a ROCKIN' tip-o'-the hat to UK screenprinter and rock concert poster artist Nick Rhodes

My good friend Nick Rhodes, head of the Manchester Screenprint Company in England, has over the past 18 months developed a new style for incorporating automotive themes into rock concert posters. Actually, I'm quite impressed with his new approach to the speed lines, with its obviously psychedelic-era homage.

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I featured his Har Mar Superstar piece (shown here, immediately above) in ROCKIN' (page 149, directly opposite the continuing story of Stanley Mouse, and just below John Lennon's psychedelic-painted Rolls Royce), and I was recently captivated by the newest piece in the sequence, done for the gearhead band Fu Manchu (see top piece here).

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I e-mailed Nick a few probative questions about his background and his current work, and what he'd really like to be driving. Here's his reply:

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PG: In what part of England did you grow up?

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NR: I'm 27 now, and I grew up in a small suburb of Manchester called Denton. It was once world famous for its bowler and Trilby hats. Now it's changed dramatically, with most of the old mills demolished. One still stands nearby to where I live, standing amongst the leafy area.

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PG: What's your background? School? Art aspirations?

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NR: I studied 3D design at college, actually designing furniture. I was always practical, sort of the hands-on one in the family. My brother has the mathematical mind--I have the creativity! I was a bit disillusioned with designing as they taught it in college. I felt restricted creatively. Still, I now know how things are made and what process goes into it. After college I went on to university to study fine art painting, and came out with a batchelor's degree in Fine Art . I painted quite photo-realistically, often barren non-places like airport runways, deserted roads, skies, etc. I wanted to paint about travel and all the notions of that--the often solipsistic experiences one has along one's journeys.

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Inspiration comes in many forms to me. Funnily enough--happily enough, too--lyrics and music are massive influences in what I think and come up with. Another significant influence is wildlife. Maybe you can or can't tell from my work, but colors and natural forms in nature inspire me greatly. Everything from the cell structure of a wasp's wing to moss growing on rocks on the moors near my home--the colors and forms are amazing.

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PG: When did you start MSC? Has your plan worked out well?

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NR: I started my screenprinting business about four years ago. I wanted to work for myself for a long time, ever since my mum set up a small business selling baby clothes when I was younger. I saw the process of getting out what you put in--a real life lesson early on. Just before I set up, I worked at an art shop in Manchester for six months, and that was the nail in the coffin for me working for someone else. I was constantly being asked about where to get t-shirts and prints screened, and that made me think, "what the hell am I doing, and why shouldn't I set up a business of my own?

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Also there was one defining moment which really inspired me to set up as I did. That was at the PNE rock poster artists' show (Jermaine Rogers, Emek, and Justin Hampton) at the Richard Goodall Gallery here in town. I met and talked with Justin about how he started and how he overcame the struggles of the early years. It was really good to hear first-hand that he took a gamble and believed with hard work it would pay off. That was very inspiring.

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PG: What was the inspiration for the Har Mar piece and the other VW-based posters, and that compelling "look" you arrived at?

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NR: These posters were a plan of mine ever since I started screening. They're like my fine art paintings with stretched panoramas and an overwhelming sense of space. I wanted to convey my perception of the music the bands play--which, for me, comes directly from when you just jump in to the car, turn on the stereo, move on out, and then zone out. I'm so jealous of the U.S. for having such straight roads to do this properly! Over here, we have congested, bendy roads with traffic road bumps every 200 bloody yards! So yes, these three posters in particular represent my dream of, well, to use your book's title . . . rockin' down the highway.

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PG: Why do you think these three posters achieve their purpose and functionality so well?

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NR: They each have the space I first imagined, then created. Plus, the notion of speeding across a deserted landscape without a care in the world. What's not to love?
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PG: What's the current rock poster scene like in the UK now? Is it finally growing again?

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NR: The scene is here, but very small. Still, there are good signs on the horizon. There are enough of us here now to start showing, for one thing. We're having a poster show in London on July 14th called "Poster Roast," and I think it's gonna get a nice turnout. Plus, gotta say, I'm fortunate that I've the Goodall Gallery on my doorstep. It's thanks to them I can now design and screen posters for big

events at big venues right here in Manchester. They've really helped change band management attitudes towards posters and poster artists--'cause there are now a lot of good artists here that will jump at designing a poster for their favorite band.

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PG: Do you see the current scene in art, rock, and screenprinting having a relationship back to the psychedelic '60s in the UK, especially to those merry boys in London, Hapsash and the Colored Coat? [editor's note: this references the art collective that produced nearly unbelievable visions during the time of Jimi Hendrix and others; their work can be seen in THE ART OF ROCK, the book I authored, published by Abbeville Press in 1987].

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NR: I personally do. I'm seriously into that ethic they had. I don't think it'll be repeated, but it's a great inspiration for this country to have. Unfortunately on a worldwide scale, their work gets somewhat overshadowed by the developments in San Francisco in the late '60s, and it's often just lumped together as "pop art of the time." As an UK lad, that's a real shame because they're up there for me as serious artists and illustrators.

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PG: What innovations do you seek to bring to the world of screenprinting, and even art overall?

