Here’s a very early artifact from the Rockin’ Dogs’ oeuvre: a flyer introducing the band to Pacific Beach’s Headquarters club in August 1982.
“This was when we just started out, when we were in high school,” guitarist/vocalist Dave Ellison writes. “What an embarrassing flyer … haha! For one thing, we spelled ‘Headquarters’ wrong.
“For another, we didn’t play rockabilly or r&b. We were probably trying to attract fans of the Paladins and Crawdaddys … and we probably didn’t care which, so long as someone showed up. (I can’t imagine anyone did on a Monday night!)
“At that point, we had no idea how we were going to attract an audience, or what bands we might fit in with … We just plowed ahead. What else are you going to do? We didn’t know anyone in the music scene at that time. We were just isolated kids in Poway. I think I used the art supplies from school … pens, India ink and obviously a paint brush.
- Click here for more on the Headquarters!
“A year or so later we started getting out in the world a little … And [drummer] Cole [Smithey] joined, then [bassist] Jane [Bunting]. I don’t remember us playing at Headquarters after Cole joined.”
Rockin’ Dogs MP3s:
The Rockin’ Dogs play “Candy Rock”: Listen now!
The Rockin’ Dogs play “Back of Your Heart”: Listen now!
The Rockin’ Dogs play “Always on the Run”: Listen now!
For the record, I like this flyer a lot — Dave Ellison was already a talented draftsman — and I think misspelling “Headquarters” is punk-rock as hell. 🙂
BTW, we discussed this a bit in the “Under the ‘hood” thread, but (apropos our family-tree project) who can remember when rockabilly revival emerged as a certifiable sub-genre in SD music? (I remember some punks pledging a rockabilly aesthetic as early as 1980 — which probably means it started even earlier.)
It’s so cool that Dave F. has had this flyer all this time! …I havent seen it since then. It was actually for the second version of the Rockin’ Dogs, when we were trying to simply things a little. The first version was really chaotic sounding, with a sax player and a great drummer (John Mullen) who played lots of accents and fills…more like Keith Moon.
This version of the band had Scott Nichols on drums, Jim Meisland on guitar, Sam on guitar and vocals, and myself on bass and vocals. Overall, this version was an improvement over the first lineup. Scott drumming was much more rudimentary than John’s, but it was more of a solid anchor…which we really needed.
The Paladins were the only rockabilly band that I remember at that time. They were older than us by a few years at least. We played at a party with them, but they didn’t dig our music too much. We’d also played a few times at the International Blend with the Crawdaddys, where the guy booking shows (not Pete English, someone else) told us we sounded like “heavy metal” in spite of the fact that we had the sax player. So we were jokingly trying to say “no matter what you like, come see the Rockin’ Dogs.”
Those pictures, of course, were after Cole joined. They were taken in his back yard when we had Scott Harber filling in on bass. I dont remember if he played any shows with us.
Monday night notwithstanding, I assume Mr. Fleminger was in the Headquarters audience that night if he kept the flyer! Dave Fleminger, any recollections of the early Dogs?
I remember seeing the Rockin’ Dogs at the ‘Blend, Syndicate and elsewhere but not at the Headquarters. Which doesn’t mean I didn’t see this show or the early lineup..I’ll take my memory out for a jog and see where it goes…if I was going to see a show rather than playing a show then in ’82 beer quaffing was probably more likely in the recipe for that evening.
My guess is that Dave E gave me (nice rhyme there) this flyer on Aug. 28th at the Headquarters show we played with the Crawdaddies, X-Offenders & NE-1 (it’s listed in the perf history). Handing out flyers at shows was the smartest direct marketing you could do…otherwise you were contributing to piles of flyers that sat at the record shops, which meant if you didn’t go to buy records you might miss some shows too.
