1978, Bon Scott and the Heathen Girls, Atlanta, GA. — Image by © 2011 Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive. “Up in his room, Bon orders one of those fancy American cocktails, then dials California for a 20 minute call with an old girlfriend. Lead guitarist Angus Young, the ‘enfant terrible’ of AC/DC, arrives closely followed by Rose Whisperr and the Heathen Girls– four stunningly beautiful, heavily made-up girls who’s singing act at the local gay bars could loosely be called ‘bizarre chic’. The girls and the band had met at the backstage party that manager Michael Browning had thrown an hour or so before at the end of a typical raging AC/DC concert.”

Bon Scott, AC/DC’s legendary frontman, and perhaps the best ever in Rock & Roll, was bluntly and succinctly described by the (now deceased) famed photographer Rennie Ellis:

“His raspy voice, his tattoos, his broken tooth– punk-au-natural I guess one could call it….”

This was back when the badass Bon Scott was still walking the earth. Now, more than 33 years after his passing, the annals of Rock history list him as one of the most epic showmen and vocalists of all time. Rennie Ellis took many of the most striking shots of Bon Scott, capturing the legendary singer’s essence. Rennie also left behind personal recollections of what it was like being with Bon and the boys from AC/DC on tour in their early days, along with quotes from the band in 1978 on how they saw themselves and their music’s impact on the world. It’s really amazing stuff for any hardcore AC/DC fan out there. The mystery around Bon’s passing still hangs over our heads, no thanks to the shady accounts of his drinking partner that night, Alistair Kinnear, re-examined by Classic Rock magazine again this year.

Bon Scott the badass frontman for AC/DC, Moorabbin Town Hall, Melbourne ca. 1974 — Image by © 2011 Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive. “‘I guess I had always had the idea of being rich and having a lifestyle to which I was suited,’ says Bon Scott as he eases himself into the huge chauffeur-driven limousine that will drive him…”

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Bon Scott’s adoring female fans, Moorabbin Town Hall, Melbourne ca. 1974 — Image by © 2011 Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive

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Bon Scott & Angus Young, Atlanta, Georgia 1978 — Image by © 2011 Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive. “‘In England,’ says Angus, ‘we were for a while like the ultimate cult band. We were the only band selling records, and I think we still are, on the sheer fact of live performances.’ Bon adds, ‘See there’s a road band, and there’s a radio band. And they’re two different worlds. A radio band very rarely becomes a road band.’”

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Bon Scott & Angus Young, Atlanta, Georgia 1978 — Image by © 2011 Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive. “We’re a road band. In Europe we never stopped workin’, and we were pullin’ crowds and fillin’ halls. And we built up a following and sold lots of albums. In Germany at one time we had three albums happening. In the charts, all in the top twenty. We had an album in the top twenty in England and our last single sat in the top twenty for six weeks. But not one bit of airplay in England. Our music is just too ‘UP’ for English radio.’”

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Left to right: Bon Scott, an unidentified “cop,” Malcolm Young, Phil Rudd, Angus Young, AC/DC’s then-manager George Browning, and Mark Evans have a laugh and a drink during a March 1976 photo shoot for “Jailbreak.” — Photo by Philip Morris via

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More AC/DC & Bon Scott photos:

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Below is an excerpt of Joe Bonomo’s review of the book on AC/DC & Bon Scott, “Highway to Hell”–

Six years after Highway to Hell was released, Richard Ramirez was apprehended in Los Angeles. Between June of 1984 and August of the following year, Ramirez had murdered and raped sixteen people in the L.A. area, often leaving behind a sick signature of scrawled demonic ciphers, including a pentagram. Los Angeles police stated that Ramirez was a self-described fan of AC/DC, wore AC/DC t-shirts, and at the grisly scene of one of his violent sprees left behind an AC/DC cap. Allegedly, Ramirez’s favorite song was “Night Prowler,” the final track on Highway to Hell.

A haunting slow-blues, the six-and-a-half minute “Night Prowler” is remarkable for a number of reasons, not least of which is the controlled, vivid band performance in which Angus reaches deep into his love of blues-styled playing and offers affecting, evocative playing. An eerie crawl in 6/8 with the guitars tuned a half-step down, the closer colors in an unsettling way what comes before it. The tune begins with a sharp intake of breath, three chords that outline the music’s dark terrain, and then a tumble into the band performance held aloft by a long, sustained note by Angus that nearly perishes on the strings. Before Bon begins singing, the mood has been established: foreboding, fearful, and dark. Ten years earlier to the month (and only a few miles away) the Rolling Stones had recorded “Midnight Rambler,” a slow-blues similar to “Night Prowler” in its menace and lurch. Some see the Stones’ classic as an influence on Bon and the Young brothers; both songs begin and end in the source material of the blues, Malcolm and Angus’ first love. “Anyone can play a blues tune,” Angus noted to Vic Garbarini, “but you have to be able to play it well to make it come alive. And the secret to that is the intensity and the feeling you put into it.” He adds, “For me, the blues has always been the foundation to build on.”

One of the few songs by other artists that AC/DC would cover was Big Joe Williams’ standard “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” issued as the first song on their debut album in 1975. The guys likely dug Big Joe’s biography: he was a belligerent, itinerant bluesman who spent his formative years in the Delta as a walking musician who played work camps, jukes, store fronts, and streets and alleys from the South through the Midwest. Williams was a hard-working, highly unique and ramshackle kind of player who favored a funky nine-string guitar and a jerry-rigged, homemade amp. The brash and confident punks in AC/DC certainly favored what historian Robert Santelli describes as Williams’ “fiercely independent blues spirit.” The chugging “Baby, Please Don’t Go” became a favorite for Sixties and Seventies rock & roll bands to cover, extend, make their own. Williams’ 1935 version is acoustic mania; critic Bill Janovitz notes that “the most likely link between the Williams recordings and all the rock covers that came in the 1960’s and 1970’s would be the Muddy Waters 1953 Chess side, which retains the same swinging phrasing as the Williams takes, but the session musicians beef it up with a steady driving rhythm section, electrified instruments, and Little Walter Jacobs wailing on blues harp.”

