So after Carl worked out the deal, I was on a plane to Los Angeles. I had to quit my week day gig, but the blues band took a month’s vacation from the club. The owner didn’t want to lose us since we packed the place most weekends.
I had never seen a palm tree before except on television. I had never seen many things like I saw in Los Angeles, some of which I didn’t care to see again. Drugs were everywhere, including inside the recording studio. I did however get along great with Linda. She was a very sweet girl, who I think just wanted to sing, but was being pushed and pulled in many different directions by record executives. I stayed my two weeks. We wrote three more songs that I felt fit her voice and style more than a smooth sound. We wrote more of an upbeat rock and roll song, and one that was pure blues. I reworked the song they originally called me about in the first place. All three ended up on the album.
The record people had no clue about my playing prowess. Once they discovered it, I ended up playing lead guitar on five tracks on the album. Carl worked all that out for me too. I think he was happy he was finally helping me like a real agent. I was happy I had someone who I trusted to just handle it all for me. I just wanted to play and write and even though I had some sense of business, I trusted Carl knew what he was doing.
Linda asked me to stay in Los Angeles longer, but the record label was only going to pay the two weeks. Besides within the two weeks, we had finished work on the three songs that were mine and they didn’t want me for any more guitar work. It’s not like they went to any great expense. I was staying with my professor’s friend and when not with Linda writing we were in the studio recording the songs.
Linda Sweet asked me to join her band, but there seemed to be some really nasty guy who was never too far away who said “I will decide all those types of issues for her and her band.” He really made me feel like garbage. I didn’t care to spend much time with him. I don’t think Linda was too thrilled he was around either. I don’t think I looked the part of who they wanted in a band either. While we were recording Linda’s album, down the hall in another studio was a band called “The Eagles”. They for the most part had really long hair, torn jeans, and big mustaches. I think that was the look they now wanted for Linda, the more “California look”. My mom would have disowned me if I wore jeans with holes in them. My dad never allowed my hair below my ears as a kid. I think I was just used to that look. I think Linda was stuck. I felt bad for her, but there was not much I could do. I gave her my number back in New York, and we did stay in touch once I got back home.
When I got back to New York I suddenly realized the only job I had was the one on weekends. That was not going to pay the bills. Elise realized it all too and asked me the moment I returned “Now what my traveling roommate?” I knew deep down she was upset I quit my job to go to Los Angeles, but she also knew that club for an hour a night was not a long term solution. I did have some money saved up, but I knew it would dwindle quickly if I didn’t find a job.
Debby and Kevin gave me a call when I returned from California. They wanted to come to New York and hang out with me for a few days. Our apartment was cramped enough, but I could not say no. I didn’t have any work for another two weeks, and Elise’s Broadway show had a twelve day vacation as well. I think it was her first break in over a year. She had planned on going back to North Carolina, but I asked her to stay around for a couple of days.
Kevin was going off to law school in the fall to follow in his dad’s footsteps as if he had a choice. Debby had just passed her test to be a licensed nurse in New Jersey. She had moved back in with her parents. I think Debby wanted to get out of the house for a few days. We went to a few clubs at night and visited the museums during the day to keep Elise happy. There was a bit of tension between Elise and Debby for some reason, but I realized this was the first time they had really ever met. They knew about each other, but Debby was never in New York while Elise was in town, and in the summers Elise was either playing with her orchestra, or home in North Carolina. I then realized Elise had only met my parents at graduation and the one weekend I dragged her to my house for Thanksgiving. I needed to do something with them before it all exploded.
I had practice later that day with my blues band. There was no way I was letting those three stay together, even for a short few hours. I talked them all into coming with me to practice. Neither Elise nor Debby had seen the blues band, and Kevin had nothing else to do, so he came along. I asked Elise to bring her violin. I had an idea that was lingering in my brain for months, but I never had the time to see if it could work. About thirty minutes into the practice I asked Debby to sing one of my originals that she and I had done for two years now. The guys were stunned at how well we worked together. I think Elise was caught off guard too. I knew Debby would sing that song great, we had performed it many times. She did it so much better than Phil ever could. I could see Elise squirming in her seat anxiously waiting for me to ask her to join in as well. We did one more song with Debby on vocals, then I sheepishly with a Cheshire cat smile, asked Elise if she wanted to join us. We played a few songs that everyone knew, and it really and I mean really sounded good. I had wondered ever since I heard Elise play her instrument at home, how Elise and I would sound in a band together. That was the first chance we had in all the years of being together, to play in the same group. I am sure the other two guys had no idea what my ultimate goal was in getting them all in the same room.
Kevin was impressed, but he did say and rightfully so, we now needed some keyboards. I knew he had stopped playing a couple of years ago. I knew it was for not selfish reasons, but to make an observation. We had a 4-track recorder with us, since Mark and Phil would record us at times, to see where would could improve. I asked them to record a few songs. We played my original again only this time with Elise performing with us. She had heard the song enough to know where to play in the song. I knew we had the makings of a real band, but no one else was thinking in those terms. We went back and forth for maybe two hours showing off for each other, and trying to find songs we could all join in on. My little experiment had paid off big time.
