I can’t find much info on this Greek band. The Hippy’s had two 45s. “Perigiali”, their first on the Astron label, is supposed to be their best. They’re actually only on one side of this record, the other is a dire pop song by some other artist.
I presume their name is derived from “hip” and not “hippies.”
The Balladeers were from Woonsockett, Rhode Island. In the summer of 1965 they traveled twenty miles north to Framingham, Massachusetts to record this 45 at Continental Recording Studios. It appears to have been the first record released on studio owner Tom Flynn’s Cori label.
“Words I Want to Hear” is an original by Robert Allen, who may have been in the group. The song starts with a subdued atmosphere of just acoustic guitar, percussion and solo voice. Bass and harmonies add momentum until the cathartic moment when the guitarist breaks into the chorded solo.
“High Flying Bird” is one of those songs that bridged the transition from folk to rock, like “House of the Rising Sun” and “Hey Joe”. Written by Billy Ed Wheeler and originally recorded by Judy Henske, it was covered by many groups, including We Five, the Jefferson Airplane and the Canadian band the Plague, who do a great psychedelicized version. The Balladeers take is as excellent as any of these.
Roland ‘Skip’ Boucher wrote to me about how he built Continental Recordings with Dan Flynn and his brother John Flynn. Skip also told me about a release I hadn’t known about – the Balladeers first 45 on the one-off E.P. Scroggs label, also recorded at Continental:
We built the studio in 1962. We were just out of high school and rented space on the second floor of a building in Framingham. We made the walls out of plywood and filled them with sand to soundproof them. In the picture you can see a door, which is also plywood and filled with sand and there is a small interlock and another plywood door leading to the control room.
I met the Balladeers in the spring of 1964 and that’s when we recorded “Cape Cod Here We Come” and it was released in early summer of 1964.
They were a very good group. Really national level in their talent. “Cape Cod Here We Come” was not in their usual repertoire. They normally did pieces that were similar to the Kingston Trio. They were almost too polished for the ’60’s. If they had been a little rougher, I think they would have fit better with the times. Their style was more of a late ’50’s style.
They had a great sound though and it was great to work with them in the studio, because they were so good.
Dan, John and I worked at WBZ in the summer of 1963 and 1964. In the fall of 1964 I went to work full time for Channel 38 in Boston and that reduced the amount of time that I could spend at Continental. I signed up the Harvard Lampoon to do an album that parodied folk and rock groups. They arranged for musicians from the Berkley school of music and they funded the upgrade of an 8 track recorder for us [Continental].
I also worked on the electronics, building a power supply for the main mixer, because the original one had never worked properly and Dan had been running it from a pair of 12 volt batteries. I did a number of radio and television commercials at Continental with people I knew at Boston TV and radio stations.
I also designed and laid out several of the album covers, including the Rising Storm and others, but I was not involved in the recordings anymore and Dan brought in a new partner at some point in the late sixties. I think this partner’s focus was on bands, so he may have been involved with the groups you mentioned. Later, Dan became more involved with radio station jingle packages.
Dan still has what remains of Continental at his home. He has a small studio and recording equipment and has a large collection of old master tapes. However, I did go through them a couple of years ago and they didn’t seem to go back to the early days.
“Cape Cod Here We Come” was written by J. Martone. In March 1967, the Balladeers released one additional 45 on the Seven Seas label, “Used to Be” / “Goin’ Out of My Head”, which I haven’t heard, but is considered light vocal pop.
Gary Stites was a pop idol in the ’50s but is best known as the first manager of the Birdwatchers. He started the Living Legend and Legend labels, the “Legend” refering to himself, naturally!
The Birdwatchers at this point were Dave Chiodo guitar, Bobby Puccetti keys, Jim Tolliver bass, and Eddie Martinez drums and were based near Ft. Lauderdale. They had already released three 45s on the Tara label, the second and third of which list Stites as producer.
For some reason Gary decided to try his hand at singing again, with the Birdwatchers backing him up. “Real Appeal” is good uptempo ’50s-ish rock, with an uncredited girl chorus. The flip, “While I’m Gone” is kind of a poor man’s Roy Orbison. This 45 did better than any of the early Birdwatchers records, peaking at #22 on WQAM in August ’65.
In early ’66 the Birdwatchers dramatically changed their lineup and relocated to Miami. Chiodo and Tolliver left, to be replaced by Joey Murcia on guitar and Jerry Schils (formerly of the Canadian Legends) on bass. Sammy Hall, vocalist with the Mor-Loks, who were also managed by Stites early on, completed this second phase of the Birdwatchers. This lineup went on to some national success with “Girl I’ve Got News For You” and “I’m Gonna Love You Anyway”.
A year later, Tommy Strand & the Upper Hand remade “Real Appeal” for their 45 on Living Legend. Stites also reused the flip, “While I’m Gone” for the b-side of a 45 by the Legendary Street Singers (actually the Gents Five).
The French Church were a band from Marquette, Michigan, a small town on Lake Superior about 180 miles north of Green Bay. Members were Mike Cleary singing lead vocals, John Spratto on guitar, Gordon MacDonald on bass, and his brother Warren MacDonald on drums.
I asked John Spratto how the band was named: “A good friend of the band, Floyd Maki, suggested we name it the French Church which is what St. John’s Catholic Church in Marquette was known as amongst the old timers. We were a little rebellious and figured that might get a rise out of certain people which would bring notoriety to the band. Some people, my mother actually, didn’t care for the name at first, but it was OK after a while, didn’t cause too much consternation.”
A sign for Slapneck inspired Gordon MacDonald and John to write a song imagining life in a small community in the woods. The band paid Princeton label owner Fred Krook to release the song, recorded in a studio located in the basement of a Marquette lumber company in early 1968.
Harry Walker, he’s the milkman there, No bills are paid, ah, he’s not well Slapneck, come on along with me yeah, Come on along with me, Yeah if you want to be free
Mrs. R.J. Green, she runs a restaurant there The tables they’re clean and the manners they’re clear Slapneck, come on along with me, Come on along with me, Yeah if you want to be free
The lyrics are quaint, but the playing is ferocious. From the sliding chords that open the song, John Spratto lays down some of the heaviest distortion ever put to vinyl.
