A KAOtic tour of Los Angeles

story and photos by Johnny Valenzuela

Once again, Spare Bricks explores a theme that I find fascinating, and yet at the same time, a theme that I really can't find anything to fit my usual "a visit to" article. "Floyd Goes To War" is a great idea for a theme, but as I survey the possibilities, I see that there really aren't any for me. Look, I would have loved to be able to present to you "A Visit To Anzio", but that just wasn't in the cards this time.

Roger Waters' second solo outing, Radio KAOS, has many themes weaving throughout the music, one of which is war and the fact that, for a while, the entire planet was only the push of a button away from total annihilation. Roger Waters also revealed his distaste for corporate takeovers and their willingness to sacrifice artistry and history for the almighty dollar; a theme he would more closely examine later in Amused To Death. And as Radio KAOS takes place in Los Angeles, the idea of visiting the various places to which Waters makes reference became more and more appropriate. Yes, it's a bit of a stretch, but hey, if anyone out there wants to send me to Italy for a week, I'd be more than happy to write about and photograph Anzio!

It was a beautiful, balmy, Southern California summer day (well, Spring day really, but it was nice enough out to feel like a summer day) when I set out on the KAOtic tour of Los Angeles. With my camera at my side and Radio KAOS in the cassette deck, I headed south on Laurel Canyon Boulevard out of the valley. I had planned my route with fuel and time efficiency in mind, so forgive me for presenting the landmarks in my visit's order rather than the order in which they appear on the album.

"Oh Hollywood Hills, oh midnight thrills/ Up on Mulholland Drive, where Warren Beatty locks himself in his safe at night just to stay alive..." (from "Going To Live In LA.")

While the song "Going To Live In LA" isn't on the Radio KAOS album, it is certainly a part of the story, and we can all be glad that Waters included it in the KAOS live show. The lyrics of the song explain how Billy is sent to Los Angeles to live with his uncle, and in concert, Waters placed "Going To Live In LA" at the beginning of the second set, before "Sunset Strip."

To help make some sense of it, a little geography lesson. Los Angeles is essentially divided into two parts: the city and the valley. This division is naturally created by the Hollywood Hills. Across the top of the Hollywood Hills is Mulholland Drive. Many exclusive residential areas are accessed from Mulholland Drive. I don't know where Warren Beatty's house is, nor was I going to rely on one of the many "Maps To Stars Homes" available for purchase from every corner vendor in Hollywood. I can assure you, if you come to Los Angeles, don't bother buying one of these maps. The ones I've seen are so old that many of the stars listed no longer live where the map says they do, and in some cases, the stars listed are dead. Anyway, Mulholland was the first stop of my tour. From where I live (in the valley), it's just a short jaunt up Laurel Canyon Boulevard to get to the top of the hills where Mulholland intersects. This photo was taken at this intersection.

Now, what trip to the Hollywood Hills would be complete without a view of the Hollywood sign? Onward now to the next stop on our KAOtic tour of Los Angeles. We turn left on Mulholland and take it down to the Cahuenga Pass, where the 101 Freeway and Cahuenga Boulevard bridge the city and the valley. Crossing over the 101 Freeway, we head back into the hills and, after much winding and turning, come to a small park beneath the sign. There isn't a paved road that takes you directly to the sign, and the dirt road is for service only. This park is about as close to it as you can get.

As I pulled up to the park, with the giant white letters beaming above me, I couldn't help but think about the city I live in. With the exception of three very important years in Sun Valley, Idaho, I have lived my entire life in Los Angeles. I remember what the Hollywood sign looked like back in the 70's before they fixed it up. Man, that thing was in tatters. Letters were crumbling away - hell, I think one was completely missing - and there was graffiti all over it (you used to be able to drive right to it). When the city finally fixed it up, it was a drastic and much needed improvement.

So there I stood, under the big word "Hollywood". I wonder what Waters must have thought of Los Angeles after he moved here and had a chance to absorb it. There's no denying that Hollywood (i.e. the entertainment industry) plays a vital role in L.A. history, and the Hollywood sign is such a landmark now. I guess many locals just kind of take it for granted that the sign is there because, on a clear day, you can see it from just about anywhere on the city side. But for a tourist, it's still a must-see.

