As the first wave of LA punk started to take hold in Hollywood, both on and off the Sunset Strip, the girls of the rock n roll underground flattened scene hierarchy by carrying the torch of the sexually charged, “I do what I want” spirit exemplified by the most notorious Hollywood groupies–in creative and unexpected ways. Then, Lori, Morgana, Dee Dee, and Pamela look back on their rock'n'roll lives, and consider their own personal mythologies.
Nov 20, 2024•59 min•Season 5Ep. 8
In the mid 1970s, as glam rock fizzled out, new kids began to trickle in on the block–kids who looked up to the groupies as party girl icons, as rock’n’roll legends, who went out there and got what they wanted…come hell or high platforms. Kid Congo Powers, Alice Bag, Pleasant Gehman, and Theresa Kereakas all were pulled towards the glitter and guitars and debauchery, and give their first-hand teenage accounts of those crucial years where glam burnt out and in its embers, early LA punk started co...
Nov 20, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Hello Lost Notes fans! The final two episodes of Groupies: Women of the Sunset Strip from the Pill to Punk are coming later this week. But first, we want to share an episode of the podcast Dressed: The History of Fashion . Mary Wilson is a founding member of one of the most iconic, successful—and stylish— 1960s singing groups of all time: The Supremes. Mary has been collecting and archiving the gowns the Supremes wore and shares many of the glittery details with Dressed. New episodes of Dressed ...
Nov 18, 2024•42 min
Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco. The Continental Hyatt House. The Rainbow Bar & Grill. Glam rock was the genre du jour and there was no more convenient or welcoming a circuit for an intrepid teenage groupie to land in than the Strip in the early 1970s. As for Led Zeppelin, LA became their spiritual home-away-from-home (read: wives). From flying in on their private jet, the Starship, to cruising down Sunset picking up groupies in their white stretch limo, the Slutmobile, Led Zeppelin’s su...
Nov 13, 2024•49 min•Season 5Ep. 6
A teen magazine so daring, so outrageous, so scandalizing and sexually suggestive that it only lasted…five issues. Star Magazine: from the publishing empire that brought you Hot Rod, Motor Trend, Guns & Ammo, and later in the 90s, Sassy, there was, in 1973, a red-hot new music rag that glamorized the teenage groupie lifestyle rampant on the Sunset Strip. Or did it? We asked the original staff who made the magazine: who, exactly, was a Star girl?
Nov 06, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 5
As a girl, Dee Dee Keel ditched the doldrums of Venice for the thrills of Hollywood. Just a few years later, she would soon become the woman behind the world-famous Whisky A Go-Go... as well as an infamously active groupie. Meanwhile, Morgana Welch, a scene-savvy Beverly Hills High Schooler, gets in with Rodney Bingenheimer, Led Zeppelin, and other powerful party boys and scene insiders, as she tries to chart her own path into the rock n roll lifestyle—Hollywood encounter by Hollywood encounter....
Oct 30, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Venice Beach teen Dee Dee Keel was desperate to find out what was happening behind the scenes, in the clubs and hotel rooms of Hollywood: so she tracked an intriguing local rocker, Jim Morrison, on his way to the Strip. That’s where she first saw Miss Pamela in all her groupie glamour. By 1969, Pamela Des Barres was no longer a Valley teenybopper; she had transformed into a rock icon-in-the-making. Her freaky clique of Laurel Canyon sprites were ordained by Frank Zappa to become the world’s firs...
Oct 23, 2024•46 min•Season 5Ep. 3
The origin story of Miss Pamela Des Barres, the original queen of the groupies, author of the iconic memoir, I’m With the Band . From her mid-Sixties teenage bop room Beatlemania, to in a few short and sexy years, having Mick Jagger on the prowl looking for her – Pamela learned quickly, through friendships with Captain Beefhart and Frank Zappa, that she was something special.
Oct 16, 2024•43 min•Season 5Ep. 2
In 1973, the Sunset Strip was the epicenter of the rock n roll universe, where rockstar mythology was being built in real time. This is where fourteen-year old Valley girl Lori Lightning found herself, along with her clique of Sable Starr and Queenie Glam, known as the Baby Groupies, as they became the teenage rulers of the Hollywood music scene.
Oct 16, 2024•35 min•Season 5Ep. 1
In the early 1970s, LA’s Sunset Strip was the epicenter of the rock'n'roll universe. Drugs, sex, private planes, limos, destroying hotel rooms – it wasn’t a myth. At at the center of it all, were groupies. It’s a story we all know – but it’s never been told from this perspective. This season, on Lost Notes, we bring you GROUPIES: The Women of Sunset Strip, from the Pill to Punk. The real, riotous, rock'n'roll stories of the girls who lived it all, hosted by Dylan Tupper Rupert, from KCRW and Gol...
Oct 10, 2024•2 min
An audio folk story examining the tradition of Black watermelon long-haulers, who drive to farms in the South for watermelon and sell them in Black neighborhoods around the US.
Sep 18, 2024•57 min
KCRW’s acclaimed music documentary podcast, Lost Notes , returns for its fourth season. Co-hosts Novena Carmel (KCRW) and Michael Barnes (KCRW / KPFK / Artform Radio) guide you through eight wildly different and deeply human stories, each set against the kaleidoscopic backdrop of LA’s soul and R&B scene of the 1950s-1970s. Support KCRW’s original programming like Lost Notes by donating or becoming a member. This season of Lost Notes kicked off with the story of “Tainted Love” – and, more spe...
