In the mid 1960’s the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana became a center for innovative jazz and avant-garde electronic and computer music. Starting in 1967, the Red Herring Coffeehouse just off the main quad on W Oregon became a center for folk artists. And of course there was a thriving band scene at the Illini Brown Jug and other student beer joints. For those not familiar with that area’s geography, the school is located in eastern-central Illinois, roughly equidistant from Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis.
Roger Francisco began recording out of a home studio to the east of campus in Urbana, Illinois circa 1964. Rofran (a combination of the first syllables of his first and last names) was the name he gave to his studio, one of his labels, and also the name of his production and publishing companies. It’s an open question as to how prominent the studio was in that area, as many bands recorded at other studios: Dean Carter, the One Eyed Jacks and the Bacardis for example.
I’ve only heard a few of these records. The Cliques has had the most exposure, showing up on Back From the Grave vol. 7. I’ve heard one side of the Keepers, which is good harmony pop, and the first Prodigies 45, “Kysmyph (KIS-MIF)” a bluesy instrumental with sax and some odd organ sounds, backed with “Don’t Look Back”, which starts out with a hip bossa groove but the vocals are square, mimicking the complex harmonies on brazilian groups from the time.
Mike Markesich filled me in on some Rofran releases:
The Sound Studio Production (Rofran 1010) was a label printing goof – the real group is the Prodigies, university guys from Champaign IL. I have the 45 crediting the Prodigies. They have a second 45 on Rofran 1013 “I Want To Do It” / “What I’d Say”, both released in ’66.
Quarternotes “My Baby Left Me” crude thumpin’ garage rocker with a kinda ‘rural’ vocal vibe.
There are other Rofran releases on different-named labels. One that comes to mind is the Ravins “Andy” on the Syndicate label (#1028). Very cool, moody organ swinger with a crisp guitar break. Flipside is “I Had a Feeling”, which is more aligned to a pop sounding jangle ballad. This was their only recording. One of the songwriters on the 45 made a solo Rofran record.
The Cliques “So Hard” / “Ballad Of A Destitute Man” on Custom 1020 (Jan ’67) is a Rofran release. Ditto the Keepers “Why Have You Changed” / “Tiny Teardrops” on Custom 1021 (Jan ’67).
Although early releases seem commercially-minded, Rofran became a studio for more adventurous music sessions towards 1968 and 1969. Some of those musicians, like James Cuomo and Howie Smith, came out of the jazz and experimental music programs at UICU.I asked Howie Smith about his time with the Prodigies at Rofran studio:
The studio, indeed, started in the basement of Roger’s home in Urbana, and at some point he leased a much larger space in a building on Race Street for the studio.
At the time I enrolled at the University of Illinois, the band with Roger Francisco, Gordy Wilson and Bill Steffen was looking for a sax player and I got the job. I played with them on a nightly gig at The Beacon (a bar/roadhouse located just south of Rantoul Air Base) for about 2 years. Roger played guitar and electric bass, Gordy played some sort of electronic keyboard (my memory is that it was an early Farfisa, but I could be totally wrong about that), Bill was the drummer, I played tenor sax and electric bass, and we all sang.
I don’t remember whether the band went under the name of The Prodigies at that time or not, but it was under that name that we recorded “Don’t Look Back” and “KYSMYPH.” At some point the name of the band was changed to Sound Studio One, but I’m almost positive that didn’t happen until later.
As The Prodigies (a name that always made me cringe) we also released a Christmas recording of “Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer” backed with “Sleigh Ride.”
As Sound Studio One we recorded “Never Tell” backed with a very strange “Never Marry a Woman Who is Taller Than You” that richly deserves (and should maintain) its status as unknown by virtually everyone.
The Prodigies/Sound Studio One was also used as the band behind various singers who recorded at rofran. One of those was Al Ierardi, who I believe had some success with “Drifter” backed with “Dureen.”
I was also doing some writing and arranging for other groups in the area and remember recording horn parts at rofran for at least one song by Feather Train.
At Rofran we were also writing and recording music and voice-overs for some ad agencies in the area. “Oh Boy, Tom Boy” was a commercial jingle written for a short-lived drive-in restaurant a-la McDonald’s.
At some point after leaving Sound Studio One I worked for a time with The Nickel Bag. The band at that time consisted of T.T. Coleman singing lead vocal, Bob Crownover on guitar, Rick Raines on organ, Pat Hammond on bass, John Phillips on drums, Rick Bendel and Ron Meng on trumpets, and Ron Dewar and me on tenor saxes). The group was very popular and quite busy in the Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin area, but we never released a commercial recording.
I haven’t been in touch with Roger or Bill for quite a long time, but I get back to Champaign-Urbana a couple of times a year to do a jazz gig, and Gordon showed up at one of then a couple of years ago.
Roger Francisco wrote to me:
I still have file copies of most of the singles we released on RoFran (which I backed and promoted) and the Custom label (for which I was just studio for hire and processed the pressings for). I remember our ongoing special was a few hours of studio time and a hundred 45 RPM pressings for $100.
As we moved into the 70’s, I got involved with the annual Red Herring Coffee House folk festivals, location recording and producing their LPs, and ultimately got involved co-managing and publishing The Ship, running sound for their live gigs and mixing their Elektra album in LA, and also recording the early efforts of Dan Fogelburg.
I sold the studio operation to Al Ierardi (the Drifter single) around 1974-75 and ultimately became chief engineer at Creative Audio, home to Columbia artist Champaign. I eventually transitioned into commercials and industrial sound track production, and ultimately to Human Kinetics where I put together a corporate recording studio and produce all their DVD and web streaming soundtracks.
The Spoils of War consisted of James Cuomo, Roger Francisco, Frank Garvey, Al Ierardi, Anne Whitefish-Williams and James Stroud. They made a seven-inch, 33 1/3 rpm EP (sometimes listed as You’re Invited to Hear the Spoils of War) in 1969, running over seventeen minutes with five songs: “What Happend Now”, “Now Is Made in America”, “Henry T. Joseph”, “Void of Mystery” and “The Greyness Moves in Quietly”.
In 1999 the Shadoks label released recordings made in 1968 without Anne, and a second CD, The Spoils of War II unearthed further live and studio material from James Cuomo’s archives.
Rofran produced another lengthy seven-inch, 33 1/3 rpm, five song EP in 1970 for James Cuomo, known as Cuomo’s Record and featuring Al Ierardi, Charlie Braugham, Bob Witmer, Cal Drake, Larry Dwyer and Steve Larner. Side A: Suzan Never Smiles”, “Remembering”, “Ring, Magic Telephone, Ring”, and “Victoria Falls”; Side B: “Crimson Uniform”.
Cuomo’s Record
Rofran productions and discography(incomplete, any help would be appreciated):
Early 45s on Rofran, Custom and Syndicate seem to follow a 10xx numbering system:
Rofran 1001 – The Intruders “Deception” / “Intrudin'” Rofran 1002 – The Rogues “Gone To Stay” / “Wait Till the Summer” Rofran 1003 – Lee Rust “Scramble” / “Do You Ever Kinda Wonder?” Rofran 1004 – Lee Rust “Mystery House” / “Come on Back” Rofran 1005 – Lee Rust “Try, Try to Leave” (W.L. Rust) / “I’m Spoken For” Rofran 1006 – Lee Rust “She’s Gone Tonight” / “World Made of Romance” 1007 – ? 1008 – ? 1009 – ? Rofran 1010 – Sound Studio One “Kysmyph (KIS-MIF)” (Instrumental by Wilson-Smith-Steffen) / “Don’t Look Back” (H.A. Smith) (1966) Rofran 1010 – The Prodigies “Kysmyph (KIS-MIF)” (Instrumental by Wilson-Smith-Steffen) / “Don’t Look Back” (H.A. Smith) 1011 – ? Rofran 1012 – The Impalas “Kristina” / “Lost Beat” (both by R. Dilling) Rofran 1013 – The Prodigies “I Want To Do It” / “What’d I Say” (1966) Rofran 1014 – The Quaternotes “My Baby Left Me” / “You And I (Are In Love)” 1015 – ? 1016 – ? 1017 – ? Rofran 1018 – The Lindsey Triplets “Tomorrow’s Another Day” (C.F. & R.E. Francisco) / “Terry” Rofran 1019 – Al Ieradi – “Drifter” / “Dureen” Custom 1020 – The Cliques “So Hard” (J.D. Vance, J.S. Walbillig) / “Ballad of a Destitute Man” (Jan. ’67, produced by Tim Abel) Custom 1021 – The Keepers “Why Have You Changed” (S. J. Beresford) / “Tiny Teardrops” (Jan. ’67) Star Record and Recording P-1022 – Count Demon and His Four Members – “(I Got To) Work With It” / “C-C Rider” (836R-1022, U4KM-9165/6) 1023 – ? Custom 1024 – The Dearly Beloved “Cindy” (M. Gallivan) one-sided record 1025 – ? Psychedelic 1026 – Puppet, Dingbat & Odie – “Transcontinental Balloon Ride” / “Julie” (836R-1026, U4KM-3650/1) 1027 – ? Syndicate 1028 – The Ravins “Andy” / “I Had a Feeling” 1029 – ? Shades 836R-1030 – The Shades of Blue “Not the Way Love Should Be” / “You Must Believe Me” 1031 – ? 1032 – ? 1033 – ? 1034 – ? Custom 1035 – The Camaros “I Need You No More” / “Just For The Love Of A Man” (836R-1034) Psychedelic Sounds 1035 – Howie Thayer and his Psycho-Electric Happening “Movin’, Groovin’ Fairy Tale” / “If Death Don’t Get You (Then the Government Will)” – 1968 -“A Custom Product of Rofran Enteprises” 1036 – ? 1037 – ? 1038 – ? 1039 – ? 1040 – ? 1041 – ?
Folksound 836R-1042 – K. Sandra Wyman (Spud Baldwin, guitar) “Until It’s Time For You To Go” / “Where Does It Lead” (W4KM-5157) with picture sleeve 1043 – ? Psychedelic Sounds 1044 – Howie Thayer and his Psycho-Electric Happening – “Bazap!” / “Side 2” Soul 1045 – Soul Brothers – “Twinkle Twinkle” / Miss Delores” (W4KM-5880, 836R-1045) 1046 – ? Custom 836R-1047 – Linda Fanakos “Candyland Town” / “Let’s Make It Clear” (both by Linda Fanakos). Yellow label with RCA custom press X4KM-2636/2637, which indicates this was mastered in the second half of 1969. (label reads -“A Custom Product of Rofran Enteprises”) Soul Sounds 1048 – Leroy Knox and the Gaypoppers – “The Mistakes I Made” / “Here I Am” (X4KM-3311)
Rofran 836R-2005 – Sound Studio One – “Never Tell” (Roger Francisco, H.A. Smith) / Never Marry (A Woman Who Is Taller Than You) prod. by Howie Smith, W4KM-4773, 1968
Other Rofran productions:
Rofran XALS-2605 – The Spoils of War “What Happend Now”, “Now Is Made in America”, “Henry T. Joseph”, “Void of Mystery”, and “The Greyness Moves in Quietly”
Depot Records (RoFran 0608) – James Cuomo (Cuomo’s Record) – “Suzan Never Smiles”, “Remembering”, “Ring”, “Magic Telephone”, Ring”, “Victoria Falls”, and “Crimson Uniform” 1970
Century 44090 – Mad John Fever “Breath & Thunder” / “One World Lost To Another” (1971?)
Century 35921 – Marvin Lee & the Midwesterners “I’ve Made My Mind Up (To Leave Today)” / “Until My Dream Come True”
Marvin Lee & the Midwesterners – album featuring Sandy Kay, Wil Wilson, Don Markham and Cousin Hi
Notes:
The names on the Prodigies 45 are Howard A. Smith, Frederick W. Steffen III, and James Gordon Wilson. BMI listings show Wilson and Smith wrote a song I haven’t heard, “Oh Boy Tom Boy” with Roger Francisco.
The Keepers is not related to the New York group who cut “She Understands” on the Bravura label, nor do I believe it’s the same group that recorded “Now She’s Gone” for the Mystic label of Hazen, North Dakota.
From a reader:
The “Lindsey Triplets” are identical triplets and were a very popular singing group at the time. They traveled the tri-state area performing at various venues. They also traveled on various U.S.O. tours to entertain the troops and made a few guest appearances on then popular variety shows on national television. For a short time they also were ‘fashion’ models (not Playboy Bunnies) for Playboy.
