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RAGGI's RAMBLINGS
Her Morrison Memories
One quick story...Daryl DeLoach wearing my green silk underpants
w/ my beautiful green velvet vest that I got at the little shop
behind Thee Experience, wearing a salad bowl on his head and a bandolero across his
chest singing sympathy for the devil....but wait there is so much more....please respond. do I know you?
Then there was the night on delongpre that morrison got my dog drunk. then
there was the night of one of those delongpre parties that i threw bonzi the
notorious roadie who never left home w/out his whip, down the stairs. then there
was the day that morrison decided my bunny could not be named petrice but fucker
and then he decided to set him free in that little park just above Franklin by
the frank Lloyd Wright house. oh and yes, that apartment is where ode to Brian
Jones while thinking of la was written one very hazy summer day in 1969 and Marsha
Brevitz brought her son Michael over to meet Jim who spent the afternoon showing
Michael how to spear pickles from a jar in the worlds smallest kitchen.
raggi
as i read on it appears we "knew" too many of the same
people.
I also lived w/ denny on Harper. spent too many nights crying over morrison and
more than some in sublime, stupid happiness. Chas chandler, I first met in Miami
where he put his foot through the floor of my mothers Chevy. we need to talk!
raggi
it was 1969,summer, i think, but don't bet the farm on my
memory. anyone who was a sunset stripling remembers that we served a traditional
english breakfast at thee experience after hours. this particular night the dead
had been playing and w/ them was their pal stanley augustus owsley, (yes, that
owsley). as i recall he was not much bigger than i and i am small person then
and now. it seemed that everytime i'd go in the kitchen to pick up orders from
chrissy the kitchen martyr (as he was lovingly known) owsley would pop a piece
of ice cream into my mouth. i thought, how cute, and kept taking bites. turns
out he was doing the same to almost everyone in the club. suddenly i found
myself sitting on the steps that acted as bleachers in the back of the room w/
some customers burger which i was finding mesmerizing. i kept throwing it up and
down and it was turning into the most beautiful colors i'd ever seen. at some
point, don't recollect when i became horribly afraid of that killer burger and
began to cry and cry and cry. the next thing i remember i was shooting pool at the little
bar by the chinese restaurant. i'd been saved either by
doug lubahn or dallas taylor. i only wish i knew which one,
but if either of you read this thanks.
raggi
August
8, 2002
I first met denny in fort lauderdale at a coffee house called the pegasus. he was playing at the time w/ a group called the halifax 3 and i was longing to be a beatnik. my sister was also singing there and though 4 years older was kind enough to bring her baby sis w/ her. i met up w/ him again when he lived on lookout mtn. dr. but since the house as i'm sure you remember party central only went there w/ other people so there was no romantic relationship (not that den was very romantic) in any case. i ran into him again after i came back from florida. he was starting to play music again w/ lee montgomery, dewey martin and bud fanton. buddy was about to marry a woman named mady, who had worked w/ me at thee experience and who was a close friend. she and buddy were living in dennys kitchen behind a curtain. this was a tiny place referred to as the garden. we all lived there together surviving on wine and sandwiches from john and petes liquor store on la cienega. it was one crazy year or so which ended when things got too nuts even for me. denny and group moved to connecticut. i stayed in la where glam was taking over and boy was it ugly. that's about the time i went to work at the whisky and rainbow, during the time of el grande de coca cola and cycle sluts. were you still in la?did you know that denny has a kids show on pbs? he's harbour master denny and he's wonderful on it. when i have more time i'll tell you the story about he, my mother and i and our trip to san diego for my cousins wedding. ps just read the message, but do not remember this person. my sister does though not kindly. she says she lived w/ she and her husband and abused that hospitality by having an affair w/ him. still i'm intrigued!!! i'll be working on some jim stories. by the way i'm in touch w/ pinera and am going to tell him about this site later today. love,peggy
August 9, 2002
hey nancy,
here is a wee tale of one night at thee experience.
i'm supposing by my choice of jewel encrusted breast plates
(from a sleazy jewelry shop on hwd. blvd. near las palmas) that it must have
been summer. in any case it was a night like many others at marshall's
club....everyone was there. ellynn worked the door, sitting pretty in her
window, saying yes or no, depending on who was trying to get inside. this
particular evening marshall brevitz (a dear man, no longer w/ us) had just sent
wild man fisher to the close-by laundromat to wash his clothes before he could
join the frolic. what he wore while his clothes were washing i gratefully do not
remember. he was singing his favorite song, merry-go-round, boop, boop, boop and
entertaining the tourists. mayor rodney b. had arrived with a contingent of
beauties, as usual, with side kic kim fowley, splendiferous, of course!
all of a sudden across sunset cynthia plaster & partner (whose name i can't
remember at all) got out of a taxi, with their little tool boxes in hand. as she
crossed the street dressed in what i was certain was a shower curtain she was
promptly knocked down by a red vw. don't fret, cynthia was not to be deterred.
