The Proverbial Knee Hi’s were Charles Smith guitar, Dale Pate electric piano and organ, Butch Powell bass and Eddie Hall drums. They had a vocalist, Willie T., who was out of the band by the time they recorded their only 45.
They group started in 1966, and played the chain of Beachcomber clubs along the east coast which were owned by their manager, Buddy Eisen. They even had a fan club based in New Jersey.
The band went into D’Arcy Sound Studios in Norfolk and recorded two original songs, released on Eisen’s Beachcomber label in the fall of 1967.
“Watchout” is a great upbeat number with some garbled singing. There’s a neat instrumental break before a short recited verse. Eddie Hall really pounds the drums, and I like how Dale Pate moves between Wurlitzer and electric piano.
“Crying For Her” is an epic ballad, really dramatic, but I dig both the intro and the closing moments of the song.
The 45 was produced by Warren Miller and arranged by Wayne Butler. D’Arcy Studio also was where The Regents featuring Mel Gaines recorded their great 45 on M.A.D. “What’cha Gonna Do” / “I Tried With Her”.
The Vikings: Charles Nettles standing in the back and below, l-r: Gary Smith, Phil Whitley, Lee Lowery, Randy Carmichael, and Steve Vainrib
The Vikings of Birmingham, Alabama recorded two quite different 45s. The first was produced by Ed Boutwell, at whose studio the Hard Times recorded their 45. Band members were Gary Smith, Phil Whitley, Lee Lowery, Randy Carmichael, Steve Vainrib and Charles Nettles.
“Come On and Love Me” is fantastic, an upbeat song with double-tracked vocals and a nice balance between Phil Whitley’s lead guitar and the strummed rhythm. As exciting a single as any released during the summer of 1966.
“I Will Never Go” is a ballad, and while not exceptional, it builds to a strong ending. Both sides were co-written by Charles Nettles and C. Putnam.
Over a year later they made a second record on the Lowery label, but the change in their sound is enormous. The a-side is another Charles Nettles original, “Cherish the Love You Feel”, with lavish orchestration and an arrangement influenced by English pop from the time. The flip is a cover of Tommy Roe’s “Golden Girl” – chosen probably because the Lowery booking agency was handling both bands.
Randy Carmichael became a studio musician for Neil Hemphill’s Sound of Birmingham studio in the Midfield section of the city, playing for Fredrick Knight and Bobby Womack among others. Phil Whitely went on to play with the Hard Times after their guitarist Ron Parr died in Vietnam.
Wayne Perkins joined as guitarist after the 45s were recorded. He wrote an extensive remembrance of his days in music. Of his time with the Vikings, he says this:
When I hit sixteen, I had enough of school and a string of teachers that didn’t like my long hair. They said I would “never get anywhere playing’ that guitar.” So I said, “Oh yeah? Well you just watch me!” At that point, I left school, left home and moved in with a fellow band member of the Vikings named Charles Nettles and his Mom. I sort of “kept house” to pay rent, ya know, cut the yard and that sort of thing.
In this time period Charlie was learning to, and teaching me how to write songs. He said his Mom was on a diet and was taking these little pills called “obadrine” or something, and if he took one it made him concentrate better and the songs turned out better. And I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right. It also made me sing and play better…at least I thought I could. So I stayed with Charlie and his Mom, Dot (short for Dorothy) for about a year and a half until one of Charlie’s girlfriends took an interest in me and I just couldn’t help myself…
The last time I played with Charlie and the Vikings was in the Fall of ‘68 and when the gig was over, we came off stage only to run headlong into Stephanie Brown, Charlie’s future ex-girlfriend. She looked at Charlie and then looked at me. I looked at Charlie and said, “I can’t do this anymore.” Then I looked at Stephanie and said, “What’s it gonna be? You going with him or coming with me?”
She said, “I’m coming with you Baby.” As we walked off, Charlie looked at me and said, “You’ll never do anything without me in the business!” I said, “Oh yeah? Just watch me!” So we walked around the side of the stage and ran right into a drummer friend of mine by the name of Jasper Guarino, and he said, “Man, you are playing your ass off, I saw what just went down with Charlie…what the hell you gonna do?! I said, “Man, I don’t know.” And he said, “Well, if you’re interested, there’s an opening for a guitar player in a studio called “Quinvy’s” in Muscle Shoals. He said, “That’s where I’m working. The hours are easy, it’s from 10 a.m. to four or five depending on what’s going on and it pays $100.00 a week.” I said, “When are you going back?” He said, “Tonight, you got anything better to do?” I said, “Hell no. That’s the best idea I heard in a long time.” So I said to Stephanie, “I’ll see you later, I’m going to Muscle Shoals.” So Jasper and I swung by Charlie’s house, dumped all of my shit into a garbage bag, and got the hell out of Birmingham.
