Vic was the band’s drummer during 1965 taking over from Paul Blakely playing with them locally as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Hawaii. He was probably more interested in the girls he could pull than the music he played.
He can be heard on the demo of Call On Me released on the Grow Fins compilation. Vic says he wrote the music for that song but didn’t get the credit when it was released on Safe As Milk (sounds familiar!) only hearing the song when his mother sent him a copy of the album when he was in Vietnam.
John French on Vic :
A lot of people thought he was “drafted,” but he just received orders to report for duty, as he was involved in ROTC in college. It was very important to his Father that he was involved in ROTC, which I know very little about. In my book, his interview explains it better than I could. This was the lineup I first met when observed a rehearsal — probably in early Spring before the [Teenage] Fair. Vic Mortensen was gone by the end of ’65, Alex switched to drums, and Rich Hepner took the guitar spot … [Vic] was an enlisted officer in Viet Nam, and was proud of the fact that he “never lost a man” under his command.