page 3 memories

Yeah, this new year was going to be life changing with direction, not a direction a parent wants but here we go head first into something we weren't sure and didn't care. The big deal was Gene entering this new school in Framingham, this opened up a whole new group of friends and acquaintances. The money from the summer job left over from the stereo was burning a hole on my pockets. I had continually seen a flashy ad from the Radio Shack catalogue at Shoppers World showing an electric guitar for $34 and it included a strap and little thin gray cord with a 1/4" jack at both ends. Didn't know what it was for but in the picture where the guy playing the guitar in front of a bunch of delighted, dancing, appreciative females, this cord was connecting the guitar to a box with a crosshatched front blaring out musical notes floating through the air, oh ok, whatever. I'm sold! Actually I was sold for months but didn't act. Finally toward the end of winter I begged my dad to drive me to the Radio Shack at Shoppers World in Framingham to buy it. My mom and dad persisted in telling me not to buy it but they finally acquiesced because I worked so hard for the money....remember there was no music except the stereo played in my house. My dad drove Gene and me to the store. I remember being at the Radio Shack on a school night checking out this beautiful instrument that would bring out my BEST! The sales guy handed it to me as it was taken out of the box. All I could do was hold it and Gene just held it too. That was the easiest sale that guy had all week. My dad repeatedly asked, "Is this what you really want?" and I sheepishly replied, "yes". 

This purchase changed my life! When we got home the first thing I did was put it on with the strap and pose with it in front of a mirror, Gene did the same thing. This now completes my life. The instruction manual had a chord sheet and notes but that was Greek to me. I just loved the way it looked! Now what to do with it. Tuning? What are tuning pegs? How does this thing work? Gene took his normal approach to life always using common sense. He grasped the manual and began to read. I just admired this new Zenon guitar! After a month or so he liked the new toy so much he decided he would take lessons and purchase one too. Shortly after my big purchase, our parents drove us to Lechmere Sales Dept. Store in Dedham, Ma and Gene bought a Tiesco Del Ray 2 pick up 6 string with the sunray metal pickguard and big headstock logo. Gene now started his lessons at the Framingham Music Center. He needed and amp. He found a little ad in the Boston Globe for a music store in Jamaica Plain, just south west of Boston, touting very affordable used amps. Our parents drove us there and he purchased an old looking Univox amp with 2-10"s with controls on top with 2 inputs for $40.This purchase was a game changer. Gene and I purchased a Mel Bay Guitar method book 1 and this started it all not to mention me influencing my friends at home in Natick toward rock music and Gene meeting his new best friend and drummer from Marian High who lived in Framingham, Larry Bastien. Gene had a guitar teacher at Framingham. Music Center who played in the Drifters of 'Under the Boardwalk' fame. I was so impressed! The Framingham Music Center was the epicenter for rock n' roll equipment, lessons and a knowledgeable sales staff. It was a small store front with teaching rooms in the back, you could hear muffled guitar, drums, sax and piano lessons in session as the front counter was bustling with activity as well as the packed showroom. This store was jam packed with all the best and biggest brand name equipment as well as the lessor known brands. Fender, Gibson, Guild, Vox, Hagstrom, Moserite, Farfisa, Trixon, Ludwig, Rogers, Slingerland, Kent, Shure Bros., Magnatone, Baldwin, Atlas horns, Framus, Hofner and many more. All available immediately. People would be wheeling out amps, drums and carrying out guitars. Wow, cool action for a dreamy eyed seventh grader!!! Very often on a Saturday my friend Tim West, Billy Barber, Gene and I would walk to Framingham and meet Larry to go check the mountains of equipment at Framingham Music Center. Larry seemed to know quite a few people coming and going at this store. This was cool because he would introduce Gene and us to many new Framingham musician acquaintances. Then we would go to Garino's stereo and record shop, a much more subdued environment. here we would get the latest WMEX Radio station's "GO Magazine". This had all the favorite new play lists for the week and also interviews of the up and coming rock music stars. That mag kept us abreast of all the music and local happenings. Sometimes we'd check out the other stores like Woolworth to see if there were any LPs on sale and to see if they had any rare unheard of records. As the afternoon began to wane we'd walk Larry back to his house just down the street on Lawrence St. I always thought it neat to live on a street named the same as you. 

     There is a strange coincidence that 10 years later I would move 2 houses away from where it all started with Larry, 7 Lawrence street is where I wrote all the songs with brother Phil for the album 'OUT OF THE SHADOWS

