See You Later, Charlotte..Hello SF Bay Area!

Years ago, I started a My Life In Music blog. If you wish to catch up, click on My Life In Music at the end of this post. Then go backwards. Most of them are there. A few early one's are still on my PC hard drive that I have not gotten around to converting to Apple….Someday..

I don't really remember the demise of The Happy Eggs. We put out a great EP and generally played to packed clubs, but Jamie was putting more time into the extremely popular Spongetones, and my wife and I were tiring of Charlotte's lack of alternative cultural outlets. The New Wave/Punk scene was floundering, the Bible Belt was roaring, and we thought it would be a great time to explore the possibilities of the San Francisco scene.

We had visited the area many times, and my wife had family living there. I had mixed feelings, of course. My roots were deep. But my immediate family had all left Charlotte, so I agreed. It was very hard saying goodbye to all of my friends. I still miss them to this day, but we were out of there. I think it was in 1982.

Once we landed in the Bay Area, we started out in Marin County, in San Rafael. My wife thought it would be a good, more comfortable place for me to adjust. More suburban than city life. It was centrally located to San Francisco and the East Bay. Good call.

We went wild the fist year seeing so many cool bands at long gone clubs: The IBeam, Berkeley Square, On Broadway, The Fab Mab etc…what an experience! So many cool clubs and bands and we absorbed them all with relish.

Of course I was itching to find the right band and dive on in there, so I wasted little time and started to check out ads in the local weekly's and the Bay Area's music scene's magazine: BAM.

I started making calls and going to auditions. I believe the first audition was for a Ramone's type punk band called The Breakouts. They were around my age - mid to late 20's and they all wore the required beat up black leather jackets and torn jeans. They had cool hair. So did I! I thought the audition went well. They were good and professional, but still..punk. I did not get the gig. They thought I pushed the beat too much! Ha! Oh well, their loss. Funny…a couple of years later (after I had joined Game Theory) I ran into Rudy (Breakouts lead guy) and he was cool enough to mention that they made the wrong decision about me! Not very punk rock, but the gesture was appreciated.

At some point I ended up with a gig or 2 with a blues band from North Beach. Don't remember how or why, but it was sorta cool. But I wanted in a New Wave band! I answered another ad that sounded promising. The band was called Floating Nude and based in the East Bay. It featured some pretty good players, esp. the guitar player and was fronted by a Berkeley woman that sang very..spacey over a fusion of space rock, funk and new wave. We rehearsed about 6 or 7 times and it just wasn't cool enough for me so I left. Back to searching those ads!

And then..I found this one:


As crazy as it seems…answering this ad (which I think I found in a record store) ultimately and very convolutedly..lead me to where I am today. This time….I..made the right call.

The Happy Eggs (part 2)

The Happy Eggs also did many original songs to go along with our quirky covers. At that time in Charlotte, most bands were expected to play an entire evening - only one band on a bill. This required an extensive playlist. I think at one point we had 4 sets of material that contained around 80 tunes! Eventually, it became more common to have 2 bands on a bill - an opening act and a headliner. This was a good idea as far as I was concerned. It was physically very tough to play this manic music for 4 sets. (I remember I was shocked once I moved to San Francisco to find the common practice out here was having around 4 bands on the same bill). In Charlotte, it was also required that the bands supply the P.A. systems and microphones and sometimes a person to run the sound!

Our originals generally fell into two camps: Jamie usually brought in more pop sounding songs. These were fine tunes, many in the mold of some of the poppier Costello/Nick Lowe tunes that he was into. At times he worked with a very brilliant and funny lyricist named Mark X.. These songs were generally quick, short, maybe a little snotty and to the point. Fine economical writing. A couple of Jamie’s tunes ended up on The Spongetones first album (more on that later!).

The weirder and quirkier tunes were dubbed “Tweco’s Nightmare Music” (Tweco refer’s to a brand name on one of Murphy’s favorite pieces of costume head wear, and regardless of how it really should be pronounced, we called it “tweako” - much more appropriate!) Most of these songs were collaborative in the purest sense. I have very fond memories of being at Jamie’s house for rehearsals and basically we would start sticking together small individual parts that Murphy, Jamie or myself had floating around in our heads. The EP (which I will discuss in detail in a moment) was a prime example of song writing like this. Nothing was too crazy to try, and usually, Tweco himself (Murphy) would be responsible for some of the most twisted stuff we produced. Jamie would shine it all up a bit and presto - new songs!

We would also write lyrics to some of these songs in the same manner. We would sit in Jamie’s living room, drink beer and just throw stuff out there! There were a couple of tunes where we would literally trade off on a line by line basis. There were no rules or restrictions. The crazier the better, and some of this stuff was unbelievably hilarious to come up with and perform. At least to us!

Soon, Murphy started to bring in completed songs and lyrics. They were decidedly “Twekco Nightmare Songs” and a blast to play. I’m sure Jamie would still help polish them off if needed. I only contributed one complete song (which Jamie helped complete), and while it’s embarrassing to be reminded of it today, it was the first original song that I wrote the music, the lyrics and sang lead on!

In 1981, Jamie arranged for us to go in to Charlotte’s Reflection Sound Studio to record a 4 song 7" EP. Mark Williams was the engineer and Jamie was the producer. We were very excited about this because many bands we releasing 7" singles around this time. The most notable being REM’s coveted Radio Free Europe single (which I proudly own!). Jamie’s other band (The Spongetones) had also recently released a Jamie produced 7". That format was the craze at that time and relatively affordable to make.

On this record, all four tunes fell neatly into the "Tweco’s Nightmare Music" category. I think these really captured the essence of the Eggs best. I’m pretty sure Jamie would agree with this, because at that time, he had a more appropriate outlet for his pop songs with The Spongetones.

Here’s a brief run down on the tunes, as best I can remember.....

Wake Up: A great song to kick it all off! A very twisted main riff with the guitar, bass and synthesizer playing in unison with a cool harmony appearing at the last riff. Murphy also gets a very cool bubblin’ synth thing going on in the background. Listening to it right now, I am flat out impressed to the great sound and production Jamie got on this.! It gets real crazy during the verses. The riff switches to 5/4 while I doggedly stay in 4/4. Each line is song by a different singer in this order - Jamie, Murphy and myself. Some very weird backing harmonies by Murphy and Jamie really put this one over the top.

Rippy: After a very queasy intro sung by Murphy, the song launches into a tune about a psycho killer that likes to ride the bus. I’m pretty sure these are Murphy’s lyrics with Jamie coming up with the background vocal parts. This one is very Devo/Talking Heads influenced and I think most of the music is Jamie’s. Murphy's synth parts are inspired and the backing vocals are something to behold. Spot on. This one absolutely killed live.

And Sons Of Baskerville: This one was very collaborative. After a short intro of us making goofy vocal sounds, the song gets under way with a guitar lick in 7/4 that I had zipping around in my head at the time. Murphy adds some choice wolf howling that as far as I know, was the only reference to the Hound Of The Baskervilles that I assume Murphy was referencing in the title! The verse is Jamie’s and the lyrics are all Murphy’s and oddly, this is a sweet love song! Some more very inspired alternating backing vocals, and a nice little instrumental break near the end. The finale has the 7/4 guitar lick with Murphy pronouncing that he “believes in the strength of aspirin” which was a line I had come up with. I’m pretty sure this is the song that due to general weakness I was feeling from dealing with the flu while recording, I had to use double sided duct tape on my kick drum pedal to keep my foot from sliding off!

Fat Man: I think this is the first song we wrote as a collaborating team. I’m pretty sure Jamie had the song, but the lyrics were a blast with each of us throwing out some offensive line and stringing them together. We would usually start our sets with this one. Murphy would tape down a key on his synthesizer on some crazy setting and I would come out by myself and do a drum solo until the rest of the band felt like getting on stage. Not many punk bands were featuring drum solos back then...