The flip is a more conventional number, Without Crying, written by MacDonald and Mike Cleary.
John Spratto: “I am all grown up now and a Managing Partner in a CPA firm. Gordon recently retired as a music teacher and his brother Warren still owns MacDonald’s Music Store in Marquette.
“We got together about 5 years ago and recorded a dozen original songs that we wrote together and individually over the last 42 years. We got together again a couple of years ago with our boys who also play and recorded another 6 original songs. They are all very good songs. (My opinion anyway). One of the ones with our boys was a remake of Slapneck 1943.”
Sources: My correspondence with John Spratto, and Steve Seymour’s blog on Upper Peninsula music, Rock n Roll Graffiti.
Out of Little Rock, Arkansaas, the Romans were Gary Hall lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Phil Miller lead guitar, Rocky Hestes keyboards and vocals, Charles Wycott bass, and Greg Kempner on drums.
Earl Fox began the E&M Recording studios in 1959, and started the My label in early 1966. The Romans were one of the first bands featured on the label.
“You Do Something to Me” uses one of the earliest recorded examples of phasing to create a hypnotic effect. I wonder if the phasing was intentional or if it happened by accident and the group went with it. The flip is an excellent folky ballad, “I’ll Find a Way”. This was released in a sleeve with a photo of the band in Roman legionnaire costumes in May of 1966. As far as I know it was the only 45 on My issued with a picture sleeve.
Jerry Blacklaw wrote “You Do Something to Me”, “I’ll Find a Way” and the flip of their second 45, “I Just Had to Fall (in Love)”. Jerry was a student at Central High in Little Rock who was brought in specifically to write songs for the Romans. In later years he composed religious songs.
In October of ’65 they released their second 45, choosing to do a cover of Levon and the Hawks’ “He Don’t Love You”, written by Robbie Robertson. (Did the group know Levon Helm was from Marvell, Arkansas, east of Little Rock?)
In 1967 the band was moving in a soul-oriented direction, adding a two man horn section of Bob Younts on sax and Bobby Lincoln on trumpet. Richard Shook replaced Charles Wycott on bass, and Jim Matthews took over on drums for Greg Kempner. These Romans cut a third record, “Think It Over” / “You Won Your Victory”, the latter song, written by new bassist Richard Shook, sounding very much like Wilson Pickett’s “Ninety Nine and a Half”.
They soon changed their name to Merging Traffic and released their last 45 on “My, Ain’t No Need (In Me Fooling Myself)” / “Something Special”. Decca signed the band for one 45, “Bit by Bit” / “Deep in Kentucky”, which had some local chart success, notably in Connecticut and Rochester, NY.
Some members reunited for a show of Little Rock bands in 1999.
Update: I recently spoke to Rick Harrington, who gave this history of his work as manager of the Romans and another act, the Groovin’ Kind:
I was working at Tommy’s clothing store in Little Rock and managing the college men’s area. Gary Hall and Richard Shook came in the store and I stopped them to tell them I had just heard them the day before playing at Lake Nixon I believe it was. The group’s name was the Playboys. I praised their harmonies and loved the tightness of the group. They did a lot of Beatle tunes that blew me away. Like Nowhere Man … sooooooo good.
They kind of blew me off and I said hey wait a minute, I know what I’m talking about. I’m a drummer and had the first rock and roll band in Rochester, New York. The group I started out with in Rochester was the Easy Rockers and then after a couple of years I ended up with the Crazy Crickets. This was back in the mid fifties. (By the way this is why we had the success we had in Rochester with the record. I promoted it there with some friends on the radio and record stores).
Well they were losing their drummer for some reason and asked me to audition. Long story short the group broke up at my audition. I may not have been what they were looking for as I see it now.
They came back a couple of weeks later and asked me to join the group. I was elated and then they told me they wanted me as their manager and not their drummer. I took the challenge and excelled at it. They were changing some of the members and the name to the Romans.
My involvement was 24/7 with those boys. I booked all of their gigs. Set their prices high enough where those high school boys were making excellent money at the time. I drove them to their gigs in my ’65 Pontiac Catalina pulling a horse trailer converted to look like a chariot for the Romans. I even had my mother-in-law at the time design and make their roman togas for their shows.
The record deal with My Records was on a handshake really. No contract. Earl Fox and John Hannon (I believe that was his last name) were partners in the studio. We all produced everything that was recorded there by the Romans. I’m not really sure who found who. Whether someone in the band like Gary Hall or myself got the studio involved. Then again maybe Earl Fox heard the band somewhere and sought us out.
I do know that I talked Earl and John into letting me use the studio for rehearsals every day after school for about 3 hours. No charge. They were really good to us. I had them rehearsing every single day after school at E&M studios to get the show presentable enough to demand the high prices I was able to demand for them.
My car logged over 100,000 miles in one year and never left the State of Arkansas. I was somewhat older so I acted as a chaperone when we had to spend the night out of town. They were just teenagers and I was about 25 or 26 years old.
I also took them to Nashville, got them hooked up with Bobby Goldsboro’s producer at the time (Tony Moon) who suggested changing the name to the Merging Traffic because every time people got on the Interstate we would get free advertising. We had their publicity photos done in front of one of those signs.
When the Romans asked me to be their personal manager (that’s when the Beatles had Brian Epstein and all bands wanted a manager), I ended up quitting my job at Tommy’s Clothing Store and went full time managing, booking, promoting and producing. I had a great run for many years doing that. Mostly small time but a wonderful life of great music and great friends.
At first it was an exclusive thing with me and the Romans but after a couple of years and other bands always asking me to book them or manage them, I was lured by becoming so much in need. And besides that, Gary Hall’s mother wanted to manage the Romans and was squeezing me out. That ended up getting them nowhere of course.
[Later there was] the first inter-racial group in Arkansas called The Groovin’ Kind. It wasn’t easy traveling with three black guys and four whites in Arkansas. We had a hell of a time in several truck stops and restaurants. But that group was exceptional also.
