The GTOs were a "groupie group" that consisted of Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres), Miss Sparky (Linda Sue Parker), Miss Lucy, Miss Christine (Christine Frka), Miss Sandra (Sandra Leano), Miss Mercy and Miss Cynderella. The group hailed from the area around Los Angeles in the late 1960s, with most of the girls being denizens of the Sunset Strip scene.
Miss Pamela had been a member of Vito Paulekis' dancing troupe before her involvement with the GTOs. Miss Sparky had attended Cleveland High School with Miss Pamela. Miss Christine had travelled to LA from San Pedro with Miss Sandra, and both lived in the basement of Frank Zappa's log cabin in the mid 1960s. Miss Christine was the live-in nanny for Zappa's children, Dweezil and Moon Unit, before Miss Pamela took over the position during the late 1960s. Miss Mercy had emigrated from the Haight Ashbury hippie scene to LA due to "boredom", alleging she "couldn't be a hippie forever". Both Miss Mercy and Miss Lucy were involved with a male version of a GTO - a "BTO" - named Mr. Bernardo, a half-Indian multi-sexual.
In her book, I'm With the Band, Des Barres refers to Mercy at that time as "a human facsimilie", although they are still incredibly close friends. Miss Cynderella was an addition to the group brought by Mercy after the nucleus of the group had been formed. This accounts for Cynderella's presence in some, but not all of the GTOs publicity shots. A self-proclaimed habitual liar, her background history is not well known.
Click here for track listing and lyrics to GTO's Permanent Damage
Yeah Cookie Monster...Ya gotta find yourself the right cookie...too bad all the cookies these days aren't real...Phoney Baloney cookies need to be dumped...bye bye...too bad you missed the real batch
Such a festive manifestation...You girls were like an LSD trip that wasn't just a hallucination...You all knew and loved me as "Obie" back in the Laurel Canyon days...I was the groupie's groupie...Still and Always will Love you Dollz...Marlowe B. West