At the end of this song there is a quick little hidden track of some of us and our wives murdering the theme from My Three Sons at my house. Jamie's on drums, Murphy may be manning the xylophone, the women are on percussion and I am the one playing saxophone, which was later used on our version of The Resident’s Constantinople!

I really love this record. The writing, performances, arrangements and the production are all top notch. Jamie did a fabulous job on this (with the help of Mark Williams). Though I would have preferred using my drums instead of the studios' kit, I think this is an awesome record. Though I haven't mentioned Kenny (our bass player during this), I would like to say that he did a great job on this record!

Also - if Murphy or Jamie read this and would like to add and/or correct any of it, please do so in the "comments"! I would welcome it...my brain did the best it could on this recording made almost 30 years ago!

The cover art was created by me, literally using old school cut and paste! I had done many flyers at that point, so I offered my services. We released it on Jamie's "Ovo" label. I do not know how many were pressed, but unfortunately, a bunch were lost at Greg Shaw's Bomp warehouse, never to be found. We occasionally get requests for copies of this record, but they seem to be all gone for good. I only have two!

We sent tons of them out to record labels hoping someone would pick us up, but no one did. There was a funny rejection letter from Ralph Records saying more or less "anyone who plays DOA and Timothy is either a real sick puppy or my kind of guy"

Cool.



Very cool.

If you have not gotten yourself a digital copy of this incredible EP already, I think it's time to Getcha one now!

The Happy Eggs (part 1)

At some point in 1980, Jamie approached Murphy and me about cranking up The Happy Eggs again, but this time it was going to be a whole different ball game than the band that made the 12" single. Jamie was interested in turning it into a punk/new wave band. By this time (thanks to Jamie) I had pretty much accepted that this was indeed fabulous music and while of course I cannot remember the particular details of the discussions that followed, the three of us decided that it was a go.

Murphy would be switching over to a monophonic Korg synthesizer, and the three of us would handle vocals. Jamie knew a bass player - Kenny - and he was brought on board. Our goal was to have a blast, play well, be open to any kind of music and have an insane stage-show. It was the Alice Cooper in all of us! We were naturally irreverent fellas anyway, so no music or style would be spared!

We were a bit older and definitely more experienced than most local punk bands in Charlotte. The Milestone Club had given the area youngsters and punk rockers a place to hang out and see great bands. It was a heavy staple in my diet and I could see the scene evolve. There were bands sprouting up everywhere - some awesome and some sucked - but it was a scene and for the most part a lot of fun. But I remember I felt a tad anxious as to how the scensters were going to accept the Eggs. It’s silly of course, but to these kids, the worst thing you could be was to be a poseur, and since it is my nature to worry, of course I hoped that we wouldn’t be labeled as such. After a while, I didn’t give a rat’s ass about what the kid’s thought. While we certainly were not “punks” (we all had real jobs!), we certainly were licking our chops at the thought of embracing the snottiness. Here we were, 3 smart-ass pals since high school, and since the three of us would be sharing the vocals.....we all had microphones.

Good God!

It was decided that we would play a mixture of covers (straight versions or drastically rearranged versions) and originals, and this evolved into quite a repertoire. The covers were insane. There were some straight up covers of punk and new wave songs. Lots of Costello, Police, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop, Lene Lovich (!) even some very uncool covers for the time such as Adam and the Ants, which at first made me a bit uncomfortable, fearing that to kids would hate it and give us shit about it. I remember people yelling“Black Flag kills Ants dead” (man..that takes you back, huh?) and that sort of bothered me, but it didn’t take too long for me to get the appropriate "piss off wanker!" attitude and it was indeed fun to get a reaction.

There were also some very..bizarre..covers we would do. Again, some straight some not so straight. Between us, we had many years of being rock musicians already under our belts, so the choices here were quite unique. Some of them were hold overs from our glam rock days and these seemed to fit in quite easily into a punk/new wave context: Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Sparks (I think about 3 songs!) And Alice Cooper. Some didn’t fit in anywhere: The Monkees’ Your Auntie Grizelda pops into mind. And there were many that Jamie would do his magic on and reconstruct into new wave madness. He really liked ska beats, so many of these were rearranged into hyper-fast ska beat beauties: Cream’s Mother’s Lament, Mother’s of Invention’s Let’s Make the Water Turn Black, Spirit’s Dark Eyed Woman. He also came up with a very twisted Devo-esque arrangement of The Doors’ Hello, I Love You that was fabulous!

We did 2 versions of Bloodrock’s D.O.A. We were all familiar with it because there was a while when you couldn’t help but hear it on the radio! (I actually saw them open up for Grand Funk). At first we did it pretty darned straight - Jamie wanted a pretty faithful version. We tried. But dammit, there were just too many quiet parts and me and Murphy could not resist the opportunity to kid around with it (remember...we had microphones!). The nature of the song and the lyrics were ripe for fucking with and we were relentless. Finally, Jamie threw up his arms and gave up on doing it straight. He rearranged it into another brilliant Devo-esque and angular new wave classic which clipped along at a pretty good pace so Murphy and I had very little opportunity to throw in our...embellishments!

But it was Jamie’s arrangement of West Side Story’s Jets Theme that to this day, I think is one of the most creative and brilliant pieces of rock and roll genius I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Ever. He took the original and maybe a tiny bit of flavoring from Alice Cooper’s Gutter Cat vs The Jets and stood it on it’s end. It was fast and full of attitude. It rocked hard..It was funny and it really showed what the Eggs were all about. It’s a snotty masterpiece that retains the original spirit and adds a heaping dose of modern (at the time) irreverence. It was in our wheelhouse.

Coming up next - we write the songs, we record the songs, Jamie turns into the busiest man in showbiz and much, much more!

And don't forget! Go here and buy!
The Happy Eggs E.P. on iTunes

Milestoned...A New Wave Called..New Wave!

Good God...now there's an argument for getting the hell out of Charlotte! Not a very articulate example of hipsterism in the Queen City, but it is a hoot. I love the male newscaster’s glasses (!) and the very unfortunate shot of the female reporter’s less than...comprehending... expression as she waits for a reply from Judy!

The above newscasts were Charlotte’s take on new wave sometime in 1980 (?). Oddly, 2 different channels ended up doing the same story on the same night. Unfortunately, an uncomfortably long shot of yours truly cutting a rug shows up around the :47 mark...sigh....(bonus points if you can spot Hope Nicholls from Fetchin Bones)

But The World Famous Milestone was our hangout and what a place it was! I believe it used to be a biker bar, but it’s owner, Bill Flowers, started booking local and regional punk and new wave acts. It was a perfect setting - seedy, rough and in a bad part of town that I never knew existed, far from my familiar suburban ‘hood. But this was shortly after my mom’s death, my marriage, leaving the hood and experiencing what I thought freedom and young adulthood should feel like.

A friend of ours started raving about the place and eventually we all started hanging out there. I’m pretty sure REM was the first band I saw there. Not a bad band to begin with. It was amazing to see their relatively quick progression in making it big - maybe 20 or so people were at the first show! Around the same time, Jamie was making noise about a Charlotte punk band that frequently played the Milestone - The Lunatics (they soon changed their name to The Orphans). So we went and checked them out too. It didn’t take long to establish that this is where we wanted to hang out.

We would go just about any night a band was booked. I used to have a pretty complete list of the bands that played there, but I can’t find it, so on “memory”: Insect Surfers, REM, Boo Boo Boys, Vietnam, Pins, Butchwax, Black Flag, Nervous Tension, Swimming Pool Q’s, Viper, Suzanne Sexless, The Go Go’s, Wild Giraffes, Vandals, Treva Spontaine, Mission Of Burma, None Of The Above, Gangrene....and eventually two bands that I played with -The Happy Eggs and No Rock Stars. (Years later, after I moved to California, I had a once in a lifetime thrill to play an absolutely mind-bending homecoming show there with Game Theory in 1986)

Bill Flowers, who ran the club was a funny guy. He seemed like a slightly twisted Vietnam vet (which I think he was), but he was a nice guy that did his best to promote new music. Not an easy path, and many people could get flustered at times with his..uniqueness, but he was indeed a very important player in Charlotte’s counter-culture scene of that time. But his statement in the above newscast that drugs were not part of that scene was just a tad off the mark. While there was hardly any trouble at the club caused by drugs, they were being used by some and in a big way.