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NR: Hey, let history be the judge of that one. Maybe I'll reflect on that when I'm in my slippers! I think I'd like to be remembered as someone who inspired people to look at life in general with an inquisitive mind. Then, we'll see what people have to say about my own art, my own unique style, whatever that may turn out to be in the long run.

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PG: What music are you listening to now?

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NR: I'm currently listening to the Soulsavers new album with Mark Lanegan. [editor's note: see picture of Lanegan by Charles Peterson on page 155 of ROCKIN']. I'm designing and screening two posters for stops on Mark's new tour. Paris and Manchester are my dates. I think Lanegan is the best rock singer out there at the moment.

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PG: What kind of vehicle do you yourself drive?

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NR: I drive a 1971 Beetle everyday. It's a great car, totally love driving it. Its nickname is Rodney, and Rodney needs a respray soon. It's currently metallic turquoise, dropped on the front, like a Cali look. Still undecided on the new color scheme. Sometimes being an artist gets in the way--like, being inspired by everything moving doesn't help one bit!

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PG: What's your dream set o' wheels?

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NR: A VW panel van, dropped, and dirty as hell.

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Cheers, Nick. Good corresponding with a fine up-and-comer. And no, you didn't waffle-on too long at all! Keep those posters comin'.

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a ROCKIN' saga of rock & roll and the flatbed truck

(above) lobby card for "High School Confidential" (1958)

Jerry Lee Lewis and band on flatbed truck,

performing song of same name

courtesy John Hazelton, www.filmposters.com

(above) November 22, 2004.

U2 atop a 48-foot truck driving and performing

through the streets of Manhattan

(above) Bjork filming video for "Big Time Sensuality"

atop a flatbed truck in Manhattan, late summer, 1993
(above) 2004: AC/DC receives the honour of a lane in
Melbourne, Australia named for them.
In 1976, several streets away, they had filmed the video for

"It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n Roll)"

atop a flatbed truck

(above) Ron Wood's painting of the Rolling Stones

performing "Brown Sugar" on flatbed truck

in New York, 1975

(above) May, 1988

New Kids on the Block receive

key to the city from Puyallup, WA mayor

atop a flatbed truck parked next to the JCPenney store

5,000 teenage girls play hooky from school, mob streets,

near-riot ensues. This 4' x 6' poster was found after that event

(above) 8,000 sun-baked Metallica fans greet the band

(atop a semi-truck converted to flatbed)

outside Tower Records. San Jose, CA

celebrating the release of "Load," June, 1996

(above) April-May, 2007

map of UK locations where

LMHR-supporting bands on flatbed trucks will perform

(above and three photos below)

March 3, 1968

Grateful Dead perform free concert on a flatbed truck

on Haight Street (in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district)

across from the Straight Theater
photo courtesy photog. Jim Marshall

(from GRATEFUL DEAD: THE BOOK OF THE DEAD HEADS)

(above) bassist Phil Lesh (l), drummer Bill Kreutzmann (m)

and guitarist Jerry Garcia (r)

photo courtesy Jim Marshall

(above) drummer Mickey Hart

photo courtesy Jim Marshall

Jerry Garcia arriving for free concert on flatbed truck

photo courtesy Steve Brown

(above) rapper Mos Def, September 1, 2006

performing "Katrina Clap"atop a flatbed truck, in protest,

outside Radio City Music Hall during the Video Music Awards

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This weekend I was engaged in correspondence with John Hazelton, proprietor of www.filmposters.com, as I was looking to trade my "Two Lane Blacktop" linen-backed original film poster I'd acquired during the course of producing ROCKIN'. I saw on his site that John had turned up the rarely seen lobby card for the film "High School Confidential" (1958) that featured Jerry Lee Lewis and his band banging out the title song atop a flatbed truck. It's a well-remembered moment from a campy classic.

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So, I got to thinking about this and all the other moments when rock, pop, and rap musicians performed atop flatbed trucks or otherwise interacted (see ALLMAN BROTHERS below). I'll begin with Jerry Lee.

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JERRY LEE LEWIS. "High School Confidential" was one of The Killer's lesser-known hits, although it did reach #12 on both the U.S. and UK Billboard charts in 1958. As noted by www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5867413/ "If there's a deep and profound message for youngsters here, it's to go out and have a rockin' good time: 'Everybody's hoppin', everybody's boppin', boppin' at the high school hop.' This song may be the product of a bygone era, but the message is still the lifeblood of any kid's existence--particularly that of gyrating to rock & roll." It's also, many critics opine, the pinnacle of '50s juvenile delinquent movies. Hella great truck too.

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ELVIS PRESLEY. From ALL SHOOK UP: ELVIS DAY-BY-DAY (by Lee Cotton). "September 9, 1954: Elvis was paid $10 to perform at the grand opening of Lamar-Airways Shopping Center on Lamar Avenue in Memphis. About 300 people--mostly teenagers--attended the 9:00 pm event. Elvis performed with Sleepy-Eyed John and the Eagle's Nest band atop a flatbed truck in front of the new Katz Drug Store, the shopping center's flagship. In the audience was an aspiring singer from Arkansas, Johnny Cash." This would be the first flatbed truck stage--of many to come over the next two years--where Elvis wowed his first audiences.

