On nights off we would usually hang out at work! That's right. We'd go listen to the Monday night bands, playing our night off at the Hungry I, and compare notes. Actually, we were mostly looking for a party, but in the process we got a chance to see what the other bands were doing.  No matter how much better they might be musically, Sue (manager at the Hungry I) would always tell us how happy she was to have us back on Tuesday night every week.  I took Pam with me to the Rusty Tractor to hear Avatar. Then we dashed over to hear Titus Oates at the "I".  Of course we had to take her car because mine had been in the shop for two months and wasn't getting any closer to being fixed for some reason.  

RJ and I made a silk screen for producing Hungry I  T-shirts. We made a big batch of them in my parent's back yard.  Don Reeder (Tarbaby) and Rick Henry (Blaze) sat in with us one night and we did a killer version of Frampton's "Do You Feel Like I Do."  Reeder was a regular at the "I" on his nights off from playing with Tarbaby.  Jim Wise and I went to a party at Reeder's house one night and Leon Ellis was there. He was a very nice and funny guy to visit with.  After we took over the house gig at the "I", Tarbaby got the house band gig at Mad Hatter's in Arlington.  I loved Leon's rendition of "Masquarade." 

In June of 1977, Doug Wadsworth's dad had a heart attack. Doug returned home again from Germany (where he was stationed) and spent some time hanging out with us. The local band scene was heating up and a lot of bands playing around town. The pressure was on for us to learn lots of new tunes to keep the crowds interested. During the summer of '77 we worked up "So Into You", "Life in the Fast Lane", "I'm You're Boogie Man", "Gimme Some Lovin'",  and many other popular tunes of the day.  One song in particular was Nitzinger's "Are You With Me", which RJ and I had been turned onto back at Steve Bentley's place (the house with the giant killer stereo system.)  It was a great party / dance song, but a lot more funky and complex than what we'd been used to playing. There was a full brass / synthesizer section playing on the intro and choruses, which Jim somehow managed to work out. However, Carlton -- a solid and experienced drummer who'd been around long before RJ and I came on the scene -- had trouble nailing an unusual intricate drum break on that song at first. We were all finding the limits of our comfort zones with each and every song we learned, and it seemed that Carlton had found one of his. The music coming out at the time was changing - getting more and more funky and riffy. The legendary Paul Leim had played drums on Nitzinger's album. It was a leap for us to try to do a cover of that song, but RJ and I felt it was time to try to push things a little to try to grow. Still, we had to learn a lot of these new more intricate tunes to stay fresh and contemporary. 

Just as I would get frustrated when pressured into having to sing lead on songs that were beyond the limits of my capabilities, Carlton seemed to begin to show frustration over some of the song choices we were starting to make as well. He never said an angry word - he was a gentle, soft-spoken giant - but we could tell he was most effective and happy when playing the songs that allowed him to "rock steady." Carlton probably would have been happy to change his drumming style to make everyone happy if we'd had a style in the first place. But it doesn't really work that way in the real world.  Carlton was much more capable and accomplished at what he did on the drums than what I would ever do as a singer, but of course I wouldn't realize that for another few decades to come.  None of us were on the verge of winning any Grammy's yet so we didn't feel right about complaining too much about any of our shortcomings. But the drum tag on the end of that Nitzinger song did seem to be the turning event for some things to come for us.

A local guitar player, Don Mordecai, sat in with us regularly.  We'd met Don back in the Royal Kings days. Don Mordecai was on hand at the Tack Room the night Don Hudson had his near heart attack. It really freaked him out!  Mordecai was a really good lead guitar player and he always blew us away every time he sat in with us. He played with Lazer.  

On the 23rd of June, just after the "I" closed down for the night, Jim Wise and I were in the parking lot when a drunk guy was harassing a young girl.  I went over to ask what the problem was and he pulled a gun and started waving it around at us!  Jim and I looked like Starsky and Hutch as we jumped into his puke green Nova and sped away, fearing for our lives.  Jim drove all the way up Lancaster into downtown. We went South on 35 for a few miles and ended up somewhere out on the West side of town.  I was more frightened of Jim's driving than I was of the gun!  The chase lasted 20 minutes.  Somehow we managed to lose them and lived to tell about it.   