Quaaludes were the drug of choice, and what a nasty drug it was. Not glamorous like coke, or mind expanding like acid or mushrooms. They were downers. Very strong downers. I often heard them referred to as horse tranquilizers. I honestly don’t know if horses ever had the pleasure of this particular drug, but we sure did. Some people just pass out from, but with our crowd it gave an intense and tingling energy. A very sloppy energy, and for some reason it turned us into dancing fools (see above). And dance we did. It’s the only time in my life I wasn’t too self conscious to dance. It stripped all inhibitions away. It delivered a total hedonistic orgasm. We used it as a social tool, but it probably just made us more insular to our small group of friends. It delivered sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll on a grand scale. It was dangerous, but fortunately no one died (we were very lucky). It could have bad side effects, but most of us overcame them. It could make you do stupid things and it could completely and permanently erase from your memory bank what you actually did that night. But with all of that being said, I cannot deny that it was probably the most exhilarating fun I have ever experienced. We had found our new drug to go with our new scene.

With new drugs, came new friends. Suddenly we became aware of Charlotte’s gay club scene, and frankly...gays themselves! Their dance club scene fully embraced the transition from disco to new wave.
The gay nightclubs were a far cry from the Milestone, but new wavers were welcomed. Folks started to dress outrageously, in some cases breaking through gender boundaries. Make-up was for all people, not just the girls. Hair styles became pieces of art. Many of our gay friends worked or owned adult bookstores which brought a whole new set of rules to the table! The common ground was discovered and we ate it up. It was a full on cultural upheaval, similar to the hippie movement I came in late on, but we weren’t trying to change the world this time. We just wanted our own world and the freedom to do whatever the hell we wanted to. In a sense, I guess it was very similar to the disco daze; it was a very narcissistic way of life.

And how we danced. For the only time in my life I got it. We all did, and if the drugs and the bands were right, we danced our asses off. At this point in REM’s career, it’s hard to fathom that at one point they were absolutely the best dance band on the planet. Atlanta’s Vietnam was another one of our faves to dance to, as were D.C.’s Insect Surfers. We had a blast, and if a punk band was on the stage, we’d do our best to slam dance and not get killed in doing so. We were numb, but were feeling everything. Our senses were on fire and our bodies were out of control.

But then I see this photo of myself and 2 dear friends during that time. (I love this photo! Wynn took it and I love the composition. It strikes me as being very Felliniesque.)
I mentioned that no one died during those drug addled days, but I would be an idiot to not recognize that the drug culture we embraced eventually caught up with some of us. I’m the only one in that picture that is still alive. Quaaludes didn’t kill them, but that type of lifestyle, and the irresponsibility of failing to at least occasionally check in on one’s own emotional health, did eventually lead to their deaths in one way or another. They died at different times, from different causes, but they are both gone. Maybe we weren’t so lucky after all.

This New Music Creeps Me Out!

(another part of my life in music, late '79?)

Before Jamie introduced me to the first records by the Sex Pistols, Devo, Talking Heads and Elvis Costello, Wynn and I were both having a blast being married and working at New World Records. We were making new friends, getting tons of records, partying hard and occasionally going to the few rock shows Charlotte had to offer. By the late 70's, most major bands skipped Charlotte, opting to play in D.C. and Atlanta. We did see some shows, and while most were pretty lame; Heart, Firefall, Boston, Gino Vannelli, Kenny Loggins (!) - (funny...there’s a couple of those shows I wished I had paid a bit more attention to!), one concert that definitely stood out was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Charlotte Coliseum.

I still don’t know how or why, but the owner of New World Records actually knew Springsteen and Clarence Clemons. While we were 2 very small independent record stores, we would usually get Springsteen’s latest LP’s before the big record chains would ( Record Bar and Grapevine). The owner loved that! We were special! We were so special, we all got free tickets when Bruce came to town. Everything we had heard about his legendary concerts was true. 3+ hours of high intensity rock and roll. One of the best shows I have ever seen. And we had great seats! For free!

But things were changing in the music world. Frankly, things had been changing for some time, but Charlotte was very slow to catch on to just about anything as far as the cultural arts and trends were concerned (including liquor by the drink!). At work, we started getting in tons of new records from the early days of punk and new wave. Initially, I thought the bands all looked like freaks and couldn’t play their instruments - it was a knee-jerk reaction but I wanted nothing to do with such noisy sounding rubbish.

At this point I had been playing drums for about 13 years. I had played in many different bands with many different styles, and I worked hard to become a pretty good drummer - even made a living at it. It just pissed me off that these new snotty-nosed punks were making records, getting press and making statements that the bloated dinosaur-rock of the 70's was now over. Anyone could be in a band regardless of talent as long as you possessed a bad attitude and had spiky hair. That caused a huge disconnect with me. Damn amateurs! Learn to play your instruments, and then maybe.... I’ll give you a listen.

But then it clicked. Once Jamie got me to actually sit down and listen to these records, it quickly connected. I was as late to the party as Charlotte was, but there it was! Aside from the cosmetic aesthetics, punk wasn’t that far removed from the rebellious aspects of being a hippie freak; stand out, look weird, screw the Man, and bring on the Now. Ironically, both movements had no problem at all in plundering the past for inspiration, either. They took what they found appealing and incorporated it into something new and (hopefully) original. In the early days of hippie psychedelic bands, many San Francisco bands based their clothing design on the American Victorian age (Charlatans, Dan Hicks etc..). Punks seemed to go with a 50's biker look, but with crazy hair, and while most biker types did not favor the crazy colors the punk rockers seemed to enjoy, I bet the grease was somewhat similar...

The difference? Not much, really. But musically, the hippies seemed to expand earlier rock conventions with a no holds barred experimentation, long flowing jams, free love and....body odor, while the early punk rockers went back to more simple and basic chord progressions, adding rawness, buzzsaw tempos, spitefulness, pessimism and....spitting.

Since I was still stubbornly trying to retain at least some of my progressive-rock tastes, I was surprised that it wasn’t too much of a stretch to enjoy the more angular styles of New Wave. It should also be noted that in time, some of my prog rock heroes ended up embracing and being involved in this new music - Eno (Devo, Talking Heads), Robert Fripp (Blondie, Talking Heads and his side-group The League oF Gentleman which featured Barry Andrews (XTC) and Sara Lee(Gang Of 4)). Even Ray Shulman of Gentle Giant eventually got into the act with production chores on The Sugarcubes first album!

While the photos I had seen of Devo actually gave me the creeps, once I heard Jocko Homo I was locked in. The rhythmic play between their odd drum beats, bizarre instruments and decidedly warped view of life was hard to resist. Are We Not Men? I’m not sure! They actually frightened the hell out of me. Job well done!

Elvis Costello also looked scary to me, but the Attractions were and still are one of the best bands in the world. Excellent musicians, and one of the greatest drummers I had ever heard. They sported a great look (white socks!), and seemed genuinely pissed off. The song writing wasn’t too shabby, either.

Talking Heads also had sort of a prog-rock feel to them. Art damaged and clever. Not quite as scary looking as the other bands, but I found plenty of scary things in David Byrne’s vocals, and since I was just a few years from my disco days, I found much appreciation in their wonderfully danceable beats, but without the cheese of a mirrored disco ball hanging from the ceiling (unless of course there was some irony in the house!)