I knew hardly anything about The Scribes until I was put in touch with their lead guitarist Danny Brewer. Danny kindly answered my questions over the phone this last Sunday.
As it turns out, the band was from Rock Hill, South Carolina. Besides Danny, their members were Ray Howison guitar and keyboards, Darryl Whitington bass and Steve White on drums.
Danny and Ray formed the band in 10th grade in high school, initially playing local skating rinks, private parties and a bowling alley. Their main competition was a group called the Open Roads.
The Scribes recorded this 45 at Arthur Smith Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina, just 25 miles from Rock Hill. The band was about 16 years old at the time. This studio, owned by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith, was also the one used by the Paragons on their classic punker “Abba”, not to mention where James Brown recorded “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”.
Lively guitar work and good singing distinguish “Just Last Night”, written by Danny Brewer and Steve White. Danny told me he used a different guitar tuning for this song, tuning the high E string down to a B.
The A-side “Wishes” is more conventional, but enjoyable nonetheless, it was written by Brewer and Howison.
The Okay label was named after the OKay Boys and Mens shop, whose owners helped the band get their record produced. The band pressed up several hundred copies which they sold to friends in high school. The photo was taken with a friend’s car on the campus of Winthrop University.
For decades this record was unknown outside the area, but a number of unplayed copies with the sleeve turned up a few years ago and started trading for a lot of money. I saved myself close to $200 by buying a used copy of the 45 without the sleeve.
After high school the band added horns, becoming the Scribes Revue, specializing in soul music and playing clubs and colleges around the area. Eventually Danny was the only original member left in the group.
After the Scribes Revue, Danny joined Billy Scott and the Georgia Prophets. Danny played guitar on the Three Prophets’ modern soul 45 from 1971, “I Think I Really Love You” on the Together label.
Thanks to Danny Brewer and to Mike Cobb for putting us in touch.
The Hard Times, l-r.: Daily Vandergrif drums, Mike Melton bass, Ronnie Melton keyboards, Mike Pair guitar, Ron Parr guitar, and Mike Gunnels vocals
I wrote about the Rites of Spring a few months ago, but now I can bring you the whole story of this Birmingham, Alabama group. As the Hard Times they recorded one 45 on the Ultimate label, “Losing You” backed with the excellent “You Couldn’t Love Me”.
By winning a WVOK battle-of-the-bands, the band attracted the attention of Cameo-Parkway Records, which had just hired Michigan singer Terry Knight as a staff producer after his 45 “I (Who Have Nothing)” on Lucky Eleven (distributed nationally by Cameo-Parkway) had become a sizeable hit. The Hard Times would be his first project for the label, but first they had to change their name to the Rites of Spring to avoid conflict with the San Diego/LA group of the same name who had records out on World Pacific.
The folky “Why (?)” was released in October, 1966, with the much harder edged “Comin’ On Back To Me” on the flip. Both songs were written by Michael Gunnels and Ronald Parr. The band promoted the record on the national TV show, Where the Action Is.
I recently spoke to Mike Pair, guitarist with the Hard Times and the Rites of Spring, and he gave me the full story about the band.
Q. How did the Hard Times form? Were you friends in school or in other bands?
Mike Pair: I played with Mike Gunnels in another band which lasted about 3 months. He then met the rest of the group who were trying to form a band, and when they needed another guitar, he suggested me. They all went to Woodlawn High School together – except me.
The Hard Times’ “Losing You” was produced and recorded here in Birmingham at Boutwell Studies. Ed Boutwell shot all the civil rights footage from Birmingham with the fire hoses and dogs that you still see on the TV. Steve Norris, a local DJ, produced it. “You Couldn’t Love Me” was a one take song just to fill the other side of the record. “Losing You” got to #1 on the top local charts in Birmingham. We also did a lot of work for the WSGN DJs. WSGN was a great radio station.
We were busy every weekend throughout the south. We booked from Lowery Talent in Atlanta. They also had Tommy Roe, Joe South, Bobby Goldsboro, and the Tams. They picked us up because we won a 300 band “Battle of the Bands” There were so many bands, it lasted 2 days and we won.
Q. How did the Hard Times come to the attention of Cameo Parkway?
Mike: The Cameo Parkway record and Where the Action Is came through Lowery Talent. We were still the Hard Times, [but the California group] the Hard Times band was a regular on that show, so that was the reason for the name change to the Rites of Spring. If we had turned down the Action deal, we could have kept the name.
Q. Tell me about recording the Rites of Spring record.
Mike: We recorded both sides in Philly. Chubby Checker was there too.
