The Burlington Express from Topeka, just west of Kansas City, released an excellent double-sider on the Cavern label from Missouri in 1967. Members of the band were Greg Gucker, Blair Honeyman (replaced by Bruce Lynn), Eric Larson and Mike West.
Greg Gucker wrote most of their material including “Memories”, though Mike West co-wrote “One Day Girl”. Michael Chapman, guitarist for the Bluethings produced their 45 on Cavern, and also played lead guitar on the unreleased song “If I Were Free”. The address on the label, 16400 E. Truman Rd, Independence is the location of Cavern Studios.
Besides the Cavern 45, at least eight demos have been discovered. A version of the Byrds’ “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” is competent, but their take on the Yardbirds’ “Stroll On” is spectacular, and suggests they were an excellent live band.
Bruce Lynn wrote to me:
I played bass for the Burlington Express from 1966-1970 when we ended the band. I took Blair Honeyman’s place and sing lead on “Stroll On” and “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”. I was in the band when we opened for The Who in 1968.
Four later demos, “Mr. Destiny”, “If I Were Free”, “Black Hearted Woman”, and “Listen Closely”, were recorded at Audio House studios in Lawrence in August 1968. These display psychedelic touches, but with the band’s fine pop sense and fuzztone intact. “If I Were Free” is an intense song that uses horns to good effect. Check them out at Audio House’s website.
A 7″ Audio House acetate contains a cover of the Blues Project’s “I Can’t Keep from Crying”, but I haven’t heard that yet.
Another group called the Burlington Express recorded a brooding song called “Comin’ Home” b/w the maudlin “A Girl” on the Roach label, but they’re supposed to be a different group altogether – songwriting credits list D. Gray, G. Niebur and J. Turner.
Not garage, Lil’ Henry and his Soul Express is a Texas soul/funk act that I’m posting because I can’t find any information about this record anywhere.
“Baby” repeats the same couple of themes for its two and a half minutes, but does so with soulful energy. The flip side is a more laid-back piece called “Girls”. Both songs are credited to H. Gentry, so his name may be Henry Gentry.
The Ride label was located in both Dallas and out in L.A. at some point, and may have been one of Mel Alexander’s labels. The publisher, Little “m” Music is a Dallas company, and that’s all I can tell you about this.
There’s also a Little Henry and the Laveers 45 covering “Georgia on My Mind” and Jesse Hill’s “Whip It On Me”, on the Laveer label out of San Antonio. As you can see from the comments below, most agree that Henry Parilla, aka Little Henry Lee is not the same person as Lil Henry from the Ride 45. It sounds like a different singer to my ears.
from left: Wes Dobson, Ron Fricano, Lee Adams and Rick Harper
The Riddles were all from the well-to-do western suburbs of Chicago, around Elmhurst. Members were:
Patrick Harper – lead vocals and lead guitar Lee Adams – vocals and bass Weston Dobson – rhythm guitar Ronald Fricano – drums.
They recorded a cover of the Searchers hit “Sweets For My Sweet” which made the charts on Chicago stations WLS and WCFL in April of 1967, but it’s the b-side that I dig, the very cool original “It’s One Thing To Say”, written by Pat Harper and Wes Dobson. Edgewater music publisher Peter Wright often placed records with Mercury Records, so the 45 was released locally on Qull and with national distribution on Mercury.
The Riddles were frequent guests on the local Chicago TV program Kiddie A-Go-Go. They played a benefit concert with the New Colony Six in Grant Park on September 27, 1967, then disappeared, probably off to college to avoid the draft.
Thanks to Chris S. for sending in the photo of the band, and to Jim M. for alerting me to the interview with Jack Mulqueen of Kiddie A Go go by Phil X. Milstein. Mercury promo photo sent in by John ‘Nusound’.
The Starlites released this one 45 on Zap, a Nashville, Tennesee label affiliated with Belle Meade Records.
The 45 labels list them as the Starliters, but the R is crossed out on at least some copies, so they’re generally known as the Starlites. They were a mystery group until comments came in from Steve Dodson and lead guitarist Alan Wait. The band was from Danville, Illinois.
Members were:
Alan Wait – lead guitar Harold Hannon – rhythm guitar Ron Meeker – sax Jim Crystal – drums Steve Ransom – keyboards
“Wait for Me” was written by Alan Wait. Though repetitive, the song features a frantic fuzz guitar solo. The flip is “You’ll Never Find Me”. Alan comments below that Vickie Porter wrote the lyrics for both songs.
