By Carl Burnett
County Line correspondent
Jimmy Pitman recalls the day last year when his daughter and some friends went to see the movie ''Austin Powers.''
His daughter came home ''awfully excited'' by a song that was part of the movie's sound track. So Pitman decided to take his wife to see the film. As the main characters in the film enter the Electric Psychedelic Pussycat Swingers Club he heard the song that excited his daughter, ''Incense and Peppermints.''
Thirty years earlier Pitman performed the song as part of the band Strawberry Alarm Clock. The song reached the top spot on the ''Billboard'' charts in November 1967.
''The song I was affiliated with back in the '60s was blaring crisp and clear through a movie theater system, and the audio quality was absolutely fantastic,'' he said.
Hearing the song brought back memories for Pitman, who was born in Washington D.C.
''My dad was an Army officer, and we traveled all over the world. When he retired, I think in 1960, my mom and he decided to move here,'' Pitman said. ''So I call Jacksonville my home. I was one of the first Jacksonville musicians to actually brave the treacherous trip to Hollywood.''
Making the move to Hollywood, in 1966, was prompted by a meeting with Murray Wilson, vice president of Capital Records, and the father of Dennis, Brian, and Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys. Murray Wilson told him if he made it to California go immediately to Capital Records.
''So, about two years later, I took him up on it,'' Pitman said. At the time Pitman was part of a Daytona Beach band called The Night Crawlers. The band broke up and its members went to Cincinnati.
''I didn't want to do that, so I hitchhiked to California,'' he said. ''My guitar didn't work. All my clothes were dirty, and I had $14 in my pocket.''
Despite several setbacks, Pitman didn't give up.
''If you give up, you're a loser,'' he said.
Before hooking up with Strawberry Alarm Clock he kept busy through the musician's union. Some of his gigs included high school proms and prison shows.
''The guy in charge ... would look after the musicians. If he knew you were out of work, he would call you at home and say, 'Look, we are going to do some picketing tonight.' And they would go up Hollywood Boulevard, along Sunset Strip, and would picket non-union clubs. That's how strong the union was.
''They paid you $25 a night. Stand out there for three or four hours with a sign.''
Strawberry Alarm Clock originally had six members and was called The Sixpence. After learning two other bands had similar names the group decided to find a new name. It was 1967, and the Beatles were at the height of their popularity.
''The psychedelic, the real heavy influence by Indian music, the sitar. We had nothing in America that could even compete with the Beatles,'' he said. ''However, we did have the Beach Boys. What they wanted to do was a combination of both: the influence of the sitar and the beach sound. The Beatles had Strawberry Fields Forever.
''And so the color, the bloom, the freshness, the taste, the smell of a strawberry seemed to be fundamental in those times. You know, the flower power. So whatever it was going to be, Strawberry Salt Pepper Shaker, Strawberry Flapjack, they knew it had to be strawberry something.''
As the group sat around talking about names, an alarm clock went off and Strawberry Alarm Clock was born.
Pitman received his first songwriting credit for ''Starting Out the Day.''
The band made appearances on ''American Bandstand, The Andy Williams Summer Show'' and ''Laugh-In.'' The band was invited to Woodstock, but couldn't go because of previous obligations. The '70s would come crashing down on the band's success. The group recorded ''Good Morning Starshine,'' a song from the musical ''Hair.''
''Well, this guy that worked at this other record company as a night janitor, I don't know his real name, invested $5,000 of his own money, got permission from the publisher to record a single of ''Good Morning Starshine,'' got it to the L.A. deejays even as they had ours in their hand. [They] played his, shelved ours. So we're on our tour promoting a song that is rapidly becoming No. 1 by somebody else. Go figure.''
The band would break up a few months later after releasing its last album ''Changes'' in 1971.
A few months later, the band's breakup was the least of Pitman's problems. An earthquake left his car and house damaged.
''Three to four thousand dollars worth of stereo equipment buried in rubble. Some guitars. Lots of musical equipment,'' he said.
Pitman wasn't insured.
''Hippies didn't have insurance,'' he said.
He returned to Jacksonville and played local jobs and helped manage a Jacksonville Beach club, Comic Book Two.
In 1978, he decided to give California another try. On the way he took a trip through the mountains in Colorado and Utah. When he saw Salt Lake City, it was love at first sight. He worked there as a music promoter, establishing his own record label, Suntana. Eventually, the job took its toll.
''I was working 16 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week,'' he said. ''I was real tired and I just wanted to stop. So I did.'' He moved back to Jacksonville and began selling cars.
''Unfortunately music is the only thing [where] you don't get a 401K plan,'' he said. ''You don't get retirement. You don't get a pension. It's hard to save money as a musician.''
Dan Cody, a salesman at George Moore Chevrolet, met Pitman last summer when Cody joined the dealership. ''I met him after I had been here a day or two. He was one of the first guys that came up and invited me to his office. He's genuine people,'' Cody said.
Cody, who is also a musician, recalled inviting Pitman to a Christmas party. Pitman picked up an electric guitar and started to play.
''I mean, here's a guitar that's supposed to have an amplifier, and he just sat there and made it hum,'' Cody said.
Dave Plummer, who owns Cypress Studios, said he met Pitman when the musician stopped at the recording studio to introduce himself.
''So we started having lunch together. I've had him for a few sessions over here. We played a couple of gigs together,'' Plummer said. ''We got some things in the future we're talking about doing in the studio. Jimmy's an excellent guitar player. I got different guitar players that I use and he's got a style that is unique. He's very good.''
