Lotti Golden’s Motor-Cycle Reissued by High Moon Records

By Harvey Kubernik

 

I remember in late 1969 when an acquaintance of mine, Heather Harris, an editor at the UCLA Daily Bruin Entertainment pages, received a copy of the Bob Crewe-produced Lotti Golden debut LP Motor-Cycle on Atlantic Records.

Harris, and another concert pal of mine, Nancy Rose Retchin at Palisades High School, were big fans of Laura Nyro, and both knew I liked female singers and poets.

In winter of 1969 I first heard Golden’s Motor-Cycle on KPPC-FM in Pasadena, California, and got my own copy of the album at Wallichs Music City in Hollywood. I had read reviews of her in Newsweek and The New York Times when I stocked shelves in the library at West Los Angeles Junior College in Culver City.

Golden’s stream of consciousness lyrics was influenced by the beat generation and Jack Kerouac. Motor-Cycle wasn’t Brill Building pop music, but songs about narcotics, gender identity, the ramifications of involvement, and urban alienation from a Thrill Building tunesmith who was the landlord doing the reporting.

In 1968 and ’69, Heather, Nancy and I went monthly to the Shrine Exposition Hall in downtown Los Angeles for the Pinnacle Dance Concerts. Three former USC students, Sepp Donahower, Mark Chase and John Van Hamersveld, promoted 13 shows of visiting acts and local bands. It was where art, film and music collided. Filmmaker George Lucas was on the Single Wing Turquoise Bird lightshow crew. We saw Moby Grape, Canned Heat, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, Vanilla Fudge, Pogo (pre-Poco), Lee Michaels, Mothers of Invention, Richie Havens, and Sweetwater.

In 2025, Harris, now a noted music photographer and journalist, http://heatherharris.net, emailed me after we heard the High Moon reissue of Motor-Cycle.

“Ahmet Ertegun and Atlantic were thrilled with their own new Laura Nyro, the young Ms. Golden circa the late 1960s/early 70s, insofar as she was literate, intelligent, captivating looking, way past the confines of hipster/alternative conformity with a hella holler when that soprano wanted to reach the stratosphere. Atlantic dutifully provided me with its own copy wherein of course we all loved its excesses. After all, this era begat the nascent Alice Cooper Band….

“Back then, I noted some of the young lady’s social acquaintance crowd name-checked in those harrowing songs, like Silky Silkman (and her baby, also eponymously named Silky.) Now a hard to Google name, in 1970 Silky warranted a whole chapter in the famed Rolling Stone paperback Groupies and Other Girls book of gorgeous studio photography by Baron Wolman, with snippets and outtakes of RS’ notorious 1969 issue on groupies, which featured the better known GTOs, Catherine James, assorted NYC and SF ladies plus the Plaster Casters.

“The song in which Silky appears, ‘Space Queens,’ is about Golden’s outrageous gay male Greenwich Village playmates, although the same might apply to the interview of Ms. Silkman in the Wolman book. Therein she dismisses various partners as being ‘too heavy’ (not a reference to weight) and ‘a Pisces!’), while dressing in mannish caps, trench coats and short short hair while complaining that her men are not sufficiently butch. Maybe not a lot of self-awareness going down here.

“This is mentioned because in the late 60s, most all my contemporaries were far better at self-analysis than Ms. Silky, and far more like Lotti Golden with her diamond-hard, confessional songwriting as here in this fascinating form on the CD. I knew lots of accomplished, pretty young women like Ms. Golden, just few with those Laura-Nyro-esque pipes, and the bravery to write of transgressive fun like enjoying drugs.

“This CD will set the Wayback Machine to place you in the late 1960s world of Warhol hangers on, East Village others, and all your wild friends of your youth. It’s still hard to top Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus’ description of one of Golden’s eight-minute story tunes as ‘The song keeps building and she’s screaming about drugs.’”

George Wallace’s High Moon Records is a boutique reissue record label, with a catalog comprised of essential releases featuring deluxe packaging, extensive liner notes by writers and authors, impressive artwork with never-before-seen archival photos, and re-mastered audio often with rare bonus tracks.

The Motor-Cycle High Moon package includes lavish, 32-page LP and 48-page CD books with extensive liner notes detailing the story of how the teenage Lotti Golden came to make an album as singular and audacious as Motor-Cycle. With exclusive essays by Richard Hell and David Toop, and a wealth of archival photos, including more than 30 never-before-seen photographs by pioneering rock photographer, Baron Wolman.