AC/DC loved it. Their take on Muddy’s take of Big Joe’s lament was immortalized in a version broadcast on ABC’s (Australian) Countdown in April of 1975. The band seems to be having a blast with the galloping number, Angus and Malcolm running up and down their frets with a delinquent’s glee, but the kicker — of course — is Bon: he comes onstage dressed like a demented Pippi Longstocking, complete with a short skirt, blonde pig-tails, dark lipstick, and blue eye-shadow. During the solo breakdown, he stands next to Angus and theatrically lights a cigarette, and Pippi’s knee-sock innocent turns into the whore dear to Bon’s heart. Watch Rudd in the video: he can’t keep from laughing at the spectacle.

The blues in “Night Prowler” is slower, sexier, much more sinister than Big Joe’s, and no less indebted to the tradition within which the band has always worked. (I would have loved to have heard John Lee Hooker moan and turn it inside-out.) The tale of a shadowy stalking, though packed with narrative details, wouldn’t have won Bon a Pulitzer. The images in the first verse are hoary, well worn: the full moon; the clock striking midnight; the dog barking in the distance; a rat running down the alley. But Bon’s howling delivery — fully committed, and trusting the time-honored appeal of a dark night’s eeriness — sends tremors throughout the song. Because he believes this stuff, now so do we. The imagery in the second verse is more intimate; we’re in the girl’s bedroom now where she’s preoccupied and scared to turn off the light, fearing noises outside the window and shadows on the blind. Anticipating the second chorus, the verse ends with the singer slipping into her room as she lies nude, as if on a tomb. What’s going on here? Autobiography, or a spec script for a slasher movie? A little of both, likely, given Bon’s personal history and juicy imagination. He sings in the end that he’ll make a mess of her, and I always disliked the line; it adds explicit violence to a scenario that at the fork of fantasy and reality could’ve gone either way. Bon felt that it added to the mise-en-scène, I guess, or he was honestly owning up to hostile tendencies inside himself. Most likely, he was giving his listeners vicarious thrills on the dark side, what they wanted all along.

I didn’t want it. I hardly listened to “Night Prowler” after I bought the album, though I liked the slow burn of the band’s playing and how Angus’ soloing added a voice to the song. The song scared me a little, and I resented having to like a song that I disliked because it’s on a great rock & roll album. Richard Ramirez admitted to loving “Night Prowler” to the point of heinous identification, in part prompting L.A. media to dub him the “Night Stalker,” a nickname that will last in perpetuity. My friends and I rolled our eyes when we heard Ramirez’s story: another nut job trying to use rock & roll as an excuse, as a defense. I remembered years earlier watching The Dukes of Hazzard on television and marveling at the fifty-foot jumps that Bo and Luke would make in the General Lee in some hilly Georgian county. The moment that I belted myself into a Chevy Chevette in the high school parking lot for my first driver’s-ed lesson, I intuited Damn, this thing weighs a ton, and the disconnect between fantasy and actual life was made pretty clear. Ramirez didn’t or couldn’t make such a distinction, and because of that, the closing song on Highway to Hell will be forever linked to a homicidal maniac who tragically took sixteen innocent lives in brutal ways.

When news of Ramirez’s comments made its way into the insular AC/DC camp, the band recoiled, claiming that Ramirez wildly misunderstood the song: it’s just about a horny guy sneaking into his girlfriend’s bedroom at night, innocent, hormonal, high school stuff. Yet Bon Scott’s more treacherous imagery pushes the song into regrettably mean places. I’m not sure that the band can have it both ways.

A typically winsome gift from Bon himself ultimately rescues “Night Prowler.” In the closing moments, as the chords wane, Bon utters under his breath a weird, nasal phrase that I couldn’t figure out at the time. (What is that, some bizarre Aussie mantra?) Eventually I learned that he’d said, “Shazbot, Na-Nu, Na-Nu.” As AC/DC were recording in the Spring of 1979, Mork and Mindy was ranked third in American television Nielson ratings; Robin Williams’ interstellar character from the planet Ork was invading living rooms and rec rooms at a happy rate, and Bon was watching. “Na-Nu, “Na-Nu” was an Orkan greeting; “Shazbot” an Orkan curse. Maybe that’s what appealed to Bon: at the end of the band’s best album he gets to say hello and swear at the same time, channeling his inner alien. It’s testament to the band’s sense of humor that they kept the aside on the album. It’s a perfect way to send up the danger and fear lingering after “Night Prowler.”

The album ends with a joke, the final words from by Bon Scott on an AC/DC album. Shit! Hello! Perfectly weird.’

Bon Scott: The Mysterious Death of AC/DC’s Legendary Frontman by Classic Rock

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CHECK OUT: The Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive

So there’s this little festival called Chopped put on each year in Country Victoria – Australia. The guys were kind enough to send TSY a note as they thought we would appreciate the madness that they create down under… Enjoy!

Drag racing where it started– in the dirt!

A throwback in time to a 1950s – ’60s Hop Up Carnival! Hundreds of cars and bikes rattled by the sounds of 25+ bands belting the roots of rock music to thousands of Rockers, Petrol Heads, Hipsters & Greasers! This is Chopped the only festival of its type it in the world!

Now in it’s 6th year, Chopped has a massive following of loyal fans from across the globe and all over Australia. They roll in to be part of the aesthetic, the action of Chopped, the cool, the style, they are living the moment, they come to feel life pumping through the blood in their veins. From the dabblers to the core of the Custom Community, Motor Heads, Music Lovers, Style Hipsters, and the just plain curious. They all want to be a part of the custom lifestyle boom surrounding the cars, bikes, music, and madness.