This is a great flyer, despite the miss-spelling and the month-correction it’s got a lot of style and the descriptions are spot-on. The ‘Dogs cut a swath through the comparatively polite 1960’s and 91-X-hits-playin’ outfits and forged a dangerous mix of ‘cranked up’ tunage and R&R mayhem…with hooks like nothing else. Dave and Sam’s fantastically catchy songs have all these classic elements but don’t follow any specific retro vision…funny how bands outside of set paradigms got called “heavy metal” or “Zeppelin”, etc.
Dave E, do you remember who you played with at Headquarters that night? I need to dig thru my collection further, because I probably have the Headquarters calender for that month, especially as we played that week too.
Another thing…with my memory now jogging around the wobbly track I have a vision of seeing the ‘Dogs playing at the Spirit several years later, singing a song with the line “in my head…in my head…rock and roll noise…in my head…” — am I making this part up?
Dave, could it have been a version of Rock ‘n’ Roll Nurse, previously covered by the New York Dolls?…
“As I was laying in a hospital bed,
Rock ‘n’ Roll Nurse goin’ to my head.
To my head, to my head, Rock ‘n’ Roll Nurse goin’ to head…”
Dave, we never played at the Spirit when I was in the band, but they might have after I left. I think the song you’re thinking of is Pills by the New York Dolls…but I dont ever remember playing that, so it must have been after I left.
“to my head…to my head…a rock and roll nurse going to my head” …originally it was a Bo Diddley song.
I can’t remember how we got flyers into people’s hands…I dont remember ever handing them out, but that was probably what we did… along with dumping them off at Off the Record. I have no idea who we played with, it kind of looks like we didnt know when we made this flyer either…it was probably someone like the X Offenders, their house band. BTW, our sax player from the first lineup, Ed Croft, joined NE1 after he left our band. I think he actually went on to make a living playing music.
I only saw the Rockin’ Dogs a couple of times, but thought they were really onto something. There was clearly a NY Dolls influence, and Dave had obviously listened to a few Chuck Berry records.
” . . . funny how bands outside of set paradigms got called “heavy metal” or “Zeppelin”, etc. . . .” : Context, man, context. Those of us who used to use Zeppelin as a perjorative term were not making a commentary on the musicianship or songwriting abilities of Led Zeppelin. It grew out of the punk rock ethos that all of us shared at heart. It was us against them, and if you were in the Led Zeppelin camp, you were the enemy. Yeah, it’s elitist, snobbish, incredibly closed-minded and condescending, but it just was one dividing line between cool and uncool, like a mustache, bell-bottoms. (Come to think of it, Led Zeppelin sported both.) It took me years to finally appreciate Led Zeppelin, and it’s hard to imagine not thinking Jimmy Page was great. I will admit, though, that Robert Plant still sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me. . .
Ron Silva, and by extension the Crawdaddys and Hedgehogs, used to use the term “heavy metal” in a different context, to describe something that was loud,overpowering, visceral and something parents would have hated. This was applied to everything from “Glen Miller’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” to Bo Diddley, to any blistering guitar solo.
I never stopped liking Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd. Jimi Hendrix or any of the rest.But yeah Ray, you’re right.Robert plant was pretty annoying on that stuff. I maintain that if Howlin’ Wolf were the singer of Led Zeppelin, that would have been the greatest band of all time(they might have had to forgo some of the hobbit tunes though).
Was there a Distillery West? I think I played there in 1979 or 1989 with a band I had in high school called the Ideals, which featured Carl Rusk on bass, Paul Carsola on drums, Maure Silverman and Tony Paulerio on bass and guitar, respectively. It looked like a ski lodge inside, and we competed in a cheesy battle of the bands there. The winner was a group called . . .Roxoff. Bwaa-haa-haa!
That reminds me of the first Hedgehog gig at an apartment courtyard near Mission Bay High School, which never took place because the cops were called after the first band played. They were called Stonehenge, and pulled out every Circus magazine hard rock seventies cliche they could think of. When we were packing up our equipment, one of them said, “Bummer, man. See you at the Sports Arena.”
