Building The Band

Episode 2

So many musical influences growing up.
Before the many talent shows that now grace our big screen TV sets there was the staple on which you could say all others followed. 'The Original Amateur Hour' with Ted Mack was broadcast from the mid 50's until 1970 bringing talent from all over the nation to New York's Radio City Music Hall. My sister's and a neighbor actually appeared as a singing trio back then. Imagine being on Live TV back then in all it's black and white glory. No phone, text or internet voting back then. You had to send a postcard in to vote for your favorite and then wait for the results to be announced the next week. No, they didn't become famous from their stint on the small screen but many did get the Big Break. Just to name a few - Gladys Knight, Pat Boone, Irene Cara (at age 8) all went on to a life in show business.

I suppose the 'Variety Show' format will never resurface successfully and that's too bad. Admittedly there were many not-so-great acts that simply filled the time slots but we all waited patiently for the show stoppers to come on in the last few minutes of the show. Oh the agony of watching the jugglers and animal acts, the opera singers and comedians (very talented people) so we could see the rock and roll acts that we got to stay up late to see. The King of those days was Ed Sullivan. His show was what we all waited for each week. Broadcast on Sunday night from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in Black and White from 1948 to 1965, in Color from 1966 to 1971 a total of 1,087 shows went out over the airwaves. Some of my favorites were The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Dave Clark Five, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Gerry And The Pacemakers, Momma's and the Poppa's and even The Rolling Stones. A bit of trivia, The Beatles were paid $25,000.00 for their first appearance which was half of what Elvis was paid, we're talking 1964 now. That's a lot of dough for that year.

So what's that got to do with Building The Band? I guess that's the roots that gave hundreds of thousands of kids the itch to play music and live the dream. You met potential band mates at school, parties, corner stores, places around your house or school. That's as far as you got to look when there wasn't Craigslist, internet and other media like today. You got ideas for equipment to use from seeing it on TV or on album covers. You went to the music store to make your Christmas list. I was sheer luck if you lived near a music store that had good stuff and then you saved up to buy it. I was lucky to have a few friends that wanted to play, though their reasons weren't as clear as I thought mine were. I just wanted to get girls, isn't that why most guys get into it? When that failed I decided to do it because I really loved it. Being able to make a melody live and come from my hands was true love. Happy or sad, there was a song for it. If you don't play an instrument, give it a try. You can fill your life and find something like nothing else. If you played long ago, pick it back up and find it again. It's never too late and someone besides you may like to listen to what you've got to say. Hey, it's worth a shot.  Let me know where you're playing and I'll come cheer you on. See you next time...

Where to start?

Episode #1

Long ago, in another place and time, I decided that music was going to be a part of my life. Too many years ago I convinced my parents that I needed to take up the guitar. My Mom took me to the local music store and they abruptly sold her on the notion that the first thing to learn was the accordion. Say What?? Being the good kid that I was, I agreed. That didn't last long. I told Mom that I didn't want her wasting money on rental and lessons for something I didn't want to do. Wow, that was tough. Anyway, I got 50 bucks from my Grandmother for Confirmation and bought a cheapo guitar/amp combo at Two Guys and haven't looked back. The Beatles and Beach Boys were major influences along with most other "British Invasion" groups. A big thank you goes out to Ed Sullivan for the TV show that featured so many cool bands. I later bought a cool "Domino Californian" guitar and had that through most of high school.

High school found me in two different bands. Played at the senior yearbook party to a good group of classmates then the principle put the k abash on that to end it early. What fun ;-)
Building the band was tough but I never backed away from a challenge. I guess I was too dedicated to quality while the other guys, not so much. It was fun and a great experience. Lots of talent but... after all, we were just kids.

Bought my brand new Gibson Les Paul Gold Top Deluxe back in 1969-70 for $300.00, my used Ampeg Gemini II amp along with a Shure mic and stand and a Clark PA system. Got out of high school without being too traumatized and played, wrote and did a bit of recording at home. The normal high school drama, relationships and all that growing up crap is after all what songs are made of. Look at Taylor Swift. That's all she writes about.
Back then there were a lot of guys playing instruments, and I use the word "playing" very loosely, so finding band members wasn't too hard. What wasn't so easy was getting everybody together to work on stuff. Some things never change. We practiced in my parents basement, Bob's basement, Kevin's garage, Joe's living room or garage. Anyplace we could make noise and not get in trouble with the cops or the neighbors. Songs of the day were from Beatles, Stones, Grand Funk, Cream, Beach Boys and some obscure "underground" groups that only got played on those new "FM" band radio stations like Ten Years After, Johnny Winter and The Doors. Things were tough back then when it came to learning songs. Using a record player, lifting the arm to play back a part of a song over and over, wearing out and scratching albums or 45's. No cd's or tabs back then. Closest thing we had to help was sheet music from the record store or the occasional "fake book" that had a mix of 20 or so songs in it. Still have two of mine on a shelf along with some sheet music and song books from back then. It payed to have a good ear for music and I think I have a pretty good one. Bands were made up of members who could read music, had a good ear, could watch what you did and then do the same or just plain sucked. That was then, but now... pretty much the same.

I hope that gives you a good idea of where this is going. I'll move forward in the next episode and look forward to expanding on dealing with the different goals of a band and how each of us members ideas add and subtract from the success and failures in "Building The Band".