Head to head two-lane Dirt Drags with Pre-1965 style Hot Rods, Customs, Bobbers, & Choppers. Full throttle Vintage Speedway sliding and colliding around the circuit. 25+ bands from Rockabilly, Garage, & Rock through to Blues, Country, Swamp, & Surf all in the setting of the ‘Tiki Palace’ bar– a 1960s American-infused island lifestyle of tiki, palms and bamboo, fueled by music, cocktails and an Easter Island Head blowing ifs flame into the darkness of the sky!

One and a half hours north of Melbourne in Central Victoria… It’s 3 days of sensory overload!

https://vimeo.com/76753435

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Chopped website

Chopped 2013 images by crcooperphotography

Young Dick Dale, Surf Guitar God, looking pretty badass on his 1941 Harley-Davidson Flathead– he even machined the handlebar risers himself.

“According to Dick Dale, he and his cousin were riding motorcycles to the beach on the Balboa Peninsula in southern California, where Dale befriended the local surfers. There he also began playing with a band at a club called the Rinky Dink. Another guitar player showed him how to make certain adjustments to the pickup settings on his Stratocaster guitar to create different sounds, and that sound, aided by other sonic developments and featuring Dale’s staccato attack, became his trademark. Although he was still playing country music, he moved closer to the beach and began surfing during the day and playing music at night, adding rock ‘n’ roll to his repertoire.” via

“I do not play to musicians. I play to the people. I’ve never taken a lesson in my life, and I can play every instrument there is. I play by ear, but I can fool anybody into thinking I went to some conservatory of music. I create a nonchemical river of sound, and I never know what I’m playing next or how I’m going to play it. I just start ripping and take what I feel from the audience–and it comes. There’s no bullshit. If you’re not sweating, you’re stealing people’s money. That’s why people feel what I do. In all these years, I’ve never had one person walk out of a show and say, ‘Dick Dale’s a fake,’ or, ‘He sucks.’ One and one is two with Dick Dale. It’s not three, like these politicians say. The kids who’ve been following me around on this tour call my music `Dick Rock,’ and they call themselves `Dickheads.’ And the reason they do that is because music is an attitude–and man, my whole life has been an attitude, too.” –Dick Dale via

Dick Dale talks about the birth and evolution of his iconic, signature guitar sound below:

DICK DALE: KING OF SURF ROCK GUITAR, EVOLVER OF VOLUME, SAYER OF MANY WORDS | vice.com

“I loved country music, and I always wanted to be a cowboy singer. So I followed people like Hank Williams and things like that. And in fact I even tutored Chet Williams’ daughter on how to be on stage. I’ve gotten to perform in the same building at the same time as people like Johnny Cash, Tex Ritter, Gene Autry, and Lefty Frizzell. I just did a memorandum song for Joe Maphis, who’s the father of the double-neck guitar. And at the same time it was Larry Collins and his sister Laurie, and I was sweet on Laurie at the time. And Larry, he was just a little kid, but could he play the double-neck guitar, because he was tutored by Joe Maphis. Larry was the one who taught me my first guitar lick. So anyway I did a dedication song they asked me to do on a thing called ‘Joe Maphis: Joe Maphis’ [?], it was a dedication to him, on his album that they did, they took all his old songs, he’s been passed on now. So I did that. And I just did one for Glen Campbell, because he used to play the backup guitars for me when I recorded with Capitol Records. He was one of the most incredible guitarists that could play anything on a guitar, and stuff like that.

I came to California in 1954. Drums were my first instrument. I used to listen to the big band albums that my Dad would bring home, and that’s what got me to play the trumpet, like Harry James, Louis Armstrong, and stuff like that. And I’ve always been self taught. I used to bang on my mother’s flour pans as a drum listening to Gene Krupa, cans of sugar and stuff like that in the Depression days. My father would say, ‘Stop scratching your mother’s cans!’ That’s where I got all my rhythm, and being left-handed. So when I first got my first instrument, I was reading in a Superman comic magazine. It said sell X number of jars of our Noxzema Skin Cream and we’ll send you this ukulele. Well I’d be out there in the snow banging on doors at night, ‘Buy my Noxzema Skin Cream.’ I finally got the ukulele and it was made out of pressed cardboard or something, I was so disillusioned I smashed it in a trash can. Then I went in and took the Pepsi-Cola bottles and the Coke bottles in my little red wagon, went down and got six dollars. And I went to the music store and I bought my first six-dollar ukulele. It was plastic and it had screws going into the tuning pegs so they would stay in it. But the book didn’t tell me – ‘turn it the other way stupid, you’re left handed.’ I was holding it to strum with my left hand ’cause all the rhythm was there.

I used to try to figure it out and tape my fingers to the strings and stuff like that when I’d go to sleep at night, hoping that they’d stay there. So I’d play upside-down backwards. And that’s not, like Jimi Hendrix, I found Jimi when he was playing bass for Little Richard in a bar in Pasadena to 30 people. He wasn’t Jimi Hendrix then. But then he’d come and ask me, how I did what I was doing. He said, ‘How do you get that slide?’ I showed him all the slides and everything like that. In fact, Buddy Miles (Hendrix’s drummer) when he would open for me, used to stand on stage and say, ‘You know, there wasn’t a day didn’t go by that Jimi didn’t say he got his best shit from Dale.’ The thing is, Jimi played—because he was a left-hander, and he couldn’t play like I was playing because I was playing upside down backwards, so we set him up, got him a left-handed neck, where the neck of the guitar was strung so that a left-handed player could play it, the way you’d string your strings. He was a true left-handed player playing on a left-handed neck. I wasn’t, I was a left-handed person playing upside-down backwards on a right-handed neck.

