Hello, my name is Brian, and I was born & raised in Merced, CA. I have lived here for all 37 years..........
I hope you have some time to either grab a cup of coffee, some tea or you favorite alcoholic beverage. I have an interesting story to share with all of you fellow record collectors here of the bitten who remember John Hilliard aka "Motorcycle John".........
First off, let me say that there may be some inaccuracies in my story since I cannot confirm every aspect about the life of John Hilliard, but I can honestly say that a book would definitely in order to scrap up other details that have been left out for so many years........
I started collecting records when I was 12. Back in the 80's, there used to be a shop that was ran by Steve Crissoni, Joe Mendez & John Hilliard, known as Steve's Coin's, and later Collectibles. It was there when my passion for vinyl emerged. Steve was in the front of the store, and John & Joe were in the back. Steve would deal with coins & collectibles, but had some records too, whereas, John & Joe would deal in nothing but records. They ended up moving to another bigger building from what I remember, but this time, you would walk through the front door and John would be to your right, Steve to your left, and Joe in the far back. John's records were always priced by the book,, and always had the rarer rock/psych albums, whereas Steve would price everything $5.00 & under. Joe had used records too, but his main focus was punk, hardcore and metal.
Eventually, though, Steve would move in other various spots throughout the years, and then finally settle where he is currently at now on 16th. street next to the H&W burger joint. Joe would open up a shop separately, changing focus musically to funk, disco and hip hop records before jumping ship for good and leaving Merced. The last I heard Joe was in Boston, but I have no clue where he is now.
John Hilliard was able to keep a used record shop open, up until circa 1998-1999 when disaster struck, but I will save that for the end of my story.........
When John finally was able to secure his own store, he opened a used record shop independently from Steve & Joe sometime in the early 90's, and was located right next to the old Mainzer Theater, which was known as The Strand at one time. quite possibly had the best if not thee best used record store in Merced, CA. From the time John had opened his independent location, all the way up until his death, I had gotten to know John quite well, or at least whatever he was willing to share with me about his life........
I will try to do my best from recollective memory to share with you all what I do remember about John, parts of his life, and my experiences into the world of record collecting........
John Hilliard was not a U.S. native, and I don't believe he was ever legal in the U.S., and although I could be wrong, that is what I have always understood. What I do know for a fact though is that he was not born in the U.S., and was born In Canada. From what I remember, he never had any family or relatives here in California, or let alone the States. He would alternate between Hispanic acquaintances, and the record shop for a place to sleep, and never had an "actual" home, but for the most part, he always lived inside the record shop.
Most of John's knowledge of music, the music business and or/records, came from the fact that he spent a lot of time with various musicians, artists and other people of similar backgrounds. Apparently, from what John told me, he used to work for Imperial records, and this is where he met producer/writer/artist/eccentric Kim Fowley. John & Kim Fowley became friends, and although it isn't too clear to me to this day if Kim Fowley knows about John's death, John did tell me that he did in fact keep in touch with him, although I am not too clear on what level. Apparently, John said that one of the jobs he had was to discard unwanted vinyl promo copies of artists that had a catalog number slated for release on their albums, but never came out, and were tossed into a dumpster. John managed to salvage some of these oddities because I saw them in his record shop from many years ago in the 60's when he was still at Imperial records. Now, I know this story may seem as though I am blowing a load of smoke, and I can see where all of you here might think that what I am saying here is a convoluted lie, but if truth be told, there should be some truth to this, especially if I were to tell you that John made a guest appearance on the 1969 Kim Fowley album, "Good Clean Fun". Yes, on the track entitled "Motorcycle" he makes a guest appearance. it isn't a song really, but it is his voice reciting some sort of hippy like bizarre beatnik ramblings about? You guessed it? Motorcycles! I am assuming that is how he got the monicker "Motorcycle John".