We got back to the apartment and I floated the idea that we should play together like that again before Elise left for North Carolina. Elise’s only response was “Don’t get any ideas, I am a classically trained musician and that’s the way it will stay.” Debby just mumbled, “I didn’t realize what we just played was not music.”
I called Skunk to see if he knew of any keyboard players looking for a band. Even if we didn’t all get together again in that format, I had known for a while that Kevin was right, a fat sounding organ would fill out the blues band. I also called Carl and asked him to start thinking about finding a bigger home for the blues band. I had some ideas. I went over to his office the next day and played him the tape. He was impressed even though the sound quality was not the best. I convinced everyone to play one more time as a group. By now the other two guys knew I was going to at least try to get Debby to join us on Saturdays. They didn’t know I was starting to put out feelers for a keyboard player. To them the blues band was a toy or a hobby. For me I needed it to be a professional band, or I was going to move on quickly. I needed money. I had been exposed to professional musicians now, and I knew that was my life. A two night a week fun band was not going to cut it any longer.
Elise went home to North Carolina for a week and wanted me to join her. I declined, I needed to find work. Kevin and Debby went home as well, but I did ask Debby to think about playing with us until she found work. She agreed though the other guys were not so happy about it. I told them Debby was in the band or I was quitting. I had a long sit down with them and told them I needed them to start thinking about taking the band to the next level. Mark was very happy with his life. He was moving up quickly within his company and didn’t want to commit to more, but Phil was open to the idea. I really liked those guys. We got along great as a band, but I really needed more now.
We went back to playing at the
club the next week. Debby came up and played on about ten songs the first weekend. She needed to learn more of them, so it was a good way of slowly moving her into the band. I landed a week day evening job filling in for a guy who was on vacation for two weeks. I had Debby play with me on those nights as well. She was staying with Elise and me. That didn’t make Elise very happy, but I didn’t care. I was intent on making a band and finding a new place to play. I was starting to convince Debby that I could put a professional band together and find us steady work. She looked into taking the nurses exam in New York State so that she could fall back on that as well. Elise was getting jealous that I was playing on stage with Debby again, but I really was only focused on making the rent and a new band.
That summer had one really bad moment for Gordy and in a way bad for me since I knew it meant so much to Gordy. Elvis Presley had passed away in August at his home in Graceland. I went down to see Gordy a couple of weeks later, but he was still very upset over it. He went to Graceland for a couple of days to pay his respects. He had a real bond of some kind with Elvis, but would never tell anyone what it was. I only knew that for some reason he felt he owed all he had to Elvis Presley.
Junior Johnson called me the day after Labor Day in 1977. He had this older funky sounding voice and was looking to play the blues again. He had been touring with a musical production of “Hair” for the last two years, but it had recently ended. He knew Skunk from years ago. When Skunk called him he was very interested in meeting up. He wanted to take a break from touring, but didn’t want to join “Some suburban white boy band that never heard of Muddy Waters or Albert Collins.” I assured him that we played real hard core blues, but we were in fact some “suburban white boys.” He agreed to come over and practice with us one day. Mark nearly quit the band that day, even though I told him Junior was coming over just to see how it all went. Junior could tickle the keys, like a real pro. He was a tall black man from Mississippi, who was from the old school way of playing the blues, and really missed playing them. He was also more than fifteen years older than any of us, though I didn’t dare ask how much older. The grey hair at the temples and lines on his face told me he was either on the road for a long time or maybe older than even I suspected. But he knew every song we did in our set.
I was shocked he would even consider playing with us. But he said he was tired and wanted to kick back for a couple of nights a week “till I get my mojo back.” I told him that I wanted this band to record one day. He looked at me like I was crazy. I think he changed his mind somewhat once he heard us perform live and Debby started to wrap her voice around a song. Later that night I really cut loose to try and impress him. We were a better live band than a practice band.
We were now a five piece band and were still being paid like we were three, so I called Carl and impressed on him to find us a bigger place to play. If he couldn’t, I would find another agent who could. He yelled back at me with a “Don’t tell me how to do my job asshole. You are welcome to find another agent any time you like.” I really didn’t want a new agent and he didn’t want to lose his very first client, but I needed cash and fast.
Elise and Debby were not getting along at all. My two week job was over, so Debby went back home for a couple of weeks. It was very obvious to me how much the band missed her in her absence, and how much I did as well. My relationship with Elise was very strained. We had never talked about much more than the next day’s job or her wanting to perform with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra one day. She seemed like that was all she ever wanted to do, and I really wanted to get a band in front of a bigger audience and record my songs. She wanted to know “Where our relationship was heading” and I only wanted to know why Carl was not returning my calls. She knew I was in no condition to commit to marrying her for many reasons. I think she was only seeing how distant our relationship really was at that point. But like I explained to her, “We really never did go through a somewhat normal dating process. We were more like roommates.” I think she was hurt, even if she knew I was being honest and she felt the same way. I cared for her a great deal, I really did, but my entire focus had to be on writing songs and creating a successful band. We barely had enough money to pay the rent, and buy food, so we were in no condition to get married or start a family.