The group went by two different stage names “The Lindsey Triplets” and “The ABC Triplets (Their first names were Anita, Becky and Cathy). The song ‘Terry’ was sung by Becky with accompaniment from her sisters. While they looked alike their voices were distinctive and each triplet sang their own solos when performing.
They actually did a number of demo tapes of their songs. The group was very talented but did reach the notoriety they deserved due to poor management and not being adequately promoted.
The Lindsey Triplets had one commercial release, “Jiminy Jum Jum” / “Fallin’ in Love” on Top Rank 2010.
Thank you to Adam Lore for the loan of the Sound Studio One 45, to Mike Markesich for much information, to Myskatonic, Bob of Dead Wax, Jeff LaSee, Tim Adams, Ryan Luellwitz, Laurent Bigot, and Downstate Sounds for help with the discography.
The Red House, left to right: James Noe, Billy King, Ric Gonzalez, John Coco and Tommy Durham
Members of Red House were:
Two songs that would appear as by The Red House Note one is titled “Mary Ann” (without the ending “e”) Scan from the collection of Andrew BrownJohn Coco (vocals and harmonica) Ric Gonzalez (lead guitar) Tommy Durham (guitar) James Noe (bass) Billy King (drums)
By 1969, the Stereo Shoestring had splintered, leaving singer John Coco and bassist James Noe to find new musicians. At first they kept the Shoestring name, but by the time they released their new single “Sunflower” / “Mary Anne” (not “Mary Jane” as a certain error-prone reference book lists), on the Big “K” label, they had changed their name to the Red House.
The arrangement of the vocals on “Mary Anne” is very much like the singing in the Stereo Shoestring’s “On the Road South”, but otherwise the songs are different. Songwriting credits to James Noe and John Coco. “Sunflower” has a country-rock feel to it, and a lot of fine guitar picking from Tommy Durham. It was written by Coco and Durham.
Lew Knippa owned Big “K” Productions in Ingleside, Texas, just across the bay from Corpus Christi.
from left: Tommy Durham, Ric Gonzalez and James Noe
Lead guitarist Ric Gonzalez sent me a copy of the 45 and the photos seen here, and answered my questions about the band:
Billy King, a drummer, and I had played together since junior high in various teen bands in the Corpus Christi area. The bands Billy and I were in prior to Shoestring copied the Zakary Thaks’ sets song for song, note for note, as best we could. The “Thaks” would play Stones, Yardbirds, Hendrix, etc.
When “The Shoestring” reformed they contacted Billy, he in turn called me. Besides John Coco on vocals and James Noe (bass) from the original Shoestring; new members were Tommy Durham (rhythm guitar), Billy King (drums), and me, Ric Gonzalez (lead guitar).
Ric with his 1967 Epiphone RivieraCoco had the English version of Are You Experienced which had “Red House” on it. Not many people had heard “Red House” 42 years ago. Also, there was an old movie with Edward G. Robinson called, “The Red House”, which had been on the late movies back then. Coco and Noe (a true genius) wanted a new name. I suggested “Red House”.
I didn’t play on “On The Road South”, that was the band before Billy and I joined, but I did play lead on “Mary Anne”, and 2nd lead on the flip-side, “Sunflower”. We recorded the 45 a week after we joined.
Ric Gonzalez, May 1969“Sunflower” was the “A” side. It was a KEYS Radio (Corpus Christi, Tex) Pick-Of-The Week in June ’69. We recorded that 45 at Andrus Studios in Houston on Monday, April 7th, 1969. It was the day after Easter Sunday. Amazingly enough, the Easter Everywhere album by Thirteenth Floor Elevators was also recorded there in 1967.
We would play those songs [“Mary Jane” and “Sunflower”] live. In the summer of ’69, we were the house-band at Corpus Christi’s “Love-Street Light Circus and Feel Good Machine” club. I had just turned 16. Billy was 17. Coco was 21. And we opened for many great bands: Bubble Puppy to name one.
Billy Gibbons sat in with the band once. ZZ Top was in the formative stage, he mentioned the name “ZZ Top”. We knew his band as The Moving Sidewalk. We immediately thought of “ZIGZAG” and “TOP” rolling papers. And, also of R&B singers ZZ Hill and also of, BB King. Original in the rock world. Old hat in the R&B network.
Ric Gonzalez
from left: John Coco in yellow shirt, Billy King holding Ric Gonzalez’s guitar
Update: I’ve changed all instances of James Coco to John Coco, as I’ve had two people who knew him comment that is his correct name.
The Wild Ones of Richmond, Virginia put out one 45 in late ’65 featuring two original songs. The A-side is “Listen to the Drums”, an atmospheric chant led by Rennie Renfro’s drumming on the toms and bassist Rick Payne’s lead vocals. The flip “Baby I Love You” is wilder. Loosely structured after “Twist and Shout”, there are fine lead vocals by Jimmy Sandy and great piercing screams after the line “do you love me?” Both songs have excellent natural reverb and feature Jim Sandy’s sharp lead guitar playing.
Drummer Chuck “Rennie” Renfro and keyboardist Clyde Atkinson assembled this detailed history of the band:
Clyde Atkinson: I’ll let the fan club biography speak to the early history of the band, Rennie (I still have a hard time calling him Chuck after all of these years) can add some more to the early history.
This is the text from the Fan Club Bio that was in the club membership packet:
A few years back, Bill Sandy bought a straight guitar, took it home, picked at it awhile and put it away. Then he became interested in painting. Incidentally, you should see some of the artwork. Rick is an artist, too.
Jim, Bill‘s younger brother, got hold of the guitar and taught himself to play it. He listened to records and played along with them even though he didn‘t know the notes or chords by name. He also watched other groups and picked up different lead runs.
Then Bill, who plays some piano, too, taught Jim the notes and chords by name. Jim got together with Rennie who plays drums and another drummer and the two alternated with Jim playing guitar. In 1962 another guitarist who was pretty good on the guitar joined them and the four guys formed a band called THE TRAVELERS. The last addition to the band was discovered playing with another band so they said goodbye to him. Another guitarist came along and the group became the OFF-BEATS.
Listening to Jim —— Bill and Rick (Rick plays bass now) became more interested in their guitars and decided to put a lot of effort into learning more about playing.
Jim talked them into going to a practice session with him at Rennie’s home -·- Bill and Rick joined the group and they now had four guitarists and two drummers and were known as the TYCOS. The group then began playing engagements for about one year.
The original group then decided to become four members – consisting of three guitars and the drums. They still were not satisfied with the sound and one night while playing a gig with another band were very impressed with their organist. He was Clyde, who became a member of THE WILD ONES GROUP. They were ready at that time to cut and release their first record: LISTEN TO THE DRUMS – flip side – BABY I LOVE YOU
AND TWO WEEKS LATER THEY DID !
The group then and now consists of:
Bill Sandy – Leader; Rhythm Guitar Rick Payne – Bass Guitar Jim Sandy – Lead Guitar Rennie Renfro – Drummer Clyde Atkinson – Organ
All the guys sing both lead and background. They play most all of the pop, rock ‘n roll tunes as well as the slower ones, and write and play many of their own songs.
Clyde Atkinson: I started playing in bands at the early age of 13, the first band I was in practiced a lot but rarely played a gig, I think we played one office party and a pool party at the Community Center in Bon Air, VA.The next band I was in was called the Tempos (yeah, real original, but we were in our early teens), that band played a song mix more to my liking (no more Beach Boys like the first band), a lot of Beatles, Stones, etc., this band also practiced a lot and our main gig was at a couple of community centers for teen dances on Friday or Saturday nights where we got half of the door admission price of 25 cents. We’d get done playing, pack up our gear and head to the Ten Pin Coliseum to shoot pool and eat hamburgers and fries and pretty much blow our earnings. We finally got a decent gig booked at a local club called the Paper Tiger for their teen night, we would open for the Wild Ones! So we did the opening set, packed up our gear and stayed to hear them, their manager (Chuck Renfro, the drummer’s father) invited me over to their table while the Wild Ones were playing. We talked for a good while, he mentioned that they were going to be recording a record soon and asked me if I would be interested in joining their band, I told him I’d think about it and let him know. Out of loyalty to my band mates I initially turned down the Wild Ones offer, the following Monday I was talking to an older friend at school that also played in a bands (students at my school were in a lot of groups including the Panics and the Fugitives), he advised me that I should take advantage of the offer to better my career, loyalty aside he said I needed to look out for myself. So I called the Wild Ones manager and accepted their offer (a few months later two brothers that had been in the Tempos with me joined the Fugitives).
Rennie Renfro: I started playing drums when I was fourteen. I guess you could say it was earlier than that. I was 5 when my parents bought me a toy drum set. When I was six I sat down at some real drums at a dance hall at the river when the band was on break and played. Some drunk guy and his girl started dancing and he gave me a twenty dollar bill for the music. My parents made me give it back.
At fourteen I met Jimmy Sandy. He had a guitar and wanted to start a band. He asked if anyone could play the drum beat to the Ventures song “Walk Don’t Run”, he showed us the beat with his hands and each one us of tried. I tried and could not do it. I walked away and went back home and I sat on the sofa and tried to figure out why I couldn’t do it. Then it dawned on me that Jimmy was right handed and I was left handed. I tried it left handed and there it was. I actually ran back to the group of guys yelling I could do the beat. Jimmy said I could be the drummer. I got some cheap drums and we started practicing with Bill and another guy from the neighborhood. My dad got us into some restaurants that played country music. Well that did not go too well when we played rock and roll. They passed the hat around and we got 75 cents. We kept on playing to anyone that would listen. We got better at each place we played, then we added Ralph to the band and also started buying better equipment. Later on some promoters from New York came and asked if we would be the backup band to the singing group the Newbeats at a show in the area. They are the guys that made the song “I Like Bread and Butter” with a high pitch singer. We learned the music but at the last minute they canceled the show. That’s show biz.
Q. Was there a particular neighborhood or school in Richmond that the band came from?
Clyde: Rennie (Chuck) Renfro the drummer went to Midlothian High School, though he had previously lived in the “East End”, actually Henrico County and that’s where he met Jimmy Sandy and how the band first started. That is the same area that most of the Barracudas came from. I went to Huguenot High School, which had a lot of students in many different bands. Midlothian, Huguenot and Manchester High Schools were all in Chesterfield County outside of Richmond.
Q. You mention the Fugitives and the Panics. Both those bands had records on the Shoestring label. Do you have any recollections of either band, or other groups from the area at that time?
Clyde: Mickey Russell, lead guitarist of the Fugitives went to Huguenot for a while after transferring from Manchester. We ran across them often as they were quite popular, a very good band and played some of the same clubs that we did. And of course the rhythm and bass guitarists, Jimmy and Tommy Sickal had played with me in the Tempoes and later joined the Fugitives. Jimmy and Tommy went to Manchester, I think the Fugitives did at least a couple of 45s and an album. I last talked to Mickey Russell around ‘97/’98, he was living and working in VA Beach for a TV production company. Some members of the Panics went to school with me at Huguenot, Bill LaRue lead guitar, Jimmy Sherwood rhythm guitar and Bill Lyles bass [Bill Lyell]. They were another good band with a large following. I last saw Bill LaRue and his wife doing a C&W gig at a club in the early ‘80s. The Barracudas as I said were from the East End, also a very good band and probably the one we considered as our biggest rival.
Richmond, VA had a pretty good music scene in the ‘60s, there must have been three dozen or more clubs that featured live bands with music. In fact the Richmond scene was good up into the ‘80s/’90s, may still be good to some extent (there are few clubs and restaurants with live bands these days). It was a tight, very competitive music scene back in the ‘60s and yet at the same time friendly with a spirit of co-operation between bands and individual musicians.
Not much later after I joined the Wild Ones (I think it was a couple of weeks) I got to take the day off from school to go to the recording studio with the band. And then, just like a little kid waiting for Christmas to come, it seemed like it took forever for the master tapes to finally become a record. And what a thrill it was to finally hear our record on the radio (WLEE 1480 AM was the first station in Richmond to play it). And we had a growing fan club that came to a lot of our gigs when we played in Richmond.
Rennie: Oh and the scream on “Baby I Love You” is me. Hey I was still a young kid and my voice hadn’t changed. I still get kidded about that.
Clyde: And scream you did!! I think the first take nearly blew the headphones off of the recording engineer’s head. I had become good friends with the members in the Wild Ones, Rennie and I being the same age and the two youngest members kind of formed a tighter bond between the two of us. Rennie and I tended to get a little wilder as were younger, and we often interacted with dance steps and stuff that sometimes got a little crazy.