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ROLLING STONES. The Rolling Stones embarked upon their Tour of the Americas '75 on June 1st of that year. This was their first tour with new guitarist Ron Wood, after Mick Taylor left the band. The tour was unusual in that it was not supporting any new release (it began more than seven months after the release of "It's Only Rock 'n Roll." The 1977 album "Love You Live" partially documents this tour. The announcement of the tour became famous in itself. At a May 1 press conference, the band surprised waiting reporters by driving down Broadway, playing "Brown Sugar," on the top of a flatbed truck in the middle of unrehearsed New York traffic. Apparently drummer Charlie Watts was responsible for the idea, remembering how New Orleans jazz bands promoted club dates. This stunt would later influence U2 and AC/DC. Wood, an accomplished artist, later painted his memory of that day (shown above).

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MIDNIGHT OIL. From www.burnsidewriterscollective.com: "Midnight Oil, from Australia, just like their peers U2, were always out of step in the 1980s. With songs like "Love Shack" by the B-52s and "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" by Wham cramming the airwaves, it's a bit easier to understand how utterly unsexy conscience was during those days. Radio was pop, and rock & roll was such a bore. Peter Garrett, the six-foot-seven front man of Midnight Oil was like a prophet crying in the wilderness. The band's album "Blue Hill Mining" was rock & roll. I remember reading about the band pulling up aboard a flatbed truck in downtown Manhattan, in fron of the Exxon Oil headquarters. The truck was loaded with their stage gear and strung with a banner that read, "Midnight Oil makes you dance, Exxon oil makes you sick."

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ALICE COOPER. from www.alicecooper.com. "Alice Cooper's title track to one of his great albums, "School's Out," was later deemed to be one of the Top 10 greatest summer songs ever, right behind The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" and the Beach Boys' "California Girls." BITCH BITCH BITCH read the muscle shirt Alice wore for the "School's Out" class photo, and bitch, bitch, bitch is exactly what everyone was doing about Alice--and what happened when the Alice Cooper Show invaded millions of North American homes via television on ABC's very first "In Concert" program. In the midst of all the sensationalism, the "School's Out" tour flew across the pond to England. By accidentally-on-purpose stalling a flatbed truck smack in the middle of Piccadilly Circus during rush hour, Alice's press agents drew huge attention to a double-sided billboard atop the truck, featuring Richard Avedon's photo of Alice wearing nothing but his boa constrictor."

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PUNK ROCK. from an interview with Dave Philp of The Automatics, at www.punk77.co.uk:

"We did guerilla gigs everywhere! When big bands we thought were jokes wereplaying inflated venues, we'd put ourselves on the bill and paper the area with posters of us as the main act and them in tiny print as the support act. Afterward the gig when the audience was coming out, we'd roll up in the parking lot on the back of a flatbed truck with a generator and our equipment and start playing. We usually got in 4 or 5 numbers before the police moved us on. We did it to Queen! Freddie was furious because we stole the review in the London Standard! We did another flatbed gig down the Kings Road in the middle of the Great Punk Wars of '77 and nearly died, starting a riot and all."

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NOISE ROCK. From www.waxtraxrecords.com. Duane, one of Wax Trax' founders (Wax Trax is one of the great Denver record stores), remembers: "I grew up in small towns and listened to the radio--WLF out of Chicago. I loved the hits: Elvis, the Drifters, Buddy Holly. Later, I got into the whole psychedelic era, starting with the Beatles, Hendrix, Cream. The Rolling Stones were like nothing I'd ever seen before--wild! I saw Dylan in '67. Later, I saw Black Flag, Flock of Seagulls, and was into Noise Bands for awhile. Ensturzende Neubauten (Collapsing New Buildings) played jack hammers and sand compactors and electric drills--they played Denver in a junkyard on a flatbed truck with four refrigerators on each corner and a yellow VW tilted on a ramp to shine lights on the stage."

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HAIR METAL. You must remember Dokken on a flatbed semi truck performing "It's Not Love," back in a 1985 video. Jon Wiederhorn of www.Amazon.com does. "Sure, they may have been the kings of heavy metal Cheez Whiz, but unlike many image-conscious '80s rockers, Dokken wrote genuinely appealing songs. Don Dokken's voice carried better than most belters and George Lynch was a ferociously gifted guitarist who could tug at the heartstrings as easily as he could burn down the bedroom. By the time of "Under Lock and Key," the band was all about attracting a following. Candy metal softballs like "It's Not Love" were heavy enough to keep the guys rockin' but sensitive enough to attract the chicks. And isn't that what '80s metal was all about?"

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AC/DC. From www.oneplusoneequalsthree.com. "The first Australian promo music video (I believe) was shot back in 1976. Paul Drane, director from Countdown, put AC/DC on a flatbed truck and filmed them playing "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n Roll)" whilst the truck ambled down Swanston Street in Melbourne. No post-production special effects, no gimmicks, no animation, no budget! But the clip did feature that riff and that bagpipe solo (!). It's still refreshing to see a truly great song and video that uses nothing except . . . a truck. A raw, rough, and ready Australian rock classic." Editor's note: the song is notable for combining bagpipes (courtesy the Rats of Tobruk Pipe Band) with hard rock instruments, and there was no attempt at lip-synching here: everyone played their instruments atop the truck, and lead singer Bon Scott played the bagpipes as well (in the 1960s he played side drum in the Coastal Scottish Pipe Band). In 2004, the City of Melbourne commemorated the filming by officially renaming a street "ACDC Lane." Jack Black, in the School of Rock film (2003), covered this song memorably.