XTC were another band not too far removed from progressive rock. The speed and tightness that they poured into their very angular style (esp. the first 2 LP’s) appealed to me greatly. Herky jerky dislocation performed at warp speed. Pretty funny lyrics, too.

The first Sex Pistol’s LP was an entirely different style that took me a bit longer to get in to, but ultimately I was floored by the power and tightness the band displayed. Of course I had no idea that they had a bunch of studio ringers brought in to play, but I think that’s irrelevant. It blew the doors off of my world and I was gone! We all were and we embraced it with all of our hearts.

Everything was changing; our music, clothing, hair and perhaps most importantly, our attitude about culture and politics. We also found ourselves quickly wrapped up into a relatively hardcore lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Can’t really have one without the other, right? They were dangerous times, but it was also some of the most absolutely insane fun I have ever had. Glad that most of us are still here.

Out With The Old..In With The New!

Another chapter of "my life in music"! 1979ish???

After Mom died, things moved very fast for me. The first thing I had to deal with was selling our family’s house. This was the only house I had ever lived in, but big changes were flying at me and I had to deal with it. My sibs offered me the house at a fair price, but I felt I needed to break away. I was caught in a whirlwind and felt compelled to start my new life.

First off, my high school sweetheart and I immediately found a decent house to rent in an OK part of Charlotte. It was “across the train tracks” from my nice neighborhood, pretty redneck, but OK. It was a 3 bedroom house with a fenced in backyard for all of $250 a month. After my sibs and I took what we wanted from our house, we cleared it out and my girlfriend (Wynn) and I moved in together. Mom would not have approved of course, but I felt free and grown up. Change is good! My dog (“Caesar”) and Wynn’s cat (....”Kitty”..) probably weren’t too thrilled with the arrangement, but Wynn and I dug it. It was all so natural.

Of course, selling the family home had some very...unusual moments. We originally tried to sell it ourselves, but not much happened (with the exception of a neighbor coming down and seriously suggesting that we don’t sell to...”blacks” - we responded by telling him that we’re gonna sell to whoever gives us the money!), so we went with a couple of real estate agents. Poor souls.

Since my brother and sister lived out of town, I was left to handle it. The first call from the real estate agent went like this: “Hi Gil. Ummm...I showed the house today and I think you need to do some serious flea-bombing - we walked in and there was a black cloud of fleas that went up to about knee level on my clients and myself.” OK, no problem. The fleas were bombed.

The second call came one morning after a night when I let some friends park their cars in our front yard while we all went and enjoyed Charlotte’s Festival In The Park. The house was vacant, we still owned it, and there was no place to park at all during that yearly event (the same event that I saw all of those great local rock bands back in the day!), so cool! Why not?

When my buddies and I returned to the house, we discovered that all of the cars in the front yard had their tires slashed! WTF? Could it be a sinister message from our racist neighbor? Probably just vandals, but bizarre none the less. About 3 cars were left in the yard overnight - the owners would come back the next day to deal with it. The next morning I got another call from our poor real estate agent; “Gil...do you know there’s a bunch of cars in your front yard with their tires slashed? Looks pretty bad..” I think I freaked her out a bit when I replied that yes, I knew about the cars. They would be gone shortly.

The house eventually sold, and I gained possession of Mom’s Buick. Now I had my own home, a decent car, and my girlfriend and her cat were living in sin with me and my dog. Pretty sweet, and Mom would have been very pleased to know that our sinful living wasn’t for too long, due to the fact that my girlfriend and I went and got married! In Rock Hill! By a Justice of the Peace! With our best friends in attendance! And we were drunk!

It wasn’t a spur of the moment decision - we just weren’t religious and thought it would be neat to do it this way. The Justice of the Peace turned out to be a bit cranky and actually threatened to stop the ..”ceremony” if our party didn't start behaving in a ..... more respectful manner. Screw that! I’ve already paid you your $35! Where's my gift bag containing toothpaste and condoms! It was a lot of fun, regardless, and we liked the idea of being married. We also learned that even if you don’t invite family to the wedding, you can send out announcements and still get cool gifts! I’m sure my sibs were disappointed but we did it the way we wanted to, and at that particular time of my life, it just had to be.

Wynn and I also had the greatest jobs in the universe. We now both worked at Charlotte's coolest record stores! Wynn worked at the main store and when they opened a smaller satellite store on the other side of town, I got a job there. The 2 store “chain” was called New World Records and for a while at least, it was heaven and yes, another life-changer!

I don’t remember the exact dates when this happened, but during my time at the record store, I became aware that something was up with rock music. My primary love at the time was still prog and jazz-rock fusion, but it was becoming a real stretch to find decent stuff to listen to. As time went by, Jamie Hoover kept putting a bug in my ear about new wave and punk. I was also noticing that we were selling more and more of this type of music at the store. At first, I was really put off by it all. I thought it sucked. I thought the musicians couldn't play. It was more horrible than disco!

But one night I was at Jamie’s house and he more or less forced me to listen to the first LP’s of Devo, Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello and the Talking Heads. Holy crap!

It clicked. Boy, did it ever.

Disco Danger and Sad Goodbyes

Jennetta lasted about a month and a half with Skyline. She just wasn’t a very good singer, entertainer or even very good looking. I feel like a jerk saying that last thing, but we were paid to do all of that and she didn’t cut the mustard. She also had some attitude that was starting to wear on the band. After a brief discussion with our agents, she was fired.

It was a good decision - her replacement(s) were awesome! Before I joined Skyline, they had a young, talented and extremely good looking married couple named Scott and Danya B. They handled most of the vocal chores in the band. Scott B. also played rhythm guitar and both of them could flat-out sing their asses off. They were now back and I was thrilled to have them on board.

****Weird! Strange! Uncanny! They were the first real couple I ever played with (John and Pam’s affair in Rhapsody does not count!), and who woulda thought I would end up some 8 years later playing with another couple that could also sing their asses off named...Scott and Donny? Scott and Danya...meet Scott and Donny! Whoa!.....****

They were very young and occasionally things could get a bit volatile between the two. This didn’t bother me at all. By then I had dealt with girlfriends, affairs, couples, whatever...I learned to just go with it and to try and play great shows. This would of course be tested many years and many bands later, but at that time I was not bothered at all. The minor distractions were nothing compared to the pleasure of hearing those two sing together, night after night. Now, Skyline was overloaded with good voices - we had 4 sets of pipes that could easily sing lead, so my vocals were cut back, but I was fine with that. Let the professionals handle it!

There are only three particular moments that stand out in my memory of this version of the band. Unfortunately, my gig list and financial records end in December of 1978, but I know we played a bit longer than that. In looking through those records I now see that even though I was enticed into the band by their offer of an equal share of the profits, I only averaged about $101 a week. This was less than Rhapsody, but by the time I left the band, it was of no consequence at all. I enjoyed this line-up very much.

Skyline played a private party on Halloween night for a very cool record store in Charlotte called New World Records. This was a 2 store “chain” and by far the best record stores in town. They were locally owned and a perfect alternative to the other record stores such as The Record Bar, Grapevine etc...My girlfriend worked at the main store on Independence Blvd., and eventually I would end up working at the South Blvd. store.

The Halloween party was held at the “Top Of The Tower” - a ritzy place located in Charlotte’s tallest (at the time) downtown skyscraper. Since it was a Halloween party, we decided it would be appropriate and fun to perform in costume. Being serious musicians, we didn’t put a whole lot of thought into it, so we ended up at my mom’s house to raid the attic for fun stuff to wear. Here are a few pics from the resulting attic raid. I think it was probably the only time a black man ever picked me up and held me in his arms.
Don’t remember much about the show, but I think a good time was had by all. I made $45 that night.

The second event I remember regarding the Scott & Danya line-up was a very memorable show in Ronceverte, West Virginia, at the “Almost Heaven Supper Club”. The club was a strange place - off the beaten track and it had a...”roadhouse” feel to it. Very Twin Peaks ( the building and the people inside!). It was a 2 night gig and the final night on December 1, 1978 was a night I’ll never forget.

