Happy Together - The Turtles 1965

Two of the happiest years of my life were spent in the early 70's as a music critic for a small syndication of newspapers based out of San Diego. I covered concerts all up and down the Southern California coast and wrote a weekly column based on what I had seen the previous week. I don't want to turn this blog into a music critique, BUT.....

Last night I went to the 25th anniversary performance of The Happy Together Tour and it was fantastic. Flo and Eddy of the Turtles, Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees, Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Grass Roots, and the Buckinghams all played music from the 60's and it was a baby boomer musical orgasm.

So many memories, so many bald heads, so many Hawaiian shirts, so many varicose veins, it was "bitchin" "groovy" and "far out". Each of the bands did their hits of course and each spoke a bit about what they remembered of the 60's, but Mark Lindsay summed it up best when he said its great to have been in the 60's twice...once in the 1960's and then many many moons later to be in HIS 60's. Mark is now 68 and didn't look at day over 67.

The concert also brought back a lot of memories from my days at Narbonne and left me with a few questions. If you have any answers to ANY of these questions please leave a comment on here for all of us to read.

1) I know a couple of the BelAires/Challengers went to Narbonne, but didn't a couple of the original Turtles?

2) Once I had the privilege of dancing on the Lloyd Thaxton show with a number of other Gauchos, but for the life of me I can't remember who I took. If you are out there or someone who remembers, please let me know.

3) Who else danced on Lloyd's show or any of Sam Riddles shows, or even American Bandstand?

4) There was a concert at Lomita Park in 66 or 67 that was MC'd by Wolfman Jack. I think the Challengers were the headliners; anyone remember this event and who might of played that night?

5) Does anyone other than me remember Jimmy Roberts of the Challengers playing the organ at the skating rink on Western on Saturday nights? (Donna do you read this blog? Wasn't he in your class?)

6) And finally a question for all of you....What was the lineup for the first rock concert you ever went to? Mine was Grass Roots, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, ? And the Mysterians and the Association. Groovy Baby! LOL