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PROTEST ROCK. from www.lovemusichateracism.com. "People across the country are holding LMHR events through April and into May (2007), to tie in with Unite Against Fascism's campaign to expose the BNP as fascists and racist liars in the run-up to May 3rd's local council elections. Events including gigs, rallies, mass leafletting, club nights, school & college events, film screenings and a university tour will help mobilise people. Flatbed trucks with PA's and LMHR-supporting bands playing on the trucks will go around major cities." (see map above).

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from www.marxists.org "Concerning the Carnival Against the Nazi's (1978). It was a most exciting-looking demonstration. Trafalgar Square was raked with colour. Yellow Anti-Nazi League (ANL) roundels, punk pink Rock Against Racism (RAR) stars, and day-glo flags oscillated in approval to the speeches. There were streamers, Long Ranger masks, steel bands and reggae and punk from dozens of flatbed trucks, and thousands upon thousands of plastic whistles formed slip-streams of colour and sound. It was a carnival, a positive, joyous carnival against the No Fun, No Future philosophy of the National Front."

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PAUL ROBESON. Robeson was a great athlete, singer, and activist during the 1930s - 1950s. In 1946, on the campaign trail in June of that year, he came to Georgia where he sang before overflow audiences. He rode a flatbed truck through the streets of the Black neighborhoods singing, and when people came out of their homes to hear him, he urged them to register to vote.

In 1952, the State Department banned him from leaving the U.S. to sing at a concert in Vancouver, British Columbia. Labor unions in the U.S. and Canada organized a May 18 concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington State and B.C. Robeson stood atop a flatbed truck on the American side and performed before a crowd on the Canadian side estimated to be nearly 40,000 people.

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CONSEQUENCE. In 1996, rapper Consequence joined with Kanye West to film a most ambitious video in the streets of Manhattan for his song "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." The idea was to film through the windows of a fictional hotel room which itself was traveling aboard a flatbed truck. According to www.digitalcontentproducer.com, "by January they'd secured the necessary permits and hired the right video girls, including vixen Tiffany Webb. Consequence and West found themselves on a traveling set, rolling through New York in frigid conditions, literally freezing while rapping in front of two Arriflex 16 SR 3 cameras. "The look was fine," said producer Susan Linss, "but the concept wasn't tying together. We'd get through the first two verses and then the last verse would be very challenging. It was just the logistical stuff--weather conditions, being on the moving flatbed, with the city passing by--which threw us off our game."

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MOS DEF. from www.mtv.com. "September 1, 2006. Mos Def was taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct after an unauthorized performance outside Radio City Music Hall in New York during the Video Music Awards. According to authorities, the rapper (who had permits) pulled up in front of the venue in a flatbed truck at around 10 p.m. for an impromptu show for the people gathered outside. He was performing "Katrina Clap," a freestyle indictment of the Bush administration's frustratingly slow response to the hurricane victims of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

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BOOTS RILEY of THE COUP. from www.speakoutnow.org. "Boots Riley is a co-founder of the hip hop group The Coup. Together with DJ Pam the Funktress, Riley has helped The Coup's sounds evolve from early '90s Afroethnicity to 21st century Raptivism. In 1991, Riley helped found the Mau Mau Rhythm Collective to use hip hop culture to publicize campaigns against racism. Riley has taught several workshops on arts and activism, sponsored by the California Arts Council, in which he developed "guerilla hip hop concerts" (mobile concerts on flatbed trucks)."

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U2. from www.netmusiccountdown.com. "On November 22, 2004, U2 held a parade in New York City that ended with a free concert by the Brooklyn Bridge. According to www.U2.com, U2's day began on the back of a 48-foot flatbed truck, where the band's equipment had been set up for a video shoot. With the band aboard, the truck then drove through Manhattan and across the Manhattan Bridge, performing the song "All Because of You" from their new album "Hot to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." Bono also entertained the crowds with "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." At the end of the video shoot, directed by Phil Joanou, the truck delivered U2 to Fulton Ferry State Park, just north of the Brooklyn Bridge, where the band performed an 11-song concert for several thousand fans."

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SONGS. To my knowlege, two bands have written and performed their own version of a song titled "Flat Bed Truck." That would be The Dreamsicles ("Live at Schubas 11/20/2004") and the Kenny Floyd Band in 2005 ("Water").

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BJORK. "Big Time Sensuality" was Bjork's fourth single and music video, released in November, 1993. Written by Bjork and Nellee Hooper, and produced by Hooper, the video was shot on location in the streets of New York in 1993 by Stephane Sednaoui, featuring Bjork dancing back and forth and singing on the back of a moving flatbed truck.

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Stephane: "Bjork contacted me to film "Big Time Sensuality." We were supposed to go to Iceland. But no matter how simple the idea was, going to Iceland was too big for the budget."

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Bjork: "We met severl times and I kind of blabbered on about how I wanted it to be, you know, when you're living on the edge and it's about the courage to enjoy life."

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Stephane: "I went to New York and I was in a cab, and I was listening to the song and I looked around me and I saw it would work amazingly with the city. With all the big buildings and everything and her voice. And at the end of the day I called her and said, "I've got an idea!"

