"Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - BAY STREET"

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[The League Of Soul Crusaders, left to right: - Stephen T. McCarthy; Twinkie; Wally; Torch (driving); Napoleon; and Pooh.]
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This blog bit is dedicated to POOH, unquestionably my best olde-tyme drinking buddy and a guy whose company I really miss.

[. . . And Pooh, that's not all: May we never forget to fondly remember those fuzzy nights we've forgotten and blessedly can't recall! Alcohol-induced Blackouts: Just God's little way of saying, "I've punished you enough already. Receive My mercy."]

Here is an infamous line Pooh came up with back in our "Bay Street Daze":

"He's not our breed! He's not our breed!"

Pooh repeatedly said that about some rich kid - an acquaintance of a friend of ours - who showed up one night at one of our house parties. That was shortly before Pooh started the fight. :o)

"The Bay Street Daze" refers to the years 1980 through 1983, when Pooh, Torch, Twinkie, Cranium, my brother Napoleon and I, and a revolving cast of occasional "pinch hitters" were partying wildly day and night and headquarted in a house at 824 Bay Street in Santa Monica, California - a four minute drive from the beach. We formed what one might accurately describe as "a drinking gang" called The League Of Soul Crusaders.

Here's how we came by the name: Napoleon (Nappy) and a couple of the other gang members were fond of shouting out "Leadin' the league!" when they were being particularly rowdy and/or creative. (Yes, believe it or not, we weren't just drunk most of the time, but also very funny and very creative. We couldn't walk into a bar or party without half of the other patrons or partygoers gathered around us within 15 minutes time.)

So anyway, Nappy and some of the others liked to imagine that we were involved in an alcohol-related sporting event of some kind and that, like baseball Hall Of Famers of yore (think Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, etc.), we were "Leadin' the league!" That became a sort of rallying cry.

Then one year our unofficial leader, Torch, had a birthday and I presented him with a birthday card to which I had signed all the names of the great young rebels of the past that I could think of - James Dean, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Bruce Springsteen and many others. And to this whole grouping of talented punks I applied the name "The League Of Soul Crusaders".
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At that time, Springsteen was pretty much "The Boss" to us, and the "Soul Crusaders" aspect of the name I had borrowed from the lyrics of his song 'Night' in which he sings, "The rat trap's filled with soul crusaders / The circuit's lined and jammed with chromed invaders." Well, shortly after Torch's birthday party, we in the "Leadin' the league" drinking gang began referring to ourselves as The League Of Soul Crusaders.

Hell, we'd drink almost anything, you name it - NyQuil, Rubbing Alcohol, Lighter Fluid, Brut Cologne, Coppertone, Bain de Soleil ("for the San Tropez glow"). If it might induce a high, we'd give 'er a try!

Some years after we had matured a little bit and sort of grew up (Aww! Don't say that!!), Pooh encapsulated our drinking habits in a short, funny, and perfect three-line poem:

We drank.
We drank a lot.
We drank more than we did not.

Now that's what Pooh said. Below is something that someone once said to Pooh. He'd been 86ed in '86 from the Bucket Of Blood Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, the night before. I wasn't there - I was lying on a motel bed with the worst hangover of my drinking career. The next day, Pooh and I entered the Bucket Of Blood Saloon together, the bartender took one look at him and said:

"I remember you from last night."

Over time, the Bay Street Daze of The League Of Soul Crusaders inspired me to write two poems and one book. Below is the shortest of the poems, written on May 20, 1983. It's not good but it's accurate and it was read at Pooh's (first) wedding:

THE LEAGUE OF SOUL CRUSADERS

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Last night there was a birthday party

