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On Thursday, May 29, Guild Cinema (3405 Central Ave. NE) welcomes fans of music lore to indulge in bodacious firsthand accounts of adventures with Frank Zappa, Jimmy Page and many other famous rockers. Drift down memory lane — or maybe the Sunset Strip — and enjoy “An Evening With Pamela Des Barres” complete with some of the decadent bedtime stories that have made her a rock ‘n’ roll household name. The party promises lovely ladies dressed to the nines modeling old-school threads, live music from Aaron Anderson of Albuquerque’s Sweet Nothin’ and a Q+A with the woman who’s done it all and lived lavishly to write about it.
The world-famous “groupie, writer, musician, and actress” says of her flashback-filled live show: “It takes people back to a time when, certainly, it was cooler musically in every way.”
Thinking back to the musical heyday of 1960s and ’70s Los Angeles, Des Barres believes that, “Innovation, all kinds of spiritual revolutions, sexual revolutions, feminism, everything was starting. So people like to hear about that time frame, which was so important. And it involves a lot of rock star names. So it keeps it peppy.”
Des Barres is best known for her 1987 memoir, I’m with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, in which she gives some juicy details about the Los Angeles rock music scene in the ’60s and ’70s and related legendary tales from one the city’s most infamous stretches of concrete. She’s also written the memoir Take Another Little Piece of my Heart: A Groupie Grows Up (1993) as well as the nonfiction books Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon (1996), Let’s Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies (2007) and Let It Bleed: How to Write a Rockin’ Memoir (2017).
“The LA scene was amazing. We had The Birds, we had Buffalo Springfield, Beefheart, Zappa, The Doors. I mean, it just goes on and on,” Des Barres says. “I hung out with all those bands because it was easy in those days. There were no security guards. You know, it was a whole different time frame. You could walk into the Whiskey a Go-Go and there would be all of The Stones, all of The Birds, a couple of Mothers, Alice Cooper. I mean, it was just a different time. And so you I transport people back to that time with my readings and stories. I never know what the readings are going to trigger memory-wise. So it’s a lot of fun.”
Des Barres was a member of the music group The GTOs, who were produced by Frank Zappa. She describes the group of singer-songwriters as “crazy teenage girls with a certain way of dressing way before it was hip,” and at The Guild, you can catch the G2O’s — Des Barres’ clever name for the “updated” version of the group — dressed to impress in extremely timely fashion.
“We were just living our lives and dressing the way we wanted to, but a lot of people go back to that time and look at photos of the GTOs and they see that we were really the innovators of that vintage style that people are still imitating today,” she says. “They love the time frame too. They love the clothes, they love the music, and we have some beautiful young girls dolling up as GTOs.”
For over 25 years, Des Barres has taught creative writing classes in Los Angeles, as well as in several other cities throughout the country and across the globe. She’ll be teaching a women’s writing workshop right here in Albuquerque the day after the show, but you need to find that one yourself. Des Barres is actually staying a little tight-lipped about that one. The celebrated author says she’s been amazed to witness the incredible growth of women who are able to express themselves in a safe place, and that’s probably why you gotta “ask a groupie” for the addy.
“They feel like they can share things they’ve never opened up about in their whole lives with a group of like minded people,” she says. “Because the girls who come to my workshops have read my books for the most part, and they feel comfortable sharing their life with me, because I’ve shared it with them.”
If you take her class, you’re not a student, you’re one of Des Barres’ “dolls.” The class in Albuquerque is open to all women of all ages and all ilks and all imaginings, but there are no dudes allowed. She says when she hosted co-ed groups in the past, she noticed that women held back, and the men were not as forthcoming either. (If you’re interested, her website might be a good place to start.)
Des Barres will surely take you on a sexy trip back in time, full of love-ins, half-naked nymphs passing out cupcakes and joints and free concerts from some of the hottest bands in the rock biz. She says there were no rules, or if there were, they didn’t follow them.
“It was spontaneous,” she says. “We didn’t have phones, there weren’t even any phone machines. You couldn’t leave messages to people. I mean, it was just word-of-mouth and little flyers being passed out on the Sunset Strip. And we would just meet up. Like 1,000, 2,000 young people just dancing and freaking out.”
Maybe it’s at least kinda cool that we have cell phones now, because you can click a button to purchase tickets for the Guild Cinema event at eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-pamela-des-barres-tickets-1320259364299. or register for Des Barres’ May 30 Women’s Writing Workshop at pameladesbarresofficial.com/pdb-official-store/p/pdb-writing-workshop-albuquerque-25. Miss Pamela will email further event details to registrants prior to the workshop.
An Evening With Pamela Des Barres
May 29, 7 p.m.
Guild Cinema
3405 Central Ave. NE
$25-$50
Pamela Des Barres Delivers a Rockin’ Flashback is a story from The Paper.. Publishing from New Mexico’s largest city, The Paper is your source for local, independent news, covering politics, arts, culture, and events.