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Bjork: "The best way to get me in that state, Stephane told me, was to physically get me in front of a camera on the back of a truck."

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Stephane: "So, that's what we did. We took a truck and drove it everywhere."

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Bjork: "We were driving with a big P.A. I was very, very shy. But you know how New Yorkers are. They were like, "Hi honey, let me get up on there with you." So we drove for twelve hours in circles. And people started following the truck. So it was like a continuous, twelve-hour concert, filmed by one camera in one fixed position."

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Stephane: "The performance was unbelieveable from beginning to end. There was no need to do anything."

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Bjork: "I just had to get extroverted as humanly possible!"

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GRATEFUL DEAD. from www.archive.org (reviewer sinceamelia3). "To me this show (March 3, 1968), which the Dead performed for free on the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of a closed-off Haight Street in San Francisco, is why I came to love the Dead. It's remembered fondly as the band's goodbye to the Haight, and because even with the ravages of the previous summer's "Summer of Love," magic still could happen." The concert was taped by a friend of the band, Steve Brown, on an old Uher tape recorder with a cheap mike he stuck up over the crowd.

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Larry (last name not known) recalled, "I remember getting off the bus on Haight Street that spring day, pushing my way through the crowds to see what all the excitement was about ( I didn't know--did anyone?--that the Dead were parking a flatbed truck across Haight to play a free gig!) So, completely by accident I got within a hundred feet just as they fired up the music. Metaphorically speaking, the bus came by and I got on . . . and I was splattered like a bug on the windshield."

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ALLMAN BROTHERS. from www.snopes.com. "Howard Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, on October 29, 1971. He was only 24. The band had just released the live double-album "Allman Brothers Band at the Fillmore East." After Duane's death came "Eat a Peach," consisting of leftover live material from their Fillmore East shows, plus three studio tracks already in the can at the time of Duane's death and three more tracks recorded afterwards. It became their biggest commercial success to date, hitting #4 on the Billboard album charts. Allman died trying to avoid running into a flatbed truck bearing a lumber crane.

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"A Chevy flatbed truck that was coming towards Allman slowed down and began doing a slow left turn in front of him. As described in Midnight Riders, Duane gently pushed the bike to his left, toward the centerline, so he could swing around the truck. Then the truck did the unexpected: halfway through the turn it stopped dead in the road, blocking Duane's entire lane. He pushed the bike farther toward the middle of the street. He was only a few feet away from the truck now, and it was still stopped in front of him. He had two options: he could lay the bike down or he could try to veer around the truck. He had an instant to make the decision.

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"For a moment it looked as though Duane was going to be able to finesse his way through. Then his friends Candace and Dixie, following further back in a car, watched in horror as he came off the bike. He had hit something, maybe the cable hanging from the crane or the big weight-ball dangling on the cable, or maybe the rear corner of the flatbed. His helmet flew off and the bike bounced up in the air, landing on top of him and driving him hard into the pavement. The bike skidded ninety feet, leaving three gouge marks in the pavement, then slammed into the curb. It slid along the edge of the street a few more feet and came to rest between the curb and the right tire of an oncoming car. The bike's engine was revved up at full blast. It was screaming. The truck driver climbed out of the cab. He checked the guy lying in the road. Then he walked over to the motorcycle and shut it off. It was 5:44 in the afternoon."

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So, an interesting journey into the world of rock and flatbed trucks. RIP Duane Allman. You are missed greatly, still today.

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ROCKIN' (and I mean ROCKIN') with Dave Rasmussen in his gorgeous, growlin' '73 GTO

400 CID 4bbl (above)

note: NACA-style hood scoops pointing the way (above and below)

Back in 2001, Dave Rasmussen unloaded 3/4's of his world-class show rod model kit collection to purchase a 1973 GTO. As he explains on his website, www.showrods.com, this acquisition harkened back to his older brother Mark owning the same car during high school for about 18 months. "For its day (post-oil embargo America) it was very fast and very fun to drive. 400 CID 4bbl, 230 HP, funky NACA-style hood scoops, 3-speed automatic, sport steering wheel, console, and Rally Gauges. Vrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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First offered in 1964, the GTO was the first "light"production car with a monster engine and performance package. As Dave notes, "many other muscle cars followed and were even faster than the GTO, but no other car ever matched the combination of performance, split-grille style, and mystique of the GTO." Not surprisingly for the time, having begun with an inspired variant on the LeMans coupe, over ten years the GTO refined its look and added more and more luxury, stylish, and racy items, beginning with the stacked headlights and then the redline tires. The Ram Air performance package evolved four times, convertibles were sold in 1966 and 1967, the Endura bumper and hidden headlights of the 1968 model were truly innovative, the cartoonish Judge vied for attention against the Roadrunner in 1969, the 1970 455HO engine was the largest ever, and the 1971 was the second fastest GTO ever produced. 1973 brought the "Colonade" LeMans look, and the final 1974 version was based on the compact Ventura.

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Insurance costs eventually skyrocketed, and by the early '70s, federal safety and emissions standards were hugely burdensome for anyone to maintain, service, or upgrade a pure muscle car. Plus, the cost of gas after the Arab embargo was a huge deterrent. End of an era. Only 4,806 GTO's were manufactured in 1973 (against 96,946 in 1966).