Gene Vanderport comments below that he played keyboards with the Starlites after the single.
There’s no connection to the Starliters who have a 45 “I Cry Alone” (written by Lloyd Faust) / “Don’t Ever Leave Me” on the 4 Sons label from Paris, Tennessee.
July 1966, Crown Room, King Edward Hotel, Beaumont
Beaumont’s Six Deep formed in 1966, combining local country and r&b influences with contemporary folk and British Invasion sounds. Their only 45 on the De-Lynn label is one of my favorite Texas records of all time.
“Girl It’s Over” has a cutting quality to the vocals and guitars that epitomizes the best in garage music. “I Must Go” is a gentle song with a fine harmonies and a succinct, Byrds-like solo.
Original members were guitarist Ken Hitchcock, bassist Bob Welch, David Bishop on lead guitar, Roger Koshkin on keyboards, and Bill Donley on drums. Soon after forming, Dave Everett replaced Bishop and Paul Box replaced Roger Koshkin. Jim Keriotis joined, playing guitar and sharing vocal duties with Ken Hitchcock.
In Beaumont the band played gigs at the Rose Room in the Hotel Beaumont, the King Edward Hotel’s Crown Room, and the Red Carpet Lounge on Gladys St. and opened for bigger acts like the Moving Sidewalks, SJ & the Crossroads, the Cambridge Lads, the Basic Things, the Barons, the Critters and the Clique. They toured around east Texas and across the state line, playing teen clubs like the Box in Tyler and the Puppy Pen in Louisiana.
On Thanksgiving, 1966, their manager, Jack Crossley, set up a recording session at Robin Hood Brians Studio. One source for this story, Mike Dugo’s long interview with David Everett and Ken Hitchcock, contains a detailed account of their recording session that I recommend. Ken Hitchcock wrote “Girl It’s Over” and co-wrote “I Must Go” with Bob Welch.
When I spoke to Bob Welch about his later band, the Mourning Reign, I asked him about his time with the Six Deep:
As to my reflections on Six Deep. Now, that was something. As the interview with Ken and David states, Southeast Texas has always been particularly rich in musical talent and somewhat unique – it was/is oil country, Beaumont being the site of the Spindletop gusher in the early 1900’s that – the area of interest lies along the Gulf Coasts of Texas and Louisiana and is populated by an interesting and often dangerous mix of southern rednecks, dirt poor blacks, a small but growing number of Mexicans, and Cajuns of various ethnic blends. The Cajun influence on the music in that area is stronger than you might imagine, primarily because anyone who could manage to lay a dollar bill on the bar without using a stool to do so could get a drink in Louisiana. Hence, just across the river were bars and nightclubs that were like flames on a candle for Texas teens eager to explore those mysteries. Several of those clubs, LouAnn’s, the Big Oaks, and others became meccas for the big name R&B acts of that time and so the music was always hot.
If you’re at all familiar with Cajun cuisine, you know that a staple of that diet is gumbo – a rich stew made by browning flour in oil until it reaches the color of deep walnut, using that to saute’ aromatic vegetables (onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper) and adding lots of water to form the base – then throwing anything and everything else available into the pot to give it character – fish, fowl, sausages, roadkill, whatever – then fortifying it with spices designed to clear the sinuses and thickening it with okra and filet, a fine powder made from grinding dried sassafrass leaves. Gumbo is often ladled over rice and best washed down with liberal amounts of beer. This dish along with jambalaya, or dirty rice, is soul food at its finest and is not a bad metaphor for the music in the region. So, we had heavy influences of swing, hillbilly country, blues, zydeco (which at that time was just called coon-ass), swirling all around us. We spiced all that up with folk music lyricism and rocking backbeats and got Six Deep.
Bob Welch
Ken and David are still two of my dearest friends.. our time as bandmates was too brief, but the friendships have endured, in part due to the intensity of the experience we had together and the joy we shared performing and drafting on the magic that was the mid-60’s. We were average musicians at best, but more than adequate to do respectable covers of a wide range of styles that were popular plus creative enough to put our own mark on tunes in a way that pleased the audiences wherever we played. Not many bands at the time were confident in or capable of doing original material worth beans… we’d often announce them as being cuts off a new album from so and so (name your favorite band)… just to see what would happen… more often than not… we’d get requests for replays…Looking back on it, and even comparing to today’s bands, the Six Deep was blessed with strong vocalists and performers that could get a crowd on its feet. Ken was just out there, way ahead of the times in terms of freneticism. He really shone on material from the Stones, Yardbirds, or the uptempo Beatles songs. The other thing a little off-beat he would do was male-sung adaptations of female tunes… Dusty Springfield, Skeeter Davis, etc…, no one else was doing that. Jim Keriotis was our R&B singer… holy moly was he a monster on Otis Redding, Mitch Ryder, James Brown, anything of that ilk… the women all loved Jimmy… he was typically the most busy after the shows. Together we were able to do all the harmonies, so Byrds, Hollies, Springfield, etc., were all in the repertoire. We had it all… it was a great little band.
