A Tapewrecked Lancaster Playlist

The upcoming "Jack Lord's Hair Revue" show brought on some questions from youngsters about the original music scene in Lancaster in the olden days, so I ran it through the Tapewrecks filter and out came this playlist....

[Click on play buttons for songs, and band names for stories.]

The Crystalaires

1960's The local Lancaster scene was stopped short in 1959 when four members of the Crystalaires were killed in a car crash coming home from a gig in Reading. Their only single was released by Stan Selfon of Stan’s Record Bar as a benefit for their families. By 1966 there were several original garage bands with a few recorded singles played on WLAN and other AM stations. They played shows at the Moose Hall and the Hullabaloo Club (owned by Ed Ruoff. His son, Rich Ruoff would later open the original Chameleon Club in the 1980s). The Centurys were from Lebanon and were included along with the Shaynes on Bona Fide Records 1983 Return of the Young Pennsylvanians compilation. 

The Shaynes

The Crystalaires - Nobody Nowhere (1959)
The Baker Street Irregulars - I’m A Man (1965)
The Shaynes - You Tell Me Girl (c1966)
The Centurys - Hard Times (1966)
The Couriers - Feelings (1966)

 

1980s - Shows were mostly DIY affairs put on by high school kids in fire halls, American Legions, and the Moose Lodge, basements, and barns as well as Tom Paine’s Back Room/Chameleon, the only club that featured original music. WIXQ and WFMU played a lot of local bands and State of Confusion became the hangout for punks and a wide array of misfits. Stan’s Record Bar was joined by Web of Sound, BBC Records in downtown Lancaster, and a little flea market stand in the basement of Park City Mall called the Record Connection. The Bona Fide Records label put out a steady stream of 60s and 80s punk, garage, and oddball releases from across the river in York.
The Blame - Little Girls in Hollywood (1979)
The Bodies - Anarchy in the USA (1981)
Helsinki 5 - Computer Failure (1982)
Last Knight - Silent Scream (1984)
The Sinister Lampshades - Twisted Feelings (1984)
The Red Roosters - Mr. Moto/Psycho Macho (1984)  
The Real Gone - Bells Are Ringing (1985)
The Combat Hamsters - Khadafy’s No Worse Than Reagan (1985)
Briggs Beall - Soldier of Fortune (1984)
Nobody’s Fools - Emergency (1985)
Kirk & the Jerks - Hang On To the Dream (1986)
Substitute - Chains (1986)
Penal Code - Wax Museum (1886)
Jack Lord’s Hair I - War of the Monster Trucks (1987)
Jack Lord’s Hair II - Brain (1988)
Jet Silver & the Dolls of Venus - Venutian Rock (1988)
The OOgies - Love It To Death (1992)

Other Bands from the region influenced the 1980’s original music scene in Lancaster, mostly along the I-83 north-south axis between Three Mile Island/Demi Club and Maryland/DC, with York’s Bona Fide Records as the common hub. A 1984 Circle of Shit show was canceled by the YWCA because of their name on the flyer and an angry editorial in the newspaper. Hasil Adkins played an astounding show at Moose Lodge in Lancaster in 1986.
The Left - 5 am (Hagerstown, MD)
The Velvet Monkeys - Any Day Now (DC)
The Stump Wizards - I Don’t Want You Anymore (Camp Hill)
Billy Synth & the Turnups - The Mask (Harrisburg)
The Impossible Years - Attraction Gear - (Philadelphia)
Circle of Shit - The Punks Are Out Tonight (Philadelphia)
The Skeptics - Idle Time (Frederick, MD)
The Dusters - Everytime (Hagerstown)
Joey Welz - Psychedelic Happening (Baltimore/Lititz)
James “Rebel” O’Leary - Rebel Star (York)
Hasil Adkins - Hunky Wunky Wicky Wacky Woo (West Virginia) 

2017 Bands still at it....
Trio Agave
Mud Pie Sun
Dillweed 
The Dying Elk Herd

Thanks to Kevin Stairiker from Fly After 5 for the questions that inspired this post!

Rockaphilly!

The two volumes of Rockaphilly released in the UK on Rollercoaster Records in 1978 and 1980 collect recordings from 1954-1965 on Philadelphia's Arcade Records and show a pretty rich music scene in and around Philly at the time, even referring to the city as "the East Coast's own Little Nashvillle." Well... maybe, but besides the great music, there are some historically interesting artifacts including the original version of Rock Around the Clock, later covered by Bill Haley. Many of the artists revolved in the Haley orbit and various permutations of the Comets show up under different names (but no Joey Welz here). And Al Rex's topical Hydrogen Bomb: "It's a big loud noise and you're real gone.... bomb bomb, the hydrogen bomb...."