Q. One website says that Terry Knight took your demo and re-recorded the vocals and some tracks, and improved it. Is that how you see it?
Mike: No, that part is not correct. The cut for the record company was the first one and we had not recorded that song before. Terry was a little weird even in those days. After we would do a cut, he would just sit there and stare into space not saying anything for long periods of time. We would just stand in the studio and wait until he came out of his “zone”. When Chubby Checker came in and sat in on some of the session, things were a little better and he acted more normal.
Q. Did you ever see any money from Cameo for the Rites of Spring 45?
Mike: Not a dime!!! They never pushed the record, and the only reason we can figure out was “96 Tears” came out about the same time and it was more of an instant hit that our record was, so it got all the promo money. We had one more record in our contract, but if I remember correctly, Cameo Parkway went south and out of existence not too long after we recorded, and the second record never got made.
We were on ‘Where the Action Is’ about two weeks before the show ended: #444, March 16th, 1967, and the show ended with #455, March 31, 1967. We were the first Alabama band on national TV.
We went to LA to film and went to a disco (can’t remember the name). It was during the riots on Sunset strip that year. The hotel would not give us a room because with our long hair (long for those days, you wouldn’t look twice now): they thought we were there for the riots. Dick Clark Productions had to call the hotel to tell them who we were and that it was ok to give us a room. Filmed with Neil Diamond, and the Royal Guardsman from Florida who did all those Snoopy and the Red Baron songs.
Q. That’s interesting you filmed with the Royal Guardsmen and Neil Diamond, because the episode you’re on features Keith Allison and Paul Revere and the Raiders – did they use footage from different times for the show?
Mike: Yes, they filmed all over the country and then picked which date they would show what. There might be 5 bands on a show filmed in 5 different places. We actually filmed the show several months before it aired. Keith Allison introduced us as a band from one of his favorite towns, Birmingham, Alabama. The Action crew had actually filmed some in Birmingham, and our keyboard player had a date with one of the Action dancers. That was pretty cool at that time.
[If anyone has a copy of the Rites of Spring on Where the Action Is, please get in touch, as Mike would like to see the performance after all these years.]
Los Angeles’ KRLA Beat magazine, Nov. 5, 1966 Terry Knight producing the Hard Times, mistakenly listed as from Atlanta!Mike: The band broke up about 9 months after the Action appearance as Uncle Sam was calling most of us. It was great fun for a few years and we did shows with the Animals, Herman’s Hermits, Tommy James, the Byrds and Tommy Roe. Lots of great memories and good times. Mike Melton found some tapes we made at Fame studios with Rick Hall producing (Muscle Shoals, Alabama). I have listened to the tapes and there is some good stuff on them. Its funny that all the songs on there we wrote and they are all “death songs”, which is far from our stage act. All stuff on stage was up beat!!Mike Melton, the bass player, and Ronnie Melton, the keyboard player are still here in Birmingham and I see them often. Ron Parr who co-wrote most of our songs was killed in ‘Nam. Mike Gunnels, our lead singer made a small hit in Nashville on his own, but then fell out of sight. Daily Vandergriff our drummer is in West Virginia and is in the National Guard.
p.s. The shirts were in the early days. We got pretty grungy at the last!!
The Hard Times
Mike Pair sent me a tape of the demo sessions at Fame. Some of the songs are downers, but they’re not all death songs! Many are very accomplished and some have contemporary country influences. The demos include later versions of “Losing You” and “You Couldn’t Love Me”, plus the following songs: “Don’t Love You Anymore”, “Memories of You”, “Rain Song”, “She’s Gone”, “If You Want Me to Go”, “Time for Me to Go”, “Suzie Q”, “Caretaker”, “Lotta Livin’ to Do”. George Wiggin provides harmony on some tracks.
Thank you to Mike Pair for sharing his photo of the Hard Times and for all his help in getting their story told. The WGSN card is from a great site on Birmingham Mike told me about, Birmingham Rewound.
Thanks also to Jeff Lemlich for the scans of the Frankford Wayne acetate.
Update, September 2011
The demo record pictured here was from Frankford Wayne Recording Labs, the leading mastering studio in Philadelphia, but not the recording studio for these songs. The band is still known as “The Hardtimes” (sic), though this would be released under the Rites of Spring name.
The Hardtimes Frankford-Wayne demo, “Why” is the same as the released version.“No Name” is actually an instrumental version of “Comin’ On Back to Me” without vocals or keyboard or guitar overdubs. Mike Pair told me “That is Ron [Parr on lead guitar], but my guitar answer is not on the [demo] record”. This bare-bones version sounds great to my ears.
