My Musical Journey – College, 1967 - 1968

 My Musical Journey – College, 1967 - 1968

Me at 18

First a couple of music notes from late 1966. I was listening a lot to The Beatles “Revolver” and also listening a lot to Simon & Garfunkel's Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme. Buffalo Springfield released their self titled 1^st album in December of '66 but I first heard it at a party a month or so later. Someone brought it to the party and played it on a phonograph on the patio in the backyard where a few of us were hanging out. Some drifted back to the main party in the house but me and one or two others stayed behind and listened to the entire album. I was really taken by the album. I then returned to the rest of the party but listening to that album remains a strong memory even now almost 50 years later. I don't remember anything else about that party including whose house it was at or even who was there.

In the summer of 1967 I secured a summer job working in the toy department of the E. J. Korvette department store, generally referred to as just Korvettes. Korvettes was a pioneering discount department store. The Young Rascals (later changed name to just Rascals) album was another 1966 album that I was listening to a lot at that time. I remember going to a club in Nassau County with a guy I was working with to hear them. Their hit song at the time was a cover of an R&B song “Good Lovin”. While they were an all white band their music style was very much soul/R&B and I liked their covers of “Mustang Sally” and “Midnight Hour”.

The fall of '67 I went off to Valparaiso University (Valpo) in Indiana. I brought my phonograph and a slew of albums including 3 by The Beatles (Rubber Soul, Revolver, & Sgt Peppers), 2 by The Byrds (5th Dimension and Younger Than Yesterday), 2 by Simon & Garfunkel (Sounds of Silence and Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme), and 2 by Dylan (Bring it back Home and Highway 61 Revisited). I also brought albums by The Rolling Stones, Buffalo Springfield, Paul Butterfield (East West), Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels (“Jenny Take A Ride”, “Devil With the Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly”, and “Sock It To Me, Baby”), The Mamas & The Papas (“California Dreaming” & “Monday Monday”), The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, The Lovin' Spoonful, Jefferson Airplane, The Vanilla Fudge's 1st album that came out that summer, and lastly The Jimi Hendrix Experience album that had just come out.

I was assigned a dorm room in one of the university's older residence halls. Each floor had two squarish wings. Each wing had 10 double rooms that circled or I guess cubed a large shared bathroom. My roommate was Rick who, like me, was from Long Island. He brought albums too but I only remember his Rascals and Association albums. Everyone in our wing got to know each other and within a few weeks all but a couple of us decided to share our stuff with each other. What this entailed was we did not lock our rooms, even when we were gone to class. If you needed to borrow something from someone you could just go to their room and get it. What was mostly shared, at least in my case, was music. My friend Jim, who lived two rooms down from me was from DC and he had a pretty extensive eclectic record collection. Through Jim I discovered groups like The Fugs, Mother's of Invention, Moby Grape, and The Love. The Doors/Hendrix/Beatles/Cream were always being played somewhere in our wing. Seemed like I heard songs like “Light My Fire” and “Purple Haze” a gazillion times that semester. I played a lot of S&G and The Byrds and Rick played a lot of Rascals, particularly their new album with “Groovin'” on it.

Jim was a very bright guy, easily the smartest of us all. He and I conversed a lot about books and politics (Civil Rights/Vietnam) but we strongly connected on music. We listened to all the above as well as The Velvet Underground. As the fall semester went on, new music showed up that included Tim Buckley (“Hello and Goodbye”), Moody Blues (“Day of Future Past”), Love's 2^nd album, Arlo Guthrie (“Alice's Restaurant”), and The Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour”. That was all 1967.

Valpo had one concert on campus that fall, the Righteous Brothers with an opening act of Nino Temple & April Stevens who as far as I know only had one hit “Deep Purple”. I don't know if it was the sound system but they did not sound very good. The Righteous Brothers sounded fine though.

During the spring semester, 1968, I bought a few new albums, notably Simon & Garfunkel's “Bookends” which is still my favorite S&G album and Bob Dylan's “John Wesley Harding. I also bought Joni Mitchell's 1^st album, “Songs for a Seagull”. Towards the end of that semester someone in our wing got an album by Quicksilver Messenger Service and that was quickly passed around. I remember Jim getting the Mothers of Invention “We're Only in it for the Money”. There was another concert on campus that semester. This time it was The Turtles (“Happy Together”, “She'd Rather Be With Me”). They were actually very good, better than I expected.

Back home in New York for the summer I returned to Korvettes to again work in their Toy Department. The department had a new manager who would often take me out to lunch. He was very sociable and easy to work for but evidently he didn't always follow through like he was supposed to and as a result half way through the summer he was fired. The floor manager, his manager, asked me to be the department manager until they could find a new permanent one. This would be the start of a pattern that would continue throughout my entire working career. Whenever my manager left suddenly I would be asked to take on the role sometimes permanently. I suspect those of you who know me are now questioning my memory... Back to music: That summer saw the release of a number of albums. The Iron Butterfly's classic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, The Doors “Waiting for the Sun”, Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1^st album, Moody Blues “In Search of the Lost Chord”, Big Brother's (Janis Joplin) “Cheap Thrills”, The Byrds “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” an early country-rock album, The Jefferson Airplane's “Crown of Creation”, and The Jeff Beck Group's Truth. I bought all of them that summer except for the Truth album.

