People are always asking where Chainsaw Chicken learned to play guitar.
The answer is simple: the beach.
This photograph was taken during Chainsaw’s brief but influential period with a little-known California folk group called The Beach Bums. They never actually recorded an album, mostly because nobody could agree on who was supposed to sing lead, and Chainsaw insisted every song needed at least one spoken-word section about government overreach.
The fellow on the left had been playing the same three chords for nearly forty minutes when Chainsaw wandered over and announced, “You know, if you play those in a different order, that’s an entirely different song.”
That revelation changed the afternoon. Within minutes, Chainsaw was given a guitar and seated beneath a palm tree while several attractive young women gathered around. This was not unusual in those days. Chainsaw says women were naturally drawn to musicians, poets, race-car drivers and men who carried jumper cables.
Unfortunately, nobody had bothered to tell him that the guitar was supposed to be tuned.
Chainsaw began strumming anyway. “Music comes from the heart,” he explained. “Tuning comes from people who worry too much.”
The young woman beside him smiled politely while the fellow on the left attempted to work out what key Chainsaw was playing in.
There wasn’t one. The performance continued for another twenty minutes until somebody requested California Dreamin’. Chainsaw nodded confidently and launched into what everyone later agreed was probably Ghost Riders in the Sky.
The afternoon ended abruptly when a beach patrol officer informed Chainsaw that the mask was frightening children.
“I told him it wasn’t a mask,” Chainsaw recalled.
The officer stared at him.
Chainsaw stared back.
Eventually the officer said, “Have a nice day.”
Years later, Chainsaw would claim the gathering helped launch the California folk-rock movement.
Music historians disagree.
But Chainsaw still has the photograph.
And as he frequently points out, history belongs to the guy with the pictures.