Joe Mike Hammond was the lead singer and was absolutely dynamite. Andy MacMahon played a mean Hammond B3 organ with that group. I remember begging his parents to let him play on the road weekends. They gave in. He later went on to play with Jimmy Buffet, Tracy Nelson and many others in the studio and on the road. A very talented guy.
The Groovin’ Kind had three black guys singing mostly backup. They had some choreography also. They were in the Air Force out at Little Rock Air Force Base and one of them was transferred so we ended up with just two. But they were great.
I asked Tommy Riggs (Rock Robbins) the night time DJ on KAAY radio a 100,000 [actually 50,000] watt station in Little Rock to allow us to do some intro promos for him and other DJs. So all day and all night long we had promos playing for all the DJs on that station. The lyrics went like this, “Groovin’ … oh we’re the Groovin’ Kind. Groovin’ … and now it’s Rock Robbins Tiiiiiiimmmme.”
This was to the tune of Groovin’ by the Young Rascals. It was hokey but very effective in getting us some name recognition in about three or four states. So booking was no problem.
Rick Harrington, August 2009 Past Manager of the Romans/Merging Traffic Also Manager of “The Groovin’ Kind”, “House”, “Wildwood” and “Medicine Wheel”. http://www.RickHarringtonsArt.ning.com
Sonny Day and the Sundowners came together in Auckland around 1960. The band had numerous changes in lineup, but long-time members included Sonny Day on rhythm guitar, Bob Wynyard on lead, Teddy Toi on bass, Max Purdy on piano, Lloyd Tangaio on sax, and Graeme ‘Trixie’ Willoughby and Lionel Kennedy on drums.They had a number of releases on the Viking and Zodiac labels. Although I haven’t yet heard the Viking releases, I’m familiar with all of their Zodiac work except the one 45 released as by Dave Henry and the Sundowners.
“Baby Jane” was written for the UK group the Applejacks by Pete Dello and Ray Cane, some years before they formed Honeybus. It seems to have made its mark in the Antipodes, as the Pleazers also covered it.
Sundowners 45 releases:
on Viking: Wolverton Mountain / Minimum Wage How Many Times / Ta Ta Hullo Out There / More and More and More Limbo Party EP
on Zodiac: Baby Jane / Keep A Knocking – Zodiac 1007 Hawaiian Wedding Song / Little Lovely One (as Sonny Day and the Sundowners) – Zodiac 1135 Tell Me Why / Johnny B Goode – Zodiac 1158 The Nitty Gritty / Things Will Be Different – Zodiac 1173 Ain’t Got No Home / Raindrops (as Dave Henry and the Sundowners)
Recently I had the pleasure of hearing from Lionel Kennedy, drummer for the Sundowners and the Maori Kavaliers. Following are his recollections of the Sundowners:
I was the Sundowners’ drummer from ’63 to ’65. I am originally from Sydney and on a whim left home early March ’63, took my drums and went off to New Zealand and have not lived in Australia since. I joined the Sundowners days after I arrived in Auckland and at our first rehearsal we did the advance pre-release of the Beatles’ Please Please Me and life as I knew it immediately changed.
In very early 1962 I remember watching Brian Henderson’s “Bandstand” when the Sundowners came on and did a spot. I clearly remember them saying that they had adopted the name Sundowners from the movie that was current at that time called the Sundowners with I believe Robert Mitchum and Ann Baxter. Little did I realize that I would be part of the band about nine months later. Their lineup on Bandstand was Bob Wynyard lead [guitar], Sonny Day rhythm, Ted Toi bass and Trixie Willoughby drums. If memory serves I think they came to Sydney as part of a Johhny Devlin show but I could be mistaken.
Prior to their Sydney trip they had done a stint I believe for a couple of years at a coffee shop cafe in Auckland called the Tijuana. Yuk Harrison was on bass and a drummer I don’t remember. The drummer was replaced with Trixie, and Yuk left and was replaced by Teddy Toi. With that line up they went to Sydney.
Upon returning to Auckland still early ’62 they took up residency at the Trades Hall and were being managed by Dave Duningham (you can see his name on that record label as producer).
By the time I arrived in Auckland at the end of March 1963 they had recorded all the Viking tracks and Trixie had left and was replaced with a young drummer named Tiger Murphy. He was not with them long and I replaced him at the beginning of April ’63.
Also there were a couple of additions – Max Purdy on piano, Lloyd Tangaio on tenor sax and Dave Henry as vocalist. Because of the Beatles turning point Bob, Sonny, Ted and I did separate quartet gigs in and around Auckland and just did Beatle stuff but our main gig was at the Trades Hall.
When I first arrived in New Zealand I was offered a try out with Ray Columbus and the Invaders but before that could happen I tried out with the Sundowners and loved it from the start. They were just great people and I loved their approach to music. Ray and all the Invaders became close friends but I never regretted joining the Sundowners. I suppose it was that particular showband style that I enjoyed so much.
Towards the end of 1963 we added a female vocalist Cheryl Allison and in early ’64 added Marsh Cook on tenor, formally of the Quinn Tikis and other great Maori groups at that time. At one time including Cheryl and Dave we were a nine piece group, quite unusual for that time.
The band was doing very well and we were getting huge crowds at the Trade. We did some TV spots at that time. I don’t remember the shows but one was hosted by Pete Sinclair. I also during that time doubled on trumpet so with the two tenors plus a trumpet we had a great sound. I had played trumpet many years earlier, in a Dixieland group in Sydney from 1955 (I was 14) until around 1960 when I started to play drums.
Recording
I was not on the Viking tracks. They were recorded with Trixie Willoughby, but I was on all the others including Dave Henry’s single. The Sundowners also recorded an E.P with Trixie on drums at Viking called “Limbo Party.” All of these I believe were recorded after their return from Sydney. All in all I recorded five singles with the group.
“Tell Me” (flip side of “Johnny B. Goode”) and “Things Will Be Different” (flip side of “The Nitty Gritty”) I co-authored with Bob Wynard, the lead guitarist and band leader. We also may have written the one on the flip side of Sonny’s Hawaiian Wedding Song, “Little Lovely One” but am not sure. Bob and I wrote a whole bunch of songs during that time so forgive me if I’m a little hazy.
