Ed Kienholz’ sculpture Back Seat Dodge ’38 shows two pairs of legs coupling in an old jalopy amidst empty beer bottles. Its exhibition at the Los Angeles County Art Museum in 1966 caused a scandal. Condemned as obscene by the County Board, it was censored in a way, shown for a time with the door closed, which a guard could open only in the presence of adults. This sculpture became the inspiration for the only release by Opus 1, on Mustang (a Del-Fi subsidiary) in April of ’66.

Despite the obscurity of the group, its members actually had long histories in the Los Angeles surf and rock scene. Opus 1 was a professional group playing at clubs such as the Cinnamon Cinder alongside competing bands The Emperors, The Cindermen, The Pyramids, The Vibrants and The Knights of Day.

Band members were:
Brian Decker: Lead Guitar (Mosrite) and vocals
Doug Decker: Fender P Bass (Big Red) and vocals
Pete Parker: Farfisa Organ and vocals
(John) Chris Christensen: Ludwig Drums and vocals

Christensen says “Bob Keane was peaked by the idea of something controversial, so we took another of our songs ‘Why Did I Lie,’ changed the lyric and did a little tweaking on the arrangement and ‘Back Seat ’38 Dodge’ (poetic license) was born. We paired that with the all ready completed ‘In My Mind’ and that became our only single. Somebody once described ‘Back Seat ’38 Dodge’ to me as the ‘last real surf record and the beginning of punk.’ It does sound like a huge hell bound train to me thanks to those great Del-Fi echo chambers.”

Not to be overlooked is the fine b-side “In My Mind”, early psychedelia with paranoid lyrics about being stared at and whispered about while “two prophets sitting in a tree” tell him he’s right. Many unreleased demos and studio out-takes exist, and hopefully will come to light someday.

For the full story on Opus 1 see Mike Dugo’s interview with John “Chris” Christensen. Below is Christensen’s detailed account of his early bands and the formation of Opus 1, in his own words:

The Sunsets and the Surfriders parallel each other as being the very first groups I played in.

I started to learn the drums in my freshman year at St. Anthony’s Boy’s High School in 1961 from W.H. “Jack” Plummer, a reed specialist who had traveled for years with Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. Jack was not really a drummer, but an excellent teacher nonetheless, and a multi-instrumentalist.

I started putting together pieces of stuff to fashion a drum kit in early ’62 and began jamming a lot in the band room, with Bob Jones, a senior who played the clarinet, and had all the Benny Goodman stuff down cold, especially “Sing, Sing, Sing” which I LOVED to play. In the 90’s I would do many gigs with Graham Young and Ed Mihelich, who were Gene Krupa’s 1st trumpet and bassist in ’41-’42. Another person I jammed with was a sax player Jose Valazquez (aka Joey Val), who really had the Joe Houston thing down, and a trumpet player named Mike Squibb who was really great as well.

Outside of the band room I spent a lot of time hanging out with, and plotting ‘band strategies’ with, guitarist Bob Renfro, with whom I had a pretty long association. Bob Renfro would later write and record the classic “Ode To A Bad Dream” with another band I was in called “Time of Your Life.” Bob and I would get together and try to play various old R&R and R&B tunes, singing a lot of our favorite ‘black’ songs.

We would also try to figure out how to get our hands on some really good instruments. Finally we hit on a plan – we both wrote letters to relatives asking for a loan to buy instruments. I got a loan from my Great Grandfather, and purchased a used Ludwig set. Bob’s Uncle gave him a loan for a guitar, and we were off! That was December of ’62, and I played my first gig for money the week after I got the drums. The gig was with Jose Velazquez (sax), Don Wittsten (guitar), and I think a trombone player named Ed Price.

Bob and I continued jamming with a few groups and nothing really clicked, but while we were trying to put something together I started to jam with some friends of my first cousin, Marlene Addy.

The Sunsets

Friends of my cousin, and kids I had played ball and stuff with, Dickie Lambert and Clyde Brown were also interested in music. We made a pretty good noise together. Dickie had a guitar and was playing bass lines, Clyde played rhythm guitar. The problem was finding a lead guitarist! I’m not sure exactly why Bob Renfro was never auditioned, but Clyde, especially, was a hustler. He wanted to bypass all the B.S. and get a pro manager and financial backing right away, even though he was not yet a spectacular guitarist. While he was busy hustling, we kept trying out lead guitar players, settling on one guy who was adequate, and who’s name is lost to time.

