Looking for the origins of Poway’s legendary Rockin’ Dogs? Dating way back to 1982, “Bye Bye Bye” is the first studio demo from the band, featuring the original Dogs lineup.
Writes Rockin’ Dog Dave Ellison, “This is from the historic Rockin’ Dogs San Marcos Sessions, featuring the earlier lineup of Sam Wilson on guitar/vocals; Dave Ellison on bass/vocals; Jim Meisland on guitar; and Scott Nichols (a k a Scott Slob) on drums.
“In 1982, we had a rented practice room in a metal building in San Marcos, which was owned by Vietnam vet auto mechanics. They used to work on cars in that building all night long. We used to practice until late at night, and they gradually grew tired of our racket and evicted us.
“Before then, however, we rented a mixer and some mics and recorded a demo of our set on a two-track home reel-to-reel deck. We were unable to overdub or mix anything after recording, so we set the levels and went for it … doing one or two takes of all the songs in one weekend, with me as engineer. This was the real raw, live sound we had at that time … amps cranked up to 10, and no distortion boxes.
“In spite of a complete lack of knowledge of recording, I think the sound quality is better than we got at any recording studios we later used.
“I wrote this song, so it’s me singing with Sam on backup vocals. Heavy Heartbreakers influence on this one — like a lot of our songs. Jim Meisland takes the first lead, and Sam takes the second. This is right around the time we played at Headquarters (the show you posted the flyer for) … a good example of how we probably sounded that night.”
“It’s fun to remember back on those days,” old-school Dogs fan John Satterberg recalls to Dave. “Yourself, Sam, Jimmy Meisland and Scotty Nichols … certainly did make some great music. I’m glad that I was able to see so many of your practices at the storage unit.
More Rockin’ Dogs MP3s:
I never knew Dave Ellison played bass in the original line up !
These are great stories. I always love Dave’s take on this stuff.
“In spite of a complete lack of knowledge of recording, I think the sound quality is better than we got at any recording studios we later used.” That’s gold!
When I was living at my dad’s house in Ramona, I had the good fortune to get to run around a bit with Dave Ellison, Scotty Nichols, and Sam around 1982ish- maybe 1981? I was staying at Jason Seibert’s house a lot, and running around with he and Alan Clark. We had some good times there, in Poway. I have always thought Rockin Dogs were great!
Funny how old SD circles run. I knew Jason very well, for many years, and Alan through those mutual friends, and the Swapp sisters. Now of course, Stacy and Sam have been married many happy years. Jason was later a fellow San Francisco emigre -- taking on a room in the house on Central Street with Chris from the Gravedigger V, and where I first lived with several of the Morlocks. He became a chef while he lived here, his life calling, and I think he’s now head for a restaurant upstate New York.
Dave Ellison has a relevant anecdote here about Chris, elsewhere on Che Underground. But as he chose not to name him in its telling, I won’t spoil that.
Damn. Just listened again. This is fantastic. I remember that when I first heard the Rockin’ Dogs, O thought, “Finally, somebody who likes The New York Dolls, more than Black Flag!”
Now I remember why I thought this.