The evening started out a bit slow, but things were starting to pick up during our last set. The dance floor was buzzing (along with the patrons - we were pretty sure the club owner was the local coke dealer) and everyone was having just a good ol’ disco time. After we announced that we were getting ready to play the last song of the night, the club owner came up to us and told us that he’d give us another $100 if we played another 30 minutes. We immediately agreed and kept our boogie shoes on for the extra ½ hour. Money talks!

The club owner was a strange fellow, maybe in his late 20's, with long straight bangs (very redneck). He had a limp that required him to walk with a cane, and he wore a very...creepy leisure suit. He had a this gangster/ big dog thing going on; surrounded by lackeys, probably coked out and kind of mean looking, but he seemed nice enough.

When the show was finally over, Scott P. went over to the table where the owner was sitting to settle up with the money. The rest of us were packing our gear up when suddenly shit hit the fan. The club owner stood up, threw his table over, stepped back and pulled a knife on Scott and screamed: “Are you trying to screw me out of money? I’ll cut you and your g*ddamn n*gger!! Get the f*ck out of my club!! " Holy crap.

Scott P. was bit of a hard head when it came to money and business and he was not one to back down. He stood up and screamed back at the club owner that he owed us the extra $100. William (our black bass player) gingerly approached the scene and did his best to calm everyone down. Brave man, William. Fortunately the screaming stopped, we got paid (minus the promised bonus), loaded our trailer and got the holy hell out of there. We drove straight to Charlotte, not even stopping to change drivers. When Scott got too tired to drive, I went up front and we changed seats as the van was barreling down the highway. I slid under him and grabbed the wheel as he slid over me, relinquishing the driver's seat. Not recommended, but it seemed the right thing to do at the time. We had to get the hell out of West Virginia and this decidedly Twin Peaks/David Lynch nightmare. This was the South at it’s worst, and we saw it up front and personal. I cannot imagine what William must have gone through.

The last thing I recall about Skyline was also unpleasant, but not nearly as frightening.. We were playing at the Greenville S.C. Sheraton for 2 weeks (Rhapsody’s old favorite lounge), and on our last night there, I called for a band meeting. I announced to the band that this was my last show with them. My mom was dying.

After I told them this, I left them to themselves and went back to my room. About 20 minutes later, Danya knocked at my door and I let her in. It was obvious she had been crying. She told me she was not only sad for my circumstance, but she was angry that after I left the room, the rest of the band started to discuss hiring another drummer. I was fine with that - Skyline was a business, but to this day, I appreciate Danya’s concern.
*****
note: a few years after I left the band, I was saddened by the news that Sammy B., Skyline’s keyboardist was killed in a car crash. He was a fun, talented, good guy. I’m very glad that I had a chance to know him and to have made music with him. Even if it was disco... R.I.P. Sammy.

DISCO DELIVERANCE!

Skyline’s 2nd engagement was a 2 week stint at the Ambassador Inn, in Johnson City, Tennessee. I remember....parts of it well...

The Ambassador Inn was a disco club out in the sticks. Actually, most of Johnson City is in the sticks, but this was a stand-alone club not associated with a hotel. Nice big dance floor, good lights, booming sound system, and a very cool staff. Matter of fact, they had a woman bartender (babe) that had the very first nose-ring I had ever seen. This was in 1978, and it blew my mind a bit. The bad news was that there was a very predominate sign posted on a column near the dance floor that stated in big bold letters: “NO SAME SEX DANCING!” It was the first and only time in all of my years playing in clubs that I saw such a sign. I was confused. The babe bartender was a lesbian with a nose ring, our band was racially integrated, but "NO SAME SEX" couples can dance together. Weird! Whatever....(actually, it probably wasn’t until the early 80's that I would finally “get it” that lots of gays went to discos and danced together. It just wasn’t on my radar back then. Especially in the South. And ultra-especially in Johnson City, Tennessee).

In the course of the first week I met this marvelous young (and cute) couple (straight) and we quickly became friends. This was unusual for me - with Rhapsody, most of our audience were older and...(occasionally) a tad...creepy, but this couple was my age and very cool. We had a day off coming up and they invited me on a guided tour of the backwoods of Johnson City. They had a jeep and told me they would show me the real deal. Sounds a little sketchy, but I trusted them and decided that I needed to see the world, so I agreed.

This was an important to me - my girlfriend was always stressing the fact that I needed to travel, see new places and pick up new experiences. She and her sister traveled a lot together, be it in Europe or the States. The only traveling I had really ever done was with the family at vacation time (which was usually limited to Pawley’s Island S.C., or our mountain place near Cashiers N.C.). Sure, I had certainly been to a lot of cities with the disco bands, but generally that just involved driving from Point A to Point B and staying confined to the hotel area. We never explored the territory - just hung out in our rooms sleeping, learning songs and when possible, rehearsing in the clubs during the off hours. Now I had a chance to do something exciting and to finally see the world. National Geographic....here I come!

It was awesome. The couple picked me up early one morning and we headed out. Took back roads, dirt roads and trails. The mountains and scenery were breathtaking. As we got further into..nature..things got very interesting, and two things stand out in my memory.

We drove by an old beat-down impoverished house trailer just like the photos I would see in magazines or on TV, and I kid you not, in the front “yard” was a tire swinging from a tree. Sitting on the swinging tire was a young lady that I swear to God was the spitting image of Elly May Clampett or Daisy Mae from Li’l Abner - take your pick. Cut-off shorts and a polka dot shirt tied in a bow just above her waist. I could not believe my eyes. It was the real thing and she even waved as we drove by! At that moment I knew I was seeing something most people only see in the funny papers or on TV, but this was real! It blew my mind. There is a big old world out there and I was now realizing that the ‘burbs of Charlotte were just a tiny little speck. I had seen and met mountain folk during visits to my family’s mountain cabin, but this resonated. I was not shielded by parents or seeing things through a child's eyes. I was seeing this stuff on my own terms, with people my age.

As we went further up the mountain, my new friends told me that we may come across some...moonshiners and to just act friendly, wave and we’d be on our way. It was interesting to learn that most of these folks were not making white lightnin’ any more - they had a new cash crop - pot. This was a bit unsettling to me (not sure why..) but at this point I was dialed in to my adventure. Sure as shit, we came across some of these folks.

Up ahead on a dirt trail we saw 2 men. Real hillbillies dressed in overalls, tattered hats and most importantly - real shotguns slung over their shoulders. Holy crap! They heard our approach, looked back at us. We waved, they waved and we went on our way. How cool is that! Of course in the back of my mind I was half way expecting them to kill my new friends, kidnap me, and eventually make me squeal like a pig as they took turns having their way with me, but that didn’t happen. Maybe these hillbillies had seen the "NO SAME SEX DANCING!" sign as well.

The rest of our journey was uneventful, but I was pumped with excitement and I couldn’t wait to get home to tell my girlfriend what I had done and seen with my own two eyes. I don’t remember a thing about our shows at the club (who would?), other than the fact that I made $350 for the 2 week engagement. But big changes were coming and things were about to get very weird.

Disco Dis Way - I Went Dat Way!

8/21/78 at the Harbor Inn in Rock Hill S.C. was my last gig with Rhapsody. I stuck it out for one year, and what a year it was. I ended up making $7,836.30. This works out to almost exactly $150 a week, as John more or less promised. Going through my records I see that there were a couple of times we were not paid, sometimes we were paid a little, and around the Xmas season I was making $200 a week.

It was a busy year - we played almost every week. We were dismissed a couple of times, and I think it was because we were booked as a 5 piece, but due to shifting personnel, sometimes we were not what we were advertised as. There were a couple of times when we played without a guitarist at all. Young John V. (the keyboardist) was the only player aside from the rhythm section for a few of those gigs (Richard had left to find a happier situation for himself) and I’m sure we must have been terrible!

