Hartman - Goodnight, L.A.: untold tales from inside classic rocks legendary recording studios

W HILE ROLLING DOWN THE STREET ON A CITY BUS IN P ORTLAND , Oregon, with my best friend back in early 1976, the idea suddenly dawned on us: Why not open a record store of our own? We had just turned sixteen and were completely obsessed with music, album rock in particular. If we werent playing our latest 33-RPM vinyl acquisitions, we were talking about them. And when it came to Saturdays (or most any day in the summer), all bets were off: we were headed to the nearest retailer to load up on more.

From Everybodys Records, owned by the great Tom Keenan, to Longhair Music, to Djangossometimes even across town at the always-mesmerizing Music Millennium (still open to this day and owned by Oregon music legend Terry Currier)Jim and I were constantly on the prowl for our latest LP fix. Taste-wise, while he went a little more toward the prog-rock end of the spectrum with bands such as Yes, Starcastle (remember them?), and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, we nevertheless met in the middle on a slew of fantastic acts, especially Chicago, Loggins and Messina (our first unchaperoned concert), Wings, Tower of Power, and too many others to even list.

Naming our joint venture the Lectric Grape Record Company after the punch line to a silly joke making the rounds at the time, we were off and running. We then got a business license and established a purchasing arrangement with soggy Portlands biggest record wholesaler, an outfit fittingly called Raintree Distributing. After setting up shop inside the student store of our high school, we had the enthusiasm of the faculty on our side and an instant clientele of over sixteen hundred record-hungry teens.

Though we sold our share of albums, we also tended to use up the profits pretty fast in order to buy more for ourselves, now at wholesale prices. But we learned a lot, had fun, and would have likely continued indefinitely had it not been for the nastiness of the owner of a new nearby record store that raised heck with the principal and subsequently the school board over us somehow being unfair competition (lack of overhead, I guess).

Unfortunately, instead of supporting two budding young entrepreneurs, the powers-that-be ultimately caved and sided with the storeowner, closing us down after about a year in existence. Naturally, the guy who complained ended up shuttering his shop around six months later. But by then it was too late; Jim and I were civilians once more, back to buying our albums at retail prices until the bands we loved eventually faded away.

Except that as life moved along, the rush of the music from that era never left either of us, providing inspiration in different ways. Jim went on to become an accomplished pianist among his other pursuits, including currently owning a thriving microbrewery. And I somehow ended up in the music business, putting in close to twenty years of being near the thing Ive always loved most.

So Goodnight, L.A. is an ode to the music of that long-ago, finite time. Yes, it is also a follow-up of sorts to my first book, The Wrecking Crew, in that it traces what really happened behind the scenes in the recording studios in Los Angeles during the seventies and eightiesuntil the combined forces of disco, punk, new wave, MTV, hair metal, rap, and finally grunge put an end to all the merriment, that is.

In terms of carrying the narrative, Goodnight, L.A.s two main characters are Keith Olsen, a music producer, and Waddy Wachtel, a studio and touring guitarist. They, as much or more than anyone, were at the center of it all in the L.A. studios during what was undoubtedly rocks apex. Both were also stars in their own right, even if much of the public never had any awareness. Perhaps youve heard of them; if not, just check out the liner notes and credits inside and/or on the backs of dozens of your old classic rock album covers. Youll be in for a surprise.

Though the hits have long since dried up, many if not most of the same album-rock artists from those days are still around, appearing nightly before thousands. Though I wish them well in their current endeavors, mostly I am unendingly glad to have been there the first time around, to have experienced the pleasure of their music as it was originally happening. And I am equally happy now to share the massive number of stories Ive culled from those very musicians and producers. If I could somehow beam myself back, I probably would. It really was that cool. But until the technology of time travel catches up with my dreams, permit me the joy of showing you within the pages of Goodnight, L.A. what it was all like.