Soundtrack of My Misspent Youth - I

This is the first part of a chronicle of my high school rock band.

Origins

                 Laurie,                Me,                    Tom,                       Andy

In 1963, three of my buddies and I thought it might be cool to form a band.

This week I'll be featuring the songs that “The Others” (my old junior/senior high school rock band) used to play. There aren’t any videos of us, of course, so I’ll have links to various covers/artists of the tunes in this list, some of which may surprise you.

Surf, Hot Rod, and other kinds of primitive instrumental music were popular at the time so, seeing that we didn't actually own any microphones or a PA, we started with those:

Wipe Out
Point Panic
Similau
Diamond Head
Pipeline
Miserlou

All of the above are Surf Classics, still often played, even by notable performers.
There were some non-surf tunes as well:

Walk Don’t Run (Written by jazz great Johnny Smith)
Out Of Limits (a cheesy TV show theme!)

After a few months (and after we got a microphone), we added some vocals (but no love songs yet!):

Surfer Joe - The flip side of Wipeout
A-Bone - great Hot Rod song, an 80s New York punk band took this song for its name.
Surfin’ Bird (of course!)

The next three songs were covers of songs by The Kingsmen, a Portland, Washington, based bar band which put out several albums full of rock classics; they were extremely influential source of material for garage bands:

Louie Louie
Long Tall Texan
Long Green

More of this nostalgic nonsense tomorrow...

Soundtrack of My Misspent Youth - V

This is the fifth and final part of a chronicle of my old high school band.

Big Town Small Time Rock 'n' Roll Band

Originals

We actually did create a few original songs, and even have some recordings!

The Ma Schlep Stomp - was the band’s magnum opus. It started as a groove and reached its full fruition with this sensitive and poignant lyric:

Well do the MA SCHLEP STOMP, now everybody wail
It’s like doing the Jerk with your foot in a pail,
The kids all do it when the cavemen romp,
Remember the name it’s THE MA SCHLEP STOMP!

Take My Heart - was a folk-rock song I wrote:



Tom’s Instrumental - was a blues-based tune. If you are playing along at home, it’s in E:



We even played it at the Minnesota State Fair!

Howard Tusi - Was a song we discovered on a tape recording that a few of our fellow junior-high students (George Jackson, Steve Lasley, ?) had made of an ad-libbed chant about one of our classmates: Howard “Tusi” McQuitter II. Howard is a wonderful person and we still see him at class reunions. Here are the lyrics, as many as I can remember (sung to a shuffle beat):

I went down to the store,
To buy myself some meat,
I saw Howard Tusi I said:
‘Howard wash your feet!’

I said Howard, Oh! Howard!
Howard Tusi, Howard Tusi
I said Howard, Oh! Howard!
Howard Tusi, Howard Tusi

I went down to the store,
To buy myself some bread,
I saw Howard Tusi I said:
‘Howard wash your head!’

I said Howard, Oh! Howard!
Howard Tusi, Howard Tusi
I said Howard, Oh! Howard!
Howard Tusi, Howard Tusi

Further verses suggested that Howard wash various other parts of his anatomy but, alas, I am afraid they are lost in the sands of time. These recordings are pretty crude but a year later we actually were a pretty good band, even going “on the road” to Ladysmith, Wisconsin, a trip that ended in disaster, an event that effectively ended the band.

Soundtrack of My Misspent Youth - IV

This is the fourth part of a chronicle of my old high school band.

British Invasion!

We were not immune to the influx of British Bands that came after Beatles, although most of their songs which we covered were also covers, primarily of black artists (there's a theme going on here.) Be that as it may, the reason they were covered was that they were great songs, fun to play, and all of them rock standards:


Money - Berry Gordy wrote it, we got it via The Beatles

Do You Love Me - Berry Gordy, via The Dave Clark Five

Reelin’ and Rockin’ - Check Berry, via The Dave Clark Five

Mona - Bo Diddley, via The Rolling Stones

Route 66 - Bobby Troup, via The Rolling Stones

The Last Time - Jagger/Richards, The Rolling Stones

Satisfaction - Jagger/Richards, The Rolling Stones

Gloria - Van Morrison, Them

Tobacco Road - John D. Loudermilk, via The Nashville Teens

You Really Got Me - Ray Davies, The Kinks

We’ve Gotta Get Outta This Place - Mann, Weill, via The Animals

Two of the above songs, Route 66 and Tobacco Road, were by “established” songwriters and not originally “rock” tunes. Route 66 had been done in the 1940s by Nat “King” Cole and also Bing Crosby with The Andrew Sisters!

