The Other Band

Before I get into the story of the other band I played with in Escondido back in 1969, I wanted to mention that I was doing some organizing out in my shop over the holidays and found my sister's old year books from St. Louis and Philadelphia.

I was stunned to discover that the Villa Duchesne yearbooks listed the home address of every student. That includes Janet Musial (as in Stan's daughter) and Judy Switzer (as in Switzer Candy). Unbelievable!! But now know why I was confused about where Stan lived. For some reason I thought it was near Forest Park. But it was actually near Francis Park. That's where my dad taught Janet to play tennis...
Aside: Stan's house was the first place I saw termites. The pest control guy busted open the back door threshold and it was full of the critters. As near as I can tell (from online records) the house was only 5 years old at the time. That would explain why Mrs. Musial was so exasperated when she saw them... But that's totally irrelevant - which is why I remember it so well :-)
I also noticed that in various places in those yearbooks my sister's first name is written as Kathie, Kathy, Katharina, Catherine, Katarine and Katharine. As I mentioned in an earlier post, she was never quite happy with her name and was constantly tweaking it all through her childhood. She eventually settled on Karina...

And back to Escondido:

At some point in the summer of 1969 one of the guys at Finder's Music let me swap my Vox Phantom XII straight across for a 1953 (the year I was born) Fender Telecaster. It was an "off the books" transaction - the Telecaster had just been traded in and wasn't in their inventory yet. I think it was a reasonable exchange given that vintage guitars were not yet considered "collectible" at that time - they were just "old"... . I felt a bit bad about the fact that the Vox had never been fully paid for - but that wasn't exactly my fault... Aside: I eventually sold the Telecaster to a working musician around 1990...

The Telecaster was a bit awkward to play given that I'm a lefty and held it upside down (after swapping the strings and the nut) - but the neck had been narrowed and the action was vastly superior to the Vox (especially for my stubby little fingers). I spent a lot of time with it when I first got it and my technique improved immeasurably right away. That was also when I got obsessive compulsive about "palm muting" and spent countless hours experimenting. (It's kind of like pedal technique on a piano.)

And that was when I met another guitarist named Pete (last name was something like Mitchell or Marshall). He had a 1952 (the year he was born) Fender Strat and played lead guitar for a cover band that was looking for a second lead.

It was an unusual band (and not just because it didn't have a name): The drummer and keyboard/vocalist were slightly older and had day jobs so we very rarely practiced with them. For the most part, us two Petes and bass player Jack would get together at "other" Pete's house. And on the rare occasions when the entire band got together (at the drummers house) the music always seemed to come together effortlessly... There's probably a lesson there somewhere - I'm just not sure what it is :-)

Jack was a skinny dude who seemed to suffer from "short man syndrome". That's probably why he played bass... All I remember is that his shoes had really thick soles and he was perpetually angry about something or another :-)

The drummer was a dead ringer for Shaggy of Scooby-Doo fame. My most vivid memory of him is (of course) car related:
One evening we all showed up for practice at his place (he still lived with his parents) and he wasn't home. We were about to leave when he rolled up in a brand new "440-6 bbl" Roadrunner (B5 blue). That was a limited production model built only at the end of the 69 model year and was one of the quickest muscle cars ever made... It took a long time to convince him to show us the engine because the car had a fiberglass hood that was pinned down (no latches or hinges). So he had to find a blanket to set it down on after it was lifted off... It was quite an amazing car - only 10 miles on the odometer...

Then there was the keyboard/vocal guy... In addition to a holding down a regular job he had recently fathered a child (unplanned). He was still in his teens and doing his best to hold everything together but he was always on the edge... And (of course) his girlfriend did not want him playing in a band anymore - but for some guys that's like asking them not to breathe.
I also recall that he always kept one of those plastic lemon squeeze bottles on the corner of his keyboard. He claimed it was for his voice but I think he was just addicted to lemon juice :-)

Finally - there was other guitarist Pete: He was one of the coolest people I've ever met. His parents were Bohemian types of the Zen variety - totally laid back - never got upset about anything - and Pete was the same way. I had grown up on a steady diet of hysterics and drama, but his family didn't seem to experience any stress or conflict whatsoever. It was quite a revelation to me.
They had an old house near downtown Escondido and they were remodeling it... It was an incredibly neat place - beveled and leaded glass everywhere... It must have been quite the showplace back in the day.

And now that I've "painted the backdrop" I'll leave the rest of the story for the next post...