New York

The Wee Four recorded an excellent garage punker, “Weird“ in 1966, written by Terry with his friend Jim Obi, b/w Terry's song “Give Me a Try”. The Wee Four recorded other songs, including “I Could Never“, but these weren't released.

Members of the band had conflicts with manager Al Cecere, but Terry decided to leave the group and go with Al as his manager for a solo record of two beautiful original songs, “It's Not That Way“ and “You Wouldn't Believe Me“. It must have been repressed as the first label had the Nu Sound Ltd going down the left side as with the Wee Four 45.

Terry passed away some years ago.

The Wee Four - Weird

Terry Pilittere - You Wouldn't Believe Me
Terry Pilittere - It's Not That Way

Sources: Mike Dugo's interview with Ken Polizzi of the Wee Four. Photos from Fuzz Acid and Flowers.

She's Too Familiar now is a classic garage song. Every element is striking: the keyboard intro, the bass line and drums, the sharp guitar parts and the fantastic vocal, with a tambourine-led chorus that brings it all together.

The b-side, No More Time combines a New Orleans type beat with a bit of Donovan's Mellow Yellow vocal delivery.

I had thought they were only a studio group until I found a mention in the April 30, 1966 issue of Billboard that states "Ray West's group the Quadrangle closed at Arthur last week and will now record under the supervision of Artie Kornfeld." Artie Kornfeld did produce them, using the songwriting team of Michael Konstan and Jay Fishman.

Kornfeld had a lot of experience writing classic songs as half of the Changin' Times with Steve Duboff. Their original versions of Pied Piper and How Is the Air Up There were covered with more success by other bands. Kornfeld went on to work with many other acts as producer. Michael Konstan released a solo lp on RCA in '73. I'd like to know more about the other members of Quadrangle, though.

Quadrangle - She's Too Familiar Now

Jared wrote: "Sounds like he may have been the coolest cop of all time. 'He's On Your Side' is the a-side and is another organ driven rocker (with none of the psych flourishes of 'Flower') about getting along with the police, because they're here to help. Flip is a doo-woppy group vocal.

"Both sides have songwriting credits to brothers Vic and Michael Virzera with the b-side additionally crediting P. Drift. Michael produced the b-side ('Two Hearts') and Elliot Chiprut produced 'He's On Your Side'."

Recently I heard from Vic Vizera himself, who have me the history of his groups, and sent me two early song they cut, the 50's rocker Nina that I'm featuring here, and a ballad called Mystic Mirror. In Vic's own words:

In 1962, Nina and Mystic Mirror were local grass roots Flatbush hits....our demos were being played in quite a few juke boxes. At that time we were The Premiers with the sub theme "Music with a New Sound".

Elvis's early producers, Wally Gold and Araon Schroeder [they wrote Elvis' 1960 #1 hit 'It's Now or Never", and Wally Gold co-wrote It's My Party] offered us a contract that had "power of attorney clauses" and we declined....in retrospect ...I guess we should have signed it, but at the time we thought we were doing the smart thing. We knew of so many groups that were working their butts off, traveling around the country while the powers that be would make all the money (since they had the power to sign your name to spend the earnings), claiming the money went for promotions, expenses, etc. Another consideration was the fact that, my brother, Mike, would have to had given up his job in open heart research, where he was instrumental in designing a heart-lung machine apparatus.

The Go Nuts were formed as a rock show group in 1965 and lasted about two years. We did recordings and appearances, including a performance aired Christmas Day, 1966 on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour. It was at the CBS Ed Sullivan Theater. Our rock rendition of Shortenin' Bread really went over well... ...girls were screaming, people standing and rocking with the beat, lots of applause etc. Unfortunately, similiar to what happened to the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, probably the same tech engineers had my lead voice as low as the background voices and what was aired sounded like all background. Still, we came in second and had a great time.

Regarding Patrolman Vic Virzera and the Premiers, in 1971 we were scheduled to perform the song on the cross country David Frost Show, a special on police. Being a live show they ran out of time but paid us flor being there and the rehersal.

I retired several years ago from the NYCPD but I'm still playing gigs with my brother, Mike, and my band, the Vic Vincent Group, in the New York Metro area.

The Premiers - Nina

The Go-Nuts - Flower

Patrolman Vic Virzera with the Premiers - He's On Your Side

Thank you Jared for contributing He's On Your Side, and Steve Hogan for contributing the photo of the Go Nuts. Special thanks to Vic Virzera for sharing his acetate of Nina.

Fine Records Studio owner Vince Jans signed the band after hearing their live show over the phone. In September 1967, they recorded an album's worth of songs at one session, mostly typical cover versions off the day along with two original songs and a couple instrumentals.

Jans let them release the two originals for their only 45. I Try starts off with Carl's trilling guitar riff taken from the intro to the Buster's surf classic, Bust Out, then turns into a fantastic rocker as the band kicks in. She Don't Got The Right simmers with resentment: "She's got the right to say/ she don't want my kind/but she don't got the right/ to take away my pride."

Lou Grillo wrote I Try, although there are no credits on the label, while Carl Lundquist wrote She Don't Got the Right. 500 copies were pressed on the In label and sold at their shows, at venues like the New Patriot Club in Hornell. The only radio play it received was on local Rochester station WSAY.

The band broke up in 1968, as Carl and Lou were heading to college. The masters from the Young Tyrant's recording sessions have been saved, and supposedly include other takes of both sides of the 45 as well as a cover of I Can Only Give You Everything. Hopefully someday we'll hear the whole session.