Things were still dicey due to John and Pam’s affair. In Opelika, Alabama, Pam’s husband made a surprise visit to John and Pam’s hotel room one morning. Richard and I were in our room next door (with Sumo, the Akita of course!), and were woken by the sound of Pam’s husband banging on her (their) door. They never answered (smart) and the husband finally left. These types of things were wearing on all of us, as was the thought of going through another guitarist search, so I decide to quit. I called John to tell him the news. I don’t quite remember what his reaction was, but he wasn’t angry. I think he said something to the effect of “Well Gil Ray, it’s been great working with you!” Cool. I arranged to turn in my jumpsuit and the smoky smelling shirts and wondered who in the hell will be wearing these next? Hope he doesn’t mind the extremely snug crotch and too short pant legs!

I’m extremely grateful for the experience, though. John taught me many things. I came out of Rhapsody a better musician all around. My drumming continued to improve and I was becoming comfortable singing back up vocals. I learned how to be a showman, but knew when to lay back and let Pam have the spotlight. I traveled more than I ever had in my whole life. Mostly in the Carolinas, but some shows took us to Georgia, Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee.

I was thrilled that Mom would come to a couple of our Charlotte shows. It really felt great to have her see me in a professional setting, making money, and playing at fancy hotel lounges. Her escort was usually my very favorite uncle - Uncle Ambrose. He was the divorced husband of my dad’s sister. He made a point of visiting Mom frequently after Dad died. The 3 of us were more or less drinking buddies and we all had such a good time during his visits! He had a very booming, deep voice. He would sometimes refer to me as “Gil...you little bitch!” That would crack up all three of us! Not sure if he was gay or not. He may just have been a little prissy, but he was a great friend to my Mom and myself. He was an amazing man that made Mom laugh. I loved him very dearly.

Speaking of Mom - she was starting to have some serious health problems around this time. She smoked like a chimney and drank all the time. It was sad to watch, but her situation must have sucked. I was the last family member living with her, but I was growing up and getting involved in my own independent world. Her days consisted of checking in on her parents, grocery shopping, dealing with me and most importantly, being alone. Even our lifetime maid, Hazeline, had to quit due to a very unfortunate accident that rendered her husband more or less a vegetable. I hated leaving her all the time. If I wasn’t playing music, I was either sleeping at home or hanging out with my girlfriend (that also wasn’t too keen on my continual absence). I had to do it. I had to somehow develop a sense of self. It was hard, and as usual, I felt very guilty doing this, and man... did that bite me on my ass later on in life. Still does, but in a little bit more..controlled fashion thanks to about $30,000 worth of psycho therapy and doctor prescribed chemicals. It helps.

Soon after Rhapsody, I got a call from Clark P. He was a buddy musician I met at college, and he had an offer for me. His selling point was that in his disco band, all members would be paid equally. No one would be paid on a different scale no matter what they did in the band. He said they were getting paid around the same amount Rhapsody was, but there would be fair distribution of the money. That was appealing to me at this point because I figured John and Pam were probably making around $500 - $1000 a week while the rest of us were making $150 a week. Sounded pretty good. I knew he was a great player. His band was called Skyline, which featured Clark on guitar, Sammy B. on keys, and William on bass. William was African American, and that would be the very first time I would be playing and hanging with a black guy. Sounds silly now, of course, but it was a big deal and I was very excited about this! My Mom loved William. He was super polite and she always liked that. And of course, he was a damned funky bass player that could sing and really entertain. Great stage presence.

Skyline was also looking for a singer and I believe we found one not long after I joined. Her name was Jennetta, and she was African American also. I think our booking agents (McWing Productions which featured Mick - Ebenezer’s old manager! ) recommended her. Not sure what the appeal was, though. She didn’t sing very well, and frankly, wasn't very good looking. She wore terrible clothes and was not a dynamic show person, but we went with her.

Thankfully, there were no jumpsuits in this band. Black pants, white shirts and a black vest was what we wore. It seems moustaches were required too. We quickly took some publicity shots and now we were ready to go. Cool. I hope!

DISCO INFERNO! (My life in music-the Disco years)

No, we did not burn down a room at the Holiday Inn (let’s just say it was a large hotel chain somewhere in S.C.) and it didn’t really burn down, either. It just sort of...melted.

At this point, Rhapsody consisted Of John, Pam, Richard, John V., and myself. John V. was a very young keyboard player from Columbia S.C.. We needed the all important 5th player and while he was indeed very young, he fit the bill well. He was a great player and he helped considerably in filling out our sound. He had a Fender Rhodes, an electric clavinet and a string machine - all of which were required to duplicate the big over-produced sounds of the popular Disco and Top 40 songs of the day.

I have mentioned earlier that Pam had pitch problems, so it was extremely important that all of our instruments be in tune. Poor John V. was constantly spending hours before shows painstakingly tuning his electric piano. That’s not an easy thing to do, but all of the trouble did seem to help Pam with her singing. To this day, I thank John (the band leader) for giving me an ear for pitch, and while I certainly do not profess I have perfect pitch while singing, it’s easy for me to hear tuning problems a mile away!

The band was playing a 2 week engagement at a well known hotel chain in S.C., when the fire took place. This was at the peak of the disco days (at least in the South), and the media had been hyping the rampant drug use that was seemingly such a large part of that culture, especially at N.Y.’s Studio 54. The drug of choice was cocaine, but our drug of choice was pot. Even though John insisted that we performed in a very professional manner, we would all go back to our rooms during the set breaks and bong down. It seemed to help relieve the boredom of playing the same songs over and over again. Shake Your Booty was now challenging and adventurous!

On our last break of the evening, John V. and I walked back to our room to..refresh. We broke out a small pipe, tried to clean all the stems and seeds out of the pot, and took a few hits. Nice! It was the last set of the week (Saturday night), and we were happy to be going home for 2 days before we had to be back at the hotel for one more week of our engagement.

We all went back to the lounge...refreshed... and played the last set. As we left the lounge and were walking in the parking lot back to our rooms, we noticed the unmistakable sounds of emergency sirens. Many sirens. As we neared the other side of the building we noticed that not only were there many sirens, but they were quickly getting closer! Our pace quickened a bit and then we saw smoke. I remember that was when my heart started racing with a pronounced sense of dread. I ran around the corner of the building and I experienced the biggest buzz-kill I have ever felt in my life. Holy crap! My room was on fire!

There were about 5 fire trucks parked in front and several firemen were excitedly knocking on doors to evacuate that part of the building. A fireman with an ax was seconds away from chopping his way into my room! My brain went into hyper-drive at this point and I approached him and told him that I had a key! He frantically asked me if there was anyone in the room, and I told him no. He opened the door and thick black smoke poured out of the room. I saw no flames, but felt the heat. Several firemen went in and my poor pot addled brain was desperately trying to find a way to deal with all of this.

Moments later, a fireman came out of the room with something dangling at the end of a long metal pole. It was the charred skeleton of John V.’s suitcase. All that was left was the frame and handle. The suitcase was ground zero. That was where the fire started. Apparently a burning pot seed popped out of the pipe and landed smack dab in he middle of it. It contained all of John V.’s clothes and burned all the way through. The smouldering fire more or less melted a hole about the same size of the suitcase completely through his bed. The firewall between his headboard and the next room was charred, but fortunately it held. Our TV had melted.

By now, the area was filled with onlookers from the hotel and the lounge. John V. was starting to freak out a bit and I knew I had to come up with something very quickly. Think Gil, think! Suddenly my mind cleared. Something connected. I knew what to say. The manager of the hotel and a fireman approached John V. and myself and asked how we thought the fire had started.

“You know....earlier this afternoon I put a couple of quarters in the bed vibrator and nothing really happened.... except that the bed just sort of made a funny noise”.