Ray Coleman & His Skyrockets - Jukebox Rock 'n' Roll

Bill Moss - You Look Like Something That The Cat Drug In

Rusty Wellington - Ducktail

The Kingsmen - It Should've Been Me

Jesse Rogers - Jump Cats Jump

Jimmy Collett - Four Alarm Boogie

Rusty Wellington - Rockin' The Blues

The Highlighters - Hot To Trot

Bill Moss - Rockabilly Hop

Rusty Wellington - Rock 'n' Roll Ruby

Curly Herdman - Buck Fever Boogie

Sonny Dae & His Knights - Rock Around The Clock

Ray Coleman & His Skyrockets - Everybody's Rockin' Tonight

Jimmy Collett - Beetle Bug Boogie

Al Rex - Hydrogen Bomb

Chuck Hess - Chuck's Boogie

The liner notes are worth a read in the images below and reveal some backstory:

All the tracks featured on Rockaphilly are taken from the archives of Arcade Records, a small Philadelphia label launched in the early 50s by the late Jack Howard to cater for a local demand for hillbilly, novelty, and later rock 'n' roll material.

Howard was an ardent country music fan who ran a printing shop in Philadelphia during the late 1940s. A well-intentioned but slightly deluded man, Howard sought a business involvement with the artists whose music he loved and in 1948, in partnership with a more opportunistic businessman named James Myers, he launched Cowboy Records, for which Bill Haley made his first solo recordings. The venture proved unsuccessful however and after a two year lapse during which Howard acted as a part-time manager to the nascent Haley, Howard launched a new label, Arcade, named after the Arcade Music Center, a record shop which Howard ran in Philly's Kensington area.

Taking his artists from local hoedowns, hillbilly radio stations and nightclubs, local sales while modest in scale, were sufficient to encourage a series of intermittent releases which stretched well into the sixties. ...

Jack fancied himself as a star-maker but in truth, apart from Bill Haley, most of the artists he launched--all solid, dependable stalwarts, did not provide Jack with the reflected glory he so earnestly craved. However we must be grateful that he did make the effort to record the wealth of local talent which existed in Pennsylvania during the late 40s and early 50s.

Rusty Wellington - Sixteen Cats 

Ray Coleman & His Skyrockets - Rock With Me Baby 

Michael Raye & Judy Shaye - Rockin' Jamboree

Keefer Sisters - Wee Willy Waterdilly 

Jesse Rogers - Jukebox Cannonball 

Rex Zario - Go Man Go Get Gone 

Sally Starr - Rockin' In The Nursery 

Rusty Wellington - Jump Jump Honey 

Al Rex - I Gotta Go 

Jackie Lee - Jumpin' Jackie 

Ray Coleman & His Skyrockets - Rock Chicken Rock

Satellites - Buzz Buzz Buzz

Joey Michaels - Sixteen Cats 

Sally Star - ABC Rock 

Rusty Wellington - I Ain't A-Movin' On No More 

Ray Coleman & His Skyrockets - I’m Rockin' 

Ray Coleman & His Skyrockets - Toodle-Oo-Bamboo 

Ray Hatcher - Philadelphia Baby 

Tanner Brothers - Bitter Tears 

Nick Nastos - Bulldoggin' The Steel

 

High School USA 1959............... ......to School Reform 2015

I heard High School USA last week in the car on RDV, the great doo-wop station Radio Delaware Valley. It could use a little updating. Tommy Facenda made around 30 versions of his one-hit for different cities and AM radio markets. This take covered Philly area public and parochial schools.

These days school closings, privatization, and union busting by corporate funded proponents of "school reform" are attempting to destroy public education in the USA, starting with distressed communities of color in cities like Philadelphia.

Sing along!

Olney - Divided & charterized, Teachers fighting to re-unionize 
Southern - Budget and staff cut/ absorbed students from closed schools
Kensington - Divided into 4 smaller schools, staff and budgets cut
Northeast - Staff and budgets cut - College admissions decline
Penn - Closed in 2013
Edison - Staff and Budgets cut - Students walk out
Bishop Neuman - Merged with St. Maria in 2004
St Thomas Moore - Closed in 1975
Franklin - Staff and Budgets cut - Students march on City Hall
Bok - Closed in 2013
Williamsport
Roman Catholic
St. Huberts

Bartram - Staff and budget cut - Plagued by violence
Lincoln -Staff and budget cut
Lebanon
Cardinal Dougherty - Closed in 2010
Hazelton
West Philadelphia - Staff and Budgets cut - Students walk out
Germantown - Closed in 2013 - Building sits vacant
Camden
Frankford - Staff and budget cut
Allentown
Hallahan
Gratz - Charterized
Dobbins - Staff and budget cut

Overbrook - Biology classes eliminated
Edison
St Bonaventure
Kensington
Reading
York - Under threat of charterization
Williamsport
St Maria - Merged with Neuman in 2004
Boniface
Thomas More - Closed in 1975
Father Judge
Central - All NTAs laid off. Counselors reduced from 8 to 3


Photographs by Jill Saul, Pilar Berguido, Kate Devlin, and Tieshka Smith
©jillsaullphotography all rights reserved
More can be found on the Philadelphia School Closing Collective.