Aug 28, 2024•48 min
KCRW’s relationship with Fela Kuti goes back to 1980, when KCRW’s Tom Schnabel and Roger Steffens were connected with the mighty Afrobeat innovator while he was still imprisoned in Nigeria. Six years later, once Fela was free and clear to tour internationally, he came to Los Angeles and visited KCRW in person, again with Tom Schnabel . The connective tissue between these two events is Sandra Izsadore, who returned to KCRW for the first time in decades to talk with Lost Notes co-host Michael Barn...
Aug 14, 2024•42 min
KCRW’s acclaimed music documentary podcast, Lost Notes , returns for its fourth season. Co-hosts Novena Carmel (KCRW) and Michael Barnes (KCRW / KPFK / Artform Radio) guide you through eight wildly different and deeply human stories, each set against the kaleidoscopic backdrop of LA’s soul and R&B scene of the 1950s-1970s. Support KCRW’s original programming like Lost Notes by donating or becoming a member. On Wednesday, July 17, Lost Notes welcomed the legendary Larry Mizell to KCRW’s Annen...
Jul 31, 2024•46 min
Lost Notes brings you behind-the-scenes conversations with Nia Andrews and Terrace Martin about the legendary Reggie Andrews.
Jun 19, 2024•49 min
Lost Notes examines the legacy of Reggie Andrews, a world-class musician, producer, and mentor who changed the lives of countless young musicians in South LA. Andrews spent more than four decades in the LAUSD school system, teaching and mentoring generations of notable musicians: Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Cameron Graves, Ronald Bruner Jr. and his brother Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, Patrice Rushen, Gerald Albright, Ndugu Chancler, Rickey Minor, The Pharcyde, Syd from the Internet, Tyres...
Jun 05, 2024•49 min
Lost Notes celebrates the life of Ruth Dolphin, who went from being a terrified widow with four kids to the mother of an LA musical empire.
May 22, 2024•43 min
Lost Notes presents a story about Soul Train , the Slauson Shuffle, and what’s lost – and found – when a regional dance suddenly belongs to the world.
May 08, 2024•38 min
Lost Notes introduces a pair of brothers - one from NASA, the other from Motown - who launched an entire musical universe from their Hollywood Hills hideout.
Apr 24, 2024•43 min
Lost Notes returns with a brand new episode next Wednesday. To tide you over, we’re featuring a deep dive into Kendrick Lamar’s 2022 album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers from our friends at Switched on Pop.
Apr 17, 2024•30 min
Lost Notes explores how the song “Viva Tirado” exemplifies the inter-generational musical conversation between LA’s Black and Brown communities.
Apr 10, 2024•24 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Lost Notes explores how Fela Kuti’s time in LA in 1969 was instrumental in the creation of his legendary Afrobeat sound.
Mar 27, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Lost Notes details the darkly hilarious schemes of record-label magnate Ruth Christie, who instigated one of the most absurd court cases in music history.
Mar 13, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Long before “Tainted Love” was an ‘80s anthem, it was a 1965 B-side by LA’s Gloria Jones. We trace the song’s journey from a warehouse floor to the annals of pop history.
Mar 13, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 1
‘Lost Notes’ returns for Season 4 with a special preview episode about the song “Tainted Love,” and its lesser-known origins as a forgotten ‘60s soul gem from LA.
Nov 01, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Talking Heads’ 1984 film, Stop Making Sense , has long been regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the greatest concert films ever made. A new A24 restoration of the film is out in theaters now. Director Jonathan Demme dropped in on Deirdre for a guest DJ set while the film was still in theaters. Demme sat in for SNAP No. 172 on November 8, 1984, spinning a wild selection of his favorite music — including the premiere of a then-unheard Talking Heads song — and discussing the making of the ...
Sep 28, 2023•2 hr 6 min
Throughout “Bent By Nature,” you’ve heard many stories of the lifelong connections set in motion by Deirdre O’Donoghue. But none were quite as surprising as the bond between Deirdre and fellow iconoclast Henry Rollins , the former Black Flag frontman, musician, writer, actor, activist, and longtime KCRW host . After a chance meeting in early 1984, Rollins became a regular voice on “SNAP!” And he quickly became one of her most treasured co-hosts and friends. In our final episode of “Bent By Natur...
Dec 30, 2021•12 min•Ep. 10
The artist has got to be not like the historian. The historian’s got hindsight. He can go back and go, “That was a great moment.” But the artist’s got to go, “No, I was there.” It’s like, history is something that happens. You can’t be there at history. — Julian Cope, May 10, 1991 It’s May of 1991. Deirdre is in London, chatting backstage with post-punk indie underground legend Julian Cope. Cope has just released “Peggy Suicide,” one of the most ambitious and successful albums of his career. And...
Dec 23, 2021•16 min•Ep. 9
It’s September of 1984. And Deirdre is head over heels for a fast-rising quartet from Athens, Georgia called R.E.M . In just a few years, the band’s music will be inescapable on commercial and college radio alike — and their massive success will mark a turning point for the American musical underground. “There were moments when R.E.M., my former band, were hugely popular,” says ex-singer Michael Stipe . “And we were able to really push the boundaries of what's acceptable within mainstream cultur...
Dec 16, 2021•24 min•Ep. 8
In the mid-1980s, two young women are coming of age in the San Fernando Valley. In a few years, when they’re teenagers, they’ll both latch onto DJ Deirdre O’Donoghue, for totally different reasons. Felicia Daniel becomes obsessed with the new music Deirdre is playing on “SNAP!” Her best friend, Tanja Laden, gets into Deirdre’s deep-dives into the past on her Sunday morning show, “Breakfast with the Beatles.” On this week’s episode of “Bent By Nature,” we pay tribute to the listeners, whom Deirdr...
Dec 09, 2021•18 min•Ep. 7
