Whisky a Go-Go
The Whiskey a Go-Go is a club at 8901 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, California 90069, Northwest corner of Sunset and San Vicente Blvd (Clark St). It opened in January 1963 by Elmer Valentine. The DJ worked from the suspended cage. One female DJ's dancing gave rise to the term Go-Go dancing. The Whisky was a popular place for the L.A. police to pick up freaks during the mid-1960s. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the whisky was host to many of the major bands but by the 1980's it had lost its status and closed in 1982. It opened again in 1986 under a new regime.
Frank Zappa
"..we were hired as a temporary replacement at the Whisky-a-Go-Go. By chance, Tom Wilson, a staff producer for MGM Records, was in town. He was up the street, at the Trip, watching a 'big group.' Herb Cohen talked him into a quick visit to the Whisky. He walked in while we were playing our 'BIG BOOGIE NUMBER' -- the only one we knew, totally unrepresentative of the rest of our material. He liked it and offered us a record deal (thinking he had acquired the ugliest-looking white blues band in Southern California), and an advance of twenty-five hundred dollars."- The Real Frank Zappa Book
Gail Zappa also worked at the Whiskey a Go-Go in the mid-1960s as a secretary, before meeting Zappa.
As "advertised" in the artwork of Freak Out! under the header "Freak Out! Hot Spots"...
References to the Whisky a Go-Go in Zappa's work
- In the sleeve of Freak Out!, in the Relevant Quotes section Zappa's closing message from a Whiskey a Go-Go concert is printed: "If your children ever find out how lame you are, they'll murder you in your sleep."
- Bwana Dik: "Girls from all over the world / Love to write my name on the toilet walls / At the Whisky-A-Go-Go"
- Tinsel Town Rebellion (The Track): "From Madam Wong's to Starwood to the Whiskey on the strip"
- The Red Throbber: "The word is out at the Whisky a Go-Go"
