| My blog
entry of September 29th this year was about wading through years,
no decades, of accumulated stuff. It had been a difficult task in
many ways but rewarding in others as well. One of the benefits is
finding stuff that I thought was lost to history. Amongst the
miscellaneous electronic gear and parts were boxes and envelopes
of photos.
 One
old photograph connected with the present. About 10 days ago I got
an email from an 8th grade friend who played drums in our first
garage band, (actually, a carport). We couldn't play much,
but we wanted to, and that's what really mattered. We didn't
even have a name. Just a bunch of young kids
doing what we liked and our parents didn't.
Left to right: Mike Compton ( rhythm on Stella , Paul Straight
( drum), George Strayer (Harmony guitar bass licks) and me, front
(Framus guitar, pseudo lead).
Mike is really posed, Paul looks just too cool, George seems
determined and I have on a horrible sweater under that jacket.
It's gonna be hard to go back any further musically than
this in pictures. Never the less, this one is priceless.
Still, we were the only group on the base, Chanute AFB, as our
dads were all enlisted. We got together and shared what each had
learned as we listened to records and dissected our assigned
parts. We came up with out very first complete song. It was called
'Torture' and was it ever for those hearing us play. We loved the
Ventures but Walk Don't Run was above our level. Perfidia was released
with 'No Trespassing' on the 'B' side. That we could handle.
We worked hard, experimented with cheap contact mics that
clipped onto the round hole in the guitar and what ever else we
could do to electrify the guitars. George and I noticed that
intercom systems used a speaker for sound in and out. If you could
talk into a speaker and generate a signal why not a vibrating body
of an acoustic guitar? Some tape, wire a small speaker from and
old radio and were were in business. We plugged JR's (that's what
we called George Strayer Jr, he disliked being call junior or
George) guitar and it worked.
It's incredible to think that just two years later I was
playing a new 1961 Les Paul purchased at Lloyde's Piano and Music
store in Champaign and playing three nights a week with the Rivals
at the Satellite Club on RT 45. Wow!
Hi Paul... Hope you like this and that
Mike and George one day check in.
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