Category Archives: California

Categories: California, Hollywood, Impression, Los Angeles

Impression Records discography

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The Sloths Impression PS Makin' Love / You Mean Everything

I planned an entry on the Dirty Shames for their great “It’s A Shame” 45, but when I discovered the flip side, “Makin’ Love”, was a cover of an earlier 45 on the same label by the Sloths, I thought I may as well feature whatever I can find out about Impression. It turns out there were a good number of fine 45s on this Hollywood, California label run by two brothers, Al and Sonny Jones.

There were two sets of Impression releases, a first on a blue label with plain logo, and the second on yellow labels with the new, somewhat psychedelic Impression logo.

The Sloths Impression 45 Makin' LoveOn the blue label is the Sloths’ song “Makin’ Love”, which was covered by the Dirty Shames a year later. The Sloth’s version is far cruder, but both are fine perfomances. The Dirty Shames label gives writing credit to Hank Daniels. I had heard a rumor that the two bands shared some members, but Marty Wons from the Dirty Shames says this isn’t true. The Sloths record happens to be by far the rarest garage 45 on this label.

Update June 2011: I’ve included more on the Sloths on a separate page.

Of the releases on the yellow Impression label, first was a release by the Dillons, produced by Dorsey Burnette. See the Dillons’ entry for more on this release.

Next up is one that I hadn’t heard until recently. The Mark Five of San Bernadino featured brothers Danny and Jimmie Faragher, who released “I’m Through With You” b/w “I’Il Keep On Trying” on Impression 102 in 1965 before they went on to form the Peppermint Trolley Co. The Mark Five also recorded as the Intercoms and the C-Minors for Impression, as well as helping back Jimmy Robins on his great soul song, “I Just Can’t Please You”. See their entry for the full story on all four of these Impression releases.

The Tangents have the distinction of releasing two 45s on Impression, “Good Times” / “Till I Came Along” (Impression 105) in 1965, and “Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go?” / “Stand By Me” (Impression 111) a year later. “Good Times” starts off like Heat Wave then gets very pop sounding. Their version of “Hey Joe” is one of the best. Like many 45s on this label it was arranged and engineered by Al Jones. Members were: Jim Janesick (Jim Janesich?) lead guitar, Bob Shelton rhythm guitar & lead vocals, Terry Topolski bass guitar and Warren Brodie drums.

Lonnie & the Legends backing Doye O'Dell
Lonnie & the Legends backing Doye O’Dell

Lonnie & the Legends Impression 45 I CriedLonnie and The Legends recorded one of my very favorite songs on this label. “I Cried”/ “Baby Without You” (Impression 109) was released in Mar. 1966. Lonnie Grah’s niece Becky Lynn Ray sent me some photos of Lonnie and info about Lonnie & the Legends. The band was from Sylmar, California, near San Fernando. It may surprise the listener that they were actually more of a country & western band, performing on bills with many big names like Doye O’Dell, Joe and Rose Maphis and Lefty Frizzell, and were friends with early rock ‘n roll performers like Ritchie Valens and the Rivingtons of “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” fame.

Songwriting credits are George and Lonnie Grah, but Becky tells me “I Cried” was actually written by Lonnie and her mother, Nancy Grah, who was also in the group along with Donna Grah. Other musicians included Kenny Ray on bass and Gene Gunnels on drums, who was in Thee Sixpence just before they became Strawberry Alarm Clock, and then joined Hunger. (See SAC’s website.)

Lonnie & the Legends had other 45s:

Rev 1006: Lonnie & the Legends – “Penguin Walk” / “Crazy Penguin” (George Grah, Laucan Music BMI)
Danette Records: Lonnie & His Legends – “Cause I Love You” (Lonnie Grah, Nancy Grah, produced by George Grah) / ?

The Dirty Shames Impression 45 I Don't CareThe Dirty Shames have one great double-sided 45, the garage classic “I Don’t Care” with the flip “Makin’ Love” (Impression 112) released Sept. 1966. Band members include Marty Wons and Bob Larson. Marty wrote a little to me, but hasn’t answered my responding emails. He wrote:

We recorded until we lost two members to the Vietnam war draft. Al Jones did the majority of the engineering with Sonny occasionally sitting in. By the way, the Sloths and the Dirty Shames were two different groups. No crossover members. We were given a copy of their record to create our version of Makin’ Love.

