It’s 1985: Do you know
where your bell-bottoms are?

(Ray Brandes reopens the case of People vs. the Che Underground.)

Thursday morning, during the last week of August, 1985, I arrived at work at 4:00 a.m. to begin my shift collecting and baling the cardboard boxes left scattered on the floor of the Food Basket on Washington Street. As I donned my apron, the hoots and catcalls began. “Hey, Hollywood!” shouted one of the night-crew guys as he leaned back in the seat of the forklift, a smug look on his face. In one hand he held a can of New Coke; in the other was the latest copy of People, emblazoned with the headline, “Madonna Weds Sean.”

A few weeks earlier, my bandmates and I had made the trek to Los Angeles and endured a several hours-long photo shoot at the Cavern, music maven and cult impresario Greg Shaw’s modest live-music club located in an alley off Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. The article, we had been told, would put Bomp! Records on the map and catapult the Tell-Tale Hearts to stardom. This would be my ticket to fame and fortune, I believed. I would quit my job bagging groceries and baling cardboard, take a few semesters off from college, and enjoy the good life.

I snatched the magazine from my co-worker’s hands and nervously flipped through the pages, eager to read the interview Mike Stax, Bill Calhoun, David Klowden, Eric Bacher and I had given following the photo shoot.

I saw that Pia Zadora had a new album out. Pete Rose was chasing Ty Cobb’s all-time hit record. Sylvester Stallone was done filming his latest, “Over the Top.” Where was it? I had nearly gotten to the end of the magazine when there, on page 101, I saw it — my debut in the national press — a full-page shot in brilliant, black-and-white psychedelic glory.

Download the complete Sept. 2, 1985, issue of People in yummy PDF format!

At the center of the photograph, sprawled out on a makeshift runway with her hips delicately thrust forward, was the enchanting Cuban-born Zaida “Zebra”Clark. Behind her, an earnest-looking Greg Shaw stared directly into the camera. Behind him posed elegant bon vivant Audrey Moorehead, Untold Fables’ singer Paul Carey, Dionysus Records president Lee Joseph, and the winsome April “Hershey” Curtis. And as I squinted my eyes and held the magazine up to the fluorescent lights hanging above me, I could just make out the Tell-Tale Hearts at the back of the photo.

The article and photograph were merely part of People’s annual Fall Preview, this year entitled “Here Comes the Fall Wham!” (a coy reference to George Michael and that other guy). Not only was there no mention of the Tell-Tale Hearts as the next big thing, the magazine clearly missed the point of the group, its music and its historical context.

“It’s 1985 — do you know where your bell-bottoms are?” read the accompanying text. “Drop your poodle skirts and grab your peace symbols: The ’60s, the era of peace, love and Day-Glo miniskirts, are making a fashion comeback. Need proof? Just wander into the Cavern Club in L.A. (facing page, with models), where newly minted ‘psychedelic garage bands’ freak freely and paisley-clad patrons rehearse the proper look of existential angst. Says one Cavern Clubber: ‘It’s so authentic, you can almost smell the incense.’ ”

There was not a single mention of the name of the group. Just “Facing page. With models.” So much for the good life. I tied the strings of my apron and tossed a box into the baling machine.

That fall I did learn, however, that everyone and his mother read People Magazine. For months, it seemed, that issue kept popping up — in the dentist’s office, left on the table at the Central Library, sticking out of a neighbor’s trashcan. I received telephone calls from friends I hadn’t spoken to in years. I was even recognized on the street once as “that guy in People magazine.”

Although the group was unable to capitalize in any way on that brief bit of national exposure, the issue itself makes a wonderful “Stargate”-style portal to a bygone era. Perusing the issue, provided for our dear readers in high-quality PDF format, may bring back a flood of memories from the year our little scene enjoyed its pinnacle. The eighties are here, perfectly preserved in this digital time capsule.

— Ray Brandes

Music history from Ray Brandes:


Music and culture by Ray Brandes:

3 thoughts on “It’s 1985: Do you know
where your bell-bottoms are?”

  1. I do remember my belief that this was a watershed moment for San Diego in general and the TTHs in particular.

    Does anybody know how People twigged to this in the first place? Did Greg Shaw have a hookup?

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  2. Ray,

    That was funny…….. I liked the story.

    I had a similar experience when The Morlocks had a write up in High Times Magazine and I got thumbs up from all of the Stoners from Mira Mesa High School.

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