There are many other aspect or chapters that are missing about John's life that aren't too clear to me, and the only people that may perhaps know that are family, relatives, other friends, or even Kim Fowley himself! The story of John Hillard is one that remains to be told much more than what I know, so as to fill in some necessary gaps.........
When it came to records, ahh yes, records, John knew them inside & out. From the common to the obscure, he knew his stuff about records! You could ask him any question; he could tell you the year, sometimes the date, and the label! The guy was a literal walking musical encyclopedia! He gave me my first price guide for records; he preferred the Jerry Osbourne guides. This is what opened up the door to the wonderful world of not just common, but obscure garage, psychedelic & prog rock records from the 60's & 70's I would later collect. I mean I studied that price guide like mad! I would find all the bands & artists from like 1966-1970, and he would tell me if they were psych, pop or if they just sucked in general, then he would aim me in the direction of the good stuff like The Move, and The Pretty Things, for example. And man, talk about records! He had loads! In the front of his store, he had the LP's all alphabetized, and in the back he had 45's, and pretty much nothing BUT 45's, and all in chronological order, according to the record label they came out on! He even had a separate place for rarities & imports! If there was ever a record you were looking for and you needed it, he would travel all the way down to Pasadena, CA. by bus to bring records back to Merced for you to purchase! he was a real record guru & genie........
His grading skills were accurate, and he always sold everything according to the condition of the record. I seem to recall he did like some garage & psych records, but his main love was old school country western records, and Spanish music. I recall sometimes him having to go out for a beer run, and he would always have me watch his store. I was the only one for some strange reason that he would allow to watch his store. Can you imagine a 16 year old kid watching a record shop? I did, but he was always appreciative, even though the guy was a total alcoholic! He would give me some records in exchange for gratitude!
I frequented his store, up until he was forced to close down, assuming he couldn't keep up with the rent on the building. It seemed as though the only friends he truthfully had was his cats that lived with him inside the store, where half of the time smelled like piss......
Towards the end, it was actually quite sad because the local Merced streets became John's home, and he was no longer selling records anymore at all by either 1998 or 1999. He could be seen around town pushing a shopping cart, pushing his belongings around with whatever possessions he had at the time.
John Hilliard sadly passed away at I believe the age of 58, although I am not too clear on that either. It does seem about right though, because if he was a part of that 60's generation, most of them are in their 70's now. No one really knows how he died. Some people have said that John Died of alcohol poisoning, others claim that he was beat in the head with a baseball bat, and left for dead on the street. Many will tell you that he had a few run-ins with his ex long time previous partner Steve Crissoni, and some claim that Steve killed him. John always seemed to have issues with Steve from what I remember, and many believe that someone may have been hired to kill John. To this day, John's death, to many still here in Merced who remember him, remains a mystery, not only to people in the record collecting community, but many who knew him closely. it is within my hopes that the truth finally comes out, and is revealed about how John really left us.
When you think about it, there really hasn't truthfully been a true record store in Merced since John's shop has closed down. Since the 2000's, there has been a place called the Strawberry Alarm Clock on 1626 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Merced, but because it mainly is a head shop that sells drug paraphernalia and mostly is DVD's & CD's, there is only a small selection of records there. I wouldn't really call that an actual "record shop". The ex manager of Strawberry Alarm Clock, Travis Strang, has currently opened up a new record store called "Tigers & Daggers Records", however, although it may be the first true record store since 1998, the selection is still quite rather small, and is mainly made up of newer current bands on vinyl. There main specialty in used records is: punk, new wave, hardcore and metal. With that said, with their customer base being of such limited appeal, they sadly cannot begin to even come close to the variety of records that John once possessed in his shop. To this day, Merced still has, as of yet, to ever have a record shop on the same scale as John's.
May John always be in our remembrance, but let us also reflect on the positive aspects of the wonderful records that he would bring to us, and how much he is missed because he was one of kind, and there quite simply is no one else out there like him.......
Hopefully, one day, Kim Fowley might just have something more to say about John Hilliard that will be much more informative........