A discussion of the Grodes would take up a whole entry in itself. From Tucson, Arizona, they tried to break out to national success with some 45s released on California labels. Their most famous is the original version of “Let’s Talk About Girls”, covered by the Chocolate Watchband. Over a year later, they released “What They Say About Love” on Impression 114, but it made no mark at all. I don’t believe John Fisher of Current Records was part of Impression, but he may have been the connection for  the Grodes single.

Impression discography (any help on finishing this would be appreciated)

Blue label series:

?? – (Impression 101)
Tommy Lee – If You See Me Cry / One of These Days (both written by Al Jones & Joe Osborn, produced by Al Born) (Impression 102)
Big Dave Washington & the Zensations with the Buddy Harper Orch. – You Stay On My Mind / Don’t Say We’re Through (Impression 103)
The Sloths – Makin’ Love / You Mean Everything (Impression 104)

Yellow label series with new Impression logo:

The Dillons – Simple Way of Living / Night Winds (Impression 101)
The Mark Five – I’m Through with You / I’ll Keep on Trying (Impression 102)
Teddy Durant – The Beast Of Sunset Strip / The Night Stalker (Impression 103)
Bob & Judy – We’ll Try It For Ourselves (Gregory Dempsey) / We’ve Got Something Going (Impression 104)
The Tangents – Good Times / Till I Came Along (Impression 105)
The C-Minors – Just a Little Feelin’ / Don’t Go (Impression 106)
The Intercoms – Unabridged, Unadulterated, Unextraordinary, Ordinary, Mediocre Unoriginality Blues / Please Try and Understand (Impression 107)
Jimmy Robins – I Just Can’t Please You / I Made It Over (Impression 108)
Lonnie & the Legends – I Cried / Baby, Without You (Impression 109)
?? – (Impression 110)
The Tangents – Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go? / Stand By Me (Impression 111)
The Dirty Shames – I Don’t Care / Makin’ Love (Impression 112)
The Dirty Shames – Run and Hide / I Don’t Care (Impression 112 – white label promo only)
Jan Crutchfield – Front Door, Back Door / It’s Now (Impression 113) (both by Crutchfield and Fred Burch)
The Grodes – What They Say About Love / Have Your Cake and Eat It Too (Impression 114)

Thanks to Rich Strauss, Jason and Max for help with the discography. According to Rich, the Teddy Durant 45 has a couple of good novelty monster songs, and #113 is mediocre country. The Tommy Lee, Big Dave Washington and Jimmy Robins are r&b/soul releases, everything else is rock.

Categories: California, Capitol, Donna, Los Angeles, Revis

Love

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Love montage of photos from CrawdaddyHere’s an overview of early recordings by members of Love, including Arthur Lee, Bryan MacLean and Ken Forssi who have passed away, and Johnny Echols who is thankfully still with us.

Before Love, Arthur Lee and Johnny Echols fronted bands or wrote songs for a series of 45s in a variety of styles, from surf to soul to pop, including a single as Arthur Lee & the LAG’s “The Ninth Wave” / “Rumble-Still-Skins” for Capitol.

Lee wrote the great soul song “My Diary” for Rosa Lee Brooks, recorded in early 1965. The flip is “Utee” an excellent upbeat dance number. This is also an early session for Jimi Hendrix (not his first, which was probably either with the Isley Brothers in early ’64, or with Don Covay in May of ’64).

Lee also wrote “I’ve Been Trying” for Little Ray.

Arthur wrote songs for Ronnie and the Pomona Casuals including “Everybody Do the Jerk” and “Slow Jerk”. He may be singing backup vocals as well. I used to think Arthur was singing lead on these songs, but that was probably mistaken, as lead vocalist Charles Lett was a very talented singer and other people have said he was singing on these tracks. I’ve come to believe Arthur partially modeled his vocal style on Charlie Lett, or at least on Curtis Mayfield.

