San Diego Reader

ROCK OPERAS MAY HAVE BEEN BORN IN SAN DIEGO, BUT THEY'RE MOVING TO L.A. - Bart Mendoza & JAS

A private-pressing rock opera LP from 1973, "An Eye In Each Head" by Anthony Adams (Harlequin Records), captured the music of a decidedly offbeat and counterculture stage production, launched right here in San Diego. The show earned a measure of local fame and notoriety, not only for its (perfectly legit) nudity and (witty) drug references, but for its offbeat storyline subject matter.

The show concerned a fly who eventually becomes king of the world, due to man's evil and self destructive nature. Then the fly reveals that he's really Jesus...

Show creator Anthony Adams - who was in a local sixties teen garage band, the Norsemen - is credited by many as having launched the first true recording of a rock opera. The Who's Tommy is often regarded as a song cycle, Jesus Christ Superstar is most accurately classified an oratorio, and SF Sorrow was never truly staged, leaving An Eye In Each head a clear contender for the title, having been staged as well as recorded. Pictured here is the mind-blowing cover Art By Conchita Vesco.

"I saw this performed at UCSD with my parents," says Gravedigger 5 vet Ted Friedman. "I think my cousin was in it. For real, I was real young. It was weird. I was maybe 10, if that, there may have been some nudity in it. A fly takes over the world. I remember my parents saying maybe it wasn't a good idea to take us there. I just remember it being really trippy and kind of long. I think it kind of scared us."

Anthony Adams went on to a prolific and storied career in the theater, as well as working on TV series like Disney's Duck Tales and Jim Henson's Fragglerock.

Among his original plays and musicals that he's directed in San Diego and London are the Adventures of Olig and Obster, A Song For Gar, the Living Cell, and the Great Relativity Bomb Plot. He also composed music for the national touring production of the Grapes Of Wrath, starring Ed Harris and John Carradine.

Adams' Los Angeles-based Adams Entertainment has filmed DVDs of two musical stage productions produced at the Birch North Park Theatre; 2006's "Primal Twang: The Legacy of Guitar" and "Love-In," a celebration of 1967's "Summer of Love," scheduled for release on DVD this fall.

Both episodes are part of a proposed ten-part DVD series on the history of musical styles, featuring a mix of storytelling and performances from guest musicians including Eric Johnson, Jesse Colin Young, and San Diego's own Rockola and Strawberry Alarm Clock ("Incense & Peppermints").

While the filming was by all accounts a success, further productions will not be take place in San Diego. "We love the North Park Theatre," said Adams. "It has great acoustics and is physically beautiful, but there is simply better access to musicians up north and it's also much easier to get attention from the national press."

The San Diego native has run his production company in Los Angeles for the past 18 years. He partially relocated to San Diego in 2005 to care for his ill father. Now all operations are moving back to Los Angeles.

While the move back to Los Angeles was inevitable, Adams also considers that the production is also a victim of its own success. "When managers and others began to see how well Primal Twang turned out, we began to get calls from all sorts of big name performers who wanted to be involved. It's just so much easier to connect with them in a city that's geared towards the industry already." Upcoming episodes include Country, Jazz and The British Invasion.

The two productions so far have used numerous local musicians to back the star acts including Peter Sprague, Dennis Caplinger and Rockola. According to Rockola guitarist Mark DeCerbo, rehearsals for "Love-In" took six weeks. "It was a lot of work and we didn't even get much screen time," he joked. "But it was worth it to play with people like (sixties duo) Peter & Gordon."

Adams Entertainment's return to Los Angeles will not exclude these musicians from continuing to be involved in productions, though Adams makes no guarantees. "These guys were great and I really hope to work again with Caplinger in particular, but it's a matter of best fit. I don't care if you're from San Diego or Nashville, as long as you're right for the part."