Déjà vu LA - A Riddle in Many Colors
Photo taken by Paul R. Abramson, 1980, “Mr. Mad at Venice Beach”. Paul Abramson is a professor of psychology at UCLA. He is also the lead singer and lyricist of the band Crying 4 Kafka.
By Paul R. Abramson
Déjà vu LA is a rock and roll tribute to artistry in Los Angeles, circa the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. There are, certainly, devotional elements and unabashed enthusiasms, but irony plays its hand as well, most notably in the chorus – so, so, so, LA. The intent of the song, however, is best understood as animated storytelling that has been shaped through the lens of racial, ethnic and sexual diversity. The multiplicity of references, for instance, are meant to eschew the boundaries that divide us, while also highlighting the mixture of artists in Los Angeles during those pivotal decades. Caravaggio notwithstanding, it’s not love that conquers all, but art instead, certainly to the extent to which American artists have risen above the cacophony of racial animus. This song now strives to highlight a few of those artists, while simultaneously giving airtime to some of our familiar tropes, Hollywood for example, Sunset boulevard and Malibu, too.
Déjà vu LA begins with a pseudo-archival recording that is based on a true story. On April 14th 1968, Skip Taylor’s Kaleidoscope on Sunset Boulevard advertised a show titled the Superball at the Kaleidoscope. The headliner was the Doors, who were now at the height of their fame. The opening bands were Traffic, Canned Heat, and Bo Didley. I didn’t, however, have the money to buy a ticket, but a guy I knew said, No sweat, man. I got the bread. I’ll buy a ticket and then open the side door. You just run in as soon as the door opens.
Far out, I replied, speaking in the local parlance. And that’s exactly what I did.
I’m mentioning all of this now because Déjà vu LA starts with a prologue describing my 1968 experience of seeing the Doors at the Kaleidoscope. It is a timely introduction to this song.
The riddle to this song is trying to figure out all of the references. This essay represents the cheat sheet. It begins with Verse 1.
PCH
Malibu
sun is bright
sky is blue
James Cain
rings twice
Huxley
rolls them dice
Morrison
and McGuinn
trading shots
with Didion
misfit
anarchist
deep pocketed
hypocrites
so...so...so…LA
James Cain was a novelist. His first book, published in 1934, was The Postman Always Rings Twice. Hollywood made two movies of that book, the second of which was released in 1981. The latter starred Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. Aldous Huxley, on the other hand, was an English author who had been nominated several times for a Nobel Prize. He moved to Los Angles in 1937 and died there in November of 1963.
Jim Morrison was the lead singer of the Doors, and Roger McGuinn is a guitar player who was the leader of the Byrds. Joan Didion, by contrast, is the author of many books, some of which were published in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s (e.g. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Play It as It Lays, A Book of Common Prayer, The White Album). Those books often referenced Los Angeles and Hollywood, Play It as It Lays in particular. I liked to imagine the three of them trading shots, tequila perhaps.
The last stanza, misfit, anarchist, deep pocketed, hypocrites is my sarcasm coming to the foreground. The same, one might argue, is true of the repeating chorus so, so, so, LA. It might be sarcastic, or better yet, ironic, but it’s also meant to be celebratory. An amused conceit, as it were. I wanted to leave the chorus open to many interpretations.
Hollywood’s
on the mind
Bad Religion’s
famous sign
Diebenkorn
lovelorn
doing coke
Beyond Baroque
boulevard
prozac dreams
governor
moonbeam
over-sexed
what’s next?
John Rechy
no Malcolm X
so…so…so…LA
This is Verse # 2. The Hollywood sign is self-explanatory. Bad Religion, perhaps the most successful LA based punk rock band, was formed in 1980. They have their own sign, a black cross encased in a red “no” symbol. Richard Diebenkorn, alternatively, was a superb California painter whose artworks were described as deeply lyrical abstractions. He taught at both Cal Arts and UCLA. Beyond Baroque is a literary arts center in Los Angeles, while cocaine was ever present in LA throughout this era.
Prozac Dreams is also an apt descriptor of LA. Prozac came on the market in 1986 and was a very popular anti-depressant at that time. Governor Moonbeam was a nickname for California Governor Jerry Brown. It was given to him by the journalist Mike Royko in 1976.
LA and sex certainly go toe to toe, hence the word over-sexed in this song. John Rechy, an especially prominent and talented gay author and journalist, wrote a book titled The Sexual Outlaw that was published in 1976. It has been described as an eloquent outcry against the oppression of homosexuals…[and it portrays] three days and nights in the sexual underground of Los Angeles in the 1970s. Finally, Malcom X had come to LA in 1962 to speak out against police brutality – something that plagued LA for decades to come. His sexual persona went through a radical shift once he converted to the Muslim religion.
Sunset
boulevard
John Doe’s
playing cards
Watts Tower
in the sky
Eagles
on the fly
Dylan’s
moved to town
and Fernando’s
on the mound
smog here
they don’t care
a Star Room
love affair
so…so…so…LA
This is the 3rd Verse. Sunset Blvd is an obvious reference to Los Angeles, and John Doe was a member of the visionary LA punk band X. X was formed in 1977 and was extremely influential in the music world throughout the 1980s. Interestingly enough, Crying 4 Kafka’s producer, Paul du Gre, worked with both Bad Religion and X.