Reg Kehoe & his Marimba Queens.... ....Holy Cats! (Lancaster 1930s-50s)

At Guernsey Barn Pavillion in Lancaster (note deer carcasses in rafters)

This terrific Reg Kehoe & his Marimba Queens Soundie has been making the rounds on the web for some time, but I didn't know they were from Lancaster until recently: some royal musical heritage for the home town.

I should be hammered with rubber mallets for citing Wikipedia in my research, but this is really interesting and the most complete info I can find about the band and the film, so here you go:

The lasting legacy of Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens is in "A Study In Brown", a two-minute black-and-white film made in early 1940. One of hundreds of "Soundie" films, they were printed backwards (mirror image) so they could appear correct when played in a Panoram machine (an early film jukebox about the size of a refrigerator) which employed a series of mirrors to reflect an image from a projector onto a 27-inch, reverse-projection, etched-glass screen in the tight, enclosed cabinet. The popular machines were first produced in 1939 by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago, Illinois (which also made art-deco, fancy slot machines), and found their way into countless soda shops, taverns, bus and train stations and other public places across the nation. The specially made 16 mm films ran in a continuous loop and stopped when an in-line metal strip passed a sensor. The patron then put another nickel (or dime) in the machine to run the series of four to six 2- to 3-minute films again. The Panoram mechanics were housed in art-deco, high-quality wood cabinets and played Soundies, 8- to 12-minute films that typically showed jazz and other musicians of the day, as well as dance troupes and other acts.

Most viewers notice the sound is not necessarily synched to the video; this is because when making Soundies, the artist first recorded an acceptable copy of the audio, then various camera takes were made using different camera angles and closeups as the performers lip-synched the lyrics and acted as if they were playing the instruments. The results were edited to create the appearance of several cameras doing the filming, when in most cases only one camera was used.   

With the beginning of World War II, production of the Soundies and Panoram machines was drastically reduced due to a wartime raw material shortage and the Mills Panoram's 1940 success quickly faded. 

"A Study In Brown" was also shown in movie houses as a bonus before the main feature. Reg Kehoe and His Marimba Queens played from about 1938 to 1955 and was a hugely popular act, starting and ending each yearly tour with appearances at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In between, the troupe played up and down the East Coast and throughout the Midwest, traveling by bus ala the Big Bands and making the rounds of all the major dance halls—including in Chicago The Aragon, Willowbrook (Oh Henry Ballroom), Melody Mill, Midway Gardens and Trianon.  

Stealing the show in "A Study In Brown" was 'hep-cat' bass player Frank DeNunzio, Sr., of Hershey, Pennsylvania, who played his standup–slap bass almost until his death in February 2005. The woman playing the marimba next to the maraca player, Grace Bailey, in the film is Reg's wife, Fern Marie, who died in July 2006. On the back marimba is Joyce Shaw on the upper, Ruth Hauser on the middle octave, and Janet Yonder on the lower. On the side marimba, Madee Greer is on the upper and Polly Weiser on the lower.   

No other Panoram recordings made by Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens are known to exist. However, thanks to their two-minute "soundie", the legacy of the Marimba Queens lives on. The band played its last engagement at the Bedford Springs Hotel, Bedford, Pennsylvania in 1962.

NOTE: Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens did make additional recordings in the 1940s. There are 18 "glass" records of music and two "glass" records of live interviews with Reg and some of the band members. 

A Study In Brown (audio)

Thanks to Cyndy Yoder Henry, daughter of Marimba Queen Madee Greer, for the photo above. I didn't know they were a Lancaster act until this photo turned up on the Bands of Central PA site right above these guys:

...

Boy With A Dream (and some scissors and glue) .... The Real Joey Welz (Baltimore 1950s-70s / Lancaster 1980s-present)

Lititz, Pennsylvania, 5 minutes up the road from where I grew up in Lancaster County, home to the Victor mousetrap factory and a leading contender for World's Oldest Teenager......  Joey Welz.

So... this Joey Welz character, back in the 80s, played a regular boogie-woogie piano gig he called "Retro-Rock" at a hotel out on Route 30 amidst the Amish Country tourist traps. He released modern "hits" like Rockin' in America and a rap version of Rock Around the Clock. Joey self-released cassette box sets of his music and claimed to be an original member of "Bill Haley's Comets," Uh-huh... sure he is. And like, he was "the first rock'n'roll piano player"... and he "played with the Beatles in Hamburg." This guy can't be for real. Or can he?


For years, Joey has promoted his act out of his house and has his own rock'n'roll museum. He cuts and pastes his face into photos of famous musicians including the Comets and the Beatles for his press kits. Many of his original songs from the 50s and 60s have his more recent Roland keyboard and drum machine inexplicably overdubbed, so it's really hard to know what to make of the "Joey Welz Legend."

But then I found his name on the back of a Link Wray record. Link Wray!!! Could it all be true? So I wrote Joey and asked which records I should buy to learn about the "real" Joey Welz and how he got his start back on Baltimore.

