The Musician... see you among the stars

During my cabinet delivery work, I had met this guitarist named Ralphy who lived two blocks away from me on West 9th Street, just one block from the cabinet store. We became good friends, and we decided to start a band together. Ralphy’s older brother Joey played a great trumpet and had a wonderful powerful voice. He was very deeply into music and anxious to take part in the band. He also had a great positive energy that I have never ever seen in someone before. Joey loved to get things happening and done. The other great thing was that Ralphy’s family had a big house, and a wonderful large and spacious basement, which was great for comfortable rehearsals. To top it off, his mother and father were really nice and mellow, and most of all very encouraging about music. We began practicing very late up and until 11:30 at night and no one would complain. Not even the neighbors. I also liked West 9th Street. It had met many families, and from being introduced to the people on his block, it was refreshing to notice that all of them were sort of normal. Unlike where I lived this was great! Now that my brother was gone, I disliked being around my family, because they were very negative about my music. It was a welcome relief to be with a family who loved and encouraged playing music.

Ralphy and I started to put the word out that we were looking for a drummer. While we were waiting for some drummer to respond, Ralphy’s brother Joey started to sing for me some of the songs he wrote, and I was impressed. Joey asked me if I could help him make a cassette tape of his songs since I was a much better guitarist than his brother was. I helped Joey make his tape. After I helped him make a decent tape, Joey told me that, starting on Monday, he was going to take his songs, in sheet music form and on cassette tape, to the record labels to try to get a deal. Joey asked me if I wanted to come along and I said sure. I asked him how he knew where to go? Joey said that you just look in the yellow pages under record labels and walk in. I said, “Just like that?” Joey said yeah! He also added that he also knew of some buildings that were publishing houses that were also looking for songs, and that if they liked your song they will give you money for it, sometimes right on the spot. My eyes lit up. I had school on Monday, but I was willing to cut it and join Joey. This I wanted to see.

On Monday morning, I arrived at Ralphy’s house about 9:00am, and Joey was busy going through the phone book writing down the addresses of Labels we were going to visit. We then hoped on the BMT subway and proceeded to New York. We took the “N” train to the last stop,
57th Street and Broadway. We exited the subway and walked to 51st Street into this big office building called,
The Brill Building. The front of the building had a theater marquee that said, The Ed Sullivan Show. Very Exciting! We went up the elevator to the 23rd floor and entered RCA records. As we entered, a man came up and greeted us. Joey told him that he was a singer/songwriter and he wanted someone to listen to the song. The man replied very nicely that there was no one here today to hear it. The VP was in California and would be back on Wednesday. However, if you want to leave a tape or come back, he would be very happy to listen. We got the VP’s name and told the man we would return. I liked it.

We then proceeded to the 21st floor of Roulette Records. We entered and again a man approached us with this big cigar and offered a greeting. We replied. The man also said that there was no one here to listen, but the A&R man would be in about 2pm. We got the A&R mans named and left. We went throughout the building and continued to visit some Record Company’s and publishing houses with no success of finding anyone available to listen.

We then exited the building and proceeded back to 57th Street to get something to eat. Joey walked up to this hotdog stand and ordered four hot dogs with mustard and onions and two Coca-Cola’s. Boy, were these hot dogs great.

We then proceeded a short distance to 57th Street and 7th Avenue. We arrived at a building and checked the directory to see if any record labels were here. We had seen that Liberty Records was on the tenth floor, and we rode the elevator. We entered the suite and noticed no one in the reception room. We yelled, “Hello,” and a voice came back, “Come on in.” Joey and I then proceeded into the next room where this skinny little guy dressed all in black with dark sunglasses was sitting in this big chair with his feet stretched up on the desk eating this giant hero sandwich. As we entered the room, he said, “What can I do for you guys?” We again used the same reply. He said, “Yeah, I’ll listen to your music, you guys want to join me and have a sandwich?” We both said yes! He then got on the telephone and ordered some heroes. He said, “Have a seat while I get the tape recorder ready.” He then rose-up behind the desk and put out his hand and said, “I’m
Phil Specter, President of Liberty Records, what are your names?” We replied. He then invited us to sit down. Except for us, he was alone in this giant office. We started asking us where we were from and what we were doing with our careers, and as we replied, the sandwiches arrived. He fumbled around with the tape deck while holding this large sandwich in one hand, he proceeded to make these wild remarks about what he was doing, and he had us laughing. We felt very comfortable. He set-up a tape deck and inserted a tape and pressed play. The sound started blaring out of these hidden speakers, and after about ten bars, he dropped his sandwich on the desk, turned off the tape deck, stood up quickly, and flew over to this upright piano. He immediately said that the song was great, but it had to be played in a different way, and he begun to play the song on the piano with some strange chords.... And he went on.... And on.... And on! Joey and I were amazed at this guy’s energy. We were also wondering is that our song or is he making one up from what we had done? We kept on eating away and observing. Phil started entering a bridge area of the song and he was saying ...yeah this is great ...yeah; it has to go over here.... No, I don’t like that ...I’ll put this here. He kept right on playing and mumbling. Then he stopped, and stood up and said, “You guys have a great song here.... I can use it! .... Who wrote it?” That statement was surprising to us because we were wondering the same thing. Phil had changed the song so much in an instant that we could not recognize it. Joey replied, “I did.” Phil said, “Great! Come back on Friday and I’ll have the contracts made up. This is a great song ...it’s a great song.” He then said, “See you kid’s on Friday around 11:00am.” In another instant we stood up, he shook our hands, and we left with sandwiches in hand. We were very excited! We proceeded then to hop on the subway and head home.