she knew that led zeppelin were there and she had work to do. so as marshall was
freaking and ready to call an ambulance, miss cynthia, picked herself up,
retrieved her"tool box" and marched right in...she had important work
to do!! there is a sad ending to this endeavor though, alas! her prey of the
evening were in fact there for one of our kipper and cold baked bean breakfasts
they so loved, but otherwise entertained, under the table as was so often the
case. does anyone remember a very tall, very thin groupie named dani? well it
was her turn under the table much to miss cynthia's dismay. after that it seemed
that for the next month or so every time she would show up she would be hit by a
tiny car of some sort. i swear it's so. ah well, just another hollywood
night.
love, raggi
Raggi's friend, Ellynn has
stories on the way, also.
In the meantime, she has sent the following photos from the 60's
Mom is far right and Ellynn's brother in rear
I love this letter from Ellynn about her first day in
Hollywood:
hi
Nancy
Sorry its taken so long to actually sit down and begin the process of digging up
these memories, and there are so many. I'll start with the first day! There I
sat on the runway at JFK waiting for the 727 to take me to LA. It was my very
first plane ride. A month before my family had driven from Miami to NY and I
spent the first part of the summer working for my cousin who owned a travel
agency in the city to make enough $$ to go to LA to chase after my dream. I had
also sold my prize aqua blue '65 Mustang for the same reason. I had only planned
on spending the rest of the summer there and returning to Miami to finish
college but fate had other plans. When I landed at LAX I could absolutely feel
there was something different in the air. I cant tell you what it was but I know
I felt it and I'm willing to bet everyone else who was there knows exactly what
I am talking about! Just a little bit of magic in the air, a feeling that
everything was slightly just left of center (or maybe right), just different. As
I rode back to Raggi's apartment, which is what I would soon call home,
everything twinkled and shined and everything was possible! Raggi (who I never
ever called Raggi, she was and is and will always be Peggy to me) was busy
getting ready to go to work at Thee Experience on Sunset and i was so exhausted
but not about to miss out on going to the club. The club owner Marshall Brevitz,
I knew in Florida when he opened a couple of "clubs" there, which is
how I came to meet Peggy in the first place. I had met Jay Ferguson and Mark
Andes of Spirit when they had a huge hit in South Florida. They even came to my
house to meet my family and "break bread" in the summer of '68 as you
can see in the pictures. On their 3rd trip to Forida Mark was seeing a cute
little blonde named Angie who was a life long friend of Peggy's and ,as it
turned out has become a life long friend of mine.Thats how Pegs and I got
together. Anyway, I walked into this club "Thee Experience" named for
Marshalls pal Jimi Hendrix and I saw familiar faces everywhere. It was almost
overwhelming in the beginning. I was introduced to the staff and was warmly
welcomed by all and felt instantly part of the family.I met so many people but I
sort of zeroed in on a guy named Upsy who was a roady for Jimi Hendrix because
he would be playing the following day at Devonshire Downs along with Spirit and
alot of others that I cant remember at this moment. I had tickets to this
festival , didnt know how I was going to get there, didnt know a soul save pegs,
and she wasnt going, but was determined to go and see my boys! I couldnt
tell you who gave me a ride to the festival and I cant tell you what gave me the
balls except that ignorance is bliss. I think I may have had 30 minutes sleep
but when you are 18 years old thats more than enough!!! ...blackbird singing in
the dead of night...Well , i arrived with my phantom ride , said thank you, was
promptly abandoned, then gazed upon this sea of stoned people before me. So ,I
did what any ignorant ,naive ,wet behind the ears kid would do...i walked
directly to the locked gate that led to the trailer dressing rooms for the rock
groups and told the big guy standing on the other side that I was there to see
Jay ferguson and Mark Andes and that I was a friend from Miami . Either I was
too well groomed to be one of the crowd or my sheer obliviousness to the fact
that you couldnt simply just tell the gate guy you wanted to get back stage and
GET BACK STAGE bought me enough time for Upsy to be walking by and swoop me back
stage. Suddenly I had this tremendous laminated backstage pass hanging around my
neck and Upsy shoved me in a trailer and said
"wait here" since I had told him the night before that I was going to
the festival to see Jay and Mark. As I sat alone in this trailer it began to
dawn on me what I had just done. I was scared and excited all at the same time
and then i realized where I was. I was sitting in Jimi Hendrix's dressing room.
I never did get to see Jimi that night but shortly after Upsy came and got me
because Spirit was coming off stage. As I walked out there they were. What a
great moment! We went into their trailer followed by Lou Adler who was the
producer. He was very upset to see me . I guess he thought I was a groupy and he
said "you know boys you cant have girls back here!" to which Jay said
"Oh Ellynn, she's our whole Miami thing". To be very honest the rest
of the night is a total blur and I cant even remember how I got back to
DeLongpre, but I did...and that was my first 24 hours in Hollywood.