The League Of Soul Crusaders met

And these boys make commotion

Excitement

Altercations will arise

These boys know no fear

Almost

Living and dying every moment

Oh, and these boys drink beer

Whiskey and beer and

Beer

These boys bleed red

Twice each

But they rather enjoy it

And they don't accept East Coast

Bullshit

Poking fun at Brooklyn accents

These boys don't cry when they should

And laugh

When they shouldn't

They have talent

Dream of glory and

Imagine victory

Energetic boys, wild and innocent

Leading a league

That doesn't exist

These boys lack courage and confidence

Telling jokes and howling

To nowhere

Many years ago, I put together a tape cassette of songs that I figured would be the ideal musical soundtrack for an imaginary movie about the Bay Street Daze of The League Of Soul Crusaders. I titled the tape "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - BAY STREET". I mentioned this tape to my old friend Pooh recently and he asked me what was included on it. This blog bit is my way of answering his question. [Sorry 'bout the wait, Pooh!]

I have included links to YouTube videos for all songs where possible, and in the case of a few of the more obscure songs, I even included the lyrics. [I will be interjecting in brackets some relevant comments here and there in red text.]

And now take a musical trip with me in the Waybac Machine to the early 1980s and party with The League Of Soul Crusaders when they were Wild and Innocent and didn't have a grey hair to speak of :
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[Jolly Jack's bar - a second home to The League Of Soul Crusaders, 1980-1983.]

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SIDE A:

1: THE LEAGUE OF SOUL CRUSADERS - by Twinkie

[Twinkie was a singer and this is a song he wrote and recorded after our partying ways had come to an end. My computer skills being next to nil, sadly, I know of no way to include an audio clip. And it's too bad because I think it's an excellent song that truly had Top-40 potential and which includes a Rock guitar solo that is so quirky and yet so melodic that I number it amongst my all-time favorites.]

Ritual of the summer

Obligation passed on from generation to generation

He's got a mission - He don't know it

He's on a mission - He won't show it
He's headed right into the arms of his savior, yes he is

[Chorus:]

He's living in the League of the Soul Crusader

Livin' in the League of the Soul Crusader, once again

Livin' in the League of the Soul Crusader

Livin' in the League of the Soul Crusader - Soul Crusader

Plyin' his magic - But is it what he's a-lookin' for?

Losin' would be tragic, yeah!-yeah! - Would it even the score?

He's on a mission - He's got a vision

And he don't know it!

[Chorus]

Real joy's when you follow your passion

I said, real joy's when you follow your passion!

A boy has a dream of being in the circus

But isn't that a shame? - You've got to be a man

Whoa-ohh - Waww!

[Great Guitar Solo!]

Tonight's the night!

Tonight's the night, we're gonna jump into the sea, yeah!-yeah!

You and me

We're gonna ride the blue sky, we're gonna try to touch the moon!

You and me

We're gonna jump into the sea!

[Chorus]

2: 93-KHJ Los Angeles, Beach and Traffic Reports

[Here, I placed some beach and traffic reports that I happened to have taped from a major AM radio station broadcasting in Los Angeles. Mention was made of the new Agatha Christie movie "Ordeal By Innocence" then playing in the theatres. So, depending upon whether that movie was released in 1984 or '85 (I've seen both years noted on the Internet), that's what year these radio broadcasts went out over the airwaves in Southern California and were captured by my tape recorder. Below are a few excerpts from the reports.]

"93 KHJ - We are L.A.'s greatest cruising station ... Coming up, Diana Ross And The Supremes. ... It is 12:50, Jay Gardner riding along with you on a beautiful day - out at the beaches? Ohhh! Heavenly! Heavenly! Air temp is about, oh, around mid-seventies, and the water temp is about 65 to 70 depending on which beach you go to. Just BEAUTIFUL! ... Freeway reports ... Westbound Santa Monica Freeway past the San Diego Freeway, disabled in the center divider area. That's Westbound Santa Monica Freeway past the San Diego Freeway."

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[Then came another beach report from likely a different day. With the Surfaris song "Wipe Out" playing in the background, a lifeguard named John reported from Santa Monica Beach:]

"Sunny skies - visibility about ten miles - air temp 73; water temp is 68."