They both seemed to buy it! The hotel manager was actually apologetic that he had no more available rooms for John V. and I and that we would have to double up with our bandmates. WTF! Was it really that easy? Was I a criminal genius? Am I going to Hell?

After the firemen left, we were allowed to enter the room and gather any belongings that we cared about. All of my stuff was ok, but it was all very...smoky. John V.s’ clothing of course was no more, but both of us were happy that our alternate band - issued dress shirts (the nice light blue ones with the frilly fronts!) were hanging in the open closet with just a bit of smoke damage. Hopefully, a good dry cleaning or two would remove the smell. It never really did, though....every time I would sweat in it, that smoky smell would reactivate. Maybe it was a message. Maybe my diabolical ease of lying would indeed send me to burn in Hell someday. I hope not. Of course I was very grateful that no one was hurt, and that the fire did not cause anymore damage than it did. Maybe the Disco-Gods were looking after me that night after all!

The following week was mostly uneventful back at the hotel’s lounge. The lounge and the hotel’s staff were a bit buzzed by the events, but there were no repercussions from the fire department or the hotel management. Several years later, I did receive a couple of collection notices in the mail on behalf of the hotel. I did not respond to those, but eventually I got a registered letter from a law firm demanding payment for the damages. I think the bill was for around $5000. Once again, the Disco Gods came down from the heavens to help me out. A relative (lawyer) convinced my mother’s homeowner’s insurance to pay the claim in full. I’m a lucky guy. A very lucky guy.....stupid ol’ Mexican pot.

Ebenezer Schooled *update*

*This is a reprint of an entry from my "life in music" blog on MySpace . I have added Ebenezer's publicity shot (from around 1975-ish), now that I know how to do it!


Now that I was in this new and mighty rock band named EBENEZER (which the guys had mentioned was going to be called EBENEZER SCREWZZZ - glad that didn't stick, though the hip rock-ebonics spelling certainly predates metal and hip hop!), it was time to get to work and learn some songs. And what songs they turned out to be! At this time (1975), in the region of the nation is was in (the South), there was a shift in rock band repertoires. Gone were the adventurous and original song lists of the 60's. Bands were now called upon to play mostly covers in order to draw paying customers into the bars and clubs. You could still sneak in a couple of originals and generally maintain a somewhat creative mix of covers. I knew all of this, and I was super excited that EBENEZER was planning on a wide variety of songs from progressive rock, Beatles, and some pretty damned obscure but tasty cover tunes.

In a bizarre twist of fate, I discovered a pretty complete song list of EBENEZER, just a couple of months ago! How lucky was that! My 50 year old brain would have blown a gasket if I tried to remember most of these. Here are some of the ones that I think are worth mentioning:

Lots of BEATLES! Some were done straight - Nowhere Man, And Your Bird Can Sing (not an easy song!), Drive My Car and some that were brilliantly arranged by Danny - Help! (With a crazy little instrumental break that made absolutely no sense at the time I was struggling to learn it!), and a show stopping, scorching version of I Want You (She's So Heavy) that Danny incorporated a bit of a George Benson solo from his version of the song! Sounds kinda icky, but you gotta believe me - it rocked!

To satisfy our proggy side, there was YES's Seen All Good People, Long Distance Runaround and a song that we could just absolutely smoke - Lifetime by a YES wanna be band - FLASH.

To satisfy the club owners we included some of these covers - Ukiah, China Grove and Long Train Running and Sweet Maxine by the DOOBIE BROTHERS, plenty-o-ZZ TOP - Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings, Waitin' For The Bus (hot!), and The Sheik. CLAPTON's I Shot The Sheriff etc...etc...You get the picture!

Now for the strange and eclectic covers that in most cases, I had never heard before - Eagle Eye by TRANQUILITY, Don't Get Mad, Get Even (GYPSY), Somebody Help Me (STAMPEDERS), In The Winter Of My LIFE (IF), Simple Sisiter (PROCOL HARUM) and a very cool song by SUGARLOAF called Don't Call Us, We'll Call You. We all dug STEELY DAN, and we did a wonderous version of Bodhisattva. That song has some amazing guitar going on, but it gave Danny no problem at all. Playing 2 guitar parts at once was a breeze for the guy! Damned obscure, but in most cases these were tasty tunes and at times, very challenging to learn.

Speaking of challenging.... my drumming abilities were tested every rehearsal. Fortunately, Danny had a great knack for coming up with and presenting many very difficult drum parts. These were parts I would have never come up with myself, but he was a great teacher (and could actually play drums), and he very patiently showed me how to play them. Maybe even more importantly, he taught me how to think way out of the box and to incorporate that into my playing. Many of the parts would be simple in concept but difficult to play, such as playing a beat in 4/4, but every now and then, (tastefully of course!), throw in a measure of 3/4 with my right hand on the hi-hats! I thank my lucky stars that Danny came into my life, and the timing was perfect. I was making a pretty big leap musically and professionally. For the first time I was seeing myself not only as a rock musician, but a professional rock musician. I started to see a life in music without all of the Rock Star trappings. I was realizing that more than likely being a real honest to goodness ROCK STAR was not going to happen, but if I work hard and make a few concessions, I might be able to make a living playing music. This was a huge leap for me, and that concept would eventually bring my mom some realistic hope for my future. And that says a lot!

I'm pretty sure that Judi (keyboards) was already gone by the time we started rehearsing in earnest. Dennis was preparing to finish his studies at Berkeley School Of Music, but we managed to learn enough songs for a kind of going away gig for him at the local community college in Charlotte. Unfortunately for him, I believe that was the only gig he would end up playing with EBENEZER. He was squeezed out of the band when he came back for a school holiday. I didn't like it one bit - after all, he was the guy that got me into the band, but as I mentioned earlier, I think some of the guys had been planning this for some time. See you later Dennis...

Speaking of personnel, as with many bands, there are more folks involved than just the musicians. At that time you had to have a manager, road crew, light guy, and a sound guy (all bands were expected to travel with their own P.A.) The more the merrier, I say! We had a great crew that easily incorporated themselves into EBENEZER and were just as important as the band was. And yes, they also enjoyed a good party...

Manager - Mick M.. This was a most fortunate addition for us because not only could he manage, he also owned a music store, which of course came in very handy. He also provided a free rehearsal space. He also had great drugs.

Road Crew - Murphy M.. My best bud from ROCK BOTTOM saw an opportunity to be around great musicians (he shared my enthusiasm for the players), and came on board. I don't think he minded the party aspect, either!

Sound Guy - fella named Bob. Bob was totally insane. Scary looking guy with a penchant for throwing you to the ground, pulling off your shoe, and biting the holy crap out of your big toe. Not a good feeling... but a great sound guy.

Light Guy - that would be Russell. Just by looking at him you would think he was just another stupid redneck from Rock Hill, but get the guy fucked up, and he could be the funniest guy on the planet. Give him some acid, and you would soon realize that he should be ruler of the world.

In another blast of good fortune, I have also recently found a list I had made of our gigs! I don't know how complete it is, but I'm hankering' to go back and revisit some of those shows...I think.
I'm the angelic one in the middle. Jimi the bass player is seated to my left, Danny the guitarist in seated on my right and Frank the singer is standing next to me. Lordy...I was cute!

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!

(Money) Makes Me Feel Like Dancing!

Please note: the following is Part 2 of my life in music - the disco days

Rhapsody’s song list was extensive. We had to know at least four 50 minute sets worth of material. Occasionally we would have to include a dinner set, which would usually consist of lighter (cheesier) songs. Our set list was a mixture of disco hits, current Top 40 hits, hard-core funk tunes, ballads, a regionally required beach song or two, and if we were asked to rock, well....we could pull out Steve Miller’s Jet Airliner when needed. I know....sounds horrific, but what the heck, we were a business and we aimed to please.