Leo Fender, who become like a father figure to me, died laughing when he gave me a Stratocaster. He said, “Here play this,” because I went to him and said, ‘My name is Dick Dale, I’m a surfer, I got no money, can you help me learn the guitar?’ He handed me the guitar and I held it upside-down backwards and he almost fell off the chair laughing. And he never laughed, he was like Einstein.

I wanted to make my guitar sound like Gene Krupa’s drums. I wanted a big fat sound, in fact I always tell my drummers that I want them to build to build on double-floor toms, because of that jungle sound. That’s where Gene Krupa got all his rhythms from, from Natives. He always played on the one, what we call the one. Musicians play on the one-and.

So it goes like this; tika-tika-taka-tika-taka-tika-taka-tika-ta, and you learn this—I’ve been in the martial arts all my life, and the routine, and in the Shaolin temples I’ve been with monks. So in the Shaolin temple they never allow you to touch the skin of a drum with your hands until you can mouth what you’re going to play. And if you go back in time at the first orchestral symphonic performance of symphonies, you will hear/see the maestro standing on his podium with the baton in his fingers, and wave the wand, and he’ll be keeping time going 1234-1234-1234-123, it goes all the way back to there.

Gene Krupa, he watched the natives when they would go either into their war dances or their celebration dances or anything, and they’d be holding their shafts, the spears, and they would always dance to the rhythm, going chickachicka-chackachicka-chickachickaBOOM, chickachicka-chackachicka-chickachickaBOOM, like that, and that was always on the one. So when I play my music, I play it that way, I play it to the grassroots people that don’t count on the one hand. That’s why all ages from 5 years old up to 105 can understand what I’m playing and they can feel what I’m playing when they’ve got in their head keeping time to my music.

I wanted my guitar to sound big and fat and thick. Well in those days, in the 50s, they didn’t have an electronic piece of equipment that makes the sound sound that way, and it’s called a transformer. And transformers only favored highs mids, or lows, never all three. And I wanted Leo to try to accomplish that. And every time he’d bring in a wall of speakers in the little office where we used sit together, they would sound nice and loud. But when I’d get them on stage, then I’d fry them, they’d catch on fire. The reason why is because when you’re pushing amperage to something that can’t handle them, it heats up the coil, it heats up the wires in the speaker, and they start frying the cloth on the speaker, the paper. I was in the Royal Albert Hall in London, where the queen goes, and performing, and my bass player was going, ‘Dick, you’re smoking the speakers,’ and I said, ‘Shut up, just keep playing, it’s their PA system.’

Leo Fender saw me blow over 50 of his amplifiers and he kept having to remake them. Then he stood in front of me in the middle of 4,000 people and he said to his number-two man, Freddie—Tavares from Hawaii, who played Hawaiian steel guitar for Harry Owens, who did all the beautiful Hawaiian songs, he was the number two man, he was the man who perfected the Telecaster. I’m the guy who perfected the Stratocaster and made changes with Leo and stuff like that. We’d sit down together in his living room and listen to Marty Robbins on the little old Jansen 10-inch speaker, but I blew every one of those speakers. So what happened was he said, now I know what Dick’s trying to tell me, and went back to the drawing board. And going from a 15-watt output transformer that didn’t give you that, it gave you loud enough for a living room but not in an auditorium, because in the auditorium the people’s bodies would suck up the sound, the fatness of the sound.

From there Leo created the first 85-watt output transformer, which peaked 100 watts. Now going from a 10-watt, 15-watt output transformer to an 85-watt output transformer that peaked at 100 watts, that’s like going from a little VW bug to a Testarossa. That was the first breakthrough, splitting the atom, of music and evolving volume that you’re talking about. Now in order to get that volume, we needed that transformer; I also used instead of 6-7-8-9-10-gauge strings, my strings were 16-18-20 unwound, and 39-49-60-gauge wound. Critics called them telephone wires. I even experimented with piano strings on my guitar, on my Stratocaster.

But we needed a speaker that could handle it. So we went to JBL. We told them we wanted a 15-inch D130. We wanted a speaker that was 15 inches and had around an 11-pound magnet on the back. I wanted an aluminum dust cover in the middle of the column so I could hear the click of the pick. They started laughing and they were saying, ‘What are you trying to do, put it on a tugboat?’ Leo said, ‘If you want my business, make it.’ And they did, and it was called the 15-inch JBL D130. Now we took that and built a three-foot high cabinet, two feet wide, 12 inches deep, with no portholes at all, just the speaker hole, and we packed it full of fiberglass. And then we went and plugged it in to the Showman—he called it a Showman amplifier, because he called me a showman because I was always jumping up on top of my speakers, and rocking back and forth while I played, and rocking the speaker back and forth, and I’d do all kinds of crazy things, I’d leap off the stage and slide on my knees on the floor as I was ending a song, and he said, “Man, you’re a showman.” I wanted it to be the cream because one night we ran out of amplifiers and he had to make one fast, and he found some cream tolex ones in the back room and he covered it, and he said, ‘Don’t let anybody see it because they’re going to want it because you’re playing on it. But it’s very impractical, they’ll stain it with coffee and they’ll stain it with cigarette butts and everything else.’ And I said ‘Oh but I love it I love it.’ And the next day he calls me in and he shows me his crew is making them with the cream tolex. So there, that was another breakthrough.

The next breakthrough was, I wanted it to be fatter. And also, not only the thicker the gauge string was a fatter sound, but the thicker the wood of the Stratocaster, that’s why I was considered the best rock-and-roll guitar player. Because the wood is thick, and if you could put strings on a telephone pole with a pickup, you’d have the fattest sound in the world, but you can’t hold a telephone pole. So we trimmed off the back sides of the Stratocaster and made the wood really thick, which gave it a real chunky fat sound. So the strings, the output transformer, and the solidity of the wood, and the speaker, that made the sound that Dick Dale is famous for.

