| Desperados (cont)
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| Home At the Hungry I The Hungry I was truly a home away from home for me during our year and a half house gig there. I'm pretty sure the other guys in the band felt that way too. The words "intimate" and "rock & roll" just don't seem to fit together, but that was the name of the game at the "I". We were still 'paying our dues' as they say in the music industry. The Hungry I was a great next step for us, but in the big scheme of things it was like "Cheers in a trailer park." We had high hopes that bringing in a new drummer would give us the spark we needed to take it to the next level. It would take more than the Powers of Ralph to do that for us, but it was still a magical time. Ralph had a few extra drum riffs that Carlton didn't have, but not all that many. He also never seemed to click with our keyboard player, Jim. In fact, I was just beginning to think it was a "keyboard / drummer" phenomenon; they were like cats and dogs. A couple of local musicians quickly dispelled that myth.
Rusty Boden and Danny Cochran were (and still are) talented musicians from the Ft. Worth area. They proved that keyboardists and drummers COULD get together like peas and carrots. RJ and I first met them when they were playing with RJ's cousin (by marriage), Jerry "Boogie" Lamont in a band called "Future Shock" at a little hole in the wall club called La Grange over on the South Side. It was nicer than the Hemphill hell hole dives that RJ and I were playing in at the time, but we were just cutting our baby teeth in the biz; the guys in Future Shock had long since paid their dues. They'd been used to playing bigger, nicer, and better establishments. Looking back now, The La Grange Club reminded me of the Hungry I, but had more of a feeling of a cave to it. That was a good thing; the place had atmosphere. There was even a large aquarium built into a wall in the middle of the place. It was a perfect place for Future Shock to tighten up their act, and have fun at the same time. Future Shock had a big influence on me; it was my first real up close and personal look at the inside workings of a REAL band, or should I say, a REAL GOOD band. Even though RJ and I were technically in a "band", we were small change (not the band - but the metaphor) compared to these guys. We were hanging around because RJ's cousin (my cousin's cousin) Boogie was in the band. Coincidentally, I'd met Boogie during summer drivers ed classes. We spoke briefly once or twice as we walked home, but after one block, he went North and I headed East. RJ and Boogie had played together in a number of garage, and High School rock bands in the early 70's; Wildflower, Kithas, and Fruedian Slip. They, like many other teenage boys at the time, were completely consumed with a desire to have a band and play music. They promoted themselves, even painting the name of the band on the side of RJ's van. They raised money to cut a serious demo tape and shared a sense of destiny in the business.
RJ and Boogie's destinies would come true -- but not together; at least not yet, anyway. They were young and going in all directions at once. Eventually, the band lost steam and the pressures of getting real jobs caught up to them. RJ got married and started working a day gig full time, but he never stopped dreaming of having a band again. Boogie went his own way as well, but neither of them ever stopped practicing. Eventually, they both wound up playing again--part time at first, but over time, they both ended up in full time bands. Boogie's career took off fairly quickly. He was a really good guitar player and had fallen in with some solid experienced players. RJ on the other hand, was still trying to juggle a marriage, a full time job, along with his dreams of what he REALLY wanted to be doing. It would take him a little longer to get there. And that brings us back to where we are in the story: me and RJ sitting in the La Grange Club watching Boogie play in a killer band! Somewhere along the way, I'd joined up with RJ, and it was true that we technically had a band, but Don Hudson and the Royal Kings were nothing close to the caliber of Future Shock. This was the real deal. This was a stage FULL of real players. This thrilled us at the aspect of what we might aspire to, and at the same time, depressed us a little at how far we had to go yet. Even though it was only 1976, Future Shock already represented a stellar lineup of alumni from previous established groups from the area. The following chronology was submitted courtesy of Rusty Boden, and gives a run down of the members of the bands he's played with, including Future Shock, along with a time line of when they were performing together. This list blew me away!!! It truly is a Who's Who list of North Texas music greats... LONG TIME COMIN' ('72-74) LO DELLA (1975) FUTURE SHOCK ('75-76) SAFFIRE ('76) DAVID DAY & ACE HIGH STRAIGHT ('76-77) CURIOSITY ('77-78) THE LYNN JOHNSON BAND ('78-80) EASTER ISLAND ('81-83) TOMMY LATHAM AND FRIENDS (mid 80's) (If you want a really great laugh, you should read the comical BIO's for the members of the Party Crashers at http://thepartycrashers.com/bio.htm ) Looking back over the list now, I remember one of the main reasons it was so easy for me to want to stay in the back stabbing music business. The friendship and camaraderie among musicians is incredible. The list above includes some of the finest people -- and best musicians I've ever known. But I digress... Back to the story! The jam sessions at La Grange were phenomenal. The top names from the local scene could be found any night sitting in with them. RJ and I just couldn't believe the talent in that circle of low key friends. We weren't even trying to compete with that crowd, but were rather just in awe of how great they sounded, and how effortless they made it seem. Rick Myrick played a mean slide guitar. Boogie was intense and focused, and made