3: SUMMER - by War

4: A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME - from the Disneyland

(E-Ticket) Ride

[This is a song we often sang, but changing the lyric to: "Yo!-Ho! Yo!-Ho! It's a PARTY life for me!"]

5: THE PIANO HAS BEEN DRINKING (NOT ME) - by Tom Waits

6: ADAM-12 - Television show theme song

7: HELLZAPOPPIN' - by Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong[Click on the title, then scroll down and click the linkythang to hear the song. It might be that no song lyrics capture the Bay Street Daze better'n these.]

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Hold your hats...the roof is 'bout to tumble in
Holy cats...the walls and floors are crumblin'
Hellzapoppin'...Hellzapoppin'...Hellzapoppin'
The whole gang's whoopin' up the whoop-de-doo

Me-oh-my...it's gonna be uproarious
We'll fly high...tonight we'll be notorious
Hellzapoppin'...Hellzapoppin'...Hellzapoppin'
And you're invited to the party too

Better look out...ain't no cook-out
We're playin' this one by ear
We threw the book out!

It's a bash...the signs are unmistakable
What a smash...we're breakin' all that's breakable
There's no stoppin'...Hellzapoppin'...why not drop in
We won't stop until the night is through

We won't tire...we'll fly higher
We'll be hotter by far
Than a four-alarm fire

Raise your glass...the party will be riotous
What a gas...the cops will never quiet us!
There's no stoppin'...Hellzapoppin'...Hellzapoppin'
We'll be Hellzapoppin' till the night... is... through!

8: WANG DANG DOODLE - by Howlin' Wolf

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Tell Automatic Slim , tell Razor-Totin' Jim
Tell Butcher Knife-Totin' Annie, tell Fast-Talking Fanny
A-we gonna pitch a ball, a-down to that union hall
We gonna romp and tromp till midnight
We gonna fuss and fight till daylight
We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long
All night long, All night long, All night long

Tell Kudu-Crawlin' Red, tell Abyssinian Ned
Tell ol' Pistol Pete, everybody gonna meet
Tonight we need no rest, we really gonna throw a mess
We gonna break out all the windows, we gonna kick down all the doors
We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long
All night long, All night long, All night long

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Tell Fats and Washboard Sam, that everybody going to jam
Tell Shaky and Boxcar Joe, we got sawdust on the floor
Tell Peg and Caroline Dye, we gonna have a time
When the fish scent fill the air, there'll be snuff juice everywhere
We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long
All night long, All night long, All night long

9: BADLANDS - by Bruce Springsteen

[If I were going to alter this tape, one change I believe I'd make is to save Twinkie's song 'The League Of Soul Crusaders' and place it last, as the grand finale. And I think perhaps I would move 'Badlands' up to have it function as the opening cut of this imaginary movie soundtrack.]

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10: Song samples from THE PIANO HAS BEEN DRINKING by Tom Waits

[Here, I just "sampled" some lyrics from the Tom Waits song heard earlier at #5. You won't understand why I selected these particular lyrics, but the League Members, the Soul Crusaders, they'd know why - believe me - they'd know why. One word: Zucky's!]

"And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter - and she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her - and she hates you - and she hates you - and she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served - can't get served - can't get served without her.".
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[Backside of The League, left to right: Torch (driving); Pooh; Napoleon (in a Bruce Springsteen Los Angeles concert T-Shirt); Stephen T. McCarthy; and Wally. Twinkie scarcely visible. Some of the bumper stickers read: "Crush All!"; "I'd Rather Be Killing Communists"; and "You Gotta Have Art". The car is a 1964 Cadillac named "Tiburon" - Spanish for "Shark".]

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SIDE B:

[Side B begins with "The Hangover Waltz", known to the rest of the world as Side 2 of The Beatles' "White Album". We Soul Crusaders partied to a lot of different music although Bruce Springsteen reigned supreme. At that point in a night when the "Born To Run" LP got put on the stereo, we were in high gear.