Watts Towers is a magnificent sculptural artwork created by Simon Rodia. It has 17 interconnected towers and was built in the Watts section of LA. The Watts Towers are now also listed in the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles. The Eagles, in turn, were a flourishing Los Angeles based rock and roll band that was formed in 1971.
Bob Dylan moved to Malibu in 1979, and Fernando Valenzuela made his debut as a Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher in 1980. Then, of course, smog was very much part of LA, and to some extent, the populace simply accepted it. Finally, the Star Room was one of the earliest lesbian bars in Los Angeles. It was located between Watts and Gardena. The “love affair” line refers both the Star Room bar, and the extent to which people, Randy Newman and the Doors included, truly loved LA.
hustlers
on the make
and politicians
on the take
Black Flag
Zig Zag
methadone
calls it home
flyin high
drive by
crack house
Mickey Mouse
Marilyn’s gone
Mingus too
Light My Fire
Déjà vu
so…so…so…LA
This is Verse #4. Los Angeles is notorious for its hustlers, not only on its streets, but in the movie business, too. A noteworthy politician, Richard T. Hanna, a Congressman representing Los Angeles, was also convicted in the 1970s for taking bribes in what was known as Koreagate.
Black Flag was another infamous punk band associated with Los Angeles, though, in fact, it was formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. Zig Zag, alternatively, was a French company that produced rolling papers for tobacco but became iconic in Los Angeles the 1960s and 1970s for rolling joints.
Methadone therapy for heroin addicts was developed in 1964, and Methadone clinics began to flourish in Los Angeles sometime thereafter. Toxicology testing of fatally injured pilots also pointed to drug addiction. Drive-by shootings, and crack cocaine houses were evident in many parts of Los Angeles during this timeframe, too. Mickey Mouse, on the other hand, has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Marilyn Monroe is perhaps Hollywood’s most famous icon, and Charles Mingus, a superb jazz composer and musician, spent 10 years in LA. Topping that off, Light My Fire appeared on the Doors debut album, which was released in 1967, and déjà vu, is déjà vu.
head shot
director’s cut
that porn star
has gone too far
Silver Lake
earthquake
Tinsel Town
just brings you down
palm trees
Vietnamese
riot squad
something’s odd
super thin
denizen
on the hour
motor inn
so…so…so…LA
This is Verse # 5. Head shot and directors cut are common Hollywood argot, and the San Fernando Valley’s porn biz always pushed the boundaries. The LGBTQ community had found a home in Silver Lake in the 1970s, and earthquakes were part of Los Angeles as well. For many people however the Tinsel Town nonsense just brought them down.
Though they aren’t native to Los Angeles, palm trees made their presence, and thus gained their symbolic value, in the early 20th century. They are also a favorite symbol of LA. Vietnamese communities effectively started calling Los Angeles their home after a significant number of refugees migrated from Vietnam to LA county in 1975 after the end of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War itself sparked countless protests in America, which in turn, were countered by police riot squads.
Thin was IN in LA, and the denizens of Hollywood keep favoring it. And for those quick and dirty trysts, nothing beat an on-the-hour motor inn.
Bukowski’s
on a bend
and Chandler’s
stuck in bed
Cal Arts
faded stars
Mister Spock
is lost on Mars
Ray Charles
likes it hot
billion dollar
parking lot
easy mark
needle narc
turn around
in the dark
so…so…so…LA
The New Yorker called the infamous and much adored Los Angeles author, poet and journalist Charles Bukowski, the captain of a low-life odyssey. Bukowski himself described his poetry as coming out like hot turds the morning after a good beer drunk. Hence the lyric, Bukowski on a bend. Raymond Chandler, in contrast, was a superb writer of detective fiction. His many books were turned into memorable Hollywood movies, including Farewell, My Lovely; The Big Sleep; and The Long Goodbye.
Cal Arts, an abbreviation for the California Institute of the Arts, is LA’s hotshot training institute for artists. Faded stars are ubiquitous in LA, and Star Trek was a cherished 1960s Hollywood television series. Mr. Spock, originally played by Leonard Nimoy, was one of its stars.
The incredibly talented and much adored musician Ray Charles lived in Los Angeles, and billon dollar parking lots are meant to symbolize Hollywood’s penchant for hyperbole. Narcotic officers have also been a known entity in LA since the 1960s, and they were often easy to spot. The false hippie wearing a wig and fake mustache, for example. Once spotted, the wise move was to turn around and scram.
Verses #7 and #8 simply repeat verses #1 and #2, hence the voiceover, after Chorus #6, you’ve heard these words before and ain’t that the truth. Which, come to think of it, is a fitting summation of the lyrics of this nostalgic song, now being celebrated in many shapes, colors and forms.
Credits: Paul Abramson (vocals), Sienna Bland-Abramson (back-up vocals), Marc Bobro (bass), Kevin Dippold (guitar, keyboard), Alfredo Ortiz (drums, percussion), Nils Van Otterloo (guitar), and Steve Stewart (guitar and farfisa organ). Lyricist: Paul Abramson. Songwriters: Marc Bobro and Steve Stewart. Paul du Gre mixed, mastered, and produced this song, and all live recordings were done in 2021 at Paul and Mike’s Studio in Burbank, California, with the exception of Steve Stewart’s guitar and organ which was recorded in 2021 at Stammer Studio in Santa Barbara, California.
The link to the song: Déjà vu LA
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