us proud to be his cousin. Rusty was accomplished on the keys, and was the most outgoing. Cochran was -- well we didn't yet know the term for Danny. We were still green and growing. We would soon learn the term we were looking for was FUNKY! I never knew you could physically divide a single quarter note beat into that many hi hat hits! Watching Danny play so early on in our band careers would put a cloud over the head of every drummer we would ever play with from that day on. Some regular jammers at La Grange were drummer Mike Kennedy, and drummer/vocalist Denise Mandel. Mike always created a lot of excitement with his antics, and Denise was really talented, sexy, and I loved her rendition of "She Caught the Katy". (Denise would later sing backup on our Savvy 45 "Midnight". That was an honor and a thrill!) Denise and Rusty played together in Saffire. So that's how RJ and I came to know Rusty and Danny and all the others. We were just pups. But over time -- maybe a year and a half or so after La Grange, RJ and I started seeing them drop in at the the Hungry I. Rusty and Danny came out a lot. One night in October of '77, Danny dropped by and sat in with us. He told us he was waiting to hear from Dave Mason about a gig in California. He'd been working with Jerry Williams at the time, among other really cool projects. After the gig, Danny and I went to Denny's (almost a tongue twister) and then to his apartment he shared with Rusty. I distinctly remember two things about that visit. First, there were bingo cards EVERYWHERE covered with CHEERIOS! Rusty and Danny had been trying to win a radio contest sponsored by KFJZ. Over the years since, I've always kidded Rusty about those cards. Until recently, I'd always thought they were playing "Bowling For Dollars Bingo" -- an interactive TV bingo type game. Rusty recently cleared up the confusion once and for all. Rusty told me: "You picked up those bingo cards at 7-11 or someplace like that. The cards were laid out with artists names. So in a given period of time (an hour?, or maybe the DJ's shift) each time they played a song from that artist, you would cross out the name. If you got a bingo you would win the prize for that segment. Since we had so damn many cards (if I remember we had a coffee table COVERED with them), and we already had the Cheerios on hand, we decided to use them to cover the names. I think I might have been playing with David Day then, or I might have been between bands), and Danny was doing a show band thing in Dallas with Ronnie (Mouse, from Mouse and the Traps) Weiss. We had a deal that whoever was home would keep up with the contest and we would split the winnings. So laugh if you must but one night I was playing and hit the biggest prize they offered. $500.00!!! Talk about a fortune!! Kept us in Cheerios for a year. So it was worth the ridicule that, TO THIS DAY, I still endure from the likes of you. HAHAHAHA!!!!!" It was hilarious. They were really into it After the chuckles died down, attention turned to the second -- and most important thing I recall about that night... Danny turned me onto a new sound... it was Average White Band. This was a new blend of rhythm and funk and rock and pop like I'd never heard before. The syncopation was contagious, and Danny could play every beat note for note. Desperados worked up a couple of AWB tunes just so we could play them when Danny sat in. It was magic! Rusty and Danny were great pals and we always enjoyed knowing them. I once looked through my journals and counted how many times I'd made entries about each of them. I counted 17 entries for Danny and 16 for Rusty. That meant I'd come home from the gig and written about something that happened relating to those guys, that many times! That was more than I wrote about some of the guys in my own bands! Fun times. Meanwhile, back on Lancaster Avenue... Late in October of '77 we received our first big (bogus) concert tour offer. It was from Cabaret Booking Agency, wanting us to play in Shawnee, OK for $1,000. We had to turn them down because of Jim's classes and Jerry's work. Gene Henry (guitarist from the James Buck Band) dropped in and did his Frampton stuff again. He was very complimentary of my singing, which just showed what a class act he was. You can kind of tell when another musician is being genuine about giving a compliment. The music biz is a dog-eat-dog world, and compliments are standard fare, almost done automatically as a casual greeting: "Hey man! Sounding great tonight!" Now and then though, someone you respected would pull you aside and look you in the eyes and make you hear them when they told you they were moved by something, or that you were REALLY making progress. Those moments may have been taken for granted by some of the greats who heard it all the time, but for me, those moments were GOLDEN. They would pick me up when my confidence was wavering. It was the best thing for my self-esteem, even better than getting a "yes" from a girl who was definitely out of my league. I remembered every one of those times, and would usually write about them in my journals when I'd get home from the gig. I used to hear a lot of compliments about the banjo playing, and the ventriloquist bits, and other novelty stuff I did to spice up the act, but I was an average vocalist with no real astounding vocal qualities. I personally knew some who were. I never fooled myself, but when you are in the public eye, making your living as a singer, you can't let on that you know you aren't GREAT. As RJ so eloquently put it, I was really adequate. But I had lots and lots of fun fooling a lot of people along the way. As our lives progressed, and we were becoming permanent fixtures at the "I", the lives of our friends and faithful fans were changing too. Mike Mash and Glenda got married. It was the first wedding that the band attended together. It took place at Carswell Air Base, so we stood out like a coke booger smeared on a blackboard.