To add to all of that Matt called me the next day and quit the band. ”I don’t like the direction we were heading as a band”. My reply to him was “You mean successful?” He knew I had designs to make the band much more than it was currently. He was now too busy to practice even once a week. I was worried it would affect Phil since they had been best friends since childhood, but Phil kept telling me he was excited to grow the band. Replacing Matt was much easier than I knew at the time. I called Junior and he said his friend Duke Bryant was a top notch bass player who played with him off and on over the years. He had played the blues among other genres of music. The transition was very easy. I think Matt thought we would shut the band down, but even if Phil had left with him, the rest of us would have continued on. I called Debby back for the weekend so that we didn’t sound too lost, but Duke was also a singer. He sang a few songs as well. Phil was starting to feel slighted because he was losing most of his singing duties, but he knew the other two were better signers. In fact, even I was stronger vocally, but I just wanted to play and not sing lead. Now we had really good musicians in the band. Junior and Duke were real pros, my confidence had grown to where I knew I could play with just about anyone, and Phil was better than average for a club drummer. He was not as good as the rest of us, but he could keep a steady beat. We were now ready to move forward as a band.
The missing piece was still Elise and her violin sound. I knew I could not ask her to quit a steady paying job for a band that was still forming. Besides we needed her pay check. But I knew eventually I wanted her in the band. As shy, reserved and respectful as she was of others, she was for some reason a bit of a music snob. I could never really put my finger on why. She was very good at what she did, there was no doubt, but when she let her hair down and played it more like a fiddle rather than a violinist trained for classical music, she was actually better in my estimations. I think maybe because she had been playing more country music since she first picked up the violin at age five. It seemed more natural for her to play that style. Either way, she was a first rate musician. She would always tease me that “Even your own father knows that if you can’t play the 1812 Overture you are not truly a musician.” I think she was only partially teasing me. I would always counter with “That might be true, but I think Paul McCartney and the Beatles have sold more copies of Yesterday, and I can play that really well.” I am not sure which had sold more copies, but it was the only comeback I had.
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Chapter 8
Carl rang me to tell me that the Linda Sweet album was about to be released. They wanted to do a fifteen stop promotional tour, mostly in the western part of the United States. He also said that if all went well they would be adding more stops later on. I guess I had really made an impression not only on Linda, but also the record label. Linda made a huge fuss about me being the lead guitarist for the tour. The record label liked what I had done on the album, and wanted to hire me as well. It turns out the guy who was so against me, and gave me a hard time in California, was the uncle of the original guitar player in the band. He was Linda’s current manager. But Linda was not happy with his guitar work, or his song writing style. She threatened to find new management if he didn’t back off as to final choices about who would be in the band. It seems there was now an advanced favorable review that was printed in Rolling Stone magazine. The record company wanted to keep Linda happy.
It was for sure a very good opportunity for me, but I had momentum with my new band. I spoke to them and they understood, so we decided to go our separate ways for sixty days. We would then see where we all were after that, but would keep in close contact. Phil needed the break to concentrate on his “day job” agai
n. Debby had started to work part time in a local hospital, so she could increase her hours back home. Junior really wanted to take a long vacation back to Mississippi to see his aged mother and Duke who had offers to play in other bands was fine with it as well. Before we all disbanded, we made a few tracks on a 4-track. I took the songs to California. Elise said she needed a little break from me. We had started to get on each other’s nerves. I needed the money, and Carl said “This is your shot, don’t screw it all up.” He always had a way with words, him being a hot shot attorney and all.
I spent Christmas day at home with the family. I took a flight out the next day to Arizona. The record company had arranged for the band to do rehearsals in a converted ranch house, but it did the trick. We had two weeks of rehearsals before hitting the road for a now sixteen stop tour in thirty one days. At first a few of the guys didn’t really like me much, since they got along with the fired guitar player. The second night at dinner Linda let them all know “The tension is going to stop immediately or every last one of you can leave.” I was happy she did it, but I was hoping my playing abilities would eventually win them over.
The album had been released just in time for the holidays. It was starting to get some air play. By the time we did the first night at the University of Arizona, the students knew some of the words to the songs, including mine. We headed out for Phoenix on a cramped tour bus, but I was on such a natural high that others were singing the words to my songs, I could not sleep. We had stopped in Las Vegas and the band played at the Sahara where none other than my dad’s idol Frank Sinatra had played in recent years and the Beatles stayed overnight. I called my dad to let him know I had just played and stood on the same stage that Frank did, he mumbled, “When you can play the 1812 Overture on that stage let me know.” He was still miffed I was not some middle management trainee for Sears and Roebucks. At least my mom was impressed. The tour headed out for Reno then San Francisco, Seattle, Portland then back down to end with some stops all over California. We ended at the Hollywood Bowl. By the time the tour ended, Linda’s album was number twenty two on the charts, and climbing with her first single at number three on Billboards Top 40. It was one of the songs I co-wrote with her earlier that year. The second single was my song.
A Beautiful Song: A Musical Soul Story Page 7