I saw Howlin’ Wolf play at the Belly Up and met him afterwards. He had an enormous set of hands, almost like flippers they were so big. I wish he would have sung: “T’was in the darkest depths of Mordor/
I met a girl so fair/ But Gollum, the evil one/ Crept up and slipped away with her.”
Dave, tell us the story about the Unholy Rollers (a Rockin dogs pre-band)!!!
Matthew, that was Sam and John that played with Eric Camillo…not me. That was the Unholy Rollers.
Oops! I copy-edited the “he” into “we” and introduced the error. I’ll change it back.
That guy Stoney was the one who owned the After Dark club (also in Escondido)…where we played with the Wallflowers and Telltale Hearts. That was the show where that mirror was accidentally broken by an unidentified club patron.
The article makes Stoney sound like Mother Theresa!
I can’t get the idea of Howlin’ Wolf singing ‘Ramble On’ out of my mind..!
A hysterically funny notion but the more I think about it the more I can imagine how he would phrase those lines into something truly powerful.
Howlin’ could make even the most Hobbitty Zep lyrics sound good, I can imagine him making “Mordor” almost sound like “Murder”…maybe he can drop the “t’was” tho…can’t hear Wolf singing “t’was”..
“Goin To California” with a solo Hubert Sumlin guitar backing would become an epic Steinbeck story-tale…otherwise it’s just Plant complaining about getting a bloody nose.
Led Wolfsumlin? Wolf Zephowlin? Moan Midnightalin?
‘Lin Zeppechester?
I fear if Howlin’ Wolf sang Dazed and Confused the world would have no choice but to explode.
What’s really weird is the Yardbirds version, which like halfway between the two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VClU5OW31I0&feature=related
Okay, could this set include Wolf singing a version of the Yardbirds’ “Little Games”? Tee-hee. Love that six-eight time.
That Yardbirds version of “Dazed and Confused” is on a compilation lp from the late ’70s that details various “early” efforts of Jimmy Page, and relevent to our little scene and the odd connections within, I think that album was an AIP project, a label that was a Greg Shaw project I think, and the Page comp was the source, I’m pretty sure, for one or two early Crawdaddys covers. If I had the record in front of me I could tell you what song or songs I mean. Ray, do you know what I’m talking about here?
Remote tie-in to the Rockin’ Dogs would be the inclusion of “R&B” on their flyer, above, as a nod to a supposed Crawdaddy-lovin’ audience that “might” show up on a monday at “Headquaters” (a king of neo-Bostonian spelling, I’d say). If only the Rockin’ Dogs had covered that Page-assisted version of “Leave My Kitten Alone” . . . .
I was never resistant to late 60s and 70s rock. I love Led Zeppelin… (not all of their songs, I’ll admit). And there was never a time when I didn’t think that BY FAR the best era of the Rolling Stones was when they had Mick Taylor.
I think the Yardbirds (or what was left of them) recorded a version for the BBC. I’m trying to find a recording of the Animals playing the Rolling Stones’ “Connection” on the BBC--we did that version several times.
Dave,
Twenty-five years ago I would have picked a fight with you over that one, but wisdom and cooler heads prevail in these days, and I am inclined to agree with you nowadays. Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street--some of the absolute best rock and roll ever, particularly from a bunch of junkies. You’d probably still be threatened with an ass whooping from Mike Stax, though, if he could muster it. To him, the Stones died at the bottom of a swimming pool, high on prescription pills. Can we all agree that since the group has been around for forty five years or so, their suck to good years ratio is about 1:4?
DeB LeBBaro for president!
Wom Tard: You backed up Don Gardner? Wow. Can he still belt out “my baby likes to boogaloo”? That kills. Like, lays ’em out and stuns folks.
All time top ten favorites.
Tony
Kristen, when I was 14 we’d go to the midnight movies and see those 70s concert movies…they were really boring. The one with the Who was especially boring. I never saw Yessongs though… I can imagine that would take some stamina to sit through…haha.