Our friends Cliff and Carla had lots of great parties at their home in River Oaks. And then there was a huge jam session at the Hungry I, featuring most of the original members of Future Shock; Butch (from Texas), Rusty, Danny, and Boogie. We also had Arvil and Mark Strickland sitting in. Jam sessions became a regular part of life at the "I". We loved it, not just because we got to rest, but because it was a lot of fun, and we got to hang with our friends while we were at work.
Ralph, the new drummer, who'd been a bartender at the Rusty Tractor before we gave him his place in the limelight, wasn't with us a month before he got involved with a girl that had been following the band since the beginning. When Ralph and this girl hooked up, Ralph started pulling away from the band. I had my own problems to deal with at the time, though. One night at Denny's, RJ told me that his friend Herman got Pam's phone number. I was already on the outs with Pam, but it made me jealous just the same. The local band Flight let us use their rehearsal room to practice. We worked up AWB's "Cut the Cake" and then went to see Bugs Henderson play. Bugs inspired us to really start investing in our equipment. We'd been using tall Fender PA columns on their sides - in chairs, as monitors. That was how bad things were. But we'd managed to pay off some decent speakers, monitors, and other quality stuff, and it was time to get it hooked up and get it running. We finally start putting mics on individual drums, and Jim bought an Acoustic head for mixing his keyboards. I bought our first electric guitar tuner from Rick Jackson. Ronnie, our friend over at Bruce Music, gave me some brass nuts for my Les Paul guitar. I met a girl named Jenny Starr. She was a very free spirited young girl with a hippie attitude, who looked like a very thin Carol King with a curly fro. She invited me over after the gig one night and so I drove her home in my little white VW bug. She lived at some apartments just down the road from the "I". My excitement turned to dread the moment I walked in her door; she had a great big fat cat. I'm deathly allergic to even the thought of cats. She also had a new baby. Between the cat and the cradle, I had to take off for the local Silver Spoon for a red eye breakfast special. During the last week of October of '77 I worked part time at Harris Costume Shop to help out my friend Phyliss, during their big holiday rush. It was fun and I saw a lot of people from high school. The gig at the costume shop allowed me to fulfill an odd dream I'd had since being a young boy. I was really into the Hollywood horror movies, and the monster makeup techniques. One particular monster makeup magazine had an article about how to do the Mr. Hyde makeup, complete with making your own snarled wax teeth. I did the entire project from scratch, even buying actual dental wax from a dentist supply on the West side. The costume, and makeup was incredible. I took a friend, Judy Mosier, to a special musician's Halloween party at the Motherlode Club on the North Side.
Here is a list of some of the people at the Motherlode Halloween party: Scott Moss, Scott Douglas, and Mike Strelzick from Flight, drummer Randy Panda, Gary Grimes, Danny Cochran, Rusty Boden, and the guys from Sealy Aston. After that party, we headed to Spencer's Corner. It was really crowded there. The year before, RJ and I won a prize for best costumes at Spencers Halloween bash '76. The prize was a bottle of Tequila. I guess I've always loved Halloween because it allowed me to legitimately do what I wanted to do every night: dress up in strange outfits and party!
