Because of certain posts from Joe Carducci via a social media I rarely have any truck with, I recently had a chance to revisit some things that were important in my musical past. It’s easy to overlook things and people that never made it into the bright spots of the media limelight because they didn’t have a “Star Turn!” or no one was “Talking All About Them!” or they were never one of today’s “Influencers!” or… whatever.
Thru 2018 I was able to bring some of the overlooked history of the ol’ “Punky Rock” out into reasonable areas of folks’ attention. Otherwise, both my San Pedro and Hermosa Beach art shows would have been a parade of the same images and stories that the public expects, regardless of well-heeled sensibilities. History, especially music history, can’t be successfully trifled with. There’s too much factual information that’ll rise to the surface and bite a majority of the culturistas right in their hip asses. Real influence? Yeah, feel the teeth.
I had the good sense to invite Randy Nauert onto the Hermosa Beach music history panel at the closing of my “Ride The Wild Wheels” photography show on Saturday, November 3. It was me, Carducci, Gloria Cadena (wife of legendary jazz producer Ozzie Cadena, and Dezo’s mom) and Randy. There’s a lot to know about the tiny city’s music that ranged from Jazz to Surf to Punk. But easily, Randy had the most mind-blowing stories that reach deep into that thing we call popular music. Studying his bass lines on The Challengers’ K-39 album in 1965 was my first chance to actually play a noted instrument along with something. He began as a neophyte too. He did it all, saw it all, met them all, and lost it all in the Malibu fires a few months ago. Unfortunately, we lost him on Thurs, Feb. 7 but we’ve not lost his stories, nor the sense of where they came from.
Nuff said. Jordan Schwartz shot this footage of the panel. Listen to Randy’s opening comments at 2:45:
Sorry for your loss. A good friend is hard to find. Very cool to share the stories of the beginnings playing music. The music of the 50s and 60s, especially surf and California scene has and will always perminate me and of course countless others.
Randy and I first bonded over our childhoods as members of a group for people who grew up in Palos Verdes. We shared a love of animals and I felt a genuine connection with him, even though we only met once, for dinner, when I was returning home from a trip to LA after the Woolsey fire. He was heartbroken having lost his home and many of his animals but he still had his Weimaraner and I brought her a marrow bone to enjoy while we ate. Randy was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back and a few extra from his closet. It’s hard to believe that a person could feel so strongly for someone she really hardly knew, but to meet Randy was to love him and I loved him. I miss him now, and I will always miss him. Randy was just that kind of guy. Randy, you’ve got to stop beating God at poker! It is His heaven after all.