Bill DeFalco – lead guitar
Frank DeFalco – rhythm guitar
Jimmy DiGiacomo – bass
Joey Erico – drums
Brothers Bill and Frank DeFalco had a previous group called the Rock Monacles with a different drummer, Henry Bauman and vocalist George Malin. In the summer of 1967 the Pebble Episode went to O.D.O. Sound Studio on West 54th Street in Manhattan to record two songs, “Tripsey” (by William DeFalco, Frank DeFalco) and “The Plum Song” (by William DeFalco, Frank DeFalco and James DiGiacomo). Publishing by Mozella Music BMI, and produced by S. & J.
Juggy Murray of Sue Records signed the group to J-2 Records, his new label as Sue was sliding into bankruptcy to be sold to United Artists around 1968.
To compound the problems Murray had with Sue at the time, the first pressing of this 45 was mistakenly labelled with Vincent Oddo’s name, the engineer and owner of the ODO studio where the band recorded, but most definitely not the artist! New labels were printed up with the correct band name, though this time the A-side was spelled “Tripsy”.
“Tripsy” is an apt name for this wild instrumental loaded with echo and repeating riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on The Inner Mystique. By comparison, “The Plum Song” is much more conventional in sound, dominated by Bill DeFalco on organ and Joe Erico’s fine drum fills.
This was the first release on J-2 Records followed by Baby Washington doing “Like a Rolling Stone” (I’d like to hear that version!) b/w “The New Yorker” (J2-1301) and the Poets in-demand soul classic “Wrapped Around Your Finger” / “Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow” (J2-1302).
The Pebble Episode continued until 1972, with home recordings I haven’t heard but no further releases.
More info is in the comments to the Discogs page for the single.
Sorry for the atrocious condition of the labels for this post, but if you have a better high-resolution scan of Tripsy, please send it in.
Anyone have a photo of the group?
I am so impressed to have found this website and equally impressed with the accuracy of the information on The Pebble Episode. I can say this because I was the Lead Guitarist for The Pebble Episode. Some interesting information of note to add here. My older brother Francis – known as “Franny” played Rhythm Guitar, and he was the founder of our original group – the Rock Monacles. He was the first in the family to start playing guitar, which inspired me to also take up guitar playing shortly thereafter. It was Franny who connected us with Henry Bauman and his friend George Malin and our first band was formed. We would alternate practicing in the basement of our big home at 364 Argyle Road in Brooklyn, NY and in the basement of Henry Bauman’s apartment building nearby, where Henry’s dad was the Superintendent, who made the basement practice and hangout area available to us. One day while there, I picked up a piece of paper with the words: The Rock Monacles on it. I found out that Henry’s dad had thought up the name and had written it down on this paper. I liked it and suggested to Henry’s dad that we take it as our group name. Everyone agreed and so it was. As it would happen Henry would be turning up at our performances very drunk and it was detracting from his ability to play the drums. This problem eventually led to us parting company with him and George Malin. My brother Franny replaced Henry with Joey Erico, a friend from school who proved to be a much better and more responsible Drummer. At around the same time, I had become friends with James “Jimmy” DiGiacomo from our grammar school: Holy Innocents (On E 17th Street and Beverly Road in Brooklyn). I was a Science Geek and having won the Leffert’s Junior High School’s Annual Science Fair in 1965, the Nuns of the Holy Innocents Parish asked me to Engineer a Recording of a guitar group that was scheduled to perform in a big school concert at the school on a Friday Eve in the Spring of 1965. Jimmy and I had become good friends at that point and after seeing him perform that night, I invited him to join our new group, which we had named: Kaleidoscope. Later, when a popular rock group emerged with this same name, we had to come up with a new name. In the process, all of us got together one day in my home and started writing down names on pieces of paper and reading the names out loud to take a vote – but we couldn’t come up with a name that everyone agreed to. After we had run out of names to write down, I picked up two of the papers – one with the words: The Pebbles on it, and another word with: Episode written on it. I put them together and said: how about The Pebble Episode? It certainly didn’t strike a lightning bolt – but everyone soon gave it the nod – and that became the new name (and the last name) for our band, until we disbanded 5 years later. The new name turned out to be a very telling name, as what may have had the potential to become a big episode, turned out to be only just a pebble episode, mainly because of a decision by our parents (as we all under the legal age the time) to break a 3-Year Recording Contract with SUE Records, that was signed on behalf of our group by our manager, Skip Lawrence. It was not long before that when we took on Skip Lawrence as our Band Manager (his real name was Sam Blaustein). He found us by accident (as it were) when his car got a flat tire while driving through our