Pamela Des Barres - Music Career

Music Career

She was also a member of The GTOs, which was what is believed by many to be the world's first all-girl groupiegroup formed by Frank Zappa. The group started out as the Laurel Canyon Ballet Company, and began performing as an opening act for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The GTOs set was an eclectic mix of music, spoken word, and performance art, all backed by Zappa's band (since none of its members were formally trained to sing or play an instrument). In 1969, they released their only album entitled Permanent Damage on Zappa's record label. Various music and lyrics were co-written by Zappa and some of the girls. Some of the personnel featured on the project included vocalist Rod Stewart, guitarist Jeff Beck, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. Additional production credits went to Little Feat guitarist / bandleader Lowell George. The GTOs had only one performance under the actual name along with the Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart at the Shrine Auditorium in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles during the summer of 1969. The entire concert lasted for six straight hours and was considered by many to be to this day one of the most influentially pivotal concerts in rock & roll history due to its nature. The group dissolved just a month after the album's release due to some of its members being arrested and detained for drug possession. A couple of them went on to record with Zappa on his own original material in the late 1970s as well as land sizable roles in his 1977 underground cult film classic 200 Motels. Another fact worthy of note is the reference towards Des Barres and bandmate Miss Mercy that appeared on page 1 in the Best Seller's List book The Hammer Of The Gods: The Unofficial Led Zeppelin Story, where they were interpreted as being 'the life of the party' as the British group would always call them when they would travel to Los Angeles on tour. As Des Barres explained in her diary, The GTOs are still something of the enigma that complimented the musicians in the true sense of the word muse, rather than focusing on being the musicians themselves.