Then I wanted to put another speaker in it. So he flipped out, went back to the drawing board, and he had to change the ohms down to 4 ohms. Originally, the speaker on the back said 16 ohms, but it’s not, it’s 8 ohms. So he made the first next-step up 4-ohm output transformer to match the twin speakers. This was a 100-watt output transformer peaking 180 watts, using tubes, for a fat sound. And that was called a Dick Dale transformer.

I still gave trouble to the speakers, the single-speaker cabinet, because it was twisting, and the reason why it was twisting was because when I was picking on my string like Gene Krupa plays sticks on his drum, I was doing that on my string, I’m playing drums. And it was confusing the speaker and it was twisting and jamming. When you would rub the speaker back and forth with your finger, you’re supposed to hear nothing. But when it jams you’d hear ekk-ekk-ekk [laughs]. So we went back to Lansing and told them to rubberize the outside ridge, so that it would flex easier, and it did the trick. We used the same trick for the high cabinet, and I just put a divider in the middle.” –Dick Dale via

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Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) remains one of my favorite teen / high school films of all time. It brilliantly captures the cultural touchstones of a generation, and the glory days of youth long gone by– before we were slaves to technology and all this social media bullshit.

A young Cameron Crowe, then a freelance writer for Rolling Stone magazine, went undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego, CA to write a book (of the same name), which he also adapted for the film. In Fast Times we get to witness a bevy of young Hollywood stars already in the making– Sean Penn (who totally stole the film, and birthed an army of Spicoli wannabes in high schools across the country), Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh. There are also early appearances by relative unknowns at the time who would go on to major stardom– Nicolas Cage, (then Nicolas Coppola), Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, and Anthony (Goose) Edwards. Fast Times’ soundtrack was also groundbreaking, featuring a quintessential blend ’70s & ’80s rock & roll artists, that to me, will forever be connected with the film. I mean, who can hear “Moving in Stereo” by The Cars without instantly thinking of that hot, hormone-raging pool scene? Epic.

Haters gonna hate, but eat this– In 2005, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. If you’re of this era it’s definitely a film that still resonates and makes you want to roll a fat one, throw on your Vans, hit the arcade, grab some tasty waves, and meet some babes.

First-time director Amy Heckerling said that for ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ she was seeking to make a comedy that was less structured than conventional ones, and more like ‘American Graffiti’ so that “if you woke up and found yourself living in the movie, you’d be happy. I wanted that kind of feel.” IMDB

Fast Times at Ridgemont High’s mall scenes were filmed at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, after it closed at 9:30pm. The two kids who Damone scalps the tickets to were under 18, and due to labor laws couldn’t film past certain hours, so they only had a 10-minute window to shoot those scenes. The original mall was later damaged by an earthquake in 1994, and in 1998 it was renovated and extensively re-designed by the architectural firm of Gensler for developer Douglas Emmett. Other than the parking structure, nothing recognizable from the 1980s era mall remains, the building having been converted from an enclosed, multi-story space to an open, mostly single-story mall. IMDB

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“What do you mean, better in bed? Either you do it or you don’t.” Stacy works at Perry’s Pizza. Jennifer Jason Leigh actually worked at Perry’s Pizza for a month after she got the role of Stacy Hamilton before filming began. Jodie Foster was considered to play Stacy, but was not interested  due to her commitment at Yale. Also, Brooke Shields, Diane Lane, and Ellen Barkin reportedly also turned down offers to play the role of Stacy. IMDB

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“Brad: ‘Hey, you guys had shirts on when you came in here.’ Spicoli: ‘Well, something must have happened to them.’ Brad: ‘You see that sign Spicoli?’ Spicoli and buds: ‘No Shirt, No Shoes, No Dice!’ Brad: Right. Learn it. Know it. Live it.’ Spicoli: ‘He’s the full hot orator.’” Eric Stoltz, Sean Penn, and Anthony Edwards in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’. During shooting, Sean Penn got so into character that he extinguished a cigarette in the palm of his hand in order to better understand Jeff Spicoli, which was all he answered to. In fact, the door on his dressing room was even labeled ‘Spicoli’ instead of Sean Penn. IMDB

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“Stacy: ‘When a guy has an orgasm, how much comes out?’ Linda: ‘A quart or so.’” Stacy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Linda (Phoebe Cates) in their famous cafeteria carrot scene for ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ filmed largely at Van Nuys High School in Van Nuys, California. The mascot of Ridgemont High is the Wolf, which is the same mascot as the real VNHS. Total filming lasted just five weeks. IMDB

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“Since when do you go bowling?” Nicolas Cage was originally considered for the role of Brad Hamilton, but after his audition the studio thought his performance was too dark and the role went instead to Judge Reinhold. Sean Penn was also originally asked to read for the part of Brad Hamilton, as well as Jeff Spicoli. In the scene where Brad is washing the Cruising Vessel, you can see he has a ‘Springsteen’ bumper sticker. Pamela Springsteen (Bruce’s sister), plays Dina (Brad’s girlfriend) in the film. Also in the Mi-T-Mart scene, Brad is wearing a Bruce Springsteen T-shirt. IMDB

