Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Now Playing in Valparaiso

 Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Now Playing in Valparaiso

In '71 or '72 I visited my friend Bill in Valparaiso (Valpo) and it was during that visit when I first heard the music of Dan Hicks. Bill and I were at his friend Duke's place and Duke was playing a Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks album on his stereo. Dan Hicks' first album with his Hot Licks was released back in 1969. Prior to that he had been a drummer in a group called “The Charlatans” out of the Bay Area. I was not aware of that group at the time either. When we walked into Duke's I immediately noticed the music (Dan Hicks) and liked it. After a couple of songs I asked Duke about it and made a mental note to purchase some Dan Hicks albums when I returned home.

That was one of the highlights of that trip for me but that trip turned into a very odd visit. This was my first visit back to Valpo since I was there on leave to marry Donna back in '69 and really the first trip back where I was there to visit my old Valpo friends although many of them were gone by then. When I was a student at Valpo from the fall of '67 through the fall of '68 I had become part of a small minority of students who were speaking out against and protesting the Vietnam War. I was the only one of my friends who was actively protesting. At that time it was not a popular stance in town or on campus or even with many of my friends. The student population's attitude on the war would dramatically change by 1969 but I left school before that took place. I actually got involved accidentally. I had not given too much thought about the Vietnam War at that point. I was rather neutral about it other than I was not interested in being part of it as I was draft age, 18. I had been more focused on Civil Rights issues. There was a petition going around campus in the fall of '67 to have Ron Karenga speak on the campus. I was paying attention to and reading about civil rights leaders like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. I knew the name Ron Karenga from his association with SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) which Stokely had been a part of along with people like John Lewis, Diane Nash, and Marion Berry. I was interested in hearing him speak so I signed it. Somehow many of the signatures on that petition also showed up on a Vietnam War protest list. I became aware of this when two guys from my dorm came storming into my room angry that I had signed an anti-Vietnam War petition. They demanded that I remove my name and explain myself. Their anger surprised me and my first thought was what is so bad about being against our participation in the Vietnam War? It did not seem like an unreasonable view to me and I couldn't understand how they could be so upset with me. The funny thing is if I had found out that my name was being used on a petition that I had not actually signed I would likely have objected, had it removed, and not thought anymore about it. Their reaction led me to think there must be much more to this and I should investigate the war and the US's participation in it. So I started reading up on the war and soon found that I was, in fact, totally against it. As a result I became vocal about it and even joined a small protest in town. I got one of my friends to go with me. By small I mean that there were less than 100 protesters at the protest. We marched through town and the town folk expressed their appreciation by booing and yelling at us. A few of them even felt compelled to express how they felt by throwing things at us, I saw tomato whiz by my chin at one point. That was probably the highlight of my anti-war protesting activities at Valpo. I would go on to have many more highly charged discussions on the war with fellow students over the next year, frequently with multiple people arguing for the War, or at least for support of our country's actions with just me arguing the other side. Many people were upset with me but that just resulted in them largely ignoring me.

Back to the 71/72 visit. Bill had recently graduated from Valpo with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He had been my best friend at Valpo and I was there to visit him. While there I ended up also meeting up with a few other people. I barely knew many of them and in some cases didn't know or remember them at all. They all remembered me as an early protester and were interested in talking with me. As I mentioned only a couple of my Valpo friends were sympathetic to my views back in '67. Seeing me now they all inquired as to what I was up to in regards to the current protest movements, like I was in the know and heavily involved in something. It felt like they thought I was some kind of Tom Hayden or Abbie Hoffman. It all felt a little strange. It was a little uncomfortable and I felt like I was disappointing them. Of course some of that was I had disappointed myself for succumbing to the draft and now being a part of the war effort. I didn't feel worthy of any praise or credit as I currently saw myself as a failure so I suppose that was part of my discomfort. From where I sat it seemed that they were the smart ones. They had stayed in school and avoided the draft. I was the dummy who dropped out, got drafted, and ended up doing military service. I was just a guy trying to get through my current predicament (finish out my military obligation). I saw myself as a nobody and I had no answers.

I still thought (and still think) that our participation in that war was a mistake but the reality was that any thought I had of keeping up the protesting gig had evaporated after the Kent State killings, not to mention that I'd been drafted and was doing military service. Once I wised up and realized those in charge knew exactly what they were doing and were willing to kill me if I got in their way I decided my efforts were only frustrating me and of little value so I better take a different tack. Instead of fighting something I had no chance of changing I decided to look into changing something I had some control over, namely me . I wasn't alone in this as it was about this time that my generation moved on from “fighting the man”, looking outward ,to looking inward at ourselves. We kind of came to the conclusion that the most effective place we could effect change was in ourselves. In short, it's pretty much when us protesters joined the “me generation”, the first “me generation”. I think our offspring is sometimes also called this. Maybe they are the “me me generation”...

Back to Dan Hicks: Songs that take me back to that time include “I Scare Myself”, “Evenin' Breeze”, Milk Shakin' Mama”, and “The Jukies' Ball”, but most especially, “I Scare Myself”. The violin play on that song always triggers memories. It's played by David LaFlemme, who joined Dan Hicks after leaving the group It's a Beautiful Day. If you know that group you likely know them from their song “White Bird”. It's also likely that it's the only song of theirs that you remember.

After my visit I went out and purchased some Dan Hicks' albums – The one above along with “Striking it Rich”. I became a big fan. Later I bought “Last Train to Hicksville” that came out in '73. After the release of that album Dan stopped doing music, or at least he stopped recording any music. He kind of went away just as I became a fan. He did eventually come back and I got to see him play in Winters maybe 10 or 15 years ago. He passed away a couple of years ago. He was a big man, and as his music suggests, he had a dry or even a wry sense of humor. He made comments during his shows that often required a minute to grasp. For instance, one of his lines is to introduce an old song that is written by the drummer but there is no drummer in the band (Dan plays guitar). Funny. It would be one of his old songs that he wrote when he was the drummer for “The Charlatans”, so it's funny as well as being a kind of inside joke. Dan will say things like “This next song is an instrumental.” and then after a pause will clarify by saying, “Well, it's an instrumental, but it has some words to it.”

Bill and Me a few years later

I always enjoyed visiting with Bill even though this time some of the visit was uncomfortable in a weird way.  Whenever I listen to Dan Hicks, particularly the two albums I first bought, I recall my first time hearing the music of Dan Hicks at Duke's place and then I think about being a miscast small time war protesting icon.