On the financial side, some friends-of-friends tried to hook us up with TV star Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol), but it was all missed phone calls and excuses. We spent one completely frustrating day waiting for The Star’s appearance while getting numerous “I’m coming” messages from the no-show. Clyde was not deterred.

Somehow, Clyde got the number of this guy Mr. Sheets. Sheets had cash and connections, and was trying to market a newly updated version of the old ‘film jukebox.’ Sheets also had visions of a Record Company with a full stable of young stars. I was under the impression that he was tone-deaf. We continued to rehearse and hang out, and finally I got bored with the endless waiting. This version of the band never played a gig!

By the time I had something else going on I found out that I had been replaced by Adrian Lloyd from The Rumblers, a very successful local group; and our ‘nameless’ guitarist was replaced by Ron Eglet, later to be a member of The Knights of Day, and most famously as Dick Dale’s bassist and occasional producer for a couple of decades. The group was renamed “Adrian Lloyd and The Sunsets,” and they recorded on Sheets’ (what else?) Sunset Records. They created a pretty big stir for a brief moment, and then sank! Their album “Breakthrough” and their singles (Ron Eglet told me a few years ago) are supposed to be big-time collectibles.

The Surfriders

Fed up with waiting for Mr. Sheets to do something and The Sunsets to actually play, Bob and I began to plot again. Jose Velazquez had a lead guitarist friend Bob Riddar. A jam was set up with:

Bob Riddar: Lead Guitar
Jose Valazquez: Sax
Don Wittsten: guitar
Bob Renfro: guitar
Chris Christensen: drums

Now this was more like it! We had a really good front line, guys that could really play. Even though Bob and I were singing, this was an instrumental “Surf” band. The lineup seemed to click and we started gigging around doing quite a few local dances and things. A couple of months later, Bob and I were unceremoniously ‘dumped.’ The band was doing well, and people LIKED us, but Bob Riddar liked another local drummer, Bob Meadows, and another ‘nameless’ guitarist took Bob Renfro’s place, playing bass lines on a guitar.

Later, Bob Riddar and Bob Meadows would replace Ron Eglet and Adrian Lloyd in a newly reconstituted “Sunsets.” Jose Velazquez would become “Joey Val” and play with The Reveres and Lloyd Terry and The Victors.

The Intruders

Bob Renfro and I, fairly pissed-off about being dumped, made a pact: we would form our own band, and do it ‘our way.’ We would continue doing the Surf Thing, but we would sing and do the required instrumental stuff. The band would go on to be ‘our vehicle,’ but it seems that it did so with a constantly revolving cast of characters. For a while The Intruders line-up was:

Bob Renfro: Lead guitar and vocals
Chris Christensen: Drums and vocals
Steve Pound: Rhythm guitar
Steve Soloman: Sax
Mike Squibb: Trumpet

Strange as it seems today, the common wisdom of the time was that the last instrument booked for the gig (depending on the budget) was a bass. The Intruders membership changed often, with Don Wittsten and Jose Velazquez frequently being in the band. There was also a succession of Rhythm guitarists, bassists, and piano players coming and going. The main thing that set us apart from the other “Surf Bands” was that Bob and I sang R&B – we really liked the black vocal groups, and The Righteous Brothers. Most surf bands didn’t sing, and if they did, it was usually bad.

My partnership with Bob Renfro lasted several years. The Intruders morphed into The Pleasure Seekers, The Blue Boys, and a couple of names I’ve forgotten, finally becoming The Town Criers and gaining real management in ’64/’65 with Barry Campbell, the man who started Ionic Records. The Town Criers would cut 6 sides, ‘live’ in the studio. Only one side has been released, a cover of The Zombies “You Make Me Feel So Good” – and it was credited to Time of Your Life, a band Bob and I started after The Town Criers final demise.

