RARE MINT STRAIGHT - THE G.T.O.'s GIRLS OUTRAGEOUSLY DAMAGE - 1969 ZAPPA PSYCH

$

132

STONE MINT IN CELLOPHANE

• ON ZAPPA'S "STRAIGHT" RECORDS LABEL ..|/\|...............................................|/\|..

• THE  G.T.O.'s

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  GIRLS  TOGETHER  OUTRAGEOUSLY

  "PERMANENT DAMAGE"

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• USA - STRAIGHT RECORDS - STS 1059
  
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• Was STILL FACTORY SEALED -
  
• only opened to see label (as you see photo)
  
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• UNSURE OF THE ORIGINS ... appears to be an "exact" limited edition from Europe of the famous West Coast UNDERGROUND "rock" artifact recorded in 1969.
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• As far as we figure this pressing is not around and rare!
  

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  The GTO's ((( GIRLS  TOGETHER  OUTRAGEOUSLY ))) were six (sometimes seven) nice looking and even quite friendly young women who just happened to be groupie rock music followers from the Los Angeles scene and its surrounding Southern California area. Several of the girls hung around the Sunset Strip area in the sixties. Groups like The Byrds, The Seeds, The Standells, Love and The Doors played there and these girls were there - just ask them. At any rate, one of the main things that stands out about The GTOs is they were pretty good musically, yet they didn't come across with the seriousness of Presbyterian or Methodist Sunday services. The group consisted of Miss Pamela (Pamela Ann Miller, later Pamela Des Barres), Miss Sparky (Linda Sue Parker), Miss Lucy (Lucy Offeral, later Lucy Mclaren), Miss Christine (Christine Frka), Miss Sandra (Sandra Lynn-Rowe, later Sandra Leano), Miss Mercy Fontenot, aka Judith Edra Peters and Miss Cinderella (Cynthia Wells, later Cynthia Cale-Binion).
  
  The GTOs were mentored by Frank Zappa, who grew up in the L.A. suburbs. He was very sympathetic to "the freaks" AKA "The counterculture." But Frank didn't use any LSD and Marijuana- he thought it interfered with the ability to play music and he expected the musicians who worked for him (the various lineups of the Mothers of Invention) to stay straight while on stage or in the studio, hence his mistrust of hippies. Miss Sparky drove a Hudson Hornet in the late sixties. She attracted a lot of attention on the strip when she was out in her ride with The GTOs, done up in their stage outfits and makeup. Miss Mercy came from San Francisco and she attended a Fillmore concert the first night they opened in 1966. She turned on to acid for the first time that night. She was in and out of Juvenile Hall a lot while she was in her teens. Miss Christine and Miss Cinderella shared a room at The Landmark Hotel in 1967. They later brought in Miss Mercy (the Landmark Hotel is remembered as the site of Janis Joplin's 1970 death from a drug overdose). Miss Christine came to L.A. from San Pedro with Miss Sandra. They both lived in the basement of Zappa's house in the mid-sixties. Miss Christine was the live-in nanny for Zappa's two oldest children (Dweezil and Moon Unit) before Miss Pamela took over the position. Miss Mercy came from Haight-Ashbury, which she left out of boredom, saying she "couldn't be a hippie forever." Miss Cinderella was brought into the group by Miss Mercy later on. Miss Cinderella and Miss Lucy both came into the group later and are not featured in all GTO's publicity shots. The group originally called itself "The Cherry Sisters." Later they became "The Laurel Canyon Ballet Company" but Frank Zappa persuaded them to change it to "The GTOs." GTOs could mean "Girls Together Orally" or "Girls Together Only" or maybe "Girls Together Outrageously." The girls were at that time part of a freeform dance troupe called "Vito and His Freakers." They would show up at clubs all over L.A. and if there was music playing they would dance around in a bizarre kind of way. In a recent interview, De Barres said that Vito would actually grab the other dancers and literally throw them about 10 or 15 feet in romantic bravado. Actually, they just wanted to attract attention and they weren't shy about doing just that. They were beautiful ladies and they wore strange, almost fetish-like outfits made for them at Vito & Szou's Art Studio/Fashion Boutique and Crash Pad. Large numbers of people came to see them dance to the music of The Byrds at Ciro's. When The Byrds toured the Midwest, one of their roadies named Carl Franzoni took some of the girls on the road as "touring Byrds dancers." Franzoni eventually became associated with Frank Zappa- he's the Carl Orestes Franzoni mentioned in the liner notes of the Freak Out album. Franzoni moved the girls into Frank's digs in Laurel Canyon before long. As they began to assemble themselves into a rock and roll band, they developed a style which was funny but which some might find it to be oddly disquieting. The performances featured all of the GTO's taking turns singing strange songs, reciting strange poetry, doing obtuse and strange dancing in very weird costumes. It was sort of a takeoff on kind of a Victorian era talent time "see what my daughter can do" tea social, only this time with a touch of the lysergic. Frank was always on the lookout for different and offbeat talent who he could produce and record for his record company he had established with Herb Cohen called Bizarre/Straight. So he started to get the girls ready to record the 17 song LP album Permanent Damage. Zappa produced most of the album. His stamp is on a great deal of the music. Lowell George (a member of the Mothers and soon to be a founder of Little Feet) produced a handful of tracks and played on the album.Other luminaries such as Ry Cooder, Davy Jones, Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins and Rod Stewart are all on Permanent Damage too along with various members of The Mothers of Invention. Some of the songs utilize a "Phil Spector" dreamy type sound which actually doesn't incorporate extensive or complicated soloing. There's an interesting story behind the album too. Stewart did some backup singing on the album and attention drifted away from Rod for a couple of hours as his band mates Jeff Beck and Nicky Hopkins worked on solos. Rod became dejected at the lack of attention and he left the studio to wander around in the middle of the night. This was Frank's studio, which was in sort of a California suburban backyard barbecues and brick houses neighborhood. The GTOs finally went out to look for him. He was from England and he didn't know the turf. He could've fallen into a swimming pool or gotten bit by someone's Doberman. They kept calling for "Rodney." They finally found him on the steps of a school building moping and pining. With gentle persuasion, they got Rod to return to the studio. For those who don't know, Rod was the lead singer for the Jeff Beck Group in those days. He hadn't started his solo career yet and it wouldn't be until 1970 that Rod and Ron Wood became members of The Small Faces. Permanent Damage was released in 1969 and it was the only album they did. It included such disreputable titles as:
  
