Hubert Deans was organ player for the Durham, North Carolina band the Si-Dells in 1968, when they recorded his song “Watch Out Mother” for the East Coast Sound label, produced by Don Scoggins.
Hubert gives the history of the band in his own words:
The Si-Dells was the first “real” band I was in. In those days bands would typically reorganize in the summer, due to people going off to college.
The Si-Dells were started by:
Keith Thompson on guitar
John Thomson on drums
Lee James on guitarThey advertised in the Durham Herald-Sun for an organ player. That’s where I came in and brought a bass player named Joe Kirschner.
Charlie Clark joined last to play sax. However, Charlie played piano on both sides of the the record – no sax.
Side A was a sappy love song called “She’s The Only Girl For Me”, nothing like “Watch Out Mother”.
The record was recorded “live” in a studio that was built and run by a HVAC contractor. It was a converted corner of his warehouse. It was located at the intersection of 751 and HWY 70 across the street from Jacobs glass.
The record was actually the second recording of the song. The first (and probably better) version was lost by the pressing plant. We were called at around 3pm one Saturday and told to come back in and re-record it. We did and still managed to make our gig later that night.
I left the Si-Dells to join the Bondsmen. I replaced Gene Galligan in the Bondsmen when he went off to college. We (Bondsmen) recorded several tapes but never released anything else.
Q. Listening to the lyrics closely, is Watch Out Mother about a nuclear winter?
No, it’s just about the “natural” end of the world. It was the result of a homework assignment in the tenth grade. The teacher told us to choose a poem by Robert Frost and write one of our own, similar to the one we picked. It was easier for me to write a song and then use the lyrics as a poem. The big news story at the time was a cold spell all across the country, sub zero in the midwest and even in single digits here in NC. It sort of inspired me to go in that direction.
Plus, there was a TV commercial at the time about margarine featuring Mother Nature. The narrator tries to fool mother nature into thinking it’s butter. She ends up causing thunder and lightning and saying “it’s not nice to fool mother nature”. I guess the song was just a product of what was going on in my life at the time. Or maybe a premonition about the greenhouse effect we are seeing now.
After the Bondsmen, I joined a group called “Daze End” which later changed names to Still Creek Band and in 1974 released “Can I Move You”, an international release on MCA. We were pick hit of the week in the UK and Japan, but never sold enough records to amount to anything – no chart action. It’s so bizarre to me that the first thing I ever did seems to be stirring up the most notoriety.
Keith Thompson went on to play with Staircase Band and is still in Durham. His brother John is still around too, I believe, though I haven’t seen him in a while.
Lee James worked for IBM and I haven’t seen him since the 80s. If he’s still around it would probably be in Raleigh. Charlie worked for IBM also. Don’t know what ever happened to him. Joe Kirschner left the state with his family before we graduated from high school (’69). Haven’t heard from him since.
Thanks to Hubert for sharing the history of the band, and for the scan of the 45. Hubert runs the Snow Hill Music recording studio in Hillsborough.