Probably the high point for the band was getting to play at a small festival in Houston on same venue as Mothers of Invention, Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish, and other name acts of that time. While we were just a fill-in act, it was an incredible opportunity for a bunch of fresh punks from Beaumont.
Jack Crossley made tapes of the band live and in rehearsal, but no one knows his whereabouts. After the band broke up in 1967 Bob Welch and David Everett formed Mourning Sun, while Ken Hitchcock went on to the short-lived 1984 Revolutionary War Band.Read more about the Mourning Sun on Garage Hangover here. Also check out Six Deep’s website and the aforementioned interview by Mike Dugo. Thanks to Ken Hitchcock for the scan of the band’s business card, and to Bob Welch for his time in talking about the band. Thanks also to Gyro1966 for the transfer of “I Must Go”.
January, 1967, top: Jim Keriotis, bottom from left to right: Bobby Welch, David Everett, Bill Donley, Ken Hitchcock, Roger Koshkin
disraeli (spelled with a lower case d) self-produced four 45s from 1967-70, finding an original sound that was both accessible and psychedelic.
Band members were Steven Mathre lead vocals, Al Nelson lead vocals and saxophone, Thomas Stangland guitar, Roger Everett guitar and vocals, Steve Kernes bass, and Gene “Geno” Faust drums and vocals. Richard Keefer, who did a lot of engineering work for Oregon and southern Washington bands, also helped produce disraeli’s records.
Remastered monophonic version of “What Will the New Day Bring” due to DJs being unable to broadcast stereo recordsWhen a copy of their third 45 came up for sale, the seller (I’m sorry, I don’t know who) wrote a good description of the group:
These handsome chaps all attended Astoria High School in the mid 1960’s…
Their freshman effort was “Tomorrows Day” b/w “Humidity 105”. People liked this record everybody bought copies, fellow students, people at the gigs, their relatives of which they had many and their relatives friends.
They had two frontmen, Steve Mathre and Al Nelson who both sang up a storm and played the tamborine so hard they had to wear gloves to keep from getting blisters. Al also played a mean tenor sax … They sold stock certificates to their friends and neighbors, got better gear went back to the studio and recorded another 45.
“What Will the New Day Bring?” and “Spinning ‘Round”, songs about a peeping Tom with a knife and coming home drunk with the whirlies for the first time respectively. The picture sleeve for this 45 was color and featured the band in matching red blazers out on the south jetty at the mouth of the Columbia, a popular spot to party and race cars not to mention neck etc. This record was supposed to establish disraeli. Both sides were predicted to be hits, it was recorded in stereo, a big deal in ’67 for a 45. The record got airplay and charted around the Northwest.
I remember seeing a billboard for the band in Portland Oregon in late ’67 it said:
disraeli….
listen
Back cover of the sleeve for What Will the New Day Bring
A band self-releasing a 45 with a color picture sleeve was unusual for the time, and to release it in stereo in 1967 is extremely rare.
45 releases:
Mantra 001 – Tomorrow’s Day (Stangland – Mathre) / Humidity 105 Mantra 113 – What Will The New Day Bring? / Spinnin’ Round Mantra 114 – Say You Love Me (Stangland-Mathre) / I’ve Seen Her One Time (Stangland-Mathre) Mantra 115 – The Lonely One (Stangland-Mathre-Wiley-McKune) / You Can’t Do That
Thomas Stangland mentioned to me that “There were probably 8-10 tracks recorded, but never released because of minor glitches or they just didn’t seem good enough.”
The Crusade are one of only two garage bands from Alaska that I know recorded (the other is the Pulsating Heartbeats from Anchorage). The Crusade came out of Sitka, and their 45 was released on the Golden North label out of Juneau in April 1967, produced by J. Allen MacKinnon.
