NIGHT PEOPLE, Book 1 - Things We Lost in the Night: A memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves
About this ebook
"The punishing schedule we'd endured had been a crucible, forcing us to learn how to rely on one another, to develop discipline, and set an expectation that each of us would do our best under the most difficult conditions. Like anyone else with a job, some nights were better than others, but we never quit trying. Somewhere along the way, I realized with pride,we'd transformed ourselves into professionals."
In 1964, Larry's rock and roll vocal group is disintegrating along with his marriage to his high school sweetheart. Despite his resolve to turn his life around in Indianapolis, he finds himself reunited with his scattered-to-the-winds friends in distant San Francisco, struggling to make themselves into a rock band in the dive clubs of the Bay Area.
Barely surviving the transformation, they struggle to avoid the dangers, temptations, and insecurities waiting to trip them up in their new life. As the band scrambles to overcome, or at least endure, every obstacle in its path, Larry faces a painful choice that will result in loss for those he loves no matter how he decides.
Their strong voices and new skills are a potent combination. Soon, Larry and his new band are plunged into a breathtaking journey through mob-run nightclubs, Las Vegas showrooms and backrooms, famous Hollywood night spots, top West Coast recording studios, celebrity managers--and passionate romance. Everything they've ever dreamed of is just around the corner.
Night People's adventure is set against the backdrop of the West Coast in the mid-60s: a historic era of tectonic cultural, political, musical, and sexual upheaval--and the draft. In the tumultuous nights the band inhabits, where things and people are too easily found and lost, everything Larry thought he knew about life, love, and himself is challenged.
PRAISE FOR NIGHT PEOPLE
"Dunlap's sense of transcendence is similar to the sensation Keith Richards describes in his memoir, 'Life: ' ...you leave the planet for a while...' Reliving his rock and roll years in his wonderful memoir, NIGHT PEOPLE,' Larry Dunlap must have left the planet for a while, too." I loved it and highly recommend it. -- Kiana Davenport, The Spy Lover, Shark Dialogues
"Whether or not you remember the swift intoxicating music of that era or the seismic shift of mores that burst from the free-love movement, [NIGHT PEOPLE] captures the beat of that misty time when the country suffered "a growing thirst for individual freedom, a desire to escape from an ever-darkening shadow of war, and a national hangover following the public murder of a young and popular president." -- C.D. Quyn, Steph Rodriguez, Manhattan Book Review
"Larry Dunlap lived it. His memoir 'NIGHT PEOPLE is a frank, funny, frenzied chronicle of the 60's West Coast music scene." -- Susan Shapiro, New York Times bestselling memoirist, FIVE MEN WHO BROKE MY HEART, GOOD AS YOUR WORD, OVEREXPOSED
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
One of the best biographies written by a musician!
A Riveting, Mythic, Rock & Roll Memoir
Wonderful!
Excellent!
Thoroughly Entertaining.
Great Read
Naked Truth!
Window Into a Fascinating Era
Rock n Roll, baby!
Must Read
About An Exciting Life
Music Has Found Me Again
Left Me Weak!
Life Seems Boring After Night People
Lessons of Life, Love, and Sex in the 60s
Genuine, Exciting, Graphic and Memorable
Fantastic Coming of Age Memoir!
Music Reality!
Great Look At An Era
Couldn't Stop Reading!
About the author
Larry J. Dunlap is the author of NIGHT PEOPLE, Book 1, and ENCHANTED, Book 2, of Things We Lost in the Night, A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves. His short stories have appeared in: 2012 WRITING FROM INLANDIA (2015) and HERE COMES THE SUN (2017).
In the years following his memoir, Larry spent most of the 70s in Hollywood as a personal manager, publisher, and Sunset Boulevard recording studio owner/operator. He also reviewed live-music performances in his column NIGHTWORK for AFFAIR Magazine and wrote and drew a music-based comic strip called FRETS for "Inside" Magazine. In the 80s Larry co-founded the first all-digital broadcasting network, followed by several years in video and film production, and post-production. Larry's professional writing career began as a pencil-for-hire, technical, and training developer for Fortune 50 companies in the 90s.
Larry's favorite project has been imagining a galactic empire with a detailed history and backstory. He designed the gameplay and delivery system and worked with his team to develop a breakthrough graphical multiplayer online strategy game, IMPERIAL WARS. He is currently working on a trilogy taking place in this long-imagined universe. Currently, Larry writes from his home near the ocean in Southern California where he counts his blessings and shares his life with his wife Laurie and their Chilidog.