He made me a deal on 4 CDs and I've been digging through them and a few other downloads ever since trying to make sense of it all. I wrote down some "tough questions" for The Welz and sent them off by email.  He responded (in all-caps) without any hesitation at all. I've included here the parts of Joey's story that have at least some concrete, if sometimes tampered with*, photo or audio evidence. I left out some claims, that while they could be true, are too vague or have only circumstantial evidence to back them. You be the judge.

Welcome to WELZ WORLD:

............................................

HERE YOU GO PAL.....ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.....

THE REAL JOEY WELZ,,, THEY DON'T COME ANY MORE REAL THAN THE WELZZZZZZZ

You claim to be the inventor of your piano style, before Jerry Lee. What do you base that claim on?

IN THE JAY ROCKERS, WE HAD NO BASS PLAYER, SO I BECAME VERY GOOD AT INVENTING BASS RUNS ON MY LEFT HAND AND LEARNED HOW TO CUT THE BOOGIE WOOGIE PIE UPWARDS, BACKWARDS AND HALF UP AND HALF BACK, AND FULL LEFT HANDED OCTIVE RUNS. THIS WAS BEFORE LITTLE RICHARD AND JERRY LEE LEWIS.

The Jay Rockers - Jitterbug Rock 1955

WHEN I STARTED DOING SESSIONS IN 1955, I ALWAYS USED THIS BOOGIE STYLE AND IT WAS JUST RIGHT FOR BILL HALEY'S MUSIC BECAUSE THE BULL FIDDLE BASS DIDN'T MAKE THE NOTES AUDIBLE, ONLY THE SLAPPING. THAT'S WHY I GOT THE JOB AS BILL'S SECOND PIANO MAN, AND WHY THEY CALL ME THE BOOGIE WOOGIE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL.

I LAID DOWN THE BLUEPRINT FOR PIANO PLAYERS IN THE 50S.... IN 1954 I RECORDED THE JITTERBUG ROCK B/W BLUE ROCK, WRITTEN BY JOEY WELZ, ON BERMAN RECORDS. ONLY 10 ACETATES WERE MADE IN 1955. THE JAY ROCKERS WERE JIMMY STAGGS ON GUITAR AND SAM CATALDIE ON DRUMS AND JOEY WELZ ON PIANO. THIS WAS MY FIRST RECORD AND IT WAS ON 78....

The Rockabillies - Twangy 1957
The Rockabillies - Come On Baby 1957
The Rockabillies - Shore Party 1959
The Hi Lees - All Nite Party 1959

The Cold War is another interest of mine. What was it like for you at AFN Berlin (a US military radio station) at that time?

I WAS THE RECORDING ENGINEER FOR AMERICAN FORCES NETWORK IN BERLIN, AND RECORDED AND CO-PRODUCED RADIO PROGRAMS LIKE FROLIC AT FIVE (TOP 40/POP HITS), AND STICK BUDDY JAMBOREE (Country Music).

AT THIS TIME-1960-1963, I WROTE AND RECORDED MANY SONGS LATE AT NIGHT WHEN THE STUDIO WAS FREE. THAT'S WHEN MANY TRACKS WERE RECORDED ON MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS ALBUM AND THE YOUNG JOEY WELZ CD. I ALSO RECORDED GROUPS FOR AIRING AND TWO OF THEM WERE THE BATS AND THE NITE RYDERS FROM ENGLAND ON WHICH I PLAYED PIANO.

Santo & Johnny - A Soldier's Story 1960
The Jokers - Boy With a Dream 1961
The Nite Ryders - Moment Baby 1961
The Nite Ryders - Whistlin' Man's Boogie 1961
The Shimmer Trio - Telestar Tell My Love 1962

I ALSO CO-PRODUCED AND RECORDED BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS LIVE SHOW ON AFN FRANKFURT. DURING THAT TIME,I LAID THE GROUNDWORK OF JOINING THE COMETS AS FEATURED PIANIST WHEN I GOT OUT OF THE ARMY, (replacing Johnny Grande. Johnny and I were the only pianists in the history of the Comets).

I ALSO FIRST RECORDED WITH THE COMETS AT THAT SESSION PLAYING ON HONKY TONK AND SINGING BACK-UP ON SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL. YEARS LATER, I LICENSED THE AFN MASTER TAPES TO HYDRA RECORDS IN GERMANY AND THEY RELEASED BILL HALEY LIVE ON AFN CD.

Bill Haley & his Comets on AFN Frankfurt 1962 

Rock Around the Clock
Honky Tonk (featuring Joey Welz on Piano)
See You Later Alligator (listen for Joe Welzant in the credits)

AT THE FRIAR'S CLUB IN TORONTO: RUDY POMPELLI ON THE SIDE (HE WAS OUR SAX),AND AL RAPPA ON BASS, AND JOHNNY KEY ON GUITAR AND BILL HALEY IN THE BACK MIDDLE

WE WERE SOLDIERS FIRST. ONE NIGHT I WAS ON THE AIR ALONE AND GOT THE CALL THAT THE WALL WAS GOING UP. I WAS THE FIRST TO CALL EVERYBODY IN. WE GOT OUR HELMETS ON AND ALL WENT DOWN TO THE BRANDENBURG GATE AND STOOD AT PARADE REST FACING THE EAST GERMANS AND RUSSIANS WHO BROUGHT THEIR TANKS DOWN. WE WERE ALL WAITING FOR WHO WAS GOING TO FIRE THE FIRST SHOT. NO ONE DID, THANK GOD, BUT THE WALL WENT UP. 