Rennie: You and I were in the back of the band so we stuck together and tried to do different things to entertain the crowds. We became good friends and still are today.
Why was the record label called Tu-Lang, and was that session and the pressing something the band paid for themselves? Do you remember which studio you used?
Clyde: We did not own the record label. You’ll notice on the label it says an LM Production, that label belonged to a Mr. Meade (forget his first name), he and his son had a band called the Commanders in the Richmond area, more country pop oriented and played mostly for older crowds (real popular at Moose Lodges, etc.), but a decent band. They formed the production company to get records done for their own band and I have no idea why they selected the TuLang name, perhaps he served in the Pacific in WWII? A side note, he had a much younger daughter that sometimes would sing with their band, she eventually moved to Nashville to pursue a C&W career, Donna Meade who later married C&W star and sausage king Jimmy Dean and they eventually moved to Richmond.
The Wild Ones paid for the studio session at Capitol Transcription in Washington, DC, as well we paid for the pressing and most of the distribution. We actually spent several weekends riding around VA in our hearse visiting different radio stations and dropping of copies of the record, photos, and a promo pack.
Clyde: The band was booked quite a bit, we played clubs, sock hops after football games, proms, bar mitzvahs, we even played at a used car dealership as partial payment for the Cadillac hearse we bought to transport the band. We had the hearse painted sort of a purple/lilac color with the Wild Ones in dayglo pink script on the sides! When we played “Long Tall Texan” at gigs, we always added an extra verse that went something like “Well I’m a long tall Wild One, I drive a lilac Cadillac (he drove from Texas in his lilac Cadillac)”, well, you get the idea. We spent a lot of hours in that old hearse driving all over Central Virginia and points beyond to our gigs, you had to get pretty close emotionally after spending so much time together.
Rennie: You have hit a lot of points about the band. I remember driving in the hearse to the river, that most likely would have been one of the Coles Point tavern gigs or the Windmill Point Yacht Club gigs. Anyway, the hearse had come from a country funeral home that also used it as an ambulance, so it had red lights and a siren, they never took the siren out of the hearse. Bill Sandy hit the button that started the siren, and we pulled a car over. We kept going. Well, we had a gig to get to!!
Clyde: The Rock and Roll Show of 1965 that we played in 1965 at the Bellvue Theater in Richmond, VA was done a second time by the same promoter a couple of months later at the Beacon Theater in Hopewell, VA. Pictured on this site is an ad from the Entertainment section of the Richmond News Leader and one of the admission tickets from the actual show. Also pictured is another ad from the entertainment section where we played for the Grand Opening of the Patterson Drive In, it was a brand new drive in theater with a teen area.
The business cards pictured were two of the several designs we used, the plain blue one was an early version from when I first joined the band, the tan/color print version was later. We also had one that had colored sort of circle shapes (sort of like large ‘O’s or spiral shapes) that was done in a series of different colors, some cards were green, some red, some blue, etc., unfortunately I don’t have any examples of that series. The band pictures on this site are from three different times, one was the formal band portrait that we used in our promo packs and also handed out at times to fans (I think fan club members got one with their copy of the band biography). Then there was a photo from one of our gigs, I’m pretty sure that was taken at the Olde Mill in Farmville, VA. The last photo is a well worn copy of a night time photo taken at the end of the Tobacco Festival Parade in Richnmond, VA. You’d never know it from that photo, but at the beginning of that parade the float looked pretty good, that parade was a major event for the Richmond area back then and many of the company sponsored floats were close to the quality of major parades like the Rose Bowl Parade.
at the Tobacco Festival Parade, Richmond
Rennie: The Tobacco Festival Parade, I remember that we were toward the end of the staging area waiting to get in line with the rest of the floats. While we waited, we decided to tune up and play a very quick part to see if everything worked. Well we were surrounded by fans and could not move the float. The police had to come back and escort us into the parade line. We were holding up the floats behind us.Our float was being pulled by our band hearse with two of the WLEE on air personalities sharing the driving while we were playing for the entire time on the float. Teens along the route were actively plucking “decorations” the entire night, by the time we made the several mile journey through downtown Richmond, our float had been stripped clean down to the bare chicken wire structure before we even made the circle through Parker Field Stadium (now replaced by The Diamond). It was a pitiful site to behold as we passed the judging stand and the hundreds of spectators in the stadium. The picture here was taken after the stadium pass through and a couple of our fans, family and friends had hopped aboard for a ride to the stadium parking area.
Clyde: Favorite spots to play: the Olde Mill in Farmville, VA always had a good crowd and we played there fairly often, Coles Point Tavern on the Potomac River where you parked your car in the parking lot in VA and walked out on the pier where you were in Maryland and they had slot machines and liquor by the drink (which VA didn’t at that point in time), the high school Sock Hops were usually fun, frat parties at UVA were wild, lots of enjoyable gigs. Teensville Club was always going to be a huge crowd. The record was doing OK in our region, we were in the process of getting songs ready for a second record, we also had to practice a lot since we were mostly a top 40 cover band and you had to know the latest hits as they were always “requested” (if I EVER have to play “Wooly Bully” again it will be too soon!!), sometimes the sheer number of hours we played worked on you physically. Rennie and I sat down a couple of weeks ago talking about those old days and I asked him if he remembered one Saturday back then, and he did, it was a monster day and would be hard to forget.
Rennie: How could I forget a day like that one? Those kind of long nights made it hard to be excited by the time you got to the second set of the third gig that day.
Fugitives, Wild Ones, Panics and the Jaguars at Bellevue Theatre, Nov. 26, 1965Clyde: We played the Saturday afternoon jam session at Johnny’s or the Satellite on Jeff Davis highway, packed up and hopped in the hearse and played at the Chesterfield County fair from 6-10 PM, packed up there and drove all the way across town to play at the Mechanicsville Moose Lodge from 12-3 AM, what a day!
Somewhere in this time frame we participated in the Battle of the Bands in Richmond at the old Tantilla Ballroom on Broad Street. Some radio stations were promoting it and you had to send in an audition tape to see if you would be asked to participate, we recorded a reel to reel tape in Bill Sandy’s garage (which is where we practiced most often) and sent it in, after a few weeks we were informed that we were one of the bands selected. I think they started with 30 bands from all over VA (but mostly from Central VA), we survived the first couple of cuts and got to keep playing. We made it to the final round where they announced the top three that would play again to determine the results, after all three bands had played the judges came back and announced the third place band (which wasn’t us!) and then said that for first and second there was a tie between the Wild Ones and the Barracudas.
Rennie: So both bands played again and the judges left again, came back and announced that there was still a tie (not a good thing, having an even number of judges), we played yet again and they finally decided it with a coin toss with the Barracudas finishing first and we were second. So while we would have like to finished first, it was still quite an honor to have been one of the top three bands!
Clyde: At one point we went to VA Beach without having any bookings there, we checked into a cheap hotel and then went to find an inexpensive dinner, saw a little place called the Lion’s Den on Atlantic Avenue that had a steak special and would also have live music, so we went in for dinner. It appeared that the band they had booked for the week cancelled at the last minute, so no entertainment. We got to talking with the restaurant manager while eating dinner and told him we were a band and would be happy to play for our dinner, he said if you want to play then dinner is on the house and he’ll pay us if we can draw a crowd. So we brought in our gear and set up, by the time the first set was over they were turning people away at the door as we had packed the house (though it was a small club). He ended up booking us for the rest of the week and we picked up some other bookings in the area, the Ebb Tide, the Pirates Den, even a one shot deal at the Peppermint Lounge. We met a band that was booked at the Ocean View amusement park for the entire summer, a group called the Canaries from the Canary Islands.
Rennie: In Virginia Beach I remembered we walked into some club during the day. The Spinners were playing there. I thought I remembered jamming with a few members, but I am not sure. We were doing a lot of gigs at the beach and we met a lot of other bands. I also remember that the hotel we were staying at got a little out of control. The manager was going to kick a lot of people out. Someone told him it couldn’t be us because we were a band from England. He believed it and we got to stay.
Clyde: Things were looking up and the next record would probably be recorded soon (two more original songs), things went along smoothly for a while. Then there was a huge argument, basically Rick Payne the bass player against the rest of the band, he decided to quit the band, being co-author on the songs we were going to record put a serious crimp in developing the second record, eventually it just never happened. We needed somebody to fill in, I called a friend, Ronnie Bowers that had played with me in the Tempos, originally a sax player, he could also play guitar, bass, a little drums, he filled a lot of spots for us and having a sax player certainly helped with a lot of songs. We continued our gigs and didn’t look back and kept trying different things to evolve our style, we later added a second sax player, Buddy Diggs, who played with us for a few months. Tragically, Buddy was killed in a traffic accident and I felt it was quite a blow to my young mind (and I’m sure to some other band members).
Rennie: It certainly was a tragic event. A young, talented musician gone so suddenly, some of us were pallbearers at his funeral.
Clyde: I guess the final blow for the Wild Ones was when Uncle Sam decided to draft Jim Sandy, the lead guitarist. Jimmy was an awesome guitarist that was always on the cutting edge of equipment and techniques, he could learn anything if he heard it a couple of times. After he left, we tried to “replace” him, we auditioned several guitarists but nothing was working out, we wound down our gigs and the band pretty much fell apart. Bill Sandy (Jim’s older brother and rhythm guitar/vocals) decided he had had enough, and Rennie, Ronnie, and myself just could not put the pieces back together again. The end of the Wild Ones era was upon us, it all happened in just a few short years.
Are there any demo tapes or unreleased songs of the band?
Clyde: As far as I know, no demos, tapes or anything else still exists. The songs for the second 45 were never recorded in the studio. Rennie and I are pretty sure we recorded a reel to reel demo of them in Bill Sandy’s garage, but we don’t know if that tape still exists. The only thing we are sure still exists are the few copies of the original 45 that Rennie and I have.
I went on to play in an R&B group that practiced a lot but rarely was booked, that lasted a few months. They had a female drummer that I had first seen in the east end of Richmond with her then band of “Barbara and the Boys”. After the R&B group broke up, Barbara called me a few months later and asked if I was playing with a group, she was very excited and said that she was playing with a San Francisco type rock group that would soon be the house band for a new club opening up near VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), the new club was owned by several VCU students. She asked me to come audition for this new band called the Lower Floor and I ended up with them and indeed we were the house band for that club while it lasted. We were putting on quite a show, breaking up equipment on stage, the club had a full light show with strobes and oil/water projectors.
After that band broke up, I was pretty much through with bands for a while and eventually sold all of my gear and quit playing entirely in the mid ‘70s. I got into construction as a carpenter’s helper and learned a trade, tried a few other things, sort of stayed in touch with both Jim and Bill Sandy, Rick Payne and every once in a while I’d give Rennie a phone call or a quick visit. Rick ended up doing shows for advanced techniques for some of the nationally known hair care products companies (like Redken and Fermodyl) and doing seminars all over the country. He and his wife ended up putting together a complete show package and I ended up doing lights and sound for them. They moved from Richmond to New York, NY after they became the National Style Directors for Lord and Taylor. Bill and Jim Sandy both were hair stylists and for a number of years had a shop together, I finally lost touch with all three of them in the early ‘80s. I knew Rennie had gotten into computers and worked for a large computer company, every once in a while I’d give him a phone call and we’d chat for a few minutes, I did have a couple of quick visits with him over the years.
In the mid ‘80s I decided that I wanted to start playing music again, I went out and looked at equipment and everything had changed, instead of a Hammond and a Wurli EP giving you a total of two basic sounds, now you had a 45lb keyboard with hundreds of onboard sounds and if you didn’t like those you load a couple of hundred new sounds. I got into synthesizers and started learning how to program them, I added gear as I could afford to and thought about playing in a band again. I went and sat in with a couple of bands and immediately I was like “(smack forehead) … how could I ever have forgotten how hard it is to get five people to agree on something”. So I decided to go the home studio route and play/write/record for my own pleasure, these days I devote some of my spare time answering questions on YamahaforumsUK as I’m a forum specialist/moderator there, a fancy title for volunteering information you may know and sharing it with others so they can learn about their synthesizers. A way for me to pay back a little to all the people that helped me and shared knowledge with me over the years, a small price to pay for all of the pleasure, good times (and a few bad ones) and the knowledge that those in the music world helped me accumulate over the years.
Rennie: After we broke up I got drafted. Overseas I joined two other guys that brought their guitars and had brought a set of bongos. We started singing and playing. We played at clubs on bases in Korea and also played on Korean radio in front on the Korean YWCA. They could not speak English but could sing the songs in English. Rock and Roll is truly universal.