There are scenes in Song Remains the Same that really are like right out of Spinal Tap… they had to have used that movie for ideas when they were making it. There’s a b&w documentary on the Yardbirds that they used to have on youtube (it’s been pulled, unfortunately)…and the interview segment with Jeff Beck was obviously the whole inspiration for Nigel. It’s so dead-on, its really funny to watch.
Spinal Tap is goofy. Love it!
Midnight movies are coming back. It was once a genre. Remember Nightflight? I saw midnight movies at Glasshouse Square in Sports Arena and Mann Theaters (where Flipside used to be, right next to what is now Soma). Saw Gimme Shelter, Road Warrior, Dawn of the Dead….
I still can’t sit through concert films. But I’m not a musician. It’s got to have a lot of commentary. Animation, even better. I’d have to say the best “concert” film -- not just a music documentary -- is Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads).
Fave music doc has gotta be Decline of Western Civilization tho’ there’s a fantastic film out about Roky Erickson.
Tony, Don Gardner is 74 years old, but he rose to the challenge of this gig very well. Big voice. Spry. I was surprised to learn he plays drums as well as sings on the recording of “My Baby Likes To Boogaloo.” Neat man to talk with--we had a long drive on the rehearsal day. We did a set made up exclusively of his old material, but he’s not really that keen on it. He said, “it was the times, man”--a bit dismissive of his own work. He’d rather croon in, say, the Billy Eckstine manner--and I’d be happy to go there, with a little more rehearsal then we had! Our horn players are still learning how not to step on each other when everyone is improvising. Still a little too raw. We jammed on “God Bless The Child” at the rehearsal, but we had prepared a full slate of his Sixties material ahead of time and were booked for the full boogaloo approach as much as possible. He’s old enough that his formative years were really the late forties. But he dug and digs Ray Charles, and covered “What I Say” back when it was pretty new. His backing band made the riff a bit more angular; we split the difference in doing it live. Otherwise we did his stuff exclusively. Mr. Gardner’s biggest hit was “I Need Your Lovin’ Every Day” in 1962--full mid-tempo swinging blues-y stuff--a shuffle, but with some powerful female backing vocals. Stylistically varied though, a couple of his other tunes can even fit with the “northern soul” tag. He was active through 1971, and then moved down south, started a business. But he returned to Philadelphia at some point, and got involved with music education on the side--and doing some more jazz-inflected gigs agian in recent years. He was dressed very nattily for the rehearsal as well as the gig--even had a memorable straw hat going.
“My Baby Likes To Boogaloo” fits definition #2 of heavy metal, the ironic one, with its slab of low, key of E guitar riff. Pretty much the tone that Ron Silva “glairdoh,” inspired by the first notes of the Beatles’ “I Wann Be Your Man,” although boogaloo here is of course slower and heavier. Our telecaster man uses regrettably too-light strings, so I brought a second guitar specially prepared to sound like that record. It also meant he was exactly in tune for the climax of the show, a song where the guitar is really in the spotlight despite the accompanying horn riffage. I brought a tele with flatwound .011 -- .052 guage and it did the job. Sorry for the technical junk for any non-gearheads out there, but if you hear the song, you can easily imagine that despite the simplicity, the guitar has to be just so. It’s like trying to produce that aforementioned “heavy metal” on a total “jazz guitar” set-up. I don’t know what thing brand of guitar literally was, but I’m 98% certain it had some big flatwounds on it.
Stop me if I’m repeating myself from some other thread, but Maxine Brown and Baby Washington were in the audience. Ms. Washington told me I was great, singling me out, so I can possibly die happy. With vocal group the Dansettes a few years ago, we played the heck out of two Baby Washington numbers. I didn’t think I’d get to meet her--or so soon.