Carlton's brother, Randy Tanner, was also a drummer. He played in a band called Rastus.  They got booked into the "I" on one of our nights off, but didn't change the name on the marquee (which was the band's responsibility to do.).  For some reason this really ticked us off.  Doug Wadsworth helped me climb the pole and take down the DESPERADOS name until they were done for the night. I'm not sure why that bothered us so much, but perhaps it was like a dog marking and protecting his territory.  We were the MIGHTY DESPERADOS! Not Rastus!  Geez...  We used to get worked up about the strangest things.  That somehow triggered a bit of a rivalry between our two bands that would last a while.  The funny thing is that they blew us away musically, but we had established a following over the years that dwarfed theirs.  In fact, we could fill a trailer park with our fans.  Most of our fans probably actually lived in trailer parks. A trailer would have been an improvement over the garage apartment I was sharing with RJ at the time, but that was a different story.  

We ordered 1,000 business cards. They made great scratch pads. We never needed them for anything else; the Desperados would be at the Hungry I until the bitter end. And things were about to turn bitter.  In June, I wrote for the first time in my journal that, while Carlton was solid, and a great guy, we were considering getting a new drummer who would be more comfortable with some of the song choices we were making. Carlton was also suffering with some medical issues with his foot which made playing painful for him at the time. RJ and I were on some kind of unspoken mission to see how far we could go with this "band thing" in the shortest amount of time. Meanwhile, a sort of ongoing rift had developed between Carlton and Jim. It never got beyond a quip or a look here or there, but it had become clear that the best solution for everyone was going to be to find a new drummer who could put up with our abundance of immature crap, play the wide range of songs in our unusual catalogue, and let Carlton off the hook while we were all still friends.

Sealy Aston played Spencer's Corner. They rocked! Our friend Mark Ballew was their lead vocalist. He would eventually try out for Kansas. On June 30th I wrote in my journal that I thought I was in love with Pam.  That would've been impossible. I was too in love with myself to have any left over for anyone else.  But seriously, I did have deep feelings for Pam, but I would soon find I couldn't trust her. Of course I didn't DESERVE her trust, but I wasn't keeping score of MY actions - only of hers.

In early July '77, rumors began flying around that the Dunes was going to open again in September.  Bob wanted us to come back again.  Yeah, right.  But the big news of the day was talk about us playing a concert at Casino Beach along with Rastus and Crossfire. Crossfire was a local band that did a lot of Jethro Tull cover tunes, and anything else that had a flute in it.  They were really tight.  We knew Rastus was good. But in those situations you never question your own ability. You just go in and do what you do.  Jerry Coker (our guitar player) and Carlton went way back together in the music business. They'd played with a local band called Journey before Steve Perry was even potty trained.  Jerry had held steadfast against any talk of getting a new drummer -- until all the talk of doing concerts started happening. After that, he reluctantly went along with things, making it clear that he was abstaining from being involved in the process of it.  It was absolutely nothing personal against Carlton. RJ, Jim, and I just had that gut feeling that it was time for change. We had a long way to go. We needed to start evolving into something. RJ, Jim, and I were a bit younger than Jerry and Carlton, and we knew that over time we would no doubt gravitate towards players our own age anyway. The last band member change we'd had was when Don quit. We knew there would be many changes before we were done - and this just happened to be the first.

Carlton on his clear acrylic drums at the Hungry I Club '77

RJ and I began a quest to find drummer candidates. We heard that Danny Cochran was available so we paid him a visit.  Danny was (and still is) a seriously talented drummer, perhaps the best I ever jammed with.  He, and his keyboard sidekick and room mate, Rusty Boden, came out to the Hungry I on occasion to set in and also to watch our insane shenanigans onstage.  Danny really seemed to get a kick out of the ventriloquist bits I did with the dummy acting drunk and cursing. While we knew Danny was way out of our league, I'm proud today that we at least had the balls to offer him the job.  He said he would've loved to, but had another gig lined up already. We were cool with that and visited for a while as he played a song for us that he'd written the night before called "Drummers and Lovin'." It was a great song.  Danny came out on the 13th of July and talked to me about possibly putting together a Show Band, in which I'd do a lot of the wacky stuff I was doing with Desperados.  I recall being on cloud 9 just from talking about it.  I think Danny ended up going to California, or somewhere else to cut records shortly after that, and our Show Band never happened.  We'll always have Lancaster though, right Danny Boy?