Chuck Renfro and Clyde Atkinson, 2011After the service I tried a few bands, but nothing was working,. the magic was gone, it wasn’t the Wild Ones. I miss those days and the band. When I tell people about the things we did, I am sure that they think I am making some of it up. Currently I have a business dealing with business software and systems design/implementation, I’m not currently playing drums or music.
From both of us: We have just recently re-established contact with each other and plan on staying in touch, it was absolutely delightful when we had lunch together recently and talked over old times. I think both of us would like to find Rick, Bill, and Jim or find out what has happened to them. Hmmmmm, pictures of the hearse, we’d really like to find some of them too.
Chuck (Rennie) Renfro – drummer for the Wild Ones Clyde Atkinson – organist for the Wild Ones
Bob Hughes and the Galaxies, from left: Ron Barrera, Pete Vanasse, Ricky Philbert, Don Facciano and Bob Hughes
Bobby & the Farrari’s cut this great 45 in 1967. “Farrari’s” is a misspelling for “Ferraris” as in Ferrari, the car.
“In the Morning” has the dense, moody sound New England is known for. It was the b-side to “Pretty” a song in a somewhat older style of pop balladry. Both songs were written by Carl Gastall, Jr., who later joined Phase IV who had their own 45 on Tuff-Nuff, “Plastic World”, written by D. Bourguet and “It’s You”.
Two later 45s on Tuff-Nuff are Ray Gambio & the Darkest Hour “I’ll Be There” / “The Mountain” and Charlie Quintal’s “It’s a Crazy World We Live In”.
When I first covered Bobby & the Farraris a few years ago, I listed the group as from Bangor, Maine, an error I repeated from a guide to New England bands published in the early ’90s. Bob Hughes tells me the group was based in Fall River and played primarily throughout southeastern Massachusetts and around Providence, Rhode Island.
Bob kindly answered many of my questions and provided photos and a detailed history of his career with the Farraris and his earlier group, Bobby & the Galaxies, along with a cool demo they cut at Metcalf Recording, one side a weeper, “I’m Tearing My Heart Out” and the flip a great upbeat novelty “Giggle Wiggle” with lyrics like “she’s got long black hair way down her back, too bad there ain’t none on her head”. As an aside, Metcalf was the studio for Masada’s “A Hundred Days and Nights”, released on Sadbird in 1968 and written by Paul Brissette.
Bob takes the story from here:
The Farraris were originally a four piece group, me on guitar and lead vocals, Rick Philbert (deceased) on bass and back up vocals, Danny ? on keyboards and Vinny ? on drums. We later added Lenny ?, a sax player from New Bedford, MA. He had the unique ability to play two saxophones at once, and in harmony. Very cool.
The name Farraris was a misspelling. The band was only together for two years. I formed the band because of the breakup or my other band, Bobby & The Galaxies.
Bob HughesCarl Gastall was a friend of mine and a fellow local musician, and really good song writer. His [uncle] Tommy was a catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. Carl admired my work and approached me with these songs. He wanted us to record them and he would get the backer to finance everything. “Pretty” / “In the Morning” was recorded at Wye studios in Rhode Island. It was our only record. It achieved some local success in Providence.
It was the first release on the Tuff Nuff label which was created by a local business man Ritchie Martin, to promote our recording. Later Charlie Quintal and some other local musicians recorded on the label. Don Perry (aka Dino and Don DeCarlo) and Larry Santos also had record labels in Fall River: Honey Bee and Little Town Records. We only sold around 500 of them.
We played mostly in the bars in and around Fall River/Providence area. My day job caused me to transfer out of the area in April of ’69 and that ended the band. I don’t have any pictures of the group.
Ricky Philbert the bass player, and I had been together for quite some time. We first met at a talent show at Lincoln Park Amusement Park in Dartmouth MA. It was a big place and the main attraction in all of S.E. New England.
Ricky’s band and my band, Bobby & the Galaxies, were in the talent contest that was held every Sunday in the outdoor pavilion. My band won that week. Ricky approached me after about teaming up. Since I didn’t have a bass player, I agreed. He immediately joined my band and we went on to win the finals at the end of the summer. The park’s manager asked if we’d like to play in the park’s pub every Sunday and we agreed. We were a big hit in there.
After three weeks he approached us about playing in the large ballroom every Saturday night. We jumped at the chance. The place held 3500 people. He had Al Rainone’s 18 piece orchestra playing there, and drawing about 200 people. When they were fired and we were hired, Al, who was the head of the local Musicians union, threatened to close the park down since we weren’t union. Needless to say, we quickly joined the union. We played there every Saturday night to a packed house for at least five years.
Each week a different star artist or band would appear and do a 45 minute show. We played the rest of the time. We backed up most of the stars of the day. Jerry Lee Lewis, Freddy Cannon, Lou Christy, etc. We opened for The Kingsman, The Beau Brummels, The 4 Seasons, and many more. It was a great experience.
As an aside, I will tell you that after every Saturday gig, we would go to Dirty Nick’s hot dogs, in Fall River. A guy was working there who was at least 10 years older than us, and looked like a bum, and had horrible body odor. He seemed slightly retarded. His name was Joe Baker. Every week he used to beg me to let him sing with my band. He swore he sounded just like Elvis. Well after two years, I relented. He asked me if I could pick him up, since he didn’t have a car. I agreed. The next Saturday I picked him up and he had a bundle in his arms. I asked him what it was and he said it was his outfit. He opened it to show me. He had taken a suit and a pair of shoes and spray painted them gold and sprinkled on gold flecks. That night, he appeared with us, with no rehearsal and just a play list of Elvis songs in the original keys. I introduced him as Golden Joe Baker. So I named him. If you know of him, you know what a huge success he turned out to be (see goldenjoebaker.com. He was a big hit that night and not because he could sing like Elvis, but because he thought he could and went through all the motions and gyrations. He sang badly and the audience thought it was a put on and a hilarious one. But Joe was dead serious about being as good as Elvis. After that night I took Joe with us everywhere we went. He was a big hit at all the frat parties, etc. He ended up being a star of the longest running daytime show in Las Vegas history.
Besides Ricky and me, Bobby & the Galaxies also consisted of Pete Vanasse (Berklee School of Music) on sax, Don Facciano (New England Conservatory of Music) on Hammond organ, and Ron Kook Barrera on drums. Jerry Valle was the drummer for Bobby & the Galaxies for a few years. He ended up being the drummer/singer with the very successful Spi-Dells from Taunton.
Jonny Locks, backed by the GalaxiesWe never released any records of our own, but we did back Johnny Locks on his local hit [“I Know You Want Me Baby” / “All I Want From You” from the second half of 1965], on the Locks label. Johnny was a local stock car driver at Seekonk Speedway. Our record would be played there every weekend. It also got some radio play.
Q. Someone on Youtube commented there may be a second 45 by Jonny Locks, “I Really Gotta Go” b/w “My Dead Girl”, and also a demo for “Long Hair and Mini Skirts”.
If Johnny Locks recorded other songs I am not aware of them, and they weren’t with my band.
Other than that we only recorded songs that were never released. “Tearing My Heart Out” / “Giggle Wiggle” is the only record we ever made. This was a demo recorded at Metcalf studios in New Bedford, MA around 1958.
This is the first iteration of Bobby & the Galaxies. The group consisted of me on vocals and guitar, Rick Philbert on bass and backup vocals, Dave Ray on drums, Boh Kiriutowski on sax, and Johnny Pastel on organ. “Tearing My Heart Out” was written by Carl Gastall, and I wrote “Giggle Wiggle”. This record was never released. [There was] a live taping that was done by the later and better version of Bobby & the Galaxies.
We did have offers for record deals, but could not work out a satisfactory deal. We were approached at our Lincoln Park gig, by some producers who wanted to feature us on a weekly TV show, out of Boston. They were going to call it Jamboree, and film it at Lincoln Park, but on a Tuesday night, not at the Saturday gig. It was to be a half hour show with one or two featured guest stars, and my band would be the house band, We would open and close the show with the theme song, Bill Dogget’s “Hold It”, do one featured song a week, and back up the acts that needed back up. It was filmed live with the kids dancing. We signed the contract and filmed four episodes that aired on WBZ, if I remember right. Unfortunately we couldn’t draw a large enough crowd on Tuesdays to finance the producers expenses so they stopped.
I was also involved with Jimmy Crane who owned Ribbon Records, and was a great song writer. He had hits with Elvis, Eddie Fisher, Timi Yuro and Joe Stafford. I was recording demos for him at Wye Records. We also represented WPRO in Providence at the Annual March of Dimes telethon and concert. We appeared on TV and also on the same bill with the Elegants, The Scott Brothers, Anita Bryant, Ritchie Adams and the Fire flies, and other stars of the day.
The Galaxies had an offer to go on the USO tour, for a year, which I rejected, and that caused a lot of dissension in the band. It was the start of the band unraveling. I had finished college, met my wife to be, and had planned on leaving town to get my Masters degree at U. Mass, in Amherst. I had already decided I was not going to pursue a career in music. Of course that meant leaving the Lincoln Park gig too. BTW, at U Mass I hooked up with a bunch of guys from Boston who had a band called the Esquires. I joined them while I was at U Mass. We were a Beatles tribute groups and we worked lots of frat parties. We were one of the two top bands there. The other was Taj Mahal.
After graduation I went home and reformed the Galaxies. I was able to get all of the original members back together. This was ’64. We worked at local clubs and bars, and started to do some society work in Boston. We worked with the Herb Zane Orchestra, as the “rock band” who would play during the orchestra’s breaks, at Debutante parties and such. In ’67 we had a disagreement about the musical direction of the band. The drummer Ronny was pushing to get Ricky out of the group and bring in his friend Manny, who was very good and sang well too, but the reason was to play more soul type music. Ronny didn’t think Ricky had the chops for that. He was wrong. However Ricky got so mad, he quit. Manny joined the group, and the arguments over the material we would play worsened. Three months later I left the group and joined Ricky again, and we formed the Farraris.
When I left the area in ’69, I was transferred to northern New Jersey. There I worked with many fine musicians playing parties and weddings, etc. I got to play at Sardis and the Empire room at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
The music scene in Providence and So. E. Mass. was very rich with lots of talented people and groups. The Cowsills came out of Newport R.I. – I actually repossessed their Silvertone Amps when I worked for Sears. To my ears, The Fabulous Raiders were the best band in the area. A few that were outstanding that I remember were Cal Raye, The Spidells, Talk of The Town, Johnny & The Blue Jays, The Royal Coachman, Frankie James, Benny King & the Royal Jesters, Charlie Quintal, Paul Chaplin & Emeralds (Ct.), The Fabulous Raiders, The Blends, The Videls, Jim Scott & The Crusaders, Golden Joe Baker, and more. The only other Tuff Nuff artist I know was Charlie Quintal. Charlie was really good and played with Dicky Doo & the Don’t for a while. I was a member of Johnny & Blue Jays for about a year.
My old sax player Pete and keyboard player Don are still plying music today. Pete is with an oldies group at Foxwood Casino. Kings Row contains original members from several local groups and is also still active in the area.
There’s no denying the power of the Mondells 45 on Gaye, “I Got a Feeling” / “You’ll Never Come Back to Stay”. Both songs have thick distortion on the guitar, nice organ swirls, pounding drums, and good lead and backing vocals.
The code U4KM-5024 denotes an RCA custom pressing from the first half of 1967. The scan I originally posted showed no song writing credits on the label, but as Mike Markesich pointed out in his comment below, that scan was doctored to keep the writer’s name secret until the band could be found. From the scans I now have, Roy Farmer Jr. wrote “I Got a Feeling” and Benny Thomas wrote “You’ll Never Come Back to Stay”. Both sides are published by Margie Music, BMI, and listed as A Gaye Talent Production.
The group itself is still something of a mystery to me. I did find out that the Mondels, like Red Beard & the Pirates, came from the rural hills between Blue Ridge, Georgia (Morganton, Mineral Bluff, Epworth) and Copperhill, Tennessee / McCaysville, GA, about two hours drive north of the studio in Decatur, GA, just east of Atlanta. From the same area came The Blazers, who had a self-produced LP On Fire.
An old auction listing gives a couple names for Red Beard & the Pirates: Randy Queen and “Sea Dog”. The seller also mentioned two members of the Mondels: “Billy Suites (died from auto accident) and Lamar Harper (died a couple of years ago from cancer). Actually the name ‘Tootie’ written on the record is my sister-in-law and she dated Lamar.” I contacted the seller for more info, but I can’t confirm if these names are accurate.