“Psychedelic Woman” has a heavy guitar line and lyrics about a girl who’s “got big hips like a buffalo”! “Fade Away” is much more mellow. Both songs were written by Agafon Krukoff, who had a previous 45 on Golden North 101 in late ’66, a good version of “Walkin’ the Dog” backed with “Here I Sit in Alaska (Breaking the Legs Off Poor Little Self-Defenseless Crabs)” (credited to Dhon Cole). Anyone know who was on Golden North # 102?
Since writing about this 45, I heard first from Mike Murphy, brother of Dennis Murphy who plays drums on the 45:
Dennis Murphy was the youngest brother of myself. Dennis was 16 at the time. Dennis started learning drums from an old man in Sitka who was retired and played occasionally with groups at the Elks and Moose in the ’50s. Later Dennis studied with Bruce Golubier, the drummer with the Don Cole Trio, that was very popular in the ’60s and was the house band for a while at the Potlach Club, a popular club at the time and one of the few to have live music come up from the states. Bruce was an excellent drummer and Dennis really improved under his guidance.
The bands that I know existed in the 60s in Sitka were the Invaders, and the band had various names during those years of ’62 to ’64. The Moose Lodge had an auditorium with a stage above the bar, where they held meetings and activities. That was the first place my brother Pat and Eric Olsen started playing together and working up tunes by Lonnie Mack and Duane Eddy. Eric was playing a Gretsch guitar through a Sears Silvertone amp. Pat had a ’57 Fender Strat. The bass players were several, one of which was Joe Chicarri, spelling is incorrect, the drummer’s name escapes me. They were thee band at high school dances in ’63 and ’64.
Eric Olsen went on to police work in Sitka; Pat Murphy died in a car accident in Washington after high school and a short time in the Navy. Both graduated Sitka High in ’65. The Moose Hall auditorium is gone now along with the movie theatre and lots of other things.
I remember Agafon, but never met him. he was without doubt and incredible talent. Without any schooling or training, he was able to cover many popular tunes and was a teenage prodigy on the guitar for that time. The band was [originally] called the Pribiloff Trio because Agafon was from the Pribiloff Islands out in the Alutians.
Later when I returned to Sitka in the summer of ’67, after three years in the Navy, Dennis and I, drums and guitar, joined with Fred Stratton, bass, and Pat Stengal, lead guitar, to form a band that played several shows at the Centennial Building. We could rent the auditorium for $50 a night. some friends organized a light show to accompany the music. I don’t recall what the band was called. We played covers of the Grateful Dead, Cream, and others that were popular at the time. During this time, bands like the Wailers from Seattle came up and booked the auditorium and played shows. These were high level recording artists with expensive professional equipment. If I recall correctly, we were able to use their PA to open their show, which was a nice experience.
Dennis lives in Portland now and still plays drums, guitar and harmonica quite well.
Mike Murphy
Then I heard from Dennis Murphy himself:
I was just a beginner at drums. I had taken lessons from an old dude who was a friend of my dad, he taught me the rudiments when I was 11 or 12. I had another brother who is dead now, he had a band and I would study the drummers he had, watch em real close, and practice what I saw.
I was hired by Agafon in an audition for drummers when I was freshman in Sitka High School. One other guy tried and failed. These guys were all in college so it was real intimidating, to say the least.
The drummer had to leave town so they would take anybody to fill his place and there were not many to do so, or choose from. I had been commercially fishing with my Dad so he owed me something for that. They offered me the drumset the old drummer had been playing for $300.00 and I got my Dad to pay for it. It was a gold sparkle Slingerland four piece drumset with calf heads.
Agafon had already made a record on the same label called “Walkin’ the Dog”. So he knew J. Allen McKinnon from that recording.
We recorded that record in an auditorium up on the stage. It was a real strange place to do a recording but it was in the old days I guess you might say.
Shirley, circa 1974. From the collection of Shirley Hughey.
Shirley Hughey recorded this hypnotic slice of psychedelia at Harry Deal’s Galaxie III Studios in Taylorsville in 1969. As it turns out, she recorded her vocal having never met the band cut the backing track! The flip is “When I Reach For You”.
“Pink and Green” was written by Bob Pruitt, produced by Dave Smith, and released on the Bandit label of Asheville, which is known more for soul releases by Willie Hobbs and Pic and Bill, but also has the Electric Love’s “She Wants to Be Free” / “Dreaming of Her”.
I didn’t know much else about this record until Vance Pollack contacted me in 2013.
Vance Pollack interviewed Shirley Hughey on Asheville Free Media on June 6, 2013. Vance wrote to me: “The song was written and recorded by Hendersonville, NC band Orange Purple Marmalade. Shirley’s vocal track was added later and she never met or performed with the band.”