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Pontiac basically held to a two-year styling cycle. A new style was issued in 1973 for the LeMans Sport Coupe-based GTO and immediately came under fire. Critics hated the new massive chrome bumper (with its nerf-bars look), the goofy NACA hood scoops, the "pontoon look" of the front fenders, the louvered-look roof pillars, and the rear end which came to a point. "Personally I think the critics were all full of crap," says Dave. "Pontiac called this body style "Colonade," but I call it "swoopy." Naturally, I'm biased since I own the car, but I love the look of this baby. Its styling really marked the end of an era, as designers after 1973 started paying much more attention to aerodynamics and much less to "swoopy" sheet metal."

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The 1973 GTO was the only production car ever to use the NACA-style hood scoops, which first appeared on a 1947 airplane (and were popular on racing cars in the early '70s). These were nonfunctional, with rubber inserts blocking the openings, but the fantasy is that they could have served a Ram Air package (apparently only ONE such '73 GTO was ever built as a prototype).

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The distinctive honeycomb wheels were an option that only ran three years on the GTO: 1971 - 1973. They were the most expensive wheel option ever for a GTO. The massive 1973 bumper was a chrome-plated steel unit that utilized an energy-absorbing frame mount, housing two telescoping steel chambers with pressurized gas and hydraulic fluid acting as small shock absorbers which could compress three inches without damage.

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The 1973 model year was the last GTO with a big engine. The standard engine, factory installed in Dave's car, was the 400 CID with a 4-barrel carb generating 230 net HP @ 4400 RPM and 325 ft-lbs of torque @ 3200rpm. There also was an option for a 455 CID engine. The next year, 1974, the downsized Ventura-based GTO could only be had with a 350 CID engine.

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Dave bought his '73 in the late summer of 2001 from Jim Theobald in Vacaville, CA (a town on Highway 80 midway between San Francisco and Sacramento). It had 54,365 original miles and was never driven outside of California. It came with AM/FM push-button stereo and "Expanded Morrokide" (vinyl) bucket seats , but without tilt steering and cruise control. Dave drove it back to his (then) home in Memphis, TN, over seven states in six days, a distance of 2,568 miles (183 gallons of premium fuel), with one breakdown (a front spindle gave way), a shining moment cruising at 120 MPH, and nonfunctional air conditioning. "Once I hit the highway," Dave recalled, "It all started to come back. The metallic sound of the directional, the crappy reception provided by the radio's antenna embedded in the windshield, the small silver cylinder on the floor that controlled the brights, and especially the deep pitch of the 4-barrel carb as I stomped on the accelerator."

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Dave now lives back in his home state of Wisconsin (he grew up in West Allis, near Milwaukee), and told me the engine was given a complete overhaul in 2003, but the paint, bodywork, and interior are essentially unchanged. A new stereo was installed in the glovebox as Dave is a stone-cold rock & roller and the car doesn't drive without tunes.

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What intrigued me about Dave's Odyssey was the daily record of the rock & roll which was the background music for the entire trek--pure Americana at its best.

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Check out the website--it's a great read. In fact, in there Dave provides everyone with a particular factoid that's now stuck in my brain:

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"The 1970 GTO offered a unique feature to get that muscle car sound "on-demand." This feature was called the "Tiger Button." Driver-controlled, it was a vacuum-operated system which opened baffles in the mufflers to given an open exhaust note. The driver controlled it with a dash-mounted knob. Under pressure from a variety of sources, this feature was only sold on a few hundred cars and was cancelled early in the model year." Wow . . . NICE feature!

a ROCKIN' salute to the golden age of show rod kits, and a special shout-out to www.showrods.com

Li'l Gypsy Wagon. 1972. AMT. Designed by John Bogosian (above)
Tijuana Taxi. 1969. Monogram. Designed by Tom Daniel (above)
Rommel's Rod. 1969. Monogram. Designed by Tom Daniel (above)
rare Paul Revere and the Raiders figures, from Raiders Coach. 1969. MPC.
Kit designed by George Barris (above)

side panel: Paul Revere and the Raiders' Raiders Coach. 1969 (above)

Monkeemobile. 1967. MPC. Designed by Dean Jeffries (above)

Astro-Vette. 1967. MPC. Designed by General Motors (above)

Sonny & Cher. 1967. AMT. Designed by George Barris (above)

Uncertain T. 1966. Monogram. Designed by Steve Scott (above)

Uncertain T. (1). Kit built by Don Valdiviezo, El Paso, TX (above)

photo courtesy www.showrods.com

Uncertain T. (2) Kit built by Anthony Warren, Portland, OR

photo courtesy www.showrods.com

Uncertain T. (3) Kit built by Don Valdiviezo, El Paso, TX (above)

photo courtesy www.showrods.com

Wild Dream and King "T". AMT. 1965. (above)

WD designed by Joe Wilhelm

KT designed by Don Tognotti

Surf Woody. 1965. AMT. Designed by George Barris (above)

Phone Booth. 1964. MPC. Designed by Carl Casper (above)

Mysterion.1964. Revell. Designed by Ed Roth (above)