The Mondels is one of the rarest and best 45s on the Gaye label.
Mike Dugo interviewed a member of the Penetrations who have a record on Gaye, “A Different Kind of Man” / “I Got A Girl” but they were from Belton, South Carolina, to the north east of Atlanta.
Thank you to Mike Markesich for the scans and info on the band. Transfers from Teenage Shutdown vol. 13.
Johnny Brooks owned the Gaye label, based in Atlanta, Georgia, and named it after his wife. The label started with pop releases, then added soul 45s and consistently strong garage singles by Little Phil & the Night Shadows, the Mondels, the Blades, the Penetrations and Red Beard & the Pirates. Some numbers have a prefix, usually ASR, which refers to Atlanta Sound Recording Studios, also owned by Brooks.
Troy Shondell recorded the Chips Moman song “This Time” for Goldcrest in 1961, released nationally by Liberty. I don’t know who Troy Shundell is, but his version on Gaye (#2010 from circa 1965) is a different recording than the Goldcrest/Liberty issue, and is likely a different singer altogether.
Any help with this discography would be appreciated
114 – Ken Springer – “You’re Faithful Anna” / “Lovely Love” (with picture sleeve) 210 – J.T. Ratcliffe With Shirley & The Swamp Bugs – “The Beatle Bug” / “Bill’s Friend” 212 – George Hughley – “Do The Beatle” / “My Love Is True” 2002 – Bobby & The Belmonts – “Drum Dog” / “He’s Home From College” (1964) 2004 – Beverly Taylor – “Sweeter Than Sugar” / “I Need Someone Like You” 2009 – Ken Springer – “Like A Child” / “Maybe” 2010 – Troy Shundell – “This Time” / “I Catch Myself Crying” 2018 – Frankie And The Play Boys featuring Arnold Sanford – “Two To One” / “Crying Towel” 3019 – The Blades – “I’ll Shead No Tear” (sic) / “Again” 3020 – Joe Dickey – “April In Atlanta” / “Walk With Me (Into Paradise)” 3027 – The Penetrations – “A Different Kind of Man” / “I Got A Girl” 3031 – Little Phil & the Night Shadows – “Sixty Second Swinger” / “In the Air” 3031 – Milford Fagg with the Penetrations – “Do You Still Remember Me” / “Mr. Ivory” 3032 – The Mondels – “You’ll Never Come Back To Stay” / “I Got A Feeling” 3033 – Joe Brown – “It’s All Over” / “Promise Me” 3034 – Ted Ford – “You Don’t Love Me” / “Hold On To the Key” 3041 – C. J. DeLong – “Goodbye Dreams” / “I Don’t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore” 3043 – Red Beard & the Pirates – “Go On Leave” / “Don’t Be A Loser” 3044 – Jerry Ashley – “Come On” / “Come On” (instrumental backing track) 3045 – The Blades – “Moving Out” / “I Need You” 3047 – Sheppard Brothers – “Hold Me Closer” / “Mess Up My Mind” 5001 – Johnny Jenkins – “Soul Boo-Ga-Loo” / “Ring-O-Ling” 5002 – Lee Mays & the Zonics – “Writing This Letter” / “Nothing Means Nothing To You” 5005 – Ernie Wheelwright – Begging You Back / “In Your Arms” 5006 – Automations – “World of Make Believe” / “Going Out of My Mind” 6001 – Betty Logan – “A Lot To Learn” / The Logan Sisters – “Flop Mop”
Gaye discography compiled from Georgia Soul with additions and corrections from Mike Markesich, Bob of Dead Wax, Drunken Hobo, George, and Chas Kit.
368 – Paula Grimes – “Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart” / “Fancy Love Words” (George pointed out this is an unrelated NY label)
Oglethorp and Othellow (sic), from left: Greg Carlock, Don Bearup and Dick Dean“A photo of my first band, The Fade-Aways, taken in 1965. From left: Greg Carlock (Othelow), lead singer David Brownback, Donnie Bearup (Oglethorp), and me. Drummer Jim Lowe was not present. That Stratocaster was my first real guitar, cherry red. Greg’s was a Guild.”
Last week I wrote about Van Recording of south Texas. For some odd reason, at least five singles on Van released between 1965-1967 were produced in Taylorville, Illinois, close to 1,000 miles northeast of Angleton TX, the base for the Van label.
Richard Dean played bass on one of those records, “Please Don’t Go Away” and “I’ll Still Love You” by Oglethorp and Othelow. We may never know how these recordings ended up on Van, but Richard provides a detailed account of the music scene in the area just south and east of Springfield, Illinois during the mid-60s:
Oglethorp was Donnie Bearup, age 17, on lead vocals and rhythm acoustic guitar. Othelow was Greg Carlock, age 17, on harmony vocals and lead acoustic guitar. I, Richard Dean, age 16, played stand-up bass. Mick Presnell, age 16, and not a member of the group, played percussion (two Coke bottles on “Please Don’t Go Away”, a salt shaker filled with gravel on “I’ll Still Love You”). I’ve always remembered it [the spelling of the group’s name] as Oglethorpe and Othello. I think Donnie was a distant relative of James Oglethorpe, who founded Georgia, and I have no idea where the Othelow came from, other than Shakespeare.
Donnie Bearup and Deb Lynch during the Fade-Aways era, 1966
Oglethorp and Othelow were supposed to be folk singers, but most of our songs were Everly Brothers, Beatles, oldies, and some current hits. We were an acoustic group and couldn’t play for dances, but we made three TV appearances (two in Decatur and one in Champaign) and we were on Oscar Wells Sunday morning radio show on WTIM many times. Donnie and Greg had that incredibly close harmony like the Everlys and John and Paul.I was told to show up at the American Legion Hall one summer evening of 1966, and that was where I met Oscar Wells. I think Oglethorp and Othelow’s connection to him probably came through Donnie Bearup’s mother, who did a lot to promote the group. Sometimes local country artists performed on his radio show and that is probably where Donnie’s mother heard of him. I had never heard of him before we recorded. I assumed he owned Van Records and that it was a local Taylorville label. If there was a contract it was only for that record. He paid for the record. We performed for free, I never made a single penny playing with Oglethorp and Othelow, though we were very successful as far as performing went.
with the second place trophy at the State Fair from left: Don Bearup, Richard Dean and Greg Carlock
I remember Oscar Wells as a tall, thin, pale, almost cadaverous-looking, man who seemed ancient to me at the time, but was probably in his 50s. He had a very flat nasal voice and mumbled and said “uh” a lot on his radio show, not a radio voice or a radio personality. He had a very nice Ampex tape recorder, too big to be lugging around in his car, but it was portable.We did take after take of “I’ll Still Love You” and it was almost always a failure of the recorder or the tape itself that meant we had to re-do it. I would estimate we did as many as 30 takes, and even the one that was used had a flub in it. Oscar Wells was very patient, didn’t contribute anything to the music, just let us do what we did. I think he was most interested in recording my friend Mick on the Coke bottles on “Please Don’t Go Away”, there was a lot of natural echo on it and it took awhile to get the sound right. I think we may have done three takes on “Please Don’t Go Away”, it was intended to be a quick B-side, but it was the side that got airplay and that everyone loved. Donnie Bearup wrote both songs. Greg’s guitar was so out-of-tune on “Please Don’t Go Away”, but such a great punkish guitar solo, and acoustic! By the time we recorded that we had spent 2 or 3 hours on “I’ll Still Love You”, and we were just getting to a B-side. If we had known “Please Don’t Go Away” would become the A-side I’m sure we would have tuned-up!
If I remember correctly, Oscar Wells had 300 or 500 copies of “Please Don’t Go Away” / “I’ll Still Love You” pressed. We were getting daily airplay on the Taylorville and Decatur radio stations and he sold all of the copies very quickly, I’m sure he thought he was on his way to the big time. Then he had another 300 or 500 copies made and I don’t think he sold any of them. That first batch was the limit of Oglethorp and Othelow fans. I remember going to his studio on Sundays and there were boxes and boxes of our record sitting there. I think the major reason why the second batch of records didn’t sell was also because two or three weeks went by before they were delivered and by then we were no longer receiving airplay in Taylorville and Decatur. I seem to recall Oscar complaining about not having any records to sell. Then when they arrived it was too late.
Oscar Wells’ Sunday morning radio show on WTIM, Taylorville, was called “The Entertainers Bulletin Board”. I think it started at 6:00 or 6:30. Donnie and I played with the Reactions on Saturday nights, often didn’t get home until 1:00 or 2:00 AM, then had to get up about 5:00 to drive the 17 miles from Pana to Taylorville. Oscar had a great rockabilly version of “Swannee River Rock” as his theme song. Then he would introduce us as “these, uh, boys from Pana are, uh,” and so on. Then Greg Carlock would introduce the songs. Oscar would record the show on his Ampex and afterward we would go to his “studio”, probably where he did most of his recording, a storefront near downtown Taylorville. He had a record-cutting machine. like something that would cut onto wax but these were very heavy brittle plastic, and he would make one copy of the show for us. That was our pay. I received each third one. I kept one of them for many years, it eventually shattered during a move, but I did get it on a cassette tape, with so much static it is almost unlistenable. At the end of the show he played a song he had recently produced by a woman country singer, [Pauletta Leeman – “Little Bit” which was backed with “You’re Make A Fool Out Of Me”, released on Sims 309 in 1966], a very nice song. I found, on-line, that Oscar J. Wells died in 1984, at 71.
Oglethorp & Othelow on Oscar Wells’ show The Entertainers Bulletin Board on WTIM, November 13, 1966:
“English Moon” would have been the second single, with, maybe, “And She Went Away” as the B-side. I’m not sure. I know we had big hopes for “English Moon”.
A story I love to tell about Oglethorp and Othelow: one Saturday, in the spring of 1967, we performed for the Future Homemakers of America convention in Pana High School auditorium. There were several hundred girls there and they Beatled us, screaming and throwing things onstage. It was amazing. We signed autographs for awhile afterward, then had to leave to play a strip mall opening in Decatur. We performed on the back of a flatbed truck and our entire audience consisted of three about-12-year-old very bored boys. That’s showbiz!
Another story: one morning in the summer of 1967 I was hanging out in downtown Pana and Donnie and Greg drove by, saw me, and stopped and said they were going to the Illinois State Fair, in Springfield, to perform in the battle of the bands (acoustic or vocal group, not electric). They were just doing it because they could get into the fair for free. We went to my house and grabbed my stand-up bass and took off. We were wearing jeans and t-shirts, I had on a pair of brown jeans. We did ten minutes or so, mostly Everly Brothers and Beatles, then enjoyed the fair. When we went back to find out who won, we discovered we had finished second. The winners were a vocal quartet of frat boys from Eastern Illinois University, dressed in blazers and ties, singing like the Lettermen or the Four Freshmen. They got to open for Paul Revere and the Raiders that evening, in front of about 12,000 people. If only we had dressed better, been a little more professional, but we hadn’t taken it seriously. After the concert, we spent an hour or so having burgers with Freddy Weller, Raiders’ lead guitarist. When I got home, about 2:00 AM, and tried to explain to my mother what my day had been like, she wouldn’t believe me!
We were on TV three times. Twice on Davy Jones’ Locker, an afternoon kids’ cartoon show on WAND, Decatur, that sometimes had live local talent. It was embarrassing to be on a kids show, the host dressed as a pirate, but it was TV! We were also on The Hop, a Saturday afternoon American Bandstand-style show on WCIA, Champaign, that in 1967 was still using Danny and the Juniors’ “At the Hop” as its theme song. We had recorded what was going to be our second single, probably not on Van Records, in a garage studio in Sullivan, Illinois, but the tape wasn’t playable on standard tape recorders, so we had re-recorded the two songs at Greg’s aunt’s house on a tape recorder that allowed over-dubbing. Donnie sang lead and played electric bass and rhythm, Greg sang harmony twice and played lead, and I played organ and piano. As we were getting ready to lip-sync Donnie told me I should fake the extra harmony and I realized I didn’t know the words, nor did I know his bass part. And there had been a big thunderstorm just as we had arrived at the studio, we had to walk through a foot of water in the parkinglot, and I had taken off my wet Beatle boots and socks and performed barefoot. I was told the camera kept showing close-ups of my feet! The second record was never released.
