3 Days On A Dare

The Stories Behind The Songs

3 Days On A Dare

3 Days On A Dare

 

Although Mary wasn’t the only female we talked to at the Whiskey that night, we spent a good deal of the evening talking about her not really knowing if we would ever meet her again.  But we carried on with the weekend as planned. 

On Friday, we began our day sightseeing in Hollywood. We walked up and down the boulevard checking out the shops and the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Of course, no visit would be complete without a trip to the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Capital Records building. 

While we were on the boulevard, we met a band passing out flyers for their show at the Troubadour that night. We hung with them for a bit and exchanged numbers. 

I grew up in Hollywood. My family lived there until I was 13, then we moved to Houston after my father accepted a job there.  So I drove Andrew’s car to show him and Devin all my childhood hangouts. 

We went by my old apartment building on Normandy Avenue, between Hollywood and Sunset.  Then we drove by the Paramount Studios building and my old middle school, LeConte Junior High on Bronson Avenue. 

We drove up to the Hollywood hills overlooking the city and the view was breathtaking.  While we were there, we hit the Griffith Park Observatory. 

I also attended school at Melrose Elementary, so we drove around and hit some of the local shops on Melrose. 

We rounded out our trip with a visit to the Santa Monica Pier and a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway. 

We had a blast during the day, and then we headed back to the apartment to get ready for the partying that we were going to do that night. 

Hollywood had a local music rag called BAM magazine.  BAM was a free bi-weekly magazine that circulated throughout much of California.  BAM was kind of like the local Rolling Stone that spotlighted and featured bands from the LA music scene. We grabbed a copy of the magazine to see what bands were playing for the weekend. 

We set out for our night of bar hopping and checking out bands.  We went to the Troubadour first on Santa Monica to check out Pretty Vacant, the band we had met earlier that day.  Then we left and headed to Gazzari’s (once again because of the Van Halen connection).  Cruella D’Ville was tearing up their set, then we hit The Roxy, and the Rainbow.  As we were passing by the Whiskey, we wondered if we would catch Mary there. So we went in 

True to form, there was Mary, and she was absolutely stunning.  To our surprise, she remembered us. She came over and gave us all big hugs and hung with us.  We talked about our daytime excursions when she suggested a few places for us to check out the next time we were out and about. 

As we were talking, another beautiful woman approached us.  Mary introduced us to her good friend, Isabel. 

Isabel was beautiful with exotic features.  She looked like Selma Hayek.  She had long dark-brown hair.  She was wearing stiletto heels which made her extremely tall that night.  She could’ve been a model, a cheerleader, or a Playboy Playmate.  It didn't matter, she was THAT gorgeous.  She stood with us for a moment, but she eventually left to mingle with some other friends.  Mary would soon join her circle.  They would eventually blend in with the crowd as they maneuvered to the front of the stage 

Meanwhile, Andrew, Devin and I continued to drink by the bar. We spent that weekend kind of daring each other to do stupid things.  Mainly making idiots out of ourselves and laughing at each other. We were drunk and showing off to see which girls we could lure away. After all, we had to maintain our bad-boy rocker status. 

We saw Mary again later that evening in the Rainbow parking lot about 2am.  Isabel and her were just about to leave.  She stopped to invite us to a warehouse party where some of her friends were jamming.  She knew a bunch of people that were going and she said it would be fun. We weren’t about to turn down a beautiful woman with an open invitation to a Hollywood party, so we jumped in Andrew’s car and followed her to some place off of La Cieniga 

The party was a happening place.  There was some local band playing.  I think they were called Rattlesnake Shake, or maybe it was Blackboard Jungle. Parts of that weekend are kind of a blur 

We stayed close to Mary because she was the only person we semi-knew.  We didn’t want to seem like we were crashing the party, but it was a perfect opportunity for networking and a little jamming.  There was an open jam afterwards, so we each took turns joining in. 

Mary was a social butterfly.  She was sexy and charming.  She oozed sexuality in her body language.  She would either hug you or gently rub your arm as she would greet you.  She was completely engaging.  She introduced us to several musicians, including some guys from Brunette, Love/Hate and Rough Justice.   She eventually disappeared somewhere with Devin.  It would be a while before they would reappear.  Fortunately, I didn’t even notice.  I was quite engaged in stimulating conversation with Isabel.  But she deserves her own blog dedication.

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One of the great things about music is that it lives on forever!!”

— Dodd Michael Lede