One of the things I dig about this current backing group we have going is that, Stax Records-like, it’s an integrated group. In fact the white dudes out of six are just me and the sax player. We have trumpet, too. The keyboard player wears the hornrims as I do, but is a longhaired Asian cat. It’s excellent to be playing “The Sound of Young America” although we are still working to make it gel, sonic-ly. Another freaking learning band--I’m the oldest by about five years, some are in their twenties. I’m quite sure I’ve outlived Jamerson by this point, and although I can imitate him with some proficiency, I’m still not that--and look how long it’s taken me to get there! But I really like these gigs, backing up the older singers. There’s one other outfit doing this too--they backed Tammi Lynne (did I spell that right?) the other week. Apparently she splits her time between New York and New Orleans, only lives in towns with “new” in the name.
Now if I can just join that other group too, maybe on second guitar…have been working on that skill over the years. A third group active in backing up the preceding generation would be the one Dave Amels (interesting history there, he was a scenester like all of us but on the East Coast, only to become the founder of Voce, the early digital Hammond B-3 emulator--he engineered the algorithms that make that stuff work) has put together to back Mary Weiss. They must have done a half dozen gigs with her in the last year; maybe more if they’ve traveled.
Over the summer we also got Ronnie Spector, outdoors but with very good sound (at McCarren Park Pool, where one of my two ’06 gigs with Archie Bell was). Sadly I’m still not well-enough placed to have gotten the gig with Ronnie Spector. I envied that bass player. Spector was in very good voice, though maybe tiring towards the end--and why shouldn’t she? It was nearly ninety degrees out there, probably more onstage. But when she first opened up with that vibrato, it was a pretty transcendent moment. I really understood the near-freakish quality of “star power” at that moment. Shivers. She maintained that power through song after song, including a powerful encore, when probably all she wanted was an electric fan and a tall glass of lemonade. Did I mention there were twelve musicians? It was a pretty good approximation of the “Wall-of-Sound.” Of course I’d have tweaked one or two things here and there if somebody crowned me musical director (could you open that hi-hat cymbal just a little more?), but it far surpassed expectations, and I’m glad a day like this can still be staged, forty-five years later, you know?
The all-time worst, most ridiculous midnight movie has to be Heavy Metal…which was based on this 70s sci-fi fantasy comic book/magazine. I recently saw part of it on VH1… the story and animation were both so bad it was funny…completely un-watchable. There’s no way anyone could have enjoyed this without being stoned.
I love Gimme Shelter though …except for the scene where the guy gets stabbed.
So I guess that’s definition #3 of heavy metal.
Kristen: midnight movies! Yes--they’re starting to happen in New York again, too, as a “thing.” At the moment we have Domenic Priore here, showing (well, introducing) some Sunset Strip-related films as a tie-in with his recent book, RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP: Rock & Roll’s Last Stand In Hollywood 1965 -- ’67. Good book, by the way. The films, under some easy monicker like “Hollywood Hippies,” are showing at midnight at the IFC cinema in Greenwich Village. In the Sixties (and until a few years ago) it was called the Waverly. But I saw a flyer for midnight movies elsewhere recently, too--some classic fare.
Hi Tom! of type combined with the reversed out white on black starts to look structural… skyscraperish…I’m trippin! All work and no play….fresh air….sunshine…too much compooterin’.)
I was just reading thru the several stories of your last comment! (The forced justification
You were very creative I recall and… prolific! I remember hanging with you at Denny’s. Quiet but when you had something to say, very poignant and interesting to talk to. I hope life is treating you well.
Did you go see Riot on Sunset at the Ken with everyone? It played with Psyche Out, staring Susan Strasberg, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. Classic choreographed acid trips.
DAVE: Heavy Metal doublebilling with Wizards -- break out the kleenex and Clearasil!!!
Speaking of Altamont (and movies), I believe there’s a fairly recent documentary where they explore who that victim was, seeking out his family and so on. I haven’t seen it, but am interested. I meant to see Gimme Shelter a few years back when it was on big screens, but didn’t get to it--possibly out of a certain latent squeamishness. That scene has got to be a bit rough--and no matter what, freighted with symbolic meaning that would be as difficult in its way as the simple brutal (or should I say, primal?) nature of the happening. But I’m going to have to see it sometime.