Richard Hell: “Motor-Cycle transported me back to the ’60s in a way not many records do…There’s no irony or second-guessing: Golden’s all in, a psychedelic daughter of the Beat generation, among her equally hippie cohort, in swirls of free-loving, drug-chasing, multiracial, pan-sexual abandon… The album is a mother lode, not unlike Daniel Johnston or the Shaggs, say, for its multi-level fascination.”

Along with the original album track listing, the Motor-Cycle CD includes the rarely heard Atlantic single “Sock It to Me Baby/It’s Your Thing” b/w “Annabelle with Bells (Home Made Girl).”

Motor-Cycle is a singular record of the singer-songwriter era. The combination of Golden’s poetic temperament and Crewe’s bold vision was truly original.

A High Moon Records announcement provided additional information on their teaming.

“Crewe wanted the vocals raw and real, true to Motor-Cycle’s story, and Golden unflinchingly held her own in the studio. Crewe insisted on recording Golden’s vocals live in one take, an experience she had described as akin to ‘performing an entire Broadway musical, live in the studio.’ By pushing Golden’s voice to its emotional limits, Crewe achieved the desired effect, a spontaneous authenticity that remained true to her poet-outlaw narrative. From her R&B inflections and velvety rock intonations to gospel riffs, Golden’s vocals are nimble and dynamic, giving every song exactly what it needs.

“An ambitious suite of phenomenal pop power and originality, Motor-Cycle chronicles Lotti Golden’s immersion in New York City’s late-sixties counterculture. Underscored by a genre-bending soundscape, the action plays out on New York’s East Village and Lower East Side, populated with a coterie of philosopher-lovers, faux gurus, grifters, malcontents, and groupies.

“Born in Brooklyn, Golden inherited a passion for music and art from her parents. As a teen, she began writing original songs, discovering a distinctive talent as both wordsmith and vocalist. In 1966, 16-year-old Golden landed a publishing deal with Bob Crewe’s Saturday Music as a staff songwriter – a dream gig which would give her the opportunity to hone her songwriting skills and produce song demos. Even with this early success, Golden had other plans. She was not just a songwriter – she was an artist, with her own story to tell.

“In early fall of 1967, Golden was singing in an elevator on her way to a recording session. The door opened and Golden immediately recognized the owner of Saturday Music, producer-arranger-songwriter Bob Crewe. Renowned for his uncanny pop sensibilities and innovative productions, Crewe had worked with the Rays, the Four Seasons, Diane Renay, the Toys, and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels.

“Intrigued, Crewe set up a meeting. Golden brought her material to Crewe, who upon hearing the outrageous characters populating her songs, exclaimed, ‘Good God, who are your friends?’ Crewe was sold on the project and began shopping demo tapes to a major label with just the basic rhythm tracks and Golden’s vocal.

“Though only 16 when she started writing the songs that would become part of Motor-Cycle, Golden wrote candidly and compellingly about a world quite different from the fading norms of 1950s America and the flower-power clichés of the 1960s, with vividly personal accounts of street life that presaged urban troubadours like Jim Carroll, Bruce Springsteen, and Patti Smith.

‘“You feel immortal at that age,’ Golden says. ‘You feel you can take a chance, and it won’t burn you. Of course, it does end up burning you in many ways, but you can’t be afraid of it. If you fear it, then you won’t be able to tell your story or learn anything. So, you try to stay true to who you are, and write the story. But I didn’t write a book; I wrote an album.’

“After just one listen, Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, industry giants and execs at Atlantic Records, bought the demo tapes, with Wexler declaring that Golden would be the greatest single pop artist since Aretha Franklin. Golden’s impromptu elevator audition had netted her a high profile, major label signing, and sky-high expectations.”

Lotti Golden penned every song on Motor-Cycle, except for one tune with Bob Crewe.

In May of 1975, I interviewed Crewe for the now defunct UK music periodical Melody Maker. He explained his songwriting collaborations and record productions.

“I try and get the most from all the artists I work with. That’s the secret of how someone who doesn’t have the big voice or the big facility can get a unique sound and make the record sound like it belongs to them. I write from experience. How else can you do it? I like to write for certain people. Sometimes you come up with a song that doesn’t have anybody’s name on it. In the studio producing is sound on sound.”