The American Four just preceded Love’s first incarnation, which was known as the Grass Roots. With typical acerbity, Arthur wrote a dance song named “Luci Baines” after Lyndon Johnson’s homely daughter and called the label Selma. “Soul Food” is Arthur’s take on Booker T. and the MGs; he was born and raised in Memphis, Tennesee, home to Stax.

Following is was a selection of rare tracks by Love, most taken from the great bootleg Last Wall of the Castle. “Gazing” is one of my favorite tracks from the first lp. “It’s the Marlin, Baby” seems to have been recorded around the time of the American Four and was release on a Texas label under the Love name. Release date is uncertain, but it could have been after Love scored a hit with” My Little Red Book”

“7 And 7 Is” required over 80 tracks just to get the backing right! Vocals were recorded later. On these takes you hear the bluesy coda taking form as the band idly jams to relax after frantically tearing through the song. Arthur probably played drums (though some sources say Michael Stuart) on these takes, leaving the guitar to Johnny Echols and Bryan, with Ken Forssi on bass.

An instrumental take of “Your Mind and We Belong Together” showcases Johnny Echol’s lead. Arthur wrote “Feathered Fish” for fellow LA band the Sons of Adam. He recorded his own version in 1994, but it sounds like vintage Love.

Bryan MacLean’s contribution to Love is more important than most know, both in songwriting and in the distinctive sensitivity he brought to the band. There are several fine demos are from 1966, including “Orange Skies” and “Old Man” and strong originals like “Strong Commitment”. There’s also a great version of “Alone Again Or” from 1982. Bryan died in 1998.

Anyone not familiar with the band’s studio lps should definitely check out the first four: Love, Da Capo, Forever Changes, and Four Sail. Out Here and False Start also have good individual tracks, as does Arthur Lee’s solo lp Vindicator. For a different kind of tribute, see my next post on cover versions of Love songs.

Categories: äva, California, Los Angeles

Allyn Ferguson

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Here’s an oddity – not garage but a gonzo 60’s instrumental with horns, twangy guitar line and all.

“Your Red Watermelon” is catchy and funky, and was well received when I spun it at Shakey’s Night Owl Record Fair this past Tuesday.

Allyn Ferguson was best known as the band leader on the Andy Williams Show. In the late ’50s his Chamber Jazz Sextet had an LP on Cadence as well as backing Kenneth Patchen on his LP for the same label, and in the ’70s he co-wrote the theme to the Barney Miller TV show.

Update: I’m sorry to report that Allyn Ferguson passed away on June 23, 2010, he was 85 years old. A full obit is here

The äva label also released a fine 45 by the Pace-Setters that I’ve covered on this site.

Categories: California, Capitol, Los Angeles, Surrey

Chris Ducey, Chris and Craig

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Updated to include information on the Chris Ducey album and the Penny Arkade

In 1965, Chris Ducey recorded the album Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest for the Surrey label (Mira’s budget subsidiary). Surrey had printed the sleeves when they realized they had a problem. Ducey was either under contract to another label or publisher, or he just refused to sign what was probably a one-sided contract favoring the label.

Supposedly Mira/Surrey label owner Randy Wood had already sold the album’s European rights based solely on the cover, a photo of Brian Jones at the Action Club in West Hollywood.

Randy Wood hired Bobby Jameson (who had not been part of the original album sessions) to write new songs to match the titles on the album! Jameson recorded these songs with Marshall Leib producing. Jameson claims he never signed a contract either, and that releases from then to now have all been illegal. All he was paid was $20 or $25 a song for writing and recording them.

The Leaves recorded Jameson’s version of “Girl from the East” as the b-side to their second release of “Hey Joe” in March of 1966, though when the song started breaking nationally, they dropped it in favor of a band original.

Some of the sleeves changed Ducey’s name on the front to “Chris Lucey”, but some still read Chris Ducey so there must have been a couple printings of the covers.

The album saw release again in 1966 on the Joy label, this time in Bobby Jameson’s own name and the title changed to Too Many Mornings with a photograph of smokestacks. For some reason this release changes the title of”With Pity, But It’s Too Late” to “Just One of Those Days”.

