If you’re just stumbling upon this website, it contains the music and more of Bachelors Anonymous (1984–1992), the creation of Los Angeles musicians Rob Berg and David Hughes, with a little help from our friends.
The following 1987 midcourse bio, one of several biographical sketches, provides a profile of the duo. See also our About page and How We Met. We’ll be telling more tales as time goes on, so feel free to subscribe (see form at right) to be kept in the loop.
The Story of Bachelors Anonymous
Yes, it’s true Robert and David met one night at Catholic choir practice in February 1984. They immediately found that they had much in common: they were not Catholic, they were both bachelors, and they loved renaissance and rock music. Since their first collaboration—a sound text piece entitled “Inscription”—in May of ’84, Robert and David knew that what they did together was greater than the sum of its parts. They confirmed this with their first soundtrack for performance art/comedian John Fleck’s Halloween play at Lhasa Club, In a Viennese Vein, later that year.
January 1985 was the official performance debut of Bachelors Anonymous at the AntiClub. ’85 also saw them perform at Olio in Silver Lake, the 16th Note and Graffiti in San Francisco, and the Sunset Junction Street Fair (and, with the Catholic choir, the great cathedrals of Europe).
For B.A., 1986 was a year for writing new songs. Many of these songs were debuted at the first West Hollywood Street Fair in September. The next month, B.A. completed a soundtrack for John Fleck’s one-man show at the Wallenboyd Theater. I Got the He-Be-She-Be’s went on to rave reviews and an L.A. Weekly Theater Award for John’s performance.
This year has been B.A.’s busiest. Besides performing at UCLA, Olio, LACE, Studio One/Backlot, Club Lingerie, X=ART, Limbo Lounge, and elsewhere, they have written and recorded several new songs. In February they composed and recorded a soundtrack for a UCLA Theater Arts production of Megan Terry’s Home directed by Zack.
Bachelors Anonymous repertoire of original songs includes:
Grand Illusion
Ritual Life
Sarasponda
A Stranger’s Bed
Nick (you goddam Elvis)
Siegfried
Play Safely
The Black Bells of La Brea
Looking for You
Land of Nod
Victor the Beefcake
Father’s Day
Jimmy Carter’s Bomb
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
Mr. Wenceslas
The Price of Love
and a very different cover of HAIR’s Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)
Header image:
Rocky Schenck