The Apollos: front and center Wayne Groves, middle row (left-right): Tommy Vorhauer and Jim Price, back row from left: Dave Harney, John Parisi , and Don Harney. This is the original Apollos band established in early 1964 by Jim Price and Dave Harney.
Updated Jan. 2, 2012
From McLean, Virginia, the Apollos went through several personnel changes while leaving behind demos, live tapes and two 45s as their legacy. I’ve read conflicting accounts of who was in the band when, but with feedback from Jim Price and Tommy Vorhauer, this seems to be correct:
The original band consisted of brothers Dave and Don Harney on guitar, Jim Price on bass, and Dave Elliot on drums. Jan Sylvester soon replaced Elliot on drums was himself replaced by Wayne Groves, and Jon Parisi came in on keyboards. The band’s repertoire leant heavily on surf numbers until they added Tommy Vorhauer on vocals. This is the group in the photo at top.
A win at a local battle of the bands gave them studio time at Edgewood Recording Studio in D.C., and they cut several sides, including early versions of “That’s the Breaks” and “Country Boy”. They re-recorded these two for their own Delta label in 1965.
“Country Boy” is a fine surf instrumental written by Don Harney. Surprisingly it has never been comped before. “That’s the Breaks” has great drumming and nice fluid guitar work with a strong vocal by Vorhauer. I’m not sure who’s playing the organ on this 45.
Tom Vorhauer clarified some points about the band in a comment below that I’ll reproduce here:
Jon Parisi played keyboard and wrote the music for “That’s the Breaks”. I wrote the words and sang lead vocal. I also sang lead vocals on “Target Love” and “It’s a Monster”. We were playing on M street in Washington DC at Mack’s Pipe and Drum and were approached by two gentlemen who were scouts for Paramount Artists. They were interested in signing the Apollos to a record contract but on one condition, they wanted to replace our manager Bill Moser, we refused and never signed.
By late 1966 Vorhauer, Groves and Parisi had left to be replaced by Doug Collins on vocals, Dwight James on keyboards and Wayne Goubilee on drums. Their second 45, “Target Love” b/w “It’s a Monster” on the Montgomery label is a great double-sided 45. I hope to feature it in the future, but it seems to be rarer than the Delta one.
There’s also a live tape of the band, with good versions of “Dirty Water” and “I’m Crying”. At some point they were turned down by MGM, and that seems to be the end of their story.
In December, 2011 Jim Price contacted me and gave some background on the group:
We were from McLean, Virginia, not Falls Church. Dave, Don and I all lived in Woodside Estates, McLean. That’s where it all started in 1963. I was playing my guitar on our front porch and Dave and Don came wandering up and introduced them selves and said they played as well. I was playing lead guitar, Dave rhythm and Don played bass.We switched up as time went on and everyone found their niche.
We did our demo cut of 4 songs at Edgewood:
1. “That’s The Breaks” words by Tommy Vorhauer and music by the band. 2. “Country Boy” by Don Harney 3. “Dance Dance Dance” (Beach Boys) sung by Wayne Groves 4. “Mr. Lonely”, a remake of the original, sung by Tommy Vorhauer
“Mr. Lonely” was to be our front side of the first 45 but we decided to go with two original songs instead. They were both hits but “Mr. Lonely” would have been a hit as well. It would today.
I created “Delta Music Company” with the help of our agent Bill Moser, thus Delta on the label. We outsourced the art work for the label. Since Edgewood had recorded the songs we contracted through them to have the records pressed and the labels put on them. The records would then be made and sent to us and Bill and I would take them out to the stores and put them on the shelves. In those days you could put your records in stores on consignment. It was all we could do to keep up.
MGM did offer to buy the rights to “That’s The Breaks” but we turned them down. Paramount contacted our agent Bill Mosser three times trying to get us to sign a contract with them but we would lose $ on each record that was sold so we turned them down. Within 3 weeks of the last turndown, our records were not being played on any radio station in the nation. Paramount told Bill that “the boys will be sorry they did;nt sign with them.” The stores even started refusing to slot them any more. “Target Love” and “It’s A Monster” only made it to #10 before it vanished from the airways.
Through this phase the band members were: Don Harney, Dave Harney, Wayne Groves, John Parisi (now John Ian), Jim Price and Tommy Vorhauer. Some time after that John Parisi left the band and we added Dwight James.
The summer of 1966 we recorded “It’s A Monster” and “Target Love” on the Montgomery Label. I can’t remember the name of the studio. Shortly after that Tommy and I left the band and went to Boston to college. Dave and Don Harney continued to run the band with a new drummer who was the singer as well. When I was home on break, I would go and sing with them down in Georgetown, lots of fun.