Although Sonny Day was the lead band vocalist the front man vocalist was Dave Henry and we recorded “Ain’t Got No Home” and “Raindrops” with him on Zodiac.
Breakup and the Maori Kavaliers
Around mid 1964 for reasons still inexplicable Sonny left the group. He had been such a mainstay that it was difficult to think we could have gone on without him. But we did and we added a male vocalist who was really good and I only remember his name was Alan.
So we got thru the rest of ’64 and returned to Mount Maunganui for another Xmas season and Dave Dunningham all of a sudden fired us. At that time Bob Wynard and I were doing side work with Peter Posa and right at that moment he called us and Bob and I went over to Rotarua and did a show with Peter at the farewell concert for the Howard Morrison quartet at the Rotarua Sound Shell. After, Bob and I returned to the Mount, joined everyone else and came back to Auckland. Ted Toi joined Max Merritt and went off to Sydney.
Although Sonny had left the group earlier he and I were both staying at a boarding house so around mid-January we were hanging out at the Shiralee when we bumped into Gilbert Tong who had been looking for us around town. He made us a proposition to go up to Noumea and play in his night club the ‘Tahiti Cabaret’ and replace the band who was leaving, the Kavaliers without Freddy Kiel. They went on to Sydney and Sonny and I set up shop in their place at the club. A few months later Gilbert our boss set up a deal here in Tahiti to do a grand opening of the big new hotel in Tahiti the Hotel Taaone. He brought the boys (the remainder of the Kavaliers) back from Sydney and we put together a showband and came to Tahiti.
The band was called the Maori Kavaliers:
Sonny Day Lionel Kennedy Toko Pompey – tenor and all round singer/showman Gerry Gerard – vocalist Brian (Tuffy) Smith (Kavaliers) Bill Peters lead guitar (Kavaliers)
The band was a tremendous success in Tahiti. We returned to Noumea and immediately took off with the same show and did a tour of the New Hebrides. Came back to Noumea, the band broke up and Sonny and I returned to Tahiti and the Hotel Taaone. During the late sixties at the Hotel Taaone it was almost like old home week. Every month we had a new floor show and they were all without exception the old friends from NZ, i.e Peter Posa, Dinah Lee, Howard Morrison, Eliza Keil, Tony Williams just to name a few.
Sonny went back to NZ I believe early 1967 and I stayed on in Tahiti and am still here. I continued to play but because of things out of my control I decided to stop playing and got work in the hotel business and am still doing that. I have a son and a daughter both in their thirties and two grandchildren. I am now 67 and am doing fine. At the hotel that I manage I started a jazz night on Wednesdays and it has become quite popular but it gives me the opportunity to play again.
I had no contact at all with any of the band members until August of last year when Max Purdie finding my email let me know that Sonny had passed away. And just last week he emailed me to tell me that there would be a big memorial to Sonny this coming August so in short after confirming that everyone will be there all of us will reunite after 44 years for a jam session at the Kings Arms in Auckland, August 17th, 2008.
I am really excited about the memorial. It will my first time back in 43 years. I believe Ted and Bob both now live in Australia but have confirmed that they will be there. With any luck I may bump into Eldred Stebbing of Zodiac so I will see if any of the singles are available, I sure hope so. I had lost all my photo albums and copies of the recordings over thirty years ago. I haven’t heard those songs for over forty years.
Lionel Kennedy
More infomation on the Sundowners is available at the New Zealand Music of the 60’s site. Thank you to Lionel for his in-depth story and for the photo scans.
Gene Ricky and the Swingers cut “What You Wanted Most” for Huey Meaux’s Pic 1 label of Pasadena, just SE of Houston. Gene sounds to me like a rockabilly singer adapting to the new style, but if so he does it well. I’d like to know who the Swingers were, they have that spare Texas sound down.
The plug side “If All Goes Well” (both sides written by Lynn Boudreaux) is milder music.
Gene Ricky had an earlier single with The Ravens that I haven’t heard yet, “There’s More for You” / “Without True Love” on Shane Records in 1964.
Another Texas band on Pic 1 is the Argyles with “Farmer John” / “White Lightnin'” released shortly after the Gene Ricky record.
The Fab Four are a long-active group from Kansas City, Missouri. They evolved out of the Midknighters, formed in 1959 by Bob Theen and Alex Love. After a name change to the Fabulous Four Jacks, they shortened it to the Fabulous Four in 1961 and to the Fab Four by the time of their second record.
In 1963 Theen and Love added two new members to form a unit that would be together for fifteen years. Jeff Mann joined after original guitarist Dick Wilson was drafted and Mike Myers of Kansas City’s Silvertones replaced keyboardist Bill Bryant. Their first show with this lineup was at the Combo Club.
An EP from August, 1964 may be their earliest recordings. This was not given a full release; it seems AGL Enterprises pressed only a few copies for either booking or publishing promotion. The recordings are basic, and filled with reverb.
The songs included are “And Now You Cry”, a ballad; the mid-tempo “Dah Dah Dai” which has a stinging guitar solo buried in the mix; “All You Gotta Do” with strong doo-wop vocals; and a piano-driven rocker, “Miss Brown”. All four songs were originals by the group, written by Alex Love, Jeffrey Mann, Michael Meyers and Robert Theen, published by Happiness Music Corp.
I asked Bob Theen about this EP and he wrote:
Probably the the first thing we ever recorded. Some little studio that used to be at a place called the Blue Ridge Mall in Independence, MO. Don’t even remember the name of the studio, it wasn’t there very long. I remember we wrote all four of the songs. Didn’t know they were ever copyrighted. I still have one of those old 45’s.
I found four additional songs in the Library of Congress copyright registrations from January, 1965, but recordings of these have not yet turned up. Again, all are originals credited to the full band: “But You Don’t Love Me”, “She’ll Be Hurtin'”, “Sun Dog”, and “Who Could It Be”, and published by Happiness Music Corp.
The band wrote the melancholy “Now You Cry” for their first single, b/w the folky pop song “Got To Get Her Back”. George Hodes, owner of Prior Brass Co. recorded the group in his living room, and issued it on the Brass label in 1964. Coral soon picked it up for national distribution, but it missed the charts.
