Eastside Kids



Peace, love, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Those are the words that Eastside Kids’ drummer Danny Belsky uses to describe life on the Sunset Strip circa 1965-’66. A veteran of many incarnations of the same band, Belsky and his combos were fixtures on the scene for much of the mid-‘60’s. Although the Eastside Kids may not be as synonymous with the Sunset Strip the way the Byrds or the Doors are, they played all the major clubs and left behind many recordings. While Belsky left the group before they recorded their lone LP, he stayed active in the music business and contributed to many additional recordings of the era.

An Interview With Danny Belsky

60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?

Danny Belsky (DB): When I was around nine years old my dad started teaching my sister and me piano. He taught piano when he went through college so he wanted us to learn to play. I hated playing piano so much that I made him a deal that if I started playing another instrument he would let me stop the piano. I started playing clarinet and by the time I was in the sixth grade my elementary school music teacher was having me teach younger kids at the school. From there I started playing saxophone and eventually went on to play alto, tenor, baritone and soprano sax as well as the flute.

60s: Your first band was the New Dimensions, correct?

DB: My first band actually was the Dimensions. That band consisted of me, Michael Lloyd, Jimmy Greenspoon, Art Guy and for a while, Howard Lane. We eventually changed the name to the New Dimensions and added Craig Nuttycombe and Dave Doud. Howard had already left (by then). We had no bass in the group. Dave had a Stratocaster or (?) and he turned off all the treble and used it as the bass. His brother, Mike, was the bass player in the Doud family and Dave picked up pointers from him. I met Art, Jimmy and Michael at Horace Mann Elementary School in Beverly Hills. They were playing at a dance. Art was on drums, Jimmy on piano and Michael on guitar and they were playing surf music. My mother and I helped the man who ran the dance. I was probably 13 or 14 at the time. My mom started talking to Michael's mom telling her that I played sax. The rest is history.

60s: Do you recall the Alley Kats/New Dimensions relationship? Was the Alley Kats the same band as the New Dimensions with a new name, or were there personnel changes?

DB: The Alley Kats were basically the New Dimensions without Craig Nuttycombe. The name change came when we started to try and sing. That's about the time when the Beatles started coming on the scene.

60s: The New Dimensions was really a "Super Group" in reverse: Jimmy Greenspoon moved on to Three Dog Night, Michael Lloyd to West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and the Smoke, Craig Nuttycombe to Lambert & Nuttycombe, Art Guy to Smokestack Lightnin', and Dave Doud and you to the Eastside Kids. Did you sense at the time that bigger and better things could lie ahead?

DB: I don't think I had any real sense of what was to come. It all just sort of happened. I didn't have any sort of real plan. After all I was only 15 or 16 years old. Life was a party. All I really wanted to do was play music. I really didn't care where or with who.

60s: Prior to becoming the Eastside Kids, your and Doud's band was known as Sound of the 7th Son. Who all was in that band?

DB: The Sound of the 7th Son consisted of me, Mike and Dave Doud, Jimmy Greenspoon and Joe Madrid. We originally called ourselves the Status Seekers (don't ask we why) when we first started at Stratford on Sunset. When jimmy left to join Three Dog Night, Gary Davis replaced him for a while. Gary then left to join the Comfortable Chair.

60s: Sound of the 7th Son started playing the Sunset Strip in '64. Would you say the band was at the forefront of the whole Strip scene?

DB: We actually started at Stratford, , which is now the House of Blues, towards the end of the 1964 or beginning of 1965. As I said we were originally called the Status Seekers. Soon after starting at Stratford, we changed our name to the Sound of the 7th Son. Mose Allison had a song called “Seventh Son”. Mike loved Mose Allison's stuff and we all got into it. That's what caused us to change to the Sound of the 7th Son.

