SG101 logo
SG101 Banner
IRC Status
  • Chatroom is empty
Current Polls
  • No polls at this time. Check out our past polls.
Current Contests
Donations

Help us meet our monthly goal:

100%

Donate Now

March Birthdays

SurfGuitar101 News & Articles

Cowabunga Ramblings with Randy Holden of The Fender IV


(Note: This article was originally posted to the Cowabunga Yahoo Group by Wavy aka psychodogger2001 on December 17, 2001. I thought this post was worth saving due to the scarce amount of information on The Fender IV and the great stories Randy tells. I've edited it slightly... - BN)

Alright, a couple of days ago I asked the leader of legendary surf-band Fender IV Randy Holden if he had some fun stories from the sixties (since there`s not very much stories about this band before outside an interview in Goldmine and on the Blue Cheer-webpage). It turned out he had quite some words to share, both about the music and band-life in general. He also said it was ok to share his stories with a bigger audience, so here it is: RAW and UNCENSORED; Days of the Fender IV.

Remember that this band originally hailed from the East-Coast, and moved all the way to California just to hope for a better, guitar music-friendlier crowd than the typical R&B-based stuff that was hot over in Baltimore.

I've put name tags in front of my questions so it`s hopefully gonna be easier to read. I've also tried to sort the topics, and leave out a couple of personal comments (not because they`re so doggone personal, but because they wouldn't make much sense in here). BUT; he jumps a little back and forth here and there, so it wasn't easy to really sort it. Also: this isn't an interview or an article, simply subjective considerations from one person in the year 2001 about something that happened almost 40 years ago. Thus, don't read it too scientifically, but take it for the good clean fun-stories they are. It`s quite massive, so perhaps you should print it out and read it on paper rather than on the screen...just a suggestion.

Wavy: Can you remember what kind of songs you played live around 63-64- 65? Was it many Dick Dale songs, or did you write many songs that you never recorded, but did play live?

Randy: We may have played a Dick Dale song or two, but more our own things. I don't recall if there were other things never recorded, I'm sure there were since recording was rare. Is a while ago so memory is vague. As far as stories go, well here's one - I remember we lived in a beach house at Topaga Canyon, and I was all wound up to sleep out on the beach and be among the elements, being from back in the snow and all. So I got a sleeping bag and went down on the beach and proceeded to get buried in a sand storm all night, which demented my romance for the beach ha ha. Band stories though. Jac Ttanna is the one who seems to remember a ton of things I forgot all about, so he would be good one to talk to. When we were coming across country to California we stayed a a motel in Yuma overnight. I woke with a horrid headache, and couldn't breath. The pilot light to the gas heater went out and we were breathing raw gas all night. I tried to wake Jac, and Mike, and barely got them roused, and opened the door. We were close to death no question. I remember getting in the van to get on our way and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't go into gear, and would only grind away. I was still so out of it I forgot to use the clutch. Once in California, we had enough money to rent a room for a month and that was it. Jac went somewhere sightseeing with the van and forgot to put oil in the engine, and blew it up, ending our ability to get around. Seemed like Jac was always getting into one mess or another. Before leaving Baltimore he wrecked my car that we were going to use to trade in for the van. He said a bee flew into his eye and he lost control. I was so insane over it I went into a rage since it killed my ticket out of Baltimore. I left Jacs house in a storm slamming his door, and his mom said she was worried he would go across the country with someone as crazy as me. Ha ha ..... yea I was crazy alright, about the idea of being stuck in Baltimore. Jac took my car and slipped it into the dealers lot anyway and got the van and was on his way, and came to get me. I couldn't believe my eyes, how did you pull this off I asked, and he said you don't want to know. Turned out he parked the car with the wrecked side against the wall so the dealer couldn't see it. Somewhere down in Georgia we pulled off the road for the night, and there was a sign on a fence. I couldn't see what it said, but I thought I'd get Mike a good one, Jac was driving, I was sitting shotgun, and Mike said what's the sign, (hehe hehe hehe) I said oh God says Danger Quicksand ...... Mike panicked and tried to jump over me to get out of the van ......

Wavy: Do you remember anything from the recording of Mar Gaya? Did you record it a long time after you wrote the song? What kind of impact did it leave on the public when you played it live?

