Flipper's Roller Disco Boogie Lounge was the perfect example of how blended and mixed-up the transition was from the 70's to the 80's. It was a 70's disco kind of a vision... decadent, over the top, celebrity guests, velvet ropes, a VIP area, cocaine, quaaludes, powerful tropical drinks and... roller skates?? Talk about a recipe for disaster, or at least lawsuits, you had to sign an injury waiver on the way in. Bands played from a bandstand placed directly in the center of the roller rink, with tables and bleachers all around. Denny Cordell of Shelter Records named the place after his wildman friend Flipper and the place was frequently visited by artists and musicians from his farflung American and English phonebook.

Denny made a strong play to sign the Motels to his label and production company, but in the end we went with Capitol. He was disappointed, but remained friends and invited me to join his exclusive playhouse as a charter member. Our band was a very 80's kind of vision and it was always a weird scene in Flippers, with 70's behavior, people and styles rubbing shoulders with those who were firmly embracing the changing of the guard to the no-nonsense, slim & trim 80's. I never saw a fight there, just lots of laughing and falling down, and sometimes being carried out with towels full of ice pressed against injured body parts due to the hopeless challenge of skating while loaded.

On opening night, twelve monster seachlights lit up the Hollywood sky creating a huge scene. The exclusive vibe lasted about two years and then it just became an anybody-can-get-in kind of place and the thrill was gone. I played in a fun band called Leroy and the Lifters who played almost every week at Flippers in the middle of the rink. Drinks for the band were always free and unbelievably powerful, they were triples, at least. The Lifters were all dope fiends but nobody was on the same dope. Break time would come and we would all sneak off to the Men's room where cocaine, opium, mushrooms, weed, hash, acid, and even heroin was ingested, it was ridiculous, nobody was listening to the same metronome, it's a wonder we even played in the same key; I'm sure sometimes we didn't. Nobody noticed or cared; the crowd was as smashed as we were -- ever seen anybody try to skate on 'Ludes?- and the band was just background noise anyway. One night, the late, great John Entwistle of The Who came in to raise some hell and he sat in for a couple of tunes, most notably "Louie, Louie" to which he played what can only be described as Flamenco Bass, definitely a first for that tune.

For decades, the corner of La Cienega and Hollaway was occupied by Cienega Lanes. The bowling alley had been closed for several years when Denny took it over to open Flipper's. All the wood from the lanes was torn out and reused to create decadent, VIP Booths upstairs in a mezzanine, overlooking the rest of the action below. The most decadent, licentious behavior imaginable took place up there, with drugs, booze and flesh in great abundance. My brother Leonard got the wood from the last lane, took it home and made a massive wall unit of shelves out of it, all solid wood. Eventually Flipper's closed down and the space was occupied by Esprit clothing for many years. Now, if you drive by that location, all you will see is a Sav-On drugstore. There's nothing left of Flipper's except for strange memories, Leonard's wall unit and this button.