Sunday, April 29, 2018

Throbbing Heart, Go-Go Girls Featured at Living Eye Club

Throbbing Heart, Go-Go Girls Featured at Living Eye Club
by Jerri Largent, Post Youth Editor

Houston Post Youth Beat * 19 January 1967

As the heart beats and blood rushes through neon veins, teens of Spring Branch and other parts of Houston dance to the music of the Living Eye.

This new dance hall for teens, which was recently opened, was constructed in the shape of an android.

The roof supports are molded "ribs." A huge heart in the center of the ceiling throbs as its beats are heard in every part of the dance floor. Electrical "blood" flows through neon "veins" on each beat and theatrical fog spreads the bright red color through the air.

The teens come in every mode of dress from pants to skirts, some bell-bottom, some backless. Some come in western attire and some come in costumes. They come with and without shoes.

Three girls from the area work at the Living Eye as go-go dancers. Karen King and Sherry Martin, students at Spring Branch High, and Cindy Seixas, a student at South Texas Junior College, dance individually on a platform in front of the band. The girls are paid for dancing and have their parents' consent.

When asked why she worked as a go-go dancer, one of the girls commented, "'Cause I love to dance."

They have no set routines. Another of the girls commented, "You just dance what you feel."

The girls have little to fear from rowdy customers, for at all times there are two uniformed police officers, T.H. Graham and J.G. Brock, on duty. There is also a woman officer, Miss Pat Fawlkes, watching out for the good of the patrons.

The Living Eye also has its own "bouncer" who walks the floor with the adult supervisors. He is Thomas Carlson, a student at Sam Houston State College.

The age limit for the club is the same as for all teen dance halls in the city. The patrons must be over 15 and under 21. Each person entering the club must present proof of age before he is admitted to the club.

Every Friday and Saturday night, teens come with dates or stag to hear bands such as the Moving Sidewalks, the Deuces Wild, the Coastliners, Neal Ford and the Fanatics, or the Sixpence (sic).

Operator Bill Eisenhower extended an invitation for any parents to tour the club at any time to see where the teenagers like to spend their time. (end)




The Six Pents at the Living Eye (1966).




The Six Pents at the Living Eye (1966).




The Six Pents at the Living Eye (1966).




The 13th Floor Elevators at the Living Eye (1967).




The Lost and Found at the Living Eye (1966-67).




Newspaper ad for the opening of the Living Eye (November 11, 1966).




Inside the Living Eye.





Flyer for the opening of the Living Eye, November 11-12, 1966. 




Flyer for the "number one group in the world," ? and the Mysterians, appearing at the Living Eye, February 25, 1967.  





Fever Tree and crowd at the Living Eye (1967). 




Sunday, April 8, 2018

Yesterday's Obsession







Yesterday's Obsession only made one record, which barely registered at the time, but has cast a long, haunting shadow since the sixties. 

Yesterday's Obsession consisted of:

Greig Gabourel (lead vocal)
Leo Oliver III (lead guitar)
Kenneth Lee (bass)
Frank Jeffers (rhythm guitar)
Stephen Fowler (drums)

An unknown member also played the organ, and someone provides maracas on one side of their record. Although they sound like they could be peers of the Elevators or Fever Tree, the group actually consisted of teenagers from the Port Arthur and Nederland, Texas, area (near the Louisiana border), several of whom attended Stephen F. Austin High School in Port Acres. In January, 1968, they trekked to Gold Star Studios in Houston and recorded "The Phycle" and "Complicated Mind." Jim Duff did the engineering. In a wildly improbable turn of events, the record was released on Huey Meaux's Pacemaker label on January 12. Meaux, of course, had no taste for psychedelia at all, and "The Phycle" is the black sheep of the Crazy Cajun catalogue. 


Leo Oliver III, lead guitarist, in 1969.

All band members were minors, so their contract with Music Enterprises had to be signed for by their parents. A copy of this contract has survived and is reproduced below. 

Boxes of unsold copies of "The Phycle" sat in the back room of Gold Star Studio for the next decade until Doug Hanners and David Shutt began picking through Meaux's old stock and discovered it. This resulted in the first of several reissues of "The Phycle" to a wider public, via Texas Flashbacks Volume 6 in 1982. Less attention has been paid "Complicated Mind," which is odd since many people believe it's the stronger side. 

No photographs of the band are known to exist, but portraits of three of the band members appear in Port Arthur area high school yearbooks between 1965 and 1969. 


Lead vocalist Greig Gabourel in 1966. 

Both songs have a menacing vibe and a downbeat atmosphere. "I'm on the brink of madness," moans Gabourel in "Complicated Mind." It's probable that a Jim Morrison influence is present in both the monotone vocal approach and the surreal lyrics, but to their credit, the band doesn't come across as mere Doors imitators. I've tried to decipher the lyrics as best I can below, but I'm not even going to attempt to figure out the chorus to "The Phycle." 

"The Phycle" (Frank Jeffers-Greig Gabourel)
I had this peace inside of me
That's lasted for a thousand years
It has survived
A million lives
And weathered through
A thousand tears

chorus -- ?

I had a love
And she had me
But now it's late for her
The time has come
The others watch me
As I clear
The webs away
And give them some
Collecting all their eyes
But normal things
Have gone somehow
and call "life is dead"

I rest in peace
Along shores
For I return
Another day
To see myself again

And the moonlight
Greets and dies in me ...


Frank Jeffers, rhythm guitarist and co-writer.

"Complicated Mind" (Frank Jeffers-Greig Gabourel)
Look who's gonna break
A lot's at stake
I'm on the brink of madness
Complicated mind enraged
Must be saved
Brain's enslaved
Nerves full of holes 
Complicated mind estranged

(chorus)
Unnecessary illness
Dominates the will
-- of loneliness and time
Insert in head
Shake well
in two weeks
Comes complicated mind

Look who's gonna break
A lot's at stake
I'm on the brink of madness
Complicated mind enraged
Circles in my head
Cannot look ahead
What a groovy feeling
Complicated mind estranged

Unnecessary illness
Dominates the will
-- of loneliness and time
Insert in head
Shake well
In two weeks
Comes complicated mind




Below: Yesterday's Obsession contract with Music Enterprises, dated January 2, 1968. 


Below: Dance at the gymnasium of Stephen F. Austin High School in Port Acres during the 1967-68 school year. Music by Yesterday's Obsession???