Randy: Hummmm - no I don't remember recording "Mar Gaya". I remember writing it. It was the kind of melodic thing that had a lot of feeling to me from my early guitar interest. I remember rehearsing it at the Topanga Canyon Beach House, and the surf was big that day, and it was quite the experience playing it with the band all into the emotion. Playing it live was incredible, the audience totally was into it, and we were not a Soft Rock band. I played with the Dual Showman cranked back then. We were the loudest band in the country, and rocked. I recall playing a club named the 23 Skiddo on Wednesday nights in Santa Monica. A beach bar kind of place, held about 500 people or so. The crowd would line up three deep around the whole dawggone block on Wednesday nights just to come hear us. My favorite trick was working my way through the crowd then jumping on stage plugging in and opening with "Mar Gaya". There was a three foot rail surrounding the stage and I'd jump up on it and open Mar Gaya, the crowd would go totally nuts. Was very cool fun ..... total beach rock, and I was into the beach, and the people who loved it as much as I did. The music just fit perfect, it was powerful, in a good way, like surfing was a conquering kind of emotion, playing in a realm that ordinary people use to be terrified of, and a being one with the force of nature. That's probably the best I can describe it now. Music communicates things there is no other way to communicate.

Another old story - We played it at the opening show of the Rolling Stones first tour in the US at the Long Beach Sports Arena. We were second bill, and when we played that song we just tore the house down. The audience went insane. Ol' Mick was pacing backstage back and forth worried to death about following us, and with good reason. I didn't expect much from the Stones, but they were the only band that had our equipment, plus a dual bass amp setup, so I had my eye open. They also had a hit record which we didn't, and When they went on they tore the house down too. They couldn't have had a better band to get the audience in a frenzy for em, it was a great show. The Stones were great. The girls loved those translucent alien looking English creatures. A total departure from the tanned out beach boys they were accustomed to. Some kind of a sexual diversion seduction. "Twisted Way (Path) to Stardom" is good - works for me - is accurate. Planning has little to do with it (which is why artists are so vulnerable to the business world predators, sounds good to me).

A few more stories ...... (you got me remembering how insane those times were). After arriving in California, losing our van, then starving having nothing to eat for 2 weeks, it turned out Mike had a cousin who lived in LA. We thought a visit may bring the fortune of a lunch. We hitch hiked to God knows where to pay the visit, and on the way I was standing in the street with my thumb out as is customary back east when a cop pulled over and began to write up a ticket. I was so damn depressed by that time I didn't give a damn, but Jac quick to act jumped in telling the cop, hey man we just got in from the east coast and haven't had a thing to eat in two weeks, and are only trying to get a ride to a cousins house hoping to get a sandwich, how about giving us a break, and the cop looked at him, and unlike the first cop that stopped us the very day we came into Hollywood for the first time, and gave us a ticket for having the van in the crosswalk while turning, and No pedestrians present, gave us the damn ticket anyway with a welcome to Hollywood cynic grin .. (they since changed that goofy law), this new cop in this present situation looked at us, and saw we were to the bone, decided to give us a break - something that doesn't happen often in LA. We arrived at Mike's cousins apartment, and they barely remembered each other, and we all sat on his sofa with no one saying anything. It was weird. The guys apartment was like a prison, colorless, drab, and nothingness, and he was a computer programmer, and fit the perfect image of a computer programmer in 1963 - a void. He went to his refrigerator and made himself a sandwich and sat at his bland table beginning to eat it in front of 3 starved ravinous wolves. Then he asked Mike if he wanted a sandwich, but didn't ask Jac or me. It was so damned weird Jac and I looked at each other dumbfounded at the circus of void of human dignity, much less etiquette, and determined not to stoop to a lesser level yet and sacrifice our dignity. Meanwhile Mi9ke proceeded to chomp away at his sandwich in delight with not even a hint of an idea to ask hey couz how bout a sandwich for my bands bros ..... Mike thought of Mike, and that's how it was. Meanwhile I learned a lesson - Never go to someone else's cousins house for a sandwich when you're hungry. The hunger went unsatisfied for another week, for a total of three weeks, and bones were exposing themselves on already bone skinned bodies.