Kit built by Paul Burke, Cotati, CA

photo courtesy www.showrods.com

Munster Koach. 1964. AMT. Designed by George Barris w. Tom Daniel (above)

'39 LaSalle Hearse. 1964. Aurora. designer unknown (above)

Tweedy Pie. 1963. Revell. Designed by Ed Roth (above)

XR6. 1963. AMT. Designed by Steve Swaja (above)

Ala Kart. 1963. AMT. Designed by George Barris (above)

Outlaw. 1962. Revell. Designed by Ed Roth (above)

Lincoln Futura. 1956. Revell. Designed by Ford Motor Company (above)

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I was fortunate to have been a model-making young fella in the golden age of kits, roughly 1960 - 1972. I graduated high school (Englewood, NJ) in 1969, and immediately left for college in Northern California. As I noted in a recent blog, during Junior High School primarily, I built at least 50 - 60 kits, and displayed 'em all over my bedroom. Two of the greatest were Li'l Coffin and Orange Crate.

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A designer friend posted on www.gigposters.com a link to www.showrods.com, created by Dave Rasmussen. It's an inspired site, chock full of amazing information about the hobby which consumed my young life for quite a number of years (particularly 1960 - 1965)--until Motown, the Beatles, surf-rock, and psychedelic rock fully took over center stage.

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At www.showrods.com you'll see commentary on several hundred show rod kits, and see magnificent box art. Now, what is a show rod, exactly?

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Dave posted the introduction to CLASSIC PLASTIC, a book written by Rick Polizzi--a pictorial, primarily, of the great models of the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Here's a snippet or two, which provides some of that explanation:

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"The 1960s saw the pinnacle of one of America's most unusual native art forms. Flowing streamlined designs, radiant colors, and amazing craftsmanship blended together to develop a new concept . . . Show Cars.

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"Show cars evolved from the custom car, which was basically a modified version of an existing vehicle. Early pioneers of auto customizing in the 1950s began changing and improving their wheels for speed, originality, and a cool look. During these times, cars were "chopped, tubbed, raked, and hopped-up." These basic customizing techniques continued to become more elaborate, until custom cars were being designed from scratch or by heavily converting existing vehicles into unbelievable designs. These cars were (mostly) meant to be looked at, not driven. The men who created them (George Barris, Ed Roth, etc.) were true artists, and their creations were true art. Show cars belong to the genre of sculpture, and for those of us who couldn't afford the originals, there were always the model kits."

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I won't go into the entire history of show cars, show rods, and model kits because that's covered all so well at www.showrods.com. But it was because of the model kits that I learned about Daryl Starbird, Carl Casper, Bill Cushenberry, and Monogram's chief designer, Tom Daniel. And, it's how I picked up about the Oakland Grand National Show, because many of the winners yielded fantastic models, such as Orange Crate. The box art particularly blew me away--just as LP art would just a few years further on. I'd look at a box, and literally fall in love.Powerful stuff, art.

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I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dave Rasmussen by e-mail. Here's part of his story:

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PG At its peak, how many kits did you have?

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DR To be clear, the collection you see on my web site did not start coming together until I was about 38 years old. In addition, I don't have 3/4 of those kits any more [editor's note: Dave sold many of the kits in order to acquire a '73 GTO, about which I'll blog next]. That having been said, there were 275 "show rods" as I defined them that ended up in my collection. When I sold off many of the kits to help fund my new passion, a few people on my discussion group (members) were saddened and hurt. Their sentiment was " . . . you have the only complete collection in the WORLD of these kits!" But I knew I'd never build them all and I really wanted my own first old muscle car to play with. So, I did it. There are times I regret it, but that's just my ODC kicking in.

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PG What was the earliest-manufactured show rod kit in your collection? 1962?

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DR I think if you look at the Lincoln Futura [shown above - later, the inspiration for the George Barris-built Batmobile] it might have been 1956. But, as I state on my site, I consider Ed Roth's Outlaw the "original" Show Rod and yes, that was 1962. There's always debate on whether a car in this genre is a "concept" car or a true "show" car. I don't worry about such things much since this is a hobby and I just put ones in that fit my ideas of what a "show rod" is.

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PG What was the first kit you built? And when?

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DR I'm not at all sure which was the first kit I built since my brother and I built WWII planes, ships, and armor as well as funny cars and dragsters. He even built the "Chinese Junk" back then. I don't know why I was attached to that model, but I went out and bought one a few years ago just in case I wanted to touch that old feeling again. Same thing with the "Attack Weasel." Those are the only two non-car kits I own as reminders that it was not just about cars back then for us.

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Now, the kit that got me back into this madness (long after high school, college, jobs, marriage, kids) was the Li'l Coffin (1965 Monogram 50th Anniversary issue). A friend at work named Scotty Doyle was (and still is) a top-level aircraft model guy. I was talking to him about my old days of modeling a few times, so one day he comes into my office and hands me that kit with the (now) infamous sentence, "Here, perhaps this will get you back into models." I took it home, got some glue and built my first model in over 20 years. It lit me up beyond words. If he doesn't do that, we're probably not talking here and there would be no Show Rod Rally website.

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PG Do you (did you) have a favorite? (Mine was Orange Crate).