I WAS ALSO AT THE RADIO STATION WHEN WE BROKE THE NEWS ABOUT THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, BUT KENNEDY HANDLED IT WELL AND THEY BACKED DOWN. PRETTY EXCITING TIMES FOR A PIANO MAN LIKE ME....

On some of the recordings of you with famous artists, you overdubbed your electric piano much later. This seems misleading and maybe even fraudulent to many people.  Can you explain why you do that?

I SOMETIMES OVERDUBBED MY PIANO FOR RE-RELEASING SOME OF MY CLASSIC SONGS BECAUSE, ON THE ORIGINAL RECORDING, THE PIANO WAS BURIED IN THE MIX. I ALSO OVERDUBBED DRUMS IF THEY WERE NOT LOUD ENOUGH WHEN I ORIGINALLY RECORDED IT. I ALWAYS WANTED TO IMPROVE THE SOUND WHEN I REISSUED THEM AND WANTED THE DRUMS TO BE MORE POWERFUL TO DRIVE THE BAND....

ON THE LEGENDARY FRIENDS ALBUM, IT'S A COLLECTION OF ALL THE RECORDINGS I DID WITH MY MUSICIAN FRIENDS IN ROCK AND ROLL. MOST OF THE SESSIONS I PLAYED ON WITH THE EXCEPTION OF FLOYD CRAMER/DUANE EDDY/THE VENTURES, IN WHICH CASE I ADDED MY PIANO TO THE ORIGINAL TRACKS. I WROTE ALL THE SONGS AND STILL FEEL THIS IS MY MOST HISTORIC ALBUM.

The Ventures - Save Your Love, Save Your Kisses 1963*
The Cruisinaires - I Ain't Got a Thing 1963

The Comets - You Changed 1964*

PHOTO TAKEN AT A RADIO STATION IN TEXAS TO PROMOTE OUR NEW SINGLE IN 65 ENTITLED TOUNGE-TIED TONY

The Upsetters - Maybe You're the Girl 1964
The Kidd Brothers - Wooly Bully Rides Again 1966

Joey & the Time Machine - Big City 1967
Joey & the Time Machine - Caught By Love 1967
Joey & the Time Machine - Psychedelic Happening 1967


I'll Do Anything For You WAS A HIT IN NORFOLK, VA. IN 1969 AND THAT'S ME ON DISCOTEN TV RUN BY GENE LOVING FROM WGH RADIO WHO JUST CAME OFF MY LAST HIT OF I WILL SING A RHAPSODY FOR A SUMMER NIGHT.  DICK LAMB WAS THE HOST ON THAT TV SHOW WHERE I LIP SYNCED MY VOCALS


I was excited to find your name on the back of my Link Wray album!

Link Wray and I became good friends in the early 60s and I was a silent WRAY MAN on some of his records playing piano and organ. He and I made a few albums together where he backed me up, as well as did Roy Buchannan.



Link Wray & the Wray Men - Week End 1963
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Run Chicken Run 1963
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Blue Eyes Don't Run Away 1968*
Link Wray & the Wray Men - Turn You On to Sunshine 1968
LinkWray & the Wray Men - I'm a Wheel 1969
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Rippin' "Em Off in the Name of Love 1970*
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Jesus, Be My Friend 1970*
Link Wray & Joey Welz - Rumble '69 1970

*Keyboards and/or drums overdubbed later

Were you really a Yo-Yo Champion? 

I practiced yo yo from the 7th grade in grammar school to the last year in high school. I was really gone on the yo yo. I worked for the Filipino Champions, holding contests and demonstrating in dept. stores on the weekends in downtown Baltimore.

In 1957, after winning many contests, I entered into a contest between the 3 company champions; ROYAL, CHEEREO AND DUNCAN. The best man was BOB ROLA from DUNCAN YO YOS and I finally beat him in the last contest for world champion. I RECEIVED THE HIGHEST AWARD, THE DUNCAN SILVER EAGLE PATCH WHICH I STILL HAVE IN MY YO YO COLLECTION.

How did you come to settle in Pennsylvania?

I came to Lancaster in the 80s to play gigs and liked it, I opened CAPRICE RECORDING STUDIOS in Lititz in 1990 and became the owner of CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN AMERICAN RECORDS and produced many other national and local acts including JIMMY JONES, DANNY AND THE JUNIORS, FREDDY CANNON AND THE 4 TOPS....