Guitarist Bob Theen wrote to me about the band:
This first 45 was released in 1966 on a local Kansas City label (Brass) and then picked up by Decca Records and re-released on the Coral label.
I’m sure you figured it out but we really were The Fabulous Four all those years, it was just the record companies that wanted to change our name on the records. I’m not really sure when everyone started calling the Beatles The Fab Four. That probably had something to do with it. But, we were the Fab Four long before the Beatles.
In our nightly performances we all sang lead and background vocals. That’s why our songs all sound so different.
I like their second 45 even more, “Happy”, with its shrill organ, harmonies, sharp guitar lines, also produced by George Hodes, and written by Theen and Mann.
Both sides of the third 45 are also good. “I’m Always Doing Something Wrong” was written by J. Coffin (a member of In Black and White with Hal Pierce, and later The Wizards From Kansas), and once again the harmonies really come through. The flip is a cover of “Youngblood” with distortion on the guitar. Don Price produced this one.
In 1967 the group landed a great opportunity to travel New York to record “I’m the Only One” and “Break Away” as the Next Exit for Warner Bros, produced by the Tokens. “Break Away” was written by Stephen Friedland (aka Brute Force) and Paul Kahan, and is well-crafted psychedelic pop.
Bob Theen: This song was recorded in NY in 1967, produced by The Tokens. It was supposed to be the title song for a movie that was released that next year in 1968 called “Butterflies Are Free’ The movie did come out it ‘68 but for some reason unknown to us our recording was not chosen. The song “I’m The Only One” was in the movie but only one short verse was sung by one of the stars on an acoustic. Darn the luck!! The other side of this is “Breakaway”.
Our version of the song was released in the spring of 1968 and got some air play here in K.C. MO. Don’t know about anywhere else. But evidently it wasn’t a smash hit.
I still have a letter from Hank and Jay asking us to return to NY for some more recordings but for some reason at the time the trip was too far. I still wonder to this day why we didn’t go. I think it had something to do with our families, wives, babies and that sort of thing.
They recorded their last record as the Fabulous Four in 1969, “River Days” / “I Got A Feeling In My Body” on Pearce, cut at Cavern Studios in Independence.
Also at Cavern they cut two songs written and produced by Michael Weakley (“Quint” Weakley, drummer for the Electric Prunes) that got a rare release on Squeakly Records with the band listed as ‘Pretty’. Both songs show the band tackling heavy psychedelic sounds, a completely different style of music than they’d done on record before.
Bob Theen gave me the background on these recordings:
During the years 1969 to 1971 we did a lot of recording at a local studio by the name of Cavern Recording Studios located in Independence, MO on Truman Road. It was a very unique studio because it was actually located in a huge cave in the hillside, hence the name Cavern. Talk about quiet!
We recorded a lot of songs there. Some we wrote, some we co-wrote, some other people wrote. We also had some of our friends set in on some of the sessions. Two of the songs recorded there were titled “Mustache In Your Face” and “The Electric Hand” produced by a guy named Michael Quinton Weekly. Michael was also the drummer for The Electric Prunes. We wrote and recorded a lot of other songs there, most we thought were pretty good, just couldn’t get them off the ground on our own.
Q. Was that 45 all the members of the Fab Four? Why the change of name?
Bob: The “Pretty” record was all the members of the Fab Four band plus a couple of other friends that sat in with us. I think maybe Weekly [sic] even played the drums. It was completely different from what we had been recording, but not so different from what we were used to playing live at the clubs every night, we were pretty versatile. Weekly just sparked a different side of us.As far as the name change, it was Weekly again. He was a little far out on ideas during that time, I have some pictures of us to prove it. Don’t laugh! As for myself, I never was real sure about four macho guys trying to be Pretty!
Q. Was it difficult adapting to that heavier style? Were you playing those songs in your live sets?
Bob: As I mentioned before, the style change was not really a change for us because we played that kind of stuff every night at the clubs.
Q. How did Quint Weakley wind up producing records at Cavern?
Bob: A couple of us knew Weekly from way back in our kid days. As I remember he showed up at Cavern Studios one day, said he had some ideas for some songs and it just took off from there.
Q. That record seems to be very rare now, was it distributed at all?
Bob: To my knowledge the record was not distributed at all. After the sessions, Weekly took off for California to try and sell them to someone. Don’t think he had any luck, and we didn’t see much of him after that.
Q. Also, are there unreleased tracks from those sessions?
Bob: There are some other recordings from that time, but they only exist on tape.
When they recorded a 45 for Capitol in 1970 the band’s name was changed to Kansas City, but they continued as the Fab Four for live shows, including extended stays at the Attic. The band broke up in 1976 and have reunited since.
Bob Theen: The song “Linda Was A Lady” was recorded in Memphis in 1970 on the Trump label, a Subsidiary of Capitol. The back side was “Red Tower Road”. To our knowledge, and from the amount of the royalties, it did the best of the three we released. Our producer was Tommy Cogbill along with Chips Moman, a couple of very talented guys in Memphis. I think Tommy has since passed away, don’t know about Chips.
We continued playing professionally till about 1974 when we decided to hang it up. I think the disappointment of our last recording not going big time got us down.
Twenty three years later we got the itch to do it again, but soon it was evident that our original drummer was not physically able to play again. We had another drummer friend by the name of Mark Higbee that hooked up with us and would be our drummer for another ten year run. We played parties, clubs and all kinds of events around the Midwest and had a great time doing it.
We did our last Hoorah in the fall of 2007 for a Parkinson’s Fund Raiser called Rock Around The Block featuring us and several well know bands from our era in the K.C. area. The event was held at the new H&R Block headquarters in K.C. MO.
On March 22, 2008, The Fabulous Four Band (Bob Theen – Jeff Mann – Mike Myers – Mark Higbee & original drummer Alex Love) was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall Of Fame.
Jeff Mann passed away in 2012.
Sources include:Rockkansas.com (http://rockkansas.com/columns/billlee/021804-fabfour.shtml – link now defunct).