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DR My peak modeling years were 1968 - 1970. We collected and traded "Odd Rods" cards in grade school. LOVED them! There were a lot of muscle cars zooming around the streets but my favorites were the "Show Rods." My brother and I even went to the big show rod displays at State Fair Park (Milwaukee) in 1969- 1970. And at that time for show rod models, Tom Daniel was the man. The Cherry Bomb, Tijuana Taxi, Paddy Wagon, Beer Wagon, Pie Wagon--his kits were my favorites. Of all his designs, my favorite was Rommel's Rod, because it combined a cool car with military toughness, historical fantasy, and skeletons. The TV series "Rat Patrol" was a huge influence on that too.

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PG How did you display them when you were first building 'em?

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DR Living north of the Mason-Dixon line (Wisconsin), we were blessed with a basement. All model-building occurred on a small table down there. Dad built us two long shelves and mounted them on the basement wall where we could display our finished projects. When it got filled up, we "bombed" them with closepins from large rubber bands and other suitable methods of destruction. Others (friends?) used BB guns and firecrackers (groan). If we knew then . . .

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PG What did your Mom and Dad have to say about your hobby?

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DR They were supportive. They bought us models for Christmas and birthdays. My Dad played with crude cars and airplane wood models as a boy, so he saw this as a natural technological evolution of what boys should be doing as a leisure activity. Today, my parents seem amused and modestly pleased that I celebrate a big part of my youth in this fashion.

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PG And your wife and daughters?

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DR When I was heavy into collecting these kids, my daughters were pleased that their Dad still could be turned on by "toys" just as they presently were into their own "toy" experience. On the other hand, the wife was (not exactly totally) supportive as it was costing us about $4,000 a year for three years and diverting away some attention. Today my model and cool car influences have touched the family in positive, albeit costly ways. My 17-year old daughter loves the '99 Firebird I let her drive. It has T-tops, it's silver, and we added some neat red pinstriping and cool bird flame decals on the doors. My wife loves here '98 BMW Z3 roadster and really likes going with me on cruises and to classic car shows. And I'm teaching my 15-year old to drive "her" 1972 Chevelle SS clone. We're going to paint it her school colors (black w. gold stripes), put a ratchet shifter in it, and learn to bracket race against other high school kids and the police for Friday night "Beat the Heat" events at the dragstrip for the next three summers. In addition, our big annual event is the Route 66 Fest in Springfield. I've become a big Route 66 fan over the last five years and even got a Route 66 tattoo on my shoulder at last year's event (spouse-approved of course!).

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PG What era of rock & roll did you grow up in?

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DR Although it may sound strange, I grew up almost entirely on AM radio from 1964 - 1977 (WOKY the Mighty 92!! - Milwaukee). I had a Panasonic clock radio and put that hard little beige earpiece in at night an fell asleep listening to the Top 40 for years. Today, I have that same model clock radio on my desk quietly flipping the minutes away to remind me of that time. I listen to the oldies through Apple's iTunes radio and my own oldies collection of over 4,000 songs. But often in the car, I tune the dial back to WOKY and that hollow AM sound. My kids think it sounds awful. I think it sounds beautiful."

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Be sure and tune in later this week to read about Dave's Rockin' Adventure Home in his newly-acquired '73 GTO. And, thanks Dave, for the commentary, the site, and the memories.

a ROCKIN' good time at the very eclectic DUCKY WADDLES in sunny Encinitas, CA

artist Scrojo with Sterling Moss LP, found at Lou's Records next door (above)
Jerry Waddle, esteemed proprietor of DUCKY WADDLE'S in Encinitas, CA (above)
trifecta!! (actually, 3/5's of the Grushkin bookshelf), held here by collector Bob White, who came down to say hi (above)
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Well I had one hella nice time down in Encinitas, CA yesterday. My kinda town, about 20 miles north of San Diego / La Jolla / Cardiff-by-the-Sea, fulla sun, surf, ocean bluffs, and one of those great eclectic bookstores -- DUCKY WADDLE'S -- where I was invited to autograph ROCKIN' over several hours.

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Plus, I got to hang with Scrojo, the artist who did the front and back covers for ART OF MODERN ROCK, which I co-authored with Dennis King. Scrojo took me out to lunch down the street at a funky Mexican joint which has the kinda low-brow food I love. You can see many hundreds of Scrojo's event posters at www.gigposters.com and at www.Scrojo.com. Some of you also may know he's been a key artist for the top surf and skateboard companies, among much, much else. He hopes to begin work on movie posters next.

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Many people now avidly collect the work of Shepard Fairey, famous as creator of the "Obey" campaign. DUCKY WADDLE'S has been one of the key outlets for Fairey's artwork over many years. Jerry Waddle, the proprietor, then gifted me with one of those new Fairey-created custom '60s VW Microbus's produced by Hot Wheels. Way kool!!!

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Encinitas reminded me of Santa Cruz, just south of the Bay Area, also on the coast. There I spent at least a thousand hours during my college years, out at "Stony Beach," trottin' around on the bluffs, and sitting in Neptune's chamber, way out to sea below one of those bluffs. And afterwards there always was Bookshop Santa Cruz where I discovered author / historian / journalist John McPhee's lifetime of work that has proved so inspirational.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know about the earthquakes. But to me California is still the Promised Land. Thanks, Jerry and Scrojo, for the hospitality!