Strange Stories: Strawberry Alarm Clock

This month in honor of the release of the Strawberry Alarm Clock’s new album, Where’s One (out via Big Stir Records), we have a special edition of Strange Stage Stories, with four times things didn’t go quite as planned for members of the iconic band.

Having the right haircut can help a little in unexpected ways. Keyboardist Mark Weitz: “We were on tour with the Beach Boys (November 1967 and April 1968). Randy is on a drum riser, like six feet above me, right? So, picture him center stage; I have my keyboard set up below him. So, I’m looking up at Randy and we started the set off. It was two or three songs into the concert. And the cymbal stand fell off the drum riser, which was way up there. And when it was falling, the cymbal turned sideways like a guillotine and landed right in the middle of my head, which split my head open on top. I was so embarrassed when it happened. Here we are at this big concert with lots of people. And, you know, opening for the Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield. All of a sudden, my head felt hot and I felt blood just coming down my face. But wait, here’s the funnier part. And then, I took the cymbal and I put it on my head like a hat. All the girls in the front row were like, “Oh!” It was really crazy. It was a bloody mess. I got sent to the emergency hospital and they put in six or eight stitches up in the top of my head. But the show didn’t stop.” Bassist George Bunell adds, “Mark had an Afro at the time. Now if it happened, it really would split his head open. It was kind of Hendrix style for a short period of time there.”

Strawberry Alarm Clock today

Sometimes a dream gig, such as playing a major festival, with a lineup that included the Eagles, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Earth, Wind & Fire, goes sideways. Drummer Randy Seol: “We did the first California Jam (April 6, 1974) on one of the side stages, way on the side. For some reason, our keyboard player was up in a hot air balloon with a bullhorn and a Fender Rhodes piano, while we were on the ground on a stage. A woman came out of the audience and started tugging at the rope and almost tipped the ballon’s gondola over. And we had a pyrotechnic girl that lit off all these fireworks and they were misfiring. It was really very weird.”

The band has played concerts in San Diego several times over the decades, but one gig that didn’t happen had repercussions. Bassist George Bunnell: “We were supposed to play at the San Diego Community Concourse in 1968, which would have been our second time there that year, Steve Crosby was the promoter of the show. And there was another gig up in L.A. that we were asked to play at the Cheetah Club with all kinds of people, including the Turtles and Buffalos, and everybody. And we said to the manager, oh, we want to do that show. And he goes, okay, well, I’ll take care of the other gig in San Diego and we’ll postpone it or something. Well, he didn’t take care of it. He just let it go and we didn’t show. So, there was a lawsuit that we never even knew about. And years and years later, Randy and I were living in San Diego and we met up with Steve Crosby. And I’ll never forget, we were in a car or something with his dad, Bob Crosby of Bob Crosby and the Bobcats. And we were talking about bass players. Anyway, so then somebody was saying Randy was the drummer of the Strawberry Alarm Clock. And then Steve Crosby turns around and says, what? You were the drummer in the Strawberry Alarm Clock? And Randy says yeah. And Steve goes, “well, you owe me some money. I have an outstanding lawsuit.” And so, he made Randy work at his home in La Jolla remodeling it. I didn’t talk. I didn’t say a word. That was the least I ever talked in my life (laughs). But I went over and started helping Randy work on the house because I felt really bad. And then eventually Crosby figured it out.”

What’s the strangest occurrence of hearing the Strawberry Alarm Clock’s signature song, “Incense and Peppermints”? Drummer Gene Gunnels: “After the song was just out, I was driving down Highland Avenue in Hollywood and there’s this girl hitchhiking, right? She’s kind of cute, so I pulled over and picked her up. As we start driving, all of a sudden “Incense and Peppermints” came on the radio. So, I kind of leaned over and I kind of turned it up a little bit. And she goes, “I hate that song.”

https://strawberryalarmclock.com

Bart Mendoza is a music journalist whose work has appeared in numerous publications, from the San Diego Union Tribune and the San Diego Troubadour to Great Britain’s Shindig magazine. As a musician he has toured the world during the 1980s with Manual Scan, the ’90s with the Shambles, and currently performs with True Stories.