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However, on the mornings after the nights before, when we would all wake with hangovers, there was one album and one album only that we would begin the new day with and which would get us started toward the next hangover, and that was The Beatles' "White Album". And not just any of that double-album's four sides - it HAD to be Side Two. And as the needle tracked the songs we would become more and more energetic, and invariably by the time we got to 'Rocky Raccoon' the hair of the dog had revived us and now we were dancing and prancing and romping and tromping around the living room in a frantic activity we called "The Hangover Waltz".

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I did not include on this "soundtrack" the last two songs on Side Two of The Beatles' White Album, "I Will" and "Julia", because by the time those songs were playing we were usually already heading out the door to get breakfast at one of several "Breakfast Club" destinations.]

1: MARTHA MY DEAR - ibid.

2: I'M SO TIRED - ibid.

3: PIGGIES - ibid

4: ROCKY RACCOON - ibid.

[One of YouTube's very best videos! I love this one!]

5: DON'T PASS ME BY - ibid.

6: WHY DON'T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD? - ibid.

7: THE BACK ROOM - by Van Morrison[I have 3 different associations for this song: "The Back Room" of Seamus Liquor Store in Venice where Pooh worked for the liquor store owner, Seamus, who also happened to be Pooh's Dad. "The Back Room" behind the Bay Street house, where Pooh would sometimes "sleep it off" and where Mickie, our truly insane dog, once ate Pooh's eyeglasses while he was passed out. (Nappy referred to Mickie as "Part Shepherd, part Keeshond, and part Pain In The Ass".)

And this song also formed an essential part of the Soundtrack for a major 1986 road trip that Pooh and I took together. I used to give names to all of my road trips, and that particular trip was called "The Show No Emotion In A Big Way Tour", which pretty much sez it all!]

8: ADAM-12 - Television show theme song

[OK, you're wondering why the Adam-12 theme song has made a second appearance. Our Bay Street house was well known by the Santa Monica Police Department. They were constantly being called to pay us a 415-visit. In California Penal Code/Police Terminology, the number 415 stands for "Disturbing The Peace" (remember that, you'll need it later). In fact, I learned from an old friend of mine who happened to be a Santa Monica Police Officer at the time, that at the police station there was a map of the city with stick pins inserted into all the regular trouble spots. Well, you guessed it: there was a stick pin in the map at 824 Bay Street.

You see, they were getting called to try to quiet our loud parties so often, and there were so many people coming and going to party with us on such a regular basis that the police were convinced we were dealing drugs out of the house and they often had plain-clothes cops conducting stakeouts of our house from the dry cleaner's parking lot nearby. Sometimes we'd say hello to them as we walked by their unmarked car on our way to our favorite liquor store (Lucky Liquor).

In truth, not only were we not dealing drugs from the house but there was a standing rule that no drugs were even allowed in the house. Which is not to say that rule didn't get broken a few times. I'm not going be naming names of the transgressors, but Pooh and Twinkie know who they were.

Our all-time 415 response record was the night 8 cop cars were sent to the house. The whole street was bathed in a red glow and there were squad cars from one end of the street to the other. What was it about? Aww, nothing really. It's just that Nappy learned some guy had grabbed our Sister in an inappropriate place earlier that night at a dance club called The Music Machine, and he made a scene about it. It was just another night.

Which reminds me of the time that some friend-of-a-friend brought his girlfriend to 824 and was partying with us. When I later heard that he had gotten into an argument with his girlfriend and had hit her, I went looking for the guy and tracked him down in the kitchen. We were rowdy as hell, but there was also a code one had to live by. And any female who had the courage and enough faith in us to party with us at 824 (and there were a few), she had ironclad protection under our roof.