‘The Re-Actions’, from left: Dick Dean (bass), Steve Westoff (rhythm guitar), Butch Hartel (drums), Monte McDermith (lead guitar) and kneeling, Vince Slagel (organ). Not pictured, lead singer Donnie Bearup
A little about the music scene in Central Illinois in the 60s:
After the Beatles arrived, in February, 1964, it seemed that every teenage boy wanted to play in a band and I was one of them. Pana had a teen center and dances with live bands every Saturday night. Even smaller towns, like Nokomis and Assumption, had regular dances, and tiny towns, like Witt (pop. about 300) had dances at least once a month. The Fade-Aways, in 1965-66, didn’t work every weekend but we played frequently, and made money doing it. Pana, pop. 6000 or so, supported two rock bands, us and Comyk Book. Assumption had The Bluetones. Morrisonville, Dave and the Detomics. Nokomis, later, the Reactions. The summer of 1967, the Reactions worked three or four nights a week, putting on our own dances in the Morrisonville park on Thursdays, when there was nothing else going on, and splitting all of the money.
My favorite band, right after the Beatles arrived and the Pana Teen Center began having weekly dances, was the Classics, a six-piece band from Decatur, four white guys with two black singers, lots of great rock and roll and r&b. Then the Sting Rays, from Springfield.
Dave and the Detomics were several years older than me. As I remember them, they were a rockabilly crew that got on the British Invasion bandwagon, and they were pretty good when it came to rockers, not so good on melodies. When they played at the Pana Teen Center, many times in about 1965-66, they didn’t get much of a crowd. But I do remember they could rock, they had that garage band sound. My first band, The Fade-Aways, of which Donnie and Greg were members, also had that sound, just bashing it out, lots of energy.
I didn’t know Dave and the Detomics recorded for Van. When they broke up, in the fall of 1966, they became the Reactions. Donnie was the lead singer, I played electric bass. Monte McDermitt, former bass player for the Detomics, became the band leader and sang and played lead. Vince Slagel, also a Detomic, was on keyboards (Farfisa organ). Butch Hartel played drums. Steve Westoff was on rhythm guitar. The band was based in Nokomis, Illinois, though Donnie and I were from Pana and Butch and Steve from Litchfield. We never recorded, but we were very popular throughout 1967.
I don’t recall the Embalmers, but the Sting Rays were a favorite of mine. I’m pretty sure they were based in Springfield, Illinois. They were absolute pros, tight and solid, with a great drummer. When I was old enough to drive, in 1966, I would go anywhere around the area to see them. I remember when they washed the grease out of their Elvis pompadours and had Beatle haircuts. I remember seeing them at the Illinois State Fair, at the Teen Fair tent, probably in 1966, and they did a killer version of “Tossin’ and Turnin'”. Very much a guitar group, lots of rockabilly influence.
When I was 17 and could drive, and had a weekend night off when I wasn’t playing, I would drive anywhere to see my favorite group, a five-piece guitar band from Litchfield that did nothing but Stones covers and blues/r&b songs the Stones could have done. They were REO Speedwagon. If you look at their wikipedia page, this version of the group isn’t acknowledged. One Saturday in Taylorville, they were walking off-stage for a break and one of them pointed at me and said, “Reactions’ bassplayer.” I was surprised he knew who I was.
My biggest claim to rock and roll fame was that I was the original bassplayer in Head East, a heavy pop band that formed at Eastern Illinois University in 1969. I was a charter member, when the group was put together by Steve Huston (the drummer) and horn-player Steve Derry. When I showed up for the first rehearsal, it was about a 10 or 12 piece horn band, like Chicago or Blood Sweat and Tears, and I was given a music stand and sheet music. I quit at the end of the first rehearsal, that just wasn’t my idea of rock and roll. Their website doesn’t mention that version of the band.
I continued in music for several years. My last band was a country band, in 1973. I was always more of a lead guitar player, but I had my greatest success on bass.
I tried to track down the Reactions on the Internet. The only one I found was Vince Slagel, who was in the last version of Dave and the Detomics. I live in Denver.
Richard Dean, July 2011
Update: Greg Carlock passed away on December 29, 2019. Mike Choatie sent me the link to his obituary. RIP Othelow.
Thank you to Richard and his sister for the photos and clippings used in this article with the exception of the color photo provided by Donnie Bearup. Thanks also to Tom Fallon and Matt Baker for information on the Kenny Biggs 45.
Early photo of the Ramblers of Birmingham, Highland County Club, December 1961. Left to right in front: Van Veenschoten, Tommy Terrell and Eddie Terrell; in back Johnny Robinson on drums
Back in 1961, the guitar playing Terrell brothers, Tommy and Eddie along with classmate Chris Covey found a junior high school drummer, Johnny Robinson, to play music. It was decided that the eldest brother, Eddie, would be the bass player, and Tommy would play rhythm guitar. Fellow Ramsey High School classmate, Van Veenschoten joined in to round out the group and play lead guitar. The group named themselves The Ramblers, and began playing for high school functions and fraternities and sororities in the Birmingham area. When Eddie Terrell received a tennis scholarship and headed to The University of Alabama, The Ramblers had no trouble in convincing Chris Convey, with the unusual nickname “The Spook,” to take over on the bass.
By mid-1962, The Ramblers were playing weekends regularly in and around Birmingham and cut their first record, “Stop That Twisting” / “Hundred Miles Away”, at Boutwell Recording Studio in Birmingham. Shortly thereafter, guitar player Van Veenschoten met Chip Sanders, a junior at neighboring Shades Valley High School, who was a piano player. The Ramblers auditioned Chip on a Sunday afternoon at Van’s parents home in Mountain Brook, and the nucleus of the group, that would become synonymous with “party band” was established.
An important early performance by The Ramblers at a state-wide Alabama high school Key Club Convention gave the group name recognition throughout the state, and soon The Ramblers of Birmingham were playing in Alabama cities and towns from Huntsville to Mobile. Practicing in a store room in the back of Johnny Robinson’s garage in Mountain Brook, Alabama, or in the basement of the Sanders’ home in Vestavia, The Ramblers were truly the proverbial garage band.
By fall of 1963, it was time for more of The Ramblers to make a decision, music or college! They decided on both, and as Tommy and Spook headed off to the University of Alabama and Johnny and Chip still in high school, the group began playing college fraternity parties at the University of Alabama.
By 1965-1966, The Ramblers were working regularly, primarily at Fraternity Parties around the southeast. Eddie, Tommy, Spook, and Chip had all become members of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at The University of Alabama, while Van was at Samford University and Johnny at the University of Montevallo. No longer rehearsing on a regular basis, the guys would meet up whenever and wherever the group might be playing.
In 1967, the group recorded another record at Boutwell Recording Studio, “Come Back, Come Back” / “Whole Lot Of Woman” written by keyboardist, Chip Sanders. The record experienced moderate success in the Alabama area, but college priorities prevented the group from properly promoting the record. Ed Boutwell, Birmingham recording pioneer, continued to use The Ramblers as back up musicians on many recording sessions at his studio.
Throughout this period, local radio station “sock hops” gained popularity amongst the Birmingham teenage population, and The Ramblers worked with local personality Duke Rumore of WYDE radio at Duke’s sock hop at the Ensley National Guard Armory, as well as Dave Roddy, from WSGN Radio at the Aporto Armory, across town. Also during this period the Ramblers were the backup band of choice for singers passing through Birmingham like Bobby Goldsboro or Billy Joe Royal.
As a “special added attraction” The Ramblers added a new set, featuring “Little John,” Chip’s kid brother, 11-year-old John Lee Sanders, who sang and played harmonica. John Lee Sanders, is now a successful song writer, performer and composer in the Bay Area of California. For the last 20 years he has worked with Long John Baldry, Starship, Paul Williams, Linda Arnold, and other popular entertainers.
As 1966-1967 came along, the world was quickly changing and The Rambler’s music began to change as well. Inspired by the psychedelic sounds coming out of the west coast, The Ramblers found a new sound with a young female vocalist, Vicki Hallman. Covers of the Jefferson Airplane, Linda Ronstadt and other female artists were added to their repertoire. After a brief marriage to drummer Johnny Robinson, Vicki continued her career in Nashville as a member of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos group and as a permanent cast member of the long running TV series, Hee-Haw.
With the Viet Nam War continuing to escalate in the late sixties, members of the group began to worry about the draft. This was definitely not the time to quit school and loose a student deferment to become a rock ‘n roll star. At various times during the next few years, Tommy joined George Bush in the Alabama Air National Guard, Chris joined the Coast Guard Reserve, Chip got in the Army National Guard three days before his draft notice, and Johnny became a reluctant member of the Talladega National Guard.
During their respective intermittent absences the group stayed together, with Terrell brother, Eddie, rejoining the group, along with a variety of substitute and fill-in players. As the sixties came to a close, one by one, the group began to graduate from college, get married and begin careers other than music. All the members of the group initially took jobs in Birmingham so that the band was able to stay together, but soon, the pressures of new careers, new wives, and even children began to put a strain on the group. “I don’t remember us ever officially deciding to break up. I just recall playing in a little town somewhere in South Alabama. We all brought our wives. It was a fun weekend. I remember staying in some ‘Bates Motel’ place and we all went swimming in their pool. That’s the last band job I can recall, but there may have been others,” said Sanders.
Johnny Robinson, who had tried to hold things together began touring with a new group, The Homestead Act, and subsequently moved to California to help his new wife start a music career. Chris moved away to seek his fortune, Chip moved near Memphis to start an insurance agency, and Tommy became a bank examiner for the Treasury Department.
The Ramblers were history, or so they thought. They stayed in touch with one another and by 1978 all of the remaining members of the group were thinking the same thing. They wanted to play again.
In 1979, the band regrouped as The Rambler Reunion Band adding Jim Burford on lead guitar to replace Van who died in a motorcycle accident in 1972. Chip moved out of state and was replaced by John Livingston on keyboards. Eddie rejoined the band to replace Chris who resides in Treasure Island, Florida. During the 80’s and 90’s the band continued working around the southeast entertaining at events with their 60’s music. Currently the RRB entertains at wedding receptions, reunion parties, company parties, club dances, and most any event that requires authentic 60’s rock and roll music.
Chip Sanders, 2011
The Ramblers, left to right: Chip Sanders, Chris Convey, Johnny Robinson, Tommy Terrell, Van Veenschoten
Johnny Robinson answered some follow-up questions I had about the photos and recording sessions.
The picture of the four of us [top of page] was taken at Highland County Club in December 1961. Van played lead guitar, Tommy rhythm guitar, Eddie bass. At this time we had very few vocals. That one mike and the small guitar amp (lower right corner) was our PA system. We bought the vests at Pizitz downtown.
The two professional photos were taken by Ken Ives at his studio in English Village down the street from Boutwell Recording Studio, where we recorded “100 Miles Away”. Chris Convey replaced Eddie on bass when Eddie left for college on a tennis scholarship. We have tons of other pictures through the years.
B.Temple is Brook Temple. He went to Shades Valley High School. We met him through Lee Shook, a mutual friend. Brook wrote “100 Miles away” with words about a girl he dated in Montgomery (100 miles from Birmingham) and asked us to record it. His mother paid for the recording session and the cost of the records. We did not like the words to the song, so we made it an instrumemtal. He also wrote “Stop That Twisting”. The Brook record label is his name. After all his mother paid for everything.
The second record, “Come Back, Come Back” was made in April 1967. The total for the packing slip was $123.10 for 510 records. That made them 24 cents each. The studio time was $300 as I remember. That made the total cost 83 cents each. Of course we did not made the records to make money, we gave most of them away to try and book more jobs. We have other studio recordings and live recordings.
The music scene in Birmingham was very active at this time – 1961 to 1968. The Distortions, Sammy Salvo, Willum Fowler, The Tremolos, Larry Parker, The Nomads, The Strangers, The Reflections, The Brood, and The Gents are just some of the local bands that recorded and released records on labels like Jo-Jo, Vibrato, Vesta, Lemon, Gold Master, Modern Enterprises, Malone, Vaughn-LTD, Malcolm Z. Dirge. There were many more. The ones I listed are part of my 45 collection. Others we were friends with: The Bassmen, Larry and the Loafers, The Kingsmen (not the famous ones), Daze of the Week, and Circus.
Packing list for the Ramblers 45 “Whole Lot Of Woman” / “Come Back, Come Back”The Ramblers, left to right: Johnny Robinson (seated), Chip Sanders, Chris Convey, Tommy Terrell and Van Veenschoten
Matt Faulkner spoke to Bob Burrows, vocalist and leader of Bobby Kris and the Imperials, and writes this article about the group:
Bobby Kris and the Imperials stood at the front of Toronto’s fruitful R&B scene in the mid-60s, alongside other notable acts like Richie Knight and The Mid-Knights, Mandala and Little Caesar and the Consuls. The group was one of the fourteen groups to take stage at the legendary “Toronto Sound” show at Maple Leaf Gardens, where they shared the stage with Toronto garage and psych greats such as Luke and the Apostles, The Ugly Ducklings, and the Paupers.
