Turn Up the Radio!: Rock, Pop, and Roll in Los Angeles 1956a-1972

Harvey Kubernik, a native of Los Angeles, California, has been a noted music journalist for over forty years. A former West Coast A&R director for MCA Records, Kubernik is the author of five books, including This Is Rebel Music, A Perfect Haze: The Illustrated History of the Monterey International Pop Festival (co-authored by Kenneth Kubernik), and Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon. Kubernik’s writings on popular music have been published nationally and internationally in the Los Angeles Times, MOJO, Goldmine, Musician, Melody Maker, Treats!, the Los Angeles Free Press, Crawdaddy!, Record Collector News, and many other periodicals and online outlets. His work has also been placed in several book anthologies, including The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats and Drinking with Bukowski. Kubernik has penned liner notes for a dozen albums by a diverse group of recording artists, most notably Elvis Presley, Allen Ginsberg, Carole King, and the Ramones.Tom Petty is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their debut album in 1976. Petty has received numerous prestigious awards, including seventeen Grammy nominations. In 2002, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. Petty and his collaborators have sold over sixty million records. He lives in Los Angeles.Roger Steffens is the author or co-author of seven books on Bob Marley and reggae history, including Bob Marley and the Wailers: The Definitive Discography and The Reggae Scrapbook. He is also the founder of the award-winning Reggae Beat radio show with Hank Holmes on Santa Monica’s NPR affiliate, KCRW. Steffens lives in Los Angeles.

Combining oral and illustrated history with a connective narrative, Turn Up the Radio! captures the zeitgeist of the Los Angeles rock and pop music world between the years of 1956 and 1972.Featuring hundreds of rare and previously unpublished photographs and images of memorabilia, this collection highlights dozens of iconic bands and musicians, including the Doors, the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, CSN, the Monkees, the Rolling Stones, Ike and Tina Turner, Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Ritchie Valens, Sam Cooke, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, Thee Midniters, Sonny and Cher, and many others.But recording artists heard on the AM and FM dial are only one part of the rich history of music in Los Angeles. Turn Up the Radio! digs deep to uncover the studio musicians, background vocalists, songwriters, producers, and engineers who helped propel the Los Angeles rock and pop music scene to such a legendary status. Bones Howe, Barney Kessel, B. J. Baker, Merry Clayton, Jack Nitzsche, Hal Blaine, Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Bobby Womack, Kim Fowley, Bruce Botnick, Dave Gold, and Stan Ross are just a few of the names recognized for their crucial contributions to the music created and produced in the recording studios of Los Angeles.Finally, Turn Up the Radio! pays tribute to the DJs who brought the music of Los Angeles to fans throughout Southern California—and, ultimately, the world—including Art Laboe, Dave Hull, Robert W. Morgan, the Real Don Steele, Jim Ladd, and Dave Diamond. Their dedication to the music they played at such iconic radio stations as KHJ, KFWB, KRLA, KMET, and KLOS was critical to the development of popular music.Packed with exclusive interviews, this one-of-a-kind keepsake of rock, pop, and roll in the City of Angels is a must-have for any music fan.

Foreword by Tom PettyPrologueChapter 1: The South Central ShuffleChapter 2: The Birth of the Cool CatsChapter 3: The Dotted LineChapter 4: The New Kids on the BlockChapter 5: Tape Is RollingChapter 6: Legends in Their Spare TimeChapter 7: A Sandbox As Big As an OceanChapter 8: Go East, Young ManChapter 9: Powdered SugarChapter 10: When Sonny Met CherChapter 11: Folk RocksChapter 12: GötterdämmerungChapter 13: And the Hits Just Keep On Comin’!Chapter 14: Safe and Warm in L.A.Chapter 15: A Loon and a BearChapter 16: Colored Balls FallingChapter 17: The Left Hand of DarknessChapter 18: Expecting to ChartChapter 19: Circus BoyzChapter 20: Up, Up, and All the WayChapter 21: It Was a Mellow Yellow YearChapter 22: Meet Me at Sunset and FairfaxChapter 23: The King Has Entered the BuildingChapter 24: It’s the Singer and the SongChapter 25: On His CarouselChapter 26: The SwampChapter 27: Go West, Young ClanChapter 28: The Soul Survivor and the Maestro ArriveChapter 29: Make It a Little LouderEpilogueAfterword by Roger SteffensGlossaryAcknowledgmentsOral History CreditsPhoto CreditsIndex