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“‘Hello everybody! I’m Stu Nahan, and I’d like you to meet this young man. His name, Jeff Spicoli. And Jeff, congratulations to you. Things looked kind of rough out there today’. Spicoli: ‘Well, I’ll tell you Stu, I did battle some humongous waves! But you know, just like I told the guy on ABC, Danger is my business!’ Stu Nahan: ‘You know, a lot of people expected maybe Mark “Cutback” Davis or Bob “Jungle Death” Gerrard would take the honors this year’. Spicoli: ‘Those guys are fags!’” Sean Penn asked out Pamela Springsteen (yep, Bruce’s sister), who played Dina Brad’s girlfriend), on the set of ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ and she accepted. Sean Penn improvised constantly during his takes and tried to find ways to aggravate actor Ray Walston, who played Mr. Hand, even off camera. He also did everything in his power to get genuinely shocked reactions from the extras who played  classmates in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’. Eric Stoltz also auditioned for the role of surfer dude, Jeff Spicoli. IMDB

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Andy Rathbone was the student in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ that Cameron Crowe based the character Mark “Rat” Ratner on. He became famous in his own right for writing many of the “…for Dummies” help books series. IMDB

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“Damone: Hey, Charles, how you doin’, buddy? Car looks great. I mean really terrific. You’re really keeping it up wonderfully.’ Jefferson: “Don’t fuck with it.’” I would KILL for a ‘KILL LINCOLN’ t-shirt from ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’. Forrest Whitaker made his feature film debut in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’, alongside Nicolas Cage and Sean Penn.

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Justine Bateman was originally offered the role of Linda in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ and turned it down. Instead, she chose to star in a TV pilot for the TV series ‘Family Ties’ which ran for 7 years. Lucky for Phoebe Cates. IMDB

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“Hi Brad, you know how cute I always thought you were.” Thanks to ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’, there is an entire generation of men who can’t hear ‘Moving In Stereo’ by the Cars without thinking about Phoebe Cates’ tits. via

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“Jeez. Doesn’t anyone fucking knock any more?” For the famous ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ bathroom scene, Judge Reinhold brought a large dildo to work with, unbeknown to the rest of the cast. Phoebe Cates look of horror and disgust is very real. IMDB

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Nancy Wilson, guitarist for the rock band ‘Heart’ and  future wife of writer Cameron Crowe, has a cameo appearance as the hot woman in the car beside Brad’s, laughing at his pirate costume. IMDB

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There are numerous references to rock & roll bands throughout ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ (shirts worn by characters, posters on walls, Damone is a ticket scalper, etc.). Screenwriter Cameron Crowe was a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, and that is in his blood, and how he came to fame. IMDB

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“That was my skull! I’m so wasted!” In the tradition of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Reese’s Pieces, ‘Fast Times’ product-placed an obscure brand that went on to become famous: The checkerboard canvas decks Spicoli hammered himself with, Vans, became a popular national brand soon after ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ was released.

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I love the old lobby cards that the studios used to make from movie stills, here are a bunch from Fast Times, and a few bonus images:

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Fast Times at Ridgemont High on IMDB

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Whenever I hear ‘Crazy Train’ I’m immediately transported back to 8th grade Guitar class. One dude will forever be etched in my mind. Dave was 1/2 Japanese, all of about 5 ft tall, and probably weighed 80 lbs soaking wet, if that. His hair, alone worthy of open adoration, making up the bulk of his weight and height. This ‘Metal Mane’ was streaked, sprayed, and stood a good 6 inches above his head, cascading down to the middle of his back in perfectly teased strands. My 13 yr old brain could not fathom the ridiculous routine and expense this must have required. But damn if he didn’t more the rockstar part than 90% of the bands on the cover Cream and Hit Parader magazine. His bare arms were like sinewy, wire pipe cleaners. And I’d never seen jeans that tight in my life. Not even on a girl. No sir. I don’t know where the hell he found them, or how he breathed. The entire situation was delicately perched upon tiny black (or white) Capezio, soft-as-hell-leather lace-up dance shoes. Boom. Mind blown. Only a handful of dudes had the nuts to wear these. Dave’s look was definitely balls-out for West Phoenix. But nobody questioned him, because Dave was the reigning guitar badass. While the rest of us fumbled through the opening of ‘Stairway to Heaven’, Dave was staring at the ceiling tiles, biting his lip, soloing like the Segovia of Heavy Metal.

Dave even brought his own guitar to class. Lugged it around in a case thicker than him, covered in cool stickers. Rather that than play the nylon-strung acoustic beaters they had in class. I don’t remember what kind of acoustic it was, but the strings (always Dean Markley) were so light that you could hardly see them, let alone feel them. You had to lean in to hear a damn thing, but it was worth it. And the action was set so low that you could run scales faster than a hot knife through butter. But if you strummed it would buzz like crazy. No worries. No one was strumming shit. Everyone was shredding– with varying degrees of success. Dave was a Rock God in the making, and everyone at Maryvale High School seemed to sense it. Dave was into the hot, new Japanese Metal bands that no one else even heard of. And he spoke of Yngvie, Eddie, and Randy in hushed whispers like they were comrades. Knew all their solos and tricks, and could perform them on cue. Eruption, Spanish Fly, Dee, and of course, Crazy Train were all in his finely honed repertoire. We moved from Phoenix to Tempe that year, and I changed schools, so I don’t really know whatever became of Dave. But my fascination with the marvel and mystery of Randy Rhoads was firmly cemented. No head-banging hooligan. A sensitive, immensely talented man taken too soon.

Ozzy Osbourne & Randy Rhoads playing that epic polka dot Flying V! – photo by © Paul Natkin

“I never really got into Black Sabbath when I was in England. Right? And then Ozzy came out with this great first album, you know, it really was good. And we got to see them play after that, like almost every night. And so, Randy Rhoads, although being a wonderful guitar player, could not play Asteroids for shit. I beat him right across this country. From East coast, to West and back.

Randy Rhoads was like just, brilliant. You know, I mean of course he got better after he died. You know, because everybody does. Right? But uh, I loved Randy, yeah. He took risks. He wasn’t scared, you know. I mean, he knew his instrument, you know? So he’d just go for it. That’s what I used to like about him. And you could…like, Ozzy used to just throw him around, throw him up on his shoulders while he was playing. And he never missed a note.”

