Of interest to anyone into rock albums from the seventies and of particular interest to folks in LA into recent era history is the excellent collection of Billboards on Sunset Blvd 1974-5 flickr page by Larry The Frog that features photos of billboards shot in those two years of the mid 1970's along Sunset Blvd. in the  vicinity of the Hollywood Amoeba store.  The majority of these shots are ones advertising new album releases or concert dates from such acts as Poco, Loggins & Messina, Barbi Benton, Donovan, The Who, War, Joni Mitchell, Billy Preston, Neil Sedaka, Greg Allman, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Mahogeny Rush, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Rolling Stones, George Harrison, The 5th Dimension, Steppenwolf, Rick Derringer, and many more.

These great shots were all photographed by Larry The Frog when he lived a block off the Sunset Strip back in the 70's.and were recently lovingly restored by the photographer utilizing photoshopping from scanned 35mm slides and negatives. There are over a hundred shots in this engaging collection that, like rummaging through the old 70's album dollar bins at Amoeba, will unveil a whole bygone era - only better than merely album cover art since they also capture the time and place so well. View the full collection here. 

The early 80's fascination with blossoming computer culture seemed to go hand in hand with an apprehensive take on its possible uses... These themes made for some very interesting makeovers.  Throw in a little Sci-fi and a touch of New Wave and you've got some very "Modern Rock"...

Grace Slick and the Airplane folks had a few records with technological themes...



Peter Frampton attempted his own computer makeover below, the 80's were not his decade...

Here is an odd assortment of events that happened on this day in history, July 27th.

Charlotte Corday, the assassin of Jean-Paul Marat 1768, is born as is the great Leo Durocher, 1906, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.

Vocalist, producer and songwriter, Harvey Fuqua is born 1929, Doc Pomus in 1925 and Bobbie Gentry in 1944.

Thanks, Tina. I tell you, I don't know how them folks in them chairs sat so still! My entire childhood, this song made me flail about so hard, I often had to hold onto a bedpost. Honest, this song make-a-me crazy!

Also? I would like to thank Tina Turner and Ann-Margret, because when I was in kindergarten, I saw Tommy at the drive-in movies, and y'all 2 women made me gay. Thank you so much. I love being a gay.

What we have here is forty seconds of insane hot heaven:

Whew. Knock me down with a feather! Hell, just knock me down! Please!

If you don't understand how a movie like Tommy can make a pre-pubescent girl into a big old dyke, I can only offer this to your eyes - two bits from Tommy. The first one, my second favorite, highlights The Mother in a penthouse apartment not at all unlike the one I live in now, in fact I am wearing that gown as we speak. One of 9 identical gowns:

I was a baby in Boston and it was raining beans! It should be pointed out to you now that only today did I see any sexual reference as to the pillow, and I am not sure if that's too racy for this blog. Shoot. I can be rather obtuse it seems. (We can skip the part where there's any rational discussion about the bad acting, right? Cool!)

Now, Tina. Oh dear. Dearest Tina ... I think my crib was an Iron Maiden:

I was never supposed to be normal. For that I would like to thank my parents for being so incredibly dumb as to take little tiny children to see movies like this. Yay! You made me gay and weird! Thanks Mom and Dad! You rule!