Read the full story on Bobby Jameson’s blog, bobbyjameson.blogspot.com

In 2012 Chris Ducey’s original version of the album showed up as an mp3 download on Amazon released by something called Essential Media Group, LLC. Though sharing the titles, the songs are completely different from Jameson’s, with different lyrics, tempos, and simpler arrangements. Overall it’s more of a folk session, dominated by acoustic guitar and Ducey’s voice. Neither the compositions nor the production are as adventurous as Jameson’s version.

Jameson wrote on his blog “I purposely didn’t listen to Ducey’s songs in 1965 for fear of being influenced by his work.”

After this debacle, Chris Ducey met Craig Smith while auditioning and landing starring roles along with Suzannah Jordan in a series pilot called The Happeners about a Greenwich Village folk trio. They performed their own original songs, and there was an appearance by the Dave Clark Five. ABC never picked up the series, and the pilot itself seems to have aired only once and is currently lost.

Craig Smith had been in the Good Time Singers for their two albums on Capitol in 1964.

Chris and Craig Capitol 45 Isha
Together Chris and Craig made the pop-psych gem “Isha”, released by Capitol in July of 1966, with “I Need You” on the flip.

Around the same time as this 45 came a single on Downey 140, which credits the artists as Craig & Michael. Both songs, “Drifty” and “That Kind of Girl” were written by Brian Carman and Steve Crawford, and I see it mentioned, accurately or not, that Craig was Brian Carman of the Chantays, so I’m doubtful this is Chris Ducey and Craig Smith.

They spent nearly a year rehearsing their originals with musicians including Don Glut on bass and Mort Marker on lead guitar. They cut a demo, now seemingly lost, “Rhyme or Reason” (written by Chris) and “(She Brought Me) Something Beautiful” (written by Craig) with John London of the Louis and Clark Expedition.

In 1967, they formed the Penny Arkade with Don “Marvel” Glut on bass and Bobby Donaho on drums. Michael Nesmith backed them with equipment and rehearsal space and they started playing live shows. Nesmith brought them into TTJ studios in Hollywood and Wally Heider’s studio. Late in 1967 they went into RCA studios to record songs for what they anticipated would be their first album, including the twelve-minute “Not the Freeze”.

Also at the end of 1967 the Monkees used a Craig Smith composition, “Salesman” as the opening song for their album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.. Smith placed other songs, such as “Country Girl” with Glen Campbell, and “Holly” with Andy Williams. He co-produced with Bob Thiele a single for Heather MacRae, his girlfriend at the time, writing both songs “Hands of the Clock” / “Lazy Summer Day”, and with the Penny Arkade providing the music.

Enriched by his songwriting royalties, Craig Smith decided to leave the Penny Arkade to travel in South America and Asia. He returned around 1970 a changed man. Monkees producer Chip Douglas ran into Craig in 1971. “He was spaced out and had come back from Peru and had an album he was selling hand to hand. He had a spider tattooed in the middle of his forehead. He was just a nice kid, a nice American boy. To see him years later it was pretty bizarre. He said ‘Remember me. I used to be Craig Smith'”.

Without Craig, the Penny Arkade recorded four more songs, “Woodstock Fireplace,” “Sparkle and Shine,” “Face in the Crowd” and “Year of the Monkey”, and then added a new lead guitarist, Dave Turner. Turner left and they added David Price on rhythm, John Andrews on lead guitar and Bob Arthur, and rechristened the band Armadillo for another year or so of live shows.

Craig utilized half a dozen Penny Arkade songs on his early ’70s solo albums, Apache and Inca under his new name, Maitreya Kali. The rest of the Penny Arkade tracks were not released until Sundazed collected what could be found on Not the Freeze, though many other recordings including their masters seem to have been lost.

Craig Smith passed away on March 16, 2012.

Sources include: Don Glut’s detailed history of the Penny Arkade (a good read, I recommend it).