–Lemmy from Motorhead

Randy Rhoads pre-concert soundcheck –photo by John Livzey

“The very first time Randy Rhoads saw Van Halen, he took his girlfriend Jan with him. Jan told us that Randy was ‘devastated’ after the show. Here he was, the king of Burbank. Everyone was always telling him how great he was. Then he saw Eddie and it opened his eyes and he got a major reality check. It was healthy for him. He was inspired. He thought Eddie was great. He wanted to be great also. I know they met at least four times.

Quiet Riot and Van Halen played on the same bill at Glendale College in April 1977. Quiet Riot opened, Van Halen was the headliner. Randy once approached Eddie and asked him how he was able to keep his guitar in tune without a locking nut for his tremolo. Eddie refused to tell him and said it was his own secret. Randy couldn’t comprehend because he was a teacher at his core. He loved to help others and he was always willing to share anything he knew. He would teach anyone anything they wanted to learn. So, he was quite disappointed in Eddie’s treatment of him.”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

“Randy and his good friend Lori Hollen were in the parking lot behind the Whisky loading his gear into this car. Eddie and Dave (DLR) pulled up alongside of them in a white Mercedes diesel and began harassing him. Lori quickly put a stop to it and actually slapped Dave across his face. Quiet Riot’s drummer, Drew Forsyth, has said that the Eddie/Randy rivalry has been made up to be so much more than it was. He also said that Eddie used to come watch Randy play way more than Randy used to go see Eddie play. They were both great, and I’m sure there was an immense amount of mutual respect. Randy told journalist John Stix that he does a lot of Eddie’s licks live, and it kills him that he does that. But he added that it’s just flash, and that’s what the kids want to see. That’s what impresses them. He also said that it kills him because he believes in the importance of finding your own voice and style. He thought the worst thing a guitar player could do was copy someone else.

Finally, when Randy was home on break from the Ozzy tour, he decided to drive to his local music store to buy some classical albums. Randy said that when he walked into the record store, Eddie Van Halen was standing on line at the register purchasing the Diary of a Madman album. Imagine that scene. Can you imagine walking into a record store on any given day and seeing both Eddie and Randy in there at the same time?”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

“Randy was one in a billion. He didn’t try to be different. He was born different. I don’t think he dressed that way because his goal was to be different. He wore what he wanted to wear. He used to take his first girlfriend, Jan, with him when he shopped for shoes. He preferred the girl’s shoes, and he would have her try them on for him. Clearly, he was embarrassed to buy them for himself, and he knew he would get grief for wearing them. It didn’t matter to him. He was very committed to doing what he wanted to do. Sometimes it did get him into a lot of trouble, especially at school. He constantly had jocks wanting to beat him up. They called him names. It didn’t affect him. Randy may have been frail, but he was emotionally strong. It took more than names to rattle him. He just laughed at them.”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

“One of the things Ozzy loved about Randy Rhoads was that he was a teacher at his core. He used to sit with Ozzy and help him. Randy would find the right key for songs so that Ozzy would feel more comfortable and within his singing range. They worked out melodies together. Ozzy would hum ideas to Randy, and he would, in turn, convert those melodies into songs. ‘Goodbye to Romance’ was created this way. When Randy would noodle or test sounds, Ozzy would say, ‘What was that?’ And Randy would say, ‘What?’ Ozzy would say, ‘Play that again’ – and sure enough, songs were born that way as well. ‘Suicide Solution’ and ‘Diary of a Madman’ were born that way.”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

“I know Randy was a salvation for Ozzy. Ozzy was really down on his luck. He had just been thrown out of Sabbath. He was broke, constantly drunk, and basically living in squalor. Then, Randy Rhoads walked into his life. I am not so sure Ozzy was a salvation for Randy. I think Randy could take it or leave it. His arm had to be twisted to go to the audition, and when he was given the job, he didn’t want it. He didn’t want to hurt Quiet Riot and his friend Kevin DuBrow. Although they were frustrated and going nowhere, he was prepared to stick it out. He was not one to seek auditions, and I don’t think he would have quit had he never met Ozzy. So, I would have to conclude that Ozzy needed Randy way more than Randy needed Ozzy. This is evident at the end of Randy’s life. He informed the Osbournes he was quitting the band. Ozzy went crazy over this and begged Randy to stay. Randy had made up his mind and nothing was going to change it. Ozzy knew what he had. When they first got together in 1979, Ozzy would introduce Randy to people by saying, ‘This is Randy, my secret weapon.’ When they met producer Max Norman for the first time, Ozzy said to him, ‘Keep everything Randy records – don’t erase anything!’ Ozzy Osbourne is no dummy. He knew what he had.”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

“The band had a great relationship with Ozzy. From the beginning, they were managed by Sharon’s brother, David Arden. He managed the band well. He was very attentive to their needs. It was ultimately David’s decision to bring Randy to England. David tried to convince Ozzy to find a guitarist in London who was local in order to make things easier. Ozzy begged and pleaded and said Randy was the only one he wanted. David acquiesced and sent Randy a ticket. When the band began working, they were all very close. Ozzy used to say to them, ‘Here’s my hand, here’s my heart, this band will never part.’ They recorded the ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ album, and then they began a U.K. tour.”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

Randy Rhoads receiving the “Best New Talent” award from Guitar Player magazine with Ozzy and Sharon Arden (now Osbourne) proudly looking on, 1981.