The Town Criers had a short but good run. We played on shows with Gary Lewis and The Playboys, The Sunrays, Mel Carter, Joey Page, Bobby Sherman, The Togas, and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. We played The Ice House, The Troubadour, the Marina Palace, The Fox West Coast Theater and many other venues. If certain members of the band been more appreciative of The Management, it might have lasted longer.

When I left Time Of Your Life, Bob Renfro recruited Vox Organist Jay Schlesenger, and even they don’t remember who played on their only single for Ionic. Bob and I continued to hang out, and I did help with the editing of “Ode” from it’s much longer version to the single that everyone knows. Some version of this band and The Town Criers played New Years Eve at Pandora’s Box in (I think) 1965. We also played the Teenage Fair, next to The Hollywood Paladium around the same time.

Being working players (very young, but feeling we were pros), even while we had a ‘main thing’ we were gigging with other bands. That’s how I met the Decker Brothers and worked with TJ Walker, and also The Reveres. The Decker brothers, Brian and Doug, had seen a succession of bands in which even though they were largely responsible for the groups sound and success, but they always ended up being subservient to their front men. Their method was to find a strong lead singer, and then build a group around that person. Eventually the front man would become overbearing, and then the band would break up. I believe that happened to them with Frank and the Conceptions, Lloyd Terry and the Victors, and, finally, The Togas, when Chris Morgan left taking the group name and putting his own in front.The Reveres

When I received the loan from my Great Grandfather, George Ainsworth, to purchase my drumset, my Mother, in her infinite wisdom, advised me to give the money to her. She would “make payments on the kit in my name;” her reasoning being that it would help me establish credit. Mother made some of the payments in good faith before finally defaulting. What she did with the money I’ll never know. Kenny Robinson from Campbell’s Music Store (no relation to Barry Campbell) called me and said my Mother was not meeting the obligation, and they were going to have to repossess my drums! I was now making darn good money (for a high school kid) playing gigs! I couldn’t lose my drums! Kenny said he’d give my name to people looking for a good drummer, and maybe I could make enough to make some payments.

The upshot of this was that I gigged for a little while with TJ Walker and The Jaywalkers. TJ was a black singer and guitarist, and a Front-Man Supreme. The only problem was that he played night clubs and strip joints, and I was a minor. Still, I did quite a few gigs with him, because he was in a bind, and so was I. The best part about working for TJ was playing for the strippers! The worst part was having to stay in the back room when not playing. Finally TJ got someone else (legal) and I was let go – but I had gone a long way towards paying for the drums. Later my Great Grandfather would give the family children their inheritance early. He deducted the original loan from my share – this was the drum set that I had to pay for ‘twice’ thanks to my Mother’s intervention.

Kenny Robinson, anxious to help me continue meet my payments after the TJ gigs ended, gave my number to some ‘older’ college-aged players. They had a working band called The Reveres. The core of the band was to be:

Jack Long: Lead Guitar
Louie DaVia: Rhythm guitar, Sax and vocals
Bob Covington: Bass
Joey Val (Jose Valazquez) Sax
Chris Christensen: Drums and vocals

There were occasional substitutions in personnel. Sometimes Bob Renfro or Brian Decker would sub for Louie DaVia. The constants of the band were myself, Jack, and Bob Covington. These guys (The Reveres) worked all over. They had some kind of ‘in’ with the military bases and I was often running down to Camp Pendelton for gigs. These guys were “pro” all the way. Jack Long was hands-down one of the best guitar players I’ve ever worked with. He was also the only guy I ever knew who had every single Freddy King song down note-for-note. He could then turn around and play Chet Atkins for you! This is a guy I’ve been trying to get in touch with for 30 years. The Reveres played all over, but as far as I know, no recordings of the group exist.

Opus 1

I had booked a casual on this particular day using a group I played with on and off called The Reveres. Bob Renfro was also going to play, and we set out from one of the band members house to caravan to the gig. Unfortunately, we became separated on the freeway, and I was the only one with the actual address of the party, which was in a house in Naples, just down the street from where the Decker’s lived. After many frantic calls to the other members houses, it soon became apparent that I wasn’t going to get in touch with any of the guys and I had an obligation to provide a band for this party. I walked down the street to the Deckers, and was fortunate enough to find Doug, Brian, and Pete Parker there. I told them about my jam and asked them to come and help me out. Well, we played our first gig together that day and it was amazing. Four part harmony was ad-libbed on the spot! The songs just flowed out of us effortlessly. They were sick of Chris Morgan, and I was tired of my situation.