My new album is DANCING WITH THE STARS featuring TEN YEARS LATER a memorial for the 10th anniversary of 9-11. THERE WERE 2 RELEASES OF JAY ROCKER RECORDS. AND 4 OF THE ROCKABILLIES WITH ME BACK IN THE 50S on Bat Records.

FANS AND MUSICIANS WHO REALIZED WHO I REALLY WAS WERE STARTING TO CALL ME THE LEGEND AND THE BOOGIE WOOGIE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL. WHEN I STARTED MY ROCK AND ROLL DANCE SHOW I CALLED RETRO ROCK, I CAME OUT FROM BEHIND MY EQUIPMENT AND SANG LIVE OVER MY RECORDS AND ALSO PLAYED LIVE KEYBOARDS OVER THE CLASSIC ROCK RECORDS OF MY FAVORITE BANDS. THIS WAS BEFORE KARAOKE SO I GUESS YOU COULD SAY I INVENTED IT. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE WAS, WHEN I WAS SINGING TO MY RECORDS, THEY WERE REALLY MY RECORDS AND SONGS. I WAS NOT SINGING OTHER PEOPLE'S SONGS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF WHEN I DID THE HALEY NUMBERS, WHICH I ALSO PLAYED ON....

You must have had a day job, right? What career(s) have you had outside of music (and yo-yo)?

MY OTHER JOBS WERE ALL IN MUSIC WITH THE EXCEPTION OF 6 MONTHS WHEN I WAS A PRISON GUARD IN BALTIMORE AT THE STATE PENN. I WORKED IN SALES AND DISTRIBUTION AND HAD THE TERRITORY OF DEL. MARYLAND, WASHINGTON, VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA FOR THE HANDLEMAN COMPANY, JOSEPH ZAMOISKI CO AND D&H DISTRIBUTORS. I ALSO WAS A JUKE BOX MAN FOR JACHAM MUSIC IN BALTIMORE, AND A RECORDING ENGINEER FOR MONUMENT STUDIOS IN BALTIMORE, AND A&R DIRECTOR FOR WEDGE, DOME, MONUMENTAL, MUSIC CITY, AND PALMER RECORDS IN DETROIT.

I WAS THE PRESIDENT AND OWNER OF BAT RECORDS, CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN AMERICAN RECORDS.... I RAN MY BUSINESS OUT OF MY HOME IN LITITZ UNTIL IT GREW OUT OF THE HOME AND NEEDED MORE SPACE IN THE 80S. SO I OPENED CAPRICE INTERNATIONAL RECORDS AND STUDIO AND MY MUSEUM IN THE LITTLE RED BRICK BUILDING BEHIND THE GENERAL SUTTER INN IN THE ALLEY.

You've been on the edges of stardom your entire career and recorded great music with great people, but you never quite made it to the Big-Time yourself (yet). How do you feel about that? 

Bill Haley's Comets - Shake Rattle and Roll 1981

MY MUSIC, LIKE ALL ARTISTS HAVE HAD ITS GOOD RECORDS AND ITS BAD. WHEN I HAD A COUPLE OF GREAT POP RECORDS, HEY LITTLE MOONBEAM, RHAPSODY FOR A SUMMER NIGHT. HEY RATTLE SNAKE, IN MY CAR, ROCKIN'IN AMERICA, I NEVER HAD THE DISTRIBUTION OR PUSH FROM A MAJOR LABEL. AS YOU KNOW THEY HAD THE MONEY AND POWER TO BUY A RADIO HIT. I WAS NEVER PUT THROUGH THE MAJOR PUBLICITY MACHINE. I HAD TO RECORD, MANUFACTURE AND PROMOTE MY OWN RECORDS. ACTUALLY, WHEN YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT, THAT MEANT I WAS MORE TALENTED THAN MANY OF THE POP STARS LIKE FABIAN AND FRANKIE AVALON WHO DIDN'T EVEN WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS.

ANYWAY, I AM THE ONLY ARTIST LIVING TODAY, THAT HAS MADE NEW MUSIC AND RELEASED NEW RECORDS EVEY YEAR SINCE 1955 TO 2013. I HAVE OVER 90 ALBUMS, MADE 75 45s AND WRITTEN OVER 1000 SONGS AND STILL ROCKIN' AROUND THE CLOCK TODAY AND SINGING ALL OF BILL HALEY'S HITS TODAY WHEN I PLAY WITH MY LONG TIME COMET FRIEND, AL RAPPA. THATS MY LEGACY AND I'LL STAND ON IT.

I GUESS IT'S BETTER TO BECOME A LIVING LEGEND THAN A DEAD POP STAR. I WILL NEVER STOP MAKING MUSIC. IT'S MY REASON FOR LIVING, AND LIVING IS THE KEY TO BECOMING A LIVING ROCK AND ROLL LEGEND.