My grandparents lived at Bass Lake, famously the holiday destination of a given motorcycle outfit, and the scene of much of the action in Hunter Thompson’s 1966 book…. So I got somewhat used to the sight of rows of detailed choppers at an early age. I remember counting them once, parked along the board sidewalk at ‘The Pines.’ It was about eighty. In 1975 it must have been a spectacle and to be transported back to it somehow from our times would make it all the more so. I’d be curious to see the look of some of those bikes again. I remember metalflake paint, and early efforts in the air-brushing field.
A few folks we know ultimately made the transition from Vespa to Harley but in a post-modern way, I guess. Come to think of it, I’m in touch with one of them through myspace. I wonder if he’s visited the blog? Quiz: Pat Works may have gone to a Moto Guzzi, but what formerly parka-wearing lad graduated to a bright yellow vintage Harley-Davidson? And still has it?
There was also a second Guzzi driver, circa 1987, but I guess that’s one for the where-are-they-now thread. I believe his name is Doug? Funny, in my mind and memory, he even looks a little like Doug Sahm of the Sir Douglas Quintet.
Looking back at the photos of the Rockin’ Dogs--after yakkin’ it up off-topic--that is sure some Youth on display, for sure.
The guitar player has a fine head of San Diego blond hair. So did I when I was about three years old, but it changed on me. Now, living on the East Coast, I seldom see anyone just That blond. So I fit in instead of looking really exceptional. Once you move away for a really good chunk of time, and rarely visit, a sight like that combined with the particular blend of backyard foliage in the background can give you some kind of weird San Diego rush. If you have a spare twenty years, try it sometime!
Who remembers Ralph Bakshi’s “American Pop”? As I remember, the movie put forth the proposition that the entire history of American popular music was a prelude to Bob Seger’s “Night Moves.”
I’m hearing calls for a movie-theater post … Do midnight movies deserve their own, separate entry?
BTW, who-all saw the “Sgt. Pepper” film with the Bee Gees? I count myself lucky I wasn’t rendered sterile by early exposure to that toxic stew!
“Night Moves,” ugh! He namechecks 1963, to ’63’s eternal chagrin. Remind me NOT to mention ’83 in some paean (or is it peaen) to automotive love, or love-by-automobile, or whatever you want to call it. It was great, but not in a new car. What am I talking about? I wouldn’t know much about it until the summer of 1985. Not ’42, not ’63. Someone will probably be waxing nostalgic about SUV love a decade or two hence.
My god, you’ve defined my problem in your closing paragraph, above. I DID see the Sgt. Pepper film in its first run. I was ten years old. Seeing “Corvette Summer” in its day apparently didn’t help, either. But Sgt. Pepper’s etc. etc. did have a slightly ominous Aerosmith in it, for what it’s worth. What I never got around to seeing in the era was Tommy.
Pop will eat itself? That’s onanism, not Ono-ism. Don’t blame Yoko. Free Yoko.
I’ll follow that link to American Pop later. I’ve got to run out to a midnight movie now.
“Long haired asian cat”--you mean like a Balinese? Have you checked his pedigree?
A bunch of further ramblings: The Waverly, as in “I met a boy called Frank Mills on September 12 right here in front of the Waverly,” right?
“The Trip” is that film in which the Seeds perform, right? Can I get a witness?
Sorry, everyone, and I know Sgt. Pepper is perennially on lists of the worst films of all times, but I think there are a few pretty good covers on the soundtrack. Like Toby, I like Saturday Night Fever--both the film and the soundtrack (How Deep Is Your Love and Night Fever are both beautiful songs). As I remember this was RSOs attempt to cash in on the soundtrack fever. Aerosmith does a pretty good “Come Together,” Billy Preston plays “Get Back” and Earth Wind and Fire do a great “Got to Get You Into My Life.” The rest is pretty much shite, though.