I don't remember if we were still at Stratford or if we had already moved on to other clubs like the Trip and Whiskey. The guys who owned the Trip also owned the Whiskey so we spent a lot of time playing between both clubs. Back then they wound up having some sort of legal hassle and we kind of got caught in the middle of it. We also played just about every other club on the Strip. We played at the Whiskey before the big stage was built to the right of the front door. The original stage was straight ahead as you entered through the front door. It was so small that Greenspoon had to rest his piano on the stage rail and kind of hold on to it so it wouldn't fall. Go-Go dancers dancing in cages were to the right and left above this little stage.

The Byrds and we were pretty much the first two longhaired groups on the Strip. They had just come out with “Mr. Tambourine Man”. We were at Stratford and the Byrds at Ciro's across the street next door to the continental Hyatt Hotel. We played with the Byrds a number of times at the Trip. We also played quite a bit at the Hullabaloo as the Eastside Kids. I actually lived right next door to the west of Ciro's in the four-story apartment house. I believe it's still there as an office building. I had a two-bedroom apartment on the third floor at the southwest corner overlooking Sunset Blvd. It was lots of parties, fun and everything and anything else you can imagine.

60s: What five words would you use to describe a typical night on the Sunset Strip circa 1965-1966?

DB: Peace, love, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Not necessarily in that order - but it was really cool and an amazing time.

60s: You switched from sax to drums when joining The Eastside Kids. How much experience did you have drumming up until that point – and did you also drum while with Sound of the 7th Son?

DB: When we started at Stratford I was already playing drums. Joe was the original drummer but he was also the lead singer. He had a real hard time playing the drums and singing at the same time, so Joe and I would split the sets. Half of the set he was playing drums and the other half he was up front. He enjoyed being up front much better than sitting back on the drums and I enjoyed the drums. Over a short period of time I pretty much moved to the drums all the time. One or two songs a set I 'd play sax or flute but the rest of the time I was drumming. Joe actually showed me a lot of the licks that I first started using. I also watched other drummers and then practiced what I saw and heard; it helped a lot. Art Guy also helped me. He had taken drum lessons and showed me some stuff. When the Beatles came onto the scene sax players in rock groups were pretty much out. The only band I remember having a sax player was the Dave Clark 5 so the drums were a way to keep doing what I enjoyed. Thanks to Joe and Art I kept going. The two sets of drums I still own I bought from Art when he bought new ones. They are vintage Ludwig sets; one has a date stamp in the bass drum of March 14, 1962.

60s: Craig referred to Joe Madrid as "sort of a pretty boy that the teenage girls liked to goggle over. His voice was okay. He was good at prancing around the stage..."

DB: Craig pretty much hits it on the head and we all know it including Joe. Joe and the lead singer from the Iron Butterfly had the prancing market cornered - other than Mick Jagger. Joe and I remain friends to this day and talk every so often. The last time I spoke with him he was living in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles with his wife.

60s: The Eastside Kids recorded at least five singles, and you apparently played on three of them. Since you apparently did not play on the first Philips single from '65, where do you fall in on the band's timeline?

DB: I actually played on more there three of them. I still have the following 45's and I'm sure there are other songs out there:

I'll Be On My Way / I Told A Lie (Sound of the 7th Son, Tower Records)
Take A Look in the Mirror / Close Your Mind (Eastside Kids, Orange-Empire Records)
Listen to the Wise Man / Little Bird (Eastside Kids, Vallhalla Records)
Chocolate Matzos / Night Mist Blue (Eastside Kids, Warner Bros.)

I don't remember anything that I did on Philips Records with the Eastside Kids but I think that if it was in 1965 I had to have played on it. We were around as a group for at least two to three years before I left. We also did four songs as Sound of the 7th Son that were produced by Pat and Lolly Vegas at Nashville West on Melrose. I still have two of the acetates from those sessions: “Wait and See” and “Can't You Hear Them”. I don't remember them ever being released but they still sound good.

60s: An online source lists the ’65 Philips single as “Subway Train” b/w “Sunday Stranger”. Does that ring any bells?