Back at Valpo for the fall of '68 semester. I met a girl at the bookstore on my first day back. Her name was Donna. I was a sophomore. She was a junior but we were the same age, both born in 1949. We met up a second time at a school start of the semester dance. The band's name at the dance was The Ohio Express. That's right the band who somehow had a hit song called “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I've Got Love in My Tummy”. There was this sort of music sub-genre called “Bubblegum” that was somehow popular then, well at least popular enough for those songs to hit the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Perhaps most notable at the time was The 1910 Fruitgum Company (Simon Says, 1 2 3 Red Light). Tommy Roe (Sweat Pea, Dizzy) could probably be included in this genre as well although I found his stuff a little less objectionable. While not a fan I admit that I have always liked The Archies “Sugar, Sugar”. Donna was at the dance with friends and she made a point to come over and talk to me. I didn't stay long at the dance, a little bit of bubblegum goes a long way.

Donna

Back at the dorm I reconnected with my friends from freshman year. Jim had moved on but Bill, who was my closest Valpo friend, and his roommate Joel along with Stevie, Gary, Dirk and Mark were all friends from last year's dorm wing. Joel played bass in a rock band. He had a line on a new guitar but was a little short so I lent him some money so he could get it and as collateral he lent me his old bass guitar. He taught me the base line for a few songs. Two I remember are Jefferson Airplane's “White Rabbit” and The Leaves “Hey Joe”. “White Rabbit” was fun and not hard to do but the baseline for “Hey Joe” was a little more challenging and took a bit of practice. When Joe paid me back I returned his guitar to him and I don't think I have ever tried playing a bass guitar since.

In November I bought that Jeff Beck's Truth album. I was at a Sam Goody record shop with Donna who was now my girlfriend and would later become my 1^st wife. I remember that well because when I picked up the album and told her I was going to buy it she asked me if I knew anything about it. I told her I didn't but I had a good feeling about it. She laughed and looked at me like there was something wrong with me but I bought it anyway. I often make decisions based on a feeling. It is a really good album but she never failed to remark how lucky I was whenever she heard me playing it. She never really got used to me making decisions just on my feelings. Donna was a Laura Nyro fan and so I was hearing a lot of that.

While back at Valparaiso that fall ('68), two more notable albums were released. One was The Beatles, commonly called The White Album and Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. I purchased The Beatles album as soon as I could but I didn't purchase Astral Weeks until the following spring just before I was about to be drafted. A couple of other albums I bought were the Traffic and Blood Sweat and Tears 1^st albums. The Beatles White Album was being played all the time in the dorm. When I'm asked to name my favorite Beatles album I have tendency to say “Abbey Road” but if I think about it it might actually be The White Album. It's a double album and has such a variety. Today the 3 Beatles albums I play the most are Rubber Soul, The White Album, and Abbey Road.

In early December of '68 at the Christmas break I saw The Temptations at MSG (Madison Square Garden) theater with my friend Eddie. Comedian Bill Crosby opened for them. After returning from the Christmas break I decided to drop out. I originally was thinking of going to California. Donna decided to go with me and reminded me about the draft (Vietnam) that was hanging over all our young male heads at that time. I changed plans and headed to Toronto, Canada instead to check out my options. We took the train from Chicago. We packed light and it's one of the few times in my adult life that I did not bring any music with me.

Songs on the charts I was listening to back then in addition to the albums referenced above:

Knock On Wood, Eddie Floyd - Respect, Aretha Franklin – Ode to Billie Joe, Bobbie Gentry – Incense And Peppermints, Strawberry Alarm Clark – (Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding – Tighten Up, Archie Bell and the Drells, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Gladys Knight & The Pips (later Marvin Gaye) – Tell It Like It Is, Aaron Neville – Soul Man, Sam & Dave – Can't Take My Eyes off you, Frankie Valli – Sweet Soul Music, Arthur Conley, – A Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum – For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield – (You're Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, Jackie Wilson – Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison – Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, The Buckinghams – I Can See For Miles, Who – Friday on My Mind, Easybeats - Western Union, The Five Americans – Gimme Some Lovin', Spencer Davis – Cold Sweat, James Brown - Nashville Cats, The Lovin' Spoonful – I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night), The Electric Prunes - Born to be Wild & Magic Carpet Ride, Steppenwolf – Fire, Crazy World of Auther Brown – Jumpin' Jack Flash, Rolling Stones – Dance To The Music & Everyday People, Sly and the Family Stone – and of course Paul's Hey Jude. So much great music was happening....