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SEPTEMBER 2018 • THE STATUE OF LIBERTY OF LOS ANGELES IN HIGHLAND PARK SINCE 2007 chicken boy at future studio • 5558 North figueroa Street • los angeles 90042

For CHICKEN BOY’s birthday (September 1, 2018), his best gift was DID YOU EVEN KNOW THERE IS a custom set in his honor put together by TOM NIXON for The Nixon A LOS ANGELES CITY FLAG? Tapes (Roots Music and Beyond). It is available for a few weeks for your The flag of Los Angeles, California, online listening pleasure at kpfk.org (go to “Audio Archives” then “Sept. consists of a background of three 1”). Who knew there was so much really great chicken-inspired music? notched stripes of green, gold and (A couple of titles are homage to “Truck Driver Appreciation Month”). red. The colors represent olive trees (green), orange groves (gold), and #32 was written especially for Mr Boy by San Francisco’s Those Darn vineyards (red). The flag was designed —they said they would write the song if we sold the cassette by Roy E. Silent and E.S. Jones in 1931 tape (hey, it was from 1992 and at the time we had a pretty OK wacky for the Los Angeles sesquicentennial from 1781. mail order business); it worked out to be not too bad a deal all around. The original album Vongole Fisarmonica (“ clams”) is available now The city seal is shown in the center for digital download. The album BTW also includes a pretty killer accordion of the flag. Surrounding the shield are representations of three major “.” On their album No Strings Attached is an amazing California crops: grapes, olives, and accordion rendition of “Baba O’Riley.” oranges. The seal contains a heraldic shield quartered showing: 1. The Rooster Is Crowing - Muzikas • an approximation of the shield shown on the Great Seal of the 2. The Eggs of Your Chickens - The Flatlanders United States, though the blue chief 3. Chicken Shack Boogie - Lionel Hampton features thirteen stars; 4. Chicken Ondo - The Frank Chickens • an approximation of the flag of California; 5. Crow Black Chicken - The Bad Livers • an approximation of the coat of arms 6. Chicken Road - Gunnar Madsen of Mexico; 7. Pickin’ Chicken - Arcaño • a tower and lion of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of León, 8. La Gallina - Ozomatli representing the arms of Spain. 9. Hen Party Blues - The Dixieland Jug Blowers 10. Mama Bake a Pie, Daddy Kill a Chicken - The Drive-by Truckers The flag received brief international prominence when, during the closing 11. Trucker’s Song - Goran Bregovic of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, it was 12. Willin’ - Steve Earle raised instead of the United States flag 13. Truckin’ Little Woman - Sue Foley as a symbol of the next Olympic host. 14. Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man - Gram Parsons The move was seen as a response to the American-led boycott of the 15. Truckers Speed - The Meat Purveyors Moscow Olympics. 16. Trucker’s Carousel - Tom Recchion 17. The Greasy Chicken - Andre Williams with Gino Purifoy Many vexillologists (flag aficionados) really don’t like our flag’s design, but 18. We Are Frank Chickens - The Frank Chickens we haven’t seen any terrific options. 19. Chickensoap - Banabila It’s a weird problem—for all that’s 21. The Red Rooster - Howlin’ Wolf here in L.A., it’s amazingly difficult to identify symbols and/or landmarks 22. El Gallo - Trio Los Parientes that can be distilled into a fun, lively, 23. Dixie Chicken - Little Feat worthy graphic representation 24. Chicken Yellow Grand Piano Blues - The Urb Brothers of our city. (See the publication “Good Flag, Bad Flag” for North 25. C-H-I-C-K-E-N - Van Dyke Parks American Vexillological Association’s 26. Cacklin’ Hen - Howard Armstrong and Willie Sievers recommended flag design guidelines). 27. Chicken Walk - Hasil Atkins Meanwhile, we actually really like this 28. Gallito - Guerino et son Orchestre Musette de la Boite a Matelots one, which is somewhat rarely seen except at City Hall. 29. Best Dressed Chicken in Town - Dr. Alimantado 30. Cluck Old Hen - The Bad Livers 31. Le Poule Za Zou - Charles Trenet 32. Chicken Boy - Those Darn Accordions 33. Government Chicken Boy - Fela Kuti

What’s your favorite word? “I like Chicken. I like the “ch,” I like the “ih,” and I like the “kuh.” I like chicken better than “pickle.” The “l” kind of softens it for me. ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� —Mel Brooks

Tom reminded us about the group FRANK CHICKENS, a truly great 1980s British band founded by Japanese women artists. We hear and hope they might be back together again.