"Out at Dodger Stadium it's the bottom of the seventh..."

At the east edge of the Hollywood Hills is Chavez Ravine, home of Dodger Stadium. The day of my tour, the Dodgers were out of town, so I wasn't able to get a nice close-up of the stadium, but here's a view from the north gate:

Dodger Stadium is practically an institution in its own right, and you haven't been to Los Angeles until you've been to Dodger Stadium and had a Dodger Dog. No, there's really nothing special about the hot dog itself, but sitting in the stands with a Dodger Dog in one hand, beer in the other, and a good baseball game on the field--now that's a day worthy of a chorus of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game."

"Could be a Laker, could be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar"

From Dodger Stadium, we head south and a bit west into an area called Inglewood. Not the nicest part of town, but home of the Great Western Forum, where the Lakers played their home games during the KAOS era.

The Forum is another story of corporate takeover in Los Angeles. In fact, it might have been L.A.'s first taste of corporation control when--I think it was in the late 70s--Great Western Bank bought The Fabulous Forum and renamed it the Great Western Forum. At least they kept "Forum" in the name. Our outdoor amphitheatre to the south, Irvine Meadows, wasn't so lucky--it's now the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. Interestingly enough, nobody seemed to really mind Great Western taking over the Forum, as the building got a serious makeover when they did, and it seemed that Great Western wasn't out to make the Forum a blatant showcase for their bank. The Kings played hockey there during the Wayne Gretzky years, and the Lakers played basketball there during the Magic/Kareem years.

The Forum was also the site of some of the greatest concerts Los Angeles has ever seen, including Radio KAOS. For a very long time, the Forum was the arena in Los Angeles (even though Pink Floyd preferred the Sports Arena downtown whenever they came to play). Then, in the late 1990s, the Staples Center was built downtown. The Lakers moved, the Kings moved, and for the most part the concerts moved. It's a damn shame about the concerts because, in my opinion, the Forum's acoustics are way better than Staples.

And I'll tell you, when Waters performed KAOS at The Forum, it was a very special night for Los Angeles. Jim Ladd had been off the air for a while, the Waters/Floyd battle was as hot as ever, and everyone who remembered L.A.'s greatest rock station, KMET--and how great FM radio used to be--was in the building and eager for a great show. And man, what a show that was. To this day I have yet to see a concert that surpassed KAOS. It wasn't just a concert; it was true Rock & Roll Theatre. The sound was the cleanest and clearest I've ever heard at a concert. The band was having a great night. And most of all, every fan there got to let out all the hostility and anger we felt over the destruction of our beloved KMET. I'll never forget the end of the show, when Jim spotted a KMET banner in the audience, grabbed it, and held it up on stage for the arena to see. The place was going nuts before this, but when Jim held up that banner, it was utter pandemonium. Speaking of KMET...

"This is K.A.O.S.. You and I are listening to KAOS in Los Angeles. Let's go to the telephones and take a request."

The opening lines of Radio KAOS, spoken by "Jim," a.k.a. Jim Ladd, L.A.'s legendary deejay (or as he often refers to himself on the air, the "lonesome L.A. cowboy"). Here in Los Angeles, we have the pleasure of listening to Jim's radio show nightly on 95.5 KLOS, and although Ladd frequently uses the "you and I are listening" line, his nightly KLOS shift is, for the most part, decidedly different from what you hear on Radio KAOS. Jim on KAOS sounds restrained--stifled if you will--by the corporate powers that have taken over his station, while Jim Ladd on KLOS has managed to carve a niche for himself that is fairly insulated from the corporate reins. Jim Ladd has, in the past, been through the corporate takeover--and ultimate destruction--of his beloved radio station before in the form of KMET, the once-mighty rock station of Los Angeles in the '70s and early '80s.

Have you ever read Jim's book, Radio Waves? In that book, KAOS is the embodiment of KMET. Sadly, KMET was taken over by corporate suits who decided that there was more money to be made from a "smooth jazz" format, and switched KMET to "The Wave". So when Waters asked Jim Ladd to portray the part of a deejay whose station was caving to the corporate demands, Ladd certainly had a background which he could draw from. On a personal note, I've always thought that Jim Ladd's parts on Radio KAOS were mixed too low. Fortunately, we have the text printed for us.