Finally, a date was confirmed for the Casino Beach Concert.  It would be on July 23rd, 1977.  We were pumped! Everyone, that is, except for Carlton. He'd been worn down from all the rumors and discussions about being replaced. Naturally, he was feeling nervous and apprehensive at every step of the way by then. On the day of the Casino Beach Concert, Carlton was having serious pain problems with his foot condition and requested that we not do two particular songs that required a lot more bass drum pedal kicking than others. He was concerned that because of the level of pain, he might not be able to handle the songs. But we considered the songs he wanted to cut from the list to be two of our best, so we insisted on doing them anyway, suggesting Carlton get through them as best he could. It was the wrong decision. As he'd predicted, the songs did suffer at those very places we'd been warned about. I have to give him credit for knowing his limits and warning us. Perhaps we should have listened. But we also believed that the show had to go on, no matter what. (My brother Chris filmed our performance with his super 8 movie camera. It is out of focus and has been chewed up by countless cheap projectors over the years, but parts of it still survive thanks to dubbing over to VHS tape!) 

I started seeing a lot of old schoolmates from High School coming out to the Hungry I to see us play;  Genie Grissom, Judy Rocquemore, Julia and Sandra Willis, Otha Moon, Jim Bob Moore, Dennis Nelson, John Brown, and many more. One night after the club closed, I went to a party at Dennis Nelson's house.  

We got new lights at the club for the stage. My brother Ray got a new car. On the 24th of July I went to Spencer's Palace, the Hungry I, and Whiskey River. There was a really hot jam session at the River featuring Lee Pickens, Charlie Stevens, Charlie Basham, Rusty Boden, Jerry (Boogie) Lamont, and Danny Cochran. We took my ventriloquist dummy with us back then in case we sat in. Sure enough we were invited to sit in at the Whiskey River and we performed our comedy version of Stormy Monday called "Health Center Blues" featuring Jimmy (my ventriloquist puppet) on lead vocals. After the gig, I was visiting with Lee Pickens. He was fascinated with the puppet stuff and told me I could be making $3,000 a night doing comedy gigs.  Lee was a legend.  He was the first real honest to God rock star I'd ever known.  After all, Lee was the guitar player from Bloodrock, and everyone was familiar with their ghoulish song, DOA.  Lee would become a good friend over time. We hadn't heard the last of him by any means.

Jimmy, my ventriloquist dummy.

On the 27th of July, RJ and I  jammed with a drummer named Johnny Hall.  He was our age, a decent drummer, and was interested in the gig. He even came out and sat in with us at the "I", which I'm sure didn't make Carlton very happy. But a band's got to do what a bands got to do. It didn't matter though, for Johnny never showed up again after that.  We weren't surprised.  We worked up a new Foghat song called "I'll Be Standing By."  It had a really cool string part, and eerie feel to it.  RJ sang / screamed it, but it sounded ok.  We finally got our new Peavey system in place. Found 2 PSP1 speakers in a Pawn Shop for $450.  Sue extended our gig for another three months. A local band, Yazoo, was slated to play Spencer's. How did that ever happen? We began taping our gigs direct through our new board. The sound was much better! And the Son of Sam was finally caught.  

We had a fan / friend named Dave who worked at the Lancaster Showcase, a movie theater on Lancaster. We got to go to movies free any time we wanted!  We got our guitar strings cheap from Judy at Guitars Unlimited.  We ate free at Denny's because the waitresses were fans.  And a guy at the gas station down the street from the "I" would let us fill up our tanks free from time to time.  And the best perk of all from being in a band was that girls would actually go out with us without charging us money!  

Steve Williams from Gypsy Ryder came out to the club on the 19th of August. He and a girlfriend stayed until we stopped buying them drinks. Good guy anyway.  We still got starry eyed from time to time when legends came in.  Rick Jackson (friend - not legend) was the bass player for Titus Oates. He came out and sat in a few times, and even ran sound for us as we did a live recording one night.  Steve Williams came out again and brought his guitar player, David Locke.  Double starry-eyed, I got them both drunk on my tab.  I was a schmuck. 