“It was at this time that David had to resign because his daughter had been born prematurely and he was needed at home. This is when Sharon stepped in to replace him. She immediately got cozy with Ozzy and everything changed. When they revisited Ridge Farm to record the Diary of a Madman album, she became notorious for emptying everyone’s suitcases and throwing their personal belongings into the pond outside. Everyone who was there said the vibe changed when she arrived. Ozzy began divorce proceedings with his wife, Thelma, and succumbed to severe depression. He stopped attending writing and rehearsal sessions and drowned his sorrows in drugs and alcohol. The Diary album was nearly complete before the real problems began. It was during these recording sessions that the decision was made to fire Bob [Daisley] and Lee [Kerslake] in favor of younger, greener musicians who wouldn’t challenge authority. When Rudy [Sarzo] and Tommy [Aldridge] were brought in, the band was no longer called the ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ – it had now become an Ozzy Osbourne solo project, which is not what Randy signed up for. Randy expressed his displeasure with anyone who was willing to listen. Randy was no longer happy as a sideman. Add to that, Sharon placed Randy in a very uncomfortable position between herself and Ozzy, which she chronicles in her own book. This was about all he could take. He really just wanted to leave the band and that situation and move on with his life.”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

Rudy Sarzo, Kevin DuBrow & Randy Rhoads in the Quiet Riot glory days. “We had one of the best guitar players EVER in our band and we couldn’t get arrested!” –Quiet Riot singer, Kevin DuBrow

“Randy Rhoads and Kevin DuBrow were the best of friends. Very close. Like brothers. Both became stars separately from each other. But the dream was they were going to do it together. They remained good friends even while Randy was with Ozzy. Kevin attended all the local Ozzy concerts and was invite to after-parties at the Osbournes’ house.”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

“Kevin was domineering and Randy hated that. Randy tolerated it because he knew that that component of Kevin’s personalithy was the reason why they were so successful, locally. Those who knew Randy said that if not for Kevin, no one outside of Randy’s garage would have ever heard him play. Kevin was the driving force. Randy was not a go-getter. He just wanted to play and leave the details to others. He was also non-confrontational, which is why he put up with Kevin. It was easier for Randy to say nothing than to argue. Toward the end of 1979, Randy saw the writing on the wall. Music was changing. Disco, Punk, and New Wave had taken over. Randy and Kevin never really saw eye to eye musically. When he finally got settled in with Ozzy, he was happier because he felt he had more musical freedom. Ozzy was constantly telling him to, ‘go out there and be the best Randy Rhoads you can be.’ Ozzy wanted Randy to be a guitar hero. He wanted that explosive playing all over his records. Kevin stifled Randy and preferred poppy, catchy songs because he thought that’s what would ultimately get them a record deal.”

–Randy Rhoads’ biographer, Andrew Klein

“One of the biggest myths around Jackson/Charvel guitars is that many think Grover Jackson or Wayne Charvel made the Randy Rhoads polka dot Flying V. Grover Jackson and Tim Wilson made the white Jackson V. Grover Jackson, Tim Wilson and Mike Shannon made the black Jackson V. And it was Karl Sandoval that actually made the famous Randy Rhoads Polka Dot Flying V. However Karl did work with Grover Jackson and Wayne Charvel for about a year or so. The guitar was ordered on 7/3/79 and completed on 9/22/79. It appeared to be a solid body neck-thru or set-neck construction, but was actually a Danelectro neck that had been glued to a Flying V body! The bow-tie fret inlays were simply routed on either side of the existing dot inlays. The pick-ups were DiMarzio PAF’s, Schaller tuners were installed, and white Gibson Les Paul control knobs were used.

Soon after Randy Rhoads brought the Flying V home the headstock was broken accidently when the strap was not secured to the guitar. Kevin DuBrow was there when it fell and Randy was devastated. He had worked very hard to save the money to buy the V. Karl Sandoval re-painted the neck after the repairs were done for free. Rumors have circulated that Randy had a lot of tuning problems  because the Danelectro neck didn’t have a truss rod, but there sure are a lot of pictures that have been published with Randy playing this guitar. Randy did change the bridge, nut, knobs, and pick-up rings from chrome to black.” –via jacksoncharvelworld.net

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones enjoying the pool at the Manger Motor Lodge in Savannah, GA

Just imagine your luck stumbling across this little gem… 23 original, never-before-seen photos of the Rolling Stones resting unmolested in an unmarked box? Yes, please. That’s exactly what Lauren White found herself staring at when a friendly, unassuming flea market dealer put them before her kindly with a wink and a nudge. Turns out they were taken (photographer unknown…) during the Rolling Stones American tour through Savannah, Georgia and Clearwater, Florida in 1965.

“He obviously didn’t know what he had. To tell the truth, I didn’t either. I obviously knew it was the Stones, but it took about a week of looking them over to realize that this was really a very unique circumstance. After extensive research, I came to find that these are unpublished, never-before-seen photos of one of the most legendary bands in rock ‘n’ roll history. Not only that, they are beautifully composed, candid, raw and perfect in every way. They really convey a band innocent to their destiny.

In a lot of the images, the guys are looking directly into the lens. It’s hard to get boys to be that vulnerable, especially in front of a camera. They are also sort of showing off. I think a girl is the only thing that could convince them to allow those kinds of shots. It’s hard to imagine a dude is evoking these intimate moments, but you never know.” –Lauren White

1965– Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones poolside in shades, Clearwater, Florida

1965– Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones enjoying a budweiser poolside, Clearwater, Florida

1965– Mick Jagger & Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones poolside in Clearwater, Florida

1965– Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones poolside in shades, Clearwater, Florida

1965– Brian Jones somewhere between Savannah, Georgia and Clearwater, Florida

1965– Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones poolside in shades

1965– Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones somewhere between Savannah, GA and Clearwater, FL

1965– Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones somewhere between Savannah, GA and Clearwater, FL

1965– Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones somewhere between Savannah, GA and Clearwater, FL

FOUND: Rolling Stones site

FOUND: Rolling Stones | Cool Hunting interview

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