Categories: Bakersfield, California, Unknown, Zen

The Epics “Louie Come Home” / “Give Me a Chance” on Zen

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The Epics, Bakersfield Californian, Nov 20, 1965
Poor quality photo of Howard Dumble of the Epics, Jeff Gustafson of the Addams Family, Karl Haas of the Glanz, and Ron Sackmann of the Amoebas, in the Bakersfield Californian, Nov 20, 1965

The Epics have one of the best Louie Louie takeoffs titled “Louie Come Home”.Epics Zen 45 Louie Come Home

It’s a very danceable number as I found out when I played this to a packed house at Pop Gear some months ago.

The band was from California, perhaps Bakersfield. It’s leader was Howard Dumble, according to a clipping I found in the Bakersfield Californian. Howard Drumble who would become a legendary builder of guitar amplifiers?

The flip was “Give Me a Chance”, written by Dumble, Ward, Concelez and Iger for Shindig Music BMI. I assume Ward, Concelez and Iger were the other members of the group.

Produced by Lou Bowden, the single was released on the Zen label in April of 1965.

Anyone have a photo of the group or more info on this band?

Categories: Best, California, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Sabra, Two + Two, Wickwire

The Emperors “Laughin’ Linda” on Wickwire and “I Want My Woman” on Sabra

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The Emperors Wickwire PS Laughin' Linda
from left: Stan Foat, Steve Watts, Bill Hughes, Randy Siegers, Brian Cameron and Mike Elam

The Emperors were a southern California group based in Long Beach and not from San Bernadino as I’ve read elsewhere. Their sound had origins in a pre-Beatles rock and r&b style. They toured throughout southern California, including the Balboa Ball in San Diego.

As Steve and the Emperors they released their first 45, “Great Balls of Fire” / “The Breeze and I” on the Best label.

Then came two records on the related Wickwire label. The first was “A Fool For You I’ve Been” / “Searchin’ Around the World”, both written by Bill Hughes (Wickwire 13003). (See this page for more info on Wickwire and Best.)

Emperors Business CardThe next was a cover of Australian pop singer Tony Barber’s “Blue Day” backed with a good rocker, “Laughin’ Linda”, which was written by Cameron-Watts. This 45 was produced by John Hodge and Larry Wilson, and arranged by William F. Williams. Despite the bleached moptops on the sleeve, at this point their forte was strictly 1963 era pop, as the ‘Wipe Out‘ intro on “Laughin’ Linda” attests.

Stan Foat listed the band’s lineup at this time:

Stan Foat – bass
Steve Watts – drums
Bill Hughes – guitar, lead vocals on “I Want My Woman”
Randall Siegars – lead guitar
Brian Cameron – saxophone
Mike Elam – saxophone and vocal on “Blue Day”

In the spring of 1965 they released their next 45 on the Sabra label. The A-side is a fine jangly ballad, “And Then”, but for the flip they fashioned an entirely different sound. A pounding bass and drum beat punctuated with staccato guitar notes sets up the leering vocal “Let me tell you a story …” and then the refrain: “He-e-e-y woman … I want my woman”! This is the kind of intense, demented record garage fans live for!

Both sides were written by Bill Hughes who also sang on “I Want My Woman”, arranged by Glen Spreen, and produced by Lelan Rogers before he returned to Texas. For a long time there was confusion over whether this was a Texas group because Rogers included “I Want My Woman” on Epitaph for a Legend, which compiled rare tracks of bands on the International Artists label.

The Emperors have one last 45 on the Two+Two label that I really want to hear, “You Make Me Feel So Good” / “Love Pill”. I wonder if there was a change of band members before recording “I Want My Woman”. If not, I’d have to say the Emperors did an incredible job of adapting to the trends in the music scene at the time. One change that definitely happened was Bobby Cochran replacing Randy Siegers on lead guitar, but I don’t know if this happened before or after the Sabra 45 was recorded.

John “Chris” Christensen of Opus 1 recalled the Emperors:

Steve Watts, (the leader of that group) and I met early in 1963 when he offered to help me set up my drums at a gig at the Poly Hutch, which was The Poly High School Youth Center.

I used to have a copy of “Love Pill,” but it seems to have gone away. It was a novelty song, in a sort-of Coasters style. The lead guitarist, by then, was Bobby Cochran, whom, I believe was Eddie Cochran’s nephew.