Special thanks to Keith Brawley, who found the AGL EP and sent me scans & recordings.
“Strange Land, Strange People” reminds me of some of the Strawberry Alarm Clock’s songs, and has a solo section with organ and piano in unison. Songwriting is by Dennis Stewart. The flip “Crying All Alone,” is similar in sound and was written by Greg Schuller.
Released on the Sand “G” label in 1968 it was also put out on the Golden Voice label with the band’s production address listed at 1118 Nowland, Peoria, Illinois.
I didn’t know anything about the band until Ed Mooberry left his comment (see below) and Deborah Shawgo contacted me.
Members of the band were:
Greg Schuller (lead vocals) Mike Summerville (lead guitar) replaced by Gary Shawgo (lead guitar, backing vocals) Ed Mooberry (rhythm guitar) Dennis Stewart (keyboards) Mike Creek (bass) Frank Ballard (drums)
Gary Shawgo had been in the Furniture, who are likely the group out of Galesburg that released “Keep on Running” / “I Love It Baby” on Stature, though I don’t know if Gary was in the group when the record was released. Deborah Shawgo remembered the Furniture often playing “Keep on Running” live.
Other members of the Furniture were Ron Stockard on keyboards (he later joined Chaka Khan – though I’ve seen his name spelled Ron Stockert), and Jerry “Pork” Armstrong who had a lot of success with his own group Pork and the Havana Ducks and passed away in 2003. Randy Moody is another name I associate with the Furniture as he wrote “I Love It Baby”.
By the time he joined the North Bridge Company, Gary was attending the University of Missouri at Rolla, and commuting back on weekends for gigs and rehearsal. Gary and Deborah Shawgo had a group in the late ’80s called Sudden Impact in Springfield, IL. Gary passed away in 2007.
Ed Kienholz’ sculpture Back Seat Dodge ’38 shows two pairs of legs coupling in an old jalopy amidst empty beer bottles. Its exhibition at the Los Angeles County Art Museum in 1966 caused a scandal. Condemned as obscene by the County Board, it was censored in a way, shown for a time with the door closed, which a guard could open only in the presence of adults. This sculpture became the inspiration for the only release by Opus 1, on Mustang (a Del-Fi subsidiary) in April of ’66.
Despite the obscurity of the group, its members actually had long histories in the Los Angeles surf and rock scene. Opus 1 was a professional group playing at clubs such as the Cinnamon Cinder alongside competing bands The Emperors, The Cindermen, The Pyramids, The Vibrants and The Knights of Day.
Band members were: Brian Decker: Lead Guitar (Mosrite) and vocals Doug Decker: Fender P Bass (Big Red) and vocals Pete Parker: Farfisa Organ and vocals (John) Chris Christensen: Ludwig Drums and vocals
Christensen says “Bob Keane was peaked by the idea of something controversial, so we took another of our songs ‘Why Did I Lie,’ changed the lyric and did a little tweaking on the arrangement and ‘Back Seat ’38 Dodge’ (poetic license) was born. We paired that with the all ready completed ‘In My Mind’ and that became our only single. Somebody once described ‘Back Seat ’38 Dodge’ to me as the ‘last real surf record and the beginning of punk.’ It does sound like a huge hell bound train to me thanks to those great Del-Fi echo chambers.”
Not to be overlooked is the fine b-side “In My Mind”, early psychedelia with paranoid lyrics about being stared at and whispered about while “two prophets sitting in a tree” tell him he’s right. Many unreleased demos and studio out-takes exist, and hopefully will come to light someday.
For the full story on Opus 1 see Mike Dugo’s interview with John “Chris” Christensen. Below is Christensen’s detailed account of his early bands and the formation of Opus 1, in his own words:
The Sunsets and the Surfriders parallel each other as being the very first groups I played in. I started to learn the drums in my freshman year at St. Anthony’s Boy’s High School in 1961 from W.H. “Jack” Plummer, a reed specialist who had traveled for years with Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. Jack was not really a drummer, but an excellent teacher nonetheless, and a multi-instrumentalist.
I started putting together pieces of stuff to fashion a drum kit in early ’62 and began jamming a lot in the band room, with Bob Jones, a senior who played the clarinet, and had all the Benny Goodman stuff down cold, especially “Sing, Sing, Sing” which I LOVED to play. In the 90’s I would do many gigs with Graham Young and Ed Mihelich, who were Gene Krupa’s 1st trumpet and bassist in ’41-’42. Another person I jammed with was a sax player Jose Valazquez (aka Joey Val), who really had the Joe Houston thing down, and a trumpet player named Mike Squibb who was really great as well.
Outside of the band room I spent a lot of time hanging out with, and plotting ‘band strategies’ with, guitarist Bob Renfro, with whom I had a pretty long association. Bob Renfro would later write and record the classic “Ode To A Bad Dream” with another band I was in called “Time of Your Life.” Bob and I would get together and try to play various old R&R and R&B tunes, singing a lot of our favorite ‘black’ songs.
We would also try to figure out how to get our hands on some really good instruments. Finally we hit on a plan – we both wrote letters to relatives asking for a loan to buy instruments. I got a loan from my Great Grandfather, and purchased a used Ludwig set. Bob’s Uncle gave him a loan for a guitar, and we were off! That was December of ’62, and I played my first gig for money the week after I got the drums. The gig was with Jose Velazquez (sax), Don Wittsten (guitar), and I think a trombone player named Ed Price. Bob and I continued jamming with a few groups and nothing really clicked, but while we were trying to put something together I started to jam with some friends of my first cousin, Marlene Addy.
The Sunsets
Friends of my cousin, and kids I had played ball and stuff with, Dickie Lambert and Clyde Brown were also interested in music. We made a pretty good noise together. Dickie had a guitar and was playing bass lines, Clyde played rhythm guitar. The problem was finding a lead guitarist! I’m not sure exactly why Bob Renfro was never auditioned, but Clyde, especially, was a hustler. He wanted to bypass all the B.S. and get a pro manager and financial backing right away, even though he was not yet a spectacular guitarist. While he was busy hustling, we kept trying out lead guitar players, settling on one guy who was adequate, and who’s name is lost to time. On the financial side, some friends-of-friends tried to hook us up with TV star Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol), but it was all missed phone calls and excuses. We spent one completely frustrating day waiting for The Star’s appearance while getting numerous “I’m coming” messages from the no-show. Clyde was not deterred.