Finally, we got a gig, and after playing a set the cops came in demanding ID. In California it turned out you had to be 21 to play in a bar serving alcohol - in Baltimore I was playing in bars at 15 years old and the Marine Base every weekend in Arlington having beers with the Fighting Boys, since I could remember, so all this Not allowed to play crap was Big News to me. I told the cop vice squad (Taliban) I was 21, but I had no ID. They said prove it, I said call my mom back east. They did. I told my mom, hey mom there are police here who say I have to be 21 to play in a bar here, will you please tell them I'm ok - so good ol mom (bless her heart anyway), when the cop got on the phone and said yer sons playing music in a bar and that's against the law unless he's 21 how old is he, good ol mom says 17 ..... that's it pack up yer equipment boys, and here's a hundred dollar fine (the equivalent of nearly two thousand dollars in today's money). Plus the bar owner didn't pay us. You couldn't win for losing - no matter what you did in California it was wrong -- a new experience in life in deed.

So back to starvation. The situation was beyond desperate. I fell ill from lack of food, contracted the chicken pox, fever, throwing up the whole nine yards. Real bummer. Delirium. I had to go downtown LA to court before a judge on the under 21 in a bar ticket on top of it, and I couldn't even walk. I called the courthouse to say I couldn't come I was too sick, and they told me if you don't show up a warrant will be issued for your arrest. God damn welcome to California folks one more time. Bloody awful. I hitch hiked downtown LA sick as a dog from Hollywood found the court went in sat down waited for my name to be called - nearly dead. Finally my name was called, I staggered before the judge pouring with sweat from the fever, barely able to walk, and the judge said "what's wrong with you". I said, I have Chicken Pox I think (as told from the red blisters of pus all over me - for all I knew it could have been small pox). The judge shoved his chair back from his bench as if not to get contaminated, and said "what the hell are you doing in here", and I said I called asking to be postponed because I was seriously sick, but they said impossible if I did not show a warrant would go out for my arrest so here I am. The judge looked stupified at his system not working the human condition so well, and said I had 30 days to pay the $100. dollar fine, as I dragged myself out and back to Hollywood I have no idea how I got back or where I was. I got over that bout in about a week, and Mike and Jac managed to steal some food from a market - we weren't into stealing, but desperate times call for desperate measures - either eat or die, and no one was exactly jumping to lend a hand. With a can of soup the whole damned world changed.

Then hitch hiking somewhere I forgot where we got a ride from a colored guy who claimed to be an actor, and a homosexual. Oh ok. It was Thanksgiving, and Kennedy had just been shot, there was no one hiring anyone, and there we were sitting in the car with some black dude claiming to be a gay and an actor who then on hearing we hadn't had anything to eat in near 30 days or whatever the hell it was, said "Hey, I'm going to all my friends for Thanksgiving, come on along with me". We all looked at each other like .... eh .... sounds like something we have to cancel all our other plans for .... whatever they were. His name was Bryland Rice, and a funny guy laughing about everything. He went to some wealthy neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills, and pulled into a driveway went to the door, and the folks inside said Hey Bryland, come on in, Bryland said let me introduce you to my new friends, and they said come on in, have some turkey, just came out of the oven ..... there was a twenty pound turkey steaming like heaven just opened it's gates ...... we proceeded to devour that turkey like a pack of wolves, then Bryland said hey guys I have to visit some more friends, let's go, and off we went. By the time the evening was over we visited four more homes in well to do places, and had four more beautiful turkey dinners .... that was a Thanksgiving I have Never forgotten my whole life. Every time Thanksgiving rolls around, I remember that day. Meanwhile Bryland turned out to be a sweetheart of a guy and we would see him every now and then in some of the clubs while he went on to be an actor, and we went on to be rock stars.

And I could go on and on and on ........ since you asked, I remembered things I'd forgotten years ago, but that's where it all began in California. Have fun with it ....... (to this day I still have nightmares about there being no food to eat .......)



This story has 2 comments.


1.
avatar

Great article! Gives me visions of young surf-guitar hopefuls stepping off Greyhound buses with guitar case and reverb unit in hand, only to end up on Skid Row, or the Malibu Sanitorium when it all collapsed. Randy Holden evolved, apparently. I haven't heard his non-surf stuff, but I saw Blue Cheer in 1984 (opened for Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies at Aquatic Park in Berekely). Maybe he was with them for that show?

norcalhodad | 28-Mar-2007 13:31:49 | Flag
2.
avatar

I used to own BLUE CHEER-NEW and IMPROVED and also THE OTHER HALF. I never knew Holden was in both bands. I'd love to hear both albums now.

Stormtiger | 30-Mar-2007 17:10:56 | Flag

Comments are closed for this story. If you'd like to share your thoughts on this story with the site staff, you can contact us directly.