As any musician—or even a drummer—will tell you, we see some pretty amazing things from the bandstand. I've seen fights, I've seen cheating spouses, but mostly I've seen some pretty knocked-out-women who sometimes appeared to me like a goddess in a dream.
Exhibit A: The Exits POV (point of view) from the bandstand at the American Legion in Kingman, 1964. Jennie Torres does a mean Watusi.
If you don't believe me, go listen to "I Saw Her Standing There," by The Beatles. Also, check out "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, which is an amazing song of power and grit and raw emotion. Here's the songwriter Ray Davies describing how the song came about: "The inspiration for the lyrics and the title came to me one night while playing with Dave Hunt at the Scene Club in Soho. During our set, I looked out in the darkness about 10 feet from the stage and saw what appeared to be a 17-year-old girl moving better than anyone else on the dance floor. She had ash-colored hair set in a beehive style popular then. When we finished, I went off to find her, but she was gone and never returned to the club. She really got me going."
Ray wasn't alone.
The Exits' POV, on New Year's Eve: The Girl's Gym at Mohave County Union High School, 1964. At midnite, I kissed almost every single girl in this picture. And even a couple of the married ones.
"Well, my heart went boom, when I crossed the room. . ."
—The Beatles, "She Was Just Seventeen"
"Girl, you really got me now, you got me so I can't sleep at night. . ."
—The Kinks, "You Really Got Me"
Just received an advance copy of "The Authentic Death & Contentious Afterlife of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: The Untold Story of Peckinpah's Last Western Film," by Paul Seydor. Can't wait to read it tonight.
"It was in looking that Peckinpah seemed most open or uncertain; he looked to see—whereas John Ford looked to discover what he already knew."
—David Thomson, quoted in the new Paul Seydor book on Peckinpah
