The Road Never Ends

By Joel Johnson

The author kept records of performances with rock bands from mid-sixties to present day. Later writings will focus on "day jobs" but the crux of this writing is to show the overall decisions a musician makes in early life, whether original or cover performance (or both) can bring overall satisfaction for you. We are only limited by our energy, vices and willingness to be a team player.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329551084

Book preview

The Road Never Ends

Table of Contents

Prologue

…the road never ends

Gimmicks

Progress through the 60’s

Those Early Wild 70’s

The Road (Early 70’s)

1973-R & B Was King

I Dunno-ALASKA!

Alaska to Texas in the blink of an eye

Country AND Western

Back in the Saddle Again

On With the Schmaltz

The Danger Girls

The Times They Are A’changin

Live Music Is Best

Time Marches On

The Road Is Long and Winding

I’ll Never Know Why I Survived

Cheat Sheets and More

Combos through the Years

Acknowledgements

...this book is dedicated to the band leaders and bandmates who tried to get the most out of my abilities all through my formative years playing cover music.

Prologue

This will be an attempt to set forth my experiences on a musical level which have been based on a foundation set forth by my parents and peers. The childhood memories of family and friends have set me on a road less traveled, and I thank them all (alive and dead) that have inspired my abilities to be a good copycat and not necessarily get me to fame’s doorstep, but have enabled me to live a fruitful life thus far.

In this book, I will likely leave out most of my family and student experiences, so I can concentrate more on the musical liaisons, numerous as they are. It’s kind of like three different realities, but they intersected when I was supported by encouragement and suggestion.

My music started out classical, but evolved into the 1960’s beatnik folk and pop stuff. It didn’t always please my mother and father, but they were tolerant, and I am forever grateful for that. My father even helped me buy my first electric piano, a new Fender/Rhodes model 73 suitcase. My mother allowed me to quit piano lessons with a brilliant Russian pianist, inventor, and yoga master. That was my decision, but might’ve been the product of the generation’s direction. At least I got 12 good years of discipline, which followed me throughout my travels with countless groups. I will follow that up more critically, as this writing progresses. It’s the ability to pick pitches and keys out of the air that helps me to be a quick study, as most of these groups I performed with have been short-lived---some just months together.

The road never ends is my way of saying that this thing called live music is the thing which excites people, on a people level. It can only be obtained by being there, staying alert to mistakes and vamps, and just being tolerant of other guys (and dolls) of their emotions and actions. Not everybody loves you…

The thing for me started in middle school, or, junior high as we called it. We had a thing at lunchtime called penny movies where they would show parts of a movie until the bell rang for class. At times they would allow the combos of the school to play cover rock instead of the movies. We did the songs of the time played on the radio, like Beatles, Stones, Beachboys, Beau Brummels, Kinks, and lots of one-hit wonders. I had to drop a mic down the back of the student piano in the cafetorium to be heard. We used the audio-visual PA/record-player for vocals, and some early Fender amps for bass and guitars. What a concept for today… the 21st century! No pay, but lots of rewards in terms of girlfriends and kudos. I saw a way to make goof off money by playing for the dances, and on it went.

So close to fame and fortune, but you only get so far on covers as I found out when time progressed. Fun, but amateur, no matter how well you played or sang.

…the road never ends

All books start with a beginning, and mine starts with a sister and mother that liked to play piano for relaxation. I think I was 4 or 5 years old, when they would play on the 1922

Settergren utility grand piano, which was purchased by my father earlier. The piano didn’t cost like a Steinway, but it was enough to impress our middle-classed neighbors.

So they would play (my sister Coleen—Spinning Song) and mom, all the standards from the 40’s and 50’s…and I would listen, often sitting next to them on the bench. My sister drove me nuts with that song, and she said it was easy, so I believed her…she showed me how to roll my knuckles on the 3 black keys, then up to C#---then down to Eb to play a song. Then she showed me the left-hand part to Spinning Song. I found it interesting in that the melody intertwined, and eventually, I played it by ear on my own. My mom heard this, and immediately sent me to a teacher named Robert Rank (RIP) in Seattle. He was a good beginning instructor, who used a church rectory for lessons. If I had a good lesson, he would allow me to play the HUGE pipe organ---humbling for a 5-year old boy.

Little did I know that this was the start of a career (avocation and vocation) to develop into interesting inroads spanning over 50 years, and countless adventures! After 2 years of lessons with Mr. Rank, he told my parents that he could not continue, as he only taught beginners. So he recommended a man in downtown Seattle named Alexander Mlynarski. He was a Russian immigrant, who came to the United States in 1917, stowaway in a hold of a fishing boat, to escape the Bolshevik revolution. He came from Vladivostok to Seattle, and was educated to be a lawyer. I came to find out later that he was a direct descendant through teaching to Beethoven himself, and Joseph Haydn, and Ignace Paderewski who at one time was the President of Poland. My GOD—these people were FAMOUS in their own right, and the methods of teaching were passed down to future students (me). Must be a good thing! Lessons were $15 per 45 minute, and he had an abundance of other students, but he spent this time laying out strict practice methods to adhere to. These included twists, 5-finger exercises, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, and Hanon exercises to perfect the evenness of the left and right hands (good stuff). He also taught pitch, scales, and general theory.

Half the battle, was getting to the lesson. Every Tuesday night, I made 2 transfers on the City Bus to downtown—no express in 1957. Sometimes Dad would take me, but I was trusted to get there most times, then they would pick me up. He had a studio on the 8th floor of the Fischer Studio Building across from the Garden Art theatre. The place was knee-deep in books and papers-somehow cramming 3 Grand Pianos in there. So---on we went---him telling jokes and giving out challenging lessons to learn. All neatly mapped out, where I would put a little pencil mark on a pie showing how many times I repeated this particular procedure. Sometimes twice a day, sometimes seven or eight times always based upon my last lesson. He would set me down at the piano, put a chart of ledger lines in front of me, then take his pointer and tell me to sing the note out of mid-air….all the while, the metronome ticking seconds off. He started at 12 seconds, all the way down to one. Hence perfect pitch was gained after a few years.

So the lessons went on---and school too. Speaking for myself, the overachiever of the 5 siblings, participated willingly in all the school-related things offered. Wrestling, baseball, football, tennis, and mayhem at night in our neighborhood were the norm. Looking back, I really don’t know how I had the time to do it all. And more so, we lived near Puget Sound, and fishing was important too. Fishing gave me time to begin my search for what it all was about.

Gimmicks

Songs come, and songs go, but they only stick in our minds when they have some gimmick or catch-phrase to incite a response from the listeners. When the guy plugged his nose on Dee-Dee Dinah it was only because the song sounded common in the studio. The producer sneezed, and thought it up at a moment’s notice. As it goes with live music, when the climate is right, and recorders are rolling, sometimes the greatness oozes out of a performer. This in turn, makes memories for the live audience, sometimes by using strange instruments (kazoo-bagpipe-other). Nowadays, this can be accomplished with ease, due to programmed auto-tuners, synthesizers, and toy-boxes on guitars.

Goody bars or whammy bars are another gimmick used widely today. The combos today that enjoy success