The Twilighters, from left: Bob Harbur, John Harbur, unidentified drummer, and Fred Palmer
When Bob Harbur left the Kirksville area and the Twilighters, he formed a new band in St. Charles, Missouri with his brother John, but kept the Twilighters name.
Members of the new Twilighters included:
Bob Harbur – lead guitar John Harbur – bass Fred Palmer – trumpet
I don’t know the name of the drummer. Bob Harbur looks to be playing the same Fender Jazzmaster he played with his earlier group.
They recorded at Premier Film & Recording Corporation in St. Louis for one single as Fred and Bob and the Twilighters on Palms Records 16125, released in 1967. On the A-side, the band does an original song by Bob Harbur, “That’s the Way It’s Gotta Be”.
The flip is “Twistin’ St. Louis Blues”, arranged by Fred Palmer, with the artist listed as the Twilighters.
After the band split, Fred Palmer opened Palmer Music Education in Valley Park. Bob and John Harbur have since passed.
The Statics are an obscure band from the St. Louis, Missouri area. In the spring of 1968 they cut their only single. “Again and Again” veers from a slow start to a hurried pace and back again, with some very gloomy organ playing and frantic drumming.
The Library of Congress catalog shows it was copyrighted in April, 1968 as simply “Again”, featuring words by Lanny McCormick and music by Bob Gleitze, who seems to have signed my copy of the 45.
The designated A-side was “I Can’t Hold It Back”, a sedate ballad also written by McCormick and Gleitze, but this side suffers from a constant high-pitched sound throughout the song.
Produced by Albert Gleitze, and with a credit to Leeander Productions at 2335 Weaton in the Hanley Hills section of St. Louis, a little north of Washington University. Seems to be the only release on the JB Leeander label.
The band had one further copyright for a song called “You Didn’t Believe Me”, again by McCormick and Gleitze, and submitted by Mark Schieferle in November 1968.
The Happy Return came from St. Louis, Missouri, releasing two very different 45s in the space of a couple years.
Members at the time of the Cadet single were:
Steve Noack – vocals, lead guitar Tom Noack – rhythm guitar Jim Cunningham – organ Jimmy Albright – bass Rich Carrell – drums
In November 1967 the Happy Return released a very good Steve Noack original in the Beatles style, “Longed For”, backed with another original “Maybe”, and issued Steve’s own Stack Records TS-XM510. The publisher, Country Stream Music BMI mainly handled country and gospel songs.
In July of 1968 Steve Noack had a light pop single as Steve Lee on the R.S.S.P. Inc label featuring his original “She’s Afraid to Answer” as the b-side to “Baby” (by G. Tomsco, B. Tomsco).
Missouri Music BMI published “She’s Afraid to Answer”. Missouri Music’s biggest copyrights seem to be on the Norman label, including “Rockin’ Little Egypt” by the Egyptian Combo and “Jerkin’ Time” by Bob Kuban with vocalist Little Walter.
The Happy Return next appear in June 1969 on the Cadet label with a great double-sided single featuring two more Steve Noack originals with great production by Norman Petty at his Clovis, NM studio. The plug side at the time was “I Thought I Loved Her”, a gentle ballad with keyboards making harpsichord and flute sounds. The Library of Congress registration for “I Thought I Loved Her” in April 1969 shows words by Rich Carrell and music by Steve Noack.
The flip is the very different and hard-rockin’ “To Give Your Lovin’”, full of crunching guitar and heavy drumming. Both songs list Steve Noack as writer and Heavy Music, Friedman-Collins Music BMI as publisher.
“I Thought I Loved Her” showed up as a “hitbound sound” in a weekly chart of Saint Charles, Missouri’s KIRL 1460 AM that August, but otherwise seems to have missed all radio charts despite being on Cadet. The band broke up the following year.
On the Cadet labels, the band’s manager Stan Friedman is listed as producer of the single. He was a booking agent in St. Louis with a University City address.
“Slimy Sue” by the Sounds, Ltd. featuring Phil Jackson is the kind of odd, non-commercial record of the ’60s garage era that I love.
These lyrics are bizarre, with plenty of humor in the masochism of the second and third verses.
I got me a woman, buddy, she’s got purple hair Ain’t no other woman, buddy, that can compare, that can compare To my girl, true blue, back alley Sue Slimy Sue, yeah, well alright now
When I want some lovin,’ buddy, Sue knows what to do She can kiss so gently, buddy, turns me black and blue My girl, true blue, back alley Sue Slimy Sue, yeah, well alright now
Hit it [guitar break]
When I get in trouble, buddy, with someone tough like you Me, I never worry, buddy, I call on Sue, I call on Sue My girl, black belt, weight lifting, Sue Slimy Sue, yeah, well alright now
Philip W. Jackson wrote this song as well as the flip, “Fly Away”, for Cookie Crumb Music, BMI.
The Sounds, Ltd. recorded at Midwestern Recording Studios at 3140 The Paseo, Kansas City, Missouri. The studio’s own Peak label released the single on P-108 in October 1966. I’d like to know more about the band, who maintain a rough but great sound throughout “Slimy Sue”.
The band was from St. Joseph, Missouri, about 45 miles north of Kansas City. “Fly Away” was the ostensible A-side at the time, a kind of folky almost hippie-sounding song featuring lead vocalist Kathy Helmick.