After signing the deal, Golden and arranger/director Crewe set to work at the famed Studio A at Atlantic Recording Studios, 1841 Broadway, completing the LP in eight sessions. Though Golden had worked out the songs with a “sparser concept of what would be added to basic guitar and vocals,” Crewe had something far bigger in mind. The producer brought a sprawling, multi-dimensional approach to the Golden’s grand songcraft, layering funk grooves, rock riffs, psychedelic soul, Southern blues guitar, big band sounds and myriad of other stylistic elements along with horns, strings, bells, timpani, a boys’ choir, and more.

Crewe assembled a stellar group of musicians to bring Golden’s tunes and her vocals to fruition: Billy Suyker (guitar), Charley Macey (guitar), Everett Barksdale (guitar), Hugh McCracken (guitar), Ralph Cassales (guitar), Vinnie Bell (guitar), Everett Barksdale (bass), Lou Mauro (bass), Bobby Gregg (drums), Buddy Saltzman (drums), Herb Lovelle (drums), Ernie Hayes (piano, organ), Joe Grimm (saxophone), Alan Raph (trombone), Ernie Royal (trumpet). The studio cats had been on sessions for Van Morrison, the Left Banke, Les McCann, the Monkees, Bob Dylan, Laura Nyro, the Four Seasons, Quincy Jones, Herbie Mann, Simon & Garfunkel, James Brown, Janis Ian, Sam Cooke and Nina Simone.

In certain respects, in 1969, Motor-Cycle was meant to challenge the listener, especially during an era when pop singles rarely topped the three-minute mark or strayed from a handful of well-worn song structures. All of the original album’s seven tracks are over five minutes and none contain a typical verse/chorus/bridge structure, instead employing radical changes in tempo, genre, and mood.

With its ambitious and eclectic musical arrangements, extended instrumental interludes, vivid cast of characters, and storylines that span multiple songs, Motor-Cycle may well be the first rock concept album by a female artist, chronicling the ecstasies and tribulations of a scrappy cohort of outsiders as a metaphor for resurrection and redemption.

Lotti never performed in Southern California and I forgot about the impact her 1969 LP had on me and my small circle of friends. I later learned Golden released an album in 1971 on the GRT label.

Needless to say, I was delighted to learn High Moon Records was re-releasing Motor-Cycle in 2025.

In the years since it was initially shipped to retailers in summer of 1969, Motor-Cycle has found popularity via fanzines, the Internet, social media and in 2025 from High Moon Records.

As for Lotti Golden’s career the last half century, don’t feel sorry for her as a criminally neglected solo recording artist whose major label debut disc wasn’t a commercial success. Many decades ago, guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist Golden wisely transitioned from songwriter/recording artist to record producer and achieved RIAA certified Gold and Platinum record success in various musical genres. Golden with Richard Scher wrote, produced or remixed hits by Diana Ross, the Manhattans, and Brenda K. Starr.

In the eighties she established a studio relationship with producer Arthur Baker, co-producing a Jennifer Holiday chart record. Golden worked with Baker and Steven Van Zandt on the multi-artist landmark anti-Apartheid recording and video, Artists United Against Apartheid, Sun City and appears in the acclaimed video.

Last century Golden was introduced to songwriter and record producer Tommy Faragher, after signing with MCA Music. Later she re-inked with Universal Music Publishing Group. The Golden/Faragher team wrote hit singles for the Jets, Brenda K. Starr and Taylor Dane. Celine Dion, Al Green, and B.B. King also cut their tunes.

As record producers, Golden and Faragher produced the British R&B girl band Eternal, the first female group to sell one million album sales in the UK.

Journalists and authors have pointed to Golden’s groundbreaking and innovative work in urban dance, electro and hip-hop music. Lotti is featured in David Toop’s The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop. Golden’s contributions to hip-hop as part of electro pioneers Warp 9, Motor-Cycle has been sampled by producer Madlib, Amon Tobin, and Eels singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, pka “E.”

All images courtesy High Moon Records.

© Harvey Kubernik 2025

 

Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015′s Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016′s Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017′s 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love. Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In 2021 the duo wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble.

Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters. His book Screen Gems: (Pop Music Documentaries and Rock ‘n’ Roll TV Scenes) is scheduled for 2025 publication.

Harvey wrote the liner notes to CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, The Essential Carole King, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, The Ramones’ End of the Century and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival. During 2006 Kubernik spoke at the special hearings by The Library of Congress in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation. In 2017 he appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in their Distinguished Speakers Series

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