“Orange Purple Marmalade’s guitarist songwriter “Hobby” Pruitt, who died in 2002, is the only writing credit appearing on the label.
“Shirley went on to a significant singing career fronting club bands in NJ, PA and NY throughout the 1970s before returning to North Carolina.
“About the time the song was recorded, Hobby shipped out to Viet Nam and the rest of the band relocated to Connecticut and played clubs along the coast with female drummer Theresa Crouch and guitarist Terry Justus. Theresa and Terry were married in 1970, returned to western NC and continued with Orange Purple Marmalade until about 1975 when the band was renamed Justice. Theresa gained quite a reputation as one of the region’s hardest rocking female drummers, known during the time by the grand title “Theresa, Queen of Drums!” Terry died in 2010. Theresa has fond memories of the musical career she shared with her husband of 40 years.”
Thank you to Vance for shedding light on this odd and fascinating single.
A 1969 clipping of Orange Purple Marmalade with Chuck Carter, organ; Adrain Rovillon bass, Teresa Couch, drums, and Terry Justus, lead guitar. Thank you to Vance Pollack for this clipping.
Orange Purple Marmalade in the Danville Bee April 17, 1975
The Vistells, 1963 at Fort Ord, from left to right, Johnny Mullins rhythm guitar, Mike Reesen drums, Dave Kibler lead guitar, and Mike Dokter bass
The Cobras were from Northern California, specifically Pacific Grove, which is right by Monterey. The band had started as an instrumental group called the Vistells, who recorded a few acetates.
The Cobras recorded just one 45, “If I Can’t Believe Her” b/w “I’m Hurtin'”. Dave’s guitar on “If I Can’t Believe Her” is original and fluid, with a nice touch of echo. Drummer Mike Reesen’s fills are much looser than is usual for garage recordings. “I’m Hurtin'” has more catchy guitar work and a plaintive vocal. Amazingly “I’m Hurtin'” has never been comped before to my knowledge.
In 1966, the draft claimed two members of the Cobras. Meanwhile rhythm guitarist Bob O’Neil formed Talon Wedge. When Dave Kibler returned, he and Bob formed Snail. Taken together, these groups show the evolution of ’60s music from surf to garage, to psychedelia and hard rock.
Dave Kibler wrote to me:
The Cobras was a Pacific Grove, California group that evolved in 1963 from two friends who played guitar in different bands. Dave Kibler played lead guitar [in the Vistells] and Bob O’Neill played rhythm guitar. They quit their groups and recruited bassist Mike Dokter of Salinas, and Mike Reesen of Seaside to play drums to form a new combo.
The Vistells recorded in what may have been the only recording studio in Monterey, Meagher Electronics. They made some 78 rpm Audiodisc acetates for us and we were thrilled. The Vistells were Johnny Mullins on rhythm guitar, Mike Reesen on drums, Mike Dokter on bass, and Dave Kibler on lead guitar. On Night Train you can hear what an accomplished drummer Mike was. He started when he was really young, and he knew all the drum rudiments. This is the genesis of the Cobras sound, since this is the same lineup, without Bob O’Neill.
Lots of groups were naming themselves after cars, and the Cobra was a fast and sleek car that everybody liked so it seemed like a natural choice. The Cobras started out as a surf music/Ventures instrumental band, but with the advent of the British Invasion, they started adding vocals to their repertoire.
An early photo of the Cobras. left-right: Mike Reesen, Bob O’Neill, Mike Dokter, and Dave Kibler
Eventually the group was based in Santa Cruz, California and played venues from Sacramento to Carmel. The Santa Cruz music scene was pretty active, mostly because of the Cocoanut Grove Ballroom and the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk. It was originally made in the ‘20’s and it had that old-time boardwalk feel to it. It had real atmosphere. An organization called Neighbors of Woodcraft held dances on the weekends during the summer and everyone in town would attend. They had groups from all over California play there.
Some of the groups that the Cobras played with were the Syndicate of Sound, the E-Types, the West Coast Five (they were from Monterey and they had a record. I think it was a cover of the Beau Brummels’ “Still In Love With You Baby”, they were more of a garage band), The Tikis, The New Breed from Sacramento, William Penn and his Pals, and Corny and the Corvettes (this was a fantastic soul music show band ala James Brown on a scaled down version. Corny Bumpus played with the Doobie Brothers in a later incarnation. They may have made some records.)