The band stayed together for a while longer then everyone seemed to go their own way. Tommy is now in Denver, Dave is in Dayton Ohio, Don is in Seattle, Wayne is in Great Falls VA, John Ian DC, Dwight Fairfax VA and I am in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
My oldest son Jason Price does production work in his spare time in the northern VA area – take a look at www.squadcar37.com.
The Endless at John Hull’s Musicol studio, 1966, from left: Jack McAtee, Mike Lyons, Mike O’Brien, Pat McAtee and Chuck Moorman.
The Endless came from Springfield, Ohio, making their only record in December, 1966 at John Hull’s Musicol Recording Studio.
“Prevailing Darkness” really shows attitude in the vocal delivery. Pat McAtee’s strong vocals also balance the delicate composition and performance on the nominal a-side, “Tomorrow’s Song”. Both songs were written by Pat and Jack McAtee.
The group started as the Mods in Springfield, Ohio, with brothers Jack McAtee on lead guitar and Pat McAtee on bass, Mike Lyons on rhythm, Jan Weinbreight on vocals and Bill Dale on drums. Jan left to form the Children of Stone and Mike O’Brien replaced Bill Dale. Chuck Moorman came in on keyboards.
Jack McAtee wrote a detailed history of the band. I will include a section of it below, but the full history, with more information on how the group formed and stories from their touring days is available as a PDF file here.
One day the band signed up for a battle of the bands contest sponsored by WIZE radio in Springfield. The winning prize was a couple of hours of recording time in a studio called Mega Sound in Dayton, Ohio. Paul Carmen was the disc jockey from WIZE who conducted the battle of the bands. Jack and Pat had written some original songs, “World of Sin” and “Endless Wandering” … we thought it would be great to record them. A week or so later we headed to Dayton with Paul Carmen. We recorded a couple of original songs and a couple of covers on a tape.
Around this time, … we met Chuck Moorman, an electric piano player with another group at the time. We were reluctant to add another person to the band, but it was one of the best decisions we made. He was very talented and was just as passionate at playing as the rest of the band. He soon added a Farfisa compact organ/keyboard which not only made us more versatile but added a lot to our original songs, and he was also a great singer.
The band was now complete. The Endless 1966: Jack (Bat Jack) and Pat (Sugar Bear) McAtee, Mike (Screen) Lyons, Mike (Miguel or Wolfman) O’Brien, and Chuck (Pick It) Moorman.
Everyone in the band sang led on at least one song and we had great harmonies.
Jack, Chuck and Mike went to Columbus to see if we could find someone else that might be interested in hearing our tape. We did find one company that was interested called Cardinal Records. We made an appointment with Frank Keefer, the owner, and took our tape to him, but guess what, the tape was not readable. In those days you couldn’t just pop the tape into any player, it was a large reel and took a special recording device to read it. After spending a couple of hours with Frank, trying to convince him our music was good, he asked if we were willing to pay for the first hour of a recording session. Then, if he liked our music we could continue recording and he would cover the additional cost. So, we set up a time to come back.
The Hull Records acetate with earlier versions of the songs on the Cardinal 45. Hull Records became Musicol Recording Studio.A week or so later [October, 1966] we met Frank at his house and headed to Hull Records in Columbus. We met John Hull there and he set us up for our recording. After the first hour Frank liked us a lot and told us to continue with the session a few more hours. Frank and John decided to make an acetate, a small album with 5 originals that we could distribute to radio stations to see if they liked our music. The original songs were called: “World of Sin”, “Endless Wondering”, “Tomorrow’s Song”, “A Cry for Yesterday” and “Prevailing Darkness”.
At that time Frank became our manager/producer with Cardinal Records and started booking places for us to play. At the same time another disc jockey at WIZE in Springfield, Ron Brown, took our album, played the songs on Friday and Saturday nights and asked the listeners to call in and vote for the ones they like the most. The listeners decided on “Tomorrow’s Song” and the band picked “Prevailing Darkness” for the flip side.
We went back to the studio and re-recorded the two songs again [in December, 1966]. We had to shorten them because the radio stations in those days would only play songs that were two and a half minutes long. Then we released the two songs on a 45 single. Frank had 1000 records made up and distributed them to various radio stations and record stores…
Once we played at a huge Battle of the Bands at a National Guard Armory. It was put on by WIZE radio station in Springfield. There were at least a thousand kids there. It came down to us and a group call “The Children of Stone”, Jan Weinbreights’ band. Guess what, at the end of the show they called it a tie. It was a lot of work for nothing. We should have put the party on ourselves, with The Children of Stone, and split the profits…
What happened to The Endless? A couple of the guys went off to college, and Uncle Sam came to visit some of us. During this time, Chuck Moorman was replaced by Jeff Dunmire on keyboards, and a singer named Bobby Saint, along with a sax player named Art Moppit, were brought in.
