Hollywood Nights
By Ruben Blue
In Those Hollywood Hills
Listen to the song here
Hollywood Nights
(shortened and changed from first person to
third person from the original poem below)
Version Two -
Version Three
I moved to Hollywood in '76
From Michigan where crops grew hearty
I went to college for science and math
but instead, I learned how to party
"Eighteen" was Alice Cooper's hit
Everyone's age in our dorm, too
My friends were all from Grosse Pointe Shores
And "party" was all they knew
I hung out in the cafeteria
and learned what was hip to do
I talked to all the coolest kids
and played frisbee too
In Junior year I rented a house
Wild parties I threw down
By Senior year my parties were huge
There were none better in town
I hitch-hiked then to California
Because that was where it was cool
to Laurel Canyon in Hollywood
Where old-school hippies did rule
So Laurel Canyon was it for me
I lived in The Bubble House
Near the Log Cabin and Country Store
and the Sunset Strip, with chicks galore
In Zappa's Log Cabin with Mama Cass
Lived Mayall, Cooper, and Mick Jagger
Clapton, Hendrix, and George Harrison
Plus groupie queen, Pamela DesBarres
The hippie stars all lived in the Canyon
Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, and Bonnie Raitt
James Taylor, Neil Young, and the Beach Boys
Jackson Brown, The Eagles, and Linda Ronstadt
- - - -
So now I was a Canyon Kid
throwing parties round the clock
Invited from the Rainbow Grill
I made that Bubble House rock
Iggy Pop was now my friend
and Rainbeaux Smith's whole crowd
Iggy practically lived on our couch
Hunt and Tony Sales were proud
No one partied more than me
It's a fact, everyone knows
Others tried to no avail
No one even came close
Those Hollywood parties were the best
Each weekend by tenfold batch
Nowhere were there ever more
New York City could not match
Then "Hollywood Nights" in '78
Bob Seger's song was Hitsville
I felt like the song was written for me
Hanging out at the Rainbow Grill
My list of friends was getting longer
Hollywood was back from disrepair
Everyone knew just what to wear
Punks and Hepcats and cool hair
The parties and clubs were booming
The after-hours kids came later
The Hollywood scene was art
and I was the illustrator
I went to every party in town
With pretty chicks with pearls
I was the dude from The Bubble House
Dancing with all the girls
About '83 the parties ended
Igniting a nightclub boom
Everyone was into bands
New Wave/Alternative, I presume
I successfully moved the party kids
The Hollywood hills' hipsters
to the new nightclubs in town
and they became "The Scenesters"
The Hollywood Scene was huge now
The Sunset Strip was cool again
The party kids were watching the bands
and the bands were drinking champagne
I did not realize at the time
that my party past and rock publisher
Would be the engine that would drive
The Greatest Music Scene Ever
The legend of the 80's and 90's rock scene
Was built, fueled, and documented for you
by Publisher/Editor and Photographer too
Scratch and Rock City's Ruben MacBlue
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