When we played, it was mainly covers that were popular at the time. I don’t think that many of the groups did originals during that period, because we were playing for dances and people wanted to hear familiar tunes.
At that point a producer in Monterey wanted to team the Cobras with a singer/keyboardist named Gary Thomas of Watsonville, who played piano with a popular local group called the Modestics to record some originals that he had written. Nothing came of those sessions, but Gary was invited to join the group so he bought a Farfisa which gave the group a completely new sound. As a result the Cobras started writing and performing originals in their sets.
I don’t think the Modestics ever made a record, but they were a great show band. They had a couple of sax players and everyone had matching blue brocade dinner jackets. They did steps when they played and they looked and sounded impressive. They eventually fell apart after Gary left.
The Cobras, just before Gary Thomas joined.
One night, my dad met a man in a bar who said he was a record producer for a subsidiary of Moonglow Records called Scoop Records. He came to listen to us and decided that he wanted to take us into a small studio in Berkeley to record four original sides.
I can’t recall the name of the studio, but it seemed to be under construction at the time we recorded. I think we recorded on a 2-track Ampex, because we recorded the instrumental tracks first and then overdubbed the vocals. I was used to recording on an old Wolensak mono recorder and being in a real studio was an overwhelming experience. We did all of the tracks in the afternoon and evening.
The result was the “I’m Hurtin’” / ”If I Can’t Believe Her” single. There was no promotion or distribution deal and of course sales of the record were limited to copies that people bought directly from the band or in local record stores. There are no known examples of the other two songs recorded at the session, but they were the similar in style to the two that were released. I think we made 500 copies of the record.
When Gary and I were writing “I’m Hurtin'” it was during a period when Bob Dylan was very influential in the Folk Rock genre. There were a lot of “wannabes” who mangled his poetic approach and we used to make fun some of the lame lyrics that were a standard on many records. One day I was goofing around with the lyrics and I decided to put in every cliché I could think of just for the fun of it. I showed it to Gary and he thought it was pretty funny and he said we should use that set of lyrics. I was reluctant at first, but when he started singing it, it sounded pretty good. I had a friend who let me borrow his Rickenbacker 360-12 like Roger (Jim) McGuinn played in the Byrds and voila; instant Folk Rock!
What a lineup! Does anyone recall this show? Did it actually take place? Let us know! – See Lost Live Dead for more info.
Talon Wedge and Snail
In 1966, I was drafted into the Marines, and Mike was also drafted, which spelled the demise of the Cobras as a group. Two of the members went on to form the Talon Wedge in Santa Cruz, which ultimately evolved into a successful band called Snail. The Talon Wedge had a fluid band roster, but the first version had Bob O’Neill, Dick Tasano, and Terry Shehorn on guitars, Ron Fillmore on Drums, and Bob Caloca on Bass.
I have a demo tape that they made. I was uncertain of the titles, so I used the lyrics as a possible reference. I don’t know where they were recorded, or who played on these songs, but I think Bob O’Neill, Ron Fillmore and Bob Caloca were some of the musicians on them.
When I returned from the service, venues were more of a concert setting where people would sit and listen. At that time I joined Snail as the bass player. I was the one with real short hair! Snail was a Cream-style power trio with Bob O’Neill on guitar and Ron Fillmore on drums. [The three Snail songs here] were recorded at a live gig in San Lorenzo park in Santa Cruz. It was a big concert (the one on the pink flyer). You can hear a definite Cream influence. Sittin’ Gettin’ Stoned was a musical departure, but people liked it probably because of the not-so-subtle altered consciousness reference. The bass was a Hagstrom 8-string, which was set up similarly to a 12-string guitar except with four pairs of strings each tuned an octave apart in the bass register. When it was played it sounded like a bass and a guitar playing together.
I played with them for about 9 months, when they got a second guitar player named Ken Kraft. When I was with Snail in the late ‘60’s we opened for The People, H.P. Lovecraft, Clear Light, and Fritz Rabine Memorial Band. The latter boasted Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in its roster.
In the late 60’s or early 70’s, Snail put out two albums featuring Bob and Ken fronting the group. The first record was named “Flow.” I don’t know if they are available anywhere, but they had a sound vaguely similar to the early Doobie Brothers.
And that’s the saga of the Cobras. We loved playing music and being a part of the scene at a time when it was fun and innocent compared to the way things are now.
