Our rock band became a moderate local success for us, and allowed us to have something to do on the weekends. Early on, we unceremoniously kicked Mark Ward out of the band, something I still feel guilty about. We printed a business card that had our band name, “The Split Ends” with the names and phone numbers of four members of the band: me, Johnny, Dave, and Carl, and left out Mark’s name. We left the card on his Farfisa-style organ without saying a word to him. That was just mean!
We listened to music constantly and asked ourselves:
Is this a song we like?
Is this a song others would like?
Is this a song we can all actually learn to play?
We studied The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Beatles, The Rascals, and the new bands, Traffic, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, and The Who. We played at Canteens, which were weekly dances held in the cafeteria of the high school from 7:30 to 10:00. We played the whole time except for one fifteen minute break in the middle. I remember the janitor used to threaten to kill the power if we were still playing at 10:00. One time he actually did it. Our trademark show included a portable light show. Morris Peltz, a classmate and friend of ours, built a couple of light boxes that each held four spotlights. We put colored lights in them and there was a foot switch to control the speed at which the lights changed colors. We could do it quickly for a fast song, or keep it constant for a slow moody one. For the final song we always lit a smoke bomb or two behind the amplifiers. This often got us in trouble, but we were a rock band and were supposed to rebel a little bit. We never asked for permission, and in our minds the audience was always surprised by it and thought it was cool. We also played at other events like sock hops, which were dances given after basketball games where everybody had to take off their shoes so that the floor wouldn’t get scuffed. Also, each class had a prom every year, and as the band aged so did our reputation and the likelihood we’d be asked to play at these special events. We also loved to watch other bands play. Our favorite bands at the time were The Orange Invasion, Lord Dawn, Alexander Rabbit (Galaxies V), and The Young Monkeymen. We would study and watch how they played, listened closely to their performance, ogle their equipment, and get ideas on how to perform better. Periodically Carl would get us all tickets to see a big act in Princeton or New York City. These included Steppenwolf, The Doobie Brothers, Chicago, Chambers Brothers, James Cotton Blues Band, Vanilla Fudge, Country Joe and the Fish, and finally the mother of all concerts, Jimi Hendrix in his only performance at Madison Square Garden. As a drummer, I grew every time I heard a record or saw a performance. I also eventually realized the pivotal relationship percussion has with bass lines. This is called “the bottom” in music circles. I learned this mostly by watching the local R&B bands from Trenton, and listening to The Rascals and recordings created in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. I really liked clean and tight drummers with perfect, in-the-pocket, tempo. So Keith Moon (The Who), and Ginger Baker (Cream) were not my favorites, I always considered them to be sloppy, self-centered performers (I liked their music though). Drummers whom I respected were Dino Danelli (Rascals), John Bonham (Led Zepplin), Jim Capaldi (Traffic), Carmine Appice ( Vanilla Fudge), and Danny Seraphine (Chicago). Being in a rock band was a great activity in high school. It gave us a cool identity, and increased the likelihood of us getting girls. In the process, I made life-long friends, and never felt bored at all in the summer or on weekends. Most-importantly, we were in charge. No bosses, parents, or teachers watching over our shoulders, nagging us to practice, or telling us what to do. For the first time in our young lives we felt we were in control of our destiny — and we were entertaining people. It was such a great feeling to play a drum set and watch people dance to your beat. When we were on a break, and we had to mix with the crowd, we felt people staring at us. Not in a bad way, but with respect. As a band member at that exact point, what I did mattered to someone. That’s why I liked it and why it fueled my ego. Because for the first time in my life, no one compared me to Brad or Kent, no one thought about the many things I couldn’t do, they only looked and heard the things I could do, and enjoyed it as much as me.

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