DB: The titles don’t ring a bell. The only thing I can think of is that the date of 1965 is wrong. We were still the Sound of the 7th Son in 1965. We started at Stratford at the end of ’64 or beginning of ‘65. The summer of '65 was the summer that the Byrds were at Ciro's and we were across the street as the Status Seekers. We changed our name around the time we started at the Trip and Whiskey; working all the Sunset Strip clubs as we did we worked them as the Sound of the 7th Son and recorded as the Sound of the 7th Son. The Eastside Kids recordings that I have were done at the time we were at the Hullabaloo or a little before. Maybe another group with that name recorded it?

60s: What are your recollections of Jerry Lambert? He was apparently the manager for the Eastside Kids - and Craig referred to him "more of a guy looking to make a buck then someone with true talent and business skills."

DB: Jerry Lambert was on of the owners of Stratford on Sunset along with his partner, Ed Fontaine. Dennis Lambert was his nephew and lived with him here in Los Angeles. Lambert and Fontaine lived in the same apartment building next to Ciro’s. That's how Craig and Dennis met each other. Craig Nuttycombe is probably right, as I don't think either Jerry or Ed had ever managed a group prior to us. But I think they saw a lot of potential in us and we were all pretty young and starting in a whole new musical era that was beginning to break. I think they probably saw a way to make good money; after all, it's all about the bucks. I can't fault anyone for that.

60s: For whatever reason, The Eastside Kids are rarely mentioned when the names of the great Sunset Stips bands are listed: There are legends like the Byrds, Love, Doors and Buffalo Springfield, and somewhat "smaller" groups like Sons of Adam, Palace Guard, and Yellow Payges. What do you think were the reasons preventing the Eastside Kids from also becoming synonymous with the Strip?

DB: That's a good question. We were on of the better groups musically as a group and individually, too. I really don't know why we are rarely mentioned…maybe it goes back to what Craig touched on - management or lack thereof. Timing, as in life and in drumming, is always at the forefront. We had a couple of those "15 minutes of fame" but when that happens one needs to take the ride all the way or lose the moment.

60s: You disassociated from the Eastside Kids prior to the recording of their '68 Tiger and the Lamb LP. What happened?

DB: I believe I left in late 1966 or early 1967. I'm not exactly sure but obviously it had to be before the album came out in 1968. It was time to move on...to make better and steady money playing. I had other opportunities and options and took them.

60s: Do you know how many of the original Eastside Kids were around for the recording of that LP?

DB: Based on what I've seen Joe, Mike and Dave Doud were on that album. Dave Potter, who we all knew when he was playing with Lee Michaels, replaced me.

60s: What did you think of the LP after hearing it for the first time?

DB: I don't know that I've ever heard the Eastside Kids album so I can't comment on that.

60s: Craig recalls that drugs may have played a role in the Eastside Kid's break-up.

DB: I can't speak to what caused the final breakup, as I wasn't really in their lives anymore. I guess my leaving had a bit to do with the drug problem. I was not that heavily involved with the drug scene and I wanted to play and make money. I don't think I saw the group going much further then we had already gone. In Greenspoon's book, one is a lonely number; he calls me the designated straight man of the group.

60s: So…what band did you join or form immediately after leaving the Eastside Kids?

DB: I think that's when I did the first West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band album with Lloyd and the rest of the guys. I'm not really sure of the timeline. A lot of things were going on at the same time back then. I did a lot of sessions for Michael Lloyd who was producing / running Sidewalk Productions and working with Mike Curb Productions. I worked with Tim Rose and was his drummer on his second album, Through Rose Colored Glasses on Columbia. I didn’t receive album credit for that but made lots of money and there was a single off that album which was a minor hit in England called “Roanoake”. I also played around town with him at the Troubadour and other places, I think. I did Kim Fowley's Love is Alive and Well album. I played a lot of local gigs with anyone who needed me. I worked at the Losers Club on La Cienga which was a nude bar for quite awhile with a trio playing while the strippers took it all off. I met my first wife there. I should have know from the name of the club the marriage wasn't going to last. I also did a lot of TV and movie work as a background musician over the years. It's called sidelining and I did this work through Local Musician’s Union #47. I still get royalty checks yearly for some of the movies that are being re-played throughout the world somewhere.



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