     Sometimes we'd go in and listen to records or hang out in the basement where his drums were and he'd play to records. We thought he was excellent!  To actually hear real drums being played right next to us was really cool! After an afternoon of hanging out in Framingham we would walk back to Natick to the our house and talk about the day and listen to more records and the radio. Meanwhile Gene was learning more music such as barre chords through another new friend from Sherborn, Ma., Mark Ragozzino who was to become one of my closest friends. Mark was brilliantly witty and funny as a mimic. He had me constantly laughing and he was a bass player who I think started on guitar but switched to bass because that was needed to form a band. That was my story too. There was really no glory in playing bass but I found out later a good bass player is always needed to complete a band because there is no band with out it. A good bassist who concentrates on moving a groove with the drummer while connecting with the rhythm guitarist and doesn't play like a lead guitarist were somewhat rare. Mark was very talented and brilliant in the sciences, that is why he currently is a very well known and respected radiologist in Wilmington, N.C.. In the meantime Larry, Gene and Mark started putting together a band with their Marian High friends. I thought this would leave me out in the cold but these guys were so cool they let Tim West and I go with them where ever they played and allowed us at all rehearsals. To complete the band, Rick Danahy from Hopkinton joined as lead guitarist [he could play the lead to the Kingsmen's Louie Louie!] Another Marian alumni from the 9th grade Mike Capobianco joined as 2nd guitar. He was a high energy natural who loved the Lovin' Spoonful and played a Diamond Aria 12 string semi hollow body  To get vibrato he would wiggle the guitar's headstock and make us laugh. Mike's 12 string gave the band a whole new flavor as it added a fullness and harmonic undertones similar to an electric organ. Now there was a real rock band. They called themselves "Witch's Brew". I think there were other names but that one I remember. Witch's Brew had Gene on lead vocals and tambourine but I think Larry sang most of the lead vocals but Gene dressed really cool and always looked like a pop star. The band would always rehearse on Saturday afternoons when they could get their parents to drive them to Larry's. All too young for auto licenses. We would always walk. Throughout Gene's 9th grade at Marian, he would go to school sock hops where they had live music. I would go with my mom to drive him there and back. He would tell me about the bands that played. I remember those Friday nights watching Mannix on TV waiting to go get Gene at the high school dance. We would probably bring Larry home too. I was in 8th grade before I went to my first dance in the gym at Kennedy Junior High. No live band, records being played only. Yeah, I was a wall flower. But I knew what I had to do. Now in 8th grade I was playing single notes on my Zenon guitar, notes to Gloria by the Shadows of Knight from Chicago, little did I know I would play Gloria and jam other tunes with the original Shadows of Knight singer Jimmy Sohns, Stepping Stone by the Monkees, little did I know I would enjoy watching and listening to my guitarist friend Dave Robicheau, a very energetic, creative, virtuoso play a major supporting role to Davy Jones' act. Dave has played many roles to many international artist and always will. 

 Back to the late 60s. I remember Larry Bastien having an immense catalogue of lyrics at the tip of his tongue. As we would have a conversation, there may be a phrase that we used which was used in a pop song and he would immediately start singing that song. As this group was forming and rehearsing on weekend afternoons in Larry's basement, weekend evenings Gene, Tim West and I would be chasing down live music at local school and church dances and battle of the bands where usually the home school band would win but the big sponsored shows were held in the local civic halls and armories. Competition was much tougher there because outside battle winners from all over the region would be there to WIN!! The big battle of the bands were sponsored by the Jaycees, Knights of Columbus, DeMolay and supported by the local radio stations. Of course we had our school battles featuring all the local bands, sometimes only bands from that town. I remember there was a Framingham South High band called Dave and the Essex, they were favorites even at Marian High, my private school. Framingham was the largest town in America. It had 2 big public high schools, North and South, and both schools spawned fantastic musicians and then there was Marian, a small private school with about 550-600 students. Very good musicians there too. The big local bands that I knew of were Dave and the Essex from South High featuring Dave Amato on vocals and guitar and Tommy Brodeur on drums, Marian's own popular band The Squires featuring Gene and Larry's classmates Dick Pascutti on ld guitar, Roger Heinen on bass and Jim Toumy on drums. I forgot the organist's name. All these guys were really good musicians but the local all time top group was Tony Soul and the Midnight Hours. Tony Soul got all the high paying gigs from high schools to colleges. He was a showman too. There were some very popular bands from or near Natick which were the Ascots, the Henchmen, the Midnight Riders. There was also the 12th of Never, must have been a local Framingham band because the bass player flipped burgers at Mr. Hamburger on RT 9 in Framingham. I believe he played a Framus or Hagstrom bass with the whitish mother of pearl plastic finish and many switches. I would always look for him when we went there which was on our way walking to Shoppers World. I would let him know that I saw the band and really liked them. He was shy and barely responded. There were other bands that were turning up by the time I hit 9th grade; The Sound Rebellion with Bebe on drums and Gary Borass on bass, these guys dominated the local battles and actually made real money when they played I was told. I think they were managed by one of their fathers. There was the Undecided with Rick Capen on guitar, a year ahead of me at Marian, Billy Pimentel on bass, Charlie Bosselman on drums, they were battle winners from Ashland. Some of these guys I still know! All these bands at this time period were wearing matching shirts and pants. The music was beginning to change but many of the bands kept on going the same route playing popular hits but when I was finishing the 8th grade going into the 9th, Gene, Tim West, Billy Barber and I were being turned onto a different kind of music. We were listening to the BLUES PROJECT at Cafe Au Go Go, the Doors,  Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and more. Our band started to play songs such as Back Door Man, Born Under A Bad Sign, Fire, Foxy Lady and many more of this variety. We were listening to Jethro Tull. no attempt to play Tull or Paul Butterfield. We were very influenced by BLUE CHEER. We were still playing Gloria and Stepping Stone but there was change coming. Metrowest was not changing to the times. The Sound Rebellion still wore their matching outfits, the Squires wore their black pants, white turtle necks and blue blazers. Gene's and my new band Indigo Blues was playing Spoonful, Born Under a Bad Sign, Back Door Man, Foxy Lady. We had also discovered NYC music instrument prices. Mark Ragozzino, Witch's Brew bass player, his family was from a borough of New York City and he brought back a new Fender Precision Bass and hardshell case for about $180. We were surprised but the summer between my 8th and 9th grade, Gene and I were with relatives outside NYC so we took the bus into Manhattan. We experienced the the great prices of musical instruments and made a plan to come back and purchase new equipment. We got lost in Harlem and found the funkiest clothing stores, we were the only whites around. The flamboyantly dressed black dudes were amused that these young suburban kids from outside Boston were enthralled with the fashions, I bought a pair of purple skin tight bell bottoms and a satin white shirt. Great stage wear. We couldn't get this stuff in Metrowest or Boston yet and if we wore wear it around our towns we'd be in fights on every corner. We always wore $9.99 Cuban heeled suede boots from Flagg Bros. at the Natick Mall.

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