The following songs were all done by The Yardbirds, a group that we had actually seen perform in person. They really inspired us to stretch out musically, although these kind of songs (“Rave-ups” with extended guitar solos) were not as popular with the girls!

Shapes of Things - McCarty/Relf/Samwell-Smith

Train Kept a Rollin' - Tiny Bradshaw, made popular by The Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio

I'm A Man - Bo Diddley (Elias McDaniel)

Smokestack Lightnin' - Howling Wolf (Chester Burnett) 

Wrap-up of this series tomorrow…

Soundtrack of My Misspent Youth - III

This is the third part of a chronicle of my high school rock band.

Disparate Influences

Our band, The Others, didn’t really have a rigid musical ethos. This led to a situation where many of the songs in our repertoire came from some wildly diverse genres:

Shortnin’ Bread - A traditional folk song that has been covered by many artists, including The Andrew Sisters!

La-Do-Dada - A Dale Hawkins Rock-A-Billy number that we got from The Blue Things

Just Like Me - It was a big hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders,
                    this song later became popular with 80s punk and pop bands

Batman Theme - Neal Hefti (Music and Lyrics!) from the TV show

Greenback Dollar - The Kingston Trio

Heatwave - We learned this Motown song to back a girl-group in our high school.

Gin House Blues - Written in the 1930s by the great J. C. Johnson, first recorded by Bessie Smith; we played The Animals’ version

Johnny B. Goode - Every guitar band played this Chuck Berry title

House of Rising Sun - We were aware of Bob Dylan, but did The Animals’ version

Around and Around - Chuck Berry via The Rolling Stones

Good Lovin’ - Clark/Resnick  via The Young Rascals

Too Many Fish in the Sea - Whitfield/Holland via The Young Rascals

Mustang Sally - Mack Rice via Wilson Pickett

In the Midnight Hour - Cropper/Pickett, Wilson Pickett

Land of 1000 Dances - Chris Kenner via Cannibal and the Headhunters

Alley Oop - The Hollywood Argyles


More of this thread tomorrow…

Soundtrack of My Misspent Youth - II

This is the second part of a chronicle of my old high school band.

Do You Wanna Dance?

Dance tunes began to appear in The Others set-list; mostly R&B songs that we learned from various cover versions by local bands:

Let The Good Times Roll - The Del Counts
Foot Stompin' - The Underbeats
Little Latin Lupe Lu - The Chancellors
Turn On Your Love Light - The High Spirits
Mickey’s Monkey - C.A.Quintet
Ain’t Got No Home - Gregory Dee and the Avanties
Road Runner - The Accents
Hey Joe - The Stillroven
Sam - The Castaways
The Crusher - The Novas
Shakin’ All Over - The Guess Who (actually from Winnipeg, but close enough.)

But we hadn’t yet given up on instrumentals:

The Grind - Gregory Dee and the Avanties

The influence of the regional Minnesota groups on The Others (and hundreds of other Twin Cities garage bands) can’t be overstated.

These bands released many records that got local and regional airplay from 1962-1966. These mostly cover versions were often just as popular as the releases by national acts (although nowhere near as accomplished). Outside of The Trashmen, the local bands The Del Counts (still active!), The Underbeats (who went on to be the house band at The Whiskey-a-Go-Go in Los Angeles in 1969-70 as Gypsy), and The Castaways (who had a national hit with Liar, Liar) had some enduring success. Even the novelty number by The Novas (that emulated a popular professional wrestler) was later covered by The Cramps.

More on this subject tomorrow…