Midwestern Recorders operated a studio since at least 1952 if not earlier, originally releasing records on the Central label. I assume other garage bands must have used Midwestern but haven’t found evidence of that yet.
The Symbols, circa early ’67. L-R: Ken Johnson, Rich Judkins, Ron Pearson, Bob Wyman and Arthur Herman
Arthur Herman presents the history of his group the Symbols, creators of the minimalist garage classic, “What You’ve Shown”. All photos are from Ken Johnson’s collection.
In the mid ‘60s the Symbols rode out of St. Louis and settled in Elsah, Illinois. Tax exiles.
The five of us were all actually out of Principia College in Elsah, just across the river from St. Louis. The nucleus of the group did actually start off in St. Louis [as the Squires]. The name The Symbols wasn’t used until Elsah and 1965, but the record was cut in St. Louis so maybe that’s why we were identified with that city.
The classic Symbols lineup is the one that recorded their 1967 single. Well-known for its obscurity, “What You’ve Shown”, re-surfaced on a number of 21st century garage compilation CDs.
The single was recorded and pressed at Technisonic Studios in St. Louis in spring ’67. Technisonic was the site of many noteworthy rock n’ roll recordings including Ike and Tina Turner’s early hit “A Fool in Love.”
We certainly paid for the recording and pressing of the 45. For my money “What You’ve Shown”, an uptempo fuzz extravaganza, beats hands down “I Know That I”, which is kind of an Everly Bros. type ballad.
The 1966-68 lineup was Richard Judkins (lead guitar, vocals) Ron Pearson (drums, vocals), Kenneth Johnson (bass, vocals), Bob Wyman (guitar, vocals) and Arthur Herman (Farfisa, later Vox organ). Judkins, Pearson and Wyman were from St. Louis, Johnson from Cincinnati and Herman from Ada, Oklahoma.
l-r: Kenneth Johnson, Ron Pearson, Arthur Herman, Bob Wyman and Richard Judkins
l-r: Ken Johnson and Rich JudkinsSince Richard Judkins is the only band member who remembers the early 60s here’s his take on the group’s beginnings:
In the 1962-63 timeframe, Rich, Bob, Ron, Bill Hibreider (Sp?) and Rick Alt put together a group called “The Squires” and played at various Principia Upper School [in St. Louis] functions until Rich and Rick graduated in 1964. In 1963 or early 1964, The Squires recorded a 45 on Anaconda Records containing a vocal entitled “Wonderin” and an instrumental entitled “Stratford on Avon.” During the 1964-65 school year, Bob, Ron and Bill played in another upper school group called “Buddha and the Idols.” You may also recall that Rick Alt was a vocalist for The Symbols at Principia College during the 1965-66 school year.
Little did we know at the time that 1965 would be the beginning of the mega-group now simply known to rock historians as “The Symbols.”
The ’67 single is also on the Anaconda label. Judkins wrote “What You’ve Shown” and sings lead. Pearson supplies the backing grunts. The two of them shared writing credits on “I Know That I”. Judkins remembers:
The Anaconda label – yes, we used the same label in ’67 for continuity sake and it was a made up label (no real entity except I thought the name sounded neat). By the way, the colors (blue and silver) were inspired by the similar colors used on the Chess label in the 50s/60s (i.e., I remembered it from the colors on my 45 rpm copy of Chuck Berry’s Rock n’ Roll Music).
Ron PearsonLabel problems – the labels on our 45s were reversed and this fact is noted in the liner notes to the Australian compilation Teen Blast U.S.A. Vol. 2.
At the time, I got Terry Bell, a DJ and celebrated Oklahoma garage band drummer, to play the single on KADA in Ada, OK. He was and is with The Monuments and remains a friend. I imagine my colleagues in the Symbols took similar stabs at promotion. But I don’t remember us doing any really hard sell. We divided the 500 copies up and I think a number were just given away to friends.
The photo of Pearson is at a college dance. He must have just been wanting to power up his sound with that microphone. That I remember, we just played pretty much for college events. Everyone had a pretty full schedule, Judkins played varsity baseball, and that limited the time dedicated to music.
The Symbols broke up in May 1968 when Judkins and Johnson graduated from Principia College.
Interest in The Symbols may have been fanned by their 30th anniversary tour in 1998. It consisted of a single performance back in Elsah at Principia College. Pearson could not be lured backed from California for the 1998 reunion tour and was replaced by hot-shot St. Louis drummer Greg Grattan. He got the job through his daughter who played on the same soccer team as Wyman’s daughter. CDs and even DVDs of this event do exist, and I understand they change hands for extremely large sums of money!
Arthur Herman
Also check out Arthur’s band before the Symbols, the Fanatics of Ada, Oklahoma.
The Symbols l-r: Arthur Herman, Kenneth Johnson, Richard Judkins and Bob Wyman
This site is a work in progress on 1960s garage rock bands. All entries can be updated, corrected and expanded. If you have information on a band featured here, please let me know and I will update the site and credit you accordingly.
I am dedicated to making this site a center for research about '60s music scenes. Please consider donating archival materials such as photos, records, news clippings, scrapbooks or other material from the '60s. Please contact me at rchrisbishop@gmail.com if you can loan or donate original materials
