The Vynes--"I Might Be Free" / "More Each Day" (Athon Records, Naperville, Illinois) 1966

I recently obtained a Teac turntable that records to cd, and I digitized The Vynes' songs that we recorded at Balkan Studios in Cicero, Illinois in 1966. We were so young and were thrilled to be in a "real" studio (1 track mono, 1/4 inch tape), and I don't think any of us realized that a middle-aged accordian player was probably not the guy to record our tunes. He complained about our volume, our songs and American pop in general to the extent that we probably should have stiffed him for the bill--but we were on an emotional high--we had a RECORD.

When I think that less than two years before that date, I couldn't play a guitar if my life depended on it--the amazing learning curve of all of the cats who started in those days amazes me today. Forty+ years later I'm still playing regularly in a bar band, among untold thousands of bar bands, and I long for those days from 1963-1968 when it was all new, unique, and there were always big crowds filling high school gyms with 300-400 kids, all dancing, while we played for sock hops after football or basketball games, or for the many formal dances that were a part of life then. The music was transcendant--The Beatles, The Byrds, Kinks, Hollies--Chicago's own Cryan' Shames. The music still shines today, for generations twice removed from the baby-boomers. I feel it was the best time of my life, and it has almost become mythical in my memory. It is no exaggeration to describe it as exciting, new, and innocent. Love songs, car songs, party songs, and the mysterious and beautiful songs of the British Invasion bands--this was living the good life for me and the other cats who write in and contribute to this great website. Watching all the pretty, mini-skirted long-haired girls dancing was reward enough, but to get paid for playing was almost a sin--the jocks who had just lost a football or basketball game hated us when the gym stage curtain opened, the Fender amps started chunking, and the cheerleaders flocked to the front of the stage. Musicians were unique and strange in those days--it was the only identity I had, other than a nurd, and I was actually noticed by some very fine girls. It sounds immature and inconsequential, perhaps, but it was the defining time in the lives of thousands of dreaming boys, who became husbands, fathers, soldiers, businessmen, pilots, doctors and lawyers....I would have those days again, and I am grateful to Hans Kesteloo, Mike Dugo and and all the others who work on these sites, for keeping the memory, the legacy, alive.
G. Baldwin, The Vynes

The Outspoken Blues - Mister, You're A Better Man Than I/Not Right Now (Orlyn 66821) Chicago, Ill. 1966

It's interesting, gratifying, and mystifying, that the music that my band, and all of the other "garage bands" recorded about 40 years ago is still being played, and appreciated. I, along with most of my brothers in music from those days, think that those were the best times of our lives. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Jim Stanley, Singer/Guitarist for The Outspoken Blues

The Fifth Row Bac - Please Don't Go/Destination Train (Graves 1100) Corvallis, Or. 1967

just thought I would contact you to let you know that one of the members of the Fifth Row Bac from Corvallis, Oregon (Oregon State University fraternity folk) is alive & well in Lakewood, WA. I understand that our song "Please Don't Go" is number 8 on the G100 list. Go figure...we had a hell of a time convincing a local radio station to play it even once..

I've been in contact w/the bass player, Norm Persons...we called him "Normal' during our shows. From Norm I found out that our drummer, Farrel Smith ("Smitty", of course), was a casualty in the VietNam War...that bummed me out for quite some time.
I've tried to get ahold of some of the other members but have been unsuccessful so far.

I must admit that time was one of best in my life...I loved being in front of those gyrating, bouncing, boogeying folk...was an absolute kick!
Eric Chandler, Singer for Fifth Row Bac

The Quirks, home of the coachmen and practice pad of the quirks.

I can remember as a kid one saturday morning while visiting a friend from school, a red van pulled up in the driveway next door and out came the quirks! THE QUIRKS was written on the side of the van. they all went in to the house and down to the basement to practice. cant remember for sure but I think they were playing get off of my cloud or satisfaction as we spyed on them thru the basement window. they saw us and we saw them and I don’t think they liked kids lookin' at 'em cause they motioned for us to get out . so we did. I can remember this pretty well and this is no BS. this is a cool memory ill never forget.
take care gary

Opus 1 - Back Seat' 38 Dodge/In My Mind (Mustang 3017) Long Beach, Cal. - Apr 1966

The Emperors that did "I Want My Woman" were actually from Long Beach, not San Bernardino. Steve Watts, the leader (and drummer) was a friend of mine back in the day, and we used to play at a lot of the same venues.
If memory serves me correctly, the flip side was "Searchin' Round the World," although I could be mistaken. The sad truth is that The Pandoras ripped off the song note-for-note, called it "I Want My Caveman" and claimed writers credit. I wonder if (Bill?) Hughes is alive or even knows his song was plagiarized.
I've got couple of their (The Emperors) earlier singles as well.