Originally titled J.S. and the Imperials, with Jimmy Snowden on vocals, the group had a number of lineup changes and recruitments from other bands. In early 1965, Bobby Kris joined the line up, and shortly after the key recording line up of the band was formed.
Bobby Kris (Bob Burrows) – vocals Jerry Mann (aka Jerry Shymanski) – tenor sax Rick Loth – tenor sax Marty Fisher – piano Gene Martynec – guitar Dave Konvalinka – bass Gordon MacBain – drums
The band fashioned themselves primarily an R&B outfit, having a hit with the Dionne Warwick classic “Walk On By”, and boasting a seven part line up, including two saxophones and keyboards. However, their recorded output does little to reflect this side of their sound, as the bulk of the songs on their two singles are more on the folky garage side of things. “Walk on By” was in fact the B-side of their first single, with the Bobby Kris/Gene Martynec penned “Travellin’ Bag” on the top side.
Their second single was fronted with a cover of Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me”, and a Byrds-like Kris/Martynec original, “A Year from Today” on the flip. It only took a lone three hour recording session for all four tracks to be laid down by the group, whom at the time consisted of Bobby Kris on lead vocals, Marty Fisher on keyboard, Gord MacBain on drums, Dave Konvalinka on bass, Gene Martynec on guitar, and Jerry Mann and Rick Loth sharing saxophone duties. Despite the recordings being a departure from their regular material, these singles hold up as worth while listening today, with “Travellin’ Bag” being one of my personal favourite recordings to come from the mid-60s “Toronto Sound”.
“We wrote the two songs as you know. To the best of my recollection we never played either one of them ever again,” said Kris, in one of our many online conversations. “For our normal fan base in Toronto, those songs were, well… an embarrassment, which explains why we never played them live. People who were into James Brown and Ray Charles didn’t want to hear Herman’s Hermits. If we played ‘Travellin’ Bag’ at one of those dances people would have thrown stuff at us.”
“The powers that be behind the recording session – including that wizard in the control room Stan and our supposed manager at the time, Fred White – determined that rhythm and blues was dead meat and that the only way for us to be successful was to make British style recordings. It didn’t occur to them that a lot of those British bands were in fact listening to American R&B. They didn’t want us to record ‘Walk On By’ at all. Not sure how we got away with that. In fact it was the B-side to ‘Travellin’ Bag’. Thankfully some DJ in Toronto turned it over! For some reason or other Eugene and I got commandeered or volunteered to write some songs, although we had never written any songs before. Somebody stumbled across a Dylan song that nobody had covered yet that we all liked. Not sure who did the arrangement on ‘She Belongs to Me.’ Likely Konvalinka.”
“We continued to be an R&B band after the session. We ended up trying some rather extreme experiments with some really fundamental blues songs by Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and such that was somewhat imitative of The Hawk’s recording with John Hammond Jr. – So Many Roads. But even then we were still fundamentally in the same musical neighbourhood. Unfortunately the pressure from all these supposed wise men to change our evil ways led to us throwing out the horns. No more three-piece silk and wool suits. Now we had flowery shirts or polka dots. Talk about not cutting your own path. Everyone in the world was doing that. Chances of being ‘discovered’ in that environment were about the same as winning the lottery. They say Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil. We sold ours to a bunch of dorks on Yonge St.”
“By the way, not long after that, along came Paul Butterfield and others who showed there was still a great market for that approach and style. We did have lots of fun eventually covering a new kind of material. We tried to be selective about it, and still leaned towards the bluesier stuff. That was the most fundamental problem Bobby Kris and The Imperials always had: We were exclusively a cover band. That’s mostly because we were playing teen dances and, later, bars where people expected to hear certain tunes, and you either played them or you didn’t play there. There was very little if any interest in original material in those venues.”
When doing some research on the group, I stumbled upon an interesting ad for one of the band’s shows later in their career. It was in 1968 at the Brass Rail Tavern, and the ad boasted that the show would feature “4 Topless Psychedelic Go-Go Dancers”. “We drank our brains out to get through the night there,” was Kris’s only remark.
During their tenure, the group managed to share the stage with an impressive list of bands, including The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Beach Boys, Jose Feliciano, and Wilson Pickett, who at the time boasted Jimi Hendrix on guitar. Hendrix actually joined The Imperials on stage during one of their sets at the Night Owl. However, by late 1967, enough band members had gone on to other projects, that the group decided to call it quits.
Gene Martynec went on to form Kensington Market in May, and in September Marty Fisher and Gord MacBaingot recruited for Bruce Cockburn’s Flying Circus. Kris auditioned for the vocal position in Flying Circus with a favourable outcome, until, as Kris puts it “they decided that no one could sing Bruce’s songs better than Bruce, which was true.” Kris went on to front Livingstone’s Journey for a brief period before reforming an altered line up of The Imperials in mid-1968. A year later Gord MacBain left the reformed Imperials to go to England and join Mapleoak with Marty Fisher and original Kinks bassist, Pete Quaife, and thus Bobby Kris and the Imperials were done for good.
Special thanks to Nick Warburton and Bob Burrows (aka Bobby Kris). You can check out Nick’s article for a more detailed history of the band here.
Thanks also to Ivan Amirault for the RPM article scans.
Bobby Kris also put out an EP in 1995 titled “Now” which you can check out on iTunes.
Nick Warburton assembled this list of advertised live shows:
Advertised gigs
June 18 1965 – Mimicombo, Mimico, Ontario July 9 1965 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario July 17 1965 – Purple Candle Club, Wasaga Beach, Ontario August 7 1965 – Purple Candle Club, Wasaga Beach, Ontario (new line up with Wayne and Loth) August 27 1965 – Dunn’s Pavilion, Bala, Ontario August 28 1965 – Club 888, Toronto September 4 1965 – Club 888, Toronto September 24 1965 – Mimacombo A Go-Go, Mimacombo, Ontario November 5 1965 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario (not sure about date) November 28 1965 – Avenue Road Club, Toronto December 18 1965 – Club 888, Toronto December 25 1965 – Gogue Inn, Toronto with The Sparrows and The Twilights December 26 1965 – Hop in the park, Toronto January 28 1966 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario January 29 1966 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto March 19 1966 – North Toronto Memorial Arena, Toronto April 13 1966 – O’Keefe Centre, Toronto with National Ballet Company and Susan Taylor April 15 1966 – North Toronto Memorial Arena, Toronto May 8 1966 – Massey Hall, Toronto with The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Big Town Boys and Little Caesar & The Consuls May 14 1966 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto (one of Wayne and Loth’s final dates) June 12 1966 – Modern Age Teen Lounge, Toronto (one of Davis’ first dates) June 26 1966 – Broom and Stone, Scarborough with The Five Rogues July 8 1966 – Balmy Beach Club, Scarborough, Ontario July 9 1966 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto July 13 1966 – Whitby Arena, Whitby, Ontario with The Five Rogues, The Ugly Ducklings and Jon and Lee & The Checkmates July 20 1966 – Don Mills Curling Club, Don Mills, Ontario with Jon and Lee & The Checkmates, The British Modbeats and Dunc & The Deacons July 22 1966 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario July 23 1966 – Hunter’s Beach Pavilion, Lake Simcoe, Ontario July 26 1966 – Balmy Beach Club, Scarborough, Ontario July 30 1966 – Purple Candle Club, Wasaga Beach, Ontario July 30-31 1966 – Purple Candle Club, Wasaga Beach, Ontario with R K & The Associates August 2 1966 – North Toronto Memorial Arena with The Stitch In Tyme and Luke & The Apostles (one of Shymanski’s final dates?) August 20 1966 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto August 21 1966 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario August 30 1966 – North Toronto Memorial Arena with The Five Rogues and The Fiends September 3 1966 – Port Carling Surf Club, Port Carling, Ontario September 9 1966 – Hawk’s Nest, Toronto September 16 1966 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario September 24 1966 – Maple Leaf Gardens with The Last Words, Luke & The Apostles, The Ugly Ducklings, The Tripp, The Paupers, The Big Town Boys, The Stitch In Tyme, The Spasstiks, Roy Kenner & The Associates, Little Caesar & The Consuls and others September 30 1966 – Gogue Inn, Toronto (blue room) October 8 1966 – Club 888, Toronto with The Tripp October 22 1966 – Club Kingsway, Toronto with Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs, The Ugly Ducklings and The Ardels November 27 1966 – El Patio, Toronto December 18 1966 – Boris’, Toronto December 23 1966 – Horseshoe Valley, Barrie, Ontario January 6 1967 – Gogue Inn, Toronto with A Passing Fancy and The Dana January 27 1967 – Shelburne Arena, Shelburne, Ontario March 1967 – The Syndicate Club, Toronto March 24 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto with Franklin Sheppard and The Good Sheppards and R K and The Associates May 13 1967 – Whitby Arena, Whitby, Ontario with Shawne Jackson, Jay Jackson & The Majestics, The Last Words, E G Smith & The Power, Jack Hardin & The Silhouettes, Roy Kenner & The Associates, The Tripp, The Ugly Ducklings and others (possibly one of Martynec’s final dates) May 27 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto June 9 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto June 10 1967 – Scarborough Arena Gardens, Scarborough, Ontario with Eddie Spencer & The Mission, The Magic Circus, The Tripp, Roy Kenner & The Associates, The Lords of London and others June 16 1967 – Bramalea Arena, Bramalea, Ontario with James and Bobby Purify with The Mission June 17 1967 – Don Mills Curling Club, Toronto with The Symbol July 29 1967 – Broom and Stone, Scarborough with BTB 4 and The Dynamics June 13-14 1968 – The Night Owl, Toronto July 19 1968 – Brass Rail Tavern, Toronto October 5 1968 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto June 19-21 1969 – The Night Owl, Toronto
Dates taken from the Toronto Telegram’s After Four section, Globe and Mail and Toronto Star.
RPM, November 15, 1965April 18, 1966RPM, May 16, 1966RPM, June 6, 1966RPM, June 6, 1966
Above, the original limited pressing of Van V-00262, with extra track “Gone”Van V-00262, as released to the public “Stick Shift” moved to the A-side
The Van Recording label was owned by Bobby Van Meter, his brother Charles Van Meter and Lonny Roberts, who sang on at least two 45s of his own on the label. They ran the label and studio out of a music shop in Lake Jackson or Clute, Texas, though the label shows different addresses, first Angleton and later Brazosport and Freeport.
Any help with this discography would be appreciated.
The numbering is systematic – the first three digits are the release # and last two are the year, so the Raiders “Stick Shift” (Van 00262) is the label’s second release (002) and dates to 1962 (62).