We arrived home and told Ralphy’s parents what went on and they said great. Then Joey and I sat down in the basement and tried to recall exactly what went on with this guy Phil Specter. As we were hashing it out, Joey and I came to the same agreement, and that was, that we did not trust him. We could not recognize the song, and things were happening very fast. It was a great experience for me, but Joey had been through it before. Anyway, Joey decided to follow up on it anyway.

That Friday Joey and I hoped back on the subway and proceeded to return to Liberty Records. We arrived at Liberty and this time there was a secretary in the office. She told us that Phil Specter was no longer the president of Liberty Records, and that he had moved to California. Joey and I looked at one another with surprise. We then proceeded to tell the secretary what had happened when we were here on Monday and she said there was nothing she could do. We then asked her if there was anyone who would be willing to listen to our song. She said that the company was in transition and it would be awhile until another president was selected. With the both of us completely surprised and disappointed, we tried to hit the Brill Building again only to learn that no one was around because it was Friday.

We returned home, Joey told his mother what had happened, and his mother felt sorry and told us that these things happened. His mother went on to say that we should concentrate on putting the band together. I immediately thought that I had wished my mother talked like that. I did not realize it at this time, but this event with Phil Specter was the beginning of my frustration the music business.

The next day this drummer arrived to Ralphy’s house and we auditioned him. His name was Larry. Larry played a good set of drums. He also had a great Ludwig Drum set, so we accepted him. How we had a band. For the next couple of weeks, we practiced everyday after school at Ralphy’s house while his brother Joey kept pounding the pavements of New York trying to sell his music. When we would have the music down to the songs we were learning, Joey would come in and join us. While we were practicing, I became very friendly with Ralphy’s neighbors.

Directly next door to Ralphy’s house lived a police officer named Joe and his wife Carol. They had three cute little girls and two of them were twins. They were three and five years old. The twins are three. I love children very much, and I love to play with them. Joe the cop, once a week, used to hold underground card games in his basement for a house-fee. The house belonged to his old mother who lived on the top floor of this two-story house. His wife Carol was a 25-year-old beautiful and very sexy woman. Ralphy and I admired her very much, but we kept our distance because her husband was a cop. They were all very nice people. Joe the cop also used to drink a lot. I do not like or trust cops, but Joe was wonderful. Everyday was a routine for us. We would go to school, and then we would have practice with the band, and the neighbors would listen to us improve. Then I would have dinner at Ralphy’s house or sometimes I would go home and eat, and then I would return to Ralphy’s house to play with the kids and hang out with Ralphy’s neighbors. I disliked the people on my block very much, but I enjoyed the people on Ralphy’s block.

When Carol’s kids went to sleep, she and her mother in law would invite Ralphy, his mom and I in for coffee. After coffee, we used to past the time by engaging in a friendly card game. We used to play for pennies. Joe the Cop was never around. Either he was working at the Canal Street Station in Manhattan, or he was hanging out in this local Mafia bar on the corner of 9th Street and Avenue U, or he was working a card game in his basement. Whatever he did, he was not a straight cop, but what cop was straight anyway. In any case, Joe was a wonderful person who was funny and treated everyone like a brother.

I became very close to his kids and loved them very much. In the process, his wife liked me very much and I used to help her a lot. This led me to be at his house every night. I would help put the kids to bed and afterward Carol and I would play cards and hope someone else would join in. Joe was almost never around. It appears he and his wife were not getting along to well, but Joe never minded me being around his wife or his house.

Ralphy was practically in love with Joe the cop’s wife, Carol. He became very jealous that I became a friend with Carol, that he told Carol behind my back that I wanted to go to bed with her. I on the other hand had no idea that he had said that. Nevertheless, Carol decided that she was going to make some passes at me. If I tried to touch her, then she was going to slap me and throw me out of the house.

