I've known Will (The "left handed guitarist") for a number of years. He got most of the old band together for a reunion at The Crazy Horse Saloon in Irvine CA in 2005ish. He once told me a story about how his Mom bought him a very expensive custom made left handed guitar in 1963, for around $500 which was a fortune in that day. Left handed guitars were not common back then. Another fun memory happened at my favorite dive bar, Swallows Inn, in San Juan Capistrano. Will was spotted in the crowd by the band that was playing that night. He sat in for a couple songs using a borrowed right handed guitar, upside down, and played some very convincing solos with the strings in backwards order.
Even though integrated pop bands were not necessarily rare in the U.S. around this time, it's still cool to see visual evidence of one. Love their mid-60s SoCal style.
I saw them at the COW PALACE in San Francisco...they came out with BEATLES WIGS....and then shook them off and went into PENETRATION...it was a classic...
Duke Feist - Hey Duke! These guys, ahead of their time in looks, the thing is, no attitutude. Reflective of the time. Good character with the young people. The terrible Viet Nam war was coming. 100000 good young people would die or be adversely effected by it. There would still be prosperity for a few more years in the middle class. -1971 was to be the beginning of the end for all of that. Many of the musical acts of the last 42 years would literally be booed off stage at this time. Also, the band was a mix of black and white. ( politically correct or just common sense ). I'll trust your judgement. God Bless Everybody!
Yup, that's Willie Glover. NC native who moved to Long Beach w/ his family when his dad was transferred there in the military. Only black surf musician, I think , but certainly the only left-handed black surf musician. He was not on the original recording of "Penetration" as he had gone to get something to eat during the session and missed the cut which Skip Mercier, the lead player, played both his lead and Willie's rhythm part on. But...Willie wrote and sang the flip B-side, "Here Comes Marsha", which has a wonderful melody and a number I've always loved. Think Willie is still with us and may be playing out in California.
@@dannyc1174 What...they couldn't wait for Willie Glover to return from eating to include him in the original cut? Why didn't he get something to eat AFTER recording the cut, then?
@@danielmauro6576 I hear ya, bro....and, sadly, today I'm sure someone would be shoutin' "racism"...that it wasn't Willie's fault that he missed the session, but, in fact, it was! An', yeah, why DIDN'T he wait to eat until after?
As noted above, on this day in 1964 {March 28th} the Pyramids performed "Penetration" on the Dick Clark ABC-TV Saturday-afternoon program, 'American Bandstand'... At the time the song was in it's second of two weeks at position #28 on Billboard' Top 100 chart, two weeks earlier it had peaked at #18 {for 1 week} and it spent ten weeks on the Top 100... "Penetration" was the California group's only Top 100 record... And from the 'For What It's Worth' department, the week "Penetration" peaked at #18, the Beatles had the top three records on the Top 100, #1. I Want To Hold Your Hand", at #2 was "She Loves You", #3 was "Please, Please Me"... In addition, the Fab Four had four other Top 100 records, "I Saw Her Standing There" {at #15}, "My Bonnie" {at #26}, a covered version of "Twist and Shout" {at #55}, and "From Me To You" {at #73}...
Very nice video, and cool to see the interviewer do a great job, passing the mic to all all them, without any difference, and hypocrisy. That was apparently a great show.
I'm an old guy so I was around for this stuff. And even tho I was a budding drummer, I always knew everyone on these shows was NOT playing the music. I could never understand why they didn't just play live instead of this (sometimes way off) acting stuff.
trevor deke bajus Trevor, make the music yourself then be a smartass. If they held a gun to your head you wouldn't be able to play or dance this so please, don't be so cynically stupid!!
Interesting! I grew up at this time, but never heard of this song or the group. Thanks for posting. It's very representative of that time with the surfer type music, etc.
@@paulluchter137 Amazing how long hair on boys was so controversial, barbers thought they would loose out because their base of young males wouldn't be coming in for haircuts. Eventually longer hair on males prevailed, and the barbers who kept up with the times eventually became part of the male hairstyling industry. We went from barbers to hairstylists, and hairstylists made more money, thanks to the Beatles and their long hair.
It was nice to see no big deal made about race back then. I sense zero uptight attitudes. The left handed black guitarist seemed completely at ease with his high school buddies. Refreshing.
I found this from a top 40 song list from March 28, 1964 and put it in RU-vid and look at the date of this show, March 28,1964 weird. It was also #28 that week. I was 11 when this was a hit. Same time as when The Beatles hit big in the U.S.
+EyeWarnedYouB4 - These guys did this song first, The Ventures, probably along with The Chantays made it more popular. My surf band covers this, and we make sure to credit The Pyramids! :-)
Penetration, what a great name for a tune... When Dick posed the question at the beginning of the lead in with " It wouldn't be appropriate to ask the girls" I thought I was in a parallel universe! He segued well though!
I did not know The Pyramids had a sax player until I saw this video! If you watch the video of " Shindig " where The Dave Clark 5 play " Everybody Knows ( I Still Love You )", their sax player isn't always playing sax when he should.
Radio commenter Paul Harvey supported this combo at the time as an alternative to saving the barber vocation. As a note, the Pyramids were among the very rare bands to have a bald bass/lead guitar player.
Jeux how times have changed! Bald heads give for 5 minutes of laughs and anecdotes! ... not to mention a song titled "Penetration", people were so candid they didn't even think to be outraged!
"Penetration" reached #18 nationally over a 10 week chart run beginning February 2, 1964 -- just as The Beatles arrived and the surf rock era began to fade. The group did appear in "Bikini Beach" (unfortunately NOT performing "Penetration") but never scored another hit. Remarkably, a lot of beach music stars were also essentially one-hit artists (The Chantays, The Rivieras, tc.) The fact that the Pyramids recorded for the obscure Best label was no help.
Wow - ran across this vid again and see my last comment of 5 yrs ago! Just to correct & add a little: it should be Skip MERCIER (not "Mercer") on lead. And I forgot to note that rhythm player Willie Glover is a leftie like The King of The Surf Guitar, Dick Dale, and Dick's friend Jimi Hendrix! Also, BTW, sax man Tom Pitman was a member of the group but did not happen to play sax on "Penetration"; however the band wasn't going to exclude him from this Dick Clark show just because he wasn't playing on the record. The Pyramids were great and, once again, be sure to check out the flip side "Here Comes Marsha", as well as their later releases: "Midnight Run", "Contact" and "Pressure".
isnt it weird billie jean king, camaron diaz, i think war, snoop dog . . nicolas cage, mike chavez dancer, bradley noel from sublime, pyramids, and others! . . came from poly high school lb??
Before passing judgment on the talent of any of these guys listen to their the best of CD! Remember it was 1963-64! Some of their stuff was early garage! Speaking of The Beatles... Check their out there appearance in the movie " Bikini Beach" for their "hair raising" intro when they come out on stage in Beatles wigs take a bow and their wigs fly off to reveal their shaved heads! Also, Skip had to be the first guitarist to do a backflip off stage while playing! Check it out in the movie where they're having some fun with the video making him flip back and forth!
You are right on, My Friend - thanks for standing up for The Pyramids - one of the best surf instrumental bands, but they also played a lot of R&B material.
The Ventures released this in 1963... EMI-Liberty records... and indeed a very powerful version, later added to their "Ventures in Space" album in 1964.
