*Journal Entry / June 1978 - "Life is good. Life goes on...  "

Ralph Power and his new bride Mary moved to California. Jerry Coker came out to the club. It was good to see him again. I met another area magician, Derek Kennedy, at Tanner Miles magic shop. Pam continued popping in and out of my life. I was having thoughts of her actually maybe being the ONE. Ryan Brennan, bartender from the Hungry I and fellow movie re-dubber, became the first person we knew to actually get a Selectavision! That was one of the very first home versions of a VCR! 

Terry Bowers was a drummer for Flight and also worked for Pair Magazing -- Ft. Worth's answer to Buddy Magazine. Terry gave us all tickets to an upcoming Summertime Daze Concert. 

We worked up new songs; Tumblin' Dice, Baby Hold On, Still the Same, and some new Leon Redbone tunes. I was reading "The Hobbit" again for the second time in two years. My brother Chris moved away from home and into a house with Jackie Roe. Dad was having problems with his sinuses.

Out in back of our garage apartment was a very small one-room shack of a house. An old man called "Chief" lived there with his very young and plump wife. They were very nice folks who sat around watching soap operas and dipping snuff. One day Chief told me and RJ about the time his house burned down when he was young. His family was left with nothing. Local black families took him in and gave him clothes, food, and a new start.

On July 3rd, 1978, my very first puppy love girlfriend from Junior High days called. Linda Razor and her friend Kathy were going boating and wanted to know if I would like to go along. It was out of thin air. I hadn't talked to Linda in at least 8 or 9 years. I was planning to go to the Summertime Daze Concert at Indian Creek Camp so I had to pass on the boat thing. The concert was great! We saw Shotgun and Bugs Henderson.  Also ran into a lot of musician friends there. Charlie Tillitson, Larry Hudson, Jerry Dean, Terry Bowers, Buddy Whittington, Steve Todd, Lee Parks, Judy Mosier, Hoot, and many more. I went with Mark Ballew.

We learned Down Brownie and Baby Blue. Boogie and Wade had some kind of minor conflict, but it got resolved. A friend named Austin started running lights for us. Ryan recorded "Monty Python & Holy Grail" on his Selectavision. We had a party and watched it.  I got the bug to write a screenplay. I never could get more than three of four pages into it, though. I did finish the board game about the Metroplex Music scene. Cards featured images of a lot of our musician friends. 

I heard that Jerry Dean from Pair Magazine went to jail over the Bugs Henderson concert at Indian Creek. Nick from Lazer told me that Dean wanted Lazer to play at Indian Creek for free. Richard and I got the flu and slept huddled around a vaporizer for days. Chris went to the Texxas Jam and filmed Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Heart, Journey, Atlanta Rhythm Section, and Van Halen. It was a little blurry but he got it on film, by George! Super 8 film. It was only a matter of time before it happened... Ryan Brennan got a hold of several choice porn videos for his Selectavision. 

Somebody ripped off Flight's equipment from their rehearsal hall. I suggested to the club manager, Sue, that we have a benefit for them. She approved the idea and we gave them what we made on the door that night. I worked the door during breaks with Jimmy the puppet at my side. We only raised about $150, but it was the least we could do for our friends. 

During the middle of July we took 10 days off for a vacation. It was during that week that RJ informed me that he'd been approached by Savvy's keyboard player, Don Reeder, about joining up with Savvy. RJ told me it was a package deal for both he and I to join them for $235 per week each! We were only making about $600 per MONTH apiece at the Hungry I.  It would be years later that I would learn the truth. Savvy hadn't been interested in me originally. They wanted RJ, but he told them he would only be interested if I came along too. At least that is RJ's story and he sticks to it.

If this deal went down, we knew it would mean the end of the Desperados. We knew that this was a power play for Savvy. They needed our crowds, and the only way to get them was to bust up the Desperados, and integrate the two groups somehow. It was a decent plan, but it fell through. Someone on the Savvy side backed out at the eleventh hour and hired a married couple to front the band, Mike and Katrina Hamilton. It was still going in the showband direction, with a lot of disco involved. Not everybody in Savvy was happy about the change, and Don Reeder confided in us that they still wanted to eventually do the deal with us. The club owners and the founding member of Savvy wasn't quite ready for the leap to rock and roll yet. 

I started hanging around at Savvy's on my nights off. It was a lot bigger and nicer than the Hungry I and could hold a lot more people. But most of the tables were empty a lot of the time. Still, I met a lot of great new friends during that time, friends and fans of Savvy that had been following them for years. Our crowds began to bounce back and forth between the "I" and Savvy's. 

Meanwhile, someone ripped off the stereo out of my VW bug. My fault for leaving the car unlocked. I went to Indian Creek Camp for another Summertime Daze Concert with my old school buddy, Tim Lane. We saw Rambunction play. We were expecting Lazer to be the performing band. Things were getting shaky for that operation. While there, Jerry Dean saw me and asked if the Desperados would play free for exposure. I set him straight. 

A strange sore appeared on my face. What the heck WAS that, anyway? I dreamed that I was doing another play in high school but didn't know the lines. Rich and Don from Savvy's came to the garage apartment and I entertained them with magic tricks and re-dubbed movies. I was hired to MC a Summertime Daze Concert, along with my dummy Jimmy. It was on Sunday the 29th of July, 1978. The bands on the bill were Lic, Sidewinder, and Double Ace.

Flight played the Hungry I on our Sunday and Monday nights off again. The police were hanging around more than usual. We asked Sue for a raise. The club owner vetoed it. We tried to record a new soundtrack over the film "The Robe" but it wouldn't work. We were wondering if it was Divine Intervention keeping us from making a mockery of a religious story. 

Carol, a German girl I was seeing, wanted to get serious. All I'd done is date every girl that would look at me since getting into the music business. How could she, or any other girl who really knew me then even consider getting serious with me??? Here is an example of a direct quote from my journal dated August 1978: "Carol wants to get serious. Going to see Pam tomorrow. Sherrie came over. Roxanne came over. Susan came over. Gay still comes around. Rita (Sherrie's friend) is looking good! I'm getting carried away. Tried to get the new waitress, Debbie, to party tonight, but no such luck..."  

(All the girl stuff gets redundant after a while so I'm editing most of that out as I go. Just use your imagination and it probably happened. What can I say?) 

Desperados - The Final Days