Very surprised that Time Of Your Life's "Ode To A Bad Dream isn't on your playlist, it's pretty available...

John "Chris" Christensen (Opus 1)

The Thunderbirds - Hey Little Girl / These Days Are Gone - Libra 1047 (Lenox, Iowa 1967)

We had no idea that our record was being played until about 3 days ago, one of the old group stumbled upon the fact about 2 weeks ago and called me only on this past Wednesday with the news and some email links to check out, one of them was your link.

The band was from the small town of Lenox in southwest Iowa.
We played all over Iowa, eastern Nebraska, northern Missouri and Western Illinois. I don't think we have any old film of the band, I do have a few old reel to reel tapes of some of our performances but don't know how good the tape is anymore.

All of the band members are still alive. The band was formed by myself and my brother Steve in about 1960. I played Bass guitar and some rhythm guitar, Steve played rhythm guitar, organ and harmonica, Carl Adams played Rhythm guitar, Roger Brown (a cousin) played drums and Dean Harper played lead guitar. The songs on the record were written by Steve. I know he had other songs but they were never recorded. We recorded the "Hey Little Girl" and "These Days Are Gone" record on the Libra label in the fall of 1966 ( See It! ) and had the record out in the spring of 1967.

It is very gratifying to find that our record is being played 37 years after being produced.

Stan Brown
formerly of the ThunderBirds.

The Seeds Of Time - She's Been Travelling 'Round The World - Morgan 4824 (Monroeville, Alabama)

My pleasure, it is hard to fathom that someone has discovered this single we recorded almost 40 years ago in Montgomery, Alabama. We recorded another 45 (1967) in New Orleans on the Jora Label, it was called Twelfth's Night Indication. I probably have a copy somewhere and some old publicity photos as well as some posters we used to put up when we were playing somewhere (we did a lot of self promotion). We would drive and drop off some records at a radio station put up some posters and play a couple of weeks later, a lot of people would show up sometimes.
We had a lot of fun.
The program is great, it was a fabulous time; hard to describe to people what it was like in today's terms. Your program brings back the vibe.
Regards from New Jersey, US
Craig Weidenheimer
The Seeds of Time

The Riots - You're My Baby / I Can Go On - No Label 11387/8 (Chicago, Illinois)

I was looking at your web site and wanted to correct an error. As Tim Warren and Mike Markesich now know, The Riots who sang "You're My Baby" and "I Can Go On" are not from Tennessee at all; they were from Chicago and that's where the songs were recorded. My uncle, Larry Dieden, wrote both songs and he and all The Riots lived in the Old Town area of Chicago, near Lincoln Park. We only recently discovered his songs were being played and were compiled. Mike Markesich is the one who originally thought the record was cut in Tennessee, but had bad info (understandable after he explained why he thought that). In fact, Mike is a friend of Tim Warren's. And my Uncle and I had a long phone conversation with Mike, who will be correcting the facts in his upcoming book about garage bands. By the way, what kind of feedback do you get on The Riots? My uncle is just ecstatic to have recently learned that the songs, which are so obscure have as he puts it "taken on a life of their own". Needless to say, this has been pretty cool learning people are listening to his music after all these years.
Thanks!
John

The Morticians - It's Gonna Take A While / With Another Guy - Palmer 5027 (River Rouge, Michigan)

I noticed that you have a recording by the Morticians called "It's gonna take a while" in your playlist. That was my band in the 60's. I'm wondering how you found the recording. It never got any airplay that I'm aware of. I'm also wondering what the condition of the recording is that you have. I don't have a good recording of it myself. Also, can you tell me when you'll play it on your webcast?
Dennis Girrbach.

The Children Of The Mushroom - You Can't Erase A Mirror / August Mademoiselle - Soho 101 (Thousand Oaks, California)