Bill Hughes was a member of the band indeed, and is the lead singer on “I Want My Woman.”

They changed their membership many times over the years, with the constant always being drummer/singer Steve Watts.

They also released an album in the late 70’s, when they were know as “Emperor.” The keyboardist from that version of the group who was also a member of early 60’s Long Beach band “The Illusions” was Mike Lobbett. Mike and I had a really hot duo in ’78- ’79 for about 8 months.

Spider Taylor (Emperor, Delaney Bramlett, Hey Taxi, and Red Wedding) was also the guitarist for my group, Midnight Flyer, in ’75.

Fan club president Renee Bagley wrote to me about the group:

I am not sure who the members were of Emperor. I knew them more intimately when they first started and had the white hair (The Emperors). I saw them later but I was there at their beginnings.

Steve sang then but was not the lead singer, Mike was the lead singer (the one on the far right of the picture). He left because he didn’t like having his hair bleached white. People made nasty remarks. Most of them at the time were going to Long Beach City College. He was engaged at the time so he just wasn’t into their image.

Then Steve started singing more lead parts. Bill did a lot of the singing too but he left and I think he got drafted … don’t remember now. Then Randy, the guy who is Javanese went I believe it was into the Navy (Vietnam War). I wrote to him a couple of times but don’t know what happened to him. He was a very nice guy.

Then there was Stan on the far left who was my favorite at the time who had a g/f who was always there when they played. He was the bass player.

I think Randy was the lead guitarist. Then they got Bobby who was youngest of them all at that time. They weren’t wearing their hair white when he came into the group.

Categories: A&M, California, Gemcor, Los Angeles, New Mexico, Portales

The Beckett Quintet “No Correspondence” on Gemcor and A&M

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The Beckett Quintet photo
The Beckett Quintet, featured in KRLA Beat, October 16, 1965. L-R: Steve Nagle, Tommy Muncrief, Norm Reccius, Tim Taylor and Barry Dunkeson

A great 45 by the Beckett Quintet; the producers must have had high expectations, as hundreds of copies exist on the original Gemcor label and this was also picked up by A&M for wider release.

“No Correspondence” has been featured on plenty of compilations since its original release, but there was very little information out there on the Beckett Quintet.

Freddy Fortune sent me these clips from the amazing KRLA Beat newspaper site – a full page article on the guys! Now we know, the band consisted of:

Tommy Muncrief, vocals
Tim Taylor, guitar
Barry Dunkeson, guitar
Norm Reccius, bass guitar
Steve Nagle, drums

They were actually students at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, by the Texas border. Over a hundred miles northwest of Lubbock, it’s even further from Amarillo, Albuquerque or Santa Fe, but only fifteen minutes away from Clovis, where Norman Petty ran his studio. I wonder if they ever stepped foot in there.

Most of the article is about how the band saved to move to Hollywood, but, having been ripped off by a manager, they made the journey on a shoestring and half-starved while looking for a break. The subtitle is Cinderella Story, but the band disappeared soon after. What happened to them? What about the stacks of original material that the article talks about – any demos out there?

“No Correspondence” was written by Tim Taylor. The flip is a decent version of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”. Production was supervised by Nick Venet, a veteran producer with Capitol and Mira who worked with the Leaves, Lothar and the Hand People, and Mad River among others. This was the third and last release on Gemcor.

As a footnote, the article gives the band’s name spelled Becket 5 or Becket Quintet, but the record lists them as Beckett Quintet. It also spells the singer name as Tommy Munirief (I also had it as Tom Munifief) but I believe it should be Tommy Muncrief.

Beckett Quintet articleSteve Nagle wrote to me in November 2009:

I am Steve Nagle and played drums for the Becketts (formerly the Epics out of New Mexico).

The band originally came together as the Epics when we were all students at Eastern New Mexico University starting out playing fraternity and homecoming dances. Tim was a fantastic guitar player and we decided to start a band so I asked my Mom to send out my drums from Missouri – she sent the drum cases on the Santa Fe railroad and they arrived in Clovis, New Mexico at the start of my sophomore year. I had played professionally since I was 12 years old in my hometown of St. Joe with a rock and roll band called the Teen Kings and also worked in little jazz combos and Bill Geha’s Big Swing Band.