We worked up the Stevie Wonder song, "Saturn."  Pam moved to an apartment on the North Side.  Roy Cushman came to the club. Yazoo planned to break up, so their drummer dropped by to set in.  Carlton had accepted that we were auditioning drummers and didn't make a big deal out of it. In fact, he was a real trouper during that time.  The Broken Spoke / Turkeys changed names again. It had been called the Barlow Club, and was changed again to Bill's Western Club. It was right across the street from the old legendary Panther Hall. In fact, it had once been the Panther Hall Annex Club.  

Kathy from Emma's management came out with Rick Jackson. Labor Day was coming up and a new band, Savvy had opened a club down the street next to Bill Martin's Seafood Restaurant. They had an annual Labor Day Rockathon, and I went and sat with Emma and Kathy. The guys in Rastus got in a big fight at the Hungry I and were banned from working there again. They'd become a very rowdy bunch. One night we came to work to find a ventriloquist dummy hanging by the neck from the marquee.  Someone told us that Rastus had done it.  Then another time we had tubes stolen from our amps and someone else told us it was the work of Rastus.  The rivalry continued to grow.  

IIn September, we got a letter from Doug.  We thought he'd told Carlton about our plans to replace him. Looking back, it wasn't as if Carlton hadn't already figured that out on his own.  A drummer named Matthew tried out. The band WACO changed their name to Gypsy River Band. Rusty Boden joined up with Lee Pickens to form the Rock Island Rockets. Rusty and Danny C. sat in on the 10th of September. Blaze was scheduled to play on the coming night off. Jerry Coker started talking about quitting his day gig and playing full time. 

Jerry Coker at the Hungry I Club '77

We worked up a lot more tunes; Keep It Coming Love, Whatcha Gonna Do, and Cold As Ice. Roxy (from Hemphill days) showed up five months pregnant and claiming it was my brother Chris' child.  Debbie P. was four months pregnant and knew better than to try and guess who's it was.  I'd logged 404 songs from cassettes we'd recorded since forming the band.  Blaze was great! They had seven keyboards! 

It was also in September that we auditioned a drummer named Ralph Powers. He was essentially another solid drummer, with no big frills, but he was young and available. He spilled the beans to Randy Tanner (Carlton's brother) and it got back to Carlton. While he'd figured it out a long time before, this was the first time it had been said out loud to him. Carlton approached us about it and RJ and I had a talk with him about everything. We lied, telling Carlton it was all just in the early planning stages. 

Ralph Powers circa 1977

That conversation was September 16, 1977.  Carlton wasn't buying it though. He said, "Just give me a week and my part of the PA." We agreed. Two days later we made it official to replace him. RJ and I went to Carlton's house. I'd been elected by the band to tell him the news. It was a surrealistic scene. He took it well and we shook hands and moved on. Ralph had been a bartender at the Rusty Tractor. He gave his two weeks notice. The next night, Carlton confronted Jerry, wanting to know why Jerry didn't stand up more for him. Then Carlton's wife got into the mix, defending Carlton and asking us to give him an extra week with the band because of financial reasons. Things were getting out of control so we  decided to get together after the gig to talk about it without Carlton. We met at Bruce's house. Bruce was a big follower of the band back then.  Ralph was there too. When he learned that we were considering keeping Carlton an extra week, he threatened to bail on us if we didn't honor our previous agreement. After all, he'd already given notice to his employer and would be out of a job. We'd never been in that position before and we truly cared about Carlton and his situation, but after a while it turned into a lot of waffling. Finally Ralph stood up and said, "Hey! Let's just get it over with!" It was the only thing left for us to do. So it was decided. We ended up giving Carlton $75 in a pseudo-severance payment, and said goodbye. It was our first band member change since forming the Desperados. The second if you counted Don Hudson. But Don sort of quit. This was different. This felt bad. It was cold-hearted. We had no idea the music business could be so cruel. And we hadn't seen nuthin' yet!

Wacky World of Queer Denny's