Jack, Mike Lyons and Mike O’Brien were drafted in late 1968. Jack went to the Air Force, Mike Lyons into the Army and Mike O’Brien into the Marine Corps. After Jack left for the military, Pat continued with another band, Chuck and Mike Lyons formed a band called “The Blue Light” which were a very good.
Later in life, Pat, Chuck, Jeff and Mike Lyons played in several bands, “The Legacy Band” and “The Pleasant Street Blues Band”. Jack started another band in the late ’80s, while living in Phoenix, called “The Steppin’ Back Band” and played a lot of clubs and parties for about 10 years.
The band decided to get together again in 1996 and 1998 for 30th and 32nd class reunion parties. We rented a hall, and thanks to all of our old fans, it was standing room only.
Jack McAtee
The five earlier Musicol recordings were supposed to be released on a compilation of Mus-i-col recordings over two years ago, but for some reason it never appeared. Hopefully whatever issues are holding it up will be resolved so we can hear the extended work of this band. The three unreleased titles are “Cry For Yesterday”, “Endless Wandering” and “World of Sin” – heavy stuff!
Thank you to Jack McAtee for the photos in this article.
The Endless on the Disco 2 TV show, Dayton, Ohio, 1966: Jack McAtee on guitar behind Chuck Moorman, keyboards, on the left, Mike O’Brien on the drums, Pat McAtee on the bass and Mike Lyons on the guitar on the right.
This is an unidentified 12″ Sanders Recording Studios acetate featuring a somewhat free jazz ensemble whose sound and instrumentation remind me of Sun Ra or Mingus. I’m hoping some listener will be able to help me identify the artist. If you have any friends who are into this kind of jazz, please have them give these samples a listen.
Neither side has any information on it other than the printed label with the studio’s address and phone number, at 167 West 48th St., off Times Square in New York City. I would guess this dates to about 1961 or 1962.
It’s a very low fidelity recording, but I think the music is interesting enough to make a listen worthwhile. It’s noir, well-composed but not totally straight either. Track 13 may be the most polished composition on the acetate, so you may want to start with that first.
Someone commented the trombone sounded like Bob Brookmeyer, though I didn’t hear it.
Three members of the Reekers with friends from left: Mike Henley, Mack McCune, Tom Guernsey, John Guernsey (bottom right) and John Hall. Mack McCune and John Hall were friends of the band standing-in for absent Reekers.
Tom Guernsey formed the Reekers in late 1963 with his brother John Guernsey and friends from Garrett Park, MD, a small town outside of Bethesda and a short distance from Washington D.C. Bass players and drummers would change over time, but the core of the band was always Tom Guernsey on guitar, Joe Triplett on vocals and Mike Henley on piano.
While playing the beach resorts at Ocean City in the summer of ’64, rich friend Toby Mason became interested in the band and offered to pay for studio session time. The Reekers first session didn’t go well, but then they went into Edgewood Recording Studio on K Street in downtown D.C. Engineer and owner Ed Green asked Tom whether they wanted to record in one track or two. When Tom asked what was the difference, Green said one track is $10 an hour, two would be $20 an hour! The Reekers went with one track, no overdubs, to record two original instrumentals that would make Link Wray proud.
Tom’s lead guitar and Joe Triplett’s screams combine with Jim Daniels’ ferocious take on surf drumming for “Don’t Call Me Fly Face” (named for the Dick Tracy villian). On “Grindin'”, Richard Solo makes incredible bass runs behind a bluesy guitar workout from Tom, accompanied by Henley’s keyboards and Triplett’s interjections (‘keep grindin’, ‘look good to me now’, ‘keep walkin’ boy’!)
Tom brought an acetate of the session to Lillian Claiborne, a legendary D.C. record producer. Claiborne had been Patsy Cline’s manager early on in her career, and was responsible for recording and supporting many local acts, especially soul and r&b artists. She released some records on her own DC label and leased other masters to labels around the country.
Claiborne signed Tom to a production contract and sent the Reekers to Rufus Mitchell, owner of Baltimore’s Ru-Jac Records, a label usually known for soul music. With Claiborne’s assurance of airplay on WWDC, Mitchell released the Reekers 45. The small first pressing lists Tom as sole writer of both songs. When that sold out, Ru-Jac ran a second press, this time correcting the songwriting credits on “Grindin'” to give John Guernsey co-credit.
