My first garage band was a four
piece. It was comprised of friends That really had no business playing together,
but it was a first for us all. It was a chance for us to get a feel for how
much work music really was. There was a lot of standing around listening to
songs we wanted to learn, but had no idea how to go about playing. But we tried
mightily.
We had Roy Swindelle on the drums. Roy was the only one who had any business
playing music at that age. He was actually taking drum lessons from an instructor
that came to his house to give the lessons. We would often get there a few minutes
early and bother him before his lesson was over. I was fascinated that drums
could be scored as music. Roy and I were fast friends for a lot of years. I
spent the night at his house numerous times and I even took a trip to Florida
with him and his family for a few days. Roy was sort of an only child. He had
a sister, but she was much older than him and lived in Florida (which is where
we visited).
We also had Doug Smith on the bass. Doug was a real enigma for me. He used to
drive me crazy because he was so uncool, yet firmly believed that he was the
ultimate in cool. Doug played a Guya bass, but played it through a Guya guitar
amplifier. The odd thing about it was that Doug would never play loud enough
to rattle the amp, so he was always too quiet for the rest of the band. He also
used a lot of reverb on his bass. I tried to get him to stop, but he always
used it. If he still plays bass, he probably still uses reverb.
We had one Junior Treadway on guitar. Junior was a short country boy from Summerville,
SC, who didn’t have any equipment, and in retrospect, I don’t think
he had any talent at the time. I don’t know why he was in the band, but
he was. As I recall, he got us our first audition for a small function in Summerville.
Maybe that’s why we let him be in the band. Junior had one really powerful
attribute. He had bad breath that could stop a clock.
Then there was me. I played guitar, or at least I tried to. I didn’t have
much equipment either. I mostly borrowed amplifiers and guitars. My father,
who was a flight engineer in the Air Force, brought my first electric guitar
and amplifier home from one of his trips to Japan. The first opportunity I had
to use it was the audition wrangled by Junior.
And therin lies the point of this chapter, our first "audition."
Treadway had gotten us the audition for a function for some kids in Summerville.
We had to be there at 3 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, so Roy’s mother,
Rose (I called her Mrs. Swindelle the entire time I knew her) drove us over
there. All of our equipment fit in her American Motors four-door car, which
was a mid-sized sedan. The whole trip there, which was about 30 to 45 minutes
driving, we felt like the Beatles going to a Shea Stadium gig. We clowned around,
joked with each other, and just generally carried on. There were no nerves...yet.
When we walked through the door, we got the first big surprise of our musical
careers. There, on one end of the room was another band all set up. As I recall,
they had all Fender amplifiers and guitars and were a four-piece group. They
had no microphones, however.
We set up and I kept casting my eyes over at their setup. It was a real band.
Their setup looked like ours would have, had we had good equipment. Instead,
we had a bass player who played through a guitar amp. We had a guitar player
we hardly knew. We had a drummer who could have played with a lot of much better
bands. Finally, we had me who had an amplifier that was just a little larger
than a three-ring notebook and a single pickup hollowbody guitar.
The lady who was doing the hiring sat in front of us and nodded for us to go
ahead. We launched into our best song, a harmony intensive Beatles tune, "Rain."
We worked it hard. I sang the lead and shared a microphone with Doug for the
harmonies while Junior had his own mic, just to make sure that none of us passed
out during the audition.
When we finished the song, we felt we had done a respectable job. We knew we
had a couple of flubs in it, but they weren’t bad. We felt we had a chance.
Then the other band started playing. I don’t know what tune it was, but
it cooked. It was a rip-snortin’ rock-a-billy tune that had slick guitar
work and smooth bass and drums. I was in awe. As soon as they were four bars
into their song, I knew we had lost the job.
Roy’s mother sat next to the lady doing the hiring. I watched as she talked
to the lady and then came over to tell us, even before the other band had finished
their song, that they were going with the other band. She did say that lady
said we had very good singing.
This set up a pattern for every battle of the bands I ever participated in.
I know I lost at least three before I gave up on the idea of winning one.