DDDDDDisco Duck!

Yet another entry regarding my musical life - the Disco Years 1977-1978 !


While Rhapsody was a business venture, it was not without it’s fair share of drama. I guess drama is indeed a prerequisite in any band, but Rhapsody’s drama seemed to raise the bar quite a bit.

Shortly after I joined and Joe had gone off to prison, we needed to hire a 5th member. We were being booked as such, and as I mentioned before, bands of this type were paid based on the number of players in the band. Female vocalists were desired, and keyboard players were looked upon favorably by booking agents. Horn sections could put you in a whole different (much higher) pay scale.

Mike, the guitarist had been talking about leaving the band, so John decided to hire another guitar player as soon as possible. Not only would that make us a 5 piece, it would give the new guy some time in settling in, alongside Mike. He hired a guy from California named Richard. I’m pretty sure he was the first Hispanic I had ever met, which of course is no big deal, but having spent my life in what was at that time the very white-centric suburbs of Charlotte N.C., it was indeed unique. Richard had lots of experience playing in high energy show bands. He could play well, sing back up...fairly well, and lucky for me, get very philosophical. He also stuttered badly when he spoke, and he loved going off on extremely heavy tangents regarding our purpose to entertain, winning over an audience, objecting to being treated as a musician for hire etc...etc... and that lead to many unbearably long evenings as I was his usual roommate. He intensely idolized his previous band’s front man, and told me countless stories of the wisdom and truth he learned from him. It seemed like this guy was Richard’s personal guru. Don’t get me wrong though, I liked Richard very much - he was a great guy - he would just go on and on. And on. Fortunately, he was also into meditation, and while it was a little unnerving to look over and see him in full lotus position flowing with peaceful relaxation at the Holiday Inn, it did afford me some much needed quiet-time.

Another unusual quirk Richard had was an almost forbidden love for his gigantic Akita dog named Sumo. It’s hard to imagine, but if the hotel would allow it, not only would Richard be my roommate, but Sumo would join us on these trips! The only requirement that John had was that if the dog was coming, Richard had to bring his own vehicle that Sumo could ride in, instead of John’s deathtrap of a van. I welcomed this because I could usually ride with Richard and Sumo. While I had to put up with even more hours of Richard’s transcendental ruminations, I was relieved to not be riding in John’s van. Not only did it have a small hole in the gas tank, there were no real seats other than the front two that were always occupied by John and Pam. Just lawn chairs that were in no way bolted to the floor! This wonderful machine also pulled all of our gear (including P.A.) in a trailer, which could make a long journey even more of a white knuckle affair.

I admit that Sumo was a great and well behaved dog, but it took me a while to adjust to the fact that Richard and the dog would actually shower together. Not only would Richard’s electric blow dryer be used to dry and style his hair, it was also used to dry Sumo’s thick coat. You can imagine the surprise many poor hotel maids got when Richard would forget to put up the Do Not Disturb sign! At least this behemoth of a dog was very well groomed.

Did I mention that John and Pam were having a mad affair? Well, they were and to make it even more exciting, Pam was married to John’s cousin, who was a very intimidating, redneck gangster kind of dude. Great. What could possibly go wrong here?

Many things. There must have been some history involving Mike in all of this because I noticed that he seemed to have something personal against Pam. This manifested in some very uncool actions on his part. At times Mike would intentionally sabotage Pam by playing over her vocals, or hitting bad notes on purpose to screw her up. This wasn’t too terribly difficult because she really needed all the planets to align to have better control of her pitch. If an instrument or a vocal was just a tad off, it could easily send her vocals out of control.(This made John obsessive regarding tuning, but more about that later). I could always tell when Pam was having trouble with her vocals because I had the best view on the stage of her backside, and when the notes went south, her ass would start to shake and wiggle in a really weird uptight manner. She would also send John evil, darting glances that hopefully only the band members would notice.

It was good that Mike was leaving the band; his actions against Pam were not only cruel, but it could also affect our livelihood. Richard quickly absorbed all of the material and was ready to take over the main guitar spot, so it was time to say goodbye to Mike, but no one was quite prepared for the colossal bang that he went out on!

It was our last show of the week at a hotel lounge right next to Carowinds Amusement Park directly on the N.C. and S.C. border. It was a Saturday night, and being in South Carolina, that meant a relatively early closing time - clubs that served alcohol were not allowed to sell the evil liquid after midnight on Saturdays. My girlfriend had come to the show that night as did Pam’s husband. Mike was getting pretty hammered as the night went on and his anti-Pam antics were escalating. Not only was he cranking up his guitar to drown her out, he was messing with her vocally, frequently overpowering her by singing either off key, or just downright bellowing his vocal parts. Tension was high and unbearable. As soon as our last set was finished, I grabbed my girlfriend and told her that we needed to get the hell outta there. As we were leaving, something caught my eye. I turned to look and I saw Mike leaning over and speaking to Pam’s husband. Suddenly the now very pissed off husband rose, overturning his table. I heard yelling. I saw a cocktail glass go flying over my head and shatter on one of the club’s walls. I saw Pam crying and running out of the club being followed by her angry husband. That’s all I remember. That was enough. Glad I ducked!