So I told this guy that he had to leave. He protested, and when I grabbed the beer bottle he was holding, to remove it from his hand, he made the mistake of yanking it back. Napoleon happened to see that and just went absolutely GONZO! (Nappy was The League's 5'6" "Enforcer". Hence the nickname. Think "Joe Pesci" only 100 times tougher!) Well, with about six guys trying to hold Nappy back, this guy literally - literally! - went crawling out of our house through the back kitchen door, and was very happy to be doing so!

Then this "friend-of-a-friend" went to his car parked in front of the house and called the police from his automobile phone to complain about being assaulted. This was before cell phones, of course, and he evidently had a little money, from dealing drugs I suspect. The cops arrived and in the process of questioning him, discovered cocaine in his car and hauled his ass off to jail. The cops never even knocked on our front door. They must have figured he'd been assaulted for good reason. Ha!-Ha! Man, do I ever have some great stories from The Bay Street Daze!]

9: MISCELLAENOUS LYRIC SAMPLES

(Warren Zevon from the song 'Join Me In L.A.' and the song from the Disneyland ride Pirates Of The Caribbean.)

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"Well they say this place is evil, but that ain't why I stay. 'Cause I found something that'll never be nothing, and I found it in L.A. -- Yo!-Ho! It's a pirate's life for me. We pillage and plunder, we rifle and loot. Drink up me hearties, yo ho! We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. Drink up me hearties, yo ho! ... We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do-well cads, Drink up me hearties, yo ho! Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads, Drink up me hearties, yo ho. Yo!-Ho!, Yo!-Ho! A pirate's life for me."

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10: FRIENDS - by The Beach Boys

We've been friends now for so many years
We've been together through the good times and the tears
Turned each other on to the good things that life has to give

We drift apart for a little bit of a spell
One night I get a call and I know that you're well
And days I was down you would help me get out of my hole
Ohhhhhhhh . . .

Let's be friends - Let's be friends - Let's be friends

You told me when my girl was untrue
I loaned you money when the funds weren't too cool
I talked your folks out of making you cut off your hair

We've been friends now for so many years
We've been together through the good times and the tears

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11: SEALED WITH A KISS - by Brian Hyland

[Why is such a "romantic" song on this soundtrack? Well, back in those Daze, we frequented a few different dance clubs, you know, trying to score chicks and usually just scoring another hangover to add to our collection. But the one dance club we went to most often - and quite often at that - was called The Music Machine, located at 12220 Pico Blvd. in West Los Angeles.

This place was pretty large, attracted a good crowd, had two bars and seemed more down-to-earth, without the usual snooty, stuck-up glam people one might expect to find in most L.A. dance clubs. For quite awhile a house band there called The Gumbys played current covers but also a lot of old Rock 'N' Roll songs that had a good beat and you could dance to. 'Sealed With A Kiss' was the song they closed with every night, and to this day, I can't hear that tune without being mentally transported back to The Music Machine.

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Incidentally, it was just outside The Music Machine one night where our Mr. Johnson acquired his classic nickname "Twinkie". The story is funny as hell, but this blog bit's already too long.

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It also happens that living so near to the beach, Summer was an extra special time of year for The League Of Soul Crusaders. Cranium actually had a job monitoring the beach parking lots, and we'd often spend weekends at the beach and sometimes drive down there in Tiburon just to drink a few beers and watch the Sun set. So, there's also a bittersweetness to that line in 'Sealed With A Kiss', "I don't wanna say goodbye for the Summer."]