Somehow, Clyde got the number of this guy Mr. Sheets. Sheets had cash and connections, and was trying to market a newly updated version of the old ‘film jukebox.’ Sheets also had visions of a Record Company with a full stable of young stars. I was under the impression that he was tone-deaf. We continued to rehearse and hang out, and finally I got bored with the endless waiting. This version of the band never played a gig!
By the time I had something else going on I found out that I had been replaced by Adrian Lloyd from The Rumblers, a very successful local group; and our ‘nameless’ guitarist was replaced by Ron Eglet, later to be a member of The Knights of Day, and most famously as Dick Dale’s bassist and occasional producer for a couple of decades. The group was renamed “Adrian Lloyd and The Sunsets,” and they recorded on Sheets’ (what else?) Sunset Records. They created a pretty big stir for a brief moment, and then sank! Their album “Breakthrough” and their singles (Ron Eglet told me a few years ago) are supposed to be big-time collectibles.
The Surfriders
Fed up with waiting for Mr. Sheets to do something and The Sunsets to actually play, Bob and I began to plot again. Jose Velazquez had a lead guitarist friend Bob Riddar. A jam was set up with:
Bob Riddar: Lead Guitar Jose Valazquez: Sax Don Wittsten: guitar Bob Renfro: guitar Chris Christensen: drums
Now this was more like it! We had a really good front line, guys that could really play. Even though Bob and I were singing, this was an instrumental “Surf” band. The lineup seemed to click and we started gigging around doing quite a few local dances and things. A couple of months later, Bob and I were unceremoniously ‘dumped.’ The band was doing well, and people LIKED us, but Bob Riddar liked another local drummer, Bob Meadows, and another ‘nameless’ guitarist took Bob Renfro’s place, playing bass lines on a guitar. Later, Bob Riddar and Bob Meadows would replace Ron Eglet and Adrian Lloyd in a newly reconstituted “Sunsets.” Jose Velazquez would become “Joey Val” and play with The Reveres and Lloyd Terry and The Victors.
The Intruders
Bob Renfro and I, fairly pissed-off about being dumped, made a pact: we would form our own band, and do it ‘our way.’ We would continue doing the Surf Thing, but we would sing and do the required instrumental stuff. The band would go on to be ‘our vehicle,’ but it seems that it did so with a constantly revolving cast of characters. For a while The Intruders line-up was:
Bob Renfro: Lead guitar and vocals Chris Christensen: Drums and vocals Steve Pound: Rhythm guitar Steve Soloman: Sax Mike Squibb: Trumpet
Strange as it seems today, the common wisdom of the time was that the last instrument booked for the gig (depending on the budget) was a bass. The Intruders membership changed often, with Don Wittsten and Jose Velazquez frequently being in the band. There was also a succession of Rhythm guitarists, bassists, and piano players coming and going. The main thing that set us apart from the other “Surf Bands” was that Bob and I sang R&B – we really liked the black vocal groups, and The Righteous Brothers. Most surf bands didn’t sing, and if they did, it was usually bad.
My partnership with Bob Renfro lasted several years. The Intruders morphed into The Pleasure Seekers, The Blue Boys, and a couple of names I’ve forgotten, finally becoming The Town Criers and gaining real management in ’64/’65 with Barry Campbell, the man who started Ionic Records. The Town Criers would cut 6 sides, ‘live’ in the studio. Only one side has been released, a cover of The Zombies “You Make Me Feel So Good” – and it was credited to Time of Your Life, a band Bob and I started after The Town Criers final demise.
The Town Criers had a short but good run. We played on shows with Gary Lewis and The Playboys, The Sunrays, Mel Carter, Joey Page, Bobby Sherman, The Togas, and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. We played The Ice House, The Troubadour, the Marina Palace, The Fox West Coast Theater and many other venues. If certain members of the band been more appreciative of The Management, it might have lasted longer.
When I left Time Of Your Life, Bob Renfro recruited Vox Organist Jay Schlesenger, and even they don’t remember who played on their only single for Ionic. Bob and I continued to hang out, and I did help with the editing of “Ode” from it’s much longer version to the single that everyone knows. Some version of this band and The Town Criers played New Years Eve at Pandora’s Box in (I think) 1965. We also played the Teenage Fair, next to The Hollywood Paladium around the same time.
Being working players (very young, but feeling we were pros), even while we had a ‘main thing’ we were gigging with other bands. That’s how I met the Decker Brothers and worked with TJ Walker, and also The Reveres. The Decker brothers, Brian and Doug, had seen a succession of bands in which even though they were largely responsible for the groups sound and success, but they always ended up being subservient to their front men. Their method was to find a strong lead singer, and then build a group around that person. Eventually the front man would become overbearing, and then the band would break up. I believe that happened to them with Frank and the Conceptions, Lloyd Terry and the Victors, and, finally, The Togas, when Chris Morgan left taking the group name and putting his own in front.The Reveres
When I received the loan from my Great Grandfather, George Ainsworth, to purchase my drumset, my Mother, in her infinite wisdom, advised me to give the money to her. She would “make payments on the kit in my name;” her reasoning being that it would help me establish credit. Mother made some of the payments in good faith before finally defaulting. What she did with the money I’ll never know. Kenny Robinson from Campbell’s Music Store (no relation to Barry Campbell) called me and said my Mother was not meeting the obligation, and they were going to have to repossess my drums! I was now making darn good money (for a high school kid) playing gigs! I couldn’t lose my drums! Kenny said he’d give my name to people looking for a good drummer, and maybe I could make enough to make some payments.