At right is The Wave's business office, located west of The Forum in Culver City. This is not where KMET was, but I didn't come to realize this until after I had made this journey. KMET was actually closer to Hollywood and downtown, but it's probably better that I didn't go to the old building. The loss of KMET was such a big one for L.A. radio, and really our FM dial has just never been the same.

This is a good point to mention "The Fish Report With A Beat," which precedes "Sunset Strip" on Radio KAOS. Back when KMET ruled Southern California, the Fish Report With A Beat was probably one of the most popular daily features on the air. Cynthia Fox and Paraquat Kelly, both KMET deejays, do a remarkable job recreating the fabled broadcast on the KAOS album. I always wondered how this portion of the concert went over in other towns. I mean, had anyone outside of Los Angeles heard of the Fish Report before Radio KAOS? When Waters played KAOS at The Forum and "The Fish Report" came on the screen, you could just barely hear the dialog over the screaming crowd. It was like an old friend had come back to check in.

This is the world famous Whisky A Go Go on the corner of Sunset and Clark Streets.

"We think of it as main street, but to the rest of the country it's Sunset Strip."

From Culver City, I headed north on La Cienega Boulevard, past Jim's current home at KLOS, and on up to Sunset Boulevard. The Sunset Strip has grown by leaps and bounds since Waters wrote about it in KAOS, and nowadays La Cienega dumps you out pretty much right in the middle of the strip. However, back in the days of KAOS, the Sunset Strip was really just the portion west of La Cienega between Holloway and Doheny.

This is a shot looking west up the Sunset Strip from Johnny Depp's club, The Viper Room (called The Central back in the KAOS days).

Further up the road another block or two are The Roxy, The Rainbow, and The Key Club. Back in the KAOS era, the Key Club was called Gazarri's, home of the 80s metal bands. The biggest of the hair bands played there: Motley Crue, Poison, Winger, et al. If you wanted to make it in the spandex world, you had to first make it at Gazarri's. The Sunset Strip went through a brief dark period after the metal fad finally went away, but in the last decade it's enjoyed a revival, and its territory has expanded, thanks in part to the House Of Blues.

"I sit in the canyon with my back to the sea..."

I've toiled over this one for a while. What canyon was Waters talking about? Malibu? Topanga? Sunset? Or was it a canyon in Wales? Honestly, I don't know for sure (next time I see him, I'll ask), but assuming it's Billy making that statement, then that would lead me to believe it's at least one of the Southern California canyons. And since I was on Sunset Blvd., I decided that, for now, it would be Sunset Canyon, which isn't really much of a canyon, but where Sunset Blvd. ends at Pacific Coast Highway. So I headed west along Sunset Blvd. towards PCH. There is a nice park near the end of Sunset where you could actually sit with your back to the sea. I guess this could be the canyon Waters was talking about.

This is the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and Pacific Coast Highway. The Hollywood stars that live beach-side live mostly in two areas: Malibu or Pacific Palisades. This spot is the beach access for the Pacific Palisades crowd.

"Down to the beach where the pretty girls all parade, and movie stars and paparazzi play the Charles Atlas kicking sand in the face game."

A bit of a problem with this line and the geography. "Pretty girls" parade up and down every beach in Southern California. The "Charles Atlas" bit could be referring to Muscle Beach, a part of Venice Beach where the bodybuilders all work out, but on a nice day, Venice Beach is so crowded with tourists that I don't think any movie star in his right mind would want to go there. So for the sake of this trip, I'll take the beach at Sunset.

Now, just behind this intersection, between PCH and the Pacific Ocean, is a restaurant called Gladstones 4 Fish, a favorite hang for the "see and be seen" crowd (I did see Tim Allen there one time, so there's your movie star for ya). Anyway, the bar there overlooks the ocean, and on an afternoon like this one, it's one of the best places to get a drink and watch the sun set over the Pacific. So that's what I did, but not before a quick hop down to the sand.

Ironically, this was the last photo on my roll of film, and thus the end of the tour. Thank you, and come again!

Johnny Valenzuela is a Spare Bricks staff writer.