Don Waller's Imperial Dogs Gets Belated Due with New DVD

My old pal Don Waller's secret proto-punk history is slowly coming to light. Now there's solid proof of the existence of his mid-70s LA answer to the NY Dolls, The Imperial Dogs. As a New Yorker I can't say I knew much about Don's band, other than a few passing mentions in Chris Stigliano's Blog to Comm, until now with the launch of The Imperial Dogs website and the new black & white DVD The Imperial Dogs Live! In Long Beach (October 30, 1974). I haven't seen it yet, but any band that was covering the Velvet Underground in 1974 is jake by me.

Here's a clip from the DVD of their best known song, This Ain't the Summer of Love, later covered by Blue Oyster Cult, the Nomads, L7 and Lizzy Borden. Don's the singer, snarling an intro to the song: "to all you hippies, out there, this ain't the summer of love."



I've known Don for years as a journalist, as a repository of LA's rock history and LA's answer to our our own Norton Records folks Miriam Linna and Billy Miller, and an all around stand up guy. Good luck Don!