By Peter Jones
Published: 07.06.09
It's still a beautiful day in David LaFlamme's neighborhood.
In some ways, little has changed in four decades for this
California-based violinist and founder of the band, It's a Beautiful
Day though he has moved down the coast from San Francisco to Burbank.
During the late 1960s, LaFlamme's typically beautiful day went like
this: He led a band with his wife, Linda, and diligently booked the
act's shows himself. In his spare time, he butted heads with a music
impresario named Matthew Katz and travelled the length of California
carrying a box of tapes for a vagabond friend.
Fast forward four decades. LaFlamme arranges live appearances for his
band, which still features his wife, Linda. He continues exchanging
lawsuits with Katz. And, until about four years ago, he was still
lugging around that friend's box of tapes every time he moved though
the Golden State.
Never mind that the box's rightful owner is serving time for mass
murder or that the bandleader is now married to a completely
different woman named Linda. The more things change, the more they
get weird for David LaFlamme.
"It's been very hard for her," the violinist said of wife No. 2.
"Because when you're doing autographs and people are asking all kinds
of questions on the bill, it's been advertised as David and Linda
LaFlamme they don't know so they get confused about it."
LaFlamme's band name has been even more problematic.
Since wrestling back the copyright for It's a Beautiful Day from
Katz, the California musician, his spouse and his band mates have
been playing a limited number of gigs each year for a limited number
of very devoted fans, whom the bandleader calls "Dayheads."
It's a Beautiful Day plays its mix of folk, psychedelia, jazz and
rock on July 17 at the Swallow Hill Music Association, 71 E. Yale
Ave., in south Denver.
"If I bring 100 CDs, I sell 100," LaFlamme said. "If I bring 200, I
sell 200. But I wish we had more work. Everything is just
media-driven. There was a time when the majority of the music was
just good music."
Times have a-changed, according to this 68-year-old 1960s troubadour.
"Now, you see Jessica Simpson and her sister, and it's all just about
media," LaFlamme said. "They're on TV. They're in the movies. They
have an album. I mean, is there anything they're not doing? Stripping
on off nights? How do you compete with that?"
Things were different save for nudity in San Francisco's
Haight-Ashbury, circa 1967 when singer Scott McKenzie immortalized
the city in "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)."
It was a flower-power climate in which one could even get away with
naming his band something as, well, eternally hippie-dippy as It's a
Beautiful Day.
"It's an abortion, for sure," LaFlamme said of the lengthy moniker.
"I wanted one of those other names like Vanilla Fudge. It sounded too
optimistic, nothing but daisies. It didn't really represent what I
wanted, either, because I wanted the music to be dark."
LaFlamme's original group was called the Electric Light Orkustra, six
years before Britain's Jeff Lynne founded a so-named band with a more
conventional spelling.
The San Francisco outfit later became the Electric Chamber Orkustra,
and finally just the Orkustra, before someone LaFlamme cannot
remember who conceived what may have been the first band name to
consist of a complete sentence.
LaFlamme is certain that it was not Katz then acting informally as
the band's manager who thought up the cheery weather forecast. The
savvy producer copyrighted it anyway, unbeknownst to the band, which
wound up having to pay Katz for using the title.
The Pollyanna-like name would prove ironic in other ways. Among the
players in LaFlamme's earliest sessions was a Haight-Ashbury drifter
known as "Bummer" Bobby Beausoleil, a talented musician who was well
known for being unreliable, according to LaFlamme.
The last time he saw Beausoleil was in the Haight around 1968 when
"Bummer" was walking the neighborhood with another struggling
singer-songwriter by the name of Charles Manson.
"It was the only time I'd ever met the fellow," LaFlamme said of the
infamous cult leader who later wrote a song recorded by the Beach
Boys. "They were on their way to Los Angeles the two of them and
Bobby asked me if I would keep a small box of possessions for him
while he was gone, because he knew I always had a place."
Beausoleil never made it back to San Francisco to retrieve his
possessions. By the time LaFlamme finally returned the box of tapes
to him, about four years ago, "Bummer" was already 35 years into a
life sentence for participating in the Tate-LaBianca murders.
In 1969, while Beausoleil was being held for questioning, things
began to go comparatively beautiful for LaFlamme and company.
Although It's a Beautiful Day never saw the success of some of its
Haight-Ashbury contemporaries, including the Grateful Dead and
Jefferson Airplane, the band's song "White Bird" from its self-titled
debut album became a staple of underground FM.
Its composer gradually learned a thing or two about copyright law too.
"[Katz] had so many balls in the air and he was so busy with all
these other lawsuits that in 2004, he just forgot to reregister the
name, It's a Beautiful Day," LaFlamme said.
The bandleader quickly registered the name himself. At last, the man
who was most responsible for It's a Beautiful Day's music was able to
play and tour unfettered under its auspices. The musician's forecast
had suddenly gone from partly cloudy to darn-right sunny.
But then, Katz rained on LaFlamme's parade with another lawsuit.
The violinist does not want strings played under his story though
he still enjoys playing strings with his band. And that enjoyment is
what matters most to him as It's a Beautiful Day celebrates its 40th
anniversary.
"It's what keeps my band together, quite frankly," LaFlamme said.
"There's no money in it. So we end up doing our own thing, going
around the hard way, like I did originally, building little
audiences, selling CDs, hand to mouth. It's because the band really
enjoys playing the music. It's the kind of music that allows them to
express themselves."
--
If you go
It's a Beautiful Day will perform July 17 at Swallow Hill Music
Association, 71 E. Yale Ave., in south Denver.
Advance tickets are $25 for the general public, $23 for Swallow Hill members.
For more information, call 303-777-1003 or visit swallowhillmusic.org.
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2 comments:
I'm a little confused. LaFlamme claims he started the Orkustra. But Beusoleil claims he started it. Does anyone know the truth of the matter?
I saw It's a Beautiful Day a couple times while I was attending Humboldt State in the early 70's. One of the few things I remember from that period of time. But the memory is a plesant one.
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