45s:
National issue on Vee Jay
00162 – Lawrence Flippo & the Futuras – Let’s Do It / Cry, Cry, Cry 00262 ¹– Raiders – (It’s a) Stick Shift (J. Caster, T. Simpson) / Skipping Around (also released on Vee Jay 504) 00362 – Lonny Roberts and the Futuras – Don’t You Know / One More Try 004 – ? 00563 – The Futuras – The Hum / The Walk 00663 – Raiders – It’s Motivation (J. Castor, T. Simpson, B. Pitcock) / On a Straight Away 00763 – Raiders – Supercharged / Cruising Low 00864 – Walter Crane with the Raiders – Everyday I Have the Blues / My Chances 00964 – Bobby Clanton – Angel / I Needed Love 01064 – Raiders – Raisin’ Cane / Repetition 01164 – Larry Dallas – The Two Step / I Forgot To Remember To Forget (also on Dallas DS 1) 01264 – Bobby Reed – Twistin’ Petition / Girl Of My Dreams 01364 – Lonny Roberts and the Raiders – Rugged But Right / Room Full of Roses 01464 – Originals – Scatter-Shot / Lucille 01564 – Melody-Aires – Surely I Will (A.E. Brumley) / River Of Jordan (H. Houser) 01664 – Bobby Clanton – The Way That You Are (M. Angel) / Was It Wrong Loving You 01764 – Herb Torres – Dalia / Tribute to J.F.K. 01864 – Ronnie Ellis and the Originals – Honey Blonde / One Little Raindrop (prod. by Wallace Schlemmer) 01964 – (The) Drag Rags – Judy / An Empty Cup (and a Broken Date) 020 – ? 02165 – Originals – Stick Shift ’65 / Blast-Off! 022 – ? 02365 – Larry Dallas – Cheatin’ Woman (Louis Hobbs) / Have I Waited Too Long (also on Majestic 1001) 024 – ? 025 – ? 02665 – Bobby Clanton and the Plateaus – You Can Have Her / An Adventure To You 02765 – The Gudell Brothers featuring the Melody Makers – Heart Full of Country Music / E-String Boogie Rock “recorded live on stage” 02865 – Ronnie Ellis – Goodnight Little Sweetheart / The Right Way of Doing Things Wrong 02965 – Marvin Paul – None of Your Business (Marvin Laqua) / Help Me, Mister Blues 03065 – Originals – Night Flight / Comanche! 03165 – The Hi-Rollers – Slave Chain / Runaway 03265 – The Dinos – Baby, Come On In (Bobby Lira) / This is My Story 033 – ? 034 – ? 03565 – Originals – Searching for Love / How Much of Your Heart (dir. by Lonny Roberts, rec. by Billy Snow) 03665* – Rex Eaton – Lying Lips, Cheating Arms / Shackles and Chains (Taylorville, IL) 03765 – White Twins (Ronnie and Tommy) – I Can Dream / Just Another Face 03865* – Dave & the Detomics – Detomic Orbit (Dave Bethard) / Shatter (issued Jan. 1966) 039 – ? 04066 – Originals – Hop, Skip and Jump / No Love For Me 04166 – Originals – I Can’t Forget / Old Enough to Break a Heart (D. McBride) 04266* – Dave & the Detomics feat. Jeanne Eickhoff – Soft White Gloves (Lillie Bethard) / Why Can’t I 04266 ²– Lonny Roberts & the Originals – Each Night At Nine / Only Want a Buddy (Not a Sweetheart) Majestic issue of Van V-02365 – which came first?04366* – Oglethorp & Othelow – I’ll Still Love You / Please Don’t Go Away (both by Donnie Bearup) 04466* – Embalmers – You’re a Better Man / Somewhere Land 04567* – Stingrays – In the Midnight Hour / Girl You Said It Again (Butch Ramelow) 04669 – Bobby Sanders & the Psychlones – Come Over to My World / I Can’t Take It 70-46 – Red Mann And The Country Continentals – Heartaches And Honky Tonks / The One Who Changed Is Me 70-47 ³– Lynn Hendrix and the Country Blue Boys – I Don’t Need Anything / I Let You Go (Freeport TX, prod. by Lonny Roberts) 70-48- Lonny Roberts with music by the Raiders – My Sweet Love Ain’t Around / Guys Like Me 70-49 – Walter Crane & Exposition – Someone Special (P. Pennington) / A Place! (prod.: B.J. VanMeter, dir.: James Henry, eng.: Ray Doggett) V-70-50 – Larry Weathers and the Raiders – The Crying Man / Driving Wheel, produced by L. Roberts, eng. by Ray Doggett, with pressing numbers LH-7384 and LH-7385 70-51 – ? 70-52 – ? 70-53 – Moonlighters – I Destroyed Myself / My Possessive Love (described as a country ballad, Pee Wee Kubon vocals on both sides) 70-54 – Larry Weathers – Believe In Me / Please Tell Me V-7201 – The Western Four – Butter Beans / Blueberry Hill V-73-02 – Mike Pepper, music by: “Pepper & Spice” – Let Me Be The Judge (C. Twitty) / A thing Called Sadness (C. Howard) (Mgr. Bob Geer, Producer: Lonnie Roberts, Director: Mike Pepper, Engineer: Ray Doggell) V-73-03 – Russell Davis and the Country Alibis – The Devil Made Me Lie / Down On Skid-Row V-73-06 – Mike Pepper – Seasons of the Past (C. Phillips – C. Kirk) / Take A Look Into Your Mind (M. Pepper) (Producer: L. Roberts, Director B. Sanders, Engineer C. Kirk)
LPs:
1-69 – Lonny Roberts – Presenting … the Sage of the West (The Bottle Is My Jailer; Loving You; The Devil & Me; Road To Your Heart; I Don’t Love You Anymore; Old Heartaches; Old Mountain Dew; Lonely, Lonely Man; False Impressions; Too Much Wine From The Bottle; You’re Just A Memory; What About Your Mistakes)
* denotes a Van record produced by Oscar Wells in Taylorville, Illinois.
In the mid-’60s Van released at least six 45s produced by Oscar J. Wells: two by Dave & the Detomics, one each by Rex Eaton, the Embalmers and Oglethorp & Othelow, and one or two by the Sting Rays. I’d like to hear those and learn the story behind them. Dave and the Detomics came from Morrisonville, Illinois. Mike Markesich tells me the Embalmers came from Mason City, IL, and the Sting Rays from Springfield, IL. If anyone has good scans or transfers of these 45s, please contact me.
Notes: ¹ Very rare three-song EPs of Van V-00262 were pressed prior to the two-song issue, probably as demonstration copies to decide which of the three songs to release. The A-side had “Skipping Around” and the B-side “Stick Shift” and “Gone”. Confusingly, “Gone” was actually the Raiders’ version of the Duals song “Stick Shift” but mislabeled. On the EP scans, publishing and song writing info is written in pen (Jessie Caster and Terry Simpson, Glad Music BMI), along with the prefix “(It’s A)” before “Stick Shift”. “Gone” also has “-Gone” written next to it, which I think means to not include this song in the finished two-track 45. I still haven’t heard “Gone”.
² Two 45s issued given the 04266 catalog #, the Lonny Roberts & the Originals was a Texas recording, Dave & the Detomics were from Illinois.
³ In 1970, the numbering changes, so the first two digits are the year recorded, and the second two seem to indicate release # (a Walter Crane disc has LH-7281 which indicates a May, 1970 pressing).
Thank you to Mike, Brian Kirschenbaum, DrunkenHobo, Jim, Laurent Bigot, Barry Wickham, Billy Gibbons, porcupine, eleelandc, Chris Harpe, Eric Lelet, Jeff Brant, Jason Chronis, Dennis Wilson and Bob of Dead Wax for their help with this discography.
For more on Ronnie Ellis and the Originals see the article I’ve posted here.
Demo pressing of Van V-00262, “Skipping Around” listed as A-sideAnother rare copy of the Raiders’ 3-song EP, sent to me by Jessie CasterAnother rare copy of the Raiders’ 3-song EP, sent to me by Jessie Caster
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
In the mid 1960’s the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana became a center for innovative jazz and avant-garde electronic and computer music. Starting in 1967, the Red Herring Coffeehouse just off the main quad on W Oregon became a center for folk artists. And of course there was a thriving band scene at the Illini Brown Jug and other student beer joints. For those not familiar with that area’s geography, the school is located in eastern-central Illinois, roughly equidistant from Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis.
I’ve only heard a few of these records. The Cliques has had the most exposure, showing up on Back From the Grave vol. 7. I’ve heard one side of the Keepers, which is good harmony pop, and the first Prodigies 45, “Kysmyph (KIS-MIF)” a bluesy instrumental with sax and some odd organ sounds, backed with “Don’t Look Back”, which starts out with a hip bossa groove but the vocals are square, mimicking the complex harmonies on brazilian groups from the time.
Other Rofran productions:
Notes:
From a reader:
The arrangement of the vocals on “Mary Anne” is very much like the singing in the Stereo Shoestring’s “On the Road South”, but otherwise the songs are different. Songwriting credits to James Noe and John Coco. “Sunflower” has a country-rock feel to it, and a lot of fine guitar picking from Tommy Durham. It was written by Coco and Durham.
Lead guitarist Ric Gonzalez sent me a copy of the 45 and the photos seen here, and answered my questions about the band:
The Wild Ones of Richmond, Virginia put out one 45 in late ’65 featuring two original songs. The A-side is “Listen to the Drums”, an atmospheric chant led by Rennie Renfro’s drumming on the toms and bassist Rick Payne’s lead vocals. The flip “Baby I Love You” is wilder. Loosely structured after “Twist and Shout”, there are fine lead vocals by Jimmy Sandy and great piercing screams after the line “do you love me?” Both songs have excellent natural reverb and feature Jim Sandy’s sharp lead guitar playing.
Rennie: So both bands played again and the judges left again, came back and announced that there was still a tie (not a good thing, having an even number of judges), we played yet again and they finally decided it with a coin toss with the Barracudas finishing first and we were second. So while we would have like to finished first, it was still quite an honor to have been one of the top three bands!
I went on to play in an R&B group that practiced a lot but rarely was booked, that lasted a few months. They had a female drummer that I had first seen in the east end of Richmond with her then band of “Barbara and the Boys”. After the R&B group broke up, Barbara called me a few months later and asked if I was playing with a group, she was very excited and said that she was playing with a San Francisco type rock group that would soon be the house band for a new club opening up near VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), the new club was owned by several VCU students. She asked me to come audition for this new band called the Lower Floor and I ended up with them and indeed we were the house band for that club while it lasted. We were putting on quite a show, breaking up equipment on stage, the club had a full light show with strobes and oil/water projectors.
Bobby & the Farrari’s cut this great 45 in 1967. “Farrari’s” is a misspelling for “Ferraris” as in Ferrari, the car.This is the first iteration of Bobby & the Galaxies. The group consisted of me on vocals and guitar, Rick Philbert on bass and backup vocals, Dave Ray on drums, Boh Kiriutowski on sax, and Johnny Pastel on organ. “Tearing My Heart Out” was written by Carl Gastall, and I wrote “Giggle Wiggle”. This record was never released. [There was] a live taping that was done by the later and better version of Bobby & the Galaxies.
We did take after take of “I’ll Still Love You” and it was almost always a failure of the recorder or the tape itself that meant we had to re-do it. I would estimate we did as many as 30 takes, and even the one that was used had a flub in it. Oscar Wells was very patient, didn’t contribute anything to the music, just let us do what we did. I think he was most interested in recording my friend Mick on the Coke bottles on “Please Don’t Go Away”, there was a lot of natural echo on it and it took awhile to get the sound right. I think we may have done three takes on “Please Don’t Go Away”, it was intended to be a quick B-side, but it was the side that got airplay and that everyone loved. Donnie Bearup wrote both songs. Greg’s guitar was so out-of-tune on “Please Don’t Go Away”, but such a great punkish guitar solo, and acoustic! By the time we recorded that we had spent 2 or 3 hours on “I’ll Still Love You”, and we were just getting to a B-side. If we had known “Please Don’t Go Away” would become the A-side I’m sure we would have tuned-up!
If I remember correctly, Oscar Wells had 300 or 500 copies of “Please Don’t Go Away” / “I’ll Still Love You” pressed. We were getting daily airplay on the Taylorville and Decatur radio stations and he sold all of the copies very quickly, I’m sure he thought he was on his way to the big time. Then he had another 300 or 500 copies made and I don’t think he sold any of them. That first batch was the limit of Oglethorp and Othelow fans. I remember going to his studio on Sundays and there were boxes and boxes of our record sitting there. I think the major reason why the second batch of records didn’t sell was also because two or three weeks went by before they were delivered and by then we were no longer receiving airplay in Taylorville and Decatur. I seem to recall Oscar complaining about not having any records to sell. Then when they arrived it was too late.
In 1967, the group recorded another record at Boutwell Recording Studio, “Come Back, Come Back” / “Whole Lot Of Woman” written by keyboardist, Chip Sanders. The record experienced moderate success in the Alabama area, but college priorities prevented the group from properly promoting the record. Ed Boutwell, Birmingham recording pioneer, continued to use The Ramblers as back up musicians on many recording sessions at his studio.
The band fashioned themselves primarily an R&B outfit, having a hit with the Dionne Warwick classic “Walk On By”, and boasting a seven part line up, including two saxophones and keyboards. However, their recorded output does little to reflect this side of their sound, as the bulk of the songs on their two singles are more on the folky garage side of things. “Walk on By” was in fact the B-side of their first single, with the Bobby Kris/Gene Martynec penned “Travellin’ Bag” on the top side.
When doing some research on the group, I stumbled upon an interesting ad for one of the band’s shows later in their career. It was in 1968 at the Brass Rail Tavern, and the ad boasted that the show would feature “4 Topless Psychedelic Go-Go Dancers”. “We drank our brains out to get through the night there,” was Kris’s only remark.
02365 – Larry Dallas – Cheatin’ Woman (Louis Hobbs) / Have I Waited Too Long (also on Majestic 1001)
