was number eleven on the Top 200 album chart. Tomorrow was not on that album. It didn't show up on an album for another several months. Long enough for it to fall off of the charts after reaching number 23 on the Hot One Hundred (Editor's note: The Tomorrow 45 peaked at a relatively impressive number 5 at suburban Detroit's WKNR Keener 13 on 18 January 1968).
"They should have released at least two more singles from the Incense And Peppermints album. In fact, the B-side of Tomorrow is Birds In My Tree. And Paxton's Back Street Carnival ended up on the flip side of a single from our third album.
"Our second album, Wake Up It's Tomorrow failed to chart! The reason for all of this is because the manager and the producer felt bad for cheating Mark and Ed King out of the songwriting credits for Incense And Peppermints. They wrote the music. John Carter wrote the lyrics. But manager Bill Holmes wanted his name on it because he paid for the sessions. Producer Frank Slay said, "NO! Send me the names of the two writers". Bill kept insisting until Frank got fed up and sent in the copyright with only the lyricist on it.
"Mark and Ed never got a penny. So they had them write the follow up to ride on the coattails, which it did. But it proved to be a fatal error."
By the time of the release of the Wake Up It's Tomorrow album, the Strawberry Alarm Clock had developed a sixteen-bar swirl of sound that brought its unique vocal blend full circle in almost trademark-like fashion. It tends to play out dramatically ("Things won't be the same"), followed by quick and decisive resolution ("But right now I am with you, and together we can make it through").
Still, in a live setting (as evidenced by the Strawberry Alarm Clock's summit meeting with the Electric Prunes in Hollywood in the late 2000s), it was easy for such subtleties to get lost amidst the enthusiasm of the live performance. Given the necessity of nuance, what steps would the band take to avail themselves more succinctly in that respect?
"The show you referenced was at the end of a very busy 2007, like December 30th at the Knitting Factory", said Bunnell.
"We were careful about the harmony parts. We made sure we were using the exact parts. We also did all of our songs in the original keys. We had to match our eighteen year old selves!
"We still do that today. Vocal rehearsal is crucial. We understand that we're a vocal group, as well as an instrumental group. Our newest member, Howie Anderson said at the time that it's like being in a prog rock band, singing intricate harmonies and playing intricate musical arrangements."
In 2012, the Strawberry Alarm Clock found itself as part of the burgeoning Global Recording Artists roster with its magnificent Wake Up Where You Are album. While in some respects a prototype for the band's current Where's One? album for the Big Stir label, Wake Up Where You Are nonetheless tends to reflect to a degree Global Recording Artists' overall vision of bringing the persevering giants back to center stage with studio offerings for which some degree of solidarity could be maintained, as evidenced by the label's concurrent releases by the Standells, Nirvana and the Seeds' Sky "Sunlight" Saxon. Did these developments factor into the band's mission statement to any degree?
"Global Recording Artists were very artist-centric, as is Big Stir Records", said Bunnell.
"They were both very welcoming. As for the band, we were not really focused on recording an album per se in 2012. The recording process started as a way to hear what we sounded like. We wanted to know if we sounded like ourselves. So we recorded several of our old songs. As it turned out, we did!
"Simultaneously, we were asked to write a theme song for a documentary about Garry Davis called, The World Is My Country. We wrote and recorded the song World Citizen, which is on the album.
"Then a couple of other things happened. First, Sky Saxon passed away. His wife asked us to play a tribute concert with Billy Corgan, Nels Cline and others. As a result of that show, we were asked to contribute a Seeds cover for an album being produced by Corgan. We chose to do Mister Farmer. We did videos of both songs.
"Then out of the blue, the band the Fuzztones asked if we would contribute ourselves recording one of their songs for an album they were working on. Rudy Protrudi asked if we would do Charlotte's Remains. We did, and he said we could include it on our album, too.
"We were also writing new songs. So we recorded a song Mark wrote called Drifting Away about finding a life after losing his wife Nancy to cancer. And a song by Howie called Wake Up, which ended up being the title song of the album.
"Then Steve Bartek was called to duty with a couple of film scores for Danny Elfman. This meant he would no longer be able to use his studio for us. We knew it wasn't forever. But it was emotional for all of us.
"We ended up playing shows as a five piece for a while. Until Steve saw we were scheduled to play at the Whisky, to which he said, "I wanna play!"
The Strawberry Alarm Clock's 2026 Where's One? album for the Big Stir label is arguably the band's most immersible and straightforward album to date. While blessed with those trademark sixteen-bar swirls throughout much of the proceedings, the album also features some refreshing exercises in individuality, from the sublime acapella Feel The Love to the straightforward, no-nonsense instrumental take on the Beatles' Day Tripper. Presumably the relentless optimism evidenced in tracks such as these could serve as a catalyst for an exponential increase in enthusiasm in a live setting.
"Yes!", said Bunnell.
"We've been doing most of the songs on our new album live. Day Tripper is a blast to play live. It's been a part of our live shows for a long time. But we never thought about recording it until we decided to go into Rock Cellar studios with our engineer and co-producer (along with Steve Bartek), Michael Stern the day after one of our Whisky shows.
"The band was fired up and ready to rock! We did three other tracks that day: Galactic Symphony / Persian Skies, Monsters and I'm Not The One.
"The next session was after another show. We recorded Since You Have Gone Away, Tahitian Gardens, The Sky Isn't Falling and Primordial Soup.
"White Light was the first song we recorded for the album. It was recorded by Randy, Steve and I in 2006. It ended up getting shelved until I played it for our keyboard player, Mark Weitz. He said, "Where has this been??"
"I told him it's been in storage! He said we should bring it to the band and have everybody put parts on it. So that's what we did and remixed it. I did some new harmony vocals on it and what not. We included it on this album. A couple of other songs were recorded at other studios, like Blow Your Mind and Live W ater.
"(The Beatles') Within You, Without You was the brainchild of our friend, Bruce Hubbard. Bruce actually played drums with us in the 1980s, but moved to Hawaii.
"One day, after Bruce moved back to California, he asked me to come over to his house to play bass on an instrumental idea he had for the song. We recorded our parts and brought them to Steve Bartek and Howie Anderson. They put on guitars and sitar, and then Howie sang vocals. The rest of us sang harmonies, and there you have it!"
posted by BlitzMagazine at 12:11 PM
