TMS Muse of the Week: Girl Freiberg

(William Gedney)

When a woman inspires multiple songs from various musicians, naturally she’s going to acknowledge the association, like Pattie Boyd, Rosanna Arquette and Courtney Love have. It’s easy money, publicity and you get a small bonus spot of history. Then there’s a woman like Julia Brigden—born Julia Dreyer and known by her common moniker in the 1960s and 1970s, Girl Freiberg—who has influenced probably more songs than any non-celebrity I know of and has barely made an appearance in the media. You know the 1979 hit single ‘Jane’ by Jefferson Starship? Or the instrumental track ‘Girl from Mill Valley’ from Jeff Beck’s 1969 LP ‘Beck-ola’? ‘The Girl with No Name’ off the Byrds’ 1967 album ‘Younger Than Yesterday’? All inspired by Girl/Julia, and there’s even more than that. You may think, surely this lady has led an interesting and exciting life if she’s referenced in so many songs. And…well, yes, she has. Born in 1950 on the outskirts of South Africa, Julia’s nickname comes from having five older brothers who all called her ‘Girl’ for fun. When she was 3, the whole Dreyer family migrated to Northern California, the homeland of Girl’s mother, in 1953. Growing up in San Francisco, Girl was a typical precocious and adventurous child; until the mid-‘60s counterculture hit her in a big way when she and her best friend Martha Wax became two of the biggest troublemakers in town. Instead of studying and hanging out with classmates, Girl and Martha were getting high, hitch-hiking, skipping curfew, and sneaking into clubs and rock concerts as teenage delinquents. By the time Girl was 15 in 1965, she and Martha ran all the way to Los Angeles where they met and partied with hot superstars and other famous folks in the music scene until Martha’s father—who happened to be a local NorCal politician—had the police bring the girls back home.

Not deterred from being caught, Girl and Martha decided to keep the groupie trend going up north. Martha ended up a muse herself as the basis for the Jefferson Airplane tracks ‘Come Up the Years’ (1966) and ‘Martha’ (1967) after getting familiar with JA bandmates Marty Balin and Paul Kantner. Girl chose to dodge juvenile hall by marrying David Freiberg of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship when she was 16 and David was 28 in 1966. While there isn’t much info out there on what Martha did with her life following the ‘60s, there’s plenty to be found on Girl. Less than a year into marriage, child bride Girl had a fling with 21-year-old Chris Hillman of the Byrds after she turned down his bandmate David Crosby, and thus ‘The Girl with No Name’ was born. A couple years later Girl also formed a close friendship with rock pianist Nicky Hopkins when he as a member of the Jeff Beck Group, where he composed ‘Girl from Mill Valley’ as an ode to the California gal. ‘Light Your Windows’ (1968) by QMS, ‘Quicksilver Girl’ (1968) by Steve Miller Band and ‘Quicksilver Princess’ (1970) by the Doobie Brothers round out the tunes written for Mrs. Freiberg. Considering the questionable origin plus the free love, hippy-dippy atmosphere of their relationship, it’s probably not a surprise the Bohemian couple eventually divorced. In fact, the lyrics to the final song Girl inspired, ‘Jane,’ pretty much sound like David venting about the end of their marriage in 1979.

(Jim Marshall)

Nevertheless, the pair were one of the most popular couples in Novato, CA, conceived a daughter, Jessica, in 1968, and all three are still a part of each other’s lives to this day. Rather than be jealous or uncomfortable with his ex-wife’s influence on other men’s music, David now supports her own little legacy as much as his own. Although she had brief stints abroad in Mexico and India, Girl chose to continue living in the greater Bay Area via Napa and later Santa Rosa with her second husband, successful rock band manager Mick Brigden, from the 1990s to his untimely death in 2021. Every so often Girl will pop up with an interview for a local NorCal publication, but most of the information we have about her comes from her 2019 memoir Girl: An Untethered Life, published under her second married name Julia Brigden. Amusingly, Julia barely mentions being a music muse in her book and all of our knowledge on it are from secondhand accounts. I’m assuming this was an attempt by Julia to not put any attention on her affairs.

Girl/Julia wasn’t an actress or a model or a musician herself. Just an ordinary girl with one wild and crazy life reflected in song and print. Some ladies have all the luck.