The upshot of this was that I gigged for a little while with TJ Walker and The Jaywalkers. TJ was a black singer and guitarist, and a Front-Man Supreme. The only problem was that he played night clubs and strip joints, and I was a minor. Still, I did quite a few gigs with him, because he was in a bind, and so was I. The best part about working for TJ was playing for the strippers! The worst part was having to stay in the back room when not playing. Finally TJ got someone else (legal) and I was let go – but I had gone a long way towards paying for the drums. Later my Great Grandfather would give the family children their inheritance early. He deducted the original loan from my share – this was the drum set that I had to pay for ‘twice’ thanks to my Mother’s intervention. Kenny Robinson, anxious to help me continue meet my payments after the TJ gigs ended, gave my number to some ‘older’ college-aged players. They had a working band called The Reveres. The core of the band was to be:
Jack Long: Lead Guitar Louie DaVia: Rhythm guitar, Sax and vocals Bob Covington: Bass Joey Val (Jose Valazquez) Sax Chris Christensen: Drums and vocals
There were occasional substitutions in personnel. Sometimes Bob Renfro or Brian Decker would sub for Louie DaVia. The constants of the band were myself, Jack, and Bob Covington. These guys (The Reveres) worked all over. They had some kind of ‘in’ with the military bases and I was often running down to Camp Pendelton for gigs. These guys were “pro” all the way. Jack Long was hands-down one of the best guitar players I’ve ever worked with. He was also the only guy I ever knew who had every single Freddy King song down note-for-note. He could then turn around and play Chet Atkins for you! This is a guy I’ve been trying to get in touch with for 30 years. The Reveres played all over, but as far as I know, no recordings of the group exist.
Opus 1
I had booked a casual on this particular day using a group I played with on and off called The Reveres. Bob Renfro was also going to play, and we set out from one of the band members house to caravan to the gig. Unfortunately, we became separated on the freeway, and I was the only one with the actual address of the party, which was in a house in Naples, just down the street from where the Decker’s lived. After many frantic calls to the other members houses, it soon became apparent that I wasn’t going to get in touch with any of the guys and I had an obligation to provide a band for this party. I walked down the street to the Deckers, and was fortunate enough to find Doug, Brian, and Pete Parker there. I told them about my jam and asked them to come and help me out. Well, we played our first gig together that day and it was amazing. Four part harmony was ad-libbed on the spot! The songs just flowed out of us effortlessly. They were sick of Chris Morgan, and I was tired of my situation.
The gig had been so easy that we decided to make it permanent. We called the band Opus 1. I believe that the suggestion for the name came from Brian Decker, and then we all listed the reasons why it fit, because it was a fresh start…a new beginning….a ‘first work.’
Our first ‘real’ recording sessions were at Western Recorders. We hired Bones Howe to handle the production. Our recordings that night consisted of a couple of Brian Decker songs “In My Mind” and “Birds of Passage” that the band had arranged. Bones was also a talent scout for White Whale Records at the time and expressed some interest in us, but nothing came of it.
With our acetates in hand we had a show biz attorney, Jay L. Cooper shop us around town. He was actually Bob Keane’s attorney, and played our recordings for the Ritchie Valens/Bobby Fuller discoverer. Keane liked the sound we made enough to invite us down to his studio on Selma in Hollywood for a audition/recording session that lasted most of a whole day and late into the evening. He and Barry White sat around in the control room and pretty much recorded our entire original repertoire “live” in the studio. During one of the breaks we began to discuss the then current controversy surrounding the art exhibit by Ed Keinholtz, and in particular “Back Seat Dodge, ’38.” Keane was peaked by the idea of something controversial, so we took another of our songs “Why Did I Lie,” also known as “Song,” changed the lyric and did a little tweaking on the arrangement and “Back Seat ’38 Dodge” (poetic license) was born. We paired that with the all ready completed “In My Mind” and that became our only single for Mustang Records.The band lasted about a year. It didn’t really break up. It just sort of dissolved. During this brief period everyone just sort of moved out into other directions. I had opened the door for all of us when I originally made contact with Barry Campbell who ran Ionic Records. Pete Parker quickly moved towards record production for Ionic, sort of leaving us in limbo. I think Opus 1 was done by the summer of ’66. That about wound up the history of Opus 1.
Doug, Brian and I hooked up again here and there, but that was the end of our involvement under that moniker.
It seems that something I’ve done in every decade since the sixties has seen renewed interest this past year. Domenic Priore’s book has a couple of paragraphs about Opus 1. SJ McParland has interviwed me extensively for his book on Mustang Records/Bob Keane/Bobby Fuller; it’s due out in ‘08. 1974 band Laser Pace’s album Granfalloon will most likely be reissued through Anthology Records in ‘08 due to an recent internet feeding frenzy. My ‘94 CD “Songs from The Xenozoic Age” by Christensen/Schultz is finally seeing wider release, and I am putting out a complete unreleased album by Hot Food To Go, recorded in ‘84; it’s called “Adrenaline Drum.”John “Chris” Christensen
Sources: Photo of Back Seat Dodge ’38 from the American Museum of Beat Art. All other photos and Opus 1 45 scan courtesy of John “Chris” Christensen, copyright protected and reproduced with permission, except. Time of Your Life 45 scan courtesy of Erik of Beat Behind the Dykes and Opus 1 newspaper ad from the great KRLA Beat site. Portions of John Christensen’s recollections previously appeared in an interview with Mike Dugo. <!-More information on John “Chris” Christensen available at his myspace page.->
In My Mind:
Always laugh, you laugh think I’m a clown, that doesn’t care, stop and stare Claim to see a frown, that isn’t there, chew the fat,
Tell me where it’s at, then leave it at that, put a feather in your hat, but you’re wrong — count your numbers, think you’re strong, but you’re wrong.
While I crawl, down the dismal darkened hallway, I’m afraid, I may fall, Never again to call, out my name, by myself,
Put me on a shelf while the servants count your wealth, and drink to your health, but you’re wrong — count your numbers, think you’re strong, but you’re wrong.
In my mind I can see, Two prophets sitting in a tree, Softly telling me, They say I’m right, step up to fight, they know I’m right.
So just laugh, laugh think I’m a clown, I don’t care, stop and stare, Bigotry won’t get you anywhere, chew the fat,
Tell me where it’s at, then leave it at that, put a feather in your hat, but you’re wrong — count your numbers, think you’re strong, but you’re wrong.
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