The Reekers never saw any money from this record, but it garnered them some attention. Local teen maven Ronnie Oberman profiled the band in the Washington Evening Star on April 17, 1965. About this time they went back to Edgewood to record a beautiful ballad, “The Girl Who Faded Away”. For this session Mike Griffin played bass and Bob Berberich replaced Daniels on the drums. This song shows some considerable development in the band, from Tom Guernsey’s songwriting to the harmony vocals and the band’s delicate handling of the arrangement. The band took a demo to the WWDC program director who had pushed “Flyface”. Not only did he pass on it, but his remark that they should stay an instrumental band disappointed vocalist Joe Triplett.
For his next song, Tom worked out a riff on piano loosely based on an instrumental he heard on the radio. The song he wrote around that riff, “What a Girl Can’t Do”, would change the fortunes of him and the rest of the Reekers.
The band went to Rodel Studio in Georgetown, a larger studio than Edgewood, but with a less competent staff. By sheer accident the engineer captured an echo-laden drum sound that gave the song an instant hook. Tom took all but two strings off his guitar so he could play the riff cleanly. Joe Triplett delivered the lyrics with sneering satisfaction, his voice perfectly suited to the lyrics. Though the words were a Stones-like put-down, musically the song shows little influence of the British Invasion. This was the first time the band had tried overdubs, including Joe on the harmonica solo and Tom’s repeating high guitar notes that take the song out.
Guernsey received some instant feedback on whether this song had a chance at a hit: Mike Griffin, hired as bass player for the session, had been offered either $20 or a percentage of the record. Initially he wanted the $20, but on hearing the playback in the studio he changed his mind and asked for the percentage!
Just as the Reekers were getting attention around DC with “Don’t Call Me Flyface”, the band dispersed, with Mike Henley and Joe Triplett going away to college. Tom and Bob Berberich joined another band, the Hangmen, with bassist Mike West and rhythm guitarist George Daly, fellow students at Montgomery Junior College.
Fate would strike in the early summer of ’65, when Hangmen manager Larry Sealfon played “What a Girl Can’t Do” for Fred Foster of Monument Records. Lillian Claiborne graciously released Tom from his contract with her and Foster signed him – only Tom as he was the songwriter and leader of the Reekers. Since Joe Triplett and Mike Henley were committed to college, Tom decided, against his own preferences, to work with the Hangmen as his band. Monument then released the Reekers’ recording of “What a Girl Can’t Do” under the Hangmen’s name, even though the only Hangmen that had played on it were Tom and Bob Berberich.
Some sources report that the Hangmen rerecorded the “The Girl Who Faded Away” for the Monument 45. A close listen shows that the Hangmen’s Monument 45 version uses the same instrumental backing as the Reekers’ original Edgewood acetate. The vocal track does not match the demo, with different lyrics, but the lead vocalist is the same (Triplett I think). The acetate also runs about 24 seconds longer than the Monument 45.
Confusion also exists about “What A Girl Can’t Do”, but there should be no doubt, the Monument 45 version released under the Hangmen’s name is actually the Reekers. In 1966 the Hangmen recorded their own version of the song for their LP, which sounds very different.
Though the Hangmen spelled the end of the Reekers, Tom now considers a number of his later projects with Joe Triplet (and often with Mike Henley, Sam Goodall and Bob Berberich) to be extensions of the Reekers, including a 45 released as the Omegas, and later recordings like 1972’s “Night Time of My Lifetime” and “Streakin’ U.S.A.”.Bob Berberich stayed with the Hangmen after Guernsey left the group, and would go on to join Dolphin with George Daly and Paul Dowell of the Hangmen and Nils Lofgrin, and then join Lofgrin’s own group, Grin.
Joe Triplett and Mike Henley joined a group called Claude Jones, John Guernsey joined the group soon after and became one of their primary songwriters. Joe Triplett later formed the Rosslyn Mountain Boys.
Meet The Reekers, a 20-track CD including the originals of Don’t Call Me Flyface and Grindin’, the Omegas’ I Can’t Believe and five ccver versions of What a Girl Can’t Do, is available at CD Baby, which also has Tom’s instrumental album, Same Place, Different Time.
Tom is working on a film inspired by the Reekers story called “The Girl From California”. He asked me to include this clip from the film:
This is actually the very first record released on the Ronn label, a subsidiary of Jewel, based in Shreveport, Louisiana. “Nothing You Do” is fine garage-soul, and though there are horns, the vocals, keyboards and driving rhythm remind me of the Music Machine more than anything else. It was written by Roger Barnes and produced by Gene Kent and Don Logan.
Barnes usually wrote soul or funk music, and in fact, the In-Crowd may be the only white artists in the whole Ronn catalog. A good version of “Midnight Hour” is on the flip.