  1. "The Eureka Springs Garbage Lady" 3:47
  2. "Miss Pamela and Miss Sparky Discuss Stuffed Bras and Some of Their... " 2:09
  3. "Who's Jim Sox" 0:17
  4. "Kansas and The BTO's" 1:12
  5. "The Captain's Fat Theresa Shoes" 1:55
  6. "Wouldn't It Be Sad if There Were No Cones" 1:10
  7. "Do Me in Once and I'll Be Sad, Do Me in Twice and I'll Know Better" 2:18
  8. "The Moche Monster Review" 1:45
  9. "TV Lives" 1:02
  10. "Rodney" 3:42
  11. "I Have a Paintbrush in My Hand to Color a Triangle" 2:10
  12. "Miss Christine's First Conversation With The Plaster Casters of... " 0:56
  13. "The Original GTO's" 1:04
  14. "The Ghost Chained to the Past, Present, and Future (Shock Treatment) " 1:44
  15. "Love on an Eleven Year Old Level" 1:18
  16. "Miss Pamela's First Conversation With The Plaster Casters of Chicago" 1:30
  17. "I'm in Love With The Ooo-Ooo Man GTO's" 3:26
  
  Frank's stamp is on much of their music. Seriously, all of us laugh at Frank's lyrics while Frank takes on everything including rock and roll and the hippies in his songs. He was only telling us we're vapid and we'll never leave Disneyland. It isn't so funny if you think it through. The GTOs didn't have an intellectual message. Their act, both musically and visually, was intelligently crafted with very thoughtful and weird song writing. Des Barres says Frank was a genius and he was very good about letting The GTOs exercise creativity and originality. She says The Mothers of Invention supplied the backup instrumentation for their live gigs. The girls acquired such cosmetology school names as "Miss Christine," "Miss Sparky," "Miss Lucy," "Miss Pamela," "Miss Cinderella," "Miss Mercy" and "Miss Sandra" from Tiny Tim. You might remember that Tim was an ukulele player and singer with a female sounding falsetto voice who had two hit records in 1968 with "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" and a remake of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire." Tim was on TV a lot back in those days and he sometimes dropped in on the Zappa horde in Laurel Canyon. He addressed all females as "miss." The girls also wrote all of their own material. Miss Mercy was a particularly good songwriter. Like Philadelphia's "Nazz," The GTOs gigged only sporadically throughout their career. Miss Pamela says they only played a few gigs, maybe 4 or 5. However, these were in important venues like L.A.'s Whiskey Au Go Go. She says people didn't know what to make of them, but the crowds were enthusiastic and they always won them over. The music these women produced is fascinating and they were very interesting as people too. The GTO's first major gig was as an opening act for The Mothers. This was in 1968 at L.A.'s Shrine auditorium. Their live sound was marked by slightly dissonant harmonies (similar to the harmonies employed by Frank and The Mothers of Invention) and very tasty keyboard and guitar touches. They were as visual as they were musical and for beautiful girls, they didn't seem to mind getting their hands dirty, being a little silly.
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1.   CONDITION:
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3. Rated: was STILL FACTORY SEALED 
   
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5. NEVER PLAYED / Mint ~ ALL sharp and colorful (lightly grainy & textured) gatefold cover...no delete marks, no bends, no writing and no split seams ...Unique to this rarity!
6. Opened to check label as shown in photo...
   

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  GIRLS  TOGETHER  OUTRAGEOUSLY

  "PERMANENT DAMAGE"