Thank you Dave Kibler for bringing the story of the Cobras and the Santa Cruz scene to light, and for providing the excellent Vistells photo, Cobra cards, Snail posters, and the unreleased acetates and tapes of these bands. For more info on Dave’s current musical work, check out www.thesoundbytes.com
Also, I want to thank JG, who alerted me to the Soundbytes website after my initial post and encouraged me to ask about Talon Wedge.
Early photo, 1963, l-r: Ronny Randall, Floyd Dakil, Geoff West on drums, Terry Billings on bass, and Andy Michlin on keys
Updated April, 2010
Floyd Dakil and Pitmen, the group on the Jetstar 45, l-r: Floyd Dakil, Geoff West, Laurry Michlin, Ronny Randall and Terry Billings Floyd Dakil formed his group in 1963 with fellow Highland Park High School friend Andy Michlin, and three sophomores of Thomas Jefferson High School: Ronny Randall on guitar, Terry Billings on bass, and Geoff West on drums. Within a year or so, Andy’s brother Laurry Michlin took over on keyboards.
In February 1964 they won a competition to become the house band at the Pit Club, a 2,500 person venue located at the Bronco Bowl in Oak Cliff. “Chuck Berry rock ‘n roll pre-Beatles – that’s how I would best describe the music we played at that time” said Floyd in a 2008 interview.
They soon released their first 45, the classic “Dance, Franny, Dance” b/w “Look What You’ve Gone and Done” on Jetstar. The label says both sides were recorded live at the Pit. Originally I thought it was likely to be a studio recording with overdubbed handclaps and applause at the beginning, but Geoff West says in his comment below that it was recorded in front of a large crowd at the Pit in the Spring of 1964: “on ‘Dance Franny Dance’ it required at least five minutes to get several hundred teenagers to clap together!”
In 2009 original member Ron Randall contacted me about the group:
Geoff’s recollections are correct. The recording of “Dance, Franny, Dance” was done live at the Pit Club. Larry Lavine was the engineer using a 4 track recorder set up in the women’s dressing room backstage. It was just one of those nights when everything came together. A great recording.
The recordings done live at the Pit survive on CDs that Geoff West made from an original, not released LP. There are eight songs, some are covers, some original. I have my copy.
Maybe, to add to the confusion, or clear things, the songs “recorded live at the Pit”, and then released on Jetstar have the name of the group as The Floyd Dakil Combo. This is correct for legal reasons. “The Pitmen” referred to the house band at the Pit Club. We were the first. The original Pitmen backed a long list of entertainers at the Pit Club, and went on to other successes around Texas. There were others, after we left the Pit Club, called the Pitmen.
The eight songs recorded at the Pit Club represent the beginnings of Dallas’s incredible garage rock scene. The songs are “Roadrunner”, “Dance, Franny, Dance”, “Look What You’ve Gone and Done”, “You Got Me Crazy”, “Concentrate on You”, “Bad Boy”, “Maybe Someday” and “Rendezvous”.
Floyd recalled that he and the producers brought the live tape into a studio and “sweetened” the two songs for the single.
“Dance, Franny, Dance” peaked as high as #4 on KLIF in May, 1964, which is not surprising given KLIF DJ Chuck Dunaway’s involvement – he’s listed as co-producer along with Bob Sanders, owner of the Knight and Spectra record labels. When the Phiadelphia-based Guyden label picked up the songs for national distribution, “Dance, Franny, Dance” hit local charts in Pennsylvania and California, leading to a brief tour of California state fairs and DJ hops that summer. Floyd noted that the Beach Boys came out with their hit “Dance, Dance, Dance” soon after (in November 1964).
The Floyd Dakil Combo, l-r Floyd Dakil, Andy Michlin, Dennis Mills, Ronny Randall, and Chris Brown
Floyd Dakil went on to record three 45s on the Earth label as the Floyd Dakil Four. “Bad Boy” is the first of these, a very good rocker, produced by John Anderson. The flip is a good uptempo song “Stoppin’ Traffic” about a girl who does just that.The second Earth single combines the rockin’ “Kitty Kitty” (great guitar solo too) with a neat pop song, “It Takes a Lot of Hurt”. The third 45 on Earth has a good original, “You’re The Kind Of Girl” with “Stronger Than Dirt” on the A-side.It was a later Pitmen group who recorded a couple 45s: “Earthy”, plus “Summertime Blues” b/w “Suzi Q” (released on Earth 401).
Ron Randall:
There was another, later group, called the Floyd Dakil Four. That group was Floyd, Ronny Randall, Mike Giles (drums) and Terry Billings on bass. That group recorded the songs on the Earth label, produced by John Anderson. I have that picture somewhere.