WHEN THE ROLLING STONES DIE, I'LL BE THE ONLY ONE LEFT. OF THE 5 STAND UP 50s PIANO/SINGERS, I AM NOW THE ONLY ONE STILL PERFORMING....JERRY LEE LEWIS, AND LITTLE RICHARD AND FATS DOMINO HAVE ALL RETIRED AND RAY CHARLES UNFORTUNATELY PASSED AWAY, SO THAT LEAVES ONLY JOEY WELZ STILL DOING CONCERTS....THAT'S MY LEGACY.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD, I'M STILL ROCKIN' AROUND THE CLOCK. I STILL CAN HAVE THAT ONE BIG HIT BEFORE I DROP.......

ROCK ON---- the welz man

Joey Welz - The Ballad of Link Wray 2009


........................................

The songs in this post represent a small fraction of the musical genres and albums that Joey has put out over the years. You can purchase them all directly from Joey Welz's expansive CD Baby site:
First Impressions
Top 12 Radio Hits of the 50s
Top 15 Radio Hits of the 60s
Legendary Rock & Roll Friends
Brothers and Legends: Link Wray and Joey Welz

A Joey Welz and the Time Machine 45 was reissued by Frog and Rabbit Records by Billy Synth who also did his own versions of You Changed and Rockin' in America.

More about Joey Welz:
JoeyWelz.com
Canadian American / Caprice International Records
The Bill Haley Who's Who

The Bird World War... ................. .....50 Years of Surfin' Bird (1963-2013)

What's the Word?

The Bird is the word. But does it surf?

Prelude to war:

The Rivingtons' Papa Oom Mow Mow was a 1962 novelty tune that took up the funny-sounding Anglicized nickname of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, the "Mau Mau". These anti-colonial fighters helped win Kenyan independence at around the same time Surfin' Bird was released a year later, their name having found its way into a New York mafia gang and US exotica culture in the late 50s. It was turned into novelty tunes by Screamin' Jay Hawkins and others. A possible Mau Mau/Ooga Booga Tarzan connection? I don't have much evidence to back this up, and maybe it's another cockamamy Tapewrecks theory. Factcheck me. But did this war of national liberation spark a global 50-year war we never heard of?

1963 USA at the height of the Civil Rights Movement and corresponding violent backlash: Red Prysock's What's the Word? Thunderbird! (1957) and maybe a little of the drink itself provided the inspiration for the Rivingtons follow up The Bird's the Word. The Trashmen start screwing around with both Rivingtons tracks at band practice, and Surfin' Bird is born. The song quickly hits #4 on the national charts, the Trashmen claim all credit, as was common practice in those days, and the original authors promptly sue, sparking a bilateral three-year milking war...

The Trashmen - Bird Bath
The Rivingtons - Shaky Bird (Part 1)
The Trashmen - Bird Dance Beat (1964)
The Rivingtons - Mama-Oom-Mow-Mow
The Trashmen - Bird '65 (1965)

...followed by World War B:

The Beach Boys - Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow (US 1965)
Wade Curtiss & the Rhythm Rockers - Puddy Cat (Mama-Meow-Mow) (US c1965)
The Freshmen - Papa Oom Mow Mow (Ireland)
The Hep Stars - Surfin' Bird (Sweden 1968 - PreABBA Benny!)
Les Celibataires - Papa Oom Mow Mow (France)
Ernos - Papa Oom Mow Mow (Finland 1970)
Gary Glitter - Papa Oom Mow Mow (UK 1975)

Back in the USA:

King Uszniewicz & his Uszniewicztones (US 197?)
The Ramones - Surfin' Bird (1977)

The Persuasions - Papa Oom Mow Mow (1977)
The Cramps - Surfin' Bird (1977)

Postwar skirmishes:

Pee Wee Herman - Surfin' Bird (1987)
The Dwarves - Motherfucker (1990)
Supersnazz - Papa Oom Mow Mow (1993)
Sodom - Surfin' Bird (2001)

And then there's this:

Peter Griffin - Surfin' Bird (2008)

We Call It Folk

I was elated when I heard the news that the complete field recordings of Alan Lomax are finally available online. His travels around the US and the world with a tape recorder preserving the musical traditions of thousands of people have had a huge global impact, of course. But they were also a little inspiration behind my humble street recordings in Mexico and Central America and the creation of tapewrecks.

Alan Lomax spent the last 20 years of his career experimenting with computers to create something he called the Global Jukebox. He had big plans for the project. In a 1991 interview with CBS, he said, "The modern computer with all its various gadgets and wonderful electronic facilities now makes it possible to preserve and reinvigorate all the cultural richness of mankind." Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online - Joel Rose on NPR

I knew the Lomax collection was being digitized, but I was surprised to find out that one of figures behind this monumental task, over 17,000 recordings, was Don Fleming of The Velvet Monkeys, whose flotsam has washed up on this blog multiple times. Lomax died before the Jukebox was created, but Fleming, Anna Lomax Wood, Alan's daughter, and a small army of volunteers worthy of the WPA have finished the job.

Insert your nickel here:
The Association for Cultural Equity - The Sound Recordings 1946-1990

Watch this:
Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, and Don Fleming on the Colbert Report Interview and performance.