The gig had been so easy that we decided to make it permanent. We called the band Opus 1. I believe that the suggestion for the name came from Brian Decker, and then we all listed the reasons why it fit, because it was a fresh start…a new beginning….a ‘first work.’

Our first ‘real’ recording sessions were at Western Recorders. We hired Bones Howe to handle the production. Our recordings that night consisted of a couple of Brian Decker songs “In My Mind” and “Birds of Passage” that the band had arranged. Bones was also a talent scout for White Whale Records at the time and expressed some interest in us, but nothing came of it.

With our acetates in hand we had a show biz attorney, Jay L. Cooper shop us around town. He was actually Bob Keane’s attorney, and played our recordings for the Ritchie Valens/Bobby Fuller discoverer. Keane liked the sound we made enough to invite us down to his studio on Selma in Hollywood for a audition/recording session that lasted most of a whole day and late into the evening. He and Barry White sat around in the control room and pretty much recorded our entire original repertoire “live” in the studio. During one of the breaks we began to discuss the then current controversy surrounding the art exhibit by Ed Keinholtz, and in particular “Back Seat Dodge, ’38.” Keane was peaked by the idea of something controversial, so we took another of our songs “Why Did I Lie,” also known as “Song,” changed the lyric and did a little tweaking on the arrangement and “Back Seat ’38 Dodge” (poetic license) was born. We paired that with the all ready completed “In My Mind” and that became our only single for Mustang Records.The band lasted about a year. It didn’t really break up. It just sort of dissolved. During this brief period everyone just sort of moved out into other directions. I had opened the door for all of us when I originally made contact with Barry Campbell who ran Ionic Records. Pete Parker quickly moved towards record production for Ionic, sort of leaving us in limbo. I think Opus 1 was done by the summer of ’66. That about wound up the history of Opus 1.

Doug, Brian and I hooked up again here and there, but that was the end of our involvement under that moniker.

It seems that something I’ve done in every decade since the sixties has seen renewed interest this past year. Domenic Priore’s book has a couple of paragraphs about Opus 1. SJ McParland has interviwed me extensively for his book on Mustang Records/Bob Keane/Bobby Fuller; it’s due out in ‘08. 1974 band Laser Pace’s album Granfalloon will most likely be reissued through Anthology Records in ‘08 due to an recent internet feeding frenzy. My ‘94 CD “Songs from The Xenozoic Age” by Christensen/Schultz is finally seeing wider release, and I am putting out a complete unreleased album by Hot Food To Go, recorded in ‘84; it’s called “Adrenaline Drum.”John “Chris” Christensen

Sources: Photo of Back Seat Dodge ’38 from the American Museum of Beat Art. All other photos and Opus 1 45 scan courtesy of John “Chris” Christensen, copyright protected and reproduced with permission, except. Time of Your Life 45 scan courtesy of Erik of Beat Behind the Dykes and Opus 1 newspaper ad from the great KRLA Beat site. Portions of John Christensen’s recollections previously appeared in an interview with Mike Dugo. <!-More information on John “Chris” Christensen available at his myspace page.->

In My Mind:

Always laugh, you laugh think I’m a clown, that doesn’t care, stop and stare
Claim to see a frown, that isn’t there, chew the fat,

Tell me where it’s at, then leave it at that, put a feather in your hat, but you’re wrong — count your numbers, think you’re strong, but you’re wrong.

While I crawl, down the dismal darkened hallway, I’m afraid, I may fall,
Never again to call, out my name, by myself,

Put me on a shelf while the servants count your wealth, and drink to your health, but you’re wrong — count your numbers, think you’re strong, but you’re wrong.

In my mind I can see,
Two prophets sitting in a tree,
Softly telling me,
They say I’m right, step up to fight, they know I’m right.

So just laugh, laugh think I’m a clown, I don’t care, stop and stare,
Bigotry won’t get you anywhere, chew the fat,

Tell me where it’s at, then leave it at that, put a feather in your hat, but you’re wrong — count your numbers, think you’re strong, but you’re wrong.