The primary source for this story is Greg Prevost's interview with singer Lou Grillo from 1978.

The Young Tyrants - I Try
The Young Tyrants - She Don't Got the Right

The Creations performed at local churches and halls including the Teenage Cabaret and the “No Name” club on 60th St and 14th Ave in Brooklyn. They attracted notice with their spot-on renditions of songs by the Animals and the Dave Clark 5. Joe Liotta's increasing ability on the Vox Continental organ gave them a professional sound that other bands lacked.

Landing the job, they began appearing at Good Guy shows regularly on Fridays, playing their own sets and backing touring acts. Bob Herin turned management of the Creations over to Billy and Steve Jerome, who managed the Left Banke among others. The band would soon change their name to the Ox-Bow Incident and record two fine 45s for Smash and a third, with a somewhat different lineup, for Avco.

Q: What were the circumstances behind the demo recordings?

George Napolitano: The demo I’ve Paid My Dues was recorded at the request of Billy and Steve Jerome. They asked us to put something down so that they could give a listen. We had recorded I’ve Paid My Dues about 6 months earlier and this version was our second recording of that song. We also did Get on My Train at the same session.

Q: Who wrote Get On My Train and I've Paid My Dues?

George Napolitano: I don’t remember who wrote I’ve Paid My Dues. It was given to us on sheet music and we were “told” to work on it. Get on My Train was written by a friend named Denver Ruggins. He gave us the song and we changed it a bit. The demo was recorded on a 4 track Ampeg Machine at Rossi Sound Studio in Brooklyn and transferred to acetate. I have the original acetate and from the acetate we made the CD copy.

Q: Where was Rossi Sound Studios?

George Napolitano: 2005 West 8th Street Brooklyn, 23 NY is the address on the record label. If I remember correctly that was between Avenues T and U on West 8th Street.

George Napolitano: We were still the Creations when we recorded the demos but changed the name shortly afterwards to the Ox-Bow Incident. The lineup for the original session was myself on guitar, Joe Sirico bass, Fred DeRubeis drums, Joe Liotta Vox organ and vocals, Dominic Coppola guitar. When we re-recorded the song Jerry replaced Dominic Coppola on guitar. After we recorded I’ve Paid My Dues and Get On My Train we were signed to a production contract with Billy and Steve Jerome. At the time they also managed the Fifth Estate and were part of the team behind the Left Banke who had a hit with Walk Away Rene. They gave us the song Beg, Borrow or Steal to record and we had it mastered and ready to be released. However the Ohio Express version was released before ours and it never came out. In fact that was 2 years before Reach Out was released.

George Napolitano: Whenever we performed on a WMCA ”Good Guy” show we would play the songs as part of the “show” and then we would back up all of the other acts that needed musical accompaniment. Remember this was way before the days of singers singing over pre-recorded tracks. We provided the music for groups such as the Chiffons, Peaches and Herb, Chubby Checker, the Shangra-Las, Jimmy Jones, the Jive 5, Neil Sedaka and countless others. In fact just this past week I saw Neil Sedaka and I mentioned to him that my band use to back him up on the “Good Guy” shows. He smiled and said, “I remember those days fondly”. We never rehearsed with him. Whenever he arrived Jack Spector would immediately put him on stage and Sedaka would turn to us, snap his fingers and say “C- Am- F-G” and proceed to sing Calendar Girl, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Oh Carol and all the rest of his songs.

Q: How was the NY music 'scene' at the time? Did you get much chance to see other bands or only when you shared bills with other bands?

George Napolitano: We played a lot, practically every weekend so we really didn’t get much of a chance to see the other groups that were around at the time. When we weren’t playing our respective girlfriends expected us to spend time with them and not go listening to the other groups. We did go to see some of our friends groups such as Lurch & the Brats, The Intruders and others from time to time but when we were “off” we tried to stay away from the clubs and catch up on those things which we couldn’t do whenever we were playing. That being said whenever we could we did try to get to the Electric Circus or go to the Fillmore East to see The Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and whoever else was playing, but with our schedule that didn’t happen often.

They followed up with the catchy You Can't Make Love By Yourself, sung by Al and Luis "Lurch" Pagan and featuring session player Vinny Bell on electric sitar. The flipside is She's Gone, a heavy soul number written by Fred DeRubeis and George. Neither side caught on with radio or the public and the band disbanded in 1969. George and Joe Sirico found other musicians to record a final 45 for Avco, then reunited with most of the original members for live shows into 1973.

The Ox-Bow Incident is still performing and recording music to this day. Those who want to hear more of their music should check out their myspace page, which has a history of the band and many more photos than I could reproduce here. There's also a long interview with George Napolitano and Joe Sirico from Mike Dugo's 60sgaragebands.com site, archived here. Both of these were sources for this story, along with my own interview with George Napolitano. Special thanks to George and the other members of the Ox-Bow Incident for sharing these rarely heard songs.

The Creations - I've Paid My Dues (1965 Demo)
The Creations - Get on My Train (1965 Demo)

The Ox-Bow Incident - Harmonica Man
The Ox-Bow Incident - You Can't Make Love by Yourself

Varnick co-wrote Lela with J. Lynch, and also wrote the b-side, a flimsy piece of harmony pop called Garden of Eden that's not without a certain paisley charm - prescient too considering this was released in October of 1966. CBS picked it up for release in the UK, but I don't know of this making the charts anywhere.

The Descendants - Lela