12: MISCELLANEOUS SONG SAMPLES

[The "Bay Street Soundtrack" closes with a whole slew of lyric samples from Disneyland's "Pirates", Warren Zevon's 'Desperados Under The Eaves', 'Sloop John B' by the Beach Boys, and audio clips from the Adam-12 theme song. It sounds like this] :

Yo!-Ho! It's a pirate's life for me. We pillage and plunder, we rifle and loot. Drink up me hearties, yo ho! - all the salty margaritas in Los Angeles, I'm gonna drink 'em up - drinkin' all night - drinkin' all night - drinkin' all night, got into a fight - One Adam-12, a 415 fight group - One Adam-12, a 415 fight group - Yo!-Ho! Yo!-Ho! Drink up me hearties, yo ho! - drinkin' all night - drinkin' all night - drinkin' all night, got into a fight - One Adam-12, a 415 fight group - a fight group - a fight group - a fight group - a fight group - fight group - a fight group - a fight group - a 415 fight group - One Adam-12, a 415 fight group - got into a fight - drink up me hearties, yo ho! - got into a fight - a 415 - a 415 - a 415 - a 415 fight group - Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads, drink up me hearties, yo ho! - One Adam-12, a 415 fight group with chains and knives! . . .

[And thats how "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - BAY STREET" concludes.]
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[The trunk of Cranium's 1959 Cadillac. From left to right: The RCA Victor dog, "Nipper"; Cranium's chair for working the Santa Monica Beach parking lots; Cranium's straw hat; and bottles of... Jack Daniel's whiskey, Gordon's gin, E & J brandy, Jack Daniel's whiskey, Popov vodka, Jack Daniel's whiskey, Gilbey's gin, and Gilbey's gin. -- Now we know why his name was "Nipper". If you ask me, that dog had a drinking problem!]

Overall, I think I managed to capture that personal era in song pretty well. If I were remaking the soundtrack today, as stated before, I would lead off with Springsteen's 'Badlands' and close with Twinkie's undiscovered Rock gem 'The League Of Soul Crusaders'. And I would correct an egregious omission: where the #%&! was 'Come On, Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners?! The Bay Street Daze coincided with the birth of MTV and we spent plenty of time sitting in front of the tube getting hammered to MTV music videos. At that time, 'Come On, Eileen' was in heavy rotation and few songs take me back to The Bay Street Daze more effectively than that weird but joyful tune does.

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And finally, I would add a kind of coda; a song to provide my perspective on those Daze from nearly 3 decades down the road: In the Summer of 1982, Eddie Money released an album titled "No Control" which spawned a couple of radio hits, one of them being 'Shakin'.' Interestingly, the goofy video for that song, which also got a lot of air time on MTV back then, was filmed at a popular little diner in Santa Monica called Rae's - a place where The League Of Soul Crusaders often conducted their Breakfast Club meetings. Click here to see Rae's in that old video: Shakin'. (Play it loud!)

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I liked the hits on "No Control" and bought the LP in '82. Played it plenty of times under the 824 Bay Street roof. However, when I switched to compact discs in 1988 and sold off all my old LPs, I didn't reacquire "No Control". That is until four and a half years ago . . .

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For some reason I recalled a song from that album titled 'My Friends, My Friends', and now with decades separating me from the height of my partying daze with my friends at Bay Street, that melancholy song took on great significance. I had no personal context in which to place 'My Friends, My Friends' back while I was still living that rowdy life with The League Of Soul Crusaders, but now I am able to fully relate to the sentiment being expressed by Eddie Money in that song. I own "No Control" on CD now and guess what! - As much as I still dig the rockers like 'Shakin'', 'Think I'm In Love', 'Take A Little Bit', and 'Keep My Motor Runnin'', my favorite song on the recording, by far, is Track #8, which I will place last, as a sad coda on my new, classic, updated, old-fashioned "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - BAY STREET":

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13: MY FRIENDS, MY FRIENDS - by Eddie Money

["I really do miss my friends."]

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With several major changes soon to be imposed on my life, and at the age of 51 and feeling like this go 'round is coming to a close, I don't mind telling you that video for 'My Friends, My Friends' nearly brought tears to my eyes.

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Well, thanks for reading, y'all.

Yak Later . . .

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy

(Known as the character "Moody" in the book 'The League Of Soul Crusaders', but known by Pooh as "Mr. Intense" back in The Bay Street Daze.)

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