Altamont-- Maure Silverman, Tony Paulerio, Chris Iandolo and I (now there’s a bunch of rock and roll names for you!) and about ten other people saw a 35 mm print at the University of San Diego when I was in the tenth grade. This being several years before video tapes were available, this was an exciting event for me. My 14 year old self was especially impressed by Keith Richards’ snakeskin boots. For a while I was interested in learning all about 18 year old Meredith Hunter and the circumstances surrounding his death. (That led me to the aforementioned Hunter Thompson book on the Hell’s Angels.) I didn’t see the film again for years and when I did I was shocked to see the Flying Burrito Brothers playing Dave Dudley’s “Six Days on the Road,” in plain sight and right under my nose. Years later, when Scott Harrington joined the Town Criers, one of the first songs he wanted to learn was the Stones’ Altamont arrangement of “Under My Thumb,” the song they were playing when the Hell’s Angels killed MH.
And lay off Bob Seger, man, he was just trying to make some front page drive-in news. God, I hated that song when I was a kid. It would come on the radio during the Christmas of 1976 and I would get a sick feeling in my stomach as though I’d just eaten some bad ham. It’s a candidate for some of the worst lyrics ever:
She was a black-haired beauty with big dark eyes
And points all her own sitting way up high
Way up firm and high
I need a shower. Here’s a little something to hose that song right out of your mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2aBOTNGWMY
Tommy was another of those midnight movies…I probably saw it a few times when I was about 14…completely boring except for when Elton John sings Pinball Wizard. I think his version is much better than the original.
Ray: I concur 100% on Aerosmith and Billy Preston. (Although all the lightning bolts coming out of Billy’s finger are a little goofy, his dance moves kick ass!) I didn’t remember that EWF’s estimable “Gotta Get You into My Life” featured in this movie! And I’d also suppressed the memory of George Burns’ narration:
Bee Gees/Aerosmith rumble!
Billy Preston finger-bangs everybody:
OK, strictly in the interest of fleshing out the historical record, here are Dave Rives and me playing in our first high-school band at the Distillery East, Escondido, 1980:
Note the trompe l’oeil barrels across the back wall:
The femme fatale draped over the bannister had an eye for Chris Gessel, our drummer:
P.S. to Ray: That Bob Seger System video was awesome! Nancy’s older sibs in Michigan have a lot of nostalgia for old-school Seger. And I always dug the Last Heard’s “Persecution Smith.”
Wow, the Distillery looks just the way I remember it. I saw the Lords of the New Church there… I remember standing right on that little staircase balcony watching them.
Did Billy Preston actually play on Sgt. Pepper’s? I know he was on Abbey Road. George Harrison wanted to make him an official member of the Beatles.
>>Did Billy Preston actually play on Sgt. Pepper’s?
You mean on the Beatles album, Dave? No, George brought him in later, to try and salvage what would become “Let It Be.” (He’d met the Beatles in 1962, when he was part of Little Richard’s band.) Preston’s the only one who doesn’t look miserable in that movie, and he does make it up on the roof to play “Get Back.”
Here’s some studio footage … Note Billy Preston boogieing to the rescue around 1:15 … I do remember reading that while he saved the day, the Beatles started getting fatigued by his presence ’cause he was so goddamn happy to be there!
Dave,
I totally agree on the Elton John Pinball Wizard! Definitely one of the coolest scenes in the film, which I love, by the way. The best part is the key change, when the Who smash up their instruments!
I’ve always dug Jack’s surprisingly posh warbling as the doctor. Especially the way he lets the notes stay on the tree when he sings “suddenly”…wish they had let him sing in ‘Psych Out’.
maybe you guys just dont understand segar, but just the other day i was playing at the rodeo opry in oklahoma city and as i was in the parking lot after the show a really drunk indian asked me if i would play the song night moves for him, which i did and then he stared bawling like a baby and telling me how much that tune reminded him about getting older and all the ladies he’d known and such and i completely agreed with him, night moves is a bad ass song!