So for the next few weeks Carol would make passes at me. She would walk by me in the hallway of her house and rub her beautiful tits into me as she passed by. I thought at first, it was an accident. She used to stand real close to me by pressing her ass against me and I never responded. I never ever thought about doing anything with Carol. It was the farthest thing from my mind. I loved their children very much, I liked Carol and her husband Joe, both very much, and I felt very comfortable in their house. They in turn, felt the same about me. I was very young, naïve, and innocent. Carols plan was not working so she tried even harder. She had the radio on one day and the Four Seasons came on singing, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, and that was her favorite song and she wanted to dance. I started to dance with her and every time I turned her around, she would slide my hand slightly across her breasts. Then she would pull me in against her body. I still never reacted. Then one night, she became frustrated that I would not react, and she just gave me a big hard slap across the face, because of nothing. I responded, “What did you do that for?” She then told me, “That was for telling Ralphy that you wanted to go to bed with me.” I told her that I had never said anything like that to Ralphy. She said, “You didn’t.” I said no! She then came over to me and apologize and gave me a big kiss on the lips. Then she put her tong in my mouth, and we started making out heavily. We were then making out all night long. I was now hooked in to Carol and loving every minute of it. The next night it was the same all over, soon thereafter; I started to feel her breasts and rubbing my dick against her pussy and ass. It was very difficult to stay away from her. It was a very playful sexual good time.

In the meantime, our band would occasionally have a gig here and there. We had this gig at the Marlboro Projects for this Italian dance. They were mostly people who did not speak English. We were playing at the dance and on our break; this Italian guy came up to me and introduced himself as Aldo. Aldo said that he wanted to join our band as a drummer. I told him that we had Larry, but if he wanted, I would be happy to set -up and audition for him next Saturday afternoon. He then told me that he really did not know how to play yet, but that he was interested in learning. I started to laugh to myself and thought, “This stupid gyp.” (Geep, is a term used to describe a person just off the boat from Italy) Anyway, I thought that this guy had balls. Therefore, I told him, “You learn to play the drums, you buy a good drum set like Ludwig, and you call me, and I’ll give you an audition. If you are good, I will consider you to play with us.” He shook my hand and said, “Thank you.”

The next day, Carol and I continued our lustful pursuit, but she would never let me take my dick out nor would she allow me to fuck her, or suck on her tits. Everything other than that was OK. This relationship was going on for months and people started wondering what was going on with us since I was there all the time. Carol and I were very careful in keeping it a secret. People were wondering, but no one really knew. Others tried to catch us, but they could not. Eventually, people thought that nothing was ever going on except Joe the cop. It seemed that Carol stopped having sex with Joe and that opened a complex issue.

About eight months later, Ralphy got a call from the Italian guy Aldo. He stated that he wanted that audition. So I called him back and asked him if he had a drum set and he said that he bought a set of Ludwig. Very good, I am impressed. I had set-up an audition. Aldo came by one Saturday afternoon and set up this beautiful set of Ludwig drums. We started playing and Aldo really sounded OK, so I told him that he was our new drummer. For the next few weeks, we would rehearse our songs with Aldo. One of Ralphy’s neighbors approached me, and told me that he was in the bar last night with Joe the cop. Joe told him that he thought that I was fucking his wife, and that he was going to kill me. Of course, I denied it, but I got scared. I was fooling around with Carol all this time without ever thinking anything, and without a care in the world, until I heard what her husband said. I quickly decided to never see her again. That decision also meant that I would have to stay away from Ralphy.

I called Aldo up and told him that Ralphy quit the band and we had to look for another guitar player. Aldo said OK. We had talked about this over the next few days. Then I remembered a guy I met who said he played guitar. His name was Joey. I asked around and found that he lived right around the block on Ave V. between West 8th and 9th Street. I went to see if Joey was home and I found his mother instead. She is a wonderful lady. She told me that her son was not home, but she would give him the message. She invited me into her house and we sat down and chattered over coffee for a while. Joey eventually got the message and wanted very much to try out. I then arranged a meeting with Joey face to face. He was a wonderful guy, handsome, with a great personality. We had a rehearsal at Alco’s house and a new band was formed. The three of us just clicked together. We were all like one entity.

Joey has a great voice and he was extremely good looking. That would be a plus for the band. Aldo was becoming a better drummer, and his English language was continuously improving. We began to practice regularly at Aldo’s house and we began to become very good. However, we needed a name for the group. After careful thought, and from our love of The Ventures, we called ourselves, The Van-Dells.