“Earth” was a term coined by John Anderson, our manager/producer to describe the sound we had with the Floyd Dakil Four. I had added a Fender VI Bass Guitar to the instrument mix, along with my Stratocaster. So we had two bass instruments on some recordings and live performances. Terry Billings on Fender Precision bass, Ronny Randall on Fender VI bass. It was/is a hard driving click-bass/surf/rock sound done an octave lower to the Stratocaster. Add Terry’s Precision bass, and Mike’s drums and that was the foundation of the sound called Earth. “Earth” was written in huge letters on the back of that Fender VI bass. Ron Chapman commented on how full the live sound was at the “Sump’n Else” Studio at Northpark.
I continued to perform with Floyd at all kinds of venues until I decided to go to college, get a day job. We continue to be friends today. We participated in a concert about 18 months ago at the Lakewood Theater on Greenville Ave. The concert was dubbed “The Legends of Rock and Roll,” produced by Kenny Daniels. We did a “Reunited” performance live at the Stoneleigh in 2005.
After the Earth 45s, Floyd kept the band together while earning a B.A. from Texas Tech. In 1968 he had a solo 45 “Merry Christmas Baby” / “One Day” on Pompeii. Sometime after that Floyd became the guitarist for one of his idols, Louis Prima, and remained for several years until Prima’s ill health curtailed his touring.
Floyd Dakil … Live!In 1975 he released a LP with his own group, Live! in which he runs through 42 songs in as many minutes. It’s definitely an odd mix, if you can imagine “Everyday People” segueing to a chorus of “Yummy Yummy Yummy” then straight into “Whiskey River”! Also about 1975 Floyd turned down a two LP contract with CBS, feeling that the contract was unfair in charging promotional costs back to the artist.
In the late ’80s he started a band with Larry Randall, and this group’s songs were featured in a 1991 movie, Love Hurts with a brief cameo by the group.
In 2009 Floyd was one of the featured acts at the Ponderosa Stomp at SXSW in Austin. I’ve heard a tape of the show and it’s one of the better sets from that night. Floyd played “Dance Franny Dance”, “Look What You’ve Gone and Done”, “Bad Boy” and “Stopping Traffic”, as well as “Nadine”.
This year Floyd’s friend Phil York released an official new CD Rolling Dynamite, collecting some of his early singles and a number of previously unreleased tracks. I just received the copy I ordered, and can provide an overview:
Included are both sides of the Jetstar 45 and both sides of the first Earth 45 (“Bad Boy” and “Stoppin’ Traffic”, though “Bad Boy” on the CD is an alternate with a shorter intro and piano solo [‘take it Andy!’] instead of the ringing guitar break on the 45). Also included are “Kitty Kitty”, the A-side to the second Earth 45; “You’re the Kind of Girl”, the flip from his third Earth 45; and his Pompeii single, “Merry Christmas Baby”. Everything else on it was never released on vinyl that I know of, though five of the unreleased tracks did appear on a CD collection in the mid-90s.
It’s hard to know when the unreleased tracks were cut, as the notes only include a general reminiscence by Floyd and no recording specifics, nor is the CD sequenced strictly by recording date. Of the unreleased tracks the two highlights are definitely the title song, “Rollin’ Dynamite” (a cover of Scotty McKay’s first single, written by Joann Owen) and “Shiver”. Other early songs include “Cold As Ice” and “Sweet Little Anna” and a ballad “Pretty Girl”. “She Bops a Lot” may have been a later song done as a throwback to his earlier style, it’s hard to tell.
A few tracks sound like they could be from late-’60s or early ’70s sessions, including “I Know”, “Turn to the Night” and “Here I Am”, all excellent songs in a gentler style. “Good Times and Rock and Roll” sounds like a 70s track, at least in it’s nostalgic look at the early rock scene. The rest are definitely from the late ’80s or ’90s and range from country to zydeco to “Old Time Rock & Roller”.
Details on recording personnel and dates would be useful for fanatics like myself, but overall I would consider this an excellent retrospective of Floyd’s work, with all of his essential songs presented in excellent sound quality.
I had been looking forward to hearing him play in Brooklyn, New York this summer, but I’m very sorry to report that Floyd passed away on Saturday, April 24, 2010.
Sources include photos from the bigd60s group and a long interview with Floyd Dakil by WFMU’s Michael Shelley from May 10, 2008.
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
disraeli (spelled with a lower case d) self-produced four 45s from 1967-70, finding an original sound that was both accessible and psychedelic.