In November, my brother Chris bought a yellow Gremlin. I had a few late night deep discussions with Boogie. I finally was able to put some money in the bank--a whole $180! We had a great jam at the Hungry I on November 4th; Gary Owens, Denise Mandel, Charlie Stevens, Rick Myrick, Chris Clifton, Rusty Boden, Charlie Basham, Boogie Lamont, and Johnny Milton all sat in! I recorded the whole thing direct from the board. I still have it on cassette. Butch McReynolds, from TEXAS, one of the PREMIERE bands around, became a friend. We met him when he played with Boogie in Future Shock. Butch knew that RJ and I would love nothing more than to get a chance to jam at Spencer's Corner. He started talking it up, and we got pretty excited about the entire aspect of it possibly coming true. In fact, one night RJ and I went to Spencer's and Butch was playing that night, wearing a Desperados t-shirt! In our own petty little pathetic way, we thought we'd "arrived"! A few nights later we saw a band called Full Force at Spencer's. The guitar player had a black Stratocaster like mine, with a mirrored pick guard. I thought it look great! He could catch the light in it and reflect it like a laser back into the crowd. A lot of musicians were in the house that night; Danny Brandt, Eddie Deaton, bass player and drummer from Edge, and also some old friends from school; Suzy Ritchie, Direthia Edmonson, and a few other friends; Murray Hill, and Helen (mad waitress from Queer Denny's). Richard and I hook up with two girls from the Wet T-Shirt Contest. Their names were Josie and Rose. Josie, Rose, RJ, and I went to Denny's after Spencer's closed that night. Then from there, Josie and Rose invited us to their place. It was COLD that night! I'm not sure why they invited us over because the last thing RJ and me wanted to do was watch black and white reruns of Get Smart in a freezing cold apartment with two frigid girls. After about two hours of that, WE got smart and left. I wrote a poem about it a few days later called "The Ballad of Josie and Rose." I'll try to locate it and add it to this section one day soon. A really bad band played the "I" on our night off. I don't want to name them because that's not what this site is about, but I'll just say their name rhymed with Hector. They weren't even as good as another band that played at the "I" with a name that rhymed with Pesterados. We ran into a lot of musician friends at the "I" on that night off... Randy from Avatar, John and Scott from Flight, Don Mordecai and drummer from Lazer, and Don Reeder from Tarbaby. I got a feeling from Don Reeder that he was up to something. It would be a while before I'd find out what it was, but I was right. He'd been offering Jerry Coker and RJ jobs with another band. I was really bugged by that back then, but would eventually come to learn that it is the way of life in the music business. We went to a party after the gig at Don Reeder's house and ended up crashing. I awoke the next morning to hear Leon Ellis giving a marvelous impression of Dr. Frankenfurter in "Rocky Horror Picture Show." I had a bad toothache but he still made me cackle. I predicted in my journals in November of '77 that I'd probably have false teeth by the time I turned 40. I'm pleased to report that premonition didn't come true. An animated version of "The Hobbit" was made for TV. I was so excited about it that I started planning a party around it. We hear a news flash that David Day's band, Ace High Straight, is splitting from him soon. David didn't even know about it. Gary Owens told me about it at Queer Denny's. Rusty Boden and I go to the movies to see "Kentucky Fried Movie." Pam Stevens showed up at the club and we got into a fight. She left. I was already interested in a girl named Susan, who lived in Haltom City. Susan was living with a guy though, so that would have to wait. Or would it? On November 14th my baby brother Ray turned 19 years old. Party at Cliff and Carla Valentines. Boogie sat in at the "I" and played Black Cloud with us. Richard owed me $15 for three visits to Jack In the Box. Avatar played the Hungry I on our night off. I was beginning to realize how lucky I was to be living the life I was leading. I was in the middle of a wonderful fraternity of musicians. I played music and created a party for a living. And for a guy who thought he'd never have a girlfriend, I might as well have been Elvis! The "I" was filled to the brim with girls, girls, and more girls! And back then, buddy, that was important! I was still living at home. Nobody ever complained about that, but my hours were completely different than my parent's. I didn't go home regularly, but when I did, it was usually to crash, take a bath, and leave again. I was awfully busy to be only working 4 hours a night, 4 nights a week. On one particular day, I came in as Dad was leaving for work. He sat down and we had a nice talk about the shape of the world. After both agreeing it was indeed round, he left to work his ass off so I would have a bed, and I went to bed. My parents were absolutely great. They knew I'd outgrow all this insanity eventually. They were extremely patient about it too. Who knew it would be another 15 years before I would snap out of it?
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