Just about all of the disco hits of the era were there; Turn the Beat Around, Don’t Leave Me This Way, K.C. and the Sunshine Band medley, Bee Gee’s medley, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing etc...and etc.....John loved to get funky and we could actually get down hard on tunes like The Isley Brother’s Fight The Power, Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music, and Tower Of Power’s This Time It’s Real.

Those were the tunes that I actually loved playing. John was a formidable bass player, and while I can’t remember if I have ever told this to anyone, but hard core funk was right in my wheelhouse, and probably my favorite genre to play. The crappy songs in our set were for the customers, we were paid to make them dance and/or enjoy their dinner, the funk tunes were there for us. Most could be heard on the radio, and John spent many hours a week reading the current Top 40 charts, buying the singles he thought would work, and choosing which ones we would learn. It sounds really ancient, but we traveled with a portable record player!

Some of the slightly obscure songs were Con Funk Shun’s Ffun, Can’t Stand The Slaughter (Tower of Power), Starrgard’s Which Way Is Up? and Look Thru My Eyes, an incredible slab of funk by Chaka Khan/Rufus. Some of the horrible tunes were Grease, Neil Sedaka’s Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (vomit), Evergreen (lots of vomit) And heaven help us all, I believe I have already mentioned the dreadful Leo Sayer song! While it is certainly very easy to deride these tunes, and disco tunes in general, I must say that most are extremely well constructed songs containing sophisticated chord structures, dense harmonies, cool bass lines and the well known, but generally written off simple drum parts. The beat was king, relentless and steady, and John pushed me into the role of intense timekeeper. We could play around and get creative on the funk tunes, but the disco tunes had better never waver in the tempo department. Believe it or not, at one time I was money as a human metronome !

Before we actually played out, John informed us that as a favor for a good friend, we were going to do a couple of shows featuring this good friend of his, in our first set. The guy was an older man (mid-30's?) named Joe, and he was getting ready to go to prison (!) for smuggling pot in his private small aircraft (!!). Joe played guitar and sang, and the 2 numbers we featured him on were Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and Kenny Roger’s awful but insanely popular Lucille. Yikes! Fortunately, Joe was a tremendous showman, and I’m here to tell you that he could work the living crap out of a crowd with just those 2 songs. Sometimes he would go off on a storytelling binge and draw the tunes out into epic proportions. The Southern folks ate it up! I still crack up at the glances John and Pam would give me as we would find ourselves vamping for 10 minutes on the not very adventurous chord changes in Lucille while Joe told some hilarious stories!

With the 2 favor shows done, Joe was off to prison. He was a great character and I witnessed firsthand what it takes to win a crowd over and to be a professional showman. I thank you for that, Joe. I’m really glad I had a chance to play with you!

We were now ready to hit the road, and man, we hit it hard. Since I was now self-employed (and a card carrying union member!), I had to keep pretty meticulous records of the gigs, the pay, and hang on to all receipts for things such as dry cleaning my lovely jumpsuit and disco shirts, meals etc....Believe it or not, I still have those records, all handwritten on note cards!

Shows included weekend engagements at exciting and exotic places such as the Clemson S.C. Holiday Inn, the Lake City S.C. Country Club, a week at the Greenville S.C. Holiday Inn, a grueling but very eventful 2 weeks in Opelika, Alabama at the People’s Choice Lounge embedded deep within the bowels the Ramada Inn.

In December of 1977 (I was initially wrong about the date I joined the band - my previous post has been corrected), we played more profitable one-night stand Christmas dances. 10 of them, as a matter of fact (including the very hard to get into Slug’s Top Of The Tower in Charlotte!), ending the season with a week at the Fireplace Lounge at Rock Hill’s own Best Western.

From August 10 to December 31 I made over $3200. Rooms were free, meals mostly discounted or free, and when I was not on the road, I lived at home with mom. For what seemed like a first time occurrence, we were both happy about my career in music. Money talks, baby!

Shake Your Damn Booty!

Near the end of 1977, I received a telephone call from John N.. If you’re keeping track of all of this, he was the extraordinary bass player from Ebenezer’s Rock Hill rival band Caution. Simply put, he asked if I would be interested in filling the drum spot for his Disco/ Top-40 band Rhapsody. The timing could not have been better! I was quickly running out of interesting classes to take in college, plus (most importantly) I had just turned 21 and my Social Security checks had ceased magically appearing in my mom’s mail box.

I did need to think about it, though. This was a business offer as much as it was a music offer. Rhapsody would be performing a lot. We’re talking about being booked weeks at a time, mainly in hotel lounges. We would be traveling throughout the Southeast, and for the first time in my life I would be leaving mom and my girlfriend for extended lengths of time. I’m sure my girlfriend took it worse than mom did. Mom was probably glad to get rid of me and frankly, she was excited about the fact that I would be earning a relatively good living! I’m sure it caused a stink with my girlfriend, but the years gone by seem to have left little memory of what went down. Maybe that’s a good thing.

The fact that it was a Disco/Top-40 band may have given me a tiny bit of “what the hell am I doing?” thoughts, but I was ready to take the huge step into learning how to use my musical talents in the real world. Danny and Jimi from Ebenezer had already joined the same type of band. I actually auditioned for them but didn’t make the cut - the main dude (who reminded me a lot of Steve Martin pretending to be a lounge singer) opted for a very good drummer named Bill Stowe (who went on to be one of Charlotte’s best studio drummers). Not a problem, and since I had accepted that I’d probably never be a Rock Star, Rhapsody sounded like a great opportunity for me to play with great musicians, be a professional and most importantly, keep the learning process going.

John’s offer to me was that I would be a salaried musician, earning between $150 - $200 a week regardless if we had gigs or not! Not a bad selling point. I agreed for an audition and here I was again, driving the 20 minute drive back down to Rock Hill S.C.!

Rhapsody consisted of a very gorgeous and sexy female singer named Pam. Believe it or not, she was now the second ex-Miss Rock Hill S.C. beauty queen I have played with! She had a giant smile, knew how to shake her booty and her voice was....fine on the pretty material and at times..adventurous on the funk tunes, but that was ok. Mike played guitar and shared the lead vocal duties. He played quite well and had a great voice. As I said, John was the bass player, sang backing vocals, was the leader of the band, and also worked the lights, monitors and P.A. from the stage!

The audition went well and I accepted the offer. One of the first things that helped all of this new reality really start to set in was that I was given the previous drummer’s disco jump suit. Good God! It was a black one piece with a cut-out front and huge bell bottoms. It came with 2 shirts; one was a baby blue satin number with a frilly chest thing going on, and the other was a polyester paisley print, but thankfully, lacking the frilly front. The drummer before me was a very tall and lanky guy so you can imagine the hilarity that ensued when I tried it on at practice. Jesus.... The crotch hung down to my knees and the legs were way too long. We all had a pretty good laugh! Fortunately, Pam was a bit of a seamstress and offered to do the best she could. Well, it turned out even funnier...now the crotch was up my ass, the legs were too short, but it would have to do. The insanely goofy jumpsuit would spend most of it’s time sitting behind a drum set, so what the hell...

I had to learn around 40 or 50 songs. I also had a new task to deal with, and that was to be a backup singer. I had never done it before, but I knew I had an ok voice and I was excited to sing . This was a real job and I was expected to do whatever my new boss asked of me, be it wearing a uniform, singing backup, playing whatever songs he chose, and to look like I loved what I’m doing ( but to never show up Pam). I was fine with that. The rehearsals went well and we were ready to disco down and shake our booty. Look out Holiday Inn lounges! Rhapsody is on it’s way for your dining and dancing pleasure!

* A note about the photo - it’s the only photo I have of the band and it does not represent the personnel that were in the band when I joined. It does represent the members that were in it for most of my time in Rhapsody with one very major (and funny) exception; the guy in the top left was the photographer! We were being booked as a 5 piece band (which was important as far as the money we would earn) and the 5th player was not yet hired at the time of the photo session!
From left to right, Top row: Photographer, John N., Richard G.
Bottom row: Me, Pam