It's also apropos that good ol' Rustle Noonetwisting, the fellow who records everything in my life, sent me the news and titled this post.

Hasil Adkins at the Moose Lodge!.... .......................(in Lancaster 1986)

Chances are, if you're reading this blog, you were probably at the Lancaster Moose Lodge on the evening of June 28, 1986. But for those unfamiliar with Hasil Adkins, he recorded dozens of records in the hills of West Virginia on his home 2-track reel-to-reel from the 50's on that were completely ignored until the Cramps covered She Said in the early 80's. After 30 years and several reissues of his recordings, the Haze was launched into the national spotlight, albeit it was a very underground fame he enjoyed with a cult of fans that credited him as a psychobilly pioneer. The Haze was the real thing. 

Web of Sound and Bona Fide Records, brought Hasil to Lancaster. Carl from the Web, already the size of a bear, became an official Moose so he could rent the place out. The local rockabilly act the Red Roosters opened up along with The Dusters from Maryland, who were made up of ex-members of the Left and the Skeptics. So it was a damn good show from the start, and Rustle Noonetwisting had his trusty tape recorder and camera along as usual to put the spectacle down in the annals of Lancaster music history.

Hasil Adkins got on stage at the Moose Lodge with his cowboy hat tied under his chin, guitar in hand, and sat down behind a drum kit. He really was a one-man band. According to Norton Records liner notes he said, "I can't have no band. I like to change to different chords and can't expect nobody to follow me."

Right off he started thumping out the bass beat and a hi-hat with his feet and bashing the cymbals with the headstock of the guitar (mind you that's the same headstock containing the tuning keys). Hollered, hooted, shrieked, whistled, crooned, cooed, jabbered, yodeled, and yes, even sang some pretty notes into the microphone.

Ho!
Hey, Howdy!
It's good to be in Lancaster.
Yeah, I bought my second guitar out of this city along time ago.
My second guitar comes from Lancaster city....

I'm glad to see you all out here tonight.
Thank you for comin'....

...It's called Punchy Wunchy Wickey Wackey Woo

You got any special songs you wanna hear....? 
Which one?

No More Hot Dogs

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Come on baby, don't you be late
I want your head, I want it tonight
Cut your head of at half past eight
I'll have it on my wall about a half past ten...
...
Hello baby.
This ain't no rock'n'roll show ha ha ha ha!
This is me back again cause I need another head.
...
Just like I said, I'm gonna cut your head off
And you can eat no more hot dogs!

She Said
Why's don't I tell you what it is?
I wen' out last night and I got messed up
When I woke up this mornin'
Shoulda seen what I had inna bed wi' me
She comes up at me outta the bed
Pull her hair down the eye
Looks to me like a dyin' can of that commodity meat....

4

5

I got a new one coming out.... It's called
She'll See Me Again  Well I hope she will anyway, you know.
[Listen carefully to Hasil's special tuning. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been published in Guitar Player magazine yet.]

7

Can anybody do The Hunch?
You can?

Have you got any more you wanna hear?
Chicken Walk!
...Quiver yourself from head to toe
Do your stuff wherever you go
Do your stuff upon the floor
Do your stuff wherever you go
Come on baby, do the chicken-chicken walk....

Peanut Butter Rock and Roll

You got anything else you wanna hear?
[More divergent guitar tuning.]
I Need Your Head  
Hello baby
This ain't no rock'n'roll show....

12

I got about one more tonight.  Then I gotta leave.
13

We want the Haze!

After the show, I took my copy of Out To Hunch up to Hasil Adkins for an autograph, which he was more than happy to oblige. Sounded something like this...He said:

What's your name?
Tom.
How do you spell that?
T-O-M.
Alright, here you go.

The Haze was the real thing.

The Crystalaires.... ...(Lancaster 1959)

The reformed Crystalaires (after the accident).

The only info I've found on this group is from Daddy C's Youtube channel, but it's a fascinating and terrible story so here it is:

The Crystalaires were a group from Lancaster, PA and were the hottest act in town back in 1959. On May 25, 1959, while coming home from a gig in Reading, PA, they were involved in a serious car accident that claimed the lives of 4 members of the group. Earlier that evening they were informed by their manager that King Records, out of Cincinnati, OH, offered them a record deal and wanted them to come to Chicago to re-cut "Nobody Nowhere" for national release. In July of 1960, Stan Selfon, of Stan's Record Bar in Lancaster, released the 2nd version of the tune (complete with bad splices in the master tape), on Sound Souvenir No.1.  The proceeds (in part) were intended for the families of the deceased members to raise money for their headstones.

Nobody Nowhere

photo by M. Fitzgerald

The Stan's Record Bar connection is interesting.   I bought my first records there in the early 80s and always wondered who Stan was.  The store goes way back and it's still there at 48 N Prince Street!   The accident must have been big local news, so if anyone has access to Lancaster newspapers on microfilm it would be interesting to read the articles and obits. If you were around Lancaster in those days and remember the bands, clubs, music stores, record labels, or any other part of the scene, please help us salvage that history!