neighborhood, forcing him to pull over right by our home on Argyle Road to change the tire. We happened to be rehearsing in the basement of our home when “Skip Lawrence” knocked on one of the basement windows, after listening to us playing. He told us of how impressed he was with our sound and asked if we had a manager. When we said we didn’t, he offered to be our manager. We all agreed, and it was he who later made the arrangements for us to go to Oddio Studios in NYC to record Tripsey (the original spelling) a psychedelic instrumental that my brother Franny and I had written together. Knowing we’d need something for the flip side, I hurriedly composed a tune on the piano and played it for the other band members on the parlor grand piano in the living room of our home. Since we didn’t have any keyboard instrument in the basement to practice on – the first time we played it was in the recording studio, where I had the first opportunity of my life to play a Hammond B3 Organ. Going by what I had played on the piano to the other band members, and with everyone knowing the key we would be playing the tune in, I asked our drummer Joey to open with a drum roll – which the rest of us would then follow in with. On the start cue from Vincent Oddio, Joey opened with a great drum roll and off we went. We got it perfect on the first take, and when Vince came over the PA at the end of the recording to ask us for the name of the tune – we all looked at each other, realizing that there was never any name for it. It was then that Jimmy yelled out: The Plum Song! And so it was! During the long recording session, we also cut our own version of Chuck Berry’s School Days. Since it was mid-Summer our manager was planning to launch our version of it at a time to coincide with the opening of the 1967 school year. We all thought it was a really great idea – but before it was to happen our parents had fired our manager and broke the 3-year contract that he had signed with SUE Records. Looking back I believe the biggest mistake we, the band members made, was to let our parents have the discussion and make the decision without us being a part of the meeting and the decision. If we were a part of the discussion (heck – WE were the musicians after all it was Our Fate that was at stake!) I’m sure there would have been a much better outcome. Our parents were concerned that our manager had signed the contract with SUE Records without first consulting with them. When they investigated the company (Sue Records) and found out that it was in a Chapter 11 they were advised by legal counsel to re-negotiate the contract from a 3 Year to a 3 Record contract. Juggy Murry, the owner of SUE Records, which was up to that time an all-Black Artist record company had liked Tripsey so much, that he elected to take us on as his First White Band. Needless to say – we all felt much honored! Juggy refused to renegotiate the contract, and the parents refused to honor anything more than just a 3-Record commitment. This led to the parents firing of Skip Lawrence and breaking the relationship with SUE Records off altogether. Though this was a huge let-down for all myself and the three other band members, as it would turn out to be our only real chance of “making it big” we nevertheless continued to perform many gigs, and to write our own new original music. I had purchased two high quality Sony 7″ Reel to Reel Tape Recorders, and I still maintain a very large collection of tapes with many recording of The Pebble Episode in rehearsal and jam sessions, in the basement of our grand old home on 364 Argyle Road in Brooklyn, NY. This lovely home was sold in 1984 after our father – the late Dr. Francis H. DeFalco – passed away. I will be soon uploading a lot of the recorded material that I have on The Pebble Episode to my YouTube channel. It is Long overdue for me to do this, but hopefully my discovery of this website will give me the impetus to finally get that material uploaded to my YouTube channel.
As the Lead Guitar player of The Pebble Episode and co-composer of Tripsey (original spelling) I would welcome hearing from anyone with any questions or comments on the Pebble Episode. Feel free to contact me at my email address of: BillDeFalco@gmail.com
You can hear Tripsy (Tripsey) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC9pmcM5A0o
The flip side – The Plum Song – can be heard at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHkJpAMRABs
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Recording of Tripsy at Vince Oddo’s Studio in New York City in 1967 by The Pebble Episode – three of four original members of the Pebble Episode: Bill DeFalco (yours truly – Lead Guitarist) – Francis DeFalco (Rhythm Guitarist) and James Digiacomo (Bass Guitarist) will be reuniting for the first time in decades for a Jam Session and to re-record Tripsy – in the Upstate New York area on Tuesday Evening March 28th., 2017. Good friends Nick Romeo and Gino Nicoli – percussionists – will be joining us, along with Frank Mami, who will be hosting the event at his Studio. I will be uploading a Video of the event to my YouTube Channel and will be posting the link to the Video here and on on my Facebook page shortly after the event. Also at this get historic together, we’ll be discussing the possibility of The Pebble Episode returning to live performances.
where upstate? I live near Albany.