I read your remarks about Clovis and yes we got to be friends with the one and only Norman Petty and were in awe of his connections with Buddy Holly, the Fireballs and others. He took our band to lunch once after he had just returned from London and meeting the Beatles. We recorded in his studio and he helped us prepare some demos to take to California. Our other musical mentors were Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. They told us we were the next big group out of the Southwest. That’s when we began to lag in our college work and took the band seriously and began getting calls to play all over New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle.

The most fun and spiritual times were playing the Indian proms and homecoming dances at various pueblos and little towns in New Mexico. We would drive around to band gigs in Barry’s Chevy Nova with a rickety trailer in tow. One night after playing the Zuni Indian Homecoming we stopped and got out of the Nova to admire the clear starry night and were enchanted by a very bright shooting star flashing a long trail cross the western sky. That moment was when we made a vow to go to California right after Spring semester and make our way in the music scene which as you know was at its zenith in those days.

Beckett Quintet Promotional Card
Promotional card sent with some copies of their Gemcor single, very rare now

We were working on a major album with A&M Records with Herb Alpert and Tommy LiPuma (following our Gemcor contract with Nick Venet) when I got my draft notice. I have some old masters.

We worked all around Southern CA but mainly the Sunset Strip and even fronted once for Dylan at a place called The Trip. We did see Bobby Fuller in California, shortly before he was murdered. We were invited to a Halloween party and Frank Zappa’s house. We saw the Lovin’ Spoonful, we played for Dick Clark, saw Big Brother and the Holding Company, Sonny and Cher, the Grassroots, et. al.

We even had a groupie who we were proud of, he had just spent time in New Mexico and returned wearing knee high moccasins, silver and turquoise jewelry, he wore a concho belt and sported long grey hair – his name was John Barrymore Jr. and he would come to our manager’s house often to listen and a few of our gigs then one day just disappeared.

After my draft notice from the Army in the Spring of ’65 the band got nervous and basically began to disperse and ended up traveling down separate roads.

After several years in government after my discharge from the Army, I went back to Hollywood and worked in a few films and TV shows and ran into Norm who was a practicing clinical psychologist, but we lost contact.

I have an occasional day dream about rounding up Tim, Barry, Norm and Tommy for a reunion and recording but they have all left only faint trails and I have not been able to make contact. I now play a lot of folk music with my Martin guitars and trying to learn the fiddle. I produced an album just last year featuring some of my original tunes, River Voices and Songs – it was a fund raiser for a local conservation organization. My drums are being used by a PhD student from Ghana at a Methodist church here in St. Louis.

The reason I’ll never forget our good year in Southern California is because we were such a close brotherhood and with that mix of Texas and New Mexican guitar work and vocals – we were unique and when we played we got goose bumps and felt deeply we had something special – if only for a brief shining moment.

Oh yes, by the way we were truly a garage band – our manager’s two car garage in Encino was where we rehearsed almost everyday.

Thanks to Steve for the information.

After the Beckett Quintet split, Tommy Muncrief wrote and sang the title song for the feature movie “Didn’t You Hear”.

Unreleased songs

I have a CD with a number of unreleased songs by the group, some taken from acetates. I believe this CD was sent to me by Steve Nagle.

1. “Tomorrow Is Going to Be Another Day” – good punky garage with harmonies
2. “Little Flower” – gentle ballad
3. “(It’s All Over Now) Baby Blue” – dub from the 45
4. “No Correspondence” – dub from the 45
5. “For You” – medium tempo pop ballad
6. “Meant to Be” – excellent garage-folk
7. “Clovis 1” – early instrumental, presumably recorded at Petty’s studio
8. “Clovis 2” – surf instrumental, again probably cut at Petty’s studio
9. “Dancing Stream” – slack key guitar solo by Shiloh Orion (later recording)

Update: I’m very sorry to report that Steve Nagle passed away on March 23rd 2022, according to a comment from his daughter, below. Steve was very helpful in filling out the story of the Beckett Quintet, I’ll miss corresponding with him.