I’m pleased to say I’ve been in touch with Steve Tuminello, the drummer for the In Crowd, so I’ll let him tell the In-Crowd story in his own words:
I was 17 years old when we cut that record at Robin “Hood” Brians studios in Tyler, Texas. Band members on the record were:
James Gordon – Vocalist Roger Barnes – Keyboard and Vocals Steve Tuminello – Drums Drake Lee – Guitar and Bass Richard Meeks – Guitar and Bass (He is on the fuzz tone lead guitar solo) Jimmy Lloyd – Tenor Saxophone Wallace Dingee – Trumpet Pat Anders – Lead Trumpet
Don Logan and Gene Kent were our managers and promoters of the shows we played. They called them dances, but the kids back then would stand in front of the band and “sweat” the band as they called it. It was kind of like playing a small concert because the halls we played would hold around a 1000 people.
Gene Kent and Don Logan were the top DJ’s in Shreveport, Louisiana at AM 710 KEEL Radio in the 1960’s. Don Logan also was a record executive with Jewel/Paula/Ronn Records. Stan Lewis founder of Jewel/Paula/Ronn records.
I remember Don Logan telling us we had to change the name of the band because we broke the Billboard top 100 (This was late 1966 and the first year Billboard had this designation) and we were being sued by a band named the In Crowd in California. I suggested we change the name to the Inn Crowd. I had the name painted on my bass drum and this was an easy fix. I believe the song hovered around the 10 or 11 mark on the regional charts, as I recall. I didn’t even know we were played outside of Ark-La-Tex.
We became local celebrities and the attendance to our shows increased dramatically. We were just a bunch of high school kids but we were booking for a large amount of money for those times. We used to make a $100 per night each and in today’s dollars that would be around $500 per night.
Roger Barnes and Drake Lee are still in Shreveport and I’m not sure about the rest of the band members. I have often thought a reunion would be a lot of fun. As you mentioned we were a blue eyed soul 8 piece horn band playing R & B covers. “Nothing You Do” was not really our style but was fitting for the AM radio waves in late 1966.
My Uncle, A.J. Tuminello, who taught me to play the drums at age 5, was the original drummer on Dale Hawkins’ Suzie Q, and was involved in the origination of the tune. He was not available on the date of recording so Stan Lewis had his younger brother Ron Lewis fill in for my Uncle in the studio. Ron Lewis is the namesake for Ronn Records.
“Nothing You Do” reached #19 on KEEL in Shreveport in January of ’67.This In-Crowd has nothing to do with the many other In/Inn Crowds around in the ’60s, including the Inn Crowd that featured Hal Ellis (of John Fred’s band), that had three 45s for the Montel – Michelle label.
Despite having recorded at Robin Hood Brians studio, they were also not the In Crowd with Jim Glaves and Bobby Rambo on guitar that released a 45 on Abnak and became the backing band for Jon and Robin.
Wally Dingee and some other members continued the band with Bill Wray on vocals, eventually renaming it to Bill Wray and the Showband Royale. They had a 45 called “For Our Friends” on the Readie label that I haven’t heard.
Thanks to Steve Tuminello for his history of the band and the news articles, and to Wally Dingee for the poster and stills from the Super 8 film of the band.
“That’s the Sun” is a fine garage song with a touch of psych. All copies of the record suffer from a warble in the tape created in recording or mastering.
From Spartanburg, South Carolina, the New Generation had Tommy Caldwell on bass and Doug Gray on vocals – these two would soon become part of the Marshall Tucker Band. Other members were Randy Foster on rhythm guitar, Ross Hannah on drums, Dan Powell on organ, and Keith Wood on lead guitar.
Anyone have a photo of the group?
“That’s The Sun” was written by Tommy Caldwell and Randy Foster. The flip side is a conventional pop song called “Because of Love (It’s All Over)”. Released April of 1968 on the Sonic label.
I’ve read they had one other 45, but I think that may be a mistake. They were not the same New Generation with a 45 on Kapp, “If You’re Lookin’ for Love” / “Never Let the Right Hand Know (What the Left Hand’s Doin'”.
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
The Reekers never saw any money from this record, but it garnered them some attention. Local teen maven Ronnie Oberman profiled the band in the Washington Evening Star on April 17, 1965. About this time they went back to Edgewood to record a beautiful ballad, “The Girl Who Faded Away”. For this session Mike Griffin played bass and Bob Berberich replaced Daniels on the drums. This song shows some considerable development in the band, from Tom Guernsey’s songwriting to the harmony vocals and the band’s delicate handling of the arrangement. The band took a demo to the WWDC program director who had pushed “Flyface